Now you must know that musicians try very hard to get their instruments onto planes whenever they can do so. Baggage handlers are notorious for breaking things, and a broken instrument is painful in any number of ways. So is a lost or misrouted instrument. It's not like you can just pick up another one before the gig and play at your usual level of competence. Even if you are lucky enough to FIND one, every instrument has its own quirks and personality, and most professional musicians own instruments that are not easily replaceable. Older instruments or ones that were custom built or modified to their specifications. And since 9/11 and the whole Homeland Security/Terrorism scare-scam, if you DO carefully pack an instrument in a special ape-proof flight case and allow it to be checked as baggage, the minimum wagers that are doing "security" work in the baggage department are often capable of opening the case, taking the instrument out to see if it's a bomb (Duh...a trumpet or violin REALLY looks bomb-like on an X-ray machine.) repacking it backwards and upside down and then forgetting to close the latches.
I have SEEN this happen.
So Valery... 63 years old, maybe 5' 5" tall, 140 lbs... pitched a bitch at the gate when some pissed-off functionary at a loading gate decided to pull rank on him. They called security and four (as he so colorfully put it to me today when he told me the story) "giant asshole cops" took him someplace where there were no witnesses, tried to forcibly take his trumpet away and when he would not let go of it with his right hand, pulled his left arm behind his back and broke it.
And people sniff and moan when the word "fascism" is used to describe what is happening in America and in much of Western Europe as well.
Vaslery did not try to fight these people. As he related today (I wish I could reproduce his great Russan accent) "I grew up in Soviet Union under Stalin and Khruschev. I know enough not to try to hit a cop. Let alone four of them. Big, stupid motherfuckers." (Here he stands on tiptoe and raises his remaining functioning hand as high in the air as he can.) "They were THS BIG!!! FOUR of them!!! I am not THAT stupid."
And indeed he is not.
Here is a man who grew up in Russia when playing "jazz" was almost an act of open rebellion and got so good that Art Blakey hired him to join the Jazz Messengers in the '70s. And if you do not know how serious THAT was...Blakey was possibly the only equal to Miles Davis in terms of hearing and hiring the best of the best in the post-bop era.
Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter...that level.
The BEST of the best.
So here we have this INSATIABLY positive little Russian guy, authentically playing in an idiom that had its genesis in the riot-torn black ghettos of America during the Civil Rights era. Moving to New York, getting his citizenship, re-starting a life here...a true "American" success story, when there really was such a thing. Now seriously crippled...they had to operate because it was a complex break...and unable to even HOLD a trumpet, because George fucking Bush and his handlers have decided that they are the deciders and we are their subjects.
I just thought I would bring this general "fascism" discussion down to a more personal level. This can happen to ANY of us who do not totally surrender on any level whatsoever to the madness of these people.
It's their way or it's their way.
One way or another.
It's the cop way.
Do as we say...no matter HOW stupid it may be...or we will beat you down physically.
We have seen discussions of what "fascism" is. What the word really means. High level theorizing about the state and corporations, etc. Objections to the supposed trivializing of the word.
Well...I've got news for you.
THIS is "fascism."
It's their way or it's their way.
One way or another.
It's the cop way.
Do as they say...no matter HOW stupid it may be...or they will beat you down physically.
No recourse.
They will beat you down NOW.
And this is not just happening in America. It is now almost worldwide. It is spreading, this attitude. Not diminishing..These people are always with us, waiting for a chance to run their game. I have seen the same hard faces in Holland, in Scandinavia...in the most civilized places on earth. The same faces bolstered by the same weapons.
Waiting.
Slick or crude.
In high positions or in low.
Waiting for their chance to rule.
To TOTALLY rule.
"It's my or or it's my way. Step AWAY from your rights with your hands in the air."
And we have given them their chance, now.
God help us all.
You doubt this idea? OK. Try to imagine the above story happening in 1996. Nope. End of argument. This was not “police brutality.” This was not some poor denizen of the lower depths of society being set upon by the bottom feeders that always make their living scavenging down there. This was an internationally recognized artist on tour.
It was a random act of fascist violence, and acts like this function in a fascist system as ongoing warnings to ALL. “Stay in line or else!!! You could be next.”
So when lefty theorizers start bitching and moaning about how theoretically imperfect politicians like Hillary Clinton are "no better than their opponents", I get pissed off.
The fish rots from the head, and the soulless functionaries at the top of the international political food chain right now...from CheneyBush on down...are in the process of tearing apart nearly 800 years of attempted civilized progress. Say from the signing of the Magna Carta. They are doing a better job than did their teachers, the Hitler people.
MUCH better.
Because they are stealth stealers.
One little right at a time.
No Blitzkrieg necessary.
No Kristallnacht.
No burning of the Reichstag.
Just taking little bits of our souls.
A right here, a thought there.
Until there is nothing left but obedience.
"It is our way or it is our way."
"Whatchoo gonna DO about it, chump?"
Well...what ARE we going to do about it?
Inquiring minds want to know.
What are we going to do about it if the November Dream...”DEMOCRATS WIN!!! DEMOCRATS WIN !!!”...turns into the same wisp of smoke as have all the OTHER Fitzmasses Past?
What CHOO gonna do about it?
Motherfucker.
AG
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