From Progressive Watertown member Eileen Ryan
For me,
Accountability is Action –
So, take a fraction
Of your time
To learn what is not fine.
Take a stand
And address those in power and make them understand
That all injustice is intertwined.
“Justice is What Love Looks Like in Public.”
This is what Cornel West Said
And why I’ll be dressed in red
On Valentine’s Day
Standing outside the golden-domed State House
In collective action with those who want to show the way,
And be a beacon to help to sway
Those who write the policies.
To teach the leaders that radical love
Must come above
All other reasons why
Leaders guide.
We are done with the seasons of delay.
We will carry our signs that say
We cannot continue on this way.
Without LOVE for all:
Those coming from other places
People of different races
We need to welcome all faces
And face the consequences of income inequality
Of healthcare and education disparity
Housing insecurity, climate change,
Misogyny, and more.
We need to leave the system that pushes us
To consume more and more, and leaves us feeling spiritually poor.
Let us listen to Rebecca Cokley and Brittany Packnett Cunningham and “Spend Our Privilege” whatever that may be:
Health, or wealth, education, sexual orientation, citizenship of this nation,
The privilege of your race, your gender, your abled-bodied personhood
Take that privilege and spend it for the greater good.
It is not the role of the oppressed to address
The injustice that keeps them and us
Hushed. Voices unheard must rise up aided by those who can
Those who can do – Is that you?
It is I and it is why
I keep on writing, calling, showing up.
There is so much to do.
We need systemic change
We need an economy of gift exchange,
Not an economy of extraction, and exploitation, the system that
Created Mass incarceration.
Come to the world with gratitude
Welcome enough,
Stop buying all that stuff.
Know you are enough, you understand.
Lend your heart and hands.
In the words of Melnea Cass:
“If you can’t do great things
Do small things in a great way”
And have a Happy Valentine’s Day.
