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PLAIN TALK |
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Leonard Horwin
January 2005
(310) 785-6600 tel.
(310) 785-6644 fax plaintalk@linkline.com http://www.leonardhorwinplaintalk.com |
Questions and Answers are cited below as
"Q" and "A"
1. Q: What am I talking about?
A: Perhaps the answer to fanaticism, - whether religious, racial, national or otherwise.
2. Q: Why this subject now?
A: Because of the extreme importance of bringing out the absurdity of all fanaticism, - when the human destructiveness is compared with nature's destructiveness by tsunami or other natural disasters. This is not only present, - but historic, as for example, - the wipe out of most of Lisbon, Portugal, - sliding as a result into the Mediterranean in 1755.
3. Q: What, if any, is the central importance of such natural catastrophes?
A: That it is a presumption on the part of humans, to attribute divine origin and purpose to otherwise inexplicable catastrophes.
4. Q: Why so?
A: Because there is no logical or other reason, - even in religious belief, - to warrant a belief in divine purpose as the causation of disasters that wipe out or have wiped out, millions of innocent children as well as all other forms of life, human and animal, plus wipe out of all of their possessions and buildings. Nevertheless, over history, - such reality results of earthquake, tsunami, shifting of tectonic plates, mass disease, or meteor strike of the planet have been attributed to divine intervention..
Doubtless, astronomy has already revealed and will continue to do so, - with similar results, consequent to meteoric strike of the planet and related wipe out of all life temporarily, - followed later by the appearance of more advanced life.
But in the final analysis, - to find a useful conclusion, - it must be founded on human, - not divine purpose.
5. Q: What is the overall importance of the foregoing?
A: We cannot logically attribute natural disasters to divinity nor view practical results in preventing or settling wars, as in Iraq, or electing or judging of a President. In the final analysis, - to be useful, our explanations have to be founded on human, not divine purpose.
6. Q: Is there anything further, which follows from the foregoing?
A: Yes. If the President is to achieve the stated purpose of his Second Inaugural Address, to substitute freedom for tyranny and dictatorship, and to achieve democracy in the face of fanaticism, in our world, - we must start with the proposition that blame cannot be attributed to divine purpose, but must instead be achieved and attributed to, human creativity, productivity and effort.
7. Q: Is that all?
A: No. We must also foresee that successful effort in the direction of freedom, must be produced in a world state of peace, - founded ultimately on human effort.
* * *
cc: George W. Bush, President
Richard Cheney, Vice President
John Kerry, Senator
John Edwards, Senator
Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
Colonel Oliver North
Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security
John Ashcroft, U.S. Attorney General
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of Great Britain
Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary
Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel
His Excellency Daniel Ayalon Ambassador of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu, Economy Minister for the Israeli Government
Israel's "Women In Green" National Unity Coalition for Israel
Arianna Huffington, Syndicated Columnist
Oriana Fallaci, International Journalist, Interviewer and Author
Yohanan Ramati, Chairman, Jerusalem Institute for Western Defense
Gerardo Joffe, FLAME (Facts & Logic About the Middle East)
Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor in Chief - US News and World Report
Time Magazine
Washington Post - Attn: Bob Woodward
International Jerusalem Post
The Weekly Standard - Bill Kristol, Editor
The Wall Street Journal - Editorial and Op-Ed Department
The New York Times, Op-Ed Department
Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed Department
Dr. and Mrs. Jordan Phillips, Medical Books for China International