Save Your Generation

If you could save yourself, you could save us all...

This past Friday marked the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama’s promise to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. Doubtlessly a noble endeavor, Obama’s vow seemingly marked an end to the era of illegal detention and torture that had come to embody the Bush presidency. Civil libertarians rejoiced upon hearing of Obama’s plan and celebrated the dawning of a new chapter in government policy, a chapter that would most certainly be characterized by the prevalence of the rule of law and an incessant dedication to human rights.

In drawing up his plan, Obama had forgotten to take into account one key factor. He had seemingly overlooked his own lack of commitment to individual liberties and the promises he had made. Instead of honoring his word, Obama began to move in the opposite direction, censoring photographs depicting torture, maintaining secret prisons around the world and continuing illegal programs of domestic surveillance. Throughout, Obama continued to give speeches asserting his dedication to re-establish the ideals of freedom and liberty upon which this country was supposedly created. More time passed and little progress was made, yet liberals continued to champion Obama, recklessly forfeiting their own principles to support a man whom they sincerely hoped would change the violent and unlawful practices that had come to represent American Democracy.

However, Obama shattered these remnants of hope on Friday as he celebrated the one-year anniversary of his plan by not only failing to fulfill his vow, but by thrusting the knife a little deeper into the backs of onlookers in America and around the world. Friday, Obama announced the fate of the 196 prisoners remaining at the Guantanamo Bay prison, asserting that “nearly 50” of the detainees “should be held indefinitely without trial under the laws of war.” Officials claim that too little evidence exists to prosecute these detainees, but that they have been deemed too dangerous to be released. The implications of this argument are sadly humorous. These individuals will continue to be held without trial due to the fact that it cannot be proven that they ever did anything wrong. Such reasoning defies all logic and violates any rational approach to administering justice.

A more ironic and sadistic pronouncement to commemorate the anniversary of Obama’s promise to the American people could hardly be imagined. This decision further emphasizes Obama’s flagrant disregard for democratic principles and his dedication to preserving Bush-era policies. Now more than ever we need to stand up as Americans (whatever that means), as human beings and let the powers that be know that such ghastly transgressions will no longer be tolerated.

...your leap of faith could be a well-timed smile.

Can't Slow Down

I've been back to real life for less than a week and I am already starting to feel that itch for adventure and excitement.

Miles To Go

In case you're wondering where I've been for the past week and a half...






I finally finished them this morning. Find me on tour and pick one up!

Start Today

The other night my friend Matt had me tattoo him. I had no idea what I was doing and was totally horrible at it, but it was actually a lot of fun. Here's to more bad tattoos.




Skippy and Chester R.I.P.

Set it Off

I finally made it to Upstate New York after narrowly averting a few catastrophes that I won't mention here. Today, I went snowboarding for the first time in a few years. It's the first time I've gone without my friend Adam since his accident, so that was kind of weird. Regardless, it was a good time. I shredded the whole mountain, busted out a few tricks, and caught some gnarly air.

Luckily, I was able to document the day with some sub-par photographs from my cell phone.

Among the Living

The past few weeks have been kind of hectic, but the semester's finally over. I'm hoping to make some progress on a few projects I've been working on, now that I'll have some more free time. Here are some shirts I printed earlier tonight for a friend's band from Syracuse. The EP comes out in a couple weeks, check it out: http://www.myspace.com/violentsidesyr.




Here's a photo of of me with my new friend Spike I've been hanging out with the past couple of days.



You might think you're cool enough to hang with us, but you're probably wrong.

Living in Darkness

I find myself staying up later and later every night. It's becoming impossible for me to get any real work done until after the sun sets. I just finished writing an article for my zine that I'm pretty excited about, it will be probably out sometime in the next ten years. In the meantime, here are a few photos from some things I printed for a friend of mine about a week ago.





Only 3 more weeks until I can escape reality for awhile.