Click on the URL to see the face of the world's REAL TERRORIST THREAT!!!

Over 7,000 people have died in the most horrific terrorist attack in recent history... and all you have to say is that "Uncle Sam is wanted dead or alive for terrorism." That's wonderful... you're really reaching out to a nation in deep anguish and pain... a people hurt and confused... a nation deeply wounded. People from 80 countries DIED in the rubble of the World Trade Center, around 200 Moslems amongst them. I'm sure that those who are DEEPLY GRIEVING at the present will be most receptive to your infantile and insensitive remarks.

If Independent Media is to be nothing more than a sandbox for wanna be "radicals" and purist "anarchists" who enjoy outdoing each other in "revolutionary rhetoric"... then fine, there is no need to change.

If on the other hand, Indy Media is SERIOUS about being an alternative source of information to inform, educate, and activate people... then there should be an overhaul of how things are done around here. I've seen pictures of burning U.S. flags and silly posts galore posted here... none of which have addressed the REAL problems we are now faced with. Thousands are already dead on the Eastern seaboard... Arab Americans are being MURDERED in a racist backlash. Young Men and Women are about to be sent into a meat grinder called Afghanistan. Now is not the time for silly games.

People who post on Indy Media should be RESPONSIBLE and mindful that many... MANY people are visiting this site for the FIRST TIME... they are looking for answers they cannot and will not find in the corporate media. Now that PACIFICA has rolled over and DIED... Indy Media is more important than ever before!

Please don't lecture me on the crimes of the U.S. I'm well aware of the broken lives and the many dead left behind by American foreign policy... from Wounded Knee to Vietnam... from Nicaragua to Iraq's starving Children. I know. But the point is to get EVERYONE to know... and posting pictures on Indy Media of a U.S. Flag being burned... or posting that Uncle Sam is "Wanted Dead of Alive" is a sure fire way to isolate and make useless this incredible experiment in democracy known as the Independent Media Center.

PLEASE, People... if you have to show how "radical" you are by calling Uncle Sam a Terrorist, go do it somewhere else.

Indy media is the sum total of the folks who contribute to it. The above poster is correct that you sometimes have to slog through a lot of schlock to get to the juicy stuff. So what is the alternative? The New York Times? CNN? You makes your choice and you live with the consequences.

As for mandating the quality of the posts, how do you suppose this should be done? Would you like to draw up a criteria list for what is publishable and what is not? Who would you leave out? Most of the stuff you see on the mainstream media already has dissident opinion 'weeded out' because someone claims to be offended or doesn't agree with it. We know of the consequences of this kind of censorship - an uncritical audience that is unable to think for itself. Are we to become no better than that?

The true value of Indy Media is that there will be lots of stuff you don't agree with. Let's call it open publishing - n o censors, no limitations on free speech. As for weeding out, let every reader develop the critical consciousness necessary to sift through all this stuff and determine for him or her self what is valuable and what is trite, what is informative and what is insulting. Take what you want and leave the rest behind. If some analysis is missing - WRITE IT! If you find something particularly offensive - VOICE IT!

I would like to not have to 'lecture' anyone on the numerous crimes the US has committed but it is important to understand that it is precisely these crimes that informs world opinion. If you truly want to understand why the US is despised then you may have to embrace images that might offend your delicate sensibilities. Note the above image came from South Africa. Rather than critique it why not try and understand what conditions inform the image (my personal perception is that the image is a take on Bush's wild west rhetoric).

And PLEASE, I know you are hurting right now but try not to rub my face in all the recent dead as if I was responsible, exploiting the memories of the dead to rationalize your version of censorship. You dishonor the dead when you succumb to such maudlin sentiments.