Tuesday, November 25, 2014

On Ferguson, Greensboro And The State Of Our Nation

"The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility." --Martin Luther King, Jr.



Indeed, Dr Kings words are very true. A riot is in fact a signal that the war was lost before the battle started. Rioting is a form of self destruction as it almost always takes place and victimizes the neighborhoods most in need of help. No one ever riots in the fancy neighborhoods where all is fine.

So with Dr King's words in mind, one must ask one's self, how is it the situation was/is so hopeless that people would lash out against themselves-- against their own communities-- in a form of neighborhood suicide if you will, that does more harm to themselves than anyone else?

And why have we, as a society, allowed entire neighborhoods, communities and cities across this great nation to become so depressed, so sick and so deprived that those communities would choose suicide over life?

Answer those questions and you'll know the real reasons for what took place in Ferguson, Missouri and what is taking place all across America today.
Today, Greensboro, North Carolina is the second hungriest city in America. We have a poverty rate of over 21%. We lead the state of North Carolina in unemployment and have a home foreclosure rate of over 12%. But instead of working to solve those problems our leaders do nothing while building downtown performing arts centers our local artists and most of the rest of us can't afford to use. What is Greensboro doing to help the poor? Nothing. What was Ferguson doing to help the poor people of Ferguson? You tell me.

Keep waging your war on the poor communities all across America and as the poor are defeated they too will commit community suicide just as they did in Ferguson. The death of one young man didn't cause the events in Ferguson-- Michael Brown isn't the reason people are rioting. The death of Michael Brown was simple the straw that broke Ferguson's back.

What will be the straw in Greensboro, North Carolina? In any other depressed, poor sick community in America?

You see, that's the problem: you don't know what the straw will be or when it will break. But when it does your community dies with them. And therein lies the flaw in the grand design of those who would have us believe in the giant ponzi scheme called the US Economy.

Will Greensboro be next? Will your community?