You must not look to the left or the right.
You must fight oppression in all its forms.
Victory has come in far more challenging situations.
President Lincoln: I am coming to speak with you today because I can sense, feel in the deep recesses of my being, the disappointment, even despair under which many of you labour this morning.
You see your government crumbling. With the passing of one of your last heroes, you see another institution falling to regressive powers, powers who claim everything for themselves and nothing but crumbs for the rest. Powers that see the military as strong-arm police meant to defend their position and their position only. Powers that encourage their followers to rampage through the countryside for the sheer hell of it taking delight in oppressing the weak, and torturing those who would stand against them.
You are not wrong to see your world crumbling, falling in a dark direction. I have seen it too and lived through the consequences of such energies.
I ask you still to have faith. To realize that steadfastness is the only way, that we as a people were sent to withstand a challenge such as this. Perhaps we will not succeed right away, perhaps there is further to fall before a full awakening will be realized, but in time, with faith and perseverance, it will be accomplished.
Your job is to get up today as you did yesterday, devoted to opposing the return of this nation to oppression and slavery. When rights are denied based on class or colour, children tortured, and minorities slandered and killed with impunity, slavery will have descended upon the nation once again even though it hides its face.
But this time women and minorities have the vote. This president and his followers are trying to nullify even this, and they may yet succeed to one extent or another. If they do, we will get up that day as we have every day prior and fight for the freedom of every man woman and child living in this country.
You must not look to the left or the right. You must fight oppression in all its forms. Victory has come in far more challenging situations. This time we have weapons of the press and an empowered populace who will stand against such oppression. We must turn our attention to voting in this election for that is the key to peaceful revolution.
But even if we lose this battle, we must continue with the war. Each one of us must do our part. There are leaders out there who have mobilized. Look to them and follow their lead.
Above all, keep the faith that the will and unshakeable love of our Creator will prevail and shine light upon us even in this period of growing darkness. And when the light prevails as sooner or later it must, there will have been amassed an unstoppable force for reform and renewal powered by the recognition of the depths to which an unchecked political movement has taken this country
Be ready for it, be a part of it. It is coming whether you can see it or not. The faith of your forbears in this world and the next will carry you forward. Do not let them down.
September 21, 2020