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