This is Christopher Trotter, live from inside the belly of the beast in Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, Carlisle, IN.
Recently, I had a discussion about black lives matter. I was like: “Wow, it’s a whole lot of matters out here. You got your black lives matter you got your white lives matter, you got your prisoner lives matter, you got your all lives matter, you got your police lives matter. But I’m asking myself “What really matters?”
And the only solution I could come up with was revolution. That’s what matters. And we have to be on the same page to understand in order for these other things to take place, for these other things to matter, before black lives matter, white lives can matter, all lives matter, prison lives matter, there has to be a revolution, because under this capitalist system, don’t no lives matter. Under this capitalist-imperialist system, don’t no lives matter, because this system does not try to meet the needs of the people. It’s lying to meet the needs of capitalists.
So we wouldn’t have to put everything in perspective in terms of what really matters, because without revolution, don’t none of that matter. And then, you know, you got your people, your naysayers who sit back here and say: “Thank you man. I look around and this stuff is messed up. People still oppressing people. People still killing each other, degrading one another. You know?” This happening, and you got people saying things can’t change. And people are buying into that. But that’s not true.
If we look through our history, human beings have always had the potential to take different things and worldviews, different behaviors and attitudes, positive or negative, that’s how we relate to each other. Nothing is fixed and unchangeable with no change. Our human behavior. When we say things ain’t going to change, that’s not true!
I [inaudible] serenity prayer: “Let me accept the things I can’t change and change the things that I can.” But if I just look at life, accepting the things I can’t change, I would never know if I could change those things. Because everything is changeable. There’s nothing that we can’t actually change. And if we want to [inaudible] a more perfect world, we can’t be afraid to embrace that change.
We can’t be afraid to just challenge the system. It has to be dismantled. This capitalist imperialist system has to be dismantled. We cannot reform it. That’s not change. You can’t tinker and tweak it. That’s not change. That’s not going to meet the needs of the people, and that’s all we’ve been seeing. Politicians selling us this reformism under the disguise of change, but nothing is changing. You can’t fix this traditional system that is inherently corrupted. It has to be dismantled. We can’t [inaudible] with mass incarceration through reform. It has to be dismantled. It has to be abolished. And the only way you can do that is through revolution.
And I hope people don’t take this the wrong way. No nothing matters until the revolution. Until we dismantle this capitalist imperial system, don’t nothing matter. Don’t no lives matter up under this oppressive system that we live in.
My name is Christopher Trotter. Please hit me up at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility. 862556, P.O. BOX 211, Carlisle, IN, 47838. ConnectNetwork.com. And get on my [inaudible], get on my contact list, give me a message.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.