November 14, 2024

We must build people power.
There is no other option.
Krystal Two Bulls
Executive Director
Oglala Lakota
Northern Cheyenne

I’m reminded of a huge anti-war rally in 1971. The student union ballroom was packed. The energy was high and people were chanting ‘power to the people’ when one of the speakers said, “Fuck the people. They voted for Nixon.” 

Perhaps the same could be said today, but I won’t. For the people is where our power is now. The power to resist the horrors promised by this coming administration: the concentration camps, defunding public education and health and social services, selling our national parks to private developers. OK. The list is long and you don’t need me to articulate it here. 

I can’t and won’t discount the hard journey ahead for us. But I do see a gift in where we are. I wonder whether, had the election been different up and down ballot, we wouldn’t now be sharing a huge collective sigh of relief, secure in in the belief that the future of our nation was in safe hands, and with the election behind us, turning to other concerns. 

But there is no turning away. There is no collective sigh of relief. We are coming together and galvanizing our resolve to resist, to create resilient networks, and to invest in systems and structures that can endure beyond election cycles, to build a stronger movement that can’t be ignored by the systems and parties in power.

Power to the people! For there is power in the people. And being part of what is unfolding across our nation energizes me and gives me great hope. And that is the gift of where we are. 

Beannacht,
Judith