The Seattle Times asked Prometheus Brown (Geo from Blue Scholars) to write a guest column about the recent gun violence in the city. Geo gave them a song, performed from what looks like Dr. Jose Rizal Park on Beacon Hill:
Tryin’a do the right thing. I don’t have the answers,
but neither does a person who practices double standards.
If every death’s a tragedy then join us when we’re chanting,
and not just when we’re singing and dancing. Too manyshots fired in the south end, nobody cares.
Shots fired in the north end, everybody scared.
Nothing they can do for us that we can’t do ourselves.
Point the finger at the mirror instead of somebody else.
The post has generated 132 comments so far on the Times page; sadly, many of them were racist or misinformed. “Big shout to the ppl who got my back against the @seattletimes comment section crazies,” tweeted Geo this afternoon. “My favorite @seattletimes comment section response to my editorial: ‘don’t quit your day job.'”
The Montlaker blog had the best tweet in reply: “While @prometheusbrown points out Seattleites live in different cities, @seattletimes commenters live in completely different worlds.”
The Times is also hosting a live chat on the Seattle shootings Wednesday, June 13 at noon with Geo/Prometheus and Cafe Racer regular Andrew Swanson, who also wrote an op-ed for the newspaper this week.
Geo will appear alongside many other performers at today’s Beacon Boogie Block Party outside The Station coffee shop at 5 p.m.
