 David Ross. Shout out to David Ross. Coming to the mic. My name's David Ross. I'm a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. I had veterans for peace. In 1965, in the spring, I heard a rumor of war. I'm going. I'm in Germany. I'm in Germany. I'm in Germany. I'm in Germany. I'm in Germany. I'm in Germany. I'm in Germany. I'm in Germany. I'm in Germany. I'm in Germany. I got a Volkswagen with a Porsche engine. I found a town full of Irish Scotch and Welsh mill girls. I'm currently retired. I don't care if I go climbing in the Alps. I'll take a few days here in Nara. I got it made. I volunteered to go to Vietnam. My buddy Ken. I came back and coached. Ken came back and baggage. So, I was discharged on the 4th of July, 1967. I got the paperwork to prove it. So, when I was a kid, we went to a place called White Castle to get these new little 12 cent hamburgers, which would be so delicious. But we had a black friend with us, John Chambers. They would let him come in. One of the parents had a business. They let us use the Mimograph machine. We made all these posters of, don't eat at White asshole. They don't serve black people. Well, boy, we had a meeting with the principal, the business guy, our parents, everybody. We thought, no, we're not going to stop putting these up. So, that's where I got started. Since then, I had a high. I moved up here. And anyway, I spent two years in Vietnam. I volunteered to go. Nice, safe job. Combat medic infantry, if you can imagine that. So, I came back. I was still kind of nominally supported the war. But once I found out what was really going on from the students, I turned against the war. Then I thought, we're carrying the crows. She was one of the founders of now, the National Organization of Women. She talked to me about sexism. We had a long day together. So, I was it. I was against sexism. I always been against racism. Now I'm against the war. Well, you ever saw Marlon Brando's movie, The Wild Ones? Motorcycle gang takes you over a small town out west someplace. And they're just racing, hell. And his business guy comes up to Marlon Brando and he says, hey, come on, you know, this is a great country. What are you against? Marlon Brando says, what do you got? And that's where I am now because we're destroying the environment. I'm against everything. But I'm for something. I'm for social transformation. I'm for changing this country. We have so much here and so much of it just stays right up on top when they suck more out of the bottom. We have, here's your homework assignment. You go home and you get on YouTube and you put in this search. The U.S. is not number one anymore. See what you come up with. You'll come up with a lot of stuff. We are so far behind this little tiny third world country you almost never heard of. Their infant mortality rate is significantly lower than ours. Leave me this final thought. Two women that impress me. No, not Hillary Clinton. I'll throw an employee SD and sure as a hell not, yeah, I forgot her name for a moment, our former female ambassador to Janker Patrick. And somebody asked her if they thought all the kids had died in Iraq from her, which my closest friend is Iraqi, lives here with me. She's got a toddler, an infant, can't get her husband in the country. She's got a master's in English from St. Mike's, an internationally traveled person and she doesn't have death sentence at home. So that's America, the stuff that we do. So you look this up. You see what America is. Is this what the Senate kids like me go fight and die for? So these two women, one was the doctor, a female doctor in Sweden and the television, American television interviewer said, why aren't you really uncomfortable with the amount of your income that you pay in taxes? She said no. She said, don't you pay like half a year of income in taxes? She said, sure. Well, doesn't that make you angry? No, why? Because we have free medical care, free day care, everyone has housing, everyone eats. We're not afraid to go on our streets at night because nobody needs to bother you because everybody gets what they need. And because of that, people feel they're part of a big family. We all take care of each other and everybody wants to contribute. The other one was the prime minister of Iceland who at that time was a woman. Iceland's the one who sent their crooked bankers to jail. They sent them to prison. The banks didn't even pay back the money they stole. And they asked her, when you pass legislation, when you make a law, what criteria overrides your decision-making process? And she replied, when we pass a law, the first thing we ask, what effect will this law have on our children and what effect will this law have on their children's children? That's what I want to see from America. I want to see a big family. I want to see us take care of ourselves and so share some of this wealth around the world so other people can good strap up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Alright, so once again, we are all here gathered in this public space to amplify. And I just wanted to shout out a few voices that will be represented here. Big shout-outs to Megan Emery, professor of French at UVM. We'll be giving us talk here. Shout-out to James Mark Lease, and that's a patent lawyer in South Burlington, member of the National Lawyers Guild, and served on the NLG delegations to Gaza and Venezuela. That's a big shout-out we touch on the mic here. David Firzi is professor of music at UVM and vice president of United Academics, the faculty union at UVM. Also, Mohammed Abdi, where's Mohammed? Mohammed is so actually in presence, like doing the work in the background, representing the black perspective and the coalition of solidarity for solidarity. And he'll be here giving a speech or giving a talk right up next. And then Tanya V. Hovski is a licensed social worker and a newly elected state representative from Essex. She is a member of the House Committee and government operations. These are the voices that will be speaking here, giving amplification and representing in this demonstration. So just to continue with the amplification, we'll bring up Mohammed Abdi, representing from the black perspective and the coalition for solidarity. Did I say solidarity? Did I say it right? All right, guys, thank you all for being here today. I just wanted to start off by letting everybody know that we are on unceded albinaki land. For those of you who don't know what that means, that means that this is not the white man's land. So I just wanted to clarify that. So I'm here to talk a little bit about the coalition for solidarity. It's a new organization that was started by me and Jimmy. And we have a couple of organizations that are a part of it right now. And the whole purpose of this coalition is to amplify other organizations. That's what our purpose is. So we ourselves do not have any particular goal aside from that. So what we're here is to be a resource for all these different organizations that are here today. And we just want to amplify their voices. And if anybody's interested, if there's any organization or any individual that wants to be a part of this coalition for solidarity, please reach out to me or Jimmy. And we can get you started on that. So thank you very much. I just want to talk about that. So the next person who's going to be speaking is Professor Megan Emory. She is a professor of French at the University of Vermont and one of the leaders of UVM United Against the Cuts. Please welcome Megan Emory. She's also vice chair of the South Burlington City Council. Thank you, Jimmy. I'm also a good friend of Jimmy's. And he's been in my life for many, many years working on this. And I just want to give credit to Mohammed Abdi for coming up with the amplifying each other. I love that as a theme. So just want to give him credit for that. So happy fourth, everybody, right? It's a big day. And on the fourth of July, it's the day that we celebrate the declaration of independence and the birthday of the great experiment that is and continues to be the United States of America. And I am here as a descendant of immigrants, as a patriot, a mother, a local official who has fought long and hard for this, among other things, a resident of Chamberlain neighborhood in South Burlington, adjacent to the airport, and as a worker and a teacher to talk about the power of words and ideas. Specifically, I am here as an associate professor of French on behalf of the University of Vermont faculty, students, alumni, and community members who support the UVM United Against the Cuts movement. And we are fighting for shared governance at UVM, where top administrators have been paying millions of dollars per year on themselves and on their consultants, all while they were announcing the closure of departments and salary cuts for our most vulnerable faculty members, the untenured faculty and lecturers, and staff, until we stood up and said no. No. No to the closure of majors, no to downgrading programs, and we're still working on that, no to gutting our faculty and staff, squeezing us dry and shifting us around like widgets. And we continue to say no to depriving our programs of needed resources and denying us our voice as stakeholders in this great university, your university, our state university. We learned just last week about the poaching of our library's budget by UVM Central Administration. After years of flat budgets, 0% when the top administrators are paying themselves millions of dollars per year. The libraries consulted and passed through the Faculty Senate a long, arduous process I attended those meetings, the strategic decision to cancel an increasingly expensive package subscription to Elsevier Science Direct, in order to order individual highest-used titles and to serve us better. Well, what happened? Of the $1.8 million that they recouped by canceling that subscription, UVM Central Administration has taken nearly $1.4 million without consulting them, just taking it. For other uses, will we ever know? We have to ask and we have to demand to know. So effectively, the library's careful planning in order to better provide for our learning community, and it's a public library, so this learning community has been undermined. Libraries are the foundation of democracies and of public universities, and therefore this latest move on top of all that has happened and been exposed by UVM United over the past 13 months is a renewed assault on all of us. They are, they're defenders of our democracy. Get to know a librarian if you want to know a true patriot. Really. The Great American Experiment is one of self-government, and it is dependent on the principle of equality, which is itself derived from solidarity, the theme of today's event. And let me quote from that document that we are celebrating today. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and people are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men and all of us, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Now, we know that our democracy is something we have to wake up every day to fight for. We did not win it on that July 4th back in 1776. We did not win it when the British general Cornwallis finally capitulated to American and French forces at Yorktown in 1781, nor in any major military victory since. We win it momentarily, such as when General Washington, that's George, a man not necessarily destined for greatness due to his father's death. He did not have the great education of many of our forefathers. And as a slaveholder, he was a man of his time. But when he recognized his responsibility and voluntarily resigned his commission in 1783 and returned to his farm as a private citizen, democracy one. And let me quote from what he wrote. Here it is. The first resort was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties. So it ought to be the first to be laid aside when these liberties are firmly established. And as he went on to say, having now finished the work assigned me, I now retire from the great theater of action. Words that we should heed. So our democracy is renewed daily through action and we honor our individual and collective legacy as Americans when we honor our soldier's lives rather than the sword. Thank you. It's very fitting we started with a veteran speaking here today. We win when we send our soldiers and all our residents to school. And when we give them the tools of learning so that they may better themselves and work toward their promised happiness. Our democracy is renewed in our everyday interactions in every situation when we treat one another with respect. When we listen and debate and protect self-expression, a right we earn by being born as our Declaration of Independence states. Simply by being born. When we ensure that everyone has a place at the table and that honest conversation can be held there, we honor our democracy. We honor the daily sacrifices made through the sweat of our brow and our lives for a more perfect union. And as we celebrate the Declaration of Independence, a day marked by righteous anger and love, and we continue to feel it today, righteous anger and love, that is patriotism in service to human rights and justice, we know that our work is not yet done. Self-government continues to be a goal toward which we strive to which we must give our full attention, our energy and our sweat and our words. Our public libraries are at the heart of a thriving democracy of and by and for the people. And so UVM United joins you all. We salute you all and we will not give up until people who are at the heart of this great country have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All who contribute to this effort, thank you too for being a voice for many as we acknowledge the steps we need to take toward the realization of liberty and justice for all. As I wrote to a newly appointed member of one of our committees in South Burlington, our first, who is 16 years old, born to immigrant parents, I wrote, this is core to the social contract of our democracy. All who contribute to our future happiness and shared prosperity as a society should have equal access to the benefits of belonging. And so UVM United will continue to fight for you all, for the state, as we fight for faculty and staff to have a place at the table of shared governance. Happy fourth. Thanks. Let me introduce Wafiq. Wafiq is a member of Vermonters for Justice in Palestine. Wafiq. Thank you, James. Thank you, Muhammad. My name is Wafiq. I'm a member of Vermonter for Justice in Palestine. I born refugee in Lebanon. I will ask your sister and brother to stick with this occasion. Fourth of July didn't come in 1776, but started on December 1773 when a patriot won a garb of the indigenous people and they went and stopped Dutch and English ships on the harbor of Boston. And this was the start of a revolution to end the colonialist British and occupation of this land. The second thing, it was the call for boycott of the product T and the start of no taxation with no representation. Us as a Palestinian, we ask you to stand up with us against the support that the United States and the British gave to the colonialist entity Israel and its apartheid and occupation of the land of Palestine. We ask you to stand up to stand up and support to boycott divestment, sanctions against all Israeli products until all the apartheid laws and rules of Palestine end. We ask you that no taxation with no representation to stop your taxes that you send 3.8 billion dollars to Israel that killing our children that you are sending your after-election that bothers you over here but killing us in Gaza killing us in Yemen on Libya on Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no independence without the independent of the people. Here around us the people of colors are suffering under different laws and rules of this country. Black and brown people are under different laws on this country on education, on healthcare, in housing and police and justice system we have to stop that if they are not independent equal with equity there is no independence of this country. We want to hear about your friend we want to take care of you we are here for you we love you and we won't forget about Perry a man named Perry was killed last night is what I'm hearing and they're scared because he's up at the hospital so if we're going to talk about amplifying voices we are going to amplify every voice. Thank you Morgan that was very helpful I'd like to introduce our next speaker, Tanya Fajhovski Tanya is a licensed social worker and the newly elected representative to the house from Essex she's a member of the house committee on government operations and her campaign for the house was endorsed by the AFL-CIO the VSEA the NEA, the AFT V-PURG Planned Parenthood the Sierra Club and Bernie Sanders. Thank you so much good afternoon and thank you for being here thank you to the black perspective the people for peace and security and the coalition for solidarity for bringing us all together and happy 4th of July today as we come together we certainly have some things to celebrate and a lot of work to keep on doing we are beginning to come out of the last 16 months of pandemic living the governor has lifted the state of emergency and many are breathing a sigh of relief believing that the emergency is over while we do indeed seem to be moving towards COVID recovery and away from immediate dangers of the pandemic the emergency is not over it has been going on for too long and it has only gotten worse too many people are facing food insecurity are not sure where their next meal is coming from and this is an emergency too many BIPOC people are dying young because of white supremacy and this is an emergency too many people are struggling to live and even dying because of unmet and unaffordable healthcare needs and this is an emergency we are facing record heat waves, extreme weather events, resource shortages because of climate change and this is an emergency too many people cannot afford to lead dignified lives and are instead struggling and sometimes unable to even keep a roof over their heads and this is an emergency too many people with disabilities are unable to work because of inaccessibility and discrimination and this is an emergency too many women still make less than men for their work and are severely underrepresented in leadership positions and this is an emergency too many people are dying and having their lives ruined as we funnel trillions upon trillions of dollars into endless war emergency and far too many people struggle to vote, participate be included and represented in the very system of government that has promoted and perpetuated many of these emergencies and this too is an emergency the COVID pandemic emergency has ripped the mask off and laid bare the reality of our many broken systems and the long standing emergencies that many have been forced to survive with for centuries we look to move forward towards recovery we're going to face a lot of pressure to just go back to normal we cannot do this we must come together across issue, race national origin, ideology religion and personal background to fight for a better tomorrow normal has sucked for most of us and it's gotten worse we must unite and stand in solidarity with our siblings fighting for workers' rights with our siblings fighting for racial justice with our siblings fighting for climate justice we must stand with our siblings fighting for health care justice and economic justice for land access, for reparations and everything that we cannot continue to live without the issues are many and they are immense and what we know from history is that when the people come together and fight for each other's issues we take leaps forward towards liberty and justice for all and we are none of us free until we are all of us free the civil rights act did not come about because people in power said enough was enough no this monumental win came because the people stood up and demanded it white women did not gain the right to vote because men in power simply gave it to them no they gained this right because the people came together and demanded it LGBTQ people did not gain the right to marry because the people preventing it decided to stop no the defensive marriage act was overturned because the people organized and demanded it abusive dangerous and exploitive working conditions were not stopped because the bosses and owners one day realized it was wrong no unions and workers stood together to demand the protections that many of us take for granted today people with disabilities were not granted the protections of the Americans with disabilities act out of nowhere years of organizing and demonstrating made this a reality and if we continue to come together we can continue to make things better today's issues are far reaching and they touch nearly all of us and we have the power as the people of this nation and this state to change them all our power lies in our ability to come together and fight for one another to fight for an issue that we may not see as our own and to fight for someone that we don't even know because we cannot and will not simply go back to a normal that was not working we will stand together because the people united can never be defeated and together we will win together we can once and for all have the dignity freedom and justice for all promised in our declaration of independence and we can stop living from emergency to emergency thank you all right thank you once again for amplified voices we'll have right now the people for police accountability really quickly Christy for police people for the police of for police accountability welcome many of you have seen my face on the news and quite a few other places I was part of having just cause evictions passed in March we will be at that again quite soon but today I am here for people for police accountability we ask a special special election to be warned to place a change of the Charter the city of Brewington before the voters to provide for the independent community disciplinary board for the Brewington police department this board will have the power to hear and decide complaints and pose discipline regarding police officer action in action or alleged misconduct and independent investigatory office with the power to investigate complaints of misconduct through an amendment of the Charter sections 89 and 190 setting forth the board selection process qualifications, composition members, terms, jurisdiction and powers and duties and the offices organization and powers and duties the language of the amendments to be attached on this petition that we are going around to have signed today just to report and there's a few other of us to have these clipboards I see Eugene, thank you very much yes Brewington residents anybody that's registered to vote in the city of Brewington can sign this and we ask that you please do the police have been beating on people this is not acceptable we do not need them beating on people and then or shooting them and asking questions later we need police to be accountable for their actions and to help our community not hurry and right now they're not helping us I know quite a few people that have had their houses broken into they're not responding I have one young lady that I know that her ex-boyfriend who she has a restraining order on is right now living in her house and the police will not enter it and remove him this is unacceptable behavior and when they're allowed to get away with it and we don't need that the police commission themselves cannot do that they can't even get the information they require to help people sort out their problems because the police department tells them that they don't need to give that to them so if you see somebody walking around with a clipboard today and you're voted you're registered to vote in the city of Brewington please do approach one of us and we'd be more than happy to take your signature thank you folks thank you very much Christy so our next speaker is David Firzik he's a professor of music at the University of Vermont and he's vice president of United Academics the faculty union at UVM he's also a board member of the Vermont AFL-CIO and is speaking today for the AFL-CIO thank you David thank you, yes not actually vice president but I am vice president of the AFL-CIO state labor council which is Vermont's largest labor organization and I'm here on that behalf and I want to thank Mohammed Abdi for inviting the labor organization to speak here today we see no daylight between workers' rights and the fight for social justice everywhere we oppose fascism racism sexism and discrimination of all kinds we understand that labor is strongest when we stand in solidarity with others when we are united as one single working class regardless of our differences we will not be fooled by those that want to divide us into antagonistic camps we know our strength comes from unity and from this unity comes true worker power an injury to one is an injury to all when we allow undocumented workers to accept unfair wages and unsafe working conditions because they are afraid to organize or protest from fear of their own lives when we direct deafening military flights over our less privileged communities when we put deadly chemical plants in our black and brown communities when we bomb brown people all over the planet to control their resource there is a denial and gas that are literally killing us when we have such gross inequality of wealth in this country and in this world that the richest imagine however delusionally that they can escape our mutual destruction we are planting the seeds of our shared apocalypse specifically as residents of Vermont I'm asking everyone here US senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and ask them to oppose the farm worker modernization act they've indicated so far some support for this and it's already passed the house with the support of our representative in congress and it's a bit of a trojan horse people are selling this as something that would add protections for undocumented workers but in fact it would institutionalize their inequality it includes provisions like an 8 year plan to apply for permanent residency and in those 8 years you have to work for the same farmer you become an indentured servant to that person and there's no accommodation for injury which as you may know happens to be a kind of common thing on the farm if you do this for 7 years working for the same employer that you have absolutely no way to speak out against for fear of losing your path to residency if in year 8 you're injured that's too bad for you you're out of the system, you're out of luck you're out of the country so we ask that you call your senators and ask them to oppose the farm worker modernization act we demand immediate citizenship for all essential workers they literally fed us and served us during the worst of the pandemic often at cost to their own lives we demand a quick and efficient and fair path to citizenship for all undocumented workers and when you call senators Leahy and Sanders and tell them you oppose the act tell them that you want to see stronger legislation that will guarantee these rights for all our workers we know that the greatest victories are won when organized labor fights with the downtrodden whoever and wherever they are the fight for economic justice is the fight for social justice the fight against worker exploitation is the fight against racism and sexism and xenophobia Martin Luther King knew this when he went to Memphis why did he go to Memphis to support the sanitation workers strike James Baldwin knew this when he wrote in his open letter to Angela Davis this is a nineteen freaking seventy said as long as white Americans take refuge in their whiteness so long as their whiteness puts so sinister a distance between themselves and their own experience and the experience of others they will never feel themselves sufficiently human sufficiently worthwhile to become responsible for themselves their leaders, their country, their children or their fate they will perish in their delusions and this is happening already all around us he saw that in 1970 it's screamingly and terrifyingly obvious now so I really am grateful to this group and to Mohammed for inviting us because we have to support all these causes, there is no difference between them and so keep doing what you're doing support these other causes, thank you for coming out here you're beautiful thank you David next I'd like to introduce Mohammed Abdi he will be speaking for the black perspective thank you guys all for being here today we humans come from different places speak different languages practice different cultures and traditions we all understand right from wrong but a great area does exist that area is our differences it can unite us if we make space for it and it can divide us if we don't create that space I did not join this fight to only fight my own side I don't think any of you joined this fight to only ultimately fight each other our enemies are different from one another yet they still are united even though it's unification rooted in hatred skin color will not unite us geographic location will not unite us religious beliefs will not unite us language will not unite us only love and solidarity will unite us love and solidarity will unite us because love and solidarity are only common denominator our difference in opinion will only create animosity which will create room for the fall of our love and solidarity in order to maintain our mutual understanding we must respect each other of course if those attributes such as our beliefs and languages create biased behaviors or linked to hatred that we must address that with dignity and respect but still we must understand we are all biased in one fashion or another within independence you will find unity when everyone way of life is respected you will find peace and a willingness to expand one's horizon ultimately everyone wants a better world not a world that's only good for them as a black man I want you to understand that the home for us didn't start when black lives matter hit your screen or newspaper nor did it stop after a white man got 22.5 years from earlier another one of us when we mourn for life everyone should feel that the life we want isn't any different from the one you want if anything life already be more challenging yet still a life we deserve to keep the moment we allow people to murder someone we fell love the moment we allow people to murder someone we fell solidarity when we let people get away with hatred another we lost our only common unity we let hatred happen for so long now we wonder why we're so disconnected from each other's pain when one of us is in pain we should all be angry we should all want to stop that pain create procedures to not let it happen ever again I'm here for you and of course I expect you to be here for me let's come together in the name of love and solidarity and I just want to say also in terms of the black perspective I just wanted to say that there's definitely been some sort of tension going on and I wanted to just come out and say that I do definitely apologize for any of my shortcomings because it is very important for me to acknowledge that I did behave negatively in the situation so I just want to clarify that I do apologize for that and moving forward I will work with anyone that is willing to stand by me in my fight for freedom and I will stand by anyone for their own freedom as well because it's not just one way love it is a two way love so if I'm going to receive love I'm going to give love and I appreciate every single one of you guys for being here today Big respect to Mohammed Abdi the director of the black perspective and you can tell that Mohammed has been doing some boots on the ground like really active work because the way he holds the mic when you're holding a bullhorn you got to get real on it so shout out to those who know about that community engagement if you definitely want to engage within the community through the black perspective please see the guy in the yellow hat Mohammed Abdi next on the mic for introduction is Mark Lease he's a patent lawyer in south Burlington he's a member of the national lawyers guild and served on NLG delegations to Gaza and Venezuela he has been a leading member of the campaign to stop the F-35s since 2010 he writes a regular column on cancelf35.substack.com and is speaking today for cancel the F-35 call for peace and security please welcome James Mark Lease hey James hey man James you're awesome homeless guy got we want to make sure that here's the mic talk about it there's a guy named Perry that got the living tar beat out of him over around the corner and he's a homeless guy a living tar about channel 17 it doesn't matter man I don't know how to work that camera and Perry got beat up last night and literally got beat up and he's a he's a fucking A man no man Perry got beat up by a bunch of goddamn college kids man so fuck the college kids I dropped the mic thank you alright so what I take from that is that everyone should really show everyone respect whether young or old whether in home or homeless respect should be given to everyone because we're all human beings so the amplified voice of the community it's necessary because we all need to hear what's going on even if it doesn't come out cross as cooth as everyone would like it's the voice of the community it's not that I mean it's very needed so give yourself a round of applause and back to James for the rest of the introduction thank you very much so 245 years ago today 56 revolutionaries issued a declaration calling for overthrowing British rule and instituting a government based on the consent but slaves did not benefit nor did the indigenous tribes nor did workers or farmers or women it was a revolution that secured power for property owners the one percent it took until 1967 when Martin Luther King identified the US government as quote the greatest purveyor of violence in the world he called for a new revolution to abolish racism poverty and militarism we need that revolution now the facts show climate catastrophe millions unhoused a starvation minimum wage student debt extreme income inequality tax loopholes for the rich a failed healthcare for profit system systemic racism mass incarceration cops killing with impunity money in elections killing our democracy torture US bombs just dropped on Gaza simple endless illegal wars based on lies and both political parties controlled by a vicious ruling class we need the revolution Martin Luther King called for here in Vermont to protect 3000 black brown immigrant and working class families including a thousand children and 3000 affordable homes that are targeted by the F-35 jets according to the Air Force's own report on the subject in that report the Air Force itself warned that the noise 115 decibel noise of the F-35 damaged hearing and impaired learning for children since the planes the F-35 jets arrived almost two years ago more than 600 people have gone online filled out a report describing pain injury and distress now the US Constitution requires that the training conducted by state national guards conform to the laws prescribed by Congress these laws and the military's own regulations protect civilians from such military training operations the hundreds of F-35 training flights each month in a city are illegal under our constitution and laws they are immoral they are unjust and they have to stop you cannot say you are protecting democracy while you are ignoring the town meeting votes that happened in Burlington in 2018 and in Winooski just four months ago Burlington called for cancelling the plan to base the F-35 Winooski experiencing the noise voted two to one to halt the training flights in any populated area including Winooski we need a revolution to restore the consent of the government this government in Montpelier is ignoring the town meeting votes ignoring the rights of the people to determine their future and their safety the government touts jobs instead they say jobs is more important than democracy but that's false we need jobs that protect the planet not F-35 jets that destroy it did you know that each 35 practice flight in Vermont burns 25 gallons of jet fuel every minute that's 1500 gallons an hour they're practicing with huge amounts of oil to make war for oil the F-35 is a planet killer on steroids and that's not even counting the bombs and missiles they're going to be dropping on civilians just as they've been dropping them in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria the Constitution reserves to each state the authority over the training of its National Guard the responsibility shifted from the federal government which under the Constitution is responsible for arming the militia that was the basing decision but now it's training the militia and the training under the Constitution is reserved to the states but when you hear the governor or when you hear the adjutant general they won't take that responsibility they blame the federal well do you know why because they know the F-35 is deeply unpopular we saw those votes in Burlington and Winooski and they are trying to to avoid responsibility but we know that the state of Vermont has the power to halt the F-35 training flights it's written right in the Constitution the US Constitution instead the governor is targeting civilians with F-35 jets in violation of law in opposition to town meeting votes we have an extremist governor obsequiously subservient to the military industrial complex we have a compliant legislative leadership that hasn't even put together a hearing to hear from the people in Winooski in Burlington in the neighborhood of South Burlington and in Williston they haven't heard a single voice from any of the people affected what's wrong with that legislative leadership where's Jill Kroinski when we need her she's the speaker the state is literally assaulting people planet, law and democracy itself with F-35 training flights in a densely populated area where it doesn't belong the governor and the entire state political and military leadership must be held to account so to make the new revolution we need solidarity among all of us we can't win on any issue without that solidarity but together we can win on all of them to preserve the planet to halt the coming wars to abolish the F-35 and to accomplish the revolution Martin Luther King called for first of all we need the same solidarity exhibited by those 56 who signed the declaration 245 years ago we need that revolution and we need that solidarity now thank you very much thank you partner not all that long ago I read with great irony that Burlington is making illegal the use of gasoline leaf blowers because they're too noisy what? so I'd like to call up Mohammed he's going to make some closing remarks I don't know where he went well uh yeah this is the conclusion so we have some food right down there we have some petitions that people can sign and also we're just going to make some space for anyone who wants to talk you can definitely come up and talk because we're here and in terms of the coalition itself we're just here to amplify people's voices so if anybody does want to speak about any initiative, any petition anything really you can come up and definitely go ahead and do that here we go all right awesome I'm a social justice activist and advocate I want to thank Mohammed and the black perspective they've actually really been there for me in my latest really entanglement with the law for the first time about a year ago I started advocating for a missing black man from Barry Vermont his name is Ralph Jean Marie he was reported missing two days after he reportedly went missing and that's about where the case is at a year later there's been no arrests no leads and the first person to be charged in relation to the case is me as ironic as that is and I'm sure I'd be happy to answer questions for anyone who has them after I'm not going to go into it too much here but I very publicly demanded accountability from the police chief and state's attorney at a press conference and put out there that I had confirmed a security video was obtained by police and for whatever reason they do not want the public to know that they have a security tape from the hotel Ralph went missing and I'll never understand that I would think anyone would just assume that in a missing person's case where the police have stated that Ralph has probably been murdered to me it's just kind of common sense that they would collect video tape from the hotel I will never understand why acknowledging that is so dangerous but it is so I was called into court under a secret inquest to reveal my sources and I refused because I feel very strongly that ma that the sources are at risk of danger and retaliation by the police and I believe that the reaction of the legal system really confirms that so for those of you who don't know what a secret inquest is it is a crazy scary tool so you are called into a legal proceeding which is secret and I don't know how this is legal but you're not allowed to have a lawyer in there with you so it is literally you a judge a stenographer and the prosecutor and you are asked to make decisions I was given less than 24 hours notice so I didn't have time to consult with an attorney and you know so I just did the best I could and I refused to answer questions and I was charged with contempt which in Vermont you can be jailed for up to 18 months without a trial and I just had my second hearing I'm covered by a journalist law which the prosecutor knew I was a journalist over a year ago and he still charged me which is illegal and you know this experience has really shown I've never experienced firsthand how systematic the system is to absolutely crush any dissent especially when you're advocating for a black man and I remember having this moment of clarity when I was on the witness stand during the secret inquest when I was told you will answer the question or I could send you to jail right now without a trial and I remember just having this moment of clarity where it's like this is what happens when you advocate for a missing black person this is what happens when you have the audacity to demand that the police do something about it and claim some sort of accountability and you know as my hearings are coming and going and I'm waiting for the final judgment and I had this reflection the other day when I was putting my shoes on to get ready to go to my last hearing and just like I'm extremely privileged I am extremely privileged 1. I'm white 2. I'm not going to lose my job if I go to jail my employers have been very supportive and they say go sit in jail for 18 months your job's going to be here for you 2 years ago when I was supporting myself I would not have the option I have a very supportive partner who's been very encouraging I've had the support of Muhammad and the black perspective I've had really good support from the activist community and just a good part of the community in general as the word's gotten out there I have a really good mental health care team that's really been an integral part of me keeping it together people don't have these privileges and this would have crushed a lot of people it is a lot of pressure to have a police department and a state's attorney and the state of Vermont seeking to destroy you and I never would have been able to appreciate the kind of pressure and I have more of an understanding now how people get stuck in the legal system and they never get out and you know in a way I have to thank and police chief Tim Bombardier down in Barrie because they've really strengthened me as an activist and they've really shown me the value of the people in my life and they've really shown me how strong I am and they've strengthened my resolve to hold them accountable I don't think that's the outcome they wanted but that's what they're getting and so to them I could just say thank you and thank you to all of you thank you for sharing your experience this is what the space is all about and being here in solidarity thank you for the alliances that are here the positive alliances evening and hearing this space is for amplification publicly it's a public space welcome to City Hall Park in Burlington but also I'd like to let everyone know that in the other parks and recreation spaces such as Battery Park and a lot of protests and demonstrations that happened last summer that really showed the differences in reference to standing against police brutality in reference to what was going on in other parts of the country but in Battery Park consistently we'll be having space for amplification also in reference to the support from the Neighborhood Planning Association shout out to wards one two and three of Burlington the Neighborhood Planning Associations gave opportunities for myself in the community to amplify the sound system that you're hearing this great use is a part of the community engagement support shout out to the Racial Justice Alliance group that's headed by Mark Hughes shout out to the black perspective this alliance this sound equipment that not to get into too deep of it I wish I could I was to be completely honest I've been waiting for a moment like this to stand on a soapbox of sorts and talk about an organization that was in the community for umpteen years that had the pandemic in the midst of it had the opportunity to amplify the awareness COVID awareness just basic COVID awareness in a underserved community specifically the community of Winooski the city of Winooski that has the most diverse community members like in the state of Vermont from all different parts of the of well you know I don't want to go into too much of the the clarity of detail because I like for the space to be held for people living in those experiences a big shout out to those who are from the community of Winooski the new American community but this organization was supposed to amplify during the COVID times of COVID it didn't happen and this is what it was supposed to be about just letting everyone know especially in that community things that are important process even in different languages so not to get too much into detail but anyone who wants to talk about it oh this is what the space is for for the introduction of the networking of further amplification but in battery park on a consistent for the last couple weeks we've been holding space for amplification for and that was supported by the racial justice alliance group and the neighborhood planning association they'll be the first of its kind but not the last of its kind community amplification called the neighborhood multicultural festival it's much more than a performance space it's just literally letting everyone in the community and those visiting the community know what's going on in the community and around the community and the space between Winooski and Burlington which desperately needs to happen big shout outs to Burlington high school Winooski high school right now there's a lot of summer programs and activities that's being ramped up post pandemic and the community it would be well vested to know about it and because that engagement builds everything that's what community is all about so this space is amplified for that shout out to everyone who's been able to grace the mic and amplify we're calling out one more time anyone to have this public space as a space for amplification I did hear a community member shout out to those who are of the community whether they are home housed or whether they're without homes letting us know about some of the actual violence that can happen in a public space and there's definitely been a violence in reference to those who are homeless literally catching up to what was said yes there's a big act of violence on right close by I think it's by the post office right it's still there in reference to the scene of it and that's disturbing I didn't know that until just now so just like it's been amplified the voice of those who would like to share it in a free public space that's that's what we welcome here so thank you and here's another voice of amplification I just wanted to say thank you to Lee for advocating for understanding what happened in the disappearance of Ralph Jean Marie and I think it's a great privilege that it takes to stand up in our community against the powerful institutions and I believe that experience because I've experienced systemic injustice as a union member working in a local social service agency and at that social service agency they target union activists very routinely and it is not something that you would expect in a public image and the professional signage that they sometimes put up a year ago I believe that they even put up a banner over root 7 that suggested that they believe that black lives matter but there's rampant racism within those institutions and when people speak out they're often targeted and marginalized and it's a very uncomfortable experience so having been through that experience and then also advocating for all of us in our community at the legislative level and having seen how the actions and behavior of legislators is all tangled up with powers that be in our society and that if you go into those spaces and you are upset about what's not happening in those spaces that people work to try to quiet you and silence you I've been yelled at many times by legislators and I've been yelled at inside of this building by legislators and I've been asked to be quiet by our legislators so we're done being civil and we are here to hear people and I did gain the skills that I demonstrated here earlier and you can too so we are here to end police brutality we're here to defund police we are here to abolish the police we are here to make sure that the resources are spent on humanizing people and welcoming people in our community seeing everyone and looking at the level of human need that isn't met and putting our resources there I see someone's quite eager to speak but one thing that hasn't yet been said and addressed is that the Vermont National Guard isn't just damaging our hearing and damaging our brains and damaging children's development with the F-35 planes the Vermont National Guard has been poisoning our waterways with PFAS chemicals so those chemicals can be found in the body of every single person who can hear my voice right now this is not separate from you and the Vermont National Guard was recently exempted by our state legislature from any accountability for stopping using those chemicals even though alternatives exist so they use those chemicals in the firefighting phones that they use for drills and they say that that's necessary and when we ask them why is there such a high rate of cancer in Vermont why are there so many people dealing with major health challenges that don't really have an explanation and then the institutions that we set up are silencing activists and the courts are intimidating people who speak out on behalf of people who are oppressed and then once in a while you will hear someone in the city council here say they believe in the system but what is it that you believe in thank you very much ok so I'm just going to hand the microphone to Mohammed to wrap up do you know if people want to be heard so go ahead real quick what is it you believe in I mean if you suggest that there pesticides in the water then you have to go to the water and figure out what the pesticides what was the chemical in the water but yeah so like what do you believe in so wow it echoed it bounced off those walls and it bounced off those walls and then it bounced right back to me and I said you know so here I am standing in the middle of a beautiful street in the middle of beautiful commerce and he shut the camera off and I said why did he shut the camera off I mean aren't I just talking to you so so what I was getting to the moral of the story was that I would ask what is the benefit of good talk Mohammed for the closing remarks thank you for everybody for being a part of this even in your listening this is important to have community engagement in a public space too so shut out one more time alright yeah thanks all for coming I appreciate all the speakers so I just wanted to say that the coalition for Solidarity is definitely still accepting other organizations that are interested in being a part of it so reach out to me or Jimmy what we're doing right now is we're collecting all the platforms for different organizations so that we can get back to the members of the coalition so that we can be completely connected and support each other's content and after that we're just going to go based off of whatever people want to support if there's an initiative that people want an event or demonstration on March we're going to help put that together so that's what this coalition is for so thank you all for being here, appreciate it have a good one it's a good day enjoy the day as you all thank everyone who's been speaking and made their voices heard have a great day everyone once again thank you for the racial justice alliance group, the black perspective and also the community for being represented here today