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Learn about the principles and practice of nonviolence as an active force for personal, social, and political change. Co-hosted with Grassroots Leadership Criminal Justice / Participatory Defense Organizer and Visions After Violence Fellow with Texas After Violence Project Robert Tyrone Lilly and Jim Crosby, the show covers current events, learning opportunities, and nonviolent direct action taking place locally. Airs 1st Thursdays of every month from 1-2 pm CT at KOOP Community Radio 91.7 FM in Austin, Texas, and streaming online at koop.org.
Hello, everybody. This is Jim Crosby here with my colleague, Robert Lilly, and we're missing our fearless leader, Stacy Fraser, today. She's looking forward to get with us again next month, but she's under the weather. And, but we have a wonderful assembly here in the studio today. We've got my friend, long time, John Jennifer Long from Casa Marinella, and we have, Suma Franco from, she's actually Rob's coworker at grassroots leadership.
Speaker 1:And we're gonna really focus on, immigration. And we've got Sabina and, Susanna here as our interpreter. So, it's an experiment. We'll be doing a little English, Spanish and, but, really looking forward to digging in on immigration. And I wanna remind you that the views on this show are not the views of coop radio, its volunteer staff, or underwriters, but, of nonviolent Austin.
Speaker 1:And, we'll start as we usually do with a little music. Here's a song that I wrote a number of years ago, quarter century ago, called, Other Folks' Shoes, and it's basically about, empathy. So we figured that was fitting for, immigration. K. We're gonna try to balance between.
Speaker 1:Okay. Yeah. I can use Rob's mic. Here we go. Will that be easier to balance, John?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Perfect.
Speaker 1:We got John Hoffman here running the board. Well, let's see. How's it go? She was
Speaker 3:white haired when I met her,
Speaker 1:a little bit bent over. Know thyself, she told me, and to thine own self be true.
Speaker 3:But I didn't have to know her long to learn the simple lesson. She'd become the self she was, wears other folks' shoes. Well, she'd taught them in their schools, healed them in their clinics, fed them bread when they were hungry, water when they was dry.
Speaker 1:She'd laughed when they were happy,
Speaker 3:cried when they were crying, lived right with them in their living, died a little when they died. She'd seen the world
Speaker 1:when she was young with Dickens, Twain, and Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Marx, and Chekhov,
Speaker 3:and Dostoevsky too. She'd picketed and slept in cells, mourned the dead and loved them well, soiled her hands with the stuff of life wearing other folks' shoes. Well, it's other folks' shoes. It's other folks' shoes. It's walking in their moccasins a mile, maybe 2.
Speaker 3:It's knowing yourself, forgetting yourself, seeing what yourself would do if you walked around this world a while, other folks' shoes.
Speaker 1:She said, when I draw a tree, you know, or write a poem about it, I become that tree a while, else I can't get it right. I lose myself, forget myself, no oneness with that other, like walking
Speaker 3:in the deep forest
Speaker 1:on a darkest, stillest night. And when
Speaker 3:I'm with another, a woman, man, or child,
Speaker 1:I try to really listen to write through the words for truth.
Speaker 3:The kind you know when you the kind you see in a narrowed eye that blinks back a tear. The kind you know when you feel the pinch of other folks' shoes. Well, it's other folks' shoes, it's other folks' shoes. It's walking in their moccasins a mile, maybe 2. It's knowing yourself, forgetting yourself, seeing what yourself would do if you walked
Speaker 1:around this whirlpool a
Speaker 3:while in other folks' shoes. She's dead now, been dead
Speaker 1:a while, and I'm still left here living. But every time I think of her, I know just what to
Speaker 3:do. Yeah, I'll
Speaker 1:get down and feel depressed and then I'll see her smiling.
Speaker 3:And though it's time I spent some time wearing other folks' shoes. Well, it's other folks' shoes, it's other folks' shoes. It's walking in their moccasins a mile, maybe 2. It's knowing yourself, forgetting yourself, seeing what yourself would do if you walked around this world a while in other folks shoes. Try walking around this world a while in other folks shoes.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Walk around the world a while in other folks shoes.
Speaker 1:So for this hour, we're gonna be doing a little walking around the world a while in other folks' shoes. I introduced folks briefly, and we'll get them to do some self introduction momentarily. But first off, brother Rob, you got some intro you'd like to do?
Speaker 2:Well, peace and blessings to everyone out there in the listening audience. Welcome to nonviolent Austin Radio Hour, and our hope is that our colleague and friend, Stacy, will get well soon and be with be back with us at the next time we meet. I just wanna say, greetings to all of our guests in the room today. And to all of you that are listening out there, my hope is that our hope is that you'll be built up and that you'll be equipped for the time that we're in. We're gonna have a great conversation today, and we look forward to sharing our thoughts in a moment.
Speaker 1:Okay. Suma, can I ask you to go first? Our first question is really a general one to let you go with where you will. Tell us your history of working with the immigrant population.
Speaker 4:Yes. Hello, everyone who's listening. My name is Surma, and I'm a immigrant from Guatemala. Yes. Like I said, I'm a Guatemalan migrant that came here in 2,008, and, the first thing in 2010 that welcomed me was Ed Prison.
Speaker 4:And being in a prison made me realize that, the community needs impacted, or leadership from impacted people. And that led me to organize in the prisons and detention centers supporting other folks incarcerated. I was incarcerated for more than 2 years in different detention centers, and that made me understand and experience the different practices used in detention centers and our by our government, and that's, unfortunate. And and that's the experience I have.
Speaker 1:Jennifer, are you ready to jump in? Long history of Casa Marinella.
Speaker 5:Yes. So Casa Marinella was founded in 1986. You know, we haven't had a refugee program in the United States for that many years. It grew out of our failures during World War 2 to protect Jews who came to our borders. And after the war, the United States developed a lot of international agreements and started receiving people as refugees, recognizing that displaced people needed our support.
Speaker 5:And it wasn't that much later in the 19 eighties that, at Casa Marinella, we started receiving people from El Salvador and Guatemala because those were the first displaced people who were arriving at our border. Currently, today, in 2023, Casa Marinella served 575 people from 48 countries all over the world. There's so many people suffering. I I think the song other people's shoes is quite appropriate. If we don't think it could happen ever happen to us, we're wrong.
Speaker 5:Anywhere in the world has the capacity to destabilize, and many people have to leave. And I feel that, in this country, we're losing our sense of compassion toward those people, something that we understood much better after World War 2 when people had just been through the depression and World War 2 and and had themselves suffered, and I think, the level of compassion in our country was much greater. But every day, we have people coming to our borders believing in the United States, believing in our ideals, and and needing our help. And we're so fortunate at Casa Marinella to be able to receive them, provide them shelter and support services, and help them, go pursue their legal remedies and get on their feet.
Speaker 1:K. If we could get both of you thank you both. If we could get both of you to take turns, answering it, the question of, 1 or more stories that just stand out to you most from your work. The way I'd first phrased it was what stories stand out from specific immigrant situations you've worked with? So, Suma, would you like to take that one first?
Speaker 4:Yes. And for me, we it's reliving those stories, reliving the stories of people that are in detention centers that are in the hileras, are in the ice freezer, as they're called, and seeing the inhumane process, the way people lose their autonomy, how they're treated as numbers and objects, not as people.
Speaker 5:I think that, I think of my friend, Helen, who left a country called Eritrea, where, as a 17 year old, along with all the other 17 year olds in the country, she was forced into the military and sent far away from her family, where she was very vulnerable and where she was abused, who had to escape from that country and, for a long time hid in Sudan and then in Ethiopia before making the long journey from Brazil all the way through Latin America to the Texas border, where she was then put in chains and put in a detention center for 4 months. She has now won asylum. She's one of the fortunate ones and has a pathway to citizenship, but it was many years of journey, and she's just one of the 100,000,000 people in the world today who are just trying to have a life, just trying to survive, and wish there was a lot more places in the world that were reaching out and helping those folks.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you so very much, my guests, our guests today. There's a couple of things that come to mind as I'm listening to you both to you 3. Actually 4 in the background interpreting. No one, I wanna read a quote before I begin any commentary.
Speaker 2:Right? So I wanna use this quote by Martin Niemoller. And the quote reads as such, it's called, first they came for the Jews. First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists, but I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Speaker 2:Then, they came for the trade unionists. And, I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then, they came for me. And, there was no one left to speak out for me. Martin Niemala, pastor Niemala, given quoted in, 14th January 18, 92, through March.
Speaker 2:He actually died at 1984. I'm not sure exactly when he quoted that but I think it was after World War 2. I share that quotation because for years I've pondered on that, you know, as a person of African American ancestry, I'm very keen in a way of my own people's sufferings. But it's taken me some time to get to a place where I can walk in other people's shoes. Right?
Speaker 2:And I think this conversation today, quite appropriate song to begin with. Because, truly, as I listen to these stories, I gain empathy and compassion. I think, you know, as a person who's been excluded from the society historically, I can understand and empathize with other folk who want a quality of life, but yet have systems that are in place, institutions that oppress, that create barriers between the hope that you have for a quality life and the realities that prevent that from happening. And so I just wanna thank you again for being a guest here today, both of all 3 of you for being a guest here, 4 of you for being a guest here today and helping the audience become more empathetic. My hope is that, like myself, others will get to a place where this will not be an us them issue, but they'll be like Martin Niemoller and they'll realize that we're all tied together in this society.
Speaker 2:Right? Doctor Martin Luther King said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And so what's happening to you, I've got to see is it happening to me. Any thoughts?
Speaker 4:Yes. And for me, that's very important, and it has also to do with the history of racism and hate, especially towards different people of different cultures. And we know that that's nothing new. And there are practices these are practices that have also been protected, and in trying to destroy and impact communities of color. And I don't pretend to be an expert in And I don't pretend to be an expert in different
Speaker 2:cultures, but
Speaker 4:I know about slavery, and I know about how African descended people came here and were enslaved for many, many years and how they also fought to and tried to change for there to be freedom and liberty for folks. And we know that slavery hasn't stopped, that it's evolved to hurt more people, and we know that slavery came with criminalization based on skin color, based on your origins. And we're seeing that with immigrant folks, that folks are being discriminated and classified. And, The interpreter lost the last piece. Yes.
Speaker 4:The last part I was saying was that and nothing has changed. Folks are still being persecuted because of their immigration status. And I have stories, for example, including of LGBTQ plus community in detention centers as well facing those things. So Obama, the Trump, Biden, the Trump. So And, yes, we're in a century, in a time, and I've been in this country under Trump I mean, Obama, Trump, Biden, Trump again, and the unfortunate reality that is harming communities of color.
Speaker 1:K. Jennifer, I I wanna give you the chance to to jump in there, but I also wanna open up. That's that's a perfect lead in for my next question for both of y'all is, how have laws changed, and what effects have they had?
Speaker 5:So I I did wanna respond to that quote, because I do, I I think we all saw in the presidential campaign that immigrants were singled out in order to fan the flames of that hatred that exists still in people. And and for basically no particular reason, you know, why but it's just, to build power for a certain group of people to cast another group of people out. And just last night, I saw the list of ideas of what can be done to immigrants through project 2025, and it's very comprehensive, very long, and very brutal. And and I just wonder who will speak out for them, because there are proposals right here in Texas to put, you know, to build essentially a concentration camp or, or an internment camp right here in Texas so that everyone who comes here fleeing, looking for safety, can be imprisoned, the entire time that they're being considered. And and for the most part, they'll be being deported back to drastic situations.
Speaker 5:So, yeah, I'm I'm I'm wondering, you know, who will stand up who will stand up, in this coming period, when those things start to happen.
Speaker 2:I think my only response to that would be, here I am. Send me.
Speaker 5:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And that's gotta be the response of everybody in this society that loves freedom and justice. Here I am. Send me.
Speaker 1:One of the things I'm thinking is how Stacy really holds us to the principles of kinky and nonviolence, and the steps. And part of that whole approach to, social change and and, the common good is information gathering and education. So, I hope everybody can can take listening to this hour as a springboard or further encouragement to get to know people who are, immigrants, and to, become as informed as we can. And like Rob says, to say, okay. I'll answer the call.
Speaker 5:I I wanted to mention in terms of nonviolence, I really have a lot of respect for the mayor of Denver, in response to the idea of calling out the military against immigrants, referring to their arrival as an invasion. He said, we're not gonna allow that. And and a and an interviewer asked him, well, are you gonna call out the Denver police against the military? And he said, no, because we're right. We're right that we can't treat people that way.
Speaker 5:It's unconstitutional. It's inhumane, and it's un American, and we're just not gonna do it. If if that starts happening, 50,000 Denverites will show up to say don't do it.
Speaker 1:Led by the mayor.
Speaker 5:Led by the mayor.
Speaker 2:That's democracy.
Speaker 1:What about legal change? Either in the past that you've lived through and seen how it's affected your work and the people you work with or, what may be coming
Speaker 2:soon? Is that a question for our guests?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Both. And for you too, Rob, if you wanna Mhmm.
Speaker 5:Well, I think, the intention right now of the incoming administration is to, limit almost all forms of relief for immigrants, to stop temporary protected status, asylum, trafficking visas, crime victims' visas, and to make it, very, very difficult for anyone to enter this country who is coming here for safety.
Speaker 4:And, yes, I share what Jennifer said and can also add that we know that Texas is also a laboratory, and a place to experiment these racist laws against that criminalized migration and immigrants and other communities of color. We know we've seen as before, and also Operation Lone Star here in Texas. And these are laws also used to stop folks from accessing asylum, and those opportunities. And now with Trump's mandate, we know there will be raids, massive raids like we've seen, in workplaces, in restaurants, in public places, against vulnerable communities. Imagine a family sitting to eat at a restaurant and arrested and separated because of their skin color.
Speaker 4:And we've seen what happens when, Trump governs with, racism and hate.
Speaker 5:Jennifer. I wanted to mention something else, which is that, it's it's not just the United States. There there is an anti immigrant feeling in in many and perhaps most countries in the world. And the worrisome part about that is that, if we aren't making room for the people who are displaced, then they'll be treated with violence. And our own governor in this state is out on the front lines in that already, putting buoys in the river and the razor wire in order to physically harm people who are trying just to ask for help.
Speaker 5:And, Jim, you've actually observed that. Can you describe it?
Speaker 1:Yeah. I went down also, it'd been a year and a half ago, I guess, shortly after the buoys and the razor wire were put in and went on a float trip, down the Rio Grande to to see them. And, on the one hand, it seemed laughable because they were it was such a short, length of them. It wasn't it it was more symbolic than anything. But on the other hand, thinking about the attitude it displays and if there were the desire to, you know, do it down the whole length of the Rio Grande or the Texas and Mexican border, just how, life threatening it would be, etcetera.
Speaker 1:How brutal. And but I wondered if you, Jennifer, and Suma perhaps do could could, refresh our memories about the last few years of Operation Lone Star in particular and as before.
Speaker 4:Yes. We know as before and we fought as a community trying to stop as before. And we know racial profiling is part of SP 4 and part of how arrests happen through racial profiling. And that can also happen in Austin, racially profiling the immigrant community and arresting folks. And with Operation Lone Star, we know it's not just at the border, and it's expanding to different regions everywhere.
Speaker 4:And we know that when folks are arrested, they're arrest for crossing the after crossing the border for criminal trespassing, that criminal background in that menu that manufactured criminal background also is a obstacle then and blocks people from, as we know, seeking asylum and those opportunities. We also know that money is going to these local, community, municipalities and governments to carry this out. And in these rural areas, especially, we know the communities need water, potable water, parks, hospitals, schools, education. But, no, the money is going to locking folks up.
Speaker 2:Jennifer, did you wanna I
Speaker 5:just wanted to mention that the Obama administration did this as well. There's this emphasis on, getting rid of criminal aliens, but the crimes many of the crimes that were committed during the Obama Obama administration that got people deported were things like having an expired inspection sticker or driving without a license. Anything that could land you in jail could get you deported. And and right now, there's that talk again about criminalization and, focusing on criminals, violent criminals supposedly. But it's true that now something that didn't used to be a crime, which was just crossing, into the United States to ask for asylum, is considered a crime.
Speaker 5:We have a current resident from Iran who crossed the river and was put in jail for 6 months before he was even transferred to an immigration detention center. And I know that under project 2025, he would be especially a target of deportation because they said anyone who comes from an enemy country is, is, subject to more deportation.
Speaker 1:And if you're talking about deporting up to 10,000,000 people, you're talking about casting a very wide net, obviously.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I just wanna chime in before we go ahead and take a break by first of all, again, thanking you so much for your insightful commentary. And I just wanna remind our listening audience that this playbook is not a new playbook that's being played from. Right? Historically, in our society, in American history, racism has been at the roots of our society's origins.
Speaker 2:And to pit us against them, when the Europeans first came here, there was no such thing as white. Right? They were, you are the Catholic, you are a Jew, you are protestant, you are Mormon, you are a shaker, you were not identified by your faith or you were quote unquote, say they identified folk as, a heathen. Right? But but then they came with this language of white and black and yellow and red, and they classify human beings and gave human beings a hierarchy of value.
Speaker 2:Right? And then said, this group that is lower than us, we have the right to rule over. This is not a new playbook that we're playing that they're playing from. And so we have to be informed by history. And I just wanna shout out, grassroots leadership for sending all of us that are employees to the undoing racism workshop, where we get informed about the historical origins of racism in the society.
Speaker 2:And the and the People's Institute For Survival and Beyond emphasizes that if racism was created or if if it was done, it can be undone. And how do you undo something that is done? You educate yourself. You get informed. You don't rely on just what other talking heads say.
Speaker 2:You don't even rely on what we're saying on the radio. You go verify the facts for yourself. So I just wanna say thank you again for enlightening enlightening us to the dynamics of what we're up against. And when we come back from this break, I'd like to go into with, our distinguished host's support. Where do we go from here?
Speaker 2:How do we prepare going forward? Because I think that's that's gonna be an important question that many of us have to ask ourselves. And if laws are unjust, do we have a responsibility to obey unjust laws?
Speaker 1:Okay. Back live, y'all.
Speaker 2:Welcome back. Welcome back.
Speaker 1:Want to remind everyone that our guests are Suma Franco from, grassroots leadership and Jennifer Long from Casa Marinella, and our interpreters are Sabina and Azucena. And we're very thankful for the work they're doing. So let's pick back up there in terms of, well, just focusing for the rest of our time on what what y'all have coming up and what people can do to help.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yes. I think there's a lot of things folks, especially folks with privilege can do, starting with using their power to speak out for our community and show love and appreciate all the work and contributions we've made and folks of color have made. Yeah. And, one another thing is legislative advocacy, to fight against all the racist laws we know are coming. And, next year, we need volunteers, donations, and allies and bodies standing with us and to strengthen us and especially, in support of impacted communities and people of color.
Speaker 5:I think, I think it's gonna be really important to try to stay informed. Of course, a lot of media is also under threat, with the new administration, But I think we all need to be paying attention to what's going on because I think a lot of people feel a bit of despair, and and and the people on the right believe that they have a mandate to do whatever they wanna do, which they really don't. And I think it's gonna be super important for all of us to speak out in whatever way we can, writing letters, going to offices, and showing up at events where things are happening, and certainly standing with our brothers and sisters who are impacted.
Speaker 2:I I would like to just chime in on that by saying, you know, on a very practical level, I think it's going to be important for us to remember recent history. After the election in 2018 or not. Excuse me. After Trump's first election, we know that there was a lot of disarray and chaos immediately after. And I think those are going to be cues for what we need to prepare for at this point in time.
Speaker 2:So, like, simple things like making sure you have enough supplies in your home just in case there's no way to get, you know, from point a to point b or you have to be held up for a time. I think that's gonna be very important. I think me having generators and being capable of communicating with folk that that you love that are in a different, location, that's gonna be very essential to our, next steps of preparation. Just pragmatic things. What about that?
Speaker 2:Any thoughts along those lines?
Speaker 4:Yes. And for me, it's important to recognize that these policy Trump has been announcing these policies. We've known from the past what has happened and what his politics of hate look like. We know family separations are coming. We know kids will be impacted.
Speaker 4:Single moms, LGBTQ community and other minority communities. And I think the question is, what are you willing to do to defend your community?
Speaker 5:And I would hearken back to your quote because I think, there will be an effort to only impact the immigrant community in the beginning, in the hopes that no one will speak out against that Mhmm. Before moving on to the next group. And, I that's why I think it's just so important to to pay attention and to speak up right away even if it doesn't directly impact us because I think there will be an effort to keep everything else as normal as possible. As it is, there's a lot of cruelty that we do toward immigrants, as Uma mentioned, that's invisible to all of us. In fact, the suffering of displaced people in the world is invisible to almost all of us, and so it's gonna require, attentiveness and and being present.
Speaker 2:If I could just add along this line of thought. Thank you very much for that comment, Jennifer. Because I I want my so I'm here as a person that's impacted by the criminal legal system. Right? I've been felonized in this society.
Speaker 2:I've been criminalized in this society, And therefore, I have a predicate for understanding the criminalization of other communities. Right? I now even though I was born here and have citizenship in name, in fact, I do not have citizenship because my freedom is not freedom. I have what's called liberty as a result of being on parole, which means I can be removed from the society at a very moment's notice if allegation is made, if if if some, violation is, alleged of parole conditions. My freedom, quote, unquote, I use quotes, is tenuous.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And so I believe that we have to be very vigilant in the society that uses law as a tool of oppression. And I I I I indicated a question before we left, to the break, and that was a a wonderful song. Again, I think it was the Tiara Girls. Is it Tiara Girl?
Speaker 2:Yeah. 3 Tiara Girls. So shout out to the Tiara Girls for their beautiful piece that was edifying and building us up to think about other communities. But before we go on, I wanna kinda bring it back to our scholar in residence on the Kingian philosophy. And so I wanna ask, when a law is unjust, what does the Kenyan philosophy teach us about obeying laws or disobeying laws that are unjust?
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of the way that doctor King put that was there are men's laws and there are god's laws. And when men's laws clearly go against god's laws, which we can use the phrase unjust and just, because god is a god of justice from, doctor King's perspective, that it is important to break him and, and take the consequences, you know. And and he certainly learned a lot of that from Gandhi too, who who, had a lot to say about acquiescence to oppression. You don't you you can't acquiesce. So, yeah, I think we need to steel ourselves in that regard.
Speaker 2:I remember a training that we did on Kingian philosophy, Kingian nonviolence. And there was this demonstration where we were told to put one hand out to put your palm up and face it out, and then put your other hand up and put your hand out as if you're extending it. And the reminder is that, you know, we we don't we don't advocate any kind of violent behavior, but we do say when someone is harming us, stop.
Speaker 1:Google the two hands of nonviolence, and that'll probably come up.
Speaker 2:Yes. Yes. I just wanna remind the folk that I believe, and I speak for myself as an individual, that there is a way that we can still see the human humanity of those who oppress us. I I even though I disdain evil and I disdain hatred, I would not allow myself to succumb to fighting hatred with hatred. I think it's important for me to remember my humanity and to and remember the humanity of those who, engage in harmful behavior towards others.
Speaker 2:And why is that important to me? Because I stand here as a person who has caused harm in this society. And like any other person who becomes contrite in their heart, I want to be restored to my community. I wanna find wholeness again. And so if I have that hope for myself, I yearn for that reality to be true for others.
Speaker 1:And you've been dehumanized, and you don't wanna dehumanize anybody else.
Speaker 2:That is correct. Back to our guests. Where what what in the final moments that we have left, what what do you implore besides the suggestions you've already given? Is there anything more concrete that we need to share with our audience? Is there any website information, any events that are transpiring in the near future that you want to call people to, you know, be aware of?
Speaker 2:Right? I know we're gonna grassroots leadership have advocacy day on January 24th. And, Souma, you've rightfully mentioned that slavery is not, is not it has not been abolished. It's been it's just evolved. It's not died.
Speaker 2:It's just evolved. We're gonna be having an advocacy day at the capitol where we're gonna be citing that very principle, and we're gonna be calling other folks to stand with us in solidarity to abolish the 13th amendment, in the language that it supports the 13th amendment, which would still justify slavery for those that are incarcerated. Slave labor, which feeds a lot of the war machines that are being employed around the world, like what's happening in Israel. Yes.
Speaker 5:I was just I I'm I'm glad you brought up the question of incarceration because I think it's it's very, very similar because it's something invisible to most people, and it's an unnecessary cruelty that's being done to this mass amount of humanity in this country, which most people have no awareness of. I think one other thing for people to be aware of is that organizations like grassroots leadership and Casa Marinella are also under threat as organizations. And to pay attention to that, bill just passed the house of representatives, which would enable, the treasury department to take the nonprofit status away from organizations that support terrorism. And so all kinds of crazy accusations could be made to make it difficult for us to do our work of advocacy. So I think that's another thing to watch.
Speaker 2:I agree. I agree.
Speaker 1:Jennifer, what's happening on December 9th?
Speaker 5:December 9th, we're having a concert ACL live, which was actually announced at the very beginning of the program, and, I hope some people come to that. Carrie Rodriguez is gonna be one of the performers. She just added her name.
Speaker 1:Nancy Griffin?
Speaker 5:Yes. Patty Griffin. Patty Griffin. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah. And you can also visit us on our website grassrootsleadership.org where you can also navigate to different pages to make a donation which will, for example, help us pay bonds, free families. You can get in touch with us to become a volunteer. If you dare to make change and be a change maker, please get in touch with us. You can follow us on social media.
Speaker 4:And, yeah, we, will also be hosting trainings, and so feel free to connect with us and join us.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I just would've wanna quickly mention that today there's some things happening. There's an art for abolition, just hashtag abolition slavery Texas mural dedication that happened today at 12. It's continuing on throughout the remainder of the day. There'll be an event titled breaking chains, abolishing slavery, and forced labor in the modern world.
Speaker 2:This program is going to be transpiring for those who have time, at give me one moment. The distribution hall, Austin, Texas 1500 East 4th Street for anyone that is out there interested.
Speaker 1:What do you need most? You may feel like you've answered this already, but I wanna be very specific for people in terms of volunteers.
Speaker 4:So when these rates hit under Trump, we're gonna receive a lot of calls from the community for support and, family calls that families are being arrested in their homes, in their workplaces, in malls, in many other places. So we need volunteers and bodies for rapid response to be able to respond. And, for example, obviously, we can't send an undocumented person over to check out an ice raid, so we need, allies to be able to support us with that and help see what's happening, support and document the arrest, make sure by rights aren't being violated, that kind of thing, for example. And
Speaker 1:And and let us know for sure, both of you, all your your websites so people can, look up and keep up. Jennifer?
Speaker 5:And ours is casamarianella.org, and we also have a an Instagram page that, people can follow.
Speaker 1:And how do you spell marianella? Marianella. Thanks. Suma?
Speaker 4:C s Russia leadership, Sabineva Belitreelo. Yes. It's grassroots leadership, Sabina's gonna spell it out. That is grassrootsleadership.org. And you can also give us a call at our office, which is 512-499-8111.
Speaker 2:I just wanna end before I pass it back over to my distinguished musician and friend, Jim Crosby to sing us out. I want to remind you what doctor King said. For all of my brothers and sisters out there in black bodies and in white bodies, he said, you cannot keep someone down without remaining there yourself.
Speaker 1:Again, dehumanizing. Any of the last words? We've got a few minutes left. Things that y'all would like last words doesn't sound good, but, final thoughts that you'd like to share?
Speaker 4:Know just that the fight continues and together educated and organized, we can make change. Join the change.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Thank you. Y'all have been great, and, I wanna end with a little another little PSA that, non violent Austin is, on the 11th Street sidewalk with a little vigil for peace and justice every Friday from 4 to 5. And this is one of the songs that we sing, which is an old, church song become movement song, and I'll try to do use a little of my Spanish in the process.
Speaker 3:We shall not, we shall not be moved. We shall, we shall not be moved just like a tree planted by the water. We shall not be moved. No. No.
Speaker 3:No. No. Smoveran. We shall not be moved. We shall not be moved.
Speaker 3:We shall not. We shall not be moved. We shall not. We shall not be moved just like a tree planted by the wall, or turn. We shall not be moved.
Speaker 3:Sing with the solidarity. We shall not. We shall not be moved. We shall not. We shall not be moved just like a tree planted by the water.
Speaker 3:We shall not be moved. Working for justice. We're working for justice. We shall not be moved. We're working for justice.
Speaker 3:We shall not be moved like a tree planted by the water. We shall not be moved.