Vineyarders filled Union Chapel Saturday afternoon for the third annual Juneteenth Jubilee Cultural Festival, attending conversations with Rep. Ayanna Pressley and former NASA administrator Charles Boden, as well as artists and a culinary historian.
Kahina van Dyke, event founder, summer Oak Bluffs resident, and financial technology executive, welcomed the crowd and introduced guests.
The chapel audience also kicked off the jubilee with a standing rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” led by ToriTori, Boston Music Awards’ 2023 R&B Artist of the Year.
Pressley, in conversation with Van Dyke, spoke at length about serving as a Black woman in Congress — she is Massachusetts’ first black representative — and warned against dangers to democracy in the U.S.
Speaking first about her early experiences with politics, Pressley recalled being exposed to policy issues at a young age, through her mother’s struggles with healthcare and fair pay. “I knew my mother as a woman first,” she said. “Someone whose traumas were unhealed, someone who was gaslit by our healthcare system, and her pain delegitimized and questioned, someone who was not paid according to her work.”
When Van Dyke asked Pressley whether the nation’s democratic institutions and processes were endangered, the representative answered, “Absolutely.”
Pressley highlighted recent Supreme Court decisions, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and a challenging five years in office that included a government shutdown, two impeachments, an insurrection, and a global pandemic.
Speaking about the Supreme Court, Pressley supported term limits, investigations of impropriety, and a code of ethics for justices, as well as adding seats to the court.
She also dedicated a large portion of her appearance to discussing Project 2025, a collection of policy proposals from conservatives intended for a second Trump presidency.
The proposals, organized by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank and written in part by multiple Trump administration officials, include recruiting conservatives to replace federal civil servants, increasing the president’s power over the executive branch, abolishing the Department of Education, and cutting funding for climate research.
Pressley, who serves on the recently formed Congressional Stop 2025 Task Force, noted the project’s funding by major conservative donors such as Leonard Leo, and added that many on the far right seek to replace public servants with loyalists, and ban books. “They want to ban words from all federal policies, like diversity, equity, and inclusion, abortion,” she told the chapel crowd. “They don’t make threats. They make promises.”
When asked what individuals concerned about democracy should do, Pressley first recommended voting in every election.
“We know what legislative hurt and harm looks like. But we cannot legislate to actually heal an injustice if you don’t vote. So voting is an act of self-care,” she said, adding, “I would encourage people to take the personalities out of it, and focus on the policy.
“The policies determine who lives. The policies determine who dies. The policies determine who survives. The policies determine who thrives,” Pressley told attendees.
Pressley, known for being a left-wing member of Congress, also addressed negative press coverage she has received while in office, comparing it with her experience as a black woman. “When people ask, ‘What is it like to be targeted and surveyed?’ and all of these things that I experience — just because I hold the title of congresswoman, I didn’t stop being a Black woman … How I show up is disruptive to people who cannot handle the light of this melanated bald crown.”
“It is what it is,” she added. “They get nervous, sis.”
Pressley also supported abolishing the filibuster, and recommended that people donate to organizations like the ACLU that combat political misinformation.
I’m a Democrat, but her ideas are way too far left for this country and for Massachusetts. Expanding the Supreme Court? Does she have any foresight for when it’s someday full of Republicans? A “ban” on words? Those DEI problems are shown now to harm what they seek to address. The message that Black and Latino populations can’t succeed on their own and need the scale tipped is offensive to those who do it.
Well said indeed, Thomas
Reggie
I think we can add, further, that threats to democracy include the inability to work together and to agree on proposals that can move the country forward. Rep. Pressley probably has some give-and-take in her policy positions somewhere, right? When it’s my way or the highway, we are headed towards a dictatorship, whether socialist or fascist. Let’s remember that it’s not what our national family is about…we should seek to agree and disagree and move the country forward today. If there are still racial and linguistic issues she has one must ask, deeply, if the language is the problem or is she discussed the policies themselves rather than the wording of them, think about that one, too.
Members of Congress should be required to take an I.Q. test, and be subjected to random drug and alcohol tests.
Have a good night!
Reggie
Reggie– did i miss that clause in the constitutional requirements for
serving in congress ? I have a prescription for lisinopril —
should I be disqualified from serving in congress ?
But, I’m sure if those were required, we could get rid of
at least 2 radical women in congress.
One of which we have seen on video using
marijuana in a theater, and the other one who thinks
there are lasers in space that a Jewish billionaire uses to start fire with.
Do we really need to give her an IQ test ?
Same for cops?
Rep. Pressley keep up your good work. I agree whole heartedly with your proposals (I’m a 76 year old white woman). The richest country in the world can afford to provide a decent standard of living for every citizen. That’s when we will have accomplished the American Dream. We need a SCOTUS that’s apolitical and will reinstate Roe v Wade and overturn Citizens United. Politicians and votes shouldn’t be for sale. Full stop.
Carolyn, by what measurement are you using to state we are the richest country in the world? We are broke. Beyond broke, trillions of dollars in debt. Please wake up to this reality. How can you say we need SCOTUS to be apolitical when you are in fact asking them to be political but for your side. Congress needs to deal with abortion not the courts.
We are trillions of dollars in debt (Trump?), our net worth is trillions of dollars.
We are not broke.
Any more than than a person with a $300,000 mortgage on a 450,000 house is broke, unless they don’t work.
America works.
Albert, yes! We have the strongest economy on the planet. No other country even comes close.
Albert, the United States has best educational system in the world.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/country-best-education-system-world-014144307.html#:~:text=1.,United%20States&text=The%20United%20States%20ranks%20first,institutes%20scattered%20across%20the%20globe.
And Americans work hundreds more hours than most European workers each year. And even though China has a 40-hour work week like we do, most Chinese workers work more than Americans, about 46 hours per week. In India it’s about 48 hours per week. US is about 36 hours per week, and in Germany about 34 hours per week.
The combination of good education coupled with high work hours creates a powerhouse economy.
Carl, Trump created more debt than any recent president, 8.4 trillion
https://www.newsweek.com/www-newsweek-com-donald-trump-added-twice-much-national-debt-joe-biden-think-tank-1917102
If you have to say your race and gender for credibility or disclosure or both; that, right there, proves the point of why we shouldn’t pursue these policies. Imagine a country where it doesn’t matter who you are or what your background is, a country where you don’t have to fit into a category to be heard, that you don’t have to say what you are..it’s a beautiful idea. People who are making us say what we are are taking that away from us.
Thomas, agreed that race or gender
shouldn’t have to be an issue, but,
alas, it is.
Consider this: a young black man was
murdered in broad daylight, just
because he was black in a
neighborhood where white people
thought black people shouldn’t be.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Ahmaud_Arbery
Or consider this professional woman
who, at the closing, was told she could
not buy a home because she was black.
https://virginiamercury.com/2024/06/06/black-womans-bid-to-buy-virginia-beach-home-faces-illegal-barrier-echoes-of-the-past/
Or consider this mother who puts a family photo by the front door in case the police come to the house questioning why a black person is entering a nice home.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-keep-a-family-photo-at-my-front-door-itll-stay-there-until-toxic-attitudes-toward-black-lives-go-away/2020/09/28/0e9027fe-01bb-11eb-a2db-417cddf4816a_story.html
A former president retweeted a video, years ago, of a white couple in a golf cart, using a closed fist hand gesture and yelling, white power.
I once believed our country was on the way to that place you mentioned, the one where all races and genders were treated with respect and dignity. Instead, we’ve gone backwards.
This individual is the Mass. State Representative for district 7 in the Mass. State Legislature. District 7 is about 3/4 of Boston and some Northern and Southern suburbs. Not a Senator, not a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Presley and the rest of the radicals in the Squad threaten democracy daily! Dopey Bowman was sent packing by voters this week. A good start. AOC ans presley next!
Far left Squad member Cori Bush of Missouri is up next in Aug. Let’s keep the ball rolling!
This individual is the Mass. State Representative for district 7 in the Mass. State Legislature.
Google first.
Comments are closed.