El Pinche Tejano

The captain of a pirate ship had one of the rarest luxuries in the world. He flew not the flag of a nation-state, but his own. His banner against the world. Very few people in the course of history get to do this, fewer yet get it recorded by history.

Much less turned into legend.

We also live in such a time. Each citizen of this republic, at any moment, can raise their own jolly roger and speak out for their rugged individual sovereignty and set sail for the pursuit of happiness.

And that my friend is our freak flag.

Funny thing about a freak flag is you need arms to wave it high; I’d like to see a corporation do that. Them corporations do like it freaky, though.

They cannot wave a flag because corporations only exist in our collective imaginations, paper tigers crafted by the plutonomy playing Monopoly. But with no arms, or legs, or even a jaw to clinch it with, the corporations could never raise a freak flag.

That is why they have stolen Old Glory, because they have no flag of their own.

One thing we can all agree on, to be an American, you need to at least be breathing. Even mouthbreathers count. And figments of law have captured our flag, all Americans’ flag.

And We, The People, need to get our freak flags fly and  take back the Stars and Stripes off the corporation’s pirate ship before they sail off with it.

After a rather wandering speech by one of the greatest oratators of our time, Obama settled in for the final pitch that can best be described as a jazz oddessy.

Seriously off the handle, I have no idea what he is on about here. Or even it this is above puppet show.

All of these approaches have merit, and deserve a fair hearing in the months ahead. But the one approach I will not accept is inaction.

Hold up there Obama. You will not accept inaction, yet we will hold high court over ideas for months?

Action requires actually doing something, not just meditating some compromise among industry leaders. Holding meetings is gonna look real cute, while millions of Americans lose their vacation on the beach this summer, due to BP accidentially the whole fucking Gulf.

Whoever wrote the speech should think about the spatial space between “in the month ahead” and “inaction”. Seriously, have we gone back to the million monkeys in the rooms again?

The writer strike is over you know. Hell, get Alvin Greene’s speech writer. Whoever writes his stuff has an economy of words that makes Ernest Hemmingway look like Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that this challenge is somehow too big and too difficult to meet.

Let me guess. “It’s complicated.” Seriously Obama, this was on the Daily Show just last week for meta’s sake.

Just threw some new gloss on that meme and called it a day, did ya?

Wow, and here I was thinking communication was your strong suit.

So what are you communicating today?

You know, the same thing was said about our ability to produce enough planes and tanks in World War II.

Wait, are you are saying the militarization of the United States in World War II was rife with inaction? No, real life action occurred, like war rationing. Only Edgar J Hoover could get silk hoses during that war.

But who said that? The Germans?

It wasn’t the Japanese. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

That doesn’t sound like inaction to me. But carry on.

The same thing was said about our ability to harness the science and technology to land a man safely on the surface of the moon.

Okay now you have lost me. Are you talking fake moon landing conspiracy here?

What is the “same thing” being said about our ability? And who is saying these things? The Russians were racing us, so they had no reason to doubt we could. And I don’t really remember a third runner in the race to space, so who was saying this.

During the big closing no less.

Popcorns ready. Go on.

And yet, time and again, we have refused to settle for the paltry limits of conventional wisdom.

He nailed America there. We ain’t afraid to try something stupid. From fads to global empires, America is always ready to test the limits of conventional wisdom. Also known as common sense.

Now for the big closer!

Instead, what has defined us as a nation since our founding is the capacity to shape our destiny -– our determination to fight for the America we want for our children.

Even if we’re unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don’t yet know precisely how we’re going to get there. We know we’ll get there.

In honor of the late-great Gary Coleman, “What you talkin’ about Obama?”

So you got a map of the future that lacks both directions for where and how we are going as a country? This is your chart to guide the destiny of the good ship America?

That’s your gameplan?

Seriously, WTF?

If you had anything going for you it was your speeches, but this, what the fuck is this?

You don’t have any vision for the future? You are unsure what is going to happen?

Did you just seriously say that in the Oval Office, also known as lofty speech dream meme factory, especially in a Prime Time slot. This is when Presidents say great things.

I wasn’t expecting a Green Act rivaling that of the FDA Act, though the historical parrelells are there, though the Republican President of the time was way more progressive than Obama. But something, instead of meetings about meetings, maybe even a public works program to clean the Gulf.

Just promises about ideas to come.

And Obama just told America he has no idea where we are headed, or how America is even gonna get to where we don’t know where we it is we are going.

Not very slick.

The honeymoon is officially over.

Beyond a deck lies one of the few green patches in my cube of Brooklyn backyards. Most backyards had been done over in cement, turned into nice patios mind you, some full on stone, but no grass.

There were various attempts at gardens in a select few, but the last of the lawns was just below my deck.

First floor got the lawn, I got the deck. Each party was happy. In the corner of said lawn was a mighty oak, full of bird and squirrel activity. It was the green lung of the collective backyards and offered shady a-go-go and was the toast of the block.

Then one day, the mighty oak was just gone.

They even took the stump.

Like they drug a body out back.

And shot it.

The birds still drop by, on top of the spider’s web of cabling, entangling some rather janky utility poles littered across our yards.

That is why the mighty oak was killed.

To save this precious cabling.

Precious, precious cabling.

Didn’t even give trimming the branches a whirl, the most obvious solution.

Nope.

We never even got to say goodbye.

I hope the squirrels were able to pull some Secret of Nimh maneuvers and got the hell out of dodge.

Poor mighty oak, just gone.

Why was the fate of this tree differed to the corporations who BPed their cabling all over the place, all haphazard like? Because they couldn’t keep their house in order, the mighty oak had to die?

That ain’t right.

It goes to the very core of where the wheels fell off the wagon. Because in case you haven’t noticed, the ride has gotten rather bumpy lately. The bumps in the road are courtesy corporations using government to regulate the people.

Face it; almost all basic decisions are made in deference to corporations over that of the citizens of the republic. Corporations > We, The People. Read it and weep.

From disallowing free press in the Gulf to deference in funds in the stimulus plans to lack of basic healthcare for citizens who do exist right down to the very basic things in everyday life, the game rigged in favor of corporations.

Why does something that only exists on paper sway such power over the citizens of America, who are in fact, quite real?

If these corporations are trying to draw sovereignty out pieces of paper, we already got that covered; it’s called the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

And I don’t remember seeing shit about corporations in either document.

So why do corporations have the power to do some awe inspiring fucked up shit in the name of the dollar, usually at the expense of the citizens, also known as the taxpayers?

Like cutting down the lone oak tree in backyard spaces to save the precious, precious cabling? Who does that?

If we are to save the environment, from now on, the tree wins. Every tree counts, especially in urban areas.

The shareholders of corporation stock be damned.

During the early part of the afternoon, on a weekday, when everyone was at work, so there would no witnesses, they arrived.

In broad daylight, they did the mighty oak in the name of corporate incompetence.