MARCH MUSINGS

I really don't like March.  Or it doesn't like me. When I was 14 a lot of really fucked up shit happened to me in March.  That is part of it.  But it is also just- blah, I don't know, the end of winter?  I can't believe this is only the 10th.  21 more days of this month left.

This year though, it seems like something is brewing.  Something in addition to my usual March depression.  Astrologically we are in some sort of Mars cycle that brings revolutions.  Plus I have the urge to leave town.  I know that I complain about St. Louis a lot, and if I had nothing tying me here I would leave.  But this feeling is different.  Like something big is going to hit and I might be better off out of here.  (Mars is often linked to natural disasters, too.   I just have this uneasy feeling about the region.)

I had that at the end of December too.  The "revolution" feeling.  But it turned out to be those Bundy right wing whack jobs in Oregon.  So maybe it is somewhere else, and like the Oregon "take-over" (with snacks! and dildoes!) will not turn out as the planners were expecting.

I think some people that don't know me that well might think that I am making up the "Wakon" visitations I have been reporting in Supernatural Saint Louis.  I am not.  I didn't know about Wakons until 2 years ago.  But now that I know what they are, I can feel them stirring. Something is really out of balance here.  (I also was not making up that spell for re-balancing the power in St. Louis.  The Spring Equinox and the 23rd are made for it.)

I started another 'zine pag2stl.blogspot.com   It's linked to Occupy Public Transportation in St Louis.  I probably won't be able to get everyone to register to vote, or to do 5 extra actions a month for 11 months,  Or get the city to consider actually solving some of the problems -like the high crime rate with actual economic development, repairing the schools and creating plenty of after school activities. But I guess it is just in my nature to try, anyhow.

The answer to all of the problems in St. Louis seems to be "more cops".  When has that ever worked?  Our youth are the future, and we can't find the money to educate them? Give them a place in the world? No wonder there is increasing mob violence, crime, random shootings, heroin use. In St. Louis everything is about what high school you attend.  And most of the High Schools offer only the hope of a working at a minimum wage job and taking the bus there.

At least City leaders have stopped pushing that "Attracting Talented Young Professionals With An Entrepreneurial Spirit" bullshit.  That was just pissing people off.  What about the talented young professionals here? And hey, when the city DID attract a lot of tourists- for political action during Ferguson- all they did was whine about it.

Attract all you want, but if people here don't have money to spend, no amount of Entrepreneurial Spirit is going to help.

The Social House in the Loop is lifting my March mood a little though.  It's like a big HAHAHA to Wash U and the Joe Edwards Empire.  They ruined the neighbourhood, jacked the sales tax way up for the trolley, pretty much kicked out public transit via removing all the bus shelters and leaving only a few widely spaced stops (and only one bus route through the length of the Loop, and I expect that will be re-routed permanently any day now).  And property taxes in U City- yeah everyone knows they are paying extra because Wash U owns so much and it is all tax free.  And those Wash U patrols and blue light boxes don't make up for it.

Social House is a much better fit for the New Loop, where most of the eating establishments now accept Wash U student Bear Cards ( student meal cards).  The Loop is just any other college town now, nothing special. If Social House gets their liquor license I predict they become the busiest place in the Loop, and it will be a nice twist of the knife to watch how much money they bring U city in sales tax.

I'm sure Edwards, and the owners of Ciceros and Fitz's, realise how much business they will lose, though, and I think it safe to assume Social House won't get a liquor licence.

Everything in this city just seems ridiculous to me.  St Louis is so tiny.  It really wouldn't be that difficult to make some real changes here- not just more cops for crime, and sales tax incentives to big businesses, etc.  Real changes.  $15 an hour minimum wage. Legal marijuana,  Solvent schools with after-school programmes and sports, tutoring.  Free Community College.  A city jobs programme for the unemployed. Housing for the Homeless... I don't even need to list all of this.  If you are even reading this blog for the first time you already know what I am going to say.

My Berkeley arrest during the Ferguson protests is coming up in court in April.  I am going to do what I can to challenge all of the violations against the First Amendment and local laws prohibiting the police from taking too many powers.  "Treating Illness"  (much more lucrative than "Health Care") is probably the biggest money maker in St. Louis- the hospitals, Express Scripts, etc.  But the real power is the cops, lawyers, and judges.  And I have no faith in judicial honesty or intelligence in this city.  McCulloch is basically a thug.  A lot of judges are basically thugs. Everything is geared to white county residents - religious, white collar, white skinned, West and South county residents.

What's happening in Flint with the water is happening here in so many ways- it is just not as obvious, or as fast-acting.  But we are being robbed- of our rights, of our resources, and of our health.

One of things that is bumming me out is that of course a thug like McCulloch is gonna take every opportunity he gets, as much power as he can get.  But why haven't more citizens of St. Louis fought back against this?  Or, is it a  losing battle?  Too many people that just care about themselves?

The people who say shit like,"Well, I'm all for demonstrations but don't block traffic because then you mess with people's money."  (Meaning they can't get to their jobs.)  I had this convo the other day.  It wasn't about Ferguson, it was about my arrest back in 86 for blocking traffic in front of one of Reagan's SDI nuclear weapons facilities.

I said "Really?  What if it had been road repair, or an accident?"  That was different, according to this person.  "Okay, well what about the people that get bombed by the nuclear weapons, doesn't that mess with their money?" I don't hate this person, or anything.  But, like the bulk of St. Louis, this was a person with a sour, unhappy, overworked look permanently etched on their face, and a genuine belief that they are superior because they have NEVER had a problem that has driven them out into the streets in protest.  Or a problem with society that they couldn't solve-or more likely, couldn't just ignore by turning the television up or going on vacation.

Ironically it is this person's corner where I think are where the revolution is brewing.  The Bundy's - both Cliven and Al- who up until now had all the privilege and weren't questioned at all.  "Equality feels like privilege to the oppressed, but to the oppressor it feels like discrimination."  The people who think that because their order is wrong at McDonald's then the minimum wage shouldn't be raised. Who think not living in a white, "Christian" culture is "religious oppression."  Who swallow 5 meds for blood pressure, diabetes, anti-depressants, etc, with their Bud Light, and think weed is "drug addiction."

There is so much untapped potential in this city.  So many wasted resources. And there are so many unique opportunities here. So many changes that could be easily made.

But hey, let's get more cops and just see if we can push all the crime into areas where none of the nice white west county soccer moms go, and push some more sales tax bonds to pay for the cops.  Way to go, St. Louis.

One last thing to add to my bitchfest/pity party: the aura surrounding City Hall looks like Jaba the Hutt.  Seriously.  If you can see psychic energy, go look at it.  It looks like a big pile of shit with reptillian eyes and a mouth that could swallow the Arch without opening all the way.