Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Please Don't Come To Chicago
Though your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to Chicago
Just to sing.
(Graham Nash ~ CSNY, 1970)
Rick Perlstein, once again, has written a thought provoking piece for the Village Voice which I think warrants more attention than i fear it's going to get.
I'd also like to note that in the summer of 1972 I sat my silly ass down on a milk crate outside a political action tent at an outdoor music festival and read a copy of the Village Voice which featured a cover article detailing the machinations of the Watergate break-in. I can't remember the title of that story or the author anymore but I remember the front cover of that Village Voice issue. It depicted Richard M. Nixon and his slippery henchman parading down mainstreet nekkid. It was one of those the Emperor has no clothes things. A few days later I became a ding-dong door bell ringer for the McGovern campaign. Once again, 32 years later, the Village Voice is making an impression on me.
I also remember watching the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on the television machine. And I know that the people who write for this blog and many who read here remember that as well. Perhaps even were there. So what Perlstein has to say is important in my opinion because it draws upon old lessons learned that I think should not go unforgotten. Although I'm kind of afraid RP may be at the midnight hour on this one.
One eerie note: the photo caption that accompanies Perlstein's article identifies the scene depicted (of police beating protestors) as taking place at the GOP convention. (Unless they've corrected it by the time you read this - but as of this posting the caption still reads GOP) It was the DNC Convention in 1968. Not the GOP. Thats how spooky it gets.
BLACKOUT
To be honest, if I had my way, if I were even remotely influential in such matters, I'd call for a silent protest in New York. Absolute silence. Let the GOP come to New York and wander around in a stone dead silence. Blacken your windows New Yorkers. If you do go out on the streets wear black arm bands. Don't go out at night to bars or shows or restaurants. Boycott. It's your city and it's your money. Close your galleries and your shops or hang a black flag in the window as a symbolic gesture. Declare a day of mourning. Just stay home. It won't kill you. Let the confetti pumped from the RNC shredder machine blow through the streets like so many leaves tumbling along the mainstreet of a plague bit ghostown. If drunken herds of fly-by-night goobers in cowboy hats and Free-Republic tee shirts want to stumble up and down Broadway or the lower east side at two am so be it. Let em do it all by themselves. Chill them with the sounds of silence. That would be the spookiest most powerful message I think New Yorkers and political activists could deliver. If the noisiest city in the world went stone cold quiet - well, you get my drift. Unfortunately I know thats way too much to hope for (especially at this point) and especially after reading what RP has to say.
And unfortunately the minute one single storefront window is broken or one single limousine leaving Rockefeller Plaza is delayed in traffic by a die-in the bow-wow-wowsers and clangor horns and high steppers of television "news" theater cabaret will go into gran-mal seizures of seismic propotions. A bellowing whooping deafening squall. Red Meat! And you know that's exactly what they want. And you all know whose butchered rosy flanks will be served up at their cheery little corporate TV media buffet.
So. Shhhhh, quiet - a moment of silence please - listen - go read what Perlstein has to say: Protesters risk playing into GOP hands Get Mad. Act Out. Re-Elect George Bush. by Rick Perlstein - August 24th, 2004.
*
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to Chicago
Just to sing.
(Graham Nash ~ CSNY, 1970)
Rick Perlstein, once again, has written a thought provoking piece for the Village Voice which I think warrants more attention than i fear it's going to get.
I'd also like to note that in the summer of 1972 I sat my silly ass down on a milk crate outside a political action tent at an outdoor music festival and read a copy of the Village Voice which featured a cover article detailing the machinations of the Watergate break-in. I can't remember the title of that story or the author anymore but I remember the front cover of that Village Voice issue. It depicted Richard M. Nixon and his slippery henchman parading down mainstreet nekkid. It was one of those the Emperor has no clothes things. A few days later I became a ding-dong door bell ringer for the McGovern campaign. Once again, 32 years later, the Village Voice is making an impression on me.
I also remember watching the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago on the television machine. And I know that the people who write for this blog and many who read here remember that as well. Perhaps even were there. So what Perlstein has to say is important in my opinion because it draws upon old lessons learned that I think should not go unforgotten. Although I'm kind of afraid RP may be at the midnight hour on this one.
One eerie note: the photo caption that accompanies Perlstein's article identifies the scene depicted (of police beating protestors) as taking place at the GOP convention. (Unless they've corrected it by the time you read this - but as of this posting the caption still reads GOP) It was the DNC Convention in 1968. Not the GOP. Thats how spooky it gets.
To be honest, if I had my way, if I were even remotely influential in such matters, I'd call for a silent protest in New York. Absolute silence. Let the GOP come to New York and wander around in a stone dead silence. Blacken your windows New Yorkers. If you do go out on the streets wear black arm bands. Don't go out at night to bars or shows or restaurants. Boycott. It's your city and it's your money. Close your galleries and your shops or hang a black flag in the window as a symbolic gesture. Declare a day of mourning. Just stay home. It won't kill you. Let the confetti pumped from the RNC shredder machine blow through the streets like so many leaves tumbling along the mainstreet of a plague bit ghostown. If drunken herds of fly-by-night goobers in cowboy hats and Free-Republic tee shirts want to stumble up and down Broadway or the lower east side at two am so be it. Let em do it all by themselves. Chill them with the sounds of silence. That would be the spookiest most powerful message I think New Yorkers and political activists could deliver. If the noisiest city in the world went stone cold quiet - well, you get my drift. Unfortunately I know thats way too much to hope for (especially at this point) and especially after reading what RP has to say.
And unfortunately the minute one single storefront window is broken or one single limousine leaving Rockefeller Plaza is delayed in traffic by a die-in the bow-wow-wowsers and clangor horns and high steppers of television "news" theater cabaret will go into gran-mal seizures of seismic propotions. A bellowing whooping deafening squall. Red Meat! And you know that's exactly what they want. And you all know whose butchered rosy flanks will be served up at their cheery little corporate TV media buffet.
So. Shhhhh, quiet - a moment of silence please - listen - go read what Perlstein has to say: Protesters risk playing into GOP hands Get Mad. Act Out. Re-Elect George Bush. by Rick Perlstein - August 24th, 2004.
*
