The revolution is in talks with the network...

A few weeks ago my younger sister and I had a discussion that made me question for a moment if we grew up in the same household. She had never heard "The Revolution Will not be Televised." by Gil Scott-Heron, she did not know why this was important. We are only four years apart in age and we definitly grew up in the same house, but even as I played it for her on my blackberry with its internet and youtube access, it frightened me that she could see no value in the history of it. In a country that holds the majority of the worlds wealth, throws out more food than many countries even have access too and could realistically be completely self sufficient if not for our materialistic practices, the real people in this country have stopped screaming their grievances and begun whispering to eachother about how things have really got to change. Silently we have accepted the sale of our jobs to foreign countries, silently we accept the mass production of genetically improved animals, the children of our own country starving while we aid countries who don't want our help and ignore countries who desperately need help. We are overdue for a revolution and I can't help but wonder how much longer we will go without one. How long will the people of this country park themselves in front of the television instead of get movin out there in the world.

Once again I look to my trusty dictionary for the definition of revolution and what I find does not satisfy what I am looking for. I'm not looking to overthrow the government or "complete a cycle" and I don't believe change can ever be complete, provided you are working towards a brighter future. The future can always be brighter and the world can always get better. I do believe in social change, I do believe sitting down and watching things take turn after turn and getting worse and worse for the little guy is a sad part of what we call American culture. I don't believe anything is going to change if there is an entire generation of people who just dont care and I dont believe we will ever know what needs to be changed if we continue to believe everything we watch on tv, read on the internet, or in newspaper and magazines. There is an entire generation of kids out there with no knowledge of how it got this way and no worries about where it's going and they are all going to breed!

Well fuck, I'm worried but not because I have kids, because I don't. You see its this generation of kids raised on tv and fastfood thats going to be feeding me and wiping my ass in the nursing home when I'm 80. Its these technology obsessed, mannerless manipulators, raised by 50 inch flat screens and guilt, lacking basic communication skills that will be taking care of me in some elder care facility built by robots and suspected immigrants.

Certainly, I'm not saying I have all the answers, because my answers are rarely the right ones lately, but I am saying maybe its time things start changing again. The revolution will not be rewritten by historians, it will not place children in front of the tv and ask them to watch cheap remakes of the original.The revolution will never come if we don't act and react. The time is coming once again to pull the plug, turn off and get it together. We are a country full of people sending aid to other countries when people at home are starving, homeless and unemployed. We send work to other countries, not because they do it better but because its "cost effective", while people here continue to lose jobs. Here in a country that can be completely self sufficient we continue to starve ourselves as we send our future overseas so the rich can continue to get richer and the poor can continue to watch American Idol and convince themselves it will get better if they just pray a little harder. Nothing changes if you don't change it and no one gets up if they don't know they can. Would history ever repeat if we never knew what it was?

The revolution is not going to happen because we want it to, its not going to whisper at you in the night or hold your hand while you sit alone at the lunch table. The revolution will inspire change at more than a snails pace and it will be talked about at the water cooler and shouted from random rooftops. The revolution will feed your hungry, house your homeless and employ your jobless, the revolution will save us from ourselves, educate us on our history and bring us chances we never thought we'd have. The revolution will not be a cheap remake of the original but a shiny, new, sparkling piece of hope that will open the eyes of a blacked out generation to the reality of our power to bring change to our children and life to an uninspired generation of worker bees. The revolution cannot be a rerun and it will not be televised, youtubed or twittered. It will not take place on your couch or even on your computer, the revolution will not come to you and it will not be edited by the FCC for your viewing amusement. The revolution will require movement, you will sit in the drivers seat you may not even wear a seatbelt and you will drive. The revolution will be alive and so will you.