HANDS UP, DON’T SHOP! (From the Archives 2014)

 Photo Source:  Nation of Change

What you have to say, Sister of the arresting sign, is powerful and right.  The moment we begin to see we are being manipulated, set up to riot, to lose our dignity, our freedom and our lives is the very moment, as if by magic, we begin to see we need not shop.  Better to stay in with neighbors surrounding us, and talk things through.  What does this time remind us of?  Bring out the old movies, books, folks, who can remind us how the trick was always played.  How hurt, disillusion, passion, has too frequently seen the best of us in jail.  Old tactics that never worked before won’t work now, either.  Anger to burn something, anything, in our hurt and rage, must be befriended by our understanding of reality, and taught to spare our own houses and those of anyone.  Who destroys a home, a neighborhood, destroys a world that ancestors and older relatives, neighbors and friends, have worked to build.  It does not matter if it is poor; we know love, friendship, laughter, joy exist among the poor, regardless of where they live.  Now is the time to think, to study, to learn.  To move forward in consensus. To recognize provocateurs and leave them in the shadows where they belong, while we seek light.  New tactics, new Peace. Support local stores; walk together, knowing you are loved. ~AW