Reject Fascism, demostrate for our future!

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A brief, personal call to action.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
Today is Friday the 13th, and it's the day before
the No Kings rallies are takingplace across the United States.
I haven't edited my nextinterview, so this is a well,
it's not actually that short,but it's a personal reflection
offered as another interludebefore we dive into a different
person's experience.

(00:30):
So I just want to say this.
Tomorrow is our opportunity torise up as a nation and declare
that there will be no rest andno peace until our president
stops using terror andoppression in our communities.
In some ways, the struggle hasalways taken place as a nation.
We ripped children away fromtheir families and indigenous

(00:51):
communities and murdered entirenations.
We sold children from theirparents during slavery and we
lynched brown and black peoplefor demanding dignity and
freedom throughout our wholehistory.
Gay people of all colors havebeen attacked and killed for who
they love.
And in other ways, this feelsnew and feels more insidious.
The white Christian nationaliststhat are driving the US to

(01:14):
fascism are using brown andblack men and women as their
foot soldiers to attack theirown communities.
I've seen numerous policeofficers and so-called ICE,
so-called ICE agents who areblack, who are brown, who are
Indian, who are Southeast Asian,who are saying, oh, we're here
to do wellness checks, or, youknow, who are on the streets of

(01:38):
Los Angeles right now.
Women are facing the possibilityof a death sentence for a
miscarriage in Georgia.
They are, there are multiplestates that want to monitor
women's movements becausethey're afraid that they're
going to exercise their rightsto control their own their own
bodily autonomy by traveling toa different state to get uh to

(01:59):
get medical care.
And in one horrific case, theyare even forcing birth after a
woman has died and against thewishes of her family.
So if you hear this episode andyou are having any doubts that
you should stand shoulder toshoulder with your neighbors and
defend everyone's rights, pleasehear me.
Please.

(02:19):
Your presence and your voice isnecessary.
If we are able to, we need toput our physical selves on the
streets in a way that cannot beignored.
If one person's rights areviolated and denied, all of our
rights are violated and denied.
This protest cannot be an end.
It has to be a beginning.
It has only strengthened sincethe beginning of the year.

(02:42):
And the stronger we are and themore we protest, the less that
the people can ignore that themajority of Americans disagree
with what's happening.
We must stand strong together,or we will fall further into
darkness.
The United States is not perfectand it never has been.
No country on earth, no nationever has been.

(03:04):
No indigenous nation, noEuropean nation, no African
nation, human beings arefallible.
However, in order to form a moreperfect union, as we state in
our founding documents, we haveto stand united against the
forces of greed and corruptionthat are currently driving us to
violate the most basic tenets offreedom that underpin our nation

(03:26):
and have underpinned a lot ofthe understanding of how society
should operate for the past 50or 60, 70 years.
I really wish more people wouldread the Declaration of
Independence to our troops andpolice officers.
I wish they would read it moreat protests.
And maybe they don't becausethey don't think it's a very
exciting document, but I thinkthat it really perfectly

(03:49):
encapsulates all of the reasonswhy it's so critical for us to
defend our nation and why it'sso obvious that what's happening
in Washington, D.C.
and with the president is aviolating the foundational
tenets of our freedoms and ourcountry.
If you have not yourself read itin a long time, then I urge you

(04:14):
to find it online.
It's still available,surprisingly, hasn't been
altered or taken down.
And I urge that you read it andyou compare the grievances that
we stated against George, KingGeorge, you compare them to the
actions taken by our president.

(04:35):
If you have to do that and youcan't see the bald-faced
incompetence and be outraged andangered and disgusted by what's
happening on the streets of ourcountry, if you need to do that,
I think that you should do that.
I think everyone shouldre-familiarize themselves with
the way that our foundingdocuments talk about liberty and

(04:57):
freedom in this country.
I'm not an essentialist, but Ido think that it's important
that we understand we can'tchange the past, but we can take
from the past to build a betterfuture.
So all of that requires that weget out, that we march, that we
use our voices, that we put ourbodies on the streets if we can,

(05:19):
and that we do it over and overand over again.
I think we're in kind of theexciting phase where it's
thrilling and it's new and wesee things happening and we
can't lose this momentum.
People have a short attentionspan these days, but this is not
going to be the work of a fewweeks.
This isn't going to be the workof one protest.

(05:40):
This is going to be the work ofmonths and even years.
We are seeing a fundamentalshift in our country and much of
the ugliness that bubbledunderneath the surface.
Much of the anger and theugliness of racism and classism
and ignorance is on full displaynow.

(06:01):
And we're going to have tograpple with that as a nation.
Hopefully, we don't have tograpple with it in decades.
Hopefully, it's shorter thanthat.
But the world is changing.
Our nation is changing.
And if we don't get out andconsistently show up, then it
will change in a way that willlead to all of us experiencing

(06:24):
violence and loss and fear.
And our lives and our children'slives will be worse in the
future for our inaction.
So I urge you to get out there,sign up for a rally, show up.
You don't need a sign, you don'tneed a shirt.
You just need to be there.
You need to be more than awitness.
You need to be an activeparticipant as history is made

(06:46):
on the streets today.
Stay safe and stay safe.
Just stay safe, but be active.
Don't be afraid.
Be angry.