Unity In The Community Through A Veteran Lens

Welcome And The Unity Question

0:07

Gentlemen, so good to see you again. Are we ready? Let's get into it. Urban Christian Veterans provides a safe place for Christian veterans of color to discuss the challenges you face in your daily lives. Being a person of color has its challenges. Being a Christian has its challenges. Being a veteran has its challenges. All of those factors being combined makes for a unique and sometimes typical life experience. Thank you for tuning into the Urban Christian Veterans Podcast. The Ellen Rose. Thank you, Aaron, for that wonderful introduction. This is the Allen Rose, and you are listening to the Urban Christian Veterans Podcast. So the question for today is Is Unity in our community possible? Is unity in our community even possible? What do you say to that? Wow.

Missing Leaders And Manufactured Spokespeople

1:33

Okay. And uh even even I'm skeptical. We don't have a leader that has been chosen by us anymore. Um back in the 60s and 70s, there were distinctive Martin and and Malcolm, there were distinctive leaders that that we had for our community. Now every time we get one, you know what happens to them. So what has what I think the powers that be have seen that if they gonna need a leader, let's give them one. And they give us people like these musicians and and artists. Like we didn't pick them. How are these now all of a sudden now he's oh he's speaking? You can't we didn't pick you. You know, so um I think that's that's what my observation has been that we have been, they've been pushing people up to say, oh, this is your spokesperson. Oh, they speak because he's famous or she's famous. We're supposed to just they think we're supposed to just follow them. That archaic thinking that we'll give them someone before um we allow another Malcolm to rise or another Martin Luther to rise from amongst them. And and then they'll do a token thing, I think. I think um president was a was a was the token. They figure, oh, we're gonna give him a token. Because he really didn't do what we thought he should have done, but he couldn't. You know, it's it it he couldn't he didn't have the tools to be successful, he was just the token. Then they the powers that be because all of them in Congress are 80, they thinking like, oh, let's just give him somebody. We'll calm him down, which means we just give him somebody, you know, and he wasn't a Malcolm and he wasn't a Martin Luther. Obama. He was Obama. And and uh as mediocre as that it was, it wasn't a Malcolm or the Martin. And I'm fearful that if we don't, if someone else is a step up and to become that level of a to galvanize us like uh it's gonna take a tragedy to do it. Um and it I we always come together after a great tragedy, but we only come together for a little while. You know, we ain't marching across no Edmund Pettis Bridge, feet, bad feats and all that. We ain't going whole 30 days bus for a cot, you know. We're not doing that. We don't have anybody to galvanize us. Um and I think that is by design. So as optimistic as I am, I don't, I don't, I really don't think so. I I don't I think we can come together, we come together in in um small microcosms around places, but a collective some cities might come together, you know, some towns, uh, but we I don't we are not we haven't seen that type of come togetherness camaraderie since the s in the 60s. We haven't seen that since. And they're not gonna allow us uh a leader to rise to galvanize us like that. I don't think it's gonna happen. I'm gonna say, like I said, I'm I'm a hopeless optimistic, but I don't I don't think we'll collectively, I don't think so. Not in our lifetime.

Selected Leaders And Power Structures

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Yeah, a couple things uh from what Randy was saying about Obama before, as the saying goes, before you're elected, you're selected. Uh Donald Brazil, I heard her on a morning show talking that they pegged, this is from a democratic strategist, they pegged him before that 2004 speech he gave at the Democratic National Convention for the presidency. That's coming from her mouth. I I heard her say that before that. So 2004, so it had to be 2003, sometime prior to that, that he was uh pegged to go for the presidency. So before you are elected, you're selected. I I think also on that same vein there is a huge power structure uh working behind the scenes that's m pushing this uh machine forward as of the United States uh that are really pulling the strings. Um uh a few years back the Supreme Court ruled that uh companies can be a person to where they can give huge amounts of money to these politicians, and I think that needs that's something that needs to be reverted. As far as coming together, even during that time period, and I've studied uh there was seemed to be a a bridge put between Malcolm and Martin Luther King. But from information I've read or of heard, they met behind closed doors out of the camera's eye. Now, granted, there were some things they they were different on, but as long as it was for the uplifting of the people, there was agreement we between them and I would say they were friends. Uh but they just knew that they had to be separate and not seen together because of eventually what what would end up happening to both. Okay.

Africa Identity Pan-Africanism And Reparations

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The the gentleman on that that that video I I understood where he was coming from because when you look at the continent of Africa before colonization came, you have all these different ethnic groups in in just what would be countries now with the borders, there were different ethnic groups that were there that were doing their own thing. And when colonization came, if you were caught where those border lines were done, you brought these people together who had really nothing to do with each other. And that's unfortunate. Uh I I I from what the gentleman was saying, the professor was saying, uh, we can't come together, but we need to come together because when the world looks at us, they don't see a black American, they don't see a black African, they don't see Zulu or whatever other tribe, they just see black. So the world puts us into this huge bowl as one. Now, if we were to come together, oh that would be powerful. That would be powerful. I always thought about this, had a conversation with someone, and you always hear, well, why don't you go back to Africa? Why don't you go back to Africa? And you always hear about reparations. Well, I said, okay. You want us to go back to Africa? But there's a way you could do it, and this is just my opinion. There's a way you could do it, and just let's do this. All the money we've paid into Social Security, all the money we paid into our 401k, because we worked for that, we paid into it, all the money we've put into our IRAs, all the the the inventions that came from us, and the money is generated, we take those, oh, and by the way, all the gold that came off the continent, all the diamonds, all the artifacts, return them and let us go. I would go. But that's the caveat. That way we're covered with reparations. Africa, because of how we grew up, it shows Africa, not the true size on the typical map. Africa is huge when you read and you study. It's huge. So if we were to go back, if we were to leave here, I heard um, I think it was um Jacques Chirac, the French leader, said if Africa wasn't paying us the what $500 billion a year that they that we pull out the of the continent from past colonization, they would be a third world country. And that's a powerful statement. So can we come together? Yeah. As to quote Kevin Garnett, anything's possible. Yes, we can come together, will we? I don't know, because even going back to the 60s, there was factions of splits even prior to that. I think the best we've come together was probably after the Civil War talking about Reconstruction, where a lot of blacks were in the Congress for a stint before a lot of other things started happening to to oust us out of those power seats. So can we come can we do it? Oh yeah, it's possible. Will we do it? Probably not. There has to be something really drastic to happen to the black populace. And when I say black, I'm not talking just Americans, I'm talking Africans, uh, 9-11 type. Yeah, it has to be something huge to say, okay, we're done for that to happen.

Economic Power Boycotts And Black History

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And I I just don't see it happening right now. And they don't want us to separate. Because let's face it, all statistics and all the articles, I mean everything you ever read, and because of it wasn't just one black wall street that got destroyed. There were multiple black wall streets across the yeah, Wilmington and Florida. And they are that that's the fear, I am, I believe, my own personal opinion. Because we are slowly starting to realize our economic power now. What our dollar. Look what happened with Target. The CEO had to step down. I ain't been in Target in about two years. Yep. So so so because of the boycott we have done, the CEO had to step down. They lost billions of dollars. So we are slowly starting to see what our economic, you know, we we we spend more, clearly. They got all these stats in the world that show that. They don't want us to see that and and feel it, because if we did, that would change things. Now we can come together. Yeah, I I believe the city of Atlanta, and I'm saying when I say metropolitan Atlanta, has a large GDP, I think, than the state of Mississippi and Louisiana. Just Atlanta, metropolitan Atlanta has more GDP than these two states. And I think I might want to throw Alabama in there. I don't I wouldn't think about that. Just the city of Atlanta, metropolitan Atlanta. And I and you could you could check check me on this. I I was listening to something, and I believe that's what they said. I believe has a greater GD GDP than those states. So but I I would love to see it. Uh I think today we are learning more of our history. People are reading more, they're more uh inquisitive about learning about the history. Uh look at the the movie, what was it, Hidden Figures, the ladies who were behind the moon launch? I I didn't I didn't know about that coming up in school. You know how many things uh that I I'm learning as a grown adult that I had no idea that what was going on that we participated in. So many things. Zoom calls, MS Teams, a sister who's behind that, the toilet. Everybody should praise this brother for coming up with what is a modern-day toilet, the traffic light. Hear the thing about the real McCoy, open heart surgery. Open heart surgery. So many things that none of us knew. Because again, if you were taught in school who discovered America and we were taking a test when we're in elementary middle school, what would you have said? Christopher Columbus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All of us would have said that, but we we know today that is so far from the truth. Never even stopped stepped on what is North America. Never. And was uh uh a heathen, did atrocious things, but was celebrating them before NASA. I I took the uh we all took the day off, but I don't even use his name. I I'll say indigenous day. I don't I I I refuse to use his name. Well but I think um no, I

Church Influence Prayer And Integration Debate

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I think I I find it um interesting uh that the in in in trying to predict whether or not um unity is possible the first thing that was mentioned, Reg, I think you said you you you you went to a leader, a leader that is galvanizing. And so I guess then as a follow-up question, are we saying that unity is not possible without a leader? I think uh I believe we have to have somebody as as a people. Kind of like the representatives in Congress, we gotta have somebody that we can point to and or have that person say, Okay, this is what we're doing. And then everybody, because that's what happened, you know, when they had the Malcolms and um the Martins. It was it was proclaimed and people did it. We they say we meeting over here to March, they mark they met over there to March. Now we got some pseudo, we we we got some Timu Martins out here now, still, some Sheen Malcolms that they're trying to uh uh they're trying to do something, but there's a reason why they're still here. The the slick back preacher hair guy, you know, would have lost all that weight. Um stop it, man. Get off a river. Get off a river hell, man. That's my man. I mean, we did not try not to say their names because you told us, you know, we had to be mindful. I'm just saying that's my man. You know, it's but it's a reason why he's still here. Yeah, he I call him the heat of Timu Martin, and then uh the honorable guy, he's a Sheen Malcolm. It's a reason why they're still here. As galvanizing as they are to their people, they have followers, but it's a reason why they're still here because they are not they're not pulling all of us, enough of us, to make a difference, to make, you know, you know, they had CIA, FBI, they had all kind of uh records on Malcolm and Martin. They they ain't worried about them. It's almost like the plan could take the hoods off because they were like, well, we we don't need these no more, you know. Uh yeah, I believe. Yeah, I I think those pe those individuals, um I have to give respect to like say for on a serious note to Sharpton because he has done a lot. He was pushing he was pushing the envelope on a lot of issues in in the black community. Uh uh Honorable Lewis Mayor, uh Minister Farrakhan. I I believe whether you're uh Muslim or not, he opened your eyes to a lot of things. He opened your mind to say, okay, he's saying this to make you go and read and research and study. I and I can say he did that for me. I'm not Muslim, but he okay, he said some things, okay. Let me go and read. Let me go and research now. So I think on that aspect, uh that was a good thing. When the Million Man March happened, uh unfortunately I couldn't I couldn't make it because of where I was stationed and wherever I I I just couldn't make it at the time. But to bring together that many brothers for a cause, I think it opened up a lot of eyes. That it did. And in this country. Uh that's why they're still here. I I think the powers, and I'm doing air quotes, the powers that be, when they saw that, they were like, uh oh. So it's it's it can happen, but I believe with everything going on, I'm I'm it's just like me. I'm sitting back, I'm taking it in, and I'm observing. I'm watching how people conduct themselves, I'm watching what is said, I'm watching how people move, and I'm just taking in information. I'm just taking in information, and I think there's a lot of people who just, okay, okay, y'all pushing. Okay, I see. You put okay, you pushing, okay, I see. Uh I think if people believe that we are going to go back to a Jim Crow type of error, I I believe they're mistaken. Uh no, uh seriously, uh I believe they're mistaken. Yeah, you're pushing these things and laws and you're trying to do your redlining, you're redrawing districts, but I believe it's gonna come to a point where if you you push somebody in a corner, they're gonna have no other choice but to fight themselves out the corner. And uh it's the birth of the civil rights movement. Yeah, I I I I believe that when it when it gets to that point, then you're gonna start to see leaders pop up. And it's not gonna be lip service. Whoever that it it can't be lip service. It's gonna be defined uh points of moving forward, and then there's gonna be action behind it. This is what needs to be done. Boom, boom, boom, boom, and then action to it. We definitely have we definitely have been showing signs of that spark. You know how when you have a flint and you strike it and you see that spark come off. Yeah, we they be oh they got it. I'm telling you, that that um target thing, that was that the Million Man Mars was the first one. You're creep you're I agree with you. Yeah, woke them up, but that they spark in the flint. Yeah, and even before eventually something's gonna catch on fire, and yeah, you're gonna have to tell us, what are you doing for us? You're not gonna just be able to sell us no more wolf tickets. What are you doing for us? Specifically, what are you doing for us? Yeah, because Democrats or the Republicans, we they been doing nothing for us, either one of them. Um we ha this country was not built for I mean, with us in mind, not the constitution, that's what none of that. None of that stuff that the Pledge of Allegiance, none of that stuff was was even made with us even as a thought. We had to Fight out, you know, worm our way in there to even make them recognize us. So the Dow Jones up and down doesn't affect us. You know, unless you're a billionaire, that don't affect us. When it's over Dow was up, that don't affect us. We've been living on the fringe since they brought us here and thriving. And that's the confusion for them. We've been thriving on the fringe. They give us the scraps, we turn it into delicacies. Not everybody eating chetlins in all malls. You know what I'm saying? Um, it's a delicate bridge. But we know what you said. Maybe I went too far. Maybe I'm not sure. Here's the better scenario. Here's the better scenario. Uh it's gonna be a person that's gonna say, hey, what are you doing for us? Yeah, no more, no more telling the audience uh something that works. We're gonna get our vote. So that day is that day definitely coming. Everybody likes our culture, but they don't like the result of the city. They don't like the culture, they like our dancing, they like our style, the dress. Uh years ago, when we were coming up, full lips wasn't a thing. Now you've seen all the they call it European lips now. Uh getting those injections. Uh it was a thing. They they talked about the woman's dare air. Now everybody is trying to do squats and thrusts in the gym just to get a dare air. So every everyone likes the culture, they love the food. I mean, they could go to the islands, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, whatever, and they love the food, but they don't love the people of the culture. Unfortunately, yeah, all all of those things, and that's unfortunate. And I'm not saying everyone, but it it when you when you look at it on a broad view, yeah, on social media, you see over in Japan, these kids hip-hop dancing and doing it well. But when it was happening initially, late 70s going into the 80s, oh, it was a bad thing. You know, it was uh it was a bad thing. I'm a great observer, I have this gift, and I pinpointed the time back when it changed for us, our community, is when the church was removed from the center of our community. The church used to be the center of our community. And when they took when they took prayer out of school, that was that chink. Um, and then and we already had they already was preaching separation of church and state and stuff like that. But when they took prayer out of school, and we started getting all these prosperity creatures uh and mega churches, and and it bastardized that what we had going on, but that was it when for especially for us, because that's where we used to go for. You get your counseling, you know, and everything. But when when when our churches were taking away now the mall and and your your car, and we done got all these other things we got away from that, in my humble opinion, is when and and then until we get back to that, we'll is the reason why the unity kind of starts to dwindle away. I would argue Yeah, I would argue it might have been before that. It might have been before that because I heard Harry Belafonte on an interview, and he he was talking to Martin after a speech, and when it looked like we were gonna look like they were gonna get integration, and he asked him, he says, and I'm paraphrasing Martin, why are you melancholy? And he said, I'm I'm afraid that I'm integrating our people into a burning house. And a lot of people like to look at his I have a dream speech, but you need to look at his speeches the last two years of his life and his thinking had almost switched. Not that he didn't believe in people coming together, but my my uh I'll say this my brother-in-law, we were having a discussion. He said integration was one of the worst things that happened with black people. I was like, what are you talking about with integration? We got to go to colleges and this and that and this. And he and he came from this one point. When you had to go to a hotel, you had to go where? To a black hotel. If you had to go and get your groceries, you had to go where? To the black grocer. If you needed ice, you had to go to the brother or the sister. If you needed laundry done, you had to go to the sister. So what we all talk about, like the Jewish community, where they have their dollars circulating throughout their community, that circulation of our dollars stopped. So a perfect example is Tulsa, Oklahoma, it's Wilmington, North Carolina, O'Callow, Florida. These communities that were striving and growing, they were they had a uh a financial awakening and reckoning within their community. And I'm not saying there was nothing good because we we continued our conversation about us coming together, but imagine this. A typical university winning national championship, I believe the number I hear is between 40 to 60 million dollars that's going into a university. Can you imagine if the top talents went to HBCUs? Can you imagine those teams from the the late 70s, the 80s, the 90s of the University of Miami, if they would have gone to FAMU, if they would have gone to Southern, if they would have gone to Alabama State, all that money that would have been flowing into these universities, what how the landscape would change? That's a big thing. The Jackson State, look what happened to with Dion when he went to Colorado. 18 million a weekend flowed into that community. And Boulder, if you ever ever been, don't need that money. They don't need it. But that's the effect that we could have. And I think going back to the beginning, if you said if we came together, look at the effect that could happen. We're starting to recognize our economic power. Yeah. So let me let me just say, I think um uh that I think both made some very good points.

Unity Versus Uniform And A Biblical View

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I'm gonna say the answer to the question is not until. It's not a yes or a no, but it's a not until. And I'm a believer. And I believe the answer is there will be no unity in our community until Jesus returns. Period. Period. There's no there's no because Yeshua. Well, here's the thing. Yeah, there we go. And until until he returns, because you can look to the beginning of time, and I and I challenge you to look. I mean, you you mentioned some times where there might have been some unity here and there, but I challenge you to give me a time in the history of people where there was ever unity. Period. I challenge you to do that since the beginning. Tell me, show me, show me where that where that ever happened. And I'll tell you that the first unity was when Adam Adam and Eve had unity with God. They broke that. Okay. Right? They broke that. And there hasn't been unity since in any perspective. In fact, the Bible even teaches um in the book of Isaiah, it talks about how it it prophesies about Jesus' return. Um and talks about how nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore when he returns. Well, now obviously this is the old testament, so they didn't say Jesus, but you know, that that's the point. They were prophesying um the return. And just the history of the world teaches us that it has never ever happened anywhere. We had some great communities, yes, where communities were thriving, but I challenge you to show me within that community that it was totally unified. Right? I I challenge you to show me even that the the leaders that you guys mentioned, right? Malcolm, Martin, there was great strife within their organizations, even though they were the faces, supposedly, of people, like a group of people. Why is Malcolm no longer here? Because there was no unity in that in that movement. Now I will say regarding Reverend Al, right, and and Minister Farrakhan, y'all gonna back up off on him. I'm a boy. I I'm gonna back up off that's registered. Let's see. I was just talking about the galvanization of that, you know. But understand that the the great work that Reverend Al does with the National Action Network to this day is is crucial to the communities where he's active. Right. As far as the Nation of Islam, this it goes without saying, you know, that um for the hundreds of thousands of members that they have, they have given them, you know, purpose and guidelines. And I would argue that um that is a very positive thing in whatever community that they're operating in. Um now, I don't necessarily agree with all the teachings, but I will say that, you know, his teachings have evolved over the the decades that I've been aware of him. And so but, you know, I just had to tell toss that in there, man. You ain't gonna talk about Revenir, man. Come on now. Anyway, no, but but as veterans, think about this. Even the military, right? We know that there's the military has a way of showing you that there is a difference between unity and uniform two different things. Right. And read you being a first sergeant, former. I'd wager that there wasn't always unity in your unit. Right? Right? I mean, but but you were the leader. And what I'm saying is that that I don't think that the only leader that's going to bring unity is Jesus when he returns. There is no there is no man that will bring unity to the community. Yes, the million man march was great. However, Jokers was boxing at the Million Man March. Don't get it twisted. Right. They was off to the side having issues. You know what I mean? I mean, no, gentlemen, I gotta I gotta bounce. Okay, understood. I appreciate it. Bag about back about Reverend Al. Back about No, but but even the military, right, teaches us that um like a lot of communities have forgotten that people who would think about think about the the uh the people that make up the military. People who would never naturally choose each other can still become family when they share sacrifice, when they share mission, when they share purpose. Yeah. Right? And so these are some of the things that you guys mentioned. The issue though is that we all have uh different value systems, therefore, um I may not be willing to sacrifice over something you may be willing to sacrifice over because our value systems are different. I may not be with a mission that you're down with, you know. Um but the military makes you come together on those things. Outside of the military, though, and just in our communities, that really doesn't exist. Um it would be nice, but I have a tendency to believe, I don't know, I won't say a tendency, I'm a sh I have a I'm a strong believer in God's word. And right now, that's the only evidence I see that unity will ever return, and that's when he returns, because as I said, it was broken way back when. And now um here we are. Here we are, and we it won't it won't, in my opinion, it won't happen. That that is a great perspective, and I will have to agree with you, yeah. Um I would have to agree with you. I I believe uh all those points you just made are very valid. And I I I think you're right. I think you're right. Uh well, yeah, and think think about this. We we have a tendency to think about you know, questions like that from the perspective, even when we talk about that video, I wish I knew the brother's name. Um, because I would I would shout him out. But um he is a native of a country in Africa. So from his perspective, the only people he unifies with is those of his tribe. If I'm not mistaken, it was Nigeria, Igbu Igbu tribe, right? Um from what he was saying. Those is who that's who he has unity with. They're kickboxing with other tribes in the same country in Africa. Yeah. There's no unity there. Yeah. He comes to the United States, a brother then says to him, calls him brother, and he can't relate. Uh, what brother? You know, we're not in the same tribe. We have nothing in common. Now, what you're doing over here is admirable, you know, how he mentioned Pan-Africanism being a joke. Yes. Because, you know, even when you mentioned a minute ago, yeah, let's take all this stuff and we'll leave. We'll take all of our contributions and we'll go, we'll go back. But where would you go, brother, when you get over there? You know, like which because you don't have a tie to that that area. Yeah, so it's but and the reason why I said that is because yeah, you might be from a a particular tribe. Uh you come from one area, I come from an area, but the world looks at us as black. Whether you're from Africa, whether you're from Asia, whether whether you're from America, they they all they've seen is this. They're not looking at your pers specific country or your uh tribe or your culture. They're just listening black. That's all they've seen. The world. And that's unfortunate. That's unfortunate. It is, but it is. But that but that was a great perspective. I I like that perspective. You you you are 100% correct. Uh you are 100% correct, D Rose, uh, until Christ uh comes back. Yeah, that unity will not be there. Uh and and I I just see it getting more and more uh pulled apart. Yeah, I I think there was something that happened this past week in the the New York Giants organization where uh Jackson Dart, the quarterback and their running back, uh had differences as far as who they support. Apparently, this Jackson Dart, he supports Trump. And uh I I've I'm a miss that I don't remember the brother's uh name. Uh but he he stood on on his belief system and what he he believed. And yeah, so well and and you know we talk about you know the the what the word says about these things. Yes and it and it says even like before he returns um about the conflict that will be taking place, even in the New Testament. Yeah, let me see that brother's name, Abdul Carter. Abdul Carter, okay. Yeah, Abdul Carter. I remember the story. I remember the story. Yeah. Um But as I was saying, the the the book of Matthew talks about how you know you will hear you'll hear about wars, rumors rumors of wars, um nations will rise against nation, kingdoms against kingdoms, all these things are gonna be happening right before he comes back. And while this is not about um, you know a topic of of end of days or anything like that, the point is that the Bible is a guide, and when it comes to unity, we can hope for it, and we I think it's worth working towards it's just that there are too many things that divide us that to to overcome, and the best we can do is unify under God, meaning You know, Reggie talked about how his observation was that things just went south when they took prayer out of school. And I think if I'm not mistaken, that happened in the 70s. Because I remember I remember being in like elementary school and something happened and something changed. If I if I'm not mistaken, and and you made a good point, perhaps it happened before then. Yeah. Um yes, it happened way way before then, thousands of years before then. And I I think that if we were to just if we were to refer to our community as just the black community, just if we just kept it right there for a second. The black community, you know, lost sight of it's God. Um a long time ago. And when you talk, you know, just just look at biblical history, idolatry and all these things came into the mix. Um God tried to give us the blueprint. Here's what you need to do. Not only your commandments, your laws, these things that and things you know we that you that you ought to follow, but it wasn't black and white. Right? It was believers versus not. And then things happened to where all of a sudden, like you said, this became important for some reason. And you know, things just went the way that they went. But you know, I hate to to you know, I I don't know if I'm right or wrong. I gave you my perspective on it. Um I would hope that, you know, everybody hopes that um everybody hopes that, you know, unity is something that we can achieve, but I just I don't see any evidence of it ever happening before or it happening again until until. Until That's just my opinion on it. I I think that's a great point and great opinion. Uh and I will have to definitely agree with you on that. Because even in the church, uh I think King said uh Sunday is one of the most segregated times in this country. And it still is today. And I I believe uh in lieu of what's been happening for the last probably twenty years I've seen the the pull the pulling apart of even Christians, whether they black, white, and I hate to put a label on it, but it is what it is. Uh and it's unfortunate, man. It's unfortunate. So yeah, very, very but um okay.

Final Thoughts And Keep Learning

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There we have it. Um I appreciate the conversation. I appreciate you uh sharing your perspective. Again, y'all gonna get off of Rebenail, man. Y'all gonna get off. Oh Greg wasn't on Rebe now. It wasn't Greg. I'm the one who who pointed out it wasn't Greg. Reggie won't have to take Reggie gonna have to take that that that round right there. Yeah, he's gonna have to take that. Take that out, man, because Rebendale, that's my man. But um, yeah. All right, and and I I could say Farrakhan has definitely uh made me read more. Oh, absolutely. So uh I I will never uh uh you could you could draw a lot from folks. Um no one's perfect, but you could always draw something from from people I always see, yeah. Yeah, you you you know, one thing you can't argue with is is the logic, right? He he breaks things down and that sort of thing. I'm you know, I won't get into why I disagree. It's neither here nor there, but there's some things that he he says that I disagree with, and there's certain things that I mean overall um a religious perspective that I don't I don't agree with, but yes, um, but socially I you know I'm in lockstep. Yeah, he's very consistent. 60, 60 some years, 70 some years. Hey man, you can't look. There's a lot of experience there, you can't knock that. So all right, brother. I think uh we'll go ahead and wrap this up. Uh is there any other final thoughts that you wanna share before we uh depart? Uh just keep educating yourself, keep reading, keep reading, keep reading. Amen. Amen. I appreciate it, and as always, brother. I appreciate you. Yeah, always, as always, uh again, may God bless you, may God keep you. Thank you, and may God continue to be with you, brother. You too. I appreciate you, man. Yeah.