Many of the freedoms we have today were not granted to us; they are the outcome of years, sometimes decades, of struggle. We had to fight for voting rights, labor rights, civil rights, while powerful people and institutions, including our own government, resisted efforts to achieve social justice. Our history of fighting for democracy, equality, and a more perfect union, Ali Velshi points out, has been punctuated by state violence.
Right now, Minneapolis is occupied by federal forces. Citizens demonstrating against, observing, and documenting ICE activity in their communities have been shot and killed. Velshi invites presidential historian Jon Meacham to the show this week to discuss the centuries-long American story of fighting to establish our rights.
America’s history of state violence goes back centuries. From the Indigenous Peoples of the continent battling colonizers to slave rebellions; from the women’s suffrage movement to the Civil Rights Movement and Kent State in 1970, every measure of progress has been met with pushback by those in power.
Meacham tells us that, “We have just barely managed to keep this experiment toward a more perfect union unfolding, but historically speaking, 250 years is about 20 minutes, and so this is a very young democracy.”
“The human factor here cannot be overestimated,” Meacham states. “Both the character of the person we put in power, the character of the people that we entrust to watch those in power, and all of us.”
LISTEN: VELSHI ON THE HISTORY OF STATE VIOLENCE
WATCH: VELSHI AND MEACHAM DISCUSS OUR PRESENT MOMENT
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