Juma’s Descanso, Rick Reborn, Cultists Coming

Juma’s Descanso

Beginning Saturday, Oct. 12, friends and family members of Juma Archuleta placed a Descanso next to Las Pistoleras, across the street from Raoul’s Brotherhood of Love Barber Shop of Love in El Prado. We invite friends and customers to adorn the roadside memorial with tokens, flowers, and mementoes. During Day of the Dead remembrances, the tribe will gather to commemorate Our Barber at Las Pistoleras. Below is a letter from Juma’s older brother, George.

Letter

Bill,

Thank you for the wonderful article about my kid brother Juma. Juma (Born: James Lawrence). Juma was much more than what you saw on the surface……probably one of the highest I.Q’s and well read individuals we all had the pleasure of knowing.

I left home when Juma was 7 years old but had him for summers during my years (his teen years) at Michigan State. I could go on about his youth and the years when we were able to reconnect. In private, he could be a real “hoot”!!

Again, thanks and we are all richer for knowing him and for a big thanks to Willie and Richie for being true friends to my “little” brother.

I have a saying I pass on to my grandchildren, it is….”during your lifetime, excluding your family, you will have less than ten “really true friends”….Willie and Richie are in this category.

Thank you again and god bless you for writing the article for publication.

Sincerely,
George Archuleta

Rick Battered but Reborn!

There will be a benefit for Rick Klein on Oct 13th, from 7 pm till closing at Taos Mesa Brewing Co. Rick had a very serious car accident on August 21st while on his way to work at Shadow Mountain Academy in Canon. Rick is still alive and we must try and keep it that way for another decade or two.

Pat McCabe will offer the opening blessing. There will be sets from Jenny Bird, Jimmy Stadler, The John Carey Blues Band, and a special late night with DJ Sablazo and friends.
There will be a silent auction and donations of either items or services, which are being handled by Kathy Lyons, 613-8087.

Admission will be $15 at the door. We appreciate your support.

Caveat: The Rise of Fascism and the War on the Poor

Below Taos Friction calls your attention to the weak-kneed state of democratic “liberalism” and the rise of cultish power among Tea Party republicans. I read Hedges regularly and have begun feeling as if only a tiny minority—1%—see the surveillance state, drug war, ceaseless war on terror, factional government, complacent materialism, etc. as a danger to the country. While 90% of Americans are mired in debt and barely surviving, attuned to the iPods and stoned—pop culture is the new opiate of the people—and while the 1% are grabbing an increasingly large share of the pie, the fascists are preaching and preparing.

As Chris Hedges says:

“The rise of Christian fascism is aided by our complacency. The longer we fail to openly denounce and defy bankrupt liberalism, the longer we permit corporate power to plunder the nation and destroy the ecosystem, the longer we stand slack-jawed before the open gates of the city waiting meekly for the barbarians, the more we ensure their arrival.”

Hedges, the son of a Presbyterian minister, attended Colgate University, where he received his bachelor of arts in English Literature and earned a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School. He is fluent in Arabic, French, and Spanish, as well as Latin and Ancient Greek. He was a war correspondent for the New York Times. He also went undercover among various Heretics, so-called Christian cults, the Mega Churches, etc., whose perverse message—guns and money—is at odds with the traditional message: love your enemy.

Hedges appeared and spoke in Taos after publishing War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, circa 2002. War is an important work that analyzes the charms and false claims of war, its fascination for the warrior cult and for capitalist orthodoxy. He has purchased Erin Currier’s work and can be followed most easily on http://www.truthdig.com.

Very few journalists, scholars, or observers recognize a fascist when they see one. Many of us fled the “fascists” back in the 60s and protested against the Johnsonian-Nixonian liars then. Today the rise of the Obamanos and the Ted Cruzito cultists of Texas complement the culture of Corpocracy but the Heretics are way farther down the road. It’s time to dust off the old Apocalyptic culture. The Anti—Constitutionalists are back— like characters in an old horror movie.