Radical Egalitarians Unite

Dear reader,

Unless you are Rumpelstiltskin in hibernation phase, you may have noticed lately that the political cybersphere is saturated with many varieties of disheartening rhetoric ahead of the elections in Israel/Palestine (where I live) and coming soon in the US (where I grew up).

I thought now might be a good time to post something aspirational here, so that people who envision a different kind of shared future for us all don’t have to feel so alone.

New Egalitarians, pasted below, is a short poem I wrote a decade ago – you can also see it online here. You might find it comforting.

If the poem resonates for you, I earnestly invite you to declaim it in front of a microphone anywhere you please. Put it on social media, take it to an open mic night, make some artwork with it, set it to music – share it around. Make it yours and mine, together.

You and I can’t be the only ones yearning deeply for a different path. Let’s renew our search for allies, share our energy, and help one another stay true to our convictions.

And if you find someone in your area running for political office who you think might have similar values in their heart, then by all means campaign for them and vote for them. Opportunism, fear and greed, with too many of us too often ignoring our better angels, is what got us to where we are now. Maybe aspirational solidarity writ large can help us shift the paradigm. Let’s find out.

New Egalitarians

I’m founding a movement
a global movement
for radical egalitarians

are you one?

then come on and join us
everyone is welcome
everyone is equal
come as you are
leave your bias at home

don’t come and tell me
how your culture says
women have to obey
or who we can and can’t love
or what skin color is better
or what kind of god is higher
who is in or who is out
who slave and who free

no

all are free or none are free
no one can bestow freedom, we are born free
they can only deny us its exercise
temporarily

no cannon fodder
no prison fodder
no degradation disguised as liberation

and please don’t come and tell me
about one state or two
about two states or three
consociational federation
regional confederation
occupation partition rendition
don’t you be caught in these
cobwebs of the imagination

it’s not about the trappings
of power; just sidestep the traps
laid by the powerful
states are an illusion anyhow
boundaries are barbed wire in our minds
that’s all they are

so if you are a global soul
come on and join us
just as you are
and sing with us
in harmony, sing
justice, justice,
one justice for all
with love in our hearts
for every other being.

–Deb Reich, 2026