HELIOLITH

Wow. I have a lot of catching up to do. I want to sit down and read everything I’ve missed, but I’ll never get to writing if I do that. My eyes are still wet from reading the post on Enzo. I too bow my head in respect and awe to someone so far away acting (present tense still, for his last wishes ring on) in ways so close to my heart. Peace be with him.

I want to give you a glimpse into what’s happening in New York right now, to me and to everyone. I was invited to a Mos Def concert three days ago by my good friend Jack. We walked through the east part of Central Park in deepening twilight, winding down towards the Delacorte Theater. An oboe echoed off the tiles under a bridge we walked beneath. We moved into the amphitheater, the open air. There were beautiful women everywhere. The temperature rose as night fell for all the bodies so close together. Meshell Ndegeocello opened with elastic bass lines and only a few words on the mic. It was her birthday and I wondered what her velvety voice would sound like twisted up with Mos Def’s.

He came on after the waxing moon rose up and the Parks Department told Meshell to keep it down. We did not keep it down. He brought nine other musicians on stage with him: five horns, two drummers, a guitarist, and a bassist. He stepped back and let the rest of the band shine–a sax solo, the bassist scatting with his strings–and came back to electrify the guitar sounds with his own voice. He sang love songs to his family, calling out to one of his sons for his birthday, praising Brooklyn, filling the city with passion. That song started with a line from a really old Slick Rick song (who I got to see at the Knitting Factory the following night), Hey Young World. It was beautiful to listen to music that had been shaped out of Miles Davis, Gil Scott-Heron, old-school jazz performances from Harlem Renaissance time, and positive hip-hop rhymes.

So yesterday half a million people came out to protest the Republican National Convention and the Bush agenda.

(As a copyeditor, I would feel remiss if I did not mention that I feel confident there are four crucial letters, “ll” and “it”, missing from the president’s name, but no matter.) There were young people and old people, Kerry supporters, Vietnam veterans, Workers’ Party supporters, street performers, Union representatives, babies, Raging Grannies, everyone was out. I was impressed. The feeling was very peaceful, and appropriately so. The police were fairly restrained.

I heard of one arrest in Union Square, where the police took a man in for reading the Bill of Rights over a megaphone. Supposedly the megaphone was the issue, but the breakdancers in Union Square have megaphones every night, and that’s never a problem. Who knows. Maybe the cops had a problem with the Bill of Rights. Anyway, the point is, there were very few arrests yesterday, and the atmosphere was positive and cooperative on both sides, from what I witnessed.

In talking with different people about the RNC, and why they chose to come to NYC, September 11th came up again. Bush is losing ground in all areas except that one. He has nothing to show for in the economy, he is losing even conservatives on the war front, and he is reaching for 9/11 as a symbol of success. Bloomberg, in welcoming the Republicans (read: dollars), announced that New York has made a full recovery from 9/11. I wonder if the residents of Tribeca who suffered from toxic fallout from the demolished buildings would agree. The city took no responsibility for instructing those people in the proper cleaning methods, or acknowledging that there could be a problem with air toxicity. Small potatoes compared to some of the media that are coming to light.

Several eyewitnesses that day have been filmed in interviews. Footage from that day, accompanied by a narrator’s voice detailing the argument, tells the story of what the activists have dubbed “the 9/11 cover up“. There are many different theories going around, but this one in particular claims that the planes were not commercial planes and that the passengers were all invented. I hesitated to post this link here out of fear of endangering anyone, but I think it’s important not to be afraid of retaliation for inquisitiveness. I don’t know what I think about this idea. I am interested in finding out more. I have done some activist work in the past, a lot of it in battered women’s shelters. Silence is a big word among women. People are afraid to talk about these ideas right now because they fear retaliation. Perhaps their neighbors will turn them in. Perhaps our phones, our emails, our blogs, our daily communications are being tapped. Perhaps we will be given gag orders like Sibel Edmonds, and have our communications forbidden. Perhaps we will be brought up on treason charges. Perhaps, if we reject the state-sized domestic violence paradigm that dominates our nation right now, our leaders will. It isn’t wrong to question, and I post this information as one small written rebellion against a government that would bring back a 1950s Red Scare fear into the people of my country. If you would like to get your hands on this movie, it is called “911 In Plane Sight“. On that note, check out the Zogby Poll results (holy shit).

Love. I’ll try to write more soon.