07-01-05 Defending the Minutemen (the real ones)

Recently, a group of anti-immigration (or, as they would call it "anti ILLIGAL ALIEN") advocates have taken the name "The Minutemen Project".

I resent this. Not in the least because their rhetoric are so blatantly racist. ("Historians will write about how a lax America let its unique and coveted form of government and society sink into a quagmire of mutual acrimony among the various sub-nations that will comprise the new self-destructing America.")

The parallel to apartheid is worth mentioning. I have to recommend this article, which is a very good primer on how South Africans locked out the black workforce, with the intent of protecting white jobs, but with the result of an historical scale of economic oppression. Coincidently, under the "colour bar", blacks were not legally allowed to live within a reasonable distance from the minim operations, thus the crime of illegal residency was used to keep the black worker out. It should also be noted that the mining capitalists in South Africa, much like modern US employers, were eager to hire the less costly labor.

But, that isn't what I wanted to write about this morning. No. The real reason that I resent the Minutemen project is that they have stolen their name from a much more important contemporary social factor - namely, the Minutemen, a 1980s punk band from San Pedro featuring the talents of D.Boone, George Hurley, and the greatest bass player of all time, Mike Watt.

Recently, my brother turned me on to corndogs.org, a site devoted to the Minutemen (as well as some sprinklings of Mike Watt's other bands). So, I've been watching Minutemen videos and listening to concerts. I found some old Minutemen tapes and was playing them in my car this morning, and got one stuck in my head.

I believe when they found the body of general George A. Custer
quilled like a porcupine with indian arrows,
he didn't die with any honor, any dignity, nor any valor.

I wouldn't doubt when they found George A. Custer
an american general patriot and indian fighter,
he died with shit in his pants.

Now, those are the minutemen I like.

(Lyrics from "The Punch Line" By D.Boon)