"Jesse Owens taught not only me, but many of us some important lessons: to strive for excellence and to encourage communication across borders; or to ignore the political boundaries that otherwise separate us." This was a quote from a German citizen on a documentary presented by the PBS program "American Experience". I take it that because I'm looking to motivate others to join me that I see these words everywhere now.
I decided that my "Bread of Life" blog is not the appropriate avenue for what I am attempting to do as that it may be a roadblock for those who may not be religious. I must be upfront with you, I do wish that many would join me in following Christ. I am commanded by Him to spread His teachings. But I am also under obligation to help people in a temporal way. And at present I am feeling the need to focus more heavily on the temporal state of my brothers and sisters world wide. I look around at our society and I fear that we are headed down a path that will leave the world in shambles for our children. We owe them to change course.
We, united can be a force for good. I have this fire in me that is motivating me to be an advocate for those who may be less fortunate. There are many causes that are available for us to take up. This is the reason why I had someone create the symbol you see. I ask that you take up this symbol and spread it abroad. For we are "COMMON GROUND" use it with a hash tag.
The symbolism is this: The roots are connected to common ground and the tree is fed and sustained by the common ground we all share. The base of the tree represents strength. The birds are rest, refuge and peace. The leaves are a representation of how this movement will flourish and it will give back just as trees give us clean oxygen to breathe.
My vision is that this movement will take up any worthy cause. That it will be a power and when action is needed we will bring that power to bear. This is not a political movement but we must realize that politics are everywhere and we must operate in the system that we have until we change that system. I foresee this movement forcing our elected leaders to change course and to focus on real issues instead of keeping us segregated on matters that do not really matter. This is more a social movement.
Everyone that I speak with believes that the entire world is moving too fast and in the wrong direction. We all feel helpless because we believe that our individual voice is not enough. We all agree we need better and more courageous leaders and we long for a MLK or a Gandhi. What I am coming to realize is that we must be who we want. I have attempted in the last few weeks to change my life even more to be a better Husband and Father and to make it where people would trust me with their hopes and dreams. I don't want to be a morally bankrupt leader or a hypocrite. We have plenty of those already.
Enough talking about change lets get together and really change. I know each of you has ideas and ideals of how you would like to see things. What are they? Lets make a plan of how we can make them reality. Because that we have different experiences we will each have different goals and passions. Mine is the state of my people. What I saw and participated in growing up was unreal! No more children should have to deal with the pressures of poverty and violence. Help me help my people. I will help you with your passions and one day we will be able to look back at our fruits and see how far we have come.
I know this will be a long hard fought battle and the first step will be the hardest. The question now is how? How do we do this? Where do we start? You ready?
Our anthem is #COMMONGROUND!
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