For the mothers, fathers, children, grand parents and friends in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, and countless other places, who are brutally murdered, bombed by drones, kidnapped, detained and tortured by the US government with impunity, the pain of that day in ferguson when Mike Brown was gunned down by a police officer, or that day in Staten Island when Eric Garner was choked to death by a police officer is a daily reality of their lives.
Mike Brown, Eric Garner and countless other black men have been murdered by the same arms and legs of the empire, which has been killing and destroying ruthlessly across the globe.
If we are to let the empire devour the Middle East, Africa, and demand justice only for the blacks in the US, I don't think we'll get it.
And demand it from whom? Begging the killers not to kill our kids? Spare only our own?
The US doesn't bomb, send assassins, support terrorists and destabilize a nation just to make people suffer. They use violence to unleash chaos, anger, fear, distrust and confusion in the targeted nation. And while the population is paralyzed, they restructure the economy, destroy the communities and replace them with a proxy nation with a proxy dictator. Then they steal from the nation.
Why is the US government giving away military weapons to our local police? Why are those community leaders and police chiefs acting like proxy dictators for the bankers and defense contractors? Why are the mainstream media--the faithful servants of the government, propagandizing the unfair international treaties, war efforts, attack on the poor, war on drugs, fear of foreign terrorists and so on--agitating the public by sensationalizing the protests and police violence?
Because that's how the empire works.
The street cops keep murdering young Black men, instigating fear and outrage among us. And the same elected officials who express sympathy toward the Black communities support further military buildups in nations in turmoil while militarizing our police, and beefing up the spy agency apparatus. Half of our tax money has gone for wars and the loss of civil liberty, funds that could have been used for free higher education for all, free healthcare for all, much needed social safety nets for the poor; we could have built the foundation to shift our society to renewable energy sources. But no, they go for fear, rule of unjust laws, exploitation and subjugation. Because that is the way empire works.
There is one notable truth about American exceptionalism. It's not about the government. But it's about the people. When the people of the US revolt with the intention of doing away with the empire, there is an exceptional quality to the act. We can end the sufferings, deaths and destructions in numerous other nations on this planet.
Those brave people who are shutting down streets, bridges, tunnels, and public places with their bodies are proving that we do have the power to stop the machine. If more of us, including the police officers, soldiers, public officials and bureaucrats, walk out of their places and join the power against death and destruction, that will end the empire.
And I don't underestimate the countless people who went before us with that dream. That dream, their struggles, their words and their passion for humanity live with us, brewing to burst out to pave the beginning of the new era for all of us.
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