REBELLION IN AMERICA

natural man

Kathmandu fell apart, Everest avalanched, cops at war with young black people in Baltimore, Crips and Bloods united in Baltimore to protect black people from the cops. Al Sharpton is going to Baltimore, following the cameras again. At least he has a new hairdo. Follow the news and see shameless people of every variety. Put a camera in front of somebody's face and they'll say anything you want. Seems like it would be a more certain way to get information from detainees than torture. Just aim a camera at them and they'll tell it all. Maybe this only applies to Americans. I'm glad to see rebellion against police brutality by the people the cops are most brutal toward. No matter how much it's justified, American police kill more people than anywhere in the world such that it's beyond shameless. Executioners. Maybe they like this word better than murderers. It looks more every year, and escalating fast, like the American police are at war with the American people. It's been growing since Nixon times "law and order." Next, "war on drugs." I saw something about a cop demanding respect and laughed. Took me way back to childhood, daddy demanding respect. I'd think, show me something I can respect. Didn't dare say it. Saying I'm glad to see the rebellion, I don't mean I'm glad to see the cops rally to an opportunity to beat up and torment young black guys in the zoo. I'm glad to see years of unspoken racial tension come to the surface, racism come forward and be proud. Only on the surface can social or personal issues be settled. It looks like American racism is having its day. The white robes are back, though this time they're blue. 

dogwood

The nature of the police state is racist, so racism is the nature of the police state. White people who still believe we have a democracy are freaking out over the people-of-color population now being 50/50 with whites. From here on, people of color outnumber whites. Democracy was shut down in the South after emancipation; the black people outnumbered the whites. Now, False News buffoon, Ann Coulter, mummy of an old belief system, is calling for literacy tests again for voting. Like voting matters. I have a hard time taking any of it seriously. Manipulation by corporate propaganda through television, by corporate control through legislation and the courts, including the supreme court, is how we live in America now. The land where money has been worshipped from the beginning is now ruled by money for money's interest only. Citizens are now enemies of the state, especially the poor. Fema has empty concentration camps all over the country. They are waiting for social conflict the manipulators know will be created in the near future. The police state is characterized by a dismissive arrogance toward the people, as illustrated by the governors in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Texas, Arizona, Florida and Kansas, to name a few, the entire US Congress, Senate, and the White House. Mammon does not like democracy. Mammon likes police state. Fascists always destroy their own countries. The fall of America is wrapped inside its fascist takeover. Like the old apocaloptimist said, It's gonna get worse before it gets better. The rest of the world will roar with sighs of relief.

bag lady rest area

I cannot offer a solution to what I see, except the momentum must play itself out. It will play itself out and I will stay out of it the best I can. Can't stay out of the economic collapse and can't stay out of manipulated social attitudes. I can be aware, however, of the manipulation enough to recognize it and bypass its influence. My closest friends pay no attention to news, government or history. I applaud them and never encourage them to give current events any mind. The only thing I have to say to them that I feel valid is get out of debt as fast as rationally possible. I tell Justin when hard times are here, you will be all right--you're able to make it without a steady job, by taking whatever job comes up, like house painting, carpentry, auto repair, hunting and much else. You will be helping people who cannot help themselves, the people who have only money, devoid of inner resources. They'll be paying you. Your role, because you have inner resources, will be helping others. Just don't let discouragement take you over. Hard times have a way of ending. Even the Civil War came to an end, whether yankees believe it or not. Younger, I wanted to get involved in social movements, be a part of the change toward democracy, but learned in 1968 the press was complicit with the corporate coup of five years before. The manipulators own the television networks and the press. They rule. Best for me to stay home and not get beat up and tormented by cops or killed without recourse for nothing. Better to stay at home, read a biography of Van Gogh and listen to recordings of Tibetan monks singing.

bridge and shadow

I'll give carrots to donkeys, hold my cat friend, Caterpillar, give sunflower seeds to birds, be a communal food kitchen for my near neighbors. If they eat anything in the christmas tree fields two-thirds of the way around the house and donkey meadow, they die. I suppose that if I give them plenty of what they like, they won't need to explore into the christmas tree fields for something to eat. Keep them close to the woods across the road where they live, away from the bugs coated with herbicides etc that have already killed everything that lives in the water. The world I live in is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual poison. I have no choice but live in it, but I don't have to be of it. Like in childhood under arational control, I'd think, You can control my body, but you can't do shit with my mind. My mind is my own. Of course, quite a lot of warping of the mind occurred that I've spent the rest of my life recovering from and reparenting. My search for innermost self, who I really am, is my spiritual path. I found an affordable (then) little hermitage on a back road to walk my path. I'm here for my own spiritual reasons, none of them social. I like to contribute to my community, though only in meaningful ways with purpose, not the frivolous. Justin told me recently when he was in high school he told his buddies to stay away from that old man on the mountain--he'll shoot your ass--he don't care. He said he did it because he knew them and wanted them to leave me alone. I treat others right, don't draw attention to self. A few days ago I was buying a pack of white paper for the printer at a new corporate store in town, the only place it's available. At the counter I was asked if I had my card. If so, I don't know. Was told to punch my phone number into a key pad. I asked, Why? To see if you have a card. I said, "I don't care. I just want to buy this." She looked at me like she couldn't believe somebody would refuse a three cent discount, if any. I said, "I am not of this world." It actually flowed out of my mouth without thought. There it was. She let it go and rang up the sale.

rock face

photos by tj worthington

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THE DAY AFTER THE SUPER BOWL

 



photo by rob carr/getty images

There's no yesterday's news like the day after the Super Bowl. Like Christmas, when it's over, it's over. Christmas is over the moment the last present is unwrapped. Big hype, big expectation for weeks. Then it's over. Poof. Gone to the zone of memories. The Super Bowl game was a truly memorable game for me. The story of the brother coaches, the parents and entire families there for the game, were the real story of this Super Bowl. The worst for the losing brother was this was the first time SF lost a Super Bowl, evidently. SF's last play, fouls committed by opposition overlooked by referee, set the SF coach to wringing his guts. Had the receiver been able to catch ball, both his feet would have landed out of bounds and the pass ruled incomplete. From coach's perspective at the sideline a long ways off looked one way; it was different from the perspective of the camera in close. Hearing news people make noise about the overlooked passer interference turns my ears off like hearing Donald Trump wanting to see the president's birth certificate.

I enjoyed every minute of the game. The best was when Reed ran the ball 108 yards to touchdown. It was the most beautiful run I think I've ever seen. He ran through a channel that opened in front of him as he ran. Ran through the opposition and then outran his lone pursuer. Simply outran him. I enjoy seeing two people running all out and the one in front pulling away from the one chasing him. I believe this was Reed's last game too. Beautiful video to have of that run in his last game. I was pulling for Baltimore, because my friends I was watching the game with were pulling for them. It was important to them. To me, it was White against Red. I could have pulled for the Red as easily as I pulled for the White. The game did not have many good plays at the line, not many runners wiggled through the line. Line defense on both sides was tight. It looked to me like most of the advances were made through the air. I say "looked to me" because if I'd see stats of the game, they would probably say the opposite of what I thought I saw. The teams were so tight that the driving force and the inhibiting force were equal, making for a steady back and forth rhythm.

Baltimore setting out like they did, making the score at the end of the first half 21 to 3, if I remember correctly (I'm sure I don't), did not get my hopes up the least little bit. I was remembering about a month ago seeing Atlanta subdue SF first half to the same degree. Second half, Atlanta didn't score anything and SF caught up with and surpassed them in the second half. They came close to repeating that performance. There was even the time with four minutes left in the game I figured SF would score for certain and win. They were down to the 2 yard line with four downs. Baltimore defense held them in place. SF chose to go for the touchdown on 4th down and it didn't work. Tight game. I like a tight game like that. I also like a loose game. There is something about tv football that satisfies a liking for seeing something different every time, like watching a flame in a fireplace. Years ago, I asked Ted Stern how he could watch tv games, football, basketball and baseball all the time. He answered, "The same way you listen to that music you listen to." I got it. He couldn't have answered it more clearly. It told me he understood that I was hearing something that's equally satisfying to me.

It's the skill I like to watch in the players. I believe that applied for him too. I'm learning a little bit about strategies, though I really don't care to know. I'd far rather listen to music than watch football, though I like to watch football too. Of course, we like to think the games are not "rigged." Yet, considering a Super Bowl game is the biggest money tv event of the year, where it's important that Beyonce NOT lip-sync, and trillions up to be won or lost by gambling enterprises all over the world. Where that much underworld money is involved, it is hard to believe some big money is not drifting around under the table, too. The Super Bowl is about money and nothing else. Four million for a half minute commercial, tells me advertisers know the power of television. In cogressional hearings, they let on like they never heard of television having any influence on anybody. When you can watch films and tv shows about killing around the clock without even trying, the influence on our society is becoming more obvious every week on the evening news. Our tv is about slap-stick comedy, sports and killing. Sports amount to subliminal killing. It is ours to learn to immunize ourselves to the influence of solving problems by killing, every day of our lives. Like everything else that requires an effort of awareness, few will bother. So it's not a solution for the whole, only for a few.

None of us watching the game believed the power outage occurring when it did was anything but sabotage. Before the game, Justin told me the "odds" favored SF in the gambling arena. The lights going out came when SF needed their turn-around that the half-time gave them before. I've seen over and over the half-time change the dynamic of a game. After the 2nd half started, SF had not made the turn to take charge of the game. It was the same momentum as in the first half. When the lights came back on, the dynamic had shifted. SF came out swinging. I saw something today making reference that Louisiana being a "work free" union free state, no electrician union standards were met by the electricians there working the lights. My thought then was that without the union, it would be easy to send somebody in to do one thing in particular and disappear. It has nothing to do with unions or not unions. Offer some working class guy a house on the beach at Waikiki and a million a year for life. His tongue would be hanging out and dripping. He'd be saying, Tell me what to do, boss. Tell me what to do. I was glad to see the ruse was just a few minutes too late for the time SF needed in the second half.

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