1 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:05,800 Speaker 1: This is How to Citizen with Baritune Day, a show 2 00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:09,200 Speaker 1: where we reimagine the word citizen, reclaim it from those 3 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:12,920 Speaker 1: who weaponized it, and remind us all of our collective power. 4 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:17,639 Speaker 1: We have a definition of this civic power which is 5 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:21,200 Speaker 1: broad and goes far beyond the purely political. This show 6 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,120 Speaker 1: is not how a bill becomes a law. This show 7 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: is about power and who has the power to determine 8 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:31,000 Speaker 1: the quality of our lives. We believe the correct answer 9 00:00:31,440 --> 00:00:34,560 Speaker 1: is all of us. Welcome to our very first episode, 10 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:40,080 Speaker 1: Pray Revolutionary Love is How to Citizen. I'm Baritune Day. 11 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:47,599 Speaker 1: I've been working on this show for years. I've been 12 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: dreaming of seeing or hearing something like it for most 13 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 1: of my adult life, and at this present time it 14 00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: feels urgent. We are in an intense moment of history, 15 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:04,640 Speaker 1: of pandemic, of revolution, of way too many straining services. 16 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: Am I right? Our democracy is at a tipping point? 17 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:12,119 Speaker 1: But which way it tips? That's up to us. We're 18 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:15,119 Speaker 1: making this show to help tip it in the direction 19 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:20,720 Speaker 1: of more justice and more power for more people. And yeah, 20 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: I said, this is episode zero. See what had happened? Was? 21 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,240 Speaker 1: Our plan for episode one involved two guests but then 22 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,440 Speaker 1: we heard that first guest in that conversation, or should 23 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: I say our zero guest. We heard her words and 24 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:37,759 Speaker 1: we knew we needed to give them an entire episode 25 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:41,000 Speaker 1: so they could breathe, so you could breathe with them, 26 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:45,840 Speaker 1: because she's so eloquently expressed the spiritual core of what 27 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 1: we're all about. We have long felt that the concept 28 00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: of how to citizen it's really about our relationship with 29 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 1: each other, but also our relationship with ourselves. And in 30 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,800 Speaker 1: order to truly be in community with each other, to 31 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: show up for one another, we have to show up 32 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:08,680 Speaker 1: for ourselves, and that may involve examining who we are, 33 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:16,000 Speaker 1: examining our relationship with ourselves first. This episode's guest is 34 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,120 Speaker 1: the perfect person to help us in that project because 35 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 1: she has a definition of citizenship that includes more than 36 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: external actions in the world out there. She conceives of 37 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:31,000 Speaker 1: a role with internal changes we must make to our 38 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,960 Speaker 1: minds and to our hearts. I think of this episode 39 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,520 Speaker 1: as the spiritual invocation of the project we're about to 40 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:43,560 Speaker 1: embark on. So check out my conversation with Valerie Kaer. 41 00:02:43,639 --> 00:02:46,520 Speaker 1: Stay until the end, because we're gonna give you some 42 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:49,960 Speaker 1: things you can do and welcome to the show, citizen. 43 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: I'm holding the book of my very refers guests, Valerie 44 00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: Cower right here see No Stranger, a memoir and manifesto 45 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,240 Speaker 1: Revolutionary Love. And when I look at the back cover, 46 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:12,760 Speaker 1: it's got a long list. Valerie, got a long list 47 00:03:12,840 --> 00:03:17,800 Speaker 1: of dope commas separated value uh to represent some of 48 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:22,960 Speaker 1: your contributions to this world. Civil rights activist, lawyer, filmmaker, innovator, 49 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,440 Speaker 1: founder of the Revolutionary Love Project. But I'm gonna give 50 00:03:26,480 --> 00:03:29,920 Speaker 1: a long winded intro, and I bear some patience with me, Valerie, 51 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:31,760 Speaker 1: because I think I need to do this. I think 52 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: our listeners need to hear this, and I want you 53 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:37,680 Speaker 1: to hear it. In November of I woke up after 54 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:40,840 Speaker 1: that election, having watched that election with a group of 55 00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 1: about ten people, only two of whom had all four 56 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: parents born in the United States of America. We were 57 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,280 Speaker 1: a witnessing of immigrants to our minds and hears tragic 58 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:56,839 Speaker 1: moment in US history. Roughly a month after that, I'm 59 00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:00,080 Speaker 1: hanging out on Facebook. We're only bad things have it 60 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:02,120 Speaker 1: as far as I was concerned at that time, like 61 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:04,880 Speaker 1: that's where bad news comes to hunt you down. That's 62 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:10,040 Speaker 1: where Russians interfere with the election. And I saw you, 63 00:04:11,240 --> 00:04:15,760 Speaker 1: I saw you say these words that spoke so true. Uh, 64 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:19,600 Speaker 1: that said, what if this darkness that we're feeling that 65 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: we're in is not the darkness of the tomb, but 66 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:24,320 Speaker 1: the darkness of the womb. And this isn't the death 67 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: of our country, this is the birth. And that really 68 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:30,919 Speaker 1: moved me, and it still moves me to even say it, 69 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: to be able to say it to you. And then 70 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: a few months later I met you and I screamed 71 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 1: from across the crowded room like some film scene, that's 72 00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:44,359 Speaker 1: the woman who moved me with such poetry because it 73 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:47,360 Speaker 1: has felt like such a dark time. That day felt dark, 74 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:50,479 Speaker 1: but we've been in years of what has seemed to 75 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:53,440 Speaker 1: be like darkness. So I say that as a setup. One, 76 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:58,599 Speaker 1: thank you very much for that moment and for being 77 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 1: a light in darkness to help draw so many of 78 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:05,919 Speaker 1: us out of that. Two. Welcome to how to citizens. 79 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:11,560 Speaker 1: It's good to have you. That is a welcome, sir. 80 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:16,120 Speaker 1: Thank you, brother, You're very welcome. Thank you. Can I 81 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:19,040 Speaker 1: say you can say that's why you're here? Please say 82 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: that question? Is this the darkness of the tomb? Or 83 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:26,040 Speaker 1: is this the darkness of the womb. It is the 84 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:30,240 Speaker 1: question I have been asking myself every day, and I 85 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:34,640 Speaker 1: think it's both. I think it's both. When you know 86 00:05:35,480 --> 00:05:38,800 Speaker 1: almost a hundred and fifty thousand people have been killed 87 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:41,919 Speaker 1: by this virus, the scale and scope of which was 88 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:45,919 Speaker 1: preventable if we had real leadership, disproportionately people of color. 89 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:48,720 Speaker 1: When we see George Floyd, Brianna Taylor, Race, Shard Brooks, 90 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 1: all those that we have lost that we will never 91 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,720 Speaker 1: be able to get back, it feels as though death 92 00:05:53,760 --> 00:05:58,360 Speaker 1: has one and there's also a bit of dying of 93 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:01,119 Speaker 1: the notion of the nation that we thought we were. 94 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:07,120 Speaker 1: And yet we're also seeing millions of people flood city 95 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:13,480 Speaker 1: streets in their grief, in their rage, rising up, breathing together, 96 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:16,520 Speaker 1: reimagining together in a revolutionary moment for black lives and 97 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:18,719 Speaker 1: racial justice that frankly, I never thought I would see 98 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:21,920 Speaker 1: in my lifetime. And when we see, you know, a 99 00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 1: wall of white people in front of black people, kneeling 100 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 1: in the street, in front of an army of police officers, 101 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:30,720 Speaker 1: these are images we didn't see or two, and so 102 00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:34,280 Speaker 1: I keep thinking, am I seeing glimpses? Are we seeing glimpses? 103 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:37,640 Speaker 1: Of the America that is longing to be so yeah, 104 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:45,640 Speaker 1: breathe and push. Just breathe and breathe and push. You 105 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:50,240 Speaker 1: have acknowledged, built on, borrowed from a number of traditions 106 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:53,680 Speaker 1: in your work, Valerie. You are a lawyer. You have 107 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:56,080 Speaker 1: a degree in law, you have a degree in divinity, 108 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:59,040 Speaker 1: you have a degree of bachelor's arts from a lot 109 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:02,720 Speaker 1: of institutions, are very credentialed. The thing that I'm actually 110 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:05,440 Speaker 1: most curious about it came very early in your books, 111 00:07:05,560 --> 00:07:09,520 Speaker 1: you know, Stranger. You wrote, I grew up on forty 112 00:07:09,560 --> 00:07:13,640 Speaker 1: acres in Clovis, California, and I want to know did 113 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:15,400 Speaker 1: you have a mule as well? Like did you have 114 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:19,000 Speaker 1: forty acres and the mule, because I'm just I'm still 115 00:07:19,040 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 1: looking for that. And I was like, we didn't even 116 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:28,680 Speaker 1: have a cow. My dad got the cow, but I 117 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:34,320 Speaker 1: just got strawberries. And yeah, my my family has lived 118 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: and farmed in California for more than a century. And 119 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 1: so I grew up with such a deep connection to 120 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:44,080 Speaker 1: this land, to this soil. And I was raised with 121 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:47,160 Speaker 1: my grandparents, so I still grew up with the stories 122 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:49,600 Speaker 1: and the scriptures and the songs of my sick faith 123 00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:55,920 Speaker 1: and so that was my orientation to the world. And 124 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't severed, of course, until I experienced 125 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:03,240 Speaker 1: my first racial slur, like so many of us young 126 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 1: kids of color. And I feel like my whole life 127 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:08,560 Speaker 1: has been a journey of returning to feeling at home 128 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:12,080 Speaker 1: in my body, at home in the world. The project 129 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:15,240 Speaker 1: that we are embarking on, not just as a podcast 130 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:17,320 Speaker 1: but as a society. You know, it feels like we 131 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:21,520 Speaker 1: have this moment, we're at this tipping point, and which 132 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: way we tip is not a foregone conclusion. It's not 133 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: guaranteed to be great, but it's also not guaranteed to 134 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:32,079 Speaker 1: be devastating. So tomb or womb feels like it's up 135 00:08:32,120 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 1: to us. Yes, you just said in my body. And 136 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,199 Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of this work which feels 137 00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: very external. It's about giving money to organizations. It is 138 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 1: about getting to know our neighbors, you know, as real people, 139 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,520 Speaker 1: and supporting folks on the ground doing work, and re 140 00:08:49,679 --> 00:08:54,160 Speaker 1: engaging with our democracy, with our bodies out there. But 141 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:56,640 Speaker 1: what do you think, and you might have some thoughts 142 00:08:56,679 --> 00:08:59,960 Speaker 1: on the internal work. What is the body of each 143 00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 1: of us? How do we get in touch with that? 144 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: What is the role of that, I think in this 145 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:09,840 Speaker 1: act of citizenship of power to the people. Yes, Naco 146 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:16,479 Speaker 1: Betty nahibgana Naco Betty nehi Beganna, I see no enemy, 147 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:20,199 Speaker 1: I see no stranger. These were the words of God Noni, 148 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:24,280 Speaker 1: the founder of the Sick Faith. And really he was 149 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,760 Speaker 1: just lifting up a call to love that has been 150 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:30,080 Speaker 1: on the lips of Indigenous leaders and spiritual teachers and 151 00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: social reformers for so many centuries. And this is not 152 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:34,839 Speaker 1: about a belief that we hold in our head. I mean, 153 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:37,080 Speaker 1: anti racism is in the air, and so many good 154 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: people are holding it as an idea in their minds, 155 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:42,280 Speaker 1: like trying to be anti racist, trying to be and 156 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:46,400 Speaker 1: actually it doesn't work. To be truly anti racist is 157 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,400 Speaker 1: to orient to the world in a new way. And 158 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:52,040 Speaker 1: so I'm inviting people into thinking about what it means 159 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:57,320 Speaker 1: to see no stranger. George Floyd, brother, Brianna Taylor, sister, 160 00:09:57,920 --> 00:10:01,360 Speaker 1: their children, our children. When we see no stranger, when 161 00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:04,480 Speaker 1: we are brave enough to see no stranger, than it 162 00:10:04,559 --> 00:10:06,640 Speaker 1: must mean being brave enough to let their grief into 163 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:09,560 Speaker 1: our own hearts and to fight for them when they 164 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:14,200 Speaker 1: are in harm's way. So revolutionary love is when we 165 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,680 Speaker 1: are brave enough to see no strangers, not out there 166 00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:20,760 Speaker 1: and not in here. And for so many people of color, 167 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:22,440 Speaker 1: we live in a culture that wants to make us 168 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: strange to ourselves, that wants to sever us from our 169 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:29,520 Speaker 1: own inner knowing. And so the book See No Stranger 170 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:32,000 Speaker 1: is about what it means to practice love, to labor 171 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:36,200 Speaker 1: and love for others, even for opponents, and for ourselves. 172 00:10:36,280 --> 00:10:37,959 Speaker 1: It's a way of moving through the world that is 173 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:41,560 Speaker 1: both personal and political, and it's how we last. I 174 00:10:41,559 --> 00:10:44,520 Speaker 1: I really, brother, You talked about leaving the country, you know, 175 00:10:44,559 --> 00:10:46,800 Speaker 1: not by choice. I actually left the country by choice 176 00:10:47,679 --> 00:10:50,360 Speaker 1: for the election. Right. I was so breathless. People were saying, well, 177 00:10:50,400 --> 00:10:52,560 Speaker 1: how do we breathe? How do we push? And I said, 178 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:55,640 Speaker 1: I don't know. I know in here, but I don't 179 00:10:55,640 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 1: know out here. And so I was given a gift 180 00:10:57,480 --> 00:10:59,800 Speaker 1: that very few women who are mothers and activists are 181 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:02,079 Speaker 1: ever a given. It was given time off and a 182 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:04,319 Speaker 1: room of my own, and I went to a rainforest 183 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:07,640 Speaker 1: in Central America with my family, and I took my 184 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,040 Speaker 1: first deep breath, and I had taken in so many years, really, 185 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:13,640 Speaker 1: since nine eleven, since I had become an activist, and 186 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:15,640 Speaker 1: I poured through the stories of my life, and through 187 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:18,240 Speaker 1: the stories of social movements in the past, and through 188 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:22,400 Speaker 1: our wisdom traditions, and I began to see patterns which 189 00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:26,760 Speaker 1: I came to call practices of revolutionary love. And so 190 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:28,679 Speaker 1: I wrote this book for my own survival, so that 191 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:31,560 Speaker 1: I could come back to the country and last. I 192 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:35,160 Speaker 1: believe when we labor in love, it's how we last. 193 00:11:35,200 --> 00:11:37,120 Speaker 1: And I want to last. I want to grow old. 194 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:50,160 Speaker 1: I want to grow old with you. You mentioned September eleven, 195 00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:52,640 Speaker 1: two thousand one, as a moment of the birth of 196 00:11:52,679 --> 00:11:56,880 Speaker 1: your own activism. What does that event and the consequences 197 00:11:56,920 --> 00:11:58,840 Speaker 1: of it, What does that meant for you? Oh, it 198 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:01,240 Speaker 1: was a new era for us, for all of us, 199 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:04,360 Speaker 1: but especially for those of us who are Muslim or sick. 200 00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:06,640 Speaker 1: In the wake of the horror of those attacks, we 201 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:09,439 Speaker 1: know that hate violence, you know, erupted across city streets. 202 00:12:09,520 --> 00:12:12,560 Speaker 1: And the first person killed and I hate crime after 203 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:16,000 Speaker 1: nine eleven was biber sing Sodi, a man I knew, 204 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:20,440 Speaker 1: a sick, turbaned father who I called uncle. So this 205 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,559 Speaker 1: was before social media, This was before we had any 206 00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:27,040 Speaker 1: channels any ways to tell our own stories. Right, We 207 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 1: barely had email. There were just list serves where people 208 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:31,920 Speaker 1: are saying, my father has been shot, my brother has 209 00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:34,679 Speaker 1: been beaten. Helped us, someone save us. And I was 210 00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:36,920 Speaker 1: a twenty year old college kid. I had an old camera. 211 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 1: I got in my car, I drove across the country 212 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:44,280 Speaker 1: and began capturing these stories of my community. And that 213 00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:48,480 Speaker 1: was the beginning of my life as an activist. And 214 00:12:48,559 --> 00:12:51,240 Speaker 1: you know, back then, Bartunday, we we thought that, we 215 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:53,560 Speaker 1: even called it the backlash. You know, we thought it 216 00:12:53,559 --> 00:12:56,360 Speaker 1: was going to be this narrow, finite era in history 217 00:12:56,400 --> 00:12:59,440 Speaker 1: that we would look back on, and the back flash 218 00:12:59,559 --> 00:13:02,040 Speaker 1: never end. It. We're almost twenty years later, and sick 219 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:04,480 Speaker 1: and Muslim Americans are five times more likely to be 220 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:06,640 Speaker 1: targets of hate than we were before nine eleven. And 221 00:13:06,679 --> 00:13:09,960 Speaker 1: with every film, with every lawsuit, with every campaign, I 222 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:13,240 Speaker 1: thought we were making the nation safer for the next generation. 223 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:16,440 Speaker 1: And then this president takes power, hate crimes skyrocket once again, 224 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:18,600 Speaker 1: rivaling what we saw after nine eleven. And now I'm 225 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:20,800 Speaker 1: a new mother, and I thought, oh my god, my 226 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:23,520 Speaker 1: son is being raised in a country more dangerous for 227 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:26,319 Speaker 1: him than it was for me or even for my grandfather, 228 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:28,800 Speaker 1: who arrived a hundred years ago. How am I going 229 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 1: to last? So the labor for justice? And black people 230 00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:35,560 Speaker 1: know this, You know I came to this late. Right, 231 00:13:35,760 --> 00:13:38,400 Speaker 1: you all noticed that the labor for justice is long 232 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:41,920 Speaker 1: and hard, and it may go on after we leave 233 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:45,120 Speaker 1: this earth. And so how do we last? How do 234 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:49,520 Speaker 1: we labor in love so the labor itself becomes an 235 00:13:49,559 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: end in itself, that the labor becomes joyful. I believe 236 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:56,839 Speaker 1: that laboring for justice with with joy is the meaning 237 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,520 Speaker 1: of life. You you use a phrase days in the 238 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:03,520 Speaker 1: book that I have tried to use to describe this 239 00:14:03,559 --> 00:14:06,640 Speaker 1: show that I've seen others doing similar work do, which 240 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:10,200 Speaker 1: is living in community. We're inside of an experiment, right, 241 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:13,680 Speaker 1: We're in a petriot dish. We call this a democratic experiment, 242 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: but I don't think we often return to the meaning 243 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:19,680 Speaker 1: of that, like we're trying something. That's what an experiment is. 244 00:14:19,760 --> 00:14:24,440 Speaker 1: We're trying to live together, to labor and love together. 245 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:28,560 Speaker 1: In in your words, what are some places, some examples 246 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 1: where you've been a part of community efforts to labor 247 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:39,160 Speaker 1: and love together. Oh, I'm taken back to the aftermath 248 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:44,040 Speaker 1: of the massacre in Oak Creek, Wisconsin in two thousand twelves, 249 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:49,040 Speaker 1: white supremacist walks into a sick, gored water opens fire. 250 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:52,240 Speaker 1: It's the largest attack on six in our history on 251 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:55,280 Speaker 1: the soil, and it barely gets the kind of media 252 00:14:55,320 --> 00:15:00,080 Speaker 1: attention that other mass shootings get. And long after the 253 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,520 Speaker 1: news media left, we stayed. We stayed to watch the 254 00:15:03,560 --> 00:15:07,400 Speaker 1: community grieve together and breathe together, and hold each other 255 00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:13,160 Speaker 1: in their rage and and invite their neighbors to grieve 256 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:17,000 Speaker 1: with them. That memorial, I remember just looking into the 257 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:20,920 Speaker 1: open caskets of people who look like my own aunts 258 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:24,920 Speaker 1: and uncles, and I just lost it. And I looked 259 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:28,520 Speaker 1: behind me, and there were thousands of people pouring through 260 00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:32,360 Speaker 1: those doors. Three thousand people came to grieve with us. 261 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:36,280 Speaker 1: And what I've discovered is that grieving is frontline social 262 00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:41,960 Speaker 1: justice work. People who grieve together then organized together, And 263 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:44,360 Speaker 1: so so many of those people who grieved with us 264 00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:47,200 Speaker 1: were the people who stood by our side as we 265 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:50,560 Speaker 1: spent a year demanding that the government start tracking hate 266 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:54,520 Speaker 1: crimes against our community, and we won. We changed federal 267 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 1: hate crimes policy. We won. So I think about all 268 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:00,800 Speaker 1: the grieving that's happening now in this eats since George 269 00:16:00,800 --> 00:16:04,160 Speaker 1: Floyd's murder and how in our grief, in our bravery, 270 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:10,120 Speaker 1: in our grief, we are building relationships and birthing revolutions 271 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:14,560 Speaker 1: that will actually and are actually dismantling and reimagining institutions 272 00:16:14,560 --> 00:16:18,800 Speaker 1: of power in this country. UM, thank you for that, 273 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:22,280 Speaker 1: because again I'm learning with you as I listen. I'm 274 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:26,720 Speaker 1: also my listener, and I think the idea that action 275 00:16:26,880 --> 00:16:32,080 Speaker 1: in a democracy, you know, civic engagement, these words which 276 00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:35,840 Speaker 1: are so unemotional in most cases, they feel like they 277 00:16:35,880 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: require kind of explicit policy or political intent or execution. 278 00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:49,360 Speaker 1: And what you just described is very human, active empathy 279 00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:52,440 Speaker 1: to grieve with a community, even maybe especially if you're 280 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:55,280 Speaker 1: not a member of that community, to show up for 281 00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:59,920 Speaker 1: someone else in numbers as a prelude to what's the 282 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: US to look like the word organizing, but it sounds 283 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:06,680 Speaker 1: like it's a helpful, if not necessary, precondition. And that's 284 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:09,400 Speaker 1: the work that we are doing about reclaiming love as 285 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:13,520 Speaker 1: a force for justice. That grieving together is revolutionary love, 286 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:16,640 Speaker 1: and holding each other in our rage is revolutionary love, 287 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:21,119 Speaker 1: and listening to each other is revolutionary love. And reimagining 288 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:24,400 Speaker 1: the country together as revolutionary love, as well as the 289 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,399 Speaker 1: big acts of policy demand that you are naming that 290 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:30,119 Speaker 1: all of that is part of an ecosystem of a 291 00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 1: healthy movement, of vibrant movement that's grounded in the ethic 292 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:37,320 Speaker 1: of love. Yeah, I want to get your thoughts on power. 293 00:17:37,760 --> 00:17:41,000 Speaker 1: You drop that word awhile back. It often feels like 294 00:17:41,359 --> 00:17:46,440 Speaker 1: something we are subject to the powers that be, concentrations 295 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:49,560 Speaker 1: of power acting upon the rest of us, and we're 296 00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:53,080 Speaker 1: just sort of passengers and the power mobile maybe being 297 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:58,000 Speaker 1: run over by that power mobile. How do you envision 298 00:17:58,520 --> 00:18:03,199 Speaker 1: conceive of power, especially with respect to the work that 299 00:18:03,280 --> 00:18:06,600 Speaker 1: you're up to in the movements you've been a part of. Well, 300 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:09,879 Speaker 1: there's different forms of power, right The kinds of power 301 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,639 Speaker 1: you are naming is political power, power of the state, 302 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:16,320 Speaker 1: power to divide, to oppressed, to crush. But when I 303 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:19,000 Speaker 1: think about my black sisters and brothers, siblings in my 304 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:24,880 Speaker 1: life who inspire me most, they are powerful in their resilience, 305 00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:29,560 Speaker 1: they are powerful in their wisdom, they are powerful in 306 00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:34,800 Speaker 1: their ability to love beyond limit. And so I think 307 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:41,399 Speaker 1: it's helpful then to think about how we as a 308 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:48,320 Speaker 1: generation are called to live into and untapped that kind 309 00:18:48,359 --> 00:18:52,240 Speaker 1: of power to reimagine the country. And we're seeing it. 310 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,800 Speaker 1: You know, do you remember Bartenda. After this president took power, 311 00:18:55,880 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 1: it was all about resistance. Yeah, hashtags, yeah, like T 312 00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:03,639 Speaker 1: shirts like we were the resistance, and I was proud 313 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,199 Speaker 1: of us. I thought it was bold and necessary for 314 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:09,520 Speaker 1: our survival. But I was so deeply worried because we 315 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:12,000 Speaker 1: were always going to be trapped in in US and 316 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:16,199 Speaker 1: them and an adversarial relationship that put them in power, 317 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:19,760 Speaker 1: you know, and kept us power less if you were 318 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:23,280 Speaker 1: just resisting. And what I'm so inspired by now is 319 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:29,240 Speaker 1: that we are moving from resistance to reimagining, reimagining every 320 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:31,960 Speaker 1: institution on the face of this country, not just policing 321 00:19:32,119 --> 00:19:36,760 Speaker 1: and public safety and criminal justice, but our economies are 322 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:39,840 Speaker 1: in the small institutions in our lives, are our families, 323 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:43,880 Speaker 1: our workplaces are industries, are houses of worship. I think 324 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:47,760 Speaker 1: about how all of the great social reformers in history, 325 00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:49,840 Speaker 1: and I'm gonna read just a piece of this book 326 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:53,639 Speaker 1: to you, they did more than just resist a few 327 00:19:54,119 --> 00:19:57,959 Speaker 1: bad actors. They held up a vision of the world 328 00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:02,679 Speaker 1: as it ought to be, nonax saying it, Mohammed led it, 329 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:07,320 Speaker 1: Jesus taught it, but the envisioned it. King dreamt it, 330 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:11,560 Speaker 1: Dorothy Day labored for it. Mandela lived it. Gandhi died 331 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:15,760 Speaker 1: for it. Grace Lee bogs fought for it for seven decades. 332 00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:19,320 Speaker 1: They call for us not just to unseat bad actors, 333 00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:24,840 Speaker 1: but to reimagine the institutions of power that ordered the world. 334 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:30,159 Speaker 1: Any social harm can betraced institutions that produce it, authorize it, 335 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,919 Speaker 1: or otherwise profit from it. To undo the injustice, we 336 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:38,400 Speaker 1: have to imagine new institutions and step in to lead them. 337 00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:43,720 Speaker 1: That act of reimagining institutions sounds big when I when 338 00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 1: I hear names like Gandhi and Grace Lee Boggs and King, 339 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:51,959 Speaker 1: and like those are big people, their big names. They 340 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:55,400 Speaker 1: led folks, They walked into the firing line, sometimes almost literally. 341 00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:59,720 Speaker 1: What is the person who is unknown to most of 342 00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:03,480 Speaker 1: us to do in the act of reimagining? What is 343 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:09,840 Speaker 1: the role of the un celebrity of the citizen in 344 00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:14,520 Speaker 1: this reimagining? That is so important? Isn't that what you're 345 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:18,800 Speaker 1: doing with this podcast. Isn't this a container for all 346 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:22,120 Speaker 1: of us to hear voices and stories how to reimagine 347 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:25,719 Speaker 1: the country, reimagine the world and our tiny piece of it. 348 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,960 Speaker 1: All of us have a sphere of influence, a community 349 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:35,000 Speaker 1: within reach that we can labor inside and help transition. 350 00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: I'm going to read one more piece of this because 351 00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:40,280 Speaker 1: i feel like it's something that I had to remind 352 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:43,679 Speaker 1: myself of when I feel so overwhelmed and I feel 353 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:48,159 Speaker 1: like I am not enough. Remember the stars of my 354 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:50,280 Speaker 1: childhood and the country I could look up and see 355 00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,520 Speaker 1: the stars. I had forgotten the stars after so many 356 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:56,399 Speaker 1: years of activism. I had forgotten to look up. The 357 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:59,240 Speaker 1: stars burning so strong and long that their light reaches 358 00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:02,360 Speaker 1: us long after they have died. Isn't that what our 359 00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:06,040 Speaker 1: lives and our activism should look like. Not the supernova 360 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,800 Speaker 1: a single outburst under pressure. We must be the long 361 00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:13,880 Speaker 1: burning star right and study, contained and sustained for our 362 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,680 Speaker 1: energy to reach the next generation long after we die. 363 00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:20,720 Speaker 1: Oh and to be part of a constellation. Let us 364 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:23,760 Speaker 1: see ourselves as part of a larger picture, even if 365 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:26,600 Speaker 1: we are like the second star on Orion's belt or 366 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:28,960 Speaker 1: the seventh of the Seven Sisters. For there is no 367 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:32,440 Speaker 1: greater gift than to be part of a movement larger 368 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,760 Speaker 1: than ourselves. That means that we only need to be 369 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:40,200 Speaker 1: responsible for our own small patch of sky, our specific 370 00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:44,240 Speaker 1: area of influence. We need only to shine our particular 371 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:48,080 Speaker 1: point of light, long and steady to become part of 372 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:52,679 Speaker 1: stories sewn into the heaven. That's beautiful. Can you just 373 00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:57,159 Speaker 1: read the whole whole book to us. We can do 374 00:22:57,160 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: it in chapters, we can do it in installments, or 375 00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:03,359 Speaker 1: were ever works out for you for you? Um that 376 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:06,200 Speaker 1: the vision of each of us as a star, first 377 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,520 Speaker 1: of all, that's dope because we're all stars, um, and 378 00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:15,280 Speaker 1: the constellation that the night sky is not about one star, right, 379 00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:19,399 Speaker 1: It's about the collection of stars which paint this beautiful picture. 380 00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:23,439 Speaker 1: And we're in this sort of cosmic concert together. So 381 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,919 Speaker 1: I like that being a source of light isn't just 382 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:28,840 Speaker 1: something we look to the sun for the sun is 383 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:32,560 Speaker 1: merely a star. Um. So for anyone who feels like 384 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,880 Speaker 1: I'm not gandhi like that's you don't have to set 385 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:38,679 Speaker 1: that bar. You're a star to The word citizen is 386 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:42,560 Speaker 1: something that I, UM wasn't certain I wanted to put 387 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:47,960 Speaker 1: in the title of this show because of its negative meaning, 388 00:23:48,119 --> 00:23:52,119 Speaker 1: because there are people who have that legal status and 389 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:56,119 Speaker 1: people who don't, and I didn't want to send that signal, 390 00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:57,800 Speaker 1: draw that line in the sand. Well, this is only 391 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:01,320 Speaker 1: for people with a social Security number of the right paperwork, 392 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:05,080 Speaker 1: and I had to step back from that and say, no, 393 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,240 Speaker 1: this is we're going to reclaim, We're going to reimagine. Right, 394 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:11,399 Speaker 1: that was that was the point. Yes, what do you 395 00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:15,359 Speaker 1: make of the word citizen, um, in the context of 396 00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:17,080 Speaker 1: the work in your life, in the context of your 397 00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:22,000 Speaker 1: famili's century long history in this country, or maybe that 398 00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,359 Speaker 1: legal status wasn't always available um and we have the 399 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,879 Speaker 1: current battles over who deserves to be seen as a 400 00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,919 Speaker 1: person with citizen kind of hanging in the balance. Oh, 401 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:38,679 Speaker 1: that words citizen. I have struggled over the word precisely 402 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,720 Speaker 1: because it was something that was denied to my family 403 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,200 Speaker 1: for so long, and now that we have it. I 404 00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:46,480 Speaker 1: always thought, in the words of Hannah Rent, that the 405 00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:50,720 Speaker 1: citizenship was that thin membrane to protect us from state violence. 406 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:53,440 Speaker 1: And now even that is not enough, especially if you're 407 00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,520 Speaker 1: sick or Muslim in this country. Thinking about all that 408 00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 1: we have suffered in the form of national security policies 409 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:02,880 Speaker 1: sin Stine eleven, and that is alongside our Latin ex 410 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:06,159 Speaker 1: brothers and sisters and siblings are other indigenous folks. I 411 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:08,879 Speaker 1: mean that the word citizen is not the kind of 412 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:13,200 Speaker 1: protective label that we thought it was. That I thought 413 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:17,960 Speaker 1: it was, And so I like what you're doing, brother, 414 00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:20,520 Speaker 1: I like what you're doing. You're you're reclaiming it, and 415 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:24,000 Speaker 1: you're reimagining it, you're infusing it with new meanings, so 416 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:26,879 Speaker 1: that it's no longer about a legal status, but about 417 00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:30,879 Speaker 1: a set of responsibilities and a set of callings for 418 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:34,560 Speaker 1: how to show up in the world with bravery and 419 00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 1: with integrity and with dignity, and for you to say no, 420 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:40,399 Speaker 1: all of us, all of us can become. All of 421 00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 1: us are citizens. And and to citizen is a verb, 422 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:46,200 Speaker 1: it's an action that we take. I and my offering 423 00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:49,280 Speaker 1: is like, I believe that we citizen through revolutionary love. 424 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,199 Speaker 1: I believe that showing up with the revolutionary love is 425 00:25:53,240 --> 00:26:06,439 Speaker 1: how to citizen. There's a part of your work and 426 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:09,760 Speaker 1: a part of this whole project, this experiment of living 427 00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:13,800 Speaker 1: in community with others. That is very challenging when the 428 00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,600 Speaker 1: others with whom we live are a challenge to us, 429 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:21,760 Speaker 1: when we do not see eye to eye, when they 430 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:26,360 Speaker 1: are fighting tooth and nail to maybe deny and us 431 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:32,439 Speaker 1: some dignity, some resource, some livelihood. And we're living in 432 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,000 Speaker 1: a time right now have great division in our experiment. 433 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:38,080 Speaker 1: It's always been divided the United States of America never 434 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:41,320 Speaker 1: fully united, but now it feels pressing. And there's things 435 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:43,760 Speaker 1: that you call for in your work that have to 436 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:50,720 Speaker 1: do with listening, to engaging with acknowledging those who we 437 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:53,640 Speaker 1: might think of as enemies. I think you call them opponents. 438 00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:56,199 Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about that. The community is not 439 00:26:56,240 --> 00:26:59,520 Speaker 1: all like minded, and so the role of and the 440 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:03,760 Speaker 1: way to engage with those who are differently minded while 441 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:08,000 Speaker 1: not giving up the integrity of our own right to 442 00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:13,880 Speaker 1: be feels like a very important and potentially difficult path 443 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:16,720 Speaker 1: to walk. What are your thoughts, Oh, it's so difficult. 444 00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:21,679 Speaker 1: It's the hardest part. If I'm seeing no stranger, how 445 00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:24,359 Speaker 1: do I look into the faces of people who disgust me, 446 00:27:24,440 --> 00:27:28,560 Speaker 1: who I want to hate, and see them as a 447 00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,520 Speaker 1: part of me? I do not yet know. I mean, 448 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,359 Speaker 1: what does it mean to love them? The audacity to 449 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:36,760 Speaker 1: ask that? And when I think about what you're doing 450 00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,679 Speaker 1: with the words citizen, you have to be citizens and 451 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:43,359 Speaker 1: you have to citizens in community right So too, I 452 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,240 Speaker 1: believe that we as citizens all have different roles in 453 00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:49,280 Speaker 1: the labor for justice at different times. So if you 454 00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:51,720 Speaker 1: are someone right now who has a knee on your neck, 455 00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:54,719 Speaker 1: like so many black people and brown people do right now. 456 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,800 Speaker 1: It is not necessarily your role to look up at 457 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,080 Speaker 1: your oppressor and wonder about him, listen to him, or 458 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:03,720 Speaker 1: even try to love him. You know, your job is 459 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,240 Speaker 1: to stay alive. Your job is to take the next breath. 460 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,879 Speaker 1: Your job is to survive. That is your revolutionary act. 461 00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:12,760 Speaker 1: But if you are someone, by virtue of your white 462 00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:16,240 Speaker 1: skin or whatever privilege you wield, who is safe enough 463 00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:19,040 Speaker 1: and brave enough to sit with those kinds of opponents, 464 00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,040 Speaker 1: then perhaps it is your role to tend to their wounds. 465 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:26,479 Speaker 1: Because what we know to be true is that no 466 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,560 Speaker 1: matter who is elected on on election Day in November, 467 00:28:30,119 --> 00:28:32,560 Speaker 1: all those disaffected wife folks out there, they're still gonna 468 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:34,560 Speaker 1: be around the next day. So what do we do 469 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:37,560 Speaker 1: with them? And this book is filled with stories of 470 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:41,080 Speaker 1: times when I have sat with white supremacists. I have 471 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,480 Speaker 1: sat with prison guards and soldiers. I've sat with former abusers, 472 00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:47,920 Speaker 1: And every time I want to leave, I stay right. 473 00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:51,680 Speaker 1: It's a discipline to stay and keep listening and beneath 474 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:54,560 Speaker 1: their slogans and sound bites, I start to hear their 475 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:58,600 Speaker 1: story and then I start to see their pain. I 476 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:03,240 Speaker 1: start to see their wound. See, I have learned that 477 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:05,920 Speaker 1: there are no such thing as monsters in this world. 478 00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:10,000 Speaker 1: There are only human beings who are wounded, who who 479 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:11,880 Speaker 1: do what they do out of their own sense of 480 00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:16,760 Speaker 1: insecurity or anxiety, or greed or blindness, And their participation 481 00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,080 Speaker 1: and oppression comes at a cost. It cuts them off 482 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:23,160 Speaker 1: from their own capacity to love. So the thing about 483 00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,200 Speaker 1: this Barton Day revolutionary love is to labor for others, 484 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:28,720 Speaker 1: our opponents, and ourselves. It is not just moral, It 485 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 1: is strategic. It is pragmatic because once I gain information, 486 00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:35,360 Speaker 1: ha ha, there we go. I knew there was a hook. 487 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,800 Speaker 1: I'm like, wait for it, wait for it. Here it comes. Yes, 488 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:45,160 Speaker 1: tell me about the strategy of this. The strategy is like, 489 00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,200 Speaker 1: I need to know what you're listening to, what radio programs, 490 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:51,040 Speaker 1: who's putting the guns in your hands, what institutions are 491 00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:53,920 Speaker 1: radicalizing you are authorizing you to hurt us? And then 492 00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:58,080 Speaker 1: I can be so much more smart about our strategies 493 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:01,280 Speaker 1: for campaigning for change. I mean, our goal then is 494 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:03,240 Speaker 1: not just to unseat a few bad apples, a few 495 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,040 Speaker 1: bad police officers, or even to unseat this president. I mean, 496 00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:08,320 Speaker 1: we need to do that, but I'm more interested in 497 00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:10,320 Speaker 1: changing the conditions that put them into office in the 498 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:14,720 Speaker 1: first place. I'm more interested in dismantling and or reimagining 499 00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:18,360 Speaker 1: the institutions of power that harm all of us. I mean, 500 00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:21,080 Speaker 1: our suffering is not equal. But those who hold the 501 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:25,160 Speaker 1: keys to ourselves, who are trained whore training their eyes 502 00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:28,320 Speaker 1: to see us as animals, that too takes the cost. 503 00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:31,160 Speaker 1: And so what does it mean to hold up a 504 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:35,520 Speaker 1: vision that liberates all of us? That that is our 505 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:40,600 Speaker 1: revolutionary intervention? I thank you for that. The strategy got me, 506 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:42,760 Speaker 1: and I think that there was purpose to it. It 507 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:49,040 Speaker 1: isn't just self flagellation. Look how much I can suffer. 508 00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:52,640 Speaker 1: Look how novel I am to walk into the lions den. 509 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,240 Speaker 1: There's lions, and you know what I mean. So it's 510 00:30:55,280 --> 00:30:59,400 Speaker 1: like understanding I'm gonna run this lion metaphor too far, 511 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:03,880 Speaker 1: Understanding what the lions eat, understanding why they look at 512 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:07,040 Speaker 1: you the way they do, what their needs are. And 513 00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:09,680 Speaker 1: I think, you know, the way you just described some 514 00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:13,960 Speaker 1: of these individuals that you've interacted with with their wounds, 515 00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:16,760 Speaker 1: You're in a relationship with them. And I think that 516 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: in a collective sense, we're in a relationship with our nation, 517 00:31:20,280 --> 00:31:23,640 Speaker 1: and our nation has wounds right, and it has traumas 518 00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:26,800 Speaker 1: in its past, and it has pain, And for us 519 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:29,800 Speaker 1: to not merely condemn, but seek to wonder about and 520 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,680 Speaker 1: understand this place that we have a right to that 521 00:31:32,960 --> 00:31:35,640 Speaker 1: if we're here, we have a right to it, papers 522 00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:39,080 Speaker 1: are not. We've contributed something that we can apply some 523 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:43,240 Speaker 1: of those same metaphors and same lessons to that collective 524 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,560 Speaker 1: relationship as well as our individual ones in our lives. Yes, 525 00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:50,720 Speaker 1: that's it. And I always say that we need all 526 00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:54,040 Speaker 1: three kinds of practices of love, for love to be revolutionaries, 527 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,480 Speaker 1: for so loving just our opponents that is self loathing, 528 00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:04,160 Speaker 1: loving just ourselves that is escapism, and loving just others 529 00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:09,440 Speaker 1: that's ineffective. And too many of our movements have been there. 530 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:11,800 Speaker 1: And I am really proud of the deep bonds of 531 00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:14,479 Speaker 1: solidarity that we are seeing and how people are are 532 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,160 Speaker 1: loving each other and our movements for justice. But how 533 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,800 Speaker 1: many young activists are dying early or taking their lives 534 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:23,920 Speaker 1: or getting sick or opting out. We're not building enough 535 00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,200 Speaker 1: spaces to help each other, love ourselves, to love our 536 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:29,640 Speaker 1: own flesh and blood so that we will last. And 537 00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:31,680 Speaker 1: then how many of us are tempted to mirror the 538 00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:33,920 Speaker 1: kind of victual that we are fighting. We cannot become 539 00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,720 Speaker 1: what we are fighting against. So this ethic of love, 540 00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:38,720 Speaker 1: you know, to hold each other in community, and to 541 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:42,040 Speaker 1: start to practice and cultivate love for ourselves, even for 542 00:32:42,080 --> 00:32:45,280 Speaker 1: our opponents and others, that I think is how we 543 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:47,720 Speaker 1: can sustain each other in a way that we can 544 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:51,600 Speaker 1: last with integrity, with our souls intact. Well, I mean, 545 00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:53,320 Speaker 1: I definitely want my soul to be intact. I don't 546 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:55,480 Speaker 1: even know that was on the line. Thank you's on line. 547 00:32:55,600 --> 00:33:01,920 Speaker 1: You just raised the bar ourselves, opponents and others. Three 548 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:03,880 Speaker 1: oh s. I like that You've kind of designed this 549 00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:07,480 Speaker 1: whole thing. There's a piece, Go ahead, sorry, I add, 550 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:09,560 Speaker 1: I mean this is this is why I draw heavily 551 00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:12,240 Speaker 1: from black thinkers in this book, heavily from Bell Hooks 552 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:16,440 Speaker 1: and Audrey lord Um and Tony Morrison. I shall permit 553 00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:18,480 Speaker 1: no man, no matter what his color might be, to 554 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:21,400 Speaker 1: narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him, 555 00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:25,600 Speaker 1: said book or T. Washington Tony Morrison. Hate does that 556 00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:28,920 Speaker 1: burns off everything but itself. So whatever your grievance is, 557 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:32,760 Speaker 1: your face looks just like your enemies. I choose to 558 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: love my opponents I choose to see their humanity in 559 00:33:36,760 --> 00:33:40,920 Speaker 1: order to preserve my own. Laboring to love my opponents 560 00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:43,880 Speaker 1: is also how I love myself. This is not the 561 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,560 Speaker 1: stuff of saintliness. This is our birthright. If we if 562 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:54,240 Speaker 1: we do this work of love, radical revolutionary, and we 563 00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 1: do it in community, what do we risk if we 564 00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,800 Speaker 1: don't focus on the self, on the work that we 565 00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:03,360 Speaker 1: have to do inside? What? What do you think happens 566 00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:06,000 Speaker 1: if we have this sort of imbalanced approach. I think 567 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,080 Speaker 1: by your own definition of the whole approach, we lose everything, 568 00:34:09,160 --> 00:34:12,680 Speaker 1: don't we. I don't know. Bartune day, when this president 569 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:15,600 Speaker 1: took power and I was putting my son to sleep 570 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:18,960 Speaker 1: at night, there was a voice in my head that 571 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:23,040 Speaker 1: was like, I can't I can't live in this world. 572 00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:27,080 Speaker 1: I'm not strong enough. I had. I had pushed for 573 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:32,320 Speaker 1: so long and so hard, and ground my own bones 574 00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:35,759 Speaker 1: to the ground, and thought that serving meant I had 575 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: to suffer and keep myself suffering. That I had forgotten 576 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:44,759 Speaker 1: that my own life, that my own body was beloved 577 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:49,319 Speaker 1: and worth fighting for. And it took this year in 578 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,279 Speaker 1: the rainforest for me to really begin to understand that 579 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:56,279 Speaker 1: we can't last if we're not loving ourselves, and I 580 00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,239 Speaker 1: don't call it self love when you are barely hanging 581 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:01,640 Speaker 1: on by a threat. It's not your job then to 582 00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:04,279 Speaker 1: love yourself. You know you need to. You need community 583 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:06,760 Speaker 1: to help you love. Like we don't give birth alone, 584 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:09,160 Speaker 1: we don't go to battle alone. Like in any long labor, 585 00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:11,839 Speaker 1: including the labor of keeping ourselves healthy and alive and well, 586 00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:14,160 Speaker 1: we need each other. We depend on each other. So 587 00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:19,160 Speaker 1: cultivating communities of care where we are taking seriously are 588 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:26,560 Speaker 1: our own precious lives. I worry sometimes about this incredible, energetic, 589 00:35:26,719 --> 00:35:29,680 Speaker 1: new rising generation. I see myself in them. I remember 590 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:31,840 Speaker 1: what it was like to get arrested for the first time, 591 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,920 Speaker 1: and you know, to speak truth to power holding a 592 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:38,279 Speaker 1: megaphone in the streets. And and I also just wanted 593 00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:41,200 Speaker 1: to tell him, oh, breathe, my love, this is going 594 00:35:41,239 --> 00:35:45,080 Speaker 1: to be one long labor. Are you sleeping enough, are 595 00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:48,239 Speaker 1: you drinking enough water? Are you breathing? Who is going 596 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:51,480 Speaker 1: to have your back? And how will you remember to 597 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,239 Speaker 1: love yourself well enough so in twenty years you can last, 598 00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:55,880 Speaker 1: So you don't have that voice in your head like 599 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,319 Speaker 1: I had in mind. I could spend five hours with you. 600 00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:01,000 Speaker 1: I will not, but I think I have two more 601 00:36:01,640 --> 00:36:06,839 Speaker 1: thoughts slash questions. So much of what the focus of 602 00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:09,920 Speaker 1: our civic energy right now in the US is is 603 00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:14,319 Speaker 1: about this president, as it was eight years ago with 604 00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:18,560 Speaker 1: the last presidential transition. We just get rid of this president, 605 00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:23,080 Speaker 1: we will solve things, or we hate so much because 606 00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:26,080 Speaker 1: there is so much to hate about the actions and 607 00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:30,440 Speaker 1: the cruelty done in our name through this administration. Do 608 00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:33,600 Speaker 1: you have any concern that we have in focusing on 609 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:37,960 Speaker 1: this president actually given this person too much power? Oh? 610 00:36:38,040 --> 00:36:43,000 Speaker 1: Of course, I even thought that this president was an aberration, 611 00:36:43,800 --> 00:36:46,600 Speaker 1: that if we just could remove him, it would all 612 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,200 Speaker 1: be okay again. But we know that normal was never 613 00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:53,120 Speaker 1: okay for black and brown and Indigenous people. And it 614 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:56,319 Speaker 1: took me going to the rainforest and really seeing my 615 00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:59,520 Speaker 1: country from the outside of it for me to really 616 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:05,000 Speaker 1: wreck it. And with genocide and slavery. I mean that 617 00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:07,400 Speaker 1: farmland that I grew up on, that was my own, 618 00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:11,240 Speaker 1: that I belonged to, There is blood in that land. 619 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,960 Speaker 1: Just a few decades ago, the largest, most documented genocide 620 00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:20,279 Speaker 1: of Native peoples took place in California, and a few 621 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:24,520 Speaker 1: decades later, my grandfather arrived as if those people were 622 00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:28,480 Speaker 1: never there and we were complicit, right, And so if 623 00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:32,399 Speaker 1: we take indigenous people's memories as a true starting point 624 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:35,640 Speaker 1: of the history of the America's then this presidency is 625 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:39,480 Speaker 1: not an aberration. It is a continuation of what helped 626 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:43,239 Speaker 1: found this country, of the white supremacist violence that has 627 00:37:43,320 --> 00:37:47,319 Speaker 1: built this country through slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, mass incarceration 628 00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:51,360 Speaker 1: now and so, so once we understand that, once we 629 00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:53,560 Speaker 1: see this president as simply a symptom, I mean, the 630 00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:56,560 Speaker 1: ugliest form of that symptom, so vivid, so in front 631 00:37:56,600 --> 00:38:00,360 Speaker 1: of our faces every day. But if we just remove him, 632 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:04,200 Speaker 1: all of the institutions that were founded on those beliefs, 633 00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:07,759 Speaker 1: all of the cultural norms that that moved through him 634 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:10,719 Speaker 1: and his body and breath, right like, those don't go away, 635 00:38:10,719 --> 00:38:13,520 Speaker 1: and all of his supporters don't either. So what we're 636 00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:17,360 Speaker 1: talking about is a much longer transition. And this is 637 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:19,520 Speaker 1: the timeline. I know we're looking to November, and it 638 00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:21,920 Speaker 1: doesn't matter. I mean, I really do want to unseat 639 00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:24,600 Speaker 1: this president because then we give ourselves a chance to 640 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:27,280 Speaker 1: labor for our nation instead of just being in crisis 641 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:29,680 Speaker 1: response mode. And that's what too many of us did 642 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:32,319 Speaker 1: right under Obomber. Like it's done we went home, and 643 00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:37,160 Speaker 1: it's like no, no, Actually, the window opens, the labor begins, begins, 644 00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:39,080 Speaker 1: because this moment that we are in, we are in 645 00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:43,759 Speaker 1: a much larger transition moment. Within twenty five years, the 646 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:46,080 Speaker 1: number of people of color will exceed the number of 647 00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:49,839 Speaker 1: white people for the first time since colonization. So, yes, 648 00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:53,520 Speaker 1: we are at a crossroads. Will we continue to descend 649 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:56,360 Speaker 1: into a kind of civil war, a power struggle with 650 00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:58,440 Speaker 1: people who want to return America to a past where 651 00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:02,920 Speaker 1: certain class of white people hold power, or will we 652 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:06,080 Speaker 1: begin to birth a nation that has never been on 653 00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:08,880 Speaker 1: the face of this planet, a nation made up of 654 00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:13,920 Speaker 1: other nations, a nation that is truly multiracial, multi faith, multicultural, 655 00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:19,000 Speaker 1: where we see no stranger. Those are the stakes. And 656 00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:22,680 Speaker 1: when with climate change, you know what time is running out? Yeah? Yeah, 657 00:39:23,120 --> 00:39:27,040 Speaker 1: what we do what our generation does not just between 658 00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:29,600 Speaker 1: now and November, but past November. Oh, it matters. It 659 00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:31,879 Speaker 1: matters not only for the future of our country. How 660 00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:34,120 Speaker 1: we citizen matters for the future of the earth and 661 00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:36,719 Speaker 1: for the future of humanity. I literally couldn't have said 662 00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:41,239 Speaker 1: it better myself. Now. Normally, when you got a show 663 00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:43,880 Speaker 1: called How to Citizen with Baritun Day and your guests 664 00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:49,360 Speaker 1: says something that powerful. You cut the interview. It's over. 665 00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:54,319 Speaker 1: That's a wrap. But I couldn't let it go at that. 666 00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,640 Speaker 1: Valerie said one more thing that I think you need 667 00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:02,920 Speaker 1: to hear. So check out what she did and learned 668 00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:10,640 Speaker 1: about herself on election night. On election night, I keep 669 00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:13,560 Speaker 1: going back there because we're about to experience another election night. 670 00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:18,640 Speaker 1: Right as the results came in, I remember, you know, horror, 671 00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:22,200 Speaker 1: seizing my my body and my hand on my mouth, 672 00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:24,319 Speaker 1: and my son, who was almost two at the time, 673 00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:29,440 Speaker 1: tugged my sleeve and said, dance time, mommy. And I 674 00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:32,680 Speaker 1: looked at my husband saying, not tonight, I mean, how 675 00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:36,040 Speaker 1: the last thing. And my husband looked at me and 676 00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:39,120 Speaker 1: he just shrugs, you know, and he says, your rules, 677 00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,720 Speaker 1: you said every night, looks I like to lay the rules. Okay. 678 00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:45,960 Speaker 1: So we turned down the music and in the first beginning, 679 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:48,120 Speaker 1: oh my god, barre to me. I was so miserable. 680 00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,880 Speaker 1: I was just weighing back and forth. I just felt 681 00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:53,560 Speaker 1: like I was a zombie, so dead. And my son, 682 00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:57,360 Speaker 1: you know, baby, your fire, your work, and he leaps 683 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,480 Speaker 1: into my arms and suddenly he's like, throw me up, mommy. 684 00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:05,239 Speaker 1: Boom boom, boom, even writers on the room set them up, 685 00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:08,240 Speaker 1: and he's squealing and he's laughing, and suddenly I'm laughing 686 00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:10,359 Speaker 1: and he's dancing and I'm dancing, and baritune day we 687 00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:16,320 Speaker 1: were dancing on election night. I mean, I just anyone 688 00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:19,160 Speaker 1: who may have like seen into your home from a distance, 689 00:41:20,080 --> 00:41:22,359 Speaker 1: I can imagine what they're thinking, which is like, those 690 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:24,920 Speaker 1: are not the people I would have thought celebrating tonight, 691 00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:32,480 Speaker 1: But hey, is America's that's right. Afterwards, I felt this 692 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,800 Speaker 1: energy rising up in my body which I can only 693 00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:41,560 Speaker 1: describe as as joy. And I thought, oh, in the 694 00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:45,799 Speaker 1: sick faith, it's called nicola ever rising spirits, even in 695 00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:50,520 Speaker 1: the darkness, joyfulness, even in the labor. And I thought, oh, 696 00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:55,200 Speaker 1: joy is our greatest act of moral resistance. Joy returns 697 00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:58,160 Speaker 1: us to everything that is good and beautiful and worth 698 00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:01,520 Speaker 1: fighting for, Joe. It will give us energy in this 699 00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:05,319 Speaker 1: long labor for justice. So how are you protecting your 700 00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:14,399 Speaker 1: joy every day? Yo? So you feel that too? Right? 701 00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:20,960 Speaker 1: That mind expansion, that heart expansion, that dopeness of Valerie Cower, 702 00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,920 Speaker 1: who I knew was powerful. That's why I booked her. 703 00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:26,640 Speaker 1: But yeoh, she blew me out the water. And I'm 704 00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:31,000 Speaker 1: still hearing her words. I'm hearing her say there are 705 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,200 Speaker 1: no such things as monsters in this world, only human 706 00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:38,200 Speaker 1: beings who have been wounded. I'm hearing her say, love ourselves, 707 00:42:38,680 --> 00:42:42,840 Speaker 1: others and our opponents. I'm hearing her say, how we 708 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:46,000 Speaker 1: citizen matters for the future of the earth and the 709 00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:50,680 Speaker 1: future of humanity. I mean, no pressure, new show. Wow. 710 00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:55,160 Speaker 1: We make this show for you, not just to listen to, 711 00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:57,520 Speaker 1: not just to watch, and we have video as well. 712 00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:00,200 Speaker 1: We make this show to give us all the to 713 00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:04,200 Speaker 1: practice how to citizen, to turn our outrage and our 714 00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:07,640 Speaker 1: energy into actions that were taken together on the topics 715 00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:11,440 Speaker 1: we explore in this series, we'll have an impact on 716 00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:14,680 Speaker 1: our communities. Like I said at the beginning of this show, 717 00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:17,719 Speaker 1: how the citizen at its core is about relationships with 718 00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:21,360 Speaker 1: ourselves and with others. So in each episode, we're going 719 00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:25,680 Speaker 1: to share things you can do internally and externally to 720 00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:29,920 Speaker 1: strengthen your citizen practice. When I call it a citizen practice, 721 00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:32,600 Speaker 1: it reminds me of my older sister Belinda and her 722 00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:35,840 Speaker 1: yoga studio and her yoga practice. So this is for you. 723 00:43:36,120 --> 00:43:40,520 Speaker 1: This for this episode, here's what you can do. We've 724 00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:44,640 Speaker 1: adapted something straight out of Valorie's book see No Stranger. 725 00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:48,040 Speaker 1: It's a writing exercise and we want you to spend 726 00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:53,839 Speaker 1: fifteen minutes on it to reflect internally on these five prompts. Now, 727 00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:57,640 Speaker 1: this reflection is about the journey, not the destination. This 728 00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:00,800 Speaker 1: is not about having the right answers or the shortest 729 00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:02,799 Speaker 1: one word answers that are going to assure you a 730 00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:09,240 Speaker 1: great grade. We're not grading. Spend some time, breathe into 731 00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:12,400 Speaker 1: this and push out the answers that feel most true 732 00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:15,600 Speaker 1: for you. Laying this kind of foundation is going to 733 00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:20,000 Speaker 1: be important later as we start taking actions focused a 734 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:25,120 Speaker 1: bit more on external relationships with others. So the five prompts. 735 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:29,600 Speaker 1: Number one, what is your superpower in our fight to 736 00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:32,680 Speaker 1: make society better for us all? Is it your voice? 737 00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:35,440 Speaker 1: Is your depen? Is it a bank account? Number two? 738 00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,560 Speaker 1: What protects you and who has your back when things 739 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:43,799 Speaker 1: get tough? Number three? Who is your beloved community, your 740 00:44:44,080 --> 00:44:47,880 Speaker 1: revolutionary pocket, the group of people you connect most with, 741 00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:50,600 Speaker 1: the group that will show up when things get tough. 742 00:44:51,760 --> 00:44:55,760 Speaker 1: Number four? What object or activity will ground and center 743 00:44:55,800 --> 00:44:59,719 Speaker 1: you and remind you of who you are? Number five? 744 00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:02,880 Speaker 1: Where do you find joy? And what are you going 745 00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:06,879 Speaker 1: to do every day? To protect that joy. We would 746 00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:10,759 Speaker 1: love to hear, see, or just read your reflections to 747 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:14,960 Speaker 1: any or all of these questions. Email us old school 748 00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:19,479 Speaker 1: action at how to citizen dot com. Help us out 749 00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:23,040 Speaker 1: by mentioning episode zero or prelude in the subject line. 750 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:27,480 Speaker 1: We are so grateful to Valerie Coward for helping us 751 00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:30,959 Speaker 1: give birth to this show. Please check out her Revolutionary 752 00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:34,480 Speaker 1: Love Project dot com or dive into her book and 753 00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:38,359 Speaker 1: curriculum at See No Stranger dot com and follow her 754 00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:42,440 Speaker 1: on Twitter at Valerie Cower V A L A R 755 00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:46,040 Speaker 1: I E K A. You are and if you like 756 00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:50,640 Speaker 1: what you experienced here, please share this show. Leave review 757 00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:55,160 Speaker 1: five stars is my humble suggestion, and sign up from 758 00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:58,719 Speaker 1: my newsletter at baritunda dot com, where I will announce 759 00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:04,440 Speaker 1: the upcoming live tapings and more from audience members like you. 760 00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:06,360 Speaker 1: You can even send me a text to two O 761 00:46:06,560 --> 00:46:10,279 Speaker 1: two eight nine four eight four four let me know 762 00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:13,200 Speaker 1: you found me by just putting the word citizens, so 763 00:46:13,320 --> 00:46:14,880 Speaker 1: I know where you came from and I'll send you 764 00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:18,320 Speaker 1: updates that way as well. How do Citizen with barrattun 765 00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:22,520 Speaker 1: Day is a production of I Heart Radio Podcasts, Executive 766 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:27,320 Speaker 1: produced by Nick Stump, Miles Gray Elizabeth Stewart and barrattun 767 00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:32,360 Speaker 1: Day Thirsty, Produced by Joel Smith, Edited by Justin Smith, 768 00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:34,440 Speaker 1: Power by You,