thanks
thank you
it's wonderful to be here with you in
Berlin we just came this morning by
train from Bonn where we were covering
the UN climate summit the summit that
well it's the first summit that the
President of the United States announced
that he was pulling the United States
out of the Paris climate agreement but
it has that very action has rejuvenated
invigorated really coalesce the
movements around climate change and
global warming bringing together
together many people across the
political spectrum you had governors and
mayors and Senators from the United States who had all gathered and
bond to say it's not only the state the
federal government all of us are here
too and they've coined the term for
their movement we're still in and then
there's the young people and indigenous
activists who came to say precisely the
same thing and challenged their elders
and their elected leaders the we're
still in movement but what's so
interesting about all of this is that
people that were not necessarily in the
same room before right the as the
establishment where for the last eight
years they wouldn't necessarily be in
dialogue with young activists they're
all now literally under the same tent
and these conversations are very
important and they're not only American
conversations they're with people all
over the world I don't know if that's
what Donald Trump or what many in the
United States called 45 the 45th
President of the United States intended
but that's precisely what's happening
now I want to go back a couple of years
okay a couple of decades okay back to
World War two
- when Pacifica Radio was founded that's
where I originally
come from I come from Pacifica Radio
founded in 1949 in Berkeley California
founded by a war resistor named Lew Hill
who when he came out of the detention
camp said there's got to be a media
outlet that's not run by corporations
that profit from war but run by
journalists and artists and that's how
Pacifica was born not run by
corporations as george gerbner the late
Dean of the Annenberg School of
Communications at the University of
Pennsylvania would say not run by
corporations that have nothing to tell
and everything to sell that are raising
our children today and so Pacifica Radio
was born the first station KPFA in
Berkeley 1949 the second station in Los
Angeles 1959 KPFK the third station my
station in New York 1960 WBAI radio and
in the first year of operation of WBAI
oh they were broadcasting a debate
between Malcolm X and James Baldwin the
great writer an active nest of a--
Stover the effectiveness of nonviolent
civil disobedience the effectiveness of
the lunch counter sit-ins in the south
and then there's WPF W and Washington
founded in 1977 and KPFT in Houston
that's the five stations KPFT in Houston
went on the air in 1970 KPFT in Houston
the petro Metro the heart of the fossil
fuel industry it goes on the air in 1970
and it makes history well someone does a
few years a few weeks into the
broadcasting of this station the Ku Klux
Klan strapped dynamite to the base of
the transmitter and blew it to
smithereens right in the middle of Arlo
Guthrie singing Alice's Restaurant which
I thought was a good song but anyway
he looked they blow it up and a few
weeks later KPFT gets back on their feet
they rebuild their transmitter and the
clan straps 15 times the dynamite to the
base of the transmitter and they blow it
up again so now it takes months to
rebuild and finally in January of 1971
they're ready to go back on the air and
now it's a national event and the
media's there and Arlo Guthrie comes
back to Houston to finish a song on the
radio and that's KPFT and its continued
broadcasting ever since now I can't
remember if it was the Grand Dragon or
the exalted Cyclops because I often
confuse their titles but he said it was
his proudest act and that's because he
understood the danger of Pacifica Radio
the power of independent media because
it allows people to speak for themselves
and when you hear someone speaking from
their own experience whether it's a
Palestinian child or an Israeli
grandmother whether it's an uncle in
Iraq whether it's an aunt in Yemen
whether it's a native elder from the
Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North
Dakota when you hear someone speaking
from their own experience it changes you
I'm not saying you will agree with that
person I mean how often do we even agree
with our family members but you begin to
understand where they're coming from it
makes it much less likely that you'll
want to destroy them it's that
understanding that's the beginning of
peace I think the media can be the
I think the media can be the greatest
force for peace on earth
instead all too often it is wielded as a
weapon of war which is why we have to
take the media back you know how is it
used as a weapon a few weeks ago my
brother journalist David Goodman and I
who I write books with also my colleague
from Democracy Now of the last 20 years
Denis Moynihan is here he's
live-streaming Democracy Now on kff our
and for Democracy Now and for the whole
rosa luxemburg foundation and everything
else that's going out into the ether
right now and I want to thank Dennis who
also co-authors our books together and
you'll see him around because we'll be
signing books after in Dennis's
co-author of our latest book democracy
now 20 years covering the movements
changing America but David and I were in
Albany New York the capital of New York
and we were each doing a panel that was
chaired by Bob Schieffer how many of you
are like expats from the United States
very interesting so Bob Schieffer is a
big guy on one of the corporate networks
CBS he just retired he was anchor of the
CBS Evening News for years and then the
Sunday morning show he just left and he
moderates the presidential debates and I
both David and I on our different panels
were citing statistics about how the
media has gotten it so wrong so I went
back to oh the eve of the invasion of
Iraq February 5th 2003 six weeks before
the invasion was the day : power
then US Secretary of State the general
gave that speech at the United Nations
that push for war that was a nail in the
coffin for so many because he had a lot
of credibility : Powell and the George W
Bush administration was dragging his
feet on war he didn't necessarily
endorse the idea that Saddam Hussein had
weapons of mass destruction but this
speech sealed the deal he said the
evidence was in that Bush had WMD and
was an imminent threat to the United
States : Powell would later say this
speech was a blot on his career he
deeply regretted this speech but it was
a critical turning point because this is
the point six weeks before war the
country is deciding whether to endorse
it or not whether we should go to war
and half the population was for war half
against so a group called fair fairness
and accuracy in reporting the media
watch group fair org did a study of the
four major nightly newscast the NBC
Nightly News the CBS Evening News the
ABC World News Tonight and the PBS
Newshour the public broadcasting
Newshour and they looked at that two
weeks the time when Noam Chomsky talks
about the media manufacturing consent
manufacturing consent for war two weeks
of interviews on those four Network
evening newscasts that determine public
opinion there were 393 interviews around
war guests how many were with anti-war
leaders half the population for half
against hmm three three of almost 400
this is no longer a mainstream media
this is an extreme media beating the
drums for war
so I said this and Bob was sitting over
here and he was the moderator and he
really prides himself on civil
discussion and he said Amy I have to
stop you here it was the first time we
met and I'm thinking oh he's gonna say I
alone conducted a number of interviews
and I would like it if he would correct
me and he said I really have to object
here
I said why Bob you actually did more
yourself at CBS then I'm saying here
than this study cited he said no so I
said so why are you objecting and he
said I don't understand your point I
said well they're 393 interviews at a
time when the country's making up their
mind whether to go to war and there's
only three with anti-war leaders three
of almost 400 and Bob Schieffer says the
Secretary of State had just spoken we
have the Secretary of State you want us
to bring on anti-war leaders and you
know I was he truly was surprised and so
was I and I said actually Bob I think
there's no one who would appreciated
that more in hindsight than colon Powell
himself right
he said he now considers it a blot on
his career that's what the media is for
to hold those in power accountable that
is our job
especially in times of war is to dig
deep to bring out the facts not to be a
party to the parties but to be apart
from them and yes of course and I asked
Bob you know in the United States we
don't have state media but if we did how
would it be any different so he said
we'd have to agree to disagree but
that's what I mean by the media being
used as a weapon of war and let me take
it right through to today I mean I'll
get lots of examples of this but
president Trump has decided to put the
media in his in its in in the crosshairs
of the Trump administration to target
the media he calls us the enemy of the
American people and I didn't think that
you would put us in the same category as
CBS NBC ABC CNN MSNBC but he puts all of
the media in one enemy camp and the
media is standing up against that
because he's personally targeting them
right he's calling out names you know
during the campaign reporters had to get
security guards they were so afraid as
he would hold these mass rallies and
journalists were afraid to go back to
their cars afterwards alone as people
would turn around at these rallies as
president Trump would say after Oh
one of his supporters punched out of
black lives matter activist he would say
he would pay their legal bills if they
were arrested yet people were afraid
journalists were scared this really
plays out in real life
so he calls the media the enemy of the
American people he talks about the
failing New York Times talks about fake
news CNN and the media takes it
personally and they fight back and they
get a backbone and they talk about well
they sound a little like democracy now
you know the media is essential to the
functioning of a democratic society and
you hear this intoned in the media all
the time it's very very important people
are learning repeatedly every day about
the First Amendment and what it means
and frankly I don't really get it and I
hesitate to say this publicly but I
don't get why Trump doesn't stop for
just a week because the reflexive
response of the establishment media is
to wrap itself around the establishment
and they would do it with him as well
but he's hitting them so hard all the
time that they can't they've got to
defend themselves and he wouldn't have a
better friend so they're asking serious
questions except when it comes to two
issues climate change and war so let me
give you the examples of war
it was weeks into his administration
when President Trump you may remember
the 59 Tomahawk missiles that he fired
into the Syrian airfield from two naval
vessels off the coast of Syria and I
came home that night turned on the TV
and I turned on MSNBC the most
progressive of the network's right so
I'm not talking Fox here I'm talking
MSNBC and the Pentagon had provided the
video footage you know this goes way
back George HW Bush and then the whole
embedding process you know the Pentagon
called it spectacular success when you
embed reporters in the front lines of
troops they get the coverage there with
the troops they're eating with the
troops they're sleeping with the troops
how do you think they're gonna cover war
and that started then and it keeps on
going and so we're used to this but when
you had Brian Williams on MSNBC as the
Pentagon provides the footage of the
bombs the Tomahawk missiles being shot
off saying in real time we see these
beautiful pictures of at night from the
decks of these two US Navy vessels in
the eastern Mediterranean I'm tempted to
quote the great Leonard Cohen I'm guided
by the beauty of our weapons and they
are beautiful pictures of fearsome
armaments making what is for them a
brief flight over to this airfield in 30
seconds he used the word beauty or
beautiful three times I think Leonard
Cohen would be rolling over in his grave
as Brian Williams of MSC NBC talked
about the beauty of the bomb attack on
Syria the
stay fareed zakaria of CNN would say
Donald Trump became president last night
in a few weeks later Trump inexplicably
dropped the largest non nuclear bomb in
the world on Afghanistan right it's
called the Moab and the Pentagon dubs it
the mother of all bombs it's got like a
mile air blast radius and he uses the
bomb in Afghanistan it was developed
under george w bush he didn't dare use
this bomb president obama didn't use
this bomb trump comes into office and it
just takes him weeks to drop this bomb
and again parts of the media they say he
became president you know we've heard
now about this meeting he had the summer
with his military chiefs of staff this
is the meeting where it was reported
that Rex Tillerson called him a moron an
effing moron and Tillerson is never well
he refuses to confirm or deny whether he
said that and why did he call him this
this summer I'm talking Rex Tillerson
the current Secretary of State who's the
former head of the largest private oil
corporation in the world he's calling
the president an effing moron
apparently within an hour he asked three
times if we have nuclear weapons why
don't we use them and this is extremely
frightening when you look at the revving
up the amping up of the rhetoric against
North Korea this is extremely serious a
few months ago President Trump issued a
statement in three tweets that change
military policy around trans soldiers
and pee
who might want to be trends people who
might want to go into the military now
he divided it into three tweets and the
first one said something like you know
we're gonna announce a new military
policy and then he waited something like
seven or nine minutes before the second
tweet and the third tweet till you
understood what he was saying that he
was going to ban trans people from the
US military I mean I could only imagine
if you were a trans soldier lying in a
hospital bed wounded somewhere to wake
up with this message you're out decided
by a commander-in-chief that got out of
the military how many times because I
think it was bone spurs but in that
first tweet he didn't actually talk
about trans policies just said he's
announcing a new policy and then it was
seven to nine minutes before he then
said what the change was going to be and
word has it rumor has it that even the
Joint Chiefs of Staff did not know what
this new military policy was going to be
it was just he was announcing and that
at the Pentagon there was this moment of
terror in that five to seven minutes was
he announcing that the US was bombing
North Korea I mean this is how out of
control it is and if you think that
Americans think well in the end they can
control their president it's not just
about the President of the United States
it's the back and forth with the leader
of North Korea and how he will respond
this is extremely serious this issue of
war and many believe that we are closer
to war than we have ever been right now
with North Korea closer to nuclear war
is what I mean and what does the
military do and what does the media do
well you think they will ask serious
questions but here are the examples of
what they do when the u.s. even under
the president they are asking the most
questions of we see how the media
responds this is how the media is used
as a weapon of war but I want to go back
to that story I told you about KPFT
in the petrol Metro in Houston Texas
that's now been on the air for a white
over almost 50 years I told you a story
about history about the Ku Klux Klan
what like 50 60 years ago I cannot
believe we're talking about the Ku Klux
Klan today in 2017 that we're talking
about the act of Klan in the United
States that we're talking about young
white men hundreds of them marching over
the campus and University of Virginia in
Charlottesville with their tiki torches
with torches
I say tiki torch this is even the tiki
torch company said stop using our
torches but what's more frightening than
if they were wearing white hoods and
sheets was that they feel safe enough
not to cover their faces President Trump
has ripped open the underbelly of hate
in America I mean it has always been an
undercurrent and it surges at different
times but what he is doing now is
frightening whether he was in the
campaign talking about helping people
who beat up black lives matter activists
or when a white supremacist plows his
car into a crowd and kills a young woman
31 32 years old named Heather hire who
on her Facebook page said if you are not
outraged you are not paying attention
her favorite color purple which everyone
wore at the memorial service the next
week when this white supremacist plows
his car into a crowd of anti-racist
activists and kills one young woman and
injures scores of other people did
President Bush respond the way he did
recently in New York when he immediately
labeled the person a terrorist who drove
in two cyclists and people who are
walking along the Hudson River and
demanded once again a crackdown on
immigration policy no he talked about
some of the very fine people who were in
that crowd and he wasn't talking about
the anti-racist he talked about the
violence coming from both sides when
people said we've got to start dealing
with gun control once again with
massacre after massacre and with the
people who are carrying weapons there he
said this isn't the time or the place
you don't do this when people suffer so
quickly immediately though in New York
he talked about cracking down on
immigration yes the message is being
very clearly sent and it makes so many
people afraid and yet it also mobilizes
people it is just astounding what has
happened since Donald Trump became
president right that was on January 20th
and major protests happened on that day
in fact as we speak the j-20 group of
protesters and some reporters who were
arrested are facing 75 years in jail for
their protests on inauguration day
the next day five 600,000 people mainly
women at the inauguration site in
Washington DC came out now this is
interesting because you know what
happened on that day Trump has his
inauguration his crowd is something like
180,000 which is perfectly respectable
but he is enraged when people show the
contrast between his crowd and President
Obama's crowd nine years before right he
is obsessed with the size of President
Obama's crowd
he wants to erase everything that has
the signature of Obama he wants to erase
Obama I mean if you want to look at all
that he has done it's as if he has a
list he was given a lust list of
everything that Obama has done the rules
the laws and one by one and in some
cases very successfully and the media is
hardly covering this they talk about the
fact despite there's a Republican
Congress House Senate and president he's
not been able to pass one single major
piece of legislation that's true but he
his administration is systematically
rolling back decades especially when it
comes to the environment decades of
rules that have been written to
guarantee a safe air land and safe air
land and water this is Scott Pruett the
head of the Environmental Protection
Agency who is formerly the Oklahoma
Attorney General who sued the EPA 14
times who tries to wipe out the EPA and
now is the head of it doing it from the
inside they are massively moving on the
US government I mean Rex Tillerson at
the State Department something like 60%
of the high-level positions in the State
Department have not been filled
ambassadors and sub ambassadors around
the world these positions are not being
filled now what happens when you don't
fill those positions when you start to
shrink down the Department of State well
that's supposed to be the diplomatic
wing of the government and then you have
the Pentagon which are pouring billions
and billions of more dollars into then
you only have one solution when you have
a hammer everything looks like a nail if
you don't have a diplomatic wing but you
have your entire toolkit military you
know what the reaction is going to be to
any situation in the world this is an
extremely serious situation and even
though many are
that it's Rex Tillerson and John Kelly
now the chief of staff and madis Mad Dog
Madison calls himself even these are
three generals or surround usually
civilian positions who are surrounding
the president and people are saying they
are the adults in the room Rex Tillerson
is eviscerating the State Department
John Kelly came out of DHS leading the
anti-immigrant moves at the Department
of Homeland Security mattis's the head
of the military and no we don't usually
have a general as the secretary as the
has a secret as the penta as the
Pentagon chief he had to get a waiver
because we usually have civilians in
charge of the military that's what a
democracy looks like so these are very
serious times and we have president
Trump pushing for war and a media that
is oppositional until it comes to war
until it comes to war and the issue of
climate change now you might say no the
media has been very fair on this issue
rating well over 95 percent of the world
scientists say human beings are involved
with the warming of the planet this is
accepted science except in the United
States in the United States when you
have these discussions on television
which they rarely do it's it's like
every time we talked about around Earth
we had someone on from the Flat Earth
Society for balance when it comes to
climate change what we need is the
meteorologists right the weather men on
television and women talking about the
connection between the horrific weather
events the climate catastrophes that
we've experienced the connections
between these they flash
two words severe weather extreme weather
what about flashing the words climate
change what about flashing the words
global warming it is so critical that
the people that most people tune into
television for you know just what to
wear each day what's the weather gonna
be that they make these connections I
was just talking to a meteorologist from
Belgium named Jill Peters who was at the
climate change conference she started a
new organization called Climate Without
Borders and she says it's our
responsibility we're the most beloved
people on television and the ones that
people trust the most we have got to
talk about climate change because I mean
people are smart but when you talk about
fires in the northwest and California
these fires that are ripping through and
killing I don't know how many people at
this point when you talk about flooding
in places like Houston Texas and Florida
not to mention what's happened in the
Caribbean and in Puerto Rico I mean not
to mention what has happened in India in
Pakistan and Nepal and Bangladesh and
Bangladesh a third of the countries
underwater in the last months over 1,200
people have died from flooding in India
packet in India Bangladesh and Nepal now
who's gonna link drought fires and
flooding you have to have the scientists
the meteorologists people showing that
all of these disparate weather events
are connected it is that serious the
fate of the planet is at stake
but in our media and again I'm not
talking Fox I'm talking MSNBC I'm
talking CNN they almost never make the
connection between these hurricanes and
climate change
I'm just gonna ask you not to take any
more flash pictures if you don't mind
okay sorry
although thank you for your interest but
climate change and the weather MSNBC CNN
why they don't make this connection how
people are going to understand this
these are the challenges that we face
and they matter people in the rest of
the world talk about this all the time
people who are at the target end I mean
we - in the United States are at the
target and we're experiencing climate
change but look at Oh democracy now has
been at all the cops since Copenhagen so
10 Conference of parties UN summits
bringing you a young man a young
teenager from the Maldives who looks
into the camera to speak to the world
and says you are drowning my country as
the sea levels rise people from
sub-saharan Africa who speak to the
media there and there are not many US
media there and they say you are cooking
our continent this matters and we come
from the most powerful country on earth
the historically greatest greenhouse gas
emitter it is absolutely critical that
we accept our responsibility for what
has happened before
and for what's happened currently right
as we headed off to the cop this year in
bond our first day we stopped in the
occupied forest the humbucker forest and
some of you may have been there
but we made our way in past the
barricades we went to see the villages
of people in the tree houses and I
thought it was so interesting the young
activists some of them have been there
for years they say don't make it look
like we're forest people that we just
want to separate ourselves from society
and live in this way I mean yes they're
living sustainably they're using
renewable energy solar power etc they
said we're not here to stay we don't
want to stay here but we want to make
sure that the humbucker forest stays
here that's why we're here we are a
resistance group we're not here to
establish a new society forever separate
from the rest of the world but to see
them there in the last 10% of this
ancient forest that has been eaten away
by the Hambach mine the largest open pit
coal mine in Europe apparently the
largest open pit any kind of mine in
Europe with these these excavators that
are the largest in the world I mean to
see them there in these open pit mines
and you see a crane or a bulldozer next
to them they look like Matchbox cars the
first day of the cop conference
thousands of people maybe someone here
surged onto the open pit mine and
actually stopped RWE from excavating
from mining for that day or that
afternoon calling attention
calling attention to what's happening
and mainly calling attention to the fact
that just down the road from the UN
climate summit where the world's leaders
were gathered was this massive coal
mining operation we have to look locally
before we do anything and look at the
global implications of that so once we
went to see what was happening and did
our report on the occupied forests when
you can check it out at democracynow.org
we came back on Monday for the only
session and this has never happened
before the one session of the u.s.
climate delegation it was last Monday
afternoon people were lining up all
afternoon to go into the session and it
was very clear what it was the headline
was something like you know the US
delegation presenting coal nuclear and
gas the argument for it so we got on
line with the press you know you all
have your credentials and then civilian
society had another line immediately the
US embassy came over to the Democracy
Now team and put their hands over our
lens miss excuse me like this is a
public event and we are in the press
line and of course the UN press knows
democracy now we are the most consistent
US coverage of these cops for ten years
and I think they pull the new US
administration side no you cannot select
them out they cover climate change
whether you believe in it or not and so
we made our way we made our way into the
room and it was fascinating they didn't
know what to do because they say it's
first-come first-served but clearly the
first line of a hundred people were all
mainly young activists so what are they
going to do eventually after being
concerned there
being the room just basically open with
the press at the very back now usually
the press can sit wherever they want
because they're gonna ask questions
during the session but they have pushed
them to the back which means all the
activists will fill all the rest of the
rows so they're in a terrible bind the
room stays empty for a long time because
they're not letting anyone in and so two
senators stride in on their own two
Democratic senators from some of the
hardest-hit fire states Washington and
Oregon Kate Brown and jay Inslee they
march in the press is all there we have
nothing else to do and they make their
statements saying this is a sham this is
a sideshow and now the US Embassy is in
big trouble they have got to start this
event or who else is going to come in to
speak to the press and so the governor's
stride out and finally they start
letting people in and the whole room
fills and then the panel comes out it is
president Trump's climate advisor George
David banks it is vice president Pence's
policy aide Francis Brooke it is a
spokesperson from Peabody Energy ask any
Native American about Peabody and mining
in America on native lands it is a
representative and Obama administration
or an Obama era official who is now
cashing in on gas and he represents I
think it's called tell you Ryan coal gas
and nuclear it's a representative of a
nuclear company that's actually based in
Corvallis Oregon but they can't put any
of these nuclear plants in Oregon
because the people have had a referendum
and it's a no nukes owned so their hope
is to transport these highly mobile
nuclear units to sub-saharan Africa
that's where they see the hope so it's
nuclear gas and coal and they begin
their session they each is one Mexican
Davis came over to me after he said what
is this a CVS Shopping Network they're
just selling their wares and then the
white house will walk out and that's
their presence before they leave the UN
climate summit and that's precisely what
they did they took questions from the
press and I asked the last question and
I just said you know I want a simple
yes-or-no answer from every member of
this panel are you for president Trump
pulling the u.s. out of the Paris
climate agreement the nuclear
representative said no gas
representative said no the head of the
US Energy Association that's gas nuclear
coal and all you know fossil fuel
representative said yes he was for it
and coal she wouldn't say
I asked vice president Pence's
representative and he said we're here
representing the president as did the
president they said of course we do
interestingly they had four corporate
executives and two of them said they
half of them said they didn't even Dorse
what the president was doing but that
was the end of the session and when I
got a chance to question David banks
president Trump's climate adviser later
inviting him on Democracy Now as he
stood in the backdrop of our broadcast
one day stood there for half of the show
waving but would not come on the show I
kept turning around saying come we were
speaking also with Kumi Naidoo former
head of greenpeace international from
south africa and whom he was saying come
come be on the show let's have a
discussion but when I went up to David
banks afterwards and said to him you
know just explain why this was the
presence of the US here pushing coal
nuclear in gas and he said I want to
make sure they have a level playing
field with everything else that's talked
about here that is what represents this
is the administration that represents
many of you if you're from the United
States at the climate summit so that's
what happened there but most importantly
what happened are the thousands of
people who come from the most besieged
places on earth who are dead serious who
try to make it every year some of them
travel like scientists Kevin Anderson
from London he will not take a plane
hasn't taken one since 2004 we saw him
first in Poland I don't know how many
hours or days he had travelled to get
there he said you get a lot of
scientific research done on these trains
but he says yes it's a matter of
changing our lifestyle as well so this
is what was happening on this end now I
want to talk about the other end you
have the anti coal activists of Germany
you have the Trump administration
pushing for more coal making sure
there's a level playing field back in
the United States there is an extremely
sophisticated activated movement to stop
the pipeline's criss-crossing America
challenging the fossil fuel economy of
the most powerful country on earth which
is why I want to get to the standoff at
Standing Rock but I want to start on
September 6 of this year now
hurricane Harvey had just hit it was
right after Labor Day weekend
democracy now went down to Houston that
had flooded out so many areas
particularly the fenceline communities
I didn't say frontline I said fence line
these are the poorest communities that
are along the fences of the largest
petrochemical refineries in the country
like the Latino community in Baytown on
the fence line of exxon mobil the second
largest refinery in the united states
when these refineries shut down as a
result of these hurricanes it's the most
dangerous time or when they start back
up because then they are using this
moment to do something they're not
supposed to be doing which is releasing
toxic chemicals though it's easier now
and a lot of rules were waived under the
trump administration and we
those chemicals go the people who are
least protected into their communities
into their water and we took this toxic
tour of the poorest communities the most
marginalised and this was right after
hurricane Harvey inundated the Caribbean
and Houston and right before hurricane
Maria hit Puerto Rico and other
Caribbean islands and you know what's
happened in Puerto Rico it is
devastating I mean still I don't know
this week but something like 80 or more
percent perhaps 90% of the country still
doesn't have electricity San Juan got
some and then lost it and they said that
while they got some the main line that
was worked on by white fish energy and
you've heard of this 300 million dollar
contract that went to a company called
white fish name for whitefish montana
the hometown of interior secretary
ryan's inky when Maria hit Puerto Rico
there were two employees of white fish
and they got a 300 million dollar
contract to rebuild Puerto Rico
Ryan's inky son also had worked as an
intern or something at Whitefish as well
now that's being investigated and the
Governor of Puerto Rico announced that
they are pulling the contract from
Whitefish but it's not exactly clear
what's happening and they will get
millions of dollars so Puerto Rico is
devastated and if you watch television
through this time the network's 24 hours
a day were showing coverage not quite as
much of Puerto Rico as they did Florida
and Ann and Harvey and Houston her
Houston hitting Harvey hit in Houston
but you saw a woman in the water chest
high
with a bullhorn saving people's lives
making sure people were getting out of
their homes
her name is Carmen you lean crews and
she's the mayor of San Juan Carmen you
lean crews remarkably brave I mean do
you know how toxic this water is and it
was mayor Cruz that President Trump who
has a propensity for particularly
attacking women went after and talked
about the poor people of Puerto Rico
just don't want to help themselves and
talked about the politicians like Cruz
being lazy and you see President Trump
speak saying some of this from his Golf
Course in Bedminster New Jersey as mayor
Cruz's chest deep in the water and Trump
was shamed into going to Puerto Rico and
then you saw the images of him hurling
rolls of paper towels at hurricane
survivors after he said we cannot remain
in Puerto Rico forever which might have
encouraged the independence movement in
Puerto Rico but that's not what he was
trying to do saying FEMA can't be here
forever the Federal Emergency Management
Agency never said that about Florida
never said that about Houston but almost
immediately said that about Puerto Rico
well when we went to Puerto Rico to
cover the devastation there we had a
conversation with Carmen Yilin Cruz
after she had just called the president
the hater in chief when he made this
remarkable comment we cannot keep FEMA
the military and the first responders
and PR forever she responded Trump is
threatening to condemn us to a slow
death of non drinkable water lack of
food lack of medicine the mayor appealed
to the United Nations UNICEF the world
to stand with the people of Puerto Rico
stop the genocide that will result from
the lack of appropriate action of a
president that just does not does not
get it because he's been in
capable of looking in our eyes and
seeing the pride that burns fiercely in
our hearts and souls well
the playwright and the main star of
Hamilton was not quite as poetic when he
heard the words of President Trump and
he responded you know lin-manuel Miranda
in a tweet after president Trump
attacked the people of Puerto Rico
calling them lazy he says you're going
straight to hell real Donald Trump no
long lines for you someone will say
right this way sir they'll clear a path
so that was their response to President
Trump
dealing with hurricane relief in Puerto
Rico but between Maria hitting and
hurricane Harvey hitting Texas
president Trump chose to take a stand by
going to an oil refinery in Mandan North
Dakota standing in front of it and
bragging about having pulled the u.s.
out of the Paris climate agreement in
the midst of these hurricanes and also
talking about how he had taken action he
green-lighted the Keystone XL pipeline
and the Dakota access pipeline by the
way just in the last few days Keystone
and South Dakota a part of the pipeline
that's been built just leaked 210,000
gallons of oil exactly what people had
said for years President Obama finally
stopped the Keystone XL after years of
mass protests no people circling the
White House and one action alone 1,200
people arrested that was President
Trump's response to these climate
Astra fees and he was standing just down
the road from the Mandan Jail where
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
Native Americans had been jailed for
protests protesting the Dakota access
pipeline and that's what I want to talk
about now the standoff at Standing Rock
it started April 1st 2016 the unofficial
historian of the Standing Rock Sioux
tribe LaDonna brave bull Allard has this
beautiful property along the Cannonball
River in North Dakota and she decided to
open it to the resistance the resistance
to the three point eight billion dollar
Dakota access pipeline what Native
Americans call the black snake as it
snakes its way from the back in oil
fields of North Dakota taking the
fracked oil from North Dakota through
South Dakota Iowa Illinois and then
hooking up with a pipeline to the Gulf
of Mexico and the Native Americans said
no they were particularly concerned
about it being drilled under the
Missouri River the longest river in
North America that would provide that
provides water to more than 17 million
people downstream they said it's not
just about us and it's not just about
Native Americans it's about all of us
they don't call themselves protesters
they call themselves water protectors
and LaDonna brave bold Allard opens her
property and she says anyone can come
who resists and first dozens of people
come and then scores of people than
hundreds of people than thousands of
people the first resistance camp hers
was called the sacred stone camp and
then there was Oh many different
resistance camps that group because
there were so many of the red warrior
camp and other so many people had come
and this action this largest unification
of Native American tribes that the
United States has seen in decades tribes
from Latin America the United States the
first nations of Canada this was
historic
and this is all growing through the
election year of 2016 when people are
really focused on the issues you know in
the general election debates and this I
also mentioned to Bob Schieffer who is a
moderator of some of the debates the
moderators did not once raise the issue
of climate change let alone the Dakota
access pipeline or the standoff at
Standing Rock it's this Bob Schieffer
answered we should do more on climate
change and that's important that's a
start
but the resistance kept on growing now
we were covering it from afar but on
Labor Day weekend a year ago in 2016
democracy now we made our way to North
Dakota to be on the ground covering what
was happening and it was amazing to film
I mean we would cover these mass civil
disobedience protests people marching
through the back roads the rural roads
of North Dakota Native American elders
they'd start with a water ceremony and
they would often carry glasses of water
and they would be met by a fully
militarized Sheriff's Department I mean
we're talking the rural backroads of
North Dakota they had M raps they had
tanks they had automatic weapons they
had drones and they're facing off
against their neighbors
I mean sometimes the water protectors
would say okay you're protecting the
pipeline but what about also protecting
us they would say this water is also for
you it's not just for us it's for your
children it's not just for ours and you
know that scene of militarized police
departments you know it from Ferguson
right you know it from that people's
uprising back in 2014
August 9 2014 when Darren Wilson a white
police officer right around noon on that
day High Noon guns down a young
african-american 18-year old
named Michael Brown who's just graduated
from high school headed off to Community
College and instead he's killed by a
white police officer and his body his
corpse is left to bake in the hot August
Sun hour after hour after hour after
hour and the people rose up and you know
these images because the media did go
there and showed these fully militarized
st. Louis area police departments facing
off against an enraged community saying
we are not animals we are people too
taking their stand black lives matter
this is recycling in America today you
take the weapons from Iraq and
Afghanistan and you give them to the
police departments of the United States
now even some police chiefs are saying
enough Juan Gonzalez and I won mazing
journalist who has been with democracy
now all 21 years of democracy now we
recently interviewed norm Stamper a
former police chief of Seattle
Washington he presided over the Battle
of Seattle back in 1999 you remember
under President Clinton the World Trade
Organization met there and thousands of
people came from around the world I mean
high school kids from Seattle nurses
doctors environmentalists labor leaders
farmers from France all gathered in the
streets and said no to this
supranational organization that
represents corporations that can
overturn the laws of democratically
elected legislatures by saying that's a
barrier to trade so if you don't want
oh Jenny modified food they can say no
that is a barrier to trade you are WTO
illegal and people said no and that
battle took place in the streets of
Seattle and norm Stamper was the police
chief they sprayed so much gas
on the protesters pepper spray mace gas
that they had to go to other states to
replenish their supply Seattle had never
seen anything like this before and at
the end of this basically police riot
norm Stamper was ousted as he should
have been but he has gone on to become
one of the major voices in the United
States for police reform he says it was
the worst mistake of his life he said
when we're looking at people in the
crosshairs we forget there are neighbors
there are kids there are doctors or
nurses or librarians there are farmers
we forget they are the enemy and this is
why we have to reevaluate the arming of
our police departments with
weapons-grade you know military weapons
I mean when you think they're trying to
stop violence look at the level of
violence in the United States I mean
President Trump was just in Japan on his
Asia trip trying to push billions of
dollars of weapon sales on Japan in the
midst of one of the major massacres of
the last weeks we have them almost every
week in the United States 33,000 people
die a year in the United States of gun
violence in Japan it's under ten a year
in the United States
it's 33,000 people and just a side issue
on these horrific massacres every time
you hear about one think domestic
violence think how important it is to
take the issue of domestic violence
seriously because more often than not in
the majority of these cases these men
who are most likely men who engage in
these acts of gun violence have hurt or
killed their partners
the women in their lives you know
whether we're talking about me too in
the whole movement against sexual
harassment and sexual assault that could
conceivably take down the President of
the United States or whether we're
talking about gun violence in the
streets of the United States this last
Massacre not even the latest the one in
Sutherland Springs a few Sundays ago
where a 26 year old former active duty
member of the US Air Force and sadly so
often these massacres are committed by
former US military devon patrick kelly
the white 26-year old former active duty
member of the US air force who killed 26
people and injured 20 at this church in
sutherland springs texas who had a gun
apparently legally just a few years
before had beaten his wife and fractured
the skull of his 18-month toddler
stepson he was confined to base or jail
on the military base where he served for
a year and that didn't go into the
National instant criminal background
check system that would allow him to get
a gun this assault domestic violence
matters it matters in itself it's not
just a red flag for future violence and
public-private violence has to be taken
as seriously as public violence but
but a small critical digression from the
militarization of the United States and
how different we are
than the rest of the world and how
important it is that people especially
in our country in the United States
understand this but that's what the
people of Standing Rock were up against
they're up against this militarized
police department and they continue to
march they continue to get arrested and
their numbers only grew so that weekend
Labor Day weekend a year ago democracy
now went on the ground started filming
all this and these protests were amazing
and then on Saturday September 3rd 2016
we were covering those Labor Day weekend
so it was an extended weekend people
didn't expect the bulldozers to be an
operation holiday weekend and a group of
Native Americans were going to plant
their native flags on an area they had
called their sacred ground they said it
was their sacred burial site and as they
went to plant their flags they see the
bulldozers right there operating at full
tilt they were shocked
so we're filming they go up on the
property and they stand in front of the
bulldozers and I mean this is such a
remarkably brave act do you know these
are mega machines you know not as big as
the Esk excavator in the Hambach mind
tiny in comparison but massively big
compared to a human being and to see a
native woman older and a child standing
in front of this bulldozer it made me
think back three days before the US
invasion of Iraq and another part of the
Middle East it was March 16 2003 in Gaza
- a young American woman named Rachel
Corrie who came from evergreen college
in Washington State and she was part of
the International Solidarity movement
and she had befriended a Palestinian
pharmacist and his family and she
another
- this had put on those construction
vest orange fluorescent jackets because
Israeli military bulldozers have come to
demolish his home and they were standing
there to try to prevent that from
happening and she stood just like these
native elders in front of an Israeli
military bulldozer made by caterpillar
in the United States and she was crushed
to death and that's what I thought about
as we were filming the Native Americans
standing in front of these bulldozers
you just can't overestimate how
dangerous the churning of this earth is
but this time the bulldozers pulled back
they pulled back from the people and the
people kept on marching forward and
Moore came from the resistance camps as
they heard what was going on and it was
just an amazing sight 1 2 3 4 5 6
bulldozers pushing back I mean people
were so shocked that they were
excavating this site because well a
judge was about to rule on the Standing
Rock Sioux the whole conflict and he had
said like the day before a few days
before ok if you say this is your sacred
burial ground prove it you draw a map
from me and they complied and they drew
a map for the judge and the judge gave
it to the other side as judges do to
energy transfer partners energy transfer
partners which owns the Dakota access
pipeline energy transfer partners who
owned by Kelsey Warren Kelsey Warren who
oh when rick perry ran for president
twice the former governor of texas who's
now the Secretary of Energy who just
made a massive coal deal in Ukraine Rick
Perry when he ran for governor twice
bankrolled his presidential run to the
tune of six million dollars he is now
the Secretary of Energy gave the map to
energy transfer partners and the Native
Americans thought so the company
leapfrogged over from where they were to
this area to excavate to change the
facts on the ground so when the judge
ruled
the next few days it would be a moot
point I mean the land would be already
destroyed and it just infuriated people
so they came up and they kept marching
and they pushed the bulldozers back and
it was an amazing scene and it was then
that the Dakota access pipeline guards
unleash dogs on the protestors on the
water protectors dogs and so democracy
now kept filming people were being
bitten the guards would throw the dogs
into the crowd you'd even see sometimes
a dog flinch but they'd have to bite
their way out of the crowd and they bit
the horses they bit the people and
people were being maced by other guards
but they kept moving forward I mean we
filmed a dog with its nose and mouth
dripping with blood and even though they
were beaten bitten maced pepper sprayed
the people prevailed on that day and an
unacceptably high price but finally the
bulldozers pulled back the guards pulled
back they got in their trucks and their
cars and they pulled away we posted
we posted that video online that night
when in 24-48 hours there were 14
million views now this gives the lie to
the corporate executives on the networks
you know have invited us on some of
these networks to comment sometimes who
say people's eyes glaze over when you
talk climate change you know this shows
the intense interest and these struggles
around a sustainable planet around
climate change around one of the
greatest threats to all of our existence
people do care any corporate executive
would have drooled to have those kind of
what do they call them eyeballs on their
product 14 million views people were
interested so we had to go back to New
York and we continued to broadcast about
what was happening there and then the
governor of North Dakota at the time
governor Dalrymple on Thursday night
called out the National Guard the judge
was gonna rule on the following Friday
the day after it did not look good for
the tribe oh and then quietly the
authorities in North Dakota issued an
arrest warrant for me
but I didn't know that at the time so
the next day Friday we broadcast our
show and then their main chef and I who
co-hosts Democracy Now headed to Canada
we weren't fleeing we were invited to
the Toronto International Film Festival
because there was a new film premiering
about the life of if' stone who's this
great muckraking journalist who when
teaching young people said if you're
gonna remember two words remember
governments lie if you can remember
three words remember all governments lie
so that was telling the story of his
great muckraking life and then it was
talking about journalistic organizations
that were continuing in in his tradition
so it was profiling democracy no and
they asked us to come up and speak after
the film and I thought about it I
thought this is the time to speak we
just come from the Dakota access
pipeline straw
people really care about Native
Americans and Canada First Nations we
had just been an eyewitness to this this
would be an opportunity anyway that was
Friday Friday evening the judge ruled a
routing of the tribe I mean completely
against the tribe worst decision for the
Standing Rock Sioux now that week also
Trump had mate
President Obama made this historic trip
to Asia and his last stop was Laos and
he held a democracy forum for young
Asians from all over Asia to teach them
about democracy and the last question
was from a young Malaysian woman and she
raised her hand and she said President
Obama what about the Dakota access
pipeline she asked him a question that
no American journalists had publicly
asked President Obama and he answered
eloquently about the oppression of
Native Americans for centuries and then
as he was wrapping up he said oh as for
the Dakota access pipeline I'd have to
get back to my team and get back to you
on that well he came back to the United
States and reportedly he saw the video
of the dogs it wasn't lost on the first
african-american president of the United
States their significance I mean when we
posted that video we also interviewed
Winona LaDuke great indigenous activists
from the White Earth reservation in
northern Minnesota who said governor
Dalrymple you are not George Wallace is
not Alabama this is not 1965 we are
through
so Obama knew what was happening at that
point leading up to the judge's decision
it's his Justice Department that's
prevailing they're about to pop their
champagne corks they have 115 minutes
later an unprecedented three agency
letter is released from his own Justice
Department that had just prevailed
interior department and the Army Corps
of Engineers and they said wait hold
everything so the tribe is suffering
from whiplash now worst
and then what do you mean wait they're
saying well we have to see whether
Native Americans were consulted whether
there was a proper environmental impact
statement so this is a great decision
well it looks like Obama's gonna slow
down this building of the pipeline and
maybe not grant the permit for digging
this under the Missouri River so this is
a very big victory for the Standing Rock
Sioux so we're in Canada right and the
next day were invited the University of
Toronto so it's a crowd like this well
no one's like you guys but you know it's
like a I'm a couple hundred people and
we're giving speeches and I'm in the
middle of my speech and I get a text and
it says you're under arrest no no no
really
it said like there's an arrest warrant
out for you and I had I thought did
someone just send me this from the
audience is this like some kind of scam
or is it spam or is this real but I do
see it's a North Dakota number and you
know it's not like you'll be arrested
immediately if there's arrest warrant
but I do know that if there is an arrest
warrant for you and you have interaction
with the police or the FBI or border
guards and that arrest warrant is in the
system you will be taken and the thing
is I'm in Canada and I have to get over
the border so I think if I can race that
arrest warrant from going into the
system maybe I can make it home so I
just you know looked at on the crowd and
said could someone call me a cab I I
didn't I didn't want to say what was
happening call attention to the
situation but I did get to the airport
and I made it back to New York and
safely but you know it was true I
learned there was an arrest warrant for
me but I didn't take it personally I
really thought it was a message that was
being sent to all journalists do not go
to North Dakota which is exactly why we
all had to be there now I also pal
I also felt that I wanted to send a
message to young independent reporters
that they don't have to get a record
when you put things on the record we had
to challenge this because I mean if
you're a young reporter independent how
are you going to go somewhere where you
immediately end up in jail it's going to
obviously discourage you if you don't
have the institutional backing the
resources and we had to call the bluff
of the authorities and so we headed back
to North Dakota a few weeks later we
landed on a Friday in Bismarck North
Dakota and as we landed the prosecutors
announced they would be quashing the
arrest warrant and dropping the charges
against me
which was good oh but they would be
bringing more serious charges against me
of riot what like I'm a one-woman riot
what are they talking about
so I call my North Dakota lawyer not
that I had one before
and I said I don't understand what does
this mean what why do I face he said I
mean at worst a year in jail I said a
year in jail I don't know about your
life sir but so I said well what does
this mean and he said well you'll be
arraigned Monday at 1:30 I said well at
least that gives us three days to cover
the protests so we're in North Dakota
and then I said no it's just automatic
he said yeah the judge just
rubber-stamps all you know these charges
and I said oh a judge is involved over
the weekend he said no it's not a I said
judge means discretion right and so he
says no no no in this case it's
rubber-stamped all these charges with
all these people they're rubber-stamp
but then the judge uses discretion and
trials or whatever else in plea
bargaining or whatever so no no a judge
means this is not a done deal so we
issued a press release so I said what is
the name of the judge
and we said this judge would be deciding
about whether to sign off on these
charges that would lead to my
arraignment and then we continue to
cover the protests there was a lot of
media attention now on Monday morning
you know the show must go on and how
many of you watch or listen to a read
Democracy Now fantastic but it still
looks like at least half the audience
doesn't so you can get us on your public
radio station here you can get us on
public television we grew from 9 radio
stations the first year 21 years ago to
over 1400 public radio and television
stations today and online millions of
people access this at Democracy Now so
check it all out an hour a day
grassroots global independent
investigative uninterrupted a ly digest
our headlines every day and media alerts
and everything like that I think we are
sending around daily digests where you
can sign up here I don't know if you can
text the words internationally Democracy
Now one word two six six eight six six
but that'll automatically sign you up
I'm not sure if it works you're in
Germany but so we had to do the show
it's 8:00 in the morning everyday
Eastern Time in New York which meant
7:00 in the morning North Dakota time so
Dennis Moynihan who's doing this live
stream arranged a satellite truck would
come up from Minneapolis and then we had
to locate this truck do the show so we
decided to broadcast from across the
street from the Mandan courthouse in
jail where I'd have to turn myself in
right after so we'd broadcast from this
church property and behind us was the
courthouse the jail and the Ten
Commandments in between and we began the
show and we interviewed Dave our chambo
who is the 45th chairman of the Standing
Rock Sioux tribe like Trump is the 45th
president
United States he's the 45th chairman of
the Standing Rock Sioux and I asked him
chairman Dave have you ever been
arrested he said I was a few months ago
we were doing civil disobedience and I
said and what happened he said was a
low-level misdemeanor I said so what
happened he said I was strip searched I
was put in an orange jumpsuit and I was
jailed I mean this guy is the 45th
chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux and
he was strip-searched and jailed for a
low-level misdemeanor I interviewed dr.
Sara jumpin Eagle she is the
pediatrician of the Standing Rock
reservation and I asked her if she was
arrested and she oh she was one of the
first because you know she cared about
the health of the children and I said
what happened she'd low-level
misdemeanors and so what happened and so
she well I was strip-searched I was put
in an orange jumpsuit and I was jailed
you know right there and the Mandan jail
behind to me I mean how much humiliation
kind of people take I was at the
Bismarck Airport one time I was reading
a magazine before getting on their plane
and a guy came up to me said don't think
I don't know who you are and I said oh
who are you and he said I was one of the
guards at the at the Labor Day standoff
when the dogs were released and I said
and did you release the dogs on the
Native Americans he said no we were as
shocked as they were he said energy
transfer Partners Dakota access pipeline
hired several security firms and he said
you don't think I get it that we've
committed hundreds of massacres against
these people then we release dogs on
them you don't think I get why they're
angry
you know never assume based on a
person's position what their position
will be so back to the show
we finished the hour and we're getting
ready to go across to the courthouse and
lots of media are now paying attention
there's a lot of pressure New York Times
is covering this Los Angeles Times al
Jazeera it's on the BBC homepage Vogue
magazine was covering us and I get a
call from North Dakota Public Radio
right before going to court that and you
know it's a small state they know all
the players this is a longtime hosts he
says you're not going to be arraigned
the judge has dot decided not to sign
off on these charges and you know it
wasn't only me a number of Native
Americans who face felony and
misdemeanor charges had those charges
dropped that day this is what happens
when the media spotlight shines in the
right direction
this
this is what happens when you have the
good kind of reality television this is
the kind of media that we have to
support going to where the silences and
as you can see it is often not very
quiet
it just doesn't hit that corporate media
radar screen so that was in October in
December the Obama administration ruled
that there would be some kind of
rerouting or the Dakota access pipeline
like the Keystone XL would not be
finished but then President Trump was
inaugurated and one of his first acts
was to greenlight the Dakota access
pipeline and yes they say that the gota
access pipeline is carrying that frack
gas today but that hasn't ended the
struggle I mean the education that
people have experienced in our country
and around the world the indigenous
solidarity right here at copped the
number of Native Americans who had come
to join together with other indigenous
people around the world to educate them
about the victories and the losses and
now there's a struggle around the
Keystone XL as well this is a period
when whether we're talking about the
struggle for a cleaner planet or a
struggle for a more just society when it
comes to for example in the United
States the immigration bans people
massively going out to airports and
fighting Donald Trump on his bands and
even the judges doing this just a quick
comment because I interviewed Brian
Schatz the senator from Hawaii and asked
him what he thought of this just a few
days ago at the cop you know that Jeff
Sessions the Attorney General of the
United States was recently on a
right-wing radio talk show and asked
about the fact that a federal judge from
Hawaii had stopped the Muslim ban
one of two judges the other in
Washington State Jeff session said how
is it possible that a man on an island
in the Pacific can stop the President of
the United States he is the Attorney
General of the United States this is
what we face today whether we're talking
about Muslim bans or immigration rights
I mean the rights of immigrants in
Germany all through Europe such a
pivotal issue today people are standing
up people are uniting around issues of
climate issues of immigration issues of
war and peace massive and issues of
growing inequality LGBTQ rights I really
do think that those who care about war
and peace those who care about climate
change the fate of the planet and racial
economic and social injustice are not a
fringe minority not even a silent
majority but the silenced majority
silenced by the corporate media which is
why we have to take the media back I
just want to end and then I think we're
gonna go to the back and we'll be
signing books but you don't have to get
a book to come up and say hi or if you
have story ideas for Democracy Now send
them to stories at democracynow.org we
always encourage this people to
interview issues to cover I just want to
end with two stories one is when this
critical moment comes what you're doing
and it goes way back in time to 1955 to
Rosa Parks now that's a story that many
people know and you might say why tell
it again because the media even gets
this famous story wrong about the civil
rights activist Rosa Parks December 1st
1955 sits down on the bus in Montgomery
Alabama refuses to get up for a white
passenger the bus driver calls the
police they
arrest her four days later December 5th
1955 she goes to court the Montgomery
Improvement Association holds its
meeting to launch a bus boycott that
will lead to the integration of the
transportation system of Alabama they
choose as their leader a young minister
who's just moved into town dr. Martin
Luther King jr. it was Rosa Parks who
helped to launch dr. Martin Luther King
now when she died a few years ago first
african-american woman to lay in state
in the US Capitol and then her body was
brought to a church in Washington before
this massive funeral in Detroit I was
watching CNN and they said Rosa Parks
was a tired seamstress she was no
troublemaker that's where they got it
wrong Rosa Parks was a first-class
troublemaker she knew she knew exactly
what she was doing she was the secretary
of the local n-double-a-cp she worked
under Edie Nixon he came at a radical
labor politics he had organized with
with a philip randolph one of the
greatest organizers of the 20th century
who organized the 1963 march on
washington where King gave his I have a
dream speech he organized that with
Bayard Rustin who is the black pacifist
gay activist these are the stories we
should know but edie Nixon working with
a philip Randolph had organized the
Brotherhood of sleeping car porters the
thousands of black conductors on the
trains who are all called George not
because their mothers named them George
but for George Pullman who owned the
Pullman trains and that's why they
needed to be organized
Edie Nixon Rosa Parks have been
challenging the racist laws of the south
for years she had trained at the
Highlander Center bringing white and
black together King was at the
Highlander Center she knew exactly what
she was doing but the media den
greats activists what can be more noble
than dedicating your life to making the
world a better place
you know if you help to build that
foundation you never know when that
critical moment will come look at the
United States right now with the me2
movement this powerful movement of women
who are challenging abuse and
challenging men in every sector of
society the most powerful men from
politicians to people in the
entertainment industry to people in
finance there is no telling where this
will go considering that at least a
dozen women have already accused Donald
Trump of sexually assaulting or
harassing them there is no telling where
this is all going but you never know
when that critical moment will come but
if you're involved with social change
you will help build that foundation that
will make history will determine the
future and that's what Rosa Parks did
and to show how brave Rosa was go back a
few months in 1955 to that summer of
1955 the summer of Emmett Till the
summer of a 14 year old african-american
boy his mother Mamie till wanted him out
of Chicago for the summer sent him to be
with his aunt and uncle and cousins and
money Mississippi and one night a white
mob comes rips him out of bed said he
wolf whistled at a white woman and it
was a stutterer and his mother Mamie
taught him every time you feel a stutter
coming on whistle he ended up in the
bottom of the Tallahatchie River and
when his body was dredged up and sent
back to Chicago
his mother Mamie did something
incredibly courageous she said she
wanted the casket opened for the wake
and the funeral she wanted the world to
see the ravages of racism the brutality
of bigotry
thousands of people stream past his
casket and saw his distended mutilated
head and then Jet magazine and other
black publications actually took
pictures and those pictures were
published and they were seared into the
history and consciousness of our country
Mamie till had something very important
to teach the press of today show the
pictures show the images
could you imagine for just one week we
saw the images of war for one week we
saw a baby dead on the ground in
Afghanistan and we learned her story who
her parents were and we saw her
photograph on the top of the fold of the
surviving newspapers it for just one
week every radio and television newscast
at the top of it they talked about a
woman in Yemen who has blown up in a
drone strike maybe she was attending a
wedding party who'd fallen in love what
weird the family that were struck in
this attack if we knew their names if
for just one week everyone on their
Facebook page everyone every tweet every
text every email talked about a soldier
dead and dying for just one week you
know we are all a compassionate people
I do believe across the United States
and across the world people would say no
war is not the answer to conflict in the
21st century and being here in Berlin I
wanted to end in world war two where I
began but I wanted to end with hans and
sophie scholl that brother and sister he
was a medical student at the University
of Munich Sophie was an undergraduate
they and their professor carl huber and
other students and workers decided to
form the white rose collective they
decided that I mean Hans and Sophie
weren't Jewish they were German
Christians but they thought what can we
do in the face of the Nazi atrocity and
they thought the best they could do was
to put out information so that the
Germans would never be able to say we
No and they put out this series of
pamphlets and I'm one of the pamphlets
were written the words we will not be
silent and they have these distributed
far and wide wherever they could under
cover of darkness Oh in alleyways and
marketplaces and school yards and then
Hans and Sophie and their professor were
captured they were charged they were
tried they were convicted and they were
beheaded but that philosophy that motto
should be the Hippocratic oath of the
media today should be the Hippocratic
oath of us all today we will not be
silent democracy net
