These difficult days have gotten more challenging in the face of this rogue administration bombing Caracas, Venezuela, followed by the tepid response from spineless Democrats who can’t seem to be bothered about the murder of 40 people along with the kidnapping of Maduro and his wife. The entire situation is both shocking and also not at all surprising, and I’m sure I’m not alone in my feelings of overwhelm.

So I want to share something that resonated with me, an excerpt from a newly published book edited by Kelly Hayes, an author, organizer, and movement educator in Chicago.  (Search “kelly hayes” on my site and you’ll find references to her Movement Memos podcast and her newsletter “Organizing My Thoughts,” both highly recommended.)

The book is called Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis and the chapter I want to highlight is Read This If You Are Heartbroken by activist Ashon Crawley. In light of the chest-thumping bravado on display after the imperialist assault on the people and resources of Venezuela, Crawley’s words hit extra hard [emphasis mine].

In the religious tradition in which I grew up, we often sang songs about our collective capacity to “have the victory.” Songs about overcoming difficulty and struggle and obstacles. It was not always easy to detect, how we would attain victory, but we had faith in something bigger and larger and more intense and vital than our individual selves. For me, it was (and still is) a model for how to demand justice. So I encourage you, too, to know that we will have the victory–because we already have it. Victory is not found in the capacity to wreak havoc on others, on the earth, on the water supply. Victory is not contained in the ability to coerce movement from north to south, displacement from east to west, or forced migration from communities of care and concern. Victory isn’t found in military power and nuclear weapons. That kind of power is evidence of a brokenness that does not cherish the earth and its creatures as worth tending to, as worthy of care.

I’m never interested in “victory” that holds a complete disregard for people and planet, the very type of victory the fascists are crowing about this weekend. Instead, I subscribe to Crawley’s sense of victory. He goes on to write:

We have the victory because we organize and fight for life until–and even beyond–the last breath. We have victory because we find one another in chaos. We have the victory because we give and share and care and love and create friendship against imperialism, colonization, and active attempts to erase our lives, our stories. We have the victory because we understand the only world worth living in is one in which all of us can thrive. There is a profound humility to organizing, knowing that what we do and how we act may not have any appreciable impact in our lifetimes. But like water that cuts rock, it takes steady and consistent practice. And I know we can make it because you are doing that steady and consistent practice; you are modeling for us what it means to engage in struggle with integrity, with heart, with love. 

I appreciate your bravery, and your courage. We need you, as the famous gospel song says, to survive.

With heart and hope and love,
Ashon

For anyone reading this and thinking “but I’m not an organizer,” think about the times you’ve checked in on your elderly neighbor or the new family down the street, the times you’ve given an unhoused person food or money. The times you’ve made calls and sent emails on behalf of vulnerable communities, or volunteered in your community at the food bank or creek clean-up, or maybe helped paint a mural. Those are all acts on behalf of your community, acts that required organizing your time and energy in concert with others. In doing so, you are working for the collective good.

Please know I appreciate you and thank you for your heart. Solidarity.