Voices of our Community
In Solidarity
by Claudio Yurdadön
Across the world,
Hearts are breaking,
And in our sorrow,
The grief comes forsaken.
To acknowledge ones pain,
Is not to deny the existence of another.
No you can not silence,
The elixir of our anger.
Nor can you crush,
The knowing in our bones.
For although our hearts may break,
As each bømb shatters,
Through the cracks and rubble,
The seeds will sprout to bloom,
And stand stronger than before.
No we will not yield,
Nor will we be swayed,
By your lies and your greed,
By your promises of power,
protection, wealth,
By your false prophets,
By your cries of the devil.
Our hearts grow as does our pain,
Our awareness grows as does our solidarity.
Come stand for the oppressed,
For the burning land,
For those unmarked graves,
For those without a voice,
For those who suffer without choice.
Freedom from myself is the right
I forgot to fight for.
It seems that behind every hardship is another and yet I keep going.
After freeing myself from one shackle, another one is lurking around the corner.
I thought the biggest resistance I had to fight was the system, but it turns out that it is myself.
In our collective journey to liberation our main focus remains freeing ourselves from the systems that oppress us. We forget however that those systems were placed carefully by us. That they are reproduced unconsciously through us and therefore viciously consume us. So in order to free ourselves from them, we need to free ourselves from US.
I felt extremely liberated once I became aware of my position in the world.
You are black but white and gay and straight. Well, I am mixed and bi and being limited by both. Intersectionality, they say. You are oppressed, they say.
I am actually human in a world where practices of dehumanization are no longer openly frowned upon. Where our collective humanity is no longer linked to that of Others.
I am watching Others suffer, while I have the privilege to look away. Not now, please, I do not have time. I will make time when I have the time. Is there time?
All these identities define me and at the same time paralyze me.
Paralysis is what oppression feeds on. It is what holds back change.
And yet I give myself time. Time to process and time to heal. What can I do if I am not healed? Healing is part of my humanity.
Be soft and kind. Be brave. Be all, but not everything all the time.
Healing is part of my humanity.
But
I feel I can never be (fully) healed without joining ranks with Others.
by Stacey Oh