Tiny Ripples of Hope
Our individual efforts may seem small, but collectively we are more powerful than we realize.
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a [person] stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, [they] send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” — Robert F. Kennedy
I want to take one moment after a day of reflection to commend my fellow Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) members for their leadership and courage on Monday. As an arrestee of nonviolent civil disobedience, you will not find me talking much without prompt about my personal arrest experience. My aim is to use the escalation of action to arrest as a tool to elevate and advocate for an end to the injustice and oppression.
In our work with Black Lives Matter it’s imperative we stay focused on using our efforts to elevate the message and black voices – talking rarely, and perhaps only in strategic terms of the means through which we do it.
However, on a point of personal privilege, I feel compelled to say just one thing after yesterday:
When you’re arrested, you don’t know what’s going to happen to you. You don’t know whether you’re going to be detained for one hour, one day, one week, or more. (Or even whether the officer is going to remember you are in the back of the police cruiser). You don’t know if they are going to strip you of all belongings and clothes and put you in a jumpsuit. You don’t know if you will be subject to verbal or physical violence. You don’t know much, but you do know on thing: You have no control.
It’s scary and lonely, and this is the perspective of a white male who is getting arrested for civil disobedience. I can only speculate to the much higher level of fear and uncertainty that less privileged persons throughout our country feel when confronted by law enforcement and are taken into custody.
In those moments on Monday, as doubt, fear, and uncertainty crept into my thoughts, as I sat cuffed with hands behind my back in the detention center, as I started to wondered whether I was ever going to see the magistrate, I drew upon one of my all-time favorite hymns, “There is More Love Somewhere” (UU hymn #95) hoping to, attempting to center myself. I started humming it quietly… but after a few bars I heard someone join from the other side of the wall: A fellow Unitarian Universalist. I was not alone.
Each time I have committed nonviolent civil disobedience, it has been in the company of fellow Unitarian Universalists. It’s actually an unsurprising reality. We are a faith of action and dissent, in which I have never felt so fortunate and grateful to be a part as I did on Monday.
In this incredibly beautiful, powerful, and personally sustaining moment – even while custody in the Fairfax County Detention Facility – even while present in the same space where Natasha McKenna’s life was horrifically and unjustly taken by sheriff’s deputies a year prior – I could see a clear path to victory and liberation.
These small ripples of hope will combine with so many others in Black Lives Matter & SURJ. On Monday, we took to the streets in simultaneous action throughout US cities. I see our ripples growing stronger into a raging current – building into a wave of hope that will soon be strong enough to topple the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
We are not alone in this movement. Let’s go make some ripples together.
There Is More Love Somewhere #95
There is more love somewhere. There is more love somewhere. I’m gonna keep on ’til I find it. There is more love somewhere.
There is more hope somewhere. There is more hope somewhere. I’m gonna keep on ’til I find it. There is more hope somewhere.
There is more peace somewhere. There is more peace somewhere. I’m gonna keep on ’til I find it. There is more peace somewhere.
There is more joy somewhere. There is more joy somewhere. I’m gonna keep on ’til I find it. There is more joy somewhere.
