[img]583|left|||no_popup[/img]This is a reprise of a December 2005 essay. At the time, I predicted what we’re going through today. I don’t claim to be a prophet, but the signals were clear. Today the same is true. It is hard to fathom why Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are spending so much time stating the obvious. Why don’t they tell us what we need to hear as a people and present a plan of action — unless you take into account their own self-interest.
Wake Up, My People
[img]1245|left|Mr. Smiley, left, and Prof. West||no_popup[/img]I went to view the remains of Stanley Tookie Williams last week. He went to Washington High School with my late wife. When I went inside the mortuary’s Slumber Chamber where Tookie’s body laid in repose, a lady was sitting in the front pew crying, presumably a member of Tookie’s family. It was obvious she was in great pain. Even though I didn’t know her, I offered my condolences. The chamber was quiet, solemn. I walked out the side door and into an absolute zoo.
In the parking lot next to the mortuary a crowd was partying like it was New Year’s Eve. Music was blasting, one car was on lifters so high it seemed to be standing on end, and three sisters were dancing in a heated frenzy before a crowd of a hundred people shouting, “Go ba-by! Go ba-by! Go ba-by!” Unbelievable. But the scene served to reinforce a view I’ve held many years: It is time for our people to wake up and sniff the funk. Fumes are emanating from all around us, affecting the American people in general, black people in particular.
As black people, we have a beautiful, festive culture. I realize that in the past that festive spirit has been used to great effect as a defense against pain. But times are changing, faster and more drastically than ever before. If we are to survive as a people, we must adapt fast.
Looking at the United States today, one can’t help but recognize that it is reminiscent of Germany during the 1930s, just prior to the rise of fascism. We have a regime that’s stolen two elections and has taken over every branch of government; they invaded a sovereign nation under false pretenses and they’re saber rattling towards others. They have set up concentration camps all over the world. They are torturing innocent people. As we party, they are not only passing laws that will allow them to spy on American citizens, but arrest those citizens, while denying them rights supposedly guaranteed under the Constitution.
We must start thinking the way this government does (notice that I didn’t say “the white man”, because if a white man happens to be poor or middle class, he’s in trouble, too). We need to think ahead. When I was in the Marine Corps in 1971, even then they had me out in Twentynine Palms, training reservists in desert warfare.
The Price of War
While we are living in the moment, this government is thinking ahead. When you consider that President Bush is spending $2 billion a week in Iraq, sending this country into so much debt that it precludes funding education, Medicare, most entitlement programs, and possibly Social Security, you can believe they have a game plan. They have to have one just to deal with the resulting social upheaval that is sure to result. They are practicing the game plan in Iraq. It is past time for black people to set our party shoes aside and embark on a sober reassessment of where we stand.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-America. I Love America, which has provided me and my family with a way of life we might not have found in any other place. What I love most is the American ideal that we may not always live up to but aspire to. That is what makes America special. The assault on those ideals makes me nervous about the Bush administration. Under Bush, we seem to be losing sight of what America stands for. He claims the terrorists hate us because of the American ideals of freedom, justice, and equality. If so, the terrorists are winning because every day those ideals are being whittled away.
When Bush invaded Iraq in response to 9/11, he demonstrated his propensity for venting his hostility towards people of color. In spite of all available evidence pointed to the fact Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with attacking this country, his invasion of Iraq seems to say, “Oh, well, one Arab is just like another. They will do.” That is not the American way.
Look at the Victim List
As a result of that policy, United Press International reported on July 12, 2005, that according to an Iraqi humanitarian organization, 128,000 Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion began in March 2003. The report goes on to say, “chairman of the Iraqiyun humanitarian organization in Baghdad Dr. Hatim al-'Alwani said that the toll includes everyone who has been killed since that time, adding that 55 percent of those killed have been women, and children aged 12 and under.” Thus, more women and children are being killed in Iraq than anyone else. That is not the American way.
It has now come to light that the Bush administration has been spying on Muslims in their homes, businesses, and mosques, without warrant, since Sept. 11. Conservative spin masters try to justify this policy by saying that this fudging of the Constitution only affects 0.1 percent of the people. So those of us who don’t have anything to hide don’t have anything to worry about. But these violations set a precedent that sends the nation down a slippery slope. It’s a corruption of the Constitution.
Our government, under Bush, has no understanding, nor respect, for limits. Since he already has demonstrated his propensity to paint all people of color with the same brush, it’s not a very big leap from terrorist, to Muslim, to Black Muslim, to black people in general.
It is past time, as I said, for the black community to turn down the music for a minute and get serious. The Cabbage Patch can wait because if there has ever been a time in our history where it is incumbent upon us to focus, educate ourselves, and become politically engaged, it is now.
We have shown over the years we can party hardier than anybody, but we have nothing to party about. Tookie’s body should attest to that.
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet and musician, born in Los Angeles. A columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Black Star News, a staff writer for Veterans Today, he is a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media and other online sites and publications. He also is the author of “A Message From the Hood.”
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree.blogspot.com or Ewattree@Gmail.com
Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does.
