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 61st 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
Today, we stand on sacred ground, soil rich with the footsteps of those who came first, whose blood runs deep in the rivers, whose breath lingers in the trees, we honor Mother Earth, the mountains, the sky, the whispers of all living things—because they remember, even when others forget.
We remember the missing, the stolen, the silenced sisters, the women whose faces fill our dreams, whose names we chant to the wind, to the stars, to the moon, calling them back, holding space for them, weaving their spirits into our songs.
And to our cousins, quick to block, quick to build walls, who forget their own feet landed here as strangers, we remind you—you, too, are immigrants on this soil, you, too, arrived without the grace to listen, to learn balance, you came with hands open to take, but closed to give.
Today, we stay connected with our Black kin, whose skin wears the sun, whose roots wind through struggle, like ours, like kinfolk bonded by history’s rough hands. We honor that shared breath, that shared fight, that shared fire, for the Creator breathed life into the original ones,
And here we stand, unbreakable, as one voice, the first people, the stewards, the memory-keepers, we are here to protect, to reclaim, to remind, because this land remembers, and so do we.
©️MustafaSantiagoAli
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