Silenced Majority Portal

Billy Arrested

Now isn't this a fine kettle of fish?! by Slugbug

After the fine article about Billy's work at Mall of America, he heads to many other shopping places around the country, with a finale at Disneyland, home of Magic, Fun and Fantasy - and is arrested!

http://www.stratecomm.net/~fritz/gallery/anaheim/12252005c

Shopocalypse Tour: Final Act

The Main Street Parade
Wherein the Choir and Reverend proselytize tourists on Disneyland's Main Street, leading to detention and arrest (again).

The Christmas Day parade in Disneyland began with 30 red-robed gospel singers and a preacher who loudly advised, "We are the Magic Kingdom ourselves..."

After 4,500 miles on bus - from Buy Nothing Day in New York City to Christmas in Disneyland - The Church of Stop Shopping was ready to stage a Surprise Ending, donning robes in the bathrooms of the Tiki Room in Adventure Land. With watches synchronized, the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir walked onto "Main Street USA" at 1:50 PM on Christmas Day, with the Disney faithful lining the curbs, waiting for the dancing of Tinkerbelle and Donald and Mickey.

Over the previous month, the "Shopocalypse Tour" visited small towns and urban Main Streets devastated by big box stores. Appearing on MSNBC and CNN, the Rev discussed the cruelty of the holidays for long-time shopkeepers. Coverage by papers in Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Dallas, and Las Vegas excited hopes that a broader discussion of American consumption has begun. A recurrent topic was the practice of out-sourced goods in the big boxes and chains, which leaves companies like Wal-Mart free to undercut family stores with predatory pricing.

Watchdog groups estimate that 15,000 sweatshop factories supply the Disney company with the retail products it sells. "This Main Street kills our hometowns!" was an inevitable message in the anti-consumerist Christmas Day Parade. Virtually nothing for sale at Disney is manufactured in this country, or is union-made.

Savitri D, choir master Solomon Benn and other tour organizers expressed surprise that the entire choir entered the theme park undetected, hiding their robes at the bottom of backpacks and purses. The church photographer (CLICK HERE for tour gallery) also bypassed security. Once marching up the street in the rocking motion of gospel, the singers were able to complete three full songs, with the Reverend preaching throughout. The heightened strangeness of the place may have contributed to the hesitation by police to resist the church.

The performers marched back and forth on the theme park's Main Street, a distance of about a half mile, contacting several thousands of on-lookers, for a period of about 25 minutes. After Reverend Billy was surrounded and hand-cuffed, the choir was detained in the filthy back lot of the park. The choir is soon set free, promising to leave. The Rev was held in the Disneyland holding tank and then the Anaheim jail. He is charged with Trespass and Resisting Arrest.

The singers of the choir, from every continent and from all five New York City boroughs, will now take some well-deserved time off. They have sung in (and been ejected from) two dozen supermalls over the last month, including the Mall of America. The next performances will take place later this year at St. Mark's in the East Village.

For a more detailed account of the Main Street Parade, read "Letter from the Disneyland Jail," at http://www.revbilly.com/blog/?p=139

Dedicated to New York Transit Workers

"Lightning....

Strikes!!!!!

Now lightning strikes in old

New York

It may be dark
but I wanna talk

It might rain
it might snow

Too many things
I got to know

If this is spring
than it's time to sing

Never mind the lil birdie's wing

Look out, look out
old New York
New York's coming an'

New York talks

Hey!

strike!

not once...

Strike!

but twice!

Get out your money -
peel a slab
Roll some notes an'
hail a cab

Drive on Church
drive in back
Drive down Seventh Ave
in a tank

Take in the sights
feel the breeze

See New York's one and only tree

It can be found in Garbage Park

But don't inspect it after dark

hehe

Strike!

New York!

lightning!

Not once

but twice.

Accidental hike in the transit strike
Roller skate
or ride a bike
Three to a car
Brooklyn Bridge

You won't get far if you're privileged

(ed. Note Tell that one 2 mayor Mike)

Graffiti jack sprays in black

An Englishman can he read it back?

Deli Joe he ought to know
He runs the gang on Pastrami Row

Strike!

lightning strike!

Because glass to glass, street to street
Buildings touch st. peter's feet

From car to bar
prez to shah

Everything is in the jar

The 4 winds blow
cos the 4 winds know

It takes a special hustle to make a roll

Honey girl
on her feet

I wish everything could be as sweet

Strike!

twice!

ok so roll!

From Harlem!

strike one!

Harlem slum
to penthouse block

On every door I already knocked

There wasn't anybody that I didn't leave alone
Somebody lying under every stone

Everything that a man could need
In a bag down by my knee

That looks good
this ain't got seeds

It's cheaper than booze

Down in The Bowery

Lightning strike!

Old New York!

Everything's light!

strike!

Hey, ho

such a night

I'll see y'all when the lightning strikes!

A polaroid caught in the act
Youre married too
and that's a fact

But I won't peek
and I won't squeek

Down by the trucks on Christopher Street

It's Cuban Day -

Oi Vey!!

Chinese New Year?
let's call it a day!

Tootsie!

hey chi man!

That melody is Puerto Rican
Hey chi man is what he's speaking....

An' there's the road down into London Town
Where many cars get broken down
It's the westway from ladbroke grove
Runs down to Old Hounslow

Just thought I'd mention
The new extention
That run's down the 59th street intersection

Did you hear the news y'all?

London Town on the Broadway!"

Da Clash -
!Sandinista!

Five shopping days till Holiday: Stop the Shopocalypse

Everyone has likely read or heard about the War on Christmas. The front lines of the war are FOX News, the halls of the American Family Association , and even the Congress of the United States . The cause appears to be the commercialization of Christmas. Ironically, Christmas is being forced into stores while at the same time being removed from churches. Many churches have announced they will be closed on Christmas day.

Reverend Billy, accompanied by his Choir from the New-York based Stop Shopping Church, drove into Minnesota on their bus tour to deliver an alternative message. Reverend Billy warns of an impending Shopocalypse, and he spread this spiritual message throughout the Mall of America. Rev. Billy blends anti-consumerism theater with the fervor of a fire and brimstone preacher. He dares ask “What would Jesus buy?” or “Why women would want to smell like J Lo?” Below I have photos from his trip to Minnesota, an MP3 recording of his choir, as well as some observations about U.S. Christian culture. The diary is a little long, but I like to include some substance along with the light-hearted stuff. I hope I have achieved my goal of providing you with some entertainment and some issues to think about.

Reverend Billy delivered a message to a packed auditorium in south Minneapolis, and, afterwards, he invited his audience to accompany him and his red-robed choir to the Mall of America. More than 50 persons accepted the invitation. Each was given a white or a blue robe.

At the Mall of America, Billy and his flock occupied an empty stage outside of Sears, one of the anchor stores. They began singing songs imploring people to “stop shopping”. Lyrics to one song “demanded no more Starbucks, no more Disney, no more Bush, no more Cheney.” This song, which is worth hearing, is near the end of my 8 minute long MP3. The lyrics to some songs are difficult to hear on the audio recording (but you can get a sense for the excitement of the event from the recording), so I have included a sample of the lyrics to one song here:

Pack the Halls with folks with money
FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA
Tis the season to be dummies
FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA
Squeeze our fat in gap apparel
FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA
Buy some junk for cousin Carol
FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA

After performing several songs to the amazement of a gathering crowd, Billy and his followers rode up and down escalators in the mall.

They ended their mission with a sermon inside of Abercrombie and Fitch, a clothing store.

After about an hour in the mall, Reverend Billy and his followers were asked by mall security to leave. The peacefully exited the mall. Mission accomplished.

Christian preachers have a potentially large audience in the United States. Bill McKibben in an article in Harper’s Magazine (Aug, 2005) titled The Christian Paradox: How a faithful nation gets Jesus Wrong, reports that the U.S. “is among the spiritually most homogeneous nations on earth.” He notes that “85% of us call ourselves Christians. Israel, by way of comparison, is only 77% Jewish.” Given the dominance of Christianity, McKibben claims, and I agree, that nearly every statistic of American behavior represents the behavior of professed Christians. Included among these statistics are, according to McKibben’s article, evidence of non-Christian-like behaviors, including ones of neglect and excess. Examples include issues that are frequent topics of discussion on DailyKos.com including:

1. a rank that is second to last among developed countries in foreign aid
2. an 18% poverty rate among children in the U.S., which shows that foreign aid monies are not diverted to problems here in the U.S.
3. The most violent rich nation on earth with a murder rate 4 to 5 times that of European peers. Prisons are also overflowing with almost an order of magnitude more incarcerated persons than in European nations.
4. A death penalty which is used most frequently in states considered part of the Bible belt.
5. A divorce rate of more than 50%; The EU has a divorce rate of 40%.
6. Teenage pregnancy off the charts.
7. A national problem of obesity
8. government and personal deficits that are out of control.
9. A lack of health insurance for many US citizens
10. Homelessness in the US
11. Hunger in the US

The last two include many Kartrina victims as Shanikka’s recent diary noted.

Bill McKibben believes that the disconnect between the teachings of Christianity and action are a result of many Americans replacing Christianity of the Bible with competing creeds. One such creed is taught in the mega-churches in the exurbs as well as in the media. The message is not recognized as deviant because it is just like the rest of the culture. The following quote from Harper’s Magazine (Aug, 2005), summarizes this phenomenon that represents “a comfortable, soft-focus, suburban faith:”

A New York Times reporter visiting one booming megachurch outside Phoenix recently found the typical scene: a drive-through latte stand, Krispy Kreme doughnuts at every service, and sermons about “how to discipline your children, how to reach your professional goals, how to invest your money, how to reduce your debt.” On Sundays children played with church-distributed Xboxes, and many congregants had signed up for a twice-weekly aerobics class called Firm Believers. A list of bestsellers compiled monthly by the Christian Booksellers Association illuminates the creed. It includes texts like Your Best Life Now by Joel Osteen—pastor of a church so mega it recently leased a 16,000-seat sports arena in Houston for its services—which even the normally tolerant Publishers Weekly dismissed as “a treatise on how to get God to serve the demands of self-centered individuals.” Nearly as high is Beth Moore, with her Believing God—“Beth asks the tough questions concerning the fruit of our Christian lives,” such as “are we living as fully as we can?” Other titles include Humor for a Woman’s Heart, a collection of “humorous writings” designed to “lift a life above the stresses and strains of the day”; The Five Love Languages, in which Dr. Gary Chapman helps you figure out if you’re speaking in the same emotional dialect as your significant other; and Karol Ladd’s The Power of a Positive Woman. Ladd is the co-founder of USA Sonshine Girls—the “Son” in Sonshine, of course, is the son of God—and she is unremittingly upbeat in presenting her five-part plan for creating a life with “more calm, less stress.”

Although there is nothing inherently wrong with reducing stress and the other things mentioned in the above quote box, McKibben notes that the more radical teachings of Jesus to focus on others, especially the poor, are being ignored. In fact, the bestsellers listed above mirror the bestsellers in the secular culture, and that’s the point. Remove the quotes from the scripture from these books and they will still serve their purpose. That’s McKibben’s thesis. Three quarters of Americans believe that a Ben Franklin quote – “God helps those who help themselves” --- is Holy Scripture and that this uber-American value, rather than the teachings of Jesus, “guides our current individualistic politics and culture.”

Many Christians focus on the plight of the poor and criticize the self-indulgence of our culture and the commercialization of Christmas, but they seem to be in the minority. It’s ironic, though, that the one of the most vocal critics on the national stage is Reverend Billy, who is not a reverend but an actor. Reverend Billy has a more authentic message than some real preachers. It’s a paradox indeed!

Here are links to Reverend Billy’s web site as well as more of my photos from his visit to the Twin Cities.

Put your boots on: It’s time to protest global warming

You have to recognize the irony of protesting global warming with temperatures in the teens and snow falling from the sky, but that’s what about 50 Minnesotans did today as part of the world-wide effort to fight global warming. Persons from 30 nations are expected to participate. According to the Vancouver Sun , thousands of people braved freezing temperatures in Montreal to join in the protest which is scheduled to coincide with a “10-day UN Climate Change Conference underway in Montreal, where officials are reviewing and updating the Kyoto Protocol on lowering greenhouse gas emissions.” It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the Bush administration’s representatives attending the conference have the goal to fight against limiting greenhouse emissions that are responsible for the problem.

An article in The Independent spells out the risks of not taking any action. They include killer storms, water shortages, rising sea levels, and rampant disease, to name a few. This progressive paper also lists suggestions for government and for individuals to ameliorate the problem.

The scientific evidence that global warming presents a significant problem for our world is overwhelming. Why then is the Bush administration denying it? Back in June, news broke that Philip Cooney, chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, watered down reports that global warming is connected to greenhouse gas emissions, the ones that come out of automobile tailpipes. Cooney, who is a seasoned oil lobbyist with no scientific training, was caught “removing or adjusting language on climate research.” This is the guy the White House wanted for the job. This is the guy who was hired to work for the people – you and me. I should call Clooney the "former" chief of staff because two days after the report was published by the NY Times about Cooney's heavy hand in editing scientific reports, he resigned. The administration said he did a great job and that his resignation had nothing to do with that news. I'm sure the news didn't hurt Mr. Cooney's reputation. In fact, it probably helped him. He was hired by Exxon, a company that "has long financed advertising and lobbying efforts that question whether warming caused by humans poses risks serious enough to justify curbing carbon dioxide." According to the NY Times, Exxon and Mr Cooney were either unavailable or unwilling to comment about the nature of Mr Cooney's job with the oil company.

The Bush administration’s current policies haven’t changed with the departure of Cooney. The administration reports that it intends to resist any proposal to cut greenhouse gases because it believes such a policy will harm economic growth. I read that to mean that it’s donor’s profit margins are more important than the future of the planet.

Why do we put up with an administration that abuses the public trust? Hiring an oil lobbyist to protect and report on the environment is like placing a convicted child molester in charge of elementary school security.

And that makes two reasons why we donned our boots. They keep our feet warm and they are also needed when discussing Bush administration policies.

Post Script: This protest occurred at the beginning of the global-warming conference in Montreal. Near the end of the conference, the US negotiater on behalf of the Bush administration walked out and then did an about face (could I use the word Flip Flop in this instance?) based on media pressure. Here is a description of what happened from the Guardian

The chief US negotiator Harlan Watson walked out of talks on Friday after complaining that draft text proposals amounted to a call for negotiations which President George W Bush opposes.

Baffling some foreign ministers, Watson told the high-level meeting: 'If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck.'  US green campaigners quickly bought all the plastic ducks they could find in surrounding shops and handed them out to delegates and the media.

The conference was the first of the annual series to be held in North America, and US journalists flooded in, some privately admitting that they had not previously realised the international significance of the issue. The US delegation submitted its revised version of the statement text early yesterday, but made only superficial changes, said European negotiators. One revision replaced the word 'mechanisms', with 'opportunities'. The change came after a well-received conference speech from former President Bill Clinton, in which he said that Bush's main reason for not joining Kyoto - that it would damage the US economy - was 'flat wrong'.

Full Circle

(by Slugbug)

Eugene McCarthy has just died at age 89.

This was the heading of a TruthOut email and I haven't read a story about it yet, as I sit down to write this. I don't need a story, as this is a big part of the story of my life.

When I was sixteen years old, I wandered into a doorway where I saw a sign having to do with stopping the war in Vietnam. It was on Main Street in Mitchell, South Dakota. I went up those wooden stairs and signed up for the campaign of Eugene McCarthy. My supervisor was 21 years old. It was known as the "Chldren's Crusade." We were precursors to the Dean campaign, if anything, so I had many 'deja vu' moments when people seemed to think something new had been invented last year.

We recruited a guy who was old enough to drive - a farm kid with no political affiliation. We made our own posters because McCarthy's campaign didn't have much money. We rolled into little towns like Stickney and Storla, SD - Republican towns - and tried to spread the word. We read slogans into a bullhorn as we drove through these towns (they all had a Main Street, sometimes the only street with a name).

Often we would find that the Robert Kennedy Jr. people had come in ahead of us and had a nice headquarters. Their people got steaks, we got hamburgers. We were a little resentful. I also learned that we had one talk (when we canvassed door-to-door) for farm people, one for education-oriented people, one on health care etc. I also knew that McCarthy's political platform was very close to the of Robert Kennedy Jr. & he really was my 2nd choice, but Eugene was a poet and a visionary, an intellectual, a man with conscience.

Then Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was assassinated and it was all over. Eugene McCarthy would not have gotten the nomination. When I think about it, he may have been more of a Dennis Kucinich than a Howard Dean, were I to make a comparison. It's the campaign enthusiasm of the young people that made me draw parallels to the Deaniacs.

& then Humphrey was the nominee, I watched that horrible DNC convention in Chicago - with Mayor Daley's cops beating not just on demonstrators but on delegates! & then there was Nixon. I would feel such disappointment again, with Reagan twice, with Bush Sr. and most of all, with Bush Jr. heading the country. Last year had to be the worst election night of my life, but second was no doubt the night McGovern lost and we were at the convention headquarters in Sioux Falls, SD, trying to drown our sorrows even though we weren't yet old enough to drink.

Not so long ago, I came across an interview with Eugene McCarthy and he was still very coherent and wise. Today, this is an end of an era for me. For some people, it was the death of Paul Wellstone. This is similar. I will definitely need to find ways to keep the dream alive. We have to carry it on.

Here is a small Eulogy and some background, with information excerpted from Forbes magazine:

Former Minnesota Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, whose insurgent campaign toppled a sitting president in 1968 and forced the Democratic Party to take seriously his message against the Vietnam War, died Saturday. He was 89.

Eugene McCarthy challenged President Lyndon B. Johnson for the 1968 Democratic nomination during growing debate over the Vietnam War. The challenge led to Johnson's withdrawal from the race.

The former college professor, who ran for president five times in all, was in some ways an atypical politician, a man with a witty, erudite speaking style who wrote poetry in his spare time and was the author of several books.

"He was thoughtful and he was principled and he was compassionate and he had a good sense of humor," his son said.

When Eugene McCarthy ran for president in 1992, he explained his decision to leave the seclusion of his home in rural Woodville, Va., for the campaign trail by quoting Plutarch, the ancient Greek historian: "They are wrong who think that politics is like an ocean voyage or military campaign, something to be done with some particular end in view."

McCarthy got less than 1 percent of the vote in 1992 in New Hampshire, the state where he helped change history 24 years earlier.

Helped by his legion of idealistic young volunteers known as "clean-for-Gene kids," McCarthy got 42 percent of the vote in the state's 1968 Democratic primary. That showing embarrassed Johnson into withdrawing from the race and throwing his support to his vice president, Hubert H. Humphrey.

Sen. Robert Kennedy of New York also decided to seek the nomination, but was assassinated in June 1968. McCarthy and his followers went to the party convention in Chicago, where fellow Minnesotan Humphrey won the nomination amid bitter strife both on the convention floor and in the streets.

Humphrey went on to narrowly lose the general election to Richard Nixon. The racial, social and political tensions within the Democratic Party in 1968 have continued to affect presidential politics ever since.

"It was a tragic year for the Democratic Party and for responsible politics, in a way," McCarthy said in a 1988 interview.

"There were already forces at work that might have torn the party apart anyway - the growing women's movement, the growing demands for greater racial equality, an inability to incorporate all the demands of a new generation.

"But in 1968, the party became a kind of unrelated bloc of factions ... each refusing accommodation with another, each wanting control at the expense of all the others."

Bush visit to Minneapolis Hilton

Bush visited Minneapolis today to raise more than 1 million dollars for Rep. Mark Kennedy, a republican U.S. senate candidate. Roughly 500 persons protested in front of the Hilton Hotel, the site of the fundraiser. Temperatures were in the teens. Here are some photos from that event. My photos are selective; the goal wasn't to document the crowd but rather to capture scenes that make political statements.

Thanks to Hell's Kitchen for the free coffee.

Click on photos to see a larger version.

If I Had A Rocket Launcher

Here comes the helicopter -- second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they've murdered only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher...
I'd make somebody pay
I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher...
I would retaliate
On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation -- or some less humane fate
Cry for Guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
If I had a rocket launcher...
I would not hesitate
I want to raise every voice -- at least I've got to try
Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher...
Some son of a bitch would die
-- Bruce Cockburn, "If I Had A Rocket Launcher"