Allocution

Amos 5:7

Sleep is not a crime. Sleep deprivation, a known torture technique, disrupts memory, cognition, the ability to make decisions, etc. Lack of sleep shortens life spans! The need for sleep is an indisputable fact, yet the right to sleep does not exist? Instead of apologizing for dyeing too slowly; I stand in defiance, opposing unjust laws, unsound judgements, and unkind governance. Where is the good news for the poor? Why are those without walls denied conversation with God during times of REM repose? Who destroyed the commons? When did common decency become unfashionable? What can be done to wake the deliberately indifferent?

Amos 5:10

I choose non-violent non-cooperation, principled civil disobedience (sleep being a most passive resistance). I protest the death of public forums and the criminalization of seeking redress, unto exhaustion.

Amos 5:12

There is a growing, unrecognized class; fugitive dreamers, subject to arrest at all hours, least able to defend against petty takings, intimidated from place to place via collective punishment. These victims of flawed policies are asked to hide their suffering from privileged eyes; especially those that dare to protest! I have experienced this personally, as well as the opposite. I've read along while a law enforcement officer recited the code violation from a cheat sheet; a cheat sheet that deleted the portion promising Constitutional protections! At an unrelated protest, I saw law enforcement officers knowingly escort corporate scofflaws to their crimes! When asked why, the officer said it was a "symbolic law". How any reasonable person is expected to know which laws are to be enforced and which are not, other than by the financial status of the perpetrators, is beyond my comprehension. I fear such vague whimsy puts our government at grave risk, as Iceland has recently demonstrated.

Amos 5:15

The consent of the governed is a fragile thing. Knowing history, and the decay of empire, I understand how much future has been stolen, how little accountability enforced, and how endless the needless suffering; a tragic tale literally as old as the bible. Even now, in defense of aesthetic tyranny and fiscal bigotry, this court asserts that I am a "prisoner of my own mind". A court that desires control of my mind! No. I am a prisoner of conscience, a prisoner of consciousness, and I am troubled and insulted by the hubris of the court. If any words are to be put in my mouth they will be these: Legalize Dreaming, Now!

Amos 5:24

written 1/18/12
filed 1/19/12
posted 3/30/12