Letters to The Ethical Spectacle

When I started this thing in January 1995, I had no conception just how many people would read it or how many of them would take the time to write me. By far the most moving letters are the ones from students and teachers about An Auschwitz Alphabet. Most flames: articles on Mike Tyson and the movies Interview With the Vampire and Seven, all of them represented again this month (see below.)

Keep those cards and letters coming! You can reach me at jw@bway.net.

It is not that Americans don't care, it is just that they are to ignorant to care. Most Americans don't even know what the Bill of Rights are, why they were created or who (gun owners) created them. Freedom of speach in this country is a fading dream. Through the actions of Congress and the media our free speach has been seriously eroded.

You yourself are even guilty of trying to violate my free speach. In an earlier letter you stated I made a racist statement. The word racist as distorted by the media is just a way of limiting free speach. If you don't like what someone has to say, then say they are a racist. Congress has even gone on to make free speach a federal crime. Oh yes, they call it hate crimes or some garbage like that. Most people don't realise that freedom of speach was designed for unpopular and often hateful words. We never needed freedom of speach to wish someone a good day.

I guess we are about due to start losing our nations foundation. We have all the ingrediants necessary to destroy a nation.

1. Elimination of our manufacturing base.
2. Inability to feed ourselves.
3. Inability to assimilate the population.

It won't happen in our lifetimes, but it will happen sooner than it should have. If you ever studied the history of the great empires you would realize that all nations follow a cycle. It is just that we are about 2000 years a head of schedule to the end of our nation.

Karl wooffer@ix.netcom.com

I just read over your page on blocking software in public libraries. I used to think that that the CDA wasn't needed because parents could get programs like cybersitter. I never knew how much they actually block. Most anti-censorship pages do not address this fact! I thought all they blocked only porn sites. Now I wonder what you CAN see with one of these programs.

Thank you for publishing your on the net. I plan to link this page from my site. Although my site has nothing to do with censorship, I would like to make this page available to people who would not normally go looking for a page like yours.

If seems to me that as the internet provides more and more useful information, the more people want to stop it. I have noticed people that want to censor online items often have little experience online

Thank you again

Dan Shapiro dshapiro@cts.com

Thank you for helping me decide that cybersitter is the right product for me to buy. I can only see that you have your own political agenda as well. michael mikedsjr@flash.net

Just a quick note from Sydney Australia. I'm a 4th Year Law Student at the University of Technology trying to come to grips with inanities of most of what is written about free speech. Most of it is unintelligable or repetitive. Thanks very much for clarifying the background to the debate. Keep up the good work.

Regards

Hilary May Black IWB@msn.com

Re your thoughts on anonymity in cyberspace....

There's a line to be drawn here, and I'm not sure how we draw it. On the one hand, anonymity on the Internet is, as you point out, important in allowing people to freely speak their minds. On the other hand, commercial bulk emailers, a.k.a. spammers, work very hard at maintaining anonymity, often spoofing or forging headers so that others end up taking the heat for their posts. For this reason, several states are considering legislation to require some kind of accountability in email. Anonymity for personal and political reasons needs to be an option for everyone, and yet it's necessary to stem the rising flood of junk email which relies for its propagation on deficiencies in SMTP and threatens to bog down the Internet mail system. Internet email wasn't designed for anonymity, and many attempts to bend it into anonymity have had bad results. I'm not sure what the answer is here. Spam is a pet peeve of mine. Here is a sample of my work in trying to put a stop to it.

Anonymity on other Internet services is supported to a greater or lesser degree. Anonymity on Usenet is easiest of all, and is a good idea, considering that Usenet posting headers are a prime source of email addresses for spam factories. On the other hand, spam posts to Usenet, often crossposted inappropriately to dozens of newsgroups, are killing the service. The nature of the Web pretty much precludes anonymity, except at a superficial level, since all domains are tracable with the cooperation of the InterNIC and ISPs. IRC, in its protocol, requires ident authorization from clients connecting to servers, making connections to the service tracable through ISPs.

Lindsay Haisley fmouse@fmp.com

I am Polish gay editor currently fighting with new Penal Code draft that wants to outlaw pornography. The law won't define pornography, so already right-wing activist were trying to sue all Polish gay-lesbian magazines for "distributing pornography" - because of their "immoral character". It can also affect Internet since it will be forbidden to "import, carry and even possess" materials of "pornographic materials". Maybe you know some places in Internet I can found some more literature in electronic version. What I am looking exactly are researches about how harmful (or rather harmless) pornography is. The opponents are saying that pornography results in increase of sex related crimes (like rapes etc.). As far as I know the researches say something opposite - but I do not have them in my hand.

Polish Parliament will discuss this issue in two weeks time - so I have to hurry.

Thank you in advance

Slawek Starosta starosta@free.polbox.pl
Nowy Men editor

I came across your site, "The Ethical Spectacle" today and was very impressed with the content and mission of your publication. The first piece I read, "Why Americans Don't Care About Freedom of Speech" impressed me to no small degree.

As President of the Atlanta Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and six years of anti-censorship activism prior to coming to Atlanta, I feel reasonably well informed to the issues involving free speech rights. I believe it is very much a case of "free speech for those that agree with me" in this country.

Since coming to Atlanta I have focused my energies on opposing the religious right and have embarked on a project that will last until after the end of the summer that includes attending many rallies and gatherings of these organizations. You might be interested in viewing a web site I created after attending the "Save the Commandments" rally in Montgomery Alabama last month. The photos and interviews I came away with both scared and inspired me. The site is located at:

http://www.mindspring.com/~tallulah/rally/04-12-97/

I plan on creating a linked site for each of the rallies I attend, and in fact, this month I will attend a "scientific creationism seminar", and a meeting of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group that decries the "mongrelization" of the white race.

If you would be interested in my perspective on these events for your publication I would be more than happy to submit my reports.

Thanks so much for your efforts; I'm sure The Ethical Spectacle will become an important part of my continuing education!

Sincerely,

Skip Evans Skip.Evans@bridge.bst.bls.com
Atlanta USA

I read with great interest your article about public libraries in Austin, Boston deciding to install blocking software on computers connected to the Internet. Sir, with all due respect, you ain't seen nuthin' yet. The city of Westerville Ohio has gone one better. Our library director,Don Barlow, with his partners vImpact, have "created" what is in my opinion a greater monstrosity than the programs you spoke about.

The Library Channel is an interesting piece of work. While the main point of using the internet is to search for information, Mr. Barlow and his cronies have come up with what was described for me as "the front end of MSIE" by the systems manager, Sheila Malech, where there is not only NO search engine but NO URL box! There are ONLY pre-selected choices by the library staff. Those sites getting the "nod" are library sites and sponsored sites. It was explained by the vImpact folks that sponsorship will work much like public TV. While PBS doesn't have blatant advertising on every frame, the Library Channel hopes to place a banner ad at the left hand corner of every page. I suppose that next we'll have a "guide" at the library door, choosing our reading material.

There are a couple of other issues that I question, one being that all the floppy drives have been disabled. Forget it if your kid wants to download homework info to a floppy disk. If it is to protect the library's computers from viruses, a simple solution is to do what other libraries do...supply the patron with a new clean disk at cost. I have suggested this on more than one ocassion. They are unwilling to allow a student to save research to a disk but they will, for a fee of 10 cents, print it out.

I have pointed out to our library that what they are doing is in direct violation of every tenet of the ALA (American Library Assoc.) as well as our regional OPLIN (Ohio Public Library Internet), only to be threatened (foolishly the director sent it e-mail:-) with a law suit for "defaming" the library if I dare speak publicly about this. I have received "slime" mail from a friend of his that didn't like my viewpoint on this software. Guess it didn't work.

Unfortunately most of the people in my community are clueless about the business going on at the public library. Not only is our library creating their own censored software but they want the folks that already paid for the R&D, the server and the personnel to run it, to foot the bill on creating this stuff on cd's so the public can buy it, only to be bombarded with their sponsors' ads! They have sold it to 40 Ohio libraries so far and have plans to go nationwide with it, according to reports in our local paper.

Sincerely,
Nancy Huffines huffines@infinet.com

PS. You may want to read the press release "The Electronic Revolution and the American Revolution together on CyberShelves at the Westerville Ohio Public Library" or download a copy of the Library Channel .

I trust that you have no problem with the alleged contributions of non-American citizens to the most recent political campaigns in the United States. If you do have a problem with foreigners violating US campaign finance lies, than I must tell you that you are a hypocrite as you are currently violating Canadian campaign finance law and as a foreigner are in the same position as foreigner donors to US campaigns. You are attempting to influence the elections in another country through advertising.

If you do feel that any citizen of any country should be able to influence the elections of any other country then please, ignore this message.

Walter R. Strapps wrs13@columbia.edu

I enjoyed reading The Ethical Spectacle webpage, especially your biography and the essay about why Americans don't care about freedom of speech. I'm the same age as you, but have a knack for mathematics instead of law!

Bill Haloupek haloupekb@UWSTOUT.EDU
http://www.mscs.uwstout.edu/~billh/home.html

While reading your "Gripes" column I read your proposal to "Own and enjoy your weapons while finding a way to help keep them out of my neighborhood.". It's entirely too bad that the same people who advocate gun control (which we all know is impossible in this country without another Civil War) are usually the same people who cringe from ideas like; Mandatory death penalty for anyone CONVICTED of 'USING a firearm to commit a felony'.

Hard labor for ANYONE who steals a gun of any kind.

Use of deadly force to stop a gang-related crime 'involving the USE of guns'.

Hard labor for ANYONE who illegally sells firearms.

You get my point. If the criminal justice system in this country were allowed to PUNISH criminals who USE guns, there would be less criminals using guns. If the police in this country were allowed to use the force necessary to take down someone USING a gun to commit a crime, there would be less gun use during otherwise less-than-deadly crime. Only then would any gun control law have any effect other than to incite otherwise law-abiding citizens to fight gun control.

Thanks for letting me bitch,

Bret bhelge@clarkston.com

Pornography

Hi...I don't know if you've read this already, but in case you haven't...It's understandable that you might have missed it, but it came out a year before your article in which you further some disinformation about Mackinnon and Dworkin's Ordinance and customs practices in Canada.

Ray Smith rds6t@hotmail.com

STATEMENT BY CATHARINE A. MACKINNON AND ANDREA DWORKIN REGARDING CANADIAN CUSTOMS AND LEGAL APPROACHES TO PORNOGRAPHY

[This press release was issued August 26, 1994 (Women's Equality Day in the U.S.).]

Untrue reports have been circulating that our feminist work against pornography is responsible for the repression of feminist, gay, and lesbian materials in Canada. It is said that the anti-pornography civil rights law we coauthored was passed by the Canadians and that the first thing they did with it was censor gay books. It is said that Canada Customs recently seized feminist, gay, and lesbian materials--including some books by Andrea Dworkin--under a 1992 Supreme Court decision called Butler that accepted our legal approach to pornography. It is said that in practice, Canadian court decisions using our anti-pornography legal theories are backfiring against liberating sexual literature. We want you to have real information about what has and has not happened.

THE ANTI-PORNOGRAPHY CIVIL RIGHTS LAW WE COAUTHORED

Canada has not adopted our civil rights law against pornography. It has not adopted our statutory definition of pornography; it has not adopted our civil (as opposed to criminal) approach to pornography; nor has Canada adopted any of the five civil causes of action we proposed (coercion, assault, force, trafficking, defamation).1 No such legislation has as yet even been introduced in Canada

THE CANADIAN SUPREME COURT'S BUTLER DECISION

In 1992, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously adopted an equality approach to pornography's harms to women. This approach was argued by the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), an organization of progressive Canadian women committed to advancing women's equality under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the new Canadian constitution. Unlike the U.S. Constitution-- which doesn't even have an Equal Rights Amendment--the Canadian Charter specifically guarantees sex equality and has been interpreted to require the government to promote it.

Donald Victor Butler, a pornographer, had been prosecuted by authorities under Canada's existing law against "obscenity," which is defined as "the undue exploitation of sex, or of sex and any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty, and violence."2 (This is very different from U.S. and British obscenity definitions.) Butler argued that the obscenity law violated his rights to free speech under the new Charter. LEAF urged the Canadian Supreme Court to reject his argument and instead to reinterpret the existing obscenity law in "sex equality" terms.

Previously, in a case called Keegstra, LEAF had successfully argued before the Canadian Supreme Court that racist and anti-Semitic hate propaganda violates equality and multiculturalism rights under the new Charter, so criminalizing such expression is constitutional. LEAF sought to build on that argument, and other equality precedents, in Butler. Catharine MacKinnon, working with LEAF and LEAF counsel Kathleen Mahoney, participated in Keegstra and Butler. Andrea Dworkin, consulted by LEAF on the Butler case, opposed LEAF's position. Dworkin wrote a letter arguing that no criminal obscenity law should be supported.

The Supreme Court of Canada, in its decision in Butler, accepted the essentials of LEAF's equality argument. The court held that the obscenity law was unconstitutional if used to restrict materials on a moral basis, but constitutional if used to promote sex equality. The court interpreted the criminal "obscenity" provision to prohibit materials that harm women.3

CANADIAN CUSTOMS PROCEDURES

For years Canada Customs has stopped material at the border under its own law and guidelines, which allow employees discretion to block the importation of obscenity. As a sovereign state, Canada has every right to control its borders--especially given widespread resentment against what is often viewed there as U.S. cultural imperialism.

None of Canada's customs policies or practices has been officially revised to reflect or incorporate the Butler sex-equality decision. A Canadian newspaper columnist found this out simply by asking Customs directly.4 Because customs officers are not using Butler, attempts to impugn the Butler decision by citing recent customs operations are sheer innuendo; no cause-and-effect link has been shown. Canadian customs employees have been doing what they have been authorized to do for years before Butler. For example, in 1993 some books by Andrea Dworkin were detained at the border for inspection, then released shortly thereafter. Those who cite this episode to show that Butler is being used against Dworkin misrepresent long- standing Canada Customs practices.

Reports that Canada Customs is using Butler to crack down on importation of explicitly gay and lesbian material are also fabricated. If this was actually happening, it would be illegal and could be opposed under Butler, which made the restriction of material on the basis of a moral objection (such as homosexuality) conclusively unconstitutional for the first time. The ruling clearly states that material that harms women can constitutionally be stopped (and this would include women harming women), but Butler does not mention anything about men harming men. Butler is silent on the subject of same-sex materials as such.

THE REAL RESULT OF BUTLER

Canada Customs has a long record of homophobic seizures, producing an equally long record of loud and justifiable outrage from the Canadian lesbian and gay community. There is no evidence that whatever is happening at the border now is different from what happened before the Butler decision--except that Butler has made moralizing, homophobic customs seizures illegal. For instance, when one court issued an outrageously homophobic decision against some gay male material,5 another court, citing Butler, specifically repudiated the moralism of that decision.6

To date one indictment under Butler has been brought against lesbian sadomasochistic material, a magazine published in the U.S. with a Canadian circulation of 40. If this magazine is proven to harm women, including by producing civil inequality, the case should result in a conviction. Meanwhile various indictments brought against sexually explicit materials that do not show violence have been dismissed under Butler.

Canada's criminal obscenity law since Butler--like all prior laws that put power in the hands of government prosecutors rather than harmed plaintiffs has not actually been used effectively to stop the pornography industry. This we predicted. The pornography industry in Canada has in fact been expanding massively, trafficking openly in materials that do not show explicit violence, including some of the exact materials prosecuted in Butler.

ANALYSIS

In the United States, our Anti-Pornography Civil Rights Ordinance--together with related legislative initiatives against the harms of racist hate speech--has helped to trigger an escalating constitutional conflict between "speech" rights guaranteed by the First Amendment and "equality" rights in the principles underlying the Fourteenth Amendment. In our neighbor nation to the north, Canada's Supreme Court has determined that racist hate expression is unconstitutional (Keegstra) and that society's interest in sex equality outweighs pornographers' speech rights (Butler). Taken together, these two rulings are a breakthrough in equality jurisprudence, representing major victories for women and all people targeted for race hate. We wish that U.S. constitutional consciousness were so far along.

Although we recognize that the equality test adopted by Butler is an improvement on Canada's criminal obscenity law, we still do not advocate criminal obscenity approaches to pornography. They empower the state rather than the victims, with the result that little is done against the pornography industry.

We are encouraged, however, that the Butler decision under Canada's new Charter makes it likely that our civil rights law against pornography would be found constitutional if passed there. And we are continuing our work to empower victims to fight back against harm committed by pornographers.

We hope that this statement helps you correct the published record--and deal with the attacks, rumors, and disinformation--surrounding the relationship of our anti-pornography efforts to the Canadian Supreme Court's Butler decision.7

[...]

-- Catharine A. MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin

I go to a jewish school and we are having an assembly for holocaust memorial day on monday, the vice principal has given me very short notice to write a short speach, i am just wondering if i can use any of your information, also if you have any ideas to help keep high school students interested

thank you

Liane

First of all, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Mónica Alterwain, I´m 16 years old, and I´m writing from Uruguay, SouthAmerica. Secondly, I would like to congratulate you for your work, which is from my point of view excellent and of great importance. I believe that more people should follow your example and go on retelling what occurred during the Second World War. Personally, I am very concerned about the Holocaust, not only because I am a Jew myself, but also as a human being. I still have not found an answer or some kind of explanation for what happened, and I doubt that someday I will find it. To be sincere, I am absolutely sure that there is no possible explanation. But I am certain of one thing; we must never forget our history, we must retain everything in our memories since this is our only hope for the future; in order not to allow anything horrifying as the holocaust occur to any people, no matter his colour of skin, traditions or religion. Above all, we are all human beings.

My name is Sean and I just wanted to tell you that I found your page on the holocaust one of the most enlightening informative thing I ever read about the Holocaust. I have been interested in the holocaust for quite some time and have read quite a bit on the subject. I do not know exactly what has prompted my interest but when I do see something or read something about it I do feel a sense of familiarity as if I had been there. Perhaps it is because of some of the reasons you mentioned. That the Nazi's weren't just these monsters that spawned off in some foreign Country that had been anti-Semitic for hundreds of years. A lot of these people I'm sure came from the same kind of background I did and through certain circumstances unleashed the ugly side of themselves that we all have. I wonder what would I have done in 1930's and 40's Europe, Would I have participated in the killings, would I have been like the majority and just ignored what was going on (not that different to what I do now with some of the ugly things that are going on around me today), or would I have been like the few Miep Gies or the Raul Wallenbergs who risked their lives to help others, being homosexual I would have had problems of my own to contend with. I will never know but the questions you pose are something to think about. Thank you for such an enlightened reading. Sean

Just came accross your very informative and exelent post. I am not sure that you read the book I have written titled The Dentist of Auschwitz." Doing so, you will find some shocking Holocaust History of crimes that most people here are unaware of. Contact me if I can help.

Benjamin Jacobs

Thank you for giving me added material for my unit on the Holocaust. I am a high school English teacher and I found your website to be a great help for teaching materials.

I am impressed with the number of websites on the Holocaust, but yours was different...very informative in a unique way. The alphabet is concise, but inclusive.

Again, thank you. Will you be adding to the website in the future?

Sincerely,
Ms. E. Stafford Babs067@aol.com

I came upon this site by accident, then felt compelled to read it (being a Jew, my way of honoring...) What I responded to most, perhaps, was your discussion of god being absent in the world--how it makes no sense there could be G-d & the Holocaust. Also the depression of reading too much about these things. (& yes, how I watch the news re Bosnia,& did nothing....) You mention someplace that when time for selections came people didn't react as one would suspect, because daily life had already taken it out of them. It is as if, knowing all this, have ourselves been depleted. It is a "sane" response, but it is not a "healthy" one. I myself find it hard to empathize with smaller tragedies, smaller numbers of deaths...

I once wrote an essay (for a collection called Testimony, edited by David Rosenberg, of Jewish writers writing about the Holocaust (not ones who were in it, but just Jewish writers & how they've been affected by it or not); a NY Times critic said mine was the nadir of the collection. Why? Because I had tried to envision what could have been "justice" (I am not counting the token Nuremberg trials) & came up with the following:

1) Germans could have tried to redeem themselves, by being "exemplars" to the world, eg going out and helping rebuild the world (incl Israel), say for 5 years of their life (kind of like Mormons do today)

2) one would have grabbed a large & random group of Germans off the streets (incl women & children)--say, 60,000 (or a mere 1% of the number of murdered Jews)--& gassed & cremated them. (because Jews were ceased randomly, because it is impossible to "try" a nation, bec all had complicity...)

Needless to say, this suggestion provokes outrage. I am sure, if such a thing were ever attempted (say, now, in Rwanda) it would evoke far more outrage than the original murders. But I consider it more outrageous to simply throw up our hands when HUGE numbers of people are murdered & say there's nothing to be done...

the larger the crimes the fewer get punished...

In the same way, it owuld have been fair to single out certain numbers of the American populace after our destruction of Vietnam & Cambodia...

Jane DeLynn JaneD@prodigy.net

I am just about to read your "alphabet" but I wanted to let you know that the idea you put forth in the intro. is interesting. I understand the fear of trivializing those tragic events but I am also very curious as to what this would look like. Having said that, I guess I would like to see something done where people can experience the horrors of the death camps using cyberspace as their vehicle. For what it's worth, I support this idea...

Also, I am a social studies teacher in Lincoln, NE. We are currently studying WWII and if you have suggestions for teaching the holocaust, I would willingly take any advice.

Thanks for your time,
Tom Johnson
tjohnson@lps.esu18.k12.ne.us

My name is Emily and I think that what you've put out on the net is great. I'm in 8th grade and we're learning about the holocaust right now, in English. It really saddenes my heart to hear such horrfying stories. Then I go to Social Studies and we're watching the ever-so-famous movie ROOTS. I'm not racist but sometimes I think to myself 'Where in the world did caucasians get this power over all minorities and people who are just plain out different, example: gays. Where in the world did whites get the idea that their race is better than any other race?' This White Power, KKK, Nazi, stuff has an impact on my life, a huge one. Me being half African American and half Chinese. I really enjoy learning new stuff about my cultures, but not self distructing stuff. But hey it's reality! In English we do something called the JOURNAL of HATE, where our teacher gives us a topic like, HITLER. Then we write our thoughts and opinions about it. It's a great of getting our opinons out in the open. Well I just wanted to let you lnow that I think you have something really great on the NET!

bye :)

I'm a student at the University of California in Santa Barabara (UCSB) I'm currently enrolled in a Holocaust class-Holocaust Testamonies. It is close reading of writtings by Holocaust survivers. On of the readings is Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi. For the class we have to write a paper (we chose the topic). I'm writting about Levi's use of language in his books. I found your web page "An Auschwitz Alphabet" VERY HELPFUL! Do you have any other suggestions were I might be able to find useful information?

Sincerely,
Mike Karatov michael.karatov@resnet.ucsb.edu

Dear Jonathan,

Your webpage is monumental. I was wondering if in your research you found the names of people who were numbered and kept as labor. My father still remebers his number.

Marla
Mbudkow@aol.com

Your page is very good and I thank you in advance for the information presented in it. I am a Junior in a mid-western Iowa high school and I am doing a quarter report on the Holocaust. I've done several reports on this topic. I do have just one question for you though... you said that Dr. Mengele drowned in Argentina... I've read that it was very well documented that he was deathly afraid of water and stayed away from it entirely.

Bob Plumb plumbr@ntmail.jefferson-scranton.k12.ia.us

Referring to your essay on what you learned while compiling An Auschwitz Alphabet, I would like to make a comment about your first point [There is no God].

I was very disappointed to learn that you believe this, because I had found your work rather informative and, to the extent that the Holocaust can be, enlightening. After reading your aspect of the question "Is there a god?" and giving you credit for your belief, I would like to tell you the reasons why I disagree with you.

First, being a Christian, I do not believe that God simply allowed the extermination of over 6 million human beings. Nor do I believe that God does not care what happens to the human race. I do believe that He criedwhen His children were being persecuted and slaughtered for the reasons they were, but I also know that in all our trials and temptations in life, He will provide a way out for us so that we can stand up under it.

I also believe that God does not cause people to die for any reason, especially not to punish their families and loved ones and watch them suffer. one of my dearest friends, sixteen at the time, was killed in a car accident last summer. There was no drinking or foul play involved, simply a misinterpretation of the traffic light on the part of her boyfriend, who was driving the car. All of my church's youth group suffered a loss larger than any they had ever known, but were comforted by the words of our associate pastor, Dr. Roger Murchison, who said," God doesn't take the lives of pretty teenage girls who come from Christian homes, are active in their church, and their walk with Christ. He didn't take Mary's life, he received it."

That is why I disagree with your hypothesis that there is no God. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Ginger Hinely

I am 16, and an Advanced Placement history student. For my end of the year Honors Paper, I have devoted much time to studying Auschwitz and found your sight as the most help. I am not Jewish but feel no prejudice for them and that is not what I want my paper to turn into, an issue of race. (I noticed that you spoke of this in the introduction and that bothered me.) I did however want to thank you for the considerable time and effort that you obviously put into an exceptional study on a touchy subject. I hope that my paper is as successful. I hope that you are still considering the virtual tour as an inmate.

Thanks,
Jennifer

As I have been informed...at least 33 million babies have been murdered in the United States since 1963. One atrocity doesn not negate another, however the killing has not ceased since Neuremburg. If for no other reason it is best to at least keep the killing in perspective. Just as the murders and atrocities did not go unaddressed in Europe, they will not pass in America either. God is not exclusively angry of the senseless killing of Jews.

Clifford A. Paiva cpaiva@erols.com

This is an amazing piece of literature, I thank you for providing me with such detailed information. I am a 6th grade special education teacher and we are studying about the Holocaust and concentration camps, I know my students will enjoy this.

Thank you, Eyeteach 24 EYETEACH24@aol.com

I am preparing an oral presentation for my OAC english class. My book was Sophie's Choice, and Auschwitz plays a key role in the book. Your page is excellent, the comments from survivors and Nazis alike add a truly horrific and lifelike air to the holocaust. Thank you for providing an excellent page.

Patrick Crewdson kcrewdso@gale.Lakeheadu.Ca

First, I think that you have done an absolutely fabulous job on this home page and the links that take the reader through the history, and atrocities of Auschwitz. I am doing a research paper for a Holocaust literature class here at the University of Michigan -- Flint, and came upon your site. I have chosen your site for my paper and have found it very informative. I read the entire system of links the way that you suggest in your introduction (pressing "next" at the bottom of each link).

Second, I found your essay on what you've learned from your research of Auschwitz intriguing and unsettling. I can readily see that you have put a great deal of time and effort into this work and can not take anything away from you for that. I myself, am computer illiterate when it comes to stuff like this--I only work with Windows, Word, Works, etc. and am quite happy knowing what I know. But anyway, back to my point.

I have not contacted you by your e-mail to preach. I simply want to give my two cents worth of my God. I don't know why Auschwitz happened. If there was anything in my power (or a lot of others power), I would erase it from history. It was a horrible scar not only to Jews, but the human race. I do not want to come across as though I have an answer; God has let many things happen that I don't understand. For example: the Flood-many people were killed, I know they had the chance to listen to Noah and the Jews did not have a way out, but God still let it happen. People are dying every day from diseases such as cancer, AIDS, and other such illnesses. Hundreds if not thousands of innocent children are abused not only verbally, but physically and the most horrendous--sexually. For what ever reason, God allows it to happen. I say all this at the risk of sounding like a holier-than-though Christian who has God in my back pocket. I hope that it is not taken that way. But now for MY God: my God sent his only son to die on a cruel cross for ME. If I were the only person on earth, he still would have done it. I get up in the morning to see the beautiful flowers, trees, and sky he painted--just for ME. He has given me a wonderful family, friends, and husband. I too have had "bad stuff" happen, just like everyone else. My dad died when I was 16. I had to care for my mother who has umpteen health problems. But God gave me the strength to carry on.

My point to all this, Jonathan, is to say this: God loves YOU. I hope that through reading this, you will at least think about that. He really does care.

Sincerely,

Sammi vulfgank@geocities.com

Sir:

I want to thank and congratulate you for your page. Your work will surely convince those who still think the Holocaust did not happen and warns us all of the possibility of such a tragedy happening again, anywhere.

I will spread the word of this excellent site to my family, friends, fellow teachers and students.

Respectfully,
Mrs. Felicita Monge
fmrjlt@prtc.net

I'm always looking for new ways to deliver information about the Holocaust to my high school students. Thanks for your contirbution to education.

I'm attending a conference at the USHMM in August as a Mandel Fellow. I'll be sure to share your page info with other teachers.

Pete Fredlake mfredlake@einstein.cocsd.k12.az.us

I felt compelled to write to you in regards to comments made on both issues. "Interview with a Vampire" and "Mel Gibson" articles. First and formost, to the authors, The idea that Interview somehow is anti-women or porn, needs to be answered with a big, "DAH". Vampire lore through out history was written to be a fantasy, sexual adventure. And yes, it is very seductive. This is not a made up hollywood story, it is a very old form of adult entertainment. Vampire stories have been around as long as people have had fantasies about erotic things. I notice the author does not mention what turns him/her on. Well, what ever. It may not be for anyones business but your own. And to equate this movie and its "politics" with Nazi Germany show's a disturbing thought pattern in the part of you, the author. Do not say that a true disturbing historical part of history is in some way like some erotic fantasy movie. The two are not the same. The two should have not been compared to in any form or fashion. And I am sorry, but I cannot compare the two.

As for Mel, well, guess what, this is America folks, you have a write to VOICE your opinion as well as MEL. However, Mel did not inflict any physical harm on anyone. But it appears the gay rights people decided to inflict their harm on MEL.

Since when did voicing an opinion that one does not agree with a lifestyle mean the person has a hate for fear of that person? Apparently certain gay rights activists think that people have to agree with them or suffer the consiquences?

I feel sorry for those gay rights individuals, apparently since some people do not agree with them they find a need to terrorize those people.

How does that gain respect for their cause? And doesnt that cause a loss of respect and cause more hatred?

I liken that to the school yard bully, or to pull out another word that activists like to use, "Nazi". Yes I am sorry but people have a right to say and hate or not agree with who they want to in this country. And they should have the freedom to do so without fear of retaliation. Especially when they are voiced. What happend to sticks and stones in this country.

I guess we should all start keeping our opinions to ourselves, and let the activists tell us how to think and act. Oh yea isnt that funny, I dont think they can actually do that , Can they? Please post this and thanks for allowing me to have free speach.

ALPINA@prodigy.net

your article written in may of 95 on interview with the vampire, the one that said that it was pornographic. was the most pathetic, thoughtless, and frankly most shit-filled piece of journalisim i have ever read. not only is it not a "juvenile fantasy" but porn???? you people have a twisted way of showing your appreciation for the free speach amendment. rag on the military, rag on the racists, even on the dolphin killers. but please not on one of the best authors of the twentieth century and a damn fine movie. thank you.

Deathmess1@aol.com

After discovering the Ethical Spectacle and your writings, I thought you might be interested in a profeminist emailist I'm on. (I wrote to you earlier, but it was to jblumen and the mail bounced back.)

The traffic is about 10 emails a day of discussion and post, or you can subscribe to the digest which compiles the posts in one occassional msg to you. The list is antisexist, antiracist, gay affirmative, prochild and antiviolence. Subscribers to the list are men and women who are activists and supporters of the women's movement; activists, journalists, campus organizers, social scientists, etc. I thought that as a lawyer and editor of an online magazine that often analyzes feminist issues, you might want to try it. The homepage is http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~gorkin/profem.html or you can email the list managers at owner-profem=l@coombs.anu.edu.au

Ray Smith rds6t@hotmail.com

Remember me? I mailed you a couple of times already some months ago. My visit card in the Internet is that I'm Portuguese and since there's not many of us...

I was seeing your links and you have a section just for persons whose Home Pages have a link towards your site. I'm in that position even with my last Home Page but since it was a very poor one I guess it would only dishonor the "Spectacle" for having a link to my old page.

Now I have a new Home Page, called "Reason's Triumph" about ethical, philosophical and scientifical issues and I have a link to your page.

Therefore, if you could add a link to my page, I would appreciate it. Also, I could use some opinions about my site since it's only operational for about a week. So, if you have the time, stop by and tell me what you think. (I'm sure you'll love the citation with whom I start the site)

Hasta la vista...

Joao Pedro jpnitya@mithlond.esoterica.pt

New Home Page - "Reason's Triumph" - URL at:
http://mithlond.esoterica.pt/~jpnitya/

I am a 19 year old college student who goes to school full time as well as works fulltime for an internet service provider...I stumbled across your litle piece of heaven tonight as I was doing some research on violence and film...I must admit, your newsletter is an amazing piece of work. I did a search for violence and movies and up came your site..in fact I believe it was an issue from 1995. I was blown away with the ideas you held as well as your writting ability.

I just finished thumbing through most of your past issues and I think that what you have here is next to brilliance. I enjoy the articles you have put together. They are refreshing and informative to read. I wish you all the luck in the world with all of your endeavors. I hope that my life can be as fruitful and meaningful as yours.

With much admiration,

Jason Campos faust66@themall.net

About your gripe...

The reason the U.S. does not pay it's dues, is because the U.N. refuses to re-imburse or at least grant equal costs, to the HUGE debts incurred by the US Government in providing infrastructure and logistic support to almost all of the various UN operations. Flying hundreds of US military transport planes, all the communication equipment, mine sweepers, civil engineers, costs i9ncredible amounts of money. MONEY that the UN does not consider in compensation for the US dues. Just how much do you think it cost to send those thousands of troops into Somolia and then keep them there supplied? What about all the road and port improvements that we did while we were there? This operation alone cost about the equal of the US annual dues. And Somolia was a small operation.

Who's paying for operations DENY FLIGHT, PROVIDE COMFORT, JOINT ENDEAVOR, the Rwanda Relief, Liberia evacuations, Albania evacuations...and a hundred other operations that STILL go on each and every day...they've just dropped of the news-radar screens. KOREA is still a UN operation!

The US pays 90% of almost every operation that the UN gets involved in... and you think we should pay dues on top of all that? The UN couldn't do anything without US support that totals in the billions each year. And the US never gets re-embursed.

It is the UN that owes US money!

Irving irving@gnt.net

It boggles my mind that Shannon Spencer's review of Seven could contain the two statements:

"That is exactly what I think Seven has done. It has no redeeming characters, no morality, no lessons to teach us--it is a depressing example of low quality, mainstream entertainment which has received top billing at movie theaters across the country."

and

"I hope that Seven tells people more about what they do not want to become than about what they do want to become or about what is acceptable -- or even the norm -- in our society."

Of course Seven tells about what they do not want to become. The moral failure of Pitt's character in the end is exactly that -- a moral failure. It is presented as such, complete with Freeman's character urging him away from that failure, though unsuccessfully.

And that moral juncture, and failure, is tied in to the moral failure of the killer that is the point of the movie's moral discussion. The killer's motivation is his own belief that he has a right to do these things in order to bring up moral issues to the country. Each of his murders is meant to be a moral statement, as he explains in detail. The message there is fairly straightforward -- the ends do not justify the means. The moral points he was trying to make are perfectly valid moral points. It can even be argued that the moral points he was trying to raise are moral points that the nation desperately needs to have in the spotlight and discussed. Even granting that, it was immoral of him to go about bringing the issues up as he did.

How is it that Shannon Spencer missed this?

Looking at those who fail morally is a perfectly valid way of exploring morality, nor is it a particularly new method.

I have to wonder if the real problem that people have with the movie is not a lack of morality, but a lack of a happy ending. Many of us seem to have a need for that happy ending -- where there's a clear-cut Good Guy and Bad Guy, who respectively do the Right and Wrong Things, and who are respectively rewarded and punished for it. It's a nice story format and it leaves a warm fuzzy feeling afterwards.

But it isn't real. Life isn't like that. There are no clear cut heroes and villains, real people shift between the roles at different points in their lives to different degrees. Bad Things happen to Good People, sometimes as a direct consequence of their Doing the Right Thing. Bad People get away with doing the Wrong Thing. Perhaps this format of storytelling is an attempt to teach morality. The world around us is a testament to the failure of that method if that is the case. And that failure should come as no surprise -- you cannot investigate the morality of a reality you pretend does not exist.

Dan Holzman holzman@xochi.tezcat.com