Independent Lens

choir vocalizing "Amazing Grace"

choir vocalizing

helicopter blades whirring

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narrator

"A Day in the Life of America," now only on Independent Lens.

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narrator

Good morning, and a happy 4th of July. If you guys are just waking up with us, we're so glad you're here, grabbing maybe that first cup of coffee. We have a beautiful day coming up for you. We're doing what John Adams told us to do. He said we should commemorate the day with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, and we got the illuminations for you here tonight. Everyone excited for the fireworks, and most of the country is going to see pretty nice weather. Amid all the celebration, there is a heavy police presence. Bus barricades to block terrorists from using cars as weapons. This is the new security normal for July 4th.

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A major move by North Korea overnight. It successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the US. It was North Korea's own version of fireworks for the 4th of July. The country's leader, Kim Jong-un, celebrating the test. He is on a very deliberate course to develop a nuclear capability that can hit the continental United States. It was no coincidence that this latest launch was on the 4th of July. President Trump responding on Twitter saying, "Does this guy have anything better to do with his life?"

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I worked in a factory out of high school, lost my job due to outsourcing to Mexico. My neighbor drove a semi, who lived next to me, and I put a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon on his kitchen table, and I said, "Teach me how to drive that. "I'm not going to be your bitch, but I'll help you clean it, but teach me old-school," and the old guy did. I'm working on 3 million miles. I've been out here 27 years. I love this job. I'm not kidding you, man. I've been in all states except for Hawaii, naturally. They haven't built that bridge yet.

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I've seen sunsets across the oceans. You see moose. You see, you know, coyotes. I see eagles eating deer. And then New York, coming across the George Washington Bridge, oh, my God, take your breath away. The buildings, they're massive, and the lights and the bridges and-- oh, it's just beautiful. You get to see the growth of the nation as a whole, and then you can see where it gets pretty decrepit-looking and old, and they don't want to put money into anything, and that's a sad thing. But America, I think we're in good shape, and everywhere is going to have their problems, but just be glad you're here. You're free. I'm so proud to be an American, I could cry right now. I'm not kidding you. I could cry. I love America. I really do. I'm not kidding. On the way to go paragliding, a little black-tailed jackrabbit ran out in front of me and looks like he's lunch. It might sound old and clich and a bit played out, but, to me, America really means freedom.

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We kind of live in a little bubble out here in the mountains, where we're kind of disconnected from big city life and urban style. We live a slow-paced life out here and kind of focus on family and the things that are important. America is just, like, the chance to do what you want to do. And I feel like this is a place where I could just go for it, take that risk. Ah! Thirty-five thousand people come down here just for this event. They just go crazy. It's a celebration of summer. If you get to the bottom of the mountain and you're not bleeding, then you didn't try hard enough. America means an opportunity to be more than we ever thought that we could be. With a combination of hard work and cooperation, you can have anything that you dream of.

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Well, my kids think I'm too old for this. I got news for them. I built this car. So many different types of people from different walks of life come together to lift each other up and be better. This is the land of the free created by the people, for the people, and I am part of the people. To me, America is still beautiful and intact and perfect. We are afforded some of the greatest opportunities to just be who you want to be. It's something you'd fight for. Amazing grace How sweet the sound That saved a wretch Like me I once was lost But now I'm free Was blind but now I'm free How much have you had to drink today? Uh, not that much.

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All right. We live in the home of the free. That's not true. - Yes, it is. It's not true. - Yeah. No, it ain't. - Okay. We live in a home where things can be taken from you-- Home of the brave. Freedom of prayer, freedom of religion. Can you say prayers in school anymore? Yes! - No, you can't. Yes, you can. You're too afraid to offend somebody. Hopes for the future? Be alive? Hope to be alive? This holiday is pointless. Yes, it is. - This holiday is pointless. No, it isn't-- - No, it's pointless. There's nothing that we're-- everything is controlled. Nothing that we have is ours anymore. It can be taken away at any time. Boom! - Boom.

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narrator

No. We got it. Flip it up... and let her go like this. You got a safety and a fire. I'll show you something.

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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna, Krishna Hare Mantra has two parts, "man" and "tra." "Man" means mind. "Tra" means to deliver or to relieve, so when we sing these mantras, we get rid of negativities, the greed, the envy, the fear, the lust, the illusion, so all these negativities which are there in our heart, will go away, and singing kirtans as a musical meditation is an integral part of the yoga practice. All that which is needed is to give of ourselves, to surrender to the sound vibrations as we are singing and meditating on these mantras, so we sing this Hare Krishna mantra, which is very simple. It just has three words, "Hare," "Krishna," and "Rama," which are repeated.

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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna, Krishna Hare, Hare So all these mantras, they were... sort of the property of high-class priests in India, and there was this personality by name Shri Chaitanya in 15th century who is considered as an avatar of Krishna, who came and who brought this mantra from the property of high-class priests and distributed it widely across everyone in India. And it was A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who brought this kirtan culture to the land of America and, from there, everywhere else.

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I was working in a job where I was basically someone's bitch, and it was probably the worst job ever, which is kind of how I fell into doing porn.

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Let's do a little show. I got into the industry originally for gangbangs. It's fun. What are some of the challenges? Family. It's not an easy job. It seems easy, but it's really not. It's not the kind of job that you can settle for. If you're just doing it for money, and the money gets low and the work gets low and you start getting desperate, that's when things usually end up getting scary. And it does really, really mess up your life. I lost all my friends. Dating is close to impossible, so you have to do it because you love it. I don't feel like I'm living the American Dream, but I'm not doing that bad either. I didn't know that people like me existed until I was 20. I think one of the worst feelings that you can ever have is thinking that you're the only person in the world with a certain feeling. I legitimately thought I am crazy, and I did certain things because of that.

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I was the first transgender person from the Hasidic community. Ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews are trying to recreate a nostalgic utopia of Jewish life. They sheltered themselves of the outside world. People on average get married about, like, 17, 18 years old, so that's, like, the family I grew up in. Once I left 5 years ago, I wouldn't have dreamt that I will be free in every sense of life. It's one of the best things I have now, is a supportive community, supportive friends.

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America is not perfect, although I think the concept of America is fairly perfect. We just got to make sure to perfectly work on that concept.

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When I was growing up, I never thought that I would be in a relationship with a man and about to be married. I never thought that this is a life that would be accessible to me. I always thought that I would probably either just be "alone and straight" or I would just marry some woman and just make it work. For better or for worse, America has enabled me to reach those dreams but also hampered those dreams, just based on the history of this country. But my hopes and my goals are through just living as a giant, gay Black man in Texas that someone will see me walking down the street and say, "That person is being his authentic self." America is about giving people the opportunity to rise above their circumstances. But that is not evenly applied throughout the entire country. Like, it's so

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stupid because he said that he told Todd and Ashley that we would come over there and hang out, but I

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already made

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plans with him to

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go over to

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today. Like, I

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-- I already made sure that today we was

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going to

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hang out and

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. And, like, every time I

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do

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, it's like I can't do nothing

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right or that everything I

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try to do isn't good enough, and I can't

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make him happy. It just

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pisses me off. I'm so

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tired of it.

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We have nothing in this town to do, nothing in this community to keep us busy and keep us off the streets. There's no skating rinks. There's no movie theaters. There's no jobs. There's nothing besides dope. Nothing. It's

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the

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hole of America. Welcome to Greenbrier County,

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junkie central. It burns your

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throat. It feels like it's like-- like, I don't know. Like, dude, it feels like it's melting your throat away when you

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smoke it. Like, the first little bit of it, it doesn't, but after a while, your throat gets, like, tender and raw. Makes you itchy as

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, too. We used to be a really tight community, but it started as an opioid epidemic, and that started to break down our community. It turned people into somebody they never thought they would be. I've been fighting it for seven years, man, and I'm not winning. I'm scared for my daughter's future. I'm scared that I'm going to be stuck doing the same thing that I'm doing now 20 years from now, no job, homeless, still searching for dope. I'm scared that she's going to grow up and look at me as a monster, and then I'm scared at the same time that she might fall into the same pattern as me and become a drug addict herself. Damn it, I was hoping there was going to be at least one more hit, dude. We're always going to be battling a war on drugs, but if nobody is trying to do nothing, then it's just going to keep getting worse.

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What I grew up believing is that America is the greatest country on Earth. But where I live... I sometimes have doubts about that. It has been a violent holiday here in Chicago, and police are working on ways to crack down on the violence. Mothers, I challenge you to take the guns out of your children's hands. I challenge you, women, to put the guns out of your homes. It just seem like we're on an island by ourself, and no one wants to come out and help us and give us the resources and jobs and education that we need to survive. I'm scared of gunshots, because when I hear them, my heart start racing, and I run. I seen people get shot. I seen the bullet fly past me, but it was like...

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I'm going to be a police officer, because I want to help people. If I see somebody with a gun, I'm going to point my gun at them and tell them to put they gun down. You need to come now. - What's going on? Somebody got shot. - Yeah.

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They said they heard the shots. I didn't hear them. I did. I heard them. I thought those were fireworks. What really scares me about the violence with kids is that, to them, it's become normal. There's nothing they can do about it or adults can do about it, and so they bury it, and there's no counseling. There's nobody to say, "Hey, let's release that so it don't come out later." Is it anybody we know, though? It is? The people and the children that live in this community want the same thing that America promised everybody, which is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But the reality for them is, their community and their neighborhood is their America. This is it. This is our America.

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There are two Americas, one that's great and beautiful and idealistic... And there's an America that don't quite mesh up with the ideals. Our country was founded on a good idea, but it don't follow the Declaration of Independence, and not everybody gets the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Black people didn't have the same opportunities to live the American Dream after World War II. Discrimination was still legal at that time. Right. So veterans came home and wanted to buy a home for their families. They were denied, and there was nothing that anyone could do about it. They were denied those financial means, segregated into neighborhoods that they didn't want to live in, so whereas life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness may have meant something to some people, it was different, historically, for Black people. There's a conflict sometimes between the reality and the ideal. You know, the ideal is that all men are created equal, all men are endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights. Give me your tired and your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free. I think these are lofty ideas, so all we're doing is calling our nation attention back to those lofty ideas that everyone should be able to enjoy.

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America, to me, is, like, a country of freedom, maybe pursue your dreams, you know, maybe even just a starting point so that way you can become successful. It means a lot because we came, like, from slavery. Now, like, we can ride on the bus, front and the back, and, like, we have freedom. America means a lot to me because we do different things in America, and America helps us. It means to me that exciting things are waiting to happen. My dreams is for all my kids is to grow up right and make the best for themselves, to be able to sit back and watch them as an old man and say I helped contribute to who these fine people have grown to be. We're all in the same boat, and we have to work to try to make this country great, but not in the sense that I'm hearing about America being great. I'm talking about an America that lives up to its promise to every people, that you can come to America. You can be in America and make a life for yourself. Look here. Let me see that. His name Nelson Mandela, and he told us that it's not your light inside that you are inadequate of shining, but by shining your own brightness, it encourages other people to shine, also, so make sure that you shine your light to encourage the next person to shine, as well. This country is not the country that our founding fathers had envisioned and created for us.

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You know, for us whites that ancestors founded this country, it's more of the American Scheme than the America Dream for us. Our government has sold us out for the almighty dollar. You know, my generation-- I'm 24 years old. I don't have a future in this country, and, you know, it really makes me sick to imagine what's going to happen to the next generation that come after me. Really? This was painted especially for me. They have two other women comforting the main one, that she's upset about how the world is going, how America is going to hell, basically. I make the Klan robes for our group. This is actually going to be used at the public demonstration July 8th, which we're having in Charlottesville, Virginia, so spending our 4th of July on getting the robes done. If someone said, "I'll offer you $2 million right now. You walk away from the Klan forever," I would tell them to keep it because, I mean, being in the Klan is my life. America has been turned into a melting pot. They've let everybody come in here from every country and every race and every part of the world to melt and mix with the white people, but America wasn't originally started that way. It should be restored back to a white, Christian society. To me, this is the chosen land for the white race, and we're the chosen people of God. It states that clearly in the Bible, and I'm telling all white people out there to arm yourself. Start stocking up on food, water, because the

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is about to hit the fan. There is a race war coming. It's time to stand up and fight for the race. We'll put the world back in submission, and we will set the cycle straight.

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As First Nations people, a lot of times, people forget that we still are here. People think that we don't exist anymore. I'm afraid of just losing who we are and what we represent. We are covered up, in a sense.

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America was once our home, and now it's gone. In today's society, we're not going in a positive direction. We're taking steps backwards, but if we are able to look at what Mother Earth and what nature has to offer, we'll be able to survive and exist here on Mother Earth as the Great Spirit has intended for us, mitakuye oyasin. I want non-Natives to understand that we are mitakuye oyasin, which means, "We are all related," and we are all one. But there's still a lot of inequality in not just our people but other races. The American Dream hasn't lived up to the potential of what it means. Good afternoon, everyone. Happy 4th of July, everybody. Good afternoon this 4th of July. From the city to the shore, the celebration is well underway. If you're about to light up your grill and go to town on some barbecued hot dogs, you're not the only one today. Americans will spend over $7 billion for food for Independence Day cookouts and picnics. It's all about being American. Actually, it's about becoming American. There are also people that are becoming US citizens today and celebrating in that way, 15,000 people, to be exact. These ceremonies are happening all over the country. Every time a child is born in America or an immigrant becomes an America citizen, we are indeed giving a new birth. You will be 100% as American as me or as George Washington or as any other American who ever lived.

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This is a very important day in my life. Fourth July is my second birthday. I'm a new citizen today, but I've been in the country for 60 years. I'm so glad that you guys, like, accept me as a new citizen. Thank you! We need to have our own country. The only hope for Western civilization is to realize that diversity, multiculturalism, and globalism is profoundly unjust. We open our borders to these immigrants, and then when we say, "No, we don't want that," they accuse us of being racist. It is an unfair and crazy situation. We have been the caretaker for the world for a long, long time. I do think that we need to pull the horns back in and secure America, secure America's borders. We need to do a better job of critiquing the people who come into our country.

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I do not know what the carrying capacity of America is, but I do know that, at whatever that carrying capacity is, we need to do the best that we can to protect the existing citizens we have. It's for safety. We need to put an end to the darkness of ignorance that creates animosity and hatred out of not knowing one another... Because it's hurting America as a country of justice, as a country of values. Islamophobia is a huge concern for all of us. When the Muslim ban was announced, we saw this as something very harmful and something that is not acceptable. ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Shabab, Al-Nusra are the real enemies of our faith. Here, nobody consider KKK as representatives of Christianity. This segregation between Muslims and Christians and Jews and other communities in this country is, like, a serious sin. President Trump wakes up in the White House this morning just in time to ring in his first 4th of July as Commander in Chief. We are standing by live, waiting for President Trump. The Trump White House, it's the Fourth Reich. We have a German in the White House, a German that does not like immigrants, yet his father and his mother were an immigrant. Fireworks, parades, and protests. A dramatic day here at the White House, a game of diplomatic chicken between Washington and Pyongyang. It's possible we'll hear more from him on this when he's expected to address families here for a picnic.

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Hey, hey, ho, ho! Donald Trump has got to go! I think our president is going to self-destruct before his term is over. Somehow, 49% of the population decided to elect a dictator. There's been a lot of fear instilled in people that all these scary foreigners, whether they're Mexican or Muslim or Middle Eastern, are, you know, coming to their country, and that they're out to get them. With this election, people voted out of fear and championed white supremacy.

We are here... all

We are here...

To demand... all

To demand...

The immediate... all

The immediate...

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Impeachment...

Of Trump... all

Of Trump...

On American... all

On American... Independence Day!

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Independence Day!

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Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and Mrs. Trump. Welcome, everyone. The rain stopped just as we came out.

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I don't know what that means, but it's not bad, and happy 4th of July. Man, I'll tell you, I feel a lot better about the state of the country today than I did 4 years ago. In truth, I feel like we at least have somebody in there that's a patriot, you know, that is an American. In the last few months, I think a lot has been done. In the next three years, a lot more is going to be done. Everything is changing. Move or get out the way.

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There is a fascist regime in the White House!

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Not my president! Not my president! He's been helping. He just signed a nice law regarding the veterans to help them further, and veterans, he's their best friend. Today, he has a picnic for the veterans' families, so he loves the vets. I'm actually not a Trump supporter. I'm actually very independent. I'm just here being patriotic, exercising our First Amendment right, our Constitution. Have you read the Constitution? Yes, I have, I'm-- - You've read it? I'm expressing my First Amendment right right now. Yeah, but have you read the whole Constitution? Yeah. - And the Bill of Rights? Yeah, I have. - I bet you haven't. No, I have. - I bet you haven't. I bet I have. - Okay. But-- Well, then you'd know that the president has shredded it and thrown it into the toilet. It is my tremendous honor and pleasure to read this document for you in commemoration of this day. "In Congress, July 4th, 1776."

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The only thing that scares me is the uncertainty and this tipping point. We have people holding on to old ideas, and they are terrified of the new ideas that challenge their means of existence. What scares me is slipping back into this older state of ignorance and not allowing the intellectual evolution to happen. "The unanimous declaration of the 13 United States of America." "When, in the course of human events, "it becomes necessary for one people "to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another..." Hopefully, with Trump, we can get this country turned around, stop illegal immigration, stop the refugees from destroying Western culture, bringing their language and their culture, taking all of our jobs. I want this country to be the way it was when it was founded. "And to assume among the powers of the Earth "the separate and equal stations "to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them." Make America Great Again means going back to a time when not everyone was welcome in our country. "And in kind requires that they should declare the causes which compel them to the separation." And how well you do in our country depends on the color of your skin and being male, things that I think we were moving away from, and now I'm afraid we're moving back towards that. "They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights." "That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." They're trying to bring the country down. They like to call it the establishment, the deep state. It's really the new world order. Trump is not part of this establishment, so they got to tear him down, and I hope they don't kill him. "That to secure these rights"-- These are Donald Trump's... "Among that, deriving their just powers." Americanism-- "That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends -- " They're trying to push into a one world government. You can read about it in the Bible.

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"And to institute government..." You just got to give him a little bit more time. He'll fix it. "And organizing its powers in such form "as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness."

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Gentlemen and ladies, let us unite our voices as not just Virginians, Carolinians, New Yorkers, and all the rest, but let us unite our voices as Americans and give forth three mighty cheers for the free and independent American states. Hip, hip! - Hooray! Hip, hip! Hooray! - Hip, hip! Hooray! God save Congress and success to American arms!

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Fast, fast, fast, fast. America to me is like this gym. We have flags from all around the world, and when you walk in that door, it doesn't matter who you are, what your religious backgrounds are, what your race is, what you identify as. It doesn't matter. You know, we're all brothers and sisters in this gym. That's how America should be. But it's very scattered, and it's in a state of division and ignorance. And what people do with their ignorance is scary. They're so set on their views of what is the world and what's okay and what's not. In a country with so many different people, you can't be ignorant. He's going to push you. - I know. I'm waiting. I'm ready.

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I am Muslim. I am half Black and half white, and my dad is from Pakistan, and so, you know, to me, I'm just an American family. I changed the hijab ban in boxing. When they said, you're not going to fight unless you take it off, I was like, "No. I am going to fight." I want to wear it, and I love wearing it, and it's like my crown. We have freedom of religion. You're going to tell me I can't wear my hijab? That doesn't even make sense, and it just took time and a lot of media attention. I think that's what really pushed them to learn and open their eyes and be like, "Oh, well, maybe it isn't really a problem." Somebody had to do it. Somebody had to say no. Somebody had to say, "I'm not getting off this bus," and it just takes one. If we were to stand up for each other, our America would be in a different state than it is today, but we have to start opening our eyes and stop with the ignorance and stop with the hate, and we got to, you know, love thy neighbor.

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gunshots

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Happy 4th of July.

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Happy 4th of July,

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damn it! Happy 4th of July. - Having some fireworks. They a little fireworks, that's all. This is the mother

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cuddy zone. This is the get your ass robbed, shot, beat up, stabbed, dumped, drastic, violent-ass area. You can see. Just turn the camera and look around this bitch. What are your hopes and dreams? Stay alive and make it out of

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Detroit. Yep, stay alive, make it out of D, take care of my family, you know? A lot of niggas don't make it out of here. This ain't nowhere to come, like, and just chill. You feel me? You be on some

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down here, you getting gone. Pouring up that good promethazine and codeine, that good red drink. - That good drink. Yeah. He going to do the extras. He fixing to tilt it over some extras. Man, what's that? It's only like some light change. That ain't nothing. Light change. - It's light change. I just do this for the recreation. This just, like, recreation money, yo.

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You know, the world is crazy. America crazy. Trump in office.

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Trump. - Nigga, I like Trump. He a piece of

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. He a-- I like Trump. - I don't. He's just a clown. There's nothing real about him, like-- Yes, he all the way real, because he tell the truth. Niggas don't like it, but he tell the truth. Nah, he all for the rich. I feel like he not for us at all, not just speaking in Black in general, but for a mother

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who ain't got no money. We in the hood. You know what I mean? America ain't made for us.

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I thought it was the land of the free, but as you can see, I'm incarcerated.

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At 11 years old, I became a man.

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Basically, I became a man. We never had anything. You know, Christmas went by. I've never, ever had a birthday party, so I don't know what that feels like. I was the oldest out of, like, eight of us, and we had to go to school. I had to make sure they went to school. I had to make sure, you know, they ate because my mom was never there. So I chose to get in the streets, and I chose to steal, and I chose to try to provide, but at 11 years old, you shouldn't have to do that. Then about 12 years old, the gangs started, but that didn't too much work out for me. After spending 13 years in prison, I came home, working two jobs, 6 days a week, 13-hour days. And I swore I would never go back. But one bad decision happened. And now it's all over with. Falsely accused, wrongfully accused. Nobody wants to stand up and give me my independence. But I'm fighting. I'm going to continue to fight until something happens or something changes. A lot of my life is good for sitting around a campfire, but I don't know if I'd want to broadcast it all over the world.

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To be honest, my life has been kind of a failure... Because I ain't got nothing. The only thing I got is my two dogs. You want me to recite that poem? Yeah, go on. - "Time Will Tell" by Woodrow Wilson Suggs, Jr.

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"Man has tamed the mighty beast, "and man has tamed the land. "Even the creatures of the seas obey to man's command." "The forceful winds and driving rains "give way to manmade fronts, "yet man can't tame his own desires or control his foolish stunts." "His lust for power of the world, "his will to conquer all, "has made man's world a worthless waste "and very, very small. "He's climbed the mountains to the sky. "He's searched the ocean floor. "Still, his soul's not satisfied. The stars he must explore." "Now man has reached his no return, just onward he must push..." "And only time will us when, if ever, man will learn."

somber music

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My name is Cirilo Ortiz. I'm a welder, and I'm a proud father. What America means to me? It means home. It means the place where I was born, the place where my father brought me to get a better life. The American Dream, it's something you work for. It's hope. You can accomplish what you want to accomplish, and you can become whatever you want to become as long as you work for it. The American Dream is whatever you make it. The state of the country? It's run by corporate America. It's white. It's just a puppet show. It's all fake and lies. The people who end up getting hurt the most is minorities. It's a place where you got to survive. My fears are me not accomplishing my goals and me being stagnant and being stuck in the same spot where I'm at and not advancing. My biggest fear is not being a father to my daughter and not making my dad proud. I'm afraid of... failure. My hopes and dreams is to accomplish the goals that I set and become a contributing member of society and be there for my daughter and be a father to my daughter like my dad was to me.

footsteps crunching

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America holds a very special place in my heart... Because it's the country that saved my life. It happened February 2011. I was number one in Canada as a tennis player in the juniors, so very fit, elite athlete. I started having head pressure, dizziness, and muscle weakness. I went from training five hours a day to then struggling to go to class to then just struggling to stand up. My health was deteriorating completely, where I was spending my days on the couch. The biggest challenge of my day was going up the stairs at night to go to bed because I wasn't able to walk. After four years of hell and seeing doctors after doctors, no one knew what was going on with my body. Everyone had given up on me. They told me to learn to live that way. I looked all over the world. I was lucky to find a team of neurosurgeons in California. They found a tumor in the center of my brain. For the first time in four years, I was able to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had doctors saying, "Yes, if we do this risky surgery, "you're going to get your life back and be able to get back to your old self." That was two years ago, and I'm currently walking across America. Throughout this whole adventure, I've been treated so well, people opening their houses to me. You know, when you're so close to dying or not having a normal life anymore, that's when you realize how lucky we are and that we should probably spend more time with our loved ones, say "I love you" to the people that you care for, smile, laugh more, forgive more. When you look back on your life, that's what you're going to regret, if you haven't done it. I was a bodybuilder. I weighed 217 pounds and had 18-inch arms. I know one thing. Cancer is a bitch. You know, when I was diagnosed in July of '14 with a tumor, my mother wasn't in the room at the moment, thank God. I don't have any fear, except, of course, the loss of my son. And that would be hard to cope with.

somber music

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But we'll make it through. I know we will. This monster is just inside, eating away at me, you know? Eating, eating away at everything I have. See, I'm not ready. I'm at peace. I'm at peace with the world, but I don't want to go yet. I'm tired of being sick, but I've got to stretch it out as long as I can. I love my family, but they're all fading away. I have a daughter that's married, and I'm a grandpa. I didn't think I was going to get to see that. I cry about it all the time, because there's nothing I can do. My time is getting real close. I can't think of anything that I've gone through that wasn't worth every bit of what I did. My children, my husband, my family, that was my dream. The American Dream? I think I had it. I had it for a little while. God will take care of us... if we let him. It doesn't mean that things aren't going to happen. It does mean that, with help from Him, it... it will be solved.

raindrops pattering

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Fourth of July, we try to get together with our brothers and sisters, just like any other family, but at the end, we worship the true God, Yahweh, and we come together, and we have a cross lighting.

thunder rumbling

low tense music

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It really is God's curse. If that's not true, I don't know what else is. In 1920, 1925, America was one of the strongest, most powerfullest nations. It's because half of Congress and half of senators were Klansmen. It took a white man to run this nation, and it's going to continue taking white people to run this nation.

water sloshing

wildlife chittering

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And my goal with this Klan is to open the doors into the White House again.

bittersweet music

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We have a lot of hatred in this world. We have a lot of violence in this world. My hope is that one day, we can live in a country that doesn't hate each other. And I don't know that we'll ever get there in my lifetime, but hopefully we'll at least make some progress moving in that direction. I love our country. I'm just tasked with being on the end of it where I deal with death mostly, so I don't get to see the happy side of America much because I'm dealing with the grieving side of America. People sometimes forget how to live, and by the time they die, it's too late.

romantic big band music, warping

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Hang on. It's dying. We got to crank it up. Before you can plug it in the wall, you got to crank it up. And we're off to the races.

music playing normally

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Hey, you want to dance? - No!

soft laughter

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I'm going to twirl you. Don't fall. Okay. - There you go. Your husband is going to be jealous. Well, yeah, because he can't dance, God love him.

laughter and indistinct chatter

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tense music

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We've run out of George Washingtons and Abe Lincolns. We've run out of those kind of people. Because of the conduct of the citizens of this nation, we're reaping what we sow. We have forgotten who created us. And unless people are willing to embrace that, then they're asking for trouble. It's plain as nose on your face. If we're going to continue to exist as a free country... we need to treat one another as really brothers and sisters.

car engine sputtering

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indistinct chatter

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Get back. Get back, Baltimore. This is dangerous. Ah, it look gorgeous. Oh!

indistinct chatter and laughter

gentle inspiring music

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America is the continuation of an experiment. It's still being worked on daily, both politically and even personally, and we have to keep manipulating the experiment to get it right. People are divided in an emotional way. They've sort of forgotten what it means to be American. We're all together and united, that we're part of a team together... And we need to be that through no matter what kind of storm we weather.

fireworks cracking

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We might have lost track of what it's all about. We should all be doing what's best for everyone, and the only way to do that is a little bit of compromise. Consensus is a very difficult thing to find these days. The good news is, people who ideologically think the opposite of what I do, we find common ground every day. But it takes a little more listening, a little less yelling. It's important to remember how hard we fought to have the freedoms we do today and to help remember the hardships that all those troops went through in order to gain that for us. It's not a sacrifice that should be easily forgotten. We fought for this country, and we need to continue to fight for the future of our country. While things might look dark on the moment, when we look on the bigger picture, the last 70 years since the end of World War II, the least people have died from war and hunger and famine than ever in recorded history. At the end of the day, we all want the same things. Forget race, forget borders, forget religion. There's nothing wrong with being nice to everybody all the time. Love each other a little bit more. -

whining

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Ow! Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Reach down. Reach down. Oh, my God. Oh, hi. Hi, baby. Hi. - Hi.

baby fussing

soft indistinct chatter

"Rescue Me" by Thirty Seconds to Mars

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Whatever you do, don't ever play my game Too many years being the king of pain You got to lose it all if you want to take control Sell yourself to save your soul Rescue me Rescue me, rescue me Rescue me