Exploring Black History: When I Met MLK (Live)

0:05 Rev Andrew Collins: Good morning, everyone. Good morning. We have a prayer. And our scripture today is going to take it from Isaiah chapter 54 verses 14 through 17.

0:51 It reads thus, a righteousness shall not be established. That should be far from a person. For th shall not Fear and from Fear, from terror, for it shall not come. Nearly behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together against these shall fall for th see. Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the water, the waste that is to be stored.

1:33 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. And every tongue that shall rise against the injured, thou shalt damn. This is the heritage of the service of the Lord. And the righteousness is of the Lord. The God of the best in the world. And here we can do it with the Holy Word. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father God, I'm glad to come to you this morning, my father. First, I just want to thank you, my Lord. Because my father, he looked beyond our fault and saw our needs. You have blessed us with your marriage and spiritual, physical, mental, and financial. You have brought us to this point in time in our life, my father. And we are here only because of you.

2:14 So we pray, my father, to open our hearts, open our minds, my father, so that we may receive what you have for us to receive from God's child, my father. Father God Almighty, we use the things that we hear, we use the things that we learn, by those that you have sent to us to give it to us, my father. So bless those, my father, and bless this meeting, my father, and let it be all that you want it to be, and your God and Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Leadership Masterclass. I am delighted to be here and delighted to see all of you here and all of you who are out there on Zoom.

2:59 I have a very unique and very, I believe, interesting topic for you today. Uh, in light of the fact that this is Black History Month, um, and I call it American History Month, but we'll, we'll use both terms, uh, share a presentation today that's part of my personal story, uh, that's also relevant in my judgment to Black History Month. Uh, and the title is, When I Met Martin Luther King. And we'll, we'll sort of start with that. Uh, uh, Carl Woodson, a scholar many years ago, felt that there should be a mob, a special mob, for celebrating the African American history of black history.

3:48 And so after many years of politicking and going back and forth, they were able to get a long pass through Congress to make this Black History Month. As always, I'd like to start off with my beliefs, and we do this with every single masterclass. And you may ask yourself, well, how do you talk about your beliefs? Beliefs are the why that you do things. There's what, there's who, uh, and there's when. But many times, uh, it's important to know the why you do things. This, these are the whys that I do this, and I started with you suggesting you that at your leisure, that you have a conversation with a person in the mirror and say, why am I doing X or why am I doing Y or why am I C?

4:38 My beliefs are, I believe life is about being of service to others. I believe it's important that all of us reach out and help other people. I believe knowledge is power, which is why we're doing these masterclass series. That the more you know, that the more you'll be able to do and contribute to others. And I believe leaders can change the world. Uh, uh, if you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, you look at your TV and say, why in the world is this happening or that happening? I would suggest that you change it. Do some up, um, to figure out what you can do, what are your skill sets, and put them to work, um, to help others.

5:20 As always, this is part of our masterclass series, and I'm very grateful to you, uh, uh, Pastor Dockley, St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church, in which I have been a member for, um, 46 years, um, to be able to provide, uh, uh, this speech, I take these presentations to you. So, we're going to talk about leadership. We're going to talk about leadership, and I would say that leadership is going to be associated with one of the most famous leaders, uh, Martin Luther King Jr. As always, I like to put up an outline, and the purpose of the outline is to give you an idea of what I'm going to talk about, but more importantly to let you know what I've just developed up. So we're going to talk about my mother a brief time, and I mentioned her name before, Amanda.

6:06 We're going to talk about Black History Month, we're going to talk about black fathers, because that's a part of our presentation today and part of what we're trying to get across. We're going to mention the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Arguably, in my opinion. The single most important civil rights act passed, uh, by the United States of America and signed by the President of the United States of America. Uh, and we'll talk about evidence of that, I'm sure some of you may be familiar with that. So for a number of years now, we've been celebrating Black History Month, uh, during the month of February. Some people joke and say, why is it celebrating during the shortest month of the year?

6:49 I have no idea. I have no idea. But I just think, again, look at all the positive. I think it's good that it's celebrating. I'm not going to quibble with how many days in a month. That's a different issue. And it can go from Frederick Douglass, who was an abolitionist many, many years ago, who felt very strongly that African Americans should achieve, should achieve the ultimate scholarship. And some of you may remember that that was, that was a difference in philosophy between Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass. Um, um, uh, Frederick Douglass and, and, and W. E. B. Du Bois, rather, and Booker T. Watson. Booker T. Watson felt that, um, uh, Negroes, and I will use the term affectionately, uh, that we, we Negroes should be satisfied with where we are.

7:36 We should be the best, whatever we're doing, um, and should not try to Dr William T Choctaw: get above, you know, where, in effect, God is, has given us. W. E. B. DeMorris, uh, felt that, uh, we should adopt as a voice in presidency of the United States, et cetera, et cetera. that we should always be striving for more. And so that was a legitimate argument, legitimate discussion within the African American community about what should you do and not do. My journey, what I'm going to do, the take I'm going to put with this is to talk about my own personal life. Now part of my life is, and I've mentioned this before, I did not grow up with a father in the womb.

8:20 I grew up with a single, uh, single parent, my mother, who was 17 years old when I was born. Uh, when I was born, she had been, she had to drop out of high school because when you're 17, uh, uh, if you're a girl, when you get pregnant, you, you can't finish high school, there was no makeup, there was no beauty or anything. So imagine if you were a 17 year old girl who gets pregnant, uh, as a child, off herself, and just imagine what that must feel like. So, growing up, I, And so then I have a father, so I would make up thoughts. I would create in my mind, if I had a father, what would he be like?

9:01 And how would he act? And how would he treat me? But obviously the beauty is when you can create it, then you can make him in a way that he wants. So I did that. I did that. Uh, and, uh, I concluded, and I'm, this is about the time I'm in high school there. Um, I had, I had decided on three men that I had heard about. Um, some I had met, some I had not. Uh, the first one was Martin Luther King. And, and I'm sure a lot of people my age, uh, in the 60s considered him like a father figure or or would like their father to be like Martin King. The second was a person by the name of Dr. Isaac Miller. Dr. Miller was a professor of, professor of biochemistry.

9:45 When I was in high school, I got the opportunity to study at Tennessee State just in the summer. Um, and that was when I met Dr. Miller. I was very impressed. Um, and let me parenthetically say, um, that if you are a student in school, in junior high or high school, summer is not vacation time. Summer is not vacation time. You're supposed to do extra academic work in the summer. Use the summer time to either catch up or get ahead. But summer is not allowed to be vacation time. Uh, and the third person was Dr. John Lewis Powell. Uh, he was a pastor at my church when I graduated from high school and joined church in college.

10:29 What was very interesting about these three men, and they didn't know each other, um, uh, was I found out that they all belong to an organization called Alpha Phi Alpha. Now I didn't know what that meant. Uh, and Alpha Phi Alpha is a fraternity. I didn't know what a fraternity was. One of the people that was most influential in my life, other than my mother, um, and some of the school teachers, was my social worker. I was assigned a social worker by the name of Juanita Wall. Uh, and she was like a surrogate mother for me. And so I would ask her, I said, but what does this mean? Uh, what was also unique about, um, uh, Ms.

11:13 Walker was she'd gone to college. No one in my sort of operation, um, um, at home or at church or whatever, um, had ever gone to college. So I never got to talk to college people. I don't know what that was like. But she, she explained it to me. She said, well, you know, there are a group of people, there are men that are called fraternities, and women are called sororities, and there are social service people, and they, they help folks, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But what I started to understand was, while I was in high school, These individuals, uh, were helping me, uh, they would, they would, they would, they would give me, uh, uh, a 50 scholarship, they would, um, buy clothes for me, and I would say, I don't know them, I don't understand, and she says, well, these are just things that they do, so I said, okay, alright, I, I, I suddenly let it go at that.

12:07 The other thing that was very unique about these three men, uh, was they all had doctor degrees. Uh, now my mother had already told me at age five or so, uh, that she wanted me to be a doctor. So that, that was a given. Um, and that wasn't anything that I would have thought about. So, so I'm just trying to set this up in terms of where we're going. So, I, I have a mother who is my father and editor. And then I created, um, um, um, fictitious thoughts for me, uh, dream thoughts for me. And what I found out was they all belong to the same fraternity. Didn't know what that meant, but I just sort of put that in the back of my head.

12:52 This fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, was formed in 1906. And fraternities and sororities are only formed in colleges. Okay. And so I said, 1906? You mean to tell me there were black men at college in 1906? I said, I didn't know that, because the only white college was in 1906. And keep in mind, during my early years, we were barred, at least I thought, from attending predominantly white schools. But what it told me was, and this organization was formed at Cornell University, which is an idealism school.

13:39 So, you know, it was just confusing to me, but I thought it was interesting. So, to make a lot of this sort of make sense, I put in my timeline of high school, college, medical school, along with what we're going to talk about. I mean, civil rights movement. So one of the ways to look and talk about, this is American history. This is American history. One of my favorite subjects in high school, even though I was considering myself a scientist and all my way to medical school was, I, I love American history. I still do. I still do. Uh, I graduated from high school in 1965.

14:20 Okay. I started Tennessee State University, uh, in Nashville in 1965 and I graduated from Tennessee State in 1969. I then started Yale Medical School in 69 and I graduated from Yale Medical School in 1970. So it gives you a time frame in terms of where I was and what I was doing. And so, keep those numbers in mind as we walk through the rest of this presentation this fall. What was going on in the country in the early 60s? So, to you who are, uh, uh, Gen Z ans and Generation X ans, talk to your parents about this, because a lot of this will make a lot of sense.

15:04 But those of you who are baby boomers, you know what I'm talking about, because you don't know just as much as I do, okay? I can remember in 1966 ago, there was a lot of buzz about this new guy who was running for president and his name is John Fitzgerald Kennedy. And people were all excited, at least in the African American community where I, where I spent all my time in Nashville about, oh he's, he's, he's more liberal and he believes in equal equality and, and, and, and the African American community was just very, very, very, very excited. And the other thing is that John Kennedy, to some extent, was, was, was controversial in, in my community, not among African Americans that much, but among the white members of, I mean, Nashville.

15:57 Believe it or not, it's because their biggest fear was, oh my God, he was Catholic. And I said, we have never had a Catholic president of this country, and what does that mean? Does that mean that the Pope is going to run the country, blah, blah, blah? You know, it's just a lot of silliness. And my part is that when you are afraid of something, you think of silly stuff. You know, it's just normal. It's normal to think of that. And needless to say, John Kennedy was one of the most Um, uh, famous presidents that we ever had, um, and his being Catholic or not Catholic really didn't matter. But as you all know, he was assassinated in 1963, Dallas, Texas, riding an open, uh, . Also in the early sixties, there was a person they met the evers who was president of the National Association.

16:49 Color People, uh, naacp, uh, uh, in Mississippi was also necessity. And fast forward from 1963, also in 1963, uh, that was when there was the Marjolein Bachmann. Remember that. This is the I Have a Dream speech by Martin Luther King. 1963. These things are very, very closely related time wise. One of the things about the Martin Luther King speech was it was done in preparation Uh, to help to get the president at the time.

17:36 Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon Johnson was president because Kennedy had been assassinated. Lyndon Johnson was vice president, and so ultimately, uh, automatically moved up to become president. So all this was happening that Sunday. This is in the early 60s, between 60 and 65. that year. I'm in, I'm in junior high and high school about this time. When Martin Luther King gave his speech, because I have a dream speech, they stopped class in my high 10th grade, yeah, 10th grade, um, 10th and 11th grade, and they hung us all in the cafeteria to watch this big black and white, well, excuse me, little black and white team. There was not a day with a rabbit ear.

18:18 Some, some, some of you David Boone, you know what I'm talking about. Uh, you jet scenes, you have a clue what a rabbit ear is. Uh, but that's a, talk to your parents and grandparents. And we watched the series and we were all just so impressed and, and elevated and oh my god, the, you know, things are getting better and better. And at that speech, Martin Luther King stood behind Lyndon Baines Johnson, that's him sitting at the desk, and you notice all the pens on his table. This is a tradition that continues to this day. When the President of the United States signs a bill, he, he uses a pen per letter. And that's why he has so many pens on his desk.

19:00 And then he takes those pens, after he signed the bill, and he turns it around and he gives it to someone, or some individuals who he believes, uh, have been instrumental in getting the bill passed. And here you see him in 1964, uh, after he had signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He gives this to Martin Luther King. Real quick. American history. I believe, as do some others, that the Civil Rights Act is probably the most important piece of legislation, uh, in this country. Again, I'm in high school around this time now.

19:40 Uh, and the reason is that it has four components. One, it's, it allowed folks of color to vote. To vote. Uh, and believe it or not, we were not allowed to vote, and they would do things like they would have literacy tests, and keep in mind, uh, most people, particularly African Americans in the Deep South, did not go to school, they certainly didn't go to college, uh, and so they couldn't pass literacy tests, uh, and it was just a stymie block, it was just a way to block folks from voting. Why? Because in a democracy, the power is in the vote, you know what I mean? So my point very simply is, if you don't do anything, go out and vote, or vote online, vote in a drop box.

20:25 The other thing was, in terms of, uh, desegregation accommodation, and when I was growing up, Um, if I went to a hotel, I wrote, number one, I couldn't build a sleeping mattress. Number two, I couldn't use certain public bathrooms. I had to go to the bathroom that said color, you know, because the others were reserved for white folks. Um, and you couldn't use certain, you know, you couldn't go to certain movie theaters and on and on and on. This is just a way of life, and this is all that we need. Um, and probably the most dramatic, and you may be familiar with this, is Uh, the schools were not integrated.

21:06 Uh, that was this whole thing called Crescent versus Ferguson. It said separate is equal. Well, what we know then and what we know now is separate is never equal. That's why it's separate. It's not equal. So, so, uh, the things that I grew up remembering and that my teachers at school taught all of us is that you want the best of the best. The best of the best, not to be the burger to the right or to the left, but keep your eye on the prize and go to the best of the best. And to me, that was an idling car. That was my understanding of what the best was. So that was my quest.

21:47 I guarantee you I was not the smartest kid in my class in high school or junior high school. When I graduated from high school, um, I, I had a, a, Maybe a 3. 2, a 3. 3 average, a B average. I mean, I'm a good student, but I wasn't smart enough. I didn't have the highest GPA. Nor did I have the highest GPA in college. Um, so my point, very simply, is you don't have to. You don't have to prove. You just have to work harder. You have to work harder. You gotta know what you want. And go hard. So, I decided Uh, again, I started at Tennessee State in 1965, the summer of 1965, um, and I pledged out of the fraternity in 1967.

22:39 Two years later, because my first year was sophomore to pledge, uh, so I pledged to the fraternity two years, two years later. Uh, and the first year that, um, end up being a member of the fraternity, you're called a little bro. The trick was on the little brothers. Our little brother dropped off. Our little brother dropped off. So, so, so now let's fast forward. I, I fledged in 19, uh, 6th and 7th. So, this is around about our time on spring break, um. Uh, around about March of 67. And so the bus said, You know what? Let's take a road trip this weekend.

23:20 Yeah. A lot of people, you know, jump on the plane and fly to Pensacola or, or, or they, they go to the Bahamas. Uh, the bus said, Let's go to Miami. Oh, my goodness. So, so we all got one of the brother's little Mustang and I can't, I can't remember what those little Mustangs look like. There were five of us in a little Mustang in this whole car and we, we went to Atlanta and Atlanta just to socialize. I've never been to Atlanta in my life. But I was a boat And, you know, you just want to do what the big brothers say, because they're big brothers.

24:04 I mean, that's just, that's the way it is. Uh, so we all learn. That first night that we went around, this is Saturday. Uh, some of the brothers went out and, you know, socialized or whatever, but I stayed, stayed in the room and I was one of the closest, stayed in the room. But when the police came back, uh, they said, guess who we saw tonight? And we said, who? And they said, we sold Martin and Co. And we said, ah, come on, come on, that's it, that's it, that's it, no, no, no, we saw them, we saw them. And at that point, I said with the, I said, I really need to go to this church.

24:46 I said, if he's in town, I really need to go to this church. I said, you don't understand. I can't explain it. But I just need to see him closer. I need to get closer to him. And so we all talked about it. It's cool. So yeah, well, so the five of us decided to go to Martin Luther King's church in Mexico. It's the sun and moon. Uh, and I said, we gotta get there early. As you can tell, I still do that to this day. I like to get there early just to sit and watch as the people come in. Blah, blah, blah. You know, because I don't want to be late. So we all went. And we went to Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia.

25:29 Now, a couple of things. History, American history. Ebenezer Baptist Church is not Martin Luther King's church. I mean, it's church in general. But it's his father's church, you know what I mean? This is Daddy King's church, right? Um, and that's a whole different story. I'm a clergyman. That's what it means to me. We read about Martin Luther King's father. And that'll give you an idea about why Martin Luther King did the things he did. For instance, one of the things when Martin Luther King graduated from Morehouse College with his bachelors, uh, um, and his daddy said, you know, I, I want you to go and get a, another, another, um, um, professional degree.

26:10 And I want that degree to be from a predominantly white college. He sent him to the Boston University, and that was where Martin Luther King got his doctorate. Boston University. Um, and so, I regret. So, Ebony's name, this is what it looks like, um, can anybody tell me, this is just, just for free, who's the pastor of Ebony's of Baptist Church now? Who is that? No, no, no, he's a sinner. There you go. Snagged my finger. Walking down the hall now. Since Robin's video's a part of it, I'm going to continue the show. Raffaelle Warren Thorpe. He's the first African American Senator from the state of Georgia since Reconstruction.

26:57 Since Reconstruction. Now, it says he's also an alcohol man. But I have tried. I've been very excited but in good form. My point is that everything is still there. Marcus McGee's church is in Now, how about Rodney Pizza and Neal Fitzpimmer, Goldsport, and even Martin Porter, father of multiple options? But, you will say, that is church, and the waycan that the fraternity brothers and myself have in it. Okay, uh, tell me God has not made things happen. Reese, can you? Okay. So, we went to this church, And I'm, I'm just on pins and needles.

27:41 I, I can't speak because I'm just so awestruck and everything. And I'm sitting in the church, and all of us sit together, of course. Um, and we're sitting about the middle of the church, and it's a good sized church, as you can tell from looking at it. Um, and all of a sudden, um, uh, Martin Luther King comes out, by himself, with the Lord. Um, very quiet, a little dispensed, and sits. Now, he sat in something called a pull chair. Now, for you young people, a pull chair is an elevator, you know what we call them in the city. And it has chairs on it that you notice it's sat on during the entire service. And a lot of churches don't have that nowadays.

28:23 But, but, so, so Martin Luther King came and he sat in a pull chair. And he sat through four chairs. Not a lot, just three or four. Uh, and I was, I, I focused on him the whole time. I watched every move he made. Every move. I didn't know, I didn't know the same about him. And so, about 15, 20 minutes or so, other people came out, including, uh, his father. I don't know if you can call him, Daddy King. Came out and, you know, they went through the service. Martin Luther King did not give the speech at the, the sermon. His father did. Uh, so at the end of the sermon, Uh, you know, we're getting up and going around, whatever, and so, um, you know, we're all together, and so Big Brother Benson, uh, in our group, says, And I said, Okay.

29:15 And so the five of us went to the, the bottom of the pulpit, and the service is over now, and so we walked up the stairs and sort of stand around. Um, he was a very tall guy, he's made about five, six, whatever, I just thought that was interesting. But I, I, I didn't realize he was that tall. So we were standing around here, and I'm not talking, I can't see, you know, my big brother Vincent said stuff like, uh, Brother Kenny, we're, um, uh, brothers from big old Macomb chapter of Tennessee State University, blah, blah, blah, down here on Spring Break, and he said, oh, I want to introduce you to little brother Tom, uh, and he turned and he looked at me and he sort of smiled, uh, Uh, all right.

30:05 All right. All right. Take your hand out. Okay. Just smiled. Um, I shook his hand and I didn't wash my hands for at least a month. But anyway, we came back to campus, whatever. And so. After that, we this is six. This is, uh, uh, we're now in 68. Um, uh, and so the spring break is in 68 when we went.

30:50 And so then, um, We heard that he was invited to speak at Vanderbilt University, which is a very, very large, um, very famous, um, uh, university in Nashville, Tennessee, predominantly white. And so, of course, we all went over to see him to his speech. And so, um, we, we, and it was an excellent speech. We were, we were up in the rafters, uh, as soon as he arrived. And so, uh, uh. Oh my goodness, uh, but it was just extraordinary, that distinction was extraordinary, and it just damaged Martin Luther King. After that, not too long, maybe about a week or two after that, Martin Luther King was assassinated.

31:36 This is, uh, April 6th, 1988. And the country basically exploded. Uh, there were illustrations slash riots all over the place, most college campuses, particularly the predominantly, uh, African American college campuses, just in Brooklyn, including my campus, Tennessee State. Uh, and so, the, what was interesting, uh, and this is where the, the story takes a very unique turn here. Um, my house was completely locked out. This is a picture of the administration building at Tennessee State. Um, um, every time I see this picture, I think of my wife.

32:23 We went to visit, um, Tennessee some years ago. She took a picture of this building. And I have her hanging in my office at home, um, at the present time. But anyway, so Riot broke out everywhere. They broke out on my campus and the national was Colorado and the national office was school American community by the basement on the campus. And I, I was on sixth and seventh floor of my dog and I could look out my window in the parking lot and had with National Guard people, the rifles, lying in department law of my campus. Uh, and so we, you know, obviously were suspended.

33:06 The Dean of Students, Dr. Joseph R. Popayne Jr., he was very eloquent, uh, man, just as impeccably, we, we all liked him, and we liked the way he spoke, um, he summoned me to his office, and he said, Mr. Choctaw, see back there, um, they call him Mr. This on campus, and Mr. Choctaw, um, um, I, I, we, we, we need you to go with us to, to come to a meeting with us. And I said to me, he said, we need you to come with us to a meeting at downtown Nashville to meet with the, uh, the mayor and council people and the leaders downtown Nashville because we need somebody to represent a student body.

33:53 And I said, um, Dr. Payne, I, I am not a student council member. No, no, no. I have to go. And Hadley said, I understand that Mr. O'Connell. He said, but the student council president resigned. Immediately. When Martin Luther King was assassinated he quit. He said, I am done with this. I am done with it. I will not do blah blah blah blah blah blah. I have been elected student council president A. S. O. I was scheduled to take office in junior year. I was scheduled to take office my senior year. So, I said, I said, well, I don't need nobody. And, and in effect, Dr.

34:36 Faith said, Uh, let's chop down on you a bit. We need you. And I said, okay. So, we went to the meeting. And one could tell that the professors were very nervous on this thing, I believe. Uh, not just the little persons, I don't know if that's how you say it. Little by the chalk box, little by the, all these guys. And so we went, because I understood the gravity, I understood what he was telling me. And, you know, and what he said, it didn't make sense. He said, they need to be reassured that students at this college are not going to remain crazy.

35:21 They need to be reassured that they can withdraw these National Guards, uh, and their tanks and not worry that something bad is going to happen. And they need to hear it from a student leader. They don't believe the professors because they don't think we know what we're talking about. They need to hear it from one of you guys. Um, and so I went to the meeting and it's, you know, since, uh, I said nothing, uh, until asked, and, uh, Dr. Payne, in this elegant way, made the case, you know, held it, just, just very, very elegant. Um, and so after sending the, the, uh, the folks in downtown Asheville started asking questions, what about this, what about that, so then they turned to me.

36:05 And in essence, can you assure us that your students are going to go back to studying and you guys are going to do just what I said? Yes, sir. So you got to understand, you say yes sir and yes ma'am. You don't say yes and no. That's a different presentation. So then they said, okay. They sent us back to campus. They did withdraw the National Guard agents and the guys with the guns and all that sort of stuff. And the administration, the leaders, the president, vice president, and Dr. Payne Noble, they did what they needed to do and everything was, everything was better.

36:47 So, that was another way that I was impacted by this whole thing in 1968. I have no idea about it. I said, you know, that has nothing to do with me. But it just goes to show you never know. You are not in charge of this stuff. We are all actors on stage. And we don't control the program. We don't, we don't write the script. We're not the directors and the producers. We are actors or people on stage. Um, and as we always say, God is in charge. Moving on, the men about, uh, around about, um, 2010 and 2011, Desire, you know, but that should be a monument.

37:37 Well, I alternative vote, uh, that this sponsor should recognize how great this man was and the people who helped him. Um, and so it's up them 15 years, one thought, 15 years to get the Martin Luther King Memorial Monument, uh, job and approved. Uh, and it is presently in Washington DC now. So if you have a visit, Washington DC I would encourage you, uh, to go to the Martin Luther King Island. Um, and, uh, it is the only monument for a non military person in Washington, D. C. Uh, it is the only monument for a non president, uh, who was a military person in Washington, D.

38:21 C. But the Man of Alpha did it. And just another example of, uh, the, the power and the glory of, of, of when God is in charge. Let me hasten to add. They're from an American history point of view. Um, there are basically four African American terms and basically four African American skills. So alpha is not the only one. Alpha is not the only one. In this church, You know, I sit every Sunday next to, uh, you know, a brother, uh, uh, who's retired from the LAPD, uh, who's carried out Versailles, sees each other, uh, all the time, yes, but so what if I say, where are you?

39:03 Well, where'd you learn that great stuff again? You know, where'd I go? Uh, my brother Nichols, uh, who, uh, the church we're talking about, uh, and he may not sound proud. Uh, and we teach each other, right? You know, when, when Omega celebrated their, their Founders Day, I congratulated them. So my point is that we're witnessing brotherhood within the brotherhood. That's what I'm trying to say. Uh, and this is how we get stronger and better. Uh, I was sharing with, with Margaret earlier how I had learned so much, like from podcasting and meeting the men's Sun School class. True story. In my adult, I am 76 years old. In my adult life, I have, and this is my, say, graduate from high school, I have never consistently been in a predominantly black, uh, male, group, uh, in my life until the men's sinus flu course.

40:01 Yeah, because you used to be in men's sinus flu class. That's right, because you used to be in it. Right, right, right, right. But I am never gonna. So my point is, that just being one of the predominant, and predominant men's African American clients is, is, is unique to me. Over 50 years. I graduated from medical school 50 years ago. Okay, 73rd. So, so, we continue to grow. This one of the problems. We continue to grow. It doesn't stop. We continue to grow. Okay. Almost done. Almost done. Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Bad name!

40:45 Bad name, you know, not too long ago, about 20 years ago, 50, 20 years ago, there was another big buzz going around about this tall, skinny kid from Chicago with a funny name, okay? And, uh, he had, uh, And you notice he wrote a book called Dream of My Father, which so, I mean, he also had fatherhood issues, you know, so he was, he was dealing with a lot of rights, or, what Glump and Foster all were saying, or whatever, um, you know, but anyway, he was interested in politics, leadership in politics.

41:26 And he ended up, uh, uh, running, uh, in Chicago, uh, ran against all the African Americans and lost visibly, just, just didn't like the job, but kept trying, kept trying one time, two times, I think, and then on about, I think, the second and third time, finally won that little district thing, and then used that to then get to the Senate, um, in Washington, D. C. He decided that he wanted to run for President. Now, you gotta understand what the challenge of that is, not to mention the basic challenges of him looking the way he looks, but his name is Barack Hussein Obama.

42:12 Think about that. Barack Hussein Obama. Who in the world would love a president who's not in love with that kind of name, you know what I mean? That's my point. My point is there will always be obstacles. There will always be stumbling blocks. There will always be resistance. So what? So what? If you really want to do it, you go for it. So, this guy, I started watching. Started watching. So, this is interesting.

42:52 I'm still wondering what this means. So when he, uh, decided to run for president and he was going through the process of trying to be nominated on the credit card, I said, you know what, I, I, I like, I said, but you gotta prove to me you're the real deal. Right? And I said, my proof is you gotta win an election in a predominantly white state by a reasonable Okay. I said, if you can do that, then I will. If not, you know, I'm going to stand on the sidelines and I'll wave at you and wish you well, but I'm not going to engage.

43:36 I'm not going to. He did prove that. He won the Iowa caucus. I was about 90 plus percent Caucasian, right? I said, okay, I'm in. I'm in. And so we followed him on and on and on and on. Uh, when I said we, I'm talking about my best friend who's sitting in the chat, people that are listening right now. Uh, so we, we've been following him. So, Chad, I have no value. 2007, second to uh, my best friend and I was sitting there and she and I were watching the election results.

44:16 CNN. Wolf Blitzer. Okay. Wolf Blitzer is still at CNN too. Oh, Blitzer. Wow. But he's still there. And as he announced, ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States is Barack, blah, blah, blah, blah, we saw them jumping up and down, and hugging each other, and crying, and screaming, and yelling, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then, then, I kid you not, I kid you not, she goes this kind of, I kid you not, Mild enough and wider glimpses of me and said, I want to go to the inauguration. I said, She said, I want to go to the inauguration.

44:57 I said, Do you know how many children and young kids have the inauguration? Do you really think it's that number? Ooh! Or what should we say? Then what the hell? This is going to be on the first week or the second week in January. She said, I don't care. I want to go to the inauguration. I said, Let me see what I can do. So I called up Marion, we have status with Marion, and I said, we'd like to go to the block upon inauguration the second week in January, uh, you know what can we do? Said, uh, we'll, we'll show you. I said, oh, they did get back to us.

45:39 And they said no. We have some rooms in Virginia right outside of Washington. Uh, uh, and, uh, they're, they, um, they're very, um, um, sweets, I think. Um, and, um, we got a couple rooms that are there. They said, Virginia, it's all like about 50 minutes to Washington. Get on the train, get to downtown Washington. Say three long words, get to downtown. I said, God, whoops, the best decision. ever made in my life, the best decision ever made in my life. It was like a picnic. We met people from all over the world.

46:20 Um, everybody was happy and speaking different languages and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Um, and we were there for about a week and since the inauguration I'm still up, standing in the foreground. Uh, uh, we're 16 minutes old. That's the last time I'm going to do that. We're not that far back. We're like two thirds of the way. We're there. You can't see us, but we're this far. Okay. Standing square.

47:01 Mm-Hmm. . The, there was 1.8 million people, the largest 1.8 million people. Freezing priest. Priest as a river baton. And that came off of right hill side Coalition. What started the old. that I saw. People in wheelchairs, people on crutches. Oh, I had a nerve to think, you know, who said, I can't just sing blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. I thought blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, needless to say, we were not able to talk about it for so long.

47:45 That was such a tough bill to pay me. Well, it was, it was the most relaxed, uh, strong, um, ally I've ever had. And I haven't been in a crowd basement too late. Um, the military was in control of everything. Uh, and we got to see a close up on the berets. And we could, we have a map of the berets, and we would run to the place, where the police are waiting, and sit and wait. for Michelle and Barack Obama and Casey and all that sort of stuff. And Barack was also determined, keep in mind this man gets probably a hundred to a thousand death threats per day. Think about that. Think about that.

48:27 I'm a male. Uh, I'm following up. I'm following all of them around the state of the city. That's what I say. And, uh, he, he sort of picked it up. He picked it up. And so he's determined, he's gonna get out of his car, walk down the street, Yeah. And say the end of this. Mm hmm. That's right. Right? Mm-Hmm. . What's the point? Is that threats and resistance is based on fear. Mm-Hmm. If you are afraid, if you're not afraid of data. So now Yep. Bad things happen. I'm not saying, you know, we just went through a lot of the bad things that happened, obviously.

49:09 Mm-Hmm. . But so what, so what, um, and basically that was sort of what Obama said. So what. And so, needless to say, um, the, the rest is, the rest is history. It's two, two terms. Two terms. We made it here. Mm hmm. No family in the White House, including mother, no problems, no scammers, major legislation. One of the most important pieces of legislation that I talk about all the time is the Affordable Care Act. Affordable Care Act. Yeah. What do you mean? We know that's a given. You talked about it on the show. Yes, yes I did.

49:50 And the important thing about Obamacare, particularly for those of us in the healthcare field, well, it's another thing. But one of the things it did, it forced all hospitals and all doctors offices to come to me. Without an engagement from the federal government. It wouldn't have happened without a threat saying, you know what, if we don't repudialize by XYZ day, we're going to start sending, stop sending new Medicare patients. Most hospitals and doctors offices could not survive without a Medicare and Medi Cal patients. Because the government figured out that it pays the money, who's the money? Okay, uh, so as a result, and so that was one of the big things about Obamacare.

50:34 Second big thing about Obama because it's sort of a level of play for you. Um, in this country, the biggest cause of bankruptcies is people getting sick. The only civilized country in the world that has that. Europe doesn't have it. Um, England doesn't have it. Canada doesn't have it. You know, the Asian countries don't have it because they have a centralized type of medicine. Right? Here it's harder for the most part. Now, we have Medicare and Medi Cal, but a lot of the problems is far higher. If you have money, you can afford this. If you don't have money, you can't afford this. Et cetera, et cetera. Okay, so huge talk about the health care.

51:15 Um, and the other thing that we're going to talk about a couple of weeks from now is the increased patient rights, things like the advanced direct seeing that I'm going to be your doctor and I have a duty to inform you about what you need to have done to you, you know, say operation, right? But you as a patient have a right to refuse. Even though it's Operation D? Even though it's what? Operation D. Even though it's Operation D. It's your right. That's right. So Dr. Schatz. You're a nice guy and I like you. And I like all that stuff that you've done. But I don't think so.

51:55 To not. I just don't. I mean, I choose not to do. Um, and so, so it has a tremendous fundamental effect. So. Riding down God's end chart. These are my basic principles. I start off with my beliefs and I end up with my basic principles. God is in charge of my life and has been, and you do not know the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I invite you, or I encourage you, to seek out his guidance and to follow his teachings. Uh, no bad days. I do not have bad days. I've said it before, and I figured out about 30 years ago, uh, that, uh, um, the days weren't good or bad if I said they were.

52:39 So, uh, I don't have bad days. Don't sweat the small stuff, and most stuff is small. Uh, you will find the things that you worry about and agonize over. Um, and most of the time, you have control over that, and so you can stop it. Forgiveness is therapy. When someone does or says something to you that you think is negative, or you interpret as negative, forgive them immediately. Don't try to look at the facts, just, just, just go ahead and do it. And her principle, uh, is everything is a relationship. Everything, everything, everything is a relationship.

53:21 Relationships are based on three things. Mutual respect, mutual trust, good communication. If you have those three things, you have a good relationship. If you do not, then you have a road trip. The history continues. Um, where will you be in this line of leadership? What would you do? I suggest to me to have a conversation with the person in the mirror and you decide what's best for you. But the struggle continues. The legacy continues. I suggest to you, have a conversation with the person in the mirror and say, Well, what is my voice?

54:05 Well, what am I going to do to make things just a little bit better? We all have that privilege. We all have that right. We all have that opportunity. And it goes, if you and I are completely happy with the way the world is, you be the change that you want to see in the world. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Healthy, wealthy, and Wise Podcast with Dr. William t Choctaw, md, jd. Be sure to check out other great episodes covering areas of health, wealth, and wisdom@twwp.com.

54:52 And while you're there, be sure to check out the books, blogs, and other literature in your preferred format. And don't forget to leave a review, subscribe, share. Support the podcast that's at THWWP. com you've been listening to the Healthy, Wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD.