Our Present:
Chapter 7: Advocate
Advocacy is the Salve (Cryptonite) for Social Injustice
We Dream first;
Create the means and harvest the materials of our dreams, second;
Build third; and fourth we revel in our accomplishment.
Remember back, when I was sentenced?
I was so outraged that others would
visit such indignities upon me.
Well, that transgression of mine
of my disavowing proclamation
of my denouncing words ‘n acts
against Tukayo did more harm
than any million ever did to me.
Only, Tukayo’s non transference of hurt
revealed no pride can be found in its reverse.
Real change, enduring change, happens
one step at a time …
Fight for the things that you care about,
but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.
–Justice Ruth Ginsburg. 1933-2020.
Pain that is not transformed is transmitted …
Transformed people transform.
–Richard Rohr. Born 1943.
I was the conductor of the underground railroad
for eight years, and I can say what most
conductors can’t say:
I never ran my train off the track
and I never lost a passenger.
–Harriet Tubman. 1822-1913.
We achieve our personal best
through individualized, compassionate ambition
and active accommodation
of each other’s needs and dreams.
If you see a need, it is your job to fulfill it,
even when in doubt, even while in pain.
To act by love, allow love to guide your mind.
Encourage your imagination to envision love;
Encourage your heart to teach your mind;
Teach gently, with joy and understanding;
Tell you receptive and reflective mind
to focus your interior feelings
to create the world you seek.
Love is born into every human being;
it calls back the halves
of our original nature together;
it can make one out of two
and heal the wound of human nature.
–Plato. 420-348BC
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that
within me there lay an invincible summer.
–Albert Camus. 1913-1960.
Nothing can dim the light
that shines from within.
–Dr. Maya Angelou. 1928-2014.
With the Wazizwilbi, I learned the External
was no match for the Internal
Despite me, I came to heal.
The comeback of goodness
debunked debilitation
‘n ridded pain;
my capacity
returned.
Wanted to assist, build, earn ‘n share, deeply.
My ambition felt embedded in our achievement,
but my tap run dry.
Oneness is achieved through compassion
when it manifests in action to serve another.
Freedom is born of voluntary service.
Connection is bred by assistance.
Action is the antidote to despair.
–Joan Baez. Born 1941.
The sun shines not on us but in us.
–John Muir. 1838-1914.
You think my pain will resolve if I help others?
Really, me? Are you not looking at me?
All times past,
in this moment and all time following,
I see you.
I see you.
You are not alone. You are not invisible.
You are seen. You are seen. You are seen.
And my God, you are beautiful.
–Jeanette LeBlanc. Born 1975.
When wounds are healed by love,
the scares are beautiful.
–David Bowles. Born 1970.
Failed to get justice back in the corporeal realm.
Cannot find my way outta here.
Blew it royally with you.
When social injustice transgresses
our temporal landscape,
the agony upheaves our core values.
We are thrust into a topography of pain,
where the traitorous terrain and furious oceans
leave no quarter.
Under dichotomous terms of
Adversarial Americanism, need brings defeat.
I see my advocacy as part of an effort to make
the equality principle everything the founders
would have wanted it to be if they weren’t
held back by the society in which they lived
and particularly, the shame of slavery.
I don’t think my efforts would have succeeded had it
not been for the women’s movement that was
reviving in the United States and more or less
all over the world at the time.
–Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 1933-2020.
A strong nation, like a strong person,
can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful
and restrained. It can afford to extend
a helping hand to others. It’s a week nation,
like a weak person, that must behave
with bluster and boasting and rashness
and other signs of insecurity.
–President Jimmy Carter, Born 1924.
–From the unknown–
Insight smacked me, hard.
As I realized emotions are sacred,
henceforth, I will banish the toxic
‘n reserve my domain of feelings
for those who earn entry into it
through reverence for the same,
as our emotions connect us with
All that is Good.
Celebrate love within and without,
through compassionate ambition
and social advocacy.
Where there is love there is life.
–Mahatma Gandhi. 1869-1948. (A)
In some cases, non-violence requires more
militancy than violence …
There is no such thing as defeat
in nonviolence.
–Cesar Chavez. 1927-1993.
You cannot be healed while you hold on to pain,
you must let go, so that your heart is free
to embrace again.
–Leon Brown. Born 1955.
For me, foregiveness and compassion are always linked:
how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing
and yet at the same time remain in touch
with their humanity enough to believe
in their capacity to reform?
–bell hooks. 1952-2021.
I was free to forego the restraints cutting into me,
annoying illusion of my own choosing,
internalized abuse that morphed
into constrictive memories,
of that restrictive regime,
only too ready to harm but not heal,
repeatedly conjured up by current slights,
until they fatally pollute my present perceptions.
Best of all, I am free.
Free to see the one
standing right in front of me
who will never hurt me.
Free not to be mean.
Free to beleive.
Free to give ‘n receive.
Freed by love to love.
Herein lies their fifth gift:
Our capacity for advocacy.
No more thoughts about the hurtful.
Flow forth in the river of compassion.
Social justice is achieved through advocacy.
Love is realized through our acts of assistance.
Advocate for each other’s needs
and enjoy not only social justice but love.
Advocate for one another and generate
an Algorithm of Abundance
powered by our collective love that will overcome any social BARS
(Barriers to Access & RestrictionS).
All of us, at some time or other, need help.
Whether we’re giving or receiving help,
each one of us has something valuable
to bring to this world.
That’s one of the things that connects us as neighbors
–in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver.
–Fred ‘Mr.’ Rogers. 1928-2003.
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is
What are you doing for others?
–Dr. Martin Muther King, Jr. 1929-1968. (A)
