Who's Fighting Whom?
July 4, 2009
Most of "the good fight" takes place on the Internet due to control factors in play by TPTB. Old news. However, because of the restrictions of Internet communications, it is often difficult to tune through the static to get to the signal; the signal from the good guys, as well as the bad guys. It is especially hard on the net because it is so easy to create false selves.In addition, communicating on the Internet can be like the way people talk to retail clerks and cashiers. They say things to them in a demanding, impolite, sometimes demeaning manner; whereas they would never speak to someone they know in that fashion. Same thing goes on the net. People type things to one another they would never say to their face. That's why message boards and blog replies and such can get so negative and offensive. Having moderated a board with over 3000 members, I know it can be a major drag, but it comes with the territory.
So who are you, what do you know, and why do you care?Some people already know me, some don't. This will give you an idea of who I am and why this is imprtant to me, and why I care enough to write these pages. It is important that one learns all they can about the source of one's information. Doing work at our community radio station KPFT and with Houston Independent Media, I have no problem figuring out fellow street fighters because I am physically in the presense of the people doing the other pieces of the work. I can see and hear them. If I say something to them, I am not protected by a screen and cables, what I say goes in their face, and what they say goes into mine. One of the things I like to do is actually meet the people to whom I listen, and with whom I carry on the good fight. That way I can get my own best assessment of who they are, and what they are about. IMO, if I want to know the so-called good/bad of a person; their TV, or radio, or Internet self just doesn't do it for me. I've watched Soupy Sales. For me, there is no substitution for looking into someone's eyes, shaking their hand, getting a sense of their energy and talking to them face to face. I have done that with many alternative media personalities and their guests and other "personalities" of note. A few examples - Ron Paul, David Cobb, Amy & David Goodman, Aaron Glantz, Noam Chomsky, Cindy Sheehan, Ira Glass, Ann Richards, Daniel Elsburg, Cissy Farenthold, Kinky Freidman, Mike Hosler, Bev Harris, Linda Hunnicutt, Bob Fitrakis, Clifford Carnicom, Cliff Mickelson, Will Thomas, Mike Castle, Chuck Shramek, Chet Snow, Whitley Streiber, Ken Welch, Richard Hoagland, even Bum Phillips, and more... too many to list. From those enounters, and my own research, I know, to the best of my ability to know, who I can trust, and who I can't, and to what degree. I am including the following picture, not because I think it's so cool that I have met these people, but to prove I am not BSing here. After meeting someone in person, one can get a better sense of what that person is really all about. I try my best to do that before I make judgements about people, on the net, or off.  Lorie K with Daniel Ellsberg, Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Kinky Friedman, Linda Hunnicutt, Mike HoslerOK. That's taken care of. Now comes the harder part, buckle up.
In a recent article related to the response from the letter to my Dear, dear America that I wrote - I talked about Truths, Half-Truths, Lies and Cowards. I talked about coming clean about things. We need to practice what we preach. That's right, come clean. We can't expect others to do it, if we don't. We have to look at ourselves first, you know casting the first stone and all that.The other thing we have to do is call people out when things happen that need to be examined. I know these days that could be a full time job; especially since the media, so called "journalists", don't seem to be interested in doing much of that anymore. Heck, they are too busy creating the lies, skewing the news; they don't have time to uncover, examine and expose problems. But, we have to do it; letting them off "the hook" just makes it easier for them to continue, and the consequences of that could do more damage. It relates to the personal responsibility and courage thing I mentioned in the aforementioned article. So that is why we must continue.
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