> When facts warrant our speaking up, yes, but facts aren't easy to come
by, especially when it comes to individual cases in faraway places,
alleged by one side and denied by the other side.
Well, my queer friends who live in the Middle East tell me it is pretty horrid. They may be lying to me, but as a default position I believe what they are telling me is true.
> I'd recommend that we speak up on the matters that are clearly the
case
But how do you define things that are "clearly the case." One person's clarity can be another's fog bank.
> At the same time, we can't have any illusion that our speaking up here
makes any difference whatsoever over there. The only people who can
>change things in Syria fundamentally, for better or worse, are
organized social forces in Syria or those who are running the multinational
empire.
But by speaking up we put on notice whoever does or wants to run things that this is an issue that we will not allow to be ignored.
> It would be a different thing if we were running the US government, but
that is not the case today.
But isn;t that the goal we are working toward? Do we wait until we achieve it to start speaking? Should AIDS activists remained silent when they had no power whatsoever? The only reason they got power was that they made a fuss.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister