The new King George Dear Sistas, Brothas, fellow radicals and, I hope, Revolutionaries; Ona Move! Long live John Africa! I greet you all who gather on both coasts, for our liberty and our liberation! We are, the corporate media insists, in a war, and therefore we should all silently acquiesce in the theft and evisceration of our liberties. That, they suggest, is the "patriotic" thing to do. But what if that was the attitude in the 1770s? If that principle is true, then Americans should've acquiesced to the past aggressions of King George. If so, we would all be speaking the Queen's English, we'd drive on the other side of the road, and North America would be just a colony in the vast British Empire. Patriotism is nothing, if it's not resistance to repression--yes, even, especially, the repression of the government. Are you freer today under this new King George, who seeks to make much of the Mideast a vast American colony? In this new, Imperial America, the Fourth Amendment has been suspended, secret courts have been established, Habeas Corpus has been extinguished, and the military runs government services in the air and on land. What you've seen in the Jamal case is startling examples of how rules can be changed (or ignored) in the middle of the process; how the words of court stenographers--those people who prepare court records and trial transcripts--in short, those who are sworn and trained to listen to, and correctly record, human speech, like Teri Maurer-Carter, are ignored when they reveal the vicious, naked, racist hatred that beats under a judge's black robe; how evidence of witness tampering, of concocted confessions, yes, of innocence itself, are irrelevant, because--we changed the rules. Kafka himself would recognize such a system. But I want to thank you, and to inform you, that the beat goes on (as Fred Hampton would say). We are growing--but we must grow more! We are growing--and we are winning. Contact your support group nearest you for ways that you can help. I thank you--and urge you-- Stay Ona Move! To Freedom! I love you all! From Death Row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal. You can write to Mumia directly at: Mumia Abu-Jamal AM 8335 SCI-Greene 175 Progress Drive Waynesburg, PA 15370 This column may be reprinted and/or distributed by electronic means, but only for non-commercial use, and only with the inclusion of the following copyright information: Text (c) copyright 2024 by Mumia Abu-Jamal. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the author. ****************************************************** Mumia Abu-Jamal is the author of three books: 'Live from Death Row', 'Death Blossoms', and 'All Things Censored'.