Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker. Folks, it is hard to believe that today is literally one year out until the twenty twenty four presidential election. As certain many of you have casted your ballots for local, state, city elections and potentially some members of Congress that are running.
It is hard to believe that twelve months will go by from this moment on and it'll be time for the presidential If you are paying attention to the polls right now, they look like shit. And who would have thought right that Joe Biden in his administration would think that using our tax dollars to buy civilians into oblivion
wouldn't be a winning strategy. That when we're looking around and wondering, oh, why do our schools look the way that they do, our roads look the way that they do, our airports look the way that they do, our rail stations look the way that we do. Why are we investing in any type of mitigation around climate change? But you got fourteen point three billion dollars right to go towards war, that that wouldn't be a fucking winning strategy. So here we are, folks, where we are being forced
to make a really critical decision. And look, I will tell you that my anger is not going to stop me from making the decision between Donald Trump and Joe Biden because I know exactly what Donald Trump plans to do. I know exactly how he plans to round people up, I know exactly how he plans to persecute people. I know exactly how he plans to finish the job that
he started on January sixth, twenty twenty one. That is not an option, But I do know that demanding better from this administration, demanding better from this president, needs to happen. You don't just get a fucking pass, because the alternative is the devil. And that is where I find myself
right now. So coming up next, we have a conversation with a candidate for the House seat for Adam Shipp's House seat in California who next year, in twenty twenty four, will be time for his election, and that is jerar Radevosian coming up next to talk about being the first
Armenian to run for a congressional seat. He will also give us some insight into the conflict and crises in Armenia, where he had visited recently, as well as talk about what he wants to see in Congress and what he will offer if if he has the ability to take over Adam Shipp's seat. That conversation is coming up next, folks.
I'm very happy to welcome to wok F Daily for the very first time, hopefully not the last, a candidate for Adam Shipp's congressional seat California thirtieth district that will be up for election in twenty twenty four. We know this because we talk about the most consequential election of our times. Jar Redovosin, I am so happy to have you. You are openly gay, you are Armenian, and you know when folks here California, they think, oh great, like it's
the land of diversity. But I would like for you to talk about one your reason for wanting to run and maybe some of both what is pushing you and some of the obstacles that you foresee over the next year as you uh work for this seat.
Thanks so much for having me, Danielle, Yeah, thank you, it's it's it's a pleasure to be with you and to talk about these issues You're right, California is it's one of the most democratic state, uh in in in the country, and l A in particular where I am, We're we're blessed with so much diversity and strong progressive
roots across across the city. But but it's definitely, you know, within pockets of different communities, there are a whole spectrum of different issues regarding healthcare, lgbt Q rights, women's rights, you know. So it's never as you know, it's never as simple as as you know, an Instagram video might might might showcase sometimes. I I'm born in raised here in Hollywood, in the district which is Adam Schift's district, as you said, and I'm Armenian. My parents immigrated here
in the mid seventies. My mom's side came from Lebanon, dad's side came from Armenia, uh and being the first born son of those of my immigrant family, that is something a badge of honor that I carry with me every day, and it's also a huge reason why I'm running. When I started the race, I entered because I felt the American dream. And I know people are cynical about the American dream, but I still believe in the American dream.
The American dream worked for me and my family and millions of other families, and I believe we have to work hard to fight for it and to make it possible for more people to achieve their dream. And that dream can be however they wanted to find it, whether it's access to education, healthcare, housing, But that American dream is slipping away from from millions of people. Uh. And even in this in this in this state of California, where we have more resources, uh, more more pro science legislators,
so to speak. And uh, and that is that's a big reason why I'm fighting. I've always in all my work, I've worked to expand access to equitable healthcare to make uh society more just. And now it's uh. I I had I was working in Washington for for President Biden. I had to quit my job to come back to my hometown here because the issues were were so grand. Uh. And we need more young people in Congress to fight for for climate justice, environmental justice, housing justice, health care justice.
That's what's on the line. And how I show up, Like you said, I'm lgbt Q, I'm Armenian, proud son of immigrants. These are the values and the resilience that I carry with me as I approach all the different challenges on a end of day basis.
What are some of the issues that are coming up for folks in California's thirtieth district. Like we know right that the right likes to create a narrative around Blue States as some type of hellhole, right as some type of healthscape, And we know, just like in any place, there are challenges. There are challenges to housing and whether or not it can be affordable. There are challenges as
it pertains to those that are unhoused. What are some of the things that are coming up for your potential constituents, for the people in the thirtieth district of California that you think need attention right now?
Yeah, And I like the way you framed it, right because there's significant progress because of some of the policies that this state has put forward with regards to a clean air regulations. By twenty twenty five, LA's hosting the Olympics, and so there's a lot of movement around expanding transportation access and so many other things that they're that the city is doing to make it prepare for for for the Olympics. But there are a number of there are
still many challenges. Housing, as you mentioned, is top of people's mind. I spend a lot of time door knocking, actually, I've been doing that for months, talking to voters about what's on their mind. People are, you know, people can't afford their rent rents California is California renters pay thirty eight thirty nine percent more in rent and then some other states in their number of reasons for that. But it's also home ownership is becoming harder and harder to
hold on to. And because of skyrocketing interest rates highest than twenty five years and not having federal tax benefits for for some homeowners, You're seeing younger people not even plan for home ownership in their in their lifetime. And that's actually really scary because home ownership is it's a privilege, but it's also economic security for your house, for your family, for your kids, right and and and if young people are not thinking that that is part of their sustainable future,
that that's that's something that we have to address. Voters here are also concerned about education. You know, I've heard a lot about student loans and and how people are struggling to break out of this pro pro profit institution that is our student loan repayment program and and folks have been paying into it for for eight nine, ten years, but still have hundreds of thousands of that And that's
just that's just unconscionable. I think, so people a mother should not have two kids and two jobs to be able to pay for her student loans and also put food on the table.
But that I've heard that story.
Over and over again, and just as as as an openly gapers and I've also been attacked here by the way, verbally in Burbank, California, of all places, you know. And and it's because there's so much there the right ring, the extreme white ring rhetoric that we have seen fuel the fragmentation and the deep division that that is in Congress.
And we know that a lot of that it's being fueled by outside organizations that has that has definitely infiltrated school board meetings here across the state and in this district, in liberal cities like Burbank. And you know, when my husband and I were at Burbank Pride, you know, someone came to me and said, you can't be Armenian and gay at the same time, that's just that the Armenian gays don't exist.
He said, you.
Should be denouncing one one of your two identities right now, and wow, can you believe it?
Yeah?
And and of course that's you know, in the in compared to other people that you know, I'm not saying that story to generate sympathy, because people have to deal with a lot worse than that. Believe me, I had the protection of my husband and the community around me. But but that but it's just it's the kind of narrative that that this this this information system is creating
that is definitely also infecting. I would say our cities here and I was at school board meetings fighting back against the parents who were protesting the inclusion of LGBT curriculum. Those issues are all alive and well in this election and also in cities across Los Angeles.
I want to switch gears for a moment from your run and talking about your family's home, right of home country of Armenia and you know, on WOOKF I try every once in you know, in a while, to be able to bring in issues of global interest right in how different countries are moving, what issues are going to
also affect us here in the US. While I have been posting about just the lack of humanity that I am seeing online that I'm seeing in the world, and really trying to center people into how they regain conversation and community and all of these things. Someone had posted underneath one of my messages and said, but you haven't spoken about Armenia and what is happening there, and they were right, I hadn't, And so I want for you to give my listeners the opportunity of fifty thousand foot
view as to because you were there recently. There is ongoing strife and struggle that is happening in that region, and so I want to give you the opportunity to both educate me as well as the listeners to your experience recently.
Thank you so much for raising it.
And also, you know, I've always appreciated the way you've centered conversations around international issues, in particular on humanity, right, because we all have a common humanity think at the end of the day, and that also applies to people you know of Armenian heritage or people who are Armenian like.
Me and my family.
You know this, You know for Armenians across the country, and you know, there are more Armenians that live in the US than actually in Armenia. Armenians we have suffered genocide in the early nineteen hundreds. Between nineteen fifteen and nineteen eighteen, a million and a half Armenians were killed. And so through that awful chapter in our history, many Armenian families immigrated across the region and to different parts of the world. My mom's side, as I mentioned, came
from Lebanon. Armians, but came from Lebanon. You have Armians from Iran, from other parts of the Middle East as well. Now fast forward to what's what's transpired over the last four or five years Armenia. There's a there's a there's an ethnic enclave of Armenians in a region called Nagarnojapah. You may have seen some Armians referred to it as Arta. That's how Armians like myself refer to that territory. It's got about one hundred and twenty It used to have
one hundred and twenty thousand Armians living in that. That was a state that had declared its independence, that had a functioning government, It was autonomous, and it has thousands of years of history of religious artifacts. They were the first Christian nation and many other cultural identities that are so important to how Armenians identify, and they had been
living there for over two thousand years. Just a couple of weeks before before the escalation of war in the Middle East, Azerbaijan, which is a neighbor to Armenia, had and there have been some border scrimmishes over the last few years, but Azerbaijan had decided to take distract and take advantage of the distraction that the world was on
because of the war in Ukraine. Russia had also been weakened in the region and was occupied with Ukraine, and so Osby John attacked that ethnic enclave and one hundred and twenty thousand Armenians over night Danielle or I should say thirty six hours roughly. Not only were hundreds of hundreds killed on the spot because of the military onslaught, but because of the warnings from the Ozibi Jihan government
that they would invade that territory. It led to an exodus of one hundred and twenty thousand, nearly every single Armenian in there except for a few hundred, according to a recent report and a mass exodus out of that ethnic enclave that was ours for two thousand years and into neighboring Armenia. And so now Armenia has a humanitarian crisis dealing with this influx of refugees, figuring out housing, education, healthcare, stipends, all the things that people need to survive.
We talk about humanity, right.
I was just there two weeks before this on Wow, and for me it was it was such a precious opportunity because I went back with my mom and dad. Mom and dad had n't been in fifty years since they came to this country. They were going through their own, their own enlightenment. I had been, I've been many times myself, but going through their eyes was helpful and just a
whole different way of saying it. My Nigerian husband was also with us as well, and he was experiencing Armenia and analyzing the similarities between our two cultures, and that was a wonderful experience. We stood on parts of the land that are no longer part of Armenia now, believe it or not. Because we had gone to that border,
I wanted to see the humanitarian situation firsthand. I forgot to mention eight months prior to the attack, Azerbaijan had blockaded this small region, very similar to the situation now that we're seeing happening.
With Israel and Gaza.
And these people were did not have access to food, electricity, internet, water, eight months, eight months, and then came the military onslaught and so of course people are going to run away and come back. And so I want to see the humanitarian convoy of trucks that were parked firsthand and asked questions about you know, who was getting in what the ICRS was doing for Armenians that live in Los Angeles,
and it's a big part. Then, you know, fifteen percent of the of the constituency in this district is our Armenian. Many of us have friends and family impacted by what's happened over the last twelve months. So it's a difficult time for all of us.
Yeah, it's thank you for that. Thank you for sharing that and providing some context. I think that you know what happens oftentimes unfortunately inside of the United States, that we are so self focused, so self centered right on what is happening in our own body politic, that we're we don't pay attention unless it is a headline grabber
with millions of people. Do we pay attention to the moves right that are being made by aggressive military forces and aggressive countries to gain land, right to you know, to enhance their own power, and they think that what's important about that region and what is happening is that it is also emblematic and indicative of our own instabilities
that are happening. That what seemed you know, let me ask you this jorre like what seemed to me ten fifteen years ago as worlds away, right when war would rerupt or there would be a rush of violence in a particular region, there was still the illusion, if anything,
of safety where we were in the United States. I don't feel that anymore, right, And so I'll ask you, you know, does do these conflicts even though with Armenia that is a simal for you, But do they seem far or like they're at your doorstep at this time?
Oh? Yeah, no, they definitely feel close, not only because I'm ourmedian, but but very much because you know, you know, they it feels part of a bigger, bigger shift in in in in geopolitics, you know, and and the way the world is aligning, you know, I've I've read some people call it, you know, are we in World War
three now? With the way you know, countries are are aligning themselves with the West, with the US and UH and Israel versus versus you know, Russia and China right, and look at the U N. I mean, the UN is completely ineffectual now. The Security Council hasn't made a single important resolution in years because of China, China, China's
and Russia's you know, UH impediments. So I do think that what is happening, and COVID nineteen showed this in real time for anyone who needed a history lesson, that all of us are interconnected, and what happens two thousand miles away, whether it's in Gaza or whether it's in Armenia, is very much connected to all of us. And that's why I love your word humanity in terms of.
How we frame all of this.
So yeah, I mean not that it doesn't mean that I don't feel safe, but it does mean that if if there's injustice somewhere else, as Martin Luther King Junior said, there's injustice here at home. And so I feel that whether it's Armenia, whether it's even even public health issues, whether even if it's the housing crisis in the US. We have forty five thousand people who are experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. That affects me, even though it doesn't
affect me. But if people are in house and I see them on my way to work or or you know, if they're down the street, for me is that's part of my common humanity and we it's a moral crisis of our our of our lifetime, I feel like. And so it's very it very much feels close.
The last question that I'll ask for you is one that you know has been new over the last you know, couple of months of a lot of my listeners as well as myself, you know, struggle with finding hope during these times of like darkness and hopelessness. And so what is providing you hope right now? And what advice do you have for others that are struggling to find any type of light?
You know, I you're gonna laugh, or your listeners might laugh when they hear me say this, But I actually am not cynical about Washington and as dysfunctional and as crazy at it as it is, and we just reached a new new height of that with the most anti speaker, anti woman, sorry, anti LGBTQ, anti woman speaker elected. But I'm still not cynical about about Congress and about Washington and the role that government can plain in the betterment.
Of our lives. And I'll tell you why.
It's because I've seen good things happen. I was Congresswoman Barbara Lee's legislative director for twelve years ago, twelve thirteen years ago, and working for her and with her, you know, I learned.
I learned so much. She's my role model.
And you know, we were able to work with Republicans on HIV globally to fight HIV around Africa and Asia.
We were able to curtail the war.
Powers that a president has through the authorization of use of military force.
Barbara Lee was the.
Only one who voted against that, and now the majority of Congress supports her, you know, twenty two years later. So even amidst that this function and chaos that is part of our democracy, there are there are, there are there's a hope that I have that because more young people are entering the political process, because more young people are awoke, because they want to take matters in their
own hand, just like I have. I had a great job in Washington, I left my home, been there, and I came to LA where I'm from to run for Congress, right, And that's because I felt the responsibility to represent. Because we only have eleven LGBTQ members in the House of Representatives. Yeah, because we have no our minions in the House of Representers, right and so, and we have so many now young people in Congress, thirty year olds. That gives me hope.
That gives me hope because if more and more of us can be part of the process, be part of that constructive change, we can better not only make Congress work better for us and make Congress represent be representative of the people that tries to represent. I think that that'll bring the kind of change and progress that we all want to see, whether it's in our cities, or it's in our country, or whether it's in the defense.
Of our democracy.
Wonderful, well, Duror. We hope to have you back, you know, as you continue your quest for the California's thirtieth congressional seat, and as we you know, kind of look ahead to twenty twenty four and we are in it. We would love to have the opportunity to revisit this conversation and check in on how your campaign is going. But thank you so much for your time today and words.
Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks for being bring a light on so many issues and on Urmnian issues today and for everything you do. I look forward to being back talk to you soon.
Appreciate you. That is it for me today. Dear friends on woke a app as always, power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.