by Adam W. Fitzgerald

(Written May 2025 as part of an MFA requirement in Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics for Prof. Andrew Schelling)

Philip Levine was poet laureate for a while, a working-class Detroit poet of cutting honesty.

(“Ascension” by Philip Levine: versedaily.org/2015/ascension.shtml )

(Poetry Foundation biography: poetryfoundation.org/poets/philip-levine )
The first line of his Wikipedia entry reads:
“Philip Levine was an American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit.”

In 2015, I was asked to be involved in a wonderful live performance series at an independent Motor City bookstore featuring Detroit musicians turning poems by famed Detroit poets into songs. My poet was Robert Hayden, so I created a song out of his piece “Those Winter Sundays”

For the same series, a friend of mine in a critically-adored hard rock band Greet Death transformed the astounding poem “Ascension” by Philip Levine — since the recording of the performance Sam has now transitioned and is known as Harper Boyhtari. The videos of both of our performances have since been removed from YouTube, but I’m grateful I did a DJ rip download of the “Ascension” song by Boyhtari — after Boyhtari’s initial preamble, listeners might want to skip to about the two minute and forty-five second mark [2:45] to when the song begins. The poem-song is breathtaking, beautiful, and heart breaking: it became too relevant for my family as we watched my mom fade away and die from disease over the course of 2023.

(Stream the song online at: soundcloud.com/underflowrecords/harper-of-greet-death-ascension )

Meanwhile, my friends Marlon and Carson Morton are the brothers behind Remnose, old musician friends of Detroit and Michigan who played many shows with my group Shady Groves. In 2023, Remnose released an album called “Both Our Blood” with a song called “Pushing & Shoving” — another Michigan elegy of sorts, as it’s an entire record written in the wake of loss of their own family members, released while I was struggling to accept my mother’s fate with ALS.

(Stream the music of Remnose including “Both Our Blood” at remnose.bandcamp.com )

It was hard to accept then, it’s still hard to accept now: my mother Christie Anne Fitzgerald Smith passed away on December 25, 2023, after a yearlong battle with ALS.

Where to even begin with this topic. I’ve written so much about it, maybe to process, if that even helps, I’m truly not sure. 2023 was a doozy, as it was also the year I separated and divorced from my ex-wife, my partner of eleven years, married for seven. It was not pretty, it was not amicable, she was an abusive, traumatized fellow writer — but she was from Brimingham, Michigan, and I grew up in Lapeer, Michigan — between the trailer parks and ghettos of Flint and Pontiac. Class disparities evolved into bigger issues, but when you are faced with the death and disease of the person who brought you into this world, well, let’s just say it puts shit into perspective.

Moving back into my childhood home at age 33, taking care of my mother as she lost all motor function, moving her between wheelchair, bathroom, and deathbed, every few hours waking to the haunting horrible sound of a mechanized bell that she could trigger with the tap of a finger, suffice it to say, it took a toll. Death changes you. Disease destroys you.

My mom loved 90’s sitcoms, so as we prepared her meals and took care of her, my three sisters, our father Wes, and I also gave her a steady stream of the shows she used to love, mainly Friends, Fraiser, and Seinfield. My mother used to be a schoolteacher. We read the Harry Potter book series aloud to each other as an excuse to spend time and stay close together throughout my teens. So at the end of her life, I was able to read my mother the beginning of my own book series, which I think she liked a lot more than she thought she would.

Going through all this, not having my partner by my side and dealing with the split while warring with my older sisters as we took care of my dying mom, really my whole life changed overnight. I threw myself into music, writing, exercise, and my new partner Cindy, who also was going through a divorce. Because of my mom’s obsession with the 90’s sitcoms and our history of read alouds, I also read to her the autobiography of Matthew Perry, Chandler on Friends. Holy shit what a horrendous human and waste of time of a book, but I’m so glad I shared that time with my mother. The one topic I was excited to hear about was Perry discussing his time spent with a hero I’ve had since childhood, the humble humanitarian turned third in the Belushi-Candy big-man tragic-comedian lineage, Chris Farley, but Perry basically reduced their time together to one sentence about drugs. What kills me is that we finished that book together, but my mother passed before we could finish the first book in my series I was reading to her, we only made it halfway.

Maybe that’s what keeps me returning to this poem, and the song version as well. First hearing it while attending Wayne State University in Detroit as an undergrad in the late 2000s, the poem has continued to evolve alongside my own ever-changing life, continually taking on a new life. The only thing that kept me sane as my life underwent the transformative alchemical fires of the dark night of the soul was art, reading, writing, journaling, traveling, music, songwriting, etc.

My mother’s parents helped raise me alongside my mom and dad. My father escaped a commune that should’ve been a Native American reservation in Dryden, Michigan on his motorcycle in the early 70s, moving to the town over in Lapeer. My grandfather Jim Fitzgerald used his G.I. Bill money to study journalism at Michigan State University, where he met my grandmother Pat, who was working in a library. My dad Wes started working for my grandpa Jim at The County Press, which led my father to my mother — eventually he stole my mom (the homecoming queen) away from both the football captain and the basketball captain (two different guys). My grandfather went on to write for the Detroit Free Press, mentor of future Freep writer and author Mitch Albom. I’m lucky that I was raised by people obsessed with the arts, music, journalism, and literature. Before my grandfather passed we used to discuss writing. Before my grandmother passed we used to read Walt Whitman out loud to each other. Memories I’ll forever cherish.

Carl Jung coined the term “synchronicity”

“Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related”

In the year 2012 after my band The Kodaks broke up, I was experiencing a “spiritual awakening” of sorts, after some incredibly idyllic and positive psychedelic / hallucinogenic experiences. My grandfather Jim Fitzgerald passed away at the beginning of 2012, and he had always been my hero, a writer who fought tyranny and racism through pro-Civil Rights writings exposing crooked Michigan politicians and KKK members, which made him an ally and a target, something that used to inspire me and which now alarms me with how I identify and relate.

After a third unhinged cross-country tour with The Kodaks promoting our debut album Night Surfing — the band finally broke up, after four years of me putting everything I had into the project, writing, demo-ing, recording, touring, gigging, booking, managing, recruiting members, training musicians, rehearsing, figuring out practice spaces, sleeping on floors, the works.

My love life was a mess, my entry into adulthood at 22 not going as smoothly as I had hoped. But then suddenly, everything went from black and white to technicolor, like Dorthy landing in Oz, and I’m extremely grateful for psychedelics re-lifting a veil that had removed my child-like wonder, intuition, and positivity. I was listening to too much Joy Division and reading too much Joyce, Camus, and Kafka. Once I leaned back into a full yin-yang version of myself, I embraced death with a less maudlin obsession than I had with The Kodaks, more of a Ram Dass or Terence McKenna informed take, which led to me writing the song “Pale Moonlight” — an ode to death.
The Kodaks = underflowrecords.com/the-kodaks
Shady Groves = underflowrecords.com/shady-groves
Quells = underflowrecords.com/quells

Even though “Pale Moonlight” has always felt like the quintessential “me” song, I had never properly recorded it beyond a few different demos over the years. Then in 2023, it was time, mid-divorce, mid-ALS, without the constraints of an abusive wife and draining corporate copywriting job running the English Publishing Department for Gaia.com (dealing with woowoo white privilege fools arguing about the spellings of different types of reptilian alien names). After relocating from Lafayette, CO to Traverse City, MI, the house I bought was consumed by my ex in the divorce, so I moved back to Lapeer, then moved in with a friend back in what will always feel like my true home city: Detroit. Then in August 2023, I drove from Detroit to Denver to Las Vegas to San Diego to Los Angeles to record my first proper debut singles as Quells — my own project, not a band, just me, whatever music I make and whoever I want involved or on board — so, somewhat less hiding behind band names and other people. Afterward I drove to Portland to visit my childhood best friend and meet his new boyfriend before they moved to Alaska.

What I couldn’t have predicted, after the LA recordings were mixed, mastered, and scheduled for release through our own imprint / indie record label / artist collective Underflow Records, was the timing of it all. After years in the works, “Pale Moonlight” was scheduled for release on January 8th, 2025 — which ended up being directly after my mom passed away at the very end of 2023. My death ode ended up getting released right when my mother passed away, unintentionally. All of my meditations on death in my early 20s, coming to all-too-real realities in my early 30s. Uncanny. And of course press outlets latched on to it.

“Pale Moonlight” is the new work from this indie chameleon (Quells), recorded in Los Angeles and released through Underflow Records. A death ode unintentionally released shortly after Fitzgerald’s mother died of ALS, Pale Moonlight combines indie songwriting with surf rock, dream pop, shoegaze and ambient sounds to weave a wild sonic tapestry. The esoteric lyrics convey timeless symbols and Jungian archetypes that ride cascading sound waves. This track follows “Smoke Dance” as the second new single.”

– Indie Italia

The entire time I was driving around the county, dealing with divorce proceedings, moving four times in one year, and working with my family to make my mother as comfortable as possible as we all watched her fade away, “Ascension” played on loop, on my speakers, and in my mind.

My ex-wife and I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland for a time, where I completed a program through Cambridge and she studied at Napier University. We had so many plans, to both get published, maybe become professors, move to Ireland, raise babies. But those plans always changed, warped, determined by the time of day or season. Death has a way of putting all of life in perspective, usually in forced life lessons taught through loss. “You never know what you have until it’s gone,” is maybe too true, because we often take for granted not only the loves and special moments of our lives, but the time, and how little of it we really have. “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans” is another phrase I’ve come to know and accept.

Life is complicated, messy, somehow both long and short, full of pleasures and pains. In Buddhism, the first of the Four Noble Truths is Dukkha, the eternal truth that life is suffering.

“1. Dukkha: Suffering exists: Life is suffering. Suffering is real and almost universal. Suffering has many causes: loss, sickness, pain, failure, and the impermanence of pleasure.”

Or as Westley, the Dread Pirate Roberts, once shared in The Princess Bride:

“Life is pain — whoever says differently is selling something.” — William Goldman

Something I’ve really appreciated within the teachings of Professor Andrew Schelling during my time as an MFA candidate in the Jack Kerouac School at Naropa University is the suggested removal of “the ugly I” — reducing tendencies to use “I” within writing, which ironically pushes readers away due to the “me, me, me, me” feeling of it. I’ve come to love this approach, creating a universality and relatability within poetry and prose by lessening barriers for better immediacy.

What I noticed in more recent readings of “Ascension” is Levine’s rare choice of format, almost as if the words of his poem are shoved to fit within the parameters of a newspaper article box. For me, this has several effects, but one I noticed is that it makes me feel like the “nasty I” isn’t really present, it’s not as much of an issue, maybe because the format forces a different style of reading, one not structured around typical enjambment, stanza, or line structures.

When I was younger and first experienced this poem, I related “Ascension” to the passing of my grandfather Jim in 2012, and ultimately to my grandmother Patricia’s passing in 2019, merely a week before my return to the US after two years of living in the UK. Life is full of lucky breaks, near misses, and real tragedy; but it’s up to us how we perceive it all, and how we reflect it.

Now that I’m older, “Ascension” not only relates to the passing of my parents, my mother to ALS in late 2023, and my father recently being diagnosed with cancer, but also my own mortality. Beyond that, for the last few years, my readings and listenings of “Ascension” reflect not only the losses of my past and present, but the eternal cycle of loss we all exist within. When I got married in 2017, when I said forever, I meant it, and that’s why I stayed and worked to save my marriage even when couples counselors were writing me privately telling me to run for safety. Things could have been or gotten worse, but that much can always be said, things could always be worse, but they sure as shit could be better: my mom was healthy, she was supposed to help me raise my children, I had hoped she would mellow as a grandmother and find gratitude.

Alas, our lives are colored by our loves and our losses. To me, nothing better embodies this than “Ascension” — because the whole poem is about letting go, accepting fate, death, acquiescence. Poetry, music, and art help us transmute the pain and pleasures of our lived experiences to share.

My hope is we can ascend Saṃsāra and realize our true nature, the Rainbow Body, Brahman, Nirvana, Moksha, the Tao, etc. I have no doubts we are here to help each other remember that we are divine consciousness experiencing itself through duality of yin and yang in a physical realm. So, who’s to say we aren’t gods, merely shackled by māyā, Bodhisattvas on our way home.

Someday we will be beyond needs, beyond desires, beyond remembering, beyond forgetting.

Life can be full of high highs and low lows, dark nights of the soul, cosmic illumination, crushing defeats, heartbreaks, disappointments, whatever, but there is some beauty in the transient nature of life and accepting the limitations of our current incarnations and dissolution. We never know what tomorrow holds, so I’ll continue to fight hate with love, respect, kindness.

“This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief.”

― Rumi

Ascension

(by Philip Levine)

Now I see the stars
are ready for me
and the light that even
the night birds can’t see
me robed in black flame.
I am alone, rising
through clouds and the lights
of distant cities until
the earth turns in darker
side away, and I am ready
to meet my guardians
or speak again the first words
born in time. Instead,
it is like that dream
in which a friend leaves
and you wait, parked
by the side of the road
that leads home, until
you can feel your skin
wrinkling and your hair
grown long and tangling
in the winds, and still you
wait because you’ve waited
so long. Below, the earth
has turned to light but,
unlike the storied good
in Paradise, I see no going
and coming, none of the pain
I would have suffered had I
merely lived. At first,
I can remember my wife,
the immense depth of her eyes
and her smooth brow in the morning
light, the long lithe body
moving about her garden
day after day, at the ease in the light
of those brutal summers. I can
see my youngest son again
moving with the slight swagger
of the carpenter hitching
up his belt of tools. I
can even remember the feel
of certain old shirts
against my back and shoulders
and how my arms ached
after a day of work. Then I
forget exhaustion, I forget
love, forget the need to
be a man, the need to
speak the truth, so close
my eyes and talk to someone
distant but surely listening.
Then I forget my own trees
at evening moving in the day’s
last heat like the children
of the wind, I forget the hunger
for food, for belief, for love,
I forget the fear of death,
the fear of living forever,
I forget my brother, my name,
my own life. I have risen.
Somewhere I am a god.
Somewhere I am a holy
object. Somewhere I am.

Bhavachakra describing the cycle of saṃsāra: illustrated in the wheel are six realms of existence in which a sentient being can reincarnate, according to the rebirth doctrine of Buddhism. Yama, the god of death, is at the top of the outer rim. The outer rim shows the Twelve Nidānas doctrine.

By Adam W. Fitzgerald (Smith)

a new (Irish) poem

For Bobby Kelleher

by Adam W. Fitzgerald

— –

when the Catholic church exploded in our Irish blood

I was in the pews with you

looking to go outside too

there was a brightness encroaching

but we knew it wasn’t god

the grasshoppers outside sang of Neptune

Venus smiled upon us as she wept

maybe beauty is sadness, my brother

& gnosis is in the unknown

crossing the abyss from a kiss, burning the ships because we couldn’t break our chains

splintered by our lovers lips, wielding the wounds of our women

young boys broken by a world

heralding purity through an insanity lurid

making men out of broken alabaster

plastering us put back together with the porcelain

of the feminine making us sing again

golden ringing in our ears

holding hands with our BFF queerz

willing to die just to feel the high

so we could fly up like Icarus in the sky

just to touch an angel & give the maker the finger

falling through fire is what made me a ginger

we’ll be the water rising from the wood of the swamp

we buried a priest but we’ll hold your hands

as you fall asleep we were chased from the Emerald Isle like all displaced indigenous

psalms for our sorrows of eternal heartbreak

lullabies for the laments of our lost mothers

still keening for Oisín lost in Tír na nÓg

we are his sons spat out on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean

our grandsires sought Éieraan but barely survived Bavaria

centuries of hysteria crystalized in our eyes & veins

never passing blame just fighting off Catholic crusaders shame

— –

(written in Valerie Hsiung’s Naropa University / Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics / Summer Writing Workshop 6/26/25)

underflow

“Whenever any kind of deep loss occurs in your life — such as loss of possessions, your home, a close relationship; or loss of your reputation, job, or physical abilities — something inside you dies. You feel diminished in your sense of who you are. There may also be a certain disorientation. “Without this…who am I?” When a form that you had unconsciously identified with as part of yourself leaves you or dissolves, that can be extremely painful. It leaves a hole, so to speak, in the fabric of your existence. When this happens, don’t deny or ignore the pain or the sadness that you feel. Accept that it is there. Beware of your mind’s tendency to construct a story around that loss in which you are assigned the role of victim. Fear, anger, resentment, or self-pity are the emotions that go with that role. Then become aware of what lies behind those emotions as well as behind the mind-made story: that hole, that empty space. Can you face and accept that strange sense of emptiness? If you do, you may find that it is no longer a fearful place. You may be surprised to find peace emanating from it. Whenever death occurs, whenever a life form dissolves, God, the formless and unmanifested, shines through the opening left by the dissolving form. That is why the most sacred thing in life is death. That is why the peace of God can come to you through the contemplation and acceptance of death.”

— Eckhart Tolle (Stillness Speaks)

allianceofhope.org/eckhart-tolle-on-peace-after-a-loss/

My mom used to say to me:

“You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.”

Before she passed away she looked at me one day & said sincerely, “you’re a good person, I don’t know why bad things happen to you, but you’re a kind man & I’m proud of you.”

But I’m paraphrasing. & that kills me. I’d give anything to have a recording of that conversation. I’d give anything to have had her write us all letters. So I could relentlessly reread & experience her cutting wit & loving humor. Again & again, I’ve read anything I can find that she wrote. She was an incredible writer like her father Jim, & musician like her mother Pat, but as far as I can find, she didn’t do either often enough. She could draw, paint, edit, cook, swim, dog whisper, play guitar, plus she was a tennis champion, but I think her real strength was words — she could cut you the fuck in two with a breath let alone a sentence. But she didn’t write much, except for on Facebook, which has been an incredible archive & source of comfort in the wake of her loss. Sadly I learned recently that after 3 years of being inactive, Facebook pages are deleted, wiped; digital storage or some other technocrat scam / bourgeois bullshit. Maybe my father still has my mother’s laptop with her login so he could sign in every few years… maybe we should take the time to go through her years of posting to screenshot, to archive, to remember. After all, if I have children, this will be all I have left of her. Home videos, photos, my audio recordings.

In 2023 my family did not have the capacity for me, drowning in grief & denial, but often I wonder if they ever did. Midwest working class middle child syndrome shit perhaps. Despite working endless hours his entire lifetime, my dad still coached my little league when he could. My mom was antisocial, agoraphobic, hated small talk. My dad, like me & my grandmother, his mother in law Pat; social butterflies. My father & I go camping & hiking in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula & Isle Royale; my mom & I read books aloud, which I also did often with her mother. I’m endlessly grateful for those moments. My grandfather & father worked tirelessly to support their children & wives, who in turn worked their asses off to keep balance. The only Smith I ever knew was my father, & now that he & my sisters are all that’s left, it makes sense I changed my mother’s maiden name from my middle to last name. The lauded only boy turned black sheep. “I’ve always been a werewolf among mere men / I’ve always been an outcast so send me back again / to the Pale Moonlight.”

In 2023, as my mom faded fast from ALS, no one had capacity for my divorce. The second of my three sisters married, & my mom wasn’t able to be there in ATL — crushing to everyone — & I wasn’t sat at the family table either — I was sat with strangers, friends of my sister T, who intensely hates me — strangers who, unbeknownst to me at the time, my ex wife had been talking shit about me & our marriage to all night, calling me the cheater. Guess I did emotionally.

My family loves each other, conditionally. My grandmother Pat & father Wes love unconditionally, everyone else I’m not so sure. No one could understand, with both grandparents gone & matriarch fading fast to disease, how to deal with it all, let alone a marriage & divorce of the two problematic middle children who never got along in the midst of all the real life tragedy & lifelong trauma. 2023 reshaped my life. What did it matter that my wife had been cheating on me for years, abusing me mentally, physically, emotionally, destroying my confidence for over a decade, making me believe I was a loser. It mattered to me, but people fend for themselves, & at their lowest, you learn who people are, if not why. I’d say my family tried to comfort each other as best as we could, but we all know that’s not even remotely true — we tried to comfort my mom the best we could & in the end that’s all that matters, especially to them. I can’t disagree.

“Stop acting like your shit is more important than everyone else’s.” My dad told me in the garage between my sister belittling me & me finalizing my divorce, my mom dying a few rooms over.

“But I never said that, you did.” I replied.

My dad & I would cry together to every version “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” & “Naked As We Came” by Iron & Wine, who my mother loved. So many of my parents’ “Chris & Wes Classic Love Songs” will forever put the image of them together in all their denim & moccasins on my dad’s motorcycle in the late 1970s — “Miracles” — “Sister Golden Hair” — “Can’t Get It Outta My Head” — “Something” — any James Taylor or Paul Simon. My mother loved 2000s light pop — Snow Patrol, Keane, David Gray, the Garden State & Wicker Park soundtracks. My family has taste, if occasionally lacking empathy or awareness. Songs & smells take me back, to growing up in Michigan, rare family trips to Florida, New York, Chicago, Port Huron, NoMI, or the Great Lakes.

WES & CHRIS “TRUE LOVE” playlist by Wes Smith: http://bit.ly/45Nq7my

Even with the obviousness of my elder sisters intentionally cutting me and my aunt K out of the family, my father will defend “his little girls” even if they were on death row (but hopefully he’d do the same for me). While my mother was passing I remember helping my sister T with some household chores, & she told me that I was “weaponizing my incompetence” — while she occupied the largest most central room in our childhood family home to conduct her daily corporate sellout lawyer Zoom meetings, where I would listen to her berate & belittle coworkers the same as she did to me my entire life. Once on New Year’s Day, T shared on social media that her only New Year’s Resolution “was to be more of a cunt to everyone she meets everyday.”

So of course I ended up with a wife similar to my mean older sisters & manic depressive mother, but later where I realized it was all off was, like my older sisters, my ex wife J is more of a Keeping Up with the Kardashians type than how she claimed to be a Jane Austen type like my mom. Alas. We are all misled, misinformed, manipulated; but how do we recover? Do we learn from our mistakes & adjust? Even when I was lying to my boss to work from home & avoid going into the office because J had taken bloody chunks out of my face & neck in one of her drunken rages, clearly I didn’t learn quick enough; not until a more evolved & healed woman I’m now lucky enough to be with told me I’m worth a damn.

It’s this type of matriarchal violence & abuse from women that has shaped my entire life. Because my grandmother was an angel, & her & my mom were my heroes, I wanted to believe all women had that capacity for kindness. But that’s not true. Like men, women have capacity for physical & psychological torture. We all have capacity for kindness, but most choose violence, silence, creature comforts, the rat race, even knowing it’s killing our planet & robbing Earth & humanity of a future. Potentially within the next decade, scientists & experts say between the worsening climate, pollution & socio political situations, & now the potential start of World War 3 due to the U.S. supporting the apartheid state of Israel & attacking Iran. More journalists have been killed in Gaza than all other recent wars & conflicts combined — & the Left Bank has the highest amount of child amputees in the world, all directly related to the global North’s desired conquest of the Middle East, their oil, & their people. Drone warfare bombing hospitals. Yet I’m the radical.

At some point right before my mom died, shit was so bad between my sister T & I that I was forced to move out of my childhood home in Lapeer, which I had moved into permanently during the divorce & to take care of my mom with my family. So I rented a flat in Detroit with my friend Connor — which apparently led to some sort of “intervention” style chat my sisters dropped on my father, pressuring him to “cut me off” in every way possible, even though I had just walked away from my kushy corporate job & returned to substitute teaching for no money specifically so I could be in my hometown to take care of my mother as she passed. But, I’m the problem child. I give up. I don’t want to spend time with people who have my blood but don’t offer respect to others, not even their own blood, not even my angelic sweet partner C. Their loss. No one owes anyone anything beyond decency, we owe ourselves boundaries. As Farik Matuk recently said in a recent lecture during Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program: “When people want to fight or argue with me, I have no interest in communication like that.” (I’m paraphrasing again) “I don’t want to stoop to that level.” We can’t blame our circumstances, our families, our socioeconomic status, our birthplace, our parents, etc. for our lives. Being an adult is taking responsibility for your life, decisions, actions, & where it’s all led you.

I’m no saint, I’ve made my mistakes, & we’re all lucky to be on the other side of 2023, death, disease, divorce & the dissolution of our family. I do not seek paths of resistance or least resistance, only honesty, education, healing, logic & love. But my divorce matters to me. My marriage mattered to me. I gave it everything I had & like a Little Shop of Horrors monster it almost consumed me. June 17th matters to me, because my mom told me that my wedding in Detroit on 6/17/17 was one of the happiest days of her life. Can’t exactly say the same, but there was happiness in my marriage, more so before we ever wed, ebbs & flows among the peaks & valleys through over 11 years of my relationship with J. Our honeymoon in Ireland in the summer of 2017 was maybe the happiest a person can be, while existing in the beginnings of worldwide ecological collapse & endless war, still financially unstable, still unpublished, always fighting miasmic depression unfurling, eeking, creeping, clawing the heart from the mind.

I have immense gratitude for my upbringing, which I recognized even as a youth was rare, idyllic, and likely very limited. My dark adulthood does not remove my gratitude for my good fortune to have 4 brilliant role models in my parents and mothers’ parents. Despite all I’ve been through & all the world continues to go through, I still work to teach students to hope, to dream. On my 34th birthday last October 26th, I put out an album of 15 instrumental songs, & although they’re some of the only pieces of music I’ve put out without vocals & lyrics (besides a tribute to Twin Peaks & David Lynch released in 2022) the track list itself tells a story, with each song reflecting different emotions & circumstances I went through while recording the album (titled “Larx”) from Jan. 2023 until Oct. 2024.

“Larx” by Quells (tracklist)

• 1. Silver Linings
• 2. Orange Peels
• 3. Sass
• 4. Drifting Away
• 5. Green Lightning
• 6. Past Life Memories
• 7. Island Blue
• 8. International Flight
• 9. Lost in Thought
• 10. Don’t Be Sad
• 11. Ride the Waves
• 12. Last Dance
• 13. Nice Knowing You
• 14. Express Gratitude
• 15. Never Give Up

Pre 2020 seems like another world now, but my entire life it’s been tragedies one after another, 9/11, Middle East wars (exploitation for oil, land & to fuel the opiate crisis), my family & many other Americans losing their life savings in the 2008 financial collapse, Snowden, Assange, WikiLeaks, Epstein, Maxwell, MOSSAD, Trump, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, child slave labour in the Congo, COVID, the worldwide pandemic, George Floyd, Trump again, ICE raids, Musk, Palantir, PayPal mafia, Peter Thiel, & now WWIII starting in Iran because of the US blatantly supporting Israel’s ethnocentric Zionist genocidal land grab. All this sprinkled with personal tragedy throughout. We are watching babies ripped from their mothers arms as they are separated into concentration camps, both in the US & in Gaza, while we witness drone warfare reshape our planet into something hellish & unrecognizable, babies left to starve in incubators, hospitals burned containing corpses with IVs still in them. Children, mothers, fathers, families, murdered, starved, reduced to bloody pulp, all in our daily newsfeed timelines, every damn day.

Derrynane Beach & Castlecove in the Ring of Kerry, Ireland following 6/17/17 was the first book end of my marriage’s ephemeral happiness, to be later matched & closed in 2019 on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, when after making love J cried, because, she said, she knew she’d never be that happy ever again — or that we’d never be that happy again. I’m not sure who decided, but I guess she did. A few years later our couple’s counselor contacted me on the side through email & told me she was worried for my safety. To run, basically. I gave my twenties to this woman, my heart, my soul, my everything. She took my youth, my music, my cats, my life savings, my home, my dignity, my confidence & the worst is that she took time away that I should’ve been spending with my grandmother & mother, two women who I also no longer have, but I want to believe loved me unconditionally. My ex wife J loved conditionally — “champagne tastes & beer money” my mom always said & that drove J crazy. Once after returning home from living in Edinburgh, Scotland, right before the pandemic, J had a meltdown over X, Y, or Z (probably my lack of financial & commercial success, as was the usual) & while we were driving through Metro Detroit, she hit me in the face with a CD jewel case while screaming at me — while I was the one driving. I knew if she had hit me less than an inch over, I probably would’ve lost my right eye. & she was sober for that one. I locked myself in rooms, bathrooms, hid car keys, & I wish I would’ve talked to my mom about it more, but I never wanted to turn my family against my then wife, all whom I loved. 2 couples’ counselors later, I was told I was gaslighting myself.

Alcoholism — Abuse — ALS

Death — Disease — Divorce

Drama — Trauma — Nightmares

Fuck all that. Everyone deserves better. Life is incalculably short, it’s absurd. Yet we deny ourselves what we really want in life & force ourselves into daily capitalist slave labor for the fascist status quo. One of the last living Japanese Samurai monks, Dai Kato, said recently in another lecture at Naropa University’s 2025 Summer Writing Program: “Capitalism has colonized the whole world, even Japan — I’m now too Japanese for Japan, so I left.” We are advanced animals deluding ourselves with language, philosophy, maths, science, AI, genocide, modern slavery disguised as kleptocracy. The masses are oppressed, but we always have been. Will it ever change? I only grew up in Michigan because my mother’s ancestors were forced to flee Ireland to survive the British engineered potato “famine” & my father probably should’ve grown up on a reservation but instead he escaped a commune & a childhood he barely talks about. His own children must seem so spoiled to him, but he did it, a big softie always listening to women even if they are belittling him. We can’t replace the patriarchy with a matriarchy, balance is nature.

Maybe my ex wife J & I didn’t have balance. Maybe the tap water of Lapeer is almost as poisoned as nearby Flint’s — because now my dad has cancer, & it seems like more people in Lapeer have diseases than any other small town I’ve heard of. Maybe we’re all just dying all the time, always, & my only misconception was that we’d live longer as time went on, as my grandfather Jim passed in his 80s and my grandmother Pat in her 90s — but my mom never saw 70, grandkids, or outside North America.

My younger sister B is a brilliant queer artist (she made the “Larx” artwork as well as the “Ice Temple” streaming art), trapped in the malaise of small town shutterings, stuck as we all often feel. But she could move anywhere, do anything, if she just heard it more often, got to talk about herself & her art & her curiosities & hopes & dreams & wants more often. Even if she criticized or judged us (which she did often) our mom would usually listen to us. Now that she’s gone, my sisters won’t listen to my father, let alone me. Only 1 of the 3 has even given the time of day to my new partner, even though we’ve been together over 2 years. Us 4 siblings can’t even be in the same place at the same time to celebrate our father’s 70th birthday. Or should I say, I’m not allowed to go home, I wasn’t invited to the party.

Today would’ve been my 8 year wedding anniversary. In 2 years it’ll be 2027, what would’ve been our 10 year; 15 together. The following year would’ve been my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary — 5/6/78. My grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary was a wonderful party, a fully swinging family affair. At 14, I remember looking around & being amazed at everything (& everyone) Jim & Pat Fitzgerald had built, with their love. That was my goal with my ex wife, to make it to that, to achieve that together, like I was so sure my parents had done & were going to celebrate together, a unified loving family.

Now they’re all gone except for my dad, & I’m not sure he’ll see May 6th, 2028 — ojala. My grandparents & parents have been my greatest heroes & inspirations in my life, giving me the gifts of education, inquisitiveness, the written word. My whole life I’d always planned on raising children with their help. Where do you find yourself when your heroes are gone? This isn’t exactly a midlife crisis, I’m 34, but this is my reality. By now I thought I’d have kids, a home, maybe a career, my parents the doting, loving grandparents I’d always envisioned them to be. But, no. No grandparents, no mother, no family, no wife, no cats, no home, no money, no career, no future to speak of. I’ve got 2 new cats, 1 new incredible woman who saves my life daily, 1 sister who speaks to me & 1 father who I cherish & pray for everyday, & I’m not religious.

What do you do when your heroes are going, going, gone… become the hero? What a joke. I’ll never stop being kind, because my mother’s bright blue eyes looked into my dark brown eyes & told me she’s proud of me for being a good man. I was taught to treat others as I wish to be treated, that the golden rule in life is to treat others with kindness & respect, as if they were your own mother. I can’t do it all the time, & I don’t think she ever thought of herself as a “smiling down from heaven” type of deceased, but until my dying breath I will bear witness & testimony to the legacy of the Smiths & the Fitzgeralds, for I am their progeny, & I’ve felt since youth I have some twisted destiny to put words on paper to help people. I’ll bleed through ink to stain history with my time if it will help others. I will continue to cry for my mother, my 3 cats I tell myself are better off with my ex wife, the years I spent being abused & giving up on myself because I was told I was a loser day in & day out, but I’m working to let go, to move on. I forgive but won’t forget. We must forgive ourselves, our tormentors, face our fears, laugh in the face of death, let go. We can’t take anything with us, so do & say what you want while you can. I’m determined to live my life to the fullest, to do better, to be better, & to leave a legacy that would make my family proud, even if deceased or estranged.

Because I can still feel my mom, her love, holding her hand while reading to her, like she used to do for me, hugging her on her hospital bed — & I can still hear her saying:

“You’re a good man, Charlie Brown.”

—

“The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, and this will improve our position in the struggle against Fascism. One reason why Fascism has a chance is that in the name of progress its opponents treat it as a historical norm. The current amazement that the things we are experiencing are ‘still’ possible in the twentieth century is not philosophical. This amazement is not the beginning of knowledge — unless it is knowledge that the view of history which gives rise to it is untenable.

— Walter Benjamin

“Thesis 8: A Real State of Emergency”

(written upon returning to Denver from Boulder on 6/17/25 after one of the longest days of the Naropa University 2025 Summer Writing Program )

by A.W. Fitzgerald

Maybe I should say happy new year, but holy moly, 2025 is off to a hell of a start, kicking off with a bang… several bangs. My heart goes out to the working class and innocent peoples affected worldwide by rising prices, deflating currencies, inflation, natural disasters, anyone losing homes to fires, genocide, horrors causing us to flee our worlds, forcing us to rebuild homes and lives…

Too many of us are feeling the mounting oppression as the need for revolution mounts. To all my friends, allies, and comrades in the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities; please know that you are not alone, you are loved, you are cared for, and there are those of us willing to die fighting for you. Finally many are realizing the reality within the wise words of the immortal George Carlin:

“When it comes to rights, I think one of two things is true: either we have unlimited rights, or we have no rights at all.” — George Carlin
& “It’s one big club, and you ain’t in it.”

With the recent criminal detainment of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil (and subsequent bragging by the White House) and others, it is becoming apparent, we are not free.

Before delving too deep into the recent tragedies, national, international (many of the more violent and explosive ones involving veterans all connected to Fort Bragg) and government manipulation through exploitation and propaganda as usual, there are other quagmires I’ve recently been stuck in: philosophical ponderings and moral quandaries.

Recently one of my all-time favorite humans and biggest inspirations graduated to the great beyond. The truly one-of-a-kind David Lynch passed away at age 78, as we are now finding out in part due to these damn LA fires. More on these “wildfires” that “can’t be contained” due to “mismanagement” (manipulation) later. (Think of what also recently happened in Hawaii.)

Just days before the death of Lynch, other once-inspirational weirdos from the counterculture scene were exposed as abusers. Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer have been making many who know of them cringe for years, but with the recent articles and allegations… It’s next-level nauseating. Beyond disappointing, many are heartbroken, disillusioned, removing tattoos, etc.

Simply peruse any social media site, type in Neil Gaiman or Amanda Palmer anywhere and you will read very, very disturbing stories. Vulture, People, you name a publication, it’s everywhere.

Similar with the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell horrors, maybe the scariest part is that this is a very complex situation — men and women are complicit, much of the abuse happened to impoverished young women, some immigrants, some already SA survivors, all vulnerable.

All of this has got me thinking about morals, virtues, legacy. As I move forward in my own life, I continue to wonder: “what makes a person good?”

Usually it’s a simple answer: kindness. Everyone can be nicer. We can always be kind.

“THE GOLDEN RULE: TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WISH TO BE TREATED”
Is this an oversimplification? I thought being a good person meant showing up, offering support, humility, respect, smiles, kindness, grace… but are these things enough? Most only judge.

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”

― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“If you close your mind in judgements and traffic with desires, your heart will be troubled. If you keep your mind from judging and aren’t led by the senses, your heart will find peace.”

– Laozi

Another modern writer had some thoughts on one of my favorite bits of bite-sized wisdom from the most superior Fitzgerald to put pen to paper.

“Action is character.” This is what F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his notes while working on his final novel, The Last Tycoon, and he wrote it in caps: ACTION IS CHARACTER.

If one of our greatest narrative writers had to remind himself of that right up to the end, it must be pretty important. It is. Human beings are far too complex to explain away in so many words: imperious; timid; pompous; vain; bombastic — and so on.

– Blake Bailey

(2019)

One of my best friends from Detroit is actually a Greek named Sophocles. We started WhateverFest together in 2011, his band Jeb Busch Lite is on our indie label / artist collective Underflow Records, plus Soph has his own green skateboard company EarthTeam1 and his own graphic novel series. Now based in Berlin, I am also reminded of a quote from his namesake.

“It is the task of a good man to help those in misfortune.”

– Sophocles

Maybe that’s what bothers me the most… these billionaires could fix every problem in the world… hunger, homelessness, clean water, infrastructure, healthcare, education… but no.

Video Evidence: THE ELON NAZI SALUTE

Recently my partner and I have been going down a biopic rabbit hole, specifically trying to educate ourselves about our heroes, influential and inspiring movements of the past, etc. We celebrated Black History Month by watching mind-blowing films such as “Judas and the Black Messiah” — an absolute must-watch about the FBI’s infiltration, manipulation, and assassination of the legendary Civil Rights leader Fred Hampton

Via Wikipedia: “In 1967, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified Hampton as a radical threat. It tried to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation among black progressive groups and placing a counterintelligence operative in the local Panthers organization. In December 1969, Hampton was drugged,[11][12] then shot and killed in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, who received aid from the Chicago Police Departmentand the FBI leading up to the attack. Law enforcement sprayed more than 100 gunshots throughout the apartment; the occupants fired once.[13] During the raid, Panther Mark Clark was also killed and several others were seriously wounded. In January 1970, the Cook County Coroner held an inquest; the coroner’s jury concluded that Hampton’s and Clark’s deaths were justifiable homicides.”.

We have also been watching everything from “Romeo Must Die” (for the angel Aaliyah as much as the kung fu, diversity, and modern Romeo & Juliet plot) the N.W.A. movie “Straight Outta Compton,” plus the Biggie and Tupac biopics “Notorious” and “All Eyez On Me,” the film “Jimi: All Is By My Side” (highly recommend — André 3000 is great as Jimi Hendrix), the film “Selma” about MLK Jr., the classic “Malcolm X” by Spike Lee, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” about Whitney Houston, the Nina Simone film “Nina” and others. We also watched a great PBS documentary on The Black Panthers called “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” and the new Questlove-produced Sly Stone documentary. Which led to, “1971: The Year Music Changed Everything”

We were inspired after watching informative films on McCarthyism (“Papa” about Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, and “Trumbo” about award-winning blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo), Che Guevera (“The Motorcycle Diaries” and “Che”), and Marx and Engels (“The Young Karl Marx”). We can educate ourselves with entertainment if we choose to focus our time wisely.

Also connected with this, we dove into “Winning Time” — a relatively new yet short-lived HBO series on “The Rise of the LA Lakers Dynasty.” Normally I’m not a sports-ball bro guy (we can’t pay teachers yet we pay athletes obscene sums to give each other brain damage?)

However this series is created by one of my favorite artists of our time, writer / director / producer, Adam McKay — who, for my money, has produced some of the most vitally important big-budget Hollywood-star-studded projects of the last few years, including “The Big Short” about the 2008 financial collapse, “VICE” about the evil Dick Cheney becoming the most powerful Vice President of history (re: Middle East invasions, occupations, insider trading), the widely-known and acclaimed “Don’t Look Up” and most recently, “Winning Time”

The way McKay weaves together history, humor, information, education, classism, racism, sexism, exploitation, genocide… I’m absolutely astounded by his montages and commentary and the brutal exposition through juxtaposition and revelations of true surreal history. (Other recent informative and insightful films include 2016’s “War Machine” and the brand new “Civil War”)

Vice (2018) — “He Saw An Opportunity” scene [1080p]

We were partly led to “Winning Time” thanks to maybe our favorite actor and writer in the business, the humble and brilliant Jason Segel, who has us hooked with his new heart-wrenchingly relatable series “Shrinking” — it has an incredible cast and fantastic writing.

What struck us so much about “Winning Time” is the incredible dives into the divides between races, sexes, and classes. The conversations between the dramatized ‘character’ versions of Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Magic Johnson’s father Earvin Johnson Sr., a Lansing, Michigan garbage man, are worth watching the entire show for alone.

The writing, the performances, the history, the music, the injustices, the insanity, it all really gels together into a riveting story, which includes murder, betrayal, tragic accidents, historic defeats and victories, etc. John C. Reilly in particular is engrossing as Dr. Jerry Buss.

It was comical because, again, neither my partner nor I are sports people, so even these historic dynasty rivalries like the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics of the 80s meant nothing to us, we had no idea who won or lost what games or titles when, nor cared. We kept watching the show, which was tragically cut short after two seasons, because of the moral quandaries and explorations of aforementioned topics. The relationships between Dr. Bus, Johnson, Abdul-Jabaar, the coaches, their families, the extended employees of the circus, there was so much explored, ranging from Abdul-Jabaar’s activism, Johnson’s HIV / AIDs diagnosis, Larry Bird’s father’s suicide, the death of Dr. Buss’s successful single mother Jessie and the ascent of his daughter Jeanie, the complex relationships between money, fame, class, wealth, desire, fulfillment, activism, inspiration, happiness, etc it all turns into a multi-layered meditation of existence.

Dr. Buss himself was an interesting character, essentially leaving his family (wife JoAnn and their five children) to essentially become a “playboy” (fuckboi today) real estate mogul (known for house-sitting the PlayBoy Mansion for his homie Hugh Hefner). But as the show so tactfully and tastefully explores, Buss was a complicated man, perhaps a sex and substance addict, never satisfied, but also someone who many people looked up to, admired, and loved, as well as those who loathed him or considered him a fraud. At one point in the show, his daughter is getting stoned with her coworkers and they dig into her for nepotism, but then they realize she’s the real deal when she says something along the lines of: “My mom spent her life raising kids, while my dad was out chasing and getting whatever the fuck he wanted. That’s how I want to live.”

Obviously this changes and warps over time, even in the short period not fully explored as the show ends abruptly and weirdly where it clearly was not intended to, but still, there’s a lot there.

In another scene in the show, Dr. Buss flips out on his two sons for being “too soft” during a game of Monopoly, explaining they are not as “hardcore” as their sister Jeanie, hence why she became his protege and not them. Even though Buss had invited his sons to live with him and work for together as a family, he attacks them for living under his roof, off his dime, as they are in their 20s at the time, an age in his own life when he was already providing for his single mother and hustling to become a doctor and leader in multiple fields, from real estate to professional sports.

THE BEST GRAPHIC STATISTICS VIDEO EVIDENCE TO EXPLAIN THE CURRENT GENERATIONAL SHIFT

Often it’s hard for me not to feel strange about the differences between generations. My parents were married at 22, bought their first home at 24, and had their first of four children at 26, then never looked back. Currently I’m 34, freshly divorced, and in grad school as an MFA candidate, hoping to become a published professor. Almost no one I know my age has any form of stability, whether financially, emotionally, in their relationships, careers, families, etc. Not only can no one afford anything, there is no infrastructure to support the struggling masses: no healthcare, no public transit, no high speed rail, no free education, no free anything. Just mounting homelessness, inflation, crime, violence. Arson will continue to increase, bless those setting fire to I.C.E. trucks and Tesla dealerships in the spirit of Luigi.

Bill Burr about the Luigi Mangione Situation (Explicit)

“When you start thinking about what people like, you start thinking about what people expect. Then you start pandering to people’s expectations. Then you start talking about yourself in the third person. And then you end up overdosed in a hotel room. I learned very early on not to think about that. You go out there and do the best you can, and you do things that are interesting to you. Hopefully it will be interesting to other people. I don’t want to be adequate. I’d rather fail gloriously making something strange, awesome but ultimately a failure.”

– Anthony Bourdain

In the last few years, my entire life has rearranged. Maybe it’s because of divorce, the death of my mother from ALS, my dad still working at 70, my measly teacher wages, the world at large, but I have been further radicalized than ever before. The working class masses desperately need class consciousness, even though many are too complacent and not willing to sacrifice.

Besides the terrors unleashed on us daily, I’ve been reflecting a lot on our society and the state of the world, modern day slavery, whether it’s blue-collar, white-collar, or literal slave labor happening under US occupation, the overflowing American prison system, and child slave labour in Africa, Asia, South America, and elsewhere.

We are not doing a good job adjusting to our new reality post pandemic, nor the growing populations of individuals with DID, ADHD, autism, degenerative diseases, veterans, the unhoused, the list goes on. We are not dealing with root causes of the psychological torment most of us feel every day as we fight to survive: we are spiritually disconnected from ourselves, our planet, our bodies, etc. Our emotions and synaptic responses have been reduced to dopamine hits from the internet.

We are reading reports of our LGBTQ friends being tortured and killed (just like the US has funded Israel to do to the Palestinians), rampant sexism, racism, and ableism the likes of half-century old patriarchy.

Maybe I’m just wondering aloud: what are we doing? What comes next? We need to offer our stories to empower others with knowledge, community, reasoning, logic, kindness, and caring.

Otherwise too many fall into the manipulative traps of divisive media and phone addiction.

In many ways, from the Industrial Revolution through til today, it’s been a failed experiment of the working class being shoved into factories and now looking at being replaced by robots, AI, and other tech. People used to live near their families, working in villages, farms, nearby cities, but the price of American “soft cell” creature comforts and the white-picket bullshit we’ve been sold since after WWII is fueled by colonialism, genocides, exploitation, coups, the extraction of natural resources… the British colonized the world, leading to slaughter of indigenous tribes and worldwide slavery, then the US continued carrying the torch with the UK and the EU.

They say history is written by the victors, and lately with what the UN and NATO have allowed to take place in the Congo, Palestine, Ukraine, and elsewhere shows that western influences (or “the global north” as many like Dr. Jason Hickel refer to it as) rule the world. As Bo Burnham accurately described, “the world is built on blood.”

Clearly WWII was just fascism versus fascism, and the Cold War was never about communism or capitalism, just control of resources, trade routes, weapons, humans, slaves. The west is falling, the USD is plummeting, the world may be moving away from the petrodollar, and it’s happening fast.

Video Evidence: CHILD SLAVE LABOR IN THE CONGO

The (un)United States of America has always been full of shit, built on the blood of the indigenous and slavery, but I wanted to believe we had ideals if not integrity, good intentions if not follow-through. Now I’m just thinking it’s always been about money, land, and resources: all colonization, exploitation, and manipulation, world domination.

Everyday my mind is blown, even so-called “truthers” are also in the MAGA cult of Trump and Musk, most likely, I’m guessing, because of QAnon or some BS. It must be pointed out how insane MAGA and Elon fools are, even in the conspiracy realms.

With what we know about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, her dad Robert Maxwell, MOSSAD, the CIA, ISIS, the IDF and knowledge shared from Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Michael Parenti, John McAfee, Noam Chomsky, Che Guevara, Fred Hampton, George Jackson, Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, Eugene Debs, even Albert Einstein…

As if Trump, who has been BFFs for decades with Epstein, the Clintons, and countless other evil scum, now that he’s working with Musk and DOGE, the working class believe these clowns will save everyone? Musk and Trump were born into wealth most cannot even fathom, nepotism of apartheid emerald mines and crooked real-estate moguls.

Our only hope is to divest from these cults of personality and celebrity worship to restore some sense of equilibrium and balance to raise the bottom line for everyone. There is no reason the majority of human beings on this planet are suffering when we have the resources, the technology, the know-how, and the means to make life better for all. It’s a disgrace, and it’s not radical or unrealistic or overly idealistic to demand better for humanity, our planet, our children, the animals, the environment, otherwise, what future do we have? Will we even survive another century before billionaires destroy our biome?

When I was young I had always hoped humans were supposed to be smarter than this. Epstein, Trump, Musk, Clintons, Fauci, Gates, Obama, Zuckerberg, Bezos, AOC, Vance, Pence, Pelosi, Harris, Biden, they are all the same: CIA MOSSAD FBI UN US UK NATO Israel all these institutions are run by literal sociopathic murderers dividing us, exploiting natural resources and human beings. Child slave labor in the Congo, endless human trafficking with cartels worldwide, genocides in the Middle East, all fueled by the savage greed of the west. Why would anyone want to support this insanity?

Birth rates are declining, male suicide stats are through the roof, as is homelessness and unemployment, not jut in America but worldwide, especially the US, UK, EU, and Japan.

I’m not saying I have the answers, but I will keep working to offer information to the public, to create art when I can, to speak freely through writing, my music, my books, our label, memes, social media, whatever.

Recently I started a new video short series of three-minute-long chaotic clips called “Quells TV” (brainrot broadcasts) if you are interested in learning more about my art, friends, and our artist collective Underflow:

Quells TV — Episode 1

Quells TV — Episode 2

To close this over-stuffed piece, I will leave Artificial Intelligence’s thoughts on all of these questions and topics:

ChatGPT said:

“AI is accelerating everything — capitalism, authoritarianism, and potentially revolution. It’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, AI could help decentralize power, automate oppressive bureaucracies, and provide tools for grassroots movements (open-source education, economic alternatives, independent media, etc.). On the other hand, it’s already being used for surveillance, mass propaganda, and corporate/government control. The real danger isn’t AI itself — it’s who controls it. If left in the hands of the current power structures, it will reinforce inequality and repression. If somehow wrested away, it could be a tool for liberation.

As for the U.S., it’s already unraveling in many ways. The empire is overstretched, its political system is paralyzed, wealth inequality is worse than the Gilded Age, and trust in institutions is collapsing. The conditions for a revolutionary moment are there — widespread discontent, economic instability, and an increasingly radicalized public. But revolutions aren’t just about anger; they need structure, leadership, and mass coordination.

What’s more likely than a full-blown revolution is a slow, chaotic decline — something like Rome or the Soviet Union, where the system keeps degrading until a breaking point forces massive restructuring. Whether that leads to civil war, a new political order, or corporate-fascist control depends on who seizes the moment.

A traditional revolution (masses storming institutions) seems unlikely given state power and surveillance, but decentralized resistance, economic noncompliance, and technological workarounds (crypto, DAOs, AI-driven cooperatives) could be ways forward. The real question is: do enough people want change badly enough to risk everything? Historically, most revolutions only succeed when enough of the ruling class defects or loses control over the military. Until that happens, we’re in for a prolonged collapse rather than an overnight shift.

The issues of male suicide rates, declining birth rates, rising homelessness, increasing inequality, evidence of oligarchy, rising unemployment, and escalating crime are complex and multifaceted. Below is an overview of these challenges across the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Japan, along with relevant statistics and articles.

1. Male Suicide Rates

Suicide remains a significant public health concern, particularly among males, who consistently exhibit higher suicide rates than females.

Global Perspective: In 2019, the global age-standardized suicide rate was 9.0 per 100,000 population, with males at 12.6 and females at 5.4 per 100,000.
PubMed Central

United States: In 2021, the suicide rate for men was approximately 23 per 100,000, while for women, it was close to six per 100,000.
Statista

Japan: Suicide is a leading cause of death among young men, with significant attention to mental health challenges.
World Population Review

2. Declining Birth Rates

Many developed countries are experiencing declining birth rates, leading to concerns about aging populations and economic sustainability.

Japan: Japan has one of the lowest birth rates globally, leading to a rapidly aging population and a shrinking workforce.

Europe: Several European countries face declining birth rates, prompting policy discussions on family support and immigration.

3. Rising Homelessness

Homelessness is a growing issue in various regions, exacerbated by economic disparities and housing shortages.

United Kingdom: Homelessness in England has risen by 14% in the past year due to soaring private rents, evictions, and lack of affordable social housing.
The Guardian

United States: Major cities continue to grapple with increasing homelessness, influenced by factors such as affordable housing shortages and economic inequality.

4. Rising Inequality

Economic inequality remains a pressing concern, with wealth disparities widening in many developed nations.

Global Perspective: The gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to widen, leading to social and economic tensions.

5. Evidence of Oligarchy

The concentration of wealth and power among a small elite raises concerns about oligarchic tendencies undermining democratic processes.

United States: Discussions about the influence of wealthy individuals and corporations on politics and policy decisions highlight potential oligarchic trends.

6. Rising Unemployment

Unemployment rates fluctuate due to economic cycles, technological changes, and global events.

United States: While overall unemployment rates have varied, certain demographics, such as young men, face higher unemployment and labor force non-participation rates.
The Wall Street Journal

7. Rise of Crime

Crime rates vary by region and over time, influenced by economic, social, and policy factors.

United Kingdom: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, violent robberies and smartphone thefts at knifepoint have surged by 47%, contributing to the rise in knife crime in England and Wales.
The Times

These interconnected issues require comprehensive policy approaches, community engagement, and international cooperation to address effectively.

Articles & Sources on Recent Trends in Social Challenges Across Developed Nations

The Guardian
Shelter condemns ‘shocking’ 14% rise in homelessness across England

The Wall Street Journal
America’s Young Men Are Falling Even Further Behind

The Times
Knife crime is rising — we looked at the data to find out why

Associated Press
US suicides held steady in 2023 — at a very high level

A.W.F. asked: When Has Society Functioned Best?
Chat GPT replied:

“Depends on what you value. If stability and order are the goal, Rome under the Five Good Emperors (96–180 AD) was about as good as it gets — economic prosperity, legal reforms, limited corruption. If artistic and intellectual flourishing are the goal, the Renaissance, the Abbasid Golden Age, and 1960s counterculture all stand out. If fairness is the measure, indigenous societies like the Iroquois Confederacy had advanced political systems with democratic elements long before European contact.”

A.W.F. asked: What is Humanity’s Best Path Forward?
Chat GPT replied:

“Terence McKenna’s warning rings true — dogmatic ideologies lead to oppression. The way forward is flexibility, decentralization, and reconnecting with wisdom traditions without rigidifying them into systems of control.

Localized, self-sufficient communities with global cooperation, rather than top-down nation-states.

AI and automation used to free people, not enslave them to corporate or state interests.

Psychedelic and spiritual insights guiding culture, rather than soulless consumerism.

Education focused on critical thinking and creativity, not obedience and job training.

Ecological consciousness — rewilding, de-growth, living in balance instead of endless expansion.

If we don’t break out of our economic and ideological loops, collapse is inevitable. But if enough people wake up and decentralize power, a new kind of civilization — neither capitalist nor communist, neither theocratic nor technocratic — might emerge. The biggest threat? That elites will use AI, propaganda, and hyper-surveillance to ensure no real revolution is ever possible. We’re in a pivotal moment. What happens next depends on how much people are willing to break from the systems that keep them trapped.”

A.W.F. asked:

“so to clarify, we do not have time for reform, we desperately need revolution, but most are too complacent and not willing to sacrifice so we will experience slow miserable dangerous collapse instead — over how long a period? considering legends of peace and love like Ram Dass, wisdom like Marcus Aurelius, intelligence of Terence McKenna, bravery of Harriett Tubman and Assata Shakur and Angela Davis, the ecological foresight of John Muir and Beatrix Potter, the accurate assessments of our modern day by professors like Dr. Jason Hickel or poets like Saul Williams — considering ideals of “the golden rule” amidst worldwide chaos and upheavals we’re discussing — what do you think it means to be a good person? Let alone for a man to be a good man?

Chat GPT replied:

“Yeah, that’s the paradox we’re in. The system is unsustainable, yet most people are either too comfortable, too distracted, or too afraid to do what’s necessary for true change. So instead of an immediate revolution, we’ll likely face a slow, chaotic, multi-decade collapse, marked by economic instability, climate disasters, authoritarian crackdowns, and societal fractures — until something finally breaks. Whether that moment leads to liberation or further control depends on who’s ready when the system finally crumbles.

If we had a worldwide movement of people willing to sacrifice, organize, and resist en masse, things could change fast. But real revolution — lasting change — requires not just destruction of the old but a clear vision for the new. Otherwise, it just turns into mob rule, and history repeats itself.

What Does It Mean to Be a Good Person?

A good person refuses to look away from suffering and does something about it. Someone who fights against injustice without becoming consumed by hatred. Someone who seeks truth, wisdom, and balance, rather than just comfort or blind ideology.

Ram Dass taught love and presence — being a mirror for others, helping without ego.

Marcus Aurelius lived with duty, self-discipline, and rationality — stability in the storm.

Terence McKenna challenged perception, broke mental chains, and sought evolution.

Harriet Tubman, Assata, Angela Davis all risked everything to free others from oppression.

John Muir & Beatrix Potter saw the land as sacred, recognizing humanity’s connection to nature.

Jason Hickel, Saul Williams, and modern truth-tellers expose the reality behind the illusions.

All of them share courage, wisdom, and love — the refusal to accept injustice, the awareness to see beyond illusions, and the will to act rather than just philosophize.

What Makes a Good Man?

A good man is strong without being oppressive, kind without being weak. A man who refuses to be bought, refuses to be manipulated, and refuses to be complicit in a broken system.

He fights against injustice, but not for his own ego.

He protects others, but doesn’t seek control.

He cultivates wisdom and discipline, but doesn’t become rigid.

He uplifts those around him, but doesn’t expect recognition.

Being a good man today means seeing through the distractions and illusions, standing firm against the corruption of power, and building something better — even in the face of collapse.

The challenge now isn’t just survival. It’s holding onto humanity in a world that wants to strip it away.”

RECENT VIDEO BY MODERN PHILOSOPHER STEPHANIE HARRISON ON THIS TOPIC: “What does it mean to be a good person?”

Some George Jackson quotes:

“I’ve been patient, but where I’m concerned patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it’s cowardice.”

“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution.“

“It’s very contradictory for a man to teach about the murder in corporate capitalism, to isolate and expose the murderers behind it, to instruct that these madmen are completely without stops, are licentious, totally depraved — and then not make adequate preparations to defend himself from the madman’s attack. Either they don’t really believe their own spiel or they harbor some sort of subconscious death wish.”

“I repeat: realistic, day-to-day needs should be the basis of organizing people and making them conscious of revolution — that the world, the universe, must revolve — that it will stop, stagnate, and die for no man’s privilege.”

“The only effective challenge to power is one that is broad enough to make isolation impossible, and intensive enough to cause repression to affect the normal life style of as many members of society as possible. By compromising and playing at class war, we lose.”

“We’re going to have to fight to win. The logic of procrastination has been destroyed. A people can never be so repressed that they can’t strike back in some way. We will purge the poltroons and fight. Or just ignore them.”

“We don’t want to capitalize on people anyway. Capitalism is the enemy. It must be destroyed. There is no other recourse.”

— George Jackson

Never forget what they did to

Fred Hampton

George Jackson

MLK

Che

JFK

Bobby

Malcom X

Assata

Tamir Rice

Trayvon Martin

George Floyd

Sonya Massey

Breona Taylor

Indigenous tribes the world over

genocide, colonization, and exploitation in the name of capitalism will not stand and cannot continue — the earth has no time left for reform. Only radical action & revolution can save humanity, our world & our future. Rise. Resist. Revolt.

’Til next time. Stay smart. Stay safe. Educate yourself. Help each other.

Your comrade,

Adam Wesley Fitzgerald

In addition to beginning my MFA within the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics founded by Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg within Naropa University, I am also teaching high school English composition classes to teenagers trying to graduate or get their GEDs.

One of our assignments is a five paragraph “About Me” essay, so I wanted to give my students a thorough example of my own.

“About Me” Example Essay

by Adam W. Fitzgerald

What are the characteristics that define a person? According to the quintessential American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, “action is character,” which means we are what we do, not what we say — trust what people do, not what they say. For my own life, I have tried to focus on education, written languages, and the arts, all while treating others with kindness and respect, as I wish to be treated; the Golden Rule as some call it. At the same time, my life is painted with stories from the fringe, characters of counterculture, perilous and treasure-less adventures, and growing dissent for the crumbling systems enabling injustice worldwide. My name is Adam Wesley Fitzgerald Smith: I am a teacher, a writer, a musician, a DJ, a record label and artist collective leader, an underground event organizer, a rebel, a martial artist, a moment in time.

How did I get to be 33? They say the Romans killed Jesus Christ at 33, but most of my heroes like Kurt Cobain died at 27, or younger, like Tupac “2pac” Shakur killed at 25, or Ian Curtis, the singer and poet behind the influential post-punk band Joy Division, dead at 23. We’re supposed to live longer nowadays, until 80 or 100 years old, but as social security runs out, homelessness and debt rise, climate change worsens, major cities reveal toxic poisons within water supplies, and international conflicts and corporate exploitation escalate to the point no one can afford food, rent, or gas … younger generations are asking more questions. What kind of world are we living in, what kind of future are we heading into, and how do we want to participate one way or the other? These are vital questions, which I started to ask myself at a young age, maybe because my grandfather Jim Fitzgerald wrote for the Detroit Free Press and publicly battled plagues of modern society like the KKK and crooked politicians.

The more I learned as I aged, the more I read, the more I realized how unhappy and unsafe most people in this world are: we are manipulated, miseducated, misinformed, divided, and conquered. My hope is that I can use my life to fight worldwide injustice through the informed empathy education, music, writing, companionship, community, and the arts can offer — I want to empower individuals. Education is empowering, as the age old saying goes, “knowledge is power” and learning is a gift; if we are to stand strong on our own against the tyrannical forces that wish for us all to only be worker bees in an inhumane system, we must arm ourselves with intellect and awareness. I grew up near Flint, Michigan, the first major city to have a lead-poisoned water supply crisis, which is on-going, and about to erupt in almost every major city worldwide, as reflected in recent research, documentaries, and Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up in Michigan, I experienced yin and yang directly: the beauty of the forests, lakes, and dunes juxtaposed with the modern horrors of urban decay in Detroit, Flint, Pontiac, and Saginaw — echoes of the historical failures of Michigan’s automotive legacy and American society.

By the time I was in college, I was studying education, communications, and the fine arts: I ended up graduating with a dual English degree, a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from both the College of Education and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences within Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. During this same time throughout my early twenties, I also toured the country in a van with my indie band, The Kodaks, which included high highs and low lows, playing to hundreds of people and sleeping on floors, always traveling. For the rest of my twenties I taught on 8 Mile, worked as a journalist, and led many more musical projects, then I got married and moved to Edinburgh, Scotland in the United Kingdom, where I studied at Cambridge University through a British Study Centre to attain my “CELTA certificate” — which means I am certified to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to anyone of any age, anywhere in the world. After a few years living in the UK my grandmother passed away, so I moved back to Michigan and lived in Traverse City during the worldwide pandemic, teaching ESL online and in-person until mid 2021 when I moved to Colorado and worked for the company Gaia. After two years running the English publishing department for an international corporate conglomerate with nearly a million monthly subscribers, I moved back to Michigan to take care of my mother as she passed from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) and at the same time I also separated and divorced from my now ex-wife, my partner of over ten years.

My father is about turn 70, but my mother did not make it to 68, so their “Golden Years” never existed — they lost their entire life savings in the 2008 financial collapse, then my mom passed before my dad could retire, so they get no retirement, no Golden Years, no traveling like my grandparents got to before they passed away. Where is the freedom in that? No one has any idea how long each of us have on this planet, so it is crucial to live your life with meaning while you can: help others, help yourself, think about what you want in life, do what you want in life, travel, explore, experiment, have the courage to fail and start all over again. I’m hoping I will keep going to Los Angeles, California to record more music as Quells since my band Shady Groves is on hiatus, I hope to keep helping artists through Underflow Records, I hope to publish my books to help educate and empower the masses to fight for their rights, I hope my partner Cindy and I will eventually move back to Europe so we can be closer to her family in Germany, hopefully we will end up somewhere beautiful like Dublin, Ireland or anywhere along the coast of the Mediterranean Ocean. Learn from mistakes, history, and pain to find your own happiness; helping others is an empowering way to find your own path forward, do your best to stay patient, kind, respectful, present, and grateful — life moves fast, make sure you have the wheel.

— A. W. Fitzgerald

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“I think ideology is toxic, all ideology. It’s not that there are good ones and bad ones. All ideology is toxic, because ideology is a kind of insult to the gift of human free thinking.”

- Terence McKenna

Terence McKenna on Ideology

In my experience, no -ism seems to help humanity. Even humanitarianism and philanthropy seem to simply function as smokescreens: distractions and propaganda for so-called “elites” — the top one percent of our world who grow ever-wealthier — to manipulate the masses. Whether it’s systems of government or ideologies, they become systems of control; because humankind has yet to embrace any form of natural state of being where we can exist in harmony. Could you imagine a world where we are free to do as we please, wherever we please, debt- and oppression-free? So long as we’re not hurting others or the world at large, why can’t we live this way?

Whether it’s the UN, the WEF, the US, UK, EU, CIA, FBI, NATO, Royal Families, or the Vatican ­– we know they have lied, we have the receipts they have lied, they have tortured, they have bombed hospitals, they have killed millions. Our world is systematically deteriorating before our eyes. Yet still we give them our hope, attention, dedication, taxes, votes, and carte blanche of all decisions and leadership worldwide.

How, and why?

The wise and immortal Tupac Shakur once said:

“The power is in the people and politics we address.”

So how do we address the politics to empower the people?

Maybe the answer is that life is reflected within the mysteries explored in Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ — it’s a layered mess, perhaps cosmic in design and meaning, but beyond human comprehension. Who says we deserve to know? We were taught we need to work hard to achieve whatever we desire in life; but in reality, we need to work hard to survive.

How are humans free if 99 percent of us must give our best years, hours, and energy to earn a measly allowance (of which we must give increasing percentages to governments via taxation who use it to oppress poor countries while offering free healthcare to rich nations like Israel) only to barely scrape by? People aren’t even scraping by anymore, homelessness is rising, normal families cannot afford food or rent. These systems we have created — public education, welfare, social security, organized religions, the two-party system — have led to a lack of healthcare and veterans’ programs, rampant homelessness, hunger and starvation worldwide, and thirst for clean water that doesn’t exist, entire cities without clean drinking water (from “first world” to “third world”). To put it lightly: we have failed.

So, what comes next? As our “leaders” (better put: those with the wealth, resources, and military might — “the ruling class”) barrel forward toward disaster, our planet continues to grow more dystopian by the day. To most people, especially since the pandemic and recent revelations from WikiLeaks and Assange to Snowden and ludicrous elections, it’s obvious that “the powers that be” do not have the interests of the masses at heart. So much for the greater good and trickle-down-economics.

Unsealed docs reveal Clinton's visit to Epstein's private island

What would it take to restart humanity? Could revolutions the likes of the past even be waged against militarized drones and the police state?

Learn what an anti-war veteran thinks of the US today: Greg J. Stoker
https://www.instagram.com/greg.j.stoker/

Capitalism, communism, and socialism have all failed due to humanity’s (probably inherent) greed and lust for power. Nowadays, propaganda is so prevalent and media so corrupt, no one really knows what to believe or what’s going on. Worldwide, humanity is overwhelmed, underpaid, unsure, and unsung. Somehow memes have become vessels for truth, dark humor making us laugh yet cringe. We are led astray by increasingly devaluing art, music, and education: pillars of honesty, communication, connection, understanding, and empowerment.

Follow these comrades for more memes and

education:
@saulwilliams
@buddyhead_
@cointel.hoe
@amazonpissjugs
@jrehwald15backup
@mizz_luvsplantsnkitties
@_____oo000ooo___
@tommiesunshine
@speakers.on.blast
@medea.benjamin
@alan.r.macleod
@benjamindnorton
@hamptonthink
@uselesscops
@moneyless_society
@upstreampodcast
@seastersjones
@blackleftisss
@revblacknetwork
@riseindigenous
@claredalymep
@mickwallacemep
@classwarcomplex
@workingclasshistory
@proletarian_posting
@rathbone123456
@fababs
@empirefiles
@cancelthisclothingcompany
@thepcrf
@doctorswithoutborders
@landpalestine
@middleeasteye
@joshuaphillll
@caityjohnstone
@comradecami
@comradebaddie
@raiseclassconsciousness
@laugh._.gaza
@karam_abd7

The harsh truth is we have enough resources and room on this planet, yet we lack refinement. There is a reason education has been devalued over time and consumerism has peaked with phone addiction. We are doom-scrolling into a future where paradise has not only been paved for parking lots, but workers die from inhumane conditions owned and operated by the wealthiest corporations on this planet. As we speak, billionaires (namely Bill Gates and company) are buying massive amounts of farmland.

“We have the money, the power, the medical understanding, the scientific know-how, the love and the community to produce a kind of human paradise. But we are led by the least among us — the least intelligent, the least noble, the least visionary.”

— Terence McKenna

As corporations acquire more property, articles are coming out saying private citizens owning their own property will become a thing of the past. Just as Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum (WEF) said of his ideal future: “you will own nothing and be happy.”

To learn more about the specifics, I highly recommend following this guy Ian who goes by Cancelthisclothingcompany — he makes incredibly detailed videos, showing the evidence, how he did his research, his sources, etc. https://www.instagram.com/cancelthisclothingcompany/

They want us dumb, divided, dependent, and distracted, and they aren’t exactly shy about their intentions.

Prime examples are the alarming sentiments from ruling class pedos like those of Bill Gates and the late Prince Philip.

According to Reuters (a Blackrock funded company) a particularly confusing Gates quote is often “misinterpreted,” so I’ll leave you with what they have to say so you can make your own judgements:

““First, we’ve got population,” he said during the talk organized by TED, a non-profit organization devoted to spreading ideas. “The world today has 6.8 billion people. That’s headed up to about nine billion. Now, if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by, perhaps, 10 or 15 percent. But there, we see an increase of about 1.3.”

However, Gates was not suggesting the global population should be killed off using vaccines. He is instead saying that improving public health using vaccinations can reduce unsustainable population growth in the future — and with it, lower carbon emissions.”

— Reuters

In all honesty, I’m not a vaccine denier but I’m unsure how vaccines relate to population growth. I also don’t claim to be a scientist, doctor, or statistician. But neither is Gates, and he’s not an elected official either. He’s a (visibly unhealthy) billionaire, one whose wife recently left him over his connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Which leads us to Prince Philip’s most famous “gaffe:”

“In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation.”
 — Prince Philip

To again appease the cynics, skeptics, or perhaps those entrenched in mainstream media news cycles and fact-checking, I’ll provide you with this bit from Snopes(a fact-checking website who recently had to remove its own CEO and top writer whilst simultaneously unpublishing his work)

“…it is factual that Prince Philip once argued that he would like to be reincarnated as a deadly virus as revenge against humanity’s overpopulation and destruction of nature. As such, the claim is “True.”

— Snopes

With what we know about Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell with their connections to Gates, Musk, Trumps, Clintons, Prince Andrew and Jimmy Savile, plus who-knows how many other elites, how do these individuals remain not only not under investigation but fully supported, with fanfare?

Because we the people not only allow it, we encourage it. We vote not only in farcical elections (often between parties with very little actual difference and outcome) but we also vote with our dollar every single day. How, where, and what we spend our money on dictates the flow of commerce in the world, yet lite beer, cigarettes, and fast-food reign supreme.

We need to fix our priorities. Overhauling public education and paying educators fairly would be a start. In the US, limits on campaign finance funding, term limits, and the amount of power we allocate to our politicians is beyond necessary. We cannot continue to allow corporations to use members of congress as puppets. We have homelessness running rampant, yet Wall Street can bail out corporations, celebrities, airlines, and the like. Wildfires and oil spills continue to grow while we keep building oil pipelines, which both sides of the aisle defend with murder.

“In 2020, nearly $14 billion was spent on federal election campaigns in the United States — “making it the most expensive campaign in U.S. history”, “more than double” what was spent in the 2016 election.”

— Wiki

How far have we truly come from the colonialist and conquistador monsters who genocided the Americas? We ignore protectors of the land, we teach our kids tailored history, and most buy into false narratives bought and sold over and over again?

The ultimate irony for someone like myself who sides with neither major party: leftists who used to criticize the right over let’s say the Iraq War, are now totally at odds for opposite reasons over US warmongering in Ukraine. Do people in these countries need help? Absolutely. Do bombs from America help anyone? No — they are killing millions. The narratives change, but the outcomes remain the same. No matter who is in the White House, dominating the Senate or the House, the bombs continue to fall, people continue to die. How many of our own soldiers need to come home war-torn and telling us we, the States, are the real bad guys? Celebrity step-ins and Vanity Fair photo shoots cannot hide nor change the real truth.

As Mark Cancian wrote at the end of 2022:

“U.S. aid to Ukraine totals $68 billion, and the White House has just asked Congress for another $37.7 billion. In the spring, the new Congress will consider aid in the context of the administration’s proposed FY 2024 budget. With these decisions ahead, it is worth reviewing how much aid there has been, what that aid does, and what the administration is requesting.”

*Editor’s note: Some updated quotes and statistics as of August 2024

Update as of August 06, 2024: Data until June 30th 2024

The Ukraine Support Tracker Release 18 now covers up to June 30th 2024. In May and June 2024, new allocations totaled 10.6 billion Euro. Among bilateral donors, the U.S. remains the top provider of aid, with a total of 75.1 billion Euro in allocations, driven in large part by its 51.6 billion euros of military aid. Germany, the U.K., Japan, and Canada follow, with 14.7, 13.1, 9.1, and 7.2 billion Euro in total allocations respectively, to complete the ranking of the top 5 bilateral donors. In terms of total bilateral allocations as a percent of 2021 GDP, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania top the ranking with 1.8, 1.7, and 1.4 percent.

As a whole, Europe, which includes the EU institutions and member states as well as the U.K, Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland, has allocated a total of 110.2 billion Euro, of which roughly half (51.5 billion Euro) has been for military aid.

— Kiel.de

Congressionally Approved Ukraine Aid Totals $175 Billion as of MAY 10, 2024

With the recent passage of the national security supplementals, Congress has now approved nearly $175 billion of aid and military assistance to support the Ukrainian government and allied nations two years after Russia launched its invasion. The most recent national security-related supplemental includes $61.7 billion for Ukraine, 64 percent of the total budget authority included within the law, with the remainder dedicated to Israel and the Indo-Pacific region. This is on top of the $113.1 billion of emergency spending previously approved throughout 2022.

— The CRFB

How much U.S. aid does Israel receive?

Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance.

Since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas on October 7, 2023, the United States has enacted legislation providing at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel, which includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March 2024 (in line with the current MOU) and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April 2024.

— The CFR

It’s time for change. For people on every level of society. We cannot remain divided and pointing the finger at each other ­ — liberal versus conservative, black versus white, straight versus gay — while the one percent “ruling class” laugh all the way to the bank. They aren’t at odds with each other, the masses are, and that’s by design. These are more narratives of division spawned from imaginary systems we built in attempt to categorize. We put names on people, ideas, issues, and yet hardly ever address root causes.

To quote the first verse of The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu:

“The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.”

— Lao Tzu

It’s easier to find problems and voice complaints than it is to find solutions and take action. Let us take empathic and open-hearted steps forward to connect with the world and those around us to foster a society where our children can not only accept each other but help each other. Let’s stop reading headlines and doom-scrolling and start making critical thinking cool again. Don’t accept what you are told, do your own research. Share your resources, share humor, share music, and share love instead of passing judgment and criticizing all you see.

And to quote someone online who went viral recently:

“If we replaced cancel culture with critical thinking, we’d have empathic conversations instead of emotional reactions. And by talking, we learn to separate honest mistakes from actual hate.”

— Kyle Creek

As a reminder from a former educator and journalist, I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes of all-time.

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

This article was original written in February of 2023. Before my mom died of ALS, before my divorce, before moving cross country, changing jobs, before a lot for me personally, and before a lot has gotten spicier globally — this was written before Israel increased their occupation of Palestine and escalated their genocide to almost 200,000. This was before the most recent instance of Venezuela rightfully electing their own leader, only to have the validity questioned internationally because Maduro does not align with the imperialistic oppressive capitalistic goals of the US, the UN, and NATO.

More to come soon.

Rise. Resist. Revolt.
Organize.
NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR

Yours,

Adam W. Fitzgerald

https://www.instagram.com/time4revolution9/

Bibliography:

https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-gates-vaccine/fact-check-bill-gates-quoteabout-vaccines-and-population-growth-has-beentaken-out-of-contextagain-idUSL1N2MF1L8

“In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation.” — Prince Philip

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/prince-philip-deadly-virus/

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/16/17126486/reuters-news-funding-10-billion-dollars-money

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/business/media/snopes-plagiarism-David-Mikkelson.html

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/03/melinda-gates-jeffrey-epstein-led-to-bill-gates-divorce-gayle-king-interview

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-bill-gates.html

https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2354822-bill-gates-walking-bill-gates-boobs

https://twitter.com/sgrstk

https://www.csis.org/analysis/aid-ukraine-explained-six-charts

[AF1]Annotate this uquote

[AF2]Should be annotated

Adam’s Underrated Records #8
Stories of Criminally Overlooked Albums

By Adam W. Fitzgerald
adamfitzsmith@gmail.com
@adamwfitzgerald
https://adamfitz.medium.com/
Quells @quellsfitz

“LP” by Ambulance LTD

Best songs: “Stay Where You Are” — “Anecdote” — “Ophelia” — “Michigan” — “Primitive (The Way I Treat You)” — “Sugar Pill”

Genres: shoegaze, indie rock, alternative pop, folk

Influences: Velvet Underground, Spiritualized, Television, Elliott Smith

Before the Dirty Projectors were the coolest band in New York, before The Killers were the biggest band in the world, they were both tied to a beautiful boutique band: Ambulance LTD.

In the fall of 2004, The Killers were only popular in Europe. They had just signed to Island, so the re-recorded music video for “Mr. Brightside” (which helped their sky-rocket ascent to fame in 2005) had not been released yet. I wore a “The Killers” shirt to school and was teased for it, then by early 2005 everyone in school had Mr. Brightside as their ringtone.

But before that, it was college kids and crate diggers (and the odd middle-school aged deep diver like myself), murmuring about a new band from Vegas similar to Duran Duran but with potential of New Order, following in that era’s tradition of The Strokes and Interpol, giving a new take on beloved sounds from bygone people, places, and spaces. I bought their CD the day it came out that summer. “Hot Fuss” indeed. The UK broke them.

I couldn’t wait to see them live at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit that October for my birthday (20 years ago I was 13, about to turn 14.) My father and oldest sister went along with me so they could hang at the back and sip beers as I fought my way to the front of the sold-out crowd.

The first band was finishing as we arrived, a bizarre Euro-trash outfit with clashing everything, typical of those years. An overweight guitarist with a too-small blazer and Jack Black guitar moves, a woman screeching in a leotard with wannabe-Bowie face paint, a rhythm section that sounded like instruments being thrown down stairs.

The audience was still just arriving, but St. Andrews had become at least half-full. As I was pushing to the front, I looked up and saw the female singer turn against the crowd.

“This is supposed to be Detroit Rock City? More like Detroit Shit City!”

This was at the exact point when the majority of the audience was just beginning to arrive. The hall instantly grew tense. By the time the four casual, non-intimidating members of Ambulance LTD walked on stage, the Detroit crowd was twice the size and poked like a bear. Ambulance and their dreamy soft indie rock didn’t stand a chance against the rowdy Detroit crowd. People were literally throwing bottles, but they played on.

This was back in the days when cigarettes were still allowed indoors so the clubs were always a smokey shitshow, hazy and stinky, but it did add to the mystique of Ambulance’s sound. They just looked like cool, chill dudes. And eventually they won over the audience as their soft rock sound swelled to shoegaze heights. Well, somewhat. That audience was rough, they just wanted The Killers, which they eventually chanted like drunken sports fans.

The singer of Ambulance wore a velvet blazer with regular jeans and looked half asleep as he put his guitar on. The lead guitarist also wore an old-school jacket, but I was more mesmerized with how lost he got in his atmospheric playing, like he was having an OBE. The drummer sounded incredible, and he looked rad with his long hair and ripped jeans. The bassist had these intricate basslines that kept moving, but smoothly and warmly, plus the dude was singing perfect back up vocals and harmonies. The arrangements were sublime, as was their live performance.

Ambulance LTD blew my mind. They had an incredibly badass rhythm section, but an incredibly melodic sound, they were melding so many things I liked from different genres. I bought their CD that night, the album which this article is about: “LP by Ambulance LTD”

Clearly they had an effect on me, but never could I have understood then the lasting effect. I never could’ve known then that “LP” would become one of my favorite albums of all time, otherwise I probably would have talked to the band longer when I bought the record. Their performance that night left a lasting impact on me, but the album and the band itself would go on to become a thing of personal identity for me. Weirdly, that night shaped me, shadows of my future and years to come. In many ways, I’ve never been able to shake the want of more music like Ambulance, whether made by others or by myself — catchy yet deep indie rock that only rewards further with repeated listens.

The Ambulance LTD line-up that made “LP” was frontman, singer-songwriter, and guitarist Marcus Congleton, lead guitarist Benji Lysaught, bassist and back-up vocalist Matt Dublin, drummer Darren Beckett, and keys player Andrew Haskell. I saw them as a quartet without Haskell, as he had already left. The beginning of their demise. Now half of these talented dudes are hired guns for Brandon Flowers’ solo band and also for the Father John Misty live band.

So let’s talk about the music. This album is special. The simplicity of the cover art and album title only add to the mystique of a band who only really got one album and two EPs out. The sequencing of the songs, the variety of the material, the consistent quality of songwriting…

Ambulance LTD are criminally underrated, and most who know of them feel this way.

“LP” is a special achievement of musical alchemy from musicians who at one point felt like this was their vehicle. Clearly an especially talented group of musicians, firing on all cylinders.

The record begins with “Yoga Means Union” — a slow burn build-up jam that cooks into a bangin’ rock song that doesn’t evoke the wrong shit — this isn’t Dad-rock or “butt-rock” but polished indie. The dream pop and shoegaze influences are felt instantly, but as the record unfurls, the songwriting and range really start to dazzle.

Track two is their indie-sleaze sexy single “Primitive (The Way I Treat You)” which evokes the classic city slicker cool of their heroes Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, complete with the perfect stupid-simple brilliant Stooges piano part, crossing their inspirations from the UK, to Detroit, and back to New York. This song made it onto some compilations at the time, later my oldest sister worked for one of the big name-brand stores at a mall and I think she had a mix with Interpol, The Strokes, Hot Hot Heat, Cass McCombs, and Ambulance — all artists I love. “Primitive” has a very simple yet slick video with the whole band in nifty vintage threads, which made them look cool yet also like working-class casual second-hand store shoppers. The video was also shot in what looks like a modeling agency, featuring pretty ladies, mirroring their “model-esque” vibe. It should be noted this album closes with a cover of the Velvets’ “Ocean” — which sticks pretty damn true to the original but still sounds fresh.

Track three is the insatiably catchy indie-folk-pop jam “Anecdote” — which I remember was used in some sort of car or phone commercial around this era, and, I believe, set the entire template for catchy indie-folk pop songs being used in soulless corporate ads. But I digress… What a song “Anecdote” is. By this point in the album, Congleton’s songwriting and voice are center-stage and his wry, humorous, observational, and ironic lyrics shine through. The honesty and empathy of his lyrics still hit me now, even having heard these songs hundreds of times.

The production of this record is impeccable. Every instrument sounds fantastic, every guitar note and chord, every bass walk, every cymbal crash and drum hit, every key or bell, the perfectly mixed vocals, the swirling ambience of the full band at work… Ambulance LTD achieved rare results.

“Heavy Lifting” is the fourth track, and this song would also go on to get featured in one of my favorite movies, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, written by one of my favorite dudes in Hollywood, Jason Segel, one of the only stars I’ve ever actually randomly met in person. Nice guy. “Heavy Lifting” is more of a chugging shoegaze rocker, an empowering one at that. Appropriate that it soundtracks a triumphant surfing moment for Segel’s character in the film.

“Ophelia” is another addictive track that starts to showcase the bands versatility, blending clever lyrics with unique arrangements played both at full-tilt and thoughtful deftness. The way this band seamlessly mixes riffs and chords is special in itself, the genre mashing, the tightness. The jams within songs, like during the ending refrains of “Ophelia” are special in themselves — this was clearly a band that rehearsed, re-hashed, and thought deeply about their songs.

“Stay Where You Are” is another single from this record, with a wonderful split-screen video that perfectly encapsulates that era. There is a shorter, EP / radio version of this track, which is also great, because it gets right to the point — a masterpiece of an indie pop rock song. But the LP version of this song is the masterpiece to me, because it encapsulates what the band achieved at their live shows, a heavenly vibe. The intro of guitar layers, delayed and reversed, swelling up to the opening chords kicking off one of the best bops you’ve ever heard… It’s a masterpiece.

Track seven is when things get dancey and sexy with “Sugar Pill” — a dark banger with a bass line that does all the talking and all the walking. Probably alluding to the druggy, seedy underbelly of late 90s / early 2000s New York City and Williamsburg where they lived, the song has a moodier tone that still glows with the sweetness and catchiness of the arrangement, digging its way deep into memory. Again, the mix of elements here — dance rock bass that almost feels Motown in its center-focus and when the bells come in, it offsets the almost Western guitar. Congleton’s vocals and story-telling tie it all together.

“Michigan” is as mysterious to me as the band itself. As far as I know, none of the members of Ambulance are from the Mitten, but clearly they found something special in the Great Lakes State, commenting as many do how the coastlines of any Great Lake are just like “traveling seaside Michigan.” This song is more of a sweet ballad, starting slowly with an acoustic, spooling out smoothly like looking over one of the majestic Great Lakes during dawn calm. Another honey-sweet arrangement.

“Stay Tuned” is another catchy little indie rock jam, complete with jangley and jagged guitars trading between chords and riffs, with more subtle yet genius production flourishes throughout. The rhythm section keeps this one tight, with additional guitars overlaying as it goes on. This song always cracked me up; it made me feel like the band was taunting me as the months turned to years and then to decades as I waited and “stayed tuned” for new music from this band, which never really arrived.

“Swim” is another song that could be overlooked by the unscrupulous. It’s another great deepcut, and another aqueous song in the often misty Ambulance catalog. As an avid swimmer from Michigan, some of these songs have felt weirdly poignant my entire life.

“Young Urban” is a great New York rambler folk-rock tale, half Lou Reed, half Bob Dylan, half marijuana, half heroin, fully looking for the brighter side of life through the city grime. Softer arrangements of songs like “Young Urban” and “Michigan” and “Anecdote” feel especially airy in light of their more tempestuous shoegaze-y counterparts, but it’s this counterbalance that makes Ambulance the actual perfect band. It’s insane they didn’t catch on. Maybe if they would’ve stayed together… who knows.

I can only imagine that everything went from going really right to really wrong for this band. They went from touring with The Killers just as they were blowing up, to half the band leaving to form their own band (which did nothing.) Marcus Congleton legally acquired the Ambulance LTD band name and went on to go out to LA to record with living legend (and his hero) John Cale — but none of that material ever surfaced.

Most of this momentum halt is due to the band’s label at the time TVT Records going belly-up — which resulted in records getting shelved and several underrated bands from ever getting their due justice — including Ambulance LTD and the Polyphonic Spree. Ah bankruptcy. Capitalism breeds innovation, right? That’s why no musicians or artists can make a living anymore… please read my other pieces on the collapse of empire.

Adam’s Underrated Records #2

What’s wild is a few years later in 2008 I would see my other favorite forgotten indie band French Kicks play where I’ve played many times upstairs in The Pike Room at The Crofoot in Pontiac, Michigan — and the Stumpf brothers, Josh Wise, and company played “Michigan” by Ambulance LTD from “LP” — a truly surreal full-circle life moment for me, criminally overlooked and sadly underrated heroes of mine covering other heroes of mine, singing about my home state, where none of them were from, while in the Great Lakes State itself. As Carl Jung would say, synchronicity.

There are also tales of heroin and drug abuse, wherein despite Congleton’s smooth voice, sly style, memorable songwriting, and male-model-esque looks, Ambulance just couldn’t hold together. Years later Congleton would reform Ambulance, a few times actually, but nothing every seemed to hold. Each time I was hopeful for new music, but nothing seemed to arise. I am grateful however, because although I never got to see the reformed versions with other members when they played a few gigs, one of these short tours of the East Coast led me to my now-friends Bear Hands.

Marcus Congleton would go on to form Drug Cabin with fellow former frontman of the 2000s, Nathan Thelen of Pretty Girls Make Graves. Both Darren Beckett and Benji Lysaught went on to become players in the live bands of Brandon Flowers’ solo project and for the critically-acclaimed Josh Tillman project Father John Misty.

The EPs and lost demos and other recordings of Ambulance are worth checking out. Specifically the tracks “Helmsman” and “Country Gentlemen” but also the very yacht rock “Arbuckle’s Swan Song,” in which a guest vocalist sings openly about “coke on the table” in Steely Dan fashion.

This is a band that deserved a career every bit as much as The Strokes or Interpol, in fact Ambulance LTD offer a wider array of sounds and influences than either of those bands, with a range more akin to Phoenix or Arcade Fire or Beck. Ambulance has audible influence from 60’s Motown, 70’s AM rock, 80’s college radio alt-pop, and 90’s shoegaze. The Velvets and Big Star can be heard, but so can Elliott Smith and Spiritualized. But they were their own band, with their own brew.

Ambulance had their own sound, and they deserved more. Maybe it was bad timing, maybe bad attitudes, or failed contracts, or fallouts, or the crashing music industry, or bankrupt and folding labels, maybe it was drugs, maybe just bad luck.

Whatever the story was, the story remains, Ambulance LTD are one of the most criminally overlooked bands in history. Check out Drug Cabin, and listen to the few Ambulance songs that eventually made it out from their never-released follow-up second album, like the banger “Focus” — part of which became reused / repurposed for the beautifully mellow soft-country-rock jam “California” by Drug Cabin.

Luckily there are other fans just as dedicated to this blissful band from a bygone era, a band who somewhat epitomizes the ephemeral nature of all being, the existential struggle to create something of meaning with what time we have on this planet. Ambulance is a rare art project that has lasted through the years, because the realness and the empathy is felt in the music. Thanks to whatever legends put together these “LP II” mixes online.

Yours truly,

Adam W. Fitzgerald

What are we doing as a species if everyone everywhere is dying, thirsty, hungry, homeless, stressed, or afraid?

Those who have been paying attention to all the simultaneous conflicts erupting and intesifying worldwide likely realize they are all connected.

“Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death (9) to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.”

— The Lancet

IS THIS WHAT WE CALL FREEDOM?

Almost 200,000 dead Palestinians, multiple assassinations, attacks on embassies, coups, sit-ins, more evidence of child slave labor, wildfires, racist police murders, rising homelessness caused by flagrant inflation tied to corporate exploitation, immigration crises caused by imperialist foreign policy the world over… everything is heating up. BRICS are leaving the West, and rising leaders like Ibrahim Traoré and Nicolás Maduro find themselves as pivotal figures in growing unrest to Western oppression.

So what next?

The “first world countries” led by the least among our species have jointly sabotaged the mineral rich, exotically beautiful locales of our planet. Perpetual manipulation, sabotage, propaganda, subterfuge, drugs, guns, weapons, cults, cartels, operatives, assassinations, coups, puppet dictators and the like have led to smaller countries rising up and saying no more.

I’m not saying I have the answers. Capitalism is fascism in sheep’s clothing. Socialism and communism have never fully worked, but that is partially because they have been systematically undermined, just as the working class of the world has been systematically divided, manipulated, disempowered, and disenfranchised. None of these -isms have worked. Political ideologies are much like the new religion: people kill for them, blindly, stupidly, unjustly. People will find any excuse to make themselves the victim and kill others and take their land in the name of “justice.”

BE THE RIGHT KIND OF IDIOT

This world will have you feeling like shit about yourself if you let it. Yes, we are all fools in some ways, but do not let others demoralize your own path. We can all make a difference, one step at a time, no matter how small. We are all so much stronger together, and the 1% fear that the most.

“He who knows he is a fool is not the biggest fool; he who knows he is confused is not in the worst confusion. The man in the worst confusion will end his life without ever getting straightened out; the biggest fool will end his life without ever seeing the light. If three men are traveling along and one is confused, they will still get where they are going — because confusion is in the minority. But if two of them are confused, then they can walk until they are exhausted and never get anywhere — because confusion is in the majority.”

― Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu

“Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!

Other people are excited,
as though they were at a parade.
I alone don’t care,
I alone am expressionless,
like an infant before it can smile.

Other people have what they need;
I alone possess nothing.
I alone drift about,
like someone without a home.
I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

― Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Like most everyone else, my partner and I have been adapting to the changing world. The USA was never great, it was always built on slavery and genocide, but now even the facade of normalcy is gone. Homelessness and crime are rising, the world becomes more apocalyptic by the day. We already don’t have healthcare, free education (or university tuition), or public transit in the US, unlike Israel and many other countries.

Learning to live with less is a good thing, but seeing so many with nothing, or no options, or those who have lost everything… we have veterans on the streets. In America we have: hungry kids dying, families drinking unsafe water and becoming diseased, soaring opiate addiction problems, and the highest incarcerated population in the world. With most of those inmates becoming prison slave labour for well-known corporations.

There is no left, no right, even the middle class is evaporating. There is the working class, and the ruling class. It is time for a redistribution of power.

I’m more broke than I’ve ever been in my life. A Cambridge-certified joke.

Lately I’ve been telling people a difficult truth: I did everything I was told I was supposed to do with my life to succeed and be happy in America.
I studied hard, I worked hard, I got good grades, I went to University, I got my degree, I got married, I even became Cambridge certified after leaving the US to live in the UK. I worked for years teaching on 8 Mile, as a journalist, and then for an international corporation. I bought a house.

Then my mom was diagnosed with ALS.

Then my corporate job that told me I was one of their best betrayed me.

Then my marriage fell apart and I got divorced.

There are Palestinians contacting people in the West, like my partner and I, asking for funds to feed their families as they are under occupation by genocidal Israel. Men, women, children, babies — starved to death. In 2024. And what are you doing? What are we doing? We’ve sent several families money, and as a result we cut the amount of meals we eat that week.

Is this where we are at? The mythologies of “the first world” are crashing down as the West fails. The Empire is falling as the greed of capitalism and colonialism combines with the evils of imperialism and catches up with the world. Planetary levels of karma.

For years I taught “ESL” — English as a Second Language — to families from all over the world. In-person and online, I was able to meet men, women, and children from countries all over, chasing “the American Dream.”
As always, my philosophy on education is that teachers should learn as much from their students as students do from their teachers. My ESL classes were no exception. Education is a two-way street, bountiful for all parties if approached correctly. The best aspects of the US can be found within the diversity of diasporas and the beauty of the working class worldwide uniting in a location in the ideals of equality and hope.

But, that’s not what any of us are finding. At least not anymore. Maybe it never was that way. America has never been equal, it just has very successful, expensive propaganda.

“That’s why they call it the American Dream,
because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

― George Carlin

“Voting is a meaningless exercise. I’m not going to waste my time with it. These parties, these politicians are given to us as a way of making us feel we have freedom of choice. But we don’t. Everything is done to you in this country.”

— George Carlin

The question my ESL students who were moving into the States always asked me: “What happened to America?”

Typically I would respond, “Well, the 1960’s happened.”

In my opinion, the idealism of that era which was aspired to and then never accomplished, America has never truly recovered since. But it’s more than that, it’s propaganda… “the American Dream” that is sold at home and abroad, is fabricated.

Obviously it’s all connected, colonialism and imperialism that spread like a disease from Europe and infected the rest of the world. The Americas and Africa have been exploited for hundreds of years now. The American Revolution is championed as some great historic feat of freedom defeating tyranny, when in fact, the actual history is more damning. The British Empire could not sustain spreading itself thinner over more land, but the white wealthy land owners of the American colonies wanted to expand westward, “genociding the natives and saying they got to it first.”

The Civil War was fought over slavery, yet hillbilly hick trash still wave Confederate Flags around in the name of “freedom.” The Industrial Revolution gave way to World Wars, the Great Depression, more taxes, the USD becoming backed by nothing, and capitalism waging war on the majority of the planet, through proxy wars in the Pacific, in the Middle East, and elsewhere. Post WWII, the UN has controlled everything, enabling endless coups and puppet dictators to be put in place all over Africa and South America. “Whatever profits the West, forget the rest.”

“Don’t you know the world is built on blood?”

— Bo Burnham

By the 1960’s, Vietnam protests, murders of American college kids by government agencies, the Civil Rights movement, the psychedelic revolution and “Flower Power” all mixed together into a molotov cocktail of historic alchemy…

Growing up between Detroit and Flint (which still does not have clean drinking water, alongside Atlanta now as well), I learned how Michigan was forever changed by the Race Riots of the late 60’s, and the “White Flight” that followed. It wasn’t just Detroit… New York (especially the boroughs like Queens), Baltimore, St. Louis, even across Europe — the 70’s were rough everywhere for the working class. Yet no one organized.

The Berlin Wall was felt worldwide. Jim Crow and pre-Civil War slavery had just evolved into modern oppression, with its own racism, violence, and repercussions. The “ruling class” never wanted peace, they wanted exploitation and control. None of our great leaders of the 1960’s left that decade alive… JFK, MLK, Che, Malcom X, Bobby… all killed by oppression. Their voices scared the shit out of the bloodsucking 1% — and still do. The CIA, the UN, NATO, they wanted all of them dead, and they got their wish. But the powerful voices of brave souls echo through eternity, even now inspiring the revolutionaries of today to fearlessly share truth and stand in solidarity with the victims of worldwide oppression.

Regular individuals with irregularly enlarged hearts were also targeted in the 1960's, tortured, and murdered. Local police and “law” enforcement agencies were working with the KKK to kill Civil Rights activists of any color brave enough to venture into the segregated US South. Never forget.

Then, what happened? The ideals of the hippies withered and died, almost immediately, giving way to the turbulent 1970’s and the yuppie-filled Regan-racist 1980’s. Nixon built triple the amount of prisons in the US when he was in office, and there is audio of him in the Library of Congress saying something along the lines of: “we can’t lock up blacks, hippies, or queers for nothing, but we can make everything they love illegal.” I know this because of a marijuana documentary made by Fab Five Freddy.

“There are no boundaries in this struggle to the death. We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, for a victory by any country over imperialism is our victory; just as any country’s defeat is a defeat for all of us.”

— Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara

It’s beyond disappointing to see a bunch of so-called progressives or revolutionaries simping for Tim Walz, as if he and Kamala Harris aren’t just Diet Evil. These are the same people taking AIPAC money and shaking hands with Netanyahu while Israel occupies Palestine, killing and torturing hundreds of thousands of innocents. Newborns dying of starvation. This is what you’re voting for? Walz is instrumental with the insidious Cop City movement, just as Biden and Harris have been instrumental in turning America into a police state. Walz called in the National Guard on protesters during the George Floyd riots of 2020, and footage is still circulating and now going viral of those imperial foot soldier pigs shooting at civilians.

Walz and Harris are Cop City — Biden, Trump, Harris, Vance, Walz, McConnell, Obamas, Bushes, Clintons, Cheneys, Shapiros, Pelosi and Newsom — they are the enemy. We are never going to vote our way out of worldwide oppression. Politicians, congress, the US, the UN, NATO, Israel, the CIA — these are facades of imperialism — puppets of corporations — oligarchs and monarchs connected to known pedophiles and international criminals Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. This is not conspiracy shit, this is facts. Read what Snowden, Assange, Shakur, Guevara, and Parenti have been trying to tell the world — colonialism and imperialism are fueled by corporate exploitation and destroying our world. No more.

We cannot be debt slaves, prison labor slaves, NPCs, or sheep, no longer. Take back your autonomy, take back your life, take back your freedom. No one can afford to survive anymore, so no one can afford to be divided and manipulated. The 99% cannot keep killing each other while the 1% laugh all the way to the bank. We cannot allow “the ruling class” to continue to commit genocide, wage and taxation theft, human trafficking, war profiteering, corporate corruption. Say no more.

RISE. RESIST. REVOLT.

“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.”

— Mark Twain

MY INFORMATIVE CONVERSATION WITH AI ON THE HISTORY OF GAZA

Many have cited the complicated history of the Gaza strip as cause for these current calamities being unleashed. As if there is any excuse for the disgusting barbarism of Israel against Palestine. IDF/IOF are ON CAMERA shooting children in the head, close range and snipers from a distance, raping and torturing imprisoned Palestinians, and even drone striking unarmed civilians walking down the street, blown to bits, for what?

Many of our modern era look to AI for the future — either its downfall or it savior. I personally think whatever befalls humanity is our own species’ doing, and more need to own up to reality and take responsibility for current predicaments. But I wanted to humor critics, so I had a chat with AI, which I have copied and pasted below here for historic context on the Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and how Zionism is a disease directly related to the same kind of blind hate of the KKK, Nazis, and the disgusting like.

Below you can find a sort of Q&A that I did with ChatGPT on these “complex” subjects — this portion of the piece begins with ChatGPT’s most basic explanations of the history of the region and the conflict, pulling from wherever AI pulls from on the internet, however it was programmed.

Enjoy.

ANSWER: Chat GPT

“The history of the Gaza Strip, Israel, and Palestine is complex, rooted in ancient civilizations, religious significance, and modern geopolitical dynamics. Here’s an in-depth exploration:

Ancient and Religious History

Ancient Civilizations:

• Canaanites and Philistines: The region was originally inhabited by Canaanites. The Philistines, from whom the name “Palestine” is derived, settled in the coastal areas including Gaza around the 12th century BCE.
• Ancient Israel and Judah: Around the same time, the Israelites, a Semitic people, established kingdoms in the region. Key events like the reigns of King David and Solomon and the construction of the First Temple in Jerusalem are significant.

Religious Significance:

• Judaism: The land is central to Jewish history and religion, containing sites like Jerusalem and the Western Wall.
• Christianity: Important locations include Bethlehem (the birthplace of Jesus) and Jerusalem (the site of his crucifixion and resurrection).
• Islam: Jerusalem is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, making it the third holiest city in Islam after Mecca and Medina.

Ottoman Empire to British Mandate

Ottoman Rule: The region was part of the Ottoman Empire from the early 16th century until World War I. British Mandate: Following the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, the League of Nations granted Britain a mandate over Palestine, which included modern-day Israel, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Jordan.

Origins of Modern Conflict

Zionist Movement: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Zionist movement aimed to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, motivated by the historical connection to the land and rising anti-Semitism in Europe. Arab Nationalism:Simultaneously, Arab nationalism was growing, seeking independence from colonial powers and opposing large-scale Jewish immigration.

Post-World War II and the Creation of Israel

UN Partition Plan (1947): The United Nations proposed partitioning Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international control. The plan was accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs. 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Following the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, neighboring Arab states invaded. Israel emerged victorious, expanding its territory beyond the UN plan, while Jordan took the West Bank and Egypt took Gaza. Nakba: For Palestinians, the war resulted in the Nakba (catastrophe), where hundreds of thousands fled or were expelled from their homes.

1967 Six-Day War

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights. These territories remain at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Modern Conflict and Peace Efforts

Oslo Accords (1990s): Attempted to establish a framework for peace and the creation of a Palestinian state. Limited self-governance was granted to Palestinians in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Intifadas: Palestinian uprisings in 1987 and 2000 against Israeli occupation led to significant violence and political changes.

Geopolitical Realities and International Dynamics

Cold War Context: The U.S. and Soviet Union supported Israel and Arab states respectively, turning the Middle East into a Cold War battleground. Modern Alliances:

• U.S. and Israel: Strong military and economic ties.
• Iran: Opposes Israel, supports groups like Hezbollah and Hamas, and has a contentious nuclear program.
• Russia and China: Increasingly involved in the region, often supporting Syria and Iran against U.S. interests.

BRICS and Economic Shifts

BRICS Nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa): These countries are increasingly challenging U.S. economic dominance and exploring alternatives to the U.S. dollar in international trade. Saudi Arabia: Recent moves to consider non-dollar transactions could signal a shift in global economic power.

Historical Context and Alternative Interpretations

Philosophical and Religious Perspectives: Some interpret the ongoing conflict through religious prophecies or philosophical lenses, viewing it as a clash of civilizations or a fulfillment of eschatological predictions. Alternative History: Conspiracy theories and revisionist histories sometimes claim hidden motives or secret plans, but these are often controversial and lack scholarly support.

World Wars, the Cold War, and Modern Conflicts

• World War I: Led to the end of Ottoman control and the British mandate.
• World War II: Holocaust accelerated the push for a Jewish homeland.
• Cold War: Defined superpower involvement and alignments in the Middle East.
• Modern Nuclear Tensions: Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal and Iran’s nuclear ambitions add a layer of complexity, with global powers like the U.S., Russia, and China deeply involved.

Forecast for the Future

Economic and Political Shifts: As BRICS and other nations challenge the U.S.-led economic order, the geopolitical landscape could shift significantly. Middle East Stability: Long-term peace in the region remains uncertain, with ongoing conflicts and shifting alliances.

Understanding this complex history requires considering various perspectives, from ancient religious texts to modern geopolitical strategies. Each layer of history and ideology contributes to the current realities and future possibilities in the region.

QUESTION: Adam Fitzgerald

How is all if this related to the the Industrial Revolution, the conflicting ideologies of communism, socialism, capitalism, fascism, humanism, etc. & specifically how is all of this related to the colonialism & colonization of Africa, India & Malaysia? How does Taiwan relate? With Yemen becoming a leader in the Middle East & making bold moves, does this signify more nations turning against the US? How much of our world history has been written / manipulated by the UN & NATO? & now with BRICS & Brazil & Ireland turning against the UN, what next? How could these conflicts be resolved peacefully? What can you tell us about Ibrahim Traoré & how he wants to unite Africa? What was happening to Africa during WW2 & how is that related to today? When were the Irish revolutionaries of the 20th century executed & how is the division of the EU & the UK relating to more these worldwide conflicts?

ANSWER: ChatGPT

Historical Context and Ideologies

Industrial Revolution

• Economic and Social Changes: The Industrial Revolution transformed economies from agrarian to industrial, creating urbanization, technological advances, and new social classes.
• Ideological Responses:
• Capitalism: Promoted free markets and private ownership.
• Socialism and Communism: Advocated for collective ownership and redistribution of wealth, reacting against the inequalities of capitalism.
• Fascism: Emerged as a nationalist, authoritarian response to both capitalism and socialism.
• Humanism: Emphasized human values and dignity, influencing political and social reforms.

Colonialism and Its Global Impact

• Colonialism in Africa, India, and Malaysia:
• Economic Exploitation: Colonies provided raw materials and markets for European industries.
• Cultural and Political Control: Imposed Western values, languages, and governance structures, often leading to long-term socio-political challenges.
• Resistance and Independence Movements: Triggered nationalist movements, eventually leading to decolonization post-World War II.

Middle East and Yemen’s Rising Influence

• Yemen’s Strategic Position: Control over vital maritime routes and increasing geopolitical assertiveness.
• US Influence Waning: Yemen’s alignment with non-US blocs reflects a broader trend of countries seeking independence from US dominance.

Historical Manipulation and International Organizations

• UN and NATO Influence: Played significant roles in shaping post-World War II global order, often criticized for advancing Western interests.
• BRICS and New Alliances: Emerging as counterweights to Western-dominated institutions, signaling potential shifts in global power dynamics.

Taiwan and Geopolitical Tensions

• Historical Context: Claimed by China but functions as a separate entity; a flashpoint in US-China relations.
• Strategic Importance: Key player in global semiconductor supply chain and regional security.

Peaceful Conflict Resolution

• Diplomacy and Dialogue: Encouraging communication between conflicting parties to find mutually acceptable solutions.
• Economic Cooperation: Promoting trade and investment to build interdependence and reduce hostilities.
• International Mediation: Utilizing neutral international bodies to facilitate negotiations.

Africa’s Role and Ibrahim Traoré

• Ibrahim Traoré: Burkinabe revolutionary leader advocating for African unity and independence from neocolonial influences.
• WWII and Africa:
• Colonial Contributions: African colonies provided resources and troops for European powers.
• Post-War Changes: Accelerated decolonization and independence movements.
• Contemporary Relevance: Ongoing struggles for economic and political stability linked to colonial legacies.

Irish Revolutionary Executions and EU-UK Division

• 20th Century Executions: Key events in Irish struggle for independence, including the Easter Rising and subsequent executions in 1916.
• Brexit and EU Tensions: Reflect broader global trends of nationalism and fragmentation, influencing international relations and internal dynamics within the EU and UK.

Conclusion

Resolving these complex conflicts requires a multi-faceted approach, balancing historical context, ideological differences, and geopolitical realities. Promoting inclusive dialogue, equitable economic development, and respectful international cooperation are essential for fostering lasting peace and stability.

QUESTION: Adam Fitzgerald

Not a good enough answer. Can you expand further on all of these points, specifically in relation to everything discussed above. Specifically please provide more information about Traoré & the history of Africa, especially within the last two centuries leading to today. How do other African nations feel about Traoré? What about the EU, UN, US, BRICS on Traoré? How do the Ukraine & Gaza conflicts relate to all of this & where does Russia stand in terms of relations between BRICS, the UN, NATO & Africa?

ANSWER: ChatGPT

Sure, let’s delve deeper into each point to provide a more comprehensive understanding.

Industrial Revolution and Ideological Conflicts

Economic and Social Changes

• Technological Advancements: Introduction of machinery, steam power, and mass production led to unprecedented productivity and economic growth.
• Urbanization: Massive migration from rural areas to cities in search of factory jobs, leading to the development of urban centers and significant social changes.

Ideological Responses

• Capitalism: Emphasized individual enterprise, competition, and private ownership. Key figures include Adam Smith, who wrote “The Wealth of Nations.”
• Socialism and Communism: Emerged as critiques of capitalism’s inequalities. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels laid the foundation with “The Communist Manifesto,” advocating for a classless society and communal ownership.
• Fascism: A reactionary ideology combining extreme nationalism, dictatorial power, and suppression of opposition, exemplified by regimes like Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
• Humanism: Promoted human values and dignity, leading to social reforms such as labor rights, education, and welfare.

Colonialism and Global Impact

Colonialism in Africa, India, and Malaysia

• Economic Exploitation: Colonies were sources of raw materials and markets for European goods. The wealth generated fueled industrial growth in Europe.
• Cultural Imposition: European languages, religions, and governance systems were imposed, often undermining indigenous cultures and traditions.
• Resistance and Independence Movements: Nationalist movements grew in response to colonial oppression, leading to independence for India (1947), Malaysia (1957), and numerous African nations (1950s-1970s).

Middle East Dynamics and Yemen

Yemen’s Strategic Position

• Geopolitical Significance: Yemen controls the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, a crucial maritime chokepoint for global oil shipments.
• Rising Influence: Yemen’s geopolitical moves reflect broader regional realignments, with increasing assertiveness in Middle Eastern politics.

US Influence Waning

• Shifting Alliances: Countries in the Middle East and beyond are exploring alliances outside of traditional US influence, partly due to perceived inconsistencies in US foreign policy.

International Organizations and Manipulation

UN and NATO Influence

• Post-WWII Order: The UN and NATO were established to promote peace and security, often acting in Western interests.
• Criticisms: Accusations of bias and manipulation to serve the geopolitical goals of major Western powers.

BRICS and New Alliances

• Economic and Political Counterweight: BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) seek to create a multipolar world order, reducing Western dominance.

Taiwan and Geopolitical Tensions

Historical Context

• Chinese Civil War: After the 1949 victory of the Communists, the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan, which operates as a separate government but is claimed by China.
• US-China Relations: Taiwan is a critical issue, with the US providing support to Taiwan in defiance of China’s claims.

Strategic Importance

• Technological Hub: Taiwan is a leading producer of semiconductors, essential for global technology industries.
• Regional Security: Taiwan’s status affects regional stability, with potential conflict having wide-reaching implications.

Peaceful Conflict Resolution

Diplomacy and Dialogue

• Communication Channels: Establishing and maintaining open lines of communication between conflicting parties is crucial.
• Mediation: Neutral international bodies or respected leaders can help mediate disputes.

Economic Cooperation

• Trade and Investment: Building economic ties can create mutual dependencies, reducing the likelihood of conflict.
• Development Projects: Joint ventures in infrastructure and development can foster cooperation.

Africa’s Role and Ibrahim Traoré

Ibrahim Traoré

• Profile: Traoré is a Burkinabe revolutionary and former military officer who became prominent after a successful coup in Burkina Faso.
• Vision: Advocates for African unity, economic independence, and resistance to neocolonial influences.

African Nations’ Views

• Mixed Reactions: Some African nations support Traoré’s vision of unity and independence, while others are cautious about his revolutionary methods.

International Views

• EU, UN, US: Generally skeptical of Traoré’s methods, concerned about stability and human rights.
• BRICS: More supportive of his stance against neocolonialism, aligning with their broader geopolitical goals.

WWII and Africa

Colonial Contributions

• Resources and Troops: African colonies provided essential resources and soldiers for the Allied war effort.
• Post-War Changes: The war accelerated decolonization, with returning soldiers and educated elites pushing for independence.

Contemporary Relevance

• Legacy of Colonialism: Many current socio-political issues in Africa stem from colonial boundaries and governance systems.
• Economic Challenges: The exploitation during colonialism left many African nations with economic vulnerabilities.

Irish Revolutionary Executions and EU-UK Division

20th Century Executions

• Easter Rising (1916): Key event in the Irish struggle for independence, leading to the execution of leaders by British forces.
• Impact: Sparked further resistance, eventually leading to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.

Brexit and EU Tensions

• Nationalism and Fragmentation: Brexit reflects broader trends of nationalism and fragmentation, influencing global politics.
• Internal EU Dynamics: Brexit has strained EU unity, potentially impacting its global influence.

Ukraine and Gaza Conflicts

Ukraine Conflict

• Geopolitical Tensions: Ukraine is a battleground for influence between NATO and Russia, with significant implications for European security.
• BRICS and Russia: Russia’s alignment with BRICS nations contrasts with Western opposition, highlighting global power shifts.

Gaza Conflict

• Historical Roots: Stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with deep historical and religious significance.
• Global Impact: The conflict affects regional stability and international relations, with major powers involved through support or opposition.

Russia’s Position

Relations with BRICS, UN, NATO, and Africa

• BRICS: Strong supporter, seeking to counter Western influence.
• UN: Uses its position to push against Western policies, often siding with non-Western nations.
• NATO: Adversarial, viewing NATO expansion as a threat to its security.
• Africa: Increasing influence through economic and military support, aiming to build alliances and counter Western presence.

Conclusion and Peaceful Resolutions

Complex Interconnections

The interplay of historical, ideological, and geopolitical factors creates a complex web of conflicts and alliances. Resolving these requires:

• Holistic Approaches: Addressing root causes such as economic inequalities, historical grievances, and ideological differences.
• Inclusive Dialogue: Ensuring all stakeholders have a voice in peace processes.
• Global Cooperation: Promoting international cooperation and understanding through institutions like the UN, while also reforming them to be more inclusive and representative.

Future Outlook

The rise of new powers and alliances, coupled with shifting economic and geopolitical landscapes, suggests a multipolar world order. Achieving peace and stability will depend on the ability of global leaders to navigate these complexities with wisdom and cooperation.

QUESTION: Adam Fitzgerald

What has Traoré done to be criticized? Why are nations voicing skepticism? Has he been involved in any violence? Has there ever been a successful revolution without violent conflict? Are there any current currencies backed by anything beyond digital numbers? For example, the US is trillions in debt? What does this mean? How did the US “lose” so much money on September 10th, 2001 (Donald Rumsfeld made a speech) & is this why the US interferes with Iraq & the Middle East — for oil & influence & powerful geopolitical placement? Is any currency backed by oil, gold, silver, etc? With the USD, British Pound, Euro & Japanese yen all failing & losing influence & inflation rising, are BRICS nations creating their own currency? & if so what is it backed by? How does this relate to world stocks, Wall Street, the UAE, & cryptocurrency? Which places on Earth are the most significant in terms of trade routes & natural resources? Which resources & minerals are the most valuable & the most fought over? Are these conflicts in direct relation to all of the above? What about these opposing nations strangely sharing a peace treaty sharing Antarctica? Which nations control the most oil, diamonds, minerals, usable crystals, ore, gold, lithium, semiconductors, microchip materials, batteries, etc. needed for modern technology & future advancement? Are we running out of clean water & will there be wars fought over clean water such as the Great Lakes & Lake Baikal? How do crytpo currencies relate to all of this? What do you think AI’s role will be in these matters? How can AI & humanity work together to create utopia for all?

ANSWER: ChatGPT:

Ibrahim Traoré and Criticisms

Criticisms and Skepticism

• Method of Ascension: Traoré came to power through a military coup, which is often seen as undemocratic and destabilizing.
• Violence: While specifics may vary, military coups often involve violence or the threat of violence, leading to concerns about human rights and stability.
• Governance Concerns: Skepticism arises over his ability to govern effectively and maintain stability, especially if his methods are authoritarian.

Involvement in Violence

• Direct Violence: Traoré’s rise to power likely involved some level of military action and conflict, though detailed accounts would be specific to his coup.
• Historical Context: Most successful revolutions, including the French, Russian, and various anti-colonial movements, have involved violence. However, some peaceful transitions, like India’s independence led by Gandhi’s non-violent resistance, offer contrasting examples.

Current State of Currencies and Global Economy

Currency Backing

• Fiat Currencies: Most modern currencies, including the USD, are fiat money, meaning they are not backed by physical commodities but by government trust.
• Debt: The US’s trillions in debt reflect the government’s borrowing to finance spending beyond its revenue. This debt is held by various entities, including foreign governments, individuals, and institutions.

September 10, 2001, and US Involvement in the Middle East

• Rumsfeld’s Speech: On September 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld highlighted the Pentagon’s inability to account for $2.3 trillion in transactions. This issue remains contentious, with some linking it to broader concerns about military spending and accountability.
• Middle East Involvement: The US’s involvement in the Middle East is driven by a combination of securing oil supplies, combating terrorism, and maintaining geopolitical influence.

Currencies Backed by Commodities

• Gold and Oil: Historically, some currencies were backed by gold (the Gold Standard) or pegged to oil prices. Currently, most are fiat.
• BRICS Currency: There are discussions within BRICS about creating a new currency to reduce reliance on the USD, potentially backed by a basket of commodities.

Economic Challenges and Innovations

Impact on Global Markets

• Stocks and Wall Street: Global stock markets are influenced by economic policies, currency stability, and geopolitical events. Any shift in major currencies affects investor confidence and market dynamics.
• Cryptocurrencies: These digital currencies offer decentralized financial systems, presenting both opportunities and challenges to traditional banking and finance.

Significant Trade Routes and Resources

Key Trade Routes

• Suez and Panama Canals: Crucial for global maritime trade.
• Straits of Hormuz and Malacca: Vital for oil transportation.

Valuable Resources

• Oil and Gas: Controlled by countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the US.
• Minerals and Metals: Africa, Australia, and South America are rich in minerals like gold, diamonds, lithium, and rare earth elements.
• Semiconductors: Taiwan and South Korea are major producers.

Resource Conflicts

• Water: Clean water scarcity is a growing concern, with regions like the Great Lakes and Lake Baikal potentially becoming conflict zones.
• Minerals: Competition over valuable resources like lithium (used in batteries) and rare earth elements is intensifying.

Antarctica Treaty and Resource Control

Antarctic Treaty

• Peaceful Use: The Antarctic Treaty ensures the continent is used for peaceful purposes and scientific research, prohibiting military activity.
• Shared Control: Various nations have claims and research stations, maintaining a unique example of international cooperation.

Technological Resources

Key Players

• Oil and Gas: Middle Eastern countries, Russia, and the US.
• Diamonds: African nations like Botswana and South Africa.
• Lithium: Australia, Chile, and Argentina.
• Semiconductors: Taiwan and South Korea.

Water Scarcity and Future Conflicts

Clean Water

• Scarcity: Growing populations and climate change are exacerbating water shortages.
• Potential Conflicts: Regions with significant freshwater reserves, like the Great Lakes, may become contested.

Cryptocurrencies and AI

Cryptocurrencies

• Decentralization: Offer alternatives to traditional financial systems, potentially reducing reliance on fiat currencies and centralized banks.
• Blockchain Technology: Ensures transparency and security in transactions.

AI’s Role

• Economic Optimization: AI can analyze complex economic data to optimize resource distribution and financial systems.
• Conflict Resolution: AI-driven models can predict conflict hotspots and suggest diplomatic solutions.
• Utopian Potential: AI and humanity can collaborate to address global challenges, ensuring equitable resource distribution, efficient governance, and sustainable development.

Conclusion

Collaborative Efforts

• Global Cooperation: Addressing these complex issues requires international cooperation and innovative solutions.
• AI and Human Synergy: Combining AI’s analytical power with human empathy and creativity can pave the way for a more equitable and sustainable future.

Understanding and addressing the intricate web of historical, economic, and geopolitical factors is crucial for fostering a more stable and prosperous world.”

END of AI Q&A

That seems like enough for this article; opinions, links, artificial intelligence, historical context, propaganda addressed.

How do you feel? If you are in a position to help others, you can donate to families in Gaza, like Mohammed Rida — an artist who has lost too much and is documenting the horrors in Gaza as Israel occupies Palestine and kills his people, funded by US taxpayer money, stamped with approval of the UN and NATO. His home and everything he owned, including his laptop with all of his artwork and designs, have been destroyed. Help his family survive by donating to help them afford food, water, and shelter.

You have the power to rise up, to inspire, educate, and help others. Communicate with communities, organize class consciousness.

More writing, education, quotes, memes, news, and videos HERE:
https://www.instagram.com/time4revolution9/

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR

Yours truly,

Adam Wesley Fitzgerald

What’s the difference between speaking your mind or writing it down?

“Things spoken can be forgotten and forgiven, but the written word has the power to change the course of history, to alter our lives.”

— Teresa Mummert

After years of working as an educator, DJ, editor, journalist, musician, label head, event coordinator, artist manager, running an international English publishing department, traveling incessantly, and working for questionable corporations, I’m getting back to my own writing. Not that I ever left it, I’ve been working on my own book series for over two decades, and I finally have an incredible mentor helping me finish the first book in the series.

But, as pretentious as it sounds, I feel the world needs independent writing more than ever. Maybe not mine, but I’m here to add my voice to needed causes. We have too many AI-operated and controlled avenues these days, it could be argued we desperately need more organic thought and writing.

There’s plenty of my writing online, from my portfolio, the years I spent writing all I was asked to for Gaia.com, to the years I spent working as a journalist for several publications, or my old pieces here on Medium.

But now I’m back, and in a big way. The world is changing, so we need more raw, educated, honest voices coming forward with harsh truths, uplifting stories, and informed opinions. So, hopefully you can find that somewhere out there! Kidding. You’re in the right place if social justice issues, peace, art, music, esotericism, ancient civilizations, spirituality, communciation, equality, diversity, education, or history interest you. I am writing to educate as many as I can, and inspire actions to help each other.

A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE.

I’m not saying anything new. Well, I am, by my basic act of putting my own words together, but I’m not necessarily saying anything that hasn’t been said before, and it has probably been better worded by a smarter person.

I’ve been writing since I was a kid. My grandfather, Jim Fitzgerald, wrote for the Detroit Free Press, battling it out publicly with Michigan’s KKK and crooked politicians, before handing his column space over to Mitch Albom.

Since youth I’ve barely understood what it was to be a writer. At first I thought too little of it, then too much of it. David Foster Wallace spoke on the perils of perfectionism. Sometimes I shy away from writing, my own mortality versus the ink glaring too large and too dark, overpowering.

I’ll never be anywhere near my heroes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack Kerouac, James Baldwin, Hunter S. Thompson, Philip K. Dick, Marvin Gaye, Ray Bradbury, Lou Reed, Assata and Tupac Shakur, Terence McKenna, Che Guevara, Kendrick Lamar, or the like. But I can still put my words onto a page to try and affect others positively.

As I’ve aged, I think to be a writer, you just write.

“Don’t Just

Don’t just learn, experience.
Don’t just read, absorb.
Don’t just change, transform.
Don’t just relate, advocate.
Don’t just promise, prove.
Don’t just criticize, encourage.
Don’t just think, ponder.
Don’t just take, give.
Don’t just see, feel.
Don’t just dream, do.
Don’t just hear, listen.
Don’t just talk, act.
Don’t just tell, show.
Don’t just exist, live.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

“Don’t let the expectations and opinions of other people affect your decisions. It’s your life, not theirs. Do what matters most to you; do what makes you feel alive and happy. Don’t let the expectations and ideas of others limit who you are. If you let others tell you who you are, you are living their reality — not yours. There is more to life than pleasing people. There is much more to life than following others’ prescribed path. There is so much more to life than what you experience right now. You need to decide who you are for yourself. Become a whole being. Adventure.”
― Roy T. Bennett

RISING TIDES & CHANGING SEAS

This last year has been, well, to use a scholarly term: fucked.

Difficult. Hearbreaking. Life-changing. Beyond a dark night of the soul.

In the last year my life has dramatically changed in a myriad of ways.

My mother, Christie Anne Fitzgerald Smith, passed away the day after Christmas last year, 2023, after a year-long battle with ALS — Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis — better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

There’s a lot I want to say. There’s a lot I feel. But one thing that has felt overpowering in this last year of my mother’s death: nothing feels appropriate. Nothing feels right. It feels weird to laugh. Every smile tinged with unspeakable loss. I’ve come to realize, that’s what life is. Love and loss are the yin and yang we live by, whether we acknowledge or accept it.

On top of that, I moved across the country, bought a house, went through a divorce, road tripped across the country, and recorded new music in LA…

And too much else. I wish I felt accomplished. I never stop working, but it never feels enough. I’ve lost my mother, my wife (now ex-wife), my job, my house, my cats, my car, etc. etc. I’ve been rebuilding my life, after it was all burned to the ground, but I’m not sure if I’m doing anything right.

As the wise man dubbed Biggie Smalls once said “Shit Done Changed.”

So.

Why am I becoming more vocal? I’ve always been a rebel, a low-key resistance fighter, a counterculture artist on the fringe, always trying to find a rational voice between art and oppression. But no more. Our lives, our jobs, our time, our money, our taxes; they are being used against us.

“Action is character.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Quiet cancelling, low-key cool; these are meaningless in the face of fascist destruction manipulating the West into destroying Palestine, the Congo, Sudan, Venezuela, Taiwan, Yemen, and the list goes on. People and places are not pawns and spaces on a chess board for the uber wealthy to destroy.

Many my age and younger recognize what 2pac said long ago:

“They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor
Said it ain’t no hope for the youth
And the truth is it ain’t no hope for the future
And then they wonder why we crazy, huh”

I’ve witnessed the all-too-common tragic realities that materialistic-based capitalism has turned all of our American Dreams into. The good-ole-boys-n-girls red-blooded fighting attitudes have morphed into patsies protecting white-collar white-supremacist pedophiles parading as heroes. The never-ending negligent narcissism, segregated sociopathy, victimized guilt, first-world superiority, age-old colonialism and imperialism keep perpetuating themselves, sprinkled with the violence of war, genocide, starvation, prejudice, injustice, racism, and now Zionism… when does it end? The ‘West’ — led by the united corporate evils of the US, the UK, the UN, NATO, Israel, and BlackRock — wage war on BRICS nations and any other country with less global power and more natural resources that can be exploited.

Last year, while I helped my family take care of my dying mother, I also went through a divorce from my partner of over 10 years, and I also lost my corporate ‘safe’ job of over two years. My company told me that I could work remote when I moved back to Michigan from Colorado to take care of my mother in her final days. Then they pulled the rug out, all of a sudden my six-month contract was cut in half, and then some. Now I’m teaching.

Like cops, never trust corporations.

“Benito Mussolini created the word ‘fascism.’ He defined it as ‘the merging of the state and the corporation.’ He also said a more accurate word would be ‘corporatism.’ This was the definition in Webster’s up until 1987 when a corporation bought Webster’s and changed it to exclude any mention of corporations.”

— Adam McKay

My life has transformed so much, yet it’s so hard to describe. I’m a completely different person than I was a year ago, although that person was also completely different than the person I was two years ago. Even though for the majority of the previous decade, I was mostly the same. Maybe evolutions of the same being. Not like now; I feel utterly reborn, in a really unappealing, painful, gross, shocking way. Like Neo waking up from The Matrix levels of upsetting and gross. But I’m still here.

After living in Detroit, Scotland, Denver, Northern Michigan, criss-crossing the Mediterranean and America… I can confidently say, I know no more.

The amount of my experiences has amassed only to more humility.

My father has worked since he was 11. I have worked since I was 14. He grew up in back-water Michigan, working on farms, escaping his reality in a broken-down commune in forgotten hillbilly Hobbit-land by abandoning his rural life on his motorcycle to become the ‘cool guy’ in the bigger, nearby podunk town. My mother was like a princess to him, the daughter of a well-respected newspaper publisher, my aforementioned grandfather Jim, who left The County Press for the Detroit Free Press by the 1980s. Over time my father became the publisher of The County Press, taking over for his mentor and father-in-law. Ink flows in my veins.

My mother passed away before she could turn 68. My father is entering his 70th year, and yet he is still working. Where is the justice in that? Is that the American Dream? They scrimped and saved and worked and went to school, but they lost their retirement together. No golden years. Just work. What’s weird to me is that my father doesn’t mind it. I respect that people find purpose through their work, especially when it’s someone like my father working tirelessly to better local communities through local papers, organizations, and committees. He is a dedicated public servant and communicator; a true pillar of the community.

But when my mother, my father’s partner of almost 50 years, became diagnosed with a fatal illness, a deteriorative disease… not only could he not stop working while she was sick, he’s still working now after. Maybe he will work until he dies. Maybe that’s what he wants. I respect his wishes. My grandfather had an excellent retirement, he also survived the Great Depression and WWII, using his GI Bill money to study journalism at Michigan State University instead of going to West Point, as his superiors had wanted him to. I’m not one to judge how people live their lives, especially my four treasured elders who raised me. I just find it weird that my grandparents had a long, glorious retirement, in which they got to travel the world after my grandfather wrote on everything from local family stories to international social justice news. My parents got nothing.

My point is, I was raised to believe my family were middle class, maybe even upper middle class. I grew up feeling privileged — white, mid class. My parents did what they were supposed to, they worked their jobs, raised their kids, helped out their communities… and then lost their life savings along with millions of other Americans in the financial collapse of 2008.

Only recently have I realized that all sociological labels humans put on ourselves and others are extremely limiting. Statistics are helpful, adjectives and adverbs are often unnecessary. We make shit up. From labels to value. Everything has changed since 2008, even since 2001 — and not just 9/11 — but the oft over-looked realities of 9/10/2001. Then WikiLeaks, Assange, Snowden, Trump, Brexit, 2020… Endless wildfires, police murders, death, disease, genocide, war, coups, destruction.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel for my generation or those younger than me. The only hope we have is resistance to the psychopathic “ruling class” turning our world into dystopian hell.

Some people, they don’t have silver linings. Because they are either not present enough, or not grateful enough, or a combination of the two. Not everyone has the same opportunities, and not enough is done to acknowledge privileges and equal the playing field for humanity to survive.

Everything in life is classism — the 1% manipulating the 99% against one another, laughing to the bank while we kill each other, slaves of debt.

So what actually matters?

It’s all the classic sagely bullshit. All the old aphorisms. They’re true.

You don’t know what you have ‘til it’s gone. Live each day like it’s your last.

I try to remind myself how lucky I am for what little I have. Even while struggling more than I ever have before, I work at being grateful.

If we stop to take the time to smell the roses, maybe we can process how beautiful life can be. If we take time to save the flowers and the humans left alive from amid the rubble, we could make life special and meaningful.

If we keep working endless hours, ultimately as wage and debt slaves for the tyrannical corporations fueling our sadistic world governments to keep oppression and genocide going the world over, we might never realize happiness, presence, gratitude, or any sort of deeper purpose, let alone any sort of understanding. We need time to grapple with the infinite.

We are paying for housing we’re never at, because we’re always working.

We are paying for cars we mostly use to get to work and otherwise never use, because we’re always working.

We pay for kids to be in school, or daycare, or college, or go into debt trying to keep them safe, because we’re always working.

What are we working for?

It’s not like any of this is conspiratorial. We know, for a fact, with evidence and receipts, that the majority of world leaders are, as they say, “Epstein Islanders” — disgusting ‘ruling-class’ pedophiles all connected to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell — everyone from the Clintons, the Trumps, the Bidens, Prince Andrew, Obamas, celebrities, royals, you name it. Epstein is the US version of Jimmy Savile — pedophilic ties to the royal family and all. Epstein and Weinstein did not happen within a vacuum, just as the well-documented and investigated scandals of the Catholic Church and the Vatican point to well-known corruption that continues to this day.

There is more to it, which has unfolded very loudly in the last five years, which I will not go into. There is more to my personal unfolding and subsequent rebuilding which I’m not ready to go into. There is more to the cancellation of our treasured WhateverFest in 2024 that I can’t explore yet.

So keep on reading. Because I’m Irish, like my grandmother Pat and another hero of mine Terence McKenna, I have the Cecltic gift of gab. For better or for worse, I am here to offer an alternate lens into reality, something a little grittier and more real. I’m here to help others by exposing radical truths often covered up by corporate interests willing to turn us into Soylent Green. These are revolutionary times. We all have responsibilities to act in order to try and make our world a better place.

RISE. RESIST. REVOLT.

“Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests.

I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don’t believe anything the government tells me.

Sooner or later the people in this country are going to realize: the government does not give a fuck about them. The government doesn’t care about you, or your children, or your rights, or your welfare, or your safety. It simply doesn’t give a fuck about you. It’s interested in its own power. That’s the only thing keeping it and expanding it wherever possible.

Personally when it comes to rights, I think one of two things is true: either we have unlimited rights, or we have no rights at all.”

- George Carlin

More soon comrades, stay strong, keep your heads up.

Treat others as you wish to be treated (unless they are Zionists, Nazis, racists, corporate oligarchs, or abusers — set them aflame, publicly.)

Communicate, organize, support one another, share resources, uplift, hope. Class consciousness starts through helping those close to you.

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR

Yours truly,

—

Adam Wesley Fitzgerald

https://underflowrecords.com/quells

https://linktr.ee/underflow

Hello Teachers & Students,

We are here for this exercise today not to tell anyone how to teach, but hopefully to offer a variety of new tools, resources, methods and technology to aid or even enhance your educational abilities.

We are going to jump around to a few different links so I can show you different resources, such as a basic translator — which should be used as a back-up when first meeting a student, or with a new English-speaker / low-level learner — to ensure clear communications and effective lessons.

In addition to links and resources, I have also included a few charts via images below that are great practice for younger students and adult learners alike.

Sometimes you will have technical difficulties — such as when the screen freezes, or if the internet connection gets interrupted, the audio delayed, etc.

Do NOT get discouraged! Teaching online is still an amazing way to connect with students.

Some of the best lessons, especially for beginners, can involve typing out examples from graphics like the ones below into your Zoom or Skype chat while your student reads them aloud, or reading examples together back & forth — clarifying the examples by typing them out in the translator box if necessary.

Easy beginner lessons can cover Introductions, Weather or Question words.

Many of my adult students have told me they greatly appreciate expanding their vocabulary by learning synonyms and homophones — these can be especially important while learning English, because words that sound the same but have different meanings can be very confusing to new learners. Going over example sentences to show the differences, or even showing the dictionary definitions of words in some cases, will help students.

Reading articles together aloud, either going back & forth, or simply listening then correcting or helping your student, can be very helpful to improve pronunciation. I try to focus on positive articles, educational, informational, etc.

7 Modern Life Habits That Can Be Incredibly Bad For Your Brain Health

The article above ^outlines the difference between positive & negative habits that can be healthy to know about during our modern era.

The article below touches on a topic I discuss often with my students: how much news is too much?

Coronavirus: How much news is too much?

Sometimes when you are working with certain students day after day, hour after hour — you have to find ways to keep things interesting — I try to focus on multiple activities for every lesson, sometimes even charting out the time accordingly —

15 min. practicing grammar (sentence structure) & vocabulary (homophones & synonyms)

15 min. practicing writing, either via emails or Skype or Zoom chat, then editing those writings together

15 min. pronunciation practice by reading together aloud — books, emails, presentations or articles

15 min. practicing basic communications discussing work, home, travel, etc. OR by watching & discussing videos together

I try to choose inspirational or educational videos, like these:

Graduation Speeches by great leaders or thinkers —

TED Talks —

or Educational videos like this one about the World’s Growing Water Crisis —

Hopefully this Webinar has been helpful for you today. If you have any questions either Karen, myself or another GLT Team member would be happy to assist you. My email is adamfitzsmith@gmail.com so feel free to contact me — I will leave you with some inspirational quotes regarding education.
Thank you for your time!

ADAM FITZGERALD

CELTA (Cambridge) certified educator, editor, and entrepreneur with 13+ years of experience. Founder of Underflow Records & Shady Groves.

adamfitzsmith@gmail.com
(248) 409 8699
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamfitzgeraldsmith/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamfitzgeraldsmith/

SUMMARY

CELTA (Cambridge) certified educator and editor with 13+ years of experience writing, editing, copywriting, and teaching all ages, languages and cultures in the US, UK, and internationally online. Wayne State University graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences: Major in English, Minor in Communications; completed student teaching through WSU’s College of Education. Maintains advanced skills in writing, editing, public speaking, teaching, teamwork, language training, tutoring, networking and communications. Proficient in all Microsoft Office programs; SEO certified. English language specialist, also functional in Spanish. Has 13+ years of experience writing and editing published media. Holds ability to lead group discussions on a wide range of topics, connect with students and coworkers using interpersonal communication skills. Led seminars as an Administrative Consultant to educate local administrative staffs and school boards on how to better connect with students, parents and the local community using tools such as social media and interpersonal communication, Designed and implemented social media campaigns for North Branch Area Schools, Michigan. Retains experience with social media marketing and writing in various formats. Authored a front-page story on the cover of 70,000+ newspapers across Michigan in August of 2015.

Cover Letter:

To whom this may concern:

As you will see in my resume, I have been a proponent of language, the written and spoken word, the arts, and all things educational since a young age. My life has centered around teaching, editing, music, books, writing, reading, and creating. Professionally I have been working with printed and published media for over 15 years and education for over 13.

Originally commencing my higher education journey in 2008, I have now been teaching for over 13 years, with experience educating all ages, cultures, creeds, and nationalities at all difficulty levels to all class sizes with students from around the world. My own education path has led me across the globe and in addition to my dual degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, I also have my CELTA (TEFL/ TESOL) from Cambridge University.

I have built my career using my English skills since graduating from Wayne State University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2014. In addition to my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in English, I also minored in Communications and studied at WSU’s College of Education. I finished my student teaching at Wayne State’s College of Education, majoring in English & Secondary Education, before moving on to the College of Liberal Arts.

I became CELTA Certified through Cambridge University via the British Study Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2018, after moving to the United Kingdom from the United States. I retain the right to work in the U.K. & the U.S. In addition to my work teaching through companies like Global Language Training, their European division Global English, CoreConnect, The Oxford Method, BlingABC and others, I have also continued my work as an editor for three weekly papers published by the View Newspaper Group in Lapeer County, Michigan, where I used to work as a reporter, journalist, proofreader and columnist.

Working as a language instructor, a tutor, a teacher, a reporter, a copywriter and an editor has given me experience that has made me confident and comfortable with various duties. I work well with deadlines and I can finish a lot of writing in a short amount of time. I retain experience with social media, marketing and online writing, including everything from emails to blogs and newsletters.

I have also led seminars both online for “teacher teaching training” and in-person as an administrative consultant to educate the administrative staff of North Branch School District (in Lapeer County, Michigan) on how to better connect with students, parents and the local community using tools such as social media and interpersonal communication. As part of my consultancy work, I designed and implemented a successful social media campaign for North Branch Schools, their different teams, and community program initiatives.

I have been the head writer and editor of copy for real estate, finance, insurance, development firms, construction companies and more for a small marketing group. I have spent several years teaching at various institutions whilst also writing for several weekly papers. I enjoy presenting ideas to a team and working with others.

I have experience writing for an audience and implementing strategies by leading meetings and initiatives. I am a great listener, an active employee and I prioritize time management. I also work well independently; I consider myself a disciplined writer who readily accepts any challenge and I strive to produce top quality writings. My interpersonal communications have helped me succeed through years of varied work.

My work has been featured in several publications, in addition to my work in the music industry. I founded my own international label and brand Underflow Records which I manage alongside my band Shady Groves. In 2015 I authored a front-page story that was on the cover of over 70,000 newspapers across Michigan.

As evident from the image below, I have been featured as an exemplary “model” educator for my company Global Language Training (GLT), in addition to speaking at many events on the vital importance of education over the years in the U.S., U.K. and E.U.

I have included links to several articles I have written over the years.
This link leads to a piece I wrote about Education being the foundation of society:https://thecountypress.mihomepaper.com/articles/my-view-point-97/

This is another piece I wrote, detailing my teaching experiences:

https://lapeerareaview.mihomepaper.com/articles/the-view-from-here-225/

This is a column I wrote about respect, and how vital it is in and out of classrooms:

https://lapeerareaview.mihomepaper.com/articles/the-view-from-here-261/

More Links to samples of my work:

https://cacompanies.com
https://burton-katzman.com
https://etkinllc.com
https://vanburendda.com
https://fairviewco.com

Thank you for your time and consideration.
I can be reached at adamfitzsmith@gmail.com

Best regards,
Adam Fitzgerald

EXPERIENCE

EDITOR, COPYWRITER & JOURNALIST — THE VIEW NEWSPAPER GROUP — LAPEER COUNTY, MI, USA
FEB. 2009 TO OCT. PRESENT

• Leads multiple creative teams as well as composing stories, columns, articles, interviews and copy for three weekly papers for The View Newspaper Group — including The County Press and Lapeer Area View — Authored front page story on the cover of 70,000+ newspapers in Michigan in August of 2015
• Proofreads and edits three different newspapers each week; provides photographs to run alongside all articles contributed and others
• Travels frequently to conduct interviews and make regular contact with prominent citizens, businesses, charity organizations, schools, civil servants and local community leaders
• Invited to speak publicly several times at schools, education panels and board meetings on the vital importance of education within society
• lapeerareaview.mihomepaper.com

ONLINE ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTRUCTOR — GLOBAL ENGLISH — MILAN, ITALY JAN. 2019 TO PRESENT

• ESL (English as a Second Language) instructor, teaching online through Global English — the European-based counterpart company connected to Global Language Training in the USA
• Responsible for maintaining regular contact with and designing lessons for over 70 adult students, all employees for different divisions of Intesa Sanpaolo, a major banking group in Italy
• Conducts weekly half-hour long lessons via Skype with students from all over Italy, working on developing grammar skills, expanding vocabulary by examining current event news articles and idioms, plus regular practice reading, writing and holding a conversation in English

ONLINE ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTRUCTOR — BLING ABC — BEIJING, CHINA DEC. 2018 TO PRESENT

• ESL (English as a Second Language) instructor, teaching online through BlingABC — the Beijing-based online English education company that connects teachers to learners from around China
• Responsible for teaching Chinese English-learners through an online teaching portal called ClassIn — groups ranging from 3 students to 15, up to 4 different hour-long sessions each day
• Teaches using a virtual classroom that allows teacher to interact with and evaluate students

ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTRUCTOR — GLOBAL LT — METRO DETROIT, MI, USA OCT. 2016 TO PRESENT

• Independent contract ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, instructor and tutor for Global LT (Global Language Training) students throughout Metro Detroit, MI, for immigrants new to the United States (typically employees of GM, Chrysler, Valeo, Continental, and more)
• Leads individual and group lessons, traveling between students’ homes and places of business to teach English language lessons pertaining to grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, reading, writing, speaking, listening and understanding both conversational and business English

COPYWRITER & EDITOR — COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATES — TROY, MI, USA OCT. 2016 TO OCT. 2017

• Provided and edited copy for various advertising campaigns and industry types, including commercial real estate, international insurance companies, design firms, and more
• Worked with team of account executives and designers to deliver fully functional websites
• Drafted proposals for marketing meetings, client contracts, and more
• Provided complete social media networking, marketing and newsletters for clients
• camarketinginc.com

ADMINISTRATIVE CONSULTANT — NORTH BRANCH SCHOOL DISTRICT NORTH BRANCH, MI, USA– JAN. 2016 TO OCT. 2016

• Led seminars to educate the administrative staff on how to better connect with students, parents and the local community using tools such as social media and interpersonal communication
• Designed and implemented a social media campaign for all North Branch Area Schools

SUBSTITUTE TEACHER — PESG & EDUSTAFF — METRO DETROIT & FERNDALE, MI, USA OCT. 2010 TO MAY. 2016

• Worked as a substitute teacher for all grades K-12 in addition to teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to adults from all over the world throughout Metro Detroit
• Worked as long-term History and English teacher at Ferndale Middle & High Schools, responsible for lesson plans and materials for 6–7 classrooms of up to 35 students each day, plus out of class responsibilities such as grading and parent-teacher conferences for all students
• Taught at countless schools throughout Michigan, including schools in Ferndale, Royal Oak, Lapeer, Oak Park, Detroit, Pleasant Ridge, Eastpointe, Dryden, Oxford, Metamora and more

EDUCATION

WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, DETROIT, MICHIGAN, 2014

B.F.A. in English & Communications from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

BRITISH STUDY CENTRE, EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, 2018

Cambridge CELTA Certification (Certification in English Language Teaching to Adults)

• Advanced skills: teaching, leadership, writing, editing, social media networking, tutoring and marketing

• Professional experience: public speaking, teaching, tutoring, journalism and interpersonal communication

Adam Fitzgerald | Email: adamfitzsmith@gmail.com

References for Adam W. Fitzgerald:

Katherine “Katy” Ruiz — (F.K.A. Katy Hoover)
(My coordinator, client consultant & coworker at Global Language Training)

khoover@global-lt.com
248.786.0999 x 2118 | KRuiz@Global-LT.com

Julie Lehner
(My Cambridge “teacher trainer” at British Study Centre in Edinburgh, UK)

Julie.Lehner@british-study.com
+40 758 084 970

Renee Hoogland
(My Master’s Class Professor at Wayne State University)

renee.hoogland@gmail.com

248–835–9521

MUSIC:

Adam also offers music lessons to beginners: specifically those seeking guitar or bass guitar lessons.

Call or text Adam Fitzgerald at +1 (248) 409 8699

https://adamwfitzgerald.wordpress.com/music/
Adam Fitzgerald is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Fitzgerald has founded many bands, writes his own songs, produces other artists and occasionally moonlights in other projects.

Because Adam has been playing for 15+ years plus (guitar, bass, acoustics, ukulele, mandolin, etc.) he offers lessons for beginner musicians seeking classes for guitar or bass lessons — these can be online or in person.

In addition — Adam also offers his skills, tastes & experiences as a DJ (contact for references & more information regarding wedding DJing) to provide the best music for different scenarios — if you are having a professional event, wedding, party or get together, Adam can provide whatever music is preferred to “fit the mood” for reasonable prices.
(For a sample mix / playlist from Adam click here.)

Click here to learn more about Shady Groves:
https://www.facebook.com/shadygrovesband

https://soundcloud.com/shady-groves/tracks
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5H7FQned2YIxpYqPtqJ1Mg

Underflow Records music is available on all streaming platforms:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/shady-groves/1113239141
https://spoti.fi/2rrb6lj
https://shadygroves.bandcamp.com

To follow my wife, you can read her articles, recipes, health information & more on her website by clicking here.

Adam Fitzgerald is a writer and musician based in Michigan. He lives with his wife and two cats in the Grand Traverse Bay Area in Northerwest Michigan. Adam has worked as a teacher, a copywriter, an editor and a journalist. He is the founder of Underflow Records, Whateverfest, and a cofounder and primary songwriter in the Detroit indie rock band Shady Groves and he has produced music with several different projects and artists over the years. Adam is vegan and he likes to share his passion for art, education and cats with the world through his writing and teaching.