Revolution #58, August 27, 2006
Perseverance, and Inspiration: A Special Roster of Remembrance and Honor
The following message was read at Susan’s memorial:
The Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Bob Avakian, wishes to convey his sense of great loss at the death of Susan Sheppard, and has asked that his heartfelt condolences be conveyed to Susan’s family, friends, and comrades. He has also requested that Susan be entered in a special roster of remembrance and honor, to be initiated on this occasion, with the designation "Perseverance, and Inspiration," which is the title of the final chapter of Bob Avakian's Memoir, and was one of Susan’s favorite parts of this Memoir.
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Along with this message, one of Susan’s favorite excerpts from Bob Avakian’s memoir, From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist, was read at the memorial:
“When I look at all this, I think again of my friend who decided to dedicate his life to ending cancer—and of the even greater need to put an end to the system of capitalism-imperialism and all the suffering and oppression this system embodies and enforces throughout the world. You see that there isn’t anything more important that your life could be about, and whatever you end up contributing during the course of your lifetime is the most important and the most uplifting thing that you could possibly do. And yes, there are moments of great disappointment, but also moments of great joy as part of this. There is the joy that comes from seeing the ways in which people break free of constraints and rise up and begin to see the world as it really is and take up more consciously the struggle to change it. There is the joy of knowing that you are part of this whole process and contributing what you can to it. There is the joy of the camaraderie of being together with others in this struggle and knowing that it is something worthwhile, that it is not something petty and narrow that you are involved in but something uplifting. There is the joy of looking to the future and envisioning the goal that you are struggling for and seeing people come to even a beginning understanding of what that could mean, not just for themselves but for society, for humanity as a whole.”
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