Robert King Wilkerson.

Last night, Robert King Wilkerson, friend of Malik, member of the Angola 3 and the Black Panthers, and imprisoned for 29 years for a crime he did not commit, came to speak to us. I wrote down as much of his speech as I could, but rather than type the whole thing out, here are some highlights

"There are some people who are reflective, and some who have a thermostat aura about themselves. Some can control the temperature, some only reflect the temperature. But the thermostat controls. People are like that. We are all reflective of environment. But when I say control, I mean you help to control it by things you do. People like [friends] Helen and Dr. Paul, they're like the latter. Dr. Paul reflected some of the things needed to be done. [...] What the relationship is between Common Ground and Dr. Paul and Helen, is that Common Ground took on the task to do this. Dr. Paul and Helen were smoothing out bumps, providing medical care based on love, not money --- if you didn't have anything, so be it. People took on task."

"If you are trying to establish a movement, it doesn't matter if it's violent or not --- you'll be repressed and oppressed by the system."

The legacy of the Black Panthers stands on because lots of them are doctors and professors. Had it been racist, you would not see them in positions they're in now."

"We saw Katrina 15 months ago, but it had been happning to some people for eons."

"Common Ground is more radical than the Black Panthers ever were. People say radical has to be violent, which is bullshit. They decide to take the government head on. Common Ground did something the state did not or could not do."

"You're here on a benevolent mission, you have to realize when you come up with an organization like Common Ground, a situation like this is ongoing. No organization should remain static --- hings you implement fifteen months ago may no longer work. If it's not geared to evolve, it will become extinct."

"A collective does not implode from within, the main objective is to remember purpose for coming here initially."

"If I get beaten over the head with a bat for 2000 years, and then turn around and hit them, I'm not an aggressor --- I'm a protector. Some might say revolutionary."

[on racism] "The government was never geared towards ending it. It creates thi and perpetuates it."

"Black Panthers and Common Ground, we just want to make the same standard of living for everyone."

[on being in prison for a crime he didn't commit] "Am I bitter? You better believe it. You can't be dipped in shit and not come up stinking."

"You gotta have an alternative, if you don't, you become a sheep... and there are a lot of wolves out there."