It was less than a year after September 11th

And I was at the Chicago Tribune writing about shootings and murders

And it was leaving me feeling pretty dark and depressedI′ve done activism in college

So I decided to help a local group hang door knockers against animal testing

I thought it would be a safe way to do something positive

But of course I have the absolute worst luck ever and we were all arrested

My charges were dismissed

But a few weeks later two FBI agents knocked on my door

And they told me that unless I help them by spying on protest groups

They put me on a domestic terrorist list

I'd love to tell you that I didn′t flinch but I was terrified

And when my fear subsided I became obsessed

With finding out how this happened

How animal rights and environmental activists

Who have never injured anyone

Could become the FBI's number one domestic terrorism threat?

A few years later I was invited to testify before Congress about my reporting

And I told lawmakers that

While everybody is talking about going green

Some people are risking their lives to defend forests

And to stop oil pipelines

They're physically putting their bodies on the line

Between the whalers′ harpoons and the whales

These are everyday people

Like the protesters in Italy who spontaneously climbed over barbed wire fences

To rescue beagles from animal testing

These movements have been incredibly effective and popular

So in 1985 their opponents made up a new word

"Eco-terrorist"

To shift how we view them

They just made it up

Now companies like Fyser and the Cattlemen′s Beef Association

The Third Commission, Ringling brothers

They've all backed new laws to silence their opponents

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act turns activism into terrorism

If it causes a loss of profits

Now most people never even heard about this law

Including members of Congress

Less than one percent were in the room when it passed the House

The rest were outside at a new memorial

They were praising Dr King

As his style of activism is branded as terrorism

If done in the name of animals or the environment

Supporters say laws like this are needed for the extremists

The vandals, the arsonists, the radicals

But right now companies like TransCanada

Are briefing police about how to prosecute non-violent protesters as terrorists

The FBI′s own training documents on eco-terrorism are not about violence

They're about public relations

Today in multiple countries

Corporations are pushing new laws that make it illegal

To even photograph animal cruelty on their farms

The first of these "Ag-Gag" prosecutions, as they′re called

Was a young woman named Amy Meyer

And Amy saw a sick cow being moved by a bulldozer outside of a slaughterhouse

As she was standing on the public street

And Amy did what any of us would

She filmed it

When I found out about her story I wrote about it

And within 24 hours it created such an uproar

That the prosecutors just dropped all of the charges

But apparently even exposing stuff like that is a threat

Through the Freedom of Information Act

I learned that the Counter Terrorism Unit has been monitoring my articles and speeches

Just like this one

The point of all of this is to make us afraid

But as a journalist I have an unwavering faith in the power of education

Our best weapon is sunlight

Dostoevsky wrote that the whole work of man

Is to prove that his a man and not a piano key

Over and over throughout history people in power have used fear

To silence the truth and to silence dissent

It's time to strike a new note

The way that we do that

The way that we fight fear in the way we move forward

Isn′t by placing our faith in politicians and CEO's

It's by coming together in our own communities of resistance

It′s no accident that again and again and again

The people on the front lines defending the earth and the animals have come from this

From punk, from hardcore

From basement shows and liner notes and records like this one

From hearing that these laws have no meaning

Past the setting of the sun

I know how bleak and overwhelming this all can feel

I struggle with that darkness every single day

But despite it all I draw power from this

I draw power from seeing handfuls of people

No different than you or I

With no money and no special training

Fight back so fiercely

That it has rattled the most powerful industry on the planet to their core

I heard this interview with Rodney Mullen a while back

People calling him the godfather of street skating

But he said that thing about the Bones Brigade and that era of skateboarding was that

It was so much more than any individual

It′s like a match he said

A match only has power because of the atmosphere around it

The air that allows it to ignite and allows the flame to breathe

I'm not sure what the appropriate response is right now

The appropriate response to capitalism′s relentless destruction on the natural world

In the repression of those who dare to resist it

But I know that each time we choose compassion over greed

Each time we turn our fear into rage

Each time we refuse to live an ordinary life

That atmosphere only grows

And the brighter every new fire will burn