Mr. Moderator, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies, I’m not here to talk to you about being a citizen of Florida or an American. I’m here to talk to you about the victims of Americanism. We are standing in a year, 2026, that is more explosive than any that came before it. In my lifetime I have witnessed 60-plus years of empty promises, 60-plus years of filibustering, and 60 more years of structural oppression disguised as progress. It is time to stop playing polite politics. It is time to stop asking for what we have the power to take. I’m not anti-American; I’m anti-oppression. And if this system does not want me to oppose it, then it needs to stop strangling my community.
We are at a crossroads. The ballot is a tool, a weapon if you will, but it is only useful if it is wielded strategically. When you walk into that voting booth, you should not be voting for a party; you should be voting for an agenda. If a politician, whether they wear a blue suit or a red suit, cannot show you in their voting record, not their speeches, not their promises, but their actual, tangible votes, that they are working to dismantle digital redlining, end the militarized policing of our neighborhoods, and guarantee economic reparations, then you are a fool to give them your vote. If we do not use the ballot to demand accountability, we will be forced to use the bullet.
I am not talking about senseless violence. I am talking about the power of total non-cooperation with an unjust system. I am talking about an organized, unflinching resistance to inequality. When you see communities being marginalized in 2026, when you see biased algorithms profiling us, and when you see our education systems being neglected, something is wrong. Are we really going to let a company come into Miami and place babies in the same school as high schoolers, then call it progress? That is ridiculous. When you see the legal system protecting the powerful while punishing the vulnerable, it is time for a new strategy of action.
We have a generation of leaders who say they want to change the system, but many are still trying to play by rules that were never meant for their success. When will we learn? We must adopt a philosophy of self-reliance, one rooted in economic and political empowerment. We must control the politics of our community. We must support and own the businesses in our neighborhoods. We must take an active and defining role in the schools within our own communities. If the focus is not on economic and communal power, then the effort is misplaced.
Do not be satisfied with the appearance of progress when the underlying structures remain unchanged and merely updated for a digital age. It is time to stop waiting for the system to fix itself. History shows that power concedes nothing without a demand. So this is the 2026 ultimatum: the ballot or the bullet. It is either the legitimate exercise of our political will or the total disruption of the status quo through organized economic and social pressure. It is time to be smart. It is time to be unified. And it is time to demand that this nation finally live up to its promises. The time for waiting is over. Let us stand together and choose a path of true accountability.
Bill Diggs is the executive director of the Miami-Dade Economic Advocacy Trust.
