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Hope and Desperation
by Billy Roper
10 June 2004
"A long long time ago,
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile.."
("American Pie" by Don McLean)
The first real political moment I remember being personally involved in was in
1984, when, at the age of twelve, I attended a Reagan/Bush (Sr.) campaign event
at the State House Convention Center in Little Rock with my parents. I recall
hearing Reagan speak, and what impressed me wasn't his words, or his delivery
of them, but rather the reaction of the crowd. Having been raised racially
conscious, and already aware of how apathetic most Whites are, I couldn't help
but notice how they cheered and yelled for him, and feeling the electric
enthusiasm passing from person to person and feeding on itself as the crowd
became one mass animal of emotion. It was invigorating. At the time, I thought
that the crowd was behaving as crowds do at major sporting events, and as they
must have in the Roman Coliseum at gladiatorial contests. It was like a rock
concert. It was a spectacle. It was flash and glitter. It was entertainment.
It was showmanship.
All of the media coverage on Reagan's life following his recent death has given
me cause to think about that evening, and to reflect on what I was actually
witnessing. It was hope.
What makes a crowd cheer on their team? Hope. When their favorite squad in on
the opponent's ten yard line, and it's fourth down, and they can win the game
with one play, the fans go wild with hope. When the smaller, wounded gladiator
got up one more time and charged his larger, better-armed adversary, the Roman
crowds went wild with hope. When the conservative Republicans thought that
Reagan might give them a chance to take back their country without having to
explicitly say what they were even fighting against, without having to take
any real risks, without having to do again what our forefathers did in 1776,
they went mad with...hope.
Often, we say that things must get worse, before they can get better. Our
people must face economic ruin, personal loss, physical pain, and hunger, it
seems, before they will act in their own interests. They must become desperate,
before they will exercise their most fundamental and natural will to exist.
Simultaneously, they must have hope that survival and success is possible; if
not for themselves, directly, then for their progeny. We, the aboveground
resistance, the practitioners of non-violent political defiance, are here to
remind them of their desperation, and to provide them with some hope. Hope, and
desperation, are powerful inductors to action. One is often the result of the
lack of the other. When both are together, slaves rise to revolt against their
masters, and victims take vengeance on their oppressors. Regular folks, people
who have placed their dreams vicariously in the hands of others for so long,
can become heroes and martyrs. Empires can crumble, and peoples can be freed.
Hope and desperation. There comes a moment when there is nothing left to lose,
and everything to gain. Our task is to prepare for that moment, and indeed, to
hasten its coming. Right now, we are the marching band, playing the song
they need to hear, and trying to get everyone to get up and dance. The time
will come when we will have to stop playing, and to take the field. We need
your help, to get the crowd on our side. Lend your voice to ours, by joining
White Revolution, today.
"Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While the Sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died????"
Until next time, this is Billy Roper reminding you as always, that "White
Revolution is the only solution".
BILLY ROPER
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Mr. Roper is chairman of White Revolution.
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