BLACK LIVES MATTER - DON'T LET YOURSELVES BE PLAYED AND MISS THE BIG PICTURE
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I know you're a big supporter of the "Black Lives Matter" movement, and as a Black man myself, it's easy to understand why. They reflect our frustration at repeatedly seeing Black people shot down, beaten, choked to death, and possibly even lynched while in police custody. And then if that's not bad enough, we're being forced to endure juries and agencies across this country treating these heinous crimes as though the alleged perpetrators are performing a public service. It's unconscionable and almost more than one can stand. So I'm definitely in full support of BLM's "professed" agenda.
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But I'm also quite concerned about how BLM is going about trying to achieve their objectives, and whether or not they've been infiltrated by right-wing operatives who are instigating a level of stupidity that's not only sabotaging BLM's professed agenda, but is allowing the organization to be used to undermine other progressive activists - So far, Bernie Sanders, Al Sharpton, and Mike Malloy - activists who should be considered allies. They settled for a quiet little chat, behind the scenes, with Hillary Clinton. Hmmmmm . . .
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Writer and political commentator, Brian K. Pinaire, Ph.D. , describes the the BLM takerover of Bernie Sanders' Seattle event as follows:
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"We'd been waiting for nearly two hours by the time he finally took the stage. We'd been approached by a few dozen petition-circulators, button-sellers, pamphlet-distributors and sign-holders. We'd heard a few songs by a group called the "Raging Grannies." And we'd listened to the usual array of warm-up speakers, local candidates and activists gathered for this event at Westlake Center in Seattle. Now, it was finally time for the man of the hour--or the two hours, actually. Until all of a sudden it wasn't.
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"Just as Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was beginning his speech, protestors representing "Black Lives Matter" took the stage, screamed at Sanders and commandeered the podium at what was supposed to be a celebration of the birthdays of Social Security and Medicare. I watched all this occur in real-time, but I was also capturing it on video. And I am glad I did, because not enough has been said of the insulting manner by which these individuals addressed everyone within earshot.
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"Demanding to speak, and to do so before Senator Sanders, Marissa Janae Johnson, a self-described co-founder of the Seattle group, began by telling us all "You guys are full of bullshit with your black lives matter!" Even though the crowd had cheered earlier speakers who'd mentioned the movement, Ms. Johnson seemed distraught that some people were chanting "Bernie!, Bernie!" after she'd taken over the stage.
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"Why was the crowd chanting "Bernie! Bernie!"? you might ask. Because they came to see Bernie Sanders speak about Social Security and Medicare.
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"This was when Ms. Johnson reprimanded the crowd even more--a crowd whose average age was easily more than twice that of her own--by announcing "You're never going to hear Bernie speak unless I get silence here now." Yes, she was scolding people of her parents' and grandparents' generations who had come to hear about how we might make lives better for the poor and elderly. And now she was also holding Senator Bernie Sanders for ransom." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-k-pinaire-phd/feel-the-bern_b_7963688.html)
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So again, RM, while I share your frustration, I'm greatly concerned over BLM's behavior, because nobody can be as stupid as they've been by accident, and as a child of the sixties, I learned very early in life to never allow myself to be blinded by circumstances. No matter how frustrating and unconscionable the situation, we must always remain vigilant for hyper-ideologues engaged in reckless and unnecessary stupidity. CointelPro 101.
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The minute I witnessed what BLM did to Al Sharpton and Bernie Sanders I cringed, because it was like "deja vu all over again." It was immediately clear to me that behavior such as that is the primary reason we're still fighting the very same battle 50 years later.
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Both Sharpton and Sanders were on the right page and using the perfect tactic - educating the people and gaining their empathy and support. Then hot-heads professing to be from BLM jumped on stage using exactly the wrong tactic - snatching the mic and shaking their fist at the very people who they should be trying to recruit as allies. They weren't scaring nobody; they just pissed people off - including me, and I'm an old-school revolutionary.
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People are tired of publicity-seeking fist-shakers creating public distractions and wasting our time. Fist-shakers are generally just looking for applause, so they should go somewhere and learn to tap dance and get it legitimately. We're looking for thinkers who can seriously, and effectively, address our problems, not overbearing and obnoxious, "look-at-what-I'm-doing" type entertainers. This situation is much too serious for such self-serving and childish behavior. All they've done is become a distraction. Instead of talking about how Black lives truly do matter, all we're discussing is BLM's childishly disgusting behavior; and instead of promoting the perfect declaration - again, that Black lives matter - whenever thousands of people hear the phrase, the first thing they'll experience is their anger over BLM's silly antics. Our enemies are dead serious, so this is no time to jump on stage auditioning for fame.
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In response you said, "Since the NYPD is using COINTELPRO against BLM, doesn't that make BLM legit? If BLM is COINTELPRO, did Obama authorize the operation?"
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You're missing the point. When CointelPro is mentioned, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is the exact same government-initiated program that it was during the Civil Rights Movement; what I'm suggesting is BLM's attack on Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rev. Sharpton (both allies) struck me as CointelPro-LIKE. During the sixties Howard Hughes was world famous for being considered one of the riches men on Earth as a result of his $2.5 billion fortune. But today's billionaires could leave that kind of chump-change as a tip. So today the Koch Bros., ALEC, and their billionaire friends can finance programs that not only rival CointelPro, but much more - and they often do.
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In today's world there is no such thing as a group being "legit" or "illegit". I'm sure that the 99% of the people involved in BLM are perfectly legitimate and their primary concern is protecting Black lives, but how can we prevent the Corporate/GOP Alliance, with all of their vast wealth and resources, from sprinkling illegitimate infiltrators among BLM's ranks to instigate ill-advised - in fact, stupid - behavior that not only sabotages BLM's agenda, but also undermines other progressive activists and/or candidates? The fact is, we can't. So again, all we can do is remain vigilant for inappropriate behavior and be discrete, but thorough, in monitoring and looking into the background of people who are over-the-top and who suggest such behavior. People like that are either Judas goats, or not level-headed enough to be in positions of responsibility.
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You see, many people tend to be so blinded by anger over their single issue that they fail to see the big picture. So the Corporate/GOP Alliance will stirrup anger among Black people, and then do the same thing with other factions - women, gays, workers, immigrants, etc - to keep us so focused on, and fighting over, whose single issue is going to be given priority that we're completely oblivious to the fact that they're hard at work cutting ALL of our throats.
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Factional injustice is merely a distraction to keep us angry, frustrated, and divided. The end-game is actually about abolishing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance, The Fair Labor Standards Act, etc. In short, they're trying to lower the standard of living of the American middle class to a level that coincides with third world countries of the new global economy, where many workers make less a week than many middle-class Americans spend on lunch per day.
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Thus, it is absolutely essential that we wake up and stop being so blind and single-issue oriented. Yes, absolutely, we should continue to be aggressive in addressing issues of injustice, but we must organize and address all matters of injustice AS A CLASS, and not as a multitude of fractious and undisciplined factions. Currently we're trying to fight a class war against the most insidious domestic enemy in the history of the United States as a multitude of clueless platoons, each headed up by a corporal, and without sufficient resources. The Corporate/GOP Alliance, on the other hand, is a well funded and organized army headed by a four star general - and he has a bird's eye-view of the entire field of battle. That's unacceptable, and it's political suicide.
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Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.