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My memorial day this year was a little different. I did set aside time to remember and give respect to the veterans who have lived and died, but this time I have also thought to give a moment to other very important people. The best examples of these people that I can give are mostly in my family. First is my grandmother who recently passed. She fought hard for unionization in the early part of the 20th century with my grandfather. She saw that people were being put into dangerous situations and given poor compensation for their work and she did something about it. She protested, organized, and assisted with the formation of a union for rice workers in the Sacramento valley. She taught me to write my representatives when I do not agree with something, to speak out and not sit quietly, but to take action.
My grandfather as well was heavily involved in this political action, he was one of the primary organizers in the rice worker’s union, and spoke out adamantly against McCarthy when the communist witch trials were rampant in the 50’s. Though I almost never speak well of my father. There are a few things that I do admire in him. Yes, he was active enough in the 60’s and 70’s to have a federal FBI record, but the anecdote I repeat the most, the one I am most proud of happened when he was a mere five years of age.
He spoke up when his kindergarten teacher wanted to play a game with the class called ‘nigger-in-the-well’. He told her that it was a racist game, she was a racist, and that it was wrong for her to suggest a game like that to his class. He was sent to the principal and his parents were summoned. They proudly picked up their son, backed him up and told the school that they were wrong. They still expelled him, but the game changed to ‘froggy-in-the-well’.
Even on a smaller note, as a child I was rejected by most of the other girls, I played and hung out with boys because I was pretty much a tomboy. I had one girl friend though who was just as much a tomboy, but knew how to do the girly-girl thing and was popular with the other girls. Her name was Ahbra and she rocked. We laughed hard and played hard together. The thing that puts her in this blog post though was her sense of loyalty and right and wrong that produced the following action. Ahbra was invited to all of the slumber parties by all of the popular girls. She would always answer “Sure I’ll come over, that would be fun, so long as Paula can come too.”
So this year for Memorial Day I wanted to set aside some attention for those people how speak out for what they believe is right, for those people who speak up in the midst of injustice, for those people who take action to make a change. Without those people we would be in a much worse place. The absence of the person who speaks out and takes action results in murders like the one of Gwen Araujo, Matthew Shepherd and Brandon Tina. The action can be to stop something happening now or prevent it by making one’s voice heard.
Finally, I would say that for those of you who have taken no action, those who have said ‘Not my president’ or ‘Not my war’ yet you sit on your hands rather than writing your representatives or joining the right PAC’s in order to stop or prevent things, this is your president, this is your war. The blood is not only staining the Whitehouse, it stains your hands as well if you have done nothing. Out of respect for those who have died before you, I implore you to write, I implore you to remind your comrades that it is your democratic duty to speak up and step up in order not only to save the lives of those in the military, but those who fall with our bullets in their bodies. Please consider this now that we have passed memorial day, and yet are still adding to the list of people to remember.
