This Brave Nation: Carl Pope and Van Jones teaser

[babylonsister]

Run time: 02:13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7pjFXgYJo8   Posted on YouTube: May 30, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 02, 2008 By DU Member: babylonsister Views on DU: 334

 
"...Just take what you love doing and do it with enough other people to make it the future", Carl Pope - This Brave Nation

As the associate producer of This Brave Nation, I got to watch hours of conversations between everyone from Van Jones to Tom Hayden to 17-year-old peace activist Ava Lowery. Watching the conversations between these progressive change makers inspired me in different ways. There was never a moment when I wasn't excited about a poignant statement from Carl Pope, an insightful exchange between Majora Carter and Pete Seeger, or engaged by a flash of vulnerability on Anthony Romero's face as he related a story from his youth.

Looking for the footage used in each of these episodes immediately drew me into one social movement after the next. Listening to Tom Hayden talk about Freedom Summer made me understand the struggle for civil rights in a way I never did before. Feminism takes on a deeper meaning when Dolores Huerta talks about organizing in the fields or when Naomi Klein talks about her activist mother.

What was most common among everyone we spoke to -- outside of the fact that they were inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., beyond the fact that many of them had lived through the resistance to the Viet Nam war, despite the fact that they are all still part of huge social movements -- is that they all began making a difference, joining movements, taking risks, making change in a big way, at a very young age.

The good news? You're going to get to see all the best parts of these conversations in one place (BraveNation.com) every week. This Brave Nation was a series created to honor courageous activist that have made changes to create the Brave Nation that you and I inhabit and to encourage a new generation of brave activists. We hope you enjoy Carl Pope and Van Jones in this, the first episode of This Brave Nation.

Be sure to visit BraveNation.com to see future episodes and nominate a local young activist for the Brave Nation award.