What Makes America Great

right now. If I think about it for too long, I will burst back into tears, and I'm not going to do that today. But I want to start out today's show with talking about the young boy whose life was taken from him in the United States, which is a six year old in Illinois, Wadia L. Fayoumi, who six years old and was stabbed to death, stabbed to death in his home after his landlord broke in, killing him with twenty six stab wounds and critically injuring his mother.

Bill Landlord is being charged with first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, two counts of a hate crime, and aggravated battery with the deadly weapon. Was released by Will County Sheriff's Office. These types of acts the media loves to portray as lone wolves, as this one deranged individual,

this person, this crazy person. Because if we were to actually talk about the issues and the policies that lead people like Joseph Zuba, seventy one year old piece of shit to commit murder, then it wouldn't be a SoundBite, do you know what I'm saying? It would be real talk.

It would be real conversations of having to reckon with America's legacy of white supremacy, of Islamophobia, racism, anti semitism, misogyny, patriarchy, like we would have to reckon right with the truth that when you have an entire political party, the Republican Party, that runs candidates on hate, on lies, you have an entire media network of Fox that primes and pomps their audiences with lies and hatred and fear of anyone other

than white sith head Christian men. This is what you get when you make it the norm and okay to pass policy that would ban people from majority Muslim countries from entering this country. This is what you get. This is what happened after nine to eleven. I talk about it often on my other podcasts with my friend jashaht Ali on Democracy Ish, where he has told me about, you know, Muslims having to register right in New York

City to show that they weren't terrorists. Right when you make up terms like the axis of evil, when you demonize an entire region of the world, when you call everyone, when Hollywood feeds you consistent storylines of Middle Eastern Muslim terrorists and you see them in the midst of like the call to prayer and then bombs exploding, what the fuck kind of message do you think you're sending. It isn't a good one. It isn't one that says that

they're just like me. It isn't one that says open your arms in your heart, come from a place of compassion and love. No, what it tells you is to fear for your life. Don't let those people move into your neighborhood. Take them out right, burn down their homes before they can burn yours down, Harm them before they can harm you. That's what it does. But we don't

want to have those conversations. Instead, every time there is an act of violence, whether it is shooting up a synagogue right, which we saw in this country that took

the lives of several people. Whether it's shooting up a black church, which we saw at Mother Emmanuel in South Carolina, right, whether it's shooting up a walmart where a predominantly Latino population shops, whether it's shooting up a place that is largely patronized by Asian Americans, is punching an Asian American in the face, yelling kung flu and pushing people off of subways because people get their directives from where our

supposed fucking leaders. When you have Ron DeSantis running for president of the United States telling us not to open up our borders, not to take in any Palestinians because they're all anti Semitic, what the fuck are you saying? Right? They want us to believe that all people that wear the red hat and swear allegiance to Donald Trump and MAGA are an all white supremact, which is a fucking lie, right, But their logic would have me believe that every white

person in America is affiliated with Trump. They would have me believe, then, by their logic alone, that every white person in America must be associated with the KKK. If we are to judge every country every ethnicity, every race, every group by their worst representatives in America should take about a million fucking seats and shut the fuck up, because let me tell you what the situation unfolding in Israel and Palestine, the crisis, the humanitarian crisis that is

unfolding there, that's largely of our doing. Where do you think that they got their idea of separate but equal from? We exported that shit? Do you know what I'm saying. Where do you think that the Nazis? They took it to a whole other level, But where do you think that they got their ideas from? It was exported from the United States? Do as I say, but not as

I do. Joe Biden wanted to come out and condemn this attack, as he should, But let me tell you that when you green light anything and everything that Israel does, but you have no problem calling out Putin, but not Netanyahu. His own people don't fucking like him. His own people, even families right now who have loved ones that were taking hostage, have been in the streets protesting that motherfucker.

That's how much they don't like him. Because for all of his hot fucking talk about terrorism and being on the ready. Somehow he was caught completely outdone and took no intel that came from Egypt or elsewhere that there was potentially going to be a terrorist plot that was taking place, and he did nothing with all of the billions of dollars that the United States gives to Israel

for their defense. Every time that we see things unfolding what seems to be so far away from us, it always shows up on our shore, but America doesn't take any responsibility for that. The media will have you believe that this is one crazed act and one crazed act only we'll say Waggia's name for maybe a week, and then we'll go back to condemning and okaying the assault on a civilian population that is taking place right now that has killed over a thousand Wadias because fifty percent

of the population in Gaza are children. That's not me saying that those are reports and facts. So you know, I find myself and I have found myself. If you're following my social media just at an absolute loss, you know, I am not a person connected to the Jewish faith. I'm not a person connected to the Muslim faith. I'm a person connected to humanity. I'm a person that is connected to the pursuit of justice and equity, not only

in this country but around the world. And it just, you know, the darkness is so encompassing right now, because this story isn't going to be the only story that we hear. And as soon as I heard it, I thought about my Jewish friends who kept their children home last week from school because of a possible jihad for that was supposed to happen on Friday. That was misinformation

that of course was spread. But the fact that people are having to decide to keep their children home from a Jewish day school, that Muslim families have to decide to keep their children home, the people who women who are wearing that he job have to be concerned about whether or not they can be They're going to be attacked on the streets, you know, a couple of weeks ago, and you see this if you live, you know, anywhere

where there is a diverse population. And you know, I was walking around my neighborhood and like an uber driver had his prayer rug laid out and he was doing his prayer as I was walking by, and I thought

to myself, God, what an amazing city. This is the thought that I had, what an amazing city, that like this faithful man can pull over on the side of the road, take out his prayer mat and just practice his faith, and that you know, in so many parts to this country, you would never see that, right, And that's part of the problem that we are so segregated.

If you don't live in a diverse city, if you don't live in a diverse place like you don't get to see the beauty of what it is like to see so many different people to walk I walk through some of my favorite parts, and I tell you that I could hear ten twenty different languages being spoken by the time that I leave. I could smell spices of so many different ethnic groups that are using the barbecues, and I think that is beautiful. I think that's what

makes this country special. And every time that I find myself in awe of those moments, I realize that there is an entire political party trying to make sure that we all look the same, act the same, pray the same, talk the same. And I think, how fucking boring, how fucking boring and narrow. Who the fuck wants to live like that? If your choice is to live in a homogeneous, you know, sterile type of environment. Go with God, but don't bring that bullshit to any other place, because that's

not what we're interested in. That's why all those motherfuckers leave small towns and go move to the big city because they're tired of the sameness. They want to explore and be exposed and be expanded by difference. That's what makes us beautiful. And to think that a grown ass fucking man could look I used to teach first and second grade, that is six and seven year olds. I know how little they are, and a grown man grabbed and stand up boy to death. I folks, er er er.

I keep posting that we have got to hold on to our shared and collective humanity during this time, because I'm telling you it is too fucking easy to allow the political noise and rhetoric to come in to detach you from your soul's truth, which is that the reason why your heart is heavy right now, the red, and why you find yourself bursting into tears or waking up sad or just like wanting right to tune it all out, is that is your soul trying to connect with other

souls that are in need. Our hearts know, our hearts always know. It is our minds that are infected by misinformation, lies, and bigotry. I remember after Donald Trump was elected and this show was on Serious Exam, and I remember sitting in studio and saying in the microphone, like I'm about to say now that things in this country are going to get bloodier before they get better. And I say that with no glee, no joy, No I told you so. But that is the reality that we all have to

be prepared for. And I don't know how we prepare. I don't know how we prepare other than those of us that understand and express empathy and compassion, those of us that are doing things to try and center community and connection and joy will be best suited for what is to come. It's just so hard, you know. It's so hard to look around at people whose opinions you used to value, whose work you used to care about, all professing to have become foreign relation experts overnight. I

am not one of those people. I do not know the ins and outs in the historical context than the thousand years of the land of Israel and Palestine. I do not know what I know about is humanity. What I know about is justice. What I know about is the fact that we were all born to be free, not to live oppressed, small, compartmentalized, fearful lives. None of us. I don't care what continent you were born on, what region, what race, what ethnicity. That is not what we were

born to do. Be subjugated and subjugate, right to harm, to hate. And so when you find yourself exhausted, know that you've taken in too much information and it is about, now, what can my heart do right? How can I show compassion? How can I show care? What does that look like? And I will tell you, folks, it doesn't look like

continuing to doom scroll. It doesn't look like sitting in front of your television or whatever screen that you're getting your information in front of, and staying there until the dark circles form and you can't sleep and you haven't eaten, and you have like It doesn't look like lack of care of yourself. We are just, folks, a bunch of wounded, unhealed souls walking around. And to stop the cycle of violence and hatred, we have got to tend to those open wounds. That is going to be the only way.

I don't want to cover another story like wadj Ya. I don't want to cover another story like Trayvon Martin. I don't want to cover another murder, another death at the hands of hatred and bigotry. But I know that I will because until we decide to break this cycle right and respect each other, not just tolerate, but respect, except be excited by, expanded by difference, this will repeat itself. That is it for me today. Dear friends on woke app as always power to the people and to all

the people. Power, Get woke and stay woke as fuck.