Article: One Bullet = Nine Convictions

I once lived on Winter Street in Philadelphia. Near by, lived an illiterate handyman who spent a lot of time listening to classical music and wearing the sharpest clothing. Being that he was a piecework handyman his lifestyle was difficult to maintain. He suddenly decided with the help of some religious experiences that he and those around him were total slaves to civilization. He became articulate and at one point when a Black man wearing deadlocks would pass by a mostly Black elementary school, the kids would run to the fence shouting "On the Move" referring the the group Vincent Leaphart now called John Africa started.

The Move 9, now Move 8 are coming up for parole and the Move members not in jail want everyone to lobby for their parole. But Move haters are instead claiming Move's back to nature beliefs make them a brainwashed cult, and urging that the non-jailed Move members be put in jail as well.

In the days before Mumia was charged with murder there was extreme tension between the city of Philadelphia and Move. Mumia supporters who don't respect his association with John Africa overemphasizes the tension way back when Mumia was a Black Panther.

We are so blinded by civilization, and the collective vision civilization gives us that we can't see it was impossibly for all nine Move members to have shot a police officer, the "squaws" never even paraded around with guns, and there were no video games back then for people to learn how to shoot, without practicing with live bullets. Move claims it was impossible to fire the soaking wet guns while holding to the sides of the basement to prevent drowning as the fire hoses poured water in. Someone could reenact that incident by sending deluge of water into a basement with fire houses and check to see if any of such guns could have been fired, then enter the information in court.

Mother nature tells us a lot of things civilized people are too smart to listen to. It tells us if something weird happens like the ocean begins to recede, or a bush starts burning, without being consumed, to run for their lives. But we are mesmerized about stories like "The Burning Bush", and the water parting to let God's people through. Even a scientist who knew that the Tsunami was coming and urged people to start moving away from the coastal areas, was too out of touch with nature to remind people to run uphill in panic. Nature tells us if something weird happens when you mix heavy hydrogen together with an explosive powder, to leave it alone, but civilization knows better, so ignoring our natural instincts leads to hydrogen bombs. Elsewhere, there was in a court an argument whether a single hair on a hat that was wrapped around a gun proved it was worn by the murderer. Remember the trial over who killed Bill Crosby's son. Our ancestors used to track prey or people they were looking for, and if they were tracking someone or something with red hair but lost the footprints when coming to water, they would have looked up and down the river for new tracks. If they found only one strand of red hair on something in the river that should have held lots of hairs but couldn't find any more they would conclude that it wasn't clothing that had been worn by that person and continue looking up and down the river bank for tracks. By the way, has anyone ever tried to flush a book down the toilet, even a torn up book?

Notice how humble Michael Vicks looked and how self-righteous Margaret Stewart and Mumia abu-Jamal were. The gifts, mother nature gave us, should tell us that Vicks looked guilty and Stewart and Jamal acted innocent. Not that there aren't con artists, but Mumia's and Stewart's behavior got them in more trouble not less. It's as if looking innocent in the civilized world is the first sign of being guilty.

Suddenly, when things got extremely tense between the City and Move, there was a news report of Move members being beat up for no reason then everyone unceremoniously made to exit the courtroom, some of the spectators rather roughly shoved to make them hurry along. I was scratching my head in disbelief until I read Mumia abu-Jamal's version. It starting with a Move member uttering an epithet at a court official and ending with bits of skin, blood and deadlocks on a cold empty courtroom floor. But Mumia wasn't going to do any more reporting, he instead was accused of shoot a police officer in cold blood. The city had an urgent need to silence his ever more embarrassing reports about Move, there were no powder burns on the gun, but most of all, we are all to civilized to see the obvious. Neither Mumia or Margaret Stewart acted like a guilty person trying to con their way of punishment. Putting on a suit and tie, wearing a humble expression like Michael Vicks etc, would have gotten him out of prison on a second degree or even manslaughter charge long ago. Civilized people somehow imagine that acting innocent is a sign of guilt.

A lot of what happens in Philadelphia, that never gets reported. Move members today tend to be polite and shy. And every once in a while they stand in public with a "Free Mumia" or "Free the Move 9" poster, then giving lip to someone trying to take their picture. This doesn't win many local supporters. If you continue to support them despite everyone but Pam Africa not wanting to associate with you, a little threat, on the part of the police, stops this. This leads to two rumors: There is massive repression in Philadelphia preventing people from supporting Move, or that the people in Philadelphia think he is guilty, neither of which is true. Only Pam Africa acts like the poster child, civilization expects, from someone advocating for a cause, and handles all the computer work, phone calls and mailings all by herself, though perhaps Ramona who is often cris-crossing the country in support of Mumia, helps a little with the paperwork. The rest just try to live as Mother Nature intended.

Today, Move has home-schooling for their children and engages in other compromises with civilization, that they never would have done in the beginning. Too bad, somehow, they couldn't have compromised earlier and continued to try to prove civilization was unnecessary in the middle of a big city instead of civilization trying to force them into a country estate.

Slum kids in Philly want to own a piece and become a successful drug dealer, unless they dream of being a successful basketball player or boxer instead. If the world would have had 20/ 20 hindsight vision, we could have realized that compromise was necessary, not an eviction ending the experiment of trying to survive without civilization, without escaping to the middle of nowhere. However, the hippy communes also got a lot of grief from civilization. John Africa is right, civilization doesn't want anything distracting from the so-called upward direction that civilization thinks that it is heading toward.

RichardKanePA with an aol email Blog: Ramblings from the Hornets Nest

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RichardKanePA@aol.com, 215-563-2866 22 S 22nd St Apt 305 Phila PA 19103