I also have a dream – Bishop Dave Chikosi

By Bishop Dave Chikosi

I am no Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr. But that shouldn’t stop me or anyone from having a dream. So here we go:

I HAVE A DREAM that one day very, very soon #thisnation called Zimbabwe will be led by men who don’t require citizens to pledge fealty to a political party or kiss up to a political figure to be considered true patriots.

It is precisely this kind of false patriotism that English writer Samuel Johnson once called “the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

But political leaders are elected to serve the people not to be served or to be worshipped.

No, patriotism is not loyalty to a party or a person. True patriotism is loyalty to the collective will and ideals of a nation, written or oral.

Patriotism is “supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it” (Mark Twain).

And when the government does not deserve my support, I have a Constitutional right to dissent and protest peacefully without being labelled unpatriotic.

I HAVE A DREAM that one day very, very soon #thisnation and Africa as a whole, will be ruled by men who understand that dissent itself is not a bad thing.

It is very often the highest form of patriotism. It can save a country from going off the edge of the precipice.

May God grant us governments in Africa, who when they tell us that 3 + 3 = 8, and we the people disagree, that we don’t get brutalized and locked up in filthy jail cells.

I HAVE A DREAM that one day we will live in a country where peaceful protests are not deemed equivalent to terrorism.

(It is sad to note, in this regard, that in the US a written exam for Pentagon officials classifies protests as a form of “low-level terrorism.” If this is true, one can only imagine what this very clear violation of the US Constitution’s First Amendment does to embolden tyrannical governments around the globe).

I HAVE A DREAM that one day very, very soon we, the people, will realize the importance of using the political freedoms we still have to secure the ones we could potentially lose.

One of those freedoms is the right and duty to vote.

This is why it is imperative that everybody eligible to vote register NOW. Nothing could be more urgent politically. As Obama recently told a rally booing Trump, “Don’t boo, vote!”

Remember: “The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men” (Plato).

So shake off the apathy. Go register to vote. And come 2018 let there be as close to 100% voter turnout as possible. Don’t tell me it’s impossible.

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing” (Muhammed Ali)

I HAVE A DREAM that one day very, very soon the country will have a police force that has enough wisdom to understand that you cannot simply tear-gas, arrest or bludgeon with a truncheon an idea whose time has come.

Neither can you, Mr. Officer Violence, offer the lame excuse that you were “just following orders” when you, for instance, are caught on camera physically abusing 62 year old Lillian Chinyerere Shumba for the “crime” of sitting on the steps of a courthouse, minding her own business.

As her name Chinyerere suggests, anga akagara akazvinyararira zvake. Ko anoponderwei? Where is your conscience Mr Violence?

I know. Your argument will go something along these lines:

Officer Violence is my name and I’m above the law.

 I give the orders, and punch you in the jaw.

 If you disobey me, I’ll bind your hands and fast.

 Lock you in a cage and taser you in the . . .

 If you treated anyone as I have treated you.

 They’d label you a psycho, and use a padded room.

 For some peculiar reason, that don’t apply to me.

 Physical force I use of course to earn a bloody fee

                                                                 – author unknown

A bloody fee indeed. But it shall come back to bite you in the rear.

I HAVE A DREAM that one day very, very soon we shall all watch the beautiful spectacle of riot police standing in front of a protesting crowd, taking off their helmets and lowering their shields.

We shall watch as they march lockstep with protesters right on to the nearest government office, to hand over to a cabinet minister their instruments of coercion and walk right on out – but not before telling the honorable minister: “Go fight yourself!”

Think this is all a pipedream? Think again. Then hide and watch.