http://www.fsrn.org/
See, nobody tells me ANYTHING!
Lemme explain about Pacifica and me.
I ran away from home at the ripe old age of 17. I'd had it with Mom's attempts to kill me, and was starting to fight back. It was either her or me, so I left.
This was in the '70s. I went to a jr. college in the area and met up with the progressive students: Black Student Union, MECHA, etc. They listened to KPFKfm, the local Pacifica station.
I became an avid listener. Where else could I hear poetry, jazz, commentary, live performance, etc? Where else were women, people of color, the disabled and the economically disadvantaged not only tolerated, but ENCOURAGED to broadcast?
I began volunteering at the station. I didn't broadcast; I did other stuff: helped with fundraisers, helped in the office, etc.
At some point, the Most Important Microphone in the Most Important Studio broke. My dad had an old motion pictures studio mic in the garage. I took it apart, found what didn't work, and repaired it. It was so old, it had vacuum tubes. But it was a great uni- and omnidirectional mic: it could hear the whole room, or it could be focused on one person in it. Think the Howard Dean Scream here:everybody was screaming, but the mic only picked up Dean.
I also assisted with sound for live performances, as I did with underground concerts elsewhere in the city.
I've missed KPFK ever since I moved away. It was my nearly constant companion. Even during, gawd help me, the Watergate hearings, which they broadcast in their entirety.
I am not a Communist. I am not a Black Panther. I am not a Sandinista. I am not a Zapatista. And yes, they all broadcast on Pacifica network stations and services.
I am, however, an advocate of the United States Constitution. And I believe as firmly as I know how that ALL of us have the right to free speech. And I'm committed to providing the MEANS to do that.
I've learned a LOT from people of very different experiences than mine, and I plan to keep it that way.
I would never pick up a gun, a stick of dynamite, etc. At least, I'm priviledged enough that such action hasn't been necessary.
The way things are going in this country, though, I shouldn't say, "never." I could easily be branded as a threat to homeland security, for my bland little blogs and news reports. These are terrifying times.
But, so far, as angry and frustrated as I get by circumstances and conditions, I haven't felt the necessity to consider violence as an option. Violence seems reactionary, to me.
And I'm not a reactionary.
I'll probably try to TALK them out of shooting me!
Anyway, I hadn't heard about this contributor-driven FSRN stuff. What do I know about satellites? I'm a phonograph gal.
SO, I'm totally blown away that I'm being PAID, not only to do what I love, not only to do what I'm good at, not only to do what is my ethical and moral center...I'm being paid to write for old "friends," my origins, my home.
I'm coming back, full circle, into myself..after a 20 year sentence for being poor, traumatized and exhausted.
I'm coming home!
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