When activists and/or voters become fans instead of serious, committed, and actively engaged citizens in the political process, we end up with dangerous politicians like Barack Obama and crowd. We become mesmerized by nebulous rhetoric and manipulated by corporate images and brands rather than being committed activists whose constant watch words should be critical thought and analysis.

Those who supported whom they deemed to be the lesser of two evils in the past corporately controlled so-called election neglected to remember that the lesser evil is still evil and we do not have to continually be the pawns of Democrat and Republican parties, (i.e. the Republicrats) whose interests are to perpetuate corporate / military empire and exploitation at home and abroad. Systemic change is no nearer now than t was under George W. Bush.

We still have no universal, single-payer health care, rendition (international kidnapping) and the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue unabated, joblessness and homelessness continue to grow at an alarming rate for the masses of Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow peoples, and police brutality and judicial injustices of all kinds, nation-wide, have increased - not decreased.

So where do we go from here?

We must go to the root. The word radical derives its meaning from the Latin word, radix or radicis, meaning root. Malcolm X repeatedly emphasized the need to study and delve deeply into matters, and he correctly noted that, “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Our collective futures will be determined by the methodology of our approach. This calls for a radical / root approach, as Henry David Thoreau aptly stated, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” Indeed.

We must ask ourselves, is what we are doing “hacking at [a] branch” or addressing the root of the matter? Are we struggling for real systemic change or simply spinning our wheels like a caged hamster, running continuously on a rotating wheel but going absolutely nowhere?

We must organize, educate, and agitate, but for real root / systemic change, not half-baked and meaningless rhetorical or pigmentation change, for this is no change at all. There are many Malcolm Xs, Harriet Tubmans, and John Browns among us. Only when we begin to specifically formulate, and proceed to actualize what it is that we are striving for, can we successfully and collectively carry on the process of bringing about real systemic change. This takes work. It will not come about by merely hoping for it or by osmosis.

No one of us is as smart or as strong as all of us. Many stumbled when they succumbed to the corporate media-induced Obama madness, but they did not necessarily fall.

Onward then my brothers and sisters! There is much work to be done…

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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