Yesterday I joined thousands of concerned people the Hands Off demonstrators in downtown Los Angeles to protest the massive corruption and graft of the Trump regime; the evisceration of federal agencies established by Congress to protect the general welfare; the elimination of government programs in education, health, medicine, research, environmental protection and humanitarian assistance at home and abroad; the persecution of immigrants; the mass firing of federal workers dedicated to public service; and the relentless attacks on Constitutional rights and freedoms.
We were among many hundreds of similar protests held across the country yesterday.
This is the beginning of a massive nonviolent movement to reclaim democratic government, human rights and rule of law in our country.
In their poster, signs and chants, people shared their outrage, and their anger.
But the main feeling was joy, unity, hope.
Mutual support and encouragement for the long struggle ahead.
Our determination to hold fast to truth, to human decency and compassion, and to our Constitutional rights.
Our unshakable commitment to democracy, to each other, and to the most vulnerable in our communities.
In March 1965 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called on religious leaders from diverse faith traditions to join the protest for voting rights in Selma Alabama. Dr. King’s close friend Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel responded to the call and joined thousands to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where just a few days earlier, on Bloody Sunday, marchers including John Lewis had been severely beaten. Crossing the bridge arm in arm with Dr. King, alongside courageous activists from Selma and across the country, they kept walking for five days all the say to the Alabama State Capital in Montgomery.
Rabbi Heschel described the joy and solidarity and faith he experienced with his fellow marchers. He said he felt like he was praying with his feet.
The Black Freedom Movement was infused and uplifted with song, inspiring the faith that we shall overcome.
Yesterday’s march in Los Angeles, only the beginning, inspires the same faith, and the same joy.
Jonathan D. Greenberg
