Ahjamu Umi's: "The Truth Challenge"
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Credit the U.S. Military for Protest?  How About Credit Our Struggle!

8/29/2016

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San Francisco 49er Quarterback Colin Kaepernick gave a press conference this past weekend explaining his reasons for refusing to stand for the so-called national anthem.  During the press conference, Kaepernick was asked by a reporter whether his protest was designed to show disrespect towards people who have served in the U.S. Military.  Kaepernick responded that the military "fights for our freedom" so he sees his protest as some sort of extension of whatever it is he sees the military providing for us through its combat excursions overseas.

First, let's reaffirm that we are 100% supportive of Kaepernick's effort.  We realize that he is a professional athlete who is operating based on the information he has.  In other words, he's not an organizer for justice so we wouldn't expect him to have the type of developed analysis of the capitalist system and its institutions that we would like to see.  Actually, if you are reading this, then you probably already understand that providing that analysis is our job. 

We understand that the capitalist system is always organized and that the masses of people are not organized.  We also understand that the weapon of the oppressed is organization, meaning until we achieve it, we will continue to suffer.  Capitalism - meaning in this case the multi-national corporate media structures - realizes that its job is to confuse the masses of people all of the time.  They have to do this because they are declining in power everyday.  In fact, the only real weapon they have left is their ability to shape public perception.  So, they keep the people confused about socialism and every other concept that can help the people.  They have many tricks they use, but one of their best is to convince the people that even in the course of protesting against the injustices of the capitalist system, you must always see yourself as expressing your discontent only within the confines of the system.  So, if we protest, we must see that as us exercising our "constitutional rights as citizens."  If we protest, we must see it as "using the freedoms provided to us by those who serve in the armed forces."  What this approach accomplishes, in the most subtle way, is that no matter how militant we get, even refusing to recognize their national anthem, our ability to do so only exists because of what that national anthem supposedly represents.  If we believe that, then we are effectively contained from ever seeing anything outside the context provided to us by our enemies and that is precisely their plan.

The job of revolutionaries is to raise the critical questions, so let's do that.  Malcolm X said correctly in his historic speech "The Ballot or the Bullet" that the rights you allegedly possess aren't worth the paper they are written on.  As he put it "if the civil rights legislation meant anything, you wouldn't need to have it.  You wouldn't need to have had more than one passed.  The truth is you don't have any rights under this system."  The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) counter intelligence program (COINTELPRO) is clear proof that we have no constitutional rights.  So many of our people have been killed and imprisoned just for standing up against injustice.  You are either asleep, confused, or missing your medication dose if you believe we have "the right to free speech."  If this is true, how do you explain Fred Hampton, Geronimo Ji Jaga, Ana Mae Pictoh Aquash, Leonard Peltier, Mutulu Shakur, Patrice Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Malcolm X, Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Sekou Odinga, George Jackson, Assata Shakur, W.E.B. DuBois, Shirley Graham DuBois, Marcus Garvey, Amy Garvey, Kwame Ture, Marilyn Buck, the Black Panther Party, and hundreds of thousands of African liberation fighters everywhere who were persecuted, locked up on trumped up charges, and murdered, just for telling the truth.  The charges brought against those who were imprisoned were carried out based on  evidence so flimsy it wouldn't stand up in Judge Judy's courtroom.  For those who were murdered, the truths have all been sorted out and the culprits identified and confirmed.  And the ones who's personal character and work were disparaged and attacked have all been cleared of any wrong doing by anyone who has done even cursory research.  The common denominator?  These people had the capacity to stand up, speak out, and work for justice for our people and humanity.  And there are literally thousands upon thousands of Africans who have suffered because of their commitment to justice.  No different than the scores of Africans who are being brutalized and murdered by terrorist police for no reason other than being African.  As the 1857 Dred Scott decision declared "(Africans) have no rights the state is obligated to protect."  So, clearly, this fantasy that we have constitutional rights is nothing more than wishful thinking on behalf of our people and subliminal suggestion on the part of the capitalist system.

As for the military, we simply ask anyone to define for us how anything the U.S. military is doing in any country anywhere is making us freer?  I remember being a boy during the Vietnam War and hearing this lame propaganda back in the early 1970s.  "They are fighting for our freedom against communism!"  I was a little inner city boy fighting against racism and class oppression.  As Muhammad Ali famously said, the Vietnamese had nothing to do with my problems and certainly, the ability to defeat them had nothing to do with my freedom.  I understood this as a little boy so I'm sure adults today really know how silly this concept is.  During World War II, African soldiers were prohibited from entering the European (White) U.S. soldier's mess halls in Europe unless they were cleaning up for them.  Meanwhile, the captured German e.g. Nazi troops were permitted to eat with the White soldiers.  This was U.S. military policy designed to honor U.S. racial segregation laws.  So, this illustrated the very real and ill refutable contradiction where Africans were expected to go overseas and fight and die for a so-called freedom that they didn't even possess here in the U.S.!  You can fast forward to 2016 and the same argument and conditions still exist.  The war efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and wherever else U.S. imperialism decides to go have absolutely nothing to do with providing any freedom for anybody anywhere.  These war efforts have always been and will always be about one thing - protecting the economic interests of the capitalist system.  Kellogg, Brown, and Root (KBR) received a no bid contract (although federal law is supposed to require a bidding process) to perform clean up in Iraq and Afghanistan.  They made millions from this contract just as they did in the Gulf Coast performing the same services after Hurricane Katrina flooding.  Its no wonder this company, which had affiliations to Haliburton of which then Vice President Dick Cheney was a past board member, was able to make such a killing.  They charged a rate of $20.00 per square inch of clean up when the going rate is $2.00 per square inch.  The weapons manufacturers and defense contractors like Dow Chemical and McDonald Douglass made millions off of these war efforts.  And certainly, we cannot forget the massive oil companies like Chevron, British Petroleum, etc., who worked directly and indirectly for years to push for the construction of the Casperian Pipeline through the former Soviet Union territories.  The Taliban was the final impediment to this pipeline being built and although they are projected today as being such an evil enemy of the U.S., no one can dispute that their leader Omah Mullah, was invited, and traveled to the Bush family home in Campbell, Texas, in 1997.  Why?  Certainly to attempt to negotiate a way to build that oil pipeline.  Most likely, an agreement was not reached and this paved the way for 9/11, the myth of Osama bin Laden, and a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan for going on 20 years. 

The sad and undeniable truth is that those who serve in the U.S. military are there to serve the interests of multi-national corporations.  Freedom for any people has absolutely nothing to do with why those people are sent to all these countries to fight and more and more of them are realizing that.  This is why abandonment of service - called going AWOL - has increased dramatically. Its also why U.S. vets are committing suicide at unprecedented rates. Instead of lying to these young people to pimp them out for capitalism, what they should be told is that they are being used for a corporate agenda and that no one really cares about them or what happens to them.  If this was true, support for them would extend much further than a stupid bumper sticker.  There are so many of them standing on freeway off ramps it is not hard at all for anyone who really wanted to support them to do so.  You may be fooling each other, but you are not fooling us.

I'll go a step farther and say if we are going to honor people for fighting in the U.S. military, then we should start honoring people who participate in gang activity.  When you break it down, it's really the exact same thing.  People who are trained to fight against an enemy targeting their territory.  Its the perception of enemy that matters right?  At least that's what we are told.  So, whether its a fly by, or a drive by, let's honor them for killing and terrorizing because the terrorism that the U.S. military has carried out makes all the gang violence balled up into one incident look like absolutely nothing.  And you can bring as many old pimped out war vets to talk to the youth that you want, you are not going to be able to confuse them forever.  The U.S. military is simply an instrument for oppression in order to maintain imperialism.  This institution shouldn't be honored.  It should be dismantled.  And my ability to protest against this backward system has absolutely nothing to do with the military or any imperialist institution.  I illustrated earlier that our people have protested at a great price so if I can speak out today, I will give honor to our soldiers for justice.  People like the Democratic Part of Guinea.  Black Panther Party.  Republic of New Afrika.  Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.  Those are my troops and everything I give honor to will go to them. 

Soon, we will have the capacity to educate well meaning people like Colin Kaepernick about this reality.  He is able to protest because of the glorious history of struggle for African liberation and it's that legacy that he is benefiting from.  We are the people who have had to shed blood to vote, go to school, live where we wanted, and even catch a filthy bus.  If we know that history, we can never be confused into thinking we have "rights" and that we need to thank any imperialist institution for anything we have.  Remember that when we protest, it is the U.S. military, in the form of the National Guard, that is always  dispatched to repress us.  But, these are things we will bring to the light as time goes by.  The capitalist system surely knows this.  We have even come to the point where Kaepernick's protest has exposed the real legacy of racism and oppression that the so-called national anthem really represents.  The fact that most people who live in this country had no idea about the real lyrics of that stupid song before the last couple of days, and we all have been singing that song our entire lives, for hundreds of years, that tells us all we need to know about how closer we are getting to victory.

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Why Sitting Through the National Anthem is Kaepernick's Best Play

8/27/2016

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So San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand during the playing of the so-called national anthem during a preseason football game between the 49ers and the Green Bay Packers.  In a press statement, Kaepernick indicated that he intentionally refused to stand because he will not "honor a flag that represents a country that oppresses (Black) people."  As you would expect, the aftermath of Kaepernick's decision has been a barrage of hate and threats from so-called fans and that's before any potential discipline is meted out against him by the National Football League.  This morning, I've read several accounts by people berating Kaepernick as an idiot while calling for him to be suspended from playing football or even prohibited from playing at all.  I recall when former National Basketball Association player Maumoud Abdul Rauf made the same political statement in 1997 and there was a national campaign launched against him.  Led mostly by our European (White) family members, people all over the country participated in jersey burning ceremonies whenever Rauf's team came to town.  And the threats and verbal harassment aimed at Rauf during games caused the league to have to enact more strict security measures until a compromise was reached with Rauf over his stance.  Since America is even more backward today than it was 19 years ago, we can expect Kaepernick to experience similar trauma for taking such a bold stand.

I'm thinking about Kaepernick and what he is about to go through this morning.  Full disclosure, I was born and raised in San Francisco, very close to the former Candlestick Park where the 49ers played until two seasons ago.  I spent my youth going to Candlestick for 49er and Giants baseball games.  I still love football and the 49ers are still my favorite team.  I have plenty of stress in my life and I've learned that its essential that I find balance.  Watching the 49ers play is one of the things I've enjoyed doing my entire life so despite the fact my values are obviously much different than they were when I was a child, I still follow the team.  After several sub-par years, I was excited when Kaepernick became the 49ers Quarterback in 2012 and I became a huge fan of his when he led them to the Super Bowl that year and then within five yards of another Super Bowl in 2013.  His play has gradually dropped off since then and even before this flag incident, it hasn't been certain what his future will be with the 49ers, yet he was still my favorite and I was still pulling for him.  And all of that was there before he took this principled stand.  What I'm saying is he was already my favorite active football player, but that was it.  He was simply someone I took a few minutes here and there in my life to engage with as a way of bringing some distraction and joy my way.  Now, I respect him as a human being for taking the stance he has taken.  Fortunately, large numbers of people follow this blog, but I know the chances of Kaepernick himself reading this are rare.  Still, I hope that somehow in the universe, he can feel the support I want to send his way.

If he could see this, I want to tell him, and all athletes, entertainers, and others who make a living entertaining people within this capitalist system, that their fame and success results only from the struggle of the masses of our people.  Without that struggle, regardless of how individually talented they are, they would not have the opportunity they have to make millions of dollars.  So, in essence, their positions don't belong to them personally.  Their positions belong to the masses of African people.  This is true for any African in any position, but so often, we are forced to face the multitudes of unconscious celebrities who see their rise to fame as strictly the result of themselves and their abilities.  That great son of Africa, Sekou Ture, told us that it is the masses of people who shape our culture and the entertainers are simply the conduits from which the culture of the masses should be expressed.  So, it is with that understanding that we salute Colin Kaepernick for his bold stance and we want him to know that we will support him regardless of what the capitalist system does to try and re-chain him.  His stance is a correct stance.  America is without question a nation that has been built on the theft of Indigenous land and the enslavement of African people.  The entire economy of this country was established based on our enslavement and it continues to be maintained based on the subjugation of African resources.  This is the exact reason why Africans are shot down in the street because the African masses in the U.S., as is the case with the African masses in Europe, Canada, Australia, etc., are the X factor in challenging each of those country's reliance on cheap African resources and labor to maintain its wealth.  Its a wealth that is in great jeopardy because of the continual decline of the capitalist system.  As people around the world continue to push against the system it continues to weaken.  As a result, the state must strengthen its efforts to control the people and repression is all the system has left to maintain its grip on power.  As this phenomenon becomes more and more obvious to more people, thanks in large part to social media, people in the limelight like Colin Kaepernick are pushed more and more to take a side.  Some people like singer/producer Pharrell and actress Stacy Dash take the house slave approach where they make statements designed to appease the master and cement their stability within the capitalist system as good slaves.  A select group of more principled persons like Marshawn Lynch a couple of years ago, the women of the Women's National Basketball Association this year, and Kaepernick now, take bold stances based on truth.  Its especially so for Kaepernick because of the previously expressed instability his career is currently facing.  Plus, to take an action against the flag, the symbol of pride for backward thinking people loyal to imperialism, is a direct assault against the capitalist system that you can rest assured will generate the full wrath of the slave master.  This clarifies even more the reason Kaep deserves support and respect because he took his stand despite the huge risks his action will cause him.  Marshawn Lynch was the best running back in the game when he refused to talk to reporters at the Super Bowl in 2014.  Kaepernick is fighting for the job right now in professional football.  So his decision to take this stand right now speaks to all the integrity that defines our movement for peace and justice as a people. 

So, we definitely salute you Colin and we encourage you to stand strong in the face of all the reactionary garbage that's going to come your way.  They will be telling you to go back to Africa.  When they do, hopefully, you can know that they are the descendants of thieves which means they don't own anything here that we are obligated to respect.  Besides, as was mentioned, this "greatness" they tell you to leave is only whatever it is because of that theft and the continued exploitation of our national homeland - Africa.  Once we build our capacity to regain our homeland - Pan-Africanism - we will have the national power to determine our own destiny.  This will mean many of us will no longer see the need to maintain this fake "support" for U.S. imperialism.  When this day comes, most of these backward Europeans and their trained negropeans will be begging us to permit them to come to Africa to get our quality of life.  So, when they tell you to go back to Africa, tell them that you will once you are able to take all the riches they are stealing back with you.  And, for good measure, once that happens, they can take their broke @sses back to Europe.  All those people are nothing, but cheap hypocrites anyway Kaep.  They swear they represent freedom, but then they want to lynch you for speaking out for justice.  And they are so stupid they don't even realize how naked their hypocrisy is for the entire world to witness.  It's always been that way and it will always be that way.  That's why I have never stood for their national anthem going back to the 1970s.  It has caused problems for me in jobs, etc., but so be it.  I raised my daughter the same way and when she was a public school teacher a few years ago in California, it caused problems for her as well, but so be it.  Frederick Douglas told us correctly that "without struggle, there is no progress."  Another African proverb a women in Africa told me many years ago is "even a dead fish can swim with the current." 

We sincerely hope you can regain your starting position as Quarterback and that you can lead the 49ers to greatness again.  We wanted that before all of this happened with their rag, I mean flag.  Now, we want to support you as a human being who has taken such an important stand.  We are with you.  Before, once your football career ended, we would probably have never thought much about you after that.  Now, we will continue to educate our youth about your courage and sacrifices.  We just hope that you can know that what you are doing is really not a sacrifice, but the fulfillment of your responsibility and commitment as a solid citizen of the planet Earth.  Thank you.

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White Saviors and Their Perception of Us as Helpless Victims

8/26/2016

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We're not talking about white supremacists/nationalists and their ilk.  That's an entirely separate category of European dysfunction.  We are focusing here on the European (White) left e.g. liberals, and so-called revolutionaries.  That category of Europeans that Malcolm X called "fox" compared to the white supremacist/nationalist "wolf."  Now, we love foxes and wolves, so understand that no animals are being harmed in this analysis.  Its merely a methodology of exposing those Europeans who pose as our friends, in spite of their unproductive behavior as it relates to our struggle for dignity and self determination.  

We're talking about this entirely common, racist, approach by many of these people in viewing African, Indigenous, and other colonized folks as incapable of standing up for our own dignity.  This view, promotes the completely a-historical perspective that when white supremacy assaults us, we are incapable of doing anything besides suffering from these assaults while being defeated.  A consequence of this paternalistic view is its therefore the job of Europeans to protect us from this suffering because of their dysfunctional belief that if they don't protect us, we are defenseless.  Manifestations of this behavior are the unwillingness of Europeans to listen to our definition of our struggle as it relates to fighting back against neo-colonialism in Africa, police terrorism, self sufficiency, etc.  What I'm saying is, in spite of the disorganization of our people and our movements, our message to our so-called White accomplices has been incredibly consistent for the last 50 years.  Stay out of our way and go organize your own backward communities!  Still, so many Europeans continue to define their participation in the struggle for justice as that of playing a central role in our organizations, protests, and programs.  Or, in other words, defining our message for us.  They see it this way because they do not see us having the capacity to develop our own ideology and direction.  This explains why they label our revolutionary ideologues - Kwame Nkrumah, Sekou Ture, Amilcar Cabral, Mangeliso Sobukwe, Amy Jacque Garvey, etc - only within the construct of their European lenses e.g. Marxist/Leninist, back to Africa, etc.  They do this without even studying one paragraph written by our immortal leaders. 

It should also be said that in conjunction with the dysfunction mentioned above, its overwhelmingly shocking how little knowledge these so-called accomplices have of basic African or Indigenous ways of life, philosophy, customs/practices, and ways of viewing and engaging in the world on a daily basis.  On top of this, most of these people have absolutely no knowledge of African organizations e.g. what they did, how they organized, and what capacities they developed.  Without any of this information, these White people are left to accept the narrative of us provided by our enemies.  And that narrative is that we are lesser and incapable of determining our own destiny.  I'll give a simple example here to illustrate the point.  Several very well meaning people have expressed to me over the last several weeks their concerns about some backward right wing propaganda that is being aimed against our independent freedom school effort here in Portland, Oregon.  These White people have expressed concerns for our safety and they have offered to "come by" in order to support us.  Some may see no harm in any of this, but the problem is we have made it clear that we don't want you to "stop by" because we are building a base of operations and organizing work with our people.  And you "dropping by" obviously gets in the way of that taking place.  Also, what is it that makes you think that if those cowardly white supremacists/nationalists did decide to make an appearance, with the intention of disrupting our work, that we are not prepared and equipped to welcome them in the only way they deserve?  We can certainly assure all of you that we are better prepared than you are because you just started dealing with all of this within the last year or two while we have been dealing with it for our entire 500 years of colonialism and slavery, in every corner of the world where we exist. 

These so-called well meaning people have such little interest in learning anything about us that they aren't even serious enough to study even cursory history of these types of things.  If they did, they would realize how stupid they sound to us, in spite of their good intentions.  I mean, when is the last time you heard about a group of white supremacists/nationalists confronting a group of organized and militant Africans?  You haven't heard of that because it has never happened.  And it never will, but as long as most White liberals/so-called radicals still continue to view us all as non-violent, singing, pacifists, then they will never realize that although there is absolutely nothing wrong with non-violence and pacifism, we are as complex a people as White people are.  This means we have people from all walks of life just like you do.  Some are non-violent and some will knock a cracker's head off his shoulders if he tries to assert violence against us.  And, if you were really serious, instead of content to just front like you are our accomplice, than you would take time to learn about the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the African Blood Brotherhood, the Land and Freedom Movement (Mau Mau), African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau, Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, Republic of New Afrika, Nation of Islam, Black Panther Party, and many, many, others, that clearly demonstrate that there have always been, and will always be, many of us who will give violent Whites more than what they bargained for.

So, my advice to you all who truly want to make a contribution is to turn off the television.  Turn off youtube.  Take time to read whatever you can about organizations like the ones listed above and any others who work for African self determination.  And, finally, accept once and for all the indisputable truth that the only meaningful accomplice work you can do is organizing your people for revolution, or at least militant reform.  Go ahead.  You can do it.  Don't worry about us.  Whether you are here are not, we are going to do just fine with what we have to do.

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Black August, Comrades George & Huey, and What All It Means

8/22/2016

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This week is quite a historical week as it relates to the African liberation struggle within the confines of the colony known as the U.S.  In August of 1971, George Jackson, who was incarcerated in California, was murdered inside prison walls there.  As a response to his murder and oppressive prison conditions, incarcerated persons from all walks of life banded together at Attica Prison in New York and staged a rebellion that saw about 40 people slaughtered by prison officials and police.  In August of 1989, Huey P. Newton, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and the ideological brain-thrust for that Oakland, California, based Party, was shot and killed in an alleged drug deal in Oakland.

The protectors of oppression and the maintainers of the capitalist narrative of history will tell you that George Jackson was a violent criminal who went to prison at age 17.  They will claim that he was smuggled a handgun inside prison and that he attempted to escape and that is why he was killed that day in 1971.  They will tell you that the dozens of persons who were murdered inside Attica were all cold blooded killers who were justifiably killed in the interest of saving lives and maintaining order, when the uprising happened immediately after Jackson's murder in 1971.  These same people, who are, without question the very definition of criminality, will also tell you that Huey Newton was a violent thug who got what he deserved on that Oakland street in 1989.

Well, of course, we disagree with the imperialists on all accounts.  The day we agree with them is the day we should probably cease to exist.  We know that Kwame Ture was correct when he said "capitalism doesn't lie some of the time, it lies all of the time.  Even if it tells the truth, its only the result of a double lie."  The truth is George Jackson did go to prison for committing petty crimes, but his prison experience was a transforming one which took him from the streets of South Los Angeles to a decade of imprisonment that opened his eyes and completely politicized him.  While in prison he joined Newton's Black Panther Party (BPP) , becoming a field marshall.  He drank in the concept of revolution.  He even wrote books where he attempted - as in "Blood in my Eye" - to outline a strategy for achieving revolutionary guerrilla warfare throughout the U.S.  Jackson pushed himself to become extremely disciplined in his reading.  He devoured books and his personal discipline became the envy of all those around him as he routinely performed outstanding functions like 1000 push ups per day.  He became extremely popular with those he was incarcerated with and his influence extended beyond just Africans.  He was an influential person to all who were housed in the prisons he occupied.  Prison authorities attempted to derail his influence by moving him from institution to institution.  And, the situation surrounding the San Quentin Six (where a guard fell to his death in one of the prison institutions), and the aftermath of the Marin County Courthouse shootout that cost George his younger brother Johnathan, in 1970, solidified for prison officials that they needed to stop Jackson.  He was clearly moving towards consolidating revolutionary organizing inside of the prison system.  And we are talking not just about the institution he was incarcerated in, but other facilities as well.  He is credited with being a founder of African organizations that today would be known as the Black Guerrilla Family within California prisons.  He was a threat that had to be destroyed.  The circumstances surrounding his frame up and murder are well documented.  What we will say here is that the state claims to this day that he hid a handgun that was smuggled into him in his afro hairstyle.  And this was given as the justification to shoot him.  All I can say about that is growing up in San Francisco, I distinctly remember hearing of this story when I was a little child.  It was actually the gun in the afro element that caught my young attention.  I remember being very confused by it.  I didn't know anything about guns then, but I did have a very thick afro, but as thick as it was, it couldn't hold anything except a comb.  I recall thinking, at age 9, that this version of whatever happened with whatever they were talking about was obviously something European people were confused about if they believed that story.  George Jackson was murdered because of his leadership in organizing and inspiring other incarcerated persons to stand up and organize.  The state was so desperate to kill him that they concocted a story, still being told, that he was attempting to escape San Quentin prison by climbing over a 20 foot wall.  George was quite the man, but unless he possessed superhuman abilities we don't know about, this "official" version of the events around his death have no value besides contributing to a script for an action movie.

The events around the Attica uprising are also very well documented.  All I'll say here is that the prison administration, under the direction of New York Governor Rockefeller - yes that ruling class Rockefeller family - made the hasty decision to mow down those insurrectionists inside that prison because the fact those people were organizing together across racial lines, something that very rarely happens inside any prison, scared the hell out of the power structure.  They knew that if this model spread, they would be in trouble.  Especially, once it caught wind outside of prison.  So, this is why they decided to start killing people even after they agreed to negotiate with them for their legitimate concerns around mistreatment.  Ironically, although a number of guards were taken hostage, many of whom abused incarcerated persons on a regular basis, no guard experienced any mistreatment during the uprising and those who were killed or injured were arguably all victimized by the administration attackers and not the incarcerated persons holding them hostage. 

Finally, Huey P. Newton has also been widely written about.  And, although he displayed some of the most remarkable courage and determination in the early days of the Panthers, he clearly diminished into some very bad behavior in the last years of his life, but this period was marked by heavy drug use.  A drug habit that was brought on by the trauma he experienced from being locked up because of his role as leadership for the BPP.  We know now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had as many personal operations aimed directly at Newton as they did anyone else besides Martin Luther King, Kwame Ture, and Elijah Muhammad.  He eventually succumbed to this and his latter deeds reflected that, but the irony of it all is Huey was a loud voice against drug use in the early days of the Panthers and as the BPP's main founder, he had an strong influence on George Jackson, the man who founded the organization that the FBI is telling us today murdered Huey Newton on that dark street in 1989.  We believe that Huey Newton was killed because although he fell off the way he did in the 80s, one thing he never did was denounce the struggle.  Eldridge Cleaver became a born again Christian, and then a Mormon.  Bobby Seale wrote BBQ cookbooks.  Yet, Huey continued to live in Oakland without it ever being clear enough to the power structure that he was done with revolutionary struggle.  Clearly, he wasn't.  When he went to San Quentin in 1988, about a year before his murder, on drug charges, once his sentence concluded, he refused to leave because Geronimo Ji Jaga (Pratt) was there.  Geronimo was imprisoned on an FBI frame up.  He ended up spending 27 years locked up on trumped up charges and Huey wanted to protest Geronimo being held so he refused to leave.  He also started doing public speaking engagements in the late 80s.  He was often disheveled when he appeared and his thoughts were disjointed at times, but they were still militant and independent - and to the power structure - that meant they were dangerous.  Kwame Ture used to tell us that when the huge free Huey Newton birthday party rally took place at the Kaiser Center in February of 1968 in which Kwame was one of the main speakers, when they left that day, the police were heard by all on the steps taunting that "we'll kill that n - - - - r if it takes us 20 years!"  Well, it took them 21, but they did it.  When have you heard of the police permitting an African who organized a national organization against them, who was charged with killing one of them, to just walk around free and enjoy the rest of their life?  Especially when that African never denounced or discredited his work?

Just some thoughts to consider this warm August day.  You may see these folks as criminals, but to us, they are heroes and they are inspirations.  They are examples of how we can fight and that we can and will win.  We know they were knot perfect.  We are building upon their example.  We are taking what we can learn from them and we are advancing in areas like anti-patriarchy, revolutionary class struggle, and social revolution.  Still, we appreciate the foundation they provided for us.  We look to August to remind us of all those who still remain in prison for fighting for us.  Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Mutulu Shakur and many, many, others. They inspire us to keep fighting and that's why we remember August.  And, if you disagree, but you are still reading this, then that proves that this is also why you remember August right along with us. 



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Aetna Insurance:  Proof that America can Never be Great

8/18/2016

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Poor Aetna Insurance.  The third largest insurer in the U.S. is whining about the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamcare) costing them $363 million in losses during 2016.  As a result of this claim, they are threatening to drastically reduce their participation in the ACA Exchange for 2017.  First, in case you missed it, the ACA is the massive health care program that was pushed for by various Democratic regimes.  It was finally passed by the Obama Administration a couple of years ago.  What ACA did was create a system which permitted approximately 8 million people who didn't have health insurance to have access to it.  If you ask me, the primary benefactors from the ACA have been the health insurance companies like Aetna who picked up so many more paying customers, but Aetna is telling you and me that this hasn't been the case.  That they have taken this huge hit as a result of the ACA and that they are going to pick up their marbles and refuse to play anymore.

Let me say that I in no way whatsoever want to suggest that I'm advocating the ACA.  I believe in Universal free health care.  That means no health insurance.  You go to the doctor - whether to have triple bypass heart surgery, or to get stitches, and you pay absolutely nothing at the doctor's office because health care is paid for through your taxes.  And, if you are wondering where that money will come from to pay for it, so many intelligent people have determined that just reducing the number of hydrogen and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in half would pretty much pay the bill.  I don't know about you, but I would pick free health care over a missile that misses buildings and kills people.  I have never woke up thinking what I need today is a missile like that.  I do think its important to state to you that I am convinced that most people in this country want free universal health care right along with me.  That's why the ruling classes pump so much fear into your brains about the "horrors" of a free health care system.  Its funny, but the Post Office, which is incidentally the same model that free health care would operate under, was running just fine for decades until the fat cat legislators sabotaged the finances of the Postal Service in 2006 in an effort to privatize its services.  So, we know that the ACA was simply a compromise to placate the masses who really want free health care.  That's why its so insane that Aetna is making this outrageous claim.

Its outrageous because these multi-national corporations can tell you and I whatever they want about their finances because we have no legal right to know what their profits are.  All we can do is gain access to their corporate taxes, which tell us nothing about profitability.  That's why you have to question anything a multi-national corporation tells you.  For example, just a few months ago, Aetna was reporting a $38 million profit for the previous fiscal quarter.  They had been racking up an impressive string of profitable quarters and their stock price has maintained a robust position as a result of it.  That's why Humana Insurance was in negotiations with Aetna to buyout Aetna.  Had the purchase gone through, Humana would have become the largest insurer in the country.  Regulators blocked the purchase.  This occurred just recently.  During the hearings, Aetna officials threatened to abandon making their premiums available through the ACA if the merger wasn't approved.  Of course, the entire point of health care reform is to make health insurance affordable for more people.  If a major player like Aetna drops out of the game, that places a lot of pressure on the system to maintain any semblance of affordable pricing.  During the same  merger talks, where Aetna' made their threat, they said nothing about financial losses.  They couldn't have because they had just finished reporting that string of impressively profitable quarters  Clearly, Aetna is playing hardball with the government now because they didn't get their way.  This is one example of how huge corporations deal with things.  They dump tons of money into supporting their agendas and if for any reason, things aren't scheduled to go the way they want, they pout and use their massive resources to sabotage the process.

This approach by Aetna and all multi-nationals should be offensive to any justice seeking person.  Especially, since Aetna's claim to fame, or at least fortune, happened because of how the company started.  Aetna, like all the major insurers and most other industries in the Western Hemisphere, was launched from money secured by the sell and trade of Africans, stolen from Africa, and subjugated to the transatlantic slave trade.  Yes, the cotton, sugarcane, hemp, etc, that enslaved Africans picked was sold to Europe and the money paid by Europe was used to finance the industrialization period.  Many companies, including the largest banks and insurance companies, like Aetna, cashed in on this golden dawn in U.S. economics by offering insurance premiums on Africans who were owned property of slave holders.  And, if you find that hard to believe, just simply google the fact.  The reparations movement has been working hard to apply pressure to these multi-national corporations who continue to perpetuate the lie that they occupy their favored positions on top of industry because of their hard work.  The truth is they capitalized on death, destruction, terrorism, and destabilization of Africa and the Americas.  The pressure to acknowledge this has been so intense that many of these companies, including Aetna, have issued statements within the last couple of years, admitting to everything I'm saying about them here.  So, the proof is easy to find if you want it. 

So, with that backdrop of understanding, please tell me how the hell anyone with any sense is supposed to have any sympathy or concern for Aetna, or any multi-national corporation?  Just the fact that they can front like they are the poster image of success, when in a just world, they should owe Africa billions, is proof of the injustice and the hypocrisy.  And, as I've already tried to make as clear as water, although the ACA is far from what we need and deserve for healthcare, Aetna's attempt to dishonestly weasel it's way out from under the ACA Exchange as punishment for being denied its desire to become a conglomerate corporation easily demonstrates the complete contempt they have for the masses of people.

When Parliament-Funkadelic and George Clinton say "we come to claim the pyramids" in their classic hit "Mothership Connection", what they are saying is we are coming back to claim what rightfully belongs to us.  What was stolen from us.  Let's make the days numbered where these criminal corporations rise up based on stealing from humanity and are permitted to maintain their position on top based on continuing to stick it to us.  Even if it was true that Aetna lost money providing affordable health plans, that would still leave them insultingly short on what they really owe us.

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How Do You Create Balance in an Insane World?

8/15/2016

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I'm always very interested in how people respond to this question.  As someone who has always chosen to abstain from alcohol and any type of mind altering substance, including weed, outside of those methods, I always wonder what people do to create peace and balance in their lives?  The ancestors certainly know we need something in this traumatic society where money's value supersedes that of people.  That dysfunctional fact creates enough problems to drive us over the edge so my question is what do people do, besides getting high or drunk to keep both your feet on the ground?

Some of the more interesting answers are spirituality, especially when its a grounded spirituality that is based in the conditions of humanity.  Grounded spirituality recognizes the social problems that dominate our existence and tries to provide believers with a value based platform from which to make contributions towards addressing the problems of the world.  In our view, this type of spirituality is healthy and interesting.  We are 100% in support of this type of spirituality as opposed to escapism spirituality that purports to rise you above the suffering of the people.  The latter type of religion often even blames the people for their suffering.  Since this latter form is simply another tool of imperialism to control people, its no wonder that it functions as it does, but the former method, is inspirational.  And, it certainly fits quite nicely with the type of spirituality I live by.  No, I don't ever talk about it because I believe if I am practicing right, I don't have to convince you by arguing with you about it.  Instead, you will observe how I practice it in my behavior.  You should see me placing people above my own personal interests.  You should see my heart for humanity and that gives you the answers right there as to what I believe in.  The balance in this happens because in order to practice this former version of spirituality, a peace of mind and a healthy understanding of humanist values is front and center.  This is more than enough to combat the anti-human values that dominate society today.

What other ways do people create balance?  And, I don't just mean going out into nature and sitting there.  What about that brings peace to you and how can people who may not have access e.g. a car, etc., replicate that peace?  If you have insight into this, please share with people.  Its sorely needed.  For me, it's not a formal process.  Referencing back to the previous paragraph, I really don't pray per say. I  do have a daily axiom that I use that is posted on this site, but that's the closest I come to praying.  My daily statement does keep me grounded because it reminds me that my responsibility is to confront the day with integrity and courage and then I must let the chips fall as they may.  I have learned to release that of which I cannot control so that it doesn't consume me.  And, I permit humor to play an active role in my life, especially as it relates to laughing at myself.  I love to laugh at what happens in my life.  For instance, I practice a healthy respect for all creatures.  I try to make sure I don't hurt plant life and insects need not fear me, even if they are found inside my place of lodging.  I enjoy talking to crows, pigeons, dogs, cats, squirrels, rats, seagulls, and other animals and I talk to them whenever and wherever I can.  My conversations with animals gives me great joy as I try to anticipate the animal's personality.  I talk to babies and I almost always get a smile from them.  This I attribute to the energy they can sense coming from me which is their only way to interpret what comes across their path. 

Another thing that I believe is essential for balance is having something that you do that gives you a sense of accomplishment.  I don't believe this "thing" can be in anyway disconnected from the forces that shape the world today.  I think that exercise must in some way address those forces in a way that gives you power and energy to create the morality you need to propel you forward.  For example, for me, this "thing" is writing.  Literary fiction is my thing.  It's done it for me because the stories I write permit me to create the type of world I want.  The way I develop my characters allows me to make people behave the way I think they should behave and I find this to be very healthy and empowering.  It also permits me to process my emotions.  Every fiction author includes parts of how they experience and/or interpret the world in their writing.  I desperately try to keep that as subtle as possible and the ways I do it has a focus of helping me process through difficult times I have in my life.  That's why I often cry while writing and doing so is fine with me because if I'm not crying than no one who reads my work is going to be impacted emotionally.  Since, my writing is totally based in trying to get people to take action, that's a critical component of my work.  Sometimes I even go back into the two previous books I've published to read sections.  This helps inspire me for the book I'm writing now (especially since its the third installment).  This practice brings me so much peace I can do it for hours.  In fact, if I go more than a week or so without writing, I crave it.  Maybe for you its singing or painting.  Whatever it is, you must prioritize time in your life to do it.  You'll be glad you did.

There are other things that I do.  I workout regularly e.g. every day.  My 54 year old body is in better shape than most people my age and probably better than many who are much younger.  This is obviously a good thing for anyone to do.  When people tell me they don't have time to workout I always respond by telling them they don't have time not to.  My diet is decent also.  It cracks me up when Europeans are always shocked when I tell them my age.  They always react with disbelief.  And, I ask them who do they know in this capitalist form before essence society who is over 30 that lies about being older than they are?  Then they proceed to telling me that African people age better than Europeans.  Some of that may be true.  Its not my field or concern, but you can't tell me my disciplined diet and exercise has nothing to do with.  And, probably the other things mentioned above have as much, if not more, to do with it.  Add in singing a karaoke song whenever I can and taking every opportunity to ride my bike on a nice day, drive through the Gorge (a beautiful river, mountain range drive east of Portland), etc. Besides, isn't it funny how most Europeans deny any and every form of white supremacy except where it benefits them e.g. we age better.  Comedy.

All of the above are great things to maintain balance, but the most important thing is doing the political work I do in the way I've been trained to do it.  Working hard and without compromise for nothing else except the chimerenga of our people and humanity.  Yes, this work comes with daily pain and trauma, but if that's all you see from it, you are completely missing the point.  The work and my ability to do it with strength gives me all the armor I need to fend off a lot of this problematic stuff.  And, some of the other ways I've set my life up that I've mentioned before also make contributions.  The point is if your life is about wage slavery and paying bills for material stuff, your life expectancy is unquestionably limited if all you are doing to balance that out is watching television, eating, getting high, etc.  The programmatic objective of imperialism is to wear you down one minute at a time.  Whether its the heat of a standoff with police or the day to day struggle to build consciousness and capacity, the capitalist plan is to keep you at bay while they wait you out.  Either hunger, fatigue, or demoralization, their entire plan is on getting you to one of those breaking points.  What would happen if no matter how long they waited, you had enough capacity not to break?  Think about it.  We want you around and healthy, unless you are one of those enemies of humanity who regularly troll this site.  For you, we wish nothing more than what is happening, the continued development of our ability to crush all that you hold dear, dear.

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The Long Overdue Intelligent Discussion about Returning to Africa

8/10/2016

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I'm not talking about just a visit to Africa.  I'm talking about repatriation.  Returning permanently to Africa.  It's long past time for Africans born and/or living in Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and Australia (including all those who were born in Africa, but migrated to all these other places), to have a serious discussion about this.  Of course, you know the type of serious discussion we are talking about here has never occurred.  Instead, what has been presented is the same old tired, racist, caricature of Africa as a mysterious and complicated place that Africans in the diaspora (living outside of Africa) could never hope to understand and navigate.   In this scenario, Africans in the diaspora are always depicted as naive and ignorant about Africa, while being expectant of some magical experience once they touch down on Motherland soil.  The discussion we are talking about here is much more sophisticated than that.

The discussion we are talking about evolves out of the struggles of Paul Bogle, Martin Delaney, and Edward Blyden.  It reverberates through the words and actions of Marcus and Amy/Amy Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.  In 1924, Garvey stated that Africans anywhere will never be free until Africans everywhere unite.  And within that statement was the call for those of us outside of Africa to return home to Africa.  Of course, Garvey himself - after having made outstanding contributions to Africa's forward progress - never actually made it to Africa, but 92 years after he made those statements, its time to talk seriously about the principles behind his words.

To have the type of high level conversation we need and deserve, we must dispense of the mass confusion around this issue.  Please don't confuse Pan-Africanism - the movement to liberate Africa from imperialism through creating a worldwide force of Africans and one unified socialist Africa - with repatriation, which is simply you deciding, by yourself, or with others, to physically move to Africa.  Some Pan-Africanists believe in repatriation and some people who believe in repatriation also believe in Pan-Africanism, but it is entirely possible to believe and work for one and not necessarily be committed to the other.  For example, as demonstrated by Garvey himself, you can be a Pan-Africanist and never see Africa.  For Pan-Africanism, the focus is on Africa's liberation, not your physical journey there.  By the same token, many people have repatriated and/or are working towards it, but have done no work towards the larger Pan-African objective.   You can find people everywhere in Africa today who represent the latter category and that's great because even personal decisions reflect political conditions, but its the former category that we will bring special attention to.  I choose to focus on repatriation as an outgrowth of the Pan-Africanist movement first because that's my personal path.  And, more importantly, its this path that best refutes the anti-Africa arguments that so dominate the discussion today.  In other words, every person who joins the All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) today is immediately a part of an international organization of African people.  Not the idea of one, but an organization with an actual presence all over the world.  Consequently, unlike the overused example of the African from the diaspora who has an idealistic and romantic vision of life in Africa, we benefit from being able to provide people interested in Africa with an on the ground support network to experience Africa first hand from a grassroots perspective.  For me this was essential because our political education process intellectually prepared me for Africa and the experiences of cadre I was working with who had been there gave me further preparation so that by the time I went for the first time, I had contacts on the ground waiting for me.  In fact, every time I have gone to Africa I have had this so common issues of having guidance in where to go, where to stay, how to function, are non-existent for us because we have the luxury of belonging to this international organization.  Plus, the repatriation model based on Pan-African organizing work has given us a template from which to prepare for life in Africa.  I was provided with an understanding of colonialism and more importantly for today, neo-colonialism.  As a result, I knew at age 22 that having a "Black" president was simply a case of capitalism/imperialism in black face.  I had no expectations of some Black capitalist utopia in Africa.  Plus, I knew that our people in Africa had been fed the same colonial education that we received in the diaspora so when I went to Africa, and someone said something incorrect, I had the tools to address it and the foundation to prevent the backwardness from shaping my perspective.  So, the political education and the practical experiences of belonging to an international organization prepared me for life in Africa.  And best of all, my preparation came to me within the African cultural dynamic known as the Revolutionary African Personality.  So, there was never any dismay on my part about anything I experienced because my organization did a great job educating and preparing me in real life terms.

Another practical way in which the A-APRP has helped is the Pan-African examples I've observed people making for decades now.  First, we start with Kwame Ture (formally Stokely Carmichael).  Born in Trinadad, Kwame made his name in the civil rights and black power movements in the U.S., but he made his most important mark by spending the last 30 of his 57 years on earth living in Guinea, West Africa, as an organizer for the A-APRP and the Democratic Party of Guinea.  Kwame's example influenced or was influenced by so many other organizers.  I've seen A-APRP cadre move from California, Louisiana, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Missouri, and other places to various parts of Africa.  While in Africa, I've worked with A-APRP cadre who were born in Haiti who moved to French speaking areas in Africa to organize.  Just last year, one of my close comrades within the A-APRP took a job in Africa and made the decision to move from the East Coast, U.S., to West Africa.  Less than a year ago, I lived within an A-APRP operated community center in Ghana that was housed by an A-APRP cadre and former Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and Black Panther Party cadre who has lived in Africa for decades.  These are all people who I interact with who are great sources to confirm the benefits of repatriation, but these are sources you won't have if you are simply an individual dependent upon imperialism to provide you all the information you receive about Africa.

The other and most popular anti-Africa argument that Pan-African activism rips to shreds is the notion that leaving the diaspora, especially the U.S. or Britain, is somehow "running away from the real struggle."  This argument is advanced by people who have absolutely no understanding of the forces that shape the world.  Imperialism is a worldwide system.  There is no place on earth you can go to escape it.  The capitalist countries control and set prices for every product on the planet so by living outside of those imperialist countries, you actually increase the burden on your life due to you now becoming inaccessible to the sources of power and privilege.  The flip side of that coin is because you are outside the sphere of privilege, the people in Africa are not confused by the bourgeois propaganda in the U.S. that can convince a house-less and working class person that their interests and that of millionaire and billionaire political candidates are one and the same.  Therefore, the harshness of the struggle in Africa is stark so there is absolutely no running away.  In fact, the struggle in Africa is where the real struggle is being waged.  This is especially true since capitalism was founded and is maintained based on Africa's exploitation and subjugation.  So, by fighting for Africa, you are striking the most potent and lethal weapon for humanity.  Or, as Sekou Ture correctly put it "imperialism will find it's grave in Africa."

So repatriation to Africa is a good thing in any form, but within the context of the fight for Pan-Africanism, it becomes the natural progression for any African living within the diaspora.  Repatriation is definitely the path I plan to follow.  I've quietly and consistently spent the last five years preparing for my time to go home.  For context, I worked from 1985 until 2010 in the private sector.  I lived a double life.  Executive by day, Pan-African revolutionary by night.  It worked because for most of that period there was no social media so you could live separate lives with relative ease.  I was able to finance a lot of A-APRP work through this process over that span of years.  With the banking burst in 2010, I found myself unemployed and with social media, background checks, and a high internet activist presence, there was no way I was going to get hired again within the right-wing dominated finance industry.  The subsequent time I spent unemployed forced me to sell practically everything I owned.  At first, this was a source of depression until I realized I didn't miss any of that stuff.  In fact, selling it freed me up from it.  Once I found stable employment again, I pledged to maintain the style of life I had adopted which eliminated most of my material possessions.  I've maintained a debt free life.  If I can't pay for it outright, I don't need it.  I don't ever plan to be forced to do anything again because I have bills to pay.  I'm saving a lot in my retirement fund for that day when I can leave the U.S.  My mind is ready to go and has been for some time.  I know this will sound so strange to those of you who see the U.S. as the beginning, middle, and end, of the entire planet, but what I see is a place that has stolen everything our people need to be self sufficient from them.  What I see is a place that must maintain its hold on Africa, thus requiring it to maintain its repression of African people.  And, most importantly, what I see is a place that doesn't belong to the people who claim it as their property.  I see a nation that will one day soon be recovered by the Indigenous people it was stolen from and we intend to do everything in our power to unite with them and stand with them in reclaiming their homeland.  In the meantime, I'm going home.  I long for a place where the person I am is respected at face value e.g. someone who represents sincerity, honesty, and a passion for justice.  I very much look forward to being able to live in an environment isn't trying to kill me emotionally, physically, even through the food that I consume everyday.  No, Africa isn't perfect, but its a much better fit for me and once my time comes in six short years, if I'm still breathing, you better believe I'm there.  I actually believe that once I make that transition, I'll be so much better equipped to wage the fight for much longer than I would if I were to stay here.  My spirit is dying out in this place and I think that's true for anyone who truly lives life and isn't experiencing it through a series of artificially induced highs and distractions.

So, there is no disrespect shown to me by suggesting I should go back to Africa.  I'm happy to see that day come.  Just keep in mind that when we all leave, we totally plan to take all our riches that were stolen with us.  Some of you are so mixed up in the head that you still fail to decipher how when that day comes, your life here will be changing drastically.  And when the time comes I may be still trying to get away from here. I may be comfortably at home in Africa.  Or, I most likely will be nothing more than a memory.  One that I hope inspires as many people as people to pour all the oil on the fire that it can possibly take.






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What Organizing Life Looks Like in Your Fifties

8/8/2016

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Yours truly at African Liberation Day in Oakland, California, May 2016. There with new comrades, family, and friends from Portland, Oregon and old comrades, family, and friends from the Bay Area. This year's African Liberation Day was my 32nd commemoration of this event, and my participation in the A-APRP as an active organizer.
Full disclosure:  Although I turned 54 three months ago, I am without question in the best physical shape of my life.  And, I have been in good physical shape my entire life.  I also believe I am in very strong spiritual and mental health.  And, what I mean by that is my spirit today is positive and I believe now, more than ever, that victory is in store for us as humanity.  I feel fortunate that I haven't fallen victim to the dichotomy that George Padmore spoke of in his classic book "Pan-Africanism or Communism" when he said "revolutionary at 20, moderate at 30, conservative at 40, and reactionary at 50."  The militant spirit I have maintained my entire life has intensified.  In fact, its stronger today because its fueled not only by emotional commitment, but informed wisdom, knowledge, and probably most importantly, experience.

There are fundamental changes.  I'm not perfect, but I am much more patient now.  I've learned to not see people as a means to an end (your entire purpose in my life used to be to do this work).  Instead, now I value people, being around people, and benefiting from their existence and what they bring on this earth.  I am genuinely interested in those aspects of people and this is something I've learned over time.  Also, whereas I used to feel like I had to accept whatever attitude people presented to me, especially my African people, I've now learned that its perfectly ok for me to give you the exact energy you give me.  At least that approach requires a lot less wasted energy on my part.  I think I've come to understand how it feels to have people respect you because they see you as having wisdom.  That feels good.  Really good.

I'm different than a lot of people.  To me, if someone says they will do something, that's your only real value and whether you do it or not determines the extent to which people need to take you seriously.  That applies whether its making a call to check on someone who is in trouble or just the simple follow up of showing up because you said you would.  I've learned over the years to spend a lot of time working on my discipline.  Therefore, I'm not bragging when I say I can probably get a lot more done in a shorter period of time than most people.  This is true because I've practiced doing so for a long time now.  There was sacrifice.  I never had a period where I clubbed and hung out much.  Not judging you if you did.  Just saying I spent most of my time working and preparing.  I did that because developing those skills is what has always been important to me.  And now, I'm starting to experience some of the benefit of that.  People see the consistency and they respect you because of it.  This takes time.  Lots of time, but eventually, you do begin to see it happen.  This is one of the joys of doing this work, but again, I've always been rather different.  When I was in my early twenties, I didn't resist the teachings of my elders at that time. I welcomed it.  The same way, I don't resist the reality that I'm growing older and people see me that way now.  I welcome that.  Of course, the flip side of that is the nature of revolutionary organizing in a capitalist society, especially the epicenter of capitalism, is that you live a life of marginalization.  That means its few and far between that anyone will ever acknowledge your contributions, organizationally and individually, but another part of my joy is I believe I've come to accept that with grace.  Revolutionaries aren't supposed to expect praise and I can tell you that I honestly don't think about it.  It does happen and when it does, that's great, but I get much more excited when the work gets acknowledged.  In fact, its frustrating to me when the work is confused with my personal accomplishments.  And for anyone who would think this is just talk, if you are around me when I'm doing my work, you will know that most people have no idea of my personal accomplishments e.g. Masters Degree, three published books, etc. because I usually forget to mention those things, but everyone knows about my politics.  That makes me proud because it demonstrates to me that I have matured and I like that.  Its that peace of mind that powers me when people routinely and consistently dismiss and/or disrespect our work.  And, it would be negligent to not include that a major aspect of that maturity is the ideological work that has occurred for decades now.  That's another area where the personal benefits are showing themselves more and more each day because I better understand the forces of nature and how to interact with them.  And having an improved understanding of that makes life roll much smoother.

I'm embracing my fifties in this work in what I believe to be an extremely healthy fashion.  I'm as militant as I've ever been, but I now know how to channel that.  I know how to focus my attention and keep building my work despite the temptations to change focus everyday that come as a regular aspect of capitalist dominated life.  I have become a person people look to in order to learn how to channel and focus and I gladly try to share what I know and work with people.  This is the work I have always wanted to do and I guess you can say that in a way, I'm happy because I now get to see all of that come full circle. 

Another thing that has come with maturity is vision.  I have a plan.  In spite of all the many obstacles capitalism has thrown me, I've been able to save to the point where I'll have some money to work with when I'm eligible to retire in the few years.  I've made the decision that when that day comes, I don't want to spend my twilight years in the U.S.  I've always been a radical thinking person who has never had a problem putting my @ss where my mouth is.  Consequently, I want to live out the last chapter of my life at home in Africa.  I even have the town I want to live in picked out and with what I'll have to work with financially, doing so shouldn't pose any difficulty.  I'm even starting to move in starting to establish arrangements to prepare for that day.  This is all exciting to me.  I realize that I've never fit into this money over people society.  I've never been someone who needs new cars or houses.  If those things make you happy, I'm happy for you, but those things mean nothing to me.  I do value being with people who want to be with me and people in Africa make to clear to me that they want me there in ways I will never experience in this country.  Plus, the quality of life e..g the time and space to build quality relationships is just what I adore after spending half a century in a country that either ignores people like me or treats me like I'm public enemy number one.  Since I was a child, I've struggled here in those ways and every time I go to Africa I'm reminded that its there where I have always belonged.  So, for any of you people who tell us to go to Africa, I'll accept any and all help you will provide to get me there.  I love Africa!  So, unless I die before hand, you best believe my days over here are numbered.  And, when that transition takes place, I look forward to completing the process, meaning my work will be focused on writing and teaching and less on the front line, place my body  on the line, work that I've prided myself in being committed to for three decades.  So, I'm working on that transition, but until then, my body will continue to be out there and I'm going to put all that I have into this work here , in Africa, and until I die, and the thought of it all excites me.  I have another book I'm working on and as soon as possible, that will be out there.  When that happens, I'll start work on the next one.  And, the older I get, the more militant I'll be and that makes me happy.  Unfortunately, not enough people my age can honestly say they are living the life they want to live, but that's my reality.  I'm far from perfect, but I'm trying.  And, for however long I have left, I look forward to helping as many people as will listen learn how to embrace the positive things I've learned and avoid the negatives I've experienced. 

So, sorry if you happen to encounter people my age doing this work, or not, who are bitter, impatient, and hard to be around.  My goal is to try and never be that person.  I think I'll do it without difficulty because the most important lesson I think I've ever learned is that it never has been, isn't now, and never will be about me primarily.  I've learned that the minute you figure that piece out, the rest of it starts to fall right in line in the most positive and healthy way possible.



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Fragility and Centering Our Trauma In Organization Building

8/2/2016

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Eldridge Leroy Cleaver was Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party. Once Huey P. Newton went to jail, Eldridge became the face of the Panther Party. Many of us would argue that Eldridge was powered in large part by his dysfunctional issues to lead the Panthers which led to him viewing the Panthers as his personal gang. This approach caused many to get hurt and killed and we would argue did nothing to advance the African liberation struggle
I'm choosing to write about this topic because this issue has been brought up to me several times by organizers.  Its also surfaced within my own political work.  I'm talking about the very fragile state of many of us and our constant focus on defining the needs of the movement based on our individual trauma.  First and foremost, it has to be stated that trauma is a very real and devastating thing in this world today.  Capitalism - an economic system where everything we need to survive and sustain ourselves is based on commodification of everything it produces - is the dominant system on the planet today.  And at its core, capitalism values capital/money more than human beings.  So, by definition, there is going to be more than enough trauma to go around for everyone.  Lord knows that I've experienced enough myself on a physical, mental, and spiritual level to understand that as well, if not better, than many people.  In fact, its my personal exposure with trauma, my work to process it, and my commitment to creating systems that eliminate it, that is driving my desire to write about it today.  So, if you read this and leave here thinking this is an attempt to diminish and/or dismiss people's trauma, then I assure you that you are missing the entire point of this post.  And, since most people are not actively involved in ongoing organizational work within this movement for justice, those people can only interpret events and analysis from their individual perspective.  A perspective that I would bet is heavily influenced by bourgeois ideology, so this is a disclaimer that many people probably aren't going to get the point of this, but these are your problems, not ours, because we are actively working and searching everyday to find solutions to the problems we face, instead of being contented to just complain about the issues. So, if you read this and it reminds you of you, don't get mad at me because there will probably be a lot of people like you.  Instead, try to accept it in the spirit it's intended.  To make us stronger, better, and to move us forward.

We start again by acknowledging trauma is a real thing and we all have it.  And, because capitalism has made "families" basic economic units instead of the support networks they are supposed to be, most people don't have the resources and support to develop tools to deal with their trauma in healthy ways.  Therefore, even many of us who are well meaning, who genuinely desire to try and do something to address the problems we face in society bring with us the trauma we carry within our bodies.  We bring it into our political work and to our organizations.  And when we don't know how to effectively process it, eventually, it comes to infect our organizing work in very adverse and disruptive ways.  There are examples everywhere we look.  We were disrespected, discriminated against, verbally, physically, or sexually abused in any, all, or some of the dysfunctional ways that these terrible experiences manifest themselves in our various lives.  These experiences growing up teach us that we cannot trust  school, church, police, etc., to support us because interactions in those institutions scars, humiliates, and traumatizes us.  Consequently, our developed ability to see through the capitalist propaganda and identify these institutions as the anti-human mechanisms that they are serves to  reinforce our mistrust of institutions which makes it easy for us to be drawn to activist/organizing work which calls out the system for the corrupt entity it is.  Unfortunately, our mistrust for institutions extends to people as well.  We don't trust people.  We therefore find it next to impossible to build and sustain positive relationships with people.  With men.  With women.  With anyone we perceive as different from us. 

When we first get involved these contradictions are not immediately evident.  This is so because capitalism has trained all of us that form is more important than essence.  As a result, we learn that how we present is what's most important.  We must always appear to have it all together.  We cannot let people know we are scared and extremely insecure.  So, all is well until we move from the place of just talking about what needs to be done into the scary and unsafe world of actually having to build institutions and capacity to engage in fighting this backward system.  I guarantee you that if you evaluate every organization you have been involved with.  If you assess every relationship e.g. job, romance, etc., around you, you will find these same patterns playing out.  And the end result is always the same.  The minute the rubber hits the road, the relationships blow up and the organizing momentum ceases.  Why?  Because we lack the ability to build that required trust.  So, when we receive the slightest bit of struggle, we perceive it as a personal attack against us because our fragility prevents us from seeing anything outside of how we perceive it on an emotional level.  Even if the criticisms, etc., are 80% accurate and 20% dysfunctional, we only see the 20% while we ignore the majority of it that is correct.  If its 80% inaccurate and 20% accurate, instead of us being able to acknowledge the 20% so we can improve ourselves, we use the 80% as justification to substantiate our theory that everyone is out to get us.  We leave the organization when all of this happens in a flash.  If we were truly invested in our relationships as we always pretend that we are, this certainly couldn't happen, but it does because we never had strong relationships to begin with.  We had the facade of relationship when the reality is we are hiding behind the frightened child within us and when the pressure gets greater so does the potential that we may be found out and this we cannot let happen, no matter what.  And, the moment the time comes for us to strike a serious blow for justice, our insecurities and lack of confidence in ourselves and everyone else explodes in front of us and we try to do everything we can - either consciously or unconsciously - to sabotage the work because if we sabotage it that is not nearly as painful for us as it would be had we placed everything we have into the work just to see it fail.  Facing this is unimaginable for us.  We would almost rather get run over by the truck because the idea of us failing reinforces all that painful stuff that we have spent all this time working so hard to hide from the rest of the world.  If it gets revealed, we will have to start from scratch and we cannot bear the thought of having so little regard for ourselves and we have a right to feel that way, but the problem is none of this is going to help us change this system.  But, instead of us being able to focus on that, what ends up happening is every problem is everyone's fault except ours and this gives us, in our minds, the justification to leave the work, thus permitting us to continue co-existing with oppression without feeling quite so guilty about it because those people drove us out, right?  I know this process well because being a person who takes quite a bit of initiative to create and build capacity, I have often been the target of many people's dysfunctional attacks for no reason.  I'm also familiar with this road because of the aforementioned trauma I've experienced on a personal level.  And most importantly, because of the great deal of work I've done on myself to try and work through and process my trauma so that it doesn't define who I am and how I approach the work that I do.  Of course, I'm not perfect and so this cannot be a perfect process, but Sekou Ture was correct when he said bad organization is better than no organization.  Of course, it should go without saying that one shoe cannot fit all sizes.  Yes, there are people who experience trauma inside unhealthy organizations because the organizations are simply manifestations of the people within them who are products of this dysfunctional society.  These are all real problems, but the point here is to stress that in spite of all of those things we have to figure out, we have to try and stop the pull these problems have on the ability of healthy organizations to engage the work.

Having heard crickets regarding methods at healthy regenerative work against oppression while working to eradicate oppression, I'll tell you what my work has consisted of.  Having grown up in a very dysfunctional, violent, and non-supportive environment (not of any particular fault of both of my parents who did their absolute best), I developed a very low self esteem and a pretty clear perspective that horse poop held more value than I did.  To me, everything around me reinforced this 24/7.  I was ugly.  I was stupid.  I couldn't do anything right.  And these were the internalized manifestations of the psychology of oppression within my own family and community.  My exposure to naked white supremacy was brutal.  On three separate occasions, once by three adult European (white) men, and two other times for multiple older Europeans, I was jumped and beaten badly, simply for being African in the "wrong" side of town.  And this was outside of the institutional interaction with agencies like police.  I honestly lost count of how many times I was harassed by police as a youngster, but I can tell you that several times this was done at gunpoint for committing outrageous crimes like playing basketball or music in European neighborhoods.  I see no need to explain the overt trauma from school, hospitals, etc.  I think you get the point.  All of this drove me right into the African liberation movement, but I arrived without any preparation on how to process any of that.  Consequently, I was impatient, aggressive, and angry most of the time.

Fortunately for me, I joined the right organization.  The All African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) when I was a very young man (21).  The A-APRP had its work study process and I religiously read the 70 pages every two weeks as required and that was extremely helpful in terms of teaching me how to put my personal experiences within the context of the broader struggle for African liberation and justice for all people.  And, the most important aspect that the A-APRP introduced me to was the process of criticism/self criticism/praise.  This was a tool of the Democratic Party of Guinea which the A-APRP was closely patterned after, at least in our organization's early days when Sekou Ture was alive and still the leader in Guinea.  This criticism process was invaluable although it took me a few years to understand how to use it.  At first, we all used it as a weapon to attack the people we disagreed with and with my other dysfunctional issues, I used criticism with great certainly, but eventually, I learned to use it as Ture intended it.  As a method to critically and honestly evaluate myself.  My shortcomings.  The ways that I can improve myself to better serve humanity.  This realization led me to learn that the best way to build relationships is to sincerely make yourself vulnerable and I used criticism of myself to practice doing that.  What I learned is the more I did that, the stronger and better about myself I felt because people would respond in supportive and not judgemental ways.  That helped me learn to do this more and in turn, others began to take risks and our trust for each other grew and our strength grew also.  The results were the relationships began to have substance and that is why many of those relationships I still maintain 30+ years later.  Of course, I've also done a lot of one on one counseling, but I don't believe for a second that any of that would have worked had I not had the organizational foundation because it was that process that helped me learn that solving these problems is a collective process that must involve everyone.  It was the A-APRP that taught me to be honest about my shortcomings.  My fears.  My faults and my hopes for myself and for us.  And, I learned that my comrades had similar concerns and fears and this helped me learn to realize that I didn't need to hide from them.  That we could be exposed together and that made us stronger.  It made me stronger.  In other words, I knew I couldn't conquer this with just one on one conversations with bourgeois professionals.  So, what I'm saying is I've always relied on my culture and my organizational socialist resources to guide me while using the counseling as an augmentation to that process.

Today, what all that has done for me is help me build an overwhelmingly strong sense of confidence in my abilities and that has permitted me to avoid seeing other people as competitors.  Instead, I learned how to invest in people and share my skills with them.  I learned to rejoice in seeing people "come up."  So, instead of being a problem person in the organizations I learned early on how to be an asset and I believe I continue to be one today.  I continue to make mistakes everyday, but I realize now that this doesn't mean there's something wrong with me. It just means I'm trying.  Now, there are many other variables that have to be considered in order for more healthy interactions.  I believe that the appendages of capitalism - patriarchy, white supremacy, homophobia, etc., make it much easier for those in the beneficial position to avoid dealing with our issues because there is no demand from society that we do so.  In other words, if you are European, no matter what type of European you are, you still are in a better position than any person of color in your status e.g. working class, LGBTQ, women, etc.  Therefore, it is easier for you to avoid facing the issues in front of you because you don't have to.  I believe that this is ultimately a decision we have to make.  We have to decide that our mission for liberation of the planet and humanity is more important than our individual selves.  Therefore, we cannot define our organizations as extensions of ourselves and we cannot see our organizations as serving as safe spaces for us to work out trauma.  I'm not saying those spaces aren't needed.  I'm saying if the organization is going to tackle that responsibility, it must create structures like the criticism/self criticism process and it must work diligently to develop those structures so they can play their proper role.  Otherwise, our political organizations cannot be that place.  The primary role of these organizations should be building capacity to combat this backward and oppressive system.  Not to provide you with safety from this oppressive system.  If you are seeking that then you are probably not ready to engage in this work because the truth is there are no safe spaces until we win. 

So, the ask here is that if you consider yourself an organizer/activist then take a long look into the mirror.  Whatever fears, insecurities you have, make that commitment to yourself to do work to address those things and hold yourself accountable to making sure those issues aren't driving your participation in this movement.  The way you will know whether they are or not is when you ask yourself if you are contributing more to building your organization or are you taking up more space than you are contributing to building?  Are you sucking the energy of the people doing the work or are you working besides them?  If the answers to these questions are not the ones we want, that doesn't make you a bad person.  It just means you have work to do and the sooner you do it, the better you will be for yourself and the movement.


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Contempt for Intellectualism and the Erosion of Critical Thinking

8/1/2016

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A good friend and mentor of mine, and one of the leading theoretical contributors to the modern Pan-Africanist movement - Dr. Zizwe Poe - used to travel and organize with hip/hop artist KRS-1 in the early 1990s.  During that time, Dr. Poe would conduct his own lectures which talked about a genius concept he created called "CSDS" or common sense deficiency syndrome.  Dr. Poe's presentation would discuss how the biggest threat to human development and sustainability is not "A - I - D - S (Acquired Immunity Deficiency - which was just starting to afflict and kill millions at the time), but CSDS.  He explained that human beings really have six senses, not five as we are taught.  And, that the most important sense, beyond hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste, is common sense.  He argued that without common sense, the other senses are meaningless and the dominance of "CSDS" is the most dangerous phenomenon facing us as human beings today.

Twenty five years after Dr. Poe's introduction of "CSDS" we find ourselves faced with an even more serious dilemma.  The problem expanded beyond just that of people not using common sense.  Today, there seems to be an outright contempt for ideas and intellectualism.  The problem is prolific to the extent that a focus on learning and discussing ideas is considered about as valuable as eating shreds of glass.  Granted, this is certainly no new problem within the U.S., but the imperialist machine has created such a wide reaching propaganda mechanism that you can now readily find this disdain for intellectualism in every part of the world.  And, its growing at an alarming pace. 

What is the basis of this anti-intellectualism?  Its the idea that the only things that should matter to you are the forces that can contribute to improving your immediate and material reality.  This is an extremely a-historical and unscientific philosophical approach which promotes an obscene individualistic life perspective that argues that your primary function in life is to consume.  And, since that's the reason you are here, your focus must be on doing that at all costs.  You must see people as simply a means from which to provide resources for you.  This barbaric philosophy is based in reducing human beings, who unlike other animals allegedly have the ability to think and reason, into reactive creatives who don't think critically.  I say allegedly because if humans don't learn to think critically, then there is really very little difference between a human being and a bear, cat, horse, or rabbit, etc. 

Where did this problem come from?  Several places, but all the different problem routes point back to the capitalist system.  This system has spent decades utilizing the technological advances in communication e.g. radio, television, the internet, to promote consumer over contributor messages to the point where this dominantly individualistic mentality is considered normal and necessary in many spaces today, in spite of the fact this ideology is foreign and contradictory to the majority of cultures on the planet.  This propaganda process has devalued human life so systematically that insecurity and lack of self esteem and awareness are now becoming the norm.  In other words, people are aware of nothing outside of their basic needs e.g. eating, sleeping, and feeling good.  Everything is driven by emotion instead of reason.  Consequently, logic has come to a place where it has no value.  You all know it.  You can present objective facts and they mean nothing to the person you are talking to because the only way they are engaging issues is how they impact them on an individual level.  Whether they are right or wrong in the moral sense is immaterial.  Whether they are a rightwing extremist or a so-called progressive or revolutionary is immaterial.  This primitive anti-intellectual individualism is demonstrated in every direction we look.  Presidential candidates in the West at least used to have to present themselves as people posing as intellectuals.  Now, you are seeing people running for president who remind you more of someone talking about issues from a bar stool rather than someone who has a firm intellectual and diplomatic command of the issues of the world.  People all throughout the U.S. are taught that they should focus on placing themselves in position to win the lottery, marry a millionaire, or sing themselves to fame, rather than using their minds to think through the problems they, and everyone else around them, face.  And, people outside of the U.S., they are learning that in order to position themselves so that they can have access to the milk and honey in the U.S. (that was stolen from them in the first place), they must abandon their humanistic tendencies and do their absolute best to imitate the mindless pursuit of money or else they will not get in.  They will not arrive.  They will not experience that individualist comfort.  Meanwhile, all around us, the architects of this anti-human messaging are profiting left and right and our lack of concern for the damage they are doing to the environment and our societies has basically left them unchecked in their illegal dominance of the planet.  Plus, those who do challenge them are so marginalized that the promoters of truth and justice have very little space and ability to articulate their vision and their work.  In this environment, people can tell outright lies like no people of color have done anything to contribute to humanity and at worst they are not even challenged.  At best, the people who could easily shut down that ignorance are never present (because they are never given the platform to show you how ignorant the people with the platform are).  Instead, the people who are present are incapable of really explaining anything except how uninformed they really are because these people are not the people who are qualified to speak to these issues.  Instead, they are celebrities and other assorted academic opportunists. They are anyone except the grassroots organizers who are really the only people credible enough to effectively provide a comprehensive analysis of what's going on (read - cut straight through the BS).  We never hear from those credible people.  What we are led to think is that you with your PhD from NBC and FOX is just as knowledgeable, if not more so, than those organizers who have done the work and gained the experience to understand how this system actually functions, and how to combat it.

Finally, this overt contempt for intellectualism has created a reality where we are told the only subjects we shouldn't talk about - politics and religion - are actually two of the subjects we should be spending the most time discussing.  Our youth are told that reading and thinking are diseases and they believe it because most of the literature they are provided in school promotes a disrespect for them as human beings.  Today, the people of the U.S. are without question the dumbest people on the entire planet and instead of there being an intervention from everyone to correct this serious problem, the focus is on forcing the rest of the world to become as dumb as people are in this country. 

When people as utterly stupid as Rudy Giuliani, Bill O'Reilly, and Tom Robinson (British anti-Islam fool) are able to sustain the spotlight not because they are correct.  Not even because anyone is able to be in the position to challenge them, but solely because their ignorance is popular among segments of the people who now openly celebrate ignorance, that is not a good sign for humanity.

Its time for God's children to push back and push back hard.  Challenge this anti-intellectualism.  If people are around you saying stupid things like African protestors are criminals, push back.  If they say all lives matter, push back.  If they say Africa is poor because Africans are lazy, push back.  If they say "the gay lifestyle" is destroying the African community ask them to give you examples e.g. how this "gay community" is stopping you from having children in a heterosexual relationship if that's your desire.  If you don't know the answers on how to push back, learn how.  Get involved and learn how to develop your own organizer skills.  Learn how to teach people how to think and learn how to do it in ways that are interesting to people.  Develop a sense of humor that is educational and practice.  Of course, it goes without saying that all of these skills really only develop properly if you are practicing them within the context of work you are doing.  Yes, you guessed it - in an organization.  Hey, Africans in Africa are listening to U.S. country music and wearing shirts with confederate flags on them.  I was just recently there and saw this with my own eyes.  There is no way this could ever happen without the relentless organization and marketing of the capitalist system.  So, any of you thinking that your here today, gone tomorrow, inconsistent approach to doing this work is going to combat what they are doing to us, you are operating in a fantasy world.  Unless we do something to turn this anti-intellectualism around, before we know it, slavery never happened, the Americas always belonged to the Europeans, and the future of humanity is dependent upon many of us being rounded up and mass murdered in camps today.  The difference will be instead of seeing signs of these things, we will actually start seeing the actualization of policy to carry all of this craziness out with the full support of many of the people who are superficially smiling at you as you go through your day today.


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    I don't see disagreement as a negative because I understand that Frederick Douglass was correct when he said "there is no progress without struggle."  Our brains are muscles.  Just like any other muscle in our body if we don't stress it and push it, the brain will not improve.  Or, as a bumper sticker I saw once put it, "If you can't change your mind, how do you know it's there?"

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