BMW: Ambushed in the Night

After ingesting the steady stream of hooey that is Plame-gate, Treason-gate (and whatever other kind of "gate" that'll surface as of this writing) I've stopped tuning in to the news on a daily basis. I've found that my days have been exponentially sunnier since I ceased chasing the 24 hour news cycle and went on with it; stopped que-ing up for the lastest crumbs 'n croutons of reportage from the frontlines of the media based in Washington, NYC, L.A. and elsewhere. Not because I don't want the facts but, to put it plainly, too much info is a tangible thing and right about this time I'm reaching, what Led Zeppelin called a Communication Breakdown. Critical mass as it were and a reprieve is in order. Having said all of that , I still read and watch and conversate with homebiscuits about what's going on in the world. I've just taken a break from writing about it as much as I have in the past...but that shite don't change the way earthly things transpire. Case in point: I was getting ready to go out and hook up with some friends the other night, my CD player was set on shuffle, and "Ambush in the Night," this BMW (Bob Marley & the Wailers) tune from their Survival LP (pressed way back in the late 70s) came on. It spoke volumes about how the more things change, the more they remain the same. Too, the cut reminded me that although escaping reality is necessary -- like going out for a couple of oat sodas on a club crawl -- we can't eschew what we see and know forever, and if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything...The wolves of apathy must be kept at bay, so circle your cognitive wagons around the truth, even though the path to it may hold many twists and verily, it will...



Ambush in the Night

See them fighting for power. But they know not the hour.
So they're bribing with their guns, spare-parts and money.
Trying to belittle our integrity, now.
They say "what we know is just what they teach us."
And we're so ignorant, 'cause every time they can reach us.
Through political strategy they keep us hungry.
And when you go 'fi get some food --
Your brother's got to be your enemy.
Well!

Ambush in the night -- all guns aiming at me.
Ambush in the night -- they opened fire on me, now.
Ambush in the night.
(I'm) Protected by His Majesty.
Oooh Wee!

Well, what we know is not what they tell us.
We're not ignorant, I mean it, and they just cannot touch us.
Through the power of the Most High we keep on surfacing.
Through the power of the Most-High we keep on surviving.
Yeah, this ambush in the night, planned by society.
Ambush in the night - they trying to conquer me.
Ambush in the night ...
Anything money can bring --
Ambush in the night...

Note: Marley wrote this tune after the attempt to assassinate him in his home went awry. Though he caught a bullet in the arm and his wife Rita, one of his backup singers, got nicked in the head, he and the rest of the Wailers went on to play the One Love Peace Concert during which he got the political rivals Michael Manley and Edward Seaga to join hands in an historic (albeit, symbolic) gesture of peace to cool the heads heavily armed rival gangs in the ghettos of Kingston who were more or less pawns in a political game that they'd never really benefit from...just like a whole heap of schmoes right now -- just ask those Katrina "refugees" what's up...I think Kanye West was onto something, yo... Truth to power is a beautiful thang, son. Laters...