Peace brotha, I hope that all is well with you.  I miss you greatly, but I know that you have been watch the course of our movement and struggle from the realm of the ancestors.  Plus I know that you are an avid reading so I decided to write to you.  Please excuse the formality, but it hard for me to write to you.  I am so used to walking around my house speaking with you, cleaning and changing the water on your alter, asking you random questions about the BLM, BLA, and how Mr. Fab and Keak da Sneak are somethings conscious artists.  We speak so much that I am not used to writing to you.  It doesn’t come across the say way, but I am sure as the “card carryiing New Afrikan” that you are, you will catch my drift.

Vad, what’s good.  You saw that Oscar Grant verdict!  Yea I know, I was worried about the youth too.  The pigs was out there just waiting to pounce on our babies.  You saw them training in killa a N****A, crack a N****A head, frame a N***A, lock a N***A up tactics.  Same things going on here and throughout the Empire.  When the verdict dropped you could heard the disappointment, rage, and sadness throughout The Bay.  What I didn’t get a since of, unfortunately, was the plan/ plans.  But that’s another, all to familiar, story.

Since your transition/ transformation I have been able to visit Herman and Jalil.  We spent time talking about you, and your contribution to our collective struggle and your commitment to the SF-8 Trial.  I’m not sure if you know, but the wake of that trial and the release of the film “The Legacy of Torture” made a tremendous impact of my political life and my desire to further investigate Black Liberation Movement analysis and what MXGM was all about.  Thank you for driving me to and from the SF courthouse for rallies and court dates and thanks for letting me “barrow” PE materials to develop my analysis.  This foundation has been a life force for me.  I must also give credit to Ms. Liz Darias that brought me to my first PE series on Global Capitalism and reached out to me from Berkeley City College BSU.  Through the SF-8 trail and struggle against state sponsored torture and oppression I found my movement fam.  Thank you Javad, Liz, Omar, Akua, Kali, Mama Ayanna, and Baba Themba.

The last time that I saw you was at my very Surprise Bornday Party in Oakland after the MXGM Ideological Conference October 4th 2009.  Thank you Jalal for the planning effort and All of my Oakland, NY, ATL, Boston, and Fort Worth Family for coming through.  Vad,of course you were outside building a politicking.  I would have never imagined at that point that you were ill and that that next time we spoke would be from the temple of the ancestors.  It took me hard.  Very hard…I am still in the recovery process/ the healing process.  I am still trying to understand.  Every time I go back home I take a lap around Lake Merritt in memory of you, in celebration of our people, and in unity with our PPs and freedom fighters.  Me and Marsha still talk about waking up at 4am during Black August to eat and run/jog/ walk that lake with you.  Calling out the name of Freedom Fighters and hitting squats: “George Jackson”  squat “Khatari Gaullden” squat “Johnathon Jackson” squat.  Please know that those walks during BA and over the years mean so much to me; instilling in me discipline, consistency and struggle by way of wellness, PE, and physical fitness.

Your life and transition has solidified my passion for wellness.  I see so many people among our ranks and at times myself getting so rapped up in work and struggle that we cannot see or feel that we are not well.  Not well physically, mentally, emotional, nutritionally and nor are we healthy in our relationships.  We must get free, but we must get healing first.  Our movement is sick because our people are sick.  We have not created institutions and mechanisms of family and community that will take care of us and heal us.  So we put our trust and resources to systems and institutions that have been designed for our demise.  Hospital do not heal… communities heal.  Vad, we gotta get this thing right.  From the inside out and from the outside in… We have go to get it together.  We must go beyond liberalism and get to the essence… Vad, we took an L as a people and as a movement from your transition.  The emotional and psychological wounds are deeps in heart and minds of those that love you and our close to you.  Our healing comes from creating a better way to care for ourselves and our people.  Our movement heals when our warriors understand that struggle is not one dimensional and that our first duty is to be healthy.

There are few people in the world that have changed the course of my life.  Literally reshaping its direction, sharpening its focus and broadening my gaze.  Vad, you have no idea of how you have impacted my being.  But I am one of the many who’s life you have changed.  I have met and know so many brothas and sistas that have their own unique stories about how they met you, what you exchanged with them, and how they will never be the same because of it.  I think I liked Omar and Kali’s stories the most.  Their stories are so vivid and indicative of the dimensions of your personality and humor.  These stories keep you ever present in our spirit and in the institutional memory of our struggle.  But we must also take action.  The day of our ascension an elder said to me, “When a warrior falls (in the struggle), we step up… we celebration their life, but we step up.”  I would add to this they we also must reflect on how and why they fell and strategise on how we can take the baton a step further.  I commit to this.  Javad, Ancestors, Creator, Universe may you guide me on the righteous path; that I may forever work to manifest self-determination, self-respect and self-defense for our Nation.  On your Bornday, a day that our people celebrate and will celebration for years to come, I solute you, I honor you, I pour libations for you.  Javad Tshombe Jahi!

Ashe,

Your loving lil’ sis Kana

-kayin

Forever in my thoughts, your spirt and energy pushes me brother to continue to do what I do

Free the land!!!

Lalit Clarkson