Poor People's March for Economic Human Rights

http://www.kwru.org/march

KWRU director Cheri Honkala | 5 August 2003
Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN

My name is Cheri Honkala, and, um, my mother always said I
had problems following the rules, so I'm going to speak on a
variety of issues.  I'm going to first start off tonight by
having the people that are going on this march stand up, and
having a round of applause for them.

We've learned a lot of lessons organizing other poor and
homeless families over the past ten or twelve years, and one
of the most important lessons that I've learned over the
years, personally and as an organizer is that the number one
thing we have to do is put names and faces behind poverty in
America, and these unsung heroes ... in 1968--the original
Poor People's Campaign--people continue to keep that part of
our history invisible, we don't talk about it, and we don't
know much about it ... we haven't read about it a whole lot
or seen a lot of pictures, we haven't heard all the oral
histories, and we want to make sure this time around that we
don't do the same thing--that we hold up that history, and
that we also acknowledge the real unsing heroes that are here
in this room.  I'd also like to acknowledge the folks that
were on the original. Would you please stand? [applause]

Being is invisible is incredibly dangerous, [cell phone
rings] and so is speaking with your cell phone.  Let me turn
that off ...

I really enjoyed opening up with this angry poem, because I'm
kind of an anrgy women--people are looking at me like, "no
really?"--but anyway, people are always like: "you've got an
attitude!" [applause] Thank you.  The sister that was on the
original [march] is clapping profusely, so I think that's a
good sign.  People always look at me like, "oh my God, could
you lighten up?  Take that chip off your shoulder?"  And I
pray to God I never do take that chip off my shoulder,
because the day that I adjust to hunger, homelessness,
children going without shoes, people living outdoors and
living in these inhumane conditions, please admit me to some
psychiatric unit, because I will have stopped living.

And so I like when we start with a lot of anger.  And just so
we all get angry, Tennessee is the fourth in the nation for
families living in poverty.  Tennessee is the <b>first</b> in
the nation for seniors living in poverty, and 35 percent of
renters in Tennessee lack affordable housing.  25,000 jobs
have been lost in Tennessee due to NAFTA, and 56.8 of your
so-called new jobs in Tennessee pay poverty-level wages.  Am
I the only one angry? [applause]

I'm also someone who is incredibly spiritual.  That's the
secret that sustains me, that gets me up in the morning,
because I am a spiritual woman.  And I believe from the
bottom of my heart that poverty is not God's will, and I am
not a poor woman because I have a mental health problem, or I
have a a substance-abuse problem--I am a poor woman in
America because of greed.  And greed is a sin against God.
[applause] It is also a sin against God not to actively do
the Lord's work, and to fight for economic justice every day
of our lives.  It is not enough to pray about it, it is not
enough to sing about it, to talk about it, to testify about
it.  We must begin to support people and efforts in which
people are trying to consciously build a movement, not to
manage poverty in our country, but to eliminate it#
151;because it's possible in our country.  And it is not OK
for some people to have healthcare in our country when others
don't, and to have some people have two or three houses and
many of us have absolutely none. There is plenty to go
around, and there is no reason for homelessness, or poverty,
or hunger, for one minute.  So if somebody tries to convince
you that it's just about life-skills management, or spiritual
deprivation, they are committing a sin because THEY ARE
LYING.  There is plenty to go around.  

We need to begin to do the Lord's work, and that means the
hard work. That means confronting economic human rights
violations in our country, and beginning to show whose side
we're on.  Are we going to stand with the folks that have the
least, or are going to continue to stand on the sidelines and
not do anything about it.  That is the question of the hour.
We need to build unity and organization of the poor.  We no
longer will benefit from pity and from tears alone.  We need
people to step forward. We are asking you to join and enlist
in what Dr. Martin Luther King called the nonviolent poor
people's army to end poverty.  We need your time, and yes
your money#151;because these vehicles do not run on love,
they run on gasoline.  We need your prayers, your family's
involvement, and we need the skills that you are hiding
today, and the lessons that you have to teach us.  Especially
if you are a poor person in America, you have so many skills
that you need to share with your brothers and sisters that
are in this room.  You just need to figure out what those
are, and you need to give those skills that you have to build
this movement.  

We're not going to end poverty by a handful of poor people in
America.  We will end poverty when all of us in this room,
when our mothers, and our sisters, and our pastors decide
that we're tired.  That we are honest-to-God, from the bottom
of our heart, tired#151;of testimony after testimony, and of
march after march.  And when were are totally serious about
ending poverty in this country, you know what?  We're going
to end poverty in this country.  There is no magic secret
behind it.  When we decide that we are going to stand up, to
get organized, when we stop using the excuse that that "I'm
too old," or "I'm too sick," or "I'm too bored," or "I'm too
tired, because I work too many jobs," and when all of us
decide that we are tired of it, and we begin to commit
ourselves and to join this movement, that's when we will end
poverty in this country.  And I believe that that is God's
will, because I believe that it is not God's will that our
children go hungry, that it is not God's will that we to live
in the inhumane conditions that we live in, and it is our
responsibility to do the Lord's work to ensure that we wipe
out these conditions.

Now I was supposed to talk about the FTAA.  Those our just
fancy words for the fact that corporations are benefitting at
our expense, in terms of taking jobs and going to the
cheapest labor in whatever part of the world, and because
we're beginning to live on a very small planet, what happens
in the Philipines, or what happens in South America, or on
the border in Mexico, has direct impact on the workers here
at home.

We must begin to get organized and uplift our people here,
and we need to stop being ashamed and coming up with excuses
about "what's wrong with me", and start saying "there's a lot
that's right with me," and maybe there's something wrong with
a society that continues to promote these conditions.  

Those of you that are in recovery know that the first that
thing you've got to do#151;I don't have to start talking
about most of the people that are in our country who are in
denial#151;I'll just talk to poor white folks in this country
who are in serious denial.  We've got to start stepping
forward and saying "I'm poor, and I'm not going to be ashamed
about being poor in America." 

When we begin to say that we want to end poverty, and that
we're poor, and when we stop coming up with a certain
category of what the heck poor means#151;poor means, if you
have a hard time struggling with any of the the basic
necessities of life, then you is poor, you know?  Whether
it's struggling a whole lot with your mortgate or to pay
rent, or you're living underneath a bridge, or you don't have
enough money for your medicines, whatever that is, that means
you're poor and you should be a part of our army.  Thank you
for having us here tonight.  Let's end poverty, let's do
God's will.

[standing ovation]