Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

R2P: Responsibility To Protect
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
02 Feb 2022
šŸ–Øļø Print Article
Source: hedearnell.medium.com
Source: hedearnell.medium.com

Unhoused sisters and brothers, Civilian 

Casualty-Collateral Damage,  

Ol’ Schmo’s sounding Sam and Dave-ish— 

ā€œHold on, I’m comin’… 

Hold on, I’m cominā€™ā€¦ā€ 

from high alert into harm’s way of your sidewalk  

sleeper cells—your encampments, tarps and tents 

sprung up like multi-colored mini-mushroom clouds 

Unhoused sisters and brothers, Civilian 

Casualty-Collateral Damage,  

Ol’ Schmo’s sounding Sam and Dave-ish— 

ā€œHold on, I’m comin’… 

Hold on, I’m cominā€™ā€¦ā€ from high alert to coordinates  

of borders between Berkeley and Oakland where you’re  

Amassed. 

He’s comin' boots on the ground—Special Forces—brave  

fighting men and women platoon/battalion, heavily-armed— Amish-style—ready to raise roofs and grow food… 

Capitalism’s putative leader knows the Golden State’s home to half his nation’s unhoused. And he’s hopping mad—R2P: Responsibility To Protect—humanitarian intervention—MAD! ā€œWhat lousy dictator would do this to his own people?!ā€ ā€œOwn people!ā€ he mumbles ā€œWill gas be next?!ā€ ā€œGas?!ā€ he babbles… 

Unhoused sisters and brothers, Civilian 

Casualty-Collateral Damage, 

Ol’ Schmo’s sounding Sam and Dave-ish— 

ā€œHold on, I’m comin’… 

Hold on, I’m cominā€™ā€¦ā€ from high alert, deploying good guys with nail-guns, hammers, saws, 2x4s, rebar, bricks and concrete— Weapons of Mass Construction—Build Back Better ain’t bosh! He’s comin’ ā€˜cause housing’s a human right; 

Comin’ to get bogged down in Structural Adjustments; 

Comin’ Slick Willy-ish: ā€œI feel your pain—it’s the economy stupid!ā€ Comin’ Drone Ranger-ish: with spare ā€œChange you can believe inā€¦ā€ If your eyes well up when handed your keys it’s OK; OK if you burst  into tears during your first shower in two years; OK to wake up in your  warm laundry-fresh bed babbling: ā€œSupport the troops!ā€ ā€œSupport the troops!ā€

It’s OK to let good guys with Weapons of Mass Construction board planes before babysitters, teachers, midwifes, nurses, doctors and dentists as you chant, ā€œThank you for your serviceā€ over and over… 

Unhoused sisters and brothers, Civilian 

Casualty-Collateral Damage—  

Spoiler alert: 

Ol’ Schmo’s changing his tune. He’s saying he 

Tolt you from da git—from da jump: ā€œNothing 

would fundamentally change…He’s saying he 

has a right to sing the Blues— a right to try to 

sound more and more like Lady Day each day: 

ā€œHush now, don’t explain… 

money waits in Ukraineā€¦ā€ 

 

Ā© 2022. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

 

War and Empire

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • US Wages Cold War Against China Because America Can’t Compete
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Wages Cold War Against China Because America Can’t Compete
    14 Jun 2021
    The US confrontation with China is rooted in America being economically eclipsed by the Asian juggernaut, said Julie Varughese, Solidarity Network Coordinator of Black Al
  • US Universities Have Turned Into Rapacious Capitalist Machines
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    US Universities Have Turned Into Rapacious Capitalist Machines
    14 Jun 2021
    American higher education is a relentless gentrifyer that spreads police terror and low wages, said Davarian Baldwin, professor of American Studies and founding director of th
  • Myth of ā€œBlack Wall Streetā€ is Deployed to Bolster Black Capitalism
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Myth of ā€œBlack Wall Streetā€ is Deployed to Bolster Black Capitalism
    14 Jun 2021
    In an article in Black Agenda Report titled ā€œFrom Black Wall Street to Black Capitalism,ā€ Too Black, a writer and poet based in Indianapolis, reported that ā€œmost Greenwood Bla
  • Freedom Rider: The Truth About Defunding Police
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: The Truth About Defunding Police
    09 Jun 2021
    ā€œDefundingā€ the police has often turned out to be an accounting trick, but community control of police – a righteous demand – must also ensure that all government functions addre
  • Corporate Think Tank Reveals How Profit-Driven Motives Drive New Cold War against China
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Corporate Think Tank Reveals How Profit-Driven Motives Drive New Cold War against China
    09 Jun 2021
    The same report paradoxically acknowledges the failure of the economic model the U.S. has tried to impose on the rest of the world.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us