00:00We know what it feels to be a caged bird, but we also know what it feels to lift every
00:05voice.
00:05Now that's not a contradiction, nor that's a secret. Our songs came from the depth of our soul,
00:12of our humanity, for our experience. We let our hurt become our harmony. Our songs were prophetic.
00:20They were a healing balm to the world. And even in our journey toward justice, we've always been
00:26rooted to bring hope and joy, and both have a place in our movements. Every time this nation moves
00:33towards its conscience, we help birth it. We sing it to life and into being. Now I come to you
00:40tonight
00:40on behalf as a Selma girl from a little city called Selma, Alabama. Anybody ever heard of that?
00:49As a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, where we have spent years organizing across this nation
00:56but particularly in the deep south. And so I come as one of those singers with a new song.
01:01But we do have a hard song that we have to sing together, y'all. Right now, as we gather
01:06around
01:07music and memory, those in power are quietly rewriting the rules on who gets heard. In Alabama,
01:14an election was had, and people spoke, and the powerful didn't like the answer. In Louisiana,
01:20an election had already started. The balance were already moving, and they called for a do-over,
01:26not because the people got it wrong, but because the few in power did get their way.
01:32Now, I can tell you what some of y'all may be thinking. You may be saying,
01:36now that's the south. That's far away. That's not my fight.
01:41Everywhere is the south right now, y'all.
01:48So I need you to hear me. The south is no longer just a place. It represents heartbreak,
01:57but it also represents hope. Because we are everywhere. Whatever they perfect on us,
02:04they will export to you. When they can change the rules of an election, in the middle of an election,
02:10for one people, they set the precedent for the entire nation. So today is the south. Tomorrow,
02:16it'll be anyone that dares to dissent from the few who hold power. This is a litmus test. This is
02:23a
02:23rehearsal. Our fate has been tied to the fate of this nation, always. We have been as conscious since
02:30its very breath. And when they come for our voices, they're practicing how to come for yours.
02:41So let me say this. Silence has never been neutral. And cynicism is not a strategy. If you're not
02:52raising your voice in this moment against the injustice that is happening, you have chosen a side.
02:58Let me say that. Now, as we approach the 250th anniversary of the year of this nation, who's
03:07giving herself a birthday party that doesn't quite deserve it right now, I would say in my grandmother's
03:14words that what the devil meant for harm, God will use for your good. I didn't understand that,
03:21but I do now, that in this moment of despair, that people are looking for hope when it seems like
03:26there's
03:26a dark night of the soul. We are the light bearers. We're the ones to actually lay the path so
03:32that
03:32people can understand. I am here as defiance dressed up as hope. I am resistance. I am also love. Yes,
03:42because our politics, y'all. Our politics will not save us. Our humanity will. Real change.
03:53Real change in this nation has never come out of the White House. It comes from the people we anchor
04:01it in our hearts, the minds and imaginations of the people when we believe in justice. And look at what
04:07we've allowed ourselves to become. Here we are a nation that pours billions into artificial intelligence,
04:13but will not invest in the greatest creation ever made. The human mind, the human soul, human beings,
04:19our babies. We would rather imitate people than invest in people. We would rather teach a machine
04:29how to sing instead of free the people who taught the world how to sing. But here is the good
04:36news. There
04:37is good news. There are more of us, just as Sister J said earlier, than those who seek to destroy
04:44us.
04:46And in the words of the great songwriter in griot, Stevie Wonder,
04:54it is time, family, to go to higher ground. We have to go beyond seeing ourselves just as citizens of
05:02this nation. We have start to see ourselves as the architects and the founders of a next America,
05:09a new America where children will not go hungry, where our poor will not be discarded, where our brothers
05:15and sisters of every race will see their humanity, that they will not support a genocide, that we will not
05:22allow our elections to go and be stolen, where the value of human life is over everything, including money,
05:30wealth, and land. Because we, the people, have a God-given right to create the America that we desire
05:37and that we deserve. Let's build it, family. We are the lightbearers of a nation that is yet to exist.
05:46We as lightbearers, we as lightbearers can illuminate the path. We can get the possibilities for everybody
05:54to speak out, become the light of hope for those who are suffering. Teach ourselves a new song for our
06:02humanity. We the people, I want you to repeat after me, we who believe in freedom will not rest.
06:13We who believe in freedom shall not rest. We who believe in freedom cannot rest. We who believe in
06:29justice will not rest. We the people, peace and power. Love you. Thank you.
06:43Subscribe to One India and never miss an update. Download the One India app now.
Comments