The Regina Streets Magazine » Uncategorized

Happy Fourth of July – America by Allen Ginsberg

Greg Hluska — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:04:34 +0000

I know this is snarky, but I couldn’t help myself! Happy Fourth of July to all of my American friends – I love your country almost as much as my own. Something tells me that, if Allen Ginsberg were still alive, he would be very impressed with the direction your country has been taking as of late.

America
by Allen Ginsberg

America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can’t stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don’t feel good don’t bother me.

I won’t write my poem till I’m in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I’m sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don’t think he’ll come back it’s sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I’m trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I’m doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
I haven’t read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for
murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I’m not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there’s going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I’m perfectly right.
I won’t say the Lord’s Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven’t told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over
from Russia.

I’m addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I’m obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It’s always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie
producers are serious. Everybody’s serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.

Asia is rising against me.
I haven’t got a chinaman’s chance.
I’d better consider my national resources.
My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals
an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles and hour and
twentyfivethousand mental institutions.
I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underpriviliged who live in
my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns.
I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go.
My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I’m a Catholic.

America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his
automobiles more so they’re all different sexes
America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe
America free Tom Mooney
America save the Spanish Loyalists
America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die
America I am the Scottsboro boys.
America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they
sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the
speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the
workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party
was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother
Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have
been a spy.
America you don’re really want to go to war.
America it’s them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia’s power mad. She wants to take
our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader’s Digest. her wants our
auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him makes Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers.
Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I’d better get right down to the job.
It’s true I don’t want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I’m nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

Dave Batters – 1969 – 2009

Greg Hluska — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:20:07 +0000

We wish to extend our condolences to the family of Dave Batters, a former Conservative Member of Parliament whose life was cut tragically short in Regina on June 29, 2009. Like many of us, Mr. Batters battled the spectre of depression and anxiety. But, sadly, Mr. Batters lost the battle.

Our province lost a tremendous leader on June 29. Mr. Batters will be missed.

Do It Yourself – Not a Minor Threat

Greg Hluska — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:37 +0000

I heard this quote in a great film called “American Hardcore” and it reminded me of what we are about.

“DIY – Do It Yourself. There’s someplace you wanna be, go there yourself. If there’s something you want to create that does not exist, do it yourself.”

(Brian Baker, bass/guitar/bass player for Minor Threat, the influential American hardcore punk band)

Dear Saskatchewan NDP….

Greg Hluska — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:34 +0000

Have any of you checked out the NDP’s web site lately? If you click on the ‘issues’ section, you get to see a great example of poor web site management. That page’s main image shows a picture of a beaming Dwain Lingenfelter with the slogan, “Winning Leadership: Leadership with Vision”. However, the content on the page still talks about former leader Lorne Calvert….

And here I was hoping that Barack Obama’s landslide win the last United States election would show our politicians that the internet is an important part of the political process!

Income from Investments on Reserves

Greg Hluska — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:11:23 +0000

The Indian Act specifies that if a person with status earns income on a reserve, his/her income is not taxable. This means that aboriginal people can technically get paid less and still take home the same amount as a comparable worker off reserve. Despite this powerful competitive advantage, in 2007, the Aboriginal employment rate was only 66.4% in Saskatchewan. This compares to 88.3% for non-Aboriginal people. This 19.9% difference represents the largest employment gap in all of Canada.

With stats like this, is it any wonder that one in four Aboriginal children live in poverty?

Aboriginal unemployment/underemployment should be a major concern to the powers that be in Canada. However, it sometimes seems like Aboriginal economic development is a far lower priority for Canadians than it should be. Is it really that much easier to watch Save the Children commercials when they are filmed in Africa?

With this in mind, I would like to propose a way to dramatically increase the Aboriginal employment rate. Currently, if a person with status earns income on a reserve, that income is not taxable. That is good, but it is not good enough. You need investment to create income and sadly, the investments are not coming in fast enough to feed a population boom. So, why not make investment income on reserves totally tax free as well?

Here is an example. Joe has $250,000 to invest, so he starts a business on a reserve. That business meets strenuous requirements for Aboriginal job creation and is approved of by the community in question. Therefore, any profits that Joe makes are completely tax free. If his business profits 8% of his investment, he will take home $20,000 and not have to pay a nickel in tax. If he turns around and sells his business for $5,000,000, again, he will not have to pay a cent of tax.

Sounds like a pretty good deal for Joe, doesn’t it? What does that do for the community? Well, let’s say that Joe hires 6 people and pays out a total of $159,840 in salaries (this is the equivalent of $216,000 off reserve). Some of this money will be spent on the reserve and other industries (fueled by other tax free investments) will start to spring up. As the money supply increases, both unemployment and poverty will decrease.

My gut tells me that I will I will be labelled as a meddler, or an apologist or a neo-con for writing something so business minded. That is fine because none of them are true. I am just a guy who really loves the free market and who gets really angry when little kids go hungry. Tell me what you think…

112

Greg Hluska — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:01:57 +0000

One in four First Nations children live in poverty.
Diabetes among First Nations people is at least three times the national average.
Recent Census data shows that 23 per cent of Aboriginal people live in houses in need of major repairs, compared to just 7 per cent of the non-Aboriginal population.
Overcrowding among First Nations families is double the rate of that for all Canadian families. A recent government study found that more than half of Inuit families live in overcrowded conditions. Some three-bedroom homes are known to house as many as 20 people.
More than 100 First Nations communities are under boil water advisories right now, meaning they have little or no access to clean water for drinking and sanitation.
First Nations people suffer from Third World diseases such as tuberculosis at eight to 10 times the rate of Canadians in general.
More than half of First Nations people are not employed.
One Aboriginal child in eight is disabled, double the rate of all children in Canada.
Among First Nations children, 43 per cent lack basic dental care.
Aboriginal children are drastically over-represented in the child welfare system.
High school graduation rates for First Nations youth are half the Canadian rate.
First Nations youth commit suicide at five to eight times the Canadian rate. The suicide rate for Inuit youth is six times as high as in the rest of the country.

(source – http://www.psac.com/what/humanrights/june21factsheet1-e.shtml)

Twelve

Greg Hluska — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:49:50 +0000

First Nations youth commit suicide at five to eight times the Canadian rate. The suicide rate for Inuit youth is six times as high as in the rest of the country.

My Top 5 Downtown Regina Wishlist

Stacey Lolacher — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:00:29 +0000

You know, I could have made this my top 100 wishlist, lol! I love living in downtown Regina, but there are a few things that I really hope for…

1.) A pedestrian crossing light at the corner of 14th and Albert St. Crossing at this corner is not dissimilar to taking your life in your hands. Numerous complaints have been made, but I think this is one of those situations like the reconstruction of ’suicide pass’ in B.C. – Regina will have to host the Olympics before this one is fixed!!

2.) A Piano/Blues/Jazz club. I’m going to have to side with Greg on this one. How on earth do we have a lack of this type of establishment?? Am I alone on this one? It’s a tragedy!! I implore someone reading this to take the plunge and open one up… I would put your kids through college!

3.) A decent hardware store!! Really, now, lol… how does Downtown Regina not have a decent hardware store? And what if, like myself, you don’t have a car? Where is the nearest decent store to serve your needs?

4.) A band on all trees – and hopefully it would make a difference! Have you ever walked the gauntlet? I’m talking about those thoroughly annoying tree worms that come every summer. And you never notice them until you’ve already walked into a whole web of them… nasty! It’s always right when I’m so enjoying the trees too… how ironic!

5.) For the City to stop using the term “Downtown Revitalization Project”. I was living in Downtown Regina when this project started, and I’m still living downtown. This would be a worthwhile project if it ever produced something other than more parking lots and condos. The jig is up!! Stop trying to mislead us!

Seven

Greg Hluska — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:45:47 +0000

More than half of First Nations people are not employed.

Not Guilty of Child Abandonment

Greg Hluska — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:48:25 +0000

Queens Bench Justice Neil Gabrielson found April Dawn Halkett, 22, not guilty of child abandonment today. To those of you not familiar with April Halkett, she gave birth in the bathroom at Wal-Mart and promptly abandoned the child.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2009/06/24/halkett-decision.html

What do you think of the judge’s decision?