The Random House dictionary of the English language defines "Freak" as "... any abnormal product or curiously unusual object ... a person or animal on exhibition as an example of some strange deviation from nature; monster..." Indeed. A very heavy image. And the same dictionary defines "Power" as "... the ability to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something." So in the context of semantics or straight word logic, the phrase "Freak Power" is a sloppy contradiction of its own terms. How, after all, could a group of deviates and monsters be capable of acting together to accomplish something? They would be helpless and impotent, almost by definition, a noisy Hellbroth of quirks and demented energy far beyond any channel or focus. Yet, despite the obvious irony of the phrase "Freak Power," NBC, the Los Angeles Times' finest traveling police reporter and maybe a few people in Aspen have apparently taken it at face value. And shuddered somewhere between glee and horror at the thought that some mob of gibbering, drug-crazed geeks might be ready to seize the county courthouse and put all the burghers on trial for their lives.
     In truth, that phrase was a crude, but super-effective piece of political theatre—which worked too well, so now is the time to bury it and move on to the serious action: the task of returning local government to the people who live in this valley, instead of the greedheads—and their local agents—who only want to invest here.
     Which raises a point about Freak Power that I'd like to make before we close the coffin, for some reason that has to embarrass me as a writer I failed to make it clear that I use the word "Freak" in a positive, sympathetic sense. In the ominous, ugly-splintered context of what is happening in 1970 Amerika a lot of people are beginning to understand that to be a freak is an honorable way to go.
     This is the real point: that we are not really freaks at all—not in the literal sense—but the twisted realities of the world we are trying to live in have somehow combined to make us feel like freaks. We argue, we protest, we petition—but nothing changes.
     So now, with the rest of the nation erupting in a firestorm of bombings and political killings, a handful of "freaks" are running a final, perhaps atavistic experiment with the idea of forcing change by voting... And if that has to be called Freak Power, well... Whatevers right. H.S.T.

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