Let others speak

Five years seems ample time to contemplate and subsequently put into perspective the events of September 11, 2001. We may all remember where we were and what we were doing when the news finally came to us from TV, radio, family, friends or co-workers.

Increasingly, reflection on those events and the possible causes have been drowned out by fear-mongering and empty rhetoric and hate-speech and wrongful accusations and false imprisonment.

As the Right (and by association, the Left) use September 11th as a photo-op or worse, a justification for such unAmerican activities as yet to be seen, I can't help but feel we're spitting on the graves of the 9/11 victims. Every time our politicians--especially that abomination of a president--invokes that day for the purpose of shutting out opposition or frightening citizens into silent compliance, I can't help but scream.

So many have spoken out only to be branded by this goverment as unpatriotic. To parapharse Beard, a great way to get yourself branded as a danger to society is to walk around quoting the founders of this country, the very purveyors of the freedoms this administration seeks to deny.

This is no longer Democrat versus Republican. BushCo has stepped so far to the right, they're teetering on the brink of fascism. Fuck that. And fuck them. The more they try to take, the more we have to fight. The more they brand their opponents "unAmerican" the more we must see how they are the ones who are unAmerican.

Since I'm so fond of quoting people who are far more intelligent and articulate than I, let me give you two things to mull over.

First, this thought:
"A nation of sheep begets a government of wolves." Edward R. Murrow

And second, a video:

Ton up!

So there's this guy Skip. He's doing his damnedest to get a Ton Up chapter started in NorCal. What's TonUp? It's a motorcycle club of sorts. Basically, it's a bunch of guys who ride old Brit bikes and can't seem to let go of the whole Rocker phenomenon born in the UK during the 50s-60s. And that's a good thing. It is everything that is "cool" about motorcycles...click!

While I don't consider myself a "joiner," it sure would be nice to ride around with a bunch of guys that get it. The Rocker thing is a culture within a culture.

The one "problem" is that the meetings are in SF on Thursday evenings. Now before Smalls hits the comment button to say "let's move to SF!", let me say that riding up to SF isn't a big deal. In fact, I don't really see the point of having a bike or car club meet 2 miles from your house. Your machine is meant to be ridden. So riding to the meeting would be fine with me. But still, it's a weeknight and I'm a working stiff.

I'm just stoked that Skip is taking the lead and getting something together that has the potential to be super rad.