On the first day of Channukah, in the midst of Advent, on the eve of Solstice, we, the members of Occupy Los Angeles Sanctuary, prepare for a gathering in Pershing Square which we are calling, OCCUPY THE LIGHT. Below are my reflections as I study the story of Channukah and think about its implications for our movement.
Channukah is a story of reclaimation and God’s abundance in the midst of scarcity. It’s a miracle of the sacred expanding as needed. When one hears the Channukah story, one already knows about the eight days. The people within the story, however, don’t know. Imagine the suspense as each day passes. Will there be enough? This small amount has already stretched one, two, three... days. Will it stretch one day more?
Tonight, we gather in Pershing Square as Occupy Los Angeles Sanctuary. Occupy Los Angeles’s home at City Hall is no longer. We have been evicted from that space, which the Occupiers made sacred by their witness for justice and the common good. How does the movement continue?
Tonight, we claim public space again. We gather in our park, in Pershing Square, with its history of soapbox preachers and free-spirited artists, homeless citizens cheek by jowel with comfortably well-off families. We bring art, music, spoken word, and stories of our sacred traditions.
We celebrate that the darkest night is merely the moment before the light begins to return. We celebrate that we are here, together, Christians-Jews-Muslims-Buddhists-Atheists, Priests-Rabbis-Artists, Rich-Poor-Middle Class. We are united in our desire for our nation to live up to her storied past, to remember the lights that have moved/ are moving us forward: Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Jr., Caesar Chavez, Lt. Dan Choi, and others. We celebrate that now, we are the lights.
We celebrate that the Occupy movement has no single hero. We are each a hero, stepping forward together take the movement through the next 24 hours, just as the sacred oil burned each night to reclaim the sacred space, for eight days. Just long enough to sanctify more oil.
We are the 99%, and tonight, together, we celebrate the light. By our presence together in Public Space, we reclaim our heritage as American People. We carry the light for one more day. And one more day. And one more day. We carry it until we find a way to sanctify more light, until the processes of our goverments consider people and the planet before the desires of power and greed. Will we make it? Will the oil last one more day? We cannot know. We cannot see the future. We have today, and today is enough.
