An IdeA oF mIGRATION---fIND a Good And Hopeful pLACE To Exert INFLUENCE WHEN Many Decent People HAVE BEEN eDGED OUT Of POSITIONS of Authority

A few days ago I referenced on the blog that I'd had my first St. Patrick's Day green beer while reading The Making of African America--The Four Great Migrations by Ira Berlin.

From the New York Times review of the book-- "Berlin builds this new narrative around four massive migrations: the horrific trans-Atlantic passage that brought slavery to North America in the 17th and 18th centuries; the forced movement of a million slaves from the East Coast to the inland South’s cotton kingdom in the early 1800s; the Great Migration of six million African-Americans from the South to the urban North in the first half of the 20th century; and the current influx of immigrants from Africa, South America and the Caribbean..."

Africans who came on the slave ships, Black Americans taking part in internal migrations, and in recent years increasing numbers of Black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, have come to America or moved within America out of compulsion or by choice.

Thinking about this on my first day of spring walk yesterday, I had the thought below about a different concept of migration.   

Migration can be a mental process. For example, individuals & groups seeking to influence the course & tone of society are compelled to find a hopeful and imaginative  place outside traditional power, when on both sides of the aisle and in our failing institutions, positions of authority & connectedness are held by the worst & most self-interested folks.

We can make progress on our own terms and in a hopeful and imaginative way.

Here are some ideas and thoughts about everyday resistance in our often sick society and culture.   

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