aaa ttttttt iiiii a a t i aaaaa t i a a t i a a t iiiii Welcome to ATI31. You might think our opening logo looks a little different. You're right. We're just on a low budget this week. "Pray for the dead, but fight like hell for the living" -"Mother Jones", union activist and all-arond hell raiser. Date unknown. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $ $ $ $ "Misanthropic Thoughts in Jersey" $ $ -By Ground Zero (who else?) $ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $ 1:20 PM, EST. I'm sitting in the employees' lounge, waiting to start my shift at 1:30. I tiredly rest my head in my hands, elbows resting on the table cluttered with newspapers. The 2 Jamaican men who work in the supermarket's parking lot returning carraiges are sitting opposite me. They both just quietly smile at me, in silent comprehension of my tired spirit. Her voice then penetrates other background noises in the room and grasps my attention. "Yeah, it's like, I get home and he leaves to go to work. It's hard", she says, in her loud Jersey vernacular. Her voice is biting, and annoying, just as her words. "Yeah, he works as a police officer. And we never get to see each other. My husband loves his job, and sometimes when he has the night off he gets called in! "And you know I get a maid to come in sometimes. But she doesn't clean. When I clean, I CLEAN", she says with a neurotic toss of the head. I recall seeing the same toss of the head delivered with the same words stated by some of my Italian relations. I shook my head in silent contempt and looked at my two Jamaican companions. They shook their heads in agreement. I got up, went downstairs and punched in. The work day went by slowly, as my thoughts preoccupied me. Thoughts of my troubles, my friends' troubles, and what the future would bring. And all the the while, I catered to the suburban ego looking for baked goods. Finally, it was 9:40. Time to clean out the bins of unsold rolls. A lot of rolls today. I worked hurriedly to take out the unsold rolls and throw them in garbage bags. They would be thrown away. I thought of the many people who went hungry each night, and the rolls and donuts that would be thrown into the grabage compactor. I conteplated the illogic of waste, and the injustice of a human being going hungry as I tossed the rolls into a garbage bag inside a shopping cart next to me. Then, a sound grabbed my attention. An annoying, unpleasant sound. It was the sound of gum snapping. I looked up and saw the "officer's wife" at the other end of the aisle. "Hey!!", she shouted between gum snappings at a young man working behind the deli counter. "What are you going to do?" She walked over to the deli counter and leaned over it. She was several years older than the young man she was speaking to, and I thought her display to be rather distasteful. As she talked to him she leaned closer towards him. Then, she pranced away, and after advancing about 50 feet away from the counter shouted, "As they say, it's your move", obviously straining her limited intellect for the words. Another young man who worked in the produce dept. walked up to her and told her he couln't go drinking with her, as he had an early class the next day. I simply shook my head, wheeling the carraige full of rolls to be discarded into the corner. Quitting time. I walked through the employees' parking lot towards my car. Something then sped past me. It was a brand-new IROC driven by one of my fellow employees, blasting a Bon Jovi song through its open window. The driver shouted something at a group congregated by another car as she passed. Then, my loud-mouthed, gum-snapping friend drove past me with the young man from the deli in her passenger seat. She drove by in a brand-new Cadillac sedan. Must be why she felt such a dire need to work. That's why she kept complaining about not being able to survive and a policeman's salary. "You don't own that car. The car and what it represents seem to own you. But I guess that's ok with you. Then again, I doubt that you could comprhend this", I said quietly as I glanced at the taillights of the Cadillac. I got into my car and drove onto the main thouroughfare. 10:20 PM. Bored and restless, I decided to go for a ride. I drove to a local suburban mall. The mall was closed, but I went to the arcade that adjoined it. As I parked my car, I saw a group of the usual "mall rats" that were part of the mall's and arcarde's usual decor. The males of the group wore ragged jeans, concert t-shirts, bandandas, and donned leather or denim jackets. The girls wore similar garb, although many of them wore spandex tiger-striped pants, making them look like refugees from the latest MTV video by Guns and Roses. I walked into the arcade and played a few games on the one pinball machine I had acquired skill. I became bored quickly, and decided to take a short walk around the arcade before I moved on to another equally fascinating sight. As I explored the arcade, I ran into Joe, and old acquantence from the arcade. "Hey Joe", I said as I walked towards him. "Hi..Whatcha been up to?", he asked, brushing back his curly black hair. "Uh, not much. Working in a supermarket. You working these days?", I inquired, already knowing the answer. "Nah. Haven't for a while." "How old are you now? 25?" "Yeah, somewhere around there..", said Joe. "You can't hang out forever." "I know. But I want to while I can." "You're a very intelligent, attractive guy. It's a waste for you to just hang around here", I said, knowing that saying it wouldn't make a rat's ass of difference. "I know." "Hey, I gotta get home. Take care, Joe", I said as I headed towards the exit. 12:05 AM. I grew weary, but my restlessness urged me to drive on. I got onto the highway, deciding I would visit a friend in Bayonne who I knew kept late nights. As I drove towards Jersey City, I passed several billboads advertising various products, including newly built condos in the area. Gentrification. I knew those condos were making homes for the Yuppies who found it more eonomically feasible to live right across the river from New York City. And I knew the condos used to be apartments belonging to working class/poor people. But not anymore. They were evicted to make room for a more profitable venture for the landlords. I drove past the main train terminal in Jersey City and stopped for a red light. I lowered my window and gazed at the dozen or so homeless people sleeping on the concrete floor outside of the train station. Two of the transients were standing within earshot by the street's edge. One of them asked a woman passing by them for some change. "Why don't you get a fucking job", snarled the middle-aged woman in a loud, brash Jersey accent. "Always looking for a fucking handout, you people". The light changed. As I drove away, I wondered if it had occurred to the lower-middle class woman that she could soon be in the same position as the two unfortunates she had coldly denied. Doubtful. As I drove into Bayonne, I noticed a police car following me. It stayed behind me for about twenty blocks, then pulled up next to me while I was stopped at a light. The officer driving the car glanced at me. I returned his glance, and the light changed. He turned around and drove away. I was not surprised, as for some reason police officers often enjoyed observing me. I continued on to my friend's house, and noticed his car wasn't outside. He wasn't home. I usually would call to announce my visit beforehand, but was glad I hadn't tonight. If I had learned he wasn't home, I would have driven home early and in a more sullen mood than I was in. I pulled my car over on one of Bayonne's more busier streets and got out of the car to stetch out a bit. As I stood outside the car, a car full of the local stock of Italian guys drove past me. One of the many occupants of the car mooned me as another shouted, "Hey, baby!!". I waved them off tiredly and got back in my car. I drove on the highway towards home, passing the vast industrial plants that lined the highway. The smoke from the many buildings filled the sky. I sighed, and took a deep breath of the toxic air. My car drove onwards, onto Newark's city streets. As my journey came to a close, I passed by a New Jersey Bell central office, where 2 months before I had spotted a tall young man going though papers in the trash dumpster in the buliding's parking lot. The building had since became enclosed in a barbed wire fence, with signs in Englsh and Spanish saying, "New Jersey Bell. Private Property. No Trespassing". I laughed, and drove home.. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ...And here's 3 letters that can make your day a little less happy: FBI. Some news on the FBI: It seems that they plan to expand their database to include such things as credit card transactions, telephone calls, and airline passenger lists. Organizations such as Coputer Professionals for Social Responsibility are trying to stop this from being implemented. More on this in future issues. Remeber a small country in Cental America called El Salvador? Their civil war is far from over, and it looks as though the leftist rebels are geting closer to a military victory over the US-gov't backed puppet government currently in power. Our President-elect George Bush seems to have 2 chioces in this situation: either legitimately deal with the leftists who may very well win over the country, or adopt an escalation of the current US policy towards El Salvador: to adopt a policy of "total war" again. Those of you who wish to gain a better understanding of our government's policy towards Third World nations like El Salvador, read up on it. And go to your video store and rent a film called "Salvador". It's a fictional movie that's rather entertaining, and enlightening. and now...... a few words from fah-q well it seems that i was driving here in ct.the other night. i went past the subbase here in groton the other night and as always i yelled fascist at the guards at the gate.the guards got into their "rent a cop"car and followed me down the road with their lights and siren on.once on the main road the groton town police joined the paraide with their lights on too.i didn't stop and we drove to ledyard one town over and a ledyard cop joined in.i turned on to a side street and stoped.the groton and ledyard police got out and told the base cops never to use their lights in town. well the big day came and i went to court.the judge read the charges to me and asked if i had anything to say i said "oh yes i do....you can take that ticket and shove it so far your eyes buldge" you know i can have your base privliges taken away for that he said.well guess what your nazi'ness sir..i have none and i was off your base when your nazi goons grabed me i said.you meen to tell me you were off base when you were stoped.we have no power off base and securiety should not be off base.i'll talk to them. all n all it was a fun time for all i think. fah-q look for the NEW ati we will be going to a new format.once a mounth and only to our host boards.we want to have 10 host's so if you want to host us drop a line to the ati bro box. flashflashflashflashflashflashflash THERE IS A NEW HOST BOARD... THE PHOENIX PROJECT. THIS IS A REALY COOL AND HAPPINING BOARD.THEY HAVE ALL THE BACK ISSUES AND WERE THE FIRST TO GET THIS ISSUE!!!!!! SO GIVE THEM A CALL WHEN YOU BOARD HOP TONIGHT! CALL THESE AWE--FISH-Y'ALL ATI HOST BOARDS: THE PHOENIX PROJECT 512-441-3088 TALES GALLERY 203-834-0367 AT-TELL 812-446-2881 AUTO-BAHN 703-629-4422 AT THE PROMPT TYPE CENTRAL AND LEAVE FEEDBACK FOR ACCESS. PEACENET 415-923-0900 CALL THIS ONE VOICE FOR MORE INFO WELL THAT'S IT FOR ATI ISSUE 31 LOOK FOR US NEXT MONTH OR SOONER IF THE NEED ARISES.