To the Editor:
In celebrating Black History Month, I would urge everyone to embrace the words of the great African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass who in 1857 said:
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate 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. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.”
To all who are engaged in struggles for justice and dignity locally, nationally, and internationally, these words highlight a great truth—we can either fight to improve our world or surrender it and our freedoms to the modern Robber Barons of corporate America who want nothing more than silent and powerless producing and consuming machines.
I recall a slogan used by the army in one of its TV campaigns some years ago: “Freedom isn’t free.” Never have truer words been spoken. The achievements of people like Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, and others show that we can make a difference, and we can effect great change. We can successfully challenge injustice—if we have the will.
Mark Lunt
Sr. Library Clerk Specialist
