Ideals

Ideals Ideals High ideals? We all had them In the forties, in college, those long, all-night heated arguments, sitting cross-legged on the floor, debating how to change the world. Words – ideas, what we could do some day. Twenty years before the sixties, waves of political injustices student revolutions on campuses across the country, young scholars no longer debating, leaving their classes, holding sit-ins, hunger strikes, storming offices and police barricades, damaging buildings. Our goals – to study, burn the midnight oil, to keep our scholarships, graduate, get a job, vote, elect worthy candidates to Congress. Our generation brought up to respect authority, work with, not against, certainly not with violence. We were wrong. Progress does not happen with time and debate. It comes with true passion for a just cause, zeal, intention, action to break through set boundaries, challenging the status quo in real time. With violence? No. Unwavering resistance, yes. Violence brings only thirst For vengeance, not results. Stand firm. Rejecting injustice even when condemned. Seat yourself in the front of the bus. Walk on the restricted beach, Take in and protect immigrants. Demand real living wage. Block those who force restricted access to women’s clinics. Join a mass protest against ageism, sexism, unfair practices targeting the “others”. Ideals minus action are useless dreams.