I’m looking to get out of my town earlier than July 20th. I’ve really no other place to go to. And was thinking of maybe heading to Pittsburgh early. Looking for good friendly people to put me up for a little bit. Prefer non-smoking environments.
Wanna know about me beforehand? Get in touch! If you click my name, it’ll take you to my myspace.

June:

25-Kalamazoo, MI
26-Detroit, MI at the Trumbellplex w/Ghost Mice (http://www.plan-it-x.com) and Heathers (http://www.plan-it-x.com)
27-Ann Arbor, MI (help!)
28-Toledo, OH at The Black Cherry
29-Cleveland, OH
30-Columbus, OH

July:

1-Dayton, OH (help!)
2-Athens, OH at Brown Town
3-Frederick, MD
4-Baltimore (help!)
5-9-Philadelphia July 5-9 (help!)
9-13-Punxsutawney, PA July 9-13
13-27-Pittsburgh, PA CrimethInc. Convergence
29-Lexington, KY benefit for Hugh (http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090424221248188)
30-Louisville, KY (help!)
31-Bloomington, IN (help!)

August:

1-Evansville, IN
2-St. Louis, MO (help!)
3-Kansas City, MO (help!)
4-Lawrence, KS (help!)
5-Omaha, NE (help!)
6-Des Moines, IA

It’s true that new comers sometimes are more vulnerable to saying something inappropriate, but it works the other way too. It’s also sometimes common for people who are new to these ideas and activities to speculate about others’ intentions and motivations–not to mention the outright arrogant and aggressive attitudes that are definitely prevalent in our communities and often times accepted as of form of weird, radical self-righteousness.

Personally I feel that to build any sort of collective security culture, we must first address how we treat others who are new and inexperienced–making them feel comfortable and giving them appropriate, safe outlets to learn and grow.

1) If everyone already knew darby was a borderline authoritarian
misogynist asshole (I met the man one time, and this was the first thing I was told about him) why was he still allowed to participate in our circles? Are there problems with our culture (not just security culture) that allow Brandon Darbies to exist. Obviously, some would say that he should have been excluded from the social scene entirely for his past behaviour. This may be true, but what I’m mostly interested in, is what would have caused folks to continue including him. The radio program talked about darby having a “get shit done” attitude. I have sympathies toward this, and I know others do to. Honestly, the bureaucracy can be so much sometimes one just wants to step out of the community to do what needs to be done. I’m reminded of working on a community center project in a city I used to live in. There were so many meetings happening in which no one was being held accountable to the decisions made that finally a few friends and I decided to stop attending. Instead, whenever there was a meeting we went and worked in the garden. At the time I thought that this was an appropriate course of action, and it certainly produced more results. In retrospect though, it really represented the failure of our consensus process. We need to have social systems and decision making processes that allow us to make reasonable decisions in a timely manner and actually act upon them. It should be seen as a failure if the only folks able to get stuff done are those that abrogate the system and make unilateral (or authoritarian) decisions. Of course this is not to say that we shouldn’t all retain the ability to act on our own accord, but a group *should* be able to do much more than any individual. And most importantly it should be able to make much *better* decisions. Isn’t that supposed to be the point?

2) What attracted these young men to get in with Brandon in the first
place? In the radio program they stated that Brandon had these activist
credentials which gave them credibility. In some ways it made me think
that maybe the rest of the community wasn’t as inviting to them. I don’t
know for sure that this was true in the case of Crowder and McKay, but sometimes what passes as security culture borders on elitism. If the broader community excludes new comers (for example because they say stupid dangerous things) then it seems that they could be pushed to sketchier situations; like entering into an abusive authoritarian relationship with an FBI informant.

Thanks. And hopefully I’ll be able to make it to the 2010 convergence. Best of luck to those participating this year. :]

dumpsterjam

bikesandbandanas@gmail.com

I need transportation to Pittsburgh. (I thought there was a rideshare sub-forum, but apparently not? If there is, will someone please direct me to it?) If anyone else is planning on train-hopping, I would like to come with, but I have never done that before, so I will not do it alone. I will hitchhike if necessary (which I also prefer not to do alone, but whatever,) but if anyone happens to be driving from Chicago or somewhere near it or can stop in the area and has an extra seat in their vehicle, I would really appreciate a ride!

I need someone who lives in Pittsburgh to claim to be my internet friend whose name and phone number I can tell me probation officer. I already got clearance to go “on vacation” in the end of July, but I need to give an address of where I will be and a contract number (which can be my cell phone.) They won’t talk to you or anything, I’m pretty sure, but I would really prefer to use a real person who will know what they’re talking about if anyone calls or something. Not that they will, but say we all get arrested or something, because they think we’re terrorists, well, I will be clear and not violate my probation if I was officially staying at my “friend’s” house when it happened. I really want to be off paper and not violate this probation, so … show some love, peeps.

Thanks.
~Karma
dystopiate@gmail.com