Issue 4: Here We Are Again

The times are dire, ugly even, I hoped that we would never be here again, but because we are, I wanted to share excerpts from the speech I gave at the People’s March last Saturday to tend to your spirit as well as the collectives’. 

I remind myself that this violence is not new. We have survived before. I push through grateful at least that my soul and my humanity are intact.

Last week I was offered the opportunity to speak at the People’s March in Olympia. What an honor. 

As I was writing my speech, I reflected about the journey that it took for me to get to a place personally and professionally in which I was holding a mic outside of the state capital speaking my truth to power. It brought up so much pride for my tenacity and my resilience, admiration for the courage to write my own story, for my ancestors, especially the women, but also for the people who have seen my light and offered me a platform from which to speak. 

I have come so far and I am humbled. 

As the fires rage,

I think about re-generation. Despite colonization, enslavement, war, genocide, the attempts of empire to end our people, we are still alive. 

I think about reciprocity. The rice our ancestors hid in their hair, the seeds our ancestors planted, the temples that they hid, the medicine that they passed down. The olive trees that they tended. The prayers that they laid down for us.

I think about right relationship. how the mother cares for us. nature asks nothing from us in return for everything she provides. How fathers in Gaza are still tender. How mothers nurse in the rubble. How our children make play in destruction. 

I think about resistance. The palestinians who fight for their freedom from colonialism. Those of us who are raising conscience and collectivist babies. Those of us planting gardens for the birds and the worms. Those of us walking fearlessly towards military tanks. Those of us holding truth for future generations refusing to not bear witness. 

I think about refusal. My babies and their babies will learn about the martyrs. They will know a free Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Cuba, Nicaragua, a free world. 

A reminder that all struggles are interconnected. 

Tu lucha es mi lucha.