The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 23, 1998 Page: 3 of 20
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On the occasion of the Martin
Luther King Jr. Day in 1994. a group
of high school students in Oakland.
Calif, made newspaper headlines.
The reason? They had
been taken to a focal cin-
ema to see the newly-re-
leased Schindler's List and
were thrown out when pa-
trons complained to the
owner about the students'
inappropriate comments
and laughter.
According to the U>s
Angeles Times, one irate
moviegoer called the slu-
dents "rowdy and offen-
sive, loud troublemakers" who were
"insulting the memory of Holocaust
3 victims." In their defense, a chap-
eron who had accompanied the stu-
dents to the theater described them
as "the inner-city, hip-hop genera-
tion, desensitized to violence be-
cause they see it every day," and
sadly uninformed about the Holo-
caust.
One student who had been part
of,the evicted group explained her
peers' reactions. She said, "We don't
know about that war. It was long ago
and far away and about people we
never met." To those who recall the
fatuous "Peace In Our Time" speech
Neville Chamberlain made upon
returning to England from Munich
in 1938, her remarks strike with bit-
ing irony.
1 bring up this incident because
of the recent furor which enveloped
the Thresher when it chose to run an
ad made by those who question the
Holocaust's authenticity.
The dictionary defines the word
"holocaust" as "A burnt sacrifice; an
offering the whole of which was con-
sumed by fire," or alternately as "sac-
rifice or loss of many lives." Both the
definitions apply — the first in a
metaphorical sense, the second in a
very real sense — to the atrocities
Massoud
Communists, homosexuals
other groups during World War I!
\m Germany.
While all of those
groups were greatly af-
fected. it was the Jewish
population of Europe that
was devastated beyond
compare. Of the 10-12
million victims of Nazi
concentration camps, ex-
termination camps, deten-
tion camps, death squads
and forced marches,. aj>
proximately six million
were Jews. The Final So-
lution devised by Hitler eradicated
centuries of Jewish culture, folklore
and heritage, as well as the bulk of
the human capital that had sustained
the vibrant Jewish communities
across Europe.
For me, there is no question that
history transpired as I have de-
scribed it. Similarly, for most of my
friends and the greater Rice com-
munity, there is no doubt that the
Holocaust occurred, that it was a
vile act and that it has left several
communities, the Jewish one fore-
most, deeply scarred with its memo-
ries.
It was therefore with a Sense of
bewilderment that I watched vari-
ous individuals and groups react to
the ad placed by the Holocaust revi-
sionists. Immediately, 1 noticed the
recurrent claims to complete author-
ity advanced by the letter writers.
While thgADL stated there could be
"no debate" about the Holocaust,
Paul Lockey claimed "the facts of
the Holocaust are not in doubt," and
the entire History Department called
the Holocaust "an indisputable his
torical fact." Furthermore, Siegi
lzakson and Abraham Peck agreed
in last week's Thresher that the is-
sue was "not debatable."
1 found it slightly curious that so
an issue that no one even
considers debatable. In a university
context, from educated members of
our community and from our uni-
versity president, we were informed
that there are certain issues which
are not debatable, for which we must
take our elders' word.
I, for one, am disgusted by such
a patronizing and bellicose attitude
which shows as much distaste for a
rational mode of inquiry as any that
a fascistic regime could devise. And
oddly enough, it is Peck, thP Holo-
caust Museum's executive director,
who leads us to the truth in his own
convoluted way: "IWJhen an issue
that is so one-sided and not debat-
able, such as the Holocaust, [comes
up|, let the other side be repre-
sented. Otherwise there is no intel-
lectual debate." 1 agree. In history,
as in science, nothing is ever prbven,
things are only disproven. While I
believe the Holocaust to be a semi-
nal event of this century, new docu-
ments may come to light that slightly
alter the details we take as a given in
its history. I doubt there will ever
surface new facts that will funda-
mentally alter our conception of the
Holocaust, but then I am not willing
to decree that it shall not be so. As
Noam Chomsky once claimed in the
face of verbal abuse from Holocaust
survivors, let uschallenge Holocaust
revisionism in the court of open de-
bate and then the facts will prove
themselves.
That such a controversy should
arise over what appears to be only a
historical fact indicates that there
lies a deep significance to the Holo-
caust: one which Ewa Thompson,
among others, invites us to revisit
from time to time. In my column in
next week's Thresher, we will,
Massoudjavadi (Wiess '97) is a Class
III graduate student.
A delicate balance of bitterness
Congress should make it easier to donate organs
Recently, Brazil joined other
nations that use automatic organ
donor legislation to save the lives of
people in need of organs. The Bra-
zilian law states that all citi-
zens over 21 are considered
organ donors unless they
have official notice of re-
fusal printed on their iden-
tification cards.
A law like this should be
introduced into the U.^
Congress as soon as pos-
sible. Anyone who has stud-
ied people, particularly
Americans, knows that we
are basically a lazy bunch.
As things currently are, you need to
take action to become an organ do-
nor — while getting or renewing
your driver's license.
Now, I cannot speak for the en-
tire nation when I say this, but the
experience of renewing my license
does not bring out the humanitarian
side of me. I^ong lines, annoying
paperwork and crowded offices just
don't lend themselves to making a
decision to save the lives of
others. In fact, killing everyone in
the room usually seems more at-
tractive.
But seriously, this is an issue
which needs to be addressed. It is
particularly particularly relevant at
this time of year, when hospitals and
blood banks across America are feel-
ing their annual post-holiday need
for blood donors. If. as a society, we
can't find the time to give blood, we
are hardly going to go out of our way
to give organs.
In Brazil, as in the States, people
have steered clear of organ dona-
tion out of fear. There k a wider
spread belief that doctorrWII prcP"
nounce you dead earlier than they
might otherwise
your organs.
. Huh?
Anyone
in order to take
Anne
Kimbol
smart and dedicated
enough to get through
medical school should
realize the moral incon-
sistency of killing one
patient in a possibly vain
attempt to save another.
1 think there is a
deeper^-issue in most
people's minds that sets
them against organ do-
nation. In a society which
prizes and obsesses
about the body, the idea
of giving an integral part of it away
— having the body cut and disas
sembled —can make even the most
balanced and logical person's skin
crawl.
The mental image is icky (yes,
that is the proper medical term for
it), It seems that we would almost
rather realize that our hesitance
keeps lives from being saved than
think about our organs being re-
moved.
In the end, however, such rea-
soning is as absurd and shallow as it
seems. If we are clearly dead or
beyond our living will's suggested
point of medical assistance, our or
gans should go to someone else.
Wouldn't it be better for part of you
to continue on, and in a positive way
than for your body to go into a coffin
completely intact?
After all. at that point no one
really cares. It's even less togical
than getting all dressed up to open
the door and grab the newspaper oft
your welcome mat would be. (Well,
if your next- door neighbor looks
like DenzefWashington 1 suppose s
you can be excused, but in general *
such behavior is a little over the
edge.)
Organ donation by default makes
a lot more sense than the haphazard
system we have now. More lives
would be saved, and more people
could find hope for another day.
Making it easier to help others as
opposed to harder is the right thing
to do. Let's hope Congress has the
insight to realize that)
Anne Kimbnl is advertising manager
and a Baker College senior.
routine sawmill construction
project changed the world. That
morning, in a ditch in
Cotoma, Calif., John
Marshall found a nug-
get of gold.
The workers' imme-
diate reaction was sub-
dued. The men worked
three more days to fin-
ish the mill before
Marshall rode to Sacra-
mento to inform his
boss, John Sutter, of the
find. The workers stayed
on the project for three
more weeks, mining in their spare
time. The news reached San Fran-
cisco on February 15. Only one
man believed it, and he walked
150 miles to the foothills to find
some gold of his own.
And then, everything
changed. Sutter's workers de-
serted him, and the maufryvho
once owned agood chunk of Cali-
fornia ended up penniless.
On May 12, another gold nug-
get reached San Francisco, this
time in thehandsofSam Brannan,
who rode through the streets
shouting, "Gold, gold!" The city's
inhabitants deserted it overnight,
Christof
Spieler
I don 'r know about
you, but everything
I've done in life has
come with some sort
of safety net.
;ind the male population fell (o a
quarter of its previous level. Even
the mayor ran off to find gold. By
the end of 1848, outsiders were
coming to California in search of
gold; by 1849, they came in
hordes.
Imagine for a moment that you
were one of them — perhaps a
college student, a small business-
man or a gambler down on his
luck. Imagine leaving everything
you have to go to a place you have
never seen, but only read about.
It was 2,000 miles from Mis-
souri to the gold fields, across
sohie of the most inhospitable
country in North America. If you
set out as soon as the rivers
thawed, you might reach Nevada
by mid-summer. I've driven
through the country that the
'49ers dragged their wagons
wide
flats.
And then you come
to the mountains, the
Sierra Nevada rising
thousands of feet in
frtffifbf you. The high
passes required that
the wagons be
winched down cliffs
and pulled across
granite boulders. The
trail was lined with
dead oxen, discarded
posessions — every
thing from wagons to
pianos — and shallow graves
marked with only a few rocks.
California's population was
only 20,000 at the end of 1K48 In
1849, 80,000 people migrated,
over half of them coming via over
land routes. They called it "see-
ing the elephant."
* * *
Can you imagine taking such
a trip? I don't know about you,
but everything I've done in life
has come, with some sort of safety
net. To simply drop everything
and set out for places unknown is
almost inconceivable today.
That's the sort of thing that
makes history fascinating. 1 read
Lmesome Dove for the first time
recently, and again I was struck
by the risks of everyday life in the
old West. To think that people
would homestead in the middle
of nowhere, where the weather
was harsh, help was far away and
Indians might come at any minute
and cut your scalp off. is amazing
to me.
I went canoeing in southern
Ontario last summer, just after
the lakes thawed. We were in the
wilderness for 10 days, some of
which passed without our seeing
any other human beings. What I
remember most from that trip is
the emptiness. I have never felt
so small and insignificant in my
life.
But we were, by and large,
safe. The wildlife is used to people
and generally avoids them, and
the worst threat is weather But
we had gas stoves and high-tech
breathable fabrics. What we call
roughing it would have been con
sidered luxurious to a '49er.
"Few of us will ever stake our
futures on something that has a
good chance of failure — starting
a business, perhaps, catching a
Greyhound bus to some big city
in hopes of making it somehow
See ELEPHANT, Pa^'S
—a
fa
: 1
the Rice Thresher
Joel Hardi
Editor in Chief
Summer Durham
Busl tless Ma n ager
Susan EtfelwFMl. Editoi
Greg K Norman, Editor
IJSnian Halter, fatt" Editor
Maya Balaki ishnan, Asst. Editor
Brian Staler. Editor
I .aura Sullivan. Asst Editor
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Eric Muftoz. Editor
Hemtny So. Editor
Anne Kimbol
A the rt is ing Ma n age r
CALENDAR
Amy Krivohlavek Editor
PHOTOGRAPHY
Amy Rrivohlavck, Acting Editor
Jessica Yu. Acting Editor
COPY
Kob Prcnticc, Editor
Mattel Tarn. Editor
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Hardi, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 23, 1998, newspaper, January 23, 1998; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246611/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.