When you look also at the use of mutual aid in our communities and what the Black Panthers were able to accomplish, you see how it actually became government work, as it should be. It exposes what needs the people have and makes sure that we push for the government to be able to fund the satisfaction of those needs as one of our main goals. Mutual aid helps us put this message out there in a very compassionate way. It shows that we can go and we can protest; but also, we can protest while we take care of those needs. I think that’s a beautiful thing, and it’s a really important thing that we should be embracing.
We have seen people that have started coming to help in a lot of different ways because they need that human connection. And I think we all need that right now as well. So, it is also a way to keep hope alive and remind ourselves that we are all part of this ecosystem and that we need to be there for each other.
I’m not saying that there are not times when we need to strategically focus our organizing on something very specific, but I do think that in general we want to be welcoming to people. We want to make sure that the way in which we fight is in harmony with our ultimate vision that we have for this world.
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