Clowns With
Hatchets
By
Judith Moriarty
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
2-7-3
- What's more American than the County Fair or in rural
America, the excitement of the carnival coming to town? The magic of the
midway of a summer's eve, the bustle of folks in from the farms and
hills. Cotton candy, popcorn, stuffed animals, the Merry-Go-Round, the
Ferris Wheel and the side show out back.
-
- Terrorism---"act of terrorizing, or state of being
terrorized; a mode of governing or of opposing government by
intimidation" To date our imagery of "terrorism" is a bearded man with
his head wrapped in cloth, a man who appears to have just escaped from
an insane asylum, called a 'shoe bomber', men in orange suits being kept
in dog cages in Cuba, Kim Jong, with his collection of Daffy Duck
videos, Saddam at some conference table surrounded with his henchmen,
men in caves making video tapes and planning an attack with $1.29 box
cutters; against a Super-Power with approximately 26 different
intelligence agencies and NORAD, and some group called Al Queda, coming
to get us! Today, Feb 7, '03, a bulletin comes on TV," Alert now High
orange! Alter your routine!!! Keep vigilant!" Alter my routine!! There's
six feet of snow outside, the driveways a sheet of ice, I haven't been
outside in weeks! Should I go down the hall through the bedroom, and
then into the front hall before entering the living room? Or should I
sneak out the bathroom window, crawl through the snow and creep in
through the basement to make that cup of coffee in the kitchen?? I'm
having a real problem!!
-
-
- Vigilant! I peek through the blinds and spot a bunch
of wild turkeys (no not politicians) scrounging around for some left
over sunflower seeds, two bluejays, a stray cat creeping into the barn,
a broken branch, (not noted yesterday) in the stand of pines out back,
and more snow falling!! Nobody in robes or anyone remotely
tanned!!
-
-
- Colin Powell, at the UN, with supposed proof positive
of the need to bomb away!! Some pictures of trucks, a couple metal
outbuildings, and some various indistinguishable blobs of something or
other. Then some garbled tapes of "We had better not let the Americans
seeing us hiding all these weapons of mass destruction or we will have
some real problems....hurry get everything on the trucks........"
Something like that!! Then, horror of horrors, Colin holds up a crack
vial, oops, no a vial of some white stuff that represents the amount of
anthrax that shut down the Capital. Of course, that anthrax was found to
be from our own labs, but I guess I'm nit picking again. All in all,
seemed a pretty good reason to me to start the War of the Worlds!! I had
expected pictures of Saddam and bin-Laden, in lab coats in some secret
lab whipping up concoctions of vile poisons, camel racing, or watching
Daffy Duck videos with Kim Jong of Korea! Something!
-
- I was trying to imagine taking all this 'evidence'
into court to prove a shoplifting charge or even mass murder! "Yes, your
Honor, these trucks could well have hauled the loot out from Bengie's
Superette, or bodies! These photos taken from space, absent any
landmarks, are conclusive! And then your Honor we have these tapes of
the shoplifters or murderers, talking about getting the stuff out of
there before anyone shows up". "No, your Honor, we don't have the names
or the location or even the time of all these
happenings........".
-
-
- I don't like Colin Powell and I never believed him.
Maybe I'm the only person in the whole of the U.S.A. who doesn't buy the
Black hero thing...no matter if he were purple. Being Black, (which he
doesn't consider himself) and dressed in a spiffy uniform, doesn't make
him any more credible or heroic than my mailman! Convenient, his son
getting a the top position at the FCC. Wonder how many other qualified,
unconnected people were passed over to set him up in that cushy job?
Colin's parents came from the Islands. Now, if you've never worked with
the poor in the inner city, you wouldn't know that Blacks in America
have a real disdain for those from the Islands. They say they're stuck
up thinking they're superior. The Blacks from the Islands on the other
hand, are outraged if you identify them with American Blacks, as they
think of them as lazy ner' do wells! I lost all respect for Colin in
Gulf War I, with his riding the fence and then returning home to a 5
million dollar book contract! Not once have I seen him or Norman
Schwarzkopf, with his own 5 million dollar deal, championing or speaking
out for the Gulf War Veterans, or for the reservists returning home
having to go on welfare to receive needed medical care! Didn't see them
turning over any of their book profits or lucrative speaking fees to
veterans living under bridges or in city parks. Some leaders!!!
-
-
- I attended the inauguration of President Clinton (the
first one). We got to the Capitol grounds early and were right up front.
Soon, tens of thousands filled in behind us. We waited hours for the
ceremony to begin. Beside us stood an elderly Black couple with their
two young grandsons, ages 4 and 6. Crushed in as we were, we soon became
acquainted and I made up stories for the kids to keep them occupied. In
front of us was the podium and a number of chairs. One of the little
boys said, "Nanna, how comes those people get to sit in chairs and we
gots to stand?" The grandmother, in her black dress coat, gloves and
hat, leaned down and whispered, "Honey chil', those chairs are for the
house niggers, we's the field niggers!" We never got to see the
inauguration, because just as President Clinton stepped up to take the
oath of office, the grandfather had a heart attack. Giving him CPR,
while sending word out through the multitudes to the Army medics, had
the ceremony long ended by the time we took notice. He was taken away by
stretcher over the heads of the crowd, but I never forgot that
grandmother's surprising remark to her grandson. She had it right. All
these (including Powell) getting their special jobs and appointments are
nothing more than house niggers and we're all the field niggers.
-
- I firmly believe that a form of psychic terrorism is
being perpetuated on the American public. Towers crashing, flags,
memorial services, church choirs, walls of pictures, survivors stories,
war on Afghanistan (even though 15 of the supposed hijackers came from
Saudi Arabia), warnings of smallpox, biologicals, chemicals, snipers
picking people off, warnings, war drums, bin Laden disappears, Saddam
back on the scene, drum roll, music accompanying "Countdown to War with
Iraq", Shuttle blowing up, more memorial services, funerals, alert
days.....!
-
-
- Be vigilant! What an asinine thing to say to people!
Who writes these scripts? First sign of trouble, and they're all off to
their sumptuous underground bunkers, that WE built with tax dollars.
We're left with a crew of eight guys in chemical suits and a hose!
Hungry? Well, I guess we're just going to have to go scrounging through
tunnels, city halls, and institution basements for those rusted, rotted
civil defense supplies! We have absolutely no civil defense in this
country!! Israel sure does! And we paid for their gas masks, and sealed
rooms! Nope, we're on our own...waiting for Cheney to speak to us from
some mountain hideout. "Do not panic, do not riot, cover your mouths
with old towels, do not take deep breaths, stay indoors, be vigilant,
alter your routines!"
-
- I'm not sure when it happened; but I imagined I was
walking down the mid-way of the County Fair, listening to the music the
laughter of the children, when it all became a surreal madhouse! A
Salvador Dali painting of melted Ferris Wheels, dismembered carousel
horses, blinking warning lights, sirens, carney men demanding my ID,
metal detectors, funerals in the Big Top, flags waving, the rocket ride
disintegrating, someone picking people off from the Grange rooftop, men
in black with masks, beating clubs on shields, pushing the crowds back
to the Fun House, stuffed animals jumping from their booths with M-16s;
and in the chaos and mania of exits all barred; clowns waving hatchets
with lewd smirks and vacant slug eyes quoting Scriptures, screaming,
"Charge! Those not with us are against us!" Ducking into the 4-H tent, I
spotted a small child with her lamb holding a blood soaked dove in her
outstetched hand. "Peace" she whispered. That's how I see our America
today! Clowns with Hatchets, gone
mad!
|
The Mulindwas
communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
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