So i went to the protest march yesterday. By now, most of you know that there was a massive crowd there. NY Times says 500,000. The police say 500,000. i think therefore that it was AT LEAST that many. I wonder what one must think if one is a Republican delegate. I don't suppsoe that it'll change the way they vote in congress or senate or whatever or where ever, but this is the largest protest of a national convention ever. 1/2 million folks thought it important enough to wake on a sunday morning - even after copious warnings about the massive amounts of arrests they expected to make - to tell you to get the hell out of office. What is the point at which you start asking yourself, "what are we doing wrong?"
More importnatly though, i found the protest encouraging because, like the anti-war protests last year, it suggested that the apathy that fell on us over the nineties, is lifting. Enough people feel their way of life threatened enough, or have had the wool of 2-party democracy lifted enough from their eyes enough, to feel the need to say something about it. Still, the right-wing's response, which has included scare tactics and voter fraud against minority voters in Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama (to name a few) suggests that the short-term goal of getting Bush out of office is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination. For the first time, i feel it absolutely impossible to predict what will happen next politically; and by extension, socially. Two nights ago, in a conversation with Saul Williams, Saul says "...it's like we're in this strange purgatory, except there's no higher power. It's just us; and getting out of purgatory is going to be by our own doing." That encapsulates what i think i feel, like we're going to determine in short order, whether or not we're going to hell or back to an upswing in the Dow Jones with 40 per cent voter participation. And that's the danger of getting Kerry in office; that we think we've got the job done and we have an apathy re-lapse. I'm hoping though, that the sort of youth mobilization that the war on Iraq and Bush-regime policies have engendered, heightens our consciousness and our vigilance so that we don't again get so close to what looks like a precipice. But first, to get Bush out...
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Fela Jump and Funk party - whenever you see one of these advertised, don't just walk; run to the club where it is.
Beau Sia's Junior High Dance Party at the Bowery Poetry Club - the most fun i've had dancing in years.
Time to go check e-mails and then do some memorizing for my show. My best friedn from childhood ever is coming up on Wednesday night. Sleep will be in short supply after that.
There'll be more to report by tomorrow. There are more protests. Jerry Quickley is in town and there's upperCASE at Bar 13 tonight.
More importnatly though, i found the protest encouraging because, like the anti-war protests last year, it suggested that the apathy that fell on us over the nineties, is lifting. Enough people feel their way of life threatened enough, or have had the wool of 2-party democracy lifted enough from their eyes enough, to feel the need to say something about it. Still, the right-wing's response, which has included scare tactics and voter fraud against minority voters in Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama (to name a few) suggests that the short-term goal of getting Bush out of office is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination. For the first time, i feel it absolutely impossible to predict what will happen next politically; and by extension, socially. Two nights ago, in a conversation with Saul Williams, Saul says "...it's like we're in this strange purgatory, except there's no higher power. It's just us; and getting out of purgatory is going to be by our own doing." That encapsulates what i think i feel, like we're going to determine in short order, whether or not we're going to hell or back to an upswing in the Dow Jones with 40 per cent voter participation. And that's the danger of getting Kerry in office; that we think we've got the job done and we have an apathy re-lapse. I'm hoping though, that the sort of youth mobilization that the war on Iraq and Bush-regime policies have engendered, heightens our consciousness and our vigilance so that we don't again get so close to what looks like a precipice. But first, to get Bush out...
.......................................................................................................................................................
Fela Jump and Funk party - whenever you see one of these advertised, don't just walk; run to the club where it is.
Beau Sia's Junior High Dance Party at the Bowery Poetry Club - the most fun i've had dancing in years.
Time to go check e-mails and then do some memorizing for my show. My best friedn from childhood ever is coming up on Wednesday night. Sleep will be in short supply after that.
There'll be more to report by tomorrow. There are more protests. Jerry Quickley is in town and there's upperCASE at Bar 13 tonight.
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