By Jaspal Singh,
Demonstrations have been continuing in Ferguson, Missouri against the shooting of a young black man several weeks ago. In the meanwhile another black young man was killed yesterday by a policeman. According to one report 1500 black men have been killed all across the US by police since January this year. Open season on black men continues in the US under the presidency of the first black president Obama. Record number of black men have been incarcerated and are in prisons. Some have called it the new Jim Crow country.
One of the young artists who was performing at a rally in Ferguson pointed out that the police has been threatening him and asking him not to perform .He said that he told them that either they have to kill him or let him perform. He also said that when one overcomes this fear with which they try to threaten and keep you down, a whole new world opens to you and you gather a great amount of courage for your convictions.
Death threats to those who protest or call for change and transformation of conditions has become the norm in the US and other places. Those who want change and are fighting for Justice have to come to terms with this fear of death. At one point or another one has to reckon with it. In all movements for change people have to come to terms with this reality. It is a fact of life that as long as one is afraid, the forces of status quo succeed .Once a person or a people overcome this fear than the oppressor loses its greatest weapon. That is why it was so inspiring to hear this young black artist performing in Ferguson. He told them that they can kill him but he is not afraid of them and will not stop from speaking out.
Another young man thousands of miles across the world ,told one of the media persons in an interview that Nobel prize to Kailash Satyarthi highlights the plight of children in India, but just few kilometers away from the Supreme Court and parliament of India, hundreds of children are in slavery ,why are they silent about it?
Hundreds of thousands of youth marched in New York couple of weeks ago demanding to stop this madness of Development in search of super profits which is threatening the very existence of humanity and our planet.
This courage of the youth personifies the sharp conflict between conditions and authority. Authority by its act of being wants to perpetuate the status quo and issues death threats to frighten those who want to transform conditions. The youth of the world is voicing the courage of their convictions defying fear of death to create another world which affirms the rights of all by virtue of their being and is in harmony with Mother Nature. Such a world is possible and necessary.
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Jaspal Singh is a philosopher based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.