Don't heckle me DU. The candidates need to start talking to people face to face and ask them what their concerns are, not just give one size fits all solutions.

in regards to the killing of innocent PoC by law enforcement. Daily we read new reports of racism and violence perpetrated by the very people hired to protect people.

Not that this is the fault of O'Malley or Sanders but as presidential candidates they are in a unique position to make the case and get things done.

I do hope going forward our Democratic candidates will work to get legislation passed, programs started, and information dispersed so we can work to alleviate the death, violence, & persecution that racism creates.

#BlackLivesMatter movement made a big gain as the discussion certainly changed. Hopefully going forward though the movement will work to be creative and diverse in their approach to gaining support for the cause.

Repeating the same course of action would probably not be as effective going forward and I do hope that new organizing techniques, new plans of action, and new efforts to affect change on the local level are encouraged.

I'm a big Bernie Sanders fan and proud of his long history of working to end racism including organizing sit-ins for desegregated housing, marching with MLK, & nominating Jesse Jackson as a candidate for president of the United States.

Still I do hope Bernie works to immediately create legislation that creates oversight and funding to make sure the police protect & serve rather than discriminate, kill & brutalize PoC. It's obvious that this must be done NOW as PoC are still being killed and facing aggressive racism.

The current efforts of Sanders and the other candidates to eliminate economic & educational disparities should not be discounted as these too are very important parts of helping create a healthy American society for all people.

Let's hope we can get concrete plans enacted and that racism will be confronted HEAD ON so that we can move forward in peace & prosperity. It won't be easy and it will create opposition from people who are racist and truthfully many who don't understand racism because they haven't been exposed to it but it must happen.

Check his site!

isn't there. I just couldn't find it.

If you have a link I would appreciate it as I'd like to see what he's proposing.

I did listen to his talk at Netroots and did hear him discussing civilian review boards and felt he understood things that need to be done and had plans that should be implemented.

I'm still supporting Bernie Sanders for many reasons but I am glad O'Malley is in the race and fighting hard for ideals that are progressive like the issues surrounding civil & equal rights, raising the minimum wage, and fighting the abuses of Wall Street.

If Bernie Sanders is not our nominee I would proudly vote and support O'Malley.

Loretta Lynch must address this immediately.

We can't be waiting for a new Attorney General to assume office in January 2017. The time to act is NOW.

...not just progressive Dem gatherings. The predictable GOP overreaction in such instances -- they won't give the matter any thought, or any due, a la O'Malley or Sanders -- will help further eradicate the GOP "brand," and also bring about much overdue, badly needed change.

I posted something similar, that they needed to do this so ALL of us would have reaction, then after the reaction, perhaps take time to learn.

Now we are learning. This was a good interview. This is about PAIN. And just nodding nicely, saying empathetic words is not enough.

There has to be radical change in how the Police are policed themselves.

Radical change.


And all candidates better start listening to all the voices on the campaign trail and to those who don't make it to the rallies.

I appreciated his apology afterwards and am sure he meant no offense. I like him more all the time.

I've spent more time than probably many of his ardent DU supporters reading obscure stories about Bernie from Vermont etc. There's quite a bit out there I haven't found posted here.

He reminds me of what things were like and how I thought when I was 18.

50 years ago Bernie was the one who would be protesting, getting arrested. Now he's part of the Establishment and getting protested.

abuses of the establishment

establishment, and that is an outlier

Everyone who votes is part of the establishment by your definition then

You are of course entitled to you view, and I am entitled to mine

supporters.

Hyper and running all over the place. I'm one, too.

But I read your words as meaning that Bernie was the one protesting all those years ago and now being the one on the other side, will recognize his young self in them. I think he has shrugged off the interrupting and my hope is, he is focusing on what they were protesting. He gets the fact of what they are saying. I have no doubt. I think he is now dealing with how the community needs for him and others to process and work the problem from a certain starting point. And that is not with platitudes and "I feel your pain".

It is "I hear your pain, tell me how I should go forward." Better yet, bring in to his inner circle those who have the fire inside to push forward radical change in the way it needs to be pushed.

Not Hillary, not Obama, not the Republicans... No, somehow it's the problem of the guy who marched with MLK. I smell a rat(fucker). <--- unfortunate blunder

Edit: I'm leaving this post intact because I need to own my mistakes. That said, I would ask that you don't use my words to malign other Sanders supporters. Thank you.

eom

the way to adress it? It will be interesting to see how this evolves.

eom

Hopefully they will take their cause, a cause Sanders supports wholeheartedly, to more than one.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what is going on.

"...No, somehow it's the problem of the guy who marched with MLK. I smell a rat(fucker)."

One can reasonably question that opinion, and demonstrate that Bernie's whole campaign is about the abuses of the establishment, or throw out names at people, if I read it right. Apologies in advance if I incorrectly misinterpreted it

How would would Hillary have been? Obama?

Just trying to get some context.

Obama of course is younger and wasn't born until '61 I believe.

Hillary would have been 16. Might have been a bit of an issue getting her to Alabama in time for the marches, unless her parents drove her.

Sanders was 22 at the time, so a different standard should apply to someone of his age at the time IMO.

My point is that it's not reasonable, by implication, to criticize Clinton or Obama for failing to march with King when their ages made it effectively impossible. We might as readily fault Sanders for failing to protest Japanese internment camps during WWII.

I think it is highly unlikely she even wanted to go to the marches at that point. Not that many 16 white girls would have wanted to do that, so I am not piling on her. I am just not going to believe that if only she could borrow the car, she would have been there.

cite: http://www.factcheck.org/2008/03/hillary-worked-for-goldwater/

People do grow and change opinions on issues. She's a democrat now but I still don't like her connections to Wall Street. I far prefer Bernie because I think he has more of a clue as to how people really live in this country and how most are having a very hard time making ends meet.

I do agree that criticizing any of them for failing to march is kind of silly. I think we need to look at where we are in this country right now and ask each candidate their views on many issues. #Black lives matter is critically important & I'd like to hear about systemic changes. Stemming the deaths is first priority - I'm really sick of hearing about police officers shooting folks who just coincidentally (!) seem to all be black on a frickin' daily basis. It needs to stop. We also need to hear about how each candidate would address the economic issues in this country in order to give everyone a chance. Locking up more & more folks in for-profit jails is not the answer. Sending all the jobs overseas is not the answer. We need to hear some concrete talk about how these things are going to change. Frankly I think we've heard the most that is substantively on point from Sanders - but I'm willing to listen to all of them.

Is a priority for him?

On edit, that "support" is coming from the diarist at Kos who wrote this.

and she said she supports Sanders.

in the interview why is it in the transcript in the OP?

This is what the hoped for outcome would be. A way to have a real dialogue about the issues from the viewpoint of the community. I hope this reaches the masses.

I remember very well the smear campaign against anti-war Democrats and the RW meme created that Vietnam was a "white issue."

This is the same thing, just updated a little. Not a word about Hillary here, and she gets to stay above the mud.

eom

One of the greatest speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., "A Time to Break Silence," was delivered at Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967. It is a statement against war in principle, in the same sense in which King's "Letter from Birmingham City Jail," published four years earlier, had been a statement against social injustice in principle.

King explained why he was joining with the most progressive wing of the Democratic Party against Johnson's War in Vietnam, and why he was abandoning the Civil Rights-only focus that had up until then been the strategy of most AA leaders:

I witnessed Democracy!

Other folks saw rude disruptors, improper venue and are focusing upon how the candidates responded instead of discussing the protestors message.

"We're" still missing the point.
I'm glad they challenge Democrats. Democrats could have done more over the past "forever" and Democrats could do More Now.

Now we'll see if they're up to that challenge.
Someone has to speak up and out against sociopathic people who become Police abusing their power and have a good, feasible outline of a plan on how to dissolve the current system and rebuild it to the satisfaction of ALL of us. Period.

Democracy isn't always "PC". It's way too late for that now, imo.

Same here. I think the protest helped Martin and Bernie. It will probably help Bernie more. The protest brought out a lot of good qualities in both candidates to the forefront. It also gave both of them an opportunity to talk specifically about #Blacklivesmatter and policies they would institute to dismantle institutional racism and how they would address income inequality(I would rather think of it as creating a more even playing field), I felt that they were listening even if they were a bit boisterous. What I think will happen is Bernie will have a long discussion with the leadership of Blacklivesmatter and they will give him some more specific policies they would like to see, Bernie will agree with them and they will be happy to support his campaign. I think Martin O'Malley will do the same and have similar results.

I don't think Bernie was at all upset with the fact that there were protesters at the event. However, he doesn't like it at all when people interrupt him when he is asked a question that he is answering without doing the usual song and dance that most politicians do, if he is answering respectfully he should be listened to respectfully. He asked the audience to listen and I think they did listen some still were chanting that is to be expected when you have a large group of protesters, but there was enough calm for him to speak and he did. I watched the video and it has been said he walked off in a huff, it seemed more to me that he walked away happy, he waved to the crowd in a friendly way I thought. I could be way off but seriously when he was talking he didn't even sound mad, just at the part where he was being treated rudely and then he took a breath and he switched back to his giving the power back to the people mode, you know the part where he says help me to help you, the part where he says I will march with you and I will stand with you and I will fight for you and this is how I will do it. I am almost positive I heard some applause at the end.

she lays out the issues very clear. She's so right. Democrats do need to be more radical in standing up for the people on every issue that is important to our well being. But this is strange, I watched the video, and due to the protests during O'Malley's segment the host had to cut Bernie's time short. I didn't see Bernie leave the stage I watched to the end, at least not in the video I saw. Is there another? Nice to know she supports Bernie Sanders.

If GWB was running they would have been hauled out of there and put in a roped off area a mile away.

While I sit in my white comfort only wanting to hear what Bernie was saying I found myself annoyed at the disruption. Then my brain popped back into the reality in this country. Every group wants to hear their needs expressed, want to be listened to. Bernie tends not to run an issue focued speech but a broader, inclusive message. While that works when you think about things from a comfortable area it does not work in these times. I rather imagine he will branch his talking points out at some time but I think he needs to start a little earlier than it seems he planned.

I support what they are doing. If you don't feel heard you must make yourself heard. That comes with a lot of push back from those not in your group but so what? Push back until they stop, listen and address your issues, or in this case it is more likely your very lives.

eom

A lesson I learned doing LGBT activism in Kansas. Look how far we have come and will be going this next few years. When we started everyone said the only way to fight it was to educate. Well we educated but we also insisted we were in the news, we were seen and heard. We got loud and insistent and then we started to garner support. Then we started to win.

This is an immediate need for the powers that might be to address. It cannot wait. It makes me a wreck just sitting here watching people tell BLM how to protest, how to be heard, not to be disruptors. Well you just can't get anything done when you sit in the box that others put you in.

And now I just repeated what you said in a very short, concise way. Sorry about that! Felt good to write it though

The study starts from the premise that most folks opinions are pretty fixed but there was measurable movement in opinion in communities where glbtq folks did outreach in their communities and demonstrated to straight folks they were just like them except for the fact they love folks of the same gender.

After years of phone banking and working this issue I found that to be measurably true. The worst comments I got from people who knew LGBT people were that they did not "support their lifestyle" (ick to that stupid comment) but could not vote against them because they were nice people and they honestly liked them enough that they did not really think about it. Most people were in the camp of having learned exactly what you said above. They really are no different except for who they love.

Education is important but once things are entrenched it often takes a lot A LOT of disrupting and yelling and making scenes to get anyone to stop and listen. While things were not nearly as immediately deadly in Kansas for LGBT, although I would never say they were not dangerous, we took our time and ramped things up.

BLM does not have that time. As annoying as it is to have your (or any) candidate interrupted when you are into it, as annoying as it is to see them portrayed as something they are not we just have to understand the immediacy of this. How many more have to die like this just so we can "get our elections" over with?

And there was a perceptible increase in opposition to Prop 8 in areas where GLBTQ folks did door by door outreach.

People are so isolated sometimes and with the stigma of the past causing LGBT to often feel fearful if not terrified of coming out people often did not even know that they worked with someone who was gay or lived close to them. Sometimes all it takes is a little contact, just a little reach out and the wheels start turning and rejecting all the stupid ideas spun into their brains.

I learned by the seat of my pants how to not be a part of a group but to care enough to get involved in a very big way (for a time). A lot of people here have very different ideas and that is perfectly fine. The one thing that gets to me, the very most important mistake I see here over and over is for someone not a part of the group telling the group how to act.

It is happening on DU today. You just don't get to do that and be taken kindly or seriously. Why would you be?

me wonder what they really wanted, because they undermined their own purported goal by shouting over the answers.

Baltimore

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=458140

It also leads to Internet Food Fights, which help so much....not!

Great line--wish it was part of the TOS!!!

It seemed they targeted their advocates which makes zero sense. It would have been valuable to have arranged a discussion amongst all parties rather than a disruption.

They got us talking about their message. The candidates heard it as well.

And do you think these protesters would have been able to get close enough to other presidential candidates to be heard. Most likely they would have been gassed and arrested.

and having a discussion. There's no doubt everyone heard it, but the impression it left wasn't necessarily positive. Sanders and O'Malley are their advocates, not their enemies.