Time
To Mount Up And Ride
By
Vincent L. Guarisco
02 December,
2007
Countercurrents.org
'Drag
your tongue across the sugar cube and hope you get a taste. It’s
like smelling the food but you're not allowed to touch the silverware.
Fascism you can vote for, how sweet.' ~’Omegg.’ Just
a small entertaining taste of poetry with a twist, from the rock band
‘Stoned Sour.' (a great rant when heard in its entirety)
Dear citizens of a crumbling
nation, have you even noticed our country is being demolished all around
us? Haven’t you noticed the pillars shaking, the foundation cracking,
and debris falling everywhere? I certainly hope so, because the Bush
administration’s wrecking ball hasn’t quite finished swinging
yet, so keep your equilibrium stable and your stand-post securely firm,
because before it's over, there may not be much of anything left standing,
or worth saving, and I don’t want to lose you.
What a waste!
It really hasn’t required much effort to see what the hell has
been happening here. It’s been getting steadily worse every day,
for a very long time. All that was ever needed to see it daily was a
simple common-sense compass pointed in any direction. Had we not been
asleep, we could have easily prevented the carnage in every sector.
But since we gullibly continue to believe the lying corporate news media
blowhards about how damn great everything is, and since we put our trust
in leaders who repeatedly lie with every word they utter, we now find
ourselves in a bloody OZ wonderland -- a screwed-up place where everyone
considers all Americans fair game at home and abroad. So hunker down,
my tar-and-feathered friends, hunting season is in full swing, and we’re
headed for the endangered species list. That’s right sleepyhead,
we’re a perishable item confined within the construct of our own
self-destructive borders.
And since
so few of us now hold the key to what little flicker of hope remains,
I ask you this – do you know what your post entails? Well, do
you? Do you 'serve a purpose,' or just 'purposely serve'? Our fate,
our future (if there is one), depends on how we answer and what we do
today. We need to get off our asses and get busy!
After years
of having my sensory modem continually assaulted from every direction
and, with the future not looking too bright these days, sometimes I
find strength and courage by searching the past for helpful solutions
on how to inspire myself and others. Knowing the heavy burden we all
must bear, I can honestly say with no disillusionments, 'I know what
my post entails.' My purpose is to assist others, when possible, to
help them find their weary way in order to solidify a combined awareness
to birth a unified force to extend peace and justice with real checks
and balances for a more deserving journey in life.
True patriotism
is an on-demand wildcard that needs to be played from time to time.
We have a solemn constitutional responsibility as American citizens
to serve, protect and safeguard this great nation from all enemies foreign
and domestic. America is NOT a squatter's patch for lazy, brain-dead
do-nothing zombies to sit on their asses while everything falls apart
around them. Aside from improving our daily life, our obligation includes
removing any and all crazy tyrants residing at the White House, as well
as those spineless rubber-stamping idiots that foul the very air they
breathe in both Houses of Congress.
I am invoking
an age old citizen call-to-action. Consider yourselves drafted modern-day
minutemen, obligated to awaken the masses for battle to fight the true
monster at bay, the enemy within. Welcome aboard brothers and sisters,
let's give the devil his due...
We've done
it before, and we can do it again. Just remember the good ol` 60's hippie
days. An exciting LSD era when the youth of this nation popped its cork
in front of Richard Nixon and God, and actually did something positive
to change our wicked ways. A better day existed when groovey strands
of long hair served as some sort of crazy miracle potion empowering
the strength of men. The longer it grew, the more you became a freak-flag
Samsonite. We belonged to a kind of 'hip' Lord of the Rings fellowship
that saved the day -- at least for a while -- and everyone knew without
question what their post entailed.
And all the
other colorful mojos didn’t hurt the process either -- bell-bottom
pants, psychedelic shirts, Mexican serapes, Navajo headbands, luminous
body paints, mini-skirts, love-beads, love making, wake-up bells, feathers
forever in all shapes and colors and flowered friendliness that definitely
changed the way the whole world thought about teenagers. A thrilling
time when virtually everyone seemed to find their own voice. Gee, I
sure miss the good ol' days...
Many people
have different ideas of how hippies came to be. It was a serious counterculture
party-wave that swept America off its feet as the largest generation
of young people were coming of age. Mostly from middle and upper class,
they came from everywhere with a well-deserved sense of dignity and
self-respect for what they believed in. They valued peace, love, and
personal freedom in a way that reached far beyond the confines of establishment
rules.
Ah, 1967
-- the summer of love, a culture extravaganza overflowing with honorable
people who felt the world should live as one in peace and harmony. It
was a compassionate calling for all segments of our society to come
together as one to resist and prevent the cycle of war, violence and
modern day slavery . However, as history has proven time and again,
nothing is ever earned or given without its fair share of blood, sweat
and tears with a lot of hard sacrifice. And the sixties movement was
no different in terms of 'paying its dues.'
Berkeley University is only one example of some of the most violent
student protests that happened during the Vietnam War. And the uproar
was not limited to just ending the war. The middle finger was directly
pointed towards University administrations as well, for a variety of
legitimate reasons. The Berkeley Free Speech Movement resulted in many
arrests in its struggle. In fact, it had the largest number of student
arrests in United States history. Like an army of hungry vultures, 700
angry policemen wielding clubs and spraying mace descended on the University
during a peaceful day of protest and instigated a full-blown riot, assaulting
dissenters (and news anchors) whose only crime was simply exercising
their constitutional right to peaceably dissent in a public forum. Many
were beaten unconscious in this shameless display of unnecessary violence.
Only one day of many to remember in our nation's history.
Sometimes,
I can still hear the echo of the words afterwards. Don Brice, President
of The News Director Association, rightly accused the Oakland police
of being the real culprits who started the riot on purpose. In response
to Brice, actor/Governor Ronald Reagan said, 'The work of the Oakland
Police Department was in the finest tradition of California’s
law enforcement agencies. The officers displayed exceptional ability
and great professional skill. The taking of alleged grievances to the
streets cannot and will not be tolerated.' To this day, It’s still
hard to imagine Reagan later became President.
The Vietnam
War was protested throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s. Protests,
rallies and demonstrations occurred across the nation and covered many
different social issues -- civil rights, women’s rights, etc.
All of this happened in the midst of the harsh reality that any day
we could all be drafted into a war we venomously opposed. It was a time
mixed with fear as well as culture and social change that shocked the
world.
We are now
at yet another defining moment in our nation's history -- moments such
as the Vietnam War, Cuban Missile Crisis, TET offensive, the fall of
both the Berlin Wall and of Saigon, Watts Riots, Berkley Free Speech
Movement, Women’s Liberation Movement, Black Panthers, presidential
assassinations, Civil Rights killings, Apollo Space Missions, Mickey
Mantle, Woodstock, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix, The Doors,
The Rolling Stones, Zippo lighters, Zig Zag rolling papers, Black Light
Posters, High Times magazine, Cheech and Chong, Hippies, fashion lords,
culture shocks, art -- you name it, you got it! The 'be here now' generation
filled America's ocean to its absolute brim...and rocked the planet.
In fact, if you look real close, you can still see the Watermark left
on the Crest from an everlasting journey. Whew...WHAT A FREAKIN RIDE!
Okay, my
wise old gray haired friends, I know it’s a little hard to recapture
that same nostalgic spark with just a quant 60's butterfly kiss, but
the next time you go to shave your head (the new style these days),
you may want to throw on John Lennon's old album 'Imagine' for inspiration.
It's better then doing nothing while waiting for a cup of porridge with
ankle irons strapped on at a FEMA camp.
Please tell
me the hopes of yesterday have not all gone up in smoke. Take notice
old flowered ones, the times are a'changing, and for the worse. Our
nation needs us, and our reputation at home and around the globe is
as dry as dry can get. So either get with the program and find your
patriotic post, or punch me in the dead-spot until I die. Because I
refuse to sit idly by and do nothing while waiting to get rounded up
as an 'enemy combatant' by jack-booted Blackwater mercenaries and have
a microchip shoved up my ass. So...Lose the kick-stand and Reeve-up
the motors, It’s time to mount up and ride...
Vincent
L. Guarisco is a freelance writer from Bullhead City AZ., a
contributing writer for many web sites, and a lifetime member of the
Alliance of Atomic Veterans. Reprint permission is given as long as
article content is not altered or changed and credit is given to the
author. Replies welcomed at: [email protected]
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