>
>If you use violence to change
>violence, you have changed nothing.
I take it that you have never fought off a rapist.
Think about this for a minute before you start generalizing, here. Don't
be so simplistic. First of all, what is violence? Is property damage
violence? Is self defense? What about the Boston Tea Party? Was that
violence? And if it was, does that make it wrong? Was Concord wrong? Was
Lexington? How about Bunker Hill? How about Yorktown? Gettysburg? Kursk?
D-Day? The liberation of Auschwitz? Was it wrong to liberate Auschwitz
simply because it required shooting a whole bunch of Germans, dismembering
others and burning others alive? Was it wrong to end slavery with bayonets
and powder?
Violence is not a bad thing. Violence is not a good thing. It's just a
thing, that's all. It's been part of Nature since life began. Whether it's
a good thing or or a bad thing depends on who is doing it to whom, where,
when, how and why. There's a world of difference between a knife to his
victim's throat and a knee to a rapist's crotch.
Personally, I only use violence in self defense. In part this is because
I'm a four eyed, grey haired, gimp. I didn't used to be this way. I used
to be young. The last time I actually started a fight was back in '91. A
guy was beating on a woman on Haight St. one night I thought it was a
domestic. So i attacked him. That broke it up quick. I'm an old fashioned
guy, I guess, because that's what my Grandma raised me up to believe a guy
is supposed to do in a case like that. Don't let the strong beat on the
weak. Don't let a man beat on a woman. Don't let anyone beat on a child.
Stop them. Do it yourself. That's what she taught me. Somebody has to it,
because the cops sure as hell wont. It's not their job. Cops don't prevent
crime. Cops don't even show up till after it's already over.
It turned out not to be a domestic at all, but drug deal gone bad, and
none of my business, really. She ran one way; he ran the other. I chased
him around the corner. He had a couple friends waiting around the corner.
To my enormous surprise, I suddenly in over my head. Fortunately, none of
them noticed. Had they noticed, I'd have been hard put to get out of it
alive, even though there was only three of them. It's come to that. Old
age sucks, bigtime. I don't recommend it at all. Worse, all three of them
got away. When I was young, I'd have picked one of them up and knocked the
other two down with him. But I'm not young any more and I'm smart enough
not to have to get hurt to prove it. If these guys had been smart, or even
sober, they'd have had me. But I lucked out. They didn't have clue one
about the nature of the terrain or of our relative positions. Let's hear
it for crack and malt liquor. Or maybe they were just naturally stupid.
Either way, lucky me. Now don't get me wrong, here. Luck is cool. I like
luck a lot. But I don't think I ought to be figuring it into the budget.
I did get my licks in before they got away. But I could not run them down
for the life of me. I don't have the stamina. In a running fight, the
first guy who gets winded, loses, and that's how it is. I didn't even try.
I see no point in losing a street fight with anyone. It's bad tactics and
worse strategy. It's not good for the health, either. So I just let them
go.
Since that happened, I've totally given up rescuing people. I'd probably
change my mind in a hurry if I saw a child getting beat on, but that
hasn't happened. I sincerely hope it doesn't, because I'm definitely to
old for this stuff. Oh well.
Same goes for all these street actions lately. Personally, I'm not going
to go riot in LA. I'm much too old to go rioting. When I was young, I
used to go rioting sometimes, when the occasion called for it.
(See:http://www.sfbg.com/nessie/mutt.html) I don't feel the least bit
guilty about this. Au contrair. I'm proud of myself. It was definitely the
right thing to do at the time. It definitely helped make the world a
better place by helping end an unjust, no-win war. This undoubtedly saved
countless lives. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire and that's
just how it is in this world. Get used to it. Or build a different world.
That doesn't mean that I think you should go rioting now. I'm definitely
not trying to incite you to riot. I'm not trying to incite anybody else to
riot either. I'm especially not doing this over the internet, especially
not a couple days before D2K, especially not with the FBI reading over our
shoulders, no matter who tries to sucker me into it. I might be stupid,
but I'm not crazy. (See: http://www.sfbg.com/nessie/24.html) I'm not all
that stupid, either. If a cell phone is an "instrument of crime," what's
that make a modem?
Even if I WAS inciting you to riot, which I am NOT doing, that alone would
be no reason for you to riot. Don't let other people incite you to riot,
especially over the internet. Don't let other people incite you to not
riot, either. Don't let other people incite you, period. Think for
yourselves. You have brains. Use them. Don't follow leaders. Watch the
parking meters (strategically placed ones are bugged).
I'm recommending that you DON'T riot in LA during the Democratic
convention. Hell, I'm actively INCITING you not to riot in LA, and I'm
doing it in front of a lot of witnesses, too. But if you're going to just
go ahead and riot anyway, no matter what I say, that's your decision, not
mine. Include me out. It wasn't my idea. I had nothing to do with it.
Do keep one thing in mind, though. Attacking the police, especially from
the front, is stupid. Don't do it. Don't attack 'em from behind, either.
The police are not the enemy. Their masters are not the enemy. The SYSTEM
is the enemy. The police are fellow workers. As such, they deserve our
comradely solidarity. We shouldn't be fighting the police. We should be
helping the police. We should be helping them organize for the better
working conditions, higher pay and broader range of benefits that is the
very least that all fellow workers deserve.
Specifically, we should be helping them organize a strike. Even a good old
fashioned sick-in or a work slow down would be good, but if they do choose
to strike, the only honorable thing for the rest of us to do would be to
declare a general strike in support of them. Tomorrow would be a good day
for this to start to happen. It should start in LA and spread across the
globe as quickly as possible.
That's my advice. Take it or leave it.
Personally, I think protesting at either political party's convention is a
complete and total waste of time. No politician on earth gives a flying
rat's ass about you, your life, your hopes, your dreams or whatever it is
that your banner says. All politicians care about is money. If you go to
politicians with a suitcase of full of cash and ask them for a favor, you
get the favor. If you go to politicians with a bunch of banners and ask
them for a favor, you don't get the favor. Either way, all you're doing is
asking politicians for favors. Protest is just lobbying in the street. If
it was going to help, it would have happened by now. It's time to stop
asking for favors. It's time to start making demands.
But make them to the right guys. The politicians are just middle men.
They're marionettes dancing on strings. The real power is held by the
rich. They own the politicians. They own the police. Behind their
corporate fronts, the rich are individuals. They live in houses. Those
houses have addresses. Those address can be found out, and fairly easily,
too. If you must protest somewhere, go to the houses of the rich
themselves, preferably while they're at home. Protest there. Or don't.
Either way. But leave the politicians and the police in downtown LA out of
it. They're nothing but flunkies, an irrelevant diversion. Don't play into
their hands. Focus on the real power, the tiny handful of men who actually
run this world. They are the key. Without their direct control, the system
falls apart. Without the system, they have no power with which to control
us. Then the world is ours.
Or play into their hands. It's your choice, not mine. But remember this.
If you do play into their hands, they'll let you. (See:
http://www.sfbg.com/nessie/rodney.html)
>
>That's the whole point of the Gandhi quote: The end IS implicit in the
>means. Or, to paraphrase a passage from the Buddha, "Hatred is not
>overcome by hatred; hatred is overcome only by love. This is an old
>rule."
>
>Buddha and Gandhi are dead. Stop letting dead people think for you. Think
>for yourselves.
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