Let’s call it the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) for short, but know that what we are talking about is a call for a revolutionary change in direction, which Rev. Dr. William Barber said is not an “insurrection” (like Jan. 6) but a “resurrection.” And let me admit that the numbers on the street on June 18 were much lower than needed to shake this country out of complacency. And let us rejoice that thousands of Black, white, brown, old, young and mid-life, queer, trans and straight allies, and impacted people showed up in Washington, D.C. (and here on Greenfield’s Town Common) on June 18.
I was inspired by the event and by the effort. Inspired knowing I am not alone. I am in community with the PPC ,and with my church in Ashfield, and with all you who care about justice and peace. We know that our country is in trouble, but often we don’t know what to do about it. The PPC gives us direction — end poverty, end racism, end militarism, end ecologiical devastation, end Christian nationalism — and we, the people, decide what we will do to get there. What we will do to de-militarize; what we will do to eliminate the wealth gap; what we can do about living in a country founded on racism and still operating within racist systems; how we want to save our sacred Earth; and how we want to live by a moral compass.
The most important message of the PPC is that the current systems are killing us all, not just Black shoppers in Buffalo, and little children in Texas. They kill me when I can’t shake off the silent complicity of living comfortably. They kill you when you mourn the victims of violence, wars, and poverty and feel helpless. They kill the soul of a whole country that accepts its inheritance of slavery and genocide and won’t make reparations. If we want to stop the slaughter, we must act now, together, and radically.
Whatever we do as a community and as individuals, we can do it under the umbrella of the Poor People’s Campaign. We can adopt it and cheer it on and work on any one of its broad goals. Western Mass PPC is continuing to organize: contact katemapcc@gmail.com to sign up.
I hope and pray that every one of us can embrace a campaign that embraces us.
Sherrill Hogen is an advocate for nonviolence and the Poor People’s Campaign. She lives in Charlemont.