Troy Davis don't have Bob Dylan to write a protest song telling his story.
I was a teenager living under dictatorship, because US wanted it in order to prevent communist regimes and other reasons, and this music was playing on the radios and though I could not understand all the lyrics, I emphasized the few lines and words I could understand in the seventies, and had nobody to ask what was it about I knew exactly what he was denouncing.
I got so angry when I heard it and justice was all I wanted as many of those who didn't know the whole story.At that time politics was part of culture and a man could not dare to say he didn't have political views. Men read newspapers in the morning, it was part of the ritual and he had to talk to his friends about political topics. I remember watching at the TV, that beautiful woman - just searched and it is Scarlet Rivera - with a long hair playing the violin, Bob Dylan guitar and singing. That's what many Americans did at that time and it set Rubin Hurricane Carter free. It was when I watched the movie Denzel Washington impersonates Rubin Carter that I became aware of the whole story. Again I'm angry because there are many stories like this one in US but America has gone back in time, or turned mad, or... whatever happened that even it's president after breaking many conventions and laws appears at the television claiming: "Justice was done." after the death of Osama bin Laden. If the president of United States of America gives this example, Obama ordering to shoot Osama is a crime according to international law, and this is one of many international laws US is breaking in the name of "protecting Americans", "humanitarian aid" and other "noble causes", what is striking is the way American is treating it's own citizens, black or white. Blacks, as always, at the death-row... same old story even when the case has international attention like Troy Davis that will be executed today, or the case of Mumia Abu Jamal to name two, US government remains silent, people remain silent. If you followed till here, thank you, this is the song that made a great part of the world be aware of the injustice Rubin Hurricane Carter was suffering and helped him have a trial.
Troy Davis? He is about to be executed 7:00 p.m. Greenwich Meantime.
This case has received world attention and Troy Davis didn't have a fair trial and is about to have a lethal injection. Names like Joan Baez, Salman Rushdie and others have twitted but who knows about it? What is happening to our culture that makes it impossible to people be responsible for what is happening and fight for justice of others or even manifest discontentment with a status quo that affects directly citizens daily life?
What is happening to Troy Davis went too far. Being on the verge of receiving the lethal injection after all of what was done? What is happening that made our voices blow in the wind without any result? America is playing with us, playing a ridiculous game and it is a shame. If Obama could see himself at today's speech trying to prevent Palestine to be part of UN the way many people do he would never show his face again. Obama, Sarkozy and others are clowns and all the elite that is ruling the world have power and are inflicting heinous pain to many. Ironically they are clowns who lost track of how ridiculous they look, how old their strategies are and how far from freedom they have always been. They are condemned from birth.
Update: Troy Davis will not be killed today and this case is being used I still don't know why. Update: September, 22, 2011 he was executed by lethal injection - (post above)
Hurricane
Bob Dylan
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they've killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously.
"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand.
I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops."
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night.
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that.
In Paterson that's just the way things go.
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates."
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.
Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.
Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"
Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame.
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
"Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?"
"Don't forget that you are white."
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."
Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
You'll be doin' society a favor.
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim."
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail.
But then they took him to the jail house
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.
All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.
And though they could not produce the gun,
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.
Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell.
That's the story of the Hurricane,
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.