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Supply: Arturo Holmes / Getty
Documentaries exploring the life and legacy of fierce fighters of justice typically attain us years after they’ve handed away. A brand new documentary explores the life and legacy of Rep. Barbara Lee, a progressive icon dwelling.
“Barbara Lee: Talking Reality to Energy” is a feature-length movie exploring Lee’s rise and the challenges she has confronted all through her profession. Interviews embrace the late Rep. John Lewis, Sen. Cory Booker, actor Danny Glover, creator Alice Walker, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
Distributed by Greenwich Leisure, “Talking Reality to Energy” shall be launched in theaters and streaming platforms on Aug. 20.
A fierce supporter of doing proper by any means crucial, Lee has lengthy been a blueprint for talking reality to energy. From being a younger mom organizing with the Black Panther Occasion to engaged on Shirley Chisholm’s historic presidential marketing campaign, the imprint of her formative experiences can nonetheless be seen in her congressional advocacy.
Because the nation grapples with the information of a brewing disaster in Afghanistan, Lee’s brave flooring speech standing in opposition to motion in Afghanistan involves thoughts. On Sept. 14, three days after the Sept. 11 assaults, Lee took the ground and was the only real member of the Home of Representatives to voice opposition to giving former President Georgia H.W. Bush a clean verify for battle.
In simply 90 seconds, Lee would take a easy stance that will reverberate throughout the subsequent 20 years.
“As we act, allow us to not develop into the evil that we deplore,” Lee mentioned, quoting a clergy member from a memorial service she attended days earlier. Little did she know, her braveness and bravado in that single second would attain legendary standing.
The chorus ‘Barbara Lee Speaks for Me’ continues to resonate, not just because a Black lady dared to talk up for what is true. However Lee stood agency in an atmosphere that will develop into more and more hostile to anybody who expressed opposition to America’s shortsighted rush into a number of unending wars throughout a number of nations.
And it wasn’t only a single 90-second speech. Lee continued to restate her opposition to pointless army spending. Usually suggesting that the bloated army finances, not important packages like Medicare, ought to be reduce together with making the rich pay their fair proportion of taxes.
Throughout an interview with the Washington Journal in 2011, Lee opposed spending cuts for wanted packages however argued for cuts to the Pentagon finances, which she described as “uncontrolled.” She additionally referred to as for focused investments in infrastructure, job creation, and schooling, citing racial disparities.
To say Lee is constant can be an understatement. She has remained the consciousness of Congress on points each international and home.
Greater Heights, a Black women-led group, tasked with increasing Black girls’s electoral and civic participation, is internet hosting a digital screening on Aug. 18 at 6 pm jap time.
See Additionally:
Rep. Cori Bush Introduces The Folks’s Response Act, Prioritizing Compassion Over Trauma
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Black Economists Again Federal Job Assure Decision
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