WEBVTT - "I Have a Dream" (w/ Gerald C. Rivers) 0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:05.520 Good morning, get after noon, good evening. Wherever you might be, 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.320 you know you're listening to the Vitamin D Podcast with 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:12.360 Dawn Day, and I am your host, the eponymous Dawn Day, 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:14.680 here to help you gain a better understanding of you 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:17.520 by shining a little light on the parts of your 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.960 life that you can't see just yet. And today is 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.880 a very special day for some of my international listeners. 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.360 Today is Dr Martin Luther King Junior Day in the 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:30.640 United States, where we celebrate the life and work of 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.360 one of our most prodigious leaders in the fight for 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.559 civil rights. And today I also brought on a mentor 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:42.160 and close friend of mine, Mr Gerald C. Reverence. Now. 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.080 Gerald is a world's renowned voiceover artist, master drummer, and 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.360 public speaker. You've probably heard his voice before if you 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.000 saw the Disney three D animated film record Route where 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.680 he voiced for m Basson. You probably heard him on 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.920 countless radio and TV commercials, and have probably even seen 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:04.320 him on one or two or many few as well. Um, 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.800 but he's also the voice of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:10.640 And let me tell you, having heard him do a 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.480 few conditions in the past, let me just say it 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.960 is powerful because you know, he tortually captures the essence 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:20.479 of King's voice and it really resounds in your soul. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:23.840 So I figure, what better day on the day that 0:01:23.880 --> 0:01:28.000 we honor Dr Martin Luther King Junior, than I have 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:32.720 someone who actually resounds his voice and his message. And 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.560 as Caryl comes on this episode, we talk about them 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.240 what it means to have a dream and where you 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.319 are in relation to the dream that doctor King spoke 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:46.199 about almost sixty years ago, and and and it makes 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.880 you tap into what your dream is. What's the dream 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.560 you have for you? All right, listen, you don't have 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:54.120 to figure it out right now, you don't have to 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:58.120 do Just sit back and relaxed. As we welcome Mr 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:03.360 Gerald ce with without further ado, it is my pleasure 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:10.840 to welcome Generald Cee Rivers on the Vitamin D right 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:23.720 with me. I get excited about, Hey, Mr Gerald c Rivers, 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:30.600 what's happening? Having one is happening, Life is happening. It's 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.320 all good in the neighborhood, in spite of this world 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:38.280 of appearances that wants to suggest something different. I know, right, 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:42.040 but you know, just thinking of one, I've been telling 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.760 people that we have to treat this year like a 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:51.560 and one type of season like that. You know, we 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:55.200 usually come up with these cute little uh antidotes and 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.480 rhymes and whatnot for the new year, but like nobody 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.519 had time to be cute about this one. But you're right, 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:05.239 it's m one And I teld people like, we got 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:08.880 the vision last year, so now it's the just the 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.519 the m one, the action type of thing. You know, 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.880 you're here, and you know what, with all of this 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:19.000 stuff that is going on, it really is an opportunity 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.600 for us to take some action, to do some things 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:28.320 differently because in many ways, clearly the old way wasn't working. 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:32.200 It wasn't it wasn't, So we're not trying to go 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:34.880 back to something. We're trying to go forward to something. 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.760 Come on, get holding on. You're right, and you know 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:44.160 here's the thing too. Um what wasn't working is for sure. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:46.720 But one thing I think we had to keep in 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:51.800 mind is to really embrace the change that's to come. Yeah. Yeah, 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.840 And I think more more than just embracing the change, 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.320 we get to define the change because we have the 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:03.840 opportunity to create something new based on all of the 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.200 madness that has gone on. Come on. I have a 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:09.520 thing on my wall in my room that says, I 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:14.880 refuse to relinquish the reality of my fantasy because I 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:19.120 cannot escape the fantasy that lives in my reality. So 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.600 if things as strange as what has happened in this 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.279 last year can happen, then things that I could believe 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.080 in that other people would have thought were impossible can happen. 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:37.479 To what's gerald you? You started early, you're starting. You know, 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:39.560 I didn't even get a chance of war. People like 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.039 to let them know what kind of conversation we're gonna 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:47.200 have today. But I think we gotta ankling because I 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.520 live in that space. I mean, you know that I'm 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:54.440 you know, I'm one. I'm grateful. I'm grateful for the 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:59.760 good and the so called bad, and to every situation 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.000 that we find ourselves in, whether it looks like that 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:07.840 or not, is an opportunity for growth. Every situation that 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.360 we find ourselves and we have strategically placed ourselves in 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.720 the position for the greatest potential for growth. Now, whether 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.159 or not we take advantage of it is something else. 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:23.279 But we are always and ever in the position for 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:28.640 the greatest opportunity for our own growth. First, Oh, no, 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.680 matter what it looks like. You could be in prison, 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.680 you could be in war, you could be married and bliss, 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:36.320 middle of a divorce, losing your house, buying a house, 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:40.839 growing up, getting old, getting said, getting well, every opportunity, 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:45.240 every situation we find ourselves in, we have put ourselves 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:50.400 there for our greatest potential for growth. So this last 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.520 president put us in the position for our greatest potential 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.920 for growth. And you know, some people, uh, whether they 0:05:58.920 --> 0:06:01.240 be opposed and not in a necessarily for his views 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:06.200 essentially make America great. Maybe not again, but finally, let's 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.000 make America great. I mean, we've seen we're seeing diversity 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.039 in the White House. We're seeing so many people come forward. 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.440 We're seeing that. You know, with everything that's happened with COVID, 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.560 how this moment of paulse has allowed people to see 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:23.760 was really going on. You know, it's like a magnifying 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.599 glass because all of these things were going on all 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.960 the time. Anyway, come on, if it shut things down 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.320 in such a way that, for one, now we have 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:37.159 to look at the health care system because it was 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:41.159 broken and people are not getting the health care that 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.400 they needed. Now we have to look at the homeless situation, 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.240 because all of a sudden, we're scared that the homeless 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:50.720 people can be transmitting AIDS. I mean, not AIGs, but 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:55.160 COVID WHOA, yeah right, I'm so afraid of them that 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.360 remember there was a wireless Oh, we gotta put them 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.320 in a house. Oh, we've got to find some place 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:01.800 for them to be. What if we had had a 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.880 better health care system to begin with, or had a 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:09.240 better plan for dealing with those people that were houseless 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.520 in this time before this time showed up. What if 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.560 we had a better plan for caring for the elderly 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.680 and the sick before this showed up. All it did 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.840 was show up and show us how bad the situation 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.520 really was. And I know that there are some folks 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.160 who are saying, oh my god, they increased the unemployment 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:33.320 and they're giving people these stimulus checks. But when you 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.520 think about it, if people are getting these checks and 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:41.679 they're getting this unemployment and they still can't pay their bills, 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:45.720 but it was like that didn't just happen overnights. And 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.000 then when you have a host of people and a 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.880 lot of people who were making what they thought was 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.960 fairly good money, but you lose your job or you 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:57.800 miss one paycheck and we are all a few paychecks 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.720 away from trying to figure something out frind in the way. 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:08.680 So it really did shina light on healthcare, on homelessness 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:16.440 or houselessness, on job inequality, on racism, because if we 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:22.680 had not had COVID nineteen when George Floyd had that 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.600 incident that took place, most of the world, not just 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.720 this country, but most of the world would just have 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:32.920 added him to the list. With Eric Garner, and with 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:37.360 Felio Castillo, and with uh Tamir Rice and the long 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.839 list of library it just would have been added to 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.160 the list. But because people were stuck at home, they 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.119 couldn't go to the bar, they couldn't go to the restaurant, 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.560 they couldn't go to the dance club, they couldn't go 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:54.120 on vacation, they couldn't go to the gym. They were 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.760 at home, and they were bombarded with this information that 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:01.080 many of us have been dealing with on a raygular anyway, 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.880 So again here we go again. COVID provided us with 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.520 an opportunity to look at ourselves and to stop with 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.199 all of the the business that we do to keep ourselves. 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.080 We're going to the mall and we're going shopping, buying 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:19.200 things often that we do not need. We we don't 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:21.400 need them, but we want to compete and we want 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:23.360 to show that we can go out and get stuff. 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.400 But staying at home made everybody watch and made everybody 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.840 pay attention in a way that they never have before. 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.960 And I'm gonna say this, and I almost hate to 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:40.080 say it, but when young white women got on the 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:44.200 front lines with the Black Lives Matter people, the police 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.719 treated them differently. I know we can talk about the 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:53.719 most recent incident of insurrection and calling it. We need 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:57.120 to look at ourselves. We need and we can do 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:03.280 better than this, and and doing better it requires us 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:05.360 to do the very same thing that you said, to 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:10.079 see and really step into the light on the issues 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:15.640 that matter, because it's so easy to hide behind the distractions, 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:18.400 like you said, shopping what we don't need, going to 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:20.520 where you don't go. But when there's nowhere to quote 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:24.000 unquote hide, you're forced to see. Which it's kind of 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.400 like the segway of what vitamin D is all about. Gerald, 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.440 It's about sharing the light. And I tell people all 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.240 the time, we're gonna talk about the good and the bad, 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.280 because the most important part is that you have to see. 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.839 And Uh, one thing that I really appreciate is that 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.559 you were saying about how all of these things are 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:45.439 happening right, so much confusion. Some people may call it destruction, 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:47.240 but I find it a lot of people are kind 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.679 of getting dirty. And I said that dirty with emotions, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:54.040 dirty with different trials and tribulations. But like you said, 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.800 with anything, you can grow from anything. Heck, even some 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.040 of the most beautiful exotic flowers, trees, plants in the 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:05.440 world need dirt to grow. Not just dirt. There's some 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.479 of the most beautiful flowers on the planet that require 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:14.320 a fire for them to bloom, intense heat at the 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.920 level of fire and burning and destruction for them to 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.920 bloom and blossom and be some of the most beautiful 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:23.920 things you've ever seen. And that's part of what we're 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.600 looking at now. It's like some of it had to 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.160 burn in order for us to really see the beauty 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.880 of what was there, which is really that we're more 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:37.560 alike than we are different, and that we really want 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:41.040 the same things. We ought to be loved, We want 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.920 to be respected, we want to be trusted, we want 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.600 to be valued, We want people to like us. We 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.280 want our families to be cared for. We want our 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:57.800 needs to be met that supersedes any kind of racial, cultural, economic, 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.680 generational lines. That's what we want. We want to be 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.720 cared for, and we want to do ultimately, we want 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:10.040 to do good because that's our excuse quite often for 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.040 being angry. Well, things are so messed up that I'm 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.480 really piste off right now that there's no way I 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:18.880 can think about the good right now because I'm angry 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:20.920 about all the stuff that's going I have to tell you, 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:24.679 I've been I have two grown children, and we probably 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:30.000 talked more this summer than we ever have been the 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.240 whole time that they were in terms of real talk, 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.400 in terms of having a conversation with my kids and 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:39.640 having them be angry, like they're piste off at the 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.920 world that we live in. And they called to say, Dad, 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:46.480 we know you've been protesting and you've been on the 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:49.600 front lines, and you've been talking about the civil rights 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.720 and equal rights and human rights and treating people kind 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.120 for the longest and so we don't know what to do, 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:58.600 Like what do we do? And it's like, how can 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:01.640 you not get frustrated? I mean, you're talking about sixty 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.040 and seventy years and it's still the same song. Yeah, 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.199 well you can't get frustrated. It's okay to get frustrated. 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.320 The question is what do you then do with that? 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.760 Because one option is just to get more frustrated and 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:17.360 more angry and add more fuel to the fire. Another option, 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.360 and this from this is this is important. And because 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:24.120 white folks were calling me saying, Gerald, we know you're 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.800 the voice of Martin Luther King and we want to 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.880 be an ally. What do we do? And my kids 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:31.840 were saying, you know, we want to get out there 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.560 and be angry and and maybe be destructive, but we 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:37.600 want our voices to be heard. What do we do? 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.000 And you know what I've been telling people. The first 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:45.440 thing you gotta do is self care. So many of 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:49.720 us are hurting from wounds and scars that have been 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.600 with us since we were small children, and we have 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.000 never healed them. So when something like this comes up, 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:58.760 it doesn't just have us angry about what's going on 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:03.400 right now. It activates the trauma that we many of 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.760 or most of us have experienced as children. And now 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.000 we have a place to direct that anger and that rage. 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.240 But it's really not about For some of the folks 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.760 out there. It wasn't about George Floyd. It was about 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:18.760 I'm mad about something else. Now everybody's mad. Now I 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.960 can be mad too. But when you do the real 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.560 self care, when you take care of yourself, when you 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:30.160 love yourself yourself, when you heal yourself, you have what 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:35.040 I can only describe as discernment, so that when you 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.720 go out there, you know this is my pain and 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.440 that ain't mine, that's somebody else's pain. That now we're 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.160 in this collective mob mentality that we can all be 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:49.080 angry about. But when you have that clarity and that discernment, 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:54.280 you go. When I'm healed, I don't join any mob 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.200 that's going on out there that's angry and piste off 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.640 I I go. I see that they're angry and understand 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.840 why they're angry, and I wish we could all be 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.880 at peace. Okay, Well let me jump in Jairo. Now 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:10.480 I do love. I love the idealists jump in a circle. 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.640 Um let's saying kumbai ya. And I'm saying that to 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.240 be facetious. But one thing that I I will concur 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:19.640 when you were talking about having the anger and the rage, 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.040 is that it's all stemming from some type of fear, 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:24.040 a fear of some type of false evidence, of some 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:27.040 type of lack. But Gerald, you know, I have not 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.920 been on this earth fifty sixty plus years to understand 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:35.240 the disparities that's happened, um, you know, to my mother's 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:39.160 generation and grandparents generation. But what I can say and 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:45.400 my thirty plus years of life is that it's a 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.440 little But do we want to say anger aggression? Okay? 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.680 Because it's about emoting. And I think one thing you 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.400 you you kept expounding upon self care and as I'll 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.160 talk about a lot of things I talk about even 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.480 with Vitamin D principles, and it's something that I every 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.120 time I'll leave my listeners saying that you are your 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.680 greatest asset. And you have to think about your life, 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.800 bank account, what kind of deposits, what kind of liabilities 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.200 are you making in your life? Because everything in touch 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:17.920 of you is an extension. Right. So when you say, oh, 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.680 let's not get angry, how can you not be? I'm 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.240 not saying let's not get angry. I'm saying, when we 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:28.400 do get angry, let's find out what we're really angry about. 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.960 It's easy to join the mass and the mob when 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.000 everybody is piste off, but they're piste off about one 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.720 thing and I'm piste off about something else. When I 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.760 do that self care, I know that's their stuff, this 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:44.520 is my stuff, and I don't have to join in 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:48.080 and jump on the bandwagon and pile on when everybody's 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:50.480 piste off because it seems like we should be piste off. 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.160 I'm not saying you can't be piste off. You shouldn't 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.400 be piste off. We do get piste off. What I'm 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.720 saying is what do we do with it? What do 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.000 you do about it? I don't want to embarrass her, 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.760 but I was having a conversation with my daughter and 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:06.760 she was in New York, and then she went back 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.400 to Georgia to be with her mom because her mom 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:12.119 was going through something, and she said, we're getting a 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.320 gun and we're going to the driving range, I mean 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:16.919 to the shooting range, because we don't know what's going 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:21.600 to happen out here. And it just it just ripped 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:27.159 me apart. And I understand that feeling and that reaction, 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.840 but I grew up in Compton where everybody had a gun, 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:35.440 and it didn't solve the problem. You know, people wound 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:39.160 up using those guns on other people who looked like them, 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.320 who looked like us. I mean, and I don't want 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:44.320 to go too deep into this, but I was in 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:49.000 Compton when the Crips were born, when it was a 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.439 faction of the Black Panther Party, and the acronym for 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.480 Crip was actually a community revolution in progress. And then 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.560 when you had the FBI and CIA and co Intel 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:02.760 pro come in and take the leaders of this movement 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:05.480 who were trying to teach black men how to govern 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:08.560 themselves and how to police their own communities so that 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:11.159 the police didn't have to come in there. Once you 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:13.560 took all of those people out, and it was a 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:17.480 strategic plan by the federal government to remove black men 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:22.440 from positions of leadership within the black community and turn 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.679 what should have been a powerful political organization into a 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.720 street gang. Once you took all that away, now you've 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:33.119 got all these brothers who had once learned how to 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.560 fight and learned how to defend women in the honor 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:37.200 of women. And if you had a brother in one 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.760 home who was abusive to his wife, you had other 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:43.639 black men in that community who would come in and say, brother, 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.760 you can't do that, Rather than her calling the police 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.760 and have another man, another black man, locked up. The 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:52.760 brothers showed up and said, man, you can't do that. 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:58.360 You do, there will be consequences. You can't violate the spirit, 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:02.359 because that's just gonna bring the man into this neighborhood 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.600 and he's gonna incarceerate more and more of us. But 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.960 once you take out the men who are teaching these 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.560 boys how to be men, you just started the whole 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:17.399 racist cycle all over again. And then all of a sudden, 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.280 you have these young men who now have learned how 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.720 to use weapons, have have felt a little power and 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:27.440 a little authority, and and some of that rage, but 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.320 now there's nobody to direct it towards. Now they think 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:34.959 it's all about us, and we can control things, and 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:39.240 we have power and we have right. But without a 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:41.639 sound mind and that discernment that you speak of, you 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.119 can go astray. You wind up doing things that go 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.159 against the very thing that you ultimately want. And I 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:52.920 had a daughter. When black men kill another black man 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:57.479 in the neighborhood, both sides are affected. The same as 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:02.760 true when Americans go to war in Iran and Afghanistan 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.000 and Iraq and they come back and they are never 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.960 the same. We are not as humans. It is not 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.479 really our way to go and kill and destroy one another. 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:18.119 We be conditioned, we have to be almost brainwashed to 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.960 the point where we can be humanize another human being 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:24.560 in order to take their life. That's what men learn 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.239 how to do in prison. You go to prison and 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:30.800 you say, I gotta be devoid of emotion because I 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.960 don't want to show weakness. You go into war, you go, 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.440 I've got to be devoid of emotion because I don't 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:41.280 want to be vulnerable. And so the idea of just 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:47.520 responding with aggression has ultimately never served the overall good. 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:53.680 What it has served to do is conquer, kill and destroy. Yep, 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.679 we're gonna take over your land. And what crips and 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:01.880 Bloods were doing, they were mirroring what the federal government 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.920 was doing. It's like you're gonna go into somebody else's land, 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:09.479 somebody else's territory, and take over and decide that you 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.320 you like, you're a new colonialist. You're gonna go over 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:14.800 there and put your flag down and say his mine, 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:21.280 I claim this, and forget that there were people already there. Well, 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:24.280 here's the thing that's so interesting, Um, you're talking about 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.639 how the federal government came in and took all the 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:30.280 men leaders. It's something interesting and I um I talked 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:33.000 about this on the very first episode of Vitamin D 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:37.399 and it was entitled remembering who you Are, because I 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:40.400 think oftentimes when you have a disconnection of who you are, 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.200 that's when you lose that level of discernment. That's where 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.280 you lose your path or what you're going. That's when 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:47.800 you lose your means of standing because you realize you're 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:50.600 falling for anything. And when you're talking about these young 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.200 men in the community, it only makes sense when you've 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.040 ripped everything that probably was something to look up to. 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:59.160 So now it's kind of like I'm scavenging finding something 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.720 else to give me power that I can outlash in 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.720 that range. But this whole notion that you're saying of 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:08.080 dealing with these traumas, you know, putting the pieces together, 0:22:08.440 --> 0:22:12.120 it's like collectively coming through of what your vision for 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:16.080 your life is. What is the vision for your life? 0:22:16.480 --> 0:22:20.159 What do you want? And I asked people all the time, 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:24.760 what do you want? The challenges A lot of people 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:27.520 are afraid to ask for they want for ask for 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:29.560 what they want because they're afraid they're not going to 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:31.760 get it, or is it because they're afraid that they 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:36.240 will both. But as children, there were times when they 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.120 ask for things and somebody just said, no, you ain't 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:41.280 getting that, we can't afford that, you can't have that, 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:44.960 you don't deserve that, And it created an eight track 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:47.400 tape that was playing over and over in their mind 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:50.159 saying you can't have that, we can't afford that, you 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:52.600 don't deserve that, and you're not gonna get that, you know, 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:54.560 like the joke used to say, when now when you 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:59.200 go in the stove, you don't want ship, you ain't 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:04.040 getting ship. Don't ask for you just don't don't touch nothing, 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:06.840 do you know what I mean? And that kind of 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:12.119 conditioning is atrophy to the soul and the mind to 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:16.160 just say no, no, no, no, no no no, no, 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:21.120 no no no. So what we did in response the 0:23:21.160 --> 0:23:24.840 generation of parents that I'm in my fifties, we decided 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:27.760 we weren't going to do that to our kids. We decided, 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:30.439 if my kids want something, I'm just gonna give it 0:23:30.440 --> 0:23:32.880 to them, you know, because they're a kid, and if 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:35.000 they're going to school or if they're doing whatever, they 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:37.000 should be able to have whatever they want, because when 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:38.919 I was a kid and I asked for what I 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:41.240 want and I didn't get it. So then we are 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:46.520 concerned that we created this age of entitlement where young 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:48.960 people are growing up now saying I shouldn't have to 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:51.200