Robin's Plight/A Lawless Community

When I signed onto Facebook yesterday someone had posted a video of a Florida police officer
attempting to arrest the father of an autistic child after he had been ticketed.  He was trying to explain to the officer that his child had autism.  I don't know sequentially how the video was filmed, but
it appeared that the father, still sitting in his truck, was being harassed by the police officer.  For no apparent reason he kept saying, "You are under arrest, sir."  The man refused legally to exit the truck and be taken into custody for what he felt was a false arrest.  He had done nothing except try to explain that his child was not normal.  Violently he was pushed from the driver's seat by another officer who entered his vehicle via the passenger door.  After being pushed out of the truck he was tased repeatedly into compliance.  America has seen this kind of police brutality often.  The more public displays are met with social unrest resulting in rioting.  In these scenarios rioting is the most effective means of voicing a majority's concern.  It has become a crucial component of social justice in America.  This generation could be considered to have been given a pampered life compared to the rocky course of American history.  That is not completely true.  The largest terrorist event transpiring on our native soil happened on September 11th, 2001.  Likewise the travesty at the Branch Dividian Compound in Waco, Texas occurred as did Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  It seems we have a restless populace, although these incidents are rather isolated.  Police violence has been with us for a long time often associated with the LAPD.  While this topic was not my choice as a blog entry, it is pervasive in my mind.  I have mixed feelings about it.  First the town in which I currently dwell
starkly is absent of police.  Rarely does one ever see a police car on the road.  Speeding is rampant.  Drivers are overly aggressive.  Window tinting in almost every vehicle is in violation of the state's ordinance.  Fayettenam has developed its own small "Car Culture."  With the release of such films as "The Fast and the Furious" racing small cars in the streets has become a popular hobby to the disadvantage of the average ordinary driver.  Not everyone decides to race when they drive to the store.  It turns out Fayetteville has been deemed the most dangerous city in which to drive in all of North Carolina.  Go figure.  Not only have our formerly four-laned boulevards become six lane death traps, most of the intersections in Fayetteville with double left turn lanes have no markings to guide you safely through the intersection.  Often there is a dividing curb in the street toward which you are turning.  It is easy to misjudge your trajectory and "shoot short" heading into incoming left turn traffic.  It is a nightmare.  It is a bit of a mind fuck to exist in such a place.  One only can wonder, "Where is our police force?"  Like public education police salaries ridiculously are low.  Teachers in North Carolina are treated to the lowest salaries in the entire United States.  It easily is understandable why we do not have an adequate police force.  In addition to being the most dangerous city in which to drive, Fayetteville is riddled with murder.  Almost every day people are killed by gun violence marking Fayetteville as a hot spot.  A rather incognito fact is that soldier suicide is prevalent.  Four soldiers that have returned from the Persian Gulf each murdered their wife at Ft. Bragg.  One must ask one's self what is the catalyst for this murderous behavior?  One also must ponder the suicide death of comedian and actor Robin Williams.  I do not understand while covering his death television anchor people continue to utter the words, "His addiction."  His addiction is such a ridiculous vague statement.  If news reporting actually is the goal of these television shows, then why not say, "Alcoholism."  There is no need to spin or trump up Mr. William's weakness.  It was well known.  He talked about his alcoholism in this stand up comedy routines.  "His addiction.  His addiction."  That phrase could and should mean an addiction to cocaine, heroin, marijuana, or any other illegal drug.  Alcohol is legal.  Obviously it is clear one can become addicted to it as well.  It seems many hollywood drunks enter "Rehab." to often a great media spectacle.  Possibly this is because the behavior inducing the alcohol abuse itself is shallow and misunderstood.  It is thought of as just "partying."  The behavior does not merit reflection in society.  It should be cloistered from public knowledge.  B.S.  Drinking is common.  It has been a part of human culture for centuries.  Many people feel human beings would not have made it this far without alcohol.  In ancient times workers drank beer instead of water.  Wine is supposed to be good for the heart.  "His addiction?"  His alcoholism.  His inability to stop drinking and thus getting drunk.  One loses their conscious ability to stay sober and thus take upon themselves the responsibilities of their everyday lives.  Dysfunctionality.  It seems Mr. Williams had been in and out of "Rehab." quite a few times.  It seems he liked to drink.  He liked being drunk most probably like most people who enjoy the escape from reality.  If drinking indeed is an temporary escape from reality then we as a populace must ask the question, "From what are we trying to escape?"  What is intended when four Army soldiers kill their wives?  What is instigating the murders in Fayetteville?  Why would an adolescent commit genocide in an elementary school?  It seems all of use are suffering from something, and it appears to be mental.  Mental is not only cognitive.  It is not ONLY our brain's ability to think lucidly.  More importantly it is our brain's ability to control emotion.  Emotion, like neurosis that is a by product of physical disease, also itself is a by product.  Emotion is a crucial component of the human psyche.  It in actuality is what often is cited as making us human.  Does that mean without emotion we are not human?  Our feelings or instincts are what cause us to create a moral or ethical code by which to abide?  I'm not sure about that, but I would wager a large percentage of the time violence and deviant behavior are a by product of suppressed emotion.  The world greatly has changed.  In my opinion is has changed drastically in the last five years.  Whole cultural constructs have been eradicated and replaced with behaviors and practices that seem foreign to me.  It must be difficult struggling with one's life in a completely new arena with unfamiliar rules.  Human contentment is not what is driving capitalist America.  On the contrary it is well known that a  "Campaign of Fear and Intimidation" has been implemented for years.  Television is attempting to scare adults.  Corporate America fully is trying to keep human beings unhappy, so that they will buy their products.  This is true even in the idyllic surroundings of the cruise ship.  Cruise companies use "pop" music as a way to antagonize guests into buying alcohol and food.  They do not want you to be content.  They want you to be unrequited so you will BUY.  American society seems to have adopted this philosophy.  Many of the privileges afforded Americans in the past have been revoked.  The simple pleasures of a pollution free environment aggressively have been abolished.  We now buy bottled water, because our tap water is too polluted to drink.  We breath air high in toxin content.  We are bombarded by noise from both the rails and the sky.  We are heated by hundreds of thousands of microwave ovens sitting stop radio towers.  Whence does global warming come?  One only has to look around, yet still nothing is done.  Like the phrase, "His addiction," all of this pollution is swept under the carpet rather than confronted in an intelligent and meaningful way.  It is obvious some sector of America is content themselves with this scenario, yet a scholarly and well respected study has proven that the lack of spending of the rich is stifling the American economy.  People can't spend money they don't have.  Wages have fallen so far behind fairness.  Governments want to eliminate academic tenure.  The price of education has risen exponentially over the last fifteen years.   In fact unwaveringly each year the government whole heartedly approves the maximum tuition increase allowed whether is is merited or not.  That is not unlike a corrupt judge unethically collecting the maximum allowable fine from an offender simply because they plead "Not guilty."  This happened to me in environmental court in Columbus, Ohio.  When did the pursuit of the dollar usurp our desire to take care of one another?  Oops.  I forgot.  That is "Socialist!"  That is Obama.  A socialist economic system is based on the organizational precept of production for use, meaning the production of goods and services to directly satisfy economic demand and human needs where objects are valued based on their use-value or utility, as opposed to being structured upon the accumulation of capital and production for profit.  Ouch.  That must sting to the contingency that seem to be pulling the strings in America.  Almost always I have been a Socialist.  I don't believe in Capitalism, because like Fayetteville I found out years ago those seeming opportunities are controlled by old money.  Only a select few are chosen to receive the spoils of elite society.  That wasn't me.  Consequently I don't feel badly about not having retirement capital.  I don't feel badly about having very little.  I don't feel badly about being poor.  Jesus was poor, but He was rich in so many other ways.  I am rich in art.  I have created it through music.  In great probability it never will be heard.  I am before my time.  American society as it currently exists is not capable of digesting my emotionally honest message.  It is TOO intimate.  It is too expressive.  It moves a diversity of human emotion with more resolution than most music in history.  Why am I such a pessimist?  Am I a complainer?  I think not.  I only am realistic about the Conditions of America.