Tonight I attended a meeting of local activists who are concerned about police brutality in Rochester. I'm not going to get into a lot of the details of what was discussed in the meeting, but I do have some interesting...ummm...sociological/psychological observations of what went on tonight.

First of all, there were a buttload of people there. Not all black, either. This is the second meeting and again, I just sat and listened. I'm not leading this charge. I'll be a good soldier and do what I'm told. I don't have to deal with this issue personally, but it is a human rights issue. While the meeting was going on, it was interesting to see who sat where, who spoke up and what they said. The ISO (international socialist organization) people are freakin loons. I pretty much agree with everything those cats say, 100%. But their cult-like mentality is seriously creepy. I was sitting in the front and a friend in the back said he watched the ring-leader orchestrate how and what each ISO person said...and it was pretty much the same as the first meeting. Then when it was over they all (5 or 6 of them) lined up at the only exit to greet people leaving by selling those damn ISO newspapers.

[tangent alert] I remember those cats coming to an outdoor rally we had last summer for my and David Cobb's campaigns. They were relatively rude during David's speech and afterward, this one guy went semi-coocoo on me. He's arguing his points...and I was agreeing with what he was saying, but he didn't get that his arguments won't fly in poor neighborhoods. He got so upset that he's yelling in my face, almost flapping his arms. I thought dude was going to fly away. He kind of reminded me of a crazy uncle I have. And they sold those damn ISO newspapers.

OK..so back to the meeting. The "MC" was pretty good at letting people have their say but keeping the focus on police behavior. But there were a lot of agendas working there. There were a couple of potential candidates for office. A couple of people promoting their organization/group who stood up to speak while making sure everyone knew who they were connected to. People from black churches and people who thought black churches spied on the black community for the government.

While I'm still analyzing my own feelings on this, there were people there who are committed activists, but are also "former" Greens; who decided that the revolution wasn't happening fast enough for them and that they would be able to propagate change from the inside. I know this is going to sound self-righteous, but right now my attitude is...we're all human and subject to the frailties of our humanness. but, the fact that these cats would go to parties that really didn't uphold their values becuase these parties got people elected...I have a hard time respecting this. And one of them is a friend of mine. It's not really my place to judge...but sometimes I have a hard time not taking it personally...which is irrational...I get it...geez, I'm almost like those ISO Goobers.

Well, I'm on a roll, so I guess I'll just keep going. After the meeting broke up, I just wanted to get out of there. I tried to be one of the first people out and ended up being one of the last. Every time I tried to make it to the door, another person would call me over to talk about something else. It made me think...I didn't realize just how many things I had gotten myself into lately. This group, a charter school, the green party, a citizens education advocacy group and a couple of other things. It made me feel kind of good about the things I've been doing, but at the same time I wondered if I was going quantity instead of quality. Except for being a Green I was invited to participate in all the other things. (I was even asked to work on a guy's campaign for Mayor - I turned it down...the police chief...see the conflict of interest there)

I thought I was just going to be a teacher and make stupid songs....now I barely do either. And it still doesn't feel like I'm making any difference. I think it's time for some guitar practice.