Happy Earth Day

Soldier of Love

In honor of the release of Sade's new album Soldier of Love I felt like I should express a commentary on the lead single from the album.

I feel that the song has a really deep meaning and I wanted to share with you guys the meaning that I get from the song when I hear it. As always feel free to comment and leave your own interpretations of the song...my commentary is italicized between the actual lyrics.

I've Lost the use of my heart

It's hard for me to love in a world filled with hate

But I'm still alive

Despite the fact that I'm surrounded by hate, I'm still here

Still looking for the life

Still searching for this so-called promised life 

The endless pool on the other side

The eternal life on the other side

It's a wild wild west

America and Europe are both considered western civilizations

I'm doing my best

I'm doing my best to stay alive in the wild west, a society filled with lies, corruption, hatred, deceit and all things evil

I'm at the borderline of my faith,

I'm beginning to question my faith, because nothing is changing for the better, only getting worse

I'm at the hinterland of my devotion

My devotion is wearing thin

In the frontline of this battle of mine

Everyday is a constant battle and my faith and devotion are withering

But I'm still alive

But yet, I'm still alive 

I'm a soldier of love.

I will always be on the side of love, on the side of good, not evil, for all of humanity
Every day and night
I'm soldier of love
All the days of my life

Until I die, I will be a soldier of love

I've been torn up inside (oh!)
I've been left behind (oh!)

I have been through so so much
So I ride
I have the will to survive

But the love I have for myself and for the GOD within me has willed me to survive in this chaos that we call life

In the wild wild west,
Trying my hardest
Doing my best
To stay alive

I am love's soldier!

I wait for the sound
(oooh oohhh)

I know that love will come (that love will come)
Turn it all around

Love will return to my people one day and things will change
 

I'm a soldier of love (soldier of love)

I am a soldier of GOD because GOD=LOVE
Every day and night

I'm a soldier of love
All the days of my life

I am lost

I admit, I am lost sometimes
But I don't doubt (oh!)

But I don't doubt the power of love
So I ride

I believe
I have the will to survive

In the wild wild west,
Trying my hardest
Doing my best
To stay alive

I am love's soldier!

I am GOD's soldier!!

I wait for the sound

I'm waiting for the REVOLUTION

I know that love will come
I know that love will come
Turn it all around

LOVE will come and turn this mess all around!

I'm a soldier of love
I'm a soldier

Still waiting for love to come
Turn it all around
(4x)

I'm a soldier of love
I'm a soldier

Still waiting for love to come
Turn it all around
(3x)

Still waiting for love to come

Still waiting for the rest of you to wake up and realize that the love starts with us and if you want to see a change, there will have to be a revolution...we musn't be afraid...one person can't do it alone...we're so screwed up we don't even know what a world filled with love, instead of hate, would be like...we can't even imagine it...I do know one thing though, I'd be willing to fight and die to ensure that my children would grow up in a world much better than the one we live in today...so are you a soldier of love?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this song...DEEP!!

Interesting...

The Longer I Live, The More I Understand.......By B. Chambers

     I once heard Richard Pryor, in one his routines say, “You don’t get to be old being a fool!” Unfortunately I now believe the opposite is true. You don’t get to old being a wise man. Let me tell you what I mean.
     For my young brothers and sisters reading this blog I’ve been around a little longer than you which means I have seen and heard more than you. I’ve seen dogs let loose on our women and children. I know what it is like not to be able to go into a movie theater because of the color of your skin. I lived through the riots and saw the “for colored only” signs. I saw the segregated schools and department stores and the assassination of King, Kennedy and Malcolm. I’ve seen my uncles, aunts, grandparents, and cousins, etc., get together at a family gathering only to be fighting and threatening to kill each other after a couple hours of drinking.
     I have also seen us sticking together as a people (Black People). I’ve seen us living together in a poor environment (the projects) and helping each other; Living together as a true community. Most of us didn’t have anything but we shared what we had. I’ve also seen a lot more; I just want you to understand where I'm coming from.
     Now, to my point. As I have gotten older things have started to become clearer to me. I regret that this has taken so long. You see, I now realize that I have grown old being a fool. If I was a wise man things in my life and my family’s (my black people) lives would be a lot different. As an example we would not be killing each other, beating and abusing our sisters/brothers, our babies wouldn’t be having babies; Black people wouldn’t be at the bottom of the totem pole, as they say, around the world and nigger wouldn’t mean a thing to us. Just to name a few things that would be different if I was a wise man.
     Fortunately, I still have the greatest gift our Father gave us and that’s my mind. So I have to start using my mind. I need to be more analytical. I need to be more like Mr. Spock (Star Trek) and think logically. Use my mind to interpret the data coming from my five senses.
     Knowing what I know a wise man would have acted differently. I do know that I haven’t seen any progress for my people during my life time. For any Black man to say that we have made progress in our life time makes him a fool. All we have gotten is a promise! A promise that if you are a good nigger (which in Greek means something dead) and do as you are told then you will live forever in heaven with Jesus. I know some will say we have more opportunities now as a people then we have ever had. My response: For being a good nigger! As you can see I haven’t buried the word because I am being honest with my self. There is no way we can call ourselves Black men and women because we are nothing like the original black Kings and Queens that once walked this earth. If we were like them, I would have never seen the things I have seen and still see in my community and in the world. If our ancestors saw us today, they would be ashamed. And since we’re not true Black men and Women then what does that make us?? Dead….A Nigger! No one wants to be Black. We’re at the bottom of the barrel around the world, Period! How dare we call ourselves Black men and women?
     When I look at Haiti I ask myself questions like, is God in control? Is God the all knowing and all wise? Is he all caring and loving? Does anything happen without it being his will? If the answer is yes to these questions then it begs the question is God messed up OR are we messed up? If God is God than he caused the earthquake bringing all of the suffering and death we now see in Haiti. So if we’re not the ones messed up, which I believe that we are, then God has to be the one messed up and just gets pleasure out of seeing us suffer.
     You don’t get to be old in this system being a wise man. You might just reach a hundred being a fool. We need to see this world for what it is and stop lying to ourselves. Just think, if we didn’t believe in the promise (Heaven) we would have to admit to ourselves that we were afraid OR we would do something about our situation.
     What I’m going to do and what I’m also asking you to do is let your mind grow. Let it guide you by keeping it real. I would rather go with what is logical than with a promise for the unreal or unproven. Death for sure will come to us all but why surrender your life only to become one of the living dead, because you are afraid to die? You don’t get to be old being a wise man because a wise man would rather die than to live as a slave or a nigger.

Oh, Now You Care About Haiti??

Why did it take a natural disaster for us to notice a country that was so poor and desolate before? This is a question that had been on my mind since the earthquake happened. When I noticed that other people were thinking the same thing I just knew I had to write about it and get my thoughts out on paper. First let’s explore a brief history of Haiti.

Christopher Columbus stumbled upon Haiti during his voyage to the “new world” in 1492. Just like the Native Americans, the indigenous people (called the Taino Indians) welcomed the Spaniards with open arms.  But in typical European fashion, they violently tried to convert the people to Christianity. It is estimated that several million indigenous people inhabited the island before the Spaniards invaded. By 1550 only 150 of these people remained! Forced labor, abuse, diseases against which the Tainos had no immunity, and the growth of the Mestizo (mixed European and Tainos) population all contributed to the elimination of the Taino and their culture. The island was eventually taken over by Spanish rule and because it lacked natural resources, it became an agricultural training ground for the slaves that were being imported from Africa.  Like most of the Caribbean islands, it was a drop off point of the slave trade.

Skip ahead a few hundred years to colonization and the French have taken over the island. The French maintained the colonial hold over Haiti until a slave rebellion in 1791. Haitians declared their independence in 1804. This independence, however, led to decades of instability for the Haitian government. Unable to enter into the global economy because of their lack of a natural resource for Europeans and Americans to exploit, left this country beyond poor.

Fast forward to today. Is it just a coincidence that the top poorest countries in the world are African, or of African descent? According to nationmaster.com, Haiti is the third poorest country in the world! So my question again, why did it take a natural disaster for us to notice a country that was so poor and desolate before the disaster occurred? I guess when they were just poor and struggling to survive it was ok. Or now you are pretending to care, because the whole world is watching (talking to American/European governments). 

Or let’s take this even deeper, if God is all powerful, all knowing, all wise, etc., HE knew this was going to happen right? Better yet, HE made this happen, right? So the question then becomes, why would HE allow this to happen? Either one of two things: Either HE is really messed up OR we are. Which one do you think it is? 

This is our wake-up call people. He keeps telling us to wake up and we just shake our heads and say, “that’s a shame” or we donate money or we say a prayer.  Why are we saying prayers? God already knows, HE made it happen! He is talking back to you! Open your eyes to the reality of this world. A change has to happen and God keeps calling on us to make that change, but we sit paralyzed in fear waiting for our so called leaders to stop pulling the wool over our eyes. We keep sending “up” prayers and God keeps giving us our answer. He’s been talking, the tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and now this earthquake.  He’s calling on us to make the change. One person can’t do it alone, but if we all come together…

In light of the situation, I can’t help but think about MJ’s song “They Don’t Really Care About Us”. When Jackson began releasing songs like this one, speaking on world issues, the media (the powers that be, because they control everything we see and hear) began to turn us against Michael. The video for this song, which was hardly played in the U.S., was shot in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. State authorities tried to ban all production over fears the video would damage their image, the area and their prospects of hosting the Olympics. Still, the residents of the area were happy to see the singer, hoping their problems would be made visible to a wider audience….

Avatar Commentary

I got a chance to see Avatar over the holidays…I was really excited to see it and it did not disappoint!  The cinematography and special effects were awesome! I saw it in 3-D, but I would love to see it in IMAX just because I think it would have been even better on such a large screen. But beyond the graphics and the special effects lies a story that has been told and retold countless times.  A brief synopsis of movie: 

“When his brother is killed in battle, paraplegic Marine Jake Sully decides to take his place in a mission on the distant world of Pandora. There he learns of greedy corporate figurehead Parker Selfridge's intentions of driving off the native humanoid "Na'vi" in order to mine for the precious material scattered throughout their rich woodland. In exchange for the spinal surgery that will fix his legs, Jake gathers intel for the cooperating military unit spearheaded by gung-ho Colonel Quaritch, while simultaneously attempting to infiltrate the Na'vi people with the use of an "avatar" identity. While Jake begins to bond with the native tribe and quickly falls in love with the beautiful alien Neytiri, the restless Colonel moves forward with his ruthless extermination tactics, forcing the soldier to take a stand - and fight back in an epic battle for the fate of Pandora.”  Written by The Massie Twins  

Does this story sound familiar to you??

After the movie was over, when we were walking out of the theater, I overheard a man say, “back to reality.” But I couldn’t help but think, was the movie really a break from reality or a story of what has happened countless times and is still happening today? A prime example, the Native Americans. Check out this clip with the sound bite from the Avatar trailer over top of Disney’s Pocahontas trailer.

But even deeper than the familiar story, lies a nugget of knowledge that looks far beyond the love story that develops between the Na’vi princess, Neytiri and the avatar, Jake. The knowledge that unfolds is the connection that the Na’vi people have to their world; Their understanding that they are a part of a greater whole and not separate from it. This is what the princess shows the avatar and it makes him fall in love with not only her, but the world around him. Humans used to have this same connectedness to Earth. Many ancient peoples were aware of our connection with the Earth. We have been taught that they were savages and that they just aimlessly roamed the Earth. But many ancient peoples in Africa, Asia, America and South America had technologies and knowledge well past what we have today. Why is that so hard for us to believe? We are so lost…the person that knows something, knows that he knows nothing at all. But one thing that is evident is that ancient peoples were advanced enough to build architectures that still amaze and wonder us today. 

The Earth is our mother and we are destroying her. We are a PART of a BIGGER whole. Not greater than that whole. We have been deceived. They are wandering through space with their tools and technology searching for God. But they refuse to see that God lives within. Every human has the capability to do god-like things. Even in the bible, God says man was made in his image. And according to the bible, Jesus was sent to show us that the greatness of God is within us. Do you know we only use something like 10% of our brain? So what is the other 90% for? I believe that that is our connection with God and to the world and universe around us. We have been deceived by the devil for so long that we have been cut off from the God within us. Can you imagine the greatness that could BE if we learned to LOVE ourselves, number one, and then truly begin to embrace the greatness of God that lives within. But we live in FEAR and it is FEAR that paralyzes us and corrodes the mind….and I’ll leave you with that for today.

My Father speaks...

My father wrote this piece...I had to read it a few times to grasp the depth of what he is trying to convey...powerful message...feel free to comment...

“Father Forgive Them; for They Know Not What They Do,” said Jesus Christ with his last breath as he hung on the cross.  According to the bible I might add.

Forgive them for they know not what they do?  They had just killed the ‘Son of God.’  I recently asked myself what was God’s response to his son’s request?  “Father Forgive Them; for They Know Not What They Do?”  After all, he wasn’t telling or commanding his father to do it because Jesus would never do that.  So what was God’s response to his son’s request?

Obviously I don’t know because I wasn’t there.  However, I can look at the data available and come to a logical conclusion.  From what we’ve been taught God is almighty, all knowing, all wise, and the creator of ALL THINGS.  That’s some of the data we have to look at to conclude what we think God said to his son.

Looking at what I have before me I have concluded that God told his son, don’t be FOOLED my son because they know exactly what they do and they also know what I will do!  To tell him anything else he would not be God.  Not the God Almighty, all knowing, all wise, and the creator of ALL THINGS including the creator of the people who just killed his son.  God has to say that they do know what they do OR admit He didn’t give them the ability to KNOW what they did.  And, if that’s the case he can’t blame them for killing his son and Jesus would not have to ask him, “Father Forgive Them; for They Know Not What They Do,” because God would already know. 

Now, I don’t think God would do that because I would then have to ask what kind of games are God playing.  God wouldn’t create some people who are crazy as hell: Murderers, thieves, whores, liars, homosexuals, child molesters, etc., etc., and then don’t tell them about Him until He sends his son to tell them to see how they react.  And what do they do? They kill him.  So I guess the forgiveness comes if they repent and join God’s religion and confess Jesus as their lord and savior, then they can spend forever with Jesus and God in heaven.  Don’t do that to God.  Whomever or whatever he/she is.    Not the almighty, all knowing, all wise, and the creator of ALL THINGS, loving and caring God!

He told him, son, don’t be fooled by them. They KNOW exactly what they did.  Let’s not make God Almighty a chump, or a fool or just someone who says one thing and does another.  We need to start analyzing everything we’ve been taught and truly look at the real lessons being taught by our teachers. 

So remember, Jesus asked “Father Forgive Them; for They Know Not What They Do.”  And based on the data God has to respond “Son, They Knew Exactly What They Did and They Shall Be Punished!”

~B. Chambers