God Is Not American by vagabond ©

god is not american
this is not a test of the emergency broadcast system
this is a real emergency we interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this breaking news as a public service announcement for american voters
god is not american
god’s done blessing america she’s gone on to blessing
afghanistan, iraq, iran, haiti, sudan, somalia, syria, north korea, chiapas, bolivia, brazil, pakistan, palestine, puerto rico

she’s gone on to bless those places that need blessing most
your plea and your prayer for god to bless america yet again will fall on deaf ears
god will not bless you until you learn
that the blessings bestowed upon you already
were not yours to keep but yours to pass on

once you learn to share those blessings
the request line for more blessings will be reopened
until then understand that god is not a democrat or a republican
god is not american god is not american say it with me god is not american

god won’t be contained within your borders
she won’t be defined or fractured by your politic
god is an anarchist
she doesn’t belong to you – you belong to her
when your blessings are redistributed to those in need you will know god
until then you will continue to think american and be treated as such

remember god is not a democrat or a republican
god is not on your side god is not american
god is a non-white illegal alien and not welcome here or anywhere else
you have made that abundantly clear in
afghanistan, iraq, iran, haiti, sudan, somalia, syria, north korea, chiapas, bolivia, brazil, pakistan, palestine, puerto rico

god is not american say it with me god is not american
god was not born in america she doesn’t have a valid birth certificate
not the short form or the long form so stop asking for it
long story short she was born as american bombs fell around the hospitals in
afghanistan, iraq, iran, haiti, sudan, somalia, syria, north korea, chiapas, bolivia, brazil, pakistan, palestine, puerto rico
and the doctor the nurse the midwife the mother worked furiously in the dark
taking her from the womb as the back up generators went down

your addiction for blessings will no longer be fed
don’t try and campaign for more of what’s been misused already
this message was paid for by all US held political prisoners past present and future
in an effort to debunk the american mythology that god is an american
the emergency is not over the danger has not passed
in spite of that we return you now to your regularly scheduled programming

- vagabond

Love Self Portrait (circa 1995) by vagabond & resister ©

A Love Worth FIghting For
(for resister on St. Valentine’s Day)

all the disagreements
all the arguments
all the fights
all the bad blood spilled

it was all well worth it
and the next go round
will be worth it too
it’s just the pain of earning your love

all the stones thrown
all the insult upon injury
all the salt pushed into open wounds
all the old scars

to not suffer for this
would be to not understand it’s value
to not hurt for this
would make it disposable

all the dried blood stuck to gauze
all the choking from the fire
all the poison consumed
all the scabs picked clean

it was all well worth it
and the next go round
will be worth it too
it’s just the pain of earning your love

all the words forged into blades
all the tears shed
all the soreness from screaming
all the spent exhaustion

you make it all worth while
you can’t have something as valuable as a love like this
as a love like like yours as a love like ours
and not pay a higher price

- vagabond

But Silence Is Impossible by vagabond ©

The following is from Native American US held political prisoner Leonard Peltier… If you don’t know who Leonard Peltier is… http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/

Greetings to my relations, my friends, and to my many supporters the world over.

It is that time again. Another year has passed, and on February 6th I will be marking 36 years since my arrest. During all this time, my family and allies have discovered just how far the government will go to wrongfully convict and imprison someone they know is innocent. They do this as a message—first to Indians, and further to anyone who might stand up to injustice—as if to say, “We will do as we please”.

From the day of my arrest until now, through you my supporters, I have been honored with many activist and humanitarian awards. I thank you for keeping awareness of me and my case alive. Your commitment has really been a special experience for me.

In addition many celebrities, political figures, and organizations have called for my release, including 55 members of Congress. This last November, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) passed a permanent resolution calling for my release. Well let’s hope it’s not that permanent. The NCAI has committed to being directly involved with my case so that the message from Washington to Indian people does not remain, “We will do as we please”.

Still, despite all this attention and with all the leaders and people of conscience calling for my release, I have been kept in this iron cage. They have even kept me longer than their own laws say they can. With evidence corroborating that I did not receive a fair trial, with proof of government misconduct, with admissions by government officials that they do not know who killed those two agents that day at the Jumping Bull property, here I sit. “We will do as we please.”

Recently, as many of you know, an act was passed and signed into law that allows for indefinite detention of American citizens without charge or trial. This is perhaps the final straw, the final nail in the coffin of American freedom, the end of habeas corpus and due process. “We will do as we please.”

We Indians said it for generations: If they can kill us indiscriminately, they will do it to anyone. If they can take our land, they will do it to anyone. If they can kidnap our children and take them to prison schools, they will do it to anyone. If they can starve us and lie to us, they will do it to anyone. If they can wrongfully imprison us, they will do it to anyone. Now, sadly, this is another Indian prophecy fulfilled. “We will do as we please.”

Our ancestors and tribal people all over the world prophesized a time of upheaval and great change. I believe that time is fast approaching. I believe a part of this is the government’s ongoing overreach of its authority—until the people rise up and tell Washington, “You will NOT do as you please! We are NOT your slaves! We will NOT be subjugated! We will NOT be ruled by an iron fist! We will NOT allow you to steal our liberty or our justice!”

My friends, my relatives, my supporters—Be a part of this latest, perhaps the last “Indian uprising”. Make your voice heard! Be a part of the brave Movement to come, the Movement that will change the course of human history. Make change and hope and peace and justice a part of your personal legacy. Be the change that you envision and know in your heart must take place.

Do this, and on the day you take your last breath and prepare to meet Creator, you will know your life on this Earth was well spent. Close your eyes knowing you used your breath and energy to Creator’s good purpose. Smile as you cross over knowing you changed the world so that the next seven generations can know a good life. Do these things and know that I am with you. I will embrace you as my relations—in this life or the next.

Mitakuye Oyasin.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

Leonard Peltier

To Support Leonard Peltier http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/

Another Mans Revolutionary by vagabond ©

“One mans terrorist, is another mans revolutionary.”
- Moises Pagan Santos (my grandfather) 

“In our communique number 2 we warned the North American government that to terrorize and kill our people would mean retaliation by us. This was not an empty warning.”
- FALN Communique #3

“It is not disputed that the Pentagon was a military target, or that a CIA office was situated in the World Trade Center. Following the logic by which U.S. Defense Department spokespersons have consistently sought to justify target selection in places like Baghdad, this placement of an element of the American “command and control infrastructure” in an ostensibly civilian facility converted the Trade Center itself into a “legitimate” target. Again following U.S. military doctrine, as announced in briefing after briefing, those who did not work for the CIA but were nonetheless killed in the attack amounted to no more than “collateral damage”. If the U.S. public is prepared to accept these “standards” when they are routinely applied to other people, they should not be surprised when the same standards are applied to them.”
— Ward Churchill , Statement to Rocky Mountain News

A few days ago the NY Daily News ran an article describing the FALN bombing of Fraunces Tavern in 1975. It was yellow journalism at its best. Anemic on facts but obese on sensationalism. There is no historical context or background explanation on how or why “a tiny group terrorists bent on Puerto Rican independence” would strike at “corporate executives”, just the spectacle of terrorism in service to flimsy jingoism. A self-righteous tone of superiority trumps the facts in an effort to prop up the zombie of patriotic fervor that naturally assumes that the US government and her “corporative executives” have nothing to do with the colonization of Puerto Rico.

And so it falls on me (and others like me) to set this broken record straight. First things first. Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States. The FALN – the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional, the Armed Forces of National Liberation were a clandestine armed force that operated in the US in the 1970′s and 1980′s and used any and all means at their disposal to rid Puerto Rico of US colonialism. Oscar Lopez Rivera was a member of the FALN. He was arrested in 1980 and charged with seditious conspiracy to overthrow the US government. He claimed a prisoner of war status and refused to take part in the trial outside of an opening and closing statement. He was found guilt and sentenced to 70 years.

The NY Daily News article places the responsibility of the deaths of the four businessmen on the shoulders of Oscar. However there was no evidence that linked Oscar to the Fraunces Tavern bombing. Oscar was never charged with the Fraunces Tavern bombing. Oscar is not in prison for the Fraunces Tavern bombing. This myth that Oscar had anything to do with the Fraunces Tavern bombing has been continually propagated as a rallying cry against the FALN. The FALN were at war with the US government in the same way that the American Revolutionaries were at war with the British. The targeting of Fraunces Tavern which played a prominent role in the American Revolution is not mere coincidence but a means towards making a bold statement about the origins of this countries colonialism and its battle for independence. Claiming that the Fraunces Tavern bombing is an act of terrorism is not much different from the British viewing the Boston Tea Party as an act of terrorism. But nothing blinds like one who refuses to see.

The FALN claimed responsibility for the bombing of Fraunces Tavern in retaliation to a CIA bombing of a restaurant in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico where two Puerto Rican independence supporters were killed and ten others were maimed including a six-year-old child. No one was ever prosecuted for that Fraunces Tavern bombing action. The irony of all this is that the yellow journalism being used by the NY Daily News is the same yellow journalism used to stoked the fires of the Spanish-American War of 1898. It was that war that led to the colonization of Puerto Rico by the US. Now all these years later it continues to haunt Puerto Ricans in our struggle to achieve independence.

When Oscar is released from prison and comes home to be received like the rightful hero that he is and Puerto Rico is free from US colonialism, there won’t be a newspaper large enough for the US government and the lackeys who supported it to hide their shame…

FALN COMMUNIQUE #3 January 24, 1975

Sandwich Board And Coffee Can by vagabond ©

‎”Ambition is the last refuge of failure.”

- Oscar Wilde

“My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have,

but in my lack of control of them. “

- Jack Kerouac

“Failure is unimportant.

It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.”
- Charlie Chaplin

i’d like to thank everyone who dared to share in this PAWNSHOP DREAM…

it was a valiant effort… we raised $560 of the $5000 we need to make the film…

i am not discouraged in the least… (or in the most…)

there is nothing to fear THE FILM WILL BE MADE!!!

the promises made, will be kept…

i’ll find a way to do it… i’ll find the money to make it…

i’ll dust myself off and rise again to the task…

pay attention, sit up, eyes front, stay tuned in…

it’s a minor delay, a small set back, an unforeseen detour…

i still have the pawnshop ticket in my pocket…

it only means that the dream is stuck a bit longer in the pawnshop…

waiting to be reclaimed by its rightful owners… waiting for you and me…

Mug Shot Saint redacted self-portrait by vagabond ©

“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.”

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
- George Orwell

FOR YOUR OWN PROTECTION
THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN REDACTED
TRUST US
WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT
WE ARE THE CORPORATIONS
WE KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU

For Your Own Protection by vagabond ©

#Redacted by #SOPA #nothingtobegainedhere #vagabond #censorship nothingtobegainedhere.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/red…—
vagabond (@vgbnd) January 18, 2012

Saint Mumia by vagabond ©

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

“They don’t just want my death, they want my silence.” – Mumia Abu Jamal

In 1982 while driving a cab to supplement his income in order to support his family, Mumia Abu Jamal came across an altercation that his brother was having with police officer Daniel Faulkner. Mumia got out of his cab and tried to help his brother and in the process someone shot both police officer Daniel Faulkner and Mumia. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, the power elites in Philadelphia moved to frame Mumia for the murder of Daniel Faulkner. They first saw Mumia as a threat when he was 15 and the Minister Of Information for the Black Panther Party. Since then Mumia went on to become an award-winning journalist who often exposed the injustice of the power elites much to their chagrin. To say that Mumia’s case and trial was a travesty of justice is a gross understatement. To give just one example, the judge in Mumia’s case was heard saying ‘let’s fry this nigger’ while the case was still being tried.

Let’s be clear about something. Mumia did not do time on death row (his death sentence was recently commuted to life), and is not doing time in prison for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner. Mumia has done time on death row, is doing time in prison for his politics. Mumia Abu Jamal is a political prisoner.

While corporations from Coca-Cola to Chrysler line up to talk about the diversity programs they support in the name of MLK’s dream, in magazine ads and television and radio commercials designed to tug at the heart-strings and bring a single greasy tear to your eye, Mumia Abu Jamal languishes in a prison… And so while those in power are anxious to speak about how far we’ve come now that America is “post-racial” with its Black president, Mumia Abu Jamal continues to languish in a prison cell… Black president or not Mumia Abu Jamal is serving a life sentence in prison not for killing Daniel Faulkner but because Mumia’s politics stand in defiance of the politics that silenced MLK and the politics that are trying to silence him as well as the politics that are trying to silence anyone of us who stand in defiance to injustice…

Mumia didn’t pull any punches when dealing with racism and poverty and the abuses of power by the elites, in much the same way that Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t pull any punches. If MLK were alive today i’m sure he would see a piece of himself in Mumia. If MLK were alive today he would be leading the charge to free Mumia. The campaign to free  Mumia Abu Jamal is strong, among Mumia’s supporters are Bishop Desmond Tutu, Cornel West and Alice Walker. However we could always use more support in getting Mumia free. So instead of listening to snippets of old recordings of MLK speeches in 30 second commercials, join the campaign to free Mumia… It’s what MLK would have wanted… It’s what MLK would be doing if he were alive today…

To find out how to help Free Mumia click here…

To order some of the books Mumia has written click here…

Pawnshop Poetry #2 by vagabond ©

Pawnshop Poetry #2 #PAWNSHOPDREAM #nothingtobegainedhere #ows #vagabond
nothingtobegainedhere.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/paw…—
vagabond (@vgbnd) January 14, 2012

“I am not a liberator. They do not exist. The People liberate themselves.”
- Che Guevara

In Puerto Rico (and other Latin American nations) Christmas is celebrated on Three Kings Day, the sixth of January. The celebration is based on the day that the three Magi, bearing gifts, come to visit the birth of the baby Jesus in the manger. Puerto Rico is a colony of the US and has been since 1898… Colonization often forces the colonized into an economic exile that ironically enough leads them to settle in the nation that colonized them. That paradigm is no different for Puerto Ricans living the US. The majority of Puerto Ricans in the US are here because of the colonization of Puerto Rico. However there has always been a resistance to that colonization in the Puerto Rican diaspora and part of that resistance has been in keeping the native traditions of where you come from, in the foreign place that you have found yourself.

The Three Kings Day Parade is an act of cultural resistance to the colonization of Puerto Rico. It was started by El Museo Del Barrio which has its own roots in the rich history of Puerto Rican cultural resistance. Every year El Museo organizes the Three Kings Day Parade to maintain what US colonialism would like to eradicate. Over the years the Three Kings Day Parade has expanded its cultural resistance to include the neo-colonization of other Latin American nations whose people have been forced into the economic exile of US capitalism.

The Three Kings Day Parade resistance to colonialism which is a handmaiden for capitalism, made it the perfect backdrop to our first day of shooting PAWNSHOP DREAM. PAWNSHOP DREAM is surrealist comedic script about a young girl who wants to buy a beautiful box of sand she see in a pawnshop window but she doesn’t have enough to buy so the pawnshop owner puts it on layaway. She grows up paying for the beautiful box of sand for years until she decides that enough is enough and goes into the pawnshop to take what always been hers… The idea for PAWNSHOP DREAM is based on the life of Dylcia Pagan a former US held Puerto Rican Political Prisoner and Prisoner Of War who was charged with seditious conspiracy to overthrow the US government and sentenced to 65 years in prison. She served 20 years before a campaign won the release of her and other Puerto Rican political prisoners and prisoners of war in 1998.

We have already begun shooting PAWNSHOP DREAM even though all the money isn’t in place. We aren’t deterred by such trivialities as not having money to make a film… especially a surreal film such as this… The Three Kings Day Parade is the perfect example of this. It presented an opportunity for the film to include an event rooted in cultural resistance to colonialism. So we shot Alexis “Flea” Fernandez who is one of the stars of PAWNSHOP DREAM (she’s also the costar of  my other film NO WAY HOME) and plays the younger Dylcia Pagan and as she walks to the pawnshop to make yet another payment on her beautiful box of sand. The idea is that as Dylcia (played by Flea, another actress yet to be cast and then by Dylcia herself) walks back and forth to the pawnshop making payments on her beautiful box of sand she is surrounded by and takes part in these acts of everyday resistance in the street. These acts of resistance in the street shape her thinking and give her interactions with the pawnshop owner context.

We are still trying to raise money to make PAWNSHOP DREAM but we won’t wait until we have it all to begin… We do what we can, when we can… And when the opportunities and resources present themselves we move forward in the same way a guerrilla army does in battle… Filmmaking for me is cultural guerrilla warfare… We stay nimble and aware and look for the slim chances and wait for the odds that even at their best are invariably stacked against us as we take a bit more ground each time we move forward…

You can help us… We have raised $535 so far and need to raise another $4500. A few dollars is all it takes… i would rather have 4500 people donate one dollar than have one person donate $4500… Be a part of this PAWNSHOP DREAM and help take back the dream that was bought BY you but was never sold TO you… Be a part of the PAWNSHOP DREAM and take back what was always yours…

Three Kings Parade Into A #PAWNSHOPDREAM nothingtobegainedhere.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/thr… #ows #PRLibre #nothingtobegainedhere #vagabond—
vagabond (@vgbnd) January 11, 2012

We did a wardrobe fitting for PAWNSHOP DREAM with Alexis “Flea” Fernandez late last night. Flea who is not only my niece but the co-star of PAWNSHOP DREAM. Flea will be playing a younger version of former US Held Puerto Rican political prisoner and prisoner of war Dylcia Pagan. Who served 20 years in US prisons for fighting for the independence of Puerto Rico using any and all means at her disposal…

Dylcia is the inspiration for PAWNSHOP DREAM. She has always claimed her freedom even locked up within the bowels of prison but has never really ever fully owned it. It’s that complicated sentiment that is at the crux of PAWNSHOP DREAM. The film is a surreal comedic allegory about Puerto Rico’s complicated relationship with a freedom, that like Dylcia, it has always claims but has never owned. The colonial relationship Puerto Rico has  had with the US since 1898 is a complex one and is a metaphor for Dylcia’s life. It’s also a film about how capitalism colonizes all of us except the very few who benefit from such colonialism.

Flea will play a young version of Dylcia. i decided to go with a Punk Aesthetic for her character since Punk is such a strong and easily recognizable rebellious fashion. And what would fit a rebellious warrior like Dylcia better than Punk? So i turned to my girlfriend of many years Resister who dug into her closet and came up with this outfit. A red Che hoodie with green plaid bondage pants, green boots with thin orange laces, fingerless black star bondage gloves and a long sleeve Lion Of Judah Rasta T-shirt underneath it all… The RICANSTRUCTED baseball hat is a one of a kind sample that i wear all the time and Flea added that little bit of flavor afterward.

i think this outfit says it all… Defiant but fun and vibrant and full of life… Like Dylcia herself…

We are still struggling to make PAWNSHOP DREAM… We have only just reached (as i write now) the %10 mark in our goal to raise $5000 to make the film… Please think about sending in a donation of $25, $10 even $5 to help make this surreal comedy a reality…

Donations can be made at www.indiegogo.com/PAWNSHOP-DREAM and anything and everything is very much appreciated…

A Punk Aesthetic For A Pawnshop Dream #nothingtobegainedhere #PAWNSHOPDREAM wp.me/p1eniL-xh—
vagabond (@vgbnd) January 06, 2012