Welcome to another episode of Civic Sidefer. I'm your host, Ramses.
Josh.
They called me q Warden. That just so happens to be my name, Ramses. Going on, what up though?
Man, it's a it's a cold world.
It's a cold world.
Shout out to Texas one time, but we're gonna get there.
Prayers up for Texas, man.
But you know what, a lot of things in the news, a lot of things we have to talk about. This is still, of course, Black History Months, so I want to get to some more Black History because we haven't had a chance to do as much as I would have liked so far this month.
But first order of business, I wanted to take a moment.
To discuss what's happening with our Asian brothers and sisters. So I came across something this week and have a couple of times in recent months that illuminated an uptick in hate crimes against Asian American And one thing that I recall from our time on the streets, you know, my era of the Civil rights movement, if you will, was that out on the streets, I saw people who were Native American, I saw people who were Jewish, I
saw people who were seek. I saw people who were of course Mexican and you know, all across the board.
And you know what else I saw.
I saw Asian people out there too, signs that say Black Lives Matter, and they were out there supporting.
Our cause.
And I want to make sure that we keep that same energy when it comes time for us to support our age brothers and sisters. And so, if you're listening to my voice right now and you got something that you need to talk about, you got some funk that you want to air out, this is a space that we want to share with you as well. You know,
we rise in solidarity. We're all in this together. And you know, I know that a lot of folks have made the connection with you know, Donald Trump, the former president, calling COVID nineteen the China virus uh and there being an association with like hate crimes against Asian Americans.
And so we the Black Delegation.
Hill will officially, you know, put our hat in the ring or officially declare this to shared space for our.
Asian brothers and sisters.
If you want to come up and talk about it, you know, just hit the website. So if excited for dot com reach out to me or Q. Let us know what's going on and let's talk about it. Let's have some therapy, and let's let's teach each other how to be better allies. I'm not gonna forget the energy that I felt out there, and so you know, this is and this is what we created from that, and this is an opportunity we can share that with. So
I wanted to make sure I got that off. Another thing I wanted to say was I was fortunate enough this week to speak for a community college up in black Staff. I was They had an event for a Black History Month, and you know, they invited me to come and speak and just kind of share my thoughts on you know the world and you know what leadership
looks like when you live in black skin. And the theme of my message was leading with love and you know, so big shout out to everybody that you know, uh listened to me, you know, give my presentation to that to that college. But something came up during that presentation and it had to do with cancel culture. They asked, you know, what my take on cancel culture was, and I came up with an answer that I thought.
Was appropriate.
And I want to just kind of share my thoughts again today with respect to cancel culture. So I recognize that, you know, cancel culture especially you know, so on this show we talk about leaving a space in the narrative for there to be some forgiveness, right, and that is inconsistent with the spirit of cancel culture. You know, you can't cancel someone out and forgive them at the same time.
The two approaches are incompatible, know, and so if I had to choose one, obviously I'm gonna leave some space in the narrative for there to be some forgiveness. But I also recognize that as the ultimate consequence, to cancel someone certainly works as a deterrent for some folks, you know, to recognize, hey, there might be some consequences for the things that I say and the things that I do. I think that a lot of times, you know, we're we have that mob mentality.
Perhaps it's rightfully so, but there is.
A mob mentality sometimes when something bad happens to someone and everyone jumps on board to try to you know, seek justice, immediate justice and you know, remedy the situation brings some balance to the universe. But I think that when the first move is to just cancel someone out. I think that what we end up doing, unfortunately, is creating a dividing line where Okay, you've committed this sin against me, and I want nothing to do with you anymore.
And then whoever has committed the offense is on the opposite side of a line. And you know, the easiest thing for them to do is double down on why they are right, as opposed to acknowledging that they made a mistake. We haven't left the room in the narrative for them to come back and say, listen, I made a mistake. I apologize, and then you know every day after that they're going to be a supporter, a cheerleader,
a champion for our cause. What we've done is created a bona fide, long term enemy out of them by canceling them. And a lot of times these folks, when they get canceled, they will seek other folks that either have been canceled themselves or hold an opposing view of how the world should be. And then they find comfort in community in these small circles, and then they're that hatred and that divisiveness that tends to fester. And then
because their strength and numbers, they become stronger. So the more people we cancel out popular culture and out of our you know, work circles and out of everything, the more we're creating a stronger.
Enemy, if you will.
And so I just thought it was important that that be stated, because you know, I see a lot of that happening, and I recognize that, you know, we only have two cheeks. So when I when you got to turn the other cheek, that's a that's a tall order, but more often than not, it's the right thing to do, which is why I turn the other cheeks sounds so familiar to you. That's wisdom that's been around a lot longer than Ramses has been around. But you know, I've
never heard anybody say turn two cheeks. And so you know, there should be some ultimate consequences. And so for folks who you know very much believe that cancel culture has created.
A little bit more mobility with respect to the cause.
I'm not saying that cancel culture doesn't have its place, or canceling folks doesn't have its place, but I think that if we relegated it to simply just the ultimate consequence, that if we took some steps before we canceled, some folks out that we would end up.
Perhaps creating more allies.
Than long term enemies. Just my thoughts, you know. And you know, if you want to debate me, you know you know where to find me again, civiccipher dot com. You want to check it out. Two things I definitely wanted to get off. So yeah, and then now we have to talk about big news, which is man, I feel like we're gonna this is gonna be a full frontal on capitalism.
But how dare you speak against what makes this country great?
Well?
I don't know that capitalism is what makes the country great. I think that the things that the country does right, Uh, you know, I wouldn't put capitalism in that in that group.
There's not a how dare you well? Listen another thing that I could deal against, the great capitalism that makes America great.
Q's being funny if you haven't picked up on the sarcasm.
Here before and again.
But listen listen, just because some folks might, you know, agree with what Q is joking about. The capitalism is great and the ultimate decider and the force, the invisible force that guides you know, all things that are true and just in the world. It doesn't mean that it
can't be improved upon, that it can't be better. You know, So for those folks who champion capitalism, who have drank the kool aid, if you will, it doesn't mean that you can't include some ideas from communism, socialism, marxistm you know, you name it, you know, because all of these ideas were born out of folks trying to do better for their countries.
You know, they were trying to do something.
And you know, granted there's a lot of corruption that happens, but I mean, obviously we're seeing right now that there's a lot of corruption in a capitalistic society too, you know, so there's nobody who is free of sin. And so just because there are folks who are champion capitalism doesn't mean that it cannot be improved upon. That there are things that we can't pick and choose and create something that's new.
You know.
For those folks who are super all American, we can call it americanalism. You know, let's just make it work for everyone.
And then we're good.
But the reason we're talking about this is because, of course, what we've seen in Texas and this has kind of been on our minds for some time.
It's really sad.
And the thing is, you know, we're based in Phoenix, and we have a lot of listeners in Texas too, but we're based in Phoenix, and so there's a bit of a kinship between you know, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico. We're all in the Southwest, and so there's a part of this that doesn't feel too distant, too far away from what could happen to me in my home with my family and my children. But there's a very different culture that exists in Texas that is very self assured,
very self confident. You know, Texans just got it figured out. They got it right. In the great State of Texas. You know, there's this attitude there.
And it's it's very reflective of America. You know what is it.
Uh, folks are really patriotic and they think America is the best place in the world. What's that called nationalism? American exceptionalism, nationalism?
THERETI is.
A similar attitude in Texas too, where you know, Texas is the best and nobody can you know, no one's on their level. And you know, for a lot of folks, that's fine, you know, that's that's great.
And it should you should feel that way. You know, I've been to Texas.
I like that place because Texas is dope. But I think that now is a great opportunity for us to see the shortcomings and and the places where maybe Texas is not so great. And I think that, you know, that nationalism is kind of learn that.
What we'll do is we'll look at the US and say, oh, the US does this great.
We have the biggest military, we have the you know whatever, we have all the biggest companies and you know whatever it is that folks see and they'll ignore the shortcomings because it hasn't affected them.
Or you know whatever.
Well, in Texas, that exceptionalism has caught up to them, because how great is the state of Texas now? When Texas can't take care of its people, when its senator jumps on an airplane to go to Cancun, when folks are literally freezing to death in their homes, and again where we are not a far cry from that. And then the reason why this is important on this program is because I forget which which side of town north, southeast or west, but I think it was Austin, and
the it will just say east. I might be wrong, but the east side of Austin, Texas was like primarily like black an American, that was the black side of town, if you will. And that whole side of town the lights are off and there's no electricity, and then there's you know, electricity elsewhere. There's in the city center, of course. And on the other side of town.
I think that was Houston. Houston, was it okay? So Houston, maybe not Austin.
You had the corporations that are lit up, empty office buildings lit up warm, and like you said, the community where you know, black and brown people live, no power, no electricity, no heat, nothing. Some of those places do have gas, however, so you got people trying to heat their homes with the stove. And then you have those same people having to be rushed to the hospital because of carbon monoxide poisoning, having to choose, you know, the
simpler of two ways to die, hypothermia or poison. That's the choice their government is leaving them to make. Is they've deregulated their power grid, and the way that the citizens of that state receive power is deregulated to a point where those companies are seeing mass profits now as their people are dying, literally freezing to death babies. You know people, you know Pita, and you know, people do a lot of pretending to be outraged by the way
that animals are treated. They have animals too, and you know those people are suffering, and they've given power to private corporation to take over things like utilities. Google the word utility and you'll understand why private corporations shouldn't be in charge of that, and why should people shouldn't be
left to freeze. People who are paying their bills on time, people who have always paid the bills on time, are suffering, and those corporations are seeing massive profits because of shortages. There's no incentive for them to swiftly act or change infrastructure or do anything that's for the benefit of the people that they're supposed to serve. This is for profit capitalism.
So another.
Crazy part about this is that usually when stuff like this happens, it tends to disproportionately affect black and brown people, as black folks and brown folks make up the two largest minority groups in this country and rarely do problems affect white folks in the same way, which is part of the reason why they show exists so that there's you know, a little bit of more of a voice in the in the media landscape with respect to you know, issues that affect you know, black folks.
Interesting point, however, especially in a place like Texas, where people you know, made a big deal at the last election about the state being turned blue because it's always been red. The really strange thing about the demographics of the biggest cities in Texas, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, is that they're predominantly blue. It's just as is true throughout
the South, very very difficult to vote there. That is not by mistake either, Right, So, not just the problems of black and brown people, but the problems of poor people across the board, Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, the problems of poor people and our lack of ability to unite on those fronts because of the very divisive rhetoric that's been ingrained into us for hundreds of years. Right, So, you have working forces upholding what benefits, upholding what benefits
the corporations rather than what benefits labor. The labor is fighting to uphold what benefits the corporation, and instead of the labor, you have poor white people that vote for laws and legislation that benefits rich white people because they just see themselves as white and pretended that very large
gap in financial equality doesn't exist. Right, So, if you convince a population of people that their problems are external, especially when you can point to another group of people and say, only things that are holding you back are those criminals over there, those people that are stealing your jobs and trying to rape your wives and trying to rob you and steal from you, and whatever the case, those criminals over there, those people are the only things
that are holding you back. I know I have significantly more than you, but you can do this too, if you just work hard. If you just work hard, you can reach the point that I'm at. I know, not you or your grandfather or your great grandfather have ever had wealth. But if you just work hard, you'll be the one that gets here to where I am.
And you keep them out of your way, correct, you know?
So you know, when you speak about the problems that disproportionately affect black people, those same issues disproportionately affect poor people. Except when you can convince a large population of a large segment of that poor population that these things that are happening to them are not supposed to be happening to them. However, they are supposed to be happening to that group over there because they just inherently deserve it. You create a divide that maintains the power, wealth and
control of a very very very small minority. How about that, And the vast majority of people will vote, fight and empower legislation, peticians and laws against their own best interest in the name of uphoping, upholding this wonderful American dream that has the best marketing strategy and the history of Earth ever.
So, uh, you know something that I think is.
We'll call it interesting, is that in a place like Texas, you can really get off this idea that climate change is a hoax. You could have a week ago, right, You have a hard time come kid off now, right, because people got snow in their driveways, right, So it's a little different these days. But people that don't own coats because you because you live in Houston.
I know.
So you know the way I figure it is even that idea, not to cut you off, but even the idea of climate change, we used to call it very flagrantly global warming. Client climate change is like the PC version, right, So instead of just speaking on racism, we speak on racial injustices, like more vanilla, more water down, you know, more accepted words that don't trigger people and make them
feel less guilty. Well said, we can't even agree on global warming, something that should be extremely nonpartisan.
Like we all on this planet together.
Yeah, man, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole.
But no, but that's that's what're you're goodness.
The thing is like the folks that think that global warming is a myth perpetuated by the Chinese government to hinder American industry.
Or perpetuated by Democrats, because you know, that's the that's the easy punch to throw.
What we what we find out now is you know, you know it's Cuba saying.
There's a lot of people or maybe not a lot of people, but a handful of people say that who made a lot of money over the years off of these utilities.
And completely ignoring the.
Risks to you know, their power grid because there's no fiscal incentive for them to do it.
You know, they've elected people who.
Have these bizarre views of science, the same science that has produced the richness.
In this capitalistic society.
All of a sudden is not good enough when it comes to hey, we should probably reinforce these levees, you know in Louisiana, we should probably you know, deal with our power, whatever whatever it is.
And that school of thinking isn't new, right, that the science makes it very difficult for you to justify your very very sol fish and and and and when you think and operate in a way that's designed to only help you, you come up with ways to try to justify it because you don't want to just say I'm a selfish, awful person, So you have to you have to ignore very obvious truths that hit you in the face, like science. It's the reason why people used to use
religion to justify slavery. It's the reason why people to this day and for thousands of years have used religion to justify war, right when even then it was just we want the land and the resources that you have. Our God is greater than yours, and because of that, we are henceforth entitled to this area. And then you know, you convince the people that follow you we're doing the work of God so that they don't feel guilty for murdering and taking from people. So you and a lot
of these cases that choice to ignore science. It's very very intentional. It's not new. We just have way more information available to us now, so some of these things are way more obvious. But through throughout time we've ignored truths for the justification of awful acts. Right, pretending that electricity isn't finite, It has to be created. They don't just plug a plug into earth and power comes out, right, So that very very irresponsible thing they did to deregulate
power in Texas so they could maximize profit. They did not see this coming. But if they jump on TV, then they have to be held responsible because they did that. They elected the position that they're in, not the people, but the people that represent them, the people that they vote for, the people that they continue to vote for. How about that Ted Cruz just one again.
Be better? Yeah?
So, and he's a favorite for or they're they're talking about him running for president in twenty.
Four would not surprise me at all a little bit, you know. So I don't typically jump in when Rams is talking because I love listening to him talk. But he keeps saying things that make a light bulb pop up in my head, and I like, yo, I have to say this out loud because it's painful and it's difficult, and you know, we try to keep the show as light as possible, but man, we talk when we're not on the mic about the idea that our country are.
Our fellow citizens keep providing us with very very necessary things to talk about that happen to be simultaneously very very difficult things to talk about.
And you know that I think that the most flagrant thing of all, because okay, let's say, for instance, let's play Devil's advocate. Let's say, for instance, you know, they deregulate their power grid and they just figured they got it all figured out, you know, and it's Texas, so they don't anticipate whatever you know, you know, the environmental impact studies or not impact but environmental studies or whatever
it is. Whatever information they had led them to believe that, you know, maybe this is an unlikely event, so this will maximize the amount of revenue and whatever. And let's say that nobody has a complaint about.
That and give them that credit to ramses like, you don't expect arctic winter in Houston, so we'll give them. We'll give us all just like we don't expect earthquakes here or hurricanes, So we'll do that.
What will surprise me is that.
The Republican Party in this country. Now it makes sense that I would be critical of the Republican Party for a lot of reasons.
You know. But if I just took what's happened in my life in the past.
Year, only six months, you.
Know, and and I stacked everything up democratic versus Republican, and I didn't get any crazy conspiracy baby blood drinking theories from any weird websites. I like, looked at reputable news sources, associated Press to the New York Times, you know, the Wall Street Journal, you know what, reputable sources.
No one did some actual scholastic and academic research.
I've watched the interviews, and you know, and I had a degree of trust in the collective uh operating in good faith. Sure sure, and and and and the collective voice of the media you know online and written of reputable sources that have been around.
Since before I was born.
In most cases, nothing that popped up online in the past two three, four years, you know, nothing like that, just real solid. If I just took that, and I took everything that was true of the Republican Party and I stacked that against everything that was true of the Democratic Party, good and bad.
And there are bad, there are good and bad from both.
Right, there's no way in the world, as a human being endowed with consciousness from a Christian God, with a Bible that says plainly all of these ideas and all these these these philosophies and these anecdotes and these messages, there's no way that I could look at the Republican Party and say this is the group of folks that I will align myself with morally, and I will vote along these party lines.
It would be impossible to do it.
At no point have they even given a valiant account of themselves. And that's further illustrated by the fact that one of the foremost folks in the Republican Party at this point, the foremost names, is Ted Cruz, who.
Just so happens to be a senator from Texas and of all places.
And the funny part about it is if he's literally have people dying in their homes, it's a state of emergency. There's no electricity in the middle of like an arctic what is it an Arctic winter or whatever it's called.
A Once in a lifetime winter storm.
There it is okay, and he hops on a plane to hold on. So the other day there was an impeachment trial for Donald Trump.
The trial was to ensure that Donald Trump.
Lost his Secret Service protection so that we the taxpayers no longer have.
To ex pension that we also have to pay for.
And he is not no longer eligible to run again in this country. Right, And fortunately there were some Republicans that voted to impeach him, but not enough. And you know, I guess no one. That really didn't surprise anyone, because we see over and over again that Republicans have no moral ground and are very comfortable with that fact, and the folks that support them do not require them to have any morality whatsoever.
And that's why that's true in every form of relationship. Sure, so I.
Guess right now what I'm doing is I'm speaking to any potential on the fence votes or maybe even any Republicans who might tune in to hear what the other side is talking.
And this is where I say, my brother is so much more fair and is so much better human being than me, because the idea that anybody's on the fence still to me just seems like a ridiculous concept.
It does.
But you know, I so in the sows far more grace and understanding than me. And that's why he's better as a human than I am. Because you're on the fence steel right, like you're still trying to figure You're still trying to figure this out.
Well, watch this, watch this.
So the beginning of or I think it was the last show that we did of twenty twenty hawd a friend of mine come up. His name was Ian. His name is Ian. He's still alive. So Ian came up. And the reason I wanted Ian to come up is because he's a small business owner. He is I think he's a good decent person. You know, he's reasonably aware
of what's happening politically and otherwise in the world. He is the sort of person who you would want supporting you if you had anything to speak about that had to do with, you know, your.
Government, right.
And he once upon a time we were having a conversation before Kim on the show, and he said, you know what what I like to do is I like to listen to a little bit of NPR when I'm in the car. But I'm not opposed to watching a little bit of like Fox News or something like that. He said, He's like, I like to make sure I have a well rounded view, and it seems like these guys are a little bit more leaning in that way. These guys are a little bit more leaning in this way.
But I want to make sure that I have all the information. And what I found is that, you know, he it might be because he was talking to me and I have a huge afro and I have brown skin that he was he seemed like he was like, you know what, if I take everything, I find that overall, where I find my decisions on how I want to feel about something, they tend to align more with the democratic way of thinking than the republic in way of thinking. But I wouldn't call myself either, right, And I think
that's true. I don't think he said that because I'm me, because it's really easy, Like the truth is pretty loud, you know. And you know, we're all human beings from the same creator, you know, And so yeah, I think that largely we know how to behave. We are taught to behave in different ways. Because children they tend to get along pretty good, you know, it's when they get taught different stuff and they get older that they start acting crazy. But the point I was making earlier was.
For those folks like Ian who maybe you know, they still kind of operate in that way.
You know, sometimes they want their independence, They want to vote for this candidate sometime and that candidate the other time.
Whatever, you know.
In this impeachment trial, Mitch McConnell, who is like the head Senate the h and I see and the Senate you know what I mean or HWIC I don't know how it would describe that, but for the for the Senate Republicans, this guy votes to acquit Donald Trump and immediately after voting to acquit suggests it says he didn't suggest that he set it out right like he was a dude, was responsible for this attack on the Capitol.
And then he had this thing that he said was like, we can't impeach someone who's left office, which is not true. There's case precedent for that having happened in this country before for an elected position, and that was argued initially when during the opening argument, so he was there and heard it. Other reports that I heard from that hearing was that folks were like doodling scribbling on their phone, you know, not really paying attention.
Fifteen of the senators that voted, we're not even there for the opening argument, and then they got to vote and got to vote steal. And of course we know how they voted because they don't actually care.
Right about what's fit like. That's the thing.
Even if you're like yo, I however you feel, you know, if we're gonna do something fair, you you you elect these people to show up.
They represent your interest.
You want someone in there doing a fair job, right, do the right, do the right job. If I'm guilty and someone's gonna, you know, do their job, then I should expect you know that that party. If I'm innocent, I should you know what I mean, provided the person is doing their job. Anyway, these guys, like you said, they didn't even show up. They weren't paying attention. They were just completely disconnect They knew.
They were going to vote, They made up their mind before they heard any evidence, so chose not to hear any evidence.
And Republican voters.
Look at this. They look at the behavior of you know, Mitch McConnell and these other Republicans. They look at the behavior of just the right it's turned into this really ugly like all the things that they think that black people are, they're that on full display for the world, those people, and they'll never take ownership of.
Those people storm the United States Capital, those people occupied, They occupied the United States Capital. It's they murdered a police officer. Hard stop.
He is no longer alive. They have to bury that man.
I'm not talking about stealing out of Naci Pelosi's office, which is a federal offense, stealing from a federally owned property. I'm not talking about things that they might consider petty and right office. Those people were just upset when we were just upset. We weren't even they didn't want us to even be outside. But those people were just so tired of being ignored. And whatever their reasoning is, I've heard a lot of really sympathetic reasoning to explain and
justify the behavior that we saw. But those people stormed the capital of the country you pretend to love, and murdered someone. And I don't think it was in the news for a week. I didn't see the Blue Lives Matter of people marching upset that this officer was murdered. Because when you're part of the group that murdered the officer. You can't also march angrily against yourself for having murdered
the officer. The rhetoric, the justification of things that the day before they would have argued, they would have violently argued in support of. Once they crossed that line to the other side, even if you call them out on it, you can show them the recording of them saying how boring it was when Black Lives Matter protesters were in the street, not at the capitol, not inside the capitol, not inside the speaker of the Houses office, not murdering anyone.
So yeah, what we're seeing is the fact that their twenty twenty showed us that there.
Was two Americas. It was on full display, as you said, for everyone.
But you know, to conclude anyone who can still have their beliefs their morality, because I believe that you.
Vote your beliefs, you vote your morals. Anyone who still have their morals aligned with.
Some people vote fiscally. A lot of people vote fiscally or justify the lack of morals by hey, this is what was best for me and my family financially.
Sure, I think you can make an argument that if you vote for if you vote fiscally, that's definitely a reflection of your morals, you know, correct to make that argument, you know, it's hard to get that off around here. I mean with me around here you probably get it off, but with me specifically, I put the responsibility always squarely in your lap.
You listening to my voice. You vote for the world that you want to live in. And if you vote for Donald Trump, then you're an extension of Donald Trump. You're an extension of trump Ism and Donald Trump's impact on my life.
You know, you were the conduit for it, you know.
And that's not to say that we're enemies, but that is to say that you know that that's not something that we're going to pretend didn't happen.
We have to have the conversation start.
There, but again with the Republican Party on full display, and there their morals and individually and as a party on full display, when folks are dying in their homes and and Ted Cruz, you know, the the top dog in Texas hop in a flight to Cancom Like, man, it's a little cold around here, let me go somewhere warm.
It's just a it was a bad look and order he took his family.
And order the police escort.
That's a bad list.
Houston Police. Make sure I get to my flight safety and safely and expeditiously.
Y'all hang back when I get on this plane, you know, take some secret service with me or whatever.
But you know, so.
You know, at the end of the day, any of those you know, moderates or Republicans listening, just know that you know, this is how the world looks, and you know, hopefully you'll find your moral center at some point and recognize it's not so bad over here, you know, come over.
Here where the love is.
We got so much love for you, you know what I'm saying. Help us shape a world where everybody can be just a little bit warmer, especially our brothers and sisters in Texas. You never know here in Phoenix, we might be next, you know. So we're gonna keep preaching that love and you know, doing what we do.
So I don't know if this is a hard pivot, but you know, I do want to preach a little bit more love. Folks that watch the show, you might know that I got vaccinated, fully vaccinated.
Now, so I'm in the streets, mask off future.
He's steal in the street mask on. But that's how he feels.
Well.
You know, I'll be talking to people and they just talking at me and they spit missed particles be coming into my eyeballs and I'm like, yeah, run it. So gripping the gas pump, no glove, don't gotta use my shirt to open the door.
You know what I'm saying.
It's back in the game. But you know, I thought it was important to provide an update for you know, the vaccine. If for those of you who want to check it out, it's on my social media if you look up at Rams's jaw. It's on all platforms. So if you're on Facebook or whatever, anything except I think Snapchat because it deleted. Don't don't look me up on Snapchat. Yeah, just don't. I don't ready post nothing on nerves and everything is deleted itself anyway, everything else. Look up Ramsey's
job you'll be able to see. I got both my vaccinations. I got them in out here in Arizona. There's a cardinal stadium called.
The University of Phoenix. Thank you you know stuff about sports. I like you you know stuff.
Anyway, I went there twice and got both my vaccinations every twenty one days apart. And one thing that a lot of folks want to know about is side effects. So let's talk about side effects. I first went got my first vaccination.
It was in the middle of it.
I was like four am. I had to wait in a line in my car. It was very well exceptionally well organized. Just they just funnel you through. You got your your your barcode or whatever. For those who don't know, we have a Q and I have a nonprofit and we worked with homeless people and you know, at populations at risk for COVID nineteen and so we were kind of able to.
Get in there, but drove through the line, got up to the front.
And I'm not a person who's like really comfortable with needles. I'm not uncomfortable with them either, So I'm kind of like in the middle.
I don't like them, like I'm looking forward.
To it, but you know, I'm definitely aware of somebody sticking something into my body anywhere, even if it's in my mouth, you know what I mean, Like when they put the little wood like popsicle sticking.
And don't even talk about the nasal test.
It's wet.
The vaccination I didn't even feel it the first first one I got, or the second one, I didn't feel it. It's I don't know if it's a super small needle or whatever. But they gave me the shot and it's so quick and they popped me and then we're popped like that, and then they took it back out right and I felt the pressure, but I didn't feel the pinch.
Didn't feel it at all.
And I'm like, oh man, you could see in the video like I didn't react until.
I felt the pressure from the the.
Like the hand, I guess or whatever it was the force, you know, but the pinch of the needle, I didn't feel it. I'm just saying that because I need people to know this. There was a lot of folks out here were very concerned about this vaccine for one reason or another. Anyway, got the first vaccine, hung out, no
side effects, didn't feel a thing. I felt like a superhero because you know, I was, you know, just feeling accomplished, feeling like I was kind of toward the tail end of this season in my life of having to stay home, having to be massed up, and you know, not really being able to.
Get close with folks.
Waited the three weeks and then went back to get my second appointment, and if I'm honest, the second vaccine was great. Didn't feel a thing just like the first time. But the day after I got the vaccine, I had a bit of a headache. And I'm not a headache person. I don't really get a lot of head I'm not a sickly person. I don't really get sick that often. I get sick of people's mouth if you run up on me. But like, outside of that, you know, I'm fine.
So that headache, I'm like, oh, you know, maybe there's a maybe there's something going on here, but you know, I laid down and took it easy, you know, And that was that. And then I want to say, maybe the day after that. So now we're two days from the vaccine. I had a bit of a running nose, I had the sniffles. Right At no point were there any aches in my body. At no point was there any you no pains or you know, I never felt
like I couldn't breathe or anything like that. I had a bit of a running nose, I had a headache, neither of which I can say definitively is a side effect from the vaccine, but the timing, would you know, and I have to us yeah, and I have to be honest, but you know, in Arizona, you know, it's it's not as cold as it once was, so you know, in the daytime there's dust and there's a lot of dust out here, so you know, allergies act up, you know, that sort of stuff. But you know, for the next
two days, I kind of took it easy. I really didn't have a lot going on because I you know, I got my vaccine like midweek, I want to say, or whatever, so I didn't.
Really have a whole lot to do or no, it was just before the weekend. That was it. And so going into the weekend, I didn't have a lot going on. So and that was that.
And I think it's important to share this because you know a lot of folks that are scared of the side effects will say things like, oh man, you know, once you figure out, you know, so I didn't grow another arm.
You know, there was nothing like that.
And then during this time, because I'm studying it, I'm knowing that I'm gonna have to share this On the radio, I recognized, or rather I read and then recognized what
was happening in my body. So what it is and the reason why we got the vaccine so quick is, once upon a time, what we had to do was create through maybe breeding is the best term or whatever, but we had to create a weakened version of a virus, and then the weakened version would be injected into our bodies, and then our bodies would learn how to fight off that weekend version, so the weekend version wouldn't kill us. And this is what happened with things like polio, and
this is why it took years to develop these vaccines. Well, science and technology has advanced to the point where now we can simulate just a piece of the virus enough to give our body the instructions to fight it, and synthesize that and inject us with that. So there's no dead virus, there's no weakend virus. It's just a synthetic mRNA strand for those of you familiar with the way DNA works, you know or living the code for living creatures works. So it's a synthesized mRNA band that's injected
into our body. Our body recognizes it and then tries to fight it off, right, and you know, most folks when they do have side effects, it's after the second injection. And what it is is your body is it sees this new invader. It's it's fake, it's not real. So at no point am I actually sick, right, But my body is trying to flush what it thinks is a disease from my body. Right, so I'm not not at risk at all. There's nothing going on, but my body
sees it. It's like, haha, let's learn how to fight this. And so it's developing all the defenses and so forth. So my body is flushing out and this is you know, some running nose thing. My body's diverting resources to attack this. So this is why maybe there's less you know, I get a headache because my brain doesn't need these resources right now. My belly needs resources to fight off this whatever.
You know, I'm not sure clearly, I don't sound like a doctor or medical professional, but something like this is what happens. And so if you have side effects, that's a sign that it's working, that your body is building the immunity. Your body has recognized that there's a foreign body object in there. It's developing the defense for it. And your immune system is responding accordingly, And so I wanted to say that just so that we were all on the same page that I am a living, breathing
human being. Rams's jaw right. I got both vaccines. I got video proof of it. I got my vaccine card. Okay, And if you feel so inclined, you know, I feel like you should get the vaccine.
You know.
There's nothing the most that I could say. And I'm really stretching here, I'm really reaching. I had a bit of a headache one day and then the next day I had a bit of a running nose, you know, And I'll take that over a two week about with the coronavirus any day.
Of the week. Yeah, I had that two weeks about it ain't it ain't what you want at all. And shout out to you for already having got the vaccine. My registration has been difficult enough for I've just given up multiple times. But I will see it through because I am someone who also wants to feel safer, more
comfortable around my children. I am the person in the household who does sometimes have to get out here and interact with people, and having no idea how responsible or careful they are, there is always a little bit of tension and discomfort with man. I hope I'm not bringing anything home to my babies, So shouts to you for that and hopefully I will be following in your footsteps here soon. Did you get a chance to read about the experiment the monopoly experiment that I mentioned to you?
Okay, start me off, So.
This is another pivot. The University of California at Berkeley did a experiment using the game of Monopoly to highlight a couple of things. One thing they wanted to know is if people who had more were more likely to help or if people that had less were more likely to help others, and if it affected the way that they thought socially with regards to, you know, just doing things to help people that have less than they do
or that just need help. They also wanted to see if there would be an acknowledgment of the head start that was get disparity. So to make it more clear to our listeners, they did a Monopoly game or somebody in the game that person that everyone else knows that they have an advantage. They have more money when they their turn, they roll more dice, when they pass go, they get a greater.
Actually, I know what it was was one person gets to play the game by the rules, and then other people get a play. They only get to roll one dice, they only get when they pass go.
No, this was like that, but it was it was. It was actually the opposite. Everybody plays by the rules. This one person has very flagrant advantages, and they're starting the game off with more money. They're rolling three dice instead of two.
They feel like, yeah, when.
They passed go, they get more money, and of course that person wins. But when that person wins, they give their strategy as the reason they won. In almost every case, the person that won, given every advantage, explained that they won because of themselves, the strategy to them that they used. And they also measured and paid attention to everything about the way the person behaved, how much snacks they ate, how rude or polite they were with everyone else, in
more cases than you would think. And you guys can look this up. Just type in monopoly experiment University of California, Berkeley.
There's a few of them, so make sure you.
University of California, Burke is the one I'm speaking about specifically. And these people were less polite, more aggressive, you know, ate more of the snacks. Even like every little social cue was different, and it's a very very clear picture of what our society's capitalist system is.
Like I want to add something real quick, please, I want you to I want you to keep going. The woman that created the game of Monopoly did so to illustrate how evil capitalism was.
Wow, I didn't know that.
Yeah, absolutely, and then it just kind of took off. But there's never you know, like people like will put it in their bios or whatever, like you know it, don't play monopoly with me because Monopoly has started a lot of fights in my house or whatever.
And it's very true.
But it was originally created to illustrate the fact that capitalism it brings out the worst in people.
So anyway, but yeah, so in every case, these benefits and these privileges and these head starts affected that person's sociality. I think is the word people who are more inclined to socialism, this word that they've made into a bad word. It's simply just the idea that we should all help each other, Like with something like what's happening in Houston, happens,
everyone should do something to help them like that. That shouldn't be cold for anything negative, except we've created an oppressive system intentionally, right, The minority in numbers created a system to impress, to oppress almost everybody else, and then they figured out how to make the oppressed feel like a part of the oppression, a part of those that benefit from the oppression.
I'm sorry, that's a better way to say.
Yeah, And this experiment is such a glaring reflection of this system. I didn't even know the game was created for that reason, which makes it the perfect litmus test for this. You know, the people with those advantages and none of the cases and I'll reread this, but even if it's in most of the cases, the fact that it's in any of the cases that you know you started with the head, starting with every benefit and with
every what's the word I'm looking for. You know, you started this game in a much more favorable position than everyone else, with every advantage, and to not acknowledge that as part of the reason why you're so successful should be viewed as insanity. But this is the world that we live in, more specifically the country that we live in.
Well, you know what we're gonna do is at least around here. We're going to.
Do our best to keep teaching what's true and what's right, and you know, keep recruiting into this army where there's a lot of love over here. You know.
I just I like that, you know, and if at the end of my life, that's all I did, and that'll be more than enough for me.
But I do want to tease some stuff that's coming up. Next week. We will be talking about, uh, the Last Prisoner Project.
We're going to be speaking with someone from the Arizona Black Cannabis Trade Association and discussing, you know, basically the history of you know, marijuana usage and the way the criminal justice system is disproportionly effected black and brown folks and what the cannabis industry is going to be doing
to kind of right those wrongs moving forward. And also we're going to talk about, uh, if we can get to it a little bit, more black history, but for now, I think that's going to do it for us here on Civic Cipher. Once again, I'm your host, Rams's Jah.
They called me q Ward and that just so happens to be my actual first initial and last name.
I do know if people knew that once again, the h.
That is not a stage name. That's actually who I.
Am, aka the official DJ for the Phoenix Suns right here to my left in the studio. Pleasure doing the show with you every week likewise, and don't forget this show is just as much your show as it is our show, So please participate with us. Interact with us on Facebook, on you know, social media. Check us out on YouTube, like and subscribe.
You know.
If you have any questions, anything you want us to talk about, you know, hit our website Civiccipher dot com. Just like how it sounds. You can also donate. We have some growth opportunities. We always have growth opportunities, but we are always in need of donations, especially patreons.
You can find out more about that on the website as well.
And of course you can download this and all previous shows at civiccipher dot com and follow all of our social media at Rams's job, at imqboard and at Civic Cipher Until next week.
Y'all, peace, peace, m SU