Let Me Clear My Throat: I Do More Than ‘March To My Keyboard’
By John W. Fountain
I clicked on Facebook this morning with sleep still in the corners of my eyes and happened upon these words in a “friend’s” post: “Marching for Justice and Marching to your keyboard to talk about people marching for justice are not the same.”
As a writer, I take offense.
As a writer who recently chronicled Father Michael L. Pfleger and the Faith Community of St. Sabina’s anti-violence march to shut down the Dan Ryan Expressway, I take particular offense. As a journalist, author and writer, who for nearly 30 years has written faithfully and impassioned about the plight, murder and disenfranchisement of black folks, I take those words personally . E ven on behalf of those who march to their keyboards to partake in the modern-day grapevine to help spread the word and show support.
So let me clear my throat… Ahem…
Only the ignorant marginalize the power of the pen. Only the foolish dismiss the scribe who records history, the vision and the dream, the facts and details with craft and precision.
Only a simpleton disregards the written word and those whose vocation and God-given calling to form and cast ideas and truths into the wind to be carried for all to receive.
Only a fool is blind to what we as writers have at stake when we speak uncompromised truth to power.
Only a dullard does not understand that words and ideas are the pure seeds of revolutions and movements. That words and ideas in the form of stories and commentary and various texts — both fiction and nonfiction — have the potential to settle like a morning dew over the souls of men and bring forth life, empowerment, change. That as writers we chronicle and contextualize, preserve and also capture the spirit, essence and authentic truth of social movements — for now and for our posterity.
Only a fool minimizes the heart, soul and commitment of writers. Only a fool is blind to what we as writers have at stake when we speak uncompromised truth to power. Only a fool does not recognize the peril that writers sometimes face, sometimes from internal as well as eternal forces.
Only a fool would believe that marching alone is enough to effect change rather than to recognize the symbiotic relationship between story-makers and storytellers. And in the words of Mr. T: “I pity the fool.” LOL
But seriously, Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells penned the soul song of the enslaved and the lynched. Baldwin and DuBois the souls of black folks. And myriad black — and white — journalists chronicled the Civil Rights movement and the continued fight for human rights, marching alongside the “marchers” — or else in front of and behind with pen and camera in hand — so that they could then march to their typewriters, computer keyboards and newsrooms to tell the story.
For what good is a march if there is no scribe to announce that it happened, to stain blank pages with detail and fact by the ink of permanence as the first draft of history?
The Bible stands as God’s word written by inspired men. The scripture says: My tongue is the pen of a ready writer (Psalm 45:1); “Write the vision” (Habakkuk 2:2); “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).
So no, marching for justice and marching to your keyboard are not the same. As a writer, in order to do the latter, I have often found myself for decades now in the midst of protests, walking beside my brothers and sisters with the same heart but with the purpose of telling “our” story. As a man, I understand that not everyone has the time or ability, for any number of reasons, to march, and that absolutely necessary are those among them who choose to find ways to support the cause, even by voicing their support by weighing in on social media. So I say, “March, vote, stand, speak and let your voices be heard.” And for heaven’s sake, “Write.”
As a writer, I understand that what I do is not a negligible thing. That it is indeed as critical as marching. And for anyone who can’t see that, maybe it isn’t worth spending the ink to try and help them to see otherwise. But a least I tried. So let them be ignorant still. (I Corinthians 14:38).
I have no time for fools these days, only for more marches for justice and for other stories to cover before marching to my keyboard.
So I clicked on Facebook again… Then I clicked again.
Poof. Another “friend” gone. Enough time spent on this issue. And time to march on.
Email: Author@Johnwfountain.com
Website: www.author.johnwfountain.com