Action Figures

Do you remember growing up and playing with action figures, dolls, toy people? I remember flying them around and giving them so many amazing powers, but beyond their powers was their knack for good and defeating the villain. I was a little kid every wrongdoing made the perpetrator a villain. I now understand that simple misdemeanors should be punished with lighter sentences in attempts to rehabilitate and that minor drug offenses should not be creating hardened criminals by giving lengthy sentences. Instead these offenses should bring about our good nature to offer our neighbor resources to learn and get back on their feet, but that is a conversation for a little bit later. I am here to talk about action figures specifically the ones that had the drawstring that made him/her speak. You know like Woody from Toy Story where he says his line "There's a snake in my boot!" We all remember those key little phrases our dolls spoke to us. My fear is that our major figures in history have been reduced to their nice sentiments they spoke a few times and forgotten for the trail blazing history they made. I think Jesus is a perfect example because we reduce him down to "Love your neighbor as yourself." We forget that Jesus flipped tables in Jerusalem when he believed God's house was being dishonored. We do the same thing with Martin Luther King Jr. We know he had been to the mountaintop and that he had a dream. What about when he marched over the bridge in Selma being mauled by police officers or when he was placed in jail in Birmingham and treated like gum off the bottom of your shoe. He wrote a letter not calling out his enemies but rather those who self-identified as his allies. He was not afraid to step on toes. Make sure we stand up to people who carry Dr. King, Malcolm X, Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Frederick Douglass and others around in their pockets armed with their most white washed and least controversial quotes on a drawstring. Call down these people and remind them of the many acts and demonstrations they had to display to achieve even a piece of their cause. History, may we not forget, is not the same as the past. The past is the literal happenings of previous times where history is merely what was recorded. They will try to arm themselves with happy-go-lucky parts of history to convince you to stop protesting in the streets, and stop lobbying Congress, and stop lobbying local governments, and stop going out to be arrested, and stop demanding change. We are ready for change and we refuse to let a handful of the leaders that you feel are acceptable to quote and make your own be used against us. But as you attempt to mellow their message and deem them acceptable for your mainstream worldview, we will always have our Claudette Colvins. If you do not know who she is, LOOK HER UP. She was not used as an icon because she had things in her life that leaders of the Civil Rights Movement believed could be used to try and discredit her story, so instead they found Rosa Parks. Now do not get me wrong, Rosa Parks is legendary and deserves an award for standing up for what is right and just, but while you use her as your puppet we will call on Claudette Colvin to show you that life is messy. Change is messy, but nevertheless in the words of Sam Cooke, "A change is gonna come."