From: "Michael Bragg" To: Subject: My Letter to Dr. Cindy Williams Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 08:13:50 -0500 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 To Whom it may concern: At the suggestion of a friend, I entered my name into Google's search engine to see what would result. I discovered quite a few copies of a letter I wrote in February 2000 to Dr. Cindy Williams regarding an op-ed piece she wrote for the 12 JAN 00 Washington Post have been archived on various urban legends and hoax websites. I feel that it is important in the interest of intellectual honesty to inform you of the facts behind the letter. Although there have been certain distortions to the text of the letter and allegations made about my intent as the author, I assure you that it was never my intent to start a chain letter, nor did I intend to tar the reputation of Ms. Cindy Williams of "Laverne and Shirley." When I first wrote my response to her column, I was not under the misapprehension that the author of the editorial and the woman who played Shirley Feeney were the same person. That addition appears to have been made some time after my letter entered wide circulation on the Internet. Too, it appears that someone has changed the original publisher of her column from the Washington Post to the Washington Times. Because one of the two people I e-mailed my letter to was williamsc@washpost.com, I did not then nor have I ever believed that her piece appeared in the Times. The other person I sent a copy of my rebuttal to was my father, CMSgt William Bragg, USAF (now retired). As he was the person who sent me a link to Dr. Williams' initial editorial, I felt that he would appreciate the sentiments I expressed. Apparently he did, and forwarded it to several of his friends, who in turn forwarded it to several of theirs, until it reached some sort of critical mass and became a meme of its own in the military community. One of the claims made against my letter is that the pay figures I stated is that because the salary information I gave about myself was at the low end of the military pay scale, the comparison I made to a $70,000-$80,0000 job is not valid. To the contrary, I specifically searched Monster.com for a job opening that matched as close as possible the skills and experience the Air Force had given me to that point. Because of such a great disparity in pay without a correspondent difference in requirements, I feel that the comparison is a valid one. Finally, there are two changes that have been made to the text of my letter itself, not merely the preface (everything before the words "Ms. Williams:" is the work of an unknown forwarder). The first occurs in the 5th paragraph of my letter, where it is noted that BAH and BAS were reduced for the Hill Air Force Base area. BAS was not then and to my knowledge has not since been cut, although BAH was for FY '00. I never in my original letter stated that Basic Allowance for Subsistence was changed. The second change occurs in the 9th paragraph, in the third and final sentence. Initially it read, "But, to borrow from Voltaire, I will defend to the death your right to say it." Even the first iteration of that sentence is inaccurate; I have since learned that S.E. Tallentyre is the originator of the quote I paraphrased. Over the last two years, the sentence has changed to, "But, tomorrow from Voltaire..." to "But, tomorrow from Sarajevo..." to the latest, "But, tomorrow from Kabul...." The first change appears to have been someone's spell-check program suggesting a change to an inadvertantly concatenated phrase, where "to borrow" became "toborrow." The second and third are more troubling, as they imply that I served in locations to which I have never deployed. To claim that I did would be a dishonor to myself, and a sacrilege against the memories of those who have fallen in those combat zones. I hope that the preceding helps to shed some light on the genesis of one of the chain letters listed on your site. Thanks very much for your time. Michael Bragg -v^=^v- "Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don't."