Earl Kemp On Censorship & Politics

Continuing my talk with Earl Kemp (Intro, and part one, on science fiction).

SPS: What are you proudest accomplishments?

Earl: Being totally surveillied by law-enforcement for an unbearable ten years before they figured out how to arrange my "downfall." You can't imagine what it feels like to not be able to use a telephone or to receive an unopened and preread letter...to have numbers of people following your every step anywhere in the world. Millions of dollars of public funds spent for...personal amusement of a political few. From Nixon to Mitchell to Rhenquist...criminals all...me no. Much like the Presidential Medal of Honor.

SPS: Was the arrest & time served a relief after all of that?

Earl: Absolutely. Being in prison was extremely rewarding because of the closeup view of what it was really like as opposed to all the myths. Very bad officials doing very bad things for enormous personal profits. Very much like those wonderful people in DC running the world at the expense and lives of others and again only for personal corporate profits and even that for multi nationals...not for the US at all.

Everyone should have the opportunity of gaining such enlightenment.

SPS: Did it continue afterwards too?

Earl: For a while. I can still remember when it stopped because there was such sudden silence and everything felt remarkably as if I had moved to another country permanently, so unlike living under a microscope.

The most difficult part of it all to accommodate was the knowledge that it had taken them ten full years of totally illegal intensely close observation to finally frame a downfall. And all that time I thought they were my best protectors, knowing absolutely every minute thing about me and not being able to find anything actionable. Mindblowing!

SPS: Do you think you are still on lists?

Earl: Isn't everyone? What do you think the Patriot Act is? Homeland Security? Do you follow the news of all the illegal FBI wiretaps nationwide? Do you not know that all email is monitored?

However, my paranoia is no longer in charge but I can still spot an undercover Fed by odor, long before they come into sight.

I lived cross-border US/Mexico and witnessed time and time again Federales handing over drugs to Feds for distribution and mutual profit. Big massive shipments...not your dime bag common prisoner.

SPS: Ever consider moving to another country?

Earl: I lived in Mexico for over 20 years. It was indescribably wonderful.

SPS: If it was so wonderful, why leave?

Earl: A horrible thing called NAFTA screwed it up unbelievably. Forcing it, in just a few short years, to mirror image everything that is bad/wrong with the USA. Gone instantly were most of the local products, customs, including even the cuisine. Now nothing that was good about it remains, all having been replaced overnight with Wal-Marts, CostCos, MacDonalds (they all sell individual bottles of beer through the drive through windows), Starbucks and everything one normally goes on vacation to avoid.

And an incredible amount of red tape, forms to fill out, documents, and finally passports for all US citizens wanting to pass beyond that incredibly ugly, fortresslike wall. "Mr. Gorbachov, tear down this wall!" The Federales replaced by US Feds, spying on innocent tourists...

I could go on and on but my Mexico no longer exists. It looks like suburban NYC and smells worse.

Not an edible taco in sight.

Every poisonous, forbidden to sell in the US food item, long stored in warehouses just waiting for an excuse to ship them across the border and flood the Mexican market and drive away all those delightful things most people won't remember five years from now.

Reason enough?

It works for me.

SPS: Anything you'd like a do-over on?

Earl: Yes, most of it. I'd be noticeably more aggressive....

SPS: That's most intriguing.

Earl: I was Wimp #1. Naive. Trusting. Commonplace. Patriot.

To be continued...

Resources:

The Illustrated Presidential Report Of The Commission on Obscenity & Pornography, Earl Kemp, editor.

Sadomasochism in Comics: A History of Sex and Violence in Comic Books, Greenleaf Classics, by Hans Siden, introduction by Donald H. Gilmore, Ph.D.

All photos from Earl Kemp & his zine; used with written permission.