The Ed Wasser Fan Club Newsletter
Volume 5 Number 1
January/February/March/April/May/June/July/August/September/October/November/December 1999
FIRST, A LITTLE BUSINESS:
Well, here it is, the end of the year. The astute reader may have noticed that this is the first newsletter of 1999 that you have received. I am sure you were all laying awake at night wondering "What did I do to offend the editors at the EWFC Newletter?" Why haven't they sent me a newsletter?
The good news is that you did nothing. We just didn't put any out, for reasons that will become obvious in the newsletter.
Rest assured, however, that the next newsletter will come out EXACTLY on schedule, which is now strictly defined as "Whenever we get around to it."
We are also doing our annual fund raiser to cover the lavish expenses we at the EWFC incur in sending out this newsletter. This year's fund- raiser is kind of neat - it is a chance for YOU to make money. More about it later.
Editors
ED WASSER INTERVIEW:
(Below is the part of an ongoing interview with Ed. It will be continued in every issue of the EWFCN.)
********
SO ANY BIG EVENTS TO REPORT? NEW BRAND OF TOOTHPASTE? INSPECTION STICKER ON YOUR CAR EXPIRED? NEW ADDITION TO THE FAMILY?
Surprise, Surprise we had a beautiful little baby boy, Evan Nikolas Wasser.
SO TELL US ALL ABOUT IT.
Well, it happened six months ago, he entered the world with grace, strength and the patience of a Saint. The little Saint has since turned into a little Dictator. Everyone has the same question, "Does he sleep through the night yet". Well, not in the entire six months that we have known him. This kid is going to grow up and rule the world.
WHAT'S IT LIKE HAVING A BABY IN THE HOUSE?
Evan tells us what time to get up, when to go to bed, when we can go to the bathroom, when we can take a shower, when we can run out and put the garbage out and run back into the house. He's happy ruling the Wasser universe, until the bonding stage is over he runs the show.
GETTING ANY SLEEP? HOW ABOUT YOUR WIFE?
Oh, we manage to get a few winks in here and there. But we're lucky if he sleeps for a stretch of four hours.
HAVE YOU DEVELOPED A PHILOSOPHY OF PARENTHOOD YET?
Well Suzanne and I have been taking parenting classes at The Institute for Professional Parenting. They teach a theory created by Faye Snyder, MA, Licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapist. Assessing and treating children and grown children of childhood trauma is her life, her passion and her profession. Faye has been teaching the ultimate, state-of-the art parenting class for eleven years on how to raise a low-maintenance, high functioning, charming and ethical child. It's called The Miracle Child Parenting Series. The same course covers how to heal and repair damage done. She has also researched and interviewed serial killers and other dangerous criminals. In short, her theory is that "MURDERERS ARE MADE, NOT BORN" as are also the pathologies our parents help to cultivate and put on us. This isn't about blaming the parents but it is about the role they play in our personality and emotional development. We are studying what kind of parenting creates Dependent personalities, Obsessive-Compulsive, Passive-Aggressive, Narcissistic, Borderline, histrionic, Paranoid, Anti-Social, Sociopath and right down to Killers. What goes in must come out and what doesn't go in can't come out. For example, if you don't show your child empathy then they won't have empathy for others. I personally don't believe in the Bad Seed theory, ALL CHILDREN ARE BORN GOOD. It's up to the parents to stretch beyond their comfort zone and educate themselves better so that they don't pass their own pathology on to their children. There's so much more to tell, if I can I will send out a document Faye wrote. I think at very least you will find it interesting reading.
WOULD YOU RATHER EVAN BE A MAJOR LEAGUE
BASEBALL PLAYER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
OR 'BEST ACTOR' WINNER?
Best Actor of course! :>) But Truly my wish for him goes deeper then that. I wish for him to feel filled up with love and nourishment so that when he goes out in the world he doesn't feel insecure about himself. I also wish for him to be extremely successful at what ever he chooses to do and at the same time be grounded in his true self. I wish for him to be much more authentic then his Dad and to be at peace with himself and to be a strong mirror for others.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST THOUGHT THAT WENT THROUGH
YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU SAW EVAN?
God is awesome...
ANY PROJECTS IN THE WORKS?
There's always something in the works, but nothing close enough to talk about. Right now the only project I'm focused on is raising Evan and getting the house finished.
FUND RAISER
This year's fund-raiser involves one of those companies that pay you (that's right, YOU) fifty cents an hour to surf the web. We have checked this out 7 ways to Sunday (whatever that means) and there is nothing shady, seedy, or strange about this. Here is how it works:
You download a little program that while you are surfing shows you banner ads. It is not very distracting, because they don't sit there changing all the time. And, you can turn it off any time you like, if you are not in the mood. However, when you are in the mood, they pay you 50 cents an hour to have it on. You are limited to 25 hours a month right now, which the way I look at it, covers your ISP or Internet bill. You get a check every month - no "credits" or anything like that - just simply hard cash. And again, if you don't want to see the ads, you can turn it off. As you can probably guess, they charge companies to display the ads - say a dollar an hour - and then pass 50 cents of that on to you. Capitalism at work!
How is this a fund raiser for us? Well, we get a referral fee for everyone we sign up. So yes, it is one of those pyramid deals. Of
course, you can do the same thing - sign other people up.
So, if you are so moved, do us a favor and sign up - it will go a long way to paying for our ISP, web site, software, etc. Oh yeah, for us to get credit, you have to use this URL (either click on it or copy and paste it into your browser.)
http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=CYH503
ED'S CORNER
Hi everyone,
Forgive me for not staying intouch. The lack of Newsletters is my fault. As you may have heard I am Mr. Mom Stay At Home Dad with Evan. Wow, what a job. He is incredible! He also keeps me so busy that I'm lucky if I can get 15 minutes to myself when he goes down for a nap. I personally want to thank Byron Reese and Mike Battle for their support and not pushing me too hard during this time. With out them there would be no Fan Club. It's my hope to upgrade the site, that's my fault too. One fan of mine was very upfront with me and said, "Ed, People are complaining that your site needs to be updated. Get with it!" Thanks Parry, your right I need to get with it. I will do what I can.
ED - ITORAL
This is Byron, the editor speaking. .I can't believe that after all these years of doing the EWFC, the above pun never occurred to me. Since it did, I am obliged to write something resembling an ed-itorial. I think I will call it:
Morden: A Monk Following his own Religion?.
Let's talk about Morden. Was he actually evil, or did he just have "another religion".
First, let's look at his motivation for joining up with the Shadows. Ed has summed it all up by saying, "Morden just wants to be on the winning team." In other words, it isn't that Morden likes the Shadows or hates them, he just thinks they are going to come out on top, and he wants to be there with them.
Now, that in and of itself is not wrong, does not make Morden bad. For instance, if I am a professional quality football player (ha!), and I have offers from the Cowboys and the Patriots, and I make my decision on which team to join based on who I think is going to the Superbowl, this is not morally wrong by anyone's standards.
At that point, we would need to look at the "team" itself, in this case, the Shadows. We got a presumably accurate assessment of their motivations at Z'Ha'Dum. I don't think I need to go over it for this crowd, but in a nutshell, they believe excellence is obtained through conflict, through races fighting it out. A few die, a few become dominant, and the system as a whole advances. Sheridan likened it to kicking over an ant hill, every successive ant hill is stronger and better.
At this point, you need to supply you own moral code to evaluate the moral condition of this philosophy. Morden applied his - and decided that, in his mind, it was moral. Morality, in his case being defined as whatever left him on top.
From a Christian perspective, my own, its hard to come up with a good case defending the Shadow's philosophy, and this should surprise no one. I don't think there is a clique out there defining the Shadows as Christ-like. So from my standpoint, yeah, Morden is evil. After all, I believe in an ultimate right and wrong.
However, the main actors against Morden and Shadows were likely not Christians. For that matter, most did not appear to act from a religious standpoint at all. Franklin is an obvious exception. Maybe Ivanova. G'Kar and Delenn had their own religions, to be certain, but the ethics of those are not deeply explored. But it raises the question: among those who opposed the Shadows, what was their moral basis for doing so?
After all, the Shadow's were quintessential Darwinists, were they not? They even said this themselves, they were part of the process that let man claw his way up from apehood, as it were. No one, not even Sheridan and his people, ever argued they were ineffective, i.e. that what they wanted WOULDN'T WORK, they always argued that it was simply WRONG.
So, by what basis did they make their moral judgments? By what reasoning did they indict the Shadow's "religion" or "worldview."
I don't know - it was never developed in the show. However, this much is certain: Without a sense of an absolute good and evil, it is hard to make a case against the Shadows, since it is not obvious their plan would not better humanity and perhaps, in the long run, the entire universe. Any argument against the Shadows and their morality would have to stem from some sense of ultimate right and wrong. Sheridan clearly believed they were "wrong," but how he arrived at this conclusion is not explored.
So in the end, the morality of the Shadows and of Sheridan's people are equal absent an absolute right and wrong. Nothing in the show offers a basis for Sheridan's people believing in an absolute right and wrong, so in the end maybe it does boil down to "different strokes for different folks."
As far as Morden is concerned, whose to say he was not "right" and "good" according to his morality?
[Any comments, rebuttals, etc. on this Ed-itoral are welcome, and will likely be published in the next newsletter.]
CONTEST NUMBER FOURTEEN
First, last contest: Contest 13.
Morden's Fortune Cookie.
We had more submissions to this contest than any other one we have ever run! Coming on the heels of what is now termed around here as "the Haiku disaster," this is refreshing.
But our grand Poohbah winner is Andy Lang with his entry:
"You will soon be promoted to a higher position."
Congrats on winning the autographed photo!
For Contest 14, we are giving away an autographed Morden Fleer trading card. The contest is:
Morden's bumper sticker.
Entries go to: contest@wasser.com. Deadline is sometime in the next
couple of months.
CONTACTING US
Contrary to the rumors you may hear, we are not on the lam from the law. You can contact us. To subscribe, email to
subscribe@wasser.com. Conversely, when you have had enough, unsubscribe@wasser.com will do the trick. If you want to contribute anything, we will most likely print it, assuming it pertains to Ed, Morden, Shadows, B5 (i.e does not go on and on about how bad an actor Avory Brooks is. Tell us something we don't know. ). Email to submissions@wasser.com. Letters to Ed are also welcome, and they are all read and answered by him. Ed's email is, you guessed it, ed@wasser.com. There is a web page for us at: http://www.wasser.com. Contest submissions are sent to contest@wasser.com. Unless you put "don't include my name", your name or handle (however you sign your email or your "from field") will be credited in the newsletter. We will not include email addresses
though, just names.