We speak of the people
We speak of the people
who live in this land,
people who love nature’s freedom
and beauty,
who are alive with song
and poetry.
But many of these people are also poor
and suffer oppression.
The poor of our land
have been wounded,
but they are not crushed.
The Spirit still lives.
Their struggles and their poetry
together keep alive
a dream
a tradition
a longing
a promise
which is not just their dream,
but the voiceless vision
buried beneath life’s bitterness
wherever it is found.
They sing of a life
free and simple,
with time for one another,
and for people’s needs,
based on the dignity of the human person,
at one with nature’s beauty,
crowned by poetry.
If that dream dies,
all our struggles
die with it.
This struggle of resistance
is a struggle against violence—
against institutional violence
which sometimes subtly,
sometimes brutally,
attacks human dignity and life.
At stake is the spirit
of all our humanity.
—Pastoral Letter, Catholic Bishops of Appalachia