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Activist Times Inc. Issue 286
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Issue #286 Aug-8-2001
Have you ever eaten an organic peach?
Was it walnut in size? I'll bet you haven't.
Some have, I hope you have, chances are you've
never seen one, never mind popped one between
your lips, chewed the pit toward the front of
your mouth and swallowed the moist, meaty part
whole. A real peach.
Ever had one? They don't get bigger than that
walnut-size I described without messing with all
the rules of mother nature.
What's this about? Nothing yet. Follow me,
I'll be talking about missing interns, Presidents
and systemic change, cowards and the distractions
that people brave enough to make change have to
undergo and seldom overcome.
OK, maybe I won't discuss that, but still, stay
with me if you can. Go with it, maybe it'll make
sense, or at least maybe it'll help you make sense
of something else out there in your troubled
world. OK, perhaps it won't do a durned thing for
you, but you'll feel it, and you'll say, "yeah, I
feel that too, I know what he means. Well, sort of.
Yeah."
Alright. How come "Girl Interrupted" flopped or
yawned at the Box Office? Nothing to do with the
plot or the drama; nothing to do with the acters,
OR the character development. You don't see much
better than Vanessa Redgrave, Whoopie Goldberg,
my sweetie Winona Ryder, and Clea Duvall.
No it flopped because girls don't mean a damned
thing in this society. They're for ripping to shreds,
pushing their buttons, messing with them genetically,
savoring sensitively for a second or two before you
spit them out like an oversized woody seed you can't
swallow whole.
What does this have to do with peaches? Missing
interns? Nothing, and everything. I'm talking to you.
My society. Upper middle class united states society.
I'm addressing you. Please forgive the swear and the
bad pun; when I say fuck you. You fucking suck. Yes,
you suck. Figuratively and literally. What you make
me do to women, what you ask me to do to other men,
what you call on women to do with me, what you make
women to do to each other around me. You are all
messed up, America.
When can I go into a supermarket to forage for food
with my frigging hands and eyes instead of my wallet
and my penis? A shopping cart and stonewashed jeans?
America, you are almost all that is wrong with the
entire world, and I'm afraid after 37 years of my life
so far, I've looked for someone else, anyone else, some
other nation, or part of a nation. Something external.
Something to indict that is not "america" or the "dream"
I once believed in. Fought for, died a thousand times
over, a thousand ways. A million deaths. 500 hands. Why
can't I pay with my hands?
But I digress. Or do I?
The "Levy girl" is still missing because of Bill Clinton.
Not him, himself. He's as much the victim as I am, or you,
or your spouse, or your child. But I invoke his name because
I wish to take you back to his four articles of impeachment.
I'm sure it goes back before Ted Kennedy even, before Thomas
Jefferson, and even before the Mayflower, or the Napoleonic
code.
I'll stick to Clinton's four because that's what I have
handy at the moment. Four articles all to do with sex. I
wanted the man impeached; I wanted him taken out for things
that had nothing to do with sex. Conflicts of interest,
abuses of power, stuff like that. But I've written about
those things before so I won't bog you down with details
there. I was doubly angered that the real issue was never
addressed. Governors, Senators, Presidents, male and female
alike, but more often than not, male will take an intern.
Now I don't mean hire one. (at least not in the traditional
economic sense) Yes, I mean have sexual relations with
someone they're superior to. Conflict of interest? You bet.
Abuse of power? Yupper. And where in Clinton's case did
anyone discuss possible upcoming systemic changes? I'll
suggest, NEVER and I'll say NOWHERE.
So Condit takes an intern. She disappears. A hundred
days later, we're still discussing whether he killed her,
or has her hidden out and pregnant in France or Italy or
something. NOWHERE and NEVER are we discussing systemic
changes, are we?
"Woman is the nigger of the world," said John Lennon
in verse, in song, and many times in person.
Shame on you, shame on me. Shame on all of us.
Have you ever enjoyed an organic, untampered peach?
Someone donated about 100 of them to the shelter I help
run. He says his wife has donated over time, and he's had
an unusually great crop this year, so he decided to pitch
in some too. We got peaches, onions, green beans, corn,
and one head of cabbage. All organic.
Yum.
Wait. She lead him? He was inspired by HER?? "Great woman
he's got there," might be your first thought. "Let's memorize
his name and forget who the heck she was beyond being his
wife, when we tell the world who did great things," eh?
Yeah, you get my wit there, right?
"Girl Interrupted" was a great film. Two leading women
and many supporting male roles. I don't have a problem
with that.
Do you?
I was prime anarchist, and
I said that.
====>
#'s
http://threadless.com
http://www.nonogirl.com
http://www.ariannaonline.com
http://anarchosyndicalism.org
http://www.overthrowthegov.com
http://www.senaa.org/index2.html
http://www.swizzletree.com/main.html
http://www.google.com/chad_bikes_america.html
http://sf.indymedia.org/display.php?id=101848
http://www.pbs.org/rogers/songlist/slindex.htm
====>
- ONE LETTUCE -
[would you just call that "lett?"]
to ati@etext.org
Sorry for this automated response to your e-mail.
My former secretary, Ms. Bujold, left in mid-July.
I rarely check my office e-mail myself since I'm in
seclusion working on a book project this summer and
fall.
Hopefully, a new secretary will be in the office
by late August.
Rita Dove
====>
OVERHEARD IN A GUESTBOOK
This site is so cool! Believe me when I say it's cool
that's major compliment! Have any of you cool people
seen the Britiny Spears pepsi comercial! Talk about
total disgrace to human's. She is walking porno. Well
I go to Jr. high and during second period we have
channel one for about 15 min. and channel one is
nothing but a advertising channel for teens, it's
stupid, anyhow for the past 2 weeks there have been
this britiny spears pepsi commercial and it is
totally offensive. So me my mom and my friends'
parents are getting together to get off air because
of the bs commercial and if any of you would be
willing to help us out
{ed note:}
e-mail me [(we don't reprint
addys unless asked directly)]
and e-mail channelone at:
http://www.channelone.com and
http://www.neboschooldistrict.edu and help us fight
aganist this porno thing because none of us need
this.
Thanx
Love ya all
Chelsea
salem, ut
united states
====>
Styx.
Who?
====>
Hey Mitch Albom,
What's up with that? I think I'll change my
name to Marco 8trak.
====>
TOP 2 AP Stories: 08 07 01 4pm
Cisco Systems 4Q Earnings Plunge
U.S. Planes Bomb Targets in Iraq
[Coincidence? Don't go making conspiracy
theories and blaming me, I just notice
shit.]
====>
OPEN LETTER TO ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
My Dear Arianna,
Thanks for such a toothy article of yours which I first
read at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0807-03.htm
Seeing Carter flip-flop like a walk at the beach or a trip
to the local Waffle House, doesn't surprise me in the least.
Many years ago I was starting a commitment to Habitat
there in Americus, and my roomate the first three days while
I waited for my cabinet making job (I interrupted the stint
and flew home when my wife miscarried, but I digress) came
back one afternoon and told me what a shit-head he thought
Jimmy Carter was afterall.
See, his job was photographing Carter's acceptance of a
huge donation from Jane Fonda. She was going to pound a few
nails, rub shoulders with mr. ex-pres and go on her happy
way, probably writing off twice as much toward her taxes.
It turns out his first words were something to the effect
of "I'm not shaking hands with that commie bitch."
His second words in front of my friend were "OK, but I
will not smile at her and I will not talk."
My roomie came home with a couple perfect non-telegraphing
fotos of the famous Carter "forward smile" that almost looks
like he's smiling at her, but he's really smiling at us.
So I wasn't surprised.
Thanks for your column,
and thanks for reminding
me of that day.
marco
====>
AND NOW, PART 3, (FINAL??) OF AARON KREIDER'S
THERE AND BACK
...donated $6.20 to gas. He also didn't like to drive fast, arguing that the
roads were only built to go 55 miles, but fortunately as we didn't have a
speedometer - we were going faster than that. With all of the stopping, we
averaged only 50-55 miles per hour. Remember that the speed limit was 75. I
was a bit upset since if I'd have got a ride with somebody driving 75-80,
I'd have done the distance in an hour or likely two hours faster. He let me
drive twice. First because he was likely tired of doing so, and secondly
because he wanted to drink a 40 oz beer. He had strange opinions, like he
was into being nice to people (the whole peace/love thing) but he also
thought that most people were stupid and wrote "be smart" on his car. So he
seemed pretty cynical, but lacking in any political analysis which would be
necessary to understand the problems of our world. He was somewhat hard to
get along with, since I didn't want to argue with his strange ideas as it
didn't seem that he tolerated disagreement that well.
He left me off in Laramie at the first truck stop. There I waited an hour
or so and got a ride from a Mexican-American driver of a small truck who
gave me a lift to Olgallala (120 miles into Nebraska). He worked for the UP
railroad. We talked a bit about hitchhiking and train hopping, but he
wasn't too talkative so we listened to the radio (sports talk and a Spanish
AM station from Boulder). Olgallala has a very good sized truck stop, but
as I was about to hitch-hike a little past sunset I ran into two guys who
were also trying to hitch-hike. They'd been there two days and were trying
to get to Tennessee. This was a bit perturbing since by hitchhiker ethics,
I should wait for them to get a ride before trying myself. Yet, I was
likely to have a better chance since I was travelling by myself. I
encouraged them to make a sign, and also suggested hitchhiking on the
interstate. I guessed that much of their problem was that there were two of
them, while most trucks have only two seats. They'd been going up to
truckers to ask them for a ride (whereas I'm more shy and tend to use the
"wave a sign" approach). I thought I'd see them again, but they
disappeared. Hopefully they finally got a ride just after I showed-up.
Since I wanted to sleep, I decided to walk to the rest area that was two
miles away. Unfortunately it was very dark and I had to walk along the
interstate so that I could find my way there. Since we had left Wyoming,
the altitude was less and it was still warm at night (70?). So I walked in
the grass by the interstate, getting blinded when cars approached. My
flashlight batteries had given out a couple days ago, when I must have left
it on all night by accident. After 30 minutes I gave up since I was being
attacked by a very prickly painful plant that was getting stuck into my
feet (I should have worn shoes), and also since it was somewhat dangerous
and I was very hot. So I returned to the truck stop and went looking for
the other two hitchhikers. They'd said that they stored their bags in a
trailer that was used for Christian services for truckers, so I found the
trailer with its door open but their stuff was no longer there. I sat down
inside the trailer and realized that it was a good place to get some rest,
so I meditated/thought/prayed for a while to see if anyone else would check
on it before I crashed there. Someone came by, but left when they saw I was
just meditating, and after an hour or so of no-one, I lay down on the
carpeted floor and got around four hours of sleep just in my regular
clothes. It got a little cold by the morning.
I got up around 6am to the sound of a voice calling my name ("Aaron!")
which must have been part of a dream. I walked out of the trailer without
anyone apparently noticing. I cleaned up a little and then hitched by the
truck stop for a couple hours before moving to in front of the interstate
on-ramp where I soon got a ride from a Chinese-American truck driver who
only had one seat in his truck. The other had been removed. This was
actually rather fortunate, as I could lie down on the truck's bed and
despite the bumpy ride (it wasn't one of those air-ride trucks) I managed
to sleep a considerable amount of the time through Nebraska and part of
Iowa. He wasn't that talkative and I was too tired to make much of an
effort. For lunch we stopped somewhere where he made an oriental noodles
soup and gave me a little. He dropped me off at the Iowa 80 truck stop,
reportedly the biggest in the US (and possibly the world) which is near the
Quad Cities on the border of Iowa and Illinois. I got there a couple hours
before sunrise and figured that since it was the biggest truck stop I
should be able to get a ride on I-80 all the way to South Bend. I had two
offers of rides to Chicago, but much to my later regret I refused them
since I figured I could do better. Later I accepted a ride from a couple
that had two dogs, no driver's licenses, and were driving a car that
someone had recently given them that didn't have rear lights. They were
travelling folk, who'd walked around the US and had a trailer in which they
pulled their stuff. Unfortunately, they wanted to veer south to go to
Indianapolis, so I figured I was much better off returning and hitching at
Iowa 80. So we only went a couple miles and then they drove me back. I gave
them $5 since they were short on cash.
I continued hitching at Iowa 80. I met a police officer who told me that it
was illegal, but tolerated. The only main rule was...
(CON'T Next Issue)
[ref]=[http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/trilogy/thereandback.txt]
====>
NADER RALLY - A HARSH CRITIQUE
by Marshall
[reprinted from portland indymedia. Wow, what a rant. -ed.]
Look, I enjoyed the day on the whole, but this totally uncritical
applauding of a group of celebrity-speakers who basically SUCKED
is depressing. Ralph Nader is who he is and I won't criticize him
here, but if I hear one more person say that Jello Biafra was cool
I'm going to BARF! 1.Vile appeals to nationalism (giant US flag
behind all the speakers). 2. feel-good, it's-gonna-be-easy shallow
reformist actvism advocated (Hey Jello- me and 8,000 other people
didn't pay ten bucks to hear you say we oughta do so little as to
vote to take Pepsi ads out of government schools made of cinder
block walls, flourescent lights and a techno-capitalist plot to
socialize the next generation of colonizers ---or maybe those
8,000 people did...frightening.) 3. As has been alluded to above,
it was an incredibly commercial event. Basically, though Nader
was good (for a Green Party Presidential Candidate) all the other
speakers were uninspiring, uninformative, uncreative and apparently
incapable of radical, or at least indipendent thought. Jello was
out-right reactionary, with constant references to "realistic goals"
etc. (not that realistic goals are bad, but a rhetorical fixation
on them, beside an annalysis that's totally shallow- is super
suspicious.) As he said in this week's Portland Mercury "I might
catch shit from the More-Radical-Than-Thou..."
Ya, well you deserve it, you fake.
I remember seeing Jello in Eugene a few years ago and he had
the attention of 300 people for 3.5 hours and talked nearly the
entire time about how the corporate media is biased because of
it's economic interests. Well NO SHIT, why don't you tell us
something we don't allready know fer gawds sake. That night
was an insult, intellectually and politically. Jello's P-town
performance was at least as bad. I assume he'd never speak in
front of a giant US flag in Eugene.
When are we going to start holding people who do public speaking
to a higher standard than this? Anyone who's vaguely Leftist and
articulate get's uncritical aproval, when a whole lot of criticism
is really what they need.
Otherwise, loved the event, I met lots of cool, "real people"
doing community activism. As an anarchist, I felt very welcome
by the vast majority of participants - though an anti-statist
perspective was totally shut out of the night-time event,
(excluding Medea Benjamin's half assed attempt to make up
for her post Seattle call for the entire Black Bloc to be
arrested by saying in Portland that anarchists were on the
list of groups that greens should form coalitions with.
Wonder when the last time she talked to an anarchist was.)
But I suppose that if we wanna get in good with a bunch of
Holywood types, pay $2,500 to use a big screen TV and rent
out the Rose Garden, THEN we can talk to 8,000 people. This
event was about Democracy, Free Speech, and Ecological
Sustainability- not Anarchism, silly!
Alternative Media gathering was terrific, some panels too.
Ugh, this is difficult. Overall, decent event though.
Sorry for the bitterness, I just feel like numerous species
are going to go extinct, indigenous cultures are going to be
destroyed, numerous people are going to be murdered and tortured
by the international financial elite, I'm going to have to live
in a techno-industrial hell ------TODAY, tommorow and for a few
more years till we're all screwed-- and I'd like to do more about
it than "make sure ALL coffee farmers are paid $1.26 per lb.!!"
(Benjamin)
I believe that the industrial nation-state is inherently colonial.
Frantz Fannon argues that there are two kinds of colonists, the
"do-gooder" colonist who tries to go against the fundamental
nature of colonialism (exploitation) and ends up just looking
rediculous. Then there's the "honest" colonist, who knows the
rules and takes what they can get for themselves. Everybody
looks at them and thinks, well at least that makes some sense,
that is how things are set up. Let's stop being "do-gooder"
colonists, it makes us look rediculous and hardly does a damned
thing.
Let's get rid of the whole system and fill our own needs for
ourselves.
Marshall
Eugene's Anarchist Action Collective
http://www.cascadiamedia.org
http://www.portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2794
====>
Sh0utz and gr33tz 2 Metro Records, CBGB's, Ben & Jerry's Phish Stick,
Kyle, Emma, Brenda and Randy, Carl, anyone opposing recombinant bovine
growth hormone, and Kaustubh P. [oh, and a secret shoutout to my
sister's voice coach. :) ]
====>
comments?
ati@etext.org
