thoughts

the students are at the mlk assembly. while sitting at the computer reading blum and bukowski, a thought came to me. i go up to the principle and say "what about a fred hampton assembly? it would be informative. it would teach them that if you become a strong black leader who advocates for radical change, you could be shot in your bed at the age of 21 by the fbi." and the principle would go "fred who?"

of course, king himself was murdered shortly after speaking out against war and forming a more radical class analysis. something tells me this will not be mentioned at the assembly. rather, someone will probably sing amazing grace. perhaps someone else will quote the i have a dream speech. king will be murdered yet again, this time with praise. death by sainthood. how about if we just don't kill our great leaders in the first place, that way we don't have to deify them when they are gone? or ignore them, in the case of the ones who can't be watered down, like hampton. or, we can tell lies about them, and turn them into, in our minds, the murderers that we ourselves are. think mumia, or george jackson. what is the cure for a sick culture? what doctor can write a prescription that can right the wrongs of our criminal, colonial, "civilization?" the students are at an assembly, "celebrating" a great man. it's enough to make a bald man grow fake hair just so he could pull it out.

in case you forgot, we are still bombing the shit out of iraq. i know spears in rehab is the hotter story, but i thought i'd remind you anyway. "why do they hate us?" let me blow up your house and kill your children, and then we'll see how much you like me. arrogant assholes, a country of criminals that can do nothing to soothe its collective conscience other than to make a holocaust film once a year, while it busies itself producing new holocausts, which we will ignore from the front seat of a movie theater as we watch the movie about the old holocaust. and our grandchildren won't ask what we did when the bombs burned baghdad, because we will write the history books. the iraqi anne frank won't get her book published, and if it is published, it will be published by a small publishing house, and students won't have to read it in school. her voice will be murdered along with her body.

we will be too busy shopping on black friday. we will be working, going on dates, cooking, sleeping, shitting. some of us might picket something once in a while, but this won't stop one bomb from falling. others will blog angrily, instead of destroying something useful to those in power. that would take courage, and that, sadly, is something in short supply.

vivian vance...life was never the same for her after she divorced bob vance. their relationship grew cold, like food in one of his fridges. vivian, where are you? are you dining in heaven with lucy, or having sex with ricky in hell? its sad how we have to go back nearly 60 years to find something to laugh at. lucille ball and vivian vance are not coming back. neither are gleason and carney, burns and allen, and so many others. is it really better now? maybe i don't have a clue, but i'd rather listen to an album made in rudy van gelder's living room. and people laugh at the 50's. what a joke our age will be for those who follow us. what is our heritage? what are we passing down? dr.phil? american idol? survivor?

our culture often appears to me as a nightmare. only sleeping makes it go away.

back to work.