Taken from an Aug. 25 audio column at prisonradio.org

As the body of Michael “Mike” Brown is consigned to the earth, network newscasters and broadcasters are packing their gear, canceling their hotel rooms and setting their sights on new wonders, new images and new stories.

That the tragic saga in Ferguson struck national newscasters is both rare and unprecedented, given the length and depth of the story.

But, to reporters, stories come and stories go.

And the Brown story is going.

Part of the reason is the incessant media chorus for the expulsion of so-called ‘outside agitators,’ seen as the violence-prone troublemakers coming on the scene.

Once gone, tension drained away like an unwanted migraine.

And tension — in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “creative tension” — is the stuff that animates protests and helps fuel movements.

It is the job of the managerial class of lawyers, preachers and politicians to reduce tensions, to de-radicalize movements — to make them manageable.

And once they become manageable, they lose their mass base and with it, their social power. For the masses know the essential nature of the police; for they see them and gauge them daily. They know them as violent, vicious and venal government officials. And they are hungry, anxious to oppose them.

Movements are a lot like volcanoes, which appear dormant or sleeping.

Unseen are underground forces, churning, boiling, crashing like waves against a hidden shore.

Until one day (usually a day none had foreseen), it erupts, splashing its red molten rage over miles, changing everything.

That’s what movements do; and what they are. If hot enough, they can change everything.

Everything.

But political, media and state forces don’t want change. They want continuity, for therein lies both their profits and their power. And who wants to lose either of those things?

Thus, the tragedy of Ferguson will be stuffed back into the pillow of forgetfulness.

Until next time.

Mumia Abu-Jamal (guest author)

Share
Published by
Mumia Abu-Jamal (guest author)

Recent Posts

Educators for Palestine claims victory against racism and hate, despite NEA board decisionEducators for Palestine claims victory against racism and hate, despite NEA board decision

Educators for Palestine claims victory against racism and hate, despite NEA board decision

Educators for Palestine released the following news release on July 19, 2025.  Washington, D.C. Educators…

July 24, 2025
Palestinian, Lebanese resistance hails order to release Georges AbdallahPalestinian, Lebanese resistance hails order to release Georges Abdallah

Palestinian, Lebanese resistance hails order to release Georges Abdallah

On July 17, a court in France ordered the release of Georges Abdallah, a Lebanese…

July 24, 2025
Yemeni leader denounces Israeli aggression on SyriaYemeni leader denounces Israeli aggression on Syria

Yemeni leader denounces Israeli aggression on Syria

The following are highlights from a speech given by Yemen’s Ansarallah Commander Sayyed Abdul-Malik Badr…

July 24, 2025

Panamá: President Mulino intensifies government assault on unions

Panamá Beluche is a sociologist, professor and anti-imperialist organizer in Panamá, writing here about the…

July 24, 2025

PDF of July 24 issue

Download the PDF Farmworkers organize three-day strike Palestinian factions demand an end to the famine…

July 24, 2025

What is it that the Israeli settler state has lost?

In the more than 650 days since the Al-Aqsa Flood (October 7, 2023), a remarkable…

July 23, 2025