EBP-DA | www.eastbaypunkda.com Where I'm Coming From A few words of introduction and explanation are probably in persuasiveness, but I have no hesitation in saying that my faults or order with this issue of thelcokout. Longtime and new readersalike shortcomings were at least honest ones. "Like a salmon swimming might be bewildered at what appears to be a heavy streak of upstream,"was how my friendIndiana Slim characterizedmy efforts; geographic ru1d cultural schizophrenia running through its pages. anothercritic described me as "Too smartto keep quiet and toodumb Depending where you start reading, you might think the Lookout is an to shut up." environmental journal from rural northern California, a left-wing That was seven years ago. I assume I'm still making some people rabble-rousing broadside out of Berkeley, a scholarly dissertation on mad, though I haven't had any death threats in a long while. If economics and history based inLondon, or a sardonic and frivolous anything, I get more uncritical praisethan I need. I no longerneed critique of pop culture and punk counterculture from all over and assurance thatI'm a good writer, or that I speakfor a lot of peoplewho under the map. forone reasonor another haven't foundit in themselves, to put words Yes, that's exactly what it is, among other things. Abouthalf of togetl1er tl1e way that I do. That's not to say l don't appreciate this issue was put together in London during the winter of 1991-92, compliments, merely that they've taken on the swneaspect as virulent and the rest emanates aboutequally from Berkeley and the Emerald criticism: unless phrased in trulyexceptional language or containing Triangle. In responseto readers who have inquired asto what exactly genuinely arresting ideas,they're filed away in some vague recesses the Emerald Triangle is, it's the name coined by government drug of memory that have little bearing on how I see myself or my work. raiders to describethe primemarijuana-growing region of Mendocino, And how is that? More andmore as ahistorian, though I have Humboldt, and Trinity Counties, an area distinguished by strong obviously not abandonedpolemics and advocacy. But I am concerned back-to-the-land and environmental movements, and which continues with telling a story, one that has remained invisible through previous to be one of the more prominent thorns in the side of the crypto­ generations because those who told it had no access to the tools of fascists attempting to turn the United States of America into a expression or dissemination. Computers and photocopy machines hermetically sealed 1950s timecapsule with the es the tics of a Mormon and global communications facilities changed all that. As a high tabernacle and the morality of a Nazi death cwnp. school studentlistening to tales of how Charlemagne ruledthe Franks, Through most of the 1970s, few outsiders took much notice of or how Richard the Lion Heartedled the glory-seeking andthe simple­ this backwoodscommunity. But the wnountof money beinggenerated minded off on grand crusades, I used to wonder, "But what did the by the undergroundeconomy andthe ways in which it wasbeing spent ordinary peopledo? , What kind of houses did they live in? What did (in addition to conspicuous consumption, significant amounts went tl1eyeat forbreakfast? Whal kind oflove songsdid they sing, how did into alternativeinstituti ons and green/left movements) attracted the boysand girls make themselves pretty for one another?" attention of the mass media and government authorities. This led to No one ever answered my questions. We learned of kings and a paramilitary strikeforce under the nan1e of the Campaign Against popesand the movementsof great armies, but the human beings who Marijuana Planting (CAMP), which beginning in 1983 mounted dwelt beneath the surface remained invisible, just the way that I felt annual search anddestroy missions against what had by then become asa slowly-going-insane young boyin Dwight D. Eisenhower's pre­ the region's most valuable cash crop. stressed,neatly encapsulated America of the 1950s. The local economy was devastated,families were forcedoff the That no longer has lo betrue. At any other time in history,I and land to be replaced by more mercenary growers, and a climate of everyone elseI know would have beenconsigned lo the status of serf paranoia and violence was encouraged. I had recently moved to the or peasant,deemed irrelevant to those who controlledthe workings of areain searchof peaceand quiet to do my writing, only to findmyself societyunless by someextremely unlikely chanceour talents happened in what sometimesresembled a war zone, or, more accurately, a third tocatch the eyes of our "betters." Now, forthe first time, we can not world country being stripped of its resources at gunpoint. The only tell our story, but we can make sure that it is heard. rapacious logging corporations who dominated what used to be The popular perception is that culture, or what passes for it, is known asthe RedwoodEmpire resumed their rape and ruin operations handed down from on high,· and we who exist near the base of the with a vengeance. Economic conditions enabled them to crush social pyramid are expectedto study and mimic it. In reality, culture employee unions andslash worker pay while strippingthe countryside rises from the frustratedambitions anddesperate dreamsof the most of its last viable forests. lowly, farmore so thanfrom the worlds of privilege and power. We Although I had originally planned to write novels based on my who are held at bay by mockery and intimidation need to reclaim our experiences of the 1960s and 70s, I was abruptly and unpleasantly human heritage andlo redefine our. humanity, in the same way that yanked back into the here and now. When I finally put pen, or more we who have been bornAm erican owe it to our native land to redeem accurately, typewriter to paper, it was to cry out with rage and it from the murderersand psychopaths who have seized control over frustration at what was being done to this land and tl1e people who it and who now manipulate its imagery in defense of their crimes. inhabited it. I made a lot of enemies, which I expected; what I dicbi't expect LOOKOUT: PO Box l 1374 Berkeley CA 94701 was that many of them were the peopleI thoughtI was tryingto help. Lawrence D. Livermore, Editor and Publisher Marijuana growers didn't want publicity, the quiet, retiring sorts All articles by Lawrence unless otherwise noted didn't want controversy, and the time-warp hippies tryingto pretend Design and Layout by Pat Hynes and Chris Appelgren that MendocinoCounty was a northernsuburb of the Haight-Ash bury Original Art by Chris, Pal, Ace Backwords, and John Crawford circa 1967 didn't appreciatemy constant digs atthe bloated, deformed Front and Back Covers by M monstrosity that post-hippie culture had become. Subsqi lions: Still I blundered and floundered ahead, propelled by a sense of North America: S2/this issue SI/per future issue moral outrage that too often verged on self-righteousness. I attached Europe, South America: £2 or $3 this issue, £1/S2 furnre more weight to polemics and invective than to reason and Asia, Australia S4 this issue, S3 future EBP-DA | www.eastbaypunkda.com I've never been a big flag-waver, but it still bothersme when fiveminutes ago. Although I've studied at universities, I'm largely hanging up an American flag becomes a statement in favor of mass self-taught, and as is the case with most autodidacts,there are large murderand wholesale environmental destruction. I'm just asstirred gaps in my knowledge. Anyone who takes my words as gospelis as as anyoneby the rhetoric of freedomand the rights of the individual, misguided as anyone who dismisses them as theravings of a fool. but when freedombecomes merely a codewordfor unrestrainedgreed John F. Kennedy often quoted Dante saying, "Divine justice andthe tramplingof the rights of the weak, then I have to question the weighs the sins of the warm-heartedand the sins of the cold-blooded veryfoundations of the languagethat we English-speakingAmericans in different scales." I would use the same words in defenseof my uselo read, write, speak, and think with one another. mistakes and even, on occasion, myignorance. While none of us can And I suppose that's another aspect of what I'm on about: in completely escapethe workings of our egoes,I feel safein saying that additionlo reclaiming history, I want my languageback. I'm tiredof the overriding motivation formy work is a love of humanity andthe seeingit brutalized,tw isted,drained of meaning, andused to obscure lifeforce coursing through it. rather thanreveal the truth. One of thegreatest rewards ofpublishing That said, I must admit that my greatest doubtscome from the this magazine has been its ability to appeal to young people who disparity between my vision and my reality. While I feel confident previously had littleinterest in reading or writing on any subject, let that my views of economics, politics,and history aresaner and more alone some of the fairly weighty material I cover. Kids who sleep humane than many of those currently accepted, I have never been througheconomics or history classes at schoolread what I say; kids especially successful in obtaining happiness for myself. I lead a who were flunking English class now publish their own magazines. lonely, workaholic existence, nearlythe polaropposite of thejoyous, Whether that's because they admire what I do or because they fulfillingexper ience of life that I believe is the rightful state of all figure if a bozo like me can have his own magazine, anyone can, humankint Just as charityis alleged to beginat home, so, I suspect, doesn'tmatter.