California
April 27, 2020
Dear P.R.L.F.
Revolutionary greetings! I hope that all is well for guys out there. All is well here.
On the back of this letter is a poem I just wrote. The info that you have been sending is very helpful and useful. It first provides us with the true and correct facts about this pandemic. And in this situation that can be a LIFE SAVING. So thanks so much for providing the facts. It's a trip, because a lot of people who may not have wanted to read your newsletters before, are now eager and willing to read your stuff. A trip, huh? In times of need people turn to where they can get the help and info they need. It just so happens that you guys are the ONLY ones giving us the info that we need for ourselves and our families. Damn!
I hope that you guys like the poem, and I hope that it helps your cause. Because a lot of things that you guys talk about some people just don't get. But I think that this crisis will definitely get some people's attention, as well as the many warnings that you guys give about this system. I definitely think “It Took A Mask For You To See Me...” is true in so many areas and for so many reasons. Poor people, women, minorities, and immigrants have had to wear many “mask” all our lives. America is just now having to put on and wear a mask. The mask of poverty, degradation, and shame that many live with everyday of their lives is something that many people never had to confront or deal with. The “mask” and stigma that immigrants have had to wear was difficult. The many “masks” that women have had to wear and endure was/is difficult. Everybody has had to wear some type of “mask” except America itself. But the chickens have come home to roost. America is now forced to wear a “mask” that it never thought it would have to wear. The mask of vulnerability and shame is a mask America is now forced to wear, and it should. We needed a 'new normal' and we have one. Hopefully we can create a new 'normal' that is better than the old one.
Well, I'm ending now. Keep up the good work and keep saving lives!
***
“It Took a Mask for You to See Me…”
Invisible Since Arriving To These Shores,
America Has Never Seen Or Acknowledged Me Before…
Like A Shadow Or A Ghost Not Fully Recognized,
You Would Miss Me If You Blinked, I’m Always Hard To Find.
I’ve Been In Plain Sight, You Just Chose Not To See Me…
The Only Time You Seen Me Is When You Needed Me.
Slavery, Jim Crow, and Mass Incarceration Made Me Visible,
Oppression And Exploitation Are the Lenses You See Me Through.
Racial Stereotypes And Misrepresentations Distorted My Reality,
You Had A Whole World Thinking I Was Only A Menace To Society.
‘Black Exceptionalism’ Allowed You To Say We Were ‘Post Racial,’
Until We Witnessed The Murders Of Oscar Grant And Eric Garner.
We’ve BEEN Husbands, Fathers, And Responsible Black Men,
“The War On Drugs” And Reaganomics Just Twisted Our Condition.
Mass Incarceration Weakened A Generation, And Crack Cracked Us,
But You’ve NEVER Been Able To Completely Destroy US.
Your Denial And Refusal To See My Humanity And Spirit,
Has Created An Imbalance And A Virus That The World Is Feeling…
No One Is Exempt, And No One Is Immune,
The Coronavirus is killing Both Me and You…
We Are All Affected, Every Age, Race And Gender,
It Took A Pandemic For Us To See Each Other.
Acts Of Kindness, Civility, And Good Will Are Up,
Now People Are Thinking About The Homeless And Those Locked Up.
Your Arrogance And Narcissism Had You Wanting To “Make America Great Again,”
At the Exclusion Of Minorities And Too Many Immigrants.
You Couldn’t Do It Without Any Of Us, What Were You Thinking?
America Was Built On The Backs Of Minorities, Immigrants, And Women.
Because Of The Crisis We’re Again Saying ‘Color Doesn’t Matter’,
Is This Really True Or Because We Really Need One Another?
All I Ever Wanted Was To Be Acknowledged, Respected, and Free,
It’s Apparent From This Pandemic…
“It Took A Mask For You To See Me…”
"It Took a Mask for You to See Me..."
