FYI!

This statement has to b read @ memorial<<

BJ {William M. Johnson}
*WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CANNOT REST*
http://www.commongroundrelief.org

www.angola3.org

If your vision is for one year, plant rice~
If your vision is for 10 years, plant trees~
But if your vision is for 100 years, educate children."
*African proverb*

Sadly we cannot be there. But we are there fully in spirit. Please give our deep condolences to his family and let them know it is only illness that keeps us away. We are submitting a statement below to be read at the Memorial. Thanks for giving us this opportunity to share our feelings.

FOR SMITTY

Someone, I think it was Cleo in her message of condolence to the family of Brother Smitty, referred to him as "our friendly grouse".

Yes, Brother Smitty gave the impression that was who he was, a person who masked his true feelings behind an appearance of being a brother who was always on some one's case. If you were out of step; in any way, it was Brother Smitty who sternly pulled you up and let you know you were out of line.

Yet, behind that stern bearded face, Brother Smitty possessed a friendly and kind nature that he showed to those he loved and cared about. Brother Smitty was for real. There was no shucking and jiving behind this brother. He was a for-real Panther.

We worked closely with Brother Smitty in several ways. He was a strong supporter of the New Afrikan Liberation Front  and he contributed to our efforts to make that organization a for-real factor in our revolution, and becoming the model for our liberation and a strong force for the freeing of our Black Nation.

Smitty used to contact me by phone every time an issue of our newspaper NATION TIME was due to come off the press. He would ask "where's that paper, Brother. I haven't got my copies yet." We'd make arrangements to meet each other in front of the World Trade Center, where I'd give him his 50 copies of the paper. He would pay me for them and then he'd head back home to Newark, grouchy but satisfied.

It wasn't until several years later that I realized that Brother Smitty was paying for those papers himself and distributing them free of charge to brothers behind the wall and asking them only to pass the paper on to other brothers so they could keep in touch with the movement.

That was how we knew Brother Smitty: a friendly grouch who loved our political prisoners and prisoners of war and shared our paper with them and others who had been captured in our war against the beast -- the u.s. government.

We are sure that even as Brother Smitty began to realize his time with us was coming to an end, he must have found something to grouse about as he smiled behind that magnificent beard he hid behind.

With all our love and admiration we join all of you on saying to our Brother, "Power to the People, Brother Smitty". 

                                                                                                Herman and Iyaluua Ferguson

                                                                                                    "FREE THE LAND!"

Smitty speaking at the bon voyage for Herman and Iyaluua  (June 27, 2009)