Opinion
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05.09.03
What
is An Award Really For?
Recently
in the news I have been reading about many people’s views
concerning the awards that have been forthcoming, or not in some
cases, from the Victims Compensation Fund.
Statements
have ranged from not enough, not equal, not adequate, too little too
late and so forth. It’s true you cannot put a price on someone’s
life, and you cannot put a price on someone inability to work again
because of injury. Nor can you price tag a persons future potential.
There
are many formulas the VCF use to ‘calculate’ what the loss of a
key earner in a family would have been. The focus of this website is
how you put a value on what someone could have been?
These
questions have recently kept me awake and they all seem to be
running around in circles. Let me explain.
No
one could have ever imagined in their life that they could have
witnessed something like 9/11. I know I could not. The rules go on
to say that if you were injured to be included in the VCF you have
had to sort medical attention within 24-72 hours. I have even read
that ‘any reasonable and responsible’ person would have done so.
I guess no one has yet to consider what the Big Apple was like
during that week, apart from New Yorkers themselves.
It
struck me that I am neither reasonable nor responsible for not going
to the ER that evening with a ‘bruise’ on my back. Is that being
irresponsible and unreasonable about my health or care for others?
Why should I take a doctor’s time when I was not in a life
threatening situation when so many others were?
The
24-72 hour ruling has been questioned by NY state officials in a
January 18th 2002
letter to the VCF questioning the
validity of documentation within the specified time frame and that
people should be able to prove that they were injured in whatever
way they can.
(source:
http://www.usdoj.gov/victimcompensation/interim/nfeb04/N002519.html)
Going
back to the point of all this; it seems that there are people who
claim the awards they have are too low, not equal etc. But why do we
question other people’s award or the amount of an award. As yet
many injured people fall outside the parameters and will get
nothing.
These
people have families, bills, mortgages, children to put through
college, they have lives. But that seems to be forgotten. Why?
The
VCF have their bean counter and calculations that give them a figure
for an award. In the case of injured people this will include the
loss of income, medical expenses etc. Also they will factor in the
loss of income difference if a person has a partial disability that
will not allow them to do what they used to do. Maybe they have to
take a lower paying job.
But
one can dispute how do you calculate what a person could be. What
could a person aspire to be? How do you calculate for that? You
simply cannot.
I
strongly advocate that any award cannot replace anything lost that
day. I am sure that each an every one of us would trade every dime
to turn back the clock.
On
the other hand injured people in my opinion are getting the worse
deal. It’s going to be a tough road ahead to prove that the injury
was caused by the attacks, the reasons that some people did not seek
immediate medical advice and so on.
I
sincerely hope that all injured people have filed and that they are
treated fairly, on a case by case basis. Treated like people and not
machines or statistics.
The
VCF is not something to get rich off, its there, as I see it, to
become a buffer zone, to be a foundation for financial stability for
the future.
Dennis
