Power to the People!

I just started watching the first in a four-disc set of Black Panter Party history, called "What We Want, What We Believe", and released by AK Press. It has everything: pro-Panther propaganda films, recent interviews with former (although I'd like to think that the old adage applies here: "Once a Panther, always a Panther") Panthers like Field Marshal Donald Cox, Free-Huey-P.-Newton protest footage... and much, much more!

This is a must-see, even for people that are anti-Panther philosophy. Or, especially people that are anti-Panther.

I don't agree with everything the BPP thought or did, but I honor the motivation, and I know that contemporary US culture would not be the same without them.

Some lessons from the Black Panther Party to keep in mind now:

1. Grassroots works. It's all about putting your "money" where your mouth is.

2. Force is used by the power structure to maintain its place in the social hierarchy and keep order, and it is the Constitutional right of every citizen of this country to protect him or her self from the unfair use of that force.

3. Anger is a powerful motivator.

4. You never get what you ask for unless you have something to offer in exchange (this is one that the BPP may not have learned, or not had time to apply).

5. If no one is going to give you what you want, you do what you have to do to take it.

6. Some day, the Revolution will come, and you will be part of it. Which part will you play?