X-Message-Number: 20757
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 08:53:49 -0500
From: "Raphael T. Haftka" <>
Subject: To Rudi

>Rudi,

When I grew up in Israel, my father had the misfortune of being too rigid 
about honesty. He had a shop for children's clothing, and the IRS expected 
him to cheat on his tax return, like everybody else (these were the days 
without any electronic aids to record keeping). So when he submitted his 
income tax return, they routinely doubled his declared income. They were 
doing their job, because most merchants submitted returns that were less 
than half of their true income.

The 1990s were a time of excesses and dishonesty by a lot of people in your 
profession, and the government is cracking the whip now, and I hope they 
continue to do that. You have the misfortune of being punished even though 
you are blameless. This happens a lot in life. Like when we bombed Serbia, 
I am sure that a few people who supported us and hated Milosevic were 
killed by stray bombs (not to mention some innocent Chinese diplomats). 
This was an inevitable result of a basically good operation.

So, as Bob Ettinger suggests, you must look at your misfortune in the same 
way as you look at misfortune that is dealt to you by nature. I hope you 
will find the mental powers to channel your rage to an effort to succeed in 
spite of adversity.

I have met you and Dawn a few years ago, and I was impressed by both of 
you. I have confidence that you will pull through and emerge that much 
stronger. Good luck!

Rafi Haftka


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