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The Last Few Weeks in the World of Junkyard Empire, PART ONE
Hanging out with Dahr Jamail

by Chris Robin Cox

The only possible way to describe the last two weeks as the trombone and keyboard player in the band Junkyard Empire, is to tell the story in reverse, at least to begin with. 

Since coming back to Saint Paul from Cuba on Monday night, the band and I had been working over time in getting ready for the big record release party we had for Rebellion Politik on Friday night.  The concert was a great success in our minds.  We had a really nice turnout to the show, and many of the people we saw there were young activists, and folks we had never met before.  The way we accomplished the goal of making this show different than any other we have had before, was a combination of booking a diverse line-up of bands and artists, but more importantly by inviting dissident journalist Dahr Jamail to be the guest speaker for the night. 
I'm going to spend a little time talking about Dahr Jamail, because he is a rare type; a journalist who became that as a result of his insatiable need to speak the truth that seemed all but absent in the mainstream press. 

The most directly activist way one person can effect the prevalent view of political humanity in any society, is to take into your own hands the role of truth teller; to be the one that seeks out the real story, no matter how unfortunate that truth for the powers that be.  Essentially, that's what Dahr is doing.  He puts his ass in the line of fire, going where no "embedded" journalist would even consider going without a massive security detail, and then he writes insightful, critical, and totally fearless articles available for publishing everywhere.  Of course, you are never going to see an article by him in anything that isn't considered leftist or progressive in the American press.  Because of his lack of fear of discussing the bull in the china shop, Israeli foreign policy, many leftist papers won't even publish him.  After all, the ruling class in America, and the monied entities they so clearly depend upon to keep operating with impunity, have been propagandized for decades to believe that that their whole way of life will end unless they support the Israeli government.  Never mind the Israeli people, and what they think about it.  Especially never mind the thoughts of the American people.  When they speak up against Israel, call them "anti-Semites", "anti-Jew", "racist", and so on.  Make it just short of a national crime to disagree with the Israeli governmental establishment, as long as it continues to support the goals of the American government in the Middle East.   That is just one of the issues he writes about, and it's the one you can expect a lot more from him on in the near future.  He is currently out talking about his most recent book The Will to Resist, which is an awesome expose about the little known and understood resistance movement within the American military.  Take my word for it when I tell you to go buy the fucking book, read it, memorize the statistics, and pass the book onto a friend with the same instructions.  Yes, it's propaganda, do your job in getting it out to all those who need, for the love of humanity, to know about this little piece in the poison pie that is America today.

We hosted Dahr in the Junkyard Empire house, so we got the treat of hanging out with him quite a bit for nearly two days.  Perhaps the coolest part of the whole experience of meeting him was finding out how down to Earth he is.  Upon meeting him, he came off as a really down-to-Earth, laid back, middle-aged traveling activist.  And that's just who he really was.  He is calling for the same kind of resistance movement so many of us are, and he calls for it knowing that it is dangerous in America to go against the status quo.  We all had quite a lot in common, and that's why we all know that this show was just the beginning of a long relationship that will be built around creatively delivering the necessary information a society must have to deem itself fit to pick its leaders and develop a government concerned with the state of humanity. 

Sure, I'm using flighty language and probably sound like some kind of naive hippie, but it's up to you to go out and find the truth, and if your truth ends up opposite to my truth, I'll just wish you good luck and be on my way.   But if you find out all the things I have found out, and countless others have found out and continue to find out, you are one of us, and you should join us in our quest to wake this country up out of its materialistic, capitalistic, chauvinistic haze.  The pyramid scheme often referred to as "free market capitalism" has got to end.  It is the source of most of the world's problems, most of which involve the American free-market ethic that has been tyrannically imposed upon otherwise free peoples the world over for as long as this country has been around.  Therefore, it must end.  A more humanistic version must be developed, and we all must become more educated as to what will and won't work, free of the undue influence of the wealthy and systematically privileged. 

Over the next many days, I will be doing a giant mental download of my experiences as the trombonist and keyboard player in the band Junkyard Empire over the past few weeks, which includes a trip to Cuba.  You can learn more about Junkyard Empire simply by putting the name into the search engine, the very same way you can find out more about Dahr Jamail, and anything else you, as a citizen of Earth need to learn in order to be part of the solution, as opposed to part of the Civil War that will surely develop if we decide to keep going the way we are now.  The wave of resistance is coming, and you can choose to resist that wave of resistance, or you can make the courageous decision to surf it; to join the movement back to a more conscious, less violent, and more enlightened society.  In the words of Desdemona, as heard on the track Original Assumption, "It's gonna be a bumpy ride, but it's smooth on the other side." 

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