Hi. I'm exceptionally busy right now. Usually, when I haven't been writing, it's because I'm having lots of sex or because I'm hiding from myself or because I'm not doing so very much of anything concrete at all. This time, I'm really actually tremendously busy. I kind of love it. The place that I work for is going out of business. We, the hundred or so workers, are trying to buy it and turn it into a worker-owned cooperative. This entails a *huge* amount of work. I'm co-chairing the bylaws committee, so I've been doing vast amounts of research on cooperative structures and board of directors and shares/stock/equity, California cooperative law, etc. My co-chair and I have been drafting the bylaws, which, for folks who knows knew nothing about any of this a few weeks ago, is a major big deal. The bylaws are a huge underataking. This whole thing is a huge undertaking. And we're doing it. And at every stop, we're kind of thinking, ohmygod! are we really doing this? how revolutionary is this?! it feels pretty damn revolutionary.

Anyway, I thought I'd stop in. Just to let you know. Why the story is on hold. And why I haven't responded to messages or to emails. I still love you. I promise. I'm just spending 40 hours a week (in addition to working and sleeping and eating and whatnot) on something really really important to a whole bunch of folks. And really important to me.

In the meantime, I thought I'd direct you to a few things (which might occupy you).

The Nation. The nation is a weekly periodical of the newsjournal variety. It is progressive and ridiculously intelligent. Read it and you'll learn all kinds of things. It'll make you feel smart and informed. It'll make you smile. Get yourself a subscription, while you're at it. It's a damn good counterpoint to all of the propaganda that's flying about in this country, passing itself off as news or as journalism.

KPFA 94.1 FM. Another important counterpoint to the craziness. Listen especially to the morning show (7-9am), Amy Goodman--the woman is absolutely brilliant and badass!--in the morning (9-10am), Living room (12pm-1), Free Speech Radio News (3-3:30pm) and to Hardknock Radio, Flashpoints, and KPFA Evening News (4pm-7pm). If you're not in the San Francisco Bay Area, you can listen on the web.

I figure that most of you who are reading these words already know that the popular media is trying to keep the population docile by feeding us misinformation and outright lies. The above are a couple of really phenominal sources of real, actual, concrete, specific information. They're progressive, they're independant, they're not owned by TimeWarner, and they will educate you and inform you and give you the tools and the knowledge to take apart the wall of deceit we're holed up in.

I would also recommend that you check out Howard Dean. He's one of the Democrats running for President. He's staunchly, loudly, actively, consistently anti-war ("What I want to know . . . is why in the world the Democratic Party leadership is supporting the President's unilateral attack on Iraq?" he asks in his February 21st address to Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting). He's the former Governor of Vermont--the one who signed into law the Civil Unions legislation. And you know, I fall seriously left of Dem, but I think I might vote for this man. That was a major accomplishment, giving gay couples the same rights as straight couples under state law. He speaks about it in the aforementioned speech (the full text of which you all should read), because it might excite some part of your fed-up soul:

"Most of you know that six months before my last re-election I signed a bill into law that made Vermont the first state in American to guarantee equal rights to every person under the law - EVERY person under the law. That bill was called the Civil Unions bill. And it said that marriage is between a man and a woman, but same-sex couples are entitled to the exact same legal rights as I have - hospital visitation, insurance, and inheritance rights. All Americans are equal under the law in our state.

This bill was at about 40% in the polls when I signed it … 60% were against it, six months before the election. I never got a chance to ask myself whether signing it was a good idea or not because I knew that if I were willing to sell out the rights of a whole group of human beings because it might be politically inconvenient for a future office I might run for, then I had wasted my time in public service.

I looked in the mirror, and I knew that if my political career were about myself, then I would not have signed that bill. But my political career has never been about getting elected. I didn't even seek the governorship. I became governor because my predecessor died in office twelve years ago.

My political career is about change. And this campaign is about change. What we're going to do here is, we're first going to change this party because this party needs to look in the mirror and ask itself: Is this party about the next election or is it about changing America?"

I mean, I vote Green customarily, but it really moves me, a candidate that has actually *accomplished* something of that revolutionary magnitude while in office. So when he makes promises, I am more inclined to believe them. And, to the best of my knowledge, no Greens have yet announced their intent to run.

What else? What else? Oh, yes. Senator Byrd's Senate floor speech of 2/12/03. I know it's a bit out of date, but, hey, I haven't talked to you guys in a while. One of my friends sent me the link to it and I read it and I was moved to find out more about this daring man. It turns out he's like in his eighties and has been a senator for about fifty years. Isn't that crazy? So moved was I by his speech that I actually wrote to him, to thank him for it. And I was also inspired to write to our California Senators and to encourage them to follow Senator Byrd's good example. (I understand that this paragraph probably makes little sense unless you've actually read the speech in question, but, hey, that's cool. More incentive for you to actually read it.) =)

If you know if any cool, interesting, disturbing stuff I should check out, please let me know. Let's keep the information flowing.

Also, while I'm trying to make a cooperative rise up out of the ashes of my dying place of work, I will likely be needing a job. If you've got one (starting in June) and want to hire me, let me know. Or if you come upon something interesting in the way of a lead, send the info my way. Or if you want to just send money my way, I totally accept donations. I'm not playing. My financial situation is an unparalleled disaster right this minute. (That sometimes happens in the lives of crazy poets. I've learned not to feel ashamed of it. Sometimes there's an overabundance and sometimes there's a dearth.) So, you can mail financial contributions to me at 627 Wesley Avenue, Oakland, California 94610. Make checks and money orders out to Ariana Waynes. ::grinn::

And in the mean time, I must say, it's super exciting to be getting more informed, to be engaging more in the political process, and to be working so hard to construct something I believe in . . . .