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


  • BAR Book Forum: Interview with Adam Bledsoe and Willie Wright
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Interview with Adam Bledsoe and Willie Wright
    04 May 2022
    This week’s featured scholars are Adam Bledsoe and Willie Wright. Bledsoe is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. Wright is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida.…
  • The Sports World’s Selective Moral Indignation
    Gus Griffin
    The Sports World’s Selective Moral Indignation
    03 May 2022
    Russian athletes have been banned from the Boston Marathon, Wimbledon tennis championships, and perhaps the next Olympic games. These punishments were not meted out to citizens of the U.S. and allied…
  • Venezuela Continues To Be the Model for True Democracy in the Americas
    Jacqueline Luqman
    Venezuela Continues To Be the Model for True Democracy in the Americas
    03 May 2022
    The 2002 attempted coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was undone because of popular action. The Bolivarian Republic recently held an international summit commemorating events which…
  •  West African “Coup Contagion” Analysis
    Djibo Sobukwe
    West African “Coup Contagion” Analysis
    03 May 2022
    The people of Africa's Sahel region want truly sovereign governements that act in their interests. But U.S. interference, the continued influence of France and other colonizers, and neo-colonial…
  • A Statement on Ukraine from the Black Liberation Movement
    Black Liberation Movement Organizations
    A Statement on Ukraine from the Black Liberation Movement
    03 May 2022
    Black liberation movement organizations issued a joint statement opposing US/NATO actions in Ukraine.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us