The Gantt Report
I often wonder where would we be if the Biblical Moses was afraid of the Biblical Pharoah? Where would we be if David was frightened of Goliath? And where would we be if Mary and Joseph were scared to parent a child after Biblical politicians threatened to hunt down and murder every newborn baby boy?
In 2012, many African Americans are afraid of their own shadows! We can’t stand up because we are scared. We can’t boycott because we are scared. We can’t protest because we are scared.
Back in the day, Black people were ready to scrap at the drop of a hat. Students, workers, the young and the old would volunteer to march, sit in and travel to cruel and hostile places in the name of integration, freedom, justice and equality.
Today, you couldn’t get a crowd of Negroes to a protest rally even if you picked up all of the protestors in a stretch limo and served them Alize and Hennesey on the way to the event.
Why are we so afraid in 2012? Well, perhaps it is because we have timid parents and some timid grandparents.
Nat Turner wasn’t scared, Denmark Vesey wasn’t scared. Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth was not scared and neither was Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X or other Black leaders that faced incarceration for bravely standing up for you.
But today Black youth are told not to stand up or speak out because you won’t get a job, you won’t get a promotion, you won’t get a loan or you won’t get a scholarship. Young people are told the odds are against them.
But teens and adolescents are not afraid to face gun fire at a night club at three O’clock in the morning. They are not afraid to speed down a highway texting on their phone while guzzling down a can of Colt 45 malt liquor and they are not afraid to run down to the recruitment center enlist in the military and run around the world to fight terrorists.
If you’re not afraid to fight Al Queda in Pakistan, to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and to fight The Republican Guard in Iraq, you shouldn’t be afraid to stand up and fight the Republicans in Washington, D.C. or the conservative, recalcitrant Democrats wherever they may be.
Atlanta rapper “Bone Crusher” once had a rap with lyrics about being “Never Scared”. It was a modest success but if he rapped about “Always Scared” he might sell a million CDs or I-tune downloads because most of the so-called Lions in our community have become scary cats!
Take The Gantt Report as an example. At one time TGR was published in hundreds of newspapers and on many web sites in the United States and around the world. Then when young people inherited the publications from their radical and progressive parents The Gantt Report became too bold, too hot to handle and TGR was slowly eliminated from the weak and timid papers and web sites.
From the beginning of time until today, it has not been fear that gave us progress, it has been the truth that has made us as free as we are.
How many rivers will we have to cross before we become unafraid of the boss? When will we understand that I’m not treated bad because I write The Gantt Report and you’re not treated good because you do not.
We’re treated the way we are because of the way we are!
We must continue to fight and struggle for equal rights and justice!
The Bible says in I John, Chapter three that Jesus, responding to a question by Nicodemas, said “You must be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.“
The Gantt Report says quit being a modern-day scarecrow and start back being a fighter for freedom because that freedom which is born in struggle is struggle! Freedom fighters, you must be born again!
If you’re always scared, you’ll always be exploited, always oppressed and always victimized! If the Lord is our Shepherd, you’ll fear no evil!
