bmtv48 Miccosukee Land Co-Op Visit Part II

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Second part of my 2 part vlog from my visit to the Miccosukee Land Co-Op. With my guide and friend, Dave Bightbill of RadioMacGuys.

Nuclear Juntas

Can’t quite finish the vlog I’m working on tonight so instead I wanted to bring up Burma. Or Myanmar, same difference.

What strikes me as odd and worthy of attention about Burma is that over the past 6 years they’ve managed to come in completely below the diplomatic and global media radar. Besides the international sanctions applied years ago, rarely does any politician in any country make a concerned speech about a country ruled by a bunch of military thugs. They periodically arrest political dissidents and are conducting their own insane slave labor project of building a new capital, mostly funded with the help of Dick Cheney associates of the oil industry. I guess that detail helps to explain some of the silence from the diplomatic side.

Today I read about Russia’s deal to supply them with a nuclear reactor. Naturally the Russian government, having long shown it doesn’t care much for human rights, see’s no problem in doing such big business with a cabal that the world likes to not think about. And irritatingly enough, compared to all the noise about Iran, or the scary stories spread about North Korea, one would have to work very hard to find criticism of this deal from any powerful government out there.

For the time being, I’ll look to the Burma correspondents of global voices online, who normally provide a good snapshot of happenings in the isolated country.

Tomorrow I’m coming out of academic retirement and participating in blogwalk Amsterdam. I think I’ll take the boat, hopefully parking won’t be bad.

The Vanishing of Centralia

“After you’ve been there, send me an email, let me know what you think.”

The words of Georgie Roland, one of the directors of the documentary about Centralia, Pennsylvania.

I’m about to write that email, as a few days ago, my brother and I spent the day finding Centralia and exploring the town that has been on fire since the 1960’s.

A town that has been on fire for more than 40 years. Lots of visuals come to mind eh? Of course, that fire is underground, so now those pictures in your head have probably changed somewhat. But still.. coal mine fire.. underground.. over 1000 residents have left with only a handfull remaining in scattered houses. Pockets of coal-fire smoke dot the landscape, usually measuring no higher than my chest. A town with more people residing in its cemeteries than on its streets. You develop alot of pictures in your head about a place like that.

You know you’re near Centralia when there are less cars on the road. Less signs telling you how close you are to it. Sometimes you come to a clearing that looks as though someone has scalped the mountains, revealing a once secret treasure of neverending piles of dark shiney anthracite coal.

After a brief stop in nearby Ashland, for lunch and a very exciting yet chilling tour of the pioneer coal mine, we finally made it to Centralia.

The first sign we had arrived was the mile or so of highway to our left, blocked off with a big warning sign “Warning.. fire burning underground.. danger of death.. bla bla bla”. And as we arrive at the top of the hill, we notice some coal mine-Centralia tourists doing pretty much what we wanted to do.. walk around and snap pictures of the smoking ground and the few remaining indications that there was once a real town here.

We pull over near one of the cemetaries. I scan the area enclosed by a chain-link fence, searching for the exhaust pipes I had read could be found in the cemetary. As I look, Im distracted by the scorched earth beside it. A roughly paved road surrounded by sink holes filled with garbage, scraps of coal, and those famous gaps in the earth which spew carbon smelling smoke.

We park the car and for a brief moment wonder if some nonexistant police officer is going to have it towed. A quick glance at the area around and we realize, parking is not really an issue when your town has population 8. So we make our way around the sink holes, stopping to touch the ground and feel the heat coming from the ground. Snapping off pictures like tourists who think every piece of garbage is some how “cool”.

My brother warns me about walking over a big pile of stone and dirt, which seems to indicate that we shouldn’t pass. Dark fantasies of us sinking into a smoking hole in the ground run briefly through our heads. But nevermind that, I’ve come all the way from the Netherlands AND New Jersey, to see this… no warning sign will stop me from falling into a hole.

Eventually we walk down the hill, passing the famous house occupied by a guy who I think is named Mike… the main character of the new documentary about Centralia. We look around the house to see if by some chance he’s outside and we might wave. My next thought is to stop looking at the man’s house and respect what is left of his privacy, the town pretty much speaks for itself anyway without having to disturb him any more than some coal fires behind his house already do.

The amazing thing are the little streets with nothing on them. This nothing shows very little signs of having ever been something. The only reason I know there were houses all along these streets is because I saw a photo from 1940 where it looked like a bustling coal town. Also because as we continue down these streets, overgrown with weeds and trees, you can see the entrance way to what was a front door, or a driveway. The telephone poles line the street yet nothing is connected to them anymore. We manage to read an inscription in the curb, a house number, its a pretty big number and we start to imagine how many house numbers there probably were and how odd that must have been to know on the day the post office revoked the town zip code.

After visiting all the cemetaries, including the exclusively Ukranian one. (i think that writing was Ukranian), we head back towards the closed highway. Taking another glance down the hill at the would-be town, we again discuss how pretty it must have been and where the biggest houses must have been located. Not that you can see any of that anymore… just roads that lead to nowhere with occasional stairs leading up to nothing.

Then we walk the famous walk, down the closed section of highway 41. It is a surreal and creepy hour.. as we walk down the middle of a 4 lane highway, in near silence. After 15 minutes of walking, I see what I had only seen in photos… the huge gash in the earth, with smoke billowing out of it. The closer we got the more smoke came out, most of it disappearing into the wind so that only we standing there could ever see it.
We again put out hands to the ground and feel the heat of the fire somewhere down there below us. I stand on one of the cracks in the earth, and let my feet be warmed by a fire I can’t see.

Like good tourists, we take our photos, discuss how it all must have unfolded when the highway was closed, and tell an occasional joke to ease the obviously somber feeling you get after seeing the sad reality of this place. Eventually heading back to the car, back through Ashland and coal country Pennsylvania.

What do I think of Centralia? I think its a beautiful place. Beautiful and tragic, a symbol of the suffering that so many people on this earth have endured in the name of gathering and controlling resources, not to mention earning a living in the service of some industry. And yet, like so many sad things on earth, there is great beauty.

You could say there’s nothing there, but when I looked I could see the houses in my head. Children going to school. Coal miners heading to work. I may not be able to hear them, and the physical evidence may have become hard to locate… but I saw it… and I see it still.

Greetings from the Lost City of NOLA

Just arrived. Circled the town via automobile. Checked into chez lil’Robin who is just a fantastic person. She’s probably reading this too.. so I’ll withhold all other compliments.

Lots of meetings set up for tomorrow with some interesting projects. NOLA bloggers have not been the most responsive bunch, but I still hope to get some of the great personal publishers of this town to sit town and tell me what has happened and how.

For now this is just a hello to let y’all know, the crusading podcasting journalist has arrived and its amazing to see a city you’ve read, heard, and seen so much about.

Oh and there is a pressing issue that demands some immediate attention and I think EU sanctions.. and that is the Polish government’s rabid homophobia and their desire to erase any references to LGBT issues or history in their education system. Any mention of gay is apparently to be banned as well. (?)

As a very concerned citizen of the EU I think the government should have sanctions put on it and perhaps they should be brought before the EU court of justice for discrimination and violating the fundamental human rights they agree to respect by being part of the EU.

But ok, right now its hard to focus on that.. cause I’m in the Big EASY!

Boroughing

“Why don’t you write about your personal life”, Ms Thingk asked, “you know people love hearing about that stuff.” We sat there, two of the few people at a very cozy Williamsburg bar enjoying happy hour last night.

Amazing to consider how we know our friends and where we meet up in this era where distance no longer means very much. In her case, we met back in 2004/2005, in Amsterdam where she was studying at the U of Amsterdam where by that point, I was working. After that she moved to DC to work with a very important organization, and for the past 2 years… she’s become a Brooklynite. Even the people standing outside the corner shop seem to know her by name “Hey Ms Thingk!” they waved. Im sure they too would be sad to hear that she has indeed quit blogging.

Yesterday was in fact, full of highlights, including dinner with some very famoose Livejournalists and former PAris residents. But before any of that, it was my day to speak in front of my good friend, Prof. Brian Dunphy’s class at Brooklyn College, not to mention to spend a day walking in his shoes… which was fun.

I spoke about the history of personal publishing, not so much who did what, but what things have unfolded as they have. The conditions and ingredients that made it possible; because of course.. the fact that so many people consult blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in such mass numbers is not just a fluke miracle… it is because several key developments led us here. And those developments may not always be obvious to everyone.. so hopefully the class found it useful to hear me yap yap yap.

It has been a long time since I spoke before a lecture hall of New Yorkers… not sure if I ever have. And I tell you it matters because you can never assume you know what a new yorker knows.. they are keen observers, they are diverse, they are experienced beyond their years, and just when you think you’ve got something to show them.. they’ve probably got alot to show you. At the end of the presentation lots of students came to hand stuff to Brian and talk about class things. Just when I thought no one would dare come say hi.. several nice students turned to me and quietly thanked me and wished me best of luck. One girl specifically said perhaps the most simple and inspiring thing you can say to me “Keep doing what you’re doing.”

Thanks so much Brooklyn College, it was an honor to be a guest in your classroom.

Todays Bigots

The by-line of the article reads as follows:

In an effort to close a chapter in America’s history of race hate, Washington is bringing elderly Klansmen to justice for killings carried out up to 60 years ago

Well now thats just a bit misleading and well… wishful thinking. The part about closing the chapter on race hate I mean, and the Klan.

Nope… that book isn’t even close to closed. Yet the Guardian isn’t alone when it talks about the civil rights struggle and racial violence in the US in the past test. You hear it all the time; I wonder how teachers are teaching the children in elementary schools?

See the KKK isn’t past tense. It is alive. Not only that, I learned recently that membership is at its highest levels since the 70’s! Yes… we’re talking about a membership boom in an era where some people would like us to believe racism and violent groups like the KKK are all done.

What causes a boom? Well we can deduce that one. The two very popular issues that drive today’s bigots to violence and organized oppression against specific groups: xenophobia and homophobia. By focusing on those two issues, as the Klan has apparently, they can count on all the immigrant haters and the gay marriage oppenents… ready to dawn the sheets and burn some crosses.. or whatever their modern day methods are. (buy a congressperson and rig a local ballot?)

Oh and one final note to all my blue state-northeast friends. If you’re like me you’ve often had the illusion that our states are much more open minded and forward thinking. Well, for the record, the active and growing KKK chapters are located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. So much for what I thought was my forward thinking state-of-birth.