Civic Cipher 091121 Q Ward & Ramses Ja Anniversary Episode

we normally start off. But let's discuss some ebony. Excellent, and I know you got some special queue.

We prepped for the show, and I still got goosebumps when I read it this time, especially in it because man, that's incredible, and I want to read this quote. We know right now was the time to begin moving forward on mister Allen's vision to create a new Black Wall Street, not only market, but an international village that has numbers of young African American businesses that are growing and being developed.

New Black Wall Street Market spokesperson Matthew Hampton said, So, we are in the middle of doing a multi year billion dollar development in the city of Stonecrest right down here in Decab County, Georgia. For those of you that are familiar with Black Wall Street in Tosa, Oklahoma and the very very tragic happenings down there, this is the type of thing you should get excited about. And the fact that it's happening here, I think is ideal. It's happening in a place where the black agenda is very

very out, very very forward, very very loud. It's not covert, it's very overt. People are very very proud and very very in this area. It's very very concentrated. So this is the perfect place for something like that to start and develop. And you know, we might need to do some excite for activities down here, just to shine some light on what they got going rams.

excellence on our birthday as a radio show. While I got the time too, Before we move on to the next topic, I want to make sure that I give a shout out to all the programmers around the country who have believed in this show. You know, some of you are listening to our voices on hip hop stations, some of you're listening to our voices on talk radio

stations or whatever stations it is, even alternative stations. And you know, we're two young black men having long form conversations about what it means to have a black life in this country and the things that we have to endure. And we do our best to share this space with our brothers and sisters who were born with a strike against them, be they LGBTQ, Asian, Hispanic, Native, so forth,

so on. But this is obviously a decidedly black space and for us to have had a year being able to have these long form conversations as a result of the decisions of the programmers behind the radio stations that you're listening to our voices on, we just want to make sure that we say thank you to those people who made those decisions to put us in position to be able to empower the communities that you live in. And you know, as you mentioned, he's in Atlanta, I'm

in Phoenix at the moment. And the show obviously has grown since our first since our first episode, you know, and now we're on both coasts. We're all in the middle and certainly very excited about the year to come. With that said, onward and upward, let's talk about some more positive things that have happened in the past year.

I think the most notable for black people, specifically, you know, if twenty twenty had to have a name associated with it given by black people, there's a number of names we could choose from, not the least of which is Kobe Bryant. You know, we had to revisit, you know, stuff with Nipsey. We had a lot of things that we had to process in twenty twenty. But George Floyd, I believe, will be top of that mountain right and

everyone took to the streets demanding justice. And as we learn time and again as black people, there is no justice. There's no way to make sense of a senseless death, especially an agonizing like a horrible death where someone is crushed to death over the course of nearly nine minutes and it's on video with people telling the officer to stop. We all had to watch that. We all had to imagine our brothers, We all had to imagine our sons. We all had to imagine our cousins and relatives and

friends and people that we love. We all as humans, not just as black people, but humans. Because I'm sure if you're listening to this show, if you can hear my voice, if you can hear a Q's voice, you know someone that you can imagine in the place of George Floyd, regardless of what they did in the past, regardless of where they're going, they don't deserve to be crushed out in the middle of the street like that. Everyone deserves a chance to say their peace, at least

according to the laws in this country. You should be able to appear in court in front of a judge and say your peace, and then the judge is the person that we've appointed to decide your guilt or end incense, and you know, whatever punishment, if any, should be handed down. You should not be crushed to death on the street. You should not be shot in the back. You should not be shot period before you've had your day in court,

unless you present a real viable threat to someone. And even then there are ways of dealing with it as we see time and again when the suspect or the alleged you know, gunman or whatever is a non black person.

With that said, a little bit of positivity that we got and this was kind of connected to last year, but you know, in our year that we've been on the air, we've been able to have an episode where we talked about the Derek Chavin verdict and Derek Chauvin, of course, is the officer responsible for take the life of George Floyd. He was sentenced to twenty two and a half years, and that was something now we all.

The reason why I want to say is because there's a lot of people that will listening to my voice, A lot of black people, of course, will listen to this and think that wasn't justice. You know, he deserved more. He took a life. You know, if he had been black and killed a white person, then this would be very different. He'd have been life in prison, sixty years, death penalty, whatever, right. And I understand that. I'm not trying to take that away from it. I recognize that

the world is not fair. But I also remember what it felt like going into that trial, all of us thinking this man is going to walk because he's a police officer, because that's what happens. I remember people planning to protest, people planning to riot. That were I don't know any people that were planning to rite. Let me say this, right, but people were worried that people we're planning to riot if the verdict wasn't a guilty verdict. And I remember that time, and while this verdict isn't

what some people wanted. It does document and it firmly entrenches in the timeline of this country that the powers that be decided that this action was wrong, which doesn't often happen. In most cases, there was not even charges brought for it. So the guilty verdict says that the powers that be says, yes, this is in fact wrong. And the punishment, while it might not have been what some of us wanted, as extreme and is harsh, you know, and I tend to agree with that, it could have

been a much more fairer punishment. He took a life that should cost a life, you know, so a life sentence. You know, I don't believe in the death penalty, but that's a personal thing. I can see that side of

the argument. But this twenty two and a half years does something significant, and it's that not only do the powers that beat the judges the country has to come to terms with the fact that this was wrong, but also that this officer would be punished, and even if he's not punished the way we wanted, what it does is it sends a message to other police officers and you know, precincts and you know, whatever, everyone who was thinking that, you know, this guy was black and he

was trying to pass a twenty dollars bill that was fake, and he was a criminal four years prior, and blah blah blah, and he didn't he shouldn't be a hero. All those people had had to swallow those words, because in that moment, it wasn't about George Floyd as much as it was about did this man, Derek Shehlman do the right thing or the wrong thing? And if he did the wrong thing, will he be punished for it? And the answer, as we now know, is that he

A did the wrong thing and b was punished for it. Again, don't blow me up on social media. I recognize that that punishment might not have been as severe as one as some people wanted, but he was punished for it. And the ripple effect of that, I believe is a net positive for the plight of black and brown people in this country, people who have often been the victims of police brutality, the victims of systemic oppression and white supremacy,

and have never even had a chance at justice. You just have to take what these people do to you and eat it. And that's the story going all the way back to the beginning of this country. If you were born with a little bit more melanin than our Caucasian brothers and sisters, and so I call that a positive. And on our one year anniversary, if I'm looking back and I'm seeing the positive things that have happened in the year since we've been on the air, I definitely

count that among them. Now, I might be alone because I haven't got your thoughts on it yet, Q, but I would love to hear what you think.

semblance of justice. And you know, the idea of celebrating a person going to prison might seem kind of wrong, except our history in this country has shown, you know, as an entire movement started on the basis of Black lives matter, right, the idea that we just deserve to exist and shouldn't be snuffed out without consequence is proof positive that we've been shown the contrary by this country for a very long time. So there was kind of a clinching of the fist, celebratory feel of him first

being found guilty and there at least being some significant sentence. Right, twenty two years is not nothing. It's not life, and it's not fifty or sixty years, but it's not nothing. And most of the significant parts of this man's life will be spent in prison, even if it's not the rest of his life. It's our one year anniversary, so I'm trying to keep it as positive as possible.

But here come legislation all over the country with the most strict and insane anti abortion laws that we've ever heard of. So like, yeah, y'all got that, but here we come with ours. So the powers that be always find a way to kind of remind us who's in charge. So I'm not going to go full me and find some negative to talk about. But I'm always reserved because you know, as I remind us, far too often, I have not been allowed to be in the space of hope and optimism. As my brother.

if nothing else. Long term, the shift in population should bring about a shift in ideas and ideals. And so I want to make sure I say that now another thing that I think was positive, now that I'm saying these things out loud, they are kind of sad stories, but they have endings that weren't sad as sad, and so that's really the right way I should say it, because this is certainly not a positive story. This is

one time when I actually cried. Maybe I am a crier, but this next name, I saw the video of he was a kid. I saw the video of him, I saw the light in his eyes, I saw his smile, and then I read the story about what happened to him, and then I read the transcript as he said the last words that he'd ever say, and it was heartbreaking. You know, I have a little brother who's kind of a quiet guy. If you look at him, he might look scary to you. You know, he keeps to himself.

He does just how he is. He's that way. He's quiet with me. I love him with my whole heart. He loves me, but we don't talk a lot, but he enjoys being in my presence. I'm his big brother, you know what I mean. So some people loved it differently, and I could see some similarities when I saw this. This young man, his name is Elijah McClain. This sounds sad, but it has a not as sad ending, and I really wanted to make sure that I talked about this

on our one year anniversary. So I want to read this for those who are not as familiar with Elijah as they are with George Floyd.

were involved in the incident, Nathan Woodyard. Why am I reading these people's names. I'm gonna just skip that. They said that there was a struggle with McClain and McLain was forcibly held to the ground with his hands cut behind his back, after which paramedics there's and then named a couple of paramedics here. I don't think that their names deserve to be mentioned. They had ministered some sort of

sedative to McLain while he was on the ground. He went into I believe it's cardiac arrests, and then three days after arriving at the hospital, he was declared brain dead. He was removed from life support on August thirtieth. His autopsy was inconclusive and the cause of death was listed as undetermined by the coroner. The police officers met with the coroner before the announcement that the cause of death could not be determined, and police investigators were also in

present during the autopsy. Now, I want to stop there before I say this next part. The transcript that you can read from this interaction, because you know it's recorded, they have the police cameras or whatever. He's saying. He's saying to the officers, calmly saying, I'm different. I remember him saying that I'm just different. You know, there's nothing to be worried about. He's saying like we're we're friends, or we're like I love you, or something like that.

He was saying to the officers. There was no struggle, no adversarial tone in his in the language he was using, right, And if you see the videos of him, you'll you can see immediately that, oh, this is definitely that this type, that's the type of person that he is or was, because he's not alive anymore. He didn't get to finish growing up. And in Colorado it's cold, you know, and I believe he had a condition, some sort of medical condition.

Might have been anemia, sickle cell or something. I don't hold me to it, but you know, this is a while back when this happened, when I read about all this. But he had the face mask on and the ski mask on to keep warm, and of course you know that can look very threatening to whoever this Aurora citizen is. And if the Aurora citizen alerts the police. Then the police move under the assumption that the person is quote sketchy,

and then they govern themselves accordingly. And you could make a case that officers' jobs are difficult and they have to go in, you know, under the assumption that there's a bad guy out there, because if they don't, then they could be in. You know, you can make that case.

But once you read the transcripts, once the officers are interacting with him, and once you see that they are overreacting very much to this person who was just walking down the street and then ultimately he lost his life because of their actions, and those are the paramedics, then this next line, this next bar becomes again not good news. It's not a happy ending, but it is an ending that is not as sad as the ones we're accustomed to,

So allow me to continue. In September twenty twenty one, the three police officers and two paramedics were charged through a Colorado grand jury and they were also they were charged with the death of Elijah McLain. Long story short, So for charges to even be brought to these people is almost unheard of when the victim is black and you know, there's this narrative that exists in this country. I don't know, oh how fair it is. I'm not saying it's unfair, but that the narrative is that our

first responders are heroes. And when I think of heroes, I think of like Superman. You know, I'm not knocking anybody, you know what I mean, But I think of those types of people, and they don't get paid. Superman never got paid to save anyone's life, you know. But if you get paid to do something before, you're a hero. It's a job. If you do something heroic while in that job, then maybe we can have that conversation. I'm actually willing to have that conversation with you if you

go above and beyond that call of duty. But I think the term hero really can serve to elevate a person from doing their job to like an almost godlike status. And I don't know if it's deserved all the time. I don't know that it's fair all the time. Obviously, there's instance is like the one we're talking about, where people lose their lives, and of course we talk all the time about how police who are often considered first responders. You know, there's a tremendous amount of loss of life

when it comes to policing. It's not to say that people don't save lives too, you know, but when we automatically start off with this hero narrative and we don't look at it like it's a job where some people can be good at it and some people can be bad at it, and you know, people rush to defend that, you know, in the same way that you defend troops and you defend everything else, which I'm not saying is wrong. Obviously, these people are very important, the roles they play society

is very important. But it's almost like people are impervious to having human shortcomings, which is very unfair when it comes time to hold folks accountable for their actions. I think I'll leave it right there and now hold my mic back.

Fiscal Donor. In our Become a Better Ally segment, we do want to talk about some other things that have happened, some past things and some present things going on, and of course we're checking with DJ Swolf with that way Black History fact. But for now, let's go ahead and discuss our Becoming a Better Ally highlight. This time we're talking about a woman named Mackenzie Scott. For those of you, I know her, Yeah, yeah, I didn't know her until all this stuff happened, but she was got the she

got it all. It ain't matter, but yeah, she ended up divorcing Jeff Bezos. She ended up with billions of dollars and she and other billionaires there are some other billionaires, but has committed to giving away the majority of her wealth. The thing that interests me and us around here is that her donating nearly seven billion dollars since her split, She's given away nearly one point seven billion to historically black colleges and universities and women's in LGBTQ equity organizations.

So if those aren't marginalized individuals or people born with a strike against them, I don't know what is one point seven billion dollars to institutions of higher education or institutions dedicated to fortifying and preserving the lives, cultures, legacies of black individuals, brown individuals, gay individuals, and so forth. And you know, there's been this big call for reparations

since forever. And you know, if that never comes about legally on paper, like where you are donating to a cause or you're taxed for it and then the government pays it out to folks who've been harmed by the government's actions past, you can pay your reparations on your own in the same way that Mackenzie Scott does. You can just give money to black organizations and support them, and in doing that you will become a better ally.

Money never hurts, And as long as you make sure you know who you're donating your money to and you really believe in the cause, Karmicalley believe that'll get you in line with the universe and where you want to be ultimately. So so yeah, something keep in mind, big shout out to Mackenzie Scott though we didn't get a chance to talk about her before, so we're doing it now.

will be able to be able to catch up. So anyway, if you'll remember, back in twenty twenty, there was a name that we would all wake up and see on our phones, this name, and we would see what he did that day, how he made this country look horrible, how he emboldened the worst ideals that this country has ever had, how he doubled down on things like you know, the Confederate Confederate flag and and just and the emboldened part, that's the part that really got to me above anything else.

You know, people I saw more swastika written in bathroom stalls since twenty sixteen then I've ever seen in the sum total of my whole life. You know, the group that felt like he was their guy, the group that had harbored some sentiments, and perhaps in twenty thirteen, twenty fifteen, they felt like, Okay, I'm part of the minority. This is a you know, I might feel this way, but you know the world is moving in this direction. So

I got to keep it to myself. Once this guy got elected, everybody was like, oh no, I'll bets are off we out here now. And then you know, people started doing stuff, being violent, you know whatever, and this guy would have these rallies and he would just he had no tact. He was exceptionally rude. He was a bully, he was a bigot, everything everything you can imagine. And then he lied and lied and lied, and then just fumbled his way through an entire presidency. And we all

woke up to that. Every day. We're traumatized by it. You know, I don't know many black people who were fans of his. I don't know any who were fans of his. I don't know many who were like just like, hey, he's our guy. So that's just what we're riding with. You know, I don't know any like black Trumpers, like go Trump. You know, there's some people who are just Republican. Man.

and won the election. And then you know, January sixth happened and a lot of the I don't know how to call his fanatics without saying his name again, but his fanatics stormed the Capitol and we're watching this happen. It seems like something that would happen on a movie. We're watching it happen on the actual news, and it's scary. And then there's the loss of life and then you get to really see this ugly side of it. You know, no one did that when when this guy won over

Hillary Clinton. No one was like, hey, you know what, We're not going to take this. You know, that's whatever. But these people, they really really felt like, this is our country and we're losing it to folks south of the border. This is our country, and we're losing it to people from these s whole countries. This is our country, and we were living in fear because of you know, our cold, our coal mining jobs are going away to China,

you know, like all kinds of weird stuff like that. Man, these people are and that, and they had their guy and they were willing to fight for him and die for them. And that's exactly what happened. And you know, in hindsight, it's easier to feel bad. At the time, I really didn't, but it's really easy to feel bad for people who have experienced a great deal of hopelessness. Hear me out, I see your face cue hear me out.

In hindsight, it's easy to feel it's it's easier to feel bad when you are born with this seeming like superpower, you know what I mean, Maybe it doesn't appear that way to you, you know, in your early stages of your life. But you're born, and you have white skin, yes, And everyone on TV looks like you, and everyone on the billboards and the panteene pro v commercials and everyone looks just like you. And this is the world was shaped in your image, you know. And you're curious, why

do people want to change the world so much? You know, why are these people always complaining? You know, because the world suits you so well, it's hard to see why anybody would have a problem with it. You know, it's hard to come out of your own come off your own porch to see what's really going on in the streets. Right, but you know, I'm a human and I recognize some human things that happen.

supposed to be rich and famous. I was supposed to be this and that and the other. You know, why are these people complaining, you know, just because they are Michael Jordan is black, you know, and he's rich. Or look at this guy and or Morgan Freu, whatever name they want to pick, he did. Okay. Meanwhile, I'm here and I'm white, and I can't get a break. This

was supposed to happen for me. I was sold something that didn't happen, and this can't This presidential candidate guy was able to find that gap in between who they were and who they were supposed to be quote unquote and give them a reason that they didn't make it. Oh, well because the jobs are gone, oh because this happened. Or because these people are coming and taking over the country. Oh because your tax dollars are going to waste. Oh because people are on welfare, oh this, oh that or

the other. You know, and these people because they were so disillusioned and disappointed in the outcomes of their lives and their station in life. You know, of course it can be their own fault. It can't be their own problem. It has to be someone else, you know what I mean. Everything should be like the Disney movies I saw when I was a kid. They were vulnerable for that message from that man and that Those are the same people

that went to the capitol. Those are the same people that want to hang on to this the Confederate flag of a country that existed for like six months or something, or it's a couple of years. I want to say, you know, maybe six years, I don't know, whatever it was. It wasn't It was very brief. And then that country actually lost and they wave that flag around and it's the losing flag. May as well be a white flag. It's crazy, but it's all that they have, you know.

It's it's their legacy, it's their heritage, it's their culture, if you will. And it's sad. It's when you start to take a step back and look at it, it's like it's really sad. And then you start to see how everyone else is a threat to them. You start to understand it's not fair. But I get it. How Black people can be a threat, how Hispanic people can be a threat, how Asian people can be a threat. You know what I mean, because this world you've been taught was created for you to succeed, and if you

don't succeed, it can't be your own fault. It can't be the fault of these rich people. It can't be the fault of capitalism, it can't be the fault of anything that you can't see. But if I do point someone out to you and they look a little different from you, it can be their fault. And it's such an easy self for a lot of people. And it's not because these folks are white. It could happen to anyone, but it just so happens to be the case that

they're white. And so it's from that vantage point that I look at it and I say, it's easier to feel bad now looking back on it in hindsight, you know, these people aren't They are angry, but above that, they're desperate, you know, for something, something to blame, something to make their lives make sense. And you start to feel bad, and at least for me, I begin to become more compassion. I recognize education changes a lot of things, and some

people do not wish to be educated. But you know, some people, other people besides me, maybe they can have conversations with these people who need to blame their lives on some cause. And if I'm talking on this show to the middleman people you know whose aunts and uncles they'll see at Christmas, and they can have conversations over Thanksgiving dinner and say, hey, listen, man, just so you know, you know, people that come across the border aren't here

to take your jobs. You know, they're not going to them Coming into this country is not going to change your lifestyle one bit. You know, I feel like we're

doing something positive in the past year. And so this man's name what I accidentally said, but I won't say again, not being in office anymore, not galvanizing those people, our white brothers and sisters who maybe are feeling like life hasn't the American dream hasn't been what they expected it to be, you know, maybe a little disappointed with the outcomes in their stories. The fact that he's not in office anymore, turning them against us, I say, that's a win.

And you know it's up to people like us to continue to have conversations with our Caucasian brothers and sisters and be brothers and sisters to them when we're able to be strong. You know, Black people were known for being strong, you know, so if we can be strong again, then I believe it's our duty to be strong again because no matter what, we have to be brothers and sisters here. So I'm not knocking anybody. I know, it's a very black and white show that you know we

have here. I would never do that, you know. But you know, there's there's a little bit of tough love that goes into these conversations, and then there's a little bit of like more gentle, compassionate, you know, sugar coated love that goes into it as well, because I think that takes both sides to to get us where we need to be. So anyway, I call that a positive

with that guy not being in office. And of course, Kamala Harris, that's a good look for women, that's a good look for Asian people, it's a good look for Black people, and it's a great look for the AKA. Shout out to doctor Westernberg, shout out to Janelle. Would your thoughts cue anything?

they did see themselves in him. And that's why a lot of people push back so hard when you say something bad about him, because they don't see themselves that way. I'm not a racist, I'm not a bigot. I feel the same way, so he can't be. No, you all are. And the most divisive period of my lifetime was his presidency.

And that's having grown up in Detroit, Michigan, with the mother that was born and raised in Making, Georgia, and those being the places I spent most of my life, growing up in a country where racism has always existed. The worst of it for me was when he was the president and in bolden was a word that you used, not just in Bolden, but encouraged outward overt racism and using things to intentionally divide us because it was in

his own personal best interest. I think he might have even doubled down on things that he didn't feel as strongly about as he said out loud, because he knew that there were people in this country that supported him, that did so he played to it. On top of being a despicable person, he played to the most despicable things in other people as a way to springboard his

own agenda forward. He manipulated, lied to and made a mockery of our government, and made a fool of a lot of our citizens in front of them, and they still supported them, lied to them, cheated them, took advantage of them, stole from them, and even when they learned of these things, they dug their heels in so far and so deep and supported him for so long. So it was a zealot like base he developed, and it

was super discouraging man. It was part of what has stoked my more pessimistic fire on this show is the men that you're talking about, because I saw him bring out the worst and people that I know, people that I care about, people that thoroughly disappointed me and really really surprised and caught me off guard with their support of his beliefs and with their justifications of his actions. So you know, it's a time that I can't wait

to be history. It still feels too present sometimes, and some of the things that we deal with, like what's going on over in Afghanistan, are still very much a part of his legacy. So good riddance, and hopefully I can be as hopeful and optimistic as my brother Rams is with regard to where we can go from here.

you know when it comes to that. And I think that your thoughts kind of reflect that that attitude, So I'm appreciative of that. Another thing, and this one is a little bit more recent, that I think is positive that has happened in the.

was a woman, black woman walking her dog. It was night and you know, I didn't really get too much it's just a video, but she was walking her dog and an officer ran upon her and yelled at her and assaulted her and then grabbed her and did all this stuff with her and ultimately let her go. And it was a very aggressive encounter from the officer, needlessly aggressive because a woman obviously wasn't doing anything. She was

walking her dog. And you know, from the video there's no audio, you can't really, you know, hear what's happened. And of course, on our end, we've learned as journalists not to really jump to any conclusions save the obvious conclusion, which is, well, that doesn't seem like it's necessary. This

huge man attacking this woman who's walking her dog. You know, there's no weapons, nothing, this woman poses a no threat, if she was trespassing, or if there was anything going on that was you know, you know whatever, you can just talk to this woman. But you know, when we see it happen, we're like, oh my god, this is completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, the woman wasn't you know, she wasn't killed or anything crazy like that, but you could see

the aggressive sort of type of behavior coming from the officer. Now, I wouldn't know how to point you to the direction of that video. I guess if you wanted to see it yourself, you could google black woman walking dog attacked by officer. Maybe it'll come up and you'll be.

or we could not. Maybe it contributes something meaningful to the narrative or maybe it doesn't, but we're already aware that these type of things happen. They have happened since long before we were born, and unfortunately, our belief around here is that they will continue to happen for some time. And you know, that's just kind of what we're dealing with.

But the reason that we're talking about this one today and the reason why, again it's not necessarily positive outcome, but it's not as negative, and you know, on our birthday it felt meaningful to have some not as negative things. The officer involved is now facing twenty four or rather, he has faced twenty four misconduct allegations since joining the

force in nineteen ninety eight. Three were sustained, resulting in discipline, and the most serious incident involved in off duty incident in Tennessee, which the officer was suspended for twenty days and arrested on aggravated assault charges after pointing a gun at a victim and subjecting them to verbal abuse. So the reason that we're talking about this is because the calls to action against this officer have resulted in disciplinary action,

which is now not so unheard of. You know, now that we've talked about Derek Shelvin and the Elijah McLain case and so forth. You know, it is possible for you to act out of pocket and get himmed up. Now, obviously this story tells us that you can do it, you know, twenty four times and get away with it

and still be a police officer. But that twenty fifth one, you know, it'll catch up to you, which in the past hasn't always been true when it comes to police and certainly the way that police interact with black and

brown bodies, and so that I believe is progress. That is something that we can look back on our year being on the radio and say, the world is slightly better than the one that we started in and hopefully we're contributing something meaningful to that growth, and we will be able to continue to do so with the help of our listeners and with the help of these programmers, and just you know, with our own fortitude toward that end.

He claimed to have led more than six hundred fugitive slaves of freedom in the North, including Frederick Douglass, who became a friend and fellow activist. Ruggles opened the first African American bookstore in eighteen thirty four and was secretary of the New York Committee of Vigilance, a radical biracial organization to aid future of slaves, opposed slavery and informed enslave workers in New York about their rights in the state.

In October eighteen thirty eight, Ruggles assisted Frederick Douglass on his journey to freedom and reunited Douglas with his fiancee, Anna Murray. Ruggles was especially active against kidnapping bounty hunters, also known as blackbirds, who made a living by capturing free black people in the North and illegally selling them into slavery, as was done to Solomon Northrop in eighteen forty one, whose story was portrayed in the movie Twelve

Years a Slave. With the Vigilance Committee, Ruggles fought for fugitive slaves to have the right to jury trials and helped arrange legal assistance for them. His activism earned him many enemies. Ruggles was physically assaulted and his bookshop was destroyed through arson. He quickly reopened his library and bookshop. There were also two known attempts to kidnap him and sell him into slavery in the South. His enemies even

included fellow abolitionists who disagreed with his tactics. Ruggles ultimately paid a steep price for his actimism, exhaust sing himself and burning way out, burning out, way too soon. He died blind and ill at thirty nine, never acquiring much fame or fortune, and that comes from both Wikipedia and USA today.

I'm going to try to figure out a way to say this man's name more, to bring him up more, because again I never heard his story before right now, and man, that was hard to listen to. Inspiring, like I said, all the things he did before even reaching the age that I am now, but difficult because you know, I wish that his life had not come to an end alone and blind.

which is a real place, by the way, and then sell them to someone down there and then that's it. And it wasn't until recently when I realized that that actually happened, you know, in the in the levels of the the trauma endured by by people in this country, you know, in our in our first years, you know, as I don't want to call us citizens, but as inhabitants, residents if you will, of this land. And then to be reminded of again in hearing the story just now

where you know that that was an actual practice. It just I just I cringe at that. I cringe at the idea of it. You know, like the traumas that we feel like we're experiencing now, the fears that we feel like, you know, whenever we see the patrol cars or whatever. You know, those fears are centuries old. You know, they're just looking for somebody to snatch up and get

into the system or make a profit off of. You know, the pro the prison industrial complex being privatized means that there's money to be made there, and you know it's the money flows differently these days, but still, the the fear of walking down the street, you know, in your black skin is very much the same. So the officer or the whatever might not make any money in the same way that these kidnappers did. But I just think

that's interesting to kind of hear that story. But just like you said, you know, this is somebody that I've never heard of before. And this is part of the reason why I'm like so happy to have these way black history facts, because you know, if we just keep talking about the history that we know, you know, there's something to be said about that, because obviously we need

to celebrate it. It gives us, you know, a guide post of where we've been, what other what our ancestors have endured, and our forefathers, and where we are and the liberties we enjoy now. And then I think it also helps compel us to keep moving forward so that, you know, generations that come after us will have an even better world and even more equal world to live in and grow up in and to have their children in. But you know, I love when we get to talk

about things that we didn't know about. And I'm one of those people that knows a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff, you know what I mean. I just I just grew up that way. My dad made sure that I had to learn it, you know, doctor Westenberg made sure that it was my nose was always in a book. And so a lot of this stuff I'm familiar with, but that's one of them that I

was not made aware of until today. And so, you know, like you said, I'm really grateful to have stories like that, and I think that also, you know, sometimes it it pushes me to try to learn more, you know, to know more about what I don't know. And so, like you said, I'm really grateful for that. But I think that that is probably where we're going to wrap it up. So once again, thank you for tuning in all this past year to Civic Cipher. I'm your host, ramses joh My.