Building Up the Community, Cultivating Health in the Community

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
H m hm m r waited.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Shirt your street up.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
M m m m m m m mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Welcome back to another wonderful episode of Lucas Has No Face,
the podcast where we talk about real life, real struggles
and the power behind Lucas and beyond. I'm your host,
Savannah Berts and we have our special guests, mister n
Mays in the house today. Thank you for joining us. Okay,

(01:42):
you guys, we will be discussing cultivating and health in
the community. Building the community up.

Speaker 4 (01:49):
And I'm sure you guys has been aware.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Of what's been going on in the community, especially if
they follow you and watching.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
So for those that do not know who mister is,
who is.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
Mister I'm a man of mini hats I always get
so I usually wrap it up in two terms. One
is activists and the other is violence prevention specially, so
those kind of encompass all the different things that I do.
So just somebody out here that's trying to be part
of the change. We want to see somebody that's giving back, uh,

(02:26):
you know, somebody that used to be you know, o
y back in my day.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
So I'm you know, just just paying it for today.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know, Okay, so we gonna kind of like double
back and around. So you used to be one of those, Yeah,
I was, I was out here.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Was you was as reckless?

Speaker 5 (02:46):
Oh no, the day totally different, but the name of
the game was to not get caught, be under the radar,
and not be really seen like that. You know, it's
totally different today because the purpose is to be as seen,
heard of, and you know, visible as possible, which is
crazy to me, but you know, it's just different times.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Why do you think that is social media?

Speaker 5 (03:11):
The whole entertainment feel specifically coming from social media, like
it has put everybody in a place where if you
are not popular or seen or talked about, then you
have no real purpose here, you know. And it puts
everybody in a position where they feel, I guess they
feel like they have to be known or seen.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
So so what do you think poplar is coming from
a retired Hawaiian.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
See?

Speaker 5 (03:43):
But back you know, back then, you know in school,
like you had the groups, right, you had the popular group,
and then you had the weird group, you had the
nerve group. You had all these different groups, and people
kind of just filtered where they where they where they
fit in and they were fine with that, right, but
now it's like everybody just want to be the popular group.
It's like, you know, it's almost like how at back

(04:04):
in the day, everybody the only ways you could really
do anything was play basketball or be a rapper. Pretty
much was like your two options. But now it's like again,
through social media, you can just act a complete food
and have shock value. In the next day you got
a TV show like so it incentivizes people being as

(04:26):
wild and crazy as possible, which is, like I said,
a total turnaround from how it.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Used to be.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
I totally agree with that. That topic along would take
up my whole shop. So I definitely would have to
bring you back for some of the other things that
you are saying, how did it come for as mke
and the disastrous Relief Division come and to play?

Speaker 5 (04:49):
So when I first started this, I really didn't have
any intention of having like programs or a business or
initiative or not. Like I just came into this, like
I said, to do something to change my community, be
a part of the change. But in that transition, because
I initially came into this as a protester during the

(05:09):
Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and then here you had Dontre
Hamilton's case, So just coming in as a protester and
really learning the landscape, following behind other leaders like Khalil Coleman,
just seeing what the landscape of the city was. But
while I was doing that, right, we always see a

(05:30):
lot of people talk about what needs to change, but
there's no real action and towards doing it. Even when
we was out there, like we would say, you know,
it's got a change, we need to do this, we
need to do that, and then we'll move on to
the next thing. So my how Conforce came into play
was taking that those experiences talking to people, getting feedback,
being somebody who went through a lot of the stuff
and knowing what needs to be done. I was saying, Okay,

(05:52):
protesting is really to put a message out and to
be saying to herd. But once you do that, then
what because you can't just keeps talking about the same
message over now. So con Force literally was like that
next step of Okay, we're going to sit down and
focus and build a collective of people who are going
to go out and deal with all those different issues.
So Senator former Senator Linda Taylor, who's now judge. I

(06:17):
had got connected with her. She heard what I was
trying to do, and she helped me push it. Because
from an elective standpoint, Lena is an activist in her
own right. She does so much more than what her
title is. She's helping people, putting people in housing in
the middle of the night when and got nowhere to go.
So she was doing kind of the same stuff, and
so we connected to try to build that. So it

(06:38):
just became a collective of business owners, youth, residents, organizations,
faith based, you know, leaders and really it's like, this
is the issue and we kind of filter between Okay,
this is what I can do about it, this is
not how I can help, and we tackle it from there.
So it's the actionable part of the talking.

Speaker 4 (06:59):
Okay, I totally understand that. So, like, how old are you?

Speaker 3 (07:03):
How old were you when you decided you wanted to
become an activist.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
I mean I came into this. I was about twenty seven,
twenty eight, So.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
You just woke up one day, like how are you feeling?
Like what just made you just want.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
To do that?

Speaker 5 (07:17):
Like I said, I think the death of Treylon Martin
and those like going towards those issues and not really
knowing too much about what was going in the city specifically.
But I had never seen a real protest in real life,
so all I could do was like Facebook preach, like
I went on my little rants and stuff like that.
But one day I was on the bus coming from Lakefront,
didn't have nothing to do. I was coming past MLK

(07:39):
and North Avenue and I just saw this massive people
like going down MLK towards downtown, and.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
I'm like, what's going on right there?

Speaker 5 (07:47):
So I got off the bus and there was a
protest for Traylond Martin. And so that was the first
thing that I saw where I can actually join something
or these are people.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Who you know.

Speaker 5 (07:57):
Now I'm learning who who's out here, the leader or
what else are doing? Okay, these are the organizations as
out here. So just starting from there is kind of
where I got my my jump into.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Everything that's dope. And I think that's a lot of
people problem. They they probably and do want to do things,
but they don't know where to start. They don't know
where to start, where to start, what to do, how
to do it, who to talk to those things, and
like what the rules are is because it's rules and
protesting correct.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
It is there, there are there should be, there should be.

Speaker 5 (08:27):
But but that's a lot of times you'll see the
same thing, especially if it's behind the like tragic situation,
how you'll see it very chaotic at first, and then
they'll start to be more formed and organized. Is because
people just go out with no leadership or no guidance
to say, this is what we're doing, this is you
know our agenda, and this is how we're gonna go
about it. It's just a bunch of people that go
out here and they're just mad. Right, So that's there

(08:49):
should be rules, but it kind of takes intention to
make to put us on the right foot starting out.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
So so just to name a couple, what are some
of the rules that need to be in place or
should be in place?

Speaker 5 (09:03):
So my two major ones is whoever is leading that right,
you have to inform the people completely so that they
know what they're doing in the in the the backlash
of what they're doing, right, because yes, you have to
right to protest, but they can make you a permit
if they want to, right, they can try to do that,

(09:23):
but the whole point of protesting is to not do
those things as like civil disobedience. But people need to
understand when you do acts of civil disobedience, you can
get arrested. A lot of people lead people out there
into these things and don't explain to them. They just
like this aren't right, but they don't explain to them, like, no,
there's a law that says you can't walk onto a
freeway in protest. If there's a law that says that,

(09:45):
and they could be a felony. So if you go
on this bridge with me, yeah, I mean after so
many when it turns in so it could be a
ticket or misdemeanor. Then if you do it so many times,
it can turn to what they call state charge, which
is a more serious version of it. Right, So get
in towards that. But I've been in so many instances
where people leave folks out there and tell like they

(10:06):
have people thinking they can do this stuff, and it's
like they get in trouble and they like what happened,
And it's because you didn't explain to them or even
know yourself what the consequences could be to some of
these things you're doing.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
That's dope, that is real because I didn't know that.
I know that there are rules just because people go
to jail. But I'm like, are they aware of the
rules before they even get out there in their lives
and jeopardy, you know what I mean? So for those
people that is just joining, there are rules and protests,
so be prepared.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
And the other way I would say is like again
in leadership, is you have to be a balanced and
sensible leader because a lot of people they want to
become the leader and then they try to utilize the
leverage the mass or the people and the power for
stuff that it shouldn't be for.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
So that's all we even talked about. We're don't have
to do a series. We don't have to do a series.
I do let my guests read the comments. We got
two comments so far. So doctor Lashawan Garola, what did
she say?

Speaker 2 (11:12):
You want to read them all?

Speaker 5 (11:14):
There are rules and protocols for everything, protests without violence
for sure.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
For sure, you've been called a real deal force for change.
What has few of your resilience through it all?

Speaker 5 (11:30):
I really just feel like, uh, well, one is it's
just leadership through fearlessness. Like we you know, honestly, we
live in Milwaukee. In any real urban inner city community
is dangerous to to just exist and live and go
about your day to day anyway. So I just always
look at things from a historical perspective and knowing that

(11:51):
even any of the stuff that I can name that
I that I went through and you know, persevere through,
somebody had it way worse before. Like people actually have
gotten killed. Said about the government, you know they're on
the run, uh you know internationally because they can't come
back here. They want to most want it, Like it
has been real major things that have happened to people

(12:14):
in this position who who got up and said I'm
gonna change things, you know what I'm saying. So I
just look at everything from that perspective, and it just
helps me, you know, keep that day balance.

Speaker 4 (12:24):
I'm not gonna lie.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
I'm gonna touch a little bit on it because there's
more questions to come on this topic. But when I
first seen you, it was you and someone else it
was to you too, I don't know the other gentleman name,
and two things happened so far it was back to back,
but it was other things that happened that how should
I say that families should uh get a condonious too,

(12:48):
So condonious to everybody that lost their lives period.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
But we lost tweety and a child got snatched.

Speaker 3 (12:56):
And when I say like, I don't really watch Facebook.
I'm more of a post so I don't really read stuff.
And when I've seen you, it was just my eyes
got stuck on you and I'm like, who is this dude?

Speaker 4 (13:06):
Like you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (13:07):
You were saying some powerful things that was stuck and
it was like people was listening to you. And what
really caught my eye was that you guys found that
little boy.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
I was just like, oh my god. And you wasn't
just stuck on one thing. You was like, we're gonna
come over here and show them some love. We're finna
do this. Make sure this don't get out of here.
And then were about to go over here and see
what this little boy is that what's going on with this?
Because this don't make no sense right, and you did
exactly that. Of course you had a team behind you,
so y'all to his team. But y'all was amazing that day.
Like that right there is is what people need to see.

Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah, I will say this, it's a lot of ego
and a lot of like you know, chest beating in
this and this one thing that I know about myself
is the things that I'm good at. I'm good at,
I'm great at. And I understand that it don't need
to be said or spoken. I just move a certain way.
But what I can say is I'm probably the only
active that does the amount of stuff that I do.

(14:02):
And I've done this for I mean, probably about like
ten or twelve years in at this point. So it's
just like knowing how to go about situations and having
a networking place to know we can make some things happen.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
You exactly executed that, and you know, I don't care
where you go. Everybody got his bad communities or whatever.
But to see that, that was my first time actually
seeing that here in Milwaukee.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
And when I tell you that was just like emotion,
I can't explain. That was really dope. So keep up,
keep up the work that was really that was?

Speaker 2 (14:33):
That was good?

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Were there any personal turning points that made you realize
that was yours mission?

Speaker 5 (14:42):
So if you look on my page, I have this
monitor and people kind of pick at it sometimes, but
I say, Milwaukee's Malcolm X right, And I say that
for a reason. I think people just think, oh, he
thinks he Malcolm X, and is not that. He's actually
one of the main inspirations for why I am how
I am in a lot of the stuff that I
do right because believing in self defense, believing and protecting
our communities, standing up for racial injustice, and not being

(15:06):
I don't want to say soft about it, but not
taking that whole let people walk all over us, and
just we gotta love him and then fight it with love.
Like I think a lot of times, it's necessary to
have action, and it's necessary to have that force. Other
communities don't do that. They're gonna arm themselves. They're gonna say, hey, y'all,
ain't coming over here with that. And so it's a
time and a place for that. But I remember I

(15:27):
was about somewhere, I was like seven or nine or
something like that, and I watched the Malcolm X movie
with Denzel Washington for the first time, and it's just
parts in that movie that at that age was just
so inspiring to me, Like specifically when he went into
the hot the jail and they had beat this dude up.

(15:49):
He was messed up, and the medical right, so he
made them take him to the hospital, right, force them
to with all the people behind them, and then when
they came to that like, look we did with you
got a medical care. He's gonna be all right, you know,
can you make these people leave? And he literally did
adjusted with his finger and everybody dispersed. That was just
so crazy to me, right, and it stuck with me

(16:11):
as a kid, and just as simultaneously in my young life.
I grew up in Mississippi, so I didn't grow up
specifically here. I'm from here, but I grew up in
Mississippi with my great uncle and his family. He had
a son and a wife, and the son was younger
than me, so I always have to protect him at school.
I couldn't defend myself, I couldn't get in trouble, but

(16:32):
his wife was like, you better not letting them happen
to my son. So it's just been my life story
to always be like, protect everybody, even if at a
detriment to yourself. And that's those two things just played
that role through my life, and I found myself here
every time, so being a person in the room that's
not gonna sit back where everybody like, and I'm like,

(16:53):
ain't nobody gonna say nothing? Oh okay? So I got
it like I'm gonna have to do it and it's
not even my personality. I actually don't like doing it,
but I always have to be the person to do it, which.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Is you know, you know that goes for everything.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
I don't care if you activist, hairstylists, I don't care
what it is that you do.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
People seem to always have those.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Egos and those sayings, but those are the very same.
People don't understand what it is that you go through,
how you start your morning, what you do behind closed doors.
Like I always say, you can never sit there and
try to tear somebody apart if you're not doing exactly
what it is that they're doing to get the exact
same thoughts.

Speaker 5 (17:32):
Yeah, like I said, it's it's a lot of people
that want titles and this and that, and they have
no idea what it is like. And when you say
the research on me, one thing I know if you
google my name, a lot of bad.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Stuff is going to come up. It's the he got
arrested for this, he got to rest for that.

Speaker 5 (17:51):
People don't understand the intention of that, of how they
purposely do that to you. So when somebody want to
support you, they're going to look you up in all
the bad stuff is going top up continuously, right, But
those were targeted attacks, like them trying to put cases
on me, them tie me up in court here, they're
trying to get me really out the way, you know,
And they don't understand that part of it. They don't

(18:12):
understand being under federal investigation directly from the president, like
Trump really put a case on me, like I just
got it was a ten year case that I just
got over this past January finally, But they don't understand
those parts and how you always got to look over
your shoulder, not from the people in the community, but
from the government and the police and all that crazy stuff.

(18:35):
Like I don't think they understand the totality of that.
So when people jump into this work and want all
the recognition and want to be on the same level
as you, you like you think you wante this vibe,
but you really don't, you know. So it is, man,
It's something in our community that you know, we definitely
have to address and deal with.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
And you know what I say, like, when you don't
know no better, you know you can't do can't do better,
you know, But when you know better, you do better.
So I feel like when people go through things, that
builds they character. That builds their character. So for me
seeing that, it's like who you who are you today?

Speaker 2 (19:13):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (19:13):
Like people, if you are the same person since birth,
what you learn nothing. You gotta go through somethings some
you know, it's unfortunate that whatever happened happened. But at
the end of the day, look who you are today.
You are strong, but you went through a lot to
become who you are today. So again that judgment shouldn't
go because if we want to talk about that, people

(19:34):
that's higher up in corporate and all of that stuff
just speak a little tab it on. They are the
most correct people in the world. They just do it
the right way. They not loud with it. So well
now he is, he's very loud, but they just loud.
They just you know, like you said, under the radar.
So that's just bor uh. You often speak on the

(19:56):
connections between social justice and health. How do you see
the active is impacting people well beingd So that was.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
The other side of when I say I do a lot.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
So I mean when it comes to police shootings, when
it comes to missing persons, and specifically health, because if
you leave me, look back in COVID, like con Force was,
we actually created a central like we almost became a
news network right to where people come to us because
you was hearing something totally different from the health department.
You was hearing something totally different from the mayor and

(20:27):
the county and this and that. So I did the
work to make sure that we got whatever the most
accurate up to that information and shared it to the
community that we was getting with the community needed and
wanted and their frustrations and concerns. We created this community
this health based questionnaire that the county even put on
their website because nobody was centralizing this information and they

(20:50):
were scared to go out and deal with people. But
I was still out there the whole time, you know.
So health is a huge part of public safety. Health
is a huge part of people's behavior and what happens
in our community every day. And so if people don't
recognize the correlations between all the different stuff that's happening,
then you know that you do on a disservice.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
You know.

Speaker 5 (21:11):
That's why it's a difference between an advocate and an activist.
Like advocates target a specific thing and go for that. Right,
they take things on one at a time, but an
activist just is broad and it takes on a bunch
of different stuff.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
So, okay, what are some health challenges you've seen arise
directly from community trauma or social injustice?

Speaker 5 (21:36):
Man, mental health has been a huge thing happening in
our community, and of course, uh, you know, physical health
has changed even mind, Like if you look at my
pictures from twenty sixteen turning into COVID twenty nineteen twenty twenty,
I didn't look the same, and it was because I

(21:58):
invested so much time into the world work right that
I wouldn't taking care of myself. Like I'm just getting
into the season of self care and slowing down and
doing stuff for myself. Because even when you're taking on
people's trauma, dealing with cases, dealing with you know, trials
for people burying people, like you take on other people's
traumas and issues and you don't really understand how that

(22:19):
affects you until you really sit back, Like, you know,
I'm really absorbing a lot of other people's pain on
top of everything I got going on personally. So yeah,
health is very very important in this work for the
person that's doing the work and for the people.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
That need the help for sure, because you're doing all
that's like who's taking care of you? You got to
I always tell people like, even though you know what
I'm saying, like time waste for no one, that is true.
But if you continue to be in robotic mode, which
most people are because we're trying to just get it,
you're really not doing much, you know what I mean.
You're not knocking off boxes like you think you should

(22:56):
be knocking off. So it's very important to step away,
to to restructure, to see what it is that exactly
that you need to be working on.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yea.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
And people feel like if they step back, then they
wasted a whole day and work, when it's like, no,
you really need to take care of yourself.

Speaker 5 (23:11):
Yeah, Sometimes your body will let you know that you're
doing too much, and if you don't listen.

Speaker 3 (23:15):
To it, you'll be oh, it was definitely shut you down.
And it might be the wrong time, right, right, it
might be the wrong time. As someone who's activated in
disastrous relief, how does the work contribute to both physical
and mental health in the community, So.

Speaker 5 (23:33):
The disaster relief specifically, right, I always talk about I
sincerely hate the negative name that we have outside of
this state and how every time something that's brought up
about Milwaukee is some crazy negative story, and I'm like,
I want to change that, like you'll always see me like, no,
I ain't finna lay down for that.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
You ain't gonna Milwaukee like that.

Speaker 5 (23:54):
So the disaster relief was part of that effort, like,
and that was also done unintentionally back in the day
when I first started, we did the water drop the Flint,
and the way that we do our things is totally
different from how everybody else does it, right, But when
I got back here, I was like, yeah, we're gonna
go back because the water is still messed up. And

(24:14):
then come to find out, I'm sitting at home trying
to organize another one to Flint, and it's like, wait,
our water messed up too, is worse and it's been
bad for longer. That's crazy, Like I didn't know that.
And so again being educated and informed about even what's
going on in your area, because I'm all the way
over here in another state and we got the same
thing going on here and I don't even know about it,

(24:35):
you know. So that was like our first mobilization to
another place to help folks. But then it turned into
something more intentional of you know, Conforce is a first
response based group, like we do a lot of medical
training and a lot of life saving trainings and stuff
like that, and so I'm thinking ahead of the curve,

(24:56):
like there is no real mobile relief for or stuff.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
That's happening across the country.

Speaker 5 (25:01):
And on top of that, when people you show up
to a different city and state, especially in the South.
We've been to a number of places in the South,
they are so blown away that this little company you know,
got came down with Danner semi trucks, you know, full
of stuff, we you know, how we tactical about it,

(25:22):
how we pull up, how we do our stuff, and
they just be sober.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Even FEMA was like, wait, y'all, who from where? You know?

Speaker 5 (25:29):
And that just when they hear that we came from Milwaukee,
it just blows people's mind. And that just makes me
again when you talk about mental health and bringing people's
spirits back up.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
These people have lost homes, lies.

Speaker 5 (25:40):
To tornadoes, ice storms, hurricanes, floods, and they be in
the most devastated situation possible. But when we pull up
from all the way up here and do what we do,
like people just really take be taken aback and they
feel so much en list stake spirit.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
And that's that's one thing.

Speaker 5 (25:57):
I'm also very intense about lifting them arale of people
because people who hurt and traumatized and sad are likely
to end up in some form of violence or or
something like that. And so again it's it's intentional work.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
And I was gonna say what you already said. You
know that was the first It wasn't a mistake, but
you was unaware that our water was messed up. Because
I often say, like how do people sit there and
help other cities in states when they're not in their
own cities and states?

Speaker 4 (26:26):
Like how does that even work? But you flipped it around.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
That I gotta ask you that.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
And it's so crazy how you say your little company,
but you guys are not little.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
You're just not big to the world because of whatever
the reason is. And you make the Beier companies question
because what are you guys not doing as so why
quote unquote our little company is able to do this?
Where's your money going? Because y'all get taxpayer pair money,
you know what I mean. So that's just like corruption
within itself in there, because where is that money going?

Speaker 4 (26:58):
Why you guys can't y'all are meant for this, right,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 5 (27:02):
So that's just that got mean a lot of trouble
along the way because we make a lot of people
look bad.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Honestly, it ain't about making nobody looking back. It's about
showing up and helping those that are in need.

Speaker 5 (27:12):
But you know, people are so used to being able
to skim pass and act like they doing something right
until somebody who really doing something is standing accident, and
then they make people do exactly that.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Like, wait, y'all got a million dollar budget?

Speaker 5 (27:24):
They on Facebook raising five hundred maybe one thousand, five
thousand dollars hit the most and they're doing more than y'all.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
What's what's up with that?

Speaker 4 (27:31):
So how did y'all get in trouble? Like, how did
y'all get in trouble for doing what y'all do?

Speaker 5 (27:35):
Because the world is ran The world has ran by money,
and money is a huge thing.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Money gets moving around in the city.

Speaker 5 (27:42):
It really cause again with all these different organizations and
companies that's got millions upon millions of dollars and we
still got all the stuff wrong in our community that
we got. Then that means that somebody's doing something that
ain't working for sure, right, So that is the way
that it is. Before we really put this other a
time henative inversion out for people to see if they
had nothing to compare it to, so you can say, yeah,

(28:04):
we're doing our best. I've been in meetings where people
will saying, yeah, we cured homelesses, and I'm like, we
just went live. It's thirteen, it's freezing, and it's people
in this tent right here.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
How did y'all get? But they able to go in
these rooms and say.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
This stuff and get and get more money, and they
able to lie like that.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
What happened to the numbers?

Speaker 3 (28:23):
One of my good sisters are here and my sorety sister,
doctor l Shon Garola. You are supposed to be when
you have that type of money coming in, you're supposed
to be able to look up that type of money
publicly to see where that money is going. Like I'm
with AMG. I'm able to see where our money is
going to. So you telling me that you can't request
to see the money or the money is not publicly

(28:45):
viewed because that is something that's supposed to be publicly viewed.

Speaker 5 (28:48):
A lot of places weren't being audited and looked at
like that. They are just giving them money freely and
they can say whatever, and nobody's checking them. And that's
that again, until you make up, until you make it
to where that becomes a question of public opinion, people
don't even know to ask that question, like, for.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Instance, we're gonna have to do a serious Oh listen.

Speaker 5 (29:08):
It gets it gets deep when you start messing with
money again, that's I got it. I definitely got in
trouble not understanding the gravity of how instilled a lot
of this what we may call corruption is you know,
it's it's it's very intentional, and it's very prevalent. And
if you don't open people's eyes to it, you wouldn't
think about it, because I didn't think about it before.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
I got involved. We're gonna leave us where that's happened.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
What kinds of impact have you witnessed from providing food shelters,
safe basics, especially from our youth and our neighbors.

Speaker 5 (29:44):
I have seen such an impact change in you know, people,
and it's it's the stories of everyday people. And that's
why I'm able to go. It don't matter what side
of town, you know, I'm good, you know. And it's
because it's so many people whose lives were touched and affected,
right like real life people were just at tweezy when

(30:05):
they first started putting the flowers and stuff down outside
of the shop. The next day, and while I was
gonna lie, some young dudes stopped me and they was like,
you used to be at the park and you was
giving us food and all that like, and he went on,
he stopped his.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Friends and really's like, hey man, this man right here.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
Like and it just that type of stuff is why
I do it, because I've worked with so many young people,
like you know, when they were fourteen and now they're
in their twenties right like, and seeing them around town
and they're not getting in trouble no more.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
They got a job. They actually they ain't in no
stolen car. They bought their car.

Speaker 5 (30:36):
And we used to tell them, like, you know, it'd
be cooler if you actually own the car, right like,
you ain't gotta you're looking for the police and you
can come up and take take the little batty in
your car, like, yeah, it's mine, you know what I'm saying, Like,
and they really now they pull up on me like,
yeah it's mine, bro like, And it's makes such a difference,
Like people who used to be fighting all the time

(30:58):
and catching cases like they have made total changes in
their lives. And I'm not saying I'm the only reason
for that, but when you add a little bit of
consistency in somebody life, a little bit of positivity, and
you kind of make that almost just as normal as
the negative stuff they see every day. A lot of
them lie. It might take them a while, but they
gonna latch onto it after. It's just interjected so much,

(31:20):
we don't give we don't get enough positivity consistently in
our communities.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
That is so true. And consistency for me is a
form of love, you know what I mean. It's so yeah,
we don't have to do it serious. It's so it's
so bad to the point where it's like, once somebody
do something bad, you want to categorize them, and the
system is so messed up and so corrupt. It's just
because they did bad, you put them in the system

(31:47):
and then you forget about them. You should be trying to,
you know, give them all the resources that they need
instead of trying to put them in jail.

Speaker 4 (31:53):
Like, why are you putting these little kids in jail?

Speaker 3 (31:56):
I understand like kids do things, But at the end
of the day, mental health is real. And I don't
know if I got the numbers right or not, but
I could have sworn I just heard. Correct me if
I'm wrong that our president just gave Apple one point
four billion dollars in something. Why we can't get that
over here on mental health?

Speaker 2 (32:12):
I'm just confused. Well, they're actually taking money from the.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
Stuff, you know, so do I got it in reverse?

Speaker 5 (32:19):
You're right, he's giving huge companies again, businesses that's selling
stuff to people, but all the stuff that's actually helping
people health wise, violence prevention, while he's taking stripping all
of that stuff.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
And it's so crazy because it's going to make it
bad because we already have people that have really never
been through anything. People that's one side mind tracked and
they don't understand what mental illness is, just the same
way of an autorm disease, because what do mental illness.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
Is supposed to look like?

Speaker 3 (32:48):
They feel like you're supposed to be minchmacky, you know,
smelling bad, looking bad, and okay, something's wrong with him.
You can look exactly how you are and have something
wrong with you, and people don't know how to They
don't know how to handle that, like he was just
talking normal or she was just talking normal, but now
they's fasting out, like that's not normal behavior.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
So people, not only do.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
Our mental health individuals need to be handled better, people
need to be educated on it as well.

Speaker 5 (33:16):
Right because, and it even needs to be given a
different perspective sometimes all the time. Right because to me,
mental illness is claiming that you are a religious or
Christian person, but the things that you're advocating for ain't
Christian at all.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Like you are mad that somebody.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
Up some doors, you're mad at.

Speaker 5 (33:35):
Kids, like you want you advocating for people to be
killed and die, and you own stories of stuff that's
happened to black people applauding that stuff, but you are
christ That's crazy to me. So that even is a
mental illness that people don't even recognize that they have
because you you're not making sense and you really are
like standing on it too.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Like you got some problems going on.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
Before we go to the next one. We got a
couple of comments up there.

Speaker 5 (34:03):
What do they say Starkville, Mississippi. Oh, I grew up
in Greenwoodssissippi. So shout out to you.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
I joined late.

Speaker 5 (34:10):
What's your name? My name is Jaen mays Uh. They
are connected social justice and health equity. I believe it
says yes.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
They for sure is connected.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
So we're gonna we're gonna jump into why this makes
sense because like how you say, people be people.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
I gotta be careful what I say.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
Individuals be looking at my platform and they just be
waiting for something to mess up, right, But I always
make sure everything makes sense on my platform. So we
are bringing awareness to gun violence because I have a
son that got shot six times.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Right.

Speaker 3 (34:48):
But this is a Loopers based platform because I have Loopis.
But my Loopers community and yours go together in this
house and let me get to it. So and Lucas
has no things. We focus on invisible battles, chronic illness, isolation, trauma.
How do you see your work in the community, also

(35:09):
fighting invisible battles like grief, PTSD or fear.

Speaker 5 (35:16):
A lot of times it's self medicating in ways that
ain't necessarily the greatest for them, or trying to find
medical you know, things to help them with it, like
you know, pills and stuff of that nature, and they
end up abusing them. So people are trying to find
ways to heal themselves or to deal with what they
got going on, but the outcome may not always be

(35:39):
the best because again lack of education and when you
talk about how messed up health is in our community period,
even for the.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Providers of health.

Speaker 5 (35:48):
This is one of the reasons why every person that
started on my team, right, they have had to go
through Stop the Bleed, a CPR, mental health QPO are
we even had we've made like relationships.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
With the fire department. They've let us some of our
people take EMT training.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
Like that's why that stuff is the focus, because we
already know the horror stories from people that go to
these different hospitals and clinics, and you know, we need
to learn those life saving measures because you can't always
count on what's there to be there for us. So
we talk about especially when it comes to mental health.
I mean, I just wish it was enough more hours

(36:30):
in the day to be able to advocate and push
for the stuff that every day people need.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Enough people to come together that's on the same platform
and shout out to you, I'm gonna get your flowers.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
Now.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
You are really doing the work. And not only is
you doing the work, you are putting your people through
the training. And I really believe in that, like your
people should understand what it's like without knowing what it's like. Right,
And shot up to Michael d. She's the owner of
or for a Glow her employees.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
She.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
Send them.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
I don't I don't want to say she sent them
to therapy, but she provide therapy sessions for them. Yeah,
and she's a therapist. So and everybody needs therapy. People
don't think that they do, but I advocate for therapy.
Therapy is refreshing to me if you ask me.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
So.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
Shout out to y'all just doing the work behind the
scenes that don't nobody seem you're welcome. Chronic illness like
lupez and violence both carry long term health impacts mental,
emotionally and physical.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
What does true healing looks like to you?

Speaker 5 (37:38):
I really can't say that because I don't you know,
I think we all know someone or another who is
going through one of those different illnesses. Like I told
just members of my actual team who have like sickle
seale and different stuff like that. And to be honest,
it's a struggle watching them deal with that, you know,
Like I don't always know what to say when they
I'm gonna tell you a crazy story. There was a

(38:00):
person that I was Facebook friends with, right, and she
had I believe she had loopers, Like I think that's
what she had, right, And she would always get on
Facebook and like, you know, talk about her pain and
all this stuff. Now, she lived at a certain as
she actually used to come out of like a volunteer
for a lot of the different events and stuff that

(38:20):
we used to go to. And I dropped her off
one time at home, not knowing. Years later I moved
into her same house, the same house, and this is
how it ties in. She went to I saw this late.
I started seeing RP posts for her, right, and I'm like,
what happened there? So I go to her page and
she was just like, you know, she gonna start refusing

(38:42):
treatment and all, like she just was in so much
pain all the time, like she didn't want to live
no more, right, And I was just like, dang, like
she really let herself die, you know, And one day
I went and checked the mail and her name was
on the mail. I lived in her exact house, and
it just was so crazy to me, like that that

(39:03):
just made it that was very unique. So it just
goes to show, like and I see a lot of
people struggling with that, a lot of people who struggle
with those type of illnesses and it's no cure. Again,
they're getting the least quality of care and they see
no hope. And how do you keep somebody like that
uplifted and you know, won't willing to stay resilient and

(39:27):
fight through that pain, Like you can't tell them like
keep at it, like it's a hard thing to deal with.
And me, I'm a little bit it's crazy because I
run toward gunshots and bullets and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
But if I see somebody who I know and care
about and they like on a level of that, I
struggle with like confronting that. Right.

Speaker 5 (39:44):
So I may not comment on the post or might
not because I mean, for me, it's a thing of
like right, because sometimes you can offend people by stuff
you say. Right, some people don't want to just hear
all it'll be okay, And you know, I'm here for
a lot of people don't want to hear that kind
of stuff, right, So not knowing the right thing to say,

(40:06):
it's it's definitely your struggle because I do know a
number of people who they make those posts all the
time and they get to that point where they want
to do the.

Speaker 3 (40:13):
Same thing, and I'm like, you know, everybody is different, right,
but I am gonna say for people that I have
or am you know, counseling training and things like that
nature and even myself, it starts with yourself first, right,
So you have to accept what you have. And once
you an sept what you have, then you start to

(40:34):
learn to live better lucas. Then you start learning your
triggers and you start being an advocate for yourself because,
like you said, some doctors own out here is just
treating it. And most people that have lupas have different
auto different different autoimmune disease on top of what they
already have. So they are giving you a pill for this,
and they giving you a pill for this, and they
give you a pill for this, and all of your
doctors have to communicate with each other so you guys

(40:56):
can come up with something so you can have a
comfortable life. Any yourself. So when you accept what you
have and you start learning your triggers and you start
being more vocal, because some people think like it's all
in their mind. They're really not feeling this and X,
Y and Z, and that's that's the healing process. There's

(41:17):
really not a right or wrong thing to say, but
to hear those words I'm here, you know, keep your
head up. That does replay in people here. So it
is okay if you do say that. It's just that
if they ever reach out to you and you're not there,
that's when the pain is gonna start fail.

Speaker 2 (41:32):
Yeah, yeah, something I gotta be better at. I trust me.

Speaker 5 (41:37):
It's just, you know, man, it's hard and it's hard
to watch somebody, like I said, in pain and not
be able to do nothing, you know, besides get them
some words like you know, and you as a person
that I have like a total clean bill of health,
like I don't have allergies or ain't you know I

(41:57):
being around people with so many different medical things, just like.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
I don't know how it feels to be in your shoes.

Speaker 5 (42:04):
So you know, again, you don't want to be insensitive
or or you know, dismissive for that, but I totally
take that in of not saying anything can also be dismissive, right,
because why that person ain't reach out.

Speaker 4 (42:22):
To say something like because that's a crowd.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
For hell, When people are doing that, it's definitely a
crime for help because they feel like nobody understand them,
don't nobody believe them.

Speaker 4 (42:31):
It's a whole thing. It's a whole thing.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
And again, yeah, not Cambella, she says, show empathy, that's
for sure, you know, because it's just so much. But again,
it's not enough time today. What can community organizations like
Lucas has No Face do better to support youth, families,

(42:56):
individuals living with invisible wounds, whether it's auto communities or
gun violence trauma.

Speaker 5 (43:03):
So I would like to do something like get you
connected with the city and the county as well for
like the different events and stuff that because one is
again information, So is there a partnership that's possible to
help spread the education, the LID, the available options and

(43:23):
resources groups whatever to the community, Because when we have
these different things, I don't recall ever seeing anything about
Lucas there. I don't recall seeing anything about sickle sale
or what's the muscle the one with people. Uh, I

(43:46):
can't remember the name of it, just just all the
specific things. And I know a number of people who
deal with that stuff. So not even having anything promoted
right to where aside from you go to your doctor
and they may sing you to some flimsy person over here,
and that's or only other option. I think having more
things available and just having it there, you know, inaccessible,

(44:09):
I think would again help boost people's morale and may
help connect people with these issues so that they can
help talk each other through it and build different relationships
that way. I think more advocacy and inclusion and our
every day all these different events and and all that stuff.
So I would like to save myself if you have

(44:30):
like so, we do this gift drive every year on
Christmas Eve, okay, and so if you have flyers that
we could put in our gift backs to help promote it,
then we would like to start that off by being
someone that promotes that stuff.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
That's though, we we just had our fifth annual Christmas
give back. So maybe we can you know, collaborate somehow
or whatever. We can talk about that, but I'm open.
We're definitely open, for sure. I believe in a you
can see can be a form of medication. What advice
do you have for lucas warriors or survivors who wants

(45:06):
to use their pain as a platform for purpose.

Speaker 5 (45:12):
I would say one of the dopest things that I've
you know, since they was helping somebody start Facebook like
self help group for people suffering a specific thing. I
talked a number of my Facebook friends and personal friends
into creating self help group for people with like depression
and suicide, right, And that may sound crazy, but it

(45:34):
was super helpful because they may not go see a therapist,
or they may not talk to somebody that you refer
them to, but they all are on the same playing field.
So they were talking to each other and having different
discussions and stuff like that. They had like little partners
that they would connect with and the stuff like that.
So I think that's a creative space for yourself to

(45:57):
be open and to get that stuff out in the
share with somebody who can relate to you, right, I think,
and y'all can help lift each other up and keep
each other, you know, in check. I think that that
would be something that's I would suggest for for all
the different.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
That is that is really dope. That's dope. So we're
going to move on to your state emergency at the
town hall for that is August twelve. So first of all,
how did you how did you what.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Made you come up with that?

Speaker 5 (46:34):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (46:35):
Because that's where he got was that the town hall
that he got present in his.

Speaker 5 (46:39):
Black at So this is this is so that So
the so the town the emergency town hall is not
is not my thing. I'm part of the collective that
they pulled in to like be a major you know,
part of it. But Pastor Dante uh at Infinite Church

(47:00):
and Beco Baker are the two who kind of pulled
that together and organized it. Right, So it is a
community response because I don't know if you saw after
Tweezy's shooting and the whole thing, there have been nine
shootings downtown in two deaths, and so the city, the
common Council actually called a public safety emergency hearing like, yeah,

(47:23):
we gotta get on this. Downtown should be safe for
all that kind of stuff. But it rubbed people the
wrong way because where was that, Like, it's we at
a high for homicides and shootings right now, so the
rest of the city is should have the same energy.
But of course when it's downtown, and that's the attitude
that people had toward it.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
End by all means they.

Speaker 5 (47:45):
Should, and so that was their way of saying, let's
bring it back around because that that meeting was not
public comment, so that the public couldn't have input or
say what they need to say. And so we definitely
pushed for people to have their input in government and
was going on. So that was their way of one

(48:05):
continuing tweezys memory, and he talked about a lot of
stuff right before he died that he wanted to do
in the community, and so people are trying to keep
that energy alive and start the process of doing stuff
in his name and honor that was along the line
in the wind alignment with what he wanted to do.
So this is a town hall for people to come
and express st aid ideas, they concerns, they frustrations about

(48:30):
the violence and the things that are happening in our communities.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Elected officials are invited and we're we're asking that they
be here to hear from directly from the people versus
what they did, which was very closed.

Speaker 4 (48:47):
Okay, so now listen, y'all, do not come for me.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Please don't come for me.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
But I'm gonna say this, like I knew him a
crore Croft Paths probably like every time I was out.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
You know.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
He was a real cool, real cool, respectable guy, you know,
very educated. But my thing is, yeah, he was there,
he was very important to the community. But you're going
to get people out here that's going to be like, well,
why didn't this happen with such and such pass and
such and such pass because when he passed, it was

(49:19):
somebody else that passed that same day, and it's like
this thing, right, But then a part of me, well,
the goal is as long as it's happening, you understand
what I'm saying. So I guess my question to you
from the people is why did it take somebody that
so that was so important to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in order
to put this stuff in place versus the shootings prior.

Speaker 5 (49:43):
I think it's also when you're a notable person or
a see icon, right, you have a different advocacy push right,
because there are a lot of families down in Arberry.
Her family she was also killed outside of Element a
couple of years before, and no one is still arrested
for that. So she's been marching and doing different things
in her honor, and she didn't she didn't have that

(50:04):
same support and push for for her daughter.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Right.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
But unfortunately for those people who are like the more
known and notable people in the city, it's always going
to be a more hoopla around them because of the
amount of people who they are, right, their status in
the city.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Right.

Speaker 5 (50:23):
And for for him, he was like a city ambassador,
like and everybody who was somebody you know, icons and
rappers and artists, and I mean they all knew him, right,
So that's why it's more of a thing for somebody
like that, right. So I know, from the outside looking in,
that may always put a bad taste in people's mouth,

(50:45):
but it's the same. It's the same way for like,
why why is this they shut the whole city down?
And for a police officer get killed, or if for
being anything happened to the president or somebody who's up
in the higher you know, status or rank, it's going
to be a different reaction versus people like everyday people
that they consider. So it's just the way society is.

(51:05):
There's that hierarchy, and unfortunately some people have more support
and notoriety than the other people. So and I would
say that from the city's perspective, it had nothing to
do with him. They were just like, downtown is at risk.
So it's kind of the same thing of why is
it such an emergency because it's downtown versus the rest
of the city, So sure, you know, but just bringing

(51:28):
that balance because even with that happening, we definitely made
an intentional push to say other people.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
No, yeah, you for sure did you for sure did
do that. And this was coming from the people. It
wasn't coming from me. But I totally understand that. So
like for the people that is mad and have all
of that, where was this one that happened to my baby?
The goal is the point is it's happening now, so
come together as a unit and join it, now.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
We couldn't do it then for whatever reason you heard
what he said, But it's happening out and that's that's
something positive to focus.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
On, right, Yeah, I mean those are my good words.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
I don't know, because I don't want to be on
this side or that side.

Speaker 5 (52:17):
Even if there was a push, right, some people feel
like the whole city should come out for for their loss, right,
and they personally could be it could be a new
born baby, right, and you can't really tell them that
they're wrong for feeling like that. You know, some people
just when you lose somebody, a lot of times you
just picked it's whatever you're mad at is like your target,

(52:37):
you know, and you and you go in on it.
So I feel like, you know, there will always be
that no matter if people got more support, they will
wonder why they don't have more support than what they
have then, you know. But that's why we try to
be as balanced and intentional about supporting people regardless of
who they are.

Speaker 3 (52:56):
And if they got y'all were definitely doing y'all thing. No,
y'all were definitely saying the people name. So, like I said,
shout out to you guys. But I just sent a
lot of stuff on the books and all of that
and a lot of questions, so I just thought I
would ask for the people. The theme is it takes
the culture to heal the culture. What does the phrase
mean in the context of your work?

Speaker 2 (53:18):
So I'm this is gonna be my meaning.

Speaker 5 (53:19):
I don't know who it came up with that and
what their meaning is, but for me, you know, and
I said this on my lie too. We have to
make some things uncool. And it's just certain certain things
that that we give passes to that's not okay and
we have to change that. You know, certain people can
get away with doing some things because of who they are.

(53:42):
You know, there's still a line of people who want to,
you know, freeze some of these freaky people out here
because they are somebody, right, but they are doing some
crazy stuff out here, and it's like they still have support,
like that's crazy. But people who was outside the courthouse,
poor baby, oil on theyself because they think did is

(54:04):
for the get out.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
That's that's insane.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
Let me just say this, and I'm dealing with this
place because this is a car, this is my thing.
I have a son and I have a daughter. We
don't always know what our kids are doing. I'm putting
myself in the whole for everybody.

Speaker 2 (54:20):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
We don't always know what our children are doing. From
the beginning of time, older men have always corped younger women.
Think about it, in high school, the guys graduating, they
pulling up in their toys. You ain't supposed to be
talking to these kids, right, I'm not saying that it's okay.

Speaker 4 (54:41):
So do not come for me. But what I'm saying it,
especially right.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
What I'm saying is you guys made it okay until
someone start putting the laws behind it, because for forever
you got the moms that's letting the guys come over.
That's twenty the girl of fifteen sixty. People be okay
with this until they are not okay with that. And
I'm gonna just say that to say that, like, because
it's both ends that are hurting, you know what I mean. Like,

(55:06):
And it's nothing like wrong with their minds or anything
like that. Some are, but this has been happened since
the beginning of times, and I'm just talking about just
the whole thing.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
How older men.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
They younger women, and in an era in the nineties
and the ages, everybody was okay with it. Now it's
all of this other stuff that is going on. And
I'm not saying that they shouldn't or should not be
okay with or what I'm saying is I have a
son too. These girls around here a lot about their
age or whatever it is, both should get in trouble
however that see fit because you you chanking up these

(55:39):
young boys on these charges when these girls are at
fought as well, period, because they go home or whatever
the case may be.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
Lie.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
However, that's about I don't mean just one side.

Speaker 4 (55:50):
Yeah, because that side is crazy.

Speaker 5 (55:52):
It's it's so much culturally that we again it's it's
cool and it's fine people that, like I said, we
let certain people get away with it. A woman can
most definitely lie and drag through the mud, get you
arrested and all this and come and find out you lie.
Nothing happens to them. So I mean that stuff too.
That's a cultural shift that we have to say, hey,

(56:12):
that you doing that kind of stuff, get away from it.
Ain't when you you, we ain't supporting you, we ousting you.
Like it's a certain way that we need to be
sure to not have those gray areas in our community.
There there and as long as it's people that's gonna
be I don't care what they did, then it's I mean,
it's people gonna feel supported and they're not gonna care

(56:33):
about doing what they're doing because they know they're gonna
have support either way.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
Okay, The town hall honors OLG Tweezing and all victims
survivors of gun violence. How do we begin to heal
those generations wounds. As a community.

Speaker 5 (56:58):
I really don't have an answer for the healing because
it's the process is different. People grieve different. Some people
never get over lost. I know a lady back in Mississippi.
Her son was shot and killed when I was in
my early twenties.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
I was worth like twenty two and to this day
that's all she can talk about.

Speaker 5 (57:19):
And this has been almost twenty years later, you know,
and she that replaces in her mind every day. That's
all she can talk about, and so she her lifestyle
has changed. It's almost a little sad, you know. But
some people will never truly heal from it. I've seen
people who just lost their parents, you know, could be
health or natural causes or whatever, and they still never

(57:41):
get over that. Like when it comes to healing, I
just think we all need to do the most and
the best that we can to help each other through
that process. And again, not be as dismissive because I
know myself certain things I could be like, I don't
understand why you can't get past that, right, But I'm

(58:05):
like that too. I got my brothers and sisters on
my mom's Side's ten of us on my mom's side,
and a lot of us went through the same stuff,
but half of us is cool and half of us ain't.
All right, you know, So people can go through the
same thing and have two total different reactions, So you
can't really you know.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
This is my pen because I've been through a lot,
like from getting dinos to loopas at an early age,
my childhood and sa sweart for me and things of
that nature. But I'm grateful, I'm blessed, and I'm happy.
I feel like people that I feel like healing is
a choice. I really truly feel like healing is a
choice because you get to wake up. You cannot wake

(58:44):
up and be mad from the stuff that happened yesterday.
Nothing never hits the same, you know what I'm saying.
So if I slap you right now, you're not going
to feel that exact same pain three seconds later.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
You're not.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
People choose to be anger, they choose to be mad,
becau because of whatever our reason, I don't know, But
because of that, I feel like people choose not to heal,
and that probably don't register in their mind because who
wants to have that gut feeling? Who wants to have
that body pain? Because when you're not healed. Your body,
eat from the inside out, you go through your body,

(59:17):
going through something. And I feel like people don't have
enough support. People share people out. You may shot some
people out, but if you got that support, that real support,
they're gonna continue to check up for you no matter what.
You know what I'm saying, You're gonna go through those
text mes, you wanna read them, and you're gonna eventually
get back to life. And I feel like those people
that are healed, they choose, they chose not to feel

(59:38):
that way anymore, because what can you actually do about it.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
Nothing.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
You cannot bring them back. And I don't mean to
sound like that, but I have.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
And grieving is not just losing somebody, you know what
I'm saying, Grieving could be the loss of an old life.
You have to want to heal. And the other thing
that I cannot stand this trigger word. People use the
trigger words so loosely. Not doesn't make any sense to me.
If you heal, you don't have a trigger. That's how
I see it. A lot of triggering you if you

(01:00:07):
heal from it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:09):
Some people take their whole lives because listen, like I said,
I used to be a way end certain stuff. I
was able to say, listen, so I'm not doing that
no more. And I was able to snap my finger
and be cool from that. But it's still stuff that
I struggle with, for instance, being incarcerated and how institutionalization

(01:00:32):
is a real thing. Certain things if people don't again
have those options or those resources to understand like what
they can do outside of what they think they already doing.
And you just see these bad examples of how to
deal with your trum and yo and yo, you know,
all the stuff you're going through, then you're gonna keep

(01:00:53):
doing it the.

Speaker 4 (01:00:53):
Way that is almost becoming brainwashed.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
It is the environment of your community, you know, Like
I felt like I did everything right and raising my son,
he has everybody. When I say he was born, he
was born with six grandparents, you know, Grandma's, the husbands
was including mom and dad, both sides, Like he was
the first everything and not standing in the inner city,

(01:01:16):
none of that. So fast forward as he got older,
my son got shot six times at work. Now he
doesn't run in the streets, he doesn't do anything. He
just got back up here from Tennessee working with queueing
them Bronsfield's way. So he was developing all that stuff
down there. Early in the morning. I was just getting
back from a Sarah's Shake's conference, okay, getting sleep, My

(01:01:41):
phone just ringing. I'm like, I'm gonna answer it. He
calls me at nine something, So after nine he like,
literally they just shot in through the whole clip out
on him. That was one of my worst fears ever
in life, just him staying here getting shot. And so
for that to happen to my son, like it chokes me.
It makes my stomach turne but I don't let my

(01:02:05):
mind go further like what if?

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
What if? What if?

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
Because that feels anxiety. I'm just so thankful to where, Why,
Why God let that happen. I don't know, I don't care.
Maybe he was doing I don't know right, but my
son does not.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
He don't have.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Any formalities anything. He was going through, you know, uh
the mental state for a while. We both were, uh
but now good, But we would never know. So I
just say that to say, like that was a that
was a fear for me, my only son, and for
him to come out of that clean, I'm thankful. So

(01:02:43):
I don't care that he got shot six times, you
know what I mean. But then I also had to
because I develop PTSD over that. So I also had
to give it to God because I'm watching his location,
I'm calling them. It's just all the stuff is going wrong,
Like I'm like, you need to be home, like being stressed.
But I prayed about it and gave it to God

(01:03:04):
because from what they say is our first son is
not our sons, god son, and that's my first son.
So I just just let trust God to do whatever
he's gonna do.

Speaker 5 (01:03:16):
That's a level of strength that a lot of people
will never reach, honestly, like even myself, like the stuff
I've gone through, especially during this Dinner twelve year period
of activism, Like I've been able to stay focused and
keep moving with all of the drama and the bs
that that has been thrown my way all this time.

(01:03:37):
But everybody ain't able to do that. And it's a gift, honestly,
it's really a gift to be able to be bulletproof
to a lot of stuff that really takes a lot
of people out. Some people can't, you know. And again
sometimes it really takes that perspective, like to see somebody
with no arms and legs and them enjoying life and

(01:03:59):
being cool and you, you got all your mbs, you
can see, you can hear it, and you guys work
like and it Really that is the perspective that enables
me like to I mean, I really don't have that
much to complain about, for.

Speaker 2 (01:04:13):
Sure, I'm straight.

Speaker 5 (01:04:14):
So a lot more people need that perspective in that
level of strength because it's very easy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
The easy way is to just drown, to just drown
and to just just mis insane. People are using stuff
as an excuse for a cush but there are.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
I feel like people like to be victims, like it
gives them that extra cushion. Like I don't know how
else to see it. And maybe I do have a
gift that I just didn't realize it was a gift
like that. But I just be like, who wants to
wake up feeling like this and going through this? Nobody
wants to do that. But yeah, so we're gonna leave
that to where that's at. Talking to day, you will

(01:04:57):
be standing beside some powerful from activists to artists to
elective officials. How do we align across those differences to
make real lasting changes.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Yeah, Like I said, I gotta do what watch conforts.

Speaker 5 (01:05:11):
That's that's that's another day at the office to me,
you know, I go outside myself. I make sure you know,
we are putting ourselves in all the different circles and
spaces from entertainment to music, you know, film, community government,
and we're making sure and putting people on a path
to make sure that we're aligned because it all makes

(01:05:33):
a difference. The people in entertainment that's on these movies
is the tiktoks, the social media is that our kids,
our children are watching and want to be like them.
They need to also come into this space and give
back and tell these kids like, hey, this entertainment, get
an education, like like the like the drug dealer used
to be on the corner. They didn't used to let
if you was a certain age, they made you go

(01:05:55):
to school like they get your little tale out of
here man.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Like listen the eighties, but I don't know what happens
to people was able to discipline us and not worry
about nothing these days. Could never you said something to
my child like it was nothing. They would never understand
how we grew up the era we grew up like
it was. It was always violent, but it was never
in our face like and it wasn't as prevalent, respected

(01:06:21):
the women and the children.

Speaker 5 (01:06:22):
There were there was rules instructure that was it was
understood the certain things you did and certain things you
didn't do, certain type of things, you would not be
welcome or you wouldn't be able to just walk around
here like everything was cool. They was going to do something. Yeah,
you know, we lost that. It's it's something that we
can we can return to. Like right now, I'm you know,

(01:06:43):
pulling down a car. Especially with our young people, they
are super unguided, like they just doing whatever. Whatever they
come up with is what's what's law, right, And I'm
like all these dudes running around talk about they run this.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
Area, they run this block, Like where are y'all? Y'all
just letting anything happen.

Speaker 5 (01:06:57):
Like again, back when we was doing if you made
the police come to where we're at and made it hot,
we was gonna do something to you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
Why you do that? You know? So we need to
return to having that level of hey, you do certain
things were.

Speaker 5 (01:07:11):
Gonna come see you. You know, it ain't what you do,
it's how you do it.

Speaker 2 (01:07:15):
The respect got lost along the way somewhere. It really did.

Speaker 3 (01:07:20):
For those who feel powerless or overwhelmed by what's happening
in our community. What would you say to them?

Speaker 5 (01:07:28):
I would definitely say everybody has a roller lane that
that they can do something right. I learned that lesson
the hard way too. I like, everybody ain't the warrior
that's gonna be out on the front lines yelling and
screen or fighting the battle. Like I expected that when
I first came out, IM like, well, y'all ain't. Oh okay,
I see what's going on here. But there are things

(01:07:52):
that people can do. Some people can just share a post.
Some people can just tell somebody else that you know
what you got going on and support that way. Somebody
can put the money in. Somebody can they got a
skill that can come, you know, and and give and
and teach. You know, there are rolls and lanes for everybody.
And even beyond that, I think a lot of people

(01:08:14):
are on this earth and are not even looking to
know what their purpose is.

Speaker 2 (01:08:20):
You're not just born here to be here.

Speaker 5 (01:08:22):
Everybody here has a purpose and when you find that,
everything will open up right. But people try to force
their purpose or I'm supposed to be a rapper, I'm
supposed to be this over here, and then it's like
you totally missing what your calling and your gift is
because you're trying to be what you what you think
everybody like or you know, what you see yourself as.

(01:08:43):
And it's like, you know, I ran from my purpose
for a long time, but like I said, I couldn't
run from it because anytime something happened with that, I'm
the first person they get caught like, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:08:52):
Like, dude, I'm tired of going to jail. I'm tired
to do this. So I just had to.

Speaker 5 (01:08:58):
But it clearly was like I'm supposed to be here
to protect people, right, so people.

Speaker 4 (01:09:05):
Don't understand what the calling is for me.

Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
My calling never left my brain, like it never left.
I just put action to it. I didn't put thought
to it because I'm like, what, this is not something
I want to do. Like but even then when it
was time to perform, I didn't want to. But it
went and it went and it went and out I'm
in love with it. So I feel like, is that
experience that you had, like it just never left your
thought process.

Speaker 5 (01:09:30):
Yeah, Listen, like I said, I ran away from it.
I tried to try to do other things, and it's
just nothing else has been like I'm like a fishing
water when I'm doing this specific thing, and you know
that tells me and my steps have been guided. You know,
if I as long as I keep moving, it don't
matter what's thrown at me, I always come out on top.

(01:09:51):
So you know, I'm very sure that I'm walking.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
In my purpose.

Speaker 3 (01:09:56):
Okay, Okay, while rewrapping this thing up, what do you
you hope people walk away with after attending or hearing
about this town hall?

Speaker 5 (01:10:06):
I really hope that people are prepared to again act
because so many times we have these meetings in town
halls and people just want to come there and yell
and tell somebody what they ain't doing and what they
need to do. And that's what I expressed to them, like,
you know, you're gonna have them people that just show
up on that type of time and they have no
intention of being genuine or actually doing anything other than

(01:10:32):
just to come here and say, hey, peace and lead.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:10:34):
So, but let's be intentional about finding and selecting and
pulling those people in who actually want to do something, Like,
let's give them some actionable steps to leave with and
give them the option to do that, and we can
we can go from there because it's never been the masses.
It's never the masses of people that step forward to

(01:10:55):
do what need to be done.

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
It's always the few. So you got to take the
few here, a few there, and you got to build
up that way.

Speaker 3 (01:11:01):
No, for sure, and especially when people know that it's
a lot of work to do and you ain't getting paid.
That cuts about.

Speaker 4 (01:11:06):
How I.

Speaker 3 (01:11:12):
Deal with these kids. I gotta cook and you want
me to do what? So yeah, you definitely got to
be true to it. How can our listeners support the mission,
whether they are in Milwaukee or watching from another city.

Speaker 5 (01:11:25):
Again, just continue to watch, following support, you know, for
as visible as I am to still people all across
the city and nation that have no idea that I exist.

Speaker 3 (01:11:38):
Yes, I didn't even know, you know, And that's that's
even in the community into this. But eventually I'm more
than sure we will run each you know. But we
need to be more more intentional with that piece, especially
the larger, regular everyday person that's is going to work

(01:12:00):
and trying to live. Know what's out here, right, And
we have to do our piece to make sure that
we let people know what's out here, because that is
again one of the things that can change things in
our community if people had that access to all the
same information. Even with social media and all the other
stuff that we have access to, people ain't getting on

(01:12:22):
there trying to look for no community h loopist event.
They on there trying to see what's what tea today?

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
Who did what to? It's entertainment. They're going on there
for entertainment.

Speaker 5 (01:12:32):
But we gotta we gotta get it a while you're
watching this, Hey, we got the loopis is over here?
You know, we gotta we gotta be intentional about that.

Speaker 3 (01:12:42):
So no, for real, like just in the closing, Like
it's so many events that I've done that people have
people in their family with loops and I'd be like
and they still don't know what it is, and I'll
sit there and talk to them and they go hit
me back and say, like that really helped.

Speaker 4 (01:12:55):
Thank you, Like I guess so many messages.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
It's overlywearingly crazy, but I'm thankful for because I'm like
he built me for this. So just how you said,
But we's your tags and we're also gonna drop your
tags and a link for people to follow you got
anything that's coming up.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
So we towards the end of the year.

Speaker 5 (01:13:19):
Generally in August, we have a basketball weekend called Today Weekend.
We're hoping to get the support to do it this year.
And then additional, whether we do that or not, we
are always going to do our gift Drive. It'll be
year twelve this year where we select a different area
of the city that's hit by a bunch of different

(01:13:40):
ills like you know, shootings and just poverty or whatever
the case may be. We select a different area of
the city every year we pull up and give out
over ten thousand dollars worth of resources, toys, TVs, gift
cards like cash, just you know, we just showed the
community some love and some support, So be looking for that.

(01:14:02):
That happens on Christmas Eve every year. You can follow me.

Speaker 2 (01:14:06):
At Vaughan L. May's v A U N L M
y E S.

Speaker 5 (01:14:12):
And from there you should be able to connect with
every other thing that I got going on.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
So definitely looking forward to it.

Speaker 5 (01:14:19):
And next year we're gonna try to start the year
off with with a nice bang and have some fresh
new things to try to tackle twenty twenty six.

Speaker 3 (01:14:28):
With for sure, I cannot wait. I'm looking forward to it.
Tow is gonna drop those tags and a chat. So
you guys go ahead and check him out. Remember if
you guys are available or if you are coming late
August twelfth, right August August twelfth at I believe it's
at six pm. We August twelfth at six pm. Come

(01:14:51):
show some some love and support. Come bring some concerns,
be respectful, and come with a plan of action if
you guys are really true coming to support this cause.
We do have TDR Network that is presenting mental health

(01:15:12):
mash up for man. It's called Let's Break the Stigma.
It's going to be a biweekly meeting. The first meeting
is going to be Friday, August thirteenth at five thirty
to seven pm at TDR Studios sixty eight fifteen was
Capital Drives three three hundred. That definitely will be in

(01:15:34):
the comments. If you guys are your egos, ego and
whatever the case, maybe just come in, fill out the
vibes and something else that you guys want to continue
to do. He will have an ongoing thing, so I
think you guys need to come check that. I will
bring your sons, cousins, any young man. I think that'd
be very very beneficial. Again, if you guys are joining

(01:15:56):
us at the walk in Illinois that will be as
ninth Register starts at nine am to ten pm. Or
doctor Lashawn Goola you can register, ton can you put
that up? You still have it? You can register. It's
still time to register for the Loopings walking Illinois that

(01:16:20):
is going on as well, and you guys already know
what time it is.

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
It was a pleasure.

Speaker 3 (01:16:25):
Speaking to mister Vond Mays, the force of the community.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
I'm gonna say different states because.

Speaker 3 (01:16:31):
He's been traveling with them U HAUL talking about building
up the community and captivating the health. We are live
every Wednesday at six point thirty on all platforms. Be
sure to replay likes, to subscribe and share. Loopens has
on face podcast until next time.

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