Editor’s note: Sean Price called me today to remind me that May 23rd is D-Day. Hail Meg!
I saw a movie this weekend and it further reinforced my ideas about charisma and leadership. Some people are born leaders. They have a presence that is magnetic and forceful. They have the courage to lead by example. The most intelligent leaders know how to delegate responsibilities to people who are loyal to their program.
I want to honor a young man who had all the special qualities of a great leader. His tragic flaw was only that he was young. His greatest acheivement was that he was the catalyst for the assembly of a 500+ member collective that came from every corner of the city. There was never before and there has never been since a community action group of this size and complexity.
This young man was from one of the most depressed areas of New York City, the Ocean Hill section of Brownsville. It was a neighborhood in which the abandoned buildings and vacant lots serve as playgrounds and open spaces. The services that most places take for granted like trash collection and street cleaning are luxuries. It was in this environment that he was raised, but his conciousness extended beyond these conditions. As a student in one of NYC’s most prestigious high schools, he displayed his intelligence and charisma. The students of this school were often terrorized by groups of youth from neighboring high schools.
MEGATRON decided to assemble a group of schoolmates that would repel these young terrorists and provide a measure of safety for the students that needed his help. The early success of his group spawned the formation of a larger network of students throughout the city. Thru his leadership, this youth action movement grew to encompass members in every boro of the city and was renowned and respected for its mobilization techniques.
One of my fondest memories of MEGATRON recalls a time when the original 13 members of his youth organization were prevented from securing a goal they had set for themselves. Instead of admonishing some members for not being active enough, he spun that day’s failure into a positive message for victory the following day. On the next day’s mission, who do you think was front and center in the effort to secure the youth collective’s agenda?
MEGATRON was an inspiring dynamic leader and I thank GOD for being able to call him my brother.
first great blog good writing good reading,
second, is the youth organization your talking about the Decepticons from NY in the 80’s. Growing up at that time, the Decepts or groups that called themselves that terrorized more people and sold more drugs than I can shake a stick at, there must be some other youth organization your talking about. If you are talking about the Decepticons then I have to say “nigga please”
thanks for your comment.
before you say “nigga please” understand the genesis of the group. It wasn’t formed to be about terrorism or drugdealing but that is what the collective ‘transformed’ into. The very thing that they were formed to oppose. As the group grew and its influence among the youth grew there were all kinds of battles and infights for the soul and direction of the collective.
I am not saying that MEGATRON or any of us were/are perfect. We are just mortals and therefore we are flawed beings. I won’t allow the legacy of that group of brothers(and sisters) to be about their negative aspects. We have all paid some price for those actions and some. like MEGATRON has paid the ultimate price. His legacy should be about his ability to bring people together from all over the city. To get people to put aside their ‘hood-centricity(Brownsville vs. Flatbush, etc) to understand that we are ALL in the same gang.
My upcoming book is tentatively titled ‘Transformer’.
roger that, I guess it can be seen in the same light as the bloods and the crips and how they started, then spiraled out onto something it was not inteded, there were a lot of people calling themselves decepts at that time.
R U Fuckin Kidding me them niggas was low lifes. U name it they did it rob,steal,kill most of those founding members r still in jail doing time for chains and polo cloths be real. You want to talk about a organization lets talk about The Nation Of Gods And Earths 5%ers Stop dick riding 2 please a homey or fallen solder keep it real
^Nah mane, don’t believe your own hype. The Gods had their place in time in NYC and we were the dudes that supplanted them. All the brothers that founded the DeCep movement were engineering students. Some died and some did do bids, but please pump your brakes if you think that 5%’ers were more real than my brothers were.
You have youth collectives now that can’t extend past the parameters of their own city block. Understand that my brothers movement at one point unified a city. You were either with us or against us and there was no indifference. I am just trying to insure that in the end our legacy must be OUR story and not HIS story.
Peace,
I could help but to read your email information about the decepticons. The subject was very interesting. I remember the decepticons from the mid 80’s and like the above mention writers said it wasn’t all good. The7y was robbing and doing whatever. I’m sure the organization of that group had it’s reason and purpose for that particular moment.
There’s something that you and everybody needs to understand. The decepticons could never be compared to the Nation of the Gods and Earths!!!!! Regardless of the era!!! Comparing the two is like trying to compare apples and oranges!!! You probably known some of those brothers that had “righteous names” and said they’re part of the Nation of the Gods and Earths and these same brothers were wilding out and robbing, etc. They was doing devishment for their own benefit. This haS nothing to do with the Nation of the Gods and Earths as a whole.
I sorry to hear about your lost to your homeboy. I’m certain you, him and your crew initially had a purpose and a reason for the formation of the decepticons. Usually, it’s the end result that everyone gets judged on. It seemes to me that your crews’ life expectancy was perhaps 7-10 years and was only known no further than the tri-state area at best. Please excuse me if i’m wrong because i’m only guessing. The Nation of the Gods and Earths have been in existance for 40 years and counting, they’re also nationally and internationally known as well because we have a job to do and that is to teach all the human families on the planet earth and that is no small task.
This short repsonse is to briefly show you the difference bewtween The Nation of the Gods and Earths and the decepticons. The decepticons was a gang and The Nation of the Gods and Earths study Islam which is a culture and a way of life. Peace.
Peace,
Darmel Shabazz Allah
P.S. Go to the Nation of the Gods and Earths website if you want to find out what we are all about.
Peace God,
Brother Allah I truly appreciate the time that you gave to speak your truth on this website.
You said something very profound which is that someone’s end result is usually what they are judged by, what their legacy is defined by.
I can’t agree with you more than that and to that extent I have worked tirelessly to ‘transform’ myself into someone that returns his love of self back into his community. I know that I owe myself, my parents, my family, my friends, the community a tremendous debt for all that I have taken. So the story has not been completed yet. There are still chapters that I have not spoken on and chapters that have yet to be composed.
I will have to remind you and all the readers of this site that my brothers and I were a youth collective. The gang classification has never been used by my hand. Several commenters have spoken this word but I will NEVER consider my brothers, or the A-Team, or Boom Bash, or Zulu, or Lo-Lives or the Nation of Gods and Earths as gangs. You claim to remember my brothers but you do not know of our history so you only have hearsay and rhetoric to judge us by. I can understand your negative perception of us. That same mindset is how people might view the Gods and Earths without the proper information about Brother Clarence 13X.
The Nation of the Gods and the Earths still have to deal with the fact that they deal in terms of ‘Black’ and ‘white’ absolutism. These terms are a social construct that has no root in reality. Black and white doesn’t exist when you consider humanity. It was put in place to like many other things to keep humans dumb, deaf and stupid.
With that established, I will admit that there are some really wicked ‘white’ folks that run this planet, but it was also some greedy ‘Black’ folks that were willing to do anything for money that traded my ancestors away from their motherland.
You referred to the Nation of Gods website but you didn’t give us a link so I will send my readers to this site to learn the story of Brother Clarence 13X, founder of the Nation of Gods and Earths.
http://moorishworld.tripod.com/id29.html
Thank you for your time here at my website. I wouldn’t mind building with you in the future.
Peace God.
THat’s Real talk NEw york gone wild with this blood and crip shit bring the D_ceps back!!!
Yo Darry, What Up! Holla at the Fam. Long Time No See. Tech 88 and beyond. Arron just told me about your site. We have to link up.
Truth Be Told True Decepts are True to the Soul!
Hail Meg!
Y’all really have no idea what is about to do down
HAIL MEG!
Not to glorify anything our existance is/was a product as much as a catalyst to/of the world around us.Our tenacity,was matched only by our proven dexterity to adapt more precisely TRANSFORM and master our situation.Yes mastering your surroundings means one thing to a 35 yr old father of three dealing with teen-age pregnancy and elementary school shootings than it does / did to a 15 whose only true claim to existance is his name. Our preinclanations and lend way to our misjudgments.I hope those reading this can grasp the realness of life,the depth of humans and the truth of Brotherhood.
Till All Are ‘Cons,
Darkness Hail Meg!