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Monthly Archives: August 2007
American Cowards, a big herd
An article by Conn Hallihan titled Death at a Distance: The US Air War indirectly highlights the political cowardice of the American people as a whole, the politicians of both the corporate parties that the American people have been glued to for so long, and the Pentagon itself. The article focuses on how the Americans are turning to using pilot less drones to bomb targets located in civilian areas.
This has certainly become the American Way, another cowardly war fought by technocratic cowards, directed by political cowards, and tolerated quiescently by a cowardly American population as a whole, that flat out refuses to up its level of currently minuscule protest against what is being done in its name.
This Wednesday I got a brief glimpse of the cowardly rats gathering together once again to move towards yet another expansion of the US military-industrial complex in something called Fort Carson Piñon Canyon expansion. Only the people directly effected by losing their ranches seem all that motivated to oppose yet more base, more bombs, more soldiers. The rest of the Colorado population appears to hardly give a rat’s ass about the issue, and that’s who was gathered inside the city government building to nod and pose for the cameras…rat’s asses. And the rat’s ass king who was there at this meeting has got to be Senator Ken Salazar.
What is the relationship between pilot less aircraft murdering children in foreign lands from way up high and this planned expansion of one of The Springs’ local bases? My short answer is that you are just another American coward if you don’t get out and try to fight these creeps on both issues. Many of you liberal do-nothing voters put Ken Salazar into office with your votes, and yet most of you haven’t the courage to get out and do anything to stop this King of political cowards from getting off the political hook for his constant double speak.
I’m not advocating that you do this, but Democratic Party liberals really ought to be burning down their local party HQ instead of voting for your creeps once again. Instead, you seem to be just another part of this long herd of American Cowards supporting continual war. Get off your asses and demand that America stop murdering kids in foreign lands with pilot less drones and by starving them and their parents. You don’t need this damn Fort Carson at all. Your vote doesn’t count so don’t use the fact that you vote to excuse your complicity through your constant inaction.
Peace Now gathering in Manitou park
Tucker Carlson sitting in a tree
Do you care whether Tucker Carlson head-bashed a gay man in a bathroom stall, or was on the receiving end, or wants to pretend he could have done it, or that it didn’t happen at all? The point is, Carlson described it with a gay-bashing swagger, and his TV colleagues laughed about it like they would have loved to have been there. Gay bashing and laughing about it, is not only not PC, it’s not acceptable. Tucker Carlson is a little creep for many reasons, and now for hate speech. Profuse apologies and commitment to sensitivity training or bye-bye.
UPDATE:
Oh my goodness. For some reason I thought Tucker Carlson and his bow tie were discovered on the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. It turns out he’s not even a graduate of Trinity College, he’s connected. His father was a broadcaster, ambassador, head of the CPB, and they’re related to the Swansons frozen food fortune.
Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason and Grace Poole
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And there she lulled me asleep, And there I dream’d—Ah! woe betide! The latest dream I ever dream’d On the cold hill’s side. I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They cried—“La Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall!” I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gaped wide, And I awoke and found me here, On the cold hill’s side. |
I’ve always been captivated by archetypes of the feminine pariah.
These are the vixens about which cautionary yarns are spun to bridle man’s lust by fomenting a distrust of his opposite sex. They especially served to poison the power of woman, particularly when it was derived from her sexuality.
Can it be coincidence that the promulgators of these literary tales were often gay?
Keats fleshed out a famous Circe of the middle ages, a woman who without mercy would seduce a knight to his death in the woods.
There are sirens of course, and la grande dame Delilah, and all forms of emasculating succubi. Another variant has been haunting me from gothic images in black and white which I remember from my youth, of the film Jane Eyre.
Do you remember poor Rochester? He was not free to love Jane owing to an entanglement kept secret, his wife, become mad, kept for her own safety locked on an upper floor. Her sudden offscreen cackle was one of the most haunting sounds ever.
I remember warning myself to avoid Rochester’s fate, that of caretaker to a self-destructive, utterly irrational woman, in the character of Bertha Mason.
Actually, I believe the mad woman is at the core of every romantic villainess. Why would a mate wish her suitor harm were she not insane? Excepting the entrepreneurial black widow, a woman can be sympathetic and maternal, like your mother, or she can be a femme fatale leading you to self destruction.
Charlotte Bronte humanized the cautionary stereotype, but externalized two malevolent wild cards — multiple personality and drink. I’d forgotten these elements until reacquainting myself with the plot just now. There was a second woman, Grace Poole, charged with looking after the mad wife. Grace however, was prone to drunken bouts. Bertha seized those opportunities to escape and wreak destruction.
Even when Bertha set the castle alight, Rochester fought through the fire to save her, losing his hand and his sight in the attempt. Whether you attributed her actions to insanity, or metaphysically to Rochester’s due for having lived the life of a rake, blame ultimately did not lie with Bertha, nor with careless Grace, herself a victim of a vice.
Would Rochester have been so honor bound to Bertha if her homicidal lunges had been ignited by her own intemperance? I wonder.
Undercover provocateurs unmasked
Canadian police caught, rock in hand, trying to incite riot among protesters at the Bush visit.
I only wish I believed my own rhetoric
Freedom to express oneself, to think independently, was the lure that led the masses to our shores. Safety from abusive and intrusive government is the dream that continues to draw people to our borders. Our military men and women are in Iraq and elsewhere fighting for these same principles on behalf of those who cannot battle tyranny alone. Yet here in Colorado Springs, where so many are at great personal risk because of American ideology, we do not recognize the basic Constitutional freedoms of our own citizens.
It was a private parade, you say. The police were just following the orders of John O’Donnell, the parade organizer. Those people had no right to be there. What a load of garbage. The city was a partner in the St. Patrick’s Day parade. They blocked off public streets and used public resources. For the city and the CSPD to hide behind another organization’s insurance policy is not only cowardly, it is un-Constitutional. The ACLU won a recent case in Hawaii, wherein a “private” parade sought to exclude a particular group from marching. The conclusion: government entities can not shield themselves, nor take directives, from private citizens using public resources. The rest of the country seems to understand this.
In any case, the excessive force used by several of the policemen called to the scene is absolutely indefensible. Miscommunication, fear of public safety, parade crashing. None excuse what ensued. Not for a minute. Today it was peace activists; tomorrow it will be someone else. This type of unchecked abuse of power is a terrifying thing to witness. The lack of accountability by the CSPD illustrates that this thug behavior is tolerated, perhaps encouraged. If they are willing to behave that way in the presence of hundreds of spectators, can you imagine the treatment of those less visible? Are they taught to leave their humanity at the door when they don their uniforms and guns?
While I appreciate the attempts made by John Weiss to reconcile the community, his call to the activists to drop the threat of a civil suit is wrong. Where the people have no voice the court system is the next step. A hung jury in so simple a case shows that we are a town that is not as freedom-loving as our local daily newspaper professes. Perhaps, as in Hawaii, a higher court will possess greater wisdom. It is the next peaceful step in our cherished democratic process. The checks and balances built into the Constitution provide a measure of hope.
If there is no relief to be found by those who have sworn to defend the Constitution, then we will have to take to the streets. Systemic change is always resisted by those in power. If the populace had not banded together in the past to demand its rights, women would not vote, blacks and whites would be segregated, workers would toil in dangerous conditions, children would be chattel.
We should not live in fear of our local government, they should fear and respect us. They are public servants. We are a country of the people, by the people, for the people. We will not rest until our government, including those on Capitol Hill, abides by the Bill of Rights. Don’t mistake quiet acquiescence for peace. It is a reaction to oppression.
What the peace marchers need is not a call to lay down, but the rising up of their fellow citizens. They call for peace. Let the rest of us support them with a call for justice. As Thoreau said in Civil Disobedience, “Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence.” It is time for every concerned citizen to help stop the rampant abuse of power in our city and beyond. Without liberty and justice, there will never be peace. Here, there or anywhere.
State senator John Morse the little shit
We stood outside City Hall today, holding our banners against the Pinon Canyon expansion. We watched the pro-military-business suits stream past us. Most were cordial, some pretended we were not there. A fully uniformed OIF soldier greeted us warmly, explaining that he’d been in Iraq twice and would go again in a heartbeat. He loved “killing the Iraqis and stacking them up like cord-wood. An enemy is an enemy” he said laughing as he ascended the steps.
But the worst was Colorado state senator John Morse, Democrat.
I’d seen John Morse a few months back, addressing a house full of his Democratic constituents, 90% of whom were very angry about the stand he’d expressed publicly in favor of the PCMS expansion. We were all incredulous to hear him say that he hadn’t received a single complaint in opposition until that evening. Really?! We all vowed to be more vocal in the future.
I greeted Morse as he approached City Hall, I asked him if he was going to represent the people he’d heard from that night. He looked at me blankly. I asked him if he’d heard since that night from more citizens vehemently against expansion of Fort Carson and the Maneuver Site? He smiled, shook his head, shrugged his shoulders and smiled again. To my face, just as he had the time before, the lying shit. You guys are a minority, he told me. Really? I wish the others had been here today to see him say it. We weren’t PCMS opponent activists that night by a long shot. We were just the Democrats who got Morse elected.
Between that meeting and this one, Morse would have to have kept his phone off the hook to ignore the public outcry against this military land grab. Sure enough in the city chambers meeting, he fawned all over the military and its stooges. As a Democrat, he’s a snake in sheep’s clothing. Morse thinks the military ought to be given the chance to go ahead with the feasibility studies. We say that’s letting the fox in the henhouse. He says give the fox the benefit of the doubt. He’s missing the point of the analogy, but the army hasn’t. With his help, the army land acquisition process will move along, more and more ranchers will be forced to sell, and the resistance will dwindle.
Fort Carson soldier attending the PCMS expansion session, who stacks the Iraqis up like cord-wood. What’s he going to do after he leaves the service? Forestry or law enforcement?
Prison nation neighborhood
I took a detour to meander along Las Vegas Road today, and got to see a Prison Nation.
Las Vegas is a notorious turn off to the middle of nowhere, but smack in the middle. It’s possible to take major roads on every side and never know what you missed. It runs along Fountain Creek, home of the water treatment plant, car part junkyards, used tire stores, piles of construction aggregate, and the county jail.
(On this satellite picture, the vehicle impound lot is at 11, juveniles are kept at 3, the half-way facility is at 5, and the County Jail is at 8 and 9.)
I’d forgotten about the jail until I saw the peaks of a big white circus tent in front of the main jail. I remembered that the El Paso Sheriff had taken the controversial step to house his surplus detainees in a tented extension, of dubious comfort during the summer and winter temperature extremes.
I drove on but it began to appear that the chain link and concertina wire kept on and on. To the right, a building even taller than the jail. At first you notice the pedestrian areas are fenced in, completely, like a polar bear requires at the zoo. Then you see that the windows are only slits, if they’re real at all. The buildings are almost always brick. Then on the other side of the street is something else again, behind wire, then this side again.
Finally I saw, at the edge of this development, what looked to be an ordinary townhouse complex but with each yard chained to batting cage height. Were these residents trying to keep potential escapees out of their yards? Then I observed a designation as a halfway program. I could see heads congregating, several to a room. I thought if I pulled over to watch it would look like I was a getaway car.
My friend Wade told me some time back, “Eric, they’re expanding the jail. I’ve got to get out of Dodge.”
“Why?” I asked, thinking his paranoia was in jest.
“Because when there’s more room in the jail, guys like me know nothing good is going to come of it.”
Wade, not his real name, suffers mental health difficulties and gets caught occasionally in drug enforcement and loitering sweeps. He was arrested once at 7-11 during their Voice Off promotion. He wouldn’t stop.
What are guys -not like Wade- to make of a detention facility system whose capacity has been outpacing the regional population rise in general? Can any of us ignore the implication to the judicial system posed by available beds, in need of fee paying inmates?
National Cemetery I-25 scenic viewpoint
Did you hear Senator Salazar say at this morning’s city council chambers meeting, that he’d like to see as part of the Fort Carson expansion, a local national military cemetery to rival the one at Arlington? Because as retired General Bentley Rayburn reported, there’s a growing need, “and Fort Logan’s filling up.” Always thinking about our boys, aren’t they?
Senator Salazar painted the picture for everyone, a cemetery visible from Interstate 25, to rival the size of the already famous national cemeteries. It will be seen by the millions who travel the Front Range corridor each day, military headstones stretching wide expanses, reaching into the foothills of the Rockies, into our purple mountains majesty I guess. Does Salazar want to seize by eminent domain the fruited plain for somber waves of gray?
It’s one thing to refashion America the Beautiful to honor the fallen, and God knows there’s nothing wrong with I-25 drivers being confronted with the human cost of our folly, but how cynical is it, to favor expansion of Fort Carson and the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site so that you can station more military personnel here and fill the cemetery that much faster?
There wasn’t time to read the questions recorded on the note cards Salazar’s people had collected to record the meeting’s only public input. How many graves do you envision Mr. Salazar, before Arlington Southwest, let’s call it, will make the impression you have in mind?
Are we not men?
Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.
A common and natural result of an undue respect for the law is that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder- monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined.
Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts–a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity…
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies….In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens.
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
NATO sails to South Africa
Six NATO ships sailed into South African waters yesterday to play war games with the South African government. This is certainly far away from the North Atlantic, is it not? This is certainly far away, too, from being a defense alliance.
If the local peace troop can tear itself away from demanding intervention into Sudan, is there any chance they could protest these new waters newly found for NATO ‘sailboats’? I rather doubt it though, since it’s not on the TV news and our liberal coed friends over at Colorado College can’t pose much for such a news unworthy cause as to fight to contain NATO’s feverish militarism.
US Out of Africa! Hasn’t that continent been fucked over enough by imperialism already? See NATO in South Africa news item
Not a homosexual, Craig is a hypocrite
When he says “I did nothing wrong,” does conservative Senator Larry Craig mean:
I did not lead the attack against gay rights as well as carp on and on about Bill Clinton’s impropriety?
Was Larry Craig peering into your stall in the bathroom? No. He was sizing up a man who appeared to be lingering there while others pooped and went. Smells something of entrapment to me. I can see airport travelers complain about hearing sex acts in neighboring bathroom stalls, but not for fear of unwarranted solicitation. Why are policemen detailed to interrupt a time-honored last resort among few social options for closeted lonely guys?
I believe Senator Craig when he says he’s not gay. To a homophobic conservative, the idea of a male partner may seem dirtier than a quick lewd act to feed his nagging alter-ego.
That said, I’m damn glad he’s unmasked for the humanity-hater he is. The GOP plays by no rules. We should celebrate the rare occasion it works for the common good.
Here he is calling Bill Clinton a “nasty, bad, naughty boy.”
Favorite photos of St Patrick’s Parade
The shirts versus the skinheads as child and companion look on
Peace marchers catch up
Officer Paladino halts bookmobile, Marshall Pete Page blocks paraders
Parade monitor Dougie Haig phones organizer John O’Donnell
We will not be silenced
Paladino enters bookmobile and retrieves Eric by the wrist
Eric is subdued by Officer Paladino and co
Paladino grabs Esther’s attention
and pulls her to the ground
Paladino releases Esther from arm-bar hold, girls cry
Officer Paladino will not tell us his name
Excessive force officers?
Elizabeth is twisted off her feet
Paladino carries Elizabeth off
without clearing the ground
Officer Wrede breaks Molly’s banner and tries to take it
Molly is led off by the throat
Bill and Frank are apprehended
Frank is moved using a pain-compliance hold (illegal choke-hold)
Hillbillies applaud as-
-their kids get a civics lesson
We are driven off at taser point
Men in blue wore wrong color to the parade
No dialog
Elizabeth makes her exit
(Photo credit due Mark Lewis, Eric Barker, Kate Holbrook et al.
See all the pictures at www.CSAction.org.)
Wolf Creek Divide
Friends of Wolf Creek is struggling against out of state developers screwing up Colorado’s natural areas. I might start a group called Enemies of Tom Gallagher. He is the Colorado Springs city councilman most paid for and bought by local developers.
Undercover urinal duty
What’s with up with Republican legislators and men’s rooms? I love that the media is complicit in trying to limit the damage: disorderly conduct, ’nuff said. Though I also loved the subversively dismissive: what happened was “he said, he said.”
What are so many undercover cops doing in public men’s rooms? If they are following these senators, fantastic. But I rather think they’re targeting the usual suspects, gay men.
I confess an unnatural aversion to public restrooms. So I didn’t know they are out of control. Are they absolutely plagued by lonely homosexuals? Isn’t the gay hookup in a public urinal a time-honored tradition? I’d think consensual sex is a rather victimless crime. Or do police departments get the complaint all the time that Boy George is bugging them in the boys bathroom, man can’t pee in peace?
I’ve never been solicited in a men’s room. Does that mean I have yet to encounter a homosexual, a Republican senator, or it seems more likely, a cop?
Jena 6 Update
Those who support the Saint Patrick’s Day Seven here in Colorado Springs are not making a fetish out of this case. There are many other worthy causes out there we support, too. Everywhere the US Judicial System is miscarrying justice. Below is an appeal from supporters of The Jena Six of the lousy state of Louisiana.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Dear Supporter,
On September 20th, Mychal Bell–the first of the Jena 6 to be convicted–is scheduled for sentencing. If the District Attorney has his way, Mychal will face 22 years in prison. It’s a horrifying moment for Mychal, his parents, and the rest of the Jena 6 families. It’s also a perfect time for those who can to come to Jena, in person, and stand with them. We know it’s a serious time and financial commitment, but we wanted to give you the opportunity to join the hundreds of people who have already emailed us to say that they will come. If you can join us, please click on the link below to RSVP:
http://colorofchange.org/jena/rsvp.html
Our presence in Jena–in large numbers–will help focus media attention on the situation in Jena, escalate pressure on Louisiana public officials, and most importantly, show the families of the Jena 6, especially Mychal Bell and his parents, that we will stand with them in the face of this injustice.
On July 31st, with only a few days to prepare, 300 people from across the country rallied at the Jena Courthouse. We delivered a petition signed by 43,000 ColorOfChange.org members to the District Attorney demanding that he drop the charges against the Jena 6. It was a powerful day that made it clear that the Jena 6 and their families won’t have to fight on their own. Since then, more than 100,000 people have taken action and contacted the Governor, media attention to the case has grown, and we have an even bigger opportunity to make a profound impact.
As we plan for this event, we want to get a sense of how many people can commit to coming to Jena. Below are some details about getting there, so you can figure out if you’ll be able to join us.
Details
If you’re flying to Louisiana, the closest airports to Jena are Alexandria (45 minute drive) and Monroe (1.5 hour drive). You can also fly to Lafayette (2.25 hour drive), Shreveport (2.75 hour drive), Baton Rouge (3 hour drive), New Orleans (4.25 hour drive), or Houston (about a 5 hour drive). The closest hotels are in Pineville and Alexandria. As they fill up, we’d recommend staying at hotels near the airports above.
If travelling from out of town, you’ll want to get to Louisiana the night before, as things will start early in the morning, probably by 8am or 9am. Organizers will meet you when you arrive at a central location in Jena and get you situated for the day. We will be providing maps, organizers’ cell phone numbers, and other information closer to the day-of; you will be able to reach someone in case you have any problems, need directions, or have questions along the way.
RSVP
Once you’re confident you can come, please rsvp at the following:
http://colorofchange.org/jena/rsvp.html
If you have questions, you can send them to jena@colorofchange.org.
If you can’t come, don’t worry. We’ll be sending emails soon with more ways to take action between now and the 20th. Whatever your participation, we thank you for your ongoing commitment to justice for the Jena 6. It continues to be our privilege to be part of such a powerful community of support for these young men.
Thanks and Peace,
— James Rucker
Executive Director, ColorOfChange.org
August 28th, 2007
Non-violence dictum and more blather
A pious colleague asks: “Must nonviolence be effective to be significant?” To be fair, he explains “How do we honor our nonviolent lifestyles and principles when we are faced with the choice to accept or reject available strategies and tactics.” (Punctuation his!)
May I say: If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, stop knocking the trees over. How many do you have to spare? Please don’t tax others for your pledge to be insignificant and ineffective.
If you want to light a candle for peace in the privacy of your living room, you don’t need an organization to mobilize your effort. Don’t judge another’s pacifism, lest they judge your passivism. Please don’t restrain those of us who want to light a candle where all can share it.
Camp Bucca is not in Minnesota
I have done sort of a personal poll recently by asking folk if they have heard of Camp Bucca. Almost nobody has, since after Abu Ghraib Doctor Franken Rummy and Attorney General ‘Cinco de Mayo’ Gonzalez set out to hide away the continuation of Abu Ghraib from public (and media) scrutiny.
Currently there are upwards of 20,000 US held Iraqi POWs held at Camp Bucca out of about a total 25,000 in all. They’re all being treated most kindly of coarse since that is the American Way. Camp Bucca
The Science of Fools
I’m sure you missed it, since most of us have long since given up on reading the idiotic editorials of The Gazette, our Far Right Wing local daily paper. But there it was this Tuesday morning as they attacked the notion of giving our country’s children government guaranteed health care. Oh horror of horrors they said, ‘This will keep people from buying health insurance for the tiny tots!’
This all from a paper that has no problem with giving trillions of government funds to the military industrial complex. They call their ideology ‘Libertarian’, too! But what about the science of these fools, the Science of Libertarian Fools?
Well lets see…..? Just at the moment that scientists see an explosion of infectious disease epidemics as being likely in the near future (in fact they see it as already underway), these fools of The Gazette ignore scientific opinion. They don’t give a shit that the Medical System of the US if more full of holes than Swiss Cheese.
They pooh pooh the idea that there is such a thing as Global Warming, too. Or that there is any planetary ecological crisis currently underway! They practice the Science of Fools, Pretend Libertarianism, so they oppose strengthing medical coverage at the time it is most needed! That’s how they support ‘national security’. They ignore common scientific sense.
Speaking of ignoring science. The Gazette Gang of Editorial Clowns wrote their editorial against providing federal medical coverage for America’s children almost exactly 2 years after Katrina. That was when political clowns such as The Gazette always supports had completely ignored scientific advice calling to strengthen the levees of New Orlean, scientific advice that had been given for decades.
Ignoring that scientific advice led to the Great New Orleans Flood, which no doubt the ignorant a-holes at The Gazette consider to be God’s will. It wasn’t, but New Orleans got washed into the gutter because of dumb dicks like the Gazeete editorial writers that always support what they call “Free Enterprise,’ while condeming and ignoring realy important scientific opinion. Goodbye, New Orleans.
Boy that paper sucks! Every time The Gazette writes editorial comments on ecology, medicine, or anything at all dealing with science, they just are on Cloud Nine. They are lost dealing with Political Science, too. In fact, they are as corrupted as you can get.
The ‘free market’ doesn’t like science at all. It just gets in the way of maxing out making profits for the well-to-do. Our children deserve more, and they deserve guaranteed federal mandated medical coverage. This is the science that will stop the spread of disease. Big Business hates it. They prefer the Science of Fools instead.
PS- See where these unoriginal editorialists of The Gazette got their unoriginal opinion from. A Socialist Plot
Charges that might stick
To all supporters of the SPD7, please forgive our dropping our eyes from the ball. The city charged us with intentionally obstructing the parade, and we got caught up refuting the argument.
After the mistrial, we the defendants are now being led to understand that the city is pondering other charges, perhaps failure to disperse, perhaps resisting arrest. Fine. None of us failed to respond to a legal order, nor resisted arrest, even considering no one was being told we were being arrested. But that is to catch us up in another semantic argument.
Might I suggest charges that would have more traction?
If the city wants to find me guilty of trying to express myself, in a public place, in a parade run partially with public funds, policed by public law enforcement, they can find me guilty.
If the city wants to find me guilty of failing to stand idly by as friends and family were being dealt undue violence, in violation of the 4th Amendment, or with dignity, the 14th Amendment. Guilty.
Did we have the intention to march in that parade, as we had the year before, as we were permitted by the Bill of Rights, with every authority and respect accorded by law, to project our message of Peace On Earth to the 40,000 assembled there, most of whom, polls showed, would welcome seeing the sentiment spoken in public? Yes we did.
Does the city intend to show its citizenry and the rest of the country that freedom of speech, freedom from oppression, due process, and the enforcement of such rights don’t fly in Colorado Springs?
The travesty started with three opinionated dim-bulbs among the parade organizers, made worse by several violent police officers. If the city persists, they confirm that the blood-thirst, anti-American, anti-freedom, anti-civil-liberties conduct was endemic and systemic. As a resident of Colorado Springs, I’m going to do the patriotic thing and root that out.
Sen. Salazar surveys the public opinion
Ken Salazar has called a meeting at the COS City Council chambers Wednesday Aug 29 to solicit the opinion of local area representatives about the proposed Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site expansion. The public is invited to attend (10am tomorrow) but the 15 representatives have already been selected. Invited to speak are:
Mayor Lionel Rivera (introductions).
County Commissioner Chair Dennis Hisey (of Fountain).
State Senator John Morse.
State Representative Bob Gardner.
Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments Chair Commissioner Wayne Williams (military and transportation issues).
Veteran’s Committee Chair Retired Gen. Bentley Rayburn (Vet cemetery and other Vet issues).
Chair of Chamber Military Affairs Council Retired General Wes Clark (defense contractor as President of SAIC near Peterson, will talk about history).
Chair of Chamber Military Affairs Council’s Pinon Canyon committee, Retired General Ed Anderson (former Ft. Carson Commander).
President of CS Chamber Military Affairs Division, Brian Binn (will talk about local economic drivers).
CEO of the Colorado Springs Economic Development Council, Mike Kazmierski (will talk about competition from other cities and BRAC).
Chair of Defense Mission Coalition Tony Koren
CEO of Pueblo Chamber, Rod Slyhoff.
Chair of the Pueblo Economic Council Marv Stein.
Assistant City Manager Greg Nyhoff (will talk about how City Development processes and the Airport relate to encroachment issues at bases).
County Development Director Carl Schuller to talk about processes and encroachment issues in the County.
Teachable moment
The separation of education and thought
Would you entrust your children to the care of a teacher who didn’t have a Kucinich 2008 bumper sticker on their car? Or a sign in their window reading “What are you doing about global warming?” I know another elementary school teacher who distributes peace buttons wherever he goes, and another who teaches at peace camp during the summer.
What do the other teachers think they’re doing? Worrying about not getting fired by school administration lackeys, to hell with the children?
What teacher would not by nature be an activist? As our children’s guides to a better future, their function is one and the same. What kind of farmer doesn’t care if pollution is flowing into his fields? What kind of rancher feeds his herd in a cesspool? If teachers aren’t worried about the state of the world, they’re not showing any optimism for the fate of our children.
It’s time to be more discriminating about whose voices we mean to subject our children. And subject ourselves, from the media for example. Anyone in the visual or audio media, who reports about President Bush without a knowing intonation that Bush is a moron or crook, is clearly a crook or moron themselves.
If a door to door salesman tried to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge, you’d laugh him off the stoop, perhaps you’d call the police. What if he reappeared everyday, several times a day even, to repeat his pitch, without even a hint of admission that he’s been discredited. If neither the police, nor your politicians, are going to protect you from his fraud, and you want to preserve your sanity, you’ll have to close the door in his face.
Twin Towers given Second Life
Someone’s rebuilt the World Trade Center in Second Life, just for 9/11. You’ll find it in the Elegua Sim. We poked around the virtual erections and could not find any demolition charges set in the intact towers, but you can teleport to the observation deck and grab a snapshot of yourself jumping in the pre-war-on-terrorism age.
ADDENDUM: Who can know the minds of the WTC victims who chose to jump into the void of city sky out their windows, sooner than being engulfed in flames. With no aerial help on its way, did they hope that rescuers might be hustling up a means to catch those who jumped?
Perhaps the best of all terrible recourses was to make a final grand swan dive, a final extreme adrenaline ride, public or not, an expression of control over a predicament not of your making. Of course much hay has been made about whose actions brought this fate home to roost, but that’s a discussion for another time.
Who is to say we must avert our eyes when the WTC jumpers took a brave Warholian leap into the 9/11 national tragedy?