Star Chamber Censorship of CHINOOK - I +DEMAND+ a vote!

[James Douglas]

Since Dave R. apparently waited until I was overseas before pulling my
access rights to CHINOOK I can only conclude that the secrecy and
high-handedness with which this action was taken was accompanied by some
planning.  I'm a long way from I-5, to be sure.  Because I don't have my own
inbox and address book here in the web cafe in Kuala Lumpur I can't remember
the addresses of list members to be able to cc. the following reply to
Dave's announcement of my suspension so I've created this new hotmail
account so I can post my reply to the list.  No doubt it will be pulled as
soon as Dave and his gang are aware I'm back; but whoever y'all are you
won't be rid of me this easily.  How handy for them that my chance to reply
to their action against me was theoretically negated by my not having
subscription rights to the list.  It just ain't that simple, and if there's
a decision to be made then it's the WHOLE LIST that should make that
"decision to censor", NOT just Dave R. and his bunch of in-the-closet
pollyannas.

So look here - read on to both the announcement of my demise and my
righteous response to it.  Please note that Dave R. in his announcement
didn't even have the jam to name me by name, or even to cite exactly what it
is that people find offensive.  They also didn't have the jam to email me,
or to confront me in the list; exactly how many people is this, Dave?  Out
of a list membership of how many?

  "Purporting" is a loaded word, Dave, and what you've "purported" about me
is going to find its way to the people that run Linguistlist's listserve, as
I don't feel you actions are justified and I know there are other people in
the list who feel the same way.  Sure, there may be people who don't like
the idea that a cultus whiteman should take the initiative concerning the
Jargon in BC, or in trying to find surviving records or resources of the
Jargon up here.  Or maybe they just don't like me using "mamook" instead of
"munk", or in sticking to the non-IPA/GR traditional spelling.  Are my plans
for a glyphic font for the Jargon just a bit too much?  Is my interest in
Metis French vs. dictionary French just another form of impropriety in your
authoritative and oh-so-high-and-mighty eyes?  Maybe the idea of mapping the
Jargon is just a bit too rich? Or that I'm actually setting myself the
difficult task of learning St'at'imcets.  Hmmm.  Would letters of reference
as to my non-racist character from my Stl'atl'imx and other BC First Nations
friends suffice to meet with your dire approval?

What a crock. If there's controversy in some of my posts, then BLOODY WELL
discuss it in public and see if your complaints hold water (they didn't last
time) instead of hiding in the bathroom trying to figure out how to get me
thrown out of school.  Peshak tenas.

Scott out in Neah Bay - do you find me off-base?  Nadja - I'd say we'd even
gotten kind of amicable since our blow-out about the whalehunt last year,
wake nah?  David Lewis - you had a look around my webpages and seemed to
like what you saw, and have been responding un-negatively to my posts;
you're not one of this Star Chamber court are you?  Tony Johnson - no way,
man, why don't you just write me if you've got a problem?  Lisa Peppan in
Seattle - what do you think about this offensive and ornery hyas-hyas
whiteman (she knows I'm big, very big)?  Dell?  Henry?  Why can't you guys
just speak openly, if it's you that's involved in this "decision" to censor
me, even if I'm one of the few people in the list who can actually express
himself in the Jargon?  And who actually gives a s**t about the history of
the Jargon on this side of the border.

I know where the few Canadians in the list stand, and I know where many of
the lurkers stand (I get mail from them; some of them are even friends).
All these people know who I am and what I believe and where I'm coming from.
  I've NEVER "purported" to represent anyone else's opinions; I've only
offered my own OR recounted native opinions that were told to me BY NATIVES
(as in the example of 'why some native linguists are wary of the Jargon');
what HAS happened in the list is that other people have PURPORTED that my
posts contained sentiments and allegations that they QUITE CLEARLY did not.
In fact, I asked for precise quotations of exactly what was taken offense
to; no one provided any such, and it was only David Lewis who had the guts
to say "um, I didn't really say that"; no indeed, he hadn't, although other
people behaved as if he actually had ("that's telling him, David" etc.).
Geez, people, if a pro-native person like myself can't express himself
without fear of condemnation, how do you expect people less sympathetic to
native culture to give half a s**t in future.

When I get back to BC from this trip I'm going to have a serious reappraisal
of exactly what it is that "you guys" have pulled.  I'm on business and
planning on a vacation in Bali for a few days and don't really want to think
of the venom and small-mindedness that I've been treated with in CHINOOK by
this action.  But I WILL be taking this up with LinguistList, and will call
for a vote of the membership as to the right of the Star Chamber (Law kopa
tsiltsil house) to "punish" me for nothing other than their own
sensitivities.

Go ahead; cancel cultus_whiteman at hotmail.com if you feel you need to; since
you've already granted yourself the power to.  But I won't go away that
easily.  Censorship is the power used to shore up half-baked
prejudices......

Dave's announcement of my suspension follows, including my response.

Mike Cleven
http://members.home.net/skookum/ (the _other_ Chinook Jargon website)

>From: David Robertson <drobert at TINCAN.TINCAN.ORG>
>Reply-To: David Robertson <drobert at TINCAN.TINCAN.ORG>
>To: CHINOOK at listserv.linguistlist.org
>Subject: Protocol
>Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 19:28:23 -0800
>
>LhaXayEm.
>
>There have been recurring and frequent postings to this list which have
>purported to represent facts about and views of various First Nations
>communities.
>
>These postings have not abated even in response to gentle corrections.
>
>The author(s) of the postings is / are now removed from this list.
>
>I, as moderator, and I am very sure the membership at large of CHINOOK,
>offer heartfelt apologies to the First Nations people needlessly offended
>by those messages.

Why don't you cite these messages, Dave, to back up the sense of opporobrium
you've taken it upon yourself to apologize for here?
>
>We shall try to ensure that unfortunate events like this do not recur.

"Unfortunate events".....what, that someone who doesn't cater to your prissy
sensitivities actually has a pretty good fluent grasp of the Jargon?   I've
been the victim of some pretty nasty prejudice in my own time, both in this
list and concerning other things in the REAL WORLD as well (like, for
example, being skookum burdash in smalltown redneck BC).  So I know what
REAL prejudice and offensiveness is, not the imagined kind that people are
apparently talking behind my back about here.  Do none of these people have
faces and names, Dave?  Hyas kangaroo court mahsh okook wawa.  Cultus
tillikum, okook.
>
>Dret sIk tEmtEm nay:  I am sorry.

You better be Dave.  What's up with this?  I know now why my posts from
yesterday were rejected.  Since when are YOU the moral arbiter or what is
and what's not acceptable in CHINOOK?  Since when is it proper and polite
for people to whine and bitch behind the back of the person whose opinions
they don't even have the courage to challenge; is it because the last time
they tried I was able to show that they were calling me names I didn't
deserve.  David Lewis backed off quite publicly from his attack on me; but
obviously attacks from other people haven't been quite so public, have they?

Where in our community has there ever been a discussion of policies for this
procedure?  And WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?

What EXACTLY is it anyway that I've said that's offended WHO?  What gets me
about the behaviour towards me is that it's ALL been backstabbing, and
what's been said about what I've supposed to have said was complete and
WILLFUL misinterpretation.  I've said NOTHING racist, demeaning or otherwise
insulting, despite the fact that I've often been slandered quite openly by
the same people who don't have the guts to email me directly about it.  Is
it because I have an untoward interest in the history of the region that
doesn't "fit" with the PC-version of history that you and the complainers
apparently prefer.  AFAIK even Nadja and I - who went head to head over
whales a while back - have been amicably trading notes on possible domestic
words, and actually making an effort to communicate in the Wawa on a fairly
regular basis.

What's been offensive?  That I persist in using "mamook" instead of "munk"?
Or my clumsy but earnest efforts to uncover the history and content of the
Jargon as it was in BC?  My dreams of trying to get BC Jargon speakers (from
whatever ethnic or political background) up and active as a community?  My
efforts to inject some humour into the dry-as-a-bone linguistics content
that is the preferred posting style of some list members?  WHAT'S WITH YOU
PEOPLE??  Mamook getup pe iskum nose kopa kaupy.

Shutting me out of CHINOOK is bullshit.  Complete and utter bullshit.  Yaka
"law" mitlite cultus.  Elip, hyas mesachie.  Kah mahsh wawa kopa mamook
naika wake kopa CHINOOK?  Kah iskum CHINOOK?

The Jargon does NOT belong exclusively to native people, nor does CHINOOK
have a posted set of political-correctness rules, nor do you as moderator
have the right to arbitrarily suspend me, even if you claim to have
attempted to 'gently correct' me in the past.  I was NOT "gently corrected"
- I was openly slandered and insulted for things I didn't even say and
opinions I didn't even have, and I took rightful issue with that nonsense as
was my right and DUTY.

To think you live in the land where free speech is a constitutional right.
I can feel the hands of political high-and-mightiness choking at my
Jargon-speaking throat already; what's next? - a complaint to have my very
extensive Jargon web pages taken down because I've "approriated" a native
language?  Maika mamook peshak. Konaway peshak maika mamook, pe hyas cultus.

I'm cc.ing this to those list members whose addresses I can remember; I'm
far from my home unit so don't have my address book handy.  If I weren't in
Kuala Lumpur today, in fact, I'd probably drive down to Spokane to talk to
you about this in person.  Or, if you wish, down to Grand Ronde where I'm
willing to take on whatever council/court of opinion has passed judgement on
me so harshly - for so little.  For nothing at all, in fact, IMHO.  Tony
hasn't written me about this, nor Scott nor Nadja nor anyone else, yet all
of them have my email address; not even you bothered to do anything than
cite "gentle corrections" which were really a bunch of insults and
off-the=wall allegations of things I actually didn't even say, or claims
that I have attitudes and prejudices that I don't, in fact, have in the
slightest.  Maika cultus yahkwatin.  Wake yahkwatin (gutless). If you wanted
to get me riled so I'd say something insulting, you did it.  And I'll take
this up with linguistlist.org, too, and if necessary have the whole bloody
list shut down.  But don't start pretending that _I_ was the one who started
pissing on the campfire.  So much for the Jargon being a bridge between
native and non-native histories and communities.  I can smell the wagons
burning already.....

Did you actually WAIT until you knew I was away in Asia before daring to do
this?  Incroyable.....

Konaway msaika - nanitch kopa shelokum pe mamook ask - kahkwa huloima
nanitch Mike?  Mitlite Mike mesachie?  Mitlite Mike cultus whiteman?  Kahkwa
tumtum msaika kopa konaway okook?

[all the rest of you - have a look in the mirror and ask yourselves - how
does Mike look different?  Is Mike evil or naught?  Is Mike a damned
whiteman?  How do you feel about all this?


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