some hot wind from beantown

between tonite and this morning...
the fire alarm in my apartment went off. since none of us in the building "own" the building, the "landlord" had to come by and turn it off. this 80 year old beer drinking green eyed fascist was upset at us for having to come out and fix a problem of his own making (ie, one of the heaters is outdated, hence pouring out steam, hence, setting off the alarm) meanwhile, my heat has yet to come on, even though we have "one of the best apartments" in the burger king dynasty, according to the owner's son, a 55ish beer drinking green eyed fascist who insists on pretending to be a working man despite his wealth. the only thing more annoying than a rich man who flaunts his wealth is one who pretends he isn't wealthy.
later in the night, as i settled down on native land like a good little imperialist to watch the red sox, party preparations began. now, i am not much of a party person. my idea of a party is the 20% sale at my local used record store, which happens twice a year. when it occurs, i sail over there and buy a sam rivers album. once i got darin's 45 of "beyond the sea." in any case, while the preparations were peaceful and everyone was civil, i would have preferred no action.
then, this morning, SATURDAY MORNING, my upstairs neighbor, who i will call cox because his name is cox and not because he is a cock, though he is a cock, got up at his usual hour of 6:30 AM. this drove me out of bed faster than a shooting kay starr, and if i had a vikki carr or a gerald ford, i would have gone for a ride with my neighbor sally, who was hemmings a pair of pants for her uncle tom husband, who i will call jefferson davis. yes, i would have driven for miles, for i was dizzy with anger. alas, i am not a very good parker, so i just use my charlie card, and take the t bone walker to work. so, i took a walk, and got some newspapers to read. in these papers, i read the following...
the 8 men who beat a 14 year old boy to death in a juvenile "boot camp" were found not guilty by a jury of 12 men and women who were clearly not angry enough. i am not fonda this story. the men claimed they were following "standard procedure" in how they handled the boy, as if the normality of oppression is a defense of it. by the way, can you guess the race of the murdered boy? hint, he looked a little like martin, malcolm, medgar, and mumia.
the boston banner, the local black paper, had an article on brookline high school, the place where i blog away and collect $13.40 an hour for it. the article was about how brookline has been able to close the "achievement gap." This refers to how white students tend to score higher on banal, fascistic standardized exams than their poorer, discriminated against black and latino counterparts. dr. weintraub ( parenthetically, the days of weintraub and roses is a film i recommend) the "headmaster," is very excited about how the black and latino scores at the school have risen. he brags about the "african american" scholars program, which supposedly has helped bring the scores up. "the achievement gap at the school is nearly finished" he exclaims. left out of this article is any mention of the "poverty gap," of the "police brutality gap," of how "minority" students are often heavily medicated as problem students and driven into special ed. programs, or of "the ability to afford to go to college gap." What of the "gap" between what our leaders say and the genocidal policies that they implement? Shouldn't that be something that our youth, especially our oppressed youth, who are more likely to join the army, more likely to go to prison,and more likely to be refused work because of their color, (although there will be those apologists of all colors who will say that if they only "talk better" and "dress better" then this would not happen) should know? Instead of teaching them how to pass absurd exams (which, by the way, i do two nights a week) shouldn't we be teaching them about the compelling issues that our nation and this world are so clumsily confronting? Have these scholars (or their teachers, excuse me, "role models" for that matter) been taught about emma goldman, eugene debs, malcolm x, john coltrane, che guevara, fred hampton, the real hellen keller, mother jones, carlos bulosan, and so many others? have they learned of how thousands within this country and millions outside of it have been murdered for standing up to the beast? no, i guess that wouldn't help them pass these tests.
so great, now our black and latino youth can be like our white youth, and all will be well. they too will be able to do research at harvard, like the scientists who developed napalm. yes, let us all integrate into this burning house, because it is easier to do so than to construct a new living arrangement. life is a nelson riddle, and as you can tell, this situation has gotten under my skin. billy may be upset about it as well.
what can you say, except the world is burning while we turn off fire alarms and close the "achievement" gap. we open a park and destroy a forest; we open a charter school and destroy the civilization that invented writing; we bomb for peace; we talk of freedom while millions languish in our jails and we go about imprisoning the planet so that a few can profit.
fuck it all.
by the way, get your hands on hank mobley's "soul station." it's a killer album.
peace