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| Preparing Your Gift: The WCS Timeline |
A Weekly Note Addendum released April 14th 2014.
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I hope that you have received Weekly Note #85: The Cult, the Council and The End by now and have read all of it. It was the last of the Weekly Notes, and a very fitting end to them it was, I believe.
I have also written and released a few addendum's here on my blog. They are The WCS Mafia and, my favorite, My Problem with Points (the article in which I name The Ten).
I love them and wish I'd said a lot of it much, much earlier in this three year race. But much of it I had not formed into words yet, and some of it I clearly wasn't aware of until just now, including the illegality of the harassment and violence against not only myself, but anyone who merely clicked "like" on anything remotely in favor of swing, good music, better instruction and fair judging over the last few years.
I love them and wish I'd said a lot of it much, much earlier in this three year race. But much of it I had not formed into words yet, and some of it I clearly wasn't aware of until just now, including the illegality of the harassment and violence against not only myself, but anyone who merely clicked "like" on anything remotely in favor of swing, good music, better instruction and fair judging over the last few years.
So I sit here today, as I have done so very often over the last year, wondering how I could have lost so much of my life to this, well... death parade. I don't know what else to call it. Of course, I've probably seen the worst of it. Many people chose to leave our corner of swing after...
the 1998 US Open, then in 2002 with the loss of Kenny Wetzel, good music and the formation of The Ten by Jack Carey, Annie Hirsch and Sarah Vann Drake. Exodus after exodus until a still sort of silence for about one single decade.
Then came my very first article, The Nissy, which shook things up. People started thinking again. People started waking up. Then came the dramatic public violence in November 2011, December 2011 and pretty much every month on a consistent basis since then, mostly on Facebook (lawsuit pending). People were shocked. Nothing was being done to stop any of it. No changes were being made anywhere regarding anything...
So people left.
And left, and left and left. People like me, that is. What you see now at conventions is everything and everyone that's left. Abstract. And... well, I'll get to that in my upcoming follow-up to The Time Has Come.
But those people would have stayed. Oh, how they wanted to! Had anyone single leader other than myself acted upon The Time Has Come - took it seriously and chosen to do the right thing to save the dance - people would not have begun leaving again. But they didn't. Even those who agreed with us, they still didn't act. That used to confuse me. It doesn't anymore. And that's what I plan on sharing with you soon.
But oh, how lucky all those people are who left. They spared themselves so much!
Then came my very first article, The Nissy, which shook things up. People started thinking again. People started waking up. Then came the dramatic public violence in November 2011, December 2011 and pretty much every month on a consistent basis since then, mostly on Facebook (lawsuit pending). People were shocked. Nothing was being done to stop any of it. No changes were being made anywhere regarding anything...
So people left.
And left, and left and left. People like me, that is. What you see now at conventions is everything and everyone that's left. Abstract. And... well, I'll get to that in my upcoming follow-up to The Time Has Come.
But those people would have stayed. Oh, how they wanted to! Had anyone single leader other than myself acted upon The Time Has Come - took it seriously and chosen to do the right thing to save the dance - people would not have begun leaving again. But they didn't. Even those who agreed with us, they still didn't act. That used to confuse me. It doesn't anymore. And that's what I plan on sharing with you soon.
But oh, how lucky all those people are who left. They spared themselves so much!
But no, I didn't leave. I chose to stay. I chose to fight. And here we are, almost three years after The Time Has Come. What a fool I was. What a fool I have been. How I regret ever learning the dance of West Coast Swing. Some will argue this, but I believe I have wasted a full 20 years of my life. I have to start over. And I will. I am. I am wrapping the last bow on this chest of memories, preparing to let them float away, far from me, but available to you...
Here is your challenge - here is what is coming:
If you have read that article, The Time Has Come, I recommend you read it again. I made some predictions about what might happen, depending on the road the WCS community chose to take. In fact, I recommend you read everything I've written for WCS, in its whole, in preparation for the WCS Revolution's three year mark.
I think it will make a difference.
Actually, I know it will make a difference.
I promise.
To aid you, I have started releasing all of my Weekly Notes that were not yet available to you until now. To help you keep track of them, I am listing all of them by both number and name on both my website's Archive page and this blog's Weekly Notes page. Some of the names have been changed to better fit the content, but the numbers and the work (writings) remain the same.
Use these complete lists to make sure you are fully informed - fully educated. Lying is a way of life in the WCS world - it is imperative that you read my material and judge it for yourselves. It does not benefit me in any way, really, but the benefits for you are tremendous. Learn what all the fuss is about. Be the one that knows everything and everyone, and you will have the power to see things more clearly and do things that really matter and make a difference.
I started releasing these Weekly WCS Note lists as well as a number of the missing Notes on this blog a couple of weeks ago. I still have much to release, but am well on my way to finishing it all by May. Some of you have noticed.... Well, that's not quite true...
All of you have noticed! My world map has never been so lit up as it has been these last few weeks. You are learning and growing. I can feel it. Those of you already on the hunt - I salute you. You treasure this knowledge as much as I do and you take care of it just as I do.
I love the WCS Timelines you are making - outlining what Note was released when - and how the community changed or shifted and how it all, all, all! lights up and falls into place. Just. like. so. The pieces of the puzzle fit. These three years changed our lives. And opened our eyes. And I was right. About everything. What comes next?
As I wrote the WCS Mafia, I thought up the idea of writing down a list of names for you and what crimes they have committed. After three names, a million more spilled out before me and I saw them all, all wrapped up in their dirty little lives and I realized - oh!?!!! - how I realized who I had become by associating with these people!
But you see, I saw them individually. And I would see everyone that was around them when I first met them, and I would forget that those people had all gone and it was just this one criminal that was left... And I would see an event in my head, and the criminals were mostly a handful and only at the top... I wouldn't line them up with the shady ones from other events. Other associations. Other communities. But when I started to make a list, too many popped out and...
My eyes were opened. Again. Again! I wonder what you will see when you take this walk with me?
I know many of us are wondering how in the hell we ever got here. How did we become who we are? How did this UCLA honors graduate and decorated inner-city school teacher end up here? Writing for those who don't deserve the ink in her pen? How did we lose the dance? When so many of us wanted to save it?
I'm not alone. Perhaps you are one such person. Perhaps you are one such council or community or club. But I have, through this walk, finally come up with the answers. I finally see it all. Why we slipped. Why we fell. Why we held on to something else, and let the dance go. And that is what I will share on the anniversary of The Time Has Come.
Until then, I invite you to guess what I will say on that anniversary. If you read it all from top to toe, from first to last, I'm sure you can pull up The Time Has Come one last time... and see what I see. Live through me. See through me. Walk with me... and be free.
My dearest love to the worthy,
My deepest sorrow to the fallen,
My fiercesome fire to the guilty,
Katherine
PS - Share your homework! Word Groups - you have a new assignment! WCS Timelines. See what falls out of the tree when you shake it... enjoy!
