write-in votes do work!
rabble rouser of the month voting came down to three people, yet it was
a fourth write-in candidate that won the vote. the benevolent dictatorship in rabble rouser utopia allows such concessions, not that a real and fair
democratic election would allow just anyone to win. however, in respect to the wishes of the family of the write-in winners (kamryn renfro and delaney clements), i have decided to not award them, though that story is below. instead, we return to the choice was that was to win before the write-in candidates...
rabble rouser of the month
ava lins (gloucester, massachusetts)
it is hard for
homeless people, in general. let’s not
even get into the trials of being exposed to the elements of a new england
winter. let’s not even consider how bad
it sucks to be hungry, or even can comprehend how bad it must suck to be hungry
all day every day. let’s not care about
how we can care for own daily welfare pretty easily in the modern world.
no, let’s consider a stigma. it surely must not suck bad enough to be
broke, cold, and hungry. we, the people,
have to make other people’s lives worse by kicking them while they’re
down. the have-citizens have an inborn
loathing for people that are helpless, even though people in need is one of the
things the bible actually does want us to care about. homeless people are looked at as scourge that
need to be cleaned up off our downtown streets. for example, i praise the la grande and union
county cops most of the time for being pretty fair and lenient. however, la grande cops are a bit overly excited to
find reasons to hand out tickets to people least able to pay them and certainly
see to it that no one with a beard, a backpack and a dog are seen walking down
adams avenue.
apparently it is not
okay to be in need. people will surely
continue to be afraid of homeless people as if they’re dangerous. a person convicted of multiple felonies might
be someone to be afraid of, but being homeless is not the same thing as being a
felon and i would venture that most homeless felonies result specifically from
laws relating to the illegal activity of being homeless. homeless people have never presented a
problem, other than maybe breaking a window to sleep inside a building. that would be an act of desperation more
than a crime.
why would
anyone be leery of someone because they are asking for a dollar? either you have one to give, or not. it’s really that simple. i am pretty broke. i can’t afford to give most people money just
because they need it. it doesn’t mean i
think the person asking me is a piece of shit.
they’ve had hard enough luck, quite obviously. i feel for them. i don’t hate them. i don’t look at them and say, “sorry i can’t
give you a dollar because i already liked habitat for humanity on
facebook.” get with the program! homeless people are people too with the same needs and desires as anyone.
and for the life of me, i can never figure out why it
costs money for the privilege of going to sleep. a person shouldn’t have to pay money to go
to sleep, but one way or another every person on the planet pays some amount
for that frivolous activity. what
capitalist brainchild came up with the idea to find a way to squeeze extra
money out of people on that? but, digressing…
on a cold night in massachussetts, a homeless guy gets a free cup of hot coffee from ava lins, a nineteen-year-old clerk at 7-11,
who had recently been through a stretch of homelessness herself. in turn, she gets a lashing from her
boss. the media outcry caused convenience stores in the area to offer ava a job, so she got to quit and work
for someone more respectable. but the
real tragedy goes further than the simple story. there is actually a huge debate about whether
ava or her supervisor were in the right.
there are fairly convincing arguments both ways, to be sure. but my bias is that the debate is still
grounded in public distaste for homelessness.
how much does anyone really need to think about whether or or a homeless
man can get a free cup of coffee? it
should be as simple as “oh, ok, whatever,” and then get on with life.
for starters, convenience store coffee isn’t exactly known to be
first-rate quality joe. it’s value is
relatively low. secondly, coffee is
about as common as air. every office pours
pots of it down the drain every day. how
much does the economy suffer if one person, or even everyone, gets a free cup
of coffee? giving away free coffee
probably even acts as an economic stimulus, but someone would have to research
that. but, oh no, i forgot, it’s not
about the liquid, it’s about the cup.
that’s the part the store charges money for. lord knows we can’t have the inventory of the
eight oz. styrofoam cups to be off by one.
and certainly if the 44-oz big gulp cup count were to be off, world war
4 would seem eminent.
praise you, ava!
at least you have compassion (one of the tenets of taoism, see below)
and don’t care about more of the rules that hold people back. for that, you also have a better jobnow. in fact, the irony of it all, ava
has started an actual career, working for citizens for adequate housing.
rabble rouser runners up:
kamryn renfro & delaney clements (grand junction, colorado)
nine year old kamryn renfro shaved her head in solidarity with her friend, delaney clements, who lost her
hair while undergoing cancer treatment.
kamryn was not allowed to return to school because her shaved head violated the school dress code. for what
it’s worth, the school quickly moved to get the board approval required to make
an exception. kamryn was allowed to
return to school the next day. kamryn’s mother is impressed by that and would like the negative reaction toward the school to stop.
the mother’s reaction is understandable, and yes, the focus does need to be on delaney, which is why she was considered a co-recipient. out of respect to that, i didn't want to bother the family with something they have clearly moved on from. however....why is it against anyone’s policy anywhere to not allow a girl to shave
her head? it’s like not allowing a hebrew girl to wear
a shawl. it’s like not allowing a native
american girl to wear a feather in her hair at graduation. it’s like not letting kid yoshida wear a
bandana to school. ok, it’s actually
worse than that, but you get the idea.
why is there a rule against having no hair? wonder if they would have sent delaney home,
too? hell, i guess my bald head wouldn’t
be allowed in the building either.
most importantly, props
to kamryn and delaney for doing what people have to do. deal with the bitter realities of life, and
thereby have the wherewithal to confront the sources of the bitterly realities,
like ridiculous policy making that only hold people back. delaney must be
proud to have a fearless friend. kids that are nine, ten, eleven
years old are pretty fearless, i suppose.
they do something because it is the right thing to do, not because they
have to care about some rule. kids rule. they teach more about life than idiot adults,
including most of their teachers too i am sure.
susan sluyter (cambridge, massachusetts)
standardized testing has been a big deal all over the
country for the last couple of months.
susan says these tests “take the joy out of teaching. it takes the joy out of
learning.” surely, she feels like a
robot more than a human. in fact, we probably
could program a computer to teach to a test.
there is something to be said for human connection.
the funny part is that this seems to have always been
a problem. all my learned years, people have been complaining about
standardized tests. how long does it
take for so-called educational professionals to figure this out?
i am mean, seriously, i bombed every standardized
test ever. i only even made it out of
high school because they didn’t wanna deal with me until i was twenty-one. but what does any of that mean? it means that i wasn’t the same as most of
the other kids. so what? i still managed to get two bachelor degrees with a GPA
something like 3.5 and have had jobs ever since of employers that praise my
work all day long, even though i feel like a slacker. so what does it matter that i could barely even
color in designs on the SAT dots? thank
god for teenage weed dealers and rock n’ roll. otherwise, i am pretty sure i never would have found my way in life
courtesy of the guidance of the american educational system.
and thanks to susan sluyter for being part of the
solution! she quit her job because her job was no longer about the children.
justin alexander casquejo (weehawken, new
jersey)
speaking of rules holding
people back, sixteen year old justin didn’t really seem to have a problem with that at ground zero. let’s get this timeline straight. first, justin, a teenager crawled under a fence there
at the old ground zero, america’s “number one terror target.” then, he climbed a scaffold on the outside of
the building and made his way int the building on the sixth floor. then, he talked an elevator operator into a
ride to the 88th floor, even though he didn’t have any credentials to
be there at all. justin’s friend says of
him, “he’s definitely one with the b---s.”
then, justin takes the stairs to the 104th floor and walks
out onto the roof past a guard who is sleeping.
only thing left, he climbs to the antenna to the infamous spire. wow. that is one impressive feat!
to me, this is the
epitome of what being a rabble rouser is all about. spit into the wind and call
bullshit on every card played! this dude
did it all, lived the dream from the top of the developed world. how many people have the gumption to even
think about something like that, much less try it, much less have the composure to see it to
fruition? that deserves more than a
rabble rouser award. it deserves
something like a harley davidson and the marlboro man gold plated
motorcycle. that’s as gung-ho as
anything you can see in a hollywood movie.
you did it buddy! join the ranks
of people that suction cupped their way up the gateway arch, parachuted off the space
needle and
jumped the grand canyon on a motorcycle, or plunged niagra falls…
apparently, justin part of a “gang” called “team
destiny” that seeks to embarrass the port of authority. so what we have here might be more along the lines of a new
terrorist cell or it may simply be material for rabble rouser hall of fame. i don’t always get it. i am not a daredevil. i don’t need head rushes. in principle, i have a balance between not
trying to kill myself or others in the process of living while not stop living
in the meantime. that considered, there
is something to be said for the adventurous.
they set the bar. and when
setting the bar includes making a mockery of the security system protecting our
borders, then that’s a double bonus.
there were some people offended by justin’s actions. i guess that makes
sense. some people have respect for the
symbols of this or that. the bottom line
is that symbols are what people invent them to be. and if a symbol of the free world can not make use of basic things such as locked doors and key card entry that modern
technology has given us, that is not justin’s fault for pointing out weakness
in the strength of national security. no
matter what one’s take on that entire can of worms is, justin should be thanked
from every perspective.
there were many other
acts of awesomeness in march. a grade school student was banned from fromwearing a my little pony backpack because the school wanted to curb
bullying! sometimes, the irony of
inhumanity makes me rotfflmgdao!
fifty-nine people were arrested protesting economic justice at albany
state capitol. rabble rosuer hall of
famer cheri honkala was arrested in a peaceful demonstration against thekeystone pipeline. the list goes on and
on. occupy still lives and breathes all
over america, and kids specifically seem to have been taught well in the system. i
am happy.
let’s get to a more
tragic example of people being held back by policy.
new rabble rouser hall of
famers
cao shunli (1964 – 2014): lawyer, civil rights activist
as a young child, cao was forcibly exiled from
beijing with her family to an ancestral home in the provinces because her
grandfather was a member of the “enemy classes.” cao grew up to study political science and
found work in the ministry of labor and human resources. she became a political activist after losing her job in 2002 for reporting
corruption of her supervisors in housing reform. cao spent the last five years of her life
lobbying for domestic and international human rights reviews in china. she was “trying to hold the government
accountable for a host of issues through peaceful and legal means,” said sophie
richardson of human rights watch. cao’s
activism garnered her at least two labor camp sentences.
 |
| cao shunli (photo: opendemocracy) |
cao was not permitted onboard a plane to switzerland for a human right conference and “disappeared” from the airport, not being seen for weeks, according to the BBC in september 2013. she was detained and subsequently jailed on charges relating to the staging of a two month sit-in at the foreign ministry, which was seeking public participation in human rights review for china. she was shown to have suffered abuse in prison and also deal with tuberculosis and liver disease. she went into a coma in february 2014. on march 14, 2014, cao died in the hospital.
not only was a previously strong an able forty-nine
year old woman completely stripped of life in six months time, the family was
also denied access to even view the body.
most western tradition supports the custom of seeing next of kin
body after death, so cao’s family’s ordeal may or may not sound like a big deal
to a westerner. in the east, some families live with the bodies for days, even
weeks during their mourning stages. i am
guessing that it is a pretty damn big deal in china for a family to not be able
to view the body. is nothing sacred? does everything have to be so hush hush? if you can’t live in peace, you should at
least be able to die in peace.
speaking of chinese dissidents, and corruption of thought, there are three other necessary rabble rouser hall of famers that have shaped chinese mindset more than any…
speaking of chinese dissidents, and corruption of thought, there are three other necessary rabble rouser hall of famers that have shaped chinese mindset more than any…
lao tzu (live during
the zhou dynasty; 6th – 4th century BC)
 |
| lao tzu (image: 1000 desfaturi) |
such concepts are not simple for modern, consumed
westerners to understand easily. start by thinking maybe in terms of utah
phillips who once said that “the best presidents were the do-nothing
presidents. if the president got up in the middle of the middle of the night to go
to the bathroom, somehow trouble would ensue.”
indeed, the remembered presidents are all ones that were guilty of doing
things. all things given qualities,
actions become a distinguishing between good and bad, right and wrong. that leads to judgements and values, which
accumulates to attachment. if you are
attached, you are not free. if you are
not free, you cannot follow the natural path.
politics and the creation of a social order create an
unnatural flow. us against them, good
against evil, none of that exists until someone creates it. the tao advises not to do any of that, not to
be anyone, just be where you are and who your are with the rest of the world as
it is naturally.
“because the rulers eat money in taxes, people are
starving. because the rulers interfere
too much, people are rebellious. because the rulers demand too much, people
take life lightly. having to live on, one knows better than to value life too
much,” lao tzu. the tao te ching was an early historical
example of minimizing government, “letting individuals develop spontaneously to
best develop social and economic harmony,” james a. dorn stated of the tao.
the main tenets of
taoism support the three concepts of simplicity, patience and compassion. anything too complicated, rushed and inconsiderate
really messes things up. the unnatural acts of humans upset the natural balance
of the tao.
the tao views language and conventional wisdom as
biased and artificial, supported by paradoxical arguments. the only way to inner peace is through release
of attachment from personal desires. the
tao also brought about the concept of the wu wei, which is inaction, as in not
forcing, or in other words going with the flow.
not to say “inaction” is the way to achieve social justice, but clearing
the mind of selfish desire and finding
humility is the first step.
try to disagree with these quotes from the master:
“when people see things as beautiful, other things beome ugly. when people see things as good, other things become bad.”
“try to change something, you will ruin it. try to hold it, you will lose it.”
“the more laws and regulation are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”
“life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. don’t resist them. that only creates sorrow. let reality be reality. let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
“when people see things as beautiful, other things beome ugly. when people see things as good, other things become bad.”
“try to change something, you will ruin it. try to hold it, you will lose it.”
“the more laws and regulation are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”
“life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. don’t resist them. that only creates sorrow. let reality be reality. let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
buddha (c. 600 b.c. – c. 300 b.c., nepal/india)
the student siddhartha
gautma was a prince in india, whose king father tried to shelter from the misery of
the world inside an opulent castle.
siddhartha knew nothing of religion or life tribulations and became
displeased with teachings and left his kingdom after experiencing the sights of
old and diseased people.
siddhartha spent a long night in meditation, more
like seven nights, under a bodhi tree and came away enlightened. coming back to
society, he taught the four noble truths and the eightfold path. basically speaking, the four noble
truths
are: (a) all life knows suffering and nobody gets what they want out of life; (b)
ignorance and possession is the cause of suffering, the problem is in wanting things; (c) the way to
end suffering is to learn to not want it; and (d) the way to end suffering is through the eightfold path. basically speaking, the eightfold
path is:
understanding the nature of reality and truth; aspiration/commitment to ending
human suffering; effort; speaking the truth with compassion; consistent
conduct; living in such a way as to not hurt others; living in the moment; and,
finally, expanding consciousness through meditation.
the banishment of suffering and inner spiritualization was
all that was considered in buddhism. as
such, all barriers of class, race, and sex are ignored. people are meant to be equal, but people must
become enlightening to understand the ways to make it so.
confucius (551 bc – 479 bc)
 |
| confucius (cover: 72 disciples of confucius) |
his core principles set a foundation for chinese
cultural beliefs in family loyalty, ancestor worship, respect for elders, and
husbands and wives. a strong family
tradition was seen by confucius as the key to legitimate government.
as a government official himself, confucius sought
morality, sincerity, justice, and honest relationships. his teachings were a bit too popular and were
repressed during the last parts of the powerful military rule of the qin dyansty. confucius was later exiled after encouraging
integration in the city by razing the kingdom’s walls.
confucius came up with an early version of the golden
rule: do not do unto others as you do not want done to yourself. confucius taught self-cultivation, moral
exemplification and skilled judgement as opposed to rule-following.
how do we make it through the world?
well! there is always rock n’
roll...
album of the month without any shadow of a doubt is pontiak – innocence (not totally new,
rel. january 27, thrill jockey).
pontiak has given the music world a stellar tour in support of this
newest album, especially a damn soulful live performance at KEXP the other
day. innocence is one of those albums
that covers the gamut of song styles, but still keeps a crunchy brand of
backwoods garage rock. this is one of
those albums that beckons to be listened to three, four, five times in a row,
even though i got many other good records the past three months and really saw
most of the kick ass bands shred their stuff at treefort. pontiak is as good as…name the band…
hobosexual, tartufi, wooden indian burial ground, minot…everyone that played
treefort was first-rate best-band-ever material. so, i will eagerly await the next chance to
see any of those bands, including pontiak.
that said, it is of no small point of appreciation to
be able to get to go back to portland to see tartufi and gaytheist at the
kenton club on thursday. not only has
tartufi been the best band in the world the last couple years, gaytheist is
getting there. the two aren’t the first
impression one would have as touring partners, unless you actually know more
about any of these guys, then it becomes more natural than paula deen’s
eyelashes. to boot, gaytheist has a
number of songs to dedicate to this month’s rabble rouser people. one goes like
this:
over the mountains,
down past the valley, under the seas
through the forest,
over double rainbows, across arid deserts
deep down the blackest
cave, down to the core
this is the journey, 10,000 years long
attempting to cure the human condition
want this adventure,
but too damn scared
so, i sit and wait in
my underwear
when they find it,
i’ll wish was there
instead i’ll be
staring at a blank computer screen
or watching re-runs of
some mid-80s comedy
– lyrics from “can’t go to mecca (favorite
show is on)”
* is 10,000 years a reference to confucius??
* is 10,000 years a reference to confucius??
