This page was made to allow others to say what they believe. These articles do not necessarily reflect my beliefs, those of The Jose Wombat Project, NMA, or The BCFofGaMM. As long as they avoid child pornography and hate, I may very well include them.

Steve,

I recently visited your site. . .

First let me tell you a little about myself before I state the outrage of this biblical translation. My name is David. I am 18 years old and am currently living in Phoenix Arizona. I am a musician, a repairman, a published poet, and a Christian. I do believe in free speech over the internet and I support your rite to put whatever you write or read, no matter how appauling, on your site.

I did receive your last e-mail. I just have been incredibly busy. I thank you for listening to my complaint and agreeing to do something about it. Although I disagree with your perspective on Christianity, I am glad that since you have at least fully read the bible in which to form you own opinion about it. I too have read the bible cover to cover several times. I have formed a different opinion about it. True, Christianity has been a very brutal and barbaric in the past. But we can't change the past.

I do not think that every religion is a sickness. I assume by the content of your letter that you claim to not have a religion. However, as I am sure you have probably heard, atheism is as much a religion as any. A religion is just something for a person to believe and have faith in. The belief of no religion is still a belief and people still have faith that they are correct. That itself demonstrates the very basic principles of any religion known to man.

I look at my beliefs and the beliefs of others all in the same way. What harm has it done for me to believe in Christianity? None at all. By believing in Christianity, even if my beliefs are dead wrong, it has given me a set of morals and a solid foundation for which I lead my life. And I lead a very happy and content life. So even if Christianity is completely wrong, and when I die if there is nothing more after death, I still have had the peace of mind, the moral guidelines, and the family structure that has made my life pleasant and enjoyable.

If you wish to publish any of my letters to you on your page, feel free to. I appreciate the fact that you will put such letters against your beliefs on your site side by side with your opinion. It shows that you are not one sided and that you wish everyone to make their mind up for themselves.

Thank you for your time,

David

Hi Steve,

On this dull Sunday I had the opportunity to read through your web site and I would like to give some comments on your writing so far. It's January 17, 1999.

Since this is a public corner, I have to introduce myself. My name is Ursula and I am German. So, in case I get any spelling wrong or some idioms, I apologize in advance.

You are a good story-teller, Steve. But (aber!) you are of course writing from a very male point of view to which I of course would like to add a more female one. Females are not only beautiful women males can have sex with. Sorry for that, but I am 48 and too old to belong to that category. Maybe therefore I am allowed to say this. I have almost hit half a century and would like to give my "under the age scale" to your writing like Pete Seegers once did to one of the songs by Joni Mitchell.

To start with, I especially like your definition of "high society". And I like a lot of what you wrote about "Catholicism", and I like José Wombat. And of course you are right with the Mary-Christmas-thing (by the way, I know some people who celebrate it the ancient way). Maybe you are right, that we only can become insane on this planet, maybe. For me there still remains a "but-aber".

Of course the current situation on our planet is bad. With all that globalization policy it will even become worse. I think that GLP-policy (globalization - liberalisation - privatisation) will not allow more people to live a decent life without poverty and so on. No, it will cause a few more rich people and a lot more very poor people. Maybe, our planet will not survive the human being, no matter, whether it will be destroyed by poisoning or blown apart. Maybe, the planet will survive but not the human race, no matter, whether we will die from diseases, wars, or genetic engineering. But I don't believe that it is our destiny because of the way of human nature. Of course we all have learned that and are still told it, that it has always been like this: people try to have more than others, people try to kill others, people want to make progress and profits, people have to fight and to make war, people are never satisfied and become bored if they don't have to fight for their surviving. But why do we believe that? Ask José Wombat, his people has lived for thousands of years in an content and sustainable way. Of course, they didn't go for money, or houses, or even belongings. They just lived. And there is a saying that even in our days still some tribal people have survived in the desert. Research also found that in other parts of the world peoples lived in peace and without our "human-nature-troubles" for long periods. However, I am not going to argue whether that is true or not, whether it is possible or not. I am just saying: why do we believe in this kind of destiny? We even never ask who is telling this or whom does it suits. But if you ask who is going to get the advantage of this common believe, than it is the same kind of people as the ones telling us the religious lies or the global lie or the capitalist lie.

You get what I mean? Maybe we cannot change anything, but at least we can stop to believe in wrong doctrines, which are in our heads like a tape that never stops. The tape prevents us from really changing things, from really looking for alternatives to money and capital. A lot of people in the poor regions of this earth have understood that it will not help them to go for capitalism and globalisation. They try to keep their regional markets. But we still believe in the market economy because we have work and get money and think we are secure. We are not.

It is the thing with that tape in our heads and minds, the tape always playing "it's human nature to destroy, to take advantage from others, etc." that lets us believe that there is no way out, no hope. And it serves some people quite well.

But what do we really want? What do we need? It is easy: we need to be caring towards children, other people, nature. We need to be able to feel and to love. And to be in contact with the surrounding nature. Because it is nature that sets the conditions for human life. Not computers, not money, not even modern medicine. We need a fertile earth, clean water, clean air, and sun. Even those who run after money and wealth there whole life, even they are looking for the simple things on the end. Also, why make it so complicated. Being poor does not mean being unhappy. Or, the other way round: being rich doesn't mean to be happy. But being poor and having lost the traditional way of surviving is really bad. And that is the end of the money chain.

I don't think that the Christian religion itself is the evil in the world. I agree to many things you say, but the religion is just one part of a bigger happening. And this is the patriarchal development, which we think to be the normal state. Catholicism just served as one perfect tool for that, you see it e.g. on the Vatican state. The domination of men over women, of civilisation over nature, of rich over poor, the colonisation and exploitation - it is all the same. Don't get me wrong by putting me in the feminist box. I just think that we all - men and women - should live in a co-operative way and not dominating each other. Again some authors claim that there have been societies where this was possible and they lived in peace for ages.

The scenario of a caring and responsible society of human beings would be quite different from our so called civilized, but patriarchal society. In the center we would find the mothers with the children, because they are the future of any group. And men and women would protect them and care for them. No other animal race on this planet has forgotten that law. There are other ancient laws we have forgotten about: being responsible for ourselves, caring for all living creature around us, taking not more than we need, sharing with others what we have got and so on. We all know about it. But we don't act according to and we make our lives poor by the way we live.

You think that will not change anything? Maybe. Ok. But to know what would be appropriate leads to the things in life that are really important: to care, to be responsible, to enjoy life. I know that after a personal catastrophe we feel miserable and don't believe in the ancient rules of life. But if you do not respect the rules of life you will be destroyed. You start by killing your own joy of life, your ability to feel, to love, to care. And you will end up by forgetting about the sense of life at all. And that makes insane.

We can only change our own way of life and our own believing. Stopping that tape in our heads let us see again, that life is a great gift and no matter how long we may be here on this planet, no matter of what we will die, we should enjoy every day we live. I don't say changing things would be easy, and I don't think it would be boring. At least not as long as we have story-tellers like you ...

Hi,

We run a directory for the Middle East, and they have a different culture. Our Directory is NOT the place to try and change the culture. We ask people to add links relevant to the Middle East, and only add three links. You fail on both counts.
As fast as you add your links, we will delete them.
I am sure Yahoo will be happy to add a category:
Naked Pictures for Muslim Men and Women
We are not prudes, we just want to retain what goes in. So, out you go!

Kevin


Kevin:

I will not add links to a directory that doesn't want them. I am also in the process of making a directory and will have to say no to some links. No offence meant and no offence taken. My home page link is under my name here. There are only writings and no links to girl pages. I will leave it up to you and not bother you any more.

Steve

The following article was written by Richy Serra, the German designer of my Excellent Fish in the Sun picture, and many things to come.

Here is another "possibility to get bored" thinking about what high-society means, why they are high and if they feel all right bein' high:

Maybe in the case of this society the word "high" doesn't say more than that they are standin', sittin' or just fuckin' around on top of someone else. And on top of someone else we find the someone else's head - well I don't want anyone to sit on my head, except of someone who's got my permission to sit there.

That means that these people depend on poor people to get their comfortable seat. But do they always ask us if they can take a seat on our heads. I guess they don't actually sometimes; women do this but that's a different story.

Maybe this exclusive people are just to shy to talk to strangers, but then the poorest would be the rude guys because they don't have the feeling for shy people. Did the low-society ever think about treating rich, shy people the right way?

But would I ever think about the right treatment for someone who want's to sit on my head?

On the other hand, it doesn't look very good for the High-Society, 'cause not every "lowman's/women's" head is flat enough for a rich's ass to sit on. And as less poor people are there are there less seats the rich will find to feel on top.

If we start now to think about reducing the poverty to stop growing the "Highso" the whole story gets a bit difficult. Because then we have to ask us what will happen with the disappearing poverty. Does it turn into richness, also looking for a place on someone else's head or does it just blow up and rain back down in cash?

I should think about this a bit more before I keep on writin' I guess. And as long as I'm still thinking I stick with the following:

When I would be part of this funny society of "head-sitters" I would surly look to not to sit on top of someone to tall, because as higher the top as deeper the fall, isn't it? And pot is better than coffee with white sugar anyway.

If you couldn't follow my messy thoughts you should stop reading, concentrate, breathe in breathe out (you should do this anyway) and then go back to start. It wasn't easy for me to write down this bullshit, so why should it be easy for you to read?