The Other Page Radio

0:00This is the first time I've ever done this before, so I'm going to show you how to do it. Hey, you welcome everybody WBCL P102.9 FM Boston Boston's community radio station. This is the other page radio and my name is Haywood Fennel. I'm a veteran. This program is sponsored by Triad Veterans League and we are in the community to hear what you have to say so we can say what we have to say in the day. We have a man that's here from a historic society that's been around that society has

1:02been around over 70 years. We got brother Bill Singleton here today, but it's Bill, how are you doing? I'm doing very well. How are you doing? Good, good, good. We just want our audience to know who you are and what you are doing in the community and why are you here? Well, the short story is when I graduated from college I came to this area because there was a black church here. I started a magazine called Black History is No Mystery and June 2nd, 1996, 1990. I've been around here as a publisher and as a filmmaker and as a landlord here, but I remember trying to find a place to rent and it was very difficult and then I joined several organizations of which I'm proud to be a community helper and president of United Neighbors of Lower Roxbury which in the 1970s stopped the highway from destroying much of the Roxbury and South of the area and I'm part of Ward 9 and D7.

2:09Okay, so let me let me let me see if I got it all right what you said, Bill. You came here from college, what college did you come from? Harvey University. Of course, the bridge. Yeah, of course. Oh, yes, I did. Okay. Good. And you had a magazine called it's called it still is black history is no mystery. Okay. You can get it online. All right. BKHOnline.com B is in Bravo, K is in Kennedy and H is in history. So BKH is still going on. Oh, yes, it is. How long has it been going on since 1990? June 6, 1996, no, 1990, June 6 of 1990, 1990, that's the last century. I know. Wow. That's great, man. That's great. And Bill, you said that one of the situations that you had, what's getting housed in

3:12a room? Oh, yes, that was that was the most desperate situation. You see, I have a lot of books and I'm very fond of them and I had this envisioning of where I'd get kicked out and all my books would be on the street and I couldn't stop people from taking them because I had nowhere to keep them. So I was very afraid of being homeless and very afraid of not being able to pay the rent at the time, which was I think 550 or 650. And that was a challenge back then. And then I discovered that the only way to stop gentrification. The only way you saw, yes, right, the only way that I saw was to own something so that they I didn't have to move and to maintain it and to be able to pass it on to the next generation of people in my family. So I had a real, I guess, a vision, I guess a intensity to want to make sure that I could secure my self-determination, my ownership and that was that mass avenue and tree mud.

4:18And so I moved over to Hammond Street where a great person's leader in my mind is Mr. Bill Dukes and Rudy Waker. These two men didn't talk much, but they did a great deal. They didn't talk a lot, though? No. They did work. They did work. And people don't talk a lot, but they don't do nothing. That's right. So I'm not too sure I should be on this show. Well, I want to, first of all, commend you for your endurance, your stamina, if you will, because I know a little history about this town. And I see that there aren't that many people that take action like you did. It's all seemingly one individual as opposed to the collective. Now the organization that you were part of, that you spoke about earlier, tell us a little

5:21bit about that. I didn't want to be anything involved with that. But when I saw that what Gretchen Jackson, who was a radio, I think she was the first Black radio show hostess in Boston back in the 30s and 40s. She had this idea to own that land at 90 Winsor Street. She was known for when she was on a radio show, she took her sponsors with her. So if they wanted to fire her, they'd have to fire the sponsors. She started a lot, that's my move. Now her husband was a pharmacist and she was able to secure some property near where 90 Winsor is. And she was, for many years, for many years, when she was the heart and soul of the United Neighbors, a little Roxbury, but the group was formed to make sure United Neighbors, neighbors

6:21of little Roxbury. That is right. I want to say that again. United Neighbors of law of Roxbury, and solution in action-driven organization. Would that be a simple way of putting it? It's better than I could have put it. Okay, go ahead. Well, they at that time wanted to make sure they could stay in the city, that they could help people within their neighborhoods, and they could go for political rights that they had to for it had not achieved. Now the formation that I became a part of in early 2000s was they were about to lose the land, and they were taxes on it because people had died, moved away, or lost interest. And we realized this land had been dedicated to us. And so, Nina Little Nagra, Ricardo Lewis, Chatea Williams, and Andrew there, and others

7:29got together with Natalka Creighton, and Aziza Goodnight, and Tamiko Williams. And many other people that are probably feeling to name them all, but we got together and secured that land from the city, and secured the nonprofit back, and got the $100,000 taken off of it, and got a developer that's willing to work with us, not own it, but to develop it, and that's Cameron Zaheed. So we were dedicated to making sure that the work that Gretchen Jackson and others had done was to secure that property forever, and if that land would be our land and no one else's forever. And that's what it is. And that's what it is right now. We're in the development stage, but more importantly, where exactly is this land? Okay, you know where many of cash is? Huh? Melnia, cash. Yeah. And FEMA. But many of cash and FEMA.

8:31They intersect. If you look over there, you'll see what is a church now. It looks like an abandoned church. There's also a garden there. And that is United Nations of Laura Roxbury, Garden, and the city is blessed with giving us a grant that it developed there. Melnia, cash and FEMA. Right. It's right there about it. It's a physical church. Yeah, it's very, you know, you saw it. Yeah. Yeah. And it's right across the street from there. Yeah. It's right across the street. If you look a little bit there, you see a church. I know what you're talking about because when you get ready. There's a big Roxbury building there. Right. Roxy homes. Yeah, Roxy homes. And just behind Roxy homes, you'll see it. Okay. So that land right there is the land you're talking about. That's right. That's what you get ready to develop that land. Or we're developing it already. You're developing it already. Right.

9:31And that's in District 7. That's District 7. All right. Okay. Now let me try to help you help our listeners. Okay. We're talking about some land that's being developed by black people. And you call some names and I know some names of those people. And I know they're activists, you know. And I think I'm glad you came because my listeners need to know about that. The symbolism is needed because we're thinking we don't own anything. We're thinking that we should have more but we don't know how to get it built. We don't know how to get it. Everybody can come from different countries and build five story buildings in Delhi. And we can't, I don't see anybody in the numbers that should be so that we can become inspirational

10:36and have a guiding point for our people so that we can become owners of property. We don't have that until you came in and told me that I didn't even know about that. And I thought I was in the community, man. I didn't know about your, what have I started here? No, no, no. I didn't know about your online, your online magazine. I'm a journalist. I have a radio show, TV show, and I write. Oh wow. You know about our community. I'm a veteran. Amen. Well, thank you for your service, buddy. But I want to try to get a more cohesive understanding of what we are working with. Because it seems as though we're going in the wrong direction. We should be going into the direction that you're going in.

11:39Doing some of the things, learning to do some of the things that you've done. You know, we're going to go and weigh out some plates. And I went to Austin a couple of days ago. I was out in Austin, Bill. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And folks, by the way, this is the other page radio program. I brought to you by Triad Veterans today. I guess today there's a man about the community, Bill Singleton. But I'm trying to make a point here. And we're at WBCL P102.9 FM Boston. We're going to talk about a few things because they need to be spoken about. I was in Austin. And I looked at what was happening in Austin in terms of land development. Where all the structures that were there were torn down.

12:39Big, big empty spaces square block, empty spaces over there by the Volvo place. Going towards new balance. I know where that is. Okay. I said to myself, this is construction coming up. They're going to build something here. How do we know about it? Who knows about it from Roxbury? They might need a job. I don't think anybody knows about the building that's going on all over the city. They don't even know about the organization and the numbers that they should that you are part of. We don't know how to talk about each other in a positive way. And do things together. And I just want to say how grateful I am for you to be here today.

13:43Because if anything, we need to learn how to inspire each other. There's a big absence of that. Not achieving and believing. If you can't believe, you can't achieve. You've been involved in many different things that bring people together. I didn't even know about you by design. And I'm supposed to know about you. I see all these other people talking and walking. You know, just talking and talking and doing the work. We have now a Franklin school on the corner of Harrison and Houston Street by the goodwill store.

14:47Now Franklin was a school downtown and they sold their building downtown. And came up in the Roxbury and bought that property on the corner. And they called it Franklin and something else they had. Somebody else named that might have been another few million. You know, when you name buildings after people that's rich. My problem is that we need to understand that nobody's going to give us anything. Nobody is coming to save us. We got to save ourselves. We got land on the corner of Marlena Castle and Tremont Street owned by people that worked hard. And we don't know about that. We don't have any examples. Certainly we can't point at a Russian owned building in Dudley station across from the where the buses come out.

15:49Five story building. We have to understand what work is as opposed to just looking at it, letting it happen. We don't even own a hot dog stand. I'm just saying. Look man, look, you can't have political power if you don't have economic power. I think this is very important. And the solution is, come on now. First of all, find those within your sphere of influence. People you know, your mother, your father, your sister, your cousin, your uncle. Conduct yourself morally by morally, I mean treating people the way you want to be treated. So you don't cheat someone out of their money or not paying back on time. Once you establish a moral connection, then you can establish the economics behind it,

16:52which right down the street is Jackson Skrythers, a place called NACA. And NACA will give you with no down payment, the opportunity to own your first property. Notice I didn't say home. I didn't say condos or two families. Now, in the turn of the century, we built ourselves out of this and created many owners. People who had four families constructed. They lived in one, did their business in the second one. And they read it out to two other tenants in the top two. This was an economic engine that propelled many that came from the south end into the ranks of the wealthy. We know how to create wealth in this country. There's a documentary called Segregated by Design. A good friend of mine, London Parker, and his mother, Lolita Parker, Jr. I want mine to have claims with, made me aware of this 15 minute or 17 minute documentary detailing the ravages of the housing program, which devastated black communities,

17:56but enriched white communities after people came home from the World War II. Okay, so let me just say this here because I know you got to cut out. I want to invite you to stay a little longer because I like you. Yeah, you know, because it's really important that we get this message out, man, where the resources are and where the sources are to begin, you know, becoming property owners. And notice that I didn't say home owners, you know, because when I saw that situation over in Austin, I said to myself, man, now this is development. You mean Porter Square? I used to live in Porter Square. No, not Porter Square. I'm over there about new balance. Oh, yeah, new balance. Yes. You did mention it. But now Porter Square is equally, and perhaps is more dynamically developed than even where the car company is. I know where you speak of, because if you go to Porter Square, you're parking is free.

18:56Parking is free, see? However, there's someone that gets paid to maintain the parking lot. Then you have your pharmacy there. You have your exercise place there. You have a hardware store place there. You have a star market there. A manure bread. A bin in Jerry's. And a dunk in donuts. And bookstore and a Vietnamese restaurant. You know, what I just want to say is, so, so, so we don't have to do too much reimagining of somewhere like P3. P3 was, was a, a, a, a, a remit made after the highway destroyed all the housing over there. Which we were a part of. 2,500 homes were destroyed. And they said, okay, we're going to do, give it back to the 500 homes. 2,500 black homes. There are people of color homes, black people's homes. And they came over and said, okay, we're going to give the land back to you, the community, and it's for economic development. But I don't think a net, a, a, a bootless structure, post-modern structure like a school,

19:59is economic development. That is not developing anything except contractors enrichment. So this is not the answer. We need to re-imagine P3 as a place you can get your coffee, do some exercising, meet people, feel secure, get your groceries, get your hardware stores. Black communities deserve the same thing as people in, um, port of square or in, um, where am I talking about? Newberry street or in, um, summerville. They deserve the same kind of upscale places that are owned in a large majority. See, you know what I was talking about, what you was talking about. And I went to school, I went to school, you know, it was good. And so I was in, uh, uh, urban planning. Okay, great. And I know, I know what you're saying.

20:59Yeah. Now, just to reflect, folks, just listen to what he just said, and just think of what you're seeing. Okay. You got, uh, pharmaceutical companies that come into our community and leave when they want to leave. Yeah. Walgreens. Yeah. You know, so why is that? We're not worthy. You understand? You got, uh, places going up in the food market. And you still paying for the food, but you got the food stamps, you know, and the other programs that furnished you this, folks, let's get ready to go. Right. So we need to find some land. And we need to understand what urban agriculture is all about. Well, you know, um, we have the land at P3.

22:00Yeah. We have some land that is public now, which is white stadium. They want to privatize it and limit the access to the people in the community. I don't think that is fair. If you're going to say that $43 million is given to people of color, ask yourself this. How many black people got contracts? And do they equal more than a million dollars? I have heard it said that one company wanted to deal with a company called Bond. And they said, that's too much money for a black person to get. As if black people should get less than what white people get for doing work. Well, you know, and so we have these issues, but we have the land for now. We got to like, we got to like realize. You know, like I was saying, you know, talking and barking. We don't have no business. Now, where is white stadium located at? Um, it's over in your blue avenue there.

23:02And, um, I just feel that. See? And then, and then the reason why I'm asking you that is because we have not organized the group by going in the wrong direction. We have not organized to take that property and do what we know we need to do. We haven't taken anything. Well, I think that we have some assets. And I think that some of us are taking steps. It is tough for us. Oh, yeah. Some of us are taking steps. It's tough to organize. I'm a part of V7 and Ward 9. It's tough to get us in a room on the Saturday or anytime. But if we are committed to, we have the faith of our forefathers and foremothers. Uh-oh. If we did what Mary and Barry did to reimagine Washington DC, he was an urban planner too. I don't think you know this. Yeah. And he did quite well organizing DC because after he left, it was not a sleepy town anymore. We, we, we, we, we need to know about you and your work.

24:06Because let me just say something, right? About district seven. Let me tell you something. Mm-hmm. You probably already know this, right? I'm not too sure. Okay. We got a lot of young kids here. And they was going over there to the blank zone on Saturdays. And then all of a sudden, they closed it down because of the budget. Mm-hmm. So senior activities, youth activities. They don't exist on Saturdays in the south end because of budget. Whose budget? Why would you take away? And that adds to the negative because kids are going to be kids. And some of them are going to have their own behaviors and they're going to go to jail. And seniors used to go there on Saturdays from the sinners to get exercises going swimming and all of that.

25:15Well, I think that the solution is you and me having enough faith in ourselves to organize, even if it's two or three of us, to get together every Saturday and to that promise of, get there every Sunday praying if you go to church or mosque or to other religion institutions. But it's also a concrete goal. Right. No more than three things that year. And we want to say we want the blackstone open. And let's say by next year the blackstone will be open because we did X, Y and Z. And so first of all, we encourage people to join any civic organization you feel comfortable with. But have a clear goal in mind to be self-determined. Clear goal. Okay. Yeah. I mean, if we want that school open, let's go to the power and say, open it please. You have a budget. As John Kennedy said long ago, we can be as big as we need to be to solve the problems that are. And as Dr. King said, the time is always right to do the right thing.

26:19Yeah. See, Dr. King knew what he was talking about. Right. And to me, his greatest speech was March on Montgomery, Alabama, where he said, I'm watching your mighty armies will not dissuade us. Like, release of our want and kill us will not deter us. The murdering of our children will not dissuade us. We are like an idiot whose time has come. Be right back. We got Bill Simpson here talking and telling the truth. We'll be right back. This is the other page radio program brought to you by Triad Veterans League. WBCLP102.9. We need to say, again, that veterans are an overlooked and underused community resource. Folks, I just want to remind you that on March 28th at the Cambridge Region Latin High School, that they ask them to show family theater program company will be performing two times. At 130 and 530, the Harlem Renaissance revisited with a gospel favor with stages

27:21as one of the collaborates for this Greek production that defines the Harlem Renaissance ancestors and what they went through. It's a real, real good family presentation. T-H-E-O-M-T-C.com. T-H-E-O-M-T-C.com is the website and you get all the information you want. We certainly hope that you will come out because we want you to appreciate a full theater production, and costuming, light design, set design, referring to our performance, gospel, opera, arrears, and spirituals with spoken words. Now, I don't know if you've seen stages S.C.A.J. Z. Arts Center perform lately on March 28th at Cambridge Region Latin School.

28:28It is for you, about you, and what we had to do to organize a movement that has embraced even today's hip hop, the Harlem Renaissance era. It is very good, and we're looking forward to seeing you on March 28th at 1.30 or 5.30. Back when I would guess Bill Singleton, Bill had to get that commercial PSA's in. Oh, I love that. Yeah. On magazine, Black History Magazine published the Dr. David Levering-Lewis' when Harlem was in vote and dealing with Harlem Renaissance, people like Alan Locke and, you know, Langston Hughes. Over in Harlem, at your school. Oh, at my school. At my school, huh? Yeah. He was there. He graduated from Harvard. Well, you know, Carter G. Woodson graduated from there, and he started Black History.

29:30Yeah, he did. And so that was the first magazine that was dedicated to Dr. Carter G. Woodson. Yeah. But I wanted to speak to your guess about something that's now. And what's important for people hearing us is that they have the power within them to change things. They are the lever behind the ship. Just any action you can do. Don't do what you can't do. But you can do this. If I can do it, I'm pretty sure that whatever God has given you to do, you're able to do it. You have to have enough faith in yourself. And work with teams. It's important to learn to unite and conquer. Not to divide. Yeah, divide and get conquered. We want to unite and get conquered. Right. See that's what happened. Right. And we don't have time for that. Yeah. So get rid of all these petty stuff. We need to come together, people, and practice learning how to come into agreement with each other. Because that is the beginning of political power.

30:30It's the beginning of power with cooperation. Why do you think corporations make so much money? A few people agree on how to make money, and then they make lots of money. So we need to learn how the corporations do it. But more importantly, how our community cooperates with itself can help the needs that we really need. We don't nest just need jobs. Or the hot dogs that you're talking about. We don't nest deep contracts like over white, straight, and they need to get integrated properly and stop using people of color and say how many black people get in stuff. But we also need ownership and to cooperate how we create a ownership model. Like, you know, that will allow for your children for you to have a building. To grow. To grow. There you go. Yeah, do you know it folks? It's very simple. You know, when you go on the ring to fight, you don't go on the ring with a finger. No, no, no. You're going to ring with a fist. Yes, sir. But when we become a fist as opposed to a finger, we have the impact to knock some stuff out.

31:37That's it. And so when you come on this program and you share what you just shared, we expect our listeners to take down names, take down numbers, and remember. This is no bloody, dirty situation that we're talking about. We're talking about the survival of our people and how it has to be done. We got to be at the table, not on the table. We got to own things for ourselves. And that's our dreams and our aspirations. Because if you don't have a dream, you can't plan. And if you can't plan, you out the pan. That's absolutely right. That's absolutely right. You have to not only plan, but act and do and believe. And you know what? I want to challenge the people today.

32:37If they want to be leaders, come with us and help us build. That's what we're talking about. Yeah. Let's build over there at 90 wins or so. Come with us unless an act of a change in P3 where a black ownership is truly appreciated and that they're not just given a second-handy thing. Let's figure out one thing that we can do to make our little community better. And then that, for instance, in my community, there was someone that was homeless. We gave them a basement to stand on. They didn't stay there for long, but at least they didn't get frostbite. That's doing something that you can do within your reach. You are powerful people. You've been here since 1526. People don't realize that the first documented account of black slaves being in the United States was in 1526 in what is known as South Carolina now. And they had a revolt there, 1526. And for the next 100 years, the black people there were free. And then 1619K. So if those people can do it back then, we can do it right now.

33:38And I challenge you if you want to work with UNL or if you want to work with P3 issues, or work with the bus lane that's coming down the Blue Lab new, or deal with advocating for contract integration at White Stadium. You can reach out to me and others and Hayward and see what you can do. Young people need to get involved with it. And one of the things we really need to do is not how to speak to young people and give them the power and open up the gates so that they're just not left out there. Mrs. Hamilton helped me. She ran Franklin Press or something. When I first came here, her husband was a football player, I believe. And she took me around to the people and introduced me to people. That's how I got Mr. Duke's help me for real. He's a black man from Virginia who was up here. And he owned 100 buildings in the South now. He owned really way. A hundred buildings. A hundred buildings. And it is because of him that they have habitat for humanity and the city here.

34:38Because he would train young people to fix up those buildings in the South end. They took the program, the Jimmy Carter. And they laid on Jimmy Carter made a habitat for him. But it was too black man who had worked in World War II. That developed many of the, much of the stuff in the South end. And because people didn't follow up, you know, didn't keep their property, they just said, we'll have to sell to whoever. But I'm advising you to keep what you own. And give it to your next generation. Two generations from now. Folks, I've got to say so. I've got to interrupt my brother because he's giving it up real good. You know, he's talking about, I don't know if y'all heard it. I'm out, you know, being free when we came over here and living in South Carolina and doing things and overcoming things and whatnot. And that's the type of mindset that we have to have today. What's the joint number? You got a number for us? A 1526.

35:38And we were from Spain. It was a... I bear you. Well, yeah, I bear you. And he came over here in a slave colony. We were in the creative slave colony and what is known as South Carolina. If you were to type in the Wikipedia 1526 slave revolt, which was not really a slave revolt, it was actually a revolt for captive people. And they destroyed the colony and they were free for the next 100 years and so forth. And so that is the first account of black people being in what is known as the United States. Yet that account is not account for because in that account, you are successful at overthrowing your captives. In the 1690 understanding, these people remain slaves of their lives. At least that's what I know of it. So we can emulate the first one where we actually docked off the captives, the power of us, and we were maintaining that freedom for a long time. We got to be free in order to be me.

36:40You know, I did some time, you know, when I say time, you know, because I talk about myself. That's our right man. We are going time. And that's what I'm giving you to say. That's exactly what I'm giving you to say. I go over that to the jails, you know, some time and I speak to them young men. And I tell them how good they look, man, you know, they've got the hair all rolled up and lifting up the water buckets, you know, getting the muscles off straight now in the skin, you know, trying to look like mine, you know, but let me tell you something, right? If you think that you're going to come back out here in our community and not come to help us, you need to tell the sheriff that you need to be in there a little longer, because we need strong men and women.

37:41That's not going to allow their mistakes to dictate their future. You don't have to be the same, but you've got to change your thinking. You go to the store and buy a roll of toilet paper. And I tell those guys, when I speak with them, notice I say with them and not to them, I say, the way here to see you, I stopped up in the supermarket and bought four rolls of toilet paper for $6,000 in change. So they look at me and want to know to themselves, why am I talking about toilet paper? In jail, you have toilet paper, but you can only get it when you run out.

38:42When you run out of toilet paper, you've got to ask the officer to bring you or send you some more toilet paper. He'll say, what cell are you in? And you will say, what cell are you in? And he won't say, okay, there'll be silence. And two hours later, you're still waiting for toilet paper. Understand the analogy of waiting for toilet paper and buying toilet paper. You got a choice when you're incarcerated to come out here and throw down the right way and not be caught up in that reentry process where you come out and have no duration, don't know how to ask for help, or some other silly stuff and go right back to jail. Is that reentry?

39:43I mentioned the question. You know what, I'm going to tell you something. If you want more humane human beings, you must have a more humane society. And so my brothers in prison, my sisters in prison, understand this. This was set up to make money. And when you obliged them by doing something that they can make money at, you're putting yourself at risk and you're making those that want to make money off you being enslaved or designing for you. So my best strategy, if I should be so bold as to suggest something to you guys, is work with people that can get you a shop. Get some, put some help. Work with people that can be on your team to put you up. I'm dealing with a brother now that has an ankle bracelet and he comes by every two or three days and I said, I'm not going to pay you a whole lot but I'm going to train you a whole lot how to be self independent. Now I do pay him something because I need to know you need money. And these halfway houses don't have a lot of jobs for you. But presentation and activation,

40:43and it's important and a strategy for your success once you're out of this prison. Everybody in this country, who's black from Sofia, going to jail, look at Dr. King of Malcolm X, they're both went to jail. So what makes you think you and I might not go there. So this is not the problem. The problem is, I'm looking at your past. I'm looking at right now. What can we do now? Forget what you did. That's gone. It's dead. I don't want to hear about it. I want to hear about what you can do now. Right. For the service people in this country. And we need you, just like you win wars for the United States. You can win wars. And what they call the getty. But they call it the getter. I call it the getty. Because everybody in the world comes here to get rich. Right. And we're here already. So why aren't we rich? Uh-oh. So the reason is, is someone has to come along like a Paul Rivera figure of Malcolm X and say, hey, it's time to change this stuff. Right. It's time for us to own something. Right. It's time for us to have something. Right. In a nation full of shopkeepers, if you do not have a shop, you are at risk.

41:44This nation employs 70% of the people who work in it. From shops. Not big business. Not excellent. Not mobile. Not all these places. From shops. And if you don't have a shop, who you think they're going to employ? You or their cousin. They're worthless cousin. Who you think they're going to employ? They're going to employ their relatives. They're going to employ their friends. Like they do. And this is what I'm getting at. So we need to create the shops. The Marshall Plan can help a war-torm Europe. Why don't they just take the Marshall Plan and apply it to Rocksbury? Right. It'll be the same plan. Yeah. Why don't they just take, um, you know, put it square. That makes things put it over here. Have some black and white and yellow. You're saying it good, man. You're saying it right, though. We're not asking for anything different. We're demanding it, too. Like Frederick Douglass. We're not going to ask him what we are going to ask him. We're going to vote. We're going to organize. We're going to make people conscious. And we're going to, uh, the councilman Anderson had a wonderful book she created called,

42:44a handbook. I don't think she gets enough credit for putting it together. It shows you how to interact with your city government. And I hope I'm not speaking out of turn, but I want to ask my friends at D7 if we can share that handbook to people in this community because it gets to the nitty gritty of how the city works and how you can make it work for you, whether it's getting assistance to buy your first time home. And I'm going to tell you something right now. People out there, they're looking for their first time home. Please understand this by the four family folks. The government's going to make you rich once. That's the first time you buy a home. So three percent of a million dollars is $30,000. You may not have. I mean, I don't know many people that have that, right? Right. But you might have $3,000. And if you can't get $3,000, you might know someone and put that package together for you. For $3,000, you can get yourself a million dollar home because the government's going to give you 3% down payment. This is wealth. And once you get that in your thing and keep it for three years,

43:44you can put it in your trust and pass it on to your next generation. The reason we are poor is because we are poor. The reason we are poor is because we have not been taught to pass on what we have to our next generation. And we do not surrender up the rings of power early enough. Early enough. 25, 24. I mean, I want to give it to someone that's 25, 24, so they can listen to us and learn the moral things that we have to do to maintain the property that we want to pass on to the next generation. You can do this people. Please understand this. And from the servicemen to our brothers and sisters in the prison system, you don't have to be lightweight. You can definitely make choices to change. And we want to be there to help you do it. Well, folks, I'm going to tell you something. We're wrapping down now. You know, it's been a real good time, a real good share of information. But, you know, sharing information and talking and talking is not what you heard today. What you heard today was a man that's been doing the work for quite some time.

44:45And he's advising you, you know, that don't sell your dream. No, sir. No. Don't sell your dream, man. Let's get together. All right. Let's pray to stay, you know, and understand that we're going the wrong direction. We have no plan, so we're at risk at our own comfort. So, support the name of your company again? Well, my personal company is Crest Films and Real Estate. Now, the civic organization that I lead up is the nonprofit there that we want to help people get their own homes who want to keep the building up. It's United Neighbors of Low Rocksbury. United Neighbors is Low Rocksbury. There's some forceful right there. It is. You know, because of the time that you've been there

45:46and the things that you've gone through to remain. Well, we're just part of the solution there. That's what I'm saying. You know, you didn't capitulate to it ever. All the stuff. Never. Right. Veterans need help. I'm going to have a conversation with several people including Brian Walred. You know, he's talking about bringing historic black college concept to Rocksbury at Rocksbury Community College. And I'm talking about bringing construction engineering equipment to Rocksbury Community College because our young people need to know how to work those machines. That's fine. And when they learn how to work those machines and we be able to spare an organization that will be able to lease those machines,

46:48not own them because if you lease them, then that means that the people that are leasing will have a mechanic in place to do the necessary check-in and prevention. And we can learn how to use those machines and build ourselves so that we can bid for those contracts. Yes, we do. We do need that. Rocksbury Community College sits right there if Brian Warrow is going to advocate for and it's okay for another educational aspect for our development, we also should because everybody doesn't go to college. They can't afford to go to college. Most people don't go to college. Right. The college doesn't necessarily say the best thing. Look at Bill Gates. He didn't finish college. Yeah. Look at Steve Jobs. Did he finish college? No. I mean, you know, Patrick Doug's didn't finish college. I don't think college is against the very body. I think we should.

47:48I think we should. I think we do. When I'm in my business, I'm looking for the people who do HVAC. I'm looking for people who do drywall, who do hardwood floors, who do roofs. I'm looking for the best qualified. And we can take that stuff over there across the street at Madison Park High. It deals with the building trades and merges those companies, those concepts together. But folks, we've got to run out of here. We love you. And thank you so much Bill. You're coming in. God bless you folks. And thank you for coming in.