The Silent Killer of the American Dream: How "Systemic Erasure" Dictates Your Life with Sade Elhawary

Transcript auto-generated from the episode audio; formatting has been cleaned up, but wording is verbatim.

Hello, I'm Cynthia Marks and I head up the Holistic Psychoanalysis Foundation, founded by my late husband, Doctor Bernard Bail. Welcome to and now Love. Today we are discussing the intersection of power policy and the human soul. Doctor Bernard Bail spent decades exploring the mother's imprint, the profound idea that a mother's unresolved suffering can occupy the mind of her child, sometimes erasing the child's true self before it even has a chance to be born. He sometimes called this a state of internal wandering, where a person lives their life, but doesn't truly inhabit it.

When we look at the streets of Los Angeles, we see this theory made manifest in our systems for the individuals living in Skid Row and the struggling communities of the 57th district in particular. The imprint isn't just psychological. It is systemic. It is the weight of being unseen by the law and erased by the economy. Joining us is Assemblywoman Sade Elhawary whos career has been dedicated to a single radical in rising people, up from her roots in community organization to her work in the California State Assembly. She is an architect of social reclamation.

She understands that to rise up, a person needs more than a resource. They need to be restored. Thank you so much. You're doing all of that. Yes, and I'm so proud to be able to now do it from a different role. And, you know, having the opportunity to be here with you today. I'm really grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I really do feel like there's an intersection between what you're doing and what we're trying to share with the world in our way about how important it is to really love each other, to be able to operate from who we authentically are and to help each other rise up.

I mean, as humans, we really need to keep in mind that we're a community of humans. Yes, definitely. And I think sometimes we forget that in the work that we do, you know, like, and I even think about how much work there is to do good work. And sometimes we just keep pushing and we forget to acknowledge that we're humans doing this work too. And I think that part is important. So I love that you said that. So tell us how you got started with this district. What about the process led you to wanting to represent this district? Yeah. So I spent a lot of my career, here in South Central as a community organizer, and it was, a huge opportunity as a young person, to be able to step into work.

That had been started, decades before me, with Mayor Karen Bass, who at the time had started an organization, when she was working as a, in the emergency room as a physician's assistant and, realized the impact of the crack cocaine epidemic on black communities in particular. But South Central, which, at the time was really starting to transition, and becoming more black and Latino and, she, she really thought about the importance of bringing communities together rather than from this punitive lens, to really think about alternatives to solving this crisis, through opportunities to really sense her public health center community at the in those solutions and being able to work there as a youth organizer.

When I first started my career, I had just graduated, from my master's at Harvard to become a high school history teacher. I didn't have this kind of understanding of organizing, with the exception of Barack Obama, our president, who had done that when he was younger. And when I was, asked to really consider this position, I thought, you know, I really want to focus on kids in the classroom. That's my goal. I don't want to just be, you know, another educator that allows children to, go through the school to prison pipeline, and some people fall and some people make it to college and some make it to Harvard.

I wanted to think about how do we not just have exceptions to the rule, but really invest in all children? Because my own sister, Jasmine, had, you know, unfortunately been pushed out of school as in high school and, and really took, about ten years to then figure out how to get back, on her feet and back into school. And so, as a youth organizer, I loved the work that I got to do. I had an opportunity to work in high schools in South Central, developing the leadership of the community, looking at how we could get the young people to be a part of the change, that they wanted to see.

And that really opened doors for me that I would have never thought that would help me get to where I am today. And ultimately, I think I would say, you know, being a youth organizer was the crux of how I landed here. How do we center community and decisions that we make at the highest levels? How do we ensure that when we want to, you know, create policy, create legislation, think about our budget and the values that it really reflects, that we really center community in that process. And so, that's really how I got started in this world and how I ultimately ended up here with amazing mentors like Mayor Bass and now our, council president here in Los Angeles, Marquis Harris Dawson, who was my first boss when I got to cocoa.

That's a great story to start. So that is one of the major issues that you are contending with, I believe is better services for youth. Right. And what are some of the other major issues. And then I kind of want to touch on each of them. Yeah. So I often talk about the work that I do from the lens of two core pillars that we have in our office, and kind of under the umbrella of community centered government, because everything we do, the intention is to be community center. So on the one hand, we have wellness equity, which focuses on mental health.

So treatment and access, as well as being thoughtful around our environmental justice and what it means to have wellness based on just green spaces and community and clean air and clean water. And then on the other hand, our pillar around restorative justice incorporates everything from how do we prevent people from getting in the system in the first place? To how do we intervene and really have, you know, community intervention opportunities? How do we keep folks from being, you know, funneled into the system? What alternatives do we have to incarceration?

And if they are impacted by the system, how do we really rehabilitate folks and, ensure that we're thoughtful about, you know, parole reform and reentry employment opportunities and even housing? And I think that, you coming into this district with these ideas, fabulous ideas, is a lot to achieve when you first started with this position, it was none of those things, I would imagine. And I know you're working at it slowly. There are a lot of steps in the process, but that, you know, thinking about youth and thinking about, let's see if we can if we can figure out how to show some respect to the process of being a youngster and respect the struggles that people are going through as individuals, give them clean air, food, safe spaces, then ultimately down the road that is, you know, beneficial to everyone.

I mean, then those people get to grow up in a healthier situation. They are less likely to be incarcerated. They're more likely to love their own children in a healthy well. Love is always healthy, let's say real love. But they're in a position to better understand the importance of, you know, taking care of their own children, their friends, their communities, being helpful in their communities. So. So is that a goal is sort of what what happens later if we do these things now? Yeah. So, you know, a part of all of this is that at the state level, I have certain opportunities that I now have access to to really advocate for, to push forward, to champion, in terms of our state budget, in terms of our legislation at the state level.

But I also have a district office and so at the district level, it's what kind of resources do our communities need? How can we connect them to those, especially related to state departments and agencies that sometimes aren't as, responsive to our communities for various reasons? And so in this case, you know, recognizing the need for, us to think about at the state level, how do we push during a deficit when we don't have enough money at the state level? How do we push to make sure that funding doesn't get taken away from where it's needed most, from our most vulnerable, that we're not allowing, the budget to be balanced on the backs of our community members.

That often already are struggling already don't have enough. I had so, you know, so when we think about what it takes to get to ultimately what we want to see in terms of our communities surviving, excuse me? Thriving, not just surviving, we know that part of that is, what is the government do to ensure that communities at the center, that we invest in our communities so that we don't end up seeing these long term outcomes that oftentimes are so negative in communities like ours, in inner cities and, you know, urban centers and spaces that like South Central that have been painted so negatively for so long that people don't even call it South Central anymore, they call it South L.A., right?

And so I think, you know, when we think about what it takes to invest in a young person, right? So I'm a foster mom, I'm so, you know, proud to have been able to, you know, support a young person through their process. And the young person, who I am fortunate to be, a mother to. Her name was Michaela. When I met her, she was 15 years old, and she had lived a life of, you know, a lot of struggle with her family. Instability, food insecurity, you know, housing insecurity, many parts of her life and her family really struggled with, addiction and alcoholism.

And, you know, so much that often led to neglect that she faced, and when I met her, she wasn't doing well in school. So, as an example, how do we ensure that young people like Michaela have the love and support that they need, but also recognizing that her parents have that as well? Right. And in that time period when she was unfortunately removed from her home, she was 17 years old. It was, you know, at this kind of point where she was already transitioning to the next part of her life. When I met her, she had these grades. She ultimately, ended up, you know, really changing her, her, her kind of, disposition related to school, recognizing that she needed to do well in terms of her education if she was going to get out of the situation that she was in.

And when she was removed from her home and I was able to step in, I also wanted to ensure that her parents had what they needed so that they could be better. And sometimes that's not what our systems do, right? They take the child and they, you know, and they villainize or demonize the family. They don't think about reunification. They don't give opportunities for the families. Not that they never do. Right, but that oftentimes that's what we see. And I think for us, we have to think about, well, what did it what led her parents down that road, that what can we do?

What did we not do enough of to invest in them, to have quality education, to have access to workforce development opportunities? What are the things that they were lacking, and how do we make sure that we continue to invest in young people like Michaela to not have to be removed from their homes to have access to these amazing opportunities and their own features? Right. And so I think those are the things that I hope I get to, you know, really think about in terms of shifting outcomes. Michaela did go to college and she struggled in college.

She went to separate school. State came back home after a couple of years. She's in community college now and ready to transfer. She has a job. She's worked a couple of jobs, that she's loved with young people here. Right. And all of that is because she had the investment and we sometimes we just don't invest enough in our communities. And I think my hope is that in this new position, with these new, you know, with this focus on wellness, with this focus on justice, that we really do everything we can, to ensure that our communities really are able to thrive.

Well. And it sounds like you have support in your endeavor because here you are. You were voted in, of course. So that's exciting. It's nice to know that there are plenty of people who agree with you. So when you're talking about, Michaela's parents and, addressing their struggles, is that an easy thing to bring forth? Are people listening on the other end? The people who may need to say, pass it, help you pass a bill or provide funding? Is that a tough one? You know, I think we're all working as hard as we can together. There are some amazing groups that really see and want to prioritize family reunification.

I've seen it from the organizers on the ground that are prioritizing family care over foster care. And how do we also make sure that, you know, when maybe they're put into the foster care system with, an aunt or a grandmother or, you know, an uncle that they also have the opportunities that they would have in the foster care system. We've seen those changes happen over time, and we continue to see the opportunities for, us to shift the language that we've used, so often around, white families, white children are removed from their families. And how that, you know, oftentimes there's these cultural distinctions that push social workers to make certain decisions that maybe aren't fully understood.

And so some of that is changing, even in legislation, even in the opportunities that we know, are necessary for us to, to really make real change. Right? Like legislation is created sometimes in a vacuum or sometimes when we think about in a particular period in time, right, or point in time where those families were demonized, that oftentimes when we think about the foster care system and what happened as a result of the crack cocaine epidemic, people were saying, well, these families are our addict, our addicts, and we need to lock them up, or we need to remove their children rather than thinking about, well, how do we support this from a public health standpoint so that those folks really have the opportunity to, you know, fully heal from what they're going through fully, you know, be able to, to rehabilitate from that addiction so that they can ultimately have access to, having their children with them and bringing their children back home.

But at the time, that's not what we're thinking. We were thinking about, you know, very punitive, very, you know, tough on crime, no war on drugs. And we've seen the implications, we've seen the repercussions. And so now we have to really think about what does it take for us to shift that pendulum back and really do the work to, to to shift those systems that we ultimately created ourselves? You know, It's the idea of punishing parents and, you know, then removing this child and thinking that this is the best thing for the child is without regard at all to what this child is carrying forward from now being without his parents or not having to recover from whatever the situation was that existed when he was with his parents.

And I do feel like there's a much bigger opening into this outlook than there was before. And you're working on that again. So thank you so much. In in terms of getting to the bottom of that, I think it's really important, by the way, I've just why I keep bringing up that, that we look at, at the family, that we look at the parents that we look at, the people that are bringing children into the world. Where does that start? When you're looking at a family and assessing a situation, we don't really assess a situation until there's some damage that's been done.

And it's I don't know if it's because of funding that we look at it and then come back and. Yeah, you know, I think, I think we're moving in that direction. I'll say that the court systems, are doing better even, you know, one of the pieces of legislation we're looking at is for the judges that are in family court to have some type of experience in, in, you know, whether it's social work, whether it's their background that just fully like, understands what children are going through and what families are going through because when you have someone who doesn't understand that the way that they treat families, the way that they treat children is so far from what we know our families deserve.

Right? And as a young person myself, who went through family court because my parents separated and all of what comes from those experiences, and then you think about child dependency and what what what happens when, you know, our children who are in foster care and listening to McKayla stories, when she would come back from court, with her, attorney who was there, thankfully. Right. We have these organizations who have stepped in, who have filled in the gap, who, you know, organizations who really are there for the children and those who are there to understand what the families need.

Right. I think that there are programs, there are opportunities. We aren't all the way there yet. It takes time. We've created a system that ultimately was harmful. And to fix that system, to truly, make that system work for us, we have to do a lot of work to get to the roots of what we ultimately created and why and how those shifts are, need to be made. You know, the legislation that is put on my desk every day when people come to ask if we are willing to champion or, you know, author, that kind of legislation, so much of it is, aligned with what we're talking about right now.

But we also don't have, like, endless opportunities to do that. And sometimes legislation is not implemented on the ground level because it's so ingrained in our systems. And so we have to think about what's that? What does that what does it take to do that? You know, what are the opportunities? Who are the people that we need to bring in, to ensure that when we are expecting this type of, you know, systems change or organizational change, that we have the right folks who are really helping to lead us through that. Because, you know, just if you're used to doing something for so long, and you have, been ingrained in that, that culture, then you don't believe that it's anything's wrong with it, right?

Until people are willing to really push, in a real way. Yes. Yeah. And I think that even goes to speaks to us as individuals, you know, we live the life we live. That's what we know. That's what we experience. It's hard to imagine that we could do something different. It's sometimes hard to imagine that we could have a life beyond what we have. And, you know, so if someone tells you that you've done this thing and that's bad and we're taking away your child, you almost we I think a lot of us would just buy into it that because I've lived this life of, famine on so many levels emotional.

I'm frightened I, I'm not fed you. That becomes part of who you are. And to expect something different is, is often hard. Yeah. I think, you know, we are in a in a time right now even where we see these shifts away from investing in our social safety net programs that are so important for our community members, and if we continue down that path, we're really, I think, giving up in so many ways on the opportunities that we know, are necessary for folks to be able to thrive. And so I think that's that's exactly right. Yes. And I think now in particular, we've, you know, maybe started to make some headway in letting folks know they're safe and held and we're pulling the rug out from under that.

Yeah. Truly. And, you know, just acknowledging where we are in this time in our society, right. Like that. We're investing in this, you know, like militarized force against our community members who, you know, when we think about where our tax money is going, at the federal level, it's really it's really going to to hurt our communities, to harm them rather than to help them. The, the the impact on things like Medicare that people are so reliant on the impact to Snap benefits and, you know, the, the, the opportunities for our communities who we know, these families who need so much.

And it it really does show our values when we're willing to invest our budget in what we're seeing now, you know, with with innocent folks who are being killed, who are fighting for our community members fighting to ensure that we have, at least the very basics of treatment for our communities who are here as immigrants, who we rely on so much. And so I think about like the what is what is this administration telling us at the federal level, and what are we doing on the state level to combat that? Because we're not perfect, we have a structural deficit.

It's going to be difficult unless we're willing to fight to bring in new revenue. We are going to end up, you know, really kind of replicating what this administration is doing across the country. And so I think all of those things are tough. They're not easy at all. And we have to think about the real human impact on the ground. What does that mean for the single mother who attends USC, who is getting her masters, who won't even have access to child care because those funds are being frozen? Because we're a democratic state, like these things that are so backwards, you know, so ridiculous that we even have to fight for something as, as, as just common knowledge that we know everyone needs access to, that parents can't work, they can't go to school if they don't have access to something like childcare.

And yet we're willing to remove that. And I just heard from, a young woman, whose name is Murray Linda, and she shared her story. She shared what it would mean to not have childcare services for her two year old daughter, serenity, who literally she's going to school to become a social worker, to give back to her community. She has grants that it require her to come back to the community and give back, that she can't pay back if she doesn't finish school. But that's who we're taking away from. That's the real human impact, right? The, the, the folks who won't have access to health insurance because we've taken it away from our undocumented community, our farm workers who are working every day, who then won't have access to basic health needs when they're literally like breaking their backs on the farms to feed us.

Right. This is what we're doing. And I think we just we really have to shift our understanding of what it means to invest in our communities and to even participate in, like, you know, this, like the world of, of like the civic engagement that is necessary for our communities to understand this is the real human toll when we, you know, kind of decide how we will or won't participate in our system, in our in our, in our system of, of, you know, voting in our, in our systems every day of having the opportunity to ensure our communities really have their voices heard.

Right. This is the democratic process we know we need so that we don't end up in these situations. And your position, you've been an assemblywoman for a little over a year. Yes, just a little over a year. And you have seen some amazing changes that I think must mean that you're constantly having to change the way you operate. You know, we are at the state level on the front lines, fighting back against what's happening. And I think doing everything that we can on that level, we have incredible folks who are leading, my colleagues who I get to work with every day, who are working directly with folks on the ground.

This is not an effort that just happens right from the top down. It has to be grassroots, too. We see that in Minneapolis. How grassroots, you know, efforts have really pushed to see real changes, finally happen with this administration and the and the decisions that they're making. And so now, at the state level, one of the things that I realized is, you know, beyond legislation that fights back against ice, that fight back against the border enforcement that we see happening, that is honestly like just out of control at this point. Beyond that, we also are thinking about, you know, I mentioned a little bit earlier, how do we bring money back home when it's being taken away from us at the federal level?

Right. I just got an email today about the food banks who need $15 million so that they can continue to operate the food banks don't even have enough money because of how much they have been. Literally the the rug has been pulled out from under them. And so in this moment, we have to do everything we can. I mentioned earlier that I'm an organizer and, you know, when I first started in the state assembly, I had so much imposter syndrome, I did not know if I was in the right place like I was like, are you sure that, you know, I'm proud to be elected, but am I the right person?

I've never been in office before. It's my first time ever having been elected, and I did it with an incredibly, you know, amazing coalition of volunteers and community members and labor organizations. And I knew I had to come to fight. Right. But I didn't know what it would take to do that. And so at first I thought, well, maybe I don't have what it takes. Maybe I don't know what it's really going to be like. I've only been an organizer. What I realize is that I'm an organizer, and I had to lean into that. But initially I didn't realize that that was my strength.

You know, like, I thought that it was, you know, it meant that I didn't have enough experience. I have a lot of colleagues who have been mayors of their cities and towns, that they have been council members or they worked for an elected official. And I had never done any of that. And so what I've been able to do is really ensure that, you know, we work together because so much of this work can feel siloed. So much of what it it means to be an elected official is that you're thinking about how you continue to grow in this kind of world of politics.

What's the next thing you're going to run for? People will always ask that. And for me, it's about how do we focus on what we're doing right now. And so bringing together assembly members and senators who don't often talk, having conversations about the budget and about revenue that we don't often have, talking about why we can't just cut ourselves out of a problem that is ultimately going to hurt our most vulnerable populations, that we have to think about. How do we bring money home? How do we generate revenue in a state that is the fourth largest economy in the world, that generates all this money from I.

We're so proud of who we are as a state, and yet we don't have enough money to make sure that our community members aren't living on the streets, to make sure that our community members aren't struggling just to pay their rent every month, to feed their families, every month, to pay for things like their cars and insurance. And they're all the things that come with just their utilities. Right? All of that. It makes a difference. And so we have to talk about it. We have to really think about how do we push against corporate greed, how do we bring and hold, you know, our billionaires and our incredibly wealthy people to account?

Because that's what it's going to take. That's what it's really going to take. If we want to see things really change. And I think that's the the moment that we're in is that, you know, the human toll of all of the things that we're seeing if we're not willing to work together to have those conversations, if we're just siloed, if we're just worried about our own egos and growing into the next political platform that we'll have, we won't focus on the here and now, which is that our community members need us now. Right? Which is why you're all hired to do what you do.

Exactly. And to be elected means that we have to really represent our communities in the best way possible. And for me, those stakes are even higher. I represent Skid Row, I represent South Central L.A., I represent communities that are the highest and lowest on most of the worst scales that we can imagine. And it's means that I have to make sure that at every point, I'm not just saying that the status quo is where we need to stay. It means that we have to push on every system. We have to ask every question. We have to say that we're not willing to just allow things to just be, because that's how it was.

We have to change it and be willing to change it together. It feels like there is this terrible mindset, and I think it affects your district more than some others in that it's so hard to lift people up from that place, let's say Skid Row, the that they're the first to be forgotten. Why would you invest any more money there? Because it's an impossible task. And but it's it's the opposite. It's as if we we have to invest money there, and we have to figure out a way to change our approach. It's it. The status quo is just absolutely not working. Not at all.

And what do your constituents tell you about their neighborhoods, about how they're living life right now? Yeah, I would say, you know, we were really a part of the way that I do this work is that I don't do it without making sure that we center the voices of those who are impacted, because I'm not an expert on everything. I don't know if I'm an expert on anything. You know, I'm really proud of the work that I've done in in my past and as an organizer, as an educator. But I know that I can't do this work alone. I know that it's going to take really listening to the voices of the folks on the ground.

And so one of our bills was really focused on the intersection between mental health and homelessness. And what do we do to ensure that we have more opportunities for mental health supports? On the ground in a place like Skid Row, knowing that folks don't have the same access to a therapist, don't have the same access to, their insurance, don't even have access sometimes to a cell phone. There's these great opportunities, like USC street medicine that focus oftentimes on physical health. But what do we do to incentivize more supports around mental health?

That was the conversation that we were having. And in order to have that, I didn't try to find the answer on my own because I know that that's not ever going to yield the best type of, response and the best type of, solution that ultimately, if we want to do that, we have to go to the source. And so we worked with, a lot of the, the stakeholders on the ground, the service providers who work in Skid Row, who work every day with our community members who live on Skid Row. And we said, how can we really, prioritize the solutions that you already see happening?

Maybe there's innovative, innovative solutions that we see that are, you know, maybe just happening on a small scale. How can we scale that? How can we replicate that? How can we ensure that you have enough funding for that? I got an opportunity to go to see the Skid Row Care Center. It's this beautiful space that was created because they have a skid Row action plan, a group of stakeholders that meet every single month to talk about what it takes, including residents themselves. It has respite beds. It has, you know, opportunities for folks to have lockers and showers and things that I think sometimes are kind of spread out in the community.

But it was a centralized location that was so powerful and so beautiful to be able to see and then to hear the stories of what it took to bring that together, to make that happen. That's what we're doing this work for, right? That's what this is all about. And so, yes, people are always going to say, don't throw more money at the problem. But I think, how do we work together with the folks on the ground to find the right solutions to our constituents who want to see homelessness and don't want to see Skid Row continue to skyrocket, to balloon.

Right. But to really say, what does it take to do this? And, you know, some people want to criminalize criminalize our communities. They want to just lock people up. They want to get rid of folks. They want to send them back to wherever they're from. Or, if they, you know, were sent here on a bus from another city or state, right, that there's this, this opportunity or idea that folks just want them to, you know, they're they're addicts. They just need to be locked up. They you know, they're struggling with mental health. They just need to be locked up.

And that's just not the answer. It's not going to make things better for us. We know that it doesn't help our communities to continue this cycle of trauma. Like you talked about. This is real trauma that our communities face. Most of the folks who live on Skid Row come from my district. Most of the folks in Skid Row are also black. Most of them were impacted by the crack cocaine crisis. And what did we do then that made things the way they are now? And how do we try to solve for that, knowing that it won't happen overnight and recognizing that our constituents who want to see a lot of these changes, a lot of these, you know, they want they want to see this happen and get fixed overnight.

It's it's not going to be solved that quickly. But we do have to do the work as quickly as possible to push on the system that has created what we see today. And so, yes, we know that there have been funding issues. We know that there have been, issues around, you know, how we've done this work, but it requires us to be collaborative. It requires us to trust one another. It requires all of us to lean in. You know, I have the opportunity to to to, I've had the opportunity to meet who you had an opportunity to to interview at, and I, who is such an incredible human right.

And through the homecoming project at and I actually live in our home, that I share with my daughter and her partner, because as we think about what happens with people who are coming home from the justice system, they're often relegated to not having access to anywhere to live, not having access to any, you know, supports and, and, and jobs and, and work and just, you know, training, workforce training. So if we aren't doing that, folks end up on the streets. We know there's a pipeline from the prisons into homelessness and, and so being able to do and think about like the homecoming project as an example of something we could also do from the perspective of our folks who are on Skid Row, what are we doing?

How do we look within to talk about how we can support our community members who are struggling as well? Right. And Oregon, I think, is doing that where they pay for, you know, they support with paying the rent, for a room that someone is offering to someone living on the streets. Right. And so I think it requires all of us to be willing to invest, to not have this, idea that we can't trust our neighbors, that we can't, you know, invest in and love and care and embrace our neighbors, that they've been through trauma and that that trauma, it doesn't define them, that they can actually be healed if we give them the right supports around healing and that they can actually honestly thrive if we truly are willing to, to to lean in as a community.

And oftentimes what happens is we actually we we we retreat. We we say that, well, this is just how it is. They just want to be like that. That's their fault. Rather than thinking about, well, what as a society did we do to to create that? You know, and I think that's what I hope in the experience and opportunity I have in the state Assembly to really help push us on, to really not end up just in this situation that we criminalize and that we're punitive, but that we're really looking at other alternatives that are looking at different types of solutions around public health, around healing, and around really like restorative justice opportunities and not just, what we, what we often see in terms of punishment.

Yes. And there's a microscope on your community because there's so much desperation there. And it's it's interesting in that I think a lot of times we try to save ourselves by saying it's us and them and there's no helping them. So then we don't need to invest any part of ourself in that, in that process, and we just continue to ignore it, put little money toward it, put little thought toward it. But really, we are nothing but one giant community. And, you know, those of us who can, can support and we can really not just have you uplifting, but all of us can do something.

How do people get involved in your community to to help that process, to to help those that are struggling know that they're respected. And and I love that you said we are not our trauma. Thank you. I love you for that. Of course. You know, I think, there are so many ways to get involved. There are so many ways. And I think it it it's an opportunity for us to think about, well, what what capacity do we have to help, right. Someone as we as I mentioned earlier, someone might have an extra room in their home, but they work so many hours and they travel all around the world and you know, they have a crazy job, but they have this extra room that they can offer.

They have an Adu, right? There's something like that, and there's people that maybe they have an extra hour to be able to, you know, help make calls, to folks who are struggling with their evictions and, thinking about how, you know, different folks might have, community organizations might have opportunities to join a rally or a protest. Right. There are so many ways for us to, to make a difference right now, whether it's, you know, talking to our family members when we think about the division that's happening in our community right now, and across the nation, there's this idea that, well, if you voted for him, then I don't want to talk to, you know, we need to talk to each other.

We have to have conversations with each other. We have to have be willing to have, the hard, difficult conversations that acknowledge that we make decisions that come from a place often of, maybe a lack of understanding or maybe an understanding that we thought we had and we recognize might not be correct anymore, or that we acknowledge that people make decisions from their pain. They they've been struggling. They thought that this was the president that would help them with the economy. They didn't realize it, that he would do this to our community members.

There are so many ways for us to have conversations, even that don't just write people off, that don't push people away. And I think we don't realize that even something as small as a conversation goes a long way, that in this time, if we can unite, we are so much stronger together. And I think that's what we really need to be focused on. Yes. I think it really, you know, deeply listening to each other and considering each other is going to bring us to our best decisions. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So, I honestly feel like in this, time things are difficult.

And people have different, you know, desires to get involved, or abilities or capacities. But I think being able to do something matters. Yes. And that is. Even have making sure your voice is heard. I think a lot of us feel that we're just too small. We're just too, you know, just a little tiny piece of the big giant haystack. And what could we possibly do? We need everybody to speak up and help out and it's precious when you really can share from your heart what you know to be the truth. Absolutely. I want to share one story. I know we have to close out soon.

But I just want to mention that I, I made a decision to run for office because I was really encouraged to do it. I had heard about, or read about the leaked recordings at L.A. City Council between our council members, Latino council members who were incredibly racist and prejudiced in their, conversations that they were having on, you know, at a meeting that they didn't know was being recorded. But it really resonated with me in terms of how horrible it is that we have elected officials that represent us, that that talk like this, that think like this, but ultimately make decisions from this place.

Right? Yes. And and that is really ingrained in who they are. Yes. And and I thought, you know, what can we do about this? How can we fight back? And there was this, you know, protest that was going to happen at City Hall to, to demand everyone to resign. And one of the things that I heard, you know, one of the council members say was, f him, he's with the blacks, you know, and she's talking about a Latino district attorney, George Gascon at the time, who had been doing really great work that was ultimately resonating with all our communities.

And we know the justice system has impacted black folks in such a profound way that he was supporting black people in addition to Latinos, in addition to everyone else. Right. And she instead of, you know, uplifting the fact that he was in solidarity or supporting other communities, she was denigrating him for that. And I remember thinking that I wanted to do something, and I didn't know what that was. I didn't know how I could raise my voice. At the time, I was working on a campaign, with Mayor Karen Bass and, and I, you know, I knew that that her focus was on, you know, making sure we defeated her opponent, her billionaire opponent.

And I was involved with an organization called the black L.A. and Democrats. And I was so proud to be able to have this idea. And my team was like, yeah, that's a great idea. Let's do it. And I said, let's make t shirts. And they should say, I'm with the blacks. So everyone knows that we're all supporting one another, that everyone's with the black, that nothing's wrong with saying that, you know, you're, you know someone's with the black. So that's solidarity over everything, right. Like and so I had this idea, they were like, yeah, go ahead.

That's a great idea. Run with it. And I'm like, well like help me, you know. And they're like, well let's, let's as I created a design, I said, what do you think of this design? They're like, perfect design. I'm like, give me feedback. Let me know how I can make it better. They're like, it's good. Don't overthink it. Just just make it happen. And I called a cousin of mine who helped make t shirts at the time. I said, can you make these for us, please? I need them by tomorrow. He's like, okay, we'll meet at 5 a.m.. And. And then you can go to your meeting.

And so I met him. He finished up the t shirts. I was back on the freeway by like 7 or 8 a.m.. I made it to the city hall meeting just in time. The city council meeting, and I had all these t shirts with me, and I passed them out to the people that were with us, but we had enough to give a few others, and people were so excited, like, whoa, like, this is amazing. We love this. This is great. And someone said, well, you need to go speak. Go up there, talk about it, talk about the solidarity, talk about the t shirts. And I was like, absolutely not.

I came for the year. That was my contribution. Yeah. Well good. Give me that. I like being behind the scenes. I've always been behind the scenes, but I made that decision because people saw my leadership, because they heard my voice, because they saw that we were all in solidarity. I had an opportunity to speak that day, and that's what led me here. It was speaking. It was being passionate. It was having this opportunity to for folks to see me and support and to be spotlighted so people could say, hey, you need to be at this table. We need you in this room.

We know that your voice is missing from these spaces. And ultimately, because of that, I was folks that, you know, you would be a perfect person to run for our community who understands those dynamics, who understands why we need to have representation of black and brown communities and not just one over the other. And I thought that was so. I think such an important story for folks to know that you can be engaged in any way, whatever works for you. If you're creative, lean into that. If you love social media, lean into that. If you're a mental health, person, let's help our communities heal, right?

That is what you can do. Like if, if, if it's what you have the opportunity to do, if it's a skill or talent you have, bring that to us and bring that with you so that you can help us really make change in this moment. There are so many places to let that happen, and your story is awesome. And that applies to all of us. When we really come to something with compassion and from our heart, you can see how many people you can sort of catch on and they're with you and they they look how that propelled. And now you're so outspoken and, you know, doing this awesome thing for your community.

And I know we have to go. And I wish I could talk with you longer, but really thank you from Cup for coming from this place of love. I'm struck by the core overlap between Doctor Bale's theory and the work being done by you in the 57th district, and those that you call upon to support you. You are essentially legislating a new imprint. One of dignity, visibility and agency. Whether it's through expanding faster youth programs or building a system of healing over incarceration, we are seeing what it looks like when a society decides to make room for its most vulnerable to finally exist.

Thank you for proving that while the trauma we carry may be written into our history, it does not have to own our futures. Thank you, thank you. Keep on doing this fabulous work. Thank you so much. It was so good to meet you. So good to be here with you today. And I'm, looking forward to many more conversation. Thank you. And if somebody wants to reach out or support you, how do they do that? They can follow me on Instagram. I have, an Instagram that's a personal Instagram, but it includes all of the work that we're doing on the legislative side, too.

At Sha de l Hawaii, Sadie l h a w a r y and I respond to all my messages. I don't post everything on my own. I have a team who helps with that, but I respond to make sure that we're really, connected to the community. Thank you, thank you. And we we look forward to knowing more about your political path, because it's clear you're in it for all the right reasons. Thank you so much. I appreciate. You. Thank you.