The Day That Changed America Forever | Episode 171

The Day That Changed America Forever | Episode 171

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Chapter Markers
0:00 The Impact of Free Speech Restrictions
27:32 Equal Opportunity and Character Over Color

What happens when the inauguration of a U.S. President coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day? We explore this significant convergence as Donald J. Trump steps into history as the 47th President. On this momentous occasion, we reflect on the mission of Voices for Voices® to honor individuals based on character rather than skin color. Drawing from my personal journey and the wisdom imparted by my parents, I delve into the power of dreams and how they can fuel personal growth. This episode also tackles the challenges of free speech, revealing instances where Voices for Voices® faced censorship, and emphasizes the pressing need to continue expressing ideas freely.

The timeless principle of judging people by their character, not the color of their skin, takes center stage as we look to inspirations like Martin Luther King and President Trump. This conviction should transcend any platform—be it personal conversations, social media, or public events. We connect this vision to personal dreams and family influences, urging you to carry the torch of equality and opportunity in daily life. Inspired by the recurring theme of dreams in recent inauguration speeches, we encourage you to champion character-based judgment and extend this commitment beyond political terms, ensuring that these ideals live on in our everyday actions.

The episode discusses the significance of Donald J. Trump's inauguration coinciding with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, highlighting the themes of dreams, free speech, and character. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their dreams and the power of free expression in shaping society.

• Reflection on the historic day of inauguration and its significance
• Discussion on the impact of dreams in personal and communal contexts
• Importance of free speech in today’s digital landscape
• Personal anecdotes that illustrate the power of nurturing dreams
• Addressing the issue of censorship faced by Voices for Voices®
• Example highlighting inequality in social media responses
• Call to embrace and advocate for character over skin color

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Impact of Free Speech Restrictions
• 27:32 Equal Opportunity and Character Over Color

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Alaniz. Thank you for joining us today. Today, the day of taping, day of filming, was a historic day in the United States of America. We had the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States, who also was the 45th President of the United States, donald J Trump of the United States, donald J Trump. It was historic in so many ways and we'll get into how that impacts Voices for Voices and why we are sharing this information and content with you and your fellow brother and sister here in the United States and abroad. It was the 60th inauguration.

Speaker 1: 1:14

Inauguration happened every four years in the way presidential politics and rotations go, and that transfer of power officially happens at 12.01 pm Eastern time Eastern Daylight Time, however you want to point it, and it is just a truly historic day for so many reasons. One is January 20th, 2025. 2025, it's Martin Luther King Jr Day. The same day as Martin Luther King Day is historic. It happens very few times if we look over the course of our person, not the color of our skin, and that is very important, not only on Martin Luther King Day, but on all days, that we should be looking at individuals on content of their quality, not looking at anyone based off the color of their skin, and that's important for us to think about. Look at merit, look at individuals as what they're bringing to the table the content of their character, not the color of their skin. So that touches on Voices for Voices that we strive to speak about. Talk about individuals and the content of their character, not the color of their skin, not their beliefs, their religion, non-religion, whether somebody has been incarcerated. We look at individuals as individuals. So that was a very historic aspect of today that President Trump was bringing back to the table. That we're not going to be again. We're not going to be looking at each other based off the color of our skin. We're going to look at what are we bringing to the table the content of our character, and so I think that goes without saying.

Speaker 1: 6:00

As we move on, it struck me, as well as other members of our board, how many times the word dream, or dreams, showed up in President Trump's inaugural speech. We've talked about it and we'll continue to talk about it. That you know, voices for voices. We are dreamers, we are individuals, a group of individuals, that individuals that have dreamed and will continue to dream as we go forward in our own personal lives and as we come together here with Voices for Voices. With Voices for Voices, we rewind the tape all the way back to our first TV episode in the beautiful Hudson Community Television TV studio, where the guests that we had were my mom and dad, my mom Helen, my dad Patrick, and one of the areas that we talked about way back then, and what we're talking about right now and we'll continue to talk about, is dreaming.

Speaker 1: 7:46

Given the ability to dream to ourselves, to our children and to all who come in contact with us, who come in contact with us, I remember growing up and I would be asked Justin, what would you want to be when you grow up? As most, all of us probably have been asked at one time or another, and I mostly remember responding with the answer of I want to be a pastor astronaut. I wanted to get on the space shuttle at the time, go into outer space and explore. As I grew up and continue to grow today, even at 43 years old, never stop growing, never stop learning. There have been times along the way of my life that I may have lost track of dreaming.

Speaker 1: 9:28

We talk about different accomplishments. Well, I accomplished task A, b and C. Now what do I do? How do I put all that into practice? How do I put all that into practice While internally, I was not sure how the dream would manifest itself? What was a constant was, and still is, my parents giving me the room and I don't mean give the room, it sounds like the physical space. That's one way to look at it. And then the other is in the mental side of being able to use some of my headspace to think, to dream. And while at times I have struggled throughout my life and that I've struggled and why this is important. Number one I wanted to have my mom and dad on because, as I mentioned, many years ago, I received a card and a mail from my mom. It had Mickey Mouse on it. It said you know, if you can dream, you can dream it, you can do it, something along those lines, and that was well into my late 20s, probably early 30s that I can reignite and dream again and continue to dream.

Speaker 1: 12:09

We've heard all kinds of stories about individuals and the different ages that they were when they founded and started an organization and they made an impact in one way or another. And they made an impact in one way or another, and those aren't always individuals in their 20s, like teens. You're thinking of Some of these individuals 50, 60, 70 years old. I'm 43. I still have time. Nothing is guaranteed past this instant, but I'd like to think I have time to continue to dream and continue to put some of the past dreams into practice, however that may be into practice, however that may be.

Speaker 1: 13:16

Another theme is free speech. We, as Americans, are afforded the ability for free speech. So, as I'm coming to you on some platform some video platform, some audio platform, streaming, podcasting platform there have been times and I've not spoken really publicly about this because I wanted to give the opportunity to be proven wrong and what do I mean by that? Voices for Voices, on at least one level, possibly two or three, we've been censored. What does that mean? Justin, you just talked about free speech. Voices for Voices has free speech. You have shows, you have content, you have events, you have a walk. What are you talking about? So algorithms? So algorithms?

Speaker 1: 14:58

It's a fancy word, but not all of our followers or individuals or organizations who may, when we see individuals have a post, have 2,000 followers and have hundreds of engagements, post after post after post. I'm not talking about one post Individuals, organizations, they're posting potentially every day. And so we see those analytics, we see those statistics and then we look at it, we turn a mirror on ourselves. We know we are making a humongous impact, even when I feel down, even when I feel extra depressed, useless, like we're not, we are, we're not, we are. And on one particular platform I have 30,000 connection followers. I'm not going to call out the platform and what the name of that is and so we have what some would say, for the average person, pretty solid following when we make a post and I'm talking over the course of time, not one particular post, not two particular posts Over the course of the last four years right, voices for Voices was born from an event to an organization, to a registered organization with the United States Patent and Trade Offices and when we make posts of solid content, solid guests, with the true goal of helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, lifetime and beyond in our posts.

Speaker 1: 17:59

Just as good, if not better. As time has gone on, our posts have gotten better and better and better, as we all do right, but with With experience we learn, we get better. I'm better now than I was a year ago with shows, and so this censorship kind of rips its ugly head. And so the times where we're getting a hundred views on a particular post, when we have 30,000 connections, followers, doesn't make sense, doesn't make sense to me, doesn't make sense to anybody, if we look at things just at the base level, the ground level. So yes, voices for Voices has been censored, we have been dropped to the bottom of the algorithm and we have been censored and we have been censored. So that's why today, whether you agree with President Donald Trump's policies, or what he tweets, or what he puts out on True Social, or how he speaks, what I care about, what our organization cares about, is free speech. And so when that is mentioned in an inauguration speech the set of tone for the four years he's in office, four years he's in office we can't help but think this censorship will end. If it doesn't end, it will come down a few notches, because no longer are the days where big tech can go on and do these things. What's these things? I'll give you an example Ellis Denberry, previous guest on our show Voice of the year in 2024,.

Speaker 1: 20:31

Dallas, texas, has a picture on Instagram, goes to school the next day, finds out that that picture had been turned nude photo you know, let's not sugarcoat it. And so here's a teenager, and having been a teenager, we're already dealing with a lot of stuff, a lot of emotions. And so when that happened to her, it took her, her mom, miss Anna, lots of calls to local congressmen, senators, because Instagram wasn't in meta, they weren't, they weren't, they weren't fielding their call, so they weren't going to take the photo down like they were going to take. You know, somebody does that to Taylor Swift, it's done automatically. It wasn't happening here. So this young lady was, and still is, dealing with this, and it wasn't until Senator Ted Cruz from Texas took a look at this and elevated it here to the national level and so to the common person, they couldn't get their pictures taken down Like a celebrity that has lots of money, millions, a billion, has a staff of probably hundreds, and so that right there shows kind of the unequalness that Meta and Instagram in that case wasn't going to act unless somebody came face-to-face in a power position. And so there is the Take it Down Act.

Speaker 1: 22:58

We've talked about it on previous shows. You can look back on that. We did two episodes with elliston and her mom, santa, and then we went down to dallas for the award ceremony for the 2024 Voice of the Year, which Allison was presented with, and so that's a form of censorship. They weren't taken serious until somebody in a power position said hey, no, take this down. And oh, by the way, we're going to put some legislation together for that, which the US House of Representatives should be passing, and President Trump will be signing, and Elliston and Santa and her dad will be there when that is passed. So that was a form of censorship. So that was a form of censorship.

Speaker 1: 24:29

And so, yes, voices for Voices has been censored on the local level, on the state level, on the national level and on the world level. But that stops today, even with that censorship, we've still reached 50 countries, 500 plus cities. We are reaching people far and wide, and it's not based on the color of their skin, it's the content of their character, and so to have somebody in our corner, your corner, believe in free speech, should feel good. That is how one way that the inauguration of a new president, a new administration, a new vice president, jd Vance, has and will continue to be a force to reckon with these next four years and hopefully beyond, because I don't say this out of ego. I dropped my ego a long time ago. I have my moments, but I've dropped my ego.

Speaker 1: 26:02

So this isn't me saying this content strictly for personal gain, strictly just for voices, for voices. This is for every individual, every person, every organization who has been forced down in the algorithm where their content or information hasn't been seen to be able to have the success that when you put in the work and you have a mission to truly help others, and for a term that you may know called shadow banning, or a term that you may know called shadow banning. So censorship, shadow banning, we feel are one and the same. It's showing oh, you have 30,000, 100,000, a million followers, but only 100,000 are seeing that content, are able to interact with that content. So when you hear shadow banning and being forced, those are the same things.

Speaker 1: 27:32

So, yes, we, just as Martin Luther King and just as newly inaugurated President Trump plus 45th President as well is now the Commander-in-Chief, as the 47th President of the United States of America we believe that we should be judged on the content of our character and not the color of our skin across the board, whether that's in person, whether that's on social media, whether that's on a podcast, whether it's on a TV show, whether it's at a sporting event, at a concert, getting a vendor into a particular sporting arena, that everybody has the same opportunity and, at the end of the day, it's the content of the character, not the color of the skin, that breeds the opportunity and the chance for success.

Speaker 1: 28:51

So when we peel back that onion right back to that first episode in the television studio when I talked about dreaming and thanking my mom and dad and still to this day thanking them and my dad posthumously that I'm able to continue to dream and to go after the dream, and then we just witnessed the commander-in-chief that said dream or dream at least six times in an inauguration address, or dreamed at least six times an inauguration address. So not just for me, not just for Voices, for Voices, but for you, your organization, your family, your friends, your colleagues. Let's carry that torch on, not just for the next four years, but for the rest of the time that we are on earth. Until next time, be a voice for you or somebody in your life.