Mumias Columns & Prison Radio comments

[col. writ. 10\21\12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 It’s just a few days before the election; and passions are rolling like a river in spring.
For politics in America has become a bloodless sport: my team versus your team; my guy against your guy. And like sports, it’s a perverse form of entertainment: “American Idol” – without the singing.
There are, of course, winners and losers.
But for most people, […]

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[col. writ. 10/14/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 
It is a bit of a struggle to look at debates these days.
I’ve seen plenty of ‘em over the years.
So many that they seem to run together. Promises. More promises. Lies.
When all is said and done, debates are exercises in PR (public relations), and mass manipulation.
They are tools of politicians used to create images of themselves.
For the politician isn’t […]

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[col. writ. 10/10/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 For many Pennsylvanians, the case of Jerry Sandusky has been a source of shock, of surprise, and/or morbid curiosity.
Questions abound as to what happened, how could it have happened, and why?
But that is not the focus of my attention.
Rather, it is the case of a young boy who, disturbed and perhaps traumatized by Mr. Sandusky’s inappropriate attentions, talked to […]

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[col. writ. 10/7/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 “The Beast” was the name of a short-lived TV show, starring a talented actor, Frank Langella that perhaps lasted little more than a season.
Although Langella was the star, the show was shot before a multi screen, constantly flashing set that represents the changing subjects of the media.
The media was the beast, for it fed voraciously on the lives, tragedies […]

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[col. writ. 10/2/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 In theUnited States, teachers are criticized, called bad names, and occasionally, they have their pensions threatened.
That’s bad enough, but in Mexico, an elementary school teacher who also was a community organizer in the indigenous community of El Bosque in Chiapas, was framed in the killing of 8 cops, and faces 60 years in prison.
His name is Alberto Patishtán, affectionately […]

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[Speech writ. 95/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 
Brothers and Sisters! Mis Hermanos y Hermanas! Comrades!
Thank you all for coming together here.
You may think that you know something about solitary, but you don’t. You may have a loved one in prison who has experienced it, and told you about it.
But still I say, you don’t know it.
You know the word; but between word and the reality, a […]

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[col. writ. 9/30/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 With less than a week before his scheduled execution, Terry ‘Butta’ Williams, after many years of hearing “no” in every court he’s ever entered, finally got a “yes.”
Terry won not just a stay of execution, but a ruling from the court that his penalty hearing was flawed –and so his death sentence was lifted, and a new sentencing hearing […]

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[col. writ. 9/23/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 What a difference a few years make.
Four years ago, the Obama presidency sent a palpable sense of relief across the country, and around the world.
I remember seeing a spontaneous eruption of joy in the streets of Pittsburgh (near SCI- Greene), as youth took to the downtown district in sheer exultation.
The only thing that came close was when the Philadelphia […]

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[col. writ. 9/21/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
 The name on his death warrant is Terrance Williams, but that’s not his name.
It’s Terry Williams – and some clerk, some prosecutor perhaps, decided to make it “Terrance” —and so it is.
The man I know, Terry, didn’t even shave when he came to death row at 18 years of age.
He was a bright, enthusiastic young man who got caught […]

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[col. writ. 9/16/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Since when have you seen teachers treated like (in the words of S. Carolina congressman, James DeMint (R) “thugs”?
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) decided to fight back, after the state legislature tacked on more school days, added two hours to the school day, and stripped the union of its power to bargain over such issues.
This Chicago public school struggle […]

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[col. writ. 9/12/12 © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal
Several years ago, a new American president charmed the crowds in Cairo with his eloquence, his seeming earnestness, and most importantly, his person.
 This president was the first such U.S. chief executive with caramel brown skin, and his name, Barack Hussein Obama, reflected, at least in part, an Islamic and African ancestry that sent ripples of delight throughout the North […]

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 Mumia ruft zu Marsch für die Freiheit von politischen Gefangenen auf
http://youtu.be/eD54YpRdchw

[col. writ. 8/22/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal neu
 Unless one is Jamaican, or raised in a household suffused with Black consciousness, it is unlikely that the name Marcus Garvey is familiar to you.
 There was a time, during the first quarter of the 20th century, when he was among the most famous men in the world.
Raised in Jamaica, Garvey was a fiery orator, a gifted writer and […]

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[col. writ. 8/17/12] © Mumia Abu-Jamal
  Several months ago, a movie was released; a science-fiction flick featuring a superhuman, fighting nasty aliens on a forbidding planet somewhere in the cosmos.
As a sci-fi fan I confess interest, but I never heard of the title character, John Carter.
(I later learned that the story was based on the lesser-known works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, known for the “Tarzan” books.)
In […]

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[col. writ. 8/9/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal neu

There is something beautiful about seeing the young athletes at the Olympics, running, jumping, flipping and strutting.
 I’m not a big Olympics fan (a bit too much flag-waving for my taste), but the quadrennial sports event has become a virtual parade for a plethora of African-American, African and Jamaican athletes.
Little Grenada, a teardrop of an island in the Caribbean Sea, […]

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