95 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
95 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
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Memo to Moses from HEW
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by James E. Mignard, Ph.D.
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The HEW staff has reviewed your application for permission to undertake a
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project on desert living and thinks it has some merit. However, we cannot
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approve it as it stands because you have not interfaced with Federal rules and
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regulations on socially-oriented proposals and have failed to meet several
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government standards. A reading team studied your program carefully. Their
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criticisms and recommendations in the following paragraphs will help you
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understand our concerns. You may want to rewrite the proposals according to
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our suggestions.
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First of all, it is not clear to us whether your ten words, or "ten
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commandments," as some of our staff call them, are guidelines for a bonafide
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program for governing people in a nomadic societal setting. We assume they
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were MORE than guidelines; therefore, we must point out that we do not approve
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social programs that have been designed without assistance of consultants who
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have been certified by HEW.
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The regulations require that experts with doctorates and at least ten years
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experience be consulted whenever a proposal writer deals in areas in which
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he/she has NO professional competence. You speak, for example, of family
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relationships, neighbors and "the sojourner who is within your gates" (tidy up
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this phrase a bit), the OBVIOUS domain of sociology, but you have not listed a
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single sociologist as a consultant.
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There is no evidence that you sought the advice of lawyers when you drafted the
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sections on killing and stealing. We think a scholar with a national
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reputation in ethics could have improved what you were trying to say about
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bearing false witness and committing adultery. And was there a good reason for
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avoiding theologians when you wrote about having no other gods or not taking
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the divine name in vain or not making graven images?
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Your failure to utilize professional testimony SERIOUSLY WEAKENS the proposal;
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indeed, if we WERE to approve it, our own experts advise ue that it would not
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last more than four or five years. More specifically, we question the
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SOUNDNESS of many of your ideas.
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Take the phrase, "You shall have no other gods before me." Not only is this
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unclear, but we are troubled by the absence of measurable behavioral
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objectives. How will you know whether this is being accomplished? Do you plan
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to administer pre- and post-tests, or will you use some kind of peer review?
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If this idea is valuable, why is it so negative? In fact, why have you
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EMPHASIZED the negative in these propositions? We believe your proposal would
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be more easily implemented if it were recast in POSITIVE terms.
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The "graven image" statement. We are puzzled by the weight you give this both
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in terms of the number of words you have used and its position among the ten.
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Did you prioritize? Does it really belong in SECOND place? Is it necessary to
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include the THREATS?
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Furthermore, as you surely know, a needs assessment must accompany every
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application submitted for HEW approval, but you have NONE. Without supporting
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data, we have no way of knowing whether there is a genuine "graven image"
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problem among your people. Please DETAIL this in an appendix with charts, bar
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grams, histograms and statistics.
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"Taking the name in vain" is a fuzzy expression. A couple of good footnotes on
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recent research in Near Eastern onomastics would show that you know what you're
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talking about.
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The "sabbath day" paragraph seems overly long and of questionable value. What
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exactly do you mean by "remembering" the sabbath day? How is "holy" to be
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understood? Have you considered a more modern word like "unstressful"? Our
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proposal readers were DISMAYED that you have chosen to stay with the nuclear
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family concept. Please review the literature.
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"Honor father and mother." If this section is crucial to your project, we
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suggest you define HONOR. Is there some reason why father precedes mother in
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the rank-ordering? You state that compliance will affect the lives of the
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people "in the land which the Lord your God gives you." We studied this
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strange notion and could not determine the significance of real estate here.
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Are you implying that there is a direct relationship between parent-honoring
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and land-holding?
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In the opinion of the HEW staff, the next five statements could be lumped
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together, using, however, less FLAMBOYANT language. Verbs like KILL, COMMIT
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ADULTERY, STEAL, LIE and COVET do NOT sit well with most people.
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In our overall examination of your proposal we were struck by the fact that you
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have made NO provisions for the utilization of role-models. We do not think
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that asking the people to follow your ten points simply because it please God
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is an effective substitute for role-models. If you had attended one of our
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regional workshops, you would have learned that we do not approve projects that
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are weak on role-modeling.
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Finally, we wish to point out that the rules and regulations stipulate that
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fourteen typed copies of the proposal be sent to us. Several HEW staff members
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were upset because you disregarded this. Two stone tablets with chiseled
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letters do NOT COMPLY with Federal regulations.
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(from the Best of JIR)
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