Wednesday, February 23, 2011

To be or Not, to be

Begin this beginning wondering
are the souls hovering o’er their incarnate shells
lying in the streets of Bahrain
in the dessert of Libya
or sidewalks of Iran
make the cause worth the loss


As I watch from the comfort of my home
seeing of how the strong arm of autocracy
is squelched by the gathering of voices
of those oppressed


The strength of this revolution
comes from the strife and scars
of faces gathered who’ve made a choice
to fight with life for human dignity
so that their children will live
in self rule and liberty

We see the violence and lives lost
People in these countries fighting for a cause
Dictators suppressing the fight
through sectarian genocide

In my own back yard I feel a strife,
a strain upon my person.
My face is brown, my hair is black
when I now walk outside my door
I concern myself, always looking back

I’ve lived a citizen of this country
now for many years
placing my life in jeopardy in 1969
still I must walk amidst the question,
because my hair is black, my face brown
‘where are my papers?’, I’m now, forever bound

The oligarchic elite wish to keep the power
They hoard the money and jobs
Pass legislation maintaining privileges
for those whose face is white, the right

Right wing politicians legislate perfidy
Surreptitious and insidiously
they suppress today’s undesirable ethnicity
Their identity is masked as liberators
stealing the name from America’s history
‘ Tea Party’, of those that truly were

Unlike history, though, this Party believes in segregation,
excluding some religions, ideologies and race,
because of this there will always be interrogation
for those that look like me and you
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday, February 12, 2011

"Egypt is Free"

Congratulation! Celebrate! Remember the faces of those who's blood flows through the crevices of stone and grains of sand. The lamenting tears of Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, for those who've fallen for the cause. They and you have changed the land of Kings and Pharaohs, you've changed the world. This 'revolution' must now implement the changes that will give a new face, a new landscape. This will significantly affect all the Nations that surround. You, the children of this new Nation, must be careful that when you clench your new land in your hands it does not sieve through your fingers to once again fall back onto the hot and arrid landscape of before. You must till the sand, water it, turn it into soil where new growth shall evince for even in the desert new life can grow. Be mindful, children in the Land of Kings and Pharaohs, with this new beginning there's a transitional state of fragilility. Be cautious and curious with what changes may be taking place in your Land. Instability has a characteristic of isidiousness. Go home, bathe, eat, feed your children, rest with one eye open, then come back, symbolically, to Tahrir square and oversee the 'Democratic' transition.

A Nation can transition into what the indigenous people wish without the invasiveness of 'big brother' the U.S. . We didn't have to send our soldiers to die and kill. We didn't have to partake in another 'Nation building' scheme. This new revolutionary process has taken on a new method of proceeding. The utilitarian process of mass media, cyber linking, i.e., Google (Executive, Wael Ghoneim), Facebook, Twitter etc. has revolutionized the capacity for change to come about. It was a significant factor in our own landscape in voting in our first Black President. This medium captures the true nuances of the characters on stage. It has immediate impact and exposes consistencies and hypocricies.

Congrtulations, Egypt!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Egypt Reform

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt must consider the desire of the people of Egypt and step down. Any further attempts by his regime to surreptitiously inject his personal secret militia (made up of paid for thugs and police )  into the mix of the peaceful demonstrators will be highly evident. His initial attempt at cutting off all utility of telephones, facebook, twitter, etc. was visibly protested by the international community. At the same time releasing his 'thug mentality' police onto the otherwise peaceful demonstrators to thwart their demands of his immediate resignation was not successful. Fortunately, the international media was able to capture and report on Mubarak's regime attempts at forcefully squashing the protest before they too were being beaten and rounded up by civilian dressed police trying to prevent international exposure to their totalitarian methods. When this didn't work he then went ahead and approved to allow the usage of telephones, facebook and twitter but not until he sent once again his 'thugs' out to cause havoc into the demonstrators trying to demonstrably show that there would be chaos and uncontrollable violence in the streets of Egypt if he stepped down immediately. He, Hosni Mubarak, thought that the international community let alone his own people wouldn't see right through his manipulation, his signature, of this.

His appointment of a Vice President, Omar Suleiman previously head of Intel and security for the same regime, he thought would be a sufficient demonstration of his willing to transition his stepping down but on his own terms and time frame. This of course is unacceptable to the masses of Egypt. Nothing less than his and his regimes immediate departure from his office is acceptable according to a leader of the demonstrators,  Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei.

We, President Barack Obama and the United States of America, must demonstrate our support for the people of Egypt who wish to transition into a more democratic system. Not necessarily being the installer of our own type of Democracy but one that affords the basic human liberties and freedoms to the masses. This along with the acknowledgement and subsequent transition of providing and sharing the wealth of the nation with all the people and not the very few as has been the history of this autocratic regime.

It is critical that the US show support for the people of Egypt in this occasion so as to show that we are a nation that lives up to our professed and promotion of basic human rights to all of the peoples in this planet.
In that the reality is that the US has security concerns and investments in this area is known by all. We can work through Egypt's military structure, supported monetarily by the US for many years, in the interests of our and Israel's security required in this part of the world. This avenue would help install with the minimum of force a secure but temporary power structure with checks and balances in place as a vehicle to facilitate giving up it's athority once  the people of Egypt vote in their choice of leaders. We, the U.S., must walk a careful path, though, so as not to be perceived as seemingly the sole nation toward this influence. We must solicit the international community and nations to support the need for stability in this part of the world. We must get the major powers of Russia, China, Britain, India and France as well as integral nations like Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran to come together in this effort.

This is the time that the US political voices should pronounce our intent in a single voice. We must take a world leadership role hear and not let our own present domestic political transitions to manifest an unstable and bifurcated voice. We must show the world that we stand for what's 'right' and not for our personal interests.