Revolution #211, September 2, 2010
"This revolution, where?"
Dear Editors,
Just want to share one of many interesting encounters on the street while helping spread the Message and a Call statement. On a recent Saturday night this August, the warm night brought out a large mixed crowd of people. A projector up at an intersection is showing Bob Avakian talking about the real issues facing humanity. I'm down the street a little ways in the people traffic near the bus stop, handing out the statement. I offer one to a younger Asian man, he declines, saying "my English is not good." He hangs around, waiting for someone. A little later I offer a group of three Black men statements, they also are not fluent in English but one of them takes a copy and I go about my business. Ten minutes later, they approach me together with the Asian man and now also a Latino man with them. They indicate they are a group of five traveling together, three from Ethiopia, one from China, and one from Mexico. Maybe they're in a guest worker program, or here for some kind of conference, I'm not sure. I wish my Spanish was better. But they are all going over the one statement copy and have questions. The Mexican national can of course read the Spanish part, and is explaining to the others, but there is still some language barrier amongst them. An Ethiopian asks me: "This revolution, where?" At first I think they want to know where they can get more information, and start to tell them. They correct me and I finally figure out that they want to know what country the revolution is in. I explain that its right here in the USA we're talking about, the heart of imperialism. They are now really surprised and interested, and start talking amongst themselves again. It dawns on me that they had at first assumed the statement was just some new media propaganda about the next country the USA was planning to invade to get their oil or something! They now each take a copy and head towards the bus. It will remain a bit of a mystery to me who they were and what brought them together, but I think that they will help spread the message.
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