Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: It beats listening to nothing, right, Oh.
Speaker 1: My goodness, Frank, Being Frank fright.
Speaker 3: Were the only way to be is Frank. Hello everyone,
Speaker 3: and welcome to Being Frank. We're the only way to be,
Speaker 3: is Frank. I'm your host, Franklebano, and i'd like to
Speaker 3: thank you for joining us on what we like to
Speaker 3: call the Intelligent Conversation podcast, where no conversations out of
Speaker 3: bounds and all points of view are welcome. You know,
Speaker 3: we record live to tape, and I give you the
Speaker 3: date so you have some relevance and context. It is
Speaker 3: the eighth of April. Like so many Americans over seventy million,
Speaker 3: who did not support the re election of Donald J.
Speaker 3: Trump as the forty seventh President of the United States,
Speaker 3: I am appalled at his wanton destruction of our current
Speaker 3: version of government and constitution. It has proved more than
Speaker 3: frustrating to me. It's downright frightening. And I do what
Speaker 3: I can to resist, writing in my blog Talk Frank
Speaker 3: and for Niak News and Views, as well as podcasting
Speaker 3: here at Being Frank with our version of Intelligent Talk.
Speaker 3: But I don't want to just talk about it. I
Speaker 3: want to do something to change it. I want to
Speaker 3: actively participate in winning our government of the people by
Speaker 3: the people back, and I want liberty and justice restored
Speaker 3: for all. However, it's simply too much for anyone to
Speaker 3: accomplish alone. Then I found out that I am not alone.
Speaker 3: There are indeed millions of other like minded Americans all
Speaker 3: over the United States dedicated to a non violent revolution
Speaker 3: to return our country to some level of decency. They
Speaker 3: are mobilized nationally under the umbrella organization known as Indivisible,
Speaker 3: and we have an intensely active local chapter right here
Speaker 3: in Rockland County. Just within the last few weeks, they
Speaker 3: have staged numerous well attended protests dents at various locations
Speaker 3: throughout the county. Let me read you something from their website,
Speaker 3: Indivisible Rockland. We are residents of New York's seventeenth Congressional District,
Speaker 3: united in our commitment to defend democracy and oppose any
Speaker 3: actions that undermine the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the
Speaker 3: Constitution in their efforts to weaken institutions and erode democratic reforms.
Speaker 3: We stand together to ensure that the current administration is
Speaker 3: held accountable upholding civil liberties and justice for everyone. Indivisibal
Speaker 3: Rockland is a community of activists led by a steering committee.
Speaker 3: As of the fourteenth of February, the steering committee members
Speaker 3: are Bill Batson, Pascal, Jean Giles, Nelson Garcia de Leone,
Speaker 3: Latania Watkins, Debbie Stedge, Darcy Castellaro, Tracy Obenhawer. Four of
Speaker 3: them join us now. Let's meet Bill Batson, Pascal, Jan Giles,
Speaker 3: Nancy Garcia DeLeon and Tracy Openhauer. Welcome, guys, Thank you
Speaker 3: for joining us this evening on this very important show.
Speaker 4: Hey Frank, thanks for having us.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having us, guys. Let's let's let's start with
Speaker 3: getting to know a little bit about each one of you. So, nelsons,
Speaker 3: let's start with you. What what brought you here, Why
Speaker 3: are you here with us tonight, How did you become
Speaker 3: involved with h with the Indivisible rock Let's start with you.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 6: So.
Speaker 5: I am a social worker, I am an immigrant. I
Speaker 5: have family members who were born here, family members who
Speaker 5: are documented, and also family members who essentially are part
Speaker 5: of the community. And so with everything that is going
Speaker 5: on after the Trump administration took office and even before
Speaker 5: then there were things here and there, whether it is
Speaker 5: at the federal level or at the state level, that
Speaker 5: is just not okay, and nobody else was doing something
Speaker 5: about it. So what better way to get something done
Speaker 5: than to grab a couple of friends who are like minded,
Speaker 5: people who have different struggles like mine to be able
Speaker 5: to do this work.
Speaker 3: Excellent, Thank you, Tracy Europe. Next, would tell us a
Speaker 3: little bit about yourself, your involvement here. What do you
Speaker 3: do with the organization?
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure, I'm probably the least exciting member of the group.
Speaker 4: I'm just a general member of the public who met
Speaker 4: Bill and Pascal. Over the past few years, just kind
Speaker 4: of volunteering to make graphics for events and meetings. I
Speaker 4: got involved with the local Democratic Committee. But probably since
Speaker 4: twenty twenty, I've just been completely I mean, forget the
Speaker 4: first Trump administration. Twenty twenty. I just I had reached
Speaker 4: a boiling point and I'm disabled, so I it took
Speaker 4: me two years in twenty seventeen to learn to walk again,
Speaker 4: So it wasn't until twenty twenty that I was really
Speaker 4: able to get out into the public and start to
Speaker 4: get involved. And so I've been quietly working behind the
Speaker 4: scenes for the past couple of years, and then this
Speaker 4: came along and I immediately raised my hand because having
Speaker 4: worked with Pascal and Bill in the past, it was
Speaker 4: a no brainer for me. And then meeting the rest
Speaker 4: of the crew Nelsy, it just was a perfect fit.
Speaker 4: And we're all kind of like minded, so we all
Speaker 4: have the same goal.
Speaker 3: Great. Thank you, Tracy, Bill bashing Eu roup. Next, please
Speaker 3: tell us a little bit about yourself and your involvement here.
Speaker 1: I think COVID's an interesting parallel because Pascal and I
Speaker 1: have known each other for a bit. But I think
Speaker 1: after the mur of George Floyd, we got involved in
Speaker 1: this thing called the Rockland People's Panel on Policing, and
Speaker 1: for as devastating as that time was for our country,
Speaker 1: not only the isolation of COVID but the reality of
Speaker 1: watching a man die for nine minutes on a videotape.
Speaker 1: As separate as we felt, we also had this enormous
Speaker 1: need to come together, and we had this group where
Speaker 1: we met every week. I think it was like a
Speaker 1: five o'clock every Wednesday for like a year, and it
Speaker 1: created this intense bond and this real realization that even
Speaker 1: though we were kind of, you know, physically alone, and
Speaker 1: divided because of the pandemic and the fear of illness,
Speaker 1: we were able to combine and to create something really enormous.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think one of it's a tough
Speaker 1: lesson of politics in America that all that effort produced
Speaker 1: not one single police reform. So I'm still scratching my
Speaker 1: head over that, you know. And now the country's actually
Speaker 1: gone in the opposite direction, which is more than a
Speaker 1: head scratch. But I think there's just the urgency there
Speaker 1: and the notion that there are incredible people out there
Speaker 1: willing to work collectively, willing to work creatively, willing to
Speaker 1: be resilient, willing to persevere. And now we have a
Speaker 1: bigger challenge. We have a bigger challenge. It's the biggest
Speaker 1: challenge any of us have ever faced in our lifetime.
Speaker 2: But we also have the knowledge that we're not alone.
Speaker 1: And Frank you said that, I think that that's why
Speaker 1: people come to our meetings, because nobody wants to feel alone.
Speaker 1: And you can't accomplish anything alone. If history tells us
Speaker 1: one thing, great things do not happen.
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: If at the end of the day we only remember
Speaker 1: one name of one person, it's really countless people who
Speaker 1: come together to make that person who they are and
Speaker 1: to create the change that we need and we've needed
Speaker 1: in history, and we need so much right now. So
Speaker 1: I feel blessed to know these folks and all the
Speaker 1: people have joined us, and I'm very happy that Indivisible
Speaker 1: persevered and is still around and can't wait to see
Speaker 1: what's next. And maybe we even have some ideas for
Speaker 1: some things to happen next.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we talk a little bit about all of that.
Speaker 3: I hope to you, and I think you raised a
Speaker 3: great point because I know as an organization, and we'll
Speaker 3: get to Pascal in just one minute, but I think
Speaker 3: Bill raised something very important, and we're going to talk
Speaker 3: about a little bit more detail about your zeitgeist, so
Speaker 3: your mindset, if you will, and I know it's based
Speaker 3: on the teachings of nonviolence and Martin Luther King, And
Speaker 3: as Bill said, you know, we tend to see that
Speaker 3: the tip of the pyramid, but there's this massive amount
Speaker 3: of structure beneath that tip, so that you know, the
Speaker 3: sayings and the leadership of Martin Luther King is what
Speaker 3: we all aim for. But there are many people that
Speaker 3: come together that form the pyramid that that MLK is
Speaker 3: only the tip of a much larger thing, a much
Speaker 3: larger organization. I think that was a great point that
Speaker 3: Bill made there. Pascal Jean Giles, please tell us a
Speaker 3: little bit about yourself, why you're here and you're involvement
Speaker 3: with Indivision.
Speaker 6: Thanks. So, I would say, you know, I guess I've
Speaker 6: been a lifelong sort of civil servant to some degree.
Speaker 6: You know, my parents are you know there. I'm first
Speaker 6: generation Haitian American. My parents are not from here, my
Speaker 6: grandparents aren't from here, but they all came to this
Speaker 6: country in like the sixties and seventies. And so when
Speaker 6: I was really young, my mom and my dad were
Speaker 6: part of the Haitian American Parents Association called KAPPA, and
Speaker 6: they were advocating for Haitian American students in both the
Speaker 6: East Ramical School District and the Naiax School District because
Speaker 6: that's where a lot of Haitian students were. So that,
Speaker 6: you know, when I was younger, I thought those meetings
Speaker 6: were really boring and I'm like, oh, they're just sitting
Speaker 6: around and talking, and I didn't want to go to them.
Speaker 6: But as an adult, I realized how valuable being in
Speaker 6: those spaces was because it really showed me that there
Speaker 6: were these parents, these adults who were trying to make
Speaker 6: their community better for not just their kids, but for
Speaker 6: everyone's kids. So, you know, that's sort of the the
Speaker 6: thing I take with me and everything that I do
Speaker 6: in Rockland. I was you know, I started in my
Speaker 6: hospital and I haven't really left. So I really love
Speaker 6: this place. And that's why I'm part of Indivisible Rockland is.
Speaker 6: I just see that as an extension of being a
Speaker 6: civil servant, caring about your community, loving where you're coming from,
Speaker 6: and also recognizing that this place can be better for everyone.
Speaker 6: So that's that's what brought me here.
Speaker 5: I just wanted to mention one thing that, you know,
Speaker 5: the rest of the crew we come from a why
Speaker 5: ranch of socio economic backgrounds. We some of us are homeowners,
Speaker 5: some of us are renters, some of those carriage student loans,
Speaker 5: private loans. We some of us have navigated government assistant,
Speaker 5: We have faced hardship, We have deal with private insurance,
Speaker 5: government insurance, and everything in between. We have seen and
Speaker 5: we have experience these things that we are trying to change,
Speaker 5: and so I just wanted to mention that because some
Speaker 5: of our members are not here today.
Speaker 6: Yeah, if you are the modern day middle class, really.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm going to talk about membership and who
Speaker 3: are the members, not only in terms of the steering committee,
Speaker 3: but in general, who are people? Who are the people
Speaker 3: becoming involved? But before we even get to that, let's
Speaker 3: talk about Indivisible as an organization, as a national organization.
Speaker 3: And guys, it's an open discussion. I don't have to
Speaker 3: call on any one person. Anybody wants to take the
Speaker 3: lead on any particular topic or question, please feel free
Speaker 3: to do so. But let's talk a little bit about
Speaker 3: Indivisible itself. I mean, it's a word. We understand the word.
Speaker 3: But as an organization, where did it come from? What
Speaker 3: is the umbrella organization about? Before we get into the
Speaker 3: actual Rockland organization anyone, So it was born.
Speaker 5: It was initiated in twenty sixteen after the election of
Speaker 5: Donald Trump, and the movement has been going strong since then.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they started out. It was a couple, married couple.
Speaker 3: They had as a husband and wife, a husband and.
Speaker 6: Wife they had put I'm forgetting their names at the moment,
Speaker 6: so anyone can chime in and help me out. But
Speaker 6: they had published this guide on I believe it was
Speaker 6: Twitter or something where it was just like how to effectively,
Speaker 6: you know, hold your elected's accountable, resist the Trump administration changes,
Speaker 6: just this whole individual and it just got shared around
Speaker 6: and shared around and shared around that so many people
Speaker 6: started really taking this to the next level. And so
Speaker 6: leon Ezra, that's thank you, Elsie.
Speaker 3: They yes, yeah, love good love quick.
Speaker 6: Goes through with it, and you know, they just they
Speaker 6: started this movement just you know, just like everyone else
Speaker 6: who really wants to get just people.
Speaker 3: Just two people started this gigantic. Now it's a national
Speaker 3: There are what would you call them, not clubs with chapters, chapters.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you guys. That's part of being frank,
Speaker 3: getting things terrible stuff. At one point, Yes, yet there
Speaker 3: are chapters all over the country. How many do we know?
Speaker 3: How many total members in the in the organization? Does
Speaker 3: anybody have that number? By any chance? I don't know,
Speaker 3: not off the top of our heads.
Speaker 4: I think the last time we were on a call,
Speaker 4: when we were on the Schumer call, I want to say,
Speaker 4: there was twenty five hundred.
Speaker 6: Close to Yeah, that was like all the chapter leads. Yeah, still,
Speaker 6: and that was across the country. They had a lot
Speaker 6: of chapter leads. I think it was about that much.
Speaker 3: All right, Well, okay, let let's talk about then the
Speaker 3: Rockland chapter. How did that all come about? And tell
Speaker 3: us a little bit about it. Also, I want to
Speaker 3: know a little bit about your mission statement. You know,
Speaker 3: what do you guys really about, Yes, of course, just just.
Speaker 1: Just a point of I don't know, continuity, or just
Speaker 1: to bring up the fact that many of us talked
Speaker 1: about COVID and how it affected.
Speaker 2: Us the last time.
Speaker 1: Because I'm a student of the civil rights movement, a
Speaker 1: student of protest. I've worked for labor unions, for housing organizers,
Speaker 1: for community groups, and when when the protests were going
Speaker 1: on for George Floyd, there was a moment where almost
Speaker 1: every city of any substantial size had to protest going
Speaker 1: on for a period of time, and it was the
Speaker 1: first time in a America because normally, you know, protests
Speaker 1: would be around big cities, college towns, the East coast,
Speaker 1: the West coast. But Floyd kind of changed that whole dynamic.
Speaker 1: I think that the hands off day on April fifth,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody is so you know, cautious and apprehensive
Speaker 1: about information and you never really know if you're getting
Speaker 1: the best information, but just in my own Facebook feed,
Speaker 1: the small towns like ten thousand people in Rochester, New York.
Speaker 1: I mean, so there is a kind of protest movement
Speaker 1: that's really not being I don't think reported and comprehended
Speaker 1: that's going on, and I don't know if it's you know,
Speaker 1: certainly there's a loose affiliation around and indivisible and we'll
Speaker 1: talk about you know, our mission and our code of conduct,
Speaker 1: but there is something happening here.
Speaker 3: That will let's develop that. Then what do you think
Speaker 3: it is? You know, their turn grounds, well all those things.
Speaker 3: What is driving this force in this opposition? Can we
Speaker 3: Is there a way to describe it? Pascal?
Speaker 6: You yeah, I mean, so you know in terms like
Speaker 6: before I guess I go any further. I do want
Speaker 6: to say our roots didn't just start as Indivisible Rockland.
Speaker 6: Before it was Indivisible Rockland, it was Rockland United, which
Speaker 6: was the first iteration of the chapter in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 6: I know a lot of those members were sort of
Speaker 6: burnt out, a little bit exhausted, so they handed the
Speaker 6: reins over to us, and so we decided, you know,
Speaker 6: if we were going to do this as a group,
Speaker 6: we would have to sort of re organize ourselves. But
Speaker 6: I will say I don't think that the groundswell has
Speaker 6: I think it ebbs and it flows. There's one thing
Speaker 6: I've seen just being part of a lot of this
Speaker 6: stuff since I was a kid, is that there you know,
Speaker 6: there are times when people feel like, Okay, things are
Speaker 6: in a better place, so we can rest. And then
Speaker 6: there are times are like, you know, we're really concerned
Speaker 6: about certain freedoms and democracy and things like that. So
Speaker 6: you know, in twenty sixteen there was a high apex
Speaker 6: of that where people were really scared about all the
Speaker 6: things that Trump could and did do. And then you know,
Speaker 6: the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came and
Speaker 6: so people were like, all right, maybe, you know, maybe
Speaker 6: things will be back to normal. We'll have issues to
Speaker 6: deal with, but it won't be the existential crisis of
Speaker 6: will this democracy stand? And I think with Trump's second
Speaker 6: term now you're really seeing everyone is like there, you know,
Speaker 6: he is actively making a choice to destroy our democracy
Speaker 6: and are we going to let him? And so that's
Speaker 6: why we're getting so many people to really show up
Speaker 6: at these rallies and come to our meetings and come
Speaker 6: to our events because people are feeling helpless and they
Speaker 6: need a place to go where there's like minded people
Speaker 6: and where there's action involved. So I think, you know,
Speaker 6: with a lot of the stuff that's happening like this
Speaker 6: is where people are, people want to see some action.
Speaker 6: And I think there's a fear that if we don't
Speaker 6: do something, we will and when we just sort of
Speaker 6: roll over like this is how democracies die.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'm sure that there's a fine line
Speaker 3: between action and violence, and I know that's an important
Speaker 3: point that's made when you go to your website and
Speaker 3: it's a theme that's repeated that it can only be
Speaker 3: successful through nonviolent revolution. And I know that's important. But
Speaker 3: how do you and again forgive me, sometimes it just
Speaker 3: play the devil's advocate in order to be able to
Speaker 3: answer a question, how do you promote action, real action,
Speaker 3: and yet at the same time avoid confrontation. Sometimes that
Speaker 3: can lead to if not even physical violence, but sometimes
Speaker 3: there are different levels of emotional violence, etc. So how
Speaker 3: as an organization can you move things forward aggressively yet
Speaker 3: at the same time main respectful to the tenets of
Speaker 3: non violence? Anyone I would say that.
Speaker 1: We uh there's a I don't remember the woman who
Speaker 1: said it, but there's a phrase that says, the revolution
Speaker 1: you make determines what comes after. And I think that
Speaker 1: we're all driven by community and by trying to figure
Speaker 1: out a way that I mean, what really is offensive
Speaker 1: to most people. I mean, obviously there's a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of concern for the lack of democracy because it is
Speaker 1: really the dividing line between chaos and community. Actually that
Speaker 1: was doctor King's last book was called you know, you
Speaker 1: know what's next, chaos or community? But we and we
Speaker 1: need that. But when we first the first action that
Speaker 1: we organized as a committee was a silent march on
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King's birthday to show communities that we knew
Speaker 1: were being threatened with rhetoric that we would be there
Speaker 1: for them. So, you know, that's where we come from.
Speaker 2: And and and.
Speaker 1: What I think is true is that most people respond
Speaker 1: to that. I mean, most people were members of families
Speaker 1: we have. You know, some of us have children, some
Speaker 1: of us we all have parents. We all have family
Speaker 1: members that we care about, and and that's what's that's
Speaker 1: what's being threatened. So when you go after an immigrant,
Speaker 1: you're going after somebody's family member. When you're going after
Speaker 1: you know, a trans youth, you're going after somebody's you know, child,
Speaker 1: when you're going after you know, a woman, you're going
Speaker 1: after you know, somebody's mother, when you're you know, when
Speaker 1: you're going after somebody in the black community, you're going
Speaker 1: after a member of your church. And and so by
Speaker 1: caring for other people and kind of worrying about other people,
Speaker 1: we defined ourselves in that first act. So and and
Speaker 1: and we're also being very careful because we've been through it.
Speaker 1: I mean, part of the US and here is that
Speaker 1: you know, this is not our first rodeo, and we've
Speaker 1: seen the kind of rancor well, actually, I would honestly
Speaker 1: say that what's really informing us is the other side,
Speaker 1: because who on earth I would want I want to
Speaker 1: elect somebody to office, or I want to hold a
Speaker 1: person in office accountable. I don't want to storm the
Speaker 1: capital with with with you know, bear spray. I mean,
Speaker 1: who on earth wants to do that? And when you
Speaker 1: see what happens and what that leads to, I mean
Speaker 1: they got the government that they made, you know, they
Speaker 1: wanted to storm a capital and now they have a
Speaker 1: violent government. So we want to surround the Capitol and
Speaker 1: hold hands in pray, because that's the kind of government
Speaker 1: we want.
Speaker 3: Let's talk a little bit about Rockland Indivisible, Rockland as
Speaker 3: an organization, okay too. I think people are curious, you know,
Speaker 3: the hear it as a title? Is or is everyone
Speaker 3: involved with it? Are you all volunteers? Are there paid positions?
Speaker 3: What about a budget? I mean, these are all logistical things,
Speaker 3: and I'm sure you know questions that people might have.
Speaker 3: We could call something of an organization, but how is
Speaker 3: it organized? Is there an operating budget? How are you funded?
Speaker 3: Are people paid? How many volunteers do you have? Let's
Speaker 3: let's do a few nuts and bolts things.
Speaker 6: Contrary to popular belief, we are not paid protesters. If
Speaker 6: someone can direct me to where I'm supposed to pick
Speaker 6: up my paid protester check quote unquote, please let me
Speaker 6: know because.
Speaker 5: I make sure that make because we.
Speaker 6: Slap together two pennys in a dream most of the time.
Speaker 3: So is every everyone? Tracy?
Speaker 4: What's the head?
Speaker 3: Tracy?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I was just going to say we are all one
Speaker 4: hundred volunteers. The first three major events we did, we
Speaker 4: bootstrapped together. We're our own money. You know, we were
Speaker 4: very lucky to have an event this past week that
Speaker 4: allowed us to do some fundraising that will hopefully allow
Speaker 4: us to be able to raise money in the future
Speaker 4: for bigger and better events. I think we were lucky,
Speaker 4: and I'll just kind of tap back to the Rockland
Speaker 4: United people. We were lucky to get a platform that existed,
Speaker 4: so we had a mailing list that existed. We had
Speaker 4: a Facebook that we created, but we took over their Instagram.
Speaker 4: I also created a Blue Sky, so we were lucky
Speaker 4: to have about a twelve hundred person mailing list. We've
Speaker 4: since grown that. We're like a two thousand person mailing
Speaker 4: list now. Our Facebook went from zero to seven hundred
Speaker 4: and sixty something followers. The Instagram was at seven hundred
Speaker 4: and ninety now it's over twelve hundred, and Blue Sky
Speaker 4: was built from the ground up that's over thirteen hundred.
Speaker 4: So we were blessed to already have an audience that
Speaker 4: we were able to grow from there. So we're very
Speaker 4: grateful to Rockland United for giving us that platform. In
Speaker 4: terms of everything else, one percent volunteer. I think I
Speaker 4: put in what thirty plus hours a week.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 6: Tracy is the heart and frames of our operation, we
Speaker 6: would be deader.
Speaker 4: I write the newsletter, I do the social media. And
Speaker 4: this is not a braggadocious moment. This is just what
Speaker 4: it takes to be able to get the information out there.
Speaker 2: It puts the indispensable and indivisible.
Speaker 4: But then you know, you've got Bill and Pascal and
Speaker 4: Nelsy who you know, write press releases and do all
Speaker 4: the things we need behind the scenes in terms of
Speaker 4: having intelligent communication out to the public. We bring it
Speaker 4: back to the steering committee, everybody signs off on it
Speaker 4: and gets their their say, and we're blessed to have
Speaker 4: people who are interested. I think people are so just
Speaker 4: confounded by what's going on in the world that action
Speaker 4: is the antidote and it's it's what people are looking for,
Speaker 4: and so our events are something that bring them comfort.
Speaker 4: We had five hundred rs vps to the April fifth
Speaker 4: Hands Off protest.
Speaker 3: Let let's let's talk a little bit about those events
Speaker 3: since you mentioned them, Tracy. Let's see and I've been
Speaker 3: too few. The march, the march across the CRMO Bridge.
Speaker 3: I also saw the UH recently with the comedians. I
Speaker 3: want you to talk a little bit about that. And
Speaker 3: of course the hands off day, all of them successful?
Speaker 3: How how do you come up with them? You know?
Speaker 3: And what is you know what plants the seed? What?
Speaker 3: What what do you think will well, you know, get
Speaker 3: people to become you know, truly actively involved. How what
Speaker 3: where the germs of those ideas come from?
Speaker 4: Does some of them come from Bill's brilliant mind? Some
Speaker 4: of them were gifted to us. We all kind of
Speaker 4: sat around. We saw a viral moment happen with Michael
Speaker 4: ian Black, and we were in a text chat going,
Speaker 4: wouldn't it be amazing if we could get him to
Speaker 4: do something for us? And people just started talking to
Speaker 4: people in their networks and miraculously someone had a connection
Speaker 4: and we were able to get him to come. In
Speaker 4: terms of the Delgado town Hall, I think we've been
Speaker 4: very lucky. Pascal and I have been working with a
Speaker 4: coalition of other grassroots organizations that include not only Indivisible
Speaker 4: chapters but also unions. You've got WFP in there, quite
Speaker 4: a few others, Empire State voices, and they've all been
Speaker 4: very open to working together and so we were able
Speaker 4: to bring the Delgado Town Hall with their assistants as
Speaker 4: co sponsors. So we've been really lucky, and again I
Speaker 4: think it goes back to we had a foundation that
Speaker 4: we could use as a jumping off point. So we've
Speaker 4: been very lucky. We're also very ambitious in terms of
Speaker 4: what we think we can put out into the world.
Speaker 4: I mean, since January it's been NonStop. I was actually
Speaker 4: waiting for April fifth to be over so I could
Speaker 4: sleep for two days.
Speaker 6: I think also like no idea is a bad idea
Speaker 6: for us, because we also, like we got to meet
Speaker 6: people where they are, and you know, people want marches,
Speaker 6: people want rallies, but people also want down time to
Speaker 6: like talk about politics in a way that's more funny
Speaker 6: and not like, oh, I can't believe this is all happening.
Speaker 6: So I think we're just trying to, you know, really
Speaker 6: cater to what we're seeing ourselves and how we're feeling ourselves.
Speaker 3: Now when when you assemble people and as I said,
Speaker 3: I've gone to a few events, and you know, it's
Speaker 3: not done haphazardly. It's done with a sense of purpose, Okay,
Speaker 3: in a sense of safety. Also because you know, we're
Speaker 3: in a very fractured society right now, and obviously and
Speaker 3: I know at the four corners in nanuet Here in
Speaker 3: New York on every weekend there are hundreds of protesters
Speaker 3: and they're also counter protesters. How do how do you
Speaker 3: teach people? What do you tell them to keep their
Speaker 3: cool in situations that can get heated? Because I think
Speaker 3: that's important so that people are not afraid, so that
Speaker 3: they know they can do these things safe. Who can
Speaker 3: address that?
Speaker 6: Well? So I've done a lot of mediations and one
Speaker 6: of the things that we always talk about mediations to
Speaker 6: set the scene and sit in stage. How you want
Speaker 6: people and where you want to place them. So I
Speaker 6: think all of us with that in mind. You know,
Speaker 6: we have that in mind of where we want people,
Speaker 6: but we also have safety in mind. You know, we
Speaker 6: know that living in you know, very turbulent times, and
Speaker 6: the first thing we constantly think about is are we
Speaker 6: going to be safe when we do these things? So,
Speaker 6: you know, when when you have that at the forefront's
Speaker 6: keeping not only ourselves safe. But people say that really
Speaker 6: does help you sort of set the stage in terms
Speaker 6: of you know, are we going to have marshals at
Speaker 6: every area? Are we going to make sure that we
Speaker 6: have security? You know, we do collaborate to some degree
Speaker 6: with law enforcement when we need to to make sure
Speaker 6: that you know, they're aware of what's going on. We're
Speaker 6: keeping people safe because that you know, people will be
Speaker 6: able to feel what they feel express themselves, but they
Speaker 6: don't want to, you know, do harm to themselves.
Speaker 3: You know, I think that's a very important point to make.
Speaker 3: Bill you want you wanted to jump.
Speaker 1: And then I'm hoping that Nelson will chime in at
Speaker 1: the end and I'm going to hand the baton to
Speaker 1: her and she'll know when. But so, h there's a
Speaker 1: method to their madness. It feels like sometimes it's just hate,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's a little bit more diabolical than that.
Speaker 1: I often look for theft. I mean, they're really plundering.
Speaker 1: So they're taking money away from children and away from veterans.
Speaker 2: But where is that my going? It's not neutral, They're
Speaker 2: not just keeping it in the bank.
Speaker 1: So there it's you know, going in one of the
Speaker 1: one door of the building and going out another.
Speaker 2: But there's also something else. It's control. It's about control.
Speaker 1: So why would you why would the park Service remove
Speaker 1: Harriet Tubman's name, you know from underground railroad.
Speaker 2: You know monuments? Why would they do that? Well? Because
Speaker 2: her story is dangerous. She represents resistance. So it's not
Speaker 2: just her skin and her gender that's offense. Offensive, and
Speaker 2: that is offensive to some, but.
Speaker 1: It's really what she represents and what she did, and
Speaker 1: what she did was put forward something so powerful in
Speaker 1: time that it that it still gives us guidance on
Speaker 1: what to do, you know. And actually I told the
Speaker 1: story backwards because I wanted to talk about the underground
Speaker 1: railroad at the end.
Speaker 2: But but you know, there are other examples, like you know,
Speaker 2: Martin Luther King.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at the story of the
Speaker 1: Civil Rights movement, it's a manual for how to overcome
Speaker 1: authoritarian government. Because what was Montgomery, Alabama but authoritarian government
Speaker 1: that controlled all of the public resources. And here was
Speaker 1: a group of people who had no power whatsoever, and
Speaker 1: who were threatened with violence every step of the way.
Speaker 1: But yet for three hundred and eighty five days they
Speaker 1: resisted in a way that changed the world forever. And
Speaker 1: it still changes the world because you can't erase that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, doctor King said, truth pressed to
Speaker 1: the ground rises, and you know it's rising, and that
Speaker 1: truth is the stories that I mean there are, like
Speaker 1: you know, some people go to the Bible. But that's like,
Speaker 1: you know, if the Bible, if they're going to add
Speaker 1: a chapter, you know, it could be the Book of Martin, right,
Speaker 1: So that's our Bible, right. But the underground railroad road
Speaker 1: I brought up is because when this thing started, we
Speaker 1: realized that we needed an underground railroad and an overground
Speaker 1: railroad because there were slave catchers in the county again,
Speaker 1: and this time they weren't taking black people, but they
Speaker 1: were taking immigrants off the street, literally disappearing people. So
Speaker 1: I know that Nelsi is a person who's been fighting
Speaker 1: against that even before it was the official policy, because
Speaker 1: certainly immigrants have been a scapegoat in our culture for
Speaker 1: a very long time. But I just wanted Elsie to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the efforts that she's making
Speaker 1: because you know, that's one of the things that informs
Speaker 1: what we do and it you know, I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: you asked the question, you know, how do we keep
Speaker 1: non violent?
Speaker 2: But the question is, you know, how do we keep effective?
Speaker 1: Sometimes non violence is the most effective way, but sometimes
Speaker 1: the playbook of the underground Railroad comes into play too.
Speaker 5: I think it's important to mention also that the other
Speaker 5: side really wants you to come out of character because
Speaker 5: they feed off of that energy, and we don't want
Speaker 5: to feed off that that energy. We want change, We
Speaker 5: want to be heard, and we want to make our point,
Speaker 5: get our point across. So we know that violence is
Speaker 5: definitely another way. And I haven't even shared these with
Speaker 5: my colleagues. But even when I saw, for example, with
Speaker 5: Mike Loler, I saw somebody was planning on going to
Speaker 5: his house, I immediately texted somebody who knew him to
Speaker 5: let him know, like, Hey, this is happening, because I
Speaker 5: know that this is not okay. His family lives there,
Speaker 5: we know that he has kids. His wife and kids
Speaker 5: didn't ask for this type of engagement for the community.
Speaker 5: His house should be a sanctuary, you know place, But
Speaker 5: that doesn't mean that we cannot activate and use our
Speaker 5: energy to in another way that is not harmful, or
Speaker 5: put his family in danger, or or put ourselves in danger. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I unfortunately his office, you have to make an appointment
Speaker 5: to go there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I do agree with you know, I don't think because
Speaker 6: I don't want to put anyone in danger. And while
Speaker 6: I might disagree with our congressman, I don't think people
Speaker 6: showing up at his house is the right answer. I
Speaker 6: don't think that helps further the cause of justice and
Speaker 6: democracy because you don't want anyone showing up at your house.
Speaker 6: I certainly don't, you know, in the same vein like
Speaker 6: they put they through bricks through Martin Luther King's windows
Speaker 6: and doors. You know, they fire bombed Malcolm X's house.
Speaker 6: You know, they shot MegaR Edwards in front of his
Speaker 6: own home. So like, these are things that you know
Speaker 6: that have happened, and I don't want to put anyone
Speaker 6: in danger, and you know, we also want to recognize that. Look,
Speaker 6: I get, we get that people are angry. There's a
Speaker 6: coold there's a better outlet for your anger than showing
Speaker 6: up at someone's house or burning something down or or
Speaker 6: causing a level of destruction, because that only just helps
Speaker 6: further firm up what Donald Trump is saying about, you know,
Speaker 6: people being this and that and animals and all this
Speaker 6: other stuff like that only helps him with his cause.
Speaker 6: If if that's how we all sort of act. I mean,
Speaker 6: you know, like I said, there's there's better ways to
Speaker 6: take that agg out and to hit people where it
Speaker 6: hurts without putting anyone's live in danger.
Speaker 3: Well, I think, and I hope this comes out properly
Speaker 3: in the right way as a question too. Just recently,
Speaker 3: people are all over Chuck Schumer for his supposed to
Speaker 3: capitulation okay, a compromise, et cetera, and brought up that
Speaker 3: Democrats and independence are just not strong enough. Okay, they
Speaker 3: talk a good game. Okay, these are all nice, esoteric concepts,
Speaker 3: but what are you really changing? What are you really accomplishing?
Speaker 3: So with that in mind and what that said, what
Speaker 3: can you ultimately hope to accomplish besides you know, feeling
Speaker 3: good people again, might Insultan say call it a Kumbaya moment,
Speaker 3: but we need more than that. I think most Americans
Speaker 3: are angry. They are angry with the situation, and they
Speaker 3: want to vent that anger. How can they do it?
Speaker 3: And how can you? What can you ultimately accomplish through
Speaker 3: your agenda? Bill? You wanted to take.
Speaker 1: These you know, it's it's incremental. The first step for
Speaker 1: us is, and it's actually a quote from Booker T. Washington,
Speaker 1: cast your bucket down where you are. So we can't
Speaker 1: necessarily control events in Washington, but we certainly have to
Speaker 1: feel secure in our person, in our homes and our
Speaker 1: communities in Rockland, so you now, you know, you lock
Speaker 1: down your community, you make sure that you're aware of
Speaker 1: moneies that are being lost, programs are being lost, people
Speaker 1: that are being lost.
Speaker 2: But just to go back to the Book.
Speaker 1: Of Martin, it might sound esoteric, and certainly, you know,
Speaker 1: to convince people that you have a quick remedy would
Speaker 1: be a falsehood anyway, because as I said, these are
Speaker 1: unprecedented times. But you know, living as a black person
Speaker 1: in Montgomery, Alabama was unprecedented too, and they were they
Speaker 1: managed to change things pretty drastically, even though the bus
Speaker 1: is now driving backwards. But they had this thing that's
Speaker 1: now part of our code of conduct called the four
Speaker 1: steps of a non violent direct action campaign. And those
Speaker 1: four steps are you collect facts to determine if an
Speaker 1: injustice is alive. So, for instance, in the case of
Speaker 1: Congressman Lawler, who we feel like is the person who
Speaker 1: could represent us in Washington right now, a budget is
Speaker 1: being drawn that cuts medicaid. We have a person who
Speaker 1: sits in the House of Representatives who could represent us.
Speaker 2: That's Michael Lawler.
Speaker 1: So we had to research how we thought that he
Speaker 1: was deficient, and then the next step is negotiation. So
Speaker 1: the problem is in Rocklann County. We're stuck on that
Speaker 1: step because there is no negotiation. We've reached out to
Speaker 1: Representative Lawler, as have many of his constituents, and he
Speaker 1: does not have open town hall meetings.
Speaker 2: It does not exist.
Speaker 5: I just want to add one thing. Bill. This is
Speaker 5: not just at the federal level. We are also so
Speaker 5: for at the stay level because we are paying very
Speaker 5: high taxes in Rockland County and we are not getting
Speaker 5: anything back because our unfortunately, our member in the Senate
Speaker 5: is a Republican and does not bring money. It's it's
Speaker 5: it's just something that I can even comprehend how people
Speaker 5: are okay with is that you are basically throwing all
Speaker 5: this money out and it goes to other communities when
Speaker 5: in Rockland we need so much money.
Speaker 4: Well, that's kind of.
Speaker 6: Part of it.
Speaker 1: More steps, and then the next one is self purification,
Speaker 1: and that's important because what we do is we ask themselves.
Speaker 1: We ask ourselves the questions that Nelsey had. Do you
Speaker 1: want somebody to come to your house? No, so you
Speaker 1: don't send somebody else to somebody else's house. And then
Speaker 1: the final one is direct action. And what I argue is,
Speaker 1: if you do your research, if you really negotiate, if
Speaker 1: you really self purify, that fourth step, which.
Speaker 2: Is unknown, makes itself known.
Speaker 1: So on the question of our legislative agenda and past scale,
Speaker 1: is the person who chairs up that effort for us,
Speaker 1: we can discuss it. I mean, you know, we are
Speaker 1: limited to some extent because we're volunteer organization, because we're new,
Speaker 1: and because we're we have so many people involved and
Speaker 1: we need more. But you know, I mentioned the federal
Speaker 1: because really that budget is a little terrifying right now.
Speaker 1: But we will move on to state and local issues,
Speaker 1: and accountability is the thing because some of us, you know,
Speaker 1: have run for office, some of us will run for office.
Speaker 1: We might support people who run for office, but ultimately
Speaker 1: it seems like the missing factor here. We don't need
Speaker 1: more political parties in the country. We need mechanisms to
Speaker 1: hold political leaders accountable. And my hope is that Indivisible
Speaker 1: or an organization like it, persists and stays in formation
Speaker 1: despite the fact that there's a crisis or there's a
Speaker 1: better outcome and an election with somebody that we're happy with.
Speaker 1: People have to be held accountable, and as soon as
Speaker 1: they don't feel like anybody's watching them and holding them accountable.
Speaker 2: We're in trouble, so we're a check and a balance.
Speaker 6: And even with that, I mean, it's kind of sort
Speaker 6: of two things here. Like one, all politics are local politics,
Speaker 6: no matter how big the federal government may seem. That
Speaker 6: trooples down into what happens in your wallet, in your backyard,
Speaker 6: in your schools, everywhere. So like everyone has to sort
Speaker 6: of just kind of understand that, like everything is local.
Speaker 6: There's no isoteric issue. It's not this pie in the
Speaker 6: sky because somehow it's going to affect you at home.
Speaker 6: You give me an issue and I can tell you
Speaker 6: how it affects you right now today. So that's like
Speaker 6: one part of it, and the other part of it
Speaker 6: is like if there's any I guess goal or hope
Speaker 6: is sort of to what Bill said, these institutions fall apart.
Speaker 6: Our democracy falls apart when peop stop paying attention, when
Speaker 6: people stop engaging with it. And we're at a point
Speaker 6: in time where we have a lot of you know,
Speaker 6: we have both really high engagement and really really low engagement.
Speaker 6: So if there's any goal that I think I have
Speaker 6: is to use this as a place to get more
Speaker 6: people involved in the process. That means showing up at
Speaker 6: your committee meetings. That means showing up at your town
Speaker 6: and board and village meetings and your county meetings. That
Speaker 6: means running for all this, putting yourself out there to say,
Speaker 6: I am someone who wants to change my community for
Speaker 6: the better or for this or for that. I want
Speaker 6: to work on school, I want to work on that. So,
Speaker 6: like that's kind of what I'm hoping when we're pulling in,
Speaker 6: you know, three hundred people or so, I'm hoping that
Speaker 6: of that three hundred, three hundred of them will join
Speaker 6: a committee. Three some of them will run for office.
Speaker 6: They'll show up at their board meetings and say, hey,
Speaker 6: why are we paying these high high taxes and we
Speaker 6: are not getting X and services? You know, that's the
Speaker 6: bigger goal, is that we have to like people have
Speaker 6: to kind of understand that you have to stay involved.
Speaker 6: You can't just say, oh, I'm tired of politics, or
Speaker 6: I'm done with this, or I just want to turn
Speaker 6: it off. No, it affects your backyard, it affects your wallet.
Speaker 6: Like I'm of someone who watches my money. I don't
Speaker 6: want anything affecting that. So, like you have to pay
Speaker 6: attention to what's going on. In your government. Otherwise, you know,
Speaker 6: like Bill said, you know, democracy fails, people will come
Speaker 6: in and take advantage of you and take advantage of
Speaker 6: your ignorance. So if there's anything I hope to get
Speaker 6: from this, people are just more engaged and want to
Speaker 6: be more involved in the process.
Speaker 5: Yeah. I just want to add if you're if you
Speaker 5: feel like you're not good with you, you don't want
Speaker 5: to get involved with legislation or law. We also have
Speaker 5: Mutuo l a committee. We have many different committees that
Speaker 5: where you can get involved if if one of them
Speaker 5: is not something that you're comfortable with and join another one.
Speaker 5: But we welcome everyone who is like Manday and it's
Speaker 5: ready to get to work.
Speaker 3: Testing wants your thoughts to what would you like to
Speaker 3: ultimately accomplish from your time with indivisible Rock one.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I think, you know, from Pascal's perspective when
Speaker 4: she's talking about the local actions, that's kind of where
Speaker 4: I started, and I do agree, you know, showing up
Speaker 4: to town board meetings is super important. I also think
Speaker 4: at the national level, and we've all talked about this
Speaker 4: as a group. Right now, it's about optics. We need
Speaker 4: those numbers. So five hundred RSVPs to the Hands Off
Speaker 4: rally turned out to be one and sixty two people.
Speaker 4: That was huge, f Nanuet. I don't think the Four
Speaker 4: Corners has ever seen that. And at its most basic level,
Speaker 4: we don't do this because it's easy. We do it
Speaker 4: because we believe that regular people still have the power
Speaker 4: to change.
Speaker 5: Every because we don't have nothing better to do. Because
Speaker 5: that's what I heard, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Exactly, we don't have anything better to do when we
Speaker 4: got checks from George Soros.
Speaker 6: But it's better than posting on Facebook every hour.
Speaker 4: Yeah exactly. But regular people do have the power to
Speaker 4: make change. And if we could get the people who
Speaker 4: are maybe stuck in their living rooms because they're afraid
Speaker 4: or they're afraid to speak up because of their jobs,
Speaker 4: if we could start to give them ways to be
Speaker 4: able to get involved and organize, that would be amazing.
Speaker 4: Because organizing isn't just fighting back, it's building something better.
Speaker 4: It's messy, it's hard, we're all tired, you know, We've
Speaker 4: put in every ounce of ourselves, but at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, it's absolutely worth it.
Speaker 3: This has been a wonderful perspective. We've got a little
Speaker 3: bit more to go. I want to talk about the
Speaker 3: challenges with some of you've already spoken of, and the
Speaker 3: rewards you've mentioned those as well too. I want to
Speaker 3: get into a little bit more detail with that, we
Speaker 3: can what we can expect for the future, and of
Speaker 3: course how people can find out more about Indivisible Rockland.
Speaker 3: But we've got to take a quick break where with
Speaker 3: the steering committee of Indivisible Rockland. This is Being Frank.
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Frank Lebono. Will be back with more
Speaker 3: intelligent conversation right after these brief commercial messages. Please don't
Speaker 3: go anywhere yet. This is great.
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Speaker 3: Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation podcast. Thanks
Speaker 3: for sticking with us. I'm your host, Franklebono, and you know,
Speaker 3: as always our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Richter.
Speaker 3: We'll be back with our guests from Indivisible Rockland in
Speaker 3: just a few seconds. You know, we bring our audience
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Speaker 3: dot com. Just click on the icon and you're there. Okay,
Speaker 3: back to our conversation with Indivisible Rockland the steering committee,
Speaker 3: Nelsi Garcia de Leone, Bill Batson, Tracy Obenauer, and Pascal
Speaker 3: gene Giles. Guys, thank you for coming back. And I've
Speaker 3: had a great conversation in the first half of our program,
Speaker 3: and I tease a little bit. I want to know
Speaker 3: about talked about some of the challenges and then of
Speaker 3: course with every challenge, hopefully at the end there are
Speaker 3: the rewards. What would you say, and we'll go around
Speaker 3: and go around the room. What what are your greatest
Speaker 3: challenges and what do you like best about doing this thing? Nelsie,
Speaker 3: let's let's start with you put your greatest challenge.
Speaker 5: I think.
Speaker 7: Keeping my call on social media when I see people
Speaker 7: posted misinformation and uh elected officials calling up radicals when
Speaker 7: they really don't know our background and why we're doing this,
Speaker 7: like we have nothing better to do.
Speaker 5: That's that that would be it?
Speaker 3: And and what's what? What do you like best about it?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 3: What? What gives you enjoyment from doing this? Does it
Speaker 3: all work?
Speaker 5: Actually, this is not an enjoyment for me. This is
Speaker 5: this is a real thing that has real consequences. I
Speaker 5: am a mother of a of a nine year old
Speaker 5: boy who I hope that he grows up in a
Speaker 5: in a country where everybody is equal and if you
Speaker 5: have but he has the same opportunities. I have a
Speaker 5: father with a MENCIA who is on Medicare and you know,
Speaker 5: may need needs assistance with Medicare, so that that is
Speaker 5: a challenge for me. I have nephews who are young
Speaker 5: who will like to eventually buy a home. There's so
Speaker 5: many things that that made me want to do this
Speaker 5: work all the injustices. I grew up in the Dominican Republic.
Speaker 5: I there are things that that I went through and
Speaker 5: that my family went through that that shaped me to
Speaker 5: be who I am and brought that fire in me.
Speaker 5: So this is really why I do it. It's not
Speaker 5: something to enjoy, but it's just something that I have
Speaker 5: to do.
Speaker 3: Appreciate that very much, Nelsi, Pascal, why don't you tells
Speaker 3: your challenges and hopefully you have a reward or to
Speaker 3: somewhere there as well.
Speaker 6: I think, like Nelsie, all of the all the comments
Speaker 6: on the Internet, I'm sort of just like I have
Speaker 6: to remind myself that like the Internet is not a
Speaker 6: real place, you know, Facebook is not real, and I
Speaker 6: need to also go outside and like be in, you know,
Speaker 6: be amongst real things in order to remember that. It's
Speaker 6: like people say things just to say things so I can,
Speaker 6: I would say a challenge. I think the other challenge
Speaker 6: is also turning it all like you know, you know,
Speaker 6: reminding myself that I am still a person and that
Speaker 6: I have to shut down at some point and just
Speaker 6: like take a break and watch TV and like relax
Speaker 6: and have my downtime because like that's just normal. So
Speaker 6: I just have to remember to constantly do that. But
Speaker 6: I think, you know, like Nelsey, this is real life
Speaker 6: for me. I feel this, like you know, I I
Speaker 6: have family who you know is here legally, but you know,
Speaker 6: as we're seeing there's questions people are just being taken
Speaker 6: whether they have legal status or not, so I often
Speaker 6: be concerned about that as well. But I think what
Speaker 6: a reward that I find in this is that one
Speaker 6: I'm organizing with people that I really care about and
Speaker 6: people who I know are are the doers like I am.
Speaker 6: Like I feel like I get up and I just
Speaker 6: do as much stuff and I'm organizing with people who
Speaker 6: are doing that as much as I am. So that
Speaker 6: makes me feel like, you know, what I'm not, There's
Speaker 6: not it's not so isolating, like I'm not alone. There
Speaker 6: are other people who agree with how I feel about
Speaker 6: things and are like you know, willing to put themselves
Speaker 6: out there to do action. So I see that as
Speaker 6: a reward because I you know, I think of everybody,
Speaker 6: here's my friend, like my family. I love to love
Speaker 6: people who are organized with So it's it's nice to
Speaker 6: organize with with people that I like. You know, it's
Speaker 6: hard to do this when you don't like the people
Speaker 6: that you're working.
Speaker 5: Oh love like love.
Speaker 6: Very well, okay, Tracy, Tracy Europe.
Speaker 4: Pascal's joel Mine. I will say, being someone who did
Speaker 4: not have a big Internet presence, I actually during COVID
Speaker 4: like basically pulled myself off all social media. That's been
Speaker 4: really hard being the social media manager of this group.
Speaker 4: Every time somebody comments something or I have to deal
Speaker 4: with trolls, but I'm I'm learning to navigate that for me.
Speaker 4: It's also time. I've put a lot of time into this,
Speaker 4: and it was It has been NonStop since January, and
Speaker 4: as you can see, I'm like dealing with the remnants
Speaker 4: of a cold. After April fifth, I think my body
Speaker 4: was like enough and it kind of just gave out
Speaker 4: on me for two days. So I slept and that
Speaker 4: was great, and I'm all caught up. But the beauty
Speaker 4: of all this, there's so much more reward than there
Speaker 4: are challenges. Yes, time is limited, and we all do
Speaker 4: this in addition to our full time jobs and our
Speaker 4: families and everything else. But the reward of being with
Speaker 4: these people, this group, in particular the people that we
Speaker 4: meet at events. There are some really amazing, lovely people
Speaker 4: at those events who I am honored to know. I'm
Speaker 4: honored to put an event together for them, I'm honored
Speaker 4: to stand with them in solidarity. So that's been amazing
Speaker 4: and I'm not gonna stop doing this Because I have
Speaker 4: a dad who's a vet who gets benefits who's on
Speaker 4: Social Security. You know, he's nearing the end of his
Speaker 4: life and we're gonna have to take care of him
Speaker 4: if things keep going the way they go. I am
Speaker 4: a disabled woman. I rely on some services to be
Speaker 4: able to exist in the world. It's we can't stop
Speaker 4: doing what we're doing. We have to stand up for everybody.
Speaker 4: And I know each of us has something going on
Speaker 4: in our personal lives that kind of directly links to
Speaker 4: one of the things that are being taken away. But
Speaker 4: we hear so many stories from so many people that
Speaker 4: it just makes me want to put my feet on
Speaker 4: the ground in the morning and get up and make
Speaker 4: a new website post or another email out because we
Speaker 4: have to keep the momentum going.
Speaker 3: Failure is not an option. It's not Bill Batson, you're up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of pressure going last Frank, because
Speaker 1: I should have had time to think about something good
Speaker 1: to say.
Speaker 3: But I would tell you, I know you want fatulos.
Speaker 1: Well, I would say there are two things one and
Speaker 1: Tracy has been able to remind us of this. I
Speaker 1: get very caught up in my own experience and my
Speaker 1: own thinking, and I I, I, uh.
Speaker 2: Don't really thank people I find that I I, you know,
Speaker 2: I give myself.
Speaker 1: You know, I say I'm tired, or I I you know,
Speaker 1: I know I appreciate people, but I don't really acknowledge people.
Speaker 1: And and and I think that that's like I said earlier,
Speaker 1: you know, none of this can happen alone. And there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people who and I actually I
Speaker 1: have experiences of being involved in something as like a
Speaker 1: junior staff or on a campaign and knowing that I
Speaker 1: made that event happen, and then standing in the audience
Speaker 1: and hearing people talk about what a great job they
Speaker 1: did and my name didn't get mentioned, and it hurts,
Speaker 1: and I think I've maybe made that mistake.
Speaker 2: And then the other thing is self care.
Speaker 1: You know, you know we've all talked about on this call,
Speaker 1: but I think that you know, the way you model
Speaker 1: taking care of other people is by taking care of yourself.
Speaker 1: And I think I'm I do a horrible job with that.
Speaker 1: I don't sleep enough and I drink too much coffee,
Speaker 1: and those are when you get to be sixty two,
Speaker 1: that could be a lethal combination.
Speaker 3: So if they don't see our messages are three four
Speaker 3: or five am back and forth.
Speaker 1: Mill Well, the other thing is that the upsides are
Speaker 1: camaraderie because now I know a larger number of people
Speaker 1: who do get up at three and four or five
Speaker 1: in the morning, so I can reach out to you.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 1: So I feel like this community, I feel closer to
Speaker 1: my family's been any forever, and I've never feel closer
Speaker 1: to the village and the county. I'm learning more about
Speaker 1: the county, so that's great. Another thing is that my ancestors.
Speaker 1: I feel closer to my ancestors. I'm learning things about
Speaker 1: activism that my grandparents did, and I'm realizing that there's
Speaker 1: some talents that I've learned from my ancestors, like the
Speaker 1: people in the civil rights movement who have read about
Speaker 1: who aren't my direct family. But you know, we draw
Speaker 1: the circle of family too close. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm involved in a much larger family
Speaker 1: and I'm pulling from that. And then my ancestors, I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm expressing things that they had to go through,
Speaker 1: and I think I'm pleasing them by my actions. And
Speaker 1: then the final thing I would say is that the
Speaker 1: gift I've gotten is spirituality. We made a decision and
Speaker 1: it was you know, it was something I thought about,
Speaker 1: but the group embraced it so quickly to ask Reverend
Speaker 1: Everett Newton and Rabbi Ariel Russo to lead our march
Speaker 1: over the bridge. And I was surprised, because we're not
Speaker 1: all will some of us go to church more than often,
Speaker 1: and some of us go to synagogue of mosque. But
Speaker 1: I was surprised to how quickly everybody embraced that. And
Speaker 1: at the end of that march, Rabbi Russo said something
Speaker 1: to me that it's just so profound and stuck with me,
Speaker 1: and she she was she's a wonderful spiritual leader, and
Speaker 1: she realized that the bridge that we walked over wasn't
Speaker 1: just a physical journey that that required exertion and required courage,
Speaker 1: but it was a metaphor and the song, this Hebrew
Speaker 1: song says that the whole entire world a very narrow bridge,
Speaker 1: and the main thing is to have no fear at all.
Speaker 1: And everybody is cautioning us to be careful that these
Speaker 1: are times when there's retribution and there are there are threats, and.
Speaker 2: I can't live in fear.
Speaker 1: I can't acknowledge that you know that reality because I
Speaker 1: fear more what would happen if I gave in to fear.
Speaker 2: So I don't. And the reason I can.
Speaker 1: Walk without fear is because the people I'm walking with
Speaker 1: wonderful quickly.
Speaker 3: Guys, you just have a little bit of time left
Speaker 3: the future. What can we expect? What's up next for
Speaker 3: Indivisible Rockland? What are we going to see more of
Speaker 3: less of? And then how can people get in touch?
Speaker 3: How can people become involved? Anybody? Pascal, you want to
Speaker 3: grab it? You seem like you're ready to grab that one. Please.
Speaker 6: It's funny. I was actually going to defer to Tracy
Speaker 6: because she knows all the dates.
Speaker 3: All right, Tracy, you just jumped on you there ago.
Speaker 4: Well, disclosure, we are in agreement that we are taking
Speaker 4: a few days off, so I'm I'm still gunning for
Speaker 4: another two days off at least before we start doing
Speaker 4: anything major. But we are hearing mutterings of an April
Speaker 4: fifth kind of follow up rally on April nineteenth. I
Speaker 4: haven't gotten any of the major details from Indivisible, but
Speaker 4: it's definitely being promoted by fifty to fifty one, so
Speaker 4: that will continue. That happens to be on a Saturday.
Speaker 4: I know a lot of people who were at the
Speaker 4: hands Off rally expressed interest every Saturday at twelve noon
Speaker 4: Route fifty nine. We are there. It is posted on
Speaker 4: the main page of our website. It's typically on our
Speaker 4: Facebook page, but we're having some tech issues with that
Speaker 4: Facebook page. I've got to fix it. And then our
Speaker 4: next big event that we'd love to have people come
Speaker 4: to is the Monthly me so that's April twenty three.
Speaker 4: That's Wednesday, six pm at the Stony Point Center. So
Speaker 4: if people are available, they can get more information on
Speaker 4: all of these events on the main website page, which
Speaker 4: is Indivisible Rockland dot org if they have questions or
Speaker 4: they want to get added to any of the subcommittees
Speaker 4: which are mutual Aid, campaign, direct Action and Arts. And
Speaker 4: then my own which is severely delayed. So I apologize
Speaker 4: to all the communications volunteers. It's communication and outreach. They
Speaker 4: can email Indivisible Rockland OC at gmail dot com and
Speaker 4: I will get them linked up with the committees so
Speaker 4: that when they have their next meetings people can be
Speaker 4: involved and we'd love to have you.
Speaker 3: Tracy oberauur Askcal Jean Giles, Nelsi, Garcia Deelion, Bill Batson,
Speaker 3: and Indivisible Rockland thank you so much, guys, for all
Speaker 3: the work that you do and the time that you've
Speaker 3: given us here and your intelligent conversation. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 3: I really appreciate it, really do. This has been great.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Frank. This was great.
Speaker 3: And of course we'd like to thank our listeners who
Speaker 3: take the time to give us a voice in their lives.
Speaker 3: Remember we offer a fresh topic every week and catch
Speaker 3: us wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts. You
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Speaker 3: Facebook page. Leave us a comment, and we ask you
Speaker 3: to consider sharing being Frank with others. You know, I
Speaker 3: always leave you with two last little things. A quote
Speaker 3: that I feel is kind of appropriate for our program,
Speaker 3: and then some great closing original music. And the quote
Speaker 3: comes from possibly the most quotable man of all time,
Speaker 3: doctor Martin Luther King, when he said true pieces not
Speaker 3: merely the absence of tension, it's the presence of justice.
Speaker 3: Says it all quite simply. Right there. I've got some
Speaker 3: great music from some friends, the Ruse Brothers. Love these guys,
Speaker 3: and a great song. If you listen to the title
Speaker 3: and they believe it, you're welcome here in our sweet
Speaker 3: home for our engineer, the mailman, Neil Richter. I'm your host,
Speaker 3: Frank Leguono. We hope to have you join us on
Speaker 3: the next being Frank, We're the only way to be
Speaker 3: is Frank. Thanks again. Everyone.
Speaker 8: When you way is cold dark, nuys.
Speaker 9: Man, you've got some miles to go. You can't find
Speaker 9: no end side.
Speaker 8: See you can't find.
Speaker 9: The face you know.
Speaker 8: It don't matter where you're.
Speaker 9: From, and it don't matter where you roll, and I
Speaker 9: don't matter if you been doing time you will hear
Speaker 9: it not.
Speaker 8: We hon't move sway find of in a cold strange
Speaker 8: surgin or repair Dame Signancy instead of this screen.
Speaker 9: I don't care what they say.
Speaker 8: You don't. I don't care what they say you oh
Speaker 8: fast they put your own on the same time.
Speaker 1: You'll well.
Speaker 5: Wish all.
Speaker 8: Fabe don't want a good We don't say I don't
Speaker 8: mad a rich.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 8: Hell you know it all is wich.
Speaker 5: Got doll you can't.
Speaker 8: Oh you welcome, Come on in.
Speaker 1: You're Hudsondo The radio dot Com