[ga] Re: "political advantage"

[Mike Roberts <mmr@darwin.ptvy.ca.us>]

Joanna -

>In case you hadn't noticed,
>terrorists do not vote, they throw bombs, and they avoid any form of
democratic process.

Terrorists do vote; they infiltrate democratic institutions and 
processes while they are putting their attack together.  The openness 
of free universities plays into their hands.  Our German colleagues 
have been learning over the weekend about the Islamic fundamentalist 
sect that operated at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg and 
sent three of themselves as suicide hijackers to the U.S.

>To try to turn this
>catastrophic tragedy to political advantage, by citing it as a reason to
>delay the implementation of democratic control over an autocratic entity,
suggests that somebody needs a serious reality check, or is sick, or both.

It's simply incredible that someone sitting across the bay from 
Manhattan would have so lost touch with what is happening as to make 
an assertion such as this.  Here are three headlines from this 
morning's New York Times, which can hardly be classed as a xenophobic 
paper:

" Bush Warns of a Wrathful, Shadowy and Inventive War,"

"Lawmakers Hear Ashcroft Outline Antiterror Plans."

" Investigators Explore Boundaries of Everything the Law Allows."

As Americans go back to work, we are not going back to the same 
world.  Our civil liberties are not what we casually thought they 
were a week ago.  Travelers this morning are having their possessions 
searched at airports all over the country down to the last nail file. 
In the next few days, the Congress is going to give new powers to law 
enforcement to invade our personal lives looking for the very few who 
choose to attack us. When I get on the plane next Sunday to go to 
Washington, I will know that the new orders to the Air Force are to 
shoot it down if hijacked.

In the last great challenge to American freedoms in the 50's and 
60's, I gave three years of my career and my marriage to military 
service.  Today, I am sad for the losses sustained last week in New 
York and all across the country and I am even sadder that another 
young generation of Americans is about to suffer loss of life in 
defending them again.

So if I sound angry and self-righteous about the all-too-frequent 
trash on this list, I am.  This anonymous narcissistic garbage is not 
an exercise of freedom, it is an abuse of freedom.

Life at ICANN isn't going to be the same either.  Given the military 
mindset and anti-terrorist measures in Washington and other capitals, 
there is going to be a much greater stress on operational oversight 
of the DNS, on stability and on synchronization with related Internet 
security steps. There is going to be much less interest in who is 
represented by whom on the Board.

The GA, bastion of rugged individualism, has an opportunity to 
contribute to the solutions to these challenges.  But if you're not 
interested in being part of common solutions and the compromises 
involved in them, and if throwing rocks at me for being the messenger 
of the new reality gives you a bigger thrill, go right ahead and lay 
a claim to irrelevance.

- Mike















At 3:44 -0400 9/17/01, Joanna Lane wrote:
>http://angua.rince.de/icann-europe/2001/09/msg00004.html
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>*    From: Mike Roberts <mmr@darwin.ptvy.ca.us>
>*    Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2001 21:23:56 -0700
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>At the time, going on three weeks ago, I had in mind something like
>US $100 from several thousand individuals who actually were willing
>to put their money where their mouth was about having a functioning
>At Large organization.
>
>Today, that idea is out the window, along with a lot of other
>populist notions about any old terrorist around the globe getting to
>vote on how to run the DNS.
>
>When civilization takes a step backward, as it did last week, it
>usually means a period in which the people with the guns make the
>decisions.  Anyone watching the American President on tv in recent
>days knows that's where we're at.  It may be a while before the
>luxury of debating what constitutes consensus in a terrorist-less
>society returns.
>
>If you were thinking about contributing to an ICANN ALSO, send it to
>the Red Cross instead.
>
>- Mike
>
>______________________________________________________
>
>Hello Mike,
>
>Excuse me? Unless I am very much mistaken, the implication here is that
>there should not now be a functioning ALSO because "any old terrorist" would
>disguise themselves as an honest, law abiding citizen, then capture the
>bottom-up consensus building mechanism. In case you hadn't noticed,
>terrorists do not vote, they throw bombs, and they avoid any form of
>democratic process. The implication that there should not now be a
>functioning ALSO until the USA rids the world of terrorism is equally
>laughable. Terrorism is nothing new, and however many guns are thrown at it,
>it will always exist in one insidious form or another. To try to turn this
>catastrophic tragedy to political advantage, by citing it as a reason to
>delay the implementation of democratic control over an autocratic entity,
>suggests that somebody needs a serious reality check, or is sick, or both.
>
>
>Regards,
>
>Joanna
>
>P.S. We don't need to debate what constitutes consensus. There is a
>mechanism in place already.
>
>The URLs for Best Practices: DNSO Citation:
>http://www.dnso.org/dnso/gaindex.html
>(Under "Other Information Documents"; "August 2001:
>Proposal for Best Practices for the DNSO GA")
>Part I:
>http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20010813.GA-BestPractices.html
>Part II:
>http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20010813.GA-BP-flowchart.pdf
>(Access to the .pdf file requires installing the Adobe Acrobat
>Reader, which is available for free down load at
>http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.)
>
>
>
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