Hello Andy,
thanks for your very informative answer.  Unfortunately, I did find
out later that my site was submitted to a "link farm".  I did not do
that.  Someone else did.  That is just so totally wrong.  Is there any
way to get my site "unbanned" from the google search engine, as I am
well aware that link farm links are absolutely useless and no man's
land.  I have a feeling that I am going to have to start from scratch
again unless there is some other way to get these worthless links
removed.  thanks again for your help.