hey true believers. there is alot going on in the world as you well know and i hope you are out there doing your part to build or destroy. everytime i see or hear this MC and i can let some one know about him, i try to do so. this is Immortal Technique speaking in California recently, the second link is him answering questions.
i would love to hear your thoughts on what he’s talking about.
Statement to the press
Q&A

thanks Davey D

July 4th 2005

I finally got the courage to watch “Hotel Rwanda” last night. I followed that story in the news when it was happening and it was hard to deal with then. Hard to read and then digest as reality. It’s hard to imagine somewhere in the world shit like that is still going on. Needless to say I had some ill nightmares last night. It was happening here and the warring factions were gangs and of course there were people trapped in the middle and I was one. All these MCs were on the radio encouraging the killing and it was all the gangs would listen to. There was no Paul Ruesesabagina to negotiate for lives, there was no safe space – as often there is not. I won’t get into details as those of you who actually read this blog from time to time are probably tired of reading about my personal slice of ‘uglies’ in my world.

Ask yourself this question this 4th of July. When was it ever not an ugly time in human existence? Horror exists, it seems weather we choose to pay attention to it or not. Perhaps it serves some greater functions that we don’t see but regardless there it is.

2 things really quickly before I change the subject dramatically – #1. there is a line in the national anthem that says “…the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that the flag was still there” do you know how many fucking bombs have to go off to see something through an entire night? #2 there was a song during the credits of “Hotel Rwanda” that made my jaw drop almost as much as some parts of the movie. It was a song by Wyclef and in the song he said “if America is the United States of America why cant Africa be the united states of Africa? and if England is the United Kingdom why cant Africa unite all its Kingdoms and become the United Kingdom of Africa”.

Is he not aware that this county was attained by genocide that till this day is not historically dealt with fully? Actually it was started by people from the United Kingdom who enslaved, tortured and conquered people all around the world – not just here. ACTUALLY it’s the reason I speak and write English and can’t even dream in a language native to where any of my people are from. ACTUALLY I don’t want to go into how wack that line was (to me)… I should try to see the positive in everything. I think he was trying to just say ‘Africa Unite’… however it was poorly executed.

Hey at least it wasn’t him putting his energy into a line like “it’s hard out here for a pimp”

pimping is illegal… shouldnt it be hard?

A friend of mine went to a FREE screening of “Hustle and Flow” and not only does she want her money back (LOL) but she said that it was so sad that it’s worth REopening our “why black folks aint gonna rise” file. For those of you who aren’t in on the joke, the “why black folks aint gonna rise” file was an actual file that us and some of our friends kept where we collected things created by black folks or about black folks that we felt did more harm than good (in our opinion) and couldn’t believe existed in this day and time.

OK so let me end this blog with something WACK about ME and then something happy.

I realized this past week that I’m really vain. I DJ’d at a club a couple of weeks ago and usually I shave my mustache off. The gig went great, some days passed and I got an ingrown hair on the rim of my lip that was unpopable. I know this because I squeezed it in every direction which only made it red and big, real big. It looked like a giant herpe and it changed my whole attitude. I was even hesitant to go out cause I knew I would feel obligated to explain that what was on my lip was not contagious and folks can greet me affectionately without fear. It has since gone through the stages of pimpledom and is on its way out but I was amazed at how something so small can change your life.

The last thing I’ll leave yall with is that recently me and my wife celebrated our 6th year wedding anniversary and almost didn’t notice. Its been great fun. It still feels like one big sleepover. Neither of us is really that into remembering dates but we’re happy – more so than either of us thought possible. I suppose I can balance the statement made earlier by saying: When in history hasn’t love and happiness shined through the darkness and colored our human experience for the better? There has always been that, weather we choose to see it or not.

I suppose recognizing the balance between what’s ugly and what’s beautiful is what makes each so.

January 26, 2004

At the MLK day festival last week, I got into a lot of conversations involving the words “they” and “we.” What I realized and mentioned in a couple of those conversations is that the power to change things can only come from changing that “we” to “I”.

For instance there was this young man that walked the entire length of the celebration very slowly with 2 scantly clad women (one black woman, one white) walking behind him. At first glance (and 2nd and 3rd and 70th) he appeared to be a pimp.

I say “appeared to be” because I don’t want to assume. Perhaps he was in a horrible fire the night before that consumed all of his clothes and the only place open before the festival was a costume shop. Perhaps the costume shop (Mid-January being so soon after Halloween) only had 3 outfits left, a pimp, a KKK member, and a clown… so he chose the less of 3 evils and came as a pimp. As for the 2 young ladies, perhaps they weren’t prostitutes at all, but his friends, who dressed up like that for moral support. Or, maybe he WAS a pimp and his miniature multiracial prostitute parade was his perverse interpretation of MLK’s dream.

What bothered me is that no one stopped him and said anything. What bothers me more is that “I” didn’t stop him. Whether or not he realized it, he made a statement that day and “I” didn’t. He’s in the back of my psyche and I’m not in his, and “I” only have me to blame. “We” must be as bold as “they.”

We/I need to start booing at poor performances

We/I need to pull poorly behaved children over and talk to them

We/I need to be less of a hermit so that people see alternatives

We/I need to need to be more pro active and practical in our day to day application of love on others,

We/I need to know that there are no small things all things matter.

The flip side of this story was that after the celebration, several teens gathered in the parking lot to battle. But not with violence – with dance!! It took me back to see that. It also took me back when I saw the po-po (police… duh) arrive. But to my surprise they looked the situation over and let it be. My wife and our homegirl went up to them and actually thanked them for treating our children like human beings. It’s important to tell po-po when they do the right thing. We need to be as bold as the truth.

9/7/03

Folks act like revolution is something you go to or something that happens outside of yourself. Understand this…if you were a revolutionary in whatever it was you do right now you would never have to go to another march or protest ever again.

8/7/03

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

–the Declaration of Independence

6/11/03

Today on the way back from the library I saw a gas station sign that was put up right when the war in the middle east started. Originally it had said “God Bless America” but at some point the “B” had fallen off.

In front of the sign there was a pregnant woman (either she was pregnant or she had a serious beer gut) SMOKING!!! The traffic was such that I really couldn’t get my bike across to say something. Then the thought hit me: what would happen if I crossed over and asked her to consider the child she’s carrying, and she wasn’t even pregnant?

So then I wished I had a camera… and then I caught myself and thought “do we really need another negative image out there?”

6/7/03

So I decided to turn on the TV (why did I do that) and watch the news.

You know what? george w. bush is still president.

I had to think of something positive to say about that (see below, the good news exercise) and I came up with this.

He applied for a job that he didn’t get… and still has that job. That would be like me applying for a job at MC Donald’s and not getting hired, and then showing up the next day for work with the shirt and hat on. But my dad used to be the manager there so no one is really saying shit. Dad was always telling me all the perks like being able to hook my friends up with free fries, and he tells me how I’ll save $$ on food cause I can always take from the store. So I roll up with the hat on, and I’m on fries, and I’m fucking them up consistently. The customers know that I’m fucking up the fries but none of the other employees want to mess the crazy guy with the boiling vat of oil in his hand.

Its like you have to admire a guy like that. It takes balls. And perhaps that’s the new development in human evolution, BEING CRAZY!!! Maybe the crazy one is the one that survives. Could you imagine just doing that in all walks of life? Just showing up to an awards show after it’s been announced that someone else won, and giving an acceptance speech. Or just walking up to a couple walking down the street and grabbing the woman by the hand and just walking away with her. CRAZY.

I think regular folks like you and me need to start running for office.