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- [00:14]
Amy Goodman
From New York, this is Democracy now.
- [00:17]
Angela Davis
And let me also thank all of you for coming out to celebrate 30 years of Democracy Now. Without Democracy Now, I do not know where we would be today.
- [00:30]
Amy Goodman
Today, a special BROADC highlights from Democracy Now's 30th anniversary celebration featuring Angela Davis, Patti Smith, Massab Abu Toha, Michael Stipe. Hooray for the riffraff, Juan Gonzalez, Nermeen Sheikh. And a surprise appearance by the Boss, Bruce Springsteen.
- [00:52]
Juan Gonzalez
Past winter, federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis. They picked the wrong city.
- [01:03]
Amy Goodman
All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. In late March, over 2,000 people packed into the historic Riverside Church in New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Democracy Now. Today. In this special, we bring you highlights from the evening. Let's go back to that night.
- [01:32]
Ramin Shaikh
It is our absolute honor to welcome you all here to Democracy Now's 30th anniversary. It is hard to contemplate a celebration at this time amidst the US Israeli war on Iran and other armed conflicts, rising authoritarianism, power hungry billionaires, errors and the worsening climate catastrophe. But gatherings like this are essential to remind us that the gathering storm, despite the forces of oppression that threaten us all on the planet, there is a force more powerful, and that is all of you gathered here tonight at Riverside Church. All over this country and around the world of people joining together, organizing for peace and justice. It was in this very sanctuary here in Riverside Church that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Gave his famous speech, Beyond Vietnam, A Time to break silence. On April 4, 1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated in Memphis, King called out in that speech, the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government.
- [03:20]
Amy Goodman
He said.
- [03:22]
Ramin Shaikh
Dr. King warned when machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered. How prescient he was. And you know, at the time, King was attacked viciously and publicly for opposing the war. Life magazine accused him in an editorial of betraying the cause for which he has worked for so long, adding his speech was a demagogic slander that sounded like a script from Radio Hanoi. King, though, was undeterred. And his commitment to peace, despite enormous pressure to back off, should be a lesson for us all today. Yep. Yes, tonight is a celebration not only of 30 years of democracy now, but of the resilience of people and movements we strive to cover in this country and around the world. This is such an honor to be here with you and to be with my colleagues Juan Gonzalez and Ramin Shaikh
- [04:45]
Nermeen Shaikh
and the whole family.
- [04:47]
Amy Goodman
Let's turn to an excerpt of the speech of Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez.
- [04:53]
Juan Gonzalez
It has truly been a privilege and an honor to work with all these colleagues and to be welcomed into the homes of you, our audience for so many years. My modest contribution as a part time host and secretary treasurer of the Board of Pacifica all these years was to shed light not so much on the who, what, where and when of the news, but on the why and the how, the historical context and broader framework of social forces underlying those events. All of our achievements, however, have always been bittersweet for me. For even as the show has thrived and even as platforms for news and information, including progressive and independent ones, have proliferated, the American public's consciousness has plummeted when it comes to the malevolent, destructive and barbaric role of US Imperialism, whether in its neoliberal or its fascist management form. In our contemporary world, morality, decency, the quest for peaceful resolution of conflict, empathy for the weak and the powerful are branded as weaknesses, while bombast cruelty, patriarchy, the frenzy for obscene profits, hate, torture, outright fraud and lies are celebrated as signs of strength and power. Sadly, reporting the truth is important, But it is not sufficient to make a better world possible, especially when capitalism with artificial intelligence and Internet bots has mastered to previously unimagined levels the mass production of disinformation and alternative reality. In the end, only organizing resistance of working class and oppressed peoples of the world, strengthened by, yes, by revolutionary analysis, can bring about a better world.
- [07:00]
Ramin Shaikh
I want to introduce no one more appropriate to perform after Juan Gonzalez than Hooray for the riffraff with the Bronx born Alinda Segala. The band's new album has just come out. It's called Live Forever. This song, Pallante, was featured in the short New York Times documentary Takeover, about the young lords who took over Lincoln Hospital in 1970. Pallante means onwards, or as Juan says, right on.
- [08:01]
Alinda Segarra
Well, I just want to go to work get back home Be something
- [08:09]
I
- [08:09]
just want to fall in line to my time Be something
- [08:17]
Ramin Shaikh
I just want
- [08:18]
Alinda Segarra
to prove my worth on the planet Earth and be something I just want
- [08:25]
Ramin Shaikh
to fall in love and not ruin
- [08:28]
Alinda Segarra
it and feel something well lately I don't understand what I am treated as a fool not quite a woman or
- [08:44]
Nermeen Shaikh
a man
- [08:47]
Alinda Segarra
well, I don't know I guess I Don't understand the plan Colonized
- [08:57]
Ramin Shaikh
and hypnotized Be something
- [09:03]
Alinda Segarra
Sterilized, dehumanized I'll
- [09:07]
Ramin Shaikh
be something
- [09:10]
Alinda Segarra
they tell you Take your
- [09:11]
Nermeen Shaikh
pay but stay out the way Go
- [09:14]
Alinda Segarra
be something they tell you do your best Forget the rest Be something
- [09:25]
Nermeen Shaikh
well,
- [09:26]
Alinda Segarra
lately it's been mighty hard to see Just searching for my lost humanity
- [09:40]
Nermeen Shaikh
I
- [09:40]
Alinda Segarra
look for you my friends but do you look for me. Lately I'm not too afraid to die I wanna leave it all behind I think about it sometimes and lately all my time's been moving slow I don't know where I'm gonn Just give me time and I know. O any day now oh, in a day now I will come along. Oh, in a day now oh, in a day now I will come along
- [10:51]
Jesse Smith
oh, I will come alone
- [10:57]
Amy Goodman
this is hooray for the riff raff. We'll be back.
- [11:20]
Alinda Segarra
And from marble Hill to gorge of. And to have to hide we said
- [11:37]
Nermeen Shaikh
by
- [11:41]
Alinda Segarra
who lost your pride But I'm
- [11:44]
Nermeen Shaikh
there
- [11:47]
Alinda Segarra
and to all trying to survive But I'm there.
- [12:00]
Nermeen Shaikh
To the earth under our feet.
- [12:07]
Alinda Segarra
To resistance in the street But I'm
- [12:11]
Nermeen Shaikh
dead
- [12:13]
Alinda Segarra
to the children of the world
- [12:16]
Nermeen Shaikh
While I'm there To the poets of Palestine But I'm f to dream I can never die but I'm looking Before we say tomorrow.
- [12:54]
Amy Goodman
Hooray for the riffraff at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary celebration. This is Democracy now. Democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman. We turn now to the Pulitzer Prize winning Palestinian writer and poet Mossab Abu Toha. He fled Gaza with his family in December 2023 after he was detained by Israeli forces for two days. He was close friends with the Palestinian poet Rafat Alari, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in 2023. This is Massab Abu Toha speaking at Riverside Church.
- [13:33]
Massab Abu Toha
Thank you so much, Democracy Now. Thank you, Amy, Hermin and Juan. I mean, these are very heartbroken moments. There is no language that can describe my feelings listening to my dear friend Jihad. He's somewhere else. Better than this ugly world that we are trying, all of us, to survive. It was October 12, 2023, when I had my interview with Amy. I was still in our house in Gaza. This house has been a heap of rubble since October 30, 2023. Just two days after the interview I did with Amy. On October 12, Israel killed 30 members of my extended family, including my great uncle, Khadr Abu Toha, his wife, his children, the wives of his children, the grandchildren. The youngest was 4 years old that same Khadr was the only one in my family who was interested in doing the family tree. And I ended up doing his family tree after he was killed. And that's something that I kept doing, unfortunately, to document the genocide that Israel perpetrated not only against Palestinians, but the Palestinian families. Israel has erased thousands, hundreds of families in Gaza, including some of my relatives, some of whom remain under the rubber even now, under the rubble. She slept on her bed, never woke up again. Her bed has become her grave, a tomb beneath the ceiling of her room. The ceiling a cenotaph. No name, new year of birth, year of death. No epitaph, only blood and a smashed picture of Raymond Ruin. Next to her, in Jabalia camp, a mother collects her daughter's flesh in a piggy bank, hoping to buy her a plot on a river in a faraway land. A group of mute people were talking sign when a bomb fell. They fell silent. It rained again last night. The new plant looked for an umbrella in the garage. The bombing got intense and our house looked for a shelter in the neighborhood. I leave the door to my room open so the words in my books, the titles and names of authors and publishers could flee when they hear the bombs. I became homeless once the streets of the rubble of my city covered the streets. They could not find a stretcher to carry your body. They put you on a wooden door. They found under the rubble, your neighbors, a moving wall. The scars on our children's faces will look for you. Our children's amputated legs will run after you. He left the house to buy some bread for his kids. News of his death made it home, but not the bread. No bread. Death sits to eat whoever remains of the kids. No need for a table, no need for bread. A father wakes up at 9 at night, sees the random colors on the walls drawn by his four year old daughter. The colors are about four feet high. Next year they would be five. But the painter has died in an air strike. There are no colors anymore. There are no walls. I changed the order of my books on the shelves. Two days later, the war broke out. Beware of changing the order of your books. What are you thinking? What? Thinking what? You. You. Is there still you? You there. Where should people go? Should they build a big ladder and go up? But the heaven has been blocked by the drones and F16s and the smoke of death. My son asks me whether when we return to Gaza, I could get him a puppy. I say, I promise, if we can find any. I ask my son if he wishes to become a pilot when he grows up. He says he won't wish to drop bombs on people and houses. When we die, our souls leave our body, take with them everything they loved in our bedrooms, the perfume bottles, the makeup, the necklaces and the pens. In Gaza, our bodies and rooms get crushed. Nothing remains for the soul, even our souls. They remain stuck under the rubble for weeks now, for years, For Gaza, for Rifat al Ar, for all our loved ones, those who were killed, those who are surviving in the streets and tents. For my three sisters who are in Gaza right now, for my beloved ones who remain under the rubble while we are speaking for a free Palestine, When,
- [20:28]
Nermeen Shaikh
Thank you.
- [20:37]
Amy Goodman
That was the Palestinian writer and poet Mossab Abu Toha, who just recently won a Pulitzer Prize for his essays in the New Yorker magazine. This is Democracy now, co host Nermeen Shaikh speaking at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary celebration.
- [20:54]
Nermeen Shaikh
We are living irrefutably, if perhaps in some instances not irreversibly, in a time of multiplying and accelerating crises, to name only the most obvious and the most proximate, the slow and now rapid transformation of this country into a more brutal, more unforgiving and more exclusionary policy and society, the scale of which, as we witness it, is literally unfathomable. The cruelty of the current administration is everywhere in evidence. It would take the remainder of this evening, and indeed well beyond it, to rehearse the litany of horrors to which we're daily confronted. What, then is our orientation, our vision, as this administration continues unleashing its violence both within and without the borders of this country? What possibilities exist as we report on what appears an imminent threat of world war and crucially, of those suffering in its midst, of course, in Iran, but also elsewhere, or when we speak of the calamitous and ongoing lethal effects on the world's very poorest, of the staggering cuts in US Aid, or as we tell the stories of those brutalized while protesting ice, or the stories of the tens of millions enduring merciless wars from Palestine to Ukraine to the DRC and Sudan, the latter African countries to our collective shame, almost totally absent from the public sphere. The only gesture, of course, the only gesture possible, of course, is resistance, a resistance whose source and agency must find expression in the media.
- [23:02]
Ramin Shaikh
It is my honor to bring up on the stage Michael Stipe, the singer, songwriter, artist and activist, and Aaron Destor, Grammy Award winning musician and producer, founding member of the national and a close collaborator with Taylor Swift, there singing no Time for Love Like now thank you, Amy.
- [23:31]
Tony Shanahan
This evening feels like a clarion call.
- [23:38]
Massab Abu Toha
A voice, a voice of courage, of
- [23:43]
Tony Shanahan
optimism and resilience and community in the face, in the midst of system collapse.
- [23:54]
Massab Abu Toha
We are honored to be here and
- [23:57]
Angela Davis
to be a part of this community.
- [23:58]
Tony Shanahan
Thank you. No time for breezy no time for arguments there's no time for love like
- [24:18]
Massab Abu Toha
now
- [24:21]
Tony Shanahan
there's no time in the bardo no time in the end between no time for love like now. Where did this all begin to change? The lockdown memories can't sustain this glistening hanging free foam I turned away from the glorious light I turned my head and cried Whatever waiting means in this new place I am waiting for you there's no time for dancing no time for undecided no time for love like now there's no time for honey no time for songs and thresholds Whisper a sweet prayer sigh where did this all begin to change the lockdown memories can't sustain this glistening hanging free fall
- [25:51]
Ramin Shaikh
I
- [25:51]
Tony Shanahan
turned away from the glorious light
- [25:58]
Nermeen Shaikh
I
- [25:58]
Tony Shanahan
turned my head and cried Whatever waiting means in this new place I am waiting for you. Your voices echo in love love, love, love, love I hear it far, far away and I am waiting for you Yes, I am waiting for you Whatever waiting means. I am waiting for you Yes, I am waiting for you I am waiting for you.
- [27:24]
Angela Davis
Thank you.
- [27:25]
Ramin Shaikh
Right now, to say the least, we have a very, very special guest, Angela Davis. Angela, it is such an honor to be with you tonight.
- [27:39]
Nermeen Shaikh
Night.
- [27:46]
Angela Davis
Well, congratulations, Amy, Nermeen and Juan, on the occasion of the 30th. Can you believe it? 30th anniversary of democracy Now. Without Democracy Now, I do not know where we would be today. I can remember when we felt unseen and unacknowledged, when we had no legitimate place or space in the established media. And so, before I say anything else, I just really want to say thank you on behalf of all of the progressive and radical movements in this country and the world.
- [28:44]
Ramin Shaikh
Start where you grew up. Start in Birmingham, Alabama, and what it meant to grow up in Dynamite Hill and then take us on a short trajectory of your remarkable life.
- [29:03]
Massab Abu Toha
Really?
- [29:12]
Angela Davis
Well, you know, that was over 80 years ago. Okay, Amy. I was born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama, at a time when the government of the city and of the state were literally in the hands of the Ku Klux Klan. And I often point out that some of my earliest memories are of hearing the sound of Dynamite, because when my family moved into that area, black people were allowed to live on one side of the street, center street, which was the dividing but not on the other side. And one of the stories I never tire of telling is that as kids, we knew that a Ku Klux Klanman Klansman lived right across the street from us. And we knew that we were not allowed to cross that street. Black people weren't allowed to cross that street unless. Unless they worked for white people in the neighborhood. And so sometimes, instead of playing hide and go seek or all the other children's games that we used to play, we used to dare each other to run across the street. And if you were, you know, really courageous, you would not only run across the street, you would run up the steps of the Klansman's house and ring the doorbell and try to make it back across the street before they came to answer. So, I mean, I say that because I know the theme of this evening is Resistan. And you know, and as I look at, as I see Palestinian children throwing rocks at the Israeli military, I realize that, you know, in some communities, resistance is the only possibility of living a life of significance. And what is so exciting about this
- [32:13]
Tony Shanahan
moment
- [32:15]
Angela Davis
is that we've struggled so long for Palestine solidarity to be a part of the largest social justice agenda in this country. And for so long, it appeared as if Zionism was so powerful that we would never achieve that goal. And so people who worked around issues of Palestine solidarity had to do it in a kind of marginalized fashion, not in connection with what we consider to be the main issues of social justice. But I can say now that I am really thankful that I've managed to live as long as I have,
- [33:25]
Jesse Smith
Because
- [33:27]
Angela Davis
I also see myself as a witness for all of those who struggle for Palestine and Palestine in connection with feminism, Palestine in connection with the struggle against racism, Palestine in relation to our anti war movements.
- [33:48]
Juan Gonzalez
Angela, I'd like to ask you about those grand forms of resistance. We were politically formed during the same period of time. And you first came to national fame or national or international notoriety as a member of the Black Panther Party. And I'm wondering if you could share, especially for the young people here, what drew you to revolutionary struggle, to the Panther Party? And what kinds of lessons, good and bad, have you drawn from that experience that might help other folks who are organizing resistance and seeking to build a better world today?
- [34:30]
Angela Davis
I think I've always been connected with some kind of collective. And I. And I suppose I would say that is because became clear that despite the individualism that is promoted and especially in relation to and by capitalism, that. Nothing that we do as individuals is ever going to. To really make A major difference. We always have to be connected with community. And so when the Black Panther Party was organizing in Los Angeles for the very first time, I was, as a matter of fact, teaching at ucla. And I asked, well, how can I be of assistance? What can I do? So I began to work with the political education program that John Huggins, Erica Huggins, husband at the time, was working on. So John and I worked on political education for the Black Panther Party for. Until he was killed at ucla. And you know, it's a long and very complicated story, but the fact is that I think I've always felt more comfortable in environments where I could resist, where I could say no and not be by myself. Saying, saying no. Being with others who recognize that
- [36:38]
Jesse Smith
we
- [36:38]
Angela Davis
need a different kind of world. A world without racism, a world without hetero patriarchy, a world without economic exploitation, a world without colonialism, a world without genocide. And the only way to do that is together.
- [37:09]
Ramin Shaikh
I have the enormous pleasure to introduce our next guest. A special guest is coming later. This is also an extremely special guest who I can name at this moment Patti Smith, singer, songwriter, poet, author, widely known as the grandmother of punk. And we want to welcome Patti Smith, her daughter Jesse Smith and Tony Shanahan to the stage.
- [37:45]
Tony Shanahan
On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corey, a young non violence activist, was protesting the Israeli demolition of homes in the Gaza Strip. Bulldozers had already destroyed surrounding houses in Rafah, where she was based. They targeted the family home of Professor Nasrallah, where she was staying. Corrie, wearing an orange vest, bullhorn in hand, called for them to cease. She stood on a raised mound in the path of an Israeli bulldozer, but it kept going. Her fellow activists cried out and the Nasrallah children watched in horror as she was crushed to death. The loss of Cory, a bright altruistic force just two years older than my own son, haunted me. At the same time, on the first day of spring, it was obvious that all the marches, pleas and protests of millions of people worldwide were not going to halt the Bush administration's plan to attack Baghdad. That was 23 years ago when Tony Shanahan and I wrote the song. We wrote it it to comfort the family of Rachel Corey and to send a small, a small message of hope to the Palestinian people.
- [39:39]
Nermeen Shaikh
Sam,
- [40:14]
Jesse Smith
Yesterday I saw you standing there with your hands against the pane looking out the window at the ring
- [40:37]
Alinda Segarra
and
- [40:37]
Jesse Smith
I wanted to tell you all your tears were not in vain But I guess we both knew we'd never be the same Never be the same
- [41:06]
Angela Davis
Must
- [41:07]
Jesse Smith
we Hide all these feelings Inside
- [41:17]
Tony Shanahan
lions
- [41:19]
Jesse Smith
and land shell abide. Maybe one day we'll be strong enough to build it back again Build the peaceable kingdom back again. Build it back again.
- [41:59]
Nermeen Shaikh
Foreign.
- [42:05]
Amy Goodman
This is Patti Smith. We'll be back in a minute.
- [42:25]
Jesse Smith
Why must we hide on these feelings Inside lions and lamps shall abide. Maybe one day we'll be strong enough to build it back again Build the peaceable kingdom back again Maybe one day we'll be strong enough we can build it back again Build the peaceable kingdom Build it back again
- [43:34]
Tony Shanahan
Build the peaceable
- [43:36]
Jesse Smith
kingdom and build it back again. I was dreaming in my dreaming of
- [43:58]
Tony Shanahan
an aspect bright and fair and my
- [44:04]
Jesse Smith
sleeping it was broken but my dream it lingered near
- [44:14]
Tony Shanahan
in the farm of
- [44:17]
Jesse Smith
shining valleys where the pure air rarefied and my senses newly opened Cause I weakened to the cry that the people have the power to redeem the work of fools upon the meek the graces shower it's decreed the people rule. Thank you, Jesse Paris Smith.
- [45:07]
Tony Shanahan
Tony Shanahan, thank you.
- [45:10]
Amy Goodman
That was Patti Smith performing at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary. Yes, this is Democracy now. Democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman. As we go back now to the Riverside church celebration.
- [45:24]
Ramin Shaikh
We couldn't think of a way to end tonight, but then I saw someone in the audience and I realized
- [45:40]
Alinda Segarra
this
- [45:40]
Ramin Shaikh
is how we give thanks. Let's bring on the Boss. Bruce Springsteen.
- [45:56]
Alinda Segarra
Happy anniversary.
- [45:57]
Massab Abu Toha
Democracy Now.
- [45:59]
Juan Gonzalez
Happy anniversary. It's so wonderful to be here. And happy birthday, Patty. Past winter, federal troops brought death and terror to the streets of Minneapolis. They picked the wrong city. There's the power and the solidarity. The charity of the people of Minneapolis was an inspiration to the entire country. Their strength and their commitment told us that this is still America
- [46:36]
Massab Abu Toha
and the
- [46:37]
Juan Gonzalez
reactionary nightmare and the invasion of an American city will not stand. Their strength gave us hope. They gave us courage. And for those who gave their lives. Renee Good, mother of three, brutally murdered. Alex Preddy, VA Nurse executed Shot in the back by ice in the street Left to die Their bravery, their sacrifice and their names will not be forgotten. This is streets of Minneapolis.
- [47:16]
Alinda Segarra
Through the wondrous Iceland cold down Nicolette
- [47:21]
Nermeen Shaikh
Avenue Avenue
- [47:24]
Alinda Segarra
City of flame fought fire and ice neath an occupier's boat King Trump's private army from the DHS guns melted to their coats Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law or so their
- [47:47]
Juan Gonzalez
story goes
- [47:52]
Alinda Segarra
against smoke and rubber bulletins. Well, by the dawn's early light Citizens stood for justice Their voices ringing through
- [48:08]
Jesse Smith
the night
- [48:11]
Juan Gonzalez
and there were bloody footprints
- [48:15]
Alinda Segarra
where mercy should have Stood too dead Left to die on snow filled streets Alex Pretty and renew. Oh in Minneapolis I hear your voice singing through the bloody mist we'll take our stand for this land and the stranger in our midst Here in our home they killed and roamed in the winter of 26 remember the names of the those who died on the streets of Minneapolis. Trump's federal thugs beat up on his face and his chest Then we heard the gunshots Alex pretty leading the stairs Their claim was self defense, sir just don't believe your eyes it's our blood and bones and these whistles and phones Against Miller and Norman. Oh Minneapolis I hear your voice crying through the bloody mist we'll remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis. Now they say they're here to uphold the law but they trample on our rights if your skin is black or brown my friend you'll be questioned Reported
- [50:48]
Angela Davis
on s
- [50:52]
Alinda Segarra
chance of ice out now our city's heart and soul persists
- [51:02]
Jesse Smith
through
- [51:02]
Alinda Segarra
broken glass and bloody tears on the streets of Minneapolis. O Minneapolis I hear your voice singing through the bloody mist Here in our home they killed in Rome in the winter of 26 we'll take our stand for this land and the strange stranger in our midst we'll remember the names
- [51:44]
Juan Gonzalez
of those who died on the streets
- [51:48]
Alinda Segarra
of Minneapolis we'll remember the names of those who died on the streets of Minneapolis.
- [52:31]
Ramin Shaikh
Well, we can't end tonight without a joint of the appeal someone made when Patti was singing. People have the Power with all the musicians on the stage, including Bruce. Folks, thank you so much for coming out and celebrating. We hope you all join in.
- [53:01]
Jesse Smith
Let's do it. I was dreaming in my dreaming well of an aspect bright and fair Am I sleeping? It was broken but my dream Mid lingonere in the farmer shining valleys oh where the pure air rarefied had My senses are newly opened Cause I awaken into the cry that the people have the power to redeem the work of fools upon the meek the graces shower
- [54:07]
Nermeen Shaikh
it's decreed the people rule all Come on. People have the power Believe it, people have the power make it simple Power People have the power.
- [54:39]
Jesse Smith
Vengeful aspects became suspect and bended low as if to hear and the armies ceased defending because the people had their ear and the shepherds and the soldiers where they lay beneath the stars Exchanging visions Laying arms to waste in the dust in the form of shining valleys with pure hair where I fight and my skin senses a newly opened awakened
- [55:29]
Nermeen Shaikh
to the cry Come on People have the power Believe it People have the power make it so People have the power People have the power.
- [56:17]
Jesse Smith
Where there were deserts I saw fountains and like cream the waters rise and we stroll there together we learn to laugh or criticize well and the leper
- [56:36]
Nermeen Shaikh
and the lamb lay together Are truly bound Where I was hoping in my hope and you recall what I found
- [56:51]
Jesse Smith
I was dreaming in my dreaming God knows a pure view As I surrender into my sleeping I commit my dream
- [57:06]
Nermeen Shaikh
to you Come on. People have the power to dream People have the power to march People have the power to march People have the power to love Power to dream to rule to wrestle the world from fools it's decreed the people rule well, it's decreed the people rule Listen, I believe everything we dream can come to pass through our union we can turn the world around we can turn the earth's revolution before we have the power the people have the power the people have the power the people have the power don't forget it. Use your voice. Democracy Now.
- [58:29]
Amy Goodman
Patti Smith's iconic song, People have the Power, performed by Patti herself, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Stief, Aaron Dessner and Alinda Segarra together at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary at Riverside Church. To see the full event, go to democracynow.org and that does it for today's show. Special thanks to Julie Crosby, Sharina Nudura and Mike Burke. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.