"You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Chains"

Yesterday was International Worker's Day all over the world. It was a day marked by marches and protests in all, or most, of the major cities in the major countries of the planet. And, for the past 120 years (or so) it has been a day entirely set aside for the recognition and appreciation of the worker. Basically, it's what we here in the United States call Labor Day.

But, unlike in the United States, this day is commonly celebrated on May 1st, rather than on the first Monday of September. In all actuality, the only two countries worldwide who don't celebrate the "holiday" on the first of May are the United States and Canada. Now, why is that?

First of all, it is because the celebration has close ties to all of the major "anti-American" political, social, and economic philosophies, such as anarchism and socialism. That is the reason why, when we do hear about International Worker's Day, it is only usually discussed in relation to Russia, China, and Cuba.

However, the day really has more significance here in the States than it does in any of those countries. And frankly, the outright government hypocrisy and iniquity that prevents us from nationally (and federally) recognizing the holiday probably sickens me more than most things do.

The reason why this event is so tied to the United States, is because this country is entirely responsible for it. That is, more appropriately, we caused it to happen.

As you should be aware of, the government here really doesn't appreciate the common worker much. If this statement wasn't true, then why do you think so many factory and manual labor jobs are being lost every day? And why do you think that the vast majority of us are being pushed towards college and an "education" , even if we don't really care about school much, rather than being pushed to join the already dwindling workforce?

To be honest, the answer is rather complex, so I won't wholly address it right now. But, basically, throughout American history, the worker hasn't had a very pleasant role in the scheme of things. This unpleasantness reached a pinnacle in May of 1886, when the FOTLU (Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions) organized general strikes throughout the country in support of the 8 hour work day-- a huge decrease from the 10 to 16 hours generally set aside for the work day at the time.

These strikes attracted thousands of men in all of the country's great cities. Yet, while these strikes are undoubtedly important, they alone aren't the reason why International Worker's Day is celebrated on May 1st. What happened in one these cities is.

This specific happening occurred in Chicago, a major industrial hot spot in the 19th century. There, a group of police officers murdered a dozen protesters and injured numerous others in an attempt to cool aggression and end the strike. This occurrence, which actually spanned quite a few days, has come to be known as the Haymarket Massacre, or the Haymarket Affair.

I don't want to discuss this as much as I simply want to make those of you who didn't know about this before aware of it. To tell you the truth, though I feel very passionate about this subject now, if it wasn't for my grandfather, a born and bred Argentine Peronist, enlightening me about the true Labor Day last year, I probably wouldn't have known about any of this at all either.

Our government doesn't want us to know about the Haymarket Massacre or International Worker's Day, about socialism and its acknowledgment of and love for the worker, even if the information is easily accessible to all of us. They like us nice and dumb, tuning into Tila Tequila and America's Next Top Model every weeknight, rather than watching the news or reading a fricken' newspaper (an honest and straightforward one).

You know it's the truth, whether I tell it to you or someone else much smarter than me does.

So, in any case, I just wanted to take this time to show my own form of gratitude to the worker, of whom my family (and I'm sure a vast number of yours) has many. Without them we would be nothing. Whether they be the ones we indirectly enslave overseas in China and Vietnam, having them work tirelessly in factories to provide us with, among other things, the majority of the shirts on our backs, or the ones who work for good pay here in the United States, we owe much, very much, to them.

"Where there is a worker, there lies a nation."
-Evita Peron

Fascism In America? Is it Really Possible?

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

-Thomas Jefferson

I'm not really one for conspiracy theories. In fact, I like to believe that the people in charge, the people who we have voted for or allow to be in power, work solely to serve and provide for us, the American citizens. I like to think that everything we see could be true. But, after seeing this movie, which is the quintessential cherry-on-top in my quest towards enlightenment, I'm afraid I just can't be so hopeful as to think that way anymore.

"Freedom to Fascism" is a movie created Aaron Russo to expose the truth about the IRS, the Federal Reserve, and the American Banking Business to the American people. Russo, an acclaimed movie producer and victim of refusal to pay taxes, goes on in this 2 hour film to discuss everything from the illegality of the Federal Reserve System to the fear of private-banking ideologies held by many of our country's most important leaders, from Thomas Jefferson to Woodrow Wilson. And frankly, he does a pretty good job of it all.

As you all should know, I am incredibly critical of the government. But, this--this is just too much. Could we really be required to have National Identification Cards soon? And to have identification and locational chips planted in our skin? Did Congress and the President really pass laws that would limit our power to protest the government for illegal arrest? To refuse to serve the government in times deemed "emergency cases"?

I don't know. One thing is for sure, however. It is very very possible.

Our constitution is supposed to be our ultimate guiding piece of authority in all cases and circumstances relating to government. It, fashioned by our Founding Fathers, however un-virtuous (yet intelligent) they may have been, is what ensures us of our rights and protects us. So how would you feel if I told you that our government HONESTLY doesn't giving a flying barrel of donkey-doo about it?

"The constitution is just a god-damned piece of paper" -George W. Bush

I'm sorry but lately I don't feel like government is in any way serving it's purpose. If government is supposed to serve us, those who elect and uphold it, why are we the ones living in fear, the ones being unjustly arrested or questioned, who are having our phones tapped into and our information released to "justice" officials?

It probably could be because our government is crap.

This isn't a political argument. I've come to realize that our problems are far greater than simple political issues. And, while many of us remain numbed to the real problems, exactly what the Big Guys want of us, voting for McCain or Obama won't make much of a difference.

I'm beginning to realize, slowly but surely, that revolution might be the only answer. I only hope that you all join me when the time comes.

For now, go watch this movie and make your mind up for yourself!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173&hl=en

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"
-Martin Luther King Jr.

Don't be an ignorant American, be a real patriot.

Quit the Big Talk: We Want Peace, Not War

"We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the world - no longer a Government of free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."

Woodrow Wilson, one of the greatest, most honorable, and virtuous thinkers in American history said this of our nation ninety years ago, some time after America's exit from World War 1. He wanted to devise a League of Nations, a means of peaceful, diplomatic unity and closeness between all of the countries of the world (eventually this would become the U.N.), and he watched the majority of his plans fail miserably because of lack of American interest.

Woodrow Wilson had his flaws. But he was right. And his statement is more relevant now then ever before in American history.

I write a few weeks after John McCain gave his Foreign Policy speech in Los Angelas, and though what he said was cleverly crafted and verbally eloquent, I can't help but see in him what Woodrow Wilson must have seen in the politicians of almost a century ago.

American intervention in the rest of the world is not going to help anyone. Intervention, especially with scattered interests in mind, only helps to cause chaos and death. This happened during Kissinger and CIA's involvement in Operation Condor in Latin America, and when America intervened and was defeated in Vietnam and Korea.

I'm not a genius. I am not politically correct most of the time. But I can see quite flawlessly, and I know that this world does not need a Great Protector state to observe and put forth agenda, and to pressure those nation's which don't share similar political philosophies into warfare or submission. What we need is a history lesson, not more fighting.

Of course, in the case of Iraq, I think that things, in some sense, have changed for the better. But for the sake of metaphor, it is possible for things to get better even when there is an initial wrong that has occurred.

For instance, let's say a thief breaks into your house. A smart thief, with a lot of power (like America), but who, regardless of his personal qualities, still doesn't belong in your house. Maybe he can help you fix some things, like tell you to pick up your laundry off the floor or take off your shoes so you don't make a mess in the house, and you can appreciate that. But you still may not want him there, because it is your house, not his.

Saddam Hussein, an American ally in the time before the Persian Gulf War (yeah, I bet you didn't that could be possible), did this when he invaded Kuwait. And we kicked him out.

Now, we invaded Iraq. And I think we should leave before someone else forces us to, or before things get bad enough to force even the Heads of State to want the troops home.

Two weeks ago an 80 year old man, and former Army officer, Don Zirkel was arrested for protesting the Iraq War. He wore a simple shirt that said, "4,000 troops, 1 million Iraqi's dead. Enough", and the cops put handcuffs on his wrists, placed him a wheelchair, and escorted him to a police station where he was charged with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest. Just, for being in a mall, and wearing a shirt with the truth, with blatantly clear facts, written on it.

America needs to stop being the helper in a bully's body, and start being the helper, period. Make sure you guys, as Americans, make that obvious at the polls, and in the ballot box later this year. Or else, peace will be unachievable.

When In Rome, Do As the Romans Do...

Sadly for us, we aren't in Rome. So, why are we still treating Popes, common men, as if they were gods on Earth, as the Romans treated the Caesars almost two thousand years ago?

I really wish I had some enlightening answer for that, but I don't. I'm just simply stupefied by it all.

Of the numerous things I find wrong with the Catholic faith, this has to be the front- runner, the big Chalupa of all the religious heresies that has afflicted our world. Yet still, somehow, people transcend the bogusness and treat Popes as if they were kings (who themselves don't even really deserve the grandeur they get and have gotten either).

Not only does the Bible, the collection of scripture that all of the Christian faiths are founded on, not in any way mention a position of Pope, but it also highlights no event or circumstance in which man ever deserves to be treated with such praise. Actually, with the way Jesus felt about man and sin, He probably wouldn't want a man in any such powerful position anyway (yes, I don't do the whole saints thing either, we aren't pagans, people. Doesn't it just feel a bit too much like Greece and Rome?)

What we should do, instead of wasting our time waiting for an old man to whisper words of wisdom to us (which usually aren't so wise anyway), is put our faith in something we can believe, our hope in something true and uplifting.

That doesn't necessarily mean that I want you all to find Christ (even though I really do), because I realize that it's hard to believe sometimes, because I've been there before, and was there for almost 18 years. I simply want us to have a little more hope in each other, to focus on what we need to do to live, and to live happily.

What makes a Pope so much better than a blue-collar worker, than a housewife, than a bus-driver? Absolutely nothing.

My grandfather always gets so angry when he sees the Pope come on t.v. and he always tells me the same thing, and it fits into this little discourse, so I'll end wit hit right now. He says that we worship an old man who sits on his throne, who gives his speeches, who gives out blessing as if it were a food sampler in the A&P (okay, so I added that last part in). But what about men like him, who have labored their entire lives, who have only a few hours of rest every night before they have to go out in the morning to fight in the only way they know how, just to put food on the table and provide for their families? What about the millions of workers who earn a living by working 10 or more hours a day at a job they hate, only because they know they have to?

We give them nothing. So, why do we give so much to a man who probably couldn't muster the strength to bring in a bag of groceries if you asked him to? I don't think we're stupid, I just think we're ignorant. And for the ignorant there are books, but for the stupid there isn't anything.

Let me finish (once and for all) with a list of things that I think you should question, which maybe you never have before; or which you basically just shouldn't give so much to and expect so much from:

News Reporters (Bums. Everything is skewed. We don't need rich men/women in desks to tell us that)
Popes
Saints
Governments (unless they are good ones)
Professors (ibid)
Multinational corporations (MTV, McDonald's, Exxon Mobil, etc... give the little guys a shot)
Rich people
Models and Musicians
Athletes (with A-Rods salary at the Yankees, 252 million in ten years, we could probably end hunger in at least one continent)
Doctors (just those private-practice schmucks that charge you an arm and a leg for a "Your okay, boss" and a bottle of Tylenol)
Businessmen
History (did you know that Teddy Roosevelt was racist? That Washington had slaves? That we murdered hundreds of thousands of patriots just to take over the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. I bet your U.S. Hist. professor never told you that!)
Me (if you don't want to)

Now, go do something valuable!

freepoverty.com
thehungersite.com
freerice.com
freeflour.com

"Does English Class Oppress You, Too?"

I don't know if it's just me, but lately I've been feeling more and more frustrated with college, with schooling, and with the entire education system, not only in this country, but worldwide.

It seems like nowadays (or maybe always, I can't really ascertain for myself) the "people telling you what to do" system of living has managed to get it's greedy paws on just about everything, especially when it comes to education. From the time I was little, I remember learning about how I should write, the famous 5 paragraph system, the intro-body-conclusion scheme, and the strikingly lurid outline format which I battle vehemently against to this day.

Of course, I realize that when we are young these things are actually somewhat useful. At a young age, our ideas are fresh, newborn babies looking for a mommy that will tuck them into their bed just the right way. So, expectedly our pseudo-mommies (usually grade-school teachers, the really nice ones that don't give you C's on your mid-term papers) teach us simple way of expressing ourselves in ways that make sense to the rest of the world around us. And for that, I am much appreciative.

My frustration, and I believe many of ours', begins once we start high school. By then, many of us already know how we should write, or at least what style best befits the assignments given to us by our now not-so-lovable professors. Certainly, there are particular cases where this may not be, and which require just a pit more training, some more time on the potty before we hit the big time (that grown-up toilet can be quite scary at first!). So, some further tending to never really hurts, it just bugs us a bit.

But, then, after we finish high school, and go on to college (if we so choose to), we should be done with spring training, right? Nope.

I learned this lesson better than most. After graduating high school a fairly well-groomed writer (not to brag, but I was accustomed to A's or 90's on most of my essays and papers), I figured College Writing classes would be a breeze, after all, I had just finished about 10 years of pre-gaming--assuming we all start learning how to write for real around 3rd grade--in which I did just fine. Then, the first C+ came, and I was shocked.

To my surprise, my writing style was not structured enough, it lacked appropriate order, it wasn't simple enough to not complicate the reader. "Maybe you should try writing some outlines beforehand, Brian," she (my English 101 professor) suggested.

What was my response? A resounding NO! By now, at 19 years old, I'm tired of being told how I should write, or being deducted points for not fitting into the style which my professors deem appropriate. You ever hear of a little thing called oppression?

Okay, so I exaggerate, but only just a bit. The human mind is beautiful, it allows to contemplate and consider things at lightening paces, to absorb like a sponge countless information in an instant (like let's say, before a Bio exam *cough cough*). We shouldn't be discouraging ourselves to fit into a "style", but rather being encouraged to let our opinions flow like a gorgeous waterfall of ideas.

I know this may not sound politically correct, after all, I rarely am. Still, some of you have to agree, sometimes don't you find yourselves having to read over your opinions innumerable times, adding and deleting on Microsoft Word, before you figure out just the right wording, and find yourself at least partially content with your work? I know, I do. And I'm sick of it.

If our goal is to just learn, or to be able to talk and write eloquently and free-flowingly, then we should be urged to do so; not to fit those thoughts into a system which might not make sense to us, or which we might necessarily just not like. The reason why kids aren't expressing themselves on paper as much today isn't because they're stupid, it's just because they get condoned for not using the right words, for sounding to fancy, for sounding to dumb, or for having too many spelling mistakes.

Now, the more conservative of you (if there are any of you out there) could fully disagree with me. Maybe even think this is complete bullocks. All I know, is that I want to write, for writing's sake. I want to say what I want to say, and not have to scan it over a thousand times to make sure it fits into some pre-ordained style which I might find pretty fricken' lame.

So, my conclusion: Write. Your way, not your teachers'. If they give you a hard time, fix what you want (or until you find yourself happy with what you've written), and give it back. If they don't like it, then forget them. We are ourselves too gifted, each and everyone of us, and too capable of making something beautiful to simply be satisfied with complacency, and with the machine's restrictions.

Awakening

Salutations Bloggers (and Blogees?)!!

As you will soon be able to tell, this is my first ever (fully-conscious) attempt at creating something useful, and hopefully, in some ways, enlightening to others.

In the past months, I have come to the realization that the world around has been, at least partially, falsified, and that rather than continue on my path as an expectant and fairly uninterested college student, that I should take some steps towards expressing my frustrations and perspectives on life with you (the mass, the public, the people).

What is my ultimate goal? Although I can't clearly identify one as I sit here lazily in my computer chair on this Sabbath eve, I do honestly intend, with all the virtue in my heart and mind, to make this an outlet for others to share things that they might not always be willing to for various reasons, whether they be fear or frustration or whatever. In so doing, I hope to learn more about myself and the world around me.

As the title states, this is a home to contemplations that may not always be presented in the public sphere of things, either for oddity or lack of intrigue. However, I feel that they, like all the thoughts which sprout from the highly imaginative and complex human mind, are crucial to achieving total self-awareness in a world which, at times, tries so heartily to numb us from seeing and feeling reality.

In any case, I hope you all enjoy. My first post regarding structure and systematic repression should be up within the next few days. Till then, brothers and sisters.

In willingness and love,
Brian