WEBVTT

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Thank you for coming today.

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I enjoyed your poetry.

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I'm just wondering why
should a Trump supporter

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listen to your poetry?

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You want to go first?

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Good question.

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Well, I've got Trump
supporters in the family.

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Me too.

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My partner's parents and her
brother all voted for Trump.

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It doesn't stop us from
talking to each other

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because they know me as a
flesh and blood human being,

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and I know them the same way.

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And they've heard
my poetry, they've

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heard her poetry, which
is even more out there.

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And I think--

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I'm not going to
sit here and say

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that I am going to convert
legions of Trump supporters

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and they're going to
flock to the polls

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and vote Democrat in
the next election.

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What I am saying is
that we have to do

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whatever it takes
to communicate,

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whether that's talking or
shouting or yelling or stomping

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or all the things
you just saw me do,

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because the alternative
is unthinkable.

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And by the way, I
have seen people--

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people have-- I have a poem.

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I didn't read it tonight
because it's ancient history.

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But it's a poem that references
the Republican Party by name.

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And I remember after this
reading, a woman came up to me

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and she was wearing
this red suit.

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And she said, you, the
guy who read that poem

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about the Republican
Party and about

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your name being
mispronounced and all that, I

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want to buy a book.

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I want to prove that we
have a sense of humor too.

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So to the extent that we
do that, to the extent

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that we as poets
do our job, which

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is to humanize
the dehumanized, I

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think we can talk
to damn near anyone.

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That doesn't mean they listen.

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Well, I too have family
that voted for 45.

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And the reason they voted
for him was for one reason,

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and that was because
they are deeply Catholic

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and are against abortion.

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And now that all the events have
unfolded of what he's really

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doing and what's happening
since he became president,

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they're very sad that
they voted for him.

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And again, I think this country
is way too polarized to just

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have two parties, the
Republicans and the Democrats,

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and then this big divide.

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That's crazy.

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And so if we're doing
our job as poets,

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we're bringing awareness.

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I mean, how many people knew
that seven people in the 50s,

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could work for a whole day?

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How many people here--
just raise your hand,

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did you know that seven people
could work for a whole day

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and get a dollar a day?

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Yes.

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Did anybody-- did
some people know that?

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OK, great.

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But a lot of people
don't know that.

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So if I didn't get up
there and say that,

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you wouldn't know that.

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And there are still
people who work

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who live in this country who
get paid very little money to do

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what they do, the
people who push you

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in a wheelchair in the
airport, the people that

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do all kinds of things.

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So if we're doing our job, then
you're learning these stories.

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You're hearing about people
that worked in the World Trade

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Center when it went down.

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You're hearing
about farm workers,

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you're hearing
about steelworkers.

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I have a bunch of poems
about my dad working

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and not having been
in Korea and then not

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being able to rent
a house except

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for in a Black
neighborhood in Chicago,

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because they wouldn't let him
live in a white neighborhood,

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even though he had
served his country.

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And he had a Purple Heart.

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You don't know those stories.

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You wouldn't even think that.

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You would say, oh no,
that can't be true.

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That's not true.

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But these are real stories,
and so that's what we do.

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And we bring together
and we get allies.

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So maybe we're not going
to get all the Trump

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supporters as allies,
but we're going

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to get a hell of a lot
of people as allies.

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Next question.

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You got another question?

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No?

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Going once, going twice.

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Now we can sign books.

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I'm from Tucson, and I just
want to thank you for being here

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because I'm Mexican, and so
it's personal to me, too.

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I hear it constantly, and
my husband's from Honduras.

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He's a naturalized citizen.

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And so firstly, I
just want to thank you

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for having this poetry,
because I know in our circles,

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we don't do this publicly.

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It's stuff that we
talk about in private

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because you can't say
these things without being

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told to be quiet.

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So thank you, but
my question to you

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both is what would you
suggest or recommend

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to me or to my husband and
our immigrant community

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to not feel hopeless
in the time of Trump,

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because sometimes
he will tell me

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vamos a Honduras because
there you know the rules.

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There you know what will happen
to you if you do something

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that you're not supposed to do.

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Whereas here,
sometimes it doesn't

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feel there's this pretense
of law and order I guess.

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Let Martín go.

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Yeah, let Martín go.

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Or not.

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I will.

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Well, it's always difficult to
answer your question about how

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it is that people who are
most directly affected

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by racism, by discrimination,
how is it they

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should feel hopeful?

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And at one level, on a
very practical level,

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despair leads to
self destruction.

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And then you're giving the enemy
exactly what the enemy wants.

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So one reason that I am
often hopeful is spite.

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But in terms of your
question particularly, I

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think it's very important
for people to organize.

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And one of the things
that I find very inspiring

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is all of the people who have
organized in spite of the fact

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that they are undocumented.

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All the people who
are coming forward,

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who are speaking in public,
who are organizing others

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and are openly saying, yeah
I'm undocumented, so what?

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Ningún ser humano es ilegal.

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No human being is illegal.

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I think it's very
important to do that,

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and I think there is
strength in numbers.

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I think there is this old--

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I guess it's an activist trick
that basically, the more of us

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who expose ourselves,
the more of us who

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make ourselves public,
the harder it is for them

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to pick us off.

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If you protest in
isolation, they've got you.

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And then they can say
anything about you later.

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Well, yes, he wasn't really
protesting injustice,

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he was insane.

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But the fact of the matter is
that if the one become many,

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there really is safety in
numbers, or more safety

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than there would be otherwise.

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So I think
organizing, again, I'm

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going to come back to that
principle, right, organize.

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Organize the unorganized,
organize yourselves.

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That's part of what I
would say, but the other

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is to express yourselves, and
to express yourselves publicly

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but also privately, right.

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I am not one of those
who will tell you

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that poetry heals all wounds.

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I will say that poetry has a
remarkable capacity for healing

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in the face of pain, much more
so than you would imagine.

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And it is a remarkable
capacity for combatting fear.

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And fear is our
greatest enemy, right.

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And remember you do have
allies, you do have allies,

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they're here.

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They're here tonight.

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They're here whether or
not they are themselves

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in the same position you are in.

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And while it's very
important for people

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to organize their own, it's
also important for people

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to realize you are not alone.

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We are here.

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Aquí estamos, y no nos vamos.

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Here we are, and here we stay.

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Wow, well when Poets
Responding first started,

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what we were asking for was
a just and humane immigration

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reform.

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And what did we get, we
got deportations and now

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the elimination of DACA.

00:10:06.920 --> 00:10:10.160 align:middle line:90%


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No immigration
reform still people,

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we're getting a new wall,
and who's going to build it?

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The Mexicans, apparently,
that's what he's saying.

00:10:18.065 --> 00:10:22.200 align:middle line:90%


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People right now are being
afraid to leave the--

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evacuate the fire
areas of California

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because they're
undocumented, but who

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knows the history of
immigration from Mexico?

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And I'm talking about
Mexico because--

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and from Central America
because we're so close.

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How many people
know about the wars

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that happened as a result of US
involvement in those countries?

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And on and on, and we--

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I mean, it'd be all
night and you all

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won't go home if I start
telling you that whole history.

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But the point is, we do have
to know the truth about why

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people are here.

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Why do they come here?

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They don't just come here
because they want to live

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in these shiny buildings and
they want to eat at McDonald's.

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They come here because
there's no jobs there,

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and why are there no jobs there?

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The Bracero program back in
the day that brought people

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to work in the
fields, it's going

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to happen again because
you can't deport everybody.

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So yeah, let's keep organizing
and you're not alone.

00:11:28.500 --> 00:11:31.590 align:middle line:90%


00:11:31.590 --> 00:11:33.450 align:middle line:90%
Any more questions?

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I think that might be all
we have time for today,

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so thank you so much and make
sure to stop by, grab a book,

00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:40.980 align:middle line:90%
and--

00:11:40.980 --> 00:11:44.030 align:middle line:84%
Thank you all so
much for coming.

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