N001568
Saturday, January 12, 2002 2:03 AM
Civilian versus Military Death Compensation?
The September 11th Victims Compensation Fund of 2001 unfairly compensates
civilian citizens at the expense of military casualties.
On September 11, 2001, Army Sergeant First Class , 44,
of , died serving his country. At the time of his death
he was a supply sergeant assigned to the Pentagon.
On the same day, , also 44, of Staten Island, New York,
a partner in the investment firm of , was killed while
working at the World Trade Center in New York.
On January 4, 2002, Army Sergeant First Class , age 31, of , , died. A member of the Army's elite Special Forces, he was
killed in action in Afghanistan.
Each of these men died violently as casualties in America's ongoing war with
terrorists. Each died in the prime of his life and each leaves behind a
widow and two dependent children. It is there that the equality ceases.
Within days of the September attacks, and with almost no public debate, the
Congress enacted Public Law 107-42, the Air Transportation Safety and System
Stabilization Act. This law, in addition to providing billions of dollars in
direct cash subsidies to an already floundering airline industry, established
the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. This fund will pay an
average of $1.6 million to some of the families of our most recent war dead.
Portrayed as a program to aid victims' families the September 11th Victim
Compensation Fund of 2001 is a key component of the airline industry's
bailout legislation. It is established with federal tax dollars wholly
unrelated to private charitable contributions made on behalf of the victims'
families. It cleverly provides a legal shield to protect the airline
industry from the economic impact of liability litigation.
Few people would disagree that lax airline security either led to or
significantly contributed to the hijacking of four domestic airliners on
September 11, 2001. Lawsuits by the survivors of those who died in the
attacks would have reasonably established the airlines' negligence.
Sympathetic juries would have undoubtedly awarded huge sums in actual and
punitive damages to the victims' survivors. Moreover, had they been forced
to defend themselves in court the airlines could have transferred some of the
liability to federal agencies tasked with ensuring aviation safety.
The government's desire to prevent successful litigation against the airlines
and the ensuing embarrassment to federal agencies is understandable. Many
have begun to perceive the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 as
a buyout. In exchange for a waiver of their right to sue, survivors of the
victims will receive an estimated $6 billion (yes, billion), tax dollars in
compensation from the Fund.
Touted as being in the best interest of the families, the compensation
payments will be "fast-tracked" with oversight truncated and streamlined to
ensure full and prompt payment. The desire for such speed has little to do
with the health and well being of the survivors. It has everything to do
with the airline industry's desire to expeditiously relieve itself and their
stockholders of liability.
Consider the deaths of and sergeants and . The
family of , the partner at , based on his income
reduced by complex offsets for insurance and other private benefits, is
eligible for assistance from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of
2001. Likewise, the family of sergeant , who died in the attack on
the Pentagon, is also eligible. However, his family will be entitled to
less. Under the Fund's proposed rules Sergeant military earnings
will "devalue" his life in comparison to civilian victims engaged in more
lucrative careers. Few can fail to see the unfairness of this situation.
The real inequity comes in considering the death of sergeant who was
killed by gunfire in an ambush in Afghanistan. His survivors are ineligible
for the generous $1.6 million in benefits provided to and
sergeant families by the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund
of 2001. Without the ability to barter a waiver to bring suit against a
major industry for his death, sergeant family will receive only the
proceeds of his military life insurance policy and a modest monthly stipend
from the Veterans Administration.
are among the latest casualties in America's
war with terror. In this struggle the deaths of others preceded theirs.
Coming readily to mind are the 17 sailors killed aboard the U.S.S. Cole,
another 12 American deaths in the embassy bombings in Africa, 19 dead in the
bombing at Kobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, and the 6 Americans who died in the
first (1993) attack on the World Trade Center.
As with sergeant , a hijacked airliner did not kill these other
victims of this war. Their survivors are just as ineligible for the benefits
of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. These inequities are
an insult to our uniformed military personnel. Allowed to remain unchanged,
it will forever taint the fairness of posthumous care for their families that
our military personnel have a right to expect when placed in harm's way.
Given the events of September 11, 2001, it is no longer impossible to believe
that a successful nuclear or biological attack could not be made against the
United States. Such an attack could result in tens of thousands of
casualties. Evenhandedness requires a public policy that treats each of this
war's victims - past, present, and future -- civilian and military, as
equals.
We have begun to see the public spectacle of survivors squabbling over the
inequity of the proposed awards from the Fund. None of the survivors should
be made to feel that his or her loved one was in any way less valuable than
another victim. Never should an orphaned child be made to believe that his
murdered parent's life was worth less than that of some other parent.
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 is bad public policy. In
human terms of grief and suffering the survivors' losses are equal. Our
American sense of fair play dictates that this equality of loss deserves to
be equally compensated.
XXX
Individual Comment
Roanoke, VA