We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, January 15, 2015

A Change Is Gonna Come

A poem by Andrew Blash, a homeless person, included in his letter to Linh Dinh entitled "Dispatch from the Front Line of Poverty and the Doorsteps of Hell", and posted on Dinh's website.

A Change Is Gonna Come

I was born by the river in a little tent

Oh, and just like the river I've been running ever since


It's been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gon' come, oh yes it will


It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die

Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky


It's been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gon' come, oh yes it will


I go to the movie and I go down town

Somebody keep telling me don't hang around


Its been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gon' come, oh yes it will


Then I go to my brother

And I say, "Brother, help me please."

But he winds up knockin' me

Back down on my knees


There been times when I thought I couldn't last for long

But now I think I'm able to carry on


It's been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gon' come, oh yes it will