There are reasons why this society seems to be living in an entirely other world. That's because in fact they do live in an alternate universe. Fifteen years ago this city used to be the hotbed of the grassroots freedom movement, for the nation: Today San Francisco has become the national symbol of cowardice and unconditional surrender to everything that is evil about the current police-state. The illustration marks the difference between FEAR & COURAGE. What made San Francisco so powerful before was based on the widely divergent population that called this place home. There were writers and artists, people of all kinds that were bound together by their beliefs in justice and free speech for all. Over 90% of those quirky individualists were theresource that made San Francisco live what its citizen's believed in. But after fifteen years of excessive greed, social-segregation by income and the very real isolation of those that live here: The result is a new-herd dedicated to only their own individual bottom-lines: Everyone else was forced out by rent increases and hundreds of petty laws that sought (and succeeded) in isolating people from each other. 'Going out' in the city once promised interesting conversations on just about any topic with virtual strangers; and it was fantastically instructional as well as motivating to its' creative population, regardless of whatever job they might have come here to do. Today that long-gone population has been replaced by various types of arrogance and self-aggrandizement that shrank the world into one of food, of the most fleeting immediate gratifications of all kinds and of course to the very limited pleasures of the questionable second-hand-glories of athletics, of fashion and of gossip, and of all the rest that the world has always traditionally worshipped, as observers rather than as participants. That's not living and never has been, that's just deferring to imitation status; for a world in love with disconnections that has no meaning in any authentic way. On the outside this place is still vibrant until you listen to what comes out of the mouths of those who continue to pretend that 'all-is-well.' Because just being around them can turn anyone's thoughts to the ashes produced by the truth of what has changed. And as you leave the crowded places you cannot fail to understand that almost everyone that still is "out-there" has given up on what once was true. And now despite what they pay for where they live or how they choose to play with their lives: the REAITY is that they are definitely living under the rocks; because even they know that they are no longer free! That's why this country has split itself into two totally different societies: The one where money and 'the good-life" are still possible; if you're willing to sell your soul to get that. And then there is the other existence that does not try to hide beneath the surfaces, but instead chooses to resist this criminal-fraud that has infected the entire society from the smallest agency to the largest corporations-and all of that is as evil now-as is the current so-called government that wants to drag us all into oblivion ASAP. The really fascinating thing about this ride we share with each other is that the vehicle we share has no "reverse" gears in it anywhere. And since no reputable plan has ever succeeded without the ability to reverse itself; this 'course' is no better than an out-of-control roller-coaster that cannot stop itself. Since this government insists that "we" are all of the same opinion about where the nation is heading, despite the polls that are creeping up on over 80% DISSAPPROVAL of the direction we are all being dragged in: Maybe we should be looking for ways to stop this hurtling disaster before it ends in the end of not just empire; but even of survival itself? Throughout life choices always have to be made by everyone. Generally this means that we must give-up some of the things we believe we desire (freedom & justice); for some things you might desire more (unlimited wealth & power)? But not everyone sees this in quite the same way; which is why so many people are currently trying to remain hidden under the rock. The upper-crust of what used to be the Middle-Class has been flirting with 'going higher' preferring to give up their freedoms for an empty-promise of "Maybe one-day-becoming-filthy-rich" themselves. For this reason so few of the current outlaws are ever even charged, much less prosecuted. But there is a poisoned land-mine buried in this pathway to the top. Because there is a requirement which cannot be superficially met. To become part of the elite most believe all they need to do is become more ruthless and as a result more wealthy; than any of their competitors, to become part of the insider-elite. But that's not true: Because the only people permitted into the ranks of the elites, are those with the right blood-lines-everyone else will be completely excluded! So all those half-baked con-artists, corporate-criminals, and would-be politicians have been laboring in vain because the blood-linage of the elites have always known them for what they are: SUCKERS that will never get to keep their ill-gotten gains. Because in the end they too will be sacrificed upon the blood-alters of the filthy-rich, just like all the rest of us once they've served their purpose for the elites they will be killed as well. So those that have been selling out the human race, at bargain-basement prices for at least the last thousand-years should know, that the 'brass-ring" they're planning on owning is nothing but a forgery-and they have all been CONNED into believing that there would actually be something in this massive betrayal for them to get; when nothing could be further from the truth. It's too bad that "white-collar-crime" never got the notice that it deserved. Because if there had ever been a justice system that hands down a sentence of 'DEATH' for killing someone in the robbing a of liquor store: But exempts those who kill billions or destroy whole parts of the planet from any prison time or even death, because they are allowed to hide behind a corporate identity, and not only that they get to keep the illicit-trillions they have made by the crimes they are allowed to commit. Simply insuring that white-collar-crime can indeed attain the status of the Death penalty, when it is committed on a scale that no individual human could have ever attained without corporate or government connections. But since that has yet to happen these corporate PRIVATEERS and their co-conspirators have made it possible for the monsters to steal the world while they are killing it around the planet. Also closing down the country-club prisons and sending these white-collar criminals to do time in the worst of the worst prisons would also be a GREAT idea! So yeah: It might be too late, but in reality you will be safer if you come out from under the rocks that you've been collectively living under-for the grand-finale that your collective-silence has made more than possible! There are no guarantees in Life, and RISK comes with everything that anyone chooses to do, by way of just living their own life. At the end of the day our lives ought to count for something beyond acquisitions and trinkets! I hate what has happened to this city; but that could not have happened had we not lost all those hundreds of thousands of really-original people that once made this place real! Unfortunately what's going on with the BART protests has proven that the real people are gone. The BART protests were not about the cell-phone interruptions. They were about the fact that two people had been murdered and one other was seriously wounded by BART police. The fact that the commuters themselves cannot or will not recognize the danger that fact puts them in ­ goes well beyond anything as minor as a cell-phone interruption: What they should be protesting is that any one of them could be permanently INTERRUPTED by any BART cop at any time (MURDERED)-unless the public demands an end to BART police! kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net