THIS IS AN ARCHIVED SITE. NOTHING SHOULD BE READ EXCEPT FOR WHAT THE AUTHOR RECOMMENDS DIRECTLY TO YOU IN APRIL AND MAY.

Left a Message for Laurel….. (Unedited, first draft)
Dedicated to Howard Zinn who sleeps with me every night, and wakes with me every day, reminding me always that the sun doesn’t shine and wake the birds each morning, the birds sing and make the sun come up.
by Ricardo (Richard Martin Oxman, Oxz, O’Xman, Bueyhombre, The Ox and so on)

“The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.” — Philip Larkin to the author in Hull in another lifetime

“Flowers are better than bullets.” – Allison Krause

I read the Paul Krassner piece http://www.counterpunch.org/krassner04162010.html today, and then I left a message for Laurel to get in touch with me ASAP under the Commentary at http://mendocoastcurrent.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/launching-kent-state -truth-tribunal/.

She called right away. [Pause.] Yay. I mean YAY! She made it a special day for me. Some day I’ll take one and all through our lovely initial conversation. I’ll never forget the many highlights. Tears shed after we hung up. A watershed, indeed.

For now, I urge readers to consider what delineated at www.truthtribunal.org.

Michael Moore and Cindy Sheehan are two of the well-known figures who will be showing up in Ohio for the special event for those seeking the truth at Kent State in 2010. And others, equally important.

Perhaps some who don’t yet realize that there’s information about the May 4, 1970 slaughter that’s still being intentionally withheld from the public — extremely valuable, historic material — will wake up and smell the Flowers of Truth. Their beautiful scent which makes life worth living.

Nature, compassion, and an embrace of life’s terrible beauty.

No words reach where the beauty has gone.

The smell of HORROR fills my room ’round the clock, even when I joyfully play with my darling Marcello. The stink of Kent State stills a huge part of me. For the wasted heartbeats, the bestial, cavalier treatment of people still goes on. Here, there, everywhere. And WE are so responsible.

We are so obligated to end the incessant slaughter. The unnecessary obeisance to Moloch.

It is NOT human nature, said Howard Zinn. I totally agree.

[Pause.]

On an errand today, someone in the family said, “That’s the way people are.” He was talking about how the downtown Trader Joe’s in Santa Cruz gives out miniscule cups of juice samples, much smaller amounts than they do at their Capitola store. “Because,” as one employee (dishing out the drinks) said, “there are a lot of homeless people downtown.”

My young relative went into rationalizing that behavior, that corporate stance… implemented by a worker who, apparently, didn’t see anything wrong about the policy.

It is time for many corporate employees to put into practice more humane treatment of others. Ditto for government drones. And ditto ditto ditto for everyone else, working at home for oneself, on the road… everywhere, in all instances, without interruption. Humanity and living creatures, Mother Earth’s loving abundance first… the abuse of all that… NEVER NO MORE.

No more Kent States. That slaughter of Arthur and Doris Krause’s daughter, Laurel’s sister, and the death and maiming of others is repeated daily, has been repeated increasingly since May 4th, has been part and parcel of our policies, society, rooted in our most honored institutions… since long before May 4, 1970. Is slated to continue with less conscience and awareness and compassion — our atrocities, now, again, in the form of deformed unborn — without end.

Unless we do something… yesterday.

Forgive me, please. Please, please, please don’t think I am presumptuous when I say that I pray that May 1, 2, 3 and 4 will devote a tiny few heartbeats, at least, to urging those present to get behind a legal, non-violent attempt at REVOLUTION in this country. [I delineate specifics below. Bear with me, please, as I lead up to the devilish details.]

I’m not talking about “revolution” a la the Tea Party people. Nor am I talking about “revolution” a la Che. [Pause.] I speak of something which draws on elements of both, but… something unprecedented.

That is, now that it’s crystal clear that NOTHING OF WHAT WE NEED CAN BE SECURED THROUGH THE ELECTORAL ARENA AS IT PRESENTLY STANDS, I submit that we must stand it on its head, undermine it… playing its scam of a game only to the extent that we can make it work for us in a new revolutionary way.

The point of departure is exactly what Allison had her finger on, the pulse of what’s beautiful in this life, repulsion for all that represents violence. The flower of our humanity must be embraced, the platitudes and obsolete attitudes about violence, justifying wars — be they drug wars, bug wars or in the form of sanctions or soldierly sacrifice — must be rejected TOTALLY.

This is not a pacifist call. This has no label which you can prematurely use to reject my proposal. For I am talking about what must be done if we are to ____________________________. You finish the sentence. It’s been written ad infinitum of late*.

*We are documenting ourselves to death, by the way, with our incessant series of lectures, publications of books and articles, conferences, summits and the like.

We need ACTION. FRESH ACTION WHICH FOLLOWS A NEW PARADIGM FOR CHANGE.

No more talk. Unless it’s walk talk. No more talk talk.

And the walking cannot come in the form of voting along traditional lines, signing petitions, donating money, marching in circles… you get the idea, I’m sure. Those models for action should no more be called for as the primary means of protest than hanging one’s hopes on the good will, reasoning and heart of career politicians. Contingent upon disingenuous souls.

And because of environmental concerns and the daily torture of domestic prisoners and the daily dwarfing of whole cultures, among other reasons, we cannot afford to move at the arthritic snail’s pace which is so typical of people who are stuck in an attitudinal set that stopped working around the time of Kent State. WE NOW HAVE DEADLINES ON A NUMBER OF FRONTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m not attached to TOSCA, but unless someone can get with me ASAP and explain what else is on the horizon… I ask everyone to get on board with it on a basis that will serve their purposes. For I do not see anything else on the Leftist table that will make enough of a difference in time.

The two major parties are destined to doom us. All current third parties are permanently marginalized. If you want to attempt to force change — and you WILL have to push the emotional and physical envelopes of the powers that be and blitzed out citizenry (initially) — and do it in a legal, non-violent way… you’re going to have to try to tweak the electoral arena to do so. Overnight.

Remember Howard saying that if voting could change anything it would be illegal?

It is on those notes, that I ask you to consider joining hands with us in solidarity, as we move to “take over” the State of California… with the idea of creating historic ripples immediately nationwide, and creating a watershed in history worldwide.

The best way that I can see for myself to honor Allison and the others, the spirit of the upcoming event, is to urge people like Michael Moore, Emily Kunstler and Cindy Sheehan –everyone, actually — to highlight my call for this unifying action, this action bent on contributing to the dramatic change we must insist upon if we expect to smell those flowers of truth. If we count on having flowers of any kind to see or touch in the future.

I see Allison’s flowers. I see them real good. But I see them, with each passing day, fading away….

I know how to make the bullets go away. I WILL make the bullets go away… with your help.

For, although I perfectly understand what Allison meant, and why she said what she did when she did… I would say, today, “Flowers are beautiful. Bullets are horrific, ugly necessarily, and totally unnecessary.” I didn’t know her, but I believe she would have said pretty much the same if she had been allowed to be here for what would have been her 59th birthday on April 23rd. [Pause.] Along with Jeffrey, Sandra, William and others.

Strange, around May 4, 1970 I was a young professor at Long Island University… helping kids to stay away from the clutches of The Draft, and advising the inflamed youth around me to “think like flowers” as they confronted campus security and local police.

I don’t personally expect anything in particular from Laurel in early May. She’s going to have her hands full with all the documentation she’ll be overseeing, and her heart full of flowering. The above is just about how everything I have left in me worth having I left in her soul on the phone this morning.