Fighting for Justice and Survival with Rameen Aminzadeh

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Tamika d Mallory and the.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Ship Boy my son in general.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
We are your host of T m I t.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Mika and my song's information, truth, motivation and inspiration, new.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Name, new energy. What's up my song line? And how
you doing?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I am excellent today. I'm feeling good, you know what.
I'm shout up to the Locks, feeling good. Money respect, money,
pro respect, your shut up to the Lox. I love
the Locks, my brothers. I just I've been watching Jada
and Joey's podcasts and it's hilarious just watching dope chemistry.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
I would love to hear more about Jada's story. I know,
you know it. Yeah, I would like to hear it myself.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Kisses, he's been around, He's he got a good story,
excellent story.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah he's such a dope guy. Yeah, he's a dope guy.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
My bro right there.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
And it's not all of these artists are the same,
not all are created equal at all. So congratulations to
the Gathering for Justice for twenty years of gathering people
to do the work that Harry Belafonte set out to
do so many you know, twenty years ago he gathered

(01:21):
many people at this gathering.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Everybody was there, Ruby d And who else was there?

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Reverend Jackson, Reverend Sharpton, I mean, too many people for
me to name, but everybody you could think of was
at a gathering that Harry Belafonte called together and there
were a lot of young people there. And the agendas
to find the agenda. I heard him say it, and
I knew that was true and good. But I'm using

(01:49):
it now more in this moment than ever, because I
realized that no one person has the turn key for
what needs to be done to fight against authoritarianism and
fascism and what we're experiencing right now, and so I
think this would be was right to say the agenda

(02:09):
is to find the agenda.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
For sure, Oh definitely. You know, every time you hear
it his voice, which is always so militant, it's always
it sounds like he's singing every time he talks, but
it was it's so profound, you know, just like when
you think about the agenda is to find the agenda.

(02:32):
In this moment, it feels like that's what the agenda is.
There's so many things they're trying to keep us, so,
you know, occupied distracted with so many different things, so
many different things, going one time. I think each one
of us has an agenda. We just got to find
out what that is, and then we got to utilize
and connect it all together. Because me, me, and you

(02:52):
will probably do something different than the other. You know,
leaders in different fields are going to do something different,
but each one of those things will contribute to the
liberation of our people. So I think our gend for
each of us sister.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Our yeah, absolutely, and so Carmen Perez, our sister, has
been leading the gathering for twenty years, and they have
now celebrated their anniversary, still doing the work. She has
turned over the keys to our other sister, Dowanna Thompson,
who was there. She was a young person at the

(03:26):
time that this gathering took place, and now she is
a great strategist and organized the extraordinary and she will
be leading for an interim basis at least the work
of the gathering while Carmen gets an opportunity to go
off and do other things. Listen, running an organization for
twenty years is hard work. It's no jokes, and she's

(03:47):
done a lot. She's built an incredible foundation and built
the pillars.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
And built up young leadership to built.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
Up young leadership and now Do Wanna will take it
the rest of the way. So congratulations Carmen, Congratulations Do Wanna,
and just congratulations to the entire Gathering for Justice crew
that keeps it going every day. Julian Hoifenberg, the name
goes on and on, and later in the show, we're
going to be hearing from one of our brothers who

(04:16):
comes out of the gathering, who's going to talk about
his story, some of the things that's happened in his
life today.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
So it's a good gathering day. It's most like, you.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Know, the gathering.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
Good gathering day, Good gathering day. That's so funny.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
So let me just get to the thought of the day,
because our interview is going to be pretty long.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
I'm sure we've got a lot.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
We really want to give Ramen the opportunity to tell
his story, and so I want to quickly get us
through my.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Thought of the day.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
I was on social media and one of the trends
now is that you post like the words you remember.
It started with people putting up a sign and instead
of you talking, because folks don't list but then they
don't read either, But anyway, they don't listen, so you
sitting there, but you put up a sign, and a
sign has things on it, you know, free congo whatever

(05:09):
it is, right, some people use it as like cards
and they put up a whole story through showing you
and letting you read versus explaining it verbally.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
And so that trend continues.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
And I saw a post where a woman is sitting
there not saying anything, but in front of her, she
has a little caption and it says, in case you
haven't noticed, because content is being suppressed on social media,
the gangs have put a hit out on ICE agents.

(05:46):
You know, they're putting like a bounty on ICE agents' heads,
and they're ruggle in Chicago, in Chicago, and there's a
bunch of people in the comments section like, yeah, we
got to stop them, Well, oh wow, this and that
whatever whatever comments. And I'm in a chat in a
thread with several very very grassroots level activists and organizers

(06:10):
who've been out there dealing with the issue of ice
being in the communities and particularly in the black community.
Because we know the incident that happened where the ICE
agents we believe they claimed they went into a building.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Somebody said they went into the wrong building.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
But you know the children were zip tied, people were traumatized,
and you know these folks have been actively engaged in
doing this work, training people in de escalations on So
I put it in a chat and said, this seems
odd to me that anyone, especially a black woman, would

(06:49):
post something of this nature that there is a bounty
on ICE agents heads. We already know that Donald Trump
is threatening to act the Insurrection Act. He's also talking
about we've heard some rumblings about martial law. So we
already know that these people are looking for a way

(07:11):
to escalate violence against us, and it seems odd to
me that this woman would even post something like that,
whether it's true or not, which by.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
The way, I don't think that they're I don't. I
don't see how.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
That's an effective strategy because there are not enough members
of the gang to fight ICE agents and militarize police
on the ground in Chicago. I don't see any way
that that works. That's just me, But there may be
some people out there that think that this is going

(07:46):
to stop ICE from terrorizing the community. Why somebody would
be promoting that or talking about it.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
I don't see how it works.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
I personally don't and So the thing my thought of
it around how we gotta be real smart about what
we are doing.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
This is a different time.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
There was a time when you could go on social
media and say something that people know is wrong and
people just kind of pull pull.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
You away like whatever.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
Nowadays, everything that's up there because this woman, I ain't
never seen her before, but there's like four thousand comments
that comments, not likes, four thousand comments on this post,
and a lot of people are in there with their
profiles saying things like can I join the gang?

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Well, what can I donate?

Speaker 2 (08:38):
Like?

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Folks going there and click on your profile and find
out who you are, and the next thing you know,
the police are at your door arresting you. The FBI
is arresting you because it's on a social media post.
People are are organizing something like this. So I dropped
it in the chat and I asked the question of
these folks, this is odd.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
What are you all think?

Speaker 3 (09:00):
And they said, it's an absolute lie. We have not
heard this on the ground. The gangs are not even
organized in this way. You know, they're not organized like
that anymore. It's not that kind of environment. And this
is not helpful because we're trying to get them to
move on. We want Ice to get the hell up
out of here and to move on, and instead this

(09:22):
is an escalation that could cause them to see something
that she might not even know what she's talking about, right,
but it's intentions, but maybe she thinks she's saying the
right thing.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
I don't know what.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
I think is. There's a lot of we have a
lot of provocateurs, especially on Instagram, you know, on the
Internet period, they trolling, they're posting things just trying to
get some level of engagement, and then they actually are
fed this information. Right, there are a lot of our
own people who are intentionally feeding misinformation on the Internet

(09:55):
to get levels of engagement. And then what happens is
the algorithm fee that the algorithm right now will feed
anything negative that that is targeting our communities. Anybody, if
you a voice, I've watched people who add one thousand followers.
They start talking negative about black people, start talking negative
about our communities, start talking positive about this administration. They

(10:19):
went up to eighty and ninety thousand and five. I've
watched it. They are suppressing. My page is definitely suppressed.
You know, they've been shadow being on my Instagram page.
I don't even know how long it's people have been
trying to follow me. I met people and they'd be like, oh,
I want to follow you on Instagram, And then I say,
what my name is? My song? You type it up,
it should come in there, but which one? And then
I see other my songs that got two and three followers.

(10:40):
I got over five hundred thousand and five. But my
name doesn't even pop up. If you type my name
in fully, it still only pops up. And when you
type it in fully then it finally pops up, like
if you miss one letter, Like you have to type
in every letter of my name for it to pop up.
And none of the other pages have anywhere near's mini file.
Some of goe hundred maybe two hundred followers, but they

(11:02):
don't even show you in the aug So they're intentionally
silencing us and the amplifying voices that are degrading our communities,
that are detrimental to us. So I see what, I
know what you mean, but those things are going to
continue to happen gender and that's why you have this
administration that has brough. If you look, if they pretty

(11:25):
much own the media at this point, they all the
all adults own the media. They monopolizing the media, and
they own it, and they're making sure that the messages
that they want get traction. It's the same like we
said years ago before this election that the biggest threat
to us was misinformation and it's intentional misinformation. So of

(11:45):
course they'll run with that and then people they'll post,
you know, they're eating the dogs and eating the cast like.
This is not it's not new. This is an intentional
thing that they've been doing. So if we don't understand
the strategy, you know, that's why I shout out to
Isaac Cayes. I definitely agree that we need our own
platform to be able to spread I think we have to.
I think this in this moment, there has to be

(12:07):
an intentional shift. Until we have, we're putting our content
on platforms that we actually control. I'll do it like
we have to do it because I'm really watching how
mad people are saying, yo, my my content is being sensed,
is being you know, the engagement I watch different people
videos that I know usually have levels of engagement aren't

(12:29):
getting the level of engagement anymore because they're not just
you know, they're not cal talent to this administration. They're
not lying, So the algorithm has completely shifted and intentionally
trying to silence this.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Absolutely absolutely, But I feel like for this sister, I'm
going to give her the benefit of the doubt that
she believes that she's informing people about something that's happening.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Right.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
I don't know what her intention is, but I'm going
to give her the benefit of the doubt that she
thinks she's informed people.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
I'm trying to understand.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
How does this help I don't I don't get I'm
just trying to understand her mind. And again back to
you know, giving my what I was thinking about. My
thought of the day is like, maybe you think you're
being helpful, but instead you're putting people's lives in danger
because we just posting anything on social media.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
We don't get us, not no rhyme or reason. There's
no strategy to it.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
You out here basically opening up the floodgates of death
on our people by saying that there's a bounty on
the heads of ICE agents.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
I don't see how that. I don't see how it
makes sense.

Speaker 3 (13:38):
So I just think people need to be careful what
we're sharing, be careful how you're commenting on things and
putting your name associated with with things like that that
the FBI.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Could literally pick you up.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
It's pretty dangerous and folks just need to be really
mindful because it's not a game.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
I hear you. I think these people because it doesn't,
like you said, it doesn't make no sense for you
to say something, especially when you don't have right. Why
would you utilize your platform to say some shit that
is pretty much a federal crime. Like for somebody to
put the money on the head of federal agents, that's
a federal crime. Sure, you're making yourself accomplishment. Now they

(14:19):
want to know where you got this inmation.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
From oh Man, So I didn't even think about that.

Speaker 2 (14:24):
I think they know what they're talking.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
You think they know why they're saying.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
I think they're not. I think that I don't believe
anyone is, you know, not cognizant of the reaction that
they're going to and they're trying to either get following,
they trying to you know, get some type of traction,
or they're actually working with the people that need this
to happen.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Now, maybe I think it's pretty stupid, but.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
Any we should get into our interview today, we're gonna
skip our team I because I think you know, as
I said, this conversation that we need to have with
our brother is going to take a little while to
kind of delve in and help people understand why who
he is matters to how we handle his life right like,

(15:12):
he should never be in a situation where he cares
about the community and then can't get the help from
the community that he's given.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
So our brother Ramene Amends the Day is coming out
so as usual, Well, you know how we like to
bring our friends on the tea of my podcast, we
have another one of our friends basically our brothers, you know,
and we will not seriously, we don't take that lightly.
His name is Ramene Amends the Day and he is
the founder of Beats, Rhyms and Relief, where it harness

(15:44):
the power of hip hop to educate, elevate and empower
young people. How you doing today, I'm doing great, brother.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yes, Yes, it's good to see you. Glad you up here.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Finally, not everybody gets up here, right, everybody gets to
make it. Fear our brother Ramen, we met him doing
this work and doing social justice work, doing civil rights work,
you know, we all were part of an organization with
the Gathering for Justice, which morphed into the Justice League,
and what I mean was very much one of the

(16:19):
leaders he did. He had so much footage of us.
We were just talking about this yesterday. He has footage
of us for like the last over the last decade,
and I can't wait to see some of the things
that we have that we forgot about, Like I know,
the stuff that we done forgot about. But today we're
here with Ramen, and so this is kind of like serious.

(16:42):
You know, it's gonna be a serious show as well,
you know, because we have our brother. No, I don't
want to laugh. I'm laughing because I'm happy you understand
what I'm saying. Because you know, a little probably about
a year ago, December thirteen makes a year ago. I
wasn't sure that my brother would be here with So
I got a call in the middle of the night.

(17:03):
I was entry. We actually lived in the same building,
and I got a call from one of another friends
of others that lived in the same building. Was like, ra, mean,
it's not doing too I was literally just coming home,
what's going on? You know. I walked into his apartment
and he just was like incapacitated. He was just I
was scared for his life. You know, we called ambulance

(17:26):
and by the grace of God, I mean, it's still
here with us. What I means, it's now a double amputy.
He lost both his legs. He was in Ico for weeks.
We like it was real touch and go. We walked
in the hospital, we prayed with him, prayed over him
with his family. You know, it was it was a

(17:47):
real serious situation. So just to be able to see
what I mean here with us and see him in
these kind of spirits is why I'm laughing. But you know,
it was definitely a serious situation. But and that's just
what I mean. And raimin fans the silver lining and
every you know, even when he was in the hospital bed,
his energy was he was laughing and smiling with us,

(18:08):
even though I know he was in pain. He just
never let it break him. And just seeing him here
today is just a testament that God has ripen.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
Yes, very real. God is great all day everything.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
Before we talk about you know what Misa mentioned. You know,
of course, the main reason why we invited you to
be on the show is to talk about life after
becoming a double amputee and just the whole story of
how that wo happened.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
But want to go backwards so people will understand. And
Massan talked about the Gathering for Justice, but most people
in the Gathering's division, which is Justice League in YC.
So it's like divism arm of Harry Belafonte's organization that
he started and put sister Carmen Perez as the shepherd

(18:58):
of the Leader of Presidency for twenty years. She led
the efforts of the gathering.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
And most of the people in Justice League have different
organizations or they're coming from something. They're already an artist,
as my song was when he got to Justice League.
Certainly I have been in other organizations, so everybody had
something that they're bringing to the table. And what we've
always known you for is beats rhyms in relief. And

(19:30):
I want you to tell us about the community work,
because I know not just nationally certainly people know your organization,
but locally in Maryland and in Baltimore specifically, it's like
a staple of the community in terms of all the
mutual aid and events and things that you've done over
many many years. So tell folks about that because I

(19:52):
think people listening would say, well, why, Like, Okay, there's
a million people out here who've had an incident, they
lost their you know, limb or something happened, Like why
is it just because he's your friend. No, it's because
you're a community leader, you know, so tell us about
what you've been doing.

Speaker 5 (20:11):
So, you know, Beast Rhymes Relief was started in two
thousand and late twenty twelve, early two thou my homeboy Omar,
who y'all know love, he's a Syrian brother. At the time,
the revolution was going on, this award the you know,
atrocities that would happen in Syria, and prior to that,
you know, I had been doing music videos and films

(20:33):
since ninety six, and he knew my relationship with a
bunch of different artists. I had been on tour with
Snoop and Dre and them, and you know, done a
lot of stuff with a lot of different people, and
he wanted to do a benefit concert for Syria.

Speaker 4 (20:46):
So, you know, it was Bill. We were both film
editors working at a production company.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
And you're that too, Yeah, all throw a film at.

Speaker 4 (20:54):
Us, right, that's right.

Speaker 5 (20:55):
So we were working at a company in DC, and
he came to me and it was like, Yo, can
we put together this concert?

Speaker 4 (21:01):
And I was like, sure, let's make it happen.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
We started to build on it, and then I was like,
should be more than a concert, and maybe.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
It should be more than just for Syria.

Speaker 5 (21:11):
After we do this, like, let's do it for you know,
other folks too, in our own community, because that's going
to get buy in from the artists and from the
community itself. And we can't just be doing stuff for overseas.
Let's do it for them. Let's get some humanitarian relief.
Came up with the name beast Rhyme's Relief, and we
did this concert in DC, raised a bunch of money,

(21:32):
went over to Syria, did a bunch of paintings and
artwork and workshops with the kids. Brought it back, wrapped
the National Mall with a mile worth of paintings, did
a three day event there and then a concert. And
you know, it had also come out of you know,
I used to play in the streets real heavy. I

(21:52):
got into a lot of trouble as a youngster. They
got a film career with people showing me how to
do film. When I was fifteen, my uncle my uncle's friends.
They was all going to college. My grandfather was a documentarian,
so they knew that one of my outlets was getting
into film and like being creative. And by the grace
of God, when I graduated high school, I was able

(22:14):
to go right into the film industry and make some money.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
So at some point along the way, I lost my wag,
got locked up.

Speaker 5 (22:22):
They tried to give me two hundred and twenty six
years for a crime and didn't commit. I spent five
and a half years in prison, beat the charge and
came home. I ended up taking a gun charge. Why
I was in prison for the five years, but I
was fighting out the case.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
So part of that was like, when I get home, I.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
Need to do something for younger folks that you know,
have went on down the wrong path, and how do
we help them out. So I kind of brought that
into the conversation with Beats. From there, we started doing
you know, a whole bunch of music videos and big
three story murals.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
We all did graffiti.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
So we were kind of doing this thing around the country, Uh, Chicago, La, Texas, Atlanta.

Speaker 4 (23:05):
D C, Baltimore.

Speaker 5 (23:07):
We do these big community days, give you know, book
bags that were like back to school days when we
were paying a big ball do music and do a
music video too, and have all the local conscious mcs
come out and be a part of that music video.
And then that, you know, just graduated into more, bigger,
better things, teaching young people behind the scenes of you know,

(23:28):
the camera work, the graphics, the editing, the content creation
and security, live event production. You know, that's the mainstay
of what we do is teach folks how to break
into the entertainment industry without going to college.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
If you've been down the waw path, whatever it may.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
M hm, so that's what you had been, That's what
I had been doing.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
And then and then the editing is a part of
us how you make your money. It's you know, a
part of all those things. And so then the Justice
League comes about and you say, I can contribute this
big thing by being the one to capture all the
behind the scenes footage of in front of the scene,
behind and whatever, all the things in which you now

(24:10):
have so much footage. To my son's point, and I'll
tell you when you were incapacitated, I remember getting into
a little bit of a tiffy with our other friend
Julianne Hoffromberg, who you know. I think if you didn't
make it, Jewels would not have made it because.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
She was so investigated what she is with all of us.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
If I get sick, if my son gets sick, or
something happened, Jules is mama bear.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
But I was like, Jewels, I want you to.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Go downstairs to his apartment and take all the drives
out of his apartment. And she was like, I don't
know if I should do that because his mom and
his family and I don't want to touch any you know,
take anything, because it's not my place. I was like, Jewels,
go get the drives. The drives are important. Anybody who
goes in that apartment, of course, not your family, but

(25:01):
anybody else who sees all these orange drives, they know
there's gotta be some value it.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Maybe let's see, you know.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
And by the way, I don't even know what we
said on those drives, so we needed to secure you know.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
It's a lot on it. No, it made sense. It
was a smart thing to do.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
I think, you know, at the end of the day,
it's about protecting the family, ourselves and the footage itself.
You know, anybody could have come in there and taken
that stuff and said, hey, that was mine.

Speaker 4 (25:33):
And you know, my family might.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
Not have known what they're looking for. Your mom would
have been like what.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
Right there? Yeah, but yeah, but there's so.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
Much footage on that note, like you know we're talking
about I started filming a quick short story. I met
Linda and Carmen at the United Nations I think in
twenty twelve, and Carmen, through mutual friend was saying, how
you know, tell me about the work that she did
with mister B And was like, we're doing this thing

(26:06):
called growing up Lockdown.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
You know, I know you do graffiti. Why don't you
come up and do some more. So I remember I
did that that whole interactive wall. If not this, then
this and go.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
And I remember that in that show.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah what I said, Mike signed the wall.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Carmen had the wall for a while. I don't know
if she still got it.

Speaker 5 (26:28):
So I had come in that way, and we just
started building on a bunch of different things, and I
was like, look, let me let me bring the art skills,
let me bring the film skills to this, plus the
organizing in the context.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
Let me just figure out.

Speaker 5 (26:40):
What I can bring to the I love the energy,
you know what I mean, as much as I love
Baltimore and.

Speaker 4 (26:45):
DC and the work that people do do down there
and the work that we were doing down there.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
You know, a chance to work with mister Belafonte was,
you know, a dream. I still got the album to
Jump Up Clipto, all of them that I stole from
my uncle when I was like fourteen because I wanted
to be a DJ, right, so I.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
I had this.

Speaker 5 (27:07):
You know, I was in awe of the work he
did and knowing his background and knowing how much he
worked in the community, I was like, oh, you know,
I gotta I gotta seize the moment and learn something
from him.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Right. What is something that you could say that mister
Beats told you give one thing that he is flat
because we all have our different things, but I want
you to just give yours, you know.

Speaker 5 (27:28):
It's it's something that both mister B and Suzanne Rodstock said,
don't hold history hospigs.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
They said, you.

Speaker 5 (27:35):
Know, keep filming, film everything you know. And I know
mister B and Suzanne used to kind of argue about
the archive that this man had because he was another
one that would film everything. With Martin Luther King with
you know, the there's so much footage of all that
stuff that you know, it's just somewhere right, which while
we are following Harry and.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
You know all of the years of documentation, right.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
Yeah, So you know, Suzanne Rostock is an amazing filmmaker.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
She has an amazing film.

Speaker 5 (28:06):
Out called Following Harry, which is documenting twenty plus years
with Harry Belafonte and all the work that he's done.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
Probably more than twenty years.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
And she just an amazing soul, has been super supportive
from the day that I met her. We used to
share footage and hiographers and cinematographers and dps like we
were just instantly locked in and everything that was happening
around the time we would team up and work on
and capture. But just an amazing soul, amazing person and

(28:39):
someone that I loved it.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Yeah, I love Suzanne. I love Suzanne.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
So don't hold it history hostage film everything. And you
certainly have done that, yes, So I think that kind
of brings us a little bit now, y'all know you
know who I mean is and the contribution that you've
had to the movement. It's funny because you know, I
hate the camera it's never been my thing. It's still
still to today it's not my thing. And you know,

(29:06):
And but there are times when I see old footage
because there's been a few birthdays and other celebrations where
you put short clips together things that I've done, and
it's always great to see moments that you may have forgotten,
like you said, Mice, you might have forgotten or you know,
you don't know how important things are today. But in

(29:30):
five years, ten years, it's like, wow, I can't believe
we did all of that. And recently we attended the award,
I mean the gala for the Gathering for Justice twenty
years still or here, still here, still work and still gathering,
and there was a Linda and I participated in a tribute.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
To Carmen Prez.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
And as we watch the video that was assembled, it's
just like seeing, even though the subject was calming, obviously,
we're right there and you see so many moments that
I'm like, oh, wow, I remember that day.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
I remember the laughs, because that's why.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Y'all are like already we just sat here and everybody's
like ready to bust out laughing, and nothing funny happened.
But it's just how we always had been. I remember
the argument, you know, like we would be yelling and
arguing hours on the road. We didn't have money to
fly into cities. We had to drive in a van

(30:36):
to get everybody there, because it was either the flights or.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
The food, you know what I mean, and it couldn't
be both.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
So we drove all around this country from Albany, New York,
all the way down DC, down south.

Speaker 4 (30:50):
In the truck.

Speaker 5 (30:51):
I ate a doughnut in my city to Michigan.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
I was feeling up when she.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Was yo, I drove.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
I don't know Jules killed us.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Yeah, dude, well no, that's two different times.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Flint, Michigan.

Speaker 3 (31:09):
We were in two separate events, and Jules in our
floo seventeen.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Hours flow there.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah, so you know, we we we're got a story
of the things that have happened. And now you guys
have grown up, right, even though we had families and
all of that before. Now y'all are like old men. Fifty, yeah,
cushion fifty. And you always you were always dealing with

(31:40):
health challenges around your legs, always saying your legs were
in pain, you know, needing the stretch, needing to wear
your compression socks and all of that. But I don't
think that any of us, including you, clearly appreciated how
severe the situation was.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, didn't you didn't really No, I had no.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
Idea that point.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
I mean, I knew it was bad. I felt the
pain every day. I was in chronic pain for sure.
And it was many loved ones that would say, yo,
just go to the hospital, get it checked out. You know,
I'm sure we could do something, But for me, hospitals
are where.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
People go to die.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
I think that's been something that I think it's also
in my family a little bit, like it's.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
Not just the men, the women also really.

Speaker 5 (32:29):
Like as much as my mother will advocate for someone
to go, she'll be the last person to go herself.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
And if you remember watch, she was here helping me
almost almost got her toy. Oh my god, I didn't
want to go to the hospital and get it checked out.
So you know, it's I think it's it's a blow. Yeah.
I think there was.

Speaker 5 (32:50):
Also the issues of health insurance and you know, not
really having steady income all the time. You know, you
could work two, three four years on a documentary make
great money. Then you could go a year or so
and not work, you know what I mean, And it
be rough, so you'd be squirreling away to try and
you know, save for those times. And we all organized

(33:12):
and swiping cars, making T shirts.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Oh we did that. Oh we did all our own money.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
All the people saying, oh, y'all, y'all, y'all getting paid
to be man, there was movement. Work is the place
where you make the least amount of money. And we
put our money in to make these things happen. When
we had a T shirt that you had made, who
paid you all paid? I never paid for the T shirt?

Speaker 5 (33:37):
Is it either I paid for it or I split
it with Michael Schoonneck or somebody.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
Somebody ain't us.

Speaker 5 (33:43):
We were paying for it, and we were paying for
the design if we weren't designing it ourselves.

Speaker 4 (33:47):
Most of them I designed myself, but a couple I
got some help.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
But designing a T shirt, it's something people get. That's
likely was marketing.

Speaker 5 (33:58):
Yeah, and we was giving them away, love.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
To give away. We've given away thousand.

Speaker 4 (34:07):
T shirt. It might be between those I can't.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Breathe boycott black word the president. We have so many, yeah,
we do.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
So you had these issues with your legs give us
the breakdown and what the issue was it happened ye.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Saw me yesterday?

Speaker 4 (34:31):
Is what dirt bikes and drugs.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Dirt bikes and drugs accuracy.

Speaker 4 (34:36):
Look, let's just be rare about it. You know, at
the end of the day, I.

Speaker 5 (34:39):
Loved playing in the streets where it was skateboarding, riding bikes,
dirt bikes, stealing bikes, you know, jumping on whatever bike
I could get on. You know, I just was one
of them dudes that loved to love to do those extremes.

Speaker 4 (34:52):
Mm A, boxing and surfing. Throw it at me more time.
I'm with it. Let's go, let's rock. I had what
I came home from prison.

Speaker 5 (35:01):
A couple of years after I came home, had wrecked
the bike and be born.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
I was riding a wheelie.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
I had some gravel torn my legs up and the
gravel kind of eat, you know, it.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
Dig into your skin, it and and it messes. And again.
I was one of them people.

Speaker 5 (35:17):
I think time I was dating the nurse and she
helped me clean it out, and she was telling me
go to the hospital. But I you know, I just
it wasn't me. I was i'mna be all right. I
got a strong body, it's gonna heal. So I tried
to take care of it for over ten years, and
and you know, it had some issues. It would my
legs would swell, they would ramp. It was, you know,

(35:40):
waking up in constant pain. And you know, at the
end of the day, you got so much that you
want to do, so much that you are doing, and then.

Speaker 4 (35:48):
Still striving to do that. I always put myself last.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
And people depending on you and people because we would
be like, I mean, can you go to Chicago and
you're like, okay, well.

Speaker 5 (35:59):
Let's go right And then that also had an effect
on the people that loved you and are really trying
to get you to take care of yourself, get checked
out and all that stuff, and not listening to them.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
You know, that's what hurts me today.

Speaker 5 (36:14):
It's like, you know, all the people that kept telling me, yo,
just go get it checked out, do this, do that.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
You got to take care of your health.

Speaker 5 (36:21):
You know, it's it's I mean, what can I say,
I'm half the man I used to be because of
it because I didn't listen.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
But the reality is it was so much pain.

Speaker 5 (36:31):
It was so much just trying to stay the course,
you know, I do whatever it took to take that
pain a wet and just keep me, you know, grinded.
And so eventually, at the time I was up and down,
I had the spinal injury and infection in two thousand
and twenty three up leave and that damn they left

(36:52):
me paralyzed. And I went to the hospital and took
me like seven months to heal from that and got
up back walking again and felt one hundred percent got
strong again, but the pain never left, you know what
I mean. And so I continue to do what I
do and and whatever it took to take that pain away,
I was doing that.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
And you know, I had been out.

Speaker 5 (37:14):
Of work from the spinal cord injury and kind of
got out of the loop of making money, and so
I was grinding on the nonprofit, you know, trying to
do the concerts, trying to figure out any way I
could to at least keep the keep beats alive, you.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (37:33):
So I I just put too much time in and
I had thought I had rolled my ankle.

Speaker 4 (37:40):
My ankle started to swell.

Speaker 5 (37:41):
This is we were supposed to have the Super Lit
Holiday benefit last December twenty.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
Sixth week of the This is twenty twenty four, twenty five.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
This was twenty four, yes, twenty four, And so the
week before the concert, my ankle started swell up, turned
a little red, and I was like, you know, I
think I just rolled my ankle.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
I got another week. I got a lot of pushing
to do. I'm just gonna push through.

Speaker 5 (38:09):
And a couple of days later, I think it was
Jules and Jeffrey found me dead on my on my
you know, on my living room floor or in the couch.

Speaker 4 (38:18):
I'm not sure where I was.

Speaker 5 (38:19):
You had come down, so you might know better than me,
and you know I was septic. The affection had gotten
so bad it was septic. I caught something called necrotitis fasciitis,
which is another infection that is basically a flesh eating disease,
and it started in my right leg, but my left

(38:43):
arm got eaten away. I had seven surgeries toward the hand, up,
toward the back of my arm, back of my head,
just different places.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
But my body was basically killing itself, eating itself.

Speaker 5 (38:55):
And I remember the only piece that I've remember, and
I didn't know it was Carl at the time, but
I was in the hospital bed. I didn't know where
I was, and I guess Carmen had posed as my
sister to get me to sign the papers to amputate
the legs, and she just kept kind of pushing me

(39:16):
and hitting me, like, yo, you want to live right,
you want to.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
Live right, because otherwise they were going to just let
you go.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
They were going to let me die.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
And so I remember briefly, like my eyes open and
someone saying, if you want to live, signed.

Speaker 4 (39:30):
Here, and I couldn't. I just made a mark. I
couldn't sign anything, and next thing I know, I woke up.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
But you said because I want to make sure for
legal purposes. You were asked multiple times and you said yes.

Speaker 4 (39:44):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
You were the most clear because we understood that if
you didn't want to that you could go. And I
think with Carmen when she said brother, like we always
say that. So as soon as you know, that's like,
that's my brother, that's my brother, and so they were like,
this is your brother. Okay, well you better talk to
your brother because if he doesn't right now make the decision,

(40:07):
he's not going to make it. And you I think that, well,
first of all, you are already, like you said, you were gone.
I mean it had to be resuscitated, and I think
probably more than likely in the next few hours you
had been gone, because they amputated your legs like that.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
And they did it twice. I died three times on
that table.

Speaker 5 (40:28):
They had cut my legs off on thirteenth below the meat,
and then two days later they cut him above. And
it was, I mean, it was wild, like.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
The the waking up, you know, five weeks later.

Speaker 5 (40:48):
However many weeks later it was and not having your
legs and not being able to move any part of it.

Speaker 4 (40:54):
I could only move my head. I couldn't talk. I
had to trake in. You know.

Speaker 5 (40:58):
My little niece is making cardboard thing with the alphabet
on it and pointing to each letter to try and communicate,
to see if I had brain function, which proved to
be like a super helpful thing because then I could
communicate with.

Speaker 4 (41:12):
Everybody like my mind is still working. I was in
in the coma.

Speaker 5 (41:17):
I could hear people yelling at me, screaming, crying, praying.
I could hear a bunch of different things, and I
could feel the pain like it was rough.

Speaker 4 (41:28):
But I think one of the things.

Speaker 5 (41:29):
That had, you know, kind of helped me deal with
the pain and not being able to communicate that I
needed more pain medication, and you know, certain nurses whatever.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
There was a bunch of different stuff in that. Trying
to work through that and make yourself kind of figure out, you.

Speaker 5 (41:49):
Know, that you can get through this was I you know,
everything in Palestine had been happening for almost a year
and a half at that point, and so my whole
thinking was like these kids over there and people over
there there, they have no anesthesia, they got no pain meds,
they got no nothing. I got the best drugs in
the world. Maybe I'm not getting as much I think

(42:12):
I need. You know, it's you just you won't make it,
Like if they making it, you won't make it. Which
was nuts, but but yeah, it was. It was a
challenge to wake up, you know, in a whole new
world and not be able to move and not be
able to communicate. But I will say, and this is

(42:33):
another reason why I love y'all. It's waking up and
seeing y'all there every week, you know, multiple times a week,
coming in, you know, laughing, joking, you know, just on
the phone, making plans, you know, really trying to get
people to do this and do that.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
Talk to that nurse.

Speaker 5 (42:51):
Now I'll get in here to make it helping me
out with the dry mouth and the busted lips and
getting you know, some vast lean lip glow or whatever.
Was yeah, vasline to make you know, get that go
away like that. It was it was waking up to
real family, including my real family, in the building all
the all day, every day, and that's that's really what

(43:14):
kept me alive.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
And yeah, it was, it was. It was very real
to me, you know, just seeing you like and I
felt I had to be there, like at least once
or twice a week, would just come popping, you know,
sometimes just to check on you and just watching you
casually just get stronger, stronger, like because we really, like

(43:35):
I said, we really for a minute, maybe just we
didn't know, Like you said, you died three times and
it was that type of situation. But when I sit
in I never knew. And I didn't know about the drugs.
I didn't know about the bicycle. I didn't know about
any of these things. So like the way that you

(43:57):
was able to just keep this from us, I guess
you know, we didn't. Nobody could have told me that
you was using any time, just I would have never thought,
you know, maybe you smoking some weed's up. I would
have never thought anything past that.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
Because it wasn't to get hot, it was to alleviate pain.
It was to keep going, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
But addiction is addiction.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
It is so once you start something and you get
addicted you don't then your body craves it. It doesn't
matter how it started, because I was just trying to sleep.
When I started taking pills. I wasn't going to get
the pills to no, I was trying to sleep. In fact,
in the past, when I've taken drugs recreationally and I

(44:36):
never got addicted, it was simply like, you know, fun
and that's it partying. But when I said I have
a need that is very specific and I'm looking for
something like to scratch an itch, which was that I
couldn't rest, that's when the addiction happened. Because once it
solved that problem, the problems sort of persist, even if

(44:59):
it's in your mind. And so I just want to
say that, because you know, I think I'm an addiction
relief specialist.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Now that's my new title. I love it.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
Help you be through.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
I mean seriously that because it's you you have to
ensure that you share the real experience. If it's if
it's gonna be worth it, why God saved your life,
that's right, if it's going to be worth it for
God to say, I brought.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
You in this world and I could have took you out, and.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
No, I'm just gonna say a little piece of this.
I literally, in that.

Speaker 5 (45:39):
Process of dying three times I flew with the a
jeels I saw where we go. I laughed a joke
with who I think was Angel Gabriel, you.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (45:50):
I literally saw thousands of angels and fly into what
I could see, you know what what heaven looked like.
And it was the craziest experience I've ever had in
my life, with the most beautiful and most peaceful.

Speaker 4 (46:04):
And when I got that finger pointing back like now
you ain't.

Speaker 5 (46:08):
Going there, you know type situation, it reaffirmed that I'm
here for a purpose and that there's a lot more work.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
Going back to the addiction thing. For all of this time,
nobody knew anything. We had no idea that there was
any We did not know the severity of the issue,
which means that nobody had the reason to say, oh, well,
how are you coping right. But I think that that
speaks to the healthcare system, which kind of turns the

(46:40):
page to why we're really here, because you know Julianne Aufer,
she calls everybody and just say, I.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
Mean still dealing with a lot.

Speaker 3 (46:50):
You know, there were highs even though you were like
with like at the bottom, but there were highs because
it's like, Okay, we got doctors actually care and they
were fighting to make sure you live. They would say, today,
three o'clock, we amputating his arm, and it's like, no way.
We decided at one point that we were going to

(47:13):
encourage your mom to let you go right, because at
the point that they started saying they were gonna take
your arms, we were like, there is no way that
ro Mein wants to wake up with no legs and
an arm or maybe both, because at one point they
were saying both, and then it kind of became one.
We're like, it's not he's going to be so depressed,

(47:35):
and she was very stressed because she had to make
that decision. They kept asking her, should we go more
or should we stop?

Speaker 1 (47:43):
What do you want us to do?

Speaker 3 (47:44):
Because the flesh eating virus is tearing him up and
they were like.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
Do we keep going or do you want? What do
you want?

Speaker 3 (47:52):
And she's like, I don't know because on one end, I
want my son to live, but it's very selfish to
try to keep somebody knowing that it's a condition that's
gone a little bit too far. And my song was saying,
we want, I mean to live, but if he can't
use his hands to do the thing he loves, which
is editing, what the right you know what I'm saying.

(48:13):
So we everybody was like we finally was like, she
can't get this is too much. Then they would come
back and say we were able to clean the arm damn,
Like that's ww I like, whoa, He's gonna live. So
that told us keep fighting, keep fighting. So then we
started being like, no matter what they say, it's gonna
be good. Everybody's you know, and you continue to defy

(48:38):
the odds so many times. But it feels like if
we had known how serious this was. And I hope
that you can speak to for people who are dealing
with health challenges, it's a pain.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
They know it's been there.

Speaker 3 (48:52):
You know, there's a feeling they know, Suchess, it's a back,
it's a thing without the stuff that all of us
walking around with something that we know like I probably
should address this, and we never really do, and then
a little thing becomes a big thing.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Talk about that like you know.

Speaker 4 (49:10):
What I mean said, listen, health is wealth.

Speaker 5 (49:12):
That's the biggest lesson I took away from this thing.
And I heard people say it all the time for years,
but never really My health wasn't good, so I didn't
really equate how important it was to invest in your health.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
Yeah, and invest in yourself and.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
Invest in but how do you invest in health when
the healthcare system is telling you is not giving you
the things you need?

Speaker 5 (49:35):
That is the craziest thing. I think it starts with
mental health, right. I think the reason why I had
so much progress and so many games and wins and
comebacks is because I've always had that pot outlooking and
I can you know, I'd rather laugh to keep from
crying than you know, really sit there and dwell on
it and figure out a solution.

Speaker 4 (49:54):
Right.

Speaker 5 (49:55):
One of the things we always talked about is we,
you know, solution based, let's figure out the solution. So
it's partly what your what.

Speaker 4 (50:04):
You can train your brain to think around.

Speaker 5 (50:08):
Around how you are going to survive or what you
know method you are going to use to get to
a better place. I think with folks that are struggling
with you know, I got this pain, this ache, this whatever,
and I'm gonna do what I know does.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
To fix it.

Speaker 5 (50:25):
Rather than you know, go to the hospital and get
it checked out, I would say, with or without insurance,
go get it checked out right, because it is your
life is too important, your family's feelings and the people
that care about you. The work that you're doing is
far more important than you thinking you know everything and

(50:46):
can push through with whatever help or no help. And
I would also say, like the system, we need more
advocates to figure out how the system is going to
get fixed. It's we are It's terrible. It's the worst
thing in the world when it comes to what you
need to be provided and what they're actually gonna give

(51:10):
and the hoops you got to jump through to get it.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
So that brings us to you know, we're talking about healthcare.
We currently experiencing a government shut you know, and one
of the main things is healthcare.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (51:25):
One of the big fights is healthcare. So when we
look at this situation, after you was explaining to us
the seriousness of what you're dealing with healthcare. I remember
when you was released from the hospital. You know, they
said they was going to have someone there with you
to be with you, that you were in process of
getting pastaatics right you you were making so much progress,

(51:48):
like you was getting the workouts, all of these things.
Was so much positive. Everything was gonne, and then one
day it just turned into something that stopped.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
Yeah, so everything stopped.

Speaker 5 (52:00):
I had a bunch of games, Like when I came
out the com I couldn't lift my arms, I couldn't
move anything. A couple months in the rehab, I was
getting in and out of the chair, could basically do
everything in myself. Got home, was moving, got into physical therapy,
going three four times a week, working house, and was,
by the grace of God, was able to get a

(52:22):
prosthetic place to start working with me before the insurance
got approved and they built the legs custom build them
for me.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
And how much of the legs if in insurance you
would have had to pay?

Speaker 1 (52:36):
What if the insurance covered, I wouldn't have paid that
pay not one down but without.

Speaker 5 (52:41):
Without it's basically sixty two thousand per leg. Wow, it's
twenty five thousand just for the feet, the shins, and
the thigh sockets and the knees of forty thousand a piece.
So it's like one hundred and eight thousand total. My
math might not be mathing right now, but it's get it.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
One hundred thousand dollars what we need to be clear.

Speaker 3 (53:04):
Let's get to the to the end first. Then we
go back to the story. We need one hundred thousand
dollars with some legs to.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Shoot wait, feet, chins, thighs, and knees.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
Yeah, physical therapy and it's all the same, and that's
more money.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
It's like a year long process.

Speaker 5 (53:24):
You know, easily for me to be able to at
least be moving freely on my I mean, I'll be
rolling in that wheelchair.

Speaker 4 (53:32):
You know at the end of the day.

Speaker 5 (53:33):
It was it was a lot of big gains. And
you know from the hospital bed, they can't tell me.

Speaker 4 (53:38):
File for Social Security.

Speaker 5 (53:40):
You were a filmmaker thirty years, you paid into it,
get your money, you disabled me.

Speaker 4 (53:45):
So I did that in July.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
I was approved. I got my first check in August.
There's only two thousand a month. It's like twenty one hundred.
Our rent is thirty two fifties. I don't even cover you.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Know, none of that. So womans I got approved.

Speaker 5 (54:01):
They cut off the food stamps, they cut off the
cash assistance, they cut off the Medicaid, and I brought
receipts I got.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
And you had never been on these things.

Speaker 4 (54:09):
Before, No, I think when I came out of prison.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
Yeah, but I mean you had not been.

Speaker 4 (54:14):
No, I've been paying in that's right.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
Because you know they gonna say that the wealthy king. No,
that is asking for more money on the tax pace.
All go through it exactly just right.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
We be working and paying for that to make sure
anybody is insurance.

Speaker 4 (54:31):
That's right. That's that's the hood insurance there is.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
That's right, that's it.

Speaker 5 (54:36):
And you know, so everything got cut off. This was
July thirty first, everything come up. We October fourteenth now,
so two and a half months. I've had no physical therapy.
I've had all of my and at the time, insurance
company that I had in medicaid kept denying the prosthetics
after they already approved them.

Speaker 4 (54:57):
So they approved them and the people.

Speaker 5 (54:59):
Had submitted for the feet, the shins, and the thighs,
and they were like, we want to.

Speaker 4 (55:04):
Try some different needs to see what works best for you.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
You're a very active person, you strong, you know some
things might work better than others, so let's try them.
So we got to approve for everything they built it
except for the knees. They said, we're going to submit
the knees after we find which one works for you.
When they found it and they submitted them, then they
denied the knees, and then they went back and denied
everything else.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
So I had four appeals, state complaints.

Speaker 5 (55:28):
Was talking to the Attorney General's office, a million different
organizations trying to get just to get them to approve
them so I could have them like it was, I
document everything. There's footage of me walking on these legs
to show the insurance people like this will help me
in my situation.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
And the longer you sit in a chair.

Speaker 5 (55:48):
You just constantly bent, so you deteriorate and your hips,
your back, all that kind of stuff. And any person
that has had amputation will tell you it's best to start.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
Walking right away.

Speaker 5 (55:59):
So everyone was advocating for that. Then we you know,
the Social Security got approved. Everything got cut off, and
I'm filing appeals to try and get it back.

Speaker 4 (56:09):
Spend eight hours in the Saint Nicholas Job.

Speaker 5 (56:12):
Center on on two fifth, trying to work with the
people there, can't get nowhere. Hours on the phone every day,
five six hours, not just like two hours just on
hold to even talk to somebody who didn't transfer me
back to the loop that's of course, and in the
day and you're still on hold, thinking somebody gonna answer
in around ten o'clock, they you know, the phone just

(56:33):
hang up. So going through all those processes of trying
to navigate how I can get this thing approved, what's crazy?
And then you know, once you get approved for Social Security,
Medicare supposed to come with that. So I'm thinking, okay,
at least I got a route there. Let me try
and get the Medicare instead of the Medicaid. But you

(56:53):
don't get Medicare until you've had two years of payments
from disability. So now it's they saying I can't even
get Medicare until July or August of twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
So I'm trying to explain to them.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
So I'm just supposed to sit here and let my
hips in my back, you know, interiorate while while I'm
waiting for y'all to decide even if I can apply, like,
that's not even guaranteeing you're gonna get it, So I,
you know, just start thinking like there's got to be
another way, right, And I went to many organizations that
help folks like me and try and navigate the system,

(57:29):
and then we get the shut.

Speaker 4 (57:31):
So anything that I was working on that and regardless
is not going anywhere.

Speaker 5 (57:36):
It's sitting on somebody's desk, and that stuff can take
six months, you know, just for them to even look
at it and start a case.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
So you know, it's just.

Speaker 5 (57:46):
A it's been the most frustrating process all of this,
which makes me go back to my point of, you know,
health as wealth.

Speaker 4 (57:55):
Don't let it get to this point.

Speaker 5 (57:57):
You know, invest in yourself, care about yourself, and get
yourself right before it get worse.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
Terrible.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
And if we're going to go straight to the issue,
it also kind of puts you back into the loop
of what's the pain management plan? Right, because now not
just physically like you said to hips and all that,
but then mentally it's kind of like damn stressed out

(58:26):
trying to do it the right way that you can't
get the things you need, and you start seeing yourself
or feeling that at least I think, you know, feeling
like frustrated and frustration can easily turn to people reverting
to old habits, you know. And so it's like this
system is so it's designed to spin you back around

(58:48):
and then it wants to tell you that your other
problems because they won't approve anything quickly, but they will
deny you in twenty four hours.

Speaker 4 (58:57):
Oh that's great, might hit the button you get.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Off and it's automatic.

Speaker 5 (59:02):
No, yeah, that part is crazy. And I think, you know,
no matter how we no matter how we look at it,
when it comes to the harm that this the way
that this medical system is set up. What that causes
to people that are really striving to get better, to
be better, to you know, to contribute to society, It's

(59:27):
a trap.

Speaker 4 (59:28):
It's like probation is a trap. This is a track.

Speaker 5 (59:31):
The medical system, the insurance system is set up to
see you fail and them you know, spending it.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
But they still have getting money.

Speaker 5 (59:40):
And they still want to They're still sometimes thousands of
dollars a month to get that platinum insurance.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
You so.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
And by the way, once you get the legs all
worked out, so say, people pour in donations, which we're
hoping that from ten to one hundred to maybe somebody
has one hundred thousand dollars out there who wants to
take this on. But once that happens, there's still so
much work to be done to get you walking, to

(01:00:08):
get you moving, to get you you know, to make
sure you can use them properly. And I've been told
we had a double amputee if I remember correctly, because
we interviewed assist about the name of Keisha Green. I
think her organization is called Amplified for Amputees, and we
had her on and she talked about the paint that

(01:00:29):
is associated with the prosthetics. In fact, I think she
decided not to use them because she didn't like the
way it made her feel. And I don't know if
that was her consistent decision, but at one point she
was worried about that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
So now this is a process. You don't just slap
them on and get the work.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
You got to actually get them right, you know, and
go through a whole process.

Speaker 4 (01:00:53):
A strength.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
So you need health insurance.

Speaker 5 (01:01:00):
Not only that, like it's when you have an amputation,
you have what's called phantom pains. So to this moment,
I could still feel the weight of my legs, my ankles,
my feet, my toes, all of that, and it's like
a constant electro pole stabbing, burning, just it's just constant pain.
Like that's what I feel. And they say it goes
away for some people. They say it's worse or less

(01:01:20):
for others. But I feel that all day, every day.
And then yes, of course, going through the process of
getting the prosthetics fitted, your legs are gonna shrink during
that process. There's a whole bunch of things that are
gonna change over time. And the pinching, the aching, the building,
the muscle strength, all of that stuff hurts. And the

(01:01:42):
medical system is designed to just pump you full of drugs,
get you back on the hook so that so that
you stop working yourself out and become you know, it's
like a consumable product. You become a consumable product because
you keep meeting this medication that medication.

Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
And they're not just doing this out of the kindness
of day.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
Hard get money off of each prescription, you get each
pt appointment, all of that, right, it's a business. We
don't have universal health care where other countries do, which
makes no sense, but at the end of the day,
all of those things are set up in almost a
cycle of violence, a cycle of harm for people to
really make it through. But there are plenty of people that,

(01:02:24):
despite the system, despite the cycle, will absolutely push as
hard as they can. I feel like I'm one of
those people in the sense of I don't care if
I'm on my floor doing planks and push ups and
standing on my hands or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:02:36):
If i gotta walk down the stairs all my hands,
I'm gonna figure that out, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:02:41):
So at this point, it's whatever it takes, and we
know it takes a bite, right, So at the end
of the day, I appreciate and love y'all for bringing
me on here to help me tell the story and
get some support.

Speaker 4 (01:02:52):
But it is one of those.

Speaker 5 (01:02:53):
Things where the system is designed and set up to
see you fail, and I refuse to fail.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
Yeah, it's it's definitely designed. But you know, when we
when I was hearing a story you have posted on Instagram,
and like, like always, we live in the same I mean,
we'll never say anything. He just comes to Hey, he's
giving you a huggs. You don't know he's dealing with
these things, you know, but when I seen, like, you know,
the fact that he has been working, you know, jobs

(01:03:21):
has slowed up. He had a job that was amazing job,
then it got slowed up. We're dealing with all this
type of recession right now, and the man don't like recession.
This is doing in depression and now you're talking about them.
It doesn't have healthcare to continue on. So it's like
it was just overwhelming to me, you know, And I
was like, you know, we got to amplify I mean

(01:03:43):
story and let the world here what's going on, not
just his personal life, but just how the system is
just fucking him around. Like the system is really fucking
people around. And the average everyday person who doesn't have resources,
who doesn't have friends like us, who can't come on
here and just tell us story, is dealing with this
every day. There's so many people that are dealing with

(01:04:04):
That's why I want to be hearing people talk about
this shit that's rich people problems. I'm like, ya, don't
even understand that average person every day is dealing with
so much shit that you don't even identify with, and
you think that people care about that dumb shit you're
talking about. People are talking about just regular health care.
You know, people, we're focusing on so much other shit
in this world, especially in this country, and and people

(01:04:27):
are mad that people are fighting for health care we live.
There are people, there are countries, there are nations where
health care is free likes a thing. And we are
one of the richest nations in the world. Our people
don't have free health care. That means that we are
invested in death. That we're literally invested in death. Like

(01:04:47):
I watched It's sickness that this is one of the
commodities of America. It's sickness and death. You know. The
pharmaceutical companies they either don't give you the medication you need,
or they give you medication into you die, and then
they provide they make you sick, right, they do all
type of shit to make you sick, and then they
give you something.

Speaker 3 (01:05:06):
No environmental environment makes you sick. The food makes you sick.
Then the pharmaceutical company is supposed to fix it, but
they don't always.

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
And they're not giving you the right stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
To maintain that's right, that's maintained, And it's really fucked up.
You know, I watched my mother pass away, you know,
but they're just watching her dealing with this cancer, just
understanding how going to the hospitals and seeing people in
the state that they are in, knowing that they're giving
you all these fake chemo ship all these things that

(01:05:38):
they know are more than likely it's not going to
help you lit But they're charging you out the wise zoo.
You're paying for fucking medication that you can't even afford.
They charging you all this time to stay in the hospital.
They're taking your little checks to you work your whole life,
and then the money that you got saved the way
you got to them to keep you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:58):
Remember you used to pay it one time, you like
eight hundred dollars the medication.

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
And it's like knowing that this medication is only just
giving her relief, is not helping. It's just giving her
relief so that they can string her along long enough
to fucking take every down for her until she passed away.
And it's like, Yo, this ship is not okay. You know,
it's just not okay at all. So you know, well,
I just I'm glad that we have resources, we have
a platform that we can be able to amplify your store.

(01:06:25):
Hopefully some people would here, you know, and be able
to invest in your life because Americas invest in death.
And I want to be able to highlight you as
a good person.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
Of the best people that I know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
It's not really really good people who always have a
positive world, always got something to colm and say. Even
at the worst that they deal with, demand was always positive.
So I'm glad to be able to utilize my platform
and we will be donating to make sure that we
could do whatever we can. Hopefully someone else sees it,
maybe get a billionaire. And this said, we're gonna make
sure we get everything.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
We need a hundred thousand dollars for.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Yeah, I want to earn this myself too, and he's
one of the best video directors editor. That's right ever.

Speaker 3 (01:07:13):
See, I want to say you said something about advocacy
that when you woke up, you knew there were people there.
Your mom never left the never left your side, stayed
in the chair overnight, sometimes there every single day, your
family was there or we were there. Somebody was in
there every day. And that advocacy is so important because

(01:07:33):
I remember when my son's mom, Miss Patricia, was in
in you know, she was like always in the hospital
at this point. I remember that she used to say
I need my son at this hospital in the morning
when the doctors walk around, because if you let the
doctors pass and the time is gone, they don't think

(01:07:54):
you have anybody supporting you, and you're not a priority
on that board.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
You want to name on that come see.

Speaker 5 (01:08:01):
Me one hundred percent. And I will say two things
to that. One that it was because of y'all. There
was like thirty people in the waiting.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Room every day, you know, every day.

Speaker 5 (01:08:11):
For a long time, and people seeing me around the
clock until visiting hours got cut off.

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
The only person that could stay would be my mother.

Speaker 5 (01:08:19):
And that is part of why I got such extremely good,
tremendous care while I was in the hospitals.

Speaker 4 (01:08:26):
But I would also say things were not all the
way right.

Speaker 5 (01:08:31):
That night shift, That overnight shifts are straight body sex
and and and it was because there was no one
there they could pray on the way, someone who couldn't communicate, you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:41):
Know, the best I could do is make a noise
with my mouth.

Speaker 5 (01:08:44):
They wouldn't pick up the card that I could hit
the you know to communicate.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
There are there are systems in place that make it
look real good.

Speaker 5 (01:08:55):
And and without that advocacy, without the family. Without the friends,
you are absolutely stuck in the trapping and they might
let you go. I saw plenty of people get taken
out of that ICU that probably would have made it
had they had someone there.

Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
Somebody there well, no health no health insurance, no food stamps,
no none of the things that a person who it
hasn't even been a year yet, right. I thought that
that's what Donald Trump, this is what he means, like
he said, in terms of this this fight that we're
in with the federal government. The Democrats have opted to

(01:09:33):
shut the government down because they want to block They
want to block Trump and his administration from cutting Medicare
and Medicaid.

Speaker 4 (01:09:44):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
They say that that would be devastating, which we know
is true, and so that's why they opted to do this,
to do the shutdown. The Republican's response is, we're not
trying to cut Medicare and Medicaid for people who really
need it. We're just cutting So for me, let's just
say it's true. I'm gonna go with their theory. Let's

(01:10:05):
say it's true. That would mean that a person like you,
how can you be considered waste?

Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
Like you're a person the system should if it goes
by what he said, the system should be wanting to
make sure you're okay. You come out of the hospital.
You don't have a way to just go straight to work.
The fact that you're even trying to work in a
year is crazy. Most people would be trying to figure
out how to survive after.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
As you said, you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:34):
Can literally feel your toes and your legs. You believe
it's there, and then you look, there's a mental health thing.
It's so much, but nonetheless you like, YO, put me
to work, I will work. So in order for you
to say I'm gonna work, because you don't just film,
I mean just edit. You also film, getting some legs
might keep you from being on the system. So I'm

(01:10:56):
trying to understand if what they say, if they want
to cut waste, then you should be the ideal candidate
to have all the things you need to get yourself
back up and run it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
And that is not what they mean.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
And that's why the Democrats in this situation, you know,
we challenge them all the time, but that's why the
Democrats in this situation are right to hold the line
because they know that these folks are trying to just
like they fired multiple people. I think they fired the
majority of the special education folks in the Department of Education,

(01:11:28):
just like they fired almost ninety one thousand I think
is the number of federal workers within the first month
or two of them being in office, just like three
hundred and eighteen plus. We think it's over four hundred thousand,
maybe five hundred thousand. Black women have been pushed out
of the workforce. All of this is about fulfilling Project

(01:11:49):
twenty twenty five, and we cannot be party to it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
So where we have to, we gotta hold the line.

Speaker 3 (01:11:54):
Yes, they are casualties, but folks need to understand there's
a war that has been waged again stuff. I think
you're an example of how that war is taking shape.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
It's not a Trump issue because Biden.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
It could have been under Biden probably on the old
Bamba probably, But the people in charge have to take
the responsibility for doing what they said, which is to
take care of American people.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
So we love you.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
Yes, I love y'all. Thank y'all, Love you once again. Yes,
make sure that you follow me. We're telling me Instagram.

Speaker 5 (01:12:24):
Rumming it's all a underscore m ee and or just
follow rhymes for relief, follow nonprofit.

Speaker 4 (01:12:31):
Don't follow me?

Speaker 2 (01:12:31):
And do you have a go fund me?

Speaker 5 (01:12:33):
I do have a goal fund me, and and you know,
just to say it go fund me. You know they
be taking money out, so they'd be a scam. If
y'all have known me, you can hit the zel, you
can donate it Beats Rhymes and Relief.

Speaker 4 (01:12:43):
We have a trust.

Speaker 5 (01:12:44):
We'll put the link together and everybody can Tuesday Tuesday
own Adventures.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
Yes, right, that's right. Well we should go to go
fund me also and ask them to wave their.

Speaker 4 (01:12:53):
We need our own goal funding.

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
Well that's a fact. It's a bat, but we can.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
They have waved the feed before for you know, people
in situations, or at least lower their fee for people
or situations that felt, you know, something that was close
to their hearts or was you know, a case that
they wanted to advocate for as well. And I think
the same should apply here that you should be able
to get one hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
It's not even enough.

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
You really need probably a quarter million dollars to get
yourself back. You didn't talk about rent, you know, being
backed up, You didn't talk about how you eat every day,
all of that. But if we could get one hundred
thousand dollars, sir, one hundred thousand dollars, that's enough for
us to at least get you on.

Speaker 4 (01:13:38):
Your gotta change the game.

Speaker 5 (01:13:40):
And look, you know, like I said, it's it's about
how we can contribute back, how we get back in
the fight.

Speaker 4 (01:13:47):
How do I get back in the fight? Right? And
that's all I want to do, whether it's work, whether it's.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
Exactly and we wouldn't need a job and you need
some editing. I mean, it is made so all.

Speaker 5 (01:13:58):
We got the film Get Up, Stand Up's got a
whole new meeting now, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:14:02):
But if you if you do this work, this community work,
and the community won't show up for you, then it's
like why would anybody else want to jump in and
say and pick up the mantle?

Speaker 1 (01:14:15):
Thank you Raman.

Speaker 3 (01:14:16):
We appreciate you for coming on the TMI show.

Speaker 4 (01:14:21):
Appreciate you, Yes, yes, appreciate y'all.

Speaker 3 (01:14:24):
Does feel like you know, I feel like I'm so
excited that we have a platform where we could bring
friend Ramen on here and know that people will see
it and feel compassion for him.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
So that's like a good thing, yes, But then on
the other side.

Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
It feels heavy because I'm thinking about people who I
see on the streets all across the nation who are houseless,
who have amputations, arm leg you know, and you see them,
and and you never know a person's story. A person
who could have been completely normal, working, doing community work,

(01:15:07):
all the things now finds themselves in a situation that
can only spiral out of control. You don't have the
health insurance, you don't have Medicaid, you don't have health insurance,
you don't have any food support, you don't have the
things you need. You can't work so you can get
the money to pay the rent. I mean, it just

(01:15:29):
keeps spiraling and going and going and going until you
wake up one day and you're like, I don't even
know where to go. I don't even know which direction
to turn in. And then people end up having breakdowns,
like really having breakdowns, and then they're unable to function

(01:15:52):
in society and to act like everybody else is normal,
Like we're supposed to be the normal ones and they're
supposed to be abnormal, when actually we ought to be
saying something is wrong here, This is not normal at all.
So I feel like, you know, I'm glad to be
able to help him, but it just does feel a way.
It damn what could we do in this world to

(01:16:13):
change the way systems operate? And I don't know what
that answer is. Of course, we fight for it every
single day. We're fighting like hell to see to it
that there be some level of you know, of of
of humanity put back into our systems and into the
government and like that they see people over profits.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
But I just don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:16:38):
But I will say that God took Ramen's legs so
that he could walk, you know, and that is he
took his legs so he could walk because he was
not doing well, which we found out in December of
last year. And now we know that, you know, his
situation was really dire.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
And but look at him, like, you know, he's looking good.

Speaker 3 (01:17:03):
I remember you saying when you saw him days before this,
you were like, something's.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
Up with Ramian. Didn't look good.

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
I don't know what's going on. So he was really
really sick. And now he's looking bright. You know, it's
looking good, and we have to continue for.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
Him, definitely due you know, it's crazy when he said
that he was literally had passed away in the home.
I didn't really realize it, but that's what had happened.
You know. They had to perform like shock inside the house,
like pretty much like surgery in his house before he even.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
Drilled his legs. It was crazy, I.

Speaker 2 (01:17:37):
Think, before they even got him to the hospital. So,
you know, but by the grace of God, he's here,
you know, and used to look at him. He doesn't
look like a person. That's what was me. He doesn't.
He still has the energy of someone who is thriving
and living and he wants to work, right, He's not
just he didn't come up here for like just need
a hand that like, he wants to work. He wants

(01:17:57):
to be productive. You know, you do not you do
not see that level with all the time. So when
you see kind of spirit, you have to celebrate it.
You have to beifid. You know, God puts certain people
here for a reason. He is like motivation to me
when I see me every day and he's moved, you know,
and I'm like months ago the man couldn't even lift it,
like he said, he couldn't lift his arms up. And

(01:18:18):
now he's moving around, he's in the.

Speaker 4 (01:18:22):
Things.

Speaker 2 (01:18:24):
So he ain't got no, he don't have no person.
That's helping him. He ain't got no The man is
everywhere and he's always got a smile on his face.
So the fact that we could do that for it,
I mean, and just share his story, you know, the
good and the bad of his story, but just show
that the nature of the individual we met him on
the ground doing this work because he's about people. He's

(01:18:45):
for his people, and he's about the right thing. He's
about justice, he's about being able to provide resources and
services for the community. So the fact that we were
able to do the same for him is something. It's beautiful.
And then we talk about systems, right, and we're talking
about how this system is failing and all these things,

(01:19:08):
and that brings me to my I don't get it.
So we talk about the system that were talking about.
This Medicaid and healthcare situation is terrible. They're taking resources
from all the people in our community. So I'm looking
online people all the people, all people our communities losing
sun they losing jobs, healthcare, they losing snap benefits, all

(01:19:30):
type of things. So I've seen an article. This wasn't
the first article. First they had a whole sweep, so
they were like they were giving sweeps of people who
were using EBT cars. So you know, in the hood,
this is a regular thing. People be like, yo, a
little extra foodstams. I'm gonna sell you some food stamps.

(01:19:50):
You give me seventy dollars, I give you, give me
seventy cents on the dollar. You charge them a little
cheaper for foodstad and people need food is exchange because
you don't have much cash, So you you do it,
you might spend half of your money on the food
sid It's a little thing that goes on. Look, they've
been doing it for years now, and they're cracking down
giving people feeling these for it. I've seen some guy
who who owned the grocery store. He was buying food

(01:20:13):
stands from people at a certain rate. They locked him up.
They had a whole ring. It was going just locking
up people. They see you if you're using somebody else
EBT card, now they locking your ass up.

Speaker 1 (01:20:24):
Yeah, you shouldn't be using anybody else's EBT card.

Speaker 2 (01:20:26):
But I hear what you're saying, but I feel like
there's a reality of what we dealing saying you shouldn't
be using anybody else's EBT car because look, if I
got eight hundred.

Speaker 1 (01:20:35):
Dollars with the food stand then that means you need it.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
Okay, But I'll hear what you're saying. But if I
got eight hundred dollars with the food stamps, but I
don't have money to buy the basic essential, you give
me eight hundred dollars with the food stands, but you
give me one hundred and twenty or two hundred dollars
four kids, I barely can get anywhere with one hundred
twenty dollars. I'm like, Okay, we don't eat as much
as the average person. We might eat a little less.

(01:20:58):
We might only spend five dollars for food a month,
five hundred dollars worth of food of month, So I
might be able to say, okay, you give me a
certain money cash, I'd let you the other three hundred
dollars a month full. Sad. That's been going on for years,
isn't It's going on for decades.

Speaker 4 (01:21:12):
That's that's.

Speaker 3 (01:21:14):
But I understand what you're saying. But it is still
fraud to take somebody's card and act like you are
that person, you are identity. No, they do, some people do.
And you said I'll let you use my card, And
I'm saying I'm not willing.

Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
But most people go with you the shot.

Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
I am not that that's that is not always the case.
People do slip their cards around and let somebody else
go and use the card, and you are pretty much
presenting yourself as a person that you are not. And
I'm saying that that behavior in general also happens in
scams and other fraudulent behavior.

Speaker 1 (01:21:55):
Now what I think.

Speaker 3 (01:21:57):
What I think is that there is a difference between
when I went to the grocery store, I picked you
up eggs, milk, whatever. I don't care if it's crab legs.
I'm not trying to judge people or say what they
should eat or how or whatever via vaena, sausages, sardines,

(01:22:19):
whatever thatlse. I'm just whatever you get them, yes, whatever
it is, and when I bring it home, I might
give you two hundred three hundred dollars worth of groceries
for one hundred and eighty dollars. Okay, I'm not saying
that that's right. I'm saying that that is very different
from I let you go into a place with a

(01:22:41):
car that has my name, that is connected to the
federal government in the state, and you are now presenting
yourself as me.

Speaker 1 (01:22:50):
I think that should not happen.

Speaker 2 (01:22:52):
Okay, hear what you're saying. But if I give you
my bank call to go to the bank, and I
authorize you to take my money out the bank, it's
not a crime.

Speaker 1 (01:22:59):
You know that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
That's actually you're not really supposed but it's not a crime.

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
Nobody. So so basically what I'm saying, Okay, but it
is it's my name, this is my name on my car.
These are resources that was allocated to me. So I
gave you and said, hey, you can use my card.
I'm giving you my pin number, so you can utilize
my car to get you some groceries.

Speaker 1 (01:23:20):
But you know that when if you get caught with
that car, we know.

Speaker 5 (01:23:24):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:23:25):
I don't think nobody thought because they wasn't.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
Doing I never normalizing crime.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
What I'm trying to tell you it was I had
never heard this black woman. So I'm to fast forward
to my I don't get it. A black woman faces
ten years in prison for using food stamps to buy
food for a bakes or now she used her own
food stamp car. This ain't what you're talking about. She used,
she had food stamps, she utilized her own food stamp

(01:23:51):
card to go to the store. And because she didn't
just buy food, she was able to bottle the resources
she brought. The this was she brought the cake mixed
and the bat and all that, and she was selling
making a couple undred dollars all of the food steps
that she got for her. And the lady is facing

(01:24:13):
is in prison. Now, I understand that you might say, Okay,
you don't need these resources. Maybe you want to cut
it off. Maybe you give a butt ten years in prison,
people are barely making it, and you find a way
that you say, you know what, I'm gonna use these
these resources to be able to survive. I got this.
I'm gonna get me a couple of extra dollars on
the side, and y'all gonna lock the lady of forteen years?

(01:24:37):
Like what else?

Speaker 1 (01:24:38):
Here's what I think.

Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
I think, Why not make her pay your ball?

Speaker 1 (01:24:45):
Why you even think that? Like, if you're.

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
Gonna do I think for ten years, ten years plus
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, fine, it's unreal. It's
just no way you're gonna make me think that's okay.
Listen to me. In the in the ghetto, people have
figured out how to survive all the time, this little hustle.
You might sell you the cigarettes. People had the little
si before. When you can't go to the store to

(01:25:09):
get cigarettes, they sell you a little cigarettes. It's always
a little hustle, like you know, you might have a
little extra something. You got the cake sell I make
good cakes. Somebody come buy me some cakes from the
house because they know or did she make the good cakes.
So now because I utilize the resources that you gave
me to buy food, to be able to sell, to
be able to make a little extra, you're gonna tell

(01:25:29):
me you're gonna charge me two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars and tell me I could face ten years in prison.

Speaker 3 (01:25:36):
Come on, I would say that I don't get it.
I would say that number one this country prioritized is
the wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:25:47):
Hell yeah, that's not like strong things.

Speaker 3 (01:25:50):
And you have a president right in this moment it's
cutting deals. All He's got his son being pitched to
go work at TikTok, which his administration has helped.

Speaker 1 (01:26:08):
To cut a deal.

Speaker 3 (01:26:11):
Where now the people who he's in business with, right,
somebody would say, well, how do you know they're in business?
Maybe not, but they got special interests for sure will
now own TikTok. So he gets to put his foot

(01:26:32):
in the water over here, dip with the business side. Right,
have his family all caught up in Gaza, you know,
in the rebuilding of Gaza, with their development stuff, all
of that Arab nations they now are talking to them
about investing in the rebuilding of Gaza without the people

(01:26:55):
of Gaza being at the forefront of the conversation. I
mean they they're doing all these deals. The week before last,
I think he said he was going to do one
hundred percent tariffs on China, and the stock market drop
is like a terrible day.

Speaker 1 (01:27:12):
People lost all kinds.

Speaker 3 (01:27:14):
And then in the next day, the next day or
a day or two, he came back and said, oh,
we worked it out. We don't have to do this now,
all of a sudden, he's back friendly with China, and
the stock rises like it's a game that is happening
right in front of our eyes. But the system has
always been designed to squeeze the little person who's hustling

(01:27:37):
two dollars, while the people that are making two billion dollars,
they're able to live free and not be held accountable
at all.

Speaker 1 (01:27:46):
So I don't agree. I did say.

Speaker 3 (01:27:48):
What I agree with is that or what I think
is you shouldn't be taking anybody's card that's got names
and whatever and and and acting as if you're that person,
because I think even to your point about using a
bank card, you're not going in there presenting yourself.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
That's not really true because if.

Speaker 1 (01:28:08):
I can't go to that teller, you can go cannot
go to the teller.

Speaker 2 (01:28:11):
Okay. Now I'm saying this to use if if the
card does not have a.

Speaker 1 (01:28:17):
Picture on it, that they don't do that anything.

Speaker 2 (01:28:19):
Okay, So that means that I'm not presenting myself as anybody.
I'm utilizing a card that was provided to somebody. So
I'm not false representing myself as anybody. So if you
give me a card and there's no picture on it, right,
and you don't ask me for picture, I did, and
I have and I don't have fake I d I'm
not false representing myself as you know card that was
given to me by the owner of the card, and

(01:28:40):
I was authorized to.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
Utilize just like you are. Front.

Speaker 3 (01:28:43):
First of all, that is illegal because the rules in
like medicaid and food stamps and all of that says
that no one else except the person whose card it
belongs to is able to use it. That's why they
started putting pictures on the car. Okay, then, because there's
a time when they didn't. Matter of fact, they used

(01:29:04):
to give you a booklet with dollars in it that
you could go and spend. But then they upgrade it
to the point where your picture is on it so
that they know who's who. So you can you can
argue all the things, but the bottom line is that
you use somebody's card.

Speaker 1 (01:29:23):
And that's why a lot of times.

Speaker 3 (01:29:25):
I'm from the hood too, so I know that a
lot of times people will not let a male go
to the car to the grocery store using a woman's card.
They gonna try to go get some female. Because people
ain't looking at they don't do all that. They just
kind of let you go. People are semi presenting themselves
as someone else. When you go to the store and

(01:29:49):
use a card, you go to the atm and take
some money out your mother or somebody else's account, that
is very different.

Speaker 1 (01:29:56):
So I feel that on that.

Speaker 3 (01:29:58):
But given somebody ten years in the two undred and
fifty thousand dollars fine for buying the groceries for a
recipe to make money. It's crazy, I mean, and it's
like again to know that all these deals are happening,
billion dollar deals are happening. Cutter gives this man a plane.

(01:30:22):
Now they're building a training base, or America is building
a training base here that Cutter will be able to
use to train their military. Like it's too much things,
it's money moving and eight three card Molly real fast
with it. And then meanwhile, you over here trying to
feed your family, and that's a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
It's just crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:30:45):
We prioritize the wrong things, but it's actually the right things,
because what you're doing is trying to keep people poor.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
That's exactly what you're doing. You're trying to keep people poor.
You're not giving them enough resources to actually live off anyway.
So when we try to figure out how to you know,
I'm maximized on what you actually give us. You crucify
and you punish us for it. And it's crazy. It's
like we're in times uncharted orders. I was having this

(01:31:14):
conversation with somebody the other day. I was like, listen,
this is the first time in history that our kids
don't have the rights that we have. I don't know,
like people can say what they want, Oh year this
and that our kids people say, people say, oh, well,
you know, we've lived through this and we've overcome added all.
None of these people are the different. The Democrats did this,

(01:31:36):
and the Democrats did that, and the Republicans did this,
and they had this back in the days. We've overcame
all these things. And I'm not saying you wrong, but
what I'm saying is, at this moment, my sons do
not have the same rights that I've They are now
afforded the same rights, so they don't have the same
opportunities at this exact moment, and that's dangerous to That's

(01:31:58):
something that I never thought I would live to see.
I thought we would continue to progress, you know, I
thought we would be we were fighting so that our
kids easier and have more than we do. Our kids.
Actually right now, in this exact one, our children have
less opportunities there. And that's crazy, that's sure. And with

(01:32:21):
that said, we come to the end of another episode.
Shout out to our brother Raman Amend's to day for
coming up here sharing his story. Hope you look him up,
support him in any way you can if you have
a job for him, he definitely wants to work. If
you can't employ him, then please donate to him. He
has to go fund me and there are definitely other
mechanisms that you can utilize to go support him, and

(01:32:44):
we're going to be posting it up to please support them.
We love you, I mean, keep up the good work.
Thank y'all for supporting us making us the number one
showing the world. We are definitely the number one show
in the world. We do this out of love. Let
us know who you want to see. We're trying to
get some big guests on here soon. Mean Tomika working
some guests to some big, big guests. We're trying to
get some big guests. Be quiet because we're gonna keep it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:06):
I don't know what that means.

Speaker 2 (01:33:07):
Well, it's no small guests.

Speaker 3 (01:33:09):
We're just trying to know what that means because I'm
not trying to get big guests.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
I just want people of substance. They could be we know.

Speaker 2 (01:33:16):
We never but that's what I'm trying to say. Big
guests doesn't mean that you're a big name, but were
just trying to bring guests people that we know that
you're going to be interested. That's what we provide on
this show. It's no big guys, no little use. It's
about substance. It's people that we know, stories, people who
are honorable. We don't care about you. Bring your game
when you come up here. Make sure you follow us

(01:33:38):
at t m I Underscore Show on Instagram and TMI
Show PC on YouTube. I'm not gonna always be right,
Tamika d marriages and I can always be wrong, but
we will both always and I mean always be

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Fighting for Justice and Survival with Rameen Aminzadeh