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Rodger L. Hilliard
Date of Birth: 8/22/60
Location: Charleston, SC
Email: RAJZES@aol.com
PAST. PRESENT. FUTURE?
I was around when Huey and Bobby got down and the Panther roamed the ghetto streets. Yeah, I was around when Bull Conner let loose the hoses and dogs, while his cronies hid beneath their white sheets. I remember The Wilmington Ten and The Chicago Seven and I remember all too well when JFK, MLK and RFK all three took their untimely trips. There was a time when everything was uptight, all right and clean out a sight…..cool and copasetic. Iceberg Slim……remember him? Hell I even heard of Malcolm…….before he was a movie. These were Cooley High Times…….and everything was groovy. Two kids could have school yard fight….go home….and not have to worry 'bout automatic weapons blazin' all through the night, come back to school the next day and things would be all right. I remember sneakin' in and listening to Moms and Pig Meat, Redd Foxx and Rudy Ray Moore aka……….Dolomite!
Now times have changed, something just ain't right…..everybody's trippin'. Now we got farm kids in Iowa throwing up gang signs and talkin about how they crippin'.
The Power has been drained……
a raised fist won't get nothin' now a days but…a tired arm.
All that lets come together, we are the world talk….has somehow lost it's charm. I recall a day when our role models weren't just playin' roles and most were found right in our own homes. People were talkin' about more than gettin' paid or cappin' other people's domes. Marvin was asking What's Goin' On and JB was Black and Proud and we were all Sayin' It Loud. Aretha was gettin' all her R-E-S-P-E-C-T and we all wanted to Float Like A Butterfly and Sting Like A Bee. Maya was telling us Why The Caged Bird Sings and Nikki Giavonni so eloquently explained why she Could Fly…Like Bird In The Sky
while she was Ego Trippin'. Brother Gil asked us if we had Heard The Word From Johannesburg and told us The Revolution Will Not be Televised , Will Not Be Televised, Will Not Be Televised…………..but how was he to know about Don the King and multi-million dollar pay per-view contracts. He and all the others were way to busy puttin' knowledge down on paper and on wax. Now it seems we're too complacent, we've gotten' too relaxed. Too many have taken their eyes off the prize…..stopped pursuing the Dream, and for what? Some fool's gold and a little bit of C.R.E.A.M. Now all our so called leaders are chosen by the way they look, dress or speak and we never seem to question them when the message they bring forth is sometimes………piss weak.
Is our forecast for the future really this damn bleak? Is all our true glory forever trapped within our past, were The Last Poets really that prophetic, were they literally the…..last?
Will the words "Never Again" ever be anything other than a catchy phrase? Will we ever stop pointing fingers and put a ending to our own devil like ways? We need to recapture the spirit and drive of the torch bearers of the past….we need to act swiftly people, because the futures coming………and it's coming fast!