Democracy Now! 30th Anniversary Special Event
Amy Goodman, Juan González, Nermeen Shaikh and the entire Democracy Now! family held a 30th anniversary celebration at the historic Riverside Church on Monday, March 23, 2026, to mark three decades of independent media, reporting on people and movements fighting for democracy and peace.
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0:18
18 seconds
Heat. Heat.0:46
46 seconds
Look at all1:10
1 minute, 10 seconds
from New York. This is Democracy Now.1:28
1 minute, 28 seconds
It is our absolute honor to welcome you all here to Democracy Now's 30th anniversary.1:43
1 minute, 43 seconds
It is hard to contemplate a celebration at this time amidst the USIsraeli war on1:51
1 minute, 51 seconds
Iran and other armed conflicts, rising authoritarianism,1:55
1 minute, 55 seconds
power hungry billionaires, and the worsening climate catastrophe.2:02
2 minutes, 2 seconds
But gatherings like this are essential to remind us that the gathering storm,2:14
2 minutes, 14 seconds
despite the forces of oppression that threaten us all on the planet, there is2:20
2 minutes, 20 seconds
a force more powerful. And that is all of you gathered here tonight at2:28
2 minutes, 28 seconds
Riverside Church, but in all over this country and around the world of people2:34
2 minutes, 34 seconds
joining together, organizing for peace and justice.2:45
2 minutes, 45 seconds
It was in this very sanctuary here in Riverside Church that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous speech, Beyond2:54
2 minutes, 54 seconds
Vietnam, a time to break silence on April 4th, 1967,3:01
3 minutes, 1 second
a year to the day before he was assassinated in Memphis.3:07
3 minutes, 7 seconds
King called out in that speech the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government. He said,3:18
3 minutes, 18 seconds
Dr.
King warned, "When machines and computers, profit motives and property
rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of3:27
3 minutes, 27 seconds
racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being3:34
3 minutes, 34 seconds
conquered. How preient he was." And you know, at the time, King was attacked3:42
3 minutes, 42 seconds
viciously
and publicly for opposing the war. Life magazine accused him in an
editorial of betraying the cause for which he has worked for so long,
adding,3:54
3 minutes, 54 seconds
"His speech was a demagogic slander that sounded like a script from Radio Hanoi."4:02
4 minutes, 2 seconds
King though was undeterred,4:05
4 minutes, 5 seconds
and his commitment to peace despite enormous pressure to back off should be a lesson for us all today.4:17
4 minutes, 17 seconds
Yep. Yes. Tonight is a celebration not only of 30 years of democracy now but of4:24
4 minutes, 24 seconds
the resilience of people and movements we strive to cover in this country and around the world.4:33
4 minutes, 33 seconds
This is such an honor to be here with you and to be with my colleagues Juan Gonzalez and Rine Sh and the whole family.4:45
4 minutes, 45 seconds
We're going to take you take you on a journey today. We're going to take you4:51
4 minutes, 51 seconds
on a journey with Oh, we'll be talking to Angela Davis.4:59
4 minutes, 59 seconds
We'll be hearing Patty Smith.5:05
5 minutes, 5 seconds
There was a silver lining to that bomb cyclone of February 23rd. Uh, and that's5:13
5 minutes, 13 seconds
that Patty became available and the great filmmaker and artist and citizen5:18
5 minutes, 18 seconds
of the world, Michael Stip, will also be performing.5:28
5 minutes, 28 seconds
And we're going to hear from the Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Mustab Abu5:35
5 minutes, 35 seconds
Toha and the great V, the worldrenowned playwright. That's all coming up. Um,5:47
5 minutes, 47 seconds
and
we're going to be playing clips of a new film out on Democracy Now that
you'll be getting a sneak peek to called Steal This Story, Please.6:00
6 minutes
We're also going to hear from Hooray for the riff raff. And6:10
6 minutes, 10 seconds
but before all of that, I also wanted to note people in the audience. I am so6:17
6 minutes, 17 seconds
honored that Delroy Lindo flew across the country. Delroy.6:24
6 minutes, 24 seconds
I want to say Droy who was nominated for an Oscar in his astounding performance in Sinners.6:37
6 minutes, 37 seconds
But Delroy, the 50 years that you have given to us on stage, in film, inspiring us,6:48
6 minutes, 48 seconds
moving us. I can't wait for that memoir next year. And then there's the great6:55
6 minutes, 55 seconds
professor Rasheed Holiday who is sitting right in front.7:02
7 minutes, 2 seconds
Thank you for your work of decades and I want to welcome Lacordia7:09
7 minutes, 9 seconds
not only to this space today but out of jail and ICE prison for almost a year.7:22
7 minutes, 22 seconds
Thank you for gracing us with your presence. And there's so many others.7:29
7 minutes, 29 seconds
We're also going to hear Aaron Destner.7:32
7 minutes, 32 seconds
I can't believe you came tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But we're going to take you on a journey of those7:40
7 minutes, 40 seconds
30
years. And we're going to begin back at the beginning. You know, we
were just on nine stations when we started together with Juan in 1996,7:53
7 minutes, 53 seconds
the only daily election show in public broadcasting. We're going to wrap right up after the election,8:02
8 minutes, 2 seconds
but then people wanted the show more after the election than before. And so8:08
8 minutes, 8 seconds
it grew. But let's go back to the beginning. Also, by the way, just an8:15
8 minutes, 15 seconds
enormous shout out to Patty Galuti who helped make tonight possible.8:23
8 minutes, 23 seconds
And to all of our families who are here today, I want to say thank you to my8:30
8 minutes, 30 seconds
brothers, Steve, David, and Dan, who have come out, and my nephews and nieces. Um, what a difference it makes8:38
8 minutes, 38 seconds
to not only see them as my family, but these great guys, the whole Democracy8:46
8 minutes, 46 seconds
Now team and all of you. None of us can do this alone. We're all in this8:54
8 minutes, 54 seconds
together.
Hey, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgard. Maggie, I am looking forward
to that film, The Bride, and for all your great work. and Peter. Wow.
So,9:07
9 minutes, 7 seconds
let's go back to Democracy Now, 30 years ago.9:23
9 minutes, 23 seconds
Democracy Now began on nine radio stations in 1996.9:29
9 minutes, 29 seconds
country. We were a daily morning show providing a form to challenge those in power and to bring out the voices of9:37
9 minutes, 37 seconds
people who are not usually heard. Juan Gonzalez is a columnist with the Daily News in New York. He is also my co-host9:46
9 minutes, 46 seconds
here. The Village Voice calls him the most radical person in the above all world of New York daily journalism.9:52
9 minutes, 52 seconds
The
human rights abuses that occur especially in the makiladoras and in
Tijuana. Uh yet uh when we first started as a little radio10:00
10 minutes
show,
my colleagues in the commercial media would constantly tell me, "What
are you doing working with that little radical radio station that nobody10:08
10 minutes, 8 seconds
listens
to, you know, and why are you wasting your time with that?" And I would
say, "Listen, the audience of democracy now is completely different10:17
10 minutes, 17 seconds
than the readership of the New York Daily News. You have no idea who we are reaching."10:25
10 minutes, 25 seconds
I always saw my role in journalism as helping to shape a different narrative.10:30
10 minutes, 30 seconds
I was an advocacy journalist long before the the term was developed, right? Uh because I knew from the beginning I can10:38
10 minutes, 38 seconds
only see the world through my eyes. Up until this time, there wasn't a real radical movement. There was a movement10:44
10 minutes, 44 seconds
of the mouth and uh now there's a real movement in the sense of people committed to social change.10:55
10 minutes, 55 seconds
I was one of the founding members of the Young Lords in New York City.11:08
11 minutes, 8 seconds
We probably got the most favorable news coverage of any revolutionary organization of the 1960s and '7s. But11:15
11 minutes, 15 seconds
it was no accident. We cultivated that image.11:20
11 minutes, 20 seconds
The Lords have a strong sense of community and while they may be regarded as a threat to the white establishment11:26
11 minutes, 26 seconds
downtown, their stock here in Albario is rising rapidly.11:34
11 minutes, 34 seconds
We understood the importance of being able to package our message and our stories for the commercial and corporate media.11:42
11 minutes, 42 seconds
And we learned that if you don't fashion your own narrative, others will do it for you.11:48
11 minutes, 48 seconds
I don't hear the business community complaining about the fact that they have inexpensive labor.11:53
11 minutes, 53 seconds
The key thing about democracy now is that we just let people talk.11:56
11 minutes, 56 seconds
Members of the local police department admitted the more you hear people talk,12:01
12 minutes, 1 second
you get a better sense of what they stand for and you can make up your mind yourself.12:11
12 minutes, 11 seconds
That that's an excerpt of a film that's to be12:18
12 minutes, 18 seconds
released around the country on April 10th starting at the IFC here in New York. And we're going to talk more about12:25
12 minutes, 25 seconds
that soon. But most importantly right now, this is Juan Gonzalez.12:45
12 minutes, 45 seconds
Thank you.12:55
12 minutes, 55 seconds
Thank you.12:58
12 minutes, 58 seconds
And to Amy and Nurmine and the rest of the DN team.13:05
13 minutes, 5 seconds
30 years is a long time to be doing anything,13:11
13 minutes, 11 seconds
especially when it is a third or fourth act in one's life.13:18
13 minutes, 18 seconds
Which is why I told Amy a few months ago that this will be my last year at13:24
13 minutes, 24 seconds
Democracy Now, though we haven't yet settled on the exact date.13:32
13 minutes, 32 seconds
As this clip showed, by the time I started co-hosting this show in 1996,13:41
13 minutes, 41 seconds
I'd already been working as a journalist in the corporate press for more than 20 years,13:50
13 minutes, 50 seconds
including some short stints with the Spanish language press. More importantly,13:56
13 minutes, 56 seconds
I'd been immersed in the organizing and building of revolutionary and mass progressive movements even longer than that.14:07
14 minutes, 7 seconds
beginning beginning with my involvement in the14:13
14 minutes, 13 seconds
historic Colombia student strike of 1968 and my work with the SDS14:21
14 minutes, 21 seconds
then to the founding of the Young Lords as is mentioned in the clip from 1969 to14:27
14 minutes, 27 seconds
74 where I was privileged to be part of the most brilliant charismatic and14:34
14 minutes, 34 seconds
dedicated group of revolutionaries in US Latino history. Then14:42
14 minutes, 42 seconds
then on to other battles that the clip doesn't touch on. Organizing massive14:49
14 minutes, 49 seconds
voter registration campaigns in Philadelphia in 1978 that led to the electoral defeat of the14:56
14 minutes, 56 seconds
city's fascist mayor, Frank Rizzo, and and the birth of black of modern black political power in that city.15:06
15 minutes, 6 seconds
to
my participation in building the National Congress for Puerto Rican
Rights and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in the
1980s.15:19
15 minutes, 19 seconds
through my involvement as strike committee chairman of the last two15:25
15 minutes, 25 seconds
successful newspaper labor battles of the late 20th century. the five-week strike at the Philadelphia Daily News15:34
15 minutes, 34 seconds
and Inquir in 1985 and the Titanic fivemonth strike by 2515:42
15 minutes, 42 seconds
500 New York Daily News workers in 1990-9115:50
15 minutes, 50 seconds
to spearheading the creation of Unity journalists of color in the early 1990s.15:59
15 minutes, 59 seconds
Throughout all these struggles, I never stopped studying the lessons, good and bad, of past revolutions.16:09
16 minutes, 9 seconds
from the Paris Commune to the Mexican and Russian revolutions, from China to16:16
16 minutes, 16 seconds
Vietnam to Cuba, from South Africa and Namibia to Angola and Guinea Basau, from16:23
16 minutes, 23 seconds
Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua to Iran, Palestine, and the Philippines.16:30
16 minutes, 30 seconds
So in the late in late 1995 when Julie Drizzen then the national news director of Pacifica radio and I16:39
16 minutes, 39 seconds
believe Judy Julie is in the audience asked me to become part the part-time co-host of a brand new election year16:48
16 minutes, 48 seconds
program that the network was starting with Amy Goodman as the anchor. I initially said no. I I'm a writer and a print reporter,16:59
16 minutes, 59 seconds
not a radio person, I told her. But Julie kept after me and I finally agreed to give it a shot along with two other17:07
17 minutes, 7 seconds
rotating co-hosts, Larry Bensky and Selma Moa. By the end of 1996, both Larry and Sem had moved on to other17:16
17 minutes, 16 seconds
endeavors,
leaving just me and Amy and one producer, I think it was Dan Coughlin
at the time, to continue the show. A few years later, in early 2001,17:26
17 minutes, 26 seconds
some of you may remember, I quit the show publicly on the air without even letting Amy know and and called for a17:35
17 minutes, 35 seconds
staff
and listener revolt against Pacifica's management and the board of
directors who had been captured by a neoliberal corporate group that was17:43
17 minutes, 43 seconds
targeting Amy for her independence and firing other producers at will.17:50
17 minutes, 50 seconds
Thousands of listeners responded and within a year our Pacifica campaign had forced all the old management and17:56
17 minutes, 56 seconds
structure out and created a new structure, more democratic structure for Pacifica.18:06
18 minutes, 6 seconds
We continued at DN as an independent news production and the range of events we've been able to cover over the18:13
18 minutes, 13 seconds
decades,
the many voices we've showcased from the people's movements, the range
of writers, musicians, and filmmakers we've interviewed has been
astonishing.18:24
18 minutes, 24 seconds
when it was whether it was the Seattle protest against the WTO, the barbaric executions carried out in the US, the18:32
18 minutes, 32 seconds
airing of those brilliant essays from prison of Mamia Abu Jamal, our unique coverage18:40
18 minutes, 40 seconds
of international climate summits, the coups in Haiti, the Israeli wars and genocide against the Palestinians, the18:48
18 minutes, 48 seconds
pivotal role of whistleblowers and uh and muckreakers like Edward Snowden,18:52
18 minutes, 52 seconds
Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning for our coverage of Standing Rock. Democracy Now under Amy's intrepid leadership has19:01
19 minutes, 1 second
helped to redefine what independent people centered news means in the 21st century.19:11
19 minutes, 11 seconds
As a result,19:14
19 minutes, 14 seconds
as a result, the show and its staff have grown in influence far beyond what any of us could have imagined. So many19:21
19 minutes, 21 seconds
terrific
young people have come through our doors and grown with us. Mo many
moving on to do their own amazing journalism. People like Jeremy Scale,19:32
19 minutes, 32 seconds
Sharif Abdul Kadus, David Love, Maria Cahong, Aaron Mate,19:38
19 minutes, 38 seconds
Nicole Salazar, Amy Littlefield, Laura Goddisiner, Lenona uh Lenina Nadal,19:45
19 minutes, 45 seconds
Renee Phelps, John Hamilton, Juan Carlos Davila, and many others.19:50
19 minutes, 50 seconds
It has truly been a privilege and an honor to work with all these colleagues and to be welcomed into the homes of19:58
19 minutes, 58 seconds
you, our audience, for so many years. My modest contribution as both as the as a part-time host and20:07
20 minutes, 7 seconds
secretary treasurer of the board of Pacifica all these years was to shed light not so much on the who, what,20:15
20 minutes, 15 seconds
where, and when of the news, but on the why, and how, the historical context and20:22
20 minutes, 22 seconds
broader framework of social forces underlying those events. All of our achievements, however, have always been20:29
20 minutes, 29 seconds
bittersweet
for me. For even as the show has thrived and even as platforms for news
and information, including progressive and independent ones, have
proliferated,20:40
20 minutes, 40 seconds
the American public's consciousness has plummeted when it comes to the malevolent, destructive, and barbaric20:47
20 minutes, 47 seconds
role of US imperialism, whether in its neoliberal or its fascist management form.20:55
20 minutes, 55 seconds
In our contemporary world, morality,20:59
20 minutes, 59 seconds
decency,
the quest for peaceful peaceful resolution of conflict, empathy for the
weak and the powerful are branded as weaknesses. While bombass,
cruelty,21:10
21 minutes, 10 seconds
patriarchy, the frenzy for obscene profits, uh, hate, torture, outright fraud, and lies are celebrated as signs21:18
21 minutes, 18 seconds
of strength and power. Sadly, reporting the truth is important.21:28
21 minutes, 28 seconds
But it is not sufficient to make a better world possible. Especially when capitalism with artificial intelligence21:35
21 minutes, 35 seconds
and internet bots has mastered uh to previously unimagined levels the mass production of disinformation and21:42
21 minutes, 42 seconds
alternative realities. In the end, only organizing resistance of workingclass and oppressed peoples of the world21:51
21 minutes, 51 seconds
strengthened by yes by revolutionary analysis can bring about a better world.21:59
21 minutes, 59 seconds
In fact,22:02
22 minutes, 2 seconds
in fact, I've at times remarked that our name itself, Democracy Now, was perhaps ill chosen.22:11
22 minutes, 11 seconds
Everyone after all claims to be for democracy. But what kind of a democracy do we seek? The kind fostered by the22:19
22 minutes, 19 seconds
industrial west where the people cast ballots periodically between two or three sets of candidates handpicked and22:28
22 minutes, 28 seconds
financed
by competing segments of the same billionaire class. While the vast
majority of people confront the seemingly perpetual chaos of modern22:37
22 minutes, 37 seconds
life,
ruined living standards, the collapse of our mental and physical
health, the poisoning of our planet, and endless wars, or the kind where
dissident intellectuals, journalists,22:47
22 minutes, 47 seconds
civil society groups largely of middle class status and financed by Western foundations or the CIA or the NED or22:55
22 minutes, 55 seconds
other powerful governments market and proclaim the sanctity of individual freedom above all else. They stir up23:02
23 minutes, 2 seconds
grassroots color revolutions, cheer on humanitarian interventions such as Serbia, Libya, Syria, and Venezuela, but23:10
23 minutes, 10 seconds
never ever challenge the role of capitalism and imperialism.23:16
23 minutes, 16 seconds
Or is it the kind of people's democracies with all their faults and imperfections mostly in the global south23:24
23 minutes, 24 seconds
which
continue to dare to create some sort of rational non- capitalist or
socialist alternative despite crippling sanctions, financial
strangulation,23:33
23 minutes, 33 seconds
military coups and despite disdain from Western liberals or even Western Marxists for failings or their23:40
23 minutes, 40 seconds
authoritarian nature? And and which is more pressing today for the majority of the world's population, the defense of23:48
23 minutes, 48 seconds
individual
liberties and the formal right to vote or the basic needs of survival,
decent housing, adequate health care, clean water, quality23:57
23 minutes, 57 seconds
education. And when they conflict, on which side do western revolutionaries and progressives stand? These are24:05
24 minutes, 5 seconds
questions not easily answered. But we must continue to ask them. Even among ourselves in Democracy Now, we have not24:12
24 minutes, 12 seconds
always
agreed on the best way to cover these complex issues, but we keep
trying. And I'm sure that long after I'm gone, our staff and other
radical24:21
24 minutes, 21 seconds
journalists will keep it up. For as the Black Panther Party often reminded us,24:27
24 minutes, 27 seconds
and as the Palestinian and Iranian people and the Iraqi people and the Afghan people have pro proved, the24:34
24 minutes, 34 seconds
spirit of the people is greater than the man's technology. And as we always said24:40
24 minutes, 40 seconds
in the young lords, Palante Palante Victoria, thank you.25:05
25 minutes, 5 seconds
Thank you, Ron.25:08
25 minutes, 8 seconds
I Juan I wish we could fulfill your every wish but there's one that we cannot honor Juan25:16
25 minutes, 16 seconds
there's one wish we cannot honor and that is one leaving sometime this year but other than that we're going to work25:24
25 minutes, 24 seconds
together I want to introduce no one more appropriate to perform after Juan25:31
25 minutes, 31 seconds
Gonzalez than Hoay for the riff raff with the Bronxorn Alinda Sagala. The band's new25:40
25 minutes, 40 seconds
album has just come out. It's called Live Forever. This song, Palante, was25:48
25 minutes, 48 seconds
featured in the short New York Times documentary Takeover about the young25:54
25 minutes, 54 seconds
lords who took over Lincoln Hospital in 1970.26:00
26 minutes
Palante means onwards or as Juan says right on26:37
26 minutes, 37 seconds
Well, I just want to go to work and get back home and be something.26:45
26 minutes, 45 seconds
I just want to fall in line and do my time and be something.26:53
26 minutes, 53 seconds
I just want to prove my worth on the planet Earth and be something.27:00
27 minutes
I just want to fall in love and not ruin it and feel something.27:08
27 minutes, 8 seconds
Well, lately I don't understand what I am.27:15
27 minutes, 15 seconds
Treated as a fool, not quite a woman or a man.27:23
27 minutes, 23 seconds
Well, I don't know. I guess I don't understand the plan.27:32
27 minutes, 32 seconds
Colonized and hypnotized. Be something. Sterilized,27:41
27 minutes, 41 seconds
dehumanized. I'll be something.27:46
27 minutes, 46 seconds
They tell you take your pay, but stay out the way. Go be something.27:53
27 minutes, 53 seconds
They tell you do your best, forget the rest. Be something.28:01
28 minutes, 1 second
Well, lately it's been mighty hard to see.28:08
28 minutes, 8 seconds
Just searching for my lost humanity.28:16
28 minutes, 16 seconds
I look for you, my friends. But do you look for me28:35
28 minutes, 35 seconds
lately? I'm not too afraid to die. I want to leave it all behind. I think about it sometimes.28:48
28 minutes, 48 seconds
And lately all my time's been moving slow. I don't know where I'm going to go. Just give me time and I'll know.29:02
29 minutes, 2 seconds
Oh, in a day now. Oh, in a day now I will come along.29:15
29 minutes, 15 seconds
Oh, in a day now. Oh, in a day now I will come along.29:27
29 minutes, 27 seconds
Oh, I will come along.29:49
29 minutes, 49 seconds
from and from Marble Hill to30:04
30 minutes, 4 seconds
get and have to hide. We say but I'm there30:16
30 minutes, 16 seconds
and lo but I'm there30:23
30 minutes, 23 seconds
and trying to survive but I'm30:36
30 minutes, 36 seconds
to the earth under our be there to resistance in the street.30:46
30 minutes, 46 seconds
But I'm there to the children of the world to the poets of Palestine.30:59
30 minutes, 59 seconds
But I to dream never die.31:05
31 minutes, 5 seconds
But I came before31:28
31 minutes, 28 seconds
Hallelujah.31:49
31 minutes, 49 seconds
We
begin today's show in Gaza where we're joined by Rafat Ali. He's a
Palestinian academic and activist. The editor of the book Gaza writes
back co-editor of Gaza Unsilenced.32:00
32 minutes
What is happening in Gaza is complete and utter extermination of the non-Jewish population in occupied uh32:08
32 minutes, 8 seconds
Palestine.
As you mentioned, Israel ordered a medieval hermetic siege from air and
sea. Israel has also just bombed. The only way out through Egypt,32:18
32 minutes, 18 seconds
the Rafa, the Rafa crossing. The only way out is uh for what's happening, what we are foreseeing is uh slow starvation,32:29
32 minutes, 29 seconds
slow genocide. Maybe Israel is going to push us all into the sea. On Friday night, thousands of members of Jewish32:36
32 minutes, 36 seconds
Voice for Peace New York City and their allies shut down the main terminal of Grand Central Station during rush hour.32:43
32 minutes, 43 seconds
It's the largest sit protest the city's seen in over two decades.32:55
32 minutes, 55 seconds
My name is Roslin Pacheski. I'm here with a maybe a thousand others, a lot of33:02
33 minutes, 2 seconds
us Jews, but we are here to protest the genocide that is happening in our name.33:13
33 minutes, 13 seconds
Palestine.33:19
33 minutes, 19 seconds
My
name is Zahan Mandani. I'm an assembly member for parts of Historia in
Long Island City. And I'm here today to join thousands of Jewish New
Yorkers,33:27
33 minutes, 27 seconds
rabbis, and allies to say that the time is now for an immediate ceasefire.33:31
33 minutes, 31 seconds
What
does it mean to you that on this chabas, this Jewish Sabbath, thousands
of Jews are here at Grand Central saying ceasefire now?33:41
33 minutes, 41 seconds
It
shows that what we have been told about the consent for this genocide
is not true. So many of the Jewish New Yorkers here are struggling
through heartbreak and mourning of October 7th.33:51
33 minutes, 51 seconds
And
they have made it very clear that do not use their heartbreak, their
tragedy as the justification for the genocide of Palestinians.33:58
33 minutes, 58 seconds
Earlier this week, an Israeli air strike in Gaza City killed the acclaimed Palestinian academic and activist Rafat34:06
34 minutes, 6 seconds
Alaria along with his brother, his sister, and four of his nieces. For34:13
34 minutes, 13 seconds
more, we're joined in Cairo, Egypt by Mossab Abu Toha, Palestinian poet and author who was detained by Israeli34:21
34 minutes, 21 seconds
authorities as he and his family fled Gaza.34:24
34 minutes, 24 seconds
Rifat is is someone who didn't want to die. And in his poem, if I must die, he didn't say if I die, if I must die, if34:32
34 minutes, 32 seconds
if my death was a necessity, let it be a hope. Let it be a tale. Let it bring34:39
34 minutes, 39 seconds
hope. And it's really uh very very very sympathetic and very very beautiful to34:47
34 minutes, 47 seconds
to to see that many people around the world are reading his poem and flying his kite.34:52
34 minutes, 52 seconds
If I must die, you must live to tell my story to sell my things to buy a piece of cloth and some strings.35:03
35 minutes, 3 seconds
Make
it white with a long tail, so that a child somewhere in Gaza while
looking heaven in the eye awaiting his dad who left in a blaze and bid
no one farewell,35:15
35 minutes, 15 seconds
not even to his flesh, not even to himself, sees the kite, my kite you35:22
35 minutes, 22 seconds
made, flying up above, and thinks for a moment, an angel is there bringing back love.35:32
35 minutes, 32 seconds
If I must die, let it bring hope.35:35
35 minutes, 35 seconds
And I think I believe that his only hope right now is that these kites will fly over Gaza to protect the children and35:44
35 minutes, 44 seconds
mothers and fathers and everyone in Gaza from the Israeli air strikes.35:56
35 minutes, 56 seconds
That was Masab Abu Toha speaking on Democracy Now, January 22nd, 2024.36:07
36 minutes, 7 seconds
Over a year later, in May of 2025,36:11
36 minutes, 11 seconds
Mosab won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his writings in the New Yorker magazine.36:19
36 minutes, 19 seconds
He's the founder of the Edward Sed Library. Edward say who we all so dearly miss.36:29
36 minutes, 29 seconds
Edward say Library is Gaza's first English language library. His most recent book36:37
36 minutes, 37 seconds
Masabs is forest of noise a collection of poems36:44
36 minutes, 44 seconds
about life in Gaza. His debut book of poetry, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, won an American Book Award.36:55
36 minutes, 55 seconds
Msab fled Gaza with his family in December of 202337:03
37 minutes, 3 seconds
after he was detained by Israeli authorities for two days. He joins us tonight.37:29
37 minutes, 29 seconds
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Uh, Democracy Now,37:36
37 minutes, 36 seconds
thank you Amy, Hermine, and Juan.37:41
37 minutes, 41 seconds
I mean these are very heartbroken moments. There is no language that can describe my feelings listening to my dear friend Rafat.37:49
37 minutes, 49 seconds
He's somewhere else bitter than this ugly world that we are trying all of us to survive.37:57
37 minutes, 57 seconds
Um it was October 12th, 2023 when I had my interview with Amy. I was still in38:04
38 minutes, 4 seconds
our house in Gaza. This house has been a heap of rubble since October 30th, 2023.38:13
38 minutes, 13 seconds
Just two days after the interview I did with Amy on October 12th, Israel killed 30 members of my extended family,38:22
38 minutes, 22 seconds
including my great uncle Abuha, his wife, his children, the wives of his his38:28
38 minutes, 28 seconds
children, the grandchildren. The youngest was four years old.38:34
38 minutes, 34 seconds
That same was my one the only one in my family who was interested in doing the38:42
38 minutes, 42 seconds
family tree and I ended up doing his family tree after he was killed and that's something that I kept doing38:50
38 minutes, 50 seconds
unfortunately to document the genocide that Israel perpetrated not only against Palestinians but the Palestinian38:58
38 minutes, 58 seconds
families. Israel has erased thousand hundreds of of families in Gaza,39:03
39 minutes, 3 seconds
including some of my relatives, some of whom remain under the rubble even now.39:13
39 minutes, 13 seconds
Under the rubble.39:17
39 minutes, 17 seconds
She slept on her bed, never woke up again. Her bed has become her grave. A tomb beneath the ceiling of her room.39:25
39 minutes, 25 seconds
The
ceiling a cenot. No name. No year of birth, no year of death, no epit,
only blood and a smashed picture frame and ruin next to her.39:36
39 minutes, 36 seconds
In Jabalia camp, a mother collects her daughter's flesh in a piggy bank, hoping to buy her a plot on a river in a far away land.39:46
39 minutes, 46 seconds
A group of mute people were talking sign. When a bomb fell, they fell silent.39:53
39 minutes, 53 seconds
It rained again last night. The new plant looked for an umbrella in the garage. The bombing got intense and our40:02
40 minutes, 2 seconds
house looked for a shelter in the neighborhood.40:06
40 minutes, 6 seconds
I
leave the door to my room open so the words in my books, the titles and
names of authors and publishers could flee when they hear the bombs.40:17
40 minutes, 17 seconds
I became homeless once at the streets of the the rubble of my city covered the streets.40:25
40 minutes, 25 seconds
They could not find a stretcher to carry your body.40:29
40 minutes, 29 seconds
They put you on a wooden door they found under the rubble. Your neighbors, a moving wall.40:36
40 minutes, 36 seconds
The scars on our children's faces will look for you. Our children's amputated legs will run after you.40:45
40 minutes, 45 seconds
He
left the house to buy some bread for his kids. News of his death made
it home, but not the bread. No bread. Death sits to eat whoever remains
of the kids.40:57
40 minutes, 57 seconds
No need for a table, no need for bread.41:01
41 minutes, 1 second
A father wakes up at nine at night, sees the random colors on the walls drawn by his fouryear-old daughter. The colors41:09
41 minutes, 9 seconds
are about 4t high. Next year they would be five, but the painter has died in an air strike. There are no colors anymore.41:18
41 minutes, 18 seconds
There are no walls.41:21
41 minutes, 21 seconds
I changed the order of my books on the shelves. Two days later, the war broke out. Beware of changing the order of your books.41:31
41 minutes, 31 seconds
What are you thinking? What thinking?41:33
41 minutes, 33 seconds
What you you is there still you? You there?41:39
41 minutes, 39 seconds
Where
should people go? Should they build build a big ladder and go up, but
the heaven has been blocked by the drones and F-16s and the smoke of
death?41:51
41 minutes, 51 seconds
My son asks me whether when we return to Gaza, I could get him a puppy. I say I promise if we can find any. I ask my son42:01
42 minutes, 1 second
if he wishes to become a pilot when he grows up. He says he won't wish to drop bombs on people and houses.42:09
42 minutes, 9 seconds
When we die, our souls leave our bodies,42:13
42 minutes, 13 seconds
take with them everything they loved in our bedrooms.42:17
42 minutes, 17 seconds
The perfume bottles, the makeup, the necklaces, and the pens. In Gaza, our42:23
42 minutes, 23 seconds
bodies and rooms get crushed. Nothing remains for the soul. Even our souls,42:31
42 minutes, 31 seconds
they remain stuck under the rubble for weeks, now for years.42:39
42 minutes, 39 seconds
for Gaza, for for all our loved ones, those who were killed, those who are surviving in the42:47
42 minutes, 47 seconds
streets and tents, for my three sisters who are in Gaza right now, for my beloved ones who remain under the rubble42:55
42 minutes, 55 seconds
while we are speaking, for a free Palestine.43:04
43 minutes, 4 seconds
for43:15
43 minutes, 15 seconds
your mom. Will your mom43:31
43 minutes, 31 seconds
Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech.43:52
43 minutes, 52 seconds
for44:19
44 minutes, 19 seconds
your mom.44:29
44 minutes, 29 seconds
Thank you.45:01
45 minutes, 1 second
Very soon after I joined Democracy Now in a few months if that Amy asked,45:08
45 minutes, 8 seconds
"Would you be interested in co-hosting the show?" From New York, this is Democracy Now.45:14
45 minutes, 14 seconds
And
I thought, "Wow, I mean, yes, what an honor and thank you so much." And
she was like, "Okay, how about tomorrow?" And I was like, "Uh,45:22
45 minutes, 22 seconds
I'm Amy Goodman joined by Democracy Now producer Namine Shake who'll be co-hosting with me today." Welcome, Narine.45:29
45 minutes, 29 seconds
Thank you, Amy. In Libya, rebel forces say Gaddafi. I've never been in front of a camera.45:35
45 minutes, 35 seconds
I've never read a prompter. Forget doing these things live. I felt completely terrified.45:42
45 minutes, 42 seconds
But in the breaks, she said, "You're doing a great job and just relax. It's just like we're having a conversation."45:49
45 minutes, 49 seconds
And he was he was so good in the pre-in. I thought, "This guy's going to be great on the show."45:54
45 minutes, 54 seconds
The strength of democracy now and also its singularity is speaking with people who have no platform. If you think of46:03
46 minutes, 3 seconds
media
as a frame, you are framing a story. The problem with a lot of uh the
media is that so much is excluded from the frame. There's a kind of
erasure.46:15
46 minutes, 15 seconds
It's as though those people they simply people don't exist. Right? So democracy now what we do is expand the frame so46:24
46 minutes, 24 seconds
those things that are on its margins are allowed in.47:00
47 minutes
Good evening all. Thank you so much uh for coming and joining us to celebrate47:06
47 minutes, 6 seconds
this momentous milestone, Democracy Now's 30th anniversary.47:12
47 minutes, 12 seconds
And
I'm so happy to say that half of those years, for 15 of these years,
I've had the pleasure and honor to co-host the show with Amy Goodman.47:28
47 minutes, 28 seconds
So I'll just say a few words now about what we aspire to do in our work.47:36
47 minutes, 36 seconds
When thinking of our commitments,47:39
47 minutes, 39 seconds
I'm
recalled often to the writing of an Italian philosopher and political
theorist Giorgio Agamben whom I've read for many years.47:50
47 minutes, 50 seconds
In a beautiful text titled nudities,47:54
47 minutes, 54 seconds
he interprets a poem by the Soviet Russian poet Mendelam who died in 1938 during Stalin's purges.48:05
48 minutes, 5 seconds
The poem is called the century. In Russian, the word also means age or epic.48:13
48 minutes, 13 seconds
In his interpretation of the poem,48:16
48 minutes, 16 seconds
Agamban writes of what it means to see one's own age.48:22
48 minutes, 22 seconds
Quote, "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so48:31
48 minutes, 31 seconds
as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness."48:37
48 minutes, 37 seconds
What distinguishes democracy now is its attempt to decipher this darkness, to48:44
48 minutes, 44 seconds
make it plain for all to see, even or especially those for whom only the light is visible.48:53
48 minutes, 53 seconds
We do this in part by providing a platform for voices that are otherwise silenced or disregarded in the media,49:00
49 minutes
considered peripheral to the world as it is, the world as it must continue to be49:07
49 minutes, 7 seconds
according to those wielding the power to determine its shape.49:12
49 minutes, 12 seconds
But these voices very much exist. These voices cry out. And democracy now is dedicated to allowing those cries to be49:21
49 minutes, 21 seconds
heard. No matter how dark, no matter how unbearable,49:26
49 minutes, 26 seconds
recognizing each voice for its intrinsic worth, its singularity,49:32
49 minutes, 32 seconds
not just one more voice lost or ephaced among the many.49:38
49 minutes, 38 seconds
We are attentive here to the lessons of the 1960s French social theorist Gide whose words were virtually prophetic.49:47
49 minutes, 47 seconds
His was one of the most acute observations of the violence produced by the present domination of mass media.49:57
49 minutes, 57 seconds
Debor condemned what he termed the society of the spectacle,50:03
50 minutes, 3 seconds
arguing that it works principally as a means of justifying the conditions of the dominant order. Our task at50:12
50 minutes, 12 seconds
democracy now, our task as participants in the making and consuming of images and information.50:21
50 minutes, 21 seconds
Our task is to work against such justification and even more to use the spectacle to50:28
50 minutes, 28 seconds
serve the casualties of this order and not its beneficiaries.50:41
50 minutes, 41 seconds
Parenthetically and related to the spectacle, this is a very trivial point, but I think nevertheless symptomatic.50:49
50 minutes, 49 seconds
Many over the years have commented on the fact that I rarely if ever smile on the show,50:56
50 minutes, 56 seconds
which of course is true, but this has always struck me as a rather odd remark.51:03
51 minutes, 3 seconds
Not because I don't like smiling or indeed even love laughing, but what would it mean to appear even slightly in51:11
51 minutes, 11 seconds
good humor, if not positively complacent, when discussing war,51:16
51 minutes, 16 seconds
starvation, poverty, or this administration's ceaseless and blatant criminality?51:30
51 minutes, 30 seconds
What kind of gesture is a smile? And what kind of smile could accompany this speech without appearing monstrous?51:40
51 minutes, 40 seconds
As an aside, someone once told me we should rename Democracy Now, Depress Me Now.51:49
51 minutes, 49 seconds
In that instance, it was impossible not to laugh.51:55
51 minutes, 55 seconds
We are living irrefutably, if perhaps in some instances not irreversibly,52:02
52 minutes, 2 seconds
in a time of multiplying and accelerating crisis.52:07
52 minutes, 7 seconds
To name only the most obvious and the most proximate,52:11
52 minutes, 11 seconds
the slow and now rapid transformation of this country into a more brutal, more52:18
52 minutes, 18 seconds
unforgiving and more exclusionary polity and society. the scale of which, as we witness it, is literally unfathomable.52:28
52 minutes, 28 seconds
The
cruelty of the current administration is everywhere in evidence. It
would take the remainder of this evening, and indeed well beyond it,52:38
52 minutes, 38 seconds
to rehearse the litany of horrors to which we're daily confronted.52:44
52 minutes, 44 seconds
What then is our orientation, our vision as this administration continues52:51
52 minutes, 51 seconds
unleashing its violence both within and without the borders of this country?52:57
52 minutes, 57 seconds
What possibilities exist as we report on what appears an imminent threat of world53:03
53 minutes, 3 seconds
war and crucially of those suffering in its midst of course in Iran but also53:11
53 minutes, 11 seconds
elsewhere or when we speak of the calamitous and ongoing lethal effects on the world's53:19
53 minutes, 19 seconds
very poorest of the staggering cuts in US aid or as we tell the stories of53:26
53 minutes, 26 seconds
those brutal ized while protesting ICE or the stories of the tens of millions enduring merciless wars from Palestine53:35
53 minutes, 35 seconds
to Ukraine to the DRC and Sudan, the latter African countries to our53:41
53 minutes, 41 seconds
collective shame almost totally absent from the public sphere.53:48
53 minutes, 48 seconds
The only gesture of course the only gesture possible of course is resistance.53:56
53 minutes, 56 seconds
a resistance whose source and agency must find expression in the media. This54:03
54 minutes, 3 seconds
is where the question of hope too arises. As an Iranian writer recently wrote, citing Walter Benjamin, quote,54:12
54 minutes, 12 seconds
"It is only for the sake of those without hope that hope is given to us."54:20
54 minutes, 20 seconds
So
indeed, what kind of hope is possible? A hope not directed at the self,
not necessitated by the desire to free oneself of fear or apprehension,54:32
54 minutes, 32 seconds
not given over to sentimentality or an empty optimism.54:37
54 minutes, 37 seconds
Here I'll turn to an interview with the most recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature, Lasslo Krasnorai,54:44
54 minutes, 44 seconds
who said, quote, "We can only delude ourselves with the future. Hope always54:51
54 minutes, 51 seconds
belongs to the future." and the future never arrives. It is always just about54:58
54 minutes, 58 seconds
to come." End quote. It is for this indeterminate future where hope belongs55:05
55 minutes, 5 seconds
that one must resist. And it is our ethical political responsibility in the media to ensure that such acts of55:13
55 minutes, 13 seconds
resistance are not erased, but rather made universally and intimately known through our telling, through amplifying55:22
55 minutes, 22 seconds
the voices of those who act in the service of this indeterminate future to come where hope lies. This is at55:31
55 minutes, 31 seconds
Democracy Now. Under Amy's guidance and with her remarkable imagination,55:38
55 minutes, 38 seconds
this at Democracy Now remains our enduring commitment. And finally,55:49
55 minutes, 49 seconds
and finally to end where I began, but this time in the words of the German Jewish political philosopher Hana Avent,55:57
55 minutes, 57 seconds
who wrote, quote, "Even in the darkest of times, we have the right to expect some illumination, and that such56:06
56 minutes, 6 seconds
illumination may well come from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak night that some men and women in their56:15
56 minutes, 15 seconds
lives and their works will kindle under almost all circumstances. End quote. It56:23
56 minutes, 23 seconds
is it is to this injunction above all that56:30
56 minutes, 30 seconds
democracy now remains true. And if there is hope, it is that in this moment and56:37
56 minutes, 37 seconds
in an indeterminate future, there will be more such means. and more people through which to tell their stories and56:45
56 minutes, 45 seconds
the stories of those for whom they provided even the weakest light. Thank you.57:14
57 minutes, 14 seconds
I'm lucky enough working with Nurmine for 15 years to get to see her smile all the time. Okay. Outside of that daily hour.57:24
57 minutes, 24 seconds
Oh, it is my honor to bring up on the stage Michael Stipe, the singer,57:31
57 minutes, 31 seconds
songwriter, artist, and activist. But before I do, I have a little admission.57:40
57 minutes, 40 seconds
It was 1992 and uh I was in Boston along with my colleague, journalist Alan N.57:51
57 minutes, 51 seconds
This is a story that is featured in this new documentary that we're going to be playing excerpts of, steal the story,57:58
57 minutes, 58 seconds
please,
that you'll get to see in the next month. But it's one of the stories
we've covered for decades. Um, since Indonesia invaded East Teour in
1975,58:12
58 minutes, 12 seconds
killed off a third of the population until the people of East Teour were able to vote for their freedom and ultimately58:21
58 minutes, 21 seconds
East Teour became one of the newest nations in the world. And in 1991,58:27
58 minutes, 27 seconds
my colleague Alan Aaron and I survived a massacre that more than 270 Timaries did58:34
58 minutes, 34 seconds
not. They were gunned down in one day at a Catholic ceremony. When we came back to the United States,58:43
58 minutes, 43 seconds
we continually covered this and I'd cover it as democracy now got established. But the Reebok human rights58:52
58 minutes, 52 seconds
awards the following year were honoring four activists and one of them was a59:00
59 minutes
young
Tim man named Fernando Dajjo who interestingly was being held in an
Indonesian jail. Reebok made a killing off of its sneaker company in
Indonesia,59:12
59 minutes, 12 seconds
but it was honoring this young man who was in Indonesian jail, but he couldn't come to the awards ceremony in Boston.59:19
59 minutes, 19 seconds
And so they invited Alan Narren and I to come to describe um the conditions that he faced.59:29
59 minutes, 29 seconds
Um, it was an amazing ceremony and there was this lunchon at the Four Seasons Hotel. Uh, and I went in and oh my god,59:41
59 minutes, 41 seconds
there was Richie Havens. I thought,59:45
59 minutes, 45 seconds
I'm going to have lunch with him. And so I raced over, but just as I was sitting down,59:52
59 minutes, 52 seconds
this guy sat down between us.59:58
59 minutes, 58 seconds
So
I said to him, "Oh, what's your name?" And he said, "Oh, my name is
Michael Stite." And I said, "Oh, are you Richie's assistant?"1:00:08
1 hour, 8 seconds
And he said, "No, but I love his music."1:00:11
1 hour, 11 seconds
And um I said, "What do you do?" And he said, "Oh, I have a band myself." And I said, "Oh, that's so cute. What's it1:00:20
1 hour, 20 seconds
called?" And he said, "Oh, we we call it." And I said, "Oh, you don't have to spell it rem." And he said, "Actually,1:00:28
1 hour, 28 seconds
we prefer the initials, RM." So, um, the ceremony went on and, uh,1:00:35
1 hour, 35 seconds
all sorts of people were there like Yoyo Ma and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead.1:00:40
1 hour, 40 seconds
And um and when we went home, I got a big box in the mail from Athens, Georgia.1:00:51
1 hour, 51 seconds
And it was from this guy named Michael. Well, when I called my brother Dan,1:00:56
1 hour, 56 seconds
who's
here today from the ceremony, I said, "You want to come?" He said, "I
might, you know, make it." Um and I he said, "Who's there?" I said, "I
don't know. There's all sorts of people." I1:01:04
1 hour, 1 minute, 4 seconds
sat next to this guy named Michael Steve or something. He said, "Michael St. I'll be there in two minutes." So,1:01:11
1 hour, 1 minute, 11 seconds
um, uh, I got this big box in the mail from Michael and it had a whole bunch of his CDs and he wrote something like,1:01:22
1 hour, 1 minute, 22 seconds
"Dear Amy, our band actually decided to record some of our songs and I thought you might enjoy them." Okay. So, Okay.1:01:31
1 hour, 1 minute, 31 seconds
So, this was 1992.1:01:34
1 hour, 1 minute, 34 seconds
Um,
it was Oh, the blockbuster album Out of Time. It sold something like 18
million copies already worldwide. Hit the top charts in the US and the
UK. Um,1:01:46
1 hour, 1 minute, 46 seconds
yep. It was losing my religion and all of that. Okay, so I've just said too much, but um1:01:56
1 hour, 1 minute, 56 seconds
so Michael's gonna join us, humble man that he is, and Aaron Destner, Grammy awardwinning musician and producer,1:02:06
1 hour, 2 minutes, 6 seconds
founding member of the National and a close collaborator with Taylor Swift. co-produced three of her albums,1:02:14
1 hour, 2 minutes, 14 seconds
Folklore Evermore, um, and The Tortured Poets Department. They're singing No Time for Love Like Now.1:02:27
1 hour, 2 minutes, 27 seconds
Oh,1:02:29
1 hour, 2 minutes, 29 seconds
and Michael, thanks for the hat with the CDs. I1:02:46
1 hour, 2 minutes, 46 seconds
Uh thank you Amy.1:02:54
1 hour, 2 minutes, 54 seconds
Uh this evening feels like a clarion call,1:03:02
1 hour, 3 minutes, 2 seconds
a voice,1:03:05
1 hour, 3 minutes, 5 seconds
a voice of courage, of optimism and resilience and community1:03:13
1 hour, 3 minutes, 13 seconds
in the face in the midst of system collapse.1:03:18
1 hour, 3 minutes, 18 seconds
We are honored to be here and to be a part of this community. Thank you.1:03:32
1 hour, 3 minutes, 32 seconds
No time for breezy, no time for arguments.1:03:38
1 hour, 3 minutes, 38 seconds
There's no time for love like now. There's no time in the bo,1:03:48
1 hour, 3 minutes, 48 seconds
no time in the end between no time for love like now.1:03:58
1 hour, 3 minutes, 58 seconds
Where did this all begin to change? The lockown memories can't sustain this glistening hanging free phone.1:04:11
1 hour, 4 minutes, 11 seconds
I turned away from the glorious light I turned my head and cried.1:04:24
1 hour, 4 minutes, 24 seconds
Whatever waiting means in this new place I am waiting for you.1:04:36
1 hour, 4 minutes, 36 seconds
There's no time for dancing, no time for undecided,1:04:43
1 hour, 4 minutes, 43 seconds
no time for love like now. There's no time for honey,1:04:53
1 hour, 4 minutes, 53 seconds
no time for psalms and thresholds. Whisper a sweet prayer side.1:05:02
1 hour, 5 minutes, 2 seconds
Where did this all begin to change? The lockown memories can't sustain this glistening hanging free fall.1:05:15
1 hour, 5 minutes, 15 seconds
I turned away from the glorious light. I I turned my head and cried.1:05:28
1 hour, 5 minutes, 28 seconds
Whatever waiting means in this new place,1:05:34
1 hour, 5 minutes, 34 seconds
I am waiting for you.1:05:40
1 hour, 5 minutes, 40 seconds
Your voices echo your love, love, love,1:05:45
1 hour, 5 minutes, 45 seconds
love, love. I hear it far, far away.1:05:53
1 hour, 5 minutes, 53 seconds
And I am waiting for you.1:06:00
1 hour, 6 minutes
Yes, I am waiting for you.1:06:06
1 hour, 6 minutes, 6 seconds
Whatever waiting means in this new place,1:06:12
1 hour, 6 minutes, 12 seconds
I am waiting for you.1:06:18
1 hour, 6 minutes, 18 seconds
Yes, I am waiting for you.1:06:25
1 hour, 6 minutes, 25 seconds
I am waiting for you.1:06:47
1 hour, 6 minutes, 47 seconds
Thank you.1:07:27
1 hour, 7 minutes, 27 seconds
Nicole and I were at the TV station where Demarcus was based during the convention and we looked out the window and saw the1:07:35
1 hour, 7 minutes, 35 seconds
massive balance of police and ride gear walking down the streets.1:07:43
1 hour, 7 minutes, 43 seconds
Sharief, get the passes. Get my press pass. Something's happening.1:07:53
1 hour, 7 minutes, 53 seconds
street.1:07:56
1 hour, 7 minutes, 56 seconds
Our streets street. Who streets? Our streets. Who streets? Our streets. Who streets?1:08:04
1 hour, 8 minutes, 4 seconds
Our streets. Street.1:08:25
1 hour, 8 minutes, 25 seconds
Back up and move that way. No, I don't care. Back up. Move that way. Move. Move.1:08:31
1 hour, 8 minutes, 31 seconds
[ __ ] 18. The associated practice.1:08:45
1 hour, 8 minutes, 45 seconds
Get down on your face. On your feet. On your feet. On your back.1:09:04
1 hour, 9 minutes, 4 seconds
The police very violently arrested Nicole and then they beat me up and arrested me.1:09:16
1 hour, 9 minutes, 16 seconds
And then God bless her Amy came1:09:28
1 hour, 9 minutes, 28 seconds
the accredited journalist from the convention violating my constitutional right.1:09:34
1 hour, 9 minutes, 34 seconds
Sir, I want to talk to you arrest under arrest. Stay right there. Back up.1:09:43
1 hour, 9 minutes, 43 seconds
Back up. Release not that accredited journalist. Hey Max, we just arrested Amy Goodman,1:09:49
1 hour, 9 minutes, 49 seconds
Nicole Salazar, and Shar Abdul Kadus.1:10:09
1 hour, 10 minutes, 9 seconds
And I also want to thank Nicole Salazar and Shri Fidel Kadus who are in the1:10:16
1 hour, 10 minutes, 16 seconds
audience today for doing such excellent coverage.1:10:27
1 hour, 10 minutes, 27 seconds
And
also one of the people who was shouting there, my colleague Dennis
Moahan with us from almost the beginning of Democracy Now shouting,
"You're1:10:35
1 hour, 10 minutes, 35 seconds
arresting journalists. Stop arresting those journalists." Oh, by the way,1:10:40
1 hour, 10 minutes, 40 seconds
coming up we have Oh, Patty Smith is going to be joining us with um I can't1:10:47
1 hour, 10 minutes, 47 seconds
wait. And we also are going to have a special guest, but we'll talk about that in a little while. Right now, to say the1:10:55
1 hour, 10 minutes, 55 seconds
least,
we have a very, very special guest. We thought it would be appropriate
to uh play some arrest footage before we introduced her. Um,1:11:06
1 hour, 11 minutes, 6 seconds
but we are talking about one, Angela Davis.1:11:37
1 hour, 11 minutes, 37 seconds
And for those who were not born yet when well I'll just say who aren't born yet.1:11:45
1 hour, 11 minutes, 45 seconds
I wanted to introduce Angela, the renowned activist and author, scholar,1:11:52
1 hour, 11 minutes, 52 seconds
professor emerit at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Um, she is the1:11:59
1 hour, 11 minutes, 59 seconds
author of many books including Freedom is a constant struggle, Ferguson,1:12:06
1 hour, 12 minutes, 6 seconds
Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Her other books include Our Prisons Obsolete1:12:14
1 hour, 12 minutes, 14 seconds
and Women Race and Class. Her 1974 autobiography1:12:21
1 hour, 12 minutes, 21 seconds
was edited by the late great Tony Morrison.1:12:28
1 hour, 12 minutes, 28 seconds
Angela Davis grew up in Birmingham,1:12:31
1 hour, 12 minutes, 31 seconds
Alabama in a neighborhood known as Dynamite Hill because the Klux Clan repeatedly1:12:40
1 hour, 12 minutes, 40 seconds
bombed the area. Angela, it is such an honor to be with you tonight.1:12:52
1 hour, 12 minutes, 52 seconds
Well, congratulations Amy Nurmine and Juan on the occasion of the 30th, can1:13:00
1 hour, 13 minutes
you believe it? 30th anniversary of Democracy Now. You know, I was thinking that um it was really only maybe about1:13:09
1 hour, 13 minutes, 9 seconds
10 years ago when we met uh for the first time, but it's been 30 years.1:13:19
1 hour, 13 minutes, 19 seconds
Well,1:13:21
1 hour, 13 minutes, 21 seconds
why don't we start there? Start where you grew up. Start in Birmingham,1:13:28
1 hour, 13 minutes, 28 seconds
Alabama, and what it meant to grow up in Dynamite Hill. And then take us on a1:13:36
1 hour, 13 minutes, 36 seconds
short trajectory of your remarkable life. really.1:13:51
1 hour, 13 minutes, 51 seconds
Well,1:13:54
1 hour, 13 minutes, 54 seconds
you know, that was over 80 years ago1:14:08
1 hour, 14 minutes, 8 seconds
and I don't know whether I can compress these last 80 years into three.1:14:14
1 hour, 14 minutes, 14 seconds
Who said anything about compressing?1:14:18
1 hour, 14 minutes, 18 seconds
Well, I see the timekeeper right in front of us, but it's really wonderful to be here and and let me also thank you1:14:27
1 hour, 14 minutes, 27 seconds
know
all of you for coming out uh to celebrate 30 years of democracy now
with without democracy now I do not know where we would be today.1:14:44
1 hour, 14 minutes, 44 seconds
You know, I can remember when we felt unseen and unagnowledged. Uh when we we1:14:52
1 hour, 14 minutes, 52 seconds
had no legitimate place or space in the established media.1:15:01
1 hour, 15 minutes, 1 second
And um so before I say anything else, I just really want to say thank you on behalf of all of the progressive and1:15:10
1 hour, 15 minutes, 10 seconds
radical movements in this country and the world.1:15:23
1 hour, 15 minutes, 23 seconds
Okay, Amy, I was born in 19441:15:30
1 hour, 15 minutes, 30 seconds
in Birmingham, Alabama at a time when um the government of the city and of the1:15:38
1 hour, 15 minutes, 38 seconds
state were in literally in the hands of the Ku Klux Clan. Um, and um, you know,1:15:45
1 hour, 15 minutes, 45 seconds
I often point out that some of my earliest memories are um, of hearing the sound of dynamite.1:15:56
1 hour, 15 minutes, 56 seconds
uh because when my family moved into uh that area, black people were allowed to1:16:05
1 hour, 16 minutes, 5 seconds
live on one side of the street, center street, which was the dividing line, but not on the other side.1:16:13
1 hour, 16 minutes, 13 seconds
And you know, one of the stories I never tire of telling uh is that um um as kids,1:16:25
1 hour, 16 minutes, 25 seconds
we knew that a Kuclas clanman clansman lived right across the street from us.1:16:32
1 hour, 16 minutes, 32 seconds
And we knew that we were not allowed to cross that street. black people weren't1:16:40
1 hour, 16 minutes, 40 seconds
allowed to cross that street unless they worked for white people in the neighborhood.1:16:47
1 hour, 16 minutes, 47 seconds
And so, um, you know, sometimes instead of playing hideand go seek or, you know,1:16:54
1 hour, 16 minutes, 54 seconds
all of the other children's games that we used to play, we used to dare each other to run across the street.1:17:01
1 hour, 17 minutes, 1 second
And um and if you were uh you know really courageous,1:17:11
1 hour, 17 minutes, 11 seconds
you
would not only run across the street, you would run up the steps of the
clansman's house and ring the doorbell and try to make it back across1:17:19
1 hour, 17 minutes, 19 seconds
the street before they came uh to answer. Um so I mean I say that because I know the theme of this evening is resistance. Uh,1:17:31
1 hour, 17 minutes, 31 seconds
and it and and and you know, and as I look at as I see1:17:38
1 hour, 17 minutes, 38 seconds
Palestinian children throwing um rocks uh at uh uh uh the Israeli1:17:46
1 hour, 17 minutes, 46 seconds
military, I I I I realized that, you know, re in some communities resistance1:17:54
1 hour, 17 minutes, 54 seconds
is the only possibility of living a a life of significance.1:18:08
1 hour, 18 minutes, 8 seconds
And so children learn resistance even before they fully understand what that1:18:14
1 hour, 18 minutes, 14 seconds
means. They even learn to um uh enjoy resistance and to to have fun engaging1:18:22
1 hour, 18 minutes, 22 seconds
in those uh games. So yeah, that in short was my child. So uh, Professor Davis, you're uh,1:18:31
1 hour, 18 minutes, 31 seconds
obviously a leading icon and symbol of resistance and protest uh, not only here in the US but also in many parts of the1:18:39
1 hour, 18 minutes, 39 seconds
world. So to elaborate on this question of uh, resistance indeed that is the theme for the evening. You said in an1:18:47
1 hour, 18 minutes, 47 seconds
interview recently that you used to have a quote intrigent notion of what constitutes resistance, but that you1:18:54
1 hour, 18 minutes, 54 seconds
came to see that we are here today precisely because this is a quote from you because of large acts of resistance1:19:02
1 hour, 19 minutes, 2 seconds
and small acts of resistance. And you said, I believe we need organized resistance and the forms of resistance1:19:10
1 hour, 19 minutes, 10 seconds
that become practices in our daily lives. So if you could elaborate on that and where you see instances of that today.1:19:21
1 hour, 19 minutes, 21 seconds
Um thank you Nurmine. I can't actually I mean I'm sure I said that. Uh that's a problem with giving too many interviews.1:19:32
1 hour, 19 minutes, 32 seconds
We've never misqued anyone.1:19:37
1 hour, 19 minutes, 37 seconds
I mean, I'm sure I said that and I'm I'm sure I was thinking about the fact that um that you know in my own life and I'm1:19:47
1 hour, 19 minutes, 47 seconds
sure my life reflects that of many others who've grown up as as as activists uh and progressive and radical1:19:55
1 hour, 19 minutes, 55 seconds
movements in this country. But I I I I think I was referring to uh the fact1:20:02
1 hour, 20 minutes, 2 seconds
that I only really took seriously at a certain point early on the the the1:20:10
1 hour, 20 minutes, 10 seconds
sort of major forms of resistance, what we um uh you know what John Burgger called the um rehearsals for revolution.1:20:22
1 hour, 20 minutes, 22 seconds
Uh the massive uh protests uh the uh the1:20:28
1 hour, 20 minutes, 28 seconds
the huge marches where we are uh able not only to make our voices heard but1:20:37
1 hour, 20 minutes, 37 seconds
where we also experience the camaraderie with others where we we become1:20:46
1 hour, 20 minutes, 46 seconds
absolutely persuaded that we will usher in possibilities of a better world and we need those moments.1:20:58
1 hour, 20 minutes, 58 seconds
But I think we also need the small acts, the small acts of1:21:05
1 hour, 21 minutes, 5 seconds
resistance. And uh you know I um know one of the things I've been doing in the last couple of years uh I can't1:21:14
1 hour, 21 minutes, 14 seconds
believe it's been a couple of years is uh is not drinking out of plastic bottles.1:21:25
1 hour, 21 minutes, 25 seconds
And and it's you know it's not that one person not drinking out of plastic is going to accomplish anything at all. Um1:21:34
1 hour, 21 minutes, 34 seconds
but it's about becoming aware of the fact that capitalism um depends on our habits.1:21:44
1 hour, 21 minutes, 44 seconds
Capitalism depends on us not taking seriously uh the the the1:21:54
1 hour, 21 minutes, 54 seconds
habits that we acquire that help to um that help to in in in the in instance1:22:03
1 hour, 22 minutes, 3 seconds
of drinking out of uh of singleuse plastic destroy the earth.1:22:11
1 hour, 22 minutes, 11 seconds
And many of us know that that is happening. We know that uh um1:22:18
1 hour, 22 minutes, 18 seconds
there is so much plastic in the ocean uh and that there are microplastics in animals. There are microplastics in our1:22:27
1 hour, 22 minutes, 27 seconds
own bodies. Yet we still, you know, we still drink out of plastic.1:22:33
1 hour, 22 minutes, 33 seconds
And I um um I I think I was on vacation in1:22:42
1 hour, 22 minutes, 42 seconds
Martha's Vineyard couple of years ago and I saw some hermit crabs1:22:51
1 hour, 22 minutes, 51 seconds
walking around on the beach with a piece of a pl with pieces of plastic bottles. You know the hermit1:23:00
1 hour, 23 minutes
crabs? They they use shells from, you know, other um shellfish and they had pl1:23:07
1 hour, 23 minutes, 7 seconds
they were using the plastic as their shells as their their houses1:23:14
1 hour, 23 minutes, 14 seconds
and um and so that's like a small act but it's1:23:21
1 hour, 23 minutes, 21 seconds
so
hard because you know I tell if I'm speaking someplace I said you know
please don't give me um a a plastic of, you know, water in a plastic
bottle.1:23:33
1 hour, 23 minutes, 33 seconds
So sometimes they say, "Okay, well,1:23:35
1 hour, 23 minutes, 35 seconds
we'll just pour it into a a a cup."1:23:40
1 hour, 23 minutes, 40 seconds
And and so I think that there are those small things that are so important. Uh1:23:48
1 hour, 23 minutes, 48 seconds
and if we can if we can change those habits,1:23:54
1 hour, 23 minutes, 54 seconds
maybe we can create a better world.1:24:04
1 hour, 24 minutes, 4 seconds
But we still need the we still need the sort of grand forms of resistance as well.1:24:12
1 hour, 24 minutes, 12 seconds
It's not an eitheror.1:24:14
1 hour, 24 minutes, 14 seconds
Angela, I'd like to ask you about those grand forms of resistance. uh uh we were politically formed during the same uh1:24:22
1 hour, 24 minutes, 22 seconds
period of time and uh you first became to national fame or national or international notoriety as a member of1:24:31
1 hour, 24 minutes, 31 seconds
the Black Panther Party and I'm wondering if you could share especially for the young people here1:24:37
1 hour, 24 minutes, 37 seconds
what drew you to revolutionary struggle to the Panther Party and what kinds of lessons good and bad uh have you drawn1:24:47
1 hour, 24 minutes, 47 seconds
from that experience that might help other folks who are organizing resistance and seeking to build a a better world today.1:24:57
1 hour, 24 minutes, 57 seconds
Well, I think I've been,1:25:03
1 hour, 25 minutes, 3 seconds
it's a long story, but uh I guess I'll say that um you know,1:25:10
1 hour, 25 minutes, 10 seconds
when I was growing up in Birmingham, Amy asked me that first um question. What I didn't say was that1:25:19
1 hour, 25 minutes, 19 seconds
um um my mother was a member of the um of a of1:25:27
1 hour, 25 minutes, 27 seconds
a of a radical organization at that time which was called the Southern Negro Youth Congress. And it was an1:25:35
1 hour, 25 minutes, 35 seconds
organization that was founded by black members of the Communist Party. Um1:25:45
1 hour, 25 minutes, 45 seconds
and as a matter of fact, my my mother met my father um1:25:53
1 hour, 25 minutes, 53 seconds
recruiting um guys because this was this was the1:26:01
1 hour, 26 minutes, 1 second
nature of uh uh the military at that time to um go fight fascism.1:26:12
1 hour, 26 minutes, 12 seconds
uh in Europe,1:26:15
1 hour, 26 minutes, 15 seconds
fight
fascism abroad and fight racism at home. So if any of you know the
double V campaign, any of you know the double V campaign?1:26:25
1 hour, 26 minutes, 25 seconds
Okay, I guess one you know um our generation is not as well represented.1:26:35
1 hour, 26 minutes, 35 seconds
Uh so any anyway um yeah uh I eventually1:26:42
1 hour, 26 minutes, 42 seconds
did join the Communist Party myself but I also joined the Black Panther1:26:51
1 hour, 26 minutes, 51 seconds
Party and I also um joined SNIK and I also joined I mean I could give you the1:26:59
1 hour, 26 minutes, 59 seconds
names of many organizations I I've joined. I've I think I've always been connected with some kind of collective1:27:07
1 hour, 27 minutes, 7 seconds
uh uh and um I suppose I would say that is because it1:27:16
1 hour, 27 minutes, 16 seconds
be it it became clear that despite the1:27:22
1 hour, 27 minutes, 22 seconds
the um uh individualism that is promoted and and especially in relation to and by1:27:31
1 hour, 27 minutes, 31 seconds
capitalism uh that um that that1:27:38
1 hour, 27 minutes, 38 seconds
nothing that we do as individuals is ever going to really make a major difference. We always have to be1:27:47
1 hour, 27 minutes, 47 seconds
connected with community. Yeah.1:27:57
1 hour, 27 minutes, 57 seconds
And so when the Black Panther Party was organizing in Los Angeles for the very first time, um I1:28:08
1 hour, 28 minutes, 8 seconds
I was u as a matter of fact uh teaching at UCLA and I asked, "Well, how can I be1:28:15
1 hour, 28 minutes, 15 seconds
of assistance? What can I do?" So, I began to work with the political education uh program um that uh the that1:28:25
1 hour, 28 minutes, 25 seconds
um John Huggins um Erica Huggin's husband at the time was working on. So,1:28:31
1 hour, 28 minutes, 31 seconds
John and I worked on political education for the Black Panther Party uh for until he was um killed at UCLA. And you know,1:28:42
1 hour, 28 minutes, 42 seconds
it's a long and very complicated story,1:28:44
1 hour, 28 minutes, 44 seconds
but the fact is that um um I1:28:52
1 hour, 28 minutes, 52 seconds
I think I've always felt more comfortable in environments where I could resist, where I could say no and1:29:00
1 hour, 29 minutes
not be by myself saying no, being with others uh uh who who recognize that we1:29:08
1 hour, 29 minutes, 8 seconds
we we need We need a different kind of world. Uh, a world without racism, a world without hetereroatriarchy,1:29:18
1 hour, 29 minutes, 18 seconds
a world without economic exploitation, a world without colonialism, a world without genocide. Uh,1:29:28
1 hour, 29 minutes, 28 seconds
and the only way to do that is together.1:29:44
1 hour, 29 minutes, 44 seconds
So,
uh, Professor Davis, we're speaking today in this historic, uh,
Riverside Church, the site of Martin Luther King's antivietnam war
speech. Uh, could you,1:29:55
1 hour, 29 minutes, 55 seconds
uh, give us a sense, I mean, your reflections on what that moment was, uh,1:30:01
1 hour, 30 minutes, 1 second
the kinds of precisely resistant resistance movements that you were part of then.1:30:07
1 hour, 30 minutes, 7 seconds
and where we stand now in particular as we're confronting uh another horrifying war.1:30:18
1 hour, 30 minutes, 18 seconds
Um yeah, I I think it's really important to feel the the history1:30:26
1 hour, 30 minutes, 26 seconds
in this church and to uh remember that uh when Dr. King1:30:35
1 hour, 30 minutes, 35 seconds
gave that um amazing speech when Dr. King Thank you. I know we have1:30:44
1 hour, 30 minutes, 44 seconds
one minute left. When Dr. King gave that uh incredible incredible speech,1:30:53
1 hour, 30 minutes, 53 seconds
um not I would say most people wondered why he was talking about Vietnam.1:31:05
1 hour, 31 minutes, 5 seconds
Um, I mean, I had the actually had the opportunity during that very same period to hear him in Birmingham, Alabama,1:31:13
1 hour, 31 minutes, 13 seconds
and he spoke in Birmingham about Vietnam.1:31:18
1 hour, 31 minutes, 18 seconds
And and I was very disturbed that many of my neighbors and people that I knew in Birmingham uh were a little um confused about,1:31:30
1 hour, 31 minutes, 30 seconds
you know, why why was he talking about Vietnam? What did that have to do with with with uh ending racism?1:31:38
1 hour, 31 minutes, 38 seconds
And and so Dr. King always talked about the1:31:47
1 hour, 31 minutes, 47 seconds
indivisibility of justice.1:31:52
1 hour, 31 minutes, 52 seconds
And I think it's a lesson that we we need to share over and over and over again.1:32:01
1 hour, 32 minutes, 1 second
All of our progressive radical struggles are interconnected. Uh1:32:09
1 hour, 32 minutes, 9 seconds
as a matter of fact, absolutely. And what is so what is so exciting about1:32:17
1 hour, 32 minutes, 17 seconds
this moment is that we've struggled so long1:32:25
1 hour, 32 minutes, 25 seconds
for Palestine solidarity to be a part of the larger social1:32:33
1 hour, 32 minutes, 33 seconds
justice agenda in this country1:32:41
1 hour, 32 minutes, 41 seconds
And for so long it appeared as if Zionism was so1:32:50
1 hour, 32 minutes, 50 seconds
powerful that we would never achieve that goal.1:32:56
1 hour, 32 minutes, 56 seconds
And so people who worked around issues of Palestine solidarity had to do it in1:33:04
1 hour, 33 minutes, 4 seconds
a kind of marginalized fashion. uh uh not in connection with what we consider to be the main issues of social justice.1:33:15
1 hour, 33 minutes, 15 seconds
But I can say now that I am really um thankful that I've managed to live as1:33:23
1 hour, 33 minutes, 23 seconds
long as I have. uh because1:33:32
1 hour, 33 minutes, 32 seconds
I also see myself as a witness for all of those who struggle for Palestine and1:33:40
1 hour, 33 minutes, 40 seconds
Palestine in connection with feminis feminism Palestine in connection with the struggle against racism Palestine in1:33:50
1 hour, 33 minutes, 50 seconds
relation to our anti-war movements uh that um1:33:57
1 hour, 33 minutes, 57 seconds
all of those struggles and I'm thinking about Jim Jordan for example um well we should never forget um that1:34:07
1 hour, 34 minutes, 7 seconds
um that despite how depressed many of us feel about this moment uh1:34:17
1 hour, 34 minutes, 17 seconds
despite the fact that we have you know somebody in in in in the in the White house who I and I'm I'm just going to1:34:25
1 hour, 34 minutes, 25 seconds
stop there. I'm just going to say who uh uh because I know we don't have any time1:34:32
1 hour, 34 minutes, 32 seconds
to talk about that, but we all know what we're referring to.1:34:38
1 hour, 34 minutes, 38 seconds
uh that uh that um that you know all of the all of the work over the last decades and decades,1:34:50
1 hour, 34 minutes, 50 seconds
it has made a difference.1:34:54
1 hour, 34 minutes, 54 seconds
And I think it will allow us to recognize that even though we may not1:35:02
1 hour, 35 minutes, 2 seconds
see the immediate consequences of the work that we're doing now,1:35:12
1 hour, 35 minutes, 12 seconds
if if we continue to insist on what we know is right and we know that genocide is wrong,1:35:25
1 hour, 35 minutes, 25 seconds
And we know that the Palestinian people have been an inspiration to people all1:35:32
1 hour, 35 minutes, 32 seconds
over the world, including here in this country. I'm I'm I'm I'm so impressed.1:35:39
1 hour, 35 minutes, 39 seconds
Every time I go into a circle that is primarily concerned with black liberation, there is always the question1:35:48
1 hour, 35 minutes, 48 seconds
of Palestine that comes up everywhere.1:35:54
1 hour, 35 minutes, 54 seconds
And just recently, just recently, I traveled to Jackson, Mississippi,1:36:01
1 hour, 36 minutes, 1 second
and um I um participated in an event uh that was1:36:10
1 hour, 36 minutes, 10 seconds
sponsored by Mississippi for a just world. And the theme of that event was1:36:18
1 hour, 36 minutes, 18 seconds
solidarity with the Palestinian people in Jackson, Mississippi.1:36:28
1 hour, 36 minutes, 28 seconds
And so I I guess you know what I want to say is that uh we also have some reason to celebrate uh uh even you know even as1:36:38
1 hour, 36 minutes, 38 seconds
as we uh mourn and even as we witness the the1:36:44
1 hour, 36 minutes, 44 seconds
worst forms of of of of destruction. uh uh if we can1:36:52
1 hour, 36 minutes, 52 seconds
see ourselves as larger than we actually are and that is why we need that is why1:36:59
1 hour, 36 minutes, 59 seconds
we need a community. That is why we need to come together. That is why we need democracy now because democracy now1:37:08
1 hour, 37 minutes, 8 seconds
helps us to build that community.1:37:17
1 hour, 37 minutes, 17 seconds
Well, Angela Davis, we thank you so much for joining us for this 30th anniversary celebration1:37:26
1 hour, 37 minutes, 26 seconds
and congratulations to Democracy Now.1:37:56
1 hour, 37 minutes, 56 seconds
Well,1:38:02
1 hour, 38 minutes, 2 seconds
you know, this event was supposed to take place on February 23rd.1:38:09
1 hour, 38 minutes, 9 seconds
That would have been 4 days after our actual 30th anniversary. But then there1:38:16
1 hour, 38 minutes, 16 seconds
was this bomb cyclone, right? Uh intensification of climate catastrophes1:38:24
1 hour, 38 minutes, 24 seconds
that we have to be extremely serious about. Um which is why Democracy Now every year covers the UN climate summit.1:38:34
1 hour, 38 minutes, 34 seconds
Not because something gets accomplished there wherever it is somewhere in the world, but because of the focus1:38:44
1 hour, 38 minutes, 44 seconds
on climate as Angela talked about the intersectionality of all politics. But1:38:53
1 hour, 38 minutes, 53 seconds
there was a silver lining to that cancellation because someone that was with us on the1:39:01
1 hour, 39 minutes, 1 second
20th anniversary of Democracy Now could not be with us on February 23rd.1:39:07
1 hour, 39 minutes, 7 seconds
But now that it's March 23rd, I have the enormous pleasure to introduce our next guest. A special guest is coming later.1:39:17
1 hour, 39 minutes, 17 seconds
This is also an extremely special guest who I can name at this moment, Patty Smith. Singer,1:39:28
1 hour, 39 minutes, 28 seconds
songwriter,1:39:30
1 hour, 39 minutes, 30 seconds
poet, author, widely known as the grandmother of punk. She recently1:39:37
1 hour, 39 minutes, 37 seconds
celebrated the 50th anniversary of her landmark debut album, Horses. Her latest1:39:45
1 hour, 39 minutes, 45 seconds
book is the memoir Bread of Angels. And if we could be here for longer tonight,1:39:50
1 hour, 39 minutes, 50 seconds
I
was going to insist on doing an interview with her, but we'll just have
to have the interview be on Democracy Now. In November,1:40:02
1 hour, 40 minutes, 2 seconds
Patty Smith won the National Book Award for poetry for her collection, The Intentions of Thunder, new and selected1:40:11
1 hour, 40 minutes, 11 seconds
poems. In 2010, she won the National Book Award for non-fiction for her1:40:17
1 hour, 40 minutes, 17 seconds
memoir Just Kids. This is Patty's, as we talked about Angela turning 82, this is1:40:25
1 hour, 40 minutes, 25 seconds
Patty's 80th birthday year. Um,1:40:32
1 hour, 40 minutes, 32 seconds
and we want to welcome Patty Smith, her daughter Jesse Smith, and Tony Shanahan to the stage.1:41:06
1 hour, 41 minutes, 6 seconds
Hello everybody and happy 30th anniversary Amy and Democracy Now. Um,1:41:16
1 hour, 41 minutes, 16 seconds
let's get my glasses.1:41:24
1 hour, 41 minutes, 24 seconds
Don't forget it.1:41:29
1 hour, 41 minutes, 29 seconds
I'm going to read a little passage from from Bread of Angels while Tony's tuning up.1:41:37
1 hour, 41 minutes, 37 seconds
Will I distract you? No. On October 26th,1:41:47
1 hour, 41 minutes, 47 seconds
2002,1:41:49
1 hour, 41 minutes, 49 seconds
International Answer organized a protest of the planned attack on Iraq by the Bush administration in Washington DC.1:42:01
1 hour, 42 minutes, 1 second
We performed People of the Power. I looked out and an estimated 200,0001:42:08
1 hour, 42 minutes, 8 seconds
people gathered from all over the country. Looking back from the1:42:14
1 hour, 42 minutes, 14 seconds
Constitution gardens near the Vietnam War Memorial, the the mall was carpeted1:42:21
1 hour, 42 minutes, 21 seconds
with people calling for peace, chanting no war.1:42:26
1 hour, 42 minutes, 26 seconds
We met again in January, performing again in the freezing cold and joining1:42:33
1 hour, 42 minutes, 33 seconds
forces with Reverend Jesse Jackson on February.1:42:39
1 hour, 42 minutes, 39 seconds
Blessings upon him.1:42:46
1 hour, 42 minutes, 46 seconds
On February 15th, the largest global anti-war protest in history was waged.1:42:53
1 hour, 42 minutes, 53 seconds
In England alone, nearly a million protested. In Italy, a staggering three million.1:43:01
1 hour, 43 minutes, 1 second
I marched in Paris in the Palestinian section and they gave me a flag.1:43:12
1 hour, 43 minutes, 12 seconds
Sadly, sorry.1:43:16
1 hour, 43 minutes, 16 seconds
Sadly, the collective voice of the people was not heeded. On March 16th, 2003,1:43:25
1 hour, 43 minutes, 25 seconds
Rachel Corey, a young nonviolence activist, was protesting the Israeli demolition of homes in the Gaza Strip.1:43:34
1 hour, 43 minutes, 34 seconds
Bulldozers had already destroyed surrounding houses in Rafa, where she was based. They targeted the family home1:43:43
1 hour, 43 minutes, 43 seconds
of Professor Nasra, where she was staying. Corey, wearing an orange vest,1:43:52
1 hour, 43 minutes, 52 seconds
bullhorn in hand, called for them to cease. She stood on a raised mound in1:43:58
1 hour, 43 minutes, 58 seconds
the path of an Israeli bulldozer, but it kept going.1:44:04
1 hour, 44 minutes, 4 seconds
Her fellow activists cried out, and the Nasala children watched in horror as she was crushed to death.1:44:13
1 hour, 44 minutes, 13 seconds
The loss of Corey, a bright altruistic force just two years older than my own1:44:20
1 hour, 44 minutes, 20 seconds
son, haunted me. At the same time, on the first day of spring, it was obvious1:44:28
1 hour, 44 minutes, 28 seconds
that
all the marches, pleas, and protests of millions of people worldwide
were not going to halt the Bush administration's plan to attack Baghdad.1:44:41
1 hour, 44 minutes, 41 seconds
That was 23 years ago when Tony Shanahan and I wrote the song. We wrote it to1:44:50
1 hour, 44 minutes, 50 seconds
comfort the family of Rachel Corey and to send a small1:44:58
1 hour, 44 minutes, 58 seconds
a small message of hope to the Palestinian people.1:45:50
1 hour, 45 minutes, 50 seconds
Yesterday I saw you standing there with your hands against the pain.1:46:02
1 hour, 46 minutes, 2 seconds
Looking out the window at the ring.1:46:13
1 hour, 46 minutes, 13 seconds
And I wanted to tell you all your tears were not in vain.1:46:25
1 hour, 46 minutes, 25 seconds
But I guess we both knew we'd never be the same.1:46:36
1 hour, 46 minutes, 36 seconds
Never be the same.1:46:42
1 hour, 46 minutes, 42 seconds
Why must we hide all these feelings inside?1:46:53
1 hour, 46 minutes, 53 seconds
Lion and lamb shall abide.1:47:05
1 hour, 47 minutes, 5 seconds
Maybe one day we'll be strong enough to build it back again.1:47:17
1 hour, 47 minutes, 17 seconds
Build the peaceable kingom. Back again.1:47:29
1 hour, 47 minutes, 29 seconds
Build it back again.1:48:02
1 hour, 48 minutes, 2 seconds
Why must we hide all these feelings inside?1:48:13
1 hour, 48 minutes, 13 seconds
Lion and lamb shall abide.1:48:25
1 hour, 48 minutes, 25 seconds
Maybe one day we'll be strong enough to build it back again.1:48:36
1 hour, 48 minutes, 36 seconds
build the peaceable kingom back again.1:48:48
1 hour, 48 minutes, 48 seconds
Maybe one day we'll be strong enough.1:48:53
1 hour, 48 minutes, 53 seconds
We can build it back again. Build the peace of all kingom.1:49:04
1 hour, 49 minutes, 4 seconds
Build it back again.1:49:10
1 hour, 49 minutes, 10 seconds
Build the peace of the kingom and build it back again.1:49:28
1 hour, 49 minutes, 28 seconds
I was dreaming in my dreaming of an aspect1:49:37
1 hour, 49 minutes, 37 seconds
bright and fair and my sleeping. It was broken,1:49:45
1 hour, 49 minutes, 45 seconds
but my dream it lingered near in the farm of1:49:53
1 hour, 49 minutes, 53 seconds
shining valleys where the pure air rarified1:50:02
1 hour, 50 minutes, 2 seconds
and my senses newly opened cuz I'll awaken1:50:10
1 hour, 50 minutes, 10 seconds
to the cry. I that the people have the power1:50:18
1 hour, 50 minutes, 18 seconds
to redeem the work of fools upon the meek.1:50:26
1 hour, 50 minutes, 26 seconds
The grace is shower. It's decreed.1:50:32
1 hour, 50 minutes, 32 seconds
The people rule.1:50:41
1 hour, 50 minutes, 41 seconds
Thank you, Jesse Paris Smith, Tony Shanahan. Thank you.1:51:14
1 hour, 51 minutes, 14 seconds
It's
election day 2000. This is the presidential race between George W. Bush
and Al Gore. We got a call. I thought they said the White Horse
calling.1:51:24
1 hour, 51 minutes, 24 seconds
That's
a historic bar in Greenwich Village where Dylan Thomas drank himself to
death. And they said, "The president would like to speak to you." I
said,1:51:33
1 hour, 51 minutes, 33 seconds
"The president of what?" And they said, "The president of the United States."1:51:38
1 hour, 51 minutes, 38 seconds
Oh, the White House, not the White Horse. So, we go running into master control and it's an alternative Latino1:51:46
1 hour, 51 minutes, 46 seconds
music show. Gonzalo Alberto is at the controls.1:51:50
1 hour, 51 minutes, 50 seconds
You hear salt music loud and underneath it all, President Clinton is saying, "Hello. Hello. Is anyone there?"1:51:58
1 hour, 51 minutes, 58 seconds
Mr. President, are you there? I am. Can you hear me?1:52:00
1 hour, 52 minutes
Yes,
we can. You're calling radio stations to tell people to get out and
vote. What do you say to people who feel that the two parties are bought
by1:52:08
1 hour, 52 minutes, 8 seconds
corporations and that their vote doesn't make a difference?1:52:12
1 hour, 52 minutes, 12 seconds
That there's not a shred of evidence to support that. That's what I would say.1:52:16
1 hour, 52 minutes, 16 seconds
It's true that both parties have wealthy supporters, but it was very interesting talking to the leader of the free world.1:52:22
1 hour, 52 minutes, 22 seconds
Clinton, Amnesty International, has described what the Israeli forces are now doing in the occupied territories. Listen,1:52:29
1 hour, 52 minutes, 29 seconds
I can't do a whole press conference here. It's election day and I've got a lot of people and places to call.1:52:33
1 hour, 52 minutes, 33 seconds
Well, I guess these are the questions that are very important to our listeners.1:52:37
1 hour, 52 minutes, 37 seconds
Now,
let me just tell you on the Israeli Palestinian thing, the only answer
is an agreement that covers all the issues that the Palestinians feel
agreved by,1:52:46
1 hour, 52 minutes, 46 seconds
guarantees the Israelis security and acceptance within the region, and is a just and lasting peace.1:52:52
1 hour, 52 minutes, 52 seconds
He was animated. He was angry. He was forceful and he was staying on the phone.1:52:59
1 hour, 52 minutes, 59 seconds
Many people say that you've been responsible for taking the Democratic party to the right.1:53:04
1 hour, 53 minutes, 4 seconds
What
is the measure of taking the Democratic party to the right? That we cut
the welfare roles in half. That we have the lowest African-American,
the1:53:12
1 hour, 53 minutes, 12 seconds
lowest
Latino unemployment rate in the history. Now let me just finish. Let me
now wait a minute. You started this and every question you've asked has
been1:53:20
1 hour, 53 minutes, 20 seconds
hostile and combative. So you listen to my answer. Will you do that?1:53:22
1 hour, 53 minutes, 22 seconds
They've
been critical. Now you just listen to me. You have asked questions in a
hostile, combative and even disrespectful tone and you have1:53:30
1 hour, 53 minutes, 30 seconds
never been able to combat the facts I have given you. People can say whatever they want to. Those are the facts.1:53:36
1 hour, 53 minutes, 36 seconds
What
people say is that you uh push through NAFTA that we have the highest
population of prisoners in the industrialized world. That more people1:53:43
1 hour, 53 minutes, 43 seconds
are
on death row in this country than anywhere else. And that uh people are
Well, all right. Now, I disagree. I think NAFTA has been good for
America.1:53:51
1 hour, 53 minutes, 51 seconds
Now, I've talked to you a long time.1:53:52
1 hour, 53 minutes, 52 seconds
It's
election day. a lot of other people in America and I've got to go.
Thank you for spending the time, President Clinton. Thank you. Goodbye.
Goodbye. Goodbye.1:54:01
1 hour, 54 minutes, 1 second
President Clinton.1:54:03
1 hour, 54 minutes, 3 seconds
I go into my office and I get a furious call. You broke all the ground rules and they were weighing whether to ban me1:54:12
1 hour, 54 minutes, 12 seconds
from the White House. I said, "What are you talking about? He called me. I didn't call him.1:54:19
1 hour, 54 minutes, 19 seconds
We
told you we had a few minutes. You kept him on the phone for more than
half an hour." I said, "He's the leader of the free world. He could hang
up if he1:54:26
1 hour, 54 minutes, 26 seconds
wanted to." Did no one ask questions outside getting out the vote? And they said, "No one did.1:54:44
1 hour, 54 minutes, 44 seconds
Hi everyone. I'm the formerly Esler. Hello all my beautiful, radical,1:54:54
1 hour, 54 minutes, 54 seconds
revolutionary siblings. I am so honored to be here tonight. I look out at the sea of these incredible, stunning,1:55:04
1 hour, 55 minutes, 4 seconds
activated, radical, lifegiving people.1:55:07
1 hour, 55 minutes, 7 seconds
And I feel so much gratitude and emotion to be in the swell of this beloved community at a time of so much cruelty,1:55:15
1 hour, 55 minutes, 15 seconds
so much pain, war, genocide, oppression.1:55:20
1 hour, 55 minutes, 20 seconds
We need each other now more than ever and we need to encourage and lift each other. So indulge me as I take a moment1:55:29
1 hour, 55 minutes, 29 seconds
tonight to publicly love Amy Nurmine Juan and all the credible and folks behind the scene at Democracy Now.1:55:44
1 hour, 55 minutes, 44 seconds
Let's let's see it as practice that we lift each other and recognize each other and honor each other cuz we are all we1:55:53
1 hour, 55 minutes, 53 seconds
have. On maybe my first show with Amy on Democracy Now, she pulled out a piece I had written from the Guardian and she1:56:02
1 hour, 56 minutes, 2 seconds
asked
me to read it out loud on the spot. It was shocking and thrilling to be
asked by a newscaster to give voice to something I had written on the
page.1:56:12
1 hour, 56 minutes, 12 seconds
It felt so different than any other news station I'd ever been on. There was,1:56:18
1 hour, 56 minutes, 18 seconds
first of all, human connection. There was a t there was time to tell a story.1:56:24
1 hour, 56 minutes, 24 seconds
There was Amy sitting across, beaming at me, encouraging me, truly interested in what I was saying and how I was saying1:56:31
1 hour, 56 minutes, 31 seconds
it. She had in that moment made a place for me right there, a home, a belonging.1:56:39
1 hour, 56 minutes, 39 seconds
And I know looking at the size of this auditorium tonight that many of you have had that same experience either being on1:56:46
1 hour, 56 minutes, 46 seconds
Democracy Now or watching it. We belong to Amy and Juan and Nurmine as they belong to us.1:56:56
1 hour, 56 minutes, 56 seconds
Amy Goodman is always there. She is the pilot light for the left. She's our1:57:04
1 hour, 57 minutes, 4 seconds
conduit and our container, our comrade and our curator. What does it mean to be1:57:11
1 hour, 57 minutes, 11 seconds
there? To never stop. To devote your life to one thing, reporting the news,1:57:18
1 hour, 57 minutes, 18 seconds
the real news that the mainstream corporate media refuses to share.1:57:23
1 hour, 57 minutes, 23 seconds
Telling
the stories that broaden and deeper coalitions, save lives, give voice
to frontline activists and academics who deepen our understanding.1:57:33
1 hour, 57 minutes, 33 seconds
and by doing so empower our resistance.1:57:37
1 hour, 57 minutes, 37 seconds
And there is always music to be there and not be there. To disappear into the story, into the1:57:45
1 hour, 57 minutes, 45 seconds
listening, into the platforming, into the telling, so that the focus is never on Amy or Namine or Juan, but on the1:57:52
1 hour, 57 minutes, 52 seconds
injustice,
the outrage, the people who never get to tell their own story, but are
telling it because Amy is there, not in their way. Amy is made of
multitudes.1:58:03
1 hour, 58 minutes, 3 seconds
Some cosmic qualities of grit,1:58:05
1 hour, 58 minutes, 5 seconds
determination, and a love of the people so huge and profound it devised war zones and pandemics. I watched Amy1:58:13
1 hour, 58 minutes, 13 seconds
during CO to go from her apartment to the studio to walk zazu to go home.1:58:20
1 hour, 58 minutes, 20 seconds
Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. She never took off her mask and she never got sick one day. She's a national1:58:27
1 hour, 58 minutes, 27 seconds
treasure. She's riding a current of inner devotion, a light and energy born of her need to get to the bottom of what1:58:35
1 hour, 58 minutes, 35 seconds
is really going on so that the people may be free or fed or seen or celebrated. When legacy media is1:58:44
1 hour, 58 minutes, 44 seconds
capitulating to authoritarian lead and networks are censoring content bending to the will of fascist and corporate1:58:52
1 hour, 58 minutes, 52 seconds
theat theatrics, i.e. Barry Weiss oodling Erica Kirk. Amy and Democracy1:58:59
1 hour, 58 minutes, 59 seconds
Now march on steadfast in purpose. No scandals, no capitulation.1:59:12
1 hour, 59 minutes, 12 seconds
That is no small thing. You can't buy her off. We trust Amy and Juan and Nerine because they are not above us.1:59:21
1 hour, 59 minutes, 21 seconds
They
are not celebrities preaching at us from some neoliberal distance, but
instead they have worn themselves into the fabric and struggle of our
lives.1:59:32
1 hour, 59 minutes, 32 seconds
Leonard
Cohen wrote a beautiful poem on reading poetry and it always makes me
think about Amy and I want to close with this excerpt.1:59:41
1 hour, 59 minutes, 41 seconds
What is the expression which the age demands? The age demands no expression whatever. We have seen the photographs1:59:50
1 hour, 59 minutes, 50 seconds
of betrayed Asian mothers. There is nothing you can show on your face that can match the horror of this time. Do1:59:58
1 hour, 59 minutes, 58 seconds
not even try. You are playing to people who have experienced a catastrophe.2:00:03
2 hours, 3 seconds
Speak the words. Convey the data. Step aside. The bomb and flamethrowers and all the [ __ ] have destroyed more than2:00:10
2 hours, 10 seconds
the
trees and villages. They have also destroyed the stage. Did you think
your profession would escape the general destruction? There is no more
stage.2:00:20
2 hours, 20 seconds
There are no more footlights. You are among the people. Then be modest. Speak the words. Convey the data. Step aside.2:00:30
2 hours, 30 seconds
Avoid the flourish. Do not be afraid to be weak. Do not be ashamed to be tired.2:00:35
2 hours, 35 seconds
You look good when you're tired. You look like you could go on forever. Now come into my arms. You are the image of my beauty.2:00:46
2 hours, 46 seconds
Amy, you are the image of our beauty.2:00:52
2 hours, 52 seconds
Nurmine
and Juan and everyone at Democracy Now, you hold us and you lift us and
you reveal us and you are us. I bow to your humility, your humanity,2:01:03
2 hours, 1 minute, 3 seconds
your radical consistency, your devotion,2:01:05
2 hours, 1 minute, 5 seconds
your kindness and thank you for these 30 glorious years. We need you now more than ever. So please tonight everyone,2:01:13
2 hours, 1 minute, 13 seconds
you will see the the QR codes on your cards. Give everything you can because they have got to keep going.2:01:29
2 hours, 1 minute, 29 seconds
Free Palestine, purge the pentagues. End the wars. And [ __ ] I love you.2:01:52
2 hours, 1 minute, 52 seconds
Hi, I'm Karen Renucci, one of the producers along with Diana Cohen and Karenbrook2:02:01
2 hours, 2 minutes, 1 second
who are here in the house tonight of this extraordinary film, Steal This Story. Please. And these are the Academy2:02:10
2 hours, 2 minutes, 10 seconds
Award nominated Emmywinning incredible duo Tia Lesson and Carl Deal who directed and produced this film.2:02:28
2 hours, 2 minutes, 28 seconds
Our film follows Amy and the Democracy Now team telling the story of2:02:34
2 hours, 2 minutes, 34 seconds
journalism's power and peril in an era of corporate media consolidation and2:02:41
2 hours, 2 minutes, 41 seconds
political attacks on truth. Since screening at the Telleluride Film Festival, this film has had an2:02:49
2 hours, 2 minutes, 49 seconds
incredible run. We've won eight audience awards among other awards.2:02:56
2 hours, 2 minutes, 56 seconds
People laugh, they cry, they laugh some more, and then they're up on their feet.2:03:03
2 hours, 3 minutes, 3 seconds
A documentary, people on their feet at the end in a standing ovation and they leave inspired2:03:11
2 hours, 3 minutes, 11 seconds
and they tell us, "If she can do it, I can stand up, too." Their reaction is a2:03:18
2 hours, 3 minutes, 18 seconds
testament to the importance of Amy's voice and her story in this moment.2:03:26
2 hours, 3 minutes, 26 seconds
Thank you.2:03:29
2 hours, 3 minutes, 29 seconds
Thank you Karen for inviting T and I on this grand adventure and thank you Amy for saying yes.2:03:38
2 hours, 3 minutes, 38 seconds
And thank you. You know, we had to we immersed ourselves in 30 years of2:03:45
2 hours, 3 minutes, 45 seconds
democracy now. And so we got to know uh a lot of the staff and journalists and they're just there hundreds and hundreds2:03:52
2 hours, 3 minutes, 52 seconds
of
people who are responsible for what we see every day. And um you know
they're practicing a kind of truthtelling that is an example and a2:04:00
2 hours, 4 minutes
model for the rest of the world. And they couldn't do it without you guys,2:04:06
2 hours, 4 minutes, 6 seconds
without the audience. um because that's who that's who Democracy Now is accountable to. Um so thank you to2:04:14
2 hours, 4 minutes, 14 seconds
everybody who's been a part of this incredible incredible institution. Um I want to say that uh2:04:24
2 hours, 4 minutes, 24 seconds
making
this film was a privilege and you've seen some excerpts of it here
tonight, but on April 10th here in New York, uh it's going to be
released in theaters so you can see the whole thing.2:04:35
2 hours, 4 minutes, 35 seconds
Um, we're als it's also going to roll out in theaters all across the country.2:04:39
2 hours, 4 minutes, 39 seconds
Now,
this like Democracy Now is an independent production. We don't take
money from the government. We don't take money from corporations.2:04:47
2 hours, 4 minutes, 47 seconds
And what we rely on is the audience to come out and spread the word, not just about the film, about Amy Goodman, about2:04:56
2 hours, 4 minutes, 56 seconds
Democracy Now. And so when it opens on in 3 weeks from now in New York City um and you can go to our website2:05:04
2 hours, 5 minutes, 4 seconds
stealthestory.org and find out where it's playing in other places. You can follow us on Instagram at steal thistory2:05:14
2 hours, 5 minutes, 14 seconds
and
help us spread the word because if it if we perform well in New York
this weekend, it's going to go all over the country and many many more
theaters are2:05:22
2 hours, 5 minutes, 22 seconds
going
to book it. We're in 50 theaters right or 50 cities right now and we
want to we want Amy Goodman to become a household name. So help us out
with that endeavor, please.2:05:36
2 hours, 5 minutes, 36 seconds
And in New York, it's going to be at the IFC Center down in Greenwich Village. Um we're thrilled that Amy will be joining2:05:44
2 hours, 5 minutes, 44 seconds
us on the road for sneak previews and opening weekends in select cities. And2:05:50
2 hours, 5 minutes, 50 seconds
we're also excited that in the wake of the Trump administration's elimination of funding for public media, community2:05:59
2 hours, 5 minutes, 59 seconds
stations are hosting fundraisers alongside the release of the film in2:06:05
2 hours, 6 minutes, 5 seconds
their cities. And so KPFK in LA, KPFT in2:06:11
2 hours, 6 minutes, 11 seconds
Houston, KO in Portland, KPFW in Washington DC, KCBS in Seattle, and many, many others.2:06:21
2 hours, 6 minutes, 21 seconds
and WBAI in New York. Um, thank you.2:06:27
2 hours, 6 minutes, 27 seconds
Come join those fundraisers uh to rally support to shore up support for their vital work. Amy took us on a2:06:36
2 hours, 6 minutes, 36 seconds
journey
from her earliest days as a fledgling reporter for her brother's family
newspaper to the powerhouse journalists we know today.2:06:46
2 hours, 6 minutes, 46 seconds
And along the way, we got to know a side of her that might surprise you. Irreverent, mischievous,2:06:53
2 hours, 6 minutes, 53 seconds
with perfect comedic timing and a twinkle in her eye.2:06:59
2 hours, 6 minutes, 59 seconds
The questions that Amy and Juan and Nurm mean have been asking for decades couldn't be more serious.2:07:07
2 hours, 7 minutes, 7 seconds
and their work documenting war,2:07:09
2 hours, 7 minutes, 9 seconds
injustice, and abuses of power and also the resistance movements that rise in2:07:16
2 hours, 7 minutes, 16 seconds
response couldn't be more urgent or more necessary. Thank you so much.2:07:23
2 hours, 7 minutes, 23 seconds
And I just want to say if you go to the IFC website and it says sold out, don't worry. They're going to keep adding it2:07:31
2 hours, 7 minutes, 31 seconds
as long as you guys keep going. So help us spread the word. And here's the trailer.2:07:44
2 hours, 7 minutes, 44 seconds
Hi, I'm Amy Goodman from Democracy Now.2:07:47
2 hours, 7 minutes, 47 seconds
Can
you tell us what you think about President Trump saying climate change
is a Chinese hope? I'm I'm sorry. I'm running late for a meeting today.2:07:53
2 hours, 7 minutes, 53 seconds
Right. But you weren't running late when you're just standing there. So, my first impressions of Amy,2:08:00
2 hours, 8 minutes
what did you say to those who say that you're a war criminal?2:08:02
2 hours, 8 minutes, 2 seconds
Man, she doesn't care what anybody thinks. Don't push me. I'm a journalist.2:08:06
2 hours, 8 minutes, 6 seconds
Independent media is the oxygen of a democracy. What do you mean by independent? Not being sponsored by corporations.2:08:13
2 hours, 8 minutes, 13 seconds
Jamie's chaotically brilliant at the spy game. We began on nine radio stations.2:08:19
2 hours, 8 minutes, 19 seconds
If she believes something, she's going to fight for it and get it out to the world. Straight up journalism.2:08:26
2 hours, 8 minutes, 26 seconds
It came from my Jewish education that you ask questions.2:08:30
2 hours, 8 minutes, 30 seconds
Sharief, can you talk about what's happened on the Gaza Strip?2:08:35
2 hours, 8 minutes, 35 seconds
from ground zero from East Tour as we deplane in Haiti from Georgia's death row prison.2:08:41
2 hours, 8 minutes, 41 seconds
We had to smuggle in our recording equipment. This was extremely dangerous.2:08:45
2 hours, 8 minutes, 45 seconds
We're accusing a powerful American corporation of murder.2:08:49
2 hours, 8 minutes, 49 seconds
Without any warning, the military opened fire on the protesters. They put the guns to our heads. It is critical that2:08:58
2 hours, 8 minutes, 58 seconds
we expose what is done in our name.2:09:06
2 hours, 9 minutes, 6 seconds
Donald Trump understood corporate owners of the media would do anything for money.2:09:14
2 hours, 9 minutes, 14 seconds
She taught me, speak to the people at the target end of the bomb. Speak to those who are being deliberately silenced.2:09:20
2 hours, 9 minutes, 20 seconds
When you hear someone speak, it's less likely you'll want to destroy them.2:09:26
2 hours, 9 minutes, 26 seconds
We expand the frame and center those voices.2:09:32
2 hours, 9 minutes, 32 seconds
There is a great force that would like to silence us.2:09:35
2 hours, 9 minutes, 35 seconds
The press the enemy of the people and that's the only thing to not let it happen.2:09:56
2 hours, 9 minutes, 56 seconds
We are thrilled that the film is opening up here in New York and our first fundraiser will be for WBAI in New York City.2:10:10
2 hours, 10 minutes, 10 seconds
You know, Democracy Now is all of you and a group of a brain trust of amazing2:10:19
2 hours, 10 minutes, 19 seconds
producers and journalists um and staff who are deeply committed to independent media. And I couldn't end2:10:28
2 hours, 10 minutes, 28 seconds
this night by okay you get used to me saying this very quickly almost like a song at the end of the show but2:10:37
2 hours, 10 minutes, 37 seconds
Democracy
Now produced with Mike Burkundine August and Messiah Rhodess and Nurine
Shake and Maria Terasena and Nicole Salazar and Sarah Nasser and2:10:46
2 hours, 10 minutes, 46 seconds
Shireina Nadura and Sam Malov and Tamarie Astid Joe and John Hamilton and Robbie Karen. We hope you feel better.2:10:54
2 hours, 10 minutes, 54 seconds
Robbie and Honey Massud. Our executive director is the inim inimitable2:11:01
2 hours, 11 minutes, 1 second
uh Julie Crosby. Special thanks to Becca Staley and John Randolph and Paul Powell and Mike Dalippo, Miguel Nggera, Hugh2:11:08
2 hours, 11 minutes, 8 seconds
Grant, Carl Marx, Dennis Moahan, David Puit, Dennis McCormack, Mattiana Obeck, Emily Anderson, Dante Toriari, Buffy St.2:11:15
2 hours, 11 minutes, 15 seconds
Maria Hernandez, Brendan Allen, Neil Shabbatada, Angie Karen, Ishmael Daro,2:11:21
2 hours, 11 minutes, 21 seconds
Christine
Maher, Ama Garanian and Diego Ramos, Sapwat Nazal, Hana Elas, Laura
Bastillo, Adriano Canteras, our Democracy Now and Espanol team, Claudia,2:11:34
2 hours, 11 minutes, 34 seconds
Igor Moreno, Ivan Inapier, and our amazing dea, Democracy Now development and ad administrative staff, Jeff Stout,2:11:43
2 hours, 11 minutes, 43 seconds
Yusra Rosuki, Um, Nicole Shaughnesser, Emily Goslin, Teresa Siniac, Alli Tutic,2:11:51
2 hours, 11 minutes, 51 seconds
Isis Phillips, Diana Parah, Jackie Sam,2:11:55
2 hours, 11 minutes, 55 seconds
Rag Young, and to our DNA, the Democracy Now alum. You can never leave Democracy2:12:02
2 hours, 12 minutes, 2 seconds
Now. Really, who are here tonight. Our first producer, Julie Drizzen, and Dan Coughlin, David Love and Maria Carion,2:12:10
2 hours, 12 minutes, 10 seconds
Sharif Kadus, and Yoruba Richen and Heu.2:12:14
2 hours, 12 minutes, 14 seconds
and so many others. And we couldn't think of a way to end tonight.2:12:22
2 hours, 12 minutes, 22 seconds
But then I saw someone in the audience and I realized2:12:32
2 hours, 12 minutes, 32 seconds
this is how we give thanks. Let's bring on the boss, Bruce Springsteen.2:13:06
2 hours, 13 minutes, 6 seconds
Hello.2:13:09
2 hours, 13 minutes, 9 seconds
Happy anniversary, Democracy Now. Happy anniversary.2:13:14
2 hours, 13 minutes, 14 seconds
It's so wonderful to be here. And happy birthday, Patty.2:13:21
2 hours, 13 minutes, 21 seconds
Past winter, federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis.2:13:31
2 hours, 13 minutes, 31 seconds
They picked the wrong city.2:13:35
2 hours, 13 minutes, 35 seconds
As the power and the solidarity of the people of Minneapolis was an inspiration to the entire country, their strength2:13:42
2 hours, 13 minutes, 42 seconds
and their commitment told us that this is still America.2:13:49
2 hours, 13 minutes, 49 seconds
And the reactionary nightmare and the invasion of an American city will not stand. Their strength gave us hope. They2:13:57
2 hours, 13 minutes, 57 seconds
gave us courage. And for those who gave their lives. Renee Good, mother of three, brutally murdered. Alex Prey, VA2:14:06
2 hours, 14 minutes, 6 seconds
nurse, executed, shot in the back by ICE in the street, left to die. Their bravery, their sacrifice, and their2:14:15
2 hours, 14 minutes, 15 seconds
names will not be forgotten as the street's mayor.2:14:28
2 hours, 14 minutes, 28 seconds
Through the winter's ice and cold down nic2:14:37
2 hours, 14 minutes, 37 seconds
city of flame fought fire and ice neut2:14:45
2 hours, 14 minutes, 45 seconds
king Trump's private army from the d aes guns built to their courts.2:14:54
2 hours, 14 minutes, 54 seconds
came to Minneapolis to enforce the law.2:14:59
2 hours, 14 minutes, 59 seconds
So their story goes against smoke and rubber bullets.2:15:10
2 hours, 15 minutes, 10 seconds
Well, by the dawn early light, citizens stood for justice.2:15:19
2 hours, 15 minutes, 19 seconds
Their voices ringing through the night.2:15:24
2 hours, 15 minutes, 24 seconds
And there were bloody footprints where mercy should have stood.2:15:33
2 hours, 15 minutes, 33 seconds
Two dead left to die on snowfell streets. Alex pretty good.2:15:46
2 hours, 15 minutes, 46 seconds
in Minneapolis. I hear your voice singing through the bloody mist.2:15:55
2 hours, 15 minutes, 55 seconds
We'll take our stand for this land and the strangeanger in our midst.2:16:04
2 hours, 16 minutes, 4 seconds
Here in our home they killed and Rome in the winter of 26.2:16:13
2 hours, 16 minutes, 13 seconds
who remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis.2:16:26
2 hours, 16 minutes, 26 seconds
Trump's federal thug beat up on his face and his chest.2:16:36
2 hours, 16 minutes, 36 seconds
Then we heard the gunshots.2:16:40
2 hours, 16 minutes, 40 seconds
Alex pretty lay in the snow dead. Their claim was selfdefense.2:16:49
2 hours, 16 minutes, 49 seconds
Just don't believe your eyes.2:16:54
2 hours, 16 minutes, 54 seconds
It's our blood and bones and these whistles and phones against Miller.2:17:05
2 hours, 17 minutes, 5 seconds
Oh, Minneapolis, I hear your voice crying through the bloody mist.2:17:14
2 hours, 17 minutes, 14 seconds
who remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis.2:17:44
2 hours, 17 minutes, 44 seconds
Now they say they're here to uphold the law, but they trample on our rights.2:17:54
2 hours, 17 minutes, 54 seconds
If your skin is black or brown, my friend, you'll be questioned ported on sight.2:18:04
2 hours, 18 minutes, 4 seconds
And in our chance of ice out on2:18:09
2 hours, 18 minutes, 9 seconds
our city's hard and soul persist through broken glass and bloody tears on the streets of Min.2:18:27
2 hours, 18 minutes, 27 seconds
Oh, Minneapolis, I hear your voice singing through the bloody mist.2:18:36
2 hours, 18 minutes, 36 seconds
Here in our home, they killed in Rome in the winter of 26.2:18:46
2 hours, 18 minutes, 46 seconds
We'll take our stand for this land and the strangeanger in our midst.2:18:55
2 hours, 18 minutes, 55 seconds
We'll remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis.2:19:05
2 hours, 19 minutes, 5 seconds
We'll remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis.2:19:44
2 hours, 19 minutes, 44 seconds
Chris, press Chris. Bruce,2:19:56
2 hours, 19 minutes, 56 seconds
Bruce, you're taking this on the road across the country, beginning in Minneapolis. Tell us about the tour.2:20:06
2 hours, 20 minutes, 6 seconds
I'm
going to tell starting in Minneapolis and uh going on to Portman and
Los Angeles, of course, two other cities where they had to deal with
ICE,2:20:14
2 hours, 20 minutes, 14 seconds
ISIS terror, and then we're going to end up in Washington DC and uh with a few stay in the [ __ ] White House.2:20:22
2 hours, 20 minutes, 22 seconds
And you're saying where ICE is present,2:20:24
2 hours, 20 minutes, 24 seconds
does that mean you're taking it to airports? Now, I've been in plenty of them probably. So, you know,2:20:31
2 hours, 20 minutes, 31 seconds
one other question. I mean, 41 bullets,2:20:36
2 hours, 20 minutes, 36 seconds
the streets of Minneapolis. Now, you just made news again this morning. The ACLU launching a national ad campaign2:20:45
2 hours, 20 minutes, 45 seconds
featuring your born in the USA highlighting the landmark birthright citizenship Supreme Court case that2:20:54
2 hours, 20 minutes, 54 seconds
they're going to be arguing on April 1st.2:20:58
2 hours, 20 minutes, 58 seconds
Right.
Right. Well, it's our pleasure to uh uh to be working with the ACLU and
they put finally put Born in the USA to some good and righteous use.
So, I'm glad about that.2:21:11
2 hours, 21 minutes, 11 seconds
Well,2:21:13
2 hours, 21 minutes, 13 seconds
we can't end tonight without a joint rendition of the appeal someone made2:21:21
2 hours, 21 minutes, 21 seconds
when Patty was singing. People have the power with all the munition musicians on2:21:28
2 hours, 21 minutes, 28 seconds
the stage, including Bruce. Folks, thank you so much for coming out and2:21:36
2 hours, 21 minutes, 36 seconds
celebrating. We hope you all join in.2:22:12
2 hours, 22 minutes, 12 seconds
Oh, sorry. Uh, hello everybody. Well,2:22:16
2 hours, 22 minutes, 16 seconds
um, no rehearsal. I I never saw these fellas before in my life.2:22:23
2 hours, 22 minutes, 23 seconds
But we don't need a rehearsal because we have the people to back us up.2:22:32
2 hours, 22 minutes, 32 seconds
Oh, let's let's do it.2:22:52
2 hours, 22 minutes, 52 seconds
I was dreaming in my dreaming well of an aspect bright and fair2:23:01
2 hours, 23 minutes, 1 second
and my sleeping it was broken but my dream it link near2:23:09
2 hours, 23 minutes, 9 seconds
in the farmer shining valleys. Oh, where the pure air rarified2:23:18
2 hours, 23 minutes, 18 seconds
and my senses are newly opened. Cuz I awakened into the cry2:23:26
2 hours, 23 minutes, 26 seconds
that the people have the power to redeem2:23:33
2 hours, 23 minutes, 33 seconds
the work of fools upon the meek. The grace is shower.2:23:39
2 hours, 23 minutes, 39 seconds
It's decreed. The people rule. Come on. People have the power.2:23:48
2 hours, 23 minutes, 48 seconds
Believe it. People have the power. Make it so. People have the power.2:23:58
2 hours, 23 minutes, 58 seconds
People have the power.2:24:12
2 hours, 24 minutes, 12 seconds
Vengeful aspects became suspect and bended low as if to hear.2:24:20
2 hours, 24 minutes, 20 seconds
And the armies ceased to fancy because the people had their ear.2:24:29
2 hours, 24 minutes, 29 seconds
And the shepherds and the soldiers where they lay beneath the stars2:24:37
2 hours, 24 minutes, 37 seconds
exchanging visions arms to waste in the dust2:24:46
2 hours, 24 minutes, 46 seconds
in the form of shining valleys where the pure hair of light2:24:55
2 hours, 24 minutes, 55 seconds
and my senses are newly Been awakened to the cry.2:25:04
2 hours, 25 minutes, 4 seconds
Come on. People have the power. Believe it. People have the power.2:25:13
2 hours, 25 minutes, 13 seconds
Make it so. People have the power. People have the power.2:25:23
2 hours, 25 minutes, 23 seconds
Wo.2:25:49
2 hours, 25 minutes, 49 seconds
Where there were deserts I saw fountains and like green. The waters rise and we stroll.2:26:00
2 hours, 26 minutes
There together we learn to laugh or criticize.2:26:06
2 hours, 26 minutes, 6 seconds
Well, in the leopard and the lamb lay together, I truly bound.2:26:14
2 hours, 26 minutes, 14 seconds
Well, I was hoping my hoping to recall what I found.2:26:23
2 hours, 26 minutes, 23 seconds
I was dreaming. Am I dreaming?2:26:27
2 hours, 26 minutes, 27 seconds
God knows a pure view. As I surrender into my sleeping,2:26:36
2 hours, 26 minutes, 36 seconds
I commit my dream to you.2:26:41
2 hours, 26 minutes, 41 seconds
Come on. People have the power to dream. People have the power2:26:49
2 hours, 26 minutes, 49 seconds
to vote. People have the power to march. People have the power to love. Power to dream,2:27:02
2 hours, 27 minutes, 2 seconds
to rule, to wrestle the world from fools.2:27:08
2 hours, 27 minutes, 8 seconds
It's decreed the people rule. Well, it's decreed the people rule. Listen,2:27:18
2 hours, 27 minutes, 18 seconds
I believe everything we dream can come to pass through a union.2:27:26
2 hours, 27 minutes, 26 seconds
We can turn the world around. We can turn the earth's revolution.2:27:34
2 hours, 27 minutes, 34 seconds
People have the power. The people have the power.2:27:42
2 hours, 27 minutes, 42 seconds
The people have the power. The people have the power.2:27:51
2 hours, 27 minutes, 51 seconds
Don't forget it. Use your voice.2:27:59
2 hours, 27 minutes, 59 seconds
Democracy now.2:28:11
2 hours, 28 minutes, 11 seconds
Democracy.2:28:14
2 hours, 28 minutes, 14 seconds
No2:28:32
2 hours, 28 minutes, 32 seconds
heat.2:29:00
2 hours, 29 minutes
Thank you everyone. Have a safe evening and don't forget tomorrow morning, tune in to Democracy Now.2:29:24
2 hours, 29 minutes, 24 seconds
Wo
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