Facebook Publication Date: 10/28/2018 21:10

This, this holding on to our sense of self, and our relative sanity, and our caring for each other, will be how we do, or do not keep walking with solidarity and resolve.

These last few days have taken such a toll on us all. We have been in shock, grief, despair, with a sense of helplessness and of hopelessness.

Yes, yes. yes. All of it.

We cannot let it stop us.

Those of us who are fighting in the midst of all of this cannot afford to either minimize the real pain we are feeling. At the same time, neither can we afford to allow it to consume us, render us mute and impotent.

We are heading into the final stretch of the great efforts I know we are all making.

It would be wrong of us to think that we will be able to rest, to stop. As we have seen, our resolve must be ever stronger. We must keep pushing.

Not because we are losing. Quite the opposite.

Because we are advancing.

In earlier writings I have spoken of a phenomenon called ‘extinction burst’ where things get worse, regress, relapse, sometimes greatly, before the tide turns for good. It’s a real thing. And I think we are seeing it here.

Make no mistake, this does nothing to lighten the grief and the sorrow we have all felt. But it should give us a glimmer of hope.

This work will not end on the first Tuesday of November.

That idea is a fiction. Taking our country, and our humanity, back is and was never, ever, a ‘one and done’. We have seen the consequences of complacency. We have seen the outcomes of empty gestures. We have seen the effects of half-measures. No more. No more.

And yes.

I do see you, and all you are doing, and how you all have allowed yourselves to be changed and moved. And I hope you see me.

As much stretching, and painful growth, and brave transformations as I have seen in you, and in myself, there is still more we must do. Push past the pain and stiffness; push past the lie that we are ineffective and our work has been for naught.

Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking.

I see us.

It is fitting, on this Sunday, and as we head into the final stretch, to be reminded of what is at stake, now and into the future.

These past two years have changed me, certainly. I am not the same woman I was that Tuesday in November 2016 when stunned tears ran down my cheeks.

The tears dried. Replaced by resolve. Replaced by carpal tunnel from writing, a voice hoarse from shouting, a hip sore from marching. And I watched as others took up the mantle as well.

Some had been activists for years, even decades, and I was inspired and encouraged to use the modest skills and talents I possessed, married to a determination and resolve that has sometimes surprised even me.

Some were new to the walk, and suffered real and metaphorical blisters as they got used to their new shoes. Whose voices started as whispers, then moved to full throat.

All of us are tired. Still we continue, because turning back or stopping is not an option.

So then. On this Sunday, I will share with you a song I learned from that great Oakland church, First Congregational.

It is a gospel song. So many of the great songs of freedom and liberation are. I ask you to listen and then sing and then move your body to it, and then let it take hold in your heart.

“I Won’t Go Back”. A link to it, with lyrics, will be in the comments. Let it feed you. Let it push you.

There is no going back for us, because there is no going back for them. They cannot succeed in recalling and repealing and destroying the gains my ancestors died for. They are relentless. So must we be. We cannot let up, nor falter.

A few days ago, I talked about doubling, tripling down. About real sacrifice of time, talent, resources in ways *that none of us, not one, not me, not you* have truly done in these past two years.

As we have seen, the very future of our lives, our elders’ lives, our children’s, our very humanity is at stake.

And we need to be All In.

If you have been changed to the marrow these last 24 months, please do share how in the comments.

If you plan to double down, triple down, go All In, share how you will do that too.

I know that it is possible to type through tears. I know it is possible to walk even while weeping. I know it is possible to hold each other up, even as we feel our own pain.

I know it is possible to tell the truth through fear. To out ourselves even as we are terrified. I know that anger, righteous anger can be purified and harnessed to the good with strong, reliable, resilient, no nonsense, clear eyed love.

I know because I have seen it. In you, both in person and here in online spaces. In strangers who have inspired and challenged us.

How can you ask more of us? you may well ask.

Simple. Because there is more to do. And there is no one to do it but us. Not your neighbor. Not your sister. Not someone being heroic on CNN.

You. You are the hero this world is waiting for. You.

Stand up. Start walking. I am walking right beside you. Broken knee, sore hip, weary soul and all.

80 years ago, there was another moment not unlike this one. Let there be no mistake. This is no hyperbole.

This is each of our defining moment.

Who are we going to be?

Who are *you* going to be?

Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking.

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