Tupac Shakur vs. The People of Sierra Leone

 Im sure everyone is aware of Blood Diamonds(conflict diamonds) which are diamonds mined and sold to fund a war.,specifically in Sierra Leone  or Uganda .Yes its become the the celebrity charity of the moment. Kanye made a song about it that was very deep and poignant. Leonardo DeCaprio made a movie about it. But few people are aware of the role Tupac played in the conflict.
 During the conflict ,which went on from 3/25/1991 to 1/8/2002,  members of the  Armed Forces Revolutionary Council recruited child soldiers some as young as 8 to fight the war for them.These kids went from Arithmetic and school lunches to propaganda and a diet of cocaine mixed with gunpowder and many were forced to kill theyre own families.Many of these kids (because of a lack of uniforms or anything else to seperate them visually from theyre enemies who often were also child soldiers working for the govt)began wearing 2Pac tshirts to identify themselves mainly because Tupac constantly refered to himself as a rebel and soldier.They also called themselves The West Side Boys aka West Side Niggaz or West Side Junglers .
  I know , I know the irony  of it all is unbearable.
 So it came to be if you saw someone coming to your village in a Tupac shirt you should run or die.If you found someone alone with a Tupac shirt mobs of people would kill them as revenge. So either way Tupac symbolized death in Sierra Leone.
 They could not have been aware of the fact that Mr Shakur would have been horrified to know he was being used as a symbol of  black on black violence.After all he was named after Tupac Amaru  a 70s civil rights leader. His Godmother was Angela Davis. He would turn in his grave to know he had been misunderstood and misconstrued into a  martyr for these terror squads.
 Or does he even have a right to be? For every "Brenda got a baby" theres a "Definition of a Rida". For every "Dear Mama" theres a "Thug Passion."For everything he said he represented in life..In song it was often a far darker ,more violent 2Pac.He could go from a call for peace between black & brown people to murder of his "enemies"  in one song and  switch from the degredation of women to the exaltation of his mother in the next .
A very complex man indeed.

Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone(notice the youth in yellow wearing
a 50 cent T-Shirt)

 So this brings up my point.How responsible am I for how im percieved? How accurate is my perception of how people percieve me?And if I died today and my face was put on a t-shirt who would wear it as theyre symbol?I dont put my relevance on the world scale in the league of an entertainer but honestly these questions are more relevant to me than anything Tupac had to say. He obviously had more relevance and impact in Africa than he probably ever imagined.Just not how he wished.

So what is my buttefly effect?How have the the things i have said shaped the world around me and what effect have they had on the people close to me?If i wait on my Eulogy im sure it will be beautiful.*cue church organ*

*In deep Voice*"He was troubled but had a big heart.."

*Gently weeping*"He loved his family and never  ever......"

*smiling through tears*"Ill never forget the time ...."

Not to say those things arent true but they just arent the whole truth. I want to know how i am percieved in life....But that in itself is a Pandoras box. How many of us are ready to accept an honest account of who we are as seen through the eyes of the people we are closest too since its easy to dismiss the opinions of strangers. Lets face it we all are judges of men . But can you stand to honestly know how you are percieved? God in His infinite wisdom gave everyone the ability to see something good looking everytime they look in the mirror. I know this because not even the make up they applied in the mirror is doing some people any good.In my perception.So it stands to assume he gave us the ability to percieve how we are percieved in a good light. The problem is how close is that to how others percieve us? Because someone is always watching and listening.