00:00Look, we are witnessing the most callous, corrupt, and incompetent presidential administration
00:15we have ever experienced in the history of America.
00:21And there are many factual points that would provide evidence of each of those.
00:29I think the point that I would emphasize is in the face of all that we are witnessing,
00:37we must not allow our spirit to be defeated.
00:42And we must not be distracted from our purpose as leaders and as those who provide a model
00:50of what it means to fight for the country that we love.
00:56And this is one of those moments where it's difficult.
01:02I am not here to pretend otherwise.
01:05It is painful when we see the brutality of the actions and the words of people who are
01:17supposed to be the top levels of leadership in our country.
01:22And it can be very dispiriting.
01:25But here's the thing.
01:26I do believe that when you, when we allow ourselves to absorb it to the point that it renders us
01:38immobile, we lose our power.
01:43I do believe that when you feel powerless, you are powerless.
01:49And when we feel powerful, we are powerful.
01:53And we are powerful.
01:57That being said, look, I've been traveling the country this last year and a half.
02:01I'm spending a lot of time, in particular, in the South.
02:05And, you know, look, just what happened with the Calais decision.
02:08They just, they did, they saw through what we knew they've been trying to do for decades,
02:13which is get rid of the Voting Rights Act.
02:14And they dealt the final blow to the Voting Rights Act.
02:18We are looking at a moment where we feel that we are living in the midst of chaos.
02:23But I would suggest it is not chaos.
02:26What instead we are living through is the swift implementation of a plan that was decades in
02:34the making.
02:37It feels like chaos because a high-velocity event feels chaotic.
02:44But they are swift in an implementation of a plan that has been about the destruction of
02:50liberties and freedoms and rights.
02:55And we know what we, as a people, always do in these moments.
02:59We fight.
03:00That's right.
03:02Because we understand the higher purpose and calling.
03:06And the challenge for us is also recognizing, as much as we will remember and honor those who
03:17shed their blood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we are not any longer dealing with an America
03:27in the 1960s or 70s.
03:30We are dealing with a different kind of America in this year of our Lord, 2026.
03:36And so I think part of the point is how we critically evaluate our fight and the tools, understanding
03:48that they have tried to, and in some cases have successfully taken the tools that we've
03:53relied on for the last 50 years.
03:58The Voting Rights Act, Section 5 and Section 2, is no longer available to us.
04:05That doesn't mean we can't organize.
04:09They're cheating with all this redistricting that they are doing.
04:13They are cheating by changing polling locations so that our elders who are used to voting at
04:21the elementary school down the street may go there on Election Day and find out it is
04:26no longer a polling place.
04:29They are cheating by purging voter rolls.
04:32So we say as leaders then to folks, not only must you register to vote, check your voter
04:37registration status to make sure you haven't been purged from the rolls.
04:44They're trying to take our tools, but we are a creative people.
04:50And we know how to fight.
04:53And we have always been fighting against the odds, and that has never deterred us.
05:05So, look, that's how I feel about this moment.
05:07I feel about this moment like this.
05:11You know, I've been on my freedom tour.
05:13It's nice not being in office for the minute.
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