The guy "Inclemency" said something like, "you Jew lovers all question ME and MY information, but you don't bother to question the person who wrote all about how she was friends with Miep Gies, met Elie Wiesel, and worked at the Museum, yeah, what a big fat story THAT is..." So, when I read that, I thought, "Hmmm, I guess I need to open a can of whoop ass...in a NICE way of course..." and so, with can opener in hand.....here I went...(rolling up my sleeves & marching into the kitchen)....
------------------------------------
ATTENTION:
INCLEMENCY, FARKER T AND TATSUMA: First of all, THANK YOU. The common denominator of all of your argumentative posts here is that each of you feels passionately about this subject. I applaud you all for that. The levels of knowledge, open-mindedness and opinions of that passion vary, most certainly, but the passion of each of you for this topic still remains....and THAT is the BEST part of this entire argument.
In case you didn't realize it, the Holocaust is SUPPOSED to make you feel uncomfortable, it's SUPPOSED to make you feel agitated, it's SUPPOSED to make you feel upset and angry---if it DIDN'T, then we've all failed as a human race to learn from genocidal mistakes in history. So I want to THANK YOU all for sharing your passion about the Holocaust.
Here's my challenge to you all: we now have the LUXURY of learning an amazing amount of facts from this horrible history, which then enables us to AGREE TO DISAGREE about our opinions, and we also have the LUXURY of reading thousands of books about the topic, museums, web sites, and for a short time, we still have the ability to talk to real Survivors about it. EMBRACE THOSE LUXURIES. Our generation is the only one that has ever had them.
So---I challenge you all to go and do those things. Open your minds enough to fill them with more knowledge. Then please, continue to debate, continue to question, continue to discuss it. If and when that day comes when NOBODY debates, questions or discusses such a thing, the world will have lost all of its compassion and perseverance for truth.
Not only do I thank you, but secondly, I'd like to WELCOME you...
Please contact me via email, but ONLY if you'd like to spend an entire day in DC with me at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, for a personalized tour. I would also like to invite you to read through some of the letters I've exchanged with Miep Gies for 15 years, or if you'd rather not meet me face-to-face, that's fine. But do go ahead and visit the Museum on your own. Or, you can read the January 1999 article in World War II magazine that I wrote about Miep Gies' life story. I have a web site about the Holocaust also. Email me if you'd like more of that information.
Also, if you doubt my "story," please contact the Museum Human Resource Department to ask about my history of employment there, I have nothing to hide from anyone here on Fark or anywhere else in this universe, so please feel free to challenge my "story" all you like. I would LOVE the chance to prove it's all true, to you and anyone else here who may question what I write about this topic. I am NOT an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I have studied it for over 30 years, so I am happy to share that knowledge with anyone who has an open mind, (and the sincerity, seriousness, and maturity necessary), to learn more about it.
My motives are sincere. I have dozens of Holocaust Survivor friends who taught me much more about life and the world, and people, than any book, professor, parent or class--or even FARK for that matter---ever will. So I welcome those who do not fully understand Jewish people, the Jewish religion, or who may not know the full history of the Holocaust, to rise to the challenge of learning more about it, on your own---or with a Museum historian, or better yet, if you DO go there, please ask for my friend and Holocaust Survivor Nesse Godin to assist you. (Google her name, you can read all about her life)...She volunteers there every Wednesday. Tell her that her Museum "daughter"--Rebecca in Pittsburgh" sent you. Embrace these luxuries, and learn all you can.
That is my hope, and my challenge, to each of you.
INCLEMENCY, FARKER T AND TATSUMA: First of all, THANK YOU. The common denominator of all of your argumentative posts here is that each of you feels passionately about this subject. I applaud you all for that. The levels of knowledge, open-mindedness and opinions of that passion vary, most certainly, but the passion of each of you for this topic still remains....and THAT is the BEST part of this entire argument.
In case you didn't realize it, the Holocaust is SUPPOSED to make you feel uncomfortable, it's SUPPOSED to make you feel agitated, it's SUPPOSED to make you feel upset and angry---if it DIDN'T, then we've all failed as a human race to learn from genocidal mistakes in history. So I want to THANK YOU all for sharing your passion about the Holocaust.
Here's my challenge to you all: we now have the LUXURY of learning an amazing amount of facts from this horrible history, which then enables us to AGREE TO DISAGREE about our opinions, and we also have the LUXURY of reading thousands of books about the topic, museums, web sites, and for a short time, we still have the ability to talk to real Survivors about it. EMBRACE THOSE LUXURIES. Our generation is the only one that has ever had them.
So---I challenge you all to go and do those things. Open your minds enough to fill them with more knowledge. Then please, continue to debate, continue to question, continue to discuss it. If and when that day comes when NOBODY debates, questions or discusses such a thing, the world will have lost all of its compassion and perseverance for truth.
Not only do I thank you, but secondly, I'd like to WELCOME you...
Please contact me via email, but ONLY if you'd like to spend an entire day in DC with me at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, for a personalized tour. I would also like to invite you to read through some of the letters I've exchanged with Miep Gies for 15 years, or if you'd rather not meet me face-to-face, that's fine. But do go ahead and visit the Museum on your own. Or, you can read the January 1999 article in World War II magazine that I wrote about Miep Gies' life story. I have a web site about the Holocaust also. Email me if you'd like more of that information.
Also, if you doubt my "story," please contact the Museum Human Resource Department to ask about my history of employment there, I have nothing to hide from anyone here on Fark or anywhere else in this universe, so please feel free to challenge my "story" all you like. I would LOVE the chance to prove it's all true, to you and anyone else here who may question what I write about this topic. I am NOT an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I have studied it for over 30 years, so I am happy to share that knowledge with anyone who has an open mind, (and the sincerity, seriousness, and maturity necessary), to learn more about it.
My motives are sincere. I have dozens of Holocaust Survivor friends who taught me much more about life and the world, and people, than any book, professor, parent or class--or even FARK for that matter---ever will. So I welcome those who do not fully understand Jewish people, the Jewish religion, or who may not know the full history of the Holocaust, to rise to the challenge of learning more about it, on your own---or with a Museum historian, or better yet, if you DO go there, please ask for my friend and Holocaust Survivor Nesse Godin to assist you. (Google her name, you can read all about her life)...She volunteers there every Wednesday. Tell her that her Museum "daughter"--Rebecca in Pittsburgh" sent you. Embrace these luxuries, and learn all you can.
That is my hope, and my challenge, to each of you.
---------------------------------------------------------
Yes, I have no illusions or expectations that any of those Farkers will actually DO any of those things I challenged them to do. But, at the same time, I have learned over the 42 long years I've spent on this planet, that if you name a person's game, they can no longer play it. I simply felt it was necessary to name their game. It's one of those "last word" messages that should (in a nice way), tell them to STFU.
I did this very same kind of thing when I was a member of the official Journey fan club web site message boards...every chance I could. (One such thing I wrote, was "You people on this web site might hate Steve Perry, you might love him, and lots of you have nothing better to do than to sit here all day long arguing about it---whatever floats your boat---but the fact remains, that whether you agree or disagree, you ALL SHARE THE SAME PASSION FOR THE MUSIC, and that's all that matters)." And WOW, I was hated for it by a whole lotta people. But ya know what, that did not deter me one bit. Sometimes it is necessary to be a messenger who gets shot now and then. I'm not here on this planet to win a popularity contest. I could give a shit less about popularity.
In both forums, it's obvious that "you cannot win a battle of wits with unarmed people." Nearly everyone on Fark.com is unarmed, when it comes to the subject of the Holocaust, and I intend to stick my big fat face into anybody else's face who tries to give me shit about it.
And that's how I roll. :)
I did write to Lora today, by the way, regarding the Q&A questions and my Journey-opoly idea. She probably thinks I'm a freak. I'm sure you do too. But hey, that's fine with me. Maybe I am a weirdo, a freak, a strange ranger...but that's what makes me so gosh-darned LOVABLE!
Have a nice weekend Stephen, if I don't get the chance to write before then.
Love, Rebecca
No comments:
Post a Comment