******************************************************************
AML came about as the offspring of a previous project. Last winter, I
had ordered and received Amnesty International's report "El Salvador:
``Death Squads'' -- A Government Strategy" following the murder of the
Jesuits and was literally shocked into action (by both the described
reality, and even more by the fact that these facts had been so well
suppressed by the mainstream media, and that even with my progressive
contacts and publications, I hadn't known [the content of the
subtitle]), and organized, using email, sending copies of the report
to all senators, along with a letter electronically "signed" by people
from over 15 states (including Bishop Gumbleton) copies of the letter
plus a news release were sent to 60 media organizations...this was
February of 19909. I later sent an update about the project to those
who had participated, along with a plea for financial support; while a
former professor(*) and friend had paid for most of the reports, the
costs of postage, phone calls, etc, added up to some $400, most of
which came out of my graduate student budjet because we couldn't raise
enough money in time (to send on the day House Task Force left for El
Salvador) After begin on the net and at the local Amnesty
International group (which I had been a member of for some months), I
raised, incrementally, some money; I only broke even in June, after
raising the last $100 I was down by helping a fellow (foreign) student
with English in writing up his thesis. So you see, I'm familiar with
financial hardship, albeit on a smaller scale.

******************************************************************

			 Unity and Coherence:
		 "what's wrong with these pictures?"
		 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 * Amnesty International's rules during legislative visits with
congresspeople are so rigid (to remain "apolitical") as to forbid
asking for support of laws to tie foreign aid to human rights. There
is a point beyond which one is not ensuring one's effectiveness by
remaining "apolitical", but rather undermining one's effectiveness by
imposing absurd constraints.
 * Greg Sechler didn't know about the Usenet newsgroups, or have an
EDU/UUCP/etc account; Neil Black..told me he knew essentially nothing
about EBBs;Nation was just now9Feb/March90]looking into joining PeaceN
 * Some (arch)bishops (involved in CA) didn't have AI's ES rprt
##################################################################