introducing myself

[bon moun <sherrynstan@xxxxxxx>]

Hi all.

Just got here... a newcomer to this list, that is.  My name is Stan Goff.  I
live in Raleigh.  I'm a 49-year old budding freelance writer, and a retired
Special Forces Master Sergeant, who just wrote a book (coming out this fall)
about the 1994 US military invasion of Haiti, in which I participated.  I
also count myself a Marxist  and a feminist, so I suppose I can be
hyphenated that way if it suits people.  I am keenly aware of how
contradictory all this sounds, but it seems (feels) perfectly logical to me,
since I have been inside this personal trajectory at ever juncture along the
way.  I usually hyphenate myself as a Marxist-Leninist, but I don't consider
that to be in any way exclusive of the experiences, analyses, and theories
pertaining to feminism--provided we agree on the definition of that.

I joined this list to learn and share.    I have been sitting with the
question of race/white supremacy, very attentively, for some time now, and
will continue to do so.  And while I have for some time as well  been
interested in and attentive to the questions of gender, I haven't taken the
time until now to begin attempting a deeper synthesis of gender questions
with the big question that preoccupies me; revolution.  I am hopeful that
this list will help me along in this regard.  Interestingly enough, at least
to me, it was my sister that provided the catalyst for my deeper
politicization several years ago.  She is an activist in Arkansas around
issues affecting women and LGBT people, of whom she is one.

I recognize the danger of cyberspace to civil discourse, having some
experience of that now.  So I want to say in advance that I abhor personal
attacks, but I also realize that sometimes this medium can make what is
simple debate appear to be more personal than it is.  We can't "smile when
we say that," to reassure comrades that we are still just that... comrades.
I'll try to be sensitive to this phenomenon, and let folks know in advance
that I have a very thick skin and will not take criticism personally.  If I
tend to get very hard-headed about anything it's the question of how to deal
with US imperialism.  I was an instrument of if long enough to have a pretty
good insider's working knowledge of it, and I have little patience for
equivocation about it.  It has to be fought as ruthlessly as it is ruthless.

Thanks to all for having this list, and I will be reviewing the archives on
the web to kind of get to know some of you.

Cheers,

Stan



Thanx to kp
"If insurrection is an art, its main content is to know how to give the
struggle the form appropriate to the political situation."

			-Vo Nguyen Giap



"Rather than seeking comparabilities in statistical terms among what are
all too often superficial features of different situations, comparabilities
must be sought at the level of determinate mechanisms, at the level of
processes that are generally hidden from easy view."

			-Eleanor Burke Leacock



"Every day one has to struggle that this love to a living humanity
transform itself into concrete acts, in acts that serve as examples, as
motivation."

			-Ernesto "Che" Guevara