“Am I Not a Woman and a Sister?”
Rape after rape, count seventeen children later as a result… This world has gone crazier than crazy. When I talk about this, you casually tell me you are outraged! Let me ask you: ‘you outraged? that ain’t how outraged people show up! that is not how outraged people talk, that is not how outraged people walk, shat is not how outraged people say, and do what they live!
Let me tell you what outraged people are like: At the risk of their own lives, they actually use their influence to change the status quo; they pick up arms, they destroy the system that keeps producing so much violence, injustice and inhumaneness, in the world of ‘soundless scream where all things scream ever so silently above the thousand buried there’ in the under grounds of our streets.
It is high time someone bust open those undergrounds, for these are not trademarks of so called enlightened societies like ours! it is time every neighborhood stands up against the invasion of evil and reclaim the lost grounds. Enough is enough. Sister, thou are loose, thou shalt be heard. We shall tell the whole world about thee. It is high time to stand up and be counted for it; for we can all hear the cry of the oppressed – “am I not a woman and a sister?”
On January 27, 1998, Yehuda Bauer, professor of Holocaust studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, delivered a speech to the German Bundestag in which he said “I come from a people who gave the Ten Commandments to the world. Time has come to strengthen them by three additional ones, which we ought to adopt and commit ourselves to: thou shall not be a perpetrator; thou shall not be a victim; and thou shall never, but never, be a bystander.” Truly, the time has come to engage with all our might with all our hearts, with all our strength-
Thou shall not be a perpetrator; thou shall not be a victim; and thou shall never be a bystander
Thank you! seriously. I and the world along with me needs your voice, your reminder and your conviction to work for and with the powerless and the oppressed. I am not outraged enough.
Since I met you some six years ago, I could feel the urgency, the passion
and the indignation welling within you with regard the status quo. Your passion for the cause haven’t changed much! your voice is truly an important and effective tool in the call to action.
Thinking about my own life, I am reminded that “No man’s life can be encompassed in one telling. There is no way to give each year its allotted weight, to include each event, each person who helped to shape a lifetime. What can be done is to be faithful in spirit to the record, and to try to find one’s way to the heart of the man.” this is what I am trying to do, ever so poorly. I am just so glad you cared!
Franz Schubert was said to be the most prolific of all European
composers, writing over 600 songs, nine symphonies and much
more before his death at age 31. When asked how
he was so productive he replied, “I start a piece, I finish it, and
then I start another one.” I am asking friends and advocates like you to fight ever so cleverly! thanks for the time, thanks for your voice.
Appreciatively, me.
Daniel… I only just read this for the first time today. Matt is preparing a chapel for his school about justice and your words :””this is not what outrage looks like has always stuck with me. thank you agian for giving words to truth.