Statistics on gays and lesbians in the
US form a very small percentage of the total population. Yet look what
they achieve, in spite of the huge and inhuman resistance to them. Treated like
animals, spurned by society, laughed at, mocked, hated. Gay politicians fight
courageously and are shot for it, like Harvey Milk. That doesn’t stop others
from taking up the cause. Brave people. Determined people.
What about African Americans? How hard did they have to
fight against crippled minds and psychopathic power? How many sacrifices did they make, never
knowing whether they could succeed or not? How many women and children were raped,
never receiving justice, just more of the same? But they didn’t give up.
And now, the right for gays and lesbians to marry is gaining
momentum. They will succeed. And although the conservative, intolerant white
mentality that supported the KKK and slavery lingers on, sometimes in the most
alarming places, despite the racism that underpins all conservative politics in
the US, Barack Obama is a twice-elected president.
It only happened because enough people said “it’s enough”
while they were demoralized and destitute of spirit; excluded from mainstream
society and the benefits that those who are included take for granted. The hardest fight of all. People say it’s easiest to fight when you’ve
got nothing to lose. That’s because they’ve never been there. When all you can
hold onto is something so minimal it’s invisible to others it’s more precious
to you than anything else in the world. To fight knowing you may have to give
that up isn’t easy. It crucifies you. But they did it.
How many people, I wonder, have been hurt by the banking
crisis? How many lives have been destroyed by the hold giant corporations have
on politics? How many people maimed, tortured, killed, because of the power of
the military industrial complex?
How many people think banks and bankers should be punished
for their crimes and forced to pay where it hurts? I'm sure it's a greater
percentage than that of any minority that has fought for its rights and
succeeded. Yet Americans seem to remain powerless. Why? Because they don't care
enough to actually band together as one and fight and never give up? Because
hardliner conservatives continue to be voted into Congress? Because they all
use the banks and corporations that are busy destroying them?
It's not just the US, it's western society. Banks and big
corporations control the world. But they’re run by people. There are a lot more
of us than there are of them. It's time for a world revolution of a completely
different sort. No guns, no violence. Just intelligence (as in thinking for
ourselves and not letting ourselves be conned by politicians) and persistence.
Maybe it’s already begun. At the beginning of the fight for gays and lesbians; in
the days of slavery and the KKK, it probably looked as though nobody was
fighting. But they were. It was just the beginning. It always starts as something internal. That’s where we are with
the control that banks and giant corporate interest has over most of us. We're angry, we know it's happening. Pockets of active resistance flare up. We haven't banded together yet but our
revolution will gain momentum. Revolutions always do.
