May 26, 2008

When I was about twenty years old I had a revelation that I shared with my young hot blooded friends who wanted to do something to bring down Apartheid. We had lived our lives under the system of Apartheid and we knew that our futures were restricted because of the system of legalized racism in place in South Africa. We couldn't go to college and study what we wanted, we could not get a job of our choice, we could not be a part of decisions that affect our lives and our communities. We would be distracted by this protracted struggle and many would die in the process.

One choice was to join the underground struggle and take up arms but the other choices were no less dangerous. If we decided to paint signs and march in protest we could be picked up by the police and tortured to death. We could be dropped from a tenth floor window at John Vorster Square or any other police headquarters; we could die from a fall on a bar of soap or a flight of stairs. We could disappear. Even if we simply did what we had to do there were no guarantees that we wouldn't be swept up in the states paranoia and eliminated by accident or for fun. It was easy to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, it was easy to be charged with revolution when you asked for rights or demanded equity, it was easy to be a terrorist when the state was terrified, it was easy to be a communist by association, it was easy to be charged with treason for not saluting the flag.

"Well," said I to my friends. "I figured out how we can inherit the earth. I know what Jesus meant when He said, "The meek shall inherit the earth!." We are the meek and we are guaranteed to inherit the earth. All we have to do is survive for twenty years. All we must do is live for twenty years. Then we will inherit this earth."

I saw some puzzled looks, so I continued, "Right now the older generation hold the reins of power. They don't listen to us and our views. They don't consider what we have to say. But in twenty years they will be dead or retired. They will be gone. Then who will take over? Who will be the movers and shakers? We will! If we are alive. We will be the workers and the parents, the teachers, the consumers, the business people. We will have twenty years of experience in our fields whatever they may be. We will be promoted to the supervisor and the manager. We will be the experts. We will be the older generation and we will be the decision makers. We will decide whether we ignore the younger generation and their idealism or whether we will remember our own youth and how we were left out. We will decide whether we will let our youth into decision making or participating roles."

I paused and looked around. They were silent and I was kind of exhausted. I had shared my super idea and nobody said anything for a long time. I don't recall any questions or any comments of support. We sort of moved on to other discussions.

Twenty years later we Toi-toied inside and outside the South African embassy in Chicago. We voted for the first time and we sang, "We own South Africa!"