The Beginnings of a Golden Dawn......

All their life was spent not in laws, statutes, or rules, but according to their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they thought good; they did eat, drink, labour, sleep, when they had a mind to it and were disposed for it. None did awake them, none did offer to constrain them to eat, drink, nor to do any other thing; for so had Gargantua established it. In all their rule and strictest tie of their order there was but this one clause to be observed,

Do What Thou Wilt;

because men that are free, well-born, well-bred, and conversant in honest companies, have naturally an instinct and spur that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them from vice, which is called honour. Those same men, when by base subjection and constraint they are brought under and kept down, turn aside from that noble disposition by which they formerly were inclined to virtue, to shake off and break that bond of servitude wherein they are so tyrannously enslaved; for it is agreeable with the nature of man to long after things forbidden and to desire what is denied us

~Francois Rabelais

A Slowly Dying Canada - (excerpt from "The Butcher's Block")

A Slowly Dying Canada
- C. Taylor

My country, Canada, is falling ill.

it is colder, and a shadow obscures the sun,
A shadow called poverty, the cold of fear.

We fear for our lives now.

Losing our jobs to machines,
robot assembly lines, and computers
do the jobs that thousands
used to do.

It was supposed to be better,
more efficient,

but instead it concentrates
more money
to a smaller few,

while the rest lose their houses and dreams,
the "human cost of downsizing".

My Canada is increasingly
a country of broken hopes,
poverty and futility
creating directionless hostility

We try to hurt others
as if that would heal
our own pain.

Can you blame my brothers ?
They attack immigrants and women
dog eat dog
because there aren't enough jobs
to keep us fed.

We work to survive
hand to mouth

Contentedness is unimaginable

It was getting better for a time,
but the hunger is setting in,
and it will get worse.

They are without hope.

There are no loans for small businesses
The big, old ones are laying off
We are denied credit
or any true way to rebuild it

There are no places for us,
the loose pieces,
to fit

And the government has the the gall
to blame us for being poor

If we speak out,
cry for mercy
they set the police on us

find ways to lock us up
for our small vices.

We are the media scapegoat
mouths bound,
minds whirling

Is it any wonder
that the gangs of youth
are disillutioned
and turning to violence ?

They cannot hope
to own a house
or feed and clothe a child

My Canada is dying
and I cannot stop it's death,
though I may try with my art
to give it hope,

Art is worth nothing

to speak of it's worth is wasted breath

Our artists and craftsmen starve,
our culture dissolves,
and I can only watch,
remembering

----------------------
From the book
"The Butcher's Block: Poems of Poverty"
by Chris Taylor
--------------------------
Listen to it here: http://radio3.cbc.ca/bands/A-Voice-of-Dissent---Archetripal/

Tasered for $2.50...Only in Canada eh?

It takes only 2 years of college to become a cop in Canada.

I've known a few gun loving rednecks who did it.

They weren't the kind of people I like to have "fun" with.

Bad attitudes about women, queers, immigrants.

Easy enough to do. Certainly not rocket science.


There he is now, on the platform.

Saving "PUBLIC TRANSIT"

Can we bold the word "PUBLIC" for this.

Saving the transit authority from poor people, who can't afford $2.50

If they try to flee, they can't afford to be criminalized and fined for the fact that they can't afford $2.50 to travel across this huge city.

If they try to flee, they get tasered.

Zap. Potentially dead of a heart attack. Potential brain damage or body damage from falling and doing the funky chicken on cement.

For $2.50

Over 20 people have been tasered in BC since the police on transit were given tasers.

The toothless native man clutches his el cheapo 6 pack he could barely scrape enough together for. He's trying to get home.

His whole ride on the Skytrain he is in fear.

The poor live in fear. Tasered for $2.50.

The cops are protecting us.
Protecting the profits of Translink.
A private corporation now.
They protect it's profits.

I don't see them, outside the stations, the more remote ones,
where drug dealers and thieves, bullies and belligerent drunks
harass old ladies and follow younger ones home
thoughts of rape filling their heads
Fear of it filling hers

They won't make their quota there, of fare evaders.

To serve and protect
was meant to be about the population
but really
they protect the profits and property
of the rich

a taser should be used on a bully
beating up the weak
not on a poor man running
from a fine

for needing to travel

They've shown us they don't have the self control
to use these weapons

Poor people and their safety don't matter

That's why 26+ whores can disappear into the darkness of a pig farm
because only those with money deserve safety
only those with money can travel
only those with property can sleep under a roof, a covering

while the city is filled with empty buildings
emptied and waiting for years at a time

speculating

on the profits they grow

at night, after the drunks drive away, unhindered by breathalysers
parking lots sit empty
but no one can sleep beneath their cold cement ceilings
because the Lord of the land
must be protected

from the serfs and beggars

So many people worth nothing here

We will zap and maybe kill you for not paying your fare
move along, you cannot sleep here
A fine for you with no money
for you with no ID to show
that you belong here

outside, where we do not care

about the gangsters and bullies
circling there