Carol, a Philadelphian since 1961, on finding hope in unlikely places.

0:00minded and and lighthearted. It’s that combination of where your head is and where your heart is and when they like and then everybody around her like not just around the but you know like a tree with you one space in something called pizza dough. It’s very wild, but it’s it’s hope inspired. Hope instead when every day you struggle to keep hope alive my entire life and it is frightening for me to keep the goal. That’s what we’re down to. What do you want to see happen? I wouldn’t be able to get up here. There’s still hope as I listen and watch to some new horror that’s presented to us all.

1:09And we know what we talk. And are you originally from Philadelphia? Yeah, I’m a Philadelphia. Um, moved into the center of the city in 1961. Been here literally forever. a very magnificent.

1:27Okay. Oh yeah. Manhattan. Then I came back to Philadelphia to change the world as I knew it. Then I wanted to bring what I took with me from New York City. what I learned and experienced, bring it back to my city and change the picture invisibility literally of the world of my own kids who are deaf. So my my passion and my fight for civil and human rights is focused on deaf rights and the language and cultural rights.

2:04Oh yeah, that’s what you’re signing. Uhhuh. Yeah. I would not post anything without Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, here I’ll take this out of your hand then. You’re doing work for people

2:15and sign language and I’m not a professional interpreter anything close to it. But I want to make sure that people who watch me and see me and listen to me know that I’m conscious of the need for full accessibility beyond ramps and wheelchairs built to those steps that kind of thing. Communication accessibility is everything. said that’s my passion, my fight, my struggle, my cause and it never ends. Like we’re watching a devolution of civil and civil rights just adds the death issues. It’s unmatched. So that’s what gives me reason to wake up every morning and stay healthy and stay healthy person. I like that.

3:19Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Can I ask you one more question? Of course. So, I’ve been building this platform called We Them Media. And our goal is to be like a

3:32is to be like, you know, a public good. Oh, I’ve seen this artist before. A public good in the world of like uh journalism specifically. And can we empower like community reporters in different countries, different communities around the world, you know, to come together and use our platform, you know, while promoting discourse across cultures and borders, but really also thinking about how do we make that sustainable for them? How do we get them access to resources, visibility, you know, accountability, you know, how do we actually give them the ability to be the fourth estate for their community, but also, you know, the people looking out for what’s once needed and missing.

4:05And I’m curious, what do you think when you look at like Philadelphia in journalism or the US in journalism? Like what do you think about the state of information?

4:11Oh, it’s horrendous. It’s horrendous. There’s a I’m I’m an MTR addict actually. One of their fantastic journalists murder every day in Gaza for the past two Murder, parking, boom, boom, boom, party and everywhere. They were all confessor most incredible and just shut down NBC. It’s gone. It’s gone. What you ask me? Thank you.

5:55Yeah. Thank you.