US Department of Art & Technology
PO Box 32265 Washington, DC 20007
http://www.usdept-arttech.net
press@usdept-arttech.net

Press Secretary
For Immediate Release: June 14, 2002


Appointment of New Post
Confronts National Insecurity

Abe Golam, Director of the
Office of Political and Economic Insecurity

WASHINGTON, DC - Responding to criticism of the Bush Administration's
handling of national security in its recent proposal to create the
Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Randall M. Packer has
called for the creation of the Office of Political and Economic
Insecurity within the Department of Art & Technology, to confront
rising insecurity in the nation and around the world as a result of
the administration's plan to restructure the US government. The
Secretary has appointed Abe Golam, legendary info-shaman, cracker of
the sorcerer-code and creator of Nanoscript, as its Director.

Mr. Packer's proposal would place into a single office the
Department's Office of Artist & Homeland Insecurity, Bureau of
Cultural Transformation and Paradigmatic Shifts, the Bureau for the
Protection & Immunization Against Mediation & Alienation, the Bureau
for Rhizomatics, Community & Generative Data, and the Office of
Freedom of Speech.

"Since September 11, all levels of government have been pointing
fingers like never before while our airports become Keystone cop
scenarios and our border security remains a farce," Mr. Golam stated
in a recent memorandum to the Secretary. "Even as they pretend to be
taking steps toward improving information sharing among our
intelligence agencies, and suggest in their media-manipulated spin
doctoring that we are beginning to deploy more resources and
personnel to protect our critical infrastructure, our federal
investigators are still working with computer technology manufactured
in the dark ages. Our children have access to better technology than
our federal intelligence agents."

Mr. Golam expressed his anger at the administration for not seeking
support from the nation's artists in its response to recent
international crises, "The changing nature of the threats facing
America requires a new government, a new administration, a new way of
looking at the world that protects the environment, that celebrates
diversity, takes care of the poor, and prioritizes the development of
new forms of art using advanced digital technologies that will help
us find a cure to the 'death-denial' of our present leaders." In a
stinging acknowledgment of failures that took place during the
administration's watch, Mr. Golam directly attacked Bush's new
homeland policies and its impact on civil liberties, "Our domestic
agenda has been hijacked by far right wing ideologues and
military-religious zealots who are trying to whittle away at the
basic rights of all US citizens as guaranteed by our Constitution."

Under Mr. Packer's proposal, the new office would put at least 22
separate bureaus, programs and media research centers under one
umbrella group. But the conceptual framework of the new office is
clear: each division is supposed to handle a different element of the
country's ability to confront the administration's emerging
death-wish before it happens, or respond to it should prevention
fail. Mr. Golam's memorandum notes that "The one thing Americans,
perhaps more than any other nation on the planet, fear - is death
itself. Under the protective guise of 'Homeland Security', we find
ourselves primarily a nation of insecure workers scared to death of
our future, of our ability to consume corporate food at any cost, of
our right to buy gas guzzling vehicles that double as tanks."

Mr. Golam's memorandum concludes with an existential portrayal of the
administration's position as he warns, "For those of our fellow
citizens who fear death, we should ask them to remember that death is
an advisor. Death is always there, always with you, watching your
every move. Death has only one thing to say to you and says it over
and over again: live this life to its fullest and find security in
your own heart, the way you act toward others, the things you create."

For the full transcript of Abe Golam's Memorandum to the Secretary:
http://www.usdept-arttech.net/golam.html

##

The US Department of Art and Technology is the principal conduit for
facilitating the artist's need to extend aesthetic inquiry into the
broader culture where ideas become real action. It also serves the
psychological and spiritual well-being of all Americans by supporting
cultural efforts that provide immunity from the extension of new
media technologies into the social sphere.

URLs:

US Department of Art & Technology: http://www.usdept-arttech.net

Contact: Press Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology
press@usdept-arttech.net

# 01-101