December 5, 2014

A Pome: "Officer Friendly Killed My Brother"

My sister died because the medicine cost eighty-four thousand dollars
I can't breathe

My father was turned away at the voting place
I can't breathe

They took my aunt's house
I can't breathe

"A fund has been started to help the family pay medical expenses"
I can't breathe

My grandmother is still working--they privatised her pension
I can't breathe

My cousins got turned away from the public swimming pool
I can't breathe

My brother was beaten for holding hands with his husband
I can't breathe

My sister was killed for "looking like a ho"
I can't breathe

They put my neighbors in jail instead of treating their illness
I can't breathe

The sky is dark with soot and the land is slick and oily
I can't breathe

Officer Friendly killed my brother
I can't breathe

My voice is unheard
I can't breathe

December 5, 2014

Listen Up, You Oligarchs and Your Helots: It's a Stark Choice

It's also very simple.

We are reaching a tipping point. Enough "unimportant people" are finally pissed off to be demanding change in no uncertain terms. We believe:

• Black lives matter
  
• Our grandchildren should have a planet that supports human life
  
• There really ARE alternatives to fossil fuels and they CAN make our lives better
  
• Wall Street does nothing connected with us except steal from us
  
• The terrorists who are hurting us most are already here in America-- and they wear suits
  
• Who marries whom is a private affair between the parties concerned
  
• Health insurance should not be another cover for stealing from us
  
• Health care should focus on making us well, not keeping us sick for your profit
  
• The outcome of our elections should be determined by our votes, not your money

We don't all believe all of these things with the same fervor or passion, but enough of us believe some or all of them with enough passion to demand change.

You have two options:

1. Stop the smash-and-grab raids, prepare to give up some of your ill-gotten gains, consolidate the rest and begin paying a share of the infrastructure and community expenses proportional to the gains you've wrested from it; or

2. Keep smashing and grabbing, clench tighter around control and try to keep change from happening.

Choose "1" and you'll get to keep some things you value, you'll still be more or less at the top of the food chain, and you'll live to steal again a couple of generations down the road.

Choose "2" and blood will flow. Some of it will be yours. No one will be able to predict the outcome, who will end up on top, who the new oppressors will be, how things will shake out. It's a risk.

That's the choice.

There is no option 3.

The time is growing short, and if you don't choose the choice will be made for you. Another risk.

prognosticatorially,
Bright

December 2, 2014

FatalEncounters.org: Info Law Enforcement Doesn't Want You to Have

Journalists, protesters, activists and even historians attempting to summarize factual information on the number of people killed by law enforcement officers in the course of their duties have all encountered it: The brick wall of "No Information."

No one in America-- Not the FBI, not the Justice Department, not even (so far as we know) the NSA, the ultimate Agency that Sees All and Knows All, collects this data and/or is willing to share it.

When we ask "how bad is the problem?" we must accept the answer "we don't know."

Knowledge is of course power. And no law enforcement agency in America apparently wants the citizens it works for to have that power.

So we have to do it on our own.

And we ARE doing it on our own, via crowdsourcing, with FatalEncounters.org, a website created by D. Brian Burghart to compile this information from citizen sources.

Go look, it's worth seeing. Fifty-seven in New Mexico so far, the oldest going back to 2000.

It's even more worth donating.

Because who actually HAS this information? We do. We whose family members, neighbors, fellow-citizens have been killed, who read the newspapers, listen to the radio, monitor what's happening in our communities. We HAVE the information.

Let's put it together, so we can USE the information.

Thanks, Mr. Burghart. I WILL be donating.

determinedly,
Bright