Posted on January 26th, 2009 in Dachau, Education, Europe, Kristallnacht, politics | Leave A Comment
Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers - it began with words
Jan. 26, 2009
IRWIN COTLER , THE JERUSALEM POST
On this United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day, words may ease the pain, but
they may also dwarf the tragedy. For the Holocaust is uniquely evil in its genocidal singularity,
where biology was inescapably destiny, a war against the Jews in which, as Nobel Peace Laureate
Elie Wiesel put it, “not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims.”
Let there be no mistake about it: indifference in the face of evil is acquiescence with evil itself - it is complicity with evil.
Nazism succeeded, not only because of the “bureaucratization of genocide,” as Robert Lifton put it, but because of the trahison des clercs - the complicity of the elites: physicians, church leaders,
judges, lawyers, engineers, architects, educators and the like. As Elie Wiesel put it: “Cold-blooded murder and culture did not exclude each other. If the Holocaust proved anything, it is that a person can both love poems and kill children.”
Read the entire article here.. thanks Mark
Tags: gas chamber, Jews, murder, national holocaust day
Posted on January 21st, 2009 in Education, Europe, Family, Summer Performs | 1 Comment
We are very proud of Summer. She’s smart and beautiful. It always warms our hearts to see her perform (singing/guitar), or to listen to one of her poems. We like to hear her political and social thoughts, too. She’s more in touch with the important things in life at 16 years-old than I was at 26 years-old.
She brought home the “Showcase” catalog yesterday. It features work from high school students all over Europe. This was just published in the last few weeks, but it was from work submitted last year (when she was a sophomore). They selected one of her poems for it. Can you guess who the poem is about?
We love you Summer! You make us very, very proud! And, yes, we rocked the vote this time!
Posted on January 20th, 2009 in Family, Family & Friends | Leave A Comment
Today is a very strange day for me. It has nothing to do with America getting a new president. I think that is “most excellent”. It’s just one of those weird days. I feel “off”, if you know what I mean? I’m kind of tired, feel a little depressed - blue, just off.
I think I may need to take a break from my routines - especially the ones that involve computers. I may be suffering from technology overload or burnout, literally. Here’s some questions that told me that I need a break:
1. When you open your email client, does it make you feel anxious about the work that you don’t have time to do? Yes
2. Do you ever wish the web or social media would just go away? Yes (Facebook)
3. Do you have email messages sitting in your inbox more than 6 months old that are “pending” further action or unread? Yes
4. Do you sometimes wish you could read or type faster? Yes!
5. Do you experience frustration at the amount of electronic information you need to process daily? Yes
6. Do you sit at your computer for longer than an hour at a time without getting up to take a break? Are you kidding?
7. Is the only time you’re off line is when you are sleeping? Yes, well, not really, but it seems that way.
8. Do you feel that you often cannot concentrate? Yes, this is my biggest problem.
9. Are you always seeking out additional information from the Internet or friends online to support a decision or complete a project but never processing it all? Yes
10. Do you get anxious if you are away from the Internet for too long? For sure!
11. Do you open up multiple tabs in your browser and then forget what you were going to do? Yes
12. Is your email, google docs or hard drive filled with “virtual piles” of information or “drafts” that haven’t been processed? Yep!
13. Are you afraid to delete email or old files because you’re afraid you might just need it someday? Archived
14. Are you unable to locate electronic documents, blog posts, email messages or other online information that you need in the moment without wasting time playing “find the file”? Depends…
15. Do you find yourself easily distracted by online resources that allow you to avoid other, pending work? yes, another big problem area for me!
Okay, how did you do? It’s time for me to stop, or slow down at least. And yet, here I am writing about it on a computer!
Tags: computer burnout
Posted on January 12th, 2009 in Collodion Workshops, Education, Europe, travel | Leave A Comment
I just got word that I will be doing a workshop in an Austrian castle (converted to a photo college) - at Schloss Weinberg, in Kefermarkt, Austria. The workshop will be April 4-5, 2009. I’m really looking forward to it!
