a little history. in 1982, 85 & 91 i was invited by different universities & associations to give readings in those united states. to say i was ambivalent is to understate my position, luckily in each instance the embassies refused me entry. the last telling me that i need not try again - i would be refused entry until hell freezes over? unwittingly, the state department has resolved my ambivalence
i have always been curious - about the way, which particular part of my archeology disturbed them, whether it was the righteous acts i performed for the vietnamese in america & australia's illegal war. whether there were acts in my almost prepubescent militantism that caused more damage than i presumed they had, whether it was my mouth & the things it has constantly said, openly & within all & every public forum
perhaps it was more simple, the state department did not like my poetry
what their refusal has not done is to limit the contacts & connections i have had with progressives in the belly of the beast since the late 60"s. i make them still
when i call billy 'che brooks my brother, i mean it, in every sense, though billy i s not much older than i, i regarded him, fred hampton, bunchy carter, john huggins geronimo pratt (as he was known then) as older brothers, wiser brothers - when i was that young they were being murdered in cold blood, no one, no one in the western world & that includes the ultraleftists of europe - were facing such a campaign of murder against them. only the i r a, with england"s 'shoot-to-kill' policy was facing anything like the heat of battle that the panthers experienced
it was easy to regard these men as my older brothers, because even frail they offered wisdom about the possible, they proved that empire that thought itself indestructible, was destructible. the panthers proved beyond any question at all, the moral poverty that was central to the imperial project.
they proved that the empire would become more, not less murderous & that has been the overwhelming reality of the oppressed of this world. in latin & central america, in africa & especially in the middle east, what the war criminal, john negroponte would call, 'the salvador option' (which was in fact an adaption of the extrajudicial killing actions of the 'phoenix program' in vietnam) was to be the modus operandi. common murder. the use of the drone is merely an extension of that murder
that murder has a clear model, both as a killing machine & as a form of jurisprudence. reinhard heydrich's ru h s a & the mobile einsatzgruppen killing cadre. the model is so clear & the parallels so clear & exacting. exactly the same types of people with the same deranged version of themselves & the 'other'. otto ohlendorf is so much like david addington or john woo, it is chilling
but in belarus, the einsatzgruppen met their match, in the bielski brothers & their partisan group of self defense. they did not take shit from anyone, anyone at all & those who would wish them harm often came to harm themselves
that was what i saw in billy, in fred, in bunchy, the refusal to take shit from anyone, at anytime
it remains, what the americans would call, a life lesson
today
tomorrow
from this breath to the next
c b juillet 2013
i have always been curious - about the way, which particular part of my archeology disturbed them, whether it was the righteous acts i performed for the vietnamese in america & australia's illegal war. whether there were acts in my almost prepubescent militantism that caused more damage than i presumed they had, whether it was my mouth & the things it has constantly said, openly & within all & every public forum
perhaps it was more simple, the state department did not like my poetry
what their refusal has not done is to limit the contacts & connections i have had with progressives in the belly of the beast since the late 60"s. i make them still
when i call billy 'che brooks my brother, i mean it, in every sense, though billy i s not much older than i, i regarded him, fred hampton, bunchy carter, john huggins geronimo pratt (as he was known then) as older brothers, wiser brothers - when i was that young they were being murdered in cold blood, no one, no one in the western world & that includes the ultraleftists of europe - were facing such a campaign of murder against them. only the i r a, with england"s 'shoot-to-kill' policy was facing anything like the heat of battle that the panthers experienced
it was easy to regard these men as my older brothers, because even frail they offered wisdom about the possible, they proved that empire that thought itself indestructible, was destructible. the panthers proved beyond any question at all, the moral poverty that was central to the imperial project.
they proved that the empire would become more, not less murderous & that has been the overwhelming reality of the oppressed of this world. in latin & central america, in africa & especially in the middle east, what the war criminal, john negroponte would call, 'the salvador option' (which was in fact an adaption of the extrajudicial killing actions of the 'phoenix program' in vietnam) was to be the modus operandi. common murder. the use of the drone is merely an extension of that murder
that murder has a clear model, both as a killing machine & as a form of jurisprudence. reinhard heydrich's ru h s a & the mobile einsatzgruppen killing cadre. the model is so clear & the parallels so clear & exacting. exactly the same types of people with the same deranged version of themselves & the 'other'. otto ohlendorf is so much like david addington or john woo, it is chilling
but in belarus, the einsatzgruppen met their match, in the bielski brothers & their partisan group of self defense. they did not take shit from anyone, anyone at all & those who would wish them harm often came to harm themselves
that was what i saw in billy, in fred, in bunchy, the refusal to take shit from anyone, at anytime
it remains, what the americans would call, a life lesson
today
tomorrow
from this breath to the next
c b juillet 2013