Regarding Dr. M's Essay: Tookie Williams and the American Culture of Violence
See Beyond Religion, Toward Spirituality by Dr. M


Tookie Williams and the American Culture of Violence should be read by everyone, youth & elders. Powerful piece of information. Tookie is a product of his environment. We all play a part of the environment, whether we write the song, sing the song, sing back up to it, or pretend the song does not exist. No man is an island. Life is a learning experience. You kept it real.

A lot of times, people do not want to hear the real because of guilt, ignorance or fantasy living.

Though many African Americans are not imprisoned in buildings, they are imprisoned in their minds, in the economics of White America and while striving to be and have what America has--what they consider successful and the social norm because of violence. Violence is not always in the form of guns, knives, nuclear weapons. There are degrees of violence. But most importantly of all, violence is violence. Not hiring an African American who is qualified and a citizen because he is black is violent. * Violence is abusive, unjust use of power.*

May God bless your works and anoint your thoughts and words, that you may be of help to others.

Shirley Thomas