"The Freedoms"
(listening to Immortal Technique's Revolutionary Vol. II is very appropriate for this entry. So before you go any further, pop in this CD in your tape deck. If not, Wale Oyejide's "One Day, Everything Changed" would be the second choice, followed by The Last Poets "Niggas is Scared of Revolution.")

"They wanna rearrange the whole point of view in the ghetto
The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle
A bandana full of glittering, generality
Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality?
Martial law is coming soon to the hood, to kill you
While you hanging your flag out your project window"
- Immortal Technique "4th Branch"

Normally, on the 4th of July, I post Frederick Douglass' speech. This year i decided to do something different. I spoke to quite a few people who were shocked (all people of color) that we did not celebrate the 4th of July. I also learned that quite a few people that i thought who did NOT celebrate this particular holiday, actually DID celebrate it.

I know Nas Dawud and I had a long conversation about this a while back about how for some people, the holidays are the only few days they can actually have the day off, but more on that later. It just bothers me that the most "oppressed" and the most criminal folks out there go completely ape shit during the holidays. The mofos who sit on the corner looking hard and killing their own people seem to be the most patriotic on the 4th. Mofo's even interrupt church service to barbeque! I see the hardest so called hard rocks wearing red, white, and blue! It's completely A-Mazing to me to witness all of this. Now alot of mofo's tell me to get the hell out of this country for saying ish like this (when I'm the one who served in the military and THEY didn't), but more on that later.

I named this entry after Michael Parenti's book on Iraq, "The Freedom." I did a mini-mini review on it a few weeks back. It is really good (man, i just realized this cat puts out more books than Malachi York!) . But he named the book "The Freedom" because he met this one masked gunman who explained to him that the U.S. brought plenty of freedom to Iraq, "the freedom to loot, the freedom to rape, the freedom to pillage, the freedom to kill..." That shit hit me and i had to read the book (i read it in a few days and was mad that it was so short). The last two days, the local paper did a piece on gangs (ironically, my brother from another mother, I Majestic, wrote a piece on the potentiality of gangs) and it made the front page. I find gangs to be as American as apple pie (remember the Sons of Liberty before the Revolutionary War?) so i found that piece fitting during the July 4th weekend. At the same time, the local paper had a list of things you can do to celebrate the fact that you live in a democratic nation. But here are some things to ponder:

1. We don't live in a democratic nation. We live in a democratic republic. THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE. I can't believe how many ignoramuses with college degrees i have to point this out too. You should have paid attention in Poli Sci 101.

2. The Constitution does not grant rights. it is supposed to protect them. It even says it in the declaration of independence that we (well it meant upper class heterosexual white males, but you get my drift) are born with inalienable rights. As soon as we came out the womb we were granted God given rights that no one should be able to take away. The Constitution was supposed to protect this. Unfortunately, it has not done a good job of it.

We are born with several rights that we should respect everyone else's no matter what country they are from. this leads to my next thought:

3. Mofo's are quick to try to end a "debate" (i say it that way cause 99.9% of mofo's out there are not qualified to debate freedom anyway) by saying "if you don't like it, move out of the country." I used to say dumb shit like "oh, i am glad to live in this country because of all the stuff i can do." I realize that WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS. we consider our rights God given right? well, then those rights are ours wherever we go, right? of course, several countries do not allow their citizens to have their full rights. Does that mean that i should feel privileged to have them here? Hell no! These human rights are mine by birth! It's like when my son asked me to pay him for getting good grades. I was like "you supposed to get good grades, little man! I ain't paying you for that! you don't work!" (Thankfully he said "I know i am supposed to get good grades, i just figured i give it a try.")

4. The founding fathers of this country (meaning the framers of the Constitution) were not Xian but Deists, Huge difference. I wish everyone would realize this. When you really think about it though, Xians are the last mofo's on earth who are democratic. THey want HAY SOOS to come back and set up a kingdom of sheep NOT a democratic republic. Get it right.

5. I might get lynched for this one, When have American Soldiers fought for our freedom (with the exception of the War of 1812) ? This is in no way a disrespect for those who fought and died in the many mindless wars the U.S. has waged. I hear alot of mofo's say "they fighting for our freedom..." i don't get how fighting against a third world country that never did a damn thing to us is guaranteeing our freedom. I just don't. NO ONE has been able to answer this one yet. Some will say "WWII was the noble war, the good war." Yeah after we supported Hitler and pretty much gave him most of his power through the terms of appeasement (that is taught in every middle school class, my how easily we forget). Or how we turned a blind eye as the Japanese invaded China and massacred hundreds of thousands of folks. Yeah, okay.

Thank you for the opportunity... It's my God given right...

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To my man Billie Wheelz: (and for all you Star wars Fans)

I gave him a call the other day and he pointed something out. THanks dude. Remember when we discussed how easily the Jedi were merced in Ep III? well here it is:

Taken from Revenge of the Sith written by Matthew Stover, pg. 349:

"The Clone Wars were the perfect Jedi trap.
By Fighting at all, the Jedi lost.
With the Jedi Order overextended, spread thin across the galaxy, each Jedi is alone, surrounded by whatever clone he, she, or it commands. War itself pours darkness into the Force, deepening the cloud that limits Jedi perception. And the clones have no malice, no hatred, not the slightest ill intent that might give warning. They are only following orders.
In this case, Order Sixty-Six."

Billie Wheelz concluded that the reason why Yoda peeped the whole steez because he felt all those Jedi being killed even though some were several parsecs away from him and waited on the clones' next move.

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300 Bars

I finally listened to that Game dis towards the G-Unit. While i live for the downfall of the wackness known as the G-U-Not!, this is the horrible piece of work. What on earth was he thinking? It's horrendous. I fought sleep listening to this. Wack.
Sorry ya'll.