The More Things Change-Afterthoughts on the Jena Protest
First I'd like to holla at my new writing partner! Can you believe it T! We are really gonna do this! I keep falling into serendipity it seems. First I find the means to correct my cash flow situation that nearly wrecked me this summer and now, well now it seems that I am to really realize my goals. I thought that I had a partner and it/they fell through but then BAM! I found the perfect compliment to my writing level AND may have even found a musical group with which to work some things out with! The best thing about all of this is that the writing partner can draw, I found an artist which really puts me ahead of the game! This is dizzying and wonderful and I deserve it (I have worked hard and sacrificed and learned so much)
Release your inner albatross and soar folks.
This will end up being about science fiction--never fear.
I have had a lot of changes occur this year. I learned some hard lessons. Honestly I wouldn't do anything different except keep up with myself better.
My faith in charity was shaken but that was my fault.
How many of us do this?
We expect more than a situation can offer. We make up excuses as to why we can't do better or why the situation isn't better.
Our thought process has to change before anything external can be transformed.
I have read on a number of blogs that the Jena 6 march and protest were of little consequence because once everyone leaves the tiny town then the blacks there will be back to square 1. Now mind you one of the blogs was written by a lady I admire much who just getting her rant on in reference to a bunch of other things (Keep ranting for the sisterhood iniquitous 1! We love it and we love you!)
But then there are the pseudo-conscious of us who use every opportunity to inject apathy and negativity where there should be the fostering of hope.
I don't know what upsets me more, this consensus of some people that we should just stop being heard because (fill in the blanks) or the idea that just because something has always been then it always will be.
I considered the source of the words I read and some of the bloggers are habitually well-informed and made parallel points as to why they had this feeling, others where full of what they have always been full of. Negativity disguised as consciousness.
This kind of thing angers me.
How is a movement started?
How does one mount a revolution?
The answer is this: You Start some where! You don't rest on your laurels with your bullhorn full of bull preaching apathy and defeatism!
I read a science fiction piece once (you knew I would bring it back to writing didn't you?) where the antagonist constantly got licks in on the protagonist and there was of course the obligatory peanut gallery weighing in on how the protagonist should have known he could not win and how mis-guided he was to think that things might change based on some small gesture on his part. The problem is that the protagonist fed off this poison and in the end it was this that finally felled him NOT the moves made by the antagonist.
The protest in Jena DID do something. It was a beacon to a young black child there who might have thought that he/she was alone in the world. That the world was Jena and not vast and wide and hers/his for the conquering. The protest said "You matter. Even when we are gone we know that you are here and to US you do indeed matter!"
When the shit hits the fan I want someone on my side who will do Something, Anything to let me know that I am not alone. I want someone , even when all seems lost and hopeless, to Man-Up if can't do it for myself!
I have heard it said a million times that it is the little things. The Jena protest was not little, not to me anyway, but it apparently was to some and to them I say, think of a time when you were down and out and just needed something small, a nod from a passerby, a smile from a child, a call from an acquaintance out of the blue with well-wishes or a couple of bucks in pocket. That small thing likely made all the difference.
That protest, a s fruitless as some surmise it was an avalanche of awareness to the next generation of young activists all over the world and more importantly in Jena, Louisiana.
We have to do better, that is true but damn we have to do something!
We are at war. Period. Gear up and dig in! To whom much is given much is expected! Gear up and dig in! Start somewhere!
Think outside yourself, just this once. We need everyone!
Release your inner albatross and soar folks.
This will end up being about science fiction--never fear.
I have had a lot of changes occur this year. I learned some hard lessons. Honestly I wouldn't do anything different except keep up with myself better.
My faith in charity was shaken but that was my fault.
How many of us do this?
We expect more than a situation can offer. We make up excuses as to why we can't do better or why the situation isn't better.
Our thought process has to change before anything external can be transformed.
I have read on a number of blogs that the Jena 6 march and protest were of little consequence because once everyone leaves the tiny town then the blacks there will be back to square 1. Now mind you one of the blogs was written by a lady I admire much who just getting her rant on in reference to a bunch of other things (Keep ranting for the sisterhood iniquitous 1! We love it and we love you!)
But then there are the pseudo-conscious of us who use every opportunity to inject apathy and negativity where there should be the fostering of hope.
I don't know what upsets me more, this consensus of some people that we should just stop being heard because (fill in the blanks) or the idea that just because something has always been then it always will be.
I considered the source of the words I read and some of the bloggers are habitually well-informed and made parallel points as to why they had this feeling, others where full of what they have always been full of. Negativity disguised as consciousness.
This kind of thing angers me.
How is a movement started?
How does one mount a revolution?
The answer is this: You Start some where! You don't rest on your laurels with your bullhorn full of bull preaching apathy and defeatism!
I read a science fiction piece once (you knew I would bring it back to writing didn't you?) where the antagonist constantly got licks in on the protagonist and there was of course the obligatory peanut gallery weighing in on how the protagonist should have known he could not win and how mis-guided he was to think that things might change based on some small gesture on his part. The problem is that the protagonist fed off this poison and in the end it was this that finally felled him NOT the moves made by the antagonist.
The protest in Jena DID do something. It was a beacon to a young black child there who might have thought that he/she was alone in the world. That the world was Jena and not vast and wide and hers/his for the conquering. The protest said "You matter. Even when we are gone we know that you are here and to US you do indeed matter!"
When the shit hits the fan I want someone on my side who will do Something, Anything to let me know that I am not alone. I want someone , even when all seems lost and hopeless, to Man-Up if can't do it for myself!
I have heard it said a million times that it is the little things. The Jena protest was not little, not to me anyway, but it apparently was to some and to them I say, think of a time when you were down and out and just needed something small, a nod from a passerby, a smile from a child, a call from an acquaintance out of the blue with well-wishes or a couple of bucks in pocket. That small thing likely made all the difference.
That protest, a s fruitless as some surmise it was an avalanche of awareness to the next generation of young activists all over the world and more importantly in Jena, Louisiana.
We have to do better, that is true but damn we have to do something!
We are at war. Period. Gear up and dig in! To whom much is given much is expected! Gear up and dig in! Start somewhere!
Think outside yourself, just this once. We need everyone!
Comments
The March has already made accomplishments. It thrust the story in to the fore of the national consciousness, it raised money, and it produced an energy of renewed activism; especially in the people who went.
If one cannot see these things they need to shut up, because they obviously lack the analytical skill to decipher such things, and are ill-equipped to discuss the issue.
Most of them are just parroting what other pseudo intellectuals always say anytime anything is done – they’re professional detractors.
As you say a movement has to start with something, and we moved. They sit on the sideline and bitch.
"professional detractors"
That is exactly what they are! I am off the sidelines and I got intention of returning to my dubious eyes wide shut existence. Thanks again brother
I see you side with the truth.