Therefore A World With Amnesia Won't Forget Your Name

You held it down long enough,
let me take those reigns
And just like your spirit
the commission remains

It’s Hump-Day! Happy halfway through the week everybody! This one will be short and dense because I have real work to do. (That, and my mother is driving me out of my fucking mind. And folks wonder why I live 900 miles away. Yes, one day my old “blue haired” mother will live in the same area code as I, but today is not that day. Fortunately! Chalk this one up as a “vent” digression.)

Okay, enough about me. Today we are going to do three things. First, we are going to band together to do something right for America. Secondly, we are going to learn a lesson from one of my heroes. And fourth (I am using the Mexican numbering system-see Monday’s post, with any questions. And this is an “inside joke” digression), I am going to give youse (Yes Honest, I said “youse,” as in “you” plural, or the “whi-bonics” form of “y’all”) an opportunity to learn more about me and how I think. Okay, you got it? Good. (Sonny “I be schoolin’ y’all so hard y’all need a syllabus” Redd.)

First, I need all of my fellow bloggers to do something Gina asked y’all to do. Sign up HERE, and sponsor a victim of 9/11. And I don’t mean “sponsor” in the Sally Struthers, fat Ethiopian kid with flies on his face way. I mean sponsor in the “write something sappy and patriotic on 9/11 dedicated to those who fell” way. The program works like this, they are working to get each and every victim a blog home. Right now they are 35% complete. That means that y’all gotta tell er-body else you know too. Shit, at this point, tell them niggas with them janky myspace blogs that nobody reads to sign up too.

And I don’t care what your politics are – cause I get visits from all sides (as it should be, we stimulate thought, and take on all comers) – but 2,996 people died on 9/11, and regardless your opinion of the Iraq war, the war on terror (notice that I didn’t capitalize that shit) or Bush, in the words of that great negro poet Ghostface Killa, “America, together we stand, divided we fall/Mr. Bush sit down, I'm in charge of the war!”

So please, sponsor a victim. Remember them on September 11, 2006 – the five year anniversary of the day everything changed. (And there are a gang of black folk available for y’all hard core revolutionaries that don’t want to put white folks pictures on your page.)

Now fourthly (I’m telling y’all this is a funny inside joke)-- because I’m feeling magnanimous, drop off your questions for the evil genius in the comments. Don't waste my time or yours asking me some shit I ain't gonna answer. Glory, I know I owe you some Valerie Plame, and Serenity had a 401 k question (Sonny“memory of an elephant, and mind like a steel trap”Redd)but whatever it is, I’ll give you the right answer. Got that? That is like homework and shit.

Alright, lets get to today’s lesson.

When is the last time you thought about Frederick Douglass? I will confide in all of you that he is my personal hero. Moreso than Dubois. More than Washington, Powell, King and X. (Okay, maybe not X. That man had more integrity in his Little [Pun? Me? Never!] finger than I can ever hope to possess.)

Suffice it to say, I wrote a paper in 12th grade comparing the words and writings of Douglass to Malcolm X’s “Ballot or the Bullet” speech. (They compare very favorably to one another, by the way. Fred wasn’t no bitch.)

But in my meanderings, I was reminded of Douglass and my admiration for him. Then I stumbled across this little quote at frederickdouglass.org:

Frederick Douglass sought to embody three keys for success in life:
• Believe in yourself.
• Take advantage of every opportunity.
• Use the power of spoken and written language to effect positive change for yourself and society.

Wow. Sound familiar? That is some profound stuff. Be self assured, hustle, and speak and write upliftment. And y’all thought I invented being an arrogant uppity nigga! Joke’s on y’all! My game is at least 140 years old! Ha!

Well, since Douglass is all clairvoyant and shit, I wonder if he knows why I am so damn argumentative?

I do not go back to America to sit still, remain quiet, and enjoy ease and comfort. . . . I glory in the conflict, that I may hereafter exult in the victory. I know that victory is certain.

Yo, I am getting all goosepimply and shit! That man is good! Real good. Look, I am not going to spend my evening telling y’all all about this man who escaped from slavery, and then worked to abolish it. That is what wikipedia is for. I am merely pointing out that, while everybody is scouring the history books for some hero in Kemet, we ignore those right in front of us, who simply through force of will accomplish great things, in our name. If that ain’t a culture and history to be proud of, then I don’t know that the fuck is.

Anyway, I leave ya with one to think and ponder on:

People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.

And on that note, I’m out. (Look forward to your questions!)