After One Hundred Thousand
© 2020 by Mumia Abu-Jamal
https://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/mumia/after-one-hundred-thousand-220-mumia-abu-jamal
One asks, when the counter strikes 100,000, [what happens]? Nothing. One hundred thousand American dead. That means, for all intents and purposes, nothing much.
But does the counter stop counting? Or does it continue rolling on, like the mighty Mississippi River?
Is one hundred thousand an end, or just another number?
And as summer begins to emerge, and people rush out of doors, to get some socializing in, what happens in the next two weeks? A spike? A thousand spikes?
It must be said, that even as the official number strikes 100,000, the official number isn’t the real one. For the US is so stingy with testing, that thousands of people, some who died at home, were never tested.
How many homeless people have died? And do you really think they’d get tested?
In times like these, all people are NOT “created equal.” For Black folks, this has been a time of ineffable loss.
For many, be they workers, cleaners, nurses, orderlies, bus drivers, cab drivers, and the like, their work was on the front lines of the contagion and the coronavirus.
As America now opens its doors, what will they find? A new day? Or more death?
From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
