The Fierce Urgency of Now

Are we destined to become the first generation to sit and watch our world be torn apart while we do nothing?

Are we going to let the actions of events of history being made unfold while we watch reality television and scarf down super-sized value meals?

If we become that generation, we will have betrayed our parents and grandparents who stood up when the world was crumbling around them and took action. Our grandparents responded to Pearl Harbor by risking their lives to liberate Europe and save the world from sure tyranny.

Our parents saw racial injustice and marched and sat in as the civil rights movement helped erase generations of unfair practices against blacks. They also marched in the streets in the millions to protest the war in Vietnam. They were beaten, jailed and harassed but together they stood for peace. Their actions led to Richard Nixon leaving office and ultimately the end of the war.

Now we sit in our own moment of conflict. Our enemy? Our own government.

Bloated with gridlock, fraught with corruption and unable to act on our behalf. Our politicians only act in their own political best interest and respond to the desires of their special interest groups and party contributors.

As we suffer through rising unemployment, as we watch our retirement savings dwindle, and as we watch our schools be victimized by budget cuts. We continue to sit and watch. We argue among ourselves while our politicians use propaganda and the media to further smoke screen the real issue – THEY AREN”T SERVING US.

The political party du jour, seeking control, will tell you your most important duty is to vote for them to bring about change – again. Turning over the White House to the new party will cure our ills, because finally they will bring the change we seek.

I often think of Lech Walesa in Poland. He was an electrician, with no higher education, who worked in the shipyards in Gdansk. He became an activist in his union, working to support the rights of his countrymen coworkers. For this he was placed under surveillance, continuously harassed and jailed by the Polish government.

He helped negotiate the Gdansk Agreement between the Polish government and striking workers. He founded the Solidarity movement. When martial law overtook Poland and Solidarity was outlawed, he was imprisoned. After his release, he continued that movement.

In 1989, when the winds of change started to reach Poland, he helped lead the country to its first semi-free parliamentary elections in five decades.

In 1990, he was elected president of Poland and oversaw its transition to a free state when communism fell.

The story of Lech Walesa is that of an ordinary man who wanted change and risked it all to lead his countrymen down a path to change their country, and he succeeded.

In this country, where you need $50 million and a lifetime of public credentials, as well as well-connected allies, to even enter a presidential election, this is unheard of.

As we are seeing in the growing Occupy movement, our country is ripe for citizen activists to take back our government. A third party movement only works if it’s created from the bottom up. With our economy in tatters and in the hands of politicians who can no longer be trusted, I’m astonished that millions of American’s aren’t marching to state capitals all over the country demanding our concerns be addressed.

Is the best statement we could make on Nov. 4, 2012, is for American voters to simply stay home and vote none of the above?

Change this time around will be led by We the People. We must demand that our leaders provide us detailed solutions to our problems. We must demand a collective and bipartisan approach to handling issues. We must demand that the voice of the people not be drowned out by special interests. We must demand that senators and congressmen act not only to grow our economy, but also to protect the rights of American workers and families as well as our environment.

History shows strategic civil disobedience and protest as well as organizing our communities to speak out works. Imagine what the civil rights movement would have accomplished if they had Twitter? We have bright individuals, the right technology and a cause.

We have to quote to address what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., called; “the fierce urgency of now.” In our local government, statewide governments and nationally, we must stand together to be heard.

I don’t know if my generation has the courage, determination and spirit to stand for change from the bottom up. I feel we have been so entitled and had to work so little and reap so much that we lack that hunger that fueled our parents and grandparents. But this is our moment. Will we stand up as others have in history before? Only time will tell. Our future depends on it.