How do we hide?

We are growing up in a time where communication is everything. We can chat with friends and family across the world or even just next door and never leave our bed. It's amazing.

I myself have 3 email addresses, a blog, a facebook, a cell phone you can call or text to, a formspring, a twitter, a skype, and an AIM handy for iChat, not to mention the land line that close friends use when all else is failing.
When I look at that list it looks like so much. too much. but this is not out of the ordinary for teenagers and young adults like myself. We thrive on the ways to send information the fastest. We have been blessed with these options.

So with all the communicating and instant messaging, video chatting, and comment boxes why is there a disconnect in our generation? We are all tweeting, and blogging, and chatting but about what?

And I guess I should be more clear as to who I am talking to exactly, although I sometimes refer to our generation as a whole it often narrows down to my generation as a young African-American Adult. My question is for those that fit that mold.

What are we going to use all this communication to accomplish??

Marcus Garvey
Phyllis Wheatley
Martin Luther King
Malcolm X
Nikki Giovanni
C.T. Vivian
Nat Turner
Sojourner Truth
Rosa Parks
Huey P. Newton
Alex Haley
Stokely Carmichael
Diane Nash

These are just a few people who fought for us and committed their expertise to our enlightment. The things they sought to acheive were obvious; the right to vote, the right to go where they please, the chance to tell the truth, the right to an education, the right to know our history, the chance that we might be proud of our skin, the right to be considered more than 3/5 of a man.
Ultimately, they were all fighting in their own ways for life and freedom for US ( you and me).
and because so many of these things are AVAILABLE to us today, does that mean that the fight is over??
Do we have ANY responsibilities??? Or has the good fight been fought??

What will we do with the power we have been awarded through all of this technology? When will our rappers rap music that seeks to save us/better us?? Do you even feel as though that it is necessary??

Because when I take a look at this world and our community I worry for the children I will bring into this world. I worry that the music so popular today will have completely infiltrated the music industry with no chance of return and robotic buffoons will be dancing to their nonsense and will enter society creating more trash that will send our community into absolute stagnation, forever talking, tweeting, and chatting but going no where.

stagnant. clogged. Frozen. still. motionless. dormant. static. flat. unchanging. never growing. DEAD.

I am afraid we will chat ourselves to death unless we find something to stand for. something to be honorable about.

What ones of us will be remembered as people who made tomorrow a better place. Not just more entertaining but actually BETTER?
Which ones of us will be revolutionary? Does anyone even care for revolution anymore?

Are we happy with where we are? Are you happy?

I don't know the answer to all these questions but I think the point is to begin by being aware that perhaps there is something bigger than BET that we should be striving to discover.

I sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the race issues and class issues in our world. I am hurt and disappointed by Black American's who do not care to discover their roots. I am angered by those who dismiss Africa. I am outraged by those who feel that slavery is too shameful to claim as their history. I am afraid for those who do not realize that 60 years ago we had nooooooo respect in this country and we were being hosed and lynched. I am confused by people who can do math but can't understand how recent 60 years truly is. I am baffled by those who choose to believe that all is now equal, that Obama means that racism has died, that MLK's dream is a complete reality.

It all makes me feel like the world I live in is sick and deranged. I begin to feel out of place and unwelcome here and I want to hide from it all. Roll under a rock. Travel to an isolated island (an island off the coast of Africa preferably)  and start a new civilization.

...but then I get a text, or my Jennifer Hudson ring tone plays, I get a red flag notification on facebook, an email, a tweet, a skype chat....and I can't leave.

I can't go and hide from all that is happening in the world and with my people. My friends and family, brothers and sisters.
I can't hide with all this technology and all this communication. So since I am here I have to figure out how to make it worthy of history.

How do we manage to hide from the true issues that are driving our lives when we are always so accessible? How do we manage to talk about nothing when we are always communicating? How do we hide?