We are living in dark times. Every day, with every news cycle, we sink deeper and deeper into what seems like an abyss. But the night is getting shorter. There is a need to resist despair. We are not powerless. We have never had the luxury of waiting around for those who we expect to represent our interests to do the heavy lifting. In fact, their inaction should be expected if we knew our history. It has always been us.
When left without any recourse in the early days of organizing in Mississippi, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) working alongside the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) created a new vision for the state, and eventually the country, with the determination to fight for one person one vote. Without that radical assertion, the second half of 20th century America would have looked much different. It has always been us. We have always had the wherewithal within our own moral universe to shape the new political agenda to escape the darkness that is enveloping us.
It is dark out there. But it is not midnight. It is 3am and a new dawn is approaching. We must be ready this time to greet the new morning as an opportunity to reset our world. We must use this time to develop the radical imagination to make of this coming day a new reality. What we do now in the dark, in the depths of this moment of full-on assault, will enable us to generate a vision where we can see each other and the world we really deserve. We can see how each human being on this planet requires much more than what this world has given them.
It is in the darkness where we can begin to see that a world without racist and sexist oppression is possible. A world where there are no empires, where we study war no more. A world that allows children to live and be protected. Where healthcare is not a corporate game. Where our food systems feed everyone and work alongside the environment rather than against it. Where we can teach the truth in our educational institutions without fear of reprisal. Where we can affirm how each person sees themselves.
Pictured left to right Frank Smith Bob Moses and Willie Wazir Peacock in Greenwood MS in 1963Photographer Danny Lyon
We all deserve a world where we might live our truths.
It is only dark right now. We have been fighting for a long time for the light. But human history is long. It takes a long time to imagine that everything must and can change. And then live it. We have been fighting for a long time for the light. It still shines within us. It still shines within everyone who has greeted this moment with anger. It still shines within everyone who has greeted this moment with some resolve. It even still shines within everyone who has greeted this moment with that shrug off, “what did you expect?”
But, most importantly it still shines within everyone who has greeted this moment with a recommitment to do the work: To think and organize together for more just systems. To think and work toward shared and equitable power. To think and organize to enhance our capacities to change.
And to those who have made it their duty to act, these lights still shine. We must act and we must organize. We must find where our neighbors, classmates, communities, and loved ones are. We must meet them. We must act together. We must translate the reasons for the despair and the harm that we witness in the media spotlight into opportunities for radical actions. We must organize. And sometimes that means disobey. To create a new life for our people, we must have the courage to know the difference between an unjust law and justice.
Photographer UnknownWe will break through the darkness.
And with our renewed commitment to ourselves and our peoples, we will greet a new morning, ready and willing to make human history respond to our imperative, to make freedom—real freedom—our only agenda. This is what movement taught us. It has always been us.
