Re: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/7/1917580/-Matt-Damon-Must-Run-for-President
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/11/1918561/-Censorship-is-Rife-at-the-Daily-Kos
In 1968 I picked up trash at dawn in Grant Park with Allen Ginsberg. Soon we would march to the convention center between lines of National Guard. They probably would not shoot us but at that moment I was willing to die for others and peace. We all thought we were going to march.
That afternoon luminary after leftist luminary gave rousing triumphant speeches before television cameras. Finally they told us to take the fight back to our hometowns. The moment was lost.
I was not a Weatherman but next year in commemoration of that horrible failure I went back to join another march. Sitting at the base of a statue waiting for speeches to begin, a very ugly woman sat down next to me. With exquisite gentleness she said not to be afraid. Then half dozen policemen jumped on her and dragged her away. It was Bernardine Dohrn in disguise. That made me nervous.
Speakers again said that after this peaceful march we should take the fight back to our hometowns. I turned to the boy standing next to me and said, “Maybe we’ll get through this without violence.” He smiled and said, “You don’t think we came all the way to Chicago for a peaceful march?”
A rolled up newspaper was taped to his wrist. Someone came round with a box full of red sticks and gave him one. My first thought was dynamite. They were flares, hidden by the newspapers, to throw through store windows.
We marched three blocks when someone whispered, “Take a left at the next corner.” All hell broke loose. I found out that I was willing to die for a cause but I wouldn’t hurt another human being, especially not innocent strangers. The moment lost the year before in the egoistic grandiosity of our leaders could not be recaptured.
As a returning student I graduated with a 4.0 average taking classes only in my major, computer science. I then worked in the nascent computer industry for thirty-five years. I feel grateful to have participated in another very important moment in time.
My tested IQ is 132. I am intelligent, caring and sincere. I’ve written poetry, short stories, two screenplays and a novel. I don’t think like most people. This isn’t an affectation of creativity. I come by it honestly.
I think in a very logical straightforward manner. This forced me to conclude that by protesting on the streets of Chicago I am responsible in the murder of millions of innocent human beings and the destruction of the beautiful Cambodian culture.
One can easily say, “How could we possibly have known?” It was obvious, as many people pointed out. Whether I knew it or not I am responsible. Just as Ralph Nader is responsible in the death of millions, followed in his murderous arrogance by his protégé, Jill Stein. Her case is still open. We can’t know how many people she will have killed; maybe the Earth itself. The logic is not complex.
When I read your responses to my ideas I feel nauseous. It is natural mob behavior, when even decent human beings give themselves permission to act despicably. It disgusts me that not one person had the courage to condemn them and defend me. I say this in a simple visceral way, knowing how people are.
I should be listened to. I deserve being listened to. Innovation is our only chance. Not the ersatz innovation of advertising. Real innovation, new paradigms. If you don’t understand these concepts please educate yourselves.
I listen to what other people say. My mind is creatively open to their ideas. I naturally think down the line to ideas possibilities. It’s how my mind works.
Listening is better. It is more powerful. If you allow me to speak and ask intelligent questions we might find out my ideas can save us. If not mine than perhaps someone else’s. Many people have ideas worth investigating.
I worked with much of the software and hardware that made the Internet possible. I received my first id in 1988, before the World Wide Web existed. I immediately saw the possibilities, now lost. I mourn that as I mourned what was lost that afternoon in Chicago.
If you let me speak, if you ask intelligent questions, not feeling you know the answers already, we may find a way out. Otherwise you can gain the satisfaction, feelings of personal power received mocking others and putting down their ideas. This is a real material benefit. Otherwise I offer you a statistically low but significant possibility we can find a path out of this mess.
As students running the streets of Chicago we had no idea the consequence of our actions. Now you do. Statistics favor you. Worst case scenarios seldom occur. But if in three, five or ten years you watch your children die, know that you killed them.