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By: Shqipe Malushi
My sisters, as I walked today to work I stumbled over the body of a young man, crawled on the ground, hopeless and helpless without any sign of life.
Most of us morning people who are rushing to work often avoid this sad and painful sight of our hungry brothers and sisters who lie there on the street corners waiting for nothing, asking for nothing, staring at us in silence and reminding us about the truth in our consciousness.
Who is this young man whose body is decaying on the ground, stretched without strength to
make an effort to stand on his feet? Is he someone’s child, brother or father? Doesn’t anyone remember him? Is he a living dead or just an illusion and reflection of our society?
Who is this young man whom we don’t want to see?
Wake up, I say to myself and look around, your neighbors are growing to be people with no roof over their head, with no food and caring from anyone. Wake up, and ask why are we to witness the loss of our children on the streets, and have to avoid the sight so it won’t disturb our day.
This question comes from our depth and it should alarm us because it is our responsibility to see what is pushing our brothers and sisters on the streets without giving them a chance to feel they can be protected.
Are we protected? Tomorrow it could be our children and us…
Wake up, I say and ask questions, who is in charge of our body and our life? Who will protect us when we no longer will be able to protect ourselves? Who is telling us how to think and how to feel? Who is telling our truth? Don’t we have demands?
Wake up I say, my sisters, and let us wash away our eyes, and not let the pollution clutter our vision. Our homeless, hungry, poor, sick and elderly brothers and sisters were once just like you and I, happy in their family circles. Today they are our shadow from which we run and hide our face.
Wake up my sisters and feel the pain and the suffering of those who are trying to teach us about justice…wake up and raise your voice. This is our country and we are responsible for what is happening on the streets. Our silence is giving power to those who push the gentle people over the margins of living into despair so they can rule over our territories.
Wake up my sisters, wake up and VOTE…Say NO to hunger and poverty and darkness…Say NO to injustice, death and killing. Say NO to cuts for the elderly and women and children. Say NO to bullets and wars. Say NO to anything that threatens our dreams and dreams of our children. Say NO to anything that steals our feeling of hope…
Wake up, and say NO to nightmares so we don’t have to turn our head in the morning at the sight of a decaying body in the corner of our streets.
Wake up, and help this country heal…Bring back love and nurturing, bring back the hope and the dream that this land once had offered to the whole planet.
It is we mothers, sisters and daughters who have to take charge of this moment and get out and VOTE.
Wake up, and make a change, because we count and our voice counts…we are the mothers, the sisters and the daughters of this land…we are the LIBERTY.
Let us rise with our hands to the sky and inspire everyone not to sit still, but tell them to go out there and VOTE.
VOTE for our RIGHTS.
VOTE for those who cannot get up from the ground because their knees are weak.
VOTE for those whose hearts almost doesn’t beat from the tiredness, and their eyes are lost…
VOTE for those who have died without knowing what they’ve died for.
VOTE for those who need our protection because we are the only one who are going to stand strong, and bear WITNESS to justice and truth with compassion.
WAKE UP and let us SAY NO for our SAKE and the sake of our CHILDREN.
Don’t let the time pass take charge for your life.
REGISTER TO VOTE AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE NOW!
Shqipe Malushi
Writer & Executive Director
For Albanian American Women’s Organization
481 8th Avenue, Suite 909
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212-244-8440
Email: shqipemalushi@aol.com
www.aawomq.org
This year, the open debate will primarily focus on one particular issue covered by SCR 1325- gender based violence in conflict situations. It was proposed to use the opportunity or aria-style meeting to look more broadly at the range of prevention, participation and protection issues covered by SCR 1325 and which will be addressed in the Secretary-General’s report. |
