fav.me/d4v8bazApril 4, 2012
It's obscene how long it's taken the general media to make commentary on the conduct of our soldiers instead of the fact that they're there. It's an embarrasment not simply to the people of America, but the values of America: our soldiers don't just fight for our interests, but for our honor. Burning the holy book of the people in the country you occupy is the opposite of American values. Killing children, especially in their sleep, is of no honor. To an American soldier, that should be obvious. It doesn't even have to be explained to a grown man and all this is making us all look like little, cowardly boys.
Something has got to change. There's something loose about foreign operation conduct code, or maybe just the way it's enforced. Until the error is corrected, though, we shouldn't even HAVE an army. If we can't trust our troops to represent our integrity, how will they represent us here? Those 12 children should.... wait for it..... BE ALIVE. Oops. I forgot I wasn't supposed to say it out loud.
I become so angry just thinking about it! How much do American Tax payers pay for military operations?.... Come again?.... 600 million?..... wait, WHAT!? 600 BILLION! With a B?
Sadly, Obama can't make anybody happy here. After years of begging for budget cuts, this is how the GOP responds to proposing Navy production be sliced:
"OBAMA'S THERMONUCLEAR WAR PLANS AND A REAL AMERICAN SYSTEM ECONOMIC PLATFORM
Obama is ready to first strike Russia, that is how he wants to get rid of ICBM's, use them to destroy
Wall Street and the City of London's remaining opposition to NWO supremacy, the destruction of Russia and China.
This is what the war on Libya was about, the war against Syria and Iran, the wars in Africa, etc: The destruction of the Nation State, of powers that can stand up and say no to the IMF, World Bank and the parasite capitalism of Wall Street and London.
The destruction of the Nation State is why Obama was put into power: To destroy the sovereign power of the United States of America."
You can't demand a defecit cut AND more military spending AND tax cuts.
What's the world coming to?
I need a distraction. In goes the CD, I suppose.....
"It's a lot of things goin on y'all. 21st century is comin, and the 20th century almost done. A lot of things have changed, A lot of things have not, mainly us. We gon' get it together right? I believe that. Listen.. people be askin me all the time, 'Yo Mos, what's gettin ready to happen with Hip-Hop?' I tell em, "You know what's gonna happen with Hip-Hop? Whatever's happening with us. If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out. If we doin alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin alright! People talk about Hip-Hop like it's some giant livin in the hillside comin down to visit the townspeople. We ARE Hip-Hop. Me, you, everybody, we are Hip-Hop. So Hip-Hop is goin where we goin. So the next time you ask yourself where Hip-Hop is goin, ask yourself.. 'where am I goin? How am I doin?' Til you get a clear idea."
-Mos Def
April 5, 2012
Ya know, I usually don't quote rappers like this, but Mos has got a point. Things in society have changed so much that from back when, we don't see them as well. It wasn't so long ago that computers took up entire rooms. It wasn't so long ago that a black man knew as-for-amatter-of-fact that the idea of a black president was like a sadistic joke. If we told some guy in brooklyn that a black could win, he'd either think I was crazy, or shoot me straight up.... and I wouldn't particularly blame him. It wasn't long ago that if you had a TV, the whole neighborhood would come to your house to watch it. It wasn't long ago that a kid and a teacher could bring their guns to school and compare them. Nowadays, people have changed so much that you don't know which kid you'd EVER trust with a gun at school. It wasn't all that long ago that Generation X decided to pass up to the apathetic faces of Generation Y. "21st century comin', 20th century almost done. A lot of things have changed, a lot of things have not: mainly us."
People ask, like hip hop, "Where's America going? What's up in our future?" I think the best answer is like Mos Def's. "Stop talking like America is some giant in the hill side. It's not some uncontrollable entity. We ARE America. YOU are America. HE is America, and, as of recent, SHE is America. You have the power to change America because you're one of its muscles. Maybe you're a small muscle, but you're part of it. You don't have to wait for some big boss man in the whitehouse to save our morality problem because it starts with me and ends with me. Ya dig?"
Maybe it's the same with our troops in Afghan. We interchangably call our military, "America." "America invaded Iran and killed all the people in Tehran." "America helped Haiti get back on its feet." Unless we go out there, we aren't the army, but we help shape the society soldiers grow up in. It's partially up to us to form society around mitzvot and acts of tikun olam so that the hands that we place M16s in have felt the affectionate grasp of humanity's compassion. It's up to us, in a sense, to teach the world that shooting children in their sleep isn't funny and that these children is truly no less important than yours, that we're all equal. It's up to us to expose other cultures to our children so they can accept the differences and let them unite the world instead of burning whatever doesn't have christ as the son of god. "We ARE hip hop."
You She Me He We teach what we know and what we guess.
You She Me He We say the defiant "no!" and the submissive "yes."
You She Me He We stand up for what we believe or sit down and wait for somebody else to do it 1st.
You She Me He We depict love at it's best and hate at it's worst.
You She Me He We know what it means to achieve prosperity
cause You She Me He We have been lost and came to those with clarity.
You She Me He We pull the trigger on the guns.
You She Me He We always seem to forget to stop shooting once we won.
You She Me He We burn in the face of our own red, white sun
as 21st century comin' and 20th century almost done.
You She Me He We are the surgeons facing the cancer
but that's good:
cause You She Me He We all know the million cures and the solitary answer.
You She Me He We all need to face to ha-eloheem.
You She Me He We be America and L-o-v-e is all we need.