Justice Begins In the Imagination

Hi Billy, I just read how Anita Hill won’t cut Joe Biden any slack for dragging her name through the mud all those years ago. She says she wants real change and accountability. I’m a Christian and I believe in forgiveness. But we as a nation got to start keeping it real. Where do we begin?

— Wanetta, Jersey City

Dear Wanetta,

In the Senate hearing room, the old-hardwood walls and tables lend a solemn air. Seated in a long row on the bench above the rest of the people are Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Ilhan Omar, Senator Stacey Abrams, Senator Maxine Waters, Senator Ayanna Pressley, Senator Toni Morrison, Senator Lori Lightfoot, Senator Shirley Chisholm, Senator Carol Moseley Braun and Senator Michelle Obama. Below them, seated at a microphone, facing the 10 senators and a national audience of millions, is a witness named Joe Biden.

Justice begins in the imagination.

— Rev

•   •   •

That Mueller report is some good reading, Reverend. The man’s a regular W.P. Wodehouse and doesn’t even know it. But it stuck in my craw watching Assange get carried from the Ecuadorian Embassy like a big hairy baby in the arms of the bobbies. I’m all for taking on The Donald and Assange ain’t no saint, but to go down for exposing the dirty deeds of the Pentagon. That stinks of bull, Reverend. My friends say he had it coming. I couldn’t disagree more. You as peeved as I am?

— Tim, Boerum Hill

I have to catch myself because I feel like I should fire off a snarky jab at the hacker. He has boldly gone where no man has ever been so annoying — and worse than that if the rape charges are true.

But whether or not I like him is not important, because I know that I dislike American exceptionalism — the force that has Assange in its crosshairs. It is the reigning toxin of our culture. It is far more noxious than Julian Assange.

The Pentagon is a murderous band of gangsters and exposing its inner workings couldn’t be more important. Assange did that. He also vividly warned us about the national security state in the computer era. He doesn’t come off smelling like Jesus Christ, after his confusing deals with various devils, but it is startling with Assange gone (if he is gone) that there isn’t an outlaw left to face American Empire on such a scale.

May you travel in wildness,

— Rev

Reverend Billy is an activist and political shouter, a post-religious preacher of the streets and bank lobbies. Have a question for Reverend Billy? Just email RevBilly@Indypendent.org and unburden your soul.