TALK TO THE DADDY

Hello. Come on in. The daddy writes about current events, literature, music and, once in a while, drops something on you from back in the day to make you pause and ponder, stop and stare, and begin to wonder. Who knows? You may start to pace the floor, shake your head from side to side, then fall down on bended knees in a praying position and cry, "Lawd, have mercy! What is this world coming to?" Check yourself! But this blog is NOT about the daddy. It's about you: your boos, your fam, your hood, your country...our hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow. So let's make a pact: the daddy will put it on the track if you'll chase it down and hit him back. Together, we can definitely take it to another level. Shall we?"

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Can you say, "I ain't gon study violence no mo?"

Two quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."


"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beauty as ugly and the ugly as
beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true."

In keeping with some of my reader's wishes, who
say they're suffering from "post-election fatigue," the daddy's not writing about the election or the sorry state of the American economy. But I'm writing about American society, especially about the unnecessary and painful violence in our communities. So the daddy is thinking...

Can you say "I ain't gon study violence no mo?"

by Mac Walton, aka, The Daddy

So the daddy is thinking... just thinking... about Malcolm x, who said," On this day, from this day forward, on this earth, we declare that we have a right to fight for our freedom "by any means necessary."

Minister Malcolm died from a hail of bullets from members of the Nation of Islam, the organization he helped create, leaving behind a wife and two children and the hopes of millions of African Americans.

The daddy is thinking...just thinking...about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who died from a violent gunshot as he stood out on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King said we must meet the power of violence as an organized people of love, as a nonviolent people, as a non-violent nation. He said we must have "the strength to love." And though the corporate media won't acknowledge it, he spent the last year of his life not talking about little white girls and little black boys holding hands and singing we shall overcome. No, he but focused on the fight against war and poverty, reminding us that our government's preoccupation with war not only killed people abroad but diverted much-needed resources to end poverty at home.

Dr. King, an activist/intellectual, perhaps the most eloquent orator of any generation, a minister who could quote Shakespeare as easily as he could quote a passage from the bible, "made it plain" when he paraphrased an old religious hymn and said, "I don't know about you, but I ain't gon study war no mo."


The daddy is thinking...just thinking... about the millions of lesser-known Americans in cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis and Atlanta who die every day from a hail of gunfire from gangbangers who are famous for missing their targets and killing innocent citizens, including children.

Okay, African Americans, the daddy wants to ask you something: As a people who were enslaved and brutalized for centuries by others, shouldn't you be peaceful toward each other? Whether inside the home or out on the street, shouldn't another brother or sister be the last person you raise a hand or squeeze a trigger finger to harm? And if you must raise a hand or pull a trigger, shouldn't the only possible justification for doing so be to defen yourself as an individual or to defend your country against attacks?

Okay, Americans of all ethnic, political or religious persuasions, the daddy wants to ask you something: As members of a nation that took this country by genocide against nations of Indians (the first Americans), as members of a nation that enslaved an entire group of people (Africans), as members of nation that spends much of its budget on either fighting wars or preparing for wars, as members of a nation with 47 million people without healthcare, with infrastructure so bad that you're afraid to drive across some bridges, shouldn't you be so angry, so... obsessed with forcing your elected officials to turn away from bloody wars and toward the righteous quest of supporting you that you're willing to organize other Americans to march on Washington D.C. this summer and camp out there until your elected officials-- yes, Barack Obama-- pass laws to bail out working people, to insure them, to employ them, to rebuild America?

The daddy is thinking...just thinking...about rising each morning with the sun, sipping a cup of java, paraphrasing an old spiritual and say, " I ain't gon study violence no mo."


Can you say, "I ain't gon study VIOLENCE no mo." Can you live it?

8 comments:

SagaciousHillbilly said...

Daddy, You ask such complex questions.
Do I get angry?
Can I live a non-violent life?

Hell yes I get angry. I try my best to stay in the moment and just experience the now, but damn, I get angry when I think of the genocide and enslavement. Ya know, it wouldn't be so bad and perhaps I could let it go a bit easier if we weren't perpetrating folly on the same level today. Compound that with the empathy I have for the way African Americans and Native Americans must feel. . . and Japanese, Chinese, Mexicans and many others, and yea, it really pisses me off. Infrastructure, social prejudice, economy, education, opportunity all in upheaval.
Geez, why do we have to keep repeating over and over the same damn mistakes? THAT is what pisses me off.
And yes, I laid down my shield and sword a long time ago. I traded it in for education and understanding.

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, we should talk about the violence. Obama can't stop the violence. We have to. It's crazy here in Chicago.

All-Mi-T [Thought Crime] Rawdawgbuffalo said...

im from memphis and was there the day he was killlled - down town - i was 6

Somebodies Friend said...

Amen McDaddy,

We aint gon study violence no mo!

I'm feelin ya daddy!

Mac Daddy Tribute Blog said...

sagacious: You write so real and lay down truth for all to see. And, yes, why do we have to keep repeating over and over again the same mistakes? I don't know, but I think it's something we should all think about.

torrance: You were in Memphis. I was in Atlanta, where you live now, I believe. You probably know that, when fellow Atlantans found out that one of their own, their favorite son and leader, was murdered, they tore up the town, at least downtown. Later, they tried to clean up by saying it was just kids, but I saw old and young, neighbors, out on the street. For example, I saw a few young kids waiting for old men to get their instruments out of the pawn shop before throwing what they called "cokebombs" into it. You might say it was a community affair, bringing young and old together. I'm not particularly proud of it. But I wasn't ashamed of it either. Nobody should be able to pick off our leaders without consequences.

Somebody: You said it. I said it too. And I'm trying to live it. But it's harder than some people might think. I'm no angel, but I'm trying. Thanks, bro.

rainywalker said...

daddyBstrong,
We may be at or past the tipping point that most do not see in our country. I love this country, but most of those with the visions have been cut down. Doctor King was talking about war, poverty and other subjects that were gaining to much attention from those in power. From smallpox in blankets to torture in 2004 and all the dastardly events in between our government and groups of thugs have controlled our country and people. I have read of a time when Veterans and families were shot down by our own military [General Patton gave the order to fire]in Washington after WWI. Will Homeland Security allow us as a non-violent group to march on Washington, that is the question? I'm with you on the march. I'll find the time, lay down my piece, that's how important this is to America. But us holding up a copy of the Constitution, while looking at the barrel of an M-60. All it will take is one car backfiring.

Lenoxave said...

Amen Daddy! Amen. I get really saddened and angry at the hate and violence Black folk show to one another.

I sometimes wonder when we will wake up. What gives me hope is that so many of us know what's important.

if we all make a real effort to not study violence anymore, we'd be so much better off. Each one, teach one is Real Talk.

Vigilante said...

The Daddy knows from an autobiographical comment I made on an earlier page in here, that I checked out of Nonviolence as a way of life in 1965. I still regard it as an effective and powerful political tactic.