What you do today can and will determine liberation for decades to come. What you don’t do today can and will also impact that timeline for liberation.
Today in Korea, we mark the March 1st Movement of 1919, where Koreans rose up to demand Korea-wide independence against Japanese occupation.
For Koreans, a main image emblazoned in our collective minds is that of 유관순 (Ryu Gwan Sun), a 16-year-old girl who became one of the most important individuals and images of the Korean resistance movement,running through the village with a Korean flag yelling “조선/대한 독립 만세!” (“Long live Korean independence!”).
[Colonial Japan’s identity card for Ryu Gwan Sun]
She was part of an enduring and strong Korean resistance movement enabled Koreans to exist as we do today.
While it would take another 25 years from that March 1st until the end of the Japanese occupation, this uprising of independence movement organizers fueled and inspired Koreans to continue fighting for those decades. The work and memory of those resistance fighters, including Ryu Gwan Sun, still galvanize us to this day.
In this way, every liberatory action has the potential to build toward our future liberation. However, every action not taken also delays that path. And unfortunately, oppression and oppressors have made the latter option more palatable to too many by using the idea of urgency as the superior and sole solution.
Imagine if I stopped doing workshops or giving talks because liberation didn’t happen immediately at that moment. Imagine if I stopped writing this because I didn’t see liberation happening right now. Imagine if we simply gave up on boycotts, protests, or our art because liberation didn’t happen immediately.
Unfortunately, many people do exactly this after trying a boycott for one day, attending a single protest, or making one call to their representative. There is no next-day delivery for liberation. Liberation is not a boycott, protest, or call. It is all of these everyday for days, months, and even years. This timeline only gets shorter when more people join.
If we want liberation in our lifetimes, we must remember that our actions, protests, boycotts, and calls are part of a longer and larger momentum of movement that requires that we extend our circles to gather people in. It is only when we coalesce and build up that we create the wave’s crest that cracks and crumbles Empire.
Consciously pace yourself. Intentionally gather with and be gathered by others. Liberation is a process, not an event. It is a series and collection of many over time.
Be here together. We will get there if we circle up. We have much to history to create and become.
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