THE BALLOT AND THE BULLET

 So ... here I am standing in front of my ballot and thinking ... I never heard any Plans or details throughout the whole campaign. I still don't know what Hillary's plans are for our involvement in the Middle East, economic and fiscal issues with China, Great Britain, Israel, Cuba, the Congo and other military spots involved within Africa, the re-structuring of education, tax cuts and or increases, she stated she wasn't for ObamaCare, then she was for it and then she is all about re-structuring it ... still don't know the details. I haven't heard anything about Wall Street's role in giving back the rest of the funds (all the ill gained interest) from the bailout, I haven't heard anything about the continued investigations and lawsuits from the people/banks that orchestrated the crash, we already know how she feels about Land Rights and Treaties broken and thus dishonored the Native Peoples but what about Puerto Rico? What about Haiti? " I heard the "apology" for her role in Mass Incarceration but what about her plan to undo the damage? I already know that reparations will never be on the table for discussion.

What about those Drones where over 80% of the people killed are innocent civilians; men, women, children and the sick and elderly that couldn't and can't move? What is her jobs plan besides piggybacking on Obama's plan (obstructed for years) which is to create MORE Government Jobs? Didn't we see how disastrous that was during the 1990's. What was her Private Sector Plan? I am not even going to ask about Trump because he has no Plan just that it will be a "Great Plan" and Publicly

stated he is going to "wing the Presidency" with statements like "What do you have to loose?". Now that we have seen all the hate seeded and nurtured during this campaign, I heard no statement on how to deal with it outside platitudes. Is there even Plan?

Throughout this whole campaign, the only two people whom addressed NATIONAL PLANS and DOCTRINES where Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein. Not one candidate GOP or DEM even made a statement or a plan on what they want to accomplish in detail for the United States. Not one New Deal or an Old Deal. Even Trump has fallen flat and he is suppose to be the "DEAL MAKER". They all spoke in generalities and cliche but none had PLANS. Am I to assume that we are to do "more of the same", because the same is what and how we got here. I am not feeling it. I am not comfortable. Maybe, as Malcolm X stated, "We are chumps". And while I am on the subject ..... WHO THE F@&#$ ARE THESE OTHER MOFO's ON THE BALLOT !!! I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THIS BEGGIN' CONGRESSMAN, SENATOR, JUDGE, LOCAL BOARD, NONE OF THESE @#%$-ASS MOFO'S ARE. THEY DIDN'T CAMPAIGN, WALK MY STREET, NO FLYERS, MAIL BOX STUFFING, NO SNAGGLE-TOOTH T-SHIRT WEARING POLLSTER TRYING TO GET ME TO LOOK AT THEM SERIOUSLY OR A CHEAP ASS POLITICAL AD ..... AND YOU ALL PROPPED YOUR POLITICALLY RATCHET ASS RIGHT UNDER HILLARY CLINTON .... ??? WHERE IS MY #@&%'n WRITE-IN BALLOT ?!?!?!?! "

THE BRUTAL REALITY OF BRUTALITY

I haven't posted or gone into deep conversation on the two recent Police Killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. The idea of moving my consciousness to adjust to reasoning critically has hit the proverbial brick wall. It is not moving because there is no where else you can go. The reality is brutal. Much like Jessie Williams statement on the backlash and critics, "It was the same a month ago, it was the same last week and frankly, its boring getting upset over it when the result will be the same." Today a young Black woman, in the middle of a Union Square New York City rally, which proceeded into a march, yelled, "When are we going to stop marching. My feet and my back hurt from the last one." And yet her words were drowned out by the crowd with "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" and "NO JUSTICE NO PEACE". Eventually, she fell in line and took to the streets of Manhattan chanting the universal war-cry of Black Lives Matter, "WHOSE STREETS, OUR STREETS". This isn't new. This is all part of script most would say. The need and desire to move the line eventually stays stagnant for more of the same. More words. More hope and a lot more marching. What was even more of a step back from the events is the fact that along the outside, the police had full control in containing the outrage. This too, is script. Containment and Control.

At the end of the day, these two young men are dead and still others want to talk about Chicago when we know about Chicago and are working to end that but today, we are talking about Innocent and Non-Violent peoples deaths by those that were suppose to Protect them. My issue today and always has been with the GOOD COPS THAT STAY SILENT. If "guilty is the new innocent" for Politicians and corrupt business people, then "silence is the new activism" for the GOOD COP. Good Cops know they are too cowardly silent on there FRAT BOYS. And if they don't know, that is a conscious choice to pave a non-involvement journey until retirement; all on the tax payers dime regardless if they get the opportunity to shoot them or not. 

The solution isn't the burden of the People but those that know the Wild Cards, the Racist, the Mentally Unstable and Irresponsible within their ranks. When you can't and don't simply say .... we have people whom are wrong, were wrong and he/she needs to be removed for our force ... Good Cops cosign on the damage done to lives and communities from harassment to unwarranted Stops and Frisks, to Wrongful Convictions to Wrongful Incarcerations. The silence makes every Good Cop, no matter if they are in the majority, equally guilty and dangerous. It doesn't matter if you aren't from the same group or precinct ... you are the problem and the coward for standing by and watching mothers and fathers bury their child because he was selling CD's of his music or driving legally, or playing with their friend, walking down a street, waiting for their child in a mall, buy food at a restaurant, or simply sitting in a park to relax.

I will say, for the 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement .... if I don't see or hear an Official Statement on the problems you experience, face, administer and know exist, don't expect my support and or backing .... because when I see advertisements for CPR, images of Police kumbaya holding hands in solidarity, murals on walls in my neighborhood and actions opposite what is portrayed live , opposite was I actually see on my streets ... you might as well rename yourselves "The 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement That Bail Cotton, Sing Songs And Hide In Shadows When Its Time To Clear Your Throats And Speak Up". So until NEXT WEEK when some officer kills another innocent Black Child .... you know what? I don't want to see you because it boring and I want to see something NEW and worthy of my humanity.

TO THE LOST MILLENNIALS

My generation never abandoned the Millennials, it was their love of the "other" America, the one where collectively they decided to drop the African in the African-American for just being American. The generation that rejected our constant reminders, pleas, lessons, dialogue, history and stories of our past legacies that has brought them full circle to this moment. It was and still is their LOVE AND HIPHOP consciousness that is keeping them from picking up the work put on "pause" and Turn-Up on the people we kept reminding people were not "your friends". When we said, "The revolution will not be televised." We were direct and clear. No Cartoons, No Coonery, No Shuckin'-n-Jivin', No Parties, Fashion Show, False Entertaining Prophets and definitely No Procrastination. The same critical mass of people then are still here now, we just are older, more tired and have old shoes worn out from the marching, marching and more marching. So you can't blame us, its the Millennials that have to catch up on the work delayed and find your strength, shake the brainwashing and abandon the fear that is called "sacrificing for the future".

THE BEST OF 2014

A Look Back at 2014, The Year of Soul Searching

A montage of photography during 2014, "A Year of Soul Searching". I thank all of my supporters and mentors for your personal energy, advice and attention over the months. Your support has allowed me to grow, influence and bring a sense of peace and happiness to others.

REVOLUTION

I’ve seen sparks flare and rocks fly

Crashing against brows that pulsate blood

feeding

Knowledge and pride

for a tribe.

my Home,

our family.

It’s a light,

like stars,

that dance

Smack

HARD

And wakes the senses

allowing you,

and everyone present know

that THIS is reality.

Be it live or recorded

you now stand at the front line of the Revolution.

I took a side and it is Hot, and Violent, Physical

Wonderful.

This will be the re-start of that circle in Mayan history

where everything repeats because as Man and Men

we keep forgetting the struggle

That life, liberty and the over pursuit of prosperity

eventually and ultimately

kills us.

Bible Quran Torah taught us,

this.

We have embraced humanity’s less exorcised

and re-swallowed pea-soup of bile and blades

served up on money green platters and platinum card dreams.

Swooned and swayed to diamond jingle bells

and shook bags of sugar ‘till it dropped like its Hot.

Cars like deadly caterpillars munching on black filled pipes,

sucking hard on the excremental breast milk of Mother Earth.

People followed and realized that the beat they heard was not of the heart

but of the cellular ringtones from bill collectors calling

cursing your ass out to pay your bills.

It was a beat that burped and belched that your stomach is tight and empty

It was a hollow treble that echoed from your foreclosed home

And the hammer knocking in your neighbor’s lawn

signs reading,

… AND YOU 2 GET THE FUQ OUT.

Here everyone in the land is looking to the sky for a Superman

while rocking back and forth counting beads and molesting crosses

with dirty fingers that once traced remotes that channeled every talk show created.

in this reality sits a people who

stopped singing Negro spirituals praising Jesus …

a long time ago,

and replaced him with Pink Floyd

The gospel:

“We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the class room
(yells) Hey, teachers! Leave those kids alone!”

Because the man got it right:

I and we were just another brick in the Wall.

Praying for simple solutions,

the devil in us turned GOD into DOG

And in return

got a nation that shit and pissed all over each other.

Funny thing about shit and piss,

it is the one true method that dogs communicate

and the World made sure we did not become pedigrees

living in our own American backyard.

Unlike thunder or like lightning, the rumble in the distance

is missing.

No more can we count on the people to carry pitch forks

German Sheppards and high pressure hoes,

or spit and slur words of hate.

This is a different time, a different place

This whole party goes beyond Race.

Mutts, junkyard and strays in our own diversity

where television sells us on the notion that Poor is Fashionable and Cheap is Cool

SPAM is caviar and Ramen Noodles is part of the 4 basic food groups.

Holy Men dancing with baby boys and Women becoming famous for their anger and pain,

who could ever image a bunch of dirty kids from New Jersey’s shore

would be the welcoming ambassadors for a generation.

We look around

 and become rabbit when what little is left is thrown in the middle

of a hungry pack,

and we draw blood.

Ethnic blood

 in a frenzy, and we still can’t see that it is all Red.

Because in truth, we are dead inside.

Hollow.

A cesspool of mediocrity and mendacity.

Dank and dark even in our most enlighten moments.

Complacent like meat fried up to give the next generation heartburn and diabetes

We medicate on the idea that we are great only because we are American.

And if we turn down the music, just enough

we just might hear the scant chuckle of Shaitan

and the quite tears of GOD,

opposite ends,

opposite sides of Ying and Yang.

Like the center of the circle in history,

 this is now cause,

 this the catalyst

for

The Revolution.

WHY U SCARED OF ME

Why you scared of me?

Is it something deep inside.

Deep deep inside?

Shadow guised?

Keeping check the pride

that you eyed?

Is my time in the limelight

too bright?

My pockets gorged green

to capacities out of common sight?

Is my fight before your coming

too hyped?

My work,

like a Hebrew slave

that stayed,

cracked base like cracked Cain

leaving your pyramid undone.

Why you scared of me?

Is my truth so real?

When I say I love you

you shake back

to the moment of your conception.

My need to be your Man,

dancing passion and kind,

washed your doubts smooth,

like skin,

feeling you freely

until you are mine.

 

END

As we grow older we begin to understand that the last part of things

can be just as beautiful as a beginning.

Then we can truly appreciate what has gone before.

That being said,

American the beautiful

American the brave.

American written in the  Fall

America’s winter in Gray.

Revolution.

Revolution is the sole property of Shazza Nakim, all Rights Reserved and is published with written permission by the artist. (c) Copyright 2014 

From Yusef Hawkins to Eric Garner 25 Years Time Locked

"Well protesting is sort of like, "Please, please, please, don't do that." But they'll do it anyway. But they just ignore you. So, protest is submissive." - Paul Watson, Environmentalist Activist


I think what Paul Watson stated has more merit today, now, than than ever before. The  problem is, people, especial Black folk, aren't ready to transition from "activism" to "interventionism". The difference between "activism" and "interventionism" is  one "talks" and the the other "does". Not by just showing up and raising voices and holding hand up in the air in a surrendering manner but transitioning from being just active to aggression; "the act of "hostile or violent behavior or attitudes toward another; readiness to attack or confront". Now this might sound anti-American or even what people like to label as a "race riot" but lets be honest, with all the "extra" police, helicopters, patrol boats, secret service and traditional enforcement of the Law that surrounded the "peace march", that is what the Government is most fearful of. The Powers-That-Be know that Black folk have gone from walking hand-in-hand or with tools to being chained, to laying on their backs, to crawling, to standing up, to fighting, to dancing, to walking with hands raised to laying in graves in raising numbers. They know by definition that it is coming to this. The Fight for the Right to exist. The recent law passed called Program 1033 or the official name, AMERICAN BATTLEFIELD PROTECTION PROGRAM ACT OF 2013 (https://beta.congress.gov/.../house-bill/1033/summary/98705 ) as well as the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (S. 1959) was designed to be a Pro-Action policy to prevent Interventionism in American People. You can't act against something if the road to action has been cut from the start. These laws cut off all paths via military action and resources. They also have rules for suspending the Constitution. The very fiber of justice in America. 

Its been 25 yrs since since the murder of Yusef Hawkins in Staten Island. The same place Eric Garner was placed in an illegal chokehold and also murdered. Al Sharpton's rally in the same place 25yrs to the day of the murder of Yusef Hawkins and he is back where he started with Eric Garner and the best you can offer in a fiery speech to those attending is that this time the people didn't get watermelon and chicken thrown at them? That is an activist "mentality" ... a philosophy of "Gradualism". If Black folk continue at this pace, 25ys from now the people of Staten Island will be serving wine and cheese, water with lemon and an ice cube for those who don't drink.

For those people in Staten Island who stayed indoors they did so in fear. Fear that the clock is ticking for an age of Interventionism. That fear just might be justified. If the actions of injustice isn't addressed in the Illusion that America is in a Post-Racial era, the 60's will come back and it will far worst than the Middle East.