  Mood: CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC Playing: FUEL: QUARTER There is nothing like being stuck in bed to give you a chance to think about things. One of my biggest problems is that I have ‘too many thoughts’. Now, that doesn’t just mean that I think of a lot of different things, which I do. It also means that I think too many thoughts about EVERY individual thought or idea. Before the Brain Damage, the Abuse, the Loss and the ‘forty-‘leven’ Brushes with Death I WAS GREAT at multi-tasking. Now a wonderful multi-task experience involves being able to write, type, listen to music and not blow up the can of Diet Coke I put in the freezer to chill because I forgot about it.
Also, I DO NOT DO APRILS WELL. No excuses, Daniel died on April 21st, 2001 and the first thing I did after the Parents, the Deputies and the EMTs was to seize out and paralyze my right arm. My right hand was clenched in a fist for almost a year. Which, is not without a certain sense of irony, given I have NEVER been that angry in my life. I’m still angry. I pray I won’t die angry but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. I, however, WILL keep trying. The past week has given me a chance to read, watch an embarrassing amount of TV/DVDs and come to a fairly Cosmic Revelation. Too much of life and history is based on the childhood expression; “Turnabout is Fair Play”. It effects Lives, Human Rights and Governments LONG after childhood should have ended.
This is not the same as Karma because Karma implies growth. Turnabout is about repeating the same sad mistakes over and over again, never learning and perpetrating the same old set of atrocities because someone did them to you and yours in the Past. It also means developing the ability to lie to yourself in a truly frightening manner. Turnabout has even been enshrined in our New Global Identity as a slogan, straight out of Madison Avenue and about as palatable, slapped on our Bumpers reading, “PAYBACK’S A BITCH!’ Turnabout keeps us from moving on and from making this planet a Garden instead of a Battlefield.
I am not good at Turnabout. I never was. Probably because I draw my own identity from two Peoples who somehow missed out on the Concept. Also because both are very big into self-examination and being honest with yourself. I think this is the reason the whole idea escaped my attention for 44 years. Also, the one admonishment I remember best was that my own mother always wanted us to see things from the ‘other side’, so to speak. If Mom had a mantra it would be, “How would YOU like it if SOMEONE did that to you?” If I could elect ANYONE it would be my mom because she’s very good at explaining the complex in simple, realistic terms. That and a LOOK that could shame Osama into understanding that Turnabout is NOT the actions of an Freedom Fighter but those of someone searching for Power and Self-Vindication over the Bodies of Innocents. Anyone feel that I’m boiling the complex down to the simple? It’s because Complex is a relative term. Usually involving turning something that could be worked out by a good Playground Monitor into a nightmare of death, destruction and ENDLESS rounds of meetings, summits and Peace Talks.
This was another concept that went :::WHOOSH::: right on by me until I realized that somewhere along the way “Simple” became synonymous with “Stupid” and “Complex” with “Important”. Important people have Power and that’s what everyone craves, right? Wrong. Again, Power is not growth anymore than Turnabout is. The ONLY thing they do have in common is that both are examples of making people feel good about themselves WITHOUT requiring that they actually commit ONE USEFUL SELFLESS act in their ENTIRE LIVES.
Before you dismiss me out of hand please allow me to give you a few real world examples. Everyone knows what the phrase ‘Concentration Camp’ means don’t they? Do you know when it first came into use? I am willing to bet that Germany, Hitler’s Final Solution and Jews were the first words that came to mind. Keep them there- you will need them later. However, I hate to insert a little truth into such a long-standing belief but the British invented the camps and the term for them. Concentration Camps in which Britain killed 27,000 Boer women and 24,000 children during the what has come to be known as the Boer War (c. 1899-1902) You see English domination of the Dutch descendants (known as Boers or Afrikaners) resulted in the Dutch establishing the new colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal. The English went along with this until someone discovered DIAMONDS in these lands around 1900. This ended their indifference. Those diamonds were THEIRS! After fighting for awhile without any noticeable success the British Army and the Home Secretary fell back on a battle plan that had worked well in the past. Round up the women and children then drive them off their lands, burn their farmsteads and slaughter hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep and other livestock in front of them.
It’s an old trick meant to demoralize their opponents. When the men would not give up they halved the already starvation level rations with the result that MORE CHILDREN DIED OF HUNGER THEN MEN FIGHTING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE WAR. Historians differ as to whether the term was first used in 1901 or 1902 but they all agree about the Atrocities and the Dying.
Now one thing the English Government, be it Monarchy or Parliamentary, is really good at is an almost pathological willingness to do ANYTHING HORRIFC as long as it gets them what they feel to be theirs by right of need or conquest. In the nineteenth century, Chinese green tea became very popular among Europeans and Americans. Chinese silk and porcelain were also in great demand. The Chinese, on the other hand, needed almost nothing the West had to offer. This created an imbalance of trade, especially bad for the British, who were tired of sending tons of silver to Hong Kong to actually PAY for what they wanted. Their method of correcting their Trade Deficit was to start another ‘Golden Triangle’ (much like the America/Jamaica/Afri ca Triangle they created to obtain raw materials, sell rum and import slaves to eliminate a work force shortage and for their re-sale value. ) Their solution was to trade their own merchandise in India and Southeast Asia for cotton and opium then send them to China to complete the Trading Circuit. This was done in spite of the Imperial Chinese prohibition on opium use. In the early 1800s opium addiction reached epidemic proportions in China after the British began using IT instead of money. So, the Emperor stepped in with a ‘Just Say No Program’ of his own. The only reason that it was effective was because the rest of HIS slogan was, “Or You’ll Be Summarily Executed!” The British reaction to the Prohibition was to retaliate violently, soundly defeating the unprepared Chinese, and forcing them to sign the first of what the Chinese dubbed the 'unequal treaties'.
This is when Hong Kong became a British territory. England was given 'most-favored-natio n' status, and British nationals were exempt from Chinese law. This 'little exception' allowed them to legally sell Opium. Nice work if you can get it! China also was forced to pay a large sum of money. Why, because they wanted that Tea and Hong Kong with it’s Trade Routes, Seaports and Natural Resources. This is Severely Twisted Turnabout because later the British would blame the ‘decadent Chinese’ for so many of their aristocracy, artists and politicians becoming addicted to Opium!
The term “Plantation” is another British invention. They couldn’t grow enough food on their own lands and the added seaports were needed to help make their Navy the most powerful in the world. The same Navy they built The Empire on. That’s when Ireland became England’s ‘plantation’ and was even called The Plantation by their Monarchs and Oliver “To Hell or Connacht “ Cromwell for centuries. The only reason they kept the Six Counties is that Belfast is an exceptional deep-water port and it gives them an additional claim to the North Sea Oil.
FORCING people to emigrate from Scotland under military escort gerrymandered the so-called Protestant Majority. It has been speculated that the so-called Loyalists determination to remain in Ulster and part of the United Kingdom comes from their fear of being landless once again. A fear that has turned to violence not only against Nationalists but against the British Army now that England can no longer justify it’s occupation of Ireland to the world or it’s cost to the citizens of the United Kingdom and plans to (eventually- or so they say) pull out.
Now this is not, despite the above, a diatribe against the British. (Though I am the first to admit that I am distinctly UNFOND of their government! ) It’s about Turnabout. Remember the Boers? These are the same people who brought us, in the 1940s---APARTHEID, which was modeled after English Penal Law in Ireland! Townships (Concentration Camps), Racial Laws and a Military whose favorite maneuver was rounding people up for a little chat and a lot of torture.
Turnabout! And “Irony At It’s Finest” has GOT to be that after ‘sharing’ power for a few years the hunters are now the hunted. Their properties and bank accounts are being ‘liberated’ along with the ever-popular midnight raids now taking place on THEIR families. Newspapers, television and radio stations using the Afrikaner Language have been banned and confiscated. They are now the Persecuted Minority. Turnabout Redux! Remember China, Hong Kong and The Opium wars? The British returned control of Hong Kong to the Chinese in 1997 as part of their Treaty. If you were lucky you got your family and your money out of there before the Great Return. If you worked for the Brits- and let’s face it, what other choice did these people have, when they were running the Colony, life got decidedly dicey after Der Tag.
If you were any sort of petty official, police officer or teacher WITHOUT the funds to get the ‘Hell Out of Dodge’ then, despite the Documentaries, your life is worth about 10 Cents. Because there is a very good chance that you are in a Camp on the Mainland making things that will be on sale at J.C. Penney’s this weekend.
Of course you receive 10 Cents a day, a bowl of rice and all the Mao they can read to you during your 16-hour shift. You can Google ‘til your fingers drop but it will take you about 2 hours of intense web searches and more links than the PGA and LPGA have combined to get to the truth. Since it’s only been 7 years this is Warp-Speed Turnabout! I told you to remember the Jews and the reason was that they have got to be the “For All Time Universal Champions at Turnabout”.
Now, you would think that any culture that went through the Final Solution would be at least a little reluctant to take on the mantle of their oppressors, wouldn’t you? Dream on! Not only are they great at life imitating art they don’t even bother with propaganda to make it at least appear that they aren’t doing to the Palestinians what the Nazis did to them. I’ve tried to come up with a marginally more intellectual term for it but there just isn’t one- this should be known as “The Bite Me School of Turnabout”. Sorry if that seems a bit blunt but what else do you call ‘Resettlement Camps’, building settlements where you signed a treaty not to, a “Shoot to Kill Policy” and their newest trip down memory lane- The Wall. (Oddly enough there was a mini-series with that title that dealt with the Warsaw Ghetto! ) I remember that at one point they decided to make Palestinians who worked in Jewish areas wear identity cards clipped to their clothes. It so outraged an Israeli citizen that he took the Star his father was forced to wear before they gassed him and wore it pinned to his shirt as he made his deliveries.
Once he showed up on American television the policy was phased out. They did adopt the “Heavy Machinery for Peace Program” this means that if they THINK you might support Palestinian Terrorism they will come to your home, force everyone to leave in whatever they’re standing up in and then BULLDOZE YOUR HOUSE TO THE GROUND. I guess when you have the keys little things like evidence and trials must seem like a foolish waste of time. Whenever they are called on something the Israeli Government blames it on Jewish Fundamentalist Organizations- now doesn’t that sound familiar? It will if you substitute the word Muslim. Moderate Muslim governments say the same thing when their citizens travel the world bombing innocent people like they booked an excursion trip to Hades.
The entire Middle East is playing a form of Turnabout you need a Playbook AND a Scorekeeper to keep track of! Now, many words ago I admitted that I am not good at this Game and it is probably the result of being raised in two cultures that just don’t play it. When the Irish established the Republic they didn’t run around burning down peoples homes or lining them up against the wall and shooting them. Now, it might be because some of the greatest Irish Nationalist Leaders were Protestants of Anglo descent. Just blew that, “It’s a Religious War Propaganda” the Brits and the American Government have been feeding you all to Hell didn’t it! My personal hero in this category is Charles Parnell Stewart also known as “The Blackbird of Avondale”. Since even saying the name of convicted Nationalists could get you convicted as well the Irish took euphemisms to new and dizzying heights. The “Lark on the Barbed Wire” represents those who languished or are STILL languishing in British prisons or Camps such as The Maze (or Long Kesh) in the North of Ireland. The Cherokee Nation does not, nor any other Native American Tribe that I am aware of, advocate overthrowing the American Government. We don’t run around planting bombs or hoarding weapons Mass Destruction. As a member of AIM all we’ve ever wanted was our Civil Rights, the BIA to get out of the Rez Management Field and for a few clauses of the numerous Treaties that were signed to actually be upheld. We’d also like the US Government to quit ‘Eminent Domaining’ every wasteland they’ve ever ‘given us’ whenever they think they’ve found Oil or Uranium on it!
Also, if it isn’t too much to ask after all the GENOCIDE COULD WE PLEASE LOSE CHIEF WAHOO AND THE REST OF THE ‘LOVABLE STEROTYPES? They banned “Huckleberry Finn” yet the NFL Franchise in our Nation’s Capital is STILL KNOWN AS ‘THE REDSKINS’! Time to even up that playing field, pardon the pun! ALSO, we'd like Leonard Peltier back. It's sort of hard to 'murder' someone if you weren't EVEN IN THE SAME STATE at the time!
Thank you. The Supreme Piece of Irony in all of this is that the AIM and every Irish American Organization that advocates Re-Unification is on the damn ‘DOMESTIC TERRORIST LIST’. I guess the comparative of Turnabout is Screwed Over! Despite ALL this I DO have an idea on how we might all put May 1st or May Day to good use on an International Scale. Since it’s the People’s Holiday I suggest the People take the day to reflect on the past, look toward the future and GET OVER IT! Whatever happened before May 1st, 2004- whatever Hell your PERSONAL Religion/Culture/Cou ntry has been through it is time to MOVE ON FOLKS! It’s time to realize that no matter what has happened to you in the Past there comes a day when everything YOU DO until the day you die is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. We are still trying to get Batterers or Pedophiles or other Violent Criminals to comprehend that just because it happened to you DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO DO IT TO OTHERS.
At what point does what you do become your CHOICE and not because of your Parents, Teachers or Socio-Economic Group? If we can’t take responsibility individually how will we ever have responsible governments? I don’t expect it to take just one May 1st but I do think it’s a start. Anyone who has ever seen the movie “War Games” knows that they averted Nuclear Annihilation by teaching the Computer how to play Tic-Tac-Toe. In fact at one point one character asks another why children stop playing the game after a certain age. Her answer was, “Because it’s a stupid kid’s game. Nobody ever wins and it’s always a tie.” Sounds like Turnabout to me! Slan leat, Elaine AKA Cabin Fever CABIN FEVER ONLINE 
