{"id":3450,"date":"2023-10-08T14:22:47","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T14:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rashidmod.com\/?p=3450"},"modified":"2023-10-08T14:22:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T14:22:47","slug":"ode-to-the-original-panthers-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/?p=3450","title":{"rendered":"ODE TO THE ORIGINAL PANTHERS (2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BPP<\/a><\/p>\n

Founded by Huey P. Newton
\nand Bobby Seale,
\nIn October 1966
\nthe people’s weapon to wield.<\/p>\n

The Black Panther Party
\nfor Self Defense,
\nTo defend and serve poor communities
\nit made perfect sense.<\/p>\n

Patrolling the cops with guns and law books
\ngiving legal advice,
\nSo the people knew
\nwhen the pigs were infringing their rights.<\/p>\n

Created dozens of programs
\nto meet community needs,
\nIncluding free breakfast
\nso hungry children could receive<\/p>\n

Healthy meals
\nFamilies couldn’t afford,
\nAnd helped clean up the neighborhoods
\nneglected by slumlords.<\/p>\n

Safe escorts for seniors
\nto and from their homes,
\nSo they didn’t have to collect
\nfood and funds all alone.<\/p>\n

Free ambulance services
\neven their own news media,
\nAnd free clinics to test
\nfor sickle cell anemia.<\/p>\n

And this at a time
\nwhen the system didn’t provide,
\nAny testing at all
\nfrom which many poor Blacks died.<\/p>\n

The party wasn’t a weapon
\nbut a survival tool,
\nIt even created for the children
\nits own liberation schools.<\/p>\n

A free shoe factory
\nfree groceries free clothes,
\n80% community approval
\nabove any pig party at the polls.<\/p>\n

In fact the Panthers weren’t
\na party of the bougie type,
\nThat engage in political theater
\nempty rhetoric and hype.<\/p>\n

They maintained offices
\nright where the people lived,
\nAnd were available when problems arose
\nto serve and give.<\/p>\n

Whatever help was needed
\nthey kept boots on the ground,
\nLeading by example
\nthey could always be found…<\/p>\n

At the head of any resistence
\nany protest on the street,
\nLeading the struggle to liberate
\nthe ground under the people’s feet.<\/p>\n

The Panthers struck terror
\nin the halls of power,
\nSo that minute by minute
\nand hour by hour…<\/p>\n

The pigs devised to destroy them
\nconcocted devious plans,
\nTo attack them with every resource and weapon
\nat their command.<\/p>\n

The FBI led the attack
\nwith its counterintelligence program,
\nEven applying subversions used against
\nforeign enemies in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

And it wasn’t because of any violent tendencies
\nas their propaganda deceives,
\nIt was because the Panthers
\ntaught poor people how to meet their own needs<\/p>\n

And this through cooperation
\nwhich stopped internal strife,
\nImproved the quality
\nof community life.<\/p>\n

The pigs couldn’t accept this
\ncouldn’t let the people be,
\nIt was too much like
\nletting slaves be free.<\/p>\n

So they had to sabotage the panthers
\nsubvert their community work,
\nPaint them as thugs
\nclaimed they aimed to hurt…<\/p>\n

The cops with guns
\nand violent attacks,
\nBut it was the pigs who attacked them
\nshot panthers in the backs;<\/p>\n

Outright assassinations
\nlike Chairman Fred,
\nWho they drugged and murdered
\nas he lay asleep in bed.<\/p>\n

Trumped up criminal charges
\nand bogas arrests,
\nTo remove the leadership of the Party
\nrender the body headless.<\/p>\n

But the Panthers survived
\nfor years under this war of attrition,
\nBecause the people themselves
\nwere its arms and ammunition.<\/p>\n

And since its decline
\nthere has been continued struggle for a sequel,
\nTo revive the party and its platform
\nto win all power to the people!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Poem and art by Kevin ”Rashid” Johnson<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, In October 1966 the people’s weapon to wield. The Black Panther Party for Self Defense, To defend and serve poor communities it made perfect sense. Patrolling the cops with guns and law books giving legal advice, So the people knew when the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-3450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-poetry","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3451,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3450\/revisions\/3451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rashidmod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}