By Ernie McCray
As I more and more awaken from the shock to my body and soul as a result of Donald Trump being my president, I keep thinking back to my Sunday School days in the 40’s singing a song our teacher, Mr. Chandler, taught us:
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine…
Mr. Chandler, a beautiful man, with a voice like Paul Robeson’s, would tell us:
“Children, no matter, what comes your way in your life, and, Lord knows, you will have trials and tribulations that sometimes will make you feel like giving up and maybe make you lose your way on your path to righteousness. B
ut you have a power in you, a light, a powerful light, that you must let shine, that you must use to help yourself and your world to stay on track the way God wants you to.”
I’m not so religious, now, but that lesson resonated with me and lately I’ve been singing that pretty little song to myself, calling on my better self, the light within me because I find myself in a world that now needs me and other loving people to let our light shine – like a forest fire being driven by gusty winds in dry air, making it’s way from every corner of the country to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where our president must be made to stand in our light and be held to his promise of (which we know is a lie) “I will be president for all Americans.”
The quality of our lives is at stake so activism somehow will have to take on a new form of non-stop action, where we’re always in the street or at City Hall or standing before the Congress and the Senate in Washington, forever protecting ourselves in this poisonous and hysterical atmosphere of “Making America Great Again.”
In January there’s going to be a Women’s March in several cities to draw attention to the needs of women in our society. As many of us as possible need to be there, knowing that our president sees women as sex objects to be grabbed you know where.
The pipeline at Standing Rock should never be far from our minds as Trump and his cohorts see climate change as a hoax. They worship the oil and gas industry as that’s where their investments are, and where there money is all they care about.
If they proceed with creating a Muslim registry, then we all must sign it…Racial and religious freedom, precious rights that are so essential to our wellbeing as a nation, must never be allowed to be taken from us by people whose words and deeds highlight that the welfare of people of color is nowhere on their agenda…Black Lives Still Matter…
We must see that Palestinians and Israelis keep looking for a reasonable accord of some kind as the Middle East needs any ease in tension it can get…
The rights our LGBTQ brothers and sisters have gained must not be tampered with…Bathrooms must remain open for people to choose based on the gender with which they identify…
We have to end the idea of a wall between us and Mexico and find ways to build bridges leading to respect for each other… We have to, with open arms, be at the beck and call of the “Dreamers” among us, the children who know no other society other than ours…We have to encourage and insist that our communities become sanctuaries for brown folks who are under siege…
Planned Parenthood must be protected at all costs as their commitment to women’s sexual and general health are invaluable for our mothers and grandmothers and sisters and aunts and daughters…
This administration is itching at the bit to undo just laws. We can’t let them as the criminal justice system more than ever begs to be reformed…
Hatefulness reigns supreme in our country presently so we have to be vigilant against hate crimes which are on the rise everyday, so much of it wrapped in notions of “white supremacy,” a principle upon which our nation was born, knowing that the president’s chief strategist and organizer, Steve Bannon, has spewed white nationalist views on Breitbart radio, with millions of listeners, unapologetically, proudly, loudly, unambiguously, constantly, deviously, earnestly, carelessly, habitually, triumphantly, terrifyingly and verifiably for a long while…
Unions will be under vicious attack and we absolutely can’t give away the power we have when we’re unified, when we’re organized…We must keep the goal of a livable minimum wage alive…
We have to save and improve our public schools because this administration is all about privatizing our schools for the benefit of 1 percent kind of folks, like those who will be holding down key positions in Trump’s presidency…
And, most importantly, we have to get millennials engaged again like they were under Bernie Sanders’ hope inspiring and gentle guiding care, since it’s their world we’re trying to save and we have to model for them how to behave in a crisis…
We can start that venture by ceasing to put them down as freeloaders and whiners (as though we didn’t raise them) and help them to forever let their light shine. It’s crucial that they let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Or (you fill in the blank). Not pretty is it?
Let’s get to work.
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