How did this get started?
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Over the last few months, I’ve been talking to people about Social Justice Camp, and almost every person I talk to asks me, “How did this get started?”
For me, I can think back to several moments and experiences where I could say Social Justice Camp has its origins. Usually I tell people that a few of us had a conversation one night in July or August, and that’s how it got started.
Sometimes when I’m talking about what has led me to working on SoJuCa, I tell people a story about commuting an hour to and from work for my old job last year in Texas. I tell people that I found myself in my car thinking, “If my life doesn’t get more interesting soon, I’m going to die!” And then people usually laugh louder than I would expect. I’ve started telling this story more as I’ve discovered how much it makes people laugh. I think people relate to that feeling of being disinterested in how mundane life can be sometimes. I felt alone in my discontent, but lately, I’ve been meeting people who seem to want life to be as interesting as I want it to be. In one sense, I can see Social Justice Camp sprouting its roots in that moment of traffic and discontent.
Another time I was listening to Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” He sang, “All I ever had, redemption songs. All I ever had, these songs of freedom.” Knowing his life and his history, I thought about what redemption and freedom meant to him. Then I thought of Saint Paul and his words, “I have one message–Christ crucified.” I thought about lives with something to say, these messages that come down to one word. I asked myself what one word would express my intention, my desire. Relief. I want to bring relief to people who are suffering. I want to ease the burden, lift some of the weight. I can see Social Justice Camp sprouting its roots in that moment of definition.
Before I moved to DC, I was part of a Social Justice Task Force in Fort Worth, Texas. I can see Social Justice Camp as having some roots in that group too.
Since people were asking me so frequently about the origins of Social Justice Camp, I started asking the other organizers how they answer that question. For whatever reason, it seems that no one else gets asked that question. But I asked them anyway how they would answer it. I wasn’t surprised to hear that everyone has different experiences of how SoJuCa came to be.
In the same way that Social Justice Camp began for different people in different ways, in the same way that it hasn’t had a clear beginning, I hope that it will continue on in different ways for different people. I hope that it won’t end at 5:00 on Saturday, January 16.
~ @ksshew
Social Justice Camp DC Organizer
