Over 100 years ago Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, 'We can have a democratic society or we can have the concentration of great wealth in the hands of the few. We cannot have both.” Democracy happens when we organize & work together.
Hello to you listening in Saratoga Springs, New York!
Coming to you from Whidbey Island, Washington this is Stories From Women Who Walk with 60 Seconds (and a bit more) for Wednesdays on Whidbey and your host, Diane Wyzga.
Over 100 years ago Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, 'We can have a democratic society or we can have the concentration of great wealth in the hands of the few. We cannot have both.” [Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice from 1916-1939]
Here we are again. What to do? We organize and work together. If there’s no one to start it, you start it. Find your Ordinary Persons, talk with them, listen, have compassion for each other’s views, and join together. Step by step your little group of Ordinary Persons can become an Army of Ordinary Persons, maybe even a movement standing up to oppression, greed, injustice. It starts with someone looking around and saying, “I’ve had it! Enough is enough! This stops now!”
The following poem The Low Road by Marge Piercy demonstrates what happens when we organize and work together:
The Low Road, by Marge Piercy
"What can they do
to you? Whatever they want.
They can set you up, they can
bust you, they can break
your fingers, they can
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can't walk, can't remember, they can
take your child, wall up
your lover. They can do anything
you don’t stop them
from doing. How can you stop
them? Alone, you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.
But two people fighting
back-to-back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.
Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.
It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again and they said no,
it starts when you say We
and you know who you mean,
and each day you mean one more."
Click to access The Low Road, by Marge Piercy
Saturday June 14th is No King Day and Flag Day! Get together with some folks, bash the birthday cake fly your flag because our flag is tied to our Constitution and our Constitution is our democracy and in a democracy it is “We the People” - no king.
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Stories From Women Who Walk Production Team
Podcaster: Diane F Wyzga & Quarter Moon Story Arts
Music: Mer’s Waltz from Crossing the Waters by Steve Schuch & Night Heron Music
All content and image © 2019 to Present Quarter Moon Story Arts. All rights reserved.