The Other Page Radio

0:00Welcome, welcome WBCLP102.9 FM Boston. Welcome everybody. This is the other page radio program. My name is Haywood Fennel. Program is sponsored by Triad Veterans League and this is our first segment of all out a monthly presentation of community leaders coming in and just talking about what they're doing and how they got to do that and why they got to do that and that's what we got to do today with our first guest for all out. Mr. Leonard Lee is here, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, Leonard. Welcome. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, brother man, I'm so glad to see you, man. You look good. Glad to be seen. Yeah, you always look good. That's one thing I got to say about you, man. See a God fit man to what to do, man. Is that right? That's right. Let's tell us a little bit about yourself, man. Well, you know, I'm Boston-born and raised with

1:03this seems like a one of the meetings these days. You wanted a few Boston-born brothers, man, that's doing the work that you're doing. Well, you know, I always say, hey, I've been blessed to be blessed by those who cared about me while I was running up and down the projects in Columbia Point and Franklin Field and Academy Homes and, you know, so for me, giving and doing, it's been a natural thing because that's always been my example. Well, Leonard, I tell you one thing, we're going to get an opportunity today to talk to you about some of the work that you've done in the city outside the city, outside the country. And I want to just say, you know, how proud I am to know you, to know your family, to have met your mother and your siblings, you know, and your family and what you mean to this community because you've done a lot of things

2:05and a lot of levels of leadership. And that's what we have to continue. The examples that you may be were just mentioning are your alma mater and the choir that came up here for more house. You didn't get it. No, my son went to Morehouse. I couldn't go because my mother couldn't afford it, but when I could afford it, I brought my son there. As you know, my daughter went to Tuskegee. So, you know, it's carrying on that type of piece is important. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I'm glad you said that because I was getting ready to dress you up as a Morehouse alumni. That's all right. But I know that education is one of your key folks. Just a little bit about, you know, the work that you've done, Leonard here recently and what are you planning to do because you're one of the people that have a wide array of friends and positions that you've held because of your ability to lead.

3:06Well, I never looked for leading. I just looked for doing. And really, this happened to fall into a position of, you remember that old thing when somebody stood step forward and everybody steps back into person standing here. And I've always found that to even though the way it happened, I always find that to be an honor and to privilege to be able to now make something happen. As you were saying in terms of the things I've been blessed to be able to do, you know, again, wanting to go to college and make a lot of money and drive from a city's and all that stuff. You know, that's a 13, 14 year old kid's dream. But soon as I got into and finished college, I went into a public private sector and worked for like American Airlines and was making okay money and traveling. But then I said to myself, what about those who are in my community? So I decided to come home. And I had the blessed opportunity of working and running the Roxbury YMCA for a

4:14brief stint and then going on to run the YMCA as general manager and then going to be an executive director of do it just in the service center. And I bring these up because I think it's important because you know, run the Roxbury YMCA, my priority was servicing building relationships and excellence in terms of how we service people who look like us. That's very, it's been very, very important throughout my profession on private career. But it's being that example no matter what is thrown in front of you, always being humble, spiritual and godly in terms of how we respect and deal with each other and expect and give and deliver excellence, no matter who comes in the wrong. That brings the question, because you know, I'm familiar with your style somewhat, but you know, you've been in different different kind of levels with leadership. You know, and so

5:17as a black man in leadership, in those positions, how did you feel when you were surrounded by your opinions? Well, it was very lonely, very lonely. And it's easy to get caught up and forget who you are, what your purpose is and the people who you now represent. And I don't say easy to do that. It's very easy to do that because you know, they'll make it very comfortable to believe you're being accepted as an equal, where you're really being accepted to be manipulated. And I have to be honest, I got caught up for a brief second and brothers like yourself, hey, within others, you know, they would remind me, I have an obligation not only to myself and my family, but also to the community that built me. I think it's a very important point that you're making because we see a lot of emulation to the detriment of our progress, you know, stand up,

6:23don't try to emulate, you know, doing you a favorite thing. You know, you showed that you were qualified several times because of different positions that you've held. And you've always been able to meet people where they are. Sometimes they didn't want to meet you anywhere. How did you deal with that one? Well, it's just remained humble and prayed up because thanks to the glory of God, I know I would not have been able to do the things I've been able to do. And see, for me, it's not about credit, it's about getting it done. So if anybody wants to stand before me and take the credit, I really don't care. It's really about getting it done because at the end of the day, it's about the completion of the project, the quality of what you're trying to do and the consistency to be the example to young men and women to see a man who looks like them and power to bring about real taste without

7:28compromising your integrity, the feelings, or around money or prestige. You know, I've had some experiences to get the opportunity to hear from some people that you, you know, I don't want to say in charge that we're working with you. You know, and they had a lot of nice things to say. Then there's always the two percent. We have to say that because it's all a part of our growth. You know, we don't need to say that cock out on stink. You know, people, and maybe they learn from that, man. Maybe they get into the situation of leadership where they remember. You know, the quality of your leadership and try to take that on to move them further. Yes. You know what I mean? Because I know a lot of people, man, in this town, and I'm not from this town, and I know you touched a lot of bases in this town with a lot of people, and you got bigger

8:28spec coming from the people, man. You know, I don't want to get our audience and so I tell them, oh, you know them. Take a little break. We'll be right back, folks. The Triad Veterans League is a community-based education and cultural enrichment program that is seeking U.S. military veterans interested in the arts and literacy enhancement. Interested, you can check out our website at Triad VeteransLeagueBoston.com. That is Triad Veterans LeagueBostonAllOneWord.com. Veterans are an overlooked and underused community resource, and thank you for your service. Folks, this is the other page radio today, and I just want to add a little more to that about Triad Veterans League. We are in the process of organizing our proposal to be submitted to the United States Postal Service regarding the exhibit of the Unseen Heroes Triumph on some heroes that's presently hanging at the Strand Theater on Columbia Road in

9:34Dorchester. You know, we are trying to take those images and get the United States Postal Service, folks that do the stamp of piece and get them to consider creating the United States commemorative stamps series that honor those that have served since the American Revolution with the first person to die, Christopher Saddox, in the American Revolution. You know, they had us there, folks. They didn't want to give us the guns because they thought we was going to run. But see, when things got real dangerous for the colonialists, they could turn those weapons over to us, and we've been fighting ever since. So we don't want to let them push us back. We want to push forward together. And this petition is going to be around. We're going to be taking a few more signatures of getting letters of support from a lot of people, community leaders and otherwise, to get the United States commemorative stamp series into a reality. And we want to thank the Commissioner of

10:40Veterans Services for the City of Boston. We also want to thank Michelle Wu, the Mayor, Ed Flynn, City Council. A lot of the people in the City Council have given letters of support. We're going to get one from brother Leonard Lee, who's our guest today, folks, a great man doing a lot of things. And we're just so proud of him. And he's here today on the first segment of all out. And he's going to talk a little bit more about his situation in terms of helping the community. Leonard. Hey, as I was saying, it was just always been a privilege of being able to be in a position of leadership. I found it very interesting, you know, as I were at 10 community meetings and stuff that someone said to me one time, oh, you're from New York, you're not from Boston. And I had to remind them of the path of Franklin Field and Academy homes and Columbia Point, because that's my foundation. Yeah, I was talking with somebody to date from Columbia Point, the Tyler Titus.

11:42Oh, yeah. Yeah. Those Titus date, you know, selling work with something with him, man, you know, find myself, man, you know, like really grateful, you know, to be around people, man, to recognize that everybody makes mistakes and people that make mistakes can use those mistakes to rebuild their lives. That's right. You know, I know that you're involved in since you were in the helping people, you know, that ex-infantastic, I don't like that word, but just, you know, it's politically correct, you know, because people that have been a jail, you know, that's that's what I say, you know, and everything because I've seen you, you know, working with people, man, and helping them, man, you know, you're an amazing person. Your organizational skills, man, I don't know how long you took to put them together and say, I believe I could do that and never have done it. How do you do that? How do you do that? You know, it's interesting. I have, I have five sisters and five brothers and, um, fastest and five brothers, that's 11. Oh, yeah, yeah. How's the

12:47full? If you didn't come in on time, you may not, you know, and I learned a lot because people, I always say to people, if you want to complain about who I am, talk to the six women who made me, and not to take anything away from my brothers, you know, you know, I saw a lot of violence in drug use and I lost the brother to drug, another brother incarcerated. So, you know, one of the things I always would say is, how am I a solution, dental problem? And so that's some of the reasons why my belief in reentry is so strong. And also, going up to visit, um, folks who have been incarcerated up at North Fork and talking to brothers and people who I grew up in the street, you know, let me tell you a quick story. Hey, you know, I was working for the city of Boston in the person's department as one of the only senior buyers in the history of the city, even for this day. And, uh, we get our furniture from MCI, uh, Walpole. Yeah. And so one time we went up here for a visit,

13:51it was me and a bunch of your opinions. And, uh, I was the only person of color. And so I walk in there and everybody's greet me. The folks who in cost me, Hey, what's up, Lennie? Hey, what's going on? Hey, and I went over to every single one of them and hugged them. And I had one of my colleagues who didn't look like me say, aren't you afraid? You got a lot of friends here. I said, no, I need the people I work with. And you're not afraid? No, I'm not afraid of them because, you know, I'm 60 seconds away from being in here because of some madness I had nothing to do with. Right. And that could just be from somebody who don't like me because I'm the color I am. Yeah. So I, I, I had to school them that we love all. We embrace all. I like that you said that because, you know, uh, there are a lot of friction, etc. When you, uh, African American working in the position of influence, whatever that influence might be, but

14:52you know, uh, people, they don't want to, you know, understand that you can still be a friend to somebody that might not have any friends because of them being incarcerated. That's right. That's right. I like they don't know you. That's right. Well, you act like you don't know them. That's right. And I think that that's one of the things that we need to be conscious of in our community, Leonard, is how to embrace each other, meet people where they are. You know, encourage them to be better by changing their thinking. You know, you have been involved in my life, man, quite a bit. And I got to let them folks know that when you was on another position, and we were talking about theater, you know, which is one of my four tastes for each guy that you

15:53was up there in that school house, you know, in that, in that sound booth, you know, trying to help us get it up. And so your spirit of help is not just for me. It's for a lot of people, man. You and your boy Robin Lewis, you got to call his name, man. You know, we can't have a so don't miss Robin Lewis, you know, because he said, you know, I knew his brother. You know, I met him through his brother before his brother passed, man. And I know that he was involved in sports for young people, mentoring and stuff like that. And I know that you do that too. Metro our young people, man. It's something I believe in because somebody did it for me. It was a reason I became a big brother in the commitments for a year, but me and my little brother, he's almost 40 now. He still calls me his big brother. And we still get together because I don't look at a relationship that will end. I always look at a relationship that will continue.

16:58You made it. You made a step one time trying to get up in there and then city council, didn't you? Oh, I did. It's interesting because as as uh, uh, see the attorney dental now, Andrew Campbell, Andrew Campbell was leaving. I said to her, we need to put somebody in it's going to be the agitated and going to be advocating for folks like us. And so that's why I put my hat in the ring. I don't see myself as a politician because the work I've been doing. What is a politician? That's what I'm talking about. Politicians supposed to be the, the, the employee of the people. Okay. Okay. I mean, he's the employee. He's, I'm speaking and living for the people 24 seven. I see it as as a preacher. Right. You know, you're there to serve. And if you don't understand that, you shouldn't do the job. Do you still get a lot of calls for helping and providing answers and stuff for suggestion plans and stuff like that?

18:05There's a, there's a thing of safety that I've been able to establish to the point where if a mother finds a gun in her home, she'll call me and say, Len, what do I do with this? And no drop it off. And I'll take a good commission. I mean, one time you said something about some guns and you was able to get something happen. Yeah. Yeah. We were, we were doing a, a gun program and I was working with the commission at the time. That was Willie Gross. And I wanted, I said to him, I didn't want people to be penalized for turning in a weapon. Yeah. So he worked a deal with me where we, we made my home a safe haven where people were dropping off guns. I must have collected about 30, 40 guns. Is that right? Yeah. And people, you know, it's interesting. Once folks know there's a safe haven, they want to do the right thing. Everybody, I believe in my heart and my experience. They're like, everybody want to do the right thing. They just need an opportunity knowing that they're not, they're not going to be punished because they've been punished so much

19:10everywhere else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what they mean. You know, that will draw people to you. You know, and people will remember you, man, for you have seen, you know, there's some time you beat some places. They must be over there. Mr. Lee right there. Mr. Lee like that. Right? Yeah. You know, it's interesting. You say that because back in the day, I, I was a big roller skater. I used to go to Balleroo. Spear too. Well, yeah, yeah, they came, they came after the roller skates. I just, I just don't, every, every time I see somebody, somebody go back 30, 40 years and say, what do you think I have Balleroo? And I go, yeah, he said, I should sit and watch you all day. You know, you don't know who's watching. You scared that good. Oh, I was scared. Whoa. Oh, man. Between Balleroo and Savu, forget about. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But then you did something with skiing. I did. Yeah. We took, we were talking about that. Yeah. I learned how to ski at YES when I was 14, 13, actually. YES, what is it in acronym? Yeah, used investment, used them,

20:10uh, used investment services. Okay. Started by Richard Williams, a brother from, uh, from Brooklyn. He came. Yeah. Yeah. He came here and, uh, put that together. And the focus was really getting kids of color on the slopes and, and, and really kids of color and kids non of color to get together and see a commonality. And that was the sport of skiing. Yeah. Uh, I've been skiing ever since. You know, slopes, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do them with the head skis. Oh, we're here. We're here. Yes indeed. No, I got rising. I'm rising. Yeah. And, uh, uh, going down those black diamonds and stuff. Yeah. And, um, part of the national brotherhood of skis, which is one of the largest ski clubs in the country is the ski of people of color. Yeah. And they got a club literally in every major city in the country. Then we have a big, uh, big conference and, and uh, Colorado around this time. Yeah. Folks, we got a, we got a real superstar here today.

21:11You know, and, uh, I'm so proud that he's a friend of mine in the, friend of the community. He's just, but Leonard Lee, he said a day on the first segment of all out, a program that we are creating and developing, uh, bringing in, uh, community leaders known and unknown to talk about their lives and why it's important to have a life and why it's important to try to do the things that we need to do as a community, how we embrace each other and not have these little groupies that are in the way. I think they're in the way. And I let them know that, you know, that we got to fight with a fist and not a finger, you know, and I think that, uh, I'm making an impact on them. But this is the other page radio program brought to you by Triad Veterans League. And we just honored, again, to have a good friend, Leonard here today. Leonard, you know, um, I gotta go to the serious side now. And, uh, there's a couple of questions, you know, uh, around housing.

22:15You know, we have a lot of, uh, community development corporations that said that they were going to build more housing for, that would be affordable. But we finding that they're disproportionate amount of condos being built by community development corporations, which means that because of the limit of our income that we're still going to be struggling, you know, with a getting a voucher and not being able to get a decent place without a voucher added to whatever it is that we make from a job. Well, you're 100% right. And the real tragedy is, if I was coming from another land, I would be much more welcomed and much more taken care of. And I don't, I don't say that to harm or, or be disrespectful to anyone. But the reality is this, when I have people who've grown

23:21up with me who are now homeless, when I have people who have been here who's considered and now homeless, I have to say something. I can't say it's still, you know, people are making deals all the time. Making deals all the time. All the time. You know, with different, our contractors and developers, and they go in and use some of the language of the federal government and the, and the state government to get it happening. And what happens at the end, the people who really need don't get. And that's my frustration because, you know, how can you live with yourself knowing that what you're doing and it's overall purpose of it was to help and serve. And it's not serving the people in the greatest need. I'm so glad we got Linda Lee here today, folks. And that's what this segment is all about all out speaking about things that we don't normally speak about but should. You know, this is going to be a once a month thing. I don't

24:24know it might turn into a panel discussion, you know, because there's so much that we need to do in our community. And like I said earlier, we got to embrace each other. You know, that's the only way that we're going to be able to get ahead. We can't talk about a library and the name changing, not being right when they don't change the whole economic strut. All right, we don't own anything. Not even a hot dog stand in the station. You call it new being square, whatever you want to call it, but we are not there the way we're supposed to be. We're going in the wrong direction and the day we got a man that has been involved in leadership since he was a young man. I'm not going to tell you how old he is. You know, I'm saving man because you would want him to be a part of your committee. Now he's involved with a lot of things. Don't get me wrong now because you've got to be involved to understand the dynamics of why we need to change our direction. People talking a lot

25:30of promises, etc. But let me just say this to you over the last 10 years from Marlena Cass Boulevard and Washington Street coming towards Grove Hall. There has not been one building commercial space or otherwise not talking about housing or housing projects built in our community over the last 10 years. Okay, I'm going to break it down for you to district seven. I'm going to go to district seven. But all of a sudden, all of a sudden, we got a five-story building going up in Dundin station and some other buildings that are in

26:30that area and none of them are owned by African Americans. Not one. Tell me about that one right there. And they had to be some permits issued for those buildings to be built. And they had to be some loans being made that maybe we didn't get even if we applied. So we can't keep going that way. If we're not a part of something, we're just a part of nothing. So we got letters here today folks and we are so grateful that he's taking the time from his schedule because he tell us a lot. And I let it go. He was in one of the countries and you took some mass with you, didn't you? I did. I did. As you know, hey, without COVID time. I'm COVID time. And I'm always looking for a solution instead of complaining. And I was sitting up there and as you

27:32know, my background is public health for former Deputy Commissioner of Public Health and Bureau Director of Public Health for Massachusetts. And I was sitting and I was saying to myself, I went down New Bend Square and I noticed people during the pandemic, they were making choices between a mask and food. They were selling masks for like five hours for one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was insane. And I said to myself, mask should be free. So I got on the phone and I got on Facebook and I put on, asked all my friends to donate some money so I can buy some masks and give them away free. Just started with, I didn't know, hey, would you remember? And started with $5 and it winds up ending with $150,000, where I gave up over a million masks to people. And it spread, I just were going to street pass them out. I put a team together. We were, we were, we worked with my fraternity Omega-Sci5 and we were passing them out to everybody. And people would say to me, do I need to give you something? And I would say, no, just pass it on. And then I, brother from Jamaica,

28:36pulled me over and he said, brother, you know, my people in Jamaica really could do some masks. And I said, brother, no problem. He said, do we got to pay for? I said, you get me there. You get me there. I'll bring the mask. I'll bring the mask. So it's fun. It's interesting because I wind up meeting with the minister of health and we took, we took close to 300,000 masks down to Jamaica and we were passing them out in French town. We were passing them out down to parade. We were just, and people were like, do we have to pay? And that was, that was solution driven, man. Yes, totally. You know, we, we already knew what the problem was. Oh, yeah. We didn't sit around with the problem. No, we said for the solution. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And it was, it was, it was a true blessing. And people were saying to me, oh, you can't go to transgender parade. You're going to get robbed. You're going to get people were looking, people were protecting me. Well, remember, I got to tell you, man, they didn't tell you nothing wrong about some of them situations and locations, you know, but God sometimes is right there. It's for you, man. You know, and you made some friends where

29:42anybody else might have been an enemy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You coming in there, changing the whole hook up man and our God loves that. You know, so we must always talk about the inspiration that the Lord will give you to do to work to help people, man. You know, because a lot of times you have people that don't, oh, I don't want to get involved. Do I need to tell you about the H.I.V. You know, like when some of the churches was pushing people out the church instead of bringing the man. That's right. I don't need to tell you because you do the work. Now, remember that time when y'all was doing all that walking and I drove my car up there and met y'all. No, we were, what was happening in the country at the time is that everybody's marching for black men except black men. And that kind of disturbed me because, you know, young people, male and female,

30:42don't see enough black men standing up. And I'm not talking about going to the basketball. I'm talking about standing up and taking control of their community. So me and Rob, we put together, we put together a black man's march. And the purpose of the march, whether we weren't going to burn down, we just want to let people know that we care about our community as black men. With the boys in place. Yes. And we, you know, we were saying, we get 25, we'll be good. If we get, if we get 50, we'll be good. And once we put it together, the brothers came, we had over 400, 500 brothers. We marched from Mount Louis, King Boulevard, the friends from far away. And people were clapping. They were embracing. And then we got up around Goldhall area. And we all laid down the middle of the floor and stopped traffic. And people didn't get upset. They got off their cars and they were clapping for us.

31:44The seat of power of black men and not to take anything away from our sisters. But, you know, we got to let people know that black men care because the way people who don't look like us, they prop up black women as there's no black men and not taking anything I was raised by six amazing women. And that's who made me. So I'm not saying anything bad. I'm just saying that as black men, we need to be much more visible and much more positive around continuing. And be that example for that black boy and that black girl because they need, they need to see it. Don't talk about it. Let them see it. Yeah, let them feel it. And so at the end, it's interesting. We got a bunch of calls from women saying, Oh, why are you trying to separate? Why can't we march with you? And we said, sisters, let us just do this. Won't you guys be at the end with refreshments and water? Oh, we know. Oh, we're not serving. And, and, and, and sister sentiment. I'm not laughing. Folks don't get me

32:50wrong. That's not a laugh of humor. That's a laugh of sadness. Yeah. You know, that's a laugh of sadness. Let me, let me clean that up right quick because I don't want you to say that all, you know, we are anti-women and all of that because we're not. No, not at all. But men, men need to be men. That's right. And that's what Leonard was doing. Yeah. And that's what he was doing. And we appreciate you doing that. Yeah. And they respected, they respected it so much at the end. There were about 150 women just cheering a song encouraging us to continue. And you know, yes, they had a water for us and, and had some music and just embraced us. Yeah, yeah, because they were proud to see black men take responsibility of being that example. And especially, man, when you, you know, the battering of women and the battering of men, and you see a proliferation of these women organizations popping up, the women's history and all those kind of conferences that are getting jumping off. We're certainly hope that they'll be able to, you know,

33:54break that down and understand why they need to have men standing up for men. That's right. You understand? Because it's so much stuff going on around here, sexual appreciation and sexual deviation. You know, we're not about who you're loving. We're about who you're hating. That's right. And why? That's right. You know, um, my dad gets someone up, man, I'm not called. Oh, you see that? Yeah, yeah, five, five, something five, thirty nine, you're traveling to you. You know what I'm saying? Man, it's awful. It's awful. How do we going to deal with that, man? It's awful. You know, but we've been here before. Okay. We've been here before. Remember not with that guy. No, with that guy. No, no, we're the residents in the doghouse. No, we're not going to call that now. We're going to call it a resident. That's right. Okay. We've been doing it. We've been doing it.

34:56We've just waited out. People understand, you know, the big difference today, we know what it's like to be suppressed. But we also know what it's like to overcome it, to do and get things done and be the great folks that we are. No matter what they're thrown at us, we've always overcome it. What's really disturbing now for not us, but for those who look like him. They're like them. Yes. They've never been in the same box as us. But they are now. They are now. So they don't know what to do. We know what to do. We know what it's like to eat beans and rice and hot dogs and beans. They're good too. They're good. They're very good with some ketchup. That's right. I said, we know what it's like to suffer. So it comes. We don't welcome it. But we understand what we have to do. And we find a lot of my white colleagues. They don't have a clue. They're about to jump out the window. And I say to them, I said, I've been here before.

35:59You know, that man can't do it unless he puts me in chains and had me picking cotton. That happened in the morning. You know, I know they haven't. But if he takes away a cell of me in a breast or chicken, I got to eat the chicken neck. You know what we do. Hey, we make it taste good. Yeah, it'll be all right. It'll be all right. It's sure. We'll let me also ask you about because you're a computer man. You're a computer ways, learning. What do you think about a boy? And that would take a whole another show. I think on two fronts, I think it's good. And I think it's bad. Well, let's have the good part. And then let's go spend a little time on the bed. Well, the good part is you can really get some good stuff out of there. I mean, you know, just stick it in there. Just stick it in there. It gives you back facts. I mean, I was using this this morning. I was like, I've got all these facts and figures. But remember, what you put in

37:00is what you get out. It can't think for you. Oh, oh, that is. You hear it folks right there. You heard it from Linda Lee and I agree. It can't thank for you. It can't thank for you. It cannot thank for you. And God gave you a B-R-A-I-N. That's right. One brain. And you know, if you get too busy to use that brain, it'll get dull. Totally. And that's why I say there's a good and bad. The bad is think about it for a second. You know, they said, if you don't lose it, you're going to lose it. And if you sit up there and think it's just like a great example is GPS. Remember we had maps and you had to use your brain to figure out the map. Right. Now you got GPS. Now your brain has become lazy to think cognitively around. Okay. Now how do I get to

38:00the direction? You don't do it. You rely on a machine, a voice. It's like your phone. You lose your cell phone. You lose your mind. You lose your mind. You are like, I don't know what I'm going to do. I got number. But remember the time when you had to look in a book and look up a number? I had a match book. But you had to figure out. And when you lose those type of skill sets, we take it for granted now. But in our children and grandchildren, they don't have a clue. It's just like script. It's just like kids can write with script now. No. You ask them, say, what's that? Yeah. You ask my son. They'll not do nothing. No. No, they talk about chicken type on the computer. Don't get me wrong. It's great. Yeah. But that skill set becomes very important when electricity goes up. Yeah. Or when you're in the street. Yes. And you don't have a computer. That's right. Right. So then the other thing that I wanted to ask you about was

39:03the economic development situation in our community. After speaking about the building set up going up in district seven on the Dudley area. What is our plan for that, man? You know, too. You know, because, you know, you know, like, you know, like before you answer that, you know, like uh, political power without power, meaning green, uh, economic development. It won't work. It hasn't worked. It's not rocket science. You go to high, you go to West Rocksbury. You go to other communities and other squares. People will not take control that if the mailbox go up on that block. They control. They control it. Even in Chinatown, even though folks are being pushed out. And I say shame on us if we haven't made people accountable if they're coming into our house. I look at my community as my house. Now, if you come into my house, there's certain rules and regulations

40:04you have to abide by. Got to let them know what you're going on. Yeah. So if we sleep on it and they come in and they do a smoke screen. Oh, we're going to open up something. We're going to hire a couple of y'all. We're going to do this. But we all know that's just a temporary piece. Unless we own it. Yeah. And hey, you know, your people from down south, my people from down south, we know if you don't own land, you don't own nothing. You can't do nothing. You ain't got nothing to work with. You ain't got nothing. But if you've got some land, you can grow. You can grow food and vegetables and do it. We always did. We bothered and traded. And there's no difference in that with and then our community. If I own the store, remember the day when you were going to store, your mother had a credit, your mama would say, go get two loaf of bread, a pack of palm balls, and some milk, and tell Mr. Johnson to put that on my belt. Yeah, sure. Can I get some too, mom? Can I get some penny cash? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You said we'd take a quarter. Yeah. But now, you know, like, see those are the things that we have to, I look, man, I'm going to tell you

41:09something, right? I'm working with people, man. And we got one boat and a cast, a school teacher. And he's a great guy, man, great guy. He also has a program on literacy, financial literacy. And then I got another young guy that I'm working with. He's working with measuring kids with a bicycle program. Oh, excellent. Yeah. So, you know, all of that runs with what you do. See, because we have to have a parallel understanding to create the strategy, man, to heal so that we can deal. That's right. They've been feeding those stuff, man, but you've been coming along and you've been countering the baloney. I don't want to use the word, you know, but you understand. That's indeed important. So, the work that you do, man, it's appreciated. I got to go right now and talk a little bit about the veterans because we're getting ready to run out of here shortly. But folks, veterans are an overlooked and underused community resource,

42:16Lord. And we can't, and we can't, Lord God, just regard that situation, Father, that you've provided us, Lord, we ask that you bless the veterans, bless Lenin Lee, and the work that he's doing, you know, because we need each other. This man has done and will do and has done a lot of work in realizing God as I do. You know, and I want you to know, Leonard, how much we appreciate you Thank you, Lord. I appreciate you. You know, on March 28th, we've, getting ready to go over there to Cambridge Ridge and Latin School and the Fitzgerald Auditorium. They've got a big stage. That's what I want to get over there. I want to thank Denise Simmons, the City Council that used to be the mayor. She stepped out from that because she's been very helpful in getting us over there. You know, they have this protocol differences, but we are going to be there on the 28th,

43:21perform the Harlem Renaissance revisited with our gospel flavor. We have spoken word. We have stages, cultural arts, and they're doing the liturgical dance. We have Dolly and Wynn, our minister of Virginia troops. We have also Monica Anderson Spencer are doing the singing and crystal black like crystal Dotson doing spoken word playing the role of the one and only the lady that had the words to say Lord Hammer said Lord Hammer said you got to know her name. Her name is Zora Neil Hurston, and we have another brother by the name of brother James L playing Langston Hughes, and we have we have Alexandria playing the captured woman who talks about the personification

44:25of losing her children and being coming to slaves. You know, and we have Alice Manger playing the European lady was telling Zora that she couldn't sell no books. And so it gave her a look and let her know it's my time. I'm going to sell my books and I'm not going to Europe. I'm going to stay right here in America because the Harlem Renaissance is about the reason of our cultural witness and the significance of our coming together like we need to be together today in Roxbury in Boston and letting them people know the game is over. The game is over. And you know, Linda, I just want to say something to you about your lovely family. No sister to your son. Well boy, man. They let you get rid of nothing. Nothing. No thing. They're part of you, man.

45:26Yeah, I'm proud of them. Yeah, man. Yeah, you know, we love them all, man. Yeah, yeah. And folks, you just got to just got to be supportive of them. I don't know if he's going to run again for any elected office, but whatever it is that he is involved in, it is in more than one case about the community. Totally, totally. About the community, man. Hey, well, I just want to give a quick shout out for my sister Ruthie. Yeah, she running. We are better together and that concept came to me. She's been there before you know. Oh, she had. Oh, yeah. Okay. No, I just want to give a shout out. Yeah. And you know, I give up on two go ahead. You know, because the death of my of my nephew, her son. Yeah. And the work that she's doing now with with women, which is extremely honorable, especially coming from her background, you know, coming from the low end to the high end. We know, Ruthie. You know, so it was my, it's my friend. Well, everybody, my family is your friend. Yeah, but I mean, we were down dirty. Oh, and came up clean. That's right. That's right.

46:31And you, you know, she got some help. That's right. And now she's able to help. That's right. And she got a new office. She's, I know. I knew that. Yeah, they're down there. Hasn't happened. Yeah. That's right. God, God, God, God willing. Everything is, you know, amazing, amazing. Just who's the name of the program again? We are better together. We are better together. They're just honored. Ruthie, a whole bunch of ladies honored her. I saw it on Facebook and I immediately called her. And I didn't tell her that she was coming on the day because she might want to come home with you. And I don't know if I can handle it, but it's so sick. You know, but it turned out real good. The parallel of our rise is what I'm talking about now. You know, because we, Ruthie and I, you know, we, we, we, we were straight out out there. Wow. You know, we, we didn't kill nobody. We killed our spirit ourselves.

47:35And then when she got involved with the recovery, she took it all away. She took it all the way. And I'm involved in recovery. And I'm taking it all away because I go to the jails and I tell them there's nobody in this room here that loves to get high better than me. But I got another plan. It's not to be better than it's just to have that plan and work it out. That's right. Use the Lord. Make it happen. Grow. Don't rush yourself and look where we are. That's right. It's been a pleasure having you on today, my brother. Oh, my pleasure. Man, we hope to get you back up in here because you've brought something on our first segment of all out, first segment of all out. And like I said, you got to welcome coming here anytime, you know, that you're in the country because I know you're getting ready to try to get out of here. Always back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's so good, man. Being in a national in the work that you've done

48:41procedures. And that's God. Totally God. You know, we thank you so much, man. We ask that you continue, man, to continue doing the work to help people. You know, folks, we had a great time today. I hope you enjoyed us because we enjoy talking about the things that you need to hear that there is something going on out there. And there's some people that are consistent and persistent with what they do. They believe in you. You must believe in yourself. Then do the things that we need to do to raise ourselves as the people that dignity and respect. Thank you so much. God bless you. We'll see you the next time this has been the other page radio. My name is David