Now and Then (4 page)

The Artist had honestly never given much thought

As to how much of a battle would have to be fought

To get most Americans to agree and to say

That there actually should be a black holiday.

But what a hell of a challenge. How far was Stevie willing to go

To make them pass an amendment left on the table 10 years in a row?

The Artist never doubted that Stevie was sincere

But how many minds had come together in the last 12 years?

How many folks recognised how much America had to grow?

And who else had been qualified to lead us where we had to go?

The Artist had liked the idea of a minister being around

When racing for high stakes, to have his foot near the brakes

Because of what truly could have gone down.

Because America could have blown up

Before it ever could be said that we had grown up.

Ghandi took non-violence with him when he died

Over here there was non-violence but only on one side.

When white folks beat up on and killed people that you knew

You decided to direct your anger at a building or two.

Instead of making the Old Testament a Civil Rights guide

And saying that ‘an eye for an eye' would now be justified

We were told to accept that some white folks had no class

And as opposed to condemning all the white folks ‘en masse'.

We determined that remaining peaceful was the best thing.

And directing those feeling were men like Dr. King.

Through a storm of provocation to fight we saw

That in order to change America you must change the law.

We were called ‘militant' and ‘radical' and made to look bad

For trying to secure the rights all Americans had.

But between what's written and what's done is the real thing

So America might not have made it without Dr. Martin Luther King.

And though its been too long and

Too many years have passed

And though the time has gone,

The memories still hold fast.

Yes, as strange as it seems

We still live in the past.

The essence of a Black life

Lost in the hour-glass.

And ever since we came to this land

This country has rued the day

When we would stand as one

And raise our voices and say:

You know there won't be no more killings

And no more talk of class;

Your sons and your daughters

Won't die in the hour-glass.

A toast to David Walker

A toast to Martin King

A toast to all the leaders who had a golden dream.

A toast to all Black fathers who lived their lives in vain.

A toast to all Black mothers who shouldered this life in pain.

A toast to the people.

The world!

Planet Earth; third from the Sun of a gun, 360 degrees.

And as new worlds emerge

stay alert. Stay aware.

Watch the Eagle! Watch the Bear!

Earthquaking, foundation shaking,

bias breaking, new day making change.

Accumulating, liberating, educating, stimulating change!

Tomorrow was born yesterday.

From inside the rib or people cage

the era of our first blood stage was blotted or erased

or TV screened or defaced.

Remember there's a revolution going on in the world.

One blood of the early morning

revolves to the one idea of our tomorrow.

Homeboy, hold on!

Now more than ever all the family must come together.

Ideas of freedom and harmony, great civilizations

yesterday brought today will bring tomorrow.

We must be about

earthquaking, liberating, investigating

and new day making change in

the world.

Introduction:

Back when Eisenhower was the President

Golf courses was where most of his time was spent.

So I never paid much attention to what the President said

Because in general, I believed the General was politically dead,

But he always seemed to know how muscles were going to be flexed

He kept mumbling something about a military-industrial complex.  

The military and monetary

The military and monetary

The military and monetary 

The military and the monetary

Get together whenever they think its necessary

They have turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,

They are turning the planet into a cemetery. 

The military and the monetary

Use the media as intermediaries.

They are determined to keep the citizens secondary

They make so many decisions that seem arbitrary. 

We've been standing behind the ‘Commander-in-Chief'

Who was under a spotlight, shaking like a leaf

Because the ship of state had landed on an economic reef

So we knew he'd be bringing us messages of grief. 

The military and monetary

Were ‘Shielded'
2
by January and went ‘Storming'
3
into February.

They brought us pot-bellied Generals as luminaries.

Two weeks before I hadn't heard of the sons of Bitches

And then all of a sudden they were legendary. 

They took the honor from the honorary

They took the dignity from the dignitaries

They took the secrets from the secretaries

But they left the ‘bitch' in ‘obituary' 

Yeah, they had some ‘smart bombs'

But they had some dumb ones as well

They scared the hell outta CNN in that Baghdad hotel. 

The military and the monetary

The military and monetary

The military and monetary 

Get together whenever they think its necessary

War in the desert sometimes sure could seem scary

But they beamed out the war to all of their subsidiaries

Tried making ‘so damn insane' (Saddam Hussein) a worthy adversary 

Keeping all of the citizens secondary

Scaring old folks into coronaries

Making us all wonder if all of this was really, truly necessary. 

We've got to
work
for peace.

We've got to work for peace.

If we all believed in peace we could have peace.

The only thing wrong with peace is that

You can't make no money from it. 

The military and the monetary

Get together whenever they think it's necessary

They have turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries

We are turning parts of the planet into a cemetery. 

We hounded the Ayatollah religiously,

Bombed Libya and killed Qadafi's son hideously.

We turned our back on our allies, the Panamanians

Watched Ollie North selling guns to the Iranians

Witnessed Gorbachev slaughtering Lithuanians

So we better warn the Amish, they may bomb the Pennsylvanians.

We've got to work for peace.

Peace ain't coming this way.

We've got to work for peace. 

Peace is not (merely) the absence of war

It is the absence of the rumors of war and the threats of war

And the preparation for war.

Peace is not (merely) the absence of war

We will have all touched the power of peace within ourselves.

Because we will have all come to peace within ourselves. 

Peace ain't gonna be easy.

Peace ain't gonna be free.

We've got to work for peace.

I get the sho' 'nuff blues

checkin' out the
Daily News

no matter which way it's comin' from

I'm told I'm not supposed to choose

just accept the newsman's views

but that sho' ain't no happy medium

You see all I want is the facts

but blow-dried hairdos is gettin' into the act

because reporters are expert observers

they establish social trends

decidin' who's out and who's in

and rush in with the tragedies that unnerve us

Syndicated columnists

lookin' to get their asses kissed

cause they're the big shots of political affairs

and the anchorman's job

is to look extra suave

while they're trying to convince us that they care

The radio commentator

is a five minute narrator

whose news is perpetually grim

and his ego is blown

he's got a great baritone

but the cameras ain't never on him

But the message is clear

they want all Black folks to hear

that the price you got to pay to be free

you get told how to feel

you get told what is real

to be exactly how they want you to be

you get the rational logical

sound philosophical

poetic distortions

political contortions

cause white folks still ain't ready yet

so what you hear ain't gonna be what you get

Now some folks may call me a radical

or remind me that at best I'm not practical

to keep pointing out what everyone should know

but we're still looking for justice

while other folks devise ways to bust us

so we spend more time in court than McEnroe

Because when the time for freedom came

folks started feeling only the surface had changed

instead of celebrating ‘Free at last!'

'Cause all the racists had said ‘Okay'

because equality can work both ways

and they promptly started kicking poor white folk's ass

How can the issue be race

when every citizen can take his or her case

and be heard by a jury of their peers?

meanwhile I'm listening to the rundown

about four young brothers who was gunned down

by some psycho with imaginary fears

When you get down to the real nitty-gritty

you're on a subway in New York City

and Bernhard, the gunman, shows upon the set

and he decides these four young Blacks

are about to launch an attack

though they hadn't attacked nobody yet

Regardless, Bernie makes his play

and he's like Eastwood saying ‘Make my fuckin' day!' and

in self-defense he even shoots someone wounded on the floor.

then he confesses on video tape,

but since he was in an ‘agitated state'

he's acquitted and let out to shoot some more

Now does this mean every sister and brother

Mexican, Indian, Oriental or other

won't ever see homicide put them behind bars?

Because it legitimately terrifies me

to know that the next sumbitch I see

might be armed and just as crazy as Bernhard

Or is this proof that the system works

or are we all being treated like jerks?

Take your chance and step right up to place your bets

and I'm gonna put my money down

saying if it's ever the other way around

we'll find out that what you see ain't what you Goetz

we just thought it was a drink,

but maybe had there been more time to think …

a cognac on the rocks and a glass of white wine

crowd thinning out cause it's near closing time

laughs, cigarette smoke, an adult's playroom

where foreplay for players who like adult freedom

and dimly dark lowlight sparks …

we just thought it was different

like a pleasant surprise

and maybe we wouldn't have said so much as ‘hello'

had we looked around into other folks' eyes

we just thought it was cool

but not the rigid, frigid,

frozen, not-chosen

petrified, paralyzed

ossified ostracized

put out to pasture is the ultimate disaster

we just thought it was a glance

almost something thought to yourself

a second look, a double give and take

a ‘very nice, my lady' and/or

an appraisal of the up-closer, ‘hmm'

we thought it was a change of pace

an hour away, a quiet someplace

just to talk, walk, speak, peek

see behind that sudden jolt,

an electric unexpected volts

probably nothing but might be fun

if not, nobody lost nobody won

but much more suddenly than all at once,

an unexpected cloud that blocks the sun

and before we heard the starter's gun

too soon to know it was too late to run

we thought it was no big deal

we thought it had an ugly feel

a curious, furious over reaction

that there would be no end to the distractions

unless we gave up

and said we'd had enough

and we had thought it was ours.