Michael E Sparks – Nazi Sympathizer

Just some rambling thoughts to whomever might follow my exploits. We are currently in the middle of dealing with a family tragedy. I am not going to get deep into my personal life in this forum, but I wanted to tell anyone worried about us that no one is dead. I am pretty much in a state of shock right now, so do not expect good grammar, punctuation or stellar prose. I do however consider my extended family, you, the ones who are reading this, to be of the utmost importance, so I wanted to keep you abreast of what’s been going on.

The last few weeks have been pretty insane. As some of you may know, out of complete frustration with the corporate media, I decided to start my own media company, Activist Media. I did this by, well, I’m not sure. We didn’t have any money except the money we had for bills. We spent that money on film equipment, borrowed a car (both ours broke down in July) and hit the road, recording interviews with Progressive activists in 24 cities. It was magical and it turns out I have a knack for it. And when I say “I”, I am completely discounting Carrie, my partner, and now First-Assistant Director of our rag-tag film team. I literally could not do anything without her. But with her, we turned out to be okay as a film team, learning a lot as we went, with a better idea of what we need to learn before we go back on the road again in December. We’d love to have just staid on the road doing interviews, but we ran out of money and also we had to get home to our parental duties as a new school year was starting.

Why did we go out on the road like that, two non-filmmakers suddenly dubbing themselves as filmmakers and then just going out and interviewing people?

Mental illness is the obvious answer. I say that only half-joking. Someone could make the claim that I often choose passionate choices over logical ones, but what are you going to do? Work in a fucking cubicle until you die? I’d rather do my best to make the world a better place and be broke, than to be rich and unfulfilled. Thankfully these are not the only two choices we have and I imagine that at some point, money will not be as big of an issue as it currently is, once I get Activist Media off the ground. I have big plans for it and I am highly motivated to have it become an important part of the Progressive movement. I’m sure if I create enough value in enough people’s lives then I will not have to worry about where my next meal is coming from. I’ve been well below the poverty line my entire life and I’ve been just fine. I’m done judging myself for not working some empty corporate job. My kids work hard and understand the value of money, yet aren’t greedy and love to help others. Perhaps if they had been raised with lots of money they would have turned out differently. I can’t really know how things would have been, but I’m incredibly proud of my children, so I can’t feel too bad about raising them poor. We never acted poor and we never thought or felt poor. When an added expense came up, we’d always find a way. That’s what people do. I know you can relate.

One thing that I am really proud of in my life is that for 12 years I was a single dad. I never received any child support from the mother. I have no anger towards her for that. She had her own challenges. I was always just super-happy that she left me with these two incredible people. They made me who I am today. I go to play both roles, which was kind of perfect for me, because I’m nurturing in ways that might surprise some people who look at me and see some big crazy looking guy. I liked being both Mom and Dad. It was challenging, but a lot of fun. I didn’t really have any extended family so I asked my friends if they would help. We made them honorary Aunts and Uncles and we built a tiny little family. It’s been pretty great. I’d love to do it all again.

The Virginia Nazi rally has been kind of rough on everyone. Carrie and I were actually fairly close geographically when it happened and I kept the news from her until we got home, because I knew it would scare her. When we arrived home I sat down and wrote out a transcript of a conversation I had with one of my teenagers. Basically it was just a conversation where I talked to him about passive resistance and how the majority of the time it is the best path to long-term change. I didn’t really think it was that important of an article and it certainly didn’t think it was hard-hitting or controversial. But I guess I was wrong, because I got a ton of hate-mail from people identifying themselves as Alt-Left Nazi Hunters, Marxist and Antifa members. I find it odd that people on the political left hate me, because most of the time when people hate me they are centrist who think I am too far to the left. Oh well, a bunch of angry violent people hate me. That’s nothing new. I try not to let shit like that bother me. I figure doing what I do, that if I do it long enough and well enough, then one of these crazy people will shoot me dead in the street some day. My last words will be “Which of my pieces inspired you to kill me?” and then “Oh yeah. I really enjoyed making that.”

I say these things only joking a little bit, because the political landscape has become extremely toxic. The constant knee-jerk reactions of people are embarrassing. I think about the billions of years of evolution that got us to this point where we have highly-advanced monkeys with handheld devices that have access to the entire history of human knowledge and all these monkeys want to do is jerk-off and insult people’s character pseudo-anonymously. It makes me pretty sad if I let it.

Oh so, anyway, Virginia really shook me up. Coming off such an inspirational road-trip to return home to the anger and sadness surrounding that event, where everyone has a strongly-held opinion, but none of us really know the facts or nuances of the event. It has been incredibly polarizing. Militant members of The Left have began using the term “Nazi-sympathizer” to degrade anyone who believes that meeting violence with violence is not the answer. That makes me incredibly sad. By this definition Martin Luther King, Buddha, Gandhi and pretty much every great person who ever believed in peace would be a Nazi-sympathizer. For every thing there is a season and yes there absolutely is a time when war is the answer, but I am not so cavalier with human life to declare war without exhausting all potentially peaceful options.

I asked myself if it were possible to take a compassionate act that was directly related to what had happened in Virginia. I didn’t have to look too far. There is a man in my city who displays Nazi flags and Confederate flags side-by-side on his property. It has caused quite a stir in our community. Corporate media outlets have come out to interview him and photograph his property, but I notice that none of the outlets ever really posted anything that he said or when they did, it looked like maybe they had twisted it to fit their narrative. As a Progressive who always seems to have a microphone in my face, I know how frustrating it is talking to corporate media outlets. So I approached him for an interview. He accepted. And the hate from The Left intensified. I really don’t know what people are so afraid of. I’m just going to listen to the dude and record it. Do people think that he is going to be so radically convincing that soon Nazi flags will be popping up even more frequently than they currently are? It just doesn’t make any sense to me that people who are supposed to stand for love and peace hide behind the same tactics as those whom they oppose. Human being’s capacity for self-deception never ceases to amaze me.

So anyway, Virginia + Hate From the Left + Personal Tragedy = Challenging Week.

But I won’t stop working.

This book is almost finished and I’m editing footage and recording new interviews.

Soon we will have a documentary and a new Progressive YouTube Show and Podcast.

I’m working 18 hour days for this.

We are building something here.

Michael E Sparks, is not a Nazi-sympathizer, but he IS an Independent columnist, author and wannabe filmmaker. If you feel that what Michael does creates then you can contribute by clicking HERE. Donations go to pay for equipment for projects, hotel rooms, travel expenses and occasionally, if there’s anything left over, he buys pizza with it.