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Emily Williams: I'm Emily Williams, Executive Director of The Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College.
Emily Williams This is Beyond Voting, a limited series that digs into the critical issues central to the 2024 election cycle.
Emily Williams: We started this show for people like you and me, people who want to share and redesigning the democracy we deserve,
Emily Williams: outside of the typical political binary of the red and the blue,
Emily Williams: because it's up to all of us to take action if we want to see real change.
Charlene Carruthers: Nobody is moved if they're only allowed to be introduced to or confronted with their own views.
Charlene Carruthers: So there's this sticky place that if you're going to set out to be an organizer,
Charlene Carruthers: or set out to be an activist, you also have to make a commitment to working with people who don't completely agree with you on everything.
Emily Williams: We'll feature conversations with leaders, activists, and educators discussing the state of our country's institutions and parties.
Rosa Clemente: It's interesting to see the Democrats have taken things literally from the Green Party platform
Rosa Clemente: and be like these are the ideas, an end police violence, a liveable wage, canceling student debt loans,
Rosa Clemente: fighting to get our reproductive rights.
Rosa Clemente: That's always been the Green Party platform.
Emily Williams: We'll also take a look at how we continue to be affected by ongoing systems of oppression,
Emily Williams: and most importantly, how we the people can take critical actions in pursuit of true equity and justice.
Esam Boreay: As a brown Muslim immigrant, I don't feel safe because if I will get threatened and abused,
Esam Boreay: I don't care if the person who abused me is Democrat or Republican, I'm abused by the end of the day.
So the only safe way for me to live in a country that I love and admire and Esam Boreay: enjoy a membership in a party that I believe in is for this party to stick to their values and their true.
Emily Williams: So if you want to go beyond voting, join us every Tuesday starting September 24 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere you get your podcasts.
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