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From: Wendy Christensen <christensen@catlas.mv.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 14:10:50 -0400
Fwd Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 19:37:02 -0400
Subject: UpDate: Gersten Cares Little For Historical Fact


Hello, Moderator of UFO UpDates...

Perhaps you will not consider this relevant (and feel free to
not post it to the list, or to excerpt is as you see fit), but
today I have had a little exchange with Peter Gersten (the 'UFO
Lawyer') that shows that he has little regard for truth or
actual historical fact, and is perfectly happy to spread
long-discredited tales as historical fact. It may seem a small
thing, but he has done this sort of thing before, and it does
not speak well for his intellectual rigorousness or respect for
fact. This annoys, disturbs and concerns me greatly, as he has
so much visibility (with his lawsuits, relentless pursuit of
funds, publicity, self-proclaimed champion of the "CAUS" of
truth, etc.)

In his "Non-UFO" Sunday" edition of August 13, 2000, Gersten
relates the long-discredited urban legend concerning Alexander
Fleming (discoverer of penicillin) and Randolph Churchill
(father of Winston).

(For reference, this is the tale)

THE FARMER'S SON

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One
day, while trying to eke out a living for his family, he heard a
cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and
ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a
terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer
Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and
terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's
sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out
and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming
had saved. "I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved
my son's life."

"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer
replied, waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own
son came to the door of the family hovel. "Is that your son?"
the nobleman asked. "Yes," the farmer replied proudly.

"I'll make you a deal. Let me take him and give him a good
education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to
a man you can be proud of."

And that he did. In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from
St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to
become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander
Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin. Years afterward, the
nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him?
Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill.
His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said what goes around comes around.

Thinking that perhaps Mr. Gersten (somehow!) did not know this
to be just an "urban legend," I informed him of same and
received a curious answer:


Me: How can anyone take seriously anything you say when you
persist in spreading long-discredited legends such as this?


Gersten:

"I think you miss the point. It's the the message of the story
that matters, not the participants. But I can understand your
frustration in needing everything perfect, so I will remove you
from my list. Sorry to have upset you.

But I can't think of the answer to your question. Maybe its all
just your projection of your own imperfection?"

Huh?? This is a person -- a lawyer yet! -- who purports to be a
champion of truth?

Every list from which I have ever received one of these
"inspirational tales" that I know to be an urban legend, I have
informed of the fact. In every case, other than Mr. Gersten, a
correction/clarification was immediately sent to the list. (This
happened several times recently in the "Man without a face - Mel
Gibson" legend that made the rounds -- in fact, I think Mr.
Gersten sent that one around, too. Of course, he never sent a
correction.)

It's laughably easy to find out the truth behind this legend:

http://www.snopes.com/spoons/glurge/fleming.htm

For reference, here are some excerpts:

The facts of none of these versions jibe with what we know of
these people's lives. No Churchill biography we've found
mentions young Winston's chance encounter with a Fleming, father
or son. Alexander Fleming was born in a remote, rural part of
Scotland and lived on an 800-acre farm that was a mile from the
nearest house -- not the sort of place where a vacationing
Winston would have been likely to wander, or to be discovered by
anyone if he had. As well, Winston was seven years older than
Alexander, so young Alexander would probably have been too small
to physically rescue the older and larger Winston from drowning.

But we don't have to speculate about those matters to disprove
the tale. Alexander Fleming did not leave the farm to rush off
to medical school to become the doctor he had supposedly always
longed to be. In fact, young Alec (as he was then known)
departed for London when he was 14, where his older brother Tom
had studied medicine and opened a practice. Alec attended the
Polytechnic School in Regent Street; after graduating, he
entered the business world at the urging of his brother, worked
as a clerk for a shipping firm for a few years, then joined a
Scottish regiment when the Boer War broke out. It was not until
after all of this that Alec decided to try his hand at medical
school, and even then it was the encouragement of his older
brother that was the deciding factor, not a lifelong yearning on
Alec's part to become a doctor. Additionally, Alec's medical
school education was financed with a £ 250 inheritance from a
recently-deceased uncle, not an endowment from a grateful
Randolph Churchill.

Nor is the other end of this tale true. Winston Churchill did
come down with a sore throat and a high fever while in Tunis (on
the way home from his December 1943 meeting with Roosevelt and
Stalin in Tehran), and the diagnosis of the medical team called
in from Cairo by his personal physician (Charles Wilson, later
Lord Moran) was pneumonia. According to Wilson's biography,
Churchill was treated with sulphonamide (an antibiotic, but one
unrelated to penicillin) and digitalis (for his heart) and sent
to bed to rest. By the time a specialist, Professor John
Scadding, was flown in from London, Churchill was already well
on his way to recovery. In short, Alexander Fleming was neither
present nor consulted when Churchill was diagnosed with
pneumonia, nor was penicillin used to treat the British prime
minister.

I send this note only because I am really tired of
self-proclaimed "ufo spokespersons" making the whole field look
ridiculous. If one cannot be bothered to report the truth about
a urban legend -- once notified of the undisputed facts -- what
credibility can one reasonably claim in anything else?

Purrrrrs.... (and hissssses to ignorers and distorters of truth)
Wendy Christensen