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

What The Left Left At O’Hare
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
18 Jun 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

To fly the friendly skies of the National Security State, one must first be prepared to jettison all leftist baggage.

 

What The Left Left At O’Hare

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

I recall, it was like TSA had groped,

Probed and lightened their load:

“You can’t carry independent politics aboard”

“Militant mass-action is forbidden aboard the aircraft”

“Proletarian Internationalism must be dumped out here”

“Revolutionary attitude toward the state is absolutely forbidden beyond the gate!”

“You are allowed to bring aboard:

2oz see-through plastic bottles of social-chauvinism

2 oz plastic bottles of reformism

2 oz plastic bottles of tokenism

Unlimited humanitarian interventions in see through plastic is allowed”

 

Happy campers boarding in ’08,

Gate 1%, O’Hare, via Ronald

Reagan, “the left” powered

Down principles, turned off

Theoretical devices, kept its

Seatbelts buckled low and tight—

Paid high prices for complimentary

Kool Aid, mini-bottles of beer and

Headphones for feature films like

0 Dark 30 looped eight years on

Their non-stop flight—

Making their descent

Three years left in the

Holding pattern, acting as

Floatation devices under one

Seat aboard… Air Force One…

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2013 All Rights Reserved 

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


More Stories


  • NATO’s Growing Military Presence in Latin America and the Caribbean
    Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein
    NATO’s Growing Military Presence in Latin America and the Caribbean
    08 Mar 2023
    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is not the regional defensive organization that it claims to be. As far as NATO is concerned, the entire world is in its sphere of influence, and the Americas…
  • Black Agenda Radio March 3, 2023
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 3, 2023
    03 Mar 2023
    This week we hear about right wing attacks on the finances of a grass roots organization, and the effort to cultivate a culture which promotes peacemaking, but first a new book reveals Harriet Tubman…
  • Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy
    03 Mar 2023
    Clarence Lusane discusses his latest book, Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy.
  • Alliance for Global Justice Under Attack
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Alliance for Global Justice Under Attack
    03 Mar 2023
    The Alliance for Global Justice works to achieve economic justice and social change through grass roots action. Right wing forces are attempting to undo their work.
  • US Peace Memorial Foundation
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    US Peace Memorial Foundation
    03 Mar 2023
    Since 2005, the US Peace Memorial Foundation has directed a nationwide effort to honor Americans who stand for peace.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us