In a message dated 12/13/99 9:44:11 PM, band at unm.edu writes:
<< saw a news spot about a month ago where Colin is concerned about the violence among male teens and he is going to dedicate his life to now helping them...duhhh, is this not the guy who was involved in the Mai Lai massacre cover up when it first broke and who went on to lead the most violent military war against a poor and weak nation, we call it the Persian Gulf War? Remember the highway of death, the fly boys massacred fleeing Iraqi soldiers who had been defeated. And he wonders where people like Terry McVeigh get violent killer ideas. His whole life has been promoting and managing state violence and helping build the infrastructure to move young males out of a peace society into one of killer soldiers. >>
FYI, although my assumption is folks do know he was the keynote speaker at the American Library associations gathering in New Orleans some months back (but here goes anyhow) his honorarium was about $70,000. The ALA and some corporation, the name of which escapes me, split the bill with the lion's share coming from the corporation. By all accounts his speech was boilerplate. Some members of the ALA protested, which is good all around. There was a picket line outside and unless I am confusing this instance with another wherein some equally reprehensible person spoke at an ALA event folks also stood up and turned their backs on him. Subtle, yes but there was no way to dismiss this protest as ungrateful trust fund kids on a lark, welfare queens with their gas guzzling late '70s caddy's idling out front, over educated nutjobs, "feminazis" (I quote because that is a particularly malignant one), or any other loony lefty. These are librarians, while probably next in line after public schoolteachers for stigmatization(starting already actually), the most respected across the political spectrum and most recognizably (forgive me) organic intellectuals out there. mcapri