Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The occupation of Alcatraz started 38 years ago today
Good morning.
My take on Alcatraz has more to do with my own perception than the events you have recounted.
SF is my favorite US city. I lived there for a brief period and have visited a fair number of times.
On one visit, more than ten years ago, my girlfriend and I got caught up in a moment of tourist excitement and decided to tour Alcatraz.
I really had no interest, but....
Attempting to buy tix down by the wharf, lo and behold we were told the wait was three days.THREE DAYS! To visit a symbol of pain and suffering.
A 3 day wait to visit one of the most notorious symbols of cruelty in the US.I found out that back then, Alcatraz was the top tourist attraction in California.
Quite disturbing if you ask me.I have some thoughts about the Bangladesh/NO contrast.
Interesting that the US Govt. is all too willing to send MArines to help the unfortunate victims In Bangladesh, while dragging its heels with regard to residents of NO.
My cynicism informs me that the response internationally is less about altruism than about keeping the hegemonic role intact.MZ: I can hear the chords of Enter Sandman now.
Posted by Tommy on from I live by the River 11/20 at 08:38 AMGood morning Mickey, Tommy…
I wonder if tourists need to see Alcatraz to feel better about themselves within this hierarchical system that divides, distinguishes the nice people from those who do not follow the command line of authorities. The mental prison of those whose obedience to this oppressive society is deceptive, not AS tangible as the iron bars that separate those who do not comply with the wishes of the church/state/military, the triad of parasitism.
Posted by joe of maine on from 11/20 at 08:47 AMI once visited Alcatraz, but didn’t have to wait three days for a ticket (back then we didn’t have 2+ million in prisons, however). I first learned about the occupation there, and a quote stays with me: “The US government should have no problem ceding this land to Native Americans. It has no fresh water and does not support game.” Or something to that effect.
Tear the place down and give it back to the wildlife, I say.
Boomer Alert: My antennae are always receiving the intermittent frustrations that make it through the media filters, and traffic is increasing. I assert and will defend that very large sectors of the ‘46-’64 generation have been, and continue to be childish, self-indulgent ####-ups. My greatest frustration with such is in movement politics, but snippets I’ve been catching make me think there may be a convergence across disciplines: econ (as we face meltdown) and politics (the Clintons and W are the faces of Boomer political power) joining other lurking resentments. For some years now my assumption has been that there will be no meaningful change until the Boomers are off the political stage...and by then the US and probably the biosphere will be past saving. Will there/can there be a retreat from the abyss? Anything is possible, but the Boomers will have to police themselves - their numbers are too great for anything else.
Posted by Zen Prole on from Urth 11/20 at 10:22 AMHello Expendables...from rainy Astoria. Dead on commentary above, my friends. Tommy, you fit right in.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/20 at 11:43 AMHello Tommy, Zen, joe, Mickey, and all… Hello from a cold, soggy, slushy Vermont. When is Spring coming?
Tommy...tell us more about yourself.
Zen...interesting thought there about having to wait for the boomers to get off the political stage. I think you might have something there.
The devaluing of the dollar is interesting - even for those who don’t have many dollars to be devalued. The long-reaching effects there might be something, and there is a strange hush about heating oil this year. In the past there was always a lot of talk - even contributions from Chavez. This year it seems that people are frozen into silence.
Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 11/20 at 04:56 PMSurprised to learn you were here Mickey!
Today, we officially gave up plastic bags thanks to our Green Supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi.
http://tinyurl.com/yq8dykI’ve been here in the city over 8 years now (never certain if my next week will see me gone)-- and in all that time I have yet to visit Alcatraz. I understand Ward Churchill will be here this week to talk about Cointelpro, a subject that makes me almost sympathetic to Chomsky’s fears that re-investigating 9/11 is an energy-sapper.
When I once visited New York, my idea of visiting a landmark was to visit the offices of MAD Magazine. I also traipsed around town looking for tin pan alley; no one seemed to know where it was! (an imaginary zone around Lower Broadway?)
I sought out professors who remembered Erich Fromm, and bought a copy of Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nyanaponika. I went to the top of the Empire State Building and looked for Chinese Opera tapes in Chinatown. The entire time I was in excuciating pain because my dentist was a pioneer in resin fillings-- an eccentric who pulled all my old ones out and rewarded me in the end with a t-shirt that announced that I am now “Mercury-free”.
I have been terrified of dentists ever since-- but don’t pick up any radio frequencies, thank heavens (I’ve got enough on my mind).
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 11/20 at 05:36 PMHi RMJ. I was just reading the latest Left Business Observer and it seems much about the economy is going unexamined and dangerously ignored.
Excellent post, Robert. I wish I was mercury-free.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/20 at 07:22 PMRobert...I think I have so much mercury in my mouth they will have to bury me in a toxic waste dump.
Mickey...It will be interesting to see what happens when the rest of the world no longer accepts the dollar.
Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 11/20 at 08:28 PMHey Rosemarie, thanks for inquiring.
Currently back in NY, the section of the planet from which I sprung, after years in the beautiful NW.
I won’t bore you with the melodramatic reasons as to why this is so.
Nothing nefarious or criminal, rest assured.
Though that might not be a disqualification around these parts I guess.
Just a gypsy, Atheistic lefty who has spent a lifetime escaping the Catholic conservative enviornment of my beginnings.
Always searching ,believing there must be a better way, though more disillusioned all the time.
As little participation in the system as possible is my greatest ambition at this point.One confession though; one of my remaining concessions to the mainstream is my love for Baseball and the NYY. Thus my thinly veiled references directed to our gracious Blog host.
How does the saying go? You can take the boy out of NY, but not NY out of the boy?Peace
Posted by Tommy on from I live by the River 11/20 at 09:11 PMTommy..9...you said, As little participation in the system as possible is my greatest ambition at this point....yep!
Posted by joe of maine on from 11/20 at 11:05 PMThe latest at Post Secret:
http://postsecret.blogspot.comPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/21 at 05:19 AMNew article from our very own RMJ:
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/11/hi-tech-torturePosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 11/21 at 12:24 PMThanks, Mickey.
I wish everyone a HAPPY NATIONAL DAY OF ATONEMENT tomorrow. Take a Native American out for lunch and reparations.
Posted by RMJ on from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts 11/21 at 01:17 PMI only just read Rosemarie’s article, Mickey-- and yours too!
http://tinyurl.com/ysbjbvLook out! I might be commenting on them later!
Oh- why wait? Both are inimitably admirable-- and break new ground for public discourse. I hope a lot of people read them.
I like the touch about amalgam fillings, RMJ!
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 11/21 at 01:32 PMRMJ...re: ADS..weapons so casually thought of and made to funnel tax payer money into the few who control weapons products...justification for...it’s crazy. I usually spend tomorrow alone...though I’m having a vegetarian dinner with one other person. I’m already feeling like I want to be alone. Being with someone, talking these days can be laborious for me. I guess I’m tire of the same old things, day after day, the treadmill to nowhere…
Tomorrow I should eat baked pilgrim with steamed broccoli? I could build a large fire pit and just throw a half-dozen white people in it, sprinkle fifty pounds of sage on the fire to cover the stench of burning toxins and hope no one objects.
Posted by joe of maine on from 11/21 at 01:33 PMHey Joe of Maine, hang in there.
It is just another day!I hear ya though. The next 5 weeks are my least favorite time of year.
For what it tis worth, I am thankful for spending some time in the wonderful part of the planet known as Maine.
Nighttime in Acadia, laying on the grass staring at brilliant stars in a magnificent sky!
Joy
Posted by Tommy on from I live by the River 11/21 at 06:20 PMTommy...16...Thanks for the support...yes the natural environment is still wonderful, which is why I want to use Sage…
The Extra-mechanical condition of this time of year is too much and disappointing to me. Oh..those memories.........
Posted by joe of maine on from 11/21 at 08:00 PMHang in there Joe!
I am not crazy about this time of year either. I just sorted through some old books and papers-- and I wonder where has time gone?
Life is mostly a dream-- from childhood we are taught what to think, how to act, what to do-- and it still remains such a mystery…
It’s not too bad being an expendable though, when one is in such good company.
Last night the sun went down and this morning the sun came up.
There’s always something happening.
Posted by Robert B. Livingston on from San Francisco, California 11/21 at 08:51 PM
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