ZGram - 2/2/2002 - "Plain talk from me to you"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) 2002 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

February 2, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Today I want to level with my readers.

With very few exceptions, mostly for technical reasons when there were
glitches with my server or perhaps enemy sabotage, I have sent out a daily
ZGram since January 1, 1996 - 365 days a week!  That adds up to, roughly, a
total of 2,200 ZGrams.  That was a ton of work!

In the beginning, I wrote a great many ZGrams myself and sent them out as
Zundelsite Originals.  As time went on and the Freedom of Speech struggle
around the Zundelsite intensified, my missives took on different shades
because, as often as not, they reflected a certain cyberwar strategy rather
than reader "entertainment".  A lot of them were a bit dry - but did their
work magnificently, sending the enemy gasping and coughing and getting
purple in the face.  Some of you complained that my ZGrams were too
"legalese" - and others felt they were too chatty - but the recording of
history as it was happening, live! around the Zundelsite had to take
precedence, in my opinion,  over stylistic finesse.  I wanted to record the
"feel" of Internetting in its Infancy - let others be stuffy with footnotes!

What happened on the Internet, revisionism-wise, has had a huge impact
globally - and I am proud that I have played a part.  One of my readers put
it descriptively at the height of one of several ZGram cyberdramas:
"...the planet lurched a little."  With the help of my loyal supporters,
the Zundelsite wrote itself right into cyber history.  We have the Blue
Ribbons to prove it!

Last summer, I saw the culmination of our revisionist efforts in UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan's scolding message to the Israeli and Diaspora
Jews to lay off using the Holocaust as a political weapon.  To me, that was
the watershed.  I knew we had arrived - and now stood on a different
information outreach plane and had to broaden our strategies so as to go
mainstream.

And then came 9/11.  It just about changed everything for everyone on earth.

These days, the focus of my ZGrams is no longer Revisionism Straight,
confined to what happens to our rather narrow, although important,
struggle.  I now strive to capture representative voices world-wide that
carry Revisionism forward in their own way to the broad, receptive masses -
whether they know it or not.  This means that I no longer have to do as
much original writing as I did in the beginning.  Why reinvent the wheel?

Since 9/11, I have sent my readers to many original, new-to-us quality
sources that are, in their own way, mainstream revisionist in many of the
articles they post.  These websites are doing the work on a much broader
scale than we early cyber foot soldiers used to do in the trenches.  This
change in my outreach does mean, however, that while I don't have to do
much original writing, I have to do more reading, more sifting, more
judging what is reflecting revisionist thought and is, therefore, useful to
understanding what is going on around us and will propel our work forward -
compared to what is marginal.

It doesn't mean any less work.  It actually means more work - hours and
hours on the Net - because what I used to do pretty much alone and as an
innovation, now thousands are doing world-wide, in their own smaller and,
sometimes, bigger way.  All I do is search the globe, ferret out, narrow
down, pick and choose - and shoot out into cyberspace what I consider
representative and worthy of attention - to push, nudge, shove its authors
into an ever widening circle of readers who yearn to understand the "why"
of history.  Finally it dawns on many that if they want to understand such
things as 9/11 - they better pay attention to the past where tragic wars
were manufactured before.

However, it also means that what I circulate is being circulated elsewhere,
arriving often in multiple copies within a few minutes or hours of each
other.  Moreover, with very little effort, people can go to the original
sources and find tons of additional revisionist gems.  Especially my inner
circle of readers who supported me financially in the beginning and who is
used to my distinctive style must wonder, I am sure:  Why should we pay
Ingrid when we can go, with the click of a mouse, to her prime sources and
get our fill - for free?

Good question.  A question I have asked myself more often than you know.

Indeed, why should you?  Is what I offer via daily ZGrams through my
efforts really worthy of support - nudging and nuzzling and pushing and
shoving what feels at times like some gigantic virtual cyber herd?

You will have to decide.  And what you decide will determine if I should
continue or not.

Here is my situation and reality:  I need your financial support for this
continuing phase of my ongoing work - and for the projects that are in the
making.  If I cannot generate that support from my Internet readers, I have
to go elsewhere to find it.  And trust me - there are rewarding additional
acres to be plowed where I can apply my energy and expertise - and very
often feel I should.

One such area would be the revamping of the Zundelsite bookstore for profit
- a task that has always been neglected because of ZGram work.  There are
hundreds of Revisionist titles and literally thousands of videos and audios
which go unpromoted.  Magnificent diamonds-in-the-rough!  They need to be
edited and put on-line for people to find and pass on.  The way things are
now, I just don't have the time because so much of it is drained away with
my assorted ZGrams duties.  Frankly, it seems I would be better off
dropping my ZGrams and leaving my readers to their own creative devices
searching out websites of value to them!  Should I or shouldn't I?

And there are other avenues I have been eyeing for some time - not just for
financial considerations but in terms of outreach potential and public
impact.  I could return to print journalism where my heart will always be.
I could write a revisionist satire which has been spooking around in my
head.  I could do many other things if my time were not taken up with my
ZGrams.

Therefore,  the next two weeks shall be my test.  Will my supporters
continue to underwrite my ZGrams as they will need to do if they value the
service, or should I leave a job well done because the times have changed,
the Internet has changed - where now thousands of websites supply, at least
intermittently, what I used to do pretty much alone?

Here is the bottom line:

***I need to have substantial financial support at least twice a year.  I
need rowers at the oars, not passengers in the boat.***  Therefore, this is
my test:  If what I do is of value to you, it has to show in financial
returns.  If not, trust me - my feelings won't be hurt.  It will simply
mean a gentle good-bye - and on to another historical crossroads!  Onward
and upward, as Ernst's favorite lawyer would say!

Let me outline the criteria, yet one more time,  to the many newcomers and
old supporters alike, to keep getting your ZGrams coming like clockwork on
a daily basis:

=====

Twice a year, as posted on my website, I ask my readers to support the
Zundelsite with a free-will donation. The dates are August 1 and February
1.  I am a day late - but I'm asking again, as I have done in past years.

I ask all of you who love the cause and my unique role in it to make an
earnest contribution. There is no set "fee". Please send me what you can -
and what you decide the service I provide is worth it to you.

If I don't hear from you by February 15, I will assume you choose to go
your own route, and that you want to be taken off my list.

I will gladly make exceptions if the following applies to you:

_____You are already a ***regular*** supporter of my work and receive my
monthly print letter, "Lebensraum!".

_____You have made a donation ***last August*** that you consider
sufficient to cover a year

_____You have sent in a donation ***recently***

_____You have joined the ZGram list ***only a short while ago*** and would
like time to evaluate things more, to have a grace period for that reason.

_____You are one of my ***cyber comrades*** who are helping me with
research, consultation, pro bono legal advice, typing, product donations,
stamp donations etc.

_____You are a member of the private ***"symbio"*** list

_____You simply cannot make a contribution at this time because of
***special circumstances***, such as having been laid off, a medical
emergency etc.

_____You live in a ***foreign country*** with weak national currencies
where to pay in American dollars would be prohibitively expensive for you.

_____You have a ***publication exchange*** arrangement with me

_____Other (please tell me what I left out...)

All others, please do what you can! My work is entirely dependent on you.
Please help share the load and shoulder at least a small part of the
financial burdens I incur - because the struggle for truth in history is a
serious and very time-consuming effort and is, to me, a full-time job and
not a casual hobby.  By myself, I can only do so much - but with your help,
I can hire the skilled office help to double and triple my outreach and
effectiveness.

Help me do more by giving me the means, the tools - along with your love,
your trust and vote of confidence.

Thank you so very much! And let me repeat my pledge to you that I won't
disappoint you.  The ghetto will not win!

Ingrid