Echoes of Freedom, Calls to Action

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery

None but ourselves can free our minds

Have no fear for atomic energy

'Cause none of them can stop the time

How long shall they kill our prophets

While we stand aside and look? Ooh!

Some say it's just a part of it

We've got to fulfill the book”

Anyone that knows me also knows that I am a huge Bob Marley fan. I have been my whole life. In fact, one of my earliest memories is of perching in front of our old square TV while while Bob’s presence lit up the screen, singing my favourite song ‘One Love’. It’s still my favourite song today.

I love the freedom and joy that comes with a reggae beat, but what I love the most are the messages in Bob Marley’s songs. I believe like Jesus, Buddha and many of our other great leaders, Bob Marley was here to guide us and illuminate the essence of humanity.

When we take time to look at the lyrics of his music they are just as important now as they have ever been. “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, None of us can free our minds”

Isn’t this where we are now? Completely entrenched in this material existence we have built for ourselves. As we spend day after day in this cycle of collecting more, earning more, saving more. Barely surviving while our planet is systematically being degraded and degenerated by the systems we have allowed to stay in place. The systems we have grown up with and for some reason believe are beyond our power. Beyond our ability to do anything about, beyond our reach. We are trapped in mental slavery. With mental illness reaching an all time high and little to no real sign of it letting up, we are enslaved in a system that is crippling us.

Yet more and more of us are waking up. More and more of us can see that this is not right. Can’t be right. How could this be right? How can we exist in a world that is so unfair, so unjust, so wrong?

Yet it’s not wrong. It’s exactly what we need. What we have in fact created in order to understand exactly who we are not. Who we choose not to be, and now is our time to stand up and say so. Now is our time to stop putting up with a system that is clearly not representative of how we want to move forward in the world. 

“But my hand was made strong

By the hand of the Almighty

We forward in this generation

Triumphantly”

Our hands are made strong. It may not feel like it but we really do have a choice. It may not feel like it but we can make a difference. If we stand up together.

Humanity is based upon relationships. We thrive when we work together. This has been proven time and time again, on the sportsfield, in the science lab, in our homes and schools. 

We may not be enough on our own, but together our true power lies. Like the grasshopper and the ant, we may be outweighed by the money that our ‘rulers’ have. We may not be able to go to battle on this playing field but our playing field is more real, more visible and more just. We may not be able to take part in the battle of money but we can dig deeper than that. We can go into battle for humanity, for love and compassion, for a fair and just future. We do have strong hands, we do have backing from a power greater than ourselves. We are loved and honoured, now is our time to step into that and trust that it will lead us to a better, fairer, stronger and more just society.

What we see in our world today doesn’t work for the majority. At times, in the past, perhaps it did. There have been times when we may have all thrived under this way of life (although if I’m honest, I’m unsure when). But not anymore. That is plain to see. How long do we go on ‘putting up with it’, ‘getting through life’ rather than thriving in it? What can we do to make things different? 

In my Year 8 health lessons we visit Hellison's model of social responsibility. I was just looking at it on the gym wall the other day and a few things really stuck out to me. The top level of this pyramid includes attributes such as tolerance and respect for others. Showing genuine leadership, fair-play and teamwork. At the bottom level or level zero qualities that a person may exhibit are blaming others, showing aggression and generally being disruptive. What struck me, was that if I think about what I see on the news or what I know of the people who run this world, the actions are not those of a level 4 socially responsible human, they more reflect the attributes alluded to in level zero. Qualities completely incomprehensible in leaders who have so much riding on their decisions. In those whose decisions we trust. When important decisions are made by people who are greedy, self centered and driven by power, then we see around us a world of despair, soaked in drama and obsession, shrouded in suffering. What we need is to move away from this paradigm, it has served its purpose. We have seen how bad it can get, do we really need to see more? Now is the time for us to stand up and say enough. Enough. Enough. Enough!

We live in this world too, and we are many. We are one and we are all powerful. We can rise up and we can make a change. We have been downtrodden, we have been robbed, we have been denied, but we will put up with it no longer. We need to find our voice. We need to stand up and we know that this is why we are here. The time to evolve as a society, recognise our potential and to fulfill our purpose has come. I see a world in which we love and care for each other, recognising the intricate web that connects us all and is us all.

In a recent UNICEF article it was stated that “Worldwide, 1 in 4 people  — 2.1 billion — still lack access to safe drinking water, according to newly published data from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene. Billions more remain without safe sanitation and basic hygiene, signaling a crisis that risks leaving the most vulnerable even further behind.” 

This is only one of many atrocities faced by other members of our species. Why can’t the necessities of life be a basic human right? How can we sit by and watch? How have we sat back and watched for years? I have sat back. I have turned away thinking there was nothing I could do. I sat back and felt powerless. Powerless to do anything to overturn a system designed against me. When I was at university I felt passionate about these things. About injustices and unfairness. Yet as I got older and ‘reality’ kicked in. As I too lost myself in this material world we have created where we systematically go through our lives not pushing the limits. Not extending ourselves or being brave enough to step into who we truly are. 

Yet deep down we know. We know we have great potential and unlimited power. We just need to remember and allow ourselves to recognise that we can make a difference

Were we to do this, we could truly change the world in no time. No time whatsoever. 

All we must do is choose.

“Won't you help to sing

These songs of freedom?

'Cause all I ever have

Redemption songs

Redemption songs”

With love,

Natalie