dan and i got back into san francisco late thursday night. when we landed there was a message from aaron saying he'd gotten out of jail. i thought i was supposed to fly out yesterday but I'd messed up the dates wrong so i got to hang out for a extra day. i've enjoyed meeting all the purple house people and drinking beers in the park.
it's really good to be back on the right side of the country if only for the weather. san francisco is some sort of polar opposite of new york. it's so clean here, new york is the filthiest city i've ever been to in the states. they don't clean anything, instead they just slap another coat of paint on it. when we got off the plane and walked down to the bart station is was very disorienting. there weren't any rats running around down in the tracks. i didn't wonder what i was setting my bag down on top of. nyc should take 1/10th of what they spent penning protestors and buy a fleet of pressure washers and clean that city up.
dan, bj, and becky got out of jail around 1:00 this morning. i wanted outside for aaron to be released but when i left at 7:30 i hadn't seen him.
i spent the time talking to people who'd just been freed, trying to record their information for the lawyer's guild, letting them call friends on my cell phone. people were really glad to come out and find people waiting for them. they all wanted to talk about the horrible conditions at pier 57, the city's temorary holding facility. they spent a night on floors covered with diesel fuel and motor oil. you could tell who'd just been released becase the back of their shirt looked like a shop rag.
i was walking down to get some pizza with dan's cousin, mikey, and pasted a big group of larouche supporters. there's a lot of them in portland but mikey had never seen them before so i started trying to explain the larouche philosophy. i wasn't making any sense because it's so crazy so we grabbed a couple of their handouts. they were titled "a real democratic platform for november 2004" and it contained some excellent crazy talk. i did learn one supprising fact: larouche has endorsed kerry.
in honor of this development i've decided to help his campaign by offering up a slogan for 2008:
larouche, not as crazy as that nader guy
I mentioned last night that I was at a protest for the GOP's tribute to Johnny Cash. The event at Sotheby's was put on American Gas Association and Nissan Motor Co for Tennessee delegates to tie into Sotheby's auction of the Cash estate later this month.
Some people were there just to heckle the delegates, and I'll admit that felt awful good, but most people were there because they were pissed that the republicans were trying to associate themselves with a very progressive individual. On a much smaller scale it's the same thing they're trying to do to 9/11. Take something that belonged to everyone and use it to further the republican agenda. Instead of telling you what Johnny Cash stood for I'd rather present some of his lyrics and let him speak for himself.
Well you wonder why I always dress in black
Why you never see bright colors on my back
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone
Well there's a reason for the things that I have on
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down
Livin' in the hopeless hungry side of town
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime
But is there because he's a victim of the times
I wear the black for those who've never read
Or listened to the words that Jesus said
About the road to happiness through love and charity
Why you'd think he's talking straight to you and me
Well we're doin' mighty fine I do suppose
In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back
Up front there oughta be a man in black
I wear it for the sick and lonely old
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold
I wear the black in morning for the lives that could have been
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men
And I wear it for the thousands who have died
Believin' that the Lord was on their side
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died
Believin' that we all were on their side
Well there's things that never will be right I know
And things need changin' everywhere you go
But till we start to make a move to make a few things right
You'll never see me wear a suit of white
Oh I'd love to wear a rainbow every day
and tell the world that everything's okay,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back
Till things're brighter I'm the man in black
The old man turned off the radio
Said, "Where did all of the old songs go
Kids sure play funny music these days
They play it in the strangest ways"
Said, "it looks to me like they've all gone wild
It was peaceful back when I was a child"
Well, man, could it be that the girls and boys
Are trying to be heard above your noise?
And the lonely voice of youth cries "What is truth?"
A little boy of three sittin' on the floor
Looks up and says, "Daddy, what is war?"
"son, that's when people fight and die"
The little boy of three says "Daddy, why?"
A young man of seventeen in Sunday school
Being taught the golden rule
And by the time another year has gone around
It may be his turn to lay his life down
Can you blame the voice of youth for asking
"What is truth"
A young man sittin' on the witness stand
The man with the book says "Raise your hand"
"Repeat after me, I solemnly swear"
The man looked down at his long hair
And although the young man solemnly swore
Nobody seems to hear anymore
And it didn't really matter if the truth was there
It was the cut of his clothes and the length of his hair
And the lonely voice of youth cries
"What is truth"
The young girl dancing to the latest beat
Has found new ways to move her feet
The young man speaking in the city square
Is trying to tell somebody that he cares
Yeah, the ones that you're calling wild
Are going to be the leaders in a little while
This old world's wakin' to a new born day
And I solemnly swear that it'll be their way
You better help the voice of youth find
"What is truth"
One mornin' at breakfast I said to my wife
We've been everywhere once and some places twice
As I had another helpin' of country ham
She said we ain't never been to Vietnam
There's a bunch of our boys over there
So we went to the Orient, Saigon
Well we got a big welcome when we drove in
To the gates of a place that they call Longh Bin
We checked in and everything got kinda quiet
But a soldier boy said just wait till tonight
Things get noisy
Things start happenin'
Big bad fire crackers
Well that night we did about four shows for the boys
And they were livin' it up with a whole lotta noise
We did our last song for the night
And we crawled into bed for some peace and quiet
But things weren't peaceful
And things weren't quiet
Things were scary
Well for a few minutes June never said one word
And I thought at first that she hadn't heard
Then a shell exploded not two miles away
she sat up in bed and I heard her say
"What was that"
I said "that was a shell or a bomb"
She said "I'm scared" I said "me too"
Well all night long that noise kept on
And the sound would chill you right to the bone
The bullets and the bombs and the motor shells
Shook our bed every time one fell
And it never let up
It was gonna get worse
Before it got any better
Well when the sun came up the noise died down
We got a few minutes sleep and we were sleepin' sound
Then a soldier knocked on our door and said
"The last night they brought in seven dead
And fourteen wounded
and would we come Down to the base hospital
and see the boys"
"yeah"
So we went to the hospital warded by day
and ever night with the singin' away
Then the shells and the bombs till dawn again
And the helicopters brought in the wounded men
Night after night
Day after day
Comin' and a goin'
So we sadly sang for them our last song
And reluctantly we said so long
We did our best to let 'em know that we care
For ever last one of them that's over there
Whether we belong over there or not
Somebody over here loves 'em
And needs 'em
Well now that's about all that there is to tell
About that little trip into livin' hell
And if I ever go back over there anymore
Hope there's none of our boys there for me to sing for
I hope that war's over with
And they all come back home
to stay in peace
i'd written a few posts that seem to have disapeared. i'll do some rewriting.
dan and a few other friends got arrested tonight. i'd left a wonderful evening of heckling delegates attending an rnc fundraising auction of johnny cash memoribilia. my friends were in the middle of a street with another hundred or so protestors when the cops blocked it off and began arresting everyone inside. i met up with some other friends on the other side of the police line stood there looking for them. i'll post more when i find it out.
dan and i have arrived safely in new york. i vow to never fly america west again. after takeoff on a 5 hour flight they come down the isle and ask if we'd like to buy some breakfast. fuck that. they're trying sell me crappy airline food? southwest at least has the dignity to throw you some peanuts and leave it at that.