Now, more than ever, is the time to understand how this violent system perpetuates itself at the expense and terrible pain of everyday people. It is time to collectively change the system, not reform it. Systemic reform perpetuates this hypocritical, violent system. How does one reform a rotten and putrid pie? One doesn't. One gets rid of the putrid pie, and creates a different one!

The National Tragedy Of Violence And The Opportunists Who Exploit It Keeping it Real By Larry Pinkney BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

"They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government."  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Violence is a part of America's culture. It is as American as cherry pie." H. Rap Brown [Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin] Violence, both physical and emotional, is an integral part of the United States. It isdeliberately propagated and perpetuated by the U.S. government, the corporate-stream media, Hollywood movies, television programs, and Internet games. It is a major symptom of  this corporate controlled society and hypocritical political system. The violent and cold-blooded publicized murders of people of all ages and colors in this nation, including those of Amadou Diallo, Oscar Grant, and most recently Trayvon Martin are but the tip of the insane iceberg of violence nationwide. The violence that permeates this nation is akin to this government's violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Libya, etc.  These aforementioned organized acts of U.S. government violence in other lands are conveniently and hypocritically referred to as "police actions" abroad. Yet, there is a direct link between the violence that U.S. citizens carry out against one another within this nation and the violence that citizens of this nation are directed to carry out against citizens of other nations. This violence is also akin to the daily so-called "justifiable" police brutality and violence perpetrated against everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people throughout this nation. Part of the terrible tragedy of Trayvon Martin's case is another indication of how people have been so thoroughly brainwashed to act as judge, jury, and executioner for whatever demented rationale that can be manufactured to supposedly make it "justifiable." The root cause of this is systemic, and goes far beyond color or ethnic considerations. Some of the most despicable displays of hypocrisy and disingenuousness are being made by the ever eager systemic gate-keepers and opportunists who invariably turn up in front of news cameras, etc. for photo-ops to decry such horrible instances of violence, but who refuse to decry the systemic violence practiced by the corporate politicians whom they support. These politicians and their supporters must not be allowed to have it both ways. Their objective is to confuse everyday people and play upon their legitimate pain to further their own systemic political objectives. Then of course there are those political pimps, hustlers, and parasites who use the terrible pain of cases such as that of Trayvon Martin to incite color and ethnic hatred,and grab their despicable moment in the limelight. This also serves the cyclical perpetuation of this violent system itself, in that it keeps everyday people in fear of one another and divided on the basis of color and ethnicity.      Now, more than ever, is the time to understand how this violent system perpetuates itself at the expense and terrible pain of everyday people. It is time to collectively change the system, not reform it. Systemic reform perpetuates this hypocritical, violent system. How does one reform a rotten and putrid pie? One doesn't. One gets rid of the putrid pie, and creates a different one! The everyday people of this nation and world need and deserve so much better. But it is only the everyday people themselves/ourselves who can and will bring about this much-needed systemic change. Let's get busy and stay busy, collectively pushing for real systemic change! Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward! BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil / political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.) Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.