http://laughingfish.blogspot.com/2011/10/fall-in-sevier-county.html
with some truly beautiful pictures accompanying it
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
the Grievances of the Wall Street Occupiers
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on september 29, 2011
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
-------------------------------
This document was accepted by the NYC General Assembly on september 29, 2011
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
-------------------------------
Friday, October 14, 2011
Guest Post 15: Ali
"A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young [Wo]Man."
On my way to this park I passed three bleeding heart bushes. Does someone have a fucking sense of humor or what? You know those were always my mother's favorite. What does that mean, I wonder. "When your heart breaks, you should die." Why is that? Why Can't I feel anything? I used to have something that is gone now.
I hate things I used to love. When I was a kid, I loved the berries that grew on the bushes, you know, the red ones, that when you squeeze them, this weird substance oozes out of them. I used to "paint" with them. I used to paint with asparagus and butter on my dinner plate too. Now, well now, I just paint with paintbrushes. How inspiring. Anyway, I hate those stupid berries now, I hate syrup and honey too. I can't stand the way it makes my hands feel. That's the thing, though, my hands should feel: Sticky, Messy…guilty. My hands should feel. What is an artist without feeling in their hands? In their being? Oh, and whenever I eat asparagus now I eat it paint-brush-end first. I don't know why. Maybe because that way I won't remember for too long how wonderful of a passionate artist I used to be compared to what I've become.
I walked to my car this morning thinking that maybe you put a note there like you used to. Instead, I found a parking ticket. Thanks for the salt in my wounds, CPD. Again, Someone's sense of humor is intriguing.
I can't really explain what it feels like to have your life shatter. On top of that, I certainly can't explain what it feels like to solely blame yourself. I can't explain much, apparently. But you don't care about that. You shouldn't, really. No one is out there looking for answers; They're out there trying to make their own.
I keep thinking that I see you, or that I hear the way that you walk. You have a way to your walk, you know. This arrogant step that used to drive me crazy. It still does, just in a different way. I think that I see you, hear you, walking towards me, but I'm blind. You can take that metaphorically, if you'd like, but I wouldn't give me that much credit, you see- It's almost dark in this park (I've been here for hours,) and I've forgotten my glasses on my drawing table.
The only two men I've ever loved: one of you is dead, from an addiction I couldn't help you with, and the other has created a monster of mistrust and confusion. "Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy." Now this is where I am. At the bottom of something. Desperately clawing to each letter I write, but don't send. Clinging to each painting I don't make. Starring at each shadow that isn't you. I don't know what else there is to take, whoever you are, but you have my depression, my sanity, and now you have my Muse.
I am an Artist. And I am Empty.
Bio: Ali is a mess 90 percent of the time. She puts her shoes on the table, her keys in the bathroom , and one time accidentally put her kitten in the refrigerator. She probably won't respond to you, because she most likely lost her phone.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Friday, October 7, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
As I stare out on this magnificent vista...
I'm at a campsite deeply removed from even a sparsely populated village, so of course I'm nowhere near a town or proper city. Just driving here was its own extraordinary adventure of winding around hundreds of hills, missing signs, missing turns, turning around, climbing and dropping down the ground like it was the sea - nelson didn't like it. It made him anxious.
When he gets anxious he tries to climb over my seat and onto my lap while I'm driving.
Me: 95 lbs.
Nelson: 145 lbs.
So we finally got here and it is BEYOND beautiful. Literally stunning - I tried to describe it on the phone and could find no words to fit it. Like last night I'm surrounded by woods and looking at a lake, but the quality is so much higher. Each site is on its own dock built over the lake, and includes the section of woods in front of it. So I'm on my dock, but it's nearly october. There are no other campers. Nelson and I have some several hundred wooded, lakeside acres all to ourselves.
He took a few walks within the first hour and a half of our arrival, but then the pre-storm weather started to build. The sky went dark, the fog became a drizzle, there were distant camera-flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder deep enough to barely be audible.
I thought it was all terrific.
Nelson thought the world was ending.
Here's the image you should take from this:
Me, in an inside-out oversize white tee shirt and knee-high rubber rain boots, laying on my back in my car (with the back seat folded down. Look for the pics of my car-bed.), looking out the sunroof and grinning ear to ear while the rain gets stronger and heavier while Nelson tries over and over again to wiggle his entire body under mine, nose first.
Also - if you're on twitter, send your love to my very dear, very close friend, mister @treybytrey (or trey, as he's usually known). He and I have been through a lot of shit together that nobody should ever have to go through, but the funny thing is that half of that shit was my idea that I convinced him to join me in doing, and the other half was him bringing me along. Really though, I've seen a lot of things that I don't tell anybody about. But he is the only living person to whom I can not only tell those things, but with whom I can discuss them. He's talked me off of plenty of bridges, he's fed me, clothed me, put me up for weeks at a time, counseled me, listened to me, and genuinely cared about me. I'm pretty sure that he's the only person whose empathy I can feel - I can see him trying to see the world from my perspective, and that's a rare thing.
He's a rare type of man.
Happy Birthday Trey.
Xo
-a
(The first pic is my view from my car's rear windshield, the second is a pic of my car parked at the campsite.)
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Kentucky
Also - happy birthday trey!!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Once more, with feeling
I'm on the road again, for the second leg of my road trip, resumed after some disruption.
America, I'm begging you, show me something I need. Some way to live out the rest of this life that so many people worked so hard to save. I'm a little more desperate this time, a little more sad, a little more old, a little more scared.
So please, show me something, some alternative to this heartbreaking meaninglessness.
I'm getting too fucking old to be 22.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
America, I'm begging you, show me something I need. Some way to live out the rest of this life that so many people worked so hard to save. I'm a little more desperate this time, a little more sad, a little more old, a little more scared.
So please, show me something, some alternative to this heartbreaking meaninglessness.
I'm getting too fucking old to be 22.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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