 to make sure that we're all social distancing troppers. So put your arms out there. I want you to have your full wingspan in between you and any other people. The rhythm wasn't great, but we survived. You know, we're speakers in just one second. But one question that people may have is, why are you here? Why are you children of Noida Vista? So before we start off with our speakers, I'm going to read off our list of demands. And we have 14 demands, so I'm sorry. But I'm going to try and be brief as possible so that we can get other people up on the stage. 1. PM takes immediate steps to address the climate crisis in line with their 2010 Climate Action Plan. Police Department strategies for community safety. By implementing the Racial Justice Alliance's Operation Phoenix Rise Agenda and Demands. Legislative session by 2023. That is funded by an income tax surcharge on high income leading cause of admission in the state of Vermont. On the state legislature include a climate section in the transportation bill as part of the state's annual budget. Mission on Native American affairs, spiritual practices of indigenous people. Support an ethic of environmental stewardship. State enact land reparation legislation as proposed in House Bill 897. Hence House Bill 478. An act relating to establishing a task force to study and consider a state apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery. Selecting climate legislation and instead develop a comprehensive plan to address the climate crisis in Vermont that is consistent with the magnitude of the problem. Consider Scott's failed leadership on climate change when voting for a gubernatorial candidate this year. This is resource wars by terminating its lease of 281 acres of land to the US Air Force. In the world in upending lives in foreign countries, militarism has an outsized impact on the environment as producer of greenhouse emissions in the world. Focus its mission on fighting the pandemic, racism and climate change in providing humanitarian aid. Social justice in greenhouse gas emissions in a 10 year timeline, the most vulnerable people in indigenous sovereignty. Take all the questions, thoughts and feelings that you might have and I encourage you to take them to our discussion at Battery Street Park after we are done here at City Hall. Any of the organizers here at this event would be glad to talk to you about anything and everything to invite up to the stage our first speaker for today. State Revisionist Brian Sheena. Thanks for your patience while we sterilize things. It's still weird getting used to this. So I know everybody's been loud for a minute but I'm gonna ask everyone to be quiet for a minute. You put your fists up and for those who don't know that when fists go up we all be quiet and listen. So you can put your fists down and if you're comfortable close your eyes and just take some deep breaths slowly in through your nose and out through your mouth. Just notice how it feels to breathe and how it feels to breathe in the clean air and take a moment to just focus on your connection to that air and notice your feet on the earth. Notice what it feels like to be grounded in the earth. Take a deep breath and feel your connection to all of the life around you. Notice the space inside yourself. Take a deep breath and notice that space inside of yourself and the connection between what's inside of you and everything that's outside of you. And let's take a moment just to give thanks and feel gratitude to the wind, to the water, to the earth, to all of the plants and all of the animals and even all of the fungi and to all of our relations in the web of life that sustain us. Thanks. Everybody say thanks. Thank you. Uliuni. That means thank you in Abenaki. Uliuni. So I just wanted to start out with a moment of gratitude for creation but now I'm gonna speak to you my fellow human beings. So we are living out of balance with our environment. And there are many symptoms of this disease. One of the major symptoms is climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions. Our world is facing climate emergency, mass extinction and ecological collapse as a consequence of human economic activity over the past 400 years, which did not account for the full impact of the economy on the environment or on the societies. Climate change is a major symptom of a greater illness, one that has been a terminal illness for so many species and cultures and it will be the end for so many more if we do not bring ourselves back into balance with the web of life and with our mother earth. The imbalance of our modern way of life is deeply rooted in the history of colonization. Colonization laid the foundation for our current extractive economic system which exploits the labor of people and depletes the resources of the planet. This society was built on land stolen from indigenous people and built on the backs of enslaved people, indentured servants and low-wage workers and immigrants. Our history is filled with trauma and suffering which haunts us to this very day. And until we acknowledge the roots of our problems, our current problems in our past and in our history, we cannot create authentic solutions for our future. We need processes of truth and reconciliation for colonization and for the institution of slavery. We must acknowledge the connection between systemic racism and environmental justice. For example, the impact of hydroelectric dams in Quebec or the mining of rare metals in Africa and South America on indigenous communities. Climate solutions that do not take into account racial and social justice are continuing the historic pattern of passing the true costs of our economy onto the most impacted people and the lands that they inhabit. So what do we do about it? To address climate change, we need a long-term plan to create a just transition from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. One that moves from maintaining the legacy of colonization to manifesting collective liberation. Vermont must build resiliency and create a roadmap to guide us through this just transition from an extractive economy to a new economy that repairs and restores the earth. A regenerative economy is an economic system that works to regenerate natural and human resources. And in developing a regenerative economy, Vermont must engage people in their local communities to solve problems and find ways to combine solutions for the existing goals that we have, such as recycling, greenhouse gas reduction and wastewater management. Economic control should be rooted in our local communities and people should have increased power over the decisions that affect their lives through direct democracy such as regional people's assemblies. The regenerative economy should retain and restore cultures and traditions while recognizing that some of our practices of the past are harmful and need to go and we need to adapt for the greater good. A regenerative economy will transition away from practices that engage in extraction of natural resources and will instead advance ecological restoration and preserve biodiversity by both protecting and regenerating natural resources. The dynamics of our workforce and our workplaces must also shift from exploitation to cooperation as human potential is nurtured and human resources are regenerated. All present and all future economic development should always account for social equity and environmental protection and the ecological and social wellbeing of all people and of all life because there cannot be economic justice without racial justice and social equity. The new economy must recognize and rectify the intersection of systematized oppressions. Vermont must build the foundation of a new economic and social system that creates economic opportunity and high quality of life for all people that builds our public assets and the comments and that empowers people to exercise self-determination and freedom. We can all live well in balance with one another. We set our minds to it. Thank you. So repeat after me. Truth and reconciliation. Truth and reconciliation. Indigenous repatriation. Indigenous repatriation. Decolonization. Decolonization. Collective liberation. Planetary regeneration. Thank you. Next up we have Mede. Hi again. My name is Mede. I'm with the Black Perspective. Hi Doggo. Issues that are going up with racial issues basically and climate change is one of them. So in order for us to change and be more progressive, we need to do it as a community, as a whole basically, as individuals, we can only get a certain amount of things done. But as a collective, we can get a lot done. And yeah, I'm gonna give it off to Jada now. He's got some words to say. If we don't sustain our planet, like do you know life without enfolding Mars, you know? I feel like the aliens, they're mad races. I'm just guessing. I don't have like proof or anything. Don't hold me on that. Okay, support of climate justice. I love that shit. Climate justice equals racial justice. Yes, not intersectional. You're doing it wrong. I'm sorry that we'll save the world. I think we are inherently magical and just worthy of so much more. Since y'all are here, you also believe that with me, I'm very important and very imperative that you center black folks in your movement, whatever movement that may be. BIPOC are the heart, soul, and you know, energy behind every mass movement. Like black women, black, specifically black trans women have centered and been the forefront of every single fucking movement in this nation and other nations around the globe. Oh, that's not brain. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I got really starched up. Inter-organically, I apologize. Everybody calm down. That's not an option that to support black lives means to just like show up and have a sign, right? But no, it means to protect face with a black person. You don't have to speak up for us just past the fucking mic, you know? Of people speaking for us. Like we don't need that. We wrote it down and passed it to someone. I just stuttered. I'm simply beneficial to have a black friend. And not a black friend needed like, you just call to not look racist. No, an actual friend, like someone you love and can depend on because black people are magic. And when you love a black person, you are saving the world. It's climate justice, social distance. We're gonna do it. We want the wingspan, so we want you a little closer. Thank you. Because indigenous rights, indigenous rights, louder indigenous rights, indigenous rights, indigenous rights, indigenous rights, indigenous brief page rate, shun. indigenous brief page rate, shun. indigenous rights, indigenous rights, indigenous rights, indigenous rights. Keep that snap gone, keep that stop going. race and my generation makes older generations hopeful. It's hope to accuse themselves from taking action. And the Messiah complex surrounds figures like Greta Thunberg. Meanwhile companies like Vermont Gas promise net zero by 2050. I'll be nearly sixty by then if I live that long. Maybe I'm coming off as brusque, but I'm not here to give you platitudes about working together. You all clearly know how to do that already. I'm here to tell you what I see about greenwashing here in Burlington, a city which styles itself as progressive and green. In terms of being progressive it took over 1500 comments to begin a conversation about defunding the police and demands weren't even met after that. Was the city afraid of the word defund? Should we call it net zero police? And what about Burlington's claim to be renewable? Well, it gets a huge amount of energy from Hydrocubec, which Brian mentioned, and just this last week we crashed the webinar for the CEO of Hydrocubec, who was formerly the CEO of the company that owned Vermont Gas. She said of the indigenous spokes that she had apparently spoken to, quote, they were thinking with their hearts and not their heads. Wow. That's somehow even more troubling than when she told me fossil fuels not chocolate. She said that. But hey, Snarka said she's a woman CEO, so I guess using feminism as a front for fracking is what I should have done. Let me paint you a picture of 350 Vermont's work. A Black Lives Matter in a rainbow flag dangled beneath Vermont Gas's FSC fancy logo at their headquarters. Outside their headquarters are protesters and inside their pipeline is poison. And where is this gas coming from in the first place? Over 2,000 miles away on Mubicon Creek First Nations territory in so-called Alberta, the pipeline was built by imported workers from a company called Michaels, which is also built in Keystone XL and parts of the border wall. More recently, Vermont Gas began the literal and figurative bullshit phase of their campaign to keep fracking alive. So-called renewable natural gas or biogas, which relies on waste and will eventually require land grabs. Vermont Gas has about 2% of this renewable, quote unquote, renewable product, which is analogous to telling a cancer patient you've cured about 2% of their cancer, but they'll be fine. In short, you can pay, okay, pay attention to this part, it's gonna get convoluted real quick. In short, which is trash, which then crops up the fracking industry and perpetuates the exploitation of indigenous people in addition to worsening the climate crisis. But I guess we can call this climate solution, right? Are there any business majors that want to invest in that to stop the buildout of Vermont Gas's pipeline infrastructure? We stopped it from going under Lake Champlain to Rutland to Bristol and debunked. Still the one phase of the pipeline that was actually built is wrapped up in litigation over safety and construction concerns. Investigation when folks smell the gas leak near the pipeline? Someone noted Mr. St. Halledding, hey, I'm serious, the guy in charge of the pipeline said that. Quite a serious person, I'm gonna get back to that right now. We don't do this work because we're deluded by hope. I don't believe we will see some triumphant moment where we win and suffering and oppression are canceled. We do this work because we can ease just a little bit of the suffering. We block trains carrying 10,000 tons of coal, we divest our schools from fossil fuels, we care for each other, and it is an honor to be part of that. Oh, and speaking of stopping coal and gas, there are two events I'd like to tell you about real quick. Monday, five to six p.m at Oakledge Park, there will be an info session for the no coal, no gas campaign, which is trying to shut down the last major coal plant in the region. And tomorrow from from nine to four will be a nonviolent direct action training online hosted by 350 Vermont, no coal, no gas, and the Climate Disobedience Center in preparation for the upcoming election. Thank you. Like the war in Iraq and the war, systematic racism are killer cops or from a failure while letting the billionaires who run who run these drug companies that serving the quality from job loss or from eviction point for trillion dollars from healthcare, education, and affordable housing doesn't do very much or for this making war against four people of forces have been doing since the Vietnam War. That is why they chose locations that were far populated areas. Just in Venezuela, they want to go after focusing on the most working class city in the state, fortunate impact on low income and minority populations. The F-35 is environmental racism on steroids of the F-35. When it's taking off and landing in a city, it's gonna make affordable homes uninhabitable. That means their brains and their hearing mortgage. Why did they pick the most part aim at Winooski? You know, if this airport's runway aimed at the summit street with a mayor lips, nobody would have even considered facing F-35 jets in a city benefit only the 1%. It's not just the jet fuel dealers with their tens of thousands of gallons. It's also the developers. The mayor, formerly an airport commissioner, cleverly used the F-16 afterburner noise to get great of 50 million dollars for the city to buy up and demolish 200 affordable homes on the 44 acres across from the airport. They demolished those homes. It's now vacant land just waiting for a zoning change so the developers can come in and make millions and millions on new construction. We say, crown the F-35 now. The federal government brought the F-35 to Vermont. But under the constitution, here's the facts. Training the guard is totally under the authority of the state of Vermont. That means the governor 35, chief of the guard, and he does directs the training of the guard. And if he doesn't want them to train with F-35 jets, he can say no more training. And that's the end of it. The federal government can't come in and overrule him. He can instead order the guard for warming and to fight racism. To save the planet and our futures, we are determined to build the campaign to ground the F-35, to build unity among students and working people of all races and genders, to abolish racism, materialism, poverty, and militarism. Thank you very much. In the short term, we must welcome refugees and immigrants into the U.S. and provide them with safety and citizenship that allows organizations and activists in Vermont to deepen relationships, reflect on where we've been, and to the fight for justice, regardless of the election outcome, and come up with new ways we can all one another. The details for the people who don't consider themselves activists and talk about how our resources and knowledge across group over a couple of days with workshops, panels, discussions, etc., having a socially distanced outdoor component for some fun, see if they're interested in collaborating with us. Join us at our next planning meeting Wednesday at 8 p.m. or get looped in the message on Facebook through CVIR's Facebook. So far, peace and security and some more. We know that the issue of climate justice will not be unless we all work together because, as the sign said, climate justice is racial justice. It involves the F-35, it involves immigration, it involves all of us, and we all need to work together. On a side note, a bunch of postcards to work on the dairy farms in Vermont in conditions, so come find me after this to sign a postcard that I will mail later on. Thank you so much. With all this energy into action, I work on sustainable transportation issues. That's a poem for you all, but first I just wanted to say a couple words. You know that something is wrong to do something about that. The biggest thing I think we're going to come in in crisis for us are the issue of systemic racism or any of the major challenges we face. Nobody else is going to come from above and fix those challenges. It's on us and we need to all step up and the future is ours. So we're either going to do it or it's not going to happen. So thank you all for being here and stepping up to take action, and I hope that that continues every day going forward. And really what this is about is do we think that this is something worth fighting for? Climate crisis is everything that we know and love, so that's what we're out there fighting for every single day. And I really appreciate what the last speaker said about bringing people in who don't necessarily see themselves as an activist. I think it's important for all of us to realize that person you are, no matter what your skill set is, you have a role in this movement and you have so much to contribute to move this movement forward. And that could look different for everyone. So please just find ways to get involved and use your unique skills and talents to move this forward. And I promise you have so much to gain as well for being a part of this. So thank you all for being part of this community and I'm just going to do a poem briefly. I'll take idealist over idealist. I'm a realist trying to change what real is. Feel this realness that leaves my lips. Desperate to send a message that's ever-pressing. It's depressing that we see so few expressing anything when this is affecting everything. So I'm addressing what is vexing me. I guess I'm venting. But I'm an activist. Staying active and passionate. The passion innate and I'm in it for the average against the avarice and the bad habits. It's an uplift battle that we're trying to grapple with. Climb it up like scaffolding. We don't have to live as we live. That's why I have to give all I have to give. No additives or preservatives. Let's keep it natural. Back to the basics before there was capital. I'll never give up because I'm continuing this great struggle even if I can't make magic like a muggle. I'll do what I can. That's all I can do and if you make it on a separate I'm proud of you too because I'm nowhere near greatness. I probably never will be but I'll keep trying to improve until the day it kills me. What wills me is the people who brought the passion to what they believed in. I'd like to be a fraction. As noble as these people always reaching high towards the sky like the steeple. I'd only hope to be as dope as these folks who have given everything their passion and skills. So let's keep browsing up like windmills. Thank you. The old north end and new north end intersection on economic justice which is intertwined with racial justice and the fight for the climate about the need to stand up to organize to get more people involved because you matter and our future matters and the children of our children they want to live on this planet. They want to be able to economically survive and not have to fight for their basic needs and their basic human dignity. So when we think about the intersection we have to really think about regular people passionate water less than 12 or 18 months ago. It is real integration of people with economic means here in Vermont in terms of dignity and their work to service industries where they're not being paid a livable wage already. What are we going to do to prepare here tomorrow? We're paying jobs because too costly or it's too hard to do the change we're trying to make because when people who are impacted the most or the table change happens we have to imagine a different possibility. So when we hear about big problems all right let me focus right among my notes here. See mom problems right. Pandemic parenting is real biogasty. We can increase wages for jobs energy jobs for our future. We can increase wages it's about building local communities climate for child care workers educators and frontline essential workers. And we have to do all of this by centering economic well-being. These jobs also should be unionized. Unions live in the future of Vermont. We have to remember that those who are most under resource trying to survive or get by. So why they're not here today is because not because they're apathetic but because they're literally in survival mode. So when we look at how that they're trying to put together so thank you very much. Walking through dorms registering students to vote. Folks down to here as well and so thank you for continuing because it is a continuous struggle that you fighting before I'm with you now you might not even know who I am I'm David Zuckerman I'm your lieutenant governor by the way and I'm running for governor mindset to governance. Other people organizing all over the state around climate justice issues around the issues of privilege and who hasn't and who don't. It's about not only making sure voices can speak for themselves but also at times when they can't helping to amplify their voices because not everybody as Emma just said can always be at the rallies can always come out and do this because they're struggling to put food on their table they're struggling to keep a roof over their head they're struggling day in and day out maybe it's with various health issues and so those of us that have the privilege to be able to speak out also have to do so and we have to work to bring those other voices in whenever I'm also an organic farmer when it comes to the planet and the reason I'm an organic farmer is because as a student of UVM learning and environmental studies about the impact of agriculture on our planet on our water on our air and when we think about climate issues and climate justice you we all recognize that the millions and millions of refugees around the world are often because of the climate crisis rising seawaters pushing people away from the coasts desertification expanding these issues are real and they're affecting people every single day and you know that and I thank you for knowing that I thank you for amplifying that because there's a lot of people that don't know and being an activist is not only making demands but it's also educating and listening and bringing more people in so thank you for doing that I just want to briefly say two more thoughts guys that molly gray is here she's running for lieutenant governor right over there for those of you that vote that you'll vote for both of us I want you to seriously think about the ramifications of what will happen other good people are not elected I get it that you don't always have all the choices you want we need to keep amplifying the opportunity for more choices that you want so use your vote wisely and choose but I do hope you'll support both of us this office I'm going to tell a brief story when I got elected lieutenant governor four years ago it was almost exactly four years ago and that night should have been one of the most joyous nights of my life I was going to be in a position to make incredible change so I thought I was elected statewide for the first time which is a really hard thing to do but this abomination of democracy was also elected this person who has destroyed any sense of dignity for all of us who are trying to serve in public office and I remember that night going to bed around one o'clock in a hotel room just down on the waterfront here with my wife and my daughter she was 10 years old and I was thinking about two issues the supreme court and the climate crisis in the last four years I have felt hopeless as lieutenant governor I have felt hopeless so I can only imagine what all of you have been feeling with this person as president and we have lost four years four critical critical years to make progress but we didn't only lose that opportunity nationally in the last four years carbon dioxide has gone up emissions in Vermont the opportunities to talk of a climate crisis in Vermont have been vetoed by the current governor it is not only about the national election and as someone else said earlier we have work to do after this election no matter who wins whether biden wins whether i win whether molly wins we all have to be working together to keep moving forward in a much bolder way to talk of a climate crisis the racial injustice and the economic injustice that exists in our society so thank you for rallying keep rallying keep educating keep learning keep listening and keep amplifying thank you real quick if you're going to go vote for david's ockerman are you've already voted for david's ockerman that's me now um and just one last maybe david concludes his ear but can we get like a fuckbill job real quick we have one last day um for us to do before we go down to battery park um i think that you all might notice this jack is within those communities and so i think that we knocked this shit down of the standing rock Lakota band um talking about the intersection of indigenous sovereignty and climate justice um which i think is a very very important topic for us to all hear about um i know that you're all tired i'm tired too um we have people's kitchen mutually food at battery park for y'all to partake in re-energize yourselves discuss as a community so thank you all so much for coming out today we'll get organized um if people want to help me maybe clean up the mess that we just made um that would be fun as well but yeah one last round of applause thank you so much