Speaker 1: If you followed this show for some time, you know
Speaker 1: that we've been extra active lately because we are based
Speaker 1: in a swing state, so you know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of movement on the ground in Phoenix. We've also had
Speaker 1: to move around the country quite a bit, and we've
Speaker 1: tried to get as much content from different parts of
Speaker 1: the map and bring it back to this show just
Speaker 1: to provide perspectives and to grow as individuals and as
Speaker 1: hosts of this show as well. But longtime listeners might
Speaker 1: know this, many newcomers to the show may not know this.
Speaker 1: A longtime friend of the show is someone that has
Speaker 1: kind of supported us from the sidelines in some instances
Speaker 1: and has supported us in the studio a few times
Speaker 1: as well. He's a person that we've known for a
Speaker 1: long time. And you know, again, those of you that
Speaker 1: have listened to the show for a long time, you
Speaker 1: know that myself and Q we have a background in
Speaker 1: hip hop broadcasting. You know, we're DJs, and you know
Speaker 1: we play songs on radio that we think are dope,
Speaker 1: and the individual who is joining us today is one
Speaker 1: such individual whose songs were dope and we played them
Speaker 1: on the radio. In fact, for a long time we
Speaker 1: featured him on every show Let's Go, and we've been
Speaker 1: hoping to have another conversation because he has done a
Speaker 1: lot of growing in his own political career. Both Q
Speaker 1: and myself we hit our our stride as broadcasters and
Speaker 1: really our origin story as Civic Cipher and the Protest
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty. Same can be said of today's guests. Uh,
Speaker 1: today's guest, I mean to say, and you know, today's
Speaker 1: conversation has been a long time coming. So we're checking
Speaker 1: in on a friend where we're going to get a
Speaker 1: sense of, you know, what he's been up to, and
Speaker 1: we're hoping that you will be able to see some
Speaker 1: of yourself in his story, because he's shown us that
Speaker 1: a lot of things that we thought were these impossible
Speaker 1: cliffs to scale are very attainable for people who want
Speaker 1: to get involved and who want to get engaged. And
Speaker 1: so we're hoping that today's conversation translates and that you're
Speaker 1: able to derive some meaning from it. I go by
Speaker 1: the name Rams's Jah and I am Q Ward and
Speaker 1: this is Civic Cipher with our special guest. He goes
Speaker 1: by the name of Rocky Tirade Yo Yo yo Yo.
Speaker 1: It's good, awesome back. Absolutely, man. I also want to
Speaker 1: make sure that we have your your daytime name. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know Rocky tyra that's that's we know you
Speaker 1: as Rocky Tyrade. And again for those who are are
Speaker 1: still becoming familiar, I employ you to check out Rocky Tyrae.
Speaker 1: Check out his music. He's one of them ones. The
Speaker 1: type of music that we like to play.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Rocky is one one of those artists that is really
Speaker 1: talking about the stuff that really matters and is really
Speaker 1: meaningful in the music is dope. So said, you know,
Speaker 1: we've we've known that for a long time and a
Speaker 1: lot of people thank you, but you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3: I always appreciate that from you, man like y'all are
Speaker 3: to the coolest to the coolest. I here, man, I'm
Speaker 3: honored to be close with y'all and always admire your
Speaker 3: artistic and creative perspectives and things of that nature. So
Speaker 3: that type of analysis of my art is very much
Speaker 3: well received.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, thank you. It's been a very long
Speaker 1: path that we've walked in terms of being entertainers, in
Speaker 1: terms of you know, working in this field and of
Speaker 1: course this pivot. You're one of the people whose music translated,
Speaker 1: and your music wasn't just performance, you were really about it.
Speaker 2: So would you say that it was a pivot, because
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess a knowing rocky tirade first. That's
Speaker 2: how I was introduced to my brother, is that it
Speaker 2: was more of an evolution than a pivot. I think
Speaker 2: this is a path that he was already on, even
Speaker 2: as a creator. So it's not like he made a
Speaker 2: left or right. He just made his path way wider
Speaker 2: and that mug started going out there you go, because
Speaker 2: so it was. It's been a really really cool evolution
Speaker 2: to witness.
Speaker 1: Sure, once upon a time, seeing him with a with
Speaker 1: a microphone on a stage, you're like, yeah, okay, that
Speaker 1: makes sense, he's an artist. And then you know a
Speaker 1: little later, you see him with a bullhorn and a
Speaker 1: bunch of signs in a crowd. The crowd is behind
Speaker 1: them instead of in front of him, and you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that totally makes sense. I've never even thought of it
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I always thought about the the the engagement, you know,
Speaker 3: in terms of like how we channel the way in
Speaker 3: which we creatively express ourselves in one manner or another.
Speaker 3: Y'all being purveyors of music. You know, there's you cultivate
Speaker 3: an experience, and you're cultivating an experience a civic cipher
Speaker 3: and and it's the same thing, like we're kind of
Speaker 3: am seeing this event or a group and instead of
Speaker 3: it being stuff that pertains to like artistic expression, it's
Speaker 3: you know, policy and you know, family focused conversations and
Speaker 3: things of that nature. Sure, so it is somewhat of it.
Speaker 3: It's the same thing, you know. Yeah, well I like
Speaker 3: way Q said it, which was, you know, kind of
Speaker 3: an evolution of it. But I want to I want
Speaker 3: to go or I rather, I want you to go
Speaker 3: into that sow your your daytime name. What you're known
Speaker 3: as in political circles is Jacob Rayford. And of course
Speaker 3: we know you as an artist, but you're an activist,
Speaker 3: you're a political strategist. Do do our listeners a favor
Speaker 3: talk a little bit about, you know, your overall brand
Speaker 3: and what it is that you offer the public, because
Speaker 3: I know that you're a multifaceted creator and you could
Speaker 3: of course articulate it better than than I can.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know.
Speaker 3: Again, I just look at it as a form of expression,
Speaker 3: you know, whether it's like you know, writing music and
Speaker 3: creating songs and you know, performing on stage. Instead of
Speaker 3: it speaking to a specific subject that you would find
Speaker 3: in music and stuff like that, it's centered around policy.
Speaker 3: I didn't necessarily put two and two together until maybe
Speaker 3: midway into this evolution, I would say, as Q put it.
Speaker 3: You know, I started in the twenty twenty demonstrations and
Speaker 3: we just kind of showed up because there really wasn't
Speaker 3: any other support system out there that time. And you know,
Speaker 3: you're talking about twenty twenty. The last time we had
Speaker 3: something out there was twenty seventeen, and you know, because
Speaker 3: of the murder of your Org Floyd, because of the
Speaker 3: murder of Dean Johnson, you know, people were upset and
Speaker 3: they're frustrated, and then coupled with the shared collective trauma
Speaker 3: of like COVID and things of that nature, it was
Speaker 3: just the you know, these weird things kind of simultaneously occurring,
Speaker 3: and you know, we were just kind of worried about
Speaker 3: there not being the resources to take care of these
Speaker 3: twenty year olds and these seventeen year olds and these
Speaker 3: twenty two year olds who were out there and didn't
Speaker 3: know how to say, protect themselves from tear gas, and
Speaker 3: you know how to you know, tend to a wound
Speaker 3: or you know, the proper procedures of making sure that
Speaker 3: your personal information doesn't get snatched up so you don't
Speaker 3: get docked or harmed or things of that nature. And
Speaker 3: so we just kind of showed up at somewhat like
Speaker 3: unofficial medics, and then that just kind of translated into
Speaker 3: unofficially you know, or being a organizer and bridging that
Speaker 3: being the mortar in the brick wall when it comes
Speaker 3: to moments where we needed to like unify, we needed
Speaker 3: to have a collective message, or we needed to you know,
Speaker 3: have that collective sense of like courage in very dangerous
Speaker 3: and fearful moments. And you know, I hate to use
Speaker 3: that kind of that parallel between music and like, you know,
Speaker 3: policy and advocacy because it sounds a little almost performative.
Speaker 3: When I felt like that, I don't want it to
Speaker 3: be interpreted in that way. What I mean is like
Speaker 3: the same elements that you learned as a performer, you
Speaker 3: are able to, you know, put into practice in these
Speaker 3: very random experiences where knowing how to read a crowd
Speaker 3: and knowing how to engage any certain scenarios is literally
Speaker 3: a matter of life and death. In so many critical
Speaker 3: moments and you know, just kind of finding our feet
Speaker 3: or finding our footing. We ended up creating what was
Speaker 3: called the Wee Rising Project, and you know, we held
Speaker 3: it down for about five and a half months, speaking
Speaker 3: of policy advocacy, speaking to addressing police brutality, and most
Speaker 3: importantly registering voters so we can you know, stop maga
Speaker 3: at the front door. You know, that was one of
Speaker 3: the most incredible moments, like taking this collective body and
Speaker 3: help and us transforming ourselves into a political body, and
Speaker 3: you know, using that to you know, address down ballot
Speaker 3: races that like definitively and immediately impact us. And then
Speaker 3: of course we had all the police brutality stuff that
Speaker 3: would emerge that was no different than the cointeil pro
Speaker 3: issues during the nineteen sixties and seventies civil rights movements.
Speaker 3: And and but you know, we emerged from the other side,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe bruised and battered a little bit, but
Speaker 3: you know, encouraged to continue this moment and and and
Speaker 3: you know, perpetuate this this advocacy work. And that's when
Speaker 3: we started pushing for the Neighborhood Organized Crisis Assistance Program,
Speaker 3: addressing victimists non violent dispatches through a holistic unit that's
Speaker 3: trained to look at these type of dispatches through care
Speaker 3: and not criminality. That is what really started the building
Speaker 3: blocks of the transformation of the Community Assistance Program in
Speaker 3: the City of Phoenix UH into which is still an
Speaker 3: ongoing project down in the City of Phoenix, but something
Speaker 3: that can serve as an alternative UH to the traditional
Speaker 3: police engagement with communities that because of a lack of
Speaker 3: understanding of specific behavioral health sciences and things of that nature,
Speaker 3: you know, it has led to police brutality and has
Speaker 3: led to a misusage of you know, force. And that
Speaker 3: is when I personally continued my my individual journey. I
Speaker 3: joined the ACOU and then continued my advocacy work there
Speaker 3: as a working board member, and then ended up joining
Speaker 3: you know, volunteering for the UH the Democratic Party as
Speaker 3: what was called a precinct committee person as someone who
Speaker 3: is a volunteer but politically empowered to vote on behalf
Speaker 3: of my legislative district, to vote on behalf of my county.
Speaker 3: And once I found out what that definition was, I was,
Speaker 3: I was I was upset, and you know, because I
Speaker 3: felt that I was politically educated enough but discovering that
Speaker 3: I didn't know about something so critical and important to
Speaker 3: moving a party forward and injecting your perspective as a
Speaker 3: disproportionally affected person. That's something that inspired me to continue
Speaker 3: my work forward. And that's when I ended up, you know,
Speaker 3: really kind of evolving into this space as someone who
Speaker 3: works on policy on a daily basis and works in
Speaker 3: the political structure on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: It is It is such a.
Speaker 2: Out of body experience, almost listening to what I described
Speaker 2: as an evolution, but you telling that story kind of
Speaker 2: visually and mentally painted a picture of what that looked like.
Speaker 2: Twenty twenty was kind of the perfect storm you had.
Speaker 2: MAGA mixed with the protest, mixed with the pandemic, mixed
Speaker 2: with the kinetic real life devaluing of the life of
Speaker 2: black and brown people, all happening at the same time.
Speaker 2: So very easy to understand. What made all of us
Speaker 2: show up initially?
Speaker 3: Right? Right?
Speaker 2: What is it that kept you engaged in that process?
Speaker 2: And the reason why I ask that question is that
Speaker 2: role that you described that you were kind of frustrated
Speaker 2: that you didn't know about before. There are so many
Speaker 2: ways that us normal folks can be more involved can
Speaker 2: be active participants in our civic duties, in the political process,
Speaker 2: but most of us don't think that's realistic. Like people
Speaker 2: have said to Ramses and I before, sometimes very serious,
Speaker 2: sometimes joking, y'all should run for office, and we're almost
Speaker 2: always like yeah, right, like we couldn't do that. And
Speaker 2: I think most people feel like we couldn't. We couldn't
Speaker 2: run for city council, or we couldn't run for mayor,
Speaker 2: or we couldn't play an active role and legislating the
Speaker 2: community that we live in. But it sounds like when
Speaker 2: you went outside you discovered that you could, and once
Speaker 2: you knew that you could, it's like you couldn't help it. Like, Okay,
Speaker 2: now that I know I can have some impact, there's
Speaker 2: no way I'm not going to stay engaged and stay
Speaker 2: an active participant in the change that I want to see.
Speaker 2: That's just my read from over here in my seat.
Speaker 2: You can touch on that a little bit.
Speaker 3: I mean, we won't be I feel like if somebody
Speaker 3: wants who they can, I mean, look at raf rafail Warnock,
Speaker 3: Like that's somebody who worked within the within this congregation.
Speaker 3: Look at Tim Wallas, this is someone who was was
Speaker 3: a was a coach and you know, served in the
Speaker 3: National Guard. I mean, there's there's we have the ability
Speaker 3: to show up and be a part of this space.
Speaker 3: And I think that you know, in a representative democracy,
Speaker 3: who better in some of these cases to be a
Speaker 3: part of that, uh than someone who comes directly from
Speaker 3: that that that space. And I feel that what we've
Speaker 3: seen over the past couple of years is recognize that
Speaker 3: the around the way person can have a space in politics.
Speaker 3: And that's why it's no coincidence that we have a
Speaker 3: lot of policy focused on middle class, working class, working
Speaker 3: families and things of that nature, because all it takes
Speaker 3: is a little bit of drive, momentum, collectivized energy. But
Speaker 3: I guess what inspired me to do it or continue
Speaker 3: to show up maybe a no issue and then maybe
Speaker 3: seriously there's always something to be done, Like while working
Speaker 3: on the No Cap Advocacy Coalition, you know, I was
Speaker 3: also again falling it into my work as a precat
Speaker 3: committee person and then joining the Black Engagement Committee and
Speaker 3: then kind of finding out about the Maricopa County Democratic
Speaker 3: Party and what all this means, and you know, just
Speaker 3: the the institutional aspect of like politics and the need
Speaker 3: for us to continue to show up in these spaces
Speaker 3: because you know, if we're able to positively affect change
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty, we can do it in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 3: and then we all that we did that, and when
Speaker 3: it comes to younger progressives and younger Democrats and whatnot,
Speaker 3: I think that that real that that nucleus, that moment,
Speaker 3: that that big bang moment or whatnot, was going back
Speaker 3: to twenty twenty and you can like see that reverberate
Speaker 3: throughout what happened in twenty twenty two and just this
Speaker 3: kind of outward advocacy and expression of things that are
Speaker 3: more in line with our working class families, in middle
Speaker 3: middle class families. You know, as we continue to fall
Speaker 3: into what is now this election cycle, it's it's no coincidence.
Speaker 3: And knowing that that rock can create waves is what
Speaker 3: continues to inspire push me to show up, because I mean,
Speaker 3: who knows where this thing can go if we can
Speaker 3: continue to to to just show up and be involved
Speaker 3: and engage ourselves in a way in which we're able to.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you something because you're probably in
Speaker 1: a position to answer it, that is, unlike most people,
Speaker 1: what would you offer to people insofar as voting is
Speaker 1: concerned in terms of like advice or motivation or you
Speaker 1: know whatever. People who might be conflicted, might not like
Speaker 1: their choices. People who you know, wherever they are, stress
Speaker 1: the importance of voting and how you might bring yourself
Speaker 1: to do it if you were in a position like that.
Speaker 3: When it comes to voting, we need to understand that
Speaker 3: politics is a structure, it's a system. It's a network
Speaker 3: of different policies, different tenets, and different ideas and things
Speaker 3: that candidates bring to the table that can either help
Speaker 3: or hinder, you know, progression forward for our families being
Speaker 3: in Arizona, being being in America, you know, and we
Speaker 3: need to recognize that track records speaks best and looking
Speaker 3: for instance at the Biden Harris administration and quite frankly,
Speaker 3: this is the most family focused administration since l b J.
Speaker 3: When you talk about the way in which we've positively
Speaker 3: affected access to to to medication, how we have expanded
Speaker 3: jobs in the tech industry with the chips at how
Speaker 3: we expanded opportunities by providing financial aid to HBCUs, you know,
Speaker 3: that is a track record that speaks to the importance
Speaker 3: of showing up to vote for the work that Harris
Speaker 3: Walls would bring to the table. And when you look
Speaker 3: at the track record of say, you know, Donald Trump
Speaker 3: and JD. E. Vance, and not only just their rhetoric,
Speaker 3: but the things that transpired over the during the Trump
Speaker 3: Pence administration, when he mismanaged a once in a century pandemic,
Speaker 3: when he mismanaged a a critical point in social history
Speaker 3: in America, and just the the chaos that he enabled
Speaker 3: and perpetuating through the way in which he governed. That
Speaker 3: should inspire anybody to want to show up and ensure
Speaker 3: that we don't end up in a space where that
Speaker 3: type of rhetoric, that type of policy can now only continue,
Speaker 3: but continue knowing that they are empowered or emboldened by
Speaker 3: the Supreme Court and by the outward effect and chaos
Speaker 3: that came with January sixth. They are telling us, and
Speaker 3: they've been telling us for nine years. They've been showing
Speaker 3: us for three years, this is a sliding scale. And
Speaker 3: whether you're black or Indigenous, or trans or Latino or
Speaker 3: a white American, everybody will be affected detrimentally by the
Speaker 3: Trump Advanced ticket if they were to get to the
Speaker 3: other side. We don't need to look at it from
Speaker 3: how you identify if you are a lifelong Democrat, if
Speaker 3: you're a lifelong Republican. In this is folks who believe
Speaker 3: in continuing the importance of having a representative democracy and
Speaker 3: those who are willingly willing to put their hands up
Speaker 3: and let us slide into what is academically defined as
Speaker 3: a fascist regime.
Speaker 1: That in itself should inspire you to.
Speaker 3: Get up and vote. You can go to I will
Speaker 3: vote dot com and figure out your registration status. You
Speaker 3: can go to the Maricopa County Democratic Party or your
Speaker 3: legislative district and look at the ballot propositions and and
Speaker 3: understand why a collect a community is voting against specific
Speaker 3: propositions such as three one four, voting four things such
Speaker 3: as one three nine, the first one being the second
Speaker 3: coming of SB ten seventy, that's proposition three one four,
Speaker 3: and abortion access, protecting abortion access being through voting yes
Speaker 3: on proposition one three nine. These are things that immediately
Speaker 3: impact you, and that is why we need to make
Speaker 3: sure that we have the ability to vote. You can
Speaker 3: go to I will vote dot and figure out how
Speaker 3: to vote. You can go to rides to Vote and
Speaker 3: figure out how and get transportation two poles, and there's
Speaker 3: the tools are right there in front of us. The
Speaker 3: information and the obviousness are in front of us, and
Speaker 3: we should be inspired to show up and defend our
Speaker 3: family and defend our ability to have a fair and
Speaker 3: equitable future by simply voting and continuing to show up
Speaker 3: and hold our elected officials accountable and make sure that
Speaker 3: we're informed so we don't repeat these steps in the
Speaker 3: near future.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I heard you say that the former president mismanaged
Speaker 2: a once in a lifetime pandemic. If that was due
Speaker 2: to incompetency, yeah, it'd be different. But that was a smug, arrogant, callous,
Speaker 2: apathetic handling of that pandemic. It's not just the category
Speaker 2: categorically defined, you know, it's the way that he handled
Speaker 2: it that makes it so bad. All none of us
Speaker 2: are perfect, and everybody can make a mistake, like you said,
Speaker 2: once in a lifetime that have been difficult for anyone.
Speaker 2: But his lack of ability to ever even look around
Speaker 2: to experts and ask for.
Speaker 3: Help, genuine apathy, genuine narcissism, like codified through the work
Speaker 3: of an administration. That is what we had seen before.
Speaker 3: And we are at the all but literal fork in
Speaker 3: the road. We can repeat that on steroids because they're
Speaker 3: telling us we be able to do what they would
Speaker 3: do in terms of being a dictator on day one.
Speaker 3: Or we can continue to push policies that have been
Speaker 3: positively affecting our families, that has been lowering inflation, that
Speaker 3: has been giving elected officials across the country in local
Speaker 3: and statewide positions the ability to fight back against corporations
Speaker 3: that are exploiting families.
Speaker 1: The choice is obvious, Yes, choice is obvious.
Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure we didn't push past that
Speaker 2: and we won't even talk about January sixth if that
Speaker 2: could be a whole the whole show by itself, right,
Speaker 2: this election is of the utmost importance. The state are
Speaker 2: the highest they've ever been. I know we've heard that
Speaker 2: said it before. This is not hyperbole, folks. This is
Speaker 2: the real deal. However, this election is not the finish line,
Speaker 2: but there is still work to do. From your vantage point,
Speaker 2: what is next for us and how can people be
Speaker 2: how can people remain engaged and what are some action
Speaker 2: steps that we can take with us moving forward from now?
Speaker 3: I would ask people to be involved in their local
Speaker 3: political party. It's you have what is called because you
Speaker 3: know you have you have a school districts and things
Speaker 3: of that nature. You have what's called in the state
Speaker 3: of Arizona at least, and I know this is something
Speaker 3: that's across the country, but speaking genuine, genuine or generally,
Speaker 3: you have what's called a legislative district. And using Arizona
Speaker 3: as an example, you within our legislative district districts, you
Speaker 3: have where you're a state committee, I mean your state committee,
Speaker 3: your state senators, and your state representatives are housed. We
Speaker 3: have two in state of Arizona. Our state representatives are
Speaker 3: too and and one state senator per legislative district. And
Speaker 3: within this space is how you get involved in the
Speaker 3: most immediate and impactful way by becoming a volunteer in
Speaker 3: this space as a precinct committee person. And that is
Speaker 3: someone who is politically empowered to vote on policy, to
Speaker 3: run for office when you're within your legislative district, to
Speaker 3: impact policy in your county party, and to run for
Speaker 3: office within your your your county county party as well.
Speaker 3: And then you know, this is how, through engagement and
Speaker 3: in mass representation, that we can continue to push policy
Speaker 3: that benefits people across the board. So that what's next
Speaker 3: part is continuing to stay engaged, having these conversations when
Speaker 3: we're not facing an existential crisis, and you know, continuing
Speaker 3: to stay informed about what's going on over down in
Speaker 3: DC with our executive branch, what's going on in Congress,
Speaker 3: with our with our congressional folks, so we elected the office,
Speaker 3: and making sure that we play an active role in,
Speaker 3: you know, building that momentum around policy advocacy and political engagement.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned earlier, and I think you kind of
Speaker 1: implied it a bit right now, keeping our elected officials
Speaker 1: accountable for what it is that they say. So let's
Speaker 1: assume all the best outcomes for the upcoming election and
Speaker 1: it's not as doom and gloom as it could otherwise be.
Speaker 1: As Q mentioned, you know, that's the starting line. And
Speaker 1: as you mentioned again, what we need to do is
Speaker 1: keep our elected officials in the hot seat, keep them
Speaker 1: accountable to what it is that they say they're going
Speaker 1: to do. What does that look like for people who've
Speaker 1: already you know, cast their vote, who are celebrating on
Speaker 1: the other side of election, or maybe there's a different
Speaker 1: reality on the other side of the election. How do
Speaker 1: those people hold their elected representatives accountable either on local
Speaker 1: or state level or nationally.
Speaker 3: I'll I would say continue to to follow your your representatives.
Speaker 3: There are folks utilizing social media in order to speak
Speaker 3: to what's going on down at their state legislature, what's
Speaker 3: going on in there are various elected official offices, and
Speaker 3: that's the best way to hear it from their perspective,
Speaker 3: Educate yourself, and then of course, through involving yourself in
Speaker 3: local political structures like your legislative district or your county party. UH,
Speaker 3: you have access to information that would fall through the
Speaker 3: cracks when it comes to news and our social media
Speaker 3: outlets and things of that nature. And then of course
Speaker 3: there's always other like advocacy organizations, auxiliary groups and in
Speaker 3: nonprofits that are engaged in specific aspects of policy work
Speaker 3: and policy advocacy.
Speaker 1: UH.
Speaker 3: And again using Arizona as an example, you have your
Speaker 3: civic engagement beyond voting, your opportunity for Arizona, your a
Speaker 3: c ou of Arizona, you know, your a d LCC.
Speaker 3: You know though, those those types of entities have specific
Speaker 3: types of objectives and in ways in which they engage
Speaker 3: policy and politics that you know just by simply following them.
Speaker 3: You can just stay up to speed on things, and
Speaker 3: you're not kind of caught with your pants down when
Speaker 3: you get a ballot that has ten or twelve propositions
Speaker 3: and you're searching, you know, hurriedly onlines. You can fill
Speaker 3: this out and drop it off at your ballot box.
Speaker 3: You'd already know these things that are taking place because
Speaker 3: you stay up to speed. And we also have to
Speaker 3: recognize that when it comes to our communities, you know,
Speaker 3: we come you know, predominantly from working class and working
Speaker 3: family households and whatnot. So there's a lot of things
Speaker 3: that we just have to prioritize above just being like
Speaker 3: political nerds and unofficial pundits and stuff like that, just
Speaker 3: like a lot of other people. And that's totally fine.
Speaker 3: And that's why using again your social media to follow
Speaker 3: these folks and follow your elected officials is a way
Speaker 3: that you can just kind of unconsciously like down load
Speaker 3: this information into your daily you know, memory bank and
Speaker 3: lexicon and things of that day.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're going to say. I suspect
Speaker 1: that I have an idea, but I don't, So I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna let this one fly. You give me whatever
Speaker 1: you got both barrels. A lot of folks have made
Speaker 1: a big deal about black men this election cycle. We
Speaker 1: are all black men. We are all in a leadership
Speaker 1: capacity to one degree or another, and our thoughts and
Speaker 1: voices resonate, they create waves in our community. We have,
Speaker 1: at least for Q and I, we've tried to be
Speaker 1: as responsible with that as possible, and I know that
Speaker 1: the same is true for you. But every man has
Speaker 1: to follow his own heart, and every woman has to
Speaker 1: follow her own heart. I want to give you the
Speaker 1: opportunity to speak to black men prior to the election,
Speaker 1: specifically using that microphone in this show. So floor is yours.
Speaker 3: I just want to say that when it comes to
Speaker 3: our demographic, historically we know that we show up, and
Speaker 3: historically we know that we do what we need to
Speaker 3: do to leave everything in the ring. We fight for
Speaker 3: things that are pertinent to our families, our values, our neighborhoods,
Speaker 3: our communities, and this is no different you know, between
Speaker 3: our brothers and our sisters. We created a very important
Speaker 3: civil rights movement that resulted in things such as breakfast
Speaker 3: programs and schools and certain tenets that have been incorporated
Speaker 3: into the the infrastructure of our country. That speaks to
Speaker 3: the power of the importance of our collectivized power. And
Speaker 3: we know that multiple demographics have specific conversation around get
Speaker 3: out the vote, and you know the way in which
Speaker 3: media addresses certain conversations around different demographics. And because of
Speaker 3: us understanding our history and our advocacy work and the
Speaker 3: importance of intersectional allyship, we know that the conversation isn't
Speaker 3: about us showing up in mass because we know that
Speaker 3: we show up in mass it's everybody needs to get
Speaker 3: up and vote. Everyone on an individual level needs to
Speaker 3: get up and vote. And just as we've shown up before,
Speaker 3: we will show up again. And I believe that, you know,
Speaker 3: just in the very near future, it will be another
Speaker 3: example of the power of collectivized voting. And brothers like we,
Speaker 3: I know they're all proud of one another. And this
Speaker 3: is as a beautiful moment and like they say, what
Speaker 3: it's on to be alive?
Speaker 1: M Well, listen, Rocky Tirade or Jacob Rayford. I've always
Speaker 1: appreciated your artistry, and you've known that long before we
Speaker 1: got to this studio, many many studios ago. I've always
Speaker 1: appreciated your artistry. But now I can say that I
Speaker 1: appreciate your activism. I appreciate your your political insight as
Speaker 1: a political strategist, and I appreciate the intentionality and the
Speaker 1: motivation that you're able to kind of impart on this
Speaker 1: community and through our platform to our listeners as well.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that people can continue to
Speaker 1: partake in all of the goings on in your world.
Speaker 1: So will you do a kindness and leave any sort
Speaker 1: of social media or website information order so folksing capping.
Speaker 3: Yeah for so Rocky tirade r o q y t
Speaker 3: y r A, I d on Instagram, on your socials,
Speaker 3: et cetera, and so on and so. So I just
Speaker 3: want to say that, like this is very much an
Speaker 3: emotional time for a lot of individuals, and if you're
Speaker 3: engaged in any way, shape or form, or if you
Speaker 3: are just anxious and worried about about the future, just
Speaker 3: remember to fill your cup, do the things that provide
Speaker 3: balance to your life, because there's going to be a
Speaker 3: need to show up now and in the future. And
Speaker 3: a little just putting my own my own use myself
Speaker 3: as an example, my therapist told me you should, Jacob,
Speaker 3: you advocate for all these things and all these people
Speaker 3: when you're you going to advocate for yourself. Wow, you know,
Speaker 3: and that hit me hard and it cast me to
Speaker 3: take a look at how I digest things, the die,
Speaker 3: social diet, my spiritual diet, and how to at least
Speaker 3: try to be more intentional with that. So the last
Speaker 3: things I want to say is, please try to be
Speaker 3: intentional on your spiritual and emotional and social diet.
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 3: We're going to get to the other side, but we
Speaker 3: need you to be there, healthy, happy, vibrant, so please
Speaker 3: keep that in mind.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you again for coming onto the show and
Speaker 1: spending some time with us here on Civicpher. Once again,
Speaker 1: I've been your host, Rams' joh I am q ward
Speaker 1: and do us a favor. Follow us on on social media.
Speaker 1: You can hit the website Civiccipher dot com to download
Speaker 1: all of our previous episodes and just to stay tapped
Speaker 1: in with us. If you got any sort of questions,
Speaker 1: anything that you any topics you want us to cover,
Speaker 1: anything like that.
Speaker 3: Man, just cant say one more thing. I would be
Speaker 3: in the car like mad at myself if I didn't
Speaker 3: say this. Please turn in your ballots. When you get
Speaker 3: your ballot, fill that out, turn it in. You will
Speaker 3: up getting your text.
Speaker 2: I promise you.
Speaker 1: There you go stop getting your text. You'll stop it
Speaker 1: because I did that. Next still texting me, Yeah, eventually
Speaker 1: it will happen. But yeah, tap in with us and
Speaker 1: keep on riding with us. We'll be back right at
Speaker 1: you real soon. We got a lot more content coming
Speaker 1: your way, so we appreciate everyone riding with us.
Speaker 2: C I V I C C I P h e R.
Speaker 1: That's the way to do it, all right, until next time,
Speaker 1: please