http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Eichmanns
(source: wikipedia)
"If churches want to play the game of politics, let them pay admission like everyone else."
-George Carlin
Earlier today, as some of my fellow "homeless" kids and me sat near Philosophy Flat, we were harassed by a "janitor" from "Block By Block." This "custodian" walked up and, because one kid was smoking a cigarette, something frowned upon in the "commercial district" -- a euphemism for "mall" in an attempt at the privatization of "public space" -- and carries a $261.00 fine for the second offense, the first being a "warning." Then the employee of the union-busting corporation (SMS Holdings) out of the Red State of Tennessee, backed by the city council of Berkeley as well as the Downtown [Berkeley] Business Association (DBA) and the Business Improvement District (BID), uttered the words, "You guys ain't gonna do this all day long, you gotta go."
He wasn't speaking to me, directly, but to my friends... with whom I was speaking just before the Neon Yellow Menace vomited his toothless growl. He began taking us down a road that had nothing to do with "subject," as he put it. What the subject was, though: a corporation using a Little Eichmann-type foot-soldier to do its bidding, and that's bothersome to me, and should be problematic to all of you reading this, as well. Again, these are the baby steps to those infamous gas chambers and incinerators. The people killed in the Holocaust never saw it coming. Or so they claimed, correct? Well, some did, but they were "disappeared" in the middle of the night as part of the "T-4 Euthanasia Experiment," never to be heard from again. And if this is the case, what makes you believe you will see it coming? Are you more intelligent than they were back then?
The answer to that question is an obvious "no." So then let me ask you something: why is it so hard to believe it can happen again, and what makes you believe that you would see it coming this time around? Because, the last time I checked, this culture has missed warning sign after obvious warning sign, and continues chugging along at breakneck speed... at "Ludicrous Speed," as if everything is chummy and swell! And I am the insanity? I am the problem? Me? That's what that clown and those he represents would like from all this stupidity. They need a scapegoat. They tried scapegoating the entire lot of us and failed. Now it's time to pin it on the one who screams loudest... and I see them coming.
They will attempt making me some sort of "ring leader" of a "gang," like the "Juggalos." Which is ludicrous. As anyone knows about me out here or anywhere else for that matter, except for those trying to smear me, is that I abhor groups over five. And I have to know the five (people) I am around for that to even be cool. I suffer from a mild form of Agoraphobia. That's why my presence at Occupy Oakland was so remarkable. Not that I didn't have my bouts of panic there, I did, but I handled it, just like I handled this joker with a broom and yellow dustpan, who uttered, "You just like an audience." Not really. It's not my primary motivation for yelling at him, and has or had nothing to do with my verbose attitude, actually.
The main reason for screaming at him in that manner is to one, make sure there are plenty of witnesses who see and hear what is going on during our "argument." Witnesses to this type stuff are necessary because the guy with the rolling trash can can lie to authorities about a given situation, like the one occurring yesterday. Having an independent citizen involved, arbitrating from an objective vantage-point, gives the citizen being harassed a useful weapon against that corporate tentacle and enforcer. That's the first reason I employ that style when accosted by one of them. Getting the attention of citizens is paramount in this fight we're having out here.
The second reason is I am angry. Hell, maybe that's the first reason, but it's one of 'em, and yes, the ego pushes it as well. The custodian mentioned that when he said, "You need an audience," yeah, sure... that's part of it. Again, the audience, or, "citizens," rather, need to be informed their town has sell-out, corporate whores working and residing in its city limits. This is the People's Republic of Berkeley not the Sell-Out Corporate Whores of Berkeley. And mayor Tom "Master" Bates is the ring leader of that gang of thugs who should be tarred and feathered in Constitution Square/Plaza, while the DBA's makeshift hot dog stand plays a Clash song, a band who was anti-establishment?
The city's wannabe security guard tried making his point about me, but it's not about me. But that's what these clowns are going for. They are attempting to make it all about me and say I'm a figurehead, which, again, would be absurd, considering my personality and the fact I'm not very good at organizing, or this wouldn't even be an issue because I would have taken care of it already, obviously. They can make all the aspersions they like but at the end of the day it's still not about me. It's about everything they are doing to American Citizens in this community, no matter their socioeconomic status.
It's about how poor people are being targeted by some Corporate Menaces using Religious Bullshit to get their way... and we're all supposed to go along with it. This is about a corporation telling citizens they cannot exist in the public space and harassing them in full view of everyone.
Why is there a janitor with no authority telling anyone anything in the public space, with a tone of authority? Never attempting to move anyone else who isn't a street kid or homeless, that is harassment on top of some phony morality play they are making? Who are they?
The spokesperson also intimated that I "do nothing out here but sit." Now, that's not true... but ignorance runs that way. But never mind that. Let's say he's correct, and I do nothing and have done nothing for the past two years... so? So what? That supposed inaction is not against the law and I am not violating some constitutional value... but they are. Nothing in our law book says I have to get a conventional job or live in a conventional home or doesn't allow for me to exist in the public space without the fear of harassment by the State or some unconstitutional Corporate Douche baggery.
Again, the "pursuit of happiness" will not be decided by some corporation, people. I will not do what they want. If my friends or I want sit around and panhandle, since there are no laws being broken at this time, I (and many others) say leave them and me the hell alone! You may not like what someone is doing, but that doesn't give you or anyone else the right to harass those people for existing different than yourself. If liking something were the criteria for whether we are tolerant toward something or not we'd all be in steel-reinforced boxes, underground, chained to one another, and there would be five people walking the planet's surface. Eventually, we'd all get sick of each other and that would be all she wrote.
Corporations are soulless fucks and they don't care about you or your rights. They just want you to spend your money and eat sh*t. Yeah, yeah, the language... so f*cking what. The sh*t we deal with concerning corporations is highly disturbing and the time to stop being a p*ssy about it is over. Citizens need to stop this complicit behavior. We need to rise up and shout at these people when they try this stuff. And anyone reading this, if you're out and about and you're in the downtown Berkeley area and you see something like I described here today, say something! Yell at those janitors! They don't have authority over anyone!
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