I’ve been writing a lot lately for the next Kill Ritual album. Writing, absorbing, reflecting… there is a lot going on and a lot to write about.
The political climate at the moment is volatile. People are pissed off on all sides. The middle class is becoming extinct, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and we’ve got politicians who lie to our faces while they smile with their corporate endorsements. And yet, we, the progressively poor and unheard, living paycheck to paycheck, fight amongst ourselves. We’re playing right into their hands, just as they have planned. Do you really think they give a damn about any of us? All of you people who are standing for Trump, why? Those of you supporting Hillary, why? Ask yourself what they are really going to do for you.
I just finished watching a documentary called ‘13th‘. Watch it. Absorb it. Realize that the system we live in plays us all as fools. I am ashamed right now. I’m ashamed of the hate. I’m ashamed of the segregation, not just between races, but between the populous of the United States of America. So many fingers being pointed at each other instead of looking at our commonalities.
This Election is not about Trump and Clinton. This election is about how we’ve become so disillusioned with the real problem. The problem is us. We’ve created these leaders, they just didn’t pop up out of nowhere. We’ve let them rise from the dust as a reminder of who we are and unless we finally decide that enough is enough, then it will grow to the next level which I can’t even imagine in my wildest dreams of what that could be. I’ve watched friends turn away from each other, family disassociate themselves from one another, people blocking each other on facebook, friends deleted.
I’m all for diversity, and I love that we live in a Democracy, but I’ve been watching our rights get stripped from us left and right and still there are those out there that think we have too much freedom. Tell that to our ancestors who fled from England to have freedom and ‘the pursuit of happiness’. We human beings are complex creatures. We’ve suppressed, been suppressed, committed genocide, been victims… and the list goes on. At what point to do we say, enough is enough?
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel wrote, ‘History teaches that history teaches us nothing. What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.‘
History will repeat itself over and over again unless the people make sure that it doesn’t repeat itself. People forget that our Constitution begins with these words… We the People. It doesn’t start with, We the Corporations, or We the Elected Officials, or we the Congress, etc. It is, We the People. We are the people. You and I. Black, White, Yellow, Brown, Gay, Straight, Male, Female or Transgender.
So… why did I call this blog post ‘Diesel & Dust’?
In 1987, a year after I got out of the Marines I started College. I joined Amnesty International there and was turned onto Peter Garrett from the band Midnight Oil. This is what sparked my political awareness. This was the spark that made me who I am today. It was a culmination of the military experience, the places around the world that I have seen, the unfairness, the poor, the forgotten. Midnight Oil’s ‘Diesel & Dust’ resonated with me and eventually had me working for Greenpeace. Many years have passed since then but I’ve always tried to keep that spark alive in one way or another. This election has turned that spark into a flame and if I could just get everyone to realize that we have a voice and that our lives do matter. We are only here for a short amount of time, and I’d rather be here not having to fight.
Peace,
D
