Parades can be terrible things in that they bring people together. This past Saturday, just before midnight, a man named Ed Perkins allegedly shot a handgun into a crowd of people celebrating Pink Saturday on the corner of Castro and Market in San Francisco. After the crowd quickly left, it was discovered that one man, 19-year-old Stephen Powell, had been killed, while two others had been non-fatally shot. Gang violence has been discussed as a possible motive, and no hate crime charges have been filed. Despite that fact, news of the Castro shooting hung over the SF Pride Parade on Sunday like a fog disrupting the fun of an otherwise-sunny day and interrupted headlines of national newspapers reporting an otherwise-peaceful Sunday.
On the same day, Against Me! played a show with Silversun Pickups in my hometown of Detroit. I didn't go and I don't know anyone who did. Against Me! has been hailed as "the best punk band in the world" by Rolling Stone as recently as 2008, but has attracted a lot of negative publicity, especially from long-time fans, in response to the perceived anti-activist lyrics and the clean, mainstream-rock-production sound in the lead single from their latest album.
Narrow visions of autonomy/You want me to surrender my identity/I was a teenage anarchist/The revolution was a lie. — "I Was a Teenage Anarchist"
Whether reading the news, listening to music, or just going about your day-to-day life, it's always absolutely vital to pay attention to subtext. Under the words spoken or written, there can be a bevy of emotions ranging from conflict, pride, anger, or simply information needed to process exactly what the author is trying to convey. Reading an article about violence at a pride parade, one may quickly assume that that city's people are not ready for the responsibilities which come from freedom. Listening to a song about disillusionment within a subculture, one may not realize the chorus ("Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?") as a call-to-arms rather than a tongue-in-cheek salvo against nostalgia.
AJ, Dan, Tania, and Fred were among the RYSEPortal.com vloggers who returned to the Bay Area on Sunday from Detroit, where they attended the 2010 U.S. Social Forum in Detroit. While they were in Detroit, they opened their hearts to four days worth of new ideas in activism before taking the time to articulate what they had learned. While watching their vlogs, it's more than apparent that they were evaluating what they were seeing as quickly as they saw it, and then decided to act.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to go back in time and prevent the shooting death of Mr. Powell. However, perhaps in dealing with difficulties as they present themselves in an open, tangible manner such as vblogging, blogging, or simply talking, we can fight misinformed ideas that come as a result of misread subtext and thereby further the agenda of the realest ideas. Only then will we start to see real change for the better.
