Jewish World Review May 11, 2000 / 6 Iyar, 5760
Bob Greene
Ted Koppel, Hitler, Mellencamp . . . and words of love
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THE
"if-'Nightline'-had-been-in-existence
-when-Hitler-was-around"
question came to mind last week, because of a couple of things.
The question -- how would history have been changed had
"Nightline," and television, been a part of our world when Hitler
was coming to power -- is one I think of during most world
crises. If television had been around in the years that led up to
World War II, and if Hitler had answered questions live from
Ted Koppel, or Koppel's 1939-'40-'41 counterpart, would
World War II have happened? Could it have been defused -- if
the planet had been able to look Hitler in the face, live, if he had
answered questions before a global public, would he have
gotten away with what he did?
The impulse is to say no -- the impulse is to say that modern
communications would have been the end of Hitler, before he
really got started. But perhaps not -- perhaps he would have
been able to use the live television camera as the greatest
propaganda tool at his disposal. Perhaps he would have been
able to use a 1939 "Nightline" as a recruiting tool for his point
of view.
What brought this up is two e-mails I recently received -- and
also, the "I love you" computer-message mess last week.
The first e-mail (and I'm going on trust here -- you never really
know from whom or where your electronic messages are
coming) was from a 43-year-old man who said he lived in St.
Petersburg, Russia. "I want to know what your readers think
about Russia and Russian people," the man wrote. "And from
myself and from many inhabitants of St. Petersburg I want to
say: `Let's communicate direct.'" He went on for a while; he
said that his hobby was collecting fire department badges and
medals, and that he wanted to trade with Americans.
I thought about how scared of Russia, and Russians, we had
been taught to be when we were Cold War children; I thought
of what would have happened during my childhood if,
unsolicited, a letter from the Soviet Union had arrived at our
home. What would we have done? Probably called the FBI.
Probably have been terrified -- how did someone in Russia find
our house on our block?
Now you don't even really ask yourself that question. Someone
somewhere taps a key, and the connection is established. The
second electronic letter -- from the Philippines -- was from a
19-year-old man who told me there is a book of mine he has
been reading since he was 16. The book was not available in
his school library, he said, so he had to travel to a provincial
library to get it. Apparently it wasn't a book he could take
home -- he had to keep going back to the library to read it.
He, too, taps a key -- and I find out what his story is. It makes
you think of the endless possibilities of our new world -- and
then the "I love you" thing happens, and you realize that it could
all come tumbling down. That we can be reached by unfriendly
electronic visitors just as easily as by amiable ones.
(By the way . . . a nice little short story could be written about
the worldwide e-mail mess last week. The plot: A woman,
during the first week of May in the year 2000, decides that she
wants to reestablish contact with the man who means the most
to her. They have been apart; she does not know how to tell
him what she's thinking. Does she write? Maybe he won't see
the letter. Does she call? She's too afraid -- what if his voice is
unwelcoming? She decides to e-mail him. She gets no
response. She goes through the rest of her life, she grows old,
never knowing whether he read her e-mail and rejected her --
or whether he never saw it. Because the message-line words on
the note she had written to him that night in May 2000, the
words she chose to serve as a label for her message, were: "I
love you." The next day was the day the e-mail screwup hit the
world -- the day that people were instructed to delete without
reading any message that carried the label "I love you." So she
never knew whether he had seen what she had written --
whether he had ever clicked open her letter.)
All right . . . getting a little carried away there. But it is a modern
dilemma -- the world has an unobstructed pipeline to any of us,
and the ramifications of that are so complicated that we're only
just beginning to figure them out. Probably best to end today's
column with words from a commencement speech that was
delivered last weekend. The speaker was John Mellencamp, at
Indiana University. He told the graduating students that the
somber and serious concerns that await them in the business
world may seem important, but:
"Take this with you from me: Try to enjoy your life, 'cause this
is it, baby. This is all we
got."
JWR contributor Bob Greene is a novelist and columnist. Send your comments to him by clicking here.
05/10/00: Maybe it's time for the right people to hear our cheers
05/09/00: The lesson that they always learn late
05/05/00: 'Excuse me, but there seems to be something in my water'
05/05/00: When your first dream turns out to be your best dream
05/04/00: Even baseball couldn't make light of this superstition
05/03/00: The ringmaster who looks back from your mirror
05/02/00: There they go, just a-yappin' down the street . . .
05/01/00: You must remember this (Unless you don't)
04/24/00: Now that casino ads are allowed to tell the truth . . .
04/13/00: The man in the seat across the airplane aisle
04/11/00: A star is born, but do you know where it's @?
04/06/00: Through the eyes of Norman Rockwell
03/21/00: 10 good reasons to avoid making this list
03/21/00: 'I tell myself that they've gone on vacation'
03/21/00: Monday Night Football memories
03/02/00: This report card deserves an 'A' in every subject
02/29/00: What really happened on New Year's eve
02/23/00: Of paste pots, Denver sandwiches and finding Dr. Sam
02/17/00: What would you like to stay exactly the same?
02/04/00: Politics: When did the stagehands step onto the stage?
02/01/00: An awesome idea to make you sound better
01/26/00: Y3K already? We haven't yet recovered from Y2K
01/21/00: Watching the pot that always boils
01/19/00:The story behind the men on the museum steps
01/13/00: Here's to the students who never hear a cheer
01/11/00: The oh-so-sweet sound of modems in the morning
01/04/00: The person in your mirror just got wiser
12/31/99: A lesson -- and a memory -- to last a millennium
12/29/99: Racing the clock, even when it's running backwards
12/13/99: The right to bear coffee
12/08/99: From teen idol to ink-stained wretch: Can you Dig it?
12/02/99: Human 'search engines'
11/30/99: Here's looking at you -- now hand over the cash
11/23/99: Who'll say 'I'm sorry' to the other Decatur students?
11/18/99: "From bad things, good can come"
11/16/99: The man who didn't know the meaning of 'whatever'
11/12/99: Is this progress? We have made the weekend obsolete
11/09/99: Today he would probably be called Kyle Kramden
11/04/99: And you thought the IRS was heartless
11/02/99: When it's free, what will the real price be?
10/29/99: The tissue-thin decisions that define who we are
10/26/99: One way to cut road rage down to size
10/22/99: Asking all the right questions takes a special pitch
10/18/99: The signs are talking to you; Are you listening?
10/12/99: Even Capone would be disgusted
10/08/99: Don't ever look your neighborhood bear in the eye
10/06/99: Land of the free and marketplace of the brave
10/04/99: German warplanes in
American skies
09/30/99: While you fret, something is sneaking up on you
09/28/99: In these busy times, why not bring back a certain buzz?
09/24/99: The storms whose paths no one can track
09/21/99: Who's minding the store? Oh . . . never mind
09/17/99:Here's another place where you can't smoke
09/14/99: As certainly as `lovely Rita' follows `when I'm 64' . . .
09/09/99: Why is patience no longer a virtue?
09/07/99: Once upon a time, in an airport close to you . . .
09/03/99: The answers? They are right in front of us
09/01/99: Up the creek with a paddle--and cussing up a storm
08/30/99: $1 Million Question: How'd we get to be so stup-d?
08/27/99: Fun and games at Camp Umbilical Cord
08/25/99: How life has been changed by the woodpecker effect
08/23/99: If you don't like this story, blame the robot who wrote it
08/20/99: A four-letter word that has helped both Bob and Rhonda
08/18/99: They have picked the wrong country
08/16/99: From paperboy to stalker--how the news has changed
08/12/99: Why wasn't anyone watching his brothers?
08/10/99: Come to think of it, stars seldom are the retiring type
08/05/99: The national gaper's block is always jammed
07/29/99: 'Can you imagine the gift you gave me?'
07/27/99: A view to a kill -- but is this really necessary?
07/23/99: Some cream and sugar with your turbulence?
07/21/99: When your name is JFK jr., how do you choose to use it?
07/19/99: The real world is declared not real enough
07/15/99: The real victims of cruel and unusual punishment
07/13/99: A 21st Century idea for schools: log off and learn
07/09/99: Are life's sweetest mysteries still around the bend?
07/07/99: Of great minds, cream cheese and Freddy Cannon
07/02/99: The perfect spokesman for the American way
06/30/99: 'He's 9 years old . . . he trusts people'
06/28/99: A $581 million jackpot in the courthouse casino
06/25/99: A nighttime walk to a House that feels like a cage
06/23/99: At least give men credit for being more morose
06/18/99: On Father's Day, a few words about mothers
06/16/99: If work is a dance, how's
your partner doing?
06/14/99: Should a dictionary ever tell you to keep quiet?
06/10/99: A story of Sex, the SuperBowl and your wife
06/07/99: Take a guess where "California Sun" is from
06/03/99: Of summer days, summer nights and pebbles in a jar
06/01/99: Putting your money where their mouths are
05/27/99: Pressed between wooden covers, the summer of her life
05/25/99:The lingering song of a certain summer
05/24/99:We could all use a return to the Buddy system
05/20/99: Now, this is enough to make James Bond double-0 depressed
05/17/99: It's midnight -- do you know where your parents are?
05/13/99: And now even saying "thank you" creates a problem
05/11/99: The answer was standing at the front door
©1999, Tribune Media Services
|