Two poems by a High School Student Inspired by BAsics 5:7 and 5:8

Two poems written and performed at Anti-July 4th event by a high school student inspired by BAsics 5:7 and BAsics 5:8

IN PARTS

What is made manifest is the walls that bleed red,

inhumanity in living in desolate corners

of the earth, is displayed in miserable statistics

and dollar signs.

Part 1- Rose in Concrete

The brutalized section of society,

have single weeds growing out of concrete

Rusty old school fences with chewed up textbooks,

Learning only that life is meant for oppression,

Getting beat into the heads, scolding superiority by skin head racist pig police, loving to devour the youth.

            The only beauty lies in the rose in concrete,

amid the struggle, lies incessant hope of better days

amid the hope, lies resentment, boiling anger, overflowing.

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It’s June and graduations are everywhere – caps and gowns, balloons, ecstatic families, crying grads.  And looming over it all like a dark shadow is The Future – what is the world students are entering into, what promise does it have, and what meaning are their lives going to have?  At one inner-city high school in Los Angeles, where less than half the students who started there as ninth graders make it to graduation, and this year’s graduation included memorials for two classmates who died during the school year, graduating seniors got the opportunity to do something meaningful at their graduation and they eagerly took it.  As students sat in their seats on the stadium floor and then walked up to have their name announced and picture taken with the principal, nearly 50 of them, about a fifth of the graduating class, wore a small orange-colored button on their blue gowns.  From a distance all you could see was a button.  But up close and in person, students wore the button so it could be read:

“No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born.  I say no more of that.”
Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, BAsics 1:13

Bay Area: Taking out Basics 1:13 and Justice for Trayvon Martin

In the days going into June 5, The National Day of Justice for Trayvon Martin, we took a banner that had an enlargement of the BAsics 1:13, “No more generations of our youth…” quote and a heading that read: To All the Trayvon Martin’s All Over The World, We Got Your Back!! out to a street corner in front of a favorite coffee spot and crossroads of progressive people of all nationalities from the middle class, cultural forces, college students and some youth from all over the city. Sentiments and conversations started to surface as we opened up with agitation around BAsics 1:13 and the need for everyone to step up step out for June 5.  Before we get into all the ways people got involved, here are some statements that were made at that corner:

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People across the country are supporting — and acting together with — the BAsics Bus Tour… from Chicago: A mix of enthusiastic urban inner city high school students sign the BAsics Bus Tour banner after school. Some had been involved in protesting Trayvon Martin’s murder recently.  Inspired by the BAsics Bus Tour they wrote  ”Inspiring”, “Right on”, sending “Love and Respect”.  Signatories also included an administrative staff member and a security guard. There’s a basis to engage them at a deeper level which needs to be an ongoing process keeping them in tune with the progress of the tour and why BA needs to be everywhere to get to a radically different world.

The banner features BAsics 1:13, a quote from Bob Avakian, and the theme of the Tour:
“No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.”