WHAT’S NEXT?

January 3rd, 2017  |   

What’s next? Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas trees have come and gone. Empty champagne bottles have been tossed, having delivered their bubbles, and more than a few leftover hangovers.

So, what’s next! Valentine’s Day. You know, romance for a day? No, no, we aren’t finished yet with January. Don’t rush through 2017. Hey, Inauguration Day! That’s what’s next.

What’s next isn’t just a date on a wall calendar. It’s a date with a question embedded in it. A question many people are pondering right now. I hear it being asked everywhere I go.

What’s next, after January 20th, Inauguration Day?

What’s next, more military spending for more war?

What’s next, less health care for poor people?

What’s next, more environmental destruction and global warming?

What’s next, less support and protection for LGBTQ folks?

What’s next, more restrictions, even deportations for immigrant populations? 

What’s next, a Supreme Court that curtails hard won civil liberties and reproductive rights?  

What’s next, less space for refugees, and a more threatening climate for Muslims?

Four days after January 16^th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, what’s next, a retreat from all that has been achieved in our nation’s Civil Rights struggles, and less concern for black lives that matter?

Waiting for the ball to drop into 2017, I tried to answer one man’s question: “Are you still hopeful?”

My answer then, and now that 2017 has arrived, and as we move closer to January 20th, remains the same. Yes, I am hopeful. Provided that hope takes shape in the form of resistance

Be patient, Jim Lewis, and the what’s-next-folks. President Trump will give us plenty to resist. And like any resistance work, we will get stronger and more powerful as we organize for justice and peace.

I was recently sent a prayer written by the Reverend Dr. Michael W. Waters. pastor of the Joy Tabernacle African American Methodist Episcopal Church in Dallas, Texas. You’d just know that I would love his prayer.

It might very well be one I could pray, after Inauguration Day, as I find ways to resist any effort that contradicts the spirit of this prayer.

I Will Resist: A New Year’s Prayer

 For the ancestors, who now dwell in the company of angels, accosted and assaulted while present upon the earth, enduring avalanches of animus of which have never been atoned,  

I will resist.

For babies bombarded by bombs, bounties placed upon their beautiful heads at birth,

I will resist. 

For the cacophony of cries citing crimes against humanity, callous cycles of crisis with casualties colored in chalk upon concrete,

I will resist.

Until the lion lays down with the lamb,

until we study war no more,

until everything is not just everything, but what it’s supposed to be,

I will resist.

Until we are free.

Against hate,

against racism,

against oppression,

against suppression,

For the ancestors, who now dwell in the company of angels, accosted and assaulted while present upon the earth, enduring avalanches of animus of which have never been atoned, 

I will resist.

For babies bombarded by bombs, bounties placed upon their beautiful heads at birth,

I will resist. 

For the cacophony of cries citing crimes against humanity, callous cycles of crisis with casualties colored in chalk upon concrete, 

I will resist. 

Until the lion lays down with the lamb,

until we study war no more,

until everything is not just everything, but what it’s supposed to be,

I will resist.

Until we are free.

Against hate,

against racism,

against oppression,

against suppression,

against xenophobia,

I will resist.

Until peace is not just two digits raised in the air,

until justice flows like waters, and righteousness, like a mighty stream,

the LORD being my witness and my help,

I will resist.

Amen.

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