Reflections

I guess it’s been so long since things were good, people are too young to remember now.  We used to have some really great times, even though we didn’t have a lot, we still got down.  We had such good times, others would wonder how it was possible to be so happy with so little.  I spent time in the hood, on the streets, locked up, in the suburbs, at warehouse parties, roof top pool parties overlooking the ocean and bumped elbows with superstars and bigshots, I even cooked for some of them.  But, I’ve never had as great of a time as I had in the hood, outside of the hood.

People often think that the hood is full of angry gangster wanna be’s but those aren’t the majority.  Most of the people in the hood are good hard working people and on a Friday night when the work is done, they get to get loose and have a good time.

People in the hood aren’t the only ones that have a good time, everyone likes to party sometimes.  But, good times are different with different people and they are great with real people because, real people know that even being used and abused they are good people that love and care very much about their friends, family, little animals and the whole world.  They live the best they can and will never let anyone convince them they aren’t worth respecting as a human being.

People, that only pretend to be human, wonder how people can be so happy with so little, because when they have good times, they are only reaping their fruits off those that they use and abuse.  They aren’t as happy because they know that they are not good people that love and care for their friends, families, little animals and the whole world.

Underground

My culture has been forced underground into smoke filled rooms of loud music with people who have been to jail before and are probably going to go to jail again, singing, drinking and dancing in celebration of enduring oppressive labor and degradation yet, not falling into hate.  Representing what it means to be a human being who loves and respects all by progressing individual skills, like playing music. Rather than defining ourselves with what we have, we define our selves by what we can do.  Because what you have can be lost or taken and what you know can’t.  We go above ground to work, but we stay in the shadows until we get back underground.

Everyone doesn’t see the world the same

A polite and respectful person isn’t necessarily a happy and good person.  A person who is truly happy, is just as happy when they have just enough to eat, as they are when they have all they can eat.  When they are polite, they are being honest and when they treat others with respect, it’s how they also expect to be treated.

When some one is only pretending to be happy, they are polite and respectful to manipulate and deceive, but horrid to people who they don’t think they can use.  Because they perceive the world as their enemy and live in constant paranoia and fear of not having, along with jealousness and envy.  They expect others politeness and respect to have the same devious motivations as their own and will never trust anyone.

Land of the Free

Once the picture of an American was a pioneer with a musket and a coonskin hat, now it’s a business suit and a briefcase.  Americans had the freedom to choose to live however they wanted in the past and we have slowly let our freedoms be taken away from us.  American pioneers set out into the wilderness for furs, the freedom to be able to provide for themselves and to take control of their own lives, rather than letting their lives be provided for and controlled by monarchs and lords.

The American colonies eventually became lucrative assets to the monarchy and Americans had to fight to gain and maintain freedom.  But, the lucrative and heinous business of slavery kept many Americans under control, until again Americans were inspired to fight against each other for the right that all Americans would have the freedom to control their own destiny.

As Americans expanded west and ignorantly fought and killed the Indians, they did so with the perception of freedom from danger.  While the Indians fought to be free from American control.

When the country was connected with the golden spike, the lucrative business of ranching pitted cowboys against land barons.  Cowboys fighting to maintain the freedom to ride the dusty trail, driving their cattle across the plains and sleeping under the stars.  The land barons fighting to fence off the land, in order to control the business of beef at the cost of the cowboys livelihoods.

Now, since the land barons took over the plains Americans freedoms have been eroding like a cliff beaten by waves, today it’s virtually impossible to avoid debt and thereby be controlled by it.  What will it take for Americans to again demand freedom and what kind of American restricts the freedoms of another!?