Tell me your story!

Simple Plan

"I will not dwell on the experiences of poverty that derive from racial discrimination, but will discuss the poverty that affects white and Negro alike.

Up to recently we have proceeded from a premise that poverty is a consequence of multiple evils: lack of education restricting job opportunities; poor housing which stultified home life and suppressed initiative; fragile family relationships which distorted personality development.

Housing measures have fluctuated at the whims of legislative bodies. They have been piecemeal and pygmy. Educational reforms have been even more sluggish and entangled in bureaucratic stalling and economy-dominated decisions. Family assistance stagnated in neglect and then suddenly was discovered to be the central issue on the basis of hasty and superficial studies. At no time has a total, coordinated and fully adequate program been conceived. As a consequence, fragmentary and spasmodic reforms have failed to reach down to the profoundest needs of the poor.

I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective -- the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.

Now we realize that dislocations in the market operation of our economy and the prevalence of discrimination thrust people into idleness and bind them in constant or frequent unemployment against their will. The poor are less often dismissed from our conscience today by being branded as inferior and incompetent. We also know that no matter how dynamically the economy develops and expands it does not eliminate all poverty.

Those at the lowest economic level, the poor white and Negro, the aged and chronically ill, are traditionally unorganized and therefore have little ability to force the necessary growth in their income. They stagnate or become even poorer in relation to the larger society.

A host of positive psychological changes inevitably will result from widespread economic security.

Two conditions are indispensable if we are to ensure that the guaranteed income operates as a consistently progressive measure. First, it must be pegged to the median income of society, not the lowest levels of income. To guarantee an income at the floor would simply perpetuate welfare standards and freeze into the society poverty conditions. Second, the guaranteed income must be dynamic; it must automatically increase as the total social income grows. Were it permitted to remain static under growth conditions, the recipients would suffer a relative decline. If periodic reviews disclose that the whole national income has risen, then the guaranteed income would have to be adjusted upward by the same percentage. Without these safeguards a creeping retrogression would occur, nullifying the gains of security and stability.

Our nation's adjustment to a new mode of thinking will be facilitated if we realize that for nearly forty years two groups in our society have already been enjoying a guaranteed income. Indeed, it is a symptom of our confused social values that these two groups turn out to be the richest and the poorest. The wealthy who own securities have always had an assured income; and their polar opposite, the relief client, has been guaranteed an income, however miniscule, through welfare benefits.

John Kenneth Galbraith has estimated that $20 billion a year would effect a guaranteed income, which he describes as "not much more than we will spend the next fiscal year to rescue freedom and democracy and religious liberty as these are defined by 'experts' in Vietnam."

The contemporary tendency in our society is to base our distribution on scarcity, which has vanished, and to compress our abundance into the overfed mouths of the middle and upper classes until they gag with superfluity. If democracy is to have breadth of meaning, it is necessary to adjust this inequity. It is not only moral, but it is also intelligent. We are wasting and degrading human life by clinging to archaic thinking.

The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty."

m.l.k jr. from the last chapter of WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE: CHAOS OR COMMUNITY? 1967

in the shadows the invisible hands of greed lurk
players of the game

but the powers that be
have branded me
and brainwashed thee
in their propaganda monopoly

their shifty vocabulary, in their so called insurgency

"cover your mouth when you cough mr. president"
like a nazi american baptist warlord

o...o... what's the solution..?

i guess it takes a little bit of street smarts to appreciate hip hop.

aesop rock - appleseed
dose one - hemispheres

Al, my story is scattered all around this site. You're sure to have run across bits and pieces of it here and there.
I call myself a social artist. That combines performance art with a wide variety of other things: Some are the traditional arts, many others are not. Performance may take place in any sort of venue, for an audience of many, or one, or none. The where and who aren't important in the definition, though they may be important in the result. The essential thing is that no matter what the endeavor, I approach it with the heart and mind of an artist. To slantquote the bard: "The whole world is my canvas, all things in it, my palette."
Some performances are personal and difficult to describe, some are meant to have a broader impact. I'll lay one of those out.
In college, I was part of a group called The Observation Club, comprised of social artists coming from and heading into many different fields. We didn't call ourselves social artists; that term wasn't coined until later. We had projects, publications, installations, and events. It was one of those events that gave me the idea to call it social art.
In the early 80's the Walkman was the latest rage. This provoked much discussion within our group and opinions were as varied as they were intense. But it was obviously somethng we could work with. It wasn't clear how to approach it until someone cited Jeremy Bentham's Principle of Utilitarianism: "What would happen if everybody did it?" We decided to find out. The Walkman Dance was born.
Arrangements were made, flyers and press releases were put out, mix tapes were made, batteries purchased. On April Fool's Day, 1984 the Walkman Dance took place.
It was not a large event, but attendance reached critical mass for success. The scene was something beyond surreal. A silent roomful of people all dancing to different tunes. Together. Alone. It was a weird experience from both the outside and inside views. It was hilarious but somehow kind of sad, simultaneously.
The only way to really dance with anybody was if you had a double headphone jack and could get them to "plug into your unit", and even then your movements were restricted by the length of the cord.
The most common expression heard the whole night was "WHAT?". That's what the T-shirts said: "WHAT?" happened at the Observation Club's April Fool's Day WALKMAN DANCE.
There is no video of the event, and no photos of which I am aware. But the experience is firmly etched in the memories of everyone who attended, and hundreds more who did not.

afu-ra, body of the life force

time to bust!

go against the grain!

PUSH! NOW!!!

and i love hip hop, esp. blue scholar.

poetry in motion

slove

Thank you, your support means alot to me. The poem is titled "Second Planet from the Star", but everyone calls it the Venus Williams poem.

Light,
AL

the 1st time I heard YOU. at the Ritz, a Kwanzaa event, you read a poem about tennis -- what was that poem? you r flat out the BOMB.

i appreciate what you're saying about diversity building strength. i wish our hometown could take that message to heart. Maybe putting a man who tells the truth with rhythm (like yourself) in the national spotlight will help.

it wHas a coLd valentines eVening..

i bunched the hoMie jacket closer to my cold body.. as he probably did when he wHas cold.. tHe jaCket wHas one of the things left here.. never to be picked up after tHat night i had kicked him out..into the cold.. tHe melroSe place finale that night didnt end wHen the tv wHas turned off and two sTrangers went to beD. a good night sLeep wHas not in store for the two lovers..

"tWo.. is the lonliest number neXt to one.. "

i wonDered if he wHas warM... or if he wHas cold like me.. i hoped he wasnt cold.. i couldnt bare tHat thought... i had the desire to get the jaCket back to him.. to make sure he wasnt freezing tonite.. like me.. i wanted to maKe sure he wHas warM.. like i did when i would pull the coVers over hiS. sLeeping bodY.. i hoped with my fRozen soul that he found another jaCket.. to keep hiM. warM..

tHe headphones snug on my hard sprayed hair.. wouldnt keep my ears warm like his big bRo earmuff headphones did.. but sang out the music spun from the CD player like it wHas destined too..

"oNe is the lonliest number you will eVer know.. "

no matter wHat i did tonite.. i dont tHInk i could get waRm.. no matter how many layers i had on... wither i had hiS. jacket on.. my oWn.. or eVen someone elses.. i wished i haD his bRo headphones to keep my ears warM..

iT wHas valentine's daY.. eVening.. now.. and the worst cold i haVe felt in a long time.. it went through me.. actually it came from me.. deep from my heart..

tHe caSa wHas too cold to stay there any longer... eVen with the tWo glasses of cHeap merlot i haD consumed trYing to remedy the dreadfull feeling i haD for this day.. i kNew i would probably be better off outside for aWhile.. eVen if it wHas reported that it wHas cold outside.. and better to stay in.. with your valentines love.. i haD. to leave the caSa before i fRoze.. aLone.. it would be my death..

i lit a marlboro.. and thought about how i had tried to quit.. tWo years before.. wHen i would crawl out of beD. early in the morn.. and left hiM. sleeping there to go sWiming.. i felt tHe warMth. from hiS. sleeping body.. i thought i wHas warm..tHen.. but aCtually eVen at tHat point there wHas something already being iced over.. deep inside..

i tHanked goD. that i still sMoked.. at least for tonite.. i needed tHat familiar companian.. and felt self destructive.. my cRavin' would keep me from going inside any public non-smoking california trend bar tonite...

as i walked down market toWards tHe caStro.. i saw for a moment the tWo of us .. making tHis saMe path.. ovEr and oVer again.. we paVed a way.. and now i still walk it.. with hiS. jaCket..

damn.. it's cold!.. time for the gloves that wHItefeather had giVen me for cHristmas.. i doubted that it would really help .. but at least i should try and fight this cold..

i traveled past the windows of loVers and thier dinner.. i aCtually felt a drift of warmth wHen i saw the cute guy with gReen hair with his pink haired gurlfriend.. eating at the sMall table.. captured by each others presence.. deep into the feeling of this sPecial day.. eVen if i would have gone up to the window and tapped on it.. i doubt they would pull themselves from thier hypnotic trance with each other.. i could tell they felt warM.. and hoped tHey had a wHay to keep tHat heat in... i could feel the warMth from them.. a dRift of warmth caMe through the window..and tried to get in past the jacket.. but i bunched it together.. to keep it out..

after all..

oNe is the lonliest number i have eVer known...

reX. booth
take it to realiTy!
http://www.publicradioquest.com/node/1679
www.rexsworld.com
rex@rexsworld.com

It was really great. I noticed you played a very small role. So why did you not play the major role? I liked the way the scenes were cut too. Oh, and being ADD as I am, I stumbled across something else which also was pretty cool, a five minute musical on how two people meet in a bakery...

http://www.publicradioquest.com/node/1564

http://homepage.mac.com/richardziglar/FileSharing3.html