I suspect many of us are struggling post election. Might be useful to remember what we will continue to try for:
To build community and model, to the best of our ability, how to stay connected, care about one another, share the resources we have and insist on a more honest, open, fair and inclusive world.
To hold ourselves accountable and hold those who lead us accountable.
To encourage all of us to see ourselves as leaders in the true sense.
To be fierce in pushing back against every single form of oppression that exists without descending into using those same poisonous tactics.
To, even in disagreement, work to create community: we’ll talk and listen until we find common ground.
To continue to steward this park as our part of sustaining our planet.
We will spend these next years creating the hope we long for.
Look back over this website and you will see the efforts of decades of countless community members and generous people from far away. Many not recorded here. The people who began this Coalition were not certain of success: there was little help and a lot of danger.
Last, here are thoughts from just a few of our elders who knew a thing or two about struggle (for those moments of doubt):
“If you are not angry you’re either a stone or to sick to be angry. You should be angry. You must not be bitter. ….bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. You write it, you paint it you dance it, you march it, you vote it. You talk it. Never stop talking.” – May Angelou
“History, written by power, taught us that we had lost… We did not believe what Power had taught us. We skipped class when they taught conformity and idiocy. We failed modernity. We are united by the imagination, by creativity, by tomorrow. In the past we not only met defeat but also found a desire for justice and the dream of being better. We left skepticism hanging from the hook of big capital and discovered that we could believe, that it was worth believing, that we should believe- in ourselves. Health to you, and don’t forget that flowers, like hope are harvested.”
-Marcos of the Zapatistas
“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” -Washington Irving
‘If you’ve come here to help me, you’re wasting your time. But if you have come here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.’ -Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal Elder
Gloria Steinem: “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off”.
“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.” – Arundhati Roy
Lincoln at Gettysburg: “We are not enemies”