Posted by Julia from public034128.library.northwestern.edu (129.105.34.128) on Sunday, June 02, 2002 at 11:45PM :
In trying to work for the Assyrian cause,
we first need to know what is an Assyrian
and what is the Assyrian's cause. If I'm
not mistaken, Fred defines the Assyrian
as anyone interested in the history and
culture of the ancient and contemporary
Assyrian people. Therefore, anyone can
be "assyrian," so as long as they have some
expressed interest in the Assyrian heritage.
Following this, the Assyrian cause is the
promotion of the Assyrian heritage. This
includes the promotion of Assyrian art,
language, music and other aspects of
Assyrian culture.
In defining the Assyrian and the Assyrian
cause, Assyrians should abandon their
claims of being wronged in the past by Muslims
or Arabs. Instead they should be forward
looking, working with professionals of
all backgrounds, "who will not
give a damn for Simele, the Turks 100 years ago
...or any of the other backwards looking things
we go round and round about in
these places." Given his definitions
of who is Assyrian and what the Assyrian
cause is, it is fruitless to squabble over
what Muslims "did to us," or
(shoot i am typing this in the library and it
now closed, i'll finish later)
-- Julia
-- signature .