No one is coming. It's up to us.

by K. Starling on We The People Dissent

On November 5, I looked for a leader, a hero to save us.

November passed. Then December.

Crickets.

It struck me: we are alone. No one is coming.

After thoroughly wallowing in fear, a boisterous voice needled its way into the forefront of my mind. “Stop,” it insisted. “Stop this. Stop it now.”

“Why?! Why should I? It’s hopeless.”

She scoffed (yes, my inner dialog scoffs often). “You are the calvary.”

And she was right.

Congress, courts, and organizations have a role to play, but it is we, the people, who can stop the cancer of hate from consuming the marrow of our nation. It is we, the people, who can resist the tide of tyranny threatening our streets. We are the answer.

They want us to believe we are powerless. We are not.
They want us to believe we are fractured. We don’t need to be.

Every day, our numbers grow. Every day, their numbers shrink. With time and persistence, what has begun as a trickle can turn into a flood.

It begins today. Today, we must resist.

We must declare, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It will not be easy, but for too long, we have lived under a mist of racism, of bigotry, of sexism. For too long, we have subsisted on crumbs while the wealthy have dined on fruits of our labor. We have funded their excess with our lives, their comfort with our pain.

No more. Together, we must persist to form a more perfect union—one built upon liberty and justice for all.

We can vote everyday with our consumer choices. Choose intentionally where you spend your money.