JC> What I _wish_ would happen is that the discussion groups would be so
  > _busy_ discussing _other_ NA issues that they don't have _time_ to deal
  > with the "spirituality" and "religious" issues. For example: on the
I can understand that.  And it's true. Even though I am somewhat apt to
talk, and to try to dismiss, spiritual subjects on the boards, I *do*
pretty much ignore New Agism in the outside world.  It's undoubtedly all
around me, just as the Jehovah's Witnesses are, but I don't sit in
either circle.
JC> [BTW, that same phenomena occurs on a local level. NAs and "those in the
  > know" are too busy dealing with _real_ issues (like earning a living
  > and education) to get caught up in spending a lot of time dealing with
  > "non-issues" like "Heavenly Shooting Star" is conducting a "medicine
  > wheel and sundance in the sweatlodge" ceremony during the next full moon.
  > "HSS" will simply be ignored for the most part and eventually she will be
  > supplanted by the "real" things the local NAs _want_ to share like "First
  > Salmon Feasts", "Root Festivals", etc. The locals even tend to get a 
little
  > irritated when "outsiders" (NAs or not) start sticking their collective
  > noses into local issues or try to _appear_ like they are "locals" and not
  > from "out-of-town".]
It gets even harder when half the Indians around *are* outsiders.  The
United Indians of The Delaware Valley, located in Philadelphia, works
with people from 130 different Indian groups, and almost none of them
are from the local area.  They're Lakota and Navajo and Creek
immigrants.  There are *immigrants* who get very angry at the lack of
services; but there just isn't the money to deal with all the drug
addiction and child abuse and homelessness.
JC> And you know as well as I that when someone truly "participates" they
  > are usually "learning" by researching and composing their questions 
nd/or
  > replies. But it's really easy to just sit back and let someone else spend
  > _their_ time "researching and composing".
That's true.  I can read all the messages in only a few minutes.  It's
the writing that takes time.
                      Sondra
-*-
 þ SLMR 2.1a þ Dragons aren't dead.  They're hiding in story books.
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.7 
---------------