By Joe Williams III

As I write you, my heart is very heavy.  For I know of, and have lived under the heavy hand of oppression.  I have seen my people suffer and struggle all my life.  I have witnessed and been a victim of injustice, racism and poverty.  Mr. Chairman, I have been refused a seat at a lunch counter; I have been rejected from employment.  I have witnessed my father, in the deep south, beaten by KKK members dressed in law enforcement uniforms.  The nightmare you are living now is the history of America’s racist past. America’s history is the genocide attacks of the Native Americans (Indians), the enslavement of Africans in America, It is the history of the US violence against the Civil Rights movement.  It is the containment of Blacks in certain geographical areas under the banner of Jim Crow laws. I remember sitting on the back of the bus, and not being able to swim, or walk, on certain beaches. I have heard the stories of Negro men standing at a bus stop, and had to walk to the next stop if a white woman walked up. I have studied, in school, out of books that had been used by four or five white students, torn and worn, then sent to Black schools for us to read.  I have walked in this body all my life, watching what I said, watching were I traveled, tiptoeing through life, so that I wouldn’t end up in prison. In my youth, it was a crime to stand on the corner(a crime of 30-60 days in jail) without ID, or proof of employment.   Yes, Mr. Chairman, life in the projects in those days were like concentration camps.  So, I understand you containment; I understand you love for freedom.  I have seen courage in my lifetime, the will to resist tyranny, racism, and poverty, freedom fighters like Harriet Tubman, Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Angela Davis.  I have witnessed our leaders jailed, murdered, slandered, and lied on by our enemies.  
So, Mr. Chairman, your situation is not a situation unlike what I have experienced in the United States.  I truly understand that the same enemy that has surrounded you in your compound, is the same enemy that held Nelson Mandela if prison for 20 years, killed Dr. King, tried to stave the Cuban people, and declared a “Crack” war of genocide against African Americans and the poor, a war that will impact on us for years to come.  Like the beating of Rodney King by law enforcement, our youth are being imprisoned, our people are being routinely killed by the cops, while our self-appointed leaders are selling us out for “a few pennies more.”   But, Mr. Chairman, like you, we will fight, we will struggle against racism, exploitation, sexism and poverty.  Mr. Chairman, history have given you and the Palestinian a heavy burden, a task that will advance the cause of all of humanity.  I will pray for you Mr. Chairman as you, and your people, fight to overcome the oppression of your enemies.  I pray that God will embrace you in his bosom, and that we will all fight for freedom and equality around the world, with our last dying breath. tedoil@aol.com

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