Speaker 1: Welcome to How to Citizen with barrettun Day, a show
Speaker 1: where we reimagine the word citizen and remind ourselves how
Speaker 1: to wield our collective power. I'm barrattun Day. We've been
Speaker 1: doing a lot of episodes about voting. IM not sure
Speaker 1: if you've noticed, but it's been quite a few. We've
Speaker 1: had Maria Terressa Kumar of Vote to Latino, Chryln Eiffel
Speaker 1: of the Inn Double A CP Legal Defense Fund, Angela
Speaker 1: Lange of Block in Milwaukee, and Quincon Powfrey with the
Speaker 1: Voter Protection Corps. We could probably make four more episodes
Speaker 1: zoned voting because it's that important in this election year
Speaker 1: to flex that form of our collective power. This episode
Speaker 1: you're listening to right now is also related to voting,
Speaker 1: but it's also about something much more. To quote our guests,
Speaker 1: it's about putting respect on our vote. He said to me,
Speaker 1: voting is a sacred act which takes you to a
Speaker 1: place where you say I am voting, says I am,
Speaker 1: I exist, My voice counts I matter. Those aren't the
Speaker 1: words of just any citizen, but someone working among and
Speaker 1: on behalf of a population whose voice often doesn't count.
Speaker 1: Those would be returning citizens, people convicted of crimes in
Speaker 1: the United States, and in this case, people convicted of
Speaker 1: felonies in the state of Florida, and my humble opinion,
Speaker 1: Florida is one of our more retrograde states when it
Speaker 1: comes to voting rights because this state did not restore
Speaker 1: voting rights to people convicted of felonies for a hundred
Speaker 1: fifty years. That changed in with the passage of amendment
Speaker 1: for this initiative garnered an overwhelming six of Floridians to
Speaker 1: vote to restore voting rights and thus visibility and dignity
Speaker 1: to one point for million people in that state. It
Speaker 1: was the largest restoration of voting rights in fifty years
Speaker 1: in this country. And the returning citizen who helped organize
Speaker 1: that grassroots efforts who I had a chance to speak with.
Speaker 1: His name is Desmond Meade. He's president of the Florida
Speaker 1: Rights Restoration Coalition and author of the book Let My
Speaker 1: People Vote, My Battle to Restore the civil rights of
Speaker 1: Returning Citizens. I spoke with Desmond not just about voting,
Speaker 1: but about changing the narratives of power in our democracy
Speaker 1: and about affirming ourselves, about saying I am and I matter.
Speaker 1: You'll notice some noisier than usual audio from Desmond because
Speaker 1: he squeezed us into his schedule while he was in
Speaker 1: the middle of his Let my People Vote bus tour. Yes,
Speaker 1: Desmond was literally on a us. Have you ever done
Speaker 1: zoom on a bus? I don't think so, and I
Speaker 1: don't recommend it, but we got some decent audio and
Speaker 1: what do you have to say is so powerful? Take
Speaker 1: a listen. I am Desmond me the executive director of
Speaker 1: Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. My organization is the organization that's
Speaker 1: led by people who have previous felony convictions as well
Speaker 1: as those who have loved ones that's been impacted by
Speaker 1: the criminal Justice is the rights that you're trying to restore.
Speaker 1: What rights are these? In the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition,
Speaker 1: we're trying to restore voting rights right now. You know,
Speaker 1: when the person is convicted of a felony offense in
Speaker 1: many states, such as the Florida, they lose their civil
Speaker 1: rights upon that conviction. And included in that civil rights
Speaker 1: is the right to vote, the right to run for office,
Speaker 1: the right to serve on a jury. There are other
Speaker 1: collateral consequences that's associated with the loss of civil rights
Speaker 1: that could impact a person's ability to find safe and
Speaker 1: affordable housing, or to get employment or occupational license. But
Speaker 1: the granddaddy I think of all those rights is voting rights.
Speaker 1: I'm hearing some noise in the background, Desmond, tell us
Speaker 1: where you are, tell us what you're doing right now,
Speaker 1: and right now, I am all I tend in the state.
Speaker 1: Tend in the northern part of Florida on the bus
Speaker 1: or let my people vote us that we're riding in
Speaker 1: going from city to city, from county to county, really
Speaker 1: trying to energize a base of folks to really turn out.
Speaker 1: Actually early in this election, we realized that this is
Speaker 1: probably the most critical election that this country has ever seen,
Speaker 1: and we are, I think, in the middle of the
Speaker 1: defining moment of our country and our democracy, and it
Speaker 1: is extremely vital that every American census play a role
Speaker 1: in what's going to happen in a few weeks. M
Speaker 1: When did you start caring so much about voting in
Speaker 1: the state of democracy? Man, that's a great question. You know,
Speaker 1: I think that if started with first learning how to
Speaker 1: care about me, right, and you know, in the process
Speaker 1: of learning how to care about me, learning how to
Speaker 1: care about others. It's somewhere within that realm of love
Speaker 1: for my fellow human beings that we discovered that one
Speaker 1: of the mechanisms that we can use to actually improve
Speaker 1: the lives of other people, it's through voting. And then
Speaker 1: in the process of really finding out more and more
Speaker 1: about voting and seeing how it works in and the
Speaker 1: impact that it can have in that process. Actually, I
Speaker 1: do not only say it's levels to this right. I
Speaker 1: actually went to a whole new other level I didn't
Speaker 1: even know existed last month when I went to go
Speaker 1: vote for the first time in over thirty years, walking
Speaker 1: up understanding that I'm getting ready to engage in a
Speaker 1: sacred act. I didn't even understand the sacredness of voting.
Speaker 1: You know. I talked a lot about the value and
Speaker 1: how the right to vote is, all this and all that.
Speaker 1: But what I did not capture or fully understand until
Speaker 1: I went to go vote was about how sacred voting is.
Speaker 1: And so when I was in that voting booth, actually voting,
Speaker 1: I was engaging in the sacred act and understanding that
Speaker 1: the level of sacredness about voting actually transcend partisan politics.
Speaker 1: It transcends the politics and It transcends even the racial
Speaker 1: anxieties and biases. That sacredness of voting actually takes you
Speaker 1: to a place where you say something so simple yet
Speaker 1: so powerful, takes you to the place where you say,
Speaker 1: I am. Voting is like that ultimate thing that says
Speaker 1: I am, that I exist, that my voice count, I matter.
Speaker 1: When you put in the sacrifices that our ancestors have
Speaker 1: made the blood right. It was blood that purchased this
Speaker 1: right and sanctified it. When you kind of understand that,
Speaker 1: then you have to understand that people got to put
Speaker 1: respect on your vote. And not only do people have
Speaker 1: to put respect on your vote, because it's so easy
Speaker 1: for us to say, you put some respect on my name, right, Well,
Speaker 1: guess what, we got to put respect on our vote
Speaker 1: because we have got to come to this space where
Speaker 1: we understand that this vote is so sacred that we
Speaker 1: can't just give it away or we can't allow it
Speaker 1: to remain dormant. We have to put respect on our
Speaker 1: own vote, you know what I'm saying, And we put
Speaker 1: respect on it by doing it. When we don't use it,
Speaker 1: we're just totally dishonoring not only ourselves but the work
Speaker 1: of our ancestors. And then when we just easily give
Speaker 1: it away to people without making them work for it,
Speaker 1: then we have devalued our own. Though. When you try
Speaker 1: to use your vote some years back, you weren't able to.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me a short story of trying to
Speaker 1: support a candidate You cared a lot of out, but
Speaker 1: you weren't able to do so when that formal version
Speaker 1: of voting, Wow, you know, yeah, this one candidate that
Speaker 1: I was wanting to support with all my heart because
Speaker 1: I loved her to death. And that was my wife.
Speaker 1: You know, she ran for office in twenty sixteen, and man,
Speaker 1: I'll tell you we poured so much into her race.
Speaker 1: And I remember a few months before the election, somebody
Speaker 1: was like, man, I know, you can't wait to vote
Speaker 1: for your wife, And it was like they stuck a
Speaker 1: knife in the old wound and twisted. It reminded me
Speaker 1: that because I live in to say, the Florida, I
Speaker 1: can't even vote for my own wife. And that was painful.
Speaker 1: That was painful. That was like somebody you know that
Speaker 1: overcame so much and think that they have arrived just
Speaker 1: to get slapped and said, oh no, you have it,
Speaker 1: you're right back. You know where you thought you had
Speaker 1: escaped from that You're still not good enough and you're
Speaker 1: still not worthy, and you know it was that was
Speaker 1: that was a painful moment for me, really was. Your
Speaker 1: book is very moving, Desmond. Let my people vote, my
Speaker 1: battle to restore the civil rights of returning citizens. And
Speaker 1: there's a part of it that jumps out to me
Speaker 1: where you're making your return and you are astonished that
Speaker 1: a black man with a criminal record living in the
Speaker 1: shelter can enroll in community college for free. Talk to
Speaker 1: me about your own political education in that moment of
Speaker 1: getting your degrees and what was that like for you.
Speaker 1: I think that goes to show the power of the narrative,
Speaker 1: right that when we allow a narrative, no matter how
Speaker 1: false it is, to test festered in our minds and
Speaker 1: in our society, it creates these illusions. But you know,
Speaker 1: there's so many states where people automatically get the right
Speaker 1: to vote back once they severyday time, or some stays
Speaker 1: to where people don't ever lose the right to vote.
Speaker 1: And I can guarantee you that there's somebody in that
Speaker 1: state with a felery convinction that believe that they can't
Speaker 1: vote because of the narrative. And so it was narrative
Speaker 1: like that that had me thinking that number one, you know,
Speaker 1: you needed to have money to go to school, that
Speaker 1: you had to be of good moral standings, and you
Speaker 1: couldn't have an arrest on your record, and and you
Speaker 1: definitely couldn't be a drug addict, you know, and and
Speaker 1: and you definitely couldn't be homeless. And so it was
Speaker 1: only a certain type of people where school was available to. Now,
Speaker 1: let me tell you something, and let me say the
Speaker 1: power to narrative. Because I graduated high school. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I did real well in high school,
Speaker 1: just some time in the military. But even though I
Speaker 1: had been exposed to all that at that moment of time,
Speaker 1: me thinking that there was no way I could be
Speaker 1: going to school to get a degree was a product
Speaker 1: of just a narrative that caused me to believe that
Speaker 1: I couldn't when that was far from reality. And that's
Speaker 1: just the power of how if narrative couldn't raise hope
Speaker 1: and cause us to think that our situation would never change,
Speaker 1: it's that same narrative they got people saying my vote
Speaker 1: don't count or don't matter. You know, it's that same narrative,
Speaker 1: they've got people thinking that nothing will ever change no
Speaker 1: matter what we do, So we might well just accepted
Speaker 1: why even bother going through the most of the vote.
Speaker 1: It's that same narrative that kept me from even trying
Speaker 1: to get an education. So you've helped change another narrative
Speaker 1: in your state with the passing of Amendment four in
Speaker 1: approval by the people of Florida, not just members of
Speaker 1: the legislature, to restore voting rights to formally incarcerated people
Speaker 1: one point four million formally incarcerated people. That's a major
Speaker 1: narrative shift. At that time, Flooryda was convicted about a
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy thousand people a year, a hundred and
Speaker 1: seventy thousand people getting convicted of a failing offense and
Speaker 1: losing the rights for life. But out of those hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy thousand, less than was even sentenced to prison.
Speaker 1: So what do you think the rest of them where? See,
Speaker 1: sometimes we forget that this plea bargaining system and its
Speaker 1: cash bailed system, which forces people to into it to
Speaker 1: plea bargains to get out of these conditions as sooner
Speaker 1: than later right and forces people to take convictions on
Speaker 1: things that they are not even guilty of, actually inserts
Speaker 1: them into a vicious cycle of mass incarceration. But reality
Speaker 1: is is that yeah, one point four million people. But
Speaker 1: first of all, we need to let them know there
Speaker 1: with people, because the other thing, it's easy to think
Speaker 1: about somebody when they're locked up or coming out of
Speaker 1: prison right when it's a whole different perspective when you're
Speaker 1: talking about somebody that's in your home right now, that's
Speaker 1: sitting next to you on your church prew that works
Speaker 1: with you, you know, you kind of view the slightly different.
Speaker 1: And so part of that is that narrative change. And
Speaker 1: my signing star is that we were able to organize
Speaker 1: a controversial topic in the controversial state at a controversial
Speaker 1: time and win with love. We won without dividing people
Speaker 1: we want, without instilling fear or hatred and anyone we
Speaker 1: want with love, bro, you know, and we engage in
Speaker 1: one of the toughest battles and we won in beautiful fashion. Love.
Speaker 1: And part of that is how are we engaging folks
Speaker 1: in such a way to where they're understanding that their
Speaker 1: efforts is not for me, right, but if for someone
Speaker 1: that they love, that's what got them? You know. One
Speaker 1: of the key things that really set the tone for
Speaker 1: this valid inness, but just approaching someone and asked them
Speaker 1: one simple question, you know, that simple question was do
Speaker 1: you know anyone that you that's ever made a mistake?
Speaker 1: M We'll just let that sit there for men and
Speaker 1: let them just think about that. Right, So when we
Speaker 1: talk about fellonists and franchise, my face ain't popping up
Speaker 1: in their minds. It's someone that they love, whether it's
Speaker 1: their son, their daughter, granddaughter, grandson, uncle, favorite uncle at
Speaker 1: that right, But it's someone that they loved that pops
Speaker 1: in their minds, and I let that marinate, and that's
Speaker 1: that image that they take with him in the vote booth.
Speaker 1: They don't take mine because some of them might be
Speaker 1: racist and they can care less about me get my
Speaker 1: rights back. Some might be Republican and could care less
Speaker 1: about somebody that might vote Democrats getting their rights back.
Speaker 1: But when they're winning the boom, they wo wasn't voting
Speaker 1: Democratic Republican, They wasn't voting black and white. They were
Speaker 1: voting love. They're voting based on someone that they love.
Speaker 1: One hell of a secret sauce um and some of
Speaker 1: those recipes you'll find in my book just think over there,
Speaker 1: the cookbook how to do Amazing Things and Overcome amazing
Speaker 1: obstacles Chef Desmond Cookbook for a Healthier Democracy. I love it.
Speaker 1: I like that. Like that that might be my next title, right,
Speaker 1: cookbook for Democracy. I like that you mentioned this narrative.
Speaker 1: This new story works for multiple races of people. It
Speaker 1: works for multiple party members, and particularly the Republican Party
Speaker 1: which has really made a name for itself and trying
Speaker 1: to restrict the number of people who can vote. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm still a little reeling that so many you don't
Speaker 1: get to six with just Democrats voting, and so you
Speaker 1: have moved people from quote unquote the other side. And
Speaker 1: yet after the historic victory, you see the clamp down
Speaker 1: and the attempts to amend the ballot initiative that was
Speaker 1: passed overwhelmingly and restricted and imposed these fine payback requirements
Speaker 1: before you really get your rights back. Were you shocked
Speaker 1: by the Republican led legislature's attempts to rein in the
Speaker 1: one point four reduced that number by putting these fee
Speaker 1: requirements on top. I was not shocked. Listen, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you said something you gave me
Speaker 1: another quote. We don't draw the lines in the same politicians.
Speaker 1: Soo h. You see when you take politicians away, even
Speaker 1: when you look at COVID nineteen in response COVID nineteen pandemic,
Speaker 1: let me tell you some of the most beautiful moments
Speaker 1: that we see in that is when people come together
Speaker 1: and handled their business, the ugly parts of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and when politicians are involved. You know, when we ran
Speaker 1: our campaign, people used to try to characterize it as
Speaker 1: a bipartisan campaign. That you useduld piss me off. I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: we're not. Heck, no, we're not. You know, okay, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: You're a nonpartisan campaign, Like, we're not that either. I
Speaker 1: pushed back strongly against that. We're not. We weren't no bipartisan.
Speaker 1: We wasn't a nonpartisan. We were an organic grassroots effort
Speaker 1: that welcomed and enjoyed by partisan support. And the differences
Speaker 1: we let with the people, not with the politics. When
Speaker 1: you take the politics out of it, where's the division, right,
Speaker 1: where's the division? And so we didn't have to make
Speaker 1: people cross lines. We just got rid of the line,
Speaker 1: so there was no crossing needed to be done. You know,
Speaker 1: we created our own line. We created a circle around everybody,
Speaker 1: whether you was young, old, black, white Latino, whether you
Speaker 1: was conservative and you're thinking progressive and you're thinking or
Speaker 1: you know which way to think. We included you because
Speaker 1: you as a human being that knows what it feels
Speaker 1: like to make mistakes or had a loved one that
Speaker 1: has made mistakes, and you know that you don't ever
Speaker 1: want to be not forgiven for anything you've done for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life. That's where we organized and
Speaker 1: so we and we intentionally kept politicians out of it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, I wasn't surprised what happened, because you know,
Speaker 1: you got politicians or what comes to politicians is a
Speaker 1: heavy dose of arrogance, and that's what it was. Bro
Speaker 1: I mean, when you look at it, just think about
Speaker 1: this story. You have this homeless family that's been living
Speaker 1: in the street for years, when it ranged, when it snows,
Speaker 1: when it's sleep, when it's til. They're out there in
Speaker 1: the elements right with no protection, and politicians will walk
Speaker 1: past them day in and day out and not lift
Speaker 1: the fingers. You with me, all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: people come together and say we're gonna build this family
Speaker 1: a home. The minute the people build a home, here
Speaker 1: comes the politicians going in the house trying to dictate out,
Speaker 1: rearrange the furniture. Right, that's exactly what happened. Fellais and
Speaker 1: franchise and has been in place in Florida for a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty years, and politicians did not address it.
Speaker 1: They did not, so the people took matters in their
Speaker 1: own hands. And the minute we were successful with it,
Speaker 1: now they had the arrogance to insist that they tell
Speaker 1: us how to implement wait committed, keep their hands out
Speaker 1: of it. But the minute that happens, that's when you
Speaker 1: see the lines getting drawn again, and you started seeing
Speaker 1: the division and then and the insults back and forth
Speaker 1: both sides, right, And that really hurt us in our hearts,
Speaker 1: because we know we just accomplished something beautiful, that we
Speaker 1: showed the world that in spite of our differences, in
Speaker 1: spite of the color of our skins or our political persuasions,
Speaker 1: that we can't come together as human beings to move
Speaker 1: major issues without having to tear each other apart, without
Speaker 1: having to degrade each other. We showed that it was possible,
Speaker 1: and they were resorted right back to the old way
Speaker 1: of doing things, and it hurt our hearts and to
Speaker 1: see because at the heart of all of that was
Speaker 1: that it was real people's lives that we were talking about,
Speaker 1: but the politics then overshadowed that. How have you and
Speaker 1: the people's movement here responded to this politicization and to
Speaker 1: these restrictions, keep all elevating people over politics. That's how
Speaker 1: we responded when everything went down. We're like, you listen,
Speaker 1: other people see obstacles, we see opportunities. We see the
Speaker 1: lawsuit come in. We won the lawsuit in the Northern
Speaker 1: District Court and then it was appealed by the state
Speaker 1: and the eleven Circuit Court of Appeal reversed the lower
Speaker 1: court's ruling and sided with the stay to Florida and
Speaker 1: you know required that you know, people pay outstanding legal
Speaker 1: financial obligations. Folks looked at that as a setback. We
Speaker 1: looked at it as an opportunity to step up. What
Speaker 1: we did was that we end up organizing the entire country,
Speaker 1: over eighty eight thousand people from all over this country.
Speaker 1: We organized celebrities like Michael Jordan and Lebron James, Michael Vick,
Speaker 1: Ariana Grande. We organized corporations like Levi's and Viacom, you know,
Speaker 1: and all kinds of foundations to raise over twenty five
Speaker 1: million dollars twenty five million dollars to help people remove
Speaker 1: those obstacles so if they want you, they're able to
Speaker 1: participate in democracy right now. To me, that was so beautiful.
Speaker 1: So when their challenges that we faced, we take those
Speaker 1: opportunities to do great things, to do amazing things, and
Speaker 1: we used it not to further divide our country, but
Speaker 1: we used it to bring our country together. And there
Speaker 1: were people who were conservative that donated to that because
Speaker 1: we were talking about democracy, that no American citizens should
Speaker 1: be forced to choose between putting food on their table
Speaker 1: or voting. It's it shouldn't be a decision they will
Speaker 1: be forced to made, you know. And folks stood up
Speaker 1: and said they were gonna free to vote in Florida
Speaker 1: because the markets she should not be held hostage. And
Speaker 1: to me, that was beautiful. Let me tell you something.
Speaker 1: We like courageous people, right, but we can't have the
Speaker 1: courageous people unless we have fear. And so these moments,
Speaker 1: these obstacles, in these attempts to suppress our vote or
Speaker 1: intimidate preventers from voting. We should look at these moments
Speaker 1: as opportunities to show how courageous we are, because the
Speaker 1: level of courage that we need to show up to
Speaker 1: vote this year is nowhere near the level of courage
Speaker 1: that our ancestors had to muster up to fight through
Speaker 1: the state sanction violence, to fight through the hangings and
Speaker 1: the burnings, to fight through the just outright blatant a
Speaker 1: terrorism that was rained down upon them. And so this
Speaker 1: little bit of something here, nah man, this is the
Speaker 1: time that we step up and we look forward to
Speaker 1: these opportunities because now when they're trying to do that,
Speaker 1: we show up with even more people. So I'm glad
Speaker 1: you're trying to be suppressive because now I can get
Speaker 1: more Pooky the ray Raids to come out and hang
Speaker 1: out with me and vote. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm glad that you that you want to try to
Speaker 1: make it difficult for us to get access to the
Speaker 1: ballot box, because now you're gonna help us engage most
Speaker 1: celebrities and make them more aware. So now they're not
Speaker 1: just getting involved because of this election, they're planning on
Speaker 1: get involved long term. So now instead of having one
Speaker 1: or two. Harry Belafontes. Man, We're about to have hundreds
Speaker 1: of Harry Belafontes in our entertainment and sports industry. That
Speaker 1: is great, you know what I'm saying. And that sets
Speaker 1: the foundation for a more vibrant democracy as we're moving forward.
Speaker 1: So hey, bring it on, Bring it on, man. Look
Speaker 1: at you gotta look at you didn't get those muscles
Speaker 1: by just sitting back relaxing. You had to get some weights,
Speaker 1: didn't you. You have to experienced some tensions. And you
Speaker 1: know the most important thing you had to do to
Speaker 1: get those muscles. You had to tear some See. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. That's the only way the other
Speaker 1: than layer is going to grow. And you can only
Speaker 1: tear it if you experience tension. And so I embrace
Speaker 1: these moments. People who bully people, you know what they
Speaker 1: are in college point. We already know that, right. But
Speaker 1: this is what we also know, though, is that when
Speaker 1: you stand up the people like that and you punch
Speaker 1: them in their mouths, you know they'll turn tail and run.
Speaker 1: They'll turn tail and run. And what I say is
Speaker 1: that for people like me, I've been in prison, I've
Speaker 1: been hooked on drugs, a matter of fact, I've been
Speaker 1: hooked on crack all right, I've been homeless, I've faced
Speaker 1: down death. People like me don't scary easy. So whoever
Speaker 1: the people out there trying to bully, they pick the
Speaker 1: right ones with returning citizens, because we don't scare that easy.
Speaker 1: And so we're gonna clap back, and we clap back,
Speaker 1: or we respond to that by showing up with even
Speaker 1: more people, with more of our family members and friends
Speaker 1: and more returning and so that democracy would not be intimidated.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna allow that they got the right ones
Speaker 1: this time. There's a lot of people who hit me
Speaker 1: up knowing I was going to talk to you, and
Speaker 1: they said, how can I help? I see what's going
Speaker 1: on in the news. I'm fired up, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 1: What can I do? And so that's a specific question
Speaker 1: from listeners to the show, but a more general question
Speaker 1: putting from your recipe book, what are you encouraging people
Speaker 1: to do around this election but also beyond it? And
Speaker 1: I think that it is so important that we find
Speaker 1: other people to take to the polls with us. And
Speaker 1: here's the deal. We need to have conversations not only
Speaker 1: with our friends, but people that we don't normally typically
Speaker 1: talk to all the time. We may talk to our
Speaker 1: next door neighbor, but what about the one of the corner,
Speaker 1: you know, what about the one across the street? You know.
Speaker 1: We need to talk to people. We need to interact
Speaker 1: and come in proximity with our other brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: It's out there in the community, people left walking around
Speaker 1: and may not have the kind of hope or outlook
Speaker 1: that we have, and just we need to find ways
Speaker 1: to engage them and bring them to the post with
Speaker 1: us point blank. This should be an affair that we
Speaker 1: want to do and we look forward to doing and
Speaker 1: not feeling like we have to do. You know. I
Speaker 1: see the long lines out there now, you know, and
Speaker 1: it can be daunting. But I think that we have
Speaker 1: to have that resolve that we are going to show
Speaker 1: up because we need to make sure that our voices
Speaker 1: are heard. Because if we don't show up to make
Speaker 1: sure our voices are heard, then the bottom line is
Speaker 1: then it's going to be up to other people to
Speaker 1: decide whether or not our lives do matter. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: the translation. I think a lot of folks are missing,
Speaker 1: and you put it really really perfectly. Thank you. For that,
Speaker 1: you get interviewed. A lot of people reach out to you.
Speaker 1: You run this organization, you're part of this movement. So
Speaker 1: I want to give you a chance. You know, we're
Speaker 1: here to talk voting, we're talking democracy and more broadly.
Speaker 1: But what do you want to share that I may
Speaker 1: be having that teed up for you or haven't asked
Speaker 1: you that you don't get asked to discuss very often,
Speaker 1: but feels very important to you on this topic. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a great question. So here's the one I think
Speaker 1: that you know, I don't think it gets a enough
Speaker 1: about the sacrifices. You know, a lot of times folks
Speaker 1: just see the end results. You know, they see oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember four past and don't really have a deeper
Speaker 1: appreciation for the sacrifices than it takes. I was in
Speaker 1: the meeting today and and I think what I want
Speaker 1: to share with folks, and what I shared with the meeting,
Speaker 1: you got to figure out who you are. Are you
Speaker 1: the chicken and you the cow? With you there you
Speaker 1: the pig? Right? And what I mean by that is
Speaker 1: that you've got the really understand that there's a difference
Speaker 1: between the contribution and the commitment and how the best
Speaker 1: way to understand it is through thinking about the ham
Speaker 1: and cheese on it. Because we know that the greens
Speaker 1: of the ham and cheese omelet is the eggs, the ham,
Speaker 1: the cheese, if you're poorl like me growing up, the milk, right,
Speaker 1: And so we know that the milk and the cheese
Speaker 1: come from the cow, the eggs come from the chicken,
Speaker 1: and the ham come from the pig. Well, the cole
Speaker 1: made the contribution to the ham and cheese almor, The
Speaker 1: chicken made a contribution to the ham and cheese armor.
Speaker 1: The pig made a commitment to the ham and cheese almor.
Speaker 1: And we've got to understand that gifts what all three,
Speaker 1: all three are needed to get the ham and cheese omelet.
Speaker 1: We just need to know what role we're playing in
Speaker 1: that in that particular situation. And at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, you've got to find something that you're willing
Speaker 1: to die for, right, and really be serious about and
Speaker 1: not let it just be rhelory because a lot of
Speaker 1: times we do use rhetory. You know, I've heard so
Speaker 1: many people that I die from our children, but yet
Speaker 1: they won't turn up to a PTA meeting for their children.
Speaker 1: So I look at that the rhetoric, but when you
Speaker 1: die for your child, that means you'll fight for your children.
Speaker 1: That means you will show up and make sure they're
Speaker 1: getting the right type of education and all of that
Speaker 1: other stuff. I'm talking about something that you're willing to
Speaker 1: invest your whole body and soul. Let you what are
Speaker 1: you willing to sacrifice for? And when you find that
Speaker 1: thing that you embrace it. And this work that we're
Speaker 1: doing here it could look glamorous, but at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, there's a specific amount of sacrifice that
Speaker 1: had to go into it. And I would like every
Speaker 1: now and then when I've been interviewed to talk about
Speaker 1: what some of those sacrifices are. But there is there's
Speaker 1: a lot that I had to sacrifice. I had to make,
Speaker 1: but I was willing to do so because, like I
Speaker 1: told my my team the other month, I'm at peach
Speaker 1: for myself now because I found something other than my
Speaker 1: family that I'm willing to die for. And I'm good now, bro,
Speaker 1: But I am willing to die to make sure that
Speaker 1: every American citizen have opportunity to experience what I experienced
Speaker 1: when I voted for the first time in over thirty years.
Speaker 1: I'm willing to die to make sure that every American
Speaker 1: citizen has an opportunity to experience what I experienced when
Speaker 1: I voted for the first time in thirty years. Thus
Speaker 1: spoke Desmond Meade, So what are you willing to die for?
Speaker 1: What are you willing to commit to? Are you going
Speaker 1: to play the role of the chicken, the cow, or
Speaker 1: the pig to make sure we make this omelet Desmond Meade.
Speaker 1: He really could create an amazing cookbook, goodn't he? You
Speaker 1: can find his organization, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, on
Speaker 1: their website Florida r r C dot com or follow
Speaker 1: them on social They're everywhere at f L Rights Restore.
Speaker 1: That's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can find Desmond on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Desmond Mead m E A d E. Or
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Add the number forty four after that, Desmond Meadet.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Desmond for a powerful, powerful lesson. We are
Speaker 1: posting this episode the transcript, show notes, and more as
Speaker 1: usual at how to citizen dot com. And as usual,
Speaker 1: it is now time to get into the actions for
Speaker 1: this episode. In our first category, internal actions Things you
Speaker 1: can do alone A bit more reflective We've got three
Speaker 1: things for you. Answer this question Desmond's question, do you
Speaker 1: know anyone that you love that's ever made a mistake?
Speaker 1: Think about it. Number two, Answer this question, Desmond's question,
Speaker 1: are you the chicken, the cow or the pig? Because
Speaker 1: that's how you make an homly. You need all those things.
Speaker 1: But the cow makes a contribution, the chicken makes a contribution,
Speaker 1: the pig makes a commitment. We need all those roles
Speaker 1: to make this omelet of self governance and people power
Speaker 1: and democracy. What role are you gonna play? Where and how?
Speaker 1: Think about it. Lastly, in the internal section, read Desmond's
Speaker 1: book It's Great. Let my people vote My battle to
Speaker 1: restore the civil rights of returning citizens. We have it
Speaker 1: linked in the show notes. We also have it in
Speaker 1: our online bookshop, which is adding more titles by the week.
Speaker 1: Visit it at bookshop dot org, slash shop slash how
Speaker 1: to citizens for the external actions feeling sets of threes
Speaker 1: right now, so three here Support the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.
Speaker 1: Go to Florida r RC dot com, slash volunteer. Make
Speaker 1: yourself useful to this pro democracy movement in our midst
Speaker 1: Find other people to take to the polls virtually or
Speaker 1: actually we've recommended this before. We can't recommend it enough.
Speaker 1: Talk about voting all the time, and coordinate with your
Speaker 1: squad to get it done. Help each other out. You
Speaker 1: don't have to do this alone. And lastly, spread some
Speaker 1: good news. We are inundated with depressing information or outright
Speaker 1: disinformation during this time. Amplify the opposite. Find a good
Speaker 1: news story about voting or about democracy more broadly, and
Speaker 1: tell everybody you know. The Solutions Journalism Network has a
Speaker 1: great resource at Solutions Journalism dot org slash hub, and
Speaker 1: they've got this carousel of recently published beautiful news which
Speaker 1: will actually strengthen your faith. Let's do this together. It's
Speaker 1: the only way to get it done. Thank you, Thank
Speaker 1: you as usual. If you do any of these actions,
Speaker 1: big or small, tell somebody tell us email action at
Speaker 1: how to citizen dot com. Put Desmond in the subject line,
Speaker 1: or maybe a chicken or cow or pig. We'll figure
Speaker 1: it out and use the hashtag how to citizen online.
Speaker 1: Send us general feedback to comments at how to citizen
Speaker 1: dot com, and you can visit the show's website at
Speaker 1: how to citizen dot com. It really helps the word
Speaker 1: of mouth, so leave a review. Tell somebody about this show.
Speaker 1: If it's helping you, citizen better, let them know how
Speaker 1: do Citizen with barrettuon Day is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio Podcasts. Executive produced by Miles Gray, Nick Stump,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Stewart and barretton Day Thursday, produced by Joel Smith,
Speaker 1: Edited by Justin Smith. Powered by you