The Conscience of a Captive Youth

THE FOLLOWING WAS FROM MY PERSONAL NOTES IN APRIL OF 2005

Jane Fonda was on last Sunday as all the voices from the far right remind us. My initial response was to say nothing. Certain things just are what they are. Jane Fonda is on a life path and has to pursue her own course twords “God” or whatever. You know it’s a Catholic teaching that to be true to God is to follow your continence. I say that because it is notably not a teaching of churches I go to. It stands to reason if you’re logical about it that there are “many paths to God” because not everybody is in the same place. They’re coming from different locations. Sean Hannity said some things the other day I basically agree with. He said that we all have that God-consciousness inside us and we all inherently know what’s right. (You’ll get in trouble saying that in an academic class room) I agree with that. Once again were I asked to sacrifice my son, as Abraham was, I would decline as a conscientious objector. I, as it were, would be committing a “sin of conscience”. I think what we can call Jane Fonda’s sin is a sin of conscience. As you may or may not know, Tim came out and said at the time that what Jane Fonda was doing was wrong. I myself had no official position back then. I do believe there is a point where you’re doing something other than Protesting, that lapses into error. Let’s talk about Christianity for a bit. Christians after the crucifixion of Christ did not go out and attack the Roman government or burn down Pilate’s house or get lobbyists out to change the Roman laws and “protest this horrible injustice to insure that it never happens again.” The difference between a Conservative and a liberal is that conservatives think in terms of individuals. Liberals tend to think in terms of what is best for masses of people. No. Instead the Christians went on a Roman ass-kissing orgy in essence saying to the Romans, “We’re your friends. Trust us and we’ll help you oppress the Jews more effectively; we can be your propaganda ministers”. Let’s get one thing straight. Jane Fonda said she loved her country and cared about the troops, and said she committed a horrible lapse in judgement she will take to her grave. You could tell she meant it by the tone in her voice. But I find it necessary to remind people like Larry Elder just what the historic context of her going to Hanoi was. As she said, the war had been going on for eight years. The Gulf of Tomkin resolution was passed in August 1964. Congress had repeatedly passed resolutions against the War. One was for the complete withdrawal of troops as of June 30^th. 1971. This was changed to December 31^st. 1971. It’s funny that lately there’s been this conservative revisionist history. You might be able to sell it at the dorky military academy where your son goes, but not to me, who lived through it. The officer Larry had on says the problem began when we won the Tet Offensive and the media lied to us and Walter Cronkite lied and said we lost it and so because of CBS news, masses of people turned against the Viet Nam War. Let me give you reality. The war was a bone of contention as far back as the Republican Primary in 1964 when Rocke-feller people ran adds quoting Barry Goldwater saying he would expand the war and drop a “low yield atomic bomb” on Chinese supply lines in Laos and Viet Nam. The protest grew in 1965 when people like Donavin began putting out anti war songs. I myself turned against the War in early 1966. That spring I was in a Current Events class where the War was a hot topic of discussion. By September of 1967 the majority of people had turned against the War when it became clear we were only going to escalate. I need to also remind you that in 1972 when Jane Fonda went to Hanoi, as she said- nothing else was working. And to this day there are hosts on talk radio saying “If only we had pur-sued the war harder in 1972 we would have won the war”. We were being lied to. The Gulf of Tomkin resolution was based on a purely fabricated event. We were lied to about the extent of our involvement in Cambodia and this act became an article of impeachment with Nixon in 1974 that ended up not passing. Need I also remind Larry that John Kerry made the same statements against the war in 1971 and he was nominated for President.

. I myself would dread the notion of my own son saying to me or another that he thought his father is a Coward. Gene Scott has said that he wants his kids to trust him above all else. It’s not my son’s job to believe in Me, it’s My job to believe in him. If there arises a situation where my son cannot trust me I know we have a more serious on our hands. I will know that I have grievously failed my son. No son wants to think of his father as a coward. The trouble with the people of Harmony is few of them have the moral balls to stand up to Evil, even when they clearly know where it’s coming from. Again I say if I were Luis the time I had those CD’s on the Crane empire I’d ask my own mother whether she would be willing to make a noble sacrifice for a higher cause. Up until very recently and perhaps even now, I believed in moral karma. That if you did an extremely brave act you would get a better after-life.

I wanted to mention the Dr. Phil show. We hear a lot about the “divide and conquer” strategy of children against parents. I was morally opposed to it as a kid watching Divorce Court and I still think it’s wrong. You don’t know how morally outraged I was when Mrs. Valasquez back in March of 1970 said that my parents were divided on how to deal with me and it was affecting their marriage, and that it was somehow my fault. That goes against every thing [my name] stands for. Children need to learn at some age that this is a world of adults and not kids. Children don’t call the shots. You shouldn’t be able to blackmail parents in a divorce situation and Judges shouldn’t fall for it. In point of fact their marriage proved indestructible and believe me there’d be a lot bigger issues than me and the “Less filling- - tastes great!” argument. There is this fourteen year old daughter that has every vice in the book. She has failing grades, she parties all the time and behind her parents’ back and damages the house. She smokes, drinks, has sex, and uses drugs. The father is trying to discipline her but does not seem to be up to the task. The daughter is nursing some illusions about her original father getting back with her sympathetic mother and this is driving a wedge between the parents. Short of dropping an Atomic Bomb, I don’t know what else the father can do. Perhaps he could get Dr. Phil to ship her off to Happy Valley or whatever that place is in Texas. At this point a little “tough love” like an arrest or time in jail just might shock her back into reality. I wanted to talk about whether I view my own parents as “Cowards” in dealing with the varied domestic problems. I don’t even think what they did qualifies them as “Cowards”; they are several rungs down on the moral scale than that. You see it takes a certain amount of balls to send your son at age 17 and still in High School to Vocational “Re-Hab”. It’s the wrong solution and the wrong age. And then to say you want your son to be assigned a Counselor for the Mentally Ill makes the person saying it look a little suspect. As if they have some “problem” they can’t deal with and try and pawn it off on the state. Gladys Presley loathed the idea of turning to the State for anything. She had more character in her little finger than my parents have in their whole body. But this act isn’t “Cowardly”. Indeed she runs the risk of looking like a complete asshole, especially considering her profession. It could be argued that she subsequently paid a price, but I don’t want to get into that least I be accused of hitting below the belt.

Let’s talk a little about Richard Nixon. As you know the dates on that latest compilation, 1969 – 1974, are the same as the years of Nixon’s Presidency. Actually only two songs qualify for 1974, and early 1974 at that. Nixon in February of 1972 made an overture to Mao Tse Tung, who is responsible for the deaths of more people than just about any world leader who’s ever lived. And in the process we stabbed an old friend in the back who had been our ally since the days of World War II. Nixon is hardly one to talk about “national loyalty”. Nixon was not a real conservative. But he did have one thing going for him: image. He is the one who made hatred of liberals, protestors, and just about any other minority group fashionable with his “Great Silent Majority” speech in November 1969. At this point I became utterly opposed to him, if I wasn’t before. This legacy has lasted to the present day and is alive and well in places like the Rush Limbaugh show. People in the ‘30s, ‘40s, 50’s, and ‘60s didn’t feel this way. Indeed when someone like Joseph McCarthy came along, he cane off as a nut case. So I guess it’s fitting that someone of Larry’s views would find audience at the Nixon library. The crowd cheered wildly when Larry Elder said that the way to solve the immigration problem is to eliminate all government roads, schools, and other social services. Larry just doesn’t “get it” when faced with the reality of Latinos driving down the wage base. You know I hate to bring this up but our message to Mexico just maybe should be, “Thou shalt not covet”. The way to solve the “inequity” is not to drag your neighbor down to the same level of poverty you yourself has. But Larry doesn’t seem to get that. I have a suggestion for Larry. Using his own logic, perhaps we should privatize the military. If Larry is right they will do it more efficiently, with less beaurocratic overhead, and will pay the people a decent wage “as the market would demand”. You know, corporations have a board of directors they have to account to. If they screw up and pay $50,000 for a toilet seat the stock holders will be unhappy. “See you in the funny papers, Larry!”

Guess what? We are at that identical 50,176 or whatever byte count figure of two previous files. So we’ll bring up another topic. Let’s talk about Martin Luther King. I guess it escaped that Military Officer’s notice but the reason why there were so many riots is that one of the greatest Black leaders of all time had just been cut down, assen-ated. I think we should move Martin Luther King’s holiday to April 4^th. the date of his death. As it is it’s too close to the Superbowl, which will be a national holiday some time. Moving it to April 4^th. would put it close to Easter. Better yet I suggest we cele-brate Malcolm X’s life. As you know I call myself the “Malcolm X of Christianity”. He crusaded for racial equality on a world wide scale and amongst various religions, as well as crusading against religious hypocrisy in High Places, not to mention moral fidelity in marriage. Martin Luther King is not exactly spotless in this area, as J. Edger Hoover will attest. I think Malcolm’s message to Black people in having Black Pride, is a better one than King’s increasing insistence that minorities turn to the government for hand-outs.

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. You know, if you do want to look to the Bible for what the after-life will be like, in my reading of it you’re promised a resurrect-ion from the dead in another 12 or 15 Billion years, or whenever the Universe comes to an end. So what survived death? Bob Howland stated in a sermon that on that Day that God would “remember” us. He’d remember our DNA or whatever else that causes us to be us. When Lennon wrote the last song on Revolver- - I imagine “Mark I” seemed a good initial title. But when he got to thinking about Death and all he had to come to the conclusion, “Tomorrow Never Knows”. That’s just a theory.

We have one more rock compilation we'll do at this time. There are songs from 1968 like "I Can See For Miles" by the Who ("Miles" is spoken 57 times?) we may get to sometime but I can't say when.

THE LAST ROUNDUP Released September 24^th. by the Federation

Last Dance With Mary Jane (Tom Petti)

You Give Love a Bad Name (Bon Jovi)

Bullet to Blue Sky (U 2)

Sowing the Seeds of Love (Tears for Fears)

Edie (The Cult)

Mirror in the Bathroom (English Beat)

Dancing in the Ruins (Blue Oyster Cult)

Big Log (Robert Plant)

Love in an Elevator (Aerosmith)

You Got It (Roy Orbeson)

Blood and Roses (Smitherines)

Smoking in the Boys’ Room (Motley Crue)

Part of the Machine (Jethro Tull)

Murder By Numbers (Police)

Disc Two

Welcome to the Jungle (Guns & Roses)

Poison (Alice Cooper)

Stand To Deliver (Adam & the Ants)

Eighteen and Life to Go (Skid Row)

Harvester of Sorrow (Metallica)

The Bug (Dire Straits)

Beer Nuts (Dr. Demtnto hit) (Kip Adatta)

You’re Bringing On the Heartaches (Def Leport)

Everything is Broken (Bob Dylan)

Cockamamie Business (George Harrison)

She Blinded Me With Science (Unknown Artist)

Bad Love (Eric Claptin)

Keep On Rocking in the Free World (Neil Young)

Pain Killer (Judas Priest)