Community Spotlight: Linda Ayer

So, start? >> Yeah. >> Hi. I'm Linda Ayer, actually one of four Linda Ayer people in the area. There's three in Burlington and one in Colchester. I wonder sometimes how they view my politics. >> [laughter] [snorts] >> Um, what do >> So, I should speak to wonder and I I have I have been out there. I now walk with a walker um because of falling and um it just so happens I'm in a lot of pictures >> [laughter] >> whether I want to be or not. Um yesterday I went to White Cap, which is on Industrial Avenue. And there different groups that protest there. It's one of two facilities in the whole country that gather data on you and me and everyone else. >> [snorts] >> Um it's very scary to think of the data they get. Um and then also they [snorts] use that to target immigrants. So, what's going on in in the Burlington area is frightful, disgusting to me. >> Mhm. >> Um I have been worried about fascism since I was 11. >> Yeah. >> And we are now in a fascist state. So, it's it's troubling. Makes me really angry, makes me depressed and the only way I feel good is if I'm demonstrating. >> Yeah. >> Three to five times a week if I can do it. Um I think it's important that people see a regular face they might see around town and know I too can do this. >> Yeah. >> This is my third Oh, yeah, I was going to say I was arrested. I've been arrested three times. >> Three times. >> One was >> Um >> Uh most recently was like >> On Friday. Yeah. Um we were we were inside the White Cap building protesting against them. Um yeah, I've actually been arrested three times. We call it a hat trick in hockey. So, the first one was '71 against the Vietnam War. >> [snorts] >> The next one is in the early '80s against what we were doing in El Salvador. And it was time. So, I got arrested Friday. Sorry, the other I go back. The other um demonstration I went to yet yesterday was um a group of people do a silent vigil opposite the ICE one of the ICE buildings on Harris Lane in Williston. There I've been a group of people doing a silent vigil, a meditative vigil um on Harvest Lane every Wednesday from 4:00 to 5:00. Uh we did it all through the winter. It was a really cold winter. And sometimes you'd be really hoping the minutes would go by faster. It's much easier to do it in this weather except I don't like the heat. >> What is your goal in going to the police? >> Um to let people know in the area what like in terms of the silent vigil, what that building is. I don't know that anybody knows. It doesn't have any sign on it. Um so, we sit there silently uh with a couple of signs, ICE is over there. Um and then what I've seen in the time that I've been with them, which is about 9 months. Um these people have been doing it for a few years, a number of years. Um that there are more people beeping, honking, and waving. Um which to me only means that hopefully there are more and more people doing this. Uh For me, complacency is complicity, and that can't be. Not if we're going to maintain democracy, but I I say that we're already living in a fascist state. >> Yeah, absolutely. Do you think that through through these demonstrations we can pull ourselves out of this fascist state? >> It's going to take a lot. It's going to take, unfortunately, generation, generations to uh undo a lot of the harm that's been done. Um >> [snorts] >> like with drones and and being responsible for what? The deaths of 700,000 people? It's just unconscionable. And in our names, with our money, this war. So, yeah, the hope is >> [snorts] >> there is a There's have been studies that for people to change the course of a country, you need 3.5% of the population um to be ready to say, "No more." Um that would most likely come in the form of a general strike. Uh I I think what's important is um certainly conversation is more one-to-one, but >> [snorts] >> again, you're showing people that those are just regular people standing by the side of the road and they have something important to tell you. We've never had an in administration this guilty of corruption, this guilty of killing American citizens on the street, incarcerating so many people. I mean, this is a country of immigrants. The only people who aren't are Native Americans and people of color who were brought here. >> Mhm. >> Um What did you ask me again? >> Um oh, how does the current state compare to what you've seen in the past? >> Right. Uh I've I've been through a number of phases, um including I was very young, but the McCarthy era in the '50s. Um apparently uh our phones were tapped. Um [snorts] my father was a union organizer for a left-wing union. Um once in a while he would say, "Get off the phone. I know you're there." >> Oh my god. >> So, and Vietnam, of certainly the stakes were high for that country, for the people living there. They'd been oppressed for so many years with the French first and then us. Um >> [snorts] >> but there wasn't the wide-scale as they say corruption and trying to other people in this country to the extent that it is now. Um One thing that's interesting actually is in some of the movements that I've been in or aware of, like the peace movement, the civil rights movement. Um like and and the Black Panthers, not that I was a part of it, but a good friend of mine was. Um that they were very uh male-centric. And um so much chauvinistic or very chauvinistic, I guess. Um the groups that I've been a part of, which includes the Resister Sisters. We make the big banners that you see at demonstrations. Um and different Indivisible groups. Um and then some people who do nonviolent work. Um what's remarkable is the sense of inclusion. I mean, it makes sense given that where we've progressed to, but again, all this all the things that we've gained are now totally in jeopardy or we are without. >> So, you mentioned that your father was also at demonstrations, you said. >> Oh, yeah. >> Would you mind telling me a little bit more about that and how that impacted you? >> Sure. Um I grew up in a very activist, left-wing um household. Uh it made it easy for me to go along with those beliefs. I'm always in awe of people who have come to that on their own. And how much uh more eloquent they can speak to a lot of these things. Um my dad was a uh um an organizer for the United Electrical Workers, which was a very left-wing union. Um and he was in World War II, was upset about what happened at the end of the war, wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt cuz Franklin was dead at that point. And um she actually invited him to come He was not a shy man. >> [laughter] >> She invited him to Val-Kill, where she lived, and they talked about how the Marines were used in a political way against Chiang Kai-shek in China. Um so and he helped to form New Jersey Vets for Peace. With war, he understood how horrible, horrendous everything war is. Um so he I We as a family uh would go on demonstrations. He was um Actually, it wasn't only my father, my mother, too, was was an activist. Uh Anyway, we would go to demonstrations as a family. Um at that point, we used to dress up so that people wouldn't marginalize us. Um so many trips to Washington, one of which I was arrested on May Day. A neat [snorts] story about that. Can I tell it? Um >> I'd love to hear about it. >> Um May Day was a a weekend of action in DC, and we were trying to disrupt government as much as we could. Um The next day was more peaceful stuff. I ended up getting arrested with a bunch of friends. Uh >> we were taken to an underground jail >> Wow. >> in DC. Who knew that existed? And, um, there were like 45 of us in a jail cell. And so, we had to take turns standing and sitting. They finally let us out into the hallway. But, anyway, the little story I wanted to tell about my dad was [snorts] I got a phone call finally, uh, one phone call at 3:00 in the morning. And this was long before you could see who was calling you. And my dad picked up the phone and said, "Linda, are you okay?" I was like, "Oh, man." >> You know. >> Yes. Yes. So, uh, I did, um, at one point Dad was, um, asked to be a a, uh, Sorry. Bodyguard. For Martin Luther King. He was doing a march in New York City in '67, the year before he died. Um, it was a peace march, um, >> [snorts] >> he'd come around to realizing that the there were connections between peace and civil rights. Um, so, King didn't trust the New York City cops. So, he asked labor leaders to be his bodyguards. >> [snorts] >> And I It's one of the most important things I have is a picture of of my father. He always wore his Marine Corps uniform cuz he wanted to show that that's could be for peace. Um, I remember my dad telling me a story. It was before the Iraq war started. And he was marching in New York City, and the woman beside him had family in Italy, and they were marching at the same time on on the phone. It was really cool. I I sort of dropped out. I was really disgusted when Eugene McCarthy, this is history, was not chosen. Um and it really I mean, certainly there were still many causes, but I kind of dropped out, young family, and then Bernie came into my life. >> [laughter] >> So, in '81, he was elected mayor. My husband actually, Nat, worked with him a number of times, well, for a number of years, videoing [snorts] him for CCTV. So, um I did a lot of work that you do on political campaigns, door-to-door, calling, um mailings. Uh when Bernie wasn't chosen by the Democratic Party in 2016, which is uh I would like to swear, but I won't. Um that shouldn't have happened. Uh it was a huge disappointment. I don't know how Bernie maintains the way he does. Yeah. So, one of the other things I did was to get active, not running for any office, although I was asked for few times. Um just as a uh ward clerk in Burlington, and um yeah, just active on political campaigns. Uh in fact, a a a good friend who I met at protests, Nikhil Goyal, is running for Chittenden South. I would recommend that anybody who has his name on the ballot really strongly consider him. He's a wonderful guy. Yeah, I was at Dorset Street and um talked with him there at the Dorset Street demonstration. Well, I was actually at a at the vigil that I go to every week and heard that there was action on Dorset Street. Um probably most of you know uh uh ICE was looking for one person. They thought he was in the building or they said they thought he was in the building. They ended up ramming the the door open, which was so shocking to see even though I've seen it a million times on TV. It's very different when you see state cops pulling demonstrators off this little porch and then apparently one of the state troopers' guns went off by mistake. Um anyway, it's >> [sighs] >> I I As I say, I do walk with a walker now. It's become my superpower. Um on Dorset Street that day, this ICE or state cop arrived and said, "I have the warrant." And I went right up to him and I said, "Show me." >> [laughter] >> And then of course he didn't. So I said louder, "I want to see the warrant." >> [laughter] >> Um what would you say to people that maybe want to get involved um in demonstrations but are worried about something like that happening or getting arrested or any violence that >> Um any of the arrests around here, you're warned. If it's a peaceful demonstration, you're warned usually three times. Um although this last one at White Cap, um they only warned us once. Um my body is such that I go limp. Um, the people who did go limp and were carried out, it was really hard to watch that because even if they aren't manhandling you, you still are to some extent. You're rolled over and handcuffed and it was really hard to watch. These are committed people who care about their fellow human beings >> Yeah. >> and they don't deserve to be treated that way. >> Yeah, absolutely. Um Is Do you go into demonstrations always knowing that that's a possibility? >> Most demonstrations that I go to, um, it doesn't even enter my mind. Um, they've all been very peaceful demonstrations. Um again, for me, the issue is complicity. If you aren't doing I mean old saying, if you aren't doing something, you're part of the problem. Um I believe that so firmly. >> Mhm. >> It's an emotional issue for me. Um I just look to Germany and what happened under Hitler >> [snorts] >> and those who don't say anything are responsible. Um My husband and I, Nat and I went to Germany not on purpose. We're doing a >> Mhm. >> a um Eurail Pass. >> Mhm. Oh, yes. >> And it was raining here, so he said, "Well, I need to go see this person." And I said, "We can only go to Germany if we go to Dachau." And the hardest thing about going there was when you realize that you get off the train it's a very short walk to dock out. There's no way that people can say I didn't know. And there's no way that people can say in this country now, I didn't know. >> I think that you've been really inspiring in the community and just continuing to go to demonstrations and >> Thank you. I mean, there are a lot more other people who deserve a lot more praise. Um, there's amazing people and amazing actions that are happening out there. >> Yeah. >> And instead of honking and waving and saying, "Thank you for demonstrating." We say, "Join us." >> Yeah, absolutely.