LUMPENPROLETARIAT—Tell it like it is, mujer.  Don’t let no one get you down, not even the man, the system, not even me, not even as much as I love you, even when you lose your cool.  We know about self-sufficiency.  Yet, no human is an island.  And we know about the fleeting and temporal nature of human charms.  And we know about promises.  But it takes two to tango, dialectically.  Let’s dance, si lo desea.  But there’s no need for alarm.

Yesterday, as I sat at the Pittsburg DMV, a woman shrieked outside in the car park, as fists slammed into human flesh. [1]  Some of us looked outside and found tragic domestic violence, as she punched her man with all her might.  Later, one desperate soul, who allegedly took hostages and carjacked several vehicles in our community, finally surrendered in adjacent Antioch after trying to flee from police, or flee from his demons, up and down the northeast Bay Area.  Police cars passed me on Buchanan street, then shut it down, as I got through, before a critical mass of police converged and made an arrest.  Poverty and the working class struggle to make ends meet takes its toll, as economist Dr. Richard Wolff often points out, as families are torn asunder by economic hardship.  Back at the DMV, as I waited for my number to be called, another aging woman cried and pleaded with her elderly mother to take her home.  Development is arrested.  And the rest of the community within the building, ostensibly holding it together, grittily clenched their jaws and steeled their gaze against the world, their immediate goals, and away from the pain and suffering engulfing this confluence of socioeconomic woe.  We all suffer, as we forget we are one.

—Messina

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“My Petition” (2004) by Jill Scott

You say you mean good for me
But you don’t do it
You say you have a plan
But you just don’t go through with it

You say you know the way to go
And I should follow
But all of your empty promises
Leave me hollow

And, oh
How do I trust you?
How do I love you?
When you lie to me repeatedly
And, oh, how do I have faith in you?
When you just don’t come through
Like you said you could
Oh, say, can you see?

You say that I’m wrong for
Stating my opinion to you
You say that I’m wrong
And there’ll be quiet consequences, too

But I know my rights, babe
There’ll be no law abridging
The freedom of my speech
Or the right for me to petition for a remedy of grievances

And I want to trust you
I wanna love you, yeah
But you lie to me repeatedly
And, oh, I wanna have faith in you
But you just don’t come through
Like you said you could
Oh, say, can you see?

I want fresh foods, clean water
Air that I don’t see
I want the feeling of being safe on my streets
I want my children to be smarter than me
I want, I want to feel
I wanna feel, I wanna feel free
For real, yo’
I’m just telling you, so you know

I wanna, I wanna have faith in you
I really do, but you keep lying to me
And it hurts
I believe, I believe you owe it me
Give it to me, like you said you would
Oh, say, can you see?
Oh, say, can you see?
Ooh, say, can you see?
By the dawn’s early light

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“The Fact Is (I Need You) (2004) by Jill Scott“

I can pay my own light bill, baby…  But…

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“Le BOOM Vent Suite” (2011) by Jill Scott

I’m sorry I have to drop the bomb this way
I mean there’s a lot of things I could say
I could tell you that I really wanted to be with you
But you don’t feel me; you can’t hear me
I, I got to make this next move
I gotta do what a sista’s gotta do
And if that hurts you, well, then it hurts you
I gotta make a move, I’m gonna do it, too…

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“Hear My Call” (2011) by Jill Scott

It seems we understand what it is we are expected to be committed to:  right livelihood, whether we call it God or the Good.  We seek to free ourselves from suffering as well as to free our loved ones, our community and society from wanton suffering.  Someone once wrote barbarism begins in the home.  Ultimately, we must be good to ourselves to liberate ourselves…

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“My Petition” (live) by Jill Scott

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Jill Scott:  On being “dickmotised”

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[1]  Pittsburg, California, like other places in Contra Costa County, San Joaquin County, and other regions radiating inland from the San Francisco Bay Area, represents a large population of economically-displaced families, economic refugees.  The agglomeration of so-called ‘high tech’ industry and corporate culture in the San Francisco Bay Area draws the most educated and competitive workforce from all around the world.  Many young people, drawn into the high tech industry, inflate housing prices by their willingness to pay exorbitant rents and mortgages.  As gentrification intensifies in the San Francisco Bay Area, low-income families have been priced out of the thousands of dollars it’s now costing to rent, even, a single-bedroom apartment in San Francisco or Oakland.  Mortgages are even crazier.  As working class families are pushed further inland, away from the San Francisco Bay Area, life gets harder for those families having to commute longer hours, if they can afford adequate transportation.  Moreover, we observe intensifying pockets of poverty and immiseration inland from the San Francisco Bay, where decent working class jobs are even more scarce than in the Bay.

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[Last modified 07:31 PDT  28 MAY 2015]

[Image entitled “Jill Scott – Beautifully Human” by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia.]

[JILL SCOTT lyrics are property and copyright of their owners.  “My Petition” lyrics are provided here for educational and personal use only.]