Over the last three years, if we did not yet know it, we have learned that our futures are intimately bound to one another; that it is our personal responsibility to stand up for what is right; that there is no other way forward than together as one – only then can we hope to have the resources we’re going to need to turn our country – and world – around.
And here’s what fills me with hope: in the last three years we have seen good people all over our country rise up against unthinkable facism, human cruelty, and an increasingly oppressive regime.
Along the way new generations have joined us as we stand up and say that we’re done with how things are – enormous income disparity and the impossibility of making ends meet, corporate interests run amock, a climate crisis unfolding like a slow motion riot, our shameful, grotesque criminal justice system, relentless encroachments on our bodies, voting laws clearly meant to disenfranchise, the vilification and division of religious and ethnic groups, the discrimination of those who have differing sexual and gender orientation – all of this achieves only one thing: to allow those in power to keep it, for their own benefit.
As we close out this decade in perhaps the most fragile political moment in our lives, remember this: it is all of you who flooded the streets one day after the inauguration of the most horrible and dangerous president ever elected (by the electoral college, let’s keep in mind, NOT by the people). It is all of you who have marched, rallied, protested, striked, registered new voters, made phone calls, canvassed and marched people to the polls. It is all of you -- all of us -- who have proven one thing: we can take back the power if we decide to. And if we stick together. In the future, this movement -- and this moment -- will be recognized for what it is: a rebirth of the American dream.
At the close of the decade, my resolution - and MARCH ON’s resolution - is clear: keep going. Keep fighting. And most of all, if we get everyone to vote, we will win. I invite you to join me in that resolution.
