Hello everyone! Thank you for coming out today! It is so inspiring to see so many people turn
out to express their freedoms and rights of free speech and assembly!
Who am I? I am a member LV Grassroots Coalition of one of the orgnaizing groups that
collaborated to put today together! But I am just a woman. I am a woman whose heart is
breaking as I see our Democracy dismantled by this administration and DOGE. I am a woman
who won’t let my heartbreak make me timid or weak, instead, I will use my heartbreak to fortify
myself, my values, and my sense of justice. I am a woman who is spurred into action, just like
you. I am a woman who has enough privilege that many of the administration’s actions have yet
to affect me. Don’t get me wrong, I have been affected. My voting rights are being threatened,
my reproductive rights have been taken away, and my right to love who I love is being
threatened. Yet, I know I am still privileged and I will use my privilege to speak and act out in
defense of our country.
I am a woman who cares for my neighbors, for my community, and for those in our country who
have fewer privileges than I do. I will not sit silently while vulnerable communities in this country
are targeted. To rephrase the old poem… First, they came for my trans neighbors, and I spoke
up. Then they came for the immigrants, and I spoke up. Then they attacked the Department of
Education and students with special needs, and I spoke up. I will not let history repeat or rhyme.
WE WILL NOT LET HISTORY REPEAT OR RHYME! I will not be silent, WE WILL NOT BE
SILENCED!
The people, united, will never be divided. We are stronger together than any administration than
any force that seeks to push us down and subjugate us. We are in the middle of a chapter in
history, and what we do today, tomorrow, next month, and next year will be remembered. We
must learn our lesson from history. We cannot sit idly by because a policy does not directly
affect you as an individual.
All attacks on freedom, all attacks on the pursuit of happiness, and all attacks on rights are
direct attacks on each and every person in this country. Whether or not the specific attack will
affect you. I know I am preaching to the choir right now, otherwise, you would not be, here, in
the crowd. But it is essential that we do not forget this. It is essential that we fortify ourselves
and not let the tactics of fear and overwhelm keep us from speaking out or keep us from action.
Growing up, 1984 by George Orwell was one of my favorite books, it still is to this day. For
years, I have expressed that we have been living in that future Orwell predicted. Constant
screens demanding our attention, the newspeak from the government with its contradictions and
half-truths. I am saddened to say that the world Orwell warned against is ever-present today.
Screens spying on us, even in our own homes. The Department of Government Efficiency is
stripping and breaking vital government agencies, not making government more efficient. The
Press Secretary spreading lies and barring certain news organizations from the press pool and
only prioritizing organizations that do not question or criticize the administration.
One of the lessons I have taken from George Orwell’s 1984 is the importance of finding space
for yourself to write, to think, and to be, away from the ever-present screens. Ensuring that I
have a place to fully express myself for myself, by myself, and also in the community. Now more
than ever it is vital that each of us know and value the importance of free thought and
expression. We must protect these freedoms like our lives depend on it because they do.
Another great lesson from this book is being vigilant about the dangers of totalitarianism, the
manipulation of truth, and the erosion of individuality. How it is a slippery slope and once the
process starts, if allowed to manifest, it becomes incredibly difficult to remember the
“before-times”. We are living in the middle of the not-so-slow descent into totalitarianism,
fascism, and oligarchy. We are in a unique time in history where we can stop this descent,
where we can make changes so that we do not lose our freedoms, liberties, and rights. But we
must act. We must unite. We must show this administration and the unelected billionaires
infiltrating our government that we see them, and we will not go quietly; we will not back down.
We have the numbers and we have the power.
So what can we do? You’re doing it! We must continue to show up and show out. We must
show our outrage and opposition, and we must do this as peacefully as possible. We cannot
give the administration the opportunity to say that we are violent, that we are not patriots, that
we are terrorists. We are patriotic. We are more patriotic than this administration who is trying to
dismantle our Democracy. We know how fragile democracy is and we are prepared to use our
voices to fight for it. We are prepared to continue to unite and rally peacefully to show our
dissent. We believe so deeply in the values of democracy that we are out here today to take a
stand for our democracy. We are living out the values listed in the Declaration of Independence,
the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. As the Declaration of Independence states,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the
pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
WE ARE HERE TO SHOW THAT WE DO NOT CONSENT!
WE WILL NOT CONSENT to our trans friends being targeted and vilified.
WE DO NOT CONSENT to dismantling the Department of Education and shoving aside
students with special needs.
WE DO NOT CONSENT to ICE rounding up and disappearing people to inhumane prison
camps outside of the US WITHOUT DUE PROCESS.
WE DO NOT CONSENT to an unelected, unconfirmed billionaire dismantling vital government
agencies and unlawfully firing federal employees en mass.
WE DO NOT CONSENT to the tyranny of Unified Executive Power in the president.
We are utilizing our rights from our founders, written in the Bill of Rights, to peacefully assemble,
and to express our freedom of speech. We are the essence of our democracy. We cannot
solely rely on the frameworks of our democracy to stand against these attacks. While we must
call our representatives and urge them into action, while we must rely on the courts to combat
all of the illegal Executive Orders, we must also take action. WE THE PEOPLE must take
democracy into our own hands. We must continue to show up in numbers, signifying that we are
united and we WILL NOT CONSENT. We must use our economic powers to continue to boycott
corporations that think they can control our government or corporations that bow down to this
administration’s whims and demands. We must rely on each other for mutual aid and support.
We must support local businesses and artists. We must think nationally and act locally.
Thank you all for being here today. While we have a long journey to go, we are mobilizing and
acting to protect our democracy now. Continue to show up and show out to make it clear to this
administration and the want-to-be oligarchy that WE DO NOT CONSENT.
Shalyn’s Speech Hands Off – April 5th, 2025
