‘Dollars for Death’ Is Asking for Trouble

Reading “Putting a Price on Sept. 11’s Human Loss” (Aug. 21) left me outraged. It describes recent lawsuits of families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and says Michael James “stands to receive more than $1 million.” Families of victims have my utmost sympathy for the tragedy that struck them on that day. In no way do I believe that the deaths of their loved ones are the least bit inconsequential. I also understand that sudden loss of a family member who leaves behind dependents and perhaps unpaid bills, as well as loss of the care they provided, such as “cooking, cleaning [and] bill paying” duties, is both an emotional and financial shock. But realize that James has already received $1,200 every two weeks from New York state as compensation that, if received for a year, would total more than his wife’s yearly income of $30,000--not to mention the weekly checks of $750 from workers’ compensation, all of which would be shared among (tragically) one less person than before her death.

Congress has opened the floodgates for the remaining 3,000 victims’ families to receive, as stated, sums totaling between $4 billion and $7 billion. And how can one person’s life, no matter how successful, be worth one penny more than another’s? Everybody get in line. Tomorrow we’re beginning a class-action suit for our relatives who have died as victims of diseases the government has not funded enough money to find cures for. Capitol Hill should wake up before the citizens of this country have sued the roads out from under us.

Stephanie Herczog

Los Angeles

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The logic of Richard Mosk’s well-reasoned Aug. 18 commentary, “A Crazy Quilt of Victim Compensation,” denouncing large government awards to selected families of victims of terrorism, is unassailable. But why not go a few steps further? Why should these families, more than anyone else who has lost a relative through a wrongful act, receive government compensation? Moreover, why should anyone be “compensated” monetarily for the pain of such loss? Will $1 million make someone feel better about the loss of a husband or parent? Should it?

Ronald Schoenberg

Los Angeles