Dick Gregory - Dick Gregorys Political Primer

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To Dr. Alvenia Fulton, Dr. Roland Sidney, Americas health-food stores, chiropractors, and naturopaths, and all others concerned with purifying the system

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While preparing this manuscript, I have been on an extended fast, having vowed April 24, 1971, not to consume anything but liquids until the war is over in Vietnam. Therefore, my first expression of gratitude is reserved for Dr. Alvenia Fulton, of Chicago, Illinois, who is my adviser, my counselor, the guardian of my body, and an inspiration to my mind. I could never put into words what she has meant to me during my many fasts.

Once again my repeated thanks to Jeannette Hopkins of Harper & Row for her insights, her encouragement, and her patience, all necessary to seeing this manuscript completed.

For research assistance I am indebted to Susan Stallings; Mike Duberstein; Samuel F. Yette; Bob Johnson, editor of Jet magazine; A. Donald Bourgeois; Jean Williams; and Elaine Shepherd.

Ebony magazine was also very generous in providing research materials.

For the wisdom and assistance of Ralph Mann, Bob Chuck, Bernie Kleinman, and Dick Shelton, I shall always be grateful.

Thanks also to James Sanders and James R. McGraw for providing the help only they can give.

Finally, my love and gratitude to my wife, Lillian, and the kidsMichelle, Lynne, Pamela, Paula, Stephanie, Gregory, Miss, and Christianwho are a constant inspiration to me in my writing and in my living.

At the outset of the long Fourth of July weekend in 1971, President Nixon and others appeared on national television in what was the beginning of a five-year birthday celebration for the United States of America. In 1976 our nation will be two hundred years old, if one takes the Declaration of Independence rather than the Constitution as the official US birth certificate.

The way things are going in America today, it is probably wise to get a five-year headstart in celebrating. Its hard to say for certain at this point if there will be elections in 76, much less a nation.

Nevertheless, we Americans are supposed to be reaching back into our rich national heritage, dwelling upon the words, wisdom, insight, and vision of our Founding Fathers, contemplating the struggles and the urge for freedom which marked the birth pangs of the United States. This is a dangerous idea. But thats what our President tells us to do.

The Good Old Days

Theres no doubt things have gotten bad in this country. I used to hear older folks always talking about the good old days. I once heard two old men, they must have been ninety years old apiece, standing on the street corner talking about the good old days and bad-mouthing todays youth. One of the oldsters said to his partner, I dont know whats wrong with these kids today. We didnt steal automobiles when we were kids. Hell, they didnt have automobiles. And a person would have to be out of his mind to steal a horse. Any time you steal something that eats more food than you do, youre crazy!

Now it looks like President Nixon and his administration are bringing back the good old days and nobody wants them. Of course, I knew what would happen even back during the 1968 Presidential campaign. I could see by the look in Candidate Nixons eye that if he ever got elected, he would put a hurtin on white folks. And he has. I hear white folks crying and complaining now that never cried before. Each time another group of folks gets laid off from work, it looks more like Nixons campaign pledge really meant, Bring us togetheron the unemployment line!

Just the other day, during my daily travels across the country, I climbed aboard a plane and an old white cat gestured to me to come over, saying, Can I speak to you, my brother? I thought, Your what????? Back when everything was going well for white folks, I was the nigger and the coon. But things have gotten so bad that Im the brother now.

So I walked over to the white cat, and in my best white folks voice I said, Yes, whats happening, my man?

Right away he started complaining. Theyre really messing things up for us, arent they?

I said, Who? The Black Panthers?

He said, No. I mean Nixon and them.

And I told him, I dont even want to talk about that. Thats white folks business.

But he was persistent. Its black folks business too. Nobodys got any money.

So I informed him, Thats where youre wrong, my man. Whatever money we black folks aint got, you white folks cant get.

Finally, in desperation, he said, But I was just reading here in the Wall Street Journal that the country might be headed into another Depression.

So I calmly told him the truth. You white folks might be. Us black folks never came out of the last one.

Of course, when the money goes bad in the United States, things are messed up financially all over the world. Even the Rolls-Royce company went bankrupt in England. I never thought I would see a time when Rolls-Royce stock was down to three cents a share and the same day even a bad roll of toilet paper was selling for sixteen cents in the ghetto.

Back at home the Nixon administration gave the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation a $250-million government loan. Any way you look at it, that is nothing other than a big welfare check for Lockheed.

It is really ironic that two of President Nixons own cousins are on welfare. The President doesnt seem to want to help his relatives out, but is willing to give Lockheed $250 million. And the same legislators who readily vote help for Lockheed quibble when it comes to providing welfare money for a poor black mother and her children, especially if those innocent children were born out of wedlock. When it comes to giving welfare payouts to black folks and other poor folks, so many legislators say, They ought to learn to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

So I sent the president of Lockheed Aircraft a telegram when I found out he was asking for $250 million. It read: Why dont you learn to pick yourself up by your own landing gears? I just cant understand Lockheed asking for all that welfare money and they dont even have any illegitimate planes!

Law, Order, and Calley

But Americas current problems cut much deeper into the national psyche than merely financial difficulties. More critical than the recession in US economy is the depression in US morality. Perhaps the supreme symbol of the US moral depression and confusion during 1971 was the national reaction to the conviction of Lieutenant William Calley, as well as the action of President Nixon in the matter.

Beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt, Lieutenant Calley was found guilty of the premeditated murder of no fewer than twenty-two Vietnamese villagers. The lieutenant said he was guilty. A military tribunal affirmed that guilt. And then President Nixon promptly ordered Lieutenant Calley released from the stockade.

Lieutenant Calley immediately became a national symbol, and in many circles a national hero. A phonograph record, The Ballad of Lieutenant Calley, became a hit in some quarters of the country. Protest demonstrations on his behalf mounted. Some folks advocated his candidacy for President!

I was passing through South Carolina just after the Calley trial. A white cat came up to me in the airport terminal wearing a Lt. Calley for President button. He pointed to the button and said, What do you think of that, Dick Gregory?

And I told him I didnt think much of a confessed murderer of women and children as a Presidential candidate, but I said, Youve got a right to go crazy if you want to.

Now that really surprised him. He said, Whatta you mean?

So I told him, As long as youre going to go crazy, you might just as well go crazy all the way. Make Charles Manson your Vice President, Sirhan Sirhan your Attorney General, and James Earl Ray the head of your Civil Rights Commission!