Speaking and Singing Truth to Power

July 18, 2013 by Martina Rippon

[What follows are written comments submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Administration as part of the public input process on the promulgation of emergency administrative rules. – Editors]

I am writing in support of the efforts of the Solidarity Sing Along to maintain citizen consciousness in Wisconsin and in our nation; I don’t believe this activity should be restrained in any way. I see it as the ember of hope that we, the people, will once again have a voice in the future of the United States of America.

We are enormously out-resourced and out-powered by forces beyond our control: corporations whose only goal is taking money from the workers who actually earn it and “investing” (read, gambling) it in the casinos of commerce. The new restrictions are a manifestation of exactly where the power lies, and the desperation to which the feudal lords have succumbed. The only way we can counter this is by speaking—and singing—truth to power. Our society is becoming a place where Jesus would be very angry about the treatment of the poor.

Martina Rippon. Photo by Callen Harty

The Solidarity Sing Along started as a way to focus the energies arising with the outpouring of response to the perceived betrayal of our ideals by Governor Scott Walker and his fellow money-suckers. It continues as a place-holder for democracy in a world we hardly recognize. The therapeutic value of singing our hearts out is what keeps us engaged and gives us hope.

Yes, we have our rowdies—but they’re OUR rowdies, and are committed to non-violence, as we all are. What they may lack by way of finesse or vocabulary, they more than make up for in spirit (and decibels). We try always to be respectful of the rights of ALL.

We’re still here. Wherever else we may be, we’re still here.

Yours for the life of our country,
Martina Rippon

Martina(third from left) and friends at Solidarity SingAlong.