Maybe it's time

A slight, short white womon in a long dusky blue trench coat breathlessly caught me as I was locking up my truck, grayish brown unruly curls peeping out from under a matching cap. "Here" she says, thrusting a handful of wadded up dollars as crumbled as her long coat. "This is all the money I have in my pocket."

First, I'm thinking she's homeless and thinks I am also so I ask her as I examine the bills in her outstretched hands "What is this for?"

She tears up as she lauds my bravery and declares she wants to support my work. She confesses that she used to be active when El Salvador and also Nicaragua was happening but when Ollie North was pardoned she realized it was rigged and we can't do anything.

This gave me the opportunity to talk with her about Starhawk's message: when we feel how she is feeling, we have to know we're falling under the spell of those people in power. They NEED us to feel this way. We have to recognize it's a spell and step back and cast our own counter spell. We are not powerless, we are not helpless.

I gave her a copy of my book and her parting words to me were "Maybe it's time I got involved again". I agreed enthusiastically with her and urged her to push herself - and everyone she knows - to do better, more, any and everything!

This is Jackson Mississippi