Fred Hampton and Darfur
I might feel different about a street sign for Hampton if his advocates also witnessed as strongly for what's going on in Darfur.
Here's Eric Reeve's lastest.
But given how little the world cares about the lives that have already been lost, and those that are now doomed to destruction, numbers would seem to matter little. The disgraceful reporting on mortality in Darfur, with supposedly distinguished news organizations citing “180,000 deaths”---a figure promulgated first by the UN a full year ago, and representing even then only deaths from disease and malnutrition over the preceding 18 months---is emblematic. Darfuri lives are not worth protecting or evidently even counting---no matter that they have been engulfed in a holocaust, and remain ongoing victims of the ultimate human crime.Yet Again may be a better sign to post.
The AU [African Union] decision in Addis Ababa marks no new abandonment, no new act of cowardice or shame; it merely serves to ratify all too fully the international acquiescence before genocide in Africa, “yet again.”
5 comments:
It's one thing that you call on Obama to be more vocal on Darfur since he's on the Senate Foreign relns committee, but what the heck does Fred Hampton have to do at all with Darfur. They might have mentioned Darfur if at any moment any one of them thought it was at all connected to Fred Hampton. However, it isn't.
Should the Latinos protesting the illegal immigration bill also have to mention Darfur to have credibility?
How many Darfur signs were there at your Denmark rally?
Bill, if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, it's ok not to blog all the time. This was totally useless.
I toured the apartment on Adams where he was shot. The Panthers gave tours of the place for a few days afterwords before the city shut it down as a crime scene.
Amazing they allowed that.
Fred Hampton and Panthers saw an international struggle. They had pictures of Mao, Che, Lumbumba... they wouldn't have been unaware of Darfur today and I wondered what Hampton would have thought now.
I'm guessing he was one of the more idealistic and would have felt slaughter in Africa today more important than a street sign for him.
But I really don't know. I don't pretend this thought anymore then something right off the top-of-my-head.
I think though, if the City allows the sign, it has to be because they want to believe in an idealistic version of him, and not the kill the pigs one... in which case, Fred Hampton St alongside a plea to never allow repeats of the slaughter in Africa would be right.
If the City chooses to name a stretch of Adams Street after him, lets at least make him a symbol of a noble cause.
That happens with these kind of revolutionary heros. We make heros to fit today's reality.
I hear what you're saying about Fred Hampton. He might have said "Off the pigs", but it was the "pigs" that murdered him. Plus, he you have to realize that he was only 21 when he said that. Fred Hampton had accomplished amazing things by the time he was tragically murdered at 21 and he could have been a great leader who would have moderated his views with a few more years, and would likely be leading the call for attention for world problems like Darfur. The officers who killed him should have been locked away for life.
Also, what percentage of Chicago cops would you say are crooked? Maybe 40%? Again, saying "off the pigs" is wrong and came out of the mouth of an angry 21 year old, but don't act like policemen are saints here. Many, if not a majority are brave, but a very large number are crooked in one way or another, and that is a god-honest fact.
Post a Comment