A Few Radical Random Thoughts

Over the past month or so, these are some of the random thoughts posted on that iconic social media, facebook. They're perseverative, redundant and rebellious. It's just the way a warped mind works after this nation sent me to a war even an 18 year old like me at that time could determine immoral. Some will interpret my rants as "un-American" but I have no idea what America stands for as a nation. I do feel it my duty as a citizen of the world as well as the United States to object to immoral and illegal acts and conditions our government allows. Citizenship comes with some responsibilty. Dissent is one when a government fails to do its duty to uphold the Constitution. The Bill of Rights has been shredded by years of oligarchic rule and Americans have passively accepted it. We come up with many reasons to look the other way from jobs to material possessions. But can we look at the younger generations and say we did our best???


1.) If American workers cared enough about restoring their country to what it should be, they'd shut down the t.v., put down the damn phones and shut down the workplace. How much more shit do we need to have our noses rubbed in to come to realize the banks, the government and the big corporate bosses don't give a damn about our welfare? They only care about the welfare of the tax dollars bailing them out and funding their theft from the working class. Hundreds of thousands can watch a football game played for billionaires by millionaires but can't get their assses out in the streets to demand an end to the tyranny of the rich????? Working in healthcare, I can honestly say the bosses of the health industry, including "non-profits", don't care about their patients nearly as much as they care about their bottom line. And they expect healthcare workers to feel noble enough not to object. Time to get over that nobility when there is no reciprocating respect from the management. Maintaining the status quo isn't good patient care, it only prolongs the misery of patients not getting necessary services. They'll try to lay a guilt trip on anybody daring to suggest a work stoppage or collective bargaining but where is their guilt in expecting unsafe patient to caregiver ratios in clinics and hospitals???? Where is the guilt when turning away the indigent by putting their ER on diverts and triaging the poor out of care?


2.) The rich and powerful aren't content to "just" be rich. They want their serfs, the American workers, so tired, so in debt and so discouraged they won't object, won't protest against the insidious and overt oppression money can buy for them. Seeing Scott Olsen this morning on Dem. Now reminded me why we can't allow the oppression to beat us down. We can resist in whatever way is possible for us. But, as 2012 nears, for our own personal integrity we need to resist, object, protest and continue the struggle. This is our country!

3.) A recent post indicates 3 times as many returning veterans (from Iraq/Afghanistan) have died as a result of suicide as have been killed in action. Sadly that ratio is the same as the suicide rate of Vietnam vets. The real crime is the military and the mental health community had ample knowledge about the emotional toll of combat and sexual assault in the military but failed to prepare for it. How many lives were needlessly lost because of this failure? And the bigger question would be why were we ever at war and why did millions of innocents die because of our reckless imperialism??


4.) What kind of mind feels it acceptable to kill a woman in front of her kids because he can't possess her? Or spit on an eight year old girl because she dresses "immodestly"? It can only be the hate for women that consumes so many of us males that leads to such acts. Or is it religious fanaticism? But then again misogyny rears its ugly head in so many of the so called pious religions. These things don't surprise me.....just depresses me.

5.) Here's to pissing off the mindless mobs who never give a thought to the wars we inflict on others nor the victims we dehumanize as collateral damage. If I'm pissing you off by reminding you of the uncomfortable things you don't like to hear, I'm elated!

6.)Think about this.....around 400 families have more combined wealth than the poorest 150 million Americans combined. One hour of a wealthy CEO or corporate owner's salary could equal the entire 430, 000 dollars of donations for the poor in a recent Denver food and clothing drive. The pigs of the Congressional and Presidential trough bicker over a measly hundred dollars per week for the middle class and poor in payroll tax deductions and extending unemployment. They attempt to allow big corporations to be exempt from provisions against preexisting condition disqualification in the Affordable Healthcare Act. They attempt to portray the building of a pipeline carrying the dirtiest form of oil in the world crossing the largest fresh water aquifer in this nation as a jobs program and damn our children and grandchildren with the burden of the environmental disaster the is inevitable. Unions, workers, parents and grandparents need to wake up!!! The national debt isn't the problem. The national welfare state for the rich and entitled is what is destroying us. Profits from wars and profits from the sick and dying are where our nation's moral compass clearly points. We are sacrificing our morality to become economic serfs. When do we become outraged enough to stop the insanity???

7.) I watched a short video of a sheriff's department evicting a family from their home. The obviously traumatized family saw their personal items being put out on the street while the sheriffs kept saying they were only doing their jobs. Seems that mantra is always being used to justify carrying out the acts of the immoral. As cops sprayed demonstrators with pepper spray they later commented they were only doing their job. The demonstrators, many homeless, dared to pitch tents on public property. The mayor claimed health department regulations made him just do his job of clearing them out. The governor, with the most hilarious excuse, claimed he just did his job to prevent a flash fire amongst the tents. Just doing my job. The lame excuse whenever we humans decide to carry out immoral acts.


8.)Is the world better off because of globalization of labor? Look at China where it seems most everything consumed by Americans is produced. There is the wealthy few and then the rest of the Chinese people living in near poverty or poverty. So has Wal-Mart improved the lives of the Chinese in the country they have their biggest distribution center? Has Nike kept children from making their exorbitantly priced shoes? The economic boom of China and other nations we exploit for their cheap labor has come at the cost of workers being abused and treated as serfs much like in the middle ages. And the same companies who advertise themselves as true-blue Americans and exploit the troops by including them in their advertising schemes don't pay taxes to help grow this nation, they've effectively decreased the wages of every working American by undercutting and undermining collective bargaining and they continue to strip jobs from the American economy. How patriotic can they get? The Waltons, Koch brothers and all the oligarchy have only one flag they swear an allegiance to and it isn't the red, white and blue. They will have you believe they have been great philanthropists with their charitable deeds but their business practices erase whatever good deeds they perform. And like the "good" Christian who lets everybody know how righteous he is by blatant demonstration of faithful prayer and charity so too do these rich racketeers make sure their deeds are part of the advertising of their goods.
If true globalization of labor is to happen, all workers will make a living wage and be able to prosper for their endeavors. And the rich will still be rich. History shows when labor has been at the highest levels of unionization this nation was at its most prosperous.

9.) The question could be posed to a man with a conscience if he could take the job of building nuclear weapons knowing they would be used or refuse to take part in the nihilist practice of life. Or if a man or woman knowing a war was immoral could continue fighting that war simply because they were ordered. Our lives are confronted with such choices everyday. Will we choose to be a positive force or go along knowing we're contributing to the negative forces that are destroying life. Our morality is based on these things. Do we criminalize the homeless or recognize they exist? Do we drive past a person in danger or take a chance? Do we sacrifice our values day in and day out thinking someday we'll reclaim them? I'm sick of observing those who care only how they're doing and look away at the suffering of others.

10.) I visited Senators and representatives before the wars began and after they began. They patted me on the head as if I had no idea of the corruption. They turned red in the face when I confronted their lies and blustered noncommittal answers. They may pepper spray me, beat me and jail me but I will no longer meekly sit by and politely ask for my rights. I plan on demanding my rights. They may imprison me but they can never imprison the idea there can be no peace without justice!! A cell is not a thing that can contain the idea of freedom and basic rights for all people. 2012 presents us with the opportunity to gather twice as the rich and elite of both parties divvie up their prizes in their conventions. Americans need to show up.


11.) I was tear gassed in a Marine brig, beaten and gassed at a convention, jailed for non violent civil disobedience, shackled and cuffed as I walked across the tarmac of National Airport in DC as a GI resister. Go ahead Mr. President, sign a bill that tries to take away my rights. I no longer fear the fascist pigs of police brutality or the attempts to revoke basic rights. I remember during the days of the freedom riders when Mississippi decided they'd imprison all the riders. It only created greater solidarity and a greater sense of dedication. They were beaten, water hosed and had dogs set loose on them but they kept returning And so must we!!!

The Violence of the Hick and the Dick

Hick & Cock seem bound on provoking violence in the city of Denver. Their answer of homeless shelters is like asking cattle to enter the feed yards. Like the old song of "signs, signs everywhere signs....do this, do that" describes what they offer. Most single men without proof of recent TB testing and ID won't be admitted to one of these fine shelters they so often tout. As many mental health professionals know, psychotic, delusional and veterans with PTSD and substance abuse issues aren't going to enter the shelters. What? You say put them in a psych unit. In the past five years over 2/3 of the inpatient psych beds in the region have been closed. The most galling is the unit at the state funded University Hospital. Psych units aren't the answer to the homeless problem. Jails aren't the answer even if the legal system now houses and treats the most mental health patients in the state. Veterans with hypervigilance and self medicating problems aren't viable candidates for the cattle call admittance to the overnight shelters. There are no wet shelters for the functional or peaceful addict or alcoholic. Denver Cares or Arapahoe Detox are nightmares and not meant as shelters. In the past many veterans created encampments along the S. Platte called names like Clintonville, Bushville and the sort. At least they had some shelter and had each other's backs. But gentrification by the returning yuppies from suburbia meant the blight of encampments had to go. LoDo's million dollar condos couldn't look out over shanty town encampments of the homeless unwilling to enter the lottery of the overnight bedding shelters. So the encampments moved south and north but cops and authorities harassed the bridge people, the encampments and the park dwellers with fines, arrests for public intoxication, public urination and other legal issues. They knew these homeless people could never pay the fines and would end up with failure to appears or serving time in city or county jails. Out of sight out of mind. The criminalization of being homeless and not wanting to jump all the hoops demanded in the city, state and federal supported shelters grows every day. Every year the snow comes and the weather gets deadly and still there are homeless people who refuse to enter the shelters. That alone is an indictment of these shelters meeting the needs of the wide range of homeless. And less we forget, there is a triage system in which families, battered women and single women take precedence over single men. Homeless shelters for veterans only don't exist even though a good 40% of all men over the age of 30 that are homeless are veterans. Veterans in a crowded shelter of homeless people can be a time bomb. One intrusion into a personal space can create a trigger leading to flashbacks and violence. But most veterans are weeded out anyway because so many are self medicating and homeless people don't get admitted to shelters if they're thought to be intoxicated or under the influence.


Hick and Cock would have you believe there's a room or place for all and there's no need for shanties, burn barrels or sleeping on steam grates downtown. And homeless people are so damned dirty and such a turnoff for the rich hotel dwellers from out of town or visiting the sites around Civic Center. What's laughable is Civic Center Park has long been known as a haven to make a drug score while cops looked on in boredom and disinterest. CCH has become tied up in all the politics as well as many of the shelters "approved" by the authorites. Too often these folks berate groups like Food Not Bombs for feeding the homeless with the premise it only encourages the homeless population to shun the "real shelters" and leaves too many on the streets.

A few years back I was developing a small federally granted house for the homeless and decided to do site visits of all the different shelters in the area. It soon became clear there was backbiting and infighting in spades between the different shelters. Directors would bad mouth each others' programs and tout their own. It didn't take long to figure out the chase for government and charity dollars was leading to this uncoordinated effort.

While Hick would like you all to know how he pushed for more housing for the homeless during his mayoral tenure, he fails to mention all the subsidized housing lost to gentrification. Housing formerly used by mental health centers for their clients. All the touted new housing wasn't even keeping up with the housing lost to gentrification. And then Hick decided a state of the art jail spending around a half billion dollars was necessary. A jail increasing bed capacity by 200 some beds.

Hick had a study done to see about jail diversion of populations with addiction and mental health problems done prior to the push for the new jail. The experts found for every one dollar spent in treatment 5-10 dollars of incarceration dollars could be saved. He ignored the study because the new jail made for some lucrative land deals and some political capital put out to the contractors bidding on the construction of the new jail.

Well, along came the Bush depression causing cuts in state and city budgets. And staffing a new jail with 200 more beds has become a problem. But keep in mind more and more homeless people are sent to jail following multiple arrests for petty misdemeanors they can't pay fines for and failure to appear charges because they either know they can't pay or they don't have an address to get their summons.

The new jail and all the jails in the metro area have become default homeless shelters. "It's a crime to be broke in America" was a rap done by Michael Franti and Spearhead a while back. And he wasn't wrong at all.

So, where does the provocation of violence come into play by Hick and Cock? They are in a full fledged battle against the occupy movement gaining traction in their city, their state. They see tents and burn barrels to warm people as crimes requiring full riot police participation. They see food served to the hungry as a threat to the state and city. They follow their corporate masters who want their corporate streets sanitized of the homeless and those willing to miss showers and comforts of home to make a huge political stand for economic equity, social justice and systemic change.

Every since the battle for Seattle at the WTO gathering every major police agency has trained for the confrontations of the poor and middle class seeking redress of their government. The feds have used terrorism as sledge hammer to dismantle the civil rights of all Americans. And a great majority of Americans have agreed to give up freedom for a false sense of security. They say they have nothing to hide and think those who object to the violations of the constitution must surely be hiding sedition and terrorism.

Hick and Cock and all their parallel flunkies around the nation see the Egyptian summer and the willingness of the oppressed to go toe to toe against overwhleming force and fear the rocks and bottles may be coming their way. And in a self fulfilling way that's what they seem to be provoking in their willingness to fight the homeless and their supporters from Occupy Denver.

Cock got roundly booed and called a fascist at a vigil for the homeless who died this past year. Some think it was disrespectful to those being mourned but maybe we should think about how many lives could have been saved had Hick and Cock done the right thing instead of continuing the battle against the homeless by criminalizing it as quickly as they can. Maybe it's time to let this city know the poor and homeless are humans deserving the same respect as the oil executive or campaign contributor.

A message to Hick and Cock. If you act like fascists expect a blowback of violence and civil disobedience to occur. And all your riot police can't put the fires of rage out like they did a few warming barrels last night. I don't say this to encourage violence but history demonstrates oppression leads to an eventual revolutionary change.

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The Hypocrite Hancock Doesn't Honor Homeless

I can understand the problem some had with protesters aligning themselves with Occupy Denver interrupting and cat-calling Mayor Hancock at the vigil for the homeless who died the last year. But, were I homeless and this clown of a mayor stepped on a stage to "honor" the homeless I'd be pretty damn angry. Keep in mind while Hancock and Gov. Hick like to do the photo-op things at shelters and vigils they are working to further criminalize homelessness. Hancock, along with ex-cop and now councilman, Charlie Brown, are plotting to make sleeping in LoDo, downtown area illegal. How can Hancock have the audacity to call himself an advocate of the homeless? Were I one of the homeless that has repeatedly been harassed and brutalized by DPD at several sites on several occasions I would be angry about an appearance of such a damn hypocrite as Hancock.


The reality is homeless folks are on the frontlines of the disparity of wealth in this nation. The rich and powerful either want to herd them into their version of shelters or in cheap motels unfit for children to thrive. They want to sanitize the tourist areas and the financial sectors of the city. Homeless not welcome.

I was once homeless for six months in this city immediately after my return from Vietnam. There was no way I would have gone to the miserable excuses they had for shelters back then. And I totally understand those who don't want to go to what they offer today.

I also respectfully disagree shouting down the mayor at the vigil is an act of a provocateur or shouldn't be done simply because it offends some and the mainstream press will jump on the negative remarks. I have been part of many groups who constantly worried about the mainstream press coverage. They planned rallies and marches for times congruent with the evening news or newspaper deadlines. And, what have they gotten the great majority of the time? Ten right wingers show up to counter protest the 500-1000 or even 100,000 protesters of the left and they get as much coverage as the larger group trying to get their message out to the mainstream public. One idiot of a large group of people can act out and the mainstream press will use that as their lead in the story about a rally or march.

I'm very much of the opinion the mainstream press can go fuck themselves. They are simply the media cheerleaders of the establisment of the rich....or as the Occupy movement says, the 1%. When Martin Luther King or the freedom riders carried out their acts of civil disobedience did the mainstream media agree with them or report objectively about their actions? When Malcolm X went to the streets with his message did the mainstream media give white Americans some understanding about the message Malcolm was giving?

And yet we continue to suck up to the bought and paid for media in anything we attempt to do in the resistance against the oligarchs? I am more an advocate of Malcolm's message of "by any means necessary" than Dr. King's message. I came to this conclusion with regret. But when a large group of people congregate to seek redress and to exercise their right to free speech, and do so peacefully, and riot police with lethal weapons appear I find it outrageous.

I don't agree with remaining passive if I'm peacefully standing in a public park expressing my protest against a system of government and corporate oppression. I'm not going to sit down to be brutalized. I'm not holding hands and not defending my skull against a robotic cop who is wired with the thrill of finally getting to use the riot training in real time. I won't try to quiet another person voicing anger at provocative riot team with the only weapons on site.

I won't talk to the mainstream press. Too many times the editing of the press creates a totally errant context of a person's thoughts. Their agenda is to create fear and negative impressions when they report on those who dissent against the oppressors in government and the corporate world.

I refuse solidarity with groups such as the Tea Party. A group funded primarily by Karl Rove and the Koch brothers is by definition a polar opposite of the type of world I struggle for. For me groups such as this are a huge part of the problem. So, seeing a member of OD call for solidarity with them is startling and I will not accept it.

For some of us older activists the outspoken and in your face reactions of the young is disturbing. We can't remember our own time of outrage as young people in the streets during the 60s and 70s or some never took part. I admit the style of some anarchists and young radicals isn't the style I'm used to at my age.

But I also remember being the rageful Vietnam combat vet organizing VVAW here in Denver. I remember a friend who was a member of VVAW and the Black Panthers. He was constantly harassed by DPD to the point they would raid his home and tear apart it apart based on a false report he was holding guns. He was running the Panther breakfast program. He refused to stop his personal resistance.

So, I don't object when an oppressed group confronts a mayor so disingenuous as Hancock. And I'd ask those who were offended at the events to try to understand the reasons the confrontation occurred. Hancock had been dodging members of the Occupy movement for weeks. His appearance at a rally for the homeless was offensive.

And I'd ask those who throw out the charge of infiltrator and provocateur against those who don't match your idea of political action to be aware how offensive these words are to activists who simply do things differently than you. The current rift of Occupy Denver and groups such as the Street Medics and Cop Watch is based on slander such as this directed toward those who didn't "stay on message" the hierarchy of OD had in mind.

Solidarity is an ideal but isn't necessarily a reality. I respect those who desire things to always be peaceful and want to cooperate with the authorities. I disagree with coordinating things with the police or the authorities, however. I respect those who want to include cops in the 99%. Hell, my wife comes from a family of cops but they wouldn't be in riot gear quite willing to bash your head or pepper spray you. I can't include the police in the 99% group when they are the hammer of the oppressors.

So, I've taken a long route to simply say it's easy to dismiss or denigrate the actions or ideals of other activists but I believe we have to keep in mind there are diverse circumstances that have brought people to the path they are on. I'm not willing to exclude those who may want to try something different than what I'm comfortable with.

The Great American Electoral Diversion

As we enter 2012 the world's attention will be diverted from the real problems and issues of the human race to the stooges of the two parties that continue to hold power with oppressive tactics and indifference to the poor or troubled. The great American election season will descend upon us like a dark cloud of death and destruction and liars and their lies will take center stage. Don't be deceived! There isn't a "good" choice. There is no choice if we're seeking true revolutionary change.

Don't be deceived! Don't allow your energy to be sapped and stolen by the thieves who tell you what you want to hear but never intend to put their words into action. They are the bought off tools of those really in power. They are the puppets of the masters of war. If you really want change spending countless hours trying to win over the electorate for a lying political puppet will only waste your time.

Oh, yeah, I've heard and been part of the electoral myth of representative government. I fought in the war of my generation and came back with tortured soul and disturbed mind. I was a sucker for all rhetoric and patriotism spewing out of their mouths in speeches they allowed others to write for them.

The great American election is a fictional endeavor to keep us distracted from the rapes and murders done in "our name". It is the con game to keep our eyes on the circus while the earth is plundered and destroyed and we are made serfs at the bidding of rich lords who are not benovolent. They are toxic, violent and destructive to life. 2012 will be the year of just one more vaudeville stage act to distract us. But this time the money to do so is unlimited thanks to the justices of a court that has no idea what justice is.

The puppets will spend more than most nations' have to spend in twenty years and the media will become their willing partner in spreading putrid lies. If the American people are willing to allow their choices to be determined by 30 second sound bites of lies and half-truths they are destined to be subjugated to third world status. There will be television in the media circus of the mythical democratic election of 2012 but the true revolution will not be televised! The puppet masters will not allow it. The masters of war will send their storm troopers in cars marked "To Protect and Serve" to attempt silencing all of us who dare speak out.

The controlled media of the oligarchy will distort and misconstrue any attempt of truth escaping the nightmare of the great American dream. It will tell you what a wonderful life you have. It will tell you workers are revered by the oppressive multinationals as they offshore and globalize your jobs to slave labor camps. They will tout your freedom and talk about the heroes who went to illegal wars to protect it but secretively build detention centers for you if you challenge their rule.


And the saddest thing is not what they do but what they fail to do. They will allow children to go hungry and starve, to die from starvation and poor water while they spend billions to deluge the airways with their phony lies and promises in order to get elected. They'll turn their backs on the heroes they so glowingly hailed when they started their wars as they live in luxurious estates and high end suites traveling around the nation to lie. They'll claim to care about the young man or woman scarred for life from the horrors of war but fail to have the moral courage to stand up for them in budget debates. They'll even use them in their campaign ads.

The great American election will be like all the others but your eyes will be glued to the tube while the corruption and evil carry on unabated. They'll talk about fetuses, homosexual marriages destroying the traditional marriage, socialism threatening the pathetic system of medical care, environmental regulations causing jobs to be lost while we breath the fumes of their toxic wastes and see the waters of our world become a huge oil slick. They'll talk about pipelines saving us from dependency on foreign oil when in fact the oil in the pipes will go to foreign markets. It will be wedge issues not real issues that will dominate the media we get via cable, net and phones.

Think about the cost of the upcoming election and then think of the child who dies ever 15-30 seconds caused by the effects of poverty. Think about the suicides of the men and women sent to wars only to increase the wealth of a few. Think about the homeless man and woman in sub-freezing temperatures being rousted during the day by storm troopers making sure the dirty and disheveled don't upset the clean and neat. And rich.

The election of 2012 will get all the headlines but the reality of human issues will be hidden from the debate. If we spend our time involved in this lie they would call democracy or freedom we delude ourselves we can make a difference.

Goodbye, Old Friend

Sylvester took his last breath around 430pm yesterday. I was holding him in my arms as Pam stroked his head between his ears...his favorite spot. He barely struggled. Just a moment of crying out in fear before he relaxed and then died peacefully as I held him and sobbed. Pam was crying too. Her baby who truly adored her had left us both. Strange how I thought of a couple of Marines who took their last breath with me at their side. I wished I could have been as gentle with them as I was with Silly. But I can cry and grieve a beloved pet. Just not a human life. Instead I get stoic and dissociate.
Now the routines we had interacting with Sylvester begin to hit us. I started to go get his food dish to wash it out as I have for years now. The reality suddenly hit me. The grief is physical as well as emotional. My body aches and I'm so very tired. I woke at 3am thinking of death. Not unusual since I often have combat nightmares. But this was grief waking me.
How in the world did I allow this cat to capture me like he did? He was frequently in competition for Pam's affection during our time together. And yet, yesterday before she came home, I reluctantly kept going down to pet and soothe him. I cried as I told him the plan. He purred loudly as I petted his head and down his now bony spine. His eyes were tired eyes of an old timer who had had enough. I understood exactly how he felt. I feel like an old blues song I often listen to that has the lyric, "I'm tired....so very, very tired".
On my facebook I commented that it seems sort of irrelevant a cat died in the face of all the problems we have in our stuggle for peace and justice. But personal heartache doesn't care about politics or the stupidity of humans. It just happens and at that moment of heartache nothing else matters. The most important thing I did yesterday was hold my old friend as he took his last breath. With my loving wife sitting right beside me and him. The most important thing I could do yesterday was tell him how much his life meant to me, that we loved him and to tell him goodbye.
After I carried his body out to the vet's pickup, I thought how appropriate it was to be snowing and so cold. It captured the pain of the loss. I returned to the house and Pam and I embraced each other and cried. It was probably the most tender embrace we've had for many years. Our lives go by and we take each other for granted until the time of heartache comes to make us remember one another.
Today I called Isaac to let him know. I thanked him for bringing Sylvester into our lives He was the one who brought the cat to our home. He was going to take care of him. That didn't last long. Isaac has his own troubles which aren't conducive to caring for a cat.
I couldn't keep from crying when I talked to Isaac. I'm sure he was upset. And, of course, my fear was he would use the death as a trigger to use cocaine. Another heartache waiting to happen. And I can't say with any certainty I will cry as I did yesterday. With Isaac it has been a long drawn out process of dying where neither Pam or I can intervene to stop it. I only hope this death of our old friend won't be the final straw for Isaac.
I miss seeing Silly in the sun room basking in the sun. Sitting with his feet tucked under his body. I miss his nagging me to remind Pam it's time for her to brush him. I'll miss him going out in our yard and turning it into his own personal jungle. How did I allow this cat to get this close to my heart?

My Wife's Cat

My wife's cat is dying. He's close to 20 years old and has been part of our lives for a third of our lives. Amazing to think as I look back. It was the year my youngest son graduated that Sylvester first came into our home. He was one of those pets that starts out being the kid's but ends up with the parents taking care of him.
He was a wild child at first. He literally tore down a ficus tree over a period of weeks. Shredded it with his claws. I became the enforcer with the spray bottle of water trying to use aversive therapy to tame him down. I got a lot of exercise chasing him as he darted here and there and finally ended up under a bed or some dark hideaway I couldn't get him out of.
Then when the youngest abandoned him, Sylvester  became Pam's cat. She was the one  person he truly attached himself to. They fell in love with one another and that love has persisted to this day.
There's been many moments when Sylvester and I seemed to be at odds because we both wanted Pam's love and attention. And he made it clear he wanted to be first in line.
He has always loved the summer. Although he's been primarily an indoor cat, he loved going out in the yard we have and strolling through the shaded tree areas, lying low in the grasses and going around the perimeter to make sure his kingdom was safe.
He loved when I started growing tall fountain grasses in the yard. It gave him more cover to be the stalker of wild bugs like moths and flies. He became a practiced expert in capturing these insects. He was a blast to watch as he lowered himself in a crouch ready to pounce. His rear end would wiggle right before he uncoiled to grab a moth out of the summer air.
We thought we were going to lose Sylvester when he was younger. He developed a urinary tract infection that resulted in an expensive operation. He ended up castrated and we changed his diet. That didn't seem to keep him from getting a little chubby.
When he first came into our home we had an old English Cocker, Daisy. She was my love. I had many dogs but Daisy was the greatest and most loving dog I ever had. Her death created a great void in my life. Sylvester loved to cuddle up against Daisy's soft coat while she lay in her favorite living room chair. She tolerated it. In some way I think she felt like the mother she hadn't been allowed to be and he saw her as the replacement for his mother he'd been taken away from when he came into our home.
When Daisy died Sylvester seemed lost and looked for her. He lay in her bed one time and never did it again. Soon he realized she was gone. And he became king of our home. We didn't mind. Well I had no choice and Pam definitely didn't mind.
Up until the time Pam left for a time to be with her niece in China while the niece adopted a child, Sylvester and I had only a live and let live relationship. When Pam was gone it was clear I had to find a way to interact with him to offset the depression he felt with his lover, Pam, gone. So, I decided brushing him might work. Did it ever.
Sylvester is one of those creatures that decides if you do something for him one time that he likes you have to do it the rest of his life. And we have. And he knows exactly what time he's to be brushed. 630 p.m. is his time. He gets feed at 5p, 9pm and 5 a.m.. If we miss those times he lets us know. But we tolerated his nagging and have come to be ruled by his schedule.
Sylvester used to fly up on the window sills or our bed. He loved looking out the windows at all the traffic and other things happening out in the front of our home. He loved sitting on Pam's lap in the evening if she was on the bed reading. He would sit in a Buddha style as she rubbed his head between his ears and talked lovingly to him. Only recently has he been unable to get up on the bed. And jump up on the window sill. He still goes out to his backyard jungle but doesn't stay as long.
This summer I started leaving the front door open so Sylvester can look out like he used to from the window. There's been a few times a neighbor cat showed up and Sylvester would hiss and growl at the intruder. He's also had a few visitors out back he's tolerated only to sit a few feet away and have a stare down.
Since I began brushing him he and I had a more cordial relationship. And he certainly didn't mind me feeding him. But  only in the last few years has he used me as the intermediary to get Pam to do what was on his schedule. If I was lying on the couch and Pam was across the room in her chair, Sylvester would come up to me and meow, stare at me in a questioning way until I would remind Pam what time it was.
Yeah I know all this pet shit is hardly world shattering. Except for us. I look at the tumor on Sylvester's side and know his time is short. But he carries on. He doesn't whine or act angry. He still wants to be brushed even as he has infrequent times his balance is off.
He still eats well but he is losing weight. He's now a bony black cat with some white markings on his paws and chest. But he still purrs lovingly when we brush him. He looks at Pam in adoration and love whenever she gives him attention. I'm jealous that I can't give her as loving looks as he does. But I'm happy to see that bond of love the two have.
I'm not a cat person. I always had dogs growing up. My mom introduced cats into our home when I was a teen but they kept their distance and I kept mine. I've always gave dogs credit for their unconditional love. Never felt cats could duplicate it. But I see Sylvester with Pam and I've changed my mind.
As he has gone down hill, he now lets me rub his head and massage his neck. He purrs and lets me know it's alright. But it isn't alright. I'm already feeling the loss. I hate that I've allowed myself to get this close to this damn cat. But I see him steadfast every day and I realize he has become a role model for me. Yeah, a cat becoming a role model. He is like the "panther kitty" Pam calls him. A black panther. He's had a mindset of being tough minded and demanding his freedom.
But Sylvester is his own lesson in grace. He's a tough guy who still demands we stay on schedule, carry out the important things in life. Like loving an old black cat that somehow managed to grab my heart when so many people could never do so. He's taught me to never give up on a relationship. There may be a time when things change.
I don't cry very often. I'm an old man who's pretty much a crank. I like my privacy. I don't like groups of people too often. Hate all the holiday parties. I have to force myself to even be social. I'm sort of close to my kids and sort of not. I'm not overly affectionate. I blame it on the war and PTSD. Probably is. I got numbed to death and loss in Vietnam. It came home with me.
I'm going to cry when Sylvester passes. I'm almost crying as I write this. He's been part of my life so long I took him for granted until suddenly he pushed himself into my heart. My wife's "panther kitty" has left a large impression on my life. I'm going to miss him something awful. Thanks Silly...thank you so very much.
Addendum:
December 19, 2011
We're going to call the vet today and have him come out to euthanize Silly. Slyvester had a good week of eating wet food for the first time since he was a kitten. But now he's not eating and can barely walk. He hangs his head in his water bowl and uses all the energy he can seem to muster just to drink. Last night I put my face down on the floor next to him to look him in the eye so I could thank him and tell him I loved him. He calmly looked at me with his tiring eyes as if he understood exactly what I said. Pam is terribly upset. Her baby will be gone. I doubt  I can ever fill that void. Strange how relationships evolve. I've come to distance myself from everybody. And I understand that exhausted feeling I see in that old black cat's eyes. I'm tired, also.

Veterans Day 11-11-11 (Rembembrance Day)

I saw this thing on the History Channel yesterday about the Vietnam War. It said in WWII the combat veteran was in actual combat an average of 10 days a year. The combat veteran in Vietnam was in actual combat an average of 240 days a year.

During "my war" over 58,000 Americans were killed. It's estimated nearly 3 million Vietnamese were killed. In Cambodia millions more were killed during the genocide brought on by the Nixon/Kissinger cabal involving Cambodia in our nasty and immoral occupation in SE Asia. Kissinger still has credibility in our national political arena. He was very much involved with the Bush/Cheney cabal that is responsible for millions dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's fascinating to sit down forty three years later and watch the footage of the war in Vietnam in HD. Especially after experiencing it in real time....would that be 3D, 4D...not sure. Somehow I couldn't keep from watching as footage of the Tet Offensive of 1968 came on the screen. The battle for Hue especially since that was one of my stopping points during my 13 month Marine Corps "tour". I could never understand how they could describe participation in war as a tour. I think I got the wrong travel agent.

I hate the holiday of Veterans Day. I hate the opportunity so many take to celebrate and glorify American militarism. Even the local Occupy Denver group made some statement about honoring the "fallen heroes" and all of us who "sacrificed" for our nation. I hate people thanking me for being a veteran of my immoral war. I hate other veterans saying "welcome home" forty two years after I came home.....the person I was and could have been never came home.

I don't need the History Channel to show me HD footage of the war. I have that on a regular basis running around in my head. It's the movie clip that never ends. And, for some reason..insane as it sounds.....I don't want it to end. I don't want to forget the waste of lives I witnessed and took part in. I don't want to forget the many names I found on the Vietnam Memorial...."The Wall", on a cold January day.

In 1970 after a two year battle with the USMC to get discharged and after I flipped off the MPs at the Camp Pendleton gate as I left for the last time, I made a promise I would never forget or forgive what this nation did in Vietnam. I promised my brothers of India Company, 3rd Batallion, Fith Marines who died during the entire year of 1968 I was in Vietnam I wouldn't forget them.

In 1971, I met Brian Adams and Steve Norris at an anti-war conference here in Denver. Brian was a national organizer for Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Steve was a veteran who joined us to organize VVAW in Denver. I've been told there was another version of VVAW before or after the time I organized. But at the time it was just us three. VVAW was the answer to the rage I felt about the war. It allowed me an opportunity to do "something". And 40 years later I'm still trying to do "something".

I don't buy into the fallen hero concept of combat veterans. Just yesterday a combat veteran was sentenced to life in a military prison for his involvement in the murders of Afghan civilians just for the sport of it. It would be easy to say the all voluntary military has brought about the decline of the military and led to such atrocity. But, I saw antisocial Marines in 1968 trying to be the first one to hit an elderly rice farmer working a 100 yards away from where we had stopped for a break.

When I was with the USMC less than one month in Vietnam I witnessed my squad leader tossing a fragmentation grenade into the air vent of an underground shelter occupied by fearful Vietnamese civilians. They wouldn't exit when he attempted to communicate he wanted them out of the shelter. He had ordered me to toss the grenade. I refused. I kept hearing the cries of a baby coming from that shelter. I wouldn't kill a baby.

Less than two weeks later the squad leader was killed by a sniper during an ambush. It was January 30, 1968. The beginning of Tet. I wasn't sad to see the sonofabitch die. I just felt guilty that I had wished him dead. I've never considered him a fallen hero. Never will.

The turning point of my 18 year old life came on January 30-31, 1968. My squad was overrun by a large North Vietnamese Army force trying to escape the trap my Marine company had them in. They were encircled within a village inside a grove of trees. It was during the dark of night. Earlier that day I had been close to a tree line burned down by the tumbling napalm bombs dropped by USMC jets supporting us.

Napalm burns at around 3000 degrees F when it ignites. It takes away the oxygen of the area of detonation. We called the charred bodies of the victims of napalm, "crispy critters". On January 31, 1968, following a night of combat in which I was knocked unconcious by the blast of a Vietnamese concussion grenade, I saw my first "crispy critter".

It was around noon when we entered the village in the grove of trees. The napalm had been dropped on the village. Earlier in the day the surviving members of my squad had the task of collecting bodies of the enemy strewn around a large rice paddy and tall grassy area surrounding it. One Marine decided he would use his survival knife to extract gold fillings and teeth from the dead bodies. We found over 30 bodies. We lined them in a row for the Batallion Commander. He posed with the bodies in the forefront for cameras of Marine combat photographers.

I first smelled the village. It smelled like ham. The napalm had incinerated the pot belly pigs of the villagers. The first thing I saw other than badly burned trees was charred forms of human bodies scattered on the ground of what used to be a village. Most of the village structures were burned to the ground. Nothing had escaped the heat of the napalm.

The first human form I came upon was the size of an infant. It was on the ground next to a form of an adult human. I guessed it was the mother of the infant. Besides the smell it was a grusome and horrific sight. But I couldn't take my eyes off the scene. Every where I looked I saw more forms. More "crispy critters". Some of the Marines laughed and joked about the crispy critters. Some talked about how the napalm had "got some". I wanted to puke but had nothing in my stomach to throw up.

Crispy critters, traumatic amputations, strewn body parts, evaporation of bodies from huge booby traps, short rounds killing us instead of them, water boarding and assassination of prisoners, torture, body mutilation,free fire zones, revenge .....this became my life at age 18 and 19. I didn't stop it. I didn't object. I could do neither and survive Vietnam. I just did my job. I became the squad leader I had hated and wished dead.

I've written this narrative several times, Each time I seem to remember one more detail. I've spoke with high school and college students about the experience of combat. I've given my oral history of war countless times. Each time is an emotional revisiting of those days of combat. I consciously decided to let emotion become part of any presentation I gave about my time in war.

The Marines gave me medals. I was given one for being wounded. I returned to the "world" with high performance and proficiency scores. I had been meritoriously promoted two times. I was a poster boy Marine when I came back. Squared away. Until I started refusing. And saying, "no". They tried retraining me, punishing me, jailing me.

Sargeants, Lieutentants, Captains, Colonels all yelled at me. Chaplains told me I was forgiven for what I had done because it was for my country. Military psychiatrists said I had some readjustment problems but wasn't sick enough for their hospitals. In the end they threatened me with prison at a Naval brig in New Hampshire. My military lawyer sold me out. My ACLU lawyer pressured the USMC and Naval legal service to offer a discharge.

So, there was a happy ending. Not if you ask my grown sons or my wife. Not so happy living with me on many occasions. Bouts of rage, self medicating, depression and suicidal thinking and attempts followed my happy ending. If only they had a diagnosis for whatever it was causing me to behave in such a way. About 12 years after my discharge PTSD was included in the psychiatric community's diagnostic bible, the DSM.

Since 1975 three times as many Vietnam veterans have killed themselves as were killed in action. 58,000 plus KIA. Over 150,000 committed suicide. I wonder how many during the 12 years I mentioned. The divorce rate for Vietnam veterans is 90%. 500,000 Vietnam veterans have been arrested or incarcerated. 100,000 are currently incarcerated and another 200,000 are on parole. 40% of Vietnam veterans are unemployed. 25% earn less than $7,000 a year. Drug and alcohol abuse ranges from 50-75%.

I'm going to a presentation by IVAW tonight. Operation Recovery is a project intended to get the needed help for active duty men and women. Such as stopping commanders from sending troops back to a war zone when the mental health professionals have declared them unfit for duty in a war zone. One of the statistics given me was one active duty troop commits suicide every 36 hours. Nearly 1/3 of the female troops report sexual assault or harassment. Clearly that number is greater because of the military attitude toward women making such a charge.

Don't tell me thank you for your service. I did no service to this nation. I had good intentions but failed to inform and educate myself. Don't welcome me home. Despite my body and much of my mind being back from Vietnam, a large part of me never came home. My mother lost the son she saw go to war despite her warnings. My sister could never be close to me again. If you want to thank veterans on this day set aside to remember....the day used to be called Rembembrance Day......work to end the wars. Work for peace and justice. That's what I thought I went to war for but instead became a tool and thug for the racketeers Smedley Butler talked about.



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Zinn-Like Anarchy

For the last month I've been going to the Occupy Denver site to support a cause I think has the potential to change this nation. Unless the thugs and alleged "anarchists" promoting violence and property destruction destroy the movement. There's nothing wrong with anarchists in my opinion. Howard Zinn was an unabashed anarchist. Gandhi was an anarchist. Emma Goldman was an anarchist. At one time she promoted the use of violence but came to discover it diluted the movement and the cause of dismantling oppressive governments.

For the past month I've seen folks running around with handkerchiefs covering their faces apparently to identify themselves as anarchists. It is the dress code as much as we veterans wear our old fatigues or dress uniforms, campaign ribbons, boonie hats or some identifying thing.

It's obvious the anarchists don't like the tactics and much of the philosophy of the main Occupy Denver group. They make it clear by talking over the main group's megaphone and "people's mike" with their own megaphones. It has become a inane battle of megaphones at every gathering of more than a few dozen people.

Now I am as radical as they come in my thinking about tactics. At heart I'm an anarchist. I don't believe in national borders, don't think there's such a concept as an "illegal" person. I know the government isn't one for me or most of the people I am acquainted with. It has always been a government to protect the oligarchs in possession of the greatest wealth.

I came to realize I was duped as an enlisted Marine in 1967. And, unlike Smedley Butler, it didn't take me 30 plus years to come to the conclusion the military was nothing but a group of thugs trained to become sociopathic tools to destroy anybody or anything blocking the will of the racketeers in government and their rich masters. It took me the first month (January) I was in Vietnam in 1968 as an 18 year old combat infantryman.

I may have been stupid enough to enlist but I wasn't so stupid I couldn't see we were nothing but bullies with lethal force against the Vietnamese people. But rather than go to prison, I went along and did my job. My job was to seek out any and all individuals considered the enemy of the US or my platoon. And I became proficient in carrying out my job when it became necessary to protect myself or the men in my platoon.
On return to the US my emotional health and the shock of my 13 month experience in Vietnam led me to start my own personal resistance against the USMC. I walked away time and again despite all the medals, commendations and rank I had "earned" while in Vietnam. Eventually I was imprisoned in a Marine brig, a city jail and in a Marine correctional platoon. On one occasion the brig pod I was incarcerated in was gassed because of an uprising by some of us combat veterans. None of the punishments or threats had an impact on my resistance. I came to realize I was acting out my conscience.

Finally the Corps got tired of my shit and offered me a less than honorable discharge. Their threatened court martial wouldn't have looked too good once my ACLU attorney let some of his newspaper friends know the Corps intended on jailing one of their heroes with meritorious promotions and medals only heroes earned. One that had been wounded in action. I accepted the undesirable discharge with pleasure and actually felt it an honor to be considered undesirable to the USMC.

Once discharged I happened upon a national organizer of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He and I, joined by one other veteran, organized the Denver chapter. We sent a contingent to Operation Dewey Canyon III in DC. We threw our ill gotten medals over the fence at the Capitol. Later we had our own Winter Soldier's Investigation in Denver that followed the format of the national investigation in Detroit. We testified about war crimes and corrupt practices of the military we had witnessed.

A few of our local members were also members of the Black Panthers. We were constantly on J. Edgar Hoover's radar as being anti-American "communists". Local police and FBI constantly tried to infiltrate us and provoke us to act out violently. The problem with this tactic was the true veterans of combat were tired of violence. Our organization existed to stop violence, end the war and bring our brothers home. At one point the DPD intimidated a WSI witness by threatening to revoke his probation. He had been self medicating with drugs and ended up being arrested and tried for a felony.

Even in therapy groups infiltrators appeared. It sounds crazy but that was the case in my first Vet Center group. It took us a few weeks before we realized one of the group was an impostor. It destroyed the group.

I'm presenting this history as a way of giving myself some credibility to speak out about what I've observed at Occupy Denver. In today's social media, haters and flamers will usually come out of the woodworks if someone provides criticism about a movement or progressive organization. I don't really care if anybody chooses to hate me and attempts to discredit me. I do care about changing this world so my grandsons and granddaughter have a better life than is now projected for them.

Occupy Denver has good intentions from all sides but the rudeness and infighting that seems to be worse everytime I come to support the movement is palpable. And disturbing. And I'm not the only one feeling this. This past Saturday at the Fed the megaphone duel sent many mainstream supporters on their way.

The constant tactic of march and rally has diminishing returns. Most people have heard enough, read enough and experienced enough to know the issues. Teach-in time is over. It is now time to act on what is said to be common goals and beliefs. A next step is necessary.

Many of us veterans have experience in guerilla or insurgency warfare. There is a good deal to be learned from the tactics used against us. But non-violence has to be maintained. Centralized grouping may be good show but mobility has some advantages. Weekends are convenient but inconvenience can be inflicted on weekdays as well. Cooperation with cops and authorities about tactics and planning is poor strategy and lets the oppressive force of the government and their corporate masters dictate what will be done.

We are in a class warfare! The 99% needs to discover its power and exert it wisely and with tactics that are different than what was done in the past. Every revolutionary movement for change has to live in the present. The tactics of the past are well known to the guardians of the corporate and governmental castles.

We are in a class war and we had better be prepared for pushback. The opponents we face are well financed, influential and control much of our lives. They aren't stupid. We can rail against the rich and powerful and fail to give them credit or try to understand them and work to weaken their strength. There's plenty of opportunity to point out what the big "they" do, but isn't it time to uncover who they are and expose each individual?

As an individual I've had a history of being part of an illegal and immoral occupation. This is the time for a moral occupation by the 99% who don't have the security of that 1%. The moral occupation can't allow itself to regress to the violence the masters of war and greed want from us. We can strike fear in the hearts and minds of the 1% by growing the movement and keeping violence out of the equation. Anarchy can be useful and necessary but those who propose violence of actions or words will weaken the movement. It's that simple. You want to be isolated again, keep up the violence.

Solidarity or Failure

So now the Occupy Denver movement is for real. The sniping, infighting and division about tactics are reaching the mainstream press and like vultures they swoop down to show all the dysfunctional parts of the movement. Some say we should "fight back" with self defense classes and aggressive actions towards the police. Heard a mention of a gun being needed.

Thing about the movements that have succeeded is there wasn't instant gratification even as much as it was needed and desired. Believe me, as a former grunt, it takes all the self restraint I can muster not to go violent. But the question is....how would that help the big picture of the movement? What perception will a full scale riot create in bringing more everyday people or people from communities of color into the movement? Don't we have enough of our brothers and sisters serving time in prisons as it is?

As much as I hate the slow pace of things in bringing about revolutionary changes, an assualt or aggressive action toward police will end up with activists dead. We know the propensity of DPD for violence. We know they don't care if they kill someone they consider a "scumbag". And we know they seldom, if ever, face legal prosecution for their brutality. Is this what we want to go toe to toe with by demonstrating our self defense tactics?

I have differences of opinion toward the tactics being used. I'd prefer more proactive and creative tactics as opposed to the constant march and rally cycle. And maybe there can be both? Discussing tactics on social media isn't something I'd do but questioning whether there are some alternative methods seems appropriate.

It is discouraging to read and hear individuals deciding they think the Occupy Denver movement is bullshit simply because there's not a consensus to carry out a tactic preferred by one group or another. Solidarity dissipates quickly when the conflict becomes internally focused instead of focused on the true oppressors.

I'm 62 and been in many different actions and movements. Inevitably differences boil over and factions from one extreme to the other start appearing. I've marched with combat veterans and been gassed. Been arrested for opposing the war while active duty. Been arrested as a civilian. I've been proud to hook up with peace activists who have dedicated themselves to the grueling work of trying to create change. I love the energy and passion of young people from colleges to anarchists to hip-hop nation. And us old geezers need to start listening more to your concerns. It's your future at stake.

I have history of being in a diverse movement that included Catholic nuns and priests and members of the Black Panthers and Brown Berets of the LaRaza movement. It was a coalition that somehow gelled for a while. Then infiltrators and internal disputes disrupted the solidarity.

As dedicated activists we have to get used to the reality of police infiltrators and agitators. In today's world we will have to beware of agitators from the right wing such as the Tea Party and even more radical fanatics. We have to beware of drunks and felons who are not willing or able to control their propensity for violence. And there will be felons and homeless who will be indispensable in the knowledge they can bring to the movement.

The movement is reaching the point where it can either move forward with a more inclusive culture or it will fall apart from the irreconciable differences. That will be a shame but it is a real possibility. I've deliberately refrained from being part of any leadership group or spokesperson. My time has passed. Now I just want to be with the movement in solidarity and support. I don't mind facing off the police if that's a logical and needed thing to do. But if the movement is full of individuals unable to resolve differences without splinter groups working against each other, it will be difficult to support.

I am one of many veterans and older Americans fed up with what's gone down in our nation. We want change. We seek a movement that can have differences but keep the goals as the priority. Some of us will walk away if violence is a routine occurrence. And all the hotheads can say good riddance if they choose. But believe me when I say this movement will not succeed if families, older Americans, middle class Americans, people of color and a wide range of diverse beliefs aren't included.

Believe me, I have great anger toward this system that has destroyed so very much. I have moments of rage beyond anything most people can have. But in the final analysis, I realize I'm nothing without a large group of dedicated people to work with. I hope that's what happens with Occupy Denver

What's The Point? Are You Kidding Me!?

Several people have asked my wife and me, "what's the point?" concerning the Occupy Denver movement. One of them a woman whose husband had to declare bancruptcy for his construction business. He hasn't been able to find a job for over a year since that time. He's in his fifties.

Another is in debt to credit card companies for over twenty thousand dollars. He has a mortgage that's "under water". He fails to understand what the point of getting arrested in non-violent civil disobedience accomplishes. He thinks our main problem is government is too big. He buys into all the rhetoric of the Tea Party and dear ol' Rush.

Others look at the mainstream press reports and think Occupy Denver is groups of anarchists, trouble-makers or dope smokers. How many of the middle aged or older folks holding jobs and struggling in this economy are we seeing on the 5pm or 10pm newscasts? How many older veterans like myself are reported to be in the movement? How many moms and dads with their kids are we seeing in the mainstream press reports? I've seen plenty in the past month. I've also seen elderly folks well past their 60s walking in the marches.

No, what the mainstream press wants is blood, gas,pepper spray and arrests. They want to ignore the peaceful activists of the movement as irrelevant despite the peaceful being the great majority. They prefer to show cops "protecting" themselves against unarmed young people acting out enough to get arrested. They prefer to show cops in mass formations dressed in their Ninja Turtle riot gear. And the average person who hasn't gotten up off the couch to speak out but is quite willing to go to a Halloween gig downtown or to a football game at the stadium thinks the Occupy movement is just another bunch of those freaking liberals who support big government.

What's the point? The point is the Occupy movement around the world is putting a spotlight on things that will affect future generations. They are demanding accountability for the mass fraud of the biggest banks in the world.They are demanding accountability for the unethical and destructive practices of the Wall Street brokers who all hide behind the lies they are the job makers. They've been outed by the Occupy movement as destroying the economies of this nation and several other nations.

What's the point? The point is the Occupy movement has connected the dots of the 3 billion dollars spent each week just to support the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. They've shown how big corporations have profited off the blood of the poor in war zones, whether they be Americans or innocent civilians. They've shown the betrayal of the returning veterans in getting timely medical or mental health care.

The movement has demonstrated to spotlight the injustices of wealth distribution throughout the world. They've shown the myth of the richest 1% paying 35 % taxes. The recent CBO clearly shows this to be a lie when it reports the largest corporations in the world based in the U.S. not only don't pay taxes, they manage to get huge rebates through tax loopholes.

The movement has brought attention to the sieve know as the Federal Reserve. The Fed has secretively distributed taxpayer dollars in the trillions to the wealthiest corporations and individuals without oversight. Not only did the American government bail out the banks through the Congress, they've been continuously bailing them and other fat cats out without any accountability. More money has gone to them via the backdoor than through the Congress.

What's the point?The Occupy movement has brought attention to the environmental destruction posed by a pipeline from Canada to the Gulf that runs through some of the largest aquifers of drinking water in the middle part of this nation. They've shown there is no such thing as "clean coal" or safe nuclear power. They'e shown fracking is yet another danger to clean potable water and pristine forests and grasslands.

What's the point? The occupy movement has shown education and all social programs in this nation are under attack by the greedy 1%. They've shown the attack on collective bargaining by the 1%. It may seem to many this is good but they fail to understand the places where collective bargaining and unionization are free from attack are the places where workers historically have higher wages and better benefits. All workers. Not just union workers.

What's the point? The occupy movement has shown the fear of the oligarchy that the truth get out. They have ordered their police forces to squash the movement. The longer it stays around, the more the truth will be revealed. The police have obliged all across the U.S.. In Oakland Scott Olsen's skull was fractured by an "errant" projectile fired into the crowd by the riot squad. When others in the Occupy movement attempted to come to Olsen's aid a concussive cannister was thrown near Olsen's prone body as his rescuers came to his side. Olsen remains hospitalized and unable to speak. Scott Olsen is a Marine combat veteran with a job and a place to live. He was deployed twice to Iraq.

Really?? A combat veteran or any other activist violating an order that at best would bring misdemeanor charges deserves violent assault by police? Why is it the public cries out in anger when groups of activists simply try to put up food tents and sleeping tents in public parks but still think nothing of two wars killing Americans and innocent ciivilians? Why do the governors and mayors throughout the nation send out riot squads to gas, pepper spray and beat Occupy movement participants trying to camp out in the parks near the center of the local governments? And yet, these are the only Americans willing to demonstrate and speak out in the streets against the theft of millions of American pensions by the fraud of banks and Wall Street.

It is clear authorities don't want to be embarassed for their complicity in a bought and paid for government for the rich and by the rich. It has become overtly clear our own governor, John Hickenlooper, and the mayor of Denver, Michael Hancock, are colluding with the business world that funded their elections. The 1% control the wealth which means they control the media, they control the lobbyists and they control the governments all the way down to city governments. This is the point of the Occupy movement - to expose the fraud and demand regulations on campaign spending. To demand regulation on banking practices. To demand regulation on practices of stock brokerage firms. To demand the government get out of the corporate bed and govern the way it is intended.

What's the point? The claim the Occupy movement really doesn't have a focused message is absurd. The message is clear if people think about all the problems they have in living their lives free of worrying about food, shelter and healthcare. The message is clear if people think about being able to have a living wage, being able to pay their debts and being able to help their children go to college. The message is clear if students think about the debt they've incurred going to a university for their degree. The message is clear to the 47 million Americans who are without healthcare benefits. They don't think they should have to die because they are uninsured. The message is clear to parents who have buried sons or daughters who died in combat for the oil fields in Iraq. The message is clear to the mother who can't afford to get prenatal care and has a premature baby. The message is clear to the incarcerated young black or brown man who sit in prisons for crimes of possessing small amounts of street drugs. And yet, the greatest source of substance abuse is legal in forms of alcohol and tobacco.

What's the point? The point is the Occupy Denver, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Wall Street and all the other occupation sites are struggling for justice and equality. They struggle for cops who are short staffed and facing more and more budget cuts. They struggle for teachers to keep the right for collective bargaining and to be able to actually teach instead of administer inane achievement tests that fail to measure the true knowledge of each child. They struggle for all of us whether we ask them or not. And they pay the price with constant police harassment. They pay the price with the determination to stay despite weather, fatigue, adequate shelter or facilities. They pay the price with fractured skulls and welts from rubber bullets and pepper spray pellets fired into their bodies at close range.

Attempts to discredit them are intense. Infiltrators who scream and shout to incite violence are constantly appearing. Provocateurs who try to incite property damage or engage in profanity and inciteful dialogue with cops and others have come and gone. The mainstream press feed on the failures of the immature to remain calm and peaceful. They don't give a damn if you're peaceful. Their jobs are to find something "juicy" about the movement so they can claim they've done investigative reporting. Even the true journalists will find their words and visuals distorted by the editors.

What's the point? The point is this movement may be the last chance to overcome the oppressive control of the richest 1% of the world. It may be the last chance for our children and grandchildren. If you don't get that .....then wake up!!

Embrace the Revolution

As Occupy Wall Street and the many solidarity occupations continue through this fall the rich fat cats smile and tell each other winter will put an end to this temporary nuisance. They don't believe there will be "winter soldiers" in the movement. They think the brutal assault on a combat veteran in a police sweep in Oakland will discourage the families and elderly. They think the mainstream media will grow tired of the story and move on to more important matters like interviews of the Madoff family. They think the police provocateurs will get the hot heads in the occupation sites to act out violently and discredit the movement.

The Tea Party is now whining they didn't get to camp out in city parks and public places like the occupation movement has. Of course, if the group that inhabited Crawford, Texas to protest the presence of Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey is any measure, it is highly unlikely the Tea Party members would have lasted more than a day without the comfort of their RV's with t.v.s and air-conditioning or heat. They would have missed setting up a grill and gorging themselves with good ole American beef and as many carbs as they could get. And never give a thought to the black brothers and sisters dying of hunger in Africa.

The question for the Occupy Wall Street movement is whether they will sustain the movement during the hard times ahead. The assault on Scott Olsen, who went to war in Iraq two times, is the rebuttal of Wall Street and their indentured slaves in government and the police department. If they are willing to bash the skulls of the troops they so willingly sent to die for their oil and empire, they won't hesitate to bash the heads of those peaceful men and women who have struggled many years to prevent wars and violence.

American exceptionalism tells us we don't brutalize our own but the ugly truth is we do. We, the 99% are disposable to the 1%. They will create the fervor for war and occupation of nations with natural resources they covet. They will promote yellow ribbons and faux parades of appreciation for "the troops" but don't give a damn about the loss of life, limbs and peaceful minds of those troops and their families.

The 1% doesn't care if the VA or any other social program suffers budget cuts as long as their bottom line continues at the 275% increase it has over the past thirty years. The 1% long ago hijacked the America we were falsely told about in school and in the press. That America, that United States, has never existed. It has never existed except for the 1%. Peace and justice for all is a myth. The words look good on a new public building but the truth is what's happening on the streets below the words. On the streets the 99% either toes the line and follows like sheep or is slaughtered like sheep and cattle.

The 99% are cannon fodder. They are indentured serfs to the system and the corporations that really control this nation. After WWII the 1% allowed unions and some Americans to prosper. It took blood and death but they grudgingly gave the serfs some of their scraps. And managed to turn all of us into foolish consumers buying in to a dream that is, in truth, a nightmare.

The 99% allowed ourselves to think we are free, that buying with credit and money we didn't have was good and that we were given all this because God loved us more. We thought we were exceptional. Turns out, we are only exceptional in our excesses much like the Roman empires and the other failed empires of history. Our foolish beliefs have only lined the pockets of the 1%. They now have most of us by the balls and throats in their trap of debt.

Before we begin the revolution, most of us need to acknowledge we were our own worst enemies for believing the lies of the 1%. Too many times we of the 99% still claim we like our lifestyles even as our neighbors dwindle in the destruction of foreclosures and lost jobs. We hated the unions but wished someone represented us when jobs were taken out of country or given to cheaper labor forces in other parts of the country. We demand better education but have vilified the teachers and failed to see the suits in administration hoarding budget monies to maintain their six figure jobs.

We bundle our kids up against the cold, make them wear helmets, elbow pads and knee pads but think nothing of sending them off to wars that are immoral and illegal. No one forced us to do any of this. We allowed ourselves to be conned. We knew our homes weren't worth the amounts the banks told us but went ahead and borrowed money to the max in the foolish belief our homes would always maintain their values. The 1% told us so.

Like all us combat veterans who survived our wars and came to realize we made a mistake in our narrow thinking, so too must all of us 99% realize we aren't going to be able to sustain the way things were before the bubble burst on the foolisn American dream. We need to endorse changing our lifestyles rather than thinking we can go back to being the excessive and destructive consumer driven people. We need to endorse changing our lifestyle to embrace the environment that sustains us. We need to change our interactions with the people of the world and accept we are first citizens of the world and owe our allegiance to no flag or anthem but to one another as humans.

Most of all we of the 99% must throw off the dependency we have on the 1%. The most logical way of getting the 1% to equal and just sharing of wealth and resources is to quit supporting them. Doesn't it seem the 99% has the power to create new ways of assuring hunger and hate don't dominate? Doesn't it seem the 99% can refuse to sacrifice our children to wars and violence? Isn't it time we repudiate a multi-national corporation is human? If they are human, where is the heart? Where is the soul? Where is the compassion and caring?

Over the past few days I have had great hate in my heart seeing the videos and hearing the sounds of Scott Olsen being assaulted. As an ex-combat Marine I realize I am "always faithful" to other Marines. I like to think I feel the same toward others in my world who want to be non-violent and work for change. I could let my anger build up to violence but then I'm no different than the cops who don't care if they kill us or ruin our lives. It's clear, the cops are the storm troopers of the 1%. They forfeit the compassion of the 99% with actions like occurred in Oakland the other night or here in Denver a few weeks ago.

How dangerous is standing in a street with others or sleeping in a park? It inconveniences others? Like the 1% doesn't only inconvenience the rest of us; they brutalize and intimidate us. They steal the legacy of our children. They commit crimes that destroy millions of lives and they continue to smirk in their castles and country clubs. Who is more dangerous; a combat vet seeking a peaceful way to express his constitutional right to free speech or the 1% who have created so much destruction, death, hate and environmental disaster? What magic hold do the 1% have on us that we continue to do only what benefits them?

The hate I've been feeling needs to be expressed in the peaceful but assertive pursuit of justice and change. Revolution is not dangerous to anybody but the 1% unwilling to change. Occupy Wall Street is only the beginning of a revolutionary change in our thinking. And we will succeed only if we remain unlike the 1%. Only if we remain peaceful and thoughtful toward our world.

Preaching To The Choir ...Again

Spent another day at OD....unlike the week before this one fit the description of MOS. Preaching to the choir makes all go home feeling warm and fuzzy but I'm left with the feeling momentum was lost. I know it's not what folks will want to hear but the changes that have occurred in American history came when men and women were willing to face down the oppressor time and again regardless of the consequences. That doesn't mean violence by those protesters but it does possibly mean breaking oppressive laws that take away freedom and are immoral. Imagine if the freedom riders had decided after the first violence threatened them and inflicted upon them had said, "enough" and just talked about rights. Imagine if Gandhi had decided after massacres by the British it was too high a price to pay. In both cases what the protesters were doing was against the laws of that time and place.


I spent most of the early parts of the 2000's trying to get along with the PD to avoid violence from the PD in most cases. There was never a viable threat of violence on the part of the protesters in any rally or march. There was always a threat of violence on the part of the police. In the 70s the police were never part of the right side of history. They took on roles of private guards to the richest and against the men, women and families most in need in this nation. We may have sympathy toward the cops who are in line to have funding cut on such issues as pay and benefits but we cannot condone their actions as thugs for the rich

We had rally after rally and march after march. We sit in at offices and businesses. And here we are ten years later with two wars, an economy that is in reality a depression, a wealth gap 300 times greater than ten or fifteen years ago, more Americans without health insurance, more homeless, more poor and fewer jobs paying a living wage.
 
Like the chants have been saying....."the banks got bailed out, we got sold out". But there wasn't that type of anger or outrage today as there had been last week at Occupy Denver. The leadership apparently stated they wanted to avoid last week's type of event. They didn't want to risk arrests. Didn't want to face off against the protectors of the realm, the police. Instead, they decided a concert and a rail-athon following one more parade ushered by the police would be best.
 
The crowd chanted, "Who's streets, our streets!" but in reality the streets belong to the rich oligarchs and their protectors in blue as long as we're led the way the police dictate. This movement will fall back like all the others into the failed tactics of the past movements. Rallies and marches will not win the day as long as more Halloween costumed people show up downtown than people who want critical change in the way government and economic policy is being carried out in this nation.
 
Tactics must change. Cooperation with the oppressor or his representatives rather than confrontation is an appeasing approach to revolutionary change needed. Some yogini at the rally suggested we let go of our anger. I say we utilize our anger! We utilize our outrage! We must direct our anger in non-violent ways against the privileged few who have been the primary causes of oppression. I heard angry speeches today, but words not followed up with actions are still just words.
 
I'm too old and too impatient to take the short time I have left and the dwindling energy I have left to continue the path of appeasement. I'm not going to participate in a rally a week and letters to congress people who are merely the puppets of the masters of wealth and war. There are plenty of ideas floating out there that can create new and more viable tactics.
 
My suggestions stem from taking part in a guerrilla war. Without using violence there are still many ways to jam the machine and bring fear to the powerful. We know what their weaknesses are....consumption and collection of wealth. Some are saying we take our cash out of the banks and put them into credit unions. This may be a credible tactic for a small number of people but many couldn't currently make it doing such a thing.
 
I have resigned myself to the failure of the American people to once again rebel against the oppressors. Like the unhealthy lifestyles of being overweight and obese so rampant in this nation, so too is the lifestyle of the consumer society that places more value on selfish motivation and more attention to the celebrity than the most in need. We place more importance on who the starting QB will be next Sunday than we do the failure of Congress to work together and the daily selling out of elected officials to lobbyists and special interests.
 
Selling out isn't confined to the national level. Mayor Hancock and Governor Hickenlooper are both testament to the persona of the sell out. They both sold out the poor, homeless, desperate and disaffected to uphold business as usual. When a dedicated group of activists are evicted from public spaces for their message rather than any real reason of importance, it's clear the people have been sold out.
 
I wish I could be enthusiastic about Occupy Denver but seeing all those costumed zombies infiltrating the ranks of the activists all day long in their flight to the inane celebration of a "holiday" personifying greed and over-eating  causes enthusiasm to fall short of bringing hope. It was said there were possible 20 thousand zombies compared to less than a thousand protesters. The irony of more zombies than activists is apropos as an analogy of this nation's zombie like compliance with oppression both inflicted on other nations and our own people.
 
I am resigned to return to my smaller community in SW Denver and avoid the alleged movements. I'm not going to campaign once again in a way that has little voice or future. Let  the liberals and progressives continue to deceive themselves about how their rallies and marches will effect change but they won't deceive the rich and powerful. I will be content to do urban gardening and attempt to organize a neighborhood rather than hit my head against a wall repeatedly in vain attempts to make rallies and marches relevant.

Today Is the Day for Resistance

So, I'm going to come across negative on this piece but I just have to say it. I reluctantly went back on facebook after the Eygptian rebellion that caused the downfall of Mubarak. Thinking maybe the rebellious sorts here in the U.S. might use the "social media" the same way the Eygptians had done to rally people to the square in protest. But, of course that didn't really happen. Perhaps we need more repression before we can turn out millions or a complete and total collapse of the economy instead of the partial collapse which has swept away the middle class.

Now months after the "Arab spring" a brave group of protestors took to the streets around Wall Street in NYC in an action named "Occupy Wall Street". The group has been harassed, beaten, pepper sprayed and arrested but stayed their ground. Now there are local actions in solidarity with them in a few other cities across the U.S., including Denver.

I just saw the call to action for this weekend at the state capitol for a rally to support "Occupy Wallstreet". At first I was enthusiastic about it but then someone made an excellent comment. "Why not on Monday?" "Why not in the financial district of Denver?" And I agree.

I think back to the early days of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (and the days before) and recall how every weekend there was some action planned and every weekend it was the same people showing up to hear speakers and musicians speak and sing. There were rallies and marches and everybody went home with a renewed sense of purpose. Some of us even got arrested in acts of planned civil disobedience. Planned, as in letting Denver PD know where, when and what was going to happen.

And every weekend activists would look for press coverage. It barely came or never came. When the press did cover the story of the rallies, marches and arrests it was always a slanted view of things. If any negative thing happened it led the story. And, almost always, the opposing view of hawks and the right wing pimps for war had more space than those of the activists opposing the Bush/Cheney illlegal wars.

To say it became a redundant exercise in futility was to be kind. It became the same people preaching to the same choir with the same result. Very few people of color, very few students and young people, very few veterans and very few activists not part of the "mainstream" groups of acvtivists ever attended or were ever much consulted. Meeting to organize always brought up the question why this was and often there were responses that these groups had been invited and if they didn't show up it wasn't our fault. But, of course, our tactics and our agenda seldom changed or incorporated the needs of the poor communities, the communities of color or the views of the young, including anarchists who were willing to avoid violence.

I see how futile this became and realize when I helped organize VVAW here in Denver it was a daily effort, even after working all day. I took time off to go to D.C. to join a coalition of groups from Black Panthers to Gray Panthers to Catholic clergy to demonstrate our dissent. We occupied the steps of the Supreme Court. We went to the Capitol and "returned" the medals of fake valor given for an immoral and illegal war. We managed to get a consumate politician inside Senator Fullbright's committee to challenge the war. It was John Kerry's greatest speech.

When Cindy Sheehan came into the fray against the wars, there was a new energy that galvanized many of us. I joined hundreds of other activists to camp out in the sweltering heat of Crawford to demonstrate to the vacationing George W. Bush his wars weren't wanted by a growing number of people including veterans, families of veterans and the families of men and women killed in those wars. Cindy's grief struck a nerve with all of us and with mothers and fathers across the nation. She revived a sagging movement.

After Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf area, veterans joined survivors to march from Mobile to New Orleans in solidarity against the failure of the American government to assist the survivors and the wasteful spending on the wars that impacted the funding of assistance. Immediately following Katrina, a group of veterans, clergy and students combined in efforts to assist the hardest hit citizens of the 9th Ward and outlying regions devastated by the hurricane.

All along groups of activists have taken direct action to build grass roots organizations to struggle against the mulitnational interests that eventually led this nation to near financial ruin. Veterans worked to help other veterans get necessary mental health treatment along with family members of the returning men and women from the two deadly wars. Immigrant rights organizations worked to ensure immigrants without documents weren't abused by a racist system led by ICE. Police Watch organizations came out to observe police in the area to try to stem the number of brutality cases that were far too often attacks on our brothers and sisters of color. Multiple others have resisted and taken part in the struggle.

The thing most of the better actions to fight against the insanity of wars, racism and injustice had in common was they didn't only occur on a weekend or as a result of a march or rally. They occurred because of dedication to continue the struggle and resistance against hate, war, and social injustice. They occurred because activists were willing to give up their evenings, take off days and sacrifice time they could be doing things far less difficult and more self centered.

What I'm getting at is our resistance against the oligarchy, that promises to oppress the poor and middle class until we demonstrate we've had enough, will take more than the weekend rallies and marches. If we truly care enough to make the change we either dedicate ourselves to more time in the trenches of activism or we use our time with local organizing and local efforts in hopes sometime soon a network will be built in which there will be a strong coalition angry enough and dedicated enough to demand the change such as seen in Eygpt and other oppressed nations.

I can't go back to rallies and marches without hope of them being different. I look at the rallies in Wisconsin this past spring and find hope. Those rallies were day after day. Not just weekends. I need that hope here in Denver before I return to the same old tactics.

Now, a day after I wrote all of the above, I know it is time to bring new energy to support our brothers and sisters in New York occupying Wall Street. It may well be the autumn of the American uprising against the oppression of the masters of war and peddlars of greed. As an individual I am obligated to help it be. As a father and grandfather I am obligated to resist against the evil that attempts to crush the spirit of people seeking peace and justice.

My dear friend Dahlia Wasfi left me a gift when she went back east. It's a mouse pad with the image of Malcolm X, forefinger pointing above his head with the quote, "We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth by any means necessary"

I see this every day. I remember when Malcolm said it in 1965. I failed to completely understand it at that time. By the end of 1968 and my time in Vietnam, I had a great sense of what Malcolm's words meant. And today.....today, those words are as powerful as they were in 1965.

Today is the day to change the course of our nation. Today is the day to renew our struggle and resistance against the brutality, injustice and violence. Today is the day for us to choose which side we want to be on; the side of greed and militarism or the side of peace and justice. We can't just do this on the weekends. The weekend should evolve into the beginning of a better time, a better week, a better month, a better year. And today is the day to start.

Class Warfare and Other Ramblings

The Republican leadership is crying because our current President dared to suggest the rich and super-rich pick up a bigger share of financing the government of this nation. Class warfare, they cried. Yes, they are right there is class warfare and it has been going on since this nation's first days.
In recent times the rich have become richer at a faster rate than any other time in history. The poor and middle class have lost more wealth than any other time in history. That is class warfare.
Yesterday, new data revealed the health insurance rates for employer supported health insurance took a dramatic jump in prices even though claims for services have decreased substantially. The high cost of medical care is the excuse insurance companies give. More likely, they are setting their rates high ahead of the upcoming healthcare legislation's implementation. The news agencies and all Republicans have given the piece of legislation the moniker of "Obamacare".
Obamacare is actually a racist nickname for a weak legislative (Affordable Healthcare Act) attempt to provide healthcare to all Americans. It was suggested by a black President but watered down by the obstructionist Republicans who have gone all out from the first day President Obama took office to keep anything he suggested from passing. The first words out of their Republican mouths were "we will do all that is necessary to defeat this President". The missing piece to this manifesto was the thought of "regardless of the harm or the needs of the American people. We don't care about this nation's poor and middle class. We only care about keeping our power and keeping our rich masters satisfied".
And the Republicans have carried out their class warfare masterfully. They've managed to enlist the upper middle class whites to their cause by creating a well funded group called the Tea Party. For any who have some curiosity about how this party evolved, just follow the money. It came from special interests such as Karl Rove and his friends in politics and the corporate world. The Koch brothers, those right wing icons of class warfare, are just an example of some of those who have created this alleged "grass roots" movement called the Tea Party. More like synthetic turf movement.
The upper middle class and marginally rich white population of this nation have been stirred into a fear frenzy that the "mud people" are taking over. Blacks are becoming President and illegal aliens are taking away jobs and putting a drain on the costs of government to the point profits are not what they used to be.
If you talk to the ground troops of the Tea Party you hear the words of the Rupert Mudoch Fox News stooges and the hate mongering talk show hosts of right wing radio stations that dominate much of the farm belt and plains of this country.
The reality of the Tea Party supporters is they seldom if ever hear an opposing viewpoint. They are constantly assualted with the hate and misinformation of the only radio they have available in many cases and they refuse to listen to independent sources of information. They claim to mistrust the government but never get information outside of the controlled press of the right wing movement intent on taking over the government.
Marshall McLuhan once speculated about media becoming extremely powerful and influential. His prophetic opinions have come true more than even he anticipated. George Orwell worried about Big Brother controlling the lives of common people. His thoughts became even more draconian than "1984" described.
Chris Hedges describes the cloistered and insulated lives of evangelical Christians which keeps them from ever hearing any other opinion or argument in his book, AMERICAN FASCISTS: The Christian Right and the War On America.
The sad truth seems to be Americans have chosen up sides and only listen and watch news they perceive meets their view of the world. And journalism has abandoned objectivity and checking facts when headlines and ratings are all important. Newpapers have folded all across then country for lack of readership. Some have modernized to online versions but most have become ghosts of times past. Even in those past times objectivity was hard to find but with groups like Clear Channel and Murdoch controlling vast segments of the information the world receives labelled as "news" the message has become obviously slanted to the right.
The myth of the liberal press has never been substantiated since the great majority of the mainstream press is controlled by corporate interests with little regard for liberal or progressive views. But then, myths are the currency of the misinformation masters such as Rove and the Koch brothers.
There is the myth about welfare "queens" taking in huge amounts of tax payer dollars while they sit home collecting welfare and having babies to stay on welfare. Ronald Reagan's campaign created the myth of the Cadillac driving welfare queen. Searches for that Cadillac driving woman failed. But the idea of slackers getting tax dollars to live the good life while the rest of us had to work for our money became a favorite topic of the mostly white conservative movement. And, it goes without saying most thought the welfare queens to be black women having multiple babies by different fathers.
A study just published this week talks about the nursing home industry hospitalizing Alzheimer patients who really didn't require hospitalization for such things as urinary tract infections. The study speculated the reason for the 2-3 day inpatient stays was quite likely motivated by money. Once these patients became inpatients their benefits switched over to the better paying Medicare from Medicaid. And, of course, their is the whole "end of life" industry where extraordinary medical procedures are used to extend the lives of frail and dying elderly patients. One of the more notorious examples of this was an Alzheimer victim in her late 80's being diagnosed with breast cancer. She was exposed to chemotherapy and a bilateral mastectomy in an attempt to combat the cancer.
The stories of the elderly in nursing homes being exposed to medical procedure after medical procedure with little or no hope of some curative effect are rampant. The costs of this practice by unethical medical professionals is in the billions of dollars. No one points fingers at these welfare kings making millions of dollars through unethical practice.
I've observed psychiatrists visiting inpatient clients for less than five minutes and found out later they were charging Medicaid or Medicare for a full hour of services. I've seen prescribers who consistently prescribe more expensive medications that have no proven efficacy better than less expensive medications for the same disorder. Some of these prescribers make six figures each year giving "educational" talks about the very same new medication they've been prescribing with great frequency.
The practice of poly-pharmacy goes relatively unchecked in the field of psychiatry. Most patients I encounter anymore are prescribed multiple medications from the category of antidepressant, antianxiety, antipsychotic and mood stabilizer. In addition they're prescribed medications for the side effects of these medications or drugs know as adjunctive medications said to enhance the effects of one or more of the other drugs. When the medications prescribed by a patient's PCP are added to the psychiatric drugs often times a patient is taking ten or more medications each day. I once had a patient prescribed over 20 medications each day.
And the PCP is another culprit in the current trend of American medicine to give a patient a pill for everything. For them, many working for coporate practices, the rule seems to be the path of least resistance. If a patient comes to their office and complains of pain the prescription pad comes out and often times a narcotic analagesic is prescribed without exploring possible etiology of the pain other than the patient's vague complaint. Seldom do PCP and other specialitys confer about the whole picture of the patient medical profile. Such as what other medications does a patient take that might interact with the medication being prescribed. Some are beginning to question whether PCPs have become legal venues for patients with addiction problems. Prescription abuse of such medicines as oxycontin, percocet, xanax, valium and a good many others has risen dramatically. We have become a "pop a pill culture".
So, the question is who pays for this practice of poly-pharmacy besides the toll on the bodies of the patients? In many cases the patient is on tax paid benefits. I've had other professionals complain about these patients strapping the system with their costly care. Seldom do I hear complaints about medical professionals practicing on the boundary of unethical care. And, that is the problem. Too often it becomes easier to blame and denigrate the weakest member of our society for all the problems while ignoring the bigger systemic problems of greed and ethical behaviors whether it be in the financial realm or the medical industry or in our daily living.
The greatest example of class warfare is war itself. There is no longer any pretense about the equity of those who sacrifice their lives for American wars. The predominate majority of the "voluntary" military don't come from rich families except those in the officer ranks. There is no draft but there is the "poverty draft". Failure of politicians and the American corporate interests to create well paying jobs in this country has pushed young men and women toward enlistment. Promises of bonuses to enlist and the benefits of education and continuing healthcare on discharge appeal to a kid living in urban or rural areas of poverty.
Of course, Americans fail to educate themselves about the wars our politicians involve us in. We become sheep following the wolf to our own destruction. I just saw a figure today that we spend 3 billion dollars a day in the current wars involving American troops. So why do American parents insist their children wear all the protective gear to ride a bike, play sports and numerous other activities but seldom question their child's decision to enlist and face multiple deployments to combat zones? Why do parents rush to schools in terror if there is any possible scare of another Columbine type incident but fail to understand the terror of combat?
Back during the Vietnam war a song called THE UNIVERSAL SOLDIER became a wide-spread anthem of the peace movement. The song speaks to the history of young men (and now women) always heeding the call to go kill other humans no matter what size, what religion, what nation or philosophy. The relavence of that song remains as strong today as ever. As does Mark Twain's THE WAR PRAYER. As does Smedley Butler's WAR IS A RACKET declaration.
I often speak with young people and question why they would make the decision to take up arms to hunt other humans intending to kill them without knowing the reason. I ask why would we make a decision sometimes in less time than it takes to buy a new car or a new television but fail to educate ourselves about the culture of our alleged "enemy" and reasons we are supposed to hate them. We claim to hate big government and the politicians in D.C. yet we continue to allow ourselves to be seduced into wars without meaning or moral cause. I know because I was 17 when I decided to enlist into the Marines. I was 18 the day I entered Vietnam as a combat infantryman. I was 19 the day I left the combat zone to return to America. I have regretted my involvement every day since I realized early in my "tour" in Vietnam that I had been duped.
The rich and powerful want us to believe taxing them or asking them to pay a "fair share" to fund this nation's government which has allowed them to amass huge profit is "class warfare". They claim it will result in those who create jobs slowing the creation of jobs or failing to create jobs. Their arguments ring hollow since these are the people who "outsourced" American jobs at a record pace once the globalization gates were opened wide during the Clinton administraton. These are the people who have made a concerted effort to crush collective bargaining and diminish the wages of the American workers. They would prefer we return to the time when workers had no rights and the "bosses" ruled with an iron fist. These are the perpetrators of class warfare.
If the middle class and poor continue to passively follow these robber barons and their stooges in government, the class war will be lost and they (we) will become enslaved and indebted. Without resistance and an uprising of the type that took place in Egypt, the middle class will become poor and the poor will become even poorer.