{"id":824,"date":"2009-09-17T15:58:53","date_gmt":"2009-09-17T15:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/?p=824"},"modified":"2013-09-24T12:24:37","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T18:24:37","slug":"leonard-peltier-mumia-abu-jamal-justice-barometers-of-our-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/leonard-peltier-mumia-abu-jamal-justice-barometers-of-our-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonard Peltier & Mumia Abu-Jamal: Justice Barometers of our Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in Issue 342 of The Black Commentator on September 17, 2009<\/a>
\nRepublished in worldproutassembly.org (2005-2011) on September 19, 2009
\nRepublished in\u00a0PhillyIMC\u00a0on September 17, 2009<\/a><\/p>\n

By Larry Pinkney<\/strong><\/p>\n

Welcome to the United States of America, the land of hypocrisy, denial, and subterfuge.<\/p>\n

Intense economic and race war<\/em> in fact continues unabated in this nation unabashedly fostered<\/em>, sadly, by U.S. President Barack Obama, who is himself the aloof and blissfully oblivious<\/em> target of increasing<\/em> racial bigotry. What a terrible irony! It is stunning, but no accident, how the obvious<\/em> is repeatedly missed by so many in \u2018America.\u2019 The details in the cases of U.S. political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier make this abundant arrogance, hypocrisy, and dangerous obliviousness that is so prevalent in this land – crystal clear.<\/em><\/p>\n

Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal however, are so much more<\/em> than political prisoners in \u2018America.\u2019 Their three decades-long<\/span><\/em> wrongful imprisonment represents the very heart and soul of ongoing hypocrisy, racism, and growing<\/em> injustice in this nation. Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier are not simply names to banter about<\/em>. As with many other political prisoners in this country, these two cases represent the collective barometer<\/em> that indicate the utter and dismal failure<\/em> of the judiciary and politicos of this nation to \u201cchange\u201d their ways and come to their human<\/em> senses.<\/p>\n

Leonard Peltier, a former head of the American Indian Movement (AIM), and Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former leader in the Black Panther Party (BPP), both<\/em> demonstrated the unmitigated audacity to stand up for unfettered justice – which is in reality the ultimate<\/em> sin<\/em> in this nation. They both <\/em>were falsely accused of having killed police agents of repression and<\/em> they both<\/em> had enormously crucial and important evidence suppressed<\/span><\/strong><\/em> by government prosecutors in their skewed, so – called free and democratic trials here in the empire\u2019s corporate \u2018America.\u2019 They both<\/em> were (and continue to be – even in prison<\/em>) the targets of local, state, and federal authorities – to be discredited<\/em>, kept<\/em> imprisoned, and if possible – ultimately murdered.<\/p>\n

The crux of the Leonard Peltier case is not only<\/em> the government subterfuge and concomitant suppression of crucial evidence, but also the legitimate sovereignty rights<\/span> <\/em>of Indigenous peoples collectively on this<\/em> continent. Indigenous sovereignty rights<\/em> is something that the U.S. Government and much of the collective psyche of this country has studiously avoided, <\/em>refusing to <\/em>honestly and fairly address for over five hundred years.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the crux of the Mumia Abu-Jamal case is not only<\/em> the government subterfuge and suppression of crucial evidence, but the audacity of Mr. Abu-Jamal to, as a human<\/em> rights activist<\/em> in word and deed, boldly expose the economic and racist hypocrisy of the U.S. Government, in his quest on behalf of the collective human rights of people here and<\/em> abroad.<\/p>\n

For thirty years now the corporate U.S. so – called \u2018news\u2019 media has used, and continues to use, a combination of falsehoods, omissions, and obfuscation to perpetuate<\/em> this despicable outrage against Mr. Abu-Jamal and Mr. Peltier. Thus is this outrage also<\/em> continually perpetrated against us<\/span><\/em><\/strong> – the majority of peoples in this nation and on this planet; not only pertaining to the Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal cases of injustice but also<\/em> as pertains to the daily corporate media onslaught of distraction and disinformation in general both nationally and internationally. Make no mistake about this!<\/p>\n

Leonard Peltier recently very clearly and quite correctly wrote that \u201cnow\u201d he is Barack \u201cObama\u2019s political prisoner.\u201d Indeed he is,<\/em> as is <\/em>Mumia Abu-Jamal, just as the bloody wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere are now<\/em> Obama\u2019s wars<\/em>. Stop the intellectual masturbation and get real<\/span> – people! These two political prisoners represent the barometers of our very souls. Indeed, until we ourselves uncompromisingly change it<\/span><\/em>, we are all<\/em> the emotional and information prisoners of this present economic, social, and political Republicrat [i.e. Republican and<\/em> Democratic Party] nonsense on the road to certain national and global disaster.<\/p>\n

Whether we view our primary<\/em> concern as being obtaining universal single payer health care, over-all social & economic justice, labor union busting, the environment, housing, increasing unemployment, or the ongoing<\/em> U.S. bloody wars abroad, etc., the cases of Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal encompass all<\/span><\/em> of these important concerns. Think about it! They are all<\/em> linked and intertwined.<\/em> We must<\/em> understand this.<\/p>\n

Our Mother Earth cannot continue to exist without <\/em>social \/ political (including environmental<\/em>) and economic justice and real <\/em>change, and we cannot continue to exist without <\/em>our <\/em>Mother Earth. It doesn\u2019t take a rocket scientist or a Harvard graduate to understand this.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of \u2018Crazy Horse\u2019 and<\/em> with the determination of all<\/em><\/strong> justice loving people; spit out<\/em> the poisonous political \u2018Kool\u2019 Aid and fight hard to make our hopes and dreams become reality.<\/em> As we do this, let us actively<\/em> remember Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal, for in doing so we remember and honor the very best in ourselves. Onward then sisters and brothers! Onward\u2026 There remains much<\/em> work to be done.<\/p>\n