Well, some glasses are half full and others are half empty, I guess.
From where I sit, and am active, I see a glass that doesn't know which to be.
Lots of bad national and international news.
Yet there is a lot of grass roots activity and organizing going on around here, and in New York and Newark too. A slow building of forces, no way to be sure how it will play out.
One gauge will be May 1. I do not expect it to be a general strike in any weighty sense of the term, though it may be sizable in a few places--and if it is, that could change a lot of momentum. My guess is that it will be a bunch of modest sized local events. I know a fair number of people around here who plan to go to NYC for the day. No telling how many will be there.
And meanwhile, the organizing goes on. Relatively few paid organizers of the kind Hunter had the good fortune to be for a fair number of years, but lots of part time volunteer organizing and just plain old indigenous organizing where one is.
And regardless of the skeptics on this list, it is quite clear that Occupy had an important catalytic role in encouraging organizing many places.
-----Original Message-----
From: Hunter Gray <[email protected]>
To: Bear Without Borders <[email protected]>
Cc: SycamoreCanyon <[email protected]>; marxist <[email protected]>; Redbadbear <[email protected]>; newgreencanada <[email protected]>
Sent: Tue, Apr 24, 2012 6:44 am
Subject: [BearwWthoutBorders] Brief very early morning thoughts
MSN's home page is carrying a strange story -- and here's the lead excerpt:
"By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com
James Lovelock, the maverick scientist who became a guru to the environmental movement with his Gaia theory of the Earth as a single organism, has admitted to being alarmist about climate change and says other environmental commentators, such as Al Gore, were too.
Lovelock, 92, is writing a new book in which he will say climate change is still happening, but not as quickly as he once feared."
I don't pretend to be a climate change expert by any means -- but, while the Northeast has heavy snow, we almost hit 90 degrees here yesterday and broke records. All of that pales, of course, wihen compared to the string of hideous disasters that are now plaguing Earth and Humanity. I suppose earthquakes can be considered "normal" and "conventional" -- but I, and I'm sure a vast number of others, see "something" highly unusual going on.
Heard on CNN yesterday [and CNN now seems to be, whatever its limitations, the most reliable cable TV entity] that Barack Obama has just signed something that will keep U.S. troops (and apparently he hopes others) in Afghanistan for ten years beyond the now contemplated withdrawal date of 2014. When he tripled U.S. troop strength in that setting late in 2009, he promised most would be home by July 2011.
Haven't heard much about this latest of his -- nor much about drones over U.S. skies. The concerns about his blank check summary arrest/incarceration of US citizens seems to have waned, save for the civil liberties groups which fight valiantly onward. A lot of liberals and some leftists continue to give Obama personally the same pass they've given him since he took office and reneged on most of his campaign promises.
I posted some Klan stuff from the Old Days the other day. (I do know a great deal about the "sociology" of hate groups.) Though I hoped for a little comment, it drew virtually none from our discussion lists -- but got some on Facebook. I expected someone to inquire -- Why such a comparatively large KKK membership in North Carolina? [I had cited the State's own estimate of 20,000 in the mid-1960s.] A basic reason, in addition to the many variants of racism generally, is that Klan traditions have been historically and exceptionally very strong in that state and also in Alabama because the Klan had been long used by capitalists to frighten white workers and drive deep wedges between those and African Americans in order to keep unions out of the picture. North Carolina was the first state in the South to receive a large and continuing flow of "run away" industries from the North seeking a "favorable business atmosphere". Alabama has had for many decades the major industrial complex in Birmingham and environs. Georgia has been a runner-up in this. Klan groups have waxed and waned -- the KKK is presently slim in Dixie -- but some employers are now using ad hoc groups and others in anti-union capacities. Racism has taken some profound hits in this country in recent decades but, like a rattlesnake that has many lives and, although deeply injured, doesn't die until the Sun goes Down, that profound sickness remains a significant part of our scenery.
Anyway, just brooding.
Hunter Bear
HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
and Ohkwari'
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org
(much social justice material)
See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
For the new, just out (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI --
with a new and substantial Introduction by me. We are close upon
the 50th anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of1962-63.:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
Personal Background Narrative (with many links):
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm
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