Posted by pancho from adsl-64-165-199-44.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (64.165.199.44) on Saturday, February 23, 2002 at 2:46AM :
One of the advantages that would come from being fearless in here, of trying on any number of arguments and playing Devil's Advocates and slamming the pet theories our Experts and Patrots and Hysterians hold so dear...so dear that they approximate the Turks in their "openess"...is that it steels you and prepares you to meet those same arguments when thrown at you by others...others who may not be willing to believe a word of any one of our claims...or cut us any slack, except to feel "sorry" for our sweet ignorance.
Right now we stay well hidden...we Protest...send letters and what not, then just as quickly dart back inside and hide. I haven't seen a one of us that could be expected to stand up to just about anything...I take that back as soon as I said it...David and Doc stood up to the guards who tried to stop them from taking photos of the concentration camps in Australia for Iraqis and other asylum seekers. Asylum indeed...a mad house is just what they came to.
I have no idea how I would do in open debate with three or four real experts...people at least far better read than I am, and far more capable and accustomed to having contentious discussions without the deck first being stacked in their favor. I can't get any practice with my own people either. It's like having a whimpy and hysterical coach who faints easily as you prepare for the Downhill event at the Olympics...what am I saying, in high school!!! How good are we likely to get without any resistance and challenges?
How many times do I have to be told to Love and be Nice? What the hell am I going to do with that in debate...or arguing with a Turkish professor or some ass from the US State Department or military?
I should have asked the people at the debate with Ross to "love" me and "respect" me...and turned to Ross and said I was a Christian too, and agreed it was the best damn thing that ever happened to us...as he was saying.
The people on these thingies for the most part have no intention of ever going anywhere to do anything. It is their entire "Assyria"...and what they say goes and if you don't like it they escort you to the "borders" and slam the door. They post because there is a computer around and some spare time to kill...even then they just peak in the window and eavesdrop...never putting themselves on the line for anything.
Ideally we would use this place to ask the really hard questions that will surely be put to us if we ever go downtown with some of these wild ideas we have...like Aprim would never dare to do. Any future we have is out THERE...not here. But this can be a place to share ideas...hard and original ones...we can always take a break and have tea with jam on Julia.
The question seems to me to be...is there any value or point in being who we are in the Modern Era? Is it worth anything and why and how? Why not just let it go? It is a truism that the more fanatical one is, the harder one tries and refuses to give up. But I don't want to be a fanatic and indeed there is no one in the West out to slit our throats or deny us anything based on our ethnicity...and if there wasn't oil back there they wouldn't much bother with us there either.
Here in the United States, in Europe and Australia, there is no compelling reason to remain Assyrian and Chaldean...none at all. That makes it hard to sustain any effort in that direction...why bother when you are safe at home to watch TV with your family?
If it is not driven by a fanatic and frantic fear that there is no escaping your Heritage and you will be hounded and persecuted for it no matter what...then where does one get the energy and will and determination to get up and do what really doesn't "NEED" doing?
Can a mild and so so interest in maintaing ones Heritage be enough of a motivating force? I don't know.
-- pancho
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