No ‘Special’ Victims in War on Terror

I’m outraged by the government giveaway to survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks (“Final Rules on Sept. 11 Fund Give Families More Money,” March 8). Kenneth Feinberg, the special master in charge of the Victims’ Compensation Fund, says that the payout will “average” $1.85 million per victim. That’s at least $5.5 billion. For what? The government didn’t kill these people.

Will my family get $1.8 million if I get killed on the way to work tomorrow? No! They’ll get a few hundred thousand from insurance that I’ve been paying into for years. Will the family of a soldier killed in Afghanistan get $1.8 million? No! They’ll get a percentage of his salary, which won’t even come close to $1.8 million. But the family of an alien who was in New York illegally will get at least $250,000.

This is just insane. There is no responsibility to indemnify people just because they happened to die in some dramatic way at the same time as a lot of other people.

Brent Meeker

Camarillo