The Power of People United

By: Charles Sullivan - 11/13/02

As a long time sufferer of depression, my wife often cautions me about becoming too involved or overwhelmed by my participation with the issues that are important to me. Despite her well intentioned warnings, I cannot help but plunge into them with whole-hearted passion and intensity of blood. Perhaps it is my fiery Irish and Scottish roots. I don’t know; but whatever it is lives deep within my soul and I have no choice but to listen to that voice and act accordingly. If I were to ignore or suppress that inner voice, I am quite sure that I would go mad.

It’s just that there is so much vital work to be done and too few people doing it. I associate with activists around the country, and every one of them, it seems, is severely overworked. It is the all too familiar story of the few are left to do the work of the many. Yet, each of these ordinary—but remarkable people—continues to shoulder their moral burden and do the real work of the planet and her people. We would be lost as human beings without them.

Many of us wonder what would happen if the majority of Americans were not so distracted from the real issues affecting their lives. How different our country would be if the people were awakened and politically active. I suppose it isn’t that people don’t care. Surely, we as a people are not that callous and shallow, are we?

I suspect that the majority of Americans feel hopeless and disempowered. What does one do when we speak and our so called representatives in government do not listen or respond according to our wishes? Too often we cease to speak because we know no one in government is listening. We dutifully pay our taxes year after year to support the government, while the government does not respond to our needs. Is this not taxation without representation? Of course, it is. Is it democracy? Certainly not!

These events naturally beg the question: Whose government is it? The answer is surprisingly clear: it is the government of the rich, for the rich by the rich—the Corporate States of America; the place where money and wealth are king; the land where people do not matter; where citizens are treated as so much canon fodder for each successive administration’s insatiable war machine; where people are little more than disposable commodities to be used and abused by those who hold the reins of power.

The solution to our dilemma is also surprisingly simple and clear: we must show people how to empower themselves. This is an easy solution on paper; but a hard won in the field. So, how do we proceed?

To begin with, people have to recognize that they have power. They must know that unless they exercise that power, they will never be anything more than pawns to be used by those in positions of authority. They will become a hopeless, broken and dispirited people who exist without faith, without hope; mindless consumers of mostly useless goods who never make trouble. And they will only have themselves to blame. They will forfeit their consciousness, their humanity, to become the mere drones of capitalism.

It must be clearly understood that power is never given to the people. The people’s power is inherent; it is a birthright that must be exercised. The emancipation of American slaves in the 1800’s was not given; it had to be taken by force by the slaves themselves and their sympathizers. Our greatest citizens—men such as Martin Luther King—willingly paid the ultimate price in his efforts to attain the freedom of Negroes from their slave holders. No one gave slaves equal rights; they had to be fought for and won. Vision requires effort consistently applied over a broad temporal scale.

We must recognize that a just government requires great effort sustained over a long period of time. Justice requires tenacity of purpose; it requires passion and commitment to lofty ideals. It demands a relentless pursuit of truth that does not depend upon the corporate media for answers or direction. It depends upon the people, not the puppets of the machine.

Finally, democratic government requires both local and global community building. It requires belief in oneself and in the goodness of other people who share the same or similar ideologies. Social change, as well as environmental justice, demand unity; they demand something from each of us every day. However, no one should misconstrue this to mean that we as citizens have all of this to do by ourselves. What I mean is that each of us has something to do and that we had better get busy doing it right away.

As people of conscience, we must never sell ourselves short. There are hard times ahead, to be sure. We will suffer some painful setbacks. But in so doing, we will also discover our own power, as well as the power of unity that stems from a community of activism. We will discover a powerful sense of well being that comes from taking part in the important work of growing a social and environmental justice movement of and for the people. The seeds are everywhere within and around us. We have but to sow them and allow the elements to work their magic.

Charles Sullivan, a contributing writer for Liberal Slant, is a veteran wild forest activist, mountain party activist, writer, poet and cabinetmaker. He resides in the rural countryside of West Virginia.

Source: LIBERAL SLANT