KCAA: The Empire Talks Back with Wallace Allen (Sun, 9 Nov, 2025)

KCAA: The Empire Talks Back with Wallace Allen on Sun, 9 Nov, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
NBC News Radio. I'm Chris Garagio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Senators are working through the weekend in a bid to
end the record forty day government shut down. Lawmakers, we'll
be back at their desks today after the Senate meant
for a rare Saturday session but adjourned with no vote taken.
Majority leader John Thune said yesterday the Senate will remain
in session until a deal is reached to reopen the government.
Republican leaders are considering a possible test vote today his

(00:25):
negotiators work to finish a smaller temporary funding bill. Transportation
Secretary Sean Duffrey's warning of more air travel disruptions as
the government shut down continues. During an appearance on CNN's
State of the Union, Duffy said the situation will only
get worse, especially as Thanksgiving approaches.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
You know, the two weeks before Thanksgiving, you're going to
see air travel be reduced to a trickle.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
We have a number of people who want to get
home for the holidays.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
Listen, many of them are not going to be able
to get on an airplan.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
The number of flight cancelations keeps growing as the FAA
reduces air traffic at dozens of airports. More than twelve
hundred flights have already been cancelled today, with more than
in two thousand delays. Some fifteen hundred flights were canceled yesterday.
The airport's being impacted the most include Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson,
Newark Liberty, and Chicago O Hare. President Trump says a
tariff dividend of at least two thousand dollars a person

(01:13):
will be paid to Americans. In a post on truth
Social the President said the payments would be for everyone
except high income people. Trump also took aim at those
who are against the tariffs, calling them fools. It comes
as the Supreme Court is weighing the legality of President
Trump's sweeping tariffs. The justices heard arguments last week after
the High Court agreed to fast track the case. The
tariffs will stay in place until the court makes a decision.

(01:36):
A new studies has a record number of people globally
or now estimated to have reduced kidney function. In nineteen
ninety three, hundred and seventy eight million people had the disease.
That number one up to seven hundred and eighty eight
million in twenty twenty three. The finding show that nearly
fourteen percent of adults in the world have chronic kidney disease,
and over one million died from the condition in twenty
twenty three. I'm Chris Caragio, NBC News Radio KCAAHI.

Speaker 6 (02:00):
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Speaker 7 (03:01):
One of the best ways to build a healthier local
economy is by shopping locally. Teamster Advantage is a shop
local program started by Teamster Local nineteen thirty two that
is brought together hundreds of locally owned businesses to provide
discounts for residents who make shopping locally their priority, everything
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(03:25):
and much much more. If you're not currently a Teamster
and you want access to these local business discounts, contact
Jennifer at nine oh nine eight eight nine eight three
seven seven Extension two twenty four give her a call.
That number again is nine oh nine eight eight nine

(03:45):
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(04:42):
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Speaker 9 (04:46):
More than eighty million Americans depend on AM radio each
month for news, weather, and emergency information. A new bill
in Congress would make sure AM radio remains in cars
because when selling internet services are down, this free serve
could be your only lifeline. Text AM to five two
eight eighty six and tell Congress to support the AM
radio for every vehicle act.

Speaker 10 (05:07):
The message in detterates may apply.

Speaker 11 (05:09):
You may receive up to four messages a month, and
you may text stop to stop.

Speaker 9 (05:13):
This message furnished by the National Association of Broadcasters.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
This segment sponsored by Sammy's Cafe in Kalamesa. Veterans Day
is coming November eleventh, and Sammy's Cafe in Kalamesa salutes
our veterans. Sammy's is that the ten Freeway and Exit
eighty eight Sammy's remembers our seniors and veterans. Sammy's Cafe
and Kalamesa says thank you for your service. Sammy's also
wants to remind us we have a local Veterans ceremony

(05:39):
nearby on Veterans Day. It's at eleven am in Ukaipa
Community Park, thirty four nine hundred Oak Glen Road in Ukaipa.
Before and after you salute our veterans or this great
holiday ceremony, Sammy's invites you for breakfast or lunch with
a cost saving special for all veterans. All veterans will
be served a free meal along with the purchase of
another meal on ve Day and a complimentary beverage for

(06:02):
our vets too. Sammy's is serving up their thanks and
gratitude and all month long, Sammy's is offering seniors a
complimentary beverage too with a purchase during breakfast. Sammy's is
at five point forty Sandal would drive right off the
ten Freeway at exit eighty eight. Let them know you
heard it on this radio station. This segment sponsored by
our friends at the All News Sammy's Restaurant. Samme's is

(06:24):
now open in Kalamesa at Exit eighty eight off the
ten Freeway next to the Jack in the Box in
the former Bob's Big Boy Restaurant. Not to name drop,
but Sammy's in the former Bob's is a lot like Norms.
It has an extensive menu with multiple restaurants in rialto
in places like Upland and Ranchukumonga. Samm's is a great
place to dine. Their menu is very similar with their
American trio of delicious steak, shrimp and chicken and an

(06:47):
expansive menu. You won't go hungry and you won't go
broke at Sammy's. You can come meet Sammy and his family.
Sammy was a chief cook for Norms for years and
it shows in his menu. Sammy's is a great place
to meet the family, friends, or have a community meeting.
You can ask about their private meeting room available for
parties of fifteen or more on a first come, first
serve basis. Sammy's is now open from six am to

(07:08):
nine pm every day. At five point forty Sandal would
drive off of XIT eighty eight at the ten Freeway
in Kalamesa looked for the Big Boy statue. It's still there.
We thank Sammy for returning to this station as a
loyal sponsor. You can find more info about Sammy's at
Sammy'scafe dot Net. At Sammy'scafe dot Net, where you can
also find discount keepons to save money. And by the way,

(07:29):
Sammy's has free Wi Fi too. Sammy's and Kalamesa raylto
but one of their other locations are ready to serve you.
Sammy's is now open in Kalamesa.

Speaker 7 (07:43):
One of the best ways to build a healthier local
economy is by shopping locally. Teamster Advantage is a shop
local program started by Teamster Local nineteen thirty two that
is brought together hundreds of locally owned businesses to provide
discounts for residents who make shop locally their priority, everything
from restaurants like Corkies, to fun times at SB Raceway,

(08:07):
and much much more. If you're not currently a Teamster
and you want access to these local business discounts, contact
Jennifer at nine oh nine eight eight nine eight three
seven seven extension two twenty four. Give her a call.
That number again is nine oh nine eight eight nine

(08:27):
eight three seven seven extension two twenty four.

Speaker 5 (08:34):
Mister your favorite show. Download the podcast at KCAA radio
dot com. KCAA. All right, digesting that beautiful message from

(09:14):
revenue Ec, I'm sure this is Imperia talks back on
Wallace Allen here on the case for truth and justice
with the right information to help improve the situation. You know,
I really appreciate Reverend c Ec. I told him, I
have my message all lined up at what I'm gonna say,

(09:35):
but I'll try to listen to him. I have to
always make a few alterations. And one of the things
that I want to remind us all of is that
the fact that we're not perfect. If we were perfect,
we wouldn't need people like Revenue a Ec. We wouldn't
need pastors, we wouldn't need popes, we wouldn't need leadership,

(09:55):
we would not need any direction from anybody except the
win in the rain. But we're not perfect. We have
these issues. We have these things in front of us
that we can do that are tangibles that makes us
feel like we are special, like we're super like, we
are godlike. But the thing that makes us god like

(10:19):
is the choices that we are capable of making, not
necessarily the choices that we do make. And part of
those choices that we make us to assume that other
people are to do things that we think are appropriate.
We've got to get along with each other. The whole

(10:42):
idea that if we understand people and understand physics is
that friction is what makes things move. The idea that
we all feel the same way and see the same thing,
and that doesn't work. We're not standing in this same spot,
We're not looking at things from the same angle. We

(11:02):
have the obligation to understand that others are seeing things differently,
and that demands communication, That demands some type of settlement,
some compromise as to what's really going on. Because from
our standpoint, we only see that angle, that one degree

(11:25):
angle that we're able to But if we want to
see all three hundred and sixty degrees on one plane
and understand there's three hundred and sixty degrees of planes,
we don't see enough without each other. So we need
each other to complete the picture. We need each other
to really be able to make a plan based on

(11:49):
a successful vision. Can have a successful vision if it's
only coming from one place. So I say all of
that to say, folks, this is why my mother is
such a blessing, because she says that it all stems
from a basic thing called love, and that if we
can position ourselves in the seat of love, we're going

(12:13):
to be in a better position to understand what people
are bringing, what people represent, what people potentially are. If
we have this unconditional love for each other's right to
be called God's child, regardless of whether they call God

(12:33):
the same thing that you call him, whether they describe
him as the same way you describe him or not,
is not the issue. The issue isn't what they say.
The issue is what you listen and hear. So I
say all of that to say I love you and
I'm here, not just to try to factualize, because facts

(12:56):
are very, very, very fuzzy. Feelings tend to be a
bit more specific. You either feel good or you feel bad.
You either feel happy or you feel sad. I would
like to feel useful. I would like to feel that

(13:17):
there's some type of harmony between me and my fellow man.
I'd like to feel that there's no wrong note that
can come after the last note. When we listen to music,
we know that there is a wrong note sometimes, but
then we listen to the blues and we realize that

(13:38):
the only time of wrong note is a wrong notice
if you only play it one time, If you play
a strange anthony, this is right. If you play a
strange lick on your guitar and it sounds funny, the
best thing to do is not to run away from it,
but to run back to it and do it three

(13:59):
or four more times. And now it sounds familiar, and
it seems like the right thing to do. Is that correct?

Speaker 10 (14:04):
Well, I'll.

Speaker 5 (14:08):
Aun there we go, And so today's Empire talks back
is in the in an acknowledgement of veterans day, in
the acknowledgement of those people who are veterans, in those
people like me who are not, but who appreciate and
understand the significance and the importance of veterans. We have

(14:32):
Mister Faran Dozier. He was the Sergeant first class US Army, retired,
applying military leadership to patient advocacy for veterans, athletes, and
youth suicide prevention. As a deacon at the Ministry of Reconciliation,
he speaks on self forgiveness shaped by service experience. He

(14:56):
facilitates youth emotional intelligence and leadership through EQ Athletics. He
founded an organization to advance sickle cell trait information. He
co owns the Inland Empire Hounds, which is a semi
pro basketball team focusing on identity and life direction, and

(15:19):
he teaches child to parent relationships as a youth Sunday
messenger at the New Earth Christian Church. He's on the
line with us right now and far And how are
you this morning? God bless you, oh man. That's good
to hear that you are good. You're doing good and

(15:40):
you feel good. That's perfect. Yes, yes, my brother. That
that introduction, you know, covers a lot of things. I'd
like for you to tell me how you are looking
forward to Veteran's Day and how you are going to
acknowledge it, and how you would like those of us
who have not who are not in a position to

(16:03):
put that service mark a veteran behind our name. What
can we do and what should we be doing to
acknowledge our veterans and the service that they provided.

Speaker 12 (16:14):
You know, I appreciate you for allowing me to be
here this morning. One of the main things for us
as veterans is people forget that we've lost brothers and
sisters during war, right, so it's not always a celebration
for us. Some of us deal with that loss that
we don't know how to manage.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
Right.

Speaker 12 (16:34):
So when you see a veteran and you say thank
you for your service, we appreciate that. But there are
also other ways that we want you to help contribute
to us as a community of people, see our SENSI.
Belonging sometimes gets fractured when it comes to us becoming
back into civilian life.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
Right.

Speaker 12 (16:54):
So for those of us who are taking action, for
those of us who are living life on the who
are altering the experiences of what our brothers and sisters
are dealing with, it's really boils down to that sense
of belonging.

Speaker 5 (17:10):
Right.

Speaker 12 (17:11):
So, as a soldier, I gave my life to death
at nineteen years old and I made it.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
So now what's next for me?

Speaker 5 (17:22):
That's a very powerful statement. I gave my life to
death and a lot of people you know, as you
hear those words, they sound poetic, etc. But I know
those words are rooted in a deep feeling and rooted
in a deep solutionary attitude. Yes, would you explain that

(17:45):
for us please?

Speaker 12 (17:46):
As human beings, we're all social beings. We want to
belong right. But just like in marriage, you sacrifice sometimes
your life for someone else's life.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
Now. I didn't join the military for God and country.

Speaker 12 (17:58):
I joined the military as a job, and my identity
got trapped inside of that uniform and my rank. And
when that rank was taken away, when I got that
medical retirement from my sickle soul trade collapse, I didn't
know who I was as a person. So now trying
to get back into society, trying to re establish my
own self, love, my own self worth, all of that,

(18:22):
realizing that, oh my goodness, I gave my life to
death and now I got to figure out what's next
because I made it.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
I gave my life to death and death did not
come and take it. Now I'm left with it, figuring
out how to rearrange it and make it be as
significant as I could possibly be. Mac Rome is on
the line. He's a veterans to Mac, We're gonna I

(18:53):
want to make a mark on that. I'd like for
you to comment on. I gave my life to death
as a military art for Sir Brette, I want to
keep talking to because he's got to go preach and
time is short on him, and we want him to
continue to be able to share his message with h
with his ministry there. Uh what are you doing now? Uh?

(19:15):
I know you are involved with things with the veterans.
Now at your Veterans advocation, what do you see as
the biggest issue facing veterans today? Is that?

Speaker 3 (19:30):
For me?

Speaker 5 (19:30):
Yes?

Speaker 12 (19:31):
Oh yeah again when I say that, what's next, I'm
talking about Now I got to find out my purpose,
my passion, my gifts, because sometimes my pride is still
in that camouflage.

Speaker 4 (19:42):
So now I gotta find what am.

Speaker 12 (19:44):
I gonna who am I gonna be that's gonna give
me that same emotional connection that I had that pride
with inside the military, and not saying getting a job
as a security guard is something that's not it's not
good or bad. But remember my life was connected to
this camouflage. My rank, who I was as a person

(20:05):
is still identified as a sergeant first class when I
introduced myself.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
So what I figured, what.

Speaker 12 (20:13):
I found out was God allowed me to discover that
that inherited gene that I almost died from was my purpose.
So instead of defending this country, now I get to
defend the community of this inherited gene. So sometimes we're
born with everything that we need in our life experiences
and we have to tap back into that, because we
want to live a fulfilled life, not just about money anymore.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
Before you entered the service, entered the military, you had dreams, aspirations,
you had visions of who you were going to be,
and those are part of the thing that you gave
up as you went into the military. And you say,
I gave my life to death. Yes, what I'm hearing

(20:56):
is that upon the fact that your death did not
occur and uh in the sense of you stopped breathing,
but it was there because the visions that you had
for yourself prior to going in, we're no longer there
for you to function on. That life died now that

(21:20):
you are back and physically in a different society, back
in the back in the quote unquote unmilitary, unmilitarized world.
Civilian life, the civilian life, well right out of civilian
kind of the word civilian is kind of rooted in civilization.

(21:41):
And I don't know how civilized civilized we are at
this point exactly. But as I ask you, what is
the biggest issue for a veteran? Now, I'm perceiving that
what you're saying is that that we regard veterans as
individuals who lost a dream, a dream deferred because of
the service they gave us, and when they return, instead

(22:03):
of following the shadow and the echo of the service
they provided, they should be allowed to seek the dream
that they had prior to that service, with the support
of the community that they have worked so hard giving
up giving death.

Speaker 4 (22:19):
But here's the thing, it's not we can't. We can't
leave that to society.

Speaker 12 (22:24):
We have to then self examine ourselves to figure out
who am I as a person. We all have those
questions that we ask ourselves, why am I born?

Speaker 4 (22:33):
Why am I here?

Speaker 12 (22:34):
Sometimes the way the system is set up, as you
pointed to, it's not going to give us that information.
So we need to be able to come either to
other veterans who have made it through those conversations or
seek some kind of a spiritual context to figure out
what that purpose and passion is. Because society is all
about surviving life. We don't want to survive We've already

(22:55):
survived life.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
We want to live life today.

Speaker 5 (22:58):
Society is I say, it means individual people who represent society.
So as a society, we tend to seek the easy
way out and come up with a colisiation statement that
says thank you for your service, okay, and and and
I'm anticipating that we would do better to say I

(23:18):
really appreciate your service enough to say how can I help?
How can I be of service to help you be
who you really would like to be?

Speaker 4 (23:29):
That's all we ask.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
That's but that's a lot because a lot of times
when you say how are you doing, you're really relieved
when people say, oh, I'm okay and they keep going.
But if you are rooted in service and you say, well, hey,
how you doing and somebody tells you they got a
little problem, now, you should feel an obligation to support
the solution to that problem. So that that cliche of

(23:54):
thank you for your service is politely accepted by most veterans.
But that's a polite acceptance of something that you really
regard as I won't say it's a lie, but it's
not really a commitment to be thankful. How can we

(24:17):
really demonstrate thankfulness. We've got people in the Veterans hospital,
We've got people who should be in the veterans hospital.
We've got veterans who are homeless. We has got a
situation where people have fought, replaced their goal for life
with the potential of death, and they come back and
they are treated like goobliwoc, and the people that they

(24:39):
thought that they were serving are also treated like goobliwok. Yes,
how and I'm asking this question, and it's time for
you to go preach. So Mac, I'm gonna you know,
we're going to lean on you for some of these answers.
And I'm going to thank Faring for the things that
he's doing and the anticipate patient that you're causing us

(25:01):
as you continue to be pushing forward serving the needs
that you see. You know, you've got a you've got
a basketball team that you Okay, you work with, you
work with a sickle cell. That's a that's the thing
that that has affected. You can understand that. H m hm.

(25:22):
We want to support making it better, okay. And and
and to me, that means I have to bring up
the question of war and the people who create war
and how they tend to never be in war, and
how they do things to protect their children from participating
in war, but they are anxious to have one. Uh.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Anyway, let me let me let me ask you a question.
What I had to do.

Speaker 12 (25:52):
I was I was taught that savina are not gonna
understand me early in my career, Savin's are not going
understand you. I don't understand Faran today, So don't understand me.
I want you to relate to me. So if, if,
if people in society can relate to what it is
to be a soldier, what would how would you handle

(26:13):
being homeless? How would you handle trying to figure out
what's next for you? That's the that's the relatingness that
I've created from my space to help people start to
heal and connect with one another. Well, the relatedness is
so important because we're social beings.

Speaker 4 (26:27):
We're human beings first, not a soldier first.

Speaker 12 (26:30):
I was a'm a I'm a man first, before the
identity of the label of a soldier.

Speaker 5 (26:35):
Yeah, well, we're all men, but we are all been
in a position to where we gave up our life
to the concept of death and come through what you've
gone through and come back. I don't think that a
person who has not been through what you've been through
who is who is homeless?

Speaker 12 (26:55):
We use we used our imagination to watch movies and
to do stuff. We use our imagination creatively. That's all
we're asking. How would you feel you a.

Speaker 5 (27:05):
I think that they are not deserving as you. I
think that if there were three people lined up to
be like to receive a home, that all three were homeless.
If there is a veteran amongst them, the veteran should
get the home now. And I would say that. And

(27:26):
there may be a woman there with a couple of
kids that needs a home. But there's something about the
person who has sacrificed, died in their mind for a
purpose for the people and comes back and now to

(27:47):
the back of the line, I'm sorry. You know, if
we got to make judgments and we've got to make choices,
that's a very that's a very tough one. But as
we as we move toward Veterans Day and people, you know,
we gone we put flags on graves, and we put
flags on graves as if that's some type of artwork,

(28:08):
as opposed to accepting the fact that we are putting
flags on graves lives that represent people who have given
at a level and a measure way beyond what civilization
should require or what civilians understand. So I thank you, Yeah,

(28:32):
you guys, Mac, You guys are a blessing to us.
And most of us think that well, once you've done that,
you know, well, now you come back, you be, you be,
You just start where you left off. And that's that.
That's people don't go to college and come back and
start where they left off. People don't people don't get

(28:52):
a good job and come back where they started off.
All those things change, So so how can we help you?
That's that? That that that's the phrase I want to
use to replace thank you for your service? Yes, what
can I do to help? And I want to say it.

(29:13):
I want to say it with the spirit that understands
I'm not perfect and I don't have access to all
of the resources in the world. But I say this
very seriously. And you don't have to answer me now,
but answer me at some point because I would like
to help you.

Speaker 4 (29:29):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
So let me know what I can do to help.
Thank you, Thank you.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
They can go to ferandi dot com.

Speaker 12 (29:37):
They'll find everything that I'm up to serving veterans of
our community and our youth. But thank you, thank you
so much for this morning. I think I'm about to
be up to deliver my message in a second.

Speaker 5 (29:47):
Okay, go go go preach brother.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
All right, God, God bless you. Thank you so thank you.

Speaker 5 (29:52):
Thank you. All right, let's let's let's bring uh mac
roam up on the screen. Mac. How are you doing today?

Speaker 10 (30:01):
Hey, I'm doing great. How's everybody going out there today?

Speaker 5 (30:04):
Oh? We're rocking and rolling? Anthony's here, the mood master,
and all I don't see your face. Man, what's up
with you? You didn't shave this one or what?

Speaker 10 (30:12):
No, he just gave me a phone number. He called
me up, so we just have it on the phone
right now. But I did put in in a studio
here at the house, so next time we have to
do that.

Speaker 5 (30:21):
Okay, very good, Very good, because you know we're good
if you don't shave. Eric hasn't shaved, And Eric, how
long has a been since you shaved?

Speaker 4 (30:28):
I don't even think I own a razor?

Speaker 3 (30:33):
Man.

Speaker 5 (30:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (30:35):
I really enjoyed the conversation between you and the first
sergeant this year. And I was also impressed with when
he said I gave my life for death. I have
experienced that sentiment. I had that building when I was
a young man. I joined the military when I was
seventeen years old. I am honest to god, I said I'll

(30:55):
never make it to twenty five. And I was cool
with that I didn't know that I was going to
go to a war at the time when I joined.
But two years after I joined and we went to war,
and I doubled down. I said, yeah, you know, you're
never going to make it past twenty five now, But
now I'm fifty four, and so I actually I enjoyed

(31:18):
that a lot, hearing that come from somebody else that
confirmed a lot of the emotions that I felt during
my life. And then also, like I said, I had,
you know, you kind of do base death in a
certain way when you're join the military, because your life
isn't your own, and when you get out, you do

(31:39):
have to figure out a way to become a civilian again,
become a regular person again. Use yeah, I enjoyed that
a lot.

Speaker 5 (31:47):
Just using my you know, my imagination, I can't help
but feel that I would be a little kicked off
coming back as a veteran, coming back, especially if I
was in a shooting war and come back and not
have it. I mean, I look at the black men

(32:11):
who came back from World War two, World War One,
who had done their job, especially in the English show
in the European theater, and they came back and not
only were they not appreciated, they were rejected. They were
rejected at the point of at the point of the
GI Bill, for instance, not just as individuals who didn't

(32:33):
want them to live next door, or who didn't want
to serve him in a restaurant, or who wanted them
to sit in the back of a train or a bus,
but the government when the government came forth with the
GI Bill and created loans for oh, all, gis everybody,
except there's not really necessary for you to give this

(32:56):
loan to black people, the ones who jumped through the
hoops and clear all of the messages correctly, and you know,
and kiss your butt the way you want it to
be kissed. You can give one if you want to,
but we're not going to require it. The GI Bill,
as an example of government preference, set a policy that

(33:19):
reinforced racism. Now that's me as a black man, but
white men come back from the war and they get
treated pretty much the same way to us to a
certain extent. And and I say all of that to
bring us all in the same room here. We're talking

(33:40):
about veterans in the past, but we've got a president
that wants to create a new level of veterans, he'd
like to start a war. I mean, that's the way
I'm feeling about it. And you as a military person
and as a thinker, and that's one of the things
I really appreciate about mac Rome. Mac Rome, by the way,
is as a performer. He's a comedian, he's a writer,

(34:03):
he's an activist, and like I said, I appreciate him
because he's a thinker. So that's my introduction to mister
mac Room, which we didn't do as we brought him
online as if you were omnipotent and everybody knows who
he is and all of that. But Mac I ask

(34:23):
fearing that question about what do you think is the
biggest issue for a veteran? And I'm going to ask
you that same question, what's the biggest issue facing veterans today?

Speaker 10 (34:37):
The biggest issue facing veterans right now is a lack
of information. There's actually a lot of programs that the
Veterans Administration has going on for veterans, specifically homeless veterans.
If you've been homeless for one year or more, the
Veterans Administration considers you chronically homeless. They will put you

(34:58):
at the front of a section eight list they will
get you into an apartment. They will make sure that
you have food to eat. The biggest thing that I've
noticed been a veteran myself. Also, I've been a homeless veteran.
Every program that I'm talking to you about today is
something that I have actually took part in. I was homeless.
I got on the VA Section eight program. I had

(35:20):
to get food stamps as a veteran, and I was
working and I still had to get food stamps. So
what I found out at the time, though, was there
were other homeless veterans like myself, and they just didn't
know where to go get the resources. So the biggest
thing you can do is actually you're doing it now.
You're letting people here where the resources are. Because there's

(35:45):
one thing you can't save a veteran who doesn't want
to save itself. The only thing you can do is,
like they say, build, I'm saying, you can lead a
horse to water, but you can't make the water drink.
The best thing you can do for a veteran is
show them where they're resources are. You can't force them
to partake into resources, but the best thing you can

(36:05):
do is show them where they are because maybe two
or three months later, when they're in their right mind,
they may think about what you said to them about
a resource that you offer to them, and they say, hey,
you know, somebody told me there was a program like this.
Let me look into that. And that's how you change
people's lives. So yeah, that's.

Speaker 5 (36:29):
That's a beautiful answer. When you said take a horse,
you know, take a horse to water, but you can't
make him drink. I think about what they do to
horses that refuse to drink.

Speaker 10 (36:46):
They put them down, They put them.

Speaker 5 (36:48):
Down, you know. And this is this is this is
uh what in reality appears to take place with veterans
who don't get the message right away. But if I've
been following orders, and I've been following orders in order
to be a veteran, if I've been following orders and

(37:09):
the orders have been been pressed into my mind as
to my policy for life, and the orders that they
give me to take the next step are not clearly defined,
is that the veteran's fault or is that the officer's
fault or the information supplier's fault. And if that old

(37:36):
horse has been faithful, you know, if that old horse
is limping around, and then it doesn't appear to be
useful for plowing or riding, but you can still walk
around and need a little grass, you know, and enjoy
the sun and you know, got enough to stand up
and go to sleep. Why not allow that horse to

(37:57):
be unuseful because he used to be so useful and
be taken care of? Am I out of line? Is
that communism? Is that socialism? I know it ain't capitalism,
but it is concerned ism. Is I'm concerned? I think
that's the question. Is I'm concerned? I think we're supposed

(38:18):
to be concerned, and that concern takes us out of
the realm of well, it's just, you know, it's not
practical for the horse to stay alive. Now he got
a bad foot.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
Wait a minute, See, I don't really get the impression
that people are.

Speaker 10 (38:39):
Denying veterans any type of services. That's why I kind
of gave you the answer I gave you before. I
don't think that, you know, the current administration has you know,
they're kind of awful to everybody, and not just veterans,
and specific they do. There are things that I have
to pay for at the VA that I didn't have

(38:59):
to pay for before. Donald Trump got in office. But
at the same time, in general, veterans are military veterans
in America are very well taken care of. They do
not have to be homeless, they do not have to
go hungry. The reason that they do is because they
are unaware of the resources that are available both to them,

(39:19):
even under the Trump administration. So I do understand where
you're coming from, but I think like people, I was
like that, let me tell you where a real problem
is we're going there, because you were speaking about veterans,
black veterans who come back home and they weren't treated
as people, as normal citizens after World War Two and

(39:41):
in a lot a lot of ways after Vietnam. They
still do that today, but they do it in a
different way. And this is what I was getting at
when I got out of the military. I got out
of the military in nineteen ninety three. I did serve
in the war. I served in Desert Storm, but when
I got discharged, no one gave me any information about

(40:02):
veterans benefits. I went twenty five years without accessing any
veterans' benefice because they actually steered me in the opposite direction.
They said, if you have anything medically going on, with
you if you have anything, well, we're not going to
let you out just yet. We're going to get you
checked here. That might take you a year. And that

(40:24):
was all alive. What they were trying to do was
save the Veterans Administration money. And also they didn't they
did this to a lot of black guys because in
a lot of ways, they don't want to acknowledge you
as a soldier to this day, and the way that
carries over is they don't want to see you get
your military benefits. Now, this was in nineteen ninety three,
and this happened throughout the nineties. I had friends that

(40:46):
I served with and they also went through this, and
not even just black men, but Hispanic women and Hispanic men.
We all went through this where they told us, hey,
you don't have any thing coming from the VA unless
you're hurt, and if you're hurt, we want you to
stay in. Well, they don't do that. They don't do

(41:07):
that anymore. Yeah, because it took me twenty five years
to finally mosey up into the VA. And so I
go into the VA about eight years ago. And now
you have veterans, younger veterans from the Afghanistan war, and
they it's unfortunately, and I'm just going to explain my experience.

(41:28):
I met a lot of veterans who were Caucasian of
European descent, and they got out of the military one
week and the next week they were plugged into the
VA with all their benefits, one hundred percent benefits. They
knew exactly where to go. They got all their benefits
like almost as soon as they separated. And that just

(41:49):
doesn't happen for black soldiers and black military members. That's
why I say the biggest thing you can do is
make people aware of the resources, because there's people like me.
I went five years and it would have changed my life.
I didn't find out until twenty five years later. I
am not the only veteran who's out there who's like that.

(42:09):
My thing you can do is have a radio show
like yours where you can tell people what's going on,
and have guests like me who can tell them. And
I'm just anybody who's listening to this, tell these veterans
get to the VA.

Speaker 5 (42:24):
My friend Anthony Garcia, the mood Master, expressed that to
me a couple of years ago, that Wallace, once you
get into the VA, everything is smooth when you're standing
outside trying to figure it out. Yeah. But man, they've
taken care of me since I've been in and associated
with the VA, and I can appreciate that. I want

(42:44):
you to hang on with this, Mac because I'm going
to bring on my daughter Mishua Mishualli, who is kind
of upgrade us on the information about Jamaica. Now I
make this transition, I'm talking again about people who are

(43:07):
devastated and people who are going to be told to
some level, Oh, we really love Jamaica. It's a wonderful place.
We feel for the Jamaican people, we feel for Jamaica,
the spirit, etc. But somehow there's not necessarily the follow
through with what can I do to help you? And

(43:28):
so to try to bring these two things together. Michelle,
how are you this morning?

Speaker 11 (43:36):
I've just had two real good church services online, So
I'm good. I'm good.

Speaker 5 (43:44):
You were preaching, you were preaching or receiving?

Speaker 11 (43:47):
No, no, sir, no sir. One of the good things
is I take my time on Sundays to make sure,
especially because I spend so much as a week trying
to be as useful as I can in the of
you know, hard times, for so many people should make
hear whatever's going on. You know, I make sure. I mean,

(44:09):
I try to do it during the week, but on Sundays,
for sure, I don't touch a phone, I don't touch
nothing till I just sit and you know, I have
some good old fashioned conversations with God, and then I
turn on some services that kind of echo the conversation
so that I know I was talking to the right one.
It just helps. It's very important. They always say you

(44:30):
can't pour from an empty cup, but even more important
than that, you can't give outside of the flow. That's
what I've really learned as a mom, as a woman,
as all these as a citizen of this planet, as
a spiritual being, You've got to stay in the flow
so that you don't run on empty and so that

(44:52):
what you give is effective. So you know, that's how
I'm feeling this morning. Very great that I had two
very brilliant, spiritually connected parents who took the sign to
teach me those kinds of things, you know, so that
the chaos does not make me crazy, because the chaos

(45:13):
is designed be it here in America, in Jamaica, the chaos,
especially the chaos that they want to expose you to
in the media over and over and over again, is
designed to make you crazy. So you have to fight
for your right mind. You have to be intentional about

(45:37):
staying in your right mind, or quite simply, you will
not be able to.

Speaker 5 (45:42):
That is a battle. That is definitely a battle because
of the distractions are there. The lanes to insanity are
well paved. The rocky road is the one to sanity.
That well paved road is the one that they If
you follow that road and take all of the turns

(46:03):
that the manipulators want you to take, you will Indeed,
maybe you won't feel crazy, but you sure will look
crazy to everybody that's got good sense. What are we
looking at in terms of what we can do, not
just in Jamaica, but where we are in America that
is going to benefit everybody as we stay in the flow. Now,

(46:27):
there's some things that we can do. We can attempt
to stay out of the politic and provide help and service,
and I think most of us would like to do that.
How do you suggest that we support Jamaica at the
same time we support the concept of staying sane and

(46:47):
useful in America in our own lane? What can we
do well.

Speaker 11 (46:53):
I think one of the things that I'm excited about
is that I can share what some people here are
already doing, you know. And just to give you some context,
Jamaica has two point eight million well, the population is
two point eight million as of last year census in Jamaica.

(47:14):
One point five million members of the population of Jamaica
have been impacted severely by this hurricane. Thirty six thousand
people in urgent need of food assistance, more than one
hundred thousand housing structures have been affected. A friend of

(47:35):
mine who also works with the American Friends of Jamaica,
which is the organization I told you about last week,
who in conjunction with the Bob and Rita Marley Foundation
and a organization called the Global Empowerment Mission, have really
been you know, the core hands and feet on the

(47:57):
ground that you know, have been able to get in
there immediately. The American Friends at Jamaica is actually exactly
what it sounds like. It was founded four decades ago
by former US ambassadors to Jamaica who did their tour
of duty and came back and you know, like so

(48:18):
many of us do, whether you went on vacation or
whether you went there to work, fell in love with
the spirit of the people and wanted to continue to
be of service to the people without necessarily having to
be without necessarily having to go through the government. And
so they've been on the ground. People here have donated

(48:42):
money for years to different causes. Their mandate is that
every dollar they raised has to impact and serve the
people of Jamaica, so be it hospitals, after school programs
during COVID, you know, meal insecurities, helping the farmers after
her cue Beryl last year.

Speaker 5 (49:01):
You get the picture.

Speaker 11 (49:02):
So they immediately set out even before this storm hit,
to get activated. So far, they've raised more than four
million dollars of their five million dollar target. Half of
that has come from just general people's donation. The other
half has come from directors and endowments that have matched
that donation. But Karen Chung, who deals with this, this

(49:27):
is this is what she does. She goes in, she
gets there on the ground. I spoke to her Thursday
and she said, Michella, because she's in Jamaica, and she said, Michela,
I have never seen anything like this anywhere. Landmarkers that
you used to know, you know, you're coming around Santa
Cruz and you see that big tree there, and this

(49:49):
is gone. People are shell shocks wandering around because normally,
in a situation like this, if your home was destroyed,
if you would go and seek refuge in the church nearby.
But the church is gone, school is gone. But in

(50:10):
all of this, the hands and feet of what people
here in America, despite a government shut down, despite three
hundred thousand black women, and that's just to count on
the black women who have lost their corporate jobs, the
people here who have opened themselves to serve and gives.
They've been able to deliver more than four hundred palates

(50:35):
of emergency meals that got shipped down. They have been
able to set up hospitals and tents. World Chef Kitchen,
which is also active here in America, going into areas
and feeding and providing meals for government workers who are furloughs.
Are down there on the ground in Jamaica, cooking for
volunteers and then also cooking for the people. They have

(50:58):
ten they have sold batteries. Help is showing up. And
to me that that's the flow, because in the face
of every disaster, in the face of every horrific situation,
there's also an opportunity for God to show up, and

(51:20):
God shows up in people, people who you know, there's
some people who look at the news down there and
they cry, and I get it. It's devastating. But as
I said to a friend of mine last week, and
you know, she still loves me, it took her a minute,
but it worked. And I said, you know, it's great
that you can sit in front of your TV because

(51:41):
you have the electricity in your air conditioned house here
in Florida to shed tears. But quite frankly, they're good
with the tears over there. You need to get up
and make yourself useful. Seventy percent of that island is
still without power, but organations from Guyana, from Virginia here

(52:04):
in America, they've gone down there to help. They've gone
down there to help. And those of us who would
be in the way if we went down there to
try to help, we can pray from up here. We
can spread the word up here that as bad as
it looks, there are also some really beautiful things happening

(52:26):
because people are showing up for one another. We have
a group of young girls that's Sadela Marley. She has
a program called Football Is freedom where we work with
young girls there and it's empowerment through women's soccer, you know, training,
giving them all the tools, mentoring all these things. And
these young young ladies are in Kingston, which initially was

(52:49):
told it was going to get the direct hit for
about four or five days, but it did not. As
they try to return to normalcy, their parents got together
with them. And there's a family in Christiana Manchester, which
is not one of the quote unquote hardest hit areas,
but you know, hurricane force winds in the mountains, in

(53:11):
a house that wasn't the most solid to begin with,
it's hard hit. A family of six children, six year
old twins, ten year old, thirteen year old, a fifteen
year old and a twelve year old lost everything. Everything
means everything, your clothes, your shoes, your favorite hair clips.

(53:36):
And these kids decided that when they came to training yesterday,
they had gotten together to green things. So that this
particular family isn't high on the priority list, not because
what happens to them didn't matter, but because you still
have communities that are completely cut off by flood by mudflies,

(53:58):
and that's where everybody's trying to get too. But as
a mom, and you know, for these kids, we didn't
want them to think for one minute, oh my problem
isn't big enough. It's important for me, just as I
had to learn in my life growing up. You know

(54:19):
that unlike the urgent care center where when you go in,
they got a sessy first and your the chest pains
get to go in before the ingrown toenail. You know,
God prioritizes the broken hearted as much as he does
the ones who need a heart transplant. And we want kids,

(54:41):
We want people who the mental load of this, the
emotional load of this can break you when you wake
up every day and that's what you're looking at and
home doesn't look nothing like what home looked like the
day before. And so just to let these six year
old know that we see them and we're not bringing

(55:02):
you some clothes that are too big that we found
in a box, you know, for them to have kids
their own age come.

Speaker 5 (55:09):
And oh, that's that's something that is something. I mean,
you are at the point, these people are at the
point of need, and to receive a box of things
that don't fit, or things that have spoiled in transit,
or things that are just not appropriate for your need.

(55:33):
So when we send things, is it better to try
to send things? I know that if we were to
package up a ton of batteries, that would be meaningful,
but we don't want to say.

Speaker 11 (55:43):
You know, what's more meaningful than batteries? Okay, solar flashlight?

Speaker 5 (55:48):
A solar flashlight.

Speaker 13 (55:50):
You know, we've got a couple.

Speaker 5 (55:55):
We've got a couple of minutes here. You're a marketer,
and and God bless you for that. What are some
of the things that we might be able to get
people who have their marketing items? And I say that
because I got a package in the male the other
they wonder what the heck this is? And I see
that it was a package from an organization trying to
you know, influence and show us. And they had a

(56:17):
little flashlight in it. It had some inks and some
pins and things of that sort. And I said, gosh, boy, flashlights.
And you hit it on the head. What big company
around here has got solar flashlights with their name on them?
What better way to make friends in Jamaica or anyplace else? Yes?

Speaker 11 (56:35):
By and yeah, yeah. And the thing is that if
you're an organization or a company, and believe it or not,
you know, even fifty of them. It don't have to
be you know, one point five million of them. It
could be fifty of them. And again the three organizations
that I've mentioned, the Bob and Rita Marley Foundation, the

(56:58):
American Friends of jam Make the Global Empowerment Mission there.
They have the logistics downpath. They have the ability if
you can get it to Florida, they can give you
an address and you get it to Miami. They can
get it to Jamaica, get it through customs quickly, and
get it exactly to where it needs to go. That's

(57:22):
why we've been able to be so impactfuled there on
the ground is that they they they've got a.

Speaker 5 (57:28):
System, Missy. Before we get out of here, we got
a minute left.

Speaker 13 (57:33):
According to our being counter, we need the being counter,
God blessed God bless the beans Counter.

Speaker 11 (57:44):
So creatives need a good being count.

Speaker 5 (57:46):
Tell us, tell us how to approach that and find
the right number. And I want to give give back
a moment to comment.

Speaker 11 (57:56):
Okay, Well, first and foremost, I am making sure that
West Side Story and Empire Talks Back socials are up
to date on everything that's going on down there with
reliable info info. So step one is west Side Story
News on Instagram, Empire Talks Back on Instagram and Facebook.

(58:18):
You can also go to the Bobmarleyfoundation dot org and
get information there, not just on how you can help financially,
but also on how its own ate excellent.

Speaker 5 (58:30):
Mac Rome, are you still there? Okay, very good, Macca.
Mac made his well earned exit. We appreciate that, Mishuvah.
We appreciate you, We love you, and we will go
to west Side Story, Empire talks Back Instagram and we

(58:51):
will seek out the right place to send the right
stuff so that we can be actually participating and doing
more than sitting on the crying and emoting about what
we wish we could do.

Speaker 11 (59:04):
There are things we can do and and and don't
feel like and don't feel like if you can't do
something today, it's not good enough. This is going to
be an ongoing sustainable effort for a long time to come.
Like I said, this has changed the landscape of that island.

Speaker 5 (59:21):
Yeah, the greenery is not as green as it could be.

Speaker 11 (59:25):
No, but you know what, and in fact, go and
check the socials when we get off. The interesting thing
about storms is it has unearthed new flows of water.
There are fresh streams of gorgeous, beautiful, beautiful water that
have come out of the mountains, and it's and it's, it's, it's, it's.

(59:45):
It's a very interesting thing to behold. There's so much destructure.

Speaker 5 (59:50):
There is a new bird that we can't anticipate, very
good creation.

Speaker 13 (59:55):
Groans in weight well as usual.

Speaker 5 (59:57):
You make me very proud to be yo, daddy, God
bless you. Thank you Darling. Okay, this is Empire talxback.
I want to thank you Eric, I didn't want to
thank Ferrond Dozier, and we want to thank Macrome and
the moot