polydad

Laura has a tentative plan to go to Seattle this weekend and coincidentally give me a ride. So I need to contact folks in Seattle, Bellingham, Tacoma, Olympia, and so on and arrange to visit them.

In the meantime, I'm getting excited about the Ficton of President Bobby. As I see it, there will be two huge cultural changes. The *expected* changes will be a more exuberant women's music scene, a more cheerful and forward black culture, a quicker and neater end to the Vietnam war, better enforcement of fiscal integrity both in government and in business, and major environmental action.

The less expected outcomes will be the greater moral and philosophical integrity forced upon the conservatives by their defeat. *Our* conservatives are simply batshit insane; to someone of Bobby's timeline, *we* are insane because Stephen Colbert can actually *make sense* to us. Maybe I'll have Elliot Richardson challenge Bobby in '72, lose, and get offered a major justice position as a result.

In the meantime, I need to not let myself get distracted by Tom's video games or my sore back, and go make the contacts I'll need to have to travel next week.

So I'm back from Roseburg, and ready to plan and execute my NW Oregon trip. I *also* and separately have an idea for a ficton to pursue: What if Bobby Kennedy had gotten to serve two full terms as President?

Think about it: We got Nixon, instead. And then Gerald Ford.

Dawn here in Pedro is spectacular. We're on a peninsula, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, and LA Harbor to the East; only to the north and northeast is there land. Dawn is all pinks and aquamarines and silvers and pale fine blues.

The sun is not actually *up* yet; this is all secondary reflections, mostly off the Bay.

Which is remarkably appropriate to my early-morning thinking.

Though I now forget why; that was written on Thursday and it's now Monday, even if Monday oh-dark-30. So I'll send it off now, before I forget again.

An abaondoned thread:

We need to celebrate the joy of life; part of what made the protests of the 1920's and '30's successful was thousands of people being carted away to jail, *singing*. I need to become at least *some* level of bard (tho' for those of you listening in RPG terms, I'm aiming at a multi-classed Wizard/Cleric/Ranger/Bard)

When one is having asthma issues, inhaling a mouthful of tea one was intending to drink is not a trivial accident.

Crisis averted, but that one was scarey.

Okay, Schrunk Park got raided at 5am. I stayed in my tent and out of trouble two blocks away, which is the best thing for me to be doing under the circumstances. Hint For Protestors: Make sure you can transmit live video from your phone. As the internet cliche has it, "No pics and it didn't happen!"

My understanding from second-hand reports is that the lead group of gestapoids were from Homeland Security, but that the large backup contingent from the Portland Police had a major calming influence on the action. I only heard a couple of loud bangs (probably "flash/bang" bombs), and the hubbub was fairly quiet -- no more screaming than we've had from alternate-sanity street folks over the last few days.

I've been attending as much of the General Assemblies as I can stay awake through. As I see it, a part of the problem is that participatory democracy has a high learning curve, and we have a rotating pool of beginners needing to get their feet wet. Having a beginner's *class* would be a great idea -- I'd love to hear a facilitator tell someone "Go to tomorrow afternoon's intro class and come back tomorrow night with your point if you feel it's still valid," but even if someone has *had* an intro class there's a more fundamental problem.

I've been trying to get the Juggalos and the Sociologists to talk to each other. Amusingly, to my perceptions it's the street kids who have a much more fundamental grasp of the problem, but that's beside the current point: That both groups have valid perspectives, that a lot more other groups have equally valid perspectives, that there exist yet *other* perspectives that are equally valid and may be equally important and/or immediate that don't have a constituency or pressure-group to support or advance them, and we do not have (I'm tempted to add "as yet," but it's not clear to me this problem has *ever* been substantially addressed) a method for making sure we keep *track* of all the issues we have while still moving forward on *taking action* on whatever the most important/immediate need is.

The Ideas, Ideals, and Issues database could be a tool for this. But for it to become so I'd have to take time away from being *here* and trying to work on *this* problem to go hide in a hole for some days and do design work. Maybe I need to do that -- but tomorrow I want to attend a workshop at the Multnomah Friend's House, and I need to get someone to cover my 11am committee meeting if I'm going to do that. (For my own reference, they're at 44th and Stark on the other side of the river, and I need to take 39th St. north to Stark before cutting further east to 44th, which doesn't go through that far south.)

We can't do everything at once. But to get a *lot* of us to do *anything*, we need some way of assuring those of us whose personal issues aren't on the top of the pile that we haven't been forgotten, and that our needs will be gotten to *soon enough*. And that our input will have been heard on how soon "enough" is.

The UUFC choir has a similar issue: Lots more people *want* to sing than are *good* at singing. And they want to be all-inclusive, at the same time they want to produce good music. And to a large extent they *succeed* -- even if *I'm* not at all sure *how*.

More as available access permits.

All who wrote in are exactly correct that people are allowed to be white without being criticized for it, and to dress nicely if they want to, and it's even to our advantage to get 'em on camera while doing so.

My problem is when these people charge out amidst what they proudly proclaim as *their* proletariat to tell them what, and how, to think.

Doing so is not what they *intend*; indeed, a major part of my point is that they are not behaving with intention. They *know* what is right, and aren't questioning *themselves*. If some street kid thinks what he really wants is a cigarette and a beer, he *must* be wrong. What he *really* needs is a multiple-choice survey. White Rich Liberal Ass-Hat-Dom says so, and can never, ever be wrong.

I've taken some time to actually *talk* with these people, and they *know* cigarettes cause cancer. But whether they'll have cancer twenty or thirty years from now isn't as important to them as having some solace *right now*, and is far less important than maintaining the personal integrity of doing what *they* want to do rather than what any random stranger feels like *telling* them to do.

The point *I'm* trying to keep people focused on is that, if we want to call ourselves "the 99%", *and* we want to behave with some sort of intellectual integrity, we have to make a good-faith effort to *include* at least 99% of everybody, and this means extending *them* the same sort of respect we'd like to see for ourselves.

And the very first, and most important, step in this is to allow them the dignity of self-determination. If Joe Juggalo says he wants a cigarette, even though I personally despise smoking it is a kindness for me to go get one for him. If *I* want to take a survey, I get to do so -- but it's not only polite but a necessary part of clear communications for me to make clear that I'm taking the survey because *I* want it. My opinion of whether it's best for Joe is not merely irrelevant but actively counterproductive, because *Joe* is in charge of deciding what's best for Joe, not me.

So this is what I'm looking for: That the people who want to take surveys take ownership of the fact that they're taking a survey because *they* want to. And that any justifications of that, regardless of whose opinions about whose opinions are being served, wait for an invitation.

Am I being clear yet?

I'm in the coffee shop of the Portland Art Museum, as the nearest place to the Occupation I could find wireless signal. Rental on the seat is a $3.5 cup of cocoa, which is at least not bad.

( Trying to make the Occupation work... )

So I attended the Men's Retreat yesterday, and have a list of seventeen men to contact. And a protest to go to on Monday, and a construction project I haven't done jack shit on in two weeks, and a seduction to plan as slowly as possible. ( So what do I do about it *today*? )