The background to Malcolm McLaren's famous last words as posted by Number 6 on 22 Nov 12 @ 11:33 AM

- a little more prosaic when perceived in context

McLaren was being treated in Switzerland for a rare cancer and was drifting in and out of consciousness with his son Joseph Corré, his 'longtime girlfriend' Young Kim and his stepson fetish and glamour photographer Ben Westwood at his side.
Ben (Vienne Westwood's son) was wearing one of his mother's t shirts bearing the slogan 'Free Leonard Peltier' and it was while looking at this McLaren was reported by Corré as saying 'Yeah, right, Free Leonard Peltier' although he doesn't appear to have been any kind of active supporter of the cause in life.
Ben Westwood, in an interview for a student magazine, said that his stepfather's work
"was influenced by Native American Indians, pirates, highwaymen and guys like that. The world will miss him."
and in response to his dying remark said "He smiled at me, clenched his fist and said 'Free Leonard Peltier',"
"He had a sense of humour to the end."

Not really the words of anyone who understands the issues involved?

I'd echo John P's plea to Ms Cornish @ 09:46 AM yesterday

Can you really be so insensitive or self centered that you are unable to see that you simply damage or at least embarrass the causes (and sometimes the performers) you promote so assiduously, some might say unremittingly?
I'm not an American and, furthermore, I don't profess to know whether Peltier is innocent or not or what his role, if any, was in the persecution and subsequent execution of Anna Mae Aquash, an activist who doesn't seem worthy of a mention.
My only personal, first hand experience of Native Americans is stopping and chatting at a Shoshoni reservation small supermarket while travelling across the mid west although I was deeply moved by many of the exhibits in The National Museum of the American Indian but delighted to discover so much tradition remains.

I AM disturbed however, by the way in which MANY offenders (including Peltier) are reported to be treated in some American prisons and would certainly support a plea for parole, as advocated by Amnesty International, in spite of your strident, hectoring, relentless and frankly deterring postings.

What I will add finally is that I feel to encapsulate all the tragic history of the native American people and fasten it onto one man, innocent or guilty, is nothing short of some kind of psycholgically perturbing cultish 'hero worship' Does Peltier truly represent ALL Native Americans does Chief Raoni represent all the various groups that oppose the Brazilian dam or does anyone else find these portrayals of the 'noble savage' image with all its colonial origins as disturbing as I do?