That’s the duty of a true priest.

To make sure young people don’t get hurt too badly in their 1st experience of the sacred.

It’s a wonderful thing to be in the presence of somebody whose consciousness is informed by the visionary world which he has experienced.

But that’s not very frequent.

I’ve been trying to write my way out of it ever since.

Bruce Springsteen talks to Elvis Costello about growing up as a Roman Catholic boy.

Words start at 7:00

Costello: We both were brought up Catholic, I believe.

Springsteen: Oh yeah.

Costello: In my case the Catholic guilt part, I used up a lot more of the guilt than the Catholic bit.

Springsteen: You did well with that.

Costello: I worked on that angle for a while.

I got to say, for a Protestant from east Belfast, Van Morrison has a lot of the Holy Ghost in him. It’s like: He can just go and I’ve seen him sing his own songs, I’ve seen him turn into the kind of abandon that you only see in the great R&B singers, the great blues singers.

Springsteen: There’s the religious element of “I need to be transformed”. For some reason you need to be transformed into something other than what you are. Catholicism is good for shooting at you, straight into your head.

But it’s a funny thing. I look back and I have a lot of harsh memories of my childhood. It was very strict religion at the time, etc. and blah, blah, blah.

But at the same time it was an epic canvas. And it gave you a sense of revelation, retribution, perdition, bliss, ecstasy. When you think that was being presented to you as a 5 or 6 year old child. I’ve been trying to write my way out of it ever since, you know.

Costello: I completely agree with you.

Springsteen: And it ain’t going to happen.

You were taught to hate yourself

But can you hate just yourself?

What about the more vulnerable in your family.

Your spouse and kids.

You have the right to squander their lives by not resisting?

This goes for franchisees as well.

Freedom is not free.

You have to take it.

Backing out the religious framework, if anyone were listening…

1. start by talking (empowering voices),
2. you are poor, no matter how much $ you have if you are impoverished in your fundamental freedoms and justice,
3. expect anger when you start to resist, and
4. you have to take your own liberation.

– James H. Cone

Do franchisees have ears to listen to James H. Cone?

Economic inequality has never been greater in North America.

Jesus’ crucifixion as a first century lynching.

1.

2.

What can people do (2. @ 7:40)

1. bear witness to the God you know,
2. hate all injustice (be enraged about it),
3. organize to fight it, and
4. join movements of justice.

– The Cross  and the Lynching Tree, James H. Cone, 2011.

I work for those with a future in franchising

The rest will be swept away.

Power never takes a back step — only in the face of more power.

The first month that an independent franchisee association survives proves that franchisees are more powerful than any franchisor.

Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. You don’t need anything else.

Maybe a little help with tactics and training…

If you got to give up your life up, let it be even-steven.

Malcolm X on the difference between House & Field Negroes.

1. House negro -few, favoured, loves master and
2. Field negro -many, hate master

Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. You don’t need anything else.

When I was born, I was black. When I grow up, I’m black. When I’m ill, I’m black. When I die, I’m black. But you – When you’re born, you’re pink. When you grow up, you’re white. When you’re ill, you’re green. When you go out in the sun, you go red. When you’re cold, you go blue. When you die, you’re purple. And you have the nerve to call me Colored?

It is incorrect to classify the revolt of the Negro as simply a radical conflict of black against white or as a purely American problem. Rather, we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter.\

I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.

Watch him on a Canadian game show broadcast on Jan 1965 called Front Page Challenge (after Mecca). The minister was slain within six weeks.