To Tell The Truth Is To Become

Our Earth Is Round, And, Among Other Things, That Means That You And I Can Hold Completely Different Points Of View And Both Be Right. The Difference Of Our Positions Will Show Stars In Your Window I Cannot Even Imagine. Your Sky May Burn With Light, While Mine, At The Same Moment, Spreads Beautiful To Darkness. Still We Must Choose How We Separately Corner The Circling Universe Of Our Experience. Once Chosen, Our Cornering Will Determine The Message Of Any Star And Darkness We Encounter.

The United States Supreme Court, Once A Reliable If Ultimate Recourse For Progressive And Even Revolutionary Grievances, Has Become A Retrograde Wellspring For Enormous Economic And Social Distress.

Good Poetry And Successful Revolution Change Our Lives. And You Cannot Compose A Good Poem Or Wage A Revolution Without Changing Consciousness Unless You Attack The Language That You Share With Your Enemies And Invent A Language That You Share With Your Allies.

Let Me Just Say, At Once: I Am Not Now Nor Have I Ever Been A White Man. And, Leaving Aside The Joys Of Unearned Privilege, This Leaves Me Feeling Pretty Good.

Language Is Political. That's Why You And Me, My Brother And Sister, That's Why We Supposed To Choke Our Natural Self Into The Weird, Lying, Barbarous, Unreal, White Speech And Writing Habits That The Schools Lay Down Like Holy Law.