Tens of thousands marched. I was there.

March for Our Lives, Boston MA, March 24, 2018. Photo by Deborah Belle.

By guest author Deborah Belle

Such a mixture of pain and joy to see so many marching today. Joy in the incredible strength, wisdom, and commitment of the young people leading this social movement along with their equally passionate elders. Pain is the very reason for and topic of the march. Children with signs wondering if they will be next, or pleading, “Don’t shoot!” Teachers who did not sign up to be soldiers and carry guns. Reminders of the young people lost recently in Florida and also the young father killed only days ago in Sacramento, shot 20 times by police officers in his own backyard.

What a crazy dystopia we are forced to inhabit. When will we awaken from this nightmare? Along with the emotion today there was a focus on the future and on the next steps to take. Activists were out registering marchers to vote and reminding us that voting will be our best hope of purging our national political life of the deadly influence of the NRA.

Note from KMM: Please help with the voter registration process.

 

 

Did you ever? Saying yes to activism

Sarah Mensch, Boston rally. Courtesy of Sarah Mensch, former Engaging Peace intern,

By Kathie MM

Fear, anger, discouragement, and a sense of helplessness are running rampant in this country today, and they have been charging towards this sorry state for generations.

But as pointed out in our recent series of posts , there are thousands of individuals around the world working actively on behalf of peace and justice.  Most started out pretty much as ordinary people, but they saw injustice and oppression and cruelty and had to act, no matter how big and frightening and indomitable the Big Brothers appeared to be.

You may be closer to belonging in their ranks than you realize.

Just think of the following:

Did you ever, as a kid, stick up for some other kid who was being bullied?

Did you ever try to be nice or include in activities some kid who was shy or shunned by others?

Did you ever, as a child, try to enlist the help of an adult to stop bullying or harassment ?

Did you ever, as a parent. confront a teacher or a principal or some other adult because you thought your kid or some other kid was being bullied or mistreated?

Did you ever, as a parent, take time to help your children understand prejudice, injustice?

Did you ever attend a school board or town meeting because you believed something harmful was going to happen to people in your town if particular policies or procedures were enacted?

Did you ever call upon family members or friends to join with you to protest something harmful to people or the environment that a  city council or state senate or big corporation was trying to promote?

Have you ever signed petitions or written to politicians, or participated in rallies against injustices?

Have you ever voted for a new politicalcandidate because you did not like what the incumbent was doing?

If you have done any of these or similar actions, tell us about them — and recognize that you’ve been a protestor on behalf of justice. Keep it up.  People all over the world are taking actions such as those and achieving successes.  But that’s a subject for another post.

New Year’s Resolution 1: Resist and Rise

Greenpeace’s activists and supporters before the Global Climate March,  November 29th 2015, Madrid. Text on the banner: “100% Renewables.”. Licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionShare Alike 3.0 Unported license. Author: OsvaldoGago.

 

By Kathie MM

New Year’s Resolution 1 comes from the long-time successful activist group Greenpeace International.  They have resolved: Tomorrow we rise.

Here are their specific resolutions:

“Tomorrow we break the cycle of overconsumption.

Tomorrow we hold corporations accountable.

Tomorrow we try to decrease the terrible impact of the industrial livestock machine.

Tomorrow, we stand together so that people everywhere are treated a little more equally.

Tomorrow we shake power structures that only serve the few at the expense of the many.

Tomorrow we are positive about our future and will rebuild the planet the way it should be.

Because tomorrow, we resist and we rise.

We’ll see you there.”

Will Greenpeace and Engaging Peace see your signatures on petitions? Will we hear your voices at rallies on behalf on the environment and peace?  Will you join us at the ballot box next November, supporting candidates who understand the threats to our environments, and our futures?

Will you rise and resist?

Will you send us your own resolutions to share with other readers?

Now is the hour: Use the holidays to pledge your commitment to peace and social justice.

And please support Engaging Peace.  You can click here to donate.

 

Trails of Tears

Trail of Tears sign from the Cherokee Heritage Museum.This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Wesley Fryer from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

by Kathie Malley-Morrison

The current standoff between Native American Water Protectors and the Army Corps of Engineers is only the most recent event in a long history of inhumanity carried out unflinchingly by invasive power structures motivated by greed.

Last fall, during the closing months of the Obama administration, thousands of people—even some banks—rallied around the Water Protectors as they tried to protest yet another treaty violation and protect their water supply and land from the encroachment of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Victory was joyfully embraced when the pipeline was stopped.

Yet, less than one month into the Trump administration, the pipeline is once again underway, protestors are being forced out of the area, and the battle cry of the public is sadly diminished.

What has happened?

Are the people who are disturbed by the Trump agenda just overwhelmed with Executive Orders, resignations, firings, noisy town meetings, references to Fascism?

Are some people so focused on stopping Trump that they do not have the energy to focus on and resist his carrying out of some of his threatened actions?

If you are concerned with the changes (or extensions of former changes) that seem to be bombarding our experiment in democracy from all sides, my suggestion is to continue as best you can to roll up your sleeves and attend to the three Rs:

  1. Resist oppression.
  2. Reject exploitative capitalism, with its disregard for the human costs of greed.
  3. Repair the system.
Reverse side Trail of Tears sign. Cherokee Heritage Museum. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Wesley Fryer from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA.