Power To The People

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!. by Muslim Mansa Lutalo lyapo aka Rufus West The following essay is actually an excerpt from a letter that I wrote to a fellow convict who was commenting on how the misconduct of a few bankers could impoverish millions. Well, what was meant to be a short paragraphed response turned into a multi-page essay. Enjoy! . We feel you about the poverty due to a few bankers idea.. To add to that, we believe that there's a difference between being “poor” and being "broke”. While they both have negative connotations in the context of this issue, being “broke”, at least to us,just seems more vicious. Either way, we never realized that we was one or the other until we finally started venturing outside of the hood into White communities. Only then did we realize that we was born into poverty, raised under impoverished conditions and, in spite of all that, our people made it seem like we had everything! Our introduction to the ideal of the so-called "American Dream” was when the nightmares came. We feel like comedian George Karl when he said, "They call it the 'American Dream' because you have to be asleep to believe in it.” This"Dream"is rated by the amount of property an individual has. They have defined "success” by that concept, then brainwashed the masses to believe it to the point where the masses will do anything to reach that ever climbing apex of 'success'. In the process we all forfeited the ideal of real power called "People Power," which is the best source of income. It's the best source because it commands that the unification of people for a common righteous endeavor = power of the sort that can withstand anything. We had it right in the 60s when the conscious masses' mantra was "Power to the People!" A lot of positives resulted from that ideal because the people united and made sacrifices. This mantra was a worldwide phenomenon that wasn't limited by borders. But in this country, J. Edgar Hoover understood the concept of divide and conquer & utilized it so effectively via his Counter Inte1ligence Program (better known as "Cointelpro") that one must study his techniques to ensure that one doesn't fall victim to the psychological traps that played a major role in Cointelpro. According to an FBI memorandum from February 1963, the goals of Cointelpro included: Prevent a coalition of militant black nationalist groups..Prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify and electrify the militant nationalist movement ... Martin. Luther King, Stokely Carmichael. and E1ijah Muhammad all aspire this position... Prevent violence on the part of black nationalist groups. . .Prevent black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability by discrediting them. ...prevent the long-range growth of militant black nationalist organizations, especially among youth. To an individua1 encountering this information for the first time would be under the assumption that said goals are military in nature. The word "prevent" was limitless, i.e. if assassination was necessary then so be it. More importantly, however, are the people named in that memorandum: Martin Luther King, who was with the Southern Leadership Conference: Stokely Carmichael was with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; and Elijah Muhammad was the leader of the Nation of .Islam The common-denominator-of all these groups is that-they were anti-injustice against anyone, especially Black people, in this country on any level, but mainly against Injustice on a systemic governmental level. They saw, like Malcolm X proclaimed, that what was supposed to be a government of democracy was actually a government of hypocrisy. The Cointelpro's hit list was longer than just those 3 Brothers, but when you understand what these Brothers and their organizations were about it becomes clear that the government felt that the people possessed so much power that it threatened the government's ability to pursue its systematic injustices. (Even in the movie "Malcolm X" the authorities noted about Malcolm, 'That's too much power for. one man.") About 50 years 1ater you have manifestations of "People Power" all over the globe , e.g, the “Arab Spring,” "Wallsteet Protests”, Trayvon Martin Protests and other:examples of .power when people come together -4- a common goal. Unfortunately, in this country, the people have allowed their opponents to define their power, which has resulted in what we like to call Surface Victories that are only designed to pacify the masses into believing that they've made substantial change. A perfect example of this is the recent resolution of the NFL referee holdout after the questionable call during the Packers/Seahawks game. While I enjoy watching football, I could never get over how that issue could be the leading story on local & national news programs when there are innumerable people who are homeless, jobless, and living under conditions that render their future hopeless. We pondered the irresponsibility of these media outlets while acknowledging the oxymoron in what's supposed to be "free media." Someone somewhere, these media conglomerates, decided to program its viewers into believing that an NFL referee lockout is more important than their real-life problems. In certain circles they call that a "distraction," which Merriam-Webster defines the verb "distract" as "1. to draw (the attention or mind) to a different object: Divert." If a group of people, or a portion of the group, are distracted from their task at hand their power will be weakened. There's some truth in the saying, "There's strength in numbers." Thus, when democracy becomes another word for oligarchy, then the "People" are at fault because they are the backbone of democracy. The "People" are the ones who employ politicians to represent their interests. When they fail to do their job, then it's the "People's" duty to uphold their obligation to democracy by replacing those who fail to serve the "People's" interests, It's as simple as that. Unfortunately, however, the employers have been programmed to believe that they are actually employees. Nothing normal can come from abnormal except the resulting consequences therefrom. When the politicians started debating loosening the regulatory restrictions on banks, the "People" were supposed to simply inform them that anyone who voted to loosen the restrictions would be fired/replaced by someone who would vote not to loosen them. Spectator Politics have always hurt the spectators because an inactive participant is a threat to no one but him/herself. The handful who did speak up against loosening the restrictions were drowned out by the incessant drumbeat of poverty fear-mongering under the guise that poor people need better access to mortgage loans before they lose their homes. The end result was the poor majority loved the idea of better access to money, so they didn't speak out against it, which ultimately put them (myself included) in an even worse situation. The response thereto has been limited to finger-pointing politics between politicians while the spectators just nod & shake their heads like a heroin addict in a hazy stupor under the influence of a political, red herring rhetoric that's exclusively designed to prevent the unification of the "People" who, until we unite, will have absolutely no "Power." 10-3-12 CCI, P.O. Box 900 Portage, WI 53901