A revolutionary's end game

I asked an elder original Black Panther: "Imagine we win, what's the endgame for you? Imagine you no longer needed to focus on 'the struggle'--what would a future for your grandchildren look like here in Detroit?"

After a deep pause and expressing appreciation, he answered with something both visceral and achievable:

"I look at it in the micro and day to day wins as inspiration--for me, it's being able to create room to let my grandchildren envision and create their own future."

That's it. A textbook revolutionary simply wants his grandchildren to be able to envision and create their own futures without hassle. Unfettered by the hindrances of racism and other dimensions of economic oppression which, when we really look at it, get in the way of almost everyone we know and their ability to live a life that embraces dreams in a way that can trust in kinder futures.

Imagine we win, what's the endgame for you?

Imagine you no longer needed to focus on "the struggle"--what would a future for your grandchildren look like in your community?

Swinging and Singing

Speaking with a Detroit elder today: "Our biggest mistake in the 60s and 70s was that we got comfortable. They gave us a few crumbs and we let off the pressure before serious changes really happened."

Bear in mind, the protests in the 60s and 70s were planned sometimes up to 2 years in advance and sustained anywhere from a few months at a time to more than a year at a time (i.e. freedom riders).
If you caught it in the news or were there, yesterday's Detroit protest took a different note--folks described it as turning into a dance party.

South Koreans, who ousted their president circa 2016, held concerts and official public events and forums in the streets--if Foreign Policy magazine can be relied on for some of its reporting (a few friends and acquaintances who've been interviewed might share less-than-thrilled accounts experiences with diluted reporting), this may also hearken back to their history when an Emperor provided a special drum for the public to strike as a way to garner his attention and air their grievances.

Some seasoned advocates would describe this as "pleasure activism", and if we consider justice "by any means necessary" from a zen perspective, celebration is a valid means for convening, communicating, and mourning as much as the usual forms seen in uprisings.
The tactical and strategic value of a protest comes from how it disrupts the pattern of attention for politics, media, and commerce in a way that persuades stakeholders into convening to take serious action for change. And most Djele/griot artist-advocate "mujicians" recognize the significant peacebuilding and peacemaking capacity a creative event has for cohering more intentional communities if done well.

So while a crisis may be comprised of danger, the inherent caution it demands also presents an opportunity for care--just as the COVID-19 Pandemic has demonstrated.

By the way, we're still in the pandemic, and it remains a crisis of crises that could guide us through understanding what's needed if we look to root causes that prompted protests.

As a crisis of crises, the systemic change needed to address the gaps in treatment and supplies can and should be made through this moment in concert with those who put their lives at the forefront risk and those who are unwilling to--because for some, there's a point where staying in silent vs. speaking out in a monumental moment at the risk of catching the virus carries the same amount of threat to their life.

COVID-19's complexity is on par with grappling with the pervasive realities of racism in the U.S. -- the legal system, our access to health care, our collective right to express anger and capacity to empathize and process it into healthy pathways all benefit from a healthy degree of conflict--whether it's an uncomfortable series of conversations, or from delivering grievances and contentions to officials and the world about how "business as usual", "rule of law" and "good enough for government" do not amount to justice for all.

If anything, we likely need to find ways to safely maintain disruptive presence while we mature the overarching priorities beyond city-wide municipal demands into something that changes national and economic processes to ensure real change stays in the public interest. For some people, that means shaking up the workplace's way of doing business--do you have colleagues or executive leadership who "value diversity, equity, and inclusion" but also tokenize most of the "diversity" and haven't done more to account for perspectives that would create lasting change in their operations that creates real community and employee benefits?

Disrupt that. Institutional racism is something people in organizations can change within their own institution. Aretha Franklin did it every time she worked through her contract agreements: 1) no segregated audiences 2) cash, upfront.

The analog for inclusion/diversity and equity in most business may have a few more nuances but it's basically the same. Contrary to what communists and Marxists like to focus on, "wealth redistribution" should also entail opportunities for wealth co-creation. "Equity" -- as in sharing opportunities for better compensation within new ventures or revenue streams is part of co-operative economics too. If you need more guidance for navigating unstable times, look to the 7 days of Kwanzaa and what they can mean.

And so while we may need to grow and adjust to the real discomfort where "by any means necessary" entails being present with long-silenced anger that's galvanized into righteous Black Rage, the right to exist by any means necessary also includes letting people take to the streets in dance as they and their communities work toward manifesting tangible solutions that honor our healing and fortify our capacity to keep us nourished as individuals and as a society. Just make sure there's enough people swinging and singing with the same cause in mind.


Detroit Protest as a Dance Party? https://photos.metrotimes.com/detroits-ninth-day-of-black-lives-matter-protests-turned-into-a-dance-party/?slide=1&george-floyd-protest-day-9-bw_3383

How South Koreans kept up in the streets:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/12/02/koreans-have-mastered-the-art-of-the-protest/

Detroit's demands:
https://www.wxyz.com/news/detroit-protesters-have-23-demands-meet-with-mayor-duggan-on-tuesday

Washington DC's demands:
https://dcist.com/story/20/06/08/dc-black-lives-matter-blm-demands-change-how/
For root source, see MLK's address to the APA:
https://timeline.com/by-the-end-of-his-life-martin-luther-king-realized-the-validity-of-violence-4de177a8c87b

Kwanzaa
http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/ 

Singing/Swinging Malcolm X's Ballot or the Bullet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLHq4Fvnuc0

Text:
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/speeches-african-american-history/1964-malcolm-x-s-speech-founding-rally-organization-afro-american-unity/

"Is this what we're protesting about?"

A reply to a mostly white libertarian "alt-intellectual" group where someone asked "is this what we're protesting about" posting a graph at the number of deaths caused by US police being in the double digits:
​

Looking at any issue, it's helpful to consider things from three angles:​​

1) personal stories from experiencing the issue

2) definitions, measurements, indexes, policies, etc.

3) the systems that lead to producing the stories

Qualified Immunity -- which is a fairly recent protection and gives way for relative impunity and lack of meaningful accountability, is what I'd consider one of the top systemic issues that results in more brazen acts of police violence when coupled with certain paradigms baked into the training (tactical combative minus stringent value for reasonable escalation/de-escalation or adherence to Rules of Engagement that are connected to enforcement and serious consequences) would be one systemic issue.

This arguably leads to relatively uniform distribution of police brutality incidents despite diversity of police "force" (again, a term that easily connects to misguided but nonetheless militaristic paradigms--much like the distinction between "civilians" and "officers" which orients an us vs. them relationship rather than one of service and membership as civilians who uphold law in public interest).

There's also the influence of police unions which often add a layer of insulation from accountability.

That said, it's apparently very difficult to retrieve data on deaths from police interaction for a variety of reasons (i.e. in Detroit if someone were to be injured during a police encounter, but dies in a hospital from that injury, it doesn't get counted and often won't be registered on any searchable record other than the coroner's--policies may vary depending on the city and how good they are at providing transparency or data accessibility).

For people who have experienced historic discrimination, with living elders who knew great grandparents only 3 generations ago who were enslaved, the social factors compound into reason for visceral upset.

https://theappeal.org/qualified-immunity-explained/

​

Deeper yet, is the intrinsic history between slavery and policing, at least from the south, but also the behaviors (i.e. breaking into a house unannounced; even imposing curfews) continue to echo many of the tactics, attitudes, and obvious impacts which are felt more deeply in Black communities because of the continuous injury and outright oppression that often goes unaddressed. News of a neighbor or extended community member getting attacked, harassed, or getting a gun drawn on them by police with no explanation adds to the tension. Seeing executions on television and online in social media further amplifies it.

https://theconversation.com/the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-from-slave-patrols-to-traffic-stops-112816

And then finally there's a disproportionate silencing effect that eventually escalates to a spectrum of protest behaviors.

One might not agree with all of them, but in a zen kind of way, it obviously exists, so read with an eye for the sake of empathy more than anything else:

"Beyond the misattributed quotes and bad memes and poor logic made in his name, the real tragedy of King’s legacy is that the white people who so frequently invoke it in the name of peace do so with a fundamental perversion of his message. Nonviolence — as it is discussed and fetishized in proximity to the poor and/or marginalized — is so often only dragged out in response to any uprising of those people. The riot is a language, yes, but the response to a riot is also its own language; a language of doublespeak. The call is for peace and love, but the true demand is for complete silence altogether. An NFL player takes a knee without speaking, and is threatened and hated, called a violent thug and a racist. For those of certain skin colors, no protest can be peaceful enough.

And it’s funny how that works. The people who have the most justifiable anger, the most rightful case for rebellion are the ones most frequently told to settle down, to embrace nonviolence. They are the ones told to follow the example of a man who met his end with a bullet, fired from a racist’s gun."

Couple it with how poorly the public education system educates citizens for effective civic engagement to begin with, and add racial barriers in education to the mix:

The conventions of school segregation policy--which the school district funding system was designed to bias favor toward certain communities similar to the way gerrymandering or redlining works--and then later when Brown v. Board of Education came into effect, one can argue the privatized education movement in part evolved as a way to maintain segregation through wealth (similar to how redlining insurance as a discriminatory policy no longer remains legal but in practice by income and geographic distribution its legacy has similar effect but over class at this point). The ingredients for unrest and outrage are probably a bit easier to understand even if not all of them are something we might relate to from experience.

https://timeline.com/by-the-end-of-his-life-martin-luther-king-realized-the-validity-of-violence-4de177a8c87b

Let it be with our greatest intent: Anger, Grief, Conflict, Peace, Resilience

Beneath anger, there's grief. Within grief, there's gratitude. Anger channels the fire stoked by violated boundaries. It can clear the brush as wildfires do when there's too much left dry and crowded in the plain or forest to make way for the new. Or it can scorch the earth barren when years of fire suppression policy turn a regular event for maintenance into a congested pyre waiting to raze everything around it including the earth below. Rage emerges when perception for our normal paths of influence loses efficacy in the face of unrelenting anger. Rage emerges because there is a profoundly unmet need for healing.

Gratitude chooses something we honor from a situation and expresses it in ways that allow us to grow--it finds the warmth in the ember of the fires, or the paths and prairies cleared by the flames. Peace is being able to take genuine action in and from a place of love.

But how will you hold someone accountable when you won't hold them in the first place?
Who's responsible for holding whom, and historically who has done the most work to hold the other?

Most cultures avoid imagining anger in its full context--if anything, we tend to invalidate, avoid, and ignore its explicit presence.

What's the healthiest expression of anger you've ever witnessed?

Who teaches you when it is safe and appropriate to express joy?

Who teaches you when it is safe and appropriate to express anger?

As a nation, what events do our US History books celebrate or commemorate as a formative nation?

Was the 1770 Boston Massacre revered in US History as a moment for non-violent protest or did it become propagandic cause for honoring victims of an oppressive force that led to a certain Declaration of Independence?

Was the Boston Tea Party a violent protest because a British tea company chose to sell tea from China without paying taxes to the North American colonies?

The U.S. behavioral play book is littered with unacknowledged feats of anger, but crafty authors weave narratives to make it look like we've always solved our problems by muffling or omitting the work and hardship that more often than not remained unresolved.

We're only three generations away from Civil War-era slavery -- community elders in their 70s have great-grand parents, some whom they've met, who were slaves during the civil war.

The Civil War was a Union military victory by conventional standards, but the KKK emerged as a terrorist insurgency with so much influence, the reconstruction era policies and constitutional amendments remained gutted well into the late 1960s. 

State's Rights was the civil rallying cry for secessionist Confederate states long after they were defeated on the battle field. Separate but Equal rulings were put into place as a justification for segregating schools. The tax structure for school districts was then designed to further segregate school populations. By the time integrated schools were providing official US History textbooks to Black children across the nation, the American Legislative Exchange Council's founder began championing the privatized school industry as a way to legally perpetuate segregation by wealth.

So the basis for unresolved conflict and the modeling for destructive action has been with us since the beginning of the nation's settlement.

War is a form of conflict where the most influential cohesive parties acknowledge their will to risk abuse and annihilation for the sake of asserting their interests.

Conflict is a necessary phase of peace when it can exist with clear intention and phase into resolution:

There are times for peace building to prevent or help us better embrace unnecessary conflict.

There are times for peace making to intervene with conflicting trajectories of interest and apathy.

There are times for peace keeping to steward healing and restoration so that we can better build beyond our capacity for dwelling amid destruction.

And they cycle into one another so long as intention exists to guide that.

Destruction is also intrinsic to growth so long as we have capacity to identify the patterns and intention that allows for integrity to stand amid perceived chaos.

But let us remember there were and always will be more people who are looking to heal, some seeking to heal from past episodes of bloodshed, and still more whose deeper cause for rebellion comes from a need to heal something with immense impact that it extends to the societies we live in.

Medicines are best used to prevent unnecessary suffering. They embody conflict with intent. They exist with ceremony and ritual--the processes that foster emotional and intellectual solidarity for treatment to be trusted and implemented well.

Healing restores our capacity to care for ourselves and each other. Wealth is a form of collective health when our capacity to care for each other exists with the special kind of regenerative endurance we tend to call resilience.


Let us choose to make all of this be with the intentional arc of our healing in mind.

The Call for Cybersecurity, Samaritans and Civics

Last week an associate sought help from being digitally stalked, after sifting through a few guides these were the most thorough I've found for basic cybersecurity.

Hackblossom (very thorough, has a 'cheat sheet' condensed version, but lots of reading to do and can be overwhelming in times of emergency)

https://hackblossom.org/domestic-violence/

Chayn's brief guide (quick, not thorough):https://chayn.gitbook.io/diy-online-safety/english

Chayn's complete guide (I've not yet reviewed it--note that it's a separate link but includes a sort of procedural outline for navigating through all elements and a step for basic risk assessment in the process):
https://chayn.gitbook.io/advanced-diy-privacy-for-every-woman/


WHO'S BEHIND SOME OF THE "REOPEN" CAMPAIGN?
As an example of digital security risks based on current events--someone (not me) found and compiled a list of various websites and IP addresses belonging to the various groups that advocate for re-opening the economy.
There's at least one case of a few names and physical addresses being found (possibly including someone's home), several gun companies and coalitions (which corroborates reports that the protests were quarterbacked by 3 brothers who owned a gun company) and another being traced to being funded by the Nevada Republican Party.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HQnx-RvMM7BrpX1ysgjqzu8XkaDeu0w4gJgTtzB3dfk/edit#gid=0

On one hand, I think of how some native horseback warriors would carry a special stick and  tap an enemy with it in battle as a kind of humane way to acknowledge they've bested the opponent while sparing their life. So when it comes to this kind of quasi(? I don't really know what the official definition is)-doxxing, there's a part of me that just wishes they'd get their act together and that folks would gently tap them on the shoulder (or leave a note at their doorstep). 

Violence often manifests an unusual duality to the spirit.







Use caution with online social media quizzes--or just don't do them:
Given that we're 1) in the midst of a major election year 2) in the midst of a major pandemic that forces everyone to stay at home and use the internet more often if they have access to it and 3) at the cusp of a major economic crisis

This is a key time for gathering information and refining ai + fake social media profile creation.

The Senior Picture challenge, and various personality quizzes are all prime suspects.

[see Ukrainian connection to the quizes]



ZOOM
Meanwhile, the reason for concern over zoom's security vulnerabilities for folks who tend to get lumped into the other side of the political spectrum:


For folks who downloaded the app, it's possible someone could get your own IP address much like the stuff above.  Since the "zoombombing" incidents often targeted PoC

I'm not going to put energy into editing a comment I made elsewhere so here's the basic reason for caution among folks who are often targeted by the Neonazi groups that have disrupted various zoom meetings:

The issue with zoom for people who advocate: to wait and continue trusting a platform where Neonazis already coin the term "zoombombing" for its easy exploits is a serious risk--especially to anyone that's not compatible with the white supremacist agenda. Your fundamental safety and survival outweighs features and nice feelings for professionalism or at least should for people who've historically had the cards stacked against them.

For people whose communities or families have directly been threatened by neonazis, leaving trust to a company with your presence and data--chats, names, correspondence, images, likely user IP addresses and MAC addresses [which can reveal one's personal physical location] too for those who installed--is a serious threat to personal safety and also national security considering the encryption key behavior and where the zoom development division is based or if data gets intercepted and brokered out in unscrupulous ways.

The last item I'll raise is that zoom isn't based on open source principles which probably says a lot about their fundamental paradigm and culture for transparency. That they've repeatedly misrepresented their security assurances -- much of it being architectural and organizational level -- suggests to me it'll take a while to fully adjust their stance.

https://theintercept.com/2020/04/03/zooms-encryption-is-not-suited-for-secrets-and-has-surprising-links-to-china-researchers-discover/

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/03/826129520/a-must-for-millions-zoom-has-a-dark-side-and-an-fbi-warning

 

As always I also need to include a disclaimer: as individuals, I appreciate and respect my international friends. I also know that countries, US, China, Iran, Russia, wherever--don't always act in the best interest of each others' residents (including their own), and remind folks that several of these countries often set up, fund, or even operate entire companies, not to mention often have specialized departments or units where peoples entire full-time job entails adversarial and exploitative activity.

In the U.S., we've seen various tensions and systemic issues in society further amplified and exploited--whether it's racial tension and police brutality, or rumors of chemical plants exploding that rely on digital gossip to spread, or as most of us have heard about and witnessed, propaganda, false news, and misinformation around political candidates.

Secret Stairwell Concert

>>*Bike tires skid to a sudden halt*<<
"You guys are from Detroit? Great! I'll be DJing your afterparty. But it's *highly illegal*, so tell everybody."
<<*Rides off into the night*>>
-Berlin DJ during our 2017 UNESCO City of Design visit as guests of honor in Saint-Etienne

In that spirit:
>Improvised, original + traditional world folk/and other violin (+maybe viola) music
>A participatory experiment involving cellphones from the audience and audio feedback to play along with
>A stairwell that sounds almost as good as or better than an auditorium
>All tucked away in an unsuspecting downtown Detroit building.
>Possible improv game/coaching exercise [Party Like it's 2021!!!] with dancing to random office music may ensue after
But it's a secret, so tell everybody? ; )

We'll convene at Campus Martius and walk in when the time is right.

Let me know if you want to help out.
Don't have money but want to join? RSVP if you can and show up anyhow.
Tickets/RSVP are mostly for headcount.

• Music
• Concert
• Avant-garde music
• Experimental music
• Volunteering

Photo credit to @Mari_visualz
See Bryce Detroit's commentary on why cultural representation matters and how the work that comes with uplifting healthy behaviors that are attributable to them beyond settler narratives that we often see from the music industry add to what he likes to call "entertainment justice" attached to an album from the event this photo was taken at:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B17RXy1lm3z/?igshid=1vgoh0pp1o5ug


PROMO+LOGISTICS:

###
Fri. January 24th ~2:24pm

Ian D. Tran More excitement?!? Why yes, of course! Tony Paris (who happens to be a trained legal observer) + Michael Brumo of Tony Paris and the Sugar Burn and Efe Bes of iBm [intelligent Buti music]+Synergistic Mythologies will be joining us.(!!!)

>What else could* sweeten the deal--fortified with 22+ essential vitamins and minerals?<

How about a mediocre selection of dessert-like breakfast cereals and your choice of dairy or non-dairy milk after the stairwell segment? (*courtesy of the office we'll be adjacent to in performance, assuming there's still some left by Saturday)

><>>Have friends (or maybe you yourself) who can't join in person but want to join contribute and hear some of the ruckus for the experimental participatory music segment at 7:45pm?

Here's the conference call line that we'll be using at 7:45pm too!
Call in for the musical magic making: (425) 436-6385
Access code: 789059

You might even hear Sacramento Knoxx call in from Ann Arbor during one of his events, during our experimental participatory segment too. So we might have the ability to be with people in not two, but three places at once!<<><

See you at the statue on the Woodward side of Campus Martius Park between 7pm-~7:25ish!

And when we're all done, we'll probably head up to the North End to join Tony Nova at Northern lights lounge to dance with house music later in the evening.

 ###

27 January ·

Between the 14 folks who joined in person, plus the callers-in, we had a total of 21 knowing* participants (not counting the random guests and staff) in last night's performance--thank you to all of you, including those who couldn't make it but expressed their enthusiasm, support, encouragement, and interest in other ways!
Gennifer Brumo made a montage that captures the spirit of the evening's performance well in so many ways.
Thank you also to Michael Joseph Brumo for adding his musical touches on guitar (often quite percussively!) and shout out to Norm for capturing the toilet flushes and faucet flows in the audio mix too--what a way to top off the night!

The evening was a great experience and lesson for me in considerate inclusion:
>what we did together, by phone and by our presence
>finding and being in a warm "public" space where we could convene to /play/ with one another during a cold day
>carrying forward city history and hearkening back to its raves
>who we could see represented whether by age, appearance, ability, opportunities
>who wasn't able to or might not have been in a comfortable position to join us based on how the event description may have been interpreted
Thank you to everyone who both considered and took the risk of entering the new lunar year together by experimenting with creativity in a challenging place with open hearts, eyes, and ears. Here's to creating more spaces for claiming moments of wonder, appreciation, and awareness for us to grow--together.
"#secretstaircase #doyouhavearoomhere"
https://www.facebook.com/gennifer.dawson/videos/2584320268360020/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDKtbOBUdB7TlgBhzJYhNYMYYw0ufsuc3M_GLdL46PVmxd5N5iuA2QUyRQdh_m7RyLq1lxgn6ywVtnPZ4r0gImEt-pQJhXoNRuih8Xapii2obW1R_tFNDnomiX4We2Ma9Lfp_zGJ7s6gIKrWA3cBp1p9P4KuQqLPhXNhITNwfpeHfqRsngh5ODOLVFJu0VBHussR-LDkx3WPv2qnPD7SY7KvIPUkFRtVxTpG2EAez7bPSUbIZaMojDgUzjYphJGFNAGyIHmHxpBoIo&__tn__=-R

 ###

Friends and fellow adventurers, wow! Thank you to everyone who's RSVPd (and shared!?) the event with your interest.
Unlike most concerts involving violins, bringing a cell phone, and a friend/acquaintance whom you're willing to call while at the event is encouraged (but not necessary--and no, as much as I do appreciate your calls, it can't be me : ).
Cell phones will be instrumental to some of the piece and we'll have the option to call each other or a conference line to get the best effect for a participatory segment of pieces or several.
Tentative schedule:
~7:00pm Meet at the statue on the Woodward Side of Campus Martius toward the EY Building and Galaxy Solutions/WeWork Building -- I'll likely be the only person around wearing the hat pictured on the right.
7:25pm we enter the sort-of-secret building, proceed to floor 5 and enter the stairway (requires keycard access thus we must assemble outside before entering)
7:30 Music + Musical Experiments ensue (Solo + w/ special guest[s])
~9:00pm music might continue, or we bring it into an actual office commonspace for activities (Condensed version of Party like it's 2021!!! improv game) + mingling
Due to a momentary lapse in calendar-awareness, it turns out we'll be celebrating the Lunar New Year as well!
So that calls for something special. If folks are interested I'll facilitate an improv personal/organizational development game called Party Like it's 2021! (!!!)
..
~10:30pm all invited to the "Afterglow" joining DJ Tony Nova at Northern Lights Lounge
Looking forward to seeing you there!



###

Linda Swanson is attending Secret Stairwell Concert: Detroit I 2019 with Kim Casteel and Chris Casteel.

25 January ·

This tickled my curiosity to experience the unexpected.
Old school techno ravers will recognize echos from 30 years ago. The map point. The secret location. Experimental music. Audience participation. And, ultimately, getting busted by authorities.
Oh, and an excerpt from the event description:
">>*Bike tires skid to a sudden halt*<<
"You guys are from Detroit? Great! I'll be DJing your afterparty. But it's *highly illegal*, so tell everybody."
<<*Rides off into the night*>>
-Berlin DJ during our 2017 UNESCO City of Design visit as guests of honor in Saint-Etienne"

Linda Swanson Some more photos: https://www.facebook.com/Linda.A.Swanson/posts/10219974946702748

Do you have the one group shot that the guy from Beacon Park took in the mirror?

...

The Map Point.
Campus Martius, unwittingly 2 blocks from a common raver map point at Farmer & Grand River.



...

Thanks, Linda! Without saying too much here--glad to see you found the experience notable and enjoyable as chronicled! : )

 

Last week I briefly attended an event held at the N'Namdi gallery by artist ____ fleur, who discussed how the future of Detroit's aesthetic will likely move from a grungy/gritty presentation to something brilliant and colorful--she pointed to traditional African aesthetics, and even the diversity of existing architecture in Detroit.  I used to think about parallels between abuse and the Detroit aesthetic--its music, a lot of its art, the stories in the news.  There's something about some people who experienced deep and sustained harms where we find an attitude that's a mix of resilience and a weary-worn frankness.  Sometimes, an element of guarded shame stands as a likely possibility.  It's often comfortable to recognize it.  You know you're at peace in their company but there's a certain darkness to how they live--unanswered or seldom explored questions remain like mysterious gashes:  no one can tell whether they're still wounds to be healed or closed scars, and we've either developed habits for moving in ways that don't aggravate them, or are too afraid to move any further.  Knowing that a lot of media and negative imagery already exists for both, I never expressed it to anyone before.

However, I happen to know several people who endured sustained abuse, sometimes terrifying in its truest sense, who can embody the most vibrant aspects of life.  They often define what's possible for living in a better world, or demonstrate how to carry on by living amid its realities.  In spite of misfortune, they continue, we live well.  I also had the privilege to know so many brilliant people who know Detroit as their home do brilliant things.  Their actions and the communities they create exist as the tinder and fuel aflame--the growing feathers of a phoenix--through which the city finds itself amid its ashes.  While I've been through gunshots on the East side, I've also been to the Alkebu-Lan Village which soon celebrates a 35 years of exceptional karate in Detroit and sustained community enrichment that's drawn the attention and admiration of companies known for their mid-town investment presence like Quicken Loans.

Stigma in mental health and Detroit in the media

Spurred by comments on this: https://www.facebook.com/LiteraryDetroit/posts/446844592058214

Going back to the idea of parallels in mental illness and community: In a lot of ways, the negative media and identity stigma that many Detroiters loath mirrors the same imposition of identity a person undergoing mental health challenges meets when labeled with a certain disorder/illness.  Identity becomes objectified by another, opportunity for change is denied in the reality constructed by those who impose/accept it as such.

Lament of the Virtues

How frequently do we contemplate what we find sacred among each other? Does the notion of "sacred" need to be reserved to a religious deity? At what point do we treat events in our lives and gatherings with one another as sacred encounters?

Considering life as an ongoing process, I imagine the life and death of an individual or community alike are sacred. One can find sublime mystery in the reality of our existence, if we look or perhaps listen carefully enough. In this photo, I played a then-incomplete tune of mine called "Lament of the Virtues" for the 2007 Virginia Tech Vigil (photo credit to the Dearborn Press and Guide). I used this photo as my profile picture on September 11th too because to me, they categorically reflect the same kind of problem: Some of the perpetrators who caused harm did so with fervor probably because they believed they had good reason to do so and a sense of greater purpose. But by acting in isolation or with people of similarly narrow interests, did they really know what they were doing?

Lament of The Virtues is a sacred piece. It's a call for sustained ethical action that starts and ends in the silence beyond the music:

Traumatic and tragic events can consume our reality, but if you're fortunate to survive, there's more to life than crisis—as far as I can tell, do your best to mindfully acknowledge their significance and keep moving.
There comes a point when one grapples with conflicting virtues. Strive to be good and righteous, but what happens when all your choices for ethical action compromise other ethical values of equal significance—which value inflicts the least harm? We’re forced to triage. These proximal problems yield no completely satisfying resolve. Complex as they are, hot-button political issues in the media like war, abortion, euthanasia, and almost anything else I can think of that leads to vehement entrenchment are proximal problems on a societal scale. Murders and massacres perpetrated by individuals reflect proximal problems on an individual level.

I believe these problems are a symptom of something bigger. Complex systems scientists might refer to them as part of a “wicked problem”—they’re integral to a system that’s challenging to define, and the system changes in ways that escape definition and perception as you interact with it.

The best solution to them emerges through prevention. At the least, reliable crisis prevention necessitates thoughtfully informed, authentically understood, creative, compassionate, and constructive vision and action. I suspect glimpses of love and joy emerge from an environment of this sort--it's a fleeting visionary ideal for living in a way that embraces the spectre of death and defies terrorism. In any event, to make that happen with some measurable impact, you must bring your best to every day and act upon the opportunities that matter. Somewhere between your individual actions and those of other people through community cognizance, making that vision a more tangible reality is possible. That's the quiet pause between each pulse: it's the silence between the music.

[Edit August 2013: I've linked to a guide I created for embracing/navigating complex systems and wicked problems based on my research on complex systems and risk governance between 2012 to early 2013.]