Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's staff management or ownership.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Good morning, you'll find out with Pete and Poet Gold.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
I'm Peter Leonners and I'm the Poet Gold, and.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
We're on the ed this morning with doctor Andrea Matthews
from Marrish University. She's also the president of the Buffalo Soldiers,
and we're going to have a very good time talking
about community in the Hudson Valley. But before we get
to that topic and Dr Matthews, we're going to go
right to the Poet Gold for her weekly poem prayer
incantation Cold Please let it roll.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Okay, you got it, Peter, I'm actually going to do
Stanzard three of be the Poem, Be the poem that teaches, reaches,
circles the universe, who quatrain sonnets, pros and free verse.
Let it be mozart to a hip hop beat ballet
performed on blacktop and concrete. Let it be imaginative, soulful,
eloquently stated, and unique.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Be the poem, and we're all trying.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Gold Goals has commanded us to be a poem Jesus
bos and commanded and there doctor about you know, in
terms of community involvement, which is sort of a vague term,
but at Marris College, part of the education of the
students is that the part of the responsibility as citizens
(01:22):
and just human beings is to be involved in the
community in a positive way. Can you give it an
indication on how you program about us intrigued by the
word belonging plays into.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
That interesting Oh, thank you and thank you everybody. I'm
glad to be here. Well, in the societies in which
we live to now, everybody wants to belong to something
or to something, be a part of something, and what's
going on in the world today, more time than ever,
we need to have an opportunity to come together. So
some of the programming that we will be implementing is
(01:57):
a way to get the vibrant bus community here in
Dutchess County and across the Hudson Valley to have a
safer space where we can all come together and everybody
feels a part of this wonderful place we live in
and we want to celebrate that right and so in all,
like you said, beautiful, we want to talk about the film.
We want to talk about the artists that are here.
(02:19):
We want to talk about the beautiful things that make
the Hudson Valley what truly what it is. Our veteran population,
our teachers, our police officers, our volunteer fire department, the things,
the things that we crafted out.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And this is a great time to be able to
do that.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now you're you're also the president of the Buffalo Soldiers.
So for those who are not familiar with the organization,
can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
I am a direct descendant of Sergeant sanders Hey Good
Matthew Senior, who was a Buffalo Soldier that served at
West Point from nineteen thirty nine to nineteen sixty two
and then became a police officer in the town of
the village of Highland Falls. And so for years, my
grandfather and his comrades have been doing an annual event
(03:06):
at the United States Military Academy honoring the legacy of
the Buffalo Soldiers that served.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
In the ninth and tenth Calvary.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
They wanted to make sure that the history of the
Northern Contributions, and at least my grandfather's thing was that
he wanted to develop an organization where we were able
to talk about the contributions of the Northern volunteer who
joined the armed forces. A lot of times we talk
about the South Georgia and everything, but we forget about
(03:35):
people in New York City, in New Jersey, in Boston.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Joined the military too, and they went out in World.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
War One, and they went out in World War Two,
and they went to Korea. But the story is, when
it's usually turned, the narrative tends towards that. And so
when you start talking about the three sixty ninth, when
you start talking about other particular groups, and like you said,
we got Stuart Air Force Base, We've got all these
great Fort Dix, and there's a whole slew of it, right,
(04:03):
And so we are in the opportunity of using an
organization that will preserve that legacy.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
So we have the term buffalo come from.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
So the narrative is is that it came from the
Native Americans who would see the ninth and tenth Cavalry
or you know, and what we now call all colored
They were all colored troops after the Civil War, riding
across the West to you know, kind of fight the
wars among the Indians and for America to have New
(04:35):
Mexico and all that other place all the way to California.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That was their role.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
And so so the belief is that the one story
is that the Native Americans thought that the black soldiers
looked like buffalo because their hair was full of wool.
You you're hearing them ride as a whole group. They're
coming in and they were soldiers, right and so, and
they fought valiantly, and then they they gave them the
honor of being.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Listed a buffalo, those soldier because.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
They were very humane in their ability to engage with
the enemy, even though they were forceful and were right
phenomenal warriors, right, right, and so then and that kind
of stuck. But and but and so therefore, within that
all colored regiment, though, was Native Americans, Indigenous people, Caribbean people,
(05:24):
you know what I mean, diaspora, the whole diaspora were
involved in that all colored troop.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And so therefore I think they took the combination.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And I didn't know that I thought that the that
it was a it was a military organization. I thought
it was a black military organization. I didn't know that
the Native Americans were initially a part of that at all.
So that's complete news to me. But it's a longstanding
military organization, uh, primarily around black people. Is that a
(05:58):
fair way to put it.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Yeah, it's the African Americans contribution to the military, right right, Yeah, Yeah,
that's right. Yeah, but that but but specifically the northern
well yeah, we focus on the ninth and tenth Cavalry
that actually was stationed at the United States Military. Most
of the ninth and tenth Cavalry and other black regiments
were in the South. So, but you did have a
(06:20):
ninth and tenth Cavalry that was in New York at
the United States Military. That's sole purpose was to train
the core of cadet so and so that is a
story that doesn't get told, and all the offsprings of that,
the connections you know of the commissioned officers who actually
ran those and commanded those brigades. You don't necessarily know
about the the you know, Benjamin O'Davis.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You don't hear about General Charles Young, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
What I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
These are these stories that don't really come out.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
And then who be came and got recruited, right, so
everybody was kind of considered black, even if you were Haitian,
you know, Cuban, you know what I mean. So well
as a buffalo soldas are soation of West Point. It's
the we include the entire group that would have been
classified as.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Later became people of color.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Correct way of putting in correct.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And I guess again, in some way if I'm rolling this,
one of the reasons I think will be so important
to have that organization is and there's a tendency not
to acknowledge the contributions of black people in terms of
American history, and this is a way of making it
clear that black people have made a major contribution to
(07:34):
American history in many ways, including in this case, especially
in the military.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
You know, as my grandfather used to say, I'm an American, right,
and I came here like all the other people who
have come to America. My ancestors may not have came
here voluntarily, but we still migrated in this and I'm American.
And my grandfather used to say, I'm a black man
who lives in American loves America. So my grandfather was
(08:02):
dedicated to service. He was a military and then he
went right into being a police officer. So my grandfather
was one of those rare people who was committed to
serving the country, and he owned and saw himself no
different than any of his other comrades. And I think
the military gives you that particular perspective. He was recruited
out of Pennsylvania. His father helped build the first veteran hospital.
I mean, we come from even though we migrated here
(08:24):
from Georgia. The bottom line is when we did get here,
those soldiers actually joined and despite them not having their freedom,
still sacrifice and gave to this country because they As
my grandfather will tell you, I am an American.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
But I would say the reason it's so important to
have this tradition highlighted what the work you're doing is.
So he fought in World War Two, but it wasn't
until nineteen forty eight that Harry Kruman really integrate. So
your grandfather, I expect, was a military man in a
black regiment. Correct, Yeah, And I mean so something. I
(09:04):
mean that's a little messed up right there. So I
mean he said I'm an American, but he was defined
against his rule. Probably he was defined as a black American.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Well, see, no, my grandfather, so I got a little
different taste to that.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
So my grandfather took pride in being in an all
black regiment for the fact that there was racism and
that they thought that we were different. My grandfather enjoyed
the challenge of being at West Point and training the
commissioned officers of the United States Military Academy and knowing
that he was selected because he was the best of
(09:37):
the best. So my grandfather owned that you don't get
to West Point and you're the best of the best.
So my grandfather worked hard. He you know, he learned
my grandfather's to say that anything you can do eating,
I can do on a horse.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
My grandfather, you know what I mean, I can define right,
you do what every well, you know, my great they
worked hard and they were held to the same standard
at everybody else who walked through the doors at the
United States Military Academy.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Now it wasn't easy, but my grandfather took pride in
the fact that that the fact that he had to
be bigger and do more and be better than the people.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Who didn't understand that he was an American.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
To those who are just tuning in, you're listening to
finding out with Pete and the poet gold and I'm
the poet gold and we're here with doctor Andrea Matthews,
who was also the director of Community and Belonging at
Maris College as well as the president of the Buffalo Soldiers.
And I want to add that you also have a
spiritual studies background in divinity. Can you speak about how
(10:40):
your spirituality plays into your role of community and belonging
in the Hudson Valley as well as of being a
person of service in the Buffalo Soldier organization.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That's a deep question. Okay, yes, so I'm the program doing.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
That's a great question. I'm sure will be fitting too.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
So my PhD is in religious studies. I study the
interconnections between faith and art. I study how and I
specifically study it in the formations of material culture and
so what that allows me to have a perspective and
a lens to looking at community belonging is my metaphor.
(11:24):
My specific area of studies is quilt, and specifically.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
African American quilts.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
So in building community, I see the societies in which
we live as a tapestry. And if you're going to
add the African American particular quilt and the things that
separate us from European quilt there's a set of rhythm
and base that goes with that those patterns when you
put all those different types of people together, so I
(11:50):
know that we can all be different and still work
together to make something beautiful. We just got to let
everybody be in the strip that it looks like. It
may not look like that that color goes with that color,
but when you stitch it together with love, with togetherness,
with authenticity, then the colors actually do match, you know
(12:11):
what I mean, even.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Though they don't naturally right.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
And then if everybody can actually get to be included
with all the different colors of that pattern, we make
a new tapestry in which everybody is included. Everybody has
their space, and everybody gets to be themselves without sacrificing
to be next to somebody that's different.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
And that's that's that's the The quilt tells the story.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
But the quilt also he keeps the spirit.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Warm, correct, you know, and and and we need that, right,
we need there's a little blood that goes into making
a quilt.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The fact that the way.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
We respond when your grandmother gives you her quilt, when
you wrap that baby, your first grand baby up, and
it's something that your family's passed down from generation to generation,
and you see that next bloodline of yours being wrapped
in the something that your family was important enough to
preserve through generations. And so that that that signals to
(13:05):
that child at that moment that you swaddle them and
you look at them, that that without saying one word,
that quilt around your child lets them know they're safe,
they're going to be supported, and that they've got a
support of thousands of ancestors that love them holistically. And
I think if sometimes if we can the if we
if we start to begin to interact with each other
(13:27):
and now ourselves to be kind of quilted into a community,
then I think we'll be okay. Because then every because
every strap is a message, which also makes it quote,
quilt is thrown away, scraps right, things that people discarded,
things that people don't even pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
But if we looked at that within each other, you.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Know what I mean. And and then and then somehow
or another, the beautiful thing about the quilt is no
matter what, no matter what you have in there, it
always is beautiful and it comes out and and so
I think, and that's how I think the human species
is and.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Keep talking because you giving me a poem.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
So yeah, no, seriously, yeah no, I mean and and
and I learned that I take pride growing up, I
spent my summers with my grandparents.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So let me just say this. I have a love
for the Hudson.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
The Hudson Valley is probably one of the best top
secret kept secrets in the state of New York. And
with the nature and the culture and the communities in
which we live.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
We we we we do. Okay, it worked, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 5 (14:24):
And we do have all different types of people, and
we have this chrimn, but we all committed to a
tapestry of a certain type of way of looking. And
it's usually surrounded by beauty. It's usually surrounded by arts.
It's usually we create spaces where people can express themselves
as visually and as artistically as they like. And I
think we we just got to learn how to stitch
(14:46):
that together a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And having the relationship between art and spirituality. Uh, you
know that that's immediately interesting, and it becomes doubly interesting.
And you go to quilts, which I think isn't what
comes into most people's minds when you say Oh, at
first most of us think of it oddly enough. It's
(15:09):
what we think of paintings. That we think of European
paintings as odd. And that's just as that were up
bringing our prejudice. But the real art of the quilt
and is infused both from the point of view of
spirituality as well as being defined as odd. And this
nature is able to be really brought forth that way.
(15:31):
So that's really yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
And then and the Buffalo and the Buffalo Soldier piece
comes in is that you need a warrior.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
We live in time and space.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
We need somebody to defend the honor and the code
and the duty and the community in which we live.
Because we live in time and space, there's going to
be contrast. We're not all going to get along, and
so we need a warrior. And so what the Buffalo
Soldiers is a blessing is the simple fact that as Americans,
both even though we just came out of the Civil War,
northerns and other and still work together to preserve the
(16:02):
ideals of this country and despite all of the internal
things that were going to it, you know, we you
have to have somebody who will die for that ideal, right,
And because they were our uncles and our dads and
our brothers and now our sisters. We can actually see
(16:23):
that we have something worth fighting for and we and
not everybody can do it, and somebody has to do
it that way. And my grandfather was very very clear
that he knew exactly it wasn't about white men, and
I mean, you know what I mean, it was about
he made the conscious desues. He said that West Point
used to drop a drive a bus of soldiers into Coachville, Pennsylvania,
(16:45):
and they would get out in this big fancy you know,
West Point bus.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
He said, the men would get out there.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
They're impeccable. You know, you're coming from west There's not
that not a hair.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
You know, their clothes looked good. They were doing it.
They had money in their pocket. You know, they weren't
in the mills. They weren't in the farms. You know
what I'm talking about.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
My grandfather was born in nineteen twenty one, you know
what I'm saying. So you know, it was a way
out and they had they had character, and they had
and they were respected and and then they were given
something to more. And plus my grandfather was a phenomenal athlete,
right and so coming to the United States military country
was a dream come true. To be a phenomenal athlete
(17:25):
and get to serve your country at the same time
was a gift.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
He was a he got he could have played for
the Brooklyn Dodgers. But but but you know, we so
there's a whole bunch of things that goes with that.
So my grandfather just was he was a man, and
he was a free thinking, free willed man. And most
men make decisions based on their honor.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
And so.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Most men, those men when you look at why most
we can talk about Europeans when they when their ancestors
came over here from Ellis Island, it was about honor,
It was about freedom, it was about bravery, it was
about courage.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
They were doing things that no Europeans were doing in Europe,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
They came and so they and they were being some
of them being persecuted for that freedom of speech, that
wanting to be able to do this. So they voluntarily
got on a boat and came to America and tried
to make something to do. And that was the honor
of men. You know, I don't lie. My word is
my bond.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You know what I mean. I take care of my family.
You take care of your family.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
We engage with one of them, and when we can
come together and make it better for people, we do it.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
It works.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
And so so my grandfather was like, you know, I
grew up in a household where men have honor and
duty and.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Love of country. That's that's all.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
But I mean, so, you know, and so it was
just it was fun. So that's how it works.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Got you And if you're just tuning in, you're listening
to finding out with Pete the poet Goal. I'm Peter
Leonard and I'm the poet Goal, and we're having a
wonderful conversation with doctor Andrea Matthews, who is the director
of Community and Belonging at Marri's College, Maris University, Marriage University,
and as well as the president of Buffalo Social Organization
in the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
You know, I never came across the word belonging as
part of a title, but I know it's a very
powerful word. And Goal, you use the word belonging a
lot within the last year in terms of your ongoing
development as a thinker. You want to talk about your
(19:43):
sense of belonging to see how it might match up.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Well, we're on the same page.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
And it's probably why we, you know, communicate so often
because it's about community. You know, you start with the
spirit within yourself. And I think the spirit does not
does not operate in a vau vcuum. The spirit operates
based upon your spirit and Uncle Mike's spirit and Doctor
Andrea's spirit.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
You know, it's not it's not this sort of a monolith.
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
It is about community. And so that's for me where
belonging stems from everything. Mostly that I do is about
about a sense of belonging and coming to that place
and understanding that and understanding there's nothing wrong with that. Also,
no no, no, no, no, but but I'm saying, you know, for.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Some exception, doctor Matthews has a beat on two. Is
part of your sense of community is welcoming other people
into it. So welcome is an important part of the.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Same in the same fashion that we are welcomed into
the world at birth. You know, when someone walks into
a space, if you can connect them to that moment
that this is just spiritually, just where I stand. When
(21:09):
when a when a baby opens their eyes when they're born,
when they take that sort of first breath of oxygen.
There's there's generally not a a sense of of trepidation.
It's there's there's a sense in there of of curiosity,
(21:30):
you know, a sense of of curiosity, a sense of I'm,
I'm I've come out of this womb and I'm stepping
into this other other space. And so how do you
have a person when you walk into a room connect
(21:50):
with that, because every room is is a womb, so
to speak, every womb is, every room is unfamiliar to someone,
So how do you give them that space of familiarity,
of safety, you know?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
But and and for me, I would say I also too,
I've also got to know that I belong.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I can't rely on other.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Belonging happens when you're in a room where everybody feels
good about who they are and are true to themselves.
Because I can't make I can't feel a void that
you have about your own insecurities whatever, right, that's what
causes the that's what triggers you. Because if I say
some sort of my life shines brighter. And now we
had a disagree because you felt offended, and da da
da da da, And that's what crazy is the problem.
But when you are with like minded people, when you
(22:33):
know who you are and you're okay with you r
it's like may or, mirror on the wall, who's the
fairest of them all?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
My mayor says me. My Maria says me, like, so
what I mean? So I don't have a problem with
snow white or sleep of beauty. You get free to
be who you want to be, so I can be belonging.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
I can invite in because I know that you being
you has does not disminish me at all. Matter of fact,
it enriches me. Going back to what she's saying, because
we are on the same frequency. I'm meeting you because
you have something that you care about. I have something
and it may be fleeting, but in this one moment
I can extend a leaf to you because and because
(23:11):
I really do believe he I'm good and I'm confident
enough to let you know where I stand and I
walk my talk and.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So so so I don't care what cot grace cut,
who you are, what are you been doing?
Speaker 5 (23:23):
That's not my business and you're not a threat and
so and that's the beautiful thing. Going back to what
we said, about the perspective that I did love about
having coming from a veteran family and traveling, you know,
and doing those things.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Is that, Yeah, I can accept who you are.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
And now as long as you're not hurting me or
going over my ideals. I may not like what you say,
but it's just a thought. Until I thought. A belief
is nothing but a thought you continuously think. So if
I don't continually harp on what you said.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
I can move on. I let it go.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
I can't let it go, and then we can belong.
But I but but I don't think that. I think
we've gotten sensitive in these days and age where just
because I am confident in who I am and have
a particular position doesn't mean that I think you're wrong
or you should change or something's wrong with you. I'm
(24:18):
just letting you know so that we can belong together.
This is my realm, this is where I operate, and
if you want to be with me, welcome.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Uh And let me say Gold, this is Gold has
a way of letting my suggestions rick as show you off.
So this might be more for the listening audience and
for Gold, but for Gold to say, every room is
a womb that seems to be the beginning of a poem.
Welcoming the audience is a side of gold that is
(24:49):
good emerges with that fulfilled that that would be great.
And uh. And I remember I was always alert to
the U belonging because see I'm seventy five years old.
But fifty years ago I read a book called The
Walker in the City. But he's got Alfred Kazan who
was an American, a Jewish guy who was an American
(25:13):
literary critic as well as a novelist. But he wrote
the biographical Walker in the City, and he talks about
his temple in Brooklyn, and he said, and it was
a dilapidated, small congregation. And he said, what did it
matter that we weren't rich? We belonged? What did it
(25:35):
matter that our think was not a we belong And
he goes through several things, but emphasizing the word belonged
as something a community which is much more valuable than
the trappings of a wealth and to a power. And
I think both of you fit into that way of thinking.
(25:56):
That you know, it was memorable enough to remember from
fifty years ago. But I love Marriage University having director
of Community and belonging program.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
The boss of the director would be doctor Antonio, who
ever do Antonio who would be the actual lead of it.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
But I am his program director. So I have the
fun job.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Coming out into the beautiful Hudson Valley and finding are
you great, amazing people and bring you to marriage so.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That we can belong together.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Well, we're going to have to have you back Dr
Matthews to talk about some of the programming that Marriage
University will be offering.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
And the students, I mean the marriage students, like the
vaster students where I work, they need it. In other words,
you come to college and college is a very very
good thing. But my opinion is all college is is remedial.
It's it's an introduction to something bigger, and the bigger
(27:05):
thing is community. So when I student goes Tomarrish University
of Vassar College, they're going to a place of learning
and good values and high hopes. But the point of
college is never college. It's community.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
It was the networks because you're sitting next to the
next person who could be the President of the United States,
right and you don't know who they will be, and
that's what And so to your point, and I think
as you know I'm looking at watching the development. You know,
everybody's talking about Beacon and how Beacon grew up focusing
on the arts. To me, Poughkeepsie has a very unique
position because not only do you have the arts, you
are surrounded around colleges that have long standing traditions that
(27:44):
are produced some of the best leaders using education in
the country. Right between the trio that you have, you
have the United States Military Academy, Vassa Marriage Soon. I
don't even add Dutchess Community College in there. At the standbard,
you know what I mean about. You're talking about all
those in most cities that have that many colleges in
a small radius of what twenty miles, they can the
(28:08):
opportunity to be vibrant and on levels that have unseen. Yes,
that Poughkeepsie's And I'm so excited, Like I can tell,
I'm passionate about this right so, but but no, I
look forward. I thank you for the opportunity to have
this conversation with you all. I definitely look forward to
us really really shining light and being the mozart of
(28:32):
the of the Poughkeepsie for the next centuries. Right We're
we're the North Star of the twenty twenty first version
or twenty second century for Poughkeepsie.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
We're the north Star. We're the north Star for the
twenty second all right, and if it was.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Another thirty seconds about your grandfather, who seems to have
been a remarkable person in the sense they're still celebrating him.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
Yeah, that's my pop poop. Yeah we call him pop poop.
That's my pop poo.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
My grandfather made him exceptional.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
My grandparents, both of them. Well, he had a phenomenal wife.
Let me start. My grandmother is a phenomenal woman. She
lived to be one hundred and one years old. They
were married seventy five years my grandfather. I think my
grandfather's biggest thing to me that I got to grow
up living with is like I said, my grandfather was
a man in the true sense. He loved God, he
(29:21):
loved his family, He took to the values, and he
lived his life on his own terms.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
He was really good with people.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
He was the first African American police officer to even
be chosen in Highland Falls in the village, which means
both whites and blacks chose my grandfather to be the
first African American.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
To be in the net.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
So I don't know any other way the advantages of
living in the Hudson Valley. I don't the divide that
a lot of people have. We just didn't see it.
My grandfather has friends that are white. People can go
all down the Hudson Valley and they'll tell me stories
all day about how my grandfather saved them this one day,
how they wouldn't be where they are today if they
wouldn't wear my grandfather so.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
So he had integrity, Oh, definitely, yes, indeed he had integrity.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
He had community.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
He spoke to everybody, he met everybody, He knew people's names.
He would go out for you. You know my grandfather, you
know some one of them.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I'll tell you this.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
The story that always touches me, the one of the
gray stories that ever touched me about my grandfather. Was
a young girl was seven years old, and she said
she was upstairs in her bed, and my grandfather was
a cop, and they came to the house and and
told her the woman, the wife, her mother, that her
husband had been killed. And the girl said that my granda,
her mother gave out the most unbelievable scream that she had.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Ever heard as a child.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Scared to death, right, She never heard anything like that,
And so she came down to the stairs because all
the grown folks were down there and everything like that,
and she said, and everything was going on, I didn't
know anything, She said. Your grandfather was the only person
that came and sat with me and talked to me
and stayed with me until I actually fell asleep.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
He did not leave, she said.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Your grand father would literally stood there with me and
was like, it's gonna be okay, You're gonna be all
right and do the whole night yard, she said.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
And I never ever, ever, pressure said.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
I don't think I ever would have been able to
get over the trauma of my father being murdered and
the response my mother had if somebody was not there
with me, she said. And he was that kind of cop,
and to Peter's point, not only to have integrity, but
he had a sense of humanity.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
So thank you so much, doctor Andre once again for
being here, Doctor Matthews, and thank you to our listeners
for listening to finding out with Pete and the Poe
of Gold.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
We appreciate you
The views and opinions expressed in the following programmer those
of the speaker and don't necessarily represent those of the station.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's staff management or ownership.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Good morning, you'll find out with Pete and Poet Gold.
Speaker 4 (00:13):
I'm Peter Leonners and I'm the Poet Gold, and.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
We're on the ed this morning with doctor Andrea Matthews
from Marrish University. She's also the president of the Buffalo Soldiers,
and we're going to have a very good time talking
about community in the Hudson Valley. But before we get
to that topic and Dr Matthews, we're going to go
right to the Poet Gold for her weekly poem prayer
incantation Cold Please let it roll.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Okay, you got it, Peter, I'm actually going to do
Stanzard three of be the Poem, Be the poem that teaches, reaches,
circles the universe, who quatrain sonnets, pros and free verse.
Let it be mozart to a hip hop beat ballet
performed on blacktop and concrete. Let it be imaginative, soulful,
eloquently stated, and unique.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Be the poem, and we're all trying.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Gold Goals has commanded us to be a poem Jesus
bos and commanded and there doctor about you know, in
terms of community involvement, which is sort of a vague term,
but at Marris College, part of the education of the
students is that the part of the responsibility as citizens
(01:22):
and just human beings is to be involved in the
community in a positive way. Can you give it an
indication on how you program about us intrigued by the
word belonging plays into.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
That interesting Oh, thank you and thank you everybody. I'm
glad to be here. Well, in the societies in which
we live to now, everybody wants to belong to something
or to something, be a part of something, and what's
going on in the world today, more time than ever,
we need to have an opportunity to come together. So
some of the programming that we will be implementing is
(01:57):
a way to get the vibrant bus community here in
Dutchess County and across the Hudson Valley to have a
safer space where we can all come together and everybody
feels a part of this wonderful place we live in
and we want to celebrate that right and so in all,
like you said, beautiful, we want to talk about the film.
We want to talk about the artists that are here.
(02:19):
We want to talk about the beautiful things that make
the Hudson Valley what truly what it is. Our veteran population,
our teachers, our police officers, our volunteer fire department, the things,
the things that we crafted out.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
And this is a great time to be able to
do that.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Now you're you're also the president of the Buffalo Soldiers.
So for those who are not familiar with the organization,
can you tell us a little bit about that?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
I am a direct descendant of Sergeant sanders Hey Good
Matthew Senior, who was a Buffalo Soldier that served at
West Point from nineteen thirty nine to nineteen sixty two
and then became a police officer in the town of
the village of Highland Falls. And so for years, my
grandfather and his comrades have been doing an annual event
(03:06):
at the United States Military Academy honoring the legacy of
the Buffalo Soldiers that served.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
In the ninth and tenth Calvary.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
They wanted to make sure that the history of the
Northern Contributions, and at least my grandfather's thing was that
he wanted to develop an organization where we were able
to talk about the contributions of the Northern volunteer who
joined the armed forces. A lot of times we talk
about the South Georgia and everything, but we forget about
(03:35):
people in New York City, in New Jersey, in Boston.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Joined the military too, and they went out in World.
Speaker 5 (03:42):
War One, and they went out in World War Two,
and they went to Korea. But the story is, when
it's usually turned, the narrative tends towards that. And so
when you start talking about the three sixty ninth, when
you start talking about other particular groups, and like you said,
we got Stuart Air Force Base, We've got all these
great Fort Dix, and there's a whole slew of it, right,
(04:03):
And so we are in the opportunity of using an
organization that will preserve that legacy.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
So we have the term buffalo come from.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
So the narrative is is that it came from the
Native Americans who would see the ninth and tenth Cavalry
or you know, and what we now call all colored
They were all colored troops after the Civil War, riding
across the West to you know, kind of fight the
wars among the Indians and for America to have New
(04:35):
Mexico and all that other place all the way to California.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That was their role.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
And so so the belief is that the one story
is that the Native Americans thought that the black soldiers
looked like buffalo because their hair was full of wool.
You you're hearing them ride as a whole group. They're
coming in and they were soldiers, right and so, and
they fought valiantly, and then they they gave them the
honor of being.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Listed a buffalo, those soldier because.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
They were very humane in their ability to engage with
the enemy, even though they were forceful and were right
phenomenal warriors, right, right, and so then and that kind
of stuck. But and but and so therefore, within that
all colored regiment, though, was Native Americans, Indigenous people, Caribbean people,
(05:24):
you know what I mean, diaspora, the whole diaspora were
involved in that all colored troop.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And so therefore I think they took the combination.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
And I didn't know that I thought that the that
it was a it was a military organization. I thought
it was a black military organization. I didn't know that
the Native Americans were initially a part of that at all.
So that's complete news to me. But it's a longstanding
military organization, uh, primarily around black people. Is that a
(05:58):
fair way to put it.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Yeah, it's the African Americans contribution to the military, right right, Yeah, Yeah,
that's right. Yeah, but that but but specifically the northern
well yeah, we focus on the ninth and tenth Cavalry
that actually was stationed at the United States Military. Most
of the ninth and tenth Cavalry and other black regiments
were in the South. So, but you did have a
(06:20):
ninth and tenth Cavalry that was in New York at
the United States Military. That's sole purpose was to train
the core of cadet so and so that is a
story that doesn't get told, and all the offsprings of that,
the connections you know of the commissioned officers who actually
ran those and commanded those brigades. You don't necessarily know
about the the you know, Benjamin O'Davis.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You don't hear about General Charles Young, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
What I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
These are these stories that don't really come out.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
And then who be came and got recruited, right, so
everybody was kind of considered black, even if you were Haitian,
you know, Cuban, you know what I mean. So well
as a buffalo soldas are soation of West Point. It's
the we include the entire group that would have been
classified as.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Later became people of color.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Correct way of putting in correct.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And I guess again, in some way if I'm rolling this,
one of the reasons I think will be so important
to have that organization is and there's a tendency not
to acknowledge the contributions of black people in terms of
American history, and this is a way of making it
clear that black people have made a major contribution to
(07:34):
American history in many ways, including in this case, especially
in the military.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
You know, as my grandfather used to say, I'm an American, right,
and I came here like all the other people who
have come to America. My ancestors may not have came
here voluntarily, but we still migrated in this and I'm American.
And my grandfather used to say, I'm a black man
who lives in American loves America. So my grandfather was
(08:02):
dedicated to service. He was a military and then he
went right into being a police officer. So my grandfather
was one of those rare people who was committed to
serving the country, and he owned and saw himself no
different than any of his other comrades. And I think
the military gives you that particular perspective. He was recruited
out of Pennsylvania. His father helped build the first veteran hospital.
I mean, we come from even though we migrated here
(08:24):
from Georgia. The bottom line is when we did get here,
those soldiers actually joined and despite them not having their freedom,
still sacrifice and gave to this country because they As
my grandfather will tell you, I am an American.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
But I would say the reason it's so important to
have this tradition highlighted what the work you're doing is.
So he fought in World War Two, but it wasn't
until nineteen forty eight that Harry Kruman really integrate. So
your grandfather, I expect, was a military man in a
black regiment. Correct, Yeah, And I mean so something. I
(09:04):
mean that's a little messed up right there. So I
mean he said I'm an American, but he was defined
against his rule. Probably he was defined as a black American.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Well, see, no, my grandfather, so I got a little
different taste to that.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
So my grandfather took pride in being in an all
black regiment for the fact that there was racism and
that they thought that we were different. My grandfather enjoyed
the challenge of being at West Point and training the
commissioned officers of the United States Military Academy and knowing
that he was selected because he was the best of
(09:37):
the best. So my grandfather owned that you don't get
to West Point and you're the best of the best.
So my grandfather worked hard. He you know, he learned
my grandfather's to say that anything you can do eating,
I can do on a horse.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
My grandfather, you know what I mean, I can define right,
you do what every well, you know, my great they
worked hard and they were held to the same standard
at everybody else who walked through the doors at the
United States Military Academy.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Now it wasn't easy, but my grandfather took pride in
the fact that that the fact that he had to
be bigger and do more and be better than the people.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Who didn't understand that he was an American.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
To those who are just tuning in, you're listening to
finding out with Pete and the poet gold and I'm
the poet gold and we're here with doctor Andrea Matthews,
who was also the director of Community and Belonging at
Maris College as well as the president of the Buffalo Soldiers.
And I want to add that you also have a
spiritual studies background in divinity. Can you speak about how
(10:40):
your spirituality plays into your role of community and belonging
in the Hudson Valley as well as of being a
person of service in the Buffalo Soldier organization.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That's a deep question. Okay, yes, so I'm the program doing.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
That's a great question. I'm sure will be fitting too.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
So my PhD is in religious studies. I study the
interconnections between faith and art. I study how and I
specifically study it in the formations of material culture and
so what that allows me to have a perspective and
a lens to looking at community belonging is my metaphor.
(11:24):
My specific area of studies is quilt, and specifically.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
African American quilts.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
So in building community, I see the societies in which
we live as a tapestry. And if you're going to
add the African American particular quilt and the things that
separate us from European quilt there's a set of rhythm
and base that goes with that those patterns when you
put all those different types of people together, so I
(11:50):
know that we can all be different and still work
together to make something beautiful. We just got to let
everybody be in the strip that it looks like. It
may not look like that that color goes with that color,
but when you stitch it together with love, with togetherness,
with authenticity, then the colors actually do match, you know
(12:11):
what I mean, even.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Though they don't naturally right.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
And then if everybody can actually get to be included
with all the different colors of that pattern, we make
a new tapestry in which everybody is included. Everybody has
their space, and everybody gets to be themselves without sacrificing
to be next to somebody that's different.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
And that's that's that's the The quilt tells the story.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
But the quilt also he keeps the spirit.
Speaker 5 (12:37):
Warm, correct, you know, and and and we need that, right,
we need there's a little blood that goes into making
a quilt.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The fact that the way.
Speaker 5 (12:44):
We respond when your grandmother gives you her quilt, when
you wrap that baby, your first grand baby up, and
it's something that your family's passed down from generation to generation,
and you see that next bloodline of yours being wrapped
in the something that your family was important enough to
preserve through generations. And so that that that signals to
(13:05):
that child at that moment that you swaddle them and
you look at them, that that without saying one word,
that quilt around your child lets them know they're safe,
they're going to be supported, and that they've got a
support of thousands of ancestors that love them holistically. And
I think if sometimes if we can the if we
if we start to begin to interact with each other
(13:27):
and now ourselves to be kind of quilted into a community,
then I think we'll be okay. Because then every because
every strap is a message, which also makes it quote,
quilt is thrown away, scraps right, things that people discarded,
things that people don't even pay attention to.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
But if we looked at that within each other, you.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Know what I mean. And and then and then somehow
or another, the beautiful thing about the quilt is no
matter what, no matter what you have in there, it
always is beautiful and it comes out and and so
I think, and that's how I think the human species
is and.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Keep talking because you giving me a poem.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
So yeah, no, seriously, yeah no, I mean and and
and I learned that I take pride growing up, I
spent my summers with my grandparents.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
So let me just say this. I have a love
for the Hudson.
Speaker 5 (14:09):
The Hudson Valley is probably one of the best top
secret kept secrets in the state of New York. And
with the nature and the culture and the communities in
which we live.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
We we we we do. Okay, it worked, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 5 (14:24):
And we do have all different types of people, and
we have this chrimn, but we all committed to a
tapestry of a certain type of way of looking. And
it's usually surrounded by beauty. It's usually surrounded by arts.
It's usually we create spaces where people can express themselves
as visually and as artistically as they like. And I
think we we just got to learn how to stitch
(14:46):
that together a little bit better.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
And having the relationship between art and spirituality. Uh, you
know that that's immediately interesting, and it becomes doubly interesting.
And you go to quilts, which I think isn't what
comes into most people's minds when you say Oh, at
first most of us think of it oddly enough. It's
(15:09):
what we think of paintings. That we think of European
paintings as odd. And that's just as that were up
bringing our prejudice. But the real art of the quilt
and is infused both from the point of view of
spirituality as well as being defined as odd. And this
nature is able to be really brought forth that way.
(15:31):
So that's really yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:32):
And then and the Buffalo and the Buffalo Soldier piece
comes in is that you need a warrior.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
We live in time and space.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
We need somebody to defend the honor and the code
and the duty and the community in which we live.
Because we live in time and space, there's going to
be contrast. We're not all going to get along, and
so we need a warrior. And so what the Buffalo
Soldiers is a blessing is the simple fact that as Americans,
both even though we just came out of the Civil War,
northerns and other and still work together to preserve the
(16:02):
ideals of this country and despite all of the internal
things that were going to it, you know, we you
have to have somebody who will die for that ideal, right,
And because they were our uncles and our dads and
our brothers and now our sisters. We can actually see
(16:23):
that we have something worth fighting for and we and
not everybody can do it, and somebody has to do
it that way. And my grandfather was very very clear
that he knew exactly it wasn't about white men, and
I mean, you know what I mean, it was about
he made the conscious desues. He said that West Point
used to drop a drive a bus of soldiers into Coachville, Pennsylvania,
(16:45):
and they would get out in this big fancy you know,
West Point bus.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
He said, the men would get out there.
Speaker 5 (16:51):
They're impeccable. You know, you're coming from west There's not
that not a hair.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
You know, their clothes looked good. They were doing it.
They had money in their pocket. You know, they weren't
in the mills. They weren't in the farms. You know
what I'm talking about.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
My grandfather was born in nineteen twenty one, you know
what I'm saying. So you know, it was a way
out and they had they had character, and they had
and they were respected and and then they were given
something to more. And plus my grandfather was a phenomenal athlete,
right and so coming to the United States military country
was a dream come true. To be a phenomenal athlete
(17:25):
and get to serve your country at the same time
was a gift.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
He was a he got he could have played for
the Brooklyn Dodgers. But but but you know, we so
there's a whole bunch of things that goes with that.
So my grandfather just was he was a man, and
he was a free thinking, free willed man. And most
men make decisions based on their honor.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
And so.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Most men, those men when you look at why most
we can talk about Europeans when they when their ancestors
came over here from Ellis Island, it was about honor,
It was about freedom, it was about bravery, it was
about courage.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
They were doing things that no Europeans were doing in Europe,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
They came and so they and they were being some
of them being persecuted for that freedom of speech, that
wanting to be able to do this. So they voluntarily
got on a boat and came to America and tried
to make something to do. And that was the honor
of men. You know, I don't lie. My word is
my bond.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
You know what I mean. I take care of my family.
You take care of your family.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
We engage with one of them, and when we can
come together and make it better for people, we do it.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
It works.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
And so so my grandfather was like, you know, I
grew up in a household where men have honor and
duty and.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Love of country. That's that's all.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
But I mean, so, you know, and so it was
just it was fun. So that's how it works.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Got you And if you're just tuning in, you're listening
to finding out with Pete the poet Goal. I'm Peter
Leonard and I'm the poet Goal, and we're having a
wonderful conversation with doctor Andrea Matthews, who is the director
of Community and Belonging at Marri's College, Maris University, Marriage University,
and as well as the president of Buffalo Social Organization
in the Hudson Valley.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
You know, I never came across the word belonging as
part of a title, but I know it's a very
powerful word. And Goal, you use the word belonging a
lot within the last year in terms of your ongoing
development as a thinker. You want to talk about your
(19:43):
sense of belonging to see how it might match up.
Speaker 4 (19:45):
Well, we're on the same page.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
And it's probably why we, you know, communicate so often
because it's about community. You know, you start with the
spirit within yourself. And I think the spirit does not
does not operate in a vau vcuum. The spirit operates
based upon your spirit and Uncle Mike's spirit and Doctor
Andrea's spirit.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
You know, it's not it's not this sort of a monolith.
You know.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
It is about community. And so that's for me where
belonging stems from everything. Mostly that I do is about
about a sense of belonging and coming to that place
and understanding that and understanding there's nothing wrong with that. Also,
no no, no, no, no, but but I'm saying, you know, for.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Some exception, doctor Matthews has a beat on two. Is
part of your sense of community is welcoming other people
into it. So welcome is an important part of the.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Same in the same fashion that we are welcomed into
the world at birth. You know, when someone walks into
a space, if you can connect them to that moment
that this is just spiritually, just where I stand. When
(21:09):
when a when a baby opens their eyes when they're born,
when they take that sort of first breath of oxygen.
There's there's generally not a a sense of of trepidation.
It's there's there's a sense in there of of curiosity,
(21:30):
you know, a sense of of curiosity, a sense of I'm,
I'm I've come out of this womb and I'm stepping
into this other other space. And so how do you
have a person when you walk into a room connect
(21:50):
with that, because every room is is a womb, so
to speak, every womb is, every room is unfamiliar to someone,
So how do you give them that space of familiarity,
of safety, you know?
Speaker 5 (22:04):
But and and for me, I would say I also too,
I've also got to know that I belong.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I can't rely on other.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
Belonging happens when you're in a room where everybody feels
good about who they are and are true to themselves.
Because I can't make I can't feel a void that
you have about your own insecurities whatever, right, that's what
causes the that's what triggers you. Because if I say
some sort of my life shines brighter. And now we
had a disagree because you felt offended, and da da
da da da, And that's what crazy is the problem.
But when you are with like minded people, when you
(22:33):
know who you are and you're okay with you r
it's like may or, mirror on the wall, who's the
fairest of them all?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
My mayor says me. My Maria says me, like, so
what I mean? So I don't have a problem with
snow white or sleep of beauty. You get free to
be who you want to be, so I can be belonging.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
I can invite in because I know that you being
you has does not disminish me at all. Matter of fact,
it enriches me. Going back to what she's saying, because
we are on the same frequency. I'm meeting you because
you have something that you care about. I have something
and it may be fleeting, but in this one moment
I can extend a leaf to you because and because
(23:11):
I really do believe he I'm good and I'm confident
enough to let you know where I stand and I
walk my talk and.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
So so so I don't care what cot grace cut,
who you are, what are you been doing?
Speaker 5 (23:23):
That's not my business and you're not a threat and
so and that's the beautiful thing. Going back to what
we said, about the perspective that I did love about
having coming from a veteran family and traveling, you know,
and doing those things.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Is that, Yeah, I can accept who you are.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
And now as long as you're not hurting me or
going over my ideals. I may not like what you say,
but it's just a thought. Until I thought. A belief
is nothing but a thought you continuously think. So if
I don't continually harp on what you said.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
I can move on. I let it go.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
I can't let it go, and then we can belong.
But I but but I don't think that. I think
we've gotten sensitive in these days and age where just
because I am confident in who I am and have
a particular position doesn't mean that I think you're wrong
or you should change or something's wrong with you. I'm
(24:18):
just letting you know so that we can belong together.
This is my realm, this is where I operate, and
if you want to be with me, welcome.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Uh And let me say Gold, this is Gold has
a way of letting my suggestions rick as show you off.
So this might be more for the listening audience and
for Gold, but for Gold to say, every room is
a womb that seems to be the beginning of a poem.
Welcoming the audience is a side of gold that is
(24:49):
good emerges with that fulfilled that that would be great.
And uh. And I remember I was always alert to
the U belonging because see I'm seventy five years old.
But fifty years ago I read a book called The
Walker in the City. But he's got Alfred Kazan who
was an American, a Jewish guy who was an American
(25:13):
literary critic as well as a novelist. But he wrote
the biographical Walker in the City, and he talks about
his temple in Brooklyn, and he said, and it was
a dilapidated, small congregation. And he said, what did it
matter that we weren't rich? We belonged? What did it
(25:35):
matter that our think was not a we belong And
he goes through several things, but emphasizing the word belonged
as something a community which is much more valuable than
the trappings of a wealth and to a power. And
I think both of you fit into that way of thinking.
(25:56):
That you know, it was memorable enough to remember from
fifty years ago. But I love Marriage University having director
of Community and belonging program.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
The boss of the director would be doctor Antonio, who
ever do Antonio who would be the actual lead of it.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
But I am his program director. So I have the
fun job.
Speaker 5 (26:24):
Coming out into the beautiful Hudson Valley and finding are
you great, amazing people and bring you to marriage so.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That we can belong together.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Well, we're going to have to have you back Dr
Matthews to talk about some of the programming that Marriage
University will be offering.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
And the students, I mean the marriage students, like the
vaster students where I work, they need it. In other words,
you come to college and college is a very very
good thing. But my opinion is all college is is remedial.
It's it's an introduction to something bigger, and the bigger
(27:05):
thing is community. So when I student goes Tomarrish University
of Vassar College, they're going to a place of learning
and good values and high hopes. But the point of
college is never college. It's community.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
It was the networks because you're sitting next to the
next person who could be the President of the United States,
right and you don't know who they will be, and
that's what And so to your point, and I think
as you know I'm looking at watching the development. You know,
everybody's talking about Beacon and how Beacon grew up focusing
on the arts. To me, Poughkeepsie has a very unique
position because not only do you have the arts, you
are surrounded around colleges that have long standing traditions that
(27:44):
are produced some of the best leaders using education in
the country. Right between the trio that you have, you
have the United States Military Academy, Vassa Marriage Soon. I
don't even add Dutchess Community College in there. At the standbard,
you know what I mean about. You're talking about all
those in most cities that have that many colleges in
a small radius of what twenty miles, they can the
(28:08):
opportunity to be vibrant and on levels that have unseen. Yes,
that Poughkeepsie's And I'm so excited, Like I can tell,
I'm passionate about this right so, but but no, I
look forward. I thank you for the opportunity to have
this conversation with you all. I definitely look forward to
us really really shining light and being the mozart of
(28:32):
the of the Poughkeepsie for the next centuries. Right We're
we're the North Star of the twenty twenty first version
or twenty second century for Poughkeepsie.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
We're the north Star. We're the north Star for the
twenty second all right, and if it was.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Another thirty seconds about your grandfather, who seems to have
been a remarkable person in the sense they're still celebrating him.
Speaker 5 (28:54):
Yeah, that's my pop poop. Yeah we call him pop poop.
That's my pop poo.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
My grandfather made him exceptional.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
My grandparents, both of them. Well, he had a phenomenal wife.
Let me start. My grandmother is a phenomenal woman. She
lived to be one hundred and one years old. They
were married seventy five years my grandfather. I think my
grandfather's biggest thing to me that I got to grow
up living with is like I said, my grandfather was
a man in the true sense. He loved God, he
(29:21):
loved his family, He took to the values, and he
lived his life on his own terms.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
He was really good with people.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
He was the first African American police officer to even
be chosen in Highland Falls in the village, which means
both whites and blacks chose my grandfather to be the
first African American.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
To be in the net.
Speaker 5 (29:39):
So I don't know any other way the advantages of
living in the Hudson Valley. I don't the divide that
a lot of people have. We just didn't see it.
My grandfather has friends that are white. People can go
all down the Hudson Valley and they'll tell me stories
all day about how my grandfather saved them this one day,
how they wouldn't be where they are today if they
wouldn't wear my grandfather so.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
So he had integrity, Oh, definitely, yes, indeed he had integrity.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
He had community.
Speaker 5 (30:06):
He spoke to everybody, he met everybody, He knew people's names.
He would go out for you. You know my grandfather, you
know some one of them.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
I'll tell you this.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
The story that always touches me, the one of the
gray stories that ever touched me about my grandfather. Was
a young girl was seven years old, and she said
she was upstairs in her bed, and my grandfather was
a cop, and they came to the house and and
told her the woman, the wife, her mother, that her
husband had been killed. And the girl said that my granda,
her mother gave out the most unbelievable scream that she had.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Ever heard as a child.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Scared to death, right, She never heard anything like that,
And so she came down to the stairs because all
the grown folks were down there and everything like that,
and she said, and everything was going on, I didn't
know anything, She said. Your grandfather was the only person
that came and sat with me and talked to me
and stayed with me until I actually fell asleep.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
He did not leave, she said.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Your grand father would literally stood there with me and
was like, it's gonna be okay, You're gonna be all
right and do the whole night yard, she said.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
And I never ever, ever, pressure said.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
I don't think I ever would have been able to
get over the trauma of my father being murdered and
the response my mother had if somebody was not there
with me, she said. And he was that kind of cop,
and to Peter's point, not only to have integrity, but
he had a sense of humanity.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Correct.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
So thank you so much, doctor Andre once again for
being here, Doctor Matthews, and thank you to our listeners
for listening to finding out with Pete and the Poe
of Gold.
Speaker 4 (31:32):
We appreciate you
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