stop talking and shoot

as i wrote in other places here, we live in an era now where a camera is more dangerous than a gun. and many do see us that way. and those of us carrying cameras into places often unobserved need to be aware of this. a person with a camera is a node that connects to millions, and macaca knows what power that node might ignite. while a gun can stop one person in their tracks, as happened to brad in oaxaca, mx., that gun—even wielded by the highest trained CIA operative under deepest cover in a land not her/his own—still cannot stop or overpower the camera’s truth, which takes the form of a projectile that splinters into a million fragments and blows away ignorance in an inexhaustible number of humans.

journalists in iraq are getting shot to death in great numbers. it is no accident. the men in power now who “learned” so many lessons from vietnam thought that if they adapted accordingly to the devices that (spread the truth which affected the people who) ended the war, they can wage war to their hearts’ content (tho there is no contentment for souls like this, only eternal war). however, these same men cannot understand that parenthetical phrase i just dropped. so they don’t get that their measures of stopping the truth are only temporary ones. but those measures will be used over there, and over here, too. it all depends on what is on your tape.

i am here to be an eye for the people. and a voice for the people. bring some attention to matters that need it. expose any wrongdoing or wrong that i can. whether it be a corporation hurting its employees, a landowner dumping waste in a stream, a man beating a woman, a parent beating a child, a cop beating a man, a corporation breaking health codes, a politician in deep with a corporation, or just a tiny truth that does one person good who wouldn’t have seen it otherwise. THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS said a man once, about his guitar, and so does this camera. fascists and tyrants and abusers and anyone in power who can be checked and needs to be.

of course, this doesn’t mean this is what i do 24 hours a day. i’m not a superhero, and i’m not trying to pretend i am one. but this is a goal of mine and a current direction. here, you find the ideas that guide my actions. i need a place to talk about what i’m doing, and this is that place. other places i write in are hardly anonymous. and by the way, if you figure out that you know me, or think you may, don’t call me out here. not if you care about what i’m trying to do, that is. anyway, i’ll deny it. here, i’m “iris” or “the black iris” and that will be fine for now.

don’t know yet whether i will actually post video here. you’d expect it wouldn’t you? then again, you’d expect a little more imagery on the blog, for someone who is so visually oriented. we’ll see what happens. mainly, there are some things i’ll need to discuss, and i’ll get to that in a post called rebel in the ritz.

i consider myself a guerrilla of the 21st century. a well-dressed, well-spoken, good-smelling, tax-paying guerrilla. (sometimes i am those things.) call it asymmetrical information warfare because this is a new time, and we don’t look like we used to, we don’t carry what we used to, and we don’t come up on you like we used to. but we’re all over. and we’re for the people. because we are the people.

too many crimes are being committed. too much police abuse, too much domestic violence, too much child abuse, too many going hungry needlessly, too many poisons sneaked into the food we do eat, too many stories not being told, too many lies filling our airwaves and tv screens. simply blogging about all of it is not enough for me anymore. don’t mistake what i’m saying, i’m not saying blogging does no good. i’ve seen it do good many times. this is about me, not blogging.

because me, i need to get my hands right in the mix. some of us were born to fight. and if we weren’t, then along the way, the world made sure we got ready. what we have here is a fight (many fights) that people need to take up. enough deferring to others to inform and save us. and i’m not one to go knocking on doors to ask. i’m about getting it on. getting up and getting out there and doing it. and undoing those things that existing, cause harm.

a camera, because if i were to carry a gun or a grenade, or revolution in my hand, i’d be killed too quickly to make much change, or do much good. so this lens is my weapon, and the world is my theater.

see you out there.