***I Fall To Pieces Each Time I Hear Her Sing- Pasty Cline-Live At The Cimarron Ballroom (Oklahoma)

CD Review

Pasty Cline-Live At The Cimarron Ballroom (1961), Patsy Cline, MCA Records, 1997
For those of us of a certain age (growing up in the early 1960s) the timeless voice of Patsy Cline, whether we were aware of it or not, formed the backdrop to many a school dance or other romantic endeavor. I was not a fan of Cline’s, at least not consciously, growing up but have come to appreciate her talent and her amazing voice. In another review in this space I have called her the “country torch singer,” par excellence. And she does not fail here. At least musically. On such classics as I Fall To Pieces (twice, the second being better than the first, ah, “warm up”), Walking After Midnight, Stupid Cupid, Foolin’ Round, and some twangy Cline dialogue between songs she is up to par.

However, thematically this CD, while of some value as a historic document (her first concert after a near fatal car accident), is another question. While it was interesting (and a little disconcerting live, circa 1961) to hear her work from the 1950's and early 1960s and covers of others I do not believe that this compilation does justice to her work. Patsy, like many another torch singer like Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday, needs to grow on you. The best way to do that is grab a Greatest Hits (or a Gold Definitive) album and sit back. You won’t want to turn the damn thing off. As for this one, if you have time to listen do so as an appetizer.

"Crazy"

Written by willie nelson
(as performed by willie nelson)
Also performed by patsy cline and ray price*

Crazy
Crazy for feeling so lonely
Im crazy
Crazy for feeling so blue

I knew
Youd love me as long as you wanted
And then someday
Youd leave me for somebody new

Worry
Why do I let myself worry
Wondrin
What in the world did I do

Crazy
For thinking that my love could hold you
Im crazy for tryin
Crazy for cryin
And Im crazy
For lovin you

(repeat last verse)


Patsy Cline, She's Got You Lyrics

Artist: Cline Patsy
Song: She's Got You

“She's Got You”

I've got your picture that you gave to me
And it's signed "with love," just like it used to be
The only thing different, the only thing new
I've got your picture, she's got you

I've got the records that we used to share
And they still sound the same as when you were here
The only thing different, the only thing new,
I've got the records, she's got you

I've got your memory, or has it got me?
I really don't know, but I know it won't let me be

I've got your class ring; that proved you cared
And it still looks the same as when you gave it dear
The only thing different, the only thing new
I've got these little things, she's got you

Patsy Cline, Why Can't He Be You Lyrics

Artist: Cline Patsy
Song: Why Can't He Be You


“Why Can't He Be You”

He takes me to the places you and I used to go
He tells me over and over that he loves me so
He gives me love that I never got from you
He loves me too, his love is true
Why can't he be you

He never fails to call and tell me I'm on his mind
And I'm lucky to have such a guy; I hear it all the time
And he does all the things that you would never do
He loves me, too, his love is true
Why can't he be you

He's not the one who dominates my mind and soul
And I should love him so, 'cause he loves me, I know
But his kisses leave me cold

He sends me flowers, calls on the hour, just to prove his love
And my friends say when he's around, I'm all he speaks of
And he does all the things that you would never do
He loves me too, his love is true
Why can't he be you

Patsy Cline, Sweet Dreams Lyrics

Artist: Cline Patsy
Song: Sweet Dreams

“Sweet Dreams”

Sweet dreams of you
Every night I go through
Why can't I forget you and start my life anew
Instead of having sweet dreams about you

You don't love me, it's plain
I should know I'll never wear your ring
I should hate you the whole night through
Instead of having sweet dreams about you

Sweet dreams of you
Things I know can't come true
Why can't I forget the past, start loving someone new
Instead of having sweet dreams about you

***Out In The Be-Bop Be-Bop 1960s Night- When Gary Ladd Danced The North Adamsville High School Dance Night Away- Not





CD Review

The Rock ‘n’ Rock Era: 1961, various artists, Time-Life Music, 1989

Scene: Brought to mind by one of the pieces of teen life-driven artwork that graces each CD in this series.

Saturday night, any third Saturday of the month from September to May, when every red-blooded teen boy and girl in the 1961 North Adamsville High School be-bop,be-bop night could only be in one locale, or want to be. That was the night of the monthly seasonally-themed high school hop where anyone, even freshmen and sophomores, could ante up the dollar admission and dance the night away. Well, almost dance the night away. And that is the dilemma confronting one freshman, Gary Ladd (he is the “wallflower” way off to the side of the gym almost into the wall if you didn’t think you saw him on one of the nights in question).

Gary, well, we might as well have our moment of truth right up front, can’t dance. Can’t dance a damn, to hell, heaven or any place in between. Two- left feet. Two left-feet despite the best efforts of one Agnes Ladd, North Adamsville Class of 1961 Vice President, whose own feet have taken a terrible beating trying to teach little brother Gary the elements of the waltz, the fox trot, and hell, even the twist to no avail. But Gary, no twerp under his two left-footed exterior, has always, as he put it, exercised his democratic right to be at these universal dances, come hell or high water.

But this night, this warm April Springfest Dance night, things might just be a little different as Gary takes his place against the far wall (the wall farthest away from the girl “wallflowers” just in case you wanted an exact location. Mostly wallflowers, boy or girl, are keeping their respective distances on the odd chance that someone may actually come up and ask them to dance). First off this month the local craze rock band sensations, The Rockin’ Ramrods, are here live on the makeshift bandstand. And just this minute they are tuning up with the appropriately named Please Stay by the Drifters. Secondly, a new girl in town, Elsie Mae Horton, is here. Naturally the mere fact that she is here is added reason why Gary is here (and why he tortured his sister Agnes to try, try in vain, to teach him some dance steps). See Gary has the “bug” for Elsie Mae, yah, he is smitten.

Now this Elsie Mae is maybe, on a scale of one to ten, about a six so it is not looks that have Gary (and about six other guys), well, smitten. But what Elsie Mae has is nothing but smarts, book smarts, idea smarts, talk smarts you name it smarts and one of the sweetest smiles this side of heaven. And, as Gary found out early on in one of their shared classes, very easy to talk to about anything. Yes, he is smitten; the only unknown is whether she can dance good enough to stay out of his way. That is if he gets up the nerve to ask her. And as the Ramrods start their first set with Gary Bonds’ School Is Out (praise be) he notices her coming in the door. Heart pounding he starts sinking into the wall again.

As they finish with Brother Bonds the Ramrods start in on The Impressions’ Gypsy Woman before Gary realizes that Elsie Mae has drawn a bee-line straight for him and is standing right in front of him, turning a little red. “Oh, my god,” Gary whispers under his breathe, “she is going to ask me to dance. No way.” The usually easy to talk to Elsie Mae though says nothing, nothing but turns a little redder as the Ramrods cover the Pips' Every Beat Of My Heart (nicely done too). She is waiting for Gary to ask her, if you can believe that. Well, two-left feet or not, he does ask her. And she smiles a little smile as she “accepts.” Relief.

Needless to say when they did their dance, The Edsels’ Rama Lama Ding Dong, it was nothing but a disaster. A Gary disaster? Yes. But here is the funny part. Elsie Mae Horton, formerly of Gloversville and new to North Adamsville so of unknown dance quality, had two-left feet too. Get this though. When the dance was mercifully finished, and the two had actually survived, Elsie Mae thanked Gary and told him that he was a wonderful dancer and she wished that she could dance like him. Whee! Here is the real kicker though. Elsie Mae had also been taking dancing lessons, unsuccessfully. Dancing lessons so that two-left feet Elsie Mae Horton could dance with Gary Ladd. See, she was “smitten” too. And so if you did not see Gary or Elsie Mae at the Mayfair Dance you have now solved that mystery. They were sitting, sitting very close to each other, on the seawall down at Adamsville Beach laughing about starting a “Two-Left Feet” Club. With just two members.

***Out In The Be-Bop Be-Bop 1950s Night- Bestsy And Earl ’s Senior Prom Moment

CD Review

The Heart Of Rock ‘n’ Roll: 1958, various artists, Time-Life Music, 1995

Scene: Brought to mind by one of the snapshot photos that grace each CD in this series.

The “Big” night, the night that every school boy and girl has been waiting for, well, maybe not waiting for, but hoping for, the night of their senior prom signifying the end of their days at old North Adamsville High School. Of course being a Podunk town away from the big city lights of Boston said senior prom, as has been a tradition since who knows when, was held annually in the school gymnasium. A school gymnasium that, from long experience, has been turned into a faux-elegant hotel-style ballroom for the occasion. No cheap jack bunting and streamers, a few garlands, and maybe a couple of pieces of subdued lightning like at the ho-hum weekly school dances this night. Today the place is filled with well-appointed tables set with the best china and silverware, the bandstand is ablaze with decorations, and the dance floor specially lit to create, well, to create that mood like you were downtown at some swanky hotel. Even Podunk knows how to raise the bar for those now leaving the North Adamsville High family nest and who will soon be facing that hard 1958 Cold War world that keeps menacing everybody’s happiness.

In the middle of the festivities standing, check to check, as they have since sophomore year, eighth grade if you count the hemming and hawing that went on before the two became one, are Betsy Binstock, resplendent in her chiffony, open shoulder mother-made gown, complete with blue dahlia corsage (just what she wanted) and looking very handsome in his rented tuxedo (from Mr. Tuxedos right up in Adamsville Square as always since time immortal), Earl Avery. Children born and bred to rock ‘n’ roll they have just finished dancing up a storm to Robin Luke’s Susie Darlin’, the latest “have to have” record in the 1958 teen be-bop night. Of course this song, as all the music tonight, will be covered by the local rock band sensations The Rockin’ Ramrods hired for the occasion by the Senior Prom committee to keep their fellow seniors happy. As they release cheeks and head for their table Betsy is beaming because Earl has just made his first, tentative, maybe, kind of, move in the direction of asking her to marry him in the not to distant future. And as if on cue Jack Scott’s My True Love come forth from the bandstand and they shuffle back to the floor as if mesmerized by the power of the song.

Of course, after coming off the floor again to the sound of Tommy Edwards It’s All In The Game Betsy cannot wait to get to the Ladies’ (yes, this night Ladies) Powder Room to tell one and all of her conquest. (Really the “powder room” is the legendary Junior and Senior Girls’ Lounge, looking very much the elegant hotel lounge, including real hand towels, that has been the scene of more gossip about who did or did not do what with whom, the what being, naturally “going all the way” than Hollywood could ever conger up in its wildest dreams.)

So Betsy excuses herself from the table and starts picking up girlfriends to head to the lounge. Spunky Betsy knows that in this wicked old world only the strong survive, even in the question of marriage. Therefore her strategy is to spread Earl’s kind of, sort of proposal into something like the granite from the quarry that the town was known to produce in the old, old days. Maybe it had something to do with the evening, maybe it was the Ramrods covering Ed Townsend’s For Your Love, maybe it was just something in the early June air but Betsy went all out that night in the lounge, even speculating that she and Earl would be marriage within the year.

Meanwhile poor Earl, still shaky for even going as timidly far as he did on the marriage question had to laugh as the Ramrods played the Chantels Maybe. Earl nevertheless had a sense that the die was cast as a glowing Betsy and her entourage came back into view. As we leave this scene to the strands of Jimmy Clanton and His Rockets’ Just A Dream Earl has shrugged off all evil thoughts for the night, for his senior prom night and has decided to just go with the flow.

P.S. For those who can hardly wait to know how Betsy and Earl made out here is the scoop. Well, yes they were married in the summer of 1959 although not under the circumstances one would have expected. Whether by design or just happenstance Betsy got pregnant and honest and true Earl did the right thing. In the fall of 1959 Earl Avery, Junior came. Betsy a little worn from her pregnancy seems a bit bewildered just now. Earl on the other hand, with a raise and new job title to go with his junior boy, couldn’t be happier. Go figure, right.

 

From The Boston Bradley Manning Support Committee Archives

***Pardon Private Bradley Manning Stand-Out-Central Square, Cambridge, Wednesdays, 5:00 PM -Update –April 12, 2013

Let’s Redouble Our Efforts To Free Private Bradley Manning-President Obama Pardon Bradley Manning -Make Every Town Square In America (And The World) A Bradley Manning Square From Boston To Berkeley to Berlin-Join Us In Central Square, Cambridge, Ma. For A Stand-Out For Bradley- Wednesdays From 5:00-6:00 PM
********
Plan to come to Fort Meade outside of Washington, D.C. on June 1^st for an international day of solidarity with Bradley before his scheduled June 3^rd trial.If you can’t make it to Fort Meade plan a solidarity event locally in support of this brave whistle-blower.
**********
Stop The Media Blackout of The Bradley Manning Trial

Despite the unprecedented and historic nature of Army whistleblower Bradley Manning’s trial, journalists have thus far been banned from recording the proceedings. Because Americans more commonly get their news through television than from any other media source, this presents a major barrier to the American public staying informed on a trial that will profoundly affect the future of our country.

It’s outrageous that the American public is being denied the right to view the trial of U.S. vs. Bradley Manning. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was appointed by President Obama to ensure civilian oversight of the U.S. military.

Go To the Bradley Manning Support Network http://www.bradleymanning.org/ and sign the petition to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel demanding that he ensure journalists can record Bradley Manning’s court martial proceedings! When you sign the petition the network e-mail system will send a message on your behalf to the office of Secretary of Defense.

********
Beginning in September 2011, in order to publicize Private Manning’s case locally, there have been weekly stand-outs (as well as other more ad hoc and sporadic events) in various locations in the Greater Boston area starting in Somerville across from the Davis Square Redline MBTA stop on Friday afternoons and later on Wednesdays. Lately this stand-out has been held each week on Wednesdays from 5:00 to 6:00 PM at Central Square, Cambridge, Ma. (small park at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Prospect Street just outside the Redline MBTA stop, renamed Manning Square for the duration of the stand-out) in order to continue to broaden our outreach. Join us there in calling for Private Manning’s freedom. President Obama Pardon Private Manning Now!
********
Those who have followed the heroic Wikileaks whistle-blower Private Bradley Manning’s case over the past year or so, since about April 2012 when the pre-trial hearings began in earnest, know that last November the defendant offered to plead guilty to a few lesser included charges in his indictment, basically taking legal and political responsibility for the leaks to WikiLeaks that had been the subject of some of the government’s allegations against him. Without getting into the arcane legal maneuvering on this issue the idea was to cut across the government’s pretty solid case against him being the leaker of information and to have the now scheduled for June trial be focused on the substantive question of whether his actions constituted “material aid to terrorism” and “aiding the enemy” which could subject Private Manning to life in prison. We noted then that we needed to stay with Bradley on this and make sure people know that what he admitted to was that he disclosed information about American military atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan and other diplomatic high crimes and misdemeanors and only that. We also noted that he was, and is, frankly, in trouble, big trouble, and needs our support more than ever. Especially in light of the following:

After enduring nearly three years of detention, at times under torturous conditions, on February 28, 2013 Bradley Manning confessed that he had provided WikiLeakswith a trove of military and diplomatic documents that exposed U.S. imperialist schemes and wartime atrocities. Private Manning’s guilty plea on ten of 22 counts against him could land him in prison for 20 years. A day after Bradley confessed, military prosecutors announced plans to try him on the remaining counts, including “aiding the enemy” and violating the Espionage Act. Trial is expected to begin in early June, now scheduled for June 3^rd.

In exposing the secrecy and lies with which the American government cover their depredations, Bradley Manning performed a great service to workers and oppressed around the world. All who oppose the imperialist barbarity and machinations revealed in the material he provided must join in demanding his immediate freedom. Also crucially important is the defense of Julian Assange against the vendetta by the U.S., Britain and their cohorts, who are attempting to railroad him to prison by one means or another for his role in running WikiLeaks.

In a 35-page statement he read to the military court after entering his plea (written summary available at the Bradley Manning Support Network and an audio transcript as well), Manning told of his journey from nearly being rejected in basic training to becoming an army intelligence analyst. In that capacity he came across mountains of evidence of U.S. duplicity and war crimes. The materials he provided to WikiLeaks included military logs documenting 120,000 civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and a formal military policy of covering up torture, rape and murder. A quarter-million diplomatic cables address all manner of lethal operations within U.S. client states, from the “drug war” in Mexico to drone strikes in Yemen. He also released files containing assessments of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. These documents show that the government continued to hold many who, Manning stated, were believed or known to be innocent, as well as “low level foot soldiers that did not have useful intelligence.”

The Pentagon and the Obama Administration declared war against WikiLeaks following the release of a video, now entitled Collateral Murder and widely available, conveyed by Manning, of a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter airstrike in Iraq that killed at least 12 people, including two Reuters journalists. American forces are then shown firing on a van that pulled up to help the victims. Manning said he was most alarmed by the“bloodlust they appeared to have.” He described how instead of calling for medical attention for a seriously wounded individual trying to crawl to safety, an aerial crew team member “asks for the wounded person to pick up a weapon so that he can have a reason to engage.”

By January 2010, Manning said, he“began to become depressed with the situation that we found ourselves increasingly mired in year after year” and decided to make public many of the documents he had backed up as part of his work as an analyst. Manning first offered the materials to the Washington Post and the New York Times. Not getting anywhere with these pillars of the press establishment, the latter apparently not considering war crimes of its government, as opposed to all manner of foreign state activities, news fit to print in February 2010 he made his first submission to WikiLeaks. He attached a note advising that “this is possibly one of the more significant documents of our time removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of twenty-first century asymmetric warfare. Have a good day.”

The charge of “aiding the enemy”—i.e., Al Qaeda—is especially ominous. This used to mean things like military sabotage and handing over information on troop movements to a battlefield enemy. In Manning’s case, the prosecution claims that the very act of publicizing U.S. military and diplomatic activities, some of which took place years before, amounted to “indirect” communication with Al Qaeda. Manning told the court that he believed that public access to the information “could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general.” He hoped that this “might cause society to reevaluate the need or even the desire to engage in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations that ignore the complex dynamics of the people living in the affected environment every day.” But by the lights of the imperialists’ war on terror, any exposure of their depredations can be construed as support to the “terrorist”enemy, whoever that might be.

The Pentagon intends to call no fewer than 141 witnesses in its show trial, including four people to testify anonymously. One of them, designated as “John Doe,” is believed to be a Navy SEAL who participated in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. “Doe” is alleged to have grabbed three disks from bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound on which was stored four files’ worth of the WikiLeaks material provided by Manning.

Nor do charges under the Espionage Act have to have anything to do with actual spying. The law was one of an array of measures adopted to criminalize antiwar activity after U.S. imperialism’s entry into the First World War. It mandated imprisonment for any act deemed to interfere with the recruitment of troops. Among its first and most prominent victims was Socialist Party spokesman Eugene V. Debs, who was jailed for a June 1918 speech at a workers’ rally in Canton, Ohio, where he denounced the war as capitalist slaughter and paid tribute to the leaders of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Dozens of Industrial Workers of the World organizers were also thrown into prison.

In the early 1970s, the Nixon government tried, unsuccessfully, to use this law to go after Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times shed light on the history of U.S. imperialism’s losing war against the Vietnamese workers and peasants. Obama has happily picked up Nixon’s mantle. Manning’s prosecution will be the sixth time the Obama administration has used the Espionage Act against the source of an unauthorized leak of classified information—more than the combined total under all prior administrations since the law’s enactment in 1917.
*******
The Private Bradley Manning case is headed toward an early summer trial. The news on his case over the past several months has centered on the many pre-trial motion hearings including defense motions to dismiss for lack of speedy trial. Private Manning’s pre-trial confinement is now well over 1000 days. That dismissal motion was ruled on by Military Judge Lind. On February 26, 2013 she denied the defense’s motion for dismissal, the last serious chance for Bradley Manning to go free before the scheduled June trial. She ruled furthermore that the various delays by the government were inherent in the nature of this case and that the military authorities, except in one short instance, had been diligent in their efforts to move the proceedings along. For those of us with military experience this is a classic, if perverse, case of that old army slogan-“Hurry up, and wait.” This is definitely tough news for Private Manning although perhaps a good appeal point in some future civilian court review.

The defense had contended that the charges should be dismissed because the military by its own statutes (to speak nothing of that funny old constitutional right to a speedy trial guarantee that our plebeian forbears fought tooth and nail for against the bloody British and later made damn sure was included in the Amendments when the founding fathers“forgot” to include it in the main document) should have arraigned Private Manning within 120 days after his arrest. They hemmed and hawed for almost 600 days before deciding on the charges and a court martial. Nobody in the convening authority, as required by those same statutes, pushed the prosecution forward in a timely manner. In fact the court-martial convening authority, in the person of one Colonel Coffman, seemed to have seen his role as mere “yes man” to each of the government’s eight requests for delays without explanation. Apparently the Colonel saw his role as a mere clearing agent for whatever excuse the government gave, mainly endless addition time for clearing various classified documents a process that need not have held up the proceedings. The defense made timely objection to each governmental request to no avail.

Testimony from military authorities at pre-trial hearings in November 2012 about the reasons for the lack of action ranged from the lame to the absurd (mainly negative responses to knowledge about why some additional delays were necessary. One “reason” sticks out as a reason for excusable delay -some officer needed to get his son to a swimming meet and was thus “unavailable” for a couple of days. I didn’t make this up. I don’t have that sense of the absurd. Jesus, a man was rotting in Obama’s jails and they let him rot because of some damn swim meet). The prosecution, obviously, argued that the government has moved might and main to move the case along and had merely waited until all leaked materials had been determined before proceeding. The judge saw it the government’s way and ruled according as noted above.
*******
The defense had also pursued a motion for a dismissal of the major charges (espionage/ indirect material aid to terrorists) on the basis of the minimal effect of any leaks on national security issues as against Private Manning’s claim that such knowledge was important to the public square (freedom of information issues important for us as well in order to know about what the hell the government is doing either in front of us, or behind our backs). Last summer (2012) witnesses from an alphabet soup list of government agencies (CIA, FBI, NSA, Military Intelligence, etc., etc.) testified that while the information leaked shouldn’t have been leaked that the effect on national security was de minimus. The Secretary of Defense at the time, Leon Panetta, also made a public statement to that effect. The prosecution argued, successfully at the time, that the mere fact of the leak of classified information caused irreparable harm to national security issues and Private Manning’s intent, even if noble, was not at issue.

The recent thrust of the motion to dismiss has centered on the defense’s contention that Private Manning consciously and carefully screened any material in his possession to avoid any conflict with national security and that most of the released material had been over-classified (received higher security level than necessary). Much of the materials leaked, as per those parts published widely in the aftermath of the disclosures by the New York Times and other major outlets, concerned reports of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic interchanges that reflected poorly on that profession. The Obama government has argued again that the mere fact of leaking was all that mattered. That motion has also not been fully ruled on and is now the subject of prosecution counter- motions and has been a cause for further trial delay.
********
A defense motion for dismissal based on serious allegations of torturous behavior by the military authorities extending far up the chain of command (a three-star Army general, not the normal concern of someone so far up the chain in the matter of discipline for enlisted personal) while Private Manning was first detained in Kuwait and later at the Quantico Marine brig for about a year ending in April 2011 has now been ruled on. In late November and early December Private Manning himself, as well as others including senior military mental health workers, took the stand to detail those abuses over several days. Most important to the defense was the testimony by qualified military mental health professionals citing the constant willful failure of those who held Private Manning in close confinement to listen to, or act, on their recommendations during those periods

Judge Lind, the military judge who has heard all the pre-trial arguments in the case thus far, has essentially ruled unfavorably on that motion to dismiss given the potential life sentence Private Manning faces. As she announced at an early January pre-trial hearing the military acted illegally in some of its actions. While every Bradley Manning supporter should be heartened by the fact that the military judge ruled that he was subject to illegal behavior by the military during his pre-trial confinement her remedy, a 112 days reduction in any future sentence, is a mere slap on the wrist to the military authorities. No dismissal or, alternatively, no appropriate reduction (the asked for ten to one ratio for all his first year or so of illegal close confinement which would take years off any potential sentence) given the seriousness of the illegal behavior as the defense tirelessly argued for. And the result is a heavy-handed deterrent to any future military whistleblowers, who already are under enormous pressures to remain silent as a matter of course while in uniform, and others who seek to put the hard facts of future American military atrocities before the public.
*******
An important statement in November 2012 was issued by three Nobel Peace Laureates (including Bishop Tutu from South Africa) calling on their fellow laureate, United States President Barack Obama, to free Private Manning from his jails. (Available on the Support Bradley Manning Network website.)
************
On February 23, 2013, the 1000th day of Private Bradley Manning’s pre-trial confinement, an international day of solidarity was observed with over seventy stand-outs and other demonstration held in America and internationally. Bradley Manning and his courageous stand have not been forgotten. Go to the Bradley Manning Support Network for more details about the events of that day. Another international day of solidarity is scheduled for June 1, 2013 at Fort Meade, Maryland and elsewhere just before the scheduled start of his trial on June 3rd. Check the support network for updates on that event as well.
********

6 Ways To Support Heroic Wikileaks Whistle-blower Private Bradley Manning

*Urgent: The government has announced, in the wake of Bradley Manning’s admission of his part in the Wikileaks expose in open court on February 28th, its intention to continue to prosecute him for the major charges of “aiding the enemy” (Espionage Act) and “material aid to terrorism.” Everyone should contact the presiding officer of the court –martial process, General Linnington, at 1-202-685-2807 and tell him to drop those charges. Once Maj. Gen. Linnington’s voicemail box is full – you can also leave a message at the DOD: (703) 571-3343 – press “5″ to leave a comment.*If this mailbox is also full, leave the Department of Defense a written message. Do it today.

*Urgent: The military authorities at Fort Meade, the site of Bradley Manning’s impending June 3^rd court-martial are attempting to limit media coverage of the trial.Go to the Bradley Manning Support Network http://www.bradleymanning.org/and sign the petition to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hageldemanding that he ensure journalists can record Bradley Manning’s court martial proceedings! When you sign the petition the network e-mail system will send a message on your behalf to the office of Secretary of Defense.

*Come to our stand-out in support of Private Bradley Manning in Central Square, Cambridge, Ma (corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Prospect Street near MBTA Redline station) every Wednesday between 5-6 PM. For other locations in Greater Boston, nationally, and internationally check the Bradley Manning Support Network -http://www.bradleymanning.org/ and for details of the current status of the case and future event updates as well. Also plan to come to Fort Meade outside of Washington, D.C. on June 1^st for an international day of solidarity with Bradley before his scheduled June 3^rd trial.If you can’t make it to Fort Meade plan a solidarity event locally in support of this brave whistle-blower.

*Contribute to the Bradley Manning Defense Fund- as the trial date approaches funds are urgently needed! The government has unlimited financial and personnel resources to prosecute Bradley. And the Obama government is fully using them. We have a fine defense civilian lawyer, David Coombs, many supporters throughout America and the world working hard for Bradley’s freedom, and the truth on our side. Still the hard reality of the American legal system, civilian or military, is that an adequate defense cost serious money. So help out with whatever you can spare. For link go to http://www.bradleymanning.org/

*Sign the online petition at the Bradley Manning Support Network (for link go to http://www.bradleymanning.org/ )to the Secretary of the Army to free Bradley Manning-1000 plus days is enough! The Secretary of the Army stands in the direct chain of command up to the President and can release Private Manning from pre-trial confinement and drop the charges against him at his discretion. For basically any reason that he wishes to-let us say 1000 plus days is enough. Join the over 25,000 supporters in the United States and throughout the world clamoring for Bradley’s well-deserved freedom.

*Call (Comments”202-456-1111), write The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, e-mail-(http://www.whitehouse.gov’contact/submitquestions-and comments) the White House to demand President Obama pardon Bradley Manning- The presidential power to pardon is granted under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution:

“The President…shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in case of impeachment.”

In federal cases, and military cases are federal cases, the President of the United States can, under authority granted by the U.S. Constitution as stated above, pardon the guilty and the innocent, the convicted and those awaiting trial- former President Nixon and former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, for example among others, received such pardons for their heinous crimes- Now that Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty to some lesser charges and is subject to further prison time (up to 20 years) this pardon campaign is more necessary than ever. Free Bradley Manning! Free the whistleblower!

Out In The 1940s Film Noir Night – With Shoot To Kill In Mind

 

From The Pen Of Frank  Jackman

You remember George Morse, the old time reporter, don’t you?  Well if you don’t he wasn’t just any guy around, any old newsie, any old has been or never was, but the old police beat reporter for the Bay View Gazette. So maybe you remember him, maybe not, but they use old George these days, at least out here in California from what I can see, as the standard for terse and concise reporting in the journalism schools, mostly night schools in some old building down town that has seen better days but is just right for quick turnaround courses in the whys and wherefores of journalism, now sprouting up like wildfire to snag guys back from World War II with GI Bill dough into taking up the profession.

Funny though that George had barely finished high school and for that matter the same with me, see I  took over his beat when he passed on ,so I don’t know what guys would do all day or night day in class except harp on each other’s florid prose. But that is a gripe for another time because I have bigger fish to fry.  See this is about something George once told me, told me when I was just a cub night police beat reporter, when we were downing a few after work at Lizzy’s Lounge across from the Bay View police headquarters when I mentioned that the local crime scene seemed of dull and pedestrian. He told me, told me in all seriousness that crime, and by this he meant serious crime, not the nickel and dime stuff that small grifters and midnight sifters embark upon and that I was reporting on but, you know blackmail, extortion, influence-peddling, being in the hip pocket of the mob, stuff like that is too serious to be left to amateurs, amateurs and those aforementioned grafters who give crime a bad name.

Take the Crane case, the case of a District Attorney, well, when he started out, an Assistant D.A., who turned his knowledge of that George –etched fact to run one of the most wide open towns on the coast here in Bay View, and made himself and his a pretty penny in the process and for a long while, a real long while, he was in the clover, him and Maxie Allen’s gang. And here is where George’s wisdom came into play. See the line between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” once you get out of the neighborhoods, once you get away from the penny-ante jack-rolling, gas station armed robberies, the department store clips, hell, a guy taking some kid’s milk money gets pretty blurry, real blurry at times. Here in Bay View the old time D.A., Warner Baxter, had John “Dixie” Logan, yes, that Dixie Logan who ran everything around here at one time in his hip pocket and was making his own pretty penny off of that fact. And it made sense, since the D.A. and his underlings are poorly paid public servants and therefore need the extra dough to keep up with expenses. So maybe you would find an oddball Assistant D.A. who might be on the level, maybe a guy who went to the law school over at Jacinto State, nights, while teaching high school days, and maybe wasn’t that bright a bulb and so being an Assistant D. A. was like dying and going to heaven but that wasn’t the normal case not by a long shot. Everybody in the Costa County D.A.’s office (and maybe everywhere) had somebody in his hip pocket just like Larry Crane had Maxie Allen in his.

I’ll give you the most famous case from up in Frisco so you know that if it goes on in a wide open town like Frisco then everybody else is playing that same tune. A certain Assistant D.A. up there , I forget his name, had the infamous Pinky Foley in his hip pocket, had him running while in the streets doing whatever he wanted in the way of crime. See that Assistant D.A. was bucking for D.A. and his idea was to corral Pinky in and impress the voters. And they were impressed, elected him and Pinky went wild after that. So it wasn’t always about skimming the dough off the top from minute one although that guy must have had some smarts, some discipline, because he was willing to wait until he became D.A to grab his share of the loot. Nice, right?                        

For those who don’t know the Crane case, or were too young to see the beauty of the set-up here is the “skinny” and I ought to know because I covered every day of the thing, and made my own pile in the process once I got hipped to what that old con artist George told me. See my graft is to get exclusive interviews with every big time crook, every big time bad act, and I was in Crane’s hip pocket. My contract called for big bonuses for big stories. And this one was big.      

It all started with a frame-up, a legal frame-up all done up in ribbons and bows by then Assistant D.A. Lawrence Crane (he insisted everybody call him Larry just to show everybody what a regular guys he was, not like those other Harvard/Mayfair swells for whence he came. I used to drive him crazy by always printing him up as Lawrence even when I was in his hip pocket but see he needed me to be his flak and so he let it ride).  Yah, a be-bop royal frame-up, complete with perjured witnesses and everything, of one Dixie Logan. They wound up sending him up for a nickel, enough time to make him a very faded memory even among his trusted lieutenants. Yes, that Dixie Logan, the guy who had his hand in everything that went on in Bay View. Numbers, drugs, liquor, women, everything. See also Lawrence Crane had a big, big appetite to be the next D.A. and so the frame-up of Dixie Logan was calculated to aid in that plan. Warner Baxter was in Dixie’s hip pocket (and I was then in Baxter’s hip pocket doing very well with his tidbits thank you)  and so to even the playing field Crane let Maxie Allen and his gang go wild but he needed to clear Dixie away, away for good. And so the frame-up. But here is where things got dicey, and would get dicier for Brother Crane. Dixie had retired from his gangland habits some time before the squeeze play went down and so he was in no mood to do a nickel for stuff he didn’t do. More importantly Ellen Kelly, Dixie’s main squeeze (his wife okay) didn’t like it one bit since she was reason number one, and the only reason that Dixie quit the rackets.               

Ellen Kelly, a classmate of mine at Saint Rose’s Parochial School (the one over near Bay View Beach not Saint Rose of Padua over near Highway 101) back in the day in elementary school had a crush on John Logan (she never ever called him Dixie and he stood the gaff on it with her) from about that time even though he was a few years older, and even then deep into the cheapjack rackets, mainly stealing cars. Now Ellen, if you can believe this, was then nothing but a novena-praying, Stations of the Cross adoring religious nut, at least in my book. But to her John could do no wrong and so when she came of age, came of beauty age and Dixie began to notice her that was that. Eventually they got married and it was not until then that Ellen was aware how deeply Dixie was into the rackets. But she kept pounding on him to quit, maybe get a real job, or something. Jesus. But eventually Dixie retired and that was when Crane sprung his trap. 

And that was when Ellen (and Dixie although he was not the brains behind this, Ellen and importantly, Baxter were) sprung her Crane trap. See Crane besides considering himself a regular guy also saw himself as a lover boy, a big time lover boy based on his prowess with the female side of the Mayfair swell crowd (although those Mayfair gold-diggers only thought of dollar signs and good connections) and so Ellen went undercover for her John as Crane’s secretary. Apparently Crane had not done his homework to figure out who Dixie was seeing, was connected with romantically, and Ellen slipped through the net. Slipped through easily for once she put on the faux come hither look on Larry could hardly contain himself. Naturally after about six dates (and who knows how many romps in the hay, although lets’ keep that figure from Dixie since he might take umbrage at Ellen’s too eager role as seductress for all I know) Larry proposed marriage, and Ellen accepted, accepted with both hands. And so they ran up the coast to Eureka and were married. End of story.   

Oh you think that can’t be the end of the story? Well, okay, not quite but actually if you looked at it from one perspective you would know it was over. Obviously Ellen, already married, was a bigamist. Was a bigamist that is if she and Larry had actually been married. The whole Eureka caper was a hoax. The JP that married then was not a JP but one of Dixie’s old cronies brought in for the part. So Larry was squeezed either way in his desire to be D.A.  Either he took the fallout from the marrying a bigamist angle or from being stupid enough to fall for the fake marriage. Not the kind of things that would endear the citizenry, not even a dumb cluck citizenry. And so Larry faded from view, Warner Baxter kept his job as D.A. and kept his percentage of the take from the newly-released Dixie.

Oh yah, as it turned out old Dixie was getting antsy in "retirement” and so as a come-back wiped out Maxie Allen and his gang from the face of Bay View as a public service. And Larry did not so much fade out as find himself along a side road, face down, with two slugs in his head for his mistakes. The D.A. office called that one done by parties unknown and quickly closed the case. As for Ellen one night Dixie pistol-whipped her badly for taking just a little too much pleasure in her work- out with Larry once he found out the details that got from a guy he had following the couple. Last anyone heard she was working in some whorehouse up over on the Barbary Coast. Me, me I’m writing up big time stories about how one Dixie Logan helped clean up crime in Bay View. See, I told you that crime was too important to be left to amateurs.                      

 

 

When Big Mama Thornton Was Young And Hungry

Hound Dog 

 

When Smiley Lewis Was Young And Hungry

One Night Of Sin

 

When Elvis Was Young And Hungry#1

One Night Of Sin

 

When Elvis Was Young And Hungry#2
Hound Dog

 

 

 

From The American Left History Archives

INHERIT THE WIND?-

OF INHERITANCES AND MINIMUM WAGES

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

FORGET DONKEYS, ELEPHANTS AND GREENS- BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!

In the press of other commentaries this writer has had to delay commenting on proposed legislation this summer by Congress concerning the obviously connected issues of the abolition (or severe reduction) of the federal inheritance tax and the marginal increment of the federal minimum wage standard (see blog, dated July 5, 2006 concerning the minimum wage proposal). Obvious, you ask? Yes, those few thousand heirs who are trying to stampede Congress to protect their billions (and have spent many millions to get their way) and those millions fighting to make minimum wages (even at a lousy $7/hr) and thus avoid leaving their heirs to inherit the wind is compelling. Agreed?

At least that connection is compelling interest group politics in the demented minds of the Republican congressional leadership which parleyed these two items together in an effort to embarrass (if that is possible) the Democrats. How? By forcing an up or down vote on the counterposed issues and thus forcing the Democrats to vote against the federal minimum wage proposal. The Democrats initially, with a view to the fall congressional elections, supported an increase in the minimum wage in order to grandstand to a part of their constituency.  As if any self-respecting person could, with a straight face, support much less propose a $7 minimum wage in this day in age (see below).  Democratic politicians not having to personally live on the minimum wage apparently have weird senses of humor. The Republicans, responding to their very different base, faced no such embarrassment. Their proposal to severely cap, if not eliminate, the inheritance tax for millionaires and billionaires set just the right tone. And avoided an increase in the minimum wage, which they did not want, to boot. My hat is off to the Republican leadership for joining the two issues together. Just when this writer thought that parliamentary cretinism had reached a bottom line beyond which no rational politics could go he finds out that there is an abyss instead.  Well you live and learn.

In an earlier blog, cited in the first paragraph, I counterposed to the minimum wage the fight for a living wage. I stand by that idea here. What one may ask is a living wage? Well, for openers the current median household income.  That is somewhere near $50,000/yr. Do the math on the proposed federal minimum wage of $7/hr. Anyway one cuts it the total is about $15,000/yr. That, these days, just barely covers a family’s energy, housing and food costs. Get real. It is embarrassing to this writer to have to discuss the concerns of a small part of society which is worried (and seriously worried) about inheritance taxes when several million people have to get by on that $15,000/yr. Hell, I couldn’t. Can anyone else? Something is desperately wrong with this society’s priorities.    

Do not get me wrong about the inheritance tax issue. In the final analysis a workers government will not simply confine itself to taxing the rich but will confiscate their inheritances as part of the social redistribution process.  And not shed a single tear about it. The rich can work just like the rest of us, at first for their daily needs and by those deeds the good of society. However, that is music for the future. The point now is that the current tax does not hurt the people we care about-working people.  The point at which the tax sets in is far, far above anything a worker’s estate would trigger.  In short, the fight over this tax, one way or the other, is not central to our fight for a more just society.  Beyond that, various schemes to tax the rich which periodically spring up on the part of leftists as a means of the redistribution of the social surplus are generally put forth in order to deflect the need for class struggle.  Needless to say to really put a crimp in the lifestyles of the “rich and famous” working people need to take state power. We need that solution in order to do more than inherit the wind. Forward.

Take action for Bradley on July 27, 2013

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International call to action July 27, 2013!

By the Bradley Manning Support Network. June 27, 2013.
Please join us in what will likely be the last internationally coordinated show of support for Bradley before military judge Col. Denise Lind reads her final verdict–which we expect some time in August.
On July 26 there will be a rally for Bradley Manning in Washington, DC in front of Maj. General Buchanan’s office. Buchanan is the new convening authority in the trial and he has the power to reduce any possible sentence given to Bradley should he be found guilty.
The July 27 ”International Day of Action” coincides with the anticipated sentencing phase of Bradley’s trial. The outcome of that phase of the trial will result in Bradley receiving any outcome from time served to life in prison.
The end of July also marks the third anniversary of the release of the Afghan War Diary which revealed the realities of pain and abuse suffered by many thousands in Afghanistan.
A thousand supporters marched on Fort Meade at the start of Bradley Manning’s trial. Now we are asking supporters to organize events in communities across the globe. Looking for an idea for an event? Consider putting on this street theatre performance written by Claire Lebowitz which was performed at NYC Pride and other solidarity events. It only requires 2 performers and its a wonderful way to charge your event and catch peoples interest!
Contact campaign organizer Emma Cape at emma@bradleymanning.org if you are interested in organizing a solidarity event or action in your community. Help us send a message to Judge Lind that millions stand with Bradley!
View list of solidarity events around the world.
July 26th
Washington, DC. Protest in front of Maj. Gen. Buchanan’s office
July 27th

Vancouver, BC.	Rally and banner drop. (pdf poster)
Los Angeles, CA.	Solidarity Rally
Helena, MT.	Justice for Bradley Manning
Berkeley, CA.	We Are All Bradley Manning
Portland, ME.	Support Bradley Manning Rally
Fort Leavenworth, KS	Ft. Leavenworth July 27th Solidarity Rally
The Hague, Netherlands	March for Bradley Manning
Boston, MA.	Solidarity with Bradley Manning Stand Out
Seattle, WA	Take action for Bradley!
Brussels, Belgium.	March for Bradley Manning
Berlin, Germany.	#PRISM #TEMPORA #INDECT Solidarität mit Edward #Snowden Bradley #Manning #freebrad #wikileaks
Minneapolis, MN	July 27th Solidarity Rally for Bradley Manning
Oklahoma City, OK	Rally and Vigil to Honor Truthteller Bradley Manning
Berkeley, CA	Join CODEPINK Women for Peace to say “Free Bradley”
London, UK.	Peaceful vigil in front of the Amnesty International Secretariat office
London, UK.	International Day of Action for Bradley
Peterborough, UK	Standout in Solidarity
Haverfordwest, UK.	Join us in Wales to stand in solidarity with Bradley!
Perth, Australia.	Education and Awareness-Whistleblowers

Register your event here!

Michael James : California or Bust in a Hot Rod Ford

12 June 2013

Michael James : California or Bust in a Hot Rod Ford

California AND bust: Michael's 1940 hot rod Ford, San Jose, California, 1960. Photo by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James' Pictures from the Long Haul.

Pictures from the Long Haul:
California or bust, 1960

I went to the junkyard and sadly looked over the remains of my beloved Ford.

By Michael James / The Rag Blog / June 26, 2013

[In this series, Michael James is sharing images from his rich past, accompanied by reflections about -- and inspired by -- those images. This photo will be included in his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James' Pictures from the Long Haul.]

The night before I left for my post-high school graduation summer job at a Libby cannery in Sunnyvale, California, I went to see Psycho with my high school sweetheart. Even after a good amount of hugging and kissing goodnight I was still scared shit.

The next morning Buzz Willhauer (a fellow Downshifter Hot Rod Club member) and I leave our Connecticut homeland and head west. We roll through the exhaust-filled tunnels on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and love the raspberry ice cream at the Howard Johnson's. We're riding in my 1940 hot rod Ford with "California or Bust" written on the trunk. It's very hot rolling across Ohio, Indiana, and into Illinois; no AC then and the '53 Olds engine sends heat and fumes through the floorboards.

By late afternoon we're at Lake Forest College for a friendly meeting with the Director of Admissions, a Mr. Gilmore. Then we head down Route 66 and cross the Mississippi at St. Louis on the old Chain of Rocks Bridge, and race ahead of the sunrise as we roll through the Ozarks, passing signs for Merrimac Caverns, and slogans on signs at regular intervals that culminate with a Burma-Shave sign. We stop now and then at Stuckey’s restaurants and Texaco gas stations.

The Ford's been overheating. We stop at a gas station in Joplin, Missouri -- home to Mickey Mantle and Langston Hughes (birthplace), and the scene of both striking miners blocking Route 66 in the '50s and Bonnie and Clyde stick-ups in the 1930s. I'm unscrewing the radiator cap as Buzz comes bopping over with a "what's happening?" The cap shoots off and the boiling liquid explodes, hitting Buzz in the face.

The last time I saw Buzz he was in a hospital bed all gauzed up. The hospital was cool, breezy, and white on a hot Missouri Wednesday. Time for me to go; I've got to go, got to get to the job my dad got me through his connects to Grandpa's cohorts at Libby McNeil and Libby that starts on Monday morning.

I take the Will Rogers Turnpike to Oklahoma City. I remember taking a shower with my back to the wall, fists ready, the Psycho memory really with me, and I'm thinking this motel is on the same road as the Bates Motel in that scariest of flicks.

I get some work done on the Ford's radiator, then head west, through Amarillo and the Texas panhandle and into New Mexico. I pass through a crossroads with a town of shacks, my first contact with an Indian reservation, and along the way pick up a hitchhiker, a Southern kid heading to San Diego to join the Marine Corps, something I too will do -- briefly -- in a couple of years.

I let him off when I turn left and head southwest for Las Cruces and Tucson. I drive through the night and I welcome the trucks, feeling a sense of camaraderie out on the lonesome highway when they are present, following them closely, letting them pull me with their draft. I like the Campbell 66 Express, with its cartoon camel, and the words “Humpin’ to Please.”

With the sun coming up on Friday morning I'm in White Sands, New Mexico, military land, with barbed wire along the sides of the road. The hot rod is overheating, and I stop at a little shack providing shelter to a lone soldier with a rifle. I ask, "How far to the next gas station?" "Eight miles over the top of the mountain."

I fill the steaming and bubbling radiator with my last water from a five-gallon can and floor it! This car is fast and I speed across the desert and up the eastern slope. Up and over the top, the car steaming, I turn off the motor and cruise to the first gas station.

By late afternoon I'm in Tucson, meeting with the Director of Admissions at the University of Arizona. I'm flat out of money, and he cashes a check for a buck and a quarter ($125) I had received from Rodding and Restyling Magazine for a photo piece I had done on an East Braintree, Massachusetts, hot rod and custom car show.

I stop at the Tucson post office to pick up a general delivery letter from my girlfriend Susan. I read it, shed a few lonely and lack of sleep induced tears, observe the Indians hanging round, and then drive on through another night. I am mentally pushed and prodded, driven to keep driving, knowing I have to show up at the Sunnyvale cannery by Monday morning.

Saturday morning and I'm digging the scene, the vibes, at a truck stop in El Centro. I remember hearing a song I know -- Gene Autry's version of "Mexicali Rose." The place is comfortable, nurturing, refreshing, with a parking lot full of trucks and palm trees, the chill of the night giving way to that California warmth as dawn breaks. Travelers and truckers emerge, including some Mexicans and black people. The coffee and pancakes are good.

I drive through the Southern California desert, through San Bernardino, and get to Hollywood late Saturday morning. Nobody is home at the offices of Hot Rod Magazine. I get back in the Ford along with the Downshifters Hot Rod Club scrapbook I had intended to share with anyone at this Mecca of the hot rod world.

At a garage in Riverside a fellow hot rodder helps me install his radiator in my car, with a handshake and agreement to return it once I get to Sunnyvale. I drive north on Highway 101, already infamous in my mind from the Big Bopper’s song with the line “the fool was the terror of Highway 101.”

I pick up another hitchhiker, this time a cowboy headed to a rodeo in Monterrey. I let him off near Bakersfield. Later I pick up still another hitchhiker, this time a migrant worker headed to Fresno to pick peaches.

Late at night near the cutoff to San Jose I stop to let him off. The hot rod stalls and we push it. I jump in, disengaging the clutch, putting the transmission in gear, popping the clutch to start it.

I wake up, or come to as they say. I am on the shoulder of the west side of 101. There are people around. Across the four lane highway are two cars in flames. One of them is mine. I yell out “there’s a guy in that car,” and the truck driver, who had pulled me out of the car, is holding me back and says: “If he is, he’s dead now.”

I am taken to a hospital emergency room. I learn that the migrant worker was not in the car, that the police found him up the road and got his take on the accident. I am glad he is OK, and am eternally grateful to the truck driver who happened on the scene and pulled me from the burning Ford coupe.

I am rescued and nurtured by the Jo and Burke Mathews family in Los Gatos, teachers who knew people my dad knew. I learn later through them that I was hit by a car full of teachers they knew who were returning from a wedding.

I showed up for my cannery job on Monday morning, and life's reality gave me a lesson. Lots of people -- white, Mexican, Black, and Asian -- are standing in line, trying to get a job. And here comes me, a kid from Connecticut with a family connection, and I have a job waiting for me, yet another life experience teaching me about class, privilege, and the role of connections in the workings of the world.

I worked in the garbage dump, the freezing units, and other parts of the cannery in a little team that included three young guys: me, a Mexican, and a black guy, a little early-on version of the "rainbow coalition." I lived in a rooming house in San Jose, visited San Francisco, went to the drag races, met my first Mormons, and danced my ass off to a live Ray Charles at the Pan Pacific Auditorium.

I went to the junkyard and sadly looked over the remains of my beloved Ford. The radiator was unharmed and I shipped it back to the friendly lender. All my clothes, including a madras sport jacket, had burned up; my 12-pound high school shot put and a sword I intended to use as a gearshift lever had both melted.

Quite a trip, quite a summer: I made it to California and busted. I headed back east to Lake Forest College, much closer to my squeeze at U Conn then Arizona would have been. Four years later I'll return to California. I'll experience another bust, that next one during the wonderful days of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement.

[Michael James is a former SDS national officer, the founder of Rising Up Angry, co-founder of Chicago's Heartland Café (1976 and still going), and co-host of the Saturday morning (9-10 a.m. CDT) Live from the Heartland radio show, here and on YouTube. He is reachable by one and all at michael@heartlandcafe.com. Find more articles by Michael James on The Rag Blog.]

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