Lucasville prisoner Bomani Shakur: ‘Power to the people’
Published Jan 29, 2011 9:06 AM
Sharon Sanaan and Bomani
Shakur at the Ohio State
Penitentiary, Jan. 15, shortly
before the victory rally.
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The following excerpted statement is from Brother Bomani Shakur (aka
Keith LaMar), one of three prisoners who went on hunger strike at Ohio State
Penitentiary to protest the conditions of their confinement. The three ended
their strike on Jan. 14 when prison officials offered them more than they had
demanded.
Although on a very small scale (which by no means diminishes the deed), we, the
people, have wrought a revolution — “a sudden and momentous change
in a situation” — and accomplished in 12 days what the powers that
be have repeatedly told us would never happen. Indeed, for the first time in 16
years, I will be able to hug and kiss my family!
There are no words to express the profound gratitude I feel. The late, great,
revolutionary leader Che Guevara once said, “A true revolutionary is
guided by great feelings of love!” It is a great feeling of love (for
you, the people) that is guiding me right now. Even as I write this, tears of
hope and determination are streaming down my face.
When one has been forced to live in a space no larger than a closet for 16
years, 23 hours a day, not only does one begin to feel extremely insignificant,
but the very world begins to shrink; even the smallest thing seems impossible.
Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the overwhelming outpouring of
love and support that came flooding into my cell after I cried out for help.
People from all over the country and the world — England, Ireland,
Serbia, Amsterdam — reached out and joined with us to right an injustice.
And we succeeded!
It would be great if I could say that the worst is over now and that, with
victory in hand, I can live happily ever after. Unfortunately, I don’t
have the luxury of living in a fairy tale; the people who are trying to take my
life are real. Not even a week after we embarked on the hunger strike, a
federal district judge turned down my appeal, placing me even further in the
balance.
It would be naïve of me to believe that this was just a coincidence. I
said some very harsh things (all of them true) against the system, and I say
them again: This system is bogus and sold to those with money. In other words,
if you don’t have the capital you get the punishment; and justice, like
everything else in this capitalist nightmare, is nothing more than a commodity
that is reserved for the highest bidder.
Friends, I beg you not to abandon me to this mockery; inasmuch as my life is
not for them to take, I intend to fight them, and I (we) need your help. What
they did to us cannot stand up under the bright light of scrutiny. Because of
who we are, they felt that doing a thorough job wasn’t necessary —
after all, who’s going to give a damn about a bunch of criminals? With
this as their attitude, they charged several people with the same crimes, using
different theories and, in some cases, allowing the actual perpetrators to
point the finger elsewhere.
Simply put, what they did to us is a travesty of justice, and yet our
convictions have remained intact through the lower courts of appeal and are
quickly making their way through the federal courts. If we don’t do
something to get out in front of this thing, they are going to kill us
soon.
It may be that, no matter what we do, they are going to kill us anyway. Well,
okay. But if that be the case, let us at least make sure that they cannot call
it justice. If they kill us, let us at least be able to call it what it really
is: murder.
Friends, we don’t have to accept this; we don’t have to continue
down the path of least resistance, allowing them to do with us whatever they
please. If we stand together and speak truth to power, they will have no choice
but to right this wrong. They did it in the current confrontation, and they
will do it again, not because they want to but because they have to.
Whenever hypocrisy is confronted by the truth, it must capitulate. Therefore,
the key to fighting these people is to expose the truth and hold it up next to
what they claim to represent. If we can do this well enough, they will either
have to practice what they preach or, as Malcolm X suggests, preach what they
practice. Our job is to make sure they don’t have it both ways.
Our friend, Staughton Lynd, has written a book about the uprising
(“Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising”), and we need
to encourage people to read it. In the coming days, weeks, and months, we need
to formulate plans to reintroduce the play and launch the documentary,
“Dirty Little Secrets,” all with the intended purpose of making as
many people as possible aware of what actually happened during the uprising and
its aftermath. Ultimately, the goal is to compose a petition to be presented to
the governor with the demand that he either issue a general amnesty for all of
the Lucasville cases or convene a panel of qualified experts to determine
whether an amnesty is warranted.
I want to thank each and every one of you for coming forward as you did. I am
both humbled and uplifted by the support. When I phoned my 8-year-old niece,
Kayla, and informed her that “Uncle Keith will be able to touch her
little hand soon,” she, with excitement brimming in her voice, said,
“That’s awesome!” And I couldn’t agree with her more:
What we did was awesome! We came together and spoke truth to power and won!
Power to the People!
Bomani Shakur aka Keith LaMar
January 2011
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