So I am definately not one to skip out on a blog post by just posting a video *smiles to self*. But this is something else. This speech is really something else. Written in the 1920's for the movie The Great Dictator starring Charlie Chaplin this speech is literally far beyond its time. This is a speech that from then until forever will remain timeless.

Heres the video link if you don't want to read it. I think the video adds that extra bit of drama and visual effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsgaFKwUA6g

 Here is the Transcript:

The Jewish Barber (Charlie Chaplin's character): Hope... I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business - I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; more than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The airplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish...

Soldiers - don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate - only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers - don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written “the kingdom of God is within man” - not one man, nor a group of men - but in all men - in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfill their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers - in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting - the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings - and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow - into the light of hope - into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up.

So not many people are going to enjoy this particular blog but bear with me. I want to ask whoever is reading this blog one question.

WHO ON EARTH IS CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS???

I’m being dead serious about this. I ask this question because until a couple days ago I had no idea who this man was or what his relevance to my life was as well. As many people who do know him can imagine this is really awkward for me. As my fellow SAWIP group members, either stared in awe of this man or had even gone to the extent of reading his book and quoting it. All I could think of was who is this man and how is he relevant to me?

It’s a question that I have come to realize many South Africans as well as Americans would have a similar view or answer to. In fact millions of people across the world probably share the same view.  I had never heard of the man until I entered SAWIP. So when heading into a meeting with a man many seem to consider as a legend, I was filled with a sort of anxiousness one gets when heading into the unknown. I knew that he was important but my mind couldn’t comprehend just how important he was.

As we waited patiently for him to enter the room an intern decided it would be best watching a video about the congressman’s life. That was probably the single worst thing he could have done to me at that point in time. He set up a 3^rd party image of a man I had not yet met which would completely set the benchmark for him. I must admit (and here’s the part people won’t like) while others where in awe I sat there perplexed wondering what was so amazing. He had moments of brilliance that I know I can definitely applaud, but in general a lot of what he said was . . . well . . . nothing new to me.

I’m being very candid about this because it is something that I am personally grappling with right now. I know I should be in awe of him, especially because of all the personal sacrifices he made but I can’t seem to draw it out of me. I can’t seem to put him on the pedestal of Walter Sisulu, Joe Slovo, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Suzman, Oliver Tambo, Albertina Sisulu, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko and the list can go on and on. As I was grappling with why I couldn’t put him on that pedestal I realized it was because I could not relate to him. I couldn’t realize that what he fought for was exactly what all my personal heroes fought for.  Fighting for the chance to be equal in front of the law and society.

It made me wonder how many other people around the world fought for something quite similar and I don’t know about them. How many other people in the world were beaten to a bloody pulp that I don’t know about? So this blog is dedicated to all those who have ever stood up against an unjust system and haven’t been recognized. All those who have once given up their lives fighting for what they truly believe in and who’s sacrifices made this planet a better place. This blog is to remind all those reading it to acknowledge the sacrifices made by these people and celebrate their lives and contributions regardless of how big or how small it may be.

So for me the question still stands. Who is Congressman John Lewis?  I’m not going to pretend to believe and he instrumentally changed the way I see the world. He still (even after meeting him) remains a person that I don’t seem to relate to. A person who I can’t say directly affected my life. A man, who has no sacred place in my heart. He remains solely in my mind as a freedom fighter in a land far from my own.

It’s that last part that I will probably take away from my meeting him. He remains a person who fought for freedom regardless of the peril that laded before him. I can respect those who are freedom fighters regardless of their country or origin. Because when you fight for what’s right, you deserve respect.

So who is Congressman John Lewis to me?

Not a legend, not a man of who has completely changed my life, not a man I would notice walking down the street, not a man who will make me gawk in his presence. Congressman Lewis me is a simple freedom fighter. The greatest breed of humans this planet will ever have.

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America is loosely called an advanced democracy, the oldest democracy in the world. It seems that one of the by-products of living in an advanced democratic society is that social “issues” are what we would call sub-issues of sub-issues and the real issues are tackled superficially. To give an example, a couple of us SAWIP students were privileged to attend the Campus National Progress Conference during week 4 of our DC experience, a day of seminars for American students living across the country. One of the speeches, at the high profile event hosted by President Bill Clinton, was on race. The speaker was unfortunately more concerned with shouting out her frustrations with an ill-described study than addressing the real issues of socio-economic prejudice and voting rights limitations that indirectly discriminate against African Americans. The conference turned out to be more like a democrat propaganda machine than an academic or even passionate discussion of American social and economic issues.

 

Fortunately, our evening SAWIP discussions and leadership day provided the insight that was lacking at the CNPC and also allowed for discussion among the team of many different issues including affirmative action, reconciliation and other topical controversies. We were able to draw comparisons between the American Civil Rights Movement and post- Movement as well as the South African struggle and democracy in the past 17 years. Of particular interest was our visit to Anacostia and a discussion of black envy in America and oppositely the South African “Begging to be Black” issue.