Iris Chang Banged: MAS and Mass Delusions

The highly publicized MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) campaign in

South America proceeds at its snail’s pace - with newly-elected

Bolivian hope Morales claiming that we’ll have to live with capitalism

for at least another fifty years- in spite of our mythical

MAS (Modern American Solidarity), not because we provide any

substantial support. I woke up today thinking of this all in light of

the late Iris Chang, of all people.

More bipolar than Iris are we. Hers is a death all should dwell on.

>From my angle here.

Immediately after Iris Chang committed suicide (virtually around the

corner from me), I submitted an obituary of sorts to...everyone. For what

should be obvious reasons for anyone who knows anything about her/her

work. I followed it up, shortly thereafter, with another piece as

previously unknown details about her life and death emerged. The one

site that had been posting my stuff regularly for quite some time was

out of commission at the time of her death, and I was lucky to get a

relatively minor blogger to put up my Chang-related work. In

retrospect, it seems as if sites I had been submitting articles to

routinely refused to post anything by me at the time...because

of “differences” about left-leaning (and personal) issues. That,

without posting anything by anyone about Iris, in total disrespect for

her departure from this world. Screw the “Too Rad” rather than do the

Right Thing by Iris...for the benefit for one and all.

The experience was one of many instances in which the so-called Left

proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Solidarity (which could lead to

any sufficient/meaningful change) was a self-serving

chimera...soft-underbellied, or silly. To ignore the fire-breathing,

wondrous she-monster which was Iris Chang -who possessed one of the

essential entities needed to battle man’s inhumanity/ignorance- was to

definitively put the final nail in the coffin of “Collective

Correctitude.” Not in terms of small corners, of course. But

in the Big Picture...with its requisite broad concerns, and sense of

urgency. Wherein lies the only long-range hope for reformers and

revolutionaries alike.

Again, I say this because The Cold Chang Shoulder -a tongue-twister

if there ever was one- is part of an unacknowledged pattern

among those claiming to want change. Sorry, no Chang, no Change.

I had saved my two articles on Iris in a Drafts Folder on a Yahoo

account ’cause I knew the minor blogger was about to go out of

business. You’d think that’d be enough of an effort. But no, Lesson #2

had to rear its ugly head. To wit, overnight...without warning or

justification or explanation, I was denied access to that Yahoo

account. And to judge from the thousands of complaints from used

Yahoo users I’ve read since, I have no reason to expect any

clarity/justice/access in the future.

Go figure. Rather, forget my relatively minor concerns/efforts

here...and get at least some kind of decent hit of Iris’ demise by

vigorously blending what’s at http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2004/11/irischangfoun.html

with Heidi Benson’s (much more important article): http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/17/CMGCNBQ

RRP1.DTL

Richard Oxman, at info@parisgraves.com, lives in Los Gatos,

California. His recent writing is available at www.oxtogrind.org.