“Will makes you take action, fear is what stops you. Courage is having the ability to overcome that fear”  Green Lantern.

“Why? Not why did this happen, because we know the answer to that. Why do we do what we do everyday in this town? why do we watch movies at white owned theaters when we still must sit in the balconies and enter an exit through a side door? Why do we spend our money in stores where blacks are only welcomed as customers and never as employees? And why do we put our money in banks that refuse to hire blacks except as janitors and are loathed to give us loans  for anything except other that automobiles? Why is there only one African-American on the police force and none in the fire department? Yet, We make up 40% of the population.

“Why? Why do we do what we do everyday in this town? Fear? Tradition? Naw that’s not good enough. Not any more. “Power concedes nothing without a demand” and we need to start demanding some things. And I’m not talking about sometime in the future, it’s a change that needs to happen right now, right now! And until that change comes we need to start taking our money elsewhere!”

This quote was taken from the movie, “Blood Done Sign My Name” based on the autobiographical and historical work of Timothy B. Tyson. The movie deals with the 1970 murder of Henry Marrow, a black Vietnam vet, in Oxford, North Carolina. The quote itself is taken from Nate Parker’s character, Ben Chavis who after being agitated and inspired by Golden Frinks, “The Great Agitator”, steps into a powerful leadership role.

But he points out a lot of good question, of which many are still relevant in far too many of our communities today. Even more so, as we as a nation take on this war on greed, we must ask ourselves these same things. Empowerment and freedom are only granted on the basis that we empower ourselves and take our own freedom. Economic development is the key to that freedom! If we are to ever so rightfully take what it ours, we must understand the tools we must utilize in order to do so, of which money is the greatest. In organizing, we talk about power and how we get it…through organized money and organized people. If we have come together as a people, united around an issue, that’s great! But if fail to also organize our money, then our unity has been in vain. We invest in what we believe in, and if we claim to believe in our freedom, our liberty, then certainly we can invest our money in claiming that freedom.

It is this argument that fueled my agitation of a Black pastor in Rochester during our one on one. Fears of outsiders once again coming into their community only for a moment to change things and then leave. Fear of being in competition for the same money that other projects in Rochester are seeking. Fear of change.

This brings me to the quote I began with. “Will makes you take action, fear is what stops you. Courage is having the ability to overcome that fear” Green Lantern. This type of work always requires us to be courageous. It always requires us to have the will to take action. And it always requires us to channel our fears and our anger into productive work that will affect change.

Whether we are fighting for equality for our race, or beginning a new project that will continue to empower and better our community, we must be willing to accept the challenges that come with it. We must be assured that we were made for more than just to be victims and doers always reacting rather than taking fate into our own hands.

We are
 made for more!

A young man was searching for definition in his life, purpose. He found it in organizing. But that purpose left a rift in the most important part of his life prior to organizing, his marriage. Preceding becoming an organizer, this young man was fully available to his wife, day in and out to do any and everything she desired. And while every woman dreams of this man, not every man sees his destiny so limited as this. So when he found organizing, he jumped at the opportunity. This was the power he had always searched for, the purpose he was seeking, the potential he sought to make a reality. But little did he anticipate that the liberation he would get from this profession would leave his marriage on its last string. But even with knowing it all, he still believes that this work is worth it.

A woman, confident in her own right, but still misunderstood by most was on a quest to have her whole being, the good and bad, appreciated. She was seeking true understanding of herself, and that others too would have that understanding. She too found organizing to be the key. Her liberty had been captured and taken hostage over the years by a bad marriage, abuse, and neglect. She desperately sought her own emancipation in the work she did, but was never satisfied in the end. Yet, once she started organizing, she knew she had found it. Nothing else could replace the freedom and joy she had found. And though it cost her the marriage she had, the closeness to the family she loved, and her comfort of being average, this work is worth it.

Another young woman, and also young man, both were introduced to this work at the same time. They both had no idea where such a journey would take them. For one, it meant moving to the other side of the world, to a foreign land where he could perfect his craft. For another it also meant a move. A move that would leave her feeling destitute, alone, and homeless. If home is where the heart is, then they both were far from it. But they too found solace in this work. They found that all that had been sacrificed was worth it because they had discovered who they were. They had come to a realization that being close to family and friends had never given them. They gained a new understanding of spirituality, and began to know God on a new level.

This is not just freedom I am talking about (and besides, freedom isn’t free either anyways), liberation is not simply having the ability. It is a state, a way of living life. Liberation has always only been capable through self- reflection and determination. The hardest part about liberation is turning the mirror to your face and looking back at yourself. But this is also the most fulfilling part. When we are able to look at ourselves and know that we are free, emancipated, and delivered from the constraints of life, society, and most importantly, ourselves, then we are reassured that the decisions we made to get us here, were worth it. And regardless of the pain, struggle, and agony it may have taken, we are at peace with who we have become.

"Yet without community there is certainly no liberation, no future, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between me and my oppression" Audre Lorde