[Soft*Silver]

for you, ALH, and all others who are tired soldiers, who have lugged signs or signed petitions or sat in large groups or jumped on buses or formed a human fence...who are greyer now, move stiffer, and see not quite as well...I say this...

it seems as though all your work has been naught enough. You look around Today and you think, where is all my effort? Surely there has to be more progress....more noticable change? When I look on tv or on the internet or listen to the radio, Why do I not hear how radical the differences are? Why does it seem its all in vain...why is there not enought change?

to you, I say,

to you, who battled to open domestic violence shelters when women were still considered objects

for you who fought to make rape a crime of power and not an act of unrequited lust

for you who said 46 cents to a man's dollar is not enough for a woman to live on

for you who said racial intolerance is unacceptable and dared to drink at the only the fountains as anyone could....

for you who said education should be for everyone, not just the 12% who own 95% of the nation's wealth

for you who saw children and knew they had no rights...and committed to them a career that most would never want

for you who understood that saying "he" and "mankind" to refer to all of humankind was WRONG

for you who dreamed a life where orientations could co-exist together in a non hierarchal platform in the nation, let alone a neighborhood

for you who voted and voted and voted AND VOTED to put the right people in...

for you who fought wars to protect our nation and for you who fought so wars wouldnt be needed to be fought...

for you who made the statment "hate is not a family value" a household phrase

for you, I thank you....

and caution you...not to look ahead and think of how much is yet needing to be done. Each generation has their own legacies that they inherit, of what is still not done. Instead, look back and see all that has been done ....

by you

the individual

and the era's collective heroes...

and while your work is done, oh silver ones...yes, THE work is not all done.

So to those young who step up to the plate...

thank you

for continuing onward....




=AtLastHome;71638]
Yes, this struck me deeply. Change of heart, exactly. I am having a hard time with all of this because I turned 59 today and for the very first time in my life (have been an activist for decades), and no longer believe much heart changing will happen in what is left of my life. And for the first time, I am seriously considering leaving the US. Very seriously. At least an african American has been elected president, but my well of hope is drying up. [/QUOTE]