2006 state of the world address

(i wrote this on monday, october 30, 2006 at 9:35 p.m. but sadly much of it still applies. this is the negativity in the world that fuels me to blog. this is the destruction, death, and mayhem which needs a lot of LOVE rubbed all over it. and this is more of why we still can't wait.)

chaos theory at the end of october 2006

what is the goal
of israel's fresh new raids on gaza?
israel seems to get no
closer to eradicating
hamas
why is the issue of muslim women wearing
veils even up for debate?
is this not the first tenet of western liberal democracy:
freedom of choice
but nobody seems to hear
the implicit euro-centricism and euro-supremacy
underlying the "veil" debate
and the linking of the anti-veil argument
to a false notion of UNIVERSAL
culture&common sense
sense is not common
cuz then someone would really
put a stop to darfur
instead of throwing all these
concerts and forming U.N.
commissions
and it's easy to ignore all the unrest
still unfolding in somalia
and their hints of war with ethiopia
because we've BEEN ignoring them
since the black hawk went down
but what really trips me out is
how robin thicke has so much soul
and how we get on the train everyday
with mllions of random people
but we can't talk
cuz in this modern society
my life has nothing
to do
with yours
right
i wonder when i wander
thru target why little dogs get more
accessories than
homeless people
and more attention
than starving people
these little fucking dogs are becoming
the opiate of the masses
karl marx is rolling in his grave
and sartre is saying
i told you so
i'm not impressed with kerry's comments
either but they are
slightly more important
than who or how madonna
adopts children
and ahhhhhh where are the whispers
about shutting down the concentration camp
commonly referred to
as GITMO
or -- for those who failed to see that great
tom cruise/jack nicholson collabo --
guantanamo bay
no, i cannot handle the truth
the truth about
the depths of human depravity
overwhelm me sometimes, Lord
the man who cut a two year
old clitoris off - his child's -
with a scissor
the three school shootings in
one week
russian women for sale all over
my e-mail account
bullets flying STILL in jamaica
and in queens
much closer to home the good Lord agrees
that i should weep
for my little brothers and sisters
who go to school EVERY DAY
late and without a bookbag
and play playstation and cards
and tag and kill the teacher
who don't know their own value
i even get discouraged by my
black bourgeousie &
RBG afro chic
naturalistic contingent
all the "talented" tenth
wasting their time
college education
and wasting a historical legacy
of freedom
fighters
and their hot breath
in be-moaning the death of hip hop
and the proliferation of the word nigga
i can't read the news anymore
cuz i know it's death
and destruction
i can't listen to world leaders anymore
cuz they keep saying the same
old thing upholding the same old status
quo

my heart is so heavy

but i'ma do my little part
plug away at my slice of the pie
keep carving my niche of like-minded individuals
cuz i also know
the revolution begins in my heart
and dies with each spirit
that gives up

ohio is the most racist state in the electorate

if i had a talk show that's what we'd be talking about. i'd get all kinds of victim-of-racism-experts to come on and talk about how the primary in ohio only reveals that it is the most racist state in the union.

i was really diggin white people until ohio. ohio reminds me of all the old school racists you know. and dumb fucks. you know people who don't know shit about shit except maybe their local bar and how hard it is to keep their job and their house. people who don't know where iraq is and couldn't give a fuck about what's going on there. people who are scared of what they don't know, never seen, and can't comprehend. i think there's a few black people in ohio like that too.

let's just give ohio to canada.

the great debaters ... no denzel

barack is no denzel washington. but uh he is just as cute. and he is a great public speaker. but he probly couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. then again ... these politicians are the BEST actors.

i watched the 'debate' on shit i forgot what day. not much of a debate ... more of a reality tv show in which a news anchorman asked some questions of the candidates. it's all a farce but it was kind of entertaining.

the farce part is that nothing in america really changes when the president changes. nothing. ever. since the beginning of america. that's cuz we live in a two-party prison. the two parties aint very different. and also the electoral college takes a lot of the democratic punch out of this so-called democracy. the senate and house of reps would need to change ... well, if we really wanted change.

i just can't stand hillary clinton. she backed the iraqi war cuz it was politically expedient. that's all i need to fucking know.

john edwards is looking like a radical ... and obama is looking all-american ...

what does it really mean?

things change very slooooooooooowly. but america is not what it used to be. and i think we can all sense that even if a woman or a black man does not become prez in '09 ... a change gon come.

and for a woman (me) who had no faith in america, humanity, white people, or the u.s. government this is encouraging news.

you should be (a little) encouraged too.

campaign to the dead

i read that george clooney and don cheadle are campaigning for darfur.

i can only wonder ... who are they campaigning to??

i mean, are they trying to convince the UN - again - to do something ... or to do more than what they are currently doing. are they trying to win over the american public or the global public? and what will winning look like? are they trying to persuade us, the public, to move to the sudan or just donate a dollar or two? and to whom would they recommend we donate the dollars (euros would be better but that's another blog) ? to UNICEF or to the Red Cross because currently the dollars those two organizations have are doing so much all over the world? look how much they did after and during hurricane Katrina.

or are george and cheadle campaigning to G-7 governments ... the United Way ... really ... who?

the Gap maybe ...

or is the Gap now on board since they have pictures of diverse people supporting their RED campaign .. oh that is for a different african cause (cuz AIDS is now an african disease) ... i get confused by all the ummm campaigning ...

the phrase struck me cuz the word campaigning is a political term ... and is darfur a political issue? and is there really a political body to campaign to or for .......... or is it just a human issue?

i absolutely support some kind of action in darfur. i think what is going on there - genocide - is just as evil as the way powerful nations turn their cheek to it. it only further supports my belief that the WORLD is racist and self-serving. i think if we campaigned for the world to view all of its inhabitants as humans we might make more progress and darfur might even fix itself. cuz right now, as follows with the fundamental basis of racism, people do not feel that these african deaths are worth breaking ties with political allies (as they did in WWII) and this sudanese genocide is not worth jeopardizing international relations between the U.S. and "the Sudan." this small chaotic situation is not worth resolving at the so called cost of creating a larger global-terror chaos. maybe if we stopped prioritizing victims and chaos we could stop suffering.

why is sudan in quotes ... well, you find me one person in the refugee camps who voted for the current "leader" ... and i'll take the quotes off.

i aint mad at cheadle and clooney ... not at all. i am in fact quite proud that they care about more than their next movie. i am glad they are using their public personas to draw attention to an issue that no one is doing ENOUGH about.

but campaigning? maybe it's the bbc's choice of words ............................... that makes a fight against genocide sound like an elementary school blood drive.

the kingdom

seen this movie?

kind of resembles america sucking its own dick. AT FIRST.

i mean ... i think its a movie that might could make people (more) pro-american, anti-moslem, anti-arab ... and MORE scared about islam and the middle east. that might not have been the intent but that is my analysis of what might be the outcome.

i must say that i do not believe in the american dream. i do not think it exists. i am not a patriot. i don't even call myself american. why must i say this? briefly, i wanted to share my worldview because it informs my opinion about this movie.

so, it's important (for the purposes of this blog) that i don't believe in the american dream. i feel no allegiance to americans JUST cuz they are american. i feel allegiance only to HUMANS because they are HUMANS. i think nations are mental constructs (see 'imagined communities' for more clarification) etc. etc. i did not have any gut reaction, empathy, or character identification issues with this movie.

BUT for a person who does believe in the dream of america they will be very sad at the beginning of the movie when an 'innocent' american gets killed. they will identify with the protagonist's urge to hunt down the muslim murderers and blow them up in turn.

so that is how the movie goes ... very unrealistic, super-smart and well trained FBI team enters saudi arabia in like two days without clearance ... befriends some muslims, hates others and finds the bad guys ... yay!

at the end of the movie it is revealed that the muslims and americans have something in common ... hatred (and lollipops). jamie foxx reveals that what helped jennifer garnet get over the death of her american friend is when he uttered the words "we'll kill them all." and then a little muslim boy reveals that what helped him get past his grandfather's death is when his grandfather uttered the words, "we'll kill them all."

i don't know what the moviemakers intentions were ... do they want to end the hatred or stir it up? my very HUMBLE opinion is that they were well intended. albeit the filmmakers could not escape their own favoritism towards america (which unintentionally clouds their message) and they could not escape their tendency to create movies along the vein of 'die hard' or 'rambo' but seeing past all that ..............

i interpret the film to say: if we do not stop the killing the killing will never stop. the deep message is: it is a cycle of revenge and violent retribution. no, i don't think that's that deep! but it's the truth.

and something you will hear me repeat a lot is: the truth is the truth. believe it or not. (and i got this from don miguel ruiz who i will discuss at length in the future). which only means you can disagree with the truth but truth stands the test of time.

ok so we know the truth -- revenge murders and bombings don't pay and only create more violence. what the film does not say is that what we are lacking is ......... FORGIVENESS. they are IMPLYING that someone will have to forgive someone first. that we will have to forgive each other for murdering our grandfathers, our cousins, our colleagues, our softball teammates, our people.

is this the only thing in the way of peace?????

yes. as i mature and try to become happy in my life i see this as the truth, yes. forgiveness is in the way of healing all people and communities who are in pain and in conflict with others and with themselves. forgiveness stands between israeli and palestinian. israeli and lebanese. kurd and turk. sunni and shiite. chinese and japanese. man and woman.

so the answer is simple.

but the WAY is hard. all you have to do is look in your own life. can you forgive your enemy? can you forgive your boss? can you forgive unpatriotic americans? can you forgive your rapist? can you forgive the pedophiliac catholic priest? can you forgive your mother? can you forgive your daddy? can you forgive your first love? can you forgive your sister?

you will have to answer that for yourself. and i will answer it for myself right here. no, not yet. there are still individuals in my life who have hurt the shit out of me who i need to forgive; but let's take a larger entity -- for the sake of this globally oriented blog -- like the american government. i find it exceedingly hard to forgive them. and yes, Love Johnson, cannot learn to LOVE them yet. i'm working on it! if i can't forgive my own government how can i expect iraqi people, iranian people, afghani people, saudi people, etc. to forgive the atrocities of the american government??

so the answer is simple: FORGIVE. the way is hard .... what do we do? how do we do it?

start small, start with one person, start the conversation with yourself. here's how a convo with myself goes: what is the worse that will happen if i forgive the american government? will i lose love for myself? uhhh no. will my family forsake me? nah probly the opposite. will i become a target of ridicule by black people, iraqi people, 'green' people ... ? maybe but do i care? (another convo!!) will republicans start calling me on the phone? they better not. will i not be able to critique the american government anymore? noooooooooooooo can't see that.

well i have started the convo. even though i still don't forgive america. but yes, i am working on it and ultimately that is my goal. to forgive america. to forgive white people (this is even harder). to forgive all oppressors (hardest). and still use my life and my gifts to fight (non-violently) for justice and peace and a true kingdom of heaven on earth.

the kingdom of heaven is a place where we forgive each other each trespass. and we leave it up to God (any high power you bank on) to prevent trespasses against us. cuz if i kill yo auntie and yo cuzzin for killing my cuzzin ... then they cuzzin is coming ... to trespass against me. and my little human form prevented nothing, changed nothing, and only perpetrated more hurt and pain.

will you start the conversation with yourself? who will you forgive today?