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March 5, 2009 - Issue 314
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Rhetoric and Myth Versus the Reality of Organized Struggle
Keeping it Real
By Larry Pinkney
B
lackCommentator.com Editorial Board
 

 
“What better way to enslave a man than to give him the vote and tell him he’s free.”
-Albert Camus

The majority of Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow men, women, and children, in the United States, and around the world, are languishing in rapidly increasing harsh economic and social realities while the political leadership of the U.S. Government and its allies extols people to sacrifice as if the masses of people have not been sacrificing all along.

Too often, particularly in the so-called ‘Western World,’ rhetoric and myth are perceived as reality when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. For example, the recent installment of Barack Obama and his clique to head the U.S. Empire is perceived by some as “change” when in fact it is nothing more than the continuation of the myth of U.S. democracy and the reality of continued empire at home and abroad.

Racism, empire, and economic exploitation have in fact been extended, not ended, by the installment of the U.S. power elite of Barack Obama as U.S. president. Nevertheless, the myth and concomitant perception of progress is being perpetuated by the U.S. corporate elite and its pathetic, crow eating “main stream” news media of disinformation and manipulation. Not only has the United States moved backwards but the very economic survival and well being of the masses of people in this nation (of all colors) is in a horrific downward spiral. That’s the reality, and no amount of media or government hype and smoke and mirrors will change or ameliorate this fact.

And what has occurred internationally since the image change of regimes in ‘America?’

The raging U.S. war in, and occupation of, Iraq continues unabated. The war in Afghanistan has in fact been militarily widened by the U.S. regime. The horrible, unconscionable, and blatantly illegal practice by the U.S. known as “rendition” (i.e. the kidnapping by the U.S. of selected people inside other nations of the world) has been extended and expanded by the Obama regime. These things are the reality not the myth.

Back inside the United States itself the Obama regime utilizes its militant hawkers, such as current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, in an effort to keep people militantly satisfied, blind, and unorganized; to feed people meaningless rhetoric while it retains all of the fundamental and ill gotten powers grabbed by the previous George W. Bush regime, particularly as those powers refer to the civil liberties of the peoples in this nation. This is the reality, not the dangerous fantasy of political smoke and mirrors.

And what of the avaricious, blood sucking corporate entities including the Wall Street bankers, or “banksters” as they are more accurately described?

Notwithstanding the smoke and mirror rhetoric of the current U.S. regime, the fact is that the blood suckers of Wall Street are still very much in charge, sucking the life blood out of the everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow peoples of this nation and planet. Indeed, the ongoing rip offs of the people by the “banksters” of today would make the gangsters of the 20th century green with envy.

Where is the single payer universal health care for the peoples of this nation?

The answer to that question is nowhere. To those who are discerning, the “affordable health care” rhetoric emanating from the current Obama regime rings hollow, and eerily echoes the rhetoric of the previous George W. Bush regime. The priority of the Obama regime remains to the bloated corporate insurance companies, not the people. There should be no such thing as so-called “affordable health care” in that the word “affordable” is misleading and has no place in the equation, since excellent and universal health care for the masses of people should not merely be “affordable” but it should be unequivocally free.

What of the economic and political rights of the disenfranchised Indigenous Red Peoples of this nation?

As with Black and Brown peoples in ‘America,’ the rate of poverty and disenfranchisement of our Indigenous Red sisters and brothers (so-called “Indians”) has and is massively increased. And by the way, this current regime needs to be uncompromisingly reminded that this land now known as the United States of America, was already occupied prior to, and during, the coming of the “settlers,” and this is inscribed in the very blood of the Native peoples and the ongoing hypocrisy of this nation’s “leaders.” Lest we ever forget, there would be no United States of America, without the Indigenous peoples, and we owe it to ourselves and each other to actualize this fact.

Now, more than ever, is the time to organize against the trillions of dollar giveaways to the “banksters” and their corporate bandit partners. This money, this capital, belongs to the people, not the vampiric corporate blood suckers of the people.

Now is the time to organize against the expansion of wars abroad, and the destruction and/or neutralization of civil liberties at home.

Now is the time to pay very close attention to the “man behind the curtain,” as there is no such thing as a warm-hearted wizard, and the Land of Oz is myth. Only the everyday people, Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow can and will build a better nation and world together. Pay no attention to the media hype for that is precisely what it is: hype.

Have we all emptied our Obamatron Kool-Aid cups? Let us hope so for it is time to wake up, get seriously organized, and make some real systemic changes while there may still be time.

Onward….

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.

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