By Ron Herd II a.k.a. R2C2H2 Tha Artivist
“In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."”
~Dr. King from the “I Have A Dream” Speech
“Don't push me, cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under”
I'm trying not to lose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder
How I keep from going under”
~Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five from “The Message”
On Monday Sept. 29, 2008, The U.S. Supreme Court Decided That An Innocent Man On Georgia’s Death Row Will Live...At Least For Now...The Story Of Troy Davis , a poor innocent Black man who was wrongly convicted in the murder of a police officer almost 19 years ago based on faulty witness testimony and evidence is the bounced check of The American Dream...The Troy Davis travesty proves that being born poor and black are unforgivable sins in our society which can mean an automatic death sentence from The State...
Realize that Bro. Troy Davis is just one of many in this 'Just Us' System who have basically been railroaded by a system where race and class are the x-factors in determining guilt or innocence...TODAY HIM, BUT TOMORROW IT COULD BE YOU!!!
In a time where financial powerhouses are succumbing to the Great Depression II, the prison death industry complex is one of the fastest growing businesses in the U.S. and for that matter in the world...The U.S. holds 25% of the World’s prison population with an additional 4 million folks on probation and parole...The U.S. has the largest number of prisoners of anywhere in the world...We have more prisoners than Russia and China...Nearly half of the prisoners are Black and Brown, many of whom are in prison for non-violent drug offenses...There’s also a disproportionate number of people of color on Death Row...
By the way Black folks only represent 13 percent of the U.S. general population...
With an exception of a few states, more state budgets are going to the proliferation of prisons and juvenile detention centers than to education...On Wall Street, human misery is once again commercialized and privatized (don’t forget enslaved Africans were seen as human commodities to be traded and were directly involved in building Wall Street both economically and physically) by the trading of stocks linked to the prison death industry complex...Small town America where factories were once plentiful pre-NAFTA are now thriving on the prison death industry complex...Blue collar working class whites are being gainfully employed through the by product of the imprisonment of poor Blacks at an astonishing rate...This is the new plantation politics for the 21st Century...One man’s hell is another man’s heaven...
1 out of every 100 Adult Americans are in prison...We are living in a prison police state and many of us don’t even know it...The prisons that are being built are the new concentration camps of our society...The same contractors that are building state of the art prisons are also building state of the art public schools...As a matter of fact many of the new schools that our young people are attending look like prisons...
Unfortunately, the prisons seem to have a better attendance record than the schools...Black students are only graduating at a 50% clip nationally...Many of our graduates are already young parents and are functional illiterates...
The two twin towers of true empowerment, education and economics, are being undermined and under terrorist attack by dark external and internal forces that want to turn our citizens into mindless robots/ zombies willing to be used as the new fossil fuel in the burning furnace of empire and corporate greed...The American Dream is quickly turning into The American Nightmare...
Lack of education/knowledge can surely equal a physical as well as spiritual and mental death... Memphis, Tn, for example, in spite of being located in the richest country in the history of the world has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world...We are raising another generation mired in crime, poverty and death...We are in the process of eliminating the middle class and creating a permanent poverty/prison underclass in the richest nation in the history of the world...
In closing, I would like to say that 'freedom ain't free'...If Bro. Troy Davis is ultimately given the proverbial second chance what does he has to look forward to when he comes home??? As a symbol, a cause and a martyr he is great, but he is a flesh and bone man with shortcomings and needs...He deserves the right to the pursuit of his own happiness by having a job with a living wage, affordable adequate housing and universal health care...
We as citizens of this republic must be resolute in our aims for reconciliation, reparations and progress...This is about unified righteous struggle dismantling oppressive and repressive institutional racism and stagnation a.k.a. regime change...There isn't a price tag on justice, it's priceless...We can't expect to change the course of history by staying on the sidelines or by accepting mediocre play calling and play...Let's get in the game and be in it to win it...
W.E. A.L.L. B.E. News & Radio Special~Free Troy Davis!!! Dismantling The 21st Century Prison Death Industry Complex:
(Ron Herd II a.k.a. R2C2H2 Tha Artivist Is Author Of James Reese Europe: Jazz Lieutenant http://www.jazzlieutenant.blogspot.com. He can be reached at r2c2h2@gmail.com)
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