Thoughts on seeing Amy Goodman's Steal This Story, Please today with Q and A
Went to go see the documentary Steal This Story, Please about the history of Democracy Now! in Milwaukee today-- the alternative news show that began on Pacifica Radio in 1996. I even got a picture with Amy Goodman herself! I was nervous and starstruck, she’s read the headlines to me over coffee for the last 17 years, For those who don’t know she’s a survivor of the Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor and the first journalist to point out the military dictatorship used US weapons to and aid to carry it out and the government supported the doctorship . She also exposed that Shell in Nigeria used company helicopters to fly in Nigerian troops to murder anti oil activists and she got the head of Shell in Nigeria to admit it on tape. Her crew was also the first people to show video of private security at Standing Rock attacking activists with dogs, she was also arrested.
It’s hard to overstate how influential the program has been to me. As a young history major at 19 or so in 2009 It was the first place I heard the voice of Howard Zinn which made me read A People’s History of the United States and that basically gave me the research topic I still write about to this day. One single line in the book quoted my hometown newspaper about how a large part the community opposed the First World War and no one ever told me that. I continue to write about the surveillance of activists and leftists in the period to this day.
The founder of Story Corps also used to work for Amy Goodman. She encouraged him to follow-through with the idea of capturing the stories of ordinary people. To know that as I begin to work on my own oral history project, after being shifted away from working oral history at work due to staffing changes, much to my disappointment, gives me the courage to continue to work on my own project even more outside of my work. Her indignant spirit of never letting anyone stop you from capturing the voices of people that need to be heard inspires me to keep moving forward.
This was definitely a case of being glad I got to meet one of my inspirations! I even got to pet her dog Zazu, who is named after the French resistance cell in World War II--not The Lion King!
After, I got to chat with some nice local activists from Jewish Voice for Peace and the local DSA chapter. Will def become more involved with both. My mom was out of town so I couldn’t spend the day with her today but to be able to spend it with so many people creating solidarity, in so much joy and celebrating the program that helped to cultivate 30 years worth of activists, radical journalists and historians was deeply profound and a close second!
