Coleen's Blog - Archived Entry

“Reflection is the courage to make the truth of our own presuppositions and the real of our own goals into the things that most deserve to be called into question.”
Age of Worldview
Heidegger, 116.

I turned thirty this autumn season. My rebellious sensibilities have not been a phase, as some family members may have hoped. My ideals however, over these dozen years of adulthood, have become more fully integrated into my actions. I’ve strived to destabilize my assumptions and attempt acts of that challenge comfort. Of cohorts and mentors, I am blessed. I am so inspired! One thing I’ve learned is that many people worldwide are engaged in “varied and differing struggles to define and establish their freedom” (Serequeberhan, Tsenay. The Hermeneutics of African Philosophy, 32). The method is not necessarily as important as this intentional movement – the will to be free.

Margaret Cho, Ani DiFranco and my girlfriend Melanie have taught me that telling the truth about oneself is one of the most liberating acts one can perform. Otherwise, we are actors in a predefined, mostly patriarchal discourse, the boundaries of which are set by abstract forces and worse, self-enforced. The negative ramifications of coming out, reporting a male co-worker’s harassment, sharing your art with an audience are dwarfed by the grace and energy generated by self-determination.

I’ve been gifted the chance to be involved in Driving Votes. This organization is rooted in love - of friends, sovereignty and dreams of liberty (ones documented on hemp and otherwise). The friends who have begun and sustain this activity are some of the most creative, driven, open-hearted folks I’ve ever known. I feel welcomed into a burgeoning community who are committed to not only unseating a fascist regime but to dancing, hugging, traveling and dreaming together.

We are all working hard these days to get people out to vote for the sane candidate. We are trying to understand how to communicate to others visions undistort by the ubiquitous messaging of corporate colonization. Tracy Chapman lent her powerful voice and melodious influence towards these ends. Ani DiFranco’s current tour is called Vote Dammit; Margaret Cho’s: State of Emergency. I was delighted when I saw that the latter two, my cherished mentors, had joined forces for three concerts in swing states. I got downright giddy when I saw these righteous, riotous babes’ cyber-support of Driving Votes. Not only do they advocate revolution, put forth radical critique of racism, sexism and imperialism they do so independently of Papa Sony and Sons.

We are creating mediums for dissent. How else will our message carry? Do you think Ani could disseminate the lyrics –

open fire on hollywood
open fire on MTV
open fire on NBC
and CBS and ABC

if her work were owned by Warner Brothers? Matt and Jesse created the on-line, infrastructure that supports Driving Votes because the internet is still open to non-corporate influences and, with their hella skills, their uncensored vision can reach many.

Over the next 11 days, I’m talking to other swing states residents about this upcoming election because I’m anxious. I can sit at home, biting my nails and cursing my tv, my “country,” or I can be a part of this, this struggle that starts by turning off the tv and meeting neighbors with whom I share decisions of great consequence.

Michael Moore was right when he said, during his Slacker Tour appearance in Seattle this week, that we liberals are the majority. “The Sleeping Giant” has been awakened by the prince of the oil oligarchy.

My mother recently watched Fahrenheit 9/11 and reflected on it with the wonder and indignation with which I tried to describe my interpolation of Chomsky’s 501 The Conquest Continues some years ago. At the time she told me not to believe all the sources I read and I replied she should keep this in mind when she pulled Newsweek out of the mailbox or flipped on NBC. I thank Michael Moore for helping to create common ground on which intergenerational liberals can stand. Of my agitated spirit, my dad once remarked: “You should have been born in the sixties!” Remember how we took for granted the stability of the social order before the W coup?

My loved ones are teaching me that gratitude and laughter are as important as critique.