August 19, 2002
Criminy. According to this article,
Criminy. According to this article, families of WTC-killed firefighters are receiving over $1M from charities, plus federal payments of $250K, plus a continuation of the deceased's salary (avg $50K/yr) until they remarry. Cops' families receive slightly smaller amounts ($929K from charity, the rest the same). In contrast, families of the other victims receive an average of $146K from charity, and of course nothing from the other sources.
Now, I actually don't grudge these people the money. I hope it helps them put their lives back together after the tragedy, though no monetary amount could possibly ever compensate the loss of a loved one.
But the situation as a whole is very, very messed up. Where are all these donors for the families of the hundreds of service personnel who die in the line of duty every year? What about for the families of murdered people? They don't get a red cent.
If one of my loved ones had died, in the line of duty or by being murdered, and especially if I'd had a hard time making ends meet afterwards, I think I'd be pretty resentful of all this attention the WTC survivors are getting.
Anyway, back to the kicking and screaming.
"Man, if they offered the SAT at midnight, that would be such a party.
I'd take it every week. I'd be like, hey, let's get ripped and take the
SAT again. It'd be better than midnight bowling." --Casey Westerman
Posted
by blahedo
at 4:15pm
on 19 Aug 2002
