Thursday, October 20, 2011

Report From the Right Front

Report From the Right Front


I will be the first to point out, right now here in this forum, that I have a Texas-sized ego. I think I'm a reasonably smart guy, and not unlike any writer, that I have some things to say that are so danged important that I'm gonna say them. I'll also point out that some others in the conversation, possibly including you, gentle reader, have the same handicap. The entire discussion ought to be undertaken with a salt shaker within easy reach 'cause everything anyone has to say ought to be taken with a liberal helping.

This post is an attempt to unravel a bit of a Gordian knot that has tied itself around the politics of "Occupy" movements around the world, and particularly here in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.A., without hacking at it with f-bombs directed at the many possessors of equally large egos as mine, while openly acknowledging strong disagreements between some  of us. Believe me, this is a difficult bit of unraveling and though I mean to avoid ad hominem attacks, I'll not promise to eschew strong language. It's also a bit of a news update, straight from the horse's ass, so to speak. Sorry if it runs long or gets complicated; it's a big hairy knot.

I am the guy that picked up the first no-camping ordinance violation in the city of Colorado Springs. I did this while participating in protests falling under the ill-defined aegis of a group called "Occupy Colorado Springs," in solidarity with another ill-defined group called "Occupy Wall Street," and other Occupiers all over the world. In case it's unclear: there's no such thing as Occupy Colorado Springs, (OCS). What happened is a few guys, boldly named at the top of the eponymous Facebook page like John Hancock at the bottom of that one famous page, finally got bent enough out of shape to do something about it so they set up a page, and a small camp down at Bijou and Tejon--Acacia Park. They were behind the Wall Street guys and liking what they were about, I came behind them.

There is no club membership, no charter, no bylaws, no nothing to define the Colorado Springs group that might in any way be construed to suggest the thing we are doing at Acacia Park is anything other than a gathering of a bunch of fully leaderless sovereign individuals that happen to share a common distaste at the state of human affairs extant in the world today. Anyone who has known me for any length of time, or has read any of the pages preceding this post will know that this is nothing new for me. I was and remain ecstatic at the development of public expression, both here and globally. I am a free actor in the business of protesting in general, and that involving the city's no-camping ordinance in particular. I act as a sovereign, as a member of OCS whatever that means, as a citizen of the U.S.A., as a citizen of the World--a member of the human race, possessor of certain unalienable rights, whether those derive from God or not.

I decided to deliberately violate the city ordinance because I believe it exemplifies an aspect of the overall erosion of human rights here and across the globe that has precipitated such widespread uproar. I believe it directly attacks individuals' right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that it is both superfluous and fully unnecessary. It's just a mean-spirited dig at the weakest among us, a tactic akin to schoolyard bullying, which I maintain is motivated by the same spirit that allows the holders of power at the Federal Reserve and other powerful international and national bodies to gleefully grind the majority of the world's citizenry to dust for no more than sport. I meant all along from well before the advent of any Occupations to have this conversation at a level previously unattainable to me, and now we will--that is, I and whomever cares to jump in during the proceedings. I control only my own actions and expressions.

There are some protesters at Acacia Park that have strenuously objected to my camping as I did. They are pleased to maintain the fine relationship with the CSPD and with the Mayor's office that has developed, and happy to have avoided the head-bashing, tear-gassing removals that have troubled some other Occupy outposts. Fearing a narrowing of focus from the general Occupy platforms, they asked me, and truly in some instances pleaded with me to abandon my course. Some attempted to tell me. They are happy to compromise, capitulate, appease, to utilize terms previously utilized by those members opposed to my individual action. I am not. I promise, I love every one of the crazy fools involved with the action at our little street corner whether we agree on this matter or not. I'll mention this one more time: I am just one dude. Anyone that agrees with me here is also behaving of his or her own accord.

Our Mayor Bach is an asshole. I promised to avoid ad hominem here, and I'll point out that this is not an attack but an observation, and only my opinion. Publicly, falsely, and slanderously maligning the very civilized protesters of OCS for urinating on sidewalks while simultaneously locking park rest rooms which had previously been available to all manner of dope-shooting freaks, and possibly authorizing the operation of park sprinkler systems to douse protesters in below freezing temperatures are asshole moves. In my opinion. Mayor Bach is in error, but he's only acting as seems best to him in each moment, now also capitulating, and allowing protesters a right to their freedom of speech. Ahem.

We already have a freedom to speak in our country. My violation of the camping ordinance addresses a deeper, more fundamental set of freedoms mentioned so briefly in Mr. Jefferson's Declaration, and to be found in all the keening of literature throughout all of history--blowin' in the wind, one might say. This is not a narrowing of focus, but rather a telescopic lens by which I hope we can examine questions of such grand scale and difficulty that centuries after a bunch of homeless guys floated across the Atlantic to Plymouth, we still haven't grasped them. Failing to address the camping ordinance presenting itself so conveniently will flippantly sidestep the most essential key to all of this whole set of global protesting. We've all seen protesters on the street corner a million times. We've always compromised. It's never worked.

Anecdotally speaking, it appears the major objection raised by detractors of the Occupy movement is that there has been no firm expression of goals, manifestos, or demands. It seems to me that this is the natural outcome of the complexity of the problems at hand. Although there are certainly individuals involved in skulduggery at, say, the FED, my view is that we face the necessity to alter a fundamental flaw in our very basis for human interaction. I'll leave you to read my thoughts on that elsewhere in this blog, if you desire, both previous to this post and to come. Right now the Occupy movement is just an acknowledgement of discomfort with the extraordinarily stubborn status quo across all political and national lines, and a frame-work within which discussion may take place. Planning and legal definitions will have to wait for some 7 billion Occupiers to chime in. The difficulty of hashing out the minor disagreements among players here in Colorado Springs may be an indication of how much work is involved with the big picture. Be patient. Unless you like the status quo. Most of us don't.

For anyone out of the loop, including friends across the U.S. and abroad, here's a bit of fact: I was arrested 18 October, around 2am MST for deliberately violating a city no-camping ordinance. The arrest was executed by my friends, the extra-fine members of the "HOT" team of the CSPD, as we had previously discussed, (those guys are just as much in jeopardy from "Wall Street" as any of us; they are our recalcitrant brothers). I was simply driven, sans violence of any kind, or even cuffs or hard feelings, to the Gold Hills police station. We did a little paperwork and the fellas drove me to a friend's place where I claimed a bit of much-needed rest. The HOT team and I were completely cooperative with one another, and remain so. They did their jobs, I did mine. I had to wrestle with the question until some family matters came up, but I will not be camping under that no-camping sign again until at least my court date, 8 Nov at 1:30p MST. I can not, nor will I attempt to speak to the actions of any other sovereign actors who may follow my example, other than to toss out my opinion should it seem germane to me.

I hope we can all have this conversation in a civilized manner. I hope the whole world shows up at the courthouse that day. I hope all my friends known and unknown that can't make it will pray, or chant, or beam love on fairy wings--whatever their fancy. I'm gonna need it. I think we all need it, that day and every other.

City code: http://www.sterlingcodifiers.com/codebook/getBookData.php?section_id=599652&keywords=camping
Previous entries specific to homelessness and the ordinance:
http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2010/04/so-colorado-springs-is-unusual-place-it.html
 http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2011/09/holmes-sweet-holmes.html http://hipgnosis21.blogspot.com/2011/10/to-be-or-to-be-somewhere-else.html

2 comments:

  1. Hey Steve! Great article. I agree with you completely about the insincere nature of the poor and homeless in our country. They are the "swept under" the rugs of our Generation and Nation. The fundamental right to life is one that should not be trumped by city ordinances that only serve to imprison those hardest pressed by the economic gap. As the top 1% have lived, the bottom 1% have died. When 12% of the US population experiences homelessness during the year, there's a serious problem. 1 in 10 and rising - 40% are families. Yet you'd be hard pressed to hear it in the media. Let's keep shopping and not act like we know someone who knows someone who is without a place to live. America is quickly becoming a second class country and the media won't even talk about the reality of where this train is heading. Soon, that ordinance will HAVE to change; either at your day in court or in the streets.

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  2. Thanks, Mark! 12%!!? Holy mackerel! Where did you get that stat? I've been plenty busy with the business at hand, but trust me, the camping thing being only one head of the Hydra i'll be getting around to cannabis as a topic soon enough.... And, btw, i'll appeal this all the way to D.C. is it's necessary and allowed by the Universe in which We live!

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