I
do not know what it is like to believe in �my� government
without question. I would have to believe not so much
that my government was innocent but rather that what stands
outside of my government and me is danger, chaos. I
would not be deceived, but as dangerous as the fox at
Fox News, for I would fear the world beyond my government!
Recently,
I spoke with someone who has all the solutions to solve
the world�s problems. With confidence and authority I
was informed that the first order of business for the
Egyptian people should be to issue birth control throughout
the country! There is no shame in limiting the mind to
the size of a prison cell; limiting knowledge to a fraction
of the world, and, without a history of peoples� resistance,
a history of change led by the people, without a history
of American�s indulgence in terrorism, tyranny, imperialism,
without a clue about oppressed peoples� understanding
of �freedom� and �democracy� - utter with confidence and
authority - �birth control� for a nightmarish world too
populated with �colored� people!
What
confidence - in the possession of so little self-knowledge!
My
grandmother advised, when purchasing any item of clothing,
make sure it is of quality, good and not for show but
to serve you well. Whether you have a dime in your pocket
or $10, 000 dollars in the bank, if clothing becomes worn,
toss it out. Toss it! Maintain your dignity: Know you
can do better!
But
we are not talking of clothing but of governments - worn
governments, governments of no value to the people.
The
Egyptian people, fed up with their own apathy and unwilling
acceptance of a 30-year dictator, Hosni Mubarek, and his
regime - the people, the people in one voice shout:
The Mubarek regime must be tossed out!
Goliath
is not so big and bad after all. Here, we can relate:
The Crazy Horses and Lumumbas have returned again echoing
Malcolm�s call to rise and struggle for human rights.
To emperors and dictators: ��today your bag of tricks
have absolutely run out. The whole world can see what
you�re doing.�
Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton is startled! Night has arrived
in Egypt where all is made clear. �Made in the U.S.A.�
tear gas canisters become clear. In the darkness, we see
what the Egyptian and other oppressed peoples everywhere
have known for so long. Venture out of America�s daylight. Walk out
of the bright-lighted narrative it has created around
itself. Take a walk in the long night of American history
the limbs of trees and ground itself speak:
And
Clinton is startled!
Twenty-three
years of Ben Ali in Tunisia and 30 years of Mubarek in
Egypt is too long for a people to submit to tyranny at
home and forced to witness these �leaders,� year after
year grow rich while more repressive, yet maintaining
their �good standing� with the U.S. It was too long for
the people to witness U.S. corporations receiving huge pay offs from
the U.S.
government while poverty and unemployment expanded among
the people. It was too long for the people to delay the
toss off of the monster on their backs.
Looking
into the American bag of trick slogans, President Barack
Obama reaches in and grabs at anything that comes up:
The United States will stand up for human rights everywhere!
Ah, we stand for the right to protest! Yes! �But
it had not for 30 years recognized the shipment of $15
million dollars of funds to corporations in Egypt
to purchase weaponry and establish Egypt�s
police/security state. Under its tyrannical regime, workers
earn $2 dollars a day and spend their evenings in terror.
And the U.S. said nothing regarding the rights of the
people to protest in those 30 years!
And
protest, here, results in FBI raids in Chicago
and Minneapolis and the intimidation, arrest, and imprisonment of political
activists. This nation�s neglect of its children results
in their imprisonment of young adults. FBI wiretapping
and surveillance devices, cameras everywhere keep protesters,
all Americans - under the watchful eyes of Big Brother.
The sudden issuing of birth control pills among the
Egyptians or Africans or Latin/Caribbean Americans, Asians,
or Black Americans will not change this fact: It is capitalism
- and the people are poised to crush capitalism!
On
December 17, 2010, the 26-yearold unemployed graduate,
Mohammad Boyazizi did not die in vain. The Egyptian people
with or without banners or posters, without feeling it
was an accomplishment just to arrive at a fence before
the seat of government, and without securing mementos
at the event, and without reporting to work on Monday
and announcing to co-workers that �the march� of a few
hours went well - a few hundred attended.
For
the Egyptian people, the protest is a call to toss out
the worn and useless capitalist system. It is a call to
an uncertain life but life nonetheless that cannot be
recalled on a Monday because it will continue until, as
Dr. Martin L. King would say, �freedom rings� in Egypt
- and everywhere!
BlackCommentator.com
Editorial Board member, Lenore Jean Daniels, PhD, has a Doctorate
in Modern American Literature/Cultural Theory. Click
here
to contact Dr. Daniels.