Buzz Mills
New Member
Very shortly after 9/11, Congress voted to award the surviving family of the victims, an average of $2 million each. This was somewhat of a precedent, but the problem quickly became: "Where do you draw the line?" After the 9/11 award, the families of the Oklahoma City victims quickly stepped forward to ask why, they too, hadn't been compensated for their loss. Their complaint was indeed, justified. Now, with Katrina, it appears that each family? victim? household? will receive some designated amount of money. Again, the problem is: "Where should the line be drawn?" Families suffer catastrophes every day, and the government is not expected, nor do they, take responsibility for the families loss. When 9/11 occurred, I, along with so many, many, others, stepped up to the plate, and donated a sizeable amount of money (and not without personal sacrifice). Shortly thereafter when I found out, that the government was going to award the surviving families, a very large amount of money, I was a little upset that they were belittling the generosity, and responsibility, shown, by so many Americans, myself included. I did the same generous giving for the Tsunami, and am in the process of doing the same for the victims of Katrina, but when the government gets involved in sizeable outright grants, it becomes a giant turnoff for me. Of course their reputation for waste, inefficiency, and allowing so much abuse of the system, during disasters, has something to do with it.