Ayanna Pressley

Ayanna Soyini Pressley (born February 3, 1974) is an American politician who has been serving as the U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 7th congressional district since 2019.

Quotes

 * The people closest to the pain should be the closest to the power.
 * 12/9/20 on Twitter


 * Don't call these cabinet resignations anything but a Profile in Cowardice. They're resigning to avoid invoking the 25th amendment. Congress & the people see right through it. We must impeach & remove.
 * 1/7/21 on Twitter


 * A 17 year old white supremacist domestic terrorist drove across state lines, armed with an AR 15. He shot and killed 2 people who had assembled to affirm the value, dignity, and worth of Black lives. Fix your damn headlines.
 * 26 August 2020 tweet about Kyle Rittenhouse
 * Ayanna is incorrect about Kyle being armed while crossing into Wisconsin from Illinois, the criminal complaint states the rifle was purchased in and kept in Illinois.

Interview with Democracy Now (2020)

 * It was a sham of a State of the Union, following the sham of a trial. The occupant of this White House has contempt for the American people, for the role of Congress as a coequal branch, as checks and balance, contempt for our Constitution. And so it was a sham of a State of the Union to me.


 * I did do, have the honor of delivering, the Working Families Party response, because we already know the state of the union. It’s in complete chaos and disarray. I wanted to speak to the state of the movement, which is strong as hell.


 * We are not a monolith. We amplify and support each other, however we choose to show up in the resistance. I couldn’t believe the folks that were saying, “You’re not going to the State of the Union. That is your job. We want our money back. Because if I didn’t show up to work, I would be docked pay.” Well, talk to the Senate, because they haven’t been doing their job this whole Congress.


 * we’re actually in the momentum. And what I mean by that is, in the way that we are intentional about bringing our ancestors into spaces, I have got to bring people like Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters. This did not — this, yes, you know, there is a paradigm shift occurring, but there have been women before us, women of color before us, black women before us, who shook the table, who called to question, who sought justice, who were the truth tellers, who preserved our democracy. And we are simply honoring and trying to be good stewards of the ground that they laid.


 * we are often characterized as being disruptive. Now, if we were in Silicon Valley, we would be called innovators. So, yes, yeah, we are disrupters. We are innovators. And contrary to the opinion of many, we are actually patriots, because dissent is the ultimate patriotism.


 * what I want us to get to is — and you already do it, but we need more, more folk to be intentional and inclusive in our movement building and our coalition building and the breaking down of silos and of challenging folk to have equitable outrage.


 * I need people to understand the link between the humanitarian crisis at the border and babies being ripped from their mother’s arms and what happened in my household, in millions of American households, when my father was in and out of the criminal legal system for 14 years for being an addict. So, I’m for the preservation of family, from the border and, as I would say in my district, all the way to Blue Hill Avenue. So, it’s not a competition; there is no hierarchy of hurt. If you are aghast at the crisis of human trafficking globally, then don’t look at what’s happening in your own backyard and see that as blight and affecting your property values, and not understand the brokenness and not see those folks as your neighbors. If you are concerned about human rights violations and abuses and what is happening to women and rape being used as a tool of war and oppression, please pay attention to what is happening right here. If you are concerned about the violation, the undermining of women’s rights globally, then pay attention to what’s happening with Hyde and the gag rule and the ROE Act and in our courts and abortion.


 * And so, our freedoms and our destinies are tied. And what we need to get to is stop what Ilhan and I have often referred to as like the Oppression Olympics. You know, this is not a competition for who is sinking the fastest. There is no hierarchy of hurt. And so, what I’m looking for is equitable outrage, inclusive organizing and our collective upliftment.

Quotes about Ayanna Pressley

 * The Ocasio-Cortez/Markey Green New Deal resolution goes to considerable lengths to outline how it plans to avoid repeating these injustices, listing as one of its core goals "stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth." As Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley said at a town hall in Boston, "This is not just an opportunity to fix the first New Deal, but also to transform the economy."
 * Naomi Klein On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal (2019)