WEBVTT - Did We Disappoint the Ancestors? | MiniPod 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.280 Native Lampod is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:04.720 with Reason Choice Media. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:11.200 Welcome Welcome, Welcome home, y'all. This is our mini pod our. 0:00:11.240 --> 0:00:13.640 Good brother and friend Bakari had to make his way 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:14.360 to the courthouse. 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:15.920 He couldn't get a court date change, so. 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:17.640 We're gonna bail him out them out. 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.319 Fortunately he ain't go to jail for civil disobedience. Right 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.560 now he's helping out a client. But I get to 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:27.840 have this conversation. I love my one on ones with 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.480 my brother Andrew Gillham. He is one of my favorite 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:35.559 former elected officials, an incredible, incredible political strategist. He's organized 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:37.480 so many people over the years. And we were having, 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:40.600 you know, really this deep dive conversation in our main 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:44.720 show about you know, nation building and the structure of 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.159 the house that remains, if any remains in this country, 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:50.479 and then what we should be building an alternative And 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:53.440 by we I mean black folks first. Doesn't mean the 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:56.480 allies can't come along, but I am thinking about self 0:00:56.520 --> 0:00:59.520 preservation in the communal and cultural sense in this moment, 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.920 and so AG that's. 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.840 So because we're the ones really being done, you know, 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.800 targeted and just swiped out. 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:10.360 I mean, just take it out. 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.560 Yeah, And so we have to think about what is 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.440 needed for the present, what's needed for future generations, what's 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:17.840 needed so. 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:19.600 Our ancestors will be proud. Andre. 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:21.080 I can't tell you the number of days I wake 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.160 up and I'm like, are we like disappointing y'all? You know, 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:26.880 I got Harriet. Look, you know, I got my hair. 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.920 I'm like, here, Harry, is you mad at us or not? 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:31.880 I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm like. 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:32.560 Is this our fault? 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:34.920 I literally was in a session with my therapist yesterday 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.720 and I said, doctor Tamar, I really am asking like 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:41.679 are they disappointed in us? And I really asked myself 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:43.520 like what could we have done differently? 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:44.160 And I don't know. 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:48.600 I think if there's anything, it's working together better, removing 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.480 like the wounds and the ego out of the way, 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.120 so that we could better strategize and not worry about 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:59.000 who's leading on this particular effort or that particular effort, 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:00.880 so that we can act actually advanced. 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.040 But I really want to hear from. 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.440 You, so I want to keep with you on this 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.920 theme here about whether or not ancestors are you know, 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.239 I think the beauty is one we may never get 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:13.240 the definitive answer. 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:15.440 Maybe we'll take some relief in that. 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.160 But but when I think of the answers, is I 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:27.560 think of wisdom, And I think our wise ancestors predicted 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:32.760 the clawbacks, they expected and prayed for, and ushered in 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:36.800 and played a role in the advancements. But they in 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:41.720 their lives lifetimes saw the clawback and then the advancement, 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:46.000 and then the take back, and and and it is 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:51.040 a well worn journey for us to have some progress 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.680 on one day and have some backsliding on another. 0:02:55.960 --> 0:03:00.120 And what I think. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:06.840 If there was a thing I'd say do differently. First 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:12.320 to Democrats, we may have some left some allies who 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:16.080 are on the listening side of this. It's really important 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:21.840 that folks don't see what's happening with these congressional districts 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:29.639 as solely political when it comes to black folks. In fact, 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.520 I would say overwhelmingly it is not for black folks 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:39.200 a d versus are reaction that you are seeing, that 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.800 you're hearing that we are experiencing. I am not. 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:45.880 Tow out the frame. 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.000 Because Democrats have exceless seats or access to less seats 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:56.160 than not no higher and revels. I mean, I'm thinking 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:08.120 of the going from property chattel slavery, a middle passage 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:14.120 which brought us to this foreign land, speaking of step 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:21.440 forwards and backwards freedom, and then Jim Crow right representation, 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:29.720 and then Sharecropper and I mean member of Congress, and 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:31.560 then hey, hey, rat's is that back rest of that 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:37.839 back rights at that back to then have a record 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:42.000 setting number of black people in the United States Congress. 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:42.919 Mark the day. 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.560 The decision by the United States Partisan Supreme Court and 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:53.000 the cal A decision of Louisiana that affected an entire nation, 0:04:54.200 --> 0:05:01.599 that individually signaled the decline in black representation in the 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.880 Congress of the United States from that point forward, I 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.640 don't know that we will ever reach an apex there again. 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:11.039 I don't know that we will ever reach an apex 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:21.040 in number there again because of this decision. So all 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:25.760 of that is bottled up in the anger, frustration, fear 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:29.920 to have voice and representation and to be able to 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:32.400 make demands, but then to be able to make good 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:34.920 on those demands by being a person who can sit 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:39.640 in committee rooms, vote something up or down, and then deliver. 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:40.360 Something to your community. 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.400 To now not having that, so I was just say, 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.920 first say recognize that this is not that for us, 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.120 be a good ally if that's what you are, and 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:52.880 acknowledge that that's not the trade off that we're experiencing 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:58.720 right now, And then I would say we have got 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:03.760 to be as a community more strategic with what we want. Yes, 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.880 when we decide to put our weight on somebody or 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:13.039 something to win a race, black people chose by them. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:20.520 But total on before we before we get into choosing candidates, 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:24.560 because I honest, this is what I honestly believe. 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.400 I think that we are cart before horse people. 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:32.840 I think we're the exact opposite. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:38.200 But let's here, you do I do, I don't know. 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:40.440 I think generally, I really do believe we're cart before 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:45.159 horse people because what we what we do is despite 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:49.320 all of our efforts in building this thing, we still 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:53.279 will allow ourselves to be guided by processing systems and 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:59.000 strategies by folks outside of our community. So I'm not 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:03.239 saying that we're not practice thinkers and doers in that system, 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.640 but I think that we so confine ourselves to generally speaking, 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:10.440 and this is a hyperover generalization, but we but writ large, 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:16.160 we so confine ourselves to that system that we don't 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:19.360 imagine what we actually need to thrive. 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:20.720 We're in survival mode. 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.680 So it's again it's not criticizing the fact that we 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:26.640 know we need to live, but it is saying it's 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.080 very limiting because we're constantly going from one crisis to 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.200 one crisis, mitigating this harm to that harm, and we're 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:33.880 never thinking. 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.760 We're never allowed or give ourselves. 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.920 Permission the spaciousness to be like, now, what does thriving 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:39.400 look like? 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.560 And so I guess what I'm saying ag is like, nor. 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.240 Does the practicalities of life for us oftentimes support it? 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:47.400 Right? 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:48.080 Yeah? 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:52.400 Yeah, so if we're I think that if we took 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:55.640 a little more time. Now am I talking about years, 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:57.679 I'm not em talking about months, I'm talking about some hours. 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:01.320 Probably because of how smart and innovative and creative our 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.240 folks are. That's why we're going to live a long time, 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:07.120 because we, naturally artists are going thrown back to the maino. Right, 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:08.920 you know, like you have to be when you don't 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:10.920 have nothing else, you've got to be creative and dream big. 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:17.440 So's say, absence or not having is the mother of 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:20.400 what's to say, is the mother of invention? 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:21.680 I don't believe. 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.640 Basically, when you're without something, it creates. 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:27.520 It is the it is the. 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.160 Mother of of of invention. You create when you don't 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:31.960 have Yeah. 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.520 Yeah, and so in this imaginary country, to. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:39.840 That end, necessity, that necessity is the mother of that's it, 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:41.760 I said, when you have need, but that's it. 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:43.800 Necessity is the mother of invention. 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:46.280 Yeah, I guess what what? 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:48.720 And I don't all the way remember what I was saying, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:50.560 But I think that the general point is. 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:53.880 Because you said we were always creative people. 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.160 Yeah, well, we can find the time that we need to. 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.679 We can find ourselves to the systems that exist and 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.760 not and not dedicating the time or energy or space 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:05.200 to the systems we deserve. 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.160 And so can we example this with like soapt for instance, 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:14.200 would it be like a convention and then out of 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:18.120 that convention we would barter where our vote might go. 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.440 Yes, it's just that simple. 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.840 Like I just wanted I shouldn't say that that's what 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:23.320 you were. 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:24.240 Yeah, because I don't want to. 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:28.520 I don't want to belittle or be condescending to our people. 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:30.240 I believe we have tried this. You know. 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:33.080 My favorite thing to talk about or reflect upon is 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.360 the nation time documentary documentary that examines Gary, Indiana of 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:38.400 nineteen seventy two. 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.400 And I've went and talked to people who participated, like why. 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.400 Did it fall apart? What do we do wrong? What 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.280 can we learn from that? I mean, Andrew, they had 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.880 delegates in the thousands from all over the country, and. 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.120 We don't have that now, and I think we need 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:54.439 that now. 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.040 And I think at the time, our people were so 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:01.240 hyper focused on integrating into the other system. You know, 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.880 even Reverend Jackson's tone change from the amazing speech he 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:09.000 gave there to integrating into the system. There's some utility 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.880 they saw into integrating into that system. But why can't 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.080 we hold both? You know, like I feel like we've 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.240 got to hold both. Fine, be a part of the system. 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:24.480 We need people who are inside systemic influencers, got it, shifters, changers. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:27.240 I'm not saying influencers like in the social media centers 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:31.200 right shift it paradigm shifters inside the system. 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.520 But we also need builders outside of the thing. 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:37.600 So when that system crumbles, as we're witnessing, I didn't 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:39.360 know it was this fragile agy. I got to tell you, 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:41.720 I knew it was, But God, in a matter of 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.000 days and weeks and months, we're seeing the whole thing 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.840 fall apart by singular, one vote at a time. What 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.800 do we have for us on the other side of 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:54.640 the thing. We poured everything into so much so that 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:56.160 we don't have anything left for us. 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:58.120 We don't have the Gary system. 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.520 Yea to stephen A. 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:06.720 Smith's uh, I don't know if it's a plea or 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.400 a It was but ass stupid as far as I 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:15.080 was concerned, and highly uninformed. But the suggestion that can 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:20.320 black people consider giving their votes to the Republican Party 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:23.920 to see whether or not the yield what we get 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:28.040 from that negotiation would be greater than what we've gotten 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:32.480 to this point, from from from from Democrats? How how 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:40.880 would the system of trade of barter, our support, our vote, 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.400 our stand with you power one party or the other, 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:49.800 depending upon who's coming with it. How does that correlate 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:54.719 to to to his suggestion? Does it connect at all? 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:55.400 Do you see the. 0:11:57.120 --> 0:11:59.640 You know the connection I'll draw and this may be 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.960 where we part weighs a little bit. I'm not a Republican, 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:08.280 I've never voted Republican. But what I will say is 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.920 there's a reason members of the CBC founders of the 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:18.120 CBC said, no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests. 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.080 I think that if we can cast party aside and 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.760 see where our real interests lay, and if like, because 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:27.760 we don't know what's about to happen in the South now, 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.840 it might be Dixiecrats that raise up rise up right, 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:33.720 that is not going to necessarily be in our interests. 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.920 And so I'm not you know, vote blue no matter who, Like, 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.160 I want to know what you're talking about, you know, 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:40.960 if you're talking crazy. 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:42.480 Like again, I'd say it all the time. 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.960 We have a mayor in Seattle Andrew that's waging war 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.800 on people who she should be agreeing with eighty seven 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.160 ninety three percent of the time on policy, raising war 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:58.400 and so I don't. I don't support that overall. And 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.320 she's working families party. So I'm real confused. Told Mo, 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:03.400 I'm real confused. 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:08.960 I think that we have to but we have done that, 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:09.760 yes we have. 0:13:10.080 --> 0:13:12.520 We have to know people know how to do that 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:14.600 of the box because we did it when we left 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:15.520 the Republican Party. 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:19.240 Yes, So I'm just saying, like, but here's the thing 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.240 that I would tell us to stretch beyond too. When 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.520 we left the Republican Party. I'm not saying aligned with 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.920 any party. I'm saying aligne with our interests, with our 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:33.160 demand and I'm hoping Andrew, honestly, like, in a perfect 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:34.920 world right now, what I would love to see happen 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.280 is we have our own ALEC, our own American Legislative 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.080 Exchange Council, but as black and we are making sure 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.000 our legislators are equipped to push bills in and through 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:48.320 their state houses, state sentence, and to the deaths of 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.440 the governor so that our needs are met. 0:13:57.400 --> 0:13:59.800 In a perfect world, Andrew, we would have our version 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:00.520 of this Tea Party. 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.280 Many of us have been talking about this for years, 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:04.959 since before twenty sixteen, probably since twenty twelve. 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:06.320 We need this. 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:09.120 Thing because we know the Democratic Party needs to be 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:13.080 pushed and we damned Republican Party need to either be 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.520 pushed to the left or push off a cliff. 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:20.040 It sounds like the British system of coalitions, which a 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:24.120 lot of democracies have, so basically they have to coddle together. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.760 That's it, desperate interests within the chamber to form a 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:33.080 governing party. That's what I want, and in exchange for 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.400 me getting my folks behind you, this is what we 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.480 expect to be on the agenda, what this coalition will 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.640 fight to deliver, and if you fail us, we will 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:47.760 collapse this government by removing our coalition from your majority. Yeah, 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:50.120 this is what's happening about to happen right now, and 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.160 you're here with these governments fall and they have to 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.640 get a new prime minister. That's what happens part of 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:55.880 the coalition breaks down. 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.680 I like that because it also gives us It doesn't 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:03.720 make a locked in, It makes us locked into our priorities. 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:06.480 And I think that's the other thing I hate, even 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.480 sometimes on the show when we talk about things is 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.480 squarely political, because what we're losing. 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:15.480 Is that the heart of policy are supposed to be people. 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:17.800 You hit on this in our main show as well, 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.960 like we can't lose our morals or our human decency 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:26.160 while we push policy forward. If policy is moving forward, 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:29.040 the people should be moving forward. Those two things should 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.200 be inextricably linked. Is what are the things that we 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.880 can be doing as a people in and outside of 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:37.680 a political system to make sure that the people are 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:41.200 advancing I say all the time too in speeches, ag 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.200 like the first thing that your grandmother asked you if 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:46.120 she's still alive. 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:46.960 Mine are both passed. 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:48.600 But the first thing that they would normally ask you 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:50.160 when you walk into the house is what. 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:54.760 Period. That's the first thing. 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.120 And what what I've been surprised by, Andrew is I 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.920 thought that was just a black grandma thing, white grandmother's 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.400 two you know, Latino grandmother. 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:04.640 No, seriously, I've been blown away by it. 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.960 But what that tells you is that their makeup is 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.440 centering that humanity. 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.040 And the basic needs of the people. 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:18.080 First, if we can have your grandmother's political party, the 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:19.720 whole nation will move forward. 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.000 The children are fed, there's no elder that's starving. 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.240 And then after you ask people are that normally they 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:27.240 say are you hungry? 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:28.920 They ask you are you all right? 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.040 And they give you permission to tell you where you're 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:33.800 not all right, And then they try to meet that 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:35.920 need too, even if they put a little they put 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:37.680 that little folded up twenty dollars in your hand, or 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:39.960 sometimes it'll be five dollars. My granddaddy used to do 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.320 give us dimes and nickels po chat, but you know 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.320 it would be right, Well, those are the basic needs. 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.640 How do we move so far away from our grandmother's values. 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:58.080 Right, Yeah, you know it's so funny. We oh man, 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.640 we give so much in our society to the robber 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:06.359 barons and tycoons who you know, the Bezos of the world, 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.040 the Elon Musks of the world, who are brilliant. You 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:11.920 want those brilliant people around because they did something. And 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:18.639 I'm thinking Elon Musk wasn't the first hybrid vehicle. He 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.960 didn't introduce that into the space. What he did was 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:28.919 advantaged himself off of billions of dollars of public investment, 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:34.600 money and research that produced a certain guaranteed science. And 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.080 his preference was to make it a little more glamorous 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.840 and luxurious. And he had a hustle and he did it. 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.680 The SpaceX going to space. Brother, the American people did 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.679 all of the groundwork on that, trillions of dollars and 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:52.600 research and money for that to take place, right, Jeff Bezos. 0:17:54.920 --> 0:18:01.080 We were doing mail to people's houses long before we 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:06.760 were ever a nation. The postal system proceeded the Constitution 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:11.320 of the United States of America, and before we were 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.879 ordering online, we had catalogs that came to the house 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:20.200 that people ordered from, and then you had the QVC 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.000 that came on the TV and you ordered over the phone, 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.080 And those were just earlier iterations of a thing that 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:28.800 you're doing right now. But let me tell you what 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.640 was most required for your success. What was most required 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:37.439 and why it is not privatized today is a United 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:41.800 States parcel service that delivered mail to every single home 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.439 in America within the last mile and some of the 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:49.920 most sparse places on this planet. And what you did 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.919 is you needed a public system to exist there. You 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.919 once your piggybacked off of it for years until you 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.879 were able to get an agreeable rate with fed X 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.600 that you could get weights bargain between what the government 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:04.679 rate was and then what the private sector rate was, 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:06.320 and you borrow it between the two and til you 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:06.879 can make it work. 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:08.359 And now you got big enough that you can. 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:13.440 Build your own. But the foundations of it came from us, 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:17.840 the people, So they're not relionize these people. 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:20.280 And all I'm saying is is like that. 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.200 Actually isn't the most impressive part of how that thing happened. 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.080 If you follow it from its beginning to where we 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:33.080 are now. There are people who take advantage of public investments. 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.040 And figured out how to profitize. You know, a profit 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:36.160 from it. And that's okay. 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:42.959 I'm not begrudging people anything, but your question around how 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:47.960 do we go from you know, this commonplace of humanity? First, 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:53.119 I think our obsession and in so many ways forced 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.120 because of the societies that we are in of this 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.600 pour yourself up individually by the bootstrap to go on 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.479 and the great things. And then they call the names 0:20:02.720 --> 0:20:06.359 of the elon Musks and the Bezoses of the world, 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.880 when that is a fallacy. That is not how they 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.160 got what they got, that is not why they are 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:19.560 where they are. It is because of us, the beloved 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:25.360 community that ushered it and paid for it first, and 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:29.160 then people, as as it often does water fines cracks, 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:32.240 figured out a way to then take what has already 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:37.119 been invested in built by the public and figure out 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.880 a way to profit from it. And so where did 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.440 it go? Where did human Where did common Where did decent? 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:49.800 Where did humanity go? It went the way of the 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:52.439 tycoonins because they're the ones that are putting it in 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:55.320 front of us every twenty four to seven, This aspirational 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:56.560 life that we're supposed to get to. 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:57.600 And what does that mean? 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:00.720 You have to fok your neighbor for me to get 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:05.000 mine this zero sum game rather than where we once were, 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:09.359 which was we build as we climb, we leave the 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:13.120 ladder down and the window up. That's how we move 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:15.879 forward as a community. Because I can't be doing well 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.760 in my house if my whole neighborhood is in strict 0:21:18.760 --> 0:21:22.639 poverty and in constant need, because that makes me then. 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:23.400 The target. 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.359 That would be self defeatists. So I you know, so 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:33.120 I understand very inherently. We understood that arizing tide did 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:39.160 lift when we were all invested. But that's no more. 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.400 That's no more. The comment and the human and the decent. 0:21:43.720 --> 0:21:44.520 Is still there. 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:48.959 It just has to be serfd out through through the 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:53.480 scar tissue that society has, you know, written on all 0:21:53.520 --> 0:22:00.280 of us through its usery. I probably went somewhere way 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.879 different than where you were, Okay, I just know, I 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:06.439 just I just it's just the way did the decent 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.239 go really struck me because we are still at our 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:15.320 core decent people, and the lionizing of these standouts I 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:17.400 think has cost us a lot. And I don't think 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.640 we have all set with and the recesses of our 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:22.359 minds how much. 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:23.320 It has cost us. 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:25.600 Yeah, I think that's probably true. 0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:29.080 I think what I guess we could implore our people 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:32.680 to do is think about the real lions and lionesses 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:35.960 in our lives. And again, it sounds like there's some 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:40.639 consistency across grandparents. So maybe we start there and you know, 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:43.720 kind of go up from there. Yeah, definitely our humanity. 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:46.600 And as I'm looking at you know, there's again this 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:50.000 article that came out about the Alabama cuts to snap 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:53.000 benefits based on the new work requirements and the HR one, 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:57.320 which was the big beautiful bill. It's I mean, Andrew, 0:22:57.359 --> 0:23:00.320