Dear White Folk: No Escape

Wondering where former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld might be these days? A good guess would be his get-away home in Maryland. The five bedroom, four bathroom and five fireplace home built in 1804 has an interesting history that is linked to the sacred African American fight for justice and democracy.

The name of Rumsfeld’s mini estate is Mount Misery. In1833 Edward Covey, a farmer notorious for breaking unruly slaves for other farmers, owned the home. One slave sent to Covey to be broken was the rebellious 16-year-old Frederick Douglass, who went on to become the great anti-slave labor activist. Covey assaulted Douglass, and Douglass kicked Covey’s ass and fled North (remember Malcolm talking about the field Negro).

Vice President Dick Cheney and his even more right wing wife, Lynn, a real whiteness nut, live about two miles up the road from Mount Misery on their get-away mini estate, Ballintober.

The irony for white folks here is that no matter what escapist narrative they try to conjure, whether it be sun-tanning or making authentic American music, they always end up in the geography of black people’s struggle (meaning the fight for justice) and pain.

Imagine if all of America had the political sophistication to embrace the attitude of black people about Iraq before the ill-fated invasion. Based on our history in this country, we knew that an American invasion of Iraq would end in bloody disaster. If there is any justice in the universe, one could only hope that Mount Misery might open up and swallow Rumsfeld and suck-up crazy Dick and Lynn Cheney too.

Another, more considered justice awaits George W. Bush, the real butcher of Baghdad.

Music for your thoughts. If this link does not take you directly to a page to download this song, copy the link and paste it in your url.

http://www.zshare.net/download/13-love-from-the-sun-slowdown-m4p.html

http://www.zshare.net/download/01-let-my-people-go-m4p.html