A Change Is Gonna Come
The weather forecast was “continued heavy rain and gale force winds.” We knew this would impact the size of the crowd for our first public event, but it didn’t matter. The stormy weather seemed fitting for the tumultuous times we’re in. It was a sharp reminder that people live and die in these conditions all winter long. This doubled our resolve.
Around ten in the morning the rain mellowed and by the time the rally began the clouds had parted to reveal bits of blue sky that had been hidden for over a week. The plaza crowded with people and banners, energy and anticipation filled the air. There were a lot of smiles going around. Eyes shone with determination and recognition that this was the time to take the next step together in this nascent West Coast movement.
We took it directly to the streets because public space is increasingly being privatized and policed for the benefit of the few. Change came, we were the change.
It Was More Than A March
The demonstration’s significance was that poor people took a stand with our own voice, feet and power. It took a lot of get up and go for the people who were here to be here. People crossed mountain passes, high desert, long valleys and economic and social barriers to get here.
They slept on floors and broke bread with strangers that in short time became kin. They carried purpose and commitment with them from their communities. This set the tone for everything that happened. There was only one thing on everybody’s mind: making housing a human right!
Rally speakers focused on the need for unity and building a movement to make this dream happen. A movement that gave meaning to the words “justice for all.” We amplified our message beyond local outrage about the injustices happening in each of our communities to a national call from the West Coast for an urgent, systemic response to the “violence of poverty.”
Becoming A Priority
The march snaked through the financial district to the driving Second Line sound of the Brass Liberation Orchestra. We took the axiom that “power concedes nothing without a demand” to the federal building. There we presented our list of affordable housing and civil rights demands to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s staff.
Well aware that there’s a “credibility gap” in DC and that we’re sick and tired of the policy runaround, we let them know that we’re watching what they’re doing on these issues and that we’re building the power to hold them accountable. They committed to working on a Congressional briefing when we finish our civil rights report like they did when we released Without Housing.
“Either We Go Up Together Or We Go Down Together”
When we come together and look at the challenges that face us today through the lens of social justice, our solutions focus on what is right, what is just, and what respects the humanity of ALL people. This road requires discipline, creativity, and perseverance.
When we get caught up in the divisiveness of a homeless program versus a welfare program, a housing subsidy versus a mortgage write-off, or a living wage versus an anti-panhandling campaign, we fall victim to the calculus of “us versus us.”
But when we gather and march under the banner of building a social justice movement, everything we discuss, all the solutions we identify and all the strategies for building and spreading our movement across the country are based on a universal core foundation: the well being of each and every one of us.
Everybody connecting to this movement comes from the one place that matters the most when we talk about our community. We come from the heart. Our heart, our spirit, and our guts tell us whether something is right and just or whether it is wrong and needs to be changed. Our brains then strategize which tactic to take to create that change, but it will be through our hearts that we find our common humanity. It was with powerful hearts that we marched in the rain on January 20th!!!
