WEBVTT - A Brief Reflection on 'Charlottesville'

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<v Speaker 1>Cool Zone Media.

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<v Speaker 2>There is a regular episode this week, a proper second

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<v Speaker 2>episode for a brand new show, something I put a

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<v Speaker 2>lot of time into to give listeners to the show

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<v Speaker 2>what I hope is an impressive introduction to it. It's

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<v Speaker 2>already recorded and edited and scheduled, but I realized on Sunday.

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<v Speaker 1>Night what the date was? August eleventh?

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<v Speaker 2>How can I tell you my new listeners about the

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<v Speaker 2>weird little guys trying to ruin America without acknowledging that today,

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<v Speaker 2>as I'm writing this, it's Monday, August twelfth, twenty twenty four.

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<v Speaker 2>Seven years ago, Charlottesville was invaded by Neo Nazis, Confederate secessionists,

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<v Speaker 2>white supremacists, white nationalists, racists, and anti Semites of all allegiances.

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<v Speaker 2>That's what started my obsession. That's where this show was

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<v Speaker 2>truly born, because I spent the last seven years trying

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<v Speaker 2>to understand those men, What brought them here, what made

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<v Speaker 2>them that way, what do they actually believe in? What

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<v Speaker 2>are they just saying out of opportunism or for shock value?

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<v Speaker 2>And do they even know the difference anymore? Weird little guys?

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<v Speaker 2>This show wouldn't exist but for the years I've spent

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<v Speaker 2>looking for and then looking at those guys in particular,

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<v Speaker 2>and then trying to track them back in time.

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<v Speaker 1>What groups were they in?

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<v Speaker 2>Who runs those who founded them? What ideological lineage do

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<v Speaker 2>they spring from? When I look at a photograph of

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<v Speaker 2>a man beating my neighbors in the streets of my hometown,

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<v Speaker 2>I wonder not just who is he, but how did

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<v Speaker 2>he get here? And I don't mean did he fly

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<v Speaker 2>into the Charlesville Airport and then rent a car? Did

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<v Speaker 2>he park in the garage downtown or on some side

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<v Speaker 2>street in front of a house where someone I love

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<v Speaker 2>is raising their family.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean who did he follow?

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<v Speaker 2>And how did that man arrive at a place where

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<v Speaker 2>he could command strangers from the internet to follow him

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<v Speaker 2>into battle. It's like making a family tree, but the

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<v Speaker 2>fruit is bitter and rotten, and the roots are cracking

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<v Speaker 2>our foundations. I think as the show progresses, many of

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<v Speaker 2>the men who played a role in the Unite the

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<v Speaker 2>Right rally will earn their own full episode. A lot

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<v Speaker 2>of them are incredibly weird little guys without a doubt.

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<v Speaker 2>But it didn't feel right letting this week go by

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<v Speaker 2>without marking it, without putting a pin in this state

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<v Speaker 2>to say here's where the show was born, because over

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<v Speaker 2>the years, as I accumulated thousands of pages of notes

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<v Speaker 2>trying to find a source for what happened here, I

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<v Speaker 2>realized the timeline of one man's crimes doesn't begin with

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<v Speaker 2>the date of the charged conduct on the half a David.

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<v Speaker 2>It doesn't begin the day he decided ideological violence was

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<v Speaker 2>an option for him. It doesn't begin the day he

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<v Speaker 2>joined an extremist organization, or the day he was radicalized,

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<v Speaker 2>or even the day he was born. The more I

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<v Speaker 2>dug on any one story, the more I realized you

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<v Speaker 2>have to reach decades into the past to even begin

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<v Speaker 2>to understand why you were looking at a photograph of

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<v Speaker 2>a man with his hands or on the throat of

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<v Speaker 2>a counter protester in full view of an entire police

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<v Speaker 2>department Charlottesville, as people refer to that day, that event

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<v Speaker 2>in this place didn't begin when they bought their boarding

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<v Speaker 2>passes or joined the discord.

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<v Speaker 1>It started before they were born, and.

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<v Speaker 2>It continues long after the barricades were removed and everyone

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<v Speaker 2>went home. That's a very long story, and I hope

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<v Speaker 2>I can get started on it with his show, But

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<v Speaker 2>today we can't start at the beginning we're still in

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<v Speaker 2>the middle. I don't know how much pre emble you need.

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<v Speaker 2>I don't know if you remember the Unite the Right rally.

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<v Speaker 2>Beyond a handful of the same photos, every outlet seems

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<v Speaker 2>to run as shorthand for white supremacist violence.

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<v Speaker 1>A few fleeting images.

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<v Speaker 2>A close up photo of men shouldered to shoulder, torches

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<v Speaker 2>in hands, mouths open, mid shout, faces contorted with the

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<v Speaker 2>effort to be heard above the roar, to have their

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<v Speaker 2>cry of Jews will not replace.

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<v Speaker 1>Us be the loudest.

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<v Speaker 2>A man's body tossed into the air bouncing off a

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<v Speaker 2>dodge challenger.

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<v Speaker 1>You've seen the photo. I know you have, But do

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<v Speaker 1>you know his name?

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<v Speaker 2>A photo of a line of men in home made

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<v Speaker 2>uniforms and plastic helmets costplaying as American Black Shirts, plowing

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<v Speaker 2>through peaceful protesters.

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<v Speaker 1>You'd recognize these images if you saw them. You've seen them.

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<v Speaker 2>You'd look at them and say, that's from Charlottesville. But

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<v Speaker 2>you wouldn't mean Charlesville, a place, the mid size college

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<v Speaker 2>town where people cross the street and that spot every

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<v Speaker 2>day to get to the public library. No, you'd mean Charlottesville,

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<v Speaker 2>the moment in time, Charlottesville, the violence Charlottesville, the Nazi rally.

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<v Speaker 2>And that's not your fault, that's completely understandable. That just

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<v Speaker 2>means it's my responsibility to ground these stories in the

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<v Speaker 2>places where they happen, to tether these individual men to

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<v Speaker 2>the context from which they arose. Today, as I write this,

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<v Speaker 2>I had to get up from my computer to go downtown.

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<v Speaker 2>I stopped at Fourth Street. There are always purple ribbons

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<v Speaker 2>tied around a street sign, the intersection where Heather Hire

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<v Speaker 2>was murdered, her favorite color. Today there is a small vigil.

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<v Speaker 2>I didn't know Heather, but I stop on that spot

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<v Speaker 2>often to think of her. Today I stopped at that

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<v Speaker 2>spot for a few minutes, and then I walked to

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<v Speaker 2>the courthouse to sit for hours listening to lawyers argue

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<v Speaker 2>motions in a case against one of the headline speakers

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<v Speaker 2>at the rally.

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<v Speaker 1>That killed her.

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<v Speaker 2>Seven years to the day, to the hour, to the

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<v Speaker 2>minute even and I'm sitting in a tiny upstairs courtroom

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<v Speaker 2>with a man who never got to give his speech

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<v Speaker 2>at the rally that day. A courthouse employee held a

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<v Speaker 2>door open for me. I'm there so often, they're used

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<v Speaker 2>to seeing me in my little notebook. He told me,

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<v Speaker 2>I look nice today. I said thank you, because the

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<v Speaker 2>alternative was to say that I'm wearing my blue sun

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<v Speaker 2>dress with birds on it because the birds are purple,

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<v Speaker 2>and it was the only thing I could find this morning.

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<v Speaker 1>In Purple was Heather's favorite color.

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<v Speaker 2>It doesn't matter at all, but when there's nothing you

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<v Speaker 2>can do, you do things.

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<v Speaker 1>That don't make sense.

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<v Speaker 2>I didn't know her. I don't think she would care

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<v Speaker 2>that the birds on my dress are purple. But I

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<v Speaker 2>woke up this morning on the date that she died,

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<v Speaker 2>and all I can really do is to keep trying

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<v Speaker 2>to tell the stories of the men who set a

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<v Speaker 2>murderer on a collision course with the crowd she marched

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<v Speaker 2>with that day. Heather Hire was a person, a real

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<v Speaker 2>person with a job, a little dog, and friends and

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<v Speaker 2>a family who loved her. It isn't fair to her

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<v Speaker 2>memory to reduce her to a martyr, a concept, an idea,

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<v Speaker 2>to shrink her down to the moment of her death,

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<v Speaker 2>and to use her name as shorthand for lives lost

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<v Speaker 2>to fascist violence. She was not the first or the

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<v Speaker 2>last innocent life lost to right wing extremism, but her

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<v Speaker 2>death is what set me on this path, and I remember.

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<v Speaker 1>Her today and I hope you will too.

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<v Speaker 2>It is perhaps a bit trite to end with a

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<v Speaker 2>quote from doctor Martin Luther King Junior, but in his

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen sixty three book Strength to Love, he wrote returning

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<v Speaker 2>hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a

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<v Speaker 2>night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness.

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<v Speaker 2>Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate.

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<v Speaker 2>Only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence,

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<v Speaker 2>and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.

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<v Speaker 2>Doctor King may have had the strength to love his enemies.

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<v Speaker 2>Your pastor would tell you Jesus wants you to love

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<v Speaker 2>your enemies. I don't know that I have that strength,

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<v Speaker 2>but I work so hard not to harden my heart.

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<v Speaker 2>I am actively working every day to remind myself. I

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<v Speaker 2>don't do this because I hate my enemies. I do

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<v Speaker 2>this because I love everyone else. I know doctor King

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<v Speaker 2>had something else in mind. But when I say only

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<v Speaker 2>love can drive out hate, I don't mean we have

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<v Speaker 2>to love the ones that hate us. I don't think

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<v Speaker 2>our love can transform the hate in their hearts. Maybe

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<v Speaker 2>your pastor can do that, Maybe you can do that.

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<v Speaker 2>But what I mean is that we have to love

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<v Speaker 2>each other enough to protect the most vulnerablem We have

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<v Speaker 2>to love our vision of the world that we want

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<v Speaker 2>to live in enough to fight for it. We have

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<v Speaker 2>to love the idea of society without them in it

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<v Speaker 2>enough to throw our bodies down like sandbags against a

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<v Speaker 2>rising tide of fascism and the light driving out of

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<v Speaker 2>the darkness. That's what I hope to be. I want

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<v Speaker 2>to shine a light into these dark corners, like laundry

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<v Speaker 2>hung on the line to bleach the stains. I want

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<v Speaker 2>to be the hot Southern sun on an afternoon in August.

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<v Speaker 1>And that's why I'm showing you these weird little guys.

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<v Speaker 1>Weird Little Guys is the production of coal Zone Media.

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<v Speaker 1>Or more from coal Zone Media.

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<v Speaker 2>Visit our website coolzonmedia dot com, or check us out

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<v Speaker 2>on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.