Letters to the Editor

 

 

 

Re: A Streetcar Named Infinity

Dear Frank,


In the last issue of "Southern Cross Review", you give a story about a man hearing Rudolf Steiner in Prague, before serving in the German army and being killed in the first world war. In fact Prague, like what is now the Czech Republic, was in the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian empire before 1918. Such a man would have been killed in the Austrian army during that war.(It was the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, which launched in 1st world war.)

Best wishes,

Michael Friedjung

Paris

 

Re: Grandma Butterfly

 

Frank, this is just a fine, fine, fine tale, worthy of any gathering, yikes, it was good. It doesn't get much better than that. What a great tale.

 

Wrapped in a winding sheet and Revelation unfurls the wings of the Cosmic human butterfly, that was Lazarus...but this is Grandma. Grandma is going to take a long journey children. My Grandma Anderson of Wheaton made the most striking impression on me. She made a striking impression on my cousin David..It is too long to go into, but she, like other old country souls, rose early, harvested

in the dew of the Garden, care giver for a whole house of elderly, which she was kind of a doctor to, backed the bread, laundered, shopped, and it was this thing Steiner said about blessing, that the touch of certain older people in our lives transmits blessing..

 

Well, it is too long to go into...but Frank got the essence of a real meeting with an Angelic Being in his tale. Our meetings as Consciousness Soul candidates means taking images of others home, reviewing our day backwards in astral compression and transforming inner vision with each person we see, to see their unique agile or docile spirit, wearing matter, so that we see the spirit, tone,

gesture, and identity as this mobile image of the divine.

 

Angels are working in the astral body, and some of our grandmothers with gardens and whole flocks of grandchildren held the insights and lived with them warmly and unconsciously...and their touch, brought blessing and their Angels appreciated their journey.

 

Nice work Frank!

 

Bradford Riley

Texas

 

 

 

Asunto: Re: Debunking 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

 

I read through your web page. I had an disagreement with a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. Personally, I have a very difficult time believing it. However, they seem to bombard one with a whole lot of 'facts.' Whereas, I merely have an opinion. Do you know of any other websites that provide any facts to dispel the common arguments used by conspiracy theorists.

�

The only case I could make was based on my limited experience with an airport van service I worked with, called Flight Line - serving the Boston/Logan airport region. One of the guys I trained with said he picked up one of the pilots all the time, and that he dropped him off at the airport the morning of 9/11. He did not come back?� How would he have gone along with it?�

�

The conspiracy theorists have their various explanations to get around this reality, such as the one mentioned on your site.�

�

Anyway, I didn't know if you may know of any websites that dissect and rebut some of the common assertions made.� Thanks

***

Thanks for that link Frank.� That was very insightful, and it did a great job debunking the most popular myths, one by one.� I have a friend in Kuwait (normally a very level-headed guy), but unfortunately, it sounds like these conspiracy theories are adding fuel to the fire in the middle east. Here's another link I found that also debunks some of these theories:

�

http://ourworld-top.cs.com/mikegriffith1/refute.htm

�

Thanks again,

�

Geoffrey Breuder

 

 

Re: Debunking 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

 

You simple minded fool................

Matthias

 

Re: Debunking 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

I posted a thought last night on an AOL bulletin board with the title "U.S.Animal Farm." The body of the post was "The pigs are fatter and sneakier than ever." I thought that it was an original title for a post ... oh well. But I would like to see T-shirts with that printed on the front with Bush, Rove, and Cheney's faces superimposed on well-dressed pigs standing on two feet below printing.

 

Ronin

 

 

Re: Debunking 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Hello Frank,

 

Well I find myself writing you once again on an old topic. I wasn't able to accept your invitation, last time, to prepare my letter to be printed; now I wonder if you ever read it.

 

I'm embarrassed to find the Pop Mechanics article on your website, but even more embarrassed by your rant. And I wonder to find your lead quote of Rudolf Steiner's in the same issue, because I find little evidence of thinking in your rant.

 

I will try to prepare an appropriate letter, though it is difficult to imagine finding the time. But the simple matter is that picking out a series of errors and reporting on them, says nothing about the many much more alarming items that were not dealt with. That is what makes the "Mechanics" "Popular" instead of rigorous.

 

You offer no sign that you have paid any actual attention to the issues. That's fine as a personal choice; clearly you do a lot of very effective work, and anyone needs to be selective with time. But then on what basis do you make the leap to deciding that you are presenting and debunking the issues that you seem actually ignorant of?

 

I gave you the name of one anthroposophist with sterling credentials who spoke on this matter -- Christopher Schaefer. Did you contact him? Did you contact me? On what basis did you make this editorial decision?

 

It is one thing to have personal opinions; it is very different to spread them over the planet via the vehicle you -- and others -- have so carefully developed. I know at least one regular author who will find it quite difficult to see his writings on the same page, so to speak (no I don't speak for him, and he is big enough in soul to "swallow" this.)

 

Please let me know if any other reader speaks up for answering you -- though you presented this as a fait acompli, another appalling journalistic error. I would rather not be the one, but I will, and in days, if it is needed. And without polemic -- I am from the stream of science, and I am simply trying to live openly with some very serious questions.

 

Christian Sweningsen

 

 

Re: Galloway vs. The U.S: Senate

Hi Frank,

 

Just read the Galloway article. Haven�t had time to read more yet but it all looks good.

 

For us who do not follow all this closely as you do I would like more background on the Galloway article. I think such articles and especially this one should show when and where the talk was given. It should have a ref to the previous accusations or to the work of that house committee. It should say which senator Galloway is speaking to. Source material is good to have. It may save your ass too!

 

Regards

Art Ross,

Sweden

Upon receipt of this letter the following short explanation was attached to the end of the article. Ed.

George Galloway is a member of the United Kingdom parliament. He was accused by members of the U.S. senate of corruption in connection with the “Food for Oil” program in place before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He volunteered to testify before the U.S. senate, during which he made the above statement on May 18, 2005.

 

 

Re: Miryam (Ebook)

Frank, I don't have any words that I think could express my deep appreciation of your work on the translation.

 

My Magdalene day was yesterday and it was just a most beautiful day. Well, it started off that I noticed a man masturbating while driving down the road. And I

was like 'Godddddddddddd why am I seeing this today! Damn! I was hoping for a pure day. And then when I got back from purchasing the flowers for the day I noticed that someone has torn down the most beautiful fifteen foot sign with the Magdalene's name written in red from the front fence that I had there for a week. And when I walked to the door I noticed that my favorite tree on the property, a Jacquaranda Tree, was bent over on its side. I picked her up and tied her down, as she is a newbie at twelve feet tall. And it hit me: this is what confronts the Magdalene, this masculine energy that keeps trying to hold her in her place. I mean it was surreal.

 

I remember asking you to do the translation many moons ago, not that many actually, and I remember being so grateful. Reading the endings of the story I felt saddened. Like this can't be all, tell me this story goes on. And the truth is, that it does. The story does go on and it lives on in me and you and the

people that are inspired by her and her love and care for Jesus the Christ.

 

The women, and a few men, had the most wonderful day yesterday. I mean the room was so beautifully decorated in pinks and blues, the plants around, the statues, the flowers, the drumming the fellowship. And get this, the woman who read a section of the book The Mary Magdalene Within, is a mother of a Waldorf student. I mean how precious can it be that the one person who would read for me here at the clubhouse is connected to the very works that inspire me in my life, the very man, Dr. Steiner. We both hold the story to be different than what is written in the book but we also know that we can help move this story forward and hopefully bring it to a place closer to what he has shared.

 

But, to have finished the story on this day, I feel emptied, readied for the next journey of her spirit to be told.

 

All my love,

Dottie Zold

Los Angeles

 

Re: The Lonely American

Dear Gaither,

 

Having been an ex-pat (in Japan during the Reagan years rather than Europe during the reign of George II), I do feel for your predicament.� How does one explain America to non-Americans? Especially as you have lived so long abroad � I imagine you looking at current events here in the States in a sort of horrified fascination, as though seeing a train wreck that you can't explain and can't stop.� Hell, I live here and I can't explain it � nor, it seems, can I stop it.� Although I do try.

 

Of course, from my point of view, you are not seeing the whole story.� How can you, when the corporate-controlled media refuses to tell large parts of it? For example, your soldier in Iraq may indeed be the "loneliest man in the world."� But contrary to what you seem to have heard, there is NOT "an oversupply of volunteers to go to the deserts to kill strangers."� That may have been true after 9/11, for the war in Afghanistan.� After all, we were attacked on our own soil and many people, not just Americans, would get grumpy about that sort of behavior.

 

Today, however, all branches of the service are missing their recruiting goals, even as they lower standards (no high school diploma? no problem!) and raise the age limits (you're 42? no problem!) and offer large signing bonuses � $20,000 for a kid right out of high school is a lot of money!� The soldiers in Iraq are often from National Guard units and Reserve units that in the 20th Century were havens from serving on the front lines.� (That, after all, is why George II joined the Texas Air National Guard.)� At a guess, most of the Guard soldiers enlisted to learn a skill, earn a little extra money, or get help paying for school.� If they were called up, it was generally to deal with a natural disaster -- a flood or a wild fire, for instance.� They are not happy about being turned into front line soldiers � that was not their expectation when they joined and they are well aware that they have neither the skills nor

the equipment for the role.� The Reserves are also not normally called up for combat duty.� After you have finished your enlistment in the active duty forces, you are put in the Reserves for another couple of years.� But I can't remember the last war that required the Reserves to be called up for active

duty.� (It was probably World War II.)

 

So, seriously Gaither, I want you to get a grip.� Americans aren't from Mars! You came from here, albeit a long time ago.� Surely you remember the differences that exist between regions.� An American native to Montana moves and talks differently from an American who grew up in New York City and both are distinct from the American born and bred in Charleston, South Carolina or along the Midwest Coast.� I suspect neither you nor your European friends would insist that there is a uniformity of thought or "type" within the European Community.� Why do you believe that such uniformity exists within the United States?� Remember, despite all his bullshit about a "mandate,"� George II won his second term by a very slim majority (51%) and only won the Presidency because of slightly over 100,000 votes in Ohio -- and very likely due to election fraud.

 

By the way, I know your European friends find our method of electing the President to be a tad, well... arcane.� So do we, and yet it persists... in part because it is one of a series of protections given to the smaller states to ensure that decisions were not the sole province of the larger states.� As the EU forms, surely they are having discussions of their own about how to keep Germany and France from trampling on Belgium and Luxembourg!� The Electoral College was one of the ways folks in Rhode Island and Vermont made sure they were not going to be railroaded by folks in New York and Virginia.� (Especially since 3/5ths of the slave population of Virginia counted as persons for purposes of determining how many representatives Virginia -- and other slave states -- had in the House of Representatives and on the Electoral College.) Today, a voter in Rhode Island or Wyoming has a proportionally greater say in who becomes President than a voter in New York or California.� Our Founding Fathers believed in taking steps to prevent the "tyranny of the majority" you know! <G>

 

Your essay is filled with so many mis-statements and wrong assumptions that I don't know where to begin.� To mention just one, the idea that all Americans are enamoured of the death penalty.� As it happens, my state -- Michigan � was the very first government in the English-speaking world to abolish the death penalty way back in 1846.� Every now and then, some group tries to get the State to bring it back, but even the Republican governors of the State have been unwilling to do so.� Thus, I have no *idea* how I could justify the death penalty to your European friends.

 

Then there's the silly bit about how Americans can't go over to Tuscany (or Provence) and spend a year drinking wine and then imagine they really understand or know Italy (or France).� Well, duh!� But then, I don't imagine your Italian or French friends could come over here, spend a year drinking beer

and attending baseball and hockey games and declare they know all one could possibly know about the US now could they?� (Although, please note that when a fight breaks out at a hockey game, it's on the ice... not in the stands! <G>)

 

But on to your main question:� "What's wrong with America?"

 

Easy enough to state, even if hard to believe.� America, my dear Gaither, has fallen into one of its periodic fits of religious insanity (well, we *were* founded by all of those religious refugees) and fundamentalist Christianity, aka, the Taliban-gelicals, is currently in the ascendant.� The Republican Party has been quite deliberately hijacked by the so-called Religious Right (RR), which has been working on the project for 30 years or more.� The RR has entered into an unholy alliance with the wacko far right (you know, the ones who said, "Nuke Russia! And China too!" back in the 50's and 60's; cf Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest of the "Project for a New American Century") and now their bastard offspring control the Presidency, the House, the Senate and, soon, the Courts. It is my fervent hope and constant prayer that they will not be there much longer -- and we are already starting to organize for the 2006 mid-term elections -- but the Goddess alone knows how much more damage they can do in the meantime.

 

Morosely,

JoAnn Schwartz

Detroit

 

 

Gaither Stewart replies:

Dear JoAnn,

Thanks for taking time to think about and write me your reactions to my essay. It's a discussion that could go on and on. I know how you feel in your defense. When someone here who I suspect doesn't know the USA attacks, I defend!

 

You raised many important points ... but not the ones I had in mind in the essay. You speak of points that I mentioned in one word but which are not the main topic. You raise points that seem to me more your own thoughts rather than my subject.

 

I thought I made it clear that Europeans were not even in agreement with me at least didn't understand my real question: Why are Americans different and out of step with other people? Few I asked among my family and intimate friends agree with me ... or at least don't understand what I mean about Americans being different.

 

And also I made a point in the essay to specify WHAT Americans I have in mind.

My subject here is exactly that of the title: The Lonely American. And JoAnn he really is that, metaphorically or philosophically or sociologically speaking of course.

 

But to speak of subjects that bother you and that I hardly touch or just mention in passing, I could say a few words. For example, if enough Americans really wanted to get rid of the death penalty, they could. But until today it has been a publicized fact that no person can be elected President on an anti-death penalty platform. The same goes for banning arms! Or anyone favoring a national health service or anyone who might dare to use the word "social" could ever be elected to anything.

 

As far as the fall in recruitment is concerned, I have followed that positive development closely. It's good in a sense but for the wrong reasons: it's because they're afraid and don't want to go to Iraq and die. The problem is also that the fall in recruitments means that more and more the very poor classes will actually go to the front and die because they need the $20,000 you mention. More and more blacks and Hispanics, and the poor of America.

 

Whether Bush won by a minority vote or 51% doesn't change much. Half the people didn't vote anyway, the half that doesn't care much, who most probably like things the way they are, who want their guns at home, who wanted to nuke the USSR and China. And do you think that if the Democrats had won, things would be dramatically different? A little different, but not much. For it too would have been elected by only one quarter of the nation. So is this a "democracy to be exported?" To fight wars for?

 

Your defensive mechanism has geared up against what you seem to consider an unfair attack. As I said I do that all the time myself. And believe me my essay is in no way intended to compare America to Europe. Europe has enough of its own problems to resolve. And too many who imitate America. Moreover, I'm not speaking of people like you. And you know very well who I have in mind.

It's just too complex to go into here in a email. Please read the essay again and dwell on my subject:

The Lonely American and try to appreciate some of my points.

 

Thanks for writing and also for keeping me informed about On the Side of the Losers.(An Ebook of essays by Gaither Stewart - Ed.)

 

Gaither Stewart,

Rome

�

Re: Waldorf Education: For our times or against them

I've just browsed the current copy of Frank Thomas Smith's Anthroposophical web-zine "Southern Cross Review."

 

I was surprised to find a reprint of Eugene Schwartz's 1999 Sunbridge College talk "Waldorf Education: For our times or against them," lifted directly from the PLANS web site! No permission was requested, but it's ok with me. It would have been nice to credit the source, though! I wonder if he asked Schwartz.

 

Dan Dugan

 

We copied this lecture from the �PLANS� website www.waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/schwartz.html . Plans is an organization that is very critical of Waldorf education and anthroposophy � sometimes going to the extreme of defamation. They are currently in the midst of a losing and costly court battle, having accused two California school districts of acting unconstitutionally (separation of church and state) by financing charter schools which use the Waldorf education method. When Dan Dugan, the founder of PLANS, noticed the article in SCR, he wrote that we should have named the source. I originally thought that PLANS had gotten it from some Waldorf site, but since that is not the case, Mr. Dugan is correct and we are therefore adding this source now, a couple of weeks after the lecture appeared here � with our apologies. (Ed.]

�

 

Re: Tiziano Terzani, Letters Against the War.

Sorry.  I guess it's generally a good idea to read to the end of the sentence.  On the other hand, this "second look" gave me a chance to check out Southern Cross Review in more detail.  I'm really impressed in every way by what you do and by the quality and range of the works you publish here.  Please "subscribe" me and let me know (within reason) what I can do to help you continue to do what you do.

Bill Tanksley

Ulster