The idea that ANSWER put major organizational effort into June 1 is also patently absurd. Maybe it was “major” for them but it’s not like they had anything to do with organizing things in Phoenix. Trying to associate them with the hard work of the people who actually organized things Phoenix, is plainly opportunistic and typical of the ANSWER and PSL formation. This is pretty illustrative of the things people find wrong with the ANSWER and PSL formations. They try to glob on and take credit for things they didn’t do and beat their chest about how big and important they are. On June 1 ANSWER and PSL were in Phoenix with a pushcart for sound and some banners. Big whoop. Guess what, a whole bunch of other people were there and no one seems to be writing articles about them coming into town. Once again, the question is why?

See you in Arizona.

And as far as the nationwide scene, and not just Arizona, the work of ANSWER, and MANY groups on the left, on behalf of immigrant rights, goes back years. The slogan “A world without borders” has been a slogan on the left for decades. And the recent upsurge in activity around the issue hardly started in Arizona, but in Los Angeles, in 2006. ANSWER and PSL have been an integral part of organizing May Day rallies that day and ever since. Whether they have “extraordinary status” in the movement you can decide for yourself, I wouldn’t particularly contend that, but it is a fact that, for example, this year in Los Angeles, where the biggest May Day rally by far was held, two of the speakers were from ANSWER and PSL (http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=13969). These are simple facts. Do you deny them? It seems clear to me that the author of the article quoted in this post is either ignorant of those facts, or chose to willfully ignore them. Since I don’t know who the author is, I won’t attempt to choose between those alternatives. In either case, the assertion of “appearing overnight” is, as I claimed in my first remarks, utter nonsense.

Also, learn to read. I said I wasn’t going into the issue too much because I only saw it in passing and it deserves more talk. Seriously, you could write pages on the issues raised here. But, I’m not sure I have time for that as I am preparing to go to Arizona tonight. The only reason I commented on this was because of the enormity of the joke of you, Stephen, talking about being “divorced from the struggle” given your own detached, smug and aloof criticism.

It’s hypocritical for you to attack the post for raising what may be valid criticisms.

For the record I do lot’s of work in the immigrant rights movement so the manager of this site has intimate knowledge of the various goings on in the immigrant rights movement from me and just in general from other people he associates with. He knows at least a little about what he’s talking about. Acting as if ANSWER has some extraordinary status in the movement deserving of special attention when they are barely a blip on anyone’s radar just feeds into this self-aggrandizement I mentioned previously. See, what you don’t get is that many other groups have organized buses, yet for some reason you want to afford ANSWER some special status. No one else is beating their chest about how many buses they organized. Thing is if so many other groups have organized buses to support the cause in Arizona then why is ANSWER or PSL one of the few being criticized?

These are simple questions, nothing too mind boggling. In light of your initial reply it’s something you should consider when you post things.

Johannes Mehserle would not have been convicted had not several BART riders video’ed him shooting Oscar Grant in the back. Now imagine if the videos were on UStream within seconds after the shooting.

B, I notice with all your blathering you didn’t bother to refute what I actually said in my comment. Of course that’s because you can’t, because what I said is the simple truth.

That said, I “knew” when I was 6, and also knew it would not be received well by my family (who disowned me when I did finally come out). “Knowing” from the age of 3 seems a bit of a fetch to me, but not impossible. But what would one propose as an alternative? “Encouraging” a biological boy to be more “masculine”? How would you do that? Buying him masculine toys? Social taunting? Some other form of punishment for being “effeminate”? Spankings? Beatings?

Kids will be kids. Some kids don’t notice sex, gender, or attractions until later in life, some notice it earlier. It sounds like these parents are encouraging their child to be a kid and live as they see fit. They’re not considering reassignment surgery until they’re an adult, but are affirming their support if/when that time comes. It may just be a phase, or it could be real, but in any case they love their child and will support them. If more parents showed such unconditional love for their children this world would be a much better place.