From: beaver.cs.washington.edu!gnosys!anchor.esd.sgi.com!lyn (Lyn Dearborn)
Subject: Re: NativeNet Chat's Direction
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 05:27:32 GMT

Original-Sender: anchor.esd.sgi.com!lyn (Lyn Dearborn)

Regarding Alan's posting, especially to Peshe urging an all Native American
network, list, etc.  But damn it Alan, you can't end two pages of really
positive urgings by switching the !@#! subject:

> But let's not forget South American Indians, or people in
> Indonesia or Africa. They are voiceless, and have far less power
> than you do. They have no modems to interface with internet. And
> when we have tricked them into dependence on such things, their
> culture is already destroyed. Please think about that.

 .... what can I say without evoking the Almighty ... which would be counter-
productive in this case.

There have been VOLUMES written about the plight of those poor abused,
dependent, pitied, innocent, etc., thousands elsewhere.  They are not the
issue here, and tossing them off in a "P.S."-type ending only CLOUDS the
issue.  What do they have to do with our need, here & now?  You can't help
not having a drop of Indian blood to your name, but you CAN be sensitive
enough to see THIS need without going onto the pulpit to remind us not to
forget their plight.  Hell Alan, we can't even relate easily to Native
peoples in South America without you dragging up the possibility of us getting
distracted by the Indonesians or AFricans .... hey, lets not forget the
poor defenseless Vietnamese ..NOT.  Are you proposing we add them to our
cultural crises?  Get a life!  As MOST God fearing people (some of you are
excluded) all over the world we grieve for the downtrodden, the homeless,
the orphans, the starving, the drug addicts, etc... BUT almost every psycholo-
gist in the US today teaches the same stuff:  YOU CAN'T LOVE ANYONE UNTIL
YOU LEARN TO LOVE YOURSELF .... in this case, that translates out to

	CHARITY  **SHOULD**  BEGIN AT HOME

OURSELF in this case is the "Native American SELF".  If we can't help ourselves
how in blazes can we help someone else (I'm not talking about ethics here,
I'm talking about reality).  I'm starting to sound like yesterdays
Rosh Hashannah sermon .....

You're worried about the foreign cultures that have been destroyed?  And
they chose to let it happen in most cases?  Start worrying about your own
 .... its like the saying:  "Don't waste time teaching a pig to sing;
it won't work and it annoys the pig"

We really can't afford to have our issues diluted right now with "Guilt"
about the situation in Indonesia and Africa... we feel helpless enough
without adding that hideous stuff .... if you want to, contact Amnesty
International; they help a lot with OUR issues but you can do your "save
the down trodden in the rest of the world" through them without making the
suffering Indians HERE feel like their problems are nothing compared to
starving children in Somalia ... we don't need FOREIGN crises added to our
plates..... yes .... only a fool can't see the similarities so Call us a
Ship of Fools if you like, but why ruin the good you do here and there
(constructive suggestions) with irritants?

"Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just
sit there"  ... Proverb  ... Think about that for a while and try to figure
out why I would throw it in here?  GOOD THOUGHT BUT NOT RELATED TO MY
POSTING REGARDING BEING CONNECTED TO AFRICANS AND INDONESIANS...  It
could be considered relative to Alan's suggestion regarding Peshe's
posting however..

hmmmm

lyn

Newsgroups: alt.native