“A Radical Revolution of Values,” by Shakaboona.
The era of change is here, from the people’s takeover of Wisconsin State’s Capitol Building to the Occupy Wall Street movement occurring in nearly every major city throughout America. The people are dissatisfied and demanding the restructure of this corporate rule political system and unsustainable capitalist economic system that is causing the global poverty, racism, and wars of aggression we are experiencing.
Against the backdrop of America’s crises of a great recession, dysfunctional government and austerity cuts to social entitlement, a national memorial dedication for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was held on October the 16th in Washington, DC, at West Potomac Park, enshrining him as one of the fathers of America. It is ironic how things seem to always come full circle and making people believers in the process. I am speaking of Dr. King’s prophetic messages and divine guidance to the people when he stated that, “If we are to get on the right side of the world’s revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values by shifting from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.”
Dr. King eloquently explained that when machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered. The enlightenment of Dr. King showed us that a true revolution of values will cause us to question the fairness and justice of many past and present policies, and cause us to be eternal enemies to poverty, racism, and militarism. Are we now undergoing a prophetic revolution of values from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society, and of questioning the Americans’ domestic and foreign policies?
I think the Occupy Wall Street movement across the nation makes the answer to that question a resounding yes. The American people are now discovering that it doesn’t matter who is the President of the United States, whether the President is an African American or a woman, our government will continue to be the greatest purveyors of domestic and foreign capitalist economic exploitation, racial oppression and injustice, and global violence.
The American people have witnessed the first African American U.S. President, Barack Obama, renege on his promise of change by bailing out big banks and corporations, and not the working poor; by representing the interests of 1% rich over 99% rest of us; by pursuing a racist, secure communities federal immigration program against Latinos that is fueling the for-profit prison industry boom to over two hundred and fifty immigration detention centers, and by waging predatory and merciless wars upon struggling people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The American people are fed up with this dysfunctional government, Wall Street and politicians who are ran by special interest groups. In response to this, we are seeing 99% people occupied in their attempt to wrestle this country away from the clutches of the rich 1% and restructure the entire system to the benefit of the workers, the poor, and the oppressed peoples of America, consequently, rescuing the world from self annihilation.
Let us follow the example of Dr. King’s life in these trying times by speaking for the weak, for the voiceless, and for the victims of our nation’s violence. Let us have a revolution of values that we may conquer racism, materialism, and militarism. Let us change the world. From the belly of the beast at Prison Radio, I am Shakaboona. Thank you for listening.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio
