for the Poor People's Campaign

thinking about Revolutionary Letter #19

by Diane di Prima
(for the Poor People's Campaign)

if what you want is jobs
for everyone, you are still the enemy,
you have not thought thru, clearly what that means.

if what you want is housing, Industry
(G.E. on the Navaho reservation)
a car for everyone, garage, refrigerator,
TV, more plumbing, scientific
freeways, you are still
the enemy, you have chosen
to sacrifice the planet for a few years
of some science fiction utopia, if what you want

still is, or can be, schools
where all our kids are pushed into one shape, are taught
it's better to be "American" than black
or Indian, or Jap, or Puerto Rican, where Dick
and Jane become and are the dream, do you
look like Dick's father, don't you think your kid
secretly wishes you did

if what you want
is clinics where the AMA
can feed you pills to keep you weak, or sterile,
shoot germs into your kids, while Merck & Co. grows richer

if you want
free psychiatric help for everyone
so that the shrinks,
pimps for this decadence, can make
it flowers for us,

if you still want a piece
a small piece of suburbia, green lawn
laid down by the square foot
color TV, whose radiant energy
kills brain cells, whose subliminal ads
brainwash your children, have taken over
your dreams

degrees from universities which are nothing
more than slum landlords festering sinks of lies,
so you can go forth and lie to others
on some greeny campus

THEN YOU ARE STILL
THE ENEMY, you are selling
yourself short, remember
you can have what you ask for, ask for
everything

(thanks to Ariel Gore for posting this first;

and letting me borrow it...)

politics: Change Congress Donor Strike

From the Lessig Blog:

The donor strike continues at Change Congress (no money to any representative who doesn't commit to citizen funded elections).

Here's a simple (and it's FREE!) link to send back to anyone asking you for money:

http://change-congress/no

Share freely.

news hits close to the heart

"The economy is falling, the economy is falling...."

I've heard the cry. I've seen the cutbacks, seen the foreclosures, the disappearing businesses, the lay-offs, the downsizing. I've been present literally or virtually while clients plead and reason and rant and request that services not be cut because of x or y or z. And still I was in shock when two friends were suddenly laid off.

Yesterday I learned that Mead Hunter was laid off from Portland Center Stage. He was the Literary Director and resident dramaturg, as was another person in the literary department, which pretty much eliminates that department.

This morning I learned that another friend, Jenn Rehnke, an advocate for accessibility and an all around good human being was also let go from Portland Center Stage.

I know my shock and disappointment, as well as musings about how their absences will affect the future of PCS, are nothing compared to what the two of them and the other two or three let go are experiencing. But I am surprised and I, well, I'm, um, surprised. Mead had spearheaded the popular JAW festival, was a huge advocate of new play development, and was a great supporter and promoter of PCS. Jenn was good at her job, seemed to have excellent rapport with the box office staff, friendly, and a big advocate of disabled patrons rights and was great to work with in that capacity, an artist and supporter of the arts.

I'm having a hard time imagining PCS without their talents and personalities. I feel for them as they are forced into new beginnings - of which I'm sure they are very capable and will triumph in whatever comes their way next. But the suddenness and their loss are significant. I hope that the larger Portland theatrical and creative communities outside of PCS will remain their home and that there is something waiting for their skill sets and person-hoods to step into.

random: adding to a rant

Some time ago I wrote about overhearing several conversations about "scheduling births." I was indignant about women who were scheduling way ahead of the when their babies would be born - either through induction or through a planned C-section. I do understand that some women must have a C-section for a variety of reasons; I guess I wasn't really talking about them. I was talking about those who pick a date based on whatever it is they base it on - I guess when they are assuming conception happened and taking the average time a baby is supposed to gestate and then scheduling the birth like they schedule their haircuts and manicures.

Then today I heard a lecture where there is a new reason there are more induced labors and C-sections: doctors' schedules. Yikes. I had not even considered that as a reason. I know the docs are busy; I think many of us average people are busy, too. But some docs apparently have a specified amount of time they can hang around waiting for a baby to be born. Which means the time of birth is, apparently, also subject to economics.

Huh.