I am not about to go too deep into the whole Troy Davis story. I actually followed most of the drama as it unfolded last night and posted my thoughts at the time on Facebook.
People like Michael Baisden
whipped up his Facebook followers in a race-based frenzy as he questioned everything from the amount of cops on the scene to the amount of choppers in the air. He also suggested that at anytime the water hoses and dogs could come out on the people. And his fan base ate it all up. So I cut his tail.
One friend on Facebook was so emotional about the whole thing, he asked if anyone was with him to start a revolution. First of all, if you have to ask people to start a revolution…it is not a revolution. I responded to him by telling him to start with the hundreds of Black kids that don’t think twice about killing each other all throughout America. He agreed.
But I have to say one of the more memorable exchanges I had on Facebook was with someone who questioned me after a comment I made about the situation. I told them that the very people that are foaming at the mouth and raising pure hell over all of this will not lose any sleep tonight. She wondered why I would say such a thing. I responded by reminding her about Tookie Williams. In my opinion, there was much more media attention surrounding that case than this one. Yet once the man was executed, people dropped the whole thing and moved on to the next thing to protest. Cindy Sheehan (she’s not dead) was also another person whose very existence was used up and trashed by folks who were looking for a symbol they could use for their own agendas. The list goes on and on.
I think what this whole thing has shown me is how desperate this generation is for something worth fighting for. Black slaves fought, bled and died over slavery, the Confederacy and the Union fought over state rights, women fought for their rights, Blacks fought our rights as citizens. These were real movements that required each participant to physically get involved. There were marches, sit ins, people were beat up, killed, raped…you name it. But with each strike, a determination to fight back harder continued to grow and multiply. Before they knew it, a revolution was birthed.
Today, most of our protest is done by computer, smartphone, Facebook, Twitter and other social media. We are far from any real threat beyond the occasional dweeb who leaves a comment that you absolutely hate. Blood, sweat and tears have been replaced with “like” buttons, hashtags and endless comment strings. Just as quickly we attach ourselves to the latest incident of what we deem as “injustice”, we quickly point, click and detach ourselves and move on to something else. Risk for what we say we believe in has become relative. We know this to be true and it drives us mad.
Yes, there are many people out there who are very passionate about the death penalty and who are totally against this legal practice. But I have to question many of those people because none of the ones I knew said a peep about the other execution that took place in Texas last evening. I don’t care what this guy did. Either you are for the death penalty or you are against it. Plain and simple.
My hat goes off for true soldiers like the Innocence Project who are consistant with their mission to see to it that all inmates get a fair shake. Most of the cases they handle never make it to hype status in the social media world (I actually interviewed a representative from this organization some time ago).
Troy has move on. And trust me, so have most of his supporters and detractors.
