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 44th 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.
Abuela’s voice was the kind that cut through static, like a preacher’s prayer or an old blues habit. She’d say, “Baby, your power’s a precious thing, don’t you dare let it slip, don’t you dare let it sing to a tune that ain’t yours.”
I hear her now, clear as my heartbeat’s drum, “Your vote’s a bullet, a promise, a kingdom come. It’s the wind that bends history’s spine, the ink that tells our story line by line. You hold the pen, you hold the brush, don’t let nobody tell you hush.”
I think of her hands, strong from kitchens and fields, a thousand meals made from what hope yields. She knew the worth of a voice, the cost of silence, the way fear and apathy breed compliance.
“This land’s been bruised and bent,” she’d say, “but we are the bones that won’t break, the light of day. You’ve got the power to lift the heavy and the weak, to make the laws speak for those too tired to speak.”
I carry her words like a banner, a shield, into the booth where the future’s unsealed. My vote is her legacy, my dream, our might, each box I check a spark in the night.
“Do something!” she whispers from wherever she rests, “Do something!” her echo beats in my chest. For the children in cages, the water unclean, for the lives cut short by the American dream.
I won’t give away what she fought to give, won’t let her down, won’t let this chance live in the shadow of what-ifs, the grave of regret— this is the promise I’ll never forget.
I am her power, I am her song, my vote is a hymn where we all belong. I’ll shape this world with the fire she lit— do something, be something, make good on it.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
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