The Family and Friends of Dr. Mutulu Shakur presents the 2008 Health Activist Award.
Statement by Dr. Mutulu Shakur:
This year, we join the list of many organizations that have recognized the exceptional leadership and contributions of Dr. James C. McIntosh. It is our privilege to bestow upon this multi-level professional his rightful dues.
More importantly, in this election year wherein the major parties there exist the intentional and subliminal objective to require our people to be dismissive of our people’s determination of priorities and concern rendering those issues subservient to the dominant and powerful cultural group. In order to be a part of this period of hope and change, this ‘yes we can’ that has not embraced our unique reality, Dr. James C McIntosh’s life work is a shining light.
A key structure in the vanguard that undermines our priorities is the media. This corporate media has made it their objective to cast our flavor as extreme. The best example demonstrated in the primary and the general election campaign irrespective or our skepticism. This is in fact historical in its normicism. The presumed democratic candidate being an “African American” which is seen as the last stop of this country’s rectification for the 400 years which included brutal slavery, hangings, terror, mental disorder, destruction of the family unit, highlights the effective manipulation of the psyche of our people by the corporate media. This undermines the lack of a defined identity in practice by the willingness to demonize our own historical image such as our liberation theology and our culture to be included or to see our “representative” (which seems like an oxymoron) abandon our world vision and historical analysis to get elected – something other candidates would not to. Although we realize a strategic value tactically.
Dr. James C. McIntosh’s leadership in CEMOTAP (The Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People) places him in the right place at the right time for our people. This might become the most defining priorities of his many accomplishments, a task we highlight to add forces of support.
The rightful euphoria that our people feel as well as he artificial media manipulation of our emotion as we observe in acupuncture is diagnosis as false qi – a condition that requires of our people the exercise of the process of critical thinking. CEMOTAP stands as that structure. Dr. McIntosh’s Fanonism background will help to guide such a process. (I can hear you Brother, it is time for others to take over). I use your life and accomplishments to help make the point and emphasize:
The process of critical thinking (juxtapose to argument) can become a practice of our people, a subculture like spoken word, rap, etc. It has been done in other cultures, China, Cuba, Africa. A practice we seem to have failed to apply to the current period, or we are standing in moot. So how it became intellectually cute or in vogue that being objective is somehow an indicator of political astuteness at the cost of our concerns. While the Jewish, Latin, Catholic, hard-working White man, and soccer moms continue to operate on a subjective format especially during electoral periods.
My friends, we need CEMOTAP, a proactive gatekeeper to filter out the mind control effort by the media which creatively and professionally instills the process of critical thinking to help dictate our people’s lives …which is resulting in the dumbing down of our analytical ability resulting in neurotic response to matter that helps to create the cumulative response that speaks not to our own moral and political compass but that rejects defining our destiny and what we will be required to leave to our next generation/
For me, being in prison as a political prisoner for almost a quarter of a century it’s hard from the point to determine if we’ve maximized an effective use in the development of conceptualization and distribution of information with the use of the internet. It will be our most reliable alternative media.
With an alternative media, we must be proactive formulating the spiritual, mental and physical response to this economic era that will be unparalleled as it affects our people and the already economic under-developed. Dr. McIntosh and his comrades for it right; they’re at the forefront. We should be thinking and refining the comprehensive use while developing second and third line leadership with models to emulate to help guide this grassroots application.
Our people and the poor are no strangers to hardship. We should approach the economic forecast with our eyes wide open. In this election, our enthusiasm has already shown we are willing to submerge our interest and culture to empower others who intern abuse of our own that is equivalent to rape or domestic violence at best. Astride said, “ They can’t take your dignity, but you can give it to them.” We have in the hopes that they will play fair? Ordinary intuition and moral intuition must capitulate before the clear forces of reason. Hope has its place, but a plan is nothing like it.
This is exemplified by the fact that unlike other ethnic and cultural religion lobby’s we have no foreign policy prerequisite to place on those who want our vote. If they don’t call us nigger they are alright with us, but its more to it. The last foreign policy we as a mass came together for was the end to South African apartheid and the freeing of political prisons and prisoners of war in Azania. Not since have we put demands on a politician as it concerns trade, economic sanctions as a prerequisite for our vote. The South African issue was a human rights violation and economic empowerment by the share of the national resources. We took our eye off the ball and made it a demand for personality cult; that’s why we don’t understand if President Robert Mugabe is trying to return the fruit of the struggle back to the people or is he trying to destroy the victory. It was the land and natural resources, when hungry families of other African nations can be beaten and murdered in South Africa for the depth of poverty, we have a lot of issues in foreign policy to address the concerns of our diaspora.
Senator Obama has made campaign promises to AJPAC, the American Israel lobby. With passion, he’s promised them disputed land, support to military hegemony in the Middle East, and accepted their development of nuclear weapons, ISO bomb to be exact. This is one of the last nations to resolve that South Africa was in violation of human rights.
He also made commitments to slow down lifting the embargo against Cuba until Cuba releases the so-called political prisoners. This same Cuba that has always on an international level raised the issue of New Afrikan people in the United States has shown in practice by being one of the first nations to volunteer help for our people after Katrina who’ve for over 40 years given sanctuary to our political exiles. I can go on, but I’m also quite aware that Obama’s running for President of the United States and its not lost on us behind the wall that any progress change here is a good thing. Its that this process must run its course.
In light of all those factors, we must still exercise the process of critical thinking. We must join Dr. McIntosh to help shape the conceptual thinking and actions that advance our issues and concerns for the 21st century. In light of the anticipated challenges, the struggle must promote this the period a the era of service. The concept of grassroots service should not be an afterthought. Instead, we must use it to reshape the analyst that through time services that one will become successful as opposed to after becoming successful then one decides to give back. Service should be the base of our community, national and international agenda.
This emphasis on services should be structured so that it’s a proactive anticipation of how the emerging economic and political crisis evolved in that many will become dissipated. If the prospect of change is not realized, the intervention into the mental and spiritual breakdown, a very fertile ground for an activist psychiatrist Fanon. Dr. McIntosh can give guidance to a service structure program to anticipate mental health needs of a culture under attack through regentrification, political debasement, as well as the respect for the sacrifice of a people by their suffering and resistance has forged possibly for other people and cultures, like no other group in this country.
We must develop a trifecta of talking points on an international, national and local level. Even with the limited resources, we must address all these levels because it demonstrates the maturity of a people in the world like other subgroups in this country exercise. Our community and national human resources must be recruited into the period of service as a collective response. The consultation with Dr. McIntosh is the example that can provide applicable example.
The celebration of service from the bottom up on the lateral level will define ability to generate this generation’s creative solution and intervention on a very fundamental level which is that of our community.
To address food prices and honor family budgets more food coops, diet education, community gardens, networking for wholesale and soup kitchens that rather than create any shame celebrate the collective use as a part of the community solution.
The introduction of natural healing storefronts, walk-in health care interventions, a step before the emergency room, chronic care and pre-emptive crisis care services.
Collective community exercise, group walking, community dancing groups, senior and youth group sports, handball, bicycle groups, yes many of the above we do. By creating a feeling of service to each other will have a tremendous effect on our psyche while others are trying to undermine our people. We must have concrete programs for folks to be involved. I remember well the Brothers selling us fish in the 60’s and 70’s, this interaction with family in the breakfast program, the community homework center we had, the role of the afternoon center in our hood. It kept us together. We must share this experience with the emerging community leaders.
Please remember our obligation to our political prisoners and prisoners of war of the Black Liberation struggle. To be objectively honest and critical in our thinking we have not done for our freedom fighters what we have championed for others or how other groups have done for freedom fighters. The United States has more people in prison than any nation in the world and we are disproportionately the majority. The spirit of service must also extend to base prison programs. It’s a national issue and reflective of the oppression we face. Of course, it goes without saying, we must be accountable for failure of a code of conduct that allows for the horizontal aggression we afflict on each other.
We listen to politicians frame all the type of moral rationale to free political prisoners all over the world, and forget that it was the sacrifice of our political prisoners and prisoners of war that help t bring them to the status they enjoy. Affirmative action exists without the value and principle context that allows underserving opportunist bourgeoisie to benefit from other sacrifices while they/not all betray our values and responsibility to our evolved culture. One way to present this phenomena is a “Truth and Reconciliation” tribunal on the low-intensity warfare wages by J.E> Hoover against the Black Liberation Movement. This will force the participation of politicians, historians and liberation fighters. We must in that context address the now recognized post-traumatic stress effect on so many of our people who’ve experienced unthinkable abuse during the course of our struggle. Like how is being understood about soldiers returning from armed warfare in Iraq. The Truth and Reconciliation tribunal will help to bring a proactive understanding of all this abut. How can we understand the value of Dr. McIntosh’s leadership in all of the above. He’s learned his truth from it.
On the International level, we must make AIDS, hunger, famine and rape as a tool of war apart from our service apparent. It must be our community that helps to promote bicycles to rural communities in Africa who can’t get their AIDS cocktails. We can collect to get peanut butter and honey or those children suffering from malnutrition.
We are expecting to build a relationship to Acupuncturist without Borders. Our force must get non-governmental organizations for relief around the world. We must become proactive “No more Katrina” without a measurable response from our network collective nationally. Our front of crisis: we honor Dr. J. McIntosh because his work highlights what is possible. For that, we honor him and his example.
A historical perspective means nothing in the eye of the storm. Great ideas, that were concepts adopted but never realized because the people neglected to carry them out and didn’t have the focus to work together.
It is said that ‘the truth is a bully we all pretend to like.’ With respect to all that I said, this much too long message I’m very optimistic. Optimism is the first cousin of love.
Much respect,
Stiff Resistance,
Long live the example of Dr. James McIntosh,
Dr. Mutulu Shakur