WE ARE YOUR NEIGHBORS: Real-life stories from Georgians in Tumultuous Time

Third Act Georgia, Indivisible Cobb, We Are Your Neighbors and STAND will host a public forum with a wide range of Georgians telling personal stories about how recent political developments and government actions have shaped their lives. At a moment of sharp partisan disagreement and angry claims and counter-claims, we are holding this event in the conviction that Americans are not as divided as we may appear – that we identify as humans and neighbors before we register as Republicans, Democrats or Independents. We believe in the power of personal stories – stories of struggle and tenacity – to bring us down from the rhetorical clouds to a clearer and more grounded view of some of the deepest questions facing our country.
Featured speakers include:

Rodney Taylor, Loganville barber and double amputee who spent more than a year in ICE detention.

Ed Anderson, former Air Force pilot and TV weatherman who credits the Department of Veterans Affairs with saving his life. He wants younger vets to be as fortunate as he was.

Sherry Beavers, nurse and clinic director with an up-front view of Georgia’s Medicaid work requirement and its effects on rural health care.

Molly Edlein, on growing up nonbinary – a good-luck story.

Ted Pestorius, forced into retirement after a 35-year career at the CDC working on vaccines and infectious diseases.

Ron Kelley, Iraq and Afghanistan vet whose political outlook changed, dramatically, after he landed a job as a housing inspector.

*Additional speakers to be announced.

REGISTRATION: Free, https://actionnetwork.org/events/we-are-your-neighbors?source=direct_link&

INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE ON-SITE OR IN-ADVANCE WITH SPEAKERS OR WITH JAMES LARDNER, ONE OF THE ORGANIZERS:
James Lardner is a journalist, activist and co-founder of We Are Your Neighbors. A longtime contributor to The New Yorker, he has also written for The American Prospect and The Nation and has appeared on C-SPAN and DemLabs as well as local radio and TV stations. His books include NYPD: A City and Its Police (co-author) and Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and Its Poisonous Consequences (contributor and co-editor).

The mission of the We Are Your Neighbors project is to tell the stories of a broad selection of Americans – veterans, farmers, small-business owners, civil servants, Medicaid beneficiaries, immigrants and others – whose lives have been impacted by recent federal government policies.

Third Act is a national organization of older Americans working for a genuine democracy and a livable planet.

Indivisible Cobb is part of a grassroots, non-partisan movement devoted to protecting democracy and defeating authoritarianism.

STAND is a grassroots organizing group, based in Decatur, Georgia, which supports marginalized communities through direct aid, community-based action, and civic engagement.