Black lives matter. Black citizens matter. Black families matter.
- Elizabeth Warren (2015 Edward M. Kennedy Institute speech)
This speech kind of came out of nowhere.
I was on Tumblr and I actually saw a gif set from this speech and I had to go look it up and hear it in it's entirety. What I heard has to be one of the clearest, most concise and just straight up speech from a politician, like ever. Most politicians employ a tactic where they just give you just enough to get a glimmer of hope and excited about change, only to be let down when they get in office and they become just another politician selling dreams and stealing hope from the less fortunate. But when I heard this speech she not only gave clear points, pointed fingers and acknowledge what's trying to be swept under the rug in this country.
In short she gave me a glimmer of hope.
The points she hit and the statistics that she gave are no different than the ones that are going around on the internet and during speeches at rallies. The fingers she points at lawmakers who do shady things in order to deter voting in poorer counties or against poor people is nothing that hasn't been said in speeches by black activists for decades. Nor is the fact that she has stated many instances where racism has directly been on display and everyone by large continues to ignore it or omit it from history. So what did she do that has given me such hope you ask? That's easy:
She opened her mouth.
She's not a presidential hopeful or gunning for another position in an election, (at least that's what research suggests). She gave me hope because finally a person in some kind of position of power, (even if it's on a state level), has blown the whistle and is going to force her fellow politicians to talk about what she said. Bernie Sanders is a good man by large due to all of the evidence of his continual support of the right thing over the past couple of decades, but he needs help. Running on a platform that this country needs to be back on equal footing isn't going to happen over night or by himself. He's going to need other politicians to step it up and do something about it right along side of him.
It's a shame that in 2015 that the country is getting worse and worse, making that slow slide back into the way that it use to be ran. But moments like this and hearing Bernie speak about many of the problems that we need to fix on a smaller scale to have an effect on a larger scale is what we need as a country. Before long, just as I said in Warning From Tomorrowland, this world is on a collision course to so something disastrous happening and the change needs to start now.
Hopefully Sen. Warren & Mr. Sanders can keep up the pressure and start the gears that is needed for change, because so far they are the only two in a position of power that's saying anything at all, but at least they are talking.
Check out the speech here:
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