Marks the end of a continuum. Which is an impossibility. The year 2016 has not been particularly horrible, vicious, hostile or dangerous. In retrospect, the plague years were probably quite a bit worse, but hey, we lack imagination and perspective so hey, get on your woe is me boots and cinch up your get on the bandwagon saddle because every year, from now on will be more of a wild ride than you can imagine. With the advent of so many dancers, models and artists of all types making names for themselves, there will continue to be famous people dying in record numbers for at least the foreseeable future. With any number that rises, there will be more of the things that result from those things happening. I was in a very small group of people when I was young. I had over three hundred musical artists represented in my personal collection of music. It took me years to grow a collection like that back then and there may have been another thousand or so artists whose music I had heard but not gotten my own album, yet. Now, I could have ten times that many artists on my phone, in my pocket! There will, perhaps always be more famous people dying and we need to get significantly more clear on what that means and what is the nature of appropriate grief.
I want to guide discussion away from how terrible it is that so many personalities we are losing, but perhaps more importantly, why didn't we listen to them more while they were alive. The generation that we are losing, for the most part are those who were hip, turned on, tuned in and if not for the fame were mostly dropped out. The generation who believed fervently in peace and love, an ecologically benign path to a sustainable future even before that term was coined. Thirty, or fifty years ago they were formed in the crucible of "The Pill", ERA, human rights struggle and the social unrest that exemplify our time. Rich against poor, urban vs.rural, hip vs. square, educated WASPS against the rest of us, etc. Any and every possible faction was cleaved from WE the People, who were the vast numbers who remain, to this day disenfranchised by their lack of interest in politics, brought on by the false propaganda of our age.
They say we are disconnected, but I campaigned for U.S. House of Representatives for nearly a year and found that the vast majority of us are more alike than we are different. Let me start at a relatively straightforward spot and say, we all have heard that anti-war protesters hate military personnel. The ultimate rehash of this is always the Vietnam War veteran, who upon returning, was spat on by a young hippy. I am not interested in outliers. This may have happened dozens of times, however 540,000 troops came back and only an infinitesimally small percentage of them were ever spat upon by hippies. I have spoken with thousands of veterans and ordinary citizens alike who detest what the military is doing, but do not blame the enlisted men and women of our armed forces one bit for bad policies dreamed up by Congress and/or our Commander in Chief. My point is that the vast majority support our troops and less so their mission, but every person that talked about military "honor" and respect, were turned off by the fact that every performer who does a show seems to have the obligatory support our troops moment, or song, or tribute. This is absolutely not to say that people do not honor and respect military personnel ,quite the opposite. The many, many folks that I have spoken with agree, it is as if the commercialization of patriotism is on sale in these events. When there are fly-overs at the start of football games, it is just advertising for war, plain and simple. Nothing to do with honor and respect. In fact, the majority of vets who I spoke with about these pairings of tribute with concerts and sporting events did not want to be reminded of the horrors of war and especially having it brought to their attention at an entertainment venue. It is slanderous not to represent, or respect the feelings of the very people you claim to pay tribute to! Perhaps a better way to heap your praise on them is to discount their tickets quietly and limit the beating of war drums to others.
It is not anti-veteran to be pro-peace. In fact even the term anti-war is suspect because virtually everyone I have talked to about the issues of peace and war are overwhelmingly for peace, only when they are pushed do they retreat to the anti-war posture. This is another area where the people need to lead, so that the leaders will eventually follow. Just like the term "pro-abortion" was coined. I have talked to thousands of folks about this issue during the course of my life and not one was pro-anything about-abortion. Rape and incest, reasons for having an abortion they were against, but they were pro-basic human dignity, not pro abortion. They were pro-equal pay for equal work pro-education and pro-family, because conditions of poverty, ignorance and irresponsibility created inhospitable lives for potential mothers. The people I speak with routinely still believe that having to be born into poverty, with no access to nutritious food, education, health care or opportunity is worse than not being born at all. I place no value on this, I am only running to represent the truth that the American people are dealing with. Of course, we are all in agreement that every life is sacred, but that is the reason some choose the terrible course of making the choice they feel is necessary.
At this point we are being assaulted with fake news that claims "Half of Trump's supporters"...half of 24% is 12%, who really cares about that many folks anyway? Our media circus has expanded to beyond three rings! Now six cartels control what we think is news. Get ready to be told many, many more lies before the truth comes out.
When we begin to have a Congress that looks like the American People, we will see change, not before then. As long as the vast majority of our representatives are millionaires, they will always side with money and power over the general good of our nation. The ultrawealthy have been winning the class war for over fifty years. Expecting oligarchs to be less harsh in the future, or expecting them to stop pandering to our basest instincts to get us to ignore the truth with them, is just a hopeful fantasy. We will continue to hear about heroes who are passing because it aids in keeping us paralyzed, out of politics and unaware of real events taking place simultaneously in the other rings. As with every "year", we bather ourselves with the names of those who have passed and regret things a little more deeply, because that is what the media giants tell us we do.
When people I care about pass the veil, I get fired up, I get emotional and I get even more anxious to get these things accomplished. The only decent memorial I would want would be to finally attain world peace, human rights, affirm every person's dignity and to eliminate the commodification of nature. These things are not only scientifically proven to be possible, but supported by logic and physics. We the People have the power, if we only stepped up to the plate to make it happen.
I want to guide discussion away from how terrible it is that so many personalities we are losing, but perhaps more importantly, why didn't we listen to them more while they were alive. The generation that we are losing, for the most part are those who were hip, turned on, tuned in and if not for the fame were mostly dropped out. The generation who believed fervently in peace and love, an ecologically benign path to a sustainable future even before that term was coined. Thirty, or fifty years ago they were formed in the crucible of "The Pill", ERA, human rights struggle and the social unrest that exemplify our time. Rich against poor, urban vs.rural, hip vs. square, educated WASPS against the rest of us, etc. Any and every possible faction was cleaved from WE the People, who were the vast numbers who remain, to this day disenfranchised by their lack of interest in politics, brought on by the false propaganda of our age.
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| Although, technically this photo is not from this week, it shows the demolition of a historic building in downtown Green Bay. Because no one can afford to start new businesses, this sat empty for nearly twenty years and finally went to the landfill simply because it became inconvenient. |
They say we are disconnected, but I campaigned for U.S. House of Representatives for nearly a year and found that the vast majority of us are more alike than we are different. Let me start at a relatively straightforward spot and say, we all have heard that anti-war protesters hate military personnel. The ultimate rehash of this is always the Vietnam War veteran, who upon returning, was spat on by a young hippy. I am not interested in outliers. This may have happened dozens of times, however 540,000 troops came back and only an infinitesimally small percentage of them were ever spat upon by hippies. I have spoken with thousands of veterans and ordinary citizens alike who detest what the military is doing, but do not blame the enlisted men and women of our armed forces one bit for bad policies dreamed up by Congress and/or our Commander in Chief. My point is that the vast majority support our troops and less so their mission, but every person that talked about military "honor" and respect, were turned off by the fact that every performer who does a show seems to have the obligatory support our troops moment, or song, or tribute. This is absolutely not to say that people do not honor and respect military personnel ,quite the opposite. The many, many folks that I have spoken with agree, it is as if the commercialization of patriotism is on sale in these events. When there are fly-overs at the start of football games, it is just advertising for war, plain and simple. Nothing to do with honor and respect. In fact, the majority of vets who I spoke with about these pairings of tribute with concerts and sporting events did not want to be reminded of the horrors of war and especially having it brought to their attention at an entertainment venue. It is slanderous not to represent, or respect the feelings of the very people you claim to pay tribute to! Perhaps a better way to heap your praise on them is to discount their tickets quietly and limit the beating of war drums to others.
It is not anti-veteran to be pro-peace. In fact even the term anti-war is suspect because virtually everyone I have talked to about the issues of peace and war are overwhelmingly for peace, only when they are pushed do they retreat to the anti-war posture. This is another area where the people need to lead, so that the leaders will eventually follow. Just like the term "pro-abortion" was coined. I have talked to thousands of folks about this issue during the course of my life and not one was pro-anything about-abortion. Rape and incest, reasons for having an abortion they were against, but they were pro-basic human dignity, not pro abortion. They were pro-equal pay for equal work pro-education and pro-family, because conditions of poverty, ignorance and irresponsibility created inhospitable lives for potential mothers. The people I speak with routinely still believe that having to be born into poverty, with no access to nutritious food, education, health care or opportunity is worse than not being born at all. I place no value on this, I am only running to represent the truth that the American people are dealing with. Of course, we are all in agreement that every life is sacred, but that is the reason some choose the terrible course of making the choice they feel is necessary.
At this point we are being assaulted with fake news that claims "Half of Trump's supporters"...half of 24% is 12%, who really cares about that many folks anyway? Our media circus has expanded to beyond three rings! Now six cartels control what we think is news. Get ready to be told many, many more lies before the truth comes out.
When we begin to have a Congress that looks like the American People, we will see change, not before then. As long as the vast majority of our representatives are millionaires, they will always side with money and power over the general good of our nation. The ultrawealthy have been winning the class war for over fifty years. Expecting oligarchs to be less harsh in the future, or expecting them to stop pandering to our basest instincts to get us to ignore the truth with them, is just a hopeful fantasy. We will continue to hear about heroes who are passing because it aids in keeping us paralyzed, out of politics and unaware of real events taking place simultaneously in the other rings. As with every "year", we bather ourselves with the names of those who have passed and regret things a little more deeply, because that is what the media giants tell us we do.
When people I care about pass the veil, I get fired up, I get emotional and I get even more anxious to get these things accomplished. The only decent memorial I would want would be to finally attain world peace, human rights, affirm every person's dignity and to eliminate the commodification of nature. These things are not only scientifically proven to be possible, but supported by logic and physics. We the People have the power, if we only stepped up to the plate to make it happen.
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