from the Series Raise Your Voice…
By PETER MOLENAAR
Jim (a.k.a. Jack) lived much of his later years at 2517/2519 17th Avenue. He was a descendant of the Sami people, the reindeer pastoralists of Norway and Sweden, who had fled north as per an influx of landholding farmers. Naturally, Jim identified with the indigenous people of the Americas.
Note: our Norway House and the American Swedish Institute are local sources of Sami history in the Phillips Community.
Some 25 years ago, Jim found me turning soil in the 17th Avenue Community Garden. The time had come for us to distribute the People’s World, a product of an entity affectionately referred to here as the “Community Party”.
Hey, as a skilled mechanic, Jim served in two theaters of the war to preserve democracy against the forces of fascism. Were he still alive, would he support Trump’s plan to burn the planet under a fossil fuel dictatorship… a plan where their offspring survives and ours does not?
So, I have returned now from a convention of the “community party” (i.e., CPUSA) wherein I played a role in mitigating a split between the elders and the youth who implore: how can we possibly cast a vote for a man who does not hear the whimpering of babies beneath the rubble? Hey, Netanyahu is Trump’s bosom buddy! Moreover, do you want Social Security trashed in favor of tax breaks for billionaires? Do you want all avenues of resistance shut down? (Note: I wrote this article before Biden stepped down as a candidate.)
Dear neighbors, I implore you. Cast your vote appropriately and then move on to the next phase of struggle. Jim Brown’s ghost is watching! Socialism is our future.
Peter Molenaar advocates a broad united-front, even as he describes socialism as the future solution.
