MLk day in Albany

Living in Black Southern America, at times is like witnessing the world after the "Big One" has been dropped and watching the roaches run the show. Yesterday, the Albany Civic Center charged $20 per head to attend the celebration of MLK's Birthday (a week late of course since actually celebrating his birthday would have negated a 3 day government Holiday. God knows we wouldn't want that shit to happen). I worked. I'm a working man and I don't get paid if I don't work. I'm sure Martin would understand. Hell, I work on Jesus' birthday when I can so don't get all bent out of shape. I object to the exploitation of the image of the last American-born sage manifested in the line of Ghandi, Yeshua, and Siddharta Gautama being used to make a dollar. I didn't have it to spend. Not to sit through the vocal gymnastics of an unlistenable choir or some Jack-Leg preacher relative of somebody who useta be something or other thumping a podium with a bible in one hand and a chicken wing in the other. Been there done that. Fuck that.

The state of the revolution is such that No one out there under 60 with any kind of Q rating is worthy to say anything worth listening to, except Obama and he aint even one of us. Not technically since He's an in-law, married into the fam, but with no connection to the pickers of cotton, tobacco ... but is he as Maya says the Dream and the Hope of the slave??? Where is the Dick Gregory of this Generation? Our Jeremiah? Our John the Baptist? Where is our Stokely, Our Fred? Our shining black manhood? Don't say "Old". Don't say "Dead". Remember "We don't die we multiply". YOU see groups of dangerous men on the street corners. I see revolutionaries waiting for direction. It's not as if we have any choice in the matter. The revolution is coming as surely as the seasons change. Not because I say so but because the son of man has said it will be so. When the earth turns away from the sun, darkness is sure to follow. When oppression reaches a certain level in its march toward The police state and slavery, rebellion and revolution follow most assuredly.



MLK might have been a softy with all that non-violence talk, but make no mistake about it, He was willing to call America on it's shit and do so without pulling punches (outside of his naturally cordial disposition). Whether you liked his methods or not, one cannot with a straight face say that he did not speak truth to power, which is something most so-called leaders cannot do. Why not? Because they have been bought like Mandingo on the auction block lock stock and barrel. "Open your mouth boy". " Hey Jeff, feel those thighs!". My adventures on Economic/Social Ladder have occurred simultaneously with my rise up the ladder of enlightenment. I have been blessed to witness the realities of the American pseudo-life. Rampant consumerism. Classism based on spending power. The new Sumerians( My term) for those who spend and consume without really knowing why or I should say without knowing how mass media influences their spending and consuming habits. With Global Positioning, pocket computers, cell phohes etc, people are literally being given the hard sell through most of their waking hours and like prisoners who learn to do their bits one day at a time by making the most mundane things into important things, the new Sumerians believe that choosing blue over red or ford over chevrolet or Mcdonalds over Burger King is somehow indicative of living in a free society. They've had Mcdonalds in China for years yet the government will expel you out of the communist (and only) political party if a couple has too many children(one is the limit MAYBE two) Why do I mention that? Straight math. McDonalds does NOT equal Free. The internet does not make you free. Education does not make you free. If your goal in life can be prefixed by the words "nice" or"good" (life, job, car, apartment, man. woman...) then your diploma or degree makes you an educated slave. Most of your time is spent on a paper chase to trade paper for stuff. Supreme Mathematics by extension says that if time = paper and if paper = stuff then time =stuff. Your waking hours(time) are a futile attempt to acquire stuff, most of which is disposable ( so it can be replaced and you can be sold another disposable replacement.)


The obscenity of charging for any MLK event seems to have bypassed these educated slaves in nominal authority around here. It's not because King was rich, though he was comfortable financially, but because he worked on behalf of poor people like me who would not be spending $20 on anything other than necessities. It is as if Kings death and the fear surrounding the violent nature of it made it seem acceptable to swallow the blue pill and act as if this illusion is somehow a life that the creator meant for us to live. It isn't. But don't kick yourself too hard for feeling fear and reacting badly to it. Not even the legions of Rome or Nazi Stormtroopers generated the fear that this government is capable of. Don't get it twisted. The Middle passage, slavery, jimcrow, lynching trees all over the south were all designed to instill fear and we all inherited a little fear of the fate -the noosegunbombbeating and ldumping on train trax fate- of those who buck. It is only Gods will that some of us-enough of us- have the sight that penetrates the facade, the ears that decipher the word, and the will to stand up and speak truth to power. It is nothing short of miraculous. But for those of us who have swallowed the red pill, now is the winter of our discontent. We must continue to support each other and meet this fear machine with a courage born of the knowledge that we don't die. We transform on this side and the next. What lies before us but the open grave? (add Claude Mckay to your reading list "if we must die".)We should not seek death, but rather the inheritance that our fathers have left on this earth in this space and time. Artificial boundaries are meaningless artificial class is meaningless. when I and my father are one, no man can cross me and live. It's like Brother Cleveland told me last week, when someone asked how he could walk so fearlessly through the projects at all time of night without a piece. Cleve just said "my bible says not to fear anything that can die like a man."

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!
And so I'm happy, tonight.
I'm not worried about anything.
I'm not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!"