We ready to rock and roll?
Alright, here we go.
So I want to get to questions, right?
So that we can address the things at least as
best we can that you guys may have.
But look, I want to just closing thought.
It is all connected, right?
So I mean, public education is the fight we're fighting
in the legislature right now.
Immigration is being fought, right?
All of these things.
The things to remember as we're talking about Christian nationalism
and Seven Mountains Dominionism, which is I'm not gonna get
into that today, but that's like the But they go
hand in hand.
That that is the engine that drives Christian nationalism, okay?
But this idea that all of these things that all
of you in this room, right?
The things that we mobilize and we go fight, right?
It may be choice that we all show up and
we march and we go and we fight back.
And it's hey, we're gonna show up and rally for
public education on the Capitol steps, right?
Because they're attacking this next, right?
When I I think about what we see happening as
we have this beautiful green lawn and we have a
weed that pops up, right?
And we all mobilize and we run and we go
pull the weed, and then the next weed pops up
and we go over and pull that one.
But the reality is we're gonna continue pulling those weeds
until we figure out there's a route to the rot.
And the root to the rot's Christian nationalism.
Okay.
Once we can get enough people understanding that all of
these things we're fighting against come from the same place,
that's when we start to turn the tide.
And the thing that I've used as my mantra lately,
and I Buddy's here, so he likes when I use
this mantra.
Is look, what we're striving for is we want you
to be able to see what it is that's happening,
right?
And once you see it, you gotta call it what
it is.
It's Christian nationalism.
That is what is attacking our democracy right now.
And once you can see it, once you can name
it, then you're ready to fight it.
So see it, name it, fight it.
That is what all of this is about, and that's
why Mindy and I show up at things like this
to talk to people, to help you understand what's going
on, to arm you with at least a few talking
points that you can go out, see it in your
community, call it what it is, and then go fight
it.
Because it's gonna take all of us to fight back
against the oligarchs who are trying to impose all of
this on us.
Okay.
Questions?
Let's go.
All right, the bill's in special sessions right now for
about your question.
You know, they're real big on accountability and teaching to
the test, but all the testing.
Who's gonna test these kids that are uh homeschool?
Who's gonna test the kids?
They're not.
Is there any permission in there for that?
There's there's not elements in the bills thus far.
I mean, it is one of those, you know, of
course, as we go through a legislative process, there's opportunities
to put forth amendments, but there's also lots of opportunity
for those to be voted down or scripped out or.
whatever
Look, the the idea is they don't want accountability, right?
Because in in when you look at studies broadly in
states that have rolled out broadly vouchers and things like
that, the kids don't do better, right?
In very small focused groups, right?
You may see some some elevation in overall performance.
But there's lots of studies out there at this point
that show as voucher programs, ESAs, whatever you want to
call them, right, as they go broader and more kids
start to take it, there is a knowledge gap that
starts to show up.
They're not performing better than the public schools.
And as soon as you drive that accountability, as soon
as you drive, you have to test as a requirement
to get the voucher, all of a sudden now that's
strings attached.
And it's actually in the GOP platform that they want
vouchers with no strings attached.
That's five cases.
What is the end game?
So can you take a microphone?
Or is it asking what is the end game in
1954?
We know that after the Brown speech board, they wanted
to not um desegregate.
Is the end game to create a society of people
who don't think about like the 1800s, where women don't
have rights?
I mean, what is the and because as you mentioned,
public education is the cornerstone of democracy.
So are they trying to just create workers who don't
know what is the end game?
Well, I would say, especially if you look at our
uh new speaker of the house, no, and you listen
to some of the things that you know he has
said, yeah.
Um and all of these folks who fall into the
same hard-line Christian nationalist ideology he has.
Yes, they want they are looking for a conservative
Christian-driven nation where they're choosing what we learn
and don't learn, they're choosing what we read and don't
read, they're choosing what people know, they're choosing what rights
we have, they're choosing, you know, who has an elevated
voice and who doesn't have an elevated voice.
It is a very, you know, uh narrow-minded,
narrow-visioned, um, hierarchical, authoritarian
vision.
That is what they want, and that is their end
game.
Um, they don't want LGBTQ people to have rights.
Period, end of story.
They don't want men or women to have reproductive rights.
End of story.
Um, you know, and and public schools are a place
where people learn to think critically.
They don't want people to think critically.
They want to tell you what it is you should
think and how to interpret it, and the kind of
information that that you're going to. to be allowed to
be exposed
And the kind of history that you're going to learn,
their version of history, right?
So that that's really their their end game.
It's scary stuff.
So I guess my question is fatigue, so I
can do my one
after the other and have the time.
I don't know if that would be a good idea.
So my question is they're looking
at passing a school voucher law amendment,
whatever you want to call it, right now.
I'm sure that almost everyone in this room has at
least written every one of their representatives telling them that
they are 100% against it.
And I know that we probably all know 10 or
15 people who feel that way.
So we know that there is, I guess, a silent
majority who do not want this to happen, but yet
because the money is where the money is, it's going
to happen.
I guess is is my question.
And it's a small majority of the Christian nationality, these
Christian nationals.
I mean, it's such a small majority, but that's all
we hear about.
I mean, it's it's so almost overwhelming to a point
where like you're frozen into not acting because you feel
like there's nothing that you can do to stop it
from happening.
Yeah, I mean, the the challenge is when
people start to pay attention too late the horse is
out of the barn, right?
We've got the elected people in Austin who are representing
us, right?
Well, they're not, but as a society, we have allowed
those people to receive a majority of those who voted
in the in the last election set.
Now, look, there is a coalition of basically every Democrat
and like 20 some odd Republicans who um are
against the vouchers.
I won't say they're pro-public education because they'll vote against
the LGBTQ community and those kids are in the schools,
they'll vote against the transgender kids, they'll you know they'll
do all of these, they'll ban books, they'll do all
of that.
So they're not pro-public yet, but they're at least anti-voucher,
right?
Now, the amount of pressure that is being leveraged on
those lawmakers is ridiculous, right?
I mean, we're in the fourth special session because the
governor won't take no for an answer, right?
And the lieutenant governor won't take no for an answer.
But the thing is, he just got re-elected.
And the people who gave him the money said this
is where we want to go.
That's what's so frustrating.
Right.
And that's look, I will say continue to call
and try and reinforce the message.
But the thing we have to do is make sure
we aren't getting lost in where we gotta go.
And we have got to get different people in Austin.
That is the only way
We may lose the fight today, right?
But if we get the right people in place, we
can make sure we win tomorrow.
So one of the things you have to realize is
they want us to think we have no chance.
And they've been playing the long game for a long
time, and we're in catch-up mode.
And so you cannot get discouraged.
You have to keep getting, you have to push, but
you have to get involved.
The last election was the first time I got involved.
Because the previous time when Trump was going up against
Hillary, I thought there's no way in heck America would
elect Trump.
I was wrong, and so I got involved.
We have some wonderful people.
They need resources, they need money.
I didn't even know what a phone diver was, but
that allows a politician to reach so many more people,
but it costs money.
And so we need to get involved, we need to
donate, and we need to not ever lose our hope.
The Iliad that's up there put together a heck of
a team.
They did a lot of good work.
We also need candidates that will work their butts off,
not candidates that just want to put their name out
there and maybe knock on a few doors.
We need folks that will knock on every footing door.
There are more of us with sanity than the insane
folks.
But we have to show up.
Well, and I want to follow up on what he
just says because everything he just said is absolutely right.
There are more of us.
Period.
End of story.
And I know a lot of people go back and
forth on this.
Is Texas purple or is it whatever?
There aren't a lot of us.
And we absolutely, once we all get going in the
same direction and get enough of us going, uh, can
turn the state.
We can't.
the And hopeful thing that I will say
to all of you, and Chris will concur.
When we first started talking about all this a few
years ago, people did look at us like we were
crazy.
I mean, I'm not gonna lie, it's cost us some
relationships, it cost us, you know, the way people thought
of us in our town, um, but we kept saying
it, and there wasn't anybody in the media at the
time, other than the experts that we were going and
hunting out, you know, at universities that have been writing
about this, some journalists and whatnot.
There wasn't anybody talking about Christian nationalism.
It is something a lot of people know about now.
Like the word is out, and not people don't look
at us like we're crazy anymore.
People get it.
So the hopeful thing is the media talks about it.
You can walk up to somebody and carry on a
conversation, and more than likely they have some kind of
idea as to what you're talking about, and so we
just have to keep talking about it, and we have
to encourage people not just register to vote, go to
the polls and actually vote because that is really where
we have our problem.
We're low voter turnout, and we have to get people
to show up to the voting booth and cast their
vote against Christian nationalism and against authoritarianism.
I will concur with pushing people for
our next selection.
We have several candidates here or representatives from candidates.
Pasele support them.
They're going to be huge repercussions from 2024
And we also still have several seats that we do
not have a candidate on our side running for.
So do your research, ask the questions.
Is somebody running in my district and get some help
on how to go about that process?
The deadline to file for the ballot is December 11th,
papering up on us very soon.
But I did want to ask a question if you'll
talk ever so briefly about Dominionism.
Sure.
Um Seven Mountains Dominionism,
right?
I said it's the it's the engine that drives Christian
nationalism.
Um it is what people like David Barton, who runs
an organization called Wall Builders, False Historian, has the ear
of the new speaker of the House, right?
Told him he looked up to him and learned so
much from him.
People like Lance Walnow, Rafael Cruz, who we've talked about
earlier, all subscribe to this idea of seven mountains dominionism.
And the idea is it's an end times theology.
Okay.
It's this idea that there are seven mountains or seven
pillars, is what you'll hear it called sometimes of society.
And until you can gain control of those mountains,
Christ will not receive.
But once you can gain dominion, and that's why it's
called Dominionism over each of those mountains, that will
allow end times to come.
Now, the seven mountains, it's the church, and they'll tell
you, oh, yeah, we've always played there, but the church
should be outside the four walls, it should be out
in the community, right?
So that's what their church is is one family, is
the second mountain, and that's this one man, one woman,
it's where all the anti-LGBTQ stuff comes from.
The third mountain is education, and that's where taking over
the public school systems, and if you can't take it
over, you break it.
We had a chaplain bill here in Texas.
Oh, yeah, yeah, the chaplain bill, right?
Right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We can replace school counselors with chaplains that got 48
hours worth of training from a focus on the family
program.
Seriously.
Um, so education is three, government is four, because they
know they have to seize control of levers of power
at all levels, right?
National, state, and local.
Because they can cast the laws that now impose the
ideology.
It's arts and entertainment.
They're not very good at that one yet, but they're
sure trying.
Um with I mean, look, they had the the the
child trafficking movie, right?
Which was run and funded by Christian nationalist people, right?
Um, arts and entertainment, uh, there's the media, and if
you've seen the Daily Wire with like Ben Shapiro and
some of those. other horrible folks that are on it,
it's owned by Ferris Wilkes
When you heard um groups like um Prager University, which
is the it's a YouTube thing, right?
All the videos, not really a university that uh apparently
Texas was at Florida has adopted some of their curriculum,
Oklahoma has Texas was rumored to have, but not quite.
Julie Picker jumped the gun a little bit there.
Um but that was seed funded by Ferris Wilkes too,
right?
So all of these people, these these billionaires, plenty and
lots of these spaces, but so media is one, they
want their own ecosystem where they can control what's there,
and then the last one's business, because they know they
need money to make it go.
Those are the seven mountains, and this idea that once
you gain control of all of them, that's when you
take the nation.
That's that's Dominionism, and that's scary stuff.
Victor Orban has done this in Hungary.
Yeah, yes, I mean Orban is held up as like
this model that they should be following.
If you Google CNN, Wilkes Dunn, they did an episode
on this called Deep in the Pockets of Texas.
Very good.
Terrifying, very much.
I'll say, CNN called
me and said, we want to talk about money in
Texas.
What can we do?
So they went and found all the good people, there
are a bunch of good people to talk to, but
I gave them that story.
story What was the name of the again?
Deep in the pockets of Texas.
Deep in the pockets of Texas
And you can Google it, and it'll go to Chris's
YouTube page and you can watch the whole thing.
Or you can go to see it, name it, fightit.com.
And there's a link to the video there too.
And just one more quick thing on the Seven Mountains
Dominionism and the taking nations and whatnot, they're not just
working on the US folks.
I mean, Ferris Wilkes brother in law travels, he's got
a church out in West Texas too.
And he travels to other countries and visits with other
uh national leaders.
I mean, there this isn't just a United States thing,
and and you're right, Hungary has already gone down this
road.
This is this is just and it's it's it's kind
of ick like you don't really want to think about
that, but you do kind of need to have a
general idea of that there's a bigger there's a bigger
goal for these people.
And that's why they didn't go away in 2018, right?
That's why they came back because it wasn't just money
and power, it's ideology.
That's what's driving it.
Um, I'm from New Jersey, and most people in New
Jersey actually get out and vote.
And when I moved here, I couldn't believe the lack
of information.
Um when votes are, how do you vote, where do
you go?
It's just not available.
You have to search for it yourself.
You have to get on the internet, you have to
find it.
Uh, when I lived in New Jersey, the League of
Women Voters sends you a sample ballot,
and it also explains the questions.
You know how they're all like worded so they can
vote for it.
Uh, they actually explain what it means, and everybody
who votes gets that.
Each person, so like my husband got one, and I
got one, so you can take it with you when
you go vote, and we voted in our neighborhood.
We can actually walk to where we voted, so
we didn't have to get in a car to go
vote, we could just walk to it, and uh there
was never a line.
So voting was easy.
Voting was in your face.
You got a whole sheet, big huge sheet of the
ballot, and it explained it, so that it was a
no-brainer.
You didn't have to get on the internet and re
research.
A lot of people don't have time to do that.
Or don't understand the number of polling places and making
it hard to vote.
Yeah, that's all by design.
The people in power, I mean, I'll go back to
Paul Wayrick in 1980, speaking in Dellis, Texas to a
group of conservative um evangelical leaders.
He said our leverage in elections goes up when
fewer people vote.
So we want to make sure our people vote and
it's hard for other people, right?
So the way you see now, let's not say that
we don't have the League of Women Voters, and they're
doing a lot of good work, and we're doing lots
of things to try and educate, but you don't have
the broader mechanisms of the state working
to make voting and a culture of voting something
that is desired.
College people say and say that.
But so we are working against the system inside
that space.
I mean, that's why we don't have campaign finance reform,
and people can write million dollar checks because the people
in power like the million dollar checks.
We actually had representatives, um Aaron Zvener tried to get
a couple of different amendments onto a Charlie Guerin bill
that would cap contributions that would force all local
elections to actually file with the Texas Ethics Commission.
So we could see all the money.
How do we keep that from happening?
Well, we have to acknowledge that there's the books that
are in our public schools may not be
somebody's cup of tea, right?
It may touch on subjects that people are uncomfortable with.
But when I look and I talk to kids that
are in high school,
the things they are seeing everywhere else in the world,
I would much rather them be seeing it and learning
it in a book rather than seeing somewhere else.
Because when they talk about the books and porn being
in books or the things they're trying to ban, right?
It's this idea that they're taking passages out of books.
Out of context out of context or out of the
full realm of the story, right?
The idea that look, what is happening now, and the
reason why groups like the ACLU and others haven't been
able to effectively challenge these bans, and they are bans
no matter what these people you can still buy it
in the store.
It's being banned from the school.
Come on.
But the reason they're not challenging those things is our
court system has been infected because we didn't show up
and vote enough, and the people who got in power,
but people on the bench who will now side with
those who want to ban books, right?
And so challenging book banning as it goes up
through the system, the people who in the ACLU and
Pan America and all those who are doing everything they
can to fight back, they know if it goes to
court and gets to the Supreme Court, they lose.
And those books get banned permanently everywhere, rather than
just a couple of districts.
So it takes our voices showing up at school board
meetings, supporting our school board members who are saying those
books stay, supporting our librarians, trusting the
expertise that they're actually curating a collection appropriately, and you
show up and you make noise because we talked about
they're the minority, right?
And they're so loud.
When we don't talk, we cede ground to them.
We let them control a narrative.
And we can't do that.
It's not easy.
It's uncomfortable showing up and raising your voice.
But we've all got to get better at it.
You went right into what I wanted to say.
I'm Michelle Chandler.
I'm the vice chair of recruiting for the club for
Silent Area Democrats.
And this is a call to action, guys.
What we have to do is do what I'm doing
all the time, which is messaging everybody saying, hey, we've
got a club here.
We get together on a regular basis, we spend time
with each other, we've got happy hour, we have two
book clubs, we have all kinds of things going on,
service projects.
We get together and have wine with our neighbors.
We have lunch before we go vote so everyone can
ask questions.
So what I'm saying is you guys um reach out
to me on Facebook or in my email, get my
phone number, I'll send you whatever information you need to
do to help me recruit our friends family and neighbors
because this is a call to action what we have
to do is leave this meeting and say it's those
of us in this room already know what's going on
it's the people that don't know what's going on that
we have to reach you have to reach out to
your neighbors family members people that you think um we
can cross the aisle to we cannot isolate ourselves anymore
we've got to work together in the community so um
I'm Michelle Chamber I'm the vice chair of recruiting please
connect with me or any of our other leadership members
so we can get the ball moving forward my
name's wooden I'm running for HD63 and my question to
you all is messaging so Michelle you led right into
what I want to talk about which is can you
please give us some input about everyone in this room
is politically involved these are our block walkers these are
our volunteers I'm gonna be producing literature what have you
found to be the most effective messaging what are the
words what are the media modalities that you suggest could
you give us as candidates and as politically involved volunteers
some input on that thank you of course we got
a question um look there's a
huge education component right that you have to be able
to get across to voters to understand what they're dealing
with, right?
As Democrats, I think in large part it's been a
message of look, we can't focus on the the scary
things.
L'ets let's focus in the message of where we're trying
to go.
It's not about attacking the other candidate, but I I
think it is walking a line between what your strategy
is for where we can go and understand what could
happen if we're not paying attention and electing the right
folks, right?
It is finding that sweet spot in between because
they're we if we keep doing the thing we've always
done, we're gonna continue to get this the same overall
result, which is not winning in too many races, right?
So it is and and I'll
say look, I I saw well, I was listening to
Pod Save America the other morning and listening to um
a representative from Louisiana, and she was like, Look, our
party's been telling us this whole time, we gotta go
find the the moderate white people so they can vote
for us, right?
And she's like, Look, there are no more moderates, those
people who were moderates, they're voting for Trump.
And she was like, we have to connect with the
people who aren't voting.
Embrace the progressive message and see, you should have the
microphone, and embrace the progressive message because that is the
thing that helps connect when we talk about being a
non-voting state, finding those people who have checked
out of the system, it's going it, and it may
look.
We have we have two kids, 23 and 19, and
they vote every time because we're like, you're gonna vote.
Right?
But we know they're friends, and even our kids sometimes
go, but what is it?
What is it gonna matter?
And it's like if we don't show up, if your
generation doesn't show up.
You agree with all the things we're advocating for.
We just need enough of you and your voices to
help us get there.
Look, if you look at the 2022 election, and
you focus on 11 counties that were blue and getting
bluer, the 11 biggest counties or some of the biggest
counties in the state, and we bump turnout in those
spaces.
Greg Abbott's not the governor, right?
When we talk about the next 11 counties that are
red but getting more blue, if we invest in, and
again, there's some of the biggest in the state.
Terrant counties is like right there on the edge, right?
But we invest in those spaces.
There were so many people who didn't vote in those
counties.
You run this state, and it's not gonna be flipping
R's to D's.
that's not a phrase or a slogan, so But that's
at least a theme.
All right.
Um, right here.
Sorry.
Uh so Gail Frey running for DHT106, but. I also
want to do my own homework too
So let me ask you how is it that Wilkes
and Dunn primarily um funds their targets?
Is it directly or is it more so to a
packs?
I think I'm aware of the uh Defend Texas Liberty
Pack.
But what other packs should we be looking for and
following?
Well I want to say Wilkes and Dunn
are important, right?
And defend Texas Liberty is absolutely where they went.
And over the last two years, you know, we talk
about well, we talk about Empower Texans and how big
and a big bad wolf they were.
The money that's gone in to defend Texas Liberty in
the last two years versus what went in the entire
time Empower Texans Pack existed.
It's equal, right?
So they've pushed so much more money in in the
last two years to defend Texas Liberty.
So that's scary.
But the thing is, it's not just Wilkes and Dunn.
That's the thing you gotta be careful with.
It's easy to fall into this trap of there's two
big bad guys behind the curtain.
Now, what they've done is they've created a model that
others are following, right?
I I liken it to somebody doing a cannonball into
the deep end of a swimming pool, right?
They made a big splash with Empower Texans.
And what we're dealing with now, even more not just
at the state level, at the local level, right?
Or or more local races.
Others who may not have the same billions but carry
the same ideology, they're investing heavily.
So the thing you've got to watch for is just
significant donations going in anywhere to an opponent, right?
It's looking at those campaign finance reports, understanding what's actually
coming from in the district versus outside the district, and
where are the big checks coming from?
Because as soon as you start to see a big
check, and you can go to my website and look
because I'm I'm ripping all the reports every time.
Is start to say where else are they giving?
And when you start to see it connected to multiple
candidates, and you start to understand what those candidates are
about, it becomes very easy to see where the Christian
nationalism or the ideology broadly is pushing.
See it, name it, fight it.com.
That's the easiest one.
You can get all of the stuff from there.
Oh, it's it fight it or save.
Fight it.
See it, name it, fight it.
Because I don't want you to just say it.
I want you to go fight it wherever you can.
Sorry.
We take the good next tool questions.
Last year, yeah.
I'm going to change the direction that we're going a
little bit.
Um, when you talk about dominionism, you're talking about government.
So I come from a really small town up here
in North Texas, 3200 people.
And we've got this going on in a municipal level.
We've got Monty Bennett, a major benefactor of
uh our town council right now, and people are sitting
on it.
We have Matt Krauss coming in.
He has a new tool, folks.
It's called the Texas Government Accountability Association, and he is
trying to take over control of our municipal governments with
this.
He wants to take the place of TML, which all
of our municipalities rely on for governance.
Try to make municipality.
Yes, ma'am
We just went through this.
We had to deal with Aaron Harris.
We had to deal with Matt Armstrong, Tree Texas Project,
and Jill Glover, Grassroots Project, We the People.
Bringing this into our town, creating a political action committee
with 32 people hundred in our town, a political action
committee.
And Chris is right.
It opened a door that can't be closed.
The question is, how can we stop it?
Wow.
Yeah, I mean, I think it really just comes back
to those of you.
You have to do the very best you can to
coordinate and organize as many of the 3200 in your
community as possible to say we're not going to elect
people that they're backing, right?
They're kind of trying to do the same thing with
TASB, right?
They want to statewide, they want to get rid of
TASB and install their own Christian nationalist-driven school
board association to advise and inform school boards.
So we're going to see this at local community level,
state level.
Again, it just comes back to educate and mobilize
as many people within your community as you can to
ensure that the people they're backing, who would make policy
once elected to move these things, right?
Don't get elected in the first place.
Or if they're there now, it's their last. term
Um it really comes down to whether it's at a
local level or it's a state level, or we're going
to see again in a national level the fight, who's
in office because the people that hold those offices are
going to be the people who are making the rules
and the decisions that the rest of us are having
to live with.
So last question.
This when I think back to what we managed to
do with the Affordable Care Act and knock that just
flat off of the platform, when I'm gonna talk to
people, and if I use the term Obamacare, this is
what I got.
I got a wall.
But when I said the Affordable Care Act, that's like
I mean, what if when I walk up to somebody
and I say, Well, I want to talk to you
about Christian nationalism.
I'm gonna get a wall because you know we're Christian,
I'm gonna be against that.
Last time be from the police, I thought just broke
us because it was and it's just the message.
But here's here's what you can do with that, and
we totally understand because when we started talking about Christian
nationalism, we got a lot of talk to my hand.
I don't want to talk to you, right?
You're you're attacking my religion personally.
But here's the thing we have asked the experts that
we have become acquainted with and we have relationship with,
we've asked them multiple times is there some other word
that we could use that's more palatable?
There isn't.
You gotta call it what it is, and it is
Christian nationalism.
Now, understanding a workinging definition so you can hold a
conversation and not be attack somebody but just inform them.
What does that term really mean?
Right?
That's really important.
So everybody in this room, like go and here's a
couple of groups here in Texas, and I mentioned one
of them before that that are faith-based groups that you
can say, let me tell you about my friends at
the first one is the BJC, the Baptist Joint Committee,
and they have an entire initiative called Christians Against Christian
Nationalism.
Amanda Tyler is uh is the person that heads up
that organization.
She used to be at DC, she's just recently moved
back down here to Texas.
They have fabulous messaging, lots of resources.
Go online, Google them.
Say the name again.
Uh BJC is the acronym, I guess, and it's Christians
against Christian nationalism.
And then the other group that I'm gonna tell you,
and Chris will tell you to uh get to know
about and and they they have messaging as well, especially
for public education.
That's their focus, is pastors for Texas children.
Charlie Johnson, some of y'all may know Charlie, he's fabulous,
he's worked for years on fighting vouchers, that is their
focus.
But they have faith leaders of all denominations and all
faith uh uh faith traditions that organize across the state
of Texas and uh speak and fight vouchers.
They'll come to your organization, your church, they'll come to
your group and speak.
Um, you can just go on their website or their,
you know, follow them on Twitter, Facebook, whatnot, get information.
But I think having sometimes when you can um de-arm
somebody, you know, with but let me tell you about
my faith-based friends that are also trying to fight Christian
nationalism because as faith people Christian nationalism doesn't
just attack our democracy, it it attacks Christianity, right?
It breaks the integrity of Christianity.
So anybody who is an already an activist within that
space will tell you if we want to protect the
integrity of American Christianity or Christianity anywhere, but
we're dealing with America, we have to fight Christian Christian
nationalism.
And you know, I'll tell you that the folks at
the BJC have fabulous messaging about that, um, and you
can get a lot of you know, bumper sticker type
things that you can you can share, you know, with
friends or family or whomever you're trying to have this
kind of conversation with.
And I Chris and I understand it's a hard conversation
to have, and we definitely lost some relationships, and when
you're talking about it and you're going to friends and
family, you kind of have to go into it knowing
it might cost me something, but what we all gain
from having those conversations is well worth it in the
end, we feel like.
So thank you all for having us.
Very much for coming.
We really appreciate it.
This was great.
Um, if you enjoyed this, we have programs like this
every month.
Last month we covered the um uh propositions and learned
what they were about and what to vote for uh
in January.
We're skipping the meeting in December in favor of a
Christmas party.
Uh so in January we are having Christy Wood.
She's going to talk about how Denton County runs elections.
And in February, surprise candidates were having a primary candidate
forum, and as well as uh a part of a
presenter to come talk to us about how to run
for office because we can't win if we don't run.
So really important things coming up.
Fun things coming up.
We have a breakfast this Saturday.
Uh we have one every third Saturday or the Saturday
after the meeting, and this time it's going to be
at first watch over on Justin.
Go about 9 a.m.
And we're just hanging out with people that have the
same values that you have.
We have First Fridays uh at Taco Ocho.
It starts at about 5, 5:30.
Uh, so please come on out for that and join
us.
It's a lot of fun, lots of times.
Colleen's uh boyfriend will be playing, and her daughter will
be singing.
That's fun.
And um finally we have our Christmas party coming up
on um the 10th of December.
10th of December at Gabrielle and Sophia's.
Yes, at Gabrielle and Sophia's four to seven, yes.
Um, so in closing, first of all, I want to
say um thank you to Gina Daly who sponsored this
with us.
Thank you, Cecilia, for all of your support and and
running this.
I want to, I'd be remiss if I we don't
do this all by ourselves it's a lot of people
so I want to just recognize our leadership team Mariah
Martinez uh well
we met Michelle but she left anyway and Laura Haynes
and then Canada Rongo and people that couldn't be here
David Stanaway unfortunately couldn't make it Vaughn Munro and Anthony
Sanders had other but they're also part of this team
and helped out with this effort so uh thank you
please look us up on Facebook please follow us and
I just want to close with what everybody else is
saying there's only one way we're taking we're taking this
date back there's only one way we're getting out of
what we're what's happening with the schools and habit and
that's to vote and not just vote but you've met
several candidates here go talk to them join one of
their campaigns uh we and and join us because we
will be supporting these candidates after the primaries we'll be
out every weekend Michelle be organizing block walks and uh
and meet and greets and whatever we can do to
get people elected but you need to come out and
support them too with us and you need to uh
and you need to make sure you vote and tell
everyone around you to vote and be sure and talk
to your neighbors because even if you think they're um
uh Republican they aren't they don't understand democratic values if
they did they'd be Democrats all right thank you oh
by the way you can be talking if you want
to help us put away the chairs we've got to
give them away