Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso said, “Art is a lie that tells the truth.” Erica knows about all of Picasso's wives. I've got a desire to be Liberal in order to rise above Where I'm From, so I think about Colin Powell covering up Guernica, Picasso's painting of the horrors of the bombing of that town during the Spanish Civil War as a symbolic gesture when announcing that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, which the people I was hanging out with at the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice says wasn't true. Powell was like Pontius Pilate washing his hands while knowing he had to crucify Jesus, who was too good for the world. Pilate had to keep his position in the Roman Empire. He had wives and children and slaves to provide for. He had to think about government bureaucracy: taxes; rations for soldiers... He had spent as much time as he could with this ragged rebel named Jesus. Life had to be got on with. Colin Powell was like Pontius Pilate in this case. Colin Powell, the first black U.S. Secretary of State, (or was it Joint Chief of Staff? I'm not cute anymore. These things aren't cute for a 32-year-old.) he had to keep his job, he had to prove himself. He had a family to support.

Was it Powell's idea to cover Guernica? Did it really happen or was it a lie told by The Liberal Media that in some circles Isn't Liberal Enough, and is only As Liberal as the Corporations who Sponsor it? Our pampered American middle class can't stomach the bombing of some poor country. It is only those who do the Real Work in the Real America, who can entertain themselves by going home after boring Accounting 101A at the community college to “watch the war.” It's only the pampered, namby-pamby bleeding heart liberal dropout from the state university, where she drifted around talking to homeless people and arguing with leaders of various religious Student Unions, when she wasn't trying to attend classes and Date and be a normal young adult student, which was pretty hard, considering her religious upbringing, and who will never be a Woman who Submits to her Hard-Working Husband and forgets the smart stuff because she'll never make it in the Real World and when she lives in an apartment on the same street as a Planned Parenthood, she can't shut up about it. Sometimes she talks about Planned Parenthood like she's some kind of rebel to live near it, just like the kid at the community college talks about Watching the War. She gets All Upset and adds as an email signature to her email a quote from Michael Moore: “War is fun when you know you won't die.”

It's fun to talk about Planned Parenthood like it makes me all bad-ass when I'm trying to make it with – Enter Alcoholic Navajo Artist Baby Daddy Stage Right. “Planned Parenthood's right there!” I say when he says, “I don't want kids!” and any Cognitive Behavioral therapist I might have at the time would say, “What is your goal here? What are you trying to accomplish? Isn't there a Healthier Person you could Get Involved With? I thought we were working on you having Healthy Relationships?”

So yeah, I'm doing something Dear Daddy was never brave enough to do: Skewer my own Liberal Hypocrisy. It's had a high cost. Losing My Job. Fuck my job. Time to move to Carlsbad and Get Married. Or get my ass in gear and get an A in this Medical Coding class. Yeah, it's not the Art Institute of Chicago.

My step-aunt the College Professor emailed me that she didn't like the Michael Moore quote: “War is fun when you know you wont die,” in case you don't remember, because I'm trying to circle back to my original topic. And what about Colin Powell. I'm sure Powell's heard about Angela Davis and The Black Panthers. But he knows he Can't Function in That World. They fight Their War; he fights His War. He's Uncle Tom; he's the House Nigger, but there's a place for him there. Say what you will. Observe. Describe. Participate. It won't make you Cool. It won't make you a Rebel. My friend Jaime who Hears Voices isn't trying to be Cool. Neither is my friend Laura Hughes who is very Christian, and fuck what anybody says about it. She divorced her husband because he wanted to have sex but she didn't, and she went along with it, but then she heard of Marital Rape. Mozie says women don't like sex. But they lie about it. I think she could be right. How could someone live to be 91 without learning a thing or two about life? She's no or Daniel Barrigan, so Dear Daddy wouldn't want to sit in her humble kitchen and roll around on her yellow chairs and drink coffee and read the Dallas Morning News.

Asher Lev, the Hasidic Jewish boy in My Name is Asher Lev, wanted to be like Pablo Picasso. He found a way. When we were in New York with my dad, I pointed out an Hasidic man to my brother, the tall man distinguished in his black hat, dark suit, and payos, my brother said, “Oh, I just thought he was Amish or something.”