"I know that what I'm asking is impossible. But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is least that one can demand—and one is, after all, emboldened by the spectacle of human history in general, and American Negro history in particular, for it testifies to nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible." 

James Baldwin

I'm reposting this quote from an earlier blog as it becomes more apparent each day that this country (and perhaps the world) is in  the grips of madness.  I say this after listening to newscasts this morning about children being separated from their parents who are seeking asylum in this country.  Small children from 'darker' countries being ripped out of their parents arms and deposited in 'facilities' in Chicago for months for no reason other than the so-called DOJ wants to discourage brown people from emigrating to the US.

I am on the verge of a rant so won't go on because this is stuff we already know.  It's hard to imagine what Jimmy would have made of this kind of bahaviour from leadership in Washington.  Actually not impossible to imagine.  In 1963, when the Black Civil Rights Movement was at its fragile height Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry and other 'celebrities' went to meet with Attorney General Robert Kennedy in Washington to talk about where the administration was going to proceed on the treatment of African Americans.

I don't want to deify RFK, he did some pretty terrible things as did most of the Kennedy family. (I'm a Bostonian so feel slightly disloyal even now saying that)   But compared to our current Attorney General he looks like a cross between  (fill in some saints!).  As we commemorate the 50th anniversary RFK's assassination and (this is the sad part) the abrupt cutting off of his evolution as a political thinker it's valuable to remember the reasons that the 1960s exuded a sense of possibility.  Many activists of all stripes and positions worked together and didn't imagine failure. RFK was on the road from being simply brother of the president to emerging as an actual activist for human rights.

Despite the despicable nature of the current administration in Washington, the cowardice of the elected officials who stand by and watch our government institutions be dismantled and the dangerous fears of those who support them (say what you want: I love the term 'basket of deplorables')  we have to believe as Baldwin did--we can achieve the impossible.  

If I didn't believe we can achieve the impossible I wouldn't be able to write everyday; then ask others to support that writing by performing and by producing and buying tickets.  Each step is toward achieving the impossible.

See you at the theatre in July  www.tososnyc.org