Democrats Versus Republicans, The Battle Is Almost Over

Democrats Versus Republicans, The Battle Is Almost Over

The following are the opinions of the author and although I believe them to be true I am not stating them as anything other than my opinions.
Ever since the time of Abe Lincoln, Democrats and Republicans have been fighting for control of the United States Of America. In the beginning, both political parties contained liberals, moderates and conservatives. As time wore on the Democratic Party moved more to the left or 'liberal' and the Republican Party moved more to the right or 'Conservative'. This left room for fewer and fewer moderates.
Over the last several years, however, the far, far left has been taking over control of the Democratic Party and now the coup is almost completed. The far left zealots have virtually pushed most of the slightly left, the moderates and the conservatives out of the Democratic Party. Most of the moderates and conservatives left have learned to keep quiet and go with the tide in order to stay in office. Now the battle, for control of this country, has changed, it is now the far left against everyone else. People like Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Joseph Biden, Robert Byrd, Barbara Boxer, etc. (I don't include Edward Kennedy because, in my opinion, he lost touch with reality long ago and just talks in order to see and hear himself on the news.) along with their Hollywood friends, Barbara Streisand, Susan Saranden, Alec Baldwin, Whoopi Goldberg, Martin Sheen, Spike Lee, etc., now run the Democratic Party and more moderate people, like Joseph Lieberman, are being ignored or vilified by the party, the party's supporters and a large part of the press. The far left only wants people, that think like they do or will do what they tell them to do, in the Democratic Party. They fear and dislike moderates, conservatives, moderate liberals and anyone that they can not control.
The far left has gone so far left that, in my opinion, they make liberals seem like hard right wingers. I don't believe that the far left cares about America, the American people or anyone else except themselves. The far left politicians want power and they will do anything to get and keep that power. They claim to support our troops in Afganistan and Iraq, yet they do everything they can do to ruin the troops moral and aid the terrorists. They use their Hollywood friends and the ultra liberal press to spread half truths, lies, rumors and ridiucule about anyone who does not agree with them. They have even taken to giving responses to President Bush's speeches before he makes the speech. They have learned from President Clinton how to take credit for anything good that happens and how to lay blame on others for anything bad that happens. They use people like President Carter, one of the kindest, most caring, most honest and most trusting men to ever hold public office, to critcize the present administration's policies.
President Carter, does not have an agenda, he is just, as always, slightly naive about and too trusting of the good will of others. He believes that there would be peace on earth if people followed the dictates of the far left, so the far left uses him as a front.
The far left uses celebrities who are not only naive but insulated from the real world. Celebrities who are surrounded by yes people telling them that they are smarter and better than the rest of us, celebrities who are wealthy, do not have to go to a supermarket to do their shopping, who fly first class, drive whatever kind of car they wish, live in expensive homes or apartments and pay people to do most everything for them. These celebrities can afford to be idealistic and fight for ideals that can't work. They can talk about raising taxes, after all, they can't spend all the money they already have, demand rehabilitation for drug addicts, after all, the only drug addicts they actually deal with are other celebrities, rage against nuclear power plants and new oil drilling, after all they can afford to pay their electric and gas bills, no matter how expensive they are, fight for the rights of criminals and gun control, after all, they have bodyguards, many of whom are armed, and expensive security systems, to protect them so why should they worry about a storeowner who has been robbed three or four times or a woman who is raped and killed in her home. Most of these celebrities mean well, they just don't know what it is like to live in the real world. Don't tell me that many of these same celebrities had bad or poor childhoods. That was then and this is now.
Celebrities that do have an idea as to what is really going on and speak out against criminals, or support the war against terrorism, or fight for cheap utilities or heaven forbid support acknowledging god or who back moderate politicians or even worse support President Bush are ridiculed and ostracized. Some, no matter how talented, even have trouble obtaining work. Michael Moore, produces a poorly made anti administration movie and is lionized by Hollywood while Mel Gibson makes a well made movie about Christ and is ridiculed and put down by Hollywood. The fact that the people greatly prefered Gibson's movie didn't matter to Hollywood.
I am a slightly conservative moderate with many slightly liberal beliefs, however the far left is pushing me more and more to the right. I used to believe that you should vote for the person not the party. Now I am forced to vote straight Republican because I can't trust any Democrat to stand up to the far left. I like Joe Lieberman but would not vote for him because the odds are that the far left will eventually push him out of office or force him to support them. I disliked and never trusted President Nixon but today I would have to vote for him rather than any Democrat. I consider President Kennedy to be one of our best modern Presidents but could not, today, vote for him.
Pleople say to me "What about Hillary Clinton? She is a moderate.". I say "baloney, as far as I can tell, Hillary Clinton does not believe in anything. She says and does whatever, she thinks, will get votes and help consolidate her power. I don't believe that she cares any more for this country or it's people than her husband did. If she believes that the far left can get her what she wants she will become one of their most rabid members.
The far left has hijacked the Democratic Party and they are at war with anyone and everyone who does not follow their dictates. They hide under the title 'Democrat' and claim to want to change America for the better. What they really want to do is to rule this country and make it over into their own image. They want us to be free to do what they think is best, not what we think is best. They believe that the end justifies the means and in order to gain their rule they will lie, cheat, support our enemies, spend whatever amount of money they have to and do anything else that may help them.
As far as the far left is concerned, their biggest enemy, at this time, is President Bush. They hate him and fear him, so they are doing everthing they can in order to ruin him. They blame him for everthing that has gone wrong in the world. Their celebrity spokespeople have people believing that the problems caused by hurricane Katrina are all his administration's fault. The fact that, both the Democratic Mayor of New Orleans and the Democratic Governor of Louisiana were extremely slow to act in calling in the Federal Government doesn't matter, the fact that it appears that several crooked politicians spent money given to them, prior to the hurricane, for levy repairs, on themselves, doesn't matter, the fact that the people of New Orleans never bothered to prepare themselves for a category 5 hurricane, doesn't matter. All that matters is if they keep telling everyone that it's the President's fault, pretty soon everyone will believe it. People like Jay Leno, David Letterman and other celebrities and comedians constantly joke about how stupid the President is. The fact that he was smart enough to earn a university and a post graduate degree, doesn't matter, thefact that he was smart enough to become Governor of Texas, doesn't matter, the fact that he was smart enough to become President of the United States doesnt matter, the fact that he was smart enough to marry Laura Bush, doesn't matter. All that matters is that Leno and Letterman joke about his being stupid, therefore he must be stupid (This country has elected many Presidents that may have done a bad job at running this country but, I don't believe that we have ever elected a stupid President, and if we did elect a stupid President, doesn't that make us stupid for doing so.). I could list numerous other examples but this article is already to long, so I won't.
The citizens of this country better wake up and start fighting back or soon we will no longer be a two party system or have a democratic republican form of government. We will have one Party, the far left, and they will rule us. They will be telling us what to think, when to think it and how to think it. I don't know about you, but I like my freedom. I want a country with liberals, moderates and conservatives. I want to have a choice in who to vote for. I want to be able to think for myself. I don't want to be ruled by the far left anymore than I want to be ruled by the far right. I want a country that represents everyone, a country that is "one country, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all".

America: Police State Incorporated

America: Police State Incorporated


Dedication...
To my street crew...
Jeff Stewart, Pockets, Humble, Twitch, Stray, Skittles, Bear, Beast, and Johnny and Heather...
Introduction
Unlike many of my other works, this piece is not about theory or ideology. It does not discuss evidence, or reasoning, or logic, as to the ideas that I believe about society. Rather, it is a confession, of the things I have witnessed, as I was a homeless person. There is some discussion of ideology and beliefs in the following pages. But, it must be understood that the topic of this paper is what I had personally witnessed while being homeless. The location of this was in southern Louisiana, in and around New Orleans (other towns include Metairie and Gretna). The time frame of this is December to March, including Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday"). And now, I tell my story...
My Time on the Streets
When a person becomes homeless, their relation to society is entirely changed. I had once been siting on the sidewalk, with my friends who themselves were asking for change, and a person comes up and gives them a plastic compass, remarking, "Here, this is so you can get some direction in your life." The homeless themselves are a divided class. Among them, there are gutter punks (the class I belonged to), who were renowned for their particular taste of violence, sex, and alcohol. Gutter punks tended to be younger, but could range in age from 12 to age 50, and probably much older. Among the gutter punks, there were even more divisions, including street kids, street punks, and peace punks (sometimes called "Crass Kids," because that is one of the prominent bands of all peace punks). Street kids are just young homeless people. Street punks are street kids who like punk. And peace punks are anti-war, anti-America, Communist and Anarchist. Gutter punks typically had an image which society has portrayed as "violent." We had mohawks (often times spiked and dyed), leather jackets with studs in them, and boots that went up to our knees. Then there was the typical bum, or "home bum," who carried around an amount of property twice his own weight. That was one essential difference between the homebums and the gutter punks: the first sometimes never made the whole transition frome homed to homeless. Since we are homeless, there must be an understanding, that there is no place to put your property. Thus, those who have more property, must carry it, it becoming a burden to them. Essentially, those who have a limited amount of property, will be most comfortable in the homeless lifestyle. If we gutter punks ever carried anything more than the clothes on our own back, it was a bagpack that had a sleeping bag attached to the bottom of it.
It was walking down Gov Nicholls street in the French Quarter of New Orleans that I realized there was a true comradery among the homeless, the comradery typically being stronger among the home bums. I was walking with my friend Humble (and it must be understood, that almost all homeless people go by a nickname). After successfully shoplifting food from a Walgreens, he told me, "That's what I believe. Steal from the companies. Give to the people." And so that was our routine. I remember once, a truck came up to a restaurant, depositing two enormous bags of fresh bread and leaving it on the door. My friends and I grabbed the bags and took off. Since we had such a great surplus of subsistence, we immediately spread it out. Every homebum and gutter punk we came to, we gave them a great amount of bread. Even when we were walking through the ghettos to our squat, we gave bread to everyone we saw. The elderly African folk, sitting on their porches, their eyes probably having seen more conflict that I could imagine... they seemed old and tired, and we hoped that the bread we gave them would help give them the strength to dream again. It may seem odd to someone who is not homeless, how this may happen, how these transactions may occur. But, as we were walking down the street, one of us would notice a person living in poverty, and we would say, "Hey, you want some bread, brother?" They would smile and obligingly take some. I remember that day that we stole that bread from the restaurant. It was a good day, and food was had for the starving masses.
That was one thing about us in the ghetto though. Almost everyone in the ghetto was African in descent, and almost everyone there was working a shitty $5.35 job at some tourist store, just so that someone can take a plane to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and pay fucking $50 for a piece of shit tourist product, that initially cost $2.50 to make. And every single one of them shared a two bedroom apartment with six individuals, if they happened to be lucky. Once I was invited to an apartment, to spend the night, and I was the fifth person sharing a single bed. I have seen, on occasion, 10 to 15 individuals sharing a "sleeping room," a single room which is approximately 10 feet long by 6 feet wide. It has a bed, and maybe a cupboard, depending on the particular sleeping room. You open the door, and there's your bed. Hence the term "sleeping room." Of course, the incident of 15 people sharing one of these rooms is an exception. The rule would be closer to 4 to 6 people sharing this room, as I have seen in numerous cases, including children as young as 10 years old. For the Africans who lived in the ghetto, maybe they weren't working at the local tourist shop, convincing foreigners to fork over an unreasonable amount of money for something that has no value. Maybe they weren't in the French Market, selling wooden chopsticks for $8 a pair. Maybe the were washing dishes for $3 an hour under the table, because their employer refused to hire them otherwise. Maybe they were holding a fucking sign that said, "Buy Furniture At Joe's!" on the freeway, convincing baby boomers to take that next exit to the Furniture Heaven.
There was indeed a certain prejudice between the blacks and the whites of the south. The ghetto may have contained one white person for every one hundred blacks. This I can confirm, from the various ghettos that we traveled to and about. Sometimes Africans were hateful towards Caucasions, because they could tell that they were getting a bitter deal. On the other hand, there were many Africans who didn't care and were brotherly and fair with all they had met. But, to those Africans who were vengeful towards whites, for any past aggressions that may have been incurred, among 100 of them, fewer than 5 would still hold aggressions towards the gutter punks. The reasons for this are easy to decipher... Gutter punks were homeless. We were poor, probably a thousand times poorer than any African in the ghetto. We got fucked by the system, too. They didn't look to us suspiciously, because they knew who we were, what we wanted, and what we were looking for.
Why were we in the ghetto? For the most part, we went to the ghetto to get in a squat -- an abandoned building which we would retire to sleep in once we had become tired and drunk enough. I remember those cold nights, the wind whipping at my back, as I clenched my trench coat over my body, marching to get to that abandoned building, where I may sleep... And I remember what everyone had said about walking in the ghetto at night. "You'll get robbed, raped, and killed, and not in that order." It didn't matter to a gutter punk, ever. Because violence to us was its own reward. I never held this personal view, but it was something I had to deal with if it arrose. And, I confess, there were some instances where I would have engaged in violence, but I refused to, on account of my rationalization of Pacifism and peace. When walking through these ghettos, I could not help but remember pictures of the Warsaw Ghetto. These people have no means to leave, except to become homeless. Worse of all, probably their greatest problem may be drug addiction. Walking down the street, one is liable to see at least one syringe on the ground for every block. Crack users/dealers typically hold their $10, 2-minute piece of heaven in their mouth. There is also a tactic among crackheads on obtaining items, that involves smacking someone in the hand, and capturing what they drop -- this works typically with money or drugs. That is why crackheads hold crack in their mouth. And, if cops are to obtain them, they swallow it.
Squats... Apply whatever romantic idea to it you want that you got from literature, but there's nothing enjoyable about sleeping on shards of broken glass, because if you slept on the pavement, you would be arrested. There's nothing appealing about the idea of climbing onto the roof of a building, and smashing the window so that you can gain access, your heart pumping a thousand miles an hour, listening intently for sirens so that you can know when to run, so you can know that you failed. There's no happiness, when the temperature goes down to 17 degrees, and all you have is the clothes on your back and walls to stop the wind. I have, on occassion, laid on the wooden floor of a squat, in a ball, trying to capture that fleeting mystic hope of sleep... and I would reach to pull on my clothes, and as I touched my skin, I would feel the damp coldness of my own flesh. I would ignore it, because it didn't matter. Not to anyone else, anyway. And that is one aspect that is completely destroyed from the psychology of a street person -- you never get depressed, no matter how shitty things get, unless you have a reason to be depressed. And homelessness is certainly no reason.
There seemed to be a semi-friendly atmosphere among gutter punks. They would share among each other the location of squats, how to get into them. There also seemed to be the secret code among all gutter punks, the word "oi!" Upon entering a suspected squat, yell out "oi!" If you hear it back, then it's a squat with squatters. There are also unspoken rules among squatters. For instance, if you find an abandoned building, and someone is squatting there, and they don't want you there, you have to leave. Why is this? Because the streets tend to be a violent place. I am not denying that gutter punks could be violent. On the contrary, many of them indulged in violence, the way a person may indulge in drug use. So, there is an understanding between gutter punks. Without knowing anything about another gutter punk, you know this one fact: they could pull out a knife or a baton, and hurt you physically in a matter of 15 seconds, so to those who one is not acquianted with, they usually prefer a distance -- at least, when you're in the place that your sleeping. Plus, squat sizes are preferred to be small. No more than six people at most. The reason for this is to keep the noise to an absolute minimum. In the Diary of Anne Frank, for instance, the family that was hiding from the Jews had to keep absolutely quiet during the day. For us, there was another rule: never go to your squat until dark, and leave once the sun rises. Cops and police officers raid squats only during the day time, unless there is too much noise or disturbance at one.
That brings us to the greatest conflict of every homeless person: the law. It may have been ably stated by every writer of the past millenium, that the law exists not to end crime, but to persecute the poor and elevate the rich. There are laws, on the lawbooks of this date, which a person can be arrested for, including: Obstruction of a Public Passage, Intent to Impersonate a Sidewalk, Leaning with Intent to Fall, Obstruction of the Flight Path of a Pigeon, Begging, Vagrancy (not having photo identification on you), Transience (not having a home), Disrespecting a Police Officer, Disorderly Conduct, Disturbing the Peace, Obstruction of the Due Process of Law, the list goes on, with a law existing that prohibits almost every erroneous activity. At the height of this police state, we find the crime of Vagrancy, that it is illegal to not have either money (which will be quickly appropriated by any investigating officer) or photo ID, which shows shades of 1984 and F451. The police do not arrest people on violating these crimes. That is the popular misconception of the rule. If you walk on the sidewalk, you are fulfilling the requirements for the crime of "Obstruction of a Public Passage." I have personally seen people arrested for this crime. I have been told from a friend, that when he was walking down the street in Oklahoma City, the police stopped him and asked him if he had any sharp objects on him, before arresting him. As you can tell, any person who uses the sidewalk is effectively breaking the law. It would be too obvious if the law were to make it illegal to breath air, but that is essentially what it is implying: that they may arrest you, and imprison you, for terms of years of the aforementioned crimes. What is it then that the police do? They make "sweeps," going from street to street, sometimes with vans, arresting as many homeless people as they can, on the before mentioned charges. Those who are committing the same crimes, but are not homeless, are not questioned. The prerequisite of being homeless or homed tends to be the clothes you wear. Gutter punks and homebums stand out.
When I was arrested, it was perhaps the most horrific experience of my entire life. I can compare it with nothing else. They took me, fingerprinted me, booked me, and then threw me in a holding cell. In here, I was standing with about thirty others, at least 95% of them black, and 20% of them enduring through a psychotic episode (those who are diagnosed by a psychiatrist for mental disorders are often withheld their medication for a period of time up to months). The room itself was about twice the size of a sleeping room, and proportionately to the amount of people, it was smaller. There was not enough room for everyone to sit down -- which reminded me of the descriptions of conditions on slave ships. I was in this room for a total of 13 hours straight, of which we were once fed soggy, tunafish sandwiches. I had been accustomed to, at this point, eating dumpster food. And even this prison food was comparatively inedible. Finally, we were thrown in our cells, and awaiting to see the judge. Here, in prison, we waited, under the greatest hypocrisy known to us. INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY! Fucking tell that to my face when I was sitting in a jail cell with nothing but the accusation of a cop who likes to beat up children. In jail, I did not personally see anyone beaten by a cop. I had seen, however, a cop do an inspection of the Holding Cell, and a suspect started cussing him out. He said, "Get the fuck out of here, you motherfucking pig!" The cop responded, "Asshole... You wait until night time comes and you're behind those prison bars," waving his baton. The cop would leave. A minute would pass, and another cop would call out that same inmate. Thirty minutes would pass till we see him again. He was limping. Nobody else seemed to really notice, but it wasn't that. It was just so common, so obvious, so typical of every cop, that it's not even a shock anymore. The cops don't exist to protect and serve. They are the American gestapo, persecuting, beating, arresting, beating, raping. They spend years learning to attack and kill people, and then they are given free reign over the life and liberty of every person in society.
Why do they arrest us? The answer is obvious to any homeless person. We are arrested because we make the city ugly. Especially in such a tourist trap town as New Orleans, we are jailed up by police officers because we make the city ugly. I can easily prove this. Around Christmas (when I was arrested) and Mardi Gras, as well as New Years or any other tourist time, arrests will jump by at least 10 times. I have seen, in jail, up to four or five people, sharing a single cell that was built for only two. There have also been homeless people to freeze to death in jail. This cannot be so hard to believe. Since the walls are made of stone, there's a typical coldness to it all. And since you are never given a blanket (though there's a 50% chance you'll find something resembling a blanket in your cell), it can be easy to see how someone would freeze to death in prison. So, this one goes out to a downed comrade: RIP "Cornbread." It was too cold that night, he was in HOD (House of Detention) on the top floor, where it was the coldest, and they found him stiff the next morning.
My friend, Bear, was arrested by the police for Aggrivated Assault, because he attacked someone with a knife. I called the police department, and asked about him. He had to serve 45 to 60 days before he would see a judge. Two fucking months, with nothing but an accusation. But, only two weeks would pass, and I would see him on the street again. They had released him early, because the prison was too packed with people who had committed crimes like, "Obstruction of a Public Passage," and the "The First Amendment Doesn't Really Exist/Disrespecting a Police Officer." When I was arrested, I was not read my rights. All I heard was, "If you try to run, I will shoot and kill you." All I saw was a gun pointing in my face. Nobody saw a lawyer. In fact, the idea that you get to see a lawyer is absolute fucking bullshit. If you plead not guilty to any crime, you must automatically serve 21 days in prison, so that a trial can be set up. The crime, however, of "Criminal Trespassing," carries with it only 10 days. If you plead guilty, you serve 10 days. If you plead not guilty, you serve 21 days. If you can make bail, that's great. You don't have to serve 21 days. But what does this reconfirm? The law exists for the rich, and not for the poor. If you think that a homeless person can make a $5000, think again. And, even after those 21 days, if you fail to prove you're innocent, and you ask for "Time Served" -- which means those 21 days of waiting for trial will be deducted from your sentence -- there's a good chance you'll be denied it. So, those days you spent in prison, not convicted of anything, outweigh however long you'll spend in prison, for the actual sentence. And it is the job of the police to snatch up as many people as they can on the streets. When I was waiting to see the judge so I could give a plea, a seven day waiting period, I had seen people leave and reenter the prison system. "You were here when I was released, and you still haven't talked to the judge?" one home bum would ask me, as I saw him again on the inside. I saw one person say to the judge, "But I was never read my rights," and the judge responded, "When you had cuffs put on, you should have been able to tell you were being arrested." And finally, when before the judge, he asks you two questions, "Do you have a job or are you in school? Do you have a home?" That is all he needs to know before he gives you a sentence.
I remember after my trial, we had all been lined up. One of the guards decided it was her duty to lecture us. "You're all a garbage," she said, "You all need to get a job and learn to respect yourselves. I can't even stand to look at you. You all need to start paying taxes and stop stealing. You're just making it harder on everyone else." I didn't say anything. I "knew my place," as they might say, but this only translates to: if you voice your opinion, you won't be breathing after five minutes of their reaction. An Anarcho-Communist doesn't last long in jail, when he makes his opinions prevalent. If I said, "Maybe we wouldn't be stealing if we were paid a living wage," I could guarantee you that I would have more scars to show you than I do now. Asside from all that, the most dissapointing fact about prison was that when I asked if there was a prison library, I was given some Christian propaganda. I was hoping for some Thomas Paine at least. I remember my friend Humble getting arrested. He saw his two friends arrested, so he gave each of them a cigarette while they were in cuffs. As he was walking away, he was grabbed by a cop and arrested. But what crime could he possibly commit? Simple: Obstruction of a Public Passage, Begging, and Vagrancy. After all, giving cigarettes to your friend ought to be a felony offense. If you can't see the obvious nature of that, try telling that to the next cop you see, and then spend the next 6,000 hours in jail wishing that the First Amendment actually meant something. I had seen friends driving the most beat up pickup truck, with the words "FUCK THE POLICE" spray-painted on the side. They had been stopped three times in as many miles, until they were arrested.
Shoplifting became my trade. It was how I acquired the name "Robin Hood." It seemed to be rather romantic in itself, if everything else was wretched. Every day, I would go to a Walgreens or a grocery store, and steal, ripoff, five finger discount, shoplift, whatever the fuck you want to call it. Then I would go throughout the city, distributing food to the poor families. My attitude was, "I did it yesterday, I did it today, and I can know when I wake up tomorrow, I'll be doing it again." But sometimes, it was too hard. I remember walking out of the door of a store, and hearing the alarm, and then just bolting down the street, running as fast as I possibly could. I remember running from the cops with my street brother Pockets. It was me, him, and his dog. We ran zig-zagging blocks, the only way that you can possibly escape from the police. And we got away. I remember having to run from mounted police. The only thing I could do was run into a crowd and disappear as best as I possibly could. I remember my friend Johnny. He ran from cops when some squatters in their tents were busted. As the cops moved in, all of the squatters ran. Never in your life had you seen so many people running from cops, struggling to be free, and often times being beaten in the face with a baton, as I had seen. That is what it's like no the streets of America. Screaming "stop hitting me!" to the police officer who is smashing your face, and then getting a Disturbing the Peace charge because of it. Maybe it was because in Maine, thousands of dairy farmers dumped milk into the ground, just to raise the price of all dairy products, of which we still couldn't afford at the moment. Not to mention that my friend Pockets or Humble or Twitch may have been working at $5 a day (the going rate for a homeless person) delivering or producing that milk, only so that they can starve to the point where they have to steal food to feed themselves and their family. And then they can go to jail, and serve two months in prison, the way my friend George served for stealing two cans of soda, and you can't show the judge any records of employment, because you won't be hired unless you will be paid under the table. None of this, which, the police give a shit about, because they're making a bonus on EVERY ARREST -- legal and illegal -- that they get, so to them it's a matter of spotting someone who has no financial means of defending themselves in court, so the homeless are the primary target. Meanwhile, my other friends are paid minimum wage so they can build a statue of the mayor on the waterfront, and so that they can go home at night to an overcrowded apartment with maybe rice or peanutbutter as their only food.
Earlier, when I talked about myself and Pockets running from the cops, he told me later that he considered letting the dog loose. Why is this? Police are notorious for killing pets and dogs that belong to homeless people. There is, in actuality, no real penalty incurred upon them for doing this. Since it's not a human being, they reason, it has no rights. I have, personally, seen dogs shot by cops. It is an old pasttime of police officers to burn down squats, or to shoot up squats. I remember seeing one dog who had been shot by a police officer. There was an entry wound in the chest and an exit wound on the side. It had never seen anything so tragic, so terrible... Fortunately, there was a veterinarian in New Orleans who took care of the animals of homeless people free of charge mostly. His name was Dr. Mike, and he set up shop on North Rampart. How is it, one may inquire, that the poorest of the poor, can obtain and sustain animals? Mostly, these dogs are better fed than their masters. I remember Pockets describing the two dogs that he had owned. "It's gonna be 20 fucking degrees man, but I'll have one dog on my chest and one dog on my legs, and we'll keep each other warm," he told me. Pockets was a Humanitarian. Both of his dogs he had found running loose in the ghetto, without a collar or a leash. He had taken them to the vet, though, and registered them, and paying for shots and vaccination -- all with money that he had obtained through spanging, or asking people for spare change. I remember a middle class man threatening us to get out of the dog park, because he didn't like homeless people -- and after all, who the fuck would? He threatened to tell the police that Pockets knowingly had a dog on Rabis and that the dog had to be killed. Of course, Pockets carried the vaccination proof on him at all times. Though he seemed to lose everything else, he never lost that. But the cop would have no problem with shooting the dogs, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised for shit if that was part of the job description: "Must aid in the liquidation of all animals, human and non-human." My friend Humble had a kitten, who was adoringly named "squat," who he had found homeless in a junk yard, much like another friend had obtained a gerbil, still in its cage, in the dumpster.
Many gutter punks and homeless people, including the home bums, are all politically minded. I had heard one of them talking to another, "Yeah, I was arrested with my girlfirend for sleeping in the park," -- "Yeah, that's because it's tourist season, and you look bad for the industry," -- "And the fucked part is that I fucking live here. They throw my ass in jail so that someone from two thousand fucking miles away can spend their money." They may have lacked the language that had been used by every poet and writer of the past centuries, but what they had was what no philosopher or statesmen could possibly have discovered. Everywhere I went, I saw the words, "FIGHT WAR NOT WARS" and "DESTROY POWER NOT PEOPLE." These were slogans inscribed by peace punks. The last thing I remember writing on a wall with a sharpie in New Orleans was, "They drop fire on people, but they won't let them write 'fuck' on their airplanes, because it is obscene!" A classic quote from "Apocalypse Now," and rather fitting. I remember seeing a newspaper machine, and in thick sharpie was written the word, "PROPAGANDA!!!" I remember seeing a poster that said, "It's a bigger problem than you think," and at the bottom reading, "Premature birth." But that had been scratched out, and the word "GOVERNMENT" had been placed there. Pockets was particularly fond of poetry that dealt with meaning and purpose, and was an avid reader of Kahlil Gabrahm. My friend Beast went to the free poetry slams and read his material. He had a backpack, and the only thing he kept in it was notebooks of poetry. And I remember leaving a homeless hang out, and reading on the wall, "I made a god, out of blood, not superiority, I killed the king, of deceit, raise me up, in anarchy." And they were but lyrics to the song "Anarchy," by KMFDM.
Those were my days, among the "wretched refuse" that we may be called. I wish we didn't have to face the dangers that we did, but I'm glad that at least we had each other. So, maybe we did find something that was worth eternity, even though we're the poorest class. I tried to explain it to a friend of mine. I told her... Because we had to face the danger of street life together, our bonds were all the more stronger. We did not develop a unity by some imaginary foe, the way a government may use propaganda in a war. We created a family through working together, with the constraints that we have under the present regime. We could survive through anything together, because we were as one. Take the greatest draught, the worst famine, the most horific plague, and you will find a squatter shivering, skin tightly wrapped around bone and lack of nourishment, and a diseased body, but you will find him surviving, because if there is one thing we can do, that is it. But maybe that's not entirely true. It wasn't so much that we could survive, but with what we had found, with each other, it didn't matter if we did or not... because we had something that made each day an eternity. We refused to bargain with society. We made no compromises. Even if it kills us, we will be free. And so it has killed some of us. But they are not the martyrs of freedom, so much as they are the casualties in the battle for liberty.

Socialism in the United States

Socialism in the United States


One of the reasons for the demise of the Soviet Union and other forms of communism, was because such governments opposed the private ownership of things. The government used socialism to try to control what a person could own or even hope to achieve throughout his or her life.
Initially capitalism was based on the idea that an individual can own what one desires if one chooses to work for it. Under capitalism, a hard worker can hope to prosper and control one's life in any way one chooses.
But instead of the capitalist ideal, it seems the United States of today is more socialist than ever before. Consider the following elements of current American life.
Hospital care is so high that most individual Americans cannot afford to pay for it. So they must depend on their employer ( Corporate America).
The price of colleges and other schools are out of range for most individual Americans. To send their kids to college average people depend on things like college insurance, loans, scholarships, and grants. Another words, the education of most Americans depends on the benevolence of some Corporate or Government Entity.
Most Americans can't afford property, they have to take out mortgages with Corporate Banks. If they pay off their mortgage, they still don't own their property. Taxes have become so high, that, in some cases, it costs more in taxes than if the equivalent property was rented. Whenever the government or some other corporation decides, they can condemn a person's property and have that person forcibly evicted. A new Supreme Court decision was handed down this year (2005) to make it easier for local Government Entities to legally confiscate your property for the common good (Kelo vs New London ).
Family Homes are being replaced by condominiums. This scheme allows you to "own" a unit, but you must pay for the upkeep of the common area where your unit is located.( The individual gives up control of the land his unit is on to some corporate entity. The unit cannot exist without the controlling entity. )
Most Americans can't afford to buy cars with cash, so they must take out a loan with a bank or the auto company's finance service. Years ago a person could save up and make a cash purchase of a new car, but today one can't even buy a decent used car without some form of credit.
Furniture is being rented by some people, because they can't afford to buy it. Practically all new furniture stores offer credit, because they realize most people can't afford cash purchases.
There are so many Federal, State, and Municipal laws (and the number grows every day), that just by being alive a person must be violating some law. If a government or corporate agency felt like it, an individual can be arrested at any time.
High tech tracking has made it hard to maintain your privacy. Soon everyone will be connected to the internet through DSL lines, Cable Modems, or other high speed connections. This type of media maintains connections continuously. Currently an individual can turn his computer off and disconnect from the internet even if he has DSL. The day is coming where it will be against the law to turn off a computer, TV, or any other monitoring device. Americans will be forced to listen to the ravings of Corporate Aliens during breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Independent small businesses will soon not exist. Large corporations are either wiping out, merging, or partnering with small business. Even such a basic business as farming is becoming corporate rather than family owned. Soon every business will be either a branch or a partner of a large corporation.
So how socialized is the United States of America? If it continues at this rate it will soon be called the United Socialist States of America (USSA). While dictators like Stalin were trying to force the population of the USSR into submission, the Corporate Aliens launched a quiet invasion, and little by little gained more and more control over the majority of the American people. Unlike the Soviet Union, US socialism is not totally government controlled, but it's a joint effort of both government and corporate entities. What's even worse, is that the entire world is being groomed based on similar principles.

An Alternative to Nazism

An Alternative to Nazism


This one is for Renita...
Introduction
When speaking of Nazism, and the ranks that have existed under the ideas of anti-Semitism, one typically also includes others, such as the Ku Klux Klan, White Pride militants, the "Creativity" Movement, among other groups that are of a nationalist and racialist opinion. When I speak of Nazism, I am referring to those who have a particular anti-Semitism and have organized themselves into this movement. While the original National Socialist Party by Adolf Hitler has been expunged by a coalition of Allied forces, the ideas that formed the basis of this party still exist today. Today, the anti-Semite and Nazi thoughts, converting new individuals and dissipating from older generations, have been organized into various parties. They can be found in different chapters throughout different cities, the various collectives of individuals who hope, either through propaganda or protest, to convince the rest of the white population that they are oppressed. In this piece, I am going to offer an alternative to Nazi ideology. By this, I mean I am going to justify an opposing theory, one of tolerance, rather than one of intolerance and persecution.
The Essence of Nazism
"The Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end spying on the unsuspicious German girl he plans to seduce. He wants to contaminate her blood and remove her from the bosom of her own people. The Jew hates the white race and wants to lower its cultural level so that the Jews might dominate."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1925)
The essence of Nazism is to befriend another by the color of their skin, to ostracize another because of the parents that brought them into the world; it is make allies and enemies on account of the one aspect of their life they could not control, who their parents were. The only part of life a man or woman cannot alter or change is whom their parents are, what racial background they are descended from. They may be born into the slums of poverty, the thresholds of political oppression, the bitter and unjust yolk of slavery. Yes, they may be born into some other things they cannot control, but they are still given a chance to overthrow even the most difficult obstacles; yet, as to their race, nothing they can do will change it. Asside from a man's race, how they feel about it is also what anti-Semites and Nazis will judge. A white man who befriends black or asian men and women will be called a "race traitor." Upon these two traits of character come the method of judgment: race and sentiments on the importance of race.
As to a man's intelligence, his wit, his strength, his courage, his boldness, interest in goodness and appeal to justice, Nazism offers no desire. Furthermore, it has made the statement that all good qualities can be found in the Aryan race, the white race, the "pure" race. Those desirable characteristics that have intrinsic value, the search for goodness and thoughtfulness, Nazism claims that they can be only be found within those of the Aryan race. The debased qualities, cruelty, malice, ignorance, apathy, nihilism, greed, those qualities we find in those we hate and in those who have done us wrong, Nazism has applied them to those of a different race. Those of the Jewish ethnicity, it has called them the destroyer of culture, the conspirator against equity, the enemy of the good, common people. Those who have descended from the African race have been called bruttish, ignorant, violators of women, and holding an indecent disrespect for all that is sacred. Of those whose race developed and grew in Asia, they have been called the deceivers, thieves to the good spirit of Democracy, culprits against the strength of the people. There is no doubt that these are despisable attributes; no good person will have these qualities, but will deplore them. The tenets of Nazism agree, but they have gone one step further, in accusing the non-white races of holding these attributes. The genetic characteristics are indicative of moral and personal qualities, so they have advanced.
The races of the world, as diverse as they are, representing a variety of cultures and ideas, have been targeted by the soldiers of Nazism. They have been called the ones responsible for the problems of the world. So, it is that the duty of every Nazi has been to convince the world that it is only right to fight the other races.
"The whole organization of education, and training which the People's State is to build up must take as its crowning task the work of instilling into the hearts and brains of the youth entrusted to it the racial instinct and understanding of the racial idea. No boy or girl must leave school without having attained a clear insight into the meaning of racial purity and the importance of maintaining the racial blood unadulterated. Thus the first indispensable condition for the preservation of our race will have been established and thus the future cultural progress of our people will be assured."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1925)
Does the Evidence Exist?
Can the claims that have been applied by Nazi ideology be confirmed? Of the Jewish race -- are they a particularly cruel and bitter people? I can find no evidence that supports this conclusion, and as my experience in the world grows, I am constantly observing otherwise. Baruch Spinoza, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Franz Kafka, all writers, philosophers, psychologists, scientists, were also all Jewish, either ethnically or culturally or religiously. I certainly cannot say that I agree with all the words spoken or written by these individuals, I understand that Spinoza genuinely sought out the truth, that Freud applied a new and innovating method of psychology, that Einstein's theories revolutionized physics, and that Kafka's contribution to literature was considerable. I have yet to discover a single source that attributed these figures with being merciless or thoughtless, and none either that would attribute them with these characteristics because of their ethnicity.
Of the African race -- are the White Supremacists justified in asserting that they are a barbaric and unrefined manner? In all my experience and observation, I have found that good qualities and bad qualities never develop out of one's racial background. In my travels across the United States, I have found depravity and cruelty in those of every descent, and I have found eternal comradery and brotherhood with people of every skin color. A strong sense of family and security existed among these friends of mine, and I felt safe among them, whatever race they happened to be. Whatever the differences we have, of culture or preference or background, I come nothing short of being confirmed that kinship is an emotion that knows no race. At times like those, I wondered how a Nazi could have developed their ideology. And the answer comes to me. It was from propaganda, from another person's writing, not from actual observation, but from another person, whose observation was either limited or non-existant. So it would be, that a man can find goodness, and cruelty, in every race, had he employed the philosophy of observation. Lewis Latimer, W.E.B. Dubois, Roland Hayes, and Dr. Charles Richard Drew are all African in descent, but have contributed towards society in remarkable ways. Latimer pioneered the electrical and lightbulb industry, working with Edison. W.E.B. Dubois was a scholar and a visionary. Roland Hayes was a composer and an artist to life. Dr. Charles Richard Drew offered the knowledge of blood preservation and tranfusions, his work saving hundreds of millions of lives. In my understanding of the character of these men, I have found nothing to persuade me that they were of a corrupt or degenerate nature, nothing to convince me that they were particularly brutal or thoughtless.
Those who have descended from the Asian peoples -- is it justified that the National Socialist Party opposed them, their culture, and their rights and liberty? The Nazi followers have argued that the races coming from the continent of Asia are greedy, brutal, and hold no consideration for others. Those with racialist attitudes will hold distrust and animosity towards others based on their appearance, and so it is, that the Nazi movement has made an enemy out of the world's peoples. As I explained before, the attitudes a Nazi develops towards these other races is because of propaganda, because social attitudes that he was imbedded with. But to these claims, are they just? Was Lao Tzu thoughtless, careless with his observations, merciless? What of Sidartha Gautama or Confucius? It was the imperative of all of these philosophers to develop a method of society and living that would minimize suffering, not only of humans, but of all life. With millions of followers for every one of these philosophies, it can hardly be argued that these people are of a debased, inhumane nature. But then again, the fact that there are millions to serve in murder and execution squads, during the revolutions and counter-revolutions across Asia, the various religious wars between the different groups -- it proves just what I have asserted: that good and bad qualities can be found in all, despite racial background. One's parents do not determine the moral qualities of the offspring. Experience, observation, and demonstration prove that beyond a doubt.
I contend this... That no civilization was brought to rubble because of the loss of a "pure race," that no person is of a heartless or mindless character because of their ethnic background; the love of a person does not change because of the color of their skin, the pain and misery of an individual are not less or more because of heritage -- a treacher, brutal act is not pardoned or explained by the criminal's background; a beautiful, merciful act is not less poetic or less sincere because of the one reason that Nazis have applied. Every person is different in all sorts of ways, but physical appearance does not determine the moral sentiments, the mental strength, the kindness or villany of a person -- only actions do.
An Alternative
There is never a vice so destructive, that alternatives can't be found -- no act so merciless, that a change of heart and ammends are impossible. To Nazism, I state that the alternative exists. To those who have sided with the Nazi regime, the White Power and White Pride movement, the Ku Klux Klan, those who have emboddied Racist ideals, I offer them an alternative: to throw off the shackles of cultural prejudice and discrimination, and to adhere to justice, goodness, and charity among all living people. To walk with the knowledge that it is an act of duty to liberate the oppressed, not to walk with the lie that the white race is superior. To understand, inspire, hope, with a passion for improving the lives of all people. To allievate poverty, to end misery, to fight hunger, to do all that can be done to help the lives of all people, no matter what skin color they have.
The Anti-War sentiment, to live with the wisdom that killing people and destorying cities is but the epitome of barbarism. To believe that war is wrong is to affirm the very basic tenet of Humanitarianism: that to live by rapine and mayhem, to make your living off the pain and misery of others, is but the greatest injustice.
The Anarchist position... To understand and act, so that everyone's personal liberty is respected, that everyone is granted their right to opinion, through speech and thought. To hold that all political decision-making ability belongs to the people and the people alone, that military suppression of the population is a violation of truth and justice -- that is Anarchism.
Among all the alternatives that one could pose to the ideology of Nazism, there is one that stands out among the rest... To stand with the strength, the boldness, the courage, and oppose all forms of Racism and Sexism. To affirm to yourself that no man is made better or worse by his race, that no person should be denied freedom or rights because of their gender, and to stand by this and fight for it is a sign of goodness in character, an personal omen of genuine affection for the condition of mankind. The alternatives exist and I have presented them. To those who hold a grudge against the races of the planet, they must now show that they are strong enough to change.
"No League of Nations, or of individuals, can avail, without a change of heart. Reformers of all classes must recognize that it is useless to preach peace by itself, or socialism by itself, or anti-vivisection by itself, or vegetarianism by itself, or kindness to animals by itself. The cause of each and all of the evils that afflict the world is the same the general lack of humanity, the lack of the knowledge that all sentient life is akin, and that he who injures a fellow-being is in fact doing injury to himself. The prospects of a happier society are wrapped up in this despised and neglected truth, the very statement of which, at the present time, must (I well know) appear ridiculous to the accepted instructors of the people."
-- Henry Stephens-Shakespeare Salt, The Savour of Salt: A Henry Salt Anthology
Ignorance never set anyone free...