Standing Deer :: If they were going to kill my brother…

by Standing Deer
April 24, 1999

“If we are to vent our righteous anger, let it be before they try to murder Mumia Abu-Jamal, not after.”Michael Parenti, Martin Luther King High School Berkeley, June 25, 1995

“We are at a point beyond candle vigils that reflect little besides moral indignation.” Ray Luc Levasseur

“Think of our sister Assata. We don’t need another martyr. We need our brother Mumia breathing, smiling, laughing, alive and well among us, talking that talk and writing those words as only he can do it.”
Standing Deer

If they were going to kill my brother
I would raise him . . . rescue him
steal him away from the murderous
thugs of the state.
They don’t need his life nohow!
They can’t sell it for twice what it’s worth
’cause there ain’t that much money in the world.
So what for do they want it?!?
He don’t mean nothin’ no way
‘cept to those who love him
and need him
and can’t do without him.
I always wonder why we let freedom fighters
rot their lives away in some jail
or go down in a murder for hire plot
rigged by the state.
Folks be marching and hollering
and carrying signs crying his name
demanding his freedom, but
if signs and words could free him
he woulda been free a long time ago.
This is not about revolution and we don’t need
the masses to rise up and wrest away
the means of production
from the criminal class. This is about
our brother’s life. His LIFE!
and it only takes a few of us
WHO DON’T WANT HIM DEAD.
There is no magic in a uniform and badge
even if the State, Nation and World Rulers
are behind those symbols
so if somebody wants him free, there he is
over there in that dungeon
guarded by folks who bleed when they’re hurt
just like you and me.
Jonathan the man/child had the idea
and the brains
and the courage
he just didn’t have the understanding that
the state will throw away
functionaries within their apparatus
as if they were dirty toilet tissue
and never look back.
Frederick Douglass said: “Power concedes nothing
without a demand. It never has and
it never will.”
Carlos said: “You do things with bullets
because bullets are real.”
It has to start somewhere and sometime,
what better place than here?
What better time than now?
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!

(signed: Standing Deer)
FROM THE BOWELS OF THE MONSTER APRIL 1999