McGrath - There's a good deal of truth in what you said. The same kind of thing can be said of the black community in the USA...another traumatized and oppressed group of people who have suffered greatly in the last few hundred years. Only thing is, it can be pretty frustrating dealing with it, if you deeply love the traditional values of such a community. I loved everything "Indian" from the time I was old enough to walk, and I just naturally gravitated toward it with an innocent heart, so to speak, and got awfully frustrated later by all the infighting in the community. However, it was a powerful learning experience and it eventually led to my according greater respect to all people in general rather than a few in particular...so I guess it turned out okay in the end.

The fact is, virtually all people are being oppressed in one way or another...and the few rich and powerful at the top just love those old "divide and conquer" tactics of splitting the rest of us up into proud, hostile little tribes and focusing our anger on each other. Like Boss Tweed said in "Gangs of New York", "you can always get one half of the poor to kill the other half for you..." Uh-huh. Easily done. Just focus on the trivial differences...like skin colour, religion, nationality or language.

Peter T. - You are a wise man, my friend.

Clinton - Yeah. "The Abyss" is a great movie.

SINSULL - I've never seen "The Day The Earth Caught Fire". Sounds pretty spectacular.

- LH