Ferguson Reflections: Dave Rovics, Rear Admiral George Cockburn & Freed Slaves Burn It Down & Up

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Produced by: 
KBOO
Program:: 
Air date: 
Fri, 08/29/2014 - 10:00am to 10:15am
Interview with Dave Rovics

The following is an excerpt from Dave Rovic's 'Ferguson Reflections. The essay which appeared on Rovic's website this week is extraordinarily moving.  I urge you to read the whole thing.

And along the way, have a look at Andrew Cockburn's account of the War of 1812 and how freed slaves side by side with the British soundly thrashed the American slavers and burned DC to the ground.
 

Here's how to get your copy of 'Falasteen Habibi':


http://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/falasteen-habibti


I very rarely attend church services of any kind, and this one was easily the most exciting church service I've ever experienced. The chorus and band were fantastic, and even in the auditorium, watching things in the sanctuary on screens and listening through speakers, the people in there danced, clapped and sang magnificently.
There was much talk from the lengthy string of male ministers who dominated the program about stopping the violence in the black community. Their animated speeches seemed to focus more on gang violence than on police violence, and decidedly focused more on peace than it did on justice. That theme changed noticeably with Attorney Benjamin Crump's short speech and introduction to Reverend Al Sharpton, who gave a long, eloquent, impassioned plea for movement-building, for justice, for accountability on the part of the police.
Every time I hear Reverend Sharpton speak I wonder what the heck the pundits in the corporate and “public” media are talking about when they constantly berate him as a “divider.” It seems so obvious to anyone who's paying attention that he's not dividing anyone – in fact he's trying to unite people, behind common sense. Talking about obvious divisions doesn't make you divisive. (Ignoring them does make you divisive, though!) The worst thing you could say about Al Sharpton, it seems to me, is that he still has faith in the Democratic Party. Why an apparently sensible person like him would have such faith is a complete mystery to me.
Well under 1% of those in attendance at the homegoing service were white, and most of those whites were journalists. Some white antiracists I talked to didn't go to the funeral because they felt like doing so would somehow be intrusive. Like just because the event is open to the public doesn't mean it's OK to invade the cultural space or something. Maybe I'm just thick, but I'm pretty mystified by that perspective. Seems to me, someone was killed by the police, and anybody who shows up at the funeral is showing solidarity with that person, his family, and his community, whoever that may be, wherever in the world they may be. (Period.)

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