THIS JUST IN: MIKE FERNER TO STAR IN REMAKE OF "AMERICAN GRAFFITI"
I'm going to let Mike himself have the last word on the subject, for now.
***
THE HARM OF CIVIL 'OBEDIENCE'
by Mike Ferner
(Article published in the Blade, Saturday, January 21, 2006)
The Blade's Jan. 6 editorial, "Defacing a Reputation," helps us think about the war on Iraq and how citizens should respond.
I appreciate this opportunity to add to that discussion.
First, a point The Blade and others have mentioned - comparing my "Troops Out Now!" message spray-painted on a highway overpass to a high schooler writing "Debbie loves Jordan."
Would Debbie have been stopped by no fewer than four patrol cars, handcuffed, booked into jail on felony charges, and held on $3,000 bond (with no 10 percent and out), and appear before a judge the next day in shackles?
ODOT painted over my anti-war sign within 48 hours. Debbie's testimonial has been up there for about 10 years the last I looked.
Don't get me wrong. If someone is a dangerous felon, they should be treated as one. I just hope Debbie and Jordan aren't given the same treatment.
The Blade was gracious enough to list me in the company of some civilly disobedient heroes, but suggested my behavior fell woefully short of those individuals' honorable standards.
Spray paints weren't invented in Gandhi's day, but might he at some point have scrawled "Brits Out Now" with whitewash and a brush?
"Why resort to illegal protest?" people ask.
What about this war troubles me enough to prompt an illegal response?
Images. Images that never leave me.
Images of young soldiers and marines lying in row upon row of hospital beds.
Images of picking shrapnel out of Mike Ramsack's backside … dressing Bob Butikofer's wounds every day and trying not to make him scream … changing colostomy bags on guys hoping they won't defecate out the hole in their guts caused by a gunshot wound to the abdomen … trying to give a brain scan to a young soldier missing his entire left temporal lobe…
Images of eating in the chow hall as dozens of patients in wheelchairs, on crutches, missing arms and legs and eyes line up for dinner …
Images of a young man sitting silent and broken in a corner of the psych ward.
And there are other, more recent images from my trips to Iraq that I cannot forget.
Images of the kids I met on the streets of Baghdad, and the ones in Abu Siffa who shared their chicken and rice dinner with an American journalist two days after a cruise missile blew their orange grove to bits.
Images of Fatima in the Sa'adoon Street copy shop who told me how beautiful she thought her country was and how she hoped there would be no war.
Images of the young U.S. Army sergeant from West Virginia I accompanied on patrol one night near Balad, who answered my question, "why are you in Iraq?" with a tired shrug saying, "I really don't know." And his partner, just as bone tired, who answered simply, "oil."
I see these images every day. And I know that the young men in that Navy hospital 35 years ago, just like the ones I met last year in Iraq, are getting killed and maimed for a preposterous lie.
As my blood boils I tell my government to "BRING THEM HOME NOW!" by writing letters, signing petitions, speaking, and yes, painting highway overpasses.
Our government is not only causing great suffering by this war, it is also violating dozens of international and domestic laws.
See the Veterans For Peace "Case for Impeachment" for a partial list at www.veteransforpeace.org.
As American citizens we are complicit in these crimes and suffering.
That is why historian Howard Zinn's words make more sense to me each day this war continues:
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience ... Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."
The most important mistake I made on New Year's Day was not that I painted "Troops Out Now" on overpasses. It was choosing a form of civil disobedience not many people are comfortable adopting.
If you believe we must end this war, what kind of civil disobedience would you choose?
Refuse to pay part of your taxes this April? Sit in at a congressional office? Organize a strike?
Or will we be content to speak quietly, watching the petty criminals go to jail while the grand criminals continue the slaughter in our name?
***
Mike Ferner is a former Toledo City Councilman. He is a member of Veterans For Peace.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Saturday, January 14, 2006
IN RESPONSE TO NOELOMITE'S BLOG
RE: The quote "When I play with myself, I always win"
Not far off from the best song lyric I ever wrote: "If you can't find someone to play the game with you then go home and play with yourself", which was based on the fact that I used to play MFL games by myself. (No, MFL is not a typo. As a kid I made up the Martian Football League, mostly based on maps of Mars. Lots of history in the MFL...the Phobos-Deimos rivalry was especially intense.)
BTW dude, love the Warshington Monument pic (intentional typo). Surreal.
RE: The quote "When I play with myself, I always win"
Not far off from the best song lyric I ever wrote: "If you can't find someone to play the game with you then go home and play with yourself", which was based on the fact that I used to play MFL games by myself. (No, MFL is not a typo. As a kid I made up the Martian Football League, mostly based on maps of Mars. Lots of history in the MFL...the Phobos-Deimos rivalry was especially intense.)
BTW dude, love the Warshington Monument pic (intentional typo). Surreal.
Friday, January 13, 2006
REBUTTAL
(The following letter was published in the Blade this week by one of my NWOPC comrades. He makes a good point, and I would be remiss not to run it here.)
Put Ferner's 'crime' in perspective
Mike Ferner spray-paints an anti-war message on an overpass, defacing public property. There are vilifications, indignation, shock, and awe. The public order is disturbed. Protest is one thing, but he defaced public property. How sophomoric. How inappropriate!
The Bush Administration pre-emptively attacks the sovereign nation of Iraq based upon selective and equivocal intelligence. Some 160,000 American soldiers are mired in a bloody political and factional quagmire. The liberators have become occupiers.
The United States has gained the enmity of almost a third of the planet.
Almost 2,200 American soldiers have been killed in armed conflict. Depending upon whose figures you use, 30,000 to 100,000 Iraqis have been killed. The conflict has resulted in the destruction of a considerable amount of private and public property.
Placing these crimes on the grand scale of propriety, which one tips the balance?
Which crime defaces public property, which crime defiles human beings? Which crime messes up public property, which crime destroys people's lives? Which crime deserves our attention? Which crime deserves our indignation?
You tell me. You be the judge.
STEVEN R. MILLER
(The following letter was published in the Blade this week by one of my NWOPC comrades. He makes a good point, and I would be remiss not to run it here.)
Put Ferner's 'crime' in perspective
Mike Ferner spray-paints an anti-war message on an overpass, defacing public property. There are vilifications, indignation, shock, and awe. The public order is disturbed. Protest is one thing, but he defaced public property. How sophomoric. How inappropriate!
The Bush Administration pre-emptively attacks the sovereign nation of Iraq based upon selective and equivocal intelligence. Some 160,000 American soldiers are mired in a bloody political and factional quagmire. The liberators have become occupiers.
The United States has gained the enmity of almost a third of the planet.
Almost 2,200 American soldiers have been killed in armed conflict. Depending upon whose figures you use, 30,000 to 100,000 Iraqis have been killed. The conflict has resulted in the destruction of a considerable amount of private and public property.
Placing these crimes on the grand scale of propriety, which one tips the balance?
Which crime defaces public property, which crime defiles human beings? Which crime messes up public property, which crime destroys people's lives? Which crime deserves our attention? Which crime deserves our indignation?
You tell me. You be the judge.
STEVEN R. MILLER
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Monday, January 09, 2006
ELITE...SEVEN?
Well actually it's the Elite Eight, but Song Of The Year will take some time to decide. The other 7 have all been awarded. So without further a-doo-doo...
WEBSITE OF THE YEAR
Two-time defending champ dahl.com lost a shot at a 3-peat when the podcasts were shot down in May. Modesty forbids me from picking the Pond again. Rookie sensation Noelomite is off to a good start with Platypus Nerd/Nerdy Platypus, and FGMMA is an absolute treasure chest. But based on its sheer addictiveness and user-friendly interface, this year's champ has to be:
WINNER: Websudoku
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Since TISM's "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me" was named the 2004 winner, we go with those good ol' Ukrainian gypsy punks:
WINNER: "Start Wearing Purple"--Gogol Bordello
THE TRIO AWARD (COMMERCIAL OF THE YEAR)
The competition was kind of light. Only one ad really stood out, one that could easily be shown as a PSA in every junior high, high school, college, etc.:
WINNER: Zazoo Condoms--"I Want Those Sweeties!"
THE CARL SAGAN AWARD (MOVIE OF THE YEAR)
Star Wars Ep 3 almost achieved the impossible: making the first two eps worth suffering through. Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy deserved a bigger budget. Napoleon Dynamite (new to me) was, if nothing else, highly quotable. And the joyously offensive The Aristocrats had a lock on this award until the last week of the year. The movie that stole it away made me do something I never do: as soon as it was over I bought another ticket and saw it again immediately. Fuck the elitist critics who knock it for being a filmed version of the Broadway version. Many of us out here in the 'flyover states' don't have the time or the means to go see it on Broadway. Thank you, Mel Brooks, for allowing me to see it for $6.50 a pop plus bus fare:
WINNER: The Producers
(PS: My only minor quibble is that the L.S.D. character, originally played by Dick Shawn, was omitted. But then, Dick Shawn was inimitable, so that's understandable.)
CATCH PHRASE OF THE YEAR
The aforementioned Napoleon Dynamite had several worthy candidates, the Noelomite gave us "Rock out with your cock out!", and Mythbusters made me realize that, when you think about it, the seemingly benign phrase "ping-pong balls" is inherently funny. In any language. Case in point: "Las bolas del ping-pong!" But for all-out catchiness, it's hard to deny a 2nd win for the gypsy punks:
WINNER: "Start Wearing Purple"--Gogol Bordello
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Plenty of honorable mentions: "American Idiot"--Green Day, "The Complete Conception"--The Conception Corporation, "Multi Kontra Culti vs. Irony"--Gogol Bordello, "Voila Intruder"--Gogol Bordello, "Want Two"--Rufus Wainwright, "X&Y"--Coldplay. But one look up top and this one's a dead giveaway. Taking the place of "Complete Madness", which stood as my all-time favorite album for over two decades:
WINNER: "Gypsy Punks"--Gogol Bordello
GEAK ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Ah, the ever-prestigious GROTY award. Mythbusters leads the TV rookies, Websudoku will not release me from its vise-like grip, TISM has some of the best song titles since Pop Will Eat Itself (i.e. "I Might Be A Cunt But I'm Not A Fucking Cunt", "If You're Ugly, Forget It", "I'm On The Drug That Killed River Phoenix", and of course "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me"), and as fabulous babes go, Mo'Nique's curves make the inane "The Parkers" watchable. But down the stretch, this was clearly a two-horse race right down to the wire. And in the end, I had no choice but to declare that the first-ever deadlock in Elite 8 history...would go into OT and ultimately be broken in early April of 2006, when one team was set to rock Detroit, while the other team reacted to a harmless joke with a lot of bad 'tude:
WINNER: Gogol Bordello
The SOTY will take a while. Of the 128 SOTY entries, an unbelievable 37 are by Gogol Bordello, giving them a real shot at taking home 5 of the Elite 8, breaking the record of 4 by Taco The Wonder Dog in 2001.
Well actually it's the Elite Eight, but Song Of The Year will take some time to decide. The other 7 have all been awarded. So without further a-doo-doo...
WEBSITE OF THE YEAR
Two-time defending champ dahl.com lost a shot at a 3-peat when the podcasts were shot down in May. Modesty forbids me from picking the Pond again. Rookie sensation Noelomite is off to a good start with Platypus Nerd/Nerdy Platypus, and FGMMA is an absolute treasure chest. But based on its sheer addictiveness and user-friendly interface, this year's champ has to be:
WINNER: Websudoku
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Since TISM's "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me" was named the 2004 winner, we go with those good ol' Ukrainian gypsy punks:
WINNER: "Start Wearing Purple"--Gogol Bordello
THE TRIO AWARD (COMMERCIAL OF THE YEAR)
The competition was kind of light. Only one ad really stood out, one that could easily be shown as a PSA in every junior high, high school, college, etc.:
WINNER: Zazoo Condoms--"I Want Those Sweeties!"
THE CARL SAGAN AWARD (MOVIE OF THE YEAR)
Star Wars Ep 3 almost achieved the impossible: making the first two eps worth suffering through. Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy deserved a bigger budget. Napoleon Dynamite (new to me) was, if nothing else, highly quotable. And the joyously offensive The Aristocrats had a lock on this award until the last week of the year. The movie that stole it away made me do something I never do: as soon as it was over I bought another ticket and saw it again immediately. Fuck the elitist critics who knock it for being a filmed version of the Broadway version. Many of us out here in the 'flyover states' don't have the time or the means to go see it on Broadway. Thank you, Mel Brooks, for allowing me to see it for $6.50 a pop plus bus fare:
WINNER: The Producers
(PS: My only minor quibble is that the L.S.D. character, originally played by Dick Shawn, was omitted. But then, Dick Shawn was inimitable, so that's understandable.)
CATCH PHRASE OF THE YEAR
The aforementioned Napoleon Dynamite had several worthy candidates, the Noelomite gave us "Rock out with your cock out!", and Mythbusters made me realize that, when you think about it, the seemingly benign phrase "ping-pong balls" is inherently funny. In any language. Case in point: "Las bolas del ping-pong!" But for all-out catchiness, it's hard to deny a 2nd win for the gypsy punks:
WINNER: "Start Wearing Purple"--Gogol Bordello
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Plenty of honorable mentions: "American Idiot"--Green Day, "The Complete Conception"--The Conception Corporation, "Multi Kontra Culti vs. Irony"--Gogol Bordello, "Voila Intruder"--Gogol Bordello, "Want Two"--Rufus Wainwright, "X&Y"--Coldplay. But one look up top and this one's a dead giveaway. Taking the place of "Complete Madness", which stood as my all-time favorite album for over two decades:
WINNER: "Gypsy Punks"--Gogol Bordello
GEAK ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Ah, the ever-prestigious GROTY award. Mythbusters leads the TV rookies, Websudoku will not release me from its vise-like grip, TISM has some of the best song titles since Pop Will Eat Itself (i.e. "I Might Be A Cunt But I'm Not A Fucking Cunt", "If You're Ugly, Forget It", "I'm On The Drug That Killed River Phoenix", and of course "Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me"), and as fabulous babes go, Mo'Nique's curves make the inane "The Parkers" watchable. But down the stretch, this was clearly a two-horse race right down to the wire. And in the end, I had no choice but to declare that the first-ever deadlock in Elite 8 history...would go into OT and ultimately be broken in early April of 2006, when one team was set to rock Detroit, while the other team reacted to a harmless joke with a lot of bad 'tude:
WINNER: Gogol Bordello
The SOTY will take a while. Of the 128 SOTY entries, an unbelievable 37 are by Gogol Bordello, giving them a real shot at taking home 5 of the Elite 8, breaking the record of 4 by Taco The Wonder Dog in 2001.
Friday, January 06, 2006
FROM THE DESK OF DUCKSOUP
Memo to Mo Clarett: Well, okay, at least it wasn't a Bronco. But then again, neither are you! (Ouch! Look out! Kitty has claws!)
Memo to all Pond readers: So, where I work we have a "Fun Friday" activity the 2nd Friday of every month. This month's idea was mine: I am having everyone bring in a baby/childhood/younger pic of themselves so we can all try to identify them. One co-worker submitted something like this:
A bit too young, I'm thinking.
Memo to Pat Robertson: JUST SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH ALREADY.
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