Thursday, March 11, 2010
Growing Belief in the Power of Action
The world of uncertainty that lies before us is daunting. Many of us cling to the tangible forgetting visions of something different that could make life better. Some communicate that the tragedy of society is that too many focus on self-interest and the short-term and not enough on future generations or the long-term and how we are all interconnected.
What we seek is a life that is viable yet there is often a reluctance to maintain stubbornness that could bring forth imaginative and traditionally idealistic solutions to the deep problems that are becoming more and more entrenched in society--problems that could in effect make life unworkable.
On my twenty-second birthday, as I believe all individuals should do, I am assessing who I am as a human being. My reflection involves my spiritual evolution, the actions I have taken and not taken, the effect and impact I have had on others, how I have succeeded and failed to get to a point where I can transition from college into the world after I graduate in May, etc.
What I am finding is more and more I believe in the power of action.
More and more, I am seeing that it is we the people (and those who surround us) who hold the keys to the future.
We ensure the futures that we will get and we harbor fears that will either imperil, paralyze, and smother us or move us to act to rid ourselves of the chains which limit what we are willing to do as individuals.
The political realities that unfold before us demand that we seek to understand how action can be powerful to organizations, neighborhoods, communities, etc especially those who see suffering, injustice, inequality, illogical, and unexplainable policies plaguing society.
Rep. Eric Massa, a Democrat, recently suggested Democrats were "allegedly conspiring to remove him from Congress," described how his opposition to the House health care bill was becoming a "huge thorn," and detailed a situation he had with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the shower.
Massa said, "I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me."
Meanwhile, we have senators like Jim Bunning blocking measures for unemployment benefits to Americans. We have Republicans claiming the health care summits are "setups" while they refuse to offer plans to help Americans.
The Democrats perpetuate this idea that 60 votes are necessary to stop this madness. Sen. Harry Reid & Rep. Nancy Pelosi seem content to kick the political health reform football around as long as possible instead of going after 51 votes in the Senate, a majority, to pass health insurance reform.
Not that it really matters because at this point the reform is sure to empower greedy insurers, entrench in the system the very problems that drove us to allow politicians to inundate us with hoopla on how they are for reforming health care, and make it harder to add additional reforms in the future by increasing private insurance corporations' ability to manipulate the political process.
Of course, our politicians also extend the PATRIOT Act without regard to how it infringes on our civil liberties and haven't the moral fortitude to publicly vote on measures to criminalize extreme forms of so-called enhanced interrogation (Cheney's word for torture) and provide "stiff sentences for intelligence officers or medical professions who engaged in them."
And, Congress doesn't have the capacity to truly take on the reality that war is not a solution to the problems the U.S. has created in Afghanistan.
This is political buffoonery on a scale and level that can only be compared to the buffoonery on display in a recent film nominated for an Academy Award, In the Loop. And, we as Americans seriously cannot be content with leaving the decision-making up to these people.
Not only do they fail to make the proper decisions but they also fail to make any meaningful decisions at all.
If you had asked me at 16, I would have told you a person votes and politicians then go and get things done. At 18, I would have told you that I could now vote and I am glad I was able to help elect a Democrat to Congress. At 19, I would have told you I thought a person should take independent action and vote. At 20, I would have suggested that we need more voices and choices in elections and much more independent action.
And now, as I turn twenty-two, I tell you I believe in bold independent actions that are the product of a seven generations ahead approach to taking on social problems.
I find there is a great need for us to put any and all business entrepreneurial skills to work. There is a necessity to take our skills, values and faith in something greater than ourselves (if we possess such faith) and come together with members of the community, possibly friends or family.
We all have to consider contributing in some way to the formation of structures and organizations that can sustain us locally and also shift the consciousness of people to affect change on a state and federal level.
Consciousness shifting must come from campaigns from community artists and community media makers. It must come from supporting community and neighborhood organizations, places of faith, and even journalism operations that will enrich our democracy.
Action must come from advocates for social justice and people who believe in the history of nonviolence and its pragmatic ability to affect change.
The framework of an image-based culture with megalomaniacal clowns running the show bears down upon us.
Possessive individualism, the cult of celebrity, and unbridled competition threaten our will and ability to think and act outside of preconceived notions of politics.
The capacity of citizens to turn private concerns into public conundrums that a people must collectively tackle is jeopardized and the possibility of turning Americans into those willing to openly confront each other on matters of political and social importance dwindles.
Now, bartender, get me another. I'm gonna be here awhile.
What we seek is a life that is viable yet there is often a reluctance to maintain stubbornness that could bring forth imaginative and traditionally idealistic solutions to the deep problems that are becoming more and more entrenched in society--problems that could in effect make life unworkable.
On my twenty-second birthday, as I believe all individuals should do, I am assessing who I am as a human being. My reflection involves my spiritual evolution, the actions I have taken and not taken, the effect and impact I have had on others, how I have succeeded and failed to get to a point where I can transition from college into the world after I graduate in May, etc.
What I am finding is more and more I believe in the power of action.
More and more, I am seeing that it is we the people (and those who surround us) who hold the keys to the future.
We ensure the futures that we will get and we harbor fears that will either imperil, paralyze, and smother us or move us to act to rid ourselves of the chains which limit what we are willing to do as individuals.
The political realities that unfold before us demand that we seek to understand how action can be powerful to organizations, neighborhoods, communities, etc especially those who see suffering, injustice, inequality, illogical, and unexplainable policies plaguing society.
Rep. Eric Massa, a Democrat, recently suggested Democrats were "allegedly conspiring to remove him from Congress," described how his opposition to the House health care bill was becoming a "huge thorn," and detailed a situation he had with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in the shower.
Massa said, "I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me."
Meanwhile, we have senators like Jim Bunning blocking measures for unemployment benefits to Americans. We have Republicans claiming the health care summits are "setups" while they refuse to offer plans to help Americans.
The Democrats perpetuate this idea that 60 votes are necessary to stop this madness. Sen. Harry Reid & Rep. Nancy Pelosi seem content to kick the political health reform football around as long as possible instead of going after 51 votes in the Senate, a majority, to pass health insurance reform.
Not that it really matters because at this point the reform is sure to empower greedy insurers, entrench in the system the very problems that drove us to allow politicians to inundate us with hoopla on how they are for reforming health care, and make it harder to add additional reforms in the future by increasing private insurance corporations' ability to manipulate the political process.
Of course, our politicians also extend the PATRIOT Act without regard to how it infringes on our civil liberties and haven't the moral fortitude to publicly vote on measures to criminalize extreme forms of so-called enhanced interrogation (Cheney's word for torture) and provide "stiff sentences for intelligence officers or medical professions who engaged in them."
And, Congress doesn't have the capacity to truly take on the reality that war is not a solution to the problems the U.S. has created in Afghanistan.
This is political buffoonery on a scale and level that can only be compared to the buffoonery on display in a recent film nominated for an Academy Award, In the Loop. And, we as Americans seriously cannot be content with leaving the decision-making up to these people.
Not only do they fail to make the proper decisions but they also fail to make any meaningful decisions at all.
If you had asked me at 16, I would have told you a person votes and politicians then go and get things done. At 18, I would have told you that I could now vote and I am glad I was able to help elect a Democrat to Congress. At 19, I would have told you I thought a person should take independent action and vote. At 20, I would have suggested that we need more voices and choices in elections and much more independent action.
And now, as I turn twenty-two, I tell you I believe in bold independent actions that are the product of a seven generations ahead approach to taking on social problems.
I find there is a great need for us to put any and all business entrepreneurial skills to work. There is a necessity to take our skills, values and faith in something greater than ourselves (if we possess such faith) and come together with members of the community, possibly friends or family.
We all have to consider contributing in some way to the formation of structures and organizations that can sustain us locally and also shift the consciousness of people to affect change on a state and federal level.
Consciousness shifting must come from campaigns from community artists and community media makers. It must come from supporting community and neighborhood organizations, places of faith, and even journalism operations that will enrich our democracy.
Action must come from advocates for social justice and people who believe in the history of nonviolence and its pragmatic ability to affect change.
The framework of an image-based culture with megalomaniacal clowns running the show bears down upon us.
Possessive individualism, the cult of celebrity, and unbridled competition threaten our will and ability to think and act outside of preconceived notions of politics.
The capacity of citizens to turn private concerns into public conundrums that a people must collectively tackle is jeopardized and the possibility of turning Americans into those willing to openly confront each other on matters of political and social importance dwindles.
Now, bartender, get me another. I'm gonna be here awhile.
An Evening with Gil Scott-Heron: There is Joy in the Struggle
I had meetings all week. I spent time going from phone call to phone call without much of a breath. Pitching, talking, and discussing organizational plans for an upcoming media summit on Columbia College Chicago's campus, I didn't have time to eat much, didn't have time to drink much, didn't have time to think and reflect much either.The days blurred. What I did Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and even Thursday I couldn't remember but I knew I did something. I could feel it in my mind and body that I had done quite a lot. I was working my fool head off to break down barriers, to get rid of divides that were making it difficult to organize on my campus.
Thursday night was my opportunity to bring this screeching train to a halt. It was my chance to think about art in a way that I had not done for a long time.
At Stage Two on Columbia's campus, I lined up for a seat to see the great sociopolitical musician and lyrical poet Gil Scott-Heron. With a new CD out, reports indicated that Heron had become rejuvenated with energy and a renewed desire to perform.
The energy was palpable. I sat in a room that could seat about 200 people waiting for Gil to come out on stage. Scheduled to go on at 7 pm, it was getting late.
Who knows how many people thought Gil wasn't going to come out--that he wasn't going to show up. I never thought he wouldn't show up. And at 7:20, Gil Scott-Heron's presence filled the room.
His voice, its deepness, reverberated throughout the room. He spoke and essentially did stand-up comedy for a good half hour. Joking about how he was getting behind a new cause called Give Back February (GBF), he led people through good-natured jokes about how black people want to get another month other than February to be Black History Month (or if you go to Columbia College, African Heritage Month).
After time spent playing with language and making an audience of many generations laugh, he sat down at the keyboard. The microphone was pulled down. And, the keyboard began to give off a groove sound that laid the foundation for Gil's first song.
Gil's deep voice transformed into the voice I had heard on "Winter in America" or "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." Throughout the performance, I noted his ability to go from spoken word to singing to spoken word and back as he played the keyboard without ever really leaving the song. He was able to communicate abstract and non-abstract ideas and weave history in between choruses and verses of his songs.
The rhythm and good spirits behind the beats made me think of the wholesome nature of the performance I was attending and long for more acts like Gil.
The connection Gil had to history became wholly evident; I imagined there was a lot of pain and struggle in Gil's mind but that he had the personality to make audiences stand up on their feet and take notice of joys in their life that they may not normally notice as a result of fear, anxiety, or exhaustion.
Gil and his band played many classics that I only wish I had been more familiar with. He played a tune after his band came on stage to play with him, which led into the latter part of a song that I found out later was called "Work for Peace." The opening was stripped away, unfortunately. So, the audience was not privy to the military & the monetary lyrics and the profound poetic words describing the way media handles war. But, Gil and his band turned "Work for Peace" into one of the most rousing numbers of the night.
With two keyboards musically going back and forth with each other in a bluesy rhythmic fashion, Gil called out a line and his female keyboardist responded. The audience was caught up in the energy of the song and eventually the song was like a gospel protest song that could have given life to any people's movement.
"If you believe in peace you gotta go to work/Ain't gonna be no peace unless you go to work/I don't wanna hurt nobody/Nobody can do everything but everybody can do something/If you believe in peace time to go to work."
I hadn't had the time to fully explore Gil Scott-Heron before sitting down to listen to him Thursday night. I had no idea he would play a song that so encapsulated many of thoughts I experience regualarly. Or, that he would play other songs that reflected the ideas and emotions in my mind that stemmed from the apathy, inaction, and beliefs in action and reaction that I experience daily.
How refreshing it was to know that younger generations found reason to laugh, love, and enjoy Gil Scott-Heron. One could say the future remains bright so long as people like Gil Scott-Heron can be invited to bring his band and his spirit to universities or colleges.
What was expressed in Gil's music (and what he has expressed over the past decades) hit me that night. Each of his songs detailed many woes and struggles of black people. The lyrics touched on many of the predicaments of working men and women. And, each song had a hint of joy and a few words to tug at your soul and make you feel like fighting on.
There right in front of me I saw clearly. So long as we have the fundamental right to creative expression, so long as we can fill venues or rooms with people who share our struggles and know the exhaustion we experience, so long as we have people we can say are dedicated to love and concerned for the future and who have reason to pause and enjoy themselves through the power of music, society essentially will remain free.
You can't teach the value of creative expression in school. You can't tell someone they have to use their art or media for the greater good. But, you can envelope someone in events with people like Gil Scott-Heron who believe in what they do and show them an alternative to the art and media we consume on a regular basis that seems to be far removed from the issues we experience and the lives we live every single day.
What Gil Scott-Heron shows is that people can find a voice in art (especially music). Movements need people like Gil Scott-Heron to open people's minds so that people who are not creative, not humorous, or not artistic can then present people with some truths that might compel them to act.
Yes, we've got to work for peace. There ain't gonna be no peace unless we go to work. But, peace isn't just taking down the military or breaking up the monetary and the military. It isn't just finding confidence in fighting for what some deem a lost cause, something unrealistic.
Peace is having soul. Peace is unleashing that soul in the company of others. And, peace is having the fortitude to push on and do what you believe needs to be done so that the next day you can have high spirits and maintain high hopes for a brighter day.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Moment Responding to Social Injustice Began to Be Natural for Me
I have always been somewhat engaged and outspoken about developments in society and culture. I would say that my curiosity, my questioning spirit, and my creativity set me on a path that would lead me to question social injustice at some point in my life. I do not know if I can honestly point to one social injustice and say that was the social injustice that led me to act.
My ability to understand the importance of responding to social injustice through art and media is really the culmination of experiences that have occurred because of education. In high school, I took on topics for essays in English class that involved exploring how the United Nations might bring peace to the world or why the U.S. needed to immediately withdraw from Iraq.
I participated in debate team my sophomore year. I will never forget choosing to take an unpopular position and argue against sex offender registries. I succeeded in mounting an argument that earned me a lot of points because I was using good objective reasoning to argue how a sex offender registry might violate someone’s civil liberties if he or she was listed.
But, if I have to pick one point, one instance of social injustice that led me here, I would say that instance was freshman year during the first semester when I took African History & Culture: Since 1880 with Prexy Nesbitt as my professor. It was in that class that I was introduced, for the first time, to the deeper reality that Americans are so ignorant of Africa and the history of Africa. I was exposed to the reality that this is not part of our education and the dark history of colonialism and imperialism that involved America and Europe kindled my interest in exploring through research all the ways that America might be responsible for the suffering of the people in various African countries.
The arousal of my spirit led me to travel with the class instructor to South Africa in the spring of 2007. We traveled to South Africa for six days and visited Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg staying for two days in each city. I was deeply moved by the history, the people, and the spirit. I was astounded by the sincerity and kindness of the people who would approach you and start conversations with you. I wasn’t afraid and there was something about the South African people that made me resent the American people just a little bit, because at least I knew social injustice was fresh in the minds of these people; they had risen up to throw off the chains of apartheid not long ago.
From then on, I became more and more politically engaged. The 2008 Election came around and I chose to support Dennis J. Kucinich for president. I was to find that the system of elections was rigged and the media was rigged to prevent voices or individuals like Kucinich from getting a fair hearing in an election. And, I could have known that because the film, An Unreasonable Man, awakened my political mind after I returned from South Africa. It was a combination of Ralph Nader and Dennis Kucinich and their speeches detailing injustice and how the world should be that led me to become more engaged especially on campus.
And, since my class in African History, I have experienced a revolution of the mind—a political awakening—that will forever impact my life. I am open to ideas that I never would have been open to before I was exposed to the history of injustice in Africa. I engage in activism and write regularly in a way that would not have happened without my awakening. And, I am far too cognizant of ignorance and American reluctance to critique ideas, policies, systems, etc and be outspoken.
I will forever be on a quest for a world that should be. It’s only natural that I keep my passion and energy alive through the creation of media informing and rousing others who I hope will begin to speak up and take action like I have in the past few years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)