Wednesday, June 17, 2020 - Constitution Study Group - Rights of the Individual

Video Subtitles:

hello internet happy Wednesday I'm gonna
be doing my weekly Constitution that
study group
and I'm gonna use today to talk about
individual rights that are laid out in
the Constitution and what we can do with
those rights and talk about my own
expression that that I have been working
on over the past few weeks with what has
been going on in our society in our
community of the heightened awareness of
inequalities and marginalization of
entire communities of people you know
what what I can do you know it's
definitely been a lot of social pressure
for all of us to do things as
individuals as brands as businesses so
yes I am using my brand's platform for
having these conversations and doing
this work and I want to do more you know
I wanna I want to be more progressive
more of a change maker and this is not
this is not a new thing for for me I've
been social justice warrior for a long
time now and really heated to advice
that I've received over the years that I
shouldn't use my brand's platform for
that should be using my brand's platform
for business which is true and I do that
but especially in a case like now and
even in normal times a brand's platform
can definitely be used or communicated
that's what a brand is it's to
communicate a message to communicate a
value and the value that I've always
wanted to communicate with my brand
and the work that I do is one of
transparency of trust leadership so yeah
there's definitely a place for that so
in the past weeks I've been doing this
Constitution study group for over it's
been over a month now and have actually
read through all of the Constitution and
you know couldn't of course revisit it
again and look at things again but and
then also look at the origin of that
document and so I was kind of diving
into that a little bit that's a bit more
cumbersome and a lot more content which
is the Federalist Papers written by the
founding fathers that were the basis of
what would later become the Constitution
so perhaps in the near future I will be
looking at those and reading through
those and kind of understanding the
origin of some of the the content of the
content of the actual Constitution so a
lot of what the the comp is written in
the Constitution is outlining the rights
of the government the rights of our the
the duties and responsibilities in
addition to the rights of the different
branches as well as the division between
federal and state power there is
actually very little written about the
rights of of the people themselves and
ultimately when you dig deep into it you
see that really the only right that we
have to actually make any change to
actually be a part of the process
is won through voting and to through
communicating with our representation on
every level on the local level on the
state level and as well as on the
federal level there there is power in
that it may not feel like there's a lot
of power in that but that's ultimately
the only power that we have the only
rights that we have in being a part of
the process and so I want to utilize
this platform for empowering that right
and doing that through an event that's
going to be happening on Saturday so
that's just in a few days this is going
to be from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Pacific time
so afternoon or evening you know and and
the event is actually targeted to an
international or the audience just as
these conversations and study groups are
targeted towards even an international
audience there's a lot to be learned in
discussions about the American political
system and the constitutional system
even if you aren't American there's a
lot to be learned you know the freest
country in the world the longest living
Constitution and a lot of that is being
questioned right now so it's very useful
for everybody
to be a part of that conversation and to
understand what's going on there so I
welcome everybody to be a part of what
what is called the festival for progress
this entire event will be done virtually
through a livestream just like this
conversation is being had but it is
going to be a much larger audience and
also a much larger and diverse
collection of co-creators that are
working with us
and so that's what I'm going to use
today to talk about the co-creators that
are gonna be a part of it so first and
foremost shout out to the main
co-creator that I'm working with on this
Marcus Marcus sweetie I met him here in
Las Vegas while he was working as a
community organizer for a national-level
project called the Green Team he was
like a grassroots agent a consultant of
sorts actually that was working for an
initiative to bring awareness and
community action a nonpartisan community
action around climate change
specifically around the clean economy
bill that's currently being voted upon
so a lot a lot of the work that he was
doing it's very much related to these
constitutional rights that we have as
individuals as citizens of writing to
your Congress people and so at the
events that I had met him at there was a
lot of postcard riot II he would
distribute scripts for us to call our
representatives and leave messages in
support of voting for this specific bill
and so yeah that is definitely
constitutional work for the citizen and
I was very educated and in my
interactions with him and with that
organization and with how non-political
a nonpartisan civic engagement can be
you know and I think that that's
something really important
people are often shying away from civic
engagement because it is a political
because it is so polarizing and
I'm now starting to see that that
political party system that we're
working with in that that bipartisan
system that polarizing the system is it
has nothing to do with the Constitution
at all it has nothing to do with being
American at all so yeah once I let go of
that you know my enthusiasm for specific
engagement increased significantly so
thank you for that experience
Marcus and so Marcus actually left that
organization you know at the beginning
of the pandemic to be closer to home
he's based in Colorado actually with his
family so he left Vegas and I had stayed
in touch with him you know just because
we both had a mutual appreciation of
community development and progressive
efforts in our society and I was having
a few chats with him and and you know he
had seen the work that I was doing and
even with the virtual tea festival and
and was impressed with the audience's
that that were being pulled together for
that and feeling a bit of a lack of
movement especially with the current
conditions and limitations that we have
with kovat he was seeing a lack of
innovation within the activism industry
that he's a part of that he wants to
remain a part of and so he had this idea
of innovating that's utilizing the tools
that that I had already started
innovating upon not to say that
live-streaming is he know like very
advanced modern technology it's been
around for a long time we've had the
ability to livestream videos for over a
decade now but the tools available and
then the engagement level
are so much higher now that it is very
feasible technology and innovation to
activities that tended to be kind of
outdated you know they were effective
they've been effective for a long time
of activism of grassroots specifically
grassroots activism is based off of a
lot of phone calling is based off of a
lot of events and person events which
right now technically we shouldn't be
doing and in door knocking - that's
that's another thing that is is
impossible to do now and so this
industry of grassroots activism has
really kind of been put on pause and so
yeah he said I want to innovate and when
I hear something like that I think I
think entrepreneurship and so you know
I'd asked him some questions about his
his intense and his passion and then you
know like the reality of are you
prepared to become an entrepreneur you
know it's one thing to dream about it
and to feel yeah I want to do something
cool and good it's another thing to
actually be prepared to put in the work
that entrepreneurship requires and you
really impressed me with with his his
willingness to do and so I said okay
let's let's do it I want to help you
create a business so yeah I'm creating a
whole new business now and and it is
it's uh it's related to providing
grassroots services to initiatives or or
potentially even you know political
campaigns that are seeking these
innovative and engaging ways of you know
activating the community and so we
decided to put on a pilot program so
that Saturday's program and this it
actually all happened and
was starting to become organized even
before the the global protests that are
happening now in and and additionally to
the protests also this interests and
kind of intimidation by very significant
community of people that want to do
something that want to learn what they
can do but you know don't necessarily
want to protest or don't necessarily
feel it's their place to be initiating
these conversations whatever that
conversation may be there's so many
different commerce it's not just one
conversation there's there's there's a
lot and so it's good timing that that
Marcus and I wanted to put this event on
because people are hungry when people
are hungry to activate it people are
hungry to understand their rights and
duties and and roles and uplifting the
community so that's what we're doing
so Marcus will be emceeing the event he
has been instrumental in engaging his
network of difference justice fighters
in the community and not just from from
Nevada but we also have speakers from
from other parts of the country and also
a very diverse group of topics that will
be discussed with a pre-recorded
presentation which I've already recorded
most of those presentations so I've
heard their talks and I'm seeing their
passion and understand what they're
bringing to the table and each of these
presentations will be followed with a
live Q&A and then at the very end of the
events for the last about hour or so we
will be hosting conversations community
roundtable conversations and breakout
rooms and a more interactive portion of
the events through you know private zoom
rooms so these conversations that
connect connections and calls to action
can be extended further beyond just the
the live presentation so I am going to
and all of these activities all of this
engagement like I know it just seems
like okay that's just some Facebook
something it's just a it's just a video
we're gonna watch like this is literally
like all of our rights as a citizen as
explained in the Constitution manifested
it is the most typically engaging thing
that we can do aside from voting right
voting is number one you know I I would
understand someone's perspective that
voting is not as effective as it could
be I don't want to say it's useless
because you know I think that argument
is completely invalid but it could be
better
specifically around the the current
system like the incumbent system as well
as the the options that we have when we
do go vote the options are not as
diverse they're not as empowering as
probably most of us would want them to
be you know voting is great but when we
get in there and we see what options we
have for ability and it can be
discouraging so yeah it's not effective
we are not voting for the the people and
the issues that we really do want to be
voting for but the only way we're gonna
get to a point where voting you'll feel
more effective and will feel more
representative of who we are as citizens
and as communities as if we put in the
work now of activating and uplifting the
leaders and giving them the confidence
and the empowerment to get to that
position
actually being on a ballot for us to
have the option to vote for it so it's
it's a cultural shift that we are
responsible in doing and so that's why I
feel engaging with an event like we're
having on Saturday this festival for
progress is the most powerful expression
of our of our rights as defined in the
Constitution so our first speaker is
philip merrick he is with the sunrise
movements which is a youth oriented
climate activism group so he'll be
talking about climate change and about
what we can be doing is as youth what we
can be doing with our resources and our
power and our rights to you know make
changes that affect our climate then we
will have Jack Rosen he is a disability
rights activist he has his own personal
story of why he got engaged with
Disability Rights representing
disability rights and then he'll also be
providing you some calls to action about
how we can better his presentations a
trip to because I mean there are some
violations of Constitution within what
he's talking about
immediately and and blatant about how 20
percent of registered voters have
disabilities and there's a wide range of
disabilities he's not talking about
those the disabilities in particular but
many of those disabilities can be
inhibiting for a person from even being
able to physically vote or to receive
information about the
so how's fascinated something that I
don't think about too often so you know
I know that there's a lot of attention
being give for just reason to the the
disparity in power and privilege to
different skin color or race or economic
position but then you know there are
other there are other things that that
are affected by disparities and
privilege and disabilities being one of
them so I'm so grateful that Marcus
included his talk with this presentation
then we'll have Cynthia Moore she's the
director of the Las Vegas chapter of
moms Clean Air Force so another top
around climate change but you know
what's really interesting is that you
know first we're having you know the
youth perspective which is a lot more
forward-thinking infrastructure thinking
activism for Bitcoin he gets fired up
about that too
you know and then Cynthia's presentation
she's a mother and you know I think
their organization is over a million
strong very large organization of
mothers across the country that that
have more pragmatic issues and calls to
action about things that we need to be
doing right now
mostly to protect our children and to
protect our water and to protect our
environment so and she had a lot of
calls to action as wealth of things that
are being decided upon right now and
legislation and voting all of that has
not been put on pause so you know I know
it feels like a lot of our life has been
put on pause because of pandemic and
just because of everything all the
intensity in our lives right now but
these things are still going on
and so our opportunities to call our
representatives to write letters to
voice you know to voice these stories
and voices ideas are all still happening
right now shouldn't forget about it so
we will then have Marc Bennett courts
from the Nevada coalition against the
death penalty his talk has a lot of
staggering numbers you know around even
the inefficiency of death penalty
regardless of the distribution of how
the death penalty is enforced against
different marginalized groups which is
truth same thing with the prison system
and law for a law enforcement in general
but is really interesting to see that
conversation specifically from the
perspective of death penalty because
again that's a very specific part of law
enforcement a part of justice that I
think we don't like to talk about you
know and actually I was contemplating
and focusing on the death penalty in my
conversation today and maybe I'll I'll
revisit that a little bit later but you
know the the constitutional status of
the the death penalty is not a new
conversation not a new conversation at
all in fact there is a very big divide
among the different states in the
country about the legality of of death
penalty and there are several states
that for over a hundred years have not
been using the death penalty well other
states like the one that I'm in have
been using it heavily and there is a lot
of disparity
and the rights and the even the
exoneration of of innocent people that
have been put on death row among
different social economic class and race
and racism people so but the Supreme
Court the US Supreme Court did rule that
the death penalty was on
unconstitutional because of our 8th
amendment the 8th amendment which states
no cruel or unusual punishment for
prisoners and so you know I think that
there it's going to be still for a long
time a lot of debate around that and and
I think the Supreme Court had actually
even repealed their decision but then
had ruled that certain forms of death
penalty were unconstitutional
public lynchings public beheadings you
know those are all have been ruled
unconstitutional and additionally
something that surprised me when when I
was listening to his presentation and
and I hope that that you all get to to
join on Saturday to hear is the
excessive kind of waste of resources
specifically money around the death
penalty so yeah anything to save money
and be more frugal is worth a
conversation right now then we will have
a presentation from the Nevada
conservation league I have not seen that
presentation yet so I can't give any
specifics about what would be there but
we will have a live Q&A with Brandon
Cunningham after that presentation
our last presentation will be from sy
Burnaby from the gender justice of
Nevada organization talking about
essentially about sexism and and much
deeper and sexism as it as it deals with
gender and in general and you know trans
you know in the whole spectrum there's
actually a lot to be mindful of and she
gives a lot of tips and actionable
strategies about how to approach even
our own peers in the community around
this I know that there is a lot of
intimidation around how how do we
communicate effectively and and and hold
space for others in our community that
we probably just don't understand their
perspective and then after her live Q&A
we will have breakout rooms by different
organizations that will be facilitating
the conversation so you can choose what
kind of conversations you want to have
and and who you want to join in those
rooms so the whole event will be about
three hours very short very engaging
events you will leave with lots of
action items lots of calls to action and
activities that you can do and a lot of
those activities like as I was talking
to Marcus about how to make this more
effective I told him you know we need to
to show these activities such as calling
your senator another constitutional
right that we have after voting our next
constitutional right we have you know
and speaking to our representatives
about our perspective and how our
perspective can be involved in
policymaking that's an intimidating
thing you know like so I told you
story of how and that mark is here in
Vegas and he had these calls of action
write a postcard to your congressperson
and we'll mail it for you here write it
right here and then we'll mail it for
you and it's like these things get
documented and logged into a spreadsheet
and and I suppose it's like voting you
know like they'll see you who sent the
most letters on what topic and and and
then that that helps with understanding
their constituents and and what their
values are in the policy-making process
what's unfortunate about that is that
that's like the same channel of power
that we as individuals as citizens can
tap into we can tap into it but it's the
exact same channel that lobbyists that
are heavily funded by corporate
interests they have and it almost makes
me think you know like in that
spreadsheet if we get you know 1000
people to submit an idea and give that
perspective to their representative that
may be of equal or less value to one
lobbyists that is sharing a different
perspective so yeah there's a lot of
power and and and lobbyists and so I'm
you know really enthusiastic about
putting in my work towards empowering
that channel towards a more distributed
system towards a more democratic system
the people so you know rather than just
saying you can write to your senator and
here is a script of what you can write
to them I think it would be really
impactful to show what that process
looks like
so actually live calling a senator
having that conversation or leaving that
message you know a lot of times that's
what it is it's just you leave them
and I gets ticked off in their
spreadsheet yeah I should I should
research that more maybe ask around to
friends that that work you know for
Congress people or for Senators how
that's like what is the the balance
between the power of lobbyists versus
the power of the citizens voices and how
might we uplift to this power not to say
that lobbyists and corporations
shouldn't have a say but that their say
should not be exclusive and it should
not be more powerful than the say of the
citizens that's what I would think
because I own a corporation I run a
corporation so I understand the needs of
staying engaged with policy and making
sure that as a corporation as a
stakeholder and the system just as the
citizens are a stakeholder in that
system you know the the intentions and
the values of each of those stakeholders
should have a say but definitely the the
lobbyists the corporate stakeholders
have a much more powerful state and a
lot of that is around money and so I
don't know maybe we just got to bring
more more value to the citizen to be
able to uplift their their power and
that in that channel because that's our
that's that's our rights that's that's
what the Constitution protects for us
and unfortunately the Constitution
didn't protect a whole lot for us the
voting and even the voting there is like
a nasty conversation around that around
you know once you're once you're a
criminal
then you lose that right he actually was
like kind of all your rights once you're
a criminal and the distribution of
criminalization in our communities is
very biased towards marginalized
communities especially communities of
color and now immigration communities
they're all kind of under the same
bracket now of you know shit out of
rights so then you know we we have like
in the bill of rights there's there's
several criminal rights that we have for
instance and in regards to you know the
the argument of the constitutionality of
the death penalty the Eighth Amendment
you know outlines that's even criminals
have certain rights except for in the
thirteen and then and thirteenth
amendments which is not part of the Bill
of Rights that came after but and the
thirteenth amendment which abolished
slavery also you know kind of put in
that stipulation wool if your your
criminal and a prisoner you're not
excluded from that and there are also
corporations that exploit that and I
think there's probably a whole list let
me see I heard that there's a website
that shows all the companies that
utilize like prison labor
including I had heard that like
Bloomberg and his and his run for the
Democratic presidential candidate had
utilized to prison labor a Victoria's
Secret in the nineteen nineties
Victoria's Secret use prison labor to
sew clothes inspiring a storyline in
season three oh that's interesting of
ourn is the new black and which
prisoners were made for they made forty
five cents to sew a $90 piece of laundry
so
not specifically slavery but kind of
their whole foods market until twenty
fifteen whole foods sold goat cheese and
tilapia from companies that use prim
prison layer paying pennies on the
dollar and wages after pushback from
consumers the companies stopped selling
products I use in me later Walmart says
it won't sell products made from prison
labor but the company still contracts
companies that use inmate layer to
dispose of customer returns in excess
inventory in the 1990s Microsoft hired
Washington state prisoners to package
software and Mouse's at the time a
spokesperson said we don't see this as a
negative starbucks has used prison labor
to package coffee sold in its stores
prisoners may earn as little as 23 cents
an hour meaning they might make less
than fifty dollars for an entire year of
full-time work make less than five
hundred dollars
after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in
2010 BP hired Louisiana prison inmates
to clean up the oil spill the workers
were not paid Nintendo hired a
subcontractor called signature packaging
solutions to package their Nintendo game
boys so yeah lots of stories here and mm
target used suppliers that rely on
prison labor earlier in the 90s big
corporations like AT&T and Microsoft
hired inmates but most backed away after
the arrangements were exposed and it
goes on and on so interesting right
there was a project when I was in Hawaii
studying tea there there was a project
which we had just explored that was
trying to match inmates with agriculture
work and supposedly the the workers were
going to be paid you know the full wage
but it was like government subsidized I
didn't research the program Fulton more
because it was you know we we just saw
that an option for farmers that were
seeking more affordable labor because
tea farming especially in the beginning
like when you're first clearing land and
you're doing things organically so
there's a lot of weeding involved
there's a lot of labor in the fields
involved in in Hawaii can legally hire
somebody and legally employ them your
hourly rate which is not just the wage
that's the wage it's taxes it's the
benefits and that's all the other
required things in the state of a way is
$21 an hour which for you know a new tea
farmer that's already invested so much
and and all the
sure to acquire their tea plants and
plant their tea plants doesn't have the
cash flow to support labor at that level
so it just seems like kind of a win-win
to to work within this program and you
know when I read about the program the
intention you know from the government
side and whether they were subsidizing
this and supporting this was a life
skills training program so not only is
it employment but it's employment in and
food in agriculture which has very deep
impacts and someone's mental health and
in someone's ability to work within
society and and work in a peaceful way
within society and I know that Hawaii
has some other really cool like
homestead programs that supports
marginalized mostly mostly Hawaiian you
know this that those are the
marginalized populations in Hawaii are
the actual local people the actual
Hawaiian people that have been colonized
the homestead programs that give very
low risk leases of land to to Hawaiian
citizens that will use that land
exclusively for agriculture
so yeah agriculture has a very positive
position even you know within within our
justice system but yeah I didn't know
you know I didn't research further to
see what the value system of that that
labor program that prison labor program
was like but it seems that there are a
whole lot of corrupt
kind of semi enslavement system
definitely indentured indentured labor
systems within the prison system but
yeah our rights we have freedom of
speech that's cool
we'll be exercising that right on
Saturday you know that's the same the
same thing when you call yourselves your
senator you're exercising that right you
know calling your senator calling your
senator every day you know with that
message and sharing with your friends to
do that is you know a different channel
but a similar exercise of our freedom of
speech as is protesting both are valid
there is some argument about which one
is more effective by the air on the side
of non-confrontation not because I'm
passive aggressive but because I'm a
communicator so but that's just my
personal everybody is how this has the
right to exercise that right how they
want to but you know I know that there's
like a lot of uncertainty in an
insecurity around okay I I'm part of the
problem I want to do something to help
correct this problem and you know for
the past weeks the popular option the
popular opinion the popular solution has
been will go protests that's what we're
doing right now or post something to
your social media and let the world know
your opinion which is also a valid
exercise of that right as well but
finding out what policies are currently
on the table that are currently being
the sky
by our representatives and are currently
being voted upon and engaging with that
information and sharing that information
is also a very valid Channel and so in
my work of utilizing this brands channel
and and building community and sharing
information and protecting our
constitutional education that's what I
want to do we also have the right for
forearms at school
I'm not into guns
but you know I do believe in personal
protection and so I'm not I'm not
against the Second Amendment I
understand it I'm definitely very
passionate about more cultural education
around violence you know cuz anything
can be the source of violence not just a
gun so you know like I don't like how
the conversation always just goes
directly to guns there is a bigger
conversation to be had around violence
and when it's appropriate or not
appropriate in guns I think just make it
very easy to make violence seem
appropriate when it probably isn't
communication so much more effective hey
Patrick you know drive through town soon
awesome to come visit will drink some
tea together I haven't had much much
guest in my tea room here so it would be
nice too nice to have you around yeah
let me know when you came through
and Saturday Patrick I hope you are able
you and Maria I know Murray was asking
how to engage with it so I hope she got
my notes but the festival for progress
will be happening and we have several
very good speakers talking about
different efforts to bring social
justice and social mobilization to a lot
of the issues that have been spoke on
and may seem intimidating and
unapproachable but they're all very
approachable
everything is so yeah that starts on to
2 o'clock on Saturday the 20th which I
think you know Friday is meant to be a
very active day and so I'm hoping that
this event would be a continuation of
that action this event is not associated
with any initiative or any political
group or any fundraising effort it's
it's really you know just a co-created
discussion among various justice
fighters in our society that have
dedicated their lives and you know are
now happy to see people want to hear and
so we want to create that platform for
them to share their their voice and
their calls to action of how and it's so
interesting you know if we put this
program together and called together a
diverse group of co-creators that are
talking about climates gender death
penalty as well as you know Disability
Rights and in each of their presentation
each of them addresses race and they
would have been addressing race even
before you know the the protests have
have started so it's pretty obvious to
me
that that race is deeply ingrained in
all of these these issues and yeah it's
just it's crazy so it'll be a little bit
of an education but not just an
education and you know it's good
everybody is it's hungry for education
right now
I actually just watched the documentary
everybody's been sharing on Netflix
called 13th around 13th amendment so
talking about Constitution study group I
recommend it you can watch it a lot of
the education around some of the things
I've been talking about today but really
about the distortion it number I think
the the most staggering statistic that's
that I was seeing here let's see I'm
gonna get the numbers right that's
oh here we go well
so one in 17 white men have a likelihood
of being in prison at some time in their
life when in three black men has a
likelihood of being in prison it's
sometime throughout their life and then
the other staggering statistic is that
6.5 percent of the u.s. population is
black men but then 40.2%
of prison population as black men so
just really like and there's a lot of
issues of this you know but ultimately
the issues are deeply ingrained and it
is very true that these people are
responsible for their own actions and
their own actions very well how could
have warranted them you know the need to
be imprisoned or you know to have some
type of criminality assigned to them but
you know there's there's deep things
that they're up against that us as a
society and our governments as
policymakers are either empowering or
enabling that could be turned could be
changed and so that's that's where our
power lies is in you know encouraging
that change through our action through
our voice so I hope you guys join on
Saturday because that you know will be a
very effective way to to learn what you
can do and that will be streamed on
Facebook alright it'll be straight
across all of our channels YouTube and
twitch and and periscope but some
Facebook would be a good place to watch
and see conversation because then we'll
have all of the the chat and the
questions where you can submit your
questions and so yeah you can just
access that from T let's Facebook page
and it'll be playing from two to five
we'll be streaming it there so I think
that covers my Constitution Study Group
conversation I wanted to have today
around our personal rights our citizen
rights to vote to communicate with our
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representation and just to speak to
express and to and to learn and to be
engaged and that right right there is I
think it is potentially being challenged
and so we got to exercise that as much
as we can while we can right now cool
there are no more questions here so I'm
gonna go thank you so much for joining
today I hope it's been inspiring and I
hope yeah you mark your calendars down
if you want to like RSVP so that you get
a reminder I have a reminder on on
Instagram live or not it's really in our
stories if you go to our stories there's
like a button there that you can get a
reminder when it's starting so you'll be
notified and then also if you visit the
link I'll type it into the chat if you
go to the link bit dot ly / Festival for
progress you'll be able to to RSVP and
and sign up on the that's interesting
good to see you Shiloh hope you see
let's hope to see you on Saturday toward
the festival for progress not going to
be a whole lot of tea talk there will be
a lot of talk a lot of very serious
important conversations being had so
with cause of action to so this is not
just going to be like depressing I think
a lot of the the rhetoric and a lot of
the education that's going around right
now and it's necessary education but a
lot of it is quite depressing negative
without that call to action and so
that's what I told I told Marcus when we
do this events I want to make sure that
there are actionable strategies proposed
you know and there's such a diverse
range of topics that will be on so you
know what I recommend if you're trying
to become you know more civically
engaged and and find your voice and find
your activism you know find a issue or a
topic that you you already have been
passionate about and get engaged with
that versus trying to like attach
yourself to every issue that's being
bombarded in our faces right now it can
be intimidating and cumbersome to feel
like we have to we have to solve
everything yes lots of important
discussions
some controversial we'll see oh I'm
looking forward to seeing how the
community reacts you know to what gets
discussed but the presenters that are
there are all people that have been
activists and advocates on those topics
and within those communities for years
if not decades so you know someone like
me would not be equipped now if you want
to talk about you know sovereignty and
autonomy of commodity Labor's yeah I'd
be happy to talk about that but you know
a lot of these topics that that we'll be
talking about on Saturday are our issues
that a bit more domestic that I don't
you know have involvement and I'm just
holding the space for these
conversations to be had and I just feel
like that's that's all I can offer to
all this activism that's happening right
now and you know I'm not just going to
use a hashtag a hashtag that you know
has a very deep backstory to it that I'm
not an a very partisan backstory to it
you know this is a I'd like to attach
myself to initiatives that are
nonpartisan that are community for me
but I'm definitely gonna talk about the
issues and give voices to those issues
just not that that hashtag and not that
initiative
so shiloh says good tips
thank you definitely need to personalize
the approach so that we can better apply
concepts both individually and as a
community yeah yeah you've got to
simplify things and and a relatable way
humanitarian at its core yep
we are humans we gotta be humanitarians
to take care of ourselves so you have
very complex issues here and I want to
try to simplify them because at the
corner of them yeah they're not complex
we're we're just humans we're just
trying to connect we're just trying to
to find our autonomy and find our
sovereignty in this so and and our
autonomy and sovereignty is based upon
the autonomy and sovereignty of someone
else of everybody else you know you're
not just focusing on our own yeah so
cool well Charlotte thank you so much
for your contribution and for for
engaging I look forward to seeing you on
Saturday as well as at the end of the
month I saw that you and noticed that
events the the panel
I'll start promoting it by I think
tomorrow I'll start promoting it on our
channels but that should be a good panel
talking about you know the long history
and stories of heritage as well as
colonization within tea so yeah that
conversation will be very much focused
on team very prestigious panel of of
women you know not all tea professionals
all women that have some kind of
connection with tea yeah so I'm looking
forward to that that should be a pretty
pretty wild and an important
conversation but most recently Saturday
we are doing the festival for progress
you'll find it on our Facebook I
probably will be live-streaming it too
Triana as well I'll figure out some way
to get it on there as well or at least
you know drive dry people to to join the
conversation on yeah I like the panel
choices too
I'm honored to be included in it you
know the other the other woman have very
deep roots and connections with with
China which I don't have but I think
that's what they wanted me to offer
registered awesome
hi guys see you tomorrow