Silence is violence. ICE impersonators, an Idaho town hall, and Unisom warning. (Ep.35)
Show notes and sneak peek
Episode 35 sneak peek
As happens to a 42 year old, Laura hurt her shoulder doing absolutely nothing, and the Unisom she took 30+ hours ago to help her sleep off the pain is still lingering at the time of recording. :)
Kori and Laura discuss the fatigue and weight of the every day amidst the chaos of the present historical moment. Thus we encourage you to check in on your people - even the hormone gremlins going through IVF. Change your mood by talking to your friends, have a getaway weekend, and binge a dumb show like Love is Blind.
We learn a new word, “cloffice” and a new pronunciation for licorice (lick-ur-iss - I mean what?). And Kori admits to hating the taste of anise. Gift accordingly. ;)
Keith discusses the federal workforce purges and the trio reflects on what a piece of trash you have to be to use your 2 year old son as a human shield, like Elon does. The U.S. Department of Education’s LinkedIn profile is now full of propaganda. Join Laura there any given weekday to antagonize injustice on their posts. Seek out information and community to support you at this time. Curate your feeds with folks who understand law, history, civil rights, immigration rules, epidemiology, education policy, vaccinations, etc.
Amazon is selling ICE costumes, and people are impersonating federal officers to terrorize immigrant communities. Highly illegal by the way. And speaking of terror, how about that town hall meeting in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho? A woman was stripped of her free speech rights in a public forum inviting speech, and then she was assaulted and potentially kidnapped by unidentified private security at the direction of a political rival. The silence in that room was shocking - and this is how the Nazis took power in 30 days. We cannot comply ahead of time, but instead need to prepare ourselves for what we will do in circumstances like this. As Kori says, “If you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready.”
How will YOU interrupt fascism when you have the chance? Practice and prepare now so you don’t live with regret for what you could have said and done. Lean in to your strengths and areas of expertise.
Get prepared - and share this episode with people in your life that would benefit. Talk about it together! Give us a review on your podcast app, engage with our posts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube so other folks can find us.
Resources
Coming soon!
Transcript
[00:00:00] Laura: My shoulder started hurting just watching TV in bed. I was probably propped weirdly around the dog trying to make her comfortable and all of a sudden like, ow, oh my God, it hurts so bad. Took naproxen. Couldn't wait for 30 minutes for it to kick in because it was hurting so bad. Took a unisom. Okay. Like a little sleep aid.
[00:00:15] Unisom. But just one. The dose could be one or two. I took one. We are what, 30 some hours later. I am still so tired. My name is Laura. My shift looked up. I took a unisom. I can't function at all. It's amazing. Like my body is so sensitive to all the things that I'm still like, if you catch me with my eyes closed for a minute, no, I have not fallen asleep.
[00:00:37] It just is that hard to keep my eyes
[00:00:39] Kori: open. That's why I had it. That's why I put the cough. They do.
[00:00:45] Laura: They do.
[00:00:49] Do not operate heavy machinery or plan to do anything for 36 fucking hours. Whoops.
[00:01:07] Well, welcome to Pushing Past Polite, where we recommend you read the warning labels on your medications. We also talk about what matters and make the world more just. I'm Laura. I'm Kori. And we're so glad you're here. Keith may even join us too. Come here. Hi Keith! Yay! All right. Well, first I want to acknowledge how I thought how great the last episode was with Lisa.
[00:01:33] So, Dr. Lisa Mazzio, whose name I can say correctly right off the bat this time. When she's
[00:01:36] Kori: not here.
[00:01:38] Laura: On unisom, I'm chill as can be. Um, loved having you with us. Thank you. And, um, yeah, I've been thinking a lot about reclaiming my power and not, uh, not participating in the drama of all of it, but just getting, flipping that.
[00:01:54] That anger to strength and figuring out how I'm going to use it. Mm
[00:01:57] Kori: hmm.
[00:01:57] Laura: And this is a good time for that, isn't it?
[00:01:59] Kori: Yeah, it's like, um, honing that anger into something that's more powerful and something that can be collective while at the same time managing real life things, right? Like, there is so many things that are tugging on our energy and our, um, attention right now.
[00:02:19] Mm hmm. Things that are significant. in terms of their impact for many, many millions and millions or thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. And then things are like day to day, right, that are part of our parenting responsibilities and part of our, um, adult responsibilities in terms of sick animals, and child heartbreak, and play dates, and allergies, and Getting the car inspected.
[00:02:50]Laura: Submitting the high mileage form to the county before the taxes are due. Exactly, yeah, like all the
[00:02:56] Kori: things. And, um, it's like I want to encourage people to find your people, like that is literally, you were posting about this, Laura, you had your girls trip, which you said was so wonderful and I want you to talk about that a little bit.
[00:03:11] Oh my God, so great. Um, but that's the kind of thing that people need to be. doing to rejuvenate, right? You need to be with your people. You need to have space and time to be connecting with people who are pouring into you because there's so much that's tugging on us. And it's really important that you have, uh, 48 hours that you can get away or you take that nap instead of doing the laundry.
[00:03:38] Um, or you go for a walk or you talk to your friend for 12 minutes. I've read something that talking to your friend for 12 minutes. Um, can make a huge difference in all your stuff, in your
[00:03:49] Laura: mood, yeah. All your stuff! It fixes the fog? Yeah!
[00:03:52] Kori: But you know, like, it just lifts you. Mm hmm. Uh, and, and to, when the person crosses your mind, pick up the phone and call them.
[00:03:59] Mm hmm. Because it can, it can make a huge difference for you both. One of my friends is going through IVF right now, and she had, um, That she did the implantation, and she's been kind of sharing about it on socials. And, uh, I texted her, and I was just like, Hey! My little hormone gremlin, how ya doin Ha ha ha ha
[00:04:19] Laura: ha ha ha!
[00:04:20] Hey there, cagey ragey! How you feelin in that body?
[00:04:23] Kori: And I was like, I can only imagine what you're going through being 40 something and having that hormonal experience that's going on in your body. And then you are trying to create a soft, warm, safe place for a new life to take hold and grow. And you are literally pumping your body with additional hormones to help maintain and cultivate that.
[00:04:55] And you are parenting a five year old and who just started kindergarten, like, their school experience for the first time.
[00:05:04] Laura: I feel like I'm getting a hot flash listening to you talk about this. I don't even have hot flashes yet, and I feel like I'm about to hop on. Hey,
[00:05:10] Kori: I'm pitting out over here talking about it, okay?
[00:05:13] Exactly. Little fanny fan. But I'm like, that, all that shit is real, so I can only empathize with you around that because all those things that you're feeling in your body when you can recognize that your mood is off and your energy is off and you're really grumpy, but you still can't manage to do anything about it.
[00:05:36] Right? Like, you're all regulated out. My tools have
[00:05:42] Laura: been exhausted. Exhausted.
[00:05:43] Kori: Because I am exhausted.
[00:05:46] Laura: Mm hmm. You thinking of her and reaching out probably meant the world.
[00:05:50] Kori: Yeah. Well, it's like I wanted her to feel like somebody was seeing her. That who knows her? I've known her since I was like 10 years old.
[00:05:58] And it was like, I see you, girl. Like, all the things that you're feeling, I see that. I feel you. And I appreciate your willingness to verbalize it, because that helps the people around you to To
[00:06:09] Laura: know how to support you and
[00:06:10] Kori: accept you a little bit, right? Like, even if they can't support it, it's like, I need to just take my ass to the other room because she's not regulating herself well right now.
[00:06:20] Laura: Well, like you encouraged me. I'd had an afternoon where I was just in a funk and Kori's like, do something for you. I was like, I know, but the kids are home and it's a weekend. I feel guilty not spending time with them. And you said, you're like, if you, you're not your best self right now for them either.
[00:06:34] Go reset so you can kind of salvage the rest of the night versus just struggling through. Right. Cause it impacts everybody. Yeah.
[00:06:42] Kori: You know, and, and I'm speaking, I, those examples are speaking to just like all the shit that's going on. In our world, in our country, in our towns, in our lives, in our communities.
[00:06:54] In our bodies. In our bodies. Yep. We need to, to really be conscientious of like taking that time for ourselves to reset.
[00:07:03] Laura: Mm hmm. Yes. Whatever that looks like. Whatever that
[00:07:06] Kori: looks like. And it doesn't have to be two hours. It could be 15 minutes. But it's just like 15 minutes of you by yourself in the claw, in the cloffice.
[00:07:14] Shout out to Corinne. In the cloffice eating cookies. What's a cloffice? It's her closet office.
[00:07:21] Laura: Who's Corinne? One of my besties who lives with us. I love it. I was like, did I, did she say that? Did I miss this? Like a claw footed tub office? No. Where is she? A
[00:07:28] Kori: closet office. A closet office. That's where we used to do a lot of our, um, during the pandemic, we did a lot of Marco Polos.
[00:07:35] Yes. And, um, that was also her workspace. She had like set up like a little makeshift desk
[00:07:41] Laura: stuff. Hold on, let me move my sweaters.
[00:07:42] Kori: Exactly. And so, so we would be having meetings in the cloffice.
[00:07:47] Laura: Cloffice. Yeah. Yeah. Reset is really important. Yeah. Really important. Mm hmm. Well, I had a chance to do that this weekend, and it was so lovely.
[00:07:57] These friends of mine, you know, one I've been close with for probably about five years. We've known each other 20 years, but maybe we've been close for about five. And the other one, we kind of started to get close, and then she moved away. hmm. The Marco Polo of it all, to your point, that app has been magical, where we started one with the three of us.
[00:08:16] Mm hmm. And then it turns into like, if we, somebody doesn't check in every day, we're like worried. Yeah. Hey, is everything okay? I haven't heard from you today. What's going on? How was the doctor's appointment for this? How did this turn out? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, um, so anyway, someone got bold. I want to say it was the one who moved away.
[00:08:31] She's like, hey, we should do a get together for a weekend. And, you know, that's always a hard lift. Right. To figure that out, to get coverage, to think through the planning and all of that. But I said, yep, let's do it. And, um, yeah, we met halfway. So we drove three hours. She drove three hours. We met in Raleigh, North Carolina, and we had the best time doing whatever the hell.
[00:08:52] Yeah. She's, they, both of them said, we don't want to cook at all. Amen. No cooking. No cooking, no cleaning. So we didn't even care what the kitchen looked like at the Airbnb. We just went out to restaurants. And we talked and sat in our jammies. As soon as we got in the house, we'd take off our makeup. And put on our clothes, our comfy clothes with those elastic straw strings.
[00:09:12] We had all gone to Trader Joe's and brought snacks. We just pulled the snacks out on the coffee table. We would snack when we wanted to and we watched Love is Blind.
Kori: Oh, you guys are so funny.
Laura: One of them was a, one of them we tried to convert and she's like, yeah, I don't know that I'd ever watch this again, but I'm at least invested in this group to see what happens.
[00:09:32] Yeah, yeah. So, anyway, it was really good. It was exactly what I needed. And, you know, two, two overnights and drove right back and it was great. Yeah. My kids were happy to see me. They even left me a sweet little note. Aww. My husband survived. It was great. Yeah. It was great.
Kori: Of course he survived. They're his kids.
[00:09:47] Laura: Yeah, he did. They are his kids and we're not, we're past the years of like needing to wipe their butts and feed them. I mean, they can feed themselves. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. You'll get there. Yeah, we, I I know it doesn't feel like that right now, but you will. We've got a little Ellie Homemaker over there. We do.
[00:10:01] Oh my god, that kid. Somebody, uh, reached out to me to sell cookie dough for like a fundraiser and I was like, my kid keeps me real stocked. No, thanks. She made, um, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. Ooh! This week. Mm hmm. Yep, that's my kid. That's my 11 year old on her own. She's like, you know, I think I just need to bake Do
[00:10:21] Kori: that so my my niece my sister's oldest her recharges cleaning.
[00:10:30] Oh, what a gift. Yeah, and so she gets that from my mama. That's like how she Recharges and I wish I did. Yeah, I don't I wish I had somebody who did I just need that in the house. I don't want to do it, but I need somebody in the house. Yeah.
[00:10:45] Laura: Where I wish I felt differently about it and then maybe it would be different.
[00:10:48] Kori: Yeah. It was like she, she, there was like a little riff or whatever and attitudes and all this kind of stuff and she went and cleaned for two hours. I'm getting my Swiffer. If there's a riff, I'm getting the Swiffer. Yeah. And she felt so much better after.
[00:11:00] Laura: I bet everybody else did, too. Look at that space.
[00:11:02] Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:11:03] Kori: She's like, she'll go make the beds, do some laundry, clean the bathroom. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. And just need her here and yours here. And I'll just be able to relax for a day.
[00:11:16] Laura: Eat you some cookies. Yeah, you know. Look at your reflection in that clean mirror.
[00:11:21] Kori: Exactly, because G loves cookies. Like, he doesn't like cake.
[00:11:24] He doesn't like cupcakes. He doesn't like, he'll do ice cream and cookies are his.
[00:11:30] Laura: Cookies are the shit.
[00:11:31] Kori: Those are his. Jay likes, uh, you want to hear something interesting? Jay likes chewy candy,
[00:11:38] Laura: like Gummy candy?
[00:11:39] Kori: Twizzlers and Oh, that's real chewy.
[00:11:42] Kori: And Daniel says licorice.
[00:11:47] Keith: Oh, no, no.
[00:11:48] Kori: I just find that to be fascinating.
[00:11:50] Not liquor ish. Well, it's how it's, interestingly, that's how it's spelled. Exactly. And that's how
[00:11:54] Laura: I've never thought about that.
[00:11:54] Kori: That's how he pronounces it. He was like, yeah, we ordered this licorice, and I was like, you say licorice. He was like, Oh, I do, but that's how it's spelled. So they order like all this candy that's, you know, small batch made little and that's
[00:12:13] Laura: licorice, red licorice.
[00:12:15] I do not mind. Twizzlers good. The blacks, the black licorice don't do it for me. It's a little too bitter.
[00:12:29] Kori: That's the anise. Yes. I can't do that. That's like rye, rye bread.
[00:12:29] Laura: I do like rye bread though, but it's not candy, that's the thing, as long as it's not candy, don't mess with me.
[00:12:34] Kori: That tastes anywhere for me.
[00:12:36] Alright, that's a no. Yeah, it's a hard no. The, um, my sister's husband, they're, he's like of German descent. And so they, their, um, last name, they have like some liqueur that's named after them. It's a German liqueur, but it's that flavor. It has the anise in it. Oh my gosh. I didn't know that. And so You're like,
[00:12:57] Laura: I'm gonna yuck your fam I'm gonna yuck at your family's liqueur right Yeah, when I taste Did they give you some to try?
[00:13:03] They gave me
[00:13:03] Kori: some to try, and I should have smelled it. I know better, but I didn't. I just Took it, and I like, had this very visceral, physical reaction.
[00:13:11] Laura:You like, turned green. Like,
[00:13:12] Kori: tears coming out of my face, like, I turned red and started sweating. It was horrible. And my sister was like, are you
[00:13:19] Laura: okay? And I was And you're like, no.
[00:13:22] I'm not.
[00:13:22] Kori: Mm mm.
[00:13:24] Laura: Sayin it?
[00:13:24] Kori: Mm mm. I didn't realize I would react so heavy to that flavor.
[00:13:29] Laura: For his parents there, and like his grandmother, and the one who had designed it. The one who had manufactured it from the old country. No one from the old country was there. In her lederhosen. Very excited to see your response.
[00:13:40] Kori: Yeah, no, thank goodness. None of that. Good. Um, yeah. Anyway, I'm tired, everyone. This is, I'm just tired right now. Like, I want to go somewhere where it's warm, the sun is shining, but it's like where I feel
[00:14:04] Keith: Come visit me. Come down here.
[00:14:05] Laura: Oh, St. Pete. Now you don't want to go to Florida, do you? She's making a face.
[00:14:12] She's making a face.
[00:14:15] Laura: But I would see you.
[00:14:16] Keith: Yeah. Hey. Yeah. At least I, I'm like in the area where me writing letters to my congressman is doing an impact, right? Like, I That's, yeah. I'm one Talk about that. Out of all the people in my network, I'm the one who these letters might actually change something or Yeah.
[00:14:33] Yeah. So,
[00:14:35] Laura: well, I have a, I have, I have Republican leadership here in a lot of ways. Yeah, no. So, so have you been writing? Oh, yeah. Are you calling?
[00:14:43] Keith: My messaging is just these job losses and even like the callbacks for people who are like federal employees who are being called back to the office, like you, Florida.
[00:14:53] Leaders probably don't understand how much of their workforce might be working remotely for some of these places and you're going to lose, like, all these people who moved here in the wake of the pandemic might be moving out if these firings and these funding cancellations continue, so yeah.
[00:15:09] Kori: Well, the return to office.
[00:15:11] This is tricky because it depends on how you ended up out of the office in the first place. Some people were hired by the federal government to be remote employees, right? Their roles were designated as remote, but some people who were already employees, their Remote time is part of the telework policy, and those are the people who are the most significantly impacted by the return to work order, who are using the telework policies to be able to work remotely, um, if they were hired when being in person was an option or a possibility, right?
[00:15:52] The other thing that people are experiencing is just like a space issue because so many agencies. Redesigned space and gave up space because we were shifting to a hybrid and remote model that there isn't physical Where do you put these bodies? This is not efficient. Where do the bodies actually go?
[00:16:15] When you were saying the callback thing though, I thought you were talking about the people who were fired who they're trying to And then rescinded
[00:16:22] Laura: it. They were rescinding it! They were We are unfiring you. Oh wait, you touched nuclear codes? Just kidding. Come back. Oh wait,
[00:16:28] Kori: I didn't realize that Parks people did all of that.
[00:16:31] Laura: I didn't realize that for every dollar spent they generate so much more in income. You dumbass, this is what happens when you take a wrecking ball to something that should need a scalpel. Yeah,
[00:16:41] Keith: I mean he's, Elon was literally on stage with a chainsaw. Bragging about using a chainsaw. I'm like, dude, that's how five year olds approach problems and you're bragging about that.
[00:16:50] Kori: Elon was standing up at the center of the cabinet meeting and he is not an elected or appointed official.
[00:16:58] Laura: Is he not the most awkward, I don't, I'm not trying to be like body shaming, but is he not the most awkward acting person? I know he's on the spectrum, but like Man, nothing about him says cool or leadership or follow me.
[00:17:09] Kori: But I feel like that's, that's Trump too. They both are. That's right.
[00:17:13] Laura: God.
[00:17:14] Kori: A weird dance, weird dance. Also. I'm
[00:17:19] Laura: orange, comb hair, wrong direction. All of it. Have
[00:17:21] Kori: you noticed that Elon has picked up a new bodyguard?
[00:17:26] Laura: Oh
[00:17:26] Kori: yeah. His two year old son. Oh,
[00:17:28] Laura: oh, oh, oh, oh, thank you, yes.
[00:17:30] Kori: It's like the guy Uses him as a human shield practically.
[00:17:33] Literally. Yeah,
[00:17:34] Keith: that's what I was thinking too. He's always
[00:17:36] Kori: holding him. He's on his shoulders. He's holding, he's always with him. Now this is a person, if you look at things from years and years and years, it's like the worst fucking dad on earth.
[00:17:46] Laura: On earth.
[00:17:47] Kori: And now all of a sudden his two year old is with him everywhere he goes.
[00:17:52] Keith: Yeah. Or when you fire thousands of people and one fell swoop, you're You're risking that some unhinged person is going to take that personally
[00:18:00] Kori: Yeah.
[00:18:01] Kori: And so you put your child in harm's way. In harm's way. What a fucking coward.
[00:18:08] Laura: It's so gross. All of it.
[00:18:11] Kori: Yeah. Which is why, again, it's like the rest is important and the community is important.
[00:18:16] It's like, um, today is February 28th and it's a blackout consumer day. And I suggest to people that Like, I've been fasting from Target. I've been fasting from Amazon. Um, I'm working to be better at fasting from Instagram, but it's hard. Uh, because that's where so much information is shared and I get so much information.
[00:18:38] Laura: Yep.
[00:18:39] Kori: Um, but. I encourage people to use this opportunity to find the things that you like and get them from the source. Instead of ordering your pattern shampoo from Amazon, order it from Pattern Beauty or get it from Ulta, right? Instead of Um, getting your whatever, whatever, whatever's, it's like, see if Costco carries it or just like use this opportunity to redistribute how you're getting your stuff.
[00:19:14] Amazon, I know that the convenience is something that we all enjoy and appreciate. And they're willing to sacrifice our democracy in order to provide it. So are we willing to willingly give up our rights and freedoms for the convenience of having some shit on our doorstep?
[00:19:35] Laura: Mm.
[00:19:35] Kori: In 24 hours or 48 hours? I hope not.
[00:19:39] Laura: No, I know. I will say living in a rural place, I have a little bit different view in terms of like, it's not just the convenience. Sometimes it's just the only option. Um, so I do, I, I like, I give, I extend grace for that, but I will tell you, I have cut back dramatically. And as a matter of fact, this is my first credit card bill that's come in since the inauguration.
[00:19:58] I got to tell you, I'm not spending. I see it. Yeah. I see it. And it makes me actually, I'm happy about it. Yeah. I'm happy about it. Um, and I'm certainly gonna participate in the economic blackout today. I did make plans a while ago to have lunch with some friends, but we're going to a local place and we're paying cash.
[00:20:14] Yep. Um, I, I feel like, you know, voting, we certainly talk about in a democracy as being powerful and it is, but you know what else is? our money.
Kori: And especially in a capitalist, oligarch society.
Laura: Yeah, that's exactly right. And our attention. Right? So, this idea of the outrage cycles and the, you know, the, the, the theatrics coming out of the, the Oval Office, that's something I can unsubscribe to in a lot of ways and, and hope to take some of the oxygen out of it, you know?
[00:20:47] Um, but yeah.
[00:20:50] Kori: Yeah, we have to just continue to demonstrate that we are not with this. We are not for it. In
[00:20:58] Laura: big and small ways. In big and small ways.
Kori: Mm hmm.
[00:21:03] Laura: Well, feel free to join me on LinkedIn if anyone's bored, because I follow and comment on daily. The U. S. Department of Education's LinkedIn posts, which post January 20th, have been fuckin bizarre.
[00:21:18] The first one started out about the merits of homeschooling. So say out loud that you don't want our kids in public schools, that you just want to have the privileged few have an education. Then you get their attack on, or their, them going after states about Title IX violations with transgender athletes, and how they're going to crack down on this.
[00:21:36] Is this worth our time? Department of Education, when there's, what, less than 50 transgender athletes across all of the NCAA? Give me a break. Then the latest one, which I posted on, I responded to yesterday, was an end DEI hotline, basically, that they're putting on, to, for people to report school districts for doing woke things.
[00:21:57] Kori: Yes, and so here's what I actually suggest that you do, is use that number, and you call and talk about all of the ways that The minority, the majority population in terms of societal norms is being privileged and how that is impacting the experience of everybody else. They are receiving unfair advantages and I would be reporting those.
[00:22:23] Laura: In the forms of tax loopholes, and of all kinds of things. Yeah. No. So, I wrote today, I shared a link from NPR reporting on Virginia's, uh, report a teacher hotline that started at the beginning of the Republican Yuncken administration, saying tell us if teachers are teaching something woke. They had to shut that down in Virginia, quietly, they had to walk it back, because people did exactly what you said, how they used it for other purposes, and so guess what?
[00:22:48] schadenfreude daily act of, uh. Resistance, if you will. And I am not alone. Almost every other comment on there is to the same effect. There are a few, let's go MAGA, you know, dumb comments, but it is absolutely the minority and it's, it brings me life.
[00:23:07] Kori: And it's like, what does that mean? Let's go MAGA. What does that mean?
[00:23:10] Laura: I know. I'm summarizing it. I'm sure. No, I know. But it's like
[00:23:13] Kori: that, that There's like a cultish mentality that exists around that, right? And even as people are experiencing the fallout for their decisions, it's like, what are we going toward? Like, what, what is this let's go? We're dismantling systems that millions of people benefit from.
[00:23:36] And I'm sure You benefit from one of them.
[00:23:40] Laura: Guaranteed. You know, it's a matter of time. It's just
[00:23:42] Kori: a matter of time. And one of the systems that everybody benefits from is just like the labor of migrant workers. Right? You guys are, we're, we're wondering about the cost of all of our food. We have bird flu.
[00:24:00] We're still running rampant. We had our first death in measles of a school aged child in Texas who was not vaccinated. We have a measles outbreak that is like happening. There's a new COVID in China. The medical places can't report things. So there's lots of other associations and things. If you are interested in knowing of the different kind of.
[00:24:31] Things as a parent or as a person that are going around the different flus and recalls of food and all kinds of stuff. There are lots of medical professionals and medical associations that are sharing that information. So I would encourage you to follow some of those and I will we can link some, um, you know in our show notes.
[00:24:54] Yeah,
[00:24:54] Laura: epidemiologists that are posting professionally on their own accounts to share what's happening so you can stand for it.
[00:25:01] Kori: Yes, same kind of thing happening with lawyers. Immigration attorneys are now taking to social media to like help clarify what's going on with people's statuses. And, and like what your rights are if you are a green card holder, if you're not a green card holder, like all kinds of, um, if you're here on a work visa, if, you know, our Are police allowed or ICE agents allowed to look through your phones and just sharing all different levels of information?
[00:25:29] And so if there are things that are happening that could directly be impacting you because of these executive orders, part of the community that we're encouraging you to create are also those kinds of people, the doctors, the attorneys, the people who are positioned to help interpret what The what the executive orders are allowing and won't allow and what the laws still say, because the laws have not changed.
[00:25:56] These executive orders have not actually changed the laws they have. They have activated behaviors, but they haven't necessarily changed the laws, right? So being, um, connected to the people who are helping to interpret the law, help you understand what your rights still are, um, strategies to, um, to navigate around, um, ICE intimidation.
[00:26:21] Like Amazon, I think, I saw, yeah, Amazon is selling ICE jackets.
[00:26:25] Laura: Yeah, people have been impersonating ICE officers to intimidate people. You could be
[00:26:29] Kori: arrested.
[00:26:31] Laura: Absolutely.
[00:26:31] Kori: That's a crime. Impersonating an, impersonating a federal officer is a crime. So all those people should be arrested. And we should be seeing all those live stream videos,
[00:26:47] Laura: right?
[00:26:48] I think the point is, though, is not to comply ahead of time. Yes, exactly. Don't comply in advance. There is no reason. Yep. Do not comply in advance. First of all, how wild. We don't even know if these people are real officers. Right? You see the woman from Idaho who got pulled out of a public meeting. And nobody did anything.
[00:27:04] Nobody did anything. And um, there was never a badge shown. It was a private security company hired by that public speaker. The person who held public office, all kinds of problems with this. Do not comply and resist as much as possible ahead of time. I think there were, they're banking on us being afraid and getting small.
[00:27:25] And that was an example of what that was.
[00:27:28] Kori: That was horrible. That was a room full of fucking people who allowed that woman to get ripped. She was literally fighting for her life. She was holding on to the bench. She was kicking. She was pleading for help and a room full of people literally did nothing and let her get dragged out.
[00:27:47] Meanwhile, that is assault, attempted kidnapping, like. They're breaking all of these laws, and because we don't want to push certain people, not we, because you don't want to push out of your comfort, and you're willing to comply with crimes happening by people who you assume to be authorities, you're letting this woman's rights literally get violated in your face in public without a problem.
[00:28:17] This is how Nazis took the fuck over.
[00:28:21] Laura: In 30 days.
[00:28:22] Kori: In 30 days. Because you could sit there and we can watch a woman get dragged out of a room and put into, uh, zip ties and everyone is watching. No one else was willing to put their body on the line to interrupt that horrendous event.
[00:28:43] Laura: I saw a video following up on this and I thought it, I, I loved it. She said, listen, I say this with every feminist bone in my body, men, we need you to put your bodies in the way. Right? She's not saying, oh, poor me, we can't, but she's saying, if you want to be an ally in this moment in time, Yes! Come on, use that bigger size, would you please?
[00:29:01] Kori: There are three, when three men are manhandling a woman, Yes, men, we need you to put your bodies in the way. It was three men, pulling and tugging at her, As she's trying to hold on to a bench, To not get dragged away to who the fuck knows where.
[00:29:18] Laura: Yeah, it's the, yeah. Well, and you think what we are taught as girls, if, you know, you always fight your attacker, you never comply because the next place they're gonna take you to is never safer in the first place.
[00:29:31] So make them do it to you in public, right? And have people, people should be standing up. That was wild!
[00:29:36] Laura: It was wild.
[00:29:39] Kori: But that's also a indication of the time that we're in. So even in your rage, in that room, with the Congressional leader who's at the front of the room. Even in your rage, you still allowed that to happen to somebody who also shared your rage.
[00:30:03] Laura: Yeah, you were afraid of being aligned with her for fear that you were next, as opposed to realizing the critical mass of the people in the room could have done something to shift that altogether. That part.
[00:30:16] Kori: And so instead, silence. And what do we say? Silence is violence. And we literally watched it.
[00:30:27] Laura: Yeah. Don't get quiet ahead of time. Don't get small ahead of time. I was so These executive orders hold not much weight. So, uh,
[00:30:35] Kori: sorry, just as an aside, as a black woman. If y'all white people will let that happen to one of your own white people, what do you think you would let happen to me? What do, what would I think you would let happen to me?
[00:30:47] Laura: Hmph. Hmph. Yeah, it's not confidence inspiring, is it?
[00:30:57] Kori: Not at all. Not at all. And that's why so many of us are sitting down.
[00:31:00] Laura: Hm. And moving to self protection.
[00:31:03] Kori: Mm hmm. Because it's like obvious, it's, it's out on display that you're not, no one is going to do it. So we have to sit down, protect ourselves, and protect each other. Because we, y'all just let that white lady get dragged right on out of there, and she's one of y'all.
[00:31:24] Laura: I think everyone else wanted to use their proximity to whiteness to protect themselves, as opposed to use it for trouble. Use it for good trouble.
[00:31:34] Kori: Yeah, and we're all, and we're all recording. But nobody is intervening.
[00:31:41] Like, no. That was very disappointing. Particularly since it was already a raging space and then to find out that that sheriff has been targeting her for a long time and there's all this Because she
[00:31:53] Laura: ran for office and lost. Because she ran for office
[00:31:55] Kori: and so there's They saw her as the threat. And so there's history around it too which made her more of a target already before she even opened her mouth in the space.
[00:32:06] And she had no allyship. No accomplices. Just bystanders. That's terrible. We have to do better, people. We just do. We have to do better. We can't just watch while that, while it burns down. We, we, it's like we have to come together. We can't watch while a woman is getting dragged out of a room because she's saying, where are our First Amendment rights?
[00:32:30] Right? Because she's saying something that you don't agree with. We're gonna let her get dragged out of a room and kidnapped? Like, we need to be talking about it like that. She was assaulted and kidnapped by a private security firm.
[00:32:45] Laura: For doing nothing wrong, nothing illegal. Right! At a town hall meeting!
[00:32:49] Speaking up in a public forum that was inviting comment. That was inviting comment! Just not that comment. From
[00:32:56] Kori: you.
[00:32:58] Laura: Mm hmm.
[00:33:00] Kori: And so if we continue to let, to let them, uh, uh, decide who's allowed to speak and who isn't allowed to speak, that's how they're, they are maintaining control. And if we're not willing to put ourselves in between the rights of each other to support each other's rights, then that's how they maintain control, with your silence.
[00:33:22] Angela also, Brooks, was sharing about the fact that there are, she's a Maryland. Uh, recently appointed, or recently elected Maryland Senator, and, um, she was talking about how some of her Republican counterparts in hallway conversation don't agree with some of the stuff that's going on, but when they get into the room, they're voting in support of it.
[00:33:51] And I'm sitting there thinking, that's uninspiring and disheartening. People are being such cowards. Like, they're not even, they can't even stand on their own principles in public.
[00:34:10] Laura: I think a lot of it, again, are you talking specifically about elected officials in this case? Is that what she was referencing?
[00:34:16] That's what she was referencing. Her Senate colleagues? Yeah, her Senate colleagues. Yeah. So these folks are afraid because they think, I'm going to lose my job because I'm going to get primaried or Elon Musk is going to fund, um, you know, a campaign of my competitors, right? But is this really the world, is this the legacy you want to leave?
[00:34:35] Like history is going to be so unkind to these people. Isn't
[00:34:38] Kori: your job to be there making decisions on behalf of your constituency? Isn't that your job?
[00:34:46] Laura: Oh yeah, but that's, but So it's like,
[00:34:47] Kori: so, so just that, that mindset of like, oh I'm going to lose my job or I'm going to be targeted and I'm going to lose this seat is a supreme Entitled, privileged mindset.
[00:35:00] Laura: Absolutely.
[00:35:01] Kori: And so, but your job is to speak on behalf of the people who elected you.
[00:35:06] Laura: Yeah, that's the job in theory, but the job in, in practice is about getting famous, getting your 15 minutes of fame, having your soundbites, getting a following, um, and, and benefiting from proximity to power. Yeah. I mean, that's, let's just acknowledge that, right?
[00:35:21] If you're right, if just as written, this is what my goal is, my goal is to lift up the voices of the people I serve in my district, sure, great, but the truth is there's so much corruption in these systems that that is, that is a lower on the, on the list of priorities task.
[00:35:38] Kori: It's like, I just want to go be somewhere that it's like not always fighting, right?
[00:35:43] Like Martin Luther King had, gave a speech and one of the lines in it was basically like, I'm tired of marching for what should have been mine at birth. I'm tired of fighting and marching and advocating for what should have been mine. Like, why do we have to be out here marching? Why do we have to be out here getting hosed?
[00:36:05] Why do we have to be scared of people taking us away? Why do I have to have a plan, an exit plan? Why do I feel like I need to purchase firearms so I can protect myself now?
[00:36:21] This is supposed to be land of the free. Free for whom? It's like, I'm tired. I want to just be able to be somewhere where I can just like, be.
[00:36:33] Laura: Exist.
[00:36:38] All the phlegm in the throat. Go get it.
[00:36:42] Kori: You know, it's just like, um, yeah.
[00:36:51] And that place isn't here and it would be nice if it was.
[00:36:56] Laura: Since this is the place of your birth, the place of your citizenship, the place of all the things.
[00:37:00] Kori: Yeah. You know, it would be, it would be really nice to, to, um, not feel like, you know, we talk about this. I live where I live for a reason, right? In the community that I live in for a reason.
[00:37:16] Um, but it, it would just be nice to, For everywhere to be like it, right? Like, you know, it's like, I drove from Arizona to D. C. like 12 years ago, and I had never been pulled over before in my life. I got pulled over in Oklahoma and Arkansas, and in Arkansas, They wanted to search my vehicle.
[00:37:49] Laura: And you've never shared this with me before.
[00:37:52] Kori: In Oklahoma, I got pulled over for changing lanes too close to the vehicle that was behind me. There, you know, those white lines that are on the highway? Mm hmm. There's supposed to be at least three of those, this is what the officer told me, there's supposed to be at least three of those between you and the vehicle in which you're changing lanes in front of.
[00:38:20] And so there were only two when I changed lanes, and so that's why I was pulled over.
[00:38:25] Laura: I'd like to see that in code, please. Bullshit. That's crazy. And you were how old? I was 29. And
[00:38:39] Kori: I was like, when the Arkansas officer asked if he could search my vehicle, I was like, no.
[00:38:45] Laura: Why would I let you? Why should I?
[00:38:48] Kori: Why are you asking?
[00:38:50] Laura: Yeah, exactly. You're
[00:38:52] Kori: pulling me over because we were going four miles per hour over the speed limit? And you're asking to search my vehicle?
[00:39:01] Laura: Abso fucking lutely not.
[00:39:08] Kori: Like that, that kind of stuff, right? What? Three lines? What the fuck are you even talking about? It's like, can't be. I can't just be. Can't just be driving through Oklahoma. Can't just be driving through Arkansas. Can't just be. And this was 12 years ago. So now, like, people are marching through D. C. with Nazi flags.
[00:39:34] Swastikas. Swastikas. Elon Musk is It's so much more emboldened.
[00:39:40] Laura: I know. Which is why you need to sit down and protect yourself.
[00:39:45] Kori: Yeah.
[00:39:48] But, then there's little things like, that make me happy because, um, You know, you heard about the Black church in D. C. that was vandalized? Oh
[00:39:57] Laura: my God. Yes. Say it. You say it. Go ahead. You say it. Black church in D. C. got vandalized by the Proud Boys. And they, I don't know how, what the They wanted, there was a
[00:40:08] Kori: settlement agreement.
[00:40:10] Laura: Oh, and as part of the settlement agreement, they got the rights to the name They didn't
[00:40:14] Kori: pay the settlement, and so the, because they said they didn't have any money, basically. So
[00:40:21] Laura: Proud Boys said they didn't have any money. Mm hmm. So So they went after their Their The use of their name. Yep,
[00:40:26] Kori: and they were awarded it.
[00:40:28] It's like, that's okay. We'll just make money off your name.
[00:40:31] Laura: Mm hmm. We'll fund our repairs from your Yeah. Attempts to harm us.
[00:40:38] Little Man: Mhm.
[00:40:39] Kori: Yeah, I'll take that. And watching, and watching all of the people who were pardoned for, um, the insurrection. January 6th. Mhm. Get rearrested for other shit because they're vile human beings.
[00:40:51] Laura: Yeah, that. Child porn. Go ahead. Lock that one back up. Attempted rape. Attempted murder. Attempted murder. Mhm.
[00:40:59] Kori: Go ahead.
[00:40:59] Laura: Head on back.
[00:41:01] Kori: Because y'all elected a criminal, and his criminal friends are doing criminal things. And because he is in the seat that he's in, he doesn't have the same, he's not affected the same way.
[00:41:15] But y'all are just people who got arrested the first time, and now are getting arrested again because you're vile. And remember, and he doesn't care about you.
[00:41:23] Laura: He doesn't care about you. He wanted an army of loyalists to do his bidding, which is why he pardoned you, but now you're on your own. Yeah. And he does not care about
[00:41:33] Kori: you.
[00:41:33] Literally making deals in the Oval Office about personal things. Just like, yeah, we're gonna, we're, Trump Gaza.
[00:41:47] Laura: If you haven't seen this, uh, it was posted by Donald Trump's official account. It was AI generated images of his vision for what Gaza will be when he can develop it and make money from it.
[00:42:00] Kori: Which was just a modified version of AI generated images that have already been circulating. from companies that, uh, have been trying to sell settlements, right?
[00:42:12] So they had already, like, created some AI generated, uh, videos of what the beach landscape and all that stuff would look like. So it's like his touch on it, right? With all the gold, gaudy Trump things. At one point With
[00:42:27] Laura: his ugly fucking face. At one point, there's like a
[00:42:30] Kori: small person, a child, walking through this environment holding a balloon that is Trump's face and head.
[00:42:39] In gold. In gold. A gold balloon.
[00:42:45] Yeah. So, in the meantime, it's like the little things, right? It's like staying connected, staying focused. I feel like we've talked about this before. Staying connected and staying focused on the things that matter. The little joys, the snuggles, the, the um, coaching through heartbreak and watching, binge watching a show to make things, you know, feel a little bit better.
[00:43:07] Laura: Sitting in our jammies with our girlfriends and laughing our butts off. Yeah,
[00:43:11] Kori: like, we're doing Getting
[00:43:12] Laura: on a call and checking in with each other.
[00:43:14] Kori: We, uh, Fat Tuesday is coming up, or March 4th is Fat Tuesday, and, um, as many of you know, uh, we have an annual crawfish boil here, and, um, usually that season kicks off around Mardi Gras.
[00:43:27] And so we ordered some crawfish for the weekend, and it's just going to be us chillin and enjoying because, like, that's just something that we like to do together, um. Checking in on people, all the things, I don't know. It's like, I really just feel tired in my body, in my bones, in my brain.
[00:43:48] Laura: Just But energy spent towards connection and joy is resistance too.
[00:43:53] And is
[00:43:53] Kori: rejuvenating too.
[00:43:55] Laura: Yes.
[00:43:55] Kori: Right?
[00:43:56] Laura: Heather Cox Richardson put up a, who's a wonderful historian, if you don't follow her you should, but she posted something recently that said, you know, one of the key ingredients for authoritarians to take over is, uh, an environment in which people feel, um, fear and sorrow.
[00:44:12] But if there is joy, authoritarians can't take over. Yeah. Right? And so if you find ways to pursue joy, to live your best life in community with other people, Yeah. It can't touch you. Right? Like in so many ways, like they can't take that from you. Yeah. Right? And people will listen to someone who tells them what to do when they are afraid and, and got, when they've gotten small, when they have not reclaimed their power.
[00:44:39] Kori: My concern though, is that it's happening so broadly already, right? There's like so many people. The town hall is such a perfect example that is like,
[00:44:56] Laura: we let up. I think, Kori you're right. And I think it probably depends upon environment, right? If it's a place that's already deep red Trump area and they're buying in hook, line, and sinker despite the cognitive dissonance and what they're seeing before their eyes, maybe people are less likely to speak back, right?
[00:45:13] But I've also seen superintendents who say ICE is not allowed in my building. Yes. In our buildings. I see it. I see different, I see both reactions in pockets. So here's the difference of the,
[00:45:25] Kori: of the two things that we're describing. Is what you're seeing, what, what we observe with that woman being dragged out is like the active, in the face of active authoritarian oppression, like active physical authoritarian oppression, people did nothing.
[00:45:44] And so what we're seeing is like, people are, that collection of voice, like the superintendents, right, they talk to their school board, they talk to their staff, they talk to their principals, and that message is supported by a collective. Right, which makes it easier
[00:46:08] Laura: to resist
[00:46:09] Kori: because you already have that collective.
[00:46:13] And so I want to see people create a collective in the moment when collective is necessary.
[00:46:20] Laura: Yeah. Right? What would that have looked like? How could that have gone down differently? Yeah. If everyone stood up around her. If everyone stood up around her. And said no.
[00:46:26] Kori: Absolutely not. Take your hands off of her.
[00:46:31] What has she done? She is speaking truth to power. She is leveraging her first amendment right. Take your hands off of her.
[00:46:41] If other people had stood up and put their bodies in the way. Like she is not, this is a town hall. We were invited here to speak up. Get your hands off of her. She was just speaking.
[00:46:56] Laura: Yeah, you've got to go through me to get to her.
[00:46:58] Kori: You have to go through us!
[00:47:00] Laura: That's right. That's
[00:47:01] Kori: right. To get to her. You have to go through all of us.
[00:47:08] That's the piece that was missing. Not all of us just watching. What's happening there? No!
[00:47:19] And that is Indication that the control is already embedded and taking place, right? It's like, Oh, this feels so uncomfortable, but I don't want to be, I don't, I don't want to stay polite. I want to
[00:47:34] Laura: follow the rules, keep order.
[00:47:39] Kori: But if it were you, you would want somebody, somebody's.
[00:47:45] Laura: Lots of bodies
[00:47:46] Kori: to intervene.
[00:47:48] So that's to me one of the differences, right? It's like in the ways that it's showing up is it's one is a more strategic Voice
[00:47:57] Laura: and it's also proactive as opposed to react and proactive Superintendent had a moment to gather his people to galvanize to make a statement to announce versus in the moment Well, then we got to, we got to get more ready for that, don't we?
[00:48:11] Exactly.
[00:48:11] Kori: That's where we're at. It's like we have to be more ready for in the moment because there's going to be, there's more and more of that, you know, where people are trying to rip, ICE is trying to rip people from their families and out of vehicles and, and things like that. Right? Like secure, private security is zip tying and carrying people out of town hall meetings.
[00:48:33] Like we have to be more ready.
[00:48:36] Laura: And on a smaller scale, sorry, we are very wanting to chat together at the same time. Sometimes the Zoom does not work well for us, right, this delay. Um, so, I apologize, but like sometimes it's like, hey, I just heard a racist comment. Hey, I just, like, it may not be that, it may not be that you need to, you may not have an opportunity today to stop an ICE agent, but you may have an opportunity today to say, excuse me, what did you mean by that?
[00:49:01] Right. That was not appropriate. Yes.
[00:49:03] Kori: It's not right for us to stop a woman, someone from harassing people.
[00:49:06] Laura: Yes,
[00:49:07] Kori: right. There's a there's a clip and it's not a new new clip, but it's like a white lady Interrupting another white lady Harassing some Latino folks and she's like you need to stop get out of here.
[00:49:21] You need to leave. No, they need to leave No, you need to leave You are not gonna stand here and talk to them like that and harass them because of what you perceive them to be Get out of here and she Yelled her out of the store.
[00:49:36] Laura: She used her privilege.
[00:49:38] Kori: Gained zero from it except for the fact that she's protected some people who did, who needed her to be the person to intervene.
[00:49:47] To stand between. To stand between. Because the two white ladies, there's not going to be a victim. Right? It's harder to play that, Oh, I was attacked.
[00:49:57] Laura: Mm mm. And she cut that right off.
[00:50:01] Kori: That's a way to leverage your privilege to be an accomplice. She didn't know those people, but she saw what was happening was wrong.
[00:50:10] And she did something. And she went on about her business.
[00:50:15] Laura: Yeah, this is our moment. This is our moment. We, I've, you know, that, that phrasing, if you wonder what you would have done during civil rights, if you wonder what you would have done during the Holocaust, You're doing it. You don't have to, we don't have to wonder now.
[00:50:28] This is our time. And let that not defeat you or make you wallow in the fact like, oh gosh, I guess I'm not as brave as I thought I was. Let that inspire you.
[00:50:39] Kori: And come up with some strategies for yourself of what you do do. Be ready. It's like For example, if you're seeing some sort of profiling that's taking place and people are being treated badly because of their perceived racial background, their perceived, um, uh, immigration status, their perceived race.
[00:51:01] Did I say race already? I don't know. Ethnic background. Whatever. I had unisom. Yeah, right. Who knows? I'm here for you. I'm listening. But you know, like, whatever perceived identities that are there. It's like, have a script for yourself. Like what you said, Laura. Excuse me, what did you mean by that? Or that was very harmful, or that was inappropriate.
[00:51:20] Laura: Or that's hate speech. And I don't want to hear that again. I
[00:51:22] Kori: don't want to hear that again.
[00:51:25] Laura: As a matter of fact, that's one of the things I think I learned at our last employer, probably from a training you put together, was this idea of having, of being ready. Here are things that you can pull out really quick in a meeting.
[00:51:35] Um, when you, you know, I feel, I, me, white person speaking up, right? I'm not going to speak on behalf of the person who's been micro aggressed, but I'm going to say, I feel very uncomfortable with you making that kind of a comment.
[00:51:48] Kori: Yeah. What did you you mean by that?
[00:51:51] Laura: Mm hmm. And make them slow it down. Yeah.
[00:51:55] Yes. But anyway, that preparation is a huge part of that. Right? Mm hmm. You think, you always think afterwards, man, the things I wish I would have said. Think about it now. Yes. Think about it now. Put a note in your phone. Yes.
[00:52:07] Kori: Look at it. Mm hmm. Be ready. Mm hmm. Yeah. And when you are planning to go to your town hall, be ready.
[00:52:14] Have a conversation with other people who are going to be there with you. And it's like, We saw something horrible happen to somebody at a town hall meeting. So it, what, what are we going to do if a situation like that presents itself in front of us? That's right. Use
[00:52:31] Laura: this as your practice
[00:52:31] Kori: moment. Use
[00:52:32] Laura: it as your practice moment.
[00:52:33] What did they do wrong in Idaho that you would do differently? Yes. What's your plan? Yes.
[00:52:38] Kori: And, and, and, and what are the questions we're, who are you? Let me see your ID. Again, ways to slow it down. Right? That's kidnapping, calling it what it is. That is assault. Right? Please take your hands off of her. That is assault.
[00:52:56] Somebody is recording. Several people are putting their bodies in the way.
[00:53:02] Laura: This is a town hall that is inviting feedback. Yes. You are denying her participation in a public forum. Exactly. That kind of thing. That sort of thing. And then that gets in the recording too, which then, right, kind of Yes, this is all, these are good things.
[00:53:15] These
[00:53:16] Kori: are good things. It's, it's like we, one of the challenges, it's like I, we say all the time, you can't fall into despair. And so one of the best ways is preparation. And don't assume that you won't find yourself in that situation, right? That is one of, um, the things that we do to cope. Right? It's like, Oh, we say all the time.
[00:53:37] That didn't
[00:53:38] Laura: happen here. Yeah. Or somewhere
[00:53:39] Kori: else. Yeah. It would never happen here. But the people that it happens to are like, I never would believe that it would happen here. It happens everywhere. So let's assume that it might happen here. And if it does in this climate, especially what are we going to do?
[00:53:55] Right? What am I going to do? It goes back to what we were talking about in our last pod about, you know, sharing the responsibility, right? Finding your people and sharing the responsibility. I feel comfortable using my voice, so I am happy to be sure that I'm a lawyer. I know the laws, so I will be the person who's touting what the violations are that are taking place that I'm observing as they are taking place.
[00:54:24] You be recording so you can hear those verbalizations out loud. And that the fact that we are interrupting and are trying to intervene, here are our three men that are going to be willing to intervene with their bodies. And here is what their script should be.
[00:54:41] Laura: Yes.
[00:54:42] Kori: Right? We were invited here to speak. It is our First Amendment right to communicate with our, uh, elected representative.
[00:54:50] Laura: Right? Yeah. So, Kori, maybe what it is, is when we, instead of seeing these headlines and internalizing them or, or getting so paralyzed by fear, let's use each and every one of these examples as a chance for us to practice. Yes.
[00:55:04] Kori: Because that's what it is. The practice is gonna show up at our doorstep. We're gonna have to use it.
[00:55:11] So be ready. If you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready. Right? It's like And we've been, we've been ready for a long time.
[00:55:19] Laura: Mm hmm.
[00:55:20] Kori: So now y'all need to be ready. So get ready. And some of that, uh, conversation with your trusted spaces in this community centers is the centers of community is to just like talk out some of the things, some of the possibilities and what people will do, what we can do and engage with law enforcement, engage all the resources that are available.
[00:55:46] People who are there, law enforcement officials should not be combatives. Right? They should not be, this is not the Wild West. Okay? This is not a movie. You can't just be lawless. That, what that happened there, that was lawlessness. Right? That takes you back to slave catcher days. How the police originated.
[00:56:11] Right? These are just people out here who hate Blacks who are happy to round them up as property. And those same ideologies still exist in our policing system today. Right?
[00:56:34] Little Man: Mm hmm.
[00:56:34] Kori: And so we need to be naming them and interrupting them when we are seeing them.
[00:56:39] Collectively. There were just too many people in that room for that to have happened to that woman. Too many people.
[00:56:47] Laura: Agree.
[00:56:49] Little Man: Agree.
[00:56:52] Kori: And that is horrifying, and so we have to do better. So, when we're showing up at our town halls, we need to have a plan.
[00:57:00] Laura: Get ready? What is it? Be ready, so you don't have to get ready.
[00:57:02] Kori: You stay ready, you don't have to get ready. I don't know, that was my
[00:57:05] Laura: white girl take on that. I liked yours much better. You had all the right, all the right intonation and cuteness in that.
[00:57:12] Kori: Yeah, you know, so it's like, let's stay ready. Let's, let's use some of our time to rejuvenate, to prepare, to, to have a sense of like, what, how we would intervene with our voices.
[00:57:25] If we see something, if we see somebody else advocating, don't just walk away like, oh yeah, well they got it. No. Join them. Join them. Bear witness. Be an upstander, not a bystander. It's like we wonder why our kids don't know how to be upstanders. That's why. Yeah. Because we're not showing them. I thought that the people being outside of USAID yesterday, was really a beautiful gesture to demonstrate the appreciation for the work that those people did.
[00:58:00] So, you know, there was like a mass firing at USAID. They had 15 minutes to go in there and get their belongings. And, um, so people were just like pouring out of the building and there was a group of people outside who was cheering them on, who was applauding them. Like, holding signs, the work you do is so important.
[00:58:20] Like, being there as supportive voices, right? To acknowledge the significant harm that this is causing not only the people whose jobs, um, have been lost but also all the work that those people were supporting and advancing throughout the
[00:58:39] Laura: world. Yeah. Saying we see you and acknowledge that. Yeah.
[00:58:43] Kori: Yeah. And that was a really nice gesture of love and compassion and support.
[00:58:51] Laura: Yeah. we got homework.
[00:58:53] Kori: We have a lot.
[00:58:54] Laura: A lot of homework, but one of our pieces for this between now and the next pod. So last pod, it was about finding your community centers or finding out places, what do you care about? And finding way, finding organizations that are already impacting change in that space and connecting with them.
[00:59:10] Subscribing to a newsletter, making a recurring donation, whatever the, it is. This week's homework is start to run by some of these scripts. Think about what's going to happen when you go to a board meeting and there's a physical, there's a challenge like there was in Idaho. Think about what's going to happen when you see someone in public saying something that might have been swept under the rug about four years ago but now has been emboldened.
[00:59:33] Think about what you're going to do when someone in your community is impacted by federal cuts to probationary workers. Or a contract being canceled by the federal government. Because let me tell you, I have people in my life, this has happened.
[00:59:45] Kori: A bunch of them.
[00:59:46] Laura: A whole bunch.
[00:59:47] Kori: This is like all my work. All the work, yeah.
[00:59:50] All the work, all of the work I have done in my career has been impacted by this 30 days of this administration. Or not even 30 days. Yeah, between
[01:00:00] Laura: the focus on DEI and being, um, supported by federal government, by the federal government. Uh huh. Both the funding source and your topic. Your content expertise have been hit.
[01:00:08] Uh huh. Uh huh.
[01:00:10] Laura: So be ready. Uh huh. Get ready. What? Damn it. Say it. Say it cute. What'd you say? Stay
[01:00:15] Kori: ready so you don't have to get
[01:00:16] Laura: ready. There you go. Stay ready. Stay ready. Stay ready. So you don't have to
[01:00:19] Kori: get
[01:00:20] Laura: ready. And if you're struggling, reach out to us. Let us know. I want to practice this. How do I do that?
[01:00:26] Yeah. Maybe we can put together some scripts.
[01:00:28] Kori: Yeah.
[01:00:29] Laura: Let's do that. We'll put something on the website before the next one comes out too. But something where you can have some things in your back pocket ready to roll. Save the photo, save the slide, and use it. Alright. That sounds like a good place to stop for today.
[01:00:42] That does. Doesn't it? Yes. Folks, thanks for joining us for Pushing Past Polite.
[01:00:47] Kori: Keep pushing past polite, please. Yeah. That's what, that's what happened in Idaho. Nobody was pushing past polite. That's what happened. Yeah, excuse me. Oh, let's let this guy through. Let's let the officer through. Yes. The non officer through.
[01:01:01] No one pushed past polite. And we have to push past polite if we are going to resist a coup, and if we are going to resist a hostile takeover of our democracy. We cannot be polite about it. So thank you for listening to Pushing Past Polite and to carrying that fire into your spaces to fight for justice, because we are really here to try and talk about what matters and make the world more just.
[01:01:30] Laura: Yes, we were reflecting how we started this podcast in 2020, which was much more. No, not 2020. Hasn't been that long. Sorry. In the Biden administration, when people, I think, falsely thought, I can take a breather. We survived Trump. Let's take a breather. And now, this is particularly relevant. We're back. We're out of the, out of the frying pan into the fire.
[01:01:51] Um, so, And the fire's hotter and it's deeper and it's bigger because it's like the strategy was refined. You know? This is the perfect moment to practice this. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for listening. Way to, way to stretch yourselves. And please, please, please think about ways that politeness is not serving you and the cause of justice and how you can antagonize justice, injustice in more ways.
[01:02:17] Mm hmm. How about that? I like that. I like that. We're gonna sign off. Yeah, I got,
[01:02:21] Kori: I got my antagonizing justice sticker on the back. I see you. I'll see you.
[01:02:25] Laura: Thanks, y'all. Bye. Bye.
Kori: Thanks for listening to Pushing Past Polite. We encourage you to go deeper in your trusted spaces and find new space for good conversation.
Laura: You'll find episodes, transcripts, and lots of other goodies at our website, pushingpastpolitepodcast.com. You can also connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok at Pushing Past Polite.
Kori: Pushing Past Polite is an independent podcast with Kori and Laura from Just Educators.
Laura: Our cover art was designed by Rachel Welsh De Iga of De Iga Design, and our audio is produced by Keith at Headset Media. Until next time, don't get stuck talking about the weather. Push past polite.
Kori: See you next time.
Little Dude: Bye bye.
Laura: Jay, you did perfect!
