From: cwilkins@irscscm.UUCP (Charlie Wilkinson)
Subject: Re: THE HOAXER PROJECT, Ralph spews out 2842 lines of garbage!
Organization: Internal Revenue Service
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 20:34:37 GMT

cwilkins@irscscm.UUCP (Charlie Wilkinson) adds:

Just a quick note while the flames are heading my way:
In my followup to Garret's post I failed to mention a few things that I consider
significant.  First I am now fully aware that Ralph didn't write the post.
(Sorry, terrible with names here...)  I pretty much agree with Mr. Wilcox,
going by my experience.  The beliefs, biases, etc. of Ralph are in this
case irrelevant.  Scream at him for something else, but posting Mr.Wilcox's
article might just be Ralph's one shining moment.

As much as Ralph may piss you (and me) off, we *NEED* people like him to keep
the rest of us honest.  If there weren't a few people to raise questions on
sensitive topics, amoral opportunists could easily use these sensitive areas
to their own ends. The people who are extremely hostile towards Ralph scare
me more than he does, for as much as I may disagree with him (and I really do),
at least I *know* what Ralph is about.  What's *your* agenda?

So IMHO, regardless of Ralph's motives or conclusions, the fact that he is 
raising these questions is a good thing.

I can fully understand people being upset with him, as no one likes old wounds
to be opened up again, especially under such unfeeling scrutiny.  The Holocaust
is a still a nightmarish memory for many, and the ultimate symbol of man's
inhumanity to man for others.  It's no great wonder that many fine people don't
want this incedent dragged through the dirt and I empathize with them.  But
who can seriously deny that there might be just one individual out there
somewhere who feels his or her interests are furthered by using the event to
maintain victim status for all eternity, and that that status might somehow be
threatened by any attempt to question numbers?  (oops, I've gone and done it
now...)  Perhaps the question shouldn't be about numbers at all, but who
considers revisionism to be a threat and why.  The rest of you have every right
to feel insulted by the concept.  If I were a female who had just been raped
by 6 guys, I wouldn't be too thrilled about some clown coming along saying
"I can only find proof for 2."  But I wouldn't feel threatened and I certainly
wouldn't view it as the first step towards being gang raped again.

One might ask why should we bother dredging this up to revise numbers, when
it's all too painfully obvious that governments, religions, and other 
organizations have lied since the beginning of time to further their own 
interests and that there was more than likely inflation of figures in this 
case as well.  I personally suspect that there might have been some "padding" 
of numbers, but nothing like the gross inflation (1m vs. 6m) suggested by
Ralph.  Such a thing could hardly go unnoticed and without protest, don't you
think?

We could debate for all eternity just what percentage of hate crimes are hoaxes
and to do so would strike me as counter-productive, but I think it's important
to understand that the group(s) that claim they are promoting your interests, 
might well be far more concerned with their own.  Wouldn't be the first time,
won't be the last.  No organization is immune to the temptation to pursue 
self-preservation as a primary goal and as Mr. Wilcox pointed out, many groups
feel that "the ends justify the means".  My own wife (and I consider her to be
a pretty sharp cookie) commented that she didn't think it mattered one bit
whether there were hoaxes or not, as long as some good came from it.  (I
must say too, perhaps to her credit, that she's pretty apathetic to this
whole discussion.  She's also 50% jewish, for those keeping score here.)
Personally, I'm a bit more of a purist, and tend to think that truth matters
above all else, even if it doesn't sound as good (or bad) as what you were
expecting or hoping for.  It should be said that I consider telling the
truth *today* to be a separate issue from digging up 50 year old memories in
an attempt to invalidate them.  Can anyone deny that the present and future are
far more important than the past?

...and so ends my "quick note".  Let's work for peace in our lifetime, eh?

--
cwilkins@irscscm.uucp                                   /======================\
uunet!mimsy!prometheus!media!ka3ovk!irscscm!cwilkins    | Micro-Sig(tm) pellet |
N3HAZ@KA3RFE.MD.USA.NA                                  |   -just add water    |
...or you can call me Charlie                           \======================/
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