It is hard to believe that I am only 3 generations away from African Slavery. My great uncle Sam died recently and he was one generation removed. He was born in 1914. His parents had been born in the late 1800's. Their parents, his grandparents, were enslaved Africans. African people were held in bondage for 246 years, and that is sixteen generations.
Sixteen generations of family dysfunction, cultural genocide and overall systematic oppression. It is hard to believe that even now, another 139 years after slavery was declared "un American", that we have forgotten how we got here, what we knew that held us together and the dreams of freedom that were thematic of our arts and expression.
I am an African. I was not raised with my language or as much African culture as I would have wished. I have only been to Africa once, but it changed me in a way that really helped me to who I am in relationship to the continent of Africa, the diaspora and the people who look like me.
For whatever reasons they have, many people have a problem with me and others claiming our heritage. Sometimes I am asked if I was born in Africa, if I have ever been to Africa, or if I know anything about Africa. It seems the underlying context is "If you knew anything about Africa you wouldn't be so quick to call yourself African." I have studied African history for a long time and I know that it is not all glorious. Some of it is bloody and unjust, much of what is going on in Africa now, the blame for it rests squarely on the shoulders of it's educated African leadership.
I am an African, in the same way that many of my friends are Mexicans andf Jews. Just because I don't speak the language of my forefathers or praise God the way my ancestors did, those things do not make me any less African.
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Friday, November 19, 2004
Some poems I've written
This is the first poem I ever wrote. At age 12, I was a very "creative" kid. Constantly in my own world.
Big Blue Frog
I am a big blue frog
I am a big blue frog
I can fly though I don’t know whyI am a big blue frog
1982
This is a more recent poem, written just this year.
History
I do not want to be famous
Most men like me
Become famous by dying.
Most men, most people who think and act like me
Find their vindication in the grave
I do not want my name to go down in history
If they could:
Kill Fred
Kill George
Kill Medgar
Kill Malcolm
Kill Martin
Kill Bobby
Kill Jack
If they could kill Diallo-make his young body absorb
17/41 hot bullets
And not even taste Justice
Then what will they do for me?
When I do join my voice to that of those brave men And Demand Justice and Righteousness?
What will happen to me?
I want Peace
I want Justice
I want Love
I demand Freedom
I do not want to be famous
I do not want my name to go down in History
Covered in Blood
Mine or
my enemies’
Blood
Is just as precious
As my own
His dreams for his children
Just as strong as my own
His pain just as profound
His prayers just as fervent
His God just as real
If my name does go down in History
I wish it to be covered in Love
And flowers
From my enemies and Friends
I want to die of old age
Fighting for justice
Living as a free man
Believing in Love.
2004
I wrote this in 2000. When I was just getting to know my son and father again.
Five shots
I made sure I was fully loaded
Before I left to go and see him
The first time in a long while
I loaded all five shots carefully and left
When I saw him
I shot fast and all five shots
Caught him
Center mass
Knocked his ass right over
One in the head
Two in the heart
Another in the lungs
One in the gut
All five shots caught him
Center mass
Knocked his ass right over
I Love you daddy always
1 2 3 4 5
five shots
dedicated to my son Aaron and my father Jackie.
That's it for today.
-M
Big Blue Frog
I am a big blue frog
I am a big blue frog
I can fly though I don’t know whyI am a big blue frog
1982
This is a more recent poem, written just this year.
History
I do not want to be famous
Most men like me
Become famous by dying.
Most men, most people who think and act like me
Find their vindication in the grave
I do not want my name to go down in history
If they could:
Kill Fred
Kill George
Kill Medgar
Kill Malcolm
Kill Martin
Kill Bobby
Kill Jack
If they could kill Diallo-make his young body absorb
17/41 hot bullets
And not even taste Justice
Then what will they do for me?
When I do join my voice to that of those brave men And Demand Justice and Righteousness?
What will happen to me?
I want Peace
I want Justice
I want Love
I demand Freedom
I do not want to be famous
I do not want my name to go down in History
Covered in Blood
Mine or
my enemies’
Blood
Is just as precious
As my own
His dreams for his children
Just as strong as my own
His pain just as profound
His prayers just as fervent
His God just as real
If my name does go down in History
I wish it to be covered in Love
And flowers
From my enemies and Friends
I want to die of old age
Fighting for justice
Living as a free man
Believing in Love.
2004
I wrote this in 2000. When I was just getting to know my son and father again.
Five shots
I made sure I was fully loaded
Before I left to go and see him
The first time in a long while
I loaded all five shots carefully and left
When I saw him
I shot fast and all five shots
Caught him
Center mass
Knocked his ass right over
One in the head
Two in the heart
Another in the lungs
One in the gut
All five shots caught him
Center mass
Knocked his ass right over
I Love you daddy always
1 2 3 4 5
five shots
dedicated to my son Aaron and my father Jackie.
That's it for today.
-M
Monday, November 15, 2004
The FF would be pissed
Not the Fantastic Four, although I wish that there really were Superheroes to remind us of what is good. No, I mean the Founding Fathers, the Framers of the Constitution. The white dudes who jacked the US from the Natives. Maybe they wouldn't be mad, considering how they treated the people that were already here, how they treated the Africans and they were the ones who made the whole "Manifest Destiny" philosophy possible.
".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federaltive development of self government entrusted to us. It is right such as that of the tree to the space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth."
-Sullivan 1839
An ok introduction to Manifest Destiny
http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/dialogues/prelude/manifest/d2aeng.html
A more comprehensive piece:
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/manifest/manifxx.htm
The White Mans' Burden
The white man is on the March. Reading early American literature and taking an historical look at the movement of people and power in the US, I can only assume that our nations' recent actions in Iraq are the manifestations of the Anglo need to expand and conquer whatever he can, at whatever cost.
I am horrified to see what this nation is doing. How can we call ourselves a nation of morals, values, of God loving individuals and families when we allow our troops to kill people for oil and power? How does that fit into the philosophy of Christ?
Bush is not a Christian. It is impossible that he is a Christian, just as it is impossible that a true Muslim would ever take an innocent life. There is nothing in the Gospel of Jesus that tells us that killing for any reason is okay. There are things that instruct us on how to be forgiven, but nothing that gives us permission to kill one another for any reason.
Bush is flouting Gods laws. He is a coward and an imbecile. Is he in DC trying to figure out a way to spread Goodwill and Peace through love? No. The President is busy finding ways to intimidate and kill people who do not believe as he does.
Since when is occupation liberation?
I look at Iraq and I see a nation of people who are used to fighting, for whatever their reasons are. People fight and kill each other. Nations have conflict. People rise to power and fall based on many factors. Saddam was a bastard. Okay no doubt. He was. But here are all these people, supposedly Iraqis fighting like hell to get the US out. Where were these men when Saddam was in power? Why weren't they suicide bombing him and shooting at his troops? If people wanted change so badly in Iraq, why when change came were they so hostile to the people who brought it? I don't have the answers, I don't know, I am just asking questions. I hate to see people die. I know that this situation could be lived out in another way. I see that America is becoming a malevolent empire and that the majority of the people here in this nation are complicit, that we are content to sit by and let the elite in this nation send our children to their deaths and condemnation for politics. That is sad and evil beyond words. I wish there was a way for me to wash away the stain and stink of being an American right now.We are not doing the right thing in Iraq and everything around us tells us that. The people in Fallujah are called "insurgents" and we are told that Americans have killed at least one thousand. So we are to believe that these people have the military strength to fight the US? I think not. What we are fighting is the idea that America is the "Great Satan". That we are evil. What then are we doing to disprove this notion? America has declared war on the Iraqi people, for no reason. There were no Iraqis piloting planes on September 11th. There were no weapons of mass destruction, no delivery system, no cooperation with Al-Qaeda. nothing. no threat. Iraq was no threat to the US. But I believe that if we continue to fuck up their country, kill their children and destroy their nation to make the world safe for America, that the fight is going to be brought to American shores. Some shit will blow up here, or some people will be poisoned, something bad. And then its going to be called "Terrorism" and that act is going to be the justification for a whole new round of aggression somewhere else. Of course to even suggest this is probably sedition, but I really believe that this government is acting against the best interests of not only the American people, but the whole world.
Fuck the Government
I also want to be clear that I love the American people, but I hate the government. The American people, my countrymen, I think are good in their hearts. It would be hard to convince someone who has been a victim of US aggression that, but I do believe that. I am an African American. I see America from the inside out, and I hate this place with a passion. Not the physical land that this Nation is located on, but the spiritual ground that it lays on.
I was always taught, in school anyway that America was a place where people came to flee poverty, religious persecution, to pursue freedom and liberty in the ways that they saw fit. Now the Right wing, millenialist Christians control the government and they seem to want the rest of us, to just toe the line. There is comparatively more "Freedom" here in America, than other places, but at what cost? And isn't the rest of the world just becoming more and more totalitarian? Is there anyplace where the free exchange of ideas is encouraged and the will of the people is implemented? Is there a place where the individual as well as the collective health is nurtured by the state? Not this place, not America. I came to understand at an early age, that America was a place where some white people (Anglo Saxons to be exact) came to set up a new outpost for people like them. They tried to dress it up in pretty words, but the people that have benefitted the most from America and all of its systems has been the descendents of those Anglo Saxons and the people who look like them. All the rest of us hyphenated Americans have just taken the crumbs. America is a place where you can lick off the bullies' plate, eat the leftovers from massas' plate. Where you can side with the the big kid that everyone else is afraid of.
That's enough for tonight.
Power to the peaceful. Please America wake up and do the right thing. We cannot continue to abuse the rest of the world.
".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federaltive development of self government entrusted to us. It is right such as that of the tree to the space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth."
-Sullivan 1839
An ok introduction to Manifest Destiny
http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/dialogues/prelude/manifest/d2aeng.html
A more comprehensive piece:
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/E/manifest/manifxx.htm
The White Mans' Burden
The white man is on the March. Reading early American literature and taking an historical look at the movement of people and power in the US, I can only assume that our nations' recent actions in Iraq are the manifestations of the Anglo need to expand and conquer whatever he can, at whatever cost.
I am horrified to see what this nation is doing. How can we call ourselves a nation of morals, values, of God loving individuals and families when we allow our troops to kill people for oil and power? How does that fit into the philosophy of Christ?
Bush is not a Christian. It is impossible that he is a Christian, just as it is impossible that a true Muslim would ever take an innocent life. There is nothing in the Gospel of Jesus that tells us that killing for any reason is okay. There are things that instruct us on how to be forgiven, but nothing that gives us permission to kill one another for any reason.
Bush is flouting Gods laws. He is a coward and an imbecile. Is he in DC trying to figure out a way to spread Goodwill and Peace through love? No. The President is busy finding ways to intimidate and kill people who do not believe as he does.
Since when is occupation liberation?
I look at Iraq and I see a nation of people who are used to fighting, for whatever their reasons are. People fight and kill each other. Nations have conflict. People rise to power and fall based on many factors. Saddam was a bastard. Okay no doubt. He was. But here are all these people, supposedly Iraqis fighting like hell to get the US out. Where were these men when Saddam was in power? Why weren't they suicide bombing him and shooting at his troops? If people wanted change so badly in Iraq, why when change came were they so hostile to the people who brought it? I don't have the answers, I don't know, I am just asking questions. I hate to see people die. I know that this situation could be lived out in another way. I see that America is becoming a malevolent empire and that the majority of the people here in this nation are complicit, that we are content to sit by and let the elite in this nation send our children to their deaths and condemnation for politics. That is sad and evil beyond words. I wish there was a way for me to wash away the stain and stink of being an American right now.We are not doing the right thing in Iraq and everything around us tells us that. The people in Fallujah are called "insurgents" and we are told that Americans have killed at least one thousand. So we are to believe that these people have the military strength to fight the US? I think not. What we are fighting is the idea that America is the "Great Satan". That we are evil. What then are we doing to disprove this notion? America has declared war on the Iraqi people, for no reason. There were no Iraqis piloting planes on September 11th. There were no weapons of mass destruction, no delivery system, no cooperation with Al-Qaeda. nothing. no threat. Iraq was no threat to the US. But I believe that if we continue to fuck up their country, kill their children and destroy their nation to make the world safe for America, that the fight is going to be brought to American shores. Some shit will blow up here, or some people will be poisoned, something bad. And then its going to be called "Terrorism" and that act is going to be the justification for a whole new round of aggression somewhere else. Of course to even suggest this is probably sedition, but I really believe that this government is acting against the best interests of not only the American people, but the whole world.
Fuck the Government
I also want to be clear that I love the American people, but I hate the government. The American people, my countrymen, I think are good in their hearts. It would be hard to convince someone who has been a victim of US aggression that, but I do believe that. I am an African American. I see America from the inside out, and I hate this place with a passion. Not the physical land that this Nation is located on, but the spiritual ground that it lays on.
I was always taught, in school anyway that America was a place where people came to flee poverty, religious persecution, to pursue freedom and liberty in the ways that they saw fit. Now the Right wing, millenialist Christians control the government and they seem to want the rest of us, to just toe the line. There is comparatively more "Freedom" here in America, than other places, but at what cost? And isn't the rest of the world just becoming more and more totalitarian? Is there anyplace where the free exchange of ideas is encouraged and the will of the people is implemented? Is there a place where the individual as well as the collective health is nurtured by the state? Not this place, not America. I came to understand at an early age, that America was a place where some white people (Anglo Saxons to be exact) came to set up a new outpost for people like them. They tried to dress it up in pretty words, but the people that have benefitted the most from America and all of its systems has been the descendents of those Anglo Saxons and the people who look like them. All the rest of us hyphenated Americans have just taken the crumbs. America is a place where you can lick off the bullies' plate, eat the leftovers from massas' plate. Where you can side with the the big kid that everyone else is afraid of.
That's enough for tonight.
Power to the peaceful. Please America wake up and do the right thing. We cannot continue to abuse the rest of the world.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Initial Rant
How in the Hell?
Did we get to this point? I hope Kerry wins. I really do, because Bush is a treasonous lying bastard in all forms, he is a damn devil. Please Lord, let Kerry win, because if he doesn't the Retarded ass Republicans have open license to screw us all over.
Did we get to this point? I hope Kerry wins. I really do, because Bush is a treasonous lying bastard in all forms, he is a damn devil. Please Lord, let Kerry win, because if he doesn't the Retarded ass Republicans have open license to screw us all over.
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