As we listen to Obama’s and others’ predictable platitudes about “staying peaceful” and how violence is not the answer and all that, please remember this: Violence is ALWAYS the answer when it is the State that is delivering it and it is ALWAYS denounced by the power structures when it is directed against them.
Author: pavlos
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Legalized injustice
Obama: “We need to accept that this decision was the grand jury’s to make.”
100 years ago would he had said the same thing about the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, that we need to accept that it was the supreme court’s to make?
Legalized injustice is still injustice and it must never be accepted.
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Armistice Day
The “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” was set aside to commemorate the end of hostilities on the western front of the “war to end all wars.” As we now find ourselves in the midst of “perpetual war” let us take a moment to remember all those who have lost their lives fighting to end war and bring about a world that we can be proud to pass on to our children, not only the ones in uniform but also the war resisters, the ones who fought for human rights, for dignity, for better working conditions, to end racism and oppression, to stop ecological degradation, to defend their lands, to end slavery, to stop rape and torture, the ones who fought for food, healthcare, housing and education for all, all the ones who stood up for what they believed and made the ultimate sacrifice so that everyone may be free.
Let us also remember the ones who survived the battlefields but couldn’t survive the world and could find no other way to end the perpetual war in their heads and hearts but by their own hands. Let us remember the ones in prisons, in mental institutions, in drug rehab centers, under bridges, on street corners, in shelters and soup lines.
And after we take a moment of silence to remember our fallen veterans, comrades and friends let us truly honor them by vowing, again, to not be silent in the face of oppression, by picking up their torch and continuing their fight for a world where everyone is free.
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Election’s aftermath
So, I thought I was done with election commentary but I have now endured through more than enough posts and comments by folks who are expressing their anger at the election results by effectively blaming generic non-voters for bringing about the end of the world and other such calamities.
Ok, I get it. Last night didn’t look very good. You are angry, frustrated, scared, pissed off. But before you lay the blame on those who didn’t vote let me propose some blame candidates who I think should be given (much) higher priority for how things turned out:
- The Koch Brothers.
- Supreme Court Judges Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Kennedy who unleashed Citizens United and unlimited corporate money upon us.
- Citizens United and other such groups who keep raising and spending untold millions of dollars to shape election outcomes
- Ongoing voter suppression efforts such as voter ID laws, purging voter rolls, etc that make it harder or impossible for some people to vote
- Mass media outlets that bombard people with misinformation, disinformation or just plainly no information at all.
- Media personalities who get famous and wealthy by fear-mongering and appealing to base emotions while lying and scapegoating
- Broader social and political forces which promote a sense of alienation, disempowerment and disconnection from the political process
- Candidates and campaign managers and the shitty campaigns that some of them run
- The people who actually voted against your candidate or issue
- ISIS and Ebola. Oh, wait, no, they are not really to blame for any of this
- The Koch Brothers (there are two of them I don’t won’t one of them to feel left out)
- Add your own here (I am quite sure I am forgetting some)
My point here is not that people don’t bear responsibility for their individual actions and choices, but that there are some really large forces out there which wield a tremendous amount of power. If you truly believe that individual citizens hold as much power as the Koch Brothers and Citizens United and Americans for Prosperity and their ilk then you need to do a little bit more reading and thinking about why things are the way they are. If you really think that all we need to do is get more people to vote and then everything will be fine then you should seriously ponder more the nature of power and how it is exercised.
Again, I get it. You are angry, frustrated, scared, pissed off. So am I. But blaming anonymous citizens for what they might not have done is not going to get us very far (and definitely not in the direction we want and need to go). So let’s stop with the throwing blame at others and maybe start talking with each other. And listening. And then let’s work to figure out how we are going to get ourselves out of this mess and build, for ourselves, the world we want and deserve. And no, we can’t just find some better candidate and vote for them to do it. This is our world and our responsibility. We don’t get to take a pass on this.
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Election hangover recap
Election hangover recap. A few silver linings. Minimum wage hikes won in several places. Not exactly the revolution but a few more dollars in the pockets of hard working families is definitely something to feel good about. The lunatic fringe (i.e. you are a person deserving the full protection of the government from conception till the moment you are born, at which time we throw you to the wolves) got sent packing, again, in Colorado.
On most other fronts the billionaire capitalists have seem to have carried the day. Big shocker there. Then again there is a part of me that wants to go on a rooftop and shout:
“Hey America, I know that most of the time you are only given a choice between voting for “Billionaires for Capitalism” and “Capitalists for Billionaires”. But if you are going to vote for a capitalist billionaire, couldn’t you at least pick the ones who, you know, understand science? I am not expecting that they will really fix the problem but they might buy us some time? So that maybe there is still a planet worth living on for our grandchildren? Is that too much to ask for?”
Apparently it is.
So this is what we have folks. Now, can we let go of the should have/shouldn’t have voted pissing match we find ourselves in and get down to real work? Because the ballot box, even when it goes a lot more our way than it did last night, will not grant us the world we want and deserve. We have to build that one ourselves.
See you out there.
Tis the season for radicals to argue about elections again so here are some more thoughts that have emerged from conversations in the last couple of days.
I consider myself an anarchist (or at least one who aspires to anarchist ideals and practices, I have a long way to go from saying I live up to them). I usually vote, at least on referenda and such, less often on people, but I rarely make the question of whether i vote or not into a big deal (and I don’t vote as an anarchist per se). I agree that most of the time the choices that we are offered on a ballot are lousy at best and very rarely do they give us an option on something that will make a substantive difference, especially in the long term. Most of the time I find myself voting against some crazy ass proposal being pushed by some lunatics (i.e. Amendment 67 in Colorado this time around). So I don’t argue that we should not vote. But we also need to be very alert of how the ballot box is used to perpetrate an illusion of choice where there is no substantive difference in the choices that we are given. Most of the time we are offered our pick of A. spaghetti with tomato sauce or B. macaroni with cheese (those of you in San Francisco may also see a vegan gluten-free choice as well).
The few times when there is something on the ballot that is truly progressive (although rarely radical) it is almost always because of protracted social struggles and mobilizations. The ballot then becomes the last act in a (very) long history of actions. And in those cases voting becomes a critical component in “sealing” the action. For me, if we sincerely believe in “diversity of tactics” and “by any means necessary” as core principles which inform our strategies and our struggles then we must be willing to consider the ballot box as a potentially valid strategy, but always only as a part of a lot of other work. To outrightly reject the ballot box as a potential strategy under any and all circumstances seems as naive and shortsighted as the outright endorsement of voting as a means of bringing about true social change.
I would love then to see us engage in a deeper and more contextualized conversation as to if, when, and how the ballot box can be an effective tool in our social struggles, rather than this generic “VOTE” “DON’T VOTE” shouting match that we so often find ourselves in.
The few times when there is something on the ballot that is truly progressive (although rarely radical) it is almost always because of protracted social struggles and mobilizations. The ballot then becomes the last act in a (very) long history of actions. And in those cases voting becomes a critical component in “sealing” the action. For me, if we sincerely believe in “diversity of tactics” and “by any means necessary” as core principles which inform our strategies and our struggles then we must be willing to consider the ballot box as a potentially valid strategy, but always only as a part of a lot of other work. To outrightly reject the ballot box as a potential strategy under any and all circumstances seems as naive and shortsighted as the outright endorsement of voting as a means of bringing about true social change.
I would love then to see us engage in a deeper and more contextualized conversation as to if, when, and how the ballot box can be an effective tool in our social struggles, rather than this generic “VOTE” “DON’T VOTE” shouting match that we so often find ourselves in.
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My dad would have been 81 today
My dad would have been 81 years old today. It is a curious thought actually, especially considering that he has been dead for twice as long as I knew him and I am now older than he was when he died. It is hard to imagine him being in his eighties, most likely because my memories of him are pretty faded by now. After all these years I have realized that I don’t think of him very often any more and I would think that he is no longer much of an influence in my life. While he did teach me some valuable lessons which I still carry with me, but many of them, now that I am older than him, are really examples to avoid. I don’t mean that as a criticism of him, but more as a recognition of his fallible humanity. And the more I recognize and accept that in him the more I can accept and recognize that in me. Now that I have kids of my own, two of them older than I was when he died, there are plenty of times I want to say to them (and a few times when I have said) “for the loνe of the gods and goddesses, please learn from my mistakes and don’t do as I did (and in some cases still do).” My dad and I never had a chance to have an adult relationship but I would like to think that he would say the same thing to me.
Even after all this time though, I continue to be surprised by the occasional expressions and mannerisms that I use which were his through and through. Or by the fact that I have forgotten so much about him but I can remember one of his favorite snacks: A slice of χωριάτικο (in the US we would call it french) bread, with anchovy paste, tomato paste (both from tubes, like toothpaste ones) and a thick slice of feta cheese.
He also did have some quirky sayings, a number of which are still with me. One that comes to me a lot lately went something like “αν n γιαγιά μου είχε ρόδες θά ήταν πατίνι” (if my grandmother had wheels she would be a scooter). Yeah, it only really makes sense if you knew him. But I hear that in my head every time I find myself stuck in one of those “if only” or ‘what if” scenarios that our brains like to take long vacations in.
In the end one of the better lessons I am still learning from him is to live the life that I have, not the life I wish I had or the one I think I ought to have. And not to beat myself up when I come up short. Because not only this is the only life we get, we never know how long we have it for.
Χρόνια σου πολλά Nτίμη.
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Killing our kids
(Partial) Police Blotter for one week in August 2014
Aug. 6th: Beavercreek OH police shoot and kill John Crawford inside a Walmart. John was apparently looking and handling an air rifle that is sold by Walmart.
Aug. 7th: A police officer shot and killed Jeremy Lake in Tulsa OK. Jeremy was dating the officer’s daughter and was walking up to the officer’s car to introduce himself when the officer shot him.
Aug. 9th: A Ferguson MO police officer shoots and kills Michael Brown.
Aug. 11th: A New Orleans police office shoots and injures Armand Bennett during a traffic stop. NOPD doesn’t disclose the shooting until after it was reported in the papers two days later. The officer who shot Armand had turned off her body camera shortly before the shooting.
Aug. 11th: Los Angeles police officers shoot and kill Ezell Ford. Ezell was known to the neighborhood and the police for having ongoing mental health issues. Witnesses say police shot him while he was on the ground.
All shooting victims were young, male, black and unarmed. These are facts. It is also a fact that many of us have only heard of Michael Brown’s death, and that had there not been massive protests we would most likely not even had heard of Michael Brown. But the facts remain.
Six days.
Five young black unarmed men shot by police.
Four of them are dead.
When greek police shot and killed 15-year old Alexis Grigoropoulos on December 6, 2008 the 42-day uprising that followed was fueled by the knowledge that Alex was not just some random kid, just somebody else’s kid. He was *our* kid. The cops had killed one of our kids. It didn’t matter if we had ever met him, if we knew him before December 6th. He was still one of our kids. And the cops had killed him.
Grief and rage.
It is a normal response of sentient humans when they kill one of our kids. The people of Ferguson know that Michael wasn’t just somebody else’s kid. He was their kid. If we learn anything from the people of Ferguson I hope we learn that Michael wasn’t only their kid. He is our kid too. As is John and Jeremy and Armand and Ezell, as are Oscar and Trayvon and Alonzo and Kimani and Amadou and the countless others who have been shot and killed by police. They are all our kids. And it is well past time that we stop accepting their deaths in the hands of those who claim to be our servants and protectors, and we start doing whatever we can, whatever we need to, so that no more of our kids are killed by police.
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RIP Kemal Amin “Casey” Kasem
I grew up listening to him announce the top 40 and had no idea about his political activism, till one year, when I was arrested during a civil disobedience action at the Nevada Test Site, and found myself two seats in front of him in the bus where some of the arrested had been loaded to be taken to processing. Some of the long time activists knew him and recognized him but many of us had a hard time believing that such an icon of American pop culture was in handcuffs next to us until he started saying many of his classic lines like “Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars.” We spent the rest of the time on the bus listening to him tell us stories from both his career and his activism.
Rest in power Kemal Amin “Casey” Kasem and thanks for everything!
http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2014/06/15/3449222/casey-kasem-scooby-doo-vegetarianism/
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Time to listen
To all of us guys out there:
This is the time for us to take a deep breath and listen. Keep breathing and keep listening. If we hear anger and frustration and rage, then let us listen to the anger, the frustration, the rage. There is a reason why those emotions are there. In at least some small way (and probably bigger way than we are aware) we have all contributed to them. Keep breathing, keep listening.
And to all the guys who are inclined towards the #NotAllMen response to the#YesAllWomen campaign: Unless you have spent most of your life also saying NotAllMuslims and NotAllArabs and NotAllBlackMen and whichever else would be the appropriate response to when media and society at large demonize an entire group of people based on the actions of a few, then your cry of “but I am not like that” is at best defensiveness but more likely a misguided (even if subconscious) attempt to keep on to the male privilege of shaping the direction of the conversation and making everything about us.
We have had the floor for a very long time. Time to let it go, at least for long enough to be able to really listen. I think we will be better humans, and better men, for it.