Transcripts For CSPAN March For Civility Rally Part 2 20170923

Space and elsewhere. Communicators around 1 00 p. M. Eastern, the Prime Minister of north korea is speaking at the general assembly. We will bring that like you. We are resuming our live coverage of the march for civility rally from the Lincoln Memorial, with the second portion of their events. Organizers say it is to bring people together from different backgrounds is for love, equality, and justice for all. We are heading right back into our next set of speakers. We are going to roll a video, then we will get this around started up. Im omar glasper, founder and ceo social event. We are honored to be part of this, just a reminder to everybody, we are kinder when we Work Together. We are back on pace with our program. The next gentleman thats about to speak it is such an honor that he is here. I grew up reading about this guy in history books, im blown away by the work that our organization was able to accomplish. I think a lot of times when the party,k about they see these tough guys with military buries and ledger jackets leather jackets. What people dont understand is they were putting together programs to feed young people, give them breakfast before school, there are paramedic systems set up. They were out there to help the community and protect the community. Bobbyn honor that mr. Seal, one of the cofounders of the black Panther Party is here today. I was blown away talking to him on the phone, knowing hes up there in age, knowing that i read about him in history books, he is still so sharp with the stories he told me. Today was my first time at meeting to him just speaking to him in person. He is with us from oakland, california, where the party was founded. Mr. Bobby seal. Thank you. Civility. I think of civil rights, civil human rights. I think of the paragraph in the declaration of the United States of america. A lot of people look at that and dont Pay Attention to it and see what it means. Organization in for thele i was working City Government of oakland, california, the department of human resources. , a book preceding that came out black power. My stogie carmichael. It was hollering black power saying we want black power. Cornertanding on the listening to them, i walked up to them and said you are not going to get any power until you take over some of these political seats. Council, city super rhetorical seats, stuff like that. If thats the white mans seat. I said you better try to make it a black folksy. A black folks seat. These people make laws, these people use the money, they exploit you, you need political power. At that time, i did a demographic search across the United States of america to see wereany black americans elected into Political Office, to see how many people of color and how many women were duly elected to Political Office throughout the whole United States of america. All the political seats, every parttime city council seat, every fulltime city council seat, every count to super tutorial see, etc. I found out there were 500,000 could be seats, one elected to in the United States of america. 500,000 seats. I also found out that there were 52 black politicians duly elected at the time. Included as, that guy named adam clayton ballot of new york. Was looking at in 1966 as a young man. I had a great job, i worked in the arid engineering department. Jobs, i worried about had skills, i had abilities, i was raised by the time i was 15 years of age, i have perfected the skills. Thist that job to work at grassroots community. Jobs programs, beginning in and northridge, california 1964. I didnt create the black Panther Party until 1966. I worked another program with the city of oakland. Then i decided to create this organization the black Panther Party. Did with the city i was ant of oakland, Community Liaison for the Community Center where i lived. Placements when we got i did Community Service in the community in terms of family counseling. We did legal aid information, etc. Out the parts that i dealt with, and the parts i was concerned with. One point,ment was decent housing was another point. Decent education that taught us about history as human beings, preventative medical health care, i wrote these parts out. At the time, the vietnam war was going on. Want to have not to be fighting in any more wars. African american and many others have fought in every war this country has had from the very founding. The program went on to say that we wanted an immediate and to police brutality, and unfair treatment in the courts. All black people being tried to all white jews had the right to be child from people of their community. Then after three or four days of our lives, i began to summarize three or four days, i began to summer dies summer. Session summarize summarizing its a couple of days later working for the City Government twooakland, i ran across paragraphs related to the declaration of independence of the United States of america. The declaration of independence, you have a lot of guys who didnt want to hear it. Itead it and reread it, looked like it made a lot of sense to me. I paraphrased it, and a lot of people talk about militancy and what it supposedly. , it said when a course of human events becomes necessary for any one people to dissolve the political budget and to assume among the powers of separate and equal stations that the laws of nations made discard entitle them entitlement and the prospective opinion of humankind dictate causes. It tells them to dissolve the political bondage, the political bondage of oppression, the political bondage of exploitation, the political bondage of every issue and every problem that you can talk about today as they walk around trying to kill the Health Care Program etc. It is a form of political humanity, whether you are black white, blue, red, green. Thats what the bondage is about. How do we dissolve it . The declaration of disability said when a long train of proposeand usurpation the design to reduce a people love their absolute, it is the right of the people to alter or change the government and provide new guards for their security and oven is. Young brothers and sisters, people out here, you are all part of the new guard who are evolving. Music, oru playing you are an engineer like i was, you have to forgive me. Ome up here when i went out there to try to capture the imagination of the people so i could organize them, i was going to organize a political electoral unity in the who were miserably on register to vote at the time. Later on, we registered 24,000 people in a twoyear. In our community. My point is thats what i was about. We went out to observe the lawce, by law we knew every all of the bill of rights, you name it. We knew the interconnected relationship. When the police jumped up and , we saidhave no rights california Supreme State Court Ruling Said all citizens have a stand and observe police as long as they are a reasonable distance away. We will observe you whether you like it or not. We recited the law back to the. Op it was not some macho crop, it was well designed. We knew howy law, legal we were. It took them seven months to the state out of legislature to stop us from. Arrying our legal weapons we stopped caring them because we do not break the law. In effect, in fact, my organization became wellknown, when inly had 22 members lead unarmed delegation to the California State Legislature to make a statement against the law that they were trying to make at the time. I only had 22 active members in this organization, suddenly my organization was on front pages of newspapers all around the world in different languages. Was not what at lot of the newspeople reported. I had toened is. Eorganize first, they put me in jail for six months for going up there, not because of the guns, but because they say i disturb the peace of the california state register state legislature. Organization,at the next year it flourished. Ifore dr. King was murdered, only had 400 members up and down the west indies coast. Killed and murdered dr. Martin luther king, Young Brothers and sisters all of my people in the organization, they rallied behind us. The next thing i know, in a seven month. I got 5000 members in the black Panther Party. I had collisions with 39 different organizations spanning all racial and ethnic lines. That happened as a part of american history. Im standing here, this struggle continues to this very day. Every issue we talked about it in the 1960s, other organizations had the same issues. Im telling you all civil rights human organizations in one way shape or form another, it continues today. Herethe fact that they are dust topressing the vote because of peoples color, just so they can hang onto power and perpetuate this explication of our humanity. It is you, all of you young folks, you have to understand this. You have to take this legacy. Ive been trying to make a film or movie, but the rightwing people, the corporate frameworks, the money rich people, they have been telling to stop it. They wanted to take away my screenplay and then they want to put up some crap that leans to the right wing view of what we were about. This struggle is a human liberation struggle around the world, we are talking about liberating through laws, amendments, to new politicians, new guards, young folks who can take time to Work Together and unify these laws and rules made that protect the civil human rights of every human being on the face of this earth. This is what this struggle is about. We are not disconnected, we are into collected interconnected and interrelated. This meaning of a future world and corporation is about. Thats what we are trying to do. We are trying to, in every aspect of civility, we have to evolve a greater amount of peoples cooperation for humanism. Ive published books, power to the people, whenever you see at the time. This is what we have to do. E need to reach reclaiming recycling and reuse evolving. Economic environment empowerment. All peoples c, creative cooperation. H, humanism. Reach for the future. Reach for the present in the future. We have to organize people. We have to get out here and you and many others have to encourage as many people as you can to get out there and be part and parcel in your elections. Wholeve to get this congressional body shifted over to the progressive side, over to the progressive side. This is what we have to do. We have to get more of these people so we can make some new , deal with the climate change, deal with the infrastructure necessary to create the jobs. Civics all about your stability and civic participation. It is about evolving greater power of the people. Thank you very much. [cheers] [applause] give it up for mr. Bobby seal. Our next speaker i met when i traveled last year. So many of us are watching the news and the things going on out at Standing Rock. To seely hurt my heart there were people that were being brutalized out there at that camp. As i got there i was very welcomed by so many of the natives and Indigenous People that were there. One in particular, aaron, i was so surprised by how calm she was in the midst of all the chaos going on around her. She really helped me navigate through some of the things that were happening at the camp. She runs an Organization Called honor the earth. I have seen her spend a lot of times with the Indigenous Youth council. Erin,. Come up. Give her a round of applause. I guess i should start by saying that i work for a woman. By her grace i am here. I like to begin by acknowledging the great humility that the land i he together today like to honor the leader and 20 century Civil Rights Act to this allied with in the mid to lead the charge to allow indigenous folks to self identify in this area. In spite of his arduous 16 Year Campaign for recognition from the United States government, the tribes i mentioned are still not federally recognized. We are currently occupying their homeland, and a we may not see them here today, know that their presence is imbued in this land, rivers, islands and coastal plains. Capital may make a mockery of who we are other national mascot, we are still here and we have not forgotten this country was founded on stolen land, on the heels of calculated genocide, and on the backs of people rinsed from their homeland. Wrenched from their homeland. In 1862, president abraham lincoln, committee know is a great emancipator, sentenced 38 in themen to death largest mass execution in United States history. Ta men wereo lakok caught, returned and executed in the same merciless and as their brothers. Here before the Lincoln Memorial i like to honor those that died in resistance. As you can tell by all i have mentioned thus far, when it comes to Indigenous Peoples relationship to being treated with a modicum of civility in this country we have little good to recount. We have watched the threat of humanity stretch, white and tear catastrophically since our lancer first taken from us. This past year in Standing Rock sioux and north dakota, i was among thousand two letter resistance against the Dakota Access pipeline in peace, prayer and nondirect action. Because we exercise our constitutional treaty rights we were met with brute force, militarized police, dog attacks, and nonlethal weaponry that caused irrevocable damage to all our relations in attendance. More than 800 people were arrested during our time on the planes. To this day are sisters are being held as a political prisoner currently on base day 331 for a crime she did not commit. Is this not reminiscent of leonard peltier. The remarkable thing about the application of the cancer north dakota many people may not know is we began every single day in unity. Whether it was the prayer, ceremony, song or silence, we reminded each other every single day, remember what you are here. You are here for future generations. One of my favorite women in the world, a woman once said, everything wants to be loved. We sing and dance and holler just wanted to be loved. Look at the trees. They do everything people do except walk to get attention. While we began our days at Standing Rock sioux we venerated everything around us. It was not just those that we could see that we fought for in the people we came for every roaster protect on the front lines, it was everything around us just wanting to be loved in the here and now, and also the glimmer of future generations we can see in the midst of our musings that needed is to ensure their existence. In camps they called me our mother. I took care of the international Indigenous Youth council for almost five months. Every day i would hug and pray until i was blue in the face of it come home and hug me again. On the front lines it was these use them are the first to receive the government sanctioned violence. It was from the mouse of these young people we often heard the words, we forgive you and will pray for you. Even in our darkest moments will be cried out to our mothers and ancestors for protection, the youth horse that passed were steadfast and persevered. Many have written up me and my peers as narcissists. Millennials may cry will be social media to document oppression. Later the bones of institutional racism that deters us from success. When weals they jeer form barricades around her relatives efface unjust treatment. [no audio] if you are careful from generations to come, you should be. We have grown up seeing practices of our global communities. We are ensuring their education, exercising of Constitutional Rights and civil disobedience that there be world for those to come to inherit. We are doing this through simple acts of kindness, inclusivity, and organizing as well as bad assery of all kinds. We are unpacking historical traumas and we are learning how to forgive in a way are poor mothers and ancestors were denied the right to do. We are here to take back our languages, lands end cultures. We are doing so with unprecedented decorum. If you look around this nation and wonder at this point in time in 2017 where your leaders are, do need only look to your youth. We are more than ready to take up the mantle. We do not need to fear monger, verbally, sexually, racially or physically harass others in order to be validated. We recognize our very existence thehe direct result of resistance of thousands of came before us and we are here to honor those and esters. We come honor those ancestors. We come only as human beings, by the works we do. And the compassion we carry. Should you ever lose hope in the world around you, look to the young people and remember that you may not see us we are out there fighting for you, even as many of us remain oppressed by a system that may benefit many of you. Adopted. Or of the adopted daughter of the nations, raise on reservation created as an act of war against my people, can stand before you today unapologetically alive and decry the institution that seems to destroy me, imagine what my peers and those that succeed us will be capable of. It is the technology of my generation that i want to pose. My mom is it recently, your generation does not care about sexuality, gender, grace, religion or monetary status, so what do you care about . I have many answers, but i decided to respond by asking a question of my own. What kind of ancestor do you want to be . I wake each morning with a desire to do good, empower others and this is what i think about when i walked into the world. Today i encourage you to ask the same of yourself and continued to rise alongside fellow human beings and remember why you are here, to harness her dignified rage in love despite of it. [cheers] awesome. Timeup, i spent a lot of traveling around to schools over the past year to talk to young people about how we need to be better and we need to come together. One school was right here in washington, d. C. Called the British International school. I was surprised in talking with the students with how many of them were familiar with the work i have been doing on the front line. Some of his videos are pretty intense. It was interesting to see educators are sharing those videos and family members are sharing videos with them. Young people are very aware of what is going on in the world around them. Jill i had my good friend ginsburg from the British International school to talk about how youth are the future. Notave a young student, from the British International school, but someone who i met traveling around and doing some work at youtube. I have been blown away by what she speaks about in her message. Welcome up joel [applause] good afternoon, everybody. I am a counselor at the British School of washington. It is interesting the way i met ken. We were going to be doing at thing in our seal class learning about how one person can make a difference. Probably have to do is have an idea. I came across kens stuff on youtube. Somebody from our school contacted one of his people. It was interesting. When he came to the British School i had two goals for him. One was to get into bens chile bowl, can get him to come to the Lincoln Memorial to take a picture. Obviously we are in a much different place with what he has done with this idea and he has created an amazing opportunity for himself. When i work with youth, i was talking about this. I have always had the idea that teenagers, children will be the one who change our future. Not because the good old but because they have the answer. I was asking someone, a bunch of different people, and one answer rang out. Young people are always changing their mind. Give young people change their minds, they are always learning, and the other once you can adapt. We as adults often dont adapt. When we think of the word ability, sometimes we lack that civility only talk to you. There are things we could be doing as adults to show our youth the future. One is to create those opportunities for educators that are here. There are sustainable goals. Stg. By 2030 we can get lots of different opportunities. We had some students we brought to the u. N. Whether different ideas. The other thing is forgiveness. We make a lot of mistakes, especially in our teenage years. As we walk the march we passed the korean memorial. My father fought in that war. In my teenage years it was not always so easy. There are people who were teachers to meet that showed me love. My mother always showed me love. She showed me you treat everyone with respect. It wasnt until my teenage years with features that showed me t love and another teacher we were right by the vietnam memorial. He taught me he never stopped loving those who far for this country. Here we are standing before this crowd and before all of you with an opportunity. We make a lot of mistakes. Showing love the teenagers and kids and giving them the opportunity to grow is the future. Thank you. [applause] can everyone seeming . See me . First of all, i want to say thank you so much to ken and his team for giving me the opportunity to speak here today. I really love what is happening at this event. People that come to an event like this one are not the people that need to hear the message. They all already agree with one another. Here everyone almost certainly disagrees with someone speaking on the stage. I think is cool that we can all come together and talk about being civil to one another even if we disagree. We dont have to hate each other just because we disagree. You can be hate scary to be surging in our country, but i like to think of it as a death throes of hate. There is less hate my generation and there was in the last one, and it will be even less in the next generation. It is amazing to see what can happen if we just get the time to know each other. There are kids being taught hate, but there are more of us than there are of them. They will become my friends and it will change their minds. We wont always agree, but what makes us different is what makes this interesting. It is nothing to be afraid of. It is really scary to see the hate searching our country, but it is a lot less scary as you think of it as the dying gasp of hate losing this battle rather than taking over our country. These dying breaths isnt something we can ignore. To quote the hamilton musical, there is a revolution coming in this century. It is not hard to see all that. Revolutions are not bloodless, but there are people out there who are willing to fight those battles. I am here because i want to be sure of this revolution be sure this revolution is less bloody than the last one and we are laying the foundation to come together on the other side. I am so glad there are people here that feel the same way. Im also here because they want to represent hope for the future. I promised the work you all are doing now will be in good hands in the years to come. I promise that me and my friends will continue to stand up for what we believe in, and we will do so without hate and without violence. And with the hope that the open together we can make real change and we can create the world we want to live in. Thank you all so much again for inviting me and during the out. Lets all Work Together to make the world better place. [cheers] wow. Thank you so much. Ken nwadike blows my mind every time she speaks. Wow. Her parents are doing such a phenomenal job with her. I walked into youtube studios in los angeles and is there for the first time by how was she speaks at 12 years old. When her dad started sharing with me her story when she was eight or nine, when the riots were taking place out and ferguson. She told her dad she wanted to go out there to experience what it was like and they went there. I think that is so phenomenal for some of to want to take it all in and figure out how they can help. It is so amazing. That is her father. [cheers] ken nwadike amazing job. Thank you. Our next speaker is a lisa parker. She runs an Organization Called see jane do, to inspire women to do great things. Young people. It is just phenomenal to know. This type of work is continually being pushed out there. Come up. We would love you to share your message. Banks. Thanks. How is everybody doing . We can do better than that. How is everybody doing . Thats what im talking about. Allison holker says people give up their power by thinking they dont have any. Before you start questioning your power and thinking i dont have any power, im not talking about the power over. The philosophy that if white privilege, for example, deals on top, that as we look at justice that there is someone else powering over. Are you with me on power with . Power with an power to is the power we are talking about. I am humbled to be here and standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Im also so mindful of the extraordinary women i in the shoulders i stand on. And we as women and men are standing on. I know as we look at the washington monument, the Lincoln Memorial, jefferson monument, there were women who were standing behind them. It was only several months ago that i stood here in solidarity with 2 million other women. I called them our man fans. Wells was at the womens march . Something happened that day. Something happened that moment. For many of us as women, recognized it was not the purpose for me to be there to celebrate one person. Recognize thatto all of these extraordinary women and men are stepping in, engaging into our full power to make a difference, our power to, our current of love, to show up with justice and love and compassion. I like to say there was a spell broken that they. While some of us might have felt devastated, a spell was broken when many of us recognize many of which were my sisters of color, they have been living through their entire lives in lives priorthat to that. I have a voice. I am here on purpose. To know you are here on purpose. I know sometimes it feels a little crazy. It feels a little wild right now. I look up at the stars and at these stars forming, like a nebula. A nebula birthed out of chaos and seeing wild, crazy, sometimes harsh and intense. Also know there is a star being created. That there are dreams being created. That there are possibilities and imaginations that we could never have foreseen before, like at the womens march whenever 5 Million People rose up around the world. Right. Today, i could never have imagined this would be possible. Meeting ken, connecting that with women and see jane do. I live in a small town. We are called the rule north in northern california. We are red, blue, purple, green. We know how to show up for each other despite some of our political differences. My friend Sheila Cameron says if i only have an issue at a restaurant in our community. We show up together. We have spaghetti feeds, pancake breakfasts. We put aside political differences and say you matter to me. We show up for each other. I would like to believe as we are showing up here today incivility and love in civility and love we can have this huge pancake breakfast for all of us to say we all matter. That we can all see the humanity in each other. That we all have value and worth. Town,wn i live in, little nevada city, california. The birthplace of the 19th amendment, where it was first formed. The womens right to vote. It took over 90 years to get the womens right to vote. Do we want to wait that long to see civility and justice . No. I recognized in that moment of being in this little town that he goes far beyond. Here we are with cspan. Not just here, we are carrying this message across the world. We will not stand to wait for 90 years. To see the humanity in each other. Will you stand for that . Will we stand for justice . Will we stand for love . I often say there is a moment like we saw at the womens march when you have a choice. What will i rise for . You never know when you will be called to rise. I remember when i was 20 years old when i lived in san francisco. Over and saw a woman getting beaten by a man. As people started putting on their blind side to ignore it, i stopped midsentence with who i was talking to and said, hey you, leave her alone. In that moment he dropped his hand, got in a car and left. You never know when you will be called to rise. You never know. In that moment we rise up. When we see children who are going hungry, will we rise up . We rise up. When we see our indigenous brothers and sisters at Standing Rock, know we are connected. Do we rise up for them . We rise up. When we see our brothers and sisters in puerto rico and florida and the Virgin Islands who are suffering right now from floods and the Dynamic Force of her only planet called earth, do we rise up . We rise up. When we as women see other women and we start to judge each other or compete look at what shes wearing. Will we show up for her . Yes. We rise up for her. We have a moment here. We have an opportunity. There is a reason why you showed up today. There is a reason why you you could of been anywhere. Beenna, she could have anywhere today. There was something about this moment. Lets take this moment. Think about how am i going to rise up moving forward. How am i going to see the value and worth in myself . How am i going to see the value in each and every one of us . Free hugs project. I would like for you to take a moment and look at the person next to you. You dont have to touch them. If you want to come you can. Feel free to give them a hug. Say you matter to me. You matter to me. You matter to me. Thanks, ken. It is so important that we drop it, and love it. I have two teenage daughters. We all remember, ladies, growing up in middle school, high school. How often will be look at a woman standing in her power and say she is so full of herself. What if we shifted that . Shouldnt we be full of ourselves . Shouldnt we be full of love . Shouldnt we be full of compassion for ourselves . Shouldnt we be full of justice . Shouldnt we the full be full of good health . What else do you want to be full of . Shout it out. Hope. What else . Love. Faith. Peace. What else do you want to be full of . Civility. Take a moment to breathe in. Empathy. Compassion. To be full of ourselves in that way. If we are not full of ourselves in that way, how can we imagine that we will be able to give any of that to anyone else . If you are not seeing that within yourselves and holding the love, compassion, empathy within yourself, how can we get that to someone else . We are asking each and every one of us to step up, to engage, to do something you have never imagined before. To be courageous. To say i am the one we are waiting for. We are the ones we have been waiting for. While it might seem crazy and intense and wild. Sometimes it feels very hard, but to no we have each others backs. There is a reason, my friends, what you are here today. Gravity ply in gratitude for all of you being here today. As we move forward, dr. Martin luther king jr. Said i have a dream. We are that dream. As the young lady said before, we are the change we have been wanting to see. The question is, will you embrace that . Fullyou take that and be of yourself and move forward to create a dream and a world that so many who stood in this spot for hundreds of years are saying the time is now . Will we rise up . Willie rise up will we rise up . It has been an honor to be with you. Thank you. [cheers] [applause] ken nwadike when we were out on the march, it was beautiful to see all the flags and different people marching together. I had a bullhorn and shouted out i had never been to a protest where i had marched alongside so many Police Officers, womens activist, civilians, and everyone able to come together and shout out the same chant. We are supporting unity and love. I want to thank some of the officers here today that really support unity and do amazing work in the community. One of our next Police Officers i would like to bring up his deputy brian wondered woo dard about some of the work he does in the community. , on up, brian. A round of applause. [applause] dallas, right . Dallas. Good afternoon, everyone. Ard, deputy brian woodw representing dallas county, texas. Garland, texas is where our headquarters is. I have traveled all the way from texas to be before you today. I want to go ahead and let everyone make sure everyone of all colors, all race, all nationalities, all genders, whatever you are, you matter. Everybody matters. Another word for everybody is all. All lives matter. No matter if you have gotten in trouble before, do you matter. The march for civility is a march of peace. A march of hope. A march of love. That is what we need in this world today. We need to bring love back. Peace back. Love back. Love is universal. It doesnt matter who it affects. Love affects everybody. To the young man who is a problem with his parents or is being disrespectful a lot of parents want to give up on their children. God still loves him, i still love them, and i know you still love them. People who are on drugs were strung out, they think that nobody cares about them. God still loves them. I still love them and i know you still love them. Wallsehind the prison were people admit mistakes because nobody is perfect. Just because you have been to jail before does not mean you are a bad or evil person. I want to make sure everyone understands walls were people admit that. The world is so quick outcast you when you do one thing wrong, they forget about the love within you. There are people at here today that had been through so much. You dont even know their story and you will be quick to judge them before anything, before you love them. One thing god tries to do is get our attention. These hurricanes going on, distraction destruction, riots. It should not take a hurricane to bring people together. When everybody came together, nobody was worried about statues. Nobody was worried about confederate flags. Everybody was concerned to love each other. No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter what your religious background, no matter what kind of group you are from period, no one was focused on the negativity. Today, you look on youtube, look on facebook. All kinds of social media. Instagram, snapchat. I cant even name all of them. Every time you turn on one of those pages, all you see is hate, hate, hate. Somebody fighting each other. Somebody getting into it with Law Enforcement officials. Somebody killing their own family members or killing each other. Crimes committed on my. That is what the media is showing to our children and that is what they think how some people are. They think we are evil when we are supposed to get here protecting you. It is about what the media is showing you what you are watching. It is what is about on your tv or on youtube. The news gets older negativity from social media. All their negativity from social media. No matter who you are, and i will ask you to do this, since the news is here we will give them something to know about, something to love about. Love still does exist. The person sitting next to you, you dont know their story. Hug that person. I want the news to see everybody getting along, no matter who you are. They dont know you. Give that person a hug for being here. They want to be here for the same reason i want to be here. Say on everyways page, i refuse to see hate with while love dies. I dont want to see all the negativity going on in our world today versus all the love going on. I want love to prevail. We need to bring love back. [applause] all thenegativity, children videos for them fighting in the streets like dogs, i refuse to see hate live while love dies. All the people killing each other in the street and putting it on facebook live, i refuse to see hate live while love dies. They dont understand the meaning of what love really is. I refuse to see hate live while love dies. Thank you also much for having me. God bless you. I love you. Ken, thank you for bringing me up. Get a hand for ken for inviting me. [cheers] [applause] we will cut to some music really quick. We will place in music today. Namoomi . Give it up for naomi. There we go. Sorry. Perfect. How is everyone doing today . Good afternoon, d. C. It is such a privilege to be part of this event. I am a woman. Clearly i am a woman. I am a woman who is determined to make this world a better place with my words, guitar and music. I will sing a couple of songs for you guys. I hope you are empowered and reminded you are good. You came from love and you are capable of doing so much goodness in this world. I will a song called when troubled. It seems we have no time for mistakes of people before us ooh we have not taken from the hollo holocaust ooh one one man declares his religion is better than the rest you know we are in trouble isanted eclairs his race superior to the rest you know were in trouble were in trouble were in trouble you know we are in trouble where in trouble we are in trouble you know we are, we are in trouble ooh yeah how long will hate dictate the way we treat our fellow men whoa whoa 11 and declares when one man declares his nation is better than the rest you know we are in trouble when one man declares his race is superior you know we are in trouble we are in trouble we are in trouble are inw, we are, we trouble we are in trouble we are in trouble you know we are, we are in trouble yes yeah yes yes yeah we are in this together we are heart we are in this together if you hurt your brother you hurt yourself if you hurt your sister you hurt yourself if you hurt your brother you hurt yourself if you hurt your sister you hurt yourself are a part we are in this together we are in this together oh we are a part we are in this together [cheers] thank you. This song is called up in flames. It was inspired by the baltimore riots a few years ago. Where is love, kindness, and empathy . These are the things that will race. He human rice sometimes i feel like i dont have what it takes to keep moving on love to my left, love to my right people just keep throwing stones fear in the hearts people just keep throwing stones e, we are not the only one who thinks were going to go up in flames thinks weonly one who are going to go up in flames yeah you see it everywhere, everywhere you go im losing faith losing faith in what we can be faith goes down, here ourur heart fear in heart we just keep throwing stones one whoot the only thinks we are going to go up in flames one who thinks we are going to go up in flames yeah yeah, yeah now there is kindness there is love where it is, where it is, where is it where is love peace is, where is, thwhere ite there is kindness there is love whoa thinks weonly one who are going to go up in flames i the only one who thinks were going to go up in flames thinkse only one who inre gonna go up, go up flames [cheers] thank you so much. This next song is called beautiful human, celebrating the diversity of the human race. I believe everyone is sacred and beautiful and deserves to be celebrated. This song is really about that, celebrating all of us. I wish the world could believe in my brothers and sisters we are meant to be we are not the sons and we are not the sons and daughters of the damned dont treat his us like we are we are human we are humans too i know that i am i am, i am, i am wish we did not have to prove our worth in the world could finally see us as equals yeah accidents not no, we are not we are not the sons and daughters of the damned aret treat us like we strange dont treat his likely are strange we are human we are humans too i know i am i am, i am, i am i know i am i am, i am, i am i know that i am ia ami am, i am, i am, i am dont make me proof why i should be where i belong what i deserve to be here i deserve to be here proove white i why i belong i deserve to be here i know that i am amm, iam, i i know that i am i am, i am, iam am i know that i am i am, i am, i am i know that i am i am i am, walk, who can laugh, who can cry, you can feel pain so can anyone who can speak, who can hear, who ever had a dream anyone who stands their ground for any other color beautiful, beautifully human beautifully human beautiful, beautiful, beautifully human beautiful beautifully human beautiful, beautifully human we are beautiful [cheers] thank you so much. I have one more song for you guys. Im from seattle and kenya. I am honored to be here. This is my Favorite Song i have ever written. It is a song called african girl. I cannot think of a better place to seeing this song been in this place. So many people have stood here and done incredible things. I am honored to share and for my words and this place. Peace and love to all of you. This is african girl. Ive been walking down this now for about 40 years i can tell you it has been one hell of a ride caring my fathers words that he said to me walk with integrity and be honest and i can hear my grandma say may god be with you t landat distancn african girl i know where im coming from and who im going to be to rying chocolate skin in the back of my mind i can hear oh the voices those who are here those who have already gone i can hear them whispering oh what have we done when we go to their land i can hear my grandma say , may god be with you landsstant am african girl i know where im coming from and where im going to be defy everything they said about we do have chocolate skin i will seek i will seek seekl oh i will seek i will seek i will sing oh all that i am an african girl well, i know where im coming from and i know who i want to be girlan african well, i know where im coming bem and i know who i want to thank you all so much and have a lovely afternoon. Ken nwadike such a beautiful voice. Sounded amazing, naomi. Her song about faith. That will play in my head for a while. Out next week are sharing with me recently about how faith got her through a tragedy that her family experienced, and to know that carried her through so much that she started an Organization Called faith always wins. Today we have many corporate Mindy Corcoran to share more about her organization. [applause] thank you. And i get a step stool. Thank you all for being here. Thank you to ken. Hugs project. Thank you for sponsoring this ability project. Restore civility. That is why we are here. I want to tell you one person can make a ripple for bad or for good. I flew here from overland park, kansas. Ago mynd a half years father and my son were fatally shot in a religious hate crime. Manpril 2014, a 73yearold claiming to be a white supremacist murdered my father and my 14yearold son at a jewish Community Center. He then left the Committee Center and went to another jewish location and murdered another woman. William, and my son reed were there for a singing audition. When the shooting happened i was one of the first on the scene. When i arrived and i saw my father already deceased from a gunshot went to the chest, i felt whenever the words, your father is in heaven. Go find reed. I found him a few feet away behind the truck that they had driven. He was in the arms of two Good Samaritans trying to save his life. Hate, and all the negativity from our world never entered my mind when i hold them goodbye for a singing competition. I had no idea that religious hate still existed, and it was in my own community. Of course it shattered me and it shattered our family. I hope you cannot imagine how it for my heart out tore my heart out and it took my soul away. Even though i believe they were in heaven, i struggled with my faith and faith in god and faith in humanity. Shootingths after the i was then invited to a mosque. I had never been to a mosque. I was invited to a mosque by the family of the 15yearold boy who had been run over intentionally by a man in an suv with antimuslim writings on his windows. It was another religious hate filled murder. Again, it was in my community. It happened near a somali Committee Center in kansas city. I went searching after that. After i spoke at this vigil, i searched my own faith. I searched christianity. I searched judaism and islam. I was looking for why. What is there some as religious hate that it would lead to these two distractions so close to my life . Distraction destructions so close to my life . I found many of us are dealing with loss. Many of us need to be connected and find one another in faith and hope and love. People that these other that i was now engaging with, we had so much in common. I found faith transcends religion. Years three and half after these murders, i have been through the seven stages of grief. I continue to go through them. Together with family, friends, and our new community, we created a foundation called faith always win. Then our foundation created an event called seven days, make a ripple, change the world. Seven days full of kindness. Seven days full of positive ripples. Seven days to overpower ignorance, fear and hate. We can make enough ripples of kindness to redirect someone who might be considering hate. We have that capacity in each one of us. There are seven days of experience. Seven days for the unique focus. They are love, discover, others, onward. You, go, love. Extend a hand, a heart, a smile or a hug. Have so that others much more in common with us than we realize. Others who are different. We need others in our lives so we can learn from them, teach and grow. Connect with those that are dealing with losses. Yourselftake care of to take care of others. Not selfishness, but selflessness and selfcare. And go. Go and actively make a ripple. Know that you have that any. Onward. Some of us like myself of that evil thrust onto us. It is very difficult to find a way to go onward. I did survive because of my faith. We are helping other people go onward to seven days. After the religious hate filled murders that crossed our family i had no idea that my faith would survive. I did not know what my faith in god or my faith in humanity would be able to make a verbal ripple of bad turn into a ripple of good. I stand in front of you today, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, very humbled and honored to tell you that my faith was Strong Enough and your faith can be Strong Enough you can make a ripple to change the world. You do not have to be overcome by evil. And we will make ripples of kindness, of faith, hope and love. With sevenoin me e, change theippl world. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you. Is a professorr of conflict resolution, he is a nonviolence trainer, he travels around to schools and spreads a message of civility and nonviolence. Give it up for dr. Arthur romano. [applause] what an honor it is to be here and to be invited to speak about the role of conflict resolution now in the United States and in our world. One of the powerful things we see today is that people are doing this work every day, pokes are coming together folks are coming together across religious lines, muslims, christians, jews, hindus and others working to make change in their community. Folks are working to make a just economy in jackson, mississippi, in the mountains of west virginia, in the heart of detroit. Mediators are bringing people together who had parts of their lives shattered and are itsg to come best hard not to think about Martin Luther king. When we think about dr. King, we often think of his i have a dream speech. Martin luther king was marty to his friends, right . Some of his biographers say he was notably quiet in class. Similarly, even with other famous peacemakers like gandhi he was an ordinary child. Andas scared of snakes scared of the dark and he ran home multiple times on his lunch break for fear of being bullied. That is someone who faced the brutal,empire, controlling through military the territory and pushed them out and created selfrule in a little over a decade. , we study how people learn conflict resolution. Conflict resolution and having Difficult Conversations and organizing for social justice and change, those things can be learned. It sounds so simple, but its profound, right . If those things can be learned, we can invest in teaching them. I dont mean necessarily teaching them at the university and in classrooms, but in our communities. People are working for social justice, dont have official titles that bear that name they dont have a Business Card that says i do conflict resolution or i work for justice. That is the good news. On the other side of it, on this theme of civility, we need to also consider that civility sometimes can be used for negative purposes. To minimize be used peoples anger and loss. Civility was used in the Civil Rights Movement to say Civil Rights Activists are outside agitators and everything is fine right here in georgia, we know exactly what to do, when a white man walks down the street, black folks know to step off the street, its already pieceace here. That is a negative peace that is a status quo peace. We have to stir the pot. How many of you went home for things giving break . How many of you had a conversation that started like this hey, mom, dad, ive been sawking how many of you your relatives squirming in their seats as you started talking about how your questioning the world . We are not born courageous, we become courageous. The way we defuse conflict and stand up for justice can be taught. So then we have this question, what are our priorities . As i look past that monument, i see our congress, when i see our congress, i think about the fact that last week, they passed a bill that will invest 600 billion in the military. More than every single nation in the world combined. Are we safe yet . Do we not feel scared . Basesny guns, how many until we reach this place where we feel secure . Our security lies in our relationships and our ability to have conversations when its difficult. What we see are old conflicts that are rising back to the surface. This is not new in the United States. Its very telling that we pull down confederate monuments at night. We have to look. It is telling that right over there, beyond the monument, we have an africanamerican museum of culture and it arrived here in 2016, even though the mall was built by africanamerican people. I think in conclusion, we have a great opportunity. If peace can be taught and these great people, Martin Luther king and others who work for peace arent born on a pedestal, if we arent born courageous but become courageous, that means every one of us has a shot. To do it, we are going to have to invest in it. I dont believe this will change without us this investment in ar will change without us rising up and challenging it. These things are not voluntarily given, they are taken. Way. N that in a nonviolent that we stand up and we say we people sovest in our that our people can bring out the best in each other. We know that democracy is not just about a voting booth. Democracy is us coming together in solving complicated problems together. I think we are at a powerful moment. Stuff that isthat and that stuffn is available to see, the very fact that it is our rising means theres a chance to deal with it. I would rather live in a moment where the conflict can be seen, where we have a chance to work with it, then trying to do the hard work of convincing people who are not affected by it that it is there. For those of you who happen working to bring people together you, ilines i commend thank you. We have a powerful moment to build peace in this country. Lets demand that we invest in ourselves. [applause] amazing. Cody, and fellow artist at conscious campus, where many of us speakers are represented by greg, who is actually here with us. Tony is a native american flutist. He will play some music for us and share a little bit about his work. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is cody blackbird. I wanted to share a little bit about myself and where i come from. Was a prouder American Indian veteran who served in all five major battles of world war ii and was a five bronze star award recipient. Grandparents on my mothers side were immigrants from romania, romani gypsies who came here escaping hitlerss wrath. I am a survivor of many things im a survivor of genocide. I know what pain is. I know what it is to feel it in your dna and in your blood and in your spirit. At one point, your people were almost conquered. But we are still alive, we push through to today. Change can happen. One thing ive learned is that we dont need resolution. Ive not heard one revolutionary on this stage today. Ive heard evolutionaries. When we have revolution, that is to go back to the same a new way of the old way. To go back to a way that is broken. Evolve, you change yourself to meet you change your neighborhood, you change your community, you can change the world. Everyone of us placed here on this earth has the ability to change the world. But it all starts within yourself. You cannot restore civility without recognizing truth. You cannot restore civility while believing in understanding or thinking you have the understanding of a false narrated history. So, awaken yourself to the truths and realities that are around you. We have our work cut out for us. By being here and by stepping forward and stepping up, you are being a part of the solution rather than part of the problem. When we put those positive ripples out there, we can do anything we set our minds to, including conquering hate. Thank you. I will do a song i found thisthin myself instrument has taken me all around the world. Album, themy journey. Thank you. [applause] like a pack of sharks who smelled blood the killing of an american student. A Student Organization ugust 1993e 25th of august, starts out as an ordinary day in cape town. The townships around the city in a state of tension. Student organization fiery political speeches are made by local leaders. Emotions run high. After the meeting, a large crowd ends up in the nearby township. [chanting] meanwhile, and american fulbright student who worked as a researcher is driving through, giving three black colleagues a lift home. Two worlds collide. Dead. Her young killers have maintained their innocence up until now. I Week Committee insty detail why they participated in this horrific attack. When they ordered us to go out and prepare the ground and make the township ungovernable, i regarded this as an instruction to also harm, injure and kill white people. When i saw that the driver of the vehicle was a white person, i immediately asked one of the comrades in the crowd for a knife. For me, this was an opportunity to put into practice the slaughter admitted for the first time that he inflicted the fatal stab wounds to amys heart. In his affidavit, he claims that though he is mentally handicapped, he was nonetheless a faithful follower threw stones at her. At least another four or five stones. Stones at her because she was a settlor. Ar from theid he passengers that she was also a would you havey, acted any differently . I dont think so. Can you elaborate . At the time, with very high spirits and the white people were oppressive, we had no mercy on the white people. What im going to suggest to attack and brutal murder of amy could not have been done with a political objective. , like aanton brutality pack of sharks smelling blood. Isnt that the truth . No, that is not true. When i looked closely, i i took partwas in killing someone that we could have used to achieve our own aims. People who of the could have in an international asked friends and relatives i asked them to forgive me. They pledged their support for the reconciliation process. We unabashedly support the process which we recognize to be unprecedented in contemporary human history. They say they are committed to continuing amys work for womens rights in south africa, spending most of friday with the womens mosaic group. Theyve come to terms with amys death, but find it hard to believe that she died just two days before she was due to return home to california. When we left, we came to the site where the daughter had been attacked. Only these dried out flowers serve as a reminder of amys brutal killing four years ago. An act the Amnesty Committee has to decide was either a politically inspired murder or a racial one. A mother at the center of the privilege ofd the meeting her yesterday. It takes a lot to be able to forgive someone who took a member of your family and to forgive a group of people who took a member of your family. Im so overwhelmed by her heart she is such an amazing and sweet person. Its an honor that you are here today. Please welcome miss linda beale to come up and speak to us and share her story of forgiveness. It is such an amazing story. [applause] wow. It is hot. 24 yearsry happened ago this past august. I was 50 then. You have to realize this is not just an immediate thing. Do you get over it . How do you deal with it . I really wanted to show that video because, obviously, this is a more complicated, global, international, apartheid south africa kind of a thing. Do we see similarities . As American Families who are taken over to south africa to calm things down because Nelson Mandela was starting they were not yet at the elections. A lot of people, media, white, black, all said to us, number one, your daughter was crazy and you were crazy to let her go to south africa. You should be shot. We have skinheads, all the hate. We had love and we had the support of amazing people that still remain friends today. I wanted to show you the truth and Reconciliation Commission a little bit of how it works. Its a little complicated. It is not perfect. Desmond tutu was the chairman. They worked very hard in south africa to bring about a Restorative Justice to their country. A healing sort of justice. A Justice Desmond tutu always refer to as a person is a person. They also tried to get at the truth. Andt of people sat there said they didnt tell you the truth. You know when i heard the truth . Wouldnt have killed her we will leave the march of ability to take you live to the ted nations in york city new york city were north koreas foreign minister is about deliver remarks of the Journal Assembly at the general assembly. Mr. President , allow me to congratulate his