Note: This is an archive site. Each piece, each section was written for a particular purpose, a specific audience… for a given moment in time. Without proper context, an article, etc. can be puzzling, off-putting. Perhaps… only read what’s recommended directly to you. WHAT’S BELOW IS TRULY INSUFFICIENTLY UNEDITED.

Out of the Rain for Good
Dedicated to the efforts and accomplishments of Kim McGill and Skipp Townsend
by Your Ox
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN5fMpMoP38

“I shall put up a fight, I shall take it hard.” — The author’s ten-year-old son quoting Edna St. Vincent Millay, respecting the current scam that’s going on in L.A. over Oscar Grant’s legacy

I don’t have to know Kim McGill personally. It’s enough that Skipp Townsend recommended her respecting my effort to connect with those supporting justice for Oscar Grant. [I very much look forward to very sweet things happening tomorrow as a result of his missive late tonight.]

I don’t really know Skipp personally either. Just connected with him by pure chance vis-a-vis his truly lovely 2nd Call organization. Searching, searching. BUT… I can tell one and all this: That Kim McGill and Skipp Townsend would make a better Governor and Lieutenant Governor for the State of California respectively in 2010 than either of the two major party candidates. In terms of my knowing, knowing, knowing… that their hearts, heads and souls are in a healthy place. Something that no career politician can ever offer… with such rare exceptions that the statement should be left to stand without reservation. That’s why the bumper sticker George W. Obama is popular.

God bless Kim and Skipp.

It is time for us all to step out of the rain. With dignity. And with a feral growl grounded in the fact that IT IS OUR TIME. Time to take the reins of power. Legally and non-violently. [Without trying to rally the greater population 'round a sense of moral indignation and outrageous injustice... for starters. I use such appeals for "core people" here only. For you who can understand.]

There are MANY questions and premature statements of rejection which immediately arise whenever I put TOSCA on the table for people’s consideration. [Especially when very silly elements are blended into the deadly serious gestalt.] No problem, I am used to it. And I welcome the opportunity to address all concerns. For there is much legitimate inquiry that is begged for when one is confronted with a radical proposal, an unprecedented paradigm which pushes for institutional change. As opposed to what you get tinkering with reform which threatens no one. And alters nothing significant enough.

The thing is, the reader has to guard against forcing me to sound bite everything so that he/she can get on with errands and daily routine. The reader is obliged to slow down, and truly engage in deep discussion… with no time limit… with as little ego as possible… as if all of Mother Earth and Heaven’s health depended on our microscopic dialogue.

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”

This is what I mean by Heaven’s health. Heaven is truly spread out before us, and we do not see it. [Pause.] So help me God, I will help others to see it. [Pause.] Starting with our humble back and forth in whatever back room you choose. I will be there as per your convenience. And I will stay. I will sleep on the floor, breathe that toxic L.A. air. But I will bring much more than my heartbeats. Way more than the books I will bring for the kids. I will bring what Etta sang to me. What Ida taught me. What Paul preached. What Howard lived and died for. I will bring my obligation to pass on. And the meaning of what Edna St. Vincent Millay spoke to me, looking very deeply into my soul just before she died in 1950. [Long pause.] For we all have deadlines.

Edna recited some of her highly charged Renascence:

The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,—
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.

For the children… do let them know that Edna wrote those words when she was only nineteen!

[Pause.]

At about that age Geovanni Rodriguez (c. 2005) wrote:

“A system of corruption, of greed and brutality, where death is no longer a matter of chance, but of eventuality. A place where our brothers are caged and abused — subjected to curses and beatings, then left to die, alone, but screaming.”

I have not forgotten Dyron Brewer, Deon Whitfield, Durrell Feaster, Roberto Lombana, and Joseph Daniel Maldonado et al. Many of whom were Edna’s age when she wrote Renascence, Edna who went to beg the Governor of Massachusetts to spare the lives of Sacco and Vanzetti. To no avail.

Much like the family and friends of Oscar Grant are demanding justice. Justice which, obviously, will not come down the pike even if THAT POLICE OFFICER is found guilty as sin. Such a “scene of justice” will actually be obscene for — its historic importance notwithstanding — it would serve to simply placate the crowds that are presently gathering… offering up a single (I hesitate to call him) sheep… for self-serving purposes for the System. For Justice in the System we must not be fooled into thinking this tireless, beautiful support for Oscar’s legacy, immediate justice will count for much. And it is with my eyes on the Brewers, Whitfields, Feasters, Lombanas, Oscar Grants and Joseph Daniel Maldonados of today that I speak. Oscar lives for me today, yes, and it’s good that pressure is being applied on the powers that be, BUT….

Again, Geovanni: “Crying out for someone to hear them. They’re looking for a kind face. They want to see their mother again. They want to see our mother again. These are our brothers and our sisters. How can we let this happen to our kin?”

WE HAVE IT IN OUR POWER TO RELEASE THEIR COUNTERPARTS TODAY. To prevent others from being sucked into HELL, those released alive — unlike Dyron, Deon and Durrell — be relegated to no voting felon status, a permanent blight, blot on any application submitted, on knees or otherwise. [Pause.]

On my knees I beg for a rendezvous. [A rendezvous that will not be rushed.]

I simply have something to say to Cephus Johnson and everyone who is supporting “justice” for Oscar. Something that may not bring immediate justice, may not prevent violence in the immediate days to come, but which — in the Big Black and Brown Picture Show — show the way to a much, much better day. No disingenuous, self-serving instigation of gang wars. No ground of being left any longer for unhealthy gang activity. Decent education, health care and gigs! No police invested with the powers of the Pope. And so on ad infinitum. Oscar’s Ultimate Justice being served.

We will start in California. For it is absolutely astounding what a Governor can do unilaterally here. I can’t wait to tell you in person! We will be able to transform life virtually overnight. It’s never been attempted before because we’ve never had a Guv with heart, head and soul in a healthy place.

We WILL create a watershed in history. We will let the face of God shine through.

Blessings in unprecedented solidarity,
Richard Martin Oxman
831-688-8038 at any hour
P.S. Etta would want me to underscore that the above is for absolutely everyone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgozCXM0ns0

“With his hand on my mouth
He shall drag me forth,
Shrieking to the south
And clutching at the north.” — also from Edna

“They want us to break windows and get our heads bashed in, and sit on committees. They do not want us to take over the reins of power.” — Kwame Ture

Side note, addded after talking to Skipp this morning, whilst waiting to hear from Kim: Black people been berry berry good to me. I don’t want to see the powers that be kill them off in Harlem or elsewhere as per http://www.counterpunch.org/ginsburg07082010.html. And I don’t want people of any color to get educated and get a job only to succumb to environmental toxicity… which can hardly be discussed at present what with the Black and Brown communities’ understandable preoccupation with racial injustice. There are a great number of very urgent issues which must be addressed simultaneously. Which require that all well-intentioned, well-educated, experienced activists working in little corners — doing good and essential work — move in solidarity on a single effort (on a macroscopic scale) immediately. A baby born in L.A. — according to very conservative EPA standards — is subjected to more toxicity within 2 weeks than is allowed for an adult in a lifetime! I submit that we can address that simultaneously with the issue of racial injustice. That we must do so. For the exposure is even worse in minority communities. [Pause.] Furthermore, I say it’s a no-brainer ’bout how to go about it all. And on that note, I ask readers to consider this excerpt from my previously posted piece:

“If the top 1% of citizens in California — $-wise — were taxed only an additional 1%, we’d be able to immediately remove the ENTIRE DEBT of the state. Ditto for New York. This is particularly “easy” once one realizes that the vast majority of the wealth and income generated by the top 1% goes undeclared for tax purposes as a rule. We could garner enough money for the above purposes if we only placed a 1% tax on the $ which the very wealthy illegally keep hidden from the Tax Man.

And… if one wanted to remove only half of California’s debt overnight, well… then we’d have lots of $ left over to apply to realms which enable us to treat the poor humanely, yes? And the fact is, in the real world — replete with its horrid momentum — even that top 1% stands to benefit immeasurably by… doing the right thing. To be elaborated on, upon request.”

The thing is, contrary to popular opinion, we don’t need the voluntary green light of career politicians to make this a reality. [To be elaborated on, upon request.]

This is what our children should be studying in and out of school. HOW to stop our present momentum, not how to acclimate to a way of living that cannot accommodate healthy hearts, heads and souls.

Question: At this juncture, why are any heartbeats expended (like the sweet heartbeats of Jubilee Shine) on appeals to Obama and Holder in lieu of something along the lines of, say, TOSCA? The former is an example of an obsolete paradigm for protest/change. There are alternatives.