TOSCA: To Be or Not To Be, With or Without Puccini
by R. Martin Oxman

Elaboration on the reference to Puccini will have to wait until our first date. For now, just quickly glance through what’s below… and get in touch.

Our Marcel (www.marcelsgeo.blogspot.com) — just before he hit the sack last night — placed a Leigh Rubin cartoon at “my corner” of the family’s coffee table. One of his nightly gifts. I took a look at it in that twilight that takes me to bed, and then again when the first rip of pink appeared in the sky* this morning. Got to share it with you before I explain how and why we’re going to take over the State of California.

*Oh, do glance at Billy Collins’ Night House poem, if you get the chance (1).

The cartoon’s caption reads: “When homicide detectives observe Bring-Your-Kids-To-Work Day.” Two very young kids are on the sidewalk with an open box of crayons, a boy on his tummy, propping up his head with his left hand whilst working a crayon with the right, and a cross-legged, seated sister, crayon in hand, looking up at the father. Between the boy and the girl, on the pavement, is the outline of someone who’s died. Y’know one of those figures that the police routinely trace on the ground following a suicide plunge or a fatal stabbing, etc.

The dad, sort of dressed like Colombo in rumpled clothes, is addressing his offspring: “You wait here while I grab us some donuts…. And don’t forget to stay between the lines.”

POLITICS, like anal art instruction, SUCKS. Voting machines can’t be trusted any more than the candidates (or most tenured teachers). But our “party” is not going to stay within the lines. So what we do/teach, what we’re about is unprecedented. And once we accomplish what we set out to do — the way in which we’re going to do it — it will change the world. Or at least have a real shot at that. Statewide, nationally, worldwide (2).

No money will be necessary. No support from the media will be required. This is not — at all — a so-called Third Party. Our purpose is unprecedented. Our means groundbreaking, earthquaking.

We’re going to put a non-politician into the Governor’s seat in Sacramento because there are tons of things that a governor can do UNILATERALLY — without the cooperation of legislators (or other gangster politicians) — that are astounding. Virtually overnight.

I will point out only two. He/she could terminate the death penalty. Prevent its being carried out. And — in a simple declarative sentence — could condense seven charged paragraphs (See http://www.counterpunch.org/hanson07092008.html),
and help the public to self-educate about the timber industry. To say nothing about other life and death on/of the planet realms.

If we were to accomplish our goal on our terms — or even come close to doing so — it would be a watershed moment in the history of the world. If you need to ask why… fine. But that should be addressed in person.

What we want to do with you will not threaten the essential aspects of your current routine. In spite of its being the most radical, necessary citizen action in the history of California.

To TAKE OVER THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA (TOSCA). Not by force. Rather, by stealth. In such a way that the powers-that-be cannot nip what we’re about in the bud. Not assassinate. Not marginalize.

By utilizing a principle adhered to by war mongers immemorial. To wit, making use of the element of surprise.

Few people have the imagination to conjure up the possibilities inherent in what we’re proposing, putting together. Maybe, with your help (3a), only a few million. In California that’ll be quite enough. Then inevitable ripples will follow.

The outline of the state’s dead body has been delineated in alternative news outlets for quite some time. Yet the vast majority of people remain ignorant or indifferent about the rotting corpse. They simply sit on the ground following the rules, the set parameters.

Perhaps a well-meaning governor who would support a daily alternative blah blah on everything from diet to the economy and environment and beyond could spark a change in all that. Provide a basis for personal rejuvenation and social solidarity, the antithesis of atomization. Not perhaps. He/She actually could. (3b)

We can.

Essential details — which cannot be posted in public — upon request, of course.

While Puccini plays. And you change “Been There Done That” to “Been That, I’m Not Going There Any Longer”. (4)

Footnotes

(1) And the last several lines of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Renascence. Or the “Loving The World Anyway” section of The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart, edited by Bly, Hillman and Meade.

(2) Working within a small corner will not cut it today. It’s good on several counts, but not in terms of relieving such people/groups from being restricted to bandaid measures. The argument is usually — ultimately — that seeds are sown. Yes, but that point of view totally disregards the sense of urgency which is central to this article. Some things do take time. But many things now relegated inappropriately to “an agenda” to be addressed… beg to have been tackled yesterday. And could have been. And must now actually be changed. Or all the well-meaning corners of seed sowers will be bulldozed into oblivion like my old favorite bookstore and swimming hole, never to be revived. Unremembered, like the Great Auk?

(3a) Cop-outs with comments about human nature or what people are like (today) go a long way toward running away from both responsibility — there IS such a thing, as all parents know on some level — and mundane, enlightened self-interest.

(3b) Not just with information, but with singular comedy and music, among other elements never employed by politicos. The mainstream media could not sufficiently spin what would be laid out. In part because of the level on (and manner in which) matters would be addressed.

(4) Imagine taking out an unusual, gorgeous book from your local library, and discovering that only one other person had ever checked out that item. Someone interested in the same thing as you. Wouldn’t it be nice if — without violating someone’s privacy — you could find out who that sweet soul was, so as to engage them? Our Guv and the group of knowledgeable, sensitive, caring sweeties who will be advising the figurehead should be able to make things like that possible. Overnight.

R. Martin Oxman can be reached at headburg@yahoo.com.