On Sunday, Jan. 13, 2002, I had the pleasure to attend a Jello Biafra spoken word event at a Houston area nightclub. Jello Biafra used to be the lead singer of the seminal punk rock band, the Dead Kennedys. He has since gone on to make a name for himself as a fighter for first amendment rights.
At the Houston show, Jello roundly criticized the "War on Terrorism", the World Trade Organization, the United States Patriot Act, energy corporations like Enron, the elite control of mass media and many other issues that concern grassroots activists. He has been doing this sort of thing on his own for over a decade.
Jello also spent a significant amount of time on the issue of his former bandmates suing him in civil court for damages. The bandmates wanted to use the Dead Kennedys song, "Holiday in Cambodia", in a television commercial for Levi's Dockers, which Jello refused to do, so they took him in court. Jello told the audience in Houston that his bandmates had lied in court, claiming to have written the songs that he actually wrote, among any number of other ludicrous claims based on their own sheer greed, personal ambitions and their unabashed needs for control and power.
Unfortunately, Jello lost in court, but he is appealing the decision. For now, the former bandmates are free to run their own Dead Kennedys reunion tour, without Jello, the man who made the band. Standing in as lead singer for this new group is Brandon Cruz, former child actor from TV's "The Courtship of Eddie's Father." On this point, Jello made a humorous comment. He asked why did they hire Brandon Cruz to be the new lead singer and frontman, and not Gary Coleman. The audience guffawed. Gary Coleman is also a child actor from a TV series, who has since then gotten into a lot of trouble with the law and has been excoriated in the tabloids. I think the message is that if they have to replace Jello, it should be done with an appropriate bad boy.
Well, you may ask, what does this have to do with me?
For some time now, I have been writing about the censorship of Houston activists by other so-called Houston activists. This censorship is a critical problem that needs to be exposed and resolved. I have created this website to begin putting it all into context. The nature of the censorship spans a great many areas going as far as the commission of outright violence and death threats, which is not surprising at all because censorship is in itself a form of bullying.
My writings so far have been met with a certain amount of criticism, which I expect, especially living in Houston where the slave plantation mentality is still very much in evidence. It's not so much that people have a problem with the facts I present, nor the fundamental issues I raise; many of my critics are agree with them entirely. What they often have a problem with is my delivery -- how I go about exposing this nonsense. Someone recently called one of my posts juvenile. Well, I'm from the Abbie Hoffman school of political education, and if you can't see past the intended humor in what I write to make my points and raise your awareness, then you'd better get yourself a real life. Ask Jello.
I'm starting this off with a little piece I did about a Houston "activist" censor named Ken Freeland, a particularly noxious specimen if there ever was one. Over time I will add more names, because that is the function of this website, to expose the anti-democratic acts and the individuals who are perpetrating them, all under the guise of progressive political activism. You will also learn what I've noticed about the motivations of these people, individually and collectively, which include self-aggrandizement, thefts of community resources, and the basics: greed, power and sex appeal.
A creative partner of mine summed it up this way: "They want to prevent certain people from joining in any of their reindeer games.", which is an allusion to the song, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." To a significant extent, he is correct, the influence that these people have is negligible, given everything else that is going on in the whole wide world. But I have another advisor who sees my engagement in this area quite necessary. He thinks that since the Houston progressive culture is so small, the censorship has a great effect and if it is not exposed and checked it will lead to further abuses concerning greater numbers of people. I tend to agree with my second advisor at this point, so let the show begin.
BTW - During a point in Jello's Houston show, he was waving a copy of the local newspaper that I co-edit on the performance stage, urging people to get involved in alternative media.
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