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


  • Qaanitah Hunter
    Will South Africa’s new Coalition Government Change Tack on Israel-Palestine?
    19 Jun 2024
    While the new government includes parties neutral about Israel’s war on Gaza, ANC insists it will still support Palestine. South Africa took the lead in charging Israel with genocide but its level of…
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio June 14, 2024
    14 Jun 2024
    This week, we hear from a formerly incarcerated person about efforts in the state of California to end slavery in the prison system and we discuss the need for an enlarged housing voucher program in…
  • VOCAL-NY
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    New Yorkers Need More Housing Vouchers
    14 Jun 2024
    Milton Perez joins us to discuss the lack of affordable housing in New York City and the housing access voucher program.
  • Haitians building the Ouanaminthe canal
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Haitian Sovereignty and the Construction of the Ouanaminthe Canal
    14 Jun 2024
    Dr. Bertrhude Albert joins us to discuss the construction of the Ouanaminthe Canal, the history of the Massacre River, and the project's importance to the Haitian people.
  • Involuntary servitude is slavery
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Ending Prison Slavery in California
    14 Jun 2024
    Dorsey Nunn joins us to discuss a proposed amendment to California’s state constitution, ACA 8, which aims to abolish involuntary servitude as a form of criminal punishment.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us