June 9, 2022 • 39 mins
Ben Cohen makes a repeat appearance with Senator Turner to discuss the domino effect of the criminalization of cannabis on Black folk’s generational wealth. They also touch on economic justice and the military industrial complex. These two friends keep the faith and keep up the fight to change systems.
Ben Cohen (Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream), Ben’s Best
https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2019/04/420-cannabis-justice
Above the Law: How "Qualified Immunity" Protects Violent Police by Ben Cohen, With A Foreword By Michael Render ("Killer Mike")
https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/above-the-law/
The Last Prisoner Project
Cannabis criminal reform
https://www.lastprisonerproject.org/
Wanda James
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
Drop the Mic Now
https://www.instagram.com/dropthemicnow/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Turn Everything Somebody. Welcome to Hello Somebody, a production of
(00:28):
The Black Effect Podcast Network and I Heart Media. Where
we rage against the machine, where we raise our voices
against injustice and stand up for justice. Where we embrace
hope and joy with an optimism for a bright or
more justus future. Each week I'll be dropping knowledge, whether
(00:48):
it's a solo episode from me or a hearty discussion
with esteem guests doing great things in spaces and places
of politics, entertainment, social justice, and beyond. We get real, baby,
I mean really real. We get honest, We get up
close and personal for you, yes, you, because everybody is Somebody.
(01:15):
Before we begin, I want to give a special shout
out to my team, Thank you, Sam, Tiffany, Sam and
the team over at Good Juju Studios, Erica, England, Pepper Chambers,
the Hot One, and my social media team. Hello Somebody.
I am so happy you are here with us just
(01:39):
one more time. And if you are new to the show,
I appreciate you tuning in. If you have been on
the Hello Somebody's journey for quite some time, I am
so glad you are here today, today, today, Oh my God.
And I know I say this every single week because
I get the opportunity to have a conversation with some
of the greatest people in the world, and today is
(02:02):
certainly no exception. In all of my journeys and experiences,
I've had the pleasure and opportunity to meet and become
really close friends with many social justice partners, with some
of the most fascinating, forward thinking and wisdom feel people
on the planet. And I have someone who embodies all
(02:24):
of that, and that is none other than my brother,
Mr bc Being Cohing himself. He is here today and
not only is Being Cohing a successful businessman, a leader,
and an activist. He just doesn't talk to talk, he
walks to walk. He's a philanthropist. He's the co founder
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of the One that Only Ben and Jerry's ice Cream,
which I do encourage you to get some of that
ice cream. I know ice cream sales went up during
the pandemic, and I do understand why baby were stressed
like hell, and the pandemic is still going on. Despite
what people say. The pandemic has not stopped. So if
you want some ice cream, go on to get some
of that Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I had the
(03:05):
extraordinary experience to be with Ben Cohen as a national
co chair for Senator Bernie Sanders run and it was Yeah,
I have no words for it. That's why I have
to say it's like just like that. It was a whirlwind.
It was beautiful to have him. And we served with
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two amazing people. One is Carmen you Leen Cruz, the
mayor former mayor of Santon while Puerto Rico and congressman
wrote KNA from the great state of California. We traveled
all over this country. We were in communications on a
regular basis, and I am so proud of the work
that we did collectively and the work that we are
(03:49):
doing as individuals. Brother Ben calling, how are you today? Wow? Nina,
what an intro man. Those are hard, hard shoots to fill.
It's a hard vessel to einbody. But I will do
my best. I am doing good. I'm feeling good. I'm
drinking my organic Urba Matte energy drink, and I'm energized.
(04:14):
I'm psyched to be here with you, my favorite fellow activist.
I'm Anino lover, I admit it. I uh you know.
I want you leading our country. I vote for you
anytime I do whatever I could. Thank you, Thank you
(04:36):
and you've been We've been together since sixteen actually, and
then went into the coach air mode, and I just
thank you so much for being on this journey with me,
and I'm on the journey with you and for you
supporting me and two of my campaign endeavors. As we know,
the outcome was not as either of us and millions
(04:56):
of people wanted, but it did happen. A lot of
big money, out of dark money came converging in on
the Ohio level district. And unfortunately I'm not the only
one they really come they being Republicans and corporative Dems,
they really come hard at progressive candidates. But since the
turner still standing, and just many thanks to you for
(05:18):
all of your support. Every time I call you have
you never said no, I don't want to temp fate,
but you've always been right there with me. Well, when
they come for you, that's a sign that you're doing
the right thing. Thank you for doing it. Thank you
so much, and thank you for all that you are
doing as well. I mean, certainly people know you for
(05:39):
the ice cream, but some of the things that they
don't know is that for over thirty years now you
have been fighting to educate the masses about the military
industrial complex. You are venturing into cannabis because you care
very much about the African American community in particular reaping
and economic benefit, because the African American community disproportionately reaped
(06:03):
to the negative uh negative penalties for cannabis. And I
just really appreciate you for being in this fight and
using your influence where you are in this moment in
your life to be not just a voice, but to
be a vessel and to really use what you have
at your disposal to be that change that we want
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to see in the world. And since I'm on that
particular topic, you tell a story all the time about
in your younger years you were caught with some marijuana,
some pots, some ganja. We got many names for Mary Jane,
all of that stuff, but you had some of that.
Your story is very powerful, So I can't do it
any justice. Can you share with the people who are
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listening to us today what happened when you were caught
with that marijuana and what motivates you to care so much.
Not just care, you're putting it into action to ensure
that the African American community reaps an economic benefit Canada's Well, uh, yeah,
it was a bunch of years ago, I guess. A
few years after I graduated from high school. I was
(07:08):
with some friends at Jones Beach State Park. It was
at night out there on the beach under a lifeguard stand,
and Jones Beats is located outside of New York City.
It's on Long Island, and we were passing to jay around,
you know, and then we saw these two white headlights
coming at us. My friend Ronnie, he had the j
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at the time. I said, geez, Ronnie, it's the cops.
Eat the joint. Eat the joint. And then the cops
showed up. They're saying, what are you boys doing here
under this line? Coach? They said, oh, nothing, And you know,
they're kicking around in the sand and they find this joint.
Apparently Ronnie didn't want to eat it, so they put
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us in handcuffs. They put us in there cop car.
They took us to the station. They handcuffed us to
each other. Then they told us to strip, which is
really hard when your hands or handcuffed to the other guy.
So they stripped. Search they're joking around, you know. One
cop reports from the office. I unwrapped this joint. You know,
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it's all full of sticks and seeds where you guys
really gonna get high off this stuff. And you know
they're going through this or saying you've got any stuff
in your car and whatever whatever. Well, you go back
and forth. Then eventually they let us out of the
handcuffs and they sent us all home with a ticket
for littering a lighted cigarette butt on the beach. It
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was four of us, white guys. And now, as I've
learned about the realities of the criminal justice system and
how black people are treated and how white people are treated,
I realized that if I was black, I would have
been prosecuted, um probably ended up in jail. You know,
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four times as many black people as white people are
prosecuted for pot despite the fact that whites and blacks
use it at the same rate. If I had a record,
you know, Jerry and I never would have been able
to apply for the SBA loan that we needed to
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to start Ben and Jerry's we never would have been
able to get the Urban Development Action grant. It was
a federal program that was used to expand ben injuries.
And the fact of the matter is is that if
we were black there never would have been a ben
injury's you know. And that is the story of the
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war on drugs and a big part of the reason
why the average net worth of a black family in
our country is one tenth of the average net worth
of a white family. And to me, that's the really
really big issue that we need to bridge that divide,
(10:09):
that we need to find ways for black people to
be able to increase their their wealth, you know, generational
wealth is what I'm talking about, you know. I mean
the other fact of the matter is that my parents
bought their first home using a government loan that was
not available to black people, not available by government regulation.
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You can see it in Black and White that they
refuse to loan money to buy a house into a
black neighborhood. And if you really put in a lot
of effort, and if you are a black person and
you're arranged to buy a house in a white neighborhood,
they wouldn't loan it to you then either, because then
it would be a black neighborhood. So that generational wealth
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that my parents were able to start with, that home ownership,
that's what allowed me to get to a decent college.
That's what began their ability to have enough money to
send me to a good college. Of course I dropped out,
but anyhow, it's all together. So so yeah, So I
am starting this pot business now that it's legal, and
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it's actually a not for profit pot business, and the
purpose of the business is to produce great pot and
use that to help right the wrongs civil war on drugs.
So profits that we hopefully make will be distributed to
black cannabis entrepreneurs will be supporting the Last Prisoner Project
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to get people out of jail who have been convicted
in pot crimes. We just hope that people really like
our stuff, you know that's they don't like our stuff,
we're out of it. I think they will. I mean,
that story is so important to tell because BC, not
a lot of people, especially white people, will admit that
the system, especially in your position, will admit that the
(12:07):
system is indeed rigged. And I'm sure your story was
repeated numerous times in this country over the generations. You
and I both know a wonderful entrepreneurs, the first black
woman to really penetrate the cannabis industry. I call her
to Madam C. J. Walker Cannabis, and that is Wanda James, Yeah,
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from the Great State of Colorado, and she has a
similar story. Her brother is the main focus of that story.
But he was caught with some marijuana. I forgot exactly
how much he had, but he went to prison. So,
just as you said, his fate was different. He went
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to prison. And that is really what motivated her. She
tells the story all the time. That is what motivated
her to study more about the j stances in terms
of the War on drugs, how black communities are impacted deeper, harder,
and that impact has a generational weight. It's not just
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that you arrest one black person, it is the impact
that that has on that person's family, on their community.
And because it is systemic, it is a blight on
the black community as a whole. It really drains the
most important resources that we have, which is human resource.
And that is what motivated her to go into the
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cannabis industry. And so she is both a giant in
that industry, but similar to you, she is also a
social justice activists as well. And but for her brother
having that story, I'm not even so sure we would
have Wanda James in the cannabis industry. And so for
you to carry that story so many years later and
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decided at this stage in your career. You have many
careers and you are not done. You don't retire, you
don't sit down. You could just be living a life
of luxury. But here you are starting something else. And
who on earth starts the cannabis business? Not to make
a profit? Y'all heard that, right, Yes, you have definitely
heard that right. Not to make a profit, but to
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use that money to invest in the Black community, to
groom entrepreneurs so that black people can own and make money,
not just as employees. And that's important being I want
the people with us to know you're not talking about employees.
You're talking about ownership so that generational wealth can be built,
and that is so important. There is a huge difference
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between income and wealth, and a lot of black people,
as you name that stat do not have a lot
of wealth. Barely got income, but certainly they do not
have generational wealth. And even the two thousand and eight
grade recession, you know, I'm old enough to remember that recession,
black people lost of their wealth. So if you were
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fortunate enough to own a home as a black person,
you lost fift of your wealth during the Great Recession,
and certainly everybody was hit, no doubt about it. But
when you have indexes of misery, black people seem to
be at the very top of the loss. And so
it is important that we do generate, that we have
people who are on the mission to push for generational wealth.
(15:26):
There's a book it's called The Color of Law and
b C. I'm not sure if you've read that book
or not, but I recommend it to you and to
everybody that's listening. It doesn't talk about the drug industry.
It talks about housing and how the federal government deliberately
because what made me think about this book is what
you said about your parents. It lays out how the
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federal government was part and parcel to redlining and how
that cut thousands of black people out of being able
to own homes in stellar neighborhoods so that that home
could generate equity and they would have something either to
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borrow from if they ever needed money, or to leave
something to their children or their children's children. And the
government not only was complicit, the government was a full
fledged actor in depriving generations of African Americans from having
a home. The Department of Hood was completely you know,
it was many players in this, but the federal government
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was a major one, and they sat back and they
allowed this to happen. They participated in it. It wasn't
even like they allot just allowed it. They participated their
term restrictive covenants, which I know you and I both
are familiar with, where it was written into the deeds
who you could sell your home to and who you
could not sell your home to, and written into many
deeds across this country it said do not sell to
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a Negro, you know at that time, don't sell to
African Americans at all. And the federal government, instead of
it being the referee and called in the file, it
actually empowered and enabled real estate agencies and companies to
redline and to do this to the African American community.
And there's a generational impact. People often question, you know,
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why does the African American community continue to talk about
these things? We talk about these things because it wasn't
just a one off. It's like a domino effect. You know,
if you can visualize a set of dominoes, more than
a set a few set of dominoes lined up. When
something of this magnitude happens whether it is the war
on drugs or whether it's red lining within housing and
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loans and all of that stuff. When that first domino falls,
they all fall. And that is what continues to happen
in this country right now to this day. Yeah, you know,
you think about these people that are in jail today
for a crime that is now legal, but just the
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act of being in jail, just the act of get arrested,
even before you're convicted, you end up losing your job,
spending diamond jail, You lose your family and lose your friends.
It destroys your life, it really does. And it's hard
to rebound. You know. There's a saying that it's easier
to jump in the hole than it is to get
out of it. And that's really the circumstance that people
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find themselves in when something like this happens in their lives.
Is so much harder to to rebound because you really
are fighting against other systems that are dead set on
keeping you down and not seeing you rebound and really
live the fullness of your life. And until this country
is willing to admit what it has done to African
(18:42):
American community generationally, I think we're always going to find
ourselves right back in this position from a systemic standpoint,
and that's why it is so incredible that you been
calling are stepping out into this and creating a new
model for people to see that folks of wealth and
connections can do a lot of good in the world.
(19:04):
And you picked this particular path because cannabis is the
new frontier right now and in many states where it
is legal, we know that mostly black people do not
own those companies. They are not in the ecosystem, whether
it's delivering or growing, They're just not there now. They
may be employed, but they don't own anything. And that
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is why what you are doing right now is beautiful.
This is justice, and I hope more people will follow
your lead and in preparation for this country to legalize
it because it will be legal in the United States
of America at some point. I do believe that if
the African American community and if we do not have government,
whether it's both federal, state, regional, and local, all levels
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of government have to make it very clear that the
group or groups that were harmed the most will be
the ones first for the economic buffet, for the find
ancial buffet. My fear is that they're gonna let these
big tobacco companies and others reap the benefits and leave
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the African American community by the wayside if we don't
stand up, and the Hispanic community as well. I think
in terms of the eventual federal legalization, what you're saying
is absolutely right. That the drug companies, the tobacco companies,
Wall Street are right now lobby in Congress to pass
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the eventual legalization law that will benefit them, these huge corporations.
And I recently met a woman named Jaylen who is
a woman of color. She had been the head of
the Massachusetts Cannabis Controlled Commission. She would be a great
interview for you, actually, and she is forming an organization
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to lobby on behalf of regular people and people who
don't have a lot of money and are a huge
corporations to influence the eventual federal legislation. And she's putting
it together now, which is exactly the time to do it. Yeah,
that's beautiful. We do need it. We can't leave this
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to chance, because we know what happens when things are
left to chance. They just don't happen. And that is
another reason why I'm glad she's lobbying. There are others
who are in this space who are preparing we cannot
be asleep at the wheel on this one. BC. This
is going to happen and the African American community is
going to be left behind without a lot of pressure
(21:34):
on these elected officials to do without fear of contradiction,
to do it against all of the naysayers that would
say how unfair this is, to do it this way. No,
you are making right. You're trying to make some crooked
paths straight. Because what was unfair, what was untenable, what
was heartbreaking, what was destructive, is the war on drugs
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that dismantled many a black household and black community in
this country. And even still to this day, black people
are arrested at higher rates in the states all over
the country. It's sustained. It's a blot on this country.
And so to make this right, then you have to
deliberately put in policies that try to correct that because
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these people will never get their lives back, the ones
who were put in jail and or prison from marijuana,
you can't give them back their lives. But how we
move forward and understanding that a lot of the policy
positions taking whether it's the g I Bill, the New Deal,
those types of policies were very much raised based and
they were based on being white, and if you were black,
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you had to get back. So we got a lot
of work to do, and that all those things were
done deliberately. It was done by public policy, and all
of those things moving forward, we can undo by public policy.
And what a great way. Uh. Some people would call this, uh,
one of the pillars of reparations. Call it what you want.
I just call it plain old fashioned economic justice. Whatever
you call it, we need to do the right thing.
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At the beginning, when states first started legalizing pot, they
were provisions in the law that said that someone who
had a previous arrest for marijuana could not be part
of this industry. And then they started understanding that that
was unfair, that people who had suffered because of the
(23:27):
War on drug shouldn't be shut out of that business.
And and so now most of the states that are
legalizing are having what they call social equity provisions where
they give priority for licenses two people who had been
impacted by the War on drugs or whose communities have
(23:48):
been impacted by it. The problem is what we talked
about the generational wealth. You know, like when the average
white guy wants to start a business, they go around
to their friends and relatives and say, could you loan
me some money or invest some money. Because they've got
ten times the amount of wealth of black people, they
(24:08):
are able to get that initial investment, and it's much
harder for black people to get it. So the problem
has been that, Okay, you give him preference for getting
these licenses, then they have the license, but they don't
have enough money to actually start a business. And the
state of New York I think they're in the first
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state that along with their social Equity provision, they're providing
capital for someone who gets the social equity license to
actually start up that business. So I think it's a
it's a good direction, yes, a very good start, and
we got to inspect what we expect just to make
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sure that the leaders of justice are working as we plan,
because with a lot of good intentions, we know that
if somebody's not watching the watch it who's watching the
watch things can fall through the cracks and not happen
according to law policy. Yeah, but that is a great start.
It is a tremendous start. But I am so excited
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to be on this journey with you. I think it's incredible.
What you're doing is incredible, and I know that it
is going to bear an extraordinary amount of fruit, and
that you are setting up a framework, a foundation for
many to follow for many years to come being going.
So I love you for that something that is very timely.
(25:38):
Right now, I want to go back to I had
mentioned earlier. I want to remind the people who are
with us today that you, for over thirty years, have
been working really hard to educate the masses on something
that is not sexy, and when I say sexy, I
mean exciting, like it takes a lot to keep people's
attention on it. It's much like climate chaos, which I
(26:00):
don't understand why we don't get that one, but I'll
save that for another show too. But this one is
the military industrial complex. And so Drop the Mic or
you all who are on social media, you can follow
Drop the Mic. Please follow Drop the Mic on Instagram
and follow Drop the Mic on Twitter. And I had
the opportunity some months ago to work with you and
Edward to lift that up even more than you have
(26:23):
other incredible people working with you on that let's talk
about that, especially because of the war that Russia is
waging rather on the Ukraine, and all of these rumors
that other wars will start because of this, whether it's
Japan being in fear of China, I mean, you name it.
I mean, things are happening all over the globe that
(26:44):
are not edifying, that do not lift, that will put
human kind and the entire ecosystem that depends on us
to do the right thing in jeopardy. To me, it
doesn't get more sexier than paying attention to war because
we cannot afford a war or three with the type
of technology that we have. It is called the decimation
(27:05):
of the world and everything in it. So that's sexy
to me that we should be engaged. You, however, Mr
ben Kohen, have been working on this for a long
time and it is really hard to get people's attention.
So let's talk a little bit about what put you
on that journey, and some thoughts about the hawkishness of
(27:25):
some members of Congress and even at times this President
some of the things that he has said that he
had to walk back because we cannot, I repeat, we
cannot get into a war with Russia. We just can't
everybody loses. Yeah, it's kind of absurd that the US
(27:46):
regards Russia and China as potential adversaries. The people of
Russia have no desire to kill people in the United
States or to invade the United States aim with the
people of China. Essentially, what the US says is that
we are the strongest military force in the world, where
(28:10):
the strongest economic force in the world. If any other
country tries to become as strong as US, they're an enemy.
Why why should the US run the world? I don't
get it. And then you get to the issue of war,
which is the most horrible thing that humankind has devised
(28:37):
to date. It's essentially, how can we kill ridiculously large
numbers of people as soon as possible, and how can
we destroy infrastructure and buildings and villages. You have this
quote from the Vatican a bunch of years back that says,
(28:59):
even though the web papons may never be used, the
arms race kills the poor by causing them to start
by its cost alone. You know, when I first started
focusing on the Pentagon budget, I mean, the reason why
I got into it was because whenever there were people
(29:20):
coming to Congress saying we need more money for our
schools or healthcare, or housing, or to help people pull
themselves out of poverty. The congress people would always say, Oh,
I really care about that, I really care about the kids.
I love kids, I believe in education. I want everyone
(29:40):
to be healthy. But we just don't have the money
in the budget. I'm just so sorry. And the reality
is that they're spending half of our discretionary budget on
bombs weapons, preparing to kill millions of people in our name.
(30:03):
So when I first got into it, the Pentagon budget
was around two eight billion a year. Now it's about
eight hundred billion a year, and we spend about four
times as much as the next highest spending country, which
would be China. I think one of the interesting things
that the war in Ukraine has demonstrated, like the war
(30:27):
in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, is that these
countries that have these huge military budgets are not able
to successfully conquer and occupy a small little country. So
how can we possibly think that China or Russia is
(30:49):
a threat to the United States. It used to be
called the Department of War, and then they decided that
doesn't really have a nice ring to it. So they
called it the de Partment of Defense. But the reality
is we've never defended the United States. I mean, nobody
attacks the United States. We have oceans on both sides,
(31:12):
we have friendly nations on the top and the bottom.
You know, when you get into this thing about the Ukraine,
I mean, the war there is inexcusable. What Russia's doing
is inexcusable. But if before the war, what Russia was
saying was that you have amassed all these weapons on
(31:33):
our borders and you're aiming it at us. And if
Russia amassed all these weapons in Mexico and they were
aiming it at us, what would the United States do?
We would take the same posture. Yeah, I think so.
The reality is that the amounts of money that you
(31:53):
talk about in terms of the military budget eight hundred
billion dollars or you know, it kind of rolls off
your tongue, eight billions. But if you took just of
that amount of money, that would be eighty billion. Yes, decided, well,
I'm going to use that to pay our teachers more,
(32:16):
to provide healthcare for more people, to provide headstart for
everybody who's eligible for it. You could do it, and
that's the stuff that really makes people feel more secure.
It really is. We definitely do a disservice on the
domestic side of the ledger. We can't have nice things
because we're too wrapped up in warmaking to have those
(32:39):
nice things. And the companies, the corporations, Wall Street benefits,
but the hoods don't benefit, whether suburban hoods, urban hoods,
or rural hoods. The people who live in those communities
are suffering because of our desire to always be making war.
War begets more war or not less. And I want
(33:01):
to go back to something you said about Russia and
China and always seeing them as enemies, programming American people
to see them that way. I think our budget is
bigger than what the next ten or eleven nations combined,
and most of those nations are our allies. As you
were talking geographically, was making me think, also, why do
(33:23):
we have to have a Pentagon budget that large when
most of the industrialized nations in the world are actually
our allies and we spend more than all of them combine,
both allies and folds being namely China and Russia. For
the purposes of some people here who relish, I mean,
there's a lot of money been going to be made
(33:45):
with the threat of war. It makes money. Oh, it
makes a huge amount of money. Public Citizen, I encourage again.
I go to Twitter and go to drop the mic
that stands will drop the military industrial complex, please follow
and share and retweet. And then another organization that dropped
the mic retweets a lot Public Citizen, They're on it
a lot. Cold pink is. There are so many wonderful
(34:08):
activist types who are navigating that space on a regular
basis to keep us inform. Something that Public Citizen put out.
They said, so, inflation is the reason why the government
wants to increase the Pentagon budget even higher than the
amount that you said, the the nine hundred billion, But
(34:30):
inflation is also the reason why we can't afford to
raise the minimum wage. Think about that. Wow, my god,
that's beautiful. It's beautiful in a bad way. But that jextaposition.
Which is it? It can't be both. So you've got
enough money to increase the Pentagon's budget, but you don't
(34:50):
have enough money to increase the minimum wage. Why is
it that the everyday average American in this country always
has to take sloppy seconds? And at this point, we're
talking about sloppy thirds and force because of inflation, because
of gas prices, because of food prices. I don't even
know how people are living. The struggle is real, you know,
A thought for me, and if I were in the Congress, certainly,
(35:12):
and I know that we do have to support our
Ukrainian sisters and brothers and family and friends. And as
you laid out, what Putin is doing is absolutely horrible.
For every dime that this country sends to Ukraine, I
want that dime to be spent over here. So what
we just gave him forty billion? Okay, put forty billion
right here on the domestic side too, y'all want to
(35:32):
send forty billion, send it. We need forty billion on
the Ledger right here for domestic issues, school healthcare, increasing
the federal minimum wage, canceling student dad. Let's do that. Yeah,
It's as critical a need as providing weapons which are
going to result in more people dead. That's right. No
(35:55):
good is coming of it. I mean war begets war.
There's no other way around it. Well, the one and
only been caned. We could go on for days. I
have to have you back. When I do have you back,
we're gonna start right with qualified immunity. I know that
that is another issue near and dear to your heart.
You co authored the book with the one and only
Michael Render about qualified immunity. I don't know how you.
(36:16):
I mean, you don't pick easy topics. I guess ice
cream was easy. But I'm so glad that you are
such a force and that you are using your time,
your talent, your treasure, all that the Creator has blessed
you to have and to be because you are. I'm
glad you are using those talents to make the world
(36:37):
a better place. And I am excited and blessed to
call you my friend, the one and only been Colling.
It's great to be a force with you, Nina. I
think that you and I can become the new dynamic duo.
What about Jerry Well, the new tremendous trio. We can't
(37:04):
we can't leave Jerry. I can never leave the triumphant trio.
I love it too, and I love you. Thank you
so much for being here with us today, and thank
all of you who are listening in to Hello Somebody.
You know that I often say that everybody is somebody.
I want you to keep the faith. I definitely want
(37:25):
you to keep the fight. I know the times are hard,
but we are going to overcome. As long as good
people put a little extra in ordinary extraordinary things will
do and can happeny thing. Somebody time, somebody times. We Hi, Yeah,
(38:03):
change is coming. The pain is nothing trying to shoot
for the stars. If you're gonna, ain't for something. To
embrace the love for your brother and sister. You need
these the mission brush, we need the puzzle. This pictures
painted up, framing it up for the world to see.
Ain't to hatred up. Enough is enough, It's enough making
changes enough in turner a voice of the truth to
wise world. Despire the youth to keep their eyes on
(38:24):
the roof. It's the end. Never give up, keep conquering
goals to the eye. Intelligence, silver, wisdom is gold. That
to the end. Now is your time. Stay firm, don't
fold to the a or you need is the three bones.
That's what Randie said. Now, I'm gonna make sure these
words from Rannie spread for all the hair. Just give
it your air. She can take them to the promised land.
I swear world pieces what they fear. From Queen's to Cleveland, Ohio,
(38:47):
we're here famous turning any quality about somebody you need
to turn its spanning somebody ship, turn on hell, somebody
you need to turn out more times. One of those
(39:13):
one is going on well Hello Somebody is a production
of I Heart Radio and the Black Effect Network. For
more podcast from our heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
(39:37):
favorite shows.
Turn Everything Somebody. Welcome to Hello Somebody, a production of
(00:28):
The Black Effect Podcast Network and I Heart Media. Where
we rage against the machine, where we raise our voices
against injustice and stand up for justice. Where we embrace
hope and joy with an optimism for a bright or
more justus future. Each week I'll be dropping knowledge, whether
(00:48):
it's a solo episode from me or a hearty discussion
with esteem guests doing great things in spaces and places
of politics, entertainment, social justice, and beyond. We get real, baby,
I mean really real. We get honest, We get up
close and personal for you, yes, you, because everybody is Somebody.
(01:15):
Before we begin, I want to give a special shout
out to my team, Thank you, Sam, Tiffany, Sam and
the team over at Good Juju Studios, Erica, England, Pepper Chambers,
the Hot One, and my social media team. Hello Somebody.
I am so happy you are here with us just
(01:39):
one more time. And if you are new to the show,
I appreciate you tuning in. If you have been on
the Hello Somebody's journey for quite some time, I am
so glad you are here today, today, today, Oh my God.
And I know I say this every single week because
I get the opportunity to have a conversation with some
of the greatest people in the world, and today is
(02:02):
certainly no exception. In all of my journeys and experiences,
I've had the pleasure and opportunity to meet and become
really close friends with many social justice partners, with some
of the most fascinating, forward thinking and wisdom feel people
on the planet. And I have someone who embodies all
(02:24):
of that, and that is none other than my brother,
Mr bc Being Cohing himself. He is here today and
not only is Being Cohing a successful businessman, a leader,
and an activist. He just doesn't talk to talk, he
walks to walk. He's a philanthropist. He's the co founder
(02:44):
of the One that Only Ben and Jerry's ice Cream,
which I do encourage you to get some of that
ice cream. I know ice cream sales went up during
the pandemic, and I do understand why baby were stressed
like hell, and the pandemic is still going on. Despite
what people say. The pandemic has not stopped. So if
you want some ice cream, go on to get some
of that Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I had the
(03:05):
extraordinary experience to be with Ben Cohen as a national
co chair for Senator Bernie Sanders run and it was Yeah,
I have no words for it. That's why I have
to say it's like just like that. It was a whirlwind.
It was beautiful to have him. And we served with
(03:27):
two amazing people. One is Carmen you Leen Cruz, the
mayor former mayor of Santon while Puerto Rico and congressman
wrote KNA from the great state of California. We traveled
all over this country. We were in communications on a
regular basis, and I am so proud of the work
that we did collectively and the work that we are
(03:49):
doing as individuals. Brother Ben calling, how are you today? Wow? Nina,
what an intro man. Those are hard, hard shoots to fill.
It's a hard vessel to einbody. But I will do
my best. I am doing good. I'm feeling good. I'm
drinking my organic Urba Matte energy drink, and I'm energized.
(04:14):
I'm psyched to be here with you, my favorite fellow activist.
I'm Anino lover, I admit it. I uh you know.
I want you leading our country. I vote for you
anytime I do whatever I could. Thank you, Thank you
(04:36):
and you've been We've been together since sixteen actually, and
then went into the coach air mode, and I just
thank you so much for being on this journey with me,
and I'm on the journey with you and for you
supporting me and two of my campaign endeavors. As we know,
the outcome was not as either of us and millions
(04:56):
of people wanted, but it did happen. A lot of
big money, out of dark money came converging in on
the Ohio level district. And unfortunately I'm not the only
one they really come they being Republicans and corporative Dems,
they really come hard at progressive candidates. But since the
turner still standing, and just many thanks to you for
(05:18):
all of your support. Every time I call you have
you never said no, I don't want to temp fate,
but you've always been right there with me. Well, when
they come for you, that's a sign that you're doing
the right thing. Thank you for doing it. Thank you
so much, and thank you for all that you are
doing as well. I mean, certainly people know you for
(05:39):
the ice cream, but some of the things that they
don't know is that for over thirty years now you
have been fighting to educate the masses about the military
industrial complex. You are venturing into cannabis because you care
very much about the African American community in particular reaping
and economic benefit, because the African American community disproportionately reaped
(06:03):
to the negative uh negative penalties for cannabis. And I
just really appreciate you for being in this fight and
using your influence where you are in this moment in
your life to be not just a voice, but to
be a vessel and to really use what you have
at your disposal to be that change that we want
(06:25):
to see in the world. And since I'm on that
particular topic, you tell a story all the time about
in your younger years you were caught with some marijuana,
some pots, some ganja. We got many names for Mary Jane,
all of that stuff, but you had some of that.
Your story is very powerful, So I can't do it
any justice. Can you share with the people who are
(06:46):
listening to us today what happened when you were caught
with that marijuana and what motivates you to care so much.
Not just care, you're putting it into action to ensure
that the African American community reaps an economic benefit Canada's Well, uh, yeah,
it was a bunch of years ago, I guess. A
few years after I graduated from high school. I was
(07:08):
with some friends at Jones Beach State Park. It was
at night out there on the beach under a lifeguard stand,
and Jones Beats is located outside of New York City.
It's on Long Island, and we were passing to jay around,
you know, and then we saw these two white headlights
coming at us. My friend Ronnie, he had the j
(07:30):
at the time. I said, geez, Ronnie, it's the cops.
Eat the joint. Eat the joint. And then the cops
showed up. They're saying, what are you boys doing here
under this line? Coach? They said, oh, nothing, And you know,
they're kicking around in the sand and they find this joint.
Apparently Ronnie didn't want to eat it, so they put
(07:51):
us in handcuffs. They put us in there cop car.
They took us to the station. They handcuffed us to
each other. Then they told us to strip, which is
really hard when your hands or handcuffed to the other guy.
So they stripped. Search they're joking around, you know. One
cop reports from the office. I unwrapped this joint. You know,
(08:16):
it's all full of sticks and seeds where you guys
really gonna get high off this stuff. And you know
they're going through this or saying you've got any stuff
in your car and whatever whatever. Well, you go back
and forth. Then eventually they let us out of the
handcuffs and they sent us all home with a ticket
for littering a lighted cigarette butt on the beach. It
(08:40):
was four of us, white guys. And now, as I've
learned about the realities of the criminal justice system and
how black people are treated and how white people are treated,
I realized that if I was black, I would have
been prosecuted, um probably ended up in jail. You know,
(09:03):
four times as many black people as white people are
prosecuted for pot despite the fact that whites and blacks
use it at the same rate. If I had a record,
you know, Jerry and I never would have been able
to apply for the SBA loan that we needed to
(09:24):
to start Ben and Jerry's we never would have been
able to get the Urban Development Action grant. It was
a federal program that was used to expand ben injuries.
And the fact of the matter is is that if
we were black there never would have been a ben
injury's you know. And that is the story of the
(09:46):
war on drugs and a big part of the reason
why the average net worth of a black family in
our country is one tenth of the average net worth
of a white family. And to me, that's the really
really big issue that we need to bridge that divide,
(10:09):
that we need to find ways for black people to
be able to increase their their wealth, you know, generational
wealth is what I'm talking about, you know. I mean
the other fact of the matter is that my parents
bought their first home using a government loan that was
not available to black people, not available by government regulation.
(10:34):
You can see it in Black and White that they
refuse to loan money to buy a house into a
black neighborhood. And if you really put in a lot
of effort, and if you are a black person and
you're arranged to buy a house in a white neighborhood,
they wouldn't loan it to you then either, because then
it would be a black neighborhood. So that generational wealth
(10:57):
that my parents were able to start with, that home ownership,
that's what allowed me to get to a decent college.
That's what began their ability to have enough money to
send me to a good college. Of course I dropped out,
but anyhow, it's all together. So so yeah, So I
am starting this pot business now that it's legal, and
(11:21):
it's actually a not for profit pot business, and the
purpose of the business is to produce great pot and
use that to help right the wrongs civil war on drugs.
So profits that we hopefully make will be distributed to
black cannabis entrepreneurs will be supporting the Last Prisoner Project
(11:44):
to get people out of jail who have been convicted
in pot crimes. We just hope that people really like
our stuff, you know that's they don't like our stuff,
we're out of it. I think they will. I mean,
that story is so important to tell because BC, not
a lot of people, especially white people, will admit that
the system, especially in your position, will admit that the
(12:07):
system is indeed rigged. And I'm sure your story was
repeated numerous times in this country over the generations. You
and I both know a wonderful entrepreneurs, the first black
woman to really penetrate the cannabis industry. I call her
to Madam C. J. Walker Cannabis, and that is Wanda James, Yeah,
(12:30):
from the Great State of Colorado, and she has a
similar story. Her brother is the main focus of that story.
But he was caught with some marijuana. I forgot exactly
how much he had, but he went to prison. So,
just as you said, his fate was different. He went
(12:52):
to prison. And that is really what motivated her. She
tells the story all the time. That is what motivated
her to study more about the j stances in terms
of the War on drugs, how black communities are impacted deeper, harder,
and that impact has a generational weight. It's not just
(13:12):
that you arrest one black person, it is the impact
that that has on that person's family, on their community.
And because it is systemic, it is a blight on
the black community as a whole. It really drains the
most important resources that we have, which is human resource.
And that is what motivated her to go into the
(13:34):
cannabis industry. And so she is both a giant in
that industry, but similar to you, she is also a
social justice activists as well. And but for her brother
having that story, I'm not even so sure we would
have Wanda James in the cannabis industry. And so for
you to carry that story so many years later and
(13:55):
decided at this stage in your career. You have many
careers and you are not done. You don't retire, you
don't sit down. You could just be living a life
of luxury. But here you are starting something else. And
who on earth starts the cannabis business? Not to make
a profit? Y'all heard that, right, Yes, you have definitely
heard that right. Not to make a profit, but to
(14:16):
use that money to invest in the Black community, to
groom entrepreneurs so that black people can own and make money,
not just as employees. And that's important being I want
the people with us to know you're not talking about employees.
You're talking about ownership so that generational wealth can be built,
and that is so important. There is a huge difference
(14:39):
between income and wealth, and a lot of black people,
as you name that stat do not have a lot
of wealth. Barely got income, but certainly they do not
have generational wealth. And even the two thousand and eight
grade recession, you know, I'm old enough to remember that recession,
black people lost of their wealth. So if you were
(15:00):
fortunate enough to own a home as a black person,
you lost fift of your wealth during the Great Recession,
and certainly everybody was hit, no doubt about it. But
when you have indexes of misery, black people seem to
be at the very top of the loss. And so
it is important that we do generate, that we have
people who are on the mission to push for generational wealth.
(15:26):
There's a book it's called The Color of Law and
b C. I'm not sure if you've read that book
or not, but I recommend it to you and to
everybody that's listening. It doesn't talk about the drug industry.
It talks about housing and how the federal government deliberately
because what made me think about this book is what
you said about your parents. It lays out how the
(15:48):
federal government was part and parcel to redlining and how
that cut thousands of black people out of being able
to own homes in stellar neighborhoods so that that home
could generate equity and they would have something either to
(16:08):
borrow from if they ever needed money, or to leave
something to their children or their children's children. And the
government not only was complicit, the government was a full
fledged actor in depriving generations of African Americans from having
a home. The Department of Hood was completely you know,
it was many players in this, but the federal government
(16:29):
was a major one, and they sat back and they
allowed this to happen. They participated in it. It wasn't
even like they allot just allowed it. They participated their
term restrictive covenants, which I know you and I both
are familiar with, where it was written into the deeds
who you could sell your home to and who you
could not sell your home to, and written into many
deeds across this country it said do not sell to
(16:51):
a Negro, you know at that time, don't sell to
African Americans at all. And the federal government, instead of
it being the referee and called in the file, it
actually empowered and enabled real estate agencies and companies to
redline and to do this to the African American community.
And there's a generational impact. People often question, you know,
(17:13):
why does the African American community continue to talk about
these things? We talk about these things because it wasn't
just a one off. It's like a domino effect. You know,
if you can visualize a set of dominoes, more than
a set a few set of dominoes lined up. When
something of this magnitude happens whether it is the war
on drugs or whether it's red lining within housing and
(17:35):
loans and all of that stuff. When that first domino falls,
they all fall. And that is what continues to happen
in this country right now to this day. Yeah, you know,
you think about these people that are in jail today
for a crime that is now legal, but just the
(17:57):
act of being in jail, just the act of get arrested,
even before you're convicted, you end up losing your job,
spending diamond jail, You lose your family and lose your friends.
It destroys your life, it really does. And it's hard
to rebound. You know. There's a saying that it's easier
to jump in the hole than it is to get
out of it. And that's really the circumstance that people
(18:20):
find themselves in when something like this happens in their lives.
Is so much harder to to rebound because you really
are fighting against other systems that are dead set on
keeping you down and not seeing you rebound and really
live the fullness of your life. And until this country
is willing to admit what it has done to African
(18:42):
American community generationally, I think we're always going to find
ourselves right back in this position from a systemic standpoint,
and that's why it is so incredible that you been
calling are stepping out into this and creating a new
model for people to see that folks of wealth and
connections can do a lot of good in the world.
(19:04):
And you picked this particular path because cannabis is the
new frontier right now and in many states where it
is legal, we know that mostly black people do not
own those companies. They are not in the ecosystem, whether
it's delivering or growing, They're just not there now. They
may be employed, but they don't own anything. And that
(19:25):
is why what you are doing right now is beautiful.
This is justice, and I hope more people will follow
your lead and in preparation for this country to legalize
it because it will be legal in the United States
of America at some point. I do believe that if
the African American community and if we do not have government,
whether it's both federal, state, regional, and local, all levels
(19:46):
of government have to make it very clear that the
group or groups that were harmed the most will be
the ones first for the economic buffet, for the find
ancial buffet. My fear is that they're gonna let these
big tobacco companies and others reap the benefits and leave
(20:07):
the African American community by the wayside if we don't
stand up, and the Hispanic community as well. I think
in terms of the eventual federal legalization, what you're saying
is absolutely right. That the drug companies, the tobacco companies,
Wall Street are right now lobby in Congress to pass
(20:29):
the eventual legalization law that will benefit them, these huge corporations.
And I recently met a woman named Jaylen who is
a woman of color. She had been the head of
the Massachusetts Cannabis Controlled Commission. She would be a great
interview for you, actually, and she is forming an organization
(20:52):
to lobby on behalf of regular people and people who
don't have a lot of money and are a huge
corporations to influence the eventual federal legislation. And she's putting
it together now, which is exactly the time to do it. Yeah,
that's beautiful. We do need it. We can't leave this
(21:13):
to chance, because we know what happens when things are
left to chance. They just don't happen. And that is
another reason why I'm glad she's lobbying. There are others
who are in this space who are preparing we cannot
be asleep at the wheel on this one. BC. This
is going to happen and the African American community is
going to be left behind without a lot of pressure
(21:34):
on these elected officials to do without fear of contradiction,
to do it against all of the naysayers that would
say how unfair this is, to do it this way. No,
you are making right. You're trying to make some crooked
paths straight. Because what was unfair, what was untenable, what
was heartbreaking, what was destructive, is the war on drugs
(21:57):
that dismantled many a black household and black community in
this country. And even still to this day, black people
are arrested at higher rates in the states all over
the country. It's sustained. It's a blot on this country.
And so to make this right, then you have to
deliberately put in policies that try to correct that because
(22:19):
these people will never get their lives back, the ones
who were put in jail and or prison from marijuana,
you can't give them back their lives. But how we
move forward and understanding that a lot of the policy
positions taking whether it's the g I Bill, the New Deal,
those types of policies were very much raised based and
they were based on being white, and if you were black,
(22:41):
you had to get back. So we got a lot
of work to do, and that all those things were
done deliberately. It was done by public policy, and all
of those things moving forward, we can undo by public policy.
And what a great way. Uh. Some people would call this, uh,
one of the pillars of reparations. Call it what you want.
I just call it plain old fashioned economic justice. Whatever
you call it, we need to do the right thing.
(23:04):
At the beginning, when states first started legalizing pot, they
were provisions in the law that said that someone who
had a previous arrest for marijuana could not be part
of this industry. And then they started understanding that that
was unfair, that people who had suffered because of the
(23:27):
War on drug shouldn't be shut out of that business.
And and so now most of the states that are
legalizing are having what they call social equity provisions where
they give priority for licenses two people who had been
impacted by the War on drugs or whose communities have
(23:48):
been impacted by it. The problem is what we talked
about the generational wealth. You know, like when the average
white guy wants to start a business, they go around
to their friends and relatives and say, could you loan
me some money or invest some money. Because they've got
ten times the amount of wealth of black people, they
(24:08):
are able to get that initial investment, and it's much
harder for black people to get it. So the problem
has been that, Okay, you give him preference for getting
these licenses, then they have the license, but they don't
have enough money to actually start a business. And the
state of New York I think they're in the first
(24:29):
state that along with their social Equity provision, they're providing
capital for someone who gets the social equity license to
actually start up that business. So I think it's a
it's a good direction, yes, a very good start, and
we got to inspect what we expect just to make
(24:49):
sure that the leaders of justice are working as we plan,
because with a lot of good intentions, we know that
if somebody's not watching the watch it who's watching the
watch things can fall through the cracks and not happen
according to law policy. Yeah, but that is a great start.
It is a tremendous start. But I am so excited
(25:11):
to be on this journey with you. I think it's incredible.
What you're doing is incredible, and I know that it
is going to bear an extraordinary amount of fruit, and
that you are setting up a framework, a foundation for
many to follow for many years to come being going.
So I love you for that something that is very timely.
(25:38):
Right now, I want to go back to I had
mentioned earlier. I want to remind the people who are
with us today that you, for over thirty years, have
been working really hard to educate the masses on something
that is not sexy, and when I say sexy, I
mean exciting, like it takes a lot to keep people's
attention on it. It's much like climate chaos, which I
(26:00):
don't understand why we don't get that one, but I'll
save that for another show too. But this one is
the military industrial complex. And so Drop the Mic or
you all who are on social media, you can follow
Drop the Mic. Please follow Drop the Mic on Instagram
and follow Drop the Mic on Twitter. And I had
the opportunity some months ago to work with you and
Edward to lift that up even more than you have
(26:23):
other incredible people working with you on that let's talk
about that, especially because of the war that Russia is
waging rather on the Ukraine, and all of these rumors
that other wars will start because of this, whether it's
Japan being in fear of China, I mean, you name it.
I mean, things are happening all over the globe that
(26:44):
are not edifying, that do not lift, that will put
human kind and the entire ecosystem that depends on us
to do the right thing in jeopardy. To me, it
doesn't get more sexier than paying attention to war because
we cannot afford a war or three with the type
of technology that we have. It is called the decimation
(27:05):
of the world and everything in it. So that's sexy
to me that we should be engaged. You, however, Mr
ben Kohen, have been working on this for a long
time and it is really hard to get people's attention.
So let's talk a little bit about what put you
on that journey, and some thoughts about the hawkishness of
(27:25):
some members of Congress and even at times this President
some of the things that he has said that he
had to walk back because we cannot, I repeat, we
cannot get into a war with Russia. We just can't
everybody loses. Yeah, it's kind of absurd that the US
(27:46):
regards Russia and China as potential adversaries. The people of
Russia have no desire to kill people in the United
States or to invade the United States aim with the
people of China. Essentially, what the US says is that
we are the strongest military force in the world, where
(28:10):
the strongest economic force in the world. If any other
country tries to become as strong as US, they're an enemy.
Why why should the US run the world? I don't
get it. And then you get to the issue of war,
which is the most horrible thing that humankind has devised
(28:37):
to date. It's essentially, how can we kill ridiculously large
numbers of people as soon as possible, and how can
we destroy infrastructure and buildings and villages. You have this
quote from the Vatican a bunch of years back that says,
(28:59):
even though the web papons may never be used, the
arms race kills the poor by causing them to start
by its cost alone. You know, when I first started
focusing on the Pentagon budget, I mean, the reason why
I got into it was because whenever there were people
(29:20):
coming to Congress saying we need more money for our
schools or healthcare, or housing, or to help people pull
themselves out of poverty. The congress people would always say, Oh,
I really care about that, I really care about the kids.
I love kids, I believe in education. I want everyone
(29:40):
to be healthy. But we just don't have the money
in the budget. I'm just so sorry. And the reality
is that they're spending half of our discretionary budget on
bombs weapons, preparing to kill millions of people in our name.
(30:03):
So when I first got into it, the Pentagon budget
was around two eight billion a year. Now it's about
eight hundred billion a year, and we spend about four
times as much as the next highest spending country, which
would be China. I think one of the interesting things
that the war in Ukraine has demonstrated, like the war
(30:27):
in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, is that these
countries that have these huge military budgets are not able
to successfully conquer and occupy a small little country. So
how can we possibly think that China or Russia is
(30:49):
a threat to the United States. It used to be
called the Department of War, and then they decided that
doesn't really have a nice ring to it. So they
called it the de Partment of Defense. But the reality
is we've never defended the United States. I mean, nobody
attacks the United States. We have oceans on both sides,
(31:12):
we have friendly nations on the top and the bottom.
You know, when you get into this thing about the Ukraine,
I mean, the war there is inexcusable. What Russia's doing
is inexcusable. But if before the war, what Russia was
saying was that you have amassed all these weapons on
(31:33):
our borders and you're aiming it at us. And if
Russia amassed all these weapons in Mexico and they were
aiming it at us, what would the United States do?
We would take the same posture. Yeah, I think so.
The reality is that the amounts of money that you
(31:53):
talk about in terms of the military budget eight hundred
billion dollars or you know, it kind of rolls off
your tongue, eight billions. But if you took just of
that amount of money, that would be eighty billion. Yes, decided, well,
I'm going to use that to pay our teachers more,
(32:16):
to provide healthcare for more people, to provide headstart for
everybody who's eligible for it. You could do it, and
that's the stuff that really makes people feel more secure.
It really is. We definitely do a disservice on the
domestic side of the ledger. We can't have nice things
because we're too wrapped up in warmaking to have those
(32:39):
nice things. And the companies, the corporations, Wall Street benefits,
but the hoods don't benefit, whether suburban hoods, urban hoods,
or rural hoods. The people who live in those communities
are suffering because of our desire to always be making war.
War begets more war or not less. And I want
(33:01):
to go back to something you said about Russia and
China and always seeing them as enemies, programming American people
to see them that way. I think our budget is
bigger than what the next ten or eleven nations combined,
and most of those nations are our allies. As you
were talking geographically, was making me think, also, why do
(33:23):
we have to have a Pentagon budget that large when
most of the industrialized nations in the world are actually
our allies and we spend more than all of them combine,
both allies and folds being namely China and Russia. For
the purposes of some people here who relish, I mean,
there's a lot of money been going to be made
(33:45):
with the threat of war. It makes money. Oh, it
makes a huge amount of money. Public Citizen, I encourage again.
I go to Twitter and go to drop the mic
that stands will drop the military industrial complex, please follow
and share and retweet. And then another organization that dropped
the mic retweets a lot Public Citizen, They're on it
a lot. Cold pink is. There are so many wonderful
(34:08):
activist types who are navigating that space on a regular
basis to keep us inform. Something that Public Citizen put out.
They said, so, inflation is the reason why the government
wants to increase the Pentagon budget even higher than the
amount that you said, the the nine hundred billion, But
(34:30):
inflation is also the reason why we can't afford to
raise the minimum wage. Think about that. Wow, my god,
that's beautiful. It's beautiful in a bad way. But that jextaposition.
Which is it? It can't be both. So you've got
enough money to increase the Pentagon's budget, but you don't
(34:50):
have enough money to increase the minimum wage. Why is
it that the everyday average American in this country always
has to take sloppy seconds? And at this point, we're
talking about sloppy thirds and force because of inflation, because
of gas prices, because of food prices. I don't even
know how people are living. The struggle is real, you know,
A thought for me, and if I were in the Congress, certainly,
(35:12):
and I know that we do have to support our
Ukrainian sisters and brothers and family and friends. And as
you laid out, what Putin is doing is absolutely horrible.
For every dime that this country sends to Ukraine, I
want that dime to be spent over here. So what
we just gave him forty billion? Okay, put forty billion
right here on the domestic side too, y'all want to
(35:32):
send forty billion, send it. We need forty billion on
the Ledger right here for domestic issues, school healthcare, increasing
the federal minimum wage, canceling student dad. Let's do that. Yeah,
It's as critical a need as providing weapons which are
going to result in more people dead. That's right. No
(35:55):
good is coming of it. I mean war begets war.
There's no other way around it. Well, the one and
only been caned. We could go on for days. I
have to have you back. When I do have you back,
we're gonna start right with qualified immunity. I know that
that is another issue near and dear to your heart.
You co authored the book with the one and only
Michael Render about qualified immunity. I don't know how you.
(36:16):
I mean, you don't pick easy topics. I guess ice
cream was easy. But I'm so glad that you are
such a force and that you are using your time,
your talent, your treasure, all that the Creator has blessed
you to have and to be because you are. I'm
glad you are using those talents to make the world
(36:37):
a better place. And I am excited and blessed to
call you my friend, the one and only been Colling.
It's great to be a force with you, Nina. I
think that you and I can become the new dynamic duo.
What about Jerry Well, the new tremendous trio. We can't
(37:04):
we can't leave Jerry. I can never leave the triumphant trio.
I love it too, and I love you. Thank you
so much for being here with us today, and thank
all of you who are listening in to Hello Somebody.
You know that I often say that everybody is somebody.
I want you to keep the faith. I definitely want
(37:25):
you to keep the fight. I know the times are hard,
but we are going to overcome. As long as good
people put a little extra in ordinary extraordinary things will
do and can happeny thing. Somebody time, somebody times. We Hi, Yeah,
(38:03):
change is coming. The pain is nothing trying to shoot
for the stars. If you're gonna, ain't for something. To
embrace the love for your brother and sister. You need
these the mission brush, we need the puzzle. This pictures
painted up, framing it up for the world to see.
Ain't to hatred up. Enough is enough, It's enough making
changes enough in turner a voice of the truth to
wise world. Despire the youth to keep their eyes on
(38:24):
the roof. It's the end. Never give up, keep conquering
goals to the eye. Intelligence, silver, wisdom is gold. That
to the end. Now is your time. Stay firm, don't
fold to the a or you need is the three bones.
That's what Randie said. Now, I'm gonna make sure these
words from Rannie spread for all the hair. Just give
it your air. She can take them to the promised land.
I swear world pieces what they fear. From Queen's to Cleveland, Ohio,
(38:47):
we're here famous turning any quality about somebody you need
to turn its spanning somebody ship, turn on hell, somebody
you need to turn out more times. One of those
(39:13):
one is going on well Hello Somebody is a production
of I Heart Radio and the Black Effect Network. For
more podcast from our heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
(39:37):
favorite shows.
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