 Welcome, welcome, welcome. I did want to just kind of remind you of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and some of the work that we're doing. And I'll cover some of that later. And the only reason why this is really important is I just want to establish some premise for the work that we're doing, some give you some foundation because with justice for all, that's the C4 organization that actually led to the work of the Racial Justice Alliance and in conjunction with that work, what we have been able to do over the last several years is create a pretty extensive body of work in addressing systemic racism in the state. Of course, we didn't call it systemic racism when we started to work because I didn't really know what that was. And I was, what we were doing was is we were addressing racial disparities in the criminal justice system initially and we'll talk more about that a little bit later. Why is this important? The reason why it's important is is what I'm doing is is I'm premisesing the work because it's so important to make those connections as far as how we found ourselves where we are. Fast forward to the Racial Justice Alliance and yes, I will fill in the blank with some of that work in a little while, but fast forward to the Racial Justice Alliance. What we're here to do is to create that sustainable power and ensure that there's agency and provide security for American descendants of slavery while embracing their history and preserving their culture. That's the mission statement of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. And that's how we're positioned to do the work of the platforms and initiatives, which PR2 is a part of a one element of this platform of this last biennium. The platform was ACT, Acknowledge, Create and Transform. So as a part of that platform, it was a pretty good sized list of initiatives, legislative agenda. And so this is PR2 as a part of it. One moment, please. Senator, like I told you, we're at the Richard Kim Center, like I told you and we've got, we're inviting guests in and so forth. So we have, you Seth just came in and we were, for some of my reason, I thought we were all zoomed tonight, but anybody who comes in the door, we're gonna let them in the door. I just wanted to just make you aware in addition to platforms and initiatives. Oh, let me just pause there. The legislative agenda for the previous biennium was called Change Vermont. And it was pretty, I think, in some ways it was kind of challenging because there is this sentiment that, here in Vermont, we just never wanna change. But I think the more we dig into this work and the more that we vision who we are as a state and who we are as a people and where we're going politically, economically, spiritually, the whole nine yards, we do understand that, of course, we need to always be changing. The funny thing about that is, is we had that old red barn and on the side of it, it said, sadly, take back Vermont. And what we did is we crossed out to take back and we put change over it in a same font. So it drew attention to say the least. And that was when we started the constitutional amendment, which was in 2019. And you'll see in a little bit that this thing's been going on for nearly four years. Outreach and education is part of what we're doing right now. We link all of our policies, our platforms and initiatives, most all of them, to some form of outreach and education initiative, community engagement and support, just a whole bunch of stuff that we're doing in community from small business grants and personal assistance across a rapid response and affinity spaces. And there's our flagship First African Landing Day, just all types of stuff with community engagement and support which actually intersects with our cultural empowerment piece, which is the cornerstone of everything that we do. I wanna talk a little bit before we get too deeply into this, is I wanna talk about systemic racism because what we keep saying it and nobody seems to be able to define it so well, we defined it. So what we did is we, and some of the work that we've been doing is we've, all of us within the Alliance, everybody, most everyone on staff because we just brought someone on recently. So I don't, I wanna be accurate in what I'm saying, but most all of us carry a book around with us and it's called Racist America, Roots, Current Realities, Future Reparations, just by this old white guy out of Texas, his name is Joe Fagan and Kimberly Ducey helped him with this book. He's got about maybe 58 other books that he's written and we pulled the definition and this, this is one, there are many definitions of systemic racism and the reason why I wanted to share this with you is because I really never, it's kind of like American Express, I usually don't leave home without it because all of our work is largely premised in the fact that, you know, there are unjustly gained political and economic power that's possessed by white people and there's also a continuing economic and other resource inequalities along racial lines. And we've figured that out, not just through our historical research, but also through our, through our quantitative and qualitative analysis that's ongoing, that's documented on our website and that is also available in various forms across many, many other venues. And so we see more and more today that there are racial disparities that are adverse impact and black folks across all of our social determinants, housing, education, employment, health services access, economic development, transportation, the so-called criminal justice system and the list goes on and on and it's well documented and it's consistent and it's persistent and it's simultaneous and it's insidious. So these are, this is what we connect to the institution of slavery. So a lot of times, and the reason why this conversation is really important is because there is a lexicon we've established where we refer to systemic racism as a legacy of the institution of slavery. And I know a lot of folks have a hard time making that connection, but we believe it's well established and we also believe that maybe there's some folks who will never come to an understanding that there is a connection between slavery and what we call the systemic racism or the legacy of slavery. But this is where we're premised, this is the work that we're, this is how we premised the work that we're doing and it's actually how we discovered the constitution in its current state because our work, which is lengthy, led us to the constitution and we became concerned about some of the language in the constitution. I also wanna mention the emotion-laden racist framing, racist framing created by whites to maintain and rationalize privilege and power. Systemic racism I think is important to understand that it encompasses the dominant white racial frame. In other words, we're not talking about, we're talking about dominant, we're not talking about all white people, we're talking about the framing that the vast majority of folks frame things with racist attitudes, ideologies, emotions, narratives, as well as discriminatory actions. Now we start to get into overt racism because that takes an individual discriminatory actions and what you see from this definition is that overt racism is actually born out of systemic racism. So very difficult to have a conversation these days, many days about systemic racism without a person trying to leap to the end of the conversation and declare that they are not a racist. Well, the conversation surrounding systemic racism has nothing to do with whether anybody is a racist. It has more to do with the remnants, the legacy of slavery and the ongoing impact that it has on black and brown folks in America today. So I just wanted to frame that up if it exists anywhere, it exists everywhere by its nature. It's insidious, it is auto-correcting, self-correcting, it is self-healing, it morphs when it's identified. So this is something that we as a nation have dealt with throughout the entire history of this nation, this thing that we call systemic racism. So I wanted to make sure that you didn't get away without me sharing that with you today. I don't feel special because everybody who usually gets on with us has the opportunity to hear some of those, some of that parts of that definition. Now, I want to talk, before I go through this slide, I think what I might want to do is, I think what I want to do is I'm going to skip over some of this presentation and share with you a little bit about ACT, that legislative agenda that I told you about a little while ago. Now, keep in mind that while all of this is going on, there's community engagement and support happening, there's outreach and education happening, there's cultural empowerment happening, but this right here, what we're talking about is as platforms and initiatives, in this platform, this platform is a statewide platform. There is also a citywide platform that we've introduced here called Operation Phoenix Rise in the city of Burlington. We may go over a piece of that perhaps, but I just, I think this is all really, really important because it premises the work that we're talking about. It's this stuff, a lot of this stuff predates PR2. A lot of this stuff, we were working on things that are in front of you right now, that we were working on before we started to work on PR2. So when we went into this last legislative session, which was two years ago, the Acknowledge, Create, Transform legislative agenda, yes, PR2 was already on that agenda, why? The reason why is because it takes two biennium to pass the constitutional amendment. So keep in mind the legislature, the Senate, as well as the House would happen in 2019 and 2020, in 2019 and 2020, this is the 21 and 22 legislative agenda that you're looking at now. But in 2019 and 2020, what happened is, is PR2 was introduced to the Senate, along with our changed Vermont legislative agenda, some of which, some of these items were on it as well because they carried over. It came out of the House, the Senate Government Operations Committee was passed almost unanimously in the Senate in 2019 with the exception of one vote. We can't hear you, Mark. We can't understand that. Now we can hear you. We had already, when this was introduced, we had already passed PR2 out of the full legislature one round, okay? So that's very important to understand. Is there something wrong with my microphone? It was, but we can hear you now. Okay. All right. So I don't wanna mess up my momentum here, but for some odd reason, I just wanna make sure that. Okay, so the other piece that I wanted to show you, before we get too deeply into this, and I'm just gonna skip over some slides because I'm not gonna, you know, give you like death by PowerPoint today, is this component here and so as you can see, the constitutional amendment, as I told you before, and I know it's gonna take a little bit of patience and it's gonna take a little bit of perseverance just to kind of sit through this little piece that goes on the front end because everybody just wants the details. Everybody's like, well, what's it gonna do? Or why are we amending the Constitution? I thought we were the first state to abolish slavery or all of those conversations. Okay. All I'm asking right now is just give me a little attitude and let me explain to you how we got where we are. Okay, fair enough. So, and then what I'll do is I'll pause instead of talking at you before we get into the constitutional amendment. You know, we can have a little conversation and we can move a little bit further, but this is the 101. This is kind of, you know, this is the best way that I can figure out how we as an organization, because we owe it to you. We owe it to the state. We're not broadcasting today because we had some difficulty. We'll be back on Saturday. We have another engagement on Tuesday. We have another engagement on Wednesday. I think the All Souls Church on Saturday, the First Congregational Church on Tuesday, the First Baptist Church on Wednesday, the library here in Burlington on Thursday will be broadcasting from there. So we're going to be at it. We're going to be after this and we're going to be explaining this in a similar way, every step of the way. So I want to just bring your attention to the dates here because in 2017, there was no PRT. Why? Because you can't amend the constitution in 2017. Did we know that the language existed in 2017? Yes, we knew. But it was 2015 was the time that you could have amended the constitution before this. Why? Because the constitution says that you can only amend it every four years. So what you see is that we discovered this in 2015. We're a little bit late to the party and nobody really understood it or even hardly believed it. What would happen is here in 2017, we would come with a legislative agenda, which would be our first legislative agenda. And this is as justice for all in 2017. What were we coming with? And I'm not going to go over this whole list, so be patient with me. I just want you to know that in 2017, what we discovered is, and this is going to shock and appall some of you because we just saw recently a report by our state auditor, Mr. Doug Hoffer, that really speaks to exactly what I'm getting ready to tell you is, can you believe that some of the police weren't doing their training? Can you believe that the fear and impartial policing policy wasn't being properly implemented during that time? Yeah, so it's like deja vu all over again. So what was happening during that time is we wanted to create an oversight apparatus for the entire criminal justice system that's Title 20, 2366 and Title 20, 2358. That would include race data collection policy and training. So what we asked for was an oversight apparatus. What we got was an advisory apparatus. So that was at 54. Now, what a lot of people don't realize, very, very important because this right here is this is what pivots everything. Is is that what we discovered is as there was a secondary portion to that policy, the secondary portion was the attorney generals and the human rights commission's task force on disparities in all systems of state government. Now, think about that. What we discovered through that reporting and through that analysis conducted by the attorney general and the human rights commission was is that there is, in fact, there were, in fact, and there is, in fact, racial disparities across all systems of state government. This is, and if you wanna find this, you're in front of your computer, I know you are, just go ahead and Google, Act 54, attorney generals and human rights commission's task force, all systems. And you will be able to pull that report up and you'll be able to view it for yourself. Why is that so critical? Because it validated this assertion that this systemic racism was a thing as we were moving through this thing, as we continued to try to figure this whole thing about the institution of slavery. The next year, we'd go on to implement the racial equity executive director panel. That was our legislative agenda. That's, and what we sought to do is to create that and that panel would be independent from the state government of Vermont. It is not. We sought independence. What we got is is that the governor said, nope, she's gonna report to me. So that's why Susanna Davis reports to the governor today. Unfortunately, she really doesn't even report directly to the governor because it was his discretion to place her under the agency of administration. It was formerly Susanna Young, who's now our attorney general, but that bill was actually vetoed initially and we had to compromise. The list goes on and on and I will just flag that HR 25 is incredibly important because HR 25 introduced by representative China in 2018. Now, at this time, we had already watched the state of Colorado attempt to amend their constitution to abolish slavery and fail. And then they tried again and this would be the year in which they'd done so. Very important. And I'm gonna pause right after this, is that what we sought to do is because we knew that the constitution could be amended in 2019. Now watch this. Only the Senate can initiate a constitutional amendment. Only the Senate in only every four years. So thank you. So what we knew is in 2018, if we were to do anything, we could send up a smoke signal. So what we did is in the house, we said, how about if you, how about if you provide a, introduce a resolution, house, introduce a resolution urging next year's Senate to amend the constitution. So this is very, very little known. In part of it, and I'm not picking on NBC five, I'm glad you're here, but part of the reason why that is, is because it's not being covered. These things are not being covered in the press. This is why we are less than seven weeks out and there's so little information out on this because this is not sexy. This is not, this is not really, it's really not even comfortable, quite frankly. And nobody really, why would you wanna talk about amending the constitution in the state where we were the first state to abolish slavery allegedly? So there, and then there's just this angst, obviously that folks, all folks, but now I'm talking about, you know, political and economic power, and I'm talking about white folks in general, there's this challenge. So that's one of the reasons why it's so important that our partners of Vermont Interfaith Action and the 70 congregations that we're working with us to include one of them, representing 16,000 people across the state is so important because we knew, we anticipated that this was gonna be a challenge getting the word out. So anyway, back to this, this HR 25, we did in fact, and this is a part of our history of Vermont and no one can ever take this away from us, there was a resolution, a house resolution in 2018 that was introduced that urged the 2019 Senate. Now, mind you, we were kind of in a similar situation that we're in right now, even year, what does the even year mean in the state of Vermont? It's an election year, doesn't make any difference which year it is, if it's an even year, it's an election year. And what that means is every single legislator is up for reelection in every single statewide official is up for reelection. So we knew that, the reason why I bring that point up is because they were urging a body that did not exist to take up the constitutional amendment to follow in year. We did the same thing in the Senate, the pro tem at the time was Tim Ash, he refused to even allow it to be introduced. But it was introduced in the house, but it didn't go anywhere because Sarah Copeland-Hanses allowed it to hang on the wall and die. That's the story, you got it from me. So we were at this thing already even before 2019. The reason why I'm showing you this slide here is just to let you understand that there were a bunch of other things that we were doing to include the, and I think that should be 478, the reparations bill should be, it was actually 478 that year. Well, that's, I'm sorry, that's actually, I think it might be alluded to this year. Just suffice it to say, we've had a reparations bill in the house for the last four years. So we started that this in 17. We knew it wasn't gonna go anywhere in 19, but we brought it back anyway. But you see the health equity bill, which you just saw pass this year. Our last year, rather, you see the resolution, public health emergency that just passed last year, joint resolution and others. And there's also some Burlington work and we didn't date these, but all of this stuff is converging on the conversation of systemic racism. And now this sets us up to have a conversation of why the constitution. Because really what we're talking about is, is the institution, forget about what the constitution says, let's just say hypothetically, the constitution said that slavery was permitted. Just humor me. Let's just say hypothetically, our constitution in Vermont says that slavery existed or is permitted in any way. Connecting all of the dots that I just gave you, and I'll just open it up right now and stop a screen chair for any form of conversation if anybody wants to. But given the conversation that I just gave you, or the background that I just gave you, is it becoming, maybe it's becoming increasingly clear that what we're doing here is, is we're connecting dots because we believe that the institution of slavery is reprehensible. And I think everybody on this call would probably agree with that. If you do, just nod your head. If you don't, then get off. No, I'm just kidding. So there is a common agreement that it is a crime against humanity. The institution of slavery. I think we all understand that it is an abomination. It has created so much pain, so much distrust, so much anguish in what we understand here as we connect the dots and we look at its legacy, that it has sustained itself and it continues to create. Racial across political and economic divides across racial lines. So anything to do with the institution of slavery, we ought to have a problem with it. Can we all agree on that? We ought to have a problem with that. And if we don't, that's fine, because if there's somebody here who's not persuadable on that particular point, then not only are you on the wrong call, but I'm not gonna have that conversation with you. In fact, I'm not even interested, quite frankly, in having a conversation with a bunch of persuadables, because I believe in my heart and I've overestimated this state before. And it was a huge slap in the face when I saw how CARES Act and ARPA funding was distributed, but that's a whole another conversation because this is a political and economic divide along racial lines. We'll come back to that. But the point I'm really getting after is simply that we do see, again, we talked about the Act 54, Attorney General's and Human Rights Commission's report. We see all of the data on our website. We understand our history of a nation. We know what the Civil War was fought for. We know that there was no constitutional convention that happened after it. We understand the impacts of the 13th, 14th, and the 15th amendments and what they tried to do and failed to do. We understand all of the Civil Rights Acts and what they tried to do and failed to do, but yet we are here and we're in 2022, post January 6th, 2021, where there were Confederate flags flying in our statehouse and we're still having a conversation about this thing that tore the nation apart. About this thing where the last time we as a nation tried to abolish it, it caused a secession, slavery. So this is an important conversation. This is an important conversation and it's important for us to talk this thing out and say, well, what are we doing here? And so I submit to you, I posit that if there is any language that in any way permits slavery in our constitution, we ought to do something about it. What are your thoughts? Camille and I saw you, you're first. Go ahead, get in there girl. I know you got something to say. Well, you know, shout out to you brother, because you out here, I saw an article trying to pull that up, that Vermont, what newscast was it? WCAX and they had a professor from Vermont Law School and shout out to Max for writing my letter recommendation to Vermont Law School's master's program though, but it's a whole other story because I will be talking to that law school because if they're gonna have me in there, they're gonna have to definitely figure out how to make it very clear to all the professors that this, that slavery not only exists, it still exists. Actually, if you watch that pollution today, the first episode says slavery is, what does it say Max? Slavery is still alive. Matter of fact, it was never abolished. And the whole except part, he's trying to say the professor that they had that it's not gonna change anything. It's just language and obviously it has to be a white man could say that because, you know, it's just so real out here. Look at the way we live in Vermont is like the black Vermont is how just so lost we are because we have never been able to fully be ourselves, express ourselves and it's everybody's issue. I always say to the light-skinned girls, you would be required to give your papers if you were on a plantation. So I don't know why, you know, this your problem too, to, if you watch Femme Patel, you'll see that it was the white woman's issues too. So it's everyone's issues because we're all trying to be citizens. And we're trying to weed the people, okay? So I'm with you, brother. And it's real out here, it's real out here. And you're out here doing the thing. You're out here speaking truth to power. So shout out to you. Yeah, I mean, the thing is, it's like, oh, look, Vince made it in. How about your boy, Vincent? Peace, peace, peace, everybody. So yeah, the thing is that it's important that we acknowledge, you know, the reality of the world that we're living in today. And I think one of the things that we got to get after is how do we help each other step past this cognitive dissonance and get to a point to where we're able to come to terms with what it is that we're looking at with the intention of doing something about it. With the intention of doing something about it. Because it is within our grasp today. I'm gonna tell you a little bit more about what we've come, all of the hurdles that we've traversed to get to the point to where we are today. And also, you know, just how short the path is to lead us to a point to where we've actually accomplished what it is that we sought out to do. But as far as what you've seen and heard so far, is there a general awareness of some of this stuff? Adrienne, have you heard of any of these policies that I mentioned like Act 54 or maybe Act 9 with their Racial Equity Executive Director, were you aware of the fact that this work was tied into some of the work, this constant, the work of amending the Constitution? I was not, but that's again, that's why I said, that's why I'm here, I wanna learn more and I wanna be able to articulate this correctly to people so they understand the significance of why something like this needs to happen in November. Cause like you said too, there isn't a lot of coverage on this and this is something that's extremely important and it'll understand why it's not more prevalent in our newscast, especially when it's just something that people are gonna be voting on. Yeah, I appreciate that and I appreciate your kinder and just you showing up with your whole heart, that's really important. And I think, Jayna, just tying into the work that you're doing nationally and I know there's some prison labor, I said it, prison labor. A lot of people are saying that and I don't really use that term a lot but I know that some of this is tying into your work. I'd be curious to hear what prompted you to show up, how'd you end up here and how is this informing your work? Yeah, I appreciate you asking. So I mostly am here as an interested citizen because just with what's been going on around the country, I feel like if slavery, even a loophole is still on our amendment, things are getting worse in our countries so I fear like what that could mean for the future. Like if we have conservatives here, will they just get rid of that loophole and then we're stuck in something really dark? So I think it's important, I think this is really preemptive works for something that like, let's pray to God that it doesn't get that bad again. But I was down in Alabama and I learned that they're trying to take back voting rights for black folks. So that just like makes me think like, wow, they're hiding agendas. So I just appreciate the work you're doing to combat the conservative agenda. I appreciate you, I appreciate you being on. We've never, just so y'all know, I've never met Jaina before. I never even knew she was, that you were coming, Jaina. I didn't, I don't even know how you got connected to us but you are welcome and hopefully we can pull you in into Vermont. That's my girl, long time no see though, love you, love you. Just so you know, I mean, folks have asked me, they're like, have you considered getting out of here and what do you, I hear what you're saying and do you have plans to leave? And you know, as if somehow or another I'm gonna let somebody run me out of a state or something. I don't really, I think some of the premise is, is that well, if you're doing the work, then that must mean you don't like it here. So you wanna leave, let me tell you something. I've lived in 17 states and four countries and I've lived here longer than any place I've ever lived in my life. And the amount of time that I've been here is probably equivalent to maybe six or seven of the locations that I've been to combined. So I've been here 13 years. So, which means, what I'm really getting at is just that I'm old. But the point is, is that, you know, the work that we're doing, it's just to make, in my heart is to make something good better. There are good things about Vermont. But to think otherwise would somehow or another suggest that we are powerless or we are stupid. Those of us who are here and none of those are true. So I can get an A-man on that and we'll move on. I think, you know, where I wanna move to is, is if you do have contact information, Jaina, to the organization and those of us who are here and stuff like that, you know how to reach us, right? Yes, I, if I email you're just like generic contact info will someone message me? I don't know if I have anyone's email, so. Yeah, there's, Maya's gonna hook you up. She's gonna drop it in the chat. We don't wanna lose you. So don't be no stranger. So let's move on. Your boss, I said, hey, and I'm still waiting for my meeting. She knows what I'm talking about. By the way, I was gonna say Reverend Hughes. Boryang, who is the director for the Vermont Human Rights Commission has some nerve. Because one, she's a woman of color and she should be really pushing this. What was the act? It's the one that they are on with the attorney general. And I don't know if Susan Young, I'd get to meet her. But if it was the old attorney general, Thomas, why am I forgetting his name? Hey, she's my professor. Oh my God, what a day. He knows, you know. TJ. Yes, thought of it, thought of it. Yes. So I just, you know, I definitely think that they are aware. And that's the thing with Vermont. It's a lot of awareness, so not a lot of actions. And the difference between us and them, we are about that life and we're about that action life. So. Let me give you some, I'm gonna give, I feel you. I feel you, Corrine, but I'm gonna rush you through a couple of things real quick because what I'm doing is I'm giving you the facts. I'm giving you the facts on how we got here. I've heard, now understand, I conceived this constitutional amendment sitting at my dining room table in Cabot, Vermont in 2015. And I introduced it to our team and we were growing the JFA at the time. And by the time we got to the point of introducing Act 54, which was, I forget what the bill was, but at any rate, we had developed a consensus that this is something that we wanted to come back after, but a lot of things happened. And I've talked to hundreds, hundreds, hundreds of people across the state. I have folks within our organization, folks within our partner organizations. We have the Abali Slavery National Network, who are Max Parthas, thank you for joining us today. Partners at a national level, we have faith in action, partners at a national level, Vermont Interfaith Action, partners at a statewide level. And there's a lot of folks that are having a lot of conversation, focus groups have been conducted. So where we're at right now is we're having, we're getting a lot of feedback and I think I saw somebody fall off, I don't know who fell off, who did we lose? Oh, that was you? Okay, well, that was an unnecessary distraction. So what I'm getting ready to show you is I'm gonna give you a little bit of a taste of some of the things that have happened in 2016. And you can find this on Orca Media as well as CCTV. We interviewed all candidates for the Senate of Washington County and Chittington County. That would include folks like Debbie Ingram, who had no clue that it was even in the Constitution at the time and we laugh about that. Debbie's a really good friend of mine. That would include Tim Ash, that would include Ginny Lawyens, that would include folks like Ann Cummings at the time, Ashley Hill and others who were, you look back and see who historically was running for Senate in Washington. So I won't get into that. Nobody knew this language existed in the Constitution. Nobody knew. I remember walking down, I used to live in Montpelier walking down the street with Jim Condos. Jim, did you know? No way. These people took notes to this Constitution. This is the document where every legislative agenda is measured by the litmus test of this Constitution. In every argument of any of the constitutionality of any statute is measured at the ultimately at the Supreme Court against this document, the Constitution. In every elected official, every officer, every military official, everybody takes an oath to this Constitution. So that's how consequential the language in the Constitution is. So I didn't come to build this case too heavily but I just wanted to remind you whenever you hear anybody tell you that the Constitution is a historical document and that somehow or another, we can just leave language in this Constitution because we can use this Constitution as some kind of storage apparatus for some kind of relic or maybe some kind of, to memorialize some concept. I want you to categorically reject that because the Constitution is what we live by. It's what it governs every statute, every rule, every institution, everything that this state represents. So the language in the Constitution is very, very important. You don't believe me, go do something unconstitutional and see how quick you'll be in front of a judge. That's why I didn't understand why Peter teach out the professor of constitutional law Vermont Law School would say, and I quote in terms of substantive rights, it's absolutely no change. Like what causes it? Anyways, they'll deal with me when I talk to the class. I appreciate you Corrine, you're gonna see him. But you know what, just for the record, Peter actually, he and I get along and we, well, we don't agree to disagree, but we do agree that we don't agree. How many people like that? That's fine. So there's a track record. We went through the, I personally went to the Constitution, the platform convention and presented this because at the time I was the affirmative actions chair of the Vermont Democratic Party at that time. And the platform of the Vermont Democratic Party was changed and did reflect their desire to amend the Constitution to abolish slavery. And that held in 2018 and it was only in 2020 that they withdrew it. So if I was a reporter, I would ask the Vermont Democratic Party, why they withdrew that in the middle of the constitutional process because it hadn't finished yet. But I'm not a reporter. But the point I'm making is, is there's so many other things that we did. There's the racial justice reform coalition. We went to Senate leadership to urge them, as I told you before, to amend the Constitution the next year, Tim Ash refused to do so. I already told you what happened in the house, HR 25, that did happen, okay? And then of course, I just told you that the party reaffirmed its position on its platform in 2018. And there's more because what we did is that we put forward language for a proposal for the constitutional amendment in 2018. But did you know that the League of Cities and Towns, 251 towns represented unanimously passed a resolution expressing their desire that the Constitution be amended to reflect that slavery and voluntary servitude are prohibited in all forms. The League of Cities and Towns, it's on record. Where are they now? If I was a reporter, I would go to the League of Cities and Towns and ask them what their position is on this and why they've fallen silent on it in the 11th hour. But of course, I'm not a reporter. So here's another thing. Let's keep going on this. This is getting good. I have some of this. I'm excited because I had forgotten. Okay, so Senate by Senator Ingram. So, oh yeah. Senate passes at PR2, amend the Constitution removing slavery. There's testimony that went forward on it. Oh, looky here. The Vermont Episcopal Diocese, their consul unanimously approved the release of a letter to the Senate Government Operations Committee supporting PR2. This is the same Vermont Episcopal Diocese whose bishop is a black woman. What is her position on this today? I wonder what that is. Hmm, I don't know. I would probably go find out if I was an interested person on outside. We're too busy doing other things, but these are facts. Oh, did you know that the Vermont Governor's Workforce on Equity and Diversity consul unanimously voted? This is the governor's consul. Unanimously voted up on this thing. And then of course, you know, all of the other Senate, the legislative thing. Why am I telling you this? The reason why I'm going over this is because what I'm establishing is that the work has been done. The people have been reached, the conversations have been had, and there are various entities across this state to include the NAACP and the ACLU who have stood behind us on this leading through this process. Many of them are not around now. There are maybe reasons why that is. We're not concerning ourselves with that, but the point is that these are the facts. What are your questions concerning this so far? And then we're gonna go in and we're gonna take a look at this constitution and find out what the heck is in here. We have memories like elephants. So we'll remember them like they remembered us, right? Also, the governor will be in Burlington, so pull up, pull up, just say it. Maxwell, I mean, Maxwell. Maximus, do you have anything? Oh, I got it. What is your wisdom from Nepal Coffee Center? I always got plenty to say, but... Wise, wise, wise. Let me just say it like this. This is not just Vermont doing this. This is a national movement. This year alone, there's five on the ballot. We're doing the same. We've already done it in three other states in the past couple of years. As of 2023, there are nearly two dozen states who are also going to be doing the same thing. Six of them already have their legislation set and ready to go for 2023. It's a national effort because it requires a national response. We have to get to the point where slavery has been abolished from every state that has these caveats, which has fed or led to convict leasing, mass incarceration, warehousing of bodies, over-policing, criminalization of black life and minority life. All of these things stem from this incentivization of incarceration from the 13th Amendment. We got some work to do. Let's keep it moving. We're gonna come back to you, okay? We got some work to do because we haven't even... All of this conversation, we've been on this call now since over an hour. And now we finally got to the Constitution. We finally got to the Constitution. What in the heck are we doing? Why did we go through all of that stuff? Why did we go talk to all of those people? Why is it that we went in 2019? I ran then Senator Ingram down and said, remember, you said you was gonna do something about this. Okay, so we introduced that thing. We went into the Senate government operations where Jeanette White was chairing and we fought it out with Peter Teachout and Dick McCormick and others who were... And Dick McCormick, by the way, is the only one who voted against this in the Senate. We fought it out tooth and nail with the legislative council, with Peter Teachout. And they brought in so many concocted ideas and thoughts and they were outweighing us because they out politicized us because the legislature listens to them more than they listen to us. Besides, who is a nappy headed boy from Waterloo, Iowa, the fifth of five boys of a single mother who's never even finished an advanced degree? What could I possibly have to say up against an attorney who's been at the Vermont Law School for nearly 50 years? So there's a whole lot of factors and a lot of forces that we were fighting against. In fact, they were ready and you can go look back, those of you who are reporters, you can go and look back at what it is they tried to introduce because it's all on record that at the 11th hour, they were getting ready to introduce it to the full Senate. And the problem with that would have been is, once there are rules, once you release it from the Senate the first time, there is no way to amend that constitutional amendment. It's not like a bill. Once it comes out of that government operations, it is what it is. I'm gonna pause for a minute and ask you to think briefly and subliminally about PR5 and why you know so much about it, but you know nothing about this, okay? Take that with you, we're gonna keep moving. So this is what it is. This is the Constitution and this is the beginning of the Constitution. You don't have to go to Article 11 like you do to understand PR5 to find this. I can understand if you don't understand PR5 because it would take you so long to find it if you're reading the Constitution. This is the beginning of the Constitution. The first article, so if you set your stopwatch and you let me start reading, you tell me how long it takes you to find this to be problematic, starting now that all persons are born equally free and independent and have certain natural, inherent and uneliable rights amongst which are the enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Therefore, no person born in this country or brought from overseas ought to be holding my law to serve any person as a servant, slave or apprentice after arriving to the age of 21 years unless bound by the person's own consent after arriving to such age or bound by law for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs or the like, hard stop. As Maxos was saying, what is the like? That's just the beginning of the conversation. So what we've done is we've highlighted the problematic language because what we know it's after arriving at the age of 21 years old. So these are the exception clauses. These are the conditions where in which the Vermont Constitution permits slavery or I should say they forbid slavery but with these exceptions. The exception is if you are under the age of 21 that is unambiguous, very easy to read unless you're bound by your own consent. And also if you're bound by law for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs or the like, these are exception clauses. As in Vermont likes to enslave children. I'm not gonna get into the implications today because this is one-on-one. And by the way- No, back to facts, we're speaking in facts. But like I said, there are plenty of lawyers. You can't swing a cap without hitting a lawyer around here. So there are plenty of lawyers, there are plenty of legislators, there are plenty of folks that we got law school folks and all that other stuff. That's really, if we get stuck on exactly one of the things, remember what we agreed upon at the top of this conversation? Slavery is reprehensible. Slavery is an abomination. Slavery is a crime against humanity. That is all. So if we still agree upon that then what we should agree upon is something needs to be done about this language because what we're looking at here and what we've been experiencing here in the state of Vermont for the last 245 years is language in our constitution that under certain circumstances allows slavery. Is there any disagreement? Is there anybody on the call who sees this language and says, well, maybe it could mean something else? Perhaps the legislature got it all wrong twice. Maybe all these organizations that supported it, maybe they just, maybe they weren't looking at it straight. So what to do about it? The good news about what to do about it is is that the vast majority of it's done. This is the one-on-one. What we gotta do about it is is just like we were saying a couple of days ago show up and register, register to vote. And we're gonna, we continue to distribute masks, test kits. We're here now, there's gonna be, our scheduled hours of operation will be posted soon but this will always be a place where you can come to register to vote. This will always be a place. Even after this election, until I have nothing else to do with the racial justice alliance, we're always within the Kim Center, there's gonna be a voter registration application for you here. Okay, so because you can't vote for PR too if you not vote. But what we know, and now I'm gonna get on vote in just for a minute because so many people died for this. And so many people suffer as a result of it. And the voter suppression is at an all-time high and there are fewer people who can vote today than there was at the peak of the Civil War period in 1860. The, our rights have been decimated. The Civil, the Voter Rights Act of 1965 has been gutted. It has not been revisited. Voter suppression is only uprise and it's never been as critical. It's never been as serious as it is right now. And what we know about voting is this, just in case somebody missed the memo. If you take one group of people and that same group of people are the folks that you are electing and they're the same group of folks that are voting for the folks that you're electing and you do that for five years and 10 years, 100 years, 240 years. Then when you walk through their state house mostly everybody whose picture is in that state house will look the same. And what happens with that is is the vast majority of the time and this is human psychology. Forget about racism. This is human psychology. When you are elected, when you are placed in an executive position as an official and you are entrusted with appointee authority, the vast majority of people that you will appoint will look like you. That's psychology. That's why Phil's staff looks like him. But don't blame Phil because he didn't start it. So what we're talking about is voting and the importance of voting. So we don't wanna second guess that one. So that's one thing that we can do, that you can do is register to vote. Well, I'm already registered. Did you move? Did you get married? Did your status change in any way? It's not good enough to register. We need to stay on top of our voter registration status. I got a license. It's like your driver's license. You ever look at it? You might find it's expired if you're not careful. So your voter registration status is more important than your driver's license. So let's get after that. The second thing is you can go to VT, you can go to abolishslaveryvt.org. And we're struggling because we're doing a lot of things at the same time. So I'm not gonna apologize for the site but we're doing the best we can. We'll continue, we'll get on it. We'll continue to do that. So there's that as well. And take a look at some of the things that you can do. The most important thing you can do is take the pledge. Take the pledge because that's gonna also put you on a list and we're gonna reach out to you and gonna say, hey, you wanna get involved in a phone bank? Do you wanna get involved on some door knocking? We've got some signs, go grab one of them signs, man. We got some yard signs that people are scared to put in their yards. Because a lot of our partners across the state, there's so much white fragility that folks are afraid to have a conversation and even hold one of these signs up. These signs probably could be more toxic than the Black Lives Matter signs. And we've probably got more of them than Black Lives Matter has their signs, hold it up. So put a sign in your yard. Don't worry, when Black Lives Matter first started, those were in the trash, they had to collect them. Okay, so they'll come around. Stop by the Kemp Center and grab a T-shirt, grab a T-shirt. Stop by the Kemp Center and grab a T-shirt. Do I have one? Get a sticker. Get some stickers. And when you play at just gonna be some door knocking and there's some other stuff, put some money in the game. We're registered with the Secretary of State. Get some money in the game. Those are some of the things you can do. Why? Because this is what we wanna do with that language. What I'm saying is, and you can see there, hold on for a minute, let me just stop this for a minute. Look at there, look at that, look at that shirt. You got it. Send me a note, we'll send you some of them, just so you can have one for your- You got it. Yeah, we got you. We got you. So now again, this is one-on-one. We can get into the bushes, we can get into the weeds on this thing and get you all distracted and have you scratching your head saying, what is going on? Should I really, what is, and people are getting confused because again, there's this cognitive dissonance and folks are like, a lot of folks can't get past the fact that we are not the first state to abolish slavery because if we were, we wouldn't be looking at what we're looking at right now. You can say it however you wanna say it, you can slice it however you wanna slice it. And I don't mean it in a harmful way and I've been accused of being mean just for telling the truth before, but I just have to tell the truth. The Bible tells us that we are to do justice and to love mercy and walk humbly in all that we do. The Bible tells us that when we deal with people who are poor that we are not to oppress them because that's an abomination to the Lord God himself. So now let me talk to you like a preacher right now. And what I'm telling you is we don't just have a responsibility, we have a duty to address this because what this has created is it's created poverty and it has selected a certain group of people to be the benefactors of that policy, of that poverty and it's manifesting itself in housing, education, employment, health services acts across all of those social determinants. That is why we struggle with this so-called, this light, this word folks throw around lightly. Oh, it is equity, we need to do equity. No, we need to do justice. We need to love mercy and we need to walk humbly and this is part of our job. And whether you are a person of faith or whether you're agnostic or whether you're atheistic where your morals lie, where your worldview lies you know in your heart that this is the thing that we should be doing as a people because it's slavery and slavery is reprehensible, it is immoral, it is a crime against humanity. Amen, amen. So would you rather have this? You can't see my screen? Can you see my screen? Somebody talk to me. Yes, you can. Okay, that's your little iPhone thing. Her iPhone is just being persnickety. So would you rather have this or would you rather have that? All of the work is done. All we gotta do now is register, show up at the ballot box, show up at the ballot box. And again, think about how consequential this vote is. Think about this. One third of the legislature is turning over. What does that mean? They quit. Remember the great resignation? It's happening in the legislature too. One third of the legislation. No, thank you, I'm not coming back. I don't know that anybody knows of any time that that has ever happened before in this state. Okay, here's another thing. We've got five statewide officials that are also kind of jumbling around there too. And some pretty consequential elections amongst those five statewide officials to include the governor, the lieutenant governor's in interesting rates with Joe Benning and David Zuckerman. Oh, Zuckerman. This goes on and on. There's so many things going on. And I haven't even started with the congressional delegation where Becca Ballant, the first gay woman is vying for the seat of Peter Welsh who's vying for a seat left by Patrick Leahy. This is a huge election. And in addition to all of that, in addition to all of that, we've got not one, but two constitutional amendments in a state where it's more difficult to amend the constitution than probably any state in the union. And this one right here goes to the heart of, it goes to the heart of this whole idea of our civil rights and our civil liberties, our human rights here in this state. It goes to the heart of it because it talks about people owning people and people profiting from the work of other people. And where there aren't people, they're property. And it goes to the heart of everything to do with, everything that we're fighting for today. And that is the legacy of this institution. This isn't, forget about these words here and just think about it as it is an institution. This constitution was written in 1777. If there was any document written in 1777 that had any provision for slavery, don't tell me that they didn't know what slavery was because it was definitely shadow. So there is much, much more to unpack and I'll give that to you in maybe 102 or 201 or something like that. Maybe after the election, when we get to talking about the other implications, the other things that we know, and I'll just give you a preview and we'll go into a short discussion, we've already come to understand that this constitution was amended in 1924 and they went straight to this article in 1924 and where it used to say women under the age of 18 and men under the age of 21 changed it. So it would be women and men under the age of 21 in 1924. Don't tell me you didn't notice language was here. So that's advanced, it's relevant, it's important, but we're not gonna waive that flag right now. We can talk about that later. Folks are gonna talk about the fact that DCF, for example, in child protection services is black children are 60% more likely to be removed from their homes and 40% more likely to be adopted. Oh, that's what the Jamaicans would say, wickedness, wickedness. That's what the Jamaicans would say. This constitution is talking about slavery with folk under 21. We can talk about that later. We can talk about that later, but what I'm saying and I'm gonna leave you with this and this is something for you to think about and I'll open it up for a brief conversation. This is something for you to think about and this is for those who came to hear about prison slavery or prison labor. Watch this, this is free. I'm gonna give this to you free, read that. This is the premise upon which most of the states across the United States, if not all, are doing some of the work. Now, I already showed you the trajectory that we came from, okay? And we were fully aware of this and the words are important. They matter, words matter, they matter a lot. And the first pushback I got is, don't worry about it, it's just words in our Constitution, the 13th Amendment has us covered. And I asked myself, what does that mean? What does that mean? So the more I looked at this and the more I think about it and the more that I've grown to understand what this language here means and the more I see people talking about prison labor across the United States, the more I've come to understand. Now watch this, I'm no lawyer. I'm no lawyer, but watch this. Because what we know, and this is gonna get ugly in a minute, but I'll straighten it out. What we know is that cannabis is a Skeletal One drug, but yet and still on October 1st, it will be taxable and regulatable here in the state because it's decriminalized and legalized. What we know is that as far as immigration is concerned, there are certain standards, protocols and rules that law enforcement has regarding interaction with and apprehension and detention of them. But we know that the fair and impartial policing policy entitled 2366 provides provisions whereby our law enforcement all 79 agencies cannot in wink in certain instances. And that's not a bad thing, particularly in light of the fact that once again, we're talking about an industry. A minute ago we were talking about a cannabis industry, which is profitable for the state, right? This is the dairy industry, because what we know is that 1,500 people who are undocumented immigrants are here in this state and they run and control, God bless you, God bless you migrant justice, that industry and Hannah Ferds get on the train. So we know that, we know these things. We also know that when Donald Trump came into office, that there was a fear that there was a possibility that Roe versus Wade would be overturned. So they placed in statute language that provided the reproductive right protection of women in the state of Vermont as early as 2019 and started a constitutional amendment, PR five. So the law of the land now may be Roe versus Wade, but we have different values here in this state. In fact, we have different values regarding each of them. Watch me, stay with me, I'm getting ready to make a turn. Now watch this, this is the 13th amendment. This is the law of the nation, but what predated that is this. And this has three exceptions to slavery. Only three, only three. The three exceptions are arriving at the age of 21, bound by a person's own consent or the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs and the like. That is all. So this is not an exception in this state. And these cannot be, they have to be mutually exclusive because our constitution is clear and it always has been clear. And I posit that our constitution has never embraced the 13th amendment and that exception clause for the last several, you know, 10 or seven or eight decades. Now, again, I'm not a constitutional scholar, but I don't see anything in our constitution that suggests that this is an exception. I'll pause there. That's 101. So when people talk, you know, about this whole thing about prison slavery and all that other stuff, you know, obviously there's a whole lot more conversation to have and we can have that conversation later, but I'll close with this and I'll be curious to hear your thoughts about what you've seen and heard tonight is that slavery is an abomination. It is a crime against humanity. It's a sin. It flies in the face of every moral fiber in every single one of our bodies. That is a fact. Fact number two is our constitution permits it in three particular instances. Fact number three is as we've done the work, we've done everything that needed to get done in order to move us to a point to fix that. And the final fact, which I think is the most true is that you are an abolitionist and you are in a position today to do something about it. Cast that vote. What's your thoughts? Camille, I know you got something to say. Come on. I know you're an abolitionist. I'm a slavery abolitionist, so I get real specific with them. I'm a vote and if you wanna learn more, I always plug abolitionist today, which is the best education to learn about what it means to be an abolitionist, what it's the slavery thing even is and how it came to about in America and in Vermont. So obviously I'm for prop two. I do gotta go because she's a busy gal. Jaina, mommy, so good to see you. And yes, everybody have a blessed night. Obviously we're gonna vote. Obviously we're gonna be those people, that girl, that boy who votes for prop two. And that's just the vibe. Obviously we're a slavery abolitionist. So power to the people, maybe the people get the power. I gotta go. Hey, Camille, good to see you tonight. Thanks for showing up. Adrienne, talk to me, man. Did you learn anything? Did I bore you? Did I put you to sleep, Adrienne? No, you didn't. This has actually been really helpful and great background information for me. Like I said, this is something that I've been interested in ever since that I was like a student at UVM. So to have this background info is really helpful, especially as we start to go into our commitment 2022 coverage and getting closer to November. And I would definitely love to connect with you guys after this and maybe be able to have a sit down and maybe get into more details and to be able to really get this on TV and get the word out there for folks to know that this is something that they should be on the lookout for when they hit their ballot box in November. No doubt. Hey, I appreciate you hanging in there all the way to the end too, because we've been flat out for an hour and I know you're busy just like everybody else for thanks. So thanks for making a commitment, brother. Thank you. All right, we'll talk to you soon. Jaina, what do you got for me? Did you learn anything or did I just make you mad? No, that was great. I knew this was important, but I didn't realize how shady the loopholes were for Vermont specifically. So I appreciate that. And I'm very interested to get into more conversations. I learned so much about how the legislator and government works, just like really appreciate all your insights. No doubt. Where are you located at geographically? I'm in Colchester, Vermont. I'm in Burlington. Yeah. OK, right on. I don't even recognize your name, face, nothing. You could have been in D.C. I don't. So you, then you know us. You know our people. Isaac is on. That's our community engagement and support director Isaac Holler at your board. What's going on? My tardiness. Oh, let me put it on camera real quick. That's all good. OK, let me use the main things. Get out and vote. Ladies and gentlemen, you know, this is just a monumental moment. You want to be a part of this? No doubt. Together. Appreciate you, Isaac. Thank you for showing up and thank you all for coming. I see I see Jaina. She don't know. I've seen her. She's the only person that's tagged on TikTok for anything from our racial, racial, anything racially that has to do with Vermont. So I've been seeing your page on TikTok, Jaina. I don't even have a TikTok. So you too. None of them. You too. Facebook, you got you do videos some on in Vermont. My astrology videos. Something different. Doing some videos. Cool. OK. You're working. Let's also, Jaina, when you reach out to our folks, whoever responds, we're going to be, like I said, we're going to be doing a blitz of a number of events, some of what most of which the staff don't even know about yet because we got to do a pivot. We're doing what we call an audible in the football game. We're calling it audible, right? Say it, ready? So we're doing the audible. And so just and I'm so proud to be surrounded by Maya and Vincent. Before we hear from them, I just want to just thank the team, Maya, who's the the training, the outreach and education directors in depth. Definitely has been really instrumental in a lot of things that we're doing. You've met Isaac. And then, of course, we've got the program director here, Vincent, Vincent Mitchell sitting right next to me. He's he's our guy. He's also our bouncer. Just in case in case anybody get all crazy and stuff like that. So don't so don't. But anyway, yeah, I wanted to get some feedback from the two of y'all before we got out of here. What's your thoughts, brother? Man, like I said, every every time that, you know, you get a chance to hear the gospel, the word is this is just encouraging. And it kind of lights you up. It brings the fire. If it hadn't brought it to you, it just ignites it. And, you know, once once your eyes are wide open to the truth, you can no longer walk with your eyes wide shut. And I think that's something that, you know, that that was that was happening collectively. I mean, I don't know. Everybody has that. Ta-da, but I think for me, it's been, you know, even when I was 13, you know, being victimized of police brutality, you know, coming home from school and, you know, in the inner city of Paterson, Jersey and like trying to figure out all the kids, why are you walking up to me? They started with me, you know, because I'm tall, black and, you know, just walking. And, you know, I just reflect. I just reflect off of certain things and to the point where I'm at right now and even having to deal with, you know, some of the systematic racism that's going on in our school districts currently. So, you know, it's one of those things to where, like, you know, when you get an alignment on Noah's art, you know, you got to figure out what part of the book you want to be on, because we're going to be flowing. We're going to be flowing. We're going to be flowing through the city, you know, and we tap it into neighborhoods that, you know, definitely needs awakening, you know, along with ours. You know what I'm saying? So, it's just been like really, really exciting to be a part of change. I appreciate you. And I will close out right after this. We just ran a few minutes over, but I'm not going to let Maya off the hook because Maya always tries to get out. So, you want to give some thoughts? Well, one thing that I do want to mention is you gave some really good examples of how the system is self-correcting and self-healing, stuff like that. So, that was something new that I've heard, because I've been in these meetings, a lot of these meetings, and that was something new that I heard from you, and it was, you gave some really good examples on that. Thanks. So, yeah, it's really important to get out and vote and just let your voice be heard so that we can make change. Thanks, Maya. And thanks, again, it's awesome to be on these meetings and have the staff here. And what we'll do is we're going to be in All Souls Church on Saturday. I don't have the times yet, but All Souls has invited us. First Congregational Church has invited us out for Tuesday that's 38 South. Wenuski, that's at 6 p.m. here in Burlington, 38 South Wenuski. We'll be given a community presentation. All of this stuff will be going out like a lickety split. On Wednesday, it's First Baptist. I think that's on, that's Karen Mendes' church. It's over on, right off of, you know, how bank goes down and it, what is that? St. something, no. Paul, St. Paul, St. Paul Street. So that's there. That's going to be Wednesday night at 6 p.m. And on Thursday night at 6 p.m., we'll be in the library, in Fletcher Free Library. And then we will look and see what else is left because what we want to do is we just want to do a little bit of a blitz leading up to the first because the first of October ballots are going out. So we've got some wiggle room there where we can get a couple of other events in. We will start to broadcast. So I'm going to reach out to our folks over at channel 17 and others. And also we'll start broadcasting ourselves on Facebook. I was going to do that this evening but I ran into a little bit of technical difficulty but I don't think it's insurmountable. We'll come back to that. So just to let you know that pivot, that audible that we're calling is we want to do this on our terms. We do have national partners who we love and respect. We also have state partners who we love and respect and understand. As the information begins to come in and as we experience the, I guess for lack of better terms, I'll just call it like a data loop in terms of how we're getting information back in through some of the work that we're doing in the communities and the conversations that we're having is becoming increasingly clear that we need to get our voice out front. We need to tell our story about what it is that we've done concerning this work and we need to make it very clear what this is all about because I think it's insidious, it's unfortunate, it's sad, but the very challenge that we have sought to address it is the obstacle that prevents us from making the progress that we want to and that is systemic racism. That's really not trivial. If you think about the media and how the media has handled this incredibly important issue in constitutional amendment and if you think about just the response from community, the response from our alleged partners on this and even the string that we've been hanging by in terms of financially and how to get this work done, there is no interest in this work. There is absolutely no interest in the work of this constitutional amendment. There's an entrenchment in Vermont that would seek to try to keep this conversation as quiet as possible. And I think there is a desire largely for voters just to kind of go to the voting ballot and just kind of hold their nose and just fill in the blank, fill in the block, the oval and just get past this so we can all be on the other side of this all without having a conversation on the connection of the legacy of slavery to the institution of slavery and the validity of the conversation that slavery has always existed in the constitution of Vermont. Good night, y'all. Thank you for coming and bless you all.