Senor is sad today as he looks back through the years and notes that today marks the anniversary of the Kent State Killings.... I'll never forget the moment I first got that fateful news.... I was married at the time and the wifey was pregnant.... We were at another married couples house, and all the adults 'cept for my wife had dropped some of Albert Hoffmans Delight.... everyone had crashed but senor, who sat on the living room floor and was listening to a Simon & Garfunkel album.... The T.V. was on with the sound off... The channel was one that rolled the news across the screen sort of like a tickertape.... I glanced at the screen as 'Celia, 'yer breakin my heart' poured forth from the Koss headphones I was wearing....The words shot through me like an electric current... "National Guard fires on student protestors" Kent State Ohio campus.... I sat there stunned!!! I turned off the stereo, cranked the volume on the T.V., and began waking everone up in the house... "The shits' goin down, they're killin us in the streets, the fucking pigs are shooting people"!!!! Son of a bitch, it's happening, I told my housemates..... Within a few hours, we were standing outsside the capital steps with signs and protesting... There was a grimness in the air that was palpable... Hell, this shit wasn't some joke. man, they were shooting people down... Unarmed people were being murdered in the streets of AmeriKKKa!!!!!! ===== Well, it was a long time ago, but in many ways, nothing has changed.. From AmeriKKKa fighting another undeclared war, to the ever present visages of police brutality such as the Rodney King beating, there are just too many similarities to ignore..... Stay aware my friends, and make your oppostions heard.......... sal
I remember sitting at the piano, picking out the chords just so i could sing that song with as much of myself as possible.
That song seared the message and the image of that brutality into my consciousness forever.
These days, i bring the song into my classroom. Kids have to hear that the voice of incredulous victimization at the hands of those with power. Kent State was then, tomorrow ...well, i guess i'm not going to complete that thought right now.
i have kids finishing high school - special ed kids, who i've nurtured and watched develop and tomorrow they'll be military. They need a balancing voice. They need to know it exists. Music can provide the link towards remembering we're all victims if we lose our humanity.
" We' all victims if we lose our humanity" As always, our dear sistah speaks so eloquently and incisively....... Thanks Judih, for your shining spirit illuminating and piercing the darkness----------- sal
What was it like to drop Hoff back then, Senor? What was your clearest moment of insight about the world? Did you ever see the Void? Become the Void? (It's hard even to word the question but I bet you know what I mean).
Thank you for your story, they need to be told or they will get lost with time....
What was it like:: Well, I must say that the clearest insight I had was on the last day of the last nationally coordinated Anti-War March... The wife and I had left Illinois and were living in Sacramento Cal... All of our circle of friends were going to Frisco for the protest... We loaded up the old 28ft step van with music. various illegal delights, and piled our hippy butts inside.. Everyone was pumped, but senor was uneasy... The wife had chosen not to attend. I just could'nt get that out of my head... Here we were, We 'DA Peeps, massing with nearly a quarter million brothers and sisters.. Showing our solidarity, our unity, and yet my mate, my love, had not wanted to come... What??? How could it be that the peson I cared more about than anyone else in the world, did not feel the pull that I felt.. How could she refuse to stand... It was a deciding moment... We pulled into Frisco, and Billy whipped out an ounce of brown mesc... here I was in a real mental turmoil. I'd just realized my wife and I were finished... Billy handed me the mesc, expecting me to do a decent sized line... I opened the envelope and ate the whole ounce.... Billy shook his head in amazement and told the others "say bye bye now, cuz our bro is going "out there"..... About an hour later, I ducked out of the teeming mass of protestors and headed down an alley, looking for a secluded place in which to vomit... Instead, I found aboout 40 cops in riot gear being prepped by their commander.... "make damn sure you keep ahold of your batons. Don't get seperated from your teammate"... Jeez,,, here I was barely able to see past the swirling colors, unable to walk without flailing around like a zombie; and now I'm alone in an alley with a bunch of pigs!!!! They all turned and looked at me.... Now, I do'nt know what possesd me, but I smiled at them and waved.. granted, I must have appeared to be totally out of it.. I gave 'em a cheery wave and made this proclamation..... "We got the numbers today, you motherfuckers".... They all sort of glanced at their leader. He nodded and began directing his men to various street corners.... I left the alley and entered the throng of protestors..... These were my people, my family....When the protest had ended and we got back to Sacremento, my wife wasn't there... A few hours later she arrived. I asked her where she had been and she turned and said "I was over at the next apartment fucking that black dude Adamm before his wife got back from work".... Yeah well, I'd had a pretty hectic day anway, so I just started packing my stuff, and left the next morning.......... Insights "we don't need no stinking insights :wink: ----------------sal
gee jose'phat! what a string of events..... now I know why you deserve the Senor in front of your name SenorSal.
damn, Sal, that's some tale, your own life and history smacking asses hard in a moment...
lotta mesc, must have been fun "up" there :twisted: