041523 Jevin Hodge on the Importance of Local Elections (Part 2)

got a lot more show for you. We're going to talk about some of the good things that happen when people do engage in local elections. Right, So, what we've talked about so far tendencies, but we have some examples in recent history, recent weeks indeed, of folks like really knocking it out of the park. And so I'm happy to get into those stories next and hopefully we can continue to galvanize the support we need to make the world into what we want. But first and foremost, let's

talk about becoming a better ally. B a Ba Baba. Today's Baba is sponsored by Major Threads for the finest in men's sportswear check major threads dot com. And for today's allies an example of becoming a better ally, we want to shout out a couple of municipal governmental bodies. Okay, earlier in the show, we mentioned Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, the too Tennessee House representatives that were expelled, and I told you the story had a happy ending. Well, the

two were both reinstated. The Memphis Commission voted unanimously to reinstate just In Pearson this past Wednesday after he was expelled from the Tennessee State Legislature, and the Metropolitan Nashville

Council unanimously voted to reinstate Justin Jones. And so despite the Conservative majority expelling these two gentlemen from the Tennessee House of Representatives for protesting that body's inability to tackle the issue of gun violence and the proliferation of gun violence in the state, and with the recent mass shooting at the school I forget the name of the school,

but the religious school that was there. Now these other bodies have come in and reinstated them, and that I believe his true allieship, especially with the unanimous vote all these guys did was create new enemies and they didn't need them. And all they did was galvanize a community to try to fight for what's right for our children, for ourselves, for our posterity, which is our responsibility in this country. So to those two bodies, we salute you,

thank you for being the allies. Now let's talk about some positive stuff, some good things that happen when we vote local before we move on.

those have always been the hardest to rebound. Film with an apathetic tenor really being more present now than I can remember in my lifetime. I'm sure there were times in history before where that might have been the space that we lived in. But coming off of electing Barack Obama and then going into the election after he was done and really not feeling like we had a candidate that we loved. And I'm sure a lot of people

felt that way in our most recent election. In cases like yours, where you do galvanize the community and you do wake up people who might not have been participating to get that close and not cross the finish line, how do you reawaken and remotivate and re engage with people who really did believe in what you were doing and what they thought you'd be able to do for

your constituency if you were elected. When you get that close, it's not just deflating for you, it's very deflating for those who support you and for those who you know, really some i'm sure wanted you to do it again, starting back from zero, starting back from go. How do you get that community to re engage and to wake back up and to remind them that everything you sought out to do is still there to be done.

You don't always get, you know, you don't always get what you want, when you want it, how you want it. But I will say this is highlighting the victories when they come right, because, like you said, you know, even though you may lose the game by three, one of the players might have had one of the highest scoring games of their entire career, and because of that they may go off to the next level. Right, And that's what we are experiencing right now.

so like we got to highlight those victories. But I there's a quote that I live by from one of my favorite shows, West Wing. I love Wes Way and the President. Bartlett on one of the episodes said that every time that you think that you measured your capacity to challenge, you will look up and you will be reminded that the capacity may well be limited. And in this moment, you know, I thought I met that capacity

for this challenge. But you know, life still goes on in the world will continue to turn, and now we push ourselves to greater limits because we're ten times more resilient than we were when we started this process of it.

be confused with an Amber alert. Why do we need both? Please listen all right. State Senator Stephen Bradford, a Democrat, introduced Senate Bill six seventy three to quote address the often ignored or lack of attention given to black children and young black women that are missing in California.

media outlets to disseminate information about the missing person. Scores of black children are excluded excluded from Amber alerts because they are disproportionately classified as runaways compared to white children, the statement said, citing information from the Black and Missing Foundation. Black children also account for the thirty eight percent of reported missing children, even though they represent just fourteen percent

of the national population. So black children go missing at higher rates, and they are taken seriously less often by the officials. And so this gentleman Stephen Bradford is trying to introduce legislation that would create a special alert system for black people because there is a need there. Now, if you're listening to this show, we count you as an ally. This is kind of the nature and the purpose of the show that we do. So I'm so used to dealing with folks who would try to pick

this apartment like, oh, why do you need something? But listen, you understand. I just explained why we need something separate because these folks don't take a serious In fact, one of the first shows I did with iHeart Sorry with Black Information Network was a show about missing while Black. So this gentleman was elected to local office in California and decided to make changes for perhaps community or district that he represents, and to affect change with a problem

that exists in that community. And I think that this is the sort of thing, the sort of direct action that we can expect to see when we vote local. This is a positive thing because again, what is the number. It's thirty eight percent of reported missing children are black. And now we have somebody that's going to do something about it on the local level, because this isn't a federal thing yet. But you know, a lot of things like this start locally. So any thoughts on this, well.

And this is that first step, right, Like, this is that first step to changing the conversation, to utilizing the power of the pen, right to like following through on something that was brought up to him while on the campaign trail, or from an experience that he may have directly experienced, or from a constituent, and he's working to

solve this problem. And so you know, I took my hat to Center for Bradford, you know, and I think that I will be very excited to follow this because, like you said, it's just a bill right now and

it's going through the legislature in California. But I'm going to be very excited to follow this right to see the conversation, to see a dialogue that comes about it, but also to talk about the precedent that it sets, because sometimes you work to pass a law and it may not go anywhere, right, but what it does is it creates conversation that otherwise, isn't had I think that's right, and that's and that's I can't say that that's going to be the most important part of this, but it's

going to be a very important part of this process because you just gave me statistics that I didn't know. I didn't know that thirty eight percent of missing in this country were black children. I knew it was a high percentage, but you're telling me one out of every three children that go missing or black more than that, right, Like that is absolutely wholeheartedly, fundamentally ridiculous, and so it leads me very excited to see where this how this progress.

in a couple of days. Give us a call back, you know what I mean. And it's just the way that we receive all information with regards to the skin that looks like ours, the lens that we see it through. Even decent, well meaning people, right, even those who are not overtly racist and who are not making decisions in bad faith, it's just their natural implicit bias to see us through a different lens, you know what I mean.

So it's hard to not hear that in literally every story that we cover everything, you know what I mean. And like I said earlier, a lot of us have turned that off. It's intellectually beneath us to think that people look at the world that way because we've made so much progress in Barack Obama ie and man, we really got to stop blaming the man for all of our problems. And it's like, that's not what I'm saying.

I'm just saying that, without fail, everything that happens in this country, and not just in this country, but more so here than probably anywhere else in the world, things are viewed through separate lenses when your skin looks like ours, and people are more slow to act when it comes to bringing about change and helps for us when we talk about mortality rates for black women and even Latino and Hispanic and under represented people giving birth the way

that doctors treat them in the hospital was different. And I could go down the slippery slope and named every instance where that's true, but there's too many and we don't have enough time. So the look that you saw my face was like expletive again. Well, I know every time, I know.

puffed my chest out a little bit. Feel very heroic when it comes to the idea of someone doing something to our children, except in this instance, before jumping to action, I froze because my mind could not process that I was watching someone try to take my child out of my car while his mother wasn't paying attention because, of course, not not that she was actively distracted, She just, of course doesn't think somebody's going to walk up to the car, open the door with her in it and try to

take my child. But it happened, and I saw it, and I wish i'd responded, No, I don't, because if iud responded faster, I'd probably not be doing the show right now, because I'd probably be serving time for my actions in the wake of witnessing that. But as I ran back from the interest to the grocery store, back towards my car to stop this man from taking my son, I called the police. And the police showed up and

did nothing. They asked very few questions. They gave little know hope that something would be done in the aftermath, with their instructions being specifically to me, if something like this happens again, let us know. We're not going to launch an investigation. We're not going to go to see if there were security cameras. No, no, no, if it happens again, let us know outside of that. Sorry forget that. You can describe the people and their car and their car, none of that matters.

how you respond to a situation. So when you elect a mayor and a city council member that cares about their community, that is of their community, that is from their community, then when those moments come for them to decide who is leading the law enforcement agency, those individuals are going to be who decides whether we're going to appoint someone to be the chief of police that is going to take issues like this serious, or they're going to give you a card and say call me later. Right.

And so when folks say that their voice doesn't matter, when folks say that their vote doesn't matter, that you know the five hundred votes that may have decided the one election that may have been the deciding vote on who becomes the chief of police. Right makes a difference

in every person's life in that community. But we forget Sorry to cut you off, but we just forget the power because we're so inundated with everything that happens in life that we forget to zoom out and see how you know your position is so powerful in a larger context.

you can have no peace. Don't want to stay up at night wondering about what if this goes wrong? With if that goes a lot of people think it's war versus peace. No having peace in your own life, So it's something to keep in mind now, let's talk about another good thing that happened in the state of Washington. So I'll read from the Olympian. Senate lawmakers voted twenty seven to twenty one Saturday afternoon for Houseville twelve forty, which bans the purchase and sale of assault weapons in

the state of Washington. The bill was sponsored by Representative Strom Peterson, a Democrat from Edmunds, and was co sponsored by twenty five other Democratic lawmakers in the House at the request of Government j Ininsley and Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Quote, young people are taken to the streets and will hold us accountable if we don't do something, said Senator Pattie Curderer,

a Democrat from Bellevue. She goes on to say, when we're talking about mass shootings and the killing of pea people quickly and without warning, we're talking about assault weapons. And that's why we're here today. We're here to say enough is enough. So they're doing what Tennessee couldn't do because they elected the right people in the state of Washington.

So shout out to them. And then, last, but not least, I want to read another couple of neat little things that have happened, and again these are the direct result of voting in local elections. This one I'll read from Yahoo and Wisconsin, a liberal judge, Janet Otazuwitz, decisively defeated her conservative opponent, Daniel Kelly and security seat on the state Supreme Court in a race widely considered to be

the most important election of twenty twenty three. Tazuwitz's victory will give liberals a majority on the Wisconsin Court for the first time in fifteen years. This potentially offers them the opportunity to strike down a nineteenth century law banning nearly all abortions and to redraw congressional maps that have allowed Republicans to dominate the Wisconsin legislature to pipe there despite their near fifty to fifty split the vote in the state. And then lastly, I'll read this We'll get

your thoughts. And another high profile race in Chicago, the progressive candidate Brandon Jones beat the conservative Democrat Paul Vallas and the race Johnson, that is, Brandon Johnson misspoke in the race to become mayor of the nation's third largest city. The two victories come five months after Democrats overcame a prediction of a red wave in last year's mid terms. So I want to get your thoughts on and what

what it means. The Wisconsin victory and of course the victory of Brandon Johnson in Chicago.

what they were hearing, what they were saying. And Wisconsin, this is very important because the the third branch of government, the judicial system, and you know, different places do things very differently from the federal government. In Wisconsin, at the Supreme Court level, it is an elected position. What this is going to mean moving forward is when the legislature passed an unconstitutional, you know, piece of legislation, they are going to have to they are going to have a voice.

Right with the abortion law, like they are going to have a voice in the process and it's going to be respective of the community. And with Chicago, I think it goes back to you know, the most important thing here was that the folks of Chicago utilized and participated in the election, and you saw the outcomes as a result. Right, the Chicago election was two very different folks and you know,

from very different wings of the ideological spectrum. H And the people showed up, the people showed out, and they utilized their vote. And now they have a mayor elect that is going to be supportive of their community.

it was. All right. Here we go the site of the graceful Americans soaring victory in the long jump and His Olympic record wins in the one hundred and two hundred meter dashes and four hundred meter relay put the lie to der Furre's simplistic myths about race time noted in nineteen eighty. Jesse Owens's triumphant showing in the nineteen thirty six Berlin Olympics famously put a stake through the

supposed claims of Aryan racial superiority. But despite Owens's record breaking success both on and off the field, his achievements were not widely lauded by the American public at the time. Quote Hitler didn't snub me. It was our President FDR who snubbed me, unquote, the twenty three year old Owens told a crowd upon his return to the States. He goes on to say the President didn't even send a

telegram yet. On August third, nineteen thirty six, an unlikely friendship began to develop between the German born track star Carl Ludwig Luz Long and Owens, and while Mith shrouds the story of whether Long gave Owens crucial advice before his third and final opportunity to qualify for the long jump finals, Gammers captured the budding friendship as Long strode over to Owens and embraced him. Quote, it took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front

of Hitler. Owens later said in an interview, you can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty four carrot friendship. I felt for Lud's Long at that moment. Hitler must have gone crazy watching us embrace. Quote. After besting Long and taking home the gold in the long jump, Owens was famously photographed saluting the American flag. Long stood behind

him offering the Nazi salute. I think I might give him a pass on that one, because you know, the two remain friends, keeping in contact as much of the world plunged into war. Long was stationed with the German Army in North Africa before being killed in action on July fourteenth, nineteen forty three, during the Allied invasion of Sicily, and his last letter to Owen, Owens, Long, seemingly aware of his impending fate, wrote quote, my heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the

last letter I shall ever write. If it is so I ask you something. It is a something so very important to me. It is you go to Germany when this war is done. Someday find my karl Kai and tell him about his father. Tell him Jesse, what times were like when we were not separated by war. I am saying, tell him how things can be between between

men on this earth. Quote. In nineteen fifty one, Owens traveled to Germany to meet Long's then ten year old son Kai, fulfilling his promise to indeed tell the young boy how things could be. Owens eventually served as best man at Kai's wedding, and the two families remain in contact to this day. So that's a shorter one. Normally we go a little bit longer. But I do want to read the letter in its entirety because I think it's very powerful. This is kind of one of those

things that makes me me, it makes you. I think it makes all of us who we are, right, the fact that we believe that we can make things better without making them worse for other people. I don't even think that's a real thing. And we do believe that people who don't look like us are our brothers or our sisters or however they identify I personally. I'll speak for myself. I don't want to stay another man's grief.

But I believe that we are all endowed with consciousness from the same creator, whoever you decide that creator to be. We come from that source, we return to that source. This is my belief. So this story speaks to me. I want to read this letter to you. It starts I am here, Jesse, where it seems there is only the dry sand and the wet blood. I do not fear so much from myself, my friend, Jesse. I fear from my woman, who is home, and my young son, Carl,

who has never really known his father. Ouch. My heart tells me, if I be honest with you, that this is the last letter I shall ever write. If it is so, I ask you something. This is something so very important to me. It is you go to Germany when the war is done. Someday find my Carl and tell him about his father. Tell him, Jesse, what times were like when we were not separated by war, I am saying, tell him how things can be between men

on this earth. If you do this something for me, this thing that I need the most to know, will be done. I do something for you. Now, I tell you something I know you want to hear. And it is true that hour in Berlin, when I first spoke to you, when you had your knee upon the ground, I knew that you were in prayer. Then I know not how I know now I do. I know it is never by chance that we came together. I came to you that hour in nineteen thirty six for purpose

more than der Berlin or olympiad. I think that's German and you, I believe will read this letter. While it should not be possible to reach you ever, for purpose more even than our friendship. I believe this shall come about because I think now that God will make it come about. This is what I have to tell you, Jesse. I think I might believe in God, and I pray to Him that even while it should not be possible for this to reach you ever, these words I write

will still be read by you. Your brother lose Wow. So I don't see how we can't act like brothers and sisters when there is a bona fide Nazi looked past all that crap, befriended this man and adopted his belief structure. I'll call it in a moment when I'm sure he was dealing with a great deal of hopelessness. And that connective tissue between human and human is the tie that binds us all. In my belief, I think

there's more that binds us and separates us. And I love today's way Black History fact because it speaks to them.