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From
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The Limits of Tragedy
Propaganda, Greed and the WTC Victims
by Russell Madden
Can someone enlighten me?
Yes, the death of over 3000 people in the World Trade Center attacks
was horrible.
Yes, the death of all those men and women was unexpected, horrible,
and devastating to all the surviving spouses, children, and
relatives.
Yes, it is perfectly fine and natural for sympathetic individuals to
send in money to various charities to help these grieving people.
But . . .
Thousands of people die every month without warning. Between forty- and fifty-thousand
people die every year in motor vehicle accidents. Other types of accidents suddenly
claim that many more victims annually. Anywhere fr
om fifteen- to twenty-thousand individuals are murdered every year in this country.
Hundreds of thousands more perish from various diseases. Many of those folks die
without any time for relatives or friends to prepare for
the loss of a loved one.
Somehow, though — perhaps because the victims died so publicly, so spectacularly, so
en masse — those murdered in New York City on September 11, 2001, have garnered
special attention from the citizens of this nation. The
impersonal nature of the assault and the implications for the nation as a whole have,
perhaps, contributed to the focus these murders have received and continue to receive
from the politicians, media figures, and average
people who witnessed on television what seemed unthinkable until then.
The sense that the attacks were aimed more at our country itself, our way of life, our
freedoms (what remain of them) than at the specific individuals who died in those
planes and buildings broadened the interest evinced
in these events.
All of this is understandable. A person is, of course, more likely to attend to
dangers and situations of which he is personally aware than those he is not. What I
find troubling of late, however, is less the inordinate a
ttention terrorists and war and security are garnering than how some of the more vocal
surviving relatives have been acting.
The shock of a husband or wife, a father or mother dying so abruptly requires
considerable recovery time. How many of us, after all, would be emotionally or
intellectually prepared to have our spouses die during what shou
ld have been a routine day at work? The initial trauma must be dealt with. Then come
the practical consequences. Young, (previously) two-income families discover they do
not have sufficient liquidity to pay for bills that
inexorably continue to arrive. The widow or widower quickly recognizes the fact that
a single — or zero — salary does not work in making ends meet. The wrenching changes
in patterns of behavior, in lifestyle, can disrupt
and upset the most stable among us.
Hence the billion-and-a-half dollars in charitable contributions that poured into the
various charities established across the country in response to this seminal event.
Individuals wanted to help the families of the WTC
victims, partly from a sense of "doing something" and partly from identifying with the
survivors: "That could easily be me . . ."
If the entire amount given to charities was evenly divided among the roughly 3000
families affected by these murders, that would give each family nearly half-a-million
dollars. Unfortunately, the State has unconstitutiona
lly determined how charities may or may not distribute any money they receive. To
compound that problem, some of the charities have been, shall we say, less than
upfront about how they intended to spend the contributions
they received.
Those issues, however, are for another essay.
Gimme Satisfaction
The media interviewed — sometimes approaching ad nauseum — many of the victims'
relatives. In the past few weeks, though, the emphasis of those discussions has
shifted from how to deal with the inestimable loss of a spous
e to "How do I get my money?"
Some of the relatives have testified before Congress, petitioning that body for
special tax benefits or for direct monetary grants. Apparently, a number of these
people believe they are entitled to special treatment, spec
ial favors because of the difficulties they face.
Excuse me?
The deaths of the people in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon are no more
sorrowful than all the tens- or hundreds of thousands of others I mentioned above. All
those deaths likewise left surviving family members. Sh
ould all of those widows and widowers — whose distress is no less than that of the
more publicized WTC survivors — should they go to Congress, as well, demanding
handouts?
Didn't those who worked for major corporations with offices in the World Trade Center
have personal life insurance? If they did not, they should have. The responsibility
and foresight — or lack thereof — belonged to them
and their spouses to provide for the possibility of an early demise. This is doubly
true for those who were parents and had families to support. Anticipating such
disruptions was part of their obligation as spouses/paren
ts.
Mass deaths are especially appalling, yes, because they are so "in your face," but
death is, in the end, an individual affair. As individuals, the people who were
murdered on 9-11 are no more — or less — dead than any of
those thousands who die via accidents or crimes or disease. Beyond that basic fact,
the WTC victims were not, as a group, "heroes" deserving of special consideration as
some in our country have tried to characterize them
(though specific individuals doubtlessly acted heroically). These folks were not the
equivalent of soldiers killed in battle. Most of them didn't "do" anything heroic,
unless being in the wrong place at the wrong time and
dying as a result is to be accepted as the new definition of heroism.
And if they did have life insurance, then why are their relatives going to Congress
seeking even more money?
Congress' Compassion Is Taxpayer's Money
Sadly, some of the survivors don't seem to want to accept personal responsibility for
providing for their own welfare in the face of personal tragedy. If a widow was a
stay-at-home mom before 9- 11, maybe — just maybe — s
he should go out and get a job. Or are such individuals entitled to sit helplessly by
while others take care of them and provide for their needs?
When, in its infinite wisdom, Congress decided to bail out the airlines, it also
established a fund to aid the relatives of the WTC victims . . . paid for with
taxpayer money, of course. (I guess they forgot to read the C
onstitution that day or overlooked the section on delegated powers . . .)
"Special Master" Kenneth Feinberg is a lawyer who was given the task of overseeing the
government's victim compensation fund. He says that the average amount each family
will receive will be about $1.6 million. A quarter-
million dollars is set as the limit for non-economic losses, that is, for pain and
suffering. Any life insurance or pension payments the survivors do receive will be
subtracted from the total. Money they get from any char
ity, however, will not be counted against that amount. Also, relatives accepting the
government's offer must surrender their right to sue the airlines.
So: life insurance (if any) plus $1.6 mil plus charity money. Sounds like a reasonable
nest- egg.
Apparently not reasonable enough, though.
A New York lawyer, James Kreindler, representing some of the relatives said, "It
reduces an award by the amount of life insurance, and that to me isn't fair."
"Unfair."
Hmm. It "isn't fair" if they don't get all they possibly can from the taxpayers who
have already kicked in a billion-and-a-half voluntarily?
Guilt Gouging
If a businessman made a similar judgment regarding what he received from his
customers, he would be branded a "gouger."
Such blatant greed — a desire for the unearned — is bad enough. Other survivors,
though, are even demanding that nothing be built on the WTC site. One recent news
report featured a widow saying she and her cohorts would s
tand in the middle of the site as long as necessary to prevent anything other than a
memorial to the dead being erected there. Does she care that that incredibly valuable
commercial property does not belong to her? Of cou
rse not. As long as she gets what she wants — what she "feels" she "needs," what she
desires — that's all that counts. Property rights? Hah!
Unsurprising, I suppose. "Need" — real or imagined — has long been the magic word to
justify shoving innocent others up against a wall and rifling through their pockets.
Relatives demanding special treatment from Congress
or demanding that the WTC site remain vacant are no different that the tens of
millions of other citizens who demand free medical coverage, welfare, business
subsidies, zoning and building codes, and the million-and-one-
other violations of rights that occur on a daily basis.
Someone tried to tell me that these vocal widows were justified in seeking money from
Congress since the State is supposed to defend us; it failed in that responsibility;
thus it should provide compensation for its mistak
es. Unfortunately, these women did not make such an argument. "Show me the money" is
their mantra. When it's my money they want to steal, any sense of moral purpose they
might otherwise have mustered evaporates.
Sorry, but after a certain point, enough is enough. Yes, life can be hard. Sometimes
it downright sucks. Tragedy, though, — no matter how dramatic and history-altering —
does not grant anyone carte blanche to run roughsho
d over her fellow citizens' rights . . . especially while countless other individuals
every year suffer as great or greater personal losses.
Somebody had to say it. Maybe I'm the first.
See Russ Madden's articles, short stories, novel excerpts, and items
of interest to Objectivists, libertarians, and sci-fi fans at http://
home.earthlink.net/~rdmadden/webdocs/.
-30-
from The Laissez Faire City Times , Vol 6, No 3, January 21, 2002
End<{{{
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