I come from….

I come from a people of want

   A people of never have

Never enough, Don’t got

I come from a people

Where migrant worker’s tortillas, smothered in melting butter

Were springtime food

And stolen chocolate competed with Crisco-rolled-in-sugar for weekly fat count

I come from a people

   Who never show fear

Women who laugh in the face of 6-in knives

I come from men and women

who taught us to play ‘hide and seek’

From county social workers

The same way other kids play tag

I come from a people who know how to rock and roll

            Play country on four-string guitars

And broken accordions

I come from a people who know the

     Loud silence of trees and rivers flowing

            And people who know that even gravel talks when listened to

I come from a people who calmly, softly said

‘they’re people too’

 Long before any civil or equal rights movement

This is Marcie Rendon and this is my Southside 60

I am a writer – a stringer together of words. Since an early age I knew the person writing or telling a story had the power to shape the understanding of reality of the person listening. Collectively we need to assess who we are, what we have become and where we are going. The United States was founded on the principle of Manifest Destiny – man has dominion over the earth; and on the idea that independence is the greatest virtue to achieve. Dominion over the earth has brought the entire earth to the edge of extinction of the human species. It is necessary to ask ourselves, what are we willing to do to live in balance with all creation. What are we willing to give up?  do without? We need to question the ideal of independence. The human species is a pack animal. We need other human beings to insure and maintain our survival. How do we achieve interdependence? Studies show that humans function best when in a group of not more than 150 people. Who is in your nurturing pod? And what do you need to do to nurture interdependent relationships in that group?

This is Marcie Rendon and this is my Southside 60

On May 25, 2020 I went silent. I had no words to express my pain and outrage at a man who could kill another man while looking dead in the eyes of a teenage girl begging him to stop. I had no words and it seemed vital to me to leave space for Black voices to say what they needed to say and even to leave the silence of space to speak for itself. Today I think I have some words. We are at a time in history where there is no turning back. Each person in the best of their conscious, must do what is right for all of humanity. We have all suffered enough. We have all witnessed enough. We know in our heart of hearts what is the right thing to do, the human thing to do. How do we fiercely love enough to create change, be change, live change? How do we fiercely love enough to say never again, get off my back, join the struggle with me? How do we stop living in a fantasy world where people have been trained to ignore the collapse of the false dream around them? How do we hold each other tenderly through the coming crisis?