A Prisoner Writes on July 4th: “What BAsics 1:13 ultimately means to me”
Reposted from Revolution #275, July 22, 2012
The following letter was written by a prisoner in the Midwest, July 4, 2012
To Whom It May Concern,
Even though this is more coincidental than conscious on my part, the fact that today is the 4th of July brings out a certain irony to all my below comments as they relate to the true realities of America and her bourgeois illusions. So, hey…I’m going to let the fireworks begin as I celebrate what this day actually means to me. Cool?
Over the past several months, I’ve been following the BAsics Bus Tour in earnest and watching how the tour has connected with the various communities it has come across as it has traversed the country. One way it’s done so has been by making themes out of certain quotes, such as BAsics 1:13, which says:
“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 and 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.”
Carl Dix at a speak out in front of the Sanford, FL police station on May 25, 2012.
Sanford is where 17 year old Trayvon Martin was murdered in a modern American lynching
Getting Oriented and Getting Started, the first 2 days of the BAsics Bus Tour, by Sunsara Taylor
Its been two days now on the BAsics Bus Tour. The volunteers are an impressive bunch. What hit me first is our obvious diversity. Younger and older, Black, white and Latino, male and female, with a tremendous range of different life experiences and depth of experience in the revolution. What hits me just as hard, though, is our common enthusiasm for Bob Avakian and the real revolution.
The first day’s orientation began with a showing of the first segment of Bob Avakian’s Revolution talk, “They’re Selling Postcards of the Hanging,” where he gets into the founding of this country in slavery and the hundreds of years of white supremacist terror which was inflicted on Black people as part of the enforcing the “American way.” BA describes not only the lynchings, but how white people would gather in a festive atmosphere to witness the lynchings of Black people and to snap pictures and make postcards of the hangings.
Clyde Young, revolutionary communist and former prisoner, speaks to the kickoff event for the BAsics Bus Tour as they get ready to head South… watch this with friends, on streetcorners, barbershops and in housing project hallways… be part of spreading the BAsics Bus Tour and BA Everywhere… What a Difference It Could Make!
Clyde Young hears from people in an Atlanta neighborhood about how they are brutalized by this system. The audio starts with a BAsics Bus Tour volunteer, and then Clyde and Sunsara Taylor talk with people about Bob Avakian, how we are building a movement for revolution, and how they can be part of it now. The sound isn’t great, but this is moving and real… so turn it up.
Source: SoundCloud / BAEverywhere
