Mumia on 13th May massacre

[col. writ. 5/8/10] (c) '10 Mumia Abu-Jamal


May 13th, 1985 is more than a day of infamy, when a city waged war on its own alleged 'citizens', but also when the city committed a massacre - and did so with impunity.

When babies were shot and burned alive, with their Mothers and Fathers, and the killers rewarded with honors and pensions - while politicians talked and the media mediated mass murder.

On that day, the City of Philadelphia, armed and assisted by the U.S. government, dropped a bomb on a house and called it "law."

The Fire Department watched buildings ignite like matches in the desert, and cut off water. The courts of the land turned a blind eye, daubed mud in their sockets, and prosecuted Ramona Africa, sending her to prison for nearly a decade for having the nerve to survive an urban holocaust, and jailed her for the crime of not burning to death.

Eleven men, women, and children died - and not one killer was even charged with a misdemeanor.

But on that day, more than MOVE members died. The city died too. Its politicians died. Its media died. its courts died. And its churches and houses of worship died - for they ceased to function, and served power and money, over life.

In a very real sense the city massacred itself; for when faith in such institutions died, they became empty, hollow and dead, but for the shell.

May 13th, 1985 is a day that shall live in infamy.

But for more reasons than the obvious. It was the death knell of a system committing suicide.

It proved that a man called John Africa spoke powerful truths when he named the nature of the system as corrupt, flawed and poisoned.

Everyday past that date, has only proved it even more.

-(c) '10 maj