November 8, 2021 • 17 mins
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." Malik does NOT agree.
Plus, Malik interviews a store patron about how books have changed his life.
And this week's book review: "Renegades: Born in the USA" by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
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 (00:00):
Yeah, my League Bus has how the knowledge you wanted.
My league but has how the knowledge you need my
League buds. Yeah, they have out the works that the
whole wild world want to read. My League Bus books
(00:26):
has been my passion for over thirty years. I want
to talk to some of the customers in the community.
They have supported me and have a love for books.
Today I had the pleasure of speaking with one of
my long term supporters and patriots and was able to
answer them a few questions. I'm a long time support
of my league book Telledge because I met this brother
years ago, and when I met him, he was such
an inspiration to me, and that wisdom and the guiden
(00:50):
that he gave me through the books that he has
in his bookstore opened up my eyes through a totally
new way of life to where my consciousness it's at
this such a high level that I watched, I walked
such a life of total peace because of this brother
right here. He was my first teacher and that brought
me into the way of God that I am walking.
(01:11):
I love him. I thank him so much. I thank
God for his bookstory. It is such an inspiration. I
remember back in the day when even the bus stops,
at the bookstore right in from the bus stops. And
at the bus stops, the bus drivers, you said, open
up their doors. Just that here. But the brother was
playing on his speakers just to wake up the community.
(01:32):
He always had books of consciousness. He was never about
bringing them books into his story. That was not about
feeding and cultivating the mind of our people. This brother
is a pioneer in our community. Brother Malite Mohammed's I
love him piece. One more question, brother, how has books
(01:53):
changed your life? Oh? Man? Well, one of the prophets
has said, you know, read reading the name of your Lord,
who creates. So it is through reading that you gain knowledge.
So reading open up your mind to so many things, man,
that it uh, it exposes you to a whole new
(02:14):
world that uh media um in newspapers just won't you know,
expose you too. So you find a lot of books.
And there's also a scripture in the Bible that says,
you know, uh, my people are destroyed for the lack
of knowledge because they reject knowledge. So therefore knowledge is
(02:35):
in the books, and it is through knowledge you're reading
that you're elevated. So that's what that for books done
for me. I love books. I can't even I can't
get enough books I have at my I'm a barber,
and where I work, I have tons of books even
in my work station, you know, because I love to
take time out to read, even on my spare time.
Because of this brother. Thank you, This brother, like you said,
(02:55):
he had lots of books. That is it's Barbara Shop.
He's called to teach you, Barbara. Everybody normal. You're sit
in this chair. He's gonna teach. He's gonna elevate, he's
gonna help you see a different day. He's not gonna
let you be a victim. He's gonna let you look
into yourself and change your life. I want to talk
(03:19):
about a subject matter called words matter. Words matter. Why
the words matter? Because words have meaning. Words form conversations,
(03:39):
words form communications, words form books. I once saw a
movie and the architect of the movie invented a windshield wiper.
(04:00):
The meaning behind the movie was that he was an
inventor and the big corporation stole his inventions. Um all
too often all to common. Uh. In the history of America,
we find stories like this with a small inventor king
had a great idea. He was sitting in his car.
(04:21):
The rain was storming. No one had a windshell wiper,
and he thought about blinking. What if the car had
a something could blink and wipe off the rain. At
that time and the believe it's the fifties or the sixties,
(04:43):
UH cars didn't have a windshell wiper. And it's like
your ie lid, you know, you blink and e motions
your eye. In this case, the blink is the going
to remove the moisture the water. So he had this
wonderful idea. He created the windshield UM he was ready
(05:05):
to produce for a major auto manufacturer. It didn't work out.
They took his invention, they mass producing put it on
all their cars. Then all the other carmakers did it,
and eventually it took him about a decade where he
(05:25):
sued and had a lawsuit, and eventually UH ultimately one
and they settled and they paid a lot of money,
millions and millions and millions of dollars. But the point
here is about words, and he defended himself in the trial.
He defended himself. He was the attorney as well as
(05:48):
the witness, and he successfully defeated the major Automo mobile
industry leaders and let me tell you what he did.
Was one of the points when I'm about to say
about words and how words matter, is the fact that
this guy, you know, he didn't invent words. None of
(06:09):
us invent words. But if you arrange these words in
a certain way, because you can't try trademark the or
a or words that we just are simple words that
we use every day in our vocabulary. But if you
(06:29):
take these words and you arrange them in a way
that's different than everyone else, then that's your intellectual property,
that's your copyright, that's your trademark. And that's what he
pointed out. That's what he pointed out when he was
on on the trial on the bench, and he told
(06:52):
Ford and all the big automobile companies, he said, listen,
you know, yeah, I didn't come up with the transistor.
I didn't come up with all the different engineering parts.
They were already here. But what I did do was
put them in a certain way and created my intermediate
(07:14):
wish your wipers. And that was my invention, and that
was my contribution, and that's what I brought to the world.
And someone else came along because they had more money
and a big team of lawyers and they stole it,
and then they wanted me to get credit for what
I invented. And see that's my point. You take words
(07:37):
and you can arrange them in your way. That's your art,
that's your literacy, that's your masterpiece. But words matter. When
I was growing up, it was a nursing round. You
gotta be careful with these nursery rhynds because they filled
(07:58):
with words that can be destroy them. Sticks and stones
may break my bones and words will never hurt me.
It was a devastating nursery rhyme. In this nursery rhyme,
I don't I wasn't invented it. Maybe they wasn't aware
at the time how powerful words are. There are people
who suffer from trauma, from emotional harm, emotional hurt, and
(08:21):
just thinking about something that happened to them and they
feel it like a bat hit them. They feel it
like somebody punched them, They feel it like they fell
off a cliff. You know, the state of mind. A
lot and go on in the state of mind, particularly
when you think something is real and it exists in
(08:42):
your mind. So if you bite on words that are
destructive and hurtful and harmful, and you have low self
esteem and you view of yourself is very harmful to yourself.
Then that mindset can make that reality true in your
mind and you can feel what's not reality, you can
(09:06):
feel it as though it exists. So you know, we
have to be careful because words matter, words matter. We
should never see that's the nursery rhindi kids. We should never, never,
never advocate that nursery rhyme. It shouldn't be said again.
It should be decommissioned, decommission because words matter. Words matter.
(09:28):
A lot of kids suffered growing up and listening to
that nursery rhyme and never never thought the words could
feel so hurtful and so harmful. You know, when you
tell a person you ain't gonna be nothing, you ain't
going nowhere, you ain't gonna do nothing. That's devastating to
(09:49):
a child, that's devastating to an adult. The physical reality
is one thing, but the spiritual and the mental is another.
And these invisible words that sometimes people taught that words
never would never hurt what they do they do. That
(10:09):
universe exists and it can exist in our mind. So
words matter, So words matter, eliminate that childhood nurse to rhyme.
Don't ever see that one again and teach their words matter.
To be careful about the words that you use because
they can be destructive and hurtful and harmful. This is
(10:30):
why words matter, because words have energy, words have forced
words create growth or words can tell you down. And
it's very important that you choose your words wisely because
(10:51):
the ultimate aim with words is too create, is to evolved,
it's too develop a masterpiece. You know, you set a
goal in mind and an objective of mind. Well, hey,
you gotta put the words in place in order to
(11:14):
achieve the objective and the goal. So words matter. Words matter,
and words that's what make up books. And books have
been around since writing, and we hand down some of
(11:38):
the best of our best in books so that people
can learn from the success and failures of those who
came before you. We many of us are inspired by
the words of others. Many us draw inspiration from the
(12:05):
words from others. Words matter. Words can either build you
up or words can tell you down. But don't ever
believe words can't hurt. And we should never say that nursery, rhyme,
(12:26):
sticks and stones may break my bones, but words won't
hurt me. When words can kill you, words can destroy you.
So be careful about the words you use because it
can turn down or the words can lift up. But
(12:49):
we need to be clear their words matter. Words matter.
You know, in society, um everyone has their tribe, everyone
has their community, everyone has their group or their gang.
(13:12):
In certain words affect these groups differently. But we have
to be mindful of these types of words because words matter.
So choose your words carefully. And when you decide to
(13:34):
sit down and become a writer, take that in consideration.
When you become a writer, when you want to create
that masterpiece, when you will him become a literary artists,
when you want to write a story, choose your words carefully,
(13:58):
target your audience carefully because words matter. Words matter, whether
we're speaking, whether we're writing, they matter. And our children,
it is very important that when we're speaking to our
children that we lift them up with positive words and
(14:19):
we don't turn them down. Don't believe, don't ever believe.
Their words are not hurtful and destructive because they have energy,
they have these words have power. They're unseen. But that
(14:41):
vibration and that sound either gonna make you feel good
either it's gonna make you cry or it's gonna make
you laugh. So it's important that we understand how words matter.
(15:03):
My book review for this week is a book that
came out as a result of a podcast. These two
iconic figures had a podcast called Renegades Born in the USA,
Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama, the former President of the
United States of America. The name of the book Rene Gates.
(15:26):
Of course, it's an illuminating book. I think it's gonna
be a great book for the holidays as well. It's
a coffee table book filled with a lot of pictures
never before seen. It depicts the conversations that former President
of Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen had on the podcast
(15:49):
and the book Rene Gates. Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen
talk about that masculinity. They talk about them being husbands,
talk about them being family men, and talk about their
profession which both have achieved the normal success in this world,
one being the former president of the United States and
(16:10):
one being a iconic international musician. You know, greatness. One
thing I know personally is that in greatness it's a
common thread, hard work. I can't simplify that enough. Dedication,
stick towardness, belief. Renegade is a very colorful picture book
(16:33):
filled with many pictures of Barack Obama and Bruce springs
Stein as children, as teens, and as adults. You love
these pictures that filled with a lot of life. They
filled with the success that they've had over their careers,
and some of their writings, some of their conversations they
had on the podcast. It's just filled with a lot
(16:55):
of insight to two icons that you can get to
a little closer and a little better. A lot of
common denominators between the two. One of them is that
they love America and they devoted their life to lift
up America. So they talk about a lot of things
that they just have in common. In this book illustrates
(17:15):
that in pictures and in the conversations, and it's put
together very well. You know, it's divided into different section
as it gives and it gives you a different look
into both. So bring Renegades into your home. It's a
great addition to your coffee table and a great conversation
piece as you sit around the table and you talk
(17:35):
about icons that have transformed the world. Thanks for listening
to Melik's Bookshelf where topics on the shelf, our books, culture,
and community. Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review.
Check out my Instagram at Melik Books. See you next time,
Yeah, my League Bus has how the knowledge you wanted.
My league but has how the knowledge you need my
League buds. Yeah, they have out the works that the
whole wild world want to read. My League Bus books
(00:26):
has been my passion for over thirty years. I want
to talk to some of the customers in the community.
They have supported me and have a love for books.
Today I had the pleasure of speaking with one of
my long term supporters and patriots and was able to
answer them a few questions. I'm a long time support
of my league book Telledge because I met this brother
years ago, and when I met him, he was such
an inspiration to me, and that wisdom and the guiden
(00:50):
that he gave me through the books that he has
in his bookstore opened up my eyes through a totally
new way of life to where my consciousness it's at
this such a high level that I watched, I walked
such a life of total peace because of this brother
right here. He was my first teacher and that brought
me into the way of God that I am walking.
(01:11):
I love him. I thank him so much. I thank
God for his bookstory. It is such an inspiration. I
remember back in the day when even the bus stops,
at the bookstore right in from the bus stops. And
at the bus stops, the bus drivers, you said, open
up their doors. Just that here. But the brother was
playing on his speakers just to wake up the community.
(01:32):
He always had books of consciousness. He was never about
bringing them books into his story. That was not about
feeding and cultivating the mind of our people. This brother
is a pioneer in our community. Brother Malite Mohammed's I
love him piece. One more question, brother, how has books
(01:53):
changed your life? Oh? Man? Well, one of the prophets
has said, you know, read reading the name of your Lord,
who creates. So it is through reading that you gain knowledge.
So reading open up your mind to so many things, man,
that it uh, it exposes you to a whole new
(02:14):
world that uh media um in newspapers just won't you know,
expose you too. So you find a lot of books.
And there's also a scripture in the Bible that says,
you know, uh, my people are destroyed for the lack
of knowledge because they reject knowledge. So therefore knowledge is
(02:35):
in the books, and it is through knowledge you're reading
that you're elevated. So that's what that for books done
for me. I love books. I can't even I can't
get enough books I have at my I'm a barber,
and where I work, I have tons of books even
in my work station, you know, because I love to
take time out to read, even on my spare time.
Because of this brother. Thank you, This brother, like you said,
(02:55):
he had lots of books. That is it's Barbara Shop.
He's called to teach you, Barbara. Everybody normal. You're sit
in this chair. He's gonna teach. He's gonna elevate, he's
gonna help you see a different day. He's not gonna
let you be a victim. He's gonna let you look
into yourself and change your life. I want to talk
(03:19):
about a subject matter called words matter. Words matter. Why
the words matter? Because words have meaning. Words form conversations,
(03:39):
words form communications, words form books. I once saw a
movie and the architect of the movie invented a windshield wiper.
(04:00):
The meaning behind the movie was that he was an
inventor and the big corporation stole his inventions. Um all
too often all to common. Uh. In the history of America,
we find stories like this with a small inventor king
had a great idea. He was sitting in his car.
(04:21):
The rain was storming. No one had a windshell wiper,
and he thought about blinking. What if the car had
a something could blink and wipe off the rain. At
that time and the believe it's the fifties or the sixties,
(04:43):
UH cars didn't have a windshell wiper. And it's like
your ie lid, you know, you blink and e motions
your eye. In this case, the blink is the going
to remove the moisture the water. So he had this
wonderful idea. He created the windshield UM he was ready
(05:05):
to produce for a major auto manufacturer. It didn't work out.
They took his invention, they mass producing put it on
all their cars. Then all the other carmakers did it,
and eventually it took him about a decade where he
(05:25):
sued and had a lawsuit, and eventually UH ultimately one
and they settled and they paid a lot of money,
millions and millions and millions of dollars. But the point
here is about words, and he defended himself in the trial.
He defended himself. He was the attorney as well as
(05:48):
the witness, and he successfully defeated the major Automo mobile
industry leaders and let me tell you what he did.
Was one of the points when I'm about to say
about words and how words matter, is the fact that
this guy, you know, he didn't invent words. None of
(06:09):
us invent words. But if you arrange these words in
a certain way, because you can't try trademark the or
a or words that we just are simple words that
we use every day in our vocabulary. But if you
(06:29):
take these words and you arrange them in a way
that's different than everyone else, then that's your intellectual property,
that's your copyright, that's your trademark. And that's what he
pointed out. That's what he pointed out when he was
on on the trial on the bench, and he told
(06:52):
Ford and all the big automobile companies, he said, listen,
you know, yeah, I didn't come up with the transistor.
I didn't come up with all the different engineering parts.
They were already here. But what I did do was
put them in a certain way and created my intermediate
(07:14):
wish your wipers. And that was my invention, and that
was my contribution, and that's what I brought to the world.
And someone else came along because they had more money
and a big team of lawyers and they stole it,
and then they wanted me to get credit for what
I invented. And see that's my point. You take words
(07:37):
and you can arrange them in your way. That's your art,
that's your literacy, that's your masterpiece. But words matter. When
I was growing up, it was a nursing round. You
gotta be careful with these nursery rhynds because they filled
(07:58):
with words that can be destroy them. Sticks and stones
may break my bones and words will never hurt me.
It was a devastating nursery rhyme. In this nursery rhyme,
I don't I wasn't invented it. Maybe they wasn't aware
at the time how powerful words are. There are people
who suffer from trauma, from emotional harm, emotional hurt, and
(08:21):
just thinking about something that happened to them and they
feel it like a bat hit them. They feel it
like somebody punched them, They feel it like they fell
off a cliff. You know, the state of mind. A
lot and go on in the state of mind, particularly
when you think something is real and it exists in
(08:42):
your mind. So if you bite on words that are
destructive and hurtful and harmful, and you have low self
esteem and you view of yourself is very harmful to yourself.
Then that mindset can make that reality true in your
mind and you can feel what's not reality, you can
(09:06):
feel it as though it exists. So you know, we
have to be careful because words matter, words matter. We
should never see that's the nursery rhindi kids. We should never, never,
never advocate that nursery rhyme. It shouldn't be said again.
It should be decommissioned, decommission because words matter. Words matter.
(09:28):
A lot of kids suffered growing up and listening to
that nursery rhyme and never never thought the words could
feel so hurtful and so harmful. You know, when you
tell a person you ain't gonna be nothing, you ain't
going nowhere, you ain't gonna do nothing. That's devastating to
(09:49):
a child, that's devastating to an adult. The physical reality
is one thing, but the spiritual and the mental is another.
And these invisible words that sometimes people taught that words
never would never hurt what they do they do. That
(10:09):
universe exists and it can exist in our mind. So
words matter, So words matter, eliminate that childhood nurse to rhyme.
Don't ever see that one again and teach their words matter.
To be careful about the words that you use because
they can be destructive and hurtful and harmful. This is
(10:30):
why words matter, because words have energy, words have forced
words create growth or words can tell you down. And
it's very important that you choose your words wisely because
(10:51):
the ultimate aim with words is too create, is to evolved,
it's too develop a masterpiece. You know, you set a
goal in mind and an objective of mind. Well, hey,
you gotta put the words in place in order to
(11:14):
achieve the objective and the goal. So words matter. Words matter,
and words that's what make up books. And books have
been around since writing, and we hand down some of
(11:38):
the best of our best in books so that people
can learn from the success and failures of those who
came before you. We many of us are inspired by
the words of others. Many us draw inspiration from the
(12:05):
words from others. Words matter. Words can either build you
up or words can tell you down. But don't ever
believe words can't hurt. And we should never say that nursery, rhyme,
(12:26):
sticks and stones may break my bones, but words won't
hurt me. When words can kill you, words can destroy you.
So be careful about the words you use because it
can turn down or the words can lift up. But
(12:49):
we need to be clear their words matter. Words matter.
You know, in society, um everyone has their tribe, everyone
has their community, everyone has their group or their gang.
(13:12):
In certain words affect these groups differently. But we have
to be mindful of these types of words because words matter.
So choose your words carefully. And when you decide to
(13:34):
sit down and become a writer, take that in consideration.
When you become a writer, when you want to create
that masterpiece, when you will him become a literary artists,
when you want to write a story, choose your words carefully,
(13:58):
target your audience carefully because words matter. Words matter, whether
we're speaking, whether we're writing, they matter. And our children,
it is very important that when we're speaking to our
children that we lift them up with positive words and
(14:19):
we don't turn them down. Don't believe, don't ever believe.
Their words are not hurtful and destructive because they have energy,
they have these words have power. They're unseen. But that
(14:41):
vibration and that sound either gonna make you feel good
either it's gonna make you cry or it's gonna make
you laugh. So it's important that we understand how words matter.
(15:03):
My book review for this week is a book that
came out as a result of a podcast. These two
iconic figures had a podcast called Renegades Born in the USA,
Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama, the former President of the
United States of America. The name of the book Rene Gates.
(15:26):
Of course, it's an illuminating book. I think it's gonna
be a great book for the holidays as well. It's
a coffee table book filled with a lot of pictures
never before seen. It depicts the conversations that former President
of Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen had on the podcast
(15:49):
and the book Rene Gates. Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen
talk about that masculinity. They talk about them being husbands,
talk about them being family men, and talk about their
profession which both have achieved the normal success in this world,
one being the former president of the United States and
(16:10):
one being a iconic international musician. You know, greatness. One
thing I know personally is that in greatness it's a
common thread, hard work. I can't simplify that enough. Dedication,
stick towardness, belief. Renegade is a very colorful picture book
(16:33):
filled with many pictures of Barack Obama and Bruce springs
Stein as children, as teens, and as adults. You love
these pictures that filled with a lot of life. They
filled with the success that they've had over their careers,
and some of their writings, some of their conversations they
had on the podcast. It's just filled with a lot
(16:55):
of insight to two icons that you can get to
a little closer and a little better. A lot of
common denominators between the two. One of them is that
they love America and they devoted their life to lift
up America. So they talk about a lot of things
that they just have in common. In this book illustrates
(17:15):
that in pictures and in the conversations, and it's put
together very well. You know, it's divided into different section
as it gives and it gives you a different look
into both. So bring Renegades into your home. It's a
great addition to your coffee table and a great conversation
piece as you sit around the table and you talk
(17:35):
about icons that have transformed the world. Thanks for listening
to Melik's Bookshelf where topics on the shelf, our books, culture,
and community. Be sure to subscribe and leave me a review.
Check out my Instagram at Melik Books. See you next time,
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