Subject: A Clear Choice

From: Bob Allisat <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 07:49:09 -0500 (EST)

We are all offered a clear choice by
 recent events. If you join ICANN and
 it's illegitimate process you become
 part of the problem *not* the solution. 
 All around, the dance to win this one
 has basically been engaged by people
 who share common ideologies, values
 and even the same cultural heritage.
 It should be no surprise that, once
 dealt what appears to be a final blow,
 the opposition melts into the ICANN
 wallpaper to dutifully take their
 places as the emasculated but never-
 the-less usefull rump bitching party.
 Birds of a feather ...

 Those among us who do not share this
 background, who are not cut from the
 same American made cloth, who do not
 think the same thoughts also have very
 little choice in this matter. To join
 is to validate and legitimize a structure
 and process that oppresses and represses
 our selves and our often nascent or
 silent constituencies. What may work
 for net-business people and technicians
 or well heeled lawyers of whatever stripe
 only hinders and handicaps those among us
 not blessed enough to be among the ranks
 of these most hallowed of our fellow
 predominatly U.S. citizens.
 
 The bandwagon will have to go on without
 me, without us. You may all run for what-
 ever offices and make whatever points you
 will. But the real fight continues regard-
 less and quite outside your confines. Piling
 one Acronym onto another, creating one in-
 adequate and non-representative organization
 after another is *not* the solution. It is
 the perpetuation of the divides and limitations,
 a safeguard for the elite and their financial
 backers and benificiaries.

 We the people, average and ordinary remain
 locked out, frozen into more or less terminal
 submission and silence by one and all inside
 the comfortable confines of a status quo that
 was never, ever seriously in any doubt. That
 is the tragedy of it all. That is the humour
 of it all. All that talk about change, openess,
 transparency, yada, yada, yada, was just so
 much smoke and mirrors. On all sides. When it
 came down to the crunch it's "Let's Make A Deal"
 and screw the good folks who pay all the bills,
 will get stuck with all the costs and may never
 live to see the day when anything is any differant.

 Without hestitation  or regret I remain yours in 
 good faith, solidarity and permanent intrasegance.
 If you can't say "Fuck ICANN, the US Government
 and all who will buck up to them you can't say fuck". 
 This ain't fucking over by a long haul. I'll see
 you on the other side of all this revolting and
 disgusting compromise and nastiness. Even if the
 other side is forty years from now. We will live
 to see the day when change manifests itself. Make
 your deals, play you games. Count me out until
 there is something real and honest on the table.

 Peace.

 Bob Allisat

 Free Community Network _ [email-masked] . http://fcn.net
 http://fcn.net/allisat _ http://fcn.net/draft