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.

Ok maybe I'll email the SPLC and ask them about their investigations regarding this situation. I appreciate your explanation.

As far as the other stuff: If what you get out of these stories your mentioning is what you are writing than I understand why you don't like what people are writing. I personally was at the Louise Slaughter situation and I didn't like a lot of what was written about it. I didn't support some of the things some of the people being arrested were doing. That being said, the act of those protesting at (it wasn't Slaughter's office it was somebody else's I'm pretty sure, some guy), that person's office was actually very dubious. The police tricked them into leaving without being arrested. I have no real thoughts on actions like that-it's not something I would participate in personally because I don't know if I think it's effective either. But some people did think it would be effective, and I do think that's newsworthy. I think it's newsworthy that people are starting to do things that are arrestable in Rochester, NY because maybe it will break open a path to do other things that may be more effective, (in my opinion. Who knows what will actually be effective until it's done?)

As far as the being nastier and more crooked: There's only one incidence I can imagine you're referring to, and that was the first thing that I talked with you about. It's about some woman who was running for office who you say was framed for homicide or murder or something like that. I'm not sure exactly. I've heard wildly different sides of that story from a number of people. Now it seems to be old news, but then would it have been interesting to write an article from several different people's perspective? Yes. Did you write articles that you published? Probably. Did individuals within Indymedia possibly comment on those articles and disagree with them? Possibly, maybe even probably. But that's the great thing about indymedia-if individuals disagree with something, we can say it. How is that being against freedom of speech?

Andrew, I personally am tainted by the way you leave comments completely not related to the articles being written, and always seem to bring it back to yourself. Why not write a critical comment with your reasoning included? Why not write an article about why you think indymedia articles are not newsworthy, or why the techniques being used by Rochester Anti-War activists are not effective? Why not do something productive, instead of what you're doing which doesn't seem productive in the least to me. Or maybe it is: What is your goal in writing your comments?

Because what it's done for me is make me feel like I can't believe the things you say. I imagine that's not your point. So what is your point? You may be wondering why it makes me feel like I can't believe the things you say: You exagerate so much. And then it seems like you think I should just 'know' instinctively what you're doing. While at the same time you're making Indymedia look like a bunch of assholes, (i.e. saying we called you a crazy faggot when I can't imagine anybody within Indymedia editorial board combining those two terms unless a person referred to themselves as such). I think it would be more effective to make yourself look REALLY GOOD instead of trying to make R-IMC look bad.

Also one thing you've done repeatedly is refer to people in R-IMC as if we, together, ARE Indymedia, when that couldn't be further from the truth. We're all individuals who happen to work together on a project and who do not necessarily agree on a vast quantity of things. That is one way that you've said lies in the past that it seems like you do much less now since I've mentioned it before. I'm really happy to see that because that did make you seem like you were spreading lies. Unfortunately, this 'crazy faggot' business seemed to go towards that line of thinking again. Andrew, we're not AGAINST you, but you make it pretty difficult for people to WANT to work with you because you're always being negative about what we do, and not even in a critical way, or in an understanding way, but in a...mean way. I hope that explains where my negativity is coming from.

I guess I still don't understand where yours is coming from. But if you don't either, then maybe you might like to be nicer? I bet other people would be nicer back!

Briana

p.s. What days is FHF, (or whatever it's now called?), open? And what times? I'd like to get over there now that it's warmer and my wrist seems to be feeling a little better, (which it's only been hurt for a few weeks but it's been the weeks it's finally been a little warmer).

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?