to do good in the world this morning. i was asked to begin by talking with you about why i got into politics and how i got into politics. i thought it might be better to start with the answer to the question, who was i when i showed up to do that and it is a question i hope you ask yourself today on this journey ahead, why am i showing up? who am i? what are the values i am bringing forward that are creating my desire to get involved? whether it is 214 offers -- to run for office or support a candidate for work in not candidate -- in a issue that you care about. you are showing up for a reason. because of something in your own personal background has motivated you to want to do more than just sweet --tweet a few things or show up and listen to other people talk. you have decided that you need to engage and many of you have been engaged for a number of years already and you are here to fill up again and it is so important. to do that, to fill our tanks with the support that can only come when we are with like-minded people whose energies are also being taxed as are just as ours --as ours are. who should have as when i when asked city council was a person who understood very well how government could make an improvement in people's lives because i had been just -- a beneficiary of that. my mom was a single mom and i have three siblings and my mom had a ninth grade education and we shoveled as so many undereducated families do but we -- one of those reports did not involve helping us find away to college because he has no idea -- had no idea how to do that and i was filled with the dream of that coming -- becoming that reality. when i was 18, i discovered i was pregnant. i had amber when i was 19 and we struggled as so many single parent households do but it was my ability to put my foot on the impact of education that will just board and that started for me with community college. i will never forget nor will i ever cease to be a champion for those who support community colleges. [applause] the other thing that helped me move forward was planned parenthood. i have already -- and already -- i have one plant -- unplanned pregnancy and i made my toys or what i would do face with that but i knew very well, because we were struggling with having two jobs and going to school, there was no way i could handle another child at that point in my life and a planned parenthood letter on henderson street, fort worth texas, gave me castling and access to contraceptive care and help me plan it i would have a child, which i did. i showed up as a person who understood those things, who stood in those shoes and brought with me the experiences that would instruct the things i would fight for but most importantly, it brought me the ability to empathize and it is fair to say that every person in this room understand steeply the meaning -- deeply the meaning of empathy. that is why you are here because you have been through an experience or know people who have been through an experience that has built with you -- filled you with the people power of empathy and that empathy owes -- is what is driving you to make the world a better place for everyone, but especially for the children who are going to inherit the world that we leave behind for --them. i am a grandmother and i have a six year old and a three year old more than ever, this work feels important. i know it is important to you as i look around, so maybe of you are young and you are building the world that you are inheriting even as we speak and it is like the old saying, building the airplane as it is taking off. you are trying hard to create the world that you deserve to live in and that is why you brought your energy forward and i want to say thank you for my own sake but especially for the sake of my two granddaughters and all the children across the state and country who deserve fighters like you in their corner. now, -- [applause] in texas, we know we are facing a difficult landscape and it has been that way for a long time and i remember when i was elected to the texas senate in 2008 and top of a long shot race. i was running against a 16 year republican incumbent. i know representative donner -- donner -- donna howard is here. she remembers my incumbent. he was 6'4" in a classic -- in classic -- and a classic pop -- texan politician. the power of believing and suspending how difficult things are is a important part of this work and we worked so hard to win that race and unbelievably, by a small margin, we did. to show up in the texas senate felt like a incredible privilege to carry on the work we have been doing at a local level and to be a fire -- fighter. i remember thinking how difficult things were, how different it was to serve in a state partisan body versus a local body where we didn't wear partisan how -- tax on our heads. little i could have no is that we love back now at that time as the glory days in texas politics because we were able to work together and we still have a two thirds world in the texas senate that required us to work together to bring legislation to the floor and allow us, even if we were the minority party, to have a was and what was happening in the outcome of policies and is not that way anymore. and it is not that way because of gerrymandering and our voting rights have been stripped until they are so bare, they can hardly be felt. it is not accidental that texas has one of the lowest voter turnout in the country. it is very purposeful. we have been taught to believe that our forces do not matter and in districts that are drawn so red, it will not make a difference for us to vote or districts that are drawn so blue, and though we like the people who are running, it will not matter if we show up -- a lot of people feel that way. that is why we were able to break through and elect someone at the statewide level because we have been conditioned to believe that our voices don't matter. if there is one thing i ask you to leave with today, and you go forward to do what you are doing to make the world a better place, encourage people to understand that although he got angry about being gerrymandered and it is a huge problem -- gerrymandering cannot touch us in a statewide election. it cannot touch up -- us in a statewide election, you have an opportunity with an incredible slate of candidates to elect leaders who will stand and fight for every person in the state grounds -- regardless of who they are and how much money they have in the color of their skin and who they love or the decisions they decide to make about their own bodies. we know that voting rights is an issue and we have to keep that in our mind in the battles ahead and we will fight to change. what has flown -- hello --flowed from that is the impact of yours -- we are feeling. we are an minority landscape. --run state. we are run by a minority of doctors, single-digit populations -- who believe that those are the only voters they have to answer to and that is why in a state where a vast majority of people who live here disagree the idea that we live overturn roe v. wade with the state will turn its back on reproductive rights, that is why those voices are being ignored. it is why in a state where most people believe you are being a parent of excellence and to be at my, if you are caring for your transgender child and you are doing everything you can to show them love and support in their personal life, that is what those pants are being vilified and literally put into a position where they are accused of child abuse to get their children the care they need. it is because we are run by a minority of values and voices in the state. that is why even though people in the state believe that we should have reasonable loss -- laws to create our safety, that is why we do not have an it is our job in the face of that challenge to decide that we will not give up. the stakes are too high. if there is anything i have learned in the last three years, -- fee years -- few years, it is how to resist being called to be discouraged. i know -- it is ok. you are human being to get tired and weary. i know you are here today because you understand that we cannot let that weariness over, as in a way that keeps us quiet because there are too many people in the state depending on people like you and people like me to fight for them. i am so proud to be a part of a movement that you are a part of and i am proud to be a part of a collective of voices that refuses to give up and i will leave you with a powerful reminder of what we can do when we decide to fill up -- show up because when we think about how stacked the deck is against us, it can be appealing not to show up and appealing to get into the idea that it is stacked so high, it will not make a difference if we sell. -- show up. the lesson that texas talk to the rest of the country -- talked to the rest of the country -- in june of 2013 -- that is a lesson i will carry with me for the rest of my life and that was the day of the people's filibuster, where thousands and thousands of people filter capital for the first -- filled the capital, for the first time billy get to capacity and people who decided -- filled it to capacity and people who decided -- that they will show up and many of you may have been there and thank you if you were but what was so beautiful and powerful about the day was in the last 15 minutes when the filibuster was called to an end, the presence of the people who were there, their voices, not just figuratively but literally, the stomping of their feet sees opportunity -- seize the opportunity to sound the volunteering that was taking place. they show us all what it could look like when we do that because they develop from being taken from that desperate for that midlife -- being -- prevented the vote from being taking -- taken before midnight. that is the story if we continue to do that. i promise you that in
Related Keywords
United States , Texas , America , Texan , Donna Howard , Wendi Davis , Roe V Wade ,
vimarsana.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.