Then and now

The other night after finishing a large and frustrating job I decided to watch some television because I could not sleep, and there is station, HITN, which shows very interesting documentaries... and one of them was about the protests at the UPR in the late '60s. So many of us were participating in marches against the Vietnam war... although Puerto Ricans on the island are unable to vote for the president, they were drafted like everyone else, and many of them refused to go to Vietnam. September 26, 1969, the student Edwin Feliciano Grafales was sentenced to prison by the Fed. Gov't. for refusing to go to 'Nam. There was so much anger... and right on campus we had the ROTC; they marched and displayed their colors, in a campus with so much antiwar feeling. And so after Edwin was sentenced, there was a protest, a symbolic burning...
On March 4, 1970, there was a second protest. The ROTC was across from the School of Architecture, and as I recall, close to Charlie Rosario's Programa de Honor, where I took classes. My recollection is that although there were loud words and hymns and posters and thousands of students marching, there was no violence until the President, Jaime Benítez, called in the shock troops... Everyone was hit; even innocent passersby, professors, anyone who was there got a macana wherever they got you. And when they stepped out of the recinto universitario, a cop killed a young girl from the Education Department (Pedagogía) who was up on a balcony watching the events. He pointed up his gun and she was killed... a 19 year-old girl called Antonia Martínez who was said to be the first in her family to go to college.

We graduated in June of that year... and at least Humanidades was mostly outraged, so we talked about what to do when we went up for our diplomas, and decided we would not accept them, nor shake the President's hand... But one student, activist Carmen Noelia Benítez, grabbed his hand and slapped him on the face. It was rather a riot. What a way to graduate from college... and all of us on that line had torn up the little fake diplomas as a symbol of our outrage...

When we started protesting, before the satrap George W. Bush invaded Iraq, I kept thinking, we stopped that war eventually, and surely we can stop this one! But we just recently celebrated the 6th anniversary of bloodshed and mayhem...

Roy Brown was 'our' musical voice in those days... and here is a song by León Gieco, from the time of their US-sponsored dictatorship, which lasted 30 bloody years... sung by Roy and others. Sólo le pido a Dios que la guerra no me sea indiferente, es un monstruo grande y pisa fuerte, a la pobre inocencia de la gente. (I only ask of God, that I am not indifferent to war; it is a large monster that steps harshly on the poor innocence of the people).

The next one became the hymn for the protests against the ROTC... Un mister con macana... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t51P-FKH8OQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CvrVR_A2rg

And this one is in several of my poems! I still sing this in my sleep...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vo8jOxLrURo&feature=related

Here is one of them:

The meaning of life (for Warren)

if you think i am going to tell you anything
about the meaning of life
think again, amigo
what i really wanted to tell you
what i wanted to explain
in one or two versos claros
is why sometimes, maybe most times
there is a lack of punctuation,
puntos y comas
or capitalization,
mayúsculas y minúsculas
when i write my stuff
i gave up most of this
when i was seventeen or eighteen
i'd started college early
la universidad de puerto rico
and had a ball with juan ramón
jiménez, garcía márquez had just
published cien años de soledad
cortázar was writing about cronopios
y famas, joan manuel serrat
kept singing songs in catalán
and ray hernández, whose father
was a US militar with large pistolas
sang against the yanquis, his own
father being yanqui, with his guitar
in cheap bares where we gathered
nights and listened to the story
of profit and destrucción
in colombia, méxico, chile
"fuego fuego fuego, el mundo está en llamas
fuego fuego, los yanquis quieren fuego
fuego fuego..."
it was a simple thing
a given somehow
when the presidente called
in the policía and they killed
antonia martínez, who was just
looking from her balcón in río piedras
that puntos y comas would become
as unimportant as all the major issues
such as why we were killing children
in vietnam or why we were giving money
to the government of papadoc in haití
and pretending he wasn't a killer
or why we were friends with dictadores
and people engaged in la tortura
and were training folks with dinero
through la cia to be asesinos
and so a little punto or a coma
became so not the thing to look at
that i stopped looking, rhyming
and it wasn't eecummings 'cause i was
reading antonio machado and goytisolo
but why rhyme when reason was passé
you may have noticed that i use
the puntos suspensivos - ... -
and sometimes i don't use the I
which is the yo en español
and some of that is who i am
a sad cubana who has never learned
to love this exile who still misses
beaches with arenas blancas
and such a sea you'd cry
and sometimes there's a point
that must be made with proper
puntuación or a mayúscula
that must be used
but most times whether anyone reads this mierda
i've lost the little bastards
with my virginidad
they're gone
mi buen amigo
se fue para no volver
manicero se va...

Teach participation and empathy for others by teaching true history

We have been engaged in 'nation destroying' with regard to other nations, and are quick to point a finger at others' so-called terrorist practices when they refuse to bend down and knuckle under. From our definition of 'all men are created equal' to include only White, propertied males, with a certain religious persuasion, to our persecution of dissenters (although the Republic was founded on dissent), and our invading the domain of other cultures, countries and races, we remain as a nation ignorant of our 'true history.'

Start a collaborative project, through the use of original records, story-telling gathered from elders, and other 'true history' markers, to teach the history as it happened, and in the process, learn what it is that made us succeed and what made us into a target for terrorism and for worldwide hatred and despair. Endow this project with federal funds, as a way of affirming diversity and true origin. And let us see where this may lead us. We might begin by using some of Zinn's historical writing.

True education builds understanding. Understanding is the first step toward a new nation dedicated to peace and to the empowerment not only of its own people, but of all people in a planet conceived as a global village. That which hurts the smallest member hurts the entire body politic. Let us remember Donne's beautiful statement that every man's death diminishes me.

All empires come to an end, some with more bloodshed than others. America is not a country, it is beautiful continents made up of many races, languages and beliefs.

We are divided by our beliefs, racial and ethnic origin, languages, and economic class. We must begin to walk in our sister's moccasins in order to understand her path, and her needs. At a time of great economic and moral need, when we have been led astray by imperialistic greed, empathy through true education would allow us to begin to heal our national woes.

The hypocrisy of Memorial Day

I watched part of a concert in DC for Memorial Day, with wonderful performers and speeches... but despite the beautiful speeches and the talent, and the sharing of stories, the facts about the reality of veterans, then and now, are horrible. A survey prior to 2000 showed that 23% of the homeless population were veterans, and 33% of the male homeless population were veterans. The government of course had a 'challenge' survey, but this was a government that called torture, or the release of prisoners to third parties (foreign parties) 'rendition,' even to eventual assassination, and used the term collateral damage when speaking of civilian 'unintended' death. Similar to the 'unintended' effects of the Israeli AF dropping a one ton bomb on the house of a Hamas leader and claiming that the deaths of surrounding neighbors and all the residents of the leader's house, including small children, were 'unintended.'

Perhaps the difference between this concert and previous ones is the focusing on seriously and hideously deformed soldiers with their families... The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans mentions the causes for veteran homelessness:

"Homelessness is caused by a number of factors, but generally it can be attributed to health issues, economic issues and lack of affordable housing – or any combination of these.

* In addition to the complex problems associated with all homelessness – extreme shortage of affordable housing, livable income, and access to health care – a large number of displaced and at-risk veterans live with lingering effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse, compounded by a lack of family and social support networks. Military occupations and training are not always transferable to the civilian workforce, placing some veterans at a disadvantage when competing for employment.
* Adding to the difficulties of veterans in crisis is the misconception that the VA takes care of all veterans in need. According to the VA CHALENG Report, in the years since it "began responding to the special needs of homeless veterans, its homeless treatment and assistance network has developed into the nation’s largest provider of homeless services, serving more than 100,000 veterans annually." With up to 400,000 veterans experiencing homelessness at some time during the year, VA programs reach about 25% of those in need ... leaving 300,000 veterans in need of assistance from community service providers.
* While "most homeless people are single, unaffiliated men … most housing money in existing federal homelessness programs is devoted to helping homeless families or homeless women with dependant children," according to "Is Homelessness a Housing Problem?" in Understanding Homelessness: New Policy and Research Perspectives published by the Fannie Mae Foundation, 1997."
http://www.nchv.org/media.cfm

On Link TV tonight there was a documentary called An Act of Conscience, filmed in 1997 by Robbie Leppzer about the war tax resistance of Randy Kehler and Betsy Corner in Massachusetts. It is a moving film, about a couple, and community, willing to make that last sacrifice for their convictions against war... I am a war resister myself, but this couple paid a heavy price... the IRS have Kehler arrested and the couple have their home confiscated for refusing to pay a 'war tax.'

It is interesting that so much of the history of the US has to do with taxes... 'taxation without representation' was the clarion call of the Revolutionary War, and the Boston Tea Party was also over 'taxed' tea and the Tea Tax Act. Thoreau in 1846 refused to pay the poll tax, and was jailed... and his most famous essay, read and inspiring so many, was his personal response to his imprisonment for breaking this law. He refused to pay the taxes because the taxes were used to support slavery, in the same way that our taxes today and for the past century support all our wars and 'police actions' of aggression against people everywhere.

In the meantime, An Act of Conscience moved me... not only the initial struggle, but the long community protest, which took years, and in which people decided to be refuse to leave their vigil, after the local court signed an injunction. They said, by their actions, what Thoreau had earlier said:

"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right."

Gandhi was inspired by Thoreau, and wrote about his rebellion of conscience when he was himself jailed; Martin Luther King read both Thoreau and Gandhi, and helped to bring about the current times...

Yet today we have ongoing hypocrisy... We have the Hope President reversing and contradicting himself... no more pictures, no more revelations, and who knows what will happen with Guantánamo.

I remember a poster from the sixties, when we were protesting Vietnam... What if they gave a war, and no one came?

A mild post about strawberries and the ballet...

Taking a break from bitching about empire to laud the San Francisco Ballet and Bay area strawberries... The ballet is among the best companies I've ever seen, and that includes the Cuban National Ballet with Alicia Alonso and the American Ballet Theatre... interestingly enough, the SFB has a number of Cuban soloists, character dancer and corps-de-ballet dancers. I am sure most of them by now are US citizens but the point is that they were all born where I was born, in la Habana...

And the strawberries were so juicy and fresh and sweet... I bought them from a young Mexican who was selling in the street, and bit into one, and started talking to myself... 'SO this is how strawberries are supposed to taste!~' I lived for so many years in the NE where most of our produce was trucked from faraway places, one never did taste (for the most part) really fresh produce! So strawberries were rather tasteless and frequently bitter.

Tomorrow we will go back to figuring out how to stop the war and kill (I want them out) the pharma/health merchants of death... but for today, I am going to eat sweet juicy strawberries and dream of la Habana...

About empire, though, one of my bisabuela's frequent sayings...

No hay mal que dure cien años
ni cuerpo que lo resista

(There is no evil that can last 100 years
nor a body that can put up with it)

In love but pissed off?

Well, I heard the man speak at the Notre Dame commencement... he is charming, he talks a good game, he makes you want to cheer and applaud and stand up and say BRAVO! And I made myself wait four days before I commented because the truth is that I sat and watched and smiled and frowned (smiled more than I frowned). He speaks truth, but now he is not speaking truth to power, because at least in some significant way, he IS the power...

And I am still having trouble with the inane comments about the 'mistakes' of those who ordered torture, and not having a very good time of it with what is shaping up to be a health care fiasco... they are not going to give an inch, because they (meaning the bloated health/pharmaceutical 'industry') are sitting pretty, no matter how angry we all are. They resemble countries that continue to bomb and torture and demean other countries, but have 'bought' our approval. 'nuff said... No one is talking about the various 'scams' such as the Medicare (more expensive medicine for a rapidly aging population) perpetrated by this 'industry' back when GWB was smiling his approval...

My biggest problem, of course, is with the whole war issue. This was an election that was ultimately won because we wanted change, INCLUDING bring the troops home. Instead, we are now bombing, via unmanned drones, other places... creating yet more families that will mourn our existence... and vow revenge.

But when he talks as he did last Sunday, for just a short while, you want to believe...

Why socialism?

Albert Einstein's essay entitled Why Socialism?, published in the first issue of the Monthly Review (http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einstein.php), is as timely today as it was then. It addresses all of the issues that bedevil us, including the lack of a free press, and the impotence of our efforts:

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."

Later on he says that the profit motive "is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I mentioned before."

Thorstein Veblen, whom Einstein mentions in his essay, actually coined the phrase "Conspicuous Consumption" leading to conspicuous waste in his "Theory of the Leisure Class"(http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/VEBLEN/chap04.html), a writing which analyzes and satirizes the sordid influence of laissez-faire economics and big business on society and culture.

There have been some socialist experiments on our planet that have not fared well; it is, after all, a relatively young theory, and I think its efforts have been mired by the existence of that conspicuous consumption and waste so prevalent in the capitalist world. It is hard not to be swayed by the more and bigger is better siren lure of Madison Avenue. Harder yet to live the simple life, when all around you luxury beckons... And the profit motive has always been an infection that spreads and grows and becomes rabid, as in Walmart and its practices being touted as a 'good' business model throughout the world. "Save money, live better." For the owner-predators, the model consists of carefully controlled employment at the lowest wages and at all stages of production and sale, cut-throat competition, including the wiping out of cottage industries, and an absolute disregard for the laws protecting workers. But they are profitable, and are therefore on the list of 'stock to buy.'

My nightmare for some time now has been that Cuba would be 'opened' to US investment, and that Walmart would desecrate the Habana landscape...

But as for socialism, it's been so painted by that same Madison Avenue, or tarred and feathered would be a better word for what's been done to it, as the ultimate evil, that the sole mention of the word sends people running.

I, proudly, am a socialist.

The "Free" Press

Abuelo Gerardo was a serious journalist and photographer who covered wars, investigated corruption, and was in fact sentenced to death in México on a couple of occasions because he had published something that was troublesome to those in power. One of them, I remember from his stories, had to do with General Carranza... He joined the French Foreign Legion because he could not get close to the war... I have a postcard he sent from abroad...

So who are these people that work for MSNBC and CBS and whoever else, and DO NOT report the news? There is NO coverage about the ongoing US killing of civilians in Afghanistan. There have been numerous 'air strikes' that have gone awry and killed tens of Afghan women and children... Does the term 'free press' mean they are 'free' as in 'worthless?' How do they justify their wages? Or are these the wages of corporate sin?

=======================

I had to come back and correct my post above, in two ways. First of all, there was a NYT editorial today on drone bombings, and second of all, the independent media always reports on these things, but then again, I was not referring to them when I said we have no coverage. Anyone who does not read Alternet or the Nation goes wanting for the real news.