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| Taken in Shreveport, LA |
In the history of our country, African Americans have endured great trials and tribulations to fight for equal rights. Human beings are resourceful creatures, and so with odds and ends, bits of wire and strong voices, men and women who were treated as animals created beautiful new styles of music - music made and loved and stolen time and again, while the creators lived brutal lives of captivity. My grandfather once told me stories of his life after WWII - his experiences with racial bitterness, resentment and hatred. His stories were beyond terrible; they left me speechless. Then his eyes would grow distant as he'd tell me the beauties of the lush land that he came from, marred and fouled by 'Whites Only' signs. My uncles both served in the later wars in Vietnam and Korea, only to be treated as criminals after arriving back home from a lonely deployment, bitten by dogs for demanding the right to vote in the very same country they'd barely survived fighting for. They were arrested for participating in peace marches against a government that proudly dismissed them as 2nd class citizens; spit on by an America that found it offensive to be challenged by men and women that were not considered whole, but partial people. And you know what - that wasn't too long ago.
Now as we come upon this demonstrative new age of classism, even the strong are weak with hope for sunnier days. Ironically, African American communities were largely the targets of the unethical practices that drove our country to financial breakdown, like blatant fraud and predatory lending. Though it's a difficult time for most of us, it's important to acknowledge the fact that as America heals from and overcomes that soiled period of overt oppression, poverty, rabid conditions, withheld provisions and genocidal intent thrust upon the generations of the Civil Rights Era, there are still those who take full advantage of the disadvantages it upheld. Many still don’t want to grasp how the hatred that dragged our country through that sickeningly shameful period of raging injustice still poisons us today, and how that same vile rot WILL take you down, no matter who you are. The rot spreads throughout the generations until it consumes our children.
It’s time we all examine how our words and actions support the disease of 'isms', as this sickness and its faulty logic is the origin of much of the negative behavior we continue to see around us. The promises of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to ALL Americans, but were withheld from the African American community all those years ago in a grand gesture of arrogance and ignorance. But here's the rub. The mind that seeks to find cause, will find it - whatever the ism. Such an evil cares not for who it touches, who it devours or who it owns. Evil speaks sweet promise to what is lacked only to turn on itself, and affect EVERYONE around it.
But the true mind can faithfully weather the storms of isms and illusions and not be lost. The true heart can endure the disease of hatred and be not overcome. Through the many windows of time, darkness that lurks in the human void is ALWAYS stopped, dead in its tracks by the sheer truth of purified light.
We are all one Love, one people; one big human family. In the end, the only thing worth holding onto is each other. Separation is an illusion, and the joke’s on whoever doesn't get it. Those of us who do are strong, and we press on; learning more each day, and teaching our children to open their minds and hearts that they may see beyond the obvious into the character and spirit of the real person. Those who don't get it...get over it. Sheesh. God only gave us colors so we could see one another.
Let Freedom Ring! Let it ring from your mind to the tips of you fingers. Live that unshakable resolve you have inside you to protect your rights, that of your neighbor. Type it, talk it, walk it and tell your purpose that it may be received; that the love you share may be the very lift that saves your spirit to press onward and upward.
Now as we come upon this demonstrative new age of classism, even the strong are weak with hope for sunnier days. Ironically, African American communities were largely the targets of the unethical practices that drove our country to financial breakdown, like blatant fraud and predatory lending. Though it's a difficult time for most of us, it's important to acknowledge the fact that as America heals from and overcomes that soiled period of overt oppression, poverty, rabid conditions, withheld provisions and genocidal intent thrust upon the generations of the Civil Rights Era, there are still those who take full advantage of the disadvantages it upheld. Many still don’t want to grasp how the hatred that dragged our country through that sickeningly shameful period of raging injustice still poisons us today, and how that same vile rot WILL take you down, no matter who you are. The rot spreads throughout the generations until it consumes our children.
It’s time we all examine how our words and actions support the disease of 'isms', as this sickness and its faulty logic is the origin of much of the negative behavior we continue to see around us. The promises of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to ALL Americans, but were withheld from the African American community all those years ago in a grand gesture of arrogance and ignorance. But here's the rub. The mind that seeks to find cause, will find it - whatever the ism. Such an evil cares not for who it touches, who it devours or who it owns. Evil speaks sweet promise to what is lacked only to turn on itself, and affect EVERYONE around it.
But the true mind can faithfully weather the storms of isms and illusions and not be lost. The true heart can endure the disease of hatred and be not overcome. Through the many windows of time, darkness that lurks in the human void is ALWAYS stopped, dead in its tracks by the sheer truth of purified light.
We are all one Love, one people; one big human family. In the end, the only thing worth holding onto is each other. Separation is an illusion, and the joke’s on whoever doesn't get it. Those of us who do are strong, and we press on; learning more each day, and teaching our children to open their minds and hearts that they may see beyond the obvious into the character and spirit of the real person. Those who don't get it...get over it. Sheesh. God only gave us colors so we could see one another.
Let Freedom Ring! Let it ring from your mind to the tips of you fingers. Live that unshakable resolve you have inside you to protect your rights, that of your neighbor. Type it, talk it, walk it and tell your purpose that it may be received; that the love you share may be the very lift that saves your spirit to press onward and upward.
I am proud of, and forever grateful for the life and dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
LET FREEDOM RING.
Thanks for letting me dream the dream today bravo!!! Arkay
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