How Did We Get Here?
By
Levy Lee Simon
I look around at today’s world and wonder how in the world did we get here?
Not to make myself appear old because I’m not old but I am old skool,
and I’m proud of that. Let’s start with that fact.
I mean I grew up during a time when kids played outside and parents called you in when dinner was on the plate, better not be late. When baseball, basketball and football were an outdoor activity not just a visual commodity, played on X Box 500, Madden, or whatever the video game’s name’s name is. There was no snapchat or Instagram, where the number of likes defined who you are, a square or popular. No bullying on social media, playing the superior to inferiors. Sometimes the Technicolor TV screen would spiral, now everybody wants to go viral. I grew up in a time where boys and girls squared off in the middle of the street when there was a beef, no guns or AKs like there are today. The best person won, you shook hands and had fun.
I mean how did we get here, after Martin and Malcolm and Huey and Bobby and H.Rap Brown and James Brown, and Attica, and Bob Dylan, and JFK and RK, and Fred Hampton, and The Black Panthers, Assata and Angela too, challenging the hypocrisy of the red, white and blue, and all those that died in Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan, for Uncle Sam. How did we get here? After promises of a better world, those that died, those that got fried, those that went into exile to hide, because they wanted to expose the truth. The truth that was suppose to set us free, you and me. How did we get here?
In 2008 when he wasn’t supposed to win, a Black President got voted in. He said all the right things like it’s about change and yes we can…. can I get an Amen, elected by blacks whites, yellows and browns by a people tired of the same old sounds. It was an event a Black man became president. Yes we can, make a America a vision of divine destiny for everybody, that shouldn’t be denied by American historical shame, racism by any other name.
But, those betrayed Americans, grandchildren of slave owners couldn’t believe that shit, the needy greedy parasites of the right were ready fight. If you didn’t know would, you got it twisted as they insisted on keeping American the same, and the Black President they blamed, and they came, in groups, Tea Parties, one by one, dum deedy dum.
Mitch and the good old boys, scandalous and corrupt, would not give up, and they were mad, hearts bleeding the confederate flag. Let us not forget the dividing lines have always been thin, it is now and it was back then. And, along comes Trump spewing hatred and lies, like a snake spitting venom in our eyes. E- mail shams, racism, sexism and homophobic slights, the rhetoric of the right. Division symbolized by a wall, children taken from mother’s and caged like hogs. A country in moral decay, another hateful tweet three and four times day. How did we get here?
Where Black men and women are still being murdered in streets by white civilians and the police. The murderers never arrested never convicted even with evidence, so clearly depicted. Eric Gardner, “I can’t breathe.” Alton Sterling shot in the heart held down by a cops knees. Philando Castille, Tamir Rice, Trayvon, Mike Brown, LaQuan McDonald, Sean Bell, and Freddie Gray. Add a new name every day. The latest, Amaud Arbery, shot down like a runaway slave, dig his grave. Throw back to a time gone by? What a lie. Rednecks hunting a Black man down as he jogged, the only thing missing were the dogs. The truth of the matter, the shits not new, they’ve been hunting us down since 1492. IPhones and social media changed the game, that’s the only thing that’s changed.
How did we get here? White supremacist, waving the American flag meet, armed to the teeth, automatic weapons, at the state house on Michigan streets. Mega hats and Make America Great again, ignoring the fact the America was built on sin. What message is really being sent, with the endorsement of the president?
How did we get here? Where we are experiencing a global pandemic being handled by an incompetent leader putting his need to be re-elected before the importance of over 100, 000 human lives, that have already died. And the Legion of Deplorables think they know more than doctors and scientist, and that some shit.
I came up during a time when people marched in streets, day and night, ready to fight, ready to die because real freedom would not be denied. When people were so tired, they had to riot. I grew up during a time when Martin sang, We Shall Overcome, but right behind him was a Panther with a gun.
Back in the day growing up in a dangerous New York, where life could easily be cut short on the streets, in the cold or in the heat, I never felt the need to carry a gun or a knife, it was fight or flight. But in today’s world I’m gonna give it to you straight, I don’t’ even feel safe. Seems like anybody can shoot a Black person down, with no repercussions, that’s disgusting. The shit has got to stop no more turning back the clock. I’m convinced as a true Native Son, if the ballot don’t work give me the gun, because things will change when Black men start shooting back. Not trying to incite nothing, just stating a fact.
How did we get here? The world has advanced in every conceivable way, yet here we are, still fighting racism, like it was yesterday.
How did we get here?
