Friday, October 6, 2006

"God's just a Baby and her Diaper's Wet"


I got to read this on a forum that I go to sometimes. It's from Saul Williams and it was sent out as a bulletin to people who are his MySpace.com friends.

In spite of the dire need for paragraph breaks, it touched me because it's how I feel about so many things concerning the country that has given me so much. How is it that the citizens of the US can be so powerful as a group, yet feel that we can't make a difference as individuals? Why is it that I've been abroad for over half a decade, yet so many I know claim it's such a hard thing to do when it's as easy as shifting priorities, getting passport and using it?

With that said, here it is with certain parts emphasized.

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"God's just a Baby and her Diaper's Wet"

Some people have asked me to explain what I mean by that statement. Here it goes: We need to change how we think of God. We need to change how we think of ourselves. To live in the richest most powerful nation in the world that boasts of democracy and freedom and yet so many of us feel like our voice doesn't count, won't make a difference, won’t be heard, makes me question what true democracy/enlightenment would feel like. On one hand, many of us DO feel like it is within our power to become rich or successful (which is why so many people move here, right?) But why don't we feel like we can stop our country from becoming the hypocritical terror-mirror, torch of torture, murderous empire that it has become? We can make cash but we can’t make change? cow dung. All of us.We are so caught up in our own selfish materialistic pursuits and celebrity endorsed comfort that we fashion our lives and our idea of God to suit our own lack of merit. Why would God bless America before HE (ha) would bless IRAQ or the SUDAN? Is it because we are the chosen? Does God prefer us? So can we only think of a God that is as prejudice as we are? **** that! It is 2006 and Native Americans STILL live on reservations, poor people STILL struggle for decent housing and education, Palestinians STILL live in refugee camps, on their own ***** land. Does our God not care about them? Or is it truly that WE don’t care about them and don’t have the time to fashion a God that does? We are Godless hypocrites on the threshold of damnation. No, not hell, simply America and the lands of our chosen allies. Will we sit back and let our leaders pass Patriot Acts and torture bills in a fancy language that dresses up murder, thievery and torture in some high-gloss attire forcing the innocent down planks and runways at gunpoint while our children fight to audition to be America’s next Top Model? Why do we question our own intelligence and ability to share our opinion on serious matters more than we question our so-called leadership? Why do we continue to follow in the footsteps of CEO’s that incorporate cow dung and sell it back to us as hot topic? Why do we endorse religions and religious leaders that we have quite simply outgrown? Not even Jesus was Christian. His message was of spirit. He broke his religious law daily insisting that those were the laws of man. Why do we feel that certain things need not be questioned just because we were born into them? What about people that were born into slavery? How did they find the courage to question their reality? Did they heed naysayers? Didn’t they also feel like their voice didn’t count, let alone, their entire being? Where did they find the courage to question the empire that enforced torture and terror on them? They found it within themselves. I’m not impressed with CEO’s, record execs, fashion lines, fascist leaders, and the yes men that support them in hopes of tasting so-called power. I am impressed with a creative compassionate awareness that enables as it enlightens. I’m impressed with music that heals and inspires. I’m impressed with humanity and the individuals that seek to explore it rather than control or convert it. Only 14% of Americans own passports. We are mostly self-consumed while our government and our own lack of outward concern seeks to exploit the resources of people and lands we seldom visit. Lebanon is beautiful. Iraq and Iran are wondrous. Afghanistan is magical. Palestine is sacred. And America is lost, asleep, drugged, brainwashed, scary. What’s great about our country is that it’s like a Rubik’s Cube; we can change its ****** face. And it’s always the youngest that are the first to figure it out. Me? I got tired of the puzzle and realized that I could pull the pieces off and reassemble it in its proper order. Shortcuts ain’t always cheatin’. Sometimes the world can’t wait.

We can’t wait for Jesus to come back and incite the change that we are afraid to fight for and become. Fact is, Jesus may have already come back in the same Arab body that he came in the first time and is now being held without trial by our own God-fearing government along with the 14,000 other “terror suspects” that we are holding in American war camps with hope of passing new bills to torture Our Saving Grace. We are a young nation with an antiquated idea of godliness. The God of guns enforced slavery and terror. I will not pray to him. Will you?

I look into the eyes of a newborn and see an innocence that I find hard to remember. I hold her close to my face so I can smell what water has not washed away. I sing my song into her ear and thank her for her being. She has come to remind me of the reasons why I sing. But before I lose myself in the soft purr of her cuddle she wriggles to remind me of her discomfort and the fact that she cannot fend alone. She must be changed. I must change her. We must change things. Time for change. Boycott stupidity. Here’s a super short list of some people that have been successful at it (if you have school reports or term papers coming up, might I suggest):

Paul Robeson
Assata Shakur
Alice Walker
Audre Lourde
John Brown
Toussaint l’Overture
Mahmoud Darwish
Chief Seattle
Amiri Baraka
Sojourner Truth
Steve Biko
James Baldwin
Nina Simone
Anais Nin
Angela Davis
Arundhati Roy
Ben Okri
Julia Butterfly Hill
Noam Chomsky
Nikolai Tesla
Mahatma Ghandi
Carlos Castaneda
Ken Wilber
Ann Frank
Pete Seger
Mother Theresa
Cesar Chavez
Terrence McKenna
Erica Jong
Amy Goodman

and on and on….

Love,

Saul

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4 comments:

  1. The way you got it on NP was the way it was posted in his bulletin. No paragraph breaks execpt for the last one. Peace, SolSistah

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful post. I am ashamed to admit I had not heard of Saul Williams before, but I have now. Thank you for posting this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ooops, well, I'll go back and remove the paragraph breaks. I just figured the forum reformatted it and it got changed.

    Thanks for letting me know. It's just harder to read without paragraph breaks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Again, sorry cat. I must have somehow missed your comment as it's sat for a couple of weeks :(

    I didn't know who Saul Williams was until I read this too. So we both discovered something. I just decided that what he was saying hit home with me, so it was something I needed to share.

    I'm glad to hear it resonated with someone else too.

    ReplyDelete

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