Towards the Greenest Day Ever
before Sylvie www.sosylvie.typepad.com and I run away to Irpinia

“At parties I am rarely happy
My conversation isn’t snappy
When I’m at home and in my bed
I think of what I should have said….”

“There is at least six times more plastic in the middle of the Pacific Ocean than phytoplankton. (Imagine trying to eat and six of every seven swallows bring only plastic; it is no wonder that so many sea creatures are starving to death, bellies full of plastic.” — from What We Leave Behind by Derrick Jensen and Aric McBay

“Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now?” — Vladimir, Waiting for Godot

“STOP IT!” — Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot and at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 1964

When I meet with Green Day over http://www.counterpunch.org/boggs06172009.html http://www.cinema-scope.com/cs29/feat_kraicer_still.html, www.derrickjensen.org and www.marcelsgeo.blogspot.com, I will not be asking for autographs. Rather, I’ll be trying to secure some of their life’s blood. Meaning, a commitment that goes beyond what celebrities usually get involved in. From a different angle… whether or not it includes http://oxtogrind.org/archive/315 stuff. Challenging, but it should be fun.

One potential problem, however, is that Adrienne, Billie Joe Armstrong’s wife, has been a big supporter of the prestigious Natural Resources Defense Council, and I’m going to be asking everyone to follow a very different paradigm for change. I could lose all possibility of having contact with that attitude, but… there’s a true need to go deeper… sooner. Way beyond what the likes of Springsteen, Geldof, Bono and Willie Nelson have put on the table.

Obama, having replaced a War Criminal (who he refuses to push toward prosecution), has become a War Criminal himself. And each and every U.S. citizen* who is not actively involved in stopping his administration’s abominations is complicit in his crimes.

*That includes Mike Farrell, LA Times “Person of the Year” (See below, and see http://oxtogrind.org/archive/325.)

Did I have to be rude/shocking at the Capitola Book Cafe where Mike Farrell appeared (June 15th) in front of lots of people hypnotized by Obama… and hypnotized by Historical Amnesia as taught in our schools, and reinforced in mainstream (and most alternative) media outlets? [Aside: What the hell are these "independent" bookstores doing, hosting an Obama cheerleader?]

NO. I could have simply asked a spot-on question.

The mantra at the moment is that we have to PUSH Obama to do the right thing. Mike repeated that absurdity a few times.

How can you push someone to do the right thing — the Human Rights** thing — if he’s pushing (on his own) for predator drones (http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21492, http://www.counterpunch.org/porter04162009.html, http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21719), and for the use of depleted uranium, white phosphorus and cluster bombs http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2934/what_we_leave_behind/?

**Remember that Mike was named LA Times Person of the Year in no small part because of his Human Rights profile.

OR if I had asked,

How can you tout Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s new Point Man** in the Middle East, as a source of hope? See http://www.counterpunch.org/frank01272009.html

**Set to work alongside Obama’s new appointee… psychopath General Stanley McChrystal http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21552.

THIS IS MADNESS. WE ARE SLEEPWALKING.

There is NO CHANGE under Obama (beyond the eloquence and unprecedented, but wholly insufficient statements). See http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20386. And with regard to horrors such as TORTURE, matters have gotten unarguably worse. See http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/viewArticle/21609.

At one point in the meeting with Mike (http://oxtogrind.org/archive/325), he responded to my noting that Noam Chomsky had come out with an article on ZNet this month which documented Obama’s ongoing torture of captives… in contrast to popular perception of his policies. To this he said, “I don’t always agree with Chomsky.”

I should have immediately started naming individuals on the very long list of well-respected journalists, scholars et al. who have documented the same horror. Beginning with Jeremy Scahill, Paul Street (http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21576) & William Blum (http://www.zmag.org/zspace/commentaries/3890). AND I keep kicking myself for not simply having asked him (with extreme sarcasm): What exactly do you agree with Chomsky on, Mike? For I would bet the life of all of my children, my life and the life of my wife that Poseur Mike*** is aligned with not a single significant strain in Chomsky’s work.

***The MASH man is NOT an authentic Human Rights activist, praise from the LA Times notwithstanding. Obviously, as per predator drones.

If you read the links I’ve provided above, you cannot come away not feeling — nay, knowing — that Obama’s administration actions are tantamount to the worse atrocities of the Third Reich. No hyperbole here. The “Torture Memos” piece alone http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/viewArticle/21609 should do the trick. Additional documentation upon request, of course.

But we’ve had enough of reading. Enough of agreeing. Enough of pontificating.

We are obliged to stop the suffocation****

****On this 100th Anniversary of the the first plastic based on synthetic polymer made from phenol and formaledhyde — which is guaranteeing the earth’s demise — I beg you to join hands with me… to do something. For even Obama’s military genocide can’t compare to the
ecocide of our oceans, encompassing the extinction of non-human life on a scale that is of science fiction proportions.

It’s not that the two are really separable, however. The reader should note that our military has made — within the continental U.S. — a land mass the size of Florida uninhabitable. Much of it forever.

The end of the earth. [Don't argue with me about that when we have an Eastern Garbage Patch of toxic plastic stew covering an area the size of Africa... in the Pacific Ocean, choking off all life, and spreading... fast.].

No, it is NOT natural. Not necessary. Not too late to embrace some truth and beauty.

When I failed in Mike’s presence I betrayed those who are tortured daily by our activity. I hear their screams when I go to sleep, I hear them when I wake. I smell Auschwitz incessantly. I failed you too.

Many — too many — people who were in Mike’s audience would have their morning pastry uninterrupted if we were to use nuclear weaponry on this or that spot on earth.

Neither intellectual curiosity, not consistency, nor a deep concern with human rights prevailed the other night. Just think about how Mike can express outrage about Reagan’s murderous forays into Central America in front of that crowd — pumping up his politically correct prestige in the process — whilst supporting Obama… who both before and after his election praised Cowboy Ronald.

This is serious shit. Reagan was a War Criminal too. But there’s no batting of an eyelash respecting his trail of tears OR regarding Obama’s vigorous PR support of Reagan.

Ditto for Carter and Clinton too, of course. With regard to Mike. With regard to his audiences… all along his well-paid-for tour. Compounding ignorance with ignorance.

The question is what are you going to do about the fact that the LA Times has named him “Person of the Year”? You must, at the very least, ask what that means, that he could garner such a title from such an influential publication.

I do believe that if you ask that question, you will act.

For you will know your enemy. And you will know that it is not enough to simply aim for being the change you want… which has been the overly popular New Age chant for much too long… in lieu of action.

Demanding change with sharply, properly worded requests is inadequate. You must not be satisfied with speaking to authority. Or trying to work with them… like Helen Caldicott did, expecting change on the Nuclear Front by holding hands with Robert McNamara in the activist arena. No, neither Obama nor Farrell can be taken to bed.

We must ACT with (our own) authority. Alone.

And I have a plan*****. Which I will be honored to share with you in person… in confidence.

*****A plan which is a tweaked version of http://oxtogrind.org/archive/315.

You will not just “Know Your Enemy.” You will blow your enemies away… in a new way.
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21730 …http://www.counterpunch.org/frank06182009.html

Please do not let my personality, my looks, my breath, my inability to express what needs to expressed in public keep you from my door, prevent you from opening Our Window… through which the greenest day ever can be seen, smelled and touched. For I hear the music with the window shut… as I move from knowing my enemy to blowing my enemy away aurally. Oh, say can you hear?

Blessings in solidarity,
Richard Oxman
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Gatlif to Tom Hardy in http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rocknrolla/ …and way beyond Rachel Carson… to whom this is dedicated (with Green Day)
headburg@yahoo.com