: It should, however, be a matter of going concern for anyone with a REAL concern with Hopi practices (such as this thing with eagles that MDG pretends to be so upset about),Last time I tried to refute this, SDF, it apparently crossed McSpotlight's line. I'll only say that you have a lot of nerve telling others what they really believe in. I don't pretend to be upset about cruelty to animals; if you think I have an ulterior motive, come out with it, but be prepared to be corrected.
You talk a good game about justice and the environment, yet somehow, when it comes to eagles being smothered, you find excuses to overlook the injustice and abuse of birds at the hands of humans. Why the inconsistency; is it because the abusers in this case fall into one of your favored groups?
:that they actually try to change the situation of REAL Hopi individuals, and that they CHANGE THEMSELVES in the process of working with the Hopi, that they divest themselves of their position of class privilege through their work.
Again, your personal animosity for me allows you to make me into whatever it is you find useful. As a matter of fact, I've done a great deal for Native Americans, as a routine part of my job. I've forsaken the class privilege you love to attribute to me for a much lower salary, in order to help those less fortunate -- and luckily, than includes wildlife. I don't need YOU telling ME to change.
:Everything else is a communiqué issued from the halls of the privilege.
I dispute that premise in my case, but are you then saying that if Bill Gates spoke out against a case of animal cruelty in the poorest ghetto, or against unfair treatment of employees in a two-bit factory, then he wouldn't be speaking out from principle, but only from privilege? You confirm the worst fears of capitalists who accuse leftists of class envy.
:Can you imagine what the Hopi Tribal Council must think about the likes of MDG?
My concern lies with saving the eagles from torture. If the Hopi Council doesn't like that, too bad.
: The point is that those who aspire to being more than "liberals" should be working with the working class, not criticizing their practices from afar under some false pretense that they "know what's happening".
You love to assume things, don't you? Better wake up. I happen to be a member of the working class. I may make more than a factory worker, but I haul myself to work everyday, take crap from the boss, and ASK PERMISSION for sick leave and vacation leave. Have YOU even entered the working world yet, or are you making lofty utterances from the privileged world of academia?
:Liberals, of course, can say anything they want, and when the shit hits the fan you will see their true colors.
Whatever that means. But then, you know what's in my heart, right?
: Me personally, I look forward to a lifetime of work with working-class children in the US, immigrant refugees from Latin America mostly, since my current routine allows me to control my diet (no meat, no grease, no exceptions) in a way so as to insure my own bodily survival. So that will be my politics. Should I happen to blunder into a good health insurance program sometime in the future, well, the sky's the limit.
Me personally, I look forward to a lifetime of serving the public, staying vegan and defending animals from human cruelty. I have a good health insurance plan, but I'll continue to speak out for national health insurance for all. Those are my politics; call them leftist, liberal, or whatever you like, but I will find common cause with anyone, even you, Sam, if our shared goals are to help the needy, alleviate suffering where it is found, and protect the Earth from despoilation.
