We The People – What Does That Really Mean Today

Published in Issue 480 of The Black Commentator on July 12, 2012
By Larry Pinkney

“Tell no lies, claim no easy victories.”

– Amilcar Cabral

The U.S. Declaration of Independence (including its Preamble) and the U.S. Constitution, though egregiously deficient with regards to the rights of Indigenous Native people, Black people, and women, etc., were important steps toward embracing and enhancing the spirit of vigilance in the fight against government tyranny. However, and most especially, within the past twelve years in the United States, adherence to and respect for, the letter and constitutional spirit of the ongoing centuries-old fight against tyranny – has been almost totally disemboweled by the corporate / military regimes of George W. Bush and subsequently that of Barack Obama.

U.S. corporate-government tyranny and de facto economic, political, judicial, and physical terrorism against everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation is now the order of the day. It is the current daily 21st century reality of life in this U.S. republic.

Today the very concept of ‘we the people’ has been distorted and disfigured beyond recognition by this present self-legitimized criminal syndicate – known as the (corporate) U.S. government. Torture [i.e. the Guantanamo U.S. gulag], kidnapping [i.e. ‘extraordinary rendition’], corporate hegemony [i.e. corporate domination], the de facto abolition of constitutional protections and human rights [codified in the draconian ‘Patriot’ Act and the NDAA], rampant police brutality [as repeatedly and blatantly demonstrated in the brutal suppression of the ‘Occupy Movement’], and outright murder [as exemplified by Barack Obama’s ‘Kill List’] are the official practice and/or policy of the United States.  ‘We the people’ be damned.

Instead of transparency in government; subterfuge, lies, and distractions are the mainstays of this present corporate U.S. regime – always of course aided and abetted by its propaganda arm – the U.S. corporate-owned [corporate-stream] “news” media. Yet again, ‘we the people’ be damned.

At the callous and cynical expense of everyday ordinary people in this nation and around the world, the single biggest recruiter of “terrorists” and enhancer of terrorism, is none other than the hypocritical and blood curdling policies and practices of the U.S. government itself. Yet again, ‘we the people’ be damned.

Entrapment, set-ups, and police and government frame-ups, particularly against political dissenters, of the internal and external policies and practices of this government are common place. Yet again, the constitutional and human rights of ‘we the people’ be damned.

Numerous political prisoners languish in U.S. prisons throughout this nation, even as this government has the unmitigated audacity to admonish and condemn other nations regarding their alleged human rights violations. The bloody practices at home and abroad – of this crime syndicate government – can only be matched by its shameless hypocrisy. ‘We the people’ be damned.

If only a genuinely rosier picture could be painted. It cannot. In accordance with the words of Amilcar Cabral, “Tell no lies, claim no easy victories;” the situation in this nation is anything but rosy. And it will not change unless and until ‘we the people’ take the necessary actions to seriously change it.

So, what does ‘we the people’ really mean today? It has come to mean nothing – absolutely nothing – until everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people collectively – make it mean something! It could and should mean making real SYSTEMIC change that serves the daily needs of everyday people, not lying, greedy, corporate blood suckers. Stop being distracted and salivating like some Pavlovian dog at the government/media distortions and lies that you are being fed every single day (by both Democrats and Republicans alike)! Stop being hamsters running endlessly on a spinning wheel going nowhere! Educate yourselves and each other. Prepare for the conflict at hand. Stand UP and be HUMAN again!

This is not an easy struggle, and it is and will remain, a long and protracted one. So each one reach one. Each one teach one. Time is running out. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!…

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