Natural Mystic

It's Monday afternoon and I'm sitting alone at home listening to Bob Marley's Natural Mystic and I can't help wonder if twenty years from now people will be singing the same song wondering if change really can be expected. Forty years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for equality and lost his life. Marley sang of a brighter day but cancer subdued his body before he realized it. Twenty years ago a Captain by the name of Sankara took over an impoverished country and made the people take their own lives and fates into their own hands. He renamed the country and turned it around. In four short years he accomplished what has eluded many for decades. What became of him? He was awarded a bullet for his actions. There are too many people for me to keep going on and on. There are too many Bikos, Nkrumahs, Lumumbas, and Machels to mention them all at once. There are many who died in oblivion. Many we can only recognize if we slow down to look deeply into the freedom flame that burns within us. We realize them because they are the timbers that keep that flame alive. Their ideas are the food that keeps that cherished beacon guiding us along the path.
And so the song plays over and over "There is a natural mystic, flowing through the air" for over twenty years the song has been around, the mystic has been around longer. For centuries our forefathers experienced it. Fought to keep it alive. They suffered and died so that it would still be there for us to experience, to cherish. See, it let's us know that we weren't always slaves. We weren't always the conquered, the savages that could only attain salvation through the bible and whip. No, far from it, it let's us know that we were once free. We don't need the invaders to show us the way to salvation. Our salvation is not necessarily the salvation of the invader. Our salvation is something more than that. It is not brought about by submission but rather by upliftment. This is what the mystic is telling us "if you listen carefully". We uplift ourselves and we will attain that salvation. How can one see his way if his head is bowed in submission? How else can one see where her future lies if her head is not uplifted and looking at the far horizon?
This is the natural mystic that burns within each and everyone of us. Fortunately, it is not limited to Africans or African-Americans. It is there for all humanity, for all to experience and understand that we are all one despite our many differences.
In no way am I promoting the idea that Africans are better that other people. That would make me no different from other oppressors for that is where the seed of oppression is sown and later reaped. We are all the same, and if anyone tells you I'm against white people or asians then they don't know me. My mother is white, I recognize and understand that side of me the same way I do my father's side. What I am against is someone thinking that they are better than others because of their skin color, region of origin, economic status, etc.
What I am for is the call for the people to listen carefully to what that natural mystic is telling them. To see the smiles on their face as it tells them about their past and future, as it enhances their present. Listen carefully and hear what you've been missing.