When is enough, enough?! How long will the people of this nation continue to toil under the boot of illusion, lies, and insanity? At what point will the majority of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people finally and unequivocally say NO MORE, and insist upon systemic change?!! Contrary to the incessant chirping by U.S. corporate / military government and its corporate-stream de facto State media, the time is approaching.

Everyday peoples throughout the world in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Carribean, etc. are restless to be free of the yoke of the U.S. corporate / military Empire’s domination. The everyday people of this nation have a serious and real obligation to our own humanity and that of the rest of the planet to join in this struggle for human rights and complete economic, political, and social justice. We, the people of this nation, must not go down in historical infamy; as human ostriches blinded by greed, corruption, perceived privilege, and lethargy, in this theater of the absurd called ‘America!’

Even as Barack Obama, this first nominally ‘black’ president of the U.S. corporate / military Empire, followed in the bloody foot steps of his stated hero, Ronald Reagan, (who had Libya, north Africa, bombed in 1986), Obama ordered (without even the semblance of any serious prior public discourse or debate) that the living hell be bombed out of north Africa yet again. Meanwhile, here at home he insidiously economically and politically disenfranchises everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people. The U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. are apparently not enough. No!! Let’s further demonstrate U.S. military machismo and bomb north Africa too! After all, Barack Obama, this colored smooth-talking clone of the avaricious U.S. corporate / military apparatus, continues to count on the backing of the corporate-stream media, and his Democrat and Republican Party accomplices to facilitate this insanity! Yes, this truly is the theater of the absurd - complete with real blood and twisted corpses.

Let us be clear about this: Legitimate opposition to the bombing of Libya, north Africa, is not based upon some kind of blind or misguided loyalty to Muammar Gaddafi. Rather, the strong and legitimate opposition to the bombing of Libya, including any other forms of U.S. military intervention there must be based firmly in principle. The United States does not have the ethical, moral, or political right to militarily influence or determine who the victors or losers are in the conflict in Libya. That is the exclusive right and responsibility of the Libyan people themselves. Obama should, but definitely will not, come clean about the fact that NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is a front/cover organization for U.S. military objectives, operations, and aspirations; and is, in reality, controlled by the United States government just as is, in very large measure, components of the United Nations itself. The so-called NATO “allies” to which Obama disingenuously makes repeated reference, are in fact more often than not, nothing more than U.S. vassals who carry out the political and/or military bidding of the United States government (which has little or nothing to do with the will of the ‘American’ people). It is the everyday people of the United States, and elsewhere on this globe, who pay the enormous financial, physical, and political bill for the U.S. sham known as NATO.

If Obama (and his corporate, military, and political cohorts) were the least bit interested in the so-called “freedom, justice, and democracy” that they constantly tout to other nations of the world, the U.S. government would immediately cease supporting, for example, the de facto dictatorship of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, et al. Where is all that much touted “freedom, justice, and democracy” when it comes to restoring the U.S. Constitution and the right to speak truth to power? Where is all that “freedom, justice, and democracy” when it comes to disbanding the despicable and unconstitutional so-called ‘Patriot Act,’ stopping U.S. ‘extraordinary rendition’ and its concomitant torture, closing the U.S. Guantanamo torture prison, declaring an amnesty and releasing the numerous political prisoners right here inside the U.S. itself, corporate domination and Wall Street greed, massive corporate-induced home foreclosures, widespread police brutality, an intrinsically corrupt and unjust U.S. judicial system, a lack of universal and affordable health care, increasing racial and economic disparities, and unaffordable and deplorably unequal educational opportunities, etc.? Where is all that much touted “freedom, justice, and democracy” in this nation?! Why is homelessness, particularly among women, children, men and veterans - out of control in this nation?! Where is all that economic and political “freedom, justice, and democracy” for people of all colors in this nation? Where the hell is it?! “Freedom, justice, and democracy,” if it is real, must be practiced at home first and foremost, and it most assuredly and overwhelmingly is not.

For the cost of every single U.S. cruise and/or predator drone missile that has been launched in Libya, Pakistan, or elsewhere in the name of a democracy that we ourselves do not have here in this nation; schools, libraries, and roads could have been built or repaired, lives and homes could have been saved, and jobs could have been restored. But such things do not suit the greedy desires of the corporate / military elite of this nation.

The inordinate amount of so-called intelligentsia (both White and Black) in this nation that supported, and continue to support, the bloody, hypocritical Obama / Biden clique are increasingly earning the utmost contempt from everyday Black, White, Brown, Red and Yellow people. And this includes those liberals and supposed ‘progressives’ who are systemic gate-keepers, who in an effort to maintain their class privilege do not want genuine systemic change at all - only window-dressing, and they have their window-dressing in the person of Barack Obama and his minions of the Democrat and Republican corporate Party. These people fit the description of Frederick Douglass, when he referred to “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.” These liberals and alleged progressives (including sadly, some in the political Left) can even be found in plain view in substantial portions of the so-called ‘alternative’ media. These are the people who, for example, love to talk about injustices in other lands but avoid, as much as possible, addressing systemic and racial injustices right here in this nation. They criticize economic, social, and political injustices and inequality but steadfastly stop short of calling for unequivocal systemic change - for then their own systemic privilege might be in jeopardy. These are folks who, for example, might praise the accomplishments of Harriet Tubman, but studiously neglect to point out that Harriet packed a pistol and knew how to use it, for then it would be crystal clear that Harriet Tubman put her very life on the line in the struggle against slavery. Yes, they “want crops without plowing up the ground” and “rain without thunder and lightening.” They are the present-day fifth column systemic gate-keepers, and are a major impediment and danger to the struggle of just plain ordinary everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people for economic, political, and social justice and human rights. You know who some of them are despite their ‘progressive’ masquerade.

As Frederick Douglass also said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” The beloved John Brown obviously understood and internalized those words by Frederick Douglass, and for this shall always be remembered with great respect and honor by all justice loving people. To reiterate: In today’s struggle we must beware of fifth column systemic gate-keepers. Our metaphorical pistol in this struggle for justice and human rights is the “demand” for unequivocal systemic change, and organizing for it.

The Obama / Biden supporters and their assorted allies will no doubt seek to ignore and obfuscate the reality of Barack Obama’s contempt for, and treachery against, everyday people of all colors. This is, after all, to be expected. However, events and systemic contradictions will ultimately overtake illusion, and we need to be educating, agitating, and organizing now for this eventuality, in preparation for the not too distant future.

The time for illusion is long past. Reality is at hand. There is no such thing as a good war, and these present wars being waged by the United States in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Africa, and elsewhere are in fact the spawning grounds for so-called “terrorism,” notwithstanding the fact that these wars are, in and of themselves, enormous organized acts of terrorism. They represent terrorism against humans, the environment, and our Mother Earth, and they must be opposed. Let us remember and respect the fact that we humans have only usufruct rights to Mother Earth, and if we fail in our charge to protect her, we do so at our own peril.

The human, animal, and plant inhabitants of this planet can no longer afford the ravages of greed, exploitation, and perpetual war. A better, more equitable, and saner way must be found, and quickly, to resolve our perceived differences and evolve in our humanity. This too, is why we must educate, agitate, and organize. I reiterate: The time for illusion is long past. Reality is at hand.

Onward then my sisters and brothers! 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 News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. 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.