my friend

Change only comes with demand
Hope, tension, resistance and struggle are key

Steve Honeyman

How often have you found changing something in your life to be difficult or impossible?
And before you can even want personal change, there must be some level of admission
that you are responsible for your present reality. You then need to have hope for something
better and be willing to demand change in yourself. To accept that tension and resistance and
struggle are essential components of change.

I experienced all of these stages when I stopped smoking some 13 years ago or in my never-
ending battle to live a healthier life, and still have fun. These stages of change are true for our
personal lives and also true in communities and our country and the world. It is all a part of the
physical laws of the universe. You try to move a heavy object and you feel the resistance in your
body. You try to change a way of doing or being in your life and you feel resistance, sometimes
in the form of fear, in your head and your heart. You try to change government to care about
children or treat people with disabilities with support and respect and you encounter resistance.

The key is an understanding, an appreciation of power in your personal life as well as in the
public and private sectors of our communities. Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist and Leader,
says it best..

“Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will…The limits of tyrants
are prescribed by the endurance of those who they oppress.” In our personal lives, we are
often our own tyrants. In our communities, the tyrants can be government or business
or those who promote only ego or greed.

In a recent campaign for early childhood education in Philadelphia, the resistance came in
the form of a claim that there were no resources available. The Philadelphia School District
chose to save money on the backs of our youngest children. The resistance came from city
government recognizing the importance of quality, early childhood education and but not being
willing to put their actions behind their words. The resistance came from the egos of those who
were more worried about who would get credit. But, once the community group promoting this
change made their demands known, the process of shifting power began. It was not easy; it never
is. People wanted to give up. At first, city government said no. But, as the demand grew, change
was on the horizon.

And so it is in fighting for better housing, in pushing for immigration reform, in trying to win
more resources for public education, in making sure we eliminate hunger, in really bridging the
digital divide. Past, present and future struggles always, are one in the same. Again, Frederick
Douglass is most eloquent…

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate
agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder
and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a
moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a
struggle.”

Struggle for personal change and public change begins with hope and demand.