I finally started reading
George Christie's new book Exile on Front Street. It is freaking awesome. The preface contains that quote about Outlaws I previously posted:
"People confuse the outlaw and the criminal. Some outlaws commit crimes, but the real outlaw isn’t a criminal by trade. He’s someone who refuses to live by society’s established norms of behavior. He has an internal code and answers only to his own sense of honor and right and wrong. The outlaw doesn’t conform; he rebels. He doesn’t accept; he questions. In the end, the outlaw might change and adapt, but he bends for no man and won’t let his life be defined by someone else. Jesse James was an outlaw but so was Albert Einstein. I’ve been many things - father, son, husband, leader, brother, and friend - but through it all, I was always an outlaw."
That sets the stage quite effectively. In the introduction he states "Undercover cops and informants who have written about the club paint members with one brush. In those books, we're one dimensional criminal scum. Most outlaws who write about the life are just as bad. According to them we are heroic freedom fighters living only to ride." He then explains it's not all black and white which is very true. You simply can't stereotype everyone in anything.
His book is worth reading. He is someone I can endorse. The movie he made,
the Last American Outlaw was profound and has inspired me to embark on three separate adventures starting this summer. The book is helpful because he addresses the betrayal of being out out in bad after he left the club and about
being falsely accused of being a police informant when he wasn't. He tries to remind us what the dream originally was. As Pink Floyd once said,
take heed of the dream.
Easy Rider Update:
What I'm talking about is very simple. There is no need to overthink it or misinterpret it.
I'm talking about Easy Rider not Sons of Anarchy. There were no patches in Easy Rider. Just riding free with the wind in your face leaving all the fears and concerns behind you in the dust as you ride off into the sunset. It's embracing life
like a Bat outta Hell. It's Steppenwolf's
Born to be Wild. It's Steppenwolf's
God Dam the Pusher. It's supporting a free republic. That's
what I'm talking about.

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Be advised that this blog will move forward not backward. Lead, follow or get out of the way.