We Are The Parents of LA (For Harvey Kubernick) is an ode to the infinitesimal elements of the City of Angels. Shot by director trio Facts—aka T. Gerike, R. Koval, S. Raphael—the film grew out of a spoken word piece by Black Flag’s formidable, outspoken frontman Henry Rollins, riffing alt California references such as Ed Ruscha’s Some Los Angeles Apartments, Mike Mills’ Deformer and early LA punk. 

NOWNESS contributor, counter-cultural raconteur and Boo-Hooray founder Johan Kugelberg is an aficionado of Los Angeles underground history. He has edited the new book Sounds of Two Eyes Opening, which showcases the work of music producer-turned-photographer Spot, distilling the 1960s-80s Californian underground of hardcore punks and skater prototypes, and awkward looking beach babes. 

For Thanksgiving, Kugelberg presents his alternative message, exclusively for NOWNESS.

Thank You America, by Johan Kugelberg

Thank you America, thank you in these our saddest days in recent times.

Thank you America, thank you for the everyday kindnesses in every deli, in every kindergarten, in every factory; wherever people from every race or creed or cash-flow or conscience come together to show love for one another. 

Thank you Killer Mike from Run the Jewels, who spoke what was in all of our hearts.

We are a nation of immigrants, brought together in a land where the wrongs of the old world were supposed to be corrected in this new world. And we aren't there yet, and some would say not even close.

And the sadness, outrage and anger felt about Ferguson are increased exponentially by the hollow tone of white privilege. Where black people not only feel sadness, outrage and anger at this verdict, but also are forced to feel fear.

Thank you America at your worst, for reminding us as Penny Rimbaud of Crass says that there is no moral authority but our own.

Thank you America, for on this sad day underlining that we not only can live a life without slaves and without masters, but that we must. 

The future is not writ in water, as we are all writing it together with our blood. We write it together, not apart. And as circumstances break us up, as injustices are apparent, as life turns us upside down, we come together as a people, over and over again.