FW: Some issues of international law and genocide

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sturart wrote:

> Why you would take my off-list response, based on a careful reading of
> a 50-page paper you wrote and asked listers to read, as an occasion
> for a public flaming? I have no interest in debating you or trading
> insults in public, but you essentially accused me of being a wrecker
> working for "the Man." That calls for a public apology, which I won't
> hold my breath waiting for.
>
> Stuart

So Stuart "knows" me and "knows" I am incapable of giving an apology when it
is needed eh? Right.
I do apologize for not noticing that Stuart's message had been sent
privately and thinking it had been posted on the list I sent it to the list.
That was my error. Now the problem is partly that I had told Stuart publicly
I had no time for debate, was not interested in his ill-informed arguments
and did ask to let it go. But showing no regard for my simple request, my
own time and other constraints he kept sending me opinions I clearly
indicated I was not incluined to respond to. I don't care about any apology
for that.

But for the last time, I have been off all lists for some time due to ill
health and an extreme workload. I asked over and over to either agree or
disagree, no ideological litmus test given for who we consider friends, but
I pleaded that I am acting under some constraints and cannot answer--for
various reasons--debates on these subjects especially with someone who has
not done the homework, has no idea what other arguments and allegations we
plan to advance, what forms of seige we are under, or what our intentions
are. This is not a ruse to avoid debate; it is an honest statement of our
and my own constraints.

Now when I have said it over and over, and as a general statement without
any necessary reference to any particular individual on this or any other
list, noting why I cannot get into minutae and ultra-reductionistic debates
on these issues, then if someone accuses me of merely employing a ruse or
attempting to enforce top-down agreement and obedience to our issues and
arguments, then that person is objectively--despite any self-professed
subjective intentions--doing the work of "the Man"; that person is indeed
ACTING  as a wrecker of our cause. This is one of the reasons why many
Indigenous People have some problems with SOME who self-describe themselves
as leftist; they don't know when to shut up and just listen or do some basic
homework before running off at the mouth or letting their magic digits fly
over the keyboard. Some of our people are fed up with
self-annointed/appointed "messiahs" dropping in on the cause to give their
tactical or strategic advise without even having been in Blackfoot Country
or having seen the reality with which we have to deal and having no real
bona fides of their own in terms of having been involved in real world
struggles.

Then some self-annointed expert takes issue with reference to the statement
about what it means to be involved in a movement that involves movement
discipline, democratic centralism and chains of authority characterizing
this as mere "transparent" and self-serving rhetoric. Tell that to Kathleen
Fleury, one of our activists found hanged in her closet in Helena; tell that
to Norma Guillam, one of our activists blown up in a car at Browning. I
could give a list of others for whom discipline was a matter of life and
death--and they lost possibly because of a lack of security and discipline
from others.

One more time: Anyone who does not agree with out position, or perhaps feels
that we should not even be showing up to this Court, ok, fine, so be it. Be
well. But we are actually trying to DO something that may have implications
for other Canadian and U.S. struggles--and not only those of Indigenous
Peoples. We do not have time for debate with some lawyer wannabes and parlor
dilettantes who refuse to even consider what they clearly do not know or the
damages they may be doing with their parlor dilettanteism.

Now can we move on or shall I?

Jim Craven


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