Posted on 09/02/2006 2:48:33 PM PDT by Alter Kaker
One widow has more than $2 million but walks or rides the bus everywhere, terrified of drawing attention. Another millionaire widow stopped going to 9/11 support groups because she feared that families of police officers and firefighters might betray her. A widower has enough money to start a business building houses, but cannot buy himself a home. All three lost a husband or a wife when the World Trade Center collapsed. Like thousands of others, they were beneficiaries of the federal Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, which awarded millions of dollars to families whose loved ones died in the attacks. But a secret sets these three apart. Like their spouses who died, each is in the country illegally. Even though the government compensated them richly for their losses, making them wealthier than they ever dreamed, the money did not change their immigration status. They fear they could be deported any day. Five years after the terrorist attacks, these people are living with extraordinary contradictions. Long accustomed to stashing dollar bills in coffee cans, they became millionaires overnight. But because they do not have Social Security numbers or work visas, they cannot get mortgages or driver’s licenses. They say they have spent little of the money, afraid of attracting notice. Their spouses were labeled heroes, their names emblazoned on placards ringing ground zero. But none of these three, still living in or near New York City, feel they can publicly identify themselves. “I can’t dream very high, because I have no papers,” said one widow from Ecuador, who, like the others, agreed to be interviewed on the condition that she not be named. “You’re always afraid of exposure. It’s a horrible feeling. But I don’t want to go back to my country. I know my husband’s spirit is here.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Buy a Mercedes and drive to Canada.
The whole federal compensation thing related to 911 is bizarre, this is just a part of it.
Now I'm supposed to feel pity for oppressed multi-millionaires?
Getting the "jackpot" for a death of a loved one is a sure way to poison both the remembrance of that loved one and the lives of the living that loved one was once loved by.
If they and their relatives were not here illegally then they would still be alive today. Same as those who might have lost property or lives in last year's hurricane.
Even if someone is here legally and dies in an auto accident the federal government does not owe them any compensation.
They want compensation, let them go to their home governments.
Irony is, if they and their families hadn't come here against our laws, their loved ones might still be alive.
I'm still trying to figure out why these particular victims received any federal payments. Is the FedGov in the life insurance business now?
We give ridiculous amounts of compensation money to people who happne to had family/spouses who died in the WTC attack, but family/spouses of soliders in the armed forces don't get anything anywhere near that kind of compensation when they are killed in action in places like Iraq and Afganistan.
I know these soliders took an oath, and the potential of being killed in battle is always there, but still.........
This handing out millions to anyone who was in the WTC and died that day makes 0 sense.
Ditto that!
On the way into work this morning, I got a small coffee and two packs of Marlboro at Sheetz: $9.11 (and $10.89 change back from a $20).
I got back into my Jeep to drive down to work: 9:11am.
I stopped at the ATM machine to get some cash; all I had was $9.11 in my wallet and pocket change.
I picked-up a half gallon of milk on the way home, with expiration date: 9-11.
I stopped at the cleaners to pick-up four, light-starched cotton workshirts: $9.11 incl tax.
Coincidence? Yes. But it freaked me out for a few minutes. Ha!
I can hardly believe this. But, then again I can. God Bless this country, "cause we need it. Unbelievable.
"So why these folks?"
The families of the civilians who were killed on9/11 were compensated in this manner for one reason only - to avoid lenghty litigation that, it was feared, would bankrupt the airlines and other companies involved. Not to mention that such lawsuits might have dragged on for decades and would have left many people without any compensation at all for their loss.
Like this concept or not, that's what it was. It was in no way intended as any kind of "reward" or "jackpot" for those involved. Police and firemen already have systems in place to compensate their families if they die in the line of duty, that is a different situation, although I imagine the FDNY's system was severly strained by so many deaths at one time, not to mention the increase in retirements afterward.
Death is tragic.
What about the single mother killed by a drunk driver? Does she get a million?
I know of a divorced mother of 2 with Huntington's disease; she's slowly dying - Do her kids get a Million?
Why would anyone take my tax dollars and give them to people who have suffered a loss? If congress wants to pass the hat, I'm sure that many congressmen could donate a few million dollars and not even notice it. I, however, am painfully aware of every tax dollar I pay. And when a congressman decides to give my taxdollars away to assuage a pang of guilt; that makes me angry.
Bad thing happen all of the time. Good people suffer, die and are murdered for no reason. Giving the survivors money does nothing more than make a victim rich, at the expense of everyone else.
Didnt I just read a Post in this forum where you can live like a Millionaire in Guatemala? It was urging Americans tomove to Central America and live high off the hog on their pensions. If its that good for a common American with a pension it must be great if you are a millionaire.
I'm not disagreeing with you,
BUT, I'm sure that the country is better off not having the airline industry bankrupted from liability lawsuits and inability to acquire reinsurance on their jet fleets.
Put it this way, if the US military was to enter the life insurance business for soldiers, the Generals wouldn't be able to deploy troops to defend this country until the D.C. beancounters' neighborhoods inside the Beltway were under seige by Venezeulan paratroopers.
What we pay military personnel already is embarrassing. Military families don't become millionaires twice over when their loved one is killed. Why these civilian workers were worth more than our enlisted personnel is beyond me.
The compensation that many of the 9/11 relatives got was outlandish; I feel for them and their deceased relatives but they got far, far more than the families of our veterans killed fighting for this country in Iraq and Afghanistan (some of whom were on their third combat tours). Nonetheless, some of the endlessly-complaining relatives of the 9/11 civilian victims (I exempt the fire, police and rescue personnel who volunteered to save them and whose relatives always seem to bear this with grace and dignity) have the nerve to complain that the taxpayer-funded jackpot isn't enough! Compare it also to what the families in Oklahoma City, Khobar Towers, Somalia, and the COLE received.
big time dittos. Our soldiers get virtually nothing, and housewives without life insurance became millionaires and STILL sued the airlines and FAA? Something is seriously twisted about all this. We created a monster by being so generous after 9/11. I'm sure virtually nobody knew that our kindness (privately and Federally) would create a new AFDC program for millionaires (and illegals).
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