Blog: Get Fired Up

Suddenly, I found myself marching rather than walking and even more so, chanting.  "We're fired up, we won't take it no more" The crowd was thick and the voices were bellowing to be heard, I could barely confirm which voice was mine. Nestled among the emphatic sounds carrying heavy messages from the marchers, I knew it was there. It was as if each of us took on the burden of shaking the sleep from each other, or from the people who maybe weren't fired up about injustice; about other people's plights. We were going to help bring the world out of its slumber. We were fired up! The crowd emitted an undeniable energy as it marched and sang along its path. So many people among us, it seemed like schools, neighborhoods and businesses emptied out onto those streets to form this moment of homage to Martin Luther King, Jr and all that he stood for. No question we had arrived; hopefulness and tenacity leading the way. 

The people up front, leading this eager mass, took turns on the bull horn, leading chants and songs, emphasizing our mission and purpose. They were incredible people, they held their passions in their voice and they opened up and it poured out. It was like a spout, they did not have to think about the words they would share, for the words were so tightly bound with the ideals they held. Theirs' was the kind of energy that fills people up. They led us into song after song tirelessly. The words, so poignant and evocative of struggles and crimes of people, whose only goal was to attain inalienable rights rang out. "We shall overcome. We shall overcome some day." It was impossible not to think of past atrocities and the long road ahead of us in creating an equal, peaceful world. 

We walked down streets I had not made acquaintance with before. People from the neighborhoods came out to wave us on, to feel the presence of the message we carried, the messages from decades past. The unfamiliar began to feel familiar, our personal sparks ignited as we animated our ideals. We arrived separately, strangers mostly, but throughout the afternoon a sense of US emerged. 

Our own cries often fill our ears and hearts so that we have no room to recognize other sounds, even if they are cries from a neighbor. Some days, probably most, we do not have other people so eloquently or fastidiously reminding us of our individual and civic missions. We need memories like this, memories of really listening to one another, memories of standing together, to help us stay on track on those days. MLK Day is coming up and is a great opportunity to act, to take part in something that can remind us of where we have been as a collective and where we need to go.  Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." I think that is worth listening to.