February 23, 2025 • 41 mins
Lyle Greenfield joins the podcast to discuss his book, "Uniting the States of America," which aims to address the growing political divisiveness in the nation and provide actionable solutions for healing. Drawing from his diverse experiences in various industries, Greenfield emphasizes the importance of perseverance and the wisdom imparted by his parents: "Don't give up." He reflects on the alarming trends in voter participation and the necessity for citizens to engage actively in democracy. Throughout the conversation, Greenfield shares his vision for a more united society, advocating for understanding and collaboration across political divides. With insights on leadership and community, he encourages listeners to take small steps toward fostering a healthier political discourse.
The podcast welcomes Lyle Greenfield, an author and former president of the Long Island Wine Council, who intimately shares the evolution of his career and the inspirations behind his recent book, "Uniting the States of America: A Self Care Plan for a Wounded Nation." With a background that encompasses everything from landscaping to copywriting, Greenfield provides a compelling narrative that illustrates his journey through various industries, culminating in his passion for writing. The conversation dives into his motivations for addressing the current political climate, emphasizing the importance of dialogue and understanding in a time of division. Greenfield's book is not just a collection of insights; it represents a call to action for individuals to engage with their communities and take responsibility for the political discourse affecting their lives.
As Greenfield reflects on his upbringing and the values imparted by his parents, he stresses the significance of resilience and hard work. His anecdotes from college highlight how transformative mentorship can shape one's career path, exemplified by a professor whose passion for advertising sparked Greenfield's interest in the field. The discussion also touches on the critical issue of low voter turnout, particularly among younger generations, and how this trend contributes to the election of extreme candidates who do not reflect the will of the broader population. Greenfield articulates a vision for a more engaged citizenry that actively participates in democracy, underlining that the health of the nation relies on the collective efforts of its citizens.
Delving deeper into his book, Greenfield candidly discusses the challenges he faced while writing and the realization that he was venturing into unfamiliar territory. However, he framed his work as a personal exploration rather than a political treatise, aiming to provide practical steps for individuals to foster unity and understanding across ideological divides. The dialogue culminates in Greenfield's reflections on legacy, where he expresses a desire to inspire future generations to embrace resilience and take an active role in shaping a better society. His thoughtful insights serve as a reminder of the power of individual agency in the face of societal challenges, making this episode a crucial listen for anyone interested in the intersection of personal growth and civic responsibility.
Takeaways:
- Lyle Greenfield emphasizes the importance of perseverance and not giving up in life, something instilled in him by his parents.
- He reflects on the political divisiveness in America and feels compelled to address these issues through his writing.
- Greenfield's book, Uniting the States of America, aims to foster understanding across political divides and promote constructive dialogue.
- He advocates for a self-care plan for the nation that encourages civic participation and responsibility among citizens.
- One of his proposals includes an Interstate Student Exchange Program to foster cultural understanding among young people.
- Greenfield stresses the need for more...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:01):
My guest today is Lyle Greenfield.
He's a man of many experiences.
He's worked in landscaping,construction, door to door sales
and a brewery before startinghis career as a copywriter in New
York City.
Greenfield has served as apresident of Long Island Wine Council,
starting a music productioncompany in New York, is a founding
member of the former presidentof the association of music producers
(01:23):
and A.P.
greenfield is an author ofseveral books including United States
of America, A Self Care Planfor a Wounded Nation, which was written
with the goal of findingsolutions for current state of political
divisiveness in our country.
We welcome him to the podcastyou have ever received.
(01:46):
Don't Give Up, I would say isthe best piece of advice and it's
come, you know, it comes fromseveral people over the course of
a lifetime, starting with my mom.
But it was, I think part of awork ethic coming out of I'm going
(02:11):
to be 78 in the year ahead of us.
So, so, you know, I'm a babyboomer and she and my dad would have
been, you know, postDepression, post World War II young
adults, greatest generation.
Well, they say, right.
And when I reflect on our ownaccomplishments here in the current
(02:34):
generation, I'm, I'm a littleuncertain that we, that we even make
it to the list.
But you know, there was a workethic back in the day when folks
were struggling to find theirplace in the world and find a way
to support families or evenstart families.
(02:55):
And I think that those wordsfrom her and my dad, the don't give
up part, it had to do with,you know, you gotta try as hard as
you can to get what you wantand then the rest, the rest would
(03:16):
hopefully follow.
I love that.
Yeah, you don't look the ageyou told me you were, but I so I
would have thought you were inyour early 50s, but that's beside
the point.
I kind of look back a littlenostalgically in my early 50s.
But I'm curious for someone ofyour age and stature, who are some
(03:39):
people in your life who servedas an inspiration for you or even
a mentor along your journey?
I think, you know, people talkabout teachers who influenced them
and I didn't do very well incollege, to be honest, I didn't pay
(04:02):
much attention.
But there was one instructor, Dr.
Maurice Mandel, who taughtadvertising and marketing and of
all the professors I, I hadand he was by far the most enthusiastic.
He just seemed to be, beconsumed with joy by the field that
(04:29):
he had chosen and he'd writtena couple of textbooks and If I had
any skills whatsoever, otherthan maybe my ability to sell things,
I was a pretty good writer.
But I didn't know what to dowith that particular skill.
(04:52):
And when I thought about thepossibility of advertising, which
didn't require.
I had no thoughts about anovel or some longer work.
But I thought, geez, I couldwrite a headline and a paragraph.
Right.
There we are.
So that, in a sense, heinspired the beginnings of what became
(05:17):
my initial career path for aperiod of at least 15 years.
Wow, that's.
So there's.
There's one inspiration.
So we talk about your writing.
I'm curious, what inspired youto write Uniting the States of America?
Well, the company that Istarted in 1989 and we're now in
(05:42):
our 35th year, a companycalled Bang Music, from which I'm
largely retired from over thepast number of years, since my younger
partner has taken overmanagement of the company and principal
ownership.
That's a time when I returnedto writing.
(06:06):
This writing took the form,beginning eight, nine years ago,
of short stories and letters,a compilation of things I'd written
over the years, followed by apicture book memoir of time I'd spent
on a particularly beautifulisland in the Caribbean.
But over the past severalyears, as the discourse in our great
(06:33):
nation politically andculturally became so, I would say,
negative, in some casesviolent, with, I think, far too much
hatred between conservativesand liberals and left and right and
blue and green states, it justbegan to alarm me, and I thought,
(07:00):
I can't just be entirely onthe sidelines and give a few hundred
dollars to the candidate of mychoice when the elections come up.
In our family, we've had anumber of grandbabies born over the
past seven to eight years.
(07:20):
And the most recent is thisbeautiful little girl, Eva Marie,
who is the granddaughter of mywife's youngest daughter.
She's the daughter of mywife's youngest daughter.
And I thought to myself atthat time, and this is a couple of
(07:40):
years ago, what is, what's ourcountry and what is this planet that
we live on going to be likewhen she's my age, right?
And at that time, I like to dothat weird math.
The year, the year would havebeen 2098.
And I thought, okay, at thattime, you know, I probably won't
(08:02):
be around for Ava's 75thbirthday in 2098.
It.
But by the grace of God, I'llget a few more years.
Thank you.
And I, I felt a responsibility to.
To think about these questionsthat are addressed in the book Uniting
the States of America.
(08:24):
And for our convenience.
Beautiful cover.
Can you see that?
Thank you very much.
I love that cover.
Yeah.
Yes.
A very good friend andcolleague of mine designed the COVID
and that was my motivation.
(08:45):
And about a third of the wayinto the project, which took me over
a year, I thought, I'm sounqualified for this.
You know, I've never been apolitical scientist.
I.
I haven't.
I'm not a student of sociologyor civics.
(09:06):
I'm just someone, you know, anaverage person who is alarmed by
these circumstances.
And one of the people who attimes has.
Has thought, well, things arenever going to change.
Right.
Which I've heard from a lot of folks.
And I thought, I'm going torefrain from using my special words.
(09:32):
The shit can't hit the fan forever.
We have to take responsibilityfor changing things if we want them
to.
And it was my goal to writethis book not as an academic, not
as a political pundit, youknow, not as someone who spent a
(09:53):
lifetime in this.
In this beltway business, butjust as a person who, who wanted
to understand what was goingon and summon a simple analysis and,
and thoughts about how wecould make a difference, how we could
change the tone of voice inthe country.
(10:15):
Was there a particular momentthat sparked the idea for the book
or was it just the times?
I think, you know, if we referto, you know, events of literally
the past several years,including the January 6th event that,
(10:39):
that now seems, you know, in adistant rear view mirror mysteriously
to me.
But the period from thatmoment on, I think was.
Became the stimulus.
Like it seemed things had gonea bit off the rails and continued
(11:00):
that way on the both sides ofthe political spectrum, particularly
extremes, you know, theextreme right, the extreme left.
And although I consider myselfa reasonably liberal individual,
you know, I'm probably left ofcenter as opposed to far left.
(11:20):
Right.
You know, I grew up in a kindof a middle class household.
My parents were Republican.
My dad died at the.
In his mid-60s.
And at the height of theVietnam War, my mother decided to
(11:43):
change to Democratic.
She thought the war was wrongand she didn't like the idea of her
sons going off to fight in awar like that.
Right.
But back to the moment at hand.
That's when I began to, overthese past few years, think about
(12:05):
writing this book and tryingto write it not for my liberal friends
and not strictly addressingthe wrongs from a political perspective
of another party.
I wanted this to be a bookthat, even though it's not what I
(12:26):
would call beach reading, tobe something that that would be digestible
and understandable and thatpeople of all stripes could.
Could read and maybe takesomething from something positive,
I hope.
Good.
I wrote a Bible study yearsago based on the George Michael Brown
(12:50):
situation.
And it was my.
It was.
I had kind of the same goal.
How do I begin to talk aboutrace in a way in America where it
can actually begin to heal the nation?
And so you have a term selfcare plan for the nation.
Can you talk about thatconcept of self care?
Because it was kind of.
I think we're kind of on thesame line.
(13:11):
It's not enough just toidentify we have a problem.
You know, Houston, we have aproblem, but we have to be able to
begin to.
How do we begin to solve theproblem that we're identifying as
a problem?
Well, I kind of divided thebook into three sections and the
(13:31):
self care portion, the 10 wayswe can unite the states of America.
That would be the culminationof the first two sections, the first
being a brief history of theworld, but more particularly the
United States, followed by asection of, you know, what I call
(13:54):
homeland.
You know, the word land in parentheses.
Homeland improvements, likesteps that have been taken and steps
we could think about taking.
And one of those chaptersincludes a thing called small steps
having to do with aninitiative that the Republican governor
(14:18):
of Utah, Governor Cox, as thethen president of the American Governors
association or whatever theacronym is for that his initiative
was disagree Better.
We need to, as a nation and aselected politicians, we need to stop
(14:42):
the name calling, stop thefinger pointing, stop, sit down and
do what we are hired to do,which is listen to each other and
find the important ways to compromise.
So there were a number ofother points in that section, Followed
by Finally, 10 ways we canunite the states of America.
And I chose 10 ways notbecause there are just 10 ways, but
(15:06):
I thought, well, so manybooks, 10 ways to save your marriage,
10 ways to get rich, you know,10 ways to lose 30 pounds in 10 days,
blah, blah, blah.
I thought, well, I guessEverybody likes the 10 because now
we have the 10 best songs ofthe year, the 10 best movies, according
(15:28):
to our critics.
And I divided the 10 ways intotwo sections.
One, the ways that the thingsthat I think we should expect from
our leadership and maybetweaks in our method of governance.
So they get five ways thatinclude the first, which I mentioned
(15:51):
already, dial down therhetoric and the finger pointing
and work together to get thethings done that you were hired to
do.
And there will be compromisesinvolved for the president of the
United States, you wereelected by a majority, but many tens
(16:12):
of thousands, tens of millionsof people did not vote for you and
didn't think you were rightfor the job at all.
Nonetheless, you're thepresident of everybody, right?
So you need to visit, and it'sa little ambitious, but, you know,
you've got the Internet on board.
Air Force One, visit everystate in the Union and stand in front
(16:34):
of the people, even those, notjust the ones who worship you and
are going to buy your.
Your swag, but the ones whodoubted that you should be the one
for the job, right?
Stand in front of them, takeyour lumps, say what you're going
to try to do and explain thatyou're going to work with both sides
(16:54):
of the aisle, so to speak, toget things done.
I had a suggestion calledSpeakers of the House.
And you can be involved inthis, Reverend.
Okay.
Every month, my least, myleast favorite speech politically
of the year is the State ofthe Union address, in which we watch
(17:17):
half of the attendees standingand giving ovations and clapping
and going right on to thepresident of their party, right?
And the other half sittingthere quietly with their arms folded,
basically not participating.
It's so awkward that I'drather read what happened later.
(17:40):
So my Speakers of the House,on a monthly basis, a bipartisan
committee will name a speakerto address both houses of Congress
in the Capitol for one hour,and that'll be a motivational speaker.
It could begin with Dr.
(18:00):
Brene Brown.
It could then swing over toCoach Krasinski.
Coach K.
Then it could go to what's hisname, Damon.
Who's the, the guy on Shark Tank?
Oh, I don't.
I know you're talking about.
I don't know his name, though.
Right?
I'm forgetting his name.
I know.
(18:21):
Clear.
I know, Leary, but I don'tknow the other one.
Yeah.
So I'm going to nominate youfor this.
Attendance at this addresswill be mandatory unless a written
excuse from your physician oryour mother.
The idea is to point out, to remind.
(18:43):
These are speakers, by theway, who earn a living going around
the country and addressinglarge corporations and student bodies
and so forth, on whatleadership is, what listening is,
what accomplishment is interms of empathy and getting things
done, working with others,listening with an open mind.
(19:05):
Those were some of the thingsI'm suggesting, a revision in our
Electoral College, forexample, with the exception of two
states in our union, Maine,and I am pretty sure Nebraska, the
winner of the popular vote inthat state is the winner.
(19:27):
Take all of the electoralvotes in that State which could make,
I think many voters in alargely red or largely blue state
feel disenfranchised ifthey're not red or blue.
Like, what is the point of my vote?
(19:47):
Because so and so is going toget all of the electoral votes from
California or whatever I sayapportion the electoral college votes
according to the popular vote.
Then I'll skip ahead to someof the things that we have to do
as citizens.
(20:09):
We have to show up and vote.
We must participate.
We cannot call this ademocracy if we don't take an active
role and, and do our share.
Right.
A statistic I read that wasvery alarming to me was that in primary
elections over the past 25years, less than 30% of registered
(20:34):
voters have shown up to vote.
Wow.
And that's just not the waythings should be running.
I mean, the alternative is adictatorship of some sort, Right.
If you're going to leave itentirely in the hands of others to
decide who should be governingyou and what the laws should be,
(20:56):
then it's a terrible mistake.
We need to reemphasize civicsinstruction, every grade level, so
that we are educating andreleasing into the wilderness, into
our 50 states, releasingpeople who understand how, how our
(21:17):
government works and whattheir responsibilities as good citizens
might be.
Right.
Rather than, you know, as ifwe were raised by wolves.
And, you know, there's a levelof what feels like anarchy when we
think back on a demonstration,if you will, like January 6th.
(21:41):
We also need to disagree better.
And we need to expand our news sources.
When I was growing up, therewere three television networks, right?
And you know, your eveningnews, which lasted for 30 minutes,
I think at the dinner hour orjust before, was brought to you in
(22:02):
black and white by a middleaged white man in a suit.
And you get to pick, you know,Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, blah,
blah, blah.
Showing my age now, but what'shappened in this brilliant Internet
age in which we live andprosper, There were so many choices
(22:25):
that we have so many sourcesthat we have tended to go where our
comfort level is the greatest.
So in many cases we're notlistening to what other people are
hearing the opinions of others.
We don't know why they feelthe way they do.
We just judge them because ofwhat they're doing or what they feel
(22:50):
without understanding thecontext in which they got those feelings.
I don't know how you dictate this.
I think it's just a matter ofmaking a decision, a personal decision,
and maybe it's a familydecision to look to other sources
(23:11):
to get the news.
And then I'll just mention oneother thing, a proposal that, that
I'm going to say I came up with.
It's called the InterstateStudent Exchange Program.
Oh.
We all know what a foreignexchange program looks like, but
(23:33):
I'm very interested in theidea that a high school junior or
senior spend a semester aftergrowing up in the Bronx or Brooklyn,
heading down to Tennessee to arural town and a rural high school,
(23:55):
where the culture and thebeliefs, you know, religious or otherwise,
are vastly different and the same.
By the same token, you know, asouthern kid or a southwestern kid
come up from that small town,and this would require, obviously
(24:16):
interest on the child's part,on the kid's part, and the willingness
and an understanding on theparents part that this could be the.
This could be a valuableexperience for Mario or little Samantha.
This would be awesome for youbecause now you're going to Brooklyn.
I hope you'll be safe, honey.
(24:36):
And everyone will be havingzoom calls with host families.
But I just thought, well, whatan interesting way that might be
for us to get a greater gripon the idea of the United States.
States of America.
I'm pretty tired of seeing orhearing only red state, blue state.
(24:59):
I mean, we shouldn't have acontinental divide that is created
entirely by, you know, ourcultural or political beliefs.
Anyway, that's radical.
Ask asking red state kids togo to blue states and vice versa.
Could be interesting.
Worst case scenario, they getto taste some different foods, Right?
(25:22):
That's right.
I can't, can't imagine someNew York kid in Iowa.
But, you know.
No, I think you have something.
You know, it's interesting is you.
You were talking about theState of the Union.
I did some research on thatand apparently the State of Union
was never broadcast.
It was a letter that waswritten by the President and just
shared.
(25:42):
It was never a big speech.
So it's kind of interestingthat we've, we've, we've made it
into this media thing.
Yeah, for sure.
I didn't realize that myself.
Thank you for pointing it out.
Yeah, no, it was, it was.
I think Andrew, I mean, AndrewJackson just.
I mean, Thomas Jefferson, Ithink he just, he just wrote it.
It was kind of a state of.
(26:03):
The status of the.
Of the Union speech of letters.
Just kind of.
Here's what, here's whatthings are going and what you should
know.
I'm curious, what research, asyou did research for this book, what
was probably the mostsurprising thing you discovered as
you were writing this book?
Well, there were so many.
(26:25):
I think the most alarming tome was something I brought to your
attention earlier, and that isthat over these past couple of decades,
so few people have turned outfor the primary elections and the
analysis on that.
(26:46):
And I guess I was fortunate.
Anyone doing research in thisera, it's very easy to cross check
because there were 10 answersand you can make sure that there's
a consistency with those answers.
But what startled me too wasthat the ones who do show up, the
(27:08):
majority of those who show upfor the primaries are the ones who
are most politicized, so tospeak, meaning the furthest on the
left, the furthest on the right.
So the candidates knowingwhat's going to happen in the primaries
are.
Their rhetoric is directedtowards what they know will be their
(27:32):
constituency.
So they have knowing thatthere won't be a 90% turnout, which
there should be in theprimaries, that that knowledge frees
them from addressing the otherpeople in the room, so to speak.
So we've tended to elect themost, in some cases, not every case,
(28:02):
the most radical of thosecandidates because they won the primary.
Right.
And you know, it's, it's, it'snot, it's a truism that might be
statistically true, it doesn'tapply to every case, but it just
reminds us of the importanceof showing up another thing, and
(28:24):
I think we know this byintuition, another thing that surprised
me was the amount of time thatyoung people spend on social media.
Yes.
And from the ages of, and I'mgoing to misquote myself here, from
the ages of, let's say 14 to18, the average kid is spending between
(28:48):
four and six hours daily onsocial media.
And it's an alarming statisticin the sense that those are times
when you're not out in publicmeeting your, your friends, your
colleagues in person.
Right.
There's been a great deal ofpublicity given to, you know, the
(29:11):
concept, the idea of bullyingon social media and how hurtful that
can be to, you know, a youngperson in school.
And I certainly not the onlyone speaking about a thing like this.
But it's one thing to haveparental controls.
(29:31):
It's, it's another thing tounderstand the importance of, you
know, I do know parents who,who just say, you know, you're not
bringing your phone to your room.
Right.
Okay, you're going to go upthere and study.
The phone will be down herewhen you've done, blah, blah, blah.
It's, it seems almost adaunting if not impossible task to
(29:54):
regulate that.
But part of Citizenship isbeing part of your community.
And being part of yourcommunity is like, you know, get
out of your headphones.
Sometimes when I'm, when I'min New York City taking the subway,
and I had spent 50 years of mycareer in New York City, and I love
(30:18):
that melting pot.
You know, obviously, terriblethings happen, but as we know from,
you know, headlines yesterday,even terrible things happen all around
the nation, right?
Small towns, big towns.
But if I ride the subway, as Iprobably will be later today, at
(30:42):
least a third of thepassengers are staring down at their
phones with their earbuds on.
And I think, okay, I get howthat's a relief from the mayhem in
this subway car where theremight be a hundred people.
But there's also, from myperspective, you're missing a chance
(31:06):
to just look at those folksand think about what their lives
are.
And that woman who has walkedon the train with an infant and two
small children, like, what,what is that like for her?
Right?
But no, you're looking at,you're texting Sharon.
(31:27):
She's at home wondering if, ifyou're gonna see Bobby tonight or
something.
Anyway, no, I love that.
I love the 10 things you havedown there.
I'm curious, what do you hope,how do you hope this book changes
the political discourse in our country?
Well, that's a wonderful question.
(31:50):
And thanks to this broadcastand this podcast, every elected official
in this nation will get a copyof the book.
All right.
The difficulty, ReverendHaney, with a self published work,
is that it.
(32:11):
It's not something you'll seein, in the airport bookstores, right?
It's not something you'll seein most libraries around the country.
The book is available on, youknow, the local books at the local
bookstore in my town oneastern Long island, and it's available
on Amazon.
(32:31):
So I have the friendly folksat the publicist who brought us together
made it clear to me, in spiteof my suggestion to them, that I
would love to be on the Todayshow, right, and have an open conversation
(32:56):
with Oprah.
They said, yes, you know what, Lyle?
That's probably not going tohappen because Penguin Books didn't
publish this, you did.
So, you know, my hope,obviously, is that podcasts, broadcasts
(33:21):
such as this will bring, youknow, a somewhat wider awareness
to it that people willunderstand, especially now that I
tell them, look, it's lessthan 200 pages and there were over
40 chapters, which means everychapter is pretty short, right?
(33:46):
I have a chapter called Meetmy Granddaughter, which I discussed
with you earlier, and that'sonly two Paragraphs.
See, there you go.
So I'm curious, as you aredoing this work and you're trying
your best to have the countryhave a different discourse, what
(34:07):
do you want your legacy to be?
I honestly don't think much ofmy legacy.
I've tried a number of things.
I had a reasonably successfulcareer as a copywriter for large
(34:28):
advertising agencies.
I changed that up and starteda music production company because
I loved being in a recordingstudio instead of in a client meeting
discussing concepts.
And I mentioned that, youknow, my little music company, which
(34:50):
is still flourishing in NewYork City, Bang Music.
We've just been, by the way,given a citation by the city of New
York signed by our esteemedmayor, Eric Adams.
Well, congratulationscongratulating Bang music on its
35 years of contributing tothe artistic, cultural content of
(35:15):
this great city of ours.
So, you know, I'm proud of that.
And, you know, of all the.
Of all the things, maybe I'mproudest of this book because it
was singularly the hardestthing I've ever tried to do.
(35:38):
Sure, it didn't come easily tome, and I had to talk myself back
into it when it would havebeen easier just to close the file
on my MacBook Air and go, youknow what?
I should really be writingsomething else because I'm not sure
what I'm talking about.
(35:59):
But then I thought, and Imight have been inspired by some
documentary.
I know that sounds silly, butsomeone who came back from falling
down and just sort ofdetermined their way back to completing
what they had started.
(36:19):
So, you know, I stuck with it.
And I had some brilliantreaders and editors and people helping
to guide me along the way,including Professor Frank Sesno,
a professor at WashingtonUniversity in Washington, D.C.
(36:44):
who read the book twice,steered me, gave a great.
Gave a great endorsement for ajacket blurb.
And anyway, this.
If there's such a thing as alegacy, you know, you think of a
legacy as something that mightoccur during your.
The celebration of your life.
(37:05):
Right.
My hope is, unfortunately, isto live long enough that most people
who would celebrate my lifeare too old to celebrate.
There you go.
Anyway, no, that's.
This is.
(37:26):
Yeah, there have been a lot of things.
This is maybe the.
The proudest.
That's only.
What would you like yourlegacy to be?
Well, I.
I guess I like my legacy tobe, first of all, my kids, that they
learn to persevere, to nevergive up and to always give it their
(37:46):
best and show up at their.
Show up to be their best.
And I like to be rememberedfor someone who, who loved Jesus
and was able to share him withthe world.
So that's great.
I'm curious, where canministers find your book Uniting
the States of America andconnect with you on social media?
(38:07):
As I mentioned, the book isavailable on Amazon and I think typing
in my name, Lyle Greenfield,or the name of the book Uniting the
States of America, will bringit up.
And on social media, I'm onInstagram as Greenfield uniting and,
(38:36):
and Facebook as well, I thinkjust as Lyle Greenfield.
I'm on LinkedIn.
I'm not sure why you wouldwant to link with me because I'm
not going to hire you.
I'm semi retired.
But you might, you mightrecord, you might record us at your
(38:58):
Bang Studio, though.
That's correct.
That is correct.
So, yeah, everything but Tick Tock.
Oh, so you gotta, you gottaget on Tick Tock so we can see you
dance.
Oh, that's, that's great, Reverend.
(39:19):
Maybe someone could animate my dance.
There you go.
We go.
Put your head on.
If I'm ever dragged against mywill into TikTok, I'm just, I marvel
at the creativity andcraziness and then we're all mesmerized
by, you know, someone whoexploded through social media.
Most recent, well, not mostrecently, but the name Jake Paul
(39:43):
comes to mind.
Oh yeah, who beat up Mike Tyson.
So stupid.
There's your legacy, Jake.
We could put your head on FredAstaire and have you dance like that.
So I'm there for that.
Well, thanks so much fortaking the time to write this book.
(40:03):
I think it is so needed in ourculture, in our times, getting back
to the heart of what unites usas people as opposed to what divides
us.
I think as somebody oncethere's a lot more we have in common
than we that divide us.
So we need to get back tolooking at those things that we agree
on that we can lift each otherup for.
And I like the idea of havinginspirational speakers encourage
(40:26):
our leaders to be leaders andnot just be problems and roadblocks
for the, for what's best forthe people of America.
You gotta be one of those.
You're going to be one ofthose speakers.
I appreciate that.
Well, thanks so much and Ireally enjoyed this conversation.
Blessings on your worker.
We're going to make sure wepush out your, your book to people
(40:48):
and encourage them to go onAmazon, leave a review, because that's
how the book gets found.
Buy the book, give it to yourkids, your grandkids, so they can
be the generation.
Helps us to turn this all around.
I so appreciate you saying that.
Thanks for having me, Reverend.
Thank you.
All right.
Be well.
You too.
Bye.
My guest today is Lyle Greenfield.
He's a man of many experiences.
He's worked in landscaping,construction, door to door sales
and a brewery before startinghis career as a copywriter in New
York City.
Greenfield has served as apresident of Long Island Wine Council,
starting a music productioncompany in New York, is a founding
member of the former presidentof the association of music producers
(01:23):
and A.P.
greenfield is an author ofseveral books including United States
of America, A Self Care Planfor a Wounded Nation, which was written
with the goal of findingsolutions for current state of political
divisiveness in our country.
We welcome him to the podcastyou have ever received.
(01:46):
Don't Give Up, I would say isthe best piece of advice and it's
come, you know, it comes fromseveral people over the course of
a lifetime, starting with my mom.
But it was, I think part of awork ethic coming out of I'm going
(02:11):
to be 78 in the year ahead of us.
So, so, you know, I'm a babyboomer and she and my dad would have
been, you know, postDepression, post World War II young
adults, greatest generation.
Well, they say, right.
And when I reflect on our ownaccomplishments here in the current
(02:34):
generation, I'm, I'm a littleuncertain that we, that we even make
it to the list.
But you know, there was a workethic back in the day when folks
were struggling to find theirplace in the world and find a way
to support families or evenstart families.
(02:55):
And I think that those wordsfrom her and my dad, the don't give
up part, it had to do with,you know, you gotta try as hard as
you can to get what you wantand then the rest, the rest would
(03:16):
hopefully follow.
I love that.
Yeah, you don't look the ageyou told me you were, but I so I
would have thought you were inyour early 50s, but that's beside
the point.
I kind of look back a littlenostalgically in my early 50s.
But I'm curious for someone ofyour age and stature, who are some
(03:39):
people in your life who servedas an inspiration for you or even
a mentor along your journey?
I think, you know, people talkabout teachers who influenced them
and I didn't do very well incollege, to be honest, I didn't pay
(04:02):
much attention.
But there was one instructor, Dr.
Maurice Mandel, who taughtadvertising and marketing and of
all the professors I, I hadand he was by far the most enthusiastic.
He just seemed to be, beconsumed with joy by the field that
(04:29):
he had chosen and he'd writtena couple of textbooks and If I had
any skills whatsoever, otherthan maybe my ability to sell things,
I was a pretty good writer.
But I didn't know what to dowith that particular skill.
(04:52):
And when I thought about thepossibility of advertising, which
didn't require.
I had no thoughts about anovel or some longer work.
But I thought, geez, I couldwrite a headline and a paragraph.
Right.
There we are.
So that, in a sense, heinspired the beginnings of what became
(05:17):
my initial career path for aperiod of at least 15 years.
Wow, that's.
So there's.
There's one inspiration.
So we talk about your writing.
I'm curious, what inspired youto write Uniting the States of America?
Well, the company that Istarted in 1989 and we're now in
(05:42):
our 35th year, a companycalled Bang Music, from which I'm
largely retired from over thepast number of years, since my younger
partner has taken overmanagement of the company and principal
ownership.
That's a time when I returnedto writing.
(06:06):
This writing took the form,beginning eight, nine years ago,
of short stories and letters,a compilation of things I'd written
over the years, followed by apicture book memoir of time I'd spent
on a particularly beautifulisland in the Caribbean.
But over the past severalyears, as the discourse in our great
(06:33):
nation politically andculturally became so, I would say,
negative, in some casesviolent, with, I think, far too much
hatred between conservativesand liberals and left and right and
blue and green states, it justbegan to alarm me, and I thought,
(07:00):
I can't just be entirely onthe sidelines and give a few hundred
dollars to the candidate of mychoice when the elections come up.
In our family, we've had anumber of grandbabies born over the
past seven to eight years.
(07:20):
And the most recent is thisbeautiful little girl, Eva Marie,
who is the granddaughter of mywife's youngest daughter.
She's the daughter of mywife's youngest daughter.
And I thought to myself atthat time, and this is a couple of
(07:40):
years ago, what is, what's ourcountry and what is this planet that
we live on going to be likewhen she's my age, right?
And at that time, I like to dothat weird math.
The year, the year would havebeen 2098.
And I thought, okay, at thattime, you know, I probably won't
(08:02):
be around for Ava's 75thbirthday in 2098.
It.
But by the grace of God, I'llget a few more years.
Thank you.
And I, I felt a responsibility to.
To think about these questionsthat are addressed in the book Uniting
the States of America.
(08:24):
And for our convenience.
Beautiful cover.
Can you see that?
Thank you very much.
I love that cover.
Yeah.
Yes.
A very good friend andcolleague of mine designed the COVID
and that was my motivation.
(08:45):
And about a third of the wayinto the project, which took me over
a year, I thought, I'm sounqualified for this.
You know, I've never been apolitical scientist.
I.
I haven't.
I'm not a student of sociologyor civics.
(09:06):
I'm just someone, you know, anaverage person who is alarmed by
these circumstances.
And one of the people who attimes has.
Has thought, well, things arenever going to change.
Right.
Which I've heard from a lot of folks.
And I thought, I'm going torefrain from using my special words.
(09:32):
The shit can't hit the fan forever.
We have to take responsibilityfor changing things if we want them
to.
And it was my goal to writethis book not as an academic, not
as a political pundit, youknow, not as someone who spent a
(09:53):
lifetime in this.
In this beltway business, butjust as a person who, who wanted
to understand what was goingon and summon a simple analysis and,
and thoughts about how wecould make a difference, how we could
change the tone of voice inthe country.
(10:15):
Was there a particular momentthat sparked the idea for the book
or was it just the times?
I think, you know, if we referto, you know, events of literally
the past several years,including the January 6th event that,
(10:39):
that now seems, you know, in adistant rear view mirror mysteriously
to me.
But the period from thatmoment on, I think was.
Became the stimulus.
Like it seemed things had gonea bit off the rails and continued
(11:00):
that way on the both sides ofthe political spectrum, particularly
extremes, you know, theextreme right, the extreme left.
And although I consider myselfa reasonably liberal individual,
you know, I'm probably left ofcenter as opposed to far left.
(11:20):
Right.
You know, I grew up in a kindof a middle class household.
My parents were Republican.
My dad died at the.
In his mid-60s.
And at the height of theVietnam War, my mother decided to
(11:43):
change to Democratic.
She thought the war was wrongand she didn't like the idea of her
sons going off to fight in awar like that.
Right.
But back to the moment at hand.
That's when I began to, overthese past few years, think about
(12:05):
writing this book and tryingto write it not for my liberal friends
and not strictly addressingthe wrongs from a political perspective
of another party.
I wanted this to be a bookthat, even though it's not what I
(12:26):
would call beach reading, tobe something that that would be digestible
and understandable and thatpeople of all stripes could.
Could read and maybe takesomething from something positive,
I hope.
Good.
I wrote a Bible study yearsago based on the George Michael Brown
(12:50):
situation.
And it was my.
It was.
I had kind of the same goal.
How do I begin to talk aboutrace in a way in America where it
can actually begin to heal the nation?
And so you have a term selfcare plan for the nation.
Can you talk about thatconcept of self care?
Because it was kind of.
I think we're kind of on thesame line.
(13:11):
It's not enough just toidentify we have a problem.
You know, Houston, we have aproblem, but we have to be able to
begin to.
How do we begin to solve theproblem that we're identifying as
a problem?
Well, I kind of divided thebook into three sections and the
(13:31):
self care portion, the 10 wayswe can unite the states of America.
That would be the culminationof the first two sections, the first
being a brief history of theworld, but more particularly the
United States, followed by asection of, you know, what I call
(13:54):
homeland.
You know, the word land in parentheses.
Homeland improvements, likesteps that have been taken and steps
we could think about taking.
And one of those chaptersincludes a thing called small steps
having to do with aninitiative that the Republican governor
(14:18):
of Utah, Governor Cox, as thethen president of the American Governors
association or whatever theacronym is for that his initiative
was disagree Better.
We need to, as a nation and aselected politicians, we need to stop
(14:42):
the name calling, stop thefinger pointing, stop, sit down and
do what we are hired to do,which is listen to each other and
find the important ways to compromise.
So there were a number ofother points in that section, Followed
by Finally, 10 ways we canunite the states of America.
And I chose 10 ways notbecause there are just 10 ways, but
(15:06):
I thought, well, so manybooks, 10 ways to save your marriage,
10 ways to get rich, you know,10 ways to lose 30 pounds in 10 days,
blah, blah, blah.
I thought, well, I guessEverybody likes the 10 because now
we have the 10 best songs ofthe year, the 10 best movies, according
(15:28):
to our critics.
And I divided the 10 ways intotwo sections.
One, the ways that the thingsthat I think we should expect from
our leadership and maybetweaks in our method of governance.
So they get five ways thatinclude the first, which I mentioned
(15:51):
already, dial down therhetoric and the finger pointing
and work together to get thethings done that you were hired to
do.
And there will be compromisesinvolved for the president of the
United States, you wereelected by a majority, but many tens
(16:12):
of thousands, tens of millionsof people did not vote for you and
didn't think you were rightfor the job at all.
Nonetheless, you're thepresident of everybody, right?
So you need to visit, and it'sa little ambitious, but, you know,
you've got the Internet on board.
Air Force One, visit everystate in the Union and stand in front
(16:34):
of the people, even those, notjust the ones who worship you and
are going to buy your.
Your swag, but the ones whodoubted that you should be the one
for the job, right?
Stand in front of them, takeyour lumps, say what you're going
to try to do and explain thatyou're going to work with both sides
(16:54):
of the aisle, so to speak, toget things done.
I had a suggestion calledSpeakers of the House.
And you can be involved inthis, Reverend.
Okay.
Every month, my least, myleast favorite speech politically
of the year is the State ofthe Union address, in which we watch
(17:17):
half of the attendees standingand giving ovations and clapping
and going right on to thepresident of their party, right?
And the other half sittingthere quietly with their arms folded,
basically not participating.
It's so awkward that I'drather read what happened later.
(17:40):
So my Speakers of the House,on a monthly basis, a bipartisan
committee will name a speakerto address both houses of Congress
in the Capitol for one hour,and that'll be a motivational speaker.
It could begin with Dr.
(18:00):
Brene Brown.
It could then swing over toCoach Krasinski.
Coach K.
Then it could go to what's hisname, Damon.
Who's the, the guy on Shark Tank?
Oh, I don't.
I know you're talking about.
I don't know his name, though.
Right?
I'm forgetting his name.
I know.
(18:21):
Clear.
I know, Leary, but I don'tknow the other one.
Yeah.
So I'm going to nominate youfor this.
Attendance at this addresswill be mandatory unless a written
excuse from your physician oryour mother.
The idea is to point out, to remind.
(18:43):
These are speakers, by theway, who earn a living going around
the country and addressinglarge corporations and student bodies
and so forth, on whatleadership is, what listening is,
what accomplishment is interms of empathy and getting things
done, working with others,listening with an open mind.
(19:05):
Those were some of the thingsI'm suggesting, a revision in our
Electoral College, forexample, with the exception of two
states in our union, Maine,and I am pretty sure Nebraska, the
winner of the popular vote inthat state is the winner.
(19:27):
Take all of the electoralvotes in that State which could make,
I think many voters in alargely red or largely blue state
feel disenfranchised ifthey're not red or blue.
Like, what is the point of my vote?
(19:47):
Because so and so is going toget all of the electoral votes from
California or whatever I sayapportion the electoral college votes
according to the popular vote.
Then I'll skip ahead to someof the things that we have to do
as citizens.
(20:09):
We have to show up and vote.
We must participate.
We cannot call this ademocracy if we don't take an active
role and, and do our share.
Right.
A statistic I read that wasvery alarming to me was that in primary
elections over the past 25years, less than 30% of registered
(20:34):
voters have shown up to vote.
Wow.
And that's just not the waythings should be running.
I mean, the alternative is adictatorship of some sort, Right.
If you're going to leave itentirely in the hands of others to
decide who should be governingyou and what the laws should be,
(20:56):
then it's a terrible mistake.
We need to reemphasize civicsinstruction, every grade level, so
that we are educating andreleasing into the wilderness, into
our 50 states, releasingpeople who understand how, how our
(21:17):
government works and whattheir responsibilities as good citizens
might be.
Right.
Rather than, you know, as ifwe were raised by wolves.
And, you know, there's a levelof what feels like anarchy when we
think back on a demonstration,if you will, like January 6th.
(21:41):
We also need to disagree better.
And we need to expand our news sources.
When I was growing up, therewere three television networks, right?
And you know, your eveningnews, which lasted for 30 minutes,
I think at the dinner hour orjust before, was brought to you in
(22:02):
black and white by a middleaged white man in a suit.
And you get to pick, you know,Brinkley, Walter Cronkite, blah,
blah, blah.
Showing my age now, but what'shappened in this brilliant Internet
age in which we live andprosper, There were so many choices
(22:25):
that we have so many sourcesthat we have tended to go where our
comfort level is the greatest.
So in many cases we're notlistening to what other people are
hearing the opinions of others.
We don't know why they feelthe way they do.
We just judge them because ofwhat they're doing or what they feel
(22:50):
without understanding thecontext in which they got those feelings.
I don't know how you dictate this.
I think it's just a matter ofmaking a decision, a personal decision,
and maybe it's a familydecision to look to other sources
(23:11):
to get the news.
And then I'll just mention oneother thing, a proposal that, that
I'm going to say I came up with.
It's called the InterstateStudent Exchange Program.
Oh.
We all know what a foreignexchange program looks like, but
(23:33):
I'm very interested in theidea that a high school junior or
senior spend a semester aftergrowing up in the Bronx or Brooklyn,
heading down to Tennessee to arural town and a rural high school,
(23:55):
where the culture and thebeliefs, you know, religious or otherwise,
are vastly different and the same.
By the same token, you know, asouthern kid or a southwestern kid
come up from that small town,and this would require, obviously
(24:16):
interest on the child's part,on the kid's part, and the willingness
and an understanding on theparents part that this could be the.
This could be a valuableexperience for Mario or little Samantha.
This would be awesome for youbecause now you're going to Brooklyn.
I hope you'll be safe, honey.
(24:36):
And everyone will be havingzoom calls with host families.
But I just thought, well, whatan interesting way that might be
for us to get a greater gripon the idea of the United States.
States of America.
I'm pretty tired of seeing orhearing only red state, blue state.
(24:59):
I mean, we shouldn't have acontinental divide that is created
entirely by, you know, ourcultural or political beliefs.
Anyway, that's radical.
Ask asking red state kids togo to blue states and vice versa.
Could be interesting.
Worst case scenario, they getto taste some different foods, Right?
(25:22):
That's right.
I can't, can't imagine someNew York kid in Iowa.
But, you know.
No, I think you have something.
You know, it's interesting is you.
You were talking about theState of the Union.
I did some research on thatand apparently the State of Union
was never broadcast.
It was a letter that waswritten by the President and just
shared.
(25:42):
It was never a big speech.
So it's kind of interestingthat we've, we've, we've made it
into this media thing.
Yeah, for sure.
I didn't realize that myself.
Thank you for pointing it out.
Yeah, no, it was, it was.
I think Andrew, I mean, AndrewJackson just.
I mean, Thomas Jefferson, Ithink he just, he just wrote it.
It was kind of a state of.
(26:03):
The status of the.
Of the Union speech of letters.
Just kind of.
Here's what, here's whatthings are going and what you should
know.
I'm curious, what research, asyou did research for this book, what
was probably the mostsurprising thing you discovered as
you were writing this book?
Well, there were so many.
(26:25):
I think the most alarming tome was something I brought to your
attention earlier, and that isthat over these past couple of decades,
so few people have turned outfor the primary elections and the
analysis on that.
(26:46):
And I guess I was fortunate.
Anyone doing research in thisera, it's very easy to cross check
because there were 10 answersand you can make sure that there's
a consistency with those answers.
But what startled me too wasthat the ones who do show up, the
(27:08):
majority of those who show upfor the primaries are the ones who
are most politicized, so tospeak, meaning the furthest on the
left, the furthest on the right.
So the candidates knowingwhat's going to happen in the primaries
are.
Their rhetoric is directedtowards what they know will be their
(27:32):
constituency.
So they have knowing thatthere won't be a 90% turnout, which
there should be in theprimaries, that that knowledge frees
them from addressing the otherpeople in the room, so to speak.
So we've tended to elect themost, in some cases, not every case,
(28:02):
the most radical of thosecandidates because they won the primary.
Right.
And you know, it's, it's, it'snot, it's a truism that might be
statistically true, it doesn'tapply to every case, but it just
reminds us of the importanceof showing up another thing, and
(28:24):
I think we know this byintuition, another thing that surprised
me was the amount of time thatyoung people spend on social media.
Yes.
And from the ages of, and I'mgoing to misquote myself here, from
the ages of, let's say 14 to18, the average kid is spending between
(28:48):
four and six hours daily onsocial media.
And it's an alarming statisticin the sense that those are times
when you're not out in publicmeeting your, your friends, your
colleagues in person.
Right.
There's been a great deal ofpublicity given to, you know, the
(29:11):
concept, the idea of bullyingon social media and how hurtful that
can be to, you know, a youngperson in school.
And I certainly not the onlyone speaking about a thing like this.
But it's one thing to haveparental controls.
(29:31):
It's, it's another thing tounderstand the importance of, you
know, I do know parents who,who just say, you know, you're not
bringing your phone to your room.
Right.
Okay, you're going to go upthere and study.
The phone will be down herewhen you've done, blah, blah, blah.
It's, it seems almost adaunting if not impossible task to
(29:54):
regulate that.
But part of Citizenship isbeing part of your community.
And being part of yourcommunity is like, you know, get
out of your headphones.
Sometimes when I'm, when I'min New York City taking the subway,
and I had spent 50 years of mycareer in New York City, and I love
(30:18):
that melting pot.
You know, obviously, terriblethings happen, but as we know from,
you know, headlines yesterday,even terrible things happen all around
the nation, right?
Small towns, big towns.
But if I ride the subway, as Iprobably will be later today, at
(30:42):
least a third of thepassengers are staring down at their
phones with their earbuds on.
And I think, okay, I get howthat's a relief from the mayhem in
this subway car where theremight be a hundred people.
But there's also, from myperspective, you're missing a chance
(31:06):
to just look at those folksand think about what their lives
are.
And that woman who has walkedon the train with an infant and two
small children, like, what,what is that like for her?
Right?
But no, you're looking at,you're texting Sharon.
(31:27):
She's at home wondering if, ifyou're gonna see Bobby tonight or
something.
Anyway, no, I love that.
I love the 10 things you havedown there.
I'm curious, what do you hope,how do you hope this book changes
the political discourse in our country?
Well, that's a wonderful question.
(31:50):
And thanks to this broadcastand this podcast, every elected official
in this nation will get a copyof the book.
All right.
The difficulty, ReverendHaney, with a self published work,
is that it.
(32:11):
It's not something you'll seein, in the airport bookstores, right?
It's not something you'll seein most libraries around the country.
The book is available on, youknow, the local books at the local
bookstore in my town oneastern Long island, and it's available
on Amazon.
(32:31):
So I have the friendly folksat the publicist who brought us together
made it clear to me, in spiteof my suggestion to them, that I
would love to be on the Todayshow, right, and have an open conversation
(32:56):
with Oprah.
They said, yes, you know what, Lyle?
That's probably not going tohappen because Penguin Books didn't
publish this, you did.
So, you know, my hope,obviously, is that podcasts, broadcasts
(33:21):
such as this will bring, youknow, a somewhat wider awareness
to it that people willunderstand, especially now that I
tell them, look, it's lessthan 200 pages and there were over
40 chapters, which means everychapter is pretty short, right?
(33:46):
I have a chapter called Meetmy Granddaughter, which I discussed
with you earlier, and that'sonly two Paragraphs.
See, there you go.
So I'm curious, as you aredoing this work and you're trying
your best to have the countryhave a different discourse, what
(34:07):
do you want your legacy to be?
I honestly don't think much ofmy legacy.
I've tried a number of things.
I had a reasonably successfulcareer as a copywriter for large
(34:28):
advertising agencies.
I changed that up and starteda music production company because
I loved being in a recordingstudio instead of in a client meeting
discussing concepts.
And I mentioned that, youknow, my little music company, which
(34:50):
is still flourishing in NewYork City, Bang Music.
We've just been, by the way,given a citation by the city of New
York signed by our esteemedmayor, Eric Adams.
Well, congratulationscongratulating Bang music on its
35 years of contributing tothe artistic, cultural content of
(35:15):
this great city of ours.
So, you know, I'm proud of that.
And, you know, of all the.
Of all the things, maybe I'mproudest of this book because it
was singularly the hardestthing I've ever tried to do.
(35:38):
Sure, it didn't come easily tome, and I had to talk myself back
into it when it would havebeen easier just to close the file
on my MacBook Air and go, youknow what?
I should really be writingsomething else because I'm not sure
what I'm talking about.
(35:59):
But then I thought, and Imight have been inspired by some
documentary.
I know that sounds silly, butsomeone who came back from falling
down and just sort ofdetermined their way back to completing
what they had started.
(36:19):
So, you know, I stuck with it.
And I had some brilliantreaders and editors and people helping
to guide me along the way,including Professor Frank Sesno,
a professor at WashingtonUniversity in Washington, D.C.
(36:44):
who read the book twice,steered me, gave a great.
Gave a great endorsement for ajacket blurb.
And anyway, this.
If there's such a thing as alegacy, you know, you think of a
legacy as something that mightoccur during your.
The celebration of your life.
(37:05):
Right.
My hope is, unfortunately, isto live long enough that most people
who would celebrate my lifeare too old to celebrate.
There you go.
Anyway, no, that's.
This is.
(37:26):
Yeah, there have been a lot of things.
This is maybe the.
The proudest.
That's only.
What would you like yourlegacy to be?
Well, I.
I guess I like my legacy tobe, first of all, my kids, that they
learn to persevere, to nevergive up and to always give it their
(37:46):
best and show up at their.
Show up to be their best.
And I like to be rememberedfor someone who, who loved Jesus
and was able to share him withthe world.
So that's great.
I'm curious, where canministers find your book Uniting
the States of America andconnect with you on social media?
(38:07):
As I mentioned, the book isavailable on Amazon and I think typing
in my name, Lyle Greenfield,or the name of the book Uniting the
States of America, will bringit up.
And on social media, I'm onInstagram as Greenfield uniting and,
(38:36):
and Facebook as well, I thinkjust as Lyle Greenfield.
I'm on LinkedIn.
I'm not sure why you wouldwant to link with me because I'm
not going to hire you.
I'm semi retired.
But you might, you mightrecord, you might record us at your
(38:58):
Bang Studio, though.
That's correct.
That is correct.
So, yeah, everything but Tick Tock.
Oh, so you gotta, you gottaget on Tick Tock so we can see you
dance.
Oh, that's, that's great, Reverend.
(39:19):
Maybe someone could animate my dance.
There you go.
We go.
Put your head on.
If I'm ever dragged against mywill into TikTok, I'm just, I marvel
at the creativity andcraziness and then we're all mesmerized
by, you know, someone whoexploded through social media.
Most recent, well, not mostrecently, but the name Jake Paul
(39:43):
comes to mind.
Oh yeah, who beat up Mike Tyson.
So stupid.
There's your legacy, Jake.
We could put your head on FredAstaire and have you dance like that.
So I'm there for that.
Well, thanks so much fortaking the time to write this book.
(40:03):
I think it is so needed in ourculture, in our times, getting back
to the heart of what unites usas people as opposed to what divides
us.
I think as somebody oncethere's a lot more we have in common
than we that divide us.
So we need to get back tolooking at those things that we agree
on that we can lift each otherup for.
And I like the idea of havinginspirational speakers encourage
(40:26):
our leaders to be leaders andnot just be problems and roadblocks
for the, for what's best forthe people of America.
You gotta be one of those.
You're going to be one ofthose speakers.
I appreciate that.
Well, thanks so much and Ireally enjoyed this conversation.
Blessings on your worker.
We're going to make sure wepush out your, your book to people
(40:48):
and encourage them to go onAmazon, leave a review, because that's
how the book gets found.
Buy the book, give it to yourkids, your grandkids, so they can
be the generation.
Helps us to turn this all around.
I so appreciate you saying that.
Thanks for having me, Reverend.
Thank you.
All right.
Be well.
You too.
Bye.
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