I don’t know.
That is my answer to the question “Where were you when they bombed MOVE?” The answer simultaneously breaks my heart and fills me with infinite hope.
On May 13, 1985 I was nearing graduation at my predominantly white, working class high school. Though my parents read the news paper daily and watched the 6pm and 11pm news without fail, I don’t remember hearing anything about the MOVE bombing. Anti-racism was not discussed in our home, and all I learned about structural racism in school was that long ago, slavery had happened. It was bad, but it was over. On May 13, 1985 all odds were against me becoming a MOVE supporter.
But I know exactly where I was on the evening I learned about May 13, 1985. It was early November of 1996 at UVM in Burligton, Vermont. In the mid 90s, after becoming an anarchist, I left Rochester, NY where I had lived all my life to travel, to study Social Ecology and anarchism, and to move to Vermont to experience a different kind of life and community and to be closer to the Institute for Social Ecology and Goddard College.
In November of 1996 I moved into my first Vermont home. A group of friends and I met up on Long Island to transfer a load of my stuff one friend had brought from Rochester into the truck of a friend who lived I New Haven, CT. I spent a few days in Long Island, then a few days in New Haven with my friend Stephanie. Then Stephanie brought my boxes and I to Plainfield, Vermont and my new life. We chose our travel dates carefully in order to see Ramona Africa speak at UVM.
That night changed my life. Living in Rochester, I had seen the effects of racism, but there was still so much I didn’t understand. I remember the shock, the horror, and the sorrow I felt while hearing the story of May 13, 1985. I cried while Ramona spoke, and my stomach hurt.
Her words have traveled with me through the years. She said that MOVE was on the front line of revolutionary change, working to create a better world, a less toxic world, a safer and more just world. She said that not everyone is called to be on the front line, but that the revolution has a place for everyone.
Ramona made me feel inspired. She inspired me to step out of my comfort zone, to learn the truth about history, and to think about what it means to be a white person in the USA, and in the revolution. She made me feel welcome to participate in changing the world in a way that would work for me.
Since that night, my analysis, my studies, and my activism have all been deepened through a knowledge of how the toxic system of white supremacy damages all of us. Though it was years later that I learned about the death, the trauma, and the cruelty of May 13, 1985 I will never forget about the city that bombed its own citizens for daring to speak the truth and change the world.
Hearing Ramona speak I vowed to learn more, to be a better ally, to develop a more powerful praxis. Inspired by her words I began to do political prisoner support work, prison abolition work, and eventually moved to Philadelphia, hoping to move a tiny bit closer to the front lines of change that she spoke of.
I’ve been a MOVE supporter since that evening, and am so grateful for all that MOVE has done to make the world a better place, and to support me in becoming (I hope) a better person. I don’t remember where I was on May 13, 1985, but I remember where I was when I learned what happened then. And most importantly, I remember every day that we need to change the world to one where all life and all truth are valued, and where all children and families are safe. I remember we need to create a world where all children and families are safe- safe from all violence- and a world where the idea of needing to protect children and families from their own government is absurd.
![futurist-foresight:
This algae-powered building in Hamburg is truely green!
futurescope:
The World’s First Algae-Powered Building Opens in Hamburg
via inhabitat:
The world’s first algae-powered building just opened in Hamburg! Dubbed the BIQ House, the project features a bio-adaptive algae facade and it will serve as a testing bed for sustainable energy production in urban areas and self-sufficient living buildings. International design firm Arup worked with Germany’s SSC Strategic Science Consultants and Austria-based Splitterwerk Architects to develop the BIQ House, which launched as part of Hamburg’s International Building Exhibition.
[read more] [IBA Hamburg] [BIQ House]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/5d082b20e09401672fa0bdf14e19711d/tumblr_ml38wcZGpv1r08k60o1_500.jpg)
