Category: Politics

Posted on

Asimbonanga

Nelson Mandela on Day After ReleaseNews is coming out of South Africa that the country is bracing itself for the death of Nelson Mandela, who is now on life support.

This man, who was labeled a terrorist, imprisoned, eventually freed and literally changed his country — I cannot begin to express how rare such a man is, or how much more we need people like him today. As I watch my own country flailing through the throes of a second Civil War, different from our first, yet just as vital to be won, and I wonder when our Mandela comes, or if it’s even possible here.

Many of us around in the 80s remember the songs of protest that were aimed at the South African regime, and so even for us Non-South-Africans, Mandela is a huge figure. I recently saw this story on the internet, that claimed The Special AKA track “Free Nelson Mandela” as the most potent protest song ever recorded.

I disagree. I say that this song, by South African band Savuka, fronted by Johnny Clegg, was even more powerful. It was released in 1987, by a mixed-race band, in Apartheid South Africa, at a time when Mandela was still in prison, and also called out the names of three martyrs of the South African liberation struggle – Steve Biko, Victoria Mxenge, and Neil Aggett. Listen to the track. I’ll include the lyrics below.

Johnny Clegg and Savuka – “Asimbonanga.”

Asimbonanga (we have not seen him)
Asimbonang’ umandela thina (we have not seen mandela)
Laph’ekhona (in the place where he is)
Laph’ehleli khona (in the place where he is kept)

Oh the sea is cold and the sky is grey
Look across the island into the bay
We are all islands till comes the day
We cross the burning water

A seagull wings across the sea
Broken silence is what I dream
Who has the words to close the distance
Between you and me

Steve Biko, Victoria Mxenge, Neil Aggett

Asimbonanga (we have not seen him)
Asimbonang ‘umfowethu thina (we have not seen our brother)
Laph’ekhona (in the place where he is)
Laph’wafela khona (in the place where he died)

Hey wena (hey you!)
Hey wena nawe (hey you and you as well)
Siyofika nini la’ siyakhona (when will we arrive at our destination)

 
 

Posted on

Wanted: 21st Century Free-Staters

Bleeding_Kansas_PosterIn the mid-19th century, Abolitionists from New England settled in Kansas in a bid to oppose the extension of slavery into the state. My town, Lawrence, KS was settled by these Free-Staters, and today, residents are surrounded by constant reminders of this past — in the names of schools, local businesses, and in the very symbol of the town itself: a phoenix rising from the ashes (pro-slavery guerillas led by William Quantrill burned Lawrence to the ground 150 years ago this August). The Free-Staters organized and moved across the country, in an effort to influence the political future of the country.

As I watch the news today, where despite overwhelming majority support from the American people, the Senate failed to pass the watered-down bill for background check on gun sales — even though it had 54 votes, a majority in a 100-seat chamber — I realize that our country is almost irreparably broken: perhaps more so than at any time since the prelude to the Civil War.

What we need are 21st century Free-Staters.

Part of this inspiration comes from witnessing the unhinged rhetoric of the Right, especially on the issue of gun control legislation: They are quick to phrase things in apocalyptic, violent wish-fulfilment: There is instantly talk of “taking up arms” to “defend against Tyranny” and such. It reminds me that, for a large percentage of the American Right, “Culture War” is not a metaphor. They firmly believe that Progressives are coming for their guns, to outlaw their religion, to place them under the yoke of tyranny.

Progressives, by and large, are not prepared to fight a war. We dismiss the rhetoric with sarcastic snark, and look down upon what we see as ignorant hayseeds who seem to revel in violence, anti-intellectualism, and blind adherence to political or religious dogma. While we insult and demean, it only reinforces the divide — a divide which is already as intractable as it was 150 years ago. Meanwhile, the other side acts — and through manipulation of a hopelessly out-of-date electoral system that encourages disproportional representation and gerry-mandering, and a legislative system that requires that all sides operate in good faith or it breaks down completely — they hold our entire country hostage to their minority extremism.

Progressives need to stop snarking and start DOING. Unlike the Right, however, we’re not going to advocate armed insurrection to get what we want. So instead, I argue that we should take a page from the tactics of the Free-Staters.

Progressives should move, en mass, to the deepest of Red States, in an effort to change the political demographics on the ground. In short, if you’re tired of people like Lindsay Graham and Rand Paul holding the entire country hostage to their agenda, the only solution is to flood into places like South Carolina and Kentucky until we tip the scales.

It’s not a quick fix — and it certainly isn’t an attractive option for many, since we all prefer to live in cultural surroundings that reflect our own. But if we’re serious about changing the country, about altering the course of our culture in the long run, then we Progressives will have to abandon our propensity for aggregating in a small selection of high-population cultural centers, because the electoral reality is that low-population areas are given disproportional representation.

So we need to game the system.

Posted on

Re-Election

Posting this mostly for journaling purposes — I was looking at the 2008 and 2004 elections from my heavier-blogging days, and realized that I really should have something here on 2012. Rather than go through the time and trouble of saying things that other people have already said, or that I said myself on social media last night, I decided that I’d use the opportunity to instead just copy my twitter posts from election night, as it happened (tweets from others are, obviously, things that I re-tweeted):

https://twitter.com/bobbyfinger/status/266001246715015169

https://twitter.com/dizzyjosh/status/266008121619644417

https://twitter.com/Tepper/status/266027719085658113

https://twitter.com/chrisfholm/status/266040612967555074

Proudly powered by WordPress