Tour Memories
Song: Power Of People (acoustic) Album: Unreleased Venue: Wild Spirit Backpackers Location: Natures Valley, South Africa Date: 19 Feb. 2023 Verse 1 Selma to Montgomery marches it was 1965 mother Pollard said her feets was tired but her soul found rest that night they planned to walk over the Edmund Pettis bridge for their voting rights against bull Connor the police and the Ku Klux Klan but this wasn’t a riot it wasn’t a mob these were ordinary people with strategy involved they said no matter what happens to you turn your other cheek don’t let them move you it’s called bloody Sunday cause they made them pay cause they wanted a representative democratic say they marched with their hearts and not with their fists they marched with love compassion nonviolence acquits They made their case by refusing to fight and All America watched on Cronkite that night Chorus Ain’t no power Like the power of people Cause The power of people don’t stop Verse 2 The T and R Commission Was led by Desmond tutu Apartheid fell Mandela walked from jail With the whole world watching what’s he gonna do he invited his jailers to dinner in ‘92 Things ain’t Easy to be black and to be free when there’s white people privilege that we just can’t see look up the Greensboro lunch counter segregation at the Woolworths the downtown location It’s where for black men took it upon themselves to take a beating for the beating Jim Crow in the south they said we’ve come to help desegregate and you can no longer assign a seat by color or race they went and grabbed their friends who jumped off the fence because freedom ain’t free when you’re being arrested against all odds and voter suppression they voted George Wallace out in the next election Verse 3 There’s another thing called Tiananmen Square where a man stopped a tank with a grocery bag and stare. Vietnam two three infantry Hugh Thompson Je stopped a massacre of Vietnamese he was a war time whistleblower without the zeal even Billy Graham bailed Dr. King out of jail you can read about this world past and present tense but nothing comes close to your experience so write it down in bits and pieces like a modern day Martin Luther 95 thesis because it don’t matter if your white or black if you see something say something it’s time to act You can litigate laws and mitigate crime but you can’t legislate someone’s heart and mind you gotta lead with your heart expect the resist they even called Martin Luther King a communist #SongsInTheKeyOfFreedom #TransAtlanticRelationsTour //
We were introduced to the Elder of the (600) Elephants in Addo National Park earlier today. Our guide said he’s 56 years old and can get very angry which is why his tusks are broken - he likes to fight. As you can see, he was pissed off (literally). One of the guys on our trip sent me his video and so I edited it into this video because he captured our groups reaction at the end. Just a heads up, there is some language at the end of the video. //
We don't want to leave. This land is magical. I wish there was a way to slow down time. We're trying to soak up every second. Thank you so much South Africa. You are beautiful.
Rayah and I went on safari today in Addo. One moment we’re looking at zebras up on the mountain and the next moment a Lioness is walking right towards our vehicle. We followed her for a mile or so and watched her charge a family of warthogs. The ibis sounded the alarm which warned the warthogs the lion was near and this warning almost certainly helped prevent the warthogs from being dinner. It was a really cool experience that I’m grateful to share with my daughter. //
Song: Be Brave
Album: Ubuntu (2015) Venue: Louvain Burn Music & Arts Festival Location: The Karoo, South Africa Date: 3 Feb, 2023 Chorus Stand up, Stand strong, Make Peace, gonna sing my song. Find my purpose, gonna heal my pain Stand in strength, I’m Gonna be brave. #TransAtlanticRelationsTour // 🇿🇦
So we got charged by a white rhino earlier today. #TIA
Edit: I am sad to report that two weeks after I took this video, both this Rhino and it’s mate were poached. They had their horns cut off and were left to die. Schotia, which is the private reserve these beautiful creatures lived on asked everyone (via their Facebook page) to share the videos of these magnificent creatures as a way to get the message out about the realness of Rhino poaching. Please sign petitions and ask your nation’s department of state (or international affairs) office to engage in an international coalition to stop these acts of savagery. I cannot fully explain with words what a tremendous loss this is. For Schotia Private Reserve and the greater region, the Peoples of South Africa and the entire world. There are only 14,000 white rhinos left on this planet. These rhinos are intrinsic to the Peoples of this land. They are part of the Identity of African Peoples. And to Schotia, they’re family. Schotia is a family run business. They persevered thru Covid and the lockdowns and a bunch of other things that me as a person from the western hemisphere have no idea about. They’re the oldest private game reserve in the Eastern Cape - they’ve been there a long time. There’s no bush games in Africa. It’s survival. We decided to go back to Schotia again with all our friends because they’re #1 and they did an amazing job just like they did the other two times we had the privilege to be on their land. If you’re in South Africa and planning a safari experience in the Eastern Cape, I highly recommend Schotia. Happy New Year from the Motherland. I can't believe it's 2023. I hope you are doing well. Thank you for sharing this space with me. I've never been too big on New Year Resolutions but this year I'm feeling a bit different. I'm going to start being more strategic. I've had a little over a month to get grounded and start listening to my body.
There's a fine balance between empathy and apathy. I'm not going to sit here and try to tell anybody where that line is but I can say from experience that too much empathy can create apathy. It can lead to burnout. Doesn't matter what you are doing or how much you love it, if you're not balanced out it can lead to a situation that you may or may not want to be in. There is so much noise in the western hemisphere. There's so many agendas and talking heads trying to scream down your throat. I tried to take a more underground approach this year. A couple times, I will admit, my studies boiled up to the surface. It's so frustrating to hear so many Americans talk about freedom and liberty and equal protection under the law and (really) anything in the constitution while we simultaneously violate Article 6, Clause 2 of the US Constitution. "All Treaties are the Supreme Law of the Land and Judges in every state shall be bound thereby,." The constitution is very very clear about Treaty compliance but America just will not hear it. The schools don't teach about it and the churches don't preach about it because history literally implicates both institutions. So Americans understanding and (lack of)) respect for Indigenous Peoples sits comfortably in the minds and imaginations of the American politic. Nothing is more American than shutting an Indigenous Person down who is trying to educate and/or inform. That is the history of the western hemisphere over the last 531 years. There is nothing appetizing about the Struggle for Indigenous Liberation. Liberals and Conservatives alike are against it. Both political parties are against it. The church is against it and so is the state. I am going to continue doing my part for the struggle. I am going to go back underground and continue my studies. There is a creative solution here. It will surely start with education. And then the constitution. We have a long way to go America. If any of you love any of your rights that are "protected" by constitutional law, it would be very wise and prudent of you to ask yourself how secure your civil liberties *really* are because Article 6, Clause 2 is being ignored outright. Just poof, the 6th Article of the Constitution is just null and void. How secure does that make you feel about your first or second Amendment? All constitutional sections are bound together by the same cloth of destiny. When America realizes that; things might start to change. |
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