Oh Jerusalem

It has begun even before all the results are in. The rioting in Nairobi, (Kikuyu land) and in Kisumu (Luo Land) has erupted over slow election results. But it is not about the results exactly it is about the collective anger between tribes, it is the anger from abject poverty vs. grand wealth. It is nothing that Americans understand. We have forgotten the hatred that brews in differences and erupts in murder. It's not that long ago that lynchings took place in our country, it's not even 50 years ago Watts erupted. Funny how collective memory works to blot out our learning process.

We have long since shed our tribal ways. Oh we tuck them away and may think of them privately. We may secretly hate gays or republicans or Hispanics. We are allowed to hate foreigners, indeed we can even make it an election issue, but we're not supposed to kill them. We do that in secret in places like Gitmo.

Our elections are more peaceful, when they are close, we cheat, but we have given up rioting and killing.The losers go on to other things like becoming Nobel Laureates. We have come a long way and we did it without the interference of other nations.
We began over 200 years ago and we didn't do it so well. We had our tribal warfare less than 100 years after we became independent. England and Spain weren't over here trying to foist their monarchies on us and telling us to get on with it. We went through Tammany Hall, Presidential Assassination,Presidential Abdications and no one brought their bloody armies to our shores to hurry the process on. We still struggle to get it right.
We lost a powerful leader this week. Benazir Bhutto was indeed a prophet and a woman of peace." Oh Jerusalem, you who kill your prophets.."(Luke 13:34) She knew she was a marked woman, but she did what she felt she had to do, what was ordained for her. We did the same. We killed John, We killed Bobby, We killed Martin, We killed Malcolm.They all knew that the possibility of their living to an old age was slim and none, but they taught us to keep trying anyway. And we are waiting for a new prophet.

I believe we must have faith in all countries that even when they kill their prophets, when they riot over election results they are doing nothing more than we did when we were learning to become a country. I wish America could be more respectful and less judgmental. I wish we could be less alarmists and more accepting. I wish that we could move from a fear based society to one with faith in all human beings to figure things out. I wish we could give what is needed and not what we want them to need. And most of all I wish that my words would make a difference, but I am a child of the 60's and believed the dream.

So I wait to see if my friends are all right.I pray the new Prime Minister will indeed make secondary school free. I pray that it will settle down in a few months. Nothing will keep me from going back to Nambale the end of February. There are children to be fed, and villagers need help starting businesses and I promised I would be back. Nothing will keep me from that. Because I have faith that I will always be right on time when God decides my purpose is finished. And I'll even be in the right place, wherever that is.

Happy New Year y'all.
MM