From: radzy@ICSI.Berkeley.EDU (Tim Radzykewycz)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Who cares
Date: 22 Jul 92 16:31:12 GMT
Organization: International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.


cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese) writes:
>>> Oh so much bullshit.  He isn't witch burning.  All he's saying is that
>>> if you bitch and moan about White Oppression, why aren't you equally
>>> bitching about other forms?
>>> ...
>>> If you do nothing to rectify a bad situation, YOU ARE GUILTY OF
>>> PERPETRATING IT, even if you didn't get it started.

radzy@ICSI.Berkeley.EDU (Tim Radzykewycz) writes:
>>I hate to take this up, because when I do, I'll probably be
>>branded as holding a position I don't hold.

>>Janis, what have *YOU* done ....

[Janis' discussion of what she's done deleted]

Well, I've done it again and posted something that didn't come
out exactly as I wanted it to.  My main point was:

>>Don't buy into this philosophy!  Don't start arguing the "well,
>>you gotta help my cause or else your cause is shit" thing.  It
>>is NEVER helpful, and it often causes the problems to get
>>worse.

I didn't really want to point fingers at Janis -- as far as I
can tell, she's got one of the best overall attitudes of anyone
I know.  Perhaps that's why I didn't take the time to make
myself more clear.

Anyway, the point is that it doesn't help to say:

>> >>NOT doing is as good as condoning in practice.

Because there are degrees of NOT doing.  The MINIMUM level of
acceptability, in my book, is to avoid denial of your part in
the problem.  Even if you do nothing other than recognize that
you play a role, that's enough (though just barely).  If you try
to work on your own behavior, that's perfectly acceptable, in my
book.  It doesn't take going to rallys and standing on the White
House steps to work toward change -- the MOST NECESSARY change
is for EACH of us to solve the problems THAT PERSON has -- to
reduce or eliminate the prejudice, to stop the destructive
behavior, etc.

What I'm saying is that even if you do nothing else, working on
the problems in yourself IS trying to rectify the situation.



Janis again:
> I'm also curious about the crimes you mention -- seriously.  What do you
> have in mind?

Um, sigh.  I usually try to ground my arguments with specifics.
The things I mentioned ARE REAL, and they're problems, but I
didn't really have anything specific in mind.


Janis: sorry for pointing you out on this.  I'm just tired,
myself, of hearing the "If you're not at the women's rally, then
you must be a woman-hater" type of attitude (or any variation of
"if you're not with us you're against us").  No, I didn't think
you were guilty of that, but the FORM of your arguments looked
similar, and I over-reacted.  Sorry about that!


Blessings!

------------------------------------------------------------
					|  An it harm none,
	-- radzy			|  do as ye will.
					|
	Tim Omelan Radzykewycz     	|  "Just pray for a
	The Incredible Radical Cabbage	|  tough hide and a
					|  tender heart."
	radzy@icsi.berkeley.edu	        |    -- Ruth Graham
					|
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