This event took place on March 30, 2023 at 8 - Point Bistro. I only had 60 seconds to make a statement. So I could only speak part of it. Here is the full speech.
60 seconds is a difficult amount of time to lay out a complete philosophical strategy of uprising. So let me just say this: I have 2 messages I want to convey. 1 message is for the oppressed and one message for the oppressor.
With 60 seconds I only have time to relay the message to the oppressed.
For the oppressed, and I'm talking to the LGBTQIA community, the communist community, the Black community, the native community and the low income white community. You all live here in Akron. To prepare for this evening I re-listened to Malcolm X's Ballot or the Bullet Speech. I recommend you go relisten to it again yourself.
You have every right to demand freedom by any means necessary. But what I say is: you don't have to pick between the ballot or the bullet. Both are powerful weapons. Be open to both.
Vote on May 2. And fight the other 364 days.
I also must implore you to unite as one. The enemy of your enemy is your friend. And you only have one true enemy: that's the powerful white man. He is the one trying to divide you. That is his most powerful weapon: division and isolation. Find common ground and unite as one.
The rest of this speech is on my website at SageLewis.com. Thank you.
Focus on that truth and hash out the other stuff once you win. Because you will win. The powerful white man couldn't win in Vietnam or Afghanistan. He has no earthly idea how to win a populist revolution on his own land.
And here is my message to the Oppressor: the powerful white man: A bloody revolution is coming. And there is only one person who can stop the inevitable wave of revolution that is plowing towards you right now. THAT’S YOU! It is starting on the Right and the Left will join in and you will be surrounded in the middle. Some of you will be murdered. I guarantee it. But you can stop it. Just give the Black person, the LGBTQIA person, the native person and the low income white person everything they have coming to them. Reparations, power, dignity and respect. That's how you avoid this Bloody revolution.
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