Are you free to speak your mind without fearing retaliation from family, friends, acquaintances, strangers or enemies? Do you stand up, strong and solid for your belief or walk with bent back, allowing any and everyone to ride you around the block? Do you own your mind or allow others to control and manipulate it? Are you truly liberated, and if not, do you want to be. Most importantly, what are you willing to do to obtain self-liberation? Now we all have heard the price of freedom is not free, and the cost is eternal vigilance. This means one must literally fight forever in order to be free. I told you before I believe liberation is a higher step than freedom. For years, I knew I was free, but it was not until certain circumstances, which occurred in my life, did I actually become liberated. Most folk I know who are liberated went through a series of changes, with financial status being a major change. Basically some folk who so call “make it” have to get knocked down a few notches, even lose many of their “worldly possessions,” before they become liberated. In other words, they must go through a test, in order to have a testimony. I must admit, I don’t think liberation is for everyone, simply because it’s a sacrifice. I don’t know of any Negroes willing to sacrifice the pie for crumbs. In fact, some so called “down for the cause black folk” showing up at city hall to shout, “no justice, no peace” in front of the TV cameras are not willing to make sacrifices in the name of liberation. Few so-called “professional negroes” are, unfortunately, not skilled at being like “the spook who sat by the door” in the name of liberation. Then there are those, perhaps a vast majority, suffering from this terrible psycho socio cultural disorder, which I refer to as “The Willie Lynch Syndrome,” which can only be cured by a serious grassroots drop squad.
So, I must suggest, in order to truly obtain liberation, one must have the mindset of “by any means necessary.” This means we must be prepared for sacrifice and even suffering a bit. We must know our loved ones and so-called loved ones may not show us much love. In fact, they may even express hate towards us (primarily because they will see us moving towards liberation as we pass them by). We must take advantage of every opportunity to educate selves, family, and people on our true history and prepare us for tomorrow. We must embrace the Sankofa Experience, and literally, go back and fetch it, or return to our past, learn the truth, and move forward. We must educate ourselves in preparation for liberation. Remember the words of Malcolm X, “Education is our passport to the future. For tomorrow belongs to the people preparing for it today. And never forget, Aluta Continua, the struggle continues.