Tuesday, February 28, 2012

I love being a consumer!

Damn, I love being a consumer. I love how I have been convinced that I can purchase my freedom at local malls. Seeing so many consume ignorance it is no wonder we continue to rock wardrobes of foolishness. Yet, those that critique our current love affair with consumerism or labeled out of touch. Touching the minds of the youth seems more difficult as time passes. As consciousness does not pass the litmus test of cool, cool has be co-opted and crafted as an embrace of an apathetic pose. And this popular pose poses no threat those that benefit from our unrecognized oppressive state. I simply state facts and wait for the day that revolution is not spoken of as a time in the past but will define the actions of our present. Let’s Get Free!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Student Debt

The reality is that student debt has become a prison that seeks to confine countless generations to an existence rooted in servitude. Granted, now what do we do with this truth? We must first recognize that a social system that has normalized debt and sanctioned corporate interest over the public is in need of drastic change. Granted, now what do we do with this truth? We organize and begin to create spaces for resistance not sanctioned by the system that is the cause of our conditions. Fundamentally, we must accept the reality that this system is designed for the rich, for their continued privilege and extravagance. So, the poor must abandon the idea that reason will change our condition. No longer can we subscribe to the notion that eventually, if we use the right language the architects of this flawed system will hear our plight and take pity on our condition. No, the interests of the poor are different and until we realize this we will continue to suffer. Revolution is not beautiful but its reality is necessary. Let’s Get Free

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Revolutionary Rhetoric

I do not crave chaos I covet change and if chaos is the vehicle that will lead me to that destination then so be it. I have resigned myself to the belief that those that agitate for just conditions or who simply seek to highlight the current state of injustice will be forever be criminalized. Although, few seem to recognize the criminal conditions in which most live. So no, I cannot rest in the midst of complacency, because the cry for more has been forever etched into my soul. The cry for revolution may fall on deaf ears but that stark reality will not dampen my voice. My voice will forever be a weapon, illuminating a picture that may never come into focus but whose possibility is powerful nonetheless.

Lessons of Jesus

As a teacher there are times when I return home frustrated by feelings that my efforts are wasted. That my hard work is ignored. I am disappointed in the feelings that my sacrifice is lost on college students who do not recognize my "brilliance". However, I now see that at the depths of my arrogance lies a voice silently whispering a message. And as I turn down the noise of my bravado I hear the voice of the Lord saying, how does it feel? How does it feel to seemingly give so much and yet receive so little in return? How does it feel to care so much only to have that purpose ignored by others to consumed with their own issues? So now, I see that the path of dejection and pain was walked willingly by you. I apologize for believing that carrying the cross would be met with adulation and acclaim. That I deserved a greater fate than the one you suffered. I am sorry I ignored you, and at times ignore your enduring message everyday. Forgive me Father for I know not what I do. Or sadly, I know and yet continue to do it.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Life is Not a Romantic Comedy

It is crazy when you realize that your life is not a romantic comedy. That in order to find love that you are required to do more than to sit in the audience and wait for the one who will change your life. Truthfully, we must engage in this contact sport, and that takes a level of vulnerability that most are to afraid to embrace. So, instead we embrace shallow positions playing the game of love with no intention of committing to anything, other than our own ideas of what we deserve. However, I see now that most love stories fail because most are only concerned with the main character. Therefore, everyone else is relegated to the role of supporting actors for our fulfillment. So until we look at relational love as an opportunity to love someone else more than we love ourselves we will continue to miss out. And flock to the movies where we can view love stories we are to scared to chase in our own lives.

Journey

I am on a journey to find meaning. My struggle to escape the grips of the mundane that leave me unmotivated may resonate with many. I see now, that when lost we often return to familiar spaces even when those spaces no longer hold useful answers. I believe that my answers now reside over the horizons in the midst of new beginnings. As, I began to see that conformity is a prison that I must escape. I long to be free based on a definition of freedom still forming. I just now that freedom cannot be formed in the midst of a society constructed on enslavement. So, maybe my attempts to construct more in the midst of so much that is truly meaningless will prove fruitless but I still must try. Try to envision of life that connects me to more of the beauty that the blinders of constructed success have shielded me from. To get Free!

Friday, February 10, 2012

Can We?

Can we ever speak for anyone other than ourselves? Does the appropriation of the words of the voiceless by those that intend to lead them to the promise land simply reinforce their perceived powerlessness? For those that truly intend to help, they must work to create spaces and opportunities for those who have been convinced that their existence will forever be muted. There acceptance of their muted state is an indictment of those that profess to care about their plight. The plight of the weak cannot be alleviated until they are convinced of their strength.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The arrogance of change

Yes,there is a need for change. However, do we alienate potential allies when we identify the problems in terms that relegate concerned citizens to the sidelines unable to understand the true plight? Sadly, in this battle to be labeled the super oppressed we desperately cling to the privilege of our scars. Scaring those whose wounds we ignore or deem unworthy to join in the fight. This fight to make the world a better place will take all willing participants. So, when we assume an arrogance in our victim hood we begin to simply make the same mistake as the oppressor. Falsely adopting the notion that we have private access to the the right way. I see in my mistakes the recognition that all who fight for revolution deserve to be called my brothers and sisters in the struggle. The divisive blinds of class, race, and gender can no longer be barriers to true community.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Simplicity

There is simplicity in life that is often ignored by needless distraction. The quickness with which we complain but the beauty is most don’t wish to leave and maybe those that due simply need to be reminded of their significance. Let us not allow for complexity to distort the simple truth that each moment is a gift. A gift that continues to provide us chances to enjoy that which we can never enjoy again. Moments that may be fleeting but are simply remnants of a larger cultural truth. That our time on the stage is fleeting and we must fight to enjoy the spotlight.

Broken Expectations

Do we ever choose to send apologies for broken expectations? Sadly, there are times that we fail to live up to the lofty promises of our expressions. So, we leave others in disarray as then begin to rely on those promises and are disappointed when our actions change and we begin reflecting a new truth. Truth be told so many of our interactions will end in broken expectations. So, we must simply hold fast to the idea that eventually our expectations will be cherished by those to fearful of causing us disappointment.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Profit off Black Bodies

You see this system still profits off black bodies. As new age slave masters still set the going rates for black labor. Sadly, they never intended to give blacks their just due. Our apathy is their greatest weapon as our weapons our continuously turned on one another. You see they still profit off black bodies. As we desecrate our blackness on the altar of white approval little is done to delay the tragedy. Its a tragedy the way they attempt to stifle our voices when we proclaim our love of blackness. Its like they covet our shame and rejoice when we embrace a post racial pose. You see they still profit off black bodies. And yet Black bodies no longer hang on trees but are still elevated for public spectacle behind prison walls.Sadly,steel bars still serve as tightened ropes still lynching our collective potential. You see they still profit off black bodies.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

My Voice

It is my struggle to transcend the grips of helplessness that cements indifference as a lifestyle choice. I choose to wrestle with the real frustration that society is on a dangerous course but most are to distracted to notice. However, I allow for my frustration to fuel my struggle to simply be a voice. A voice that continues to imagine a world not yet here but nonetheless still possible. A voice that seeks to alarm all those who will listen while accepting the reality the most will continue to hit snooze. It my struggle to continue to speak even when affirmation is not forthcoming. I battle to recognize that the message is to important to allow for the vanity of I to triumph the message of we. So, I speak because the cause of liberation cannot be muffled by the static sounds of conformity. Let's Get Free!