Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl, Danielle Moody recording from the home Bunker. Oh, folks,
Speaker 1: there are just more reports, more reports on top of
Speaker 1: reports that come out to tell us the lengths that
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, the Trump attorneys, the Trump sycophants, the bought
Speaker 1: and sold members of Congress were planning to go to
Speaker 1: in order to hold onto power. Talking Points Memos has
Speaker 1: in depth reporting this week on all of the ways
Speaker 1: that Kenneth chesbro, John Eastman, and the other Trump attorneys
Speaker 1: were concocting their plan to have January six not just
Speaker 1: be a day, but weeks in order to stop Joe
Speaker 1: Biden from becoming president and stop the peaceful transfer of
Speaker 1: power that we've had in this country up until January sixth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. I'm so fucking tired. I got to
Speaker 1: tell you of all of these reports, not because they're
Speaker 1: not necessary, but because Donald Trump should be in prison
Speaker 1: and should have been in prison, and all you continue
Speaker 1: to see as these cases get stalled with their appeals
Speaker 1: and kicked up to the Supreme Court, for the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court to pretend that like they've never read the Constitution before,
Speaker 1: and that, oh, well, what is an insurrection? And have
Speaker 1: never read a dictionary? And then you see right right
Speaker 1: out in the open, how Donald Trump's attorneys and Donald
Speaker 1: Trump and all of these members of Congress that voted
Speaker 1: to decertify the votes of millions of Americans, what their
Speaker 1: plans were. How is it that Merrick Garland only went
Speaker 1: after the fucking people with boots on the ground. How
Speaker 1: is it that it took all of this time to
Speaker 1: go after some of the architects, and Merrick Garland waited
Speaker 1: to let the State of Georgia do that. I just like,
Speaker 1: I'm so fucking over everything. And I know, folks like
Speaker 1: I know, I know that we go back and forth.
Speaker 1: In some weeks I have more energy and you know,
Speaker 1: more or fire in me than other weeks. And this
Speaker 1: today is just not one of those days. Our justice
Speaker 1: system is such a fucking setup. It's a set up
Speaker 1: for rich white men to do whatever the fuck they want,
Speaker 1: and their friends in power pat them on the back
Speaker 1: and just sweep their shit under the rug. And with
Speaker 1: the rest of us, those boulders of shit just roll
Speaker 1: downhill and crush us. The amount of leeway, the amount
Speaker 1: of rope, these fucking people are given the amount of consideration.
Speaker 1: You know, I found myself the other day I was
Speaker 1: watching this is to show you how fucking sick and
Speaker 1: tired I am. I was watching an episode, an old
Speaker 1: episode of Law and Order, uh, one of those you
Speaker 1: know stations that marathon them, which is like every station,
Speaker 1: and I had to turn one of the episodes off
Speaker 1: because a man, a white man, businessman, was being interviewed
Speaker 1: by the cops in his office and he clearly did
Speaker 1: illegal shit by moving you know, this woman's belongings from
Speaker 1: an apartment that she would later be found to be
Speaker 1: murdered in, and the cops are just given this dude,
Speaker 1: like just the benefit of the doubt after benefit of
Speaker 1: the doubt, after benefit of the doubt, that I got
Speaker 1: so fucking enraged I have to change the channel because
Speaker 1: while sure Law and Order is fiction, right, it's really not.
Speaker 1: You see the way those cops will throw up a
Speaker 1: black person, h LATINX person against the car, beat the
Speaker 1: shit out of them, and then the white businessman that
Speaker 1: has always found to have been the murderer or the rapist.
Speaker 1: They're given more benefits of the of the doubt than
Speaker 1: like I even believe exist and that's how our justice
Speaker 1: system works. Right, life imitating art, are imitating life, like,
Speaker 1: this is how our justice system works. This is who
Speaker 1: it was set up for. So how many detailed reports,
Speaker 1: how many interviews need to be conducted to know, good
Speaker 1: goddamn well, the amount of harm that these people have
Speaker 1: placed on our democracy, on our election system, on our agencies.
Speaker 1: And they were all walking around free. What the fuck
Speaker 1: isn't Steve Bannon in jail? Right? Roger Stone, who was
Speaker 1: you know, pardoned by Donald Trump but we know was
Speaker 1: wrapped up in other shit but not charged again. Oh,
Speaker 1: because we don't want to seem political. Everything that these
Speaker 1: people have done has been an assault. They are fucking terrorists,
Speaker 1: but we don't treat them like that because they carry
Speaker 1: briefcases and wear suits. We don't even have laws on
Speaker 1: the books to deal with domestic terrorists because it's only
Speaker 1: the black and brown people that we can see as terrorists.
Speaker 1: And I would argue that more harm has been done
Speaker 1: over the last fucking nine years at the hands of
Speaker 1: these white men than have ever been done at the
Speaker 1: hands of foreign adversaries. And I include in that the
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of deaths that were caused via their
Speaker 1: ignorance around COVID, but we don't talk about any of
Speaker 1: that benefit of the doubt, benefit of the doubt. It's
Speaker 1: just so fucking sickening. And that's why, folks, it's so
Speaker 1: incredibly important. Whenever I get the opportunity to sit down
Speaker 1: with people that are doing good work, local work to
Speaker 1: try and fix what is in front of them. Those
Speaker 1: are the conversations that give me hope. Those are the
Speaker 1: conversations that make me realize that sometimes I need to
Speaker 1: pull back from the national discourse and see what real
Speaker 1: people are doing as they are rolling up their sleeves
Speaker 1: trying to change their states bit by bit. And so
Speaker 1: we're continuing with our Queer the Vote series where I
Speaker 1: had conversations at the Creating Change conference down in New
Speaker 1: Orleans last month, and I'm bringing these conversations to you
Speaker 1: now of queer folks that are working in battleground states
Speaker 1: to get as many people out to vote as possible,
Speaker 1: knowing that they are in some of the most hostile
Speaker 1: environments in Florida, in Ohio. And so these are people
Speaker 1: that I have to remember are doing the work, aren't
Speaker 1: paying attention to all that is wrong, so that they
Speaker 1: become paralyzed in their hopelessness. They do what they can
Speaker 1: where they can, and that is just a consistent reminder
Speaker 1: that I need. Coming up next to my conversation with
Speaker 1: Sarah Parker, one of those brilliant advocates and activists that
Speaker 1: are working in battleground states to make this country their
Speaker 1: state safe for LGBTQ folks, folks. I am very happy
Speaker 1: to be joined as I'm doing these fantastic interviews at
Speaker 1: the Creating Change conference in New Orleans with Sarah Parker,
Speaker 1: who is the executive director of Women's Voices of Southwest Florida. Sarah,
Speaker 1: tell me a bit about Women's Voices, about your organization
Speaker 1: and the work that you all are doing in Southwest Florida.
Speaker 2: Awesome. So honestly, her name started because it was me
Speaker 2: and my best friend and it would happen in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one when an abortion band was brought to u
Speaker 2: Maanite County which has now abortion clinics, which would have
Speaker 2: been a six week abortion ban county wide, and we
Speaker 2: fought that and we want and eventually we spread out.
Speaker 2: We have non binary and we have sis people, we
Speaker 2: have trans people. It's it's amazing how many different queer
Speaker 2: people we have now, so our name is kind of
Speaker 2: like a lead off, so we are a Fabulis four.
Speaker 2: We currently are in Tallahassee working and fighting against a
Speaker 2: lot of legislation that's happening in Florida. As we all know,
Speaker 2: Florida is kind of a shit show, and we are
Speaker 2: seeing we're seeing them do the worst every year. They
Speaker 2: are consistently attacking us, and we are now on the grounds,
Speaker 2: you know, testifying against it and hoping that you know,
Speaker 2: they find it hard.
Speaker 1: I often stay on this show and just in life,
Speaker 1: it's hard to shame the devil, right, And I believe
Speaker 1: that Ron DeSantis is, you know, one of the most
Speaker 1: soulless people I think that I've ever seen be in
Speaker 1: office in modern in in modern times. And he has
Speaker 1: done everything from in your state from ban African American history,
Speaker 1: ban books, ban the dictionary. Recently talk to us about
Speaker 1: what it's like just from your perspective living in this state.
Speaker 1: Because I think that for people who listen to my show,
Speaker 1: watch the news, they see the headlines right and they're
Speaker 1: lega I'm safe in my blue bubble. I want people
Speaker 1: to understand that what is being tested out and being
Speaker 1: done in Florida can be nationalized if we're not vigilant.
Speaker 1: So just give us a picture of what it is
Speaker 1: like to be queer and be in Florida.
Speaker 2: So being in Florida is it's a lot. First off, right,
Speaker 2: we have children that cannot read. I'm gonna talk about
Speaker 2: being black first because you know that is how I
Speaker 2: identify as a black woman. We have children that cannot read.
Speaker 2: So to see them go and ban books and and
Speaker 2: banned black history, our organization has stepped up and we
Speaker 2: work together with the pastor and we go in and
Speaker 2: teach these black children about their history. We teach them
Speaker 2: how to read. Because no one is focused on that.
Speaker 2: We're seeing school boards have culture wars. We know we
Speaker 2: hear a lot about Rond de Santis, but we don't
Speaker 2: hear a lot about the legislators that are doing the
Speaker 2: dirty work behind the scenes. Like, for instance, we have
Speaker 2: a representative, Webster Barnaby, which is also a black man,
Speaker 2: and he is leading the fight to put Confederate statues
Speaker 2: back up, a fight that in which that we have
Speaker 2: all worked very hard to take down to keep down
Speaker 2: a women's voices, specifically worked in Manatee County with Republicans
Speaker 2: to keep a Confederate statue from going back up after
Speaker 2: we got it down. We look at that, we look
Speaker 2: at the abortion bind The black maternal mortality rate in
Speaker 2: Florida is disgusting and we should be focused on that.
Speaker 2: But they're using the talking point of saving black babies
Speaker 2: but not having the real conversation that they don't care
Speaker 2: about black women or black people. Then patients that can
Speaker 2: get pregnant. Living in Florida is a lot. But you
Speaker 2: know what, I love Florida. I'm gonna say that very confidently.
Speaker 2: That is my place, that is my that is my town.
Speaker 2: I chose Florida. I was not born there, and I
Speaker 2: choose to stay because Florida has fight. Like people are
Speaker 2: on the ground consistently working behind the scenes, like us
Speaker 2: doing tutoring and us talking about like activists such as
Speaker 2: Stokely Carmichael and Angela Davis, to these black young kids,
Speaker 2: you know, sitting in a room with them, you know
Speaker 2: they're from a poor area and I live in that
Speaker 2: poor area. Sitting in a room with them and realizing
Speaker 2: they didn't know really what the underground railroad was really
Speaker 2: first off, made me thankful for my family teaching me
Speaker 2: my history. But sitting in the room with them and
Speaker 2: then sitting in Tallahassee, like it kind of takes you
Speaker 2: aback because there are things that we know that everyone
Speaker 2: would care about. We want all children to read. It
Speaker 2: doesn't matter what color. We want all children to know
Speaker 2: their history, being negative or positive, we need that. We
Speaker 2: want children to be accepted and loved. And as far
Speaker 2: as the queer bills, you know, we're facing a bill
Speaker 2: right now that is going to literally take the identity
Speaker 2: of trans people. We're facing a social media band for
Speaker 2: minors and these so these trans and queer kids, Yeah,
Speaker 2: they have no community.
Speaker 1: M hm m hm. And I'm so glad that you
Speaker 1: said that you love Florida and you chose Florida because oftentimes,
Speaker 1: right again, for people who live in blue state, who
Speaker 1: live in progressive cities, the common reaction is just leave,
Speaker 1: right And I said, well, if everyone leaves every place
Speaker 1: that is hard, do you know what I'm saying? Then
Speaker 1: then then what do we do, right, Like we build
Speaker 1: up a fortress. Like so when people say to you
Speaker 1: will just leave or they should just leave, what is
Speaker 1: your response to that?
Speaker 2: First off, your privileged, your privilege. I have two kids
Speaker 2: I am a small nonprofit. I'm an executive director. I
Speaker 2: do all of my work into good and I don't
Speaker 2: make a lot right. I can't just up and uphand
Speaker 2: my children, one of my children. That is that's special
Speaker 2: needs privilege. To be able to say that you just
Speaker 2: up and leave from your place, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: That's bizarre to me. And it's also like, just say
Speaker 2: you want segregation. Just say that, because if we were
Speaker 2: to up and leave, this whole place would turn completely red.
Speaker 2: There would be no fight, no resistance unless I detect again,
Speaker 2: my ancestors fought and still stayed in the South after
Speaker 2: we fought. What are this playbook that they're doing has
Speaker 2: already been played, and I don't understand why we keep
Speaker 2: trying to either recreate the wheel or disregard that playbook.
Speaker 2: I'm not giving up my space, definitely not to mostly
Speaker 2: white male legislators. I'm not letting them force me out
Speaker 2: of my home and my life and my house. And
Speaker 2: I'm gonna fight for the people that cannot leave. Look like, financially,
Speaker 2: I think it's like seventy percent live below the poverty line.
Speaker 2: Do not quote me on that, but y'all take a
Speaker 2: look at like Florida's poverty line and income level, and
Speaker 2: that's black, brown and Indigenous people. We can't just all
Speaker 2: up and leave. Ye it's not gonna you know, it's
Speaker 2: not that easy. They don't make it that easy. And
Speaker 2: it's my town. It's where I want to raise my
Speaker 2: children right now. It's where you know, I fell in love.
Speaker 2: I don't have to give that up, and I refuse to.
Speaker 2: And people need to know across the country, we have
Speaker 2: fighters on the ground, We have champions. We have champions
Speaker 2: that should be funded. I mean, we look at abortion access, okay,
Speaker 2: but the abortion access Florida is the number two in
Speaker 2: the United States of America. You have you know, we
Speaker 2: have blue states that are doing bout initiis, which is amazing,
Speaker 2: all right, but you know, but Florida is also doing
Speaker 2: their own thing and it's important to highlight that. And
Speaker 2: we're winning. So you know, I hate a lot of
Speaker 2: the time our wins are not publicized. Yea, he did not.
Speaker 2: No one ever heard about the six week abortion ban
Speaker 2: that would have been the first in the United States,
Speaker 2: brought on by Mark Lee Dixon who came from Labuck, Texas.
Speaker 2: And we all remember about the Texas abortion ban. He
Speaker 2: brought that same band to do a sanctuary county instead
Speaker 2: of city for the unborn, meaning he he was able
Speaker 2: to do the work that you do for one job
Speaker 2: and get eight cities. You don't hear that's not publicized,
Speaker 2: that we beat that back. You don't get to hear
Speaker 2: about the small wins, the resolutions that are past. You know,
Speaker 2: great things that are going on in Orlando and all
Speaker 2: these other organizations that are on the ground, from Hope
Speaker 2: to Flick, to Women's Voices, to Equality Florida to the
Speaker 2: National MUTQ Task Force. There are tons of people on
Speaker 2: the ground consistently working our assets off. So not only
Speaker 2: is it like privilege, but it is a slap in
Speaker 2: the face.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, you know, because I feel
Speaker 1: as if in many ways, the Democratic Party, the National
Speaker 1: Democratic Party, seems to go where it is easy and
Speaker 1: they seem to abandon places where it is hard. And
Speaker 1: I say this. I've said it on National I've said
Speaker 1: it on Cable News, I say it on all of
Speaker 1: my shows because I find it problematic. Why do I
Speaker 1: say this Because I look at what happened in Georgia,
Speaker 1: and I looked at the work and the fight and
Speaker 1: the decades of grassroots initiatives on the ground to turn
Speaker 1: to turn Georgia blue. They did so without the Democratic
Speaker 1: National Party. And so when you think about the resources
Speaker 1: that are needed to be put on the ground, what
Speaker 1: is it that the Democratic Party needs to be doing
Speaker 1: in the state of Florida.
Speaker 2: You know what, that's a really good question. Let's can
Speaker 2: I can I answer that in two parts? Okay, so
Speaker 2: let's talk about national You know, you don't any war
Speaker 2: that is easily won is an award to begin one.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, You're not actually fighting anything
Speaker 2: in Florida. And I'm trying to figure out how to
Speaker 2: say this in a nice, nice white way. Turning your
Speaker 2: back on your allies in the middle of a war
Speaker 2: is the truth in US. And using black people and
Speaker 2: black women and then leaving them out to dry is treacherous.
Speaker 2: It is very disheartening to know to see, you know,
Speaker 2: the National Democratic Party not take our activists up to DC,
Speaker 2: but then don't fund the small racists that are out there.
Speaker 2: That it's disheartening is that it's a it's a dog
Speaker 2: and pony show. We know what, we know that. And
Speaker 2: as a black person is black activist. That happens to
Speaker 2: a lot of us all the time. You're taking around
Speaker 2: a room smiled at and not given funding, not giving
Speaker 2: anything your you know, your white counterparts might receive maybe.
Speaker 2: And it's the thing is that it's look at the
Speaker 2: state of like, look at the look at national Okay, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we're starting to pick up on elections again and start
Speaker 2: to get some seats back. But oh, but let's look
Speaker 2: at the actual state. Nationally, we have people like Marjorie
Speaker 2: Taylor Green. We have people like Matt Gates who's gonna
Speaker 2: be running or supposedly gonna be running for govern we
Speaker 2: have people like Lauren Bobert. That's the Democratic Party's fault.
Speaker 2: That's the Democratic Party's fault. It is and y'all, And
Speaker 2: you know what, like I feel that they need to
Speaker 2: start listening and you start listening to their black constituencies
Speaker 2: and not just their black constituencies that are quote unquote
Speaker 2: on their level or in their income bracket. I'm talking
Speaker 2: about the black people that are on the ground that
Speaker 2: you're begging for their votes. One of the biggest things
Speaker 2: that you know, the Florida Democratic Party and I'm hoping
Speaker 2: that they, you know, continue to do and they need
Speaker 2: to do, is you know, engaging with people. But the
Speaker 2: BIPOC people and I've been and I don't mean engaging
Speaker 2: only when you're asking for a vote and they're trying
Speaker 2: to get a little bit better about that, but engaging.
Speaker 2: You don't ask your grandma for twenty dollars before you say, hey,
Speaker 2: how are you? You don't do that?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that was so good.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's real. And I think black and brown
Speaker 2: people understand that. You know that you become that cousin
Speaker 2: that always comes around just for something, you know, and
Speaker 2: that is how I feel like the Democratic Party does now.
Speaker 2: I will say that FDP is getting better under NICKI
Speaker 2: Free's guidance. You know, they have a lot of work
Speaker 2: to do. They have a lot of work to do,
Speaker 2: and at least it's a little bit better than last year.
Speaker 2: I hope that they really take into consideration the trans
Speaker 2: trans community, all the marginalized communities, the queer communities, the
Speaker 2: black communities, the immigrant communities, the undocumented communities. They really
Speaker 2: take into account their lives, you know, their lives that
Speaker 2: are at stake, and they take into account that we
Speaker 2: are not to be used.
Speaker 1: Last question for you Sarah Is twenty twenty four. As
Speaker 1: we're just stating, as you're just laying out the ways
Speaker 1: in which at the Democratic Party needs to not just
Speaker 1: put together a dog and pony show, needs to actually
Speaker 1: put their money where their mouth is, needs to not
Speaker 1: turn their backs on their allies. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who are looking at this election who are
Speaker 1: are saying Biden is not my guy. I may sit
Speaker 1: this one out because I need to vote my values.
Speaker 1: I am. I'm not with it. What is your response
Speaker 1: to that.
Speaker 2: My great grandmother told me recently she is not voting
Speaker 2: when she is not gonna vote for Biden. I was
Speaker 2: sitting on a panel and someone said the same thing.
Speaker 1: You know what, I.
Speaker 2: Hope that you do just realize, like I hope that
Speaker 2: people realize, like what's really at stake, And I know
Speaker 2: that we hate compromise first off, right, I personally, and
Speaker 2: I'm talking like Floridians, I don't care if you vote
Speaker 2: in the presidential election, but I'll be damned if you
Speaker 2: miss go into that ballot box like it is important.
Speaker 2: We have marijuana on the ballot, we have abortion on
Speaker 2: the ballot, and we there are amazing champions fighting on
Speaker 2: the ground literally as I speak, and committee that are
Speaker 2: gonna be on that ballot. Again, we need to make
Speaker 2: sure that we vote. And if you don't want to
Speaker 2: vote in the presidential election, I understand. I'm gonna vote.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna vote. And does that mean I'm compromising, then
Speaker 2: it call it say that I'm compromising. It's like again
Speaker 2: looking at Florida, even with the abortion right, it's number
Speaker 2: two in the East Coast. I'm going to vote in
Speaker 2: the presidential election because my vote, our votes can make
Speaker 2: or break the lives of millions of people, just like
Speaker 2: abortion in Florida, all of the Southeast. Once if we
Speaker 2: lose abortion in Florida, the Southeast is screwed. The most
Speaker 2: marginalized populated under the poverty stricken communities are going to
Speaker 2: be the ones that are going to feel as ripple effects.
Speaker 2: And I think that that comes down to the presidential
Speaker 2: election too. But again, if nothing your House, Senate, Congress,
Speaker 2: there's other things. There's ballt initiatives across you know, the
Speaker 2: United States. That's why you vote your city. You look
Speaker 2: at over development, access to water, clean water like these
Speaker 2: are in we have access to clean water thing in Florida.
Speaker 2: These are all really, these are all very important things
Speaker 2: that affect your day to day life. You just don't
Speaker 2: notice it. And I hate when people are like, well,
Speaker 2: I don't do politics because I do believe that. You know,
Speaker 2: one of the things I say is that politics going
Speaker 2: to do you regardless.
Speaker 1: And with that, Sarah Parker, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: making the time for WOKF. Thank you for your work,
Speaker 1: thank you for your voice. It is so needed and appreciated.
Speaker 1: Thank you. That is it for me today, dear friends
Speaker 1: on WOKEF as always, power to the people and to
Speaker 1: all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.