The Dr. Mark Baker Episode

Willie D sits down with Georgia Councilman and State Representative hopeful Mark Baker to discuss his journey, local politics, fighting for common people and much more. Tune in and join the conversation in the socials below.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yet you know boys is back and redod it all
in your mind.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yeah, now deep throating.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
This is for the streets, the real, the railroading, the disenfranchised,
the truth escapegoating, and they ain't know where we speak
the truth, so they quoted because we wrote it.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
The North South East coaches the gie be mocked for
keeping your head, Bobby, it ain't no.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Stopping and wants to be drops head by then the
system is so corrupt they threw the rock out their
heads and then blame it on us.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Don't get it twisted on coding. We danced it for
no butterment biscuits. It's Willie d y'all ghetto Boys in
the house back with another episode of information and instructions
to help you navigate through this wild, crazy, beautiful world.
In the studio, the Progressive councilman for the culture. He's

(00:52):
also aiming to become Georgia's nace next state representative in
District sixty eight. Doctor Mark Baker's in the building. Fam,
Thanks so much, Thanks so much, man, I appreciate you
for having me say. Man, I'm gonna tell you something.
You are the type of person that we need as

(01:14):
a catalyst for change. You've been on the street, You've
been on the ground. You come from the streets. You
come from where I come from. You come from a
place where a lot of brothers who need your assistance
and guidance come from. Why is it so important for
you to fight for the you know, the everyday man

(01:36):
and woman man. This is one of those things whereas
like I'm really still fighting for myself, you know, huh.
You know It's like I have family, you know, who
are a part of this struggle. You know, brothers and
sisters of the struggle in general is real. You know,
have a cousin who's with me almost every day. He
just did twenty three years. He's home, can't find a job.

(02:00):
You know, I have this real you know, and I
think that, uh, if one of us have an opportunity
to step out, we can't break our arms patting ourselves
on the back, you know, saying I might I made it.
I got mine, you got yours to get. That's not
how I'm built. That's not how I was taught. That's

(02:20):
not how I was raised. Uh, anywhere that I've been,
whether it was you know, through organizations I was affiliated with,
you know, positive you know, no matter how people view them.
Like nowhere that I've been, no influences that I've had
have ever led me to believe that it's all on me.

(02:41):
And when I'm good money every you know, I could
just keep it moving. So it's just it's just was natural. Yeah,
you let's talk about this position that you're running from. Uh,
you're running for state represent I said, running from. You
may be running for running from after you get in
there and you with all the wolves that in now
that's trying to hold the people back intentionally. But you're

(03:05):
you're running for Georgia State Representative District sixty eight. This
is a special election U that was brought about with
the untimely death of Representative Ties. Right, And at what
point did you know that you wanted to run for

(03:26):
office in the first place? You know, as far as
like not not not you got your you got your
You made your bones as a city councilman in South
South Forida, Right, but when you decided at what point
that you want to go to the next level with
the state rep and run for that? Man? I was

(03:49):
at boxing with my son, a fifteen year old you know,
shout out MJ. Mar Jr. And Marley but my son,
he was boxing, and I got a call from a neighbor,
you know, miss in the jinking. She's like, Mark, I
don't know what you're doing right now, but we need
you in this seat. We really loved Tish and she
did a great job, but we just can't go back

(04:11):
to not having somebody who really genuinely cares about us.
And I was like, miss Brenda, can I just call
you once I get out of this boxing. We got
out and we spoke at great length, and I just
didn't feel comfortable until, you know, after everything was over,
at least a funeral, because people were really calling, and
you know, she was just one you know, other people called.

(04:34):
You know, I had a call from the mayor. Everybody
was just calling accent because they knew I lived in
the district and they got done too. Yeah. Yeah, And
it was one of those things that, you know, after Council,
I literally ran for Congress. I ran for Congress because
of my legislation that I passed and I wanted it
to become infectious. But it was one of those things

(04:56):
that like, I love our city South full toon. You know,
I can call myself, you know, one of the founding
Fathers of Southward then when we started in twenty seventeen.
Uh and it's ninety two percent black, you know, and
over one hundred thousand populations makes it a large city.
It's one of those things that according to the National

(05:18):
League of Cities, it's the blackest city in America. Right.
And so we have seven districts. I represent the district
seven that you know carries and covers you know, part
of the Old the Old no, it covers the border
of Fayetteville, but the Old National Corridor too, you know.
So I was a councilman on Old National That's the
area that you hear two Chains talking about and Ludacrous

(05:39):
and and JD. You know, all of these people come
from that area. And I was passing a lot of
progressive legislation on a black city council that had the
wine and Cheese area included. You know, shout out to
the people who live on Cascade Road. You know, you

(06:00):
ever saw the movie atl where New New Live. You
know t I's love interest Laury in London, she lived
over near the Cascade area, you know, and that's the
area where affluent black people live. So our city comprises
of people who live over there and then the old
National Area. So after passing legislation and fighting for you know,

(06:24):
like all of the stuff I passed, it wasn't unanimous,
and we're dealing with black people, and it just became
one of those things when I ran for Congress saying it,
I'm tired of fighting my people to fight for my people,
if that makes sense. So it makes a lot of sense.
So it was like, if I'm going to do this,
if I'm I'm going to sacrifice my time and energy effort,

(06:45):
I want to go somewhere where people, you know, really
feel different overtly we in Georgia, you know, and stepped
to our beef on a different platform, you know, and
and just move it that way, and it felt it
would feel more authentic then, you know, as Marcus Garvey
talk about us and our petty differences, you know, we

(07:08):
can move on and we've been able to be progressive
and do a lot of great things. We got a
long way to go, you know, like we're the next
door to Atlanta, and Atlanta has had about one hundred
and twenty year ahead start on South Fulton, so people
will expect change immediate and overnight, but it's coming but
I just felt like doing everything that I was doing,

(07:31):
you know, as far as legislation wise, these were things
that needed immediate healing on a larger scale on a
national level, definitely on the state level as well. And
it's not enough of us being represented there. When I
say us, I mean people who understanding inwardly digest what

(07:54):
it means to be a part of our culture, you know,
to come home with the lights off, you know, to
have a single mom who struggles and you know, doesn't
know where how she's going to pay all of the
bills and stuff like that. You know a lot of
us who make it there, you know, and I want
my suits and my flowers and stuff too. But like

(08:15):
it's a detachment I think from a lot of people
who represent us. You know, we make it there, and
we kind of carry it different, you know, we want
to prove ourselves to be worthy of being there, and
like the other people there, as opposed to being willing
to stand out and say, look, I'm different the people
in the demographic I represent. It's different, and we need

(08:37):
a voice at that table. I see you got your
fellow Chicago and a T shirt on free Larry Hoover.
You work a lot with his son, Larry Hoover Junior,
A really really good dude. You're from Chicago's West Side,
that's where you originally madeor bones, so to speak. At

(08:57):
what point did you decide that you want to to
be a servant to the people. Well, man, that's a
good question. I kind of just I had a good situation,
you know, for a little while. And our city is
a new city, and coming from Chicago, it's one of

(09:19):
those things that when I go back home now on
my block, like you know, it's a it's an awkward
place to be from and be affiliated with my my
group of people. You know, Chicago is very It's one

(09:39):
of those things. It's territorial, you know, and there's lines
right where you can have Like I grew up on
sixteenth Street, you know, and from Ktown all the way
down to Kizzie is where my family is. So you
have different affiliations that might be a block over in
that little area from the Holy City towards Kizzie and

(09:59):
the community, and you know the area where mister Jones
owned everything. A lot of people call it Jones City.
We can go up a couple of blocks on twenty
first or twenty second Street and it's Mexicans, and you
don't cross that street like they used to chase us
from one side of the fair, like you know those
little makeshift carnivals. They come and they be in the

(10:21):
parking lot or whatever, and we would go as kids
to be in that you know, space or whatever. By
the time they start identifying, it's like, ah, mind less road.
We gotta go, you know, and we on our way out,
but they would chase us. And once we cross our
side of the street, it's not like help is waiting.
We could just stop because they not gonna come over
there and we could pop off. They could pop off,

(10:42):
but we're gonna be on our side. It's almost animalistic,
you know, Is it still that way. I've been out
of Chicago for a minute. I visited a lot for
a minute. I mean I left in the nineties, you know,
late nineties. Of course I left and went to school.
You know, my mom made sure no. I went to

(11:05):
dinner in New Orleans. Actually shout out the Dealer University HBCU.
One of the best ever, best four years age sociology
or the minor in music, one of those degrees that
if my you know, steps didn't just laying where what
where it did, I'd still be just in the classroom teaching,
you know, But I just picked the degree that had

(11:28):
the least amount of math in it. I like, being
radically honest. It wasn't one of those things. But here's
the cool thing about sociology. It's a study of human behavior.
And if you can figure that out, you can navigate
through anything. And you know what, I didn't understand that
at the time, but not like the way I've landed.

(11:50):
I'm like, oh my god, Like if I'd have had
any other major, I wouldn't be able to sit across
from people in rappert taste about their situation. Because we
used to have doctor Barber Thompson. Anybody went to till
the university. We know, she got busy and she made
us know all of the historical framework and concepts behind

(12:10):
what made people who they were, how they move. You know,
a lot of people give credit to, you know, survival
of the fittest. You know, it doesn't go to Herbert
Spencer like it should, you know, because he was one
of thirteen kids to actually survive infancy and that's what
made him think he was built different. And these little

(12:32):
things that happened when you when you're younger, as you grow,
they stay with you, and they stick with you and
ultimately become It becomes who you are, how you move,
and how you navigate. And I think that it kind
of brought me to a by the point where I
became a public servant. I knew I'm represented old national
you know, I'm from Chicago. Somebody from Atlanta couldn't come

(12:55):
to sixteenth Street or the k Town area and just
represent in them, you know, without having a conversation and
knowing these people or finding out, you know, the true
status of what's going on. And I made sure I
did that. I tapped in with people like Bear who
with all of the younger people in that area who

(13:18):
had how could you call it the five O one
C threes and the people that then set down for
a minute, and now they back and they want to
do better in their community. And you know, it just
became one of those things like you know, we have
shady part crips. It's no secret in my area. But
you know, through me having you know, just the wherewithal

(13:39):
and the knowledge base to be able to touch the
people that actually influenced them, right it was nothing for me. Actually,
it was a great deal for me to shout out
big U. I was able to reach the big U
big U k We had a you know, a meaning
pastor Anthony A kreflo dollars church and you know back
in like talent. No, I'm just just stopped doing stuff

(14:07):
like that. Got has a whole different mindset to like
there's a lot of different mindset or it's just as
I would say. And I can't speak too much on
it because I'm not a member of his church. But
every time I've gone the traditional krefflo that has been
spoken about publicly as we have this thing about him,
he iss changed. And I've heard that he's publicly said

(14:32):
that he was wrong about a lot of Okay, okay,
so people, people can grow, you can grow. And because
he threw me off man with that asking for a
plane thing, you know, like trying to tell people that
they were poor if they could didn't come up with
the money. That threw me off. But but you're saying
that that's not the kreflow dollar. You know, yes, I'm

(14:53):
saying that. I'm definitely saying that. I've heard you know,
you know, now I'm just kidd no, no, but it's
like but but he did. He does allow his space
for us, you know, uh to do these things. And
we held it at World Changes, you know, and I

(15:14):
connected with Big U there and we you know, we
talked about what was going on, and I mean we've
had a like I gave him a proclamation. I think
it was almost two years ago because we went down
like in that area about seventy percent in the type
of crimes that was you know. But he has a
program called Developing Options, you know him and I think

(15:34):
Don Osborne, Jeffrey Osborne's daughter, was together with that program.
And you know, we ain't had the money to do it,
but you know, it's one of those things where he
used his influence to you know, rap with people who
you know are out of the power and kind of
use black recognomics to make stuff work, you know, you know,
passing ideas and if we have you know, other other

(15:58):
opportunities or jobs for people. That's what his program did.
But you know, he was able to help in that.
And I think that you gotta go to the people. Everybody,
everybody not gonna wear the suits, you know, you got
to find the real people to come and give truth.
You know. That's why I haven't had a problem aligning
myself with people who think different, you know, whether it

(16:18):
be shout out to Resa Islam, that's my brother. You know,
we do a lot of stuff together. I gave him
a day and you know, I work with him and
you know, and and we do a lot together, especially
during the pandemic. Him and even doctor Luma Johnson, that's
my brother too. He comes down, you know, and we
do stuff. So we like I'm if I'm representing the

(16:40):
black of city in America at that time as I was,
I wanted to make sure we we really dealt with
our issues and we were true to you know, our demographic.
So okay, So you just mentioned Riza Islam and doctor Umar.
Working with these guys who have some different views, but

(17:04):
the one thing that they have in common, even Big U,
the one thing that they all have in common is
that they love black people. I know they doubt and
so I think that we have to get used to
working with each other and not not expecting something that's

(17:26):
superhuman from each other. Like we have to give each
other grace knowing that we don't have to agree to everything.
We don't have to agree with everything that somebody says
in order to support that person. As long as our
common objective is to advance our people in one of
the words that you like to be used is progress

(17:47):
our people, then that's what that's the bottom line. That's
what should matter more than anything, the advancement of our people.
And so all of these guys, I look at them
the same way. They all are working in that same
But what happened with you growing up that made you
want to be that type of person? Did you see

(18:08):
something that you see somebody did somebody set you, pull
you to the side and say, look, son, this is
how you do it. I'm a product of my environment, right.
So I think that when people look at the leaders
of what they used to call gangster disciple, which is

(18:31):
now internalized as growth and development. Right, we had people
who were on the playground right doing that cusp of
that change is my generation. Right. My cousin and I
tell you about who just came home. He was probably perplexed,
being about ten years or so older than me, trying

(18:56):
to take on growing and developing in the community. So
they had rules for us. Now I would notice that
they wouldn't necessarily abide by the rules that they would
we was selling us because it was kind of new
to them. You know, do as I say, not as
I do exactly. And so now as kids, you know,

(19:17):
we would you know, we would still figure it out.
We would get around some stuff. And I'm not perfect.
I've had situations and you know, and you know, before eighteen,
actually three times before I was eighteen, I was with
the police, you know, and the last time was pretty serious.
I had to fight a felony charge for somebody. And

(19:37):
do you know at eighteen years years old, I came
back and for like Christmas break, But it was just,
you know, the bottom line is there, even when you
make it out like you don't have to do nothing
but exists. Not to Chicago's not different from you know,
in the city, in any part of this country. You know,

(20:00):
like this plans and traps for you to actually take
a trip and fall, you know, and it's not one
of those things. It's intentionally set up for that, you know.
So I had people who were telling me, yo, man,
it's good to see you, man, but dude, man, you
broke out. You need to get away from here right now. Bro.
They just left his shooting and I'm thinking, why you

(20:22):
still want to sit on the corner the sixteenth at home?
And exactly what they told me is why you gonna
stay here? You know. And so it became one of
those things whereas like a lot of people feel like,
you know, they don't have a way out, you know,
but I realized, like I'm a part of them, I'm
the same. So when I had the opportunity, I don't.

(20:44):
I don't think that nobody told me anything that was
drastically different. I think I slipped through the cracks and
kind of made it. And I think that when you
talk about how my progressive nature, as you mentioned, it's
one of those things as a black man in America,
you know, so you have the progressives, you have the conservatives,
you know, and or I just can't think of anything

(21:05):
politically or political ideology that I want to like. To
be a conservative means to keep the same, the root word,
to conserve, keep the same. There's very little about America
in its history that I want to put my energy
and time and vote to try to keep the same.
You don't see what I'm saying. So I think that
you know, when you become you know, aware what was

(21:27):
political when you become aware of the social political of
people who were revered in my neighborhood, like Larry Hoover,
you understand, and you know, just like we were talking
about sociology, you have to look at the times and
what was going on. You know, you have the time
then to understand that Fred Hampton was just probably two
or three years younger than Larry Hoover in nineteen sixty nine,

(21:48):
December fourth, when he was assassinated right up the street,
right up the street from where I was. I grew
up on the West Side. It's like, so these were
people who were goal oranizing our communities because of what
was being inflicted on us. And no matter how people
felt about them at that time, if these people had

(22:09):
the opportunity to mature and grow and get older, you know,
who's to say what that trajectory would have been. And
so that's why they rooted him, right, because they knew
their potential, right. And so if you'd have ran into me,
you know when my mom needed money to help out,
you know, in my little eighty dollars when I started

(22:30):
working at McDonald's, how I was figuring out how to
make it be more than eighty dollars. You know, it's
one of those things that I wouldn't be here. I
wouldn't be talking to you, you know, because I have
a lot of friends who they're not here, and I
see their family and they're proud of me, and they're
expecting me to go faster and further, you know, you know,

(22:51):
for their say. So I can't watch, I can't watch.
I got to make sure it work. Go to Fords
reloaded podcast you break after spak you mentioned being with
the police. Now you at some point became a police officer.

(23:16):
You was a school resource officer. Man, how was that experience? Man?
It was amazing. It was the best place I could
have been. Shout out to Bear Creek Middle, Shout out
to Renaissance Middle, Langsy, Huge Creek's out. And if I
wasn't I wouldn't be here either, because those same kids
did I flushed, they weed in the toilet. All the

(23:39):
kids who were like man Officer Baker Obi, they still
call Obie at times. Ob You looked out. You know.
If it wasn't for you, I would have gott dot,
you know, and like for me to walk around and
still have the deference from these young kids with bids
and they thirty years old and they like remember me,
and then like, yo, you look older than me, kid,

(24:01):
like you know, and so like these are people who
ran my campaign. One of them, in particularly right now,
is working in my absence, like organizing. You know. So
I think that you know, it's one of those things
that you can't teach a child you don't love, You
can't teach a child you don't understand, and you can't
teach a child that you're afraid of. You know what

(24:23):
I'm talking about. So it's like when you lead with
that meaning I love you, I understand you, I ain't
scared of you either, it gives them one of those
things we're like, man, you know that's a man right there. Man,
you just said a month full. I ain't scared of
you either. We don't have the luxury to be afraid
of our youth. We don't have that luxury because see me,

(24:48):
the reason why I interveing, the reason why I'll drop
the hashtag free game, and I even do this podcast
is to give you that information and instructions to help
you navigate through this work, crazy beautiful world. And if
I don't do it, I'm more afraid of you, I
would be more afraid of what you will become if
I don't speak. That's what I'm afraid of, because at

(25:13):
some point I'm not going to have the physical problems
that I have today. At some point, I'm not going
to be as sharp with my my brain skills. At
some point I may end up, you know, one of
those dudes just you know, sitting on the couch. I
don't know, but if I'm going to be that dude,
if I'm going to be here in any capacity, I

(25:36):
would be more comfortable with knowing that we have a
lot of great people out there that are amongst us
who got the game and who understood the assignment that
we got to look out for each other, that we
have to invest not just lip service, but our time

(26:03):
and our money and our resources, our connections and our
young people if we are to survive, if we are
to go to the next level. And man, I commend you, brother,
because I was looking at some of your work. I
was looking at some of the initiatives that you've been
involved in, the laws that you have passed, and I'm like,

(26:25):
how the hell does he get all this stuff done?
You have been busy, like damn bro, like, what are
some of the laws that you passed when you we
was a city council in south in the city of
South Forton. Man, thanks for that. First of all, it's

(26:45):
been interesting, man. I think that the first thing was
that was big, I think was the decriminalization of cannabis
and what I'm saying cannabis because I had to do
somewhat of an education campaign for a lot of our
old people are older adults who you know, like, you
know how it is they think of it riefles. What

(27:06):
was it called what I was growing up. I don't
want to smell riefles everywhere, and you know, but I
had to let them know that I did it not
just for criminal justice reform. I did it for criminal
justice reform, not just so people can smoke weed. Pointing
out the truth that you go to Fulton County Jail,
over ninety percent of the individuals who were there at
the time, they looked just like me and you, and

(27:27):
they just didn't have a thousand dollars for a fine,
you know, and they would lose their jail that mean,
lose their job because they're in jail. So you know,
six months, you can't pay a thousand dollars is something
that people on the other side, on another coast, I'm
making billions of dollars. They're putting it back in their
education system. And this was when it was unpopular that

(27:49):
I passed that. People told me, yoh, you'll never get reelected.
You know, your base is older adults. You know, they're
not going to vote for you. Butction campaign proved wrong,
and I was like, you know, this was I think
the third piece of legislation to decriminalize cannabis, which I
like to say now so because it's different than the

(28:10):
other word, you know, and it's it allows to be
it allows for one to re educate themselves. Although I
don't smoke, and I don't I'm not even the guy
that's into it like that, because I really feel like,
you know, given the controls that they have now is
no telling what it's being infused with the different states

(28:31):
of things, you know, And I know you know reason
or reason to get into that with you and you know,
trust me, we rock out and talked about that before.
But the bottom line is we can fix all of that,
just take us out those cages because of it, you know.
So that was the first thing, and then I realized
that when it passed, I need to just go. I

(28:55):
need to just go, like I can literally sit down
with an attorney and ultimately an excellent city manager. Shout
out to Odie Donald. He's the chief of staff now
in the City of Atlanta for Andre Dickens, but he
was our city manager in South Fulton. I would sit
down with him and our attorney, Amelia Amelia Walker. Shout
out Amelia Walk, amazing black woman attorney. She sat down

(29:17):
with me and everything that I wanted to see different
that I would talk to my people about. Man, I
went for it. I went for it. Starting with that,
then I was like, okay, I didn't even realize it
at the time. But being an educator, you know, I
taught at Clark as well. You know, I went there
for my master's and my doctorate, but I taught at Clark.

(29:39):
I taught current issues in African American studies, and I
was the first male professor of women's studies there. And
being an educator in African American community and living in
the city where you're still acknowledging Columbus Day, you know
it's an issue. So you know, when I abolished Columbus
Day and the news people started calling, and I didn't

(30:00):
know that I was the first in the state of
Georgia to abolish Columbus Day for Indigenous People Day. And
I was like whoa. And then that's when the Italian
Americans started stepping to their beef. But I don't know.
My bully used to live across the street from me,
so you know, you can't scare me on the internet.
But it was like, you know, it was one of
those things that you know, I didn't. I wasn't like

(30:21):
trying to say, hell, this is the first, you know,
but I found out in the process that it was
the first, and it was a big deal. You banned
Columbus Day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks, it's a big deal.
Say don you ain't got to do nothing else. You're

(30:42):
going to help to get his ass Upboudy here man, man,
it's crazy. So we lived like we live about thirty
miles from Gordon County, right. Gordon County is the headquarters
for the Cherokee Nation, right, and it's in Georgia. The
Trail of Tears started that you know, the small explain

(31:08):
the trailers is when you know all of the natives
were uprooted, giving their land up and they were sent
off to I believe Oklahoma, and uh they literally had
to go on foot and they had blankets with you know,
smallpox uh infused in order to kill him off. You know.

(31:30):
And this guy didn't even know where he was going.
And we call them Indians to this day because he
thought he was going to India. But that's why he
thought he was like any from understand he never even
stepped foot on American saw. But he has a day.
He's amplified, you know in Georgia, which was so hypocritical

(31:55):
and you know, but I mean it's one thing to
be a trail and start something, because I think like
two other cities have done it, possibly three now, but
it's becoming infectious. It's a movement now where people are
doing stuff and I've had a shout out to you're

(32:15):
not along with my sister, she's a fair CON's granddaughter.
She comes with me every year we try to do
something to amplify and let people know what it is.
Shout out the fair con and his granddaughter. Yeah. So,
I mean it's one of those things, those two things
they're like, oh, you're shaking up the table down there,
you know, you're doing. And that's the thing about the
older cowardice people in position. You know, you get somebody

(32:42):
with some energy, they want to do something different, they
want to step to our beef, and they try to
pull your coat tail and tell you to cool out.
I was going to ask you about that. You beat
me to the punch. I was going to ask you
what's more difficult penetrating the white gatekeepers of the old

(33:05):
Negro black gatekeepers. You be surprised, man, how many amazing
white people want to help our situation and how many
black people want you to be quiet talking about your
anguish and your pain. Are they saying that out of

(33:25):
fear of retribution? Are they saying that because they feel
like you're gonna mess with their bag? I think it's both.
It's an amalgamation of both. You have some who feel like, man,
I've been in this seat for twenty years, and I've
been here because I've been quiet and I haven't shaken
the table. And then you have people who feel like,

(33:50):
you know, man, don't push this because you're gonna mess
with my personal situation, you know what I'm saying. So
it's like it's probably a little bit of both. But
like when when you ain't when you ain't make me,
you can't hold me. You know. It's one of those
things the people who like I said, my kids from

(34:10):
those schools and a lot of them don't walk past
and became famous. Shout out Playboy Carti who was one
of my students. Shout out Gunner there was, you know,
one of the students who walked walked the halls to
Bear Creek Middle, Like these are people you know who's
gone on and you know, made millions of dollars or whatever.
But their classmates are the ones who run my campaign

(34:33):
and help, you know with literature, and they're out, you know,
and and they make stuff happen. But that's the point
of a community, you know, you have the phonics in
the world is community, common unity. We have a common unity.
We understood when I let my garage go up in
the morning when I was working. Then I would see
the same kids that I was about to see in

(34:55):
fifteen minutes where I drove because I lived in the
same community, and they like, good morning over. I'm like, man,
I ain't got to talk to y'all till another fifteen minutes.
Leave me alone, you know. But they would knock on
my door. We would go play basketball. I would open
the gym sometime on the Saturdays. And they knew that
I cared, you know, because I had people who cared
about me when I was that age and and you know,

(35:17):
pour it into me. So I think that, you know,
that's that's how everything ultimately works out. But you gotta
when you're in the position. Back to your real question.
It's a lot of people who know that we've been wrong,
right and want to help, and we gotta get old
the hurdles of ourselves. Like when I said, fight my people,

(35:40):
to fight for my people, man, it's hell. It's hell
because it's like, yo, don't talk about it like I
when I passed to Breonna Taylor law right, and this
is the thing with police, and this was the first
two to end no knock warrants in the city. Actually
nobody has done that in the state. So I passed

(36:00):
that and we have a large police department. Man, And
it didn't make me popular, but my license is clean,
you know what I'm saying, Like I'm I'm I'm doing
what I'm supposed to do. So even if it you know,
the biggest thing was I mean, being able to do
certain things. Even with the marijuana. It was argued that

(36:21):
this takes away a tool from the police because it's
normally that scent, that smell of weed that allows them
to go further in their investigatory process. And it's like, well,
first of all, you know, fall back in the first place.
You know, why are we looking like our community does that?

(36:44):
And then we don't do it in other communities. You know,
we normally checkpoint and fall back to see how they
want to lead in their communities. Like policing in America
is that's hobby here forever, if I got to popping
into that. But the point of it is, it's like, yeah,
I think fighting those people with the old guard is

(37:07):
probably the biggest one because like I've I've worked with
black politicians and I call myself a public servant. You know,
I think it's Minisafarka who says that probly means multiple
and ticks means bloodsuckers. You know, so a politician you

(37:27):
follow me. So so it's like I I like, I
know politicians who have been if this ain't going my way,
no matter how great it is for the community, this
will never happen. Promise you that And minute and actually
moved that way, whereas it's been negatively detrimental to our society.

(37:51):
And these people will constantly be elected, they will constantly
be there. How does this happen? And state after state,
city after city, municipality after the municipality where you have
elected officials who have done nothing but lip service and

(38:18):
go around taking pictures at your grandparents' anniversary, fifty anniversary,
they comes show up at the barbecue, they make a
speech when somebody is murdered by the police or something
like that, How are these people consistently reelected? Like? And

(38:39):
how do the people allow it?

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Like?

Speaker 2 (38:43):
How do they how do they get away with this man?
So I'm gonna say something. It's going rough for a
couple of fellas, But it doesn't matter. It is what
it is. It's the same way you could ask that
question to the people on the motherboard. Bless my mama.

(39:06):
Her pastor is actually kind of cool. But those devoted
people who go every Sunday and get rocked asleep oftentimes
in our community to a church that doesn't service the community,
to a person who's just taking a bag and running off.

(39:29):
I think these politicians, they have a similar disposition to
the preachers, and when you watch how they move, how
they give it up, it's really no different. They have
a sermonic response to your grandmother and everybody else, and

(39:49):
they continue to vote for that person every single time
because that's the name that they know, and he probably
showed up it gave a good talk at the anniversary
or other graduation. At the anniversary. At the graduation, man,
I got talked by them how to move at funerals.

(40:12):
Like literally, hey, man, whether it live is you stand by,
you wait till the car come up. You go in
with the family so everybody see you walk around to
the casket, and then you could just circle straight out
to church like the like they rock people to sleep
all the time, and I'm like, yo, like this is

(40:32):
a science to them, just like preachers with preachers say, oh,
you ain't preached unless you kill them and brought them back,
you know what I'm saying Like this, like like I
think it's a thing where our people sometimes, you know,
we look for somebody who just gives us the nostylia
of leadership and then we just lock in with them.

(40:53):
We lock in with him. So I mean, I don't
get me wrong, I have on this shirt, especially in
the absence of my brother who wanted to be here,
Larry Jr. But I'll clean up, you know, And I
even put my flower on to remind myself to be
a gentleman in this whole you know, conceptual framework. But

(41:14):
these people really like end up being like that, and
the younger people doesn't, like, they don't have faith in
this system, you know. And so I go out of
my way to let people to make it look good too,
you know, to other people. And I've engaged and I've

(41:35):
inspired a lot of people, and I could tell like
they've jumped in and they're ready. They're ready to do it,
and they're ready to do it different like going to
bed beat because we really outserving, you know, like the
sceniors in my district. I had a situation where I
was going to their houses, you know, like saying, hey,
I'm coming, don't shoot me. It's eleven and we still

(41:57):
out here. We're bringing y'all the n nine to five mass,
you know what I'm and and we're feeding. Every time
Umar came just out forward and we were feeding people,
he was like reasons I got pictures with him and this,
you know, still got his boat own putting we yeah, man,
more than that, like we're putting boxes in it. I mean,
shout out to feeding families Georgia, you know. Uh, like

(42:20):
we do this stuff and were true servants. And I
think that people are able to see through it, but
not enough of them go for reloaded podcasts right back
after this week. Are you getting a lot of help

(42:40):
from the hip hop constituency? Uh? And the and the
artists themselves? Mm hmm, not really, not really. Uh. I
do appreciate, uh what Tip did shout out to Tip,
you know, and and some connectivity of course through Big

(43:01):
U and Big L. Shout out Big L, but not
a lot. Mike. Mike is good, Mike lives in the city,
you know. Uh, and uh, he's he's he's been helpful.
But you only have I mean, I mean it's the
same people doing the same work over over again. Like
everybody's calling on T I and Mike, you know. Uh,

(43:25):
it seemed like they're the ones who who are who
are mostly out on the front line. And I could
be missing some people, but it just seems like it's
always t I and Killer Mike. But you know what,
they get busy though. You know, it's like like, for example,
I have a developer, you know, Uh. I started our
city's development authorities about four years ago, and I had

(43:47):
a developer, Jeff Butler. He came from the Bay Area,
fifty some year old man. Uh wanted to buy the
land back in South Forton where his ancestors were once enslaved.
Beautiful story. We ended up taking them showing them, you know,
you know, the areas of Southward then because we found
out he was a developer. Now we have Manson part

(44:07):
of course, you know what that's named for, Manson Mousa.
So we have Manson Part coming and like several twenty
I believe twelve twenty five story buildings right on Old
National Hilton O Hyatt Waldorf Astoria and like jobs guaranteed

(44:30):
over ten thousand jobs minimum to this one particular site
that we started all together. And the first people are
tagged in were the people in that area who get busy.
So we have a text We had a text look
with Killer, Mike and Ti and you know, a vetting
process and a re establishment of making sure that people

(44:53):
who are typically excluded have a seated at the table,
you know. And so that's that's still my look. I
didn't grow up on Old National, but this is their home.
So I reach to the people and make sure that
they have a seat at the table. And you know,
they've been really, really helpful, and uh, it should be
a gate coming up. I think in June. I talked
to the developer yesterday, so I mean right across from

(45:17):
World Changes. Actually, so pretty excited about that because that's
one of my one of my my main things outside
of legislation for growth and development of this city. Now,
what's what's the complexion of the people that's doing the construction.
So I'm glad you asked that. In the contract, you know,
it is stated that individuals again who are typically excluded,

(45:40):
which is the wordplay that we have to use for
legal rights. But it's our HT Holmes Hamilton E. Holmes,
which is a major street, you know, exit off Our
twenty is in the city of Atlanta. His son is
working with us. I think we have Russell, you know,
who helped Maynel Jackson build the air rest in Peace

(46:01):
to Bunny Jackson, Mainer's wife who was one of my
mentors and made sure that that was something that we
had a part of that project, you know, I said
with her a lot, and you know, she helped me
a lot with that and talked about how you have
to be feelss and how Maine it was feeless, and
you know he didn't care, even though he ruffled a

(46:23):
lot of feathers. You know, but at some point we
got to do that in order to make sure that
we have seen at the table, especially when it's our table.
Why hasn't some of the other mayors that came after
him just basically just taking that same blueprint and said,
this is what it is, take it or leave it.
You want Atlanta, you got it. You gotta deal with us.

(46:45):
You got the you know, like, and why do why
do these even when we do have the numbers, Why
do we feel compelled to give the business to somebody
else who is not a part of the community. I
can't speak on that because I ain't never been that guy,
and even back then, I wasn't political. You know, I

(47:09):
just literally jumped into this thing at the buzzer and
you know, so I had no expectations in no real direction.
But I can say that ain't nothing different, you know,
from with our people. You know, throughout history, you have
a situation where people actually feel like other people's ice

(47:29):
are it's colder. Yeah, you know that is right there. Yeah,
and again I think it's also fear though. I think
a lot of it is feared. Ooh, if I don't
get mass, some work gonna come and take my position
from me. Y'all got five it's five candidates running for
office for State Rep to represent district at sixty eight.

(47:52):
What do you have in your in your heart if
you believe it's different than the other four candidates? Okay,
I just met her. That that will, that will that
the people of Georgia can benefit from. I feel like
I just met three of them, I think, you know recently.

(48:14):
They seemed like good people. And one of them I
knew he was a state Rep before and after six years,
I don't I can't tell you one piece of legislation
that he's passed, you know, and so I do know
that I said in a debate with him, and you know,

(48:34):
he avoided every single question about what he's done. And
so it's kind of like the somonic thing that you
can do. You know. I kiss my wife every morning
when I get up, and you know, paint this thing,
you know, and it's like stop, you know, everybody listen anyway,
Paul that Nah, no, you're lying, you know, so I

(48:56):
think that that's part of it, you know, And then
I could just say the difference is if you look
at my work. You know, I didn't name all of
the stuff, but I banned the box on applications for
those convicted feelings. Of course, I ended on knock once
with the Breonna Taylor abolish Columbus Day made fifteen dollars
a minimum wage, which you know is now we need

(49:19):
a livable wage. You know, of course twenty dollars should
be that now. But you know I did this. I
passed the Central Park five legislation with a shout out
to Raymond Santana and use of salaam. They're part of
the Exonerated five, those brothers from New York. Two of
them live in our metro area. It's just one of

(49:40):
those things when you're a juvenile and you saw what
happened through Averduren ads. When they see us the movie
that portrayed what happened to the Central Park five, you know,
it's just to ensure that those things don't happen to
our young men. Of course, like making sure they're filmed.
Things of that nature. Properly and you know, no interrogating them.
This rules around interrogating juveniles, you know, uh, so to speak.

(50:05):
But I was able to pass that, you know, with
their help and all. And that's a first in Georgia.
But it's a lot of legislation that I've passed, including
George's first reparations legislation, and that is something that nobody
did before. This was years ago. Shout out again Odie
Donald who helped me with that. Uh he was the

(50:25):
city manager at the time. We had a brave news
reporter who did a short story on it, and then
it was hushed, you know. But now you're seeing task
for us coming about in California. We have one in
Fulton County.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
Now, of course, now that we kind of about to
cycle into a presidential year, everybody's gonna want to say
something about reparations now, you know. And so now it's sexy,
But I did it when it wasn't sexy, and so
it's one of those things that I'm like, I'm not afraid.

(51:04):
I'm not afraid. I love people, I love my constituency,
but even they know that I'm a real person, a
genuine person. I used to tell one nameless constituent, like yo,
she would call me in the middle of the night
about something. I'm like, Okay, I find out it's a light,

(51:27):
I get a LIGHTE fix. For example, I would share
with them that if you call me at two or
three in the morning about a light in your neighborhood
that need to be fixed, I'm gonna get it fixed.
But I'm gonna call you back at two o'clock the
next morning and let you know, Hey, wake up. I
just wanted to let you know I got this fixed
because I know my people, and I know how to
deal with my people. I'm literally from them, you know,

(51:51):
and I'm willing to step out and be unapologetic for
them because if it all fails, you know, I know,
but it's like to lose and I can never lose
like I've lost in the past, and I just go
back to being me. I'm a land on my two
I just want to make sure my people do the same.
So I think that's what separates me. Bro. That's dope.

(52:14):
With black people being the most marninalized group in this country,
how do you ride for black people? How do you
make sure that black people have fair and equal treatment,
but also let those constituents out there that are not
black know that you're going to also represent them. That's

(52:38):
a great question. I think that it's a lot that
comes along with understanding. Man and I had held in
a council meeting to say, this is ninety percent African
American city black a city in America. They're calling it.
They're saying it accord to the National League of Cities.

(52:58):
So that mean contracts ninety percent of the resources shouldn't
be people, right, and so to me, that's a common
sense statement. It makes sense. A lot of people was
afraid that he said that and never repeated again. My

(53:18):
thing is you got to serve the people. And like
we passed something, you know, a welcoming ordinance that really
made my stomach hurt, and I didn't want nobody to
feel excluded about it. But it was just, you know,
it's not that I didn't support it, it's just the

(53:39):
mental framework that we have to deal with when we
are at the table. We have to feel like we
gotta you know, black people are the most accepting people
on the planet. You know, Sandy Springs in different parts
of the Metro Atlanta area that's predominantly white, they're not
passing welcoming ordinances, you know, but because we are saying

(54:03):
now and the mayor shut out may Collie he jumped
out the window with myself of course, telling everybody once
we found out, y know, we're the blackest city in America.
Like people need to know that, you know, Like what's
up Stacey Abrams coming, we need to go ahead and
name old National Obama National Parkway. And when they come
stump with Stacy, we could have you know, the grand

(54:26):
you know, the sign revealed. Like people are like, man,
we don't want people to think they were black like that.
But I think that you know, the right you have
to deal with you have to deal with that concept.
But like I tell people, you know, of course, my
whole thing is Mark Baker for the culture. You know
your cousin, and I tell people, you know, your cousin,

(54:48):
not like the cousin's cousin, but family cousin. You know,
you're my relative. Like doing the trans Atlantic slave trade,
a lot of people didn't realize that when they it
took us. They stopped at these Caribbean islands, for example,
and this was what they call the seasoning process. During
the seasoning process, they would take and separate the families. Right,

(55:11):
So if I had a wife, she would be sold
on the island. If the woman next to me had
a husband, he would be sold there to intentionally separate
the families, to break us, you know. And now I
know her trauma, she knows my trauma, and we move
forward to America with the shared trauma. My shared trauma

(55:34):
comes from the West side of Chicago, right, and black
people is funny because we probably the only people that
actually had cousins. How many white people you know talk
about their cousins. We know they have them, but damnybody,
that's crazy. I never hear that. You damn everybody ever
thought about that. Everybody that's black gotta play cousin wow,

(55:58):
or somebody that they grew up with. Who mama can
whoop you? That we share the same experience. So if
we were to lead a block and make it and
go out of town somewhere, we know we not related
by blood, but that's my cousin. You follow me, and
we're cousins with family because of the shared experience. And

(56:22):
my shared experience comes from understanding that where I come from.
Of course, no farther in the picture. I love the
man right now shout out bishamb London, my dad, but
he didn't raise me. You know, I understood by watching
my mom struggle and then getting old and learning the

(56:44):
work of doctor Claude Anderson that black people are systematically
trapped in the real in the lowest level of a
real life monopoly game. And these are my cousins and
we're trapped together. Think about it, systematically trapped in the
lowest level of a real life monopoly game. Bro Like,
if you're looking at it like that, you start off monopoly,

(57:07):
you get two hundreds, two five hundreds, whatever it is,
two fifties, six twenties, five fives, five tens, and five ones,
and you all are set on go. You pick your
little whatever you're gonna do to march around this board,
and when you shake the dice, you go and you

(57:27):
accumulate property. You accumulate wealth to the point where somebody
laying on that wealth and they have to pay you,
and you end up winning. You picking cars, and life
gets good and you're building. You're building houses, you building hotels.
Can you imagine what it's like to be systematically trapped
in the lowest level of a real life monopoly game?

(57:49):
Where you don't start out with that currency, you don't
start out with any of that. But every day you
gotta shake the dice, you and your cousins, and you
got to move around this board and figure out how
stuff is gonna work out for you. But everywhere you laying,
you gotta pay, and you get to go. You probably
get that lit two hundred, but you still hit once

(58:11):
you get down the block. Soon as you get to
two hundred, you got to give it back to somebody
else got to give it back too. And so it's like,
I know what it's like to be in the hole.
My mom worked three jobs, you know, like three jobs,
and when I got old enough, she saw me get
you know, what was happening around me. Of course, what
happened to all of my cousins, all of them of course,

(58:33):
you know, affiliated a certain way and doing things, trying
to teach us better, but still ending up, you know,
jammed up. She was like, you're going as far away
as possible. And really I wasn't the most brightest kid,
you know, I played a little basketball. I had you know,
some interest and opportunities to go somewhere. But it's like,

(58:55):
at what point are we gonna be able to not
wrap and not hoop or play football and make it out.
You know. Doctor Kawanza Juwanza Konjufu says that you know
that did you do most? Or be that did you
do best? At some point we have to start investing
our kids in science, engineering, math and things other than

(59:18):
directly sociology. Right, I can know a lot of stuff,
but unless I really figure it out and I land
the way that I landed, I'm here looking for that job,
you know. But if we can encourage these fields and
try to get our kids to do something else more often,
you know, and and be best at it, then we
can look out for ourselves and our cousins. You know. Yeah,

(59:40):
as my boy Willow said, we own cool, right, we
own cool, but we have to so. And because we
own cool, then we can actually make being a scientist,

(01:00:03):
a doctor law you're cool. We can make being a
city council and a state representative of a congress person cool.
We can make being an entrepreneur cool. We can make
being a bus driver cool. We can make being an
entrepreneur cool. We can make having good grades cool. We
can make not having a criminal record cool. It's all

(01:00:27):
about what do you say? What you what you say,
what you are, what you do the most? You become?
How do you do most? Will be what you do best.
What you do most will be what you do best.
That is that is a true statement. And I'm telling
you something, bro, Uh, that statement was actually crafted for

(01:00:48):
you because what you do most is help our people,
and that's why you do it the best. Man, And
I appreciate you for coming on the show man, thank
you so much for having me. So so, what do
we have to do to make sure that you become
Georgia's state representative for District sixty eight, the very next

(01:01:09):
state representative to represent Georgia. Starting point is, uh, just
get to the money man, come on, cause just don't okay,
come on, Yeah, what they gotta do to h Banker
for Georgia's baker for Georgia dot com. You got seventy
four dollars put it up in there. Got to be
a big deal. If you got less than that, I

(01:01:30):
take whatever you have. At this point, I'm mailing out
you know soon and uh, this is real grassroots. So
my volunteers are doing, you know, most of the work.
I just got to be able to you know, make
sure we had the materials to reach the people. And
you know, I'm not looking for no big one person
that just dump something because I ain't built like that,

(01:01:50):
or one person got with it, come on with it.
But know that you you're not going to govern me
based off of you know, the bread. You know I'm
gonna do what's right for us, and you know you
can hold me accountable for that. So visit you know,
baker Ford Georgia dot com. Visit Counselman Mark that's my Instagram,
And let's figure out the future. What's the most amount

(01:02:13):
that a person can donate? What are the I think
to max out in the race? Like this is three thousand, Okay,
it's three thousand, But when I ask for a number
like seventy four, it's like it's less than one hundred.
And why is seventy four significant? I mean growth and development?
Seven letter, fourth letter? What's that? Growth and development? Okay,

(01:02:34):
that's what I want to do. It's one of those
things that you know, everything ain't negative when you think
about it. You know, it's the number I always ask
for under one hundred dollars, and you know it's a
number that I grew up and I've learned, you know,
the transition for it, and we're just showing like even
the vision of Larry Hoover wanted, you know, twenty first

(01:02:55):
century vote. You know, shout out to Gator Bradley, who
was the first person from Growth for Development to actually
run for public office in Chicago, you know, and the
late nineties, and you know, twenty first century vote was
something that he talked about changing and making sure that
we had people on the ballot that understood the community
and was trying to change the community. And of course

(01:03:17):
Dan Boone, let's ship him off to a ADX super
max prison. Tupac same time. Ninety six, right, you know
who was saying, I got I sold four million records.
Snoop sold two million records. I see our own political
party coming. You know, those record sales I look at
like votes. I might not be the leader of it,

(01:03:37):
but I'm sure I could spark it. Ninety six, Tupac gone.
But the thing is, we got to keep popping up.
We got to be like Weed's bro. We got to
keep popping up, and we got to really do whatever
we need to do to make sure that the next generation.
Stevie has a song. He says it best in Our

(01:03:58):
the add Song at the end when he says, we
all know sometimes life pains and troubles can make you
wish you born in another time in place. But you
can bet your lifetimes that and twice that double that
God know exactly where he wanted you to be placed.
So make sure when you say you're in it but
not of it, just make sure you're not helping the place,
this place, helping him make this place called earth a
place sometime called hell. Change your words and the truth,

(01:04:21):
and then change that truth and the love. And maybe
our children, grandchildren or their great grandchildren will tell man,
you just quoted Stevie. Man, we're gonna be alright. Me
and you, we're gonna we're best friends for life because
I tell you that Steve Stevie to me is the greatest,
the greatest writer ever ever ever. No, ain't nobody close.

(01:04:42):
And that says a lot. When you think about all
of the great musicians that have come along, you know,
they're lucky he wasn't rapping. They lucky. Rapping wasn't part
of his stuff back then because he was a beast.
But he was rapping. Like if you listen to some
of the stuff he was saying. You know, he was
rapping one last thing that I wanted to cover this

(01:05:08):
the notion of giving right. You know, freedom got a shotgun,
but it also has a bank roll MM and people
don't understand that. A lot of times our people think that, well,
if you work for the people, then you wouldn't be
have to ask for no money, if you didn't need

(01:05:28):
no money, you wouldn't need no money. If if if
you're doing it, you should just be doing it. They
don't understand that the advertising costs money. You know, in
order in order for you to compete against those people
who they don't think is worthy to get them out.
In order for you to compete to get in and
do the work, you first have to be elected. You first,

(01:05:49):
you first have to be seen in order to get
a chance to be elected. You got to be seen
and heard. So you need money so that they can
hear you on the radio and hear your message, so
that your message message can get out, so they can
see you on TV, so they can see you on internet.
They can see the bill boards, they can see the
rolling vehicles with your ads on it. They they don't

(01:06:12):
understand a lot of people just don't understand that it
takes money to get in here and get this work done.
It ain't free. How do you express that to our people?
How do you get the word out and to those
who don't know. I mean, a lot of us are
catching on. We're getting it, We're starting to get it.

(01:06:34):
We're embracing the idea that we have to in order
to become an economic power, we're going to have to
invest in each other. I think it's so like we
know it already, Like it's so think about it. You
have so many people who got their own businesses and
starting up and they're like, man, you know what, I
get more love from strangers on the internet than I

(01:06:55):
do my own people. Right, And it's like, you know,
I'm here with you. You know, of course I appreciate you.
I appreciate you, Prince, I appreciate Larry Jun everybody that
helped bring me. You know that, you know these are
the people and these are the folks that you know
have embraced me. It's like, the way this works is
that no problem is a problem until it's your problem.

(01:07:19):
You understand what I'm saying, No problem is a problem
until it's your problem. What I mean is that when
they start trying to tell you what to do with
your body, you know as a woman, when they start
trying to tell it. And these agendas have nothing to
do with our community, right, nothing to do with our
community because we constantly cut. Our numbers are large. But

(01:07:41):
we ain't got to get into that. But when things
start to impact you and affect you, you look for it, right,
and you have to start before we're at a traumatic point,
you know what I'm saying, Like, you got to heal
the trauma before it's spreads. You know, people who have

(01:08:02):
out you know, all of these little pains and illnesses
that actually spread throughout the body and by the time
it get to the heart as a rap, Like, there's
a trauma in our community, and yeah, you gotta you
gotta treat that. But at the same time, you got
to stop it from spreading. And you gotta understand that, Yo,

(01:08:23):
I'm your cousin. You know what happens to you, I'm next.
So just because it happens to you, you can't just
be like, ah man, I mean it happens to me.
You can't just look at it like, oh man, that's
messed up. It happened to him. You gotta feel that yourself,
You gotta you gotta see your brother in everybody around you,
and then you have to jump in and say, look,
this is my responsibility, Like it's my responsibility. They might

(01:08:48):
be going down to drain now, but I'm circling and
so the money, the money is nothing like it's not
gonna be a big deal. And if that's why I
try to start with stuff. That's what people can do
who don't have an extra seventy four dollars, who don't
have extra twenty five dollars that they can, you know,
do something if they hear what I'm saying and understand, like, yo,

(01:09:08):
I believe him. I believe that he'll do what he's
He's actually done it already. You know, I wouldn't have
no reason why would not go and be the same way.
I am a step to our beef on that level
where we need it done because we're seeing that we
needed like we're seeing that we're living it every day.
Since nineteen eighty four, prescriptions drugs have been tax exempt

(01:09:33):
because it's a necessity. People are broke and can't afford necessities.
At what point are we going to make basic groceries,
tax examp. At what point are we going to make
electric bills tax exempt? They'rect you said, diapers tax exemp.
These are things that we all need as a community,

(01:09:56):
sharing our common unity in going down this drain if
we don't stop it. So I think that we gotta
we gotta, we gotta hurry up and address issues before
they become everybody's problems. See it happening to your neighbor
and know that you're next, and let's figure out how
do we do what I mean, how do we get involved?

(01:10:17):
Last thing I want to say is that people feel
like so many other people. They not like me. They're
not trying to change the laws. There some people just
like to get in the suit and carry on. But
at least register to vote. If you how many people
you know have felt like they've been railroaded, are sent
up by people who wasn't a jury of their PIDs.

(01:10:39):
We complain about that all the time. But if you're
not registered to vote, you're never gonna get called for
jeury duty. Like you could be the person that's called
and now you're sitting on the stand that could actually
understand better than the other people and vy for your
brother or sister that's about to go get up, so

(01:11:01):
we gotta be a part of it. It ain't no a
that ain't for me. I don't have nothing to do
with that. They'll never help me like you can't. You
gotta shake that. You gotta shake that. Figure out how
to infiltrate it and be great at it, because that's
what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to infiltrate it
for us. Oh man, you ain't just trying, brother, You
are doing it, man, and we appreciate you. Once again,

(01:11:22):
ladies and gentlemen, Doctor Mark Baker, and I appreciate it. You.
I won't talk.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
This episode was produced by a King and brought to
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Radio