Children of The Universe

New Blurb on SAVAGES

Spun out of our time and dropped into the Indian Wars of the 1800's - A terrified modern American's own life is threatened by U.S. Military and Press conduct. Is this any better than Iraq or Vietnam? Two act Stage Play 53 pages

It's still available here as a digital download.

SAVAGES

People ask me about what was going on when I wrote the stage play, "SAVAGES."  On the surface, it was simple - I was living in the Navajo Nation (or from another perspective - on the Navajo Reservation) and was reading about the effect of war on news reporting through history.  There is something special about living in the desert on the rez.  One of those special things is the quiet.  In the city we usually associate noise or quiet with what we hear with our ears.  There are places on the rez where the quiet is mostly felt - as the absence of vibration through the body, as something far greater than just the absence of sound through the ears.

There was a place down towards the wash that I used to go to sit and think, a mesquite branch made a perfect seat and miles away I could look down and see interstate 40 with tiny cars moving along.  The inspection station was there - people coming into Arizona from New Mexico passed through, and on my side of the Puerco river was a rail road line - there was a spur there where bentonite clay was loaded into open railway cars that sat there until several cars were filled and moved out every few weeks.  It was so quiet that I could feel the vibration of the train if I was sitting up there when it came through - I couldn't hear it with my ears, just feel it through my body long before it came into view.  Even that took a sensitive touch - a period of stillness on my part to tune in to what was and what wasn't.

Lots of interesting place names in Arizona  that are really a description of history - Bloody Gulch comes to mind as one example.  You can't help but think of the bitter and deadly struggles that went on out there.  Even more so on the rez.

In the past, it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to share the script for "SAVAGES" with people.  There are no generally available retail outlets in most places that would, or could carry it.  Now people anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection can download it and read it for a few cents.  And I have discovered that people will download and read a stageplay, and enjoy it.  What a concept.

Someone much younger than I am asked me over the weekend (I had been at meetings all weekend in Long Beach, California, USA - and on Sunday, the last day of the event, a friend invited me to go sailing on a 38 footer which was docked literally across the street from the convention center - I almost didn't go since I was in a suit and tie and didn't have a change of clothes in the car - but decided to anyway, took off the suit coat and tie, shoes and socks, rolled up my pants to the knees and had a great time sailing from just before sunset til around 10pm - you can get into all kinds of conversations in that kind of setting and that's how this young lady happened to ask me this question) what I missed about the past, the assumption being that I would be really nostalgic about it.  I had to admit that while many things were worse, like pollution,  I like the present better, particularly the technological advances.  Being able to produce media projects and have an outlet for them and being able to make work like "SAVAGES" available to anyone in the world is a great leap forward as far as I am concerned.  It gives me a sense of freedom that just didn't exist before.

A sense of freedom.  I wrote "SAVAGES" so that it could be performed by theater groups from Junior High School to Professional - but particularly I wanted young people to feel and explore the realities that the play exposes and examines.  The cultural attacks on the integrity of people who have been forcibly put under the subjection of other people are far more destructive than most of us ever think about.  The myths, lies and propaganda of the victor have the tendency to become real in our minds because there is usually nothing else that is allowed to be published and produced.  The internet changes all of that.  Every time you  or I buy or download something like "SAVAGES" we are exercising a type of freedom that didn't exist in the past.  I can make the script available as a download and everyone has access to it and I can price it so everyone can afford to download it because there are so few physical costs, transportation costs or brick and mortar costs - almost none,  in fact.  That is exciting.  Anyone with even the slightest curiosity or interest can download and read it.  Commerce and expense are no longer barriers or tools that Governments can use to stop the ideas from flourishing.  From where I stand, that is definitely a good thing.  Exercise your freedom.  Publish, Produce and also Buy and download Ideas.  All the ideas you can find.  This can change Everything.

Anti War?

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;  Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting...

Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting...

Sun Tzu On the Art of War

Everything else is an attempt to make up for failure in leadership and excellence. Generally a stupid bloody waste.

That's where lies come in handy.  People have to be convinced to feed themselves into the “stupid bloody waste machine” – People have to feel good about the murder and loss of everyone who gets in the way.

There's a good argument for a free press – to catch and discredit the lies before everyone starts feeling good about a bad thing.  And if the press doesn't do it's job?  That's a good argument for freedom of speech.  Freedom of speech, especially for the people who are going to be told to go feed the bloody waste machine with their lives and bodies.

Greg Mitchell, Editor of Editor and Publisher talks about the failure of the press and the power of the citizen:

“While reporters and commentators continue to tiptoe around the question of whether Bush administration officials, right up to the president, deliberately misled the nation into the war, average and not-so-average citizens have raised the charge of “lies” and caused a stir usually reserved for reporters.”

One of the questions that isn't being directly addressed is, “why would reporters do this?”  Fear is one of the commonly stated answers.  The argument goes that the reporter knows that too many pointed questions can lead to being banned or ignored.  Then there is “compromise by ideology” - which translates into the reporter being secretly on one side or another but pretending to be unbiased.  And, of course, there is the “lazy reporter” scenario – it's just easier to take what they give you and pass it on as your own.

But there is an even uglier undercurrent that runs through all of this.  Simple self interest.  Take the right approach and over time, you too can be the shill, uh, spokesman for a President -  Or land any number of other PR and Communication jobs in various think tanks and government agencies.  This is a scary scenario that journalists don't like to talk about.  Sure, they sometimes make fun of their peers who go over to the other side, but just how aggressive can a reporter be if they have any ambition that can be fed by a hand that they might otherwise bite.  And what about those hidden perks that can't be tied directly to any particular position on a story that might get covered?  Really, if Judith Miller was so wrong, and therefore, did such a bad job, why did she get what is reported to be a huge payoff when she left the New York Times?  How does she show up so quickly writing for the Wall Street Journal?

Usually, when you really screw up, you don't get a bonus, do you?

Why aren't the high paid journalists investigating these questions?

An even bigger problem, and a deeper effect of the perversion of truth is the effect that news reporting has on the later perception that we call history.  Todays news becomes tomorrows history.  But what if today's news was a lie, or just half a lie?

This is not a new situation.  The entire history of man has been skewed by the dictates of those in power.  This is a big part of the heart of the stage play SAVAGES.  It's not just the Indian Wars.  It's the whole thing.  When you look at the drama between the journalist, the general and the man who gets trapped inside the situation you see the history of the reporting of conflicts.  We hear a lot of moaning and groaning about this today, but when wasn't it like this?

If we don't admit that these realities exist, we can never overcome them.  And they can be overcome.  There are too many examples of journalists who put themselves aside, or at least allowed the truth to shine through.  The body counts out of Vietnam.  Edward R. Murrow confronting McCarthy.  The integrity of Walter Cronkite.  But the huge rewards now available may be just too much for the average person who becomes successful in journalism.  The access, the money, the power, the fame.  Perhaps this is why so many of the current revelations about how reporters have mishandled the present situation has come from people who are not considered to be journalists by much of the press and by those who don't want what they have to say to have a wide audience.

When you read SAVAGES, imagine their counterparts back in Washington during that same time period.  Who among them who knew what was really going on would ever have spoken openly about it and exposed what the real motivations were behind the reporting and the conduct of the war?  Then fast forward to now.   

Rumsey Band Riding to the Rescue of the Sacramento Kings

No, not a marching band,

"the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians in Yolo County, the tribe that runs the lucrative Cache Creek Casino Resort in the Capay Valley. California, U.S.A."

Like many sports enthusiasts, (Paula) Lorenzo (Band Chairwoman) worries that the Kings will leave town if the team doesn't get a new arena. Unlike most fans, however, she is in a position to do something about it.

The irony of the tribe's position as community benefactor isn't lost on Lorenzo, 55, a former welfare mother who once worked on tomato harvesters.

"When people needed help before, who came? The cavalry," Lorenzo said.

"Who's coming now?" she added with a smile

This story is about a lot more than keeping the  the Kings NBA Basketball  franchise is Sacramento.   It's about the tribes' increasing role as a major policy force in their region -

This is one of the major messages of the stage play "SAVAGES," - that this "here and now" influence is needed more than ever in the 21st century by people who have enough sensitivity and foresight to see beyond simple greed.

Great story by Mary Lynne Vellinga at the Sacramento BEE.  You can read the whole thing here.

Permission To Use the Song ...

Good news, I've been granted permission to use a very important piece of music in the production of SAVAGES.  Actually, the executive that I corresponded with was really very good about the whole thing  - it seems to me that he wants to help us out and I'm very grateful.

When I get the hard copy I'll post more specific information - But this really helps us to move to the next step.