I enjoy getting your email. Are you a regular reader who has never been in touch with me? Drop me a note to let me know who you are and what interests you. My email address is jw@bway.net.
I think you touch on all the key points, but I guess we see it differently. It seems to me we have to get beyond money as the ultimate judge of everything. Capital punishment, killing and murder send the wrong message in a "capitalistic" society.
I realize money won't count for much if we get beyond it, so those who have some are obviously against the idea, but they better think of something...
What we don't share is subject to being taken away, isn't it? Isn't that how we're supposed to raise our children? To share. (Maybe the rich will follow Ted Turner's example and just start giving all their money away.)
When I was growing up we called people with money "those who had their cake and could eat it too," but I never understood what it meant. I guess it connects to being a baker in the French revolution, or something: As a baker you make cake for the rich, for a living, but you can't afford to eat it.
Marie Antoinette was reported to have said, "Let them eat cake." I wonder if she ever actually said that? If she did, I wonder if she meant it?
No one deserves to have their head chopped off, I think it sends the wrong message, but how do we get beyond it? How do we get beyond money and privileged classes, anger, poverty, despair? Greed.
The following are my cryptic comments:
Revolution and Myth: myth wins. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Inalienable Rights are necessary to overcome unconscionable wrongs.
Biology: the "consensual hallucination" of human beings? God: will decide.
Meanwhile: who we are, when we are (in consent to be governed), is constantly being determined... Life: becomes "a daily plebiscite." Tomorrow: may be another day.
God willing, reason shall prevail. (Bullets and bombs are messy and scary.) Sharing is not a "natural" phenomenon. Violence is. The lesson should be to share (but who ever learns anything?). I think we're learning. I wonder if we're learning fast enough?
Ken_Smet@msn.com
I am a student at ISU and I just read your article. I would like to explain something to you that I learned in my MicroEconomics class. All people no matter who they are have a set of values. And all actions people take are in their own self-intrest to obtain the goals they have set according to their values. So unless your article was just sarcastic please explain what anybody has to gain by reading your paper.
Humbly, Tony J. arjohns@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu
I don't really want to start a huge debate here because it is pretty pointless, but wanted to react to your comment: "In order for Israelis and Palestinians to co-exist, Palestinians must live in an environment where they are secure in their possessions, homes and jobs--they must be treated like human beings."
How were the 'Israelis' treating the 'Palestinians' in 1948 when they were offered almost half the country in the Partition Plan? Fairly humane in my opinion. And when the Arabs refused to live peacefully side by side, and when the cries began to push all the Jews into the sea etc, where is the humanity in that?
Palestinian leaders who opted for their people to remain in refugee camps, instead of Israel building housing for them so that they could become pawns for international debate, were treating their own people like dogs.
My point is merely that there is a history and there is a hatred. If you think now, that all the Palestinian people would happily live equally alongside the Israelis you are deluded like many others. How many times does Arafat have to embrace Hamas leaders and personally call for Jihad etc before people will see what is really going on? They would reject a partition plan today just like they did 50 years ago. Not because of Israeli army patrols (many Arabs in the territories are more terrified by Arafat's hit squads than they ever were of the Israelis) but because of one simple fact: As a people they hate the jews and thus want all of Israel.
Briefly, another point is that most westerners look at the middle east situation with a moral and cultural superiority that blurs the reality of the situation. The whole notion of having to show strength to the Arabs in order to gain respect, is a foreign notion to western minds and is consequently ignored. Traditionally, it has been the times when Israel has faltered with the Palestinians, giving in to demands or giving land away that it has been the most susceptible to attacks. Also, I don't think the West fully understands how almost tribal the 'war' between Jews (let's face it- when we say Israelis that's what we mean) and Arabs.If you want to understand what's going on you have to go there and speak to the people. Try to understand their minds and the situation as they see it from their perspective. Not as we do from ours.
Name withheld
I get this kind of response whenever I write about Israel. It may seem that way sometimes, but I am not anti-Israel in the usual sense. I am Jewish and cannot be insensitive to the circumstances under which Israel was born, or the world situation the foundation of a Jewish state was intended to address. Nevertheless, the land was not empty when the Jews came there. When I look at Israel, I see a panicked, angry nation engaged in a huge series of grievous moral missteps. It really doesn't matter who did what to whom first; there is no set of precedent circumstances that can justify certain behavior. Most people who are angered by my views about Israel resort to two arguments, both of which are made in this letter. 1. You do not live there so you cannot possibly understand. To which I answer, there is nothing about hate, fear and brutality unique to Israeli soil, or which should look different from there. 2. The Palestinians had it coming. I respond to this that no system of morality under which I would care to live would be based on "tit for tat." Gandhi said it best: "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."
I very much agree that If you treat humans like dogs, they will eventually rise and bite. Certain cases in the U.S.; Waco, the Weaver case, and the Katona case (female BATF agent stomps the family kittens) indicate that if you really want to precipitate a tragedy, you should first go kill someone's pet for no reason.
Jim ray jmr@shopmiami.com
Michael:
The short answer to "why not support a tax to raise the price of pistols 50 or 100 dollars?" is because that would only make pistols cost 50 or 100 dollars more. Do you believe that that would make someone intent on using a pistol to commit a robbery decide not to? My father vowed that when cigarettes went from 20 cents to 25 cents a pack he would quit smoking. When he passed away, he was paying about $1.25 a pack, and would have paid $5.00. How expensive do you think a pistol should be so as to make your economic approach to crime prevention work? Also, I don't know where you buy new $50.00 pistols. I could build one for about that much in raw materials, but it wouldn't be worth a damn. You can buy used pistols at gun shows and pawn shops for about $100 bottom line, but again, the point is (for the ten thousandth time) problem is not the gun, it is the person who uses it. Make that person (who commits a crime with a pistol) face the absolute certainty of harsh punishment, and he will likely pause. Raise the price of a cheap gun by $50.00 and you simply make honest people who want to buy a firearm settle for a cheaper one. Your statistics concerning the declining probability of being accidentally shot, or crimes going down seem contrary to your suggestion to tax cheap guns...try to keep a handle on your reasoning process and you will see the contradictions in your logic. (No offense intended.)
Bob Wilson
I believe that occasions [of police brutality] though rare, would markedly increase, with an unarmed populace. How far would Hitler have gotten if he had not first removed guns from civilian hands? We would all like to live in a Utopian world where we could spend our days frolicking naked through natures abundance, safe in the knowledge that there were no predators, however I think that we both know that this may be a bit far fetched. Since predators come in all flavors, including polititions, police, and all manor of governmental agents, (ask Randy Weaver or perhaps you've had dealings with the IRS) not to mention the run of the mill bad guys, are you saying that you are willing to relinquish your right to self protection and self reliance, to some nameless government agent? If so, would you be willing to have a big sign on your front lawn, or front door that said in great big letters, "PROUD TO BE A GUN FREE HOME"? How long do you figure you could beat someone over the head with a ball-bat, after they called 911, till the cops stopped you? I know where I live, in rural Oregon I could have up to 30 minutes or more.
How far do you think "law enforcement" would get if they announced tomorrow, that "in the interest of public safety" they were going to institute a national house to house search for "contraband materials"? Would you cooperate? Have you ever seen a home after it has been "tossed"? Would you be asking yourself ,much like the "politically un-reliable" in 1930's Germany, can't someone stop this?
All of these things happened to the British colonists, percipitating the revolution. These actions were still fresh in the minds of the founding fathers when they wrote the second amendment. Perhaps it would serve to re-read the Declaration of Independence. It would also probably be a good idea for every government employee, from the President,to the janitor at your local municipality, to read and then pass a test on the Constitution. It probably wouldn't hurt for it to be a pre-requisite for a voters card either.
Steve Mohr froggy@cdsnet.net
I read your Auschwitz Alpahbet and so far all of the other essays linked to, excepting the links page, and it has provoked a new line of thinking that I didn't even know existed....
I have a question: You have a number of books listed on your source page, and as you pointed out, reading too much holocaust literature at once "makes you want to kill yourself." Which of the books on your sources page would you suggest a person start with?
A. Heath be439@scn.org
I read your thoughts on the events which took place at Auschwitz and other camps in Europe during World War II. I found it quie compelling. I, myself, was in Germany in July of 97 and went to Dachau, outside of Munich, germany. I was quite moved by the whole experience of standing in the very place where such notorious atrocities occurred. I however, came to an entirely different conclusion about God and his being in the Holocaust or at any other point in history.
God does exist and is omnipotent and omniscient over all human affairs. God however, created man with volition (the ability to decide for oneself what is right and wrong). It is better known as free-will. It is this free-will which compels man to dtermine for himself what is right and wrong, AND to act upon that volition. To not act upon one's own volition is to surrender oneself to the authority of another---we call this slavery. The Jews were first enslaved by the facism of the Nazi government, long before they were ever murdered by it. The 20 million who were murderd in Nazi camps (6 million of whom were Jews) were murdered because they surrendered their free-will to someone else. Those who allow themselves to be enslaved, and do not fight for their freedom are doomed. The 6 million Jews murdered collectively outnumbered the SS which was assigned to murder them. Because they did not fight, they died. All people die, God knows this, and every conscious person knows this, it is up to the individual-to some certain degree-how they will live and how they will die. Thus is the essence of free-will. Many Jews surrendered their free-will, and they were murdered for it. Had every person who stepped off the train at Auschwitz took his life into his own hands and attacked their attackers, they would have exhausted their German oppressors. They did not. This is the ultimate lesson of the Holocaust.
Many will stand around and watch, it takes only one with conviction to take action, and then many will follow.
THOMAS NIXON tpnix@swbell.net
I have just finished reading the Auschwitz Alphabet, and the essays that accompanied it. I found the material to be very interesting, but only the tip of the iceburg. For the past few years I have been interested in the Holocaust, not as a passing fancy, but as something to be aware of, and understand so that I can see the warning signs, if something like this should ever happen again. That sounds a little crazy, I'm not a fanatic, just someone who likes to belive that she is non-prejudical, and alert to the hatred that is a part of human nature. In my 27 years, I have not encounted much prejudice, in that sense I am lucky. My parents on the other hand have. Being black and southern in the sixties, they have experienced their own form of persecution just not as well organized as the Germans.
Ok, I wish to learn more of the Holocaust. I have gone to the museums, and read novels such as Schindler's List, War and Remberance, The Winds of War, The Pink Triangle, and The Diary of Anne Frank. As you can see these are mostly stories, based on or around fact, with the obvious exceptions. I want to understand what made a nation support the ravings a of mad man. Why did so many blindly believe that killing Jews would make the "Aryan Race" pure, when so many Aryans do not fit the blond hair and blue eyes specifications and many Jews did?
I believe at a time when hatred of Jews by the black population is increasing it is necessary to explain to the children that this is what happens when hate becomes all comsuming. For just as the jews were killed for being jewish, many blacks have been killed for being black.
With that in mind, I think your third consideration for reading this material, would be educational, and essential to increase the understanding of what actually happened, and the severity of the crimes againist humanity that were commited. Although some may consider it a game, I think many more will be enlightened.
Please tell me where I can find more information regarding the Holocaust as I am extremely interested. Also there are other things that I am curious about, such as the Wannese Protocol, did it exist?, the film made in Terezin ( I think that is right) " The Furher grants the Jews a Town" I believe that is the title. Did the government of Denmark send it Jewish citizens to Switerland, with only a few landing in the "paradise ghetto".
Sincerely
Tracey Houston wayhou@hal-pc.org
It seems to me that you know a bit about the Holocaust and I am reading a book and doing a research project for my english class. I am an eighth grader. I have read many books, and even met a few Holocaust survivors. I am looking for somewhere a book, a web page, something where I can get the information I need. I have to find out where the concentration camps were, the amount of people killed in them, and the amount of total people that at one time (the peak) lived there. I don't know if you will be able to help me, but I hope so. It would be great if you could get back to me ASAP. I have looked in my encyclopedia and it doens't tell you very much. Thank you for your time. Ashley B.