Let’s tell stories of the border, the factory floor, the hospital, and the classroom. Stories from the street corner and the reservation. Let’s attend to the worries, let’s listen deeply to the dreams. Let’s make a call that is clear and true. This is the work ahead. 

She the People calls for a country of love, justice, and belonging. These are the freedom songs of democracy we sing. We have always known that it was possible to imagine and live a world that insisted on our equality and dignity. We are whole, perfect, complete. We know what it takes to stand up in the most crooked and cramped spaces. And we fully believe that this democracy belongs to us . Love, justice, belonging sing the freedom of what is possible as we stand tall. We are ready.

We cry with the heartbreak of families divided, and children lost, and of the many thousands upon thousands gone. Through it all, as Audre Lorde wrote, “We have had to love in order to live; love has been our survival.” Our survival is the testimony of what love can do, and what love can be. Love is sight especially when unseen. Love is sound when unheard. Love is a welcome to those forgotten and left behind. Love is trust. 

We trust as we reach out to the stranger. Because we trust, empathy is our first response even when so much is lacking –– like our rights, our wealth, care for our own and others. We trust through love, and we are fierce in our loyalty to our own and in our accountability to each other. We can do all of this because we possess a truth that has been denied for so long: we are worthy. We are enough. And that is the source of our power, our beauty, our wisdom. 

And so we rise to this moment with an invitation to a home we are building for the nation. This is a home that says “Imagine.”  Imagine who we can be when we commit ourselves to achieving the dream of a vibrant multiracial democracy, where everyone can speak freely and be heard. Imagine the glory of what we can be, where our children and our children’s children can expect a world free of violence and hatred. Imagine when our democracy lives up to its greatest promise. Imagine as we declare She the People.

we declare she the people

with voices in chorus with our godmothers. She the People joins Sojourner Truth in declaring “Ain’t I a Woman!” She the People extends a hand when Fannie Lou Hamer says she is “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” She the People listens to Leslie Marmon Silko’s words that “as long as you remember what you have seen, then nothing is gone. As long as you remember, it is part of this story we have together.”  She the People understands Grace Lee Boggs’ insight that “people exercising their creativity in the midst of devastation is one of the greatest historical contributions of humankind.” She the People shares the burden of Gloria Anzaldua’s A Bridge called My Back. And She the People proclaims with Dolores Huerta “Si se puede!” We follow in our godmothers’ footsteps and so many countless more of our leaders, many unknown or unnamed in history. They made it possible for us to move forward today.  They made the way for us to step fully into our fierce and loving leadership and collective power. 

We are answering the call to serve our country and our humanity. Our country needs us and we need each other. The work is greater than politics. The work begins now. Let us appeal to our better natures, and lend our hands and hearts to the saving graces of our democracy. This will be our legacy. This is why our children’s children will sing with joy “She the People”.