Babylon Falling

For diehard Rastafarians, the fall of Babylon means the fall of the New Roman Empire, America suggesting that greed, corruption and police state will be forced to make way for simplicity, transparency and spiritual awakening. With our nation's economics going asunder, along with Bush and other white collar criminals having betrayed their own, it should be obvious we've gone so far off from sanity that there's no other choice now but to return to basics. Take this past Christmas, for instance. Shoppers had to wrestle with the decision to either risk getting killed by Black Friday mobs or be more introspective and give, instead, of themselves without the help of materialistic offerings or bling...

And there was the presidential election that not only introduced us to a seemingly larger than life candidate but also allowed the People themselves to have their say, even if the truth is that Whites generally voted against betrayal rather than give allegiance to an astute politician with a darker skin complexion and an exotic upbringing...

But here we are, two weeks before this long-awaited historical inauguration, and we're still trying to decide whether we should continue shopping as we face what some are calling the second Great Depression-- a gift Bush and his cronies left at the White House door for Obama to clean up...

Gary Zukav, spiritual advisor and motivationalist will tell you this is in no way the end of USA but the end of self-serving, narrow-minded thinking; that we're now at a point where we're forced to accept, as Americans, that we don't run the world, contrary to what we've been taught in grade school and in our living rooms...

and in these here times not only are we being challenged politically to think outside of our comfort zone, but our very definitions of what Black, White, marriage, sexuality, man, woman, professional, thug, friend, enemy, ugly, and beautiful are drastically being redefined as we move towards the 21st century...

Even Black Republicans have had to re-evaluate their party membership after seeing how painfully out of touch and exclusive their tribe's image was being portayed (or revealed), as in "Hey, he's not one of us. He's a Muslim!" while Muslim American soldiers are risking their lives overseas to keep us all safe...

And, of course, the Governor of Alaska who reminds me of--sorry, gotta say it but you know I'm right--Britney Spears teaching political science!!! Yea, the woman is sexy. I'll give her that. But Vice President of these united states? And now maybe even President, come 2012? Is it that good ol' White American denial again? The same avoidance of historical facts boys and girls are taught in our public school system? Or is it merely more of the same fluff mentality that we're now being forced to address, whether we like it or not?...

Forward-thinking, less ego-driven pastors, imams and rabbis are more in line with Zukav's ministry because they see more value in the things that make us all similar than on matters that divide us as children of God...

They, too, see the need for us to think outside the box. Just as our President-elect obviously does by making CNN's Sonjay Gupta our new Surgeon General and Leon E. Panetta as new CIA Director. The fuss over Gupta alone is less about capability and more about not fitting in with so-called professional standards. In other words, He ain't one of us!...

And though it's obvious that the Panetta choice is to directly address the whole matter of torturing prisoners of war, he too is getting some heat for not having CIA experience, but wasn't that the whole point? To bring in talent that can help bring about change, not only in the way Americans see themselves and the world around them but in the System itself?...

To do away with the concept of Republican vs. Democrat vs. Independent, even if it's just for the next four to eight years?...

While listening to Black investors, especially, who lost mad loot due this financial crisis, it occured to me that the common denominator is fear. Fear of losing a certain lifestyle, fear of adapting to a new one, fear of having to re-evaluate the purpose of capitalism, fear of what the children will think and do as a result of their parents not being able to keep up with ice videos...

Fear, fear, fear when it should be spirit, love, gratitude...

It's a sign of the times (and our on-going inner-conflict between being American or African) when you react to the obvious and forget to count on the unseen for comfort. The loss of faith, even with the promise of a new leader whose name in Swahili means The Blessed One, somehow negates all hope...

But when I see my dreds selling hand-made items across the street from Macy's, appearing unmoved by the threat of losing what was never theirs, to begin with, particularly since the retail industry never wanted dreds around anyway, not even as security guards (Rastas don't make good snitches)...

I'm reminded that, as a race, we are still resourceful, still self-reliant when we dare to remember what comes most natural to us, and how deceptive this whole notion of wealth and success can be...







And when I hear about young Whites in San Francisco being bullied and arrested for protesting the killing of yet another innocent African American male, it gives me hope that we're at least moving towards that authentic post-racial place where people of all skin colors can come together in the name of ending racism and police brutality...

It's that same sense of hope that allows me to look beyond limitation, beyond White and blue, and sometimes even Black...


to remember to be thankful for what little I may have, rather than be upset over loss or want. For to complain about what we don't have is to waste what we do have. And I'm not sure one needs to be African or Rasta to get that!