rabble rousers of the month :: november

first off, let’s make sure hollycassiano and tony rohr get their ust mention as rabble rouser nominees. holly is manager of a sears branch in new hampshire who refused to open her store on new year’s eve, despite sears mandating that she do so.  tony had a similar case as manager of pizza hut. however, in this case, the eleven year employee was axed for standing up for his workers.   as honorable as the actions are, or at least seem at surface level, the debate this month becomes more broad than getting into yet another rights vs reason debate regarding the idiocy of holiday shopping.  i support people having choice ove their lives, customers and employees both.  if a manager wants to open a store on a day like thanksgiving, they shouldn’t expect more work to get done than they themselves get done. nonetheless, participating in the argument is the same as participating in the shopping. it only provides more drama for people to be attracted to. there are huge fish to fry, but secondly…let’s not forget to mention runner-up

cameron rodriguez.  this dude hit a promotional half court shot at a okalhoma city thunder game and won $20,000.  problem in this scenario is that rodriguez is a sophmore guard for southwestern university.  the NAIA school (in fact, their ladies team lost to EOU ladies in the first round of march madness) has petitioned the league for an exception after rodriguez was basically asked to not accept the money or lose eligibility for a couple of years.  I don’t want to get carried away with the reasonableness of most rules that exist.  rodriguez’ making money from that shot had no coorelation with his integrity as a player or student.  let the kid have fun while he's still a kid for the love of god.  but the more impressive part was that rodriguez has no problem letting go of the money. from his espn chat, “in my eyes, it’s just money,” said rodriguez, who receives a partial scholarship that offsets some of the cost of his tuition. “i know i’m a college kid who can use some help, but my love for basketball and my passion for the sport – it’s worth more to me than $20,000.”   rodriguez has asked that the money be given to him either in the form of scholarship reduction or as a contribution to non-profits. in effect, he is not asking for the money. he doesn't care about the money. he wants to go to college and play basketball while his body is still “cooperative” and make $20,000 later.  after this, rodriguez met with his teammates and hit four in a row from half court!

the winner... 
John Moffitt

just a football type guy it would seem. played two years for seattle seahawks, traded to denver broncos in august.  going from one super bowl contender to another and with up to $1 million on the table thru next season, moffitt quit his job on november 5.  he wants to grow his own food.  he also chastised corporate america and the NFL for being about profits over people.  moffitt majored in sociology at wisconsin, which shows in quotes like this, "i like higher ideas and higher thoughts, and i think that's not promoted enough. how much do you really value intelligence when as a society you continue to do unintelligent things?"

the runner up... myself and three others voted for, but not enough to help...

Loraine Cook 
 pocatello high school teacher/girl's basketball coach was fired for being "immoral" after posting a picture on facebook of her and her boyfriend on a boat this summer in which he has his hand on her breast. turns out that her boyfriend also works for the school. he has been the football coach since 1981, won 10 state championships and is in the idaho high school football hall of fame. he was only "reprimanded" but kept his job. um, double standards there at all pocatello school district?

apparently, this is an immoral act and a more conservative person wouldn’t post such a tantalizing photo and all such pre-requisite background thought that the school district seems to take to heart.  not saying there is nothing to any of that, but it’s not a discussion i am willing to spend my time on. the point is, she was fired for this “immoral” act. whatever, each culture has to decide their own mores.  but…her boyfriend was also a teacher at the school. not just any teacher, but the football coach who was very successful a long time ago. he was merely “reprimanded” for his role in being the lascivious breast grabber.  this is where the culture apparently cannot decide their own mores because it is a sexist, double-standard.  if it’s wrong to hold someone’s breast, then punish the person who did the act, not the person who posted the photo.  or at least give them equal treatment, if your society values equality.  if not, hand out the punishments you feel are fair, just expect some backlash by people that DO value equality.  here's survey from the idaho state journal: no reason to fire.

5 new rabble rouser hall of fame members !!

november is native american heritage month!

on thanksgiving, during native american heritage month, i realize that there are no native americans in the rabble rouser hall of fame. well, now there shall be. three members of the lakota band, past and present. 

leonard peltier  (1944 – present)

shepard fairey illustration (obey giant, copyright)

leonard peltier has been imprisoned on bullsh*t charges by power tripping white men for longer than i have been alive. if they can give some reprieve to the angola three, why not leonard peltier?  he did less wrong after all.  in fact, i am not sure peltier ever did anything wrong.  he did publish one stellar book of essays and memoirs, “prison writings: my life is my sundance” in 1997.

peltier lived in seattle in the 1960s as an auto repair shop owner.  in seattle, he became involved activism and joine the american indian movement (AIM). peltier traveled, at times, to the pine ridge reservation as a peace liaison between oglala separatists (GOONS).  he always seemed to have a federal case nipping at his heels, keeping him on the move.  

two FBI agents arrived at a ranch in unmarked cars in june of 1975 (99 years and 1 day after sitting bull defeated custer at little big horn). there was a quick shootout that left the two agents and one tribal member dead.  within moments, over 150 agents, cops and GOONS had the ranch surrounded.  (the death of native joseph stuntz has never been investigated and no arrest made.)  peltier fled to canada after the murder of the agents. ultimately, one of the more scandalously handled trials of the 20^th century featured no evidence ever showing peltier specifically involved in the killing of the agents.  however, there was much evidence of FBI agents terrorizing the reservation, creating tension in the years following a 71-day standoff at wounded knee in 1973. the oglala GOONS were fighting a civil war of sorts to rid the reservation of AIM members. the FBI aided the GOONS and disregarded the violence they committed and even supplied intelligence and ammunition. this added to the fears of why the natives of the reservation asked people like peltier for protection. 

in 1977, peltier was convicted to two life sentences and has ever since been the subject of a heated debate.  he has received support from as high as the dalai lama, to amnesty international and archbishop desmond tutu.  some have referred to peltier as “america's mandela.”  peltier was the presidential candidate for the peace and freedom party in 2004, only on the ballot in california, receiving 27,000 votes.  his next parole hearing will be in 2024, when he will be 80 years old. 

sitting bull (1831-1890)

photo: david francis barry, ca. 1885

a lakota holy chief during some especially turbulent years of indian resistance to u.s. government. northern indians suffered a loss of independence as well as depletion of buffalo and other survival resources in the harsh winters.  sitting bull had a vision prior to and then carried out the defeat of general george custer at the battle of little big horn, just before the nation's 100th anniversary in 1876. sitting bull fought with the oglala lakota leader red cloud in guerilla attacks of small forts through out the dakotas and montana.  three years in a row, sitting bull's forces turned back railway companies bringing militias in vigorous standoffs for the point of imposing their routes/tracks on other's lands. the panic of 1873 delayed the exploitation for a bit while prospectors sought fortunes in the california gold rush.  however, general custer soon came looking for gold in them thar black hills. the battle of little big horn was a brutal defeat for the white man, and for safety sake sitting bull and his followers retreated to canada.  he had a short time in canada doing some diplomacy to mend divides in bands of native indians of canada and the united states.  upon returning to the states, in sitting bull's later life, he was a very popular figure traveling in buffalo bill's wild west show.  during that time, legend holds that he adopted annie oakley as a daughter.  because sitting bull was such an influential figure, the government feared he would give unwanted support to the ghost dance religious movement (which seems to have lead to the wounded knee massacre of 1890). his arrest was ordered, which he defied, and there was an unclear incident in the botched arrest in which sitting bull was shot in the back and then the head by two indian policemen at his standing rock reservation in south dakota on december 15, 1890. 

crazy horse (1840-1877)

an oglala-lakota contemporary of sitting bull, crazy horse fought off u.s. imperialism to protect lakota people and lands.  he played an instrumental part in the defeat of general custer at little big horn. he joined with cheyenne leader little wolf in the battle of the hundred in the hand and thoroughly annihilated captain william fetterman's army.  all accounts tell of crazy being a brave and fierce warrior who never took a hit from an enemy. until the next year when he was fatally shot in a botched arrest (as sitting bull would later have suspisiously happen to him). 

the name crazy horse came from a vision quest he had in the black hills where he saw his horse dancing crazily.  crazy horse was a rogue outlaw in the sense that he broke away to live the old way of life while other bands were adopting the white ways.  author chris hedges stated,  “his ferocity of spirit remains a guiding light for all who seek lives of defiance.”  even in death, crazy horse remains controversial.  to the dismay of many natives even, the crazy horse memorial, in the style of mount rushmore, when finished, will be the biggest statue of a human anywhere in the world. 

purported picture of crazy horse, though it has been said there are were never any photographs taken of him.

black pantherism...

kid yoshida may be too much of a feminist to care for a lot of the black panther philosophies, but nonetheless many of the panthers carried a thought process and motivation to keep the currents of world history changing at the most opportune time.

stokely carmichael (1941 – 1998)  

november 15 marked the 15^th anniversary of the death of stokely carmichael. (this past may marked the 15^th anniversary of the death of eldridge cleaver – see below). born in trinidad and tobago, carmichael immigrated to the united state at age 11.  he didn’t believe in the american dream from a young age, later stating, “my old man believed in this hard work and overtime stuff.  he was religious, never lied, never cheated or stole.  he did carpentry all day and drove taxis all night.  the next thing that came to that poor black man was death, from working too hard.  and he was only in his 40s.”

after rejecting scholarships offers from white universities, carmichael graduated with a philosophy degree from howard university in washington dc.  in the “freedom summer” 1964, carmichael first joined the black panthers as a member of the student nonviolent coordinating committee (SNCC) rising to the rank of chairman and became immersed in the civil rights movement as a freedom rider. influenced by the sit-in movements, he joined the congress of racial equality (CORE) and began picketing and traveling to sit ins.  he also helped register black voters in alabama, increasing their numbers to higher than the total of white voters.

carmichael spent time at parchman farm for “disturbing the peace” with a group of others by trying to integrate the dining car of a train.  after one of his many arrests, he famously stated “we been saying ‘freedom’ for six years.  what we are going to start saying now is “black power!”   a chant erupted, the phrase stuck and he became the leader of a new era of black militant youth.  the NAACP and martin luther king, jr. condemned carmichael as fighting race against race and creating a separatist state.  carmichael’s views were of those people less tolerant as espoused by marcus garvey and malcom x.  he was critical of civil right leaders promoting integration into middle class society which forced him out of the SNCC.  he took a more prominent role as honorary prime minister of the black panthers and wrote the book “black power” in 1967.   after speaking in the UK, carmichael was banned from re-entering britain.  soon after, j edgar hoover demanded agents find him responsible for rioting in DC after the death of martin luther king, jr.  carmichael was also targeted in cointelpro plots to divide him from other panthers.  

huey newton accused carmichael of being a CIA agent and carmichael moved to africa, changed his name to kwame ture, and split with the panthers due to their not being separatist enough in working with white radicals. carmichael died of prostate cancer on november 15, 1998, which he said “was given to me by forces of american imperialism and others who conspired with them.”   whatever bad boy side of carmichael can be shown, he was a very egnigmatic and powerful speaker.  gordon parks, in his article for life magazine in 1967, said that carmichael could “stroll through dixie in the broad daylight using the confederate flag for a handerchief.”  the colorful figure always answered his phone, “ready for the revolution!”

here are som telling quotes from stokely carmichael/kwame ture...

“the first need of a free people is to define their own terms.”

“there is a higher law that the law of government. that is the law of conscience.”

“the masses don’t shed their blood for the benefit of a few individuals.”

“now, then, in oder to understand white supremacy, we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom.”

“i maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people.”

“there has been only a civil rights movement, whose tone of voice was adapted to an audience of liberal whites.”

“the philosophers camus and sartre raise the question whether or not a man can condemn himself.”

“i usually say i did the best i could with what i had. i have no major regrets.”

stokely carmichael

eldridge cleaver (1935 – 1998) may 1, 1998 15^th anniversary

this dude had one of the weirdest bios of the 20^th century. jailed a number of times, cleaver's most heinous perhaps being for rape, which he admitted, gave rationale for why, but never an apology.  he did later renounce the practice.  his memorable quote in response to his lack of remorse, “the blood of vietnamese peasants has paid off all my debts.”  following his early prison stints, he joined the black panthers serving as minister of information and ran the “black house” in oakland in 1967.

cleaver received 36,000 votes in the 1968 presidential election on the peace and freedom party ticket (even though he was not the requisite 35 years of age to be eligible to hold the office).  it was his book of essays called “soul on ice” and it's sequel “soul on fire” that established him as a leader of thought in 1960s black power movements.  charged with ambush and attempted murder of police officers, cleaver jumped bail for cuba, then algeria, then france, serving as the minister of international panthers for a time.  while in europe, he eventually split with huey newton in principle.  where huey newton wanted to put down guns to relate to all of the black community, cleaver wanted the panthers to escalate armed struggle, specifically versus cointelpro tagets.  by the late 1980s, cleaver had renounced all of his radical past and became a born against christian mormon and a republican politician.  he died of unannouced causes on may 1, 1998. 

this eldridge cleaver couldn't really say more about the state of modern life: 

“does anybody know what the situation is? do you know what we can do and what we can’t do? what we can say and what we can’t say?  i don’t know that anymore. and i don’t have enough time to go and research all the laws. so that i’m in the position where the only thing I can say about that is fuck it.”