REMARKS

Good Sunday Afternoon, Everybody & Thank you all for joining us, The Portland Raging Grannies, as we conclude our “Don’t Let Democracy Die” March here in “Portland’s Living Room”, the place designed to welcome us all regardless of who we are or where we came from; the place where we all belong regardless of our age, our abilities, the color of our skin, or whom we love.  This is OUR Pioneer Courthouse Square, a place where we come to celebrate, to protest, to sing and dance and listen to music and make speeches; a place where, even during these strange times of uncertainty and social distancing, we come to be together in community.  Take just a moment to look around and let our eyes smile at each other over our masks.  

We are here today to remind ourselves what that great experiment called Democracy looks like .….  to remember the words Government Of the People, By the People, and For the People; essentially a system in which it is We The People who have absolute rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, who are meant to have both equal opportunity and equal protection under the Law, and who have the authority to not only choose our leaders but to remove those leaders should they fail in their sworn commitment to uphold the Constitution.

Today we are at a crisis point and we are concerned, not just for ourselves, but for our children and our children’s children. We live in the eye of a Pandemic, with our planet’s clock ticking away the hours to irreversible climate change.  We are in the midst of a year of enormous challenges …. from a virus that has already caused the deaths of more than 200,000 Americans to Police Brutality and wanton indifference to Black Lives; from devastating hurricanes to Climate Wildfires burning out of control…

And from an out-of-control Would-Be Dictator, a White Supremist worshiper of nothing but personal and corporate greed, who talks openly about “getting rid of the ballots”, who with his handpicked posse has been quietly setting the stage not for a peaceful transfer of power, but for a coup.

On the 100-year anniversary of finally acquiring the vote,  WE THE WOMEN PEOPLE especially cannot let that happen. WE THE PEOPLE, ALL THE PEOPLE must not let our democracy die. WE THE PEOPLE must Show Up, Step up and Stand up NOW. RIGHT NOW! At the very least, WE MUST VOTE!  The deadline for Voter Registration in Oregon is October 13^th.   If you’ve never voted before, NOW is the time to start.   THIS YEAR, WE MUST VOTE AS IF OUR VERY LIVES, OUR VERY DEMOCRACY, AND OUR VERY PLANET depend on it. Because they do. 

Can we close our time together this afternoon by speaking in one voice:   DON’T LET DEMOCRACY DIE.  VOTE!  

Thank You.
Sulima Malzin
for the Portland Raging Grannies