Matt Stockamp's New Remix

I wrote a remix based upon what the future and legacy of Marcus Yallow might hold. I remember talking class about different ways of writing history, and as I thought about what I wanted to remix I pondered about what future history books might say about Marcus. I decided to write about a future history class and their discussion about freedom through involving Marcus in their history book. I wanted to have Mrs. Andersen (Marcus's teacher) teach the class because I wanted to imagine her changing sides and siding with Marcus after realizing the good he had done for the country and realizing that she had accepted authority's propaganda and been stupidified. I also reflect on some themes in this remix. So here it is:

Little Brother Remix

Setting: The year is 2050 and this remix takes place in a public high school history class.

Student:

Excuse me Mrs. Andersen. I was just reading my textbook, American Heroes from the 17^th through the 21^st Century, and I stumbled upon a man by the name of Marcus Yallow. Why is this kid’s name in a history book along with guys like Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King? I mean what did a 17 year old high schooler ever do to gain such a national legacy?

Mrs. Andersen:

I’m glad you asked that question because I was planning on lecturing on our rights as citizens for freedom, but I can’t think of a better way of explaining this subject than to spend this class talking to you about Marcus Yallow.

In the early 2000s, America and especially San Francisco lived in fear due to terrorism. The Bay Bridge had just been bombed, leaving over 4,000 people dead and an innumerable amount of citizens missing. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was on the prowl at every moment, suspecting and accusing multitudes of innocent people of being terrorists. Marcus Yallow was one of these citizens.

After the bombs went off, Marcus was abducted by the DHS and sent to a secret prison on Treasure Island. While he was there, he was interrogated and horribly mistreated. Upon getting released, his life was changed and he swore an oath to take down the DHS and bring back America as the “Land of the Free”.

What many of you will be surprised to hear is that I taught Marcus that same year. I remember he came into class one day just infuriated that I was protecting the DHS and approving of their snoopy behavior because it was the government’s doing who had forced these beliefs on me. He demanded a change in the government and even quoted the Declaration of Independence:

Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Marcus Yallow never took anything at face value and by that I mean to say that he was not stupidified by the government or the education system. Marcus stood up for his rights, and believed that the same government that wrote the Declaration of Independence did not have the authority to alter their governing in a way to harm their citizens. He was not stupidified like many of us who go about life accepting what we are told. We are propagandized every day, and a stupidified person accepts this propaganda without a grain of salt. I fell into this category for years, and it breaks my heart that I stood behind an immoral government and berated Marcus for his actions. Own up to your rights and knowledge, and never accept what you are taught without challenging and testing it. Don’t adapt and be passive about the abuse of your rights. Marcus personifies someone who stood up for what he believed in through opposing authority to the point of death for what he believed was the right thing to do.

To answer your question, Marcus stands side by side with American heroes in your textbook because he fought for freedom when this nation was going in the opposite direction of oppression. He is the George Washington of the 21^st century. Both of them were anarchists who fought for what they believed was right, and each of them stabilized the nation and brought freedom to the people.

Marcus’s most famous quote comes from the time he was in danger with the DHS: “You can’t get anything done by doing nothing. They’ve taken it from us. The terrorists who attack us are still free – but were are not. I can’t go underground for a year, ten years, my whole life, waiting for freedom to be handed to me. Freedom is something you have to take for yourself.”

Marcus Yallow stood up against the DHS and regained America’s freedom in a time of distress. His legacy leaves him as one of the greatest patriots of our time.

I urge you to not stand idle when you are propagandized or especially when you feel your freedom being taken from you. Fight for what is yours as Marcus and our forefathers have done. Don’t fall into stupidification as I did, but establish your own opinions and challenge authority to whatever level if it contradicts with your civil rights and liberties.

Does that sufficiently answer your question?

Student:

Thank you Mrs. Andersen. That answer is more than enough.