About Me
i live down the street from greenwood cemetery in sunset park, brooklyn. since i love cemeteries, and this one is a particularly beautiful and tranquil oasis in the middle of largely industrial south brooklyn, it's been one of my favorite places to sit and write songs, and just walk around and space out. on one of these excursions i came upon LIBERTY HILL, which, according to a plaque securely attached to a huge granite monument, is the highest point on long island, and, because of this strategic vantage, was the site of one of the most brutal and crucial battles in the revolutionary war: the battle of brooklyn!? ostensibly, american soldiers observed the british disembarking from their warships here, and uttered the famous "the redcoats are coming." this seems to correspond because from this point one can in fact enjoy a panoramic view of new york harbor, and the statue of liberty, no less. so there i sat, in this historically significant spot, around the corner from my apartment, and it occured to me how ironic and beautiful and fucked up to be sitting there, the offspring of puerto rican and irish and italian immigrants, in the middle of a neighborhood historically populated by immigrants of various persuasions, and today largely by mexican and central american immigrants all trying to make it happen for themselves and their families, while politicians are talking about legalizing torture, and perhaps even erecting a wall along the southwest border to keep those wiley wetbacks OUT! a wall? when emperor shih huang ti tried this centuries ago to protect his empire from barbarians, this was no less absurd a conceit. well if the administration pulls this one off, hopefully posterity will look upon it as the poetic, paranoid, quaint, magnificent feat it considers the chinese wall to be. anyway, back to liberty hill. what happened to the spirit of the soldiers fighting against the crown a little more than two hundred years ago? what happened to the ideals that led to documents like the declaration of independence? what the hell happened? it feels like we are in a sublimely tense moment, poised on the brink of a huge collective sneeze, the epicenter of a huge mistake that needs to be made right... it's at times like this i want to pick up my guitar.
ricky quiñones
