"A Taste of Power" by Elaine Brown

I recently read Elaine Brown's book "A Taste of Power" and I thought it was fascinating. I am excited she is in the race, though I do want to hear her current thoughts on the Green Party Key Value of Nonviolence. The Panthers were pretty rough at times, but they also provided food, medical care, and schooling--doing "so much with so little" while the capitalists did "so little with so much." Ultimately she left the party because her life was in danger--many of the men "were even willing to cash in their revolutionary principles for a self-serving 'Mafia.'"

The book has interesting perspectives on people I had already heard about: Harry Belafonte, Frank Sinatra, Huey Long, Joe McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, Louis Farrakhan, Ike and Tina Turner, and Jerry Brown. I also found it interesting that the first SWAT team was formed to surround Panther headquarters, and that Panthers believed the SLA was an FBI invention to make them look bad.

As I understand it, they started patrolling the streets to guard against police brutality, but it was mostly the Panthers who were assassinated. At one point someone observed they had lost 11 people without any police fatalities.

I also listened to her CD "Sieze the Time" which is pretty good. I have not yet read her book, "The Condemnation of Little B."