Grief, Hope, and Anger

Grief, hope, and anger can be the most powerful tools we have for creating a modern culture of life. Most times this conglomeration of extreme feeling can be overwhelming, leaving us with the ropes and bricks of hopelessness tied around our feet, forcing us into a cycle of despair and complicity. We are frozen in inaction. We think the problem is too big, too much of a behemoth to handle.

We are stuck with debilitating empathy.

Every single passionate activist goes through a time of being frozen in inaction. It's what shocks us out of it that sticks with us for the rest of our careers in activism. For most people, this is victim imagery, testimony or lived experience. But for some of us, it's being frozen in the first place. It's the realization that we don't have to live this way.It's the thought that even though you might not change the world by yourself, that doesn't mean you can't be a key player in a revolution. If you were being oppressed and being dragged away to slaughter, wouldn't you want someone to hold your hand until the last moment? Wouldn't you want to know that, no matter how small, there IS someone fighting for you?

It's the anger for the way the system is set up; designed to scare and intimidate you into complicity.

Grieving the pre-born isn't a sign of weakness. In a world where the majority see abortion as a completely safe procedure and fetuses as clumps of cells, our grief is extraordinarily important. When we publicly grieve, we are publicly declaring the personhood of the preborn. We are solidifying their roles in society. We grieve them like people because that's what they are.

We must continue to be angry. We must continue to raise our voices and take up space with the weight of our exasperation with the system.

"You don't rescue ideas or things... You rescue people."

-Joan Andrews Bell

Our grief for The Five fuels our activism. We demand justice.

Our hope for a better world where fetuses are given the same protections as you and me fuels our activism. We don't give up quietly.

Our anger at the system that has turned a blind eye at the mass slaughter of children fuels our activism. We won't make this easy.

"This isn't just another demand for justice. This is THE demand for justice... And we're prepared to give it all we've got." -Terrisa Bukovinac