Speaker 1: And now watching my mic back like.
Speaker 2: We can strike.
Speaker 3: From headquarters behind.
Speaker 1: In those of you just tuning into Civiccycer, I am
Speaker 1: in host ramseys John. He is Ramsay's Jah. This again
Speaker 1: is not the Quiet Storm, this is Qward. I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to get my voice back and you guys are
Speaker 1: tuned in to Civic Cycle. Indeed, special guest with us
Speaker 1: today Jevin Hodge, who is helping us navigate the complexities
Speaker 1: of local elections, local governments. We're having a good stories
Speaker 1: we're having I'll tell you, so, uh, stay tuned. We
Speaker 1: got a lot more show for you. We're going to
Speaker 1: talk about some of the good things that happen when
Speaker 1: people do engage in local elections. Right, So, what we've
Speaker 1: talked about so far tendencies, but we have some examples
Speaker 1: in recent history, recent weeks indeed, of folks like really
Speaker 1: knocking it out of the park. And so I'm happy
Speaker 1: to get into those stories next and hopefully we can
Speaker 1: continue to galvanize the support we need to make the
Speaker 1: world into what we want. But first and foremost, let's
Speaker 1: talk about becoming a better ally. B a Ba Baba.
Speaker 1: Today's Baba is sponsored by Major Threads for the finest
Speaker 1: in men's sportswear check major threads dot com. And for
Speaker 1: today's allies an example of becoming a better ally, we
Speaker 1: want to shout out a couple of municipal governmental bodies. Okay,
Speaker 1: earlier in the show, we mentioned Justin Jones and Justin Pearson,
Speaker 1: the too Tennessee House representatives that were expelled, and I
Speaker 1: told you the story had a happy ending. Well, the
Speaker 1: two were both reinstated. The Memphis Commission voted unanimously to
Speaker 1: reinstate just In Pearson this past Wednesday after he was
Speaker 1: expelled from the Tennessee State Legislature, and the Metropolitan Nashville
Speaker 1: Council unanimously voted to reinstate Justin Jones. And so despite
Speaker 1: the Conservative majority expelling these two gentlemen from the Tennessee
Speaker 1: House of Representatives for protesting that body's inability to tackle
Speaker 1: the issue of gun violence and the proliferation of gun
Speaker 1: violence in the state, and with the recent mass shooting
Speaker 1: at the school I forget the name of the school,
Speaker 1: but the religious school that was there. Now these other
Speaker 1: bodies have come in and reinstated them, and that I
Speaker 1: believe his true allieship, especially with the unanimous vote all
Speaker 1: these guys did was create new enemies and they didn't
Speaker 1: need them. And all they did was galvanize a community
Speaker 1: to try to fight for what's right for our children,
Speaker 1: for ourselves, for our posterity, which is our responsibility in
Speaker 1: this country. So to those two bodies, we salute you,
Speaker 1: thank you for being the allies. Now let's talk about
Speaker 1: some positive stuff, some good things that happen when we
Speaker 1: vote local before we move on.
Speaker 4: Because we have someone who I consider an expert in
Speaker 4: the space with us today, I just want to pose
Speaker 4: a question before we change the temperature in the room.
Speaker 4: Good former athlete myself, the most difficult losses I faced
Speaker 4: from Little league all the way through college, or that
Speaker 4: barely losses we lost by a field goal, or we
Speaker 4: lost by a last second three pointer, or you know,
Speaker 4: we're up in the bottom and that team hits a
Speaker 4: home run, they clear the bases and they win. Emotionally,
Speaker 4: those have always been the hardest to rebound. Film with
Speaker 4: an apathetic tenor really being more present now than I
Speaker 4: can remember in my lifetime. I'm sure there were times
Speaker 4: in history before where that might have been the space
Speaker 4: that we lived in. But coming off of electing Barack
Speaker 4: Obama and then going into the election after he was
Speaker 4: done and really not feeling like we had a candidate
Speaker 4: that we loved. And I'm sure a lot of people
Speaker 4: felt that way in our most recent election. In cases
Speaker 4: like yours, where you do galvanize the community and you
Speaker 4: do wake up people who might not have been participating
Speaker 4: to get that close and not cross the finish line,
Speaker 4: how do you reawaken and remotivate and re engage with
Speaker 4: people who really did believe in what you were doing
Speaker 4: and what they thought you'd be able to do for
Speaker 4: your constituency if you were elected. When you get that close,
Speaker 4: it's not just deflating for you, it's very deflating for
Speaker 4: those who support you and for those who you know,
Speaker 4: really some i'm sure wanted you to do it again,
Speaker 4: starting back from zero, starting back from go. How do
Speaker 4: you get that community to re engage and to wake
Speaker 4: back up and to remind them that everything you sought
Speaker 4: out to do is still there to be done.
Speaker 2: I appreciate the question. I'll tell you it is very difficult,
Speaker 2: as you highlight it. But number one, the work never stops.
Speaker 2: It never stops, and so and that's when loser draw
Speaker 2: and I believe that this is my calling. My calling
Speaker 2: is to serve. Whether that's an elected office or not,
Speaker 2: my calling is to serve. So for me, it's being strong,
Speaker 2: not only for myself but for the community and continuing
Speaker 2: to remind folks that this is a part of the process.
Speaker 2: You don't always get, you know, you don't always get
Speaker 2: what you want, when you want it, how you want it.
Speaker 2: But I will say this is highlighting the victories when
Speaker 2: they come right, because, like you said, you know, even
Speaker 2: though you may lose the game by three, one of
Speaker 2: the players might have had one of the highest scoring
Speaker 2: games of their entire career, and because of that they
Speaker 2: may go off to the next level. Right, And that's
Speaker 2: what we are experiencing right now.
Speaker 1: We didn't win this.
Speaker 2: Battle, but we accomplish so much. We got new people involved,
Speaker 2: we got new people engaged, We got new people invited
Speaker 2: into the democratic process that otherwise would have never been
Speaker 2: invited or engaged. I got folks that volunteered and worked
Speaker 2: on the campaign that literally came in off the streets
Speaker 2: and was like I saw or heard about you, or
Speaker 2: I read about you in the paper, and I just
Speaker 2: wanted to meet you. And then now they're working in
Speaker 2: politics to engage and get people involved, you know, and
Speaker 2: so like we got to highlight those victories. But I
Speaker 2: there's a quote that I live by from one of
Speaker 2: my favorite shows, West Wing. I love Wes Way and
Speaker 2: the President. Bartlett on one of the episodes said that
Speaker 2: every time that you think that you measured your capacity
Speaker 2: to challenge, you will look up and you will be
Speaker 2: reminded that the capacity may well be limited. And in
Speaker 2: this moment, you know, I thought I met that capacity
Speaker 2: for this challenge. But you know, life still goes on
Speaker 2: in the world will continue to turn, and now we
Speaker 2: push ourselves to greater limits because we're ten times more
Speaker 2: resilient than we were when we started this process of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so let's get this party started. I'm
Speaker 1: going to do a little reading from b et dot com.
Speaker 1: The California lawmaker envisions a state wide system to notify
Speaker 1: people that a black child or a young woman is missing. Interesting,
Speaker 1: you might say, but allow me to read on, in
Speaker 1: hopes of reducing the disproportionate number of them who disappear
Speaker 1: every year. If his proposed legislation is enacted, the nation's
Speaker 1: largest states would have an ebony alert system. Not to
Speaker 1: be confused with an Amber alert. Why do we need both?
Speaker 1: Please listen all right. State Senator Stephen Bradford, a Democrat,
Speaker 1: introduced Senate Bill six seventy three to quote address the
Speaker 1: often ignored or lack of attention given to black children
Speaker 1: and young black women that are missing in California.
Speaker 4: Quote.
Speaker 1: In March twenty third, statement from Bradford's office said the
Speaker 1: measure would authorize law enforcement agencies to request activation of
Speaker 1: the Ebony Alert if it would help their investigation of
Speaker 1: a missing black youth or black women ages twelve to
Speaker 1: twenty five. The system would also encourage traditional and social
Speaker 1: media outlets to disseminate information about the missing person. Scores
Speaker 1: of black children are excluded excluded from Amber alerts because
Speaker 1: they are disproportionately classified as runaways compared to white children,
Speaker 1: the statement said, citing information from the Black and Missing Foundation.
Speaker 1: Black children also account for the thirty eight percent of
Speaker 1: reported missing children, even though they represent just fourteen percent
Speaker 1: of the national population. So black children go missing at
Speaker 1: higher rates, and they are taken seriously less often by
Speaker 1: the officials. And so this gentleman Stephen Bradford is trying
Speaker 1: to introduce legislation that would create a special alert system
Speaker 1: for black people because there is a need there. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're listening to this show, we count you as
Speaker 1: an ally. This is kind of the nature and the
Speaker 1: purpose of the show that we do. So I'm so
Speaker 1: used to dealing with folks who would try to pick
Speaker 1: this apartment like, oh, why do you need something? But listen,
Speaker 1: you understand. I just explained why we need something separate
Speaker 1: because these folks don't take a serious In fact, one
Speaker 1: of the first shows I did with iHeart Sorry with
Speaker 1: Black Information Network was a show about missing while Black.
Speaker 1: So this gentleman was elected to local office in California
Speaker 1: and decided to make changes for perhaps community or district
Speaker 1: that he represents, and to affect change with a problem
Speaker 1: that exists in that community. And I think that this
Speaker 1: is the sort of thing, the sort of direct action
Speaker 1: that we can expect to see when we vote local.
Speaker 1: This is a positive thing because again, what is the number.
Speaker 1: It's thirty eight percent of reported missing children are black.
Speaker 1: And now we have somebody that's going to do something
Speaker 1: about it on the local level, because this isn't a
Speaker 1: federal thing yet. But you know, a lot of things
Speaker 1: like this start locally. So any thoughts on this, well.
Speaker 2: You know, it leads me to think about something that
Speaker 2: just is ingrained in my head, right, and it's the
Speaker 2: fact that you may not be able to change the
Speaker 2: world overnight, but you definitely can change your world overnight.
Speaker 2: And this is that first step, right, Like, this is
Speaker 2: that first step to changing the conversation, to utilizing the
Speaker 2: power of the pen, right to like following through on
Speaker 2: something that was brought up to him while on the
Speaker 2: campaign trail, or from an experience that he may have
Speaker 2: directly experienced, or from a constituent, and he's working to
Speaker 2: solve this problem. And so you know, I took my
Speaker 2: hat to Center for Bradford, you know, and I think
Speaker 2: that I will be very excited to follow this because,
Speaker 2: like you said, it's just a bill right now and
Speaker 2: it's going through the legislature in California. But I'm going
Speaker 2: to be very excited to follow this right to see
Speaker 2: the conversation, to see a dialogue that comes about it,
Speaker 2: but also to talk about the precedent that it sets,
Speaker 2: because sometimes you work to pass a law and it
Speaker 2: may not go anywhere, right, but what it does is
Speaker 2: it creates conversation that otherwise, isn't had I think that's right,
Speaker 2: and that's and that's I can't say that that's going
Speaker 2: to be the most important part of this, but it's
Speaker 2: going to be a very important part of this process
Speaker 2: because you just gave me statistics that I didn't know.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that thirty eight percent of missing in
Speaker 2: this country were black children. I knew it was a
Speaker 2: high percentage, but you're telling me one out of every
Speaker 2: three children that go missing or black more than that, right,
Speaker 2: Like that is absolutely wholeheartedly, fundamentally ridiculous, and so it
Speaker 2: leads me very excited to see where this how this progress.
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, so we seem like you got something.
Speaker 4: I mean, I kind of always do, right, Yeah, Mankind's
Speaker 4: implicit biases make all of these things such a heavy
Speaker 4: lift for us, right because you think something like this
Speaker 4: would be like universally accepted, but we know better, we
Speaker 4: know for sure than it wasn't. And the reasons why
Speaker 4: being things like you said, well, the black kids probably
Speaker 4: ran away. The white kids are probably missing, and we
Speaker 4: should probably get to looking for them. But the black
Speaker 4: kid probably just ran away and it'll probably be home
Speaker 4: in a couple of days. Give us a call back,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And it's just the way
Speaker 4: that we receive all information with regards to the skin
Speaker 4: that looks like ours, the lens that we see it through.
Speaker 4: Even decent, well meaning people, right, even those who are
Speaker 4: not overtly racist and who are not making decisions in
Speaker 4: bad faith, it's just their natural implicit bias to see
Speaker 4: us through a different lens, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: So it's hard to not hear that in literally every
Speaker 4: story that we cover everything, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: And like I said earlier, a lot of us have
Speaker 4: turned that off. It's intellectually beneath us to think that
Speaker 4: people look at the world that way because we've made
Speaker 4: so much progress in Barack Obama ie and man, we
Speaker 4: really got to stop blaming the man for all of
Speaker 4: our problems. And it's like, that's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying that, without fail, everything that happens in
Speaker 4: this country, and not just in this country, but more
Speaker 4: so here than probably anywhere else in the world, things
Speaker 4: are viewed through separate lenses when your skin looks like ours,
Speaker 4: and people are more slow to act when it comes
Speaker 4: to bringing about change and helps for us when we
Speaker 4: talk about mortality rates for black women and even Latino
Speaker 4: and Hispanic and under represented people giving birth the way
Speaker 4: that doctors treat them in the hospital was different. And
Speaker 4: I could go down the slippery slope and named every
Speaker 4: instance where that's true, but there's too many and we
Speaker 4: don't have enough time. So the look that you saw
Speaker 4: my face was like expletive again. Well, I know every time,
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 1: Why that look is on your face, and some listeners
Speaker 1: might know. But if you weren't listening to these couple
Speaker 1: of shows that we talked about, you had a very
Speaker 1: I would call it. I don't want to call it traumatic.
Speaker 1: Don't let me define your trauma. But it was an
Speaker 1: experience that was.
Speaker 4: Don't let Ramses call it traumatic. I'll say it on
Speaker 4: his behalf because unfortunately, I was an audience to an
Speaker 4: attempted abduction of my child, and all of us fathers
Speaker 4: puffed my chest out a little bit. Feel very heroic
Speaker 4: when it comes to the idea of someone doing something
Speaker 4: to our children, except in this instance, before jumping to action,
Speaker 4: I froze because my mind could not process that I
Speaker 4: was watching someone try to take my child out of
Speaker 4: my car while his mother wasn't paying attention because, of course,
Speaker 4: not not that she was actively distracted, She just, of
Speaker 4: course doesn't think somebody's going to walk up to the car,
Speaker 4: open the door with her in it and try to
Speaker 4: take my child. But it happened, and I saw it,
Speaker 4: and I wish i'd responded, No, I don't, because if
Speaker 4: iud responded faster, I'd probably not be doing the show
Speaker 4: right now, because I'd probably be serving time for my
Speaker 4: actions in the wake of witnessing that. But as I
Speaker 4: ran back from the interest to the grocery store, back
Speaker 4: towards my car to stop this man from taking my son,
Speaker 4: I called the police. And the police showed up and
Speaker 4: did nothing. They asked very few questions. They gave little
Speaker 4: know hope that something would be done in the aftermath,
Speaker 4: with their instructions being specifically to me, if something like
Speaker 4: this happens again, let us know. We're not going to
Speaker 4: launch an investigation. We're not going to go to see
Speaker 4: if there were security cameras. No, no, no, if it happens again,
Speaker 4: let us know outside of that. Sorry forget that. You
Speaker 4: can describe the people and their car and their car,
Speaker 4: none of that matters.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, here's our car, and if you guys deal
Speaker 1: with something like this again. Let us know.
Speaker 4: I got an Amber alert a week later, same car,
Speaker 4: same description, successful kidnapping.
Speaker 1: Now if it had been your son, knowing what we
Speaker 1: know now how difficult it is to have a black
Speaker 1: child included in the Amber alerts, I think that one
Speaker 1: more time we should salute this gentleman, Stephen Bradford, for
Speaker 1: seeing a problem and doing something about it on the
Speaker 1: local level. So shout out to you, State Senator Stephen Bradman.
Speaker 2: May I want to jump in really quickly and not
Speaker 2: move too far past that and bring this back to
Speaker 2: the theme of this show that the situation that you
Speaker 2: just highlighted is horrific and I can only imagine the
Speaker 2: pain that you feel you felt and you're sharing yet
Speaker 2: moment with us and the listeners.
Speaker 1: So I tip my hat to you, brother.
Speaker 2: You know, for for opening up and being vulnerable, and
Speaker 2: that is just it's just not easy.
Speaker 1: It's just not easy.
Speaker 2: So no that we here with you, We got you,
Speaker 2: we got your back. I appreciate it, brother.
Speaker 1: But bringing this.
Speaker 2: Back because that is a very good example of the
Speaker 2: reality that's too far often to black Americans in this country,
Speaker 2: Americans of color, and you know folks of color in
Speaker 2: this country, but the black community. And let me just
Speaker 2: give you a very tangible example of why your vote
Speaker 2: in your voice matters in these moments. Because you had
Speaker 2: a law a member of law enforcement who is a
Speaker 2: government official that taxpayers pay that individual salary. Well, the
Speaker 2: individual that that person reports to, ultimately is the.
Speaker 1: Chief of police.
Speaker 2: The chief of police is ultimately reports to the mayor
Speaker 2: and the city council, and that is a person who
Speaker 2: dictates the culture of that law enforcement agency, who's able
Speaker 2: to weed out the quote unquote bad apples or dictate
Speaker 2: how you respond to a situation. So when you elect
Speaker 2: a mayor and a city council member that cares about
Speaker 2: their community, that is of their community, that is from
Speaker 2: their community, then when those moments come for them to
Speaker 2: decide who is leading the law enforcement agency, those individuals
Speaker 2: are going to be who decides whether we're going to
Speaker 2: appoint someone to be the chief of police that is
Speaker 2: going to take issues like this serious, or they're going
Speaker 2: to give you a card and say call me later. Right.
Speaker 2: And so when folks say that their voice doesn't matter,
Speaker 2: when folks say that their vote doesn't matter, that you
Speaker 2: know the five hundred votes that may have decided the
Speaker 2: one election that may have been the deciding vote on
Speaker 2: who becomes the chief of police. Right makes a difference
Speaker 2: in every person's life in that community. But we forget
Speaker 2: Sorry to cut you off, but we just forget the
Speaker 2: power because we're so inundated with everything that happens in
Speaker 2: life that we forget to zoom out and see how
Speaker 2: you know your position is so powerful in a larger context.
Speaker 1: Now, I want to take a moment and talk about
Speaker 1: this five hundred votes thing because a lot of local
Speaker 1: elections are decided by margins. That then, and if you
Speaker 1: got five hundred followers on your Facebook Instagram, you can
Speaker 1: not only engage yourself, but you can engage people around you.
Speaker 1: You can get stuff done so you can change how
Speaker 1: the world, how your world moves, and how secure you
Speaker 1: feel in your world. I did an episode no Justice,
Speaker 1: No Peace, really explaining what that means, and without justice,
Speaker 1: you can have no peace. Don't want to stay up
Speaker 1: at night wondering about what if this goes wrong? With
Speaker 1: if that goes a lot of people think it's war
Speaker 1: versus peace. No having peace in your own life, So
Speaker 1: it's something to keep in mind now, let's talk about
Speaker 1: another good thing that happened in the state of Washington.
Speaker 1: So I'll read from the Olympian. Senate lawmakers voted twenty
Speaker 1: seven to twenty one Saturday afternoon for Houseville twelve forty,
Speaker 1: which bans the purchase and sale of assault weapons in
Speaker 1: the state of Washington. The bill was sponsored by Representative
Speaker 1: Strom Peterson, a Democrat from Edmunds, and was co sponsored
Speaker 1: by twenty five other Democratic lawmakers in the House at
Speaker 1: the request of Government j Ininsley and Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Quote,
Speaker 1: young people are taken to the streets and will hold
Speaker 1: us accountable if we don't do something, said Senator Pattie Curderer,
Speaker 1: a Democrat from Bellevue. She goes on to say, when
Speaker 1: we're talking about mass shootings and the killing of pea
Speaker 1: people quickly and without warning, we're talking about assault weapons.
Speaker 1: And that's why we're here today. We're here to say
Speaker 1: enough is enough. So they're doing what Tennessee couldn't do
Speaker 1: because they elected the right people in the state of Washington.
Speaker 1: So shout out to them. And then, last, but not least,
Speaker 1: I want to read another couple of neat little things
Speaker 1: that have happened, and again these are the direct result
Speaker 1: of voting in local elections. This one I'll read from
Speaker 1: Yahoo and Wisconsin, a liberal judge, Janet Otazuwitz, decisively defeated
Speaker 1: her conservative opponent, Daniel Kelly and security seat on the
Speaker 1: state Supreme Court in a race widely considered to be
Speaker 1: the most important election of twenty twenty three. Tazuwitz's victory
Speaker 1: will give liberals a majority on the Wisconsin Court for
Speaker 1: the first time in fifteen years. This potentially offers them
Speaker 1: the opportunity to strike down a nineteenth century law banning
Speaker 1: nearly all abortions and to redraw congressional maps that have
Speaker 1: allowed Republicans to dominate the Wisconsin legislature to pipe there
Speaker 1: despite their near fifty to fifty split the vote in
Speaker 1: the state. And then lastly, I'll read this We'll get
Speaker 1: your thoughts. And another high profile race in Chicago, the
Speaker 1: progressive candidate Brandon Jones beat the conservative Democrat Paul Vallas
Speaker 1: and the race Johnson, that is, Brandon Johnson misspoke in
Speaker 1: the race to become mayor of the nation's third largest city.
Speaker 1: The two victories come five months after Democrats overcame a
Speaker 1: prediction of a red wave in last year's mid terms.
Speaker 1: So I want to get your thoughts on and what
Speaker 1: what it means. The Wisconsin victory and of course the
Speaker 1: victory of Brandon Johnson in Chicago.
Speaker 2: And I think they all come back together, right, and
Speaker 2: we can even incorporate what happened in the great state
Speaker 2: of Oregon as well. Okay, And it showcases when you
Speaker 2: use your vote and you use your voice, good things happen.
Speaker 2: Right in the case with Oregon, right, the lawmakers listened
Speaker 2: to the needs of their community and the needs of
Speaker 2: the nation to ban assault weapons, right, and they took
Speaker 2: matters into own hands, right, and they they they passed
Speaker 2: policy that was reflect of the communities in which and
Speaker 2: what they were hearing, what they were saying. And Wisconsin,
Speaker 2: this is very important because the the third branch of government,
Speaker 2: the judicial system, and you know, different places do things
Speaker 2: very differently from the federal government. In Wisconsin, at the
Speaker 2: Supreme Court level, it is an elected position. What this
Speaker 2: is going to mean moving forward is when the legislature
Speaker 2: passed an unconstitutional, you know, piece of legislation, they are
Speaker 2: going to have to they are going to have a voice.
Speaker 2: Right with the abortion law, like they are going to
Speaker 2: have a voice in the process and it's going to
Speaker 2: be respective of the community. And with Chicago, I think
Speaker 2: it goes back to you know, the most important thing
Speaker 2: here was that the folks of Chicago utilized and participated
Speaker 2: in the election, and you saw the outcomes as a result. Right,
Speaker 2: the Chicago election was two very different folks and you know,
Speaker 2: from very different wings of the ideological spectrum. H And
Speaker 2: the people showed up, the people showed out, and they
Speaker 2: utilized their vote. And now they have a mayor elect
Speaker 2: that is going to be supportive of their community.
Speaker 1: Well, that, as they say, is how that's done. So yes,
Speaker 1: vote local. All right, it is time for the way.
Speaker 1: Black History Fact is a way. Black History Fact is
Speaker 1: sponsored by Underground Beach Club From the Streets to the beach.
Speaker 1: For the finest in beachware, visit Underground Beach Club dot com.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking about an unlikely friendship of Jesse Owens
Speaker 1: and a Nazi German athlete, Carl Long. I will be
Speaker 1: reading from HistoryNet dot com. I believe that was what
Speaker 1: it was. All right. Here we go the site of
Speaker 1: the graceful Americans soaring victory in the long jump and
Speaker 1: His Olympic record wins in the one hundred and two
Speaker 1: hundred meter dashes and four hundred meter relay put the
Speaker 1: lie to der Furre's simplistic myths about race time noted
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty. Jesse Owens's triumphant showing in the nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty six Berlin Olympics famously put a stake through the
Speaker 1: supposed claims of Aryan racial superiority. But despite Owens's record
Speaker 1: breaking success both on and off the field, his achievements
Speaker 1: were not widely lauded by the American public at the time.
Speaker 1: Quote Hitler didn't snub me. It was our President FDR
Speaker 1: who snubbed me, unquote, the twenty three year old Owens
Speaker 1: told a crowd upon his return to the States. He
Speaker 1: goes on to say the President didn't even send a
Speaker 1: telegram yet. On August third, nineteen thirty six, an unlikely
Speaker 1: friendship began to develop between the German born track star
Speaker 1: Carl Ludwig Luz Long and Owens, and while Mith shrouds
Speaker 1: the story of whether Long gave Owens crucial advice before
Speaker 1: his third and final opportunity to qualify for the long
Speaker 1: jump finals, Gammers captured the budding friendship as Long strode
Speaker 1: over to Owens and embraced him. Quote, it took a
Speaker 1: lot of courage for him to befriend me in front
Speaker 1: of Hitler. Owens later said in an interview, you can
Speaker 1: melt down all the medals and cups I have and
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty four carrot friendship.
Speaker 1: I felt for Lud's Long at that moment. Hitler must
Speaker 1: have gone crazy watching us embrace. Quote. After besting Long
Speaker 1: and taking home the gold in the long jump, Owens
Speaker 1: was famously photographed saluting the American flag. Long stood behind
Speaker 1: him offering the Nazi salute. I think I might give
Speaker 1: him a pass on that one, because you know, the
Speaker 1: two remain friends, keeping in contact as much of the
Speaker 1: world plunged into war. Long was stationed with the German
Speaker 1: Army in North Africa before being killed in action on
Speaker 1: July fourteenth, nineteen forty three, during the Allied invasion of Sicily,
Speaker 1: and his last letter to Owen, Owens, Long, seemingly aware
Speaker 1: of his impending fate, wrote quote, my heart tells me,
Speaker 1: if I be honest with you, that this is the
Speaker 1: last letter I shall ever write. If it is so
Speaker 1: I ask you something. It is a something so very
Speaker 1: important to me. It is you go to Germany when
Speaker 1: this war is done. Someday find my karl Kai and
Speaker 1: tell him about his father. Tell him Jesse, what times
Speaker 1: were like when we were not separated by war. I
Speaker 1: am saying, tell him how things can be between between
Speaker 1: men on this earth. Quote. In nineteen fifty one, Owens
Speaker 1: traveled to Germany to meet Long's then ten year old
Speaker 1: son Kai, fulfilling his promise to indeed tell the young
Speaker 1: boy how things could be. Owens eventually served as best
Speaker 1: man at Kai's wedding, and the two families remain in
Speaker 1: contact to this day. So that's a shorter one. Normally
Speaker 1: we go a little bit longer. But I do want
Speaker 1: to read the letter in its entirety because I think
Speaker 1: it's very powerful. This is kind of one of those
Speaker 1: things that makes me me, it makes you. I think
Speaker 1: it makes all of us who we are, right, the
Speaker 1: fact that we believe that we can make things better
Speaker 1: without making them worse for other people. I don't even
Speaker 1: think that's a real thing. And we do believe that
Speaker 1: people who don't look like us are our brothers or
Speaker 1: our sisters or however they identify I personally. I'll speak
Speaker 1: for myself. I don't want to stay another man's grief.
Speaker 1: But I believe that we are all endowed with consciousness
Speaker 1: from the same creator, whoever you decide that creator to be.
Speaker 1: We come from that source, we return to that source.
Speaker 1: This is my belief. So this story speaks to me.
Speaker 1: I want to read this letter to you. It starts
Speaker 1: I am here, Jesse, where it seems there is only
Speaker 1: the dry sand and the wet blood. I do not
Speaker 1: fear so much from myself, my friend, Jesse. I fear
Speaker 1: from my woman, who is home, and my young son, Carl,
Speaker 1: who has never really known his father. Ouch. My heart
Speaker 1: tells me, if I be honest with you, that this
Speaker 1: is the last letter I shall ever write. If it
Speaker 1: is so, I ask you something. This is something so
Speaker 1: very important to me. It is you go to Germany
Speaker 1: when the war is done. Someday find my Carl and
Speaker 1: tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times
Speaker 1: were like when we were not separated by war, I
Speaker 1: am saying, tell him how things can be between men
Speaker 1: on this earth. If you do this something for me,
Speaker 1: this thing that I need the most to know, will
Speaker 1: be done. I do something for you. Now, I tell
Speaker 1: you something I know you want to hear. And it
Speaker 1: is true that hour in Berlin, when I first spoke
Speaker 1: to you, when you had your knee upon the ground,
Speaker 1: I knew that you were in prayer. Then I know
Speaker 1: not how I know now I do. I know it
Speaker 1: is never by chance that we came together. I came
Speaker 1: to you that hour in nineteen thirty six for purpose
Speaker 1: more than der Berlin or olympiad. I think that's German
Speaker 1: and you, I believe will read this letter. While it
Speaker 1: should not be possible to reach you ever, for purpose
Speaker 1: more even than our friendship. I believe this shall come
Speaker 1: about because I think now that God will make it
Speaker 1: come about. This is what I have to tell you, Jesse.
Speaker 1: I think I might believe in God, and I pray
Speaker 1: to Him that even while it should not be possible
Speaker 1: for this to reach you ever, these words I write
Speaker 1: will still be read by you. Your brother lose Wow.
Speaker 1: So I don't see how we can't act like brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters when there is a bona fide Nazi looked
Speaker 1: past all that crap, befriended this man and adopted his
Speaker 1: belief structure. I'll call it in a moment when I'm
Speaker 1: sure he was dealing with a great deal of hopelessness.
Speaker 1: And that connective tissue between human and human is the
Speaker 1: tie that binds us all. In my belief, I think
Speaker 1: there's more that binds us and separates us. And I
Speaker 1: love today's way Black History fact because it speaks to them.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: I wish so many people did not stand to profit
Speaker 4: from ensuring that things like that don't happen more, because
Speaker 4: that's the only reason they don't. There's an overwhelming majority
Speaker 4: of things that bring us together than that divide us.
Speaker 4: But those in power and those that profit from that
Speaker 4: division go out of their way, very brilliantly and very
Speaker 4: successfully to ensure that we remain divided and that we
Speaker 4: do not unite against them.
Speaker 2: My only thing I'll add to that is this is
Speaker 2: a great example and a great reminder for us to
Speaker 2: remind ourselves.
Speaker 1: To be good people. I love that. I love it well.
Speaker 1: I think that'll do it for us today. So thank
Speaker 1: you all once again for tuning in the civic cipher.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Ramsey's job. This is the choet storm. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm dropping.
Speaker 4: I am q Ward and you guys have once again,
Speaker 4: been listening to Civic Exciser.
Speaker 1: I want to thank our special guest Jevin Hodge for
Speaker 1: educating us all because we're DJs.
Speaker 2: Hey, it was a pleasure to be here. I look
Speaker 2: forward to what's to come.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, man, we got a lot of amazing things
Speaker 1: in the works and you can support us and it's
Speaker 1: very easy to do. So subscribe to our YouTube.
Speaker 4: Subscribe to our don't even say anything else, subscribe to
Speaker 4: our YouTube channel. That's the whole message.
Speaker 1: Today, right, share like, subscribe, but subscribe to our YouTube
Speaker 1: channel because we've got something really really exciting coming to YouTube.
Speaker 1: Exciter on YouTube. Yep, that's it. And uh shoot, outside
Speaker 1: of that, I guess h we'll just talk to y'all
Speaker 1: next week, all right, So until then, peace peace.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like yo, we handle it.
Speaker 3: These presents a fabulous that our lady showing you where romb
Speaker 3: trampled wood, spit tones from sunlight to move busting on
Speaker 3: stage like gonna fights the.
Speaker 1: Row my mic back.
Speaker 3: You're like that jonalist with journalist too. We can strike
Speaker 3: back all borders with waters from head, borders behind in,
Speaker 3: the beline sides up and the borders the press passing.
Speaker 3: We bring it to you as it happens the streets,
Speaker 3: love popping from music and wrapping the street command the
Speaker 3: slash b xpando.
Speaker 2: You're gonna fight the slander with the proper propaganda.
Speaker 1: What's happening?
Speaker 2: It's how.
Speaker 3: You've got a question to ask if Deduce's just a
Speaker 3: TV show, Get past it? And this from a white
Speaker 3: wartime journalist, headlines wait up, preps and recess like this,
Speaker 3: life like this, Like