We Who Believe In Freedom ...

Dear Friends,

We know that you are as shocked and heartbroken as we are and we send much love to you. On Friday we’ll post a debriefing blog about what we think happened yesterday. (Just what the world needs - another hot take!) But today we simply want to make contact with you and tell you that we’re staying in this fight for as long as we’re on this planet, and we hope you will fight alongside us. 

We also hope you will take really good care of yourselves – take some time away from the turmoil, get outside, check in on a friend. It’s all so overwhelming right now, but we will get our feet back under us and then we’ll take it one step at a time together. 

It will always be this image that we remember when we think back on this election season …

One of our favorite thinkers is writer/historian/activist Rebecca Solnit. Have you read her work? Her Twitter post last night brought us to tears …

“They want you to feel powerless and surrender and let them trample everything, and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is.” - Rebecca Solnit

So we’ll talk to you again on Friday, but this evening we want to leave you with “Ella’s Song,” written by the mighty Bernice Johnson Reagon and performed by Sweet Honey in the Rock. The song is dedicated to Civil Rights and Human Rights activist, Ella Baker (1903-1986) whose life and example reminds us that working for justice is a lifetime labor of love …

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons
Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers' sons

That which touches me most is that I had a chance to work with people
Passing on to others that which was passed on to me

To me young people come first, they have the courage where we fail
And if I can but shed some light as they carry us through the gale

The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on
Is when the reins are in the hands of the young, who dare to run against the storm

Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me
I need to be one in the number as we stand against tyranny

Struggling myself don't mean a whole lot, I've come to realize
That teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way my struggle survives

I'm a woman who speaks in a voice and I must be heard
At times I can be quite difficult, I'll bow to no man's word

We who believe in freedom cannot rest
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

We will rest just a little bit, then get back in the good fight with all of you,

Roy and Melanie