John,
Last month, we kicked off the We Must Do M.O.R.E. National Tour (Mobilize, Organize, Register, and Educate) in El Paso, TX and since then we've been going places! This month brought us to Maine, New Hampshire, Louisiana and Kentucky, where we've broken bread, heard powerful testimonies and shared a moral vision for what this nation can be.
"This nation's heart has to be broken by seeing the face and pain of poverty to the point of repentance. This nation has never changed until it was forced on its knees, forced to see the ugliness of her ways towards the least of these." - Reverend Dr. Barber
The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival's M.O.R.E. Tour is lifting up the work of the Campaign on the ground in more than 20 states from September 2019 to May 2020. The tour will culminate in the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington on June 20, 2020, where thousands of poor people, clergy, and people of conscience will gather at the nation’s capitol to demonstrate our power.
We hope to see you in Oakland/San Francisco on December 11th for our next stop!
THE WE MUST DO MORE TOUR HEADS NORTH
We made our way to New England as the trees burst into color, stopping first to hear about the issue of homelessness from community groups in Portland, Maine, followed by a march and mass meeting attended by hundreds.
“I can remember the frustrated looks on my dad's face when he saw the bills...my mother blamed herself for being sick...it was the system’s fault, the same system that makes it so people would rather die than drown in debt. This has to end now.“ - Mary Berard, Maine
With a childhood poverty rate of 50%, Mainers understand well that things must change and that We Must Do MORE. We know they will be bring that conviction and energy to our Moral March on Washington on June 20, 2020.
The next day we headed to New Hampshire, starting off with a pre-trial rally outside of the Concord District Courthouse with the first six people to be arrested during the 40 Days of Moral Action last spring. The sentence they received was to be good for 24 hours. This is a moral win for our Campaign. Onwards!
In the evening we gathered in Nashua, NH for a powerful March and Mass Meeting.
“We cannot and will not get rid of our ‘problems’ by bombing them away, shipping them away or locking them behind bars...we are in a state of crisis!...When people say 'why do you organize?' I say 'I don’t have a choice. And you don’t either.'” –Asma Elhuni, New Hampshire Poor People's Campaign
People in New Hampshire are fired up and ready to end the war on the poor!
VISITS TO SHREVEPORT AND 'CANCER ALLEY' - ST. JOHN'S PARISH, LOUISIANA
We began our time in Louisiana with a mass meeting in Shreveport, hearing from people like Caitlin Douglas, who testified: “My first thoughts of suicide...were at 7...because my teachers did not know how to challenge a poor, black, and gifted student in my community.” Her message made it clear that We Must Do MORE to fight systemic racism and inequality.
Our next stop brought us to St. John's Parish where we held a press conference and marched against 'Cancer Alley,' an area where petrochemical and synthetic rubber companies have polluted the environment, causing devastating disease amongst residents. According to the EPA, this area includes the town with the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxicity anywhere in the U.S. Residents are currently battling Formosa, a proposed plastics manufacturing facility and we are right there with them. We all have the right to live. The Guardian came with us on this leg of the tour.
During an emotional mass meeting that evening we heard from testifiers about the devastating affects the toxicity has had on their health and the well-being of their loved ones.
“I’ve lost six family members from different types of cancer in the same area, not to mention half of my friends. My neighborhood is turning into a ghost town.” -Gloria Dumas
We ended with a unanimous call for Louisiana to rise up and show her presence in Washington, D.C. for the June 20, 2020, Mass Poor People's Assembly and Moral March on Washington.
THE WE MUST DO MORE TOUR ARRIVES IN COAL COUNTRY
We started our time in Kentucky with a press conference outside of the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, with whom local activists have been trying to meet for months to no avail. After being denied entrance to his office to deliver a letter, his constituents signed up for future appointments with him. This is not the last he will hear from the Poor People's Campaign!
That evening we held a mass meeting in Covington where local residents testified about addiction, gun violence and why they are part of the Poor People's Campaign.
Jheri Neri of the Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition said, "We stand for all people, for all nations.
WE STAND. WE STAND. WE STAND."
We continued to witness that standing up for what is right in the face of a hateful and racist history the following day when we arrived to Corbin, KY, a historical "sundown town," where in 1919 hundreds of black residents were expelled from the town by a white supremacist mob. On the hundredth anniversary of that event, we participated in a very moving community conversation about facing that history, and nurturing community transformation.
"I'm sick of living in fear, sick of having that silence me. It means a lot to be in a room of people making things better in a place I always thought I would have to leave." – Lakin Dillingham, a queer 1st generation college student and service worker from eastern Kentucky, who remembers waiting until late to buy groceries so they wouldn't be seen using SNAP, collecting buckets of water to boil on a cast iron stove and sleeping in a car to save money for an apartment.
That evening we drove further east into the mountains for a mass meeting in Hazard, a town of 4,500 left behind by the coal industry. The testifiers spoke to the pain of poverty and the struggle to stay sober amidst a sense of total abandonment by those who should be representing them. The nation needs to know what is happening in Hazard, and they will be coming to Washington D.C. on June 20th, 2020 to force this country to face itself.
Reverend Liz Theoharis shared with us the story of the leper who comes to Jesus and says, “If you chose, you can heal me.” And Jesus’ response was “I do chose. Be well, and go out.”
The disease of the leper is an allegory for the five evils of systemic racism, militarism, poverty, ecological devastation and a distorted moral narrative. She says, "If you choose, you can end homelessness. If you choose, we can end hunger. If you choose, everybody can have healthcare...We are traveling around from community to community to build up that will.
We don’t want to just shout into the darkness. We want to birth some light."
Our final stop in Kentucky brought together people from throughout the state and beyond for a March and Mass Meeting at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. Theomusicologist Yara Allen and her spontaneously formed Georgetown Justice Jump-off Choir got us started with a rendition of "We Shall Not Be Moved."
Amanda Hall recounts her story of growing up in coal country:
I remember in high school going outside and and the creeks were running black and the fish were all dead. Mines started shutting down and the opioids started moving in. I got addicted and went to jail. I would have holes in my state socks and I would think “this is what you deserve” because that’s what we tell people who are poor. But it’s not what I deserve.
This tour affirmed again and again that the poor and low-wealth, and those most impacted by injustice, do not deserve to be exploited and beaten down, that every person has inherent dignity, and that we need all of us to push forward into a vision of justice for us all.
Save the date for June 20, 2020 for the Poor People's Assembly and Moral March on Washington. We all need to be there.
(All photos credit: Steve Pavey, #HopeInFocus)
Forward together,
The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
