Malcolm X's departure..

Thanks to Lia for sending me this article today. Forty-three years ago today Malcolm X was assassinated. I post this NY Times interview because it shows an introspective X who is struggling to maintain a sense of authority, externally, while trying to grasp his change in beliefs internally.

I still think Malcolm is publicly still very much identified with his extremist years as a minister of the Nation of Islam, which is not where he left off.

Malcolm started out as a young hoodlum who went to prison for burglary. There he found guidance and salvation in the preachings of Elijah Muhammed and converted to his extremist brand of Islam. Once released, Malcolm developed into a star preacher for the Nation of Islam's separatist messages, such as developing the black community completely independent of the white "devils" of the world. Eventually though Malcolm began to question the NOI when he learned his leader and mentor, Elijah Muhammed, was committing adultery with his own secretaries and validating it with passages from the Bible.
Disillusioned, Malcolm left the NOI, and became a Sunni Muslim. He changed his message to a more hopeful one after extended trips to Africa where he met Muslims of all races and cultures. He could no longer embrace a separatist mindset.

The following interview was one of his last and most human. It showed a man who's internal arc was taking him to places unexpected but also showed he was confronting one of man's heaviest fears: challenging his own hard-instilled beliefs. That's a rare thing to find in today's leaders. He was 39.

I promise I'll post something more light after this one.

Malcolm X Shot to Death at Rally Here

Malcolm Knew He Was a 'Marked Man'

By Theodore Jones

I live like a man who's already dead," Malcolm X said last Thursday in a two-hour interview in the Harlem office of his Organization for Afro-American Unity.
"I'm a marked man," he said slowly as he fingered the horn-rimmed glasses he wore and leaned forward to give emphasis to his words. "It doesn't frighten me for myself as long as I felt they would not hurt my family."
Asked about "they," Malcolm smiled, shook his head, and said, "those folks down at 116th Street and that man in Chicago."
The references, Malcolm quickly confirmed, were to his former associates in the Black Muslim movement and to Elijah Muhammad, the organizer and head of the movement. Before Malcolm X left the movement 18 months ago, he was the minister of the Black Muslim's Harlem mosque at 116th Street and Lenox Avenue.
"No one can get out with out trouble," Malcolm continued, "and this thing with me will be resolved by death and violence."
Why were they after him? "Because I'm me," he replied.
But realizing that was not enough to say, he pushed into an almost endless flow of sentences.
"I was the spokesman for the Black Muslims," he said. "I believed in Elijah Muhammad more strongly than Christians do in Jesus. I believed in him so strongly that my mind, my body, my voice functioned 100 per cent for him and the movement. My belief led others to believe.
"Now I'm out. And there's the fear if my image isn't shattered, the Muslims in the movement will leave. Then, they know I know a lot. As long as I was in the movement, anything he [Elijah Muhammad] did was to me by divine guidance."
Malcolm said that he knew many things that made him a dangerous man to the movement."
"But I didn't want to harm anyone or the movement when I got out," he added. "But I had learned to disbelieve, sir, and Mr. Muhammad knew that I would fight against him if I did not believe and he threatened."
The man, who was once the dynamic spokesman for the Black Muslims, suddenly leaned forward and began watching the traffic at Seventh Avenue and 125th Street though the large picture window of his private office in the Hotel Theresa.
He began talking again, but this time he spoke as if there was only the battered mahogany desk and the rusted, three-section filing cabinet in the small room.
"I know brothers in the movement who were given orders to kill me," he said slowing, nodding his head and rubbing his small goatee. "I've had highly placed people within tell me, "be careful, Malcolm."
"The press gives the impression that I'm jiving about this thing," he said, turning, but not accusing his visitor. "They ignore the evidence and the actual attempts."
How did Malcolm see the future and his feud with the Black Muslims?
"I have no feud with the Black Muslims, sir. This is a one-sided thing. Those that have done violence are fanatics who think they are doing the will of God when they go and maim and cripple those who left the movement."
Those who left the movement, Malcolm continued, "have not been involved in violence against those within," adding: "I believe in taking action but not action against black people. No, sir."
What about the comments by people in Harlem that now they do not know where Malcolm X stands? Is it possible to change so suddenly?
He smiled, opened his black suit jacket, and began rubbing his fingers along the black sweater vest he wore underneath.
"I won't deny I don't know where I'm at," he said with a boyish grin. "But by the same token how many of us put the finger down on the point and say I'm here."
"I know that I'm 1,000 percent against the Ku Klux Klan, the Rockwells and any organized white groups that are against the black people in this country," he said, in reference to Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the Nazi party in the United States, and such groups as the Citizens Council.
Then assessing his present situation, he observed:
"I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under someone else's control. I feel what I'm thinking and saying now is for myself. Before, it was for and by the guidance of Elijah Muhammad. Now I think with my own mind, sir."

Latecomers Will Be Seated at Intermission...

When Fidel and I went to a concert...

In 2000, I had accepted an invite to Havana from my friend Tony Bui for the Latin American Film Festival. As a Sundance festival winner, he was going with a group of other past winners on a cultural exchange, including Karyn Kusama (who directed “Girlfight”), Michelle Rodriguez, (who starred in the film), Rory Kennedy (who is a celebrated documentary filmmaker and Robert F. Kennedy’s youngest), as well as several other filmmakers. The rest of us friends were tagging along and surreptitiously jumping on flights out of Montego Bay.

The week of the festival happened to coincide with 20^th anniversary of John Lennon’s assassination. During this time Castro unveiled a bronze statue of Lennon in a park near downtown, now referred to as Lennon Park (as opposed to Lenin). I learned that week that Castro, probably as a security measure, is notorious for being unpredictable about where he shows up. He often won’t show at a scheduled interview with the press, but next thing you know he’s standing beside you at a newsstand. So I heard.

The Latin American Film Festival is the largest Spanish-language festival in the world with filmmakers and stars from Spain, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. For the opening ceremony we were bussed to the Karl Marx theater, a massive theater at least as large as Radio City Music Hall. About a quarter mile from the venue, we were made to get off and walk the rest of the way, as security were keeping the roads open around the venue.

Our group of ten, being visiting "VIPs" got to sit about 12-15 rows back from the front of the stage and we took in all the glamorous types chattering in Spanish around us. There didn’t seem to be any “official” seating area for dignitaries and no visible security, so no one really important seem to be attending.

I was wrong.

About two minutes before the ceremony started, people suddenly launched out of their seats and gave a cheering ovation. Down the right aisle strolled an entourage of about eight in single file.

And in the middle was Fidel himself. Wearing in his dress military green with medals splashed across the front. With is chest pushed forward, he walked tall and barely acknowledged the crowd. He took a seat front row and center, about 30 feet from us.

Over the ovation we all looked at each other and pumped our fists, saying "YESSS! It's Fidel!" (Note: not an approval of his policies. Just impressed to be in the company of such a living piece of history. Wouldn't want my Cuban-American pals to misinterpret.)

I remember thinking that security hadn't really patted us down. It's not my habit to carry concealed weapons but I could have shot a rubber band at Fidel's head and become instantly world famous. Or worse.

The opening ceremony was beautiful. It started with a dark stage over which a suspended screen showed clips of Cuban movies from the 50s and 60s, all featuring a young and beautiful Omara Portuondo (the female vocalist from Buena Vista Social Club.) After a few minutes of Cuban favorites Omara herself emerged from the darkness, dressed in white and singing along to the film clips. The entire crowd suddenly began to sing along to every word, filling the hall with sentimental Cuban voices. I got the chills.

Fidel seemed to be preoccupied. Throughout the whole show, a female counsel scurried back and forth, hunched-over, to give him briefings. Fidel would keep his eyes on the stage but nod back and forth at the whispers in his ear which came every couple minutes.

Later we grabbed a car service home from a sweet middle-aged man. When we asked his name, he said “It is very easy to remember. My name is Fidel.”

He learned we were from the U.S. and began to talk about his youth and Castro’s hypocrisy.

“You know, in the Sixties, I had a Beatles party with my friends. Fidel’s policemen busted the party and I went to jail. Now, he is unveiling a statue of John Lennon in Havana.”

Taxi driver Fidel shrugged.

Fidel learned a couple of us were from New York .

“Can I ask you a favor? When you go back to New York, can you place a white flower for me on the Imagine memorial for John Lennon.”

Of course, we agreed.

Later on that trip we went to an unforgettable outdoor concert at El Malecon, the seaside wall. Near a newly-erected statue of Cuba’s National Hero Jose Marti holding a baby Elian Gonzales, Cuba’s top rock and hip-hop artists belted out a tribute to all of John Lennon’s best.

And let me tell you, there’s very few sounds as emotionally affecting as 5000 Cuban youths passionately singing along to the words of “Imagine”.

(click on image for bigger size)

Old Blog - Iraq

Photo 01/27/07 by my cousin Patrick McGreal, Major in the National Guard after he delivered school supplies to children in the village of Alramo, in Rabiah, Iraq. He wrote: "Today was one of the good days, because of your generosity. Hopefully, it makes a difference in the long term."

Monday, April 02, 2007

Cousin Trick in Iraq The oldest cousin on my Dad's side (there are about 24 of them) is Patrick, 42, a Major in the National Guard in Ohio. On Father's Day 2006, with 3 daughters at home, he was sent off to Iraq near the Syrian border for a year. Trick came home for X-mas for a couple weeks and my Dad got to see him. Trick's job in Iraq is to mediate with the local sheiks and give training to the local police and Iraqi military. He says it's a frustrating job because the U.S. government has no contract with the local soldiers, so they can (and often do) drop out or decide not to show up, either out of fear of reprisal or lack of motivation. The area of Tal Afar, near where Trick is based , had been considered a model province where the U.S. experiment was working somewhat, with little sectarian violence. That all ended last week when Trick emailed us an article from a journalist who had been embeded with them. A week ago a truck, loaded full of relief supplies from a humanitaran operation, drove into the center of a Shia neighborhood, naturally attracting desperate locals. Unfortunately the truck was driven by a suicide bomber who had 10, 000 pounds of TNT concealed within the supplies. Trick was a few miles away at the base when he he felt the enormous blasts which sent a massive mushroom cloud into the sky. About 85 Shiites were killed and 200 injured. It doesn't stop there. The next day a group of vengeful Shiite gunmen went door to door in Tal Afar, including local policemen, and rounded up 70 innnocent Sunnis and shot them dead. Finally the Iraqi military intervened and stopped the rampage. Trick has a little less than 3 months left over there, unless they extend his tour, which has not been unusual. Unbelievable that my cousin witnessing this all started with what I witnessed myself in downtown Manhattan 6 years ago, and then was used as flimsy opportunity by our god-awful administration. A few weeks ago Trick emailed me to ask how St. Patrick's Day went down in NYC. Happily I was able to provide colorful commentary about seeing the Pogues at Roseland with my friend Michele, who was more drunk than me.