Whenever I think of "The Bullet or the Ballot", the chorus of Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade" plays in my head ...

"Rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells!"

Additional info:

• Wikipedia: Rage Against the Machine
• Song at iTunes: Bulls on Parade
• Album at Amazon: Evil Empire

» Tags: Song of the day, Music, iTunes

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Published: (2006-02-21 17:13:09.0)

41 years ago today on February 21, 1965 ...

Three gunmen rushed Malcolm X onstage at a speaking engagement in the Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom. They shot him 15 times at close range. The 39-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

I remember when I first head about Malcolm X. I was curious. So I read. And I read "The Ballot or the Bullet." An amazing speech. I read with wide open eyes and forgot to breathe. You may not agree with the message, but you can not deny the passion.

"This is why I say it’s the ballot or the bullet. It’s liberty or it’s death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody. America today finds herself in a unique situation. Historically, revolutions are bloody. Oh, yes, they are. They haven’t never had a blood-less revolution, or a non-violent revolution. That don’t happen even in Hollywood. You don’t have a revolution in which you love your enemy, and you don’t have a revolution in which you are begging the system of exploitation to integrate you into it. Revolutions overturn systems. Revolutions destroy systems."

Additional info:

• Wikipedia: Malcolm X

» Tags: Malcolm X, Black History

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Published: (2006-02-21 16:43:37.0)