Special note: This is an archived site. Only articles recommended in April to specific people should be read. Updated note: The people to whom I dedicated this piece didn’t respond to emails I sent them with links to the article. When I called one of them as a courtesy follow-up, well,… the response was… less than weak, without so much as a “Thanks, but no thanks” …without any sense of what we have in common as a challenge. Subsequently I sent “The Great Moving Feast” to the Chairman of the G&IS Program, noting my disappointment with the non-reaction of others at his institution.

How the Global and International Studies People at UCSB Can Change the World (Unedited, first draft)
Dedicated to Nicolas Pascal who contacted me about Keith Harmon Snow and Jessea Gay Marie who answered her phone with beauty in her voice
by Richard Martin Oxman

The people pictured at http://www.global.ucsb.edu/magis/candidates/index.html all want a peaceful world, a future with more justice. I’d bet the lives of everyone in my family on that, and I don’t even know the human beings behind those shining faces. [Pause.] I wouldn’t really gamble the heartbeats of my loved ones on that statement, but I do know something about the spirit of the program they’re in under the umbrella of the Global and International Studies Program at UCSB*, and so… it seems like a good bet that the thrust of what they’re all about is our having a better world. So that gorgeous creatures like our Marcello can have a planet on which life is worth living. So that everyone can.

*They honored TOSCA’s Keith Harmon Snow recently, yes?

For about a year now (during which I’ve worked 24×8 on behalf of TOSCA) , I’ve had some very impressive imprimaturs supporting our effort to have twelve unaffiliated, non-politician citizens — on an equal basis — serve as Governor of California together, in lieu of having a single, self-serving careerist at the helm (once again!). You can glance at http://oxtogrind.org/archive/556 to see the glorious group (which included the late great Howard Zinn, and includes Canada’s wonderful pedagogue Henry Giroux, Mexico’s Gustavo Esteva, India’s Devinder Sharma, Jennifer Loewenstein of Gaza/U.S., Iran’s Afshin Rattansi, and Argentina’s Marie Trigona).

What’s this got to do with the fine UCSB program?

We have deadlines. And the old paradigms for stopping our horrid momentum aren’t working. We are documenting ourselves to death whilst we march in mental and physical circles. Something fresh must supplement all the well-intentioned, good work going on at present. And I have a plan that can make use of those promising faces on the UCSB site, and make a difference in 2010. Legally and nonviolently, but very definitely embracing Arundhati Roy’s cry for a feral howl.

My proposal is quite radical, but it doesn’t require any money. We have been operating on a ZERO BUDGET, and fully intend to do so throughout our gubernatorial campaign. No $$, and virtually no heartbeats. What I would be asking of those UCSB people — and it could include Staff members and/or Faculty, if our project resonates with them — DOES NOT INVOLVE DISTRACTING THEM FROM THEIR CURRENT PERSONAL PRIORITIES. We would need virtually none of their time.

All we need are citizens who have their head, heart and soul in a healthy place. No major state in the union has had that at the helm within memory. And I go all the way back to having stones thrown at me in Peekskill alongside Paul Robeson. Actually, before that the unforgettable David Dellinger held me in his arms.

I have obligations to many who came before me. And I intend to honor those obligations… before it’s too late. The reasons that gubernatorial offices have not had the health I speak of in force has had a lot to do with career considerations. Such considerations preclude what we must collectively strive for at this juncture in world history.

And so… out of nowhere… I ask the beautiful people at UCSB to not be startled at my proposal that twelve of them run in tandem for the Sacred Seat of Sacramento. It pretty much doesn’t matter who’s part of the team. For as many of the people in my quarter remind me daily, a Mafia figure in office next time ’round wouldn’t do worse than our gangster politicians usually do (for us). [I realize that this kind of statement can raise a lot of hackles, and I look forward to elaborating on all matters here, upon request. In person.]

One of the things I would delineate in a rendezvous would be exactly what any Governor of California can do unilaterally, without so much as a discussion with disingenuous souls. For, virtually overnight, our gubernatorial coalition could transform life throughout the state and across the nation, creating positive historic ripples worldwide, even into the depths of the Congo. THIS I would bet the lives of my loved ones on.

This is an important statement I am making. For it comes from the depths of my soul, knowing as clearly as I breathe that our children will not have a future unless something along the lines that I’m proposing is embraced immediately. It does NOT have to be TOSCA, of course. But I see nothing else on the horizon at the moment. Nothing that can adequately address our resignation, apathy, ignorance, self-centered cynicsm and atomization.

Experienced, well-educated, prestigious citizens such as Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, recently honored as one of the top “ocean heroes” of all time, has agreed to serve as an adviser to whoever we run for office. Might even be one of our precious dozen. [Pause.] And we have other like-minded souls on board. In all sorts of capacities, realms. Inspirations.

There’s a lot in place already, having worked incessantly on this project for so long. However, I’ve tried to put together a gubernatorial team for awhile now, and it’s getting late. The fact that I’ve been rejected by what feels like a thousand souls all across the political spectrum thus far is neither here nor there to me. As Samuel Beckett said, “Fail, fail again, fail again better.”

I can see quite clearly the HABIT which is TOSCA’s biggest obstacle. The routines of thinking and operating which dominate everyone’s lives. When I met Beckett in ‘64 he reminded me of that line in Waiting for Godot, something about habit being the great deadener.

As I said, I have obligations. I will see this through. But the time is getting late. I need your help. Please join hands in solidarity with me, following a new paradigm for action. Do it on a basis that’ll serve your purposes. I don’t want to control the whole shebang. My primary aim is to upset the board on which our abominable game is being played, have the sad pieces being moved about prevented from ________________________. [You fill it in, that's the democratic way.]

What a joy it will be to see our gubernatorial team speaking out joyfully, creatively, vigorously, and repeatedly on behalf of what’s healthy! To see them encouraging one and all to dance!

O Bailan Todos O No Baile Nadie,
Ricardo
P.S. Our two major political parties are dooming us, and our third parties, as things stand, are permanently marginalized.