me thinks thou doest protest too much
is anybody surprised that the fbi
says that the koran was flushed after all
but now, according to the pentagon, the detainee who claimed it
(or at least one of them) now says he didnt see it
i guess not, after two years of torture, id say whatever
they wanted me to say too
if anything when the bush administration
denies wrongdoing you can kind of assume
they did it
its understood that governments will
fudge the truth when they think they must
but you would like to think that your own government
will basically be truthful with you
but the bush administration doesnt even try
they will tell you the most flagrant lies with
a straight face
abu graib they say was an isolated incident
in spite of the fact that the same torture tactices seemed
to be used from gitmo to afghanistan to iraq
to the point of torturing people to death
i still cannot get over that - the united states of
america with an overt policy of torturing people to death
so they dont mind torturing people to death
and shooting unarmed _________ (fill in the blanks)
but oh no, we wouldnt touch the koran, that would be wrong
but then they claim they dont torture people either
and now amnesty international cites the american government
as one of the worlds most significant violators of humanrights
this is an abomination
as is the impending death of yvon neptune
for some reason this seems to be bothering me
world pressure has finally resulted in him being at least charged
but thats not sufficient
everybody knows that the un is running things in haiti
that the us imposed government is not a legitimate government
and they dont make a move without the okay of the us
and their surrogate there - the un
pressure the un and the state department
(condi instead of colin - big sigh - not that colin was
that great either, but condi is a washout - a bush team player)
to demand yvon neptunes release before he dies
the haitian government has apparently offered to send him elsewhere
but he is demanding that he be cleared of the charges
and allowed to stay in haiti
i cant help but be more impressed with his courage than
i am with the feckleness of aristide
the man who ran
and is living a relatively privileged life in south africa
while the true patriots have remained in haiti
of course its easy for me to talk
since my life is not in danger
in the united states if you become inconvenient
you just dont get paid
you get ignored by the powers that be
reminds me of when i was a young warrior in the struggle
and just knew the fbi was tracking me
but at 50 odd i may have been a threat once upon a time
but ive been tamed now, i personally think im even more effective
a force for change
but that just goes to show you how deluded i was back in the day
there is nothing quite so confused as an aging radical
still in harness and wondering what is the meaning of it all
brings to mind my truncated participation in the black radical congress
i guess i feel like the brc is the organization with the most potential
to effect the kind of change that i have struggled for all my life
but its like they stuck in the 70s with archaic rhetoric and tactics
fighting tomorrows battles with yesterdays strategies
while the rightwing is cleaning our clocks
the rightwing ascendancy is an example of a radical movement
that has made major strides
but they have been slow and methodical in their approach to radical change
they have transformed the nature of struggle
with a model that we havent yet mastered much less come up
with new and innovative strategies appropriate to the times
but recent moves are encouraging and i will
keep my finger on the pulse like i tend to do with the
various wings of the black movement
cause im my heart i still strive to be an ideological orchestrator
a political spider deep down in a web of pushbutton power
shaping the strategies of all the wings, the radicals, the reformers
the elites, the activists, the artists, the intellectuals, the community activists
the business community, etc etc etc
and as always reaching for a broader mandate
human rights and the world and speaking for all people
and trying to shape that struggle too
which is why the amnesty international report interests me so
im impressed with an organized effort to enhance the human condition
its that hoodoo prophet thing of mine
i still dont quite know how that works
kinda shaping it as i go along
i will with my lifeswork define just what it is
a hoodoo prophet do
i think of my art as my primary instrument of change
that and shaping the hoodoo tradition but these
are longgame instruments
and im always looking for effective instruments of change
in my lifetime
i just dont know, im more confused than ever
the older i get, the more intractable enhancing
the human condition becomes
and the current trends have devestated progressive forces
and threaten all our good works
but as i have said before, i have a unshakable belief in
humanities ability to stay on the good foot in spite of
trials and tribulations and the occasional abomination
guess one thing you learn with age
is to pick and choose your battles
to pick and choose your instruments
gon pay my brc dues
maybe join the naacp like i been swearing for years
gon keep calling for the release of yvon neptune
and work on behalf of darfur and the black world
gon back up adam banks innovative local community activism
gon do rootsblog in spite of its frustrations and meagre readership
gon keep working on modernizing the hoodoo tradition
and gon get my work done
and i got a special responsibility to the colored community of
memphis that my father the oldschool general practitioner
bequeathed to me
and in any way that i can
gon keep trying to be an instrument of change
puts me to mind of a conversation i once had with imoguna alakoye
a harlem boy through and through and a devotee of malcolm
but he asked once back when we were both young radicals
who caused the most concrete change in the lives of blackfolk
martin or malcolm - and the answer was clearly martin
that question stuck with me
cause he knew when he asked it that i was a martin man
being from memphis and all
and i think its also caught up in the flak i get about
being a black voice or a voice for all humanity and my
ongoing attempts to bridge that divide
and be both
one thing thats encouraging to me is that black movement
is still encouraging resistance movements around the world
i was reading in the nytimes yesterday about bolivian rappers
and how they were using rap to spread revolution in bolivia
with lyrics like:
"now they will know us
now we will rise up
the revolution has started
against the system and the state"
how they distribute their work through their own radio station
and encourage the ripping of their cds as a commucation device
"proud to be in my bolivia
though a land wounded by oppressors
who call themselves defenders of my land"
theyve also adopted all the toughguy trappings
of rap which is dicey
but it thrills me to see how they using
the power of art to effect change
and just like the black movement has done
all around the world, we showed them the way
we showed them the way
i will work further on this post later
it went in directions i did not foresee
when i started it
it just got all twisted and it wont untwist
just like the struggle i guess, a work in progress
in spirit and struggle
rickydoc flowers
Comments