Three Alarm Fire

And I'm feeling it in my spirit, I'm feeling it in my body. And this morning I woke up and I went and I'm doing a new workout regimen which I feel very good about, lots of strength building as a way to just, you know, learn a different way to breathe through my frustration and grief because I realize, you know, I know that you all know me to have a significant amount of rage, but these days I realize that I, yes, I'm angry, and I will still like curse up a storm, but all of that is

really just grief, you know. I don't I don't know, I don't know it just some days, and today is one of those days. And I know that tomorrow will be better, and I will breathe and I will meditate and I will stretch it out. But there are some days where I can't see the light. You know, when we have a group of black pastors and folks, I encourage you to read the piece in the New York Times, black pastors pressure Biden to call for cease firing Gaza.

And you know, these are not the throwaway voters, right, Like, here's the thing about how campaigns talk about younger voters, right like, oh, they won't show up, they're not reliable,

so we don't really care what they say. So if you're seeing all of these protests that are taking place on college campuses or in cities and towns and in the streets, and it's a lot of young people that are there, and they're also I mean, it's protesting is intergenerational, but largely historically it's led by young people, right, And how the media and campaigns talk about young people's like, oh,

they're unreliable, so we can neglect them. But when you have the very people right in South Carolina who pulled out the twenty twenty election and gave Joe Biden the nomination in South Carolina because of Congressman Jim Clyburn. That should ring all sorts of fucking alarm bells, right, because this is your true, real hardcore base, And what they are saying is they don't really know if they're going

to vote for you. And these are people that lead congregations of tens of thousands of black parishioners who are saying, yeah, we're not really sure that we're gonna vote for you. Now here's the thing. We'll be folks that say, well, then that's just a vote for Trump. And I will say that, right. But I think that we actually have to start meeting these people where they are because I am these people. Now I go on television, right, I'm going on less and less folks. And the reason is

because I don't really know what to say. Because when you have the International Court say that what Israel is doing is a genocide, but oh, we're not going to tell them to stop their military action when Israel, who we know is lying about their intentions, are clearly committing genocide.

And now they want to say that, oh, it was a UN workers who were in on the attacks in October, and so now all of the Western countries pull their funding for the only palaceine An entity that is providing like food and care, because you're gonna take the word of the oppressor over those that are Like, I'm just fucking done some days, and today is one of those days. You can't tell us to continue fighting for democracy here when you are funding genocide right, Like, it's just I

cannot wrap my mind around it. Folks. I am struggling, and I am one of I believe hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans that are currently fucking struggling with the decisions that we have in front of us. You know, Yeah, I wish we had more time, right, I wish we had more time. I wish this country, this administration had more fucking sense. I wish we cared about humanity, you know, I wish Ugh, I don't know,

I don't know. Some days it's too much. This is from the New York Times article quote Black faith leaders are extremely disappointed in the Biden administration on this issue, referring to the war in Gaza, said the Reverend Timothy MacDonald, the senior pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta. We are afraid, and we've talked about it. It's going to be very hard to persuade our people to go back to the polls and vote for Biden. Folks. That's

not good. And like I said, I'm not doing a lot of TV right now because I'm finding it hard to persuade people to vote for Joe Biden. I know what the stakes are. I know that Donald Trump, the Republican Party Project twenty twenty five are ready, fully funded, filled with hate, and ready to finish off our democracy. I know this. I also know that Joe Biden, I'm not one hundred percent sure is up to the task. There, I said it. And what do I mean by that?

Is it his age? No, I don't know if it's just his age because Donald Trump it fucking sucks down burgers and is you know, three years younger, right, Like, I don't really care about Biden's age. What I'm saying is that the weight and the size of the problems

that America and the world are facing. I don't think that Joe Biden and the Biden administration and the Biden campaign have the fucking imagination and the fucking like strength to pull this country together and push through because you cannot do things the same old, same old, same old fucking way and think that things are going to change for the better. There are more people who were conscious of and aware of the hypocrisy with which America has quote unquote led the world. You can tell us all

you want how fucking complicated issues are. But when I see babies and children dead under rubble, when I hear that there are men that had hands up holding white flags and were still shot by the IDF, do you know what I make the connection to Mike Brown, hands up, don't shoot, but it didn't matter. Black people are watching this play out, and they find more connection with what they are seeing the Israeli defense be able to do with the will right of the Western world. They've given

them the green light. Black people have seen this before. Our ancestors lived this already. They lived it in enslavement, they lived it under Jim Crow. They live it still now, having to give their sons and daughters the talk about how to stay alive at a police stop, about how and what to play with on a playground so that you don't get killed like Tamir Rice, right, how not to pick up a gun even though you too are

a citizen of these United States, like John Crawford. How do not exercise your right to own a gun like Filando Castile? How do not beg for your breath like George Floyd and Eric Gardner. Folks, It's too much. It's too much. So when I see this new report in the Times and I'm reading the words of these pastors saying, quote, this is not a fringe issue, said the Reverend Michael McBride, a founder of the Black Church PAC and lead pastor

of Waite Church in Berkeley, California. Quote, there are many of us who feel that this administration has lost its way on this quote. Black clergy have seen war, militarism, poverty, and racism all connected, said Barbara William Skinner, co convener of the National African American Clergy Network, whose members lead

roughly fifteen million Black church goers. She goes on to say, quote, but the Israel Gaza war, unlike Iran and Afghanistan, has evoked the kind of deep seated against among Black people that I have not seen since the Civil Rights movement. Black people are not the only group, but they are

the base of the Democratic Party. And when you have black clergy that lead millions of black people saying that they don't know how they're going to get their parishioners to go back to the polls for Joe Biden, that is an alarm. That is an alarm. That is a fucking alarm. You think that what appointing a black woman

vice president gives you what carte blanche to just fuck around? No, because this administration is about to fucking find out that painting Donald Trump as the criminal that we all know he is is not going to be enough to get people to the polls when they are knowing that their tax dollars are going to fund genocide. Let me take another issue, write another issue. In Chicago, there is a group of black voters from the Democratic Party that are

suing the city. Why over, they're caring right for migrants, right because the migrant crisis, because of the bussing that is coming out of Texas and Florida and what have you, is now crushing systems in Chicago and New York and other blue quote unquote blue cities. Well, in Chicago, they're getting ready to turn a public school right into a shelter.

They're getting ready to spend millions of dollars to care for the migrants that are being busted in right well, the black people who have been asking for resources for their community, to fix schools, for health care, all of these different things are now seeing this money magically appear that wasn't available to them, that is now all of a sudden available for migrants, people who are not from this country. This is the arguments that these folks are making.

Do I believe that we need to care for those that are seeking asylum? Absolutely? Do I wonder where Chicago is getting this money when in fact they do very little for the black community there. Yeah, I kind of do fucking wonder. And do understand now the anger because you see, when there are crabs that are placed in a barrel who are fighting for limited resources, is when they know that there are abundant resources if they had the complexion for the protection. Do you know what I'm saying?

When asked whether or not these people were gonna come out and vote for Joe Biden, they said absolutely not. We're looking for a third party candidate and we are staunch Democrats. We have a fucking problem. Then I move to the drone strike that killed three black service members in Jordan. Why does this matter because these are people who are defending our country or what they think they are defending. I don't know, right because right now I

really don't know. And you have these warhawks in both parties, particularly in the Republican Party, who are saying, we need to bomb Iran, not bomb Iran, blah blah blah blah. But guess who is largely on the front lines. Not their fucking kids. They didn't even fucking serve, right, It's

black and brown kids, twenty something year olds. They're the ones that are on the front lines because they've been fed the lie that if they risk their lives for this country, then in return, they'll get an education, they'll get housing, but it always comes with great risk of death on the side of black and brown Americans. I'm so fucking tired of this. Our tax dollars don't go to do anything that actually matters to the day to

day existence of Americans. We saw that during COVID all of a sudden, Oh they had this money, right, but normally, Oh, they don't want to give it to us because we're lazy. Right. If you give Americans a handout, then they won't work, or how about they'll be able to work without drowning. It's just like the more I learn, the more I know, the more I want to unknown, the more I understand why ignorance is bliss. Everything is a lie. There's more

than enough money. The one percent just doesn't want to redistribute wealth. Right. The things that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been talking about, they're all true. Why are we facing inflation right now? It's because of greed. It's because of companies and CEOs and shareholders running up the

prices on shit. It's because of no regulation, which will just get worse under a Trump administration, because you know, he'll be off the fucking rails and take off all the guardrails, and you know, for everybody else that's in his network in space, fuck the rest of us. But this country has been fucking the middle class and low income workers and the poor since the beginning of time. Just saw right before I came on, UPS is getting ready to lay off twelve thousand workers after their historic

strike that got them all raises. Now the company says, oh, well, because of having to deal with the union, now we have to fire twelve thousand people. So you advocate for better wages, better quality of work, Oh, they give it to you, caveat, but we're going to cut you off at the knees so that we make sure that we can continue to put money in our shareholders, in CEO's pockets. So it doesn't matter if you advocate and you fight for that change, because in the end of the day,

they'll come for you. Regardless, twelve thousand people are going to be fired. So today I'm not feeling it. Today is one of those days where I need to sit quietly, breathe, meditate, pray, try and imagine something that is not as awful as our current present. It's almost nine months until the election. I've never felt this way leading this early into an election season. I want to leave you all with a quote that my mother posted today, which I really need

and so maybe some of you do as well. The quote reads, life is amazing, and then it's awful, and then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful, it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That's just living. Heartbreaking, soul healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life and its breathtakingly beautiful. That is it for me today. Dear friends on Woke a f as always

Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.