I love the concepts of synergy, synchronicity, and the untraceable, invisible spheres of influence that are so very present with every breath in life, and that pervade every molecule in the physical world. So when things align, and I observe patterns of behavior and occurence, I pay attention. There is unfortunately a huge problem distinguishing the line between pattern recognition via intuition, and delusions of reference. Oh well, C’est la vie. I invite you to click and listen to The Police while you read on.
Today is Fathers Day and my husband and my 23rd wedding anniversary. Synchronicity one.
The next area is the unusual and sad coupling of the silent march from Harlem to the Mayor’s home in NYC to end Stop and Frisk with the death of Rodney King, on the West Coast. This tragic event brings up memories I have of the horrific, thuggish police brutality in the near death beating of a black man in L.A., and the lack of ANY convictions of policemen in the case that in turn sparked the L.A. riots of ’91 is a strange co-occurence. Groups who both have been repressed, ghettoized, and lynched, and still experiences these outrages today,are banding together in a joint march that would have been unthinkable even last year. In spirit, I believe Rodney King and Matthew Shepard are walking with them arm in arm.
Political synchronicities seem to abound as of late.
I got really pumped up by attending a political event in support of Richard Carmona’s Senate campaign with the Hubby yesterday at which Rich obviously spoke, but at which Al Franken was the “Headliner.”
I realized at the event that I could feel the energy gathering to be released through a groundswell of Americans, of all sorts, banding together to restore opportunity for all Americans. The core principle of the American Dream was so real it was visceral. We are re-birthing the Dream sisters and brothers.
Rich Carmona, is the GOP’s worst nightmare: a true American Hero, holder of National level appointed post for a recent Republican President, decorated veteran (2 bronze stars), physician, deputy sheriff, SWAT Team leader who supports vets, women’s rights to access to complete autonomous access to healthcare, believes that what his mother told him about how women have never started a war and the real need for equitable reflection of percentages of women in the population to be seen in the government, and in the absolute need for access to education for all so as to allow pursuit of the American Dream. Carmona is such a strong candidate, a Democratic candidate, from Arizona, the proving ground for Republican general weaponry, as well as corporatist Weapons of Mass Cultural Destruction, that it almost makes me giddy. He is part of what looks to be the coalescing of several independent responses and reactions to Republican overreach and repression of rights. This synchronous coming together may well form the perfect storm of bipartisan groundswell to counter the systematic, anti-American, corporate-led dismantling of the American Dream.
This overlaps, for those of us in Tucson, with Ron Barber’s win to serve out the remainder of Gabrielle Giffords term in the U.S. House of Representatives. What may be even more important is that the extremist Right-wing candidate, Jesse Kelly, who has had full Republican backing in the last two House races for AZ District 8, announced he would not run again. In his concession speech on Tuesday night he said he would announce his intention to run again, or not, within a couple of days. I personally believe he wanted to run again, but that he had to check with the big money, national boys to see if they would pump the huge sums of money Kelly needed in order to even come close, and yet still lose, to his Democratic opponent in recent elections.
I think the big money boys said, “No.” Southeast Arizona should have campaigns that are fairly low key, and, of interest primarily to residents within the district. The Southeastern-most corner of Arizona, has always seemed to draw more national and big money attention from the RNC and the DNC than would be expected. This was true when the Rep was Jim Kolbe, when the Rep was Gabby Giffords, and now when the Rep is Ron Barber. I will have to write another piece to dig into the dirty dish that is that story.
Arizona has been pivotal as a symbol, a symbol that has been carefully constructed by the neo-con, tea-bagging, prison-and-guns-as-a-growth-industry, corporate backers. Our state has taken on iconic proportions. The people who have made Arizona the laughing stock of the nation are falling victim to one of the common pitfalls about which political strategists warn their clients; that is believing your own propaganda.
Our southern border, that happens to be a state and national border, has been “guarded” by Nazi-connected, child and family slayers. Much of the national press coverage depicted them as proud American patriots. Bull pucky. Our citizenry fell victim to cold blooded murder in an attempted assassination of a U.S. Member of Congress by a mentaToolslly off balance young man who read Mein Kampf and probably was influenced by the antipathy of outrage, lies, and vitriol that formed the center of an ideological war being waged in our backyards just like Sheriff Dupnik said. Sheriff Dupnik, synchronistically, has been Rich Carmona’s boss in his role as a deputy for over two decades.
Arizona isn’t what has been depicted in the media for so long. Our supposed State Leaders, who gather in Phoenix reflect political manipulation of legislative district lines, huge influxes of national and international corporate money in podunk elections, actual election rigging, far more than they do the Arizona people. The un-balance of power in our State House that lists toward ultra right wing king pins, uber-Christian zealots, and Mormons whose families were too conservative to live in Utah make up a disproportionate block there. This in no way reflects Arizona’s amazing diversity and eclectic richness. The oligarchy has ruled here for quite some time.
It allowed extremist Russell Pearce to preside over the Arizona Senate until he was recalled through bi-partisan efforts to oust the “Man behind Jan” and good friend of known neo-Nazi J. T. Ready. Ready was Republican candidate for Pinal County Sheriff and Minute Man Militia Member and also falls into the category of mass murderer who killed his family, including a toddler, before killing himself earlier this year.
I attended a debate between all the parties running for Congress in 2010 on the University of Arizona Campus. The person with whom I attended was holding a Giffords sign outside the venue after the event. Neo-nazi thugs who had been evident inside the venue as Jesse Kelly supporters came up to us with their German-esque lettering, Nazi slogan-infested black t-shirts and other skinhead regalia, and attempted to push over and intimidate my friend. When our ground was firmly stood, they spat on my friend’s shoes.
I have spoken out, for years about these disturbing connections between out of control, intimidation wielding, murder threatening thugs, and rogue cops within Tucson Police Department. This was even before the local and state level Republican Party has allowed the likes of Kelly and Ready to represent them. I still firmly believe the Tea Party funded by the Koch Bros tested their on the ground “astro turf” tactics right here in Tucson all the way down to the border. I am not the only person to notice these connections that seem to link neo-Nazis with government “leaders” in Arizona. Tucson housed retired mafioso, but Phoenix was where the dirty work was done. Just like Vegas, the glitz and bling of false, neo-con idolatry was probably planned near Tucson.
The equal and opposite reaction that cultural systems theorists would predict in reaction to the massive swing toward fascism this country took over the last several decades may well be building as I write. Being inside the systems in which these sorts of homeostatic properties operate, we cannot see or understand what is really happening. But just like in math and physics, we can observe patterns, that may or may not signify anything.
But really, a former Surgeon General who heads up SWAT teams and was awarded two bronze stars hanging out with a former Saturday Night Live comedian surely signifies that “the times, they are a changin’.”
I sure hope you’re right and the times ARE a changin.
The problem is that it’s so much easier to destroy, than to build up, and when damage is done – whether it’s to the wallpaper or the political infrastructure – it takes so much more time to repair, let alone move forward.
I also wish we’d see more mentoring in politics. Here’s in California, we’re lucky, we have Feinstein and Boxer, who are both awesome – but who are also getting up there, in years. I would like to see them handing the baton, as it were, over to their proteges, but if they have them, they’re keeping ’em pretty well hidden.
Me too! The current is there and we just have to plug in to it and use it. The outcome we want of course rests on our behavior.