Artists studio tour is this weekend

The Payson Art League's 'Neath the Rim Open Studio tour is May 4-6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Sixteen studios will be open to the public during the self-guided tours.  Follow signs around the Rim Country.  Information on the tour is available at any of the studio locations or go to www.paysonartleague.org.

National Day of Prayer big waste of time

 LETTER 

LETTER

LETTER

Editor,

The National Day of Prayer is May 3^rd. It was formalized in 1952 by President Harry S. Truman. The purpose of the day is to encourage Americans “to turn to God in prayer and meditation”—neither of which accomplish anything outside the mind of the practitioner. This annual day of collective magical thinking usually brings out the “One nation under God” crowd and the “Christian Nation” folks.

We are not a Christian nation. We are a nation of laws. One of those laws—The First Amendment to the United States Constitution—ensures that all of us can practice whatever kind of hocus-pocus we like. A Christian Nation (i.e. a nation whose foreign policy reflects the morality espoused by Jesus Christ) would actually be a terrible idea for many reasons.  Consider the words of Jesus (Matthew 5:43-45):

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

Now if we REALLY WERE a Christian nation, Osama Bin Laden would be alive today, wouldn’t he?

Alan R. Hudson

ZUMBA Party headlines First Friday on Main Street

First Friday on Historic Main Street in Payson will be celebrating five years (that's 60 months!) of monthly gatherings this Friday, May 4. 

Main Street holds a party from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the first Friday of each month and everyone is invited.  You can enjoy live music, refreshments, and ambiance.  First Friday on Main Street Art & Antiques Walk is an event that fits well with Payson's neighborly tradition.  Walk this historic Art & Antiques District where Payson's first residents gathered for social events including rodeos and dances; it's fun to stroll and read the historic markers on several of the local businesses. 

ZUMBA Party 
Each month, festivities go on up and down Main Street.  This Friday you can join Christy Walton and Friends from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at a ZUMBA Party in the Courtyard at the Ox Bow, 607 W. Main Street.  Admisstion is $10 and the proceeds go to Local Families Battling Cancer.  For more information, call Christy at 928-595-0406. 

Bootleg Alley

A concert with one of Payson's favorite bands, Sounds Unlimited, will be at Bootleg Alley Antiques & Art.

Also, joining in the celebration of the fifth anniversary of First Friday on Main Street will be the Rodeo Jail Girls.  Rodeo tickets, shirts, and raffle tickets can be purchased on Bootleg Alley's porch.  Donations can be made and raffle tickets bought at the Humane Society table as well.  All are invited to enjoy refreshments, music and ambiance.  Bootleg Alley is located at 520 W. Main St. 

Future bands playing at Bootleg Alley Antiques & Art for the summer are:

Junction 87 (voted Payson's most popular band) June 1, July 6, and August 3.
Trouble in Paradise   September 7 and October 5.

Down the Street Art Gallery

First Friday on May 4^th Main Street  will be celebrating  “Cinco de Mayo”  Mexican Fiesta Style with a Salsa Tasting event at Down the Street Art Gallery. Stop by to check out the flavors and pick a favorite.                                                                                  

Cinco de Mayo means 5th of May in Spanish, and is the anniversary of a battle that took place between the Mexicans and the French in 1862. This day marks the victory of a small, poorly armed force over the French invasion of a well-armed, professional army led by Napoleon III. The battle lasted for 4 hours and ended in the victory of the small Mexican army.

Cinco de Mayo is hugely celebrated with pomp, gaiety and fiestas in the traditional Mexican style, but the block party only lasts for 3 hours so don’t miss it.

RESTORE bargains
Finally, First Friday is expanding with specials offered all day at the Habitat for Humanity RESTORE located behind McDonalds at the 87-260 intersection.

Class warfare will not improve our country

COMMENTARY

BOB EDWARDS

(Gazette Blog Editor's note: The following is a response to a recent column by Mike David.  Scroll down to read that column.)

By Bob Edwards
Gazette Contributor

The column by Mike David on why the “Occupy” groups gathered around the nation in celebration of May Day (an ancient pagan celebration that was adopted by communism) demonstrates a naivete and the dangerousness of movements that use well-meaning people for nefarious reasons.

His stated “why” reasons are:

·     A sense of powerlessness

·     A sense of isolation and disconnection from those producing food and products

·     Our forced support of a perpetual war waged for by the 1%

·     The fact the ruling class’s seat at the top of the pyramid is provided by the working class

·     The fact that power rests only with those who lust after it

·     That our place and perceived value is society is determined solely by how much we make

·     The fact that you (I assume to mean all non-strikers) don’t understand why they are striking

·     That the 1% are deliberately keeping them uninformed

·     To counter the charge that it is unrealistic to want to bring about real change

·     And the biggest reason…to exercise the American value of freedom

His final reason is because he is bothered by the lack of civility in our political system.

Our political system is rife with politicians and nefarious individuals who want to use the naivety of the citizenry for their personal reasons, which is why we should always look behind the scene for the real picture. It is easy to stir up the populace by grand sounding slogans to the point where the citizens are willing to do their bidding regardless of how damaging it is.

To tap into mistrust of large government, large institutions or large businesses is an easy tap because the mistrust is not unfounded. Our government at all levels is broken, many institutions are corrupt and self-serving, and many corporate leaders are raping their companies. But, if we are to make real change we should be cautious to not let this desire for change be used as a tool for further deterioration.

The nefarious folks behind the “Occupy” movement have tapped the slogans and made them work, false though they may be…slogans like:

“We are the 99%” (1% vs. 99%)...making it sound like all those who aren’t in the top 1% ($343,927 in 09) are with them.

“Kill capitalism”…capitalism is a main ingredient in America’s exceptionalism; it may be occasionally misguided, but to destroy it would result in worldwide third world conditions with an open gate to despots…so be careful what you wish for.

One of the movement’s big targets is Wall Street…an easy and deserving target and one that is easy to rally around…but to paint it all black without offering an alternative is, at best, naïve.

Another big target is the banks…again, an easy and deserving target. The cabal of government, the banks and the Federal Reserve System has been corrupt for years. The Feds print money to avoid the politician’s need to cut spending or raise taxes and the banks thirst after the profits it creates, even though it will ultimately send us down the same slide Greece is on. But neither the current administration nor Congress will rein them in because the system helps them in the short range election needs.

The very “Whys” the author mentions are being used on them by the backers of the movement, who are using the strikers to further their destructive goals for personal gain.

The author’s final reason is because he wants civility, a goal most Americans would desire, but a goal that is falling further from our reach by the class warfare and religious warfare being waged at the moment. Our country is a tinderbox and class warfare, fiery racial statements without facts, or radical movements (no matter how well-meaning some participants may be) that want to tear down America will not improve our country.

The right of free speech and assembly should be a thing we defend with all our efforts but the morality of nefarious folks to misuse the citizens who buy into their slogans should be questioned. 

Summer session registration underway at GCC

With summer session fast approaching, it is still not too late to register for summer classes at GCC.

Below are just some of the computer and general education courses that will be offered beginning May 29, 2012.

·         eBay as a Home Based Business

·         Computers for Beginners

·         Introduction to computers

·         World of Art 1

·         Rocks and Minerals

·         Indian American Culture

·         Elementary Algebra

·         Intermediate Algebra

·         Basic Math

·         Nutrition

 

You can view the entire summer schedule and register online or in person at:

201 N. Mud Springs Road,  Payson,  AZ  85541

Occupy makes massive May Day comeback

Occupy Wall Street participants stage a march down Broadway as part of May Day celebrations in New York, 05/01/12. (photo: Getty Images)

[Gazette Blog Editor's note: With the mainstream media downplaying the May Day protests in America, here are just a couple of accounts of what happened.  For more, go to readersupportednews.org) 

Lower Manhattan occupied

By Sarah Jaffe

The financial district was occupied all evening - by the NYPD, which was out in riot gear, brandishing batons, lining up on side streets and marching two by two down to rallying points for tired but fired-up occupiers from the final march.

As the march - with crowd estimates of 30,000 or so - wound down, hundreds or even thousands wound up in the space at 55 Water Street, where they held a People's Assembly as night fell. The crowd was peaceful, but the space closed at 10 and so the NYPD moved in, calling for dispersal and threatening arrests. City council members Ydanis Rodriguez and Jumaane Williams were on hand with several members of the clergy, observing and gathering evidence. The two council members are part of a lawsuit filed this week against the NYPD.

I followed a breakout march up side streets, and while at first it was disorganized, a crew of experienced occupiers, including many from the Plus Brigades (a newer working group that specifically works on clowning and other positive reactions in order to defuse tense situations with police) took lead of the march, walking arm in arm, dancing and singing. The tension faded as they marched, for a while, without police interference, singing, "This is what democracy looks like."

When we came to Wall Street, though, we ran into a barricade - it seems that the worst thing occupiers can do is attempt to set foot on the actual street their movement is named for. The march turned up William and then down Pine, and as the crew paused to debate where to go next, reports of police violence on Pearl Street - where we'd just been - came in over Twitter from reporters John and Molly Knefel and Ryan Devereaux. We sat on the steps of a JP Morgan Chase building on Pine, and as some discussed tactics and plans for the rest of the night, stragglers came up William, visibly shaken by what they'd seen. "Police were just grabbing people, throwing them to the ground," one marcher said.

And then the police arrived, bearing batons and riot cuffs. They cleared the steps mostly without incident, though there was tension and a faceoff for a while before most of the crowd dispersed back down Pine - where a line of police reinforced a line of barricades once again, keeping the crowd from getting anywhere near Wall Street.

Many of the occupiers wound up where Occupy began, back in Zuccotti Park, where only one side was barricaded off and about 100 people were sitting, chatting in small groups, discussing, once again, what would come next - for the evening, for the movement, for everyone involved. A week of action is planned for later in May, and Brooklyn College is holding a rally today, May 2, to build on momentum from May Day.

Sarah Jaffe is an associate editor at AlterNet, a rabblerouser and frequent Twitterer. You can follow her at @seasonothebitch. 

Strikes, protests mark 

May Day in Bay Area

By Joshua Holland

The Bay Area celebrated May Day with a series of strikes and protests throughout the day, as 19 local labor unions joined thousands of occupiers and immigrants' rights activists.

The Inlandboatmens' Union staged a half-day strike, shutting down ferry service from Sausalito to San Francisco. The ferry workers are in a dispute with management over healthcare costs, and have been working without a contract for over a year. Early in the morning, they were joined by Occupy protesters in a picket line at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. Bus and bridge workers had promised to honor the picket.

About 200 people participated in a peaceful but boisterous immigrants' rights march in San Francisco's Mission District in the morning. Several separate demonstrations wound their way through downtown Oakland, trailed by a heavy police presence. At one point, tear gas was deployed to disperse a crowd, according to protesters who were on the scene.

In the afternoon, a large contingent of Occupy San Francisco activists - as many as 1,500 - marched from the Financial District to set up residence in a vacant building from which they had been evicted weeks earlier. The building, formerly a shelter, is owned by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Police staged around the corner during the afternoon, but at around 4:30, approximately 200 officers clad in riot gear moved in, erecting barricades around the building. A tense standoff ensued, during which time a man on the roof of the building threw several objects - a brick and some metal pipes - at police, striking and injuring another protester, who was taken away by ambulance. A San Francisco police spokesman later said that the man had been apprehended and charged with aggravated assault.

After several hours facing down protesters, police again pulled back, and as of press time, protesters had flooded back into the building en masse.

The largest action of the day took place in Oakland during the evening, as an estimated 3,000 people took to the streets around City Hall. The protest was largely uneventful until after nightfall when, in a scene that has come to be all too familiar, Oakland police ended up dispersing occupiers with tear gas and "flash-bang" grenades. As of press time, arrests were ongoing.

 

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet. He is the author of The 15 Biggest Lies About the Economy: And Everything else the Right Doesn't Want You to Know About Taxes, Jobs and Corporate America.

Occupier explains "why we're striking"

MAY DAY SPECIAL

By Mike David
readersupportednews.org

Of course, most of us know what's wrong with the world. We know about the poverty, war, violence and disease. We're conscious of the injustice, but not fully conscious of it, because frankly, we have enough to worry about in our own lives. As such, we've come to accept these injustices as simple facts of life - prepackaged side effects of the human condition, as natural and intertwined with our existence as water to a stream, beyond our capacity to effect in any significant way. This collective sense of powerlessness and default apathy is why we're striking.

Our growing sense of isolation and disconnection, whether from ourselves, from those next door to us, or from those producing our food and products halfway across the globe, is why we're striking. Our forced support of perpetual war waged for and by the 1% - whether explicitly with speech, or implicitly with inaction and tax dollars - without ever paying mind to the true causes and motives behind it, is why we're striking. Our failure uptil now to connect the dots and realize that the benefits of a cheap iPod, lovely as it may be, would be far outweighed by the benefits of a truly just world free of exploitation, is why we're striking.

The fact that most of us are too busy being exploited to realize we're being exploited - too busy greasing the cogs of our economic system to notice how the fruits of our labor never fail to float up and out of our reach - is why we're striking, as is the fact that most aren't able to do anything about this exploitation even when we do notice it. While some of us are lucky enough to have jobs and careers that give real meaning to our lives, allowing us to take full advantage of our talents and fulfill our destiny, most of us have jobs devoid of meaning and dignity, yet full of the feeling that we are fulfilling someone else's destiny. Our recognition that the ruling class's seat at the top of the pyramid is prepared and propped up by the working class is why we're striking. Our knowledge that it's actually the CEO who is the most dependent among us, and that the ones truly indispensable to our society are not bankers, lobbyists and politicians, but workers, teachers and engineers, is why we're striking.

Indeed, the fact that we have an economic system which functions in the same manner as a virus is why we're striking. Just as a virus's only reason for existence is to expand, without regard or awareness of the effect of its expansion on its host body, our economic system pursues its infinite expansion without regard or awareness of its effect on human welfare or the environment. Though the earth is finite, it is sustainable, so we reject, in the words of Michael Nagler, "the inherent contradiction of an economy based on indefinitely increasing wants - instead of on human needs that the planet has ample resources to fulfill."

We're striking because we also reject the notion that selfishness must be the driving force in our world. We believe, contrary to propaganda, that most people in our world are not selfish, and would rather work together than constantly compete against each other. We believe that the only people who really care about things like power, corporate monopolies and global dominance only make up, say, 1% of the population, making it seem only logical that we should have an economic system which reflects the values of the 99% of us who don't care about such things. The fact that most of the decisions which have a profound impact on how we go about our daily lives are made by folks in Washington or Wall Street, rather than in our communities by the people actually affected by those decisions, is why we're striking. The fact that power rests only with those who lust after it is why we're striking.

We're striking because another notion we don't buy into is the presumption that the profit motive can have no outcome other than the best possible one. We understand that the success of McDonald's has nothing to do with having the best burger, and everything to do with having the most cutthroat business plan. We understand that building prisons, waging wars, polluting the environment, and paying employees inadequate wages are actually quite profitable. Sustainability, economic justice and true equality? Not so much. We understand that being ruthless and unscrupulous is an economic advantage, and being truthful and virtuous is an economic disadvantage. We understand that money is treated as more natural and inviolable as nature itself, and that too often our place and perceived value in society is determined solely by how much of it we make, or how much of it we make for someone else. We understand that, whether or not you believe in climate change, our ability to adequately address it or any other pressing issue is greatly compromised when our shortsighted need for profit skews our vision of the whole. We're striking to suggest new motives and new values going forward.

The fact that you might not have known why we're striking, and you didn't get and maybe still don't get what Occupy Wall Street is about, is why we're striking. And who can blame you? Just like you don't have the time or energy to really do anything about the world's problems, you probably don't have the time or energy to do the deep digging required to get your news from any source other than the corporate outlets conveniently floating on the surface. It's understandable that you wouldn't see the inherent conflict of interest of a handful of for-profit corporations with their own interests telling the world's story to the majority of people in this country. The fact that it's so hard to be truly informed, and that it's in the 1%'s interest for the majority of us to be uninformed, is why we're striking. The fact that it's entirely possible you could go about your day today and not hear a thing about the general strike, is why we're striking.

To counter the charge that it's unrealistic, and overly idealistic, to want to bring about real change in our world, as well as the trusty "life isn't fair" rationale always used to justify injustice, is why we're striking. We didn't accept that line of reasoning during the civil rights movement, and we don't accept it now. We think it's far more unrealistic to think that a small cadre of elites will be able to keep up their never-ending pursuit of power consolidation and mass manipulation without waking us up in the process. We think it's far more unlikely that in 1000 years, humanity will still be playing this game of perpetual one-upmanship, instead of picking up the far more efficient and beneficial manner of interacting with each other in honesty, cooperation and genuine respect.

Perhaps the biggest reason we're striking is to simply exercise that ever-cherished American value of freedom. Just as our business leaders are free to use every means at their disposal to maximize profit, we are free to use every means at our disposal to maximize the realization of whatever objective we feel is worth pursuing. And by the way, even if you don't support the Occupy movement, whatever you think the Occupy movement is about, we respect your view, because another reason we're striking has to do with our political system - the way it thrives and prospers by pitting us against ourselves, encouraging us to demonize each other while discouraging us from disagreeing civilly.

The fact that this post is completely and utterly inadequate in expressing why we're striking, is why we're striking. But that's OK, because like May 1st, this post is just the beginning.

Happy striking!

Mike David is an occupier in San Francisco. He blogs at www.primitivetimes.com.