Tomorrow hundreds of us will gather for the Wailers concert. But tomorrow, when Bob Marley perches peers down from his cloud at Madison, he will see his listeners and the kind of world his current listeners have created. If Bob Marley were coming to Madison tomorrow, he would not be proud of us: \How can you be sitting there, telling me that you care, that you care when every time I look around the people suffer in suffering.""
Bob Marley stood for a variety of issues; some focusing on race and religion, but Marley's most universal point, the point that transcends above all cultural discrepancies, is that we all must make our voice be heard: ""So you better get up, stand up, and stand up for your right.""
We are misinterpreting Marley's music; what seem to be anthems of peace and tranquility are anthems of revolution, pain and perseverance. Marley's music is not meant to encourage us to sit on front porches, drink beer and talk smart. His music is meant to transform, to revolutionize our world; his music is meant to make us challenge the unchallenged and speak the unspoken: ""Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.""
A lack of activism would not be so frustrating if we were not all under the impression we were active. We are a joke; we are a concentrated grouping of thousands of hypocrites who are some of the most broadly educated youth in the world, yet so absorbed in the mundane to even notice our world is crumbling: ""And they live their lives, on false pretense every day'each and every day.""
There is the war in Iraq, AIDS in Africa, the drug war, police brutality and welfare reform. The issue that lights your passion is irrelevant, the importance lies in igniting your fire. We are so smart, yet we are hiding behind intellectual eyewear and heavy books. Why do we have ideologies only heard over Starbucks' double-mocha lattes, when they should be heard all the way to the heavens? We are mute, perpetuating a conjured system as if we could not alter it: ""Oh take that veil from off your eyes, Look into the future of realize.""
We are not lazy: School alone is a lot of work but add a job, a romantic relationship, a student organization or an intramural sport and our productivity is remarkable, but our energy needs to be redirected. Our issue is that we have formed a gap between the classroom and our lives. We must convert our classroom knowledge into applicable, daily wisdom. There is no difference between college and ""the real world."" If we are not careful, we are going to silently swallow this information fed in the classrooms, and regurgitate it all in exchange for a paycheck: ""Oh it's a disgrace to see the human race in a rat race.""
If Marley can convey his message internationally by creating music from a Jamaican ghetto, we too can spread our fire. We have laptop computers, books, governmental buildings down the street but most of all, we have this incredible mental capacity. We could do so much more than stand in streets. We have a future all in this little plot of land and all with their youth. We are a melting pot of immense potential energy: ""Let's get together and feel alright.""
Let us not live our lives never prompting a government to assassinate us; we are not upsetting anyone, we are just diligently playing follow the leader: ""Are you satisfied with the life you are living?""
