DON'T MOURN! ORGANIZE!!
The night before he was to be put to death on a trumped-up murder charge, labor organizer Joe Hill sent a telegram to his friend Bill Haywood of the IWW: "Goodbye, Bill, I die like a true blue rebel. Don't waste any time mourning. Organize!"
Many of us will die.
When the hard-fought gains of decency, humanity, and equity are ripped from our nation's statutes by the greed of oligarchs and their lackeys, we will die.
When the hope of a better future is crushed by the selfish fear of the privileged, we will die.
When it becomes clear that we will not be silenced, we will die.
When they cannot sweep us from the streets, we will die.
When they cannot still our songs of freedom, we will die.
When they cannot make us acquiesce to our own oblivion, we will die.
And then...
WE
WILL
WIN
But for this to happen, we have to understand the price. And be willing to pay it.
Death will not be demanded of all of us.
Prison will not be demanded of all of us.
Pain, privation, destitution, will not be demanded of all of us.
But those things might be demanded of any of us.
And what WILL be demanded of all of us is to ORGANIZE.
To UNIFY.
To be willing to pay that price, and to put our time, our energy, our creativity into the fight. To be willing to risk the harder sacrifices, and make the hard choices.
I promise you this, this truth which has been proved through generations, from Joe Hill to Martin Luther King, and before and since: IF we do this, IF we are willing to look out over the devastation, dry our tears, take one another's hands, and march into the future together, determined to bring back all that we are losing now, no matter what the cost to ourselves...
WE WILL PREVAIL.
And not only will we win back what we lose tomorrow, but we will take the next steps, into a greater future yet. A future of compassion, equity, sustainability, dignity, humanity, and common well-being.
A future of knowing, caring about, and being cared about by our neighbors, our communities, our institutions, and our leaders.
A future where the legacy of those whose work is being rolled back now will be raised up in respect and love.
So take Joe's words to heart.
Some of us will die.
If it's me, I'm proud to stand with Joe. So don't mourn!
ORGANIZE!
passionately,
Bright
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