Throwing Mud In The Air Hoping It Will Stick

Everyone wants to be heard, everyone needs to be heard. We know things are not equal;  some voices get to be heard while others should be heard. Noozhishenh, my grandchild is one year old and her voice will not be heard and why shouldn't her voice be heard?  My Mom and Dad are dead and gone so their voices are not going to be heard. Some voices are in fact far beyond the grave; voices are heard even when dead and gone. Still we wonder about the message or if there is a message beyond just hearing the voice. We all know some of those dead voices like Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King Jr, John F Kennedy, John Lennon, Thich Quang Duc, Sacagawea, Ignatia Broker, Rosa Parks and many many others.  While some of the voices are still heard frequently, others are but a whisper in a loud room. Other's had their voices muted on purpose but still managed to be heard despite the effort. I think about Jamal Khashoggi and how prior to his death I had no clue who was or what he was saying.

The musician, the writer, the poet, the legislator, the famous, the infamous and the notorious may have their voices heard beyond their death and their time. Time is an interesting social construct; we have to measure and measure. Not all voices, the words of yesterday are diminished by time. We see the constant voices of various religious sectors. Some voices should still be heard ("I have a dream") while others we should hope never to hear every again ("Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice").

In the same fashion of Thich Quang Duc

I wonder how can we have our voice heard? Should it be even heard and by who? There are images I remember from years ago. I didn't know what the message was so in some cases I looked up what the message was, what the voice was saying. The voices resonate with us and that is why we remember them. Thich Quang Duc was a Monk. The government was doing wrong and Thich acted. He had his colleagues pour gas on him and Thich lit a match and burned himself up. His voice in the form of self-immolation.

Another voice we now hear is Jamal Khashoggi who was chopped up while other governments listen in? Poor guy all he wanted on his last day was to go and get documents so he could get married. He walked into an Embassy in Turkey and ended up never being seen again. His voice got him killed. He used his voice by speaking up against the Royal Powers of Saudi Arabia. There are other voices we still hear today not just because of the voice but a combination of events. So is that how we get our voice heard? Do we get shot, do we jump off a bridge, do we kill a rich businessmen or rich oligarchs, do we pour petrol over our bodies and burn? Or do we need to be like Jamal Khashoggi and be chopped up, carried away in luggage bags?

Some voices we will remember due to the strength of the message, while other voices for the joy we received from them. We will remember voices for the absurdity, the hatred, and some for the hope we get. Voices may have us smiling or laughing; "I'm just a hunk, a hunk of burning love." That is fine but some voices should just melt away with time. Do we really need to hear "My achy breaky heart" as one of the voices? I would rather wait in a three-hour long line to hear Gilbert Gottfried read the book 50 Shades Of Grey  than sit through another verse of Achy Breaky Heart.

I always wonder about the "voice of reason" and why it is hardly heard or remembered? If it is remembered it only resonates with a soft reception. It instills some emotional response in us but just dies there. We live in a time where the room for being heard is overwhelmingly crowded. The other problem with the voice being heard is there are powerful forces which control the volume and the message.  So the soft voice is not going to be heard. The reasonable voice, the positive voice is blocked by loud, obnoxious, the biased, the spiteful, the selfish and the hateful voice.

We are in a time when we need our voices heard.  The World is a wondrous place. The technical advances, the architectural achievements, are all fascinating and spectacular but still they can not compare to the beauty and splendour of Earth's nature. The magnificence of beautiful Earth is under a forceful threat. The threat impacts all of us today and all those yet to have a voice. The voices of the world are trying to be heard so the voices not yet heard or born will have a place. Where they will have a place where they can speak freely, walk freely, breathe freely, and live freely. There are many who have tried and are trying to have their voices heard. There was an Idle No More voice, an Occupy Wall Street voice, Black Lives Matter voice, Me Too voice, Anti-fascism voice, LGBTQ voice, Civil Rights voice, an Environmental voice and many other voices calling to be heard.  The problem with voices trying to be heard is there has be an ear to hear them. We have seen many voices being made to shut up and many voices just ignored, not even heard. For voices wanted to be heard it is the same as throwing mud in the air and expecting it to stick, not likely to happen. Especially with the disparity in voices. Money and power controls the world and so they have the loudest voice. They have the power with police forces, military support when they want only their voice heard. They shut up the voices of the poor, the marginalized, and the majority. It is imperative to keep your speaking your voice.

I say keep throwing the mud in the air. Somehow, some way it is going to stick.

Burning Earth