renovatio06's blog/

Prezzies

I was basically like "*grunt* ugh, can we get this over with now, so I can go back to being miserable, please...?", when coming online shortly after midnight tonight. In my defense, I must say that I'm battling a little cold, not to mention other, more profound battles with the tax bureau and my usual extended blurb of issues ;-) But Sherry was so sweet and excited for me when opening the prezzies she had sent before Christmas that I simply couldn't manage to hold on to my gloominess and bad mood about ... having turned ANOTHER year older...

So, let me take the opportunity to thank you, Sherry, and Sara (the card still got here!) and all my old and new ipernity and ex-flickr friends for making my day today! And not only this day, but hopefully many more to come. Wishing you all a Happy New Year again and may our mutual dreams and wishes come true and may we succeed in bringing everything to fruition that got bestowed upon us.

Thanks!

I can't think right now from sheer shock, so I will just give you the facts:

Today, I have a message (in German) in my inbox from a person, who claims to coordinate translations from English to German on Jens Soering's website. In that message, she asks me to remove the link to the petition form at VA-Governor Kaine's website, as Jens' lawyers, her and other close friends of Jens' find it detrimental to his cause that opponing views have been expressed here and over there. The last thing I want for Jens Soering is diminishing his chances for pardon and deportation to Germany, so I deactivated the link right away, but asked at the same time to get in direct touch with her (for one, so I can check on her authenticity and her alleged link to Jens Soering. For as described in update I, I haven't heard back from Ms. Marshall or his German lawyers. In another phone call with Mrs. Marshall as of yesterday I learnt that she hadn't been in touch with him and suggested to me again, I write him personally). The same person then also suggests, I remove the petition blog entirely, because controversial debate being expressed would not benefit Jens' cause.

I have refrained from deactivating the petition blog right away and as I said, asked that person to get in touch with me. I have also explained to her that I had tried to get consent of his lawyers frist, but to no avail. I must say, I'd find it terrible, if individuals who aren't open to a free exchange of differing views would yield as much as silencing those, who would like to help this guy. But then, in post-Bush America, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised about fundamental US-citizen rights being put to some test...

Update: The person getting in touch with me seems authentic. As I don't want to jeopardize Jens' chances of pardon due to "bad publicity" being conjured up on my blog, I deactivated all content for the time being, save the latest post explaining the reasons. I am in the process of writing a letter to Jens. It's a few mouse clicks to restore everything to what it was like before.

Yay! It's official: Got selected! ;-)

I would like to express my thanks for all of you supporting my idea of collecting supportive voices on behalf of Jens Soering. I have had a lengthy phone call with one of his European-based supporters and she forwarded an email by his immediate US-supporters. Apparently, my initiative wasn't well received, neither by Jens' direct supporters nor his opponents.

Consider this initiative discontinued. I find it an extremely bitter pill to swallow that carefully honoring other people's views and openly discussing them and in doing so finding alternative views is not welcome in all parts of the world.

My concern over Jens' fate outweighs my personal feelings of disgust with this finding. After all, the idea was to help him, not the contrary. As I said above, this initiative - as far as blogging and publicly discussing it - is over. I will write a direct letter to him and ask, whether I can make myself useful in different ways.

Thanks again to my/his supporters. Unfortunately, the brickheads have won this round. For the sake of Jens Soering, let's hope they won't win "the finals".

Recap of a TV documentary on a scientific approach to measuring individual or collective happiness.