Solidarity my butt.. Rochester Indymedia has never believed in solidarity re: the Rochester Left.

I had all the same problems with the City using code enforcement and police misconduct as a political tool.

"I didn't speak up when they came for Mr. Stankevich because I wasn't a crazy faggot."

I can get the Southern Poverty Law Center to run two stories on me and highlight me in their "year in hate" report, but nothing from Rochester Indymedia (not that I really care... but still).

Did someone honestly say they didn't stand behind you because they weren't a crazy faggot? Who?

Andrew, maybe I'm missing something-what happened originally that has made it so that you work so hard to get positive attention from Indymedia while at the same talking so poorly about Indymedia members, and seemingly therefore Indymedia itself. I would love to know exactly what has happened, and not a completely one sided story of it either, which is what I feel like I always get from you. Because it seems like it has to be something really bad for you to consistently act this way.

People in R-IMC editorial board aren't against you just to be against you, Andrew. What happened? And where does your own personal responsibility lie in it? What did other people do that you wish was done differently?

You seem to frequently mention that R-IMC publishes only stories about our friends, and then seemingly connect our friendship with individuals to Metrojustice. Well, Declaration of Peace is not a part of Metrojustice from what I understand. That aside, people go to what they feel like going to, and write stories about what they feel like writing stories about. You frequently write stories about yourself and your struggles and they are not taken down. It seems then that your problem is that people don't take time out of their day to go and research your struggles. Is that your actual problem? You seem to throw in arguments that Indymedia is not a community activist organization-which is a current problem but it doesn't have to continue to be one. It will hopefully eventually be a tool that community activists do use to communicate their issues, but not everything gets done at once. We can't find create a new site, work our regular jobs, take care of our kids, uphold relationships, open a community center, start a bike collective, run screenings, and motivate other people to spend their time writing articles after doing all the things they have to do with their day as well. It's a lot to take on.

We all have big visions, but every part of that vision can't happen at once. It would be great if it could, but on top of this project which is a part of all of our lives, we have a lot of other things to do. Your life was seemingly FHF, and you're feeling unfairly ousted from that organization, which may or may not in the end be true. That being said though, it's unfair to use an article written by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a way to back up your story because they clearly wrote it strictly from things that you'd sent them.

People in Indymedia don't choose to do that because, possibly, they have a history with you. So what is that history, according to you, that keeps everyone so seperate instead of being able to get along?

Briana

OK... I didn't mean to say that
"I didn't speak up when they came for Mr. Stankevich because I wasn't a crazy faggot." was a quote from an RI person. I put quotes around that sentence because I was playing off of that famous anti-holocaust quote. "I didn't speak out when they came for the ___ because I wasn't a _____. And when they came for me, there was nobody left to speak up for me." It think it's pretty obvious that no one from RI said that and I wasn't accusing them of saying that. I'm sorry if you misinterpreted that.

I guess what it comes down to is that I feel that Rochester Indymedia has some sort of strong bias against me which is hypocritical to your so-called mission of giving a voice to fringe activists who don't have a voice through traditional media.

A lot of the stories you cover aren't news, and aren't news by a long shot and are super lame. I support the anti-war movement, but stories like "local activists complain about lack of news coverage" and "activists complain about not being let into Louise Slaughter's office to do the same unproductive tactic as they've done repeatedly before" reek of lameness and betray your mission.

I'm not sure who it is that I have personal history with... but I really don't have any problmes with anyone in RI and would be happy to discuss any past "history." I think that if RI really dedicates itself to underground activism that's been denied access to media, it shouldn't cling to petty personality difficulties. It's called "professionalism."

I love it how RI does a better job of discrediting grassroots activists than the mainstream media does. And RI's unwarranted bias against me is my real problem. Someone in your ranks has some personal dislike against me and therefore destroys my credibility for this reason. You know that I wasn't actually accusing RI people of saying that quote against me. Find a lie, a real lie, that I said anywhere on the Indymedia page. Seriously. I can find lies from your friends... and maybe that's why the D&C doesn't cover the anti-war movement, because Metro Justice or whomever lied to the press about needing donations from the public to sustain their storefront, when it really wasn't true. Hello?!?

The Southern Poverty Law Center are NO JOKE and are SUPER professional in their work. They may have an agenda, in that they are anti-hate and tend to report negatively about hate organizations, but aside from that... they work VERY hard to maintain their credibility. I'm not going to get into details, but the SPLC reporter THOROUGHLY investigated my claims and was VERY concerned about not printing wild allegations. The Nation of Yahweh, who also has a lot of money and lawyers, have previously threatened to sue the SPLC for slander (the NOY never followed through with the suit), so I'm sure that the SPLC will be VERY careful about what the print about the NOY.

Once again, you have no idea what you're talking about and almost go out of your way to disbelieve anything I say, even if it makes sense and is verified by independent sources.

I mean, you're supposed to be for freedom of speech and alternative media, but when it comes to treating people with different perspectives than your own, y'all are nastier and more crooked than any main stream media could ever be.

I don't know how the dispute with RI started, but as far as I can remember, it was RI people implying that I was lying when I really wasn't right after the 367 Lyell Avenue dispute. I admit that on rare occassions, I may make mistakes, but I'm a 100% honest person.

What did you hear?