When I got up this dark morning about 2 a.m. or so MDT, and saw the succession of ASDnet posts [some friendlier to me than the obviously very hostile others] stemming from David Anderson's tossing about of Ian Williams' article essentially trashing the anti-war movement -- and much from my quite pointed and unapologetic response thereto -- I had several more cups of coffee, played with my half-Bobcat cat, and read my copy of Backpacker magazine. Had a great time Saturday in super-rugged canyon country where there was nothing -- nothing whatsoever -- of any human sign.
This sunny morning I do have a very brief word or two. [And, to my left, reside my 45 volumes of Lenin flanked by Ignatius of Loyola -- and, on my other side, the sketch my father gave me in my baby crib of the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant [Thayendanegea] watching his warriors burning out the settlers in the Cherry Valley section of New York. The feathered Bear Skull looks down on us all.] The real point is that DSA -- in contrast to most other American Left outfits -- has not yet issued a statement against War with Iraq and seems, for whatever reason, to be deferring this into next month.[Hopefully. there'll be a clean and sharp and vigorously vital one forthwith.] Beyond simply being regrettable, this singular so-far omission is downright weird -- given the incredible urgency which demands that every concerned person and organization add their voice and influence against the hideous and bloody Bush/Ashcroft rock-slide/railroad job and the cowardice of most of Congress. It's also incumbent, one would think, for DSA to become officially involved organizing-wise in some of its own mobilizations against War [and Repression.] On the rush by some to defend Ian Williams, I do have a word. It may seem strange to sectarian purists -- especially those of Bogdan's fossil formations in New York's version of the Petrified Forest -- for someone such as myself to include, among my several favorite novels, the great Darkness at Noon [just as my two favorite all-time flicks are Salt of the Earth -- and Shane.] Anyone who knows me isn't a whit surprised at any of that -- but most DSA critics of mine have simply jumped with their poisonous darts before they've read or reflected on that which I've really tried to write carefully. From my perspective, at least, their motives are far from pure. In Darkness -- during the Second Hearing -- the interrogator of Old Bolshevik Rubashov, his friend Ivanov [very soon to be killed via his bureaucratically mechanistic subordinate, Gletkin], comments with some biting cordiality: "Imagine a Sulla, a Galliffet, a Koltschak reading Raskolnikov. Such peculiar birds as you are found only in the trees of revolution." Ivanov had an excellent point. The trees of revolution abound with "peculiar birds." Those of us in those Living Forests over which the Red Sun shines with its always-ultimate optimism -- and we are all indeed kin -- are certainly not my concern. And Rubashov, of course, had not left the trees of revolution by any means [although he was, in due course, to be killed.] My concern in this specific context lies very much with those who have in reality left the trees of revolution -- and who, now "born again," sanctimoniously prattle and divide and defame those who continue their commitment and great good works. Yours - Hunter Gray [Hunterbear] www.hunterbear.org Protected by NaŽshdoŽiŽbaŽiŽ and Ohkwari' _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
