Roots

it's in my blood. i have to write about Roots.

i am a bit discouraged, though, because i keep asking people if they've heard of "Roots" and i have gotten, "the band?", "what are you talking about?", "what's that about?" no people! like i said, it's in my blood to spread the word about this thing called, "Roots".

it's actually originally a book- written by a man named Alex Haley. it was then turned into a made-for-tv-movie series that was shown in the 70's.

i was given the 573 minute series on dvd- and have watched it for the past 3 days, basically non-stop. i was so enammored with it all. it's a major history lesson about haley's first descendant who was brought to america as a slave.

when bringing up the word, "slave", i hardly feel like i need to say anything more. that word is so loaded. so packed full of meaning, and horror, and....and so many things that i can not even begin to comprehend.

at times, i felt ashamed of my country. i felt ashamed of the so-called "christians" that came before me. i felt ashamed just for being white. i felt trapped for those slaves. i felt helpless. i felt suffocated. i felt horror.

and prejudice hasn't really stopped. no, we have "freedom" in america. we can say what we want, how we want, when we want...but those barriers are still there. and it's amongst all people- not just blacks or whites. it's everywhere...and i just don't understand WHY.

life is full of unanswered questions- but now, more then ever, i want to understand why it matters what the color of a person's skin is? why? a person is a person is a person. we all have hearts, souls, brains, lungs, teeth, blood- and it's all the same. so where did this whole notion of different skin colors come to be?

maybe at the tower of babel. that's my guess. i don't really know. i just don't want it apart of my life in any way.