Over the last few days there has been a lot of political red flags over seas and one of them was the possibility of Israel attacking Iran. Quickly you can see who will take whose side in a War that I can only imagine is not too far into the future and the question is, where is the change we elected?
In our society we would like to believe that everyone within our borders is American and in times of elections we can clearly see that nothing is farther from the truth. I don’t say that as an indirect comment to anyone but more as a basic fact because as a society we have not fully accepted what it means to be American. We all have our own ideas of what that looks like and we all want to think we have the right answer. As I have written before I was told I wasn’t American at the age of 10 by a Chicago Police officer and ever since I have struggled with my own identity in our society.
I was born here in Chicago and my parents immigrated to the US in the late 1960’s my Father was born and raised in Mexico and my Mother was born and raised in Colombia. Cousins from both sides would joke about how I was neither Mexican or Colombian because I was born in the US and in the US I was being told that I was not an American so who am I became a serious and deep question for me at the age of 10.
I found, as many have, an identity on the streets of Chicago that would fill me with joy, pride, and lots of pain both physically and emotionally. For many years I kept to my word of being loyal to those that were around me and as I got older I saw that not everyone felt the same and I kept meeting Brothers and Sisters that also had the question as I did about who am I? Within the street culture you have your own language, judicial system, a basic guideline of laws, boundaries, and the belief that one day you’ll make it and sometimes making it meant dying and not having to deal with this world ever again. I am far from rock bottom and actually am considered to have had it “easy” regardless of the beatings, homelessness, threats, and days of hunger. I never went to prison, I never had a drug problem, and I never killed anyone but the potential was always an inch away. Thankfully I always had at least one Brother that kept his eye over me and made sure that I wouldn’t go too far because they felt that if I made it alive and ahead in life then that means they had gone there with me. I am thankful for all the pain I have gone through because it has allowed me into the lives of people that I would have never meet otherwise…another benefit is that I have meet some interesting people over the years that helps me see ahead of the curve when dealing with people that are deceiving.
All the moves that countries make against each other are a sketch of what their future plans for themselves and each other are. China will follow Russia where ever it goes and Russia will always stand next to whoever is against the US. Israel will always be protected by the US and the Arab countries will always feel uneasy about that fact. Latin America doesn’t want to relive the 1960’s through the 1990’s where it became obvious that the US had its hands deep within the political system of most Latin American countries but they kind of still look at the US as a big brother of sorts…not all but some do. Africa seems to be in limbo where many take advantage of the millions of people in poverty that are hoping that the next source of Aid won’t hurt them more than the last one. What is interesting is that China has taken a huge interest in Africa and many countries are sitting back and watching what will become of that relationship.
The issues being fought over boils down to some sort of greed it can be about water rights, export, energy, food, and what else but basic power over someone else’s life. I’ll give you an example; African countries have become big growers of Cocoa trees and it’s a lot of work to have a Cocoa farm and most are very large farms. After years of watching over the farm it can take at least 5 years for new trees to give fruit and after a farmers harvest and hard work it is very likely that the farmer will only see about $625.00 for their entire harvest in one year. That number came by way of a large chocolate company here in Chicago and while they are giving these numbers they start to talk about the school they helped build for the nearby village in this African country. The school was nothing to be proud of because it was VERY basic square building with a roof on it and nothing much else to it and the company was proud about their “work” with the farmer and the village. There’s a popular native chocolate store in Chicago that sells their one pound of chocolates at $23.99 per pound to the public and when you see what the cost is to the company that same pound is only just under $2.00 per pound. Does any of these numbers sound right?
How can we be a society that expects everyone else to look at us as an example when we are willing to abuse an entire continent for the joy of a piece of chocolate? How do we know what an American is to anyone else? How do we know what it means to be an American?
Super Bowl Sunday Madonna did the half time show and at the end of the show they did some projection mapping (learned that one from a friends posting that knows that stuff) and they projected “World Peace” on the field. That would be great but that would mean we all would have to be at Peace with ourselves and that is the greatest challenge. So who are you?
Well I for one have made up my mind about who I am and have made Peace with it even though it doesn’t hold any traditional political boundaries or religious boundaries. I hold my flag proudly before anyone and anywhere and one day some political or religious figure will challenge it and I will have to remain strong because after all I am me and if you cannot accept that then you are unable to be at Peace with yourself. Not because it is me but because you’ll have to realize that your expression of American was just not the right one for everybody.
May 1st 2012 I will be leaving LA and go cross country to 32 states and 64 cities in an attempt to reach out to as many people as possible to begin a conversation about what Peace means to us in our society. We can no longer think it is OK to expect to pay only $3 for a T-shirt that is made with child labor in a foreign country just because we are unwilling to pay a livable wage to someone else in our own country. Yes Unions can be a bad thing but so can major corporations that are ONLY interested in their own profit margin regardless of who it affects and how it affects them and their communities. We have to sort out our feelings about each other because if we plan on directing other countries to a path of Peace we should at the very least like each other within our own society.
I need your help to make this happen and without your help the process of Peace for others just gets further away from becoming possible. Please visit my website www.walkingtopeace.com read about what I am working on and please continue your feedback on my Blog here. Some of been very generous but I need many more people to help me reach my goal. At the top right hand side of this Blog you will see a donation link as well on my website there is a Donation link and I ask that you click on it and give what you feel like you can give.
I thank you for reading my Blog and hopefully the donation you can give!
Peace/AMOR
GERARDO
No comments:
Post a Comment