Passion Is Not a Strategy

George Bukenya

As we close out the year, I find myself reflecting not only on what has passed but on what lies ahead. For me, 2025 has been a year of preparation—an often-overlooked yet essential phase of personal and collective development. Preparation is more than defining a craft or aligning around a cause; it requires grappling with the historical forces that shaped it and examining how those lessons speak to the challenges before us now. That grounding is not optional. It must be the starting point of any serious effort to bring about lasting change, whether we seek to improve ourselves or strengthen our communities. History reminds us that meaningful change has never emerged fully formed—it has always been built.

Amid the many challenges we face today—economic inequality, racial discrimination, disenfranchisement, instability in our job market, and concerns about the quality of our educational system—we cannot afford to rush past the work required to confront them effectively. Throughout history, movements such as labor organizing, the women’s movement, and the civil rights movement have often been reduced to short chapters or brief summaries. What is too easily forgotten is that these turning points were built through months, and usually years, of deliberate preparation. What history captures in a few pages was forged through daily effort, incremental progress, inevitable setbacks, and a relentless commitment to a shared vision. Our responsibility is not merely to honor these movements, but to study how they prepared, organized, and adapted—so we can apply those lessons to today’s realities and build a stronger future. The lesson is not abstract—it is urgently relevant to the conditions we are facing right now.

Many of us are living with the weight of pressing, real struggles—economic insecurity, unequal treatment, unstable employment, and a growing sense that our institutions are not meeting the moment. These conditions demand urgency. They require persistence, resolve, and a willingness to stay engaged even when progress feels slow. But urgency without discipline can weaken the very change we seek. Meaningful progress does not fail because people lack passion; it fails when action outruns strategy. The stakes are too high for that. The change we are working toward will come—but only if we pursue it with clarity, coordination, and sustained resolve. If urgency explains why we must act, strategy determines how we move forward.

No single person or group holds a monopoly on truth or perspective. Progress depends on our ability to engage across differences while remaining anchored in the shared challenges we seek to solve. If we seek greater economic opportunity, we must examine which policies can be strengthened and which new ones must be responsibly advanced to benefit the broader community. If we want safer neighborhoods, we must be willing to work directly with law enforcement, community leaders, young people, elders, and newcomers to improve both security and trust. And if we want more jobs, we must actively support local businesses that grow alongside the communities they serve. This is how neighborhoods, cities, and states move forward—not through division, but through cooperation, shared responsibility, and sustained investment in one another. Still, no system moves forward without the moral courage of ordinary people.

Time and again, we see ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things—pushing for meaningful improvements in the lives of those who too often carry the heaviest burdens. Progress takes root when the most vulnerable among us are not overlooked. As Eugene V. Debs once observed, “While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” Our responsibility, as members of this community, is to recognize ourselves in one another and to ask a more demanding question: Who am I willing to stand with when it costs me something? Responsibility, once identified, demands action.

As we look ahead to 2026, we must resist the temptation to let urgency eclipse discipline. The work before us demands sustained effort, coordination, and resolve. This is the moment to take what we have prepared—what we have examined, tested, and committed to—and translate it into action through thoughtful advocacy and collective engagement. When communities move with focus and purpose, they are not weak or tentative—they are powerful. And through that shared strength, we can pursue a future in which dignity and opportunity are not privileges for the few, but realities secured for all.

Disclaimer: This piece was written by me, but is hosted on a website that I do not own or manage