Posted by panch from pool0197.cvx20-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.250.197) on Friday, July 19, 2002 at 1:39PM :
In Reply to: Re: Trust fund ... seriously posted by Melody from sankhya2.math.ualberta.ca (129.128.207.126) on Friday, July 19, 2002 at 1:21PM :
: OK, we should stick to one thing at a time. I will gladly donate to a trust fund for needy Assyrians; especially if you and people I trust set it up.
++++Melody...just for our own sake...let's stop referring to ourselves as "needy". Who isn't needy? We are to be commended and feel great pride that we've managed to make it this far. There are "needy" kids living on the streets of this, the greatest of all countries.
++++There has to be a better way to refer to us. Thanks for the vote of confidence.
++++But let's be real...many of our people will first look to see who "leads" or even who else is involved...before they'll consider the mission.
+++I'll never forget the patriotic Assyrian who signed the petition against Ross in LA...only to cross his name off when he found out I was not a Christian. I met him later, and he smiled at me sheepishly...either he'd realized something on his own...or someone else had browbeaten him. At least he seemed contrite...as well he should.
+++The less I have to do with this thing, the better...though it misght be too late already. But even so...we have a newer generation coming along ...our only hope, anyway, is that we foster a new way of thinking about these things.
+++If it takes 100 years to come to any kind of fruition, I am content to start building a base among some of us, and our children and their children. It took a long time to get this low...we will have to be willing to be as patient working our way back up.
++++We'll all know what's in the fund...and no one is going to touch it until we develop some way, through consensus...or whatever, in deciding what to do with it.
++I know this seems like a pipe dream right now...a less than a drop in the bucket. But that isn't the point...we need an attitude shift or we'll continue this dismal slide. There has to be ONE beacon that points a way into the future. Here's where having faith in ourselves, as Assyrians, will be tested. No one is going to be asked to kill themselves, to deny family and neglect friends for our Ompapatah....no.
++++What we want is to develop a working faith...a system...an approach. We need a structure to hang whatever funds we may get in the future...a way of seeing our role in this world unlike what we have been doing till now.
+++We need faith, and an approach, long before we need immediate cash. If we can't save Lina...let's at least put steps in motion that might help us help someone else in the future. You know there will always be this need.
-- panch
-- signature .