Note by Hunterbear: If the smell of wistful fascism travels these days over the Four Directions, there's certainly another corollary dimension riding right along with it: Red-baiting. The country -- and our tortured planet -- may be engulfed in one of Humanity's greatest "foreign" crises of recent times [somehow reminiscent of MacArthur's plans to nuke Manchuria], our Constitution is fighting for its very existence -- and the Redbaiters are coming, to state it bluntly, out of every dank hole in the country.
I'm not talking about reasonable discussion in the circle of functional unity [public and otherwise] about whatever-organization's tactical approaches and related matters. I'm talking about smear stuff -- vilification -- whose motives range from "justification" of non-involvement in, say, worthwhile demonstrations and related endeavours, to efforts to serve the Bush et al. agenda. For my part, I've been a target of Red-baiting for almost half a century. And a couple of adages have served me very well indeed as I've traveled along the River of No Return: the old Native saying, "If you fish for trout, expect to be bitten by mosquitoes" -- and the old-time Wobbly guideline: "Better to be called Red than be called Yellow." In discussing this recently with a good friend and kindred spirit who blends within himself the best of the Deep South and the Real Southwest, I commented about some really creative Red-baiting from Old Mississippi -- and I cited one of the greatest racist smear artists in the history of our country: James Myron Ward of the old Jackson Daily News [ the vicious and venal Hederman press] -- who spent a lot of time [always to no avail] on me. To my good friend, I wrote in part: "Our Lair of Hunterbear website is now three years old. Its major thrust has always been sensibly radical activism -- but a corollary dimension is that it very effectively counters the multitude of smear and vilification stuff that I -- like a great many activist organizers -- inevitably attract. And do so to this very moment. It's been very useful and now there are more than 300 hits per day! I have a great fondness for your old state, A. [which is that of my daughter, Maria, fussing congenially in the kitchen with her half-Mississippi Choctaw son, Thomas.] But I do have to say that, between the Hedermans and the Citizens' Council and the Sov Comm -- and then K. the Carpetbagger -- and finally E. -- it's certainly tossed a lot of pure defamation at me. Here's one from Jimmy Ward in the Jackson Daily News a long time ago: Jimmy Ward, Editor, on the front page of the Jackson Daily News, September 26, 1963 did, as he had so often, mixed my Indian background with his presumption of my politics: "The Southern Conference Educational Fund, Inc., has announced that Prof. John R. Salter, Tougaloo College professor who sought to grab control of Negro agitation in Jackson, has joined Carl Braden, convicted Fifth Amendment guy from New Orleans. This announcement causes about as much surprise as day breaking, the moon rising, the sun setting and evening falling. They are of the same trouble-making tribe. Heap Redskins in that integrated teepee at Tougaloo. Jackson gains in citizenship as the mustard-splattered Prof. John R. Salter of Tougaloo flies East and joins in fellow field traveling Carl Braden, ex-jailbird who served time for playing mum to Federal agents on his alleged Communist activities. Salter who also got peppered in lunch counter demonstrations was supposed to be a great sociology instructor. Now he will play second fiddle to an ex-convict. What a case of deflation but one must take orders from on high. Who will be the next to show their real colors. Not her? Not him? What's going on Tougaloo? As Prof. John Salter departs and takes up residence in Raleigh, N.C., to continue his graduate work in hate, let it be recalled that the Daily News on numerous occasions warned the Negro leadership of Jackson to be careful of the purposes of those squattin' and sittin' and prayin' incidents last summer. As Salter joins Braden does the light shine brighter on those warnings today? Will the departure of Prof. John R. Salter, heap big trouble-maker who leaves Tougaloo College to play second fiddle to an ex-convict known as Carl Braden, have any influence on the frequency of parties being conducted between students of different institutions of higher learning hereabouts? Will student still be worried over their grades if they don't participate in those fancy parties? Who will answer these questions?" See this clipping and my notes on it at http://www.hunterbear.org/creative.htm And again, my Personal Background Narrative at http://www.hunterbear.org/narrative.htm [Carl Braden, btw, had never used the Fifth Amendment in his appearance before HUAC. He used the First -- in a major test case which he lost. Later, however, Pete Seeger used the First and won. Also, as SCEF Field Organizer, I didn't play "second fiddle" to Carl or anyone else. Basically I worked pretty much on my own all over the hard-core South, reporting to our excellent Executive Director, Jim Dombrowski, and to the SCEF Board of Directors.] ---------------------------------------------------- And, finally, there's another sad dimension that was certainly pervasive in Old Mississippi and the hard-core South generally and hangs in the sick mists of Our Time Now: the failure of too many essentially decent people -- in the Left and elsewhere -- to clearly and candidly denounce what can only be called the madness of character assassination. Fraternally / In Solidarity Hunter Gray [Hunterbear] Micmac/ St Francis Abenaki/St Regis Mohawk www.hunterbear.org Protected by NaŽshdoŽiŽbaŽiŽ and Ohkwari' In our Gray Hole, the ghosts often dance in the junipers and sage, on the game trails, in the tributary canyons with the thick red maples, and on the high windy ridges -- and they dance from within the very essence of our own inner being. They do this especially when the bright night moon shines down on the clean white snow that covers the valley and its surroundings. Then it is as bright as day -- but in an always soft and mysterious and remembering way. [Hunterbear] _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
