The Place To Display My Work ...MAKE NO MISTAKE ...IT'S ALL ABOUT MEN. ADULTS ONLY, PLEASE. If You Really Don't Like Men, Or Photographs Of Them, PLEASE Don't Come In. In fact, if you really don't like men, then you probably shouldn't even have come this far.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Hmmm.....
I have not the usual schedule ... I work on Saturday and sometimes nine or twelve days in a row. So I socialize at odd times. On my way home in the middle of the night, I sometimes encounter the unusual: opossums in the city, cardboard boxes that snore, the latest shipment of the next at Old Navy, the occasional taxi smashed into the corner of the Nordstrom building ... a huge naked man standing motionless in the rain ... or a half-dozen patrol cars sent in to 'control the potentially volatile situation' of a single inebriated indigent.
Out Of The Frying Pan ...
I originally posted this on my tumblr blog last week:
If the rest of the world has been paying attention, they know that the past year has raised some serious questions about the Seattle[WA] Police Department. There have been numerous incidents between the police and the so-called "undesirable elements" of society at large. People[civilians] have been punched in the face[Let me go on record as saying that the 'girl' in the face punching incident was actually a rather large individual approaching six feet tall and threw the first punch, however the officer over reacted.], kicked, shot and killed, one man had his face stepped on while being called a "Fucking Mexican" and another recently had his face skidded across the sidewalk. Most all of these incidents seemed to involve people of color.
At the same time. there have been numerous attacks aimed[by civilians of all ethnic backgrounds] at members of the Seattle Police and indeed police officers throughout the State of Washington that have resulted in many serious injuries and several untimely deaths. This place is becoming quite the War Zone.
February 17, 2011, a Seattle Police officer, who was involved in the fatal shooting of a Native American woodcarver, tendered his resignation in the wake the aftershock of the 'Not Guilty of Any Wrongdoing' verdict handed down in the trial following the incident. There was also a great public demonstration in response to this news. February 18, 2011, on the way home to my downtown apartment, I encountered another public demonstration in the streets of Downtown Seattle. And things were starting to get unpleasant. If, on February 19, 2011 there is another loud, volatile public outcry, this will not be good.
The thing that bothers me is the potential for abuse of this situation by isolated groups of people in both camps. Add to this the very real spectre of anarchy. We have seen this before. When the WTO talks came to Seattle the peaceful protesters and the vocal protesters were joined by masked individuals whose only interest in the situation was to Ignite Chaos. Similar groups[dressed the same with their faces covered] appeared in other cities as well. Some years earlier, during the Rodney King Circus, the presence of individuals whose only interest was mayhem was clearly apparent to this observer.
No mistake should be made; The killing of an individual whose only real crime was to adhere to an Ancient Way Of Life and in so doing put himself at odds with the homogenized norm is not something to be regarded lightly. Citizens Have The Right To Peaceful Public Assembly And Dissent. Upsetting the Status Quo is not in and of itself Inherently Evil. Inciting Chaos, Mayhem And Violence For The Sake Of Chaos, Mayhem And Violence Will In No Way Move Us As A Whole Toward Any Sort Of Enlightenment.
If the rest of the world has been paying attention, they know that the past year has raised some serious questions about the Seattle[WA] Police Department. There have been numerous incidents between the police and the so-called "undesirable elements" of society at large. People[civilians] have been punched in the face[Let me go on record as saying that the 'girl' in the face punching incident was actually a rather large individual approaching six feet tall and threw the first punch, however the officer over reacted.], kicked, shot and killed, one man had his face stepped on while being called a "Fucking Mexican" and another recently had his face skidded across the sidewalk. Most all of these incidents seemed to involve people of color.
At the same time. there have been numerous attacks aimed[by civilians of all ethnic backgrounds] at members of the Seattle Police and indeed police officers throughout the State of Washington that have resulted in many serious injuries and several untimely deaths. This place is becoming quite the War Zone.
February 17, 2011, a Seattle Police officer, who was involved in the fatal shooting of a Native American woodcarver, tendered his resignation in the wake the aftershock of the 'Not Guilty of Any Wrongdoing' verdict handed down in the trial following the incident. There was also a great public demonstration in response to this news. February 18, 2011, on the way home to my downtown apartment, I encountered another public demonstration in the streets of Downtown Seattle. And things were starting to get unpleasant. If, on February 19, 2011 there is another loud, volatile public outcry, this will not be good.
The thing that bothers me is the potential for abuse of this situation by isolated groups of people in both camps. Add to this the very real spectre of anarchy. We have seen this before. When the WTO talks came to Seattle the peaceful protesters and the vocal protesters were joined by masked individuals whose only interest in the situation was to Ignite Chaos. Similar groups[dressed the same with their faces covered] appeared in other cities as well. Some years earlier, during the Rodney King Circus, the presence of individuals whose only interest was mayhem was clearly apparent to this observer.
No mistake should be made; The killing of an individual whose only real crime was to adhere to an Ancient Way Of Life and in so doing put himself at odds with the homogenized norm is not something to be regarded lightly. Citizens Have The Right To Peaceful Public Assembly And Dissent. Upsetting the Status Quo is not in and of itself Inherently Evil. Inciting Chaos, Mayhem And Violence For The Sake Of Chaos, Mayhem And Violence Will In No Way Move Us As A Whole Toward Any Sort Of Enlightenment.
I Am Just Sayin'
I've been noticing a few things, lately. I've never really been one to run around frantically waving the racism flag, but now that more and more Caucasians are being stopped at border crossings, pulled out of the line at airports and subjected to pat-down searches, there's been a great public outcry about civil rights and where is the line between security and invasion of privacy and what about personal space and.....
In December 1998, a time of a much stronger dollar, a group of friends and I were getting together for a New Year's Eve party in Vancouver, B.C. There were about fifteen or twenty of us total leaving from Seattle at various times in about five or six vehicles. It was about to be 1999 and we were about to party like it was. We weren't the only ones with this idea: the border was packed. It took maybe three hours once we got to the Peace Arch to actually reach the border. And this is where the show began.
In crossing the border, your progress slows immensely when you approach the actual checkpoint. There's almost nothing to do but watch those in front of you. So, you sit there and watch car after car inch forward, stop for a few moments and a chat with a border guard and then continue on their way. Except for a few. Out of the five-hundred or so cars that were clogging the gates, I saw[or noticed] four vehicles directed out of the line and searched. There was a car full of young Asian girls, a couple of olive complected young men in a sporty little two seater, some other car that at this point [some thirteen years hence] my memory fails to recall, and our car[an older VW mini station wagon with oxidized white]which was populated by myself[the black man], my friend Simon[the driver with the ponytail and slightly Asian features] and my other friend John[the hairdresser with the ring in his eyebrow].
In October 2005, myself and three other fellow employees flew to Spokane, Washington where we were to rent two trucks and drive to Bozeman, Montana to pick up a warehouse full of furniture and that which occupied the attached showroom and bring this back to Seattle. SeaTac International Airport found the four of us obviously unrelated men with one way tickets and carry on luggage[Gary; the large, Germanic bear, Chris; the large Celtic man, Phillip; the tall, lanky Pole and Me, The Black Man] separated from the queue, instructed to remove our shoes and subjected to the 'Wand Search'.
There were obvious legitimate reasons for these inspections and I fully expected such scrutiny. However, at the time, there was also the feeling that these incidents would not have occurred had I not been a member of either of these groups. My traveling companions agreed. We also pretty much agreed that this was status quo.
Over the past thirty years or so I, and people like me, have gotten used to being shadowed by department store detectives, being approached by security when someone else set off a store alarm through ignorance or arrogance, watching people run back to check their car doors as we walked through our own neighborhoods while heading back from the grocery and being the first to have their ID checked even though we're more than twice the legal drinking age.
Only now that everyone is being checked, the world is beginning to cry "Foul!"
In December 1998, a time of a much stronger dollar, a group of friends and I were getting together for a New Year's Eve party in Vancouver, B.C. There were about fifteen or twenty of us total leaving from Seattle at various times in about five or six vehicles. It was about to be 1999 and we were about to party like it was. We weren't the only ones with this idea: the border was packed. It took maybe three hours once we got to the Peace Arch to actually reach the border. And this is where the show began.
In crossing the border, your progress slows immensely when you approach the actual checkpoint. There's almost nothing to do but watch those in front of you. So, you sit there and watch car after car inch forward, stop for a few moments and a chat with a border guard and then continue on their way. Except for a few. Out of the five-hundred or so cars that were clogging the gates, I saw[or noticed] four vehicles directed out of the line and searched. There was a car full of young Asian girls, a couple of olive complected young men in a sporty little two seater, some other car that at this point [some thirteen years hence] my memory fails to recall, and our car[an older VW mini station wagon with oxidized white]which was populated by myself[the black man], my friend Simon[the driver with the ponytail and slightly Asian features] and my other friend John[the hairdresser with the ring in his eyebrow].
In October 2005, myself and three other fellow employees flew to Spokane, Washington where we were to rent two trucks and drive to Bozeman, Montana to pick up a warehouse full of furniture and that which occupied the attached showroom and bring this back to Seattle. SeaTac International Airport found the four of us obviously unrelated men with one way tickets and carry on luggage[Gary; the large, Germanic bear, Chris; the large Celtic man, Phillip; the tall, lanky Pole and Me, The Black Man] separated from the queue, instructed to remove our shoes and subjected to the 'Wand Search'.
There were obvious legitimate reasons for these inspections and I fully expected such scrutiny. However, at the time, there was also the feeling that these incidents would not have occurred had I not been a member of either of these groups. My traveling companions agreed. We also pretty much agreed that this was status quo.
Over the past thirty years or so I, and people like me, have gotten used to being shadowed by department store detectives, being approached by security when someone else set off a store alarm through ignorance or arrogance, watching people run back to check their car doors as we walked through our own neighborhoods while heading back from the grocery and being the first to have their ID checked even though we're more than twice the legal drinking age.
Only now that everyone is being checked, the world is beginning to cry "Foul!"
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