| Why Hesh thought maybe I should get my teeth kicked in, before
letting me off because the People's Front of Judea cut me some
slack. |
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July 17, 2007 ... Buzz Fugazi
Why Hesh thought maybe I should get my teeth kicked in, before
letting me off because the People's Front of Judea cut me some
slack.
Larvester Gaither, Steve Parmenter, and Paul Matalonis recruited
me into Jesse Jackson For President '88. I dropped out of highschool
as a 16 year old in 1980 and it gave me a four year perspective
on what the American economy looked like from the bottom up.
In the time before I got my GED and went off to college, I did
monotonous work with heavy machinery, was a shipping/receiving
clerk in scrap metal warehouses, flipped burgers, pulled parts
off of chickens, joined the Marine Corps, drove a cab and sold
records and guitars.
My main contribution to the Jesse Jackson campaign was creating
canvass lit (I also tried unsuccessfully to recruit punk rockers
at the Lost Cross House, but it took a couple of different Bush
Administrations before Punk subculture mobilized to the '04
levels and today's ever increasing level). I took a bunch of
Jesse-isms from various handouts and consolidated them on one
sheet. The line about Hymie-town wasn't included, because it
wasn't on any of the official campaign statements and hadn't
yet appeared in the newspapers. Even when it did, he didn't
lose my vote. I've told racist jokes and used the language of
the streets many times, so I'm not in a position to write people
off because they are low class. I can be pretty low class, too.
I learned in Cicero, IL and Jacksonville, FL just how annoying
ghetto can be as just an attitude without the guns. I've been
that annoying. I''ve done my jive-ass impersonation of Jesse
many times, but I don't do that anymore... mostly I did it in
the years immediately after the Hymie Town comment. Not that
it stopped my grandfather for disowning me for a few years.
I'm pleased to say Papa and I made peace and we spent a fair
amount of time together in the couple of years before he died
in 2001, a little more than a week before 9/11.
Papa volunteered with me while I was a student organizer for
Bobby Rush in 2000, It was great. Politics drove us apart, somewhat,
and then it brought us back together. My grandfather took care
of my grandma while she was dying from Alzheimers, so he appreciated
Rush being a champion of perscription drug coverage for seniors.
Being a volunteer for Jackson helped me get into the Democratic
Campaign Management program which empowered me with the knowledge
of how to build campaigns from scratch with little or no money.
It gave me the opportunity to meet Bobby Rush and Barack Obama,
and many other Civil Rights veterans and community organizers.
Someone suggested that putting this canvass lit together for
the Jackson campaign might be sufficient grounds for getting
my teeth kicked in, and I've experienced many other charming
remarks from whitey with regards to my political work with Candidates
of Color or causes involving Citizens of Color. Sometimes, if
I have the energy, I might try to remind them what country we
live in, the Preamble to the US Constitution, the Declaration
of Independence. I sometimes compare our imperfect system with
other less perfect systems and try to convince them that Freedom
and Justice for All are very noble words and maybe if we can't
quite live up to their Platonic perfection, we might nudge just
a bit closer. As one song goes... we can try, try- try... a
little tenderness. A little heart for this Democratic experiment,
this radical concept of a Government For The People and By The
People... Government by Informed Consent of the Governed.
Here are the words which maybe I deserve to get my teeth kicked
in for putting on canvass lit. They are all quotes from Jesse
Jackson. I still like the message and the original typos remain!
Jesse Jackson For President '88
EDUCATING THE NEXT GENERATION
Education is not a dispensable social program. It is a defense
act. Any nation that spends 55 cents of every federal income
tax dollar for the military an only 2 cents for education has
to reorder its priorities.
PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT
If a foreign power poisoned our air with acid rain, dumped toxic
waste in our water supply, and then took over the living space
from our wildlife, we'd see this as a threat to our national
security. But we are doing this to ourselves and it must stop.
THE JACKSON DOCTRINE
Regional conflicts should not be viewed through a lens clouded
by superpower politics, but for what they really are---struggles
against poverty, illiteracy, and for self-determination. The
Reagan Doctrine has failed. Our Third World relations must be
based on a new doctrine, the Jackson Doctrine.
The time has come where either we freeze nuclear weapons or
burn the people and freeze the planet.
INVESTING IN AMERICA
When New York City teetered on the brink of bankruptcy, the
Federal government provided guarentees to pension funds and
use American savings to reinvest in America. It won't cost anything
to do it; it will be very costly if we do not.
MEETING ALL OF OUR HEALTH CARE NEEDS
To be a good and a great nation--not just a strong nation--we
must provide basic health coverage to all Americans. Only the
US and South Africa, of the industrialized nations of the world,
do not have some form of national health care for all their
citizens.
The illness of AIDS is a challenge to modern technology and
to our health system. The fact of AIDS is a challenge to modern
compassion and to modern behavior. The reality of AIDS is a
challenge to our present, and to our future.
We are the Students for Jackson, and we need your help. After
having placed the only student on the ballot in the local Democratic
primary, we are establishing an office at the Interfaith Center
and need assistance staffing, fundraising, and canvassing in
Carbondale. Please contact Larvester Gaither (XXX-XXXX) or Steve
Parmenter (XXX-XXXX). Thank You.
During that time I was searching and experimenting with One
Big Cure for what was wrong with me and what was wrong with
society. I never thought Jesse Jackson was the cure, but I thought
promoting his campaign would push the Democrat party to the
left, far to the left... all the way into the center. It worked
and a Democratic centrist won the Presidential Election in '92 |
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