In January, we again had more than 26,000 people read some part of the Spectacle....for less than $100 a month, plus my time, I am publishing a 'zine with a circulation that is a respectable fraction of the Nation, the National Review, etc. The Internet is an amazing thing. Please think a little about how you can help keep the Net cheap and free. These pages are blocked by Cybersitter, and were briefly blocked by Cyberpatrol also. These products are now starting to be purchased by libraries. Contact your local librarian and your elected representative, and tell them that blocking software causes more harm than good and that there is no substitute for good old parental supervision. While you're at it, please write Brian Milburn, bmilburn@solidoak.com, and tell him what you think about his product, Cybersitter, blocking the Ethical Spectacle. Thanks! You can reach me at jw@bway.net.
You say: "I am utterly convinced many people on your side of the issue--Newt included--secretly would not be bothered if the unfortunate just died off."
First, define "many." If you mean more than 10%, I wonder just how many "airplane trips" you have really taken. And, "secretly?" the few people I know of who harbor such unseamly wishes don't do it secretly.
Surely Jonathan, your anecdotal example of the "Texas Lawyer" can't be the only reason you hold such a ridiculous belief??? I would suggest that if so, you hold beliefs which are not rationally founded. You need to meet more real conservatives, and your position cannot be defended without attacking those who disagree in the intellectually dishonest manner (claiming sole ownership of morality) I described in my previous letter.
EXAMPLE: In your article you say that "those who OPPOSE EQUALITY do so by arguing that particular programs, such as affirmative action, are wrong-headed."
Is a government program than mandates discrimination against a class of people based on race or sex (affirmative action) your idea of "equality?" Am I, (since I certainly believe that program to be "wrong headed") in opposition to "EQUALITY?" Sorry Jonathan, that is what I call intellectual dishonesty on your part…You are too smart to really believe that. There must be more to the story.
Can you not accept on face value that compassionate, caring people honestly believe that liberalism (in so far as the welfare debate in particular goes) really does more harm to "homeless" people than good? If it didn't where is the success? Claiming to "prevent hunger" by feeding fit and able people for free who could otherwise work to earn the money to pay for their food is intellectually dishonest. Giant programs created by sleazy politicians to garner power, are defended by well meaning people (perhaps like you) who have been underexposed to the real world.
I encourage you to actually take the time to view Newt's course "Renewing American Civilization" and try to honestly understand the economic principles he talks about, then tell me that the Speaker of the House of Representatives would like to put all homeless people on an island and etc. etc. I would bet my home that you could not, in intellectual honesty do it.
Your friend
Bob Wilson homefndr@primenet.com
I greatly enjoyed your articles "The Problem of Altruism" and "Fuzzy Morality" in Ethical Spectacle (one of the bright spots on the web). I would like to address some of your comments, however.
After discussing Dawkins' 'suicical altruism', you provide the following commentary (which I believe misses his point.)
But naturally when a child is drowning and we jump in to save it, it is not the result of a calculation of its degree of consanguinity. We do it because something emotional in ourselves, something admirable and which precedes reason, immediately, and without any calculation of which we are aware, concludes it is the right thing to do. It feels good. It is what we would want someone else to do for us.
It is hardly to be expected that the biological judgement mechanisms explicitly mathematically analyze the situation. Over evolutionary time scales, responses developed which approximated rational behavior to a sufficiently accurate degree, there is nothing in evolution to require that these mechanisms work correctly under every possible input. The fact that it feels good is consistent with a bio-mechanism, just as food, sex, and rest feel good.
Reason is only visible in the statistically overall results, not necessarily in the fuzzy logic interior of our behavior. Seeing a victim in immediate danger can inspire some very poorly thought out but emotionally powerful responses. It certainly can be unwise to attempt a hopeless rescue that likely would leave one's own family bereaved as well as the victim's. Nonetheless many of us would do just that. These are cusps in our response spectrum which could not be justified on a strictly rational basis, but are part of an overall behavior that, on the whole, produces a viable range of outputs.
We have a range of responses ranging from going to incredible extremes to save our own child, down to giving money in one of those collection buckets for a stranger's child with a terminal illness. This boils down to what Dawkins says.
It is too easy to see our human responses as something profound because we are too close to them. Some groups of non-primate animals such as wolves have also evolved elaborate social structures with altruistic (dare I say compassionate) components. The pack will feed and protect injured or ill members, members will risk their own well being for the pack. This is ethics, appropriate to their lifestyle, every bit as much as human ethics is to us. The only difference is that instinctive behaviors in ourselves seem mysterious and profound because we are not privy to their internal operation.
It is important to emphasize again that these behaviors do not have to be perfect to work on an evolutionary scale, nor do they need to be consistent from one person to another. In fact this differentiation is essential. Multiple types of possibly conflicting survival strategies are essential for the survival of the group.
[Another example, our own mate selection mechanisms (choosing with whom we might 'fall in love') are very convoluted and upredictable. We cannot see how they work, we cannot predict the output based on given input, so we assign almost mystical significance to them. Poets wax on about intertwined destinies and soul-mates rather than recognizing it for what it is, a complex mechanism with chaotic behavior, tuned over the millenia to improve our gene matches. This does not rule out it's being pleasurable any more than understanding of nutrition rules out pleasure of food.]
You go on to say:
Thus, according to Huxley, ethics combats nature. It is founded in compassion, "the tendency, so strongly developed in man, to reproduce in himself actions and feelings similar to, or correlated with, those of other men." While modern evolutionary biologists such as Richard Dawkins analyze ethics as an "Evolutionarily Stable Strategy" (ESS) which coexists in a Manichean world with more selfish and cruel strategies, Huxley seems to think of ethics more as a step humans took to remove themselves from evolution.
Huxley, by comparison was going onto thin ice. Ethics is nature, ethics is species dependent, ethics is the fine tuning of social species. This is not to suggest that the drive for ethics can not be made far more effective by conscious thought (another evolutionary experiment). But I think it's a mistake to view ethics or altruism as a step outside the natural evolutionary world.
Jay Holovacs holovacs@idt.net
I was very disappointed with this month's series of essays (compassion, altruism, morality; the usual "feel-good" pap). Trying to be somewhat positive about it, I am assuming that the subtle purpose of the essays was to illustrate the prominance of memes in our society as this edition contained more in one place than I have seen in a long time!
Such essays are about as effective as the attractive and ebullient cheerleading squad is to a professional football team that is losing the game badly. What we need is talent and strength on the field not more cheerleading.
As a reader of Richard Dawkins you must be aware of his famous statement,
"Let us try to _teach_ generosity and altruism, because we are born selfish." Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene.
It is evident that "compassion" falls into the same situation. It is not that compassion is good or bad -- in most cases, it is good, of course. The importantance is that it is just a meme -- not a gene. Either we humans evolved from the "lower" mammals or we didn't. But if we did, we need to explain how the "compassion" gene magically evolved as it appears that no other animals have it.
Even the most liberal among us must admit that there just might be a small problem with the welfare state. It may be that humans like other animals are subject to having their behavior modified by the way they are treated. It might even be possible that bad behavior is some times generated by "good" treatment. As responsible citizens (and journalists) we need to be encourging research into what does it take to encourage responsible behavior by our citizens -- rather than just dishing out the same old mindless political slogans. Our government spends thousands of millions of dollars on social and behavioral research. A good question that you might ask is, "What do they do with the results?".
One more point: Public Choice Theory shows that politicians are motivated by self interest -- just like other human beings. The principle motivation seems to be getting re-elected. Given that fact, would it not be prudent and wise to think that what has been happening to our citizens _was not necessarily for the citizen's benefit_? Maybe, just maybe, the primary purpose of the welfare programs is to get the politicians re-elected! Is that a possibility? If so, should we not be too surprized if the results are so disastrous for the citizens?
What we need is more thought and less meme regurgitation.
Leon Felkins leonf@pemberton.magnolia.net
I think you missed the boat, friend. I just read your "review" of 'Schindler's List' , just after seeing the film about an hour ago. While perhaps you may have some valid points, I don't think you really caught what the writers and directors were trying to convey. Your review was very negative and consequently (attempted to) steal credibilty from Oskar Schindler for his admirable qualities. Mr. Schindler took it upon himself to take his eyes off his own interests and genuinely become interested in the welfare of a culture that was not his own. To do this Jonahthan, you must have a love for people. The preceeding statement was to counter your own when you said "whatever his motives were".
If you remeber on the film when he among his own possesions, his car e.g. said, "I could have saved ten more." His ring "two more". His pen (pin?), "one more." Mr. Schindler saved the lives of in excess of 1100 Jewish people. Because of his efforts, many Jewish people of alive today to tell their storie s. These stories need to be heard!! To this writer the hatred of the German Nazis was appalling and intolerable!! I say congratulations to Oskar Schindler for all he did!! Before he was forced to flee for his crimes (?) he kept saying, "if I could've only saved one more, just one more" before he broke into compassionate tears. This is a man that knew what was right and stood up for w hat he believed in. Compassion and the love of people were his motives, sir! He stood not to gain any monetary compensation from these acts. He actually went broke for his efforts because of the payoffs and what not. Remember, God honors committment. And this was among the admirable acts of committment I have ever seen.
Note: Jonathan, I don't wish to engage in an Internet arguement which happens so often in news groups and such, all I wanted to do was try to give another perspective on the film. Quickly in closing, I wanted to add in reply to the entire nature of this web page that if your're analyzing movies it all boils down to good and bad, evil and divine, right or wrong. So while the theme may seem very familar, that is no coincidence!! I appreciate you taking time to read this reply and I hope you take it in the spirit intended. I don't wish to make any enemies on the 'net or anywhere else for that matter. Have a great day!
Mark Nall MANALL01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU
I desperately hope that you were not idiotic enough to write such a narrow-minded essay on the supposed "hypocrisy" of Schindler's List. Because, if you did, you appear supremely ignorant. I, personally, have never read such an uninsightful and sinister work. To denounce Schindler's List as an unrealistic account of the inhumanity and genocide that took place under Hitler's facist regime is downright ludicrous.
First and foremost, the Jews did not blend in nor was Spielberg "racist." The little girl symbolically represented human decency and innocence, and her red dress was duly needed to display to the audience that the simplest of life was perishing at the hands of a cruel and brutal command. He color-coded her to make people aware of her presence amongst the thousands of SS soliders liquidating the ghettos. It was a motif commonly employed by many directors and shouldn't be scrutinized by any means, especially your asinine "racist" accusation.
Secondly, the story of Schindler is true you simpleton, and Hollywood chose to make a FILM not a DOCUMENTARY! If the Hollywood just made a movie of the ordinary that occured there, they'd have your typical Holocaust story that many documentaries portray. Hollywood, conversely, desired a story of growth and hope through the actions of Schindler and a life of trepidation. Schindler's story is brilliant and propels human thoughtfulness and its need to change the ominous in life. The story is not a truly "happy" one, like you so stupidly averred. The story is incredibly and obviously melancholy and depressing. To call it "happy" is amazingly retarded my friend.
Lastly, I suggest you find some other time in your meager life to assess the world in a more meanigful light. Your criticism is unwarranted and rather disinteresting because it lacks persuassion due to its dispicable allegations. By the way, directors, like authors and poets, tend to have a natural inclination to their personal themes when creating a movie. So, it is accepatble that E.T. and Schindler's List coincide somewhat. Please, write something worth while next time and don't waste other's time with this shit. "Shit" that will warp other's minds forevermore.
With angst,
Someone who will never read your website again
KEVIN PALYS Kpalys@athena.valpo.edu
I read much of your website, and it really is very well-done. Most of what you said, I agree with. There are only a few minor things, in comparison to everything you've said, that I disagree with.
With regard to "Schindler's List", I disagree, because you have assumed that every person interprets art in the exact same way. Art, as you know, is beautiful because it allows us as human beings to take from it what we want, in our own eyes, from our own experiences. Schindler's List did not leave me feeling "hopeful and relieved, feeling that the Holocaust has been handled...", as you've assumed I did. I think the beauty of that movie (which, as you probably guessed, I saw for the 2nd time only tonight, on tv) was how it portrayed the actions of Oskar Schindler, yet still managed to communicate the much larger reality of what the Holocaust was, to me personally. Schindler seemed to me more like a kind of vessel, used because of his truly heroic actions, but more importantly used as the vehicle by which to help send the 'Holocaust message' out to the world, because perhaps an American audience would be more interested in watching the movie with his story in it (as opposed to the sellability of perhaps another typical concentration camp survivor, as gruesome as that sounds, since many people have dulled themselves to such stories). The most intense scene of the movie, in my opinion, was at the very end, with Schindler realizing the depth of the horror of what he had witnessed during the previous few years, and how it all sunk into him at once. "One more person. A person. A person..." he said, because it struck him just as it has struck every person, Jewish and non-Jewish, that wasn't in the Holocaust, what the Holocaust was. He could've saved 10,000 lives, he could've saved 100,000 lives, or he could have been like us, who saved 0 lives, for we and Schindler could not and did not save the millions who died. I saw myself breaking down and whimpering out of the sheer horror of what I had failed to do, when I saw Neeson whimpering in Kingsley's arms.
That is the message I got from that movie. Other people, such as yourself, get different messages, and that is what makes this movie a piece of art: our personal, differing interpretations. That is why I disagree with you putting "List" down as something comparable to "ET". For me, it was something more significant than just that.
Sincerely,
Neil neils@asu.edu
Oh, and you're not much of a movie critic or writer. I laughed at most of your review because it's so poorly written.
Hunter ravens@serv.net
Recently, I have been reading with great interest the issues you discuss in " The Ethical Spectacle" and I have also read your book "Sex, Laws and Cyberspace". I am sure that the following news item which appeared in the Times of India on the 3rd of February, 1997, authored by Sanghamitra Chakraborty and titled "Cybermoralists on the prowl at Internet festival in Delhi", will be of interest to you:
"Porn lovers on cyberspace be warned. Every time an unsuspecting pornography afficionado in India visits an "obscene site" on the Internet for (the) next few days, his name will flash across monitors at an Internet show in Delhi, where hundreds of people are expected to watch it live. What is more, cybermoralists at the conference will scream "Shame, Shame" virtually flashing it across their computer screens every time they get to see your name."It's all going to happen in the next three days at Cybercity, a conference and exhibition which seeks to popularise the Internet, even though the number of users in India has shot up to a phenomenal 25,000 in the past year from a base of 3,000. Pornography on the Internet has triggered governmental censorship in some countries. In India, a group of Internet users have started a 'cleansing' movement called Noporn to pre-empt the Indian government from cracking down on everyone including surfers who access the Net for other reasons.
"But who decides what is obscene and just how fair is it for a conference such as this one to assume the role of Netpolice? Dewang Mehta, executive director of the National Association of Software Manufacturers Association, which is hosting the show explains, "Obscene as defined by the Internet Society of the USA. And it is not so much a moral issue as it is a means of fighting the pornography swamping cyberspace. The point is, if you want to do it, let it be known."
The article then goes on to talk about some of the other attractions at this festival, which are not very relevant to the issue of obscenity. So I am not including the full text here.
I feel that this news report raises some very important questions and I would be very keen to get feedback from you and your other readers.
1. Can the monitoring of WWW sites which one visits, as described in the first paragraph of the report, be possible without the active collaboration and cooperation of the Internet Service Provider ? In this case, VSNL (the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd.) the sole monopoly provider of Internet services in India to the the public at large. If that is so, is that not a violation of the right to privacy, as well as a breach of contract (perhaps implied) between the user and the ISP, which should strive to assure confidentiality -- both of the contents of the communications as well as the identity of the parties -- which is a private choice about what to read or write on the Internet without having superisors looking over your shoulders.
2. If the internet is like a bookshop, is this not the equivalent of somebody "stalking" a citizen as he goes to make his purchases in a bookshop and then organising a picket outside the shop screaming "Shame, Shame" even if the citizen so much as picks up a book or magazine which the "stalker" decides is pornographic or obscene ?
3. There is already enough government control and censorship (both direct and indirect) of most media in India, as well as in some other countries. Is it not naive to imagine then one can pre-empt a government by taking upon oneself the mantle of Netpolice ? I am convinced that the day the Indian government wants to crack down on any aspect of the Internet, it will not only do so unabashedly but we would have lost even the moral high ground from which to protest such actions. The government will simply turn around and say "if you as private citizens assume the right to police the net, surely the state and the govenment have a right to do the same, especially in the interests of national security".
4. In any case, I do not feel that juvenile antics such as those described in this report will get us any closer to solving the complex and serious issues related to the Internet. Let alone help anyone in the fight against the pornography industry, built on the exploitation of countless women and children. Surely while one is against pornography, it is evident that such actions hit only the freedoms of speech, the right to privacy and the right to be anonymous.
Unfortunately, such actions also help in perpetuating the kind of myth repeated in this report by Mr. Dewang Mehta that "It is a means of fighting the pornography swamping cyberspace". From my experience on the net I do not see any such "swamping" taking place . One reaches pornographic sites only by a conscious decision to get there, and I would certainly like to know if anybody has statistics, about the percentage of pornography on WWW sites and there rate of increase.
By the time this reaches you the three days of the cybercity exhibition would be over, and hopefully we may receive reports about reactions to this "cleansing movement", if at all it took off the ground.
I would add that the views expressed above, either explicitly or implied, are solely my personal opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of any of the organisations for whom I work as a computer consultant. Other than that, please feel free to circulate this letter through the Ethical Spectacle, or forward it wherever you feel it matters.
With warm regards,
Yours sincerely,
ASPI B. MISTRY
Bombay, India.
aspi@cedbom.ilbom.ernet.in
I have not reviewed your site for some time. Last time I did, it was phenomenal.
I read your response to CyberSitter in CuD. I have stopped trying to email, snail mail or fax Milburn, as he threatens anyone who disagrees with him.
I am an amateur holocaust historian and just posted my first holocaust work to the web this am. I am responding to holocaust revisionist Arthur Butz, but there will be more. I plan on traveling extensively in France, Germany, the low countries, Lithuania and Poland this summer for original research.
I was very encouraged by the number of teachers and students who corresponded about your site. It is good to see there is a desire to keep the memory of the holocaust alive. As mankind's greatest injustice to man, we cannot afford to forget.
I encourage you to keep up your good work and your questioning of Mr. Milburn. One wonders what his supports in the religious right think of his failure to allow access to holocaust information.
As I have put an anti-CyberSitter ad on my page, I suppose I shall be the next blocked.
Doc Holliday powerpc@awwwsome.com
My name is Ryan Mcginnis. During the next couple months my class will be giving written reports on conroversial topics that affect the lives of many people. I have read you web page and have found it extremely useful and interesting. I have a really good Idea that you are an expert in this subject. Is it possible for you to send me any information about internet censorship, particurly possible moves by the CDA that may affect people in the future. If you can't thats ok I am sure you are a really busy person. My E-mail address in MAC101010@aol.com
I am a student at The Kiskiminetas Springs School in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania. I am writing to you about your article "Internet Censorship FAQ" which was posted on the Internet.
I am a senior who is currently in the neverending process of writing the dreaded SENIOR RESEARCH PAPER. My topic is Internet Censorship. I hope you do not mind if I take some quotations. I you do please let me know. If you have any additional information I can assure you it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
-Mike Szakach mike.szakach@kiski.org
I totally respect what you are doing. Please don't think I am in any way playing with you. I happened to come across your site while editing a book about Judaism on the Web. I noticed under A is for Auschwitz that the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign is listed as being at Auschwitz.
I do know that the picture listed is a dead ringer for the main gate at *Dachau*, and I can tell you this with absolute certainty because I have been to that gate.
This site is about to be listed in a book that is going to press early next week, so if you could please write back to me ASAP to let me know what's going on, I can put the right thing in the book and we can all look smart.
If the same sign wasn't at both places, maybe you want to recheck your sources. If on the other hand it in fact was at both places, please forgive my overzealousness--it's part of being an editor.
Respectfully yours,
Melissa C. Burns
Editor
mcburns@erols.com
Melissa is right. Although the Auschwitz gate also has a sign with the inscription "Arbeit macht frei" (work brings freedom), several correspondents have pointed out that the picture in An Auschwitz Alphabet is actually of the Dachau gate.
I would like to congratulate you on your wonderful page, i am currently in the middle of a huge holocaust project for school, im in eigth grade and your page helped me the most, i found it to be thorugh, clean and very factual. I like it and will reccomend it to many of my friends!! Thank-you for your wonderful service!!
thanx
Wendy Young
I am an Abilene Christian University student in Texas. I am doing a report over the Holocaust. You information is wonderful and greatly appreciated. Keep it up.
Deann Powers cds95g@timon.acu.edu
I just discovered your Auschwitz Alphabet. I cannot say I was entertained by the site, because of the extreme heartache I felt, and the terrible sadness for what the Nazis did to the Jewish people during the War, or the other terrible evils men do to men. However, I was very grateful for the tremendous amount of information found there. My husband is a high school history teacher in Tucumcari, New Mexico, and he often finds students in his class who deny that the Holocaust ever happened, and always does his best to inform them of their mistake. Thank you for a truly enlightening site.
Linda Russell, catlynn@triton.sr66.com
I just happened on your page today, as a result of a discussion on a technical mailing list (thought you'd like that tidbit).
I've only begun my journey on your pages, having read only the intro at this point.
I am relatively new to the Holocaust experience. I grew up in Texas, where racial and religious tolerance didn't seem to require as much effort as it does up here in the Northeast - but then perhaps it's a factor of the times. I knew about it, basically knew that Hitler wanted a perfect human race and killed off all of those that didn't fit, mostly Jews.
The travelling Auschwitz museum came through Pittsburgh several years ago, stopping at Pitt (where I went to school). I walked through the hall and will never ever forget the horror I felt. I am in tears right now thinking of it, it is something that effects me deeply. It has a hold on me, I cannot turn away from it, I cannot change a channel when they are dicussing it, and I immediately stopped working to look at your page.
I am protestant. Well, almost. I found out a few years ago that my (birth) maternal grandmother was a Safardic Jew (I am adopted). I believe one picks their religion, I have not "converted" to Judaism. I doubt I will. But a part of me can't help but wonder if it's not a little more than coincidence that the Halocaust has such a hold on me.
I wanted to tell you that if the interactive experience you are thinking of doing was done tastefully, in many cases it would educate people. But I understand completely your hesitation.
Thanks for this work. I feel that humanity is better off when yet one other person experiences the Holocaust and is completely horrified.
-Shirl Grant grant@psc.edu
I just stumbled across your "Auschwitz Alphabet" web site. I found it to be very interesting and moving.
My only complaint is that it's difficult to read the Auschwitz FAQ. Perhaps adding the pre tag to the top and bottom would help. Also Part Two of the FAQ is missing, but there is enough information in Part One to find Part Two:
ftp://pub/usenet/news.answers/holocaust/auschwitz/ (also an updated version of Part One can be found here).
---Ben Levy seven@apocalypse.org
I plan to fix this when I have a little time by substituting a link to the Nizkor site, where the FAQ's are maintained.
I have read your alphabet, and it gave me a lot of thoughts. I am a 23 year old norwegian journalist. Three years ago I went to Auschwitz to make a tv-documentary on a survivor. I was a different person when I came back. I travelled with a foundation called "White buses to Auchwitz". Each year over 5 000 norwegian school-children travel to KZ-camps in Poland and Germany to learn about the history. Not only learn, but also understand what happened during the war. Understand so well that they will tell other young people what the have experienced. The main aim for the foundation is to make young people realize what may happend if they are not careful, if they don't learn from history, it will happen again. I think these theme-travels actually work...When I enter the bus in Oslo I see a bunch of teenagers going on the trip of their lives. Alone, without parents in Cracow, Berlin.....But after visiting the first camp, Auchwitz, along with a surviver, they are completely different.... Today I'm in the board of the foundation. I have produced three more documentary programmes for norwegian television. And I also travel as a guide for these teenagers a few times each year.
I am now starting a filmproject. We need to get the stories from the survivors on tape before it's too late. I'm looking foreward to the job. Well, that's my story.
horne@online.no
I found your name in the Auschwitz Alphabet homepage. Do you know any way I can find information about a person who died in the Holocaust. The name of the person is
Szlama (first name) Hipszer (last name).
How do I use the "listserv@oneb.almanac.bc.ca" server. I would be really thankful if you would provide that information.
Sincerely
Adam Orgacki orgacka@UMDNJ.EDU
The listserv I mentioned is maintained at The Nizkor site.
My name is Robin Karfunkel. I am in the 8th grade at Shore Country Day School in Bevery, Massachusetts. I myself live in Andover, Mass. The first two years of my life I lived with my parents in Great Neck, NY. I have lived all over New York with my parents, but most of it I was to young to remember. My paternal grandparents also came over from Europe. My Grandmother from Russia and my Grandfather from Poland. Two of my father's cousins were in concentration camps that survived. Others died at the hands of the Nazi's. My father is a religious man, my mother not so religious. Last September I was Bat Mizvahed, and it was then that I made my desision to see for myself the horrors that went on in Auschwitz. I have long since been interested in the Holocaust, but have never really persued my interest. I am doing an Independend Study on Auschwitz, which means that I am doing a seperate study in school on Auschwitz. My history teacher, Mrs. Dechamps, is my mentor. Like your social studies teacher I also believe that if people don't learn about the past they are doomed to repeat it. I am planning to do a computer slide show to my school sometime in May, presenting all of the information I have gotten. I think that your web sight has and will help me with my project. I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time and making it possable to get this kind of information without having to have a project on it. My gratitude to you sir, you have my admiration. Thank you for taking the time to read this long letter. I hope that if you have time you can respond, but if you are too buisy, I understand.
Robin
I am a nursing professor at the Medical University of South Carolina and I am trying to find information about nursing during the Holocaust. Do you have any suggestions?
Thanks.
Susan Benedict IcelandSB@aol.com
I have just begun to explore your work, being home from my job today for very mundane reasons. Being Jewish, and of New York City birth (although I now live in Bloomington, Indiana), I have spent much of my life's thought trying to understand the phenomenon of the Holocaust. I expect this to be a lifelong -- and unfinished -- effort. I'm writing now only to tell you that your introductory essay has touched me and that I'll proceed through the entirety of your project. Thank you.
Janie Stoehr (nee Vogel) Jstoehr@aol.com
I just finished reading [ An Auschwitz Alphabet] I wrote earlier... Just wanted to let you know that there is a God and I hope that you will allow yourself to see him soon. God Bless!
Deann Powers cds95g@timon.acu.edu
Of all the sites I've been to on the web, I find your site to be the most interesting. Each new piece I've stumbled across on your site since first finding it, has generated a lot of thinking and discussion between myself and those I've turned on to your site. I don't know what stimulates your ideas but I'm sure hoping it doesn't stop.
Thanks for such a great place.
Roger D. Rines rdrines@pacbell.net
I am a freelance writer/editor (your basic Jill of all trades) and just wanted to let you how much I enjoyed my first foray into The Spectacle. Refreshing, well-written, and provocative are a few words that come to mind.
I think your greatest achievement, however, is the myriad of netizens you are reaching. In my case, I was only doing a quick search on "free speech" for my son (a sophomore in HS). I bookmarked a couple of sites for him to visit after school for his research.
After I logged off, I began thinking about other students who might also have used the same keywords to get information on the 1st Amendment and what it REALLY means. A major tingle went up my spine! What better way to focus on the "optimism" you speak of than to read some of your thought-provoking essays?
I find your essays well balanced and virtually free of bias, save for a few instances where your heart shows through...and I must say that I haven't seen writing this good in many, many years.
Well done!
Deb Martin-Bruels
Colorado Springs, CO
dlmartin@pcisys.net
Early morning at Milia97. Went out to the net to do some research for a class presentation and found your site. Read Orwell ...and then Decay. I enjoyed them both.
You have put actual content on the web; a stunning synthesis of a number of social, political, and literary threads. You are also an engaging writer.
Thank you.
robert wuebker
wuebker@theseus.fr
Wow ! What a great site.
It certainly confirmed many of my own prejudices, but with a clarity of which I am incapable.
I'm not Jewish, but I can share my humanness with you.
Thanks.
Hjalmar Gerber Hjalmar.Gerber@UAlberta.CA
We are a Graphic Design co-operative based in the UK.
http://www.gn.apc.org/wavedesign/
I have been trawling the net for sites in which we can net work with other ethical companies. Do you know of any sites that might be of use. So far I haven't had much luck.
bye
ant wavedesign
You said that you wanted to be notified if a reader created a link to your site.
I have just done so, at
http://www2.cruzio.com/~dlyall/
dlyall@cruzio.com
Though I found the article The Golden
Goose of American politics quite interesting, the writer
failed to give reasons for their arguments. They went on about the
bad things that "would" happen if the US adopted the popular vote
system, but not why. They also didn't seem to think they needed to
suppert their argument for the college system. Even if it _is_ true it
seems unfair to represnt the consequences, but not the causes. {:^(
Ace wallace@ziplink.net
can you help me out with some ideas for sources of info on the subject
of ethical issues as involved with staging photographs in journalism??
the help would be appreciated...thanks....
phillip shields phillip.shields@student.oc.edu
First of all I must thank you for putting this article (the
pornography
one from the Ethical Spectacle) on the internet. This site was the only one
on the internet that had any useful information that could help me on my term
paper (The topics were randomly drawn.). I could not find any information
that specifically stated who wrote this set of articles. I would like to be
able to credit whoever wrote this set of articles. If possible, please
respond. Thank you for your time.
Sincerly,
WBHShen
My name is Matt Parrish and I am a junior at Geraldine High School in
Geraldine, AL. I noticed an article linked to your website on the
Kent
State killings, and I was wondering if you had been sent any other articles
or essays about this event. I am researching it for a historical paper it
would be very helpful if you could send them to me.
Thanks,
Dear Mr. Wallace:
Editor(type person),
Dear Mr. Wallace:
To whom it may concern:
Dear Sirs:
Matt Parrish