Some people cringe at my outbursts.
They tell me that my anger and attacks on politicians is childish and hurtful to my overall cause.
I am nothing if not intentional in my actions.
Some may think that I'm just some madman yelling into the wind further isolating myself and spiralling out of control.
I do indeed allow my emotions to be free. What you see from me is nothing if not authentic.
But I don't show you everything. I work a regular job at my marketing agency about 30 hours a week. You don't hear much of anything about that. That's just because I see no point in sharing that with you. It's a job. I enjoy it. That's pretty much the end of it.
Most of what I share is based on an agenda. I am outraged by the cruelty of the American power players towards the oppressed and low income Americans. I also see myself as an eccentric creator. I love thinking about education, religion and government. I like sharing those ideas with you.
But the question at hand here is: is my anger and intense rhetoric helpful or hurtful?
I think a lot about this because I only want one thing: for every single American to have safe shelter TONIGHT, not in some fantasy future where every American gets a free house and lives happily ever after. I want emergency, triage sanctioned tent villages for every single American that needs them NOW.
My actions and words all stem from creating the fastest path towards making that a reality.
Do you know about this:
The Haymarket massacre (also known as the Haymarket affair, Haymarket riot, or Haymarket Square riot) was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago.[2] It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, the day after police killed one and injured several workers.[3] An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded.
According to labor historian William J. Adelman:
No single event has influenced the history of labor in Illinois, the United States, and even the world, more than the Chicago Haymarket Affair. It began with a rally on May 4, 1886, but the consequences are still being felt today. Although the rally is included in American history textbooks, very few present the event accurately or point out its significance.
Show me a major humanitarian right and I'll show you violence that made it happen.
My primary heros, John Brown and Fred Hampton, were nothing if not brutally violent. Sitting Bull brutally cut down Kuster by uniting the Native American tribes at The Battle of the Little Bighorn.
I truly believe that Martin Luther King Jr was only as successful as he was because Malcolm X was waiting in the wings for his time to shine.
My heros are brutal.
And look what King spoke less than a year before his assassination in front of primarily white doctors and academics in September of 1967 at the American Psychology Association’s annual convention in Washington, DC.
“Urban riots must now be recognized as durable social phenomena,” he told the assembled crowd of mostly white doctors and academics. “They may be deplored, but they are there and should be understood. Urban riots are a special form of violence. They are not insurrections. The rioters are not seeking to seize territory or to attain control of institutions. They are mainly intended to shock the white community. They are a distorted form of social protest. The looting which is their principal feature serves many functions. It enables the most enraged and deprived Negro to take hold of consumer goods with the ease the white man does by using his purse. Often the Negro does not even want what he takes; he wants the experience of taking.”
Nonviolence suggests that your oppressor has a moral compass and will be gently nudged awake to see the errors in his ways. I have never seen that to be the case.
But there is one problem with my love affair with these violent people. I refuse to hurt or kill another human.
I "believe in deontological constraints, that is, that there are some things that are wrong to do to people even if the consequences of doing so are on balance positive – indeed, even if the consequences are on balance the best that can be attained by any alternative act or policy."
I refuse to hurt people even though everywhere I look it appears that violence is the quickest, most effective form of direct action.
The humanitarian crimes of American homelessness, African American oppression, Native American genocide and now the hardening overall class war we are finding ourselves in all justify the use of any words or actions to end them.
While I have made a moral pact with myself to not hurt or murder people in the name of a righteous cause, I also believe my nonviolent choices have strategic benefits.
First and most importantly, a revolutionary that is walking and talking is always more powerful than a revolutionary buried in a Wikipedia article. So much force comes from a living revolutionary.
If the American government can declare you too dangerous to stay alive they will kill you. It's what they do over and over again. Your power drastically fades after your death. Your murder will be covered up in the name of public safety. Fred Hampton's assassination by the government would have most certainly been covered up if it hadn't been for his supporters showing the truth. I highly recommend the documentary "The Murder of Fred Hampton."
They may still kill you if you don't have any guns or bombs. But it's a lot more politically difficult. You will almost certainly be elevated to martyr status by a much larger population. Your message will ring louder longer.
It is far better for the government to murder you in cold blood with you holding no weapon.
But blood isn't the only form of violence.
To my amusement and fascination, I have found that many people are still easily shocked by sharp words. I have found that moderates find some of my words frightening. This is wonderful news.
If I can effect meaningful change merely with strong words what a wonderful thing that would be.
But I am not naive enough to think that those in charge would be as easily persuaded.
No. I use my words to wake up the revolutionaries. I use my words to inspire other patriots and comrads to join me in the fight against the rotten post-capitalist bourgeoisie power player slave holders we all are forced to bend our backs to.
To think you can inspire meaningful change through polite, intellectual dialog is counter to every example of how meaningful change actually came about throughout history.
Moderates don't want real change. They like things just the way they are. They say they are on your side as long as your side seeks change slowly and incrementally. That's easy for them to say living in their comfortable houses going to their well paying comfortable jobs. Meanwhile, you are literally starving and freezing unsheltered on the streets of the richest most Christian country in the world.
Change must happen brutally and instantly. It must happen now at any cost. If the entire American system falls in the process that's fine. It was rotten to the core anyway.
Moderates are not our friends in the revolution. A black communist will find a more loyal friend in a KKK member than they will with an intellectual Democrat moderate.
WE MUST UNITE. ALL POWER TO ALL THE PEOPLE.
My plan is simple for Akron. It's 6 parts.
1. Unite people in places like the Akron Uprising Signal group we've started. Or join the Akron Uprising Facebook group. We have tools like never before to unite people. We must use them.
2. Activate the people. Concerts. Graffiti. Stickers. Voter registration. Protests. Turn them into an empowered, united group of revolutionaries.
3. Put compelling populist candidates on the ballot.
4. Create the largest voter turnout in the history of Akron.
5. Pressure our new politicians to be true to the people.
6. Start the process over again throwing out the inevitable bad actor politicians that betrayed our trust.
Every step of this "simple" process is monumental. But this is how it's done. Hope and belief is a hell of a thing. It changes the world.
Violent revolution will make the change. But it's anyone's guess where that change will land. Often you find yourself in a worse predicament than the one you were trying to overthrow.
My plan is harder but more likely to lead to the change we want.
This is my Letter from Birmingham Jail. This is my one time I make the effort to explain myself to the moderate detractors that love to tell me how unthoughtful and counter productive I am.
I have a plan. I am strategic. Every word that comes out of my mouth is meant to do one thing: activate and unite the people who actually are ready for change. My audience isn't moderate liberals. Moderate liberals (usually white) have always been the biggest hurdles to every meaningful activist in the history of America.
Paid For By The People for Sage Lewis