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=> On Banning and Deleting

On Banning and Deleting
Posted by Farid (Moderator) - Thursday, November 13 2003, 12:36:46 (EST)
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Now that I've had my own thingie I have a better understanding of what thingies need. Just as there are Spam protectors and no one wants to be jammed up with nonsense...at whatever risk to my saintly image...honed through years of hard work and spit...I'm going to try to venture into the mine-field trying to "control" free and totally free speech has been for everyone.

My battles with the other forums came about not because of foul language...which is fine over here...or because of unrelated posts of "general interest" people could have picked up anywhere...but specifically because they weren't willing to open up the Assyrian Heritage to a broader range of topics...or discussion other than the tired and usual ones we've been spinning around for decades. Obviously SOMETHING has to change and as I have no answers I figured we at least had to ask better questions...such as, "why do we assume that all Assyrians HAVE to be Christian"? And many more along those lines.

It never occured to me that we'd attract many outsiders...though they would be most welcome...I don't consider any Kurd or Turk or Arab an outsider...we're all in this together...smart bombs are very wisely killing us all.

I mean by "outsider" people like Andreas and Alex who haven't a drop of Assyrian anything in them...and Ali who has three drops and can't figure out how to rid herself of those...oh sorry, xxxxxxx. If outsiders have questions for us...things they think we're not seeing...or criticisms aimed at opening us up to possibilities we don't admit to or want to confront...or anything at all intended to push us farther down this road which we have to travel...or else the whole glorious 5000 year ride through history comes to an end with our generation...then welcome and give us your best shot.

Now...I should think that nay bit of personal writing...anything written by one of us...or an outsider, that illuminates not only these points...but reveals us too...who we are, how we lived and grew up...things that aren't "Assyrian" in and of themselves but come about as a result of what we, as Assyrians, have experienced in life...would also be of value and general interest. For instance a poem that has nothing to do with anything Assyrian is still of immense value because one of US wrote it. If an outsider has a poem about things Assyrian...or about us as Assyrians...that would be welcome too.

But all in all, a poem about flowers in Guam, written by an Assyrian and one on the same topic written by an outsider should not, in my opinion, carry the same weight. No reflection on outsider poets, the quality of their work or Guam...but there are tons of outlets for poetry...as there are for general information...or even a site for Guam...

What I personally resent about these "informative" posts about anything and everything, that are merely re-prints with no evaluation or analysis or even commentary to speak of, that are placed here by outsiders is that there's a sort of implied dig in them...like we're too narrowly focused on one thing...the Assyrian Heritage and these people must take it upon themselves to broaden our horizons. I resent that for lots of reasons...first of all I don't like the assumption. We have a lot more people reading here than posting, that's true...but they don't come to read about Guam...so what's the point? Except as I think Alex let slip out of that bag Ali..."to take up space". Now why he'd want to do that isn't worth bothering about...the psychiatrist is off today.

The people who do write here are obviously well-read and perfectly capable of finding out facts about this and that. Time is short...it would be better spent on what we need to discuss...whatever Ali and Alex might think to the contrary. I don't agree that we're "too" steeped in things Assyrian...if anything we've neglected the Heritage for far too long. There's no point in me rushing over to Iraq right now...or sending fifty bucks or fifty thousand...they had ten times fifty millions and more till recently...as there's no point in demanding our treasures be returned to the country as it's been devastated now.

We have even more foundation to work to do than we did before...but as I said ...it's far better to clear out the rotten timbers than it is to build on top of them. But this is serious, time consuming work. If now it seems to consist wholey of talk, talk and more talk...it's because we have to clear our heads of rotten matter as well. I'm sure Theodore Hertzl, the father of Zionism, who took it on himself to wander Europe warning that something terrible was about to happen and Jews would need a safe country of their own to get out of harm's way...this inspired by what he saw as a reporter in Paris during the Dreyfus trial (look it up Alex...it's right after Guam)...I'm sure his family and friends thought he was a bit crazy, a little "too obsessed" when he left them all...quit his job and took trains across Europe speaking to whomever would listen. Whatever you think of Zionism, daughter of Christianity...that one man started it all...and he did it with talk first.

Which brings us back to our resident harpies...including Andreas, although we seem to have outgrown his need to inform us. Just why I've become their meat I can't figure and don't much care. Why should Alex, who isn't Assyrian in any shape or form, take such an interest in Guam? And why insist on bringing us poor blighters the latest statistics from the Phillipines...or anywhere else? Are we a nursery? Do we look like a cozy place to drop things off?

If he and Ali xxxxxxxx wish to leave...they won't be mentioned or missed. I don't recal anything Ali ever said about the Heritage except that her father is smart...good looking and happily married...and oh yes, he is from Iraq. Many of her personal posts have been interesting and no one can deny her passion or limited courage. But the posting and then the re-posting of what Al Gore said...even if he said it about Iraq and Terrorism is of minor importance. What difference will any of it make if we don't rise to the occasion? Gore will still speak...bombs will still fall...Bush will still lie...so? The missing ingredient in all of this...in all of us...is what part we play...can play...should play...could play in any of this...in Guam...in New York...in Catalina...but most importantly in BetNahrain which needs all the friends it can get in the years to come.

They are of course welcome to stay...but without the games and the relatives. I'm under no obligation to play wetnurse to wandering malcontents or even brilliant collitch students trying desperately and with little apparent success, to get edjicated.

Alex...it's never too late...drop out of colege and go back to the third grade...and THEN drop out.

Any posts...any rejoinders under their own names will be welcome...say what you want about the ideas...about me, I don't care...but stiuck to the point. Neither of you are Assyrian so I don't see why your musings on things not Assyrian should be posted here. No one is denying you free speech...just denying you an open forum to dump whatever you want to in it.

Had any of the other forums done half as much there would have been no need to open this thingie...so you can see from the day it was formed it had a specific mission...and you aren't serving those interests...and deliberately so I fear.



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