The Work

Last year (AKA THE PAST) was full of ups and down. Everything had an edge. It was easy to feel out of sorts, out of control. This is the time we take back the reins and remove this “new normal” where hate and bigotry, homo and xenophobia exists unchecked. Balance. Consistency. Action.

I am not going to list my resolutions. I’m not going to mention whether I even created a list. It’s not important. What is important is to get this life under control, to hold back a little of yourself FOR yourself.

You will not be able to stay home, brother
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and drop out
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip
Skip out for beer during commercials
Because the revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruption
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
Blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John Mitchell
General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
Hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary

The revolution will not be televised

The revolution will be brought to you by the Schaefer Award Theatre and
will not star Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
Thinner, because The revolution will not be televised, Brother

There will be no pictures of you and Willie Mays
Pushing that cart down the block on the dead run
Or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance
NBC will not predict the winner at 8:32or the count from 29 districts

The revolution will not be televised

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
Brothers in the instant replay
There will be no pictures of young being
Run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process
There will be no slow motion or still life of
Roy Wilkens strolling through Watts in a red, black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the right occasion
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and
Hooterville Junction will no longer be so damned relevant
and Women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day

The revolution will not be televised

There will be no highlights on the eleven o’clock News
and no pictures of hairy armed women Liberationists and
Jackie Onassis blowing her nose
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb, Francis Scott Key
nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash
Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth

The revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be right back after a message
About a whitetornado, white lightning, or white people
You will not have to worry about a germ on your Bedroom
a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl
The revolution will not go better with Coke
The revolution will not fight the germs that cause bad breath
The revolution WILL put you in the driver’s seat
The revolution will not be televised

WILL not be televised, WILL NOT BE TELEVISED

The revolution will be no re-run brothers
The revolution will be live

Songwriters: GIL SCOTT-HERON
© Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
For non-commercial use only.
Data From: LyricFind

Bravery

Floyd Martin

Think you are brave because you go to a racist rally surrounded by thousands of like assholes carrying guns? Fuck you, you ain’t shit.
You know what is brave? A 12-year old Gay boy coming out of the closet in middle school because he can’t live in a closet and getting his ass kicked at school every fucking day?
You know what’s brave? A 39 year old Trans woman on the streets of Chicago working again tonight because no one else will hire her, and hoping this isn’t the last night she has to do this shit.
You know what is brave? A 24-year old black woman, single mom (because her baby daddy is in prison because of a fucked up penal system) with three kids, dropping those babies at daycare she can’t afford, to go work at a stupid fast-food restaurant for shit wages to give her children a better life.
You know what is brave? A 57 year old Gay man that has been HIV+ for 30 years and feels like shit and has watched all of his friends die, and still gets up the gumption to go to the store and smile at a stranger who stares at him like he has two heads.
You know what is brave? Going home and telling your white Republican Baptist church deacon dad, you’re in love with a black man, another woman, a Mexican or a Muslim.
You know what is brave? Defending your country and all she stands for, and not walking in the streets like a coward fearful of someone’s else’s skin tone.
No, There are a million examples of bravery. Being an self-important, entitled, racist bastard is not one of them.

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