HOW TO BE A PROLETARIAT
WHAT A COUNTRY
I was walking pretty well, then I fell into a hole,
I should climb out quick, but I hate doing what I'm told…
—Warren Zevon
I was bedridden in March and missed a week of work which put me in arrears. The first three months of this motherfucker had taken their toll. I’d been in denial of just how savage “The America” is until I was without defense—dripping sweat, with a convulsing cough and unable to sleep or eat but shitting all the time. And as any working person in this country knows, a missed week of work can mean months of catching up.
I let my car insurance lapse and rescheduled a medical procedure I wasn’t going to afford anyway. I didn’t pay my phone bill. Worst of all was suffering the doughy face of Adam Schiff on TikTok, the performative politics of Cory Booker and alternative media lapdogging these legislators by their anteroom doors.
I started this column to come up with a plan of action, to find for practical solutions that can be done everyday, and to commend and connect us to the proud work of our Brothers and Sisters in the fight. I vowed that my output would be lean and in service to the new new media but the news got me sick and American media filled me with rage. While convalescent, I didn’t have a choice but to examine my media diet and assess how short I’ve fallen of my activist goals.
This engagement gap signals how urgently journalism must evolve.
—Marlon A. Walker, Managing Editor, The Marshall Project
It’s dawn now. I’m writing this in my underwear. I threw out my vapes and I’m drinking drug-store coffee. I’ve less than an eighth of a tank of gas in my car. I don’t expect anyone to sympathize with my freelancer’s blues or the life I chose. But, if it’s getting hard and harder for me to make it, what’s going to happen to the people who never could?
Ask Chris Hedges and it all comes down to dignity. As any samurai knows we’ve all gotta chop wood and carry water, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy, for someone like me, who’d rather connect a fist to soft cartilage than be patient and kind.
The idea is to exhaust every lawful avenue we can, keep the struggle non-violent until we can’t, and in the meantime keep our health and admit when we’re struggling. So I guess that’s what this self-indulgent column is. Or else the begrudging admission that I’m not a revolutionary.
IN THE CITY IS A MONTHLY NEWS AND INFORMATION PROGRAM ATTESTING THAT IF THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE ON THE STREET AIN’T THE TRUTH, IT’LL DO UNTIL THE TRUTH GETS HERE. THIS MONDAY ON KOOP RADIO.
The truth hurts but it beats living a lie. As mentioned, it comes down to dignity. Like most people I’ve resigned to work for a living and by living I mean have enough time after work to actually live but it’s getting hard and harder to make it here.
It was hard convalescing while captive to a jerk-and-jive media and beholden to the look-at-me circus of politicians and newscasters. It’s been hard bandying these bombs of anger I’ve strategically placed in my mind, hard biding my time and singing my Joe Stack Blues in a rented room and hard to get out of bed or do anything besides roll over, pull up the covers and not-so-meekly demure “Wake me up when heads start to roll.”
"I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn't so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer."—Joseph Stack III
Hang in there, friend! I still keep hope that there's a peaceful way out of this time. But either way, we need to take care of ourselves and our loved ones, be they friends, family, or members of our community, as best we can. It might seem naïve, but I am an obsessive sayer of prayers. One could argue this is a meaningless act. Still, do we really know what would happen if each one of us radiated loving kindness on a daily basis? I believe that there are more good people than bad. The problem is that good people generally don't seek power. But if it comes to a battle, the numbers are on our side. Sending love and healing your way!