(Akiit.com) A few days ago, I had the opportunity to participate in the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Along with Jerry Paris (GM of WPFW-FM 89.3) and Rev. Graylan Hagler, I was invited to co-anchor the program carried by WPFW-FM radio. The campaign is based on fundamental rights that all human beings should enjoy. Rev. Dr. William Barber is the leader with the moral authority to conduct this action. At the meeting and March to the White House, Rev. Barber spoke to a large, enthusiastic and diverse crowd at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC.
Prior the meeting in Washington, the campaign had reached out to more than 30 states, meeting with thousands of people, witnessing the strength of their moral courage. The group collected testimonies from hundreds of poor people and chronicled their demands for a better society. They’ve witnessed the struggles of the poor and dispossessed.
It has been documented how the group came to the current point. Documentation reveals the evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, and the war economy and militarism that are persistent, pervasive and perpetuated by a distorted moral narrative that must be challenged. It indicates that those who refuse to see these injustices and acknowledge the human and economic costs of inequality must be challenged. The action in Washington was a great step toward challenging these conditions.
A moral agenda was issued and I will share just a sampling of the demands the group has adopted.
50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign declared “Silence is betrayal” the group’s message is “We are coming together to break the silence about the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and our distorted moral narrative….if silence was betrayal in 1968, revival is necessary today. We’ve come to remind our nation what truths we hold to be self-evident and what values we hold dear. We draw on the histories of resistance… and the power of the blood that has been shed through generations of struggle. We loudly proclaim that we will move forward together, not one step back!” These declarations are something about which all of us should care about want to be involved.
Columnist; Dr. E. Faye Williams
Official website; http://www.efayewilliams.com/