News - a Spoken Word Rant

when is the Right time to tune in to hear / watch / read about something horrible, sometime, somewhere in the world. Maybe somewhere far, maybe right next door, maybe down the street.

Why would anyone want to wake up with the birds singing, and a nice coffee's aroma freshly brewing, to crack open fresh-squeezed (or reconstituted) stories which have become the equivalent of Grade C fatty meat shoved into a grinder to urn out Texas-sized chunks of pain for our consumption. We know full well that even bite-sized meshes can clog one's mind and spirit...but fresh or not, we readily consume them. Yum. Yum!

And with a short breath exhalation, we crack open the parchment to..SCREAMING ASSAULTS OF:

boys being decapitated on the bus, or little girls gone missing, or men pummelled to death after interfering in a fight, or women gone absent without notice- invisibles that no one has noted until the media declares these incidences (posited as "rarities" when they are far from incidental. These incidents sadly, plural, always plural). "Oh, what a shame" and..."Isn't it too late to do anything?", or "I hope this never happens again!". But it will, until and unless something radically changes and we, the collective 'we' and the lawmakers take the absence of women of colour or of prostitutes with as much urgency and notibility as that of an affluent, middle-class caucasian men and women. Then there are the litigious Leaders, charismatic Conquistadors, regimental Rulers and Kings, Nobles, Prime Ministers, Governors, Premiers, CEO's and an array of Titles for those who can Titularly yield the ax of Power. Knowledgable, educated adults puppeteering soldiers like little checkers on a board, pawns in games of strategy - along with the citizens corralled by fear* (a lovely motivator* if ever there was one). Dinosaurs dictating old-school sermons, with now-questionable ethics unleashed on a New World that is for the most part, run by antiquated systems and ideologies. Here the preacher becomes a politician, the politican becomes a preacher, orator, actor, talking head, war head. Countries entering an inconceivable 24th year of a civil war (what a paradox. where there be nothing "civil" near "war"- these as two mutually exclusive terms as there could ever be. "I say old chap, would you mind terribly if we shoot that camp here, or should we do the one over there?" "Oh, it's no bother. It was your turn anyway." "Will do. Oh, and remember come Christmas we have to stop shooting at one another." "Right, right, old man. Thank you for that reminder. Tea?"). Endless streams of one-upmanship with murders, bombings, terrorism, psychological, physical, tangible, unreal, weapons using anything from spit to weapons of mass destruction upping that ante. Whatever It was years ago, whatever It might have started at, has gone wayward indeed, and the waters murky as blood turns black on both sides. Now these civil wars, and Friendly Fires underscore who holds the biggest grudge (well, they ALL do now) with no one backing down, compromising, nor applying diplomacy. Why bother through such logistics and administration, when it is always much splashier on the page to see a new Martyr born, a Villian brought down, a Hero (likely born of death unto another, but these *pesky details* rarely get much airtime, don't they?). Sensationalized terms, labels, names and dramatic, dichotomizing rhetoric ("If you're not with us, you're against us") spun to sell to the lowest common denominator, and to the many who read this and nothing but (drinking straight from the paper bag like it was mother's milk), consuming from monopolized media sources is akin to eating the same porridge and calling it steak and pie! That is all you have known, will know, and have been born into. It's not your fault, brother! Born if not bred into a pathology of violence, a sick society which feeds on other ills, using fear and violence as leverage to support deadly games aimed to marginalize, manipulate, misogynize, and mark groups against one another until they are non-humans, aliens, Things. Easier to diassociate from and kill...specimens alien from you, posited as The Other, Them. And on that note, anOther group of people shot by an unstable disgruntled employee from some employee-exploiting, opportunistic corporation specializing in churning out a consistent stream of faceless names who wear numbers on a little badge, to deftly add the next chump in line to take over disgruntled, gone-postal guy in-a-jiffy! Why else is outsourcing so profitable for companies? Because when one exploited, needy worker dies or leaves a post, there are newer models waiting in line to take her place. On this sad note too, the scroll depicts how another animal has died in captivity (as though we should be surprised to learn that animals actually do not thrive under UN-natural conditions). Oh, really? Numerous incidences of animals who, no longer having the wild come to them, go seeking it only to find alarmed suburbanites with snotty-nosed kids in their backyard now going white from fear with an . Having legally settled on said wild animals' territory (and once indigenous' people's land), in effect taking over the ex-livingrooms of said animals - yuppites can feel safer from govermentally-sanctioned culling of inconveniences like animals. Yo dont like the scratches a cougar can leave on your kid, I get it! But killing an animal for, well being an animal is a bit like kicking a cat because it has scratched you after you have been treating it like a plaything. And things of play set far aside, a reader with ill-begotten luck can easily find that another asshole has been born, and destroyed or royally screwed the life of another, by bullet, by knifing, by not caring, by appropriating, by abusing, bullying, trespassing on the right's of others, walking on the backs of others, by obscuring facts to fool others, by white (collar)-washing inconvenient truths so those who do learn and who choose to speak look like fools, and those who do not speak can believe the lie from fear. Lies working in tandem with Fear, you ask? Propaganda, anyone? How about this doozy: this grand ruse, "If you only work hard enough..you will - -- - - - -- (inset sentiment akin to 'change your life')." The ole Bootstrap Theory. Sure, it may work for some, but more as an anomaly of brilliant luck and timing. For the most part, statistically, this rhetoric will sing like a rusty pipe dream. Sounds good in theory, but problematic in application. If you happen to have been born in the lower 3rd rung (4th rung?) along the socioeconomic ladder, then you have already been born into instant disadvantage with respect to access to resources, to education, to food, to comfort, to work, to relationship to others, your parents (hard to do when they both work). But like all brilliant ruses, it is designed to distract the minds and hearts of hopeful, earnest people, workers and non-workers alike. Reading news about Others and Their problems will distract the minds and eyes of the Average Citizen as they read about misery elsewhere, and question less the way they themselves are being repressed, controlled and ripped off in quietly, sneaky, benevolent ways (made not-so-quiet by the recent Occupy movement). You want to be informed, you want to know what goes on in the world, but must this be with a heartburn of the mind and an erosion of the soul? Must knowledge be at this high a price? Soon sanity beckons. You hear the call..and so

you CLOSE THE PAPER! QUICKLY! QUICKLY! before you fall down hell's rabbit hole again. (Breath out.)

Why would you want to read Ugly in the morning?

As a way to start your day? What kind of way is that to preserve or move any positive energy into the world? We are fed tripe like it's sugary cereal that "gives kids energy" (yeah, it does. so does crack). We are stuffed to the gills with hype and the hyperactive-inducing tools to get us out there buying our immense coffees, speed-texting because the GD world might end any minute anyway, ranting angrily in traffic or keeping glum expressions on smelly buses on the way to jobs that we have to tolerate to pay, you know, for those things...bills, they call them. Why, oh why would you want to eat feed on this in the morning? If you're lucky, you have a bowel movement in the morning to dispose of toxins, so why would you want to immediately add on a new layer of toxicity for your mind? Is this healthy? Are we addicted to drama? Drama with coffee...to go?

Ok, so how about reading it in the afternoon?

After a long day's work and you want to rest your weary little head and pop up your weary little feet (or head or neck or back or whatever ails you) come the end of a stressful day. Why, oh why would you want to add to the stress now, and never get a chance to bring the level of ugly down at some point in your day? When do you get a respite? When does your mind get to breathe? When do you let your soul expand its breath unselfconsciously, and without guilt (aye, there is the rub! It gets tricky here)?

Well, what about at night then??

But why, oh why in (insert god')s name would you want to watch and hear of something absolutely hideous as a way to "ease off the stresses of the day" (and of life!) in time to relax and drift off feeling safe in the knowledge that you may have another sleep coming your way to recuperate your cells and your body. Why in god's name would you want to drink sour milk to put you to sleep? If its to trip off of stress responses in the messed up sleep cycle, go for it! To each his insomniatic own, but I prefer to give myself a fighting chance at finding peace, even for a moment to fool myself into thinking that...at some point, in some part of the world, perhaps far away, perhaps close, perhaps around the corner, down the block, in my bed...there lies a little bit of hope and of peace to remind me that there is good in the world.

I like to believe this when I wake up, when I come home after stress, when I ready for bed. I need to.