Happy, happy MLK day. Oh, wow. I love this day of the year because a, it's just like you should be thinking about MLK all year long, but at bare minimum, at least one day a year. And I'm always glad because it's the beginning of the year still. And hopefully folks have already started new habits, are in the process of breaking habits. And for me to answer the question, and hopefully you will as well, so you can swell me back
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:56
And before the Holocaust, there were pragrams, and there were all these other places where Jews were shuffled from left to right throughout our history, from the Ashkenazi kind of bloodline, if you will
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 2:07
To be able to share our truth, to be able to heal together, to be able to have uncomfortable conversations, to be able to challenge each other respectfully, but then also to be able to learn from each other and to learn how we can heal better, how we can improve, how we can grow, and how we can change together. Bye
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:06
And it's one of the most human experiences, is to feel human, to strip away so much and to get to that core. Acknowledgment, um, of commonality, that universal experience of taking a breath into our lungs, because we all have lungs and doing that together and then breathing out. It's all good. It's great. And you just captured it so well. I want you to acknowledge your power to do that. Bye
Ruby T
@WanderingYehudi · 5:00
And I've had to see way too many women get treated this way where they have a child, and it's like they're up against the legal system and they don't have money, and it's like, then they have no place to go. And it really makes me angry. Like, I'm talking super angry. So today I decided, you know what? I'm going to go out there and I'm going to make a scene in the public
Ruby T
@WanderingYehudi · 5:00
But instead, when I was just starting out, trying to figure out, does my daughter really like she going to be safe going on these overnight visits with a father she never met before? He never really entered into her life till she was two years old. So it was really hard to just hand over your little baby to somebody that was a complete stranger who did not even speak English very well. Her father is from an african country
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 2:56
And I may not always agree with you, and I may not even always understand where you're coming from, but at the bare minimum, as a human being, I am here. I want to hear your story. You are seen. You matter. And whatever your plight is, you're not alone because there's someone else also experiencing this. Let's stand hand in hand. Let's take this on together, because what your problems are, are my problems
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 4:50
It is a lot to keep children here. It is a lot to protect them. But we made them, and so we have what it takes to do everything they need. And when we don't know, we figure it out, because that is the definition of what it takes to be a parent. It is nothing, nothing will ever stand in your way. So always happy to chat more about all of this
Together, we can build a world where every person is valued and treated with dignity, regardless of their race, gender, background. MLK Day is a time to reflect, to learn, and to take action. It is a day to celebrate the progress we have made, but also a day to recommit ourselves to work that lies ahead. MLK day
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 1:02
But especially within the context of looking at the injustices that are occurring in the world or even within our own life, what are we willing to do and how are we strategizing? How are we leveraging community? How are we leveraging resources to learn more, to advocate more for ourselves, for our community, for what we believe to be right and what needs to be protected? So thank you. I found your share to be moving and would love to swell with you again. Thank
Ruby T
@WanderingYehudi · 5:00
And that's something she said when she was a little baby girl. And so I've spent my whole life feeling ashamed about my looks and not wanting to look at the mirror or think I'm beautiful just because I heard such negative, hateful things from some of my family members. I was a black sheep. I never want my daughter to go through that. I want her to understand how beautiful she is from the inside, like her heart
Any child that you meet in this country can tell you who he is. Once they reach elementary school, they know who Martin Luther King, Jr. Is. And that is such a powerful thing, because those kids then become concerned. They become eager about learning more about the history of this country, the history of black people in this country, and what it means to be a citizen of a country
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 4:10
Right? Because that's a whole other conversation. But it's just about making sure that parents, one of the best things we can do is hear and see our children and love them how they need to be loved and educate ourselves to better equip them with what they need. A lot of people look at love as what I can do for someone else, but that's not what children need
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 3:54
And it's like sometimes with kids, it makes sense why especially diverse and minority children feel disempowered. Because there's issues going on in home life, potentially. There's issues going on, potentially in the school. Do they have safe spaces? Are there community outlets of fun and empowerment and challenges that are going to help them grow? It's not a given. And a lot of times the answer to that is no
King's assassination on April 4, 1968, was a tragic event that shook the nation. However, his legacy continues to inspire movements for social justice and racial equality worldwide. His teachings and philosophy of nonviolence and racial harmony remain relevant today as society continues to grapple with the issues of racial injustice and inequality. So, yeah, that's what I think about, and that's what Martin Luther King, Jr. Means to me
And I say what I personally put out for myself to do is to make sure that I don't allow the dream to get lost by addressing things like education, making sure that our children know the truth and that they're getting all of the information. Because the only way that the issues can be addressed is if we have transparency in making sure that the dream is not pushed aside or rewritten or reinvented
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 1:57
And if we could actually create legislation and policies and community groups and programmatic design all around our unification of people, not to disregard our differences, but to say we celebrate our differences as one and together as one group of people, we highlight and appreciate the differences coming together that make us stronger together. But the point is, we're together. So I hope that people listen to this. I hope that they also like more people
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 3:09
I definitely remember hearing that rhetoric of, like, we have to make sure we're teaching the children, the children know, as if not to shame children into being better, but somehow kind of shifting the focus of change onto making sure that children are the agents of change. And yes, in reality, yes, in the future. But as we know, children are not in positions of power. Children are typically not in positions of being able to change laws and be able to change regulation
And so we're having to do double time in the schools because of it. So let's think about the benefits of children's voices, right? So we know examples of powerful legislation driven by children's voices, such as the child labor laws, the advocacy for children's rights, and the landmark Brown versus Board of Education case, children's voices promote their rights. We have to foster their development and contribute to a more inclusive society. And so how do we do that?
