Few people are willing to honestly share them.
At least in public.
The ones that do usually hide behind a fake name. The exceptions are guys like David Bass Dancy, David Horowitz, Jerry 'Clapso' Avisato and Andy Senior...guys like Jeff Ott and Len Hart. Why are there exceptions?
Are you afraid?
Where does the fear come from?
Is it fear?
Or are you less of a hypocrite than your conscience will allow?
Are you fine with our wasteful consumer driven existence?
I am.
I just think we can have our cake and eat it too. Meaning we can continue in our comfortable mode of obesity until the end of time if we simply adopt some fundamental changes.
If we don't.
Have a little Soylent Green.
Scientists, scholars, artists unite.
No more stem cell stifling !
No more policies based on fear and ignorance!
No more cover-ups!
When did it become detrimental to question authority in modern America, the way it is?
We had paranoia with Bush and we have a form of blind optimism with Obama.
We need to tell them what to do.
Right now there is a rare air of patience on behalf of the American people. Our dire financial reality is sinking in and no one expects our leadership to fix anything anytime soon.
Our current President may, in fact, enjoy a much longer Honeymoon than his embattled predecessor. That applies only to sensible people. Everyone is aware there exists a lunatic fringe that speaks for a large volume of quiet people (Rush). That is what this post is about The minions that sit silently allowing a void to exists. Never sharing their thoughts or ideas about how we, Americans, are going forward.
Our shared frustrations.
What happened to activism? Better yet, what have we learned from the civil rights and the anti-war movements of the sixties?
Someone should have burned down a bank by now at least kidnapped an exec.
We have learned Nothing.
But there are some big differences today. Take the Bernie Madoff scandal. He is only one guy. But what if there are hundreds of Ponzi Hedge funds.
Just between me and you...there are more Ponzi Funds.
No whistleblowers. Not one person in the SEC to warn the American public before this thing got completely out of hand.
Remember the Breach of Privacy lawsuit filed against The Federal Guv and AT&T?
People working together...gettin r' done.
I would lose a lot of faith in 'doing the right thing' if I lost my life savings along with thousands of people and also knew all my personal correspondence is being perused by some middle management federal hump who can't shoot a pistol.
Scam artists+Business Major= modern economics.
We need guidance direction and a passion as a country...not more war and enemies.
Nowadays it seems people are more afraid to connect with a cause then ever before. A common excuse is fear of ostracizing. "hey man I got a job and a family, I can't risk it".
Or "My position is to important to risk my reputation"
My answer? If you don't stand behind it you must not really believe it. Or you just don't have balls.
Or it just isn't really worth it compared to cable and a full tank of gas.
I admit I am a hypocrite prone to contradict myself five, ten times a day...but I'm working on it.
Many of the issues people are afraid to be outed for are not as controversial as you might think. Stuff like decriminalizing drugs, stopping our current war, and green issues are hardly controversial to me. Yet, a lot of professionals who otherwise could help a good cause choose to sit back in anonymity satisfied with the way it is.
Places like Utica New York, a small City in the center of the state, suffer the most from this type of neo-activism. There are several Colleges in the area which provide an important element, youth and an objective perspective.
They have a big cultural impact, I cringe at the thought of Pratt at Munson Williams Proctor moving. In fact , any of them moving or closing or not existing. The other colleges have lecture series open to the public. The Sacerdote Great Names series at Hamilton College regularly attracts pop culture icons. Most recently John Stewart from The Daily Show. They even had Al Gore (I attended).
Despite the culture that the educational institutions provide, the provincial nature of the Mohawk Valley retards progress. Just look at how many little towns share the same street in some parts of Oneida County. Whitestown, Whitesboro, Yorkville, New Hartford all share parts of one block.
No wonder there is no good public transportation.
Whats different Now?
Unlike the sixties we have the benefit of Internet technology where thoughts and ideas can be shared instantly. So the regional lines are not as important as they were in the past. Events become regional events instead of local events.
Saranac Thursdays and Utica Monday Nite are good examples.
Utica is at a crossroads. It will either be City of Art or Sin...I think we can have both like everyone else.
But not without activism.
In the sixties the disruptive, let me repeat, DISRUPTIVE protests brought attention to their causes they also alienated the groups behind them. The shared agendas of civil rights and the push for peace grew further apart as each movement gained ground in our collective psyches.
It made it easier for the Guv to divide and conquer via COINTELPRO.
Each cause was selectively watered down infiltrated and ultimately made irrelevant, crazy and threatening to the average joe.
But we threw the pot out with the seeds. Protest has somehow been categorized as a Radical act, not a tool of people in a free society. Except in Berkeley Cal where they will chain themselves to entrance of 7-eleven because of Slurpee prices.
Stand up young uns'
What has been lost is the impact of youth. The ever changing social landscape is shaped and fueled by youth. No Guv can manage that variable.
Ask Berkeley
It seems today our youth have little more trust than previous generations but despite that they have chosen to leverage their hopes on a promising new President that is part of a historically inept group of people (Past Presidents).
Thankfully, we have a Presidential Cabinet full of The enemies of Historical American decency.
The Abby Hoffman's and The Huey Newton's= Ex- Hippies, Blacks and Asians.
The ex-hippies and Blacks fueled revolution in the sixties and seventies. Our national identity has never been under threat like it was in that era.
But we have a Constitution (that allows revolutions to be televised).
And we also have a new identity.
It is obvious there is always risks involved with dissent, especially when it involved Government. Some are more humane than others. What separates America from the rest of the world is citizen involvement. We successfully changed the facade of our country.
But that is all.
Help change what is inside of us, as a country.
Do you really want everyone else's oil?
Get on the Green wagon, end war and decriminalize drugs.
Pick one of these issues and stand as person with a name.
Most people will 'get on a bandwagon'.
Some will even provide empirical evidence that will support whatever position they choose to promote.
For a few, that have lost loved ones in this war, we are all full fo shit.
But fewer still, will stand behind their own words.
Few, very few, proudly stand their ground without fear.
Fear of the Thought Police.
