Can I (we) afford to be too tired to fight the administration’s harmful policies?

Am I tired of America’s history of racist BS? You bet.

Am I fed up with the disparities in health, wealth, and economic opportunities between Black and white Americans? You bet.

Am I disgusted by white “Christian” nationalists who corrupt the teachings of Christianity. You bet.

Am I sick of watching MAGA Republicans (and Republicans who acquiesce to their demands) slashs social safety nets that support seniors, children, persons with disabilities, low-mand middle-income Americans, undocumented immigrants, and women. You bet.

Am I tired of white conservatives yelling, “reverse racism” when Black organizations provide venture capital or seed funding for Black-owned or women-owned businesses? You bet.

Am I appalled by the possibility of ending birthright citizenship? You bet.

“Sick and tired.”

If anyone had cause to give up the fight for justice, it was Fannie Lou Hamer. a powerful advocate for civil and voting rights, born in the Deep South (in Mississippi), and most remembered for her quote,“I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

The child of sharecroppers, Hamer grew up in poverty, picked cotton as a child, and later worked as timekeeper on a plantation.

Biographical notes at the National Women’s History Museum (NWHM) website state, “In 1961, Hamer received a hysterectomy by a white doctor without her consent while undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor. Such forced sterilization of Black women… to reduce the Black population, was so widespread it was dubbed a “Mississippi appendectomy.”

Hamer eventually joined the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and once led 17 Black citizens to the Indianola Courthouse to register for voting. “Denied the right to vote due to an unfair literacy test, the group was harassed on their way home, when police stopped their bus and fined them $100 for the trumped-up charge that the bus was too yellow.”

That night, Hamer was fired for attempting to vote.

One year later, after completing a voter registration program in South Carolina, Hamer and several other Black women were arrested for sitting in a “whites-only” bus station restaurant in Winona, Mississippi. While in custody, she and several of the women were brutally beaten.

For the duration of her life, Hamer endured the lifelong effects of a blood clot in her eye, kidney damage, and leg damage.

Undeterred, Hamer continued to advocate and fight for voting rights and workers’ rights.

She founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and was an organizer of the National Women’s Political Caucus; launched the Freedom Farm Cooperative, which bought up 640 acres of land that Black farmers could own and farm collectively.

 Am I too tired?

In the face of the Trump administration’s multi-pronged attacks on our civil liberties, federal aid programs, and federal agencies (i.e., Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency), I wonder, “Can I afford to become so tired that I surrender to apathy, disillusionment, or inaction?”

My answer is “No.”

I owe it to two generations--my ancestors who survived (and in some cases thrived) despite the horrors of the Atlantic crossing, dehumanization under chattel slavery, and violence under Jim Crow laws, as well as future generations who could grow up in a less safe, more dictatorial, and impoverished nation because I chose not to fight.

In the face of the arrests of Democratic elected officials, the administration’s legal actions against perceived enemies in media, and the firing of Black leaders in government, I understand those who feel, “Nothing I do matters?” or “I vote (protest) but nothing changes.” or “Black people are tired.”

It sure as hell is maddening to see the so-called “woke” initiatives, programs or curricula banned.

It is scary to see the National Guard and Marines on the streets of Los Angeles, sent to control mostly peaceful protestors (deemed “insurrectionists” or “paid agitators” by the administration) for protesting ICE arrests at car washes, schools, churches, and immigration courts.

The phrase, “Evil flourishes when good men (or women and politicians) do nothing.” is certainly apropos in the current political climate.

Doing nothing, however, is not an option.

Take a break. Turn off the news. Get mad.

Then get back in the fight. Your country needs you.

 © 2025 wistajohnson.com (Reprint by permission only.) Photo by samuel tsageye @unsplash.com