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 65th in our Democracy and Hope Series. This series will highlight hopeful aspects about our Democracy using various genres including poems, interviews, short stories, and articles about political events
don’t underestimate the blood in my bones, fire-forged in black onyx, iron-rooted, breath baptized in the truth of a thousand tongues. you ain’t never known the reach of this history, never known the way our laughter lifts walls, the way we hold what’s broken ‘til it mends, how we breathe light into dark rooms, how we were here, guarding these streets, before time knew its own name.
i am the son of a mother’s prayer, the strength of a grandmother’s hand, the pride in my sister’s eyes, the hope in my daughter’s smile, the trust that my wife wraps around me. we love like armor, like gospel, like a promise sung under low-hung stars.
we vote not just for survival, but for living. we vote for air our children can breathe, for hands that build, for homes unbroken, for justice unbound, for schools that sing with the laughter of every child. we vote like roots finding earth, like dreams unfurling at dawn.
and you see, I vote for me too, for the wants i wear close to my chest, for the dreams that wake me in the night. we’re more than keepers, more than shields— we’re builders, creators, we got visions like rivers, like rivers, carrying us home.
project 2025, you thought you knew power? watch me claim tomorrow like it’s mine, watch my people line up like a thunderstorm, ballots in hand like seeds ready to bloom. we got opps, but we’re here, stone-steady, bound to this earth like a covenant, like fate.
you can’t replace us. can’t tear down what’s already rooted. can’t shatter a man who knows he was born to rise, to guard, to love and to live. we’re here— and we’re voting, we’re claiming tomorrow in the fierce light of today.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
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