GREENSBORO – On October 19, many Vermonters stood up for democracy by attending No Kings Day 2 rallies, a reminder that freedom isn’t self-sustaining, as if we needed reminding these days.
Democracy, like faith, depends on ordinary people who care deeply about one another and about the common good; people who keep showing up, speaking up and tending to one another’s well-being.
When poet Gwendolyn Brooks wrote her poem ”Paul Robeson” in 1970, she was honoring a man who embodied both courage and compassion. Robeson was one of the most accomplished Americans of the twentieth century. He was a concert artist, stage actor, scholar, athlete and advocate.
The son of a formerly enslaved man, Robeson rose from humble beginnings to global fame. His deep, resonant voice could make a concert hall fall silent. He starred in ”Othello” and ”Show Boat” and filled audiences around the world.
But Robeson believed his gifts came with responsibility. He refused to separate art from justice, speaking out against racism, colonialism and war. For that, during the McCarthy era, he was punished: his passport revoked, his concerts canceled, his voice nearly silenced. Still, he refused to stop speaking the truth. Brooks saw in him not just talent but moral strength; a life lived for others, with courage joined to compassion.
She wrote:
“We are each other’s harvest;
we are each other’s business;
we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”
Brooks’ words ring especially true in this harvest season. The fields around us are nearly empty now. The last pumpkins and apples gathered, the corn stubble pale in the slanting light. Farmers and gardeners are storing what remains, giving thanks for the bounty while preparing for the long winter ahead. In earlier times, harvest wasn’t just about food; it was about survival. Neighbors worked side by side to bring in the crops, to make sure no one faced the cold months alone. That, too, is democracy at work: a community taking care of its own.
I see that same spirit at the Hardwick Area Food Pantry.
Every week, the pantry serves people doing their best to hold things together: families living in cars, elders stretching meals, working parents who never imagined they would need this kind of help. I see struggle there, but also resilience and generosity; volunteers who show up faithfully, neighbors who bring in produce from their gardens and people who share recipes, stories and sometimes even hope.
Lately, the pantry has been under growing pressure as federal SNAP benefits, the food support program that allows many of our neighbors to buy groceries, are threatened.
When those benefits shrink, more families turn to community pantries to fill the gap. It’s a heavy lift, and yet it’s holy work: democracy with its sleeves rolled up.
Faith, at its best, is what happens when truth and compassion take on hands and feet, when someone dares to name what’s wrong, and someone else quietly shows up to help.
This is what Brooks meant. We are each other’s harvest.
Truth-telling and compassion in action are the twin labors that keep both faith and democracy alive. They remind us that love is not an idea but a practice, lived out in marches and in food lines, in words of courage and in acts of care.
It isn’t grand or finished work.
It’s daily, imperfect, hopeful work, the kind that calls us back, again and again, to one another.
Because when one of us names the truth, another finds courage.
When one of us extends a hand, another gathers strength.
And when we remember that we belong to one another, the world leans, just a little, toward healing.
Reverend Sarah Lammert is the founder of Shared Vision Consulting in Vermont and works as the Federal Chaplaincies Endorser for the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Reverend Sarah Lammert
Reverend Sarah Lammert is the founder of Shared Vision Consulting in Vermont and works as the Federal Chaplaincies Endorser for the Unitarian Universalist Association.
