So This Is How The World Will End: by Rick Castro 5/30/2020
Amerikkka is on fire… finally!
I know that sounds harsh, but I, and anyone with a sense of right & wrong feels the same way. As a child I remember the Watts Riots and the biased attacks on Medgar Evers, Huey Newton, Bobby Seal, the Black Panthers, (BLM of the 60s&70s) Angela Davis and Malcom X. They were all portrayed as “thugs” and “Communists, ” which was then and still is, considered the same thing.
As a minority I could write pages of the LA cops horrendous treatment of me personally all thru my twenties. If I was black, I’d be in jail or dead, or both. For me racial profiling has existed since I left me home in Monterey Park and moved to Hollywood in 1976. Even in “liberal” Los Angeles, I can tell you story after story of blatant police harassment against me. Working in the Hollywood Industry since I was eighteen, I can tell you of the constant dismissive, insulting racism against me, (and others) until I finally got fed up and got the fuck out.
I very well remember the brutal police beating of Rodney King and the violent riots that came immediately after the cops were acquitted. Only the second time in my life I saw my father cry, (the first was during the funeral of JFK). When the riots began, my dear friend Iris Parker called me in full panic. “I’m picking you up now and we’re blowing this powder keg, and leaving to the tranquility of Bee’s cabin,” I said. We spent the entire 1992 LA lockdown here, exploring the calmness and beauty of the high desert. We did photo shoots and found magical ruins in the natural beauty of the high desert.
the local of a photoshot with my dear friend-iris parker circa 1992- recently rediscovered in 2020
Bee’s cabin and the high desert brought us peace and insight then, and I hope it does the same for me now. Enabling me to make rational decisions in an uncertain future that changes by the day, and a family disfunction that changes by the week.
After three months of self-isolation and quarantine, people are scared and angry. There is so much uncertainty in our lives. “The powers that be”, should treat citizens with compassion and hope during such difficult times. Instead we’re threaten with evictions, no jobs, no outlets, no compassion, no connection with fellow human beings, and no hope. “The powers that be,” should be wise enough to know when the public simply cannot take anymore. Instead authoritative brutality and killings of black people is at an all time high, fueled by taunting racist rhetoric from the very WHITE House.
Here’s what I wish for… and my wish is a big one. I wish every city in every state of Amerikkka with put into place police reform and immediate pass laws that protect citizens first, before they protect “property.” I wish the public will burn the mutha fucker to the ground. I wish…. correction, I want…. correction I demand the public surround the White House, en masse and stay there until Trumpworld is forced to leave… Like the French Revolution, (Coupe la tete says Robespierre) this is our time, I… We…. will not accept anything less… BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
So this is how the world will end.
copyright- rick castro- 5/2020
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