A FEW SPLIT SECONDS

A deer

not yet realizing it's dead

pirouettes down the remaining length of 

my flinching pickup

Tires scribble outside the lines

With all my might

I will the truck to turn

like league bowlers use body English

to  curve their bowling balls

after the release

but travel a physics-determined path

as a passenger

along for the ride

to its end

while accusing an unlikely omniscient being

You have got to be kidding me

After the gravel lands

After the silence and me still breathing

After the curious stop to see -

kind enough to help

as they

understandably

revel in their luck

That cop

who has seen it all before

Asks me questions I can understand

and like some guardian angel

guides me out of my paralysis

and actually says

Just doing my job

The tow truck driver

thinks city folk need to

keep their eyes open and pay more attention

but I think tow truck drivers

own and operate

deer farms

Kyle said

It's clear you aren't supposed to buy a Ranger

But I think sometimes that's just what happens

when you try to see the Aurora Borealis

OCCUPY PORTLAND: 12:01AM SUNDAY

When I arrive at approximately 10:30 P.M., maybe 30 or 40 tents are still present. A large group of demonstrators are gathered under the large tarp in Chapman Square listening to various speakers, but not much else is going on.

I walk around Chapman and Lownsdale Squares. The police presence is minimal with groups of 4 or five officers at block corners and attending the giant light/generators that have been brought in to illuminate the parks.

Evidently, Tea Party demonstrators haven't cornered the market on poor spelling.

As the announced deadline for evacuating the camp draws closer, more and more people begin filtering into the park blocks and lining the streets facing the parks, particularly 3rd street. Some people have come to serve as witnesses, some join the ranks of the demonstrators in the park, some have come to express their displeasure with the demonstrators, and some, like ghoulish NASCAR fans, have come to see what they hope will be a violent spectacle.

Mounted patrols circle the park and generally park themselves at points where it appears crowds may spill into the streets. The streets have not been closed and as police arrive, their first tasks seem to be to keep the streets clear and traffic moving.

Now and then,  tents are taken down and folded as the deadline nears.

 Eventually, clusters of demonstrators fill the sidewalks and overflow into Main Street, the street that separates Chapman Square from Lownsdale Square.

Several groups serve to remind participants and spectators that the intent is for this to be a peaceful demonstration.

The crowd keeps swelling. The sidewalks lining Third Street fill up with people and they spill into the street about three people deep. The police don't have enough people to cordon off the sidewalk and so a lane of traffic is lost.

 The Justice Department Building is transformed into a giant set of bleachers.

Starting at 11:00 PM, members of a bicycle rally begin circling the parks.

About two hours after the deadline, it felt like a stalemate - the police seemed content
to keep the bulk of the demonstrators contained in the park blocks. It didn't appear as if they could afford to escalate.

However, I noticed the mounted patrol appeared to be staging for action, and a line of police cars stretched down 2nd avenue on the other side of the Justice Building.

PDX PEACE MARCH REVISTED

I got some feedback from Pax (who I presume is an anarchist) regarding my post titled “PDX Peace March Spin”. Pax evidently wants to explain why some anarchists don’t support our troops and pointed me towards some anarchist literature available on the internet.

As best as I can determine, anarchists (at least some anarchists) condemn soldiers for placing themselves at the disposal of ‘the state’. They blame soldiers for following orders instead of their “own guiding ethics” – for being part “marionette”. In short, it seems that anarchists don’t distinguish between the soldier and the state – that is, they seem to hold individual soldiers responsible for the political/policy decisions of their commander-in-chief. (Do anarchists vote?)

I’m not sure that this particular line of reasoning is a fair or complete characterization of soldiers or the ‘state’. For me, what an individual soldier does is a sacred thing. To paraphrase, there is no greater way to show love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

As paradoxical as it must seem to anarchists, long periods of stability and peace correlate very well with the golden ages of dominant world empires. (Does PAX ROMANA ring a bell?) Is peace ever a possibility without a really big stick to back it up?

While reviewing anarchist literature, I noticed that a popular format for writing appeared to be something called a ‘Zine’. Many of these were rich with hand drawn images, and it struck me that these are essentially ideal ‘narrative images’. So what happened is, I was inspired to write my own ‘zine’. (It was fun but really hard and kind of explains why it’s taken me so long to post). The title of my “zine” is:

American Fascist Troops & Police:

Keeping Anarchists Safe and Free for Over 200 Years