Sunday, October 26, 2003

First Class Sass Whatever skeletons Al Sharpton may have in his closet, I can't help liking him. I love good sass, and Al is a pro in that department. He gets an A for Attitude, and a plus for having the nerve to wear his hair like that. I've been watching the Fox debate tonight, and Sharpton is bringing down the (Detroit) house. Look at that look. He's the master of that challenging, defiant look. He gets his face arranged that way right after he says something really sassy. The top half of his face is saying, "You have a problem with that?" The bottom half is saying, "Too bad, because that's the way it is." I'm not sure what the flared nostrils mean, but they do add that "I mean business" flavor. I like seeing and hearing black leaders when they have something worthwhile to say. I'd like to hear more. I am very willing to listen and to accept leadership from this kind of person. But sadly, I agree with Spike Lee that a lot of young American blacks are asleep at the wheel and have been seduced by materialism, and feed on a diet that is too heavy on hip-hop nonsense and fantasies of stardom. I guess that's where you go when you don't have that many opportunities. To fantasy. To be fair, there are also great numbers of young whites with the same problem. I live in a town that's nearly all white (but in the past couple of years has seen a not insignificant influx of Mexicans) and very liberal. When black people come here, they feel put upon and beseiged by all the white people lining up to try and make friends with them. It can get ridiculous. Some overreact. I remember one time this black female poet moved to town, she got a job at the university or something. She got FWPF (Friendly White People Fatigue). She came to my yard sale and snarled at me when I tried to chit-chat with her -- something about being sick and tired of all the attention. I tried not to take it personally. Remind me to tell you the story of my friend Lillian, a woman I used to call "The Black Olive Oyl", 20 years ago in Los Angeles. 7:12:30 PM    comment []

Crone Power Yesterday I went down to Denver for the anti-war rally mirroring the one in DC. There wasn't a big turnout. I think because many people disagree that the right thing to do is to bring the troops home now. I feel that way myself -- I'm afraid I believe that we have to clean up our mess over there. I support the troops in the sense that I think they are being used wrongly in a wrong war, and that we need to take better care of them both during their tours of duty and when they return home. I would like to see better medical care for them and more accountability in the US govt about that issue specifically. Many war suppporters misunderstand the mixed views that many progressives like me have. Just because I do not support this president's misguided war doesn't mean that I care nothing about the well-being of our troops. And furthermore, I find their refusal to attempt to understand this complex view offensive. For heaven's sake, the administration can't even cover up the low morale in the ranks when they try to run a massive, disingenuous propaganda campaign (I'm referring to the recent incident where they sent identical letters all over the US to newspapers, fraudulently signed with soldiers' names). So I attended this rally more in the spirit of continuing to protest a wrong war than of wanting to pull out of it. Among the speakers and performers were a singing group called the Raging Grannies, who really rocked and delighted the crowd with their enthusiastic renditions of funny protest lyrics sung to favorite old tunes. Here they are singing "I'm the President and I'm OK", (to the tune of Monty Python's "I'm a Lumberjack"). A young boy wore a Bush mask and danced in front of them in a suit and tie. I couldn't write down the words at the time, but you can guess that this group doesn't shy away from mocking the POTUS. It was hilarious. Later that afternoon, after I got home, I watched the DC march on CSPAN. There I saw more Raging Grannies, and realized that this group exists elsewhere. I googled them on the web. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of raging granny porn sites (Dana)! But sprinkled in among those search results were links to Raging Granny groups all over the country. Here's a link to some of their songs and lyrics. The Battle Hymn of the People (to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic) He says our country's been attacked and now's the time to act, He gives us lots of rhetoric but can't supply the facts. We build all the weapons, then we blame it on Iraq, And Bush keeps pushing on. Georgie Bush is telling stories, Georgie Bush is telling stories, Georgie Bush is telling stories, and Congress goes along! He told us that Bin Laden was the one we ought to get, But sudedenly Iraq, it seems, is where his sights are set. It doesn't make a lot of sense, we fear that he's all wet, Yet bush keeps pushig on. Georgie Bush is telling stories... and the media go along! He tells us that Saddam's a threat to our security, While we spend more than all the rest on military, Instead of focusing on building our economy, yet Bush keeps pushing on. Georgie Bush is telling stories... and the people go along! He says he wants Iraq to change and war's the only way, but he won't let the people or the UN have their say. War is not the answer and invasion's not our way, Yet Bush keeps pushing on. Georgie Bush is telling stories... but we won't go along! At one point in the festivities it became necessary for me to find some facilities. None being provided at our state capitol, I was forced to walk a few blocks up the street. Colfax avenue is something of an urban wasteland, but I found a dilapidated used CD store where they graciously allowed me to avail myself. On the way back to the rally, I ducked into a really great used book store I already knew about from my days as a legislative aide, working for my state senator. There I headed to the women's section and liberated a first edition copy of The Crone in very good condition as well as what looks like an extremely subversive book by Mary Daly about the evils of the church. 11:16:17 AM    comment []