rabble rouser of the month
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| photo: gracewell healthcare / mirror (left) <br> universal news & sport (right) |
originally it was reported by gracewell healthcare that he had not submitted the request in the proper amount of time, nonetheless administrative procedures need not preclude the living of life. if people can't be free to do the things most important to them, why should they continue living? had there been health and safety consequences for bernard, he surely proved risking that was worth being in normandy for maybe the last time. ...even though he wasn't able to join the official trip with his other war buddies, for official reason unclear or not well-supported. bernard is a lifelong resident, and also a former mayor, of hove. he turned 90 in june and recieved over 2500 birthday cards. indeed, it was a celebration with the ladies all month long.
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| photos: craig hibbert (left, top right, bottom middle) <br> david mchugh (bottom right) |
i hope to not regret choosing the albuquerque 13 as rabble rousers of the month, but what bernard jordan did was just so spunky and an experience well-deserved. however, his was a cause supported by free men worldwide. americans particularly eat up stories like that as approvingly as a salad instead of a hamburger at mcdonald's. what is never cared about in this country is the plight of poor and disenfranchised people vs. the state. in the albuquerque case, this involves the additional not cool thing of making police out to be the bad guy.
on june 2, as many as 24 people, featuring mostly family members of victims, staged a sit-in at the albuquerque mayor's office before being detained and creating a lockdown of city hall. the sit-in occured a few days after an autopsy report showed that james boyd, a mentally ill homeless man, was shot in the back by police. nora anaya chained herself to a display case. mary jobe said, "we're tired of the mayor hiding from us," since her fiancee was killed by police. barbara grothus of fire dog lake, noted there was no need to for protestors to force their way in because the door wasn't even locked. david correia, an assistant professor at the university of new mexico and community activist, has often lectured against police brutality and compiled much of the injustice over the past few years. he also has a TEDx talk on the history of albuquerque police violence. david was arrested, to some controversy, for battery in a pushing incident with a security guard. at least the families struggling for justice have a competent voice speaking on their behalf. certainly, no other official people seem to want to hear their greivances, as most difficult stories get pushed under the rug by a disconcerted public.
rabble rouser hall of fame :: new members!
thomas paine (1737-1809)
before education was compulsory, paine was an essex school teacher, corsetmaker, tobaccoist and excise officer. he was twice dismissed from the office of excise, due to his opposition to the monarchy. facing debtor’s prison, he immigrated to colonial america in 1774 and barely survived the voyage, taking six weeks to recover. paine quickly found work as a magazine editor and pamphleteer. in 1776, common sense, an attack on king george III and the monarchy, gave paine the nickname “father of the american revolution.” the american crisispamphlets fueled the revolutionary war, featuring the infamous quote, “these are the times that try men’s souls.” paine’s ability to appeal to common classes helped spread his messages far and wide, which made clear the need for national independence and aided the recruitment of the continental army.
legendary though paine may have been, his supporters were few. loyalists could not support him because he was too democratic to pay tribute to the crown. similarly, revolutionaries could not suport the radical notion that men who did not own property could vote and hold office. to do so would give too much power to ordinary people. but that was just the tip of iceberg. paine was anti-slavery and a world peace advocate. he appealed for the need of social security and pensions for poor and elderly. he supported free markets, utopian ideals and introduced the idea of a guaranteed minimum income. by the time paine espoused deist views in age of reason he had become so controversial as to be completely ostracised. only a few people attended paine’s funeral. his bones were unearthered and taken back to england before they were lost. no one today really knows where the body of thomas paine is.
legendary though paine may have been, his supporters were few. loyalists could not support him because he was too democratic to pay tribute to the crown. similarly, revolutionaries could not suport the radical notion that men who did not own property could vote and hold office. to do so would give too much power to ordinary people. but that was just the tip of iceberg. paine was anti-slavery and a world peace advocate. he appealed for the need of social security and pensions for poor and elderly. he supported free markets, utopian ideals and introduced the idea of a guaranteed minimum income. by the time paine espoused deist views in age of reason he had become so controversial as to be completely ostracised. only a few people attended paine’s funeral. his bones were unearthered and taken back to england before they were lost. no one today really knows where the body of thomas paine is.
michael hastings (1980-2013)
photo: blue rider press
one can only presume that thomas paine would be a proud supporter of michael hastings. the journalist and war correspondent in iraq and afghanistan published i lost my love in baghdad: a modern love story after his finacee was killed in a roadside ambush. in 2010, rolling stonepublished hastings’ story runaway general, which resulted in the resignation of stanley mcchrystal, the commander in afghanistan. hastings also wrote a book about his time with mcchrystal in 2012. hastings became highly critical of the surveillance state and the american government’s war on journalism. why democrats love to spy on americans was pulished on buzzfeed less than two weeks before hastings’ suspicious death. hastings felt he was being investigated by the FBI while he was finishing a story on CIA director john brennan. numerous stories have surfaced relating to hastings’ mental stability, addictions and possible foul play of his car being hacked and remotely controlled in the high speed crash that killed him on june 18, 2013.
mario savio (1942-1996)
photo: tommy mcdonough
berkeley was a mecca for civil and political rights and free speech activists in the 1960’s. savio was a well-educated philosophy major and an eloquent speaker. he was first arrested for protesting black's exclusion from non-menial labor jobs in san francisco hotels. while in jail, he learned about the freedom summer movement and soon went to mississippi to teach and help black people register to vote. he brought the fight back to berkeley, where student rights groups were gaining prominence. when jack weinberg was removed from a congress of racial equalitydemostration table at a sit-in and placed in a police car, savio stood on top of the police car to motivate the crowd. by december 1964, savio was fed up with disregard from university president clark kerr and gave the infamous operation of the machine speech, which he followed a week later by being dragged off stage interupting a speech by kerr. his fervor kick-started the berkely movement, though savio led a quiet life post-university and ultimately became a professor. savio died in 1996, while supporting students against university fee increases.
sam horrell (1930-2014)
photo: spokesman review
sammy came to oregon with his family in 1938, leaving a texas band of outlaws with a legacy dating back to the 1870s. sammy grew up near elgin, oregon, in a log shack without electricity until 1953, or a telephone until 1958. his town hosted various social misfits, and was infamously known as a town no one dared to go. on the flipside, “sammyville” gave poor, unemployed and ex-cons somewhere to go. sammy walked the streets in overalls, with a six-shooter on his side, proclaiming to be sheriff, mayor and hanger. sammy received only a third grade education, but built a town with centralized water, indoor plumbing, fire truck and snow plows. he shrewdly stored money in cans buried around the property in a sort of slush fund to help with things like the elgin food bank, the elgin historical society and building a church.
sammyville was the name of a 1999 film, which paints the town as lawless. the film is currently listed as missing from the elgin public library. album of the month :: willie nelson - band of brothers
wives and girlfriends is typical tongue-in-cheek willie, but he really shows off his signature talent in used to her, crazy like me, and songwriters. but like every album of the month selection (though i still don’t like the award), all the winners are complete top to bottom show stopping tunes. metacritic gave band of brothers 72, though i feel that score should be 73. then again, i don’t believe half of what mainstream critics think, so props to allmusic.com. they seem to have gotten this one right.
“We’re a band of brothers and sisters and whatever
On a mission to break all the rules
And I know you love me ’cause I love you too
But you can’t tell me what to do”
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