Practical Activism

I went to college around San Francisco. I didn’t ride a bike then. Actually, now that I think about it, I did ride a bike but it was a shitty BMX and Berkeley is more of a walking town, anyway. Point being…the bay area is not nearly as great a bike town as L.A. If you ride a bike in S.F. you’re just trying to get around faster. If you are on a bike fighting traffic in L.A. you are most likely the real F’ing deal.

So, point being…I went to college. In college there is a lot of Activism. “What the Eff is activism,” you ask? Well, activism is what happens when you give an opinionated person with good networking skills a little bit of information about a controversial issue. Next thing you know, people are wandering around carrying homemade signs (or god forbid, puppets) with stupid slogans on them, chanting stuff. Its kind of like remedial cheerleading for people that didn’t go to football games in high school. And it has about the same effect on how the game goes. (As it happens, I went to every football game because I was in the stupid Band, because my neighbor convinced me that it’s way better than having to do P.E., which in retrospect was completely and utterly Wrong.)

So, point being… activism is lame. “Go home and recycle or something,” is what I have to say to activists. Or even better! Ride your bike instead of driving a car. Did you know that driving a car is the number one cause of people you’ve never met getting killed in a place you’ll never ever be? Also, cars are the number one cause of evil motherfuckers in suits making lots and lots of money! Driving cars is also a major cause of people talking shit about L.A! (Which sucks, because I was born in L.A., and despite the fact that this place is really fucked, it’s my home. So Eff you, S.F.)

So, point being…I thought it was really F’ing weird when I realized that Bush is like my girlfriend’s pussy hairs and Dick is like my penis and Colon is like everybody’s butt-hole! And you know what else? George Bush’s son George kind of looks like a chimpanzee! But also, pointing it out doesn’t solve anything! In fact, if I felt like being logical I would try to convince you that it makes things worse! But I don’t.

So, point being…go ride your bike. That’s all you need to do. The world is guaranteed to be a better place for it and you don’t have to learn about politics, which is really F’ing hard, anyway.

The aim of this letter is to relate the story of my academic career thus far, so that you might get an accurate impression of what kind of person I am. If my aim is true, I am sure you will have every reason to grant my admission to your school of law. To begin, I must reveal that I was a terrible student in high school. I did reasonably well in art and music classes, but for the most part I paid closer attention to my own thoughts than to the material presented in classes, and I hadn't the least bit of motivation to even begin my assignments, let alone complete them. Luckily, I tested well and the more observant among my teachers could guess that I wasn’t a complete idiot, and I managed to graduate with my class despite a lack of any serious involvement in academics. However, once I moved on to City College and left all the pep rallies and lunch periods and disciplinarians behind, I very quickly realized that it wasn’t the actual education part of school that I found distasteful. Still, being naturally skeptical of the system I had now chosen to take advantage of, I didn’t give much credence to the common aspirations of making money or becoming some kind of a big shot. My only desire was to cultivate an awareness of the world, and to gain a mastery over my talents and capacities for growth. Thus, I had found my motivation, and I rode it all the way through a successful junior year at Berkeley. Yet, as I learned more about the world and about myself, so did I come to be disturbed by them both. It was (and still is) a challenging time for a young person to be discovering the ways of the world. I began to see myself as like a cog in some diabolical Machine, and as I worked more efficiently, so did the machine come closer to achieving its own malicious ends. My motivation flagged, and my interests wandered to the arts and to the self-indulgent chaos of independent study. My academic work took a back seat, and I made no designs for post-graduate work or a suitable career. I simply took my diploma and returned home, confused and scared of what I had discovered.

A few months later I took the LSAT, not because I was especially interested in law, but because I needed to somehow satisfy my bruised ego after watching my academic work slip. For work I took a position with Environmental Landscape Services, Inc. (ELS); a construction firm based in my hometown. At this particular time, ELS was in a bit of trouble. The office was pretty much the same as it had been when Mr. Lefebvre founded the company in 1988, with nothing more than two trucks and a lot of determination. In the summer of 2003, however, ELS had expanded to 20 trucks, countless pieces of heavy equipment, and approximately 50 employees – and it showed no sign of slowing down. As you can probably tell, the construction end of the business was doing just fine. What they needed at this point was somebody they could trust to make sense out of the business end of the construction, and I, being a reasonably intelligent friend of the family, was that somebody. They handed me control of the office as I educated myself on the techniques of small business, and since that time gross income tripled while profitability doubled. Furthermore, in order to communicate what had to be done to make the business more efficient, I was forced to overcome my naturally reticent nature and become a more outspoken person, (one quality I had not developed as a student, and that I now look forward to applying in my future studies.) I presently see my success in this area as evidence for: 1) my ability to organize a large amount of new information in an efficient and practical manner, 2) my sense of initiative and adaptability, and most importantly, 3) my good-natured confidence, which inspires good faith. For, it required a great deal of faith in my character and abilities for the Lefebvre family to entrust me with the financial well being of their company and its employees, and I am proud to have satisfied that trust.

“The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing." (Sir Edmund Burke, attributed) During my time with ELS I never gave up my original goal, though I was now pursuing it independently of the academy. In this pursuit I eventually realized that the “Machine” which had frightened me so much was in fact an essential part of my world, and that it therefore deserved to be respected and understood as such. There had been a time when I believed that the more prominent a position one held in the Machine; (i.e. attorney, aristocrat, politician) the more synonymous one was with its maliciousness. However, I came to see that we all play an equally important part in this system, and that one’s position is not so important as what one does with that position.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” (Theodore Roosevelt)
It was no more than one week ago that I came to see what I can do, what I have, and where I am. That is, I can go to a school of law, I have the qualifications necessary to go to a quite good one, and I happen to be running right up against the application deadlines. The story I have related to you thus far is one of motivation, and how my particular motivations have brought my words here before you today. I have always known myself to be an honorable person with a deep understanding of language and an uncommon sensitivity for the truth in all its forms. Following from these facts, I have always known in the back of my mind that I would make a fine lawyer, though I never before had the clear motivation to become one. However, I can presently see that my motivations are leading me to take action; to jump headlong into the Machine and see what makes it work. In closing, I will step outside the metaphor to make my intentions clear. I want to study Constitutional Law and make a positive contribution to the system that affects our world. I believe I have been through these internal struggles in order to see with clarity and strength of mind that this is my destiny, and that I have a duty to live rightly by it.

"Oh wow, man. That was fun."

"More fun than a barrel of cum?"

"Totally."

red hunter

i make music and stuff

you know

this guy makes me want to quit all that

and find some other path

because he seems to be doing well enough there

click the title for a link

smoking tobacco out of a marijuana pipe

drinking beer to get drunk

a controlled crash landing

pilots do it all the time

ive been having dreams lately where in the end i am sliding down a steep incline

it seems like im fucked on the way down, but i always land squarely on my feet

i know with all the certainty of a scholar that it means something

but what aspect of my life is the slippery slope?

there are oh, so many roads to hell

how could i pick just one?

I am a fan of the larger traditional things in this life. I am a fan of words and games and puzzles in general. Slowly I've realized that plain language is not enough to express the infinite series of thoughts in my head, just as complicated syntax and idiosyncratic words are useless to express the thoughts possessed by those less verbose. I realize my egalitarianism is a sham, but if you can just wait me out you might find something worth looking for, whoever you might be.

There are no terrorists. We are being manipulated with fear.

angels?

yes, i've seen angels

they came to me in my room one evening in a house destined for destruction

they told me everything i needed to know without a word

they challenged me and helped me along this road i walk

so i got down on my knees to gave thanks and praise

and every now and then they remind me that they're watching