P000413
Tuesday, February 05, 2002 11:09 PM
(no subject)
February 4, 2001
Special Master Feinberg
Department of Justice
Fax 301-519-5956
Dear Sir or Madame:
This letter is to discuss the Victims?? Compensation Fundenacted by Congress
on September 21 and the impact its unfairness is having onmy family. I
believe that the problemstems from the haste in which it was written . . . in
just 48 hours byCongress. Under this program a largeportion of the families
like mine will receive nothing beyond what they werealready entitled to.
While we dowholeheartedly support necessary compensation to the wives,
husbands andchildren, I cannot understand the governments position that the
parents ofunmarried victims are not included.
We are the victims of the September 11th attack,and we urge you to change the
federal regulations to provide greatercompensation for the pain and suffering
of our loved ones. Thissystem was created to reduce the liability of the airlines and others,
severelylimiting the ability of our families to recover damages in court. In
return, wehave an unjust, limited compensation scheme with inadequacies. The
regulations allow non-economic damagesthat are approximately one-tenth the
level normally paid in other plan crash andterrorism cases. The
non-economical award of $250,000 is an insult when oneconsiders the economic
support given to the airlines industry. Because the law requires deduction of
collateral sources including life insurance and pension plans,
theawards allowed under these regulations will be unconscionably low.
With awards for members of the military, there are nodeductions for social
security, workers compensation, life insurance and othersuch factors as there
would be for our families. Why did Congress decide differently in
theSeptember 11th tragedy? Whenyou deduct social security and workers
compensation (social security andworkers comp death benefits are paid to
everyone gainfully employed)then deduct life insurance and pensions that
had, we are left withbasically nothing.
The loss of our son , a New York City fireman, hasdevastated our
family. He was always anintegral part of our lives bringing joy, help and
support to us and life willnever be the same again. My wife and Ihave been
disabled for years, a condition made tolerable because of anticipatedgolden
years enjoyed with the love and pride in our children. Our happiness is gone
forever. . . our livesdestroyed with the events of September 11th. Now, with
the unimaginable heartache fromthe loss of our beloved son, the government
has added an inexplicable hurt toour overwhelming sadness in stating that
families such as ours, are notentitled to fair compensation for our loss.
was off duty, ready to return home,when the alarms came in, and
without question, he again put on his gear, randown the street and jumped on
the fire engine to join his fellow firefightersin this emergency. This
unselfishdecision, as you know, cost him his life and cost us our beloved
son.
was an American who loved his country, paid histaxes, and was killed
by a terrorist organization that killed before. He was a taxpayer for 20
years and willcontinue to be a taxpayer because his social security and death
benefitsare taxed. His taxdollars, will go toward rebuilding Afghanistan,
bailing out the airlineindustry ($15 billion), and paying the high cost of
justice for JohnWalker Lindh.
His sacrifice has been lost in the arguments over deathbenefits for his
family. The airline bailout created a compensation fund forpeople who waive
their right to sue. Awards are to be based partly on economic loss suffered
by each familyand partly on pain and suffering the victim endured. there
will never beenough money minted to compensate for our loss. The entire
nation was attacked on September 11th, butthe victims in the trade center and
their families suffered the direct hit!!
It would be the ultimate irony if tax dollars thatfailed to protect
him and destroyed his family were to go everywhere else buttoward rebuilding
his familys life. Icannot live with that. Can you?
Sincerely,
Individual Comment
Deer Park, NY