The Ghion Journal

I have written a lot in my life; I would like to think that, in my own small way, I have used my God given talents to speak truth to power while trying to inspire others to challenge conventional wisdom. Though I have many failings, especially when I invert my gift to serve my own ego, at my core what I yearn above all is for the dreams and aspirations of past and present prophets of peace and love to one day be realized in our lifetime. Though I am a man of faith, I don’t make it a habit to push my faith on others. I just plant seeds and have faith in time the seeds sprout and are nourished by others.

I am writing this as an introduction to a poem I wrote not too long ago which, when I am at my last days, I will look back upon and realize this was the most important thing I’ve written. I once thought that my greatest work occurred in 2008, when a speech idea I forwarded to then Senator Barack Obama’s neighbor ended up being incorporated in Obama’s South Carolina victory speech after the speech idea made its way to Valerie Jarrett and Obama’s sister. In retrospect, what I wrote back then was a dream which ended up being co-opted by a dream nullifier. It was this very accomplishment that ended up leading to my exodus and turned a once upper-middle class consultant into a sojourner. But the blessings of life are born in the very womb of distress and hardship. It was in the midst of my greatest tribulation that I wrote the poem below, it is my hope that people really take the time to read the words carefully and understand that we, the people, have more in common than our differences. This is my version of “Red State versus Blue State” speech of sorts, except I wrote this from the heart instead of someone else who read his words from teleprompters for the sake of gaining status.

My hope is that you reflect on these words and then take a pause and question those who push separable grievances instead of advocating for universal justice. The change we are looking for will not come from the powerful; their interest are diametrically opposed to our hopes for their dreams depend on the rest of being fractured. The change will come from us, the people, for only unity can overcome the power of the few who run roughshod over all of us. Labels and isms only shatter humanity and perpetuate injustice, it is time for us to set aside ideology and come together as a people.

I hope you reflect on these words below and then share this message to others, don’t focus on the messenger, I am but a servant and who I am is at the end inconsequential. Focus on the words and the message and then start a revolution of love and oneness. I guess in a way, this can be looked upon as a red pill versus blue pill moment. I hope you choose above all to question the very things we are forced fed as a society. Don’t take what I wrote as the truth, no one has a monopoly on truth, instead view it as a journey we are all on to discover truth. That journey starts with questioning indoctrination, above all, having dialogues instead of yelling past each other.

History’s Malevolence

The middle ground is treacherous

Preaching unity to all sides dangerous

I mean trying to find a universal language

Creating consensus out of chaos

Is often laden with insults—profoundly onerous

It’s easier rebuilding the tower of Babel

But lend me an ear brethren and sisters

What if I told you history was malevolent

Facts rewritten by victors and conquerors

In order to split the masses into opponents

Propagating propaganda to prolong injustice

What if I told you that the Civil War

For example to pick one of many instances

Was not truly about slavery

It was about the economy

Forcing one ideology over another

The powerful versus the feeble

A clash of aristocrats and the prosperous

Who duped the powerless to fight each other

Most “white folk” in the south

Were struggling as indentured servants

Deteriorating in barrenness

Now the powerful spread lies

Fracturing society into encampments

Pains of the subjugated

Being used to hide intentions of a system

In the process pitting one against the other

Racism is about power

But they deceive you into thinking

That fellow victims are racists

To obfuscate the true malevolence of bigotry

Hiding the hands of those who bleed society

What if I told you

That poor “white” folk in Antebellum

Had more in common with “slaves”

Than they did with nefarious “slave” owners

And only a fraction of society, the wealthy aristocracy

On both sides of the war irrespective of location

Thrived in the midst of hardship

The multitudes on both sides

Living in destitution and squalor

As they teach that Lincoln was the “Great Emancipator”

Educating us to elevate a president

To the status of God for “black people”

Maybe you should read Lincoln’s speech

“A House Divided”

And you would realize that history

Is full of utter bullshit

Injustice only prospers

When the people are splintered

And feed into the propaganda of the system

Did you get mad, think of me as a sellout

As if I was dismissing the horrors of slavery

Or diminishing the pains of its legacy

Do you think I am trying to erase Jim Crow

Will you accuse me of negating

The terrors of Reconstruction

Or do you understand

That the ancestors of “black” and “white”

The children of the masses

Irrespective of color

Are besieged in poverty and squalor

At this precise exact moment

For the Civil War is still raging

As they pit races against each other

Trying to instigate strife and friction

As they manipulate society

To rupture into racial warfare and hostility

Think about this for a moment

Who shares the burdens of the broken

Of “black folk” who shiver in Chicago?

Is it the bourgeoisie Congressional Black Caucus in D.C.

Is it the “first black president”

And the jive talkers like Sharpton

And his ilk who live in Manhattan partying in the Hamptons

Attending soirées in Martha’s Vineyard chalets

Or do poor “black” folk in the cities

Have more in common with their brethren

The impoverished “white people” in the Appalachians?

It’s always easier to speak to individual grievances

To impassion flames instead of spreading light

Insults follow the ones who preach universal justice

Applause given to those who demagogue incessantly

See history is meant to cleave people

To teach that others are dissimilar

But in truth the lives of most are unbearable

Slavery has taken on a new concept

Where debt has become the new bondage

And poverty is the new shackle

Most of us are ensnared in irrespective of identity

More and more falling into this depraved captivity

When it comes to historical injustices

The sins of a diabolic few

Cannot be blamed on the masses

I mean Mussolini’s army not too long ago

Terrorized my native land Ethiopia

As mothers and children

Innocent civilians

Perished by the hundreds of thousands

Charred up by chemical weapons

A holocaust visited upon my ancestors

But I can’t blame Italians

For the horror of a murderous cabal

For there are masses in Italy

Suffering just like the masses in my country

This same message I preach to my fellow Ethiopians

Those who are blinded by tribalism

As they insult their countrymen

Letting animosity overcome their emotions

This is the reason Ethiopia is shattering

And why tyrants rule with iron fists

Injustice making us forget our common heritage

Making us disregard that we are one people

United by one common struggle

It’s always easier for the powerful

To pilfer the citizenry and fleece us blindly

As long as we are distracted by differences

To “white people”

This message I reiterate

So called “minorities” have identical struggles

The same burdens that you go through

So why get mad at the meager means

Of those who are broken by poverty

The pittance given to those caught in bleakness

Instead of being outraged

By the thievery being undertaken by the few

The billionaire class who we worship

As they swindle our life savings

History is mendacious

Truth subverted into propaganda

Instead of dwelling on past pains

And residing in separable grievances

Why don’t we unite as one people

If you want to end injustice

Stop monopolizing pain

And understand one thing

We are all in this together

Or we will suffer forever fractured

This is why I keep using quote marks

Around the words “white” and “black”

Because these labels are pernicious

They prevent us from realizing our cohesion

For we are more than labels

We are humans united by the same purpose

History is full of lies and divisiveness

It’s in our hearts we find humanity’s oneness

~ Excerpt from Serendipity’s Trace, a book of our common struggles and connective hopes. Search “Serendipity’s Trace” on Amazon or “Teodrose Fikre” to find the the book ~

Link for Serendipity’s Trace: Click Here

or go to https://www.amazon.com/Serendipitys-Trace-Teodrose-Fikre/dp/1537146726/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid&sr