Monday, November 01, 2004
Hello Moria,
I am sending you this note on the last days before the Presidential election, and I will admit that I harbor a certain amount of apprehension about what is in store for our country regardless of who should be our leader on Wednesday morning. This of course assuming that the vote is not so close as to be inconclusive in some even more daunting reality check pointing to the arcane Electoral College which I do not understand, although I was a political science major in college. I have really not been coming to this fraudster site as much as I did in the very beginning, and that makes me wonder why. Tonight I received like an update from the friendster people, and so I clicked on and I noticed that you had been here today, which indicated that you are a regular user of this site, and (hopefully) you would see this note before the entire course of world history has taken off in another completely different direction.I really like the concept of this type of web community, and I was originally drawn to friendster by the "HYPE" that was inescapable in the earlier part of this year. But I guess what threw me off was that I would contact people, exchange notes or whatever, and then somehow the frequency or the reliability of the contacts would falter. And then recently I noticed that certain individuals, one in particular who had kind of tipped me off to this had not been to the site in quite some time... So I suppose I was a little discouraged...when I came up to this page(s) tonight and I checked to see who if anyone I knew had been frequenting friendster you were the first person I noticed because you were the last person I had received a note from, hence you are at the top of the INBOX list. Remembering your interest in Edith Wharton, not one of your more widely read or generally known authors, caused me to stop and say hi and let you know a little bit about what has me concerned at this time.
Mind you, not panicked, I could never panic, but just looking at the situation and wondering which way it will develop...Ok. The first thing is the bitter and very personal way the entire Presidential campaign has taken place. Personal attacks and a complete disregard for the facts as they stand, misquotes and out and out determined misrepresentation of the words of each candidate by the other. People are much divided, and the general feeling seems to be a great emotional sensitivity to disagreement or counterpoint that someone might introduce.This is disturbing to me because I think of the election process as very much a learning experience, and an opportunity for people to examine their ideas and positions, in contrast to others who may hold opposing points of view.
At the very same time I am reminded that this is the very opportunity to exercise our freedoms and participate in the Democratic process that gives us our sense of liberty and freedom. I say sense of liberty, because there are some rather frightening developments taking place within the Government which I believe are going to be even more insidious if the current Administration is returned to office.Homeland Security can be a very wide catch phrase, and I noticed that in your Bio for friendster you listed "Repeat Offender" as an occupation. Now for a person in your line of work, (which being a recidivist at least gains you a wide network of others, as we have incarcerated more people in this country in recent times, than ever before in the history of incarceration. Which is not a very long history, by the way, alas, I digress.)
Here is the matter, unless you are very careful, these "Powers" that we legislated under the pressure to react to the attacks in Sept. 01, can become solidly enmeshed in the overall attempt to subvert our system of justice
Terrorists are one matter, but there is so much potential for abuse, and so much reluctance to confront the agencies at the heart of the juggernaut attempting to make some sense of the entire conundrum can become a nightmare.
This concerns me now, as we head into the final days of this long and very unsettling political "war".This Bin Laden guy makes a tape and he is in so many words threatening the lives of Americans and leaning into the political process in some way.It is so hard for me to understand how this guy can get away with what he has up to now. We are always talking about the technology that can read your mail in your mail box from some satellite in outer space orbit, but we cannot locate this character as he produces video tapes and passes them to the media through intermediaries, and then sits back at the "Oasis" and waits until the next round of fireworks. It is so incredible that this world is such a way that there is no better way to solve conflict than to destroy human life.I detest violence of all kinds. I have worked in construction for many years, and one of the most disturbing aspects of that industry is the mindset that violence should be a tool in everyone's belt, to be wiped out to make a point on what are often very minor and inconsequential items.
There is nothing happening when the man in front of you is trying to kill you except the primal urge to survival and to deflect that attack by killing that person first. Horrible and insane, and yet that is where we will vote for John Kerry on Tuesday, and when I do so I will be saying a prayer that regardless of who occupies the White House that we as a people, and as a nation can try to collectively realize that we must be concerned for one another, for our mutual best interest and for the quality of life overall..
This is in part what I came to see as the potential in friendster, and I still believe that this and other sites like this can become a very potent galvanizing force for the recognition of what holds us together in a Democratic system, and what needs to be shared and exchanged and understood and appreciated so that our way of life which is so many things we can easily take for granted but we are seeing can also be quickly pulled out of our world before we even know what hit us!I had no intention of putting this all out on the note this evening, and I hope you don't find it completely boring, irrelevant, totally obvious, or intrusive.
I really don't believe that you would mind my taking this moment to kind of share with you a few things that are troubling to me in a general way, and maybe when you read this you will be able to tell me what you have experienced in these last months as this Presidential campaign has coexisted in the headlines with a war that continues on unabated with eight more Marines killed just hours ago.
How are we going to keep from falling apart as a nation unless we put soundly aside the divisiveness which I know is the driving force behind many people and their self serving decisions.God Bless You Moria, I hope you come to friendster soon and read my letter, and then you might be a calming influence, as you reply, "Michael, relax, there is a plan, I have it in front of me and I will share it with you if you promise not to speak but just listen as I explain it" You might have deduced from this "brief note" that I can talk allot, and it sometimes can get in the way of learning and the patience of those around me. Thank You for your patience, and I look forward to a great effort on all levels to patch up the mess we have at present and return to the path of hope, happiness, prosperity, peace, (fun, fun, and more fun, like summer weekends at the beach, and winter trips to the mountains to ski). All of this and more.
Your Friend, (ster).
Michael p. Whelan
I am sending you this note on the last days before the Presidential election, and I will admit that I harbor a certain amount of apprehension about what is in store for our country regardless of who should be our leader on Wednesday morning. This of course assuming that the vote is not so close as to be inconclusive in some even more daunting reality check pointing to the arcane Electoral College which I do not understand, although I was a political science major in college. I have really not been coming to this fraudster site as much as I did in the very beginning, and that makes me wonder why. Tonight I received like an update from the friendster people, and so I clicked on and I noticed that you had been here today, which indicated that you are a regular user of this site, and (hopefully) you would see this note before the entire course of world history has taken off in another completely different direction.I really like the concept of this type of web community, and I was originally drawn to friendster by the "HYPE" that was inescapable in the earlier part of this year. But I guess what threw me off was that I would contact people, exchange notes or whatever, and then somehow the frequency or the reliability of the contacts would falter. And then recently I noticed that certain individuals, one in particular who had kind of tipped me off to this had not been to the site in quite some time... So I suppose I was a little discouraged...when I came up to this page(s) tonight and I checked to see who if anyone I knew had been frequenting friendster you were the first person I noticed because you were the last person I had received a note from, hence you are at the top of the INBOX list. Remembering your interest in Edith Wharton, not one of your more widely read or generally known authors, caused me to stop and say hi and let you know a little bit about what has me concerned at this time.
Mind you, not panicked, I could never panic, but just looking at the situation and wondering which way it will develop...Ok. The first thing is the bitter and very personal way the entire Presidential campaign has taken place. Personal attacks and a complete disregard for the facts as they stand, misquotes and out and out determined misrepresentation of the words of each candidate by the other. People are much divided, and the general feeling seems to be a great emotional sensitivity to disagreement or counterpoint that someone might introduce.This is disturbing to me because I think of the election process as very much a learning experience, and an opportunity for people to examine their ideas and positions, in contrast to others who may hold opposing points of view.
At the very same time I am reminded that this is the very opportunity to exercise our freedoms and participate in the Democratic process that gives us our sense of liberty and freedom. I say sense of liberty, because there are some rather frightening developments taking place within the Government which I believe are going to be even more insidious if the current Administration is returned to office.Homeland Security can be a very wide catch phrase, and I noticed that in your Bio for friendster you listed "Repeat Offender" as an occupation. Now for a person in your line of work, (which being a recidivist at least gains you a wide network of others, as we have incarcerated more people in this country in recent times, than ever before in the history of incarceration. Which is not a very long history, by the way, alas, I digress.)
Here is the matter, unless you are very careful, these "Powers" that we legislated under the pressure to react to the attacks in Sept. 01, can become solidly enmeshed in the overall attempt to subvert our system of justice
Terrorists are one matter, but there is so much potential for abuse, and so much reluctance to confront the agencies at the heart of the juggernaut attempting to make some sense of the entire conundrum can become a nightmare.
This concerns me now, as we head into the final days of this long and very unsettling political "war".This Bin Laden guy makes a tape and he is in so many words threatening the lives of Americans and leaning into the political process in some way.It is so hard for me to understand how this guy can get away with what he has up to now. We are always talking about the technology that can read your mail in your mail box from some satellite in outer space orbit, but we cannot locate this character as he produces video tapes and passes them to the media through intermediaries, and then sits back at the "Oasis" and waits until the next round of fireworks. It is so incredible that this world is such a way that there is no better way to solve conflict than to destroy human life.I detest violence of all kinds. I have worked in construction for many years, and one of the most disturbing aspects of that industry is the mindset that violence should be a tool in everyone's belt, to be wiped out to make a point on what are often very minor and inconsequential items.
There is nothing happening when the man in front of you is trying to kill you except the primal urge to survival and to deflect that attack by killing that person first. Horrible and insane, and yet that is where we will vote for John Kerry on Tuesday, and when I do so I will be saying a prayer that regardless of who occupies the White House that we as a people, and as a nation can try to collectively realize that we must be concerned for one another, for our mutual best interest and for the quality of life overall..
This is in part what I came to see as the potential in friendster, and I still believe that this and other sites like this can become a very potent galvanizing force for the recognition of what holds us together in a Democratic system, and what needs to be shared and exchanged and understood and appreciated so that our way of life which is so many things we can easily take for granted but we are seeing can also be quickly pulled out of our world before we even know what hit us!I had no intention of putting this all out on the note this evening, and I hope you don't find it completely boring, irrelevant, totally obvious, or intrusive.
I really don't believe that you would mind my taking this moment to kind of share with you a few things that are troubling to me in a general way, and maybe when you read this you will be able to tell me what you have experienced in these last months as this Presidential campaign has coexisted in the headlines with a war that continues on unabated with eight more Marines killed just hours ago.
How are we going to keep from falling apart as a nation unless we put soundly aside the divisiveness which I know is the driving force behind many people and their self serving decisions.God Bless You Moria, I hope you come to friendster soon and read my letter, and then you might be a calming influence, as you reply, "Michael, relax, there is a plan, I have it in front of me and I will share it with you if you promise not to speak but just listen as I explain it" You might have deduced from this "brief note" that I can talk allot, and it sometimes can get in the way of learning and the patience of those around me. Thank You for your patience, and I look forward to a great effort on all levels to patch up the mess we have at present and return to the path of hope, happiness, prosperity, peace, (fun, fun, and more fun, like summer weekends at the beach, and winter trips to the mountains to ski). All of this and more.
Your Friend, (ster).
Michael p. Whelan
