When Does A Movement Cease To Be?

When is the gig up for a “political “movement?

When it has long since passed the point of diminishing returns?

When the vast majority of references to it on the internet are years old?

When it’s events that used to draw thousands barely attract a hundred?

Or when it is realized that the “cause” espoused by the movement has been found to be one that is shrouded in deceit and subterfuge.

Or maybe the end is realized when it is discovered that the “leader” of the movement is little more than a cult-member who used the “movement” to enrich her sect.

It is hard to know exactly when the heart of a movement actually quits beating, but I think that it is safe to say that the “free Mumia” cause is on it’s final approach towards the dustbin of history.

Of course there are those who still believe that Mumia is an innocent man just the same as there are those who doubt that the holocaust ever occurred. Such people exist, but thankfully we don’t have to pay them much mind.

As much as I delight in the dissipation of faux causes and the demagogues who feed off of them, I do feel more than a tinge of sadness when I consider the tremendous amount of time, energy, and moral capital squandered in a bid to free a man undeserving.

How much more effective could all of that drive been if it had been channeled towards the abolitionist cause as a whole, or programs like the “Innocence Project”, which actually do something for people who are truly innocent and on death row? Would the “left” now have more moral credibility had so many within it’s ranks not sacrificed their skepticism at the crooked alter of Mumiaism.

These questions are difficult to answer and any of the Mumia fans who are still standing would be quick to argue that without Mumia and his cause that none of these issues would have come to light. The uncomfortable flip-side to this equation of course being that with Mumia these issues have been obscured by the fact that they are being championed by supporters of an unrepentant killer.

It is important to remember that Mumia’s epiphany concerning the death penalty occurred after he shot Daniel Faulkner in the face and blew his brains across the sidewalk at 13th and Locust. This fact hardly makes Jamal a steady figure to balance a movement ostensibly consumed with “peace and justice”.

Still, I do not believe that Jamal should have ever faced the death penalty, not because I don’t think he deserved it, but because I oppose the death penalty in general.

A far better and more appropriate punishment for a morally bereft entity like Mumia is the punishment that he is currently receiving. He is having to watch powerlessly as his “friend” Pam Africa flies the movement meant to free him straight into the ground. Furthermore, he has to live with the reality that he has literally whored his limited talents for every nominally “leftist” cause that one could possibly think of. He has stood in defense of tyrants, militant Islamists, and must live with the fact that he has to forever be the apologist extrordinaire for the MOVE Organization. A terrible punishment in and of itself. ( I know, cause I have been there.)

Perhaps, most importantly, Jamal is forced to realize that for all of it’s flaws that the criminal justice system does sometimes get it right. He is still right where he belongs despite there at one time there was a “Millions for Mumia” movement.

Now, he has to realize that it is Mumia who?
A nothing, a nobody, a whore for barbarians and a con-artist with no one left to con.

Justice done in my view.