'Take The Shirts Off Our Backs' Radical Anti-Capitalist Feeder March
A.N.S.W.E.R Anti-War MOW . WDC . Saturday, 26 October 2002
Elvert Xavier Barnes Protest Photography & Writings on the Wall
And then I said "... when I was a nappy headed little black boy, in the 50's and 60's, they lied about our shared history. And suppressed the truth. And some years later when I was a young black man who practiced integration ... which I would not realize until decades later ... they lied about our shared history. And suppressed the truth. And, in 2002, but as an older but wiser and more mature 49 year old black man they are still lying and suppressing the truth."
"If only I had known then what I know now!". But, more importantly, had they not told those lies that they told to or said about me and had my truth not been suppressed ... at each turn and at every step along the way each of my choices or decisions regarding any matter or whatever as well as whomever would have been 'just the opposite'. Or, at least, different ... taking me, at the time, in a much different direction. And along a different set of life's paths!
"If only I knew then what I know now ...!"
When I arrived at the Columbia Heights metro station at 10:05a there, at first, was not much visable activity. Shortly thereafter groups of protesters began to arrive wth signs, home made musical instruments, sticks and drums ... in their hands... getting ready for the march. And while crouched down onto the sidewalk and with a whistle in his mouth one man positioned an upside-down bucket between his thighs and with a wooden spoon in each hand began to 'bring in the noise'. Another who was just a few feet away and who had tied a blue bandana around his skull stood pounding on an African drum. And to his left was a dancing female with little cymbals or bell-like things attached to her fingers ... 'shaking her hands' and 'moving her body' but 'making noise'.
Though I heard no sound coming from it there was a young man walking around with a boom-box perched upon his right shoulder and pressed against his ear ... moving his body in sync with the noise. And soon the Radical Anti-Capitalist Anti-War "Take The Shirts Off Our Backs' Feeder March would step off. If only I had known then what I know now. Part 2 . Part 3 . Part 4 . A Billion Times . Tree Falls in the Forest . Hands of Time . First Time Ejaculation! . What Time It Is? . Different Love . Time Has Come . EXB