Taking Off From Tookie: The Only Action Left

That

“handful of women” who met in upstate New York one sweltering summer

day in the 19th century had it right...for their time. They got the

so-called Woman’s Movement going in the United Stink of the Americas.

Ditto for the violent M’Fers coming off of the Odessa Steps in what

used to be Russia. I could go on incessantly citing old paradigms for

protest and change...that won’t work anymore. But I’d rather repeat -from

yet another angle (I’ve been at this soooooooo long!)- what needs to be

done YESTERDAY!

That is, if you want to do more than vent, call attention to

yourself, socialize (getting strokes for being politically correct),

protest for the sake of protesting, build an “alternative” career, or

martyr yourself...in the name of planting seeds for a better world in an

impossible future, etc. Or underwrite the above (with the safety of

your pen*).

*”Helping people” in The Pen -or those penned in on the outside-

with a pen. That’s a good one.

Then....

The only action left for activists to consider...is to be found at my

house. Literally, in my living room. Where there are no bugs, no

spotlights. And zero chance that you’ll get sucked into sucking on any

of the old teats being offered up to you by activists across the U.S.A.

Today, NONE of the models for change that I know about have a chance in

hell of working in this lifetime...or in Ten Tookie lifetimes from now.

Take me up on this, please. Why wouldn’t you?

The plan is to get someone like, say, Alan Maass (who wrote “They

Murdered a Peacemaker” for Socialist Worker Online at

href="http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-2/569/569_01_Stan.shtml">http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-2/569/56901Stan.shtml)

and/or the people who contributed to that article (listed at the end of

it) and/or Niranjan Ramakrishna (author of

href="http://www.counterpunch.org/ramakrishnan12132005.html">http://www.counterpunch.org/ramakrishnan12132005.html)

and/or Dave Zirin (author of

href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=9327">http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=9327)

and/or...anyone who’s losing sleep over the obvious...to come

over to my place.

And do what? Well, for starters, I’d overlay. I’d go over

what I’ve already put on the table in public...delineating, of course,

what I couldn’t say in public as an overlay. Then we’d all sit as per a

perversion of Pascal’s advice...quietly...within the (uncornered, uncorny,

uncanny) corners of my room...considering the futility of what else has

been placed on the table, what else is in the current blend of the

mixed-up momentum that masquerades as progressive/radical action. Lay

it on, over and above the unambitious, uncreative, unseeing/unseemly

sacrifices that are being made.

The ensuing silence should give us a chance to come up with

something else. And stop the celebrated bootless cries.

Richard Oxman, at rmoxman@yahoo.com, will provide organic this and

that for everyone who attends...to this need. And if you can’t make it to

Los Gatos, California in December (when a meeting date to be

determined will be set), there’s always the telephone hook. His

recent writing is at www.oxtogrind.org.