What if…

What if… What if we’d dared to defend what we already had? What if we’d dared to stand up for what we’d already fought for, what we’d already touched? What good were all the blows received by so many, the persecution, the incarceration of honourable people? Do those that ordered us to surrender before engaging really value us so little? Do they really take us for such cowards?

What about them? Would they have been bold enough to reveal to what degree their souls are tainted by fascism? Would they have taken their brutality so far? What we saw at the entrance to the polling stations was the unnecessary cruelty of those who enjoy transforming their hate into ferocity. It wasn’t just orders, it was the malice of despots, it was a desire to teach us using the lash.

But… would they have been capable of shooting? Is it true what they say, that they would’ve dared to kill? To kill how many? All of us? Would they have taken the argument “I killed her because she was mine” so far?

There are no comfortable revolutions. There are no struggles without sacrifice. Who was ready to make sacrifices for our emancipation as a people and as a society?

Who was afraid? If we’d been told to go and earn our freedom, many of us would’ve gone. I would’ve gone. I swear.

But we were told to stay at home, to let it be; it was too complicated, why get into trouble? We were well enough as we were.

Why didn’t we dare to win?