Crime, Punishment and Responsibility (and the Dead Kennedys)


In the past few weeks, I haven't put out any kind of new editorial. It's not that I haven't had a subject for it, but more that I've wanted to combine a few things and didn't exactly see an opening for me to do so.

That changed when I bought the latest issue of Spin magazine.

I am a very musical person. Music affects, inspires and empowers me every day, so it's no surprise I should buy a Spin (or God forbid, even a Rolling Stone...) every now and then. I bought this particular Spin after it was brought to my attention that there was a Dead Kennedys article buried inside. Awesome. Except for the fact that it had a bewildering affect upon me. The said article was about the most recent law suit dropped upon Jello Biafa, ex-leader of ex-band Dead Kennedys. He is being sued by his former bandmates, who accuse him of keeping their deserved portion of money away from them. During the course of the article, both sides of the argument were brought to light, accusations steaming on both sides.
I don't know who to believe in it anymore.

I always looked upon DK, and Jello in particular as standards of excellence of not only punk rock music, but as people of excellence in morality and stature.

But now what? Both sides accuse each other of basically being hypocritical to what they have always expressed their views to be. Still, if I were to take a side in the debate, it would be Jello's side. If he truly was in the business for the money, he could have started another band. There's barely a nameless punk band in existence that would pass up the chance to have such a person as Jello for their front man. And the fact that his spoken word career supports the beliefs put forth on DK songs and albums... well, it just makes me think more that Jello is not the one who should hold the blame in the matter.

My point in all of this is that the Dead Kennedys, once an icon of freedom, free speech, individual thought and really, all things good and sarcastic, have trashed their own old image and been dragged down to the level of Top 40 bands today.

Fuck. That was just another example of the harm law suits will do.

Now, Mumia Abu-Jamal. If you don't know the name you're lucky. There's been a substantial amount of talk about this particular character. Right now he sits on death row, charged with the murder of a Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.

The article gives a stunning mental picture of a situation on the Howard Stern show, where the wife of the slain officer, one Maureen Faulkner, confronts Rage guitarist Tom Morello with these words: "Imagine kissing your wife good-bye one day finding out later that she'd been shot in the face, and the man that murdered her becomes a cause celebre to all these celebrities." Wow. Now, I doubt Morello was completely speechless after that, but I do doubt that he could have said anything too substantial back to her. A ‘cause celebre', of fuck do I love that term. Certain other celebrities supported the ‘Free Mumia Ab-Jamal' cause.. And backed out after being confronted about it. Michael Stipe, David Byrne and Sting, to name a few. Sting, however, was the first to change his position when the Fraternal Order of Police picketed a venue where Sting was performing. He decided he ‘didn't support Abu-Jamal but simply opposed the death penalty', and ‘human violence of any kind'. Hmn, what about violence towards police officers? Well, Michael Lutz, president of the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police said, "If Sting is opposed to violence, it would be greatly appreciated if he came out opposed to violence against police officers. Stings spokespeople basically pulled a massive 180 and told press that Sting never made any kind of statement about the case. Well, isn't that nice. Stipe and Byrne have followed suit, in typical dying-off-trendy-rock-cause fashion. This whole situation personally gives me a terrible case of the red-ass. I find it difficult to tolerate instances of people who simply are insisting they are right because they are famous (or because they're RAGE, which is some kind of ‘anti-famous' I guess). The key thing I am getting at, with both of these cases is one simple word that gets overlooked more than the fat kid when you're picking teams for baseball.
That one word, that magical, incredible word...

is responsibility.

I wanted to write about this earlier last month too, because of an episode of a talk show I bore witness to. It was about teenage pregnancy, and the spread of STDs. The panel guests were all teenagers, one a girl in a youth ministry in a Catholic school. She was the sole person on the panel, or in the audience for that matter, who was opposed to the idea of condom machines in school. And not even ‘school' in general, but Catholic schools. Why? Because it's hypocritical. Catholicism preaches abstinence from sex til marriage, in case you're not in the know about the subject. Until recently it preached against birth control as well. So, she was quite right. Placing condom machines in Catholic schools would be a horrendous hypocrisy. But no one could accept that. Amazing. They couldn't understand that it would be like the Catholic board saying the equivalent of ‘just kidding'. Perhaps you don't agree with Catholicism on the whole, BUT those who choose to follow it should be left to make their own decisions. It simply is not something for outsiders to interfere in. It is assumed that those who go to Catholic schools have Catholic beliefs, so really... the machines shouldn't be necessary.
‘But that's unrealistic, people are going to have sex...'
Well duh. So she gave a wonderful point. A point I didn't expect she had in her to give.

"If a person feels they're responsible enough to have sex, then they're responsible enough to buy their own (fucking) condoms." She didn't say (fucking) but I know she wanted to.

Yet the slovenly crowd of unwashed ‘sex is cool, heh heh' masses couldn't accept her point of towering brilliance and beauty. Do you know why?

They are raised without a sense of responsibility for their own actions. It seems to be a generation that loves to lay blame where ever it can, without dirtying it's own grubbing hands. That's why.

Responsibility is a key word here, boys and girls.

You're a famous punk with people hanging of your words, treating you like a deity... you don't shit on them. Jello hasn't, to my knowledge.
You kill a police officer, you better DAMN well know the consequences. Fuck, if you don't know what happens to you when you even wound a cop, God help you. You DO NOT fuck with the police. They are here for your protection, but if you fuck with the police, they have the power, ability and free time to ruin your life.
You fuck without a condom, get pregnant or HIV, who's fucking fault is it? Answer, your own. Condoms are NOT difficult to acquire. Even I, sexless, disgusting I have a couple of condoms stashed away... not only for myself, either. I have some ‘busy' friends, and sometimes they might need one. Be a boy scout, be prepared. I heard something a while ago... something like that next year about 70% of students in U of W will have come in contact with some kind of STD. Yeah, that's right. You go off to university, get ready for a whole lot of sick shit. Male and female sluts alike.

I'll say it again one more time for anyone who wasn't listening.
Responsibility.
Learn it, live it, love it.
If you do... wow. Excellent. If you don't... that still doesn't excuse you from your actions. You may not believe in it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't believe in you.

(Note: if Mumia is guilty or not I don't know. I assume he would be, you know... with the prosecution and all.. been on death row while people have tried to appeal his case for a decade or so... yet no one's been able to find him innocent. Personally I haven't found any kind of website or article with any relevant info about the case. Most of the websites seems to just plaster banners all over, proclaiming the innocence, inocence or inosense of Abu-Jamal.)

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