Choosing Our Battles Wisely
Thank you for choosing to get up and show up on day 1 of Black History Month as we take another step towards achieving great things and helping each other to make our big dreams come true. It’s now undisputed that Chicago Bear’s head football coach, Mr. Lovey Smith, and Indianapolis Colts’ head football coach, Mr. Tony Dungy, will shatter some petrified paradigms this Sunday for overcoming a world of obstacles and becoming the first two Black Super Bowl Bound head football coaches in the 41 year history of the NFL to compete in the Super Bowl. As we kick off the month of February 2007, I feel compelled by my mounting grief to share a brief excerpt from the book, THE GIFT OF CHANGE, by Marianne Williamson in hopes that doing so will inspire our ecletic team to take a closer and deeper look at the real reasons why one too many of our ailing interpersonal relationships are still failing instead of prospering. So if you don’t mind, we’ll deviate slightly from our previously scheduled discussions about Male-Female Relationships that will resume after opposing head football coaches, Mr. Lovey Smith and Mr. Tony Dungy culminate their history-making battle on Super Bowl Sunday.
Jesus said, “Be of good cheer,” which is certainly positive. But then [H]e added, “for I have overcome the world.” He didn’t say, “I have fixed the world,” but rather, “I have overcome it. The difference between fixing the world and overcoming it is huge. The problem most of have is that we try to fix instead of overcoming, which is why we never find that fundamental good cheer.”
Quick question. Can it be that Cheer is refusing to become one of Amerikkka’s closest companions today because one too many of our deceived political leaders keep choosing to fight the wrong battles? One too many combatants with diametrically opposed viewpoints about the pervasive practice of slavery died for nothing while fighting a civil war instigated by the terrified families of slave owners who tried to conserve the failed traditions and luxurious lifestyles of the same myopic men who never apologized. Only God truly knows all the reasons why one too many wealthy plantation owners profited for so long at the expense of all the marginalized men, women, and children whom the fatally flawed laws of both the written and unwritten U.S. Constitution forced to become involuntary beasts of burden.
Ms. Williamson goes on to say,
“Trying to fix the world is like trying to change a movie by manipulating the movie screen. The world as we know it is simply a screen onto which we project our thought. Until we change those thoughts, the movie stays the same.”
Digging deeper inside the cluttered seat of the place where one too many family secrets still hide will challenge each of us to push past the pain until God’s love inspires us all to change the way we see ourselves and the rest of humanity’s family members. Doing so will inspire our galvanized generation to “keep climbing higher and higher” which is just another way to say, “keep raising the level of our sinking thinking.” If it’s true that the better the question, the deeper the understanding, we must challenge each other to face our fears about the reasons why so much media attention is focused on the fact Mr. Dungy and Mr. Smith will fulfill their dreams by making history this Sunday.
Why did it take 41 years for Destiny to finally overcome the widely accepted false belief that legally protected slave owners, who once considered Black men to only be 3/5 of a person, perpetuated that lacked the intellectual acuity to lead a professional football team all the way to the Super Bowl? For too long, did one too many National Football League owners erroneously believe that Black men really weren’t qualified to do what Mr. Smith and Mr. Dungy have already proven to be a falsehood? Unlike the emerging civil war in Iraq, matters not who wins or loses the Super Bowl this Sunday.
Every person will win who has ever felt inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech and/or who has finally grown tired of dealing with the humiliating, debilitating side-effects of social injustice, bigotry, hatred, and poverty. Please join hands with me today as we pray that the impact of watching the history-making achievements of two African-American men will challenge all God’s children to choose love, not hate. Let us pray that the synergy of our link love will elevate the thoughts of any bigoted person who still chooses to hate great people whose skin just happens to be darker than a brown paper bag. Maybe then, our galvanized generation of great men, women will take a deeper, closer, and longer look at a non-violent solution that will somehow allow us all to slay the overgrown giant called “Racism” that the “high-definition big screen” of our individualized imaginations has blown way out of proportion. If not then, when?
In the meantime, let’s give President George W. Bush another big push since he still stubbornly refuses to choose his battles wisely. President Bush, please choose to wisely use the power of the pen in your mortal hand to bring all the great people who now stand in the middle of the collateral damage of yet another civil war. Please don’t let the legacy of America’s alleged addition to crude oil obfuscate the truth about the bad, politicized, and monetized decision you made to justify a war based upon the lie you told and sold to all who once supported you. President Bush, we the people, whose hard-earned money you’re still trying to waste, will not stop speaking truth to power in the spirit of God’s love while giving you a bigger push than the last one until you finally face the truth about your own fears and embrace Change.
We the people beseech each courageously compassionate politician sitting down in a Senate seat in the emotionally divided house that the hypocrisy of a disingenuous democratic society built to rise to your feet and take a historic stand against a war our mortal souls can’t win. Please don’t let President Bush force another able-bodied person to replace the disfigured, crippled, and mangled bodies of the disabled soldiers who can only be identified by standard military issued dogs tags or by names written across one too many body bags. Only the hypocrisy of the fatally flawed laws of a disingenuous democracy, now riddled with the bullet holes created by a plethora of fear-based double standards that still favor the rich, could have given President Bush the power to kill at will all the poor souls who didn’t choose to fight a losing battle Uncle Sam can’t win. Besides, Armageddon is the one battle “we the people” don’t want the globally televised part our Commander-In-Chief is still unwisely choosing to play to start for all the wrong reasons.
God willing, 2007 will be the first year all God’s children will stop killing each other’s big dreams and spilling innocent blood for nothing. As always, President Bush’s pending, history-making decision to courageous choose to write the long overdue check that will not come back stamped “insufficient funds” is yours alone to make. Can we all finally agree to stand tall on bended knee, hand in hand, and side-by-side as we “link the power of our love” across the battle scarred playing field of our biggest dreams? Until we can meet again, may the peace of the Almighty be with each of you as we keep walking together and working together as one cheerful body of Change activists for the common good of the entire human race.
“For our lives to change, we must travel deep.”
©Copyright 2007 by Roderick O. Solomon. All Rights Reserved.
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