Speech to the Backbone Campaign Fundraiser

At my mother’s request I am posting this short speech that I gave at the fundraiser for the “Procession for the Future” on Saturday.  This is actually a combination of the speech I had written, and what I remember of the one that I gave, since I had quickly disregarded my notes.  This one is for you mom.  Thanks for everything you have given me.

“OK. here we are.   I have not been in front of a crowd since last year.  we did quite a bit of it nick and i after we returned from new orleans.  we wanted to share our stories.  That experience still weighs heavy on my mind and my heart, and i have spent the last year wondering what the next step ought to be, wondering what my role in all of this was.  should i go back to school?  should i go back to work?  should i go back to the streets?  And then Bill called me up…..

last time we left for New Orleans with a question in mind: what does it mean to truly be in solidarity with people in another community, and how can we bring that knowledge back?

We did our best to answer this question while we were there with our website, and once we returned by giving presentations about what we did. When we went with your support to german, to the very gates of the powerful to protest the G8, we were still trying to answer this question.

this time as we leave home i have another question in mind.  it is a question that i want to pose to you right now…

what would it be like to not give up?

to not give up on ourselves, on our people, on our children, our lovers, our brothers/sisters, the deepest part of ourselves?  our possibilities? our oldest hopes and dreams?  this is what i have been meditating on all year since new orleans.

If we are not willing to hold the lines strong — to not give up— here in our homes, towns, valleys and islands, and in our own hearts, and send forth from our communities those who are willing to find the front lines elsewhere and lend their hands to the efforts of others and bring back knowledge of how it can be done,  then my generation, and those to follow may have a smaller chance against th machinations of the corporations and the backwards governments that serve them instead of “we the people.”

the evidence shows that like in new orleans, or west virginia, or brooklyn, or baghdad, or even our very own island, unreckoned with, they will drive us out with the toxic flood water of corporate privatization, the fire and bulldozers of “development,” and the smoke and mirrors of their currupt media monopolies.

it does not take a social scientist to see the ways in which the invasion of corporate money has destroyed not only our physical and legal infrastructures, but also the relationships of meaning and symbolism that hold us together in our families, make us strong and wise in our communities, and also provide the most fundamental basis for a healthy and vibrant democracy.  i think you all know what i am talking about.  this system is simply not human (and by human i mean in touch with the goodness of who we are) and it does not foster our healing and growth as a species… and this is not to mention the long-term, possibly irreversible, damage to our environment.

So for me this tour is about a lot more than just the backbone campaign and giant puppets and media imagery.  it is about the remarkable ability of this community to support their activists and hold them forth to the world, and about remaining strong in our depth.  for me it is also part of a larger ideal that involves our relationships to each other, our communities, our species and the planet as a whole…  that is why i am in this struggle!  and that is why i am honored to collaborate with bill and amy and all the others and to accompany nick once again, and fellows young and old, and all the rest of the backbone on this tour.

the effects of our efforts in denver or yours in boston four years ago, or at home on vashon run deeper than we think, and i suspect the rewards are greater than we can presently imagine.

part of what i am offering to the procession for the future is a program on consent.  this is a workshop about remaining safe and honest and practicing integrity in our relationships, and preventing one of the most damaging results of our society on young people, sexual assault. it is one of the things that kept us safe and healthy in the despair and chaos of new orleans.  i would like to offer it to the rest of the country as well.

AND the other thing i can offer, which i have been trying to rebuild, is the website that nick and i used in new orleans to share our experience there, and i believe, the hope we found among the ruins.  I want to start journaling again, and this is way to share some information first hand about what it is like to be on the road, through our country, with a movement for change.

pete seeger sang of rekindling the patriot dream. Bill Moyers recently quoted him at the National Conference on Media Reform. now let’s take a step further, and join the long hard but rewarding work of creating together a new kind of patriot dream, and this dream will bring us closer to all humans, as our dream, by necessity, must include all nations and races. we need it, and we deserve it. and politics, like it or not, are an important part of that dream.  we must start with our country, because like it or not, they are our people.

so here is to you Bill, and Amy, and all of you. thank you mom and robby, and thank you nick –your friendship and brother hood is always important –  thank you all for being here.  thank you from my generation, and thank from the bottom of my heart!”

– Logan