To: Diana G. Collier, my hosts and friends on several mail lists This note has been delayed a few days to see if anyone else would reply to my 99-09-23 e-mail "Welcome to America" addressed to Valdas Anelauskas, Author of "Discovering America As It Is." There was no other reply. In that e-mail, which I composed in the comment box of the delightful Anelauskas home page at UR <http://www.efn.org/~valdas/>, copies were sent to Ms. Collier and Mr. Reuss only to thank them for bringing Mr. Anelauskas' work and web sites to my attention. Otherwise, nothing in that particular e-mail had anything to do with Diana G. Collier, Clarity Press, or the difficulty of lifting the sales revenue of a human rights publishing house above its break-even point. Below, please find the full text of Ms. Collier's riposte to my e-mail, which she dearly wanted to deliver to everyone on my copy list. Some people deserve to get what they ask for. So be it. As a guest on several mail list and three web sites, I am fully aware that I continue as a guest on these public facilities entirely at the pleasure and interest of the owners. My pact with the list owners is more direct than my recently mentioned pact with the Devil, where list members are trying to steer the public debate away from the systemic defect of omission in U.S. public policy. My pact with the owners extends also to private addresses on my copy list. Their addresses remain on my copy list entirely at their pleasure and for their interest. I regret that all of us have missed an opportunity to learn what an accomplished international author, Valdas Anelauskas, might have said about the technical requirements for an stable and efficient free market in the United States. Oh well, we can make do with the wishful thinking and pious exhortations of Bernard Lietaer, our Protestant ministers, Michel Chossudovsky, our elected representatives, Hazel Henderson, Steve Kurtz, and David Korten. Sincerely, WesBurt XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Subj: Re: Welcome to America Date: 99-09-23 19:55:10 EDT From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Diana G. Collier) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 99-09-23 20:12:30 EDT (17 min) Ref. to WesBurt comment to Valdas Anelauskas, author of Discovering America As It Is, I snip: ------- n Since you are being well paid to paint the >depressing picture of the U.S., ------- Clarity Press, Inc. is a human rights publisher, and you cannot imagine how difficult it is to survive, publishing the materials on some of the world's most oppressed peoples, as we do. A visit to our site http://www.bookmasters.com/clarity should convince any viewer of our commitment and integrity. As Editorial Director, I am outraged that you should make the above accusation, particularly since you do not and cannot have any basis for it whatsoever in fact. Mr. Anelauskas has not been paid a cent to date; if his book should find a readership, then he will start to receive a standard author's royalty. There have been no subsidies whatsoever towards this publication from any source -- nor, in fact, were any possible sources even approached. Clarity has in the past received small grants to be devoted towards title production (all were less than production cost) from donors which are well-known nongovernmental human rights-oriented donors, acknowledged on our site; none were of remotely sufficient value to conceivably be said to have impaired our long standing as a completely independent nonsectarian publisher of quality titles on human rights issues. Other than the above-mentioned token grants, Clarity receives no money from any source whatsoever. It survives -- with difficulty -- through the sale of its titles. It is highly irresponsible, and indeed libelous, of you to make such an accusation. Those who visit the website of Clarity Press can clearly see that its list of publications manifest a long, difficult labor of commitment and integrity over a period of many years, where the reward is in the task and the ideas promoted, and hardly in the financial returns. I note with some irony that one of your website URLs is called free speech, but when it is exercised at some personal cost, you simply can't believe that there wasn't some big money behind it somewhere. It is a viewpoint which is no doubt taken for granted in your circles. That you share much thinking with any on the ATTAC list is doubtful to me. I have been viewing your contributions as more in the line of some form of sabotage in relation to the sincere and committed people on it -- many of whom you have likely succeeded in turning off from the list. I only regret that you have likely succeeded in passing on this slander to persons to whom I am unable to offer this riposte. Diana G. Collier
