Mustafa Santiago Ali
Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali is the Executive Vice President of Conservation & Justice for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), former Interim Chief of Programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and Instructor at American University. He is the Founder and CEO of Revitalization Strategies. He also serves as a commissioner for The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). He is an award-winning writer and poet focused on social justice. Dr. Ali is frequently seen on television, including appearances on MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, VICE, FUSE, BET, National Geographic, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, and Democracy NOW! Mustafa is also a regular guest on Roland Martin Unfiltered, Black News Channel, Tavis Smiley Show, The Dean Obeidallah Show, and many others…
Editor's Note: This poem is the 13th in our Democracy and Peril Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems, interviews, short stories, and articles about political events
Where were you when the air turned thick, when the skies whispered warnings in tongues older than time? The scientists spoke like prophets, their words circling the globe with the gravity of a storm’s eye, saying, Act now or watch it all unravel. But you, with your disbelief dressed in denial, turned away. Where were you when the earth cried out beneath your feet? When homes stood like skeletons after the fires, when hurricanes carved paths through cities, and the only shelter left was the silence of your ignorance?
We remember. You were in the halls of power, closing your ears, shuffling papers of policy, ignoring the tidal wave rising behind you. When the votes were cast to save us, where was your hand? Absent. Refusing. Declining the life raft while the waters climbed, swallowing streets and lives whole.
Where were you when South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Florida—stood in the wreckage of Hurricane Helene, their voices rising above the floodwaters? You weren’t there. Mike Johnson, with his gavel of indifference, kept his chamber doors locked, refused to gather the strength of a nation for the aid they cried for. And you, clinging to your crimson hat of empty promises, refused to push him, to stand for the people you claim to serve.
It wasn’t Biden. It wasn’t Harris. The responsibility, heavy as the clouds over us, was yours to bear, but you shrugged it off. Left FEMA waiting, left the people drowning. We remember.
For every breath we choked on in the heat, for every roof torn from the houses that held our memories, we remember. You left us to burn, to drown, to bury our dead beneath the debris of disasters you called hoaxes. But now, as we stand in the ashes, we rise, not with hate, but with the memory of your silence. And we will act.
We will vote like the thunder you ignored. We will cast ballots like rain over dry land. You will remember where you were, but it won’t be on the right side of history.
This, we promise.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
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