Today while researching the 1960s-era Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, I encountered the work of the photographer Danny Lyons, who embedded with them for a chunk of the 1960s. He’s still active on Instagram. I started scrolling his page and found his stridency on a bunch of issues (Jimmy Carter, fascism, the fires in Altadena) notably eloquent and unashamed.
This post and picture particularly stopped me short. I don’t necessarily agree with Lyons, but I think this bitter paragraph captures a deep rage that crosses a lot of our self-spiting nation today:
FREE LUIGI. Link in bio:Heroic Corporate assassin surrenders. McDonalds customer rats him out. The Russian Revolution was proceeded by waves of assassinations of the instruments of the Czar. Our young hero’s target was corporate greed. Greed, a deadly sin, is destroying our country and destroying Mother Earth. Malcolm said “The Ballot or the Bullet”. The ballot has failed us for decades. The gap in income is unprecedented and off the charts. A clerk at my Walgreens just said, “Why do they want so much money? When they die they will all burn in hell”. Good idea. The picture is from I Like to Eat Right on the Dirt.
