Lee Responds To Khalil’s Arrest: It's About ‘Our Rights, Our Civil Liberties, Our Freedom Of Speech’

20 hours ago

During Thursday's town hall in Pittsburgh, PA, Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) discussed the first amendment rights of university students.

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Transcript

00:00Okay, this question is from Gina Chen, if you are here, Gina Chen, the question is,

00:13I am a graduate student at CMU, what can both you as a congress member and my colleagues,

00:23students and faculty at CMU Pitt and other universities do to protect our First Amendment

00:30rights beyond signing petitions to protest it?

00:38That is one of the most important questions that we have, and I know it doesn't feel like

00:41it, but when we talk about a slipping democracy, the first thing that's under attack is your

00:46First Amendment.

00:47There is a reason why it's the first one, there's a reason why freedom of speech, of

00:52assembly, of religion, but speech in assembly in particular are the first ones, because

00:57if you can train students, young people, which is the heartbeat of all movements, every movement

01:02that we've had throughout history has been driven by student activism, by young people's

01:06activism, and joined in by other people, but led primarily by the energy, the ingenuity,

01:13and the bravery of young people, but what we've seen are attacks on that for a reason.

01:20Before I say what Congress can do, because listen, I've been very clear, I have been

01:23very clear about the importance of campus protests, very clear about the importance

01:27of First Amendment rights and not eroding them, and obviously Mahmoud Khalil is a person

01:33who comes to mind, a student who was, disappeared, disappeared, and is now in a facility in Louisiana,

01:43and a lot of people, because of the contention and the debate that is happening behind that,

01:48are missing the actual point of what we're really talking about, which that actually

01:52is not an instance just of Israel and Palestine, it's actually an instance of American citizenship,

01:57our rights, our civil liberties, and our freedom of speech, and that's why it's so important

02:02that we frame it that way, and that we stop each other from cutting off that debate, it

02:07is really important, so as we've already discovered, he was the first, but he's not been the last.

02:12Since then, we've already seen attacks on green card holders, we've seen attacks on

02:17students, Columbia has already punished students by revoking degrees, but not returning money,

02:25I don't understand how that one works, but these are important conversations because

02:30it doesn't seem important when it's just students who are fighting their administration, or

02:34who are even fighting out against a topic that you might find comfortable or uncomfortable,

02:39but the problem is that when the real threat is keeping students, keeping you, keeping

02:44each and every one of us from speaking up against Trump, against the dictator, whoever

02:50that dictator may be, whoever that autocrat is, you cannot question the government, and

02:55people are afraid to do that now, which is truly, truly weakening us as a movement to

03:02be able to counteract what he's doing.

03:04There are so many things that he's doing that's illegal, and in those moments when our government

03:08is acting rogue, we rely on the people to be the final check and balance, but if we've

03:12allowed and we've handed over our First Amendment right, then we are not able to fight back.

03:17So students, I will say that your First Amendment right, your history is a storied history of

03:25activism, of action and organizing, you are a part of a long legacy, from Apartheid South

03:33Africa, to the Civil Rights Movement, to the Women's Suffrage Movement, to the Anti-Vietnam

03:38War Movement, to so many more, but all of these movements will always come at a cost.

03:44It's never been without a price to pay, and especially when that price is steepest, is

03:51when we need you the most.

03:54But we also need the people who are not students to support them.

03:57So the thing that we need most is not actually the students signing petitions, sign them,

04:03but we need you, community members, to surround them.

04:06We need you to speak up when we have students who are right now facing charges for their activism.

04:11Do you know if you get a felony conviction, you can never run for office?

04:15They're cutting off a future generation of bold leaders that we need in times like this.

04:20We need you to speak up against that, we need you to protect those civil liberties, we need

04:25you to value those civil liberties, and also yes, we also need people to be held accountable

04:29for the way we do our activism, that's true too.

04:32We do need to make sure that we're rooting out any part of our movements that are not

04:36to the benefit of all people, all of our people, and we will, and we can call that out.

04:42But we will also call out attacks on our civil liberties.

04:45We can do both, we must do both, and it's important that we stay in this fight, do not

04:50lean out right now, do not tap out right now, but call each other in.

04:54Our coalitions are not perfect.

04:58They've never been, and now more than ever they're not.

05:01It's more important that we continue to engage those coalitions, that we continue to strengthen

05:05them, that we continue to have honest conversation and debate, and that we continue to make sure

05:09that we're keeping our eyes focused on what the true enemy is right now, and those are

05:13the threats to our democracy.

Lee Responds To Khalil’s Arrest: It's About ‘Our Rights, Our Civil Liberties, Our Freedom Of Speech’

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