The rumblings of discontent grow deeper among the populace. More and more of us feel indignation and outrage at the exploitation of our leaders over the people.
The Street is the natural home of those who wish to voice their concerns. It is the place where the powerless, the poor, the neglected express their current innermost priority.
It is mostly the young who take to the Street – teenagers, 20’s and 30’s with the growing support of the wisdom of their age group and seniors.
The Street is the place where the feet do the talking and the collective has the opportunity to show an unambiguous intent.
The Walk is the vehicle that implements change where the marginalised and the ignored can say “Ashab Yureed! (the People Want!), the current call of the Arab world, a call that rings true in every language for all those who say NO to exploitation and injustice. The people of Cairo and Tel Aviv, Madrid and Athens, Tripoli and Rome, Algiers and London share the common vision of support and justice for one and all.
In 1917, the Russians on the Street said “Bread, jobs, land.” Mahatma Ghandi centred decades of his campaigns on “Independence from British Rule.” Currently, people in India campaign on the streets to “End Corruption.” “Ban the Bomb.” “Stop the War.” “End the Cuts,” “End the Occupation” express succinctly a Walk on the Street.
The Arab world has told us that if we really want change, we do not go home in the late afternoon after a protest march. We stay and regroup using the resources of information technology, such as Facebook and Twitter, and stay around for the next day. Again and again. It’s a powerful strategy for change. With the apparent death of democracy in the USA, and public compliance and manufactured consent with the policies of the state, democracy is now taking rebirth in the Arab world and giving inspiration to Israelis and Europeans to go to the Street.
A protest on the Street offers the sense of belonging, a sharing of an ideal, a vision. Undeterred by rejection, ridicule and personal danger, those who engage in the protest express the power for transformation, an urge for the sudden movement of history away from the rhetoric and tyranny of the old into the determination for an evolutionary leap. Those who live away from the cities must find ways to make their voices heard, too.
We applaud the organisational skills of the few to support the determination of the many. We also need new kinds of leadership who can articulate the collective voice not only at a rally but in the days, weeks, and years ahead. The Walk serves as a means not as an end, a step towards, not a final goal. Yes, we welcome the millions onto the Street but we must not lose sight of the end – the collapse of a government, or, at least, a truly racial change, the haemorrhage of power of big business and the transformation to a radically different kind of society.
We tire of witnessing politicians pursue a place in history, tired of the immorality of the arms trade, and tired of the corruption in oil deals. We are tired of our government’s exploitation that strips the poor of opportunity, squeezes every penny possible out of them and cuts away at public services from affordable housing, affordable public transport, decent wages, health care, child care and educational costs.
Is it any wonder that our cities gradually swell as people seek work and accommodation in the metropolis? People who live away from big cities have been priced out of the market in villages and small towns. The wealthy have purchased countless homes in areas of outstanding natural beauty to use for their summer breaks or make available for their wealthy friends. Elsewhere millions flee the countryside for refuge in hellish cities as rural areas become uninhabitable due to global warming.
The major responsibility for global warming, pollution of land, water, air and systematic depletion of resources rests withthe policies of our leaders, bankers and corporate world. We have our part to play, too. We have to co-operate with each other to reduce our dependency on the material world. We also have to support the downfall of the politicians and financiers who depend upon so-called democracy and capitalism to sustain their all pervasive privileges.
The Walk on the Street professes a profound ethic that challenges governments/bankers/ corporations. The ethic confirms the spiritual, rather than a spiritual language around the ethic.
The symbolic act of the Walk represents far more than the sum total of its parts. It is about change – both root and branch in the corridors of power. A protest is not about the numbers on the Street, even though we applaud the turn out.
The Walk becomes a valid vehicle to empower people, as well as dissolve the indifference that numbs consciousness.
The Walk on the Street bears the task of the transmission of the transcendent element. The Walk is the movement and determination of one mirrored as the many.
It is the fruits of the Walk that truly matter.