the old-school guestbook archives
my amazon wish list... my favorite astrologer... my favorite artist... yerba mate revolution! erowid: a travel guide for interior journeys... no more war: MoveOn.org United for Peace and Justice True Majority seek the truth: Common Dreams Unamerican Activities The Nation people I adore, diaries I read: rev.raikes ariana cubiclegirl epiphany glitter333 laurakay wammo the music: the asylum street spankers backyard tire fire blue highway bill camplin wendy colonna freedom tribe joules graves guy forsyth band hamsa lila hanuman libby kirkpatrick leftover salmon pamela means medeski martin & wood the motet the nice outfit nickel creek open road rose polenzani railroad earth south austin jug band string cheese incident taarka tha musemeant the devil makes three tim o'brien band trolley wild sage keller williams yonder mountain string band |
this is what democracy looks like... ~ 2000-12-03 - 17:40:40 I've been digging on san diego. who knew there was culture to be found in southern california? I've found all kinds of new friends and angels. I've spent most of my time here in a neighborhood called north park. kinda young, hip, artsy, diverse. some of my favorite hangouts: --claire de lune, the funky coffeeshop that's been my homebase. they have a great poetry reading on tuesday nights. check it out if you're in the area. --sunshine organic foods, a great little independent natural foods store. all kindsa yummy vegan baked goods, and a beautiful boy at the counter who I'm considering kidnapping for the night before I jet out of here tomorrow. umm, yes, I'm a bit on the prowl at the moment. I took myself out to a "film festival against globalization" last night-- two movies: Zapatista and This is What Democracy Looks Like. both excellent, devastating, inspiring. both really affected me, but the second one was intense on a very personal level. it's a documentary on the WTO protests in seattle last year. it was shortly after the WTO that I got a message on my machine from clare, now living in port townsend, washington, not far from seattle. she and I weren't really on speaking terms at the time. that is, we couldn't have sane conversations yet, so we'd agreed to take a break from having contact with each other for a while. she and I had lived together for three years, so our crash and burn was pretty nightmarish. the message was something like this: "hey, kelly. I know we haven't talked in a while, but I just spent 5 days in jail, and I'd really, really like to talk to you." so of course, I called her back. we talked for something like two hours, while the boyfriend I wasn't allowed to mention having read in the next room. clare was lucky as compared to many of her companions-- she was merely teargassed, handcuffed, and held on a bus for 14 hours without access to food, water, or a toilet, held without charges and denied access to lawyers. she was lucky. the rubber bullets missed her, she was spared the beatings. watching the images of war in the streets of seattle last night, all I could think of was her voice on the phone, this woman who I'd loved for so long. thinking how fucked up it is that her experience made her lucky. that our "rights" as american citizens can be revoked at any moment by the powers that be if they don't like what we have to say. that we can be savaged by those who have committed to "serve and protect" us with the consent and blessing of the government which we the people have given dominion over us. I remember being somewhat put off by clare's call at the time-- it felt like she'd called to impress me with her actions, rather than to get support. I'm over that now. she went through hell in the name of democracy, and when she came out the other side, it was me she needed to call. she still has flashbacks. she still has anxiety attacks when she sees a cop. This is What Democracy Looks Like. check it out. please.
(((rings))) |