Photo from Nous Sommes Tous Art
Don't take it personally. We all were swept away by a great, intoxicating wave of novel (for many) awareness of the devalorizing and repressive potential of our government's actions a year ago. We paid reverent attention to political notions, the words of which were exchanged between neighbors, colleagues, friends, family and strangers, all while a great number of us likely thought to ourselves "hey, how did we ever not take the time to examine, dissect, learn, live like this?" With every systematic abuse of power comes the opportunity to join the side engaging against the abuse, to lend support. But momentum changes, our energy disperses, time goes by, and the urgency viscerally felt after holding this object together, this shared value that requires the hands and intentions of many to keep lifted dissipates.
Don't take it personally. Yes, others were there doing the lifting too, and there they have remained since. It's just how it goes. We can count on there always being those in whom the mobilizing conviction of engagement remains steadfast. We trade responsibilities. You let your flame of social justice burn for education, and maybe I, for the environment. We might also think that some have more at stake than others because they are more at ease in public forums – the street being one of the most public – and because it's their cause that they are demonstrating for, perhaps not yours. But this is where it gets taken personally.
We take it personally when we draw lines between the cause of a so-called minority of students, revelers celebrating a Stanley Cup, an abidingly reasonable teacher in a panda suit, the First Nations, the police, the government, minority interest groups (the list goes on) and ourselves. We react against being asked to participate in what has indeed proven to be a dangerous alternative to the status quo. We hesitate, hold back, resist the responsibility we could be embracing that would implicate us in the cultivation of alternatives to the current abuses of rule: ones that remove more and more discretionary powers from citizens and allocate them to law enforcement. What we should be taking personally is this shift on the lever of power that renders everyone less visible and audible due to the discretionary (ie unpredictable, erratic) application of provenly biased power.
Don't take it personally. We owe it to all struggles past and future to not have silence trump the efforts of all the good people who have been carrying the cause of freedom of assembly and of association. Take it outside of yourself, beyond the personal, and now, because the momentum is there. Here's how:
Write a letter in support of collective responsibility and against discretionary and repressive law enforcement. Please refer to earlier instructions by the Association des Juristes Progressistes on which city councillors to contact and do so before Monday, when the vote at city council takes place. http://www.quebecprotest.com/post/47550577535/request-of-public-support-of-municipal-officials-to
Please join us on Monday at Montreal's City Hall in support of the motion to repeal bylaw P-6: https://www.facebook.com/events/465596273510943/
And also, do consider helping those who have been penalized over the course of this bylaw's enforcement by contributing to Pandaction Against P-6: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/pandacti0n-contre-p-6
Please continue to share these links widely.
And we send our gratitude to those who have been devoting their precious time to this fundamental cause.
In solidarity,
Translating the printemps Ă©rable
& several students from l'École de français pour artistes et révolutionnaires ;)
