Inspiration: "Bodies Against the Gears"
I’m frequently asked how I keep this up. All this adoption crap. To be honest, I don’t know. Some days the word :adoption” freezes down my brain. This is not what my life was supposed to be about. But… As an historian I find my inspiration and endurance in history and keep on keepin’ on . My influences are many: Emma Goldman, Voltarine de Cleyre, Gurley Flynn, SB Anthony, Lucy Stone, Big Bill Haywood, the Reuthers, Ghoulardi, early Qukuaers, Malcolm X, Neal Cassady, Abbie Hoffman, the Yippies, the Wobblies–even Alexander the Great. And. of course, Bastard Nationals. It’s a mixed bag that makes little sense except to me. Among my more contemporary historical “mentors” is Mario Savio, leader of the 1964 Free Speech Movement at Berkeley. Since I had little time to write today, I surfed YouTube and found this excerpt of Savio’s 1964 Sproul Hall “bodies against the gears” speech. Although Savio was addressing the liberal corporate educational system -and in larger terms the American corporate state–his speech can be narrowed to include today’s adoption machine–not only the adoption industry and its cronies in church and government, but the so-called reform movement that props up that industry through compromise Continue Reading →