Join the Movement for Democracy!

0:03 welcome to the United Vision project that you are here speaks volumes together we are going to embark on something that has never been done together we are going to show up we are going to do the hard and diligent and important work of bridging communities finding one another and breaking down the barriers that have caused to become more polarized than we've ever been this is our work this is the work that's been happening over the last four years and we are so delighted for you to join this family and this group of people who are showing up to do democracy every day and

0:48 not just talk about it it's no accident that this program originated from a place like Idaho for 30 years we have been watching the slow and steady decline trying to Sound the Alarm about the need to reach people in rural and remote places who've had little alternative except by that being offered by authoritarian forces that seek to destroy our systems our systems from the inside out we will not get to the place that we need if we don't start forming relationships Building Bridges creating space for all of us to move together in a forward Direction to block the threats that we face and to

1:33 build the future that we deserve this is our moment we may not have another and so the work we are asking you to embark on with us is to have these conversations to reach across difference to break down those stereotypes of who is good and who is bad and how we view each other and to recognize that we are in a collective battle for the future of Our Lives for the future of democracy and the world that we will leave behind this is our work you'll be hearing a lot about some of the fundamental skills that this program will help you develop this is an

2:19 investment in you it's an ability for you to be able to reach out to people and to find commonality but to do the thing that I think we don't talk about enough democracy is not an end goal democracy is not a product democracy is not a Utopia democracy is a practice that takes regular daily intentional participation it is finding ways to connect across difference to identify commonalities to identifi Shared interests and to move in a Direction that makes us all better that is the work of this

3:05 program that is the work of our time and it's why it's so important you know it once was that the realities facing Rural and conservative people were just that the reties is facing Rural and conservative people but we are at a time right now where our system has been so eroded and there are those who want to take advantage of it to literally break it that today with the configuration of our courts and the powers that continue to occupy seats of power the reality of Rural and conservative people is a reality of every American in this country we are in this together and the

3:50 only way that we will find ourselves to the other side is together it's easy to become so disappointed and so disillusioned with everything that we are facing together as people and as a country we know that our systems haven't been working the way that they need to we know that people across this country are hurting and we know that if authoritarianism takes hold all of the gains that we have ever made will be lost democracy our government the promise of this country those belong to us we have to hold them and guard them and protect them and we have to invest in

4:36 them we have to take the charge we need to remember that we all stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us and we've inherited so much of course it's been undone and there's so much more work to do it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to now rise to this moment and become the shoulders upon which others stand becoming a part of this program is just the first step there is so much work that we are building out together across this country to build a pro-democracy movement like we had in the civil rights with the people that we need to affect the change that we need it will take

5:22 each and every one of us doing our part and through this project this will equip you to with the skill to be able to manage difficult and hard conversations across differ to arrive at a place where we can build those bridges and work together it will also open up our opportunities to work in your own communities to instill these values and the values of relationship building and authentic organizing that isn't a stop Gap it's not a temporary fix it's not a Band-Aid it's not a I'm going to come see you and talk talk to you for one day out of the year or whenever there's an election this is about investing in people finding our

6:09 value and affording others the dignity the space and the grace to move through these challenging times with us these threats are real they are happening all across the world and we know that these folks want us to be divided they want us to see each other as enemy they want us to redirect the hurt and the anguish that we feel about broken systems to attribute that to the fault of others folks it's like dominoes one by one by one if we don't unite there will be no one left to speak up and speak

6:55 out it is not hyperbole we are in a fundamental existential crisis fighting for the sake of democracy around the world and in this country in ways that most of us never could have imagined we will have to do things differently than we've done we will have to summon the courage to have hard conversations across any issue to regain the skills of community and taking on the complex issues folks would like us to believe that we are nothing more than the political identity that we assume or that we are either good or bad

7:44 but the reality is is that we are all a lot more complex than that and we have to learn how to hold those complexities to hold multiple truths and to understand that there is still something that unit us and that that is that we all want a better future for ourselves and the people that we love and the truth is there's only one thing standing in the way of that and that is allowing authoritarianism to rise we are the answer we are the people that we've been waiting for now is our time to step up rise to the occasion and reach out in a way that has never been

8:30 done in this country that I'm so proud that we are doing all of us together in this project we have reached hundreds of thousands of people we understand now that the people that we thought were to blame were just hurting too we understand that we're all facing challenges but if we don't hear from each other then we don't know what they are and we don't know how to come together to fix them look we have a lot of problems and it's going to take a concentrated effort to rebuild this country the way it needs to be but if we don't stand together now the chances of us being able to do that are growing more slim every single

9:18 day please stand with us stand with us in this project help this project grow help us create a new culture of how to organize and to bring people together this is our work and it requires you every single day e