“We will be brave with our love.”

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh
The Beloved Community Belongs to Divine Oneness;
In that Oneness, All Become Victory

I am here as a daughter of Punjabi Sikh farmers who made California home 112 years ago. Los Angeles has been my home city for 21 years.

My grandfather taught me that my ancestors in the Sikh tradition survived near-annihilation by becoming sant-sipahi: sage warriors. The sage sees through the eyes of love. The warrior puts that love into action.

We have all become sage warriors now.

To our immigrant families:

We see you. We love you. And we will not leave you. We will alchemize our grief and rage to defend you. We will shield your body with ours. We will let your love make us brave.

Revolutionary Love is the choice to see no stranger – to leave no one outside our circle of care.

To the agents and soldiers in the streets:  

You can hold your batons over us,

You can burn our eyes with tear gas,

You can throw flash bang grenades to make us shake, and cry (and I have cried in those streets)

You can even point your rifles at us –

But we will stand tall and say: You cannot make us hate you. You do not have that power. We will choose to see your humanity even when you deny ours. We will block your actions with one hand – and extend the other hand with the vision that you might one day take it, or your children will take it. Because the brief high that comes from domination is nothing compared to the infinite love and joy of true community.

And so, our protest is more than resistance. We are lifting up a vision of the world that could be – where you see my child as yours, and as I see yours as mine. Our dream is more powerful than your nightmare.

We can practice that world in the space between. The frontline is not just in these streets. The frontline is our homes and classrooms and courts and kitchen tables. The frontline is our heart and imagination. And there is no number of drones or helicopters that can scare us into submission. Because the true revolution – the revolution of love – is everywhere we are.

We will be brave with our love. We will be – BRAVE WITH OUR LOVE.

When they come for us in the midnight hour— We will be brave with our love.

When they us to react – We will be brave with our love.

When they divide the world into us and them – We will be brave with our love.

We will build a bigger “we.”

And our love, our revolutionary love, will birth the world to come.

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh