Finding Power in Community

By Shawn Phillips, West Virginia Citizen Action Group Community Organizer

There is a feeling that can only be felt standing together in a large group. Call it collectivism, community, magic, it’s all the same. That feeling is rooted in power. The power that we are all here together on the same side experiencing the same thing. The opportunities to stand in power with a group are unfortunately increasing, as national days of action call for rapid response to the authoritarian regime at a nearly weekly rate. 

Recently I was asked to speak at the Free America Walkout Rally hosted by United West Virginia at the State Capitol. Something happened there that’s never happened to me before. I took the mic and became emotional, choking my way through my speech as tears froze to my face in the sub freezing temperatures. Since the rally, I keep coming back to that moment, standing there, looking out, the overwhelming emotions and feeling the power in community.

This is a time of unrest, and uncertainty and I could feel just how much we all needed to come together. I asked everyone to look around at who was there—friends and loved ones, people we recognize from showing up to the same spaces: protests, inside the Capitol, or Taylor Books. I asked people to wave, to take a moment to introduce themselves if they didn’t know each other’s names, and to get to know each other.

Because the message was plain: this is community.

And as I said it, it hit me even harder that community doesn’t start and stop there. In fact, I don’t think it can stop there. Why? There is power in community. True power. Power to change election outcomes, power to feed our hungry neighbors, power to bring about REAL change.

That’s what I wanted to leave people with, not just the feeling of being together for a moment, but the push to expand, to continue to build our communities, build our networks, to find common ground and work together to effect change. Power comes from organized people.

That’s not just community. That’s community organizing.

Organizing can happen anywhere, at any time, and anyone can be a community organizer. All it takes is a simple conversation to get started. Have a conversation. Get to know your neighbors. Make a friend and make a plan.

Things are dark, and I suspect they will get darker. But grounded in community, we’ll get through the dark times together.