00:00 Hi. I believe and I know that we can all agree on this, that it is our responsibility to take care of our beautiful planet,
00:09 not only for future generations, but for every single person who's alive today,
00:14 and specifically for the communities who are living on the front lines of environmental impact.
00:19 I'm here to recognize the work of an astounding woman who has tirelessly championed people
00:26 who face an unjust burden of risk and complication because of our climate crisis.
00:31 I'm genuinely honored to be here to recognize her, the Time Earth Award winner, Jackie Patterson,
00:37 because Jackie's simple yet revolutionary approach to her nonprofit organization
00:42 has focused on helping marginalized communities that have been hit disproportionately hard by climate change
00:48 by taking on the systemic issues that have left them more exposed.
00:52 It's an uncomfortable conversation and topic for a lot of people to think about
00:56 because many of us may know what is happening with our Earth due to our choices,
01:01 but we haven't had to face the dire consequences or witness the repercussions of those choices ourselves
01:07 or how they impact our communities, our families, our children.
01:11 But it doesn't mean it's not happening every day throughout this country, throughout the world.
01:15 And whereas bigger nonprofits largely take on single issues,
01:20 Jackie's organization, the Chisholm Legacy Project, takes on an intersectional approach.
01:25 They understand that we cannot speak of the climate crisis without addressing poverty,
01:30 racial discrimination, and gender inequality,
01:33 all of which combined pose enormous challenges for at-risk communities.
01:38 The Chisholm Legacy Project connects black communities with the resources they need
01:42 to make change and actualize their vision for the future.
01:46 They make sure that communities that have been historically marginalized, invisibilized, and forgotten
01:51 never fall through the cracks again, that their children and their families
01:55 have the basic human right to clean and safe water, air, food, and energy, just like all of us do.
02:02 I cannot stress enough how fortunate we all are to be here with Jackie today.
02:06 This is the work that we're going to look back on in 100 years
02:09 and recognize how it actually moved the needle in our protection of this planet
02:14 and our fellow brothers and sisters, again, who are alive today, not just in the future.
02:20 It is my honor to welcome a 2024 Time Woman of the Year and Earth Award honoree, Jackie Patterson.
02:27 [applause]
02:38 Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
02:41 I think we're supposed to--
02:44 Oh, we're supposed to take a photo.
02:46 Thank you.
02:48 So, I guess--
02:50 Okay.
02:52 [laughter]
02:54 [inaudible]
02:56 Oh, okay.
02:58 [laughter]
03:00 Congratulations.
03:02 So, thank you.
03:04 [applause]
03:06 Thank you. Thank you.
03:08 I just want to say a few words.
03:09 So, I just wanted to thank so much to Time Magazine for this dual award.
03:13 I want to thank Justin Worland, who's on the Time Magazine staff, for making the recommendation.
03:18 [applause]
03:19 I also want to thank my nephew, Che, who's here.
03:21 He's a music student and a budding music talent agent
03:26 and is named after the revolutionary Che Guevara, and so it's such a blessing to have him with me.
03:32 I give honor and praise to all the co-awardees for the amazing contributions that you've made
03:37 to impact the areas of pay equity, peace, health, sports, human rights, the arts, and more.
03:43 I'm so very honored to stand among you.
03:45 I'm also honored to stand with the other people who are not here with us today.
03:50 I think about what it takes to get here.
03:53 I remember 10 years ago, I was walking into a conference space during the lunch hour
03:57 when everyone had left for break, and after I had traveled all morning,
04:01 I walked in and I saw the snack counter, and I saw my favorite cheat drink, which was grape soda.
04:06 So I made a beeline for the table, only to be stopped by a woman who said to me
04:10 in a tone that was dripping with censure, "This is the meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Attorneys."
04:17 She was clearly convinced that this greedy-eyed black woman was in the wrong place,
04:21 and she was determined to block me from my quarry.
04:24 But I just cheerily said, "Great, I'm in the right place.
04:27 I'm the keynote speaker for the after-luncheon panel."
04:31 [applause]
04:34 Thank you.
04:36 So she started to sputter her apologies at that point,
04:40 and I just gave her a tolerant look that said, "I see you, lady, but it's okay."
04:45 So then I went on and grabbed my grape soda.
04:47 But when the people returned from break and I saw the nearly completely homogenous group that was in the room,
04:53 I understood why she made such an assumption, and I called her in during my remarks later on.
04:59 But not to be bested by the time when a lady thought that I was a security guard at the Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh,
05:06 even though I was wearing a cocktail dress like this one,
05:09 just because I was standing in the vicinity of the security stand.
05:13 And ironically, there I was hosting this event,
05:16 the inaugural gathering of the Centering Equity in the Sustainable Building Sector Initiative,
05:20 which I had founded.
05:22 [applause]
05:24 And then there was another time and another time and so on and so on.
05:27 I can give you many examples, but I only have three minutes.
05:29 So the good news is that we've made some progress since then.
05:32 There are so few of us who are occupying key spaces at that time,
05:36 but now we have much more people in the foreground.
05:40 But I want to lift up some of these luminaries who are occupying these spaces.
05:46 I share this award with less visible sisters who are true heroines,
05:50 who inspire me every single day with their transformational work on the front lines of environmental and climate justice
05:56 as tenders, as stewards, and as defenders of the earth.
06:00 Led by sisters such as Casey Camp Hornick,
06:03 I uplift the indigenous sister who called out the unholy matrimony between the oil and gas industry
06:08 and the elected officials.
06:10 She stood in front of the State House in Colorado holding a sign that said,
06:14 "Frack you, you fracking frackers."
06:17 I also applaud the sisters who called out the fossil fuel industry atrocities,
06:22 women from the Ogoni women of Nigeria to the Inuit sisters in Alaska
06:27 who boarded kayaks, putting their bodies on the line, shouting, "Shell no!"
06:31 as they blocked the ships of oil companies carrying their cargo,
06:36 which was actively harming people and planet.
06:38 All praises to awesome sisters like Rochelle Ozein of Lake Charles, Louisiana,
06:43 who led the efforts to block the Calico Pass, a liquefied natural gas facility.
06:48 Sisters like Destiny Watford of Curtis Bay in Baltimore, who at 17 led the successful effort
06:54 to block the building of one of the largest incinerators in the nation that would have been in her backyard.
06:59 Esther Calhoun and Sheila Orsted, who advanced the efforts around
07:04 blocking the pollution from landfills in their backyard.
07:07 Monica Lewis-Patrick and Deborah Taylor of We the People of Detroit,
07:11 advancing equitable policies around water access.
07:15 Roz Myers, a retiree from the labor movement, who meets food apartheid head-on in her community
07:21 in Sacramento by planting and tending dozens of gardens in the backyards of neighbors
07:26 who wouldn't be able to do it for themselves.
07:28 And so many more than I can name again in the three minutes.
07:31 They are my inspiration. They're my hope.
07:33 And they are proof positive of the words that we should all live by.
07:36 Words such as those spoken by Amanda Gorman, the first ever National Youth Poet Laureate,
07:43 whose words of wisdom are now banned in a certain state that shall remain nameless.
07:48 But she says, "There is always light if only we are brave enough to see it,
07:53 if only we are brave enough to be it."
07:55 So, thank you all.
07:57 [applause]
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