Thursday, January 27, 2005

Let us never forget - 60 Year Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz

Sixty years ago today, the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz was liberated - by the Soviet Army.
Let us never forget !
Today, wherever racism, in however 'minor' a form, is tolerated, wherever liberties are curtailed for 'security', wherever difference of opinion is scorned or books, art censored, parallels to the initial stages of the Nazi plague are evident.
Let us never forget !
This, till now, unique crime against humanity must never be repeated.
Let us never forget !
Let us never forget that "freedom" was also part of Hitler's campaign slogan, that freedom is always incomplete without tolerance, respect for, and protection of, the rights of any and all minorities, that freedom is positive only in an inextricable linkage with democracy and justice - for all.
Let us never forget !
Six million Jews died in those Nazi death camps, part of the German Reich's "final solution," to eradicate Europe's Jewish population. Millions of others - Soviet prisoners of war, Jehovah's Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, and political opponents (especially Communists and Socialists) - were also murdered during the Holocaust. Not only the gas chambers, but also neglect, starvation, abuse, and mishandling of prisoners wer used to kill approximately 1.5 million people in Auschwitz and near-by Birkenau (Auschwitz 2) alone.
Let us never forget !

Friday, January 21, 2005

To read or not to read....

In the Eighteenth Century, many texts were prohibited for fear that someone might read them; today, in the Twenty-First Century, everything can be published somewhere, because no one can or does read any more anyway!
Read if you dare --- and learn.
If you have a problem with sex, you have a problem with life, and surely don't dare read; if you read, you probably have good sex, are not embarrassed to speak or write about it, and certainly place life above death in your scale of values.

Sunday, January 9, 2005

---from an Eighteenth Century Venetian Poet:

Mi dedico ste mie composizion
Ai omeni, e alle donne morbinose,
a quelli veramente, che le cosse
le varda per el verso, che xe bon.
Sotto le metto alla so protezion,
come persone tutte spiritose,
perché da certe teste scrupolose,
i le difenda co la so rason.
Che i diga che qua drento no ghe xe
Né critiche, né offese alle persone,
che de Dio no se parla, né dei Re,
ma sol de cosse allegra, belle, e bone,
cosse deliciosissime, cioè
de bocche, tette, culi, cazzi, e mone.
- Zorzi (Giorgio) Baffo, 1694-1768

Monday, January 3, 2005

In memoriam

Susan Sontag, deceased December 27, 2004
- spread intelligent literary theory, even if borrowed from the French, spoke out against violations of human rights and in favor of civil rights everywhere, opposed nebularization, demanded clarity, demanded thinking
- one of the few American thinkers unafraid to oppose hypocritical politicians
- sought to contribute to a real understanding of the events of September 11, 2001
She will be sorely missed !