Speaker 1: Native Lampod is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 1: Welcome home, y'all, this is Native Lampod. I am Angela
Speaker 1: Raie with Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillham. We are joined today.
Speaker 1: You done, He's already so much with your delayed ass intro.
Speaker 1: We are joined today by one of our good friends,
Speaker 1: our dear sister, Congresswoman Ayana Presley, who represents Massachusetts seventh District.
Speaker 1: And she is on the move, y'all. She's getting things done, y'all.
Speaker 1: Talk about where are our fighters. She is in these
Speaker 1: streets making sure that we are represented, that our interests
Speaker 1: are heard, that they're known, and that we don't silently
Speaker 1: disappear into the dark. So she is just coming from
Speaker 1: a protest, which we will hear about.
Speaker 3: On the friend.
Speaker 1: Oh, she's on the way, on the way into the protest.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's hear about this protest from her
Speaker 1: while I'm getting fact checked, and tell us where you
Speaker 1: are headed and the importance of this moment.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: First, I just want to say that it's good to
Speaker 4: be home, good to be with you, and I just
Speaker 4: want to say this community in this moment is not
Speaker 4: a nice to have, it is a must have. So
Speaker 4: as we revisit that question from King, where do we
Speaker 4: go from here? You know, in a moment of chaos, cruelty,
Speaker 4: and corruption, where do we go from here?
Speaker 3: Chaos or community? We have to continue to choose.
Speaker 4: Community and solidarity because this wholesale harm is coming for everybody.
Speaker 4: So right now I'm on my way to a protest
Speaker 4: that one of our federal buildings in solidarity with federal workers.
Speaker 4: And let me just say this, as someone who was
Speaker 4: an aide for sixteen.
Speaker 3: Years, I get so tired of.
Speaker 4: People not seeing the humanity of our federal workforce.
Speaker 3: And thinking that this is just you.
Speaker 4: Know, hacks living on the government dole.
Speaker 3: These are people that could have been serving and taking.
Speaker 4: Their talent many other places, but with the intention they
Speaker 4: arrived at the office every day to make sure that
Speaker 4: someone was on the other end of the line to
Speaker 4: pick up the phone when you were in christ and
Speaker 4: you needed a lifeline and you needed an advocate. These
Speaker 4: are dedicated, compassionate, brilliant individuals who deserve more than to
Speaker 4: receive a pink slip or a threatening email.
Speaker 3: From a doge bro or from some rich, entitled, greedy, grubby.
Speaker 4: Hand millionaire who's taken a wrecking ball to the infrastructure of.
Speaker 3: Our federal government.
Speaker 4: And now so many federal workers don't know how they'll
Speaker 4: provide for their own families.
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna tell you what.
Speaker 4: I've spent a lot of time with these workers, and
Speaker 4: their primary concern is not even how they will provide
Speaker 4: with their families.
Speaker 3: It's not even their livelihood.
Speaker 4: It is how would their unfinished work impact the people
Speaker 4: the communities.
Speaker 3: That they serve.
Speaker 4: What does this mean for their grant that someone is
Speaker 4: now now advancing, What does the mean for that veteran
Speaker 4: with the BA you know? What does this mean for
Speaker 4: someone who's headstock portal, you know, is closed. So I'm
Speaker 4: on my way in solidarity because every day, at this
Speaker 4: inflection point, where cruelty, cares and corruption.
Speaker 3: Are daily intake our daily food, I'm gonna choose.
Speaker 5: Community that's real, that's real. Do you think that it's
Speaker 5: ironic that you get this guy head and doze a
Speaker 5: made up organization that ain't really legit yet as an organization,
Speaker 5: an agency of the government, The wealthiest man in the
Speaker 5: damn world happens to be telling us about wasted federal
Speaker 5: money taxpayer dollars while he's on the take that this
Speaker 5: man is criticizing the appropriations of you all well at
Speaker 5: the same time putting money in his pocket from the
Speaker 5: very source that he's criticized. What's the irony in that?
Speaker 5: And how do we drive that further home? Or do
Speaker 5: you or do you even think it matters?
Speaker 3: Okay, let me just say this. As I think about
Speaker 3: how to move forward, I always take a look back.
Speaker 3: So there's three things that are guiding me in this moment.
Speaker 3: One the blueprint.
Speaker 4: Laid out to us in the early chapters of the
Speaker 4: civil rights movement, which we're still very much in. Doctor
Speaker 4: King said, our most powerful weapon is organizing.
Speaker 3: So we have to organize organized organized. Now, Listen, that
Speaker 3: is hard to.
Speaker 4: Do when their strategy is to flood the home is
Speaker 4: shocked in awe, and it's to overwhelm.
Speaker 3: Us to such an extent that we just start being reactive.
Speaker 3: And sometimes in being reactive, we're not being strategic.
Speaker 4: So I keep looking back to those early chapters and
Speaker 4: studying movements.
Speaker 3: Like what did they do? What do resistance look like?
Speaker 4: And again, there's three things that I think we always
Speaker 4: need imagination, strategy, and stamina.
Speaker 3: I've learned that from the movements. The second thing, you're
Speaker 3: going to look at the.
Speaker 4: Pandemic, because there's the closest analogue.
Speaker 3: That I have to this moment is full sale harm.
Speaker 3: And what did we do? We stood up infrastructure, rapid response,
Speaker 3: mutual aim.
Speaker 4: Those are some of the things that I'm working on
Speaker 4: actively right now to build so mutually.
Speaker 3: What's the second thing? And then the third thing, Doctor.
Speaker 4: King, you know, tells us that we have to study
Speaker 4: the words of the oppressed to inform our strategy.
Speaker 3: So I'm paying.
Speaker 4: Close attention to every executive action and the words of
Speaker 4: this authoritarium and fascist regime and Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Speaker 4: So doctor King says, we need to dramatize the evil,
Speaker 4: Andrew and so that is why sometimes we go out
Speaker 4: and we do these interviews and people.
Speaker 3: Are like, you know, dang, Like all she did was
Speaker 3: just tell us everything is wrong. Well, I have to
Speaker 3: dramatize the evil. I have to tell you, and we
Speaker 3: have to make them wear it. And let me just
Speaker 3: say this, anyone that is.
Speaker 4: Not being actively disrupted and agitating and doing the work
Speaker 4: of litigation legislation, agitation, mobilization is being complicit in this
Speaker 4: wholesale harm. And although this harm is coming for everybody,
Speaker 4: it is anti blackness of steroids.
Speaker 3: So I'm paying.
Speaker 6: Attention to who isn't saying anything, because everyone, what are
Speaker 6: you talking about?
Speaker 1: I think, to Tip's point last week, if somebody needs
Speaker 1: to be held accountable, they need to be held accountable.
Speaker 1: We cannot hold people accountable who we can't name. I
Speaker 1: don't think that that's a trap. I think that's the truth.
Speaker 7: Do you care to drop a name because we got some.
Speaker 1: Bit abond?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 7: Can I just say this, congresswoman, I you know I
Speaker 7: if you, if I ever had to cover you for something,
Speaker 7: I would have to recuse myself because I just love you.
Speaker 7: And I want people, the American people watching this to
Speaker 7: know that who they see on the floor of Congress,
Speaker 7: who they see on this podcast, and who we are
Speaker 7: privileged to see privately just with you, is consistently the
Speaker 7: same person living in service to liberation, a true public
Speaker 7: servant with a personal testimony, your story. And I think
Speaker 7: there's a lot of complacency right now. I think there's
Speaker 7: a lot of apathy when it comes to government, and
Speaker 7: you still have that ability to give people goosebumps when
Speaker 7: you speak, to speak with righteous indignation and anger.
Speaker 3: And I know I.
Speaker 7: Share all your videos, and so I just want to
Speaker 7: take a moment to say thank you you for your work,
Speaker 7: and that we are watching and paying attention and we
Speaker 7: want to amplify you in whatever way. And I just
Speaker 7: I cannot be an impartial or unbiased person ever with
Speaker 7: you because you are my Aquarius sister. Happy belated birthday
Speaker 7: to you, and I just appreciate you and love you
Speaker 7: so much, and I want everybody to feel that way
Speaker 7: about you. So I just I don't even have a question.
Speaker 1: I just want to tell you that diddo diddo last week.
Speaker 1: Last week, the CBC was my family, though, I just
Speaker 1: want to point that out.
Speaker 7: This is her family, your family. I love, I love
Speaker 7: she did not pick up no because I love Ayana Pressley.
Speaker 7: The CBC as a body, respectfully, is not my family.
Speaker 7: Ayana Pressley is my sister. Who I will do it.
Speaker 7: I'll fight somebody over les, somebody love. It will be
Speaker 7: the CBC. Let MTG start acting fool on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 7: Neg see the Jarius bringers there. Real Yeah, I'm not
Speaker 7: a lawyer, Angela, get me out.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I get you out with this,
Speaker 1: DJ and Bonnie Is.
Speaker 4: I love the levity of this for a moment, and
Speaker 4: I thank you for those kind words since I receive
Speaker 4: them and I spend them back to all of you.
Speaker 4: The what you all are doing in this moment is
Speaker 4: so essential because people are hungry for accurate information.
Speaker 3: And look, you all have your opinions.
Speaker 4: To the editorialize, but you also just bring the straight
Speaker 4: facts and you are trusted voices right now at a
Speaker 4: time of just mass diss and misinformation or no information.
Speaker 3: And I take so.
Speaker 4: Many of my cues from you. You know, honestly, this
Speaker 4: is the season for calling a thing a thing. And
Speaker 4: when I think about the fact, and this is what
Speaker 4: democrats need to do. You don't talk people out of
Speaker 4: their experience.
Speaker 3: You don't.
Speaker 4: You don't counter their lived experience with slide decks.
Speaker 3: You just listen and call a thing a thing. And
Speaker 3: that's how you build trust. When I ran for Congress
Speaker 3: for the first time, Can y'all believe it's almost seven
Speaker 3: years ago? What I ran for Congress the first time.
Speaker 4: I can't tell you how many consultants told me. If
Speaker 4: you get asked in an interview if Donald Trump should
Speaker 4: be impeached for your.
Speaker 3: Opinion is a racist pivot?
Speaker 4: What that's why you'd be surprised, But we're saying that's
Speaker 4: how we don't have trust. There's a deficit of trust
Speaker 4: because you have to call a.
Speaker 3: Thing a thing, and that's what you won't do.
Speaker 5: You definitely can't lead if you're afraid of your shadow.
Speaker 5: And it seems to me that a lot of people
Speaker 5: up there afraid of their shadow and what will come
Speaker 5: up and creep behind them on the next race, and
Speaker 5: therefore they're muted because they're in fear of themselves, stepping
Speaker 5: over themselves, saying the wrong thing and being held accountable.
Speaker 5: You speak the truth, The truth is the truth is
Speaker 5: the truth all the time. You can defend it otherwise,
Speaker 5: you know, to hell with you, because I'm not fighting
Speaker 5: for people who don't fight.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and as our sibling in the movement, Brittany Pac.
Speaker 4: Mc cunningham says, swapping scared power is in power at
Speaker 4: all And we although we worked our hearts out to
Speaker 4: change this outcome.
Speaker 3: Yo, what if listen.
Speaker 4: To black women was an actual practice and just not
Speaker 4: a statement T shirt? Wow, we can't be in the canary,
Speaker 4: in the coal mines on these things. I did not
Speaker 4: None of us wanted this to come to pass, right.
Speaker 4: We did everything to stop it from happening. The one
Speaker 4: of the reasons I believe we're in this position is
Speaker 4: because when Democrats have the power, we don't use it.
Speaker 4: And Donald Trump and Eli Musk, they are transparent. They
Speaker 4: want the power, they want to amass the power, they
Speaker 4: want to wield the power.
Speaker 3: They will abuse the power. I've been so.
Speaker 4: Busy proving that we're the adults.
Speaker 3: In the room, so we forgot to prove that we're
Speaker 3: the fighters in the room the moment.
Speaker 1: What do you think the fight looks like? And I
Speaker 1: actually have a two parter because the whole reason you
Speaker 1: wanted to come always tell about reparations. We're gonna get
Speaker 1: the reparations too. But I want to make sure that
Speaker 1: I asked this for those at home who feel like
Speaker 1: they're not seeing a fight in the Democratic Party, who
Speaker 1: feel like they're seeing people who just have kind of
Speaker 1: rolled over and accepted what is, who are frustrated that
Speaker 1: Ken Martin just yesterday or by the time this year
Speaker 1: is a few days ago, dropped a memo that is
Speaker 1: four pages long, single space talking about what is next
Speaker 1: for the Democratic Party, and some of it is frankly
Speaker 1: tone death. So when you look at party leadership, when
Speaker 1: you look at the caucus, when you look at the
Speaker 1: obligation of the Tricaucus, the Democratic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus,
Speaker 1: the Progressive Caucus, where do you see the fight and
Speaker 1: what is the role of the people in this fight?
Speaker 4: Okay, first, let me just say this, just for the
Speaker 4: purposes of narrative shaping, Democrats did fight. We fought like
Speaker 4: hell to try to stop this from happening. So I
Speaker 4: want to start there, Okay, to do everything possible so
Speaker 4: that Donald Trump will not be elected. The second thing is,
Speaker 4: you know, Tim, I think I think the challenge that
Speaker 4: we're having is a It's not a messaging problem because
Speaker 4: I hear a lot of my colleagues in the fight
Speaker 4: and saying the right things or things that I align on.
Speaker 4: We have a density and saturation problem that we have
Speaker 4: not overcome. We're trying to learn the lesson in real
Speaker 4: time that people's news and information is so bifurcated across
Speaker 4: so many platforms, and we're behind, so things don't feel coordinated,
Speaker 4: they don't feel amplified because we're not reaching saturation, we're
Speaker 4: not reaching density.
Speaker 3: And look, we're diverse caucus.
Speaker 4: But this is not the time for people to be like,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna vote my district.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna say the thing that works best for my district.
Speaker 3: We need to be of one accord. Now. Where I
Speaker 3: know we're.
Speaker 4: All aligned on is the fight, and that is litigation.
Speaker 4: Some members will be on amicust briefs. You know, the
Speaker 4: courts have been able to be a stopgap to slow
Speaker 4: roll some of this because it's just straight lawlessness. It
Speaker 4: is an unprecedented power graph. But what does an unpressed
Speaker 4: and the power graph demand of us? Unprecedented clarity, unprecedented conviction,
Speaker 4: unprecedented leadership, unprecedented organizing, unprecedented mobilizing, and unprecedented joy y'all
Speaker 4: because when they're coming for every civil right and human
Speaker 4: right and gain, we cannot give them there too. So
Speaker 4: that's why I said, I'm gonna choose community every single time.
Speaker 4: But the fight is litigation, it's legislation, it's agitation, it's mobilization.
Speaker 3: But just like with the presidential raise.
Speaker 4: We have the better policies, but we did not have
Speaker 4: the cohesive message that breaks through.
Speaker 3: And that's why I'm saying that, like, we really have
Speaker 3: to challenge ourselves to just call a thing a thing.
Speaker 4: This is not the time for nuance because the harm
Speaker 4: that is coming is blunt as hell, and we have
Speaker 4: to be just as blunt in how we take it on.
Speaker 3: That's real.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's real. So with that one of the places
Speaker 1: where we know, historically our folks have always felt unseen, unheard,
Speaker 1: unrepresented by this government. Even if we have those one officer,
Speaker 1: two officer, now sixty plus offs of folks who represent
Speaker 1: our interests, what we know is that this country has
Speaker 1: never properly served us. And one thing that you've done
Speaker 1: is taken on the legacy of Congressman John Conyers and
Speaker 1: Congresswoman Chila Jackson Lee and introducing HR forty, which is
Speaker 1: of course, our reparations bill. So I'd love for you
Speaker 1: to talk briefly, Congresswoman, about why you decided to take
Speaker 1: up that mantle and what you're hoping to see happen
Speaker 1: in this very divided congress.
Speaker 4: Okay, two says one, just to give you the background,
Speaker 4: and I thank you for making sure there's no rature
Speaker 4: of black history and saying that this was taken up
Speaker 4: thirty plus years ago by John Conyers, then by Sheila
Speaker 4: Jackson Lee, who is now both of whom are ancestors.
Speaker 3: Sheila Jackson Lee's daughter, Erica Lee Carter.
Speaker 4: Who finished out her term, so former congresswoman I asked
Speaker 4: me to meet with her and said, after a lot
Speaker 4: of prayer and reflection, conversation with her staff, former staff
Speaker 4: of Congress Ischeila Jackson Lee's and even her own family,
Speaker 4: asked if I would take this on, wow.
Speaker 3: And sorry, we love you.
Speaker 7: And thank you for taking it on.
Speaker 4: So one, I'm emotional because that she had the confidence
Speaker 4: to entrust me with this, and secondly, I was thinking
Speaker 4: of Congress Ischela Jackson Lee, who are was texting with
Speaker 4: in the final days of her time here, and her
Speaker 4: last message to me was we must keep fighting for
Speaker 4: our priorities and never give up.
Speaker 3: And her daughter came to stand with me.
Speaker 4: Through a snowstorm on the day that we reintroduced HR
Speaker 4: forty and I said, you know, thank you for coming.
Speaker 4: I know this is emotional, this heart for so many reasons.
Speaker 4: That she said justice is never convenient, and that has
Speaker 4: stayed with me because when we reintroduced this people, you
Speaker 4: know some people were like, is she like adults? You know,
Speaker 4: she's she's been a legislator, she's been an aid reparation.
Speaker 3: In this moment, Why would you do such a thing.
Speaker 4: Well, again, this is a moment of anti blackness on steroids.
Speaker 3: They've had different proxies for it.
Speaker 4: With critical race theory, black lives matter, diversity, equity and inclusion,
Speaker 4: and diversity with an inclusion you know, means the dismantling and.
Speaker 3: Defunding of that to harm a lot of people. But again,
Speaker 3: it's anti blackness on steroids. So what is the antidote
Speaker 3: to anti blackness? Pro blackness? So this is this is.
Speaker 4: Not the time to moderate our aspirations.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna shrink in the pursuit of our north star.
Speaker 3: This is exactly the time, you know. So you this
Speaker 3: is an.
Speaker 4: Educated, you know, you know, very conscious listener, you know
Speaker 4: viewership that you all have.
Speaker 3: So folks don't need me to.
Speaker 4: Talk about Jim pro and redlining and Orangeburg and Tulsa.
Speaker 4: But you know, the point is we are still very
Speaker 4: much digging out from the vestiges of slavery, legislated harm,
Speaker 4: not just things that happen organically in the ether. You know,
Speaker 4: people forget that this is legislative precise harm. So that
Speaker 4: is why we need rape conscious prescriptive responses because the
Speaker 4: harm that was dealt was precise.
Speaker 3: And very race conscious, and it was legislated.
Speaker 4: So if we can legislate hard and harm, we should
Speaker 4: be able to legislate justice and to legislate healing. We
Speaker 4: have a team shrillion the racial wealth gap in this
Speaker 4: country that was created, so we have to undo the harm,
Speaker 4: do the reparative work that we did for indigenous people,
Speaker 4: for Japanese Americans who were.
Speaker 3: In a tournament, camps.
Speaker 4: And the important thing to note in this moment is
Speaker 4: that there is huge momentum around reparations. There are so
Speaker 4: many municipalities throughout the country, including the City of.
Speaker 3: Boston, and have reparations to task forces.
Speaker 4: There are so many municipalities that are now actively doing
Speaker 4: the work of redress and reparations is not just about
Speaker 4: a check.
Speaker 3: So let me just quickly explain HR forty.
Speaker 4: It is to It is an eighteen month process, so it.
Speaker 3: Does have a finite end. Okay.
Speaker 8: There are people that are appointed to this federal commission
Speaker 8: that we want to ASTABT published fifteen members in total
Speaker 8: to examine and study the.
Speaker 4: Impacts of slavery to today, and then to offer up
Speaker 4: reparations proposals across all areas, so healthcare, housing, social, economic.
Speaker 3: So I know people will say, well, you know, what
Speaker 3: do we need to study?
Speaker 4: You know we already we already know this, but no.
Speaker 3: It's worth examination and study. We have more morementum than
Speaker 3: ever before.
Speaker 4: In the last Congress, there were one hundred over one
Speaker 4: hundred and twenty cosponsors for HR forty.
Speaker 3: That's the most that we've that we've ever had.
Speaker 4: I'm at about eighty right now, and I want to
Speaker 4: make sure that we exceed that original number to get
Speaker 4: this to the floor for a vote. So I'm not
Speaker 4: in denial about the sobering landscape, but I think it
Speaker 4: is important while we are doing the work of blunting
Speaker 4: these harms and mitigating harms, that we have to be
Speaker 4: proactively still advancing something. So I'm not just gonna take
Speaker 4: my lawmaking pain home because people are like, oh, it's
Speaker 4: gonna be hard, it could be impossible.
Speaker 3: Because I don't want to. I don't want to dis rock.
Speaker 4: The momentum on the issue of reparation.
Speaker 5: You said a lot there, Congress women, but I tell
Speaker 5: you that what will live for me is the reality
Speaker 5: that when they are coming for us, we don't shrink
Speaker 5: from that fight. We put a fight right back at them,
Speaker 5: and it's not going to be on their terms. It
Speaker 5: will be a fight determined by what is on our terms.
Speaker 5: I know you've got a balance, but I am very
Speaker 5: curious to pass this question on to you. That came
Speaker 5: to us from listeners, and quite frankly continuously comes to
Speaker 5: us from listeners. And it's in this space of whether
Speaker 5: or not there are ways in which this Congress or
Speaker 5: we as a peace people black folks can find common
Speaker 5: cause with certain pieces of the Trump agenda. And I'm
Speaker 5: just curious to know how it is you measure where
Speaker 5: common cause might exist when such a foundational question around
Speaker 5: whose role is what? And the triflingness over your role,
Speaker 5: and then how you look past that and say, but
Speaker 5: let's work together on this. This is that in the third,
Speaker 5: because that's where we have common calls. Where's the balance
Speaker 5: in that? How do you address? What would you say?
Speaker 5: And maybe your answer as a legislator might be different.
Speaker 5: A citizen's answer might be as an everyday person and consumer.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So you know, again, one of the things I
Speaker 4: found frustrating is that it is only when republic when Democrats.
Speaker 3: Are governing in the minority, that we.
Speaker 4: Are asked regularly what would you do in the name
Speaker 4: of bipartisanship, But the question is never posed to people
Speaker 4: across the aisle.
Speaker 3: I also have to.
Speaker 4: Be just real and say that I don't think that
Speaker 4: there is a Republican party right now. It is a
Speaker 4: cult of cowards who are complicit in wholesale harm of
Speaker 4: our shared constituents. This doge so called Department of Government Efficiency,
Speaker 4: that is taking a wrecking ball in a machete to
Speaker 4: our government infrastructure. There is nothing efficient about it. It
Speaker 4: certainly has a lower the price of eggs or housing.
Speaker 3: It's just going to make people poorer, hungrier, and sicker.
Speaker 4: And if I can't get my colleagues across the aisle
Speaker 4: or four Republicans to join with us to move pieces
Speaker 4: of legislation to stand in the gap and to buffer
Speaker 4: these harms, I don't know. So it's a tough question
Speaker 4: to answer, but I will say this, I will sit
Speaker 4: at the table and work with anyone who is serious
Speaker 4: about centering everyone who calls his country home.
Speaker 3: And advancing problem rest.
Speaker 4: But so far they have not proven that they are
Speaker 4: serious about that work.
Speaker 3: Is you know that that's it?
Speaker 4: But where where would where would I hope there'd be
Speaker 4: opportunities housing cannabis community house centers. I mean again, there's
Speaker 4: so many issues of consequence that affect our shared constituents,
Speaker 4: and there should be nothing partisan about those things. People
Speaker 4: housed and babies fed and things. These are not controversial
Speaker 4: things and nothing radical about it.
Speaker 1: At least they shouldn't be. As we as we uh
Speaker 1: prepare to let you go and bring that bring the
Speaker 1: house down at the rally, Our dear sister, I want
Speaker 1: to just ask you if you have parting words for
Speaker 1: those who don't see themselves represented in the members they have,
Speaker 1: whether you know, state, local, or on the federal level.
Speaker 1: For those who see you as their representative in their voice,
Speaker 1: what is the thing that you would say to everybody
Speaker 1: who's continued going on in this fight and it's scrambling
Speaker 1: to figure out what to do next. What's the thing
Speaker 1: that you would tell them to do. What's the point
Speaker 1: of encouragement?
Speaker 4: I would say that everyone has a role to play.
Speaker 4: You know, some people are gonna I just left visiting
Speaker 4: the program Youth Build right, they're picking up a hammer
Speaker 4: in the name and the work of social racial justice,
Speaker 4: progress and change. I pick up a microphone and a
Speaker 4: lawmaking pen.
Speaker 3: Every day.
Speaker 4: Some people are going to pick up a paint brush,
Speaker 4: you know, some people are going to leave the revolution,
Speaker 4: and some people are going to pack the lunch for
Speaker 4: the people leading the revolution. So I would just encourage
Speaker 4: people to kind of do you know that that internal
Speaker 4: audit of yourself, like what is my gift and what
Speaker 4: do I seek to bring in this moment as my gift.
Speaker 3: If you're a prayer warrior, do that. If you're a nurturer,
Speaker 3: do that. If your community and a movement builder, do that.
Speaker 4: If you believe in the electoral process still and want
Speaker 4: to do the work of engagement, do that. You know,
Speaker 4: if you want to storage your platform to share information,
Speaker 4: do that.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people think civic.
Speaker 4: Engagement is just running for office and voting. And so
Speaker 4: if you're questioning the integrity of a voting process and
Speaker 4: you have a deficit of trust and your elected representative,
Speaker 4: you're like, now what, But the opportunities for civic engagement
Speaker 4: and the responsibility have always been greater than that, and
Speaker 4: the power of the people has.
Speaker 3: Always been greater than the people in power. Now. People
Speaker 3: always fill away a trip when I say that, because
Speaker 3: they're like, well, technically art you want to position to power.
Speaker 4: Yes, but I defeated a nearly twenty year in covent
Speaker 4: and one beh eighteen points because I know where the
Speaker 4: real power lies.
Speaker 3: It is with the people. I govern cooperatively.
Speaker 4: So you the people are still powerful, yes, even in
Speaker 4: this moment, because every game that has happened was.
Speaker 3: Not led by government. Government responded to the will of
Speaker 3: the people. Come on, is this just.
Speaker 4: A fact, it's just effect. So I know folks are tired.
Speaker 4: Like I said, every movement needs imagination. That's my HR forty.
Speaker 4: That's one of my my things I'm dreaming on right.
Speaker 3: It's strategy.
Speaker 4: So we need a defensive strategy litigation, legislation, agitation, mobilization,
Speaker 4: and we need stamina.
Speaker 3: And that's what we really struggle with. That's why boycott's.
Speaker 4: Are short lived, because we struggle with stamina. Some Yeah,
Speaker 4: we've got the summon sleeper shifts.
Speaker 3: It's some summon.
Speaker 4: Uh you know, uh, every bit of strength that we
Speaker 4: have in this moment. I'm gonna close with with this
Speaker 4: Tosell Richards because I co chair the newly named Reproductive
Speaker 4: Freedom Caucus, which used to be the Pro Choice Caucus,
Speaker 4: and Cecil Richards was an incredible partner in that fire.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: You know her from Planned Parenthood, the daughter of former
Speaker 4: Texas Governor Ann Richards, and she recently died from brain cancer.
Speaker 4: And she was out there organ rising and fighting even.
Speaker 3: Though she was sick. And people said, what are you
Speaker 3: doing here?
Speaker 4: And she said, because in the future they'll pose the question,
Speaker 4: what did.
Speaker 3: They do when everything was at stake for the country?
Speaker 4: And she said, the only acceptable answer is everything, everything
Speaker 4: we could.
Speaker 3: So I get it. Y'all.
Speaker 4: Y'all feel like you're losing everything, so you want to
Speaker 4: know that we're willing to risk it all to.
Speaker 3: Put it on the line, and I am.
Speaker 5: We love you for it.
Speaker 3: Love you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Yes, stand with them to tell
Speaker 1: them we stay with them.
Speaker 4: You ball, you know they take so much time to
Speaker 4: pain from Boston.
Speaker 3: Yes, thank you got your back.
Speaker 2: They thank you for joining the Natives attention of with
Speaker 2: the info and all of the latest rock gulum and
Speaker 2: cross connective to the statements that you leave on our socials.
Speaker 2: Thank you sincerely for the patients reason for your.
Speaker 4: Choice is cleared, so.
Speaker 3: Grateful and took to execute roads.
Speaker 2: Thank you for serve, defend and protect the truth, even
Speaker 2: if paint and walking home to all of the natives,
Speaker 2: we thank you.
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