Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to OKF Daily with me
Speaker 1: your girl, Danielle Moody recording from the Long Island Bunker. Folks,
Speaker 1: when we have the opportunity to have Jonathan Metsal on,
Speaker 1: we usually get into conversations about gun rights because that
Speaker 1: is Jonathan's specialty, and you know how our rights as
Speaker 1: citizens and our safety are being eroded. And in today's
Speaker 1: conversation we take a look at the hearing that just
Speaker 1: recently took place in Tennessee that was supposed to be
Speaker 1: about how to make schools and environments more safe after
Speaker 1: the Covenant shooting that took the lives of several children
Speaker 1: and adults. It was the shooting that would spark massive
Speaker 1: protests in Tennessee and then have the Tennessee Three with
Speaker 1: two the Justins being expelled from the state House for
Speaker 1: daring to stand up for and with their constituents. And
Speaker 1: so what you will hear in the conversation with Jonathan
Speaker 1: and I today is just my exasperation at the fact
Speaker 1: that people are trying desperately to work inside of what
Speaker 1: is a failed fucking system right where we are beginning
Speaker 1: to understand that the gerrymandering that has taken place in
Speaker 1: Red States. Hasn't just suppressed the voice and the vote
Speaker 1: of Democrats and people of color, but it is now
Speaker 1: right suppressing the vote and the voice of white people
Speaker 1: as well. And what happens right when those that have
Speaker 1: readily enjoyed privileges in this country because of the color
Speaker 1: of their skin are now all of a sudden being
Speaker 1: lumped in with everyone else that they were fine to ignore,
Speaker 1: whose rights were being violated as well. And so you
Speaker 1: see now this broadening, as Jonathan will put it, of
Speaker 1: a coalition of people who want safety. And the fact
Speaker 1: is is that we have very different siloed conversations about
Speaker 1: liberty and freedom in this country and safety not being
Speaker 1: a part of that. And for me, living in a
Speaker 1: free society means that it is free from violence and
Speaker 1: free from harm things that we can actually fucking control.
Speaker 1: But what the Tennessee government shows, as well as the
Speaker 1: entirety of the Republican Party, is that there is no
Speaker 1: negotiation with terrorists. There is no negotiation with people that
Speaker 1: see their Second Amendment rights as a zero sum right.
Speaker 1: But every other right can be chipped away at and
Speaker 1: essentially eroded, so long as you can carry a gun
Speaker 1: you see in a video that is now going around
Speaker 1: on social media of white mothers sitting silently and holding
Speaker 1: up signs that say kids over guns, and they were
Speaker 1: forcibly removed by the sheriffs in that courtroom, a courtroom
Speaker 1: that allows people to carry guns, right, but can't carry
Speaker 1: a fucking sign And we think that that's okay. So,
Speaker 1: you know, what Tennessee is showing, what Ohio has shown
Speaker 1: as it pertains to abortion in Wisconsin, as it pertains
Speaker 1: to abortion, is that they the tables have indeed turned
Speaker 1: in a very real way when it isn't just the
Speaker 1: people of color right and the quote unquote lives that
Speaker 1: are being silenced. When you recognize that now they are
Speaker 1: coming for you as well. And so now what are
Speaker 1: you going to do? Jonathan and I get into this
Speaker 1: conversation and so much more on this week's chat with
Speaker 1: our in house doctor. Folks, you know that whenever we
Speaker 1: have the opportunity each week to sit down with our
Speaker 1: in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Mepzil, we are always leased.
Speaker 1: And you know by now you have all probably seen
Speaker 1: a clip from a Tennessee hearing where moms women, white
Speaker 1: women who are holding up signs quietly holding up signs
Speaker 1: were forcibly removed from a courtroom that readily allows guns
Speaker 1: and people's activated Second Amendment rights, but clearly not their
Speaker 1: First Amendment rights, the right to assemble, the right to protest,
Speaker 1: and do so again. I want you to understand, quietly
Speaker 1: just sitting and holding up a sign, Jonathan, give us
Speaker 1: a picture into what we're seeing in this video that
Speaker 1: has now gone viral.
Speaker 2: Cool. Well, there are three things that I think people
Speaker 2: need to know because there's a context to what happened
Speaker 2: that people are kind of just seeing. And the first,
Speaker 2: the first important thing is that this was part of
Speaker 2: what what has been built for months as a special
Speaker 2: session in the Tennessee State House basically to address firearms safety.
Speaker 2: And the reason that that special session was going to
Speaker 2: come up was that Governor Lee, our governor who was
Speaker 2: among the most strident and you know, unflinching supporters of
Speaker 2: guns everywhere and gun rights. He's signed a bill to
Speaker 2: allow gun rights everywhere in a Burretta factory a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago. He's done everything to overturn state gun laws.
Speaker 2: He's as pro gun as it gets. We had a
Speaker 2: mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville last year.
Speaker 2: People we talked about and it hit home for a
Speaker 2: lot of people. It was a Christian school in the
Speaker 2: middle of our town. A lot of people knew people there,
Speaker 2: including Governor Lee, who their family lost some friends in
Speaker 2: that shooting. They were friends with some of the educators.
Speaker 2: I think the assistant principal or one of the principles
Speaker 2: was killed who they knew, and other people, and it
Speaker 2: was a moment of reckoning. Right. It's different to be
Speaker 2: politics on one side, but when it hits home, people
Speaker 2: feel often differently about these kind of things. And so
Speaker 2: in the aftermath, there were protests. Remember there were people
Speaker 2: in the streets, and Governor le said, it's time for
Speaker 2: us to do something, and so he proposed a couple
Speaker 2: of things. He proposed a watered down version of what's
Speaker 2: called a red flag law, let's get hands out of
Speaker 2: the guns, out of the hands of danger people. And
Speaker 2: he proposed a special session, which was what was supposed
Speaker 2: to happen earlier this week. And so he said, we're
Speaker 2: going to set this thing for the end of August. Now,
Speaker 2: when he said, we're going to have a conversation about
Speaker 2: gun safety and see if we can find some common ground.
Speaker 2: This even for this guy who's so pro gun, put
Speaker 2: a target on his back. And all the pro gun
Speaker 2: people started coming out of the woodwork. The Tennessee Firearm Association,
Speaker 2: the Proud Boys, the Youth Keepers, everybody who we've seen
Speaker 2: on TV here this week started saying, no compromise whatsoever.
Speaker 2: That's their position. No reform. Government has no role whatsoever
Speaker 2: in this issue. And so finally he pushed through, we're
Speaker 2: going to have this session. And so point number one
Speaker 2: is this was part of that quote unquote special session.
Speaker 2: Number two is that the whole thing was a sham.
Speaker 2: So I don't mean to laugh, it's very serious, but
Speaker 2: it's just as we got closer and closer to the date,
Speaker 2: what was being proposed really was pretty clearly just not
Speaker 2: going to It wasn't about background checks, it wasn't about
Speaker 2: rent flag laws, it wasn't about gun safety, it wasn't
Speaker 2: about keeping guns out of school. The things that were
Speaker 2: being proposed was increasing the mandatory sentence for juveniles conflcted
Speaker 2: of crimes and not mandating anything and all these kind
Speaker 2: of things. And so as this thing started heading toward
Speaker 2: what was going to happen, people started getting upset because
Speaker 2: they were like, wait, this isn't a session about anything
Speaker 2: except for incarcerating young adults of color. Basically, that's what
Speaker 2: that's what it was looking like. And so people started
Speaker 2: getting mad. And then the third thing is, as that
Speaker 2: started happening, the right wing conservative you saw them on
Speaker 2: TV Tennessee en passed all these bogus bills that said
Speaker 2: there'll be no expression, no conflict, no voicing of anything,
Speaker 2: no loitering. They actually won't let anybody stand. They have
Speaker 2: to be walking in the hallway. All these like ridiculous
Speaker 2: bills that were clearly aimed at anybody who was coming
Speaker 2: out in support of gun safety. And so initially people
Speaker 2: were bringing posters in I mean, and the posters were heartbreaking.
Speaker 2: The posters were I lost a child in the Covenant
Speaker 2: school shooting, or please let's save our children and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. But they said no posters anything like that.
Speaker 2: So people started wearing T shirts and holding up little
Speaker 2: you know, stuff on their iPhone or little pieces of paper.
Speaker 2: Now again, as you say, this is a place where
Speaker 2: you can carry a loaded gun into the chamber, but
Speaker 2: not a piece of paper. So somebody held up a
Speaker 2: piece of paper and they were escorted out, and ultimately
Speaker 2: what we're seeing in this special session is the whole
Speaker 2: thing was in fact to sham. The hearings that really
Speaker 2: matter lasted thirty seconds or less. All this mobilization, all
Speaker 2: this work, youth groups had come out in support of
Speaker 2: gun safety, all these people had written briefs. I was
Speaker 2: part of a brief, all these kind of things, None
Speaker 2: of it really mattered. It was all a kind of
Speaker 2: false front. And so we're left with this, which is
Speaker 2: that at the end of the day, the rules against
Speaker 2: protests are now stronger, the gun safety feels farther away,
Speaker 2: and it really feels like a moment of boiling over
Speaker 2: in Tennessee, honestly, because there is so much anger and
Speaker 2: frustration that those moms holding up those signs represent seventy
Speaker 2: five percent or more of the population who want people
Speaker 2: to do something. And so I don't know, I've rambled
Speaker 2: on a lot, but I do have one more take
Speaker 2: on point here, which is I think the takeout point
Speaker 2: is the government is not working for the people right
Speaker 2: now in this regard. And everybody thinks of jerremandering as
Speaker 2: like a Republican's win and Democrats lose, which is true.
Speaker 2: But what we're seeing here is germandering also doesn't work
Speaker 2: for Republicans. Right, seventy percent of everybody wants some kind
Speaker 2: of gun safety, and that includes Republicans across the state,
Speaker 2: but their political leaders are not beholden to them either.
Speaker 2: In other words, there's no way that these guys are
Speaker 2: going to lose their seats, and so in a way,
Speaker 2: even Republicans now, even conservatives who are gun owners but
Speaker 2: want some kind of regulation, so the next mass shooter
Speaker 2: can't go to nine stores and buy nine guns. Kind
Speaker 2: of similar to what we saw. Their political leaders are
Speaker 2: not beholden to them either, and so in a way,
Speaker 2: germandering destroys our system in a million ways. And it's
Speaker 2: not just Democrats Republicans. It's also that elected leaders are
Speaker 2: not beholden to even Republican voters who want some change now,
Speaker 2: and so in a way, it's kind of a mirror
Speaker 2: of the larger dysfunction of the American system. Now I
Speaker 2: realized that was a fifteen I just went on. But
Speaker 2: I feel very strongly about this and it's the topic
Speaker 2: of my next pert.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jonathan, this is why we have you on each week.
Speaker 1: And I think that you know a couple of things
Speaker 1: came up and so I for me while you were
Speaker 1: talking that I want to dig into. One is the
Speaker 1: last point that you just made about gerrymandering. I think
Speaker 1: that how that conversation has been framed for decades plus
Speaker 1: has been the Republicans wanting to take away Democrats vote
Speaker 1: and voice, right, and that, to your point, has been
Speaker 1: the goal. But I think that as the Republican Party
Speaker 1: has shifted into an authoritarian, white supremacist, patriarchal cult under
Speaker 1: the leadership of Donald Trump, the goal is no longer
Speaker 1: just to silence Democrats. That to your point, it is
Speaker 1: to silence people in general, and to make you know,
Speaker 1: fiefdoms of the state seats and city council seats, and
Speaker 1: so that these people can govern without reproach, without having
Speaker 1: to fight and work for people's votes. I want to
Speaker 1: ask you, you know, you could see it partially from
Speaker 1: the video. You could see these women shaking, right like
Speaker 1: I'm assuming, shaking and anger, shaking in fear, you know,
Speaker 1: for having to, you know, put up this this fight
Speaker 1: for kids, right, What is the mood when you say
Speaker 1: that seventy percent of the people in Tennessee want something
Speaker 1: to happen and thirty percent much as is mirroring the nation,
Speaker 1: thirty percent are instituting minority rule. What is the overall
Speaker 1: mood when you say that Tennessee is at a boiling
Speaker 1: point right now?
Speaker 2: Well, I wish I had a concrete answer to that question,
Speaker 2: right because I think part of the issue is that
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people on the Democrat side
Speaker 2: and on the centrist conservative Republican side feel like we've
Speaker 2: done everything right. We've done everything within the system. We've guarded,
Speaker 2: we've gathered signatures, we've talked to elected leaders. The special
Speaker 2: session was in some people. I mean, if you read
Speaker 2: like the op ed in the New York Times earlier
Speaker 2: this week, there's a Tennessee based columnist from the New
Speaker 2: York Times who said, I have guarded optimism. And the
Speaker 2: optimism wasn't just that there would begun reformed. The optimism
Speaker 2: was that the system would actually work. The system would work.
Speaker 2: And so I think part of the issue is you
Speaker 2: have this build up to saying, look, we've had all
Speaker 2: this really messed up stuff happen, but now now in
Speaker 2: the halls of Justice and the House of the People,
Speaker 2: the system is going to work, and we're going to
Speaker 2: show how we're responsive and the fact that then you
Speaker 2: gabble that close after thirty three seconds. I think that
Speaker 2: people are left with a couple of options. I mean,
Speaker 2: one is to tune out and say, man, the system,
Speaker 2: there's nothing we can do. My new book that comes
Speaker 2: out in January actually looks at Tennessee gun politics, and
Speaker 2: I argue that we need to reboot the gun control
Speaker 2: movement that arguing for red flag laws and trying to
Speaker 2: convince people of background checks is always going to be
Speaker 2: a loser. And so I argue that we need a
Speaker 2: new approach to gun reform that is built on community
Speaker 2: building communities that are safe. But I worry that the
Speaker 2: frustration leads to people either checking out or getting frustrated
Speaker 2: or not working within the system in a way that
Speaker 2: creates this perpetuating cycle. And I honestly don't know. I
Speaker 2: don't I get asked what's the answer all the time,
Speaker 2: and I don't know if the system I mean think
Speaker 2: cause I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, because Jonathan, I'm just thinking, like, and I know this.
Speaker 1: You know your your your second book in January is
Speaker 1: about this. So we'll get into more detail about that
Speaker 1: as you get closer to your publishing date. But like
Speaker 1: the reality is that these people are trying to work
Speaker 1: within the system. Right, when you had the Justines that
Speaker 1: were expelled from this state House for daring to protest
Speaker 1: and show support with their constituency, they fought withinside of
Speaker 1: the system to get their rightful seat elected seats back, right,
Speaker 1: you have these people that are saying, I have a
Speaker 1: right to protest, I have a right to stand up
Speaker 1: for children and safety in my community, and they're being
Speaker 1: expelled right in the same way that the Justins were
Speaker 1: being expelled. So how do you how do you tell
Speaker 1: people to continue operating inside of a system that is
Speaker 1: not representative of the people and not interested in collaboration.
Speaker 1: They're not interested in coming to the table because they're
Speaker 1: saying there is you're trying to negotiate with terrorists. That's
Speaker 1: what this is.
Speaker 2: Right, No, that is kind of my point, and I'm
Speaker 2: sorry I didn't make it clear enough. I think the question,
Speaker 2: the ethical question for people is do you keep working
Speaker 2: within the system? Do you keep trying to work within
Speaker 2: the system, or do you work outside the system. And
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to be I'm gonna be honest
Speaker 1: with you, and I'm gonna say and I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: the thing that is that is not popular, and I
Speaker 1: mean it figular figuratively, but I think that you burn
Speaker 1: down the fucking system. The system does not work. It
Speaker 1: does not work for the seventy percent of people in
Speaker 1: this country. It does not work for the seventy percent
Speaker 1: of people in Tennessee that want to be able to
Speaker 1: go to houses of worship and send their kids to
Speaker 1: school and like go along their daily lives without like
Speaker 1: the potential of being shot and killed. And so I'm like,
Speaker 1: so if the system, if you're trying to tell people
Speaker 1: to vote, tell them to get elected officials that matter,
Speaker 1: and the system has been rigged so that those elected
Speaker 1: officials are no longer beholden to the constituents, I'm like,
Speaker 1: what is where's the recourse?
Speaker 2: No, you hear me hemming and huyeing and sighing right now.
Speaker 2: And the reason I am is because I understand that
Speaker 2: response fully, But I also worry that burning down the
Speaker 2: system leads to more fascism. I feel like burning down
Speaker 2: the system gives the justification. I mean, look at what
Speaker 2: happened after Black Lives Matter and George Floyd and everything.
Speaker 1: It's like, if we consistently live in fear of what
Speaker 1: we are are, what we are, of what we believe.
Speaker 1: The response is going to be for us taking justice
Speaker 1: into our own hands. Do you know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: You never move the needle forward, Like I can't live
Speaker 1: a life and tell people to live a life in
Speaker 1: reaction to what Republicans are going to do. Because regardless
Speaker 1: of what the people do, if they do it peacefully
Speaker 1: with a sign, if they burn down a fucking gas station,
Speaker 1: if they you know, haul out into the street, if
Speaker 1: they boycott, Republicans are going to do what they're going
Speaker 1: to do. And so I just I guess I'm at
Speaker 1: a point and I feel for the people in Tennessee,
Speaker 1: just like I feel for people all across this country
Speaker 1: that just want to live safe. You know, that's what
Speaker 1: freedom should look like. Freedom should look like safety, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, just for me. And again, the reason I'm hesitant
Speaker 2: about like is because for me, there's a real difference
Speaker 2: of who wins the next the twenty four election, like
Speaker 2: it really really matters, and not that we're going to
Speaker 2: win Tennessee, but but I would just say for me, like,
Speaker 2: there's no way and there's no way I'm voting for
Speaker 2: Corno West. I'm not voting for RFK Junior. I'm voting
Speaker 2: for whoever the Democratic nominee is because there's a because
Speaker 2: I don't know, giving up on the system right now
Speaker 2: serves interests that are not my interests. Maybe after twenty
Speaker 2: four when what we're seeing in Tennessee is everywhere, maybe
Speaker 2: down the road or something like that. But I just
Speaker 2: I still feel like elections matter. Maybe not this particular
Speaker 2: Tennessee a thing, But so the question for me is,
Speaker 2: how can you say the system sucks and we all
Speaker 2: feel disheartened and clearly here's an example of how it's
Speaker 2: weighted against us, and also show up and vote for
Speaker 2: Democrats in twenty four because having Trump as president would
Speaker 2: be a material difference to people's lives. So that's kind
Speaker 2: of I don't know. Do you see that question?
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I think that For me, it isn't
Speaker 1: what I'm saying to burn down the system. It is
Speaker 1: obvious right now that the only thing that is holding
Speaker 1: back fascism in this country is the executive brand, right
Speaker 1: like that, that is the only thing that is holding back.
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying with regard to the national election, oh,
Speaker 1: people don't vote in twenty twenty four. I think people
Speaker 1: are very well aware that this is going to be
Speaker 1: you know, they thought twenty twenty was consequential, that twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four is life or death, and so I think
Speaker 1: that that is clear. But I'm really talking about people
Speaker 1: who are living inside of these red states where their
Speaker 1: votes and their voices don't matter. And so my point being,
Speaker 1: how do you continue to tell people to show up
Speaker 1: at these meetings and like work within a system that
Speaker 1: is absolutely rigged like I you know, and of course
Speaker 1: what would the normal recourse be take these motherfuckers to court?
Speaker 1: But the court system is also rigged. And so I'm like,
Speaker 1: at what point right in these states do the people
Speaker 1: say we got to find another path because this path
Speaker 1: is blocked. And that's what I'm saying is just like
Speaker 1: if seventy percent of people in Tennis believe that freedom
Speaker 1: is equated to an equal to safety and the people
Speaker 1: that are in power is saying fuck you and your safety,
Speaker 1: and you're saying, well, I'm going to come to your
Speaker 1: next meeting and I'm going to protest, and they're going
Speaker 1: to say no, because the next meeting, we're locking the doors, right,
Speaker 1: And there's nobody for you to vote for, because we've
Speaker 1: rigged and you know, and put our tipped our hand
Speaker 1: on the scale. I'm just like, so, what are they
Speaker 1: supposed to do? Do you know what I'm saying? Like,
Speaker 1: they walked out of schools, they took over the state capital.
Speaker 1: What the fuck else are they supposed to do?
Speaker 2: I like what David Hoge is doing right now. I
Speaker 2: think a movement that starts mobilizing the youth anger about
Speaker 2: this issue and about climate and about all these other
Speaker 2: factors and does I'm torn by being a historian, right,
Speaker 2: I know that Tennessee was a democratic state. I know
Speaker 2: that that al Gore came from Tennessee. I know that
Speaker 2: there are centrist traditions in Tennessee. Now I'm not like, oh,
Speaker 2: let's go back to the good old days, but I
Speaker 2: do know that the ways that the right wing, this
Speaker 2: is what I'll show in my next book, The Ways
Speaker 2: the right wing took power in Red States, was a
Speaker 2: fifty year movement that started from grassroots elections for school
Speaker 2: boards and zoning boards and election boards and all these
Speaker 2: kind of things, and it became inevitable. But it wasn't
Speaker 2: always inevitable. The NRA was a grassroots movement for a
Speaker 2: very long time, and so I do want to highlight
Speaker 2: that there are movements like the Young Leaders program that
Speaker 2: David and other people are doing that is specifically looking
Speaker 2: at having people under thirty run for local positions in
Speaker 2: red states, for school boards, for zoning boards, stuff like that.
Speaker 2: And I guess I know that's in the system, but
Speaker 2: I think that's a great idea, which is like, let's
Speaker 2: see how the other side took power and let's reverse that,
Speaker 2: which is building a power base from the bottom up,
Speaker 2: which I think think would be really challenging to the
Speaker 2: power structure of a place like Tennessee because it's, as
Speaker 2: we saw from these things, a bunch of older, conservative
Speaker 2: white people. But I think if young people start running
Speaker 2: for all these offices and really start mobilizing, I would
Speaker 2: think I would think that that would have a real impact.
Speaker 2: So that's my centrist in the system statement of support
Speaker 2: for this new organization. But for me, I think that
Speaker 2: that's a strategy that I would support. Does that make
Speaker 2: sense now?
Speaker 1: I mean, it does make sense, And I think that
Speaker 1: you know, again, we're looking at fifty years that are lost, right,
Speaker 1: fifty years of rebuilding, and that again is only so
Speaker 1: if democracy holds right. And so I guess, like I'm
Speaker 1: at a point in my thinking around this where, yes,
Speaker 1: I believe that everything happens from the grassroots. How Democrats
Speaker 1: lost this issue was not continuing to activate so seeds,
Speaker 1: build pipe you know, build uh, you know, pipelines and
Speaker 1: pathways for that kind of takeover right of at this
Speaker 1: at the state and local level. At the same time,
Speaker 1: I'm just like, so, then what the fuck does the
Speaker 1: next fifty years look like?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Like? What it like? What? Like it's just more proliferation
Speaker 1: of guns, people living in fear of their neighbor down
Speaker 1: the street, like not being able to knock on people's
Speaker 1: doors because they'll blow your brains out on the doorstep.
Speaker 1: Like I just I guess a part of me is like,
Speaker 1: this system needs the system is breaking, This system is
Speaker 1: burning right in so many different ways, And I don't
Speaker 1: know if we have fifty years, right, I don't even
Speaker 1: know if we have five, right, So like that's that's
Speaker 1: kind of and you know, for people listening to this,
Speaker 1: they'll be like, oh, danielis you know, being hysterical? But
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, I'm like, if you've been paying attention
Speaker 1: to what all is happening. Everything that you said at
Speaker 1: the beginning is right, because the gerrymandering didn't just stop
Speaker 1: with Democrats. It didn't just stop with black and brown people.
Speaker 1: It is now white people that are being affected by
Speaker 1: the things that they have you know, since been like,
Speaker 1: oh it's fine, it's fine, I can still vote, I
Speaker 1: still have my rights, and now they're like, oh wait,
Speaker 1: this was about me too. There is a very big
Speaker 1: racial element to this that is now affecting white people,
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering, is that something that has not been
Speaker 1: tapped into and should be.
Speaker 2: We had another mass shooting in twenty eighteen. In fact,
Speaker 2: that's what my whole book's about, the waffle House mass shooting,
Speaker 2: where the victims were young adults of color. The city
Speaker 2: did mobilize after the waffle House shooting, but I would
Speaker 2: say that and the victims, the parents of the Wafflow
Speaker 2: shooting were present in Tennessee at the Statehouse when this
Speaker 2: was happening and spoke very powerfully. But the movement is
Speaker 2: much broader now because it also had these just the
Speaker 2: pain of these covenant mothers, like a one who lost
Speaker 2: like a daughter who's like seven or eight or nine,
Speaker 2: years old and stuff like that, like within this year.
Speaker 2: And so I think that I think that and I'm
Speaker 2: going to answer this very pollyanna ish. The broader the coalition,
Speaker 2: the better. So even if it took a lot of
Speaker 2: people to get here, I think that if we have
Speaker 2: a coalition that is the waffle House trauma and the
Speaker 2: Covenant trauma, that's a broader coalition, and I think it's
Speaker 2: a more powerful coalition. And so I do think that
Speaker 2: there's this thing of it. And then they came for
Speaker 2: me and I want but hey, welcome to the party,
Speaker 2: you know, honestly, because the issue is not just who's
Speaker 2: impacted by mass shootings. It's also that what's happening in
Speaker 2: Tennessee is what will happen in New York and Boston
Speaker 2: and Los Angeles if we don't if the next election
Speaker 2: puts somebody like Trump in power. And so in a way,
Speaker 2: the strategies of resistance in Tennessee are going to be
Speaker 2: important for New York and for other Blue cities because
Speaker 2: look at what the Supreme Court's doing. They're nationalizing a
Speaker 2: lot of these things. And so in a way, I
Speaker 2: think I think that that circle broadening is what needs
Speaker 2: to happen to get people on the same boat of
Speaker 2: look what we do right now matters and we have
Speaker 2: connections that we didn't realize.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we will leave it there today. Jonathan, thank
Speaker 1: you so much as always for giving us the insight
Speaker 1: into what is going on on the ground in these
Speaker 1: really important states that you know, aside from a national crisis,
Speaker 1: really do not get the coverage. So I, you know,
Speaker 1: appreciate you being able to give us the behind the
Speaker 1: scenes of what is happening. We appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: That is it for me today, Dear friends on Woke
Speaker 1: a f as always, Power to the people and to
Speaker 1: all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.