Before Winnipeg’s Walk for Human Rights on Saturday, a group of people gathered for a rally in front of 201 Portage. The gathering, dubbed ‘No Ban, No Wall! Solidarity With Migrants’, was put on by No One Is Illegal. Why 201 Portage Avenue, one of the large office towers at the corner of Portage and Main. The US Consulate calls the place home away from home and even at 6:30 pm, on a cold night, the first rule of a rally is to hold said rally close an outpost of Trumplandia.
The rally, and the one at the Forks hosted by Brian Bowman, suddenly went from we support our American brothers and sisters in opposing the lunatic ban to confronting our own darkness. I had a bad feeling the words spoken by Kellie Leitch would provide the ammunition to people who will put bullets in other people. It happened in Quebec City as people gathered in a mosque to pray. Of course, nobody turned their social media profiles into ‘Je Suis Quebec’ Nobody wants to confront the radicalization of white, young men. Nobody. Say it’s similar and someone would get a ‘yeah but’ or accusations of false equivalencies. I know what I am seeing. I also know it will not be the last. Denial of internet trolls and what they will do will lead to more people getting killed.
What does that statement have to do with today’s Music Monday selection? We can’t get by without faith, all faith, and in the words of the late Shepherd Book (played by the late Ron Glass) not assume belief just means God. We are heading into a turbulent four years, and many people who never taken to the streets are doing just that. The goal: one day we get back on track to building a just society, one more self-aware than the one just before November 8th. We thought racism was over. It’s not. Underneath the facade hid a lot of ugly and it’s now free to come out. In Quebec City, it did come out, and six Muslim men died.
So hit the streets or use your wallets, the journey to the end of this will take work.
We got to learn to stick together
Hate to be here alone
Cause the world is a place
That will eat you alive in one day
Said the world is a place
That you can’t survive without faith
Unpaused Life 