-------- Original Message -------- From: sysop at zmag.org Subject: Noam Chomsky Birthday Celebration Request... To: dadoner at chesco.com
Nov 20th, 1998
Dear Friend,
This is Michael Albert from Z Magazine writing to you. I have an unusual request I would like you to consider.
December 7 is Noam Chomsky's 70th birthday. Some folks who Noam works with at MIT got together a few months back considering what kind of present they might give Noam to convey people's feelings. They came up with soliciting a paragraph or two of good wishes and sentiments (what Noam has meant to people, etc.) from a large number of people he has affected around the world. They decided to do this by way of a web site. People would go to the site and enter their comments and when Noam's birthday arrives the creators will resent him with a scroll of the names of all the people sending him best wishes. Later he could go to the site and see what people actually wrote. This was a nice idea but due to insufficient "promotion," with only a couple of weeks to go there are way too few comments to make a worthy gift.
So the originators of the idea have asked me if I would use the internet to let more people know about this gift for Noam and also to make clear that everyone who has strong feelings for and an intellectual/political "debt" to Noam for his writing, his commitment, his life, should say so as a birthday greeting. You don’t have to personally know him – you just have to feel that he has made a difference in your political development, beliefs, commitments, or otherwise, to want to send him your "birthday greetings."
If Noam has meant enough to your work and political allegiances to want to thank him for it and wish him well on his 70th, there are two ways you can do so.
You can go to the web site (www.zmag.org) and enter your comments via the link to a Noam Chomsky Birthday Celebration Form you will find there -- or you can just reply directly to this email message with your birthday greeting. In either event, what you write will be added to the site for unveiling on December 7th, and most importantly your name will be added to the scroll of well wishers presented to Noam on his birthday.
I thank you for your time and do hope that you will join in this celebration of Noam’s 70th birthday .
Yours,
Michael Albert sysop at zmag.org
P.S. I am told this is to be a surprise. So, while you should certainly tell everyone you know who you think might want to wish Noam a happy birthday, you should not communicate directly to Noam himself about it. Thanks again...
------------ Again, to add your name to the birthday scroll, either go to www.zmag.org and click the link for Noam's Birthday Celebration Project and fill out the form you find there, or, if you prefer, use your email reply option to send me back the information requested below. Either approach will work fine -- thank you. But please reply as soon as possible and no later than December 5th.
Your Name: ______________________
Your Email Address: _____________________
At most a paragraph or two indicating how Noam has impacted your life, your values, or your actions, or your regard for his work, and some statement of your feelings on his 70th birthday: _________________________________ _________________________________ ...
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