Boston Phoenix

Twenty two years ago this week (!), Papas Fritas landed on the front page of the Boston Phoenix to coincide with the release of "Buildings and Grounds" (along with a full-page profile/review (luckily for us) written by Jonathan Perry). If you're wondering "where did the time go?", we can't help, but you can indulge in some deep-dive time travel now that the Phoenix's archives are all searchable online here: https://archive.org/details/pub_boston-phoenix

The Boston Phoenix Rises!
Thanks to an agreement with Northeastern University's Snell Library, you can now download 2000+ editions of Boston's leading indy publisher, The Boston Phoenix.

Famous for its coverage of independent musicians, politics & social justice issues, The Boston Phoenix was a mainstay of independent journalism from 1973-2013.

We're happy to have digitized the entire microfilm run of this alternative weekly. Learn more:
http://blog.archive.org/2021/12/15/boston-phoenix-rises-again-with-new-online-access/

Explore the Phoenix:
https://archive.org/details/pub_boston-phoenix

For the retro rocker who has everything! A priceless, budget gift! Share some great memories from the Rolling Stone archives available with your Boston Public Library ecard available to all MA residents 13+. https://mhl.org/bpl Also, check out the Boston Phoenix archives on Internet Archive archive.org/details/pub_boston-phoenix

“Beware the Ides of March.”
John Burl Smith

The Roman biographer Suetonius identifies the “seer” as a haruspex named Spurinna. His words prompted William Shakespeare to pin his famous play Julius Caesar, using the warning from the soothsayer regarding his assassination, “Beware the Ides of March.” Shakespeare’s dramatization, although millennials in the rearview mirror, reveals a great deal of clarity and truth. Today, looking back at the 1960s, when America lost some of its greatest leadership potential to assassination, most Americans today were not alive then, and those who were memory of those days have faded or become entangled with the dominant view pushed by popular media. Those accounts stripped away the corrosive, sarcastic and deadly atmosphere created by J. Edgar Hoover and other conservatives, as today’s conservative right-wingers portray the Capital insurrection back on January 6, 2021, as justified outrage. The loss deaths of Malcolm X, John and Robert Kennedy and finally Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr in the 1960s scorched brains and boggled the minds of those of us that live through those times.
When I was a child “Beware the Ides of March,” Sounded like “Be aware of the eyes of March,” which to me meant to look forward to spring with hopefulness. The coming season followed the last signs of winter’s gray, which was stripped away by the winds of March, bringing freshness. The cleansing of March’s winds made way for the buds and greenery of new growth as part of the new season. Bringing hopefulness and new possibilities for all who survived the “hungry and desperate” days of winter’s scarcity, life began anew. Growing older and wiser, as well as having a clearer understanding of those words looking out at America today, I can see both statements as very appropriate metaphors for describing the political potential and reality of such an outcome. The upheaval caused by the “Capital insurrection on January 6 reflected the real possibility of Julius Caesar’s faith, as well as those past American leaders.
Unlike Sen. Joe Manchin, I draw an entirely different lesson from the Capital insurrection and attempted coup, on the part of Donald Trump. Had insurrectionists succeeded we would be living in a totally different America, without law and Constitutional guarantees and subject to the whims of a dictator, Donald Trump, which may have been fine for Joe Manchin, given his current assessment of the insurrection. Looking back at the 1960s, my assessment of the assassinations of Malcolm and the Kennedys was America's losses painful and tragic, as a bystander. However, at the time, Dr. King’s assassination was very different because I was there in the midst of it all, and I have a close up and very personal connection to that event to share.
Definitely not a sidewalk bystander, I spent the last 2 hour of Dr. King’s life talking with him, as he shared his hopes and plans, not only for the “Poor People’s Campaign,” but for America's future in general. Those last 120 or so minutes of Dr. King life, he spent talking with Charles Cabbage and me. His words began my winter of grayness, because following those events I felt the harsh and ascorbic criticism of civil rights leaders dead set against black power activists having any leadership role in the struggle descendants of American slavery faced. Civil rights leaders excoriated young black activists determined to lock them out of any role in determining the course of progress in the black community. Following the 1963 March on Washington, and the status quo accommodation civil leaders worked out with Pres. Pres. Kennedy, black power activists and other young voices were shut out of any leadership role by those Malcolm X called “The Big Six.” Young activists were labored and condemned as “a divisive and destructive force trying to destroy the black community.”
It was the hollowness of the “1963 March on Washington” agreement and the lack of real progress that followed, which brought Dr. King back to Memphis following the march on March 28, 1968. When he left on the 29th, he promised to meet with the Invaders upon his return, which was on April 3, 1968. Dr. King joined the Invaders at The Lorraine Motel and shared his vision with Charles and I of the future he saw. He implored us to join his “Poor People’s Campaign. More importantly, Dr. King’s vision of the future ran counter to that of most civil rights leaders, which was encapsulated in his new dream, the “Poor People’s Campaign.” Relaying that vision, which began with bridging the divide between civil rights leaders and black power activists, he proposed bringing black power activists into leadership in the black community and wanted the Invaders to be the point in that effort. He had previously proposed his plan to civil rights leaders but they rejected Dr. King’s initiative. He told Charles and I in that last meeting, “This is why I have come to Memphis to talk with the Invaders hoping you would accept my offer and join the ‘Poor People’s Campaign.’ I need you to recruit other black power groups to join us, which would give me a broader base of support, dealing with politicians in Washington DC.”
The Invaders accepting Dr. King's proposed alliance became J. Edgar Hoover’s worst nightmare, because it allowed Dr. King to break out of the box Hoover had entrapped him. The thing most people are unaware of is Dr. King’s new coalition included more than young black activists and some civil rights leaders, but young white activists, which allowed Dr. King to speak beyond the ghetto with a more powerful voice. I am convinced it was that agreement that prompted his assassination. What most Americans today do not understand is that Dr. King’s new coalition now included the anti-war activists. Dr. King had come out against the Vietnam War in 1964, which is when J. Edgar Hoover began attacking him as a communist. For the first time in American history a popular mainstream leader had pulled together young white and black activists in a progressive coalition.
Fifty-three years later, America is back there once again, with a popular leader, working to advance the interest of poor and working class Americans based on a progressive coalition. This is a real threat to the Republican status quo, which is why Donald Trump engineered the insurrection at the Capital on January 6, which was intended to be a coup. Young people in America are poised on the precipice of political power in America, which is why assassination has become a real possibility once again for America’s current leadership. A popularly elected President is changing the political map in America because voters that elected him were from young people, which Republicans have no way to reverse.
Today, the 18 to 25 demographic is made up of mostly first time voters and will continue growing every year. Combined with the 25 to 30 year old voting demographic Pres. Joe Biden has the potential to build an overwhelming vote coalition based on young activists. Pres. Biden has only to use the balance of power he is gathering to control future elections. The reality is older voters are presently evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Moreover, elderly voters are passing on, leaving Republicans without a real replacement population of voters: hence all the voter suspension by Republican legislatures!!!! Republicans are hoping young voters stay home playing video games, chatting on social media not caring about their future and leave it up to them to decide.
However, this does not mean Democrats can sit back and wait on attrition in order to maintain power, quite the contrary! Democrats must work harder than ever to bring young people into the political process. Young high school seniors should be Democrats' prime target. Gaining high school senior’s identification with their party as first time voters is the major task because statistics show first time voter identification tends to control their vote preference throughout their life. But more importantly, if Democrats are going to represent the future for Americans, it must bring in young people to their side by offering them leadership opportunities. Young voters must not be seen as only foot soldiers and grunt campaign workers. High seniors must be shown, they do not have to wait until they are in their thirties before they will get opportunities to make meaningful contributions and develop careers in politics regardless of their race or gender. More than anything, the green new deal must be seen as a means of creating a youth jobs program, not only summer jobs, but regular employment.
Shakespeare’s dramatization of Julius Caesar and the foreshadowing by “Beware the Ides of March” warning is quite appropriate when one turns one’s eyes back to the 1960s, and compare what was at stake then as now. Corporate/political and other status quo interest will not go quietly into that good night. The Capital insurrection on January 6th show they will stop at nothing to hold on to power. The insurrection is not for Democrats, the blind Joe Manchin is trying to hide behind. It is not that his views are naive or misguided, they are very dangerous. Similarly, some Germans saw Adolf Halter as quant or dismissible, and never confronted the threat he represented. Germans are lucky to have the country they have today.
Americans do not have to go down that road; they simply need to recognize racism, greed and the lust for power for what it is. Those who planned and financed the January 6th insurrectionists will not quit; they railed, plotted and struggled to hold on to their past of white supremacy that is their only choice or change. It was just such a time that produced the first Civil War, and there are those now who are so enamored of that time that in their heart of hearts they would do it all again. If there are any doubters, one needs only examine the events of the last 6 months and see January 6 as the tipping point. That day is no time to look the other way. True Americans must look it square in the face and see it as another day that must live in infamy in the minds and hearts of all true Americas.