Yes…We Will Win
The storm is raging , All tears are gone, this is our battle cry, this is our song. March on my sisters and remain strong, this is our battle cry, this is our song. The war is waging, and we are strong, this is our battle cry, this is our song. We will win, we will win, we will win, we will win. We will win, we will win This is our Battle Cry, this is our song. — Written by Deborah Harris
If memory serves me correctly, the activists on the ground serving with Women’s March and Center for Popular Democracy to help #CancelKavanaugh had been working on this campaign for 4 1/2 weeks when we decided to place a more intentional spotlight on Senator Susan Collins. Word had come down that she would vote in favor of confirming Judge Kavanaugh and this meant that this deciding vote was in fact a vote against the protection of women’s rights and our voices.
After protesting, sharing stories, going to rallies, and chanting, my body was falling a part and my voice was shredded, but myself and others were not giving up and we would finally bring our rage to Senator Collins’ front door.
I woke up that morning not sure of what I had left to give in this fight so I prayed and this simple song came to mind; March on my sisters and remain strong, this is our battle cry, this is our song. I had no idea that we would actually use it for our action to Senator Collins’ home but I asked the lead organizers and it was a go.
About twenty women gathered at the park and we donned our black veils, got our mouths tapped, and passed around the words to the song we would use for the funeral action we were about to partake in. The weariness showed in our bodies and on each of our faces…we were breaking. So many stories had been shared, so many arrests had been made, and so many traumas had been lived out loud for the world to hear and yet here we were at the end of the rope with only a few Senate votes left to seat one of the worst people ever to the highest court of our land. What were we to do…what could we do? Like many in situations that come to a cross roads, you return to the beginning….and so we Marched.
As we began our trek to the Senator’s home, a replay of this nations struggles nearly took my legs out from under me. Thoughts of genocide, racism, oppression, murders, erasure, silencing, kidnapping, trafficking, and assault all came crashing into me and I could feel that others were entering this heart space as well.
How many times do we have to march, how many conversations do we have to have with our brothers, how many conversations do we have to have with our sisters in order to understand harm and forgive, how many people must die at the hands of government, how many more lives will be stolen due to systemic oppression, how many more countries will suffer in the name of power/greed and white supremacy, how many more communities will be torn a part from the harmful judgments of the Church, how many more Muslim Americans will be blamed for the crimes of white supremacy, and how many more nights will this land scream out in agony without a second look from those with the power to change our today and our future?
The tears would not stop as our voices rose in beautiful broken harmony…as we stood at Senator Collins’ front door pleading for justice. Her neighbors started to come out from their homes and they watched as we poured whatever it was we had left into this moment. Mother’s held their babies tight and husbands held their wives and we could see that they too were struggling to understand the cruelty this nation and its leaders were putting us through and the harm that may soon come their way as well.
It was in this moment I knew that the Hart building, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, and our own communities that we labor and toil in, hadn’t seen the last of us and we were in fact strapped in for the long haul.
This is what the #WomensWave is all about and this is what speaking and delivering truth to power really looks like. It looks like the army, no matter how large or how small, storming the gates and freeing the captives. It looks like finding common ground in liberation in order to move the needle forward…not just an inch, but across the whole damn spectrum. The #WomensWave is about laying it all on the line for those that are different from you, for those who have even been your enemy, for those who have been taught that you are the enemy in order for a complete healing to manifest from the darkness. The #WomensWave is about shattering the Earth with love and removing every ceiling meant to cage us in. The #WomensWave is about me, its about you, its about us all and we must all cross as one body and one voice after it’s all said and done.
It’s the only way that WE WILL WIN