May 26, 2022 • 33 mins
In this second part of a three-part series, SNT revisits “The Three Bones” inspirational legacy. In this episode, The Jawbone. SNT speaks on how the jawbone represents a personal act of courage to speak truth to power. Relatedly so, SNT speaks truth to the difference between Pro-life and Pro-BIRTH in this crisis of Roe-vs-Wade. She also reminds you to have the courage to be who you are in the face of indifference, and she implores you to keep on keepin’ on as you continue to stand up for what’s right. #EverybodyIsSomebody #HelloSomebody
LINKS:
Learn more about the Hello Somebody Three Bones series ( (Wishbone, Jawbone, Backbone)
https://www.hellosomebodypodcast.com/podcast/get-to-the-backbone
“Turning The Table on Birth Control: Sen. Introduces Bill For Erectile Dysfunction Drugs” - Forbes
QUOTE:
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” paraphrased quote by Dr. Martin Luther King.
To get the full context of this quote, see the links below:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mlk-our-lives-begin-to-end/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Turn Everything Turn. 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 just 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 Jujuic Studios, Erica, England, Pepper Chambers,
the Hot One, and my social media team, Hello Somebody,
(01:36):
and thank you so much for joining me for the
second series of the Three Bones family Legacy. The three
bones are the wishbone, the y'all bone, and the backbone.
The wishbone is for hoping and praying, that y'all bone
is for lifting your voice baby and speaking truth to power.
(01:57):
And the backbone the most importan and bone of them
all is for perseverance, for having the courage to keep standing.
And after you've done all that you can do to stand,
just go on head and stand anyhow. That is the quick,
short version of the three bones. These three bones were
i'mparted to me by my maternal grandmother, and they have
(02:19):
certainly carried me and they continue to carry me a
mighty long way. So if you are new to Hello Somebody,
that's the quick version of it. Please go back. If
you missed, whether you're new or you've been vibing with
Hello Somebody for a while, go back and listen to
the first episode of this second series that we're on
(02:39):
for Three Bones, and that was the Wishbone, and I
really go into great detail about the bones. So if
you missed it, just go back. Go back. Now, make
sure as you're listening to this show, don't forget to
give us some stars, baby, give us some likes, give
us some uplifts. We need that, Yes, yes, yes, we
do need that. So again and today we are going
(03:01):
to really focus in on the jawbone. And the jawbone,
as I've said, represents courage, the courage to speak up,
to speak truth, even if people don't like it, and
speaking up for what's right. It's hard sometimes, you know,
people talk about you, talk against you, put some words
(03:22):
on your name, all that kind of stuff if they
don't agree with what you're standing up for. But you
gotta keep standing anyhow. And I think sometimes that we
forget that words themselves, words have life, and once we
speak them into existence, they have a vibe of their own.
They are a force all their own. And we must
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have the courage to utilize our voice for good. You know,
there's a scription in the Christian Bible that reminds us
that the tongue, that life and death is in the tongue.
How true that is for every action that has taken.
Just think about that. It started in the mind, then
it was spoken, and then it was acted upon. Oh
(04:09):
we just went a little deep. There starts in the mind,
then it's spoken, and then it's acted upon. So jaw
bone very important, you know. I always for every show,
I always have a quote because I am the quote
queen and I'm proud of it. And my quote this
(04:29):
time comes from the one and only Dr M. L
k Jr. I might have two quotes this time, I
just can't get over the quotes. And one of the
things he said, our lives began to end the day
we become silent about things that matter. That's the one
and only quotable himself, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
(04:51):
And let's just break that down. Our lives begin to
end the day we become silent about things that matter.
I got to speak up when we see things that
are going wrong, and it's so hard to do. It's
always been hard to do, but I think it is
especially challenging in the twenty one century because we have
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the advent of social media, and social media can be
used to make the world smaller, to communicate across platforms
and spectrums rather that otherwise we would not be able
to do if we didn't have that tool. But social
media can also be used for bad and evil and viciousness,
(05:34):
and that happens all the time. The trolls are always
always out. Baby, I say, don't feed the trolls. Don't
do it, do not do it. Twenty years ago, thirty
years ago, forty years ago, fifty years ago, we didn't
have to worry about social media and the impact that
it has on us in our everyday lives, and so
(05:56):
when you are thinking about how things have change, how
they stay the same, but how they've changed. Social media
definitely up in that top three. And when you are
dealing with issues, issue driven whatever you're standing up for,
standing up to speak at a school board meeting, standing
up in your community. What we stand up for, what
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we push for can be something as simple as the
examples that I just gave, or something as bold as
in your capacity on your job taking a risk to
stand up for what you believe is right. Those things
require certainly require the jawbone. It is important that people
have courage and we gotta speak on that. We just
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cannot leave things to happen chance too much or happen stance.
I should say, too much is going on in our time,
in this moment for people to be on the sidelines,
to stand idly by. We got to use our job
on job ball gives us courage to speak truth to power.
(07:03):
We gotta do that, you know, and speaking up for
what is right. There's so much going home right now.
We are in the midst of the Roe v. Wade
crisis that we've been catapulted into because of the conservative
United States Supreme Court. It is patently clear that this
(07:24):
court is very much designed in the image of conservatives
in this country. President Trump was very clear about his
appointees to the United States Supreme Court, so that none
of us are confused, none of us should be surprised.
He talked about overturning Roe v. Wade and setting up
(07:47):
a court system that would allow him to do just that.
And here we are in this moment, and many folks
are using that jawbone right now to speak up, to
speak out, to let it be known that the erasure
of Roe v. Wade, the overturning of Roe v. Wade,
is really a non starter, putting women's lives in jeopardy,
(08:11):
and their lives will be in jeopardy because reproductive health.
Access to an abortion is about reproductive health. It is.
It is not separate and apart, and it should be legal, safe,
and rare. And so those of us who do firmly
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believe and understand that women's reproductive health cannot be separated
from any other health procedure that she may or may
not have. The court should not have the authority to
control what a woman does with her own body between
her and her doctor. So there are many people just
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absolutely outraged by what is going on, and they are
using their jawbone to draw attention to the injustice. And
we have the other side of this that claims to
be pro life, and I just chuckle at that, not
taking great joy, but they really are not pro life.
(09:13):
They are pro birth. That's what they are, and we
need to call it what it is. They pro birth
because they really don't give a damn about the child
once it gets into the world, you know, anybody. And
and to see these Republicans out here, I got to
get this off my chest. I mean to see these
Republicans out here talking about the baby formula shortage and
all that stuff. Yet and while they let the child
(09:37):
tax credit expire and they're not jumping up and down
about that. So again, these clowns, they are pro birth,
they are not pro life. There is absolutely a difference.
I mean, just tired of people using their words and
their power and their courage to tell women what to
(10:00):
do with their damn bodies. Anyway, I digressed. I did.
Let me get back to the subject that hand, but
I'm so glad I got that off my chest. Thank
you to the activists that are out there using their
jawbone to bring attention to this again very much a
part of reproductive health. That is how we should see it.
(10:24):
I mean, here we all need a little bit of
courage and a side of minding our own damn business.
So the jawbone is about knowing something, something, something something
just ain't right and being willing to speak up. And
(10:46):
so I just gave you a very real relevant example
of that. There are other examples of that, knowing that something, something, something,
something just ain't right. To quote keep sweat. You think
about the gas prices right now, something something, something ain't right.
It ridiculous. I don't even know. Look, I gotta put
all those syllables on the world ridiculous, but it really
(11:07):
is ridiculous. I don't even know how people are living,
barely getting by. It's horrible. I'm trying to stay Pg. Two.
The gas prices, the food prices, this is how are
people living. And these mega corporations, I mean, they're making
profits hand over fist and it's not so much that
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is how they are making the profit off of the
backs of the everyday people of this country. Just unpatriotic
as hell, really it is. And the prices are never
really gonna go back as low as they once were.
That's the sting, that's the rub here God. So yeah,
please people use your jaw bob. We we got to
(11:51):
we have to stay engaged and just stop accepting things
as they are. So the jaw boning. Indeed, it is
about knowing something just ain't right and saying that out
loud because we know, you know, I know, we know
that things are not right. We know that some of
(12:12):
the stuff that people do and say sound like a
whole bunch of bs okay, whole bunch of bullshit, really
a whole kettle of it. I want my courage and
my words and my service to always have an impact
on other people, so that we are speaking up and
we are all have the courage and tesla, the fortitude,
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the guts to say what needs to be said when
it needs to be said, even in moments where everyone
might turn against us or people might turn against you,
because you are speaking the type of truth. Congress Woman
Shirley Chisholm, you know, she once said that I like
them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts. That's how
I like to be remembered. You know, when She was
(12:56):
asked about how she wanted to be remembered, and I felt, as,
ain't way I want people to say that need to turner.
She had guts, she she stood up even in the
face of adversity and challenge. What do you want people
to say about you when you pass this earth, when
you are being eulogized so to speak. Have you ever
(13:19):
been to a funeral and you don't even know how
to who to preach you talking about? Yeah, I've been
in them kind of You're looking like, who the hell
are they talking about? They ain't talking about this person
because they have to make stuff up. You want to
live your life in such a way that the preacher
ain't got to make nothing up, that what they say
about you is true, it's real because you loved hard,
you fought hard, you rose above circumstances, and you worked
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towards or worked for things that were greater than your
very existence to help to make this world a better place.
That is a beautiful thing. So you know, life experiences
they create moments for us to be created. Just I mean,
we all go through we all go through things, and
we might not even know even realize what the going through.
(14:10):
So to speak of those things will mean for us
in the moment that we're going through them. But after
we get through them, it becomes clear why we were
enduring the trial and or the tribulation, that it was
really setting us up for something else, even though it
didn't seem clear at the time that we were going
through it. You know, people go through the same things.
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We have very similar triumphs or similar tragedies. But I
know one thing, one thing for certain is that most
of the time we do make it through. When we
look back on that moment, we're like, wow, I made it.
I made it. Our courage to keep going, that's important.
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The courage, the energy to keep going, to keep on
keeping all that takes a lot because it is so
easy to give up, it really is. But you can't
have a testimony without a test And indeed, life is
about all types of tests coming at us, some extraordinarily hard,
(15:16):
some easy, some like who yeah, I said. And in
this second series or second season of the second series
of The Three Bones, I'm throwing out these questions for
us to answer. I want you to think very deeply
as you are listening to this, even maybe pull out
(15:38):
a journal if you got a journal next to you,
you pull out something up in their pad or use
your phone and type the notes. So we were gonna
talk about here here the questions. You know, we had
questions last time for the Wishbone, and people rode in
and said that they really enjoyed that, and so we're
gonna do that again. And here we go for the
job ball job on, the courage to lift your voice,
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the courage speak truth to power. So here's our question.
When was the first time you can remember that you
were introduced to courage? When was the first time you
can remember that you were introduced to courage? For me,
I would have to say it was my grandmother, my
maternal grandmother, the very woman whose story that I continue
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to give life to and I want to pass this
same story down to my grandchildren and hopefully they will
give the same life to their what there great great
grandmother had to say, So, yeah, the first time it
was it was my grandmother. My grandmother only had a
third grade education, She couldn't read or write, but she
(16:43):
had what we call in the African American community mother.
With many of you who follow me, you have heard
me talk about this grandmother so often. She is very
much a key ingredient to me being the person that
I am today. And she never lived to see some
of the great things that I've been able to accomplish.
But her spirit, man, I call on that spirit force
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all the time, and so her very existence for me,
her very presence was courage. I mean it permeated courage.
So yeah, share please, I would love to know from
some of you, when was the York the first time
that you can remember that you were introduced to courage?
(17:27):
My grandmother, my maternal grandmother. Baby, that is courage question
number two. What happened and what did you need to do?
And the way that I answered that question, it was
just my grandmother was very much determined to beat the
odds and she did and she always wanted more for
her grandchildren than what she had for herself. That takes
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courage too. You know, there's a saying about planting trees.
Who planting trees who shade you may never be able
to enjoy And that is a true some that people
do that all the time. That the the ability to
continue to fight, to continue to press on certain of
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the issues that you are pushing for, you may never
get a chance to be the beneficiary of it, but
you got the courage to do so anyway, So planting
trees who shade you may never ever be able to enjoy.
How was my grandmother? She encouraged us to get an
education in her own way. She's very much responsible for
(18:33):
me going to college and earning several degrees. I definitely
talked about my mom and my son in that scenario
a lot. I do need to add my maternal grandmother
very much an important ingredient to my ability to be
where I am today and hopefully where I'm going to
be when I grow up. I'm still not sure what
(18:54):
I what I'm going to do, but not even the
skies the limit baby. Question number three, what are some
examples of what led you to be courageous? Oh? You know,
it takes courage to I have a lot of political
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stories to tell. I'll tell one that is very aproposed
to Durant I had earlier because I was bringing us
into what in the hell is happening right now in
real time in this country linked to Roe v. Wade.
So I'll tell a story about that. When I was
in Ohio Senate, my Republican colleagues had introduced a Heartbeat Bill,
(19:37):
which I called the Heartless Bill. Again, people can disagree
about you know, some people believe that abortion should be legal, safe,
and rare, and some people do not. So we can
definitely have that debate. I get it. I believe that
that decision is between a woman and the creator if
if she believes in one, certainly between her and her doctor,
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and that is very much a part of reproductive health care.
I know that some people don't believe that. I got it.
I get it. So back to this story. Though my
my Republican colleagues introduced the heartbeat Bill, I do call
it the heartless Bill because they really don't don't give
a damn about the child once it's here. So I've
decided to introduce a bill because the just the preoccupation
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and state legislatures over the last almost twenty years with
trying to control a woman's body. We didn't just all
of a sudden get here in this moment. And even
though I'm using the Roe v. Wade as the example,
there are many other examples that we can utilize in
these moments. But even when we think about great movements,
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whether it's a civil rights movement, the abolitionist movement, the
women's rights movement, the gay rights movement. Those movements were
shaking up the status quo. Those movements were full of
people who heard their purpose knocking at the door, and
they answered, They opened the door, and they got engaged
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and involved in these various movements, pushing for equality, pushing
for things that were bigger than them. In that particular moment,
they did that. And so in this moment, how we
deal with the onslaught of Republicans doing this? I just
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you know, it's just connected to so many other things.
So putting aside whether you know the folks that are
joining me today, whether or not you believe in abortion,
whether or not you see abortion as a component of
reproductive health. The story that I'm about to tell is
so I took the bill, my team and I in
(21:49):
the Ohio Senate, and we took the words of that
and turned it around. As I was saying before, you
just had this preoccupation with elected officials. Most of them,
the overwhelming majority of them, are on the right. They
skew right, even though the things that they're doing is wrong,
They e skew very right. And it is the antithesis.
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I mean, the thing about if you truly are pro life,
you would care about the child's education, you would care
about what kind of neighborhood, You would care whether or
not their parents are gainfully employed. And if you are elected,
you would push policies that submented that belief in real time,
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and those things are not happening. Let's take the child
tax Credit for a very real, relevant, right now example.
It expired, and you got Republicans said, if they're having
press conferences about the lack of baby formula and not
wanting to join or have a bipartisan effort to make
(23:00):
the child taxt Credit permanent, they meaning the members of Congress,
they let that joint expire. I mean, are you listen
to me? Expire? So a policy that pulled children in
this country almost fifty percent of children out of poverty.
We celebrated that, We said, oh my god, this is
(23:20):
such a good thing. Hurrah, hooray, and then this Congress
turns around and let's it expire, and folks barely saying
the mumbling word. That is what I'm One example of
showing courage in the realm of politics is that when
you see hypocrisy, when you see things going wrong, you
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gotta speak up and speak out about these things. You
just can't let this stuff sit there. Say something, do something.
So okay, so the heartbe Built in Ohio, which has
since passed. But I was in the legislature two they didn't.
It didn't. We've pushed against that, and so I introduced
the bill using the same language that that bill was using,
(24:05):
because it was very clear that I was not sent
to the legislature to care about education, or to help
small businesses make sure roads are paid, you know, all
of that good government stuff. Now, I was there to
regulate a man's reproductive health. So I didn't introduce a
bill called the rectile dysfunction Bill to deal with that
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in that moment, utilizing the bully pulpit, utilizing and having
the courage not only to push back against it, but
to introduce a bill and use that as a teachable
moment and using satire to do it. Buy in large,
you do not see women elected officials think about that,
(24:49):
introducing bills that regulate a man's reproductive health. You just
don't see that happening. Wrap your mind around that. So
I did. I did that thing. Retile this function bill.
Y'all can look up that bill and laugh, you're behind all.
I'm gonna make sure that we put a link in
the show notes so you can see an article at
(25:10):
the time when that was happening. Another time, you know,
even as a college student, to be with my colleagues
and form students for positive action with my dear friend Dr.
Ronnie Dunn, he is a professor of sociology at the
Cleveland State University. But coming up the ranks and just
(25:31):
believing that even though we did not have a lot
of wealth, we knew that we had some privilege because
we were in college. But maybe you talk about among
the working poor and going to college and trying to
get them degrees. Yes, I got my hand raised. That
was me. But the creation of an organization who it
was our goal, our mission, to get out there in
the poorer communities in Cleveland and helped to register people
(25:54):
to vote. Being old fashioned and thinking that if people
can vote, they can control their own deskin need. That's
what we were rocking with. Baby. It was quite a
spectacular experience to do that as a college student. And
another story from when I was in the legislature, Lord
Have mercy, one of my colleagues introduced the bill to
(26:15):
drug tests people on public assistance. And I went to
this colleague to explain to him why I thought that
that was wrong. Why I also I thought it would
exacerbate the suffering that people who are on public assistance,
what they are already engaging, the struggle that they are
already facing, and why would you make it worse by
(26:37):
introducing that kind of bill and trying to make that
law in the state of Ohio. And I talked to
him about my life experience and and you know, being
a safety that child, and having parents who are among
the working poor, and moments where we did not have
enough food to eat, and having very much to depend
on the system itself to have Medicaid and and food stamps.
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At that time it was paper foods, amsen that kind
of thing, to let them know. And then I brought
the data to that clearly showed that people who are
on public assistance do not abuse drugs at any higher
rate than people who are not. I mean, I did
my best, and he still he decided, he said, I
gotta do this because this is what my constituents want.
(27:20):
And I said, well, I'm gonna do what my constituents
want as well. So I introduced them being able to
have members of the legislature drug tested often. Yes, I did,
because if the premises about protecting air quotes the taxpayers dollars,
then hey, those of us who are elected, we are
(27:41):
deriving our salary from the taxpayers dime, and so the
taxpayers have a right to know whether or not we
are abusing drugs. I did that, Yes I did. And
then my colleague, I had a state rep. My state Rep.
One of my colleagues in the House of Representatives, he
took the bill a step further and he introduced so
(28:03):
we had companion almost companion pieces. But he added a
little more spice to his which was to not only
that members of the legislature are drug tested regularly and randomly.
That was in my bill too. He added the special
touch of if you are a CEO of a company
and your company is receiving any public funding, then you
(28:27):
must subject yourself to random and regular drug testing. Baby,
we took that thing. I mean, think about it, because
the whole notion of making people who are on to
basically wear scarlet letter it makes no sense. I don't
even damn believe that his constituent was asking for that
(28:47):
there's so many other things that constituent can ask you for.
The public meeting, drug testing people who receive public assistance.
I don't think it's one of them, but that's what
the man said, and so I had to. As I
tried to talk about the least, she wasn't willing to come.
So I had to oblige them. And Lord, the things
you got to do to push back. But that is
(29:09):
another type of courage. Just using the tools that you
have at your disposal, and whatever profession that you are
in you can utilize in the space that you are in,
just utilize your knowledge and utilize your drive and determination
to you know, to make this world a better place.
That's that's what we should be doing. Yeah, we gotta
(29:31):
do that. And lastly, on the jaw bone, and I didn't.
I certainly was not thinking that would go this way.
But you gotta how to courage to be who you
are too. That's hard at times because sometimes people don't
want to accept you for who you are. That is
another level of courage, a different type of courage to
(29:51):
be true to who you are. That is not only
having the courage to speak up for what's right, but
using that courage to be who you are. I'm feeling
that vibe right now. Be who you are, Love who
you are. Charity does indeed start at home. And what
(30:11):
better home than yourself, Because in order for you to
do any of the other great and magnificent things that
need to be done to make this world a better place,
you have to be a better place. Meaning you're very embodiment.
The environment that you occupy by physically, mentally, spiritually must
(30:33):
be edified and lifted. In order for you to have
the courage to lift your voice, you gotta be confident
and who you are and what you bring to the table.
So to utilize the wishbone, to utilize the jawball means
to that own self be true. That's it. So until
(30:58):
next time, I want you to keep the faith and
keep the fight. Our next episode within the Three Bones
series will be the backball. You don't want to miss it,
absolutely not. You do not want to miss it. Hello, somebody,
because everybody is somebody turns, Mary, story, Mary things or somebody.
(31:30):
It makes a turn. Believe somebody turning, somebody turn. Yeah,
change is coming. The pain is nothing. Trying to shoot
for the stars. If you're gonna hang for something. Embrace
(31:52):
the love for your brother and sister. You need these
the mission brush, we need the puzzle, this picture. Just
paint it up and frame it up for the world
to see. Ain't to hint it up. Enough is enough,
It's enough, making changes enough and Turner a voice of
the truth to wise world. Despire the youth to keep
their eyes on the roof. It's the end. Never give up,
keep conquering goals to the eye. Intelligent silver, wisdom is gold.
(32:14):
Back 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 Rannie said. Now I'm gonna make
sure these words from Rannie spread for all the hair
to give it your air. She can take him to
the promised Land. I swear world pieces what they fear
from Queen's the Cleveland, Ohio. We're here, famous famous Turner,
(32:35):
any quality and grand Hello, Somebody, don't need to turn
u spanning somebody, ship turn out Hello, somebody even turn
up times trying a great move hand. Hello Somebody is
(33:08):
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 favorite shows,
Turn Everything Turn. 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 just 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 Jujuic Studios, Erica, England, Pepper Chambers,
the Hot One, and my social media team, Hello Somebody,
(01:36):
and thank you so much for joining me for the
second series of the Three Bones family Legacy. The three
bones are the wishbone, the y'all bone, and the backbone.
The wishbone is for hoping and praying, that y'all bone
is for lifting your voice baby and speaking truth to power.
(01:57):
And the backbone the most importan and bone of them
all is for perseverance, for having the courage to keep standing.
And after you've done all that you can do to stand,
just go on head and stand anyhow. That is the quick,
short version of the three bones. These three bones were
i'mparted to me by my maternal grandmother, and they have
(02:19):
certainly carried me and they continue to carry me a
mighty long way. So if you are new to Hello Somebody,
that's the quick version of it. Please go back. If
you missed, whether you're new or you've been vibing with
Hello Somebody for a while, go back and listen to
the first episode of this second series that we're on
(02:39):
for Three Bones, and that was the Wishbone, and I
really go into great detail about the bones. So if
you missed it, just go back. Go back. Now, make
sure as you're listening to this show, don't forget to
give us some stars, baby, give us some likes, give
us some uplifts. We need that, Yes, yes, yes, we
do need that. So again and today we are going
(03:01):
to really focus in on the jawbone. And the jawbone,
as I've said, represents courage, the courage to speak up,
to speak truth, even if people don't like it, and
speaking up for what's right. It's hard sometimes, you know,
people talk about you, talk against you, put some words
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on your name, all that kind of stuff if they
don't agree with what you're standing up for. But you
gotta keep standing anyhow. And I think sometimes that we
forget that words themselves, words have life, and once we
speak them into existence, they have a vibe of their own.
They are a force all their own. And we must
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have the courage to utilize our voice for good. You know,
there's a scription in the Christian Bible that reminds us
that the tongue, that life and death is in the tongue.
How true that is for every action that has taken.
Just think about that. It started in the mind, then
it was spoken, and then it was acted upon. Oh
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we just went a little deep. There starts in the mind,
then it's spoken, and then it's acted upon. So jaw
bone very important, you know. I always for every show,
I always have a quote because I am the quote
queen and I'm proud of it. And my quote this
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time comes from the one and only Dr M. L
k Jr. I might have two quotes this time, I
just can't get over the quotes. And one of the
things he said, our lives began to end the day
we become silent about things that matter. That's the one
and only quotable himself, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
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And let's just break that down. Our lives begin to
end the day we become silent about things that matter.
I got to speak up when we see things that
are going wrong, and it's so hard to do. It's
always been hard to do, but I think it is
especially challenging in the twenty one century because we have
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the advent of social media, and social media can be
used to make the world smaller, to communicate across platforms
and spectrums rather that otherwise we would not be able
to do if we didn't have that tool. But social
media can also be used for bad and evil and viciousness,
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and that happens all the time. The trolls are always
always out. Baby, I say, don't feed the trolls. Don't
do it, do not do it. Twenty years ago, thirty
years ago, forty years ago, fifty years ago, we didn't
have to worry about social media and the impact that
it has on us in our everyday lives, and so
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when you are thinking about how things have change, how
they stay the same, but how they've changed. Social media
definitely up in that top three. And when you are
dealing with issues, issue driven whatever you're standing up for,
standing up to speak at a school board meeting, standing
up in your community. What we stand up for, what
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we push for can be something as simple as the
examples that I just gave, or something as bold as
in your capacity on your job taking a risk to
stand up for what you believe is right. Those things
require certainly require the jawbone. It is important that people
have courage and we gotta speak on that. We just
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cannot leave things to happen chance too much or happen stance.
I should say, too much is going on in our time,
in this moment for people to be on the sidelines,
to stand idly by. We got to use our job
on job ball gives us courage to speak truth to power.
(07:03):
We gotta do that, you know, and speaking up for
what is right. There's so much going home right now.
We are in the midst of the Roe v. Wade
crisis that we've been catapulted into because of the conservative
United States Supreme Court. It is patently clear that this
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court is very much designed in the image of conservatives
in this country. President Trump was very clear about his
appointees to the United States Supreme Court, so that none
of us are confused, none of us should be surprised.
He talked about overturning Roe v. Wade and setting up
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a court system that would allow him to do just that.
And here we are in this moment, and many folks
are using that jawbone right now to speak up, to
speak out, to let it be known that the erasure
of Roe v. Wade, the overturning of Roe v. Wade,
is really a non starter, putting women's lives in jeopardy,
(08:11):
and their lives will be in jeopardy because reproductive health.
Access to an abortion is about reproductive health. It is.
It is not separate and apart, and it should be legal, safe,
and rare. And so those of us who do firmly
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believe and understand that women's reproductive health cannot be separated
from any other health procedure that she may or may
not have. The court should not have the authority to
control what a woman does with her own body between
her and her doctor. So there are many people just
(08:52):
absolutely outraged by what is going on, and they are
using their jawbone to draw attention to the injustice. And
we have the other side of this that claims to
be pro life, and I just chuckle at that, not
taking great joy, but they really are not pro life.
(09:13):
They are pro birth. That's what they are, and we
need to call it what it is. They pro birth
because they really don't give a damn about the child
once it gets into the world, you know, anybody. And
and to see these Republicans out here, I got to
get this off my chest. I mean to see these
Republicans out here talking about the baby formula shortage and
all that stuff. Yet and while they let the child
(09:37):
tax credit expire and they're not jumping up and down
about that. So again, these clowns, they are pro birth,
they are not pro life. There is absolutely a difference.
I mean, just tired of people using their words and
their power and their courage to tell women what to
(10:00):
do with their damn bodies. Anyway, I digressed. I did.
Let me get back to the subject that hand, but
I'm so glad I got that off my chest. Thank
you to the activists that are out there using their
jawbone to bring attention to this again very much a
part of reproductive health. That is how we should see it.
(10:24):
I mean, here we all need a little bit of
courage and a side of minding our own damn business.
So the jawbone is about knowing something, something, something something
just ain't right and being willing to speak up. And
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so I just gave you a very real relevant example
of that. There are other examples of that, knowing that something, something, something,
something just ain't right. To quote keep sweat. You think
about the gas prices right now, something something, something ain't right.
It ridiculous. I don't even know. Look, I gotta put
all those syllables on the world ridiculous, but it really
(11:07):
is ridiculous. I don't even know how people are living,
barely getting by. It's horrible. I'm trying to stay Pg. Two.
The gas prices, the food prices, this is how are
people living. And these mega corporations, I mean, they're making
profits hand over fist and it's not so much that
(11:28):
is how they are making the profit off of the
backs of the everyday people of this country. Just unpatriotic
as hell, really it is. And the prices are never
really gonna go back as low as they once were.
That's the sting, that's the rub here God. So yeah,
please people use your jaw bob. We we got to
(11:51):
we have to stay engaged and just stop accepting things
as they are. So the jaw boning. Indeed, it is
about knowing something just ain't right and saying that out
loud because we know, you know, I know, we know
that things are not right. We know that some of
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the stuff that people do and say sound like a
whole bunch of bs okay, whole bunch of bullshit, really
a whole kettle of it. I want my courage and
my words and my service to always have an impact
on other people, so that we are speaking up and
we are all have the courage and tesla, the fortitude,
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the guts to say what needs to be said when
it needs to be said, even in moments where everyone
might turn against us or people might turn against you,
because you are speaking the type of truth. Congress Woman
Shirley Chisholm, you know, she once said that I like
them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts. That's how
I like to be remembered. You know, when She was
(12:56):
asked about how she wanted to be remembered, and I felt, as,
ain't way I want people to say that need to turner.
She had guts, she she stood up even in the
face of adversity and challenge. What do you want people
to say about you when you pass this earth, when
you are being eulogized so to speak. Have you ever
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been to a funeral and you don't even know how
to who to preach you talking about? Yeah, I've been
in them kind of You're looking like, who the hell
are they talking about? They ain't talking about this person
because they have to make stuff up. You want to
live your life in such a way that the preacher
ain't got to make nothing up, that what they say
about you is true, it's real because you loved hard,
you fought hard, you rose above circumstances, and you worked
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towards or worked for things that were greater than your
very existence to help to make this world a better place.
That is a beautiful thing. So you know, life experiences
they create moments for us to be created. Just I mean,
we all go through we all go through things, and
we might not even know even realize what the going through.
(14:10):
So to speak of those things will mean for us
in the moment that we're going through them. But after
we get through them, it becomes clear why we were
enduring the trial and or the tribulation, that it was
really setting us up for something else, even though it
didn't seem clear at the time that we were going
through it. You know, people go through the same things.
(14:33):
We have very similar triumphs or similar tragedies. But I
know one thing, one thing for certain is that most
of the time we do make it through. When we
look back on that moment, we're like, wow, I made it.
I made it. Our courage to keep going, that's important.
(14:54):
The courage, the energy to keep going, to keep on
keeping all that takes a lot because it is so
easy to give up, it really is. But you can't
have a testimony without a test And indeed, life is
about all types of tests coming at us, some extraordinarily hard,
(15:16):
some easy, some like who yeah, I said. And in
this second series or second season of the second series
of The Three Bones, I'm throwing out these questions for
us to answer. I want you to think very deeply
as you are listening to this, even maybe pull out
(15:38):
a journal if you got a journal next to you,
you pull out something up in their pad or use
your phone and type the notes. So we were gonna
talk about here here the questions. You know, we had
questions last time for the Wishbone, and people rode in
and said that they really enjoyed that, and so we're
gonna do that again. And here we go for the
job ball job on, the courage to lift your voice,
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the courage speak truth to power. So here's our question.
When was the first time you can remember that you
were introduced to courage? When was the first time you
can remember that you were introduced to courage? For me,
I would have to say it was my grandmother, my
maternal grandmother, the very woman whose story that I continue
(16:20):
to give life to and I want to pass this
same story down to my grandchildren and hopefully they will
give the same life to their what there great great
grandmother had to say, So, yeah, the first time it
was it was my grandmother. My grandmother only had a
third grade education, She couldn't read or write, but she
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had what we call in the African American community mother.
With many of you who follow me, you have heard
me talk about this grandmother so often. She is very
much a key ingredient to me being the person that
I am today. And she never lived to see some
of the great things that I've been able to accomplish.
But her spirit, man, I call on that spirit force
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all the time, and so her very existence for me,
her very presence was courage. I mean it permeated courage.
So yeah, share please, I would love to know from
some of you, when was the York the first time
that you can remember that you were introduced to courage?
(17:27):
My grandmother, my maternal grandmother. Baby, that is courage question
number two. What happened and what did you need to do?
And the way that I answered that question, it was
just my grandmother was very much determined to beat the
odds and she did and she always wanted more for
her grandchildren than what she had for herself. That takes
(17:48):
courage too. You know, there's a saying about planting trees.
Who planting trees who shade you may never be able
to enjoy And that is a true some that people
do that all the time. That the the ability to
continue to fight, to continue to press on certain of
(18:09):
the issues that you are pushing for, you may never
get a chance to be the beneficiary of it, but
you got the courage to do so anyway, So planting
trees who shade you may never ever be able to enjoy.
How was my grandmother? She encouraged us to get an
education in her own way. She's very much responsible for
(18:33):
me going to college and earning several degrees. I definitely
talked about my mom and my son in that scenario
a lot. I do need to add my maternal grandmother
very much an important ingredient to my ability to be
where I am today and hopefully where I'm going to
be when I grow up. I'm still not sure what
(18:54):
I what I'm going to do, but not even the
skies the limit baby. Question number three, what are some
examples of what led you to be courageous? Oh? You know,
it takes courage to I have a lot of political
(19:16):
stories to tell. I'll tell one that is very aproposed
to Durant I had earlier because I was bringing us
into what in the hell is happening right now in
real time in this country linked to Roe v. Wade.
So I'll tell a story about that. When I was
in Ohio Senate, my Republican colleagues had introduced a Heartbeat Bill,
(19:37):
which I called the Heartless Bill. Again, people can disagree
about you know, some people believe that abortion should be legal, safe,
and rare, and some people do not. So we can
definitely have that debate. I get it. I believe that
that decision is between a woman and the creator if
if she believes in one, certainly between her and her doctor,
(20:00):
and that is very much a part of reproductive health care.
I know that some people don't believe that. I got it.
I get it. So back to this story. Though my
my Republican colleagues introduced the heartbeat Bill, I do call
it the heartless Bill because they really don't don't give
a damn about the child once it's here. So I've
decided to introduce a bill because the just the preoccupation
(20:24):
and state legislatures over the last almost twenty years with
trying to control a woman's body. We didn't just all
of a sudden get here in this moment. And even
though I'm using the Roe v. Wade as the example,
there are many other examples that we can utilize in
these moments. But even when we think about great movements,
(20:45):
whether it's a civil rights movement, the abolitionist movement, the
women's rights movement, the gay rights movement. Those movements were
shaking up the status quo. Those movements were full of
people who heard their purpose knocking at the door, and
they answered, They opened the door, and they got engaged
(21:07):
and involved in these various movements, pushing for equality, pushing
for things that were bigger than them. In that particular moment,
they did that. And so in this moment, how we
deal with the onslaught of Republicans doing this? I just
(21:28):
you know, it's just connected to so many other things.
So putting aside whether you know the folks that are
joining me today, whether or not you believe in abortion,
whether or not you see abortion as a component of
reproductive health. The story that I'm about to tell is
so I took the bill, my team and I in
(21:49):
the Ohio Senate, and we took the words of that
and turned it around. As I was saying before, you
just had this preoccupation with elected officials. Most of them,
the overwhelming majority of them, are on the right. They
skew right, even though the things that they're doing is wrong,
They e skew very right. And it is the antithesis.
(22:14):
I mean, the thing about if you truly are pro life,
you would care about the child's education, you would care
about what kind of neighborhood, You would care whether or
not their parents are gainfully employed. And if you are elected,
you would push policies that submented that belief in real time,
(22:37):
and those things are not happening. Let's take the child
tax Credit for a very real, relevant, right now example.
It expired, and you got Republicans said, if they're having
press conferences about the lack of baby formula and not
wanting to join or have a bipartisan effort to make
(23:00):
the child taxt Credit permanent, they meaning the members of Congress,
they let that joint expire. I mean, are you listen
to me? Expire? So a policy that pulled children in
this country almost fifty percent of children out of poverty.
We celebrated that, We said, oh my god, this is
(23:20):
such a good thing. Hurrah, hooray, and then this Congress
turns around and let's it expire, and folks barely saying
the mumbling word. That is what I'm One example of
showing courage in the realm of politics is that when
you see hypocrisy, when you see things going wrong, you
(23:44):
gotta speak up and speak out about these things. You
just can't let this stuff sit there. Say something, do something.
So okay, so the heartbe Built in Ohio, which has
since passed. But I was in the legislature two they didn't.
It didn't. We've pushed against that, and so I introduced
the bill using the same language that that bill was using,
(24:05):
because it was very clear that I was not sent
to the legislature to care about education, or to help
small businesses make sure roads are paid, you know, all
of that good government stuff. Now, I was there to
regulate a man's reproductive health. So I didn't introduce a
bill called the rectile dysfunction Bill to deal with that
(24:26):
in that moment, utilizing the bully pulpit, utilizing and having
the courage not only to push back against it, but
to introduce a bill and use that as a teachable
moment and using satire to do it. Buy in large,
you do not see women elected officials think about that,
(24:49):
introducing bills that regulate a man's reproductive health. You just
don't see that happening. Wrap your mind around that. So
I did. I did that thing. Retile this function bill.
Y'all can look up that bill and laugh, you're behind all.
I'm gonna make sure that we put a link in
the show notes so you can see an article at
(25:10):
the time when that was happening. Another time, you know,
even as a college student, to be with my colleagues
and form students for positive action with my dear friend Dr.
Ronnie Dunn, he is a professor of sociology at the
Cleveland State University. But coming up the ranks and just
(25:31):
believing that even though we did not have a lot
of wealth, we knew that we had some privilege because
we were in college. But maybe you talk about among
the working poor and going to college and trying to
get them degrees. Yes, I got my hand raised. That
was me. But the creation of an organization who it
was our goal, our mission, to get out there in
the poorer communities in Cleveland and helped to register people
(25:54):
to vote. Being old fashioned and thinking that if people
can vote, they can control their own deskin need. That's
what we were rocking with. Baby. It was quite a
spectacular experience to do that as a college student. And
another story from when I was in the legislature, Lord
Have mercy, one of my colleagues introduced the bill to
(26:15):
drug tests people on public assistance. And I went to
this colleague to explain to him why I thought that
that was wrong. Why I also I thought it would
exacerbate the suffering that people who are on public assistance,
what they are already engaging, the struggle that they are
already facing, and why would you make it worse by
(26:37):
introducing that kind of bill and trying to make that
law in the state of Ohio. And I talked to
him about my life experience and and you know, being
a safety that child, and having parents who are among
the working poor, and moments where we did not have
enough food to eat, and having very much to depend
on the system itself to have Medicaid and and food stamps.
(26:58):
At that time it was paper foods, amsen that kind
of thing, to let them know. And then I brought
the data to that clearly showed that people who are
on public assistance do not abuse drugs at any higher
rate than people who are not. I mean, I did
my best, and he still he decided, he said, I
gotta do this because this is what my constituents want.
(27:20):
And I said, well, I'm gonna do what my constituents
want as well. So I introduced them being able to
have members of the legislature drug tested often. Yes, I did,
because if the premises about protecting air quotes the taxpayers dollars,
then hey, those of us who are elected, we are
(27:41):
deriving our salary from the taxpayers dime, and so the
taxpayers have a right to know whether or not we
are abusing drugs. I did that, Yes I did. And
then my colleague, I had a state rep. My state Rep.
One of my colleagues in the House of Representatives, he
took the bill a step further and he introduced so
(28:03):
we had companion almost companion pieces. But he added a
little more spice to his which was to not only
that members of the legislature are drug tested regularly and randomly.
That was in my bill too. He added the special
touch of if you are a CEO of a company
and your company is receiving any public funding, then you
(28:27):
must subject yourself to random and regular drug testing. Baby,
we took that thing. I mean, think about it, because
the whole notion of making people who are on to
basically wear scarlet letter it makes no sense. I don't
even damn believe that his constituent was asking for that
(28:47):
there's so many other things that constituent can ask you for.
The public meeting, drug testing people who receive public assistance.
I don't think it's one of them, but that's what
the man said, and so I had to. As I
tried to talk about the least, she wasn't willing to come.
So I had to oblige them. And Lord, the things
you got to do to push back. But that is
(29:09):
another type of courage. Just using the tools that you
have at your disposal, and whatever profession that you are
in you can utilize in the space that you are in,
just utilize your knowledge and utilize your drive and determination
to you know, to make this world a better place.
That's that's what we should be doing. Yeah, we gotta
(29:31):
do that. And lastly, on the jaw bone, and I didn't.
I certainly was not thinking that would go this way.
But you gotta how to courage to be who you
are too. That's hard at times because sometimes people don't
want to accept you for who you are. That is
another level of courage, a different type of courage to
(29:51):
be true to who you are. That is not only
having the courage to speak up for what's right, but
using that courage to be who you are. I'm feeling
that vibe right now. Be who you are, Love who
you are. Charity does indeed start at home. And what
(30:11):
better home than yourself, Because in order for you to
do any of the other great and magnificent things that
need to be done to make this world a better place,
you have to be a better place. Meaning you're very embodiment.
The environment that you occupy by physically, mentally, spiritually must
(30:33):
be edified and lifted. In order for you to have
the courage to lift your voice, you gotta be confident
and who you are and what you bring to the table.
So to utilize the wishbone, to utilize the jawball means
to that own self be true. That's it. So until
(30:58):
next time, I want you to keep the faith and
keep the fight. Our next episode within the Three Bones
series will be the backball. You don't want to miss it,
absolutely not. You do not want to miss it. Hello, somebody,
because everybody is somebody turns, Mary, story, Mary things or somebody.
(31:30):
It makes a turn. Believe somebody turning, somebody turn. Yeah,
change is coming. The pain is nothing. Trying to shoot
for the stars. If you're gonna hang for something. Embrace
(31:52):
the love for your brother and sister. You need these
the mission brush, we need the puzzle, this picture. Just
paint it up and frame it up for the world
to see. Ain't to hint it up. Enough is enough,
It's enough, making changes enough and Turner a voice of
the truth to wise world. Despire the youth to keep
their eyes on the roof. It's the end. Never give up,
keep conquering goals to the eye. Intelligent silver, wisdom is gold.
(32:14):
Back 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 Rannie said. Now I'm gonna make
sure these words from Rannie spread for all the hair
to give it your air. She can take him to
the promised Land. I swear world pieces what they fear
from Queen's the Cleveland, Ohio. We're here, famous famous Turner,
(32:35):
any quality and grand Hello, Somebody, don't need to turn
u spanning somebody, ship turn out Hello, somebody even turn
up times trying a great move hand. Hello Somebody is
(33:08):
a production of I Heart Radio and The Black Effect Network.
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