Taking a Walk Through Quarantine Culture: engaging the American conscience and approach to armed con

This July Omar and I will celebrate 20 years of marriage. We have also been living in California for almost as long. It’s mild to say the California we live in now is changed from the California we encountered in 2001, but folks could probably say the same for any of the States in the Republic these days. Omar and I were married in July 2000 and moved to California in May 2001…so I guess that means one year from the day I sit writing this article for The Scat, Omar and I will be able to celebrate our second 20th anniversary…our 20th anniversary as Californians. Yes. This is a thing. Between the two of us, Omar and I have lived in a multitude of places in the United States and Canada. At this point in our lives we have both lived in California longer than any other place. Whether California likes it or not, we are Californians, certainly more than we are anything else besides American. From this perspective I feel qualified to talk about the things I’m about to discuss, while I also accept that it may not be in the best interest of my personal safety when I am out and about in the World. If there is one thing I have learned about California culture it’s that it is widely vicious, petty, greedy, vindictive, manipulative, deceitful and violent, more so than any other place I have lived. Am I saying that either I or Omar embody these attributes? No. It would be bias, xenophobic and self-loathing to say that ALL Californians embody any of these traits, and most certainly false. However, I can say with certainty that a large portion of the people I have encountered while living in California have been nothing short of predatory in a variety of capacities. It has not been pleasant, though the sunshine remains so, and it has helped to bring us to the specific point at which we find ourselves as forty-something Americans in today’s World of Corona Virus, indefinite quarantine, and vanishing Constitutional Rights. It has ultimately brought us to The Kitty Pants Ranch.

When we first purchased the property I had a slightly different vision for the model our home and business would follow. I had originally reached out to my alma mater in Detroit to partner in a program for summer enrichment for serious Art students, but the institution was not interested unless in addition to offering meals, lodging, materials and education, I would also pay an hourly wage. It just wasn’t appropriate or financially possible, and it both surprised and disappointed me. But, like the artist I am, I went back to the drawing board and finally arrived at the point we find ourselves now. I still have respect for the education I received from my alma mater, and for the education they still offer to serious Art students, but I did lose some respect for some individuals. Not that big of a deal for me in the long run…really, it’s their loss, as far as I can see. Something I know and understand about myself is I am able to take negative experience and situations and make something better than good of it. It’s not being handed lemons and making lemon aid. Lemons aren’t negative, and I don’t like lemon aid (the drink or Beyonce’s bastardization of one of my early original concept albums). It’s more like ordering a ton of chocolate and having a ton of horse shit delivered instead…but recognizing the horse shit to be good fertilizer and growing a field of food and flowers while the people who sent the shit are forced to eat fast food or starve. Just to be clear, it doesn’t make me happy to see this kind of thing happen, and there is little to no satisfaction to be had. I would much rather see people thrive through honesty and integrity than suffer through greed and deceit, but ultimately that is neither here nor there. What’s important is the who, what, when, where, how and why of our current endeavors on The Kitty Pants Ranch. It has nothing to do with adventure or self indulgence and everything to do with proactive and productive innovation.

After my initial disappointment I took a long hard look at all my experiences, assessed what I learned, and evaluated what would be the most effective and culturally beneficial way to move forward to meet my needs, the needs of the property and the needs of my Country. Based on what I learned through action and observation in jobs, volunteer work and the abuses and experiences of being taken advantage of financially, creatively, sexually, spiritually, politically and physically over the past 19+ years in California, I made some choices. I decided I wanted to reach out to and offer support to US military veterans and college students. I decided I wanted to continue to pursue my Art, Music and Dance. And, I also wanted to protect and support, in the most sustainable way possible, the delicate and precarious wildlife and ecosystems of the California landscape I have come to so fiercely Love and respect. For two years I observed the patterns and cycles of the seasons on the property, assessed and prioritized needs, and projected plans for our futures and the future of the property. We made some repairs and I drafted a contract, and here we are.

Briefly, this is The Kitty Pants Ranch operating model: in exchange for 20 hours a week (per person) of work on the property, we provide housing and meals (on work days) with opportunity to partner in future creative and business endeavors for financial profit. We advertised and gave priority to applicants who were US military veterans and/or college students enrolled a minimum of half time at an accredited University. Steven Wise and his girlfriend, Deanna Kainz, applied and were ultimately awarded the contract. We had several applicants. Steven is a US Army Infantry veteran of the Afghan conflict, and current student at West Valley Community College. Deanna is a naturalist and works a local part time job. Earlier today, in preparation to write this article, I sat down with Steven to discuss the dynamics of our living situation and the events and politics that brought us all together for this mutually beneficial, innovative and culturally relevant arrangement. I wanted to discuss my observations and conclusions with him and ask a few questions to gain additional perspective before spouting my mind. After all, I believe in journalistic and artistic integrity. Without doing proper research and due diligence my article would be nothing more than a self-indulgent ramble, and that is definitely not what I’m about. I never have been.

Over the years my experience and observation has shown me that the majority of people chanting, “Support our Vets!” do so for self-serving and exploitive reasons and offer little if any actual support of or understanding of veterans. In addition, there is little respect for the Constitution enlisted persons are ultimately supposedly protecting. War is rarely popular and those who engage in the practice statistically are left floundering at rates as high as, or higher than unmarried women. That’s saying more than a mouthful when the reality for women in America for the past decade has been that women are the fastest growing population of incarcerated people in the Country by the Nation. Even popular media, the same popular media that has been extolling and serving up the “Me Too” movement (don’t get me started on those rubes), has opted to aggrandize the oppression rather than respectfully and intellectually engage and address the issues by further monetizing women’s sexuality with soft-core media like Orange Is The New Black. I understand the series is/was based on an actual woman’s life. However, it is not a documentary and I academically argue the series is a gratuitous money maker on the backs of lesbian sexuality. If the series is something you helped make and/or enjoy, I ask you to reflect on whether you’d feel the same about it if it took place in the juvenile justice or male side of the prison system. Be honest. Sex is used as currency in the prison system in general. That is established fact. OITNB is popular only because it showcases woman on woman action, not because it raises awareness of the rising oppression of women and femininity in popular culture. That is a huge exploitation I can not abide, particularly as a sexual assault survivor and person born with ovaries, uterus and vagina. Like those of us with vaginas, veterans all too frequently get “fucked” by the very people who espouse to Love and support us and those people frequently make a lot of money off the exploitation. It’s called being a pimp and a pimp is a slave owner by definition.

Through out the World, if you take a random sampling of the homeless on any street you will find mostly military veterans, unmarried or widowed women, and children. I’m not talking about only the US. It’s just, I’m an American and my personal experience is limited to the streets of the United States, so that’s my focus of concern.

While participating as a facilitating volunteer for an annual National event called Art Break Day organized by Art Is Moving, I met a Taliban veteran living as a homeless person on the streets of Oakland, CA. He told me his mother helped get him out of service to the Taliban and brought him with her when she fled Afghanistan and the Taliban to come to America. In the almost two hours I spent with him drawing at my table in Oakland’s Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, we prayed together and he told me he was a defector, he loved his mother, missed the former beauty of his Country of origin, and that he was “too dirty” to sleep under his mother’s roof so he did outdoor chores for her and slept on the street. What did he draw, you might wonder. He drew a very child-like image of a blue vase filled with red opium poppies. When he finished his drawing he stood up and pushed the drawing across the table towards me, telling me they were for me and that he was leaving to go sweep his mother’s front porch and water her garden. He had one tooth in his mouth that I could see — one of the big front teeth. He was probably around the same age as me and he was obviously grateful to be in this Country regardless of his Nationality or past. A short time after he left a white man also around the same age as me exhibiting signs of meth use sat down at the table. The day was hot and he was wearing a winter coat and had bare feet. As he sat down he placed a box cutter on the table next to his paper and proceeded to draw images of people bleeding from their eyes, mouths and ears. Poverty is a terrible enemy and war is a strange comfort.

If you are interested in learning more about the model we are pioneering on The Kitty Pants Ranch I am interested in hearing from you. I am open to consultation and the possibility of networking with other Americans looking for new and sustainable ideas for personal and public economic stability that truly aims to support the US veteran community and women. Isn’t it a terrible truth that it is taking a virus to heal the wounds of Global greed? What did Steven have to say about his experience to date with The Kitty Pants Ranch? He said he was very “grateful for the opportunity.” And I am grateful to have both he and Deanna as part of our burgeoning community and culture.