Subject: Astor Park, Beatlick Survival Camp
Date: Mar 18, 2010 12:59 PM
Another hot dusty day out here at Astor Park. Neil showed up with his four teens and a friend. So we had a population explosion. I am learning how to work with cement as we are all trying to help Neil get his first shelter set up. You know I call this survivor camp but truly we could never survive out here if it wasn't for Henry, Neil's brother, bringing us water almost every day, plus all those rides into town for beer and ice.
One policy I have initiated here is to cut Joe some slack. He is so serious about his reading and writing and I want to be supportive so we have set up days or parts of days where I cannot ask him to do something for me. I have to do it myself. He has me so spoiled that it is a real revelation to realize how much easier he makes the day go by with his constant help and attention. So as I say I am cutting him some slack.
The coyotes are getting more numerous and louder. I don't think they are coming into the camp but their yipping keeps me on my toes. Haven't seen any snakes or spiders but I imagine the season is coming upon us soon. We take the arroyos and trails to town. We named them streets from Nashville and the old neighborhood: Kipling Dr., Briley Parkway, 440. We get a real kick out of that.
The spring break really loaded up the RV parks around here. As much neglect and off business as we have seen in so many other places, there is nothing like that going on around here. The place is hopping all around Terlingua and Study Butte. We headed down to the little ghost town of Terlingua and sat out on the porch. It is loaded with tourists. Neil started playing somebody's new guitar and a crowd gathered around him in no time. His kids stood by in admiration as well. He is quite the character.
People were coming in from all over and taking pictures of Neil as the crowd grew around him. It was a hot day and the beer was cold, before I knew what was happening I had gone into the store with a big buzz on and mailed my sister a very expensive birthday present. I will have to learn to check my enthusiasum when I head into the big city of Terlingua.
Everytime we go to the RV park to use the Wi-fi I look a little worse. Today I have dirt, dust and cement all over me. Haven't had a bath in two days and didn't even attempt to comb my hair. My, my: attractive.
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
RE: Blame the Teachers
APOLOGIES TO LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI:
In my commentary on education (Blame the Teacher Syndrome, Dissident Voice, 15 March 2010) I made some inaccurate and/or misleading statements. My statement regarding California's ranking among the states in "per capita" funding should have stated "per student" funding (Education Week, California Teachers Association). The rankings are adjusted for cost of living. The new ranking includes projected cuts in the coming school year. I also implied that Louisiana and Mississippi had been ranked lower than California. In fact Louisiana was ranked 27th and Mississippi 39th. The states previously ranked lower than California were Texas, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.
Apologies are due to Louisiana and Mississippi.
Jazz
In my commentary on education (Blame the Teacher Syndrome, Dissident Voice, 15 March 2010) I made some inaccurate and/or misleading statements. My statement regarding California's ranking among the states in "per capita" funding should have stated "per student" funding (Education Week, California Teachers Association). The rankings are adjusted for cost of living. The new ranking includes projected cuts in the coming school year. I also implied that Louisiana and Mississippi had been ranked lower than California. In fact Louisiana was ranked 27th and Mississippi 39th. The states previously ranked lower than California were Texas, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.
Apologies are due to Louisiana and Mississippi.
Jazz
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
RE: Blame the Teachers
Sad but so true! I see this played out on a weekly basis when I teach chess at Dr. George Washington Carver Elementary School. They are centrally located in the notorious San Francisco neighborhood called Bayview Hunter’s Point. I have been teaching chess there for over nine years, and each year the struggle continues for the dedicated Teachers and staff that are committed to these wonderful children who are directly impacted by poverty, gang violence, and drugs in the community. The neighborhoods are blighted, and the threat of gentrification and closing down the school is always looming large. The Principal and I, Mrs. Emily Wade-Thompson, have become good friends over the years. She is an amazing African-American woman who runs her school like an African Village, instilling pride in her students by teaching them their history and heritage. The students are called “Achievers”, and taught a list of core values based on the Swahili language, for example Umoja, which means Unity in the community. Her plight, and that of her fellow educators, and those of each and every “Achiever” around this country is given nothing but lip service and chicanery by our elected officials, corporations, and parents, whom all want to blame the teachers. It takes a village to raise a child.
Wakiza McQueen
[Note: "Blame the Teacher Syndrome: A Misguided Education Policy" by Jack Random posted on Dissident Voice, March 15, 2010.]
Wakiza McQueen
[Note: "Blame the Teacher Syndrome: A Misguided Education Policy" by Jack Random posted on Dissident Voice, March 15, 2010.]
Saturday, March 13, 2010
RE: To Jack Kerouac on His 88th Birthday
By ivan arguelles
bride's shadow made white by truck
going all the way to Big Sur
bums depleted by dhamma tight
band around head no high Way
at all like streaking light in Eye
panther of heart makes leap Beat
sleeping butterfly shakes in sewer
rain caught for a fraction of eternity
rooftops burn with Mental flame
bridge presses azure to sky wants
to Die! bottle to breast & cries
arguelles after mansel
bride's shadow made white by truck
going all the way to Big Sur
bums depleted by dhamma tight
band around head no high Way
at all like streaking light in Eye
panther of heart makes leap Beat
sleeping butterfly shakes in sewer
rain caught for a fraction of eternity
rooftops burn with Mental flame
bridge presses azure to sky wants
to Die! bottle to breast & cries
arguelles after mansel
Friday, March 12, 2010
Mind of Mansel: Poetry Corner
To Jack Kerouac on His 88th Birthday
early morning and the street is swept
by a white truck followed by birds
in the shade of a bride's shadow
lightning streaking from the silent eyes
of a half-mad cat who's paw is caught
in a sewer grate
the shore pouring over the bridge
the ledge pressing into the sky
somewhere a butterfly is shaking
because he doesn't want to die
Chris Mansel
early morning and the street is swept
by a white truck followed by birds
in the shade of a bride's shadow
lightning streaking from the silent eyes
of a half-mad cat who's paw is caught
in a sewer grate
the shore pouring over the bridge
the ledge pressing into the sky
somewhere a butterfly is shaking
because he doesn't want to die
Chris Mansel
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Beatlick Travel Report/Astor Park: Survival Camp
Beatlick Joe and I took our first three-mile walk to the wi-fi cafe down a long dirt road and around a few mountains. We have been at Astor Camp, courtesy of Neil Astor, for about five days and I have dismantled the whole campsite and put it back together every single day since we got here. We were so excited when we arrived on Friday that we put up our custom tent that attaches to the van. Then I attached a tarp to the tent and we raised up the van roof to access our sleeping quarters. With all that we had some serious square footage.
I spent the second day, all day, figuring out how to build a fire pit. It seems like it would be simple, but getting all those irregular stones into some semblance of order and important to me balance and appeal, took hours. At first I had a big, huge really, stone flush to the ground for a base. I had rolled it uphill myself. This is exactly the kind of grunt work in which Joe Speer has absolutely no interest. It didn't look right so I started all over and dug a hole to build up a bit of a firewall and put the rock into it. I hauled a bunch of large stones needed for circling the pit. But by the time I was finished fussing with all the rocks and moving them around, the peculiar soil out here full of Bentonite had all blown away and the stone was back flush to the ground again. Where did my hole go? I kept asking Joe.
Inside the tent I put up a shelf and stacked all the canned goods, we had a table and chairs, all the kitchen utensils, water and wash basin, it was like an apartment. I was ecstatic. Outside we have a 20-gallon jug, a 5-gallon jug, inside a 3-gallon jug with spicket and about five more gallon jugs. We were great for about 36 hours. Then the wind kicked up. At one point I was leaning against the tent like those actors on the prow of the Titanic. It was between something like that and wind surfing. I could lean the entire weight of my body back against the tent rigging the gales were so strong. After a few hours of that we decided we had to take our irreplaceable custom tent down rather than damage it.
So on the third day I had to load everything I had taken out of the van back into it. That day I attached the tarp straight to the van and had a little awning. That was a real comedown after all the spaciousness of the day before. On the fourth day Joe suggested we put the tarp up on the tent frame. And THAT has been the answer. We can sit outside under a nice large tarp and move the chairs, table and a futon Neil left behind all in the appropriate shade provided as the sun rotates around the panorama.
We cook on the fireplace except in the morning. We have coffee in the van first thing, check out the landscape and see what the sun and wind are doing. There is not a single telephone pole to be seen out here. The only cars on the private road are other property owners. And it is quiet. And still. We often cook with Henry, our neighbor, who is Neil's brother. Only once was I ever able to pick up the Marfa NPR station so only music on the renegade Terlingua station Cayote Radio 100.1. It's good, really good, but I do miss the news.
We've watched a few movies on our DVD using Henry's solar equipment. We spend a lot of time reading, hiking and setting up camp for now. The sky is just becoming overwhelming to me. I see more up there than I can figure out. I'm not even that interested in sitting out there watching the stars right now because I can't always wrap my head around what I see. Neil is coming soon and we hope he approves of our camp design.
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela
I spent the second day, all day, figuring out how to build a fire pit. It seems like it would be simple, but getting all those irregular stones into some semblance of order and important to me balance and appeal, took hours. At first I had a big, huge really, stone flush to the ground for a base. I had rolled it uphill myself. This is exactly the kind of grunt work in which Joe Speer has absolutely no interest. It didn't look right so I started all over and dug a hole to build up a bit of a firewall and put the rock into it. I hauled a bunch of large stones needed for circling the pit. But by the time I was finished fussing with all the rocks and moving them around, the peculiar soil out here full of Bentonite had all blown away and the stone was back flush to the ground again. Where did my hole go? I kept asking Joe.
Inside the tent I put up a shelf and stacked all the canned goods, we had a table and chairs, all the kitchen utensils, water and wash basin, it was like an apartment. I was ecstatic. Outside we have a 20-gallon jug, a 5-gallon jug, inside a 3-gallon jug with spicket and about five more gallon jugs. We were great for about 36 hours. Then the wind kicked up. At one point I was leaning against the tent like those actors on the prow of the Titanic. It was between something like that and wind surfing. I could lean the entire weight of my body back against the tent rigging the gales were so strong. After a few hours of that we decided we had to take our irreplaceable custom tent down rather than damage it.
So on the third day I had to load everything I had taken out of the van back into it. That day I attached the tarp straight to the van and had a little awning. That was a real comedown after all the spaciousness of the day before. On the fourth day Joe suggested we put the tarp up on the tent frame. And THAT has been the answer. We can sit outside under a nice large tarp and move the chairs, table and a futon Neil left behind all in the appropriate shade provided as the sun rotates around the panorama.
We cook on the fireplace except in the morning. We have coffee in the van first thing, check out the landscape and see what the sun and wind are doing. There is not a single telephone pole to be seen out here. The only cars on the private road are other property owners. And it is quiet. And still. We often cook with Henry, our neighbor, who is Neil's brother. Only once was I ever able to pick up the Marfa NPR station so only music on the renegade Terlingua station Cayote Radio 100.1. It's good, really good, but I do miss the news.
We've watched a few movies on our DVD using Henry's solar equipment. We spend a lot of time reading, hiking and setting up camp for now. The sky is just becoming overwhelming to me. I see more up there than I can figure out. I'm not even that interested in sitting out there watching the stars right now because I can't always wrap my head around what I see. Neil is coming soon and we hope he approves of our camp design.
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela
Friday, March 05, 2010
THE LORDS OF OBSTRUCTION:
JAZZMAN CHRONICLES. DISSEMINATE FREELY.
THE CASE FOR SENATORIAL REFORM
By Jack Random
Since the State of the Union Address President Obama has engaged his opposition, including members of his own party, and the only thing he has proven is what we already knew: He is the smartest man in the room. Any room. Certainly any room crowded with posturing and pontificating members of the United States Senate.
In the most recent encounter, a summit on health care, he asked of the opposition only one thing: that they should come without a list of talking points. After careful consideration and according to insider reports considerable rehearsal, the party of opposition came with exactly that. Over seven painful hours of repetitive rhetoric the esteemed Senators could not even vary the phrasing. We need to scrap the bill. We need to start over with a clean sheet of paper. We cannot support a government takeover. On and on.
It was all theater and bad theater at that. It was like watching a seven-hour version of Samuel Beckett’s classic existential play Waiting for Godot. Godot is the spirit of bipartisanship and by now even the president must know Godot never comes.
The government is broken, our democracy in shambles, and healthcare reform (such as it is) has been held hostage for a year while another 45,000 Americans have died for lack of health insurance. I do not know the validity of that oft-sited estimate but I do know this: Lives are at stake and the protocol of the Senate was not worth a single life.
President Obama lost the high ground of the healthcare debate when he placed the value of Senatorial rules and the illusion of bipartisanship over the health and safety of the people he was sworn to protect.
Now we are confronted with the possibility of a watered down healthcare package passing through budget reconciliation and the Republicans are crying foul. For the first year of the Obama presidency they shamelessly abused the power of the filibuster to obstruct all major legislation and now they cry foul.
Most shameful of all is Senator Orrin Hatch who attacked the invocation of reconciliation with the claim that it would be “an assault to the democratic process.”
The Senator has it backwards. The invocation of the filibuster to obstruct the will of the people and the majority of their representatives is an assault on democracy itself. Senators can drone on as long as they wish about the rights of the minority but there is no minority in the United States Senate worth protecting. It is an elitist club, a club of millionaires, and its insistence on the right to endless debate in order to prevent a majority vote is a power grab and an affront to the constitution which grants them no such power.
The American system of government was modeled on the British Parliament. In place of the King we have a president. In place of the Commons we established Congress. And in place of the House of Lords we established the United States Senate.
The House of Lords was originally composed of the British Aristocracy. It was an unelected body of wealthy, privileged individuals, some of whom were appointed by the King and some who were chosen by hereditary succession. They were born to power and they held the right of veto over all legislation passed by the House of Commons.
As the British system embraced the principles of democratic rule it was inevitable that the power of the Lords would stand in the way. It was the antithesis of democracy. It was designed to protect the interests of the elite by obstructing the will of the people.
The power of the House of Lords came under assault in 1906 when the Liberal Party took control of the Commons in a landslide election. It was clear that the legislative mandate for which ministers of parliament were elected (Irish home rule and social reform) could not be enacted without first curtailing the power of the Lords.
It was a long hard battle against entrenched interests and in fact the process remains to be completed today but the House of Lords is only a shadow of the institution it once was. The Lords still exists but like the monarchy itself it is fundamentally a symbol, a figurehead, a remembrance of a time when Kings and Queens held absolute sway over the fate of nations. The Lords still have some measure of power but should they abuse it they are keenly aware that the power of democracy will once again rise up to put them in their rightful place.
What British democracy confronted at the beginning of the last century is analogous to what American democracy confronts today. For while we now elect members of the Senate (the 17th Amendment) it remains undeniably the least representative and therefore the most anti-democratic institution in American government. Because of its power to obstruct legislation it attracts powerful interests so that every Senator requires more and more millions of dollars to finance an election campaign. Promises are made and debts are paid.
The problem with American government is not the men and women who fill the seats of the Senate per se. It is the institution itself.
Leave alone the problem of disproportionate representation [1]. Stand aside the problem of undue corporate influence, a problem compounded by the unconscionable ruling of our corporate Supreme Court. These are flaws that must be rectified if we are to achieve a more perfect union and a more functional government but the immediate problem we must address is the power grab of the Senatorial filibuster.
There is no man or woman in this or any other nation who believes in democracy yet will rise in defense of granting a minority in any deliberative body the absolute power of obstruction. Conversely, any man or woman who supports the filibuster rule as it now operates cannot claim to believe in democracy.
We as a nation have far too many pressing matters to allow this display of mindless power manipulations and political posturing to continue ad nauseum.
I do not propose the abolition of the Senate. It has its role. Our system works best when the Senate performs in earnest its duties as prescribed in the constitution. Moreover, it can produce great leaders and prepare them to ascend to the presidency. But the Senate is not a marble monument. It is neither sacred nor strictly speaking necessary. It must adapt and change. It must embrace the democratic ideal and not seek to thwart it. It must become more democratic and less elitist.
It must sacrifice the power of the minority to obstruct the business of the nation. If it does not it will inevitably find itself under assault like the British House of Lords and with good cause.
The British did not abolish the House of Lords but they could have and might have if the Lords themselves did not recognize that the age of aristocracy is over.
Jazz.
[1] Even Alexander Hamilton, the champion of all modern conservatives, denounced the disproportionate representation of the US Senate: “It is not in human nature that Virginia and the large States should consent to it, or if they did that they should long abide by it. It shocks too much the ideas of Justice, and every human feeling. Bad principles in a Government though slow are sure in their operation and will gradually destroy it.”
From “The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787” by James Madison.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). A COLUMNIST FOR THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, WORLD EDITION, HIS CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
THE CASE FOR SENATORIAL REFORM
By Jack Random
Since the State of the Union Address President Obama has engaged his opposition, including members of his own party, and the only thing he has proven is what we already knew: He is the smartest man in the room. Any room. Certainly any room crowded with posturing and pontificating members of the United States Senate.
In the most recent encounter, a summit on health care, he asked of the opposition only one thing: that they should come without a list of talking points. After careful consideration and according to insider reports considerable rehearsal, the party of opposition came with exactly that. Over seven painful hours of repetitive rhetoric the esteemed Senators could not even vary the phrasing. We need to scrap the bill. We need to start over with a clean sheet of paper. We cannot support a government takeover. On and on.
It was all theater and bad theater at that. It was like watching a seven-hour version of Samuel Beckett’s classic existential play Waiting for Godot. Godot is the spirit of bipartisanship and by now even the president must know Godot never comes.
The government is broken, our democracy in shambles, and healthcare reform (such as it is) has been held hostage for a year while another 45,000 Americans have died for lack of health insurance. I do not know the validity of that oft-sited estimate but I do know this: Lives are at stake and the protocol of the Senate was not worth a single life.
President Obama lost the high ground of the healthcare debate when he placed the value of Senatorial rules and the illusion of bipartisanship over the health and safety of the people he was sworn to protect.
Now we are confronted with the possibility of a watered down healthcare package passing through budget reconciliation and the Republicans are crying foul. For the first year of the Obama presidency they shamelessly abused the power of the filibuster to obstruct all major legislation and now they cry foul.
Most shameful of all is Senator Orrin Hatch who attacked the invocation of reconciliation with the claim that it would be “an assault to the democratic process.”
The Senator has it backwards. The invocation of the filibuster to obstruct the will of the people and the majority of their representatives is an assault on democracy itself. Senators can drone on as long as they wish about the rights of the minority but there is no minority in the United States Senate worth protecting. It is an elitist club, a club of millionaires, and its insistence on the right to endless debate in order to prevent a majority vote is a power grab and an affront to the constitution which grants them no such power.
The American system of government was modeled on the British Parliament. In place of the King we have a president. In place of the Commons we established Congress. And in place of the House of Lords we established the United States Senate.
The House of Lords was originally composed of the British Aristocracy. It was an unelected body of wealthy, privileged individuals, some of whom were appointed by the King and some who were chosen by hereditary succession. They were born to power and they held the right of veto over all legislation passed by the House of Commons.
As the British system embraced the principles of democratic rule it was inevitable that the power of the Lords would stand in the way. It was the antithesis of democracy. It was designed to protect the interests of the elite by obstructing the will of the people.
The power of the House of Lords came under assault in 1906 when the Liberal Party took control of the Commons in a landslide election. It was clear that the legislative mandate for which ministers of parliament were elected (Irish home rule and social reform) could not be enacted without first curtailing the power of the Lords.
It was a long hard battle against entrenched interests and in fact the process remains to be completed today but the House of Lords is only a shadow of the institution it once was. The Lords still exists but like the monarchy itself it is fundamentally a symbol, a figurehead, a remembrance of a time when Kings and Queens held absolute sway over the fate of nations. The Lords still have some measure of power but should they abuse it they are keenly aware that the power of democracy will once again rise up to put them in their rightful place.
What British democracy confronted at the beginning of the last century is analogous to what American democracy confronts today. For while we now elect members of the Senate (the 17th Amendment) it remains undeniably the least representative and therefore the most anti-democratic institution in American government. Because of its power to obstruct legislation it attracts powerful interests so that every Senator requires more and more millions of dollars to finance an election campaign. Promises are made and debts are paid.
The problem with American government is not the men and women who fill the seats of the Senate per se. It is the institution itself.
Leave alone the problem of disproportionate representation [1]. Stand aside the problem of undue corporate influence, a problem compounded by the unconscionable ruling of our corporate Supreme Court. These are flaws that must be rectified if we are to achieve a more perfect union and a more functional government but the immediate problem we must address is the power grab of the Senatorial filibuster.
There is no man or woman in this or any other nation who believes in democracy yet will rise in defense of granting a minority in any deliberative body the absolute power of obstruction. Conversely, any man or woman who supports the filibuster rule as it now operates cannot claim to believe in democracy.
We as a nation have far too many pressing matters to allow this display of mindless power manipulations and political posturing to continue ad nauseum.
I do not propose the abolition of the Senate. It has its role. Our system works best when the Senate performs in earnest its duties as prescribed in the constitution. Moreover, it can produce great leaders and prepare them to ascend to the presidency. But the Senate is not a marble monument. It is neither sacred nor strictly speaking necessary. It must adapt and change. It must embrace the democratic ideal and not seek to thwart it. It must become more democratic and less elitist.
It must sacrifice the power of the minority to obstruct the business of the nation. If it does not it will inevitably find itself under assault like the British House of Lords and with good cause.
The British did not abolish the House of Lords but they could have and might have if the Lords themselves did not recognize that the age of aristocracy is over.
Jazz.
[1] Even Alexander Hamilton, the champion of all modern conservatives, denounced the disproportionate representation of the US Senate: “It is not in human nature that Virginia and the large States should consent to it, or if they did that they should long abide by it. It shocks too much the ideas of Justice, and every human feeling. Bad principles in a Government though slow are sure in their operation and will gradually destroy it.”
From “The Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787” by James Madison.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). A COLUMNIST FOR THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, WORLD EDITION, HIS CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Beatlick Travel Report: Truth or Consequences
Date: Feb 25, 2010 3:40 PM
“There’s more consequences than truth” is the saying around here, especially when water and real estate might be the topic. Like the elephant bone yard this town is the bone yard for vintage Airstreams and they speckle the landscape. We’ve pulled into the Artesian RV Park and Bathhouse for a month. The Black Cat Bookstore has poetry readings twice a month. There is a radical underground radio station FM 96.1, political rant website (www.desertjournalonline.com/underground_truth.htm), a good library, grocery store, and cheap diners. A population of mature citizens, young upstarts ready to make a fortune when the Spaceport project of Virgin Airline’s Richard Branson’s gets off the ground, and a constant trickle of bathers and tourists all pass each other in a dusty gauzy throwback to the 1950s.
This is the closest I’ve ever come to living in a trailer park. There are 36 units here with the basic hookups then a laundry room, freezer (where we keep freezing water jugs instead of buying ice) and half-off the soaks. Plus wi-fi so we can just lay around and watch online movies all day if we want. I have a small electric heater we can use at night, plus I got a Mr. Heater portable stove that runs on propane canisters. I LOVE IT. It’s just like sitting around a little hearth. We’ve got the tent attached to the van and have received three visitors since we got here. Once we went to the Pinch and Swallow on Broadway to see Las Cruces’s favorite bluegrass band man Steve Smith. Apparently “Dr. Bob” of T or C hosts these musical soirees in the bar that served him as therapeutic exercise during a stressful time in his career. I don’t have last names or all the facts because this is just what I picked up hanging around the stage. You have to bring your own refreshments, it’s not a commercial operation. There is an enormous mural on the wall, must be forty feet long, tripped out, that the good doctor painted himself as a de-stressor. Steve Smith’s band is fabulous and much of the “mature” audience members broke into groups just like junior high. I don’t know what they put in the water around here but there is a really unique congregation of very cheerful, well-satisfied elders here.
The women danced mostly with each other in the back while the men hopped around in a mild version of a mosh pit up front. Some of their outfits were “which-way-to-the-festival-man style," layers of long and short skirts, odd hats and plenty of jewelry. The men were a little more subdued but most had long beards and looked like old Civil War soldiers. There are a lot of wheelchairs around town, there’s a nearby VA hospital, and many old-timers on their scooters going up and down the street with their flags furling dune-buggy style. I eavesdrop on the conversations around me. A group of residents down at the thrift store agree this winter has been one of the worst for longevity. “You can tell things are changing,” one ancient said, “everybody I know has a cold.”
I guess they are recalling the glory days when all the bath house cottages were new and the WPA had just laid down the town’s concrete sidewalks. Everything is out of an old black-and-white movie now. One voyager up the street who passed by on his scooter told me his parents lived here way back when and he moved here permanently in the early 90s. “Nuthin’s really changed too much around here, but the price of real estate.”
There is this boom town talk that does make me leery. All the young folks are speculators and all the old folks are skeptics. A lot of the promises of glory sound so much like the stories we’ve heard about in New Mexico’s history of boom and bust. The whole town is for sale just about and that lends a real ghost town feel to the place. Too bad somebody doesn’t come in here and set money on fire like they have done in Marfa, Texas.
The trip to T or C has been a good practice run before we turn around and go back to Study Butte. I had to interrupt our plans to have a root canal redone in El Paso. But we are back on track for Survival Camp at Astor Park in Study Butte, Texas, by the Big Bend National Park. They call it Far West, Texas, out there but I call it Far Out West Texas.
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela Hirst
“There’s more consequences than truth” is the saying around here, especially when water and real estate might be the topic. Like the elephant bone yard this town is the bone yard for vintage Airstreams and they speckle the landscape. We’ve pulled into the Artesian RV Park and Bathhouse for a month. The Black Cat Bookstore has poetry readings twice a month. There is a radical underground radio station FM 96.1, political rant website (www.desertjournalonline.com/underground_truth.htm), a good library, grocery store, and cheap diners. A population of mature citizens, young upstarts ready to make a fortune when the Spaceport project of Virgin Airline’s Richard Branson’s gets off the ground, and a constant trickle of bathers and tourists all pass each other in a dusty gauzy throwback to the 1950s.
This is the closest I’ve ever come to living in a trailer park. There are 36 units here with the basic hookups then a laundry room, freezer (where we keep freezing water jugs instead of buying ice) and half-off the soaks. Plus wi-fi so we can just lay around and watch online movies all day if we want. I have a small electric heater we can use at night, plus I got a Mr. Heater portable stove that runs on propane canisters. I LOVE IT. It’s just like sitting around a little hearth. We’ve got the tent attached to the van and have received three visitors since we got here. Once we went to the Pinch and Swallow on Broadway to see Las Cruces’s favorite bluegrass band man Steve Smith. Apparently “Dr. Bob” of T or C hosts these musical soirees in the bar that served him as therapeutic exercise during a stressful time in his career. I don’t have last names or all the facts because this is just what I picked up hanging around the stage. You have to bring your own refreshments, it’s not a commercial operation. There is an enormous mural on the wall, must be forty feet long, tripped out, that the good doctor painted himself as a de-stressor. Steve Smith’s band is fabulous and much of the “mature” audience members broke into groups just like junior high. I don’t know what they put in the water around here but there is a really unique congregation of very cheerful, well-satisfied elders here.
The women danced mostly with each other in the back while the men hopped around in a mild version of a mosh pit up front. Some of their outfits were “which-way-to-the-festival-man style," layers of long and short skirts, odd hats and plenty of jewelry. The men were a little more subdued but most had long beards and looked like old Civil War soldiers. There are a lot of wheelchairs around town, there’s a nearby VA hospital, and many old-timers on their scooters going up and down the street with their flags furling dune-buggy style. I eavesdrop on the conversations around me. A group of residents down at the thrift store agree this winter has been one of the worst for longevity. “You can tell things are changing,” one ancient said, “everybody I know has a cold.”
I guess they are recalling the glory days when all the bath house cottages were new and the WPA had just laid down the town’s concrete sidewalks. Everything is out of an old black-and-white movie now. One voyager up the street who passed by on his scooter told me his parents lived here way back when and he moved here permanently in the early 90s. “Nuthin’s really changed too much around here, but the price of real estate.”
There is this boom town talk that does make me leery. All the young folks are speculators and all the old folks are skeptics. A lot of the promises of glory sound so much like the stories we’ve heard about in New Mexico’s history of boom and bust. The whole town is for sale just about and that lends a real ghost town feel to the place. Too bad somebody doesn’t come in here and set money on fire like they have done in Marfa, Texas.
The trip to T or C has been a good practice run before we turn around and go back to Study Butte. I had to interrupt our plans to have a root canal redone in El Paso. But we are back on track for Survival Camp at Astor Park in Study Butte, Texas, by the Big Bend National Park. They call it Far West, Texas, out there but I call it Far Out West Texas.
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela Hirst
Sunday, February 21, 2010
TIGER, TIGER: THE SCARLET LETTER
A JAZZMAN CHRONICLE. DISSEMINATE FREELY.
THE SCARLET LETTER: W IS FOR WRONG
By Jack Random
I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me.
Tiger Woods, February 19, 2010.
Few economists saw our current crisis coming, but this predictive failure was the least of the field’s problems. More important was the profession’s blindness to the very possibility of catastrophic failures in a market economy.
Paul Krugman, September 2, 2009.
Tiger Woods was compelled by media outcry to stand before the cameras and submit to public humiliation. For some fifteen minutes on a Friday morning the world stopped to witness the event and sit in judgment on the sincerity of his contrition. Within seconds of his scripted performance the media was clamoring for more. They feel entitled. The public needs to know. The public demands.
Tiger Woods will no doubt deliver in the fullness of time. He is no longer a golfer. He is no longer the man destined to break Jack Nicklaus’s record of eighteen major golf championships. He is a serial adulterer. He wears a scarlet letter. He will always wear it. Someday he will return to the sport in which he excels and his accomplishments may again outweigh the foibles of his private life but he will never lose the scarlet letter.
The world is not a just place. It is no more just that a golfer should make hundreds of millions of dollars and be crowned the king of a billion dollar corporation than it is for that same golfer to submit to public humiliation for private wrongs.
If not for the corporate monster that has planted itself around Tiger Woods, he would not owe the media anything. If he were just a golfer he could invoke the spirit of Charles (I am not a role model) Barkley, make amends with his wife and family, return to the game on his own time schedule, and refuse to engage the media circus any further.
When it comes down to it, golf is just a game and Tiger is just a player. He is not a public official and his judgment does not directly affect the lives and well being of anyone outside his circle of friends, family and associates.
There are plenty of people in public life who deserve the kind of scrutiny and harsh judgment that is bestowed on the world’s most famous (now infamous) athlete for they have assumed a public stance and their pronouncements and decisions have had a profound effect on the lives and well being of millions, indeed, on the welfare of the nation and the world.
They include the “experts” and officials who served as propagandists and perpetrators of the nation’s most disgraceful war since Vietnam and their names include retired Generals David Grange, Wayne Downing, James Marks and Barry McCaffrey, retired Major Generals Don Sheppard and Bob Scales, retired Lieutenant General Tom McInerney, retired Colonels Wayne Allard and William Cowan, retired Captain Charles Nash, and of course the irrepressible torturer-in-chief Dick Cheney. Virtually all of these so-called “experts” had active interests in the war machine and were serving as nothing less than lobbyists.
If anyone deserves to pay the price of public humiliation, loss of credibility and the scarlet letter of betrayal it is the government propagandist who charades under the guise of an impartial media analyst.
Tiger Woods betrayed his wife. These individuals betrayed the nation and every soldier who would come to serve in that misbegotten war. And yet they still appear as media experts without any revelation of their checkered pasts. Of course for the media to expose them they would have to reveal their own complicity in cowardly compromise and this they will not do.
Another class of media pundit that deserves an indelible mark of shame is the economist or economic expert that promoted endless deregulation of the financial markets for more than a decade and failed to foresee the inevitable collapse in the housing market, triggering a cascade of implosions that brought the global economy to its knees.
They include Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Ben Stein of commercial fame, former Senator Phil Gramm, Allan Meltzer of the American Enterprise Institute, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, former Times columnist Bill Kristol, Milton Friedman, Bruce Bartlett, virtually every major bank president, every CEO of a major financial institution, and countless others. Given the bipartisan consensus initiated by former president Clinton, there are in fact only a handful of economic experts who did not get it wrong and none of them are in positions of power today. So be it. Anyone who was so blinded by group think that they could not see this train wreck coming does not deserve to be considered an expert in the field.
Tiger Woods cheated on his wife and got caught. These people helped to defraud every stock and pension holder in the world and escaped unscathed, often with multi-million dollar bonuses. If we gave these individuals the public flogging they deserve they would not be empowered to fight back essential financial institution reforms today.
The time will come when the advocates of the Afghan war and global “free” trade will also come to judgment. When it is finally determined beyond doubt that our efforts in Afghanistan are in vain and that the trade policies of neo-liberalism have created an economic divide on par with feudalism, then all those pretenders should step forward for their own public humiliation.
But we should not be vengeful. It is not punishment we desire. It is only information to which we should be entitled. We need not place a permanent mark on their brows that would force them to confront their failures in everyday life. We need only a reminder when they appear on television or in a public forum. I suggest a lapel pin (where they used to wear the American flag) with the bright red letter W.
W is for wrong. Wear it proudly or remain silent. Either way the public interest will be served.
Meantime, call off the dogs and let Tiger tend to his own life. He has brought shame upon himself but he does not deserve a constant drubbing from a media that has its own burdens to bear.
Jazz.
“Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand” by David Barstow, New York Times, April 20, 2008.
“How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” by Paul Krugman, New York Times Magazine, September 2, 2009.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). A COLUMNIST FOR THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, WORLD EDITION, HIS CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
THE SCARLET LETTER: W IS FOR WRONG
By Jack Random
I was wrong. I was foolish. I don't get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me.
Tiger Woods, February 19, 2010.
Few economists saw our current crisis coming, but this predictive failure was the least of the field’s problems. More important was the profession’s blindness to the very possibility of catastrophic failures in a market economy.
Paul Krugman, September 2, 2009.
Tiger Woods was compelled by media outcry to stand before the cameras and submit to public humiliation. For some fifteen minutes on a Friday morning the world stopped to witness the event and sit in judgment on the sincerity of his contrition. Within seconds of his scripted performance the media was clamoring for more. They feel entitled. The public needs to know. The public demands.
Tiger Woods will no doubt deliver in the fullness of time. He is no longer a golfer. He is no longer the man destined to break Jack Nicklaus’s record of eighteen major golf championships. He is a serial adulterer. He wears a scarlet letter. He will always wear it. Someday he will return to the sport in which he excels and his accomplishments may again outweigh the foibles of his private life but he will never lose the scarlet letter.
The world is not a just place. It is no more just that a golfer should make hundreds of millions of dollars and be crowned the king of a billion dollar corporation than it is for that same golfer to submit to public humiliation for private wrongs.
If not for the corporate monster that has planted itself around Tiger Woods, he would not owe the media anything. If he were just a golfer he could invoke the spirit of Charles (I am not a role model) Barkley, make amends with his wife and family, return to the game on his own time schedule, and refuse to engage the media circus any further.
When it comes down to it, golf is just a game and Tiger is just a player. He is not a public official and his judgment does not directly affect the lives and well being of anyone outside his circle of friends, family and associates.
There are plenty of people in public life who deserve the kind of scrutiny and harsh judgment that is bestowed on the world’s most famous (now infamous) athlete for they have assumed a public stance and their pronouncements and decisions have had a profound effect on the lives and well being of millions, indeed, on the welfare of the nation and the world.
They include the “experts” and officials who served as propagandists and perpetrators of the nation’s most disgraceful war since Vietnam and their names include retired Generals David Grange, Wayne Downing, James Marks and Barry McCaffrey, retired Major Generals Don Sheppard and Bob Scales, retired Lieutenant General Tom McInerney, retired Colonels Wayne Allard and William Cowan, retired Captain Charles Nash, and of course the irrepressible torturer-in-chief Dick Cheney. Virtually all of these so-called “experts” had active interests in the war machine and were serving as nothing less than lobbyists.
If anyone deserves to pay the price of public humiliation, loss of credibility and the scarlet letter of betrayal it is the government propagandist who charades under the guise of an impartial media analyst.
Tiger Woods betrayed his wife. These individuals betrayed the nation and every soldier who would come to serve in that misbegotten war. And yet they still appear as media experts without any revelation of their checkered pasts. Of course for the media to expose them they would have to reveal their own complicity in cowardly compromise and this they will not do.
Another class of media pundit that deserves an indelible mark of shame is the economist or economic expert that promoted endless deregulation of the financial markets for more than a decade and failed to foresee the inevitable collapse in the housing market, triggering a cascade of implosions that brought the global economy to its knees.
They include Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Ben Stein of commercial fame, former Senator Phil Gramm, Allan Meltzer of the American Enterprise Institute, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, former Times columnist Bill Kristol, Milton Friedman, Bruce Bartlett, virtually every major bank president, every CEO of a major financial institution, and countless others. Given the bipartisan consensus initiated by former president Clinton, there are in fact only a handful of economic experts who did not get it wrong and none of them are in positions of power today. So be it. Anyone who was so blinded by group think that they could not see this train wreck coming does not deserve to be considered an expert in the field.
Tiger Woods cheated on his wife and got caught. These people helped to defraud every stock and pension holder in the world and escaped unscathed, often with multi-million dollar bonuses. If we gave these individuals the public flogging they deserve they would not be empowered to fight back essential financial institution reforms today.
The time will come when the advocates of the Afghan war and global “free” trade will also come to judgment. When it is finally determined beyond doubt that our efforts in Afghanistan are in vain and that the trade policies of neo-liberalism have created an economic divide on par with feudalism, then all those pretenders should step forward for their own public humiliation.
But we should not be vengeful. It is not punishment we desire. It is only information to which we should be entitled. We need not place a permanent mark on their brows that would force them to confront their failures in everyday life. We need only a reminder when they appear on television or in a public forum. I suggest a lapel pin (where they used to wear the American flag) with the bright red letter W.
W is for wrong. Wear it proudly or remain silent. Either way the public interest will be served.
Meantime, call off the dogs and let Tiger tend to his own life. He has brought shame upon himself but he does not deserve a constant drubbing from a media that has its own burdens to bear.
Jazz.
“Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand” by David Barstow, New York Times, April 20, 2008.
“How Did Economists Get It So Wrong?” by Paul Krugman, New York Times Magazine, September 2, 2009.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). A COLUMNIST FOR THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, WORLD EDITION, HIS CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Remembering Howard Zinn: August 24 1922 – January 27 2010
Howard Zinn, author of "A People's History of the United States," died Wednesday at the age of 87.
Adapted from the Harper Collins Summary: Howard Zinn was a historian, playwright, and social activist. He was a shipyard worker and Air Force bombardier before he went to college under the GI Bill and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He taught at Spelman College and Boston University, and was a visiting professor at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna. He received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award. He lived in Auburndale, Massachusetts.
“He was the best human being I've ever known. The best example of what a human can be, and can do with their life.”
Daniel Ellsberg
“I always wondered why Howard Zinn was considered a radical. He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it. What was so radical about believing that workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?”
Bob Herbert (NY Times)
"He's made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture. He's changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can't think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect. He was a person of real courage and integrity, warmth and humor.”
Noam Chomsky
"Howard had a great mind and was one of the great voices in the American political life. He taught me how valuable -- how necessary -- dissent was to democracy and to America itself. He taught that history was made by the everyman, not the elites. I was lucky enough to know him personally and I will carry with me what I learned from him -- and try to impart it to my own children -- in his memory."
Ben Affleck
"Howard had a genius for the shape of public morality and for articulating the great alternative vision of peace as more than a dream. But above all, he had a genius for the practical meaning of love. [He was] simply one of the greatest Americans of our time. He will not be replaced -- or soon forgotten.”
James Carroll (Boston Globe)
“Zinn's brand of history put common citizens at the center of the story and inspired generations of young activists and academics to remember that change is possible.”
Peter Rothberg (The Nation)
“Zinn's influence will live on in the great power of his words, and the courage and modesty with which he lived his life.”
Victoria Brittain (The Guardian)
"From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it.”
Howard Zinn
“Where progress has been made, wherever any kind of injustice has been overturned, it's been because people acted as citizens, and not as politicians. They didn't just moan. They worked, they acted, they organised, they rioted if necessary to bring their situation to the attention of people in power. And that's what we have to do today."
Howard Zinn
"My hope is that you will not be content just to be successful in the way our society measures success; that you will not obey the rules, when the rules are unjust; that you will act out the courage that I know is in you."
Howard Zinn
Random Note: When I made plans to publish the Jazzman Chronicles I sought the comments and support of America’s two pre-eminent progressives: Chomsky and Zinn. Zinn replied that he did not have time to read my work but encouraged me to keep writing. When I pressed him to comment on a short essay entitled True History he replied “… a succinct and heartfelt statement about the importance of teaching good history to the new generation.” He was and is a hero who fought the good fight to the end of his days and I will always be grateful.
Jazz.
Adapted from the Harper Collins Summary: Howard Zinn was a historian, playwright, and social activist. He was a shipyard worker and Air Force bombardier before he went to college under the GI Bill and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He taught at Spelman College and Boston University, and was a visiting professor at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna. He received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award. He lived in Auburndale, Massachusetts.
“He was the best human being I've ever known. The best example of what a human can be, and can do with their life.”
Daniel Ellsberg
“I always wondered why Howard Zinn was considered a radical. He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice and unfairness wherever he found it. What was so radical about believing that workers should get a fair shake on the job, that corporations have too much power over our lives and much too much influence with the government, that wars are so murderously destructive that alternatives to warfare should be found, that blacks and other racial and ethnic minorities should have the same rights as whites, that the interests of powerful political leaders and corporate elites are not the same as those of ordinary people who are struggling from week to week to make ends meet?”
Bob Herbert (NY Times)
"He's made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture. He's changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can't think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect. He was a person of real courage and integrity, warmth and humor.”
Noam Chomsky
"Howard had a great mind and was one of the great voices in the American political life. He taught me how valuable -- how necessary -- dissent was to democracy and to America itself. He taught that history was made by the everyman, not the elites. I was lucky enough to know him personally and I will carry with me what I learned from him -- and try to impart it to my own children -- in his memory."
Ben Affleck
"Howard had a genius for the shape of public morality and for articulating the great alternative vision of peace as more than a dream. But above all, he had a genius for the practical meaning of love. [He was] simply one of the greatest Americans of our time. He will not be replaced -- or soon forgotten.”
James Carroll (Boston Globe)
“Zinn's brand of history put common citizens at the center of the story and inspired generations of young activists and academics to remember that change is possible.”
Peter Rothberg (The Nation)
“Zinn's influence will live on in the great power of his words, and the courage and modesty with which he lived his life.”
Victoria Brittain (The Guardian)
"From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it.”
Howard Zinn
“Where progress has been made, wherever any kind of injustice has been overturned, it's been because people acted as citizens, and not as politicians. They didn't just moan. They worked, they acted, they organised, they rioted if necessary to bring their situation to the attention of people in power. And that's what we have to do today."
Howard Zinn
"My hope is that you will not be content just to be successful in the way our society measures success; that you will not obey the rules, when the rules are unjust; that you will act out the courage that I know is in you."
Howard Zinn
Random Note: When I made plans to publish the Jazzman Chronicles I sought the comments and support of America’s two pre-eminent progressives: Chomsky and Zinn. Zinn replied that he did not have time to read my work but encouraged me to keep writing. When I pressed him to comment on a short essay entitled True History he replied “… a succinct and heartfelt statement about the importance of teaching good history to the new generation.” He was and is a hero who fought the good fight to the end of his days and I will always be grateful.
Jazz.
Beatlick Travel Report 2010: Marfa TX
Date: Jan 30, 2010 11:18 AM
Marfa, Texas
While we were visiting in Fort Stockton Beatlick Joe and I were really impressed by Marfa’s public radio station KRTS 93.5 “radio for a wide range,” so we decided to stop for the weekend and check out some of the activities mentioned on the air. We had spent a cold night in Marathon with freezing rain that left the van coated in ice so we were grateful to see clouds in the vast sky break up and the temperature rise as we drove the 60 mile stretch into the Marfa Plateau.
We have passed through Marfa a number of times traveling down Highway 90 on our destinations elsewhere. Staying on that route the place looked like so many other hard-luck scenes in Texas, we really thought it was a little one-trick pony town touting its mystery lights, not unlike Roswell, cashing in on a local phenomenon.
We passed by the Marfa Lights Viewing Center nine miles from town. We judge that a good place to park overnight sometime. Native inhabitants were aware of Marfa’s mysterious lights long before the first recording of them back in 1883. The whole concept is so popular now that the town provides this accommodating viewing station and a festival on Labor Day weekend.
It was only after we pulled off of 90 and ventured closer into the heart of town that we saw how truly unique and interesting Marfa is. We urban camped right beside the Paisano Hotel which had a great bar, fireplace and wonderful big old bathrooms off of the lobby where you can lock yourself in for complete privacy and enjoy a big sink with lots of hot water. We haven’t had it this good since the Bisbee library in Arizona. The hotel hosts a large display of memorabilia from the movie “Giant.” Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and Rock Hudson all spent time there and left behind their autographed photos.
We strolled around and enjoyed the beautiful buildings, coffee shops and art galleries all looking neatly spruced up and tidy. Our itinerary included KRTS, the Marfa Book Company, and Ballroom Marfa where an international film project was holding a reception. What an interesting crowd showed up. There seems to be a large draw of young people from Sul Ross University less than 30 miles away in Alpine. The art scene is huge here and we spoke to so many young people who have moved here from Boston, Austin , Berlin, you name it.
Apparently Donald Judd laid the foundation for the town’s heavy art scene in the mid-1970s when he established the Chinati Foundation, which today houses a permanent collection of contemporary art as well as temporary exhibits by artists in residence. One night on Marfa Radio they were interviewing two Germans who came to Marfa and created an art installation by taking apart an entire automobile and reconstructing it into two bicycles.
The “Art in the Auditorium” at Ballroom Marfa is a global collaboration between museums and art spaces in Italy, Norway, Turkey, Argentina, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. There were two large rooms with short films by seven up and coming filmmakers. One of the film directors was in attendance, Aida Ruilova. Her seven-minute short “Meet the Eye,” was filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles and featured Karen Black of “Easy Rider” fame and LA artist Raymond Pettibon.
Black is expressing her anxieties to the male lead about her futile struggle to remember something. Pettibon is secretly carving a peephole in the wall. When Black does look through the hole she sees a scene of death, which ironically is the thing she is trying to remember. It’s pretty abstract as Truelove’s work is critiqued to be. The plot could be deciphered as the actor meeting herself in that dreamlike dimension. The petite former punk rocker said to her knowledge Marfa was the only town in America hosting the international collaboration.
“Dead Forest (Storm) by Charley Nijensohn of Buenos Aires was my personal favorite, totally surreal and I couldn’t figure out how in the world it was shot. Filmed in the Amazon Basin where the plight of the area’s deforestation is well documented a man is standing unprotected on a small floating craft, not much bigger than a log. It is pouring down rain and all you hear is the downpour with the visual of the man floating through a flooded landscape of blackened dead tree stumps. The relentless rain robs the scene of any color and the man drifts so precariously perched on his tiny craft, pummeled by the precipitation, as endangered as the rain forest.
We will stay the weekend and head on to El Paso. I have an appointment with an endodontist to get a root canal. Apparently I am such a unique and special person that I have grown four roots from my problem tooth instead of the usual three. So it is this fourth one which requires a root canal. I wish I could use these odds to work in my favor in Las Vegas.
So we completely changed our plans and won’t be back at Astor Park in the Big Bend area until March and April. Then we will continue our ultimate survival camp experience. In the meantime we will go to Truth or Consequences where we hope to park at the Artesian Hot Springs for a month. You can do that for only $125 with a discount on the hot baths and access to electricity. That sounds pretty plush to us.
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela
Marfa, Texas
While we were visiting in Fort Stockton Beatlick Joe and I were really impressed by Marfa’s public radio station KRTS 93.5 “radio for a wide range,” so we decided to stop for the weekend and check out some of the activities mentioned on the air. We had spent a cold night in Marathon with freezing rain that left the van coated in ice so we were grateful to see clouds in the vast sky break up and the temperature rise as we drove the 60 mile stretch into the Marfa Plateau.
We have passed through Marfa a number of times traveling down Highway 90 on our destinations elsewhere. Staying on that route the place looked like so many other hard-luck scenes in Texas, we really thought it was a little one-trick pony town touting its mystery lights, not unlike Roswell, cashing in on a local phenomenon.
We passed by the Marfa Lights Viewing Center nine miles from town. We judge that a good place to park overnight sometime. Native inhabitants were aware of Marfa’s mysterious lights long before the first recording of them back in 1883. The whole concept is so popular now that the town provides this accommodating viewing station and a festival on Labor Day weekend.
It was only after we pulled off of 90 and ventured closer into the heart of town that we saw how truly unique and interesting Marfa is. We urban camped right beside the Paisano Hotel which had a great bar, fireplace and wonderful big old bathrooms off of the lobby where you can lock yourself in for complete privacy and enjoy a big sink with lots of hot water. We haven’t had it this good since the Bisbee library in Arizona. The hotel hosts a large display of memorabilia from the movie “Giant.” Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and Rock Hudson all spent time there and left behind their autographed photos.
We strolled around and enjoyed the beautiful buildings, coffee shops and art galleries all looking neatly spruced up and tidy. Our itinerary included KRTS, the Marfa Book Company, and Ballroom Marfa where an international film project was holding a reception. What an interesting crowd showed up. There seems to be a large draw of young people from Sul Ross University less than 30 miles away in Alpine. The art scene is huge here and we spoke to so many young people who have moved here from Boston, Austin , Berlin, you name it.
Apparently Donald Judd laid the foundation for the town’s heavy art scene in the mid-1970s when he established the Chinati Foundation, which today houses a permanent collection of contemporary art as well as temporary exhibits by artists in residence. One night on Marfa Radio they were interviewing two Germans who came to Marfa and created an art installation by taking apart an entire automobile and reconstructing it into two bicycles.
The “Art in the Auditorium” at Ballroom Marfa is a global collaboration between museums and art spaces in Italy, Norway, Turkey, Argentina, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. There were two large rooms with short films by seven up and coming filmmakers. One of the film directors was in attendance, Aida Ruilova. Her seven-minute short “Meet the Eye,” was filmed on a sound stage in Los Angeles and featured Karen Black of “Easy Rider” fame and LA artist Raymond Pettibon.
Black is expressing her anxieties to the male lead about her futile struggle to remember something. Pettibon is secretly carving a peephole in the wall. When Black does look through the hole she sees a scene of death, which ironically is the thing she is trying to remember. It’s pretty abstract as Truelove’s work is critiqued to be. The plot could be deciphered as the actor meeting herself in that dreamlike dimension. The petite former punk rocker said to her knowledge Marfa was the only town in America hosting the international collaboration.
“Dead Forest (Storm) by Charley Nijensohn of Buenos Aires was my personal favorite, totally surreal and I couldn’t figure out how in the world it was shot. Filmed in the Amazon Basin where the plight of the area’s deforestation is well documented a man is standing unprotected on a small floating craft, not much bigger than a log. It is pouring down rain and all you hear is the downpour with the visual of the man floating through a flooded landscape of blackened dead tree stumps. The relentless rain robs the scene of any color and the man drifts so precariously perched on his tiny craft, pummeled by the precipitation, as endangered as the rain forest.
We will stay the weekend and head on to El Paso. I have an appointment with an endodontist to get a root canal. Apparently I am such a unique and special person that I have grown four roots from my problem tooth instead of the usual three. So it is this fourth one which requires a root canal. I wish I could use these odds to work in my favor in Las Vegas.
So we completely changed our plans and won’t be back at Astor Park in the Big Bend area until March and April. Then we will continue our ultimate survival camp experience. In the meantime we will go to Truth or Consequences where we hope to park at the Artesian Hot Springs for a month. You can do that for only $125 with a discount on the hot baths and access to electricity. That sounds pretty plush to us.
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Boston Alarm Redux
The alarm goes off and a procession of skulls materialize ahead of the engine. Handing out tickets to the destruction, they're followed by the curious and together they gather as the house falls in on itself. Screams, you can't hear them anymore. Three alarm, four? How many engines need to respond? Pull the body out through the window even if the skin pulls away? This is democracy in action. We don't mind to see the sausage made, we don't care if the blood gets into the ground. The table is set and its no longer an indoor sport.
Gathering to vote we pass one another and curse the voting line. Its more interesting to watch on television. Download a copy of the Bill of Rights in pdf. Your elected officials are just like the bull in the china shop and you are the smallest crystal cup. But you like it this way. Its only a crisis of conscious if everyone around you says they will agree. Foreign aid will take your job away but it won't stop you from filling your life with goods from China. Made in America was never going to make it past the parking lot. You used to be a card carrying hypocrite until like so many other words you forgot the meaning while you were in line to look away.
Chris Mansel
Gathering to vote we pass one another and curse the voting line. Its more interesting to watch on television. Download a copy of the Bill of Rights in pdf. Your elected officials are just like the bull in the china shop and you are the smallest crystal cup. But you like it this way. Its only a crisis of conscious if everyone around you says they will agree. Foreign aid will take your job away but it won't stop you from filling your life with goods from China. Made in America was never going to make it past the parking lot. You used to be a card carrying hypocrite until like so many other words you forgot the meaning while you were in line to look away.
Chris Mansel
Monday, January 25, 2010
Boston Alarm
If the ruling party fails to heed the warning sounded by the senatorial special election in Massachusetts then the midterm elections will be a massacre. If the only lessons learned are the need to retool the message or the necessity of hand-to-hand campaigning, then the party is deaf to the cry of the people and therefore fundamentally incapable of governing.
Frankly we don’t care what the message is any more as long as jobs are being delivered yesterday. Frankly we don’t want to shake hands with any candidate. We just want to know that she or he is working for us and not the multi-billion dollar corporations that finance the bulk of all political campaigns.
For a year we have waited for something positive to come out of Washington and the ruling party gave us a Wall Street bailout and a healthcare package so brutalized it was hard to tell who wrote it: corporate lawyers or Washington lobbyists.
When you don’t have a job you really don’t care about healthcare insurance and the last thing you want to hear is mandatory coverage. Is there anyone listening?
Frankly we don’t care what the message is any more as long as jobs are being delivered yesterday. Frankly we don’t want to shake hands with any candidate. We just want to know that she or he is working for us and not the multi-billion dollar corporations that finance the bulk of all political campaigns.
For a year we have waited for something positive to come out of Washington and the ruling party gave us a Wall Street bailout and a healthcare package so brutalized it was hard to tell who wrote it: corporate lawyers or Washington lobbyists.
When you don’t have a job you really don’t care about healthcare insurance and the last thing you want to hear is mandatory coverage. Is there anyone listening?
SUPREME COURT BETRAYAL: DEMOCRACY LOST
A JAZZMAN CHRONICLE: DISSEMINATE FREELY.
By Jack Random
“The court’s primary function will be to strike back government regulation of private business at every turn. Anti-trust law is dead. Environmental law is rendered toothless. Regulation of essential industries -- energy, water and food -- is barely breathing. Security reigns supreme over individual liberties and the only rights that count are corporate.”
“Blame the Democrats and Move On: The Federalist Court.” Jazzman Chronicles, July 20, 2005.
“It would be impossible to understate the dangers that corporate dominance poses to democracy. Corporate democracy is an oxymoron. It cannot exist. It is an unconscionable perversion of democracy.”
“As the World Turns: America Left Behind.” Jazzman Chronicles, September 6, 2009.
........
As a progressive libertarian independent the events of the week were enough to send me into a tailspin of despair. No, it was not the Massachusetts senatorial race, which I found rich in irony and something of a mixed blessing. No, it was not the precipitous decline in the stock market, which served to remind us that that brokers and bankers are far more afraid of populist rage than they are of any mainstream political party.
No, it was rather the boldest assertion to date that the Supreme Court of Chief Justice John Roberts has one and only one defining characteristic: Corporate bias.
History informs us that there is perhaps no form of government more vulnerable to corporate takeover than a democracy in which there are no controls on the funding of political campaigns. Knowing this, there is no democracy in the western world that allows unlimited corporate funding. Knowing this, our Supreme Court delivered a ruling that allows just that with one caveat: corporations cannot contribute directly to political parties or candidates. It is a curious exception in that it seems to confess that the court’s reasoning is flawed. If corporations are in effect citizens, entitled to the rights of individuals, on what grounds should they be denied direct engagement?
It is however an exception that has no teeth. Corporations do not need to contribute directly to parties or candidates. They are fully capable of running their own political operations. They can operate their own focus groups. They can use their resources, even those gained from public bailouts, to tip the balance of power and control the policies of government.
We’ve grown accustomed to hyperbole from pundits and politicians but this time it is real. Democracy can be compromised only so far before it ceases to be democracy. In this case the alternative our Supreme Court has thrust us toward is corporate fascism not unlike Mussolini’s Italy, a government that found nothing objectionable in Hitler’s Third Reich. It was only business.
In the bold new world the court has laid out for us the electoral process will become a mere formality as it is in Russia or Iran. It will become a ritual to commemorate the democracy we once treasured. In this new world neither the people, the mom and pop corporations nor the unions will hold any sway, though this ruling applies to them as well, for they cannot compete with the power of the almighty dollar that corporate monoliths bring to bear.
Leaders of the Republican Party have embraced this decision and never fail to include the unions in their analysis. Yet the labor unions are a red herring. After half a century of decline, there is no union in the land that can compete with any major corporation. By this ruling union influence is rendered negligible and corporate power reigns supreme.
Among the many questions that remain unanswered are the international implications. The modern corporation is an international leviathan with tentacles extending across borders in every direction. It has no loyalties, no patriotism, no ideology, no principles and no virtue. It is governed by the profit margin, plain and simple. If selling out the workers of America (by exporting jobs and banishing the rights of labor) will boost the profit margin, it is not a decision that will be contested.
The corporate behemoths may allow Barack Obama to continue as president, they may allow the major parties to exist, but with this ruling the nation just got a charter for a new board of directors that will replace all branches of government as the ultimate arbiter of decisions. If any member of congress, Senator or President violates the dictums of the corporate masters, they will be targeted for extinction. In that sense the parties themselves will become irrelevant. All parties will become agents of corporate interest.
For as long as this decision is allowed to stand we are no longer a democracy.
It must not be allowed to stand and yet overturning a Supreme Court decision is a daunting task. Among the courses of action suggested thus far, none shows any real promise of success. Amending the constitution requires two thirds of congress and three quarters of the states. Removing the majority members of the court for treason, however justified, would require an overwhelming push by congress. As long as Republicans remain convinced that corporate dominance is to their advantage it cannot happen.
Perhaps Congressman Barney Frank, who noted that corporations are creations of law, offered the most interesting approach. Corporations are granted corporate status by the government and the government retains the right to enforce standards and regulations. It is therefore possible that congress can control the power of corporations through corporate law rather than campaign finance law.
There are at least two major obstacles to this approach. First, congress has not been able to pass re-regulation of the financial institutions even after the lack of regulation played a primary role in a near catastrophic collapse. How are we to believe that congress will act in this case even as the minority party throws up a roadblock of united opposition?
The dismal truth is congress is paralyzed. While some may give lip service to the necessity of systemic change, there is no real movement toward striking down the filibuster rule in the United States Senate. As long as the filibuster remains there can be no real change.
Even if we could get beyond systemic paralysis, any effective legislative attempt to undo what the Supreme Court has done would surely be struck down by the same court.
Those of us who believe in democracy must continue to fight but it seems to me we must also recognize reality. In all likelihood we are stuck with this decision until the balance of the court is altered. The way things are going it could be decades and by that time the nature of congress and the White House could be so altered that change may be impossible.
Once lost, the road back to democracy is paved with hardship.
That is the problem with Supreme Court decisions. They have the power to alter the very heart and soul of a nation.
So welcome to the corporate world: We are up against the wall, rifles pointed at our chests, and our only remaining choice is whether to be blindfolded or to confront our destiny with open eyes.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). A COLUMNIST FOR THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, WORLD EDITION, HIS CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
By Jack Random
“The court’s primary function will be to strike back government regulation of private business at every turn. Anti-trust law is dead. Environmental law is rendered toothless. Regulation of essential industries -- energy, water and food -- is barely breathing. Security reigns supreme over individual liberties and the only rights that count are corporate.”
“Blame the Democrats and Move On: The Federalist Court.” Jazzman Chronicles, July 20, 2005.
“It would be impossible to understate the dangers that corporate dominance poses to democracy. Corporate democracy is an oxymoron. It cannot exist. It is an unconscionable perversion of democracy.”
“As the World Turns: America Left Behind.” Jazzman Chronicles, September 6, 2009.
........
As a progressive libertarian independent the events of the week were enough to send me into a tailspin of despair. No, it was not the Massachusetts senatorial race, which I found rich in irony and something of a mixed blessing. No, it was not the precipitous decline in the stock market, which served to remind us that that brokers and bankers are far more afraid of populist rage than they are of any mainstream political party.
No, it was rather the boldest assertion to date that the Supreme Court of Chief Justice John Roberts has one and only one defining characteristic: Corporate bias.
History informs us that there is perhaps no form of government more vulnerable to corporate takeover than a democracy in which there are no controls on the funding of political campaigns. Knowing this, there is no democracy in the western world that allows unlimited corporate funding. Knowing this, our Supreme Court delivered a ruling that allows just that with one caveat: corporations cannot contribute directly to political parties or candidates. It is a curious exception in that it seems to confess that the court’s reasoning is flawed. If corporations are in effect citizens, entitled to the rights of individuals, on what grounds should they be denied direct engagement?
It is however an exception that has no teeth. Corporations do not need to contribute directly to parties or candidates. They are fully capable of running their own political operations. They can operate their own focus groups. They can use their resources, even those gained from public bailouts, to tip the balance of power and control the policies of government.
We’ve grown accustomed to hyperbole from pundits and politicians but this time it is real. Democracy can be compromised only so far before it ceases to be democracy. In this case the alternative our Supreme Court has thrust us toward is corporate fascism not unlike Mussolini’s Italy, a government that found nothing objectionable in Hitler’s Third Reich. It was only business.
In the bold new world the court has laid out for us the electoral process will become a mere formality as it is in Russia or Iran. It will become a ritual to commemorate the democracy we once treasured. In this new world neither the people, the mom and pop corporations nor the unions will hold any sway, though this ruling applies to them as well, for they cannot compete with the power of the almighty dollar that corporate monoliths bring to bear.
Leaders of the Republican Party have embraced this decision and never fail to include the unions in their analysis. Yet the labor unions are a red herring. After half a century of decline, there is no union in the land that can compete with any major corporation. By this ruling union influence is rendered negligible and corporate power reigns supreme.
Among the many questions that remain unanswered are the international implications. The modern corporation is an international leviathan with tentacles extending across borders in every direction. It has no loyalties, no patriotism, no ideology, no principles and no virtue. It is governed by the profit margin, plain and simple. If selling out the workers of America (by exporting jobs and banishing the rights of labor) will boost the profit margin, it is not a decision that will be contested.
The corporate behemoths may allow Barack Obama to continue as president, they may allow the major parties to exist, but with this ruling the nation just got a charter for a new board of directors that will replace all branches of government as the ultimate arbiter of decisions. If any member of congress, Senator or President violates the dictums of the corporate masters, they will be targeted for extinction. In that sense the parties themselves will become irrelevant. All parties will become agents of corporate interest.
For as long as this decision is allowed to stand we are no longer a democracy.
It must not be allowed to stand and yet overturning a Supreme Court decision is a daunting task. Among the courses of action suggested thus far, none shows any real promise of success. Amending the constitution requires two thirds of congress and three quarters of the states. Removing the majority members of the court for treason, however justified, would require an overwhelming push by congress. As long as Republicans remain convinced that corporate dominance is to their advantage it cannot happen.
Perhaps Congressman Barney Frank, who noted that corporations are creations of law, offered the most interesting approach. Corporations are granted corporate status by the government and the government retains the right to enforce standards and regulations. It is therefore possible that congress can control the power of corporations through corporate law rather than campaign finance law.
There are at least two major obstacles to this approach. First, congress has not been able to pass re-regulation of the financial institutions even after the lack of regulation played a primary role in a near catastrophic collapse. How are we to believe that congress will act in this case even as the minority party throws up a roadblock of united opposition?
The dismal truth is congress is paralyzed. While some may give lip service to the necessity of systemic change, there is no real movement toward striking down the filibuster rule in the United States Senate. As long as the filibuster remains there can be no real change.
Even if we could get beyond systemic paralysis, any effective legislative attempt to undo what the Supreme Court has done would surely be struck down by the same court.
Those of us who believe in democracy must continue to fight but it seems to me we must also recognize reality. In all likelihood we are stuck with this decision until the balance of the court is altered. The way things are going it could be decades and by that time the nature of congress and the White House could be so altered that change may be impossible.
Once lost, the road back to democracy is paved with hardship.
That is the problem with Supreme Court decisions. They have the power to alter the very heart and soul of a nation.
So welcome to the corporate world: We are up against the wall, rifles pointed at our chests, and our only remaining choice is whether to be blindfolded or to confront our destiny with open eyes.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). A COLUMNIST FOR THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, WORLD EDITION, HIS CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Beatlick Travel Report 2010: Survival Camp
Date: Jan 16, 2010 3:11 PM
Fort Stockton:
The Beatlicks are in a small holding pattern in Fort Stockton before we can set up our winter camp in Study Butte, out where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free. We are in Neil’s trailer, heading to Neil’s 40 acres, but first I’m going to have to attend to a dental problem and get a passport photo and application off.
We anticipate at least six weeks in the wild so to speak and I am stocking up. My Mama is laughing so hard at me right now, up in heaven. I just bought a 20-pound bag of pinto beans. I used to turn my nose up at my mother’s beans and now I’m going to live on beans and oatmeal. I am ashamed of myself now for the snooty way I would criticize her beans, called them “peasant food.” I guess now I am a peasant.
The trailer in Fort Stockton doesn’t offer many creature comforts so it makes a good transition for outdoor camping. There’s no running water so we have to haul buckets of water in from a spigot outdoors, we have to fill the toilet up every time we flush. We are also cooking on the camp stove. We are in a small bedroom with a bed, the cook stove, two chairs, DVD, computer, MP3 player, and plenty of books and movies from the Fort Stockton Library.
We have seen the property in Study Butte and it is great, we can’t wait to get out there. But I will have to find some dental assistance first, I can’t imagine sticking myself out there for six weeks with no access to help if I should need it.
One friend has asked me why in the world we are doing this. One reason is to save money. We are trying to save money for plane fare to Ouxaca. A friend in Las Cruces has told us where he stays for $250 a month. That is a serious goal for us this year if we can keep down expenses and save.
Plus I think it’s a fun experiment to blog about being out in the wilderness camping. I am spending more time with survivalists and this is a group of people who genuinely believe something catastrophic is going to happen to our country and we will have to fend for ourselves. That peaks my imagination.
Neil’s brother Henry lives out in Study Butte already and works in a Bentonite mine. That is what some Kitty Litter is made of mostly. It clumps up around moisture. Neil’s whole property is just about Bentonite. So if it rains there is a real problem, as it did a few days ago we heard. Henry has to park two miles out by the road and walk to his camp if it rains. So we will make sure it is all dried out back there before we head out.
So our Survival Camp is all about getting in a situation where we don’t need to spend much money and testing ourselves against the elements. We have this wonderful friend who can offer us such a unique opportunity. Why not go for it?
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela (publishingpamela@yahoo.com)
Fort Stockton:
The Beatlicks are in a small holding pattern in Fort Stockton before we can set up our winter camp in Study Butte, out where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free. We are in Neil’s trailer, heading to Neil’s 40 acres, but first I’m going to have to attend to a dental problem and get a passport photo and application off.
We anticipate at least six weeks in the wild so to speak and I am stocking up. My Mama is laughing so hard at me right now, up in heaven. I just bought a 20-pound bag of pinto beans. I used to turn my nose up at my mother’s beans and now I’m going to live on beans and oatmeal. I am ashamed of myself now for the snooty way I would criticize her beans, called them “peasant food.” I guess now I am a peasant.
The trailer in Fort Stockton doesn’t offer many creature comforts so it makes a good transition for outdoor camping. There’s no running water so we have to haul buckets of water in from a spigot outdoors, we have to fill the toilet up every time we flush. We are also cooking on the camp stove. We are in a small bedroom with a bed, the cook stove, two chairs, DVD, computer, MP3 player, and plenty of books and movies from the Fort Stockton Library.
We have seen the property in Study Butte and it is great, we can’t wait to get out there. But I will have to find some dental assistance first, I can’t imagine sticking myself out there for six weeks with no access to help if I should need it.
One friend has asked me why in the world we are doing this. One reason is to save money. We are trying to save money for plane fare to Ouxaca. A friend in Las Cruces has told us where he stays for $250 a month. That is a serious goal for us this year if we can keep down expenses and save.
Plus I think it’s a fun experiment to blog about being out in the wilderness camping. I am spending more time with survivalists and this is a group of people who genuinely believe something catastrophic is going to happen to our country and we will have to fend for ourselves. That peaks my imagination.
Neil’s brother Henry lives out in Study Butte already and works in a Bentonite mine. That is what some Kitty Litter is made of mostly. It clumps up around moisture. Neil’s whole property is just about Bentonite. So if it rains there is a real problem, as it did a few days ago we heard. Henry has to park two miles out by the road and walk to his camp if it rains. So we will make sure it is all dried out back there before we head out.
So our Survival Camp is all about getting in a situation where we don’t need to spend much money and testing ourselves against the elements. We have this wonderful friend who can offer us such a unique opportunity. Why not go for it?
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela (publishingpamela@yahoo.com)
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
2010 Beatlick Travel Report: Survival Camp
Date: Jan 12, 2010 10:21 AM
We hit the road for Fort Stockton and our good friend Neil Astor's house last week. We will be moving onto his forty acres in Study Butte as soon as this polar front moves out of town. We got to go see the property on Sunday and it is pretty spectacular in its starkness. Windswept, open land amidst the Chisos Mountain range and many more I don't know by name yet. The sunsets are absolutely spectacular. The goal is to go in and survive for six weeks off the grid.
It's an experiment just to test our mettle and save a few bucks. Imagine, if you got off work one day and someone told you you can't go home. Imagine everything you knew and understood was taken from you - electricity, gas, water. What would you do?
Well we're about to find out. I was comforted to know that Neil's brother is already living on the property. He works in a mine 30 miles away and has a campsite with a travel trailer. I think I would be a little more intimidated if he weren't there. At least he knows the ropes.
Once I get my van in there, if I get my van in there, for there is one really step hill and more than a few intimidating ravines to cross, then it will stay parked till we come out. One time in, one time out, is the plan. The store three miles away has wi-fi so we can stay in touch but the prices on food are prohibitive. The best grocery store is five miles away, but hopefully Neil's brother Henry will give us a ride from time to time.
Now on this imaginary doomsday scenario that I am modeling after I do have a few obvious advantages. I have the luxury of preparing and tomorrow, the 13th of Jan., we will be stocking up on dry goods. I have a shopping list and more survival tips coming to the third page of my website. It's not up yet but will be soon. I'm having fun thinking about what to buy and how to make it all last. The basics are coffee, oatmeal, powdered milk, pinto beans, rice, trail mix, crackers, raisins, boullion, brown suger, and peanut butter all in bulk. So much for the low-carb diet that helped me lose 40 pounds. But I guess if the store is five miles away that might prove itself to not be a problem!
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela
We hit the road for Fort Stockton and our good friend Neil Astor's house last week. We will be moving onto his forty acres in Study Butte as soon as this polar front moves out of town. We got to go see the property on Sunday and it is pretty spectacular in its starkness. Windswept, open land amidst the Chisos Mountain range and many more I don't know by name yet. The sunsets are absolutely spectacular. The goal is to go in and survive for six weeks off the grid.
It's an experiment just to test our mettle and save a few bucks. Imagine, if you got off work one day and someone told you you can't go home. Imagine everything you knew and understood was taken from you - electricity, gas, water. What would you do?
Well we're about to find out. I was comforted to know that Neil's brother is already living on the property. He works in a mine 30 miles away and has a campsite with a travel trailer. I think I would be a little more intimidated if he weren't there. At least he knows the ropes.
Once I get my van in there, if I get my van in there, for there is one really step hill and more than a few intimidating ravines to cross, then it will stay parked till we come out. One time in, one time out, is the plan. The store three miles away has wi-fi so we can stay in touch but the prices on food are prohibitive. The best grocery store is five miles away, but hopefully Neil's brother Henry will give us a ride from time to time.
Now on this imaginary doomsday scenario that I am modeling after I do have a few obvious advantages. I have the luxury of preparing and tomorrow, the 13th of Jan., we will be stocking up on dry goods. I have a shopping list and more survival tips coming to the third page of my website. It's not up yet but will be soon. I'm having fun thinking about what to buy and how to make it all last. The basics are coffee, oatmeal, powdered milk, pinto beans, rice, trail mix, crackers, raisins, boullion, brown suger, and peanut butter all in bulk. So much for the low-carb diet that helped me lose 40 pounds. But I guess if the store is five miles away that might prove itself to not be a problem!
Happy Trails
Beatlick Pamela
Sunday, January 10, 2010
David Alfaro Siqueiros in America
....
the same building, different days, like a photograph
compressed in the retna waiting to be born
a montage in a dream where all else disappears
but the building itself
always half-light, red structured brick
double-doors closed
when I was approached by madness at a young
age, I saw my breath before me as a great stone
wall to write upon
an agitation so obscure
perishable only for the throat
holding back the darker blood
to capture the dusk
Chris Mansel
the same building, different days, like a photograph
compressed in the retna waiting to be born
a montage in a dream where all else disappears
but the building itself
always half-light, red structured brick
double-doors closed
when I was approached by madness at a young
age, I saw my breath before me as a great stone
wall to write upon
an agitation so obscure
perishable only for the throat
holding back the darker blood
to capture the dusk
Chris Mansel
Monday, January 04, 2010
No Background To The Sun
....
a body stretched over a broken window
not through but over, the frame of the window
and the pane is on the ground, the blood
of the victim has been stepped on, the memory
of the event wasn't captured in a photograph
until eyes blinked on the first approach
dust is blown up in the air and slowly, slowly
settles and mixes with the blood and glass
under a microscope, unless its a good
microscope will not show the design or how it
changed the DNA, the glass will eventually
be collected and thrown away, it won't be
analyzed, its just a body
a body scarred with glass, deep cuts,
not incisions, once rigor mortis sets in the dialogue
is lost, Don't believe.
Chris Mansel
a body stretched over a broken window
not through but over, the frame of the window
and the pane is on the ground, the blood
of the victim has been stepped on, the memory
of the event wasn't captured in a photograph
until eyes blinked on the first approach
dust is blown up in the air and slowly, slowly
settles and mixes with the blood and glass
under a microscope, unless its a good
microscope will not show the design or how it
changed the DNA, the glass will eventually
be collected and thrown away, it won't be
analyzed, its just a body
a body scarred with glass, deep cuts,
not incisions, once rigor mortis sets in the dialogue
is lost, Don't believe.
Chris Mansel
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Shame and Pride in America
JAZZMAN CHRONICLES. DISSEMINATE FREELY.
By Jack Random
It is a great shame that in America we cannot criticize our nation without being painted in the colors of betrayal and treason by the self-righteous and self-proclaimed defenders of American pride. Yes, even those who only yesterday led the nation to the edge of economic collapse and left our reputation torn and tattered before the eyes of the world retain their hold on power by defining patriotism with unwavering praise and effectively denouncing anyone who does not adhere.
So it is that our president on the occasion of his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize assumed the role of head cheerleader – a role better suited to his predecessor than to the candidate who succeeded on the promise of change.
It is a role that seemingly every president must assume yet to have embraced it so soon and on such an ironic occasion is deeply disappointing.
I cannot and would not deny that America historically has accomplished much for which we can be rightfully proud. Aside from very limited experiments in democratic rule, America gave birth to the modern republic. In our short history we have moved closer to the democratic ideal by expanding the electorate to include the landless, minorities and women. We have made advances in civil rights and civil liberties. We have fought for the rights of labor and against corporate monopolies when their powers grew so pervasive that they threatened the very heart of the republic. We have spilled American blood to defeat the imperialist-fascist dictatorships of Japan, Italy and Nazi Germany. We have fought back that peculiar form of elitist oligarchy that was known by the name of communist socialism. At times in our history we have stood strong in the cause of human rights and advanced the cause of science. We have eased the burden on the elderly with Social Security and Medicare. Against a backdrop of racial discrimination, we have elected an American of African heritage president. As in the recent $3.4 billion settlement with the indigenous tribes of North America, we have upheld the rule of law even at great cost.
For all this and more we can rightly be proud but there is a darker side to our history that we can neither ignore nor rationalize if we wish to realize the promise of our founding. It was that darker side that was oddly missing in our president’s skewed rendering of history before the Nobel audience in Oslo, Norway.
In compensation for our president’s omissions, in the interests of humility, honesty and justice, I offer the following sources of American shame. I offer them not to build a case against our nation but to direct us toward a better nation and one that will contribute to a better world.
First and foremost, all honest Americans know, despite centuries of misinformation and indoctrination, that our nation was born in something resembling original sin. When our European ancestors arrived on American shores they did not find a continent free of inhabitants. Some tribes were warlike and some were not but they were as proud of their cultural heritage and social order as we are today. They had not developed industry but rather formed a covenant with the land. They lived in harmony with their surroundings, respected the animals that shared it, and survived in relative peace. When the Europeans arrived with their industry and modern weapons, they claimed the land and methodically cleared it of its former inhabitants. When they could not eradicate all of the people, they killed the buffalo and cut off all means of survival, effectively accomplishing the same goal. The Euro-Americans called it Manifest Destiny. History calls it Genocide.
We have never made just reparations for this crime against humanity or for the crime of slavery and the recent settlement (compensation for cheating the tribes out of their allotments for stolen resources) is but one small step in that direction. That the surviving American Indians and descendants of African slaves have lived in dire poverty all these years is the enduring shame of our nation.
The magnitude of these crimes is so enormous they can never be set right but they must be acknowledged as a part of our heritage. They must serve to remind us what horrors can be committed when a people are incapable of admitting fault. We must constantly strive to ease the burden of those who suffered for our wrongs. For the Native American community, freeing Leonard Peltier before his death would be a meaningful symbol of contrition. For the African American community, Obama is the symbol and rebuilding our crumbling cities and the infrastructure that serves them would help.
In the critical area of foreign policy our president proclaimed our nation the defender of liberty for the last six decades. Well, at least he is not defending the Spanish-American War and the subsequent occupation of the Philippines. For the record, the peoples of Indochina, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa might take issue with that characterization. Certainly, the president has admitted in the past that Vietnam was a mistake. I would go further: It was an unnecessary, immoral and unwise war that cost as many as three million Southeast Asian as well as 58,000 American lives. Were we defending liberty in Vietnam or were we standing up a corrupt government in an ideological war? Were we defending liberty in Chile when we deposed Salvador Allende in favor of military strongman Augusto Pinochet? Were we defending liberty in Iran when we overthrew the most democratic government that region had ever known and elevated the ruthless Shah? As for Iraq, does this president really believe that the first Gulf War was justified on moral grounds? Or is he rather yielding to that historical analysis that proclaims the righteousness of the victor?
The truth is we have often fought on the wrong side for the wrong reasons. The truth is we have used other nations as the battlefield in a mission to impose our will and to expand our influence to the realm of empire.
For a nation that holds its esteem in the principles of justice and democracy, much of our history is a source of shame and one that we have only begun to address. But our shame (or rather that for which we should be ashamed) does not end with history. It lives on in a myriad of ways.
When all of Europe, a diverse group of nations if ever there was one, agrees on a moral imperative, it is highly probable that they are right. All of Europe agrees that affordable healthcare is a fundamental right. That America has not achieved that fundamental understanding of human rights is a source of shame. That we continue to debate the virtues of government involvement in healthcare while our private, profit motivated healthcare industry deprives coverage and charges excessive fees is less an indication of our independence than it is a sign of the failure of our democracy. It is the basic role of government to provide for the needs of its people. If we cannot provide healthcare then we have failed and we should be ashamed.
All of Europe agrees that the death penalty is an abomination and an abuse of the power of the state. That we stand alone among civilized nations in imposing capitol punishment, even as evidence emerges that our system of justice is fraught with error and literally thousands have wrongly been put to death, is another source of shame.
That our current administration has continued the policies of secrecy, mass surveillance, and detention without just cause or adjudication is shameful.
That our president has failed to explicitly repudiate the Bush Doctrine of aggressive, unilateral war is shameful. The president’s unwavering supporters may rightfully argue that his Afghanistan policy has not changed but his remarks in Oslo defending unilateral war without deference to diplomacy was a departure from the candidate so many of us chose to support.
If I were a member of the committee that chose to bestow the Nobel Peace Prize on this president, I would be shaken to the core.
America is a proud nation. That is what makes us a great nation when we are on the side of justice, when we are fighting for the good and the oppressed. It is also what makes us horrific when we take the wrong path. We are a nation that can never admit mistakes. We are a nation that to this day adheres to the maxim: might makes right.
Until we are prepared to accept our flaws and the errors of our way we will never achieve the greatness we desire. As the wise have always attested: True greatness lies in humility.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB, INCLUDING THE ALBION MONITOR, BELLACIAO, BUZZLE, COUNTERPUNCH, DISSIDENT VOICE, THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS AND PACIFIC FREE PRESS. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
By Jack Random
It is a great shame that in America we cannot criticize our nation without being painted in the colors of betrayal and treason by the self-righteous and self-proclaimed defenders of American pride. Yes, even those who only yesterday led the nation to the edge of economic collapse and left our reputation torn and tattered before the eyes of the world retain their hold on power by defining patriotism with unwavering praise and effectively denouncing anyone who does not adhere.
So it is that our president on the occasion of his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize assumed the role of head cheerleader – a role better suited to his predecessor than to the candidate who succeeded on the promise of change.
It is a role that seemingly every president must assume yet to have embraced it so soon and on such an ironic occasion is deeply disappointing.
I cannot and would not deny that America historically has accomplished much for which we can be rightfully proud. Aside from very limited experiments in democratic rule, America gave birth to the modern republic. In our short history we have moved closer to the democratic ideal by expanding the electorate to include the landless, minorities and women. We have made advances in civil rights and civil liberties. We have fought for the rights of labor and against corporate monopolies when their powers grew so pervasive that they threatened the very heart of the republic. We have spilled American blood to defeat the imperialist-fascist dictatorships of Japan, Italy and Nazi Germany. We have fought back that peculiar form of elitist oligarchy that was known by the name of communist socialism. At times in our history we have stood strong in the cause of human rights and advanced the cause of science. We have eased the burden on the elderly with Social Security and Medicare. Against a backdrop of racial discrimination, we have elected an American of African heritage president. As in the recent $3.4 billion settlement with the indigenous tribes of North America, we have upheld the rule of law even at great cost.
For all this and more we can rightly be proud but there is a darker side to our history that we can neither ignore nor rationalize if we wish to realize the promise of our founding. It was that darker side that was oddly missing in our president’s skewed rendering of history before the Nobel audience in Oslo, Norway.
In compensation for our president’s omissions, in the interests of humility, honesty and justice, I offer the following sources of American shame. I offer them not to build a case against our nation but to direct us toward a better nation and one that will contribute to a better world.
First and foremost, all honest Americans know, despite centuries of misinformation and indoctrination, that our nation was born in something resembling original sin. When our European ancestors arrived on American shores they did not find a continent free of inhabitants. Some tribes were warlike and some were not but they were as proud of their cultural heritage and social order as we are today. They had not developed industry but rather formed a covenant with the land. They lived in harmony with their surroundings, respected the animals that shared it, and survived in relative peace. When the Europeans arrived with their industry and modern weapons, they claimed the land and methodically cleared it of its former inhabitants. When they could not eradicate all of the people, they killed the buffalo and cut off all means of survival, effectively accomplishing the same goal. The Euro-Americans called it Manifest Destiny. History calls it Genocide.
We have never made just reparations for this crime against humanity or for the crime of slavery and the recent settlement (compensation for cheating the tribes out of their allotments for stolen resources) is but one small step in that direction. That the surviving American Indians and descendants of African slaves have lived in dire poverty all these years is the enduring shame of our nation.
The magnitude of these crimes is so enormous they can never be set right but they must be acknowledged as a part of our heritage. They must serve to remind us what horrors can be committed when a people are incapable of admitting fault. We must constantly strive to ease the burden of those who suffered for our wrongs. For the Native American community, freeing Leonard Peltier before his death would be a meaningful symbol of contrition. For the African American community, Obama is the symbol and rebuilding our crumbling cities and the infrastructure that serves them would help.
In the critical area of foreign policy our president proclaimed our nation the defender of liberty for the last six decades. Well, at least he is not defending the Spanish-American War and the subsequent occupation of the Philippines. For the record, the peoples of Indochina, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa might take issue with that characterization. Certainly, the president has admitted in the past that Vietnam was a mistake. I would go further: It was an unnecessary, immoral and unwise war that cost as many as three million Southeast Asian as well as 58,000 American lives. Were we defending liberty in Vietnam or were we standing up a corrupt government in an ideological war? Were we defending liberty in Chile when we deposed Salvador Allende in favor of military strongman Augusto Pinochet? Were we defending liberty in Iran when we overthrew the most democratic government that region had ever known and elevated the ruthless Shah? As for Iraq, does this president really believe that the first Gulf War was justified on moral grounds? Or is he rather yielding to that historical analysis that proclaims the righteousness of the victor?
The truth is we have often fought on the wrong side for the wrong reasons. The truth is we have used other nations as the battlefield in a mission to impose our will and to expand our influence to the realm of empire.
For a nation that holds its esteem in the principles of justice and democracy, much of our history is a source of shame and one that we have only begun to address. But our shame (or rather that for which we should be ashamed) does not end with history. It lives on in a myriad of ways.
When all of Europe, a diverse group of nations if ever there was one, agrees on a moral imperative, it is highly probable that they are right. All of Europe agrees that affordable healthcare is a fundamental right. That America has not achieved that fundamental understanding of human rights is a source of shame. That we continue to debate the virtues of government involvement in healthcare while our private, profit motivated healthcare industry deprives coverage and charges excessive fees is less an indication of our independence than it is a sign of the failure of our democracy. It is the basic role of government to provide for the needs of its people. If we cannot provide healthcare then we have failed and we should be ashamed.
All of Europe agrees that the death penalty is an abomination and an abuse of the power of the state. That we stand alone among civilized nations in imposing capitol punishment, even as evidence emerges that our system of justice is fraught with error and literally thousands have wrongly been put to death, is another source of shame.
That our current administration has continued the policies of secrecy, mass surveillance, and detention without just cause or adjudication is shameful.
That our president has failed to explicitly repudiate the Bush Doctrine of aggressive, unilateral war is shameful. The president’s unwavering supporters may rightfully argue that his Afghanistan policy has not changed but his remarks in Oslo defending unilateral war without deference to diplomacy was a departure from the candidate so many of us chose to support.
If I were a member of the committee that chose to bestow the Nobel Peace Prize on this president, I would be shaken to the core.
America is a proud nation. That is what makes us a great nation when we are on the side of justice, when we are fighting for the good and the oppressed. It is also what makes us horrific when we take the wrong path. We are a nation that can never admit mistakes. We are a nation that to this day adheres to the maxim: might makes right.
Until we are prepared to accept our flaws and the errors of our way we will never achieve the greatness we desire. As the wise have always attested: True greatness lies in humility.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB, INCLUDING THE ALBION MONITOR, BELLACIAO, BUZZLE, COUNTERPUNCH, DISSIDENT VOICE, THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS AND PACIFIC FREE PRESS. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
OBAMA’S WATERLOO: THE AFGHAN LIE
JAZZMAN CHRONICLES. DISSEMINATE FREELY.
By Jack Random
“As Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.”
“Under the banner of … domestic unity and international legitimacy - and only after the Taliban refused to turn over Osama bin Laden - we sent our troops into Afghanistan. Within a matter of months, al Qaeda was scattered and many of its operatives were killed.”
President Barack Obama, West Point, December 1, 2009.
In August 1964 President Lyndon Johnson reported to congress that the North Vietnamese had attacked an American war ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was the lie that gave Johnson legal authority to escalate the Vietnam War.
In August 1990 President George Herbert Walker Bush pointedly and repeatedly refused to inform Saddam Hussein that an invasion into neighboring Kuwait would be considered an act of aggression that would result in an American military response. It was the lie that launched the first Gulf War that would inevitably lead to the second.
On October 7, 2001, the ruling government of Afghanistan offered to try Osama bin Laden in an Islamic Court. The offer was summarily rejected and the bombing of Afghanistan commenced. On October 14, 2001, the Taliban offered to surrender bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives to a third country upon submitted evidence of their involvement in the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States. The government of the United States refused and the war proceeded as planned.
In March 2003, President George W. Bush ordered the massive bombing of Iraq on the basis of fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction and nefarious connections to Al Qaeda and the September 11 attack, after the United Nations Security refused to sanction the cause of war. These were the lies that initiated the Iraq War.
When a war begins with a lie or a perversion of the truth, it is doomed to an end that will punish the aggressor nation and tarnish its reputation in world affairs for generations to come.
On December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama, after eight years of a failed occupation, initiated the second phase of the American Afghan War with a creative perversion of the truth. For while it may in some sense be true that we did not invade Afghanistan until after the Taliban offered to turn over Osama bin Laden, the greater truth is that we ignored all offers to negotiate the trial of bin Laden and Al Qaeda for a cause of war that was predetermined.
We now know that the administration of George W. Bush planned the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq before the September 11 attack. For the Obama administration to pretend now that we had no choice but to bomb them back to the Stone Age is to ignore history and to continue a disgraceful legacy of dishonesty and deception.
The truth is that the Taliban, as despicable and primitive as it may be, was not responsible for the September 11 attack. The truth is that the Taliban inherited Al Qaeda and the Mujahideen from the CIA in the aftermath of the failed Soviet occupation. The truth is Afghanistan was never a righteous or necessary war. It was a war of choice or if you prefer a war mandated by the nation’s profound grief in the aftermath of September 11.
The truth is that we had a choice but we had the wrong man as president.
Imagine for a moment that we had engaged the government of Afghanistan. Imagine that those negotiations resulted in the arrest and trial of Osama bin Laden and the perpetrators of the September 11 attack before an international tribunal. Bin Laden and his co-conspirators would likely not be free today and the remnants of Al Qaeda would have dissolved as the international pariahs they were and are.
Our aggressive wars, killing innocent civilians and punishing whole nations for the crimes of a few, gave these criminals legitimacy and reduced America to a criminal nation.
Tragically, we cannot turn back the pages but neither can we ignore historical truths and hope to change the course of events.
Our president now claims that the war in Afghanistan is in our “vital national interest.” He is wrong. For while we have interests in that war torn nation, the threat of Al Qaeda has already been reduced to a manageable minimum and the Taliban can reach no further than the tribal regions of the Afghan-Pakistan border. Neither poses a direct threat to the United States or its allies.
It is naïve to think that the Taliban or its radical Islamic allies can capture by aggressive action the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan. The most powerful force in the region is Pakistani intelligence and its military partners. Owing in no small part to our mindless and irresponsible actions, the government of Pakistan is weak but the military remains strong. The only real threat to the Pakistani weapons is that which arises from within. We cannot reduce that threat by our military actions. Indeed, we can only exacerbate the situation.
What was missing from our president’s address was any real and tangible mention of a diplomatic initiative engaging the regional powers. Absent that initiative there is little we can do to improve the security of the region.
Some choose to embrace the 18-month timeline for American withdrawal but it seems to me a misguided hope for the president has premised withdrawal to conditions on the ground. We have heard this language before. We heard it in Iraq and we heard it in Vietnam. Indeed, we heard it from the Soviets in Afghanistan.
In eighteen months we will confront more or less the same circumstance we face today. If it is in the “vital” interest of the nation, as our president has already determined, then we will have no choice but to continue and escalate as the military commanders request.
Consider the motivation of our sponsored Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, the warlord of Kabul: He owes his position of leadership to our money and power. Since he knows we will withdraw if all goes well, it serves his purpose to see to it that it does not go well. For Karzai’s hopelessly corrupt government, it becomes a game of showing some signs of progress while maintaining a precarious balance of vulnerability. For his rivals and the tribal leaders, they will play it to their own advantage.
It will go on for years and years until we finally decide it is no longer in our “vital” interest. In fact, it never was.
The world is full of danger. We do not possess the power to eliminate all threats or to invade all nations that do not share our view of the world. We can only hope to protect our own people to the extent possible and to move the world in a better direction. Aggressive war and occupation can never accomplish these goals. Only reasoned diplomacy can. War and military action must always be reserved to the most essential circumstances.
The war in Afghanistan (like the war in Iraq) is neither essential nor vital to our national interests. We should not be surprised by our president’s policy. He gave fair warning in his presidential campaign. But he is wrong and we must persuade him that the best way out of this bottomless pit is an orderly and conditioned withdrawal.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). A COLUMNIST FOR THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, WORLD EDITION, HIS CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
[Random Note: My latest novel "Hard Times" is being posted on Slush Pile reader -- an experiment in publishing.]
By Jack Random
“As Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.”
“Under the banner of … domestic unity and international legitimacy - and only after the Taliban refused to turn over Osama bin Laden - we sent our troops into Afghanistan. Within a matter of months, al Qaeda was scattered and many of its operatives were killed.”
President Barack Obama, West Point, December 1, 2009.
In August 1964 President Lyndon Johnson reported to congress that the North Vietnamese had attacked an American war ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was the lie that gave Johnson legal authority to escalate the Vietnam War.
In August 1990 President George Herbert Walker Bush pointedly and repeatedly refused to inform Saddam Hussein that an invasion into neighboring Kuwait would be considered an act of aggression that would result in an American military response. It was the lie that launched the first Gulf War that would inevitably lead to the second.
On October 7, 2001, the ruling government of Afghanistan offered to try Osama bin Laden in an Islamic Court. The offer was summarily rejected and the bombing of Afghanistan commenced. On October 14, 2001, the Taliban offered to surrender bin Laden and Al Qaeda operatives to a third country upon submitted evidence of their involvement in the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States. The government of the United States refused and the war proceeded as planned.
In March 2003, President George W. Bush ordered the massive bombing of Iraq on the basis of fabricated evidence of weapons of mass destruction and nefarious connections to Al Qaeda and the September 11 attack, after the United Nations Security refused to sanction the cause of war. These were the lies that initiated the Iraq War.
When a war begins with a lie or a perversion of the truth, it is doomed to an end that will punish the aggressor nation and tarnish its reputation in world affairs for generations to come.
On December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama, after eight years of a failed occupation, initiated the second phase of the American Afghan War with a creative perversion of the truth. For while it may in some sense be true that we did not invade Afghanistan until after the Taliban offered to turn over Osama bin Laden, the greater truth is that we ignored all offers to negotiate the trial of bin Laden and Al Qaeda for a cause of war that was predetermined.
We now know that the administration of George W. Bush planned the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq before the September 11 attack. For the Obama administration to pretend now that we had no choice but to bomb them back to the Stone Age is to ignore history and to continue a disgraceful legacy of dishonesty and deception.
The truth is that the Taliban, as despicable and primitive as it may be, was not responsible for the September 11 attack. The truth is that the Taliban inherited Al Qaeda and the Mujahideen from the CIA in the aftermath of the failed Soviet occupation. The truth is Afghanistan was never a righteous or necessary war. It was a war of choice or if you prefer a war mandated by the nation’s profound grief in the aftermath of September 11.
The truth is that we had a choice but we had the wrong man as president.
Imagine for a moment that we had engaged the government of Afghanistan. Imagine that those negotiations resulted in the arrest and trial of Osama bin Laden and the perpetrators of the September 11 attack before an international tribunal. Bin Laden and his co-conspirators would likely not be free today and the remnants of Al Qaeda would have dissolved as the international pariahs they were and are.
Our aggressive wars, killing innocent civilians and punishing whole nations for the crimes of a few, gave these criminals legitimacy and reduced America to a criminal nation.
Tragically, we cannot turn back the pages but neither can we ignore historical truths and hope to change the course of events.
Our president now claims that the war in Afghanistan is in our “vital national interest.” He is wrong. For while we have interests in that war torn nation, the threat of Al Qaeda has already been reduced to a manageable minimum and the Taliban can reach no further than the tribal regions of the Afghan-Pakistan border. Neither poses a direct threat to the United States or its allies.
It is naïve to think that the Taliban or its radical Islamic allies can capture by aggressive action the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan. The most powerful force in the region is Pakistani intelligence and its military partners. Owing in no small part to our mindless and irresponsible actions, the government of Pakistan is weak but the military remains strong. The only real threat to the Pakistani weapons is that which arises from within. We cannot reduce that threat by our military actions. Indeed, we can only exacerbate the situation.
What was missing from our president’s address was any real and tangible mention of a diplomatic initiative engaging the regional powers. Absent that initiative there is little we can do to improve the security of the region.
Some choose to embrace the 18-month timeline for American withdrawal but it seems to me a misguided hope for the president has premised withdrawal to conditions on the ground. We have heard this language before. We heard it in Iraq and we heard it in Vietnam. Indeed, we heard it from the Soviets in Afghanistan.
In eighteen months we will confront more or less the same circumstance we face today. If it is in the “vital” interest of the nation, as our president has already determined, then we will have no choice but to continue and escalate as the military commanders request.
Consider the motivation of our sponsored Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, the warlord of Kabul: He owes his position of leadership to our money and power. Since he knows we will withdraw if all goes well, it serves his purpose to see to it that it does not go well. For Karzai’s hopelessly corrupt government, it becomes a game of showing some signs of progress while maintaining a precarious balance of vulnerability. For his rivals and the tribal leaders, they will play it to their own advantage.
It will go on for years and years until we finally decide it is no longer in our “vital” interest. In fact, it never was.
The world is full of danger. We do not possess the power to eliminate all threats or to invade all nations that do not share our view of the world. We can only hope to protect our own people to the extent possible and to move the world in a better direction. Aggressive war and occupation can never accomplish these goals. Only reasoned diplomacy can. War and military action must always be reserved to the most essential circumstances.
The war in Afghanistan (like the war in Iraq) is neither essential nor vital to our national interests. We should not be surprised by our president’s policy. He gave fair warning in his presidential campaign. But he is wrong and we must persuade him that the best way out of this bottomless pit is an orderly and conditioned withdrawal.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). A COLUMNIST FOR THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, WORLD EDITION, HIS CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON NUMEROUS CITES OF THE WORLDWIDE WEB. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.
[Random Note: My latest novel "Hard Times" is being posted on Slush Pile reader -- an experiment in publishing.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)