Update ~ Call to Action: We the People Unite
Written by Teodrose Fikre, September 11, 2017
I write this in honor of past sojourners who tried in vain to awaken and unite the masses. Every one of them shot down for having the temerity to stand against injustice and to stand up for the people; the few who lord over the rest are intent on silencing those who speak for universal justice. From biblical times to the present, the story is always the same. The pharisees (moneyed interests) kill prophets, blame others and then hijack the narratives of the truth tellers to perpetuate the very system of injustice the prophets spoke against.
This is precisely what happened to Martin Luther King Jr. during the latter days of his life [read the Confluence of Malcolm and Martin]. It dawned on King that he might have erred in advocating for equality without first demanding economic justice. The root of most of society’s ills can be traced back to economic inequality; if we are not treating the disease of greed and corruption that allows a few to live like royalty while the masses suffer in indigence, we do nothing more than hack at the branches of injustice.
King sat down with a close circle of advisers and said, “I fear I may have integrated my people into a burning house”. This is why King decided to be less about “black” civil rights and started to agitate for universal justice. He traveled to Memphis to organize the poor and the working class and to encourage “white” and “black” to unite to fight for their common interests. You see, the elites and opinion leaders loved Martin Luther King as long as he was seeking exclusionary justice, the minute he decided to speak for all instead of standing for a fraction, he was marginalized by the very elites who elevated him then buried by the system of global oppression that he spoke against.
If you Google “Memphis Martin Luther King”, Wikileaks notes how Martin Luther King traveled “in support of striking African American city sanitation workers”. This, my friends, is what I was referring to in the intro on how they kill the righteous and then hijack their narratives. Martin Luther King did not travel to Memphis in support of only African-American sanitation workers. This is a lie straight from the devil’s lips; one that is being perpetuated by the establishment and intellectuals (indoctrinaters) in order to keep pitting people against each other.
Martin Luther King traveled to Tennessee to support all sanitation workers without regard to color or race. He decided to be a voice for the suffering masses. BANG! His audacity of unity was met with the mendacity of the status quo. This is what the powerful few who run our nation do, they silence anyone who dares to unite the disparate masses with either scandals or bullets. As I noted in the past, there is one sure fire way of separating the frauds apart from authentic change agents. If the Corporate State Media and the elites line up to support anyone or a particular effort, immediately discount those people or efforts as a frauds and diversions. True change agents are not given access to mainstream media nor are they adored by the elites, true change agents are either ignored or killed.
Martin Luther King was trying to revitalize the “poor people’s campaign”, an idea originally conceived by A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and A. J. Muste. Where Randolph, Rustin and Muste tried to organize a march to DC on behalf of “African-Americans” in defiance against Jim Crow and segregation, Martin Luther King went one step further and had the dream of uniting the masses who struggle regardless of their identity. This presented a lethal threat to a system of injustice that is hobbling our nation and bleeding the world. The status quo does not fear demagogues who rile up emotions of people and peddle separable grievances, our government and the plutocrats who own it only fear love and those who try to unite the masses.
Let me present how cunning the elites are. The very people who are kneecapping the planet with their capital greed are the ones who fund endless causes and advocacy groups in order to keep us perpetually enraged and diverted. As long as we are more drawn to separable grievances than we are in seeking universal justice, we will forever remain oppressed. This is why soulless billionaires like George Soros, the Koch brothers and Bill Gates keep funding and elevating various groups like Black Lives Matter, the Tea Party, and various NGOs and charities [read NGO Hustlers].
Think back to the last mass action protest you attended. Reflect on the production and the stage craft. These types of endeavors cost millions of dollars to organize. You can discount almost all of them as shams and nothing more than ways to stoke our emotions because most of them were funded by the very people who repress us. The same elites who take to microphones and the Corporate State Media punditry who feign outrage against iniquities have no interest in actually delivering justice. They are getting paid handsomely by their wealthy patrons to keep us forever fractured. We attend these protests, hand our money to vendors and email campaigns only to end up furthering the very divide that is the root of our consternation.
It is with this chimera in mind that I am presenting you an alternative idea. Instead of attending yet another march funded by the establishment and taking part in another grievance group that does nothing to counter the excesses of the powerful, how about we do something truly audacious and start a movement at ground level. You can take this to the bank, the elites we keep fawning over will never deliver a new day. They are too vested in the status quo and present injustices to ever want the change that will benefit us. So why don’t the people start a mass movement to change our nation at the foundation instead of waiting for the rich and famous to lessen our suffering.
A couple of weeks ago, I started a petition to restore the Ghion Journal page that was banned by Facebook. I delivered that petition to congress [read Mr. Fikre goes to Washington]; upon reflection I realized that a petition seeking relief only for my narrow interest was actually myopic. It is for this reason that I wrote “Ninety Five Theses for Justice”. This petition was posted on Change.org; I was set to deliver the petition to congress this morning. Yet something held me back from printing the petition and heading to the US Capitol to hand it to my representatives.
As I was drinking a cup of coffee earlier, it suddenly hit me why past actions have not repelled the few who oppress all of us and why we seem to be devolving further into the abyss of repression. We have grown accustomed to movements being about personalities. The more we make causes about idols, the easier it is to turn injustice into entertainment. And when some finally emerges from the echo chamber and gain traction in a quest to seek universal justice, they get eliminated and their efforts get nullified in the process. As they bury the messenger, they erase the message too.
What if we did something different. Instead of waiting for some Moses figure to come for us, why don’t each one of us partake in a movement that is initiated at the grass roots? This movement I dream of speaks for all who suffer and will not be based on ideology or identity. So I’m turning to you, the people, to seek redress from our Congress and in the process stand up for universal justice. Read “95 Theses for Justice [click on the picture below this paragraph] and then do your part to disseminate this petition to your representative or Senator.I myself will deliver this petition to Congress on Thursday, September 14th (*please see below for updates). If you are a link minded thinker and want to say hello in person before I walk over to pass on this redress to Congress, I’ll be at the statue of Albert Pike across the US Capitol at 11:30 AM (Google Statue of Pike DC). Parenthetically, Pike’s statue is the one statue that all of us, irrespective of color or region, should be repulsed by. Albert Pike was a confederate general who was a coward, a rabid racist and a former Klu Klux Klan leader yet this demon has a statue honoring him in front of the US Capitol [read Klandestine Korporate Klan]. Funny how the bought and paid shills who pretend to be about justice never speak against Albert Pike.
For the record, this is not a call to gather nor is this an organized march. I am just encouraging you to enjoy your freedoms outlined in the US Constitution and in the Bill of Rights and to petition Congress in order to seek redress. You do not need a permit nor do you need to make an appointment to go see your Congressman or Senator. The same way I plan on walking into the Rayburn and Hart office on Thursday petition in hand, you too can walk in at any time between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM and demand our Congress work for us instead of working for corporate interests. Consider this a call to redress, an action funded by no one and an initiative based on universal justice. 
It is my hope that people do not turn this into a partisan cudgel. I am asking you, for one day at the very least, to put aside our differences and unite around humanity. This is not a liberal undertaking nor is this a conservative movement; likewise this initiative is not based on color, ideology, gender or the endless ways we keep letting the elites fracture us using identity politics as a hammer. Let us unite on the basis of our connected struggles and our common hopes. We have a right to be outraged by the excesses of the system before us, but we keep letting politics and personality get in the way of the solution to our problems. We all suffer the same, the only way we can alleviate our burdens is through unity.
I write this on a somber day for our nation; September 11th is a day that has changed our country for the worse. However, we can change turn back to unity instead of being led towards the cauldrons of antipathy if we decide to stop residing in hopelessness and intemperance–let us rise together to reclaim our nation. On Thursday ,September 14th, let us unite and lobby Congress. If you are in the DC area, print out a couple of the petitions [click the picture with “95 Theses for Justice” above read and print the petition] and then head over to the US Capitol and hand them out freely to your Congressman or Senator. If you are not in the DC area, you can print out the same petition and deliver it to your local or state representative. Irrespective of location, use social media to speak against the powerful and use Thursday, September 14th to speak up for universal justice. #WeThePeopleUnite
Hate has a shelf life; love endures::
If you agree with the precepts of this article and you too want to join with this effort for the people, put aside politics and our differences and share this article on social media using #WeThePeopleUnite
**Update: due to unforeseen events, I have to delay my plan to drop off the “95 Theses for Justice” petition to Congress to next Tuesday at 11:30 AM. Of course, since is an initiative that is decentralized and driven by people instead of personalities, if you were driven to drop off the petition on Thursday, September 14th, I encourage you to do so or at any time you are able. I myself will be dropping off the petition next Tuesday and I will still initiate the petition drive at the Pike Statue at 11:30.
Check out the Ghion Cast below where I discuss how the few are able to oppress the masses by dividing us and letting us conquer ourselves.
Check out the Ghion Cast below as I discuss how unity and love have enabled people to repel the powerful. The only way we can defeat the few who oppress many is through unity and love.
Teodrose Fikre
Originally from Ethiopia with roots to Atse Tewodros II, Teodrose is a former community organizer whose writing was incorporated into Barack Obama's South Carolina primary victory speech in 2008. He pivoted away from politics and decided to stand for collective justice after experiencing the reality of the forgotten masses. His writing defies conventional wisdom and challenges readers to look outside the constraints of labels and ideologies that serve to splinter the people. Teodrose uses his pen to give a voice to the voiceless and to speak truth to power.
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