1

 

The thing was a piece of garbage anyway. Though I thought it was a

piece of garbage, it was my piece of garbage, and fixing it was one of the last

things I did with my old man before he died.

Driving it down these many miles of hot pavement was great, but I

guess it just couldn’t take it anymore. The thing had burned out, and was dead

for good. To get it fixed would probably cost more than to get a new car, and

we couldn’t afford that. Not now, anyway. We only had a couple hundred of

dollars between all of us.

Why we pushed it into some grassy plains into the middle of the

woods, I don’t know, it was an unnecessary effort. The wind was blowing dust

around and I felt dirty and sweaty, and I hadn’t showered in 3 days. But we all

had insisted, we all found this necessary, even I. To be fair though, my brain

was fried like an egg, and I was in no state or condition to make decisions.

Neither were many of my friends, who still had acid swimming around in their

heads.

Some of them laughed hysterically, some of them stared in awe. All I

know for sure is that I stared in bewilderment.

It was an old van, one of which I loved dearly, but I watched it

burn. Once it was in the field, Atlanta George had shoved one of his raggedy

old t-shirts in the gas tanks and lit it with a lighter.

At first it went of with a loud bang, and then the whole vehicle

seemed to catch fire. The kids were singing and dancing. Like a dust covered

aurora borealis.

I stared dull, stoic, and dumbfounded. Looking further and further into

the dancing flames. We must rid ourselves of earthly materials, I agree, but I

just wished I could reached into the flames. I wished I could just reach in and

pull out a piece of the van. Something to remind me. I wished I could just hold

a piece…

 

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The Development of Grandview For almost a hundred years, a piece of farmland was located in the neighborhood of Grandview Heights. When the owners of the land died in 1997, it was given to the Lancaster Catholic High School, who then sold it to a developer. The developer did nothing with it for the next decade and the land slowly grew back it’s old vegetation. Over time, vegetation accumulated, and it grew into wilderness area with a creek running through it. Just last year, the developer started on the land. Bulldozers arrived, cutting down all the trees. Builders showed up shortly after and started construction on homes all over the former farmland. The company (Charter Homes) had destroyed the area. To add to what they did, they discontinued the lease of the residents of one of the nearby houses and erected a sign in their yard that reads “Grandview”, paying a strange homage to the nearby neighborhood’s name of Grandview Heights. The company states on their website that the land was developed to provide “a great place to call home.” However, more than enough places to call home already exist in the United States that are completely vacant. In fact, there are 14.2 million vacant homes, enough to house every homeless person in the United States 23 times over. While the motive for construction can not be accurately determined, it may be safe to assume that profit played somewhat of a role in the company's decision. Therefore a more honest version of their website might state how much money each development made them, rather than how it benefits the community. Unless the Township Commissioners want to turn our division into a suburban metropolis, logical infrastructural reasons for building on the land were scarce. However, one particularly outstanding argument was against building; constructing a new development would reduce the amount of farmland available locally. Unfortunately, this sort of wasteful construction is often just seen as business as usual. However, this does not mean that it should or that it must continue.

Those of the Old Days In late 1800’s and the early 1900’s, there was a well known song titled The Internationale. The lyrics told of a world most consider better- one without war, exploitation, racism, and oppression. A world which some people of the time period were actively trying to build.

When their bosses tried to push them around, they went on strike. When their leaders tried to draft them into a senseless war, they burned their draft cards. When hard times occurred, these people remained by one another’s side. At night, they’d gather together in the union halls and discuss issues of all sorts. Instead of merely accepting the mass media’s role in distributing information, they printed thousands of their own newspapers and books- all independently. They believed in the image of a new world, a world where rather than doing what they were told to do, they would do what they collectively decided to do.

Top,  Emma  Goldman    From  Left  to  Right,  Bill  Haywood,  Mary  Harris  Jones,    Lucy  Parsons,  Eugene  Debs  

 

 

"Do you know when Jesus became the most angry?" "He had arrived in a temple in Jerusalem with some of his followers." "However, when he got there, he found it full of merchants, some selling animals for sacrifice, and other's working as moneychangers, the equivalent of today's bankers." "Of course, the moneychangers kept a portion of the money for themselves. Quite a large portion." "As Matthew 12-13 reads '12And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.13And He said to them, "It is written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN.'"

   

As shown in the diagram above, the same people that serve on the boards of directors for the biggest media corporations in the nation also serve on the boards of many other corporations.

Control: Part 1 At the beginning of the 20th century, many of the elites of Western society recognized that the public could no longer be controlled by force. Too many democratic freedoms had been won. A popular solution to this problem was to exchange the old rule of violence by rule of manipulative influence, initially termed propaganda. Over the next hundred years, public relations, marketing, television, Hollywood movies, and in particular the corporate media were used to shape public outlook and opinions. In many ways, their campaign was extremely effective. Of course, the traditional methods of force remained in use. That is, just in case the public ever got too out of control. But the new weapon of the elites was controlling the public’s will to rebel, rather than the actual rebellion. This occurs because entities such as the mainstream media are not neutral entities. Primarily, they serve the powerful interests that fund them, and the billionaires which own them. Therefore, it is often their goal to make sure that members of the general public do not become too upset with their rulers.