Won’t Reform: Memorial Day is Everyday

“‘Get that head up’” (Assata: An Autobiography).

In defiance of bullet wounds and physical imprisonment, Shakur raised her head!

The path to freedom, as Shakur discovered, is knowing that “the almighty dollar is king; those who have the most money control the country and, through campaign contributions, buy and sell presidents, congressmen, and judges, the ones who pass the laws and enforce the laws that benefit their benefactors.” As a result, we are all in jail wherever we go, a fellow inmate remains Shakur.

Hasn’t it been the occupation of Amerikkka to invest the backward running mob with the power to suppress these voices of opposition (here and abroad), to trample on the memory of their deeds, to stamp upon those of us who won’t reform because we know the militarism and corporatization of U.S. government can’t be reformed? It’s the only power they are allowed—only this power to destroy! In the globalization of destruction and death, our role as agitators, fighters, and non-conformist extends beyond reconstructing our “little” communities. As agitators, fighters, non-conformist, we can envision freedom from destruction for people of color, globally. But we are far from that goal.

Although many of our people are tripping over themselves to run at the bidding of their Master in that insidious downhill marathon, we must remember that those who wish to remain Negroes, enslaved to their Masters in a new forms of enslavement, represent our casualties of war: the living dead. We, the last standing, must go on. As surviving members of the Black Left, we must hear the voice and raise our heads beyond those feet that would annihilate us if we fail to remember who we are. We have a worthy and a formidable tradition behind us, and, though few now, we must pick up the torch and carry it forward. “Important tasks” have begun with just a handful of people. We have an important task too, and we are fortunate to have someone standing in the tradition of Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Shirley Chisholm, and Assata Shakur. We have our Cynthia McKinney.

It’s imperative that we recognize that this historical moment could very well be our last. Left to the forces of an imperialist regime, it could be! If you haven’t read, please do read Larry Pinkney’s “Cynthia McKinney: That Audacious Black Woman Standing for the People” in the Black Commentator, May 22, 2008. I will add this—our loyalty is to the struggle and to stand with those leaders like McKinney who honors the right to fight for human rights above the right of corporations to drain humanity of life. For McKinney and us, our loyalty is to the Movement and not an election campaign by and for the “Joshua generation” against the so-called “Wright generation,” so-called because it’s corporate media’s image depicting paradise in white mainstream but “militancy” in dark corners. We are the opposition against militarism and corporatization, standing theoretically beside McKinney. Let’s make it a real! When you stand up, you will do so with the understanding that our war heroes never die for us as long as we are imbued with their spirit of resistance.