#SOPA/#PIPA Blackout
Today, January 18th, I will be participating in the protest of SOPA/PIPA Legislation by not posting any new content here or on any of my social network pages.
I ask anyone reading this to fully investigate what the impact of these proposals are, and consider that they endanger Net Neutrality. Currently, they have been placed back under review until the politicians who stand to benefit the most (through kickbacks, legal or not) from their campaign contributors. More seriously, they represent a threat to your ability to engage in your First Amendment rights.
Thank you for your continued interest and support. I will see you on the morrow.
Mike Alexander
OccupyFTL & MLK Day
On Saturday, January 14th, members of Occupy Fort Lauderdale and Miami marched with others who wanted to start off the the long weekend of commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They met at the African-American Research Library & Cultural Center on Sistrunk Boulevard. Professor Evan Rowe spoke a few words to start us off, saying that Dr. King’s views and the Occupy Movement coincided with each other. Both are class and democratic movements, seeking to equalize the flow of money as much as possible. Those familiar with Dr. King’s words will see the parallels in #Occupy, in the idea that every person should have the same opportunities to succeed, regardless of race, faith, or wealth.
On our way to the first stop, we picked up the drum majors of the R&W Youth Gospel Jamz Explosion. “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that’s all I want to say… We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. … And the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct. It is a good instinct if you don’t distort it and pervert it. Don’t give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity. ~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, 1968. (paraphrased on the Stone of Hope in the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, DC .)
At the first stop, in Franklin Park, we heard a selection of songs from the Universal Unitarian Church of Fort Lauderdale. This was followed by a statement from Victor “General Can-Do” Houston, an original member of the Black Panther Party, who had this to say about the people assembled: “Occupy is continuing the work of Martin Luther King.” Size doesn’t matter so as the message, he said. He was referencing the relatively small size of OccupyFTL, compared to the groups in Miami and Palm Beach, but that was unimportant, because we are just as committed to the cause as everyone else in the country. He sees the modern Occupation as equivalent to earlier Civil Rights movements, including his own generation. Dr. King also wanted to eliminate racial considerations from everyday life, and #Occupy has run with that idea by becoming a global movement determined ensure equality for everyone.
Houston continued by discussing how history repeats itself. The United States has repeatedly overthrown foreign governments since the 1950s, using justifications to invade those countries. With the Arabian states, the strings pulled by corporations to get a hook on their resources has changed over the decades, though the target has not. We’ve gone from the threat of communism from Soviet incursion, to retaliating to the wrong country for 9/11 by searching for WMDs that never existed. Nowadays, we’ve changed that stance to the “potential to create nuclear weapons” being taught by another nation.
“Children are being sent off to fight and die for corporate interests,” said Houston. The party involved with the decisions is lying when they say they are pro-life. All life should be revered, and “include not dropping bombs.” This pattern of behavior extends to the reaction towards #Occupy. He is particularly incensed by the use of military grade pepper spray to control and silence free speech in full violation of the First Amendment by domestic police forces. The attempt by local governments to suppress less important groups, as seen by actions in New York City and Oakland, are indicative of the same mentality of previous generations who only want to maintain the status quo for themselves, the One Percent.
During Houston’s speech, a woman who lived in the neighborhood of Franklin Park approached us, and rightfully challenged us to do the right thing and return with food. Berlinda runs a food drop service, and has been having severe difficulty in getting assistance in feeding the people of her block. Occupy Fort Lauderdale will be in contact with her, and will look into setting up events to donate food and/or funds to Franklin Park and other sections of Broward County. It is a stark reminder of the Depression gripping the country right now. Not only have we taken a step back for every two forward, despite four decades since Dr. King’s assassination for bringing the idea of civil rights to the foreground, the goal of Occupy to separate money from politics is futile if the very people who need it most can’t survive day-to-day. There were some perceptual assumptions when Berlinda interrupted Houston, because there is no way for to know that many of the people marching- white or black- were just as underemployed or jobless as the neighborhood she lived in. There was no middle-class tourism involved, because the middle class is just about gone, and the current field of political candidates is determined to destroy it completely.
We continued from there to the next stop, where Universal Unitarian Minister Gail Tapscott discussed how Dr. King understood that all aspects of social justice are intertwined. The 99 Percent Movement/Occupy is following MLK by looking for a new synthesis by consensus, to address monetary inequality. Dr. King had predicted this very increase of disparity. While there are many causes within the Occupation, we find strength in each other’s passion to make up the consensus of the movement. Whether one person wants to stop fracking, while another wants to end dead peasant policies, both realize that getting the corporate influence out of government is the best path to changing these policies. Working together will lead to improving the chances of our species surviving that much longer.
At our final stop before returning to the African-American Library, several people took the stage outside of Betty’s BBQ in a Soapbox moment. Naomi, a former employee of Wal-Mart, is now a member of http://ForRespect.org. She discussed some of the practices of the company, such as encouraging employees to apply for food stamps or public medical services, and in particular the pay disparity. 1.4 million Associates work there, making about $16,000 per year; while the CEO makes about $16,ooo per hour. Walmart might advertise on their website that the average paycheck is $11.00 per hour, but the the truth is they only pay $7.35. It seems they use a different type of math to average out employee pay than the rest of us. (FYI- as of Jan 1, 2012, minimum wage is now $7.67/hr.)
Desmond mentioned the prison industry obliquely by talking about incarceration rates and disenfranchisement. Were MLK still alive, he’d not be allowed to vote in Florida. Rates of imprisonment for blacks go up as education scores go down in a vicious circle. Desmond would like to celebrate a change in the world where everyone had equal rights and equal access to safe & affordable housing, with good educations and wages for all, regardless of demographics. He pointed out that Governor Rick Scott was showing his hypocrisy with his disenfranchisement policies even as he celebrated MLK Day himself. While Dr. King may have seen the Mountain, followed by Nelson Mandela, who saw more hills to climb, Desmond reminded us that we can’t stop with President Obama. We must forge on and ensure that Dr. King’s words don’t remain mere words, but become a prophecy wherein the content of a man’s character is more important than any outward appearance.
“We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
Occupy Fort Lauderdale ended the day with a protest at a local Wal-mart, as well as an impromtpu luncheon with Victor Houston at Betty’s BBQ. That evening, some of engaged in a very enlightening discussion led by Evan Rowe, about Race & Class, the particulars of which are too long to be included in this essay.
Snakes on a… screw it. Right Wingers are just snakes. [RAW(meet) parts 2, 3, & 4]
(Buckle up. This is a long one, because I’ve been chewing on it for quite a while, and have had to combine several pieces to maintain the flow.)
I’ve said it before, and continue to refuse to make any apologies for my opinion that Republicans don’t care about animals. Bryan Fischer has repeatedly called for the execution of any animal that harms or kills a human. They repealed legislation to improve life for dogs in puppy mills. Now, they’re going after regulations regarding the importation of various species of snakes. Fischer is just an idiot, but I’ll get to him in a bit. The other two protests came about because the Republicans are claiming that laws like enforcing clean food and water or ensuring biodiversity will further damage the economy by exacerbating the unemployment situation because those companies won’t be able to afford to hire new workers. The same argument is being used to protest food safety- if the Right Wing doesn’t care about their constituents, why do I keep expecting them to care about the environment?
This is a thorny issue for me. I used to be a zookeeper, until the apathy of my supervisor and his bosses caused my career to fizzle out because they deliberately withheld information that an animal I was working with had injured other people. After a year of recovery, I made it back to the field, but I slowly deteriorated due to the injuries I sustained, that I will never fully recover from. So, yeah, this is going to color my perception of animal welfare, especially when I get to watch people with limited biology backgrounds make outlandish statements. I know my areas of expertise, and my limitations, as well. For me to do something similar would involve lobbying for legislation that states BASIC is the word of god, and UNIX is the devil’s Code.
Ten years plus as a zookeeper gave me plenty of chances to see how the economy effects biodiversity. I’ve said this in greater detail elsewhere, so here is the short form: When people can afford to feed and clothe themselves, they can then afford to feed the animals in their lives. When I gave my keeper presentations on the Pygmy Hippos, the zoo patrons got to learn about how civil wars in eastern Africa impacted the lives of animals living on the Ivory Coast. To bring that idea closer to home, I would point out how people in South Florida have to abandon their cats and dogs because they could no longer afford their mortgages. I would stop at that point, obviously, because a zookeeper discussing unfair banking practices that helped lead to the current Recession (a Depression, in my opinion) thanks to corporate deregulation from 30 years prior is wildly off-topic.
But it is true that any behavior can have unintended consequences. Unethical business practices in the United States have a domino effect on a variety of animal species on other continents. The same thing goes for theocratic goals in this country that lead to the murders of homosexuals in other countries. So why not concentrate on doing things that have long-term consequences that will lead to positive outcomes. My parents and the people with whom I associated as a child grew up with the Depression, and that generation certainly knew the value of going without now, so they could have it later. Those people wanted better lives for their kids, as all parents should; but the Episcopalian stock I came from meant you don’t screw over others to get what you want. Between being raised by my mildly socialist caretaker, buddhism, and the idea of Seven Generations, I’ve come to realize that our human species (at least the fundamentalist sub-species) is on a path to self-destruction unless it realizes that Seven Mountains will crush us.
With the Republicans arguing that regulations will kill job creation, they are willing to overlook long term effects of the loss of biodiversity and keystone species. In the short term, they save money by not having a rule that says I have to wash my hands after taking a dump, right before I serve them their consomme. By not restricting the import of non-indigenous species of pythons, they are taking another chip out of the tropical climes of North America. Most specifically, they’ll impact the Everglades, where they can survive year ’round, unless the cycle of cold snaps like the one in 2010 shortens due to climate change. As it is, there’s already a mutant population of iguanas that is slowly making its way out of south florida up towards Orlando. And then there’s the Mystery Monkey Of Tampa Bay, a personal favorite of mine, even though he highlights the very problem that the deregulation of animal care represents.
This guy just pissed me off. This person committed fraud across state lines and exposed his family and neighbors to danger by thinking he could own a hyena in an apartment. If you read the comments, you’ll see me getting into it with him, and why he made such a bad choice for worse reasons. (Owning an exotic animal will never fix a broken heart.) What Darrell Issa says will further weaken the economy will just lead to more situations like this. (Hyena Boy, as I call him, is one of the very reasons this rant is so long.) I am very aware that more rules aren’t always the best answer. Better enforcement of existing laws is a more efficient use of resources, as is having the right people doing the right job. No. And no again.
To say to having regulations at all is the problem just ignores what got where we are in the first place. Modern Republicans are very intent on keeping the policies of Freidman going, despite being proved disastrously wrong for decades and decades. Eliminating regulations -duh, I just realized! – means that there is no legal recourse for harms committed by a faulty product. I understood Citizens United was bad, but in the fantasy dreamworld the Right Wing wants, the only way to hold someone accountable for fracking or putting shrapnel in childrens’ cereal would be to be able to hire private security forces and physically force them to pay for the damages they’ve incurred. While reading about life in the Middle Ages is fun, only billionaires would actually want to return us to feudalism.
The main crux of the anti-regulation argument is that it impacts small business owners. Yes, there are people that make a living selling exotic animals, and some live quite well off of it. However, while I do support captive breeding farms (cattle, alligators, poultry), I don’t necessarily support the practices some of them engage in. (Sanctuaries are another discussion.) We are still a young species, so meat is an important, and significant part of our diet. (I’ll be happy to discuss that in another essay.) Because of our young age, we still have an affinity for animals, even if much of our population has moved away from where the animals are. I’ll even agree with the idea that we are not only pushing animals from their habitats, but are spreading into former areas that used to be uninhabitable. Regardless, people still need animals around them for both personal and environmental health. Biodiversity is a factor in keeping us alive. One of the theories is that if certain insect species disappear, the chain reaction would result in the loss of most of humanity within a few decades. I’m not always impressed with what I’ve seen humans do, so I don’t think this guy is too far off the mark.
Back to the reptile breeders. I will admit to herpetephobia, but that isn’t why I don’t think continuing to fund the Lacey Act is such a horrifying prospect. There is a similarity with them and gun collectors, in that there are trends in popularity, and must-haves. There’s also a correlation between testosterone and showing off, whether it’s with a rattlesnake or a Winchester. Regulations notwithstanding, there is a market that will persist. Underground sales in the parking lot will continue, but unlike illegal gun sales, snakes that can’t be cared for will either die of neglect or be dumped in the wild; which isn’t humane either. It’s a matter of mere minutes of research to find out why it’s bad to just let animals go. And it’s not just bad for the former pet, either, since the extra stress on the ecosystem ultimately means more stress on human beings. It’s a never-ending cycle.
Feral animals and non-indigenous plants do serious damage to the environment. For example, New Guinea Singing Dogs are in danger of extinction because they can interbreed with domestic dogs due to the closeness of their species. They’re dogs, an earlier model, so to speak. Yet when I was a zookeeper, I learned that there is a movement in the USA to have them approved as an AKC recognized breed. Not only does this mean people want to import them into the country, but it makes me think there will soon be (if not already in existence) breeders engaging in illegal sales. One guy wanting to be loved got his arm broken by his pet hyena. So yeah, unless something is done to nip this in the bud, Singing Dogs could conceivably be turned out because of the amount of damage they can do to a home, or escape into the wild. Hopefully, they’d make a dent in the feral cat population. But we’ve seen time and time again what happens when additional species are introduced to control earlier mistakes.
Having met more than one reptile breeder, I can safely say that for every person following the rules by getting proper documents and training, there are many more who are just in it for the money. Forced breedings, crossing lines, and other methods are designed to produce exotic color variants. Sound familiar? It’s what we do for dog and cat shows, and never mind the relationship between color and non-beneficial mutations. One reptile breeder I met poached alligators for sale online; and kept venomous snakes in his apartment, for which he had neither documentation nor training. I know that he doesn’t represent all traders, but at the foundation, he isn’t any different from the rare priest that molests children. His bad behavior defines the reputation of the group, unfortunately. While a zookeeper, I had multiple people ask me about black-market worths of various animals. I know some were joking about attempting to steal a komodo dragon, since they’d most likely die in the attempt. But a few times a year, I’d meet those that seemed to be gauging my reaction to them, either as admission of having something they weren’t supposed to, or genuinely interested in finding out how to get something. The vibe from them was completely different from the young guys wanting to impress me with their own tales of prowess; as were the rare requests for feathers, talons, or shit- whether it was for a souvenir of a trip or a Santeria ceremony.
Whether or not I like snakes has little to do with the crux of my argument. Yes, there is a huge component in having worked alongside these animals and learning about their natural habitats. It comes down to compassion, which seems to be in short supply on the Right Wing. The people trying to limit regulations because of the impact on profits to the companies that paid for their campaigns often speak about not letting their grandchildren bear the burden of the mistakes made today. If it doesn’t benefit them, they either don’t give a shit, or they’ll do anything to prevent helping others. It’s a pretty shortsighted viewpoint, because the great-grandkids will have to fix our mistakes. To me, it seems a lot cheaper in the long run to take care of things while we can, and not leave the place worse off than we found it.
Marco Polo, or Why You Shouldn’t Laugh at Deaf People
Recently, I needed to visit my audiologist to adjust the programming in my hearing aides. While waiting, I was glancing through some of the magazines, most of which are dedicated towards the deaf community. One of the articles showcased a foundation that donated hearing aides to people in India. Several of the pictures showed children and adults wearing hearing aides for the first time, and really experiencing their world for the first time. However I couldn’t get past the images of the hearing aides dangling forward from their ears, instead of being looped over and behind.
It may seem to be an insignificant and petty point. Some might even think I am trying to take a joyous occasion away from these kids. Not at all. I used to wear the kind they have, and will eventually need to wear them again as I get older and lose more of my hearing. In fact, I even wore the big radio-pack on the chest that the teacher spoke to the entire class; I would get mad because I couldn’t (literally) tune her out, as I would do to my mother. Currently I have the super-small in-the-canal kind, orders of magnitude stronger than what was available in the 1970s. They resemble the ‘earwigs’ worn by various spies and undercover cops on TV.
The reason behind the cringing at seeing the kids in India wearing their aides forward (largely so that the docs and their assistants could correctly control the volume for them), as well as the bright primarily colors popular among today’s youth, has to do with perceptions towards the disabled in the 1970s. I never really felt shame, and was actually pretty self-sufficient for a latch-key kid. To this day, I do things I’m not supposed to: I’ve been a dancer, a rock climber, a zookeeper, and am currently noodling around occasionally as an amateur stand-up comic.
Back in grade school, I was mainstreamed out of Special Education and into the local public elementary school, because I wasn’t being challenged enough. But hearing aides paint a big target on your head. I learned early on that I would never want to treat someone poorly because of how they were born. I hated, as anyone would, being singled out for my speech. Growing up in Metro Detroit, I was exposed to many different cultures and languages; to me, different is normal.
Since childhood, I have always strove to treat everyone fairly, without regard for their skin color, sex, national origin, or religion. I try to consider the point of view of others, or learn about them, before I speak. I think it’s a factor in why I chose to study anthropology for part of my education. That’s not to say I haven’t had my share of foot-in-mouth disease. I know from experience that one cannot tell by sight only what national, religious, or gender identity someone has. I’ve seen people’s faces and recognize the look on my own, because I no longer wear the large hearing aides- there is no visual cue that I will stutter, slur, or get really close to a person to hear what they are saying. It’s better simply to avoid personal comments- you never know who you are talking to.
There are those who’ve tangled with me in person or online who might disagree. Certainly, I go after people who demonstrate hypocrisy, ignorance, or discrimination. I’ll play devil’s advocate all the time, to counter arguments and defuse hateful rhetoric. The superhero fan in me won’t let me *not* defend others when they are being maligned; especially if they are absent. I consider myself a student, and a devotee of facts and fairness, so I cannot sit idly by while politicians or armchair pundits present propaganda or opinions masked with self-righteousness. The rules and laws of society apply to everyone equally. I won’t attack someone because of their faith, but I certainly won’t hold back when that same person seeks to impose their views on others, in violation of our civil rights. It is how I was raised, and informed myself as I grew. But once you open your mouth, you’re fair game.
The point of that last paragraph? Being deaf, I was never sure of the rules of childhood or society, so I always had to jump in with both feet. It was bad enough being teased in Fourth Grade for being deaf, but my responses to those insults went over my tormentors’ heads. Being told, “Eew, you’re death!” by a kid with a lisp got this retort: “If I’m Death, don’t tease me, cause I’ll send you to your grave!” That went over well. “What did he say? He’s weird! Let’s go!”
Having to stand up for myself gave me more confidence than most people my age at an earlier point in life. I think it’s natural to want to transfer that into standing up for others, as well. It also allowed me to be able to explore other cities by myself while on vacation. As a teenager, my high school was one of the first to be allowed into the Soviet Union during that period of glasnost. More than once I strayed from my classmates to wander alone through Moscow or Odessa. I moved to another state for my education, which is something I don’t think enough students do. Statistically speaking, the majority of Americans never move more than twenty miles from where they grew up.
Those kids in India, and the older adults are experiencing their environment better for the first time in their life. I hope this gives them the courage to explore the world more fully, and at the same time learn from their past to take those lessons about fairness and pay them forward. There isn’t really much holding them back anymore, except for whatever limitations they place on themselves or how much strength of will they can muster up to fight the system.
Lately, with the loss of my career, I’m having to explore the idea of starting life over from scratch at the age of 40. I have many of the same decisions to make as I did twenty years ago- at least this time around I have the knowledge we all lack when becoming adults. One thing I’m having fun with is attempting standup comedy. My father was a weekend actor, so I spent great deal of my childhood in the wings of various theaters in Detroit. Comedy has always been important to me, but my dad was surprised my answer that if I ever chose a career in entertainment, it would be performing stand-up. I don’t know how much of that expression on his face belonged to curiosity at how a deaf person could be successful, but he at least said that I had picked what he considered the most difficult type of performance. George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, and Robin Williams especially were the spark of the 1980s comedy boom. Because of them, and other comics like Bill Hicks, Jay Mohr, Kevin Smith, and Louis CK three decades later I wandered onto my first open mic.
Onstage, I talk about growing up deaf, that my childhood was sorta normal. I played ninja, rode bikes, and went swimming. In fact I like swimming so much, that if I’m at a party and there’s a pool- we’re all getting in the water to play Marco Polo. I can play that game better than anyone else, because I can play for hours. Marco! Marco! MARCO!!!
I don’t expect to have an hour special on TV, but I do want to see how far I can take it. For those of you who don’t think I can do much comedy on stage without being able to hear all of my audience, keep in mind we have a black president. That’s something I didn’t think would happen in my lifetime. So why shouldn’t there be a successful deaf stand-up comic? Please. Hold your applause- it’s wasted on me.
RAW (meet) : Bloody Truths about Life, Death, and Compassion [pt 1]
This time of the year is a difficult one for me, and not because of the holidays. Most of you know that I used to be in the animal care industry, until my career was destroyed by the negligence of my employers. I’ll get into that later, but for now I want to concentrate on what my concept for environmentalism, RAW (meet), is about. I will be writing more essays based on the paragraphs below; I guess you can consider this a preview of the coming posts. You may have noticed that I have a category tag dedicated to the term, (and seldom used Facebook & Twitter accounts) so here is the discussion.
RAW stands for Responsible Animal Welfare. (meet) is a series of interchangeable terms, and I most commonly use ‘management’, ‘ethics’ ‘education’, and ‘training’. I want to promote the idea that animal welfare improves when people’s lives are worth living. People don’t care about the environment until their own needs are met. Only by improving the standard of living for all human beings can we start helping the environment. If someone can’t feed their children, why should they care about the other lives on the planet? It is necessary to support universal equality and the public good by re-inforcing the notion that our community is more than just the people living on the same street, it includes our entire species. Grandchildren shouldn’t be the extent of our progress- the next seven generations should be considered. News analysis from a zookeeper/anthropologist’s perspective will be presented. Having faced death and seen absolutely nothing out there, humor is the only thing anyone can offer. I’ll be jumping the snark often, as my few constant readers know.
I do have some quirks that will possibly upset the animal rights movement, the biggest being that I don’t believe animals have rights. I’ll give my dog rights when I see him standing in line at the voting booth to cast a ballot on funding for a park. This is a human concept that can only be enforced by those who can comprehend abstract concepts. That isn’t to say that we can do what ever we want to animals. Exactly the opposite. As omnivores, we have a responsibility to give the best treatment possible to our food. Get over it- humans eat meat, and animal proteins are necessary for good health. Hunting should only be done to control populations, and only as a food source. The only reason to have a deer’s head on the wall is as a record that you ate it. Trophy hunting is pointless, and decimates populations. Here’s a challenge: try using a 50mm lens to take a photo of one of the Big Five of Africa. That way others have an opportunity to “hunt” for those great shots, instead of aiming a gun at the end of a crate moments before releasing an antelope purchased from an unethical animal breeder. If we breed animals for food, then the cost of providing clean food & water, adequate space, and clean quarters outweighs the money saved by the executives who realize multi-million dollar severance packages. Suffering is an unnecessary part of the food industry, and can be eliminated with fast and merciful kills.
As social animals, humans have a responsibility to the animals they take into their homes, as much as any blood relation living in the same household. Neutering animals prolongs their lives, and reduces both stray populations and the need for puppy mills. Good food and routine health care are considered necessary for family members, so why not pets? While I do think the term “companion animal” for an everyday pet is a bit much, there is no reason not to give full care to a dog or cat or hamster, with the expectation that you will keep them for their entire lifetime. The retail animal industry treats the animals you buy in the stores as disposable, and they anticipate you will come back to buy another pet- the sooner, the better. If we want animals in our personal lives, we owe them the best treatment possible. In fact, recent evidence suggests that without the dog, human beings might not have survived long enough as a species to evolve into an agriculturally proficient animal that has been around for as long as it has.
While I may no longer be employed as a zookeeper, I am still very concerned with animal welfare and the environment. I’ll cop to being misanthropic, but I’m also in a unique position that saw firsthand how ignorance and disregard in one country can impact things across an ocean. For me to get you concerned about pygmy hippos crossing the line from endangered to extinction, I need to impart the necessity of wage parity in this country. It’s a slow process, that requires caring for quality of life to be passed from person to person. Slime molds work this way, developing cell structures that create organs to cope with their environment.
Only half-jokingly do I reference the Batman villain Ra’s al Ghul. He wants to reduce the human population down to ecologically sustainable levels, whereby industry doesn’t rely on non-renewable resources nor drives species toward extinction by over-hunting or destructive agriculture. I don’t want mass genocides like Ra’s does- I’d rather people do the responsible thing and voluntarily control their own population levels. Birth control needs to be available to all; more importantly, sex education reduces STD and abortion rates. Some jobs are dangerous by their very nature, but employers need to stop cutting corners and ensure that safety and communication are paramount. That means full insurance coverage for workplace injuries. Education should be a desirable option, not something to be vilified nor a means to charge obscene rates for loans. Living wages ensure that children don’t go hungry or get sick as often. When executives make 300+ times the salary of the average worker, I maintain that it is entirely possible to pay the workforce enough money to allow a single person to be the sole breadwinner of a household.
All of this goes to ensure that a person who can afford to live a life free of the decision to pay rent or eat will be more concerned with what his living area looks like. This translates, like the slime mold, cell cluster by cell cluster, into caring what the neighborhood looks like. Those neighborhoods care about the reputation of their cities, which in turn improve the quality of life for the state and the country, and eventually the planet. Since my primary interests lie in biology, this means that household pets will become more valued. The stray population will be reduced as more animals are neutered. Local wildlife and horticulture will be better protected, and so on, until there is concern for all species. If humans want to stick around for another couple hundred thousand years, we need to re-learn how to co-exist with nature. Pouring oil into the Gulf is just one act that will have serious implications for our survival, since the deep seas are the foundation of the cycle of life. Keystone species are just that- remove them and the whole thing comes crashing down. Compassion for our fellow man (food & shelter & happiness) only means that quality of life improves for all living species.
#OccupyFTL Attends Broward County Commission on Item 38: A Solution Without A Problem
Today, the Broward County Commission met to discuss various items on the agenda. I went as a member of Occupy Ft Lauderdale (O-FTL), because there was concern about Item #38, regarding permits by activists to use public spaces. It was interpreted not only by myself, but many others, as a move to restrict the Rights of Free Speech and Assembly, which was disputed by certain of the Commissioners. O-FTL was not the only group in attendance. Included in the audience were representatives from the ACLU, the Libertarian Party, and a member of an Arts Commission.
The concern, which crossed political lines, was about the restrictions implied by requiring that people register in advance. The people who stood primarily had concerns about why the Commission wanted names and numbers, citing the First Amendment. Some protests are spontaneous, or planned within hours. Requiring days to apply for a permit would discourage any demonstration, as it would mean another day of travel, gas, and parking. Conversely, two people who bumped into each other could be cited for having a demonstration without a permit if the conversation turned to politics. A t-shirt could be construed as political speech if it had a quote from someone in history. What if someone brought extra people not named on the permit- now there are even more people than were expected. Ultimately, as one speaker stated, this was “a solution in search of a problem.”
The commissioners involved in the ordinance stated they only wanted to know the names of the people involved so that they had contact information for the group. They wanted to be able to ensure that the space requested could handle the numbers of attendees. If there was damage done to the property, they wanted someone to be liable. If there were going to be many demonstrators, would the county need to be responsible for amenities, such as water, sanitation, or toilets? Grass/landscaping is expensive to maintain, so they had reservations about trampling or signposts being staked into the ground.
Commissioner Leiberman seemed to be the biggest champion of the permit concept. She described the evolution of the proposal, and some of the draft changes involved. Those changes reflected the effects of communications with other people. It was not really explained who made the initial complaints that inspired the drafting of the ordinance. (more on that later)
Commissioner Holness had no support for Item 38, saying that debate is how we fight in a modern civilized society. He hasn’t seen any problems, such as security issues, thus no need for the proposal. However, should something come up, that would be the appropriate time to address the situation and make adjustments to the civil code.
Commissioner Jacobs stated that she thought the audience had been been brought to the meeting under false pretenses. A lie was told to get us riled up about our civil rights, and did not like what she thought was the “rabid nature” of our “mob mentality”. There was never intended to be a vote today, and it was unfortunate that our emotions were stirred up. Her conviction was that most of the Board felt the same way about free speech as did the citizens. Ultimately, Item 38 was intended to be the beginning of a discussion. Toward the end of the session, she wanted to drop the issue and workshop it- to investigate potential impacts and allow a vote on it at a later date, one that included the constituency. She didn’t like it, the board didn’t like it, and the audience certainly didn’t like the permit idea. I got the impression that she seemed committed to her office, and she would allow things to take their course, regardless of her personal position. While she seemed to support the proposal at the beginning of the meeting, I don’t think it was necessarily the case, given her later statements.
Vice Mayor Rodstrom said that he didn’t see the point of Item 38 at all. They had heard the people speak out against it. so he thought they should reject it and move on. There was no reason to spend time with two or more hearings on an issue that was unpopular.
Commissioner Ritter also had no support for the proposal. In her five years on the commission, she had never heard of any serious complaints about a march or demonstration, regardless of their political affiliations.
Commissioner Wexler was very careful to stress that Item 38 was politically neutral, that they didn’t care who wanted to say their piece, just how many wanted to say it. She pointed out that there are indeed restrictions on Free Speech, such as the famous “shouting ‘FIRE!’ in a movie theatre” example. Other cities in Broward County have similar permits, on top of which they charge money to process. Wexler said that she had done her research, and that we could have easily done the same. In my opinion, her tone was dismissive and condescending. She agreed that free speech should be free, but we (the citizens) were getting a break because they were willing to absorb the costs. It became apparent that her issues had to do with a large group of more than ten people. Based on her reactions to other Board members, my interpretation is that she is worried about political positions she does not agree with getting attention.
Commissioner Coffey did point out that historically, courthouse and jailhouse steps have been traditionally used as spaces for free speech.
Commissioners Wexler & Leiberman discussed some points of the proposal, and some changes from earlier drafts. Wexler mentioned that if operating hours were to be applied as part of this, then a consideration of the difference between Library and County Offices must be made, in that libraries are open later hours, and on weekends and certain holidays. Leiberman stated that she had just been forming the foundation, based on permitting requirements for the airport and other cities. She had assumed that an request wouldn’t necessarily have to be made in person, but that mail, email, and online requests would be considered equally.
Commissioner Sharief noted that an accommodation towards free speech must be made, in terms of the hours of availability. If this were to proceed, an amendment would be made to provide amenities such as public safety or trash removal. In addition, since some protests can happen spontaneously, or get called off, she would need to see some flexibility in being able to change the dates of a demonstration.
Commissioner LaMarca is very supportive of free speech; irrespective of Left, Right or Centrist viewpoints. While he initially thought the issue of public safety had been the reason for the introduction of Item 38, he is very aware of the various activist groups in the county, and knows that there has been good behavior on the part of those groups. Inasmuch as he supports safety and decorum, he had no support for the issue, and wanted to dispose of it altogether.
During the discussion, which became lively at times, Mayor Gunzburger pointed out that no constituents had been involved with the decision. She had added it to the agenda so that the citizens of Broward could have an opportunity to express their opinion about a proposal that had been around for approximately six months. She made sure to mention that the recent growth of the Occupy movement had nothing to do with Item 38′s introduction, which explicitly concerned County property. O-FTL did not always plan events to occur within that jurisdiction, so it’d be difficult to apply a permitting process to marches that crossed multiple municipal and private boundaries. Her response to Wexler’s comments about liability for damages or criminal acts occurring during a demonstration was that as in other crimes that must be investigated, witnesses need to be found for testimony.
Commissioner Henry appeared to be the primary author of the proposal, and this is where it gets sticky. There was some contradiction as to whether she had acted to head off a problem before it happened, or she was a ‘rogue commissioner’ (strictly my term- never mentioned by anyone on the Board); or she had been directed to write it and was being thrown under the bus. Given the importance that people place on their civil rights, no matter their affiliation, it is not surprising that this issue could turn into a quagmire for everyone.
In her opening statements, Commissioner Henry discussed wanting to ensure balance for groups who wanted to use a given space. This can be read as either making sure everyone got a chance to have a demonstration in a particular spot, or that another group could move in upon expiration of the permitted time period and leverage out a rival point of view. However, upon the Mayor’s comment that the people attending the Library in Plantation have been unable to post any signs for six months, including voter registration efforts by Get Out the Vote (GOTV), I found it even harder to support any aspect of this ordinance.
Commissioner Leiberman wanted to be able keep the proposal on the books, it appeared to me. She seemed to want the ability to retain some sort of permitting system. Jacobs thought that it should have been dropped, but not killed, so that it could be workshopped into a form that was acceptable to the Board and the citizenry. Commissioner Henry was directed to amend the proposal to define the limits and definitions of what was acceptable signage. After objections to dismissing the motion entirely, the Commission moved to essentially table it indefinitely, on the condition that any impacts to First Amendment Rights must be investigated before voting it into the record.
As of this time, there are no restrictions by the Broward County Commission to limit Free Speech or the Freedom of Assembly. The formal Occupation of Fort Lauderdale began today, and has no plans to leave any time soon.
Signs, held up by wire posts. That may be what of all of this came down to. One of the commissioners even brought up the point of asking how a demonstrator was supposed to get around carrying a clipboard, their permit, their water, their literature, and a sign when they only have two hands. There was concurrence that even staking a wooden post into the ground ultimately would not cause egregious damage, and that thin wires would certainly do less harm.
Taking that a further step back, the knowledge that the Occupation movement is a convenient test of the ordinance, which has not even taken effect, changes the equation. Today is the one month anniversary of Occupy Fort Lauderdale, and there have been no serious incidents. Occupy, as a philosophy, rejects any violence, hate speech, political speech directed at any party, and the use of drugs or alcohol. They clean up after themselves, and as one commissioner pointed out, often leave an area looking better than when they arrived. They strive to be polite to all they meet, and while it is difficult, try not to respond in kind when confronted with negative energy.
In consideration of the information that the Plantation Library staff was directed to remove all signs, including GOTV, I don’t think that such an act is compatible with the ideas behind Occupy. Education is very important, but not just when it comes to going to school. Voter registration is supposed to be politically neutral, but unfortunately non-registered voters tend to be divided from those who are registered along demographic lines. Which takes us another step back to the accusations of class war.
At this point in time, and especially if you’re a regular reader of my irregular essays, there can’t be many people left who’re totally unaware of the distinction between the 1% and the 99%. Here’s a quick primer: The 1% consists primarily of the people, families, and the corporations that comprise the Fortune 400. Those 400 names control more wealth than the remaining population of the country combined. Many of the names on that list would prefer to keep the majority of their fellow statesmen unregistered voters, because it would impact not only the unethical relationships between corporations and politicians, but the profits those companies and their investors make.
So the relationship between a ban on political signs at a library and misinformation about a populist movement isn’t that farfetched. It’s not an issue of conspiracy, but one of parallel desires between potential competitors being mutually beneficial.
One mistake the pundits make, whether genuine or as propaganda, is that Occupy wants to eliminate any wealth or success. Not true- As long as no one was harmed or killed in while someone fulfilled their wildest fantasies and made it rich, they wish you the best of luck.
A recent report recently detailed the fact that South Florida has the second greatest income equality in the country (or worst, depending on how you look at it). I need to check the veracity of this, but I was informed that at least one Broward County commissioner makes $300,000 per annum. This is tens of thousands of dollars more than the mayor of New York City. Other officials make $400,ooo; much more than people in equivalent positions around the country. If a government official or corporate manager has the skills to merit such a paycheck, then more power to them.
However, and this is my opinion alone, that that kind of money must certainly be earned. Because with it comes the cost of becoming disconnected from other members of society, and it is difficult to understand how much easier life is when you don’t have to choose between paying bills or buying groceries. Not all people who achieve success like that forget, but it can be a cause for concern when not everybody remembers.
American Political Horror Story; or, #OWS vs the #TeaParty
It’s no secret I like zombies. My fascination with them has preceded the current national pop-cultural phase by more than a little while. As a kid, they were the monsters that scared me the most. The Mummy kinda spooked me a little bit, even the Abbot & Costello version. Even Dark Night of the Scarecrow had me sitting near the door with my 1980s era ninja weapons, waiting for my mother to get home. The Frankenstein Monster counts, because he was inspired by the true stories of grave robbers digging up cadavers for 19th century med schools. Worst of all were the Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead, and the Dawn/Day/Dusk of the Dead series. While I was too young to understand the subtext, whether satirical or political, of these movies, I certainly was affected by the gore and the fear of death that all kids have.
Werewolves? There, wolves. Werewolves were just plain cool, the very embodiment of strength mixed with pathos. Granted, as an animal lover, it makes sense that I would gravitate towards them, considering I later became a zookeeper. An American Werewolf in London freaked me the fuck out, to the point that my sister had to drag me screaming from the theater when a decomposing Jack suddenly appears in the mirror behind David. It took me a few years before I could see it in its entirety. Silver Bullet and Werewolf, the Series were where the action was at. Teen Wolf, especially. That actually was my nickname for a bit, since my Scots-Irish heritage announced itself early by giving me my hairy arms and legs early in life. (The modern MTV remake isn’t too bad, actually. But I must admit to wanting to, ahem, nibble on Allison Argent, in spite of my point below. Anywhere she wants me to. Anywhere. #creepybutidontcare)
Vampires, until Buffy Summers started slaying them, were kind of meh. Even though my girlfriend was around for the beginning of the goth scene, and is otherwise a really neat person, I was never impressed by the Lost Boys.The whole psycho-sexual rape modality that is bound up the identity of vampire versus werewolf (seduction v. ravishment) when film producers set out to capitalize on the looks of the actors, as opposed to the literary quality of the stories they were producing are a distraction from the foundation of good fighting evil. And I’m not even talking about Team Edward, either. I’m going back to Interview with a Vampire and Dracula, those icons of fashion, whose granny glasses still permeate modern why-me? goth culture. I guess they call it emo, nowadays?
So how does all this intersect with politics? Quite simply. It’s already been noted in Freakonomics; and one famous early example is hemlines: the shorter the dress, the better we are doing economically. The same correlations can be found in what monsters lurk across the horizon of the collective conscience. What’s represented in pop culture has been well known for decades to be a reflection of a society’s fears. Godzilla is the embodiment of nuclear disaster, as are the giant ants of THEM! Currently, we’re on a zombie kick, shuffling away from the virginal vampires twinkling in the sunlight. (That’s a whole ‘nother essay right there.) We’ve got Scott Howard trying to make some noise, but we’re only likely to hear the moan of the undead for awhile, so long as the economy remains in this Second Depression.
I’ve lived long enough to see three different zombie… apocalypses, if you will. (With one exception, I will be leaving out zombie entertainment for anything prior, as those are more appropriate for issues of historical slavery or drugs/religion.) I was born shortly after Romero’s 1968 film. As a teenager, there was another resurgence in the mid 1980s. We are currently in about year eight of this particular infestation. When you compare the national socio-political situation against the rising undead, you will see the Watergate/Vietnam War Era, Corporate Deregulation, and Political Deregulation.
The metaphor can be seen two ways, no matter which time period you’re investigating: the zombies are the Right Wing, mindless and inevitable, here to destroy your individuality. From the other side, zombies are the destruction of society, the breakdown of civilization, which must be defended at all costs.
The original slow zombies of Romero’s early films were a galvanizing force that required people to band together, no matter their race or creed, in order to survive. Whether you’re a right-winger or a left-winger, everyone has a fear of the masses. It’s how you respond to a crisis that shows what a person is made of. Harry Cooper chose to save only himself, when he could have helped everyone else. In the 1960s, the fight for Civil Rights is in full swing- riots, dogs, firehoses- as people band together to ensure that every adult has the same right to vote as the next. Interracial marriage was legalized, and schools were integrated. Eventually, Jimmy Carter was elected, and things calmed down as the Age of Aquarius rose. We turned our attention to other monsters, the subtle ghosts and demons of The Exorcist or The Entity, winding things down with Poltergeist.
With the election of Reagan, Corporate Identity began flexing its muscles again. Mall culture and cable television threatened to dilute the identity of small towns. MTV was either going to destroy us through sexual degeneracy, or by homogenizing every city with the same stores and restaurants. However, the economy in industrialized nations took a hit from the economic policies the Chicago Boys practiced in Chile. England was especially hard hit, and was nearly obliterated in Lifeforce (yes, it is about a hot naked space vampire, but she controls a zombie horde). The zombies came back to the screen in Dawn of the Dead, and because my generation saw more explicit images on cable than even the Vietnam War showed us, we saw hyper-realistic guts fall out of a dead soldier as he sat up from his morgue table. Big guns were brought to bear on the undead, because we couldn’t use heavy caliber on the cold war spies. A 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers indicates that fear of of communism brought back to life from the 1950s, because how can you tell who the enemy is by looking at them? After all, didn’t Ronnie use the Soviet Union as a campaign promise, even while giving weapons to the people who would eventually become al Quaida?
The 1990s arrived, and with it came higher taxes and better prosperity for everyone, so we concentrated on the counterculture of drugs and sexuality of vampirism. There was a lurking enemy in the economy, and that was the WTO. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was sneaking around in the form of Halliburton, or in the cronyism of lobbyists. Secret (or not) handshakes between businessmen and politicians led to the Clean Air Act, and military subcontractors being hired to fight against the same people we’d armed a decade earlier. Bullied children hid their problems until they fired back on their tormenters. Fears of a corporate owned planet erupted in riots in Seattle in 1999. Those same fears led to the attack, from the Middle East, of the World Trade Center in 2001. The zombies started coming back.
The most notable change this time around was the idea of the fast running zombie, as seen in 28 Days Later. Now, not only does one have to guard against the bite wound a victim is hiding- when he succumbs, he can run just as fast as you. There is no longer any free time to change a tire, let alone the magazine in your pistol. Part of this change in speed is not only reflected by bioterrorism and genetic engineering, but by the presence of the internet- now a decade old. Information comes at you faster and faster, and if you can’t react in time, you’ll be left behind. Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead, and Plants Versus Zombies bring zombies to the digital age, some with plots that detail illegal corporate practices that are becoming more well known. The movie Diary of the Dead showcases modern vlogging trends with digital camera technologies combined with satellite communication. Zombies are becoming deconstructed in other films like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead, wherein the undead are merely a hanger for the plot and characters. There’s even a totally kick ass board game. In the comics, Marvel Zombies took a chomp out of Spiderman; and in the DC Universe Nekron plotted for years to use dead heroes to destroy the Multiverse. Elizabeth Bennett fights “unmentionables” alongside William Darcy. The Walking Dead shambled from the page onto the small screen.
The corruption in politics is more easily exposed, as evidenced by the hacker group anonymous. This corruption is so thorough, many of the same people are on the scene politically as were during the First Gulf War (and even the Cold War), but in higher positions. The Chicago Boys’ economic theories were put to use not only in a country we attacked without provocation, but inside our own borders as well. Predatory lending policies ruined Americans’ credit, and kicked them into the streets. Jobs were sent to Free Tax Zones in other countries with little or no labor regulations.
Politically, Escher-like perceptual illusions of who a zombie is or is not continue to this day. The Occupy Wall Street movement is barely more than a month old, but it encompasses more than a thousand cities around the planet. It actually has precedents in Madison, Wisconsin, Egypt, and Pakistan. Modern social network technology allows individuals to reach more than the people that live in a limited geographical area. There is no up-down hierarchy, as individuals come together to make decisions about the organization as a whole. To the businesses that have unethical policies, they may certainly feel that they are standing shoulder to shoulder with politicians, who might not agree with the notion that everyone is equal, in a last stand for keeping the civilization they have made for themselves. Compare this to the Tea Partiers, in particular the astroturf movements that are funded by wealthy individuals and their companies, and have a news network at their disposal to disburse propaganda. At this point, it is becoming a war of zombies, the slow-walking OWS against the fast running Tea Partiers. The Horde comes out of nowhere, and moves inexorably towards its goals; the Runners seem to get fresh infestations, and attack violently- even if they take themselves out.
It all comes down to two things. First is the perspective, knowing what you are looking at and why you see it the way you do. Second is how you respond to it, as in whether you want to continue the me-only policies that have led to less than one percent of the planet controlling the wealth of the remaining 99%. As of Halloween morning, there are 7 billion people on the earth. ‘B’, for Billion. When I was a kid, first getting into the zombie genre, there was around 4.5 billion people, in around 30 years’ time. The question is, do we want to continue on in this fashion, where we allow private individuals to write legislation that benefits only the Fortune 500? Or do we want to pull the reins back a little bit to exercise some self-control, and work on problems like sustainable resources, over-population, preventing ecological disasters, and other aspects of environmental welfare?
