They will sell you
shopping and traveling
to keep you hooked.
They will sell you
a dazzling array of creature comforts
to keep you distracted.
And if you seem less interested in things,
they will sell you “experiences”
to keep you entertained.
โ
So when you eat up everything they sell you,
they will put their arm around your shoulder,
flash that million dollar smile,
and tell you that you are now “living life.”
This will make you smile as well
and feel warm and tingly inside
because you will think that you have arrived.
โ
But no such thing has happened.
You are not living life nor have you arrived.
It is a trick, a ruse, a ploy to lock in your loyalty,
your subjugation, and your subservience.
โ
They will do everything in their power
to keep you from picking up a hammer
and dismantling their supremacy,
their colonialism, their racism,
their oppression, their occupation,
their mechanisms of greed,
and their machines of war.
โ
They will do everything in their power
to keep you from coming into your own power.
โ
Summon the courage to:
Disappoint them.
Derail them.
Disrupt them.
Dethrone them.
Please.
โ
For a long time:
We stayed quiet.
We tried to fit in.
We got rid of our accents.
We buried our mother tongue in the back of our throats.
We shrunk ourselves so other people don’t call us “too much.”
We held back so other people don’t call us “too intense.”
We stashed our cultural decorations and accessories
in the attic so people don’t call us “too ethnic.”
We hid ourselves so other people don’t say, “Who do you think you are?”
We put on a thousand masks.
โ
We thought, if I make myself look and sound like them,
they will see themselves in me and love me.
We people pleased our way into the arms of Empire.
We sold ourselves for a slice of the supremacist dream.
โ
Summon the courage to:
Take the mask off.
Rip the mask off.
Burn the mask off.
Please.
โ
Our fitting in and going along never helped anyone
except to temporarily secure our own economic status.
Was it worth it? And for how long?
Now we have a nice house, a nice car,
and a nice vacation every year.
And who is it on the other side of the world
that pays the price of a lesser life
so we can have our nicer life?
โ
We are comfortable slaves of Empire.
Where does that leave us?
What guarantee of safety do we have?
What happens when they decide to make us their new targets?
What happens when they decide to cut off the water,
cut off the food, cut off the power, cut off the fuel?
What happens when they decide to come for us?
โ
Palestine is on fire.
Sudan is on fire.
Congo is on fire.
Women are on fire.
Children are on fire.
Men are on fire.
The land is on fire.
โ
Our society causes this.
Our lifestyle requires this.
Our subservience sustains this.
โ
Summon the courage to:
Ceasefire.
Cease. Fire.
Cease. Fire. Now.
Please.
โ
First wake up call: Covid.
Second wake up call: Palestine.
Don’t wait for the third wake up call.
It’s time to reevaluate everything.
โ
Do the structures we have support humanity?
Are they built with human rights and human values at their core?
Are they humane to us, to the animals, and to the environment?
If not, they have to go.
โ
What kind of future are we building for humanity
using anti-human laws, anti-human policies,
anti-human machines, and anti-human missiles?
โ
We *can* live on this earth without Empire.
We *can* live on this earth without Supremacy.
We *can* live on this earth without Oppression.
We *can* imagine a better world.
That’s what imagination is for.
โ
Let’s stop throwing
our remaining time on earth
into the circling drain of selfishness
and start working toward
a truly human and humane civilization.
โ
Mask off.
Mask off.
Mask off.
Mask off.
Mask off.
Mask off.
Mask off.
โ
Summon the courage to:
Show our hidden faces.
Flex our hidden muscles.
Speak our hidden truths.
Birth our hidden world.
Please.
โRahim