My Government Means to Kill Me

by Rasheed Newson

Affection never outlasted need. This was the first lesson the city taught me the hard way. The vast majority of us are merely pawns in someone else’s game. Don’t get defensive over this point. Embrace it. Once you do, you can begin to manipulate the board. Positioned correctly, pawns can checkmate kings.

Don’t reject the space you gravitate toward just because the windows aren’t stained glass and the congregation isn’t saved.

We tell ourselves daily that we aren’t free to do this or that because we are that or this. To escape such limited thinking, we don’t have to look far. The keys are in our pocket.

If we never meet our despicable adversaries, we’d never be forced to find out how brave, resilient, and cunning we can be.

You can’t protect your interests if you don’t have an accurate understanding of everyone else’s.

The point is to let your bruised and bloodied bodies serve as evidence that the government means to kill you, if you so much as protest its bigoted policies.”