United is Key for Victory

Leah Wilson:  Hello. I am Leah Wilson, Executive Director and Co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom, and I have the opportunity to sit with a young, emerging artist, Victory Boyd today, and hear her story about having to make a decision between pursuing her dreams and the jabs.

So thank you so much, Victory, for joining us today to hear a little bit about your story.

Victory Boyd: Yes, thank you for having me.

Leah Wilson: So Victory was given the opportunity to sing at the NFL Season Opener for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the National Anthem, which for a young artist, musician, songwriter, music educator, is pretty much a pinnacle to enter that world stage in a stadium full of spectators, and launch your musical career to a whole new level. However, she was faced with a decision that would complicate pursuing that dream, and I would love for her to be able to share with you all the decision that she made and why because so many of us are facing very similar decisions today in our workplace, in our educational careers, and we hear from so many athletes who are in a very similar situation of playing at the college level or going to the professional level with something that they have worked their entire lives to achieve.

So thank you so much, Victory, for being willing to share exactly what you faced with the decision. If you could just tell us a little bit about when did you find out that singing the National Anthem for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would involve this type of dilemma?

Victory Boyd: Well firstly, I found out that my talent and that my years of hard work, and [me in] such a position, about a month out from the actual performance and from the game. I was honored. I was just absolutely honored that they would see me as the perfect way to open up the entire season.

[02:11]

And so I started preparing, and I created just the best possible version of the National Anthem I could with all my years of experience, and started training just a month out.

But it was about two weeks out from the performance that I learned that my vaccination status is something that could cause the entire thing to unravel.

Initially, my dad was thinking, “Oh, no. It’s going to be okay. I’m going to go and speak with them, and we’ll tell them about your belief system, and they should honor the Constitution, really, where it talks about freedom of religion and give you an exemption from having to be in their facility with the jab.”

So originally, that made perfect sense. My dad went and talked to the Director of Events there at NFL, and he’s like, “You know what? This makes a lot of sense. This shouldn’t be a problem.”

But later on, that same day, we got a call that they would not be able or willing to honor a religious exemption, and that they would prefer to go in a different route with a different artist.

And so that’s what ended up happening. They dropped me on August 31st, and then the game was on September 9th. I felt like this was the beginning of being locked out of a certain tier of privileges and rights, and all sorts of different things.

[04:25]

And not that it’s my right to sing at the NFL. I definitely don’t feel entitled to such a privilege, but I don’t feel it’s okay to be denied on something that’s simple as one’s medical decisions.

If it had to do with the virus, I was more than willing to test, but it had nothing to do with being actually positive for the virus or not. It had everything to do with my medical decisions.

Leah Wilson: Right. So you say these policies that seem to have nothing to do with the virus, considering there were fans there that day that did not have to prove vaccination status, how close, Victory, would you even be to your spectators, as you’re in the middle of an NFL football field?

So the fact that you were even willing to show your religious exemption, show a test, and this was still a non-starter for the NFL, it says a lot about the policy.

Why did you choose to stick to your decision of not getting the jab, instead of getting the jab, so that you could go to this next tier?

Victory Boyd: Well, it was simple. I feel strongly—strong convictions about preserving the natural state of my body, and that’s directly tied to my religious beliefs, my beliefs, and my interpretation of the Bible. Everyone has freedom to interpret it the way that they want, and I know there are a lot of Christians that interpret it and feel strongly about getting the jab.

But I interpret it differently, especially when it boils down to where it talks about your body being a temple of the Holy Spirit, and to not defile the body.

[06:45]

And so I think at this point, for me, I’ve seen a lot of cases of people being harmed by the jab, and it’s affecting different parts of their health whether it be the reproductive system, or their heart, or their cardiovascular system.

I’m a very health-conscious person. I take care of my body because of my faith. And so this is not an exception where I’m making things up just to not have to take the jab. It’s a holistic thing from the foods that I eat, to the exercise.

Even just with medications, I personally choose to approach things from a natural perspective, as opposed to going to get morphine, and going to get these different types of drugs that are designed to help us, but could have other side effects.

And so, for me personally, it’s not something that I feel would—I think that the risk is something that everyone has to have the opportunity to choose. There’s risk in not taking the jab, and there’s risk in taking it.

You could look at the numbers where people are like, “Well, the people that are vaccinated, they’re recovering more quickly if they catch COVID. And then the ones that are not have more dire symptoms.”

And so I’m weighing those odds. I’m weighing those risks as being one that didn’t take the jab.

But then you look on the other hand where you see people that took the jab that are having complications with maybe irregular periods or some people are—I’ve heard of increased heart attacks and different things like that, and people attributing it to the jab.

[09:28]

Here’s another one—some people that I know are saying they had intense rashes break out all over their body immediately after getting the first shot. One of my friends was completely healthy before getting the first shot, and then just having a tough time keeping well in their immune system after taking it.

And so I have to weigh those risks on the other side—the risk of perhaps being uncertain of, “Okay what just happened to my body, and will I be able to get well, or am I altered permanently?”

No one really knows. No one knows the full extent, full effect of what will happen when you take the jab. And so I think that it’s up to the individual to be able to weigh the risks. Do I take the chance of perhaps getting COVID and not being able to recover as quickly as those that are vaccinated? Or do I take the chance of taking the jab, but being unsure of how it altered my body for the long term?

And for me, it’s more important to just maintain my long-term health and steer clear of anything that is potentially harming and defiling my body.

Leah Wilson: Yes, and it is the person’s choice on how they honor God with the care of their body. And exactly what we are seeing is the threat of not being able to choose a pharmaceutical-free lifestyle if you so see that as best for you and for your family.

And so that pharmaceutical-free lifestyle is something that so many people take for granted today, that we get to look at our options and recognize that “one size fits all” medicine is not the only option.

[11:30]

And in fact, there is zero science behind a population-wide mandate to take the same drug at the same time.

And so for us to maintain our thinking brains and for us to maintain a clear line with our God, and to honor our God in the way that we choose is important.

And I heard you also talk about the value of freedom as it relates to the intersection of choice and freedom. Could you share a little bit about that with us?

Victory Boyd: Yes, for sure. If we don’t have freedom to make decisions for ourselves, then do we really have freedom at all? If our choices are being mandated by the government or just different entities, our employers, are we really living in the freedom that our forefathers fought for us to have?

And I’ve really been thinking a lot recently about how freedom is something that we are evolving to with every generation. You look at how far we’ve come as a country, and freedom was a principle that this country was built on, but it wasn’t quite realized right at its inception. It was more like a dream.

And with every passing generation, the dream became more and more real. But it was always an uphill battle.

I see that with sacrificing our right to choose. That is almost like taking steps—that is taking steps backwards. Battles that our ancestors already fought, just easily handing them over and losing that territory, losing that ground.

[13:43]

By the way, I don’t look at it as, “Oh, this is a war against the government or a war against the current persons sitting in our governmental authority seats, those folks.”

I look at it as—because regardless of who is in office, there’s always going to be a spirit that is trying to inch and take away our freedom because it’s through freedom, we have the opportunity to experience love. And God is love. Without freedom, there’s no chance for love to exist because everything is mandated. Everything you do is because someone—you were forced to do it. You had to do it to live, or you had to do it to eat, or to take care of your family. It’s not quite something that you chose to do because you love.

I think that the quality of life is much, much better when everyone has the ability to make a decision on how they want to spend their life.

So yes, there’s a spirit that is out to take that away—that freedom. You see it from many different generations. You see it in different countries. You see if in many different contexts. There’s also spirit of division that you see as well. As long as people have animosity in their heart towards one another, that’s when a lot of chaos breaks out. And so I think division is a tool that’s often used from generation to generation to really hinder the human spirit and hinder the human experience here on earth.

So those two things—preserving freedom and in fighting for love even in the midst of our differences. I think the biggest thing is to not necessarily need to change each other, but to learn how to love each other in the midst of our differences. And if we can learn how to do that, I think that just the entire human experience worldwide is just going to be way better.

[16:40]

Leah Wilson: What human experience are we dreaming of for our kids and our grandchildren? This is not about anti-government. This is not about anti-pharmaceuticals. This is not about anti-the powers that be. This is about what is our vision? To step forward and provide the proper landscape for intense, deep love of human experience and sanctity of life for those that will come after us.

So I love that message that you bring and what you have taken away from your decision, to take a stand for what you see best.

I have to ask. Has any new lyrics or song come out of this experience for you? Would you be willing to share anything with us?

Victory Boyd: Yes, I’ve had quite a few, just moments of intense inspiration from this whole situation. I’ve been thinking a lot about how—our forefathers fought—just even me as an African-American. There are so many layers.

There are many layers in being an American, and then there’s a whole other added layers of being an African-American. Both of the layers of fighting from a deficit. Americans were fighting from a deficit, from the founding of our country. We didn’t have a lot, but then once Americans were established, then the African-Americans were fighting from a deficit.

Just be able to taste freedom, and are we going to relinquish it so easily? And even if it’s just on the fringes, even if it’s just, oh, a little mandate here, a little here, it just costs too much.

[18:33]

And so I’ve been really thinking about that recently on what kind of song [that calls for freedom]. And I think I have the chorus down. I’m just going to say the lyrics.

So this is, “Don’t be afraid to pay a price. Let the blood of our forefathers testify that freedom, it ain’t free. Don’t be deceived by the name. Don’t think that this is just the same because freedom, it ain’t free. Don’t think that we fight in vain. Don’t think that there’s time to be playing with your freedom because it ain’t free.”

I’ll just sing a little bit of that for you.

Leah Wilson: Yes, that would be awesome.

Victory Boyd: “Don’t be afraid to pay the price. Let the blood of our forefathers testify that freedom, it ain’t free. Don’t be deceived by the name. Don’t think that this is just the same because freedom, it ain’t free. Don’t think that we fight in vain. Don’t think that there’s time to be playing with your freedom because it ain’t free. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom.”

Leah Wilson: That’s so good. Thank you so much for sharing your heart song with us. I appreciate it. It’s a breath of fresh air to talk to you and what you’re taking out of this because really, our heart and taking advocates from wobbly to sturdy is that we convert from that victim mentality to empowered, and to knowing that we have choices, and that as a community, we will choose to step forward in a way that we see fit for those that are going to come after us.

So how do we follow you, Victory? Something great is going to come of this. I just can feel it.

[21:25]

So how do we make sure that we can follow your music and follow where you’re going?

Victory Boyd: Yes, so you can go to my website, The Sound of Victory, where I have my music there. You can also subscribe to my e-mail list there. Also, my social media handles are Victory Boyd. That’s on every social media channel.

One last thing I just want to say is that this is not about people that are vaccinated versus people that are unvaccinated. Like I said before, unity is going to be key in order to ensure the best human experience that we have in this world. And I think my message is one that is—well, I feel my job as an artist is to deal with the things of the heart, and not so much medical things.

I can’t tell you to get vaccinated or not to. That’s something that’s personal between you, your belief system and your doctor. But for me, I want to remind everyone that is not vaccinated, I would like to just say don’t agree with this narrative that you are a threat. You’re going to start seeing more and more that you can’t come to this event, you can’t come inside this restaurant, you’re not allowed here.

That does something to your mind where it can start to have you believe that you deserve to be in this underprivileged place in life.

I want to just remind you that you don’t—you don’t deserve that and even though we’re going through this, we’re not necessarily trying to disturb every place that says you’re not allowed to do something. We’re going to need to comply to some extent just to exist. Everything is not a fight all the time. But know that in your mind that this is not okay, and that you are not second-tier citizen. You’re not inferior.

[23:52]

And then for the ones that are vaccinated, I want you to reject this narrative that you are superior, this narrative that says that you deserve higher privileges in life simply based off of your vaccination status.

If we can just hold each other, hold the land, hold our world to a higher standard of equality—we have to reject this tier system and hold ourselves, hold each other to a higher standard of equality, we are going to make it through this, and we’re going to make it through without these long-term residual effects of people feeling either inferior or superior to one another, and we’ll be able to get back to, or move forward to life, living life and judging people based off of the content of their character and not by anything else other than that.

Leah Wilson: Beautiful. And we wholeheartedly agree with you here at Stand for Health Freedom that we are seeking equal protection under the law regardless of your medical decisions, regardless of your religious beliefs, so your parental decisions.

So we stand with you on that, Victory, and we thank you so much for being an example for young artists, for young professionals, for young athletes and students that they could see you be courageous, and that courage will be infectious.

So follow Victory Boyd on social media. Go to her website. Also, remember to join the movement at StandForHealthFreedom.com, so you can stay looped in to how to take a stand in your own community.

Thank you so much.

Victory Boyd: Awesome. Thanks for having me, Leah.