In times like these ...
Take care of yourself, take necessary precautions so we can take care of one another. When you can, help others, especially poor and low wealth people who can’t afford basics. Take seriously the need to push our government to do what the community can’t—guarantee free testing, paid sick leave, basic income and healthcare for those who need it.
Click on the image above to read this prayer from Red Letter Christians UK, added to by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
Take the initiative to demand that this country do some things now that it should have done long ago, such as guarantee healthcare, a basic income, and safe housing for all Americans.
Take time to register and vote, because we can see clearly that when we have the wrong leadership, bad situations can easily become worse through negligence and lies.
Take a collective oath that we won’t be silent anymore. When we get a handle on this virus, we won’t return to our apathy that has for far too long ignored the moral crisis of poverty and the racial disparities that mark American inequality.
Take time in this moment to let it change your insight forever, so that from now on we can see how connected we are, how frail we are, and how easily our lives can be disrupted.
Take time to meditate on our interrelated humanity. This virus can infect anyone, black, white, or brown, rich or poor, gay or straight, etc. We should see every issue like this.
As we are making every effort to mitigate the spread of the virus, we should make the determined commitment to stop the spread of poverty, racism and xenophobia, the climate crisis, and lies.
Take time to see that isolationism is not the answer.
We are in the midst of an unfolding public health crisis due to the coronavirus. But our current state of emergency results from a deeper, much longer-term crisis — that of poverty, inequality and a society that ignores the needs of 140 million poor and low-wealth people. We know that we must enact the demands of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to fully address this crisis.
We call on President Trump, Vice-President Pence and all Members of 116th Congress to fulfill their moral and constitutional responsibilities to the American people: join your voice to expand the emergency provisions and enact our Moral Agenda.
Let’s not forget that during the Great Depression and the Great Recession a few made money off the misery of others and benefited from stimulus. We must remember Trump has not changed. Mnuchin and McConnell have not changed. They still believe in trickle-down economics.
We must deeply critique everything they propose, follow the money and look closely at the stimulus package.
Join us for a live discussion tonight (Thursday, March 19) at 6:30pm ET / 3:30pm PT with MoveOn about a Moral Response to the dual crises of Pandemic and Poverty—we’ll be live on the MoveOn and Poor People's Campaign Facebook pages.
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival’s M.O.R.E. Tour stops in Arkansas, Washington, Missouri, and Kansas—that were scheduled in March—have instead been rescheduled as a Digital Mass Meeting on the Poor People’s Campaign Facebook page, at 8:30pm ET on Thursday, March 26. I hope you will make sure to join us.
The campaign will do everything necessary to make sure that even though the coronavirus canceled the M.O.R.E. tour stops, it will not silence the voices of the 140 million poor and low wealth people in this country.
In this moment when one germ is showing us that Wall St., Main St., and our back streets are in a crisis, may we see how we are connected through sickness and suffering. If we learn the lesson this crisis is teaching, we could come out more compassionate and just in our policies, rather than greedy and unjust.
Finally, there are words from a hymn that we all should hear:
Grant Us Courage for the Facing of This Hour
Cure thy children's warring madness,
bend our pride to thy control;
shame our wanton, selfish gladness,
rich in things and poor in soul. ...
Save us from weak resignation
to the evils we deplore;
let the search for thy salvation
be our glory evermore.
Forward together,
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II
President & Senior Lecturer,
Repairers of the Breach