remembering damu smith

I'm thinking about Damu Smith today.  He would have been part of a delegation of Black Voices for Peace and the National Black Environmental Justice Network participating in the People's Climate March today.

Here is a powerful quote from an interview with Democracy Now, May 2006:

"I’m tired of seeing hungry children get up in the morning. I’m tired of seeing people living with AIDS, who don’t have the power to help themselves because they don’t have the resources to do so. I’m tired of seeing people tortured and oppressed. I’m tired of seeing all of these things, and as Fannie Lou Hamer said, well, she’s sick and tired of being sick and tired. So, she understood in order not to be sick and tired of being sick and tired, she had to get up off of herself, after she prayed to her god and said, "Give me the strength to do what I need to do to transform this world." And so, out of the poverty of Mississippi and the violence and terrorism of Mississippi, this woman, Fannie Lou Hamer, rose up to do what so many of us have refused to do, and that is, to speak truth to power and not be afraid to do it."

Damu was a powerful force in DC, nationally and internationally.  To read more on Damu, check out this piece on 5 May 2006 by the Washington Peace Center, the source of the photo.