David Kiracofe:



You do a great job of wording your objections, and oh you are so proud. But 
your objections don't hold water. And your blindness to the points I make 
indicates to me this web site can really use some reality testing - 
particularly if it is about a subject where heretofore historical reality 
has been so drastically lacking. The lack of historical reality checking 
regarding this subject is the very reason it has become an unresolved pain. 
I am only trying, once in many months and with many new participants, to 
inject some historically significant information and reality.



AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY 1971:



historical   Of, relating to, or of the nature of history as opposed to 
fiction or legend.



fiction        A literary work whose content is produced by the imagination 
and is not necessarily based on fact.



lie               A false statement or piece of information deliberately 
presented as being true.



WEBSTER'S NEW UNIVERSAL UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY 1979



history     Established by fact; not legendary or fictional.



fiction      That which is feigned, invented, or imagined; a product of the 
imagination.



lie             To utter falsehood with the intention to deceive; also to 
utter falsehoods habitually.



BLACKS LAW DICTIONARY Fifth Edition



Malpractice... Professional misconduct or unreasonable lack of skill. 
Failure of one rendering professional services to exercise that degree of 
skill and learning  applied under all the circumstances in the community by 
the average prudent reputable member of the profession with the result of 
injury, loss or damage to the recipient of those services or to those 
entitled to rely upon them.



Annette Gordon-Reed's book THE HEMINGSES OF MONTICELLO [2008] on the inside 
of the back hard cover has a family tree that shows that Sarah (Sally) 
Hemings and Thomas Jefferson were the parents of 7 children. I have also 
seen her during interviews state as fact that Thomas Jefferson was/is the 
father of all of Sally's Heming's children.



And to be paid money from others for lies ...



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Kiracofe" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 5:36 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] THOMAS JEFFERSON'S LIFE HISTORY


I'm not sure what family tree you're referring to, but it seems to me that 
your depiction of scholarship with which you disagree as lies misses the 
whole point of the writing of history.  Of course, one is free to disagree 
and propose their own alternatives -- indeed, this process of agreeing and 
disagreeing and building on others' work is the what the historical 
profession is all about.   No credible scholar to my knowledge has claimed 
to have produced the unalterable truth about Thomas Jefferson; they have 
merely accumulated a series of facts, analyzed them in reasonable ways, and 
presented an interpretation that builds upon that analysis.  Any reader is 
free to disagree, dispute a writer's facts as stated, and question the 
reasonableness of an interpretation, but please, to label such work as 
"lies" suggests dishonesty.  And I consider such an attack on someone's 
ethics to be uncivil and a disservice to all of the members of the list.

David Kiracofe

David KIRACOFE
History
Tidewater Community College
Chesapeake Campus
1428 Cedar Road
CHESAPEAKE, Virginia 23322
757-822-5136
>>> Adrian Zolkover <[log in to unmask]> 02/26/09 6:16 PM >>>
Hello David,

I agree that in some instances your analysis of calling those who may have
some observances and opinions other that mine liars, is well stated.
However, there are those prominent writers and those in positions of
historical and academic authority that insist in writing, even in hard cover
linings that show a family tree where they proclaim that Thomas Jefferson IS
the father of all of Sally's children. This to me is a lying.

Adrian Zolkover

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Kiracofe" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 12:11 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] THOMAS JEFFERSON'S LIFE HISTORY


Let me first say that I admire the wise prudence of Brent Tarter in
requesting that the dead horse of the Jefferson-Hemings dispute be left in
peace!   The paternity of Sally Hemings's children is [probably] never going
to be proven by DNA : science doth make 'agnostics' of us all -- and so we
are left with the historical evidence which we have to analyze and interpret
and we should be honest as we do so.   But I cannot see the good in ceding
this forum to posts such as the lengthy one from Adrian Zolkover.   I must
observe here (as I believe I did the last time Ms. Zolkover posted this same
information) that few of these facts are relevant to the question of
Jefferson's paternity of Hemings' children.  Indeed, many of them make no
sense in the issue at hand at all.   Ms. Zolkover prefaces her post as being
a service to new members of the list, but by insisting that these bits of
information support her pre-conceived conclusion that Jefferson could not be
the father of the Hemings children (or any of them) and that to suggest
otherwise is somehow to tell lies and to defame Jefferson ("raping his
legacy?"), she actively seeks to limit the inquiry she claims to champion.
Thus, I believe, she does a disservice to this list.

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