In a White Room on Fire

“I’ll wait in this place where the sun never shines | Wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves.” – Cream, “White Room”

We sat on his white sofa, Brian and me ...

It was an evening of board games and booze. The party was for people to drink and have silly fun playing. However the relationship was never based on equality. The booze was dominant, a top to our bottoms, a large, muscled-bruiser to our frail, yielding sobriety.

And we, Brian and me, were stoned, stoned, stoned ...

The living room where we sat was a creamy haze of off-white carpeting and walls. Dim lights obscured the bright color. A cloud of smoke hung over the room, stinging eyes and attacking lungs like a Beijing smog.

We sat with hands resting on our thighs, sinking into ivory cushions, looking straight ahead. In the peripheral I could see Brian. His dark skin reflecting defiantly against the milky couch. Tall, willowy, his form a pencil-thin apparition – a gentle Tahitian vanilla bean taking a respite on a waft of Alabama cotton.

In our forward line of vision were girls buzzing like manic bumble bees, frantically spewing gibberish too fast for even the psychotic to follow. Board games and their tiny pieces littered the floor, but no one played. They bounced from booze bottle to booze bottle, hovering over them like flowers, sucking out the last bits of the throat-burning nectar and vibrating ever faster.

And we, Brian and me, were stoned, stoned, stoned ...

“Oh my God! The room is on fire,” said one of the bumbles.

And so it was. An adjacent room was becoming engulfed in flames. The bumbles buzzed louder.

“We need to do something,” said another bumble.

Good idea, I thought, why don’t you get to that.

The bumbles ignored us, to busy with the profane. Brian didn’t move. The man was a statue with his third eye wide open. Deep into a cosmic download of matter, energy, space and time, he uttered no words. If he could, no mortal could keep up with whatever crazed wisdom his pineal gland was squirting out and greasing his synapses with.

I reached for the telephone on the end table next to me. (Sweet ice-cold Christ, does everything in this house need to be white – even the phone? I thought.) I dialed 9-1-1.

“9-1-1?”

“I’m in a white room, and it is on fire.”

Brian slowly nodded his head. He agreed, his head bobbing like an oil derrick in Long Beach, rusty and forgotten.

I hung up the phone. There was nothing more to say.

While Brian and I meditated, waiting for the fire department to arrive, the bumbles managed to quell the flames of destruction. They weren’t graceful about it. What with all the screaming, jumping and running, it was almost impossible to think. However, they were effective.

“Well, that’s taken care of,” I said.

Brian agreed with another oil-pumping nod.

“Brian, you need to clean up,” said his mom.

Without my noticing, she had apparently been in the room the entire time. She sat in the corner, serene as a summer breeze, in a bleached Victorian-era chair, with all the presence of the hookah-smoking caterpillar from “Alice in Wonderland.”

“Who are YOU?” said the caterpillar.

Where the hell did that woman come from? I wondered. She wasn’t there moments ago. Was she supernatural? And was she stoned too? I was afraid to ask. It wasn’t the questions I feared, but the answers. Let’s be honest, things were strange enough as they were.

Brian came back from the kitchen, rags in one hand, a spray-bottle in the other. I grabbed a rag too, feeling the need to help a friend.

The fire had left a fine soot on everything. As we began dusting, Brian spraying the dinning room table, and us wiping it down, I saw through the living room window a large, flashing ruby park in front of the house. Firefighters poured out, grabbing equipment and running to the door.

Someone should have called and told them the fire was out, I thought. But Brian and I continued to dust. We couldn’t be bothered. We were stoned, stoned, stoned, and each wipe with a dust rag was an eternity of physics lessons to be learned.

Someone had let the ruby-riders in – probably a bumble. Men burdened by heavy equipment poured into the house. Oxygen tanks, axes, helmets, two-way radios. Heavy boots laden with ash from five-alarms past punched the white carpet with each step. Brian’s momma ain’t gonna like that, I thought. Now there is more cleaning to do.

And we, Brian and me, were stoned, stoned, stoned ...

On marketing

[Editor’s Note: The following was written in December 2010 as part of the author’s final assignment in his communications class. He got an A.]

I am a little hard-pressed to think of examples where advertising has had a positive affect on the American public. In fact, I would go so far as to say that advertising only has a negative impact. Although, let me make clear, there is a difference between a local business advertising a sale or service versus a multi-national corporation twisting the social sciences to manipulate people into buying their product. Small businesses lack the resources to hire “the best and the brightest.” Their advertising is largely an announcement of their existence or a sale on their products. Ads such as “Eat at Joe’s” or “Grapes now only 99 cents per pound” are harmless. However, the kind of advertising we get from Chevron, Nike or Coke-a-Cola is a different story.

In his 1928 book “Propaganda,” the father of public relations, Edward Bernays, elucidated the intentions of the marketing and public relations industries. “The minority has discovered a powerful help in influencing majorities,” he wrote. “It has been found possible so to mold the mind of the masses that they will throw their newly gained strength in the desired direction.” At this point we ceased being people and became consumers. We entered the age of propaganda. Bernays’ penchant was in subverting our democracy, as is evidenced by his work in the U.S. Committee on Public Information where he sold World War I to a pacific American population. Johnny got his gun and Edward Bernays got his paycheck.

The same principles are now used to sell products. As a result, we live in an age of illusion where people believe they are attaining an identity, community and culture through the products corporations sell them. In a recent holiday ad for Kohl’s, we are told “Give, save and be merry.” It’s not clothing they are selling, but happiness. Similarly, AT&T offers a holiday gift guide saying, “Thoughtful gifts make you more thoughtful.” Antonyms for “thoughtful” are: selfish, boorish and inconsiderate. Instead of phones, AT&T is offering me the opportunity to be a kind, comforting person who anticipates the needs of others. That’s quite a product!

We are so convinced by advertising that tells us something is missing from our lives, that we now buy to “become” something. In his book “Democracy Incorporated,” political philosopher Sheldon Wolin likened advertisers to evangelists. “Almost every product promises to change your life: it will make you more beautiful, cleaner, more sexually alluring, and more successful,” he writes. “Born again, as it were.” As any advertising agency or church can tell you, there is no profit in contentment. Advertising convinces the beautiful to feel ugly, the healthy to feel sick and the cheerful to feel anxious and depressed. If that were not bad enough, they in turn, like con men, sell us their snake oil.

Advertising is the art of deception and manipulation. It is difficult to imagine any good coming from such a thing. Capitalism has no morality. Profit is its only guiding principle. Therefore, advertisers have no limit to the depths they will go to extract another dime from the people who manufacture the goods they sell. They are the “little Eichmanns” of the corporate state. Not suggesting that consumer’s are without responsibility, but advertisers convince us to buy food that is poisonous, drink spring water that is no better than tap and drive sport utility vehicles that are dangerous to drivers and pedestrians. If our laws supported it, an advertiser would sell arsenic as a cure for insomnia. By no means are individual advertisers bad people though. Their jobs are merely the outcrop of a profoundly sick society. Inner and outer peace is impossible when we are being inundated by manipulative messages that tell us we are not complete. As Charles Bowden wrote in his book “Blood Orchid,” “The problem is that we cannot imagine a future where we possess less but are more.”

Obey the market, build a mosque

Dear Republicans,

Recently your ilk has been much bothered about the construction of a mosque at “ground zero.” I know how much this sort of thing upsets you. Muslims, they are not Christians. Enough said.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) spoke of this issue on Fox News. I assume he, to a greater or lesser degree, speaks for your people. “It's unwise to build a mosque at the site where 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of a terrorist attack,” he said.

Does that sound about right?

And Republican campaign consultant Ed Rollins stressed the debate over the mosque is not about the law, but emotion, which should take precedent over the Constitution.

“Intellectually, the president may be right,” he said, “but this is an emotional issue, and people who lost kids, brothers, sisters, fathers, what have you, do not want that mosque in New York ...”

Okay, so you’re not very fond of the Bill of Rights. That’s cool. Neither is the Democratic Party. However, I must contend, you are violating a core principle of your party by trying to stop the construction of this mosque at “ground zero.”

You are violating your most sacred cow, the thing you care about more than anything else – the free market. You see, you are implying the government should intervene and stop business from taking place. However, such government intervention goes against your core belief in having an unregulated market place.

Your God, the market, has decided that a mosque shall be built near your holy site, “ground zero.” The market is demanding money be exchanged for the delivery of goods and services. But you are disobeying your God by trying to stop this.

And in a time when the economy is slow! How dare you? Building mosques creates jobs and makes wealthy people even richer.

Yes, I know, you say you’re not opposed to the construction of the mosque, you just don’t want it on “hallowed ground.” You would like the mosque to be built somewhere else less offensive to you.

Well, you can’t let your emotions get in the way of free-market economics. Right? After all, you have been convincing Americans for decades to push their emotions aside and not give a damn about their fellow countrymen, because such government programs, like welfare, were not economically feasible.

Now, too, is not the time for emotions.

Creating a government agency to thwart business based upon your collective emotions is no way to run an economy. Though I’m more of a Marxist, I think Milton Friedman would agree with me on this one.

Oh, and property rights. You people love property rights. I think you should reconsider telling people what they can or cannot build on their own land based off of your hurt feelings. It’s kind of hard to run a capitalist society that way.

So, lay off the mosque. Stop interfering with the free exchange of goods and services. Stop violating property rights. Obey the market. And shut up.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict comes to Los Angeles

Los Angeles became embroiled in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Friday when activists, protesting Israel’s Monday attack on a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid destined for Gaza, were met by pro-Israel demonstrators.

The two factions gathered in front of the Israeli consulate on Wilshire Boulevard with the pro-Palestinian group on the south side of the street and the pro-Israel group on the north side.

The event was fraught with emotion and occasional clashes. Demonstrators on both sides taunted one another with insults and threats. On a few occasions, pro-Israel demonstrators would cross Wilshire Boulevard and engage the other crowd. Minor skirmishes of pushing and shoving would ensue, prompting LAPD to break up the crowd.

According to LAPD Capt. Eric Davis, neither group of demonstrators possessed a permit. However, police did not make an issue of it. Instead, LAPD chose to keep the two groups separated by Wilshire Boulevard as best as possible and allow the demonstrations to continue.

The event centered around Israel’s handling of a six-ship flotilla that attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian aid. The lead ship, a Turkish vessel called the Mavi Marmara, was boarded by Israeli commandos.

What happened next is still a point of contention.

Passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara claim the soldiers began shooting at them while rappelling onto the ship from helicopters. The Israelis argue their soldiers were defending themselves from attack.

The violence resulted in nine Turkish passengers being killed – one a U.S. citizen of Turkish decent. According to the Guardian, an autopsy revealed the victims were “peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range” to the head. [1] Forty-eight other passengers were also shot.

The incident has resulted in international condemnation of the violence with Turkey withdrawing its ambassador from Israel.

As of today, the Los Angeles Times reported that Israel intercepted the Rachel Corrie, another humanitarian relief ship attempting to break the blockade. [2] It is reported that the event occurred without incident.

The U.N. reports that “the food security of [Gaza’s] 1.5 million people has been steadily deteriorating since Israeli sanctions in June 2007 including a suspension of all exports, a decrease of imports and tight restrictions on the type of goods permitted to enter through crossings...” [3]

According to the U.N.’s World Food Programme, 16 percent of Gaza’s residents are undernourished. [4]

However, Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy group that helped organize Friday’s counter-demonstration, disagrees with the U.N.’s assessments.

“The Palestinians have the food they need,” she said. “There is a glut. The price of food is dropping.”

Rothstein says she does not find the U.N. to be a credible source due to heavy Islamic influence. “Fifty-six Islamic countries control the U.N.,” she said. “They have ceased to be a credible institution.”

The Israeli consulate’s Web site also claims there is sufficient food getting into Gaza, saying tons of milk powder, baby food, rice and wheat are getting to the people of the occupied territory.

“There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” states the the consulate’s Web site. “Since January 2009, more than 1 million tons of humanitarian aid have been transferred. That is approximately one ton of aid for each man, woman and child in Gaza.” [5]

Mazen Almoukdad, a member of Al-Awda, a Palestinian rights organization, backed the U.N.’s statements. “Gaza is under siege,” he said. “For someone to claim they have enough food is racist.”

ANSWER Coalition organizer Michael Prysner says that Gaza is in dire straights because of the blockade.

“Eighty percent of Gaza receives aid in food,” he said. “The Israelis don’t let in medicine and construction supplies. The blockade makes Gaza a giant concentration camp.”

Friday’s demonstration began at 4 p.m. and ended around 7:45 p.m. Despite short tempers and some scuffles instigated by both sides, no injuries or arrests were reported. LAPD briefly detained one individual for throwing a water bottle from a car at an opposing group of demonstrators. No arrest was made.


NOTES:
1. Booth, Robert. “Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range.” Guardian. 4 June 2010. 5 June 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/04/gaza-flotilla-activists-autopsy-results
2. Sanders, Edmund. “Israelis intercept aid ship without bloodshed.” Los Angeles Times. 5 June 2010. 5 June 2010. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-gaza-flotilla-20100606,0,7822910.story
3. “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” U.N. World Food Programme. 5 June 2010. http://www.wfp.org/countries/occupied-palestinian-territory
4. Ibid.
5. “FACTS: The Gaza Flotilla And The Maritime Blockad Of Gaza.” Consulate General of Israel, Los Angeles. 31 May 2010. 5 June 2010. http://www.israella.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=468:the-gaza-flotilla-and-the-maritime-blockade-of-gaza&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=198&lang=en

Photos by Dan Bluemel

Texas sanitizes history, further dumbing-down America

The Texas State Board of Education recently approved new guidelines for social studies and history classes. The board, made up of social conservatives, had an agenda, which was the elimination of a perceived liberal bias in textbooks.

Their decision guarantees to make an already dumb nation, even dumber.

Among some of the changes to textbooks, the Texas “curriculum plays down the role of Thomas Jefferson among the founding fathers, questions the separation of church and state, and claims that the U.S. government was infiltrated by Communists during the Cold War,” according to the Washington Post. [1]

The boards decision is significant. Texas is the largest buyer of textbooks and sets the tone for publishers across the country, thus affecting how subjects are taught.

According to The Nation, “...the state's 4.7 million students often move to the top of the market, presenting economy of scale discounts, which tempt other school systems to buy the same materials.” [2]

Daniel Czitrom, a professor of history at Mount Holyoke College, argued that conservatives are out of step with how history is taught today.

“They want an American history that ignores or marginalizes African-Americans, women, Latinos, immigrants and popular culture,” he wrote in an article for CNN. [3] “Rather than genuinely engaging the fundamental conflicts that have shaped our past, they prefer a celebratory history that denies those fundamental conflicts.”

But this is really nothing new. According to James W. Loewen’s book “Lies My Teacher Told Me,” as far back as 1925 the American Legion had elucidated what an ideal textbook should be like. [4]

They said such a textbook must “inspire the children with patriotism,” “be careful to the tell the truth optimistically” and “speak chiefly of success.”

Inspiring patriotism is important. How else is our ruling elite going to find cannon fodder for the next war?

But you need to brainwash children with a highly sanitized version of history before they can say, “God bless America” with a straight face. And our right-wing brothers and sisters are all too willing to facilitate this propaganda system that keeps so many of our wonderful wars going.

Thus it should be of no surprise that the Texas State Board of “Educational Destruction” would want President Ronald Reagan to have more textbook attention. Here is where “telling the truth optimistically” goes into high gear.

Ronald Reagan is a man who definitely should be in America’s textbooks – not as a venerated leader, but as a war criminal, just another psychopath in a long line of murderous U.S. presidents.

Under Reagan, the CIA and U.S. military led bloody operations in Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador to oppress progressive social and economic policies. There was murder, rape, torture and disappearings. U.S. trained death squads terrorized populations. [5]

Social justice activist and KPFK radio host Blase Bonpane has said, “Unnecessary war is the legacy of the Reagan Administration.” [6]

But that version of history will never get into our textbooks. It might inspire you to think critically and ask tough questions. In other words, be a savvy citizen.

Instead of educating us, conservatives are engaging in a “terrible trivialization of history, contributing to the dumbing-down of what students learn,” according to Czitrom. [7]

They praise capitalism like they praise Jesus and they want us not to think any differently.

In the eyes of these dingbats, Thomas Jefferson is less of an American because he wasn’t a Bible-thumper, but a logical secularist. They want to blur the lines between church and state, because, let’s face it, there is a segment of the population that would love nothing more than an American-style Ayatollah in the White House making sure we pray to Jesus five times a day.

And sadly, for these miserable sods, the Cold War is not over. To them, commies still exist, waiting in the shadows to subvert Wall Street and our precious, soulless consumer culture.

But conservatives and the Texas State Board of Education must realize that American history is messy. It is a hodgepodge of beautiful and ugly truths. To teach our children a sanitized version of U.S. history is doing them a great disservice.

In the end, their textbooks are simply propaganda. Its result is a brainwashed citizenry that does not question, for they have no accurate historical context with which to think.

For the sake of the republic they claim to love so much, the Texas State Board of Education must rescind its decision.


NOTES:
1. Birnbaum, Michael. “Historians speak out against proposed Texas textbook changes.” Washington Post. 18 Mar. 2010. 26 May 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/17/AR2010031700560.html
2. Rothberg, Peter. “Texas Revises History.” The Nation. 22 Mar. 2010. 27 May 2010. http://www.thenation.com/blog/texas-revises-history
3. Czitrom, Daniel. “Texas school board whitewashes history.” CNN. 22 Mar. 2010. 27 May 2010. http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/18/czitrom.texas.textbooks/index.html
4. Loewen, James W. “Lies My Teacher Told Me.” New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. Pg. 272.
5. Blum, William. “Rogue State.” Monroe, Maine: Common Courage, 2005.
6. Bonpane, Blase. “Civilization is Possible.” Los Angeles: Red Hen, 2008. Pg. 18.
7. Czitrom.
*Image taken from The Atlantic Wire, 27 May 2010. http://atlanticwire.theatlantic.com/opinions/view/opinion/Cartoon-Texas-Textbooks-Revisit-the-Alamo-2896

CIA drone attacks are criminal

Last week, the Los Angeles Times reported that, since 2008, the CIA received "secret permission" to kill "suspected militants whose names are not known, as part of a dramatic expansion of its campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan's border region." [1]

It should be deeply troubling to us all that the CIA has been given permission to murder unidentified people who are merely "suspected" of militancy.

CIA spokesperson George Little declined to comment to the Santa Monica College Corsair on what criteria the agency employs to determine if someone is a militant. However, to assuage any fear of wrongdoing, he did address the agency's behavior in drone attacks.

“The CIA’s counterterrorism operations are conducted with extreme precision and in strict accord with the law,” he said.

The agency's assertion they are following the law is not enough to provide solace. The CIA has a checkered history of coups d’état (Iran 1953, Congo 1965, Chile 1973, among others); subverting democratic elections (in Italy, Greece and Central America, for example); and human experimentation like Project MK-ULTRA, where the CIA covertly influenced the mental state of American and Canadian test subjects.

In short, the CIA is a criminal organization that should have been disbanded years ago. It is the antithesis of democracy, human rights and morality. And it should never be trusted.

The House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs has recently debated the legality of the CIA participating in such attacks, considering the agency is a civilian, rather than a military, organization.

However, they are missing a very important point. It is wrong to murder people for "suspecting" them of something. The CIA's activity opens the door wide-open to killing innocent human beings, something that has already been well documented in America's war on the people of Afghanistan.

Human rights activist and Office of the Americas Director Blase Bonpane says CIA drone attacks work against the U.S.'s stated goals in the region. "It's creating tremendous opposition with the Taliban and other groups," he said. "It's counter-productive."

So much for winning "hearts and minds," but that really never was their intention. The CIA has an objective all its own, and legality, morality and human life have nothing to do with it.


NOTES:
1. Cloud, David S. “CIA drones have broader list of targets.” Los Angeles Times. 5 May 2010. 14 May 2010. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/05/world/la-fg-drone-targets-20100506
*Image taken from Eideard, 14 May 2010. http://eideard.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/c-i-a-continues-to-expand-drone-attacks-inside-pakistan/

BP picketed over Gulf oil spill

Demonstrators picketed a British Petroleum gas station in Los Angeles Wednesday, May 12, to demand the U.S. government seize the company's assets to pay for clean-up and provide compensation for those affected by the ongoing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

Activists chose BP's signature "green" Arco gas station, located at the corner of Olympic Blvd. and Robertson Blvd., as the site of their protest.

The "Seize BP" campaign was initiated by the ANSWER Coalition, an anti-war and social justice organization. According to the group, over 10,000 people have signed the Seize BP petition calling for the confiscation and reinvestment of assets.

The demonstration occurred on the second day BP America executives, along with Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron executives, were questioned by a Congressional subcommittee over the Deepwater Horizon oil rig leak. Responsibility was a point of debate amongst company executives during the questioning, which President Obama has since called “finger-pointing” and a “ridiculous spectacle.”

Los Angeles Valley College student Abel Gamboa attended the demonstration because of his anger over the Congressional hearings.

"It's ridiculous," he said. "It's their equipment. How can it not be their mess? I mean, we're taught when you make a mess, you clean it up, right?"

Santa Monica College Students for Social Justice President Cameron Quinn released a statement backing the “Seize BP” campaign.

“I support this demand and further insist that the government use the seized assets to fund a comprehensive energy plan that ends investment in and subsidies for fossil fuels, and starts building the green energy infrastructure we desperately need,” he said. “Our planet, our people, and our politics can no longer bear the odious burden of fossil fuels.”

ANSWER organizer Ian Thompson was dismayed by BP's reluctance to answer questions related to compensation. "They said they would pay for everything, but then they hedged," he said. "It comes from an insatiable desire for profits. I think people want to be greener, but I don't think BP does."

The "Seize BP" campaign comes at a time when BP's profits doubled to $6.1 billion in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same quarter in 2009. The Obama administration has asked Congress for $118 million to assist with clean-up efforts in the Gulf. The White House expects to be reimbursed by BP.

Santa Monica College student and ANSWER member Seth Braslow attended the demonstration to demand that BP pay their share of reparations. "There is no reason tax payers should have to pay for the oil spill," he said.

Braslow, a history major, took issue with BP America chairman and president Lamar McKay, who qualified his companies pledge to pay for damages from the oil leak. McKay told the subcommittee his company would pay only "legitimate" claims, but did not explain exactly what such a claim would be.

"[BP] are in no position to define legitimacy," said Braslow.

ANSWER organizer Cory Esguerra cited BP's profits as an impetus for the campaign. "These companies make billions of dollars in pure profit and you can see how much they are leaving the little guy out," she said.

The gas station was shut down for two hours while activists picketed. Called the “Green Curve" gas station, it features solar panels, a rainwater-catching canopy to irrigate plants, among other eco-friendly aspects.

According to BP's Web site, the gas station was built to showcase their "commitment to balancing society's need for energy with a responsible approach to the environment." It remains the only gas station of its kind built by the oil company.

The LA demonstration was part of a nationally coordinated action. Protests against the oil company occurred in several cities, including New York and Washington, D.C.

LA Valley College Students for Global Justice President Andrea Barrera attended the picket to give her support to the campaign. She was not surprised by oil-drilling executives’ unwillingness to own up to the oil spill figuring it is the nature of capitalism.

“They don’t want to take responsibility for something that will cost them,” she said. “I just want someone to clean up the spill and not put the burden on the tax payer.”

Photos by Dan Bluemel.