“You know what's real when you're out on the streets” –Why Steve Bernhaut marches
Steve Bernaut holding a ‘Justice for Heather Heyer Peter at a past People’s Organization for Progress (P.O.P) rally. (Photo courtesy of Ingrid Hill)
MAPLEWOOD, NJ—Steve Bernhaut grew up in a conservative Jewish home that nurtured a worldview centered on the holocaust. As a young man navigating his way to a more just world, Bernhaut was inspired by the work of Ploughshares in the anti-nuclear movement and Jonah House on their grounding in non-violence. This framework would linger until he was exposed to the expanded political education from World Broadcast Associates, Inc. (WBAI), where he says he earned his "master's in social justice" that served to develop his political consciousness. The radio station was an advanced political class that exposed Bernhaut to "a lot of structural inequalities and injustices in this country and what was perpetrated around the world.”It was then that he decided to put on his action boots and march.
What was he seeking, and what did he find? The streets gave him camaraderie with like-minded fighters in the struggle against capitalism and oppression.
The road eventually led him to a fateful meeting with Lawrence Hamm, chairman of the People's Organization (P.O.P), some seven-plus years ago. He discovered P.O.P's work on WBAI programming years before he joined. P.O.P provides a rigorous educational framework and offers its members and the community "a more informed and more engaged [platform] rather than just going out and marching". He says he needs to be on the streets to feel like change is possible.
"If I got my master's in social justice from WBAI, then I got my PhD [in] social justice from out on the street because however the media portrays it, you know what's real when you're out on the streets," he said. "Otherwise, you're just living in this media environment; you have no idea what's really going on."
Ahead of the Apr. 4, 'Millions People's March for Voting Rights, Equality, and Democracy,' he hopes it will get the attention of enough people to push politicians to get to work because there is so much wrong and so much to remedy. "The brutal reality of being in P.O.P is to hear the stories of what elders have fought for 40, 50, 60 years ago, and to realize that we are fighting for the exact same things today. The hope is by being in the street that we can once again get on top of trying to make more permanent changes to live in a democracy," he said.
Bernhaut would like to see young people out on April 4 Million People's March and every protest rally. He's concerned that the younger generation doesn't get the urgency to take to the streets to protest what prior generations have done to the world. He's doing his part to get his nieces and nephews involved. He thinks it's crucial for them to protest to stop the destruction of their future. "It's vitally important that young people are out there, and we've got to make the best of what we've left them and they got to start [marching] now," he said
