Imagining Justice......

Here we are, in the last days before the world will be changed. Mary’s contractions have started; her water’s about to break. The burro carries them both, led by Joseph, plodding heavily to Bethlehem for the head count to be taxed. To Bethlehem, where people say "It’s always been this way, you’re not going to change anything."

We’re also at the last verse of John’s song, past the wise men and Mary and the shepherds. We’re in our own backyard, where despite that world-changing event two millennia ago, people still say "It’s always been this way..."

It’s hard to believe things can change. At last Tuesday night’s council meeting I delivered four sound reasons why the park plan should be suspended until more public input can be gained, but the council passed the consent agenda containing the contract for the park’s demolition moments later. Demolition of what little remains of our old park is scheduled to begin this week, even as we enter Bethlehem and start looking for a place to stay. So I’ve been singing John’s song to keep my spirits up.

"So sing us a song
for the wise ones unsung
Who still see God’s promise
in worlds filled with dung
As empires take census
to count up their spoil
The earth is their refuge,
their measure, their toil

As life seems to shatter
and hope wants to flee
They look for the starlight
that some cannot see
They speak to old powers,
a dawn, a new day
And imagining justice,
lead home a different way."

I saw some starlight Wednesday night in the old Memorial Building right next to the park. Lucia Gonzales and Irlanda Ramirez, two women from the Delores Huerta Foundation who have been working with the Spanish-speaking people in our poorer neighborhoods to help them learn how to ask for what they need, had organized a Christmas party/meeting and invited several of us from the recall effort to join them.

So there we are: my new sisters Delma, Lorena, Yolanda and I, sitting in old metal folding chairs with our neighbors, nos vecinos. We had met several of them at city council meetings where they had respectfully spoken of their neighbors’ desires for repaired streets, sidewalks, lighting, a park, and it was a joy to be there with them. Every single one of us has been speaking to old powers and imagining justice, some of us louder and longer than others. But the communion was wonderful. It ended with singing and food, as all real meetings should.


John ends with two choruses, both essential.

"Wise men, wise women,
children and elders
whoever you are
Sing a world without terror,
imagining justice,
We sing for the wise ones
who follow the star

Wise men, wise women,
children and elders
from near and from far
Sing a song for the wise ones
who dream dreams and visions
We follow the people
who still see the star."

Merry Christmas, fellow startrackers.