notable events of my youth included the
collapse of the Berlin Wall the ultimate
breakup of the Soviet Union which after
which Ukraine declared its independence
in 1991 and in 1994 when Oksana Baiul
won the first-ever gold medal for for
Ukraine and any Olympic sport winning
the figures getting gold medal in 1990
forever whenever olympics the orange
revolution actually reinvigorated my
passion for Ukraine in 2004 just took
place after an extremely corrupt
presidential election process that was
eventually overturned by the help of
people in the West Viktor Yushchenko was
ultimately the rightful winner replacing
the corrupted winner of the kiriona
Kovich Russia in its unfortunate cynical
style chose to deal with this issue by
poisoning President Viktor Yushchenko
many think it actually took place when
he was visiting actually in New York
City with dioxin dioxin is actually for
those who may or may not know is
actually Agent Orange so we kind of know
what the what the message was received
loud and clear there unfortunately
several years later in 2010 Viktor
Yanukovych who actually had been had one
to two thousand four election
fraudulently actually won it
legitimately thus setting Ukraine on its
path back towards realigning itself with
Russia which is cooler but not that
people wanted a couple years went by
Ukraine had a plan on aligning with the
European Union and he did a last-minute
u-turn in 2013 some of you may have
heard about this it’s sort of the Euro
Maidan movement which ultimately led to
tens of thousands of people going to the
streets in downtown Kiev ultimately
started on Facebook ironically this
would eventually become the Ukrainian
revolution of dignity as I was watching
this from afar I was flabbergasted by
the lack of
American media coverage of this event so
I joined Twitter in 2014 in January I
washed in real-time as the citizens were
attacked by the police these poor folks
were picking up cobblestones on the
street to fight back fighting back with
wooden shields firing Molotov cocktails
at military units as they charged them
burning tires to building barricades to
try and protect themselves from the
constant attacks from the from their own
government ultimately later on the month
in January there was a law passed that
actually prohibited all forms of protest
this only furthered the resolve of the
Ukrainian people so at this particular
time I started to spend an awful lot
more time on online I’ll tell you about
my friend Bob Bob from Crimea alcohol I
won’t tell you his last name after we
get the story on my wife
bob was a British man who had moved to
Crimea I fell in love with local
Ukrainian woman who would eventually he
would he would marry some I was talking
with him on Facebook right after this
this event happened and that Bob said
hold on I have a knock at the door he
went to the door and he was greeted by a
soldier who was spoke Russian dressed in
full military garb did not have the
Russian patch but was clearly a Russian
soldier this person asked Bob to produce
his British passport when Bob gave him
his passport the soldier took cigarette
lighter out and lit it on fire and said
now you’re not going anywhere buddy of
course he said that in Russian I don’t
speak very good question so that’s me
but that’s what he said
Bob came back and told me that that had
happened and I knew for real that this
was actually a much much more serious
situation than even I had realized soon
after little green men started showing
up in in Crimea at the military base
called belbek the Ukrainian soldiers
they were told to lay down their arms
which they did because their leadership
open to do so and the next night these
leaders fled to Moscow and basically you
know turned coated on the Ukrainian
nation for cash this would ultimately
lead to more protests in Kiev ultimately
at its peak five hundred thousand people
and viktor yanukovych cracked down
further on these poor folks thus leading
to a couple day event in mid-february
2014 where I watched along with millions
of others people around the world as
these poor people were literally shot to
death from snipers on buildings 100
people were killed actually we think is
more than that but there’s still people
that just disappear
these people are referred to the
heavenly hundred the President Viktor
Yanukovych after this horrible event
fled in the middle of the night on a
helicopter to Moscow where he remains to
this day wanted for war crimes against
humanity
shortly after this event happened an
illegal referendum in Crimea was held
where at gunpoint where the winning
candidates
sorry winning candidate so to speak we
had received four percent of the vote
only four years earlier
soon after Russian troops showed up in
Donetsk in Luhansk and was under the
pretense of protecting russian-speaking
citizens which incidentally was the same
excuse that Adolf Hitler used to attack
chuckles Avakian Austria prior to a
World War two starting back in the 19th
late 1930s by the way russian-speaking
Ukrainians and Ukrainian speaking
Ukrainian sit gotten along just fine
prior to these little green men showing
up so this Russian invasion of Europe
because after all Ukraine is a European
country a lot of people don’t know that
has resulted in the last four years
because the undeclared war ten thousand
deaths over twice as many casualties
over 1.6 million refugees that nobody
here in the world really talks about
this was this attack was a direct
violation of the Budapest memorandum
this was a memorandum that was reached
between the United States actually be
doing the United States Russia England
other countries and Ukraine because they
after the breakup of the Soviet Union in
in the early 90s a lot of people know
but Ukraine had the third largest
arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world
world wasn’t really too comfortable with
that so they agreed to Ukraine
voluntarily agreed to give these weapons
up
in exchange for future protection
against attacks we all know how that
went and when the when Russia invaded
the world basically sat by and did
nothing it’s not at no accident that
countries like Iran and North Korea have
been ratcheting up their attempts ever
since the last few years to try and
develop nuclear weapons because the
westward doesn’t really meet mean the
paper that it’s printed on so after
watching all these events I was
extremely moved say the least and I knew
I needed to join the fight but how could
I do that so I started a Facebook group
I called it 1 million people around the
world supporter of Ukraine’s fight for
freedom I knew I had struck on a very
good theme because we grew to 1500
people within 24 hours from countries
all over the world this group inspired
me to travel to Ukraine for the first
time my life too a couple weeks after
the horrible killings I was able to
speak at a prayer service in Laveen
which is the western part of the country
honoring 17 of the hundred people who
had been brutally murdered by the
government this turns out this was
actually carried on national television
did not know that at the time was only a
90 second speech after I gave the speech
I was incredibly moved almost to tears
as I walked off the stage there was
literally a line of people around the
block waiting to shake my hand with
their hands bowed across their heart
they were just so moved that somebody
from the United States was there telling
him that other people around the world
who actually cared about what was going
on to the people at that point it really
justified why I had flown to Ukraine
people were not just fighting for their
economic freedom but literally for the
fighting for their very lives and right
to exist all these people wanted to join
the EU was to have a similar lifestyle
to their neighbors to the west Poland
who ten years earlier had joined the EU
and ten years later had about three to
four times the average quality of life
monthly income as our Ukrainian
neighbors to the to the to the east so
after I was in the vivre had the
opportunity to travel at Kiev where I
was given a private tour of the
self-defense forces that were set up in
tents all around the city following day
I actually was able to go on a stage
not dissimilar to this except instead of
there being a couple hundred people you
out there there’s about five or six
thousand people out there and I was
given an opportunity to speak but
because my Ukrainian is nowhere near as
good as my English I frankly had
chickened out the incredible thing was I
actually got a standing ovation I didn’t
say a word even thinking about to this
day gets me very emotional later on that
evening we had stayed at the hotel
Ukraine which is right across the square
and only two weeks earlier I’d actually
seen 12 people who literally bleed to
death in the hotel lobby downstairs
quite an incredible time so after this
we turned the United States started
working more actively and led a march in
February 2015 in Washington DC where we
had reached out to the Baltic community
specifically had the president of the
McWane American community join us on our
March with this demonstrated was that we
were going to be quite more than just a
Facebook group because of my I guess
persistence the ability to attract
people we had over 40,000 people in the
group at this point I had reached out to
Fox News I don’t have any training as a
journalist or as a writer but I was able
to convince them to write an op-ed or
let me publish an op-ed piece about what
I was doing with the group and also the
March actually in advance of it to try
and get more media coverage to come out
we published the piece I met another
gentleman by the name of Andy Billiken
since become a good friend he’s a
retired journalist he was instrumental
in the 80s actually leading tens of
thousands of Ukrainians in the streets
in Washington DC
he helped me tremendously to write a
second op-ed piece that was targeted
toward the african-american community
detailing the historic friendship
between one of the most famous
Ukrainians of all time for a Savchenko a
famous poet and I were all Jews and
there their tremendous friendship that
they had in the 1860s which was actually
a time when slavery still existed in the
United States so after this I actually
prepared to go back to Ukraine for a
second time for almost a year except
this time my trip had two purposes in
the prior year I had actually hosted
along with my wife
Ukrainian orphan from Odessa and after
series of back and forth she had asked
my wife and I not only could we adopt
her but could we also adopt their best
friend now this was a big decision as we
had three children of her alone two of
which are in the audience right there
tonight and my wife said yes god bless
her I traveled back to Ukraine to this
Internet which is what they call
orphanages in Ukraine I’ll never forget
that there was a road that you don’t
drive on when it rains we traveled
through a village that had bombed out
houses from World War two that still had
not been fixed no electricity no heat
orphanage that they were in didn’t have
drinking water there was 92 kids there
there was no toilets there was literally
just two holes in the ground for them to
for them to use I had asked some of the
locals you know why do you guys not have
any signs never forget the answer well
we took them down so that the Germans
didn’t know where to drive their tanks
I said guy I said that was like 70 years
ago obviously this place didn’t have a
lot of tourists say the least
unbelievable so while I was there
because the adoption process took 68
days consecutively I was able to travel
around the country because of my
contacts in the group going all the way
from the extreme northeastern part and
harkey’s where I was able to give a
press conference where they actually put
out a video of the March that we had
done in Washington DC only months
earlier our keep so you know anybody
might know is actually the
second-largest city in Ukraine with over
a million people behind Kiev and then we
were also able to travel across to the
western part of the country back to
l’viv back to the place where my
ancestors are from and I was interviewed
by a television station see again
telling them what I was doing what I was
all about what we were trying to
accomplish with the group so recent
initiatives include last year in May we
did another march from the Washington
Memorial I’m sorry the Washington
Monument to the Holodomor Memorial and
that Marsh has attracted over 400,000
views so far to date online we had
reached out to the producer and the
director of
a documentary called breaking point the
war for democracy in Ukraine mark
Jonathan Harris is the producer he
actually has won three Academy Awards
for Best Documentary over three
different decades his writer Paula
Lansky I was able to convince these guys
to actually fly from Southern California
from Hollywood to DC and we were able to
with my help and their help screen this
documentary inside the US Capitol two
congressmen and women and former and
current ambassadors from into Ukraine
unbelievable experience these gentlemen
also marched with us the next day we’ve
become good friends ever since this
march was done to highlight the the
importance of the relatively unknown
mass genocide and starvation of
Ukrainians that took place from 1932 to
1933 where 7 to 10 million Ukrainians
were started to death by a Joseph Stalin
that’s a relatively unknown tragedy in
human history so much so that you know
when I had reached out to the National
Park Service whose very job is to
actually maintain this this monument
this memorial the people who were at the
Park Service didn’t even know about this
memorial in their own town in Washington
DC so that kind of further proves why
why I do what I do we had reached out in
this March to members from the
african-american Latino Asian and LGBT
community and we had representative
small for communities join us at the
March we think that this was the first
time that ever happened in the ukrainian
diaspora in the united states current
initiatives we are in the process of
forming an NGO called millions of voices
for Ukraine the goal being to activate
both Ukrainians and non Ukrainians alike
to give them a voice because the Russian
propaganda machine is very well-funded
and right now the feeling is that it’s a
debate we’re only one side
so we know how that goes we really feel
that the world needs to know you know
how important the situation in Ukraine
is the truths about what’s really going
on and why it’s relevant each and every
one of us not just for Ukrainians sake
but Americans and Europeans so the
Ukrainian people have been fighting this
war for four years by themselves and
it’s very important that they know and
that we know that it’s they’re not just
fighting for themselves but they’re
really fighting for all of us you folks
here tonight who go to J mu you know
your representative of the next
generation of Americans this is a new
time with social media not only helping
to elect a recent American president but
also a current American president who
actually uses Twitter to actually set
public policy we need to exercise our
voices and use these new tools that we
have to reach out to each other in a
civil and humane way the lessons that
I’ve learned since I’ve become a
volunteer in an activists the last four
years one of the things that I really
believe in strongly is being polite and
kind to everybody whether they have to
share the same point of view it was not
or pardon me as you were not example of
that you know when I’ve led so many
these demonstrations now I can’t even
keep count every time I do so a lot I
always try and reach out there’s always
police there because they always assume
that these people are coming out to
cause trouble not the case with us but
not always the case unfortunately I
always go out of my way to reach out to
the highest commanding officer on site
and go out and shake his hand why do I
do this well I think it sets the tone
and I can tell you I can’t even tell you
the look on their faces how they smile
and I can tell you personally they’ve
told me how about how much they really
appreciate the gesture so we really have
an opportunity to change the world if we
have the courage to reach out not just
to people who agree with us but for
people who don’t know what the heck
we’re talking about or even those who
have a different point of view remember
you can’t have a handshake if you reach
out if the other person doesn’t reach
back and echo-chamber although it might
be helpful for my speech preparation
tonight and for all of us who are
fortunate enough to speak it’s not
really helpful in the real world
and how it works example of what I’m
talking about is the recent gun control
situation which has gotten out of
control in a raging situation you know
we all know what happened in park in
Florida last month I’ve heard people say
such things as the NRA organization or a
bunch of terrorists I’ve heard people on
the other side say they’re trying to
take all our guns away if you really
step back and think about it if you’re
trying to effect change alienating the
other side is not going to do anything
it’s just going to get people to retreat
to the respective political corners and
if anything we Trent Sivan further not
going to do anything so we need to have
civil discourse I mean this this is a
founding bedrock principle of America I
fear I fear that’s being eroded by
apathy vitriol name-calling and in
corresponding lack of outreach for
action you know clicking like cooking
the share is great but we need to do
things in the real world and if I could
give you folks
any advice trust your inner voice
because it speaks the truth don’t care
or concern yourself with what the rest
of the world thinks if somebody else
disagrees with your point of view you
might have wisdom that they might not
have or they might have wisdom that you
don’t possess either it’s very good very
good words to live by
so what I’ll closing by saying and
Ukrainian Jia Q thank you may God bless
you all and Slavia great thank you
collapse of the Berlin Wall the ultimate
breakup of the Soviet Union which after
which Ukraine declared its independence
in 1991 and in 1994 when Oksana Baiul
won the first-ever gold medal for for
Ukraine and any Olympic sport winning
the figures getting gold medal in 1990
forever whenever olympics the orange
revolution actually reinvigorated my
passion for Ukraine in 2004 just took
place after an extremely corrupt
presidential election process that was
eventually overturned by the help of
people in the West Viktor Yushchenko was
ultimately the rightful winner replacing
the corrupted winner of the kiriona
Kovich Russia in its unfortunate cynical
style chose to deal with this issue by
poisoning President Viktor Yushchenko
many think it actually took place when
he was visiting actually in New York
City with dioxin dioxin is actually for
those who may or may not know is
actually Agent Orange so we kind of know
what the what the message was received
loud and clear there unfortunately
several years later in 2010 Viktor
Yanukovych who actually had been had one
to two thousand four election
fraudulently actually won it
legitimately thus setting Ukraine on its
path back towards realigning itself with
Russia which is cooler but not that
people wanted a couple years went by
Ukraine had a plan on aligning with the
European Union and he did a last-minute
u-turn in 2013 some of you may have
heard about this it’s sort of the Euro
Maidan movement which ultimately led to
tens of thousands of people going to the
streets in downtown Kiev ultimately
started on Facebook ironically this
would eventually become the Ukrainian
revolution of dignity as I was watching
this from afar I was flabbergasted by
the lack of
American media coverage of this event so
I joined Twitter in 2014 in January I
washed in real-time as the citizens were
attacked by the police these poor folks
were picking up cobblestones on the
street to fight back fighting back with
wooden shields firing Molotov cocktails
at military units as they charged them
burning tires to building barricades to
try and protect themselves from the
constant attacks from the from their own
government ultimately later on the month
in January there was a law passed that
actually prohibited all forms of protest
this only furthered the resolve of the
Ukrainian people so at this particular
time I started to spend an awful lot
more time on online I’ll tell you about
my friend Bob Bob from Crimea alcohol I
won’t tell you his last name after we
get the story on my wife
bob was a British man who had moved to
Crimea I fell in love with local
Ukrainian woman who would eventually he
would he would marry some I was talking
with him on Facebook right after this
this event happened and that Bob said
hold on I have a knock at the door he
went to the door and he was greeted by a
soldier who was spoke Russian dressed in
full military garb did not have the
Russian patch but was clearly a Russian
soldier this person asked Bob to produce
his British passport when Bob gave him
his passport the soldier took cigarette
lighter out and lit it on fire and said
now you’re not going anywhere buddy of
course he said that in Russian I don’t
speak very good question so that’s me
but that’s what he said
Bob came back and told me that that had
happened and I knew for real that this
was actually a much much more serious
situation than even I had realized soon
after little green men started showing
up in in Crimea at the military base
called belbek the Ukrainian soldiers
they were told to lay down their arms
which they did because their leadership
open to do so and the next night these
leaders fled to Moscow and basically you
know turned coated on the Ukrainian
nation for cash this would ultimately
lead to more protests in Kiev ultimately
at its peak five hundred thousand people
and viktor yanukovych cracked down
further on these poor folks thus leading
to a couple day event in mid-february
2014 where I watched along with millions
of others people around the world as
these poor people were literally shot to
death from snipers on buildings 100
people were killed actually we think is
more than that but there’s still people
that just disappear
these people are referred to the
heavenly hundred the President Viktor
Yanukovych after this horrible event
fled in the middle of the night on a
helicopter to Moscow where he remains to
this day wanted for war crimes against
humanity
shortly after this event happened an
illegal referendum in Crimea was held
where at gunpoint where the winning
candidates
sorry winning candidate so to speak we
had received four percent of the vote
only four years earlier
soon after Russian troops showed up in
Donetsk in Luhansk and was under the
pretense of protecting russian-speaking
citizens which incidentally was the same
excuse that Adolf Hitler used to attack
chuckles Avakian Austria prior to a
World War two starting back in the 19th
late 1930s by the way russian-speaking
Ukrainians and Ukrainian speaking
Ukrainian sit gotten along just fine
prior to these little green men showing
up so this Russian invasion of Europe
because after all Ukraine is a European
country a lot of people don’t know that
has resulted in the last four years
because the undeclared war ten thousand
deaths over twice as many casualties
over 1.6 million refugees that nobody
here in the world really talks about
this was this attack was a direct
violation of the Budapest memorandum
this was a memorandum that was reached
between the United States actually be
doing the United States Russia England
other countries and Ukraine because they
after the breakup of the Soviet Union in
in the early 90s a lot of people know
but Ukraine had the third largest
arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world
world wasn’t really too comfortable with
that so they agreed to Ukraine
voluntarily agreed to give these weapons
up
in exchange for future protection
against attacks we all know how that
went and when the when Russia invaded
the world basically sat by and did
nothing it’s not at no accident that
countries like Iran and North Korea have
been ratcheting up their attempts ever
since the last few years to try and
develop nuclear weapons because the
westward doesn’t really meet mean the
paper that it’s printed on so after
watching all these events I was
extremely moved say the least and I knew
I needed to join the fight but how could
I do that so I started a Facebook group
I called it 1 million people around the
world supporter of Ukraine’s fight for
freedom I knew I had struck on a very
good theme because we grew to 1500
people within 24 hours from countries
all over the world this group inspired
me to travel to Ukraine for the first
time my life too a couple weeks after
the horrible killings I was able to
speak at a prayer service in Laveen
which is the western part of the country
honoring 17 of the hundred people who
had been brutally murdered by the
government this turns out this was
actually carried on national television
did not know that at the time was only a
90 second speech after I gave the speech
I was incredibly moved almost to tears
as I walked off the stage there was
literally a line of people around the
block waiting to shake my hand with
their hands bowed across their heart
they were just so moved that somebody
from the United States was there telling
him that other people around the world
who actually cared about what was going
on to the people at that point it really
justified why I had flown to Ukraine
people were not just fighting for their
economic freedom but literally for the
fighting for their very lives and right
to exist all these people wanted to join
the EU was to have a similar lifestyle
to their neighbors to the west Poland
who ten years earlier had joined the EU
and ten years later had about three to
four times the average quality of life
monthly income as our Ukrainian
neighbors to the to the to the east so
after I was in the vivre had the
opportunity to travel at Kiev where I
was given a private tour of the
self-defense forces that were set up in
tents all around the city following day
I actually was able to go on a stage
not dissimilar to this except instead of
there being a couple hundred people you
out there there’s about five or six
thousand people out there and I was
given an opportunity to speak but
because my Ukrainian is nowhere near as
good as my English I frankly had
chickened out the incredible thing was I
actually got a standing ovation I didn’t
say a word even thinking about to this
day gets me very emotional later on that
evening we had stayed at the hotel
Ukraine which is right across the square
and only two weeks earlier I’d actually
seen 12 people who literally bleed to
death in the hotel lobby downstairs
quite an incredible time so after this
we turned the United States started
working more actively and led a march in
February 2015 in Washington DC where we
had reached out to the Baltic community
specifically had the president of the
McWane American community join us on our
March with this demonstrated was that we
were going to be quite more than just a
Facebook group because of my I guess
persistence the ability to attract
people we had over 40,000 people in the
group at this point I had reached out to
Fox News I don’t have any training as a
journalist or as a writer but I was able
to convince them to write an op-ed or
let me publish an op-ed piece about what
I was doing with the group and also the
March actually in advance of it to try
and get more media coverage to come out
we published the piece I met another
gentleman by the name of Andy Billiken
since become a good friend he’s a
retired journalist he was instrumental
in the 80s actually leading tens of
thousands of Ukrainians in the streets
in Washington DC
he helped me tremendously to write a
second op-ed piece that was targeted
toward the african-american community
detailing the historic friendship
between one of the most famous
Ukrainians of all time for a Savchenko a
famous poet and I were all Jews and
there their tremendous friendship that
they had in the 1860s which was actually
a time when slavery still existed in the
United States so after this I actually
prepared to go back to Ukraine for a
second time for almost a year except
this time my trip had two purposes in
the prior year I had actually hosted
along with my wife
Ukrainian orphan from Odessa and after
series of back and forth she had asked
my wife and I not only could we adopt
her but could we also adopt their best
friend now this was a big decision as we
had three children of her alone two of
which are in the audience right there
tonight and my wife said yes god bless
her I traveled back to Ukraine to this
Internet which is what they call
orphanages in Ukraine I’ll never forget
that there was a road that you don’t
drive on when it rains we traveled
through a village that had bombed out
houses from World War two that still had
not been fixed no electricity no heat
orphanage that they were in didn’t have
drinking water there was 92 kids there
there was no toilets there was literally
just two holes in the ground for them to
for them to use I had asked some of the
locals you know why do you guys not have
any signs never forget the answer well
we took them down so that the Germans
didn’t know where to drive their tanks
I said guy I said that was like 70 years
ago obviously this place didn’t have a
lot of tourists say the least
unbelievable so while I was there
because the adoption process took 68
days consecutively I was able to travel
around the country because of my
contacts in the group going all the way
from the extreme northeastern part and
harkey’s where I was able to give a
press conference where they actually put
out a video of the March that we had
done in Washington DC only months
earlier our keep so you know anybody
might know is actually the
second-largest city in Ukraine with over
a million people behind Kiev and then we
were also able to travel across to the
western part of the country back to
l’viv back to the place where my
ancestors are from and I was interviewed
by a television station see again
telling them what I was doing what I was
all about what we were trying to
accomplish with the group so recent
initiatives include last year in May we
did another march from the Washington
Memorial I’m sorry the Washington
Monument to the Holodomor Memorial and
that Marsh has attracted over 400,000
views so far to date online we had
reached out to the producer and the
director of
a documentary called breaking point the
war for democracy in Ukraine mark
Jonathan Harris is the producer he
actually has won three Academy Awards
for Best Documentary over three
different decades his writer Paula
Lansky I was able to convince these guys
to actually fly from Southern California
from Hollywood to DC and we were able to
with my help and their help screen this
documentary inside the US Capitol two
congressmen and women and former and
current ambassadors from into Ukraine
unbelievable experience these gentlemen
also marched with us the next day we’ve
become good friends ever since this
march was done to highlight the the
importance of the relatively unknown
mass genocide and starvation of
Ukrainians that took place from 1932 to
1933 where 7 to 10 million Ukrainians
were started to death by a Joseph Stalin
that’s a relatively unknown tragedy in
human history so much so that you know
when I had reached out to the National
Park Service whose very job is to
actually maintain this this monument
this memorial the people who were at the
Park Service didn’t even know about this
memorial in their own town in Washington
DC so that kind of further proves why
why I do what I do we had reached out in
this March to members from the
african-american Latino Asian and LGBT
community and we had representative
small for communities join us at the
March we think that this was the first
time that ever happened in the ukrainian
diaspora in the united states current
initiatives we are in the process of
forming an NGO called millions of voices
for Ukraine the goal being to activate
both Ukrainians and non Ukrainians alike
to give them a voice because the Russian
propaganda machine is very well-funded
and right now the feeling is that it’s a
debate we’re only one side
so we know how that goes we really feel
that the world needs to know you know
how important the situation in Ukraine
is the truths about what’s really going
on and why it’s relevant each and every
one of us not just for Ukrainians sake
but Americans and Europeans so the
Ukrainian people have been fighting this
war for four years by themselves and
it’s very important that they know and
that we know that it’s they’re not just
fighting for themselves but they’re
really fighting for all of us you folks
here tonight who go to J mu you know
your representative of the next
generation of Americans this is a new
time with social media not only helping
to elect a recent American president but
also a current American president who
actually uses Twitter to actually set
public policy we need to exercise our
voices and use these new tools that we
have to reach out to each other in a
civil and humane way the lessons that
I’ve learned since I’ve become a
volunteer in an activists the last four
years one of the things that I really
believe in strongly is being polite and
kind to everybody whether they have to
share the same point of view it was not
or pardon me as you were not example of
that you know when I’ve led so many
these demonstrations now I can’t even
keep count every time I do so a lot I
always try and reach out there’s always
police there because they always assume
that these people are coming out to
cause trouble not the case with us but
not always the case unfortunately I
always go out of my way to reach out to
the highest commanding officer on site
and go out and shake his hand why do I
do this well I think it sets the tone
and I can tell you I can’t even tell you
the look on their faces how they smile
and I can tell you personally they’ve
told me how about how much they really
appreciate the gesture so we really have
an opportunity to change the world if we
have the courage to reach out not just
to people who agree with us but for
people who don’t know what the heck
we’re talking about or even those who
have a different point of view remember
you can’t have a handshake if you reach
out if the other person doesn’t reach
back and echo-chamber although it might
be helpful for my speech preparation
tonight and for all of us who are
fortunate enough to speak it’s not
really helpful in the real world
and how it works example of what I’m
talking about is the recent gun control
situation which has gotten out of
control in a raging situation you know
we all know what happened in park in
Florida last month I’ve heard people say
such things as the NRA organization or a
bunch of terrorists I’ve heard people on
the other side say they’re trying to
take all our guns away if you really
step back and think about it if you’re
trying to effect change alienating the
other side is not going to do anything
it’s just going to get people to retreat
to the respective political corners and
if anything we Trent Sivan further not
going to do anything so we need to have
civil discourse I mean this this is a
founding bedrock principle of America I
fear I fear that’s being eroded by
apathy vitriol name-calling and in
corresponding lack of outreach for
action you know clicking like cooking
the share is great but we need to do
things in the real world and if I could
give you folks
any advice trust your inner voice
because it speaks the truth don’t care
or concern yourself with what the rest
of the world thinks if somebody else
disagrees with your point of view you
might have wisdom that they might not
have or they might have wisdom that you
don’t possess either it’s very good very
good words to live by
so what I’ll closing by saying and
Ukrainian Jia Q thank you may God bless
you all and Slavia great thank you
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