Published in Intrepid Report on December 6, 2012
By Larry Pinkney
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives . . . The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”—Howard Zinn
As the global corporate elite ravages the planet, and the United States slips into a corporate-owned police state, and U.S. imperialistic military adventures rage on in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya (North Africa), Somalia (East Africa), and elsewhere on Mother Earth it is easy to become sad—even downright disillusioned.
Nevertheless, everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and around the world have not yet lost the struggle for the regaining of our collective humanity. As long as ordinary human beings are capable of accomplishing extraordinary acts—there remains hope for Mother Earth and humanity as a whole.
It will not be the corporate/military oligarchy and its handmaiden corporate-stream media that will ultimately determine the future of humankind. It will be the people—we, the people.
Yes, times are both critical and perilous, and due to the perpetual warmongering national and global banksters and other bloodsucking elite, humankind is on the brink of annihilation, but we will not give up—we cannot give up—in the struggle for a better nation and world. We will refuse to be beaten down by the hypocrisy and brutality of the tiny elite that seeks to manipulate and control us all. We will not surrender our hopes, our dignity, our futures, or our human needs and dreams. We will continue to be hopeful and we will actualize our hopes.
Howard Zinn was absolutely correct when he said, “The future is an infinite succession of presents . . .” This is, and must be, what we ordinary people collectively make our future. We must, in the further words of Howard Zinn, live “in defiance of all that is bad around us;” for this is, and will continue to be, “a marvelous victory” for humanity and for our precious Mother Earth.
Do not give up or give in! There is hope for humanity and this planet, but that hope rests in the actions of all of us collectively.
Remember: Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers. Onward!
Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, and more recently on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107 Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). He is in the archives of Dr. Huey P. Newton (Stanford University, CA), cofounder of the Black Panther Party. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)
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