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I was glad to have a chance today to talk with my friend Ali Velshi about the moral crisis we face and what each of us can do about. The worst thing we could do in the face of an authoritarian regime would be to stay in our silos and think we can’t do anything now. No, now is the time to come together and mobilize together. When they do something that hurts so many of us at once, we’ve got to come together and own our power as a moral fusion movement.
This weekend, The Guardian also published a profile of our Moral Mondays campaign in DC. Here’s a short excerpt from Adam Harris reporting:
Barber told stories of movement members who died without care – Pam in Alabama, Jade in North Carolina – who called him not for comfort, but for commitment. Don’t quit, they said. “They had the courage to fight even while they were dying,” he said. “We ought to have the courage to fight while we’re living.”
Then he slowed and asked a simple question to those gathered: “What will you do with the breath you have left?” The question hung in the air. He didn’t wait for an answer. A few days later, he told me why it sticks with him. “That was George Floyd’s cry. That was my brother’s cry – he died in his 60s, waiting on healthcare. That was the cry of people during Covid: ‘I can’t breathe.’ That’s what I hear when I say that,” he told me. “The breath you have left – that’s what you’ve been given. That’s what you owe.”
Breath is a gift and a responsibility. “We’re not gonna sit here and let healthcare die,” he said. “We’re not gonna sit here and let living wages die. We’re not gonna sit here and let democracy die. It’s time to live. It’s time to stand. It’s time to speak. To protest. To live justice.” The line echoed down 1st Street. Whether it reached the halls of power was another question.
You can read the full piece in The Guardian.
Finally, we’ve rescheduled our live conversation with Sarah Longwell for this coming Tuesday at 1:30pm ET. You can watch live on Substack or subscribe to Our Moral Moment to have it delivered to your inbox. We’ll be continuing the conversation with Sarah about what each of us can do.
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