Tag Government

What Martial Art Should An RLSH Learn?

Next, after you have learned how to defend yourself, what constitutes defending yourself, and the knowledge necessary for covering yourself legally, you must then learn what are called, “Control and Restraint” techniques, as well as the laws governing, Use of Force, and, Citizen’s Arrest, in your location. All too often people interpret such phrases as, “you may use what force is necessary to stop and detain a suspect”, as meaning they can pound on someone until he submits to their holding him prisoner. This is a grievious misinterpretation on their part. The general rule for application of force is that only necessary force may be used. When force is applied by an individual (for example, to protect life, or property), the amount of force permissible is, likewise, only that which is reasonable and necessary under the circumstances. You are not authorized to beat the crap out of a rapist, or a child molester. The amount of force that can legally be used is only that which is necessary to stop and detain the suspect. End of story.
posted by Silver Sentinel @ 2:37 PM
 

While riding my motorcycle to work the other day something happened to me that made me start thinking.  I met another biker and without a thought, we each extended out left arm and pointed toward the  center line of the road.  This is not unusual.  It happens all the time.  That day, however it struck a chord in my mind that has led me to write this blog tonight.

Im not a stereotype “biker” by any means.  I dont ride a Harley and I dont wear leather.  As a matter of fact, in my plaid hoodie and blue backpack, I probably look like a fat nerd who got talked into buying a bike in an effort to look cool on his way to college.  In truth, I bought the bike for a cheap form of transportation because I couldnt afford another car payment…I keep it because its fun to ride and gets over 60 MPG…You just can’t beat $5 every two weeks for gas back and forth to work.

However, even though I am different from the stereotype, I almost always get a salute from passing bikers.  It doesnt matter if its someone in black leather, a blue jean vest, a flashy professional looking jumpsuit, or whatever, the ritual repeats itself over and over.  A simple salute is exchanged between men and women who have a common bond in their joy of riding motorcycles.

Im sure many of these people and I would have a hard time riding an elevator together if all we had to go on was our individual personalities, yet as we ride past one another we salute as if to tell each other that we are part of a brotherhood that overcomes those differences.  We may never speak to each other in person, but we honor each other with a simple hand gesture…A Salute.

Tradition tells us that the salute originated from the practice of knights in armor tipping their visors to show their faces to other knights when they rode past each other.  It has evolved over the years to become a sign of respect for authority.  Ranking officers in the military are saluted by enlisted men and lower ranking officers,   The Flag is saluted during the national anthem, revielle, and taps.  We salute heroes, elected officials, and people we genuinely respect,

The salute is a sign of respect, but at the same time, it does not say that you agree with 100% of what the person you salute represents.  A soldier can salute his commanding officer while not liking the oficer as a person.  He can salute that officer, accept his orders, and (so long as those orders are lawful) he can carry out those orders even if he does not agree with them.

So where am I going with this?

I’m glad you asked.

I feel we need something similar to the biker salute in the RLSH community.  We have message boards.  We have My Space and Facebook pages.   We have Blogs and You Tube accounts.  We even have new articles and reality TV shows.  What we lack is the common courtesy to acknowledge each other as peers if only in the sense that we are ALL people who have chose to be creative activists in colorful costumes.

Imagine if we took a moment to simply salute those who chose to don the cape and join us in trying to impact the world.  Imagine if we didnt worry about if the person wore spandex, leather, or denim.  Imagine if we didnt care if they wore a cape or a trenchcoat.  Just imagine if we didnt care of they wore a mask, goggles, or a visor.  What if only for a moment we just acknowledged that they were trying to do something positive in a creative way just as we have chosen to do.

Perhaps the media wouldnt be so quick to splash our disagreements on the evening news and in the morning papers if we were united by the act of respect that is attached to a simple salute.  Perhaps not…but that doesnt change my opinions on the matter.

We need to stop greeting newcomers with the hard line stance that turns them away and greet them with a brief moment of respect.  “Welcome the the RLSH community.  Let’s make this world a better place together.” Should be the greeting that a RLSH recieves from another RLSH long before hearing “You’re doing it wrong!”

And while we are at it, lets learn to agree to disagree.   Im not going to agree with everything you say or do.  Im sure you wont agree with everything I say and do either.  But, we can each learn to operate individually without having a big flame war or chest puffing contest.  In other words, we dont have to like each other but we should show respect for each other.

Im sure many of you will think Im wrong.  You feel that there is no hope for the various factions to get along.  I would offer that I am not asking you to dance together, but merely to remain cordial and keep the infighting between us while showing a united front to the world in general.

The US Navy and US Marine Corps have a well known rivalry.  However, sailors and marines work together to protect this nations interests on a daily basis.  When there is a threat that affects one, you can be sure the other will be there to watch their back.

Why can’t we have that in the RLSH community?

If you’re a crimefighter, I salute you.

If you’re a charity hero, I salute you.

If you’re hero support, I salute you.

If you are an oracle, I salute you.

If you’re trying to make this world a better place in any way, then I salute you.

Keep up the good work!

 

.. And so this marks the start of what I hope to be a usefull and valuable blog for the people who so choose to bless me with its readership.
A big thanks to Zeataman and Dark Guardian for giving me this blog to post in.
That said, I may not post as much as some; I want to strive for quality over quantity. Nothing is worse then a blog with a millions posts, but nothing useful or interesting to read. At the moment, I just need to figure out how to customize this thing.
 

Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
The voting of Mexicans for Mexican President in the US allows citizens to practice their rights of “national citizenship”. On the other hand, the effect of Superbarrio as a political figure in the US allows us to imagine a utopic space in which the interest of the Latin American majoritarian class is represented not by a corporate State, but by a social fighter at the transnational level. This transnational vote becomes a practice of global governance.
In the year 2000, 9.9 million people were potential candidates to vote for Mexican president in the US. They constituted 16.5 and 17.5 percent of the total of Mexican citizens. Currently, Mexicans, or the children of Mexican nationals living in the US have dual-citizenship. This means, 15 million of US citizens of Mexican descent would be able tovote in the 2006 Mexican presidential election.
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Global Governance via National Actors and Cross-Border Government Alliances
“Yo creo que es muy difícil que un solo país pueda lograr una transformación económica únicamente en nuestras fronteras, dentro de su territorio. Creo que tiene que haber una reacción de una serie de países sufriendo el mismo poderío económico de manera tal que permita remontar esa situación, eso es lo primero.”
Currently, there are 22 million Mexicans living in the US from which “10 millions can vote for the 2006” Mexican presidential election if Congress accepts the bill.
Superbarrio’s transnational politics result from their political awareness of a future ruled by corporate and privatized nation-states. NAFTA materialized this future.
“Una nueva política económica tiene que ver con garantizar que los beneficios de esta política vayan a las clases mayoritarias. Actualmente los beneficios están yendo al capital especulador, a las bolsas de valores -Stock market. Esta nueva política económica tiene que priorizar la defensa de la planta productiva nacional, porque la planta productiva nacional es la que ofrece mayor índice de empleo a los trabajadores. La actual política privilegia a las corporaciones transnacionales, y la competencia entre las transnacionales y la planta nacional es muy dura. Es decir, el gobierno no estimula la pequeña industria, o la micro industria sino que privilegia el gran capital extranjero. Eso provoca que la pequeña industria cierre, y el número de desempleados crezca.”

Photo essay originally published online at Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University
Historically, Superbarrio has been strategic in promoting democratic electoral change. He first emerged in June, 1987 as representative of the Neighborhood Assembly; but in order to win, Superbarrio and the Assembly understood they had to create an alternative political imaginary against seven decades of PRI government, its repeated electoral frauds, and its unpunished corruption. In 1988, the Neighborhood Assembly nominated Superbarrio for president. But, already exercising a profound understanding of coalition building, he gave up his nomination to support Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, the progressive leader of Mexico’s Democratic Coalition.
Who is SUPERBARRIO?
Superbarrio Gomez is like any other working class man; he is a street vendor, lives in the barrio and owns a Barriomovil. According to the Cumbia de Superbarrio (Superbarrio’s cumbia song), he was an orphan. While a teenager, he witnessed the ’68 military oppression against the students uprising in Tlatelolco. Superbarrio “tried selling clothes, driving a taxi, about 200 different jobs before settling on a career as a luchador calling himself Black Prince.” Eventually he fell in love with “Lucha,” not the popular ranchera singer Lucha Villa, nor Lucha Contreras, but Lucha Popular. (Lucha is a proper name which also translates as “struggle.”) He married and had a wrestling carrier. Gomez’s life changed after the September earthquake in 1985, and after he and his neighbors were evicted from a building in downtown Mexico City. He decided to stop fighting fictional enemies in order to fight the real enemy, the government, and its illegal alliance with landlords who perpetrated tenant evictions. In his interview, David Brooks asked Superbarrio what was behind that mask, if there were many Superbarrios. Superbarrio replied that there were thousands of Superbarrios, in fact that anyone who rises his/her voice against injustice was Superbarrio.
Superbarrio’s consciousness is the result of the unification of Mexico’s majoritarian class against a large national problem, the government’s consistent project of gentrification. Superbarrio explains: “The policy of the government over the last decades has been one of forcing people from the center of the city to the periphery, and giving the properties at the center of commercial use to benefit large enterprises, warehouses, restaurants, tourist attractions.” In 1993, Mexico was the fourteenth-wealthiest country in the world, and the most politically stable country in Latin America. Simultaneously, Mexico City had the most unequal distribution of wealth; it concentrated the richness and the misery of the entire country. Superbarrio adds that, “when peasants demanded land to the government, the government gave them land—but 6 feet under. Those who petitioned housing and invaded vacant lots, got housing—but inside jail. And those workers who asked for wage increases—found themselves fired.”
La Asamblea de Barrios (Mexico City’s Neighborhood Assembly) is a grassroots organization concerned with the egalitarian acquisition and distribution of decent housing for the poor. In the late 1980s, working class women and amas de casa constituted seventy percent of the organization. La Asamblea de Barrios was the result of the unification of the representatives of 40 neighborhood unions, which emerged to oppose the city’s evictions against the marginal population in Mexico City. The government proved its lack of commitment to the poor during the most difficult moments after the earthquake. Taking advantage of the situation, the government spent most of its time “organizing” the evictions of thousands of underprivileged people living in downtown’s historic center, rather than rescuing other thousands of people dying, or already deadly trapped, “aplastadas,” by the Government’s poorly constructed building projects and hospitals. Two hundred and fifty thousand people were left homeless after the first earthquake, while, 500 thousand Mexicans slept on the streets with one eye opened, looking at their houses, afraid to lose the rest of their belongings. This devastation and corruption, and La Asamblea de Barrios’s infrastructure, created the context for Super to jump into the ring of urban politics to renovate and reconstruct the Mexican political arena. “To confront these problems a super human effort is required, and that is why it takes a Superbarrio to change it.”
Superbarrio’s ability to transform the practices of popular culture, such as wrestling and its rhetoric, into an alternative political imaginary produces the transformation of social space into urban mobilization. Simultaneously, his wrestling performance within a social movement transcends and conveys his fictional character into a real political leader.
The wrestling mask is designed to differentiate each wrestler within the various social spaces in which they interact, from the wrestling ring performance to the “fotonovela” print. While Superbarrio’s mask connotes the traditional strength of wrestling championship, he subverts this exclusive function by adding to it an extra layer of signification. “Behind the mask there is the whole struggle of the city’s inhabitants, to make it more livable, more democratic, to resolve the great problems we face. The mask is the symbol, the identification of the people in this struggle…it is not an individual struggle…” For Superbarrio to keep his mask on in the wrestling ring and the social struggle means that we are all winners, we are all Superbarrio.