What is Your Business Today? What is PDA’s Business today? Who are We Now?

“Business!” cried the Ghost wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water and the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

– The ghost of Jacob Marley from Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol”

Many who follow PDA’s work over these past 20 years celebrate Christmas today, and many celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah today. And there are also so many who follow other faith traditions or for whom this season is winter and not a holiday. Some take this season to reflect on the year about to pass into history, and many start looking to the new year about to dawn. Together, we respect one another’s individual traditions and beliefs, and we build a powerful, compassionate, and committed group of advocates and activists – shoulder to shoulder.

When we look at the work we surely face ahead, we must first recommit to one another that the common welfare is our business – charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence. If we are to win more progressive victories and truly change the direction of this nation on the edge of chaos at times, our charity and our mercy cannot apply only to those with whom we agree. We do not forget the lessons of our past; we do not limit our aspirations for the future.

Making sense of the unfolding upheaval in our nation’s federal government will keep sociologists, statisticians, political scientists, pundits, and historians busy for a very long time. We take our commitment to peace and social justice as our business. To be a progressive is not blind adherence to a single person or ideology. To be a progressive is to make progress for and with one another toward improving the common welfare. A progressive policy is one that advances charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence.

So, what is our business today? On Christmas Day? As Hanukkah begins? Just days after the Winter Solstice? Today, dear Progressive Democrats of America, our business is (wo)mankind. Together, we can face the inhumanity we see all around us with much more impact than any one of us might do alone. That’s why PDA exists.

Please take a moment to express your solidarity with the business of this world that we all share together – wrap your arms around someone who needs it, educate someone who doesn’t understand what to do, comfort a hurting fellow human, reassure someone who is worried about the future, celebrate with those you love, and give to PDA with the knowledge that though we may be a long physical distance from one another, we are family, and we wish you peace.

Peace and power—together,

Donna Smith for the PDA National Team