During a town hall on Saturday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) was asked about young voters who may feel 'disenfranchised' from participating in elections or even seeking office.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon, Senator Booker, my name is Courtney Johnson-Supper and I'm the president
00:13of the Bergen County NAACP.
00:15I just want, I've got to interrupt you.
00:22I was raised with Bergen County NAACP members, my mom and my dad.
00:27It was the civil rights activism of black and white, Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Muslim,
00:34New Jerseyans in the 60s that allowed my family, some of you know the story, when my family
00:39was denied a home in Harrington Park because of the color of their skin, it was this beautiful
00:44coalition of people and organizations like the NAACP that stood for us.
00:48So I'm just honored to see the traditions continuing under your leadership, so thank
00:52you.
00:53So with sexual, civic, and cultural classes being threatened across the country, what
01:01would you say to our young people who are becoming disenfranchised and turned off from
01:06voting and or running from office?
01:10Okay, so first I just want to say, a lot of people are saying, oh you're being alarmist
01:16when you say things, and I mean this, when our country is taking on the tactics of authoritarian
01:22leaders in authoritarian countries, when you see books being banned from libraries
01:27across our country, things like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, when you see them trying
01:34to erase people from history, literally taking them off of our military websites like Jackie
01:40Robinson was a great veteran.
01:42When you see them cutting funding to programs that teach about the beautiful diversity of
01:50our country, to me those are the tactics of authoritarian countries.
01:55And America is a great nation not because we have a perfect history, I'm sorry, there's
02:01wretchedness and darkness and cruelty all throughout our history.
02:07Irish Americans who face outrageous discrimination, an entire political party rose to predominance
02:15in this country just because they were against Catholics called the Know Nothing Party.
02:20I could go through the darker chapters of our country's history and I'll stand against
02:25anybody who wants to sanitize, homogenize, or disenfranchise our history.
02:30I think what makes our country great, what makes our country great is not the hate that
02:40was evident, it's how we overcame that hate, how we overcame the injustice, how we standed
02:47together in rainbow coalitions to be where we are today.
02:51That is the beauty because every nation has had that kind of bigotry, that kind of hate,
02:56but America's story of making a more perfect union is what makes us special.
03:00And people who want to lie about that story or weaken that story, they weaken America.
03:06And, unfortunately, as we all learn, as I learned in one of the early lessons in seventh
03:12grade, social studies class, when you fail to learn from the mistakes of history in the
03:17past, you're destined to repeat them.
03:20So young leaders right now who are worried about civics and how to get involved, I just
03:29have one thing to say, do not wait.
03:32You are a leader now.
03:34Do not wait.
03:35This is your moment in American history.
03:37I don't care if you're in grade school or high school or college, this country is desperate
03:42for your strength, for your vision, for your creativity.
03:45Because from Alice Paul, somebody in her 20s, that was a person from New Jersey, who was
03:51the first person in American history to do a protest in front of the White House, who
03:57challenged her president, who eventually came out and joined her after she was jailed.
04:02What do you do to powerful women?
04:04She was put in an insane asylum before Gandhi, this 20-something, went on hunger strikes.
04:10And so finally, the First Amendment, freedom of the press, a reporter began to tell her
04:15story.
04:16It shocked the consciousness of our country.
04:18But creative artists of activism who don't accept the business as usual, even in the
04:24protest movements, creative artists of activism, that's what we need, our young people.
04:29This is your time to stand up right now.