BALTIMORE REALNESS: HOW TO COUNTERACT THE CHALLENGE TO OUR RIGHT TO PRACTICE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

LONG LIVE OUR RIGHT TO CHOOSE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE!

BALTIMORE SPRING 2015 A REMEDY FOR CULTURAL WAKEFULNESS!

I SUPPORT THOSE WHO DEFY THE CURFEW IN BALTIMORE AS LONG AS THEY ARE PEACEFUL IN THEIR DEFIANCE!  WE HAVE TO SEPARATE THE VIOLENT FROM THE PEACEFUL, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY ALL BE OF THE SAME RACE.  THE MEDIA PRESENCE IN CHARM CITY IS A MIXED BLESSING.  THE MEDIA HAS ALWAYS IGNORED BALTIMORE ESPECIALLY WEST BALTIMORE BECAUSE IT IS JUST NOT PRETTY, AFFLUENT, TRENDY OR FASHIONABLE.  IN ORDER FOR WEST BALTIMORE TO CAPTURE THE ATTENTION OF THE MEDIA THEY HAD TO MANUFACTURE AN URBAN CONFLAGRATION SENDING SMOKE COLUMNS INTO THE HEAVENS... THE MEDIA IS ALIEN HERE, THEY ARE THE OUTSIDERS, THEY ARE SOCIAL PARASITES, CARRION AND THEIR UNWANTED, PERSONAL OPINIONS DO NOT REPRESENT EITHER THE MAJORITY OF THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE OR THE BEST INTEREST OF FREE TAXPAYING CITIZENS WHO LIVE IN THIS CITY AND HAVE A RIGHT TO PEACEFULLY PROTEST AND ASSEMBLE IN THE STREETS THEIR TAX DOLLARS PAY FOR!  IF THIS EVENT DID NOT MEAN RATINGS I SERIOUSLY DOUBT THAT THE MEDIA WOULD HAVE BOTHERED TO BE THERE AT ALL... ITS ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMIN'S WITH THE MASS MEDIA MAKE NO MISTAKE!  IF YOU LISTEN TO THEIR COMMENTARY IS SUPPORTS THE CONSERVATIVE VIEWS OF THEIR HIGH PRICED SPONSORS NOT THE POOR PEOPLE OF BALTIMORE.  AS A RESULT EVEN THE ODD AND UNCOMFORTABLE PRESENCE OF THE MASS MEDIA SEEMS TO BE YET ANOTHER FORM OF SOCIAL OPPRESSION BECAUSE THIS MEDIA IS NOT THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE IT OBSERVES LIKE A CRANKY VOYEUR IT IS THE VOICE OF A SPOILED, DISCONNECTED, ALMOST SUBURBAN COMMENTATOR THAT WILL UNDOUBTEDLY RETIRE TO THEIR PALATIAL CONDOMINIUM AS SOON AS THEIR AIR-TIME IS EXPENDED.  WHO ARE THESE ALIENS TO THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE THAT ARE SOMEHOW CHARGED WITH COMMENTATING THE EVOLUTION OF THE VERY HEART AND SOUL OF SOCIAL REALNESS?  THEY ARE CULTURAL ALIENS! THE LANGUAGE THEY SPEAK IS INCAPABLE OF CAPTURING THE STRUGGLE AND SOULFUL PATIENCE OF THESE REAL HUMAN BEINGS...

AT THIS POINT IT SHOULD BE CRYSTAL CLEAR TO EVERYONE INCLUDING THE MEDIA, WHOEVER THEY ARE, THAT THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE DO NOT TRUST THE POLICE AND WITH GOOD REASON TOO.  SO IT IS A DOUBLE SLAP IN THE FACE FOR PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATORS TO BE BULLIED INTO ABANDONING THEIR PROTEST BY THE VERY ENTITY THAT REPRESENTS THE NUMBERLESS MURDERS OF BLACK MEN IN THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS... THIS IS THE REASON WHY EVERY BLACK AMERICAN SHOULD REFUSE TO EXPOSE THEMSELVES TO OR SUPPORT MASS MEDIA THAT DOES NOT SUPPORT THEIR INTERESTS.

WHAT I SEE ARE BOY SCOUT REPORTERS COMPLETELY OUT OF THEIR ELEMENT MAKING BANKRUPT JUDGMENTS THEY DO NOT HAVE THE DEVELOPMENTAL, EXPERIENTIAL MATURITY TO TAKE BACK AND APOLOGIZE FOR.  ARROGANCE LIKE IGNORANCE HAS NEVER BEEN KNOWN FOR ITS CAPACITY FOR REMORSE.  BALTIMORE IN THE SPRING OF 2015 IS NOT A BOY SCOUT JAMBOREE IT IS A ONE TIME CHANCE FOR DISENFRANCHISED PEOPLE WHO WOULD OTHERWISE BE LOCKED OUT OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE MEDIA,  A MEDIA THAT ANY OTHER TIME IS MORE OBSESSED WITH A FIVE OR TEN SECOND INTERSTICE DURING  WHICH  A POP STARS BOOB FALLS OUT OF HER BRA THAN THE MURDER OF NAMELESS POOR BLACK MEN ON OUR INNER CITY STREETS.  THE SACRED MEDIA SCALES OF JUSTICE BALANCE A BOOB ON ONE SIDE AND A DEAD BLACK MAN ON THE OTHER SUSPENDING THE CORPSE IN A DEAD PENDULUM SWING.

THE FACT THAT THE MEDIA WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT THE  FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN A DEMOCRATIC NATION WOULD ACTUALLY SUPPORT A CURFEW THAT VIOLATES THOSE RIGHTS  PROFOUNDLY TROUBLES ME!  HAS ANYONE QUESTIONED THIS? HAVE YOU QUESTIONED THIS?

IT CAN BE ARGUED WHETHER OR NOT THE DEMONSTRATION IN BALTIMORE IS PEACEFUL OR NOT.  YES, IT IS TRULY A MIXED BAG SO WE HAVE TO DECIDE WHICH IS MOST IMPORTANT THE RIGHT TO PEACEFULLY DEMONSTRATE OR THE BLANKET SUPPRESSION OF ALL DEMONSTRATION BECAUSE SOME PROTESTERS HAVE EXCEEDED THE LIMITATIONS OF PEACEFUL CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.  CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IS ALWAYS AN UNBALANCED EQUATION BECAUSE ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE IS FORCED TO SUPPRESS THEIR AGGRESSION BY RE-CHANNELING IT WHILE OTHERS ARE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE THEIR PATH OF AGGRESSION UNTIL  THEY ARE SUBDUED BY THE SHEER TENACITY OF THE PEACEFUL AND VIOLATED FACTION.

SO LET US SEGREGATE THE TWO GENRES OF DEMONSTRATORS BETWEEN THE VIOLENT AND NONVIOLENT.  BUT LET US NOT FORGET THE REASON WHY WE ARE FORCED TO MAKE THIS DISTINCTION IN THE FIRST PLACE.  VIOLENCE IS ALMOST NEVER JUSTIFIED BUT IT IS THE REASON WHY WE ARE ALL IN THIS PLACE TO BEGIN WITH AND LET US REMEMBER AND QUALIFY FROM WHENCE THE VIOLENCE CAME.  THE VIOLENT MURDER COMMITTED BY THE POLICE WAS THE CATALYST OF THIS PROTEST, PEACEFUL AND VIOLENT AND THAT IS NEVER GOING TO CHANGE! IT IS WHY WE ARE ALL HERE TODAY LOOKING AT THIS HERETOFORE INVISIBLE COMMUNITY IN BALTIMORE IN THE SPRING OF 2015.

I THINK THAT IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS PLAYING OUT IN BALTIMORE YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND OPPRESSION.  I THINK THAT IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS PLAYING OUT IN THE STREETS OF BALTIMORE YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND ANGER, IGNORANCE, DEPRIVATION, HUNGER, POVERTY, FRUSTRATION, HOPELESSNESS, INSECURITY...

IN ORDER FOR HUMAN BEINGS WHO HAVE OTHERWISE SO TOTALLY ACCEPTED IMPOVERISHMENT, IGNORANCE AND INVISIBILITY TO OPENLY THROW BOULDERS AT OFFICERS HOLDING FIREARMS SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARILY EVIL MUST ROUSE THEM, THEY HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT AN UNFULFILLED LIFE AND SUDDENLY THEY FIND MEANING, PURPOSE, VIBRANCY IN A CAUSE HOWEVER MISGUIDED... IT IS AN IMPORTANT PHENOMENON THAT WE HAD ALL BETTER TAKE SERIOUSLY BECAUSE WHETHER OR NOT IT MEASURES UP TO OUR NEAT, PROTECTED, MIDDLE CLASS VALUES REALLY DOES NOT MATTER AT ALL.  THERE ARE MORE OF THEM THAN THERE ARE OF US, WE ARE OUTNUMBERED BY THE POOR.  RATHER THAN MAKING BOURGEOIS JUDGMENTS OF THEIR MISDIRECTED ANGER WE HAD BETTER TRY TO RELATE AND UNDERSTAND IT!  WE HAD BETTER TRY TO INCORPORATE ITS INTENSITY AND TENACITY INTO OUR OWN VERSION OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE...

AMERICANS PLEASE WAKE UP!  WAKE UP!

WRITTEN BY BIGDADDY BLUES

IF THERE IS AN ART TO MOVING IT IS LINKED TO HAVING A SOFT SENSE OF ORGANIZATION

ON THE ART OF MOVING:  CONQUERING A NECESSARY EVIL

Is there really an art to moving? Can a man ever truly be prepared to uproot himself with the expectation he will effortlessly re-establish himself on alien soil?  Well, I imagine that the outcome of any move can only be evaluated against its purpose.  Moving to follow a dream can amount to a mixed-bag of satisfaction depending on close one actually settles to his dream.  A combination of possibilities balanced by the variable factor of preparedness, and the unpredictable variable of fate poses the immediate power to transform a  move.  No matter how prepared a gentleman thinks he is moving ultimately rears its hideous head as a necessary evil.

Being uprooted is by its nature unsettling and that is why nobody really wants to move.  The only exception is when a move represents a change to escape circumstances which have already caused considerable, unwanted unsettling.  But in this global culture even a major geographical displacement may not be enough to truly escape the circumstances of one’s life-footprint.  A life-footprint is a combination of economic, social and physical elements that have come to define a man’s existence.  It may include his occupation, income, associations, friendships and intimacies, degree of economic wealth and/or indebtedness and of course the physical boundaries such as his residence, neighborhood geographic and political jurisdiction.  Moving will always have the potential to redefine all of these variables in ways we can really never predict.

Moving to a place of our dreams is a blessing.  Being able to trade-out unwanted factors for more desirable ones refreshes out outlook on life it improves out life-footprint.  It is the unexpected variables in between the old and the refreshed that can steal away some of the brilliance of moving on a dream.  But we cannot let that discourage us, especially because the end is so much more desirable than the means.

Being forced to execute an undesired move due to negative factors out of our control frames the worst case scenario of moving.  Typically an undesired move is accompanied by untimely financial, physical and social circumstances that overburden our ability to adapt to inevitable change.  In such a move we may actually lose more than we ultimately gain by relocating and because this loss is precipitated by uncontrollable factors it only adds to the general sense of malaise. 

Even the best-planned move may ultimately become a nightmare… Likewise the most dreaded move may actually turn out to be a move into a more palatable life-footprint.  It really all depend on how you look at it!  So what can a man do in order to properly brace himself when entering the unknown realm of moving?  How can he fortify himself against the unexpected, the unwanted? What singular object can he hold on to in order to keep grounded during such a period of upheaval?  At the end of the day there is nothing more a gentleman can do outside of risk-managing a move right down to the last detail so that he has plans “A” through “G” fully outlined and ready for implementation.  One can romanticize that we might not ever have those dramatic moving stories that keep our friends at the edge of their seats each time we tell them were it not for the “Murphy’s Law” variable… we all have to admit that we love sharing how we overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles in our moving saga, it’s something that unites us to the common human experience.

So I no longer complain about a move whether it I desired or not.  I no longer obsess or melt-down during a move’s unexpected twists and turns.  I plan as best I can, accept the degree to which I have invested in preparation for a move and then coach it as it moves along so as to redirect it towards its desired outcome and of course the outcome is always just to get moved! To get it over with the least financial, emotional, physical and spiritual loss.  Moving is an art that perfectionists can least perfect!  Moving is and art that may never be understood by those who lack problem solving and negotiation skills.  The best movers may be those men who combine critical planning for key phases of a move with a healthy dose of flexibility to work around the unexpected elements that will inevitably challenge a move.  Moving may require a meditative state of mind as an overlay to the hectic, time-sensitive, physically and mentally fatigued realities that will always be present.  Yes, moving is almost always a necessary evil to get to where we want, need or have to be in our lives and if there is any real art to moving it is probably best exemplified through our ability to work-through the unexpected maintaining our cool and thereby modelling a general sense of calm and togetherness.  We have to be able to see through to the end of the move and effectively communicate that vision to all the players, the mover’s role is to make it seem easy, it is truly an act of faith…

FIN

BY BIGDADDY BLUES