The quote above that you attribute to the "American Indian Movement", is, in reality, nothing of the sort. The quote, criticizing First Nation, was originally said by the editor of Indian County Today (ICT) and was reprinted on the First Nations Email Campaigns web site where you apparently saw it. The quote, in its contextual entirety, had NOTHING to do with unscrupulous users of the Internet, but rather was a specific barb aimed at the opponent ( First Nation ) by Indian Country Today.(http://www.dickshovel.com/campaign.html )

It is glaringly apparent that you not only know nothing about what it means to be a Native American, you also know absolutely nothing about what it means to be accurate. You have provided the readers of this forum with a perfect example of what you so glibly cautioned about in your first posting---and that is unlearned, unqualified people who give misleading and incorrect information.

Two additional things come to mind:

First of all, my local library provides an assortment of "women's magazines", gossip columns, tabloids, etc. and other such drivel I find hugely irrelevant, inappropriate, and certainly unreliable. However, I would no more say the Library isn't a "reliable place to get information" than I would say the Internet is unreliable. Furthermore, to use the biased statements of a group such as First Nations as unilateral "proof" that the Internet is unreliable IS a perfect example of the irresponsible propagation of information you say you are against.

Secondly, research in any PROFESSIONAL field requires the use of SCHOLARLY JOURNAL articles, books, encyclopedias ( such as Wikipedia, the legitimate source I used for my original posting--the source you mocked) and other such information complied by people who are qualified degreed professionals in their respective fields. These are people and institutions without bias. While my personal opinion about AIM or First Nations is irrelevant, even though I have lived on Indian reservations/reserves both in Canada and the United States, they clearly have a bias that has no place in legitimate research---yet you are quoting them here as being an authority on the value of the Internet as a whole. These prejudicial groups with a strident bias decrying the value of the entire Internet based on their objection to another site that doesn't uphold their particular political bent is a PERFECT example of what you say we need to be wary of, yet here you are, propagating one and the same.

I challenge you to find a degreed QUALIFIED professional authority on the Internet, who has deemed the Internet, as a whole, unreliable. Perhaps the places you frequent are fraught with insipidness and irrelevance, but those of us who are lawyers, teachers, doctors, nurses, etc. are part of professional organizations, and institutions of higher learning. This means we have immediate access, via the Internet, to law databases, educational resources, and other reputable sites/search engines, such as Lexis Nexis or PubMed, etc.

Interesting thought--why USE the Internet to WARN people against accepting the advice of strangers online? Why sit here and give advice online if you don't believe in the value of this medium? This really is simply beyond me. Someone, please, take down the ATTENDANCE MANDATORY sign immediately.

No, really, I insist.

The proverbial bottom line: the Internet is a tool that functions no better than the intellectual prowess of the person wielding it. In common vernacular: garbage in=garbage out.

Perhaps therein lies our difference in perspective.