Spoken word wrap up: an Evening with Ignatieff

Aan het eind van de afgelopen Marchantlezing heeft Rachel Rumai Diaz een spoken word voorgedragen:

How do we recover from all that is wrong in the world
Break free from polarizing evolutions
Follow the legacy of past revolutions
Trust the generational change in politics
Reflect on our achievements
Learn from our mistakes
Embrace our fears
And come together?
How can we have hopeful politics in times of fear?
 
No matter where you come from
Canada, United States, Europe or The Netherlands
They say politics where easier in the past and so where our views on the future
And while for some of us this will be the last battle, and others will take over the fight
It is important that although we may disagree we stay a family
 
But what if the problem is us? 
What if the problem is the generation leaving the stage?
Leaning too much on past achievements to realize how they have backfired in our present?
How do we cope with change?
Because the dilemma of practical politics is that fear has made people abandon their beliefs
Made them flee to the right
Made them fear change, good or bad
 
So how do we take the fear away from inclusion revolution
Recenter our focus on decolonization
Remind society of the value of feminism 
Expand people’s views on environmental revolution
How do we heal from all that capitalism has destroyed?
 
Being alive is being afraid
But so is freedom
And although there are no politics without those that ignite, ignore or incorporate fear
Fear can also save our lives
Fear can inspire us to fight
To work harder
To be better
Fear sometimes is a precondition of reasonable behavior
And can wake people up from their existential slumber. 
 
Hope is not passively waiting for something to happen
Hope is it is taking action
The beginning of change
And while the older generation may leave the stage
Bow down to the audience
Receive their applause while th curtains come down
The younger generation can’t make change before those leaving the stage take action one last time while they have the power
So be bold 
speak up
And support progressive voices
So we recover from all that is wrong in the world
Break free from polarizing evolutions
Follow the legacy of past revolutions
Trust the generational change in politics
Reflect on our achievements
Learn from our mistakes
Embrace our fears
And come together
We need to stay on the course on what we fought for and fight to change the things we did wrong