by Larry Pinkney

The most cynical and despicable act against people in pain is to offer them false “hope” and phony “change” while all the while steadily crushing their needs and aspirations under the guise of a genuine concern for them. There is an African proverb which says: “Beware of the naked man who offers you clothes.” The “naked” hypocrisy and constant lies to the people of this nation and world, by those who actually benefit from the political and economic pain of the people, is totally unacceptable and devoid of legitimacy.

The terrible pain — of the ongoing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere, coupled with joblessness, homelessness, no universal single payer health care, growing incarceration, the privatization of public education, the gutting of the U.S. Constitution via the ‘Patriot Act’ and ‘Rendition,’ the pathetic, scurvy and self-serving corporate media, the smashing of labor unions and worker’s rights, the insatiable corporate greed and domination, and the degradation & depletion of the environment of this nation and planet Earth—are all interconnected. The masses of just plain ordinary, everyday Black, Brown, Red, White, and Yellow people in this nation are the victims of the afore going pain and manipulation.

The Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves, along with their assorted allies, are busily hustling and pimping the people—playing upon their excruciating pain and fears. This is deliberate, not coincidental.

It is singularly absurd to expect (or have expected) that the installment of the corporate / military complex’s puppet-clone Barack Obama, as President of this nation, would have brought about an end to racism, militarism, and economic exploitation. Indeed, the history of capitalist / corporate exploitation shows us that it is quite the contrary that should have been expected. Thus, only highlighting the blatantly racist acts, for example, on the part of certain ‘tea-bagger’ lunatics merely begs the question and acts as a cynical diversion from the treachery of both the Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves. The everyday people of all colors in this nation need alternatives and suggestions for real systemic change, not cynical diversion that plays upon their pains and fears, and serves as a cover for the continuing treachery against them by Barack Obama and the Democratic Party foxes. The Democratic Party foxes, the Republican Party wolves, and their respective corporate, organizational, and individual allies are systemic gate keepers, whose goal is to perpetuate this corrupt and morally bankrupt political system of hypocrisy, economic exploitation, and oppression.

My three immediately previous columns in The Black Commentator offered some specific suggestions as to how we might organize for real systemic change on the local and national levels in this nation. We are only powerless for as long as we allow ourselves to be. We are the people, and collectively we must bring about an end to the pimping of the people’s pain!

There is much to be accomplished! Onward my sisters and brothers! Onward!...

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/LehrerNewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.

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