One Tribe Ya'll

So Independence Day is rolling around and it made me stop and ponder how the Internet epitomizes our independence by allowing us to express our every thought; communicate so many ideas, expressions, topics, images. Are we expressing inclusivity? Are we absorbing new levels of understanding of each other’s communications? Or are we just finding a new way to tell our same story?

I’ve been traveling these last couple of weeks, experiencing new vistas of this very big land we live in. And as I drove down the interstate, I listened to my iPod music. I just recently downloaded the Black Eyed Peas newest album: The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies) (2009).

One song has lingered with me as I’ve traveled through several southeastern states. Its theme in wrap prose echoes the mantra I believe we are still trying to master: One tribe. We rally around our individual causes and gather round ‘those who think like we do’. We wrap ourselves in our independent freedom to think as we desire while castigating those who won’t, can’t, don’t, or will never get why our way is right.

I’ve just walked through the downtown gardens of Birmingham where our independent thought injured and killed fellow humans because of their skin color. I saw the many signs along the highways marking battle grounds of our civil war over 400 years ago. Today I stepped on the ground of land of the great Cherokee nation, forced from their land and marched to Oklahoma because people of independence craved land. So in today’s world, I ask myself if I’m following in my ancestor’s footsteps of neglectful exclusivity. Do I merely scatter my values where I may and not stop to listen to the other side? Do I easily slash at the opposition via the distant, yet so intimate, cyber highway that makes me so invincible?

Independence and freedom are delicate precious commodities to treat with tenderness and respect as we wield our feelings across our intertwined lives, our intertwined cyber networks of friends and friends of friends. My barometer is often skewed, I admit, usually to the left, but on this day, I still strive to dream that one day I will comprehend my brother’s adverse view.

Here are the lyrics to the song: “One Tribe” [Black Eyed Peas]
One Tri...
One Tri...
One Tribe, one time, one planet, one race
It's all one blood, don't care about your face
The color of your eye or the tone of your skin
Don't care where ya are
Don't care where ya been
Cause where we gonna go
Is where we wanna be
The place where the little language is unity
And the continent is called Pangaea
And the main ideas are connected like a spear
No propaganda, They tried to upper hand us
Cause man I'm loving this peace
Man, man, I'm loving this peace
Man, man, I'm loving this peace
I don't need no leader
That's gonna force feed a
Concept that make me think I need to
Fear my brother and fear my sister
And shoot my neighbor or my big missile
If I had an enemy to {enemy}
If I had an enemy to {enemy}
If I had an enemy, then my enemy is gonna try to come and kill me
Cause I'm his enemy
There's one tribe ya'll

One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
We are one people
Let's cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
Forget about all that evil, that evil that they feed ya
Let's cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
That evil that they feed ya
Remember that we're one people
We are one people
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}

One tribe, one tribe
One tribe, one time, one planet, one {race}
Race, one love, one people, one {and}
Too many things that's causing one {to}
To forget about the main cause
Connecting, uniting
But the evil is seen and alive in us
So our hopes are colliding
And our peace is sinking like Poseidon
But, we know that the one {one}
The evil one is threatened by the sum {sum}
So he'll come and try and separate the sum
But he dumb, he didn't know we had a way to overcome
Rejuvenated by the beating of the drum
Come together by the cycle of the hum
Freedom when all become one {one}
Forever

One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
We are one people
Let's cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil {evil}
Forget about all that evil {evil}
That evil that they feed ya
Let's cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil {evil}
That evil, that they feed ya {feed ya}
Remember that we're one people
We are one people
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}

One love, one blood, one people
One heart, one beat, we equal
Connected like the internet
United that's how we do
Let's break walls, so we see through
Let love and peace lead you
We could overcome the complication cause we need to
Help each other, make these changes
Brother, sister, rearrange this
The way I'm thinking that we can change this bad condition
Wait, use you mind and not your greed
Let's connect and then proceed
This is something I believe
We are one, we're all just people

One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
We are one people
Let's cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil
Forget about all that evil, that evil that they feed ya
Let's cast amnesia
Let's cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
That evil, that they feed ya
We're one tribe ya'll
We people, we people
One tribe ya'll
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}
One people, one people {One People}

Let's, let's cast amnesia
Lord help me out
Trying to figure out what it's all about {what it's all about}
Cause we're one in the same {one in the same}
Same joy, same pain
And I hope that you're there when I need ya
Cause maybe we need amnesia
And I don't wanna sound like a preacher
But we need to be one

One world, one love, one passion
One tribe, one understanding
Cause you and me can become one.