[Vision2020] The Auntie Establishment and Brother Carl Show(March 5, 2006)

[joekc at adelphia.net]

Mr. Crabtree,

I keep meaning to reply to this line of argument but I've been busy with my day job.

It is not a sign of inconsistency that one points out a moral flaw for organization A yet not a similar flaw for organization B, even though A and B are equal with regard to said flaw. This was the point of the Tommy story. Many of us see people doing things we dislike everyday -- failing to stop in a crosswalk, for instance -- and only once in awhile do you choose to say anything about it. Doesn't make the folks who escape without criticism right.

This is a complicated point and I'm not trying to make it too simple. Lots of businesses trade with China. That in and of itself does not justify such trade; nor does it require that one can only criticize one of these businesses without criticizing them all. This is a huge problem. If we want to change things, and respect the idea that all persons have rights, we have to start somewhere. Some of us choose to start with Wal-Mart, since they are symbolic of the general problem.

You might say that this is inconsistent but to that I reply that "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." 

--
Joe Campbell

---- "g. crabtree" <jampot at adelphia.net> wrote: 

=============
Ms. Opyr, Your conviction and enthusiasm for human rights in China and elsewhere is laudable. Just to be sure I understood you correctly, are you telling all of us here on the list that you will not be patronizing *any* business that sells products that are in *any* way connected with the afore mentioned countries? Or does your righteous indignation begin and end with Wal-Mart?

G. Crabtree
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joan Opyr 
  To: Tom Hansen 
  Cc: Moscow Vision 2020 ; Lois Blackburn 
  Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 10:28 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] The Auntie Establishment and Brother Carl Show(March 5, 2006)


  On 5 Mar 2006, at 17:20, Tom Hansen wrote:


    Greetings Visionaires -

    This afternoon's show, although not likely to be mentioned on this evening's
    Academy Awards Show, was definitely not worth missing.

    After a trio of songs dedicated to Phil Nisbet, a recently silenced voice of
    Moscow's Vision 2020, Auntie and Bro "C" commenced to lampoon President Bush
    and Dick Cheney, while generously flavoring the show with an excellent
    selection of music.

    Those of you who failed to tune in, possibly due to a post-Mardi Gras
    hangover, may download the show from:

    http://www.tomandrodna.com/Auntie_Establishment_and_Brother_Carl

    Aside from this afternoon's show I would like to make a couple dedications
    myself:

    1) Posthumously to Phil: Your opinions, although criticized by many
    (including myself), have served to provide backbone and strength to the
    Vision 2020 "soap box". This is only Sunday and already your voice is
    missed. Although I am not Jewish, this one's for you, Phil:

    http://www.tomandrodna.com/Sounds/Shalom_Aleikhem.mp3



  Thanks, as always, to Tom for recording the AE & BC Show and making it available online. For those who are interested, Carl and I played a trio of songs for Phil:

  "Hallelujah" by k. d. lang (the live version she performed at the Juno Awards)
  "Never Saw Blue" by Hayley Westenra
  "Cowboy Take Me Away" by Dixie Chicks

  All are beautiful songs. lang's "Hallelujah" is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful songs on record, along with Jane Siberry's "Calling All Angels" (recorded with lang on harmony) and Eva Cassidy's cover of "Danny Boy." In addition to books and poetry, Phil and I exchanged music. What a surprise -- our tastes were very different. The first time we ever met in person (about a week after we'd buried the hatchet, thanks to his incredible willingness to sincerely apologize and to take that awful, heart-stopping risk of rejection) he brought me a great book about Jewish women and some truly awful klezmer music. I thought about playing the klezmer music tonight, but then I thought, no, I hate that stuff. And I told Phil that I hated that stuff. Instead, I'm going to go my own way and play some songs that reflect how Carl and I felt about Phil. It seemed to me that that might be more personal . . . and more annoying to Phil.

  I'm not a superstitious woman, but a strange thing happened when I got home this evening. I opened up my email to find that my most recent computer disaster -- I tripped over my Apple's power cord and broke the copper charger off in the machine -- meant that once power was restored and the battery recharged, at the top of my email was a message from Phil. It was a week or two old, and I'd drafted a response but I hadn't sent it yet. Phil wanted me to know that he'd been plugging my book on a poets/screenwriters' chat group he belonged to called zoetrope. The zoetrope chat group is serious business, and Phil was a serious poet. (Phil said that Francis Ford Coppolla had been known to hang out there.) Anyhow, having read the first chapter of my book on my website, Phil said he had high hopes for me and that he was going to contact some screenwriter friends and send them copies of the book. What a damned generous guy. He also sent me some more of his poetry to read and to comment upon. Jeez. I had some preliminary comments for him, both praise and criticism, and now it's . . . well, hell. Just for the record, I feel like a complete shit-bird. Phil called here on Tuesday night, and he talked for a long time to Rose because I was doing something or another and couldn't -- or rather didn't -- come to the phone. And you know, it's funny -- if you've ever had a phone conversation with Phil, then you'll know that when you talked with him, you had to hold the receiver about four inches away from your ear because he wasn't just passionate, he was loud!

  He reminded me in many ways of my late grandfather. Obstinate. Funny. Stubborn. Difficult. Complex. Provoking. Charming. And, as I mentioned before, passionate and generous. Quiet voices are silenced and they disappear, but a good, loud, strong voice . . . that you don't forget. You don't forget a worthy opponent or a stirring debate. Moscow has lost one of the many strong characters that make this place so interesting, and we are the less for that.

  Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
  www.joanopyr.com

  PS: In memory of Phil, I've decided to stick not just my hand but my head into the hornets' nest. I have sound economic and ethical reasons for opposing Wal-Mart, but just to make things more interesting around here, let me offer up a confession. I believe, as Donovan has so often accused, that it is wrong to shop at Wal-Mart. It's wrong to shop at a company that relies on slave, child, or prison labor. Don't talk to me about percentages -- if any company uses a single prisoner, a slave or a six-year old, that company is wrong, and you are wrong to buy from them. It's wrong to shop at a predatory retailer that screws its workers and its suppliers. Once you know exactly how Wal-Mart is able to sell you four water glasses for a dollar, it is morally reprehensible to choose to benefit from the misery of others. When you shop at Wal-Mart, you and your dollar bills are saying "F**k those Chinese child workers" or "My American pocketbook is more important than your Honduran civil rights." We are what we buy, and I don't buy abuse. And here's a hot one for you, Donovan/Gary/Jeff/Dale Courtney -- I don't think you should have the unfettered right to buy abuse either. Pat Kraut believe George Bush has the right to wiretap without a warrant; I believe that I have the right to trample on your stinkin' buying power. 

  Wal-Mart sells 60,000 products? Hoo-ray. What percentage of those are cheap-assed versions of better things available at better stores? What percentage are things you could get for even less at Goodwill? I'm not buying a toy for my kid that's made by a kid even younger than my kid. You catch my drift? I'd rather buy less, shop less, and own less than consume on the backs of pennies-a-day foreign labor. And, what's more, I'm willing to step out to the very edge of my swaying limb and say, "Not in my backyard, Donovan. Go buy your cheap shit in Pullman, Gary. Take the Wheatland Express, Jeff Harkins. Ride your bike, Dale Courtney. Hoof it, the lot of you." I don't give a monkey's brasses if that inconveniences any or all of you. Why? Because the free market be damned; I don't want to look at a 200,000-square foot store squatting on a piece of ex-farm land adjacent to the Latah Trail, directly across from the Moscow Cemetery, and that will obstruct my view of Paradise Ridge. Call me selfish. I'll agree; I am.

  I guess this polemic makes me the un-Bruce. Oh, well. Bruce is always reasonable; I'm often not. I got a good look at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in that hideous collection of strip malls they call the Tri-Cities. It was a giant carbuncle of a building, an ugly behemoth, a complete and utter bastard. I don't want one of those beasts here in Moscow. The contrast between that . . . thing . . . and downtown Portland, or our own beautiful and lively downtown, couldn't be more striking. Let others make the reasonable arguments. I've given up. >From now on, I'm going for the gut. Keep that hell-hole out of my town. Keep its crap products and its cheap prices and its tire and lube center away from the Troy Highway and way the hell away from me. Go find somewhere else to wreck. Moscow's too good for a Super Wal-Mart. Way too good.

  BTW, you can hop right on that last sentence, Jeff Harkins, because I mean it to be both absolutist and elitist. That's what keeps me (unlike Donovan) off the Pepcid AC. Hot dog!




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