 Congresswoman Ayanna Presley is an activist, a legislator, a survivor, and the first woman of color elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Throughout her career before and in Congress, Congresswoman Presley is fought to ensure that those closest to the pain are closest to the power, driving and informing policy making. She's been a champion for justice, productive justice, justice for immigrants, consumer justice, justice for aging Americans, justice for workers, justice for survivors of sexual violence, and justice for the formerly and currently incarcerated. Prior to being elected to Congress, she served in the Boston City Council for eight years and was the first woman of color elected to the council in its 100-year history. Take it away. Thank you. Thank you, Adam, so much for that introduction. And I thank you, Arlington Dems, for the invitation to join you. And Amy Coolidge, we actually first met many years ago when I was an aide for Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II, when Arlington was in this district, when this was the Massachusetts Eighth Congressional District. So it is very full circle to be here with my siblings in the work of movement building and justice seeking. And I see some longtime sister friends of mine, both in Amy and Prista. So just saying hello, but I won't make this into activist romper room because I'll get into trouble. So we're going to keep it going. Impossible for me to not be thinking about and feel uplifted by the power of organizing. I grew up in an activist household. My mother was a tenant's rights activist. She was a community organizer, a proud Democrat, a super voter. She took me with her to vote in every single election. I'm just coming back from the White House where we did the bill signing, making Juneteenth a federal holiday. And there we all stood and applauded Opal Lee, a 94 year old activist who has been leading the charge in the fight for Juneteenth to be a federal national holiday for decades. And she proves that when it comes to activism, there is neither an eligibility age or a shelf life. And she also proves and reminds us as does the decisive efforts many times over in Georgia turning that state blue, that organized power is realized power. And so it is wonderful to be in virtual community with all of you. I look forward to when we can be together in person. Actually, let me fully transparent. I don't know if I look forward to it because in true activist tradition, when we all come together, there's always a meeting inside of the meeting, inside of the meeting. But when you all are on Zoom, we focus on the meeting that we're actually supposed to be fully presented. So it is good to join you all in virtual community. It might be tempting to think that since we have evicted the occupant of the White House, that our hardest work and our toughest days are behind us. But the truth of the matter is that our country remains at a critical inflection point. And while we are just now beginning to make our way out of this pandemic, to do the work of recovery, we still find ourselves daily confronting the crises of public health, of economic inequality, of systemic racism, all of which were laid bare and exacerbated during this pandemic. And so as we do the work of recovery, having passed the American Rescue Plan, now with our eyes towards a jobs and infrastructure bill, and as I continue to fight for that expanded definition of infrastructure to include paid family leave, home and community-based services, the care economy, housing. How could housing up until this point not have been included in the definition of infrastructure? Our greatest wealth as a nation is the health of our people. And our greatest infrastructure are the people and all of you, the community and movement builders that you are who in the midst of these unprecedented times, what was really a layered tsunami of hurt and hardship and trauma. You met that with this unprecedented moment with unprecedented organizing, unprecedented mobilizing, unprecedented empathy, collective care, and mutual aid. And so in this moment, I enlist you all as community and movement builders. Reverend Barber, someone who I look too often as a moral guide, steward and compass who chairs the Poor People's Campaign says that, yes, we're in the midst of a reckoning, but having grown up in the church, a reckoning is something epic, of epic proportion. So if we're truly in the midst of a reckoning, it demands of us a commiserate response. And that commiserate response is a third reconstruction. It is a reimagining of everything. Because what we know for sure is that we cannot recover to a pre COVID insufficient, unjust status quo normal. Instead, we must reimagine systems to reduce harm and rebuild community. And we need to do that in partnership from the federal level to the state level to the municipal level. Now again, I am here as your sibling in the movement as a serious intersectional policymaker, because policy is my love language. Hopefully you consider me as an activist leader. And as for some of you, you're a congresswoman perhaps, because I don't know if it's only Arlington Den's on this call. But my proudest title is that of having been my mother's daughter. May she rest in peace and power. Because I learned from my mother early on, she really instilled in me the value and the possibilities of movement building and civic engagement. It is because of my mother that I know trust and believe that we are powerful, that the power of the people has always been greater than the people in power. And that may seem like a contradiction, because I am sitting technically in a seat of power. But I believe in the practice of cooperative governing. And I know that movements are ushered in by the people and lawmakers in partnership. The best partnerships are those that are community-driven and government-endorsed. If you are looking to something like the Affordable Care Act, the only reason that still exists is not for the courage of lawmakers, although Congress will get the credit and the Senate will get the credit and the White House will get the credit. But for the convictions and the courage of everyday people like you, who laid their bodies quite literally on the line and demanded that governments see them and affirm their humanity, I believe in the power of us. And that is a testament to what my mother poured into me, what she instilled in me. My mother taught me that the work of racial, social, economic, gender, and green justice is not only for those with a comma and a title after their name. She taught me the importance of community building, of movement building. You all know, and I guess I'm preaching to the choir, but why do you preach to the choir? Because you need the choir to sing. You all know the only way to effectuate change in a deep, meaningful, and sustainable way is to build an active, engaged movement, one that centers community and is committed to partnership and progress. So if we're going to seize the opportunity, this moment affords us a moment, a Democratic majority made possible by a movement, a multiracial, multigenerational movement of the most marginalized, Black, Brown, AAPI, Indigenous, LGBTQIA, disabled, young people, the most marginalized, mobilized, and met the moment. And it is for that reason that democracy is breathing another day. So we are going to seize the opportunity, this moment affords us, to build a more just, equitable, and sustainable country. Again, it won't just be for the courage and convictions of lawmakers in Washington, D.C., or Beacon Hill, or City Hall. It will be because of you. One of the things that frustrates me in the telling of history and the civil rights movement is that people like to speak as if it was book-ended. It never ended. We are still in the civil rights movement. I love that recently they've started to colorize what were once grainy black and white images so that people can appreciate that this was not that long ago. We are still in the civil rights movement. And we still need foot soldiers and justice seekers and freedom riders, like all of you. This paradigm shift that we must usher in, this reckoning met by a reconstruction, it is going to require civic engineers and social architects, disruptors, organizers, and advocates who step up and take a stakeholder in our communities and in our democracy. And for those of you wondering if there's a place for you in the movement, in this what my mother called work with a capital W, for you remember this. The civil rights movement isn't just defined by iconic, larger-than-life figures like Martin and Coretta and John and Rosa. The movement was just as much about the thousands of people who held a sign, who sang a freedom song, who packed a brown bag lunch, who sent up a prayer. There is a place and a role in this movement for everyone. Somebody will paint the sign, someone will hold the sign, someone will lead the chant, someone will leave the march. There is a role for everyone. And again, it can be tempted to believe, attempting to believe that the hardest work is behind us. Because we evicted an occupant who by the hour it seemed we were drinking from a fire hose of injury and insult and assault to our peace of mind, to our humanity, to our civil rights, to our very democracy. But our work is not yet done as evidenced by all of the bills that we have seen come out of state legislatures to suppress the vote. Anti-trans legislation, the obstruction of the filibuster here in the Senate, which is obstructing progress on voting rights, on infrastructure, on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, on gun violence reform, on racial justice, and into police brutality. It has obstructed that in the past. So we have to organize and movement bill for more than just an election cycle. The reality is that we've not yet addressed the root causes of public health disparities of economic inequality, systemic racism. These challenges are complex and they are intersectional. In order to truly understand the challenges and identify the most effective solutions, we have to continue to remain, as Brian Stephenson would say, proximate. And I would say, closest to the pain. To better understand the challenges, the nuances, how intersectional, how deeply rooted, seek to be radical. I employ the definition of Angela Y. Davis who says to be radical is to get to the root. This is the time to get to the root. And so again, I'm enlisting all of you as community and movement builders in this reconstruction. And we learned this past year from the historic electoral wins in Georgia that local organizing can't be turned on just in the run-up to an election. That's why I'm proud to share with all of you that my team just launched our year round organizing program because organized power is realized power. We have to remain in proximity. So that's why we're engaging our neighbors on what policies are important to them so that I can cooperatively govern. Organizers are going to drop the link into the chat for those of you who want to learn more. Local politics and policies don't just inform the work I'm doing at the federal level. They have to work in lock step. Organizing and advocating for these policies starts right here, right here at home. And so many of the challenges that we are facing are not naturally occurring. They were precise and intentional and legislated. They were codified. They didn't just happen, these inequities, these disparities, these racial injustices. So if we can legislate herd and harm very precisely with great intention, we can also legislate justice and healing. I say policy is my love language because policy has enacted great harm. That's why in this moment we need bold, precise, intentional policy and advocacy to undo the violence that has been inflicted on our communities for generations. It is not enough to clap for our essential workers. We have to fight for them. We have to fight for economic justice, like a $15 minimum wage, which by the way, should be the floor and not the ceiling. We must do more to support our smallest businesses. We have to ensure that workers have the critical protections they need and deserve. We have to cancel student loan debt to help close the racial wealth gap. And that is why I'm calling for a cancellation of $50,000 in student loan debt. This is an economic justice issue, a racial justice issue, a nearly $2 trillion crisis that is about more than millennials and Gen Z. The fastest growing population of student debtors are 50 plus. This is about 76-year-olds in my district who have said they're still paying on student loans. People are being choked by this. And we've got to pass my resolution, the federal job guarantee. A legally enforceable right to a job with living wages. We have to ensure that every person who calls this country home, if they want to work, that they will have access to a good job. And we have to fundamentally reimagine our criminal legal system and systems of policing from ones predicated on violence and power to ones that reflect the dignity and humanity of every person. We have to pass a green deal because climate change is a reality right now. And it's having a disproportionate impact on our most vulnerable communities as evidenced by those communities that were hardest hit by the pandemic. If you put those heat maps over the highest rates of infection of COVID and asthma rates, they line up perfectly. So we have to pass a green deal. And we have to ensure that every person that has access to comprehensive, culturally competent reproductive care, including abortion care. And we have to safeguard the fundamental right to vote, a right that is currently under attack in dozens of states around the country where Republicans are working to pass legislation that would disenfranchise millions of voters, many of them black and brown and disabled. And we must do so much more than that. The work of realizing racial, social, climate and economic justice is far from over. But you know what? This movement is really just getting started too. So I thank you all for laboring in love. I thank you for giving a damn about your neighbor, about our democracy. I thank you for your sweat equity. I thank you for lending your gifts to this movement. So again, you've met unprecedented times with unprecedented organizing and unprecedented mobilizing and unprecedented empathy. And in the midst of great uncertainty, you practice unprecedented hope. So let us keep that. And I hope you know that you can always count on me as your sister in solidarity. Thank you for being my co-conspirators in the work of justice. Thank you, Congresswoman Pressley. It's an honor to be one of your co-conspirators. We really appreciate those impactful and inspiring words. The power of us. I love that. Let that be our theme for tonight. You know, these those words remind us that the work we do at the state, local, national and local level of government are all critical at a time when there are powerful forces as the Congresswoman mentioned, you know, who have undermined and continue to undermine our democratic institutions and are impinging on our rights. So quite often we've we've witnessed this and these affronts to our democracy begin at the local level. But the good news is, and what we want to talk about tonight is the work we can do to fight back. And while the issues we discussed on our last few forums were seen through both a national and state lens respectively, you know, many of these issues can be seen and worked on at the local level. For example, while our representatives in Congress fight for a green new deal, our state legislature passes climate resiliency roadmap into law. Our own local Arlington town meeting voted just this month to designate a climate crisis, the climate crisis, excuse me, a public health emergency. So there's a lot we can do on similar issues at all different levels of government. So whether it's recovering from a crippling pandemic, protecting the most vulnerable in our communities, fighting to protect our voting rights or supporting racial justice and equity in all of our efforts, we can really make a difference at every level of government. So we here at the ADTC, along with our many partners, are committed to collaboration and action when it comes to confronting these injustices and pursuing equity and equality for all. One of the ways we do that is through our democracy and actions, which again brings us here tonight. So before I go any further, I just want to thank you in advance for agreeing to our guidelines. As you entered the event, you were told that we are recording. So I just wanted to remind you again that we are in fact doing that. So this forum will be recorded. And we will be sharing the link to this after the event is over. So you can watch it as many times as you want. And I also want to put in a quick plug because it's never too soon to give examples and instances of ways to get involved. A few quick things that is coming up for the Arlington Democratic Town Committee. Committee is all over the Commonwealth and other Democratic institutions and issues you can be a part of. So on Wednesday, June 30th at 7 p.m. We, the Arlington Dems, are having our Democratic caucus where we elect delegates to go to this year's State Party Platform Convention, which is September 25th up at Union Blast Wall. So if you're interested in learning more, again, feel free to reach out. If you want to start, you know, start a little more slowly, learn a little bit more, check out the Massachusetts Dems website. They'll have a lot of information on it. But you're more than welcome to come, observe. You can vote if you're a Democrat in Arlington or you can run as a delegate yourself. And again, this is happening all over the Commonwealth. So as most of you know, if you want to get involved in your personal town or city or ward committee in their caucuses, take a look on that again, Mass Dems website. And that's something you could certainly get involved in very quickly and easily. The other thing I wanted to flag is if you're interested in getting involved and you've been spurred to movement with the Democratic Party and Party Politics, blueprint for 22 might be for you. Stay tuned for more details on that. Alex Bausch from our team will be giving us a little more detail on that, but that's another great program and organization to get involved in. Finally, before we begin, and I want to recognize a few different cohorts of ours. First, I want to thank our local elected officials who have been, I know Senator Friedman's been to an event or two to has joined us. We've had reps from other districts, which has been great. But I want to thank our delegation for being trustee partners in the Democratic fight that we're fighting. I also want to thank our co-sponsors. And on this next slide, you'll see the list of Democratic city and town committees, the organizations who are joining us as co-sponsors and partners in action tonight. There are too many to name in the interest of time, but take a look at this again slide. And really, I want to say a huge, huge thank you to everyone and all these organizations who have supported us. It's been one of the added bonuses of virtual events. Finally, I want to take a minute to recognize all of the volunteers and committee members who dedicated countless and I mean countless hours to make this and our first two forums a reality. Please give them a virtual round of applause, and I'm going to pause for just a few seconds because I want you to look at this list and just the long list of names of individuals who are involved in the planning of these events. They were such an active and engaged group. We're really, really lucky to have them. But we want to have as many others join us as possible. So this list doesn't have to end here. If you're interested in getting involved, this is certainly not the last forum or series we're going to be planning. So please, if you haven't already and you're interested, join us. So now, on to the main event. I'm going to turn it back over to Adam, and he's going to introduce our fantastic moderator and panelist for tonight's talk. Thanks, Adam, and take it away again. Thank you again, Stephanie. Yeah, we have three panelists for this evening. Quite exciting. Gurley Adrien, Helena Berbano and ZT crew, and our moderator is David Whitford. Gurley Adrien, currently running for mayor of Everett is the first black Haitian-American female city councilor at large for the city of Everett and has eight years of experience in finance, nonprofit, and healthcare. She holds an MBA from Boston University focusing on finance and health sector management. Gurley is also a small business owner of the award-winning Tipping Cow Ice Cream Shop with her husband, David Lins. Helena Berbano is a second-generation Filipino-American organizer and trainer currently with Asian-American futures, an organization aiming to ensure that Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are an essential part of the American narrative. Previously, Helena served as the first national political director for new American leaders. The only organization dedicated to training, supporting new Americans to run for office. Lain is also co-chair of the Asian-American Pacific Islanders Caucus for the Mass Dem Party and holds a Masters of Public Administration from New Mass Boston. Zane Crute has been president of the Mystic Valley Area Branch of the NAACP since 2017. Zane has served as an officer of the New England Area Conference of the NAACP and is a graduate of their next gen leadership training program. In addition to his work of the NAACP, Zane serves as a financial analyst at J. P. Morgan Chase and is working towards his MBA at Boston University's Quastron School of Business. And then veteran journalist David Whitford is a former staff writer at Fortune and Inc. magazines and the author of several books. His current work in progress is the history of Unite Here, the Hospitality Workers Union. For many years, he hosted a public conversation series featuring prominent journalists, professors, and public servants under the auspices of the Arlington Community Education. Thank you all so much. Thank you, Adam. And thank you, Arlington Dems. It's an honor to be on the same virtual platform with our tremendous panelists and to have had this front-row seat to Representative Presley's inspiring speech. I have been making notes of memorable phrases from her talk. The first one I'll toss out is why preach to the choir because we need the choir to sing. So let's start singing. Councillor Adrian, I'd like to start with you. I'm going to ask this question of each of the three panelists, but let's start with Councillor Adrian. I'm looking for inspiration, Gurley. I'm curious how you came into a life of activism, particularly with a focus on local activism. Like Representative Presley, were you born to this? Was there an event early in your life that inspired you? Was there a person who inspired you? How'd you become a trouble maker, a full-time trouble maker? Good trouble, right? So first I want to say thank you everyone for hosting this, and I just want to say thank you and hello to my panelists as well. And of course, my sister in service, Iyanna, such an inspiration. But for me, when I was around the age of 10 years old, I remember at the time it was winter and we ran out of heat, so heating oil. And it was freezing cold. And I said, Mom, who's somebody who can help us? And she was like, well, Gurley, the weekly newspaper that I would read about, I would read about the local politics that was going on. She's like, you know, those guys that you read about, those are the people that can help families like me and other people in Everett. And I said, well, okay, Mom, one day I'm going to be like that. And I read about the city councilors. I read about the mayor of Everett. And I said, all right, I'm going to aspire to be a politician. And I just generally just wanted to help families like mine who were struggling. And that's where my first level of politics came from. Would you describe your parents as activists themselves? So, you know, my parents immigrated from Haiti, and they came here in 1980s. And my mom is somebody who has always told me, Gurley, to always vote. My mom votes in every election. She may not know who the candidates are, but she said, Gurley, when I became a US citizen, I knew one thing they could not take away was my right to vote. And so I just always remember that. And I just love, and she still votes to this day. And she'll call me and she'll be like, Gurley, I'm going to vote today. And I'm like, yes, mom, me too. Wonderful. Thank you, Gurley. Helena, how about you? Sure. So I actually did not grow up in a political household at all. And in fact, I would describe it as a political because my parents were both immigrants from the Philippines. I also lived with my grandparents as well. And they lived through Spanish and US occupation. My grandparents lived through World War II and Japanese occupation as well. And then both my grandparents and my parents lived through martial law. So their relationship with politics was very different, though they did have a political side. They just didn't talk about it at the table. And I can't tell their stories out loud. But now that I'm older, I'm looking back. It's just like, well, because when they were growing up, it didn't feel safe to just openly talk about politics. So I like to say that I got involved really through stumbling upon it. And that was seeing someone that I could relate to run for office. And that was when I was a senior in high school, when Barack Obama ran, actually grew up in Florida. And that was the first political campaign that I got involved with. So little high school or me, I held some signs, I went to the rally, I knocked some doors. And it was something completely out of the realm, but still at the time, even though I had that great experience, I'm like, well, you know, this probably still isn't something for me. And it really wasn't until I graduated from high school and I went to college. And I got into political science. And I got to intern in some incredible places. I really credit being an intern for Congresswoman Songas' office and seeing an office full of women. My supervisor at the time was Vanna Howard, who is now a state rep. And I really got to see the backseat of like what constituent services look looks like and how I could help people and how I could help people through policy and government. And then I was like, you know what, maybe this is something that I could do. So that is what got me to get there. But it definitely took a while. There was a saying of you can't be what you don't see. And that definitely rang true for me growing up. But as you can see, it continued on and there are and I'm really excited to be here and really excited to be an activist still. All right. Thank you, Helena. Zane, let's go to you now. Sure. Happy to jump in on this. So I wouldn't say I grew up in a political household either. But I did grow up in like a household that was big on history. My father always thought it was important and sure that I knew Black history. So whether it was Juneteenth or Martin Luther King Day or Black History Month, he would read to me, he would discuss things with me. And then from that, you know, having several events happen, you know, growing up, whether it was when I was in high school, it was, you know, Sean Bell, when I was in college, it was Trayvon Martin. I always had an interest in, you know, improving, you know, policing in America, you know, ensuring that police officers are held accountable. In addition, certain initiatives were always important to me, such as diversity, equity and conclusion, ensuring that, you know, all Americans, particularly Black Americans, you know, get an equal shot at good jobs, not just talking about the low level jobs that nobody wants, or, you know, we always mention the fight for 15. We're not talking about equal shot at those jobs. We're talking about equal shots if one is qualified at top jobs that like, you know, exceptional people who have worked hard and killed it actually, you know, deserve to get. So those types of things got me interested in, you know, joining the fight at a local level for politics. And while I was at Boston College, you know, I began in 2008, I joined at the time we had a Boston College branch of the NAACP. So that's how I begin my story of getting involved. And NAACP is a nonpartisan organization. They fight for a lot of the same initiatives and fights that, you know, the Democratic Party supports. That being said, we have to talk to our Republican friends or frenemies or enemies, whatever you want to call them at the same time, we have to work with whosoever is in office to, you know, advance the goals of the organization, which is improving policing in America, fighting for reparations, you know, housing equity, job equity, and all that other fun stuff. This is a question for each of you. I'm curious how you, how you keep it going. If you have any advice on that, I think that you probably all feel like I'll assume that local activism, while it takes a lot of time and energy and you all have other things that you're doing, other paying jobs or trying to run a business, it takes a lot out of you, but it also gives you a lot, right? But how do you, if you have some advice on how we sustain ourselves for the long haul, we'd love to hear it. Well, for one, one has to be mentally strong. I'm going to be 100% candid. This is not for the mentally weak. It's not for the type of people that tell you, oh, I'm busy. To be honest, they only work a part-time job. They're not that busy. This is not for these people. The busiest people get the most done. So this is girly. I met while getting our MBAs that question Boston University. I'm not finished yet. Girly is. So, you know, when we're both in school, she was running a business. She was campaigning. I have my full-time job at JP Morgan while going to school with girly, and I'm doing an NAACP, which it's really rewarded. But the thing that is the worst about being a president of an organization is everybody reaches out to the president, whether it's Arlington Dems, whether it's a person with a question of about the membership, whether it's having to get involved. So that's the challenge. One has to be able to want to do this. They have to be fulfilled by it. They have to be able to balance their schedule and manage your time well. Like, I don't really waste a lot of time. I don't let people waste my time. So this is necessary things people need to do if you want to get involved and be part of the movement. All right. Thank you. Girly, Helena, would you like to weigh in on this? Sure. I could add a little bit. Slightly different approach. I would say yes. It is for the organized people and who really know what they're getting into. But I also would say in terms of sustaining yourself is also knowing yourself. Like, I'm different. I'm a very outgoing person. I'm like, I want to be out on the field. I want to go to people's events. I want to do that. But I like to take an approach when someone just wants to deeply get involved is like, what works for you? Are you a behind the scenes person? Do you want to do operations work? Do you want to be someone's treasurer? Do you want to just not be out on the field? Because everyone, whenever they see campaign or local activism, like, oh gosh, I have to be the person out from there in center screaming. And as we could see from this event tonight, that's not true. I met so many behind the scenes people making things like this happen, right? So I would say to approach it from that lens, like, do the part of activism that gives you energy. But then at the same time, understanding to one, take breaks. And when you take breaks, always look at who is behind you, who is stepping up to lead, because this is also a pipeline. Like, for me, as an Asian American woman, as a woman of color, I'm always looking at who else can I mentor and bring into this work? Because there are not enough people that look like me in this work as well. So always looking for the pipeline too. Beautiful. Thank you. How about you, Gurley? Yeah, I think in all that you do, right, it's always asking yourself, like, why are you doing this? And for me, particularly at the every single day, right, as a city counselor, as a mayoral candidate, I'm like, why am I doing this? And who am I doing this for? Because it's hard, right? It is brutally hard. And there are days where I'm just like, I'm putting so much energy. I can't see the outcome yet. But I know that I feel as if I'm really helping and inspiring people. So I continue to do it. And so that what keeps me going and sustains me. And I'm hoping for others, even people who are involved on the local level, it's thinking that, you know what, I can impact and help and or encourage another person to be involved or to actually make real changes. I think the local politics is the crucial biggest way to make real impact. And for me, that's what sustains me and keeps me going. I know, like I give an example, I'll talk about this like last night, 730 at night, I received a call from my constituent and his son is or his grandson was going to have a summer job interview with the city. And I was like, let's do a mock interview right now with the son, literally, right? That's not my job as a city counselor, right? But I feel as if the impact I could do to his grandson, who was like 15 years old, he was so nervous. But just to help him with that, he ended the call, he was like, girly, thank you so much for taking the time and helping me. And I was like, of course, I'm there for you. And that's what sustains me. That's really what keeps me going. That's wonderful. You know, I just want to share one little insight I heard in some other forum that I've never forgotten. And that's to try to make a distinction between the struggle and the fight, right? The struggle never ends. Fights are won and lost. And if we're forever engaged in the struggle, that can wear us down. If we identify fights, we start them, we carry them out, and we bring them to a conclusion. If we win, great. If we lose, we go on to the next fight. But I love that distinction between the struggle, broadly conceived, and the fights that we pick up along the way. Let's talk about barriers to local activism. I'm wondering why, if you have thoughts on why more people, why there are more stories like yours? I mean, we all know the grim statistics about voter participation. I mean, local election turnout, not great. I mean, the simplest act of democracy. It's a miracle when we get 50% turnout for a local election. Not to mention national elections, same problem. So participation at the ballot box, but beyond that, demonstrating, working on local issues. Why aren't there more people involved? Is it that we don't care? Is it that the system beats us down? Is it that some of us are, I don't know, come from immigrant families, and we feel that our safety and security, our place here hasn't yet been established, and that we're therefore, we have that insecurity that may spook us from sticking our necks out. What are the factors that keep people from getting involved? And how can we address them? I mean, I can speak on this on, I think, I'm going to try to start with two-fold and not be long. So first, I think running for office. I'll talk about running for office and being involved in that way. So I've always wanted to be a politician, right? But because I really wanted to help people really be able to impact their life where they could feel it, where they could see it. I wanted to be a different type of politician. That was something I've always said. And when I thought that, when I ran for the city council and I noticed how hard, right, everybody knows how tough it was for me on the, well, still on the council, I said, okay, well, I'm going to have to change up the game and try to find other people, right, other allies to join me into this fight, right? And I'll tell everybody, it was so hard for me to find one person that actually want to run for office, right? I said, hey, I'm going to help you raise money. I'm going to help you come up with a plan. I'm going to endorse you. I'll knock doors for you. I'll do everything I can. And I still couldn't find people. And I would ask them, like, what's that? Why? Why don't you want to run? And they'd be like, girlie, I don't want to go through what you want to do. This is going to be too hard. It's going to take too much time. And I'm like, well, think about it in a bigger picture, how, like what you can change the policies, right? And they're like, girlie, I'm trying to figure out how to feed my kids. I'm trying to figure out how to work two or three jobs. I'm trying to run my small business. I'm trying to figure out my family situation. And I'm just like, okay, but I need you. Everett needs you. And they're just like, well, I have to think about tomorrow, not the future. And it was just, and it's still frustrating, right? And I'm still trying to find people to run for office receipts in the city, because I'm just like, okay, if I get four people, just four people, we can change the city's future like seriously. And it was just so hard. And that's just the running for office side, right? I wanted to try to find another, because I knew when I was going to leave, I believe in really passing the baton, and I didn't want to leave my seat where there was no other black person. That was important to me. I'll be honest. That was very important. And so I looked, I like contacted, I called, I met, I would text people every week, I need to, and it just would be a no, I finally found somebody. So somebody is running. So I felt more confident now that I am going to believe in, but that was important to me. And then I'll talk about on the voter side. At the end of the day, a lot of my, my registered or my residents, they'll say, girly, you know, politics doesn't matter to me, it doesn't affect me. But then I'll say this, give me an example of something that's going on in your life, and I'll tell you how politics can change it. If you tell me a college student, and you tell me that you go to UMass Amherst, you know who sets your tuition fees? It's the state representative, state senators, right? Like they make that decision. Or if you tell me something about health insurance, guess who's helping to decide about the state health insurance? It's the elected officials, right? When people were struggling through the pandemic, I said, Hey, guess what? Guess who was deciding on if you could get rent assistant or mortgage assistance on the local level? It was the mayor, right? And it was the city councilors. So I always try to say, well, hey, I can give me an example. I'll tell you how an elected official impacts your life. And I do this with everybody. And they'll be like, wow, I didn't know. I'm like, yeah, they don't want you to know that. They want you to stay out of it because there's so much money. There's so much power involved. And so that's both my answer. Oh, that's beautiful, girl. And very inspiring and helpful. And I wonder, I'd like to hear Helena and Zane respond to this as well. And maybe add your thoughts on this idea that occurs to me listening to girly talk. What we've been through in the last over the last 18 months. All of us society at every level has been impacted by these powerful forces seemingly beyond our control. And I think we've all seen direct evidence of the role that government can play the role that the public health system can play. We've, we've learned a lot about our reliance on public institutions. And I wonder if you think that that hasn't, this is, if we haven't spawned a generation of activists, thanks to the coronavirus. Helena, why don't you go next? And then we'll go to Zane. Sure. I actually going to piggyback off the first question first. I'm still noodling around your last question. But first of all, I want to go quickly back to her and be like, do not apologize. You were, I was like, yes, every single thing that you said, yes. And just a comment to you, you are so generous with your time. I would say a few months ago, because trust me, there is a tangent here. Me and girly were talking about Everett and trying to get folks around because I said, I'm willing to help you too. I'm willing to go over there and help coach people. And it's so hard to get people to say yes. And I think in terms of like why we don't see more people in office is because of those barriers. Like, first of all, you have to fundraise a ton, right? And in some city councils, like it's the pay is inconsistent, right? Like some are paid half time, some are not paid at all, or we could, you know, be in New Hampshire and they barely get paid at all, right? First on the state rep level. And also there's the timepiece, like it takes so much time to run for office that a lot of people say that in order to run an effective campaign, a competitive campaign, you have to, you know, take a sabbatical on your job or take at least one month off and, you know, it's that financial barrier. It's so huge. So not only do you have to take a hit, but you also have to fundraise too. And it's also, I could speak for me and the candidates that I've worked for most being folks of color who also have an immigrant background, is that unwillingness to put yourself out there because the type of scrutiny that I have seen candidates that I've worked with get is bad. Just I've seen instances of xenophobia on the campaign trail. Racism, misogyny, if you're a woman of color, is all mixed up together, talking about your immigration status. I worked with someone who was a DACA recipient and folks had things to say about that. So that's on the electoral side. Then I would say on the operative side for campaigns and even being like a legislative aid or director, like there's so much barrier to what's going on. I don't or organize for them, but I recommend folks look up Beacon Block at the statehouse and the incredible work that they are doing as well to make the statehouse just a more welcoming focus on racial justice and things like that. But when I'm thinking about the operative piece too, it's almost the same as the candidate. A lot of people are just like, you were a political director. So obviously, you've always been doing this. I'm like, no, I cared about it so much, took time, part time. I had my own full time job and I gained my experience working part time on so many different campaigns because it was not sustainable for me to just quit my job with benefits to try to get into the campaign world. So it's paying our folks. And one thing I will say, Democrats, progressive leading folks, we do not pay our people. We need to pay our people. Interns in the statehouse, most of them do not get paid. Campaign interns don't get paid. I know that there's a movement to do that, but I guess the theme of what I'm saying is let's pay our people and or make sure that we are paying a living wage. And I think that there's not infrastructure as well that takes a lot of time to get built. And I'm going to stop there because now I'm getting on my soap box about paying our people. So I'm going to pass it to Zane. So to piggyback off what Helena and Girley said a little bit, I think money is a major thing about it. But that being said, there's lots of other roles in local politics. You don't have to run for city counselor or mayor. Girley's phenomenal for doing that. She was a great counselor. Hopefully she gets mayor as well. But like you can find a role with an organization such as Arlington Dems or the Republican counterpart, I guess, or the NAACP. You can find your way to be politically active. You can help register people to vote. You can help educate people because a lot of people just don't care because they either don't care or they don't know to care. So we can play a part in that as well. But that being said, the financial constraint is to be honest, that's a huge hurdle. Like unless you come, unless you're born with one of those classic New England last names that we all love, you know, like Kennedy, you don't really have the freedom to say, hey, let me quit my job and run for office. Let's see how this goes. Even if it does go well, I am good. My parents got me no matter what. Or if I do want to run, hey, they could fundraise my whole campaign. Like that's convenient, right? It's really challenging if you come from an immigrant family or my family. I've never had anything to complain about growing up. But not enough that I can, you know, quit my job and not work and not worry. So like I got to keep working every day and find my activism, you know, outside of work. And then piggyback off on, you know, like teaching people more, like we have to do more in society to, you know, make people care. And I'm going to be honest, that is a very, very difficult challenge. If candidates such as Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump can't inspire you to vote in either direction, like, you know, I don't know, we have a lot of more struggle to fight with that. If you just don't care about those two candidates, like, yeah, I don't care. I don't know what we could do to make one care. But locally, in towns like Arlington, you know, we have a town manager, we don't have a mayor. So I'm assuming if one's voting to vote for city councilor, they're voting for president, they're voting for governor, they're voting for senator. So I guess as Gurley alluded to as well, educating people to what people do. Like, I don't think most people know what a state senator does, state rep does, a city councilor does. So we have to get out as the community, we have to educate people, we have to help them know, we have to introduce them to the candidates, which isn't easy either. Like, I'd be lying if I told you, I know every candidate that's running for everything, our branch would never speak covers Arlington, Everett, Wolburn, Winchester, Medford, Maldon, amongst some neighboring towns or whatever. I cannot possibly know city councilor, everybody that's running for everything in those towns. It's just too much information, but candidates have to somehow get this information in front of people by coming to meetings such as this, coming to NWSP meetings, which is a tall task, takes a lot of time, takes a lot of care, but it can be done with enough effort. One of the thing I'm hearing from all of you is ways in which you were inspired to a life of activism by people, by other people, and all three of you are tremendously inspiring. I wonder if you think that we do enough to teach activism, the importance of activism in the schools. I wonder if any of you have been invited to speak in public schools about your role in politics in local activism. Do the schools do enough? I always think, as a journalist, I think schools could do more to teach young people how to read the news, how to tell the difference between what's real and what's not, just some basic skills in that area. And I wonder also, if we couldn't be doing more to teach young people about the importance of local activism. Yeah, I'm a big advocate for just talking in general, like the different people, right, the different roles. I remember when I was a child or a student, they did talk about, like, I remember the president as the executive role and the two different branches. So I've always remembered that, but I do think, like, as an elected official, have I been invited into the schools? I have. I have really close relationships with a lot of the teachers. And they have pushed for me to be able to speak into the classrooms. And I've also spoke at a lot of the students events. And so they get to hear my story and get to hear my work. The other last month, a group of students, they actually told me what they wanted to see in the city of Everett, and they wrote it down. I thought that was just amazing. And of course, they wanted, like, dance clubs and a big pool, but it was really nice to hear their ideas. I love that. Lenny, you're clapping. I am clapping because I'm just like, that's awesome that you get to talk to the school. So I haven't talked in public school. So I actually went to public school in Florida. That's a story for another time. But I did not really have that great of a civics education. It was sort of, quote, unquote, a blow off class. And I could barely remember it because all the kids in my class were like, we were all sort of just like rowdy and not really listening. But I did remember the fundamentals like the branches of government that Curly was talking about, but not really how to get involved locally. But I think for young people, it's just so imperative. And I did some youth work as well. Just it is being taught in some public school, some classrooms, but not to the extent that it should. So I used to work with young people to a lobby in the state house and even getting to teach them about that process. It was a whole new thing. So clearly that wasn't being being taught while they were in public school. But it's incredible what happens when you give youth tools and what they could do with it. Because the minute that they know, they could go a million miles. So I would go inside the state house. I wouldn't even say a word. It was all the young people. You gave them the tools, how it worked, how to convince people, how to make the right pitch. And they went on their way. And even in just talking about civic engagement in terms of the voting process and making that a thing, even if they're not old enough to vote, I will say the one thing that my public school experience taught me was mock voting. So we always had mock voting for those of us who were under 18 and we would vote in the election. So that was great. But my answer is yes, we need to invest in it more. Like I said, like I barely remember what happened. I think that a common story that I keep hearing more and more is that the exposure happened in a deep way on a college campus. But even being able to go to a college campus, that is a privilege. That is a barrier, right? So I was lucky to be able to have the financial means to go to a higher education institution to learn deeper about that work. And not everyone is so fortunate to have that. And I'll pass it to Zane. I've spoken a bunch of schools too, but I think the challenge with schools is you need a teacher that actually cares. So we don't always get that obviously. We're trying to diversify the curriculum. We're trying to diversify the educators. We're trying to get better educators and administrators that actually care, that want to cultivate the students, teach them about being a good political citizen, financial citizen. We don't always get that. To be honest, like any other job, my job, teachers, police officers, there's a lot of people that are mediocre and do the bare minimum. Like the teachers that are exceptional and actually care of bringing in girly, Helena, myself, other people are teaching their kids to read the news and not just get your news off social media to read books. I don't think people read enough anymore. People get their news from too many toxic mediums, which lead to some more toxic and crazy political candidates for some of the people that are involved, which is not the best type of involvement we want. We want to get enough people that have informed involvement to counteract that. All right, Zane, we brought up social media, which is a good segue to the next question. Although before we jump to that, I just want to respond to something that Councilor Adrian said, talking about the people that you met who felt that politics has no relevance for them. That seems to me to be a really important problem in society. There are those among us who feel that we are born to make a difference and that we have a responsibility to involve ourselves in public affairs. And there are those of us who are born with the perfectly rational feeling that the world is something that happens to us and that we don't have a role to play in making a difference. And just so inspired by what each of you are doing and especially what you're doing to persuade those in the latter category to recognize that the world is theirs to shape. All right, social media. Helpful or harmful to our democracy? I'll start that one. All right. I would say social media is great for a lot of things. It's made life easier. A lot of people have fun, whether it's my parents and grandparents on Facebook, whether it's the people a lot younger than me on TikTok and whatnot, whether it's me on Instagram. That being said, I think social media is definitely harmful for society. It's invented a lot of crazy ideas. It's kind of made people lazy. They don't want to get news from traditional sources. Journalists such as yourself, David, that have actually done your research, having to form the opinion without trying to sway your own opinion. It's giving you the facts. Social media leads to a lot of people not reading the articles, just clicking, sharing fake news. I've caught people in my family like, why are you sharing that article? Did you read that? That is not true. Why? Or like, do you check the source of the person sharing this? You might even agree with this, but being seen to agree with this person is not the best look. So you might want to just not click share. You don't keep that one to yourself. So that's my take on social media. I think social media does have its good point, but the first point that came to me was also a bit negative. It has shown what the power of propaganda is, especially during an election year, and we for sure saw that in 2020. So I totally agree with Zane. Things aren't fact-checked anymore. What I love that Twitter is doing is that it asks you before you retweet it, did you read it? Did you really read this? So I think that things are catching up. So I think the most negative thing is like this spreading of like harmful news. What I could say is very positive. I do think it is more accessible to folks. I think it's also almost, it's created a hub where people could like learn. Like I wish, I both sort of wish, but sort of don't wish that social media was bigger when I was in high school. It was like just starting, but you know, even learning certain language that I never had exposure to, like microaggression. I did not know what that meant. I felt what that meant, but I didn't put the vocabulary to until I went to college, right? Until I learned in it in a women's and gender studies class, right? Things like those terms. So I think it's good for that being able to connect with people with similar perspectives. But then again, the downside is sort of this propaganda is powerful and we've seen it. And I remain both hopeful and negative about social media, especially in the context of local politics. And I'll pass it to Gurley. Thank you. So I, you know, I think, I'll say this, I'll give real life example, right? So two examples. I think social media is helpful in a way that I have been able to use as a platform just to expose to everybody about what's going on in Everett, right? Like recently we did a budget week last week. And so every single day I pinpointed a topic about the city budget because we're supposed to approve it. And I just highlighted different areas that I thought were good that were bad. And if you guys read my comments on my Facebook page about it, it would be like 75 comments of people either attacking how I feel or not or agreeing with how I feel. And I think honestly, we need more of that because people can have an open conversation and we're learning from each other. However, there are areas where there's an Everett Facebook group and I call it the Everett hate group. And they love to talk about me in the most nastiest way, right? They have said that I need to go back to Haiti. They have said they have threatened my life. They talk a lot of negative things about me, right? And, and they'll tag me, they'll tag me in there. So just so I can see it. And I think that's really crucially rude up. And luckily, emotionally, I'm strong where whatever they say is not hurting me. But I think about how that's really hard. It's really, really hard, especially being an only black, I will, I will, I will proudly say it, but the only black city counselor, it's tough sometimes because I'm supposed to hold myself strong and be able to be this tough, aggressive woman who can take everything. But at times it can be emotionally tough. And there's times where I've cried. And so I know that group exists. I know they like to talk about me. And I tried to ignore it. So I don't like that social media aspect of it. However, I do love sharing information. And I think that's crucially important. And as well as engaging others into conversations, like I love seeing my mother-in-law in St. Louis engage on Everett politics, because she doesn't get involved where she lives, but she loves learning about it. So it's good and bad in some ways. Yeah, I think we can all agree that social media has changed the game. I think we're still in the early stages. I don't think anybody wants to go back to the time when everybody got all their news from three sources. And that's the way it is, was the only way it could be. But we're still working this out. And it's pretty sloppy. And it gets pretty ugly sometimes, but also pretty thrilling. Zane, I want to throw it back to you. I know you have one other comment you want to add about social media. And we've gone right up to the edge of our time here before we get to the breakout session. So I'll let you wrap it up, Zane. Thank you, David. One more thing about social media. Actually, I wasn't being 100% fair to it. Social media doesn't create the problem initially. It creates an area for people to congregate and spread hate, whether it's on girly, whether it's on May, whether it's on other people. But I think irresponsible news outlets or mediums are a huge part of the problem, whether it's a Sean Hannity, whether it's a Tucker Carlson, come on. A lot of times this isn't news. Is Obama a Muslim? That's not news. Is Hillary Clinton running a sex traffic thing out of a pizza? This is not news. This is irresponsible journalism. I don't even want to call it journalism. But these media sources that are allowed to spread this ridiculousness, whether it's the lecture was stolen, and then the same people that go on to the social media escalates it. So it's not helping this solution. It's escalating these things that were always going on for years, like the Rush Limbaugh show, for years and years was talking. So this hate just gets magnified with the use of social media. So social media is not the crux of the issue, but it's not helping. All right. Well, one of the counterweights of social media is forums like this, where we have an opportunity to hear people speak at length. And I just want to thank all three of you. I think all three of you are so incredibly cool and really grateful to have had the benefit of your insight and the benefit of your activism in our community. Thank you so much for everything that you do. And I guess I'll pass it back to Stephanie now. Thanks, guys. I want to say another huge thank you, Echo David, and thanks to all of our panelists, counselor Adrian, Dane, Helena. And I also want to thank David for navigating us through a really interesting and important discussion. So thanks to all of you and what a great ending to our trifecta of forums. So we really can't thank you guys enough for your insights and conversation. And it really is apparent that there's a lot at risk and at stake in our democracy, both now and in the future. So I think a big part of that is the work that we need to do. And some of what we need to do is look inward in order to get where we need to go. And that's at all levels of government, as you guys showed us, you know, national, state and local. And that's to get where we want to go this year in 2022 and beyond. So one of the ways we can do that, as I mentioned earlier, is through something called Blueprint to 22. And on that note, I'd like to introduce Alex Bausch, who's an activist and organizer extraordinaire. And he's going to tell us a little bit about the Mass Dem Party's Blueprint to 22 and what the party is contemplating for Dems to do to elect a Democratic governor in Massachusetts and more. Alex, the floor is yours. So I will keep this very short and sweet because I know everyone wants to get out into the breakout rooms. But basically, Blueprint to 22 is the state party's way of getting organized 16 months out. I remember during the 2018 coordinated campaign when Jay Gonzalez won the primary for the gubernatorial, there was no pre-built statewide coordinated campaign with trained volunteers and team leaders for the Gonzalez campaign. And when the primary ends in September, it's a sprint to the general in November. And so the state party is really starting to build out their model of team leaders, precinct captains now with like 16 months to go to 2022. And so there are monthly trainings, getting people trained on relational organizing, using new digital organizing tools and things like that. And so we would love to have as many people really get involved in that process with us. And so I think Marlene or I can throw it into the chat, but there is a sign up to join us. There was one on relational organizing just the other day, but coming up there will be more on digital tools, using social media for good purposes and things like that. So we would love as many of you to join us as possible.