Chicago, Again

[col. Writ. 5/20/12] © ’12 Mumia Abu-Jamal

It was the summer of 1968, when thousands of anti-war protestors converged on Chicago, the site of the Democratic National Convention. They gathered to hand their presidential nomination to U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey –but most remember it for the mass protest, mayhem and the mass police riot that resulted.

Students, protestors, news reporters, cameramen and passersby were beaten by cops, with wild abandon.

Generations have passed, and the anti-war, anti-NATO protests have showed us how some things don’t change.

Police violence…..again.

How could things have changed when the System is the same?

How could we reasonably expect a change when the police –whether in 1968 or 2012 –still ‘serve and protect’ the rich – the 1%?  When they perform the same social function.

Sometimes, events from long ago reveal the massiveness of social change.

And sometimes they reveal to us how far we’ve still got to go.

__(c)’12 maj