So…you may remember my post The Ballad of Valery Ponomarev…about a jazz trumpet player whose arm was broken at Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris when he refused to surrender his (already tagged and approved as carry on luggage) trumpet case to some security thugs who were called as a result of a gate-keeper’s panicked call on the baggage.
Valery was up Shit’s Creek without a paddle.
No witnesses…they took him in back, out of the way of prying eyes.
No exalted position in the world..he’s just an artist, not a thieving MBA.
No recourse. Broken arm…cannot play the trumpet (Which is how he makes his living)…branded as a troublemaker by the pig-security, etc…
Read on.
So a number of us…his peers, his colleagues and friends…tried to stir up the waters a little. Tried to get some attention focused on his plight, on his position as an injured, innocent bystander in this ongoing war against individuality that is being waged by BushCo both domestically and internationally.
Valery called me today. “Look at the International Herald Tribune and NY Times tomorrow!!! They are paying ATTENTION!!!”
We have been successful, to some degree. And so it begins.
First this, a couple of weeks ago. (Jazz Times, September 30, 2006.)
The above referenced post, spread all across the internet (Plus the efforts of proximity1 among others) interested a reporter who works for Radio France.
And the mainstream media is now picking up on it. (International Herald Tribune)
and
Result…? Lawyers have tools, and Valery may well come out of this with some sufficient compensation for his pain.
And THIS is the way the blogs can change things. One of the ways, anyway. By bringing the symptoms of this ongoing corporate/fascist takeover to the public in bite-sized pieces. Pieces that they can digest whether awake OR asleep. Pieces that could quite possibly pertain to them. To THEIR lives. Pieces that the media cannot resist.
The big picture? International politics, the push and pull of various jive political parties?
That is the purview of the networks, of the MASS mass media.
But the personal?
That has to be hustled up the food chain.
ALL of us should be writing about the specific.
The child who is being dissed by the educational system because he or she doesn’t fit in the true/false/pick-one boxes.
Senior citizens robbed of their coverage by a mechanical insurance system.
And yes…just plain citizens caught in the maw of the 1984 Machine.
Why???
BECAUSE IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANY OF US.
A trumpet?
Why not a computer next time?
A camera.
A “subversive” book?
Something on the No Read List.
A history of Venezuela.
A book of Sufi poetry.
Non-approved sneakers.
The list is endless.
If you can’t join `em…BEAT `EM!!!
VAYA!!!
Later…
AG
AG
Thank you Arthur – I hope Valery keeps on winning. You put a song in my head:
Five to one, baby
One in five
No one here gets out alive, now
You get yours, baby
Ill get mine
Gonna make it, baby
If we try
The old get old
And the young get stronger
May take a week
And it may take longer
They got the guns
But we got the numbers
Gonna win, yeah
Were takin over
Come on!
Your ballroom days are over, baby
Night is drawing near
Shadows of the evening crawl across the years
Ya walk across the floor with a flower in your hand
Trying to tell me no one understands
Trade in your hours for a handful dimes
Gonna make it, baby, in our prime
Thanks, AG. There is no better way to say it and SHOW it. Blogs do have an impact. May I remind everyone who doubts it, that the slow forward momentum of progressive stories, diaries and comments on blogs about important issues and peoples lives DO MATTER.
I hope the concern trolls who write about how ineffective blogs are will take notice. I won’t go quite so far as to use the piehole thing, but I do get tired of folks who constantly whine about their view that simply exercising free speech in a public forum has no value.
I’m all for ACTION, and I TAKE ACTION when and where I consider it prudent and effective to do so, but we each do what we can, and sometimes exercising our free speech online is the best thing that we can do at the moment. Sometimes publishing under a pseudonym IS effective. Umm, I believe Ben Franklin and a few of the other rebels of that day were VERY effective – ‘merely’ writing and publishing under various pseudonyms. Eventually they had to raise an army, for sure, but effective speech on behalf of their cause raised an army of outrage, the direct antecedent of and the essential ongoing support for prudent and necessary action.
Kudos to you and the others who have spread the word on this man’s problem with security thugs. Keep it up. It does make a difference – bet on it.
I do hope he sues them for the big bucks but that won’t unbreak his arm unfortunately. I hope he heals fast and well. Thank you Arthur for bringing this to our attention. I am flying this month and I always wonder if this will be the time they tell me I am on the nofly list with thousands of other innocents.
This reminds me, AG: at a particular point in our literary history, the practice of poetics in the US was basically moribund, until William Carlos Williams issued some crucial advice to an impatient young poet named Ginsberg:
No ideas but in things.
That is, the very life of communication is drawn from a common human element.
Seems to me you’re addressing a similar impasse regarding the practice of journalism.
Well…
I don’t think it is nearly as cosmic as that, wilderness.
There are neither things NOR ideas…not real ones, anyway…in about 98% of ANY American media.
Just dreams.
A virtual construct that is taken as “reality” by its subjects.
And why is this construct constructed?
Is it some nefarious Supervillainous plot?
No. Not really.
It’s just the easiest way to make a buck.
The banality of real evil.
I ran across a reference to the French ascetic Simone Weil today on the consistently amazing and informative blog Rigorous Intuition.
I pursued her writings for most of this morning.
Here are a couple that pertain:
The very PICTURE of much of contemporary middle class, lower middle class and wealthy America.
Lots and lots of “things”.
NO thing real.
No things…no ideas.
Back to the front, William Carlos.
Back to the front.
TV has not only taken away ideas…it has eliminated “things” as well.
Desperate Housewives instead of sex.
Disposable cars instead of transportation.
Disposable presidents instead of statesmen.
From Lincoln to Butch in 150 years.
Nice.
Later…
AG
Thanks for the link! Much appreciated.
Good advice, AG. You have done a service for all of us by getting this particular snowball rolling. Yes, this could easily be any one of us.
to actually SEE somethig begin to happen at least partially because I blew a whistle.
There is many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip, however.
There are always the lawyers…
AG
…a Bloggers success story.
Little things do make a BIG difference. 🙂