I have read them all before so a lot of what I find interesting is the social commentary and the comparison between now and 1965-1979.
I really had forgotten the utter BS that was the 1970's.
Pretty much the same as now. I find it pretty amusing that "kids today" make fun of the "Boomers" as they are exactly the same as sanctimonious and pretentious morons as their grandparents.
I also find it interesting to see that the propaganda/cynical manipulation of disadvantaged people by the educated elite of the 1970's is now accepted as gospel truth today.
I suspect that actually reason MLK was knocked off is the same reason Bill Cosby got his kink exposed, they opposed the institutional victimization of black people. You must have class conflict to further the revolution.
I understand systemic racism a lot better now that I spent a winter stripping hemp with poor white folk. It is pretty simple.
If you are white and your parents get caught up in drugs, crime, if you have a single parent and live near the poverty level, it is really hard to move up. If you don't do well in school and you don't have parents to force you to study, get a job, learn self discipline, and your influences/roll models glorify your failure, you will end up 34 years old with a face tattoo, riding a BMX bicycle because you never got around to paying off your traffic tickets, you are going to get profiled and harassed by the cops.
I see those people every day...
I get profiled myself. In my life of driving crappy cars I've found that looking a certain what and driving a certain car will guarantee that I will have a broken license plate light and I will get pulled over. It is almost amusing to see the cop's expression change when he discovers he has stopped a grumpy old farmer with a car he bought at an auction and not a potential meth dealer.
Of course I've had to be more careful now that I'm carrying around felon possession amounts of hemp. (I can prove it is not weed. I carry the test in the car with me)
I find it amazing that in the 1970's activists laughed about changing the interpretation of statistics showing black people commit more crimes per capita to the interpretation that black people are targeted solely because of their skin color.
Of course the problem is that white liberals are idiots.
I see it at work and the way my college treats students. There is no challenge to be excellent. Everyone is defined by their victim status. Work study students are not challenged to work, we are just their low paid babysitters.
It is really pretty depressing.
In other news, I'm thinking of becoming a labor activist.
I do hate progressive politics and unions in general but our new president is determined to screw us.
He loves slogans.
He thinks he is a man of the people and his favorite jingoistic slogan is "one (insert name of our third rate college here)."
Our college is a very hierarchal benevolent dictatorship sort of bureaucracy. Back when the college was actually relevant to the local community we had a lady president who saw the college community as family. I was talking to a long term security person at the college the other day. He was telling me how the president used to walk with him and talk to him when he was doing his rounds at 4 a.m. He laughed when I asked him if the new president hung out with him.
We have a couple employee associations. There is an association for for hourly employees which I am a board member. This association has a contract with the college. We provide representation if you are called into HR or if you have to meet with a supervisor. We have an agreement which spells out our rights and benefits.
The administration of the college really hates this. They continually try to redefine our agreement and it always results in an interpretation which devalues us.
They really hate our free tuition benefit. It used to be that if you worked at the school for over 5 years your dependents could get free tuition even if you quit. Also, there were summer school tuition benefits. The leadership thinks that this costs the school money. The school is begging students to attend. We have a 95% acceptance rate. I doubt they even check your heart beat. Although, if you are the child of an employee they are not real excited to have you as you are getting something for nothing. This pretty much sums up the attitude of the college HR department and the long time department heads and supervisors. Employees are there to collect the (formerly) amazing benefits and do a moderate amount of work for not very much pay.
We are expecting an announcement at our next meeting.
I'm researching how to organize a real union. I'm not going to join it. I just want to irritate the people power.
I'm especially irritated with he president who pretended care about us working class stiffs but really is just using his position to hang out with celebrities.
Ah, the undeniable virtue of the oppressed...
In other news...
It is a rainy Sunday and I'm trying to come up with a more concentrated hemp tonic. A former Workstudy student came to see me yesterday. She is now a physical therapist and was quite excited about the benefits of topical CBD applications.
I've found that just soaking the shake/trim in Everclear gives mixed results. I have some concentrated crude which I was trying to infuse with alcohol to boost my leaf based tonic.
My daughter wanted to listen to records so I put on Tom Waits, Night Hawks at the Diner, followed by Tom Petty, "Southern Accents," Now we are on MC-5 "Kick out the Jams."
Haven't heard much from her.
MC5 does "Back in the USA."
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