"This Is For The People Of the Sun!"
Lyrics by Rage Against the Machine... their music sends waves, rushes of live and passion through my body even now... and when the song came on the radio just minutes ago, it brought it all back to me...
1996, 1997... all the way through 2002... when in the mornings before 4am I would rise and ritualistically get into my running gear... which included one of Rage's albums, usually the second or first... mostly the second though.
These were some of the toughest years... the years where I had to look deep inside myself to rise to face all challenges... and what better that the rebel music of Rage? In those days, my bread came from my landscaping business which taught me much about life, about honor...
"This is for the people of the sun...!"
That line was written in tribute to the Mexican people who dare to cross the border to find a better life for themselves... to earn it... and to honor all the forgotted ones who died or got killed trying.
Several nights ago, out of the blue, I received a call from an illegal Mexican immigrant... not just anyone though... this young man had been one of my best crew chiefs with my landscaping business back in the day. We talked like old freinds... we discussed work and business. He told me that if I ever needed someone to come work for me in any business I start, he would be there. I joked that maybe I'd work for him some day, and then what he said next in his thick spanish accent gave me pause... "No, Michael, you are my boss... forever... forever. You are good man. You are my boss, forever."
Got me to thinking...
I'd just treated this young man like any other person in my life, like a human being. Yet, in the US many immigrants, especially Mexican immigrants are treated like second class citizens.
Yet, the degree of honor they are raised with in their culture... the amount of pride they take in their work, their commitment to loyalty and integrity... it was unmatched by the countless American youth who tried their hand at manual labor in the sun with me.
Initially, I'd had a vision for providing crews of nothing but clean cut American youth, who could speak English well and relate to our clients. How few could last more than a single week! What a disappointment it was... to see so many youth today are growing up without a strong work ethic and sense of pride and honor in who they are, and how hard they work.
So naturally, when I would find young men who demonstrated integrity, a hard work ethic, honesty, loyalty and puntuality... their was instant respect.
They were almost always Mexican or from Central America. They had risked their freedom to be here in America, with an opportunity to make a better life for themselves, an opportunity to provide better for their families. Many don't see their wives and young children for many months and even years. They sacrifice that to create a way for their families to live with dignity, and possibly to have a chance to come to "the land of freedom and opportunity."
Then they get here, and they are looked down upon. They are somehow less than. Ha! In my eyes, it's your character that matters so much more than anything else... education? money? fame? Show me a person of character, of honor. That man or woman has my respect.
It's Saturday night... those of you holding a glass of wine, a glass of champaign... and everyone else as well.
Join me in a toast.
To all those who risk everything for a better life for yourselves and your families... to all those who take pride in earning through their own efforts... And especially to all those unnamed, unacknowledged... faceless heroes who are in large part the backbone of this country, and an inspiration to all of us born with silver spoons...
THIS... this is for the People of the Sun!
I honor you. We honor you.
May there come a day when all human beings are born into a world where we each seek freedom, where we each seek out great challenges worthy of our lives... a world in which we all recognize ourselves and each other as heroic beings... visionaries...
That day is fast approaching.
Let us rage not against the machines of conformity, confort and security...
Let us instead rise up and build machines which yield freedom, peach and prosperity for all peoples.
1996, 1997... all the way through 2002... when in the mornings before 4am I would rise and ritualistically get into my running gear... which included one of Rage's albums, usually the second or first... mostly the second though.
These were some of the toughest years... the years where I had to look deep inside myself to rise to face all challenges... and what better that the rebel music of Rage? In those days, my bread came from my landscaping business which taught me much about life, about honor...
"This is for the people of the sun...!"
That line was written in tribute to the Mexican people who dare to cross the border to find a better life for themselves... to earn it... and to honor all the forgotted ones who died or got killed trying.
Several nights ago, out of the blue, I received a call from an illegal Mexican immigrant... not just anyone though... this young man had been one of my best crew chiefs with my landscaping business back in the day. We talked like old freinds... we discussed work and business. He told me that if I ever needed someone to come work for me in any business I start, he would be there. I joked that maybe I'd work for him some day, and then what he said next in his thick spanish accent gave me pause... "No, Michael, you are my boss... forever... forever. You are good man. You are my boss, forever."
Got me to thinking...
I'd just treated this young man like any other person in my life, like a human being. Yet, in the US many immigrants, especially Mexican immigrants are treated like second class citizens.
Yet, the degree of honor they are raised with in their culture... the amount of pride they take in their work, their commitment to loyalty and integrity... it was unmatched by the countless American youth who tried their hand at manual labor in the sun with me.
Initially, I'd had a vision for providing crews of nothing but clean cut American youth, who could speak English well and relate to our clients. How few could last more than a single week! What a disappointment it was... to see so many youth today are growing up without a strong work ethic and sense of pride and honor in who they are, and how hard they work.
So naturally, when I would find young men who demonstrated integrity, a hard work ethic, honesty, loyalty and puntuality... their was instant respect.
They were almost always Mexican or from Central America. They had risked their freedom to be here in America, with an opportunity to make a better life for themselves, an opportunity to provide better for their families. Many don't see their wives and young children for many months and even years. They sacrifice that to create a way for their families to live with dignity, and possibly to have a chance to come to "the land of freedom and opportunity."
Then they get here, and they are looked down upon. They are somehow less than. Ha! In my eyes, it's your character that matters so much more than anything else... education? money? fame? Show me a person of character, of honor. That man or woman has my respect.
It's Saturday night... those of you holding a glass of wine, a glass of champaign... and everyone else as well.
Join me in a toast.
To all those who risk everything for a better life for yourselves and your families... to all those who take pride in earning through their own efforts... And especially to all those unnamed, unacknowledged... faceless heroes who are in large part the backbone of this country, and an inspiration to all of us born with silver spoons...
THIS... this is for the People of the Sun!
I honor you. We honor you.
May there come a day when all human beings are born into a world where we each seek freedom, where we each seek out great challenges worthy of our lives... a world in which we all recognize ourselves and each other as heroic beings... visionaries...
That day is fast approaching.
Let us rage not against the machines of conformity, confort and security...
Let us instead rise up and build machines which yield freedom, peach and prosperity for all peoples.
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