And You Think What?...

Fine issue, Rod. Three brief points.

The first for Steve Vivian on the dumming down of higher education - and hence all education. In the school year 1960-1961, I was attending the University of Missouri, a master's candidate in Classical Languages, living in Dockery-Folk Hall (a graduate-/vet-medicine/medicine-student dormitory, my room with a clear shot down the second floor of the nurses dormitory where an astronomy major had permanently installed his telescope). That year, one of the graduate students was teaching an introductory mathematics course: the class contained about a dozen education majors. He flunked them all, every one of the ed majors. The Dean of the ed school went to the Dean of Arts and Sciences and told him to tell the graduate student that he could not possibly flunk all those precious ed majors. The Dean of Arts and Sciences indicated that the graduate student could - and did - flunk every one of them for good reasons: he had already reviewed the case. The Dean of the ed school responded by setting up, in the ed school, the only mathematics course that future teachers would be required to take - taught by his own graduate students in education. Word had it that the course covered little more than counting and geometric shapes, an insult to "education" however defined. To me, that was the year that the educationists abandoned their mission and opened the doors to all who would be willing to be dummed down.

The second, also for Steve Vivian, on collective bargaining and unionizing. I was working in Jackson, Wyoming (no, not Jackson Hole - the geographic region, but the town of Jackson). The cost of living was something like Boston's. The wages were closer to southern Alabama. Some of the young folks were genuinely suffering in all this - those who came out for the summer to work in "the hospitality industry." I encouraged them to look into getting organized, find assistance from experienced union organizers (in person, in books and articles, on the web, etc.). Their response was that they "didn't like unions." And the reason? They wanted to be able to do their own labor bargaining. They did not want to be beholden to, or pay money to, some union representative. At $5.35 per hour, eight hours a day - these kids were trying to live on $133 a week take-home pay where an apartment rents for $600 to $800 per month. They were thoroughly convinced that they would be humanly diminished if they joined a union. Where else, other than school and the media, did they every concoct such nonsense? They did not have enough money for food and clothing and a roof over their heads - and they still insisted that collective bargaining is somehow a diminishing of human existence. Moreover, they would argue about it with totally specious evidence: why, the union would take half of my pay! or, unions force you to vote a particular way and I do not want to give up my right to vote as I choose. I was sure of one thing, however: These were the same kids that were taught by teachers who could not possibly pass a college-level math course.

Rod:

Forgive me for not replying more quickly to your very thoughtful e-mail regarding "Wall Street's Cum Laude". My mailserver has been sputtering very badly for several days and is just now up and running.

Thanks very much for sharing your readers' positive thoughts about my piece. It's gratifying to know that your readers enjoyed it, and also gratifying that you took the trouble pass along their kind words.

By the way, your most recent issue is very good...just finished reading much of it!

I hope to submit more work to you in the near future.

Best wishes,
Steve Vivian


From Robert P., Westminister, MD, USA:

Rod:

Liked your "glass house" piece on MLK Jr. An antidote to the usual media "silly season" coverage. Locally, my group sponsored a talk on Martin & Malcolm that focused on King's increasing militancy -- anti-Vietnam position, "Poor People's Campaign", critique of capitalism -- and Malcolm's growth beyond hatred of whites. Much more, of course -- a wide range of similarities & differences in backgrounds, perspectives & approach. All calculated to shatter whites' stereotypes & simpleminded notions about them (and the social context of the 50's & 60's).

--Bob


Diamond D, Higganum, CT, USA:

hooray!!

great piece on MTBE "now".

as these issues strike closer and closer to home more people start to bring a lot more attention to this continued corporate bullshit envirofascism. I think it is time for a class action lawsuit against the government and the corporations responsible for the lecherous use and abuse of this land. I wannabe the next Nader, will you help me? (more important, is this possible?) I probably need a law degree or something for that shit tho' huh?

The World's Magazine, the World's Mailbox

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Land protection is coordinated by The Nature Conservancy. The Race is hosted by Care2.com -- Homebase for people who care about the Environment.


From James Squeaky, Portland, OR, USA:

"It's OK to lie to people because it leaves your options open" -Srini Kumar, 1999

After almost three years of working with Srini on Unamerican Activities, I have made the difficult decision to move on and I thought it appropriate to publically announce my departure. I have left due to personal and poltical differences with Srini and so suddenly because Srini killed my kitten-which if you are interested, you can read about on my site at http://misterridiculous.com/squeaky/journal/journalentries/december1999/120499.html

I wonder how all of the people who email Srini via the site and say "Oh I love you and I love unamerican and you're so great, blah, blah, blah" would think if they knew what he is like in person; so out of control that he just tears down or destroys anything that gets in his way or tries to help him. Caught up in this weird fantasy world where he thinks that he is some sort of Christ figure that was sent to this planet to lead people towards a revolution. Someone who is so busy trying to martyrize himself, that he doesn't even know what it means to care about someone or even knows what he really wanst out of a "revolution", so long as it means a lot of money and attention for him. He's managed to create a cool, moneymaking, inspiring project, but can't even do the minimum to upkeep or update it.

It makes me sad when these people email or write letters. Sad, mostly because I'm afraid they'd be disappointed, but mostly sad that people put so much faith into someone or something that they don't even know.

No one can own these ideas-they exist regardless, always have and always will. Fortunately, some people are blessed with a gift of being able to express these ideas, whether it be through speech, writing, music, or other art. There are three types of people in the world-those who watch, those who inspire, and those who do (course, there's some overlap). The thing is that some people who have a gift in one area of their life, don't have it in all. Like a good friend of ours once said, "Srini is a smart guy, but he sure lacks in people-skills"

And so perhaps it was obvious to Srini that him getting famous was much less important to me then my desire to help people find some meaning in their lives. Perhaps he saw that to me, his and I's friendship is a distant second to the business and ideas. I didn't work with him because he's pleasant to be around, but because I thought he had a lot of good things that came out of his mouth or keyboard. He's designed a business that really makes sense and excites me and that's why, much to the dismay of my loved ones, who see me unhappy all the time, I pushed on regardless.

I could never deny the benefits. All the amazing people I've met and have had contact with, the contacts, not having to go to a stupid job and more recently, being able to travel and go take part in the anti-WTO demonstration. At times, Srini and I have been friends, but usually it's just fleeting, until he is confident that I am his friend and he can act like an asshole again because I tend to always forgive him.

At this point, I am not positive what the future of Unamerican is and would be happiest seeing it's demise. Selling stickers is not a revolutionary act. Telling people what to think and belittling them for their ideas is simply coercion-and I want no part of "Srini's revolution" I've had enough of the negativity and anger.

So, I've moved up to Portland, Oregon to try to build up my own website http://misterridiculous.com and help my friend get his record label off the ground. It's been a pretty scary change (especially because I have no money at all right now) but I feel really good about it nonetheless.

The only thing that I really enjoyed about doing unamerican was the contact and correspondance I got to have with so many amazing and intelligent people. The letters, the emails, the little gifts in the mail, the offers of places to stay-that's really been the inspiration to me, knowing that there are so many thinking people interested in making a real change in this country and world. It's what made me think the project was worthwhile-I somehow was naive enough to believe that Srini was really trying to build a community. But, if that is the case, why didn't he ever allow other people's input or writing on the unamerican site (not even by his partner). He never gave me any kind of creative input and though he claimed that we were partners, never gave me any kind of legal ownership or say in the company-often times making important decisions without even running it by me or taking my ideas into consideration.

Since someone wrote an article criticizing Srini and Unamerican in a punk magazine, he has written a response called "THE CRUCIFIXION OF SRINI KUMAR", so who knows what he'll call this. I don't mean it as an attack-simply as the facts as to why I have left. Whether you continue to support unamerican or not is of no concern to me, but I hope that anyone who is really interested in contributing to the community that I am trying to build on http://misterridiculous.com will get in touch and let me know how you wish to be involved. Anyone who wishes to make any sort of financial contribution to get my business ideas off the ground, may do so to the address below (checks/MO's can be made out to "James Reling".)

If you wish to get in touch with me, please use the james@misterridiculous.com email address (or write me a letter to the address below) as Srini was intercepting my emails to the @unamerican.com address and going through them. If you have a question about an order or something, I can't help you anymore-you'll have to look elsewhere-sorry.

I will continue to use this email list for updates on what's going on at misterridiculous.com and Microcosm records-I won't waste your time, but if that's not OK, just send an unsubscribe message and I won't bother you anymore.

I love you all-let's build something really worth fighting for.

James Squeaky- Cheap Visionary
http://www.misterridiculous.com "Fun with a Purpose"
http://misterridiculous.com/squeaky a little bout me.
send me stuff- PO Box 5964, Portland, OR 97228-5964

"It's OK to lie to people because it leaves your options open" -Srini Kumar, 1999

"People say so condescending "your idealism is amusing", but I say being alive is choosing to not give up" -Aaron Cometbus (Pinhead Gunpowder, "I wanna")

"To me, getting involved in something ridiculous is life because life is ridiculous" -Ian MacKaye (Punk Planet #31, May/June 1999)

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