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Time to Mount Up
and Ride
By Vincent L. Guarisco
'Drag your tongue across
the sugar cube and hope you get a taste. It’s like smelling the
food but you're not allowed to touch the silverware. Fascism you
can vote for, how sweet.'
~’Omegg.’ Just a small entertaining
taste of poetry with a twist, from the rock band ‘Stoned Sour.'
(a great rant when heard in its entirety)
12/03/07 "ICH"
--- - Dear citizens of a crumbling nation, have you even
noticed our country is being demolished all around us? Haven’t
you noticed the pillars shaking, the foundation cracking, and
debris falling everywhere? I certainly hope so, because the Bush
administration’s wrecking ball hasn’t quite finished swinging
yet, so keep your equilibrium stable and your stand-post
securely firm, because before it's over, there may not be much
of anything left standing, or worth saving, and I don’t want to
lose you.
What a waste! It really hasn’t required much effort to see what
the hell has been happening here. It’s been getting steadily
worse every day, for a very long time. All that was ever needed
to see it daily was a simple common-sense compass pointed in any
direction. Had we not been asleep, we could have easily
prevented the carnage in every sector. But since we gullibly
continue to believe the lying corporate news media blowhards
about how damn great everything is, and since we put our trust
in leaders who repeatedly lie with every word they utter, we now
find ourselves in a bloody OZ wonderland -- a screwed-up place
where everyone considers all Americans fair game at home and
abroad. So hunker down, my tar-and-feathered friends, hunting
season is in full swing, and we’re headed for the endangered
species list. That’s right sleepyhead, we’re a perishable item
confined within the construct of our own self-destructive
borders.
And since so few of us now hold the key to what little flicker
of hope remains, I ask you this – do you know what your post
entails? Well, do you? Do you 'serve a purpose,' or just
'purposely serve'? Our fate, our future (if there is one),
depends on how we answer and what we do today. We need to get
off our asses and get busy!
After years of having my sensory modem continually assaulted
from every direction and, with the future not looking too bright
these days, sometimes I find strength and courage by searching
the past for helpful solutions on how to inspire myself and
others. Knowing the heavy burden we all must bear, I can
honestly say with no disillusionments, 'I know what my post
entails.' My purpose is to assist others, when possible, to help
them find their weary way in order to solidify a combined
awareness to birth a unified force to extend peace and justice
with real checks and balances for a more deserving journey in
life.
True patriotism is an on-demand wildcard that needs to be played
from time to time. We have a solemn constitutional
responsibility as American citizens to serve, protect and
safeguard this great nation from all enemies foreign and
domestic. America is NOT a squatter's patch for lazy, brain-dead
do-nothing zombies to sit on their asses while everything falls
apart around them. Aside from improving our daily life, our
obligation includes removing any and all crazy tyrants residing
at the White House, as well as those spineless rubber-stamping
idiots that foul the very air they breathe in both Houses of
Congress.
I am invoking an age old citizen call-to-action. Consider
yourselves drafted modern-day minutemen, obligated to awaken the
masses for battle to fight the true monster at bay, the enemy
within. Welcome aboard brothers and sisters, let's give the
devil his due...
We've done it before, and we can do it again. Just remember the
good ol` 60's hippie days. An exciting LSD era when the youth of
this nation popped its cork in front of Richard Nixon and God,
and actually did something positive to change our wicked ways. A
better day existed when groovey strands of long hair served as
some sort of crazy miracle potion empowering the strength of
men. The longer it grew, the more you became a freak-flag
Samsonite. We belonged to a kind of 'hip' Lord of the Rings
fellowship that saved the day -- at least for a while -- and
everyone knew without question what their post entailed.
And all the other colorful mojos didn’t hurt the process either
-- bell-bottom pants, psychedelic shirts, Mexican serapes,
Navajo headbands, luminous body paints, mini-skirts, love-beads,
love making, wake-up bells, feathers forever in all shapes and
colors and flowered friendliness that definitely changed the way
the whole world thought about teenagers. A thrilling time when
virtually everyone seemed to find their own voice. Gee, I sure
miss the good ol' days...
Many people have different ideas of how hippies came to be. It
was a serious counterculture party-wave that swept America off
its feet as the largest generation of young people were coming
of age. Mostly from middle and upper class, they came from
everywhere with a well-deserved sense of dignity and
self-respect for what they believed in. They valued peace, love,
and personal freedom in a way that reached far beyond the
confines of establishment rules.
Ah, 1967 -- the summer of love, a culture extravaganza
overflowing with honorable people who felt the world should live
as one in peace and harmony. It was a compassionate calling for
all segments of our society to come together as one to resist
and prevent the cycle of war, violence and modern day slavery .
However, as history has proven time and again, nothing is ever
earned or given without its fair share of blood, sweat and tears
with a lot of hard sacrifice. And the sixties movement was no
different in terms of 'paying its dues.'Berkeley University
is only one example of some of the most violent student protests
that happened during the Vietnam War. And the uproar was not
limited to just ending the war. The middle finger was directly
pointed towards University administrations as well, for a
variety of legitimate reasons. The Berkeley Free Speech Movement
resulted in many arrests in its struggle. In fact, it had the
largest number of student arrests in United States history. Like
an army of hungry vultures, 700 angry policemen wielding clubs
and spraying mace descended on the University during a peaceful
day of protest and instigated a full-blown riot, assaulting
dissenters (and news anchors) whose only crime was simply
exercising their constitutional right to peaceably dissent in a
public forum. Many were beaten unconscious in this shameless
display of unnecessary violence. Only one day of many to
remember in our nation's history.
Sometimes, I can still hear the echo of the words afterwards.
Don Brice, President of The News Director Association, rightly
accused the Oakland police of being the real culprits who
started the riot on purpose. In response to Brice,
actor/Governor Ronald Reagan said, 'The work of the Oakland
Police Department was in the finest tradition of California ’s
law enforcement agencies. The officers displayed exceptional
ability and great professional skill. The taking of alleged
grievances to the streets cannot and will not be tolerated.'
To this day, It’s still hard to imagine Reagan later became
President.
The Vietnam War was protested throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Protests, rallies and demonstrations occurred across the nation
and covered many different social issues -- civil rights,
women’s rights, etc. All of this happened in the midst of the
harsh reality that any day we could all be drafted into a war we
venomously opposed. It was a time mixed with fear as well as
culture and social change that shocked the world.
We are now at yet another defining moment in our nation's
history -- moments such as the Vietnam War, Cuban Missile
Crisis, TET offensive, the fall of both the Berlin Wall and of
Saigon, Watts Riots, Berkley Free Speech Movement, Women’s
Liberation Movement, Black Panthers, presidential
assassinations, Civil Rights killings, Apollo Space Missions,
Mickey Mantle, Woodstock, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix,
The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Zippo lighters, Zig Zag rolling
papers, Black Light Posters, High Times magazine,
Cheech and Chong, Hippies, fashion lords, culture shocks, art --
you name it, you got it! The 'be here now' generation filled
America's ocean to its absolute brim...and rocked the planet. In
fact, if you look real close, you can still see the Watermark
left on the Crest from an everlasting journey. Whew...WHAT A
FREAKIN RIDE!
Okay, my wise old gray haired friends, I know it’s a little hard
to recapture that same nostalgic spark with just a quant 60's
butterfly kiss, but the next time you go to shave your head (the
new style these days), you may want to throw on John Lennon's
old album 'Imagine' for inspiration. It's better then doing
nothing while waiting for a cup of porridge with ankle irons
strapped on at a FEMA camp.
Please tell me the hopes of yesterday have not all gone up in
smoke. Take notice old flowered ones, the times are a'changing,
and for the worse. Our nation needs us, and our reputation at
home and around the globe is as dry as dry can get. So either
get with the program and find your patriotic post, or punch me
in the dead-spot until I die. Because I refuse to sit idly by
and do nothing while waiting to get rounded up as an 'enemy
combatant' by jack-booted Blackwater mercenaries and have a
microchip shoved up my ass. So...Lose the kick-stand and
Reeve-up the motors, It’s time to mount up and ride...
Vincent L. Guarisco is a freelance writer from Bullhead City
AZ., a contributing writer for many web sites, and a lifetime
member of the Alliance of Atomic Veterans. Reprint permission is
given as long as article content is not altered or changed and
credit is given to the author. Replies welcomed at:
vincespainting1@hotmail.com
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