Moving Mountain Monday with Ernest Crim III

Our favorite Millennial, and host of "What's Love Got to Do With It - Community, Common Unity," on The Jesse Jackson Jr Show, Ernest Crim III, states that every veteran should come out to meet the National Guard should they come to Chicago. In the 2nd hour, "The Faith Not to Fall" host Rev.Teresa Hord Owens, added a measure of faith for the polls in the next election...fully dressed clergy known as poll chaplains. It’s about time we all gather, and stay at the table. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Jesse Jackson Junr. Weaping forward to Jesse Jackson Junior
Show on KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. Today, We're going to
be discussing with our favorite millennial some of the critical
issues of our days. We are at a turning point
in our democracy. We will be discussing none other and
nothing other than the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty
five and our political representation. In this opening segment, I

(00:26):
want to set the stage as best I possibly can
for what we're looking at. Remember in Jamestown, Virginia, in
about sixteen nineteen nineteen odd, probably twenty Africans arrived on
the shores of the United States of America sixteen nineteen, Well,
the Democratic Party does not start until seventeen ninety two.

(00:50):
Ninety three is the Federalist Party, which comes to an
end in about eighteen twenty three. The Whig Party comes
to an end sometime in eighteen fifty four, at the
same time that the Republican Party of eighteen fifty four
born into existence as an anti slavery party. So the
negro is here. We get to watch white folks organizing

(01:13):
themselves before there was a United States of America. I said,
we were here in sixteen nineteen, before July fourth, seventeen
seventy six, before Thomas Jefferson was born, before Benjamin Franklin
was born, before James Madison was born, before the architects
of our Republic were born. The Negro was here, so

(01:36):
we have a vantage point. When white folks show up
talking about setting up a government, we're looking at it
like well, like lu Gassi Junior said in Roots, when
he was sitting around Kuntakinta's table with his wife, he said,

(01:57):
the white folks show were celebrating their freedom, the free
they show he is free. Now they just stop the
British day Free. I'm so happy for him and the freedom.
But the Negro found themselves overwhelmingly still in shadow, slavery,
the hypocrisy of it all. By eighteen fifty six or so,

(02:22):
when Frederick Douglass is invited to Rochester, New York, he
talks about these July fourth celebrations, like, what's to July fourth?
Is the Negro slave do? What does it mean to us?
It means nothing. It's a hypocrisy, it's a lie, it's
just not the truth. So we see this party, this
Democratic Party, come into existence in eighteen seventeen ninety three,

(02:43):
as a slave party, as a states rights party, as
a local control party, as a party that believed in
the wind until the wind was gone, gone with the wind.
And then the Republican Party comes into existence really to
stop what the Democratic Party is doing. It comes into
distance to stop the expansion of the Democratic Party into

(03:03):
the westward states. And their only platform in Ripon, Wisconsin
in eighteen fifty four is we are coming to existence
to stop the expansion of slavery in the Western States.
And by eighteen sixty they found a candidate to run
for president of the United States, and his name was
Abraham Lincoln. Before Abraham Lincoln could even be sworn in

(03:24):
as president, a shot is fired at Fort Sumter by
the South Carolinians because they did not want the federal
government to have a fort off of their shores. As
Abraham Lincoln's victory signaled the end of the expansion of
slavery into the Western States, it also meant that Southern
way of life was about to change if Lincoln were

(03:46):
able to implement his policies. Right behind us began falling
out of the Union and falling out of our country.
That led to a civil war. Tavis earlier to they
played a clip from Governor Newsom. He says, now that

(04:06):
Texas has fired the first shot, just like South Carolina
fired the first shot. California is now positioned its legislature
to respond. Initially, the Governor Pritzker of Illinois also threatened
to respond with his own states action my state. But

(04:28):
now he's pumping the brakes because some of us on
the ground are saying, whoa, whoa, whoa. What about the
Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five. We were here
in sixteen nineteen. We were here before there was an America,
and we watched Democrats and Republicans come into existence. And
when you all start arguing and debating in state legislatures
talking about equal number of Democrats, an equal number of Republicans,

(04:49):
and who's going to have the edge, it always leaves
black people out. And so by nineteen oh one, even
after we had sixteen African Americans in the Congress of
the United States, by nineteen oh one, George White, from
the black Congressional District of North Carolina gave a speech
talking about the temporary departure of the Negro from Congress.

(05:11):
The Phoenix speech. It wouldn't be until nineteen sixty five
Voting Rights Act that we came back to Congress in
any meaningful way. And we got a lot of new
young fighters coming to the Congress, a lot of new
young fighters coming to the state legislative bodies across the country.
But if they don't know this history and they're just
lining up with we got to be with the Democrats.
We got to be with the Democrats. No, we have

(05:31):
to hold the Democrats accountable because white state legislators in
these states will draw congressional districts to do what give
us more Democrats. But that don't mean black Democrats, that
don't mean Hispanic Democrats. Yes, I'm for stopping Donald Trump.
Yes I'm for bringing a gun to a pencil fight.

(05:52):
I get it. But I also get our struggle. And
I'm fighting for us before I fight for anybody else.
I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. Forward more on the Jesse Jackson
Junior Show with our very special guest, Ernest Krim, my
favorite Millennial. I'm Jesse Jackson. You're welcome forward to the
Jesse Jackson Junior Show. In this hour, my very special
guest is none other than our favorite millennial. Ernest Krim

(06:14):
the third an Emmy nominated producer, public teacher, anti racist educator,
and hate crime victor who uses black historical narrative to
empower and educate through a culturally equitable lins. Mister Krim,
a South Side of Chicago native and University of Illinois
Urbana Champagne graduate, is the former high school education and
history teacher of twelve years who now also advocates for

(06:37):
social justice issues and teaches black history to the world
and through the world and through social media with the
platform that reaches nearly four million people each month. Ernest,
welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Hey, what's up, my brother? Happy Monday to you. It's
a pleasure to be here with you in community again.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Man. I am so grateful that you are here on
Moving Mountain Mondays on the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. I
know my producer is going to give me a good
swift kick for not getting that right. Listen, Ernest, I
want to read one little thing to you and then
we can reflect on it for the next fifty or
so minutes. Sixteen African Americans served in the United States
Congress during Reconstruction first Reconstruction, that is, between eighteen sixty

(07:21):
five and eighteen ninety six, six hundred more were elected
to the state legislatures and hundreds more held local offices
across the South. The last African American to serve in
the Congress from the South during the reconstruction era was
George White, who represented North Carolina's black Second District until
his term expired in nineteen oh one, marking a temporary

(07:42):
farewell to African American representation in Congress before the Jim
Crow South White predicted a future return of Black Americans
to Congress in his valedictory speech, as disenfranchisement laws made
it impossible for him to run for reelection. That's the
struggle in this hour that I think Jasmine Crockett is
struggling with, and Al Green are struggling with redrawn congressional

(08:06):
districts where they don't have sufficient supporters in their districts
consistent with the Voting Rights Act to get re elected,
so impossible for them to run for office again. Out
of loyalty to Abraham Lincoln, the newly freedmen were called
Lincoln Republicans as part of the Tildenhayes Compromise of eighteen
seventy six, the Electoral College dispute. The Lincoln Republicans, without

(08:29):
the late president's leadership, agreed to withdraw federal protection from
the newly freedmen from the South. In other words, they
cut a bipartisan deal with the former slave holding Confederate
Democratic Party. But we were loyal to Lincoln and Lincoln Republicans.
The result was an unprecedented era of terror on black
voter mail participation, but was that was guaranteed by the

(08:52):
Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed black
men the right to vote, to the exclusion of black women.
Black women would later gain and be given the franchise
by the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, allowing all women,
including white women, the franchise. Our loyalty to the Republican
Party of Lincoln. Republicans, I believe did not take that
into account that it was the federal protection that they represented,

(09:15):
given the turbulent nature of that period. Our loyalty to
the Party of Lincoln is evidenced by the fact that
Martin Luther King Junior's father, affectionately known as Daddy King,
was and died a Lincoln Republican. Daddy King was an
example of the loyalty that our people had to Lincoln Republicans.
But Daddy King was not the only person who was loyal.

(09:37):
African Americans had lived through fifteen presidents of the United
States who did not accomplish for us what Lincoln did
in his short tenure. Nevertheless, we remain loyal the bipartisan
agreement between Lincoln Republicans and members of the former Confederacy
in pursuit of peace. The absence of peace but not
the presence of justice began an unprecedented terror campaign on

(09:59):
Black b people. Our loyalty. I am afraid ernest to
the Democratic Party in this era. That's all I hear
is saying. We've got to stop the Republicans. We've got
to stop Donald Trump. We've got to be with the
Democratic Party, a party, by the way, that has twenty
six percent approval rating across the nation. It's a voter
registration efforts have simply collapsed across the country, twenty six

(10:22):
percent approval rating. We're putting all of our faith in
that party at this comar and that party not offending
the Voting Rights Act nineteen sixty five, and I posited
the thesis that by twenty thirty two there could be
zero Blacks in Congress after the senial census, leaving us
very little representation, just like George White. Because we're loyal

(10:45):
to everybody but ourselves us first. As we fight to
stop Donald Trump, we cannot lose sight of us. Ernest
Krem you're my favorite millennial. I had to vet with
you today just vent. I'm sorry vest with you today

(11:06):
just to let some of it. Ernest tell me what
our millennials must do in this hour to fight for us.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, I think wow.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
And as you read that, you know one of my
things as a history teacher, when I was in a classroom,
I would sometimes read historical accounts or maybe even secondary
resources about a particular time period, and I would sometimes
just take out the wording that would allow you to
figure out which time period it is, so like any

(11:36):
time it alluded to maybe a negro or a year,
and I would have my kids read it in wonder
what is this talking about? And oftentimes you can see
and their response would be that it was a present
day issue. As you read, as you read that, that's
what it felt like. To me, if you just switched
some of the names, some of the titles, our allegiance

(11:56):
to the Republicans then is our allegiance to the Democratic
Party now. And it feels as though I can't even
say it feels as though it.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
We are back in the same place.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
And I always use these historical lessons, not just to
beat people over the head with facts. I was never
the teacher that said you had to memorize a lot
of things for a test. I was a teacher that
required essay questions. He loved my class, but they did
not love my tests. My tests were the antithesis of

(12:29):
how I was in a class. I was a great guy,
great to get along with. I was cool, nice to
them and everything. But when they got that test, and
I would tell them open notes. But if you can't think,
if you can't connect, the donce does not matter, free
the liar. The way that we study history in the
linear chronological fashion, it's truly the antithesis of human behavior.

(12:51):
People will try to reposition themselves to obtain power in
every generation right, whatever their definition of power is. And
if we do not study the past lessons of these cycles,
then we will be the victims of it in the
present day and moving forward. What you say and what
you spoke about this past week about us potentially not
having any Black representation in Congress moving forward in less

(13:14):
than a decade is startling, and it's not something I
don't think a lot of us are privy to. I
can tell you truthfully, I wasn't even aware of Jerry
Manner until I went to college and took a political
science course at our home about I wasn't aware of
this in high school when I was taking the constitution tests,
the memorization tests that I have to take to prove
that I was worthy of graduating from high school. I

(13:37):
just had to remember a bunch of facts about the amendments,
about the terms of the president, how old you have
to be with no knowledge of how it apply to
my life right now. And I think that's what we
see here, is that vicious cycle of the miseducation of
the Negro as Cardige Wotson would say, but truthfully, the
miseducation of the American populace as a whole. In my

(14:00):
opinion and perspective, especially you know, as the representative for millennials,
I think that we have to understand that things don't
change until we change them. To be a radical change
in our thought processes. In this generation, hopefully we understand
and realize that it is not those, it's not simply

(14:24):
those that we elect, that will bring the change that
we desire. It is us pressuring those in power to
do the right thing. We realize that when Abraham Lincoln
did what he did, which was an amazing feat, we
understand that that does not happen without a Frederick Douglass
for example, true Ariet Tubman, and even white brothers and sisters,

(14:46):
Cassius Clay, the white one, you know, like this doesn't happen.
LBJ doesn't sign the Voting Rights Act without the agitation.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
Going to this.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
They don't go into office volunteer saying we're gonna do
what's right by black people, especially if they don't look
like us, but also sometimes when they.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Look like us.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
I heard earlier today Tavis Smiley. He was opining on
some issues that he has with Gavin Newsom that range
all the way from LGBTQ to reparations to you know,
I mean, I respect holding the governor accountable, you know,
but holding him accountable on issues that matter to us

(15:29):
is not the same as saying, let's all rally behind
the Democratic Party flag, the flag of twenty one percent
approval rating, by the way, a losing flag at this hour,
whose history is tied to a flag that ran through
the Capitol on January sixth with stars and bars, whose

(15:52):
history was a Dixiecrat party, who when they came together
in state legislatures think about this. Trump is putting federal
troops in blue cities across the country. The reason there
is a black speaker in the State of Illinois General

(16:13):
Assembly today is because black state representatives are consistent leaders
in the Illinois State House of Representatives. Most of our
state's legislature downstate are rural senators and rural representatives. They're
predominantly white Republicans. The Democrats are up here in Chicago,

(16:36):
the Republicans are the rest of the state. If voter
suppression takes place in Chicago, the entire state legislature will
be Republican dictating what Chicago must do, whether it controls
its own transit system, its own airports, its own contracts,

(16:58):
its own budget, can be dictated from people who don't
even live here. That's true in my I state. That's
true in California, Virginia. That's true in legislatures all across
the country. So the ripple effect of messing with the
Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five, when Democrats and
Republicans in downstate legislatures come together, black people lose. And

(17:22):
I feel like I'm speaking for John Lewis right here,
and I believe, I believe at my age of sixty
that one day I'm going to have to lean on
Ernest Krim, and the future is going to have to
learn on lean on Ernest Krim to speak for us.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Keep talking, brother, you know, as you as you're talking
about the Voting Rights Act in nineteen sixty five, which
coincidentally sixty years ago this year, it makes me think
that the looking at how the vote is operating in
this era, which in a way we have never seen
before in the present day, it reminds me that when

(18:00):
we choose someone to represent us, we are giving them
the authority to make the decisions that are in our
best or worst interest. And if we are going to
lose all of our representation, then we are essentially saying
that we will have people in power who, even if

(18:21):
they don't fully agree with what he's doing will capitulate
to someone who just recently, as I was scrolling through
social media, said that there are many people in the
American public that wouldn't mind a dictator. Even though he
says he's not, he is essentially overruling all of our

(18:42):
systems of checks and balances using a classroom metaphor. Because
that's what I come from. It reminds me of you know,
if you are in your class maintaining peace, but you
have a principal who does not like you, and they
want to send security guards in your class to maintain
so called peace.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
How does that make your students feel?

Speaker 2 (19:02):
I think, going back to what you said about John Lewis,
it is important for us, and this is one of
my missions, is to create a sense of urgency and
all of our parents, all of our households, all of
our communities, that we understand that the first government that
we have is within our house. We have to maintain
our house and create a proper system there, and that

(19:22):
means that we have to make sure we are learning
about people like John Lewis and the sacrifices they made.
I said, I think last week when I was on here,
I was in Nashville about a week and a half ago,
and I made sure that my kids understood again for
the second year in a row, about what John Lewis
did there with his fellow college students and what it

(19:43):
meant to get in good trouble and why he had
a mural in that downtown area.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Let me let me just say this, because we have
about two minutes before the break. There are two court
cases that are now before the Supreme Court. While Abbott
is fighting to get a few more meets for Donald Trump,
the same guy, by the way, who needed eleven seven
hundred votes from Georgia, Donald Trump now needs five seats
out of Texas, always fixing and moving votes around. In

(20:12):
a case called Louisiana versus Calais. The case challenges a
new congressional map in Louisiana that created a second majority
black district to remedy a previous map that illegally diluted
black voting power. Here's the key issue. The Court will
examine whether drawing a district to comply with Section two

(20:33):
of the Voting Rights Act, which bans racial discrimination in voting,
constitutes an unconstitutional racial gerrymander under the Equal Protection Clause.
Of the Fourteenth Amendment. If the Supreme Court rules in
that case, the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five
will be at its weakest moment in the history of
the nation. I do have another case, but I'll talk

(20:54):
about when we come forward. That's the Turtle Mountain Band
of Chippo where Indians versus how which is another case
that we'll be decided before December, throwing the twenty twenty
six cycle into an amazing turmoil. I'm Jesse Jackson Junior
listening to Jesse Jackson Junior Show on KBLA Talk fifteen
eighty more with Ernest Quim. When we come forward, I'm
Jesse Jackson Jr. Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.

(21:16):
Our very special guest in this hour is Ernest Krim,
the Third. He's created content for companies such as HBO, Ulu, Disney, Paramount,
and The History Channel. Additionally, he is the CEO of
Crim's Cultural Consulting LLC and international speaker who's spoken at Harvard,
the University of Chicago, Microsoft, Colin Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp,
and audiences in the United Kingdom. Ernest, Welcome forward to

(21:39):
the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Thanks again for having me back, brother, It's.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Always a pleasure, Ernest. I just wanted to exhaust this
last case here Turtle Mountain versus chippaw Indians versus How,
and then bring with your thoughts our Voting Rights Act
conversation to a conclusion because Donald Trump is sending troops
to Chicago, sending troops to the state of Illinois, and
I really want to get your fresh opinion on what
that's going to mean the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa

(22:06):
Indians versus. How. This case deals with the ability of
private individuals and organizations to enforce Section two of the
Voting Rights Act, which prohibits recently discriminatory voting practices. The
key issue in this case. The Court is reviewing the
controversial Eighth Circuit ruling that held only the US Department
of Justice, not private parties, can sue under Section two.

(22:29):
This decision overturned decades of precedents. The reason that particular
case is so very well important is because when we
strengthen Section two, these districts are drawn constitutionally to allow
segregated communities the opportunity to have representation in Congress and
state legislatures. But now removing the private actors in the

(22:54):
Turtle Mountain case means that only Trump's doj can is
in action consistent with Section two, and they've already signaled
that they're against racially discriminatory in their opinion lines having
been drawn, hence the complete collapse of the Voting Rights
Act of nineteen sixty five. This is such a devastating

(23:19):
decision that I can't imagine that Justice Jackson, Justice Soto, Mayor,
and Justice Kagan, the three liberals on the Court, have
the power to stop the avalanche that could be the
political process of twenty twenty six. Ernest, your generation has
a lot to contend to and contend for, and a

(23:41):
lot to deal with to preserve the republic that we know.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
Brother, the future, our immediate future is bleak.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
And when you think about the depths to which he
and his administration is willing.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
To go it.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
The thing that comes to mind for me immediately, brother,
is the fact that this was predicted. And I think
that's the most unfortunate thing about this is it was
detailed in a booklet that was widely available to everybody
in Project Project twenty twenty five. If this was one
of the things they discussed, eroding our voting power, replacing everything,

(24:28):
taking us back before the civil rights error, so that
they could have their type of rule and domination. He
is essentially attempting to and not just attempting to, He's
in the process of fixing the game. Fixing this game
through every single institution, specifically in including those that were

(24:51):
put in place to help us, because when you think
of the Department of Justice, you're thinking of institutions, especially
under a democratic rule in recent heath history, could have
found a way to intercede in situations in our cities
and states that were unjust the very definition of the
Department of Justice. Now everything has shifted, and and I

(25:14):
think it's startling because we are still at the beginning
phases of this, and there has to be some type
of persons, like people like that are that are willing
and bold enough to intercede and step up.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
It is.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
It is overwhelming as as a millennial, you know, speaking
again as a representative, not the only voice, but one voice.
It is overwhelming because these things are happening so fast
and it has not been a year. But I again
not to jump too far ahead with providing some hope,
but I but I do want us to remember that

(25:52):
these institutions continue to be upheld in part because of
who we are as we the people, and I firmly believe.
And that's again why this education and the information that
you teach is so important, because if we can collectively
become conscious and say that this is what we are against,
and not just him as a person, but we are

(26:14):
against what he represents. Because I think what's also troubling
and startling is as opposed to his first term, he
has a mentee. Okay, the vice president is the person
that he is meant to rent and the whole collective
of this institution that they're creating.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
Now, let me ask you this question, if I can
make this pivot. It appears now that the President of
the United States, through Pentagon orders, is in the process
of dispatching a large federal military presidence in the city
of Chicago. What are your thoughts about that?

Speaker 2 (26:55):
You know it the power of propaganda, the power of
some one in a position of power to put forth lies.
You think about the ways in which there these folks
are allowed to use language and violent ways. I think
back to how you know think about I go back

(27:15):
to thinking about the Patriot Act and how that was weaponized.
I think back today until into how the Big Beautiful Bill,
the wording of that that verbians, and how that is weaponized,
and I think about how he is able to take
any singular incident as overwhelming proof of his political agenda.

(27:36):
There is gun violence in Chicago. Chicago's a huge city,
but it is not an issue that requires the National
Guard to come there. There is gun violence throughout America.
There was gun violence, I believe, on on the college
campus recently when school started back. That is an American
issue and it is often exacerbated of course in our
communities because of the historical harm, the lack of resources,

(28:02):
the lack of restorativeness and reparation for our community. To me,
it is an attack on our democratic sanctuary cities, but
also too black mayors in power. A downturn in gun
violence in Chicago actually, and there's someone in power who

(28:23):
I believe, from what I've seen from Afar, has the
best intentions as a former educator as well, like to
help our community. We think about what's happening in Baltimore
with that mayor and how he's been redistributing resources to
help kids, to help the community. So this is just
a power play that is completely unnecessary. Yeah, Chicago has issues,

(28:45):
but every large city does, especially with these historical issues.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
But Chicago is a beautiful.

Speaker 2 (28:50):
City, especially when you talk about the historical black size
of town, the south and west side, and we do
not need that. We don't need that as an intervention.
Now we could use if we could call on the
politicians to provide any type of help, it would be
for us to have the resources that were taken away
so many years ago through red lining, through Northern Jim

(29:13):
Crow and various other issues. We don't need more policing.
We need more resources and proper powers.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Justice Department fighting for racial justice and for gender based
justice and for cultural justice than the one that we
are we're looking at presently under the leadership of Donald
John Trump and Pam BONDI. You know one question before
we come forward, and that is, do you believe that,

(29:41):
in the highest discipline of our faith, that our response
to the presence of federal troops can be and will
be a nonviolent response.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
Well, that's a loaded that's a loaded question right there.
I believe I've.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
Been ernest is one that I'm going to have to
wait and ask to Jesse Jackson Junior. This is KBLA.
You're listening to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. More with
Ernest Krim when we come forward. Look forward to the
Jesse Jackson Junior Show on KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. Our
very special guest in this hour is none other than
my favorite millennial, Ernest Krim. Ernest has done work for HBO, Hulu, Disney, Paramount,

(30:23):
and the History Channel. He is an Emmy nominated producer,
public teacher, anti racist educator, and hate crime victor who
uses black historical narratives to empower and educate through a
culturally equitable lens. Mister Krim, welcome forward to the Jesse
Jackson Junior Show.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
Thanks again for having me back. Brother. You asked a
loaded question right before break.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
I sure did about the National Guard and the Army
and the Navy and the Air Force and the Marines
coming to Chicago in a in amazing way, and I
got to know how you feel about that.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Overall, I'm absolutely disgusted because as someone who was born
and raised in Chicago on the South Side, have lived
in the area my entire life, have family there, I
have a ninety year old grandmother who if she felt
Chicago was so violent on the South Side, she would
have moved years ago.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
She's been there since the late fifties.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
You know, Chicago, especially Black Chicago, is a beautiful space,
and we are the ones who bring that cultural.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Richness to Chicago and all of America.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
I would say there have been so many strides in
Chicago in our community despite what we've been set against,
the rise in black entrepreneurship, the movements for justice. There
are so many fellow millennials I know who are active
gen Z who's active. I would even say my children
Generation jen al for who's active. So what we need, though,

(31:48):
of course, like I said before, Break is just more assistance,
more resources to continue the positive work that's going on.
You find that the violence that does happen to gun
viole is usually concentrated in areas that have been impacted
by systemic violence and systemic inequity the most.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
And I think that in.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
This particular situation, we'll see what we usually always see,
like we don't have a community of people who are
going at it with officers. We don't have a community
with people who are getting into fistfights with officers. I
think we've seen a strong presence right now in DC
and we have not heard, at least from my knowledge,
any cases where people have got into violent confrontations where

(32:34):
they were the agitators.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
Let me show with you what I'm concerned about very quickly.
When you see these men and women in uniform, of course,
many of them are our neighbors. That's who the National
Guard is. That's why they're under the governor's jurisdiction. There
are neighbors, They're doctors. These are men and women, nurses,
average civilians who are being asked to leave their jobs

(32:59):
to perform a function for the governor or the president.
That's the National Guard, potentially active duty only when called
into service. They are our neighbors. Now, what I'm noticing
here is a difference between what he did in Los
Angeles and what he did in the District of Columbia,

(33:19):
which is kind of a border. It's a federal enclave, right.
So unfortunately, without DC statehood, without a governor and US
senators and a state legislature that they're entitled to, you
end up with this kind of unit of government that's local,
that can't do everything that a state can do. Certainly,
they don't have two voters in the Senate. But they're

(33:41):
bringing these mountain boys here to Chicago who don't know us.
They're bringing Trump's bringing these Tennessee boys here to Chicago
who think something about our city. He's bringing these Pennsylvania
mountain boys here. The Army, the Navy, the Air Force,
the Marines. He's bringing active duty troops to Chicago who

(34:05):
don't know our community, don't know our people, and they're
just coming here. I'm afraid to crack heads. And that's
not the way the National Guard behaves because the National
Guard are our neighbors and at the end of the day,
they too want to go home, right next to the crims,
right next to the Jacksons. So there is an escalation

(34:28):
that is taking place here, but it's behind the uniform,
because the uniform looks like it's all the same. But
you don't know that this guy right here is from
Alabama and his whole unit has an opinion about Chicago,
or from Mississippi or from Tennessee. And that's not the discriminate.

(34:49):
It's just to say that even within our states, there
are cultural differences, and we know how to treat each
other differently. But when you bring these mountain boys down here,
who know we've ever been in Chicago before, who only
heard what Trump has said about Chicago, I'm afraid they
come here to open up a cannon will pass. I'm
really concerned about that.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
Ernest understandably.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Understandably because if you think about the last decade or
so in the mainstream media, it seems as if every
coverage that they've had about black Chicago was leading up
to this moment, Because I distinctively remember throughout the twenty tens,
these mainstream media entities almost having like a competition to
see how many black people would be shot and killed

(35:32):
every weekend. It was always at the end of Labor
Day weekend, at the end of this week, and it
was almost like and it must have got them a
lot of clicks. I don't see it as much anymore,
but like that has been downloaded into the consciousness of
the people who now serve. So just to your point, like,
especially for people who have not been here, what will
they come here carrying? Oftentimes you see online people come

(35:55):
here and they're just amazed at how beautiful Chicago is
and how much they were to But we also have
to understand and when they're coming into certain neighborhoods, certain situations,
you have people who are already agitated because of how
they're viewed, and how we have folks who are in
crisis right now in certain neighborhoods who need assistance. Our

(36:16):
houseless people are unemployed for we got. Of course, we
have the issue now of I think I saw stat
that says over three hundred thousand black women have lost
jobs since these di because we have a growing rate
of unemployment in our communities. So we don't need people
to come here to police us in this manner. We
need people to come and help us. So I think

(36:38):
there is a possibility. I don't think it would be, truthfully,
I don't think on our end, but I am worried
about how they will agitate people in situations. So I
hope that we are very alert and aware of where
these folks are coming from. And I hope that we
have open lines of communication with people in our neighborhoods
so that we can alert them about potential threats.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
Based on your knowledge of history, Ernest, and I do
know it to be extensive. Don't you find it interesting
that Donald Trump has actually flipped the role of the
federal government from defending the least of these, the poor,
the black, the gay, the lesbians, the strait. He has
actually flipped the script and put the put the least

(37:21):
of these in a position where the government is just
no longer on their side.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yes, it's almost as if he's declaring war on the
American people. You're sending troops not to foreign countries, you know,
and we know that happens, but you're sending you're deploying
troops not because there's a state of emergency. Schools just started, brother, Like,

(37:46):
our kids are just getting back to school in Chicago
and in the surrounding suburbs, and they might we need
more black teachers, right, Can we get help with that?
Can we get help with increase in teacher pay? Can
we get help with funding after school programs? Can we
get help with funding tutors? You know, like it's it's
a it's an abomination to to to what people of

(38:09):
all walks of like you stand for. And I think
I will say too, I'm happy to see because before
we came back from break, I saw a video of
some veterans in DC who are staging to sit in
to protest what's tappening in DC right now.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
And I think that we have to again.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
We admire folks going back to John Lewis, Doctor King,
and folks beyond that because of what they did in
moments like this. And it's going to take folks like us,
but not only folks like us, but people who have
been in that position, like veterans, to use their platform
and use their their social access and privilege to take
a stand. And that is going to have to be

(38:50):
something that reverberates across the entire country for us to
truly see something.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
I like that, right, I like that millennial idea. Hey, veterans,
if you can hear us men and women who have
served our country, put on your uniform and stand between
any agitation and the response of the National Guard. National

(39:15):
guardsmen and guards persons will respect you in our community
because you've earned the respect. Just add a little Doctor
King to your thinking about love of God and love
of country, just enough to be able to say, I

(39:35):
want our brothers and sisters who are following these orders
to understand that it's not what they think it is.
Do not get in the way of their orders, but
give them a moment to pause and to think about
the sacrifices that you too have made. Ernest, we only

(39:56):
have a couple of minutes about a word of hope.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
In this moment, folks, I want us to just remember
those first three letters, we the people, first three words.
I'm sorry, we the people, and I want us to
keep in mind that just like the Black Panthers we
used to say Fred Hampton used to say, it is
truly power to the people. And as Brother Jesse was

(40:22):
saying before he had me close, I think we have
to remember realize that we have the authority collectively in
the power to proactively demonstrate the country, the community, the city,
the neighborhoods that we want for our people. This is
the moment, and we're living through everything we've read about previously.
If we don't take a stand, or in some cases,

(40:44):
a sit, we will not get the country that we
deserve moving forward.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. Listening to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
Our very special guest is my favorite millennial, Ernest Krim. Ernest,
thank you for being with us this Monday.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
Thanks for having me again.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
This is none other than moving Mountain Mondays when we
come forward more with Reverend Doctor Teresa Terry Horde Owens
on the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. I'm Jesse Jackson Junior.
Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. In this hour,
our very special guest is none other than Reverend Teresa
Terry hort Owens, the General Minister and President of the

(41:23):
Christian Church Disciples of Christ in the United States and Canada.
She is the first person of color and the second
woman to lead the nomination and the first woman of
African descent to lead a main line denomination in the
United States. Elected in twenty seventeen, Reverend hord Owens was
re elected to a second term as the General Minister

(41:44):
and President in twenty twenty three. Her ministry actively reflects
the Disciples priority of being an anti racist church, being
a movement for wholeness, welcoming all to the Lord's table
as God has welcomed us. Her exhortation to the church,
let the Church be who we say we are. It
is in being who we say we are that we

(42:05):
actively bear witness to God's limitless love for all. Reverend
Owen's welcome forward to our show.

Speaker 4 (42:12):
Good afternoon, Congressman.

Speaker 5 (42:14):
It's good to be with you, and always good to
hear your conversation with Ernest in the first hour.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
I appreciate that Ernest was really great today. Let me
ask you a question, Reverend, because you are in Chicago
and you understand the dynamics on the ground in this city,
and on this show, which you know is live in
Los Angeles, we have covered the federal presence in Washington,
d C. The federal presence in Los Angeles, the federal

(42:41):
imminent presence here in the city of Chicago. I wanted
to get your thoughts one. I guess, first politically, what
does this mean? And then the challenge for the face
faith community in this hour that well, it's just difficult
to interpret at.

Speaker 4 (43:02):
A president, you know, it really is.

Speaker 5 (43:06):
I mean, it's a blatant abuse of the stated powers
of the executive branch.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
There's simply no getting around that.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
That's what it is. It is a power play. It's
an abuse of constitutional authority. One of the books that
I've been slowly reading and rereading ever since, really since
the whole twenty twenty four campaign, it's called the American
Constitution of Biography. And I have to look at my

(43:41):
Kindle and remember the author's name. But I was a
government major undergraduate with an Afri America Studies minor, So
my sophomore year was spent with the Constitution, the Bill
of Rights, and all of those things. And there is
while there are lots of things that were unjust and

(44:03):
institutionally and systemically unjust about the Constitution, whether it be
the three fifth clause, which purpose was simply to not
count all of the enslaved people. And that's why the
three fifth clause is there, because if you'd counted all
of the enslaved people, the slave states would have been

(44:23):
larger and would have.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
Had a larger representation at Congress.

Speaker 5 (44:26):
And so there's a compromise to say that we're not
going to count those folks. And it took us a
long time, as you know, to get full recognition as
full persons with right to vote, etc. Property owners were
the only people who were anticipated as having votes and
being legislators in this federal Congress. But they never And

(44:50):
I think this is one of the points I've heard
you make both in your book and just in conversation.
There was sort of an understood assumption that the people,
the men, I'll say who would inhabit this space would
be persons of high moral character. There was just an

(45:11):
assumption and the fact, you know, I was thinking about
this with the death of James Dobson, and I have
heard the man praised on one hand and vilified on
the other. But it was James Dobson who vouched for
Trump and said, oh.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
No, I think we can trust this man. I think
we can trust this man.

Speaker 5 (45:30):
James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who talked about
the man's role in the home and healthy marriages, etc.
And you're going to take somebody who has never had
really a successful marriage, is somebody who has never shown
any predilection to abide by any kind of moral standards.
So you take someone of low or perhaps I'll go

(45:51):
as far as to say absent any moral character, and
someone who simply sees any way that he can.

Speaker 4 (45:59):
Do to increase its own power.

Speaker 5 (46:01):
And sadly, those who have sworn to uphold that same
constitution are standing by silently, idly by while it's being abused.
That the very engine of our courts which the civil
rights movement depended upon. You know, I've said before to

(46:22):
really lean into that constitution. Black folks have believed in
that Constitution even when you know so. Journal Truth famously said,
I love the Constitution, but it's got.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
A little weasel in it. We're gonna have to you know,
we're gonna have to fix it. But we can't.

Speaker 5 (46:37):
The Supreme Court cannot be trusted. So we've layered lack
of moral character, a desire for more power, abuse of
the intentional constitutional power the president, and the failure of
anybody else. The Congress, who constitutionally has the right to
decide how the nation spends its dollars, of the courts,

(47:00):
which equal branches of law, but still are the ones
who are called upon to say whether the actions of
the others are unconstitutional. Everybody's just being silent and falling
down on their job.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yeah, that book, Akiel read Amar's book on the constitutional biography.
Biography is a fascinating book. And when we come forward,
I do want to share with you that in the
wildest imagination of the founding fathers, with all of the
things that are associated with them, they never could have
imagined an African American woman heading a main line denominations.

(47:42):
Now you're unimaginable in the thinking. And there is this
movement to return to the originalism of those thoughts, which
by definition is the eradication of who you are and
the possibility. He's the potentiality of all that you represent.

(48:02):
I'm Jesse Jackson, Jr. When we come forward on Kblate
Talk fifteen to eighty, when we come forward more with
Reverend Teresa Hoard Owens the Faith Not to Fall, part
of our weekly series on the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
I'm Jesse Jackson, Junior. Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson
Junior Show on Moving Mountain Mondays with our leader, Reverend

(48:23):
Teresa hord Owens. Reverend Owens, Welcome forward to the Jesse
Jackson Junior Show.

Speaker 4 (48:28):
Thank you, my brother. Always good to be with here,
Reverend Owens.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Before we turn our attention to the Constitution of the
United States, which you know all too well, I want
to go back to the creative imagination of the Founding
Fathers on July fourth, seventeen seventy six and the Republic
of seventeen eighty seven. There is no way in God's
Earth they imagine a woman in the pulpit loanhead of

(48:52):
a major denomination in the United States, and I can
only imagine that every single day you reflect upon how
so much of American history and maybe even world history
comes together in your life.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
At this point, you know there are still places where
there are churches I could name. In Chicago where I was,
I have been invited to preach over the years and
was not allowed to stand in a pulpit. There was
one church which I won't name because it used to
be a pretty prominent Baptist church in the city of Chicago.

(49:32):
Several of them actually, but they had redacted my bio.
Of course, it was Women's Day, Women's Day. Couldn't be
invited to preach on any other day but Women's Day.
And I had a conversation with the woman who invited me,
who had actually heard me preach on air at Salem.

(49:52):
She had heard me preach on a Wednesday night and
invited me. I sent her my bio. She says, oh,
the pastor says, call you reverend because it's not biblical.
And I said, well, let me just first say that
it's not biblical for anybody to be called reverend, because
it's reverend is not in the list of biblical titles.
There's bishop, there's elder, there's speaking. There's actually not a reverend,

(50:14):
so it's not biblical for anybody to use that. I said,
but if your pastor has a problem with all of this,
I don't have to come.

Speaker 4 (50:20):
You can. You can find somebody else. I said, I
won't be offended.

Speaker 5 (50:24):
And she said, oh no, I believe you're the one
that God has for us to speak in this hour,
et cetera, et cetera. So I said, well, you talk
to your pastor and you let me know whether or
not he's going to be okay with my coming. I said,
I'm not interested in being disrespected in the pulpit. So
she calls me back and says, yeah, he's good with it.
So I show up. The first lady greets me very nervously,

(50:48):
and I think she's ushering me into the pulpit area.
And where she's ushering me is to this church had
sort of a you know, a platform, sort of a stage.
She ushers me to two chairs that are on either
side of a elector and on the floor.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Oh wow.

Speaker 5 (51:07):
The bad part is I opened the program and my
bio has been redacted. It's Sister Terry Horde Owens, not reverend.
There is no mention of my seminary training, no mention
of my ordination, no mention of any theological education. And

(51:29):
it was before I was DNA students at the University
of Chicago, So it was and I vowed at that
point that I would always again ask those questions directly.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
Of a minister. The Baptist church I grew up in
my hometown.

Speaker 5 (51:44):
The pastor said that he would be thrown out of
the conference if he allowed me to stand in the
pulpit to preach my uncle's funeral at the church where
my own grandfather pastored for over thirty years. And that
was It created a big brujahab because my uncle had
called to say, we want Terry to do the eulogy.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
There's not going to be a problem, is there.

Speaker 5 (52:05):
But there were these are black men southern Indiana who say,
we're going to throw you out of the conference if
you let her preach this eulogy. Ironically, the denomination that
I lead has been.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
A more.

Speaker 5 (52:23):
Valiant supporter of women in ministry, although it took them
a while.

Speaker 4 (52:27):
It wasn't until really the early seventies.

Speaker 5 (52:29):
But we still have some communities of color, even within
our own denomination, that are a little more reluctant. They
will ordain women of color, some of them are a
little less likely to call them as pastor.

Speaker 4 (52:40):
So yeah, my I am not the expected answer. So
you know, you know, I want.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
To I want I want to address that for more
because I think that's I think that's all fear. I
think that's all inbounds right here. Yeah, and by that
I mean the most loyal group within the Democratic Party
are black women and overwhelmingly voted for Kamala Harris in

(53:10):
the last election. You have earned a vice presidential position
in a presidential administration. As black women, you have earned
a Supreme Court justice in the personage of Katanji Brown Jackson.

(53:31):
Because of the political influence that you have in the nation.
At the most critical hour, in the very in the
very structure, if you will, of our democracy, black women
are there now. The party overwhelmingly is hovering somewhere around

(53:53):
twenty six percent. I see a little hot Keey Jeffries here,
I see a little Chuck Schumer here, but I don't
see the backbone of the party who should be running
it in this hour. And then you're sharing with me
that there are still tens of thousands of preachers who

(54:14):
are functioning like Neanderthals. When it comes to the participation
of black women and their capacity to interpret the gospel,
that's crazy to me. That's crazy to me.

Speaker 4 (54:26):
It is absolutely crazy, and it is.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
I counsel with women all of the time in my
denomination and outside of it.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
How is your husband responding?

Speaker 5 (54:38):
There are black women who and women of color, and
even white women quite honestly, that I've talked to whose
husbands have a problem with them leading in this particular way.
And I'm so grateful for Walter, who is he slots
himself in as my armor bearer when he travels with me.

(54:58):
He's like, I'm here to help her. He's like, how
crazy would I be not to honor what God has
given her? But there are women whose marriages suffer because
they respond to the call of God on their lives
in this way. And it's just not Our people of
color tend to be much more conservative theologically, and yet

(55:20):
we are much more progressive politically than our white counterparts are.
And that's the that's the tension that we have as
black people of faith. And people will go with you
when it comes to marching for civil rights, So some
of them will, not all of them.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
There are some people.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
Who still think church should have nothing to say about
any of this, but they're more likely, you know, they're
going to stand in applaud because this Black Congress candidate
has come to the church, and oh yeah, yay, yay, yay.
But if Terry comes to the pulpit, you know what
you're doing, you know what are you doing. So we

(55:59):
we want people to fight for our rights, and yet
we don't want to stand up and fight for the
very rights. I know churches that are just now even
calling women as deacons, as deacons or elders. My mother
was a deacon in the Disciples congregation that we became
a part of in nineteen eighty they had women deacons,

(56:23):
women elders, and even my home Disciples church, it took
a while for that pastor to come around and he
ordained women didn't necessarily see them as pastors. So there's
a there's a there's a there's a rub, there's a
tension there in.

Speaker 4 (56:39):
Terms of how we see women.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
And part of me these the struggle that the black
community has always had to fight against the emasculation.

Speaker 4 (56:51):
Of black men, right.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
To honor the manhood of black men, And I think
that's why our people have been so open to this
idea of the man being the head of the household
because in so many areas in society, our men couldn't
get the same jobs.

Speaker 4 (57:07):
They were treated they were called boy, etc.

Speaker 5 (57:10):
And Black women could get work right, and sometimes it
might be domestic work, but there's a certain kind of
employability that black women have had, and we're considered safer
than certain black women. So I get all those historical tensions.
Womanism as a theology theological framework differs from white feminism

(57:31):
in that what Black women have decided to say is
that I will support our men, but I will not
support myself as a woman at the expense of our men.

Speaker 4 (57:41):
I will support both.

Speaker 5 (57:43):
And that's one of the things I love about that
theological lens that we call woman's thought is that we
will not get our own freedom at the risk of
taking our men down. And so black community has a
strange relationship with this idea.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
Of women being liberated or emancipated.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
You know, we're gonna have to get over that. We
just don't have any there's more time left to be
sitting around here arguing some of the things that we're arguing.
It just there's no time left either we are voting together,
whether we are following black women the absence. I'm going
to say it. I'm going to say what no one's
gonna say. I'm gonna say it out loud, and I

(58:25):
say this with much love and respect and knowing that
Tavis trusts me with his airwaves. You know, when my
father ran in eighty four and eighty eight, he did
not become the Democratic nominee, but he took over the
Democratic Party. He insisted that they appoint Ron Brown chairman
of the DNC. He insisted that Alexis Herman and Mignon

(58:47):
Moore and colored girls who run the Democratic Party, and
ran a magnificent convention in the city of Chicago and
gave kam La Harris the kind of send off that
she deserved. Yes, there is no doubt in my mind
that black women are the backbone of this party. There's
just no doubt about it. Now, the fact that no

(59:08):
black woman is being touted for president right now or
vice president right now or scared, but we are still
advancing white male interests. I mean, you got Newsome, you
got Pritzker, you got Rawmen manual, You've got you know,
you know, we got Wes Moore. Hey, I get it,

(59:28):
but I'm talking about black women. I'm talking about the
for sure thing in the Democratic Party. Now. They may
be searching for a white woman somewhere, but they have
not voted for us. We went for all of their issues.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
Matter press, they have not voted for us.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
Yes, we went for abortion. They told us it was
about Dobbs. They told us that we spent millions on that,
and they didn't show up.

Speaker 5 (59:49):
Still, seventy percent of white women, right, Yeah, voted for Trump.

Speaker 4 (59:54):
Sev seventy of white folks out there.

Speaker 5 (59:57):
Of all strikes, it doesn't matter they're religious or political leanings,
all of the.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
Things over four years and even longer than that, that
he has done to white women, including whatever his relationship
is with children, and the Epstein files that we may
or may never know about, you're still voting for him.

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:00:18):
You know, this begs the question that I get asked
all the time, what's harder being black or being a
woman in some circumstances. It's hard to say, but I
think this is where the issue of race has to
enter in, even when you do have a woman. I
think Kamala being a black woman made it a lot

(01:00:40):
harder for her than.

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
Any other female candidate.

Speaker 5 (01:00:45):
We don't like women who are able to articulate, who
are okay with being in charge, who are okay with
saying what they think how things should be. I still
have found it just this is hard being black in
this space, even though I'm a woman.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
My predecessor was a white woman.

Speaker 5 (01:01:05):
And I say this with all love and dear respect,
because she was known to the existing power structure. It was, oh,
let's be nice and sweet to Sharon, and we'll tell
her what to do, and we'll see, you know how
it goes, and she'll pay attention to our good counsel
and advice. What they have found in me is somebody

(01:01:28):
who does not like to be patted on the head,
and somebody who doesn't like to be.

Speaker 4 (01:01:33):
Told what to do. And so the rub of the
race and the.

Speaker 5 (01:01:37):
Gender coming together has complicated things immeasurably.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Not a president. We have about three minutes before we
come forward. Your thoughts on the imminent federal presence in Chicago.

Speaker 5 (01:01:49):
It's a violation of constitutional law. It is I think
there will be a different ground.

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
Game that's played in Chicago.

Speaker 5 (01:01:56):
We've already seen what Chicago public schools in which they've
reacted to ice presence, They've trained their staff and administrators
about how to protect their buildings and their children. My
hope is that in Chicago we will be finding all
the ways that we can to establish our local sovereignty
and ensure that this does. We've got a different governor here,

(01:02:20):
so it'll be interesting. It's just a flat out violation
of the Constitution. Period into sentence.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Is it you're thinking that the highest discipline and activity
of our faith will prevail over let's say, the agent
provocateurs that might indeed seek to make national stories here
in Chicago.

Speaker 5 (01:02:41):
I hope so. But as doctor King himself said, violence
is the language of the unheard, and so I think
we have to with my clergy colleagues, even we're continuing
to try to grapple with this, what will it take
to push us over the edge?

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
Is it possible? I think it might be possible.

Speaker 5 (01:03:01):
I'm not sure if this will be it, but I
do think that ultimately we will see people step over
the edge, despite our wishes that it wouldn't happen.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
Well, that's certainly are our prayer that this federal presence
is not provocative, that we can go about our daily
lives and business as usual, that the deployment of the
President's troop not be as as racist in its application
as it is in its preparation by suggesting that Chicago

(01:03:36):
has violent crime when the mayor, I think has done
a fairly great job of bringing crime down. A number
of African American mayors across the country have done that.
But it just looks like there are ten, maybe twelve
white cities with white mayors who have far more violence
than the mayoral cities, and yet no federal presence Donald Trump,

(01:03:56):
ladies and gentlemen, is picking on us. And you know,
I don't like people picking on me, and I don't
like picking on my own nose for that matter. On
Jesse Jackson coming forward on k BIA Talk fifteen to
eighty more with the President and General Minister of the
Disciples of Christ Church. I'm Jesse Texan Junior looking forward
to Jesse Jatson Junior Show. I'm very special guest in

(01:04:17):
this hour on Moving Mountain Mondays with the Faith not
to Fall as Reverend Teresa Horte Owens, Reverend Owens, Madame President,
welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.

Speaker 4 (01:04:28):
Thank you, my friend. It's always good to be here,
Madam President.

Speaker 1 (01:04:31):
I'm looking right now, live somewhere in downtown Chicago, the
governor of the State of Illinois, the Attorney General of
the State of Illinois, the mayor, and quite possibly every
elected official that is an elected official are hosting a
press conference. I'm looking at Lynette Warks page that's live,

(01:04:52):
and I'm sure it is in opposition to the federal presence.
Can I ask a question, as a faith leader, if
you had access to the ear of the mayor of
the City of Chicago and I'm president, what would you
share with him at this hour?

Speaker 5 (01:05:09):
I think two things go hand in hand, prayer and
due diligence. I think both a moral response to any
action is always called for for leaders, whether you're faith
leaders or not. I think once you see moral high ground,
all of your credibility is at risk. And then the

(01:05:29):
due diligence of kind of knowing your documents, knowing your rules,
your policies, knowing the law, having people around you that
understand where what actions you can take, how you can
fight it, both legally procedurally, things that he may not
even be aware he can do. His mayor in ways

(01:05:51):
in which he and the governor could perhaps work together.

Speaker 4 (01:05:53):
So I would say moral certitude, not certitude, but.

Speaker 5 (01:06:00):
Confidence in how you're approaching things, because once you see
moral high ground, you really can't get back from that.
And I do think that they have to just do
the due diligence of understanding the law in all the
legal ways in which they can operate and manipulate the
situation to maintain control.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
Madame President. My younger brother Yusuf Jackson called me the
other day and he said, Jesse, what is your argument
against the backdrop and the facts that with a nearly
ten day or nearly a two week presence in Washington,
d C. There's not been a single murder in the
nation's capital. That Donald Trump's argument that the federal presence

(01:06:44):
has accomplished exactly what he wanted it to accomplish. And
now there's this He argues that there's this group of
black women. He says, they're beautiful black, beautiful black women
who have invited me to Chicago because they feel unsafe
and they feel scared. You know, the handful of maga
black women that are here are the reasons for this

(01:07:07):
massive federal presence that is about to enter the city
of Chicago. I guess I'm trying to figure out what if,
what if violence did stop as a result of the
federal presence. Do we see it any moral high ground
to the idea that there is some sense of normalcy,

(01:07:28):
albeit possibly short lived.

Speaker 5 (01:07:33):
And the question, the answer, I think is that is
another question at what price? I mean, we see nations
around the world who don't have the same kind of
violent crime that we have because they've been more hard
nosed in terms of things like gun control. They've not
tolerated they've not tolerated a misuse of armed weapons and

(01:07:55):
misusing kind of crimes. But their systems are not done
through the military. It's their civil laws and criminal laws
that are ensuring that the value that is placed on
human life is so great that that guns that the
value of human existence. If you talk to people in Sweden,

(01:08:17):
my husband has lots of friends there. They pay taxes,
but they've got access to good health care, the standard
of living is high. They're struggling with the notion of
immigrants who are not of European descent as well as
many European countries are. But when you have a situation
where people are able to survive and even thrive. You

(01:08:40):
can lay down the law about things that hurt society
and you can emerge all the better for it. On
the other side, here we're talking about cracking down in
neighborhoods where you say the crime is highest, but also
look look at those neighborhoods property values are the lowest.
Those neighborhoods can't support equality, school systems, guns and other

(01:09:06):
activity again are done for generations out of a sense
of desperation. Our society does not provide equal opportunity and
support and safety nets for all, So people have to
survive in different ways.

Speaker 4 (01:09:21):
Now, our people just some inherently.

Speaker 5 (01:09:24):
I don' won't say bad people, but people make wrong choices,
absolutely they do. But we can achieve We can achieve
these same goals another way. But what we don't want
to do, what the country apparently doesn't want to do,
is to insist that everybody pays their fair share of taxes,
to insist that people have a living wage and safe

(01:09:47):
housing and those things. There's a way to cut down
on crime. We just want to keep our billions and
our millions, and we want to dehumanize the people that
are very system creates in terms of poor and low
wealth people. They're created by this abysmal thing that we

(01:10:08):
call a capitalistic system. Now, I'm all for, you know,
making money and having ideas and benefiting from it. But
to who much is given, much is required. You don't
get to literally rape the nation and your fellow citizens
in order to have gold toilets and gold sconces in
the White House.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
You know, I've never cast a vote in my life
at age sixty where there was any expectation that my representative,
my senator, or the president of the United States would
come to my city and whoop my behind. I just
can't imagine. I can't imagine we have elected a We

(01:10:51):
have a system that is based upon which you understand
all too well, servant based leadership, where somehow we have
now moved from the servant based leadership model to this
model where I'm going to show up and fix a problem.
I'm the only person who can fix it. At everyone,

(01:11:12):
whatever walk of life they have, they are going to
make an adjustment in their life to the way I
want it done. I'm a excuse me, madam President. I
am a grown I am a grown man.

Speaker 4 (01:11:24):
You know the I know what you're going say that.

Speaker 5 (01:11:28):
Minister he's going to be.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
I'll save that for one of the other shows. Really,
I mean really, at some point in times it's ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (01:11:39):
No, it really is.

Speaker 5 (01:11:40):
And you know, as you learned as a kid, you know,
bullies on the playground are insecure, and people who are
bullies and any kind of authoritarian dictator system, these are
people who who are afraid of their own inadequacies and
think that the only way that they can acquire power
is not bec because they bring the trust in respect,

(01:12:01):
because they've demanded it at all costs and they want
to keep other people from getting it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
Madam President, Will we come forward? I'd like to. I'd
like to cover some of the country with you on
some of the other critical issues. So I'd certainly like
to check in with how repairers are doing, how Reverend
Barber is doing, and the leadership movement for Moral Consciousness.
On Mondays, I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. Will we come forward?

Speaker 4 (01:12:23):
More?

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
With Reverend Teresa hord Owens on the Jesse Jackson Junior
Show on k BLA Talk fifteen to eighty. I'm Jesse
Jackson Junior. Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
The Jesse Jackson Junior Show weekdays twelve to two pm PST,
two to four pm CST, three to five pm EEST.
Down Load the podcast at KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. That's

(01:12:45):
at KBLA Talk fifteen eighty. We are proud and deeply
challenged to have to follow Tavis Smiley and his brilliant
commentary guests that occur three hours before our program every day,
putting a lot of You're on the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
We appreciate it. We believe his iron is certainly sharpening ours.

(01:13:06):
Our guest in this hour in the final segment, is
Reverend Doctor Teresa Terry horde Owen. She is the President
and General Minister for the Disciples of Christ Church. Madam President,
welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.

Speaker 4 (01:13:18):
Thanks always for having me on Mondays, Madam President.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
A slippery slope here, Gina Town's, our producer, wants me
to ask you this question about the idea of the
government itself having stakes in corporations. This is something new.
I woke up this morning to the news that the
government is either purchasing, contemplating purchasing, or it had it
already worked out a deal for a ten percent stake

(01:13:43):
in the Intel Corporation. Your thoughts on what that could
mean and is it fair? You know, I like to
start a little business myself, and I like the government
to have a stake in my business.

Speaker 5 (01:13:55):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:13:56):
I think the thing again here, if we were to
talking about someone of high moral character, one could say that,
you know, the government does have a stake in industry,
and Trump has actually erased it when he's pulled back
all of these funds for research the government fuels through

(01:14:20):
uh it's its funding for university research, all kinds of
technology and interests that again make all sorts of business possible.

Speaker 5 (01:14:30):
But we're talking about you know, Intel computer chips, and
I think he is also working this out where he
personally benefits for something that he has a stake in.
And that's always Trunt's m is that he's always trying
to leverage, supposedly for the country's benefit, things that are

(01:14:52):
personally beneficial to him.

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
You know, he's in the Uranium, he's in the Ukrainian
general Deal. There's no doubt A and Hunter Biden was
to let's be honest, Yeah, yeah, that Hunter was a
long way from home with his laptock in Ukraine. So
both sides have been doing this, and whenever Donald Trump
says I'm looking for a deal, I'm looking. He got

(01:15:15):
his mineral deal out of Ukraine, but he did not
solve the war.

Speaker 4 (01:15:19):
But he did not solve the war.

Speaker 1 (01:15:20):
He did not solve it.

Speaker 5 (01:15:21):
So I think those are the things that we have
to to look at, is that he always has some
personal interest at play. I think there's still a role
for the government in regulating industry so that it does
not become abusive and we don't wind up with another

(01:15:42):
gilded age in the twenty first century where people are
just able. You know, we're pulling back all kinds of
environmental regulations we're trying to bring. We're taking away incentives
for non non fossil fuel related sources of industry. We're
doing all these things. We're prioritizing certain people, certain people,

(01:16:06):
not everybody, certain people making money literally over the future
of the planet or literally to line the.

Speaker 4 (01:16:11):
Pockets of a few folks.

Speaker 5 (01:16:13):
And so then what you have happen is you've got
deals that are happening where media companies are doing settlements
because they don't want this president to ruin their merger deals,
and they don't want to feel the financial impact of
this president being able to say yay or nay on

(01:16:35):
these things.

Speaker 1 (01:16:36):
He finds they find a way to cut them in.

Speaker 5 (01:16:38):
Yeah, they find a way because that's what he responds to.
And that's what's so troubling is that he's not trying
to do this for the good of the common good.
He's doing this literally only to line his own pockets,
and he compromises everyone who's involved because if your decision
doesn't line his pocket, it's then anti American, and he's

(01:17:02):
looking to oust you because you're not doing what he wants,
not because it's not good for the country, but if
you oppose what is good for him, you're out.

Speaker 4 (01:17:11):
It's just vile. It's evil as what it is.

Speaker 5 (01:17:14):
I think there's no way that American industry wins when
we have this kind of leadership that's so focused on
its own personal game.

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
Madame President Reverend William Barber, the moral Monday's share with us,
where we are share with us. It's penetrating effect at
this particular hour because there has to be a voice
in the wilderness offering some sanity to this process. And
then after your thoughts on that, please share with us

(01:17:44):
a word of hope.

Speaker 4 (01:17:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:17:46):
You know, last Monday on the eighteenth, there were twelve
Southern states where there were moral Mondays from ten to two.
I wasn't able to be on the ground at any
of those, but just watching. Of course, Bishop Barber is
always going to preach a powerful word and not just that,
But again I encourage listeners go to Breach Repairs dot org,

(01:18:10):
look at the reports tab and look at the moral
analysis of.

Speaker 4 (01:18:14):
The horrible, awful bill. He works very closely with researchers
at the Institute for Policy Studies, so this is not
somebody who's just preaching or barking up the wrong tree.
He always says, if you're going to be loud, let's
be loud and write. So we want to have the
data that back up the support for these policies that

(01:18:36):
are there.

Speaker 5 (01:18:38):
I'm part of another ecumenical table where we would normally
meet twice a month, and we've taken the month of
August off for literally personal self care. That people have
been working so hard and in and out of DC
and meeting and trying to organize, and it's like we've
got to gear ourselves up to get ready, and I

(01:19:00):
think this is where Bishop Barbara is to to get
ready for a really a tough midterm elections battle.

Speaker 4 (01:19:07):
And we've got to start getting.

Speaker 5 (01:19:11):
Folks ready to both register and ensure that we can
fight back against tactics that will oppress elections. You know,
Trump is talking about doing away with mail in ballots.
He's again superseding his federal authority to try to control
how elections are done in the states. He does if

(01:19:33):
he could get If you don't think he's going to
try to rig the next presidential election or even the midterms,
you're kidding yourself. I wouldn't put it past him to
try to create I'm still not convinced that there wasn't
that there weren't some shenanigans going on even in twenty
twenty four that were caused by the Republicans. But Trump

(01:19:54):
is going to use whatever he can to play with
the mechanics of our election, which means that we have
to be smarter, wiser. I've spoken about Faith's United to
Save Democracy, Barbara, William Skinner, Jim Wallace, Adam Taylor. So
journals already starting to train pole chaplains and get clergy.

Speaker 4 (01:20:14):
There's stated the whole whole chaplains.

Speaker 1 (01:20:17):
Because in like polling place chaplains.

Speaker 5 (01:20:19):
Polling place chaplains where you're in a collar or stole,
and it's been proven that people are less likely to
target voters or create problems or try to intimidate voters
when you have visible faith leaders who are there in
the place.

Speaker 4 (01:20:36):
I like that voters feel more comfortable.

Speaker 5 (01:20:42):
Articulating their rights and knowing that they have a safe
person who's in that spot, who's been trained to ensure
that they can articulate their rights for them and hold
the pole judges accountable.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
This has been an amazing two hours. In the first hour,
Ernest Krim recommended that our veterans put their uniforms on. Yes,
I encourage them to stand between ordinary civilians and the
National Guard to let them know that we are their neighbors.
And now you are saying pastors for polling. These are
solid recommendations that do matter.

Speaker 5 (01:21:16):
Turn out. Turnout Sunday dot com. Turnout Sunday dot com.
You can go and get information about where you can
train to be a pole chaplain. But in South Africa,
this is a great quote from Desmond Tutu and this
is the word a hope i'd offer. Desmond Tutu said
it was when those people who were advocating and fighting

(01:21:36):
against the breakdown of apartheid, when they saw the visual
of clergy attired in all of their sacred regalia moving
to speak to the government in public places. One of
them said, apartheid is done with because these people see
it as holy work and they will not be deterred.

(01:21:56):
So people of faith have to send the message, do
we see this work of justice as holy work? We
cannot be deterred, and we have to be bold enough
to wear all of our stuff and show up in
all the places and speak because it is holy work.

Speaker 1 (01:22:13):
Now I want the now, I want the preachers to
show up with the veterans in front of your Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Doctor Owens. Welcome, Welcome, and it's so wonderful having you
on the show this week.

Speaker 4 (01:22:24):
Thank you so much. Always good to be with you.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
Can't wait to see you next week. I'm Jesse Jackson Junior.
You're listening to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. And I
just want to add that these are very difficult in
trying times for a lot of people. And one of
the things that I am so grateful for with Reverend
Teresa Horde Owens, as I've shared with her on the
program many times, that so much of our struggle is

(01:22:50):
really about who she is and what she has become.
The head of a mainline denomination that has eighty percent
of its minute of its members are not African American.
They're white, different hues, different colors, different political perspectives and persuasions.
Qualified African American woman, theologian, thinker. These things matter because

(01:23:16):
creating for the world more Teresa Horde Owens's matters to
the future of our people. I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. When
we come forward, it will be tomorrow on the Jesse
Jackson Junior Show on KBLA Talk fifteen to eighty