Part 2 of 2

Rod Amis - Unbound

"AMIS ET AMOURS" (Continued) - SOMETIMES IT'S NECESSARY TO STATE THE OBVIOUS. Most of my friends and lovers already know what I think about the Lott Affair. Trent Lott simply managed to confirm what G21 writers like PHIL MARTIN in the "Queer Planet" column and RADIO RAHEEM, in both "Life on The Street" and "Radioactive" have said about him for years. He's always been a bigotted closet racist. At Strom Thurmond's party, he simply decided to out himself, believing that the recent midterm Republican sweep made him immune to criticism. Oops! Should he be banished to political Siberia for so openly showing his true colors?

Probably not. (Go ahead and gasp, Darling.) Here's why: I prefer a racist I know to a racist I don't know.

Besides, politicians in America no longer have ANYTHING to do with the desires of the populace. They're corporate whores. They put on fuck-me pumps for every fundraiser they can find. If you don't know that I must have been doing something wrong at this magazine the last few years.

In my Not-So-Humble-Opinion the Lott Affair is just another case of political misdirection. We are planning to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis (those we missed the first time.) North Korea has just asked for an "in your face" non-aggression pact. Which of these stories is Real News?

But that's just the opinion of the man who took the most direct flight to Serbia he could find after we bombed the hell out of those people.

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20 December, 2002: Yes, I broke down and went to the party. I took a shower, stopped to get a six of Corona, since there was no place for a nice bottle of wine on my route, and arrived relatively early. Turns out I was the only guest to bring anything other than their bodies. I greeted Fashionable and many of her friends. I had a glass of eggnog. The entree at Fashionable's was baked yams. I took a pass. Peter arrived and immediately glommed on to me to talk to me about musicians in this town and the relative merits of playing at various clubs, including The Cat. He droned on and on, not noting that I was bored senseless. When he finally took a short pause to breathe, I quickly downed my eggnog and made for the kitchen to say good-bye to Fashionable. "Oh, the party's just starting! And you haven't seen the other places in the circle."

I made the excuse that I needed to finish the Web site I'm contracted to do before the weekend and had this effort on my plate, as well, so I needed to get in early after working late the night before. She said she would come by and see me at The Cat on Saturday.

I immediately went around to The Cat for a real drink. The band was one of the better ones. I jawed with Curtis for a bit, then went home where I made one of my typical peasant meals. This time it was beans and cheese on toast.

I figured I'd save Lynda's steaks until I wasn't exhausted and had the time and inclination to cook them properly.

You should be proud of me for at least making an attempt to break my reclusive pattern. Wish I hadn't bought those beers for her, though ...

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IN THIS SEASON OF "PEACE ON EARTH" I can't keep myself from thinking how we, here, can respond to finding ourselves on the wrong side of history. It is not only the inevitable war, but also the deeper implications behind the rush to war. I'm deeply disturbed by what is becoming of this country.

I look back to January of 2001, when I went to the Bush Inaugural and felt like I was attending an event in Soviet Moscow or Peron's Buenos Aires. There were checkpoints before entering the barb-wired and completely gated area of the parade route, there were phalanxes of cops and Secret Service agents talking into their chests. And for the first time in history, the new American President refused to get out of his steel-plated, bulletproof glass limousine to face his own electorate. It was the complete antithesis of Jimmy Carter's open and humble walk down the last mile to the White House.

I had an increasing sense of dis-ease that year. I could not think about my country and its new policies without being alternatively ill, disgusted or paranoid. I was on a plane leaving America by May with the hope of finding a means of never returning.

Almost two years later, I still feel either ill or disgusted thinking of what is happening in this country. I'm not paranoid any longer because I'm certain that - if only based on the tenor of this journal - I'm either on a list administered by Ashcroft or Poindexter. Likely both. I have grown comfortable with my dissidence. This is definitely a time to speak truth to power. And I'm committed more than ever to leaving this place. We are on the wrong side of history.

Why do I say that? Beginning with the bald-faced means by which this illegitimate regime came to power, providing our first court-appointed President, the oligarchs of the power elite have risen to new heights of arrogance that can only be called breathtaking. After trumping the will of the American electorate, they have proceeded on a course meant to trump the will and sovereignty of all other nations. International treaties have been abandoned or ignored, the international court was given a big "Nyet", and His Fraudulency all but declared in his 12 September speech to the United Nations that its opinion is of not of consequence only its validation of the imperial decision.

In short, there is no room for debate with this regime. You simply do as you're told or shut the hell up. That is intolerable in a "free society."

The money-fuelled Republican sweep of the midterm elections, along with the Lott Affair, only drive home the point that this imperial arrogance has reached a new and dangerous high.

We cannot depend on the gods to address this hubris for us. We can all certainly depend on any disasters it engenders falling on our heads.

We are on the wrong side of history because the Bush Doctrine effectively places the intentions of the ruling elite in Washington above that of the entire community of nations and uses as its sole justification "Because we can." This arrogant, imperial doctrine, in other words, reduces the international arena to the level of street-thug ideology and abandons "the rule of law" which had (at least in lip service) been central to the American vision of international relations prior to this regime. In one stroke, by forwarding the concept of preventive war, this regime has changed the international landscape for the worst and destabilized the prospects for peaceful resolution of international disputes. They have provided every tinpot dictator and aggressive despot with the catch phrase "war on terrorism" to justify any violent response to provocation deemed necessary. There is no way to minimize the dire implications of rationalizing this doctrine.

If the world were not already an overly violent place, the forces are now in motion to make it unimaginably more so.

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AUTHOR'S NOTES: While out sending off the new site info to my client, I was able to note a few things. These notes cover the revelations.

1. Kissinger has stepped down. Considering how easy it was for him to forget things he had written against the imperial grasping of the Bush regime this year, let alone ideas that repudiate the actions of the regime in his celebrated books - after being offered the head of the 9/11 Commission - this is wonderful news for dissidents. Much of the credit, I suspect, goes to Internet Pundits like Andrew Sullivan who wouldn't let this story (or the Lott Affair) go away.
2. Trent Lott is stepping down. Frankly, I'm not happy about this development, as it takes the pressure off him to actually follow up with actions the verbal promises he made on the BET network when he was trying to salvage his career. We'll be keeping an eye on Lott here, though, as we have over the years. How much has he really changed from the bigotted opportunist he's been most his career?
3. Ohmigod! Just in time for Christmas, His Fraudulency realizes that cutting unemployment benefits is a BAD idea when the economy is tanking. Many thanks to Karl Rove for this.

Of course, that's only this week. Next year, he still plans to make the body-bag manufacturers rich on the blood of your children.

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I can feel it coming in the air tonight
Hold on
Well I've been waiting for this moment
For all my life
Hold on - Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight

Heavenly Father, I'm a soldier,
I'm gettin' hotter
'Cause the world's getting colder ...
... Staring at the world
Thru my rearview ... --Tupac "In the Air Tonight"(Mix)

ROD'S HOLIDAY MESSAGE is the one that I hope this cathedral of words has been sending 24 and 7:

• Give Love
• Be compassionate
• Have a few laughs
• Try not to leave a large footprint

As we move into another year, my love, I'm already and as usual planning to change the look of GENERATOR 21 again. I go through a yearly cycle of wanting to make changes in the look and feel here. This year is no different. I'm itching for a new masthead, want to reach some closure on the "Vox Pop" page (my most onerous chore, actually), and I need to know whether the Palm version is working at all. I haven't updated it in months because of a complete lack of feedback.

According to the Editorial Calendar I sent the writers here, this is our last edition of 2002. I'm trying to give myself more time to put issues together during this holiday season, but we'll resume our weekly schedule next year. I hope I'm leaving you with enough to keep you involved with generator21.net until our return on 2 January, 2003. Have a wonderful New Year!

On the personal side, I'll be pleased if I can make enough at the bar to pay my bills and still put some money away for a couple of malfunctioning parts My Darling needs to have replaced. I'd like to dredge up a couple writing gigs or Web design contracts to help me along with that. I mean to find The Last Woman, convert this hovel of mine into a place of comfort and repose, find my way out of the United States again, too. I ache to live somewhere that feeds my Muse instead of dampens her and finally, finally feel at "Home".

That means that I have to find a woman who wants to leave the United States as much as I, of course...

Tall orders every one. But how long will I be dead?

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THIS WEEK YOU GET YOUR "AHHH!" MOMENT or SHOWERS OF BLESSINGS. When I arrived at work, thinking about the shifts I have left to make the rent this month, Trish asked me when I'd be starting to open at noon on Saturdays. I was confused, Ed had mentioned that he thought we'd wait until after the first of the year. Nope, she'd like me to start doing it right away. Fine by me. Then she mentions that she expects things will get busier after Christmas, so would I mind working a "swing" on the night shift Thursdays and Fridays. I'm open to that, too. So-o-o, the only day I have off this week is Christmas Eve, I figure out later, I work straight through until Wednesday the first, since I'm also doing New Year's Eve. That's good for rent, let's hope it's also good for Rod.

I have a nice afternoon at the bar. Beth and Valerie, my old roomie Shawn, Tom and Carol(Tom is the cigar smoker I metioned), Chris Kohl from the Hot Club and his brother all drop by about the same time. It's fun. I don't see Fashionable or Elusive, but I didn't expect to. (Did you?)

Curtis pops around and hands me a freezer bag.

"What's this?"

"Deer steaks and antelope burgers."

"Ohmigod!"

He grins mischievously. "I thought you'd like them." Then he leaves.

As Curtis is of Native American heritage, its fitting that he should offer me game. I'm still shocked, in the nice way.

Things I Enjoyed This Week

1. A brief burst of "Indian Summer" here in New Orleans.

2. Making coffee in the morning, cooking at home.

3. Savoring the sense that things might actually get better.

4. Finishing both the contracted Web site and this one, respectively, ahead of my projected schedules. Time alone is a wonderful thing.

5. The wonderful e-mail from the reader in Queenstown, South Africa, confirming our running joke around here that I'm one of the world's most read "unknown writers". Heh!

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Thanks for coming back this week.

"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod

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ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services. He wrote on Web issues for MethodFive.com's Hyper newsletter.

Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appeared both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, reaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

This year he worked as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. (Think: The Boy.) Oh yeah, Rod's had Day Jobs working construction. Mostly renovations of old New Orleans structures, houses and a bar. Sometimes he designs Web sites for other people so that he can get his creative juices flowing the way he can't at a staid publication like this one. And he's been the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. Right now our Resident Philosopher has joined the pantheon of New Orleans bartenders and still doesn't know when he'll have a "permanent residence" that he likes.. In his spare time, he chases women in the manner that a fly pursues a spider.

Rod lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. This town is eroding his normal sense of driven purpose. He wants to live somewhere civilized when he grows up. Wish him Luck.

He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.

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