Speaker 1: I'm Tamika D.
Speaker 2: Mallory and the ship Boy, my Son that general.
Speaker 1: We are your host of t M.
Speaker 2: I Tamika and my Son's Information, Truth, Motivation and.
Speaker 1: Inspiration name New Energy. What's up, my son, Lennon.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Tamika D. Mallory?
Speaker 1: What good today? Doing good today? Glad to be here.
Speaker 2: You can do anything like that, That's anything anything I
Speaker 2: can do.
Speaker 3: I could be a publicist. I could be an architect.
Speaker 3: I could be a what is this here? Veterinarian, an activist,
Speaker 3: a pilot, a clerky, member of the clergy. I could
Speaker 3: be an astronaut. I could be a physician. I could
Speaker 3: be an athlete. I mean you to be a hairstylists.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a it was a crazy mean that
Speaker 2: I think who was it was? It? It was Benjamin
Speaker 2: Benjamin Crump posted and he was and it was I
Speaker 2: forgot who he was. It's somebody that was in Congress,
Speaker 2: I believe. And the white man said, it's crazy. Isn't
Speaker 2: it funny how a black women with twenty years experience
Speaker 2: all kinds of degrees can't be a di higher for
Speaker 2: somebody who just worked on Fox News and ain't got
Speaker 2: no degrees it's gonna be the Secretary of Defense all that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, remember last week I was.
Speaker 3: Talking about the Secretary of Defense.
Speaker 2: Lord have mercy. We in some strange time.
Speaker 1: That we are that we are well.
Speaker 3: We got a good show today, we got a good
Speaker 3: intim So sorry that our guest was unable to be
Speaker 3: with us in person as some travel stuff. But she's
Speaker 3: gonna be coming up a real powerful interview that I
Speaker 3: hope that all of you will listen to.
Speaker 2: Please listen to this.
Speaker 3: But now I want to let you all hear my
Speaker 3: thought of the day. I tape this thought of the
Speaker 3: day at a moment when I just felt it, and
Speaker 3: now I want you all to hear it.
Speaker 2: Let's go.
Speaker 3: I'm watching these people, these folks that are in many
Speaker 3: ways opposition and in opposition to our success as black folks.
Speaker 1: I watch how strategic they are.
Speaker 3: I'm like, when we said black Lives matter, they said
Speaker 3: that is violent towards white folks, and white people needed
Speaker 3: to start White Lives Matter. We said, defund the police.
Speaker 3: They said, we don't want police at all, and we
Speaker 3: want lawlessness, and that defund the police means we hate
Speaker 3: the police. They have turned woke all around. DeSantis has
Speaker 3: an anti woke movement going on. They have presented bills
Speaker 3: to ban the wokeness.
Speaker 1: How I don't even know what that means.
Speaker 3: Every single word, terminology, whatever we use to describe suffering,
Speaker 3: to describe what people are fighting for liberation, they have
Speaker 3: found a way to turn it around and make even
Speaker 3: our own people afraid.
Speaker 4: To use it.
Speaker 3: You will never watch or see on mainstream media that
Speaker 3: they are you itus in certain terms, or they're saying
Speaker 3: like white lives matter or something like that, that it
Speaker 3: is it is. It means violence towards black folk.
Speaker 2: So today's guests is Miss Sonia Rogers. She is the
Speaker 2: mother of five. She is the CEO and founder of
Speaker 2: Through Our Voices and Girls Rock Too. She is a
Speaker 2: community activist, she is a leader, she is a mother,
Speaker 2: and we are happy to have Missonia. How you doing today, Missonia?
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, and I'm so blessed to be
Speaker 4: here with all of y'all. I appreciate you, thank you,
Speaker 4: I'm blessed. I'm just trying to stay pushing forward. That's
Speaker 4: just about it.
Speaker 1: How mimsths Sonia, how you doing today? Beautiful?
Speaker 4: I love you and how are you? I'm blessing your soul.
Speaker 1: Love you too.
Speaker 3: We're happy to have you with us today. I know
Speaker 3: it's every time you have to talk about what you've
Speaker 3: been through and what your family has endured, it's hard,
Speaker 3: and we want to acknowledge that. We know it's not
Speaker 3: easy to process and to keep having to relive your
Speaker 3: story for people to be inspired, inspired to do better,
Speaker 3: inspired to help more young people, inspired to see black
Speaker 3: men as humans.
Speaker 1: It's a lot.
Speaker 3: That's a lot of pressure for one person to carry,
Speaker 3: and so I just want you to know that it's
Speaker 3: not lost on us that today, while we are interviewing you,
Speaker 3: quote end quote, it's more than interviewing you know, we're
Speaker 3: really here to just allow you to continue to use
Speaker 3: your story for your healing and for hours.
Speaker 4: And I appreciate that. And I'm gonna tell you something
Speaker 4: honestly and truthfully, these tears are our tears are sadness,
Speaker 4: honestly and about the grace of God. These tears are
Speaker 4: honestly tears of joy because I've sat in depression for
Speaker 4: so long and finally I'm learning how to deal with it.
Speaker 4: And I appreciate the talk and the things of that nature.
Speaker 4: You know, it helps me a lot. So these tears here.
Speaker 4: Our tea is a joy. I just had to learn
Speaker 4: to cometrol them and they just happen to come out.
Speaker 1: It's all good. I cry all the time.
Speaker 3: So miss Sonya, I mean, there's so many places we
Speaker 3: could start, and I guess we will end at what
Speaker 3: you do. But it would be great to hear from
Speaker 3: you that, you know, just the story of the tragic
Speaker 3: loss that you have experienced in your family with your
Speaker 3: own children. Why don't you tell us about that?
Speaker 4: Well, I lost three sons to gun violence in the
Speaker 4: city of York. My sons were twenty one, twenty one,
Speaker 4: and twenty of age. It's hard, you know, I'm not
Speaker 4: gonna say that because at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: especially in a city where we come from called New
Speaker 4: New Jersey, you can't be in deny you about your child.
Speaker 4: And I always try to be a peer rent. And
Speaker 4: you know, my oldest son not on the hands of himself.
Speaker 4: I allowed him to start being around his father, and
Speaker 4: you know, his father introduced him into a life of
Speaker 4: you know, gang violence or whatever. But my oldest son,
Speaker 4: all you know, he got killed. And when my oldest
Speaker 4: son got killed, it was hard to justify because you know,
Speaker 4: he wasn't an angel, but he was very respectful. And
Speaker 4: I can't talk a bad about him because that's my son.
Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, I couldn't be
Speaker 4: in deny you about who my son was in the streets.
Speaker 4: And that's hard, but it's just the reality of it,
Speaker 4: because I can't say, oh, my son was an angel.
Speaker 4: And I don't think he ever hurt anybody. I don't
Speaker 4: think that, you know, it deserved to happen to him
Speaker 4: the way that it did. But if it was going
Speaker 4: to happen to him, and it's just just coming from
Speaker 4: a mother that I think it would have happened to
Speaker 4: him through a whole city, you know, not just where
Speaker 4: he lived and things of that nature. But overall, that
Speaker 4: young man graduated out of high school. You know, he
Speaker 4: was respectful. He just had a street life. And when
Speaker 4: I talk about my oldest son, I never try to downplay,
Speaker 4: you know, because I don't want to be ridiculed. I
Speaker 4: was ridiculed so much by some, you know, people in
Speaker 4: the new police department. But I really tried to be
Speaker 4: the best mother that I could and not to jump
Speaker 4: off of subject because it's three of them that I
Speaker 4: have to discuss. It's a many of us that lives
Speaker 4: in this city, and I'm not the only person that
Speaker 4: ever lost a child. And I try not to put
Speaker 4: all the I call it shine and stigma on my
Speaker 4: self because I'm not the only young woman that's hurting
Speaker 4: in my city. But we really tried for our children here.
Speaker 4: Some of us work, some of us stay at home.
Speaker 4: You know. It's just the reality that our children are
Speaker 4: being killed, you know, and in other places children are
Speaker 4: being killed by the hands of someone else, but our
Speaker 4: kids are being killed by our own.
Speaker 2: And that's I think that's what really touched me when
Speaker 2: I when I first met you and I heard your
Speaker 2: story and you was and you know, you cried and
Speaker 2: you told the story, and I felt really impacted because
Speaker 2: I couldn't. I have three sons, right, That's all I
Speaker 2: have is three sons, and I couldn't imagine losing all
Speaker 2: three of money. And they all were in close proximity age, Like,
Speaker 2: how many years apart did this happen? Like like one
Speaker 2: was lost one year, like because you said they were
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one and twenty one, so how many years
Speaker 2: apart did it happen?
Speaker 4: Anthony and his street name was ransom. Anthony was shot
Speaker 4: made the thirty first. He had just turned twenty one
Speaker 4: that October before. He stayed on a respirator until June
Speaker 4: and twenty first and me, with the help of the
Speaker 4: now mayor Baraka elected governor, you know, helped me make
Speaker 4: a decision as well as my family and friends that
Speaker 4: he had no more brain activities. So on June to
Speaker 4: twenty first, I took him off the respirator. Six months later,
Speaker 4: February the twenty fourth of that next year, my second
Speaker 4: son passed away twenty fifteen, two days after three days
Speaker 4: after Christmas. December to twent eight, that's when my baby
Speaker 4: passed away. And I say my baby because he was
Speaker 4: literally the baby, the last of the bunch. So and
Speaker 4: you know, last year December was the first year that
Speaker 4: I ever sat back, and I literally dealt with that
Speaker 4: since twenty fifteen because I kept moving and so much
Speaker 4: was happening in twenty twenty four and I said, Sonya,
Speaker 4: you have to deal with this. You can't let this
Speaker 4: new year come in and this Christmas come in and
Speaker 4: act like nothing happened. So I sat by myself and
Speaker 4: I endured it about what happened to me on that year,
Speaker 4: on that day, and you know, it wasn't as bad
Speaker 4: as I really thought it was gonna be. But you know,
Speaker 4: I got it together.
Speaker 3: I did so three sons all in Newark, right, All
Speaker 3: three of them were killed in Newark. Yes, And has
Speaker 3: there been any prosecution of those who are responsible for
Speaker 3: their deaths?
Speaker 4: All three of my son's cases are cool. Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: like I had no fight. I'm not going to say
Speaker 4: I didn't have any help, but I really didn't know
Speaker 4: what to do. And it was like a wolf cry,
Speaker 4: like you crying out for help, but nobody not listening.
Speaker 4: And the only person I had to cry out to
Speaker 4: already had the city on his already had the city
Speaker 4: he had to run, so you can give it all
Speaker 4: to him. So I tried. I really did try. I
Speaker 4: was fifteen years old when I had those kids.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about it.
Speaker 4: I was fifteen years old, you know, And at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, I'm not embarrassed about it.
Speaker 2: You know, I.
Speaker 4: Talked to Ad a lot, you guys know him New Direction.
Speaker 4: I give a big shout out to them and pushing
Speaker 4: all the other organizations out here. I was fifteen years
Speaker 4: old when I had those kids. It wasn't easy. I struggled,
Speaker 4: I strived, but I stayed. And you know, to be
Speaker 4: young and to lose children, that's the most hurt in
Speaker 4: this detrimental feeling in the world, regardless of how you
Speaker 4: lose your child, and to lose three of them, it
Speaker 4: hurt pretty bad. But I learned, believe it or not,
Speaker 4: I learned that God got me. God got me. It's
Speaker 4: no to meka my sign. I'm gonna tell you something.
Speaker 4: It's no other way that I can make it through,
Speaker 4: no other way. And like I say, I don't only
Speaker 4: speak on my health, and that's why I try to
Speaker 4: do certain things.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: I'm so blessed for Jamilla, doctor, Jamilla Davis. I'm so
Speaker 4: blessed for Tybor. I'm so blessed for my son. I'm
Speaker 4: so blessed for all these organizations out here because I
Speaker 4: know these people, and you know, I could turn to
Speaker 4: them and try to talk because that's what helps me
Speaker 4: believe it or not talking, I got to talk about it.
Speaker 2: What I wonder is so you still have two.
Speaker 4: Yes, I have two beautiful daughters. One of my daughters
Speaker 4: she's here. My other daughter lives down south in North Carolina.
Speaker 4: She works she's supervisor at Navy Federal. You know, I
Speaker 4: was kind of sad when my oldest daughter left or whatever,
Speaker 4: but I don't blame her. That's a lot of hurt
Speaker 4: and pain for a person to try to endure when
Speaker 4: all you did was try to come up here to
Speaker 4: save your little brother and pick him up, HM to
Speaker 4: take him back, and to have to get a phone
Speaker 4: call like that when you on a highway to come
Speaker 4: pick your little brother up, it's that your mental And
Speaker 4: my other daughter suffers from depression. But you know, it's
Speaker 4: a lot of things that we hide some people. Some
Speaker 4: people might know. If you're close to us, you know
Speaker 4: you may know. But it's a lot of hurt and
Speaker 4: pain in this. And this is why not saying that
Speaker 4: I'm the perfect person, not saying that I'm the perfect candidate,
Speaker 4: but and not saying if I can do it, but
Speaker 4: if I could try to help somebody that's best for me.
Speaker 2: Do you have do you have a therapist? Do you
Speaker 2: speak to somebody?
Speaker 4: I do have a therapist, and I'm gonna tell you again,
Speaker 4: Jamilla got hooked me up with the young lady check
Speaker 4: going hard.
Speaker 2: To the therapist.
Speaker 3: The therapists need therapists everybody needs somebody, everybody.
Speaker 2: I'm just hoping, you know, when I hear Unfortunately, like
Speaker 2: you said, yours is not the only story like this.
Speaker 2: This is probably like the fourth or fifth time that
Speaker 2: I've had a mother say that they've lost multiple, multiple children.
Speaker 2: And I just I'm hoping that somebody is listening. I'm
Speaker 2: hoping that somebody who's in these gangs and in these
Speaker 2: streets and that's, you know, thinking about taking somebody's life,
Speaker 2: just hears this. You know, like to me, the pain
Speaker 2: that you're expressing, and just you know, not only the pain,
Speaker 2: but just the fact that you want to utilize your
Speaker 2: story to try to help somebody else, you know, and
Speaker 2: you've created this organization that you have to try to
Speaker 2: stop gun violence. You know. I know that it motivates
Speaker 2: me to do the work that I do. I know
Speaker 2: it motivates me to go out there and say, I
Speaker 2: don't want to hear another mother cry. I don't want
Speaker 2: to see another mother lose their child. You know, mothers
Speaker 2: are not supposed to bury their children. You know, the
Speaker 2: children are supposed to bury their mother, you know. So
Speaker 2: I know it motivates me. So I'm just I just
Speaker 2: want you to know that your bravery and your strength
Speaker 2: even in your tears a lot, you know, and they're
Speaker 2: gonna touch somebody, you know, I know this. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be somebody that hears your story. You know. There's gonna
Speaker 2: be a mother that hears your story and pushes and
Speaker 2: grabs her son, you know, because he might be in
Speaker 2: the street. Like you say, you knew your oldest son
Speaker 2: was outside and you aren't blind to it, and she
Speaker 2: might do something, to do anything extra to try to
Speaker 2: save them because she don't want to see that fate.
Speaker 2: A lot of a lot of mothers. And I noticed,
Speaker 2: because I speak to a lot of women who have children,
Speaker 2: A lot of women fear for their kids, especially their sons.
Speaker 2: They really fear for their sons, but they don't know
Speaker 2: what to do, you know, and hearing your story is
Speaker 2: gonna make them embrace them a little further, a little
Speaker 2: more and say, look, I don't know what I'm gonna do,
Speaker 2: but I don't want to lose my son like this.
Speaker 4: But I'm gonna tell you one thing. As a single parent,
Speaker 4: because it's a lot of us here. You can't give up,
Speaker 4: you know, you cannot give up. And it's hard, aw man,
Speaker 4: it's so hard, but you can't give up because these
Speaker 4: black young men have to know that somebody loves them.
Speaker 4: These kids are feeling the pain of losing people too,
Speaker 4: and they may not want to talk about it, but
Speaker 4: it's here, these kids, these adults and everybody. It's not
Speaker 4: only people out here losing their children. Because I'm gonna
Speaker 4: take a step back. I lost my mother. I lost
Speaker 4: my mother. It's like I'm walking around here no empathy,
Speaker 4: no sympathy, but it's like I'm walking around here with
Speaker 4: already made up family that I set up Ever since
Speaker 4: I grew up. I could tell you about every single
Speaker 4: aspect of life, even down to losing a significant other,
Speaker 4: which was a brief.
Speaker 1: Friend and was your family always from Newark?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, So how does it feel to see Newark
Speaker 3: now making a real hard turn. It's not yet perfect,
Speaker 3: long way to go, people still dying, but there is
Speaker 3: a significant change, and that is because of the work
Speaker 3: that you and so many others have put in, and
Speaker 3: of course having a leader like Mayor Baraka who is
Speaker 3: very much so invested in helping young black men and
Speaker 3: girls and helping any disadvantage under resourced young person. How
Speaker 3: do you feel now knowing that Unfortunately your three sons
Speaker 3: didn't make it, but somebody son will make it because
Speaker 3: the city is really investing in young people.
Speaker 4: You hit the nail on the head. Let me tell
Speaker 4: you something I wish. I wish my boys could have
Speaker 4: been here to experience all of this. OVPT, the Brick
Speaker 4: City Peace Collective, oh Man New Direction, push you my sogn,
Speaker 4: Doctor Jamila Davis. It's a one hood. So many organizations
Speaker 4: out here that you even have. It's all about the
Speaker 4: seniors and children that's trying to teach people how to
Speaker 4: cut here. You have so many organizations out here. I
Speaker 4: wish I wish. You don't even know how many times
Speaker 4: I said, I wish my son would have got locked
Speaker 4: up in federal prison for the rest of his life.
Speaker 4: I wish, I wish that these organizations were here, But
Speaker 4: they were planning on the footwork. They were planning on
Speaker 4: the footwork. I remember when Keisha Eurver used to just
Speaker 4: beat the street for nothing, my sign. I remember when
Speaker 4: you beat the street for nothing tut his home, Shadi.
Speaker 4: I'm so proud of him to me give you a blessing.
Speaker 4: It's just so many people that I wish could have
Speaker 4: just touched my children. I could just see my son now,
Speaker 4: you know. And like I said, I can't help but
Speaker 4: two cries sometimes, but these are honestly tells the joy,
Speaker 4: you know, to talk about three children. Sometimes I get emotional.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I don't, but I really want to help impack somebody.
Speaker 4: I get stagnated a little bit, I really do. I
Speaker 4: get stagnated because I get scared because I know that
Speaker 4: I'm not a wonder woman, and I know that I
Speaker 4: have my breakdowns in my falls too. But I have
Speaker 4: to learn. I have to learn that it's okay not
Speaker 4: to be okay. It's okay not to be okay, especially
Speaker 4: with and I can only speak for myself what a
Speaker 4: person endures. It's okay not to be okay. And in
Speaker 4: my case, I think I could get that a little bit.
Speaker 4: It's okay not to be okay.
Speaker 1: Tell us about your organizations that you run.
Speaker 4: So through our voices again I made through our voices,
Speaker 4: believe it or not. Through our voices came up one
Speaker 4: of my girlfriends her son passed away, but he didn't
Speaker 4: pass away from gun violence. And so you know, it
Speaker 4: would be a lot of things that came up in
Speaker 4: the city, and it would somewhat be surrounded around gun violence,
Speaker 4: and she would always say to me, I'm not going.
Speaker 4: I don't think that's for me. And I'm like, you
Speaker 4: got a voice regardless of how your child passed away.
Speaker 4: That's your kid. You a good mother, I know you
Speaker 4: loved him. No, you got a voice too.
Speaker 3: It.
Speaker 4: Then I just thought about it. I'm like, through our voices,
Speaker 4: everybody has a voice, because yes, I bury my children,
Speaker 4: but I have friends that lost their parents and they
Speaker 4: suffer from depression. I have friends that lost their significant other,
Speaker 4: they suffer from depression. I have friends that just have
Speaker 4: lost siblings. They suffer through depression. I have friends that
Speaker 4: endure what we all endure, and they suffering from depression.
Speaker 4: You get it. So it's fear to think about everybody.
Speaker 4: It's not always fear. It's not always good to be
Speaker 4: selfish or just oh, this is only about gun violence.
Speaker 4: It's no. It's about sexual abuse, it's about domestic violence.
Speaker 4: It's about the trauma and depression of all this stuff.
Speaker 4: You know, my therapist that I talked to, that doctor
Speaker 4: Davis introduced me to, not one time has she said
Speaker 4: to me, you know sonya or ms Rogers, I think
Speaker 4: we need to talk you know, maybe you need to
Speaker 4: come in and get on a prescription or something like that.
Speaker 4: Not one time. And I'm here to tell anybody, God
Speaker 4: is the drug, Oh my god, it's not. It's not
Speaker 4: a prescription out here that can help men anybody's broken heart.
Speaker 3: Well, I will say, because I am an advocate for
Speaker 3: people getting what they need. So if for some reason
Speaker 3: you have been and I don't think people should just
Speaker 3: take medicine, because you know, I don't believe it's very
Speaker 3: difficult to get me to agree to take even a
Speaker 3: cold medicine or you know, fluid colds and whatever. I'm
Speaker 3: not into that. My parents were never people who kept
Speaker 3: medicine in the house. They didn't take medicine. But through
Speaker 3: my own anxiety, my son's father was killed when my
Speaker 3: son was two years old. I was eighteen nineteen years
Speaker 3: old when he died, you know, and he died because
Speaker 3: of gun violence. And I have also gone through a
Speaker 3: number of traumas in life. In fact, a book that
Speaker 3: I have coming out in just a couple of weeks
Speaker 3: really goes into everything that has happened, all that I
Speaker 3: endured that led me to a place where I learned.
Speaker 3: My problem, of course, was stressed, but it was also
Speaker 3: learning how to deal with anxiety and I needed medication.
Speaker 3: In fact, it helps me tremendously that I have something
Speaker 3: that helps to regulate all of the emotions that I
Speaker 3: go through, and I'm grateful for it. And so there
Speaker 3: are some people out there, and you probably are not
Speaker 3: one of them, Missnia, because you know you have found
Speaker 3: a way to handle your stress, your way.
Speaker 1: But there are people out here who.
Speaker 3: Need their prescription and they need to take it.
Speaker 4: Take your prescription something. And that's so true. And you know,
Speaker 4: my apologies for that because you just schooled me on
Speaker 4: something because honestly, maybe that's something that if it was
Speaker 4: offer or something like that, maybe it would help my anxiety,
Speaker 4: because my anxiety be through the roof. But I'm gonna
Speaker 4: tell you something. I go back to say this. Listen
Speaker 4: to your story and what you just said, what makes
Speaker 4: my story more important than yours because it was my children.
Speaker 4: You have a story. Hurt is hurt and pain is pain.
Speaker 3: Through our voices voices. Well, we appreciate you for joining
Speaker 3: us today. Your story is both heartbreaking and powerful. It's
Speaker 3: both sickening and an inspirational story. It seems that your
Speaker 3: story just runs on parallel course because on one side,
Speaker 3: it's sickening because I know that your sons were not
Speaker 3: born in trouble, they weren't born bad kids. But this
Speaker 3: society doesn't really provide a lot of opportunities for young
Speaker 3: black men to stay on the straight and narrow, And
Speaker 3: anybody who tries to argue otherwise with us, we're prepare.
Speaker 3: We got the receipts to prove to them that it's
Speaker 3: a trap, and some get out, but they are, what
Speaker 3: we say, the exception and not the rule. And I
Speaker 3: and I don't ever want you to walk away feeling that.
Speaker 3: And I appreciate that you said it's not a shame,
Speaker 3: because shame why the people or the what should be
Speaker 3: ashamed is the system of how this system has been
Speaker 3: designed to create stories like yours. There are people out
Speaker 3: here who want to see what happened to you and
Speaker 3: your sons happen, and they are still perpetuating it every
Speaker 3: single day. And we're like fighting, you know, tooth and
Speaker 3: nail to try to save our children.
Speaker 2: And I just, I just I want you to leave
Speaker 2: us with a word. There's some young kids in the streets,
Speaker 2: they young, and they running around and they got guns,
Speaker 2: and they got ops and they doing all of this stuff.
Speaker 2: And if somebody doesn't have a conversation, some words don't
Speaker 2: get into their minds, they're either gonna be in a
Speaker 2: graveyard or they're gonna be in a prison cell. So
Speaker 2: I want you to give those actors if you speaking
Speaker 2: to one of them young boys right now, and just
Speaker 2: tell them what you would say to them.
Speaker 4: You know, I speak to them on the streets daily
Speaker 4: because I work downtown North and I always say to them.
Speaker 4: This is my exact saying to them. You know, if
Speaker 4: you don't get yourself together, or you you to get
Speaker 4: yourself together, or however it goes, whatever happens to you
Speaker 4: in the street, you're not gonna know, You're not gonna
Speaker 4: feel it in anything. Your family is gonna be impacted
Speaker 4: by it. You don't want to hurt your mother, because
Speaker 4: your mother loves you. You don't want to hurt your sister,
Speaker 4: your grandmother and stuff like that. You know, and whatever
Speaker 4: you do out here in these streets, just remember it's
Speaker 4: gonna impact your family. And take a look at me.
Speaker 4: You don't want your mother to end up looking like
Speaker 4: me or being hurt like myself. And some of them listen,
Speaker 4: and you know, I'm gonna say this. They don't give
Speaker 4: some of our black young men the alcolades that they should,
Speaker 4: especially when they been shot and killed by the hands
Speaker 4: of another black man. You know, I never heard one
Speaker 4: time that because my last two sons were killed senselessly,
Speaker 4: absolutely not a thing. And I'll take that to my
Speaker 4: grave with that, because again, you can't be and deny
Speaker 4: you about your kid, especially when your child is in
Speaker 4: the street. And I have to be honest, you know.
Speaker 4: But my last son, my last son went to college.
Speaker 4: And you know, through all the podcasts that I did,
Speaker 4: I look back and I said, so you never acknowledge
Speaker 4: that that's an accomplishment for him and for myself, you know.
Speaker 4: And like Tamika said, you have to acknowledge. You gotta
Speaker 4: acknowledge sometimes. And I learned, I'm telling you, I learned
Speaker 4: how to acknowledge my hurt. I did. I had to
Speaker 4: learn how to acknowledge my hurt. Again, I'm not a superwoman,
Speaker 4: but I'm really going to try to help these children,
Speaker 4: the girls and the boys, because the young ladies out here,
Speaker 4: you know, they're going through it because they're angry, they're mad.
Speaker 4: Some of you know, some parents not there, but we
Speaker 4: want to get all of that together. That's right, Well,
Speaker 4: we just want to say all that together.
Speaker 2: We truly appreciate you and you are a superwoman to me,
Speaker 2: and that's why I wanted to bring you on this show.
Speaker 4: Love guys, and I'm here anything.
Speaker 2: Your strength motivates me. You know, the fact that you
Speaker 2: went through what you went through and you still find
Speaker 2: the energy and love to go out and still try
Speaker 2: to change this world. You know you didn't give up.
Speaker 2: So we appreciate you. You know we're here for you
Speaker 2: if you need us as usual. Continue to be superwoman.
Speaker 2: Don't let nobody tell you not.
Speaker 3: That's right, that's right, You're beautiful. Thank you so much
Speaker 3: for coming to be with us today.
Speaker 4: Appreciate you anytime. I couldn't let you guys down. I
Speaker 4: love y'all. Anytime you need me, I'm always.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we gotta have you in the studio next time.
Speaker 4: That part to me. Continue to be the inspiration that
Speaker 4: you are. Thank you, thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: And my sign you do the same.
Speaker 1: I got you so much.
Speaker 2: Shout out to miss Sonia Rogers. You know it's heartbreaking,
Speaker 2: but it's also inspirational to hear her story. You know.
Speaker 2: That's why I wanted to have her on, and I've
Speaker 2: been trying to get her on. You know, she's motivational,
Speaker 2: she's she still has a fight in her and she
Speaker 2: still has, you know, a lot of good energy. So
Speaker 2: I just, you know, hopefully somebody hears her story, you know,
Speaker 2: and understands how serious it is when we're dealing with
Speaker 2: this gun violence in the streets. I daily deal with
Speaker 2: these young kids and have these conversations with them, but
Speaker 2: I want them to see that a mother lose lost
Speaker 2: their children. You know, when you take somebody's life, that
Speaker 2: person's mother has to deal with them. Somebody takes your life,
Speaker 2: your mother has to deal with it. You know, if
Speaker 2: you don't care about yourself, you know, especially us as
Speaker 2: young men and men period, we always supposed to think
Speaker 2: about our mothers and the women around us. So let's
Speaker 2: let's try to do better for them.
Speaker 1: I know that's right, Let's try to do better.
Speaker 3: I'm glad she wasn't here because I think, you know,
Speaker 3: she was supposed to be in studio with us.
Speaker 1: But I think that if she was here, I probably.
Speaker 3: Would have been a watershed over here, because it's touching
Speaker 3: you know, and while she said it's happy tears because
Speaker 3: I know that a part of her just feels like
Speaker 3: she's just grateful to God that people care enough to
Speaker 3: have her on shows and talk to her and allow
Speaker 3: her to tell her story. And that's really all that
Speaker 3: some of these mothers want. They just want someone else
Speaker 3: to be inspired so that there doesn't have to continue
Speaker 3: to be these like bricks falling. Excuse me, these bricks
Speaker 3: falling from the foundation of our communities. You know, where
Speaker 3: do you know of white folks that say three of
Speaker 3: their children were killed in one family?
Speaker 4: Three?
Speaker 1: That's it. I don't think I've ever.
Speaker 2: Heard it within a two to three year period and
Speaker 2: one within six months or the other one.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe, maybe maybe.
Speaker 1: It has happened, but I doubt it.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't mean that there are not families with
Speaker 3: multiple children where they're they have sons and or daughters
Speaker 3: who are in the street. It doesn't mean that, it
Speaker 3: doesn't mean that there is not a because you're not
Speaker 3: gonna tell me that white kids are perfect. It's a
Speaker 3: community design, and we just have to say it and
Speaker 3: name it so that no one will, you know, think
Speaker 3: that this is okay. And that is just her fault.
Speaker 3: You know, I appreciate that she's being honest about the
Speaker 3: conditions of the community and what her oldest son was into,
Speaker 3: you know, at least acknowledging that he wasn't a perfect kid.
Speaker 3: But I'm sorry, I know a lot of other people
Speaker 3: who don't have perfect kids either, and their children are
Speaker 3: not being killed like there. So there's got to be
Speaker 3: something in the community as well.
Speaker 2: It's definitely something in the community. So once again, shout
Speaker 2: out tomsths Sonya. You know, she's in our prayers and
Speaker 2: we hope she's in yours. And that brings me to
Speaker 2: my I don't get it now. We're talking about people
Speaker 2: losing their lives. We're talking about tragedy. We're talking about
Speaker 2: all these things. Everyone knows about the fires inside LA
Speaker 2: it's been, you know, the biggest tragedy. A lot of
Speaker 2: our friends live in LA. They've lost houses, a kind
Speaker 2: of people, family members, you know, you know, by the
Speaker 2: grace of God, that hasn't been as many fatalities as well.
Speaker 1: It's growing every day.
Speaker 2: So the other day it was twenty five fatalities. I
Speaker 2: haven't checked today, but anyway, you know, it's it's a
Speaker 2: global problem. Everybody is you know, doing what they can
Speaker 2: to help. You know, I've seen shout out to trade
Speaker 2: the truth, shout out to the game, shout out to
Speaker 2: all the other people people. You know, they abandon together
Speaker 2: as a community. They setting up shop, They have you know, tents,
Speaker 2: they got food, they got water, they got resources, trying
Speaker 2: to give to the families. But what I don't get
Speaker 2: is that I heard that there are people out there
Speaker 2: actually setting fires, Like why what kind of sick person
Speaker 2: that you have to be to go out while thousands
Speaker 2: of homes are on fire already, Like they got every
Speaker 2: firefighter in the world, people coming from around the world
Speaker 2: to help put out this fire, and you in the
Speaker 2: middle of the street trying to set fires, Like what
Speaker 2: the hell is going on? Like who are the people?
Speaker 2: I just want to know what is going through the
Speaker 2: mind of a person that sees that type of destruction
Speaker 2: around them and wants to contribute to that. I don't
Speaker 2: even understand the mind state that comes with some shit
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 3: Well, you said that there must be sick people, or
Speaker 3: they must be sick people, and they are. I mean,
Speaker 3: there are people who have serious mental health issues, right,
Speaker 3: And I just want to provide two perspectives.
Speaker 1: The first one is that some people are.
Speaker 3: Motivated by money or what they think can happen if
Speaker 3: a community, their entire community burns down. Perhaps they think
Speaker 3: that there's more insurance benefits for their community to be inhabitable,
Speaker 3: because you know, some of the insurance companies are like, well,
Speaker 3: as long as there's five walls standing up in your home,
Speaker 3: then it can be fixed. It can be remodeled and
Speaker 3: not just completely demolished. Like crazy stuff is going on
Speaker 3: with the insurance companies. And there are some people who
Speaker 3: probably have set fires to just kind of demolish and
Speaker 3: or harm other people. Maybe they didn't like the enable
Speaker 3: all the time. Then there are people who are arsonists,
Speaker 3: who are, like you said, have mental health. They're sick.
Speaker 3: It's something wrong with them. That's what they do. They
Speaker 3: set fires since they were kids. They always wanted to
Speaker 3: be the one setting fires. Some of these people set
Speaker 3: fires to their parents' house, their grandmother's house a long
Speaker 3: time ago.
Speaker 1: So that is another issue.
Speaker 3: Then you have people, okay, this is my unpopular opinion.
Speaker 1: You have people who.
Speaker 3: Are watching the destruction of folks who, even if they
Speaker 3: weren't super rich, they had some kind of means to
Speaker 3: be able to get a house and own it a
Speaker 3: little bit, and they have nothing, and so they are
Speaker 3: willing to destroy any and everything around in order to
Speaker 3: hurt other people because the system that we live in
Speaker 3: does not provide people with equal opportunity, It does not
Speaker 3: provide people with mental health services, it does not take
Speaker 3: care of all the citizens of America, all the people.
Speaker 3: And so what you have is some people that just
Speaker 3: like somebody might look at you and you be saying,
Speaker 3: why did you rob that older lady, like an elderly lady,
Speaker 3: why did you do that? But you got people out
Speaker 3: here that's like, oh, y'all not gonna be out here
Speaker 3: walking back and forth drinking your Latti latte and having
Speaker 3: good life. And we homeless and we ain't got nothing.
Speaker 3: So since is burning ship, let's burn it all down.
Speaker 2: It's really it's really disheartening. It is that that there
Speaker 2: are people that hate that bad right. There are people
Speaker 2: that don't want to see someone ahead of them or
Speaker 2: think that somebody has more. So they are that, you know,
Speaker 2: envious in their heart, you know. And it's it's really said.
Speaker 2: When I heard I was watching news and it was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: they're setting you know, their arsonists and then people setting
Speaker 2: fires and they're being charged, and I'm like, people will
Speaker 2: be saying, like, you would think this is the time
Speaker 2: to band together. You would think that the whole city's
Speaker 2: on fire. You think everybody should be coming on trying
Speaker 2: to figure out how do we help and actually know
Speaker 2: that there are people out there that are contributing and
Speaker 2: sating fires. It just blew my mind. So you know,
Speaker 2: I guess I'm naive to that because I don't even
Speaker 2: have an inkling of what it would feel like to
Speaker 2: want to contribute to that. I don't have There's nothing
Speaker 2: in me that can rationalize or even understand how a
Speaker 2: person would want to do that. So, you know, but
Speaker 2: it's a special place in hell for those type of people.
Speaker 1: Absolutely I agree with that on her.
Speaker 2: And with that being said, we come to the end
Speaker 2: of another episode. Shout out to miss Sonia Rodgers. Please
Speaker 2: pray for Miss Sonia Rogers. You see her, you know,
Speaker 2: give her. I hope y'all listen to her have this
Speaker 2: conversation with these young boys when you're trying to change
Speaker 2: the mind state and the trajectory of what's going on
Speaker 2: in these communities. Let them hear her story. Three sons.
Speaker 2: Three of your son's gone within two to three years.
Speaker 2: You know that it's painful. But just to see her
Speaker 2: continue to move and continue her her thrive and her
Speaker 2: wants to create an organization to combat that's just the superwoman.
Speaker 2: And that's what I said. She's a superwoman. So shout
Speaker 2: out to you, miss Sonna, and to me. Could you
Speaker 2: have anything you.
Speaker 3: Want to No, no, no, no, sir, thank you, nothing
Speaker 3: at all. It was a heartbreaking yet powerful interview.
Speaker 2: Sure was well. That brings us to the end of
Speaker 2: another episode. Make sure you follow us and subscribe to
Speaker 2: our channel on YouTube at Tami Show PC and leave
Speaker 2: a comment. We want to hear all the comments. We
Speaker 2: want to hear all of the love. We want to
Speaker 2: hear even the hate. Make sure that you tell us
Speaker 2: what you feel because we're still the number one show
Speaker 2: in the world, and that's because we're the best show
Speaker 2: in the world. Right, come on, come on, come.
Speaker 1: On, come on, good night.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna always be right, Tamika d marriage is
Speaker 2: not gonna always be wrong, but we will both always
Speaker 2: and I mean always be authentic.
Speaker 4: That's how we own it.