I am forwarding this reply to the thread from Jack Thompson who is having
technical difficulties.  Replies to his comments should be made to the list
or to "Jack C. Thompson" <[log in to unmask]>

Best,

Paul Apodaca

-----------

"With the exception of Paul Apodaca, who identified his ethnic heritage
(and by me Southern does not qualify as ethnic) no respondent to this
listserv on this issue has stated their ethnicity.

"Some years ago, while serving as chair of the solid & toxic waste
sub-committee of my local neighborhood association, I hosted a public
meeting concerning a local polluter (who later showed up on the National
Register of major toxic polluters) and one of the people who attended was
a State Representative.  This person also taught a class about government
at a local university and a number of his students were in attendance.

"As the meeting began, he stood and asked for a show of hands.  "How
many people here tonight are residents of this area?"  A few hands
were raised.  Then he asked, "How many people are here from Green
Peace?"  More hands were raised.  Then he asked, "How many attorneys
are here?"  And more hands were raised.

"The residents, including myself, were outnumbered by Green Peace and
attorneys.

"I learned a valuable lesson that night.

"The following year a friend of mine and I held a wine tasting.

"We did not want to see a highway go through a blue heron rookery
and threw the wine tasting as a fund raiser for a legal defense
fund.  We did not have many locals in attendence, but we had a
pile of attorneys paying for the privelege to represent us, and
not a few public servants of the legal persuasion, curious to see
who was interested in the issue.

"The road did not go through the rookery.  Life is good!

"Before we wander much further on this politically correct tangent, how
many African-Americans/Jews/Latinos/Hispanics/Tutus/Afghani's/Nepalese/
Asians/... i.e. non-lilly white folk are reading this thread?

>It's been said that history is ultimately biography, and that may be
>true.  But that doesn't mean that history must ultimately be
>autobiography.

>>Again, oversimplification. We DO read autobiographies, when they are
>>available, albeit recognizing the blinders an individual may have about
>>his/her experiences. Are we to accord historians who write the
>>biographies of other people an absence of blinders? Hardly!

"These two phrases seem to verge on sophism and solipsism.  It reminds
me of the caution printed on old maps: 'beyond here there be monsters'."

Jack

Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Lab.
Portland, OR  97217

503/735-3942  (voice/fax)

http://www.teleport.com/~tcl