WEBVTT 1 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:19.480 Of litigation and government relations firm, and Almo serves as 2 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:22.920 the senior pastor of the Douglas Memorial Community Church of 3 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:24.280 Baltimore and affiliates. 4 00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:27.359 He's also the former chief executive officer of the Rainbow 5 00:00:27.399 --> 00:00:31.039 Push Coalition. Doctor Yary, welcome forward to the show. Good 6 00:00:31.079 --> 00:00:33.600 to be with you on a Wednesday. It's a little 7 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:37.079 while today. Let's see what happens, Doctor Yeary. You know, 8 00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:41.320 Gina has proposed that we take a look at yesterday 9 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:43.679 in history. I meant to get to this yesterday, but 10 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:48.920 we ran out of time on this day. On January twentieth, 11 00:00:49.399 --> 00:00:53.840 Colin Powell was selected or appointed, if you will, to 12 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:58.600 be the first African American Secretary of State of the 13 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:03.560 United States. Significance, Doctor Yurie, of the leadership of Colin Powell. 14 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:11.359 Well, aside from a distinguished military career, certainly his appointment 15 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:18.200 was very hopeful. I think there was, by virtue of 16 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:22.439 things beyond his control, a little bit of disappointment and 17 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:27.000 tarnished when it came down to the testimony concerning weapons 18 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:32.319 of mass destruction in Iraq. But I think overall, if 19 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:39.120 we were to try to position General Powell service, it 20 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:44.840 would be highly unlikely, nearly impossible that he would be 21 00:01:45.319 --> 00:01:49.519 Secretary of State under this administration, simply because of the 22 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:54.319 way they view the expertise and the capabilities of people 23 00:01:54.319 --> 00:01:59.719 of color, particularly of African descent. So I think if 24 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:03.280 we just used that benchmark from yesterday and look at 25 00:02:03.319 --> 00:02:07.040 how far we have regressed in many ways in terms 26 00:02:07.079 --> 00:02:11.680 of who is actually called upon to serve in this government, 27 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:15.759 particularly with this administration, I think we would all agree 28 00:02:15.800 --> 00:02:18.840 that it leaves a lot to be desired, and that 29 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:20.080 would be putting it mildly. 30 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.199 I know that we'll be coming forward in just a moment, 31 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:26.479 but I do want to ask the question and remind 32 00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:30.599 people that Barack Obama was also inaugurated twice president of 33 00:02:30.599 --> 00:02:35.360 the United States. On January twentieth, Kamala Harris was nominated 34 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:39.439 and was sworn in as the first African American woman 35 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:42.759 Vice President of the United States on January twentieth, and 36 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:45.960 so January twentieth in and of itself, including but not 37 00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:49.120 limited to Hiram Rebels, and the role that he played 38 00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:53.280 in the history of African Americans, was also very significant. 39 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:57.599 On the date of January eleventh, I'm Jesse Jackson Junior 40 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:00.400 listening to The Jesse Jackson Junior Show. My producer telling 41 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:02.879 me to keep talking because I guess we're going right 42 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:08.080 to the thirty. No, she's just saying keep talking generally. 43 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:13.199 Oh it's okay. I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. More we come 44 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:16.039 forward on Kblate Talk fifteen eighty. I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. 45 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:19.520 Welcome lord to the Jesse Jackson Genia Show on Giulate Talk. 46 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:26.879 Our regular contributor on Wealthy Wednesdays is doctor s todd Yurie, 47 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:29.719 principle of the Yearie Firm. He's both a lawyer and 48 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:32.479 a minister. He has one foot in the pulpit and 49 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:35.919 also one foot in the courtroom, but both feet in reality, 50 00:03:35.960 --> 00:03:39.879 Doctor Uri, Welcome forward to the show. It's it's Wednesday. 51 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:42.759 It's I'm waiting to see what the producer is gonna 52 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:44.960 tell us when she says keep talking. That's a good 53 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:53.039 thing rightday. 54 00:03:53.280 --> 00:03:55.560 But Gina does an extraordinary job. Really grateful for the 55 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:57.599 work that she does here at the program and at 56 00:03:57.599 --> 00:03:59.520 the station. Hey, let me throw this out at you. 57 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:03.639 I'm thinking in this moment, as we reflect during this 58 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:08.719 drive time in Los Angeles, of just how significant January 59 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:13.159 twentieth is in Black history. Now. I say that because 60 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:16.240 I believe, even though Shirley Chisholm gets a significant amount 61 00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:22.720 of credit, that the first campaign by black people in 62 00:04:22.759 --> 00:04:27.600 a presidential election year to get the attention of Democrats 63 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:33.120 and Republicans after the Voting Rights Act was the poor 64 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:37.000 People's campaign. Doctor King is trying to get the attention 65 00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:42.240 of both parties at the hour of his assassination with 66 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:45.279 this idea of the poor people's campaign. It's a campaign. 67 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:51.199 It is a campaign like mailers and billboards and yard science. 68 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:55.399 It's a poor people's campaign bringing them into the process 69 00:04:55.879 --> 00:04:58.439 just three years after the Voting Rights Act. Then you have, 70 00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:02.879 of course Shirley Chisholm in campaign nineteen seventy two. We 71 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:06.800 have Jesse Jackson in a campaign nineteen eighty four and 72 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:12.680 eighty eight. We have Reverend Sharpton running a presidential campaign. 73 00:05:12.800 --> 00:05:18.319 Everybody trying to get Reverend Yeary to January twentieth. Then 74 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:23.360 we have Barack Obama as President of the United States. 75 00:05:23.800 --> 00:05:30.680 January twentieth, we have Kamala Harris inaugurated on January twentieth. 76 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:37.759 January twentieth is as significant a date in the history 77 00:05:37.800 --> 00:05:41.120 of black people as any thing we celebrate all year, 78 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:49.120 including Watch Night, Emancipation Day, Juneteenth, the election of a 79 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:54.720 United States President, doctor yeary all forty seven of them 80 00:05:55.079 --> 00:05:59.439 is black history. It is. 81 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:05.000 The question becomes, is it history in a progressive sort 82 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.600 of sense where we're building and expanding on the principles 83 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:14.040 of opportunity and inclusion, or does it become a very 84 00:06:14.079 --> 00:06:17.839 regressive kind of date that has many of us kind 85 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:21.240 of marking the calendar to say, you mean to tell me, 86 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:24.000 it's only been one year since this dude's been in 87 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:28.160 office and we got three more to go. What does 88 00:06:28.199 --> 00:06:31.639 that portend for folks who are relying on the government 89 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:37.879 to be a resource and not just an adversary in 90 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.399 opposition to what's in the best interest, particularly of those 91 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:43.800 who are most vulnerable. If we think about who gets snap, 92 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:46.439 what it looks like we still don't have a livable 93 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:47.560 wage in this country. 94 00:06:48.279 --> 00:06:49.439 There are a number of things. 95 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:52.759 Even when we get into fair housing and the regression 96 00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:56.120 that happens there, we still don't have justice for black farmers. 97 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:59.279 Because every time that comes up, the argument is is 98 00:06:59.319 --> 00:07:06.040 that somehow justice for disadvantage black folk is somehow discrimination 99 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:09.160 against white folk. That every time we get to a 100 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:13.560 January twentieth. We have to wrestle with whether or not 101 00:07:13.800 --> 00:07:19.279 these next four years is going to lend itself lend 102 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:22.680 themselves to needing to be much more engaged and then 103 00:07:22.759 --> 00:07:26.120 much more assertive in making sure that we don't go 104 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:29.879 back in time, which is exactly where we find ourselves today. 105 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:32.959 I am particularly honored to hear that reflection. I've not 106 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:35.639 heard one on this subject matter, and I think we 107 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:39.439 together come up with a creative energy to put an 108 00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:43.240 angle on a particular date that some might just see 109 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:47.720 as the third Windnesday, third Monday in January, where we 110 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.000 celebrate the King Holiday and where we hear the speeches 111 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:52.759 over and over again. But the fact of the matter 112 00:07:52.959 --> 00:07:58.160 is so much of our history now comes together in 113 00:07:58.199 --> 00:08:03.439 the cycle and Indian interpretation of what that date specifically means. 114 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:05.680 I mean it ought to be a day of voter 115 00:08:05.800 --> 00:08:10.600 registration of a day of participation, a day of environmental justice, 116 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:13.480 a day of equal high quality education, a day of 117 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:16.519 health care, a day of holding Congress accountable, a day 118 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:20.120 of sharing with future presidents of the United States, the 119 00:08:20.199 --> 00:08:23.560 kind of expectations we have in judicial appointments to the 120 00:08:23.560 --> 00:08:26.639 Federal bench and to the Supreme Court. I mean January 121 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:30.920 twentieth is definitely not a laid back date because when 122 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:34.440 you look at people like Hiram Revels, and you look 123 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:38.480 at the significance the hopes of swearing in a new 124 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:43.080 Congress occur on the January twentieth in a presidential election year. 125 00:08:43.080 --> 00:08:47.000 All of these things are happening in the context of 126 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:52.000 January that somehow we just see as as small by comparison. 127 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:56.840 Hiram Roodes revel was elected by the Mississippi Legislature as 128 00:08:56.879 --> 00:08:59.320 the first African American to serve in the US Senate 129 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:03.759 or Milestone during reconstruction, so he wasn't sworn in until 130 00:09:03.799 --> 00:09:08.440 February twenty fifth, facing opposition and debate over his eligibility 131 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:12.000 due to racial citizenship laws. According to sources like the 132 00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:18.039 Equal Justice Initiative, Hiram Revels the first black Senator. The 133 00:09:18.039 --> 00:09:21.799 Mississippi Sippy Department of Archives and History shares with us 134 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:25.679 his story January twentieth, eighteen seventy. Dr Yuri. 135 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:33.519 Well, bear in mind what eighteen seventy represents is a 136 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:40.039 shift post Civil War, post Civil Rights Act of eighteen 137 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:43.200 sixty six, and then you moved to Civil Rights Act 138 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:47.799 of eighteen seventy you're beginning to see the emergence of 139 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:52.159 a very influential voting block of people who had been 140 00:09:52.279 --> 00:09:57.200 historically excluded. And so Hiram revels election first of all, 141 00:09:57.240 --> 00:10:00.279 being selected by the legislature in and of itself ought 142 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:02.679 to tell us a whole lot just because of the 143 00:10:02.679 --> 00:10:07.440 way senators were elected at that particular time. It wasn't 144 00:10:07.559 --> 00:10:12.919 a popular vote per se. But it also speaks to 145 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:17.240 I think the importance of our full engagement and participation 146 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:22.720 in this process. Where I think we've tended to lose 147 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:28.799 our way is we've kind of held our engagement at 148 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:33.720 the polls subject to kind of instant gratification. This isn't 149 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:36.879 this isn't a one and done. As you were talking 150 00:10:36.919 --> 00:10:39.519 a minute ago, I was thinking January twentieth for us, 151 00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:44.639 or the third Monday in January, in observance of doctor 152 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:48.000 King's birthday, should be a day that we actually issue 153 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.879 a report card on the United States government on how 154 00:10:50.919 --> 00:10:54.720 well the government is doing addressing the issues for whom 155 00:10:54.759 --> 00:10:58.679 doctor King had great concern. And so it shouldn't just 156 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:05.440 be hearing a president pontificate about Some would say pontificate, 157 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:08.879 others might say defecate on the reality of what he 158 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:13.600 had done on behalf of the nation. But rather than 159 00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:16.200 listening to this dude just poo poo over everything and 160 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:18.399 make us believe that somehow other things are great and 161 00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:21.799 we're better off than we would have been otherwise is problematic, 162 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:24.639 and the people's voice needs to be heard, and the 163 00:11:24.679 --> 00:11:28.399 government needs to be critiqued and evaluated on its effectiveness 164 00:11:28.679 --> 00:11:30.919 and doing what the government is supposed to do if 165 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:32.159 it is government of. 166 00:11:32.200 --> 00:11:35.559 For and by the people. Oh, doctor ear you've said 167 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:39.000 something about this report card. Now, this report card makes sense, 168 00:11:39.120 --> 00:11:41.320 I mean, and it can come from not only a 169 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:45.879 national perspective, but even local communities ought be issuing on 170 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:50.600 January twentieth what the state of play is on these 171 00:11:50.639 --> 00:11:54.120 critical questions raised by doctor King and raised in our 172 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:58.879 society large given the very nature that January twentieth is 173 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:04.399 a turning point in American history every four years, as 174 00:12:04.480 --> 00:12:09.639 part of a cycle in our historic memory as a nation, 175 00:12:09.799 --> 00:12:14.120 there is, as I was corrected earlier by James Felton Keith, 176 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:18.759 of course it's January twenty twenty nine when we inaugurate 177 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:21.519 a new president. But it still happens right around that 178 00:12:21.559 --> 00:12:30.679 third Monday in January every single year. Yeah, it's always there. 179 00:12:30.919 --> 00:12:34.600 It's here where I think it's important that we lift 180 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:40.399 up the work of Tavis Smiley and the regular publications 181 00:12:40.440 --> 00:12:43.840 of the State of Black America when we would do 182 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:48.200 an evaluation and an assessment of where are we in 183 00:12:48.279 --> 00:12:54.440 terms of the fundamental and essential points of evaluation, in 184 00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:58.559 terms of quality of life, participation, engagement, protection, are we 185 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:03.320 secure in our person It is that kind of ongoing 186 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:07.080 spirit that we have to go back and pick up again. 187 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:10.840 But we also have to expand who are the teachers 188 00:13:11.320 --> 00:13:13.679 that are informing the report card? 189 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:13.919 Right? 190 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:16.960 We get grades in more than one subject. Certainly we 191 00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:24.879 need to do a collaborative, cooperative, even a coalition focused 192 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:28.080 evaluation of where the government is because that's how we 193 00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:30.279 begin to inform our own community. It's not just to 194 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:32.919 tell the government the obvious. They know they're not doing anything. 195 00:13:34.360 --> 00:13:37.240 To tell them they're not doing anything is really more 196 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:39.200 of a waste of energy, but to raise it and 197 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:42.840 elevate it to a point of public discourse, local, state 198 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:45.240 and federal. If they're going to give us a state 199 00:13:45.320 --> 00:13:48.120 of the city, state of the state, state of the 200 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:53.200 Union address, then the people need to have their own 201 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:57.000 retort to be able to say, we call bs for 202 00:13:57.039 --> 00:13:59.639 what you're trying to sell us in terms of a 203 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:04.000 billy good. What's really going on here is you're hustling 204 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:07.840 the people to the benefit of an exclusive club and 205 00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:11.000 to the harm of the masses. And therefore the people 206 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:14.600 now need to get organized and mobilized to be able 207 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:15.759 to take back their government. 208 00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:21.080 You know, we're onto something here. I'd like to see 209 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:23.879 that State of the Union. The Black State of the 210 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:29.320 Union Report reissued every January twentieth as a reflection on 211 00:14:29.440 --> 00:14:32.279 what the state of the Union really is, what the 212 00:14:32.279 --> 00:14:37.519 state of the Negro is, from our economic to our political, 213 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:40.960 to our social to our cultural and there is no 214 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:43.320 doubt that at this hour in the nation's history, we 215 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:47.639 are in a source or space of regression. We are 216 00:14:47.639 --> 00:14:51.639 going backwards, not because we the people, particularly us, are 217 00:14:51.639 --> 00:14:56.919 not moving forward, but because the government itself is turning 218 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:00.480 its back on the least of these year each just 219 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:01.919 a few more minutes before we come forward. 220 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:07.320 Well, uh, you call it turning turning his back. I 221 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:14.639 think I think we got mooned. Uh. Something about this 222 00:15:14.720 --> 00:15:18.960 feels like a childish or a high school prank. That 223 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:21.720 basically what what the Congress keeps showing us is there 224 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:24.720 behind right, they're basically saying, we'll do what we want. 225 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:25.480 Uh. 226 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:29.840 You know, you've got a president that's overseas today saying 227 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:32.759 he's not going to give up on taking somebody else's land. 228 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:36.919 He's just not going to use force to do it. Uh, 229 00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:39.519 and then comes out with some statement that says he 230 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:42.799 has some sort of agreement that allows him to back 231 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:48.480 away from imposing tariffs some folks who oppose his point 232 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.080 of view about the seizing of land. There is this 233 00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:56.200 sense that we who have lived this history must be 234 00:15:56.279 --> 00:16:00.600 able to recount it. One because this year marks one 235 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:08.960 hundred years since Black History Week was initiated and installed 236 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:12.600 in this country, that we've got to go back and 237 00:16:12.759 --> 00:16:16.639 remember how we got here, and how we got here 238 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:20.240 was not by some sense of charity or some sense 239 00:16:20.279 --> 00:16:24.679 of you know, egalitarian focus. Oh, let's just make room 240 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:28.399 for the negro. No, we came in kicking down doors 241 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:33.360 and making demands and persisting until the cries and the 242 00:16:33.399 --> 00:16:36.600 calls for justice had to be heard and had to 243 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:37.159 be honored. 244 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:40.320 Go to the club. 245 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:47.200 Recent claim by President Trump that the nineteen sixty four 246 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:53.159 Civil Rights Act harn white Americans is just wrong and 247 00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:57.320 it's dangerous. It rewrites history in a way that fuels 248 00:16:57.679 --> 00:17:02.559 fear and resentment. My fathers and so many leaders of 249 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:06.839 the movement, Fred Shuttlesworth dying, Nash John Lewis, I can 250 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:09.000 call the role, but I won't do it today, did 251 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:22.000 not risk their lives to divide this nation. They did 252 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:28.720 not risk their lives to divide this nation. They did 253 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:34.240 so because America was denying millions basic rights, the right 254 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:38.079 to work, the right to vote, to live where they please, 255 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:43.680 to move through society with dignity. The Civil Rights Act 256 00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:50.559 did not give Black people special treatment. It made discrimination illegal, 257 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:56.759 the same discrimination you're trying to turn around and use 258 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:05.680 a quiet the law to protect everyone equally. That is democracy. 259 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:09.640 So to my white brothers and sisters, the Civil Rights 260 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:13.160 Act was never meant to harm you. It was meant 261 00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:18.279 to heal a nation broken by injustice. Fairness does not 262 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:21.480 steal from you. Justice strengthens us. 263 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:26.359 All Junior listening to Jesse Jackson Junior show, Bernice King 264 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:28.319 said it all more. When we come forward on k 265 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:38.319 BLA talk fight, welcome for with me, Come on, come 266 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:49.240 on with me. More than past political Action chair for 267 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:52.799 the Maryland State Conference of the NAACP, as co founding 268 00:18:52.799 --> 00:18:56.799 principle of Community Churches for Community Development, Inc. And as 269 00:18:56.839 --> 00:19:01.359 the founding principle of Assault Strategic Advocacy and Legislative think Tank, 270 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:05.200 a faith based public policy collaborative that works on regional 271 00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:10.640 and national empowerment strategies impacting disaffected communities. He's often called 272 00:19:10.680 --> 00:19:15.720 upon to facilitate creative conversations that solve challenging public policy problems. 273 00:19:16.119 --> 00:19:19.440 A civil rights attorney and public policy advocate, Doctor Yeerie 274 00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:24.160 holds a deep belief that honest dialogue creates opportunities to 275 00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:28.680 form strategic partnerships that strengthen families and communities. Doctor Eerie, 276 00:19:28.720 --> 00:19:34.880 welcome forward the Wealthy Wednesdays and the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. 277 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.240 And as we wait for Doctor Yerie, I wanted to 278 00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:45.160 share with with everyone that I thought the profundity with 279 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:51.000 which Bernice King delivered her remarks, which from my perspective, 280 00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:55.880 must always be difficult for Reverend doctor Bernice King. Obviously 281 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.960 she's commemorating all the birth of her father, but also 282 00:20:01.079 --> 00:20:04.400 having to reflect not very far from his grave site 283 00:20:04.440 --> 00:20:07.880 along with the gravesite of her mother, and yet with 284 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:12.319 such poise and such grace. She comes forward every single 285 00:20:12.440 --> 00:20:16.680 year on this holiday to reflect upon the life of 286 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:24.319 her father in a timely, relevant, courageous, and clear way, 287 00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:29.880 and she almost always challenges the occupant of the White 288 00:20:29.880 --> 00:20:35.920 House and the nation's leadership to a higher moral calling 289 00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:42.599 and purpose. And so I was particularly moved just a 290 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:45.880 few years ago when I sat through the King Holiday 291 00:20:47.759 --> 00:20:52.880 service at Ebenezer Church when Bernice delivered her annual address. 292 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:57.720 Senator Rafael Warnock was present on that occasion. Of course, 293 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:02.319 he is the pastor of Beniezer Baptist Church right across 294 00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:07.559 the street from the King Sinner. And the grace with 295 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:14.359 which she approaches under very difficult circumstances, that reflection must 296 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:17.359 be some kind of special place that she has to 297 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:20.079 dig in order to be able to provide the kind 298 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:25.440 of clarity that provides every single year during this period. 299 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:29.079 And so I am particularly grateful for her spirit. I 300 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:32.960 am completely grateful that God has given us a woman 301 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:39.599 in this particular time, a leader of immense moral authority 302 00:21:39.640 --> 00:21:46.000 and clarity in Reverend Doctor Bernice King. I do believe 303 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:49.160 that I want to turn our conversation to this question 304 00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:54.400 of Donald Trump and Greenland and his preoccupation and obsession 305 00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:57.799 with Greenland. With that said, I'm going to turn to 306 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:02.599 our team and ask them to play a clip regarding Greenland. 307 00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:09.319 Thucidides is presented as inevitable, as the natural logic of 308 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:15.839 international relations reasserting itself, and faced with this logic, there 309 00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:20.440 is a strong tendency for countries to go along, to 310 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:26.359 get along, to accommodate, to avoid trouble, to hope that 311 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:33.319 compliance will buy safety. Well it won't, so what are 312 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:38.759 our options. In nineteen seventy eight, the Czech dissident Vaslav Havel, 313 00:22:39.640 --> 00:22:43.799 later president, wrote an essay called The Power of the Powerless, 314 00:22:44.640 --> 00:22:47.680 and in it he asked a simple question, how did 315 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:52.319 the communist system sustain itself? And his answer began with 316 00:22:52.359 --> 00:22:57.039 a greengrocer. Every morning, this shopkeeper places a sign in 317 00:22:57.079 --> 00:23:01.920 his window, Workers of the world unite. He doesn't believe it, 318 00:23:02.759 --> 00:23:06.000 no one does, but he places a sign anyway to 319 00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:11.079 avoid trouble, to signal compliance, to get along. And because 320 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:14.640 every shopkeeper on every street does the same, the system 321 00:23:14.680 --> 00:23:20.200 persists not through violence alone, but through the participation of 322 00:23:20.440 --> 00:23:24.400 ordinary people in rituals they privately know to be false. 323 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:30.599 Havell called this living within a lie. The system's power 324 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:33.759 comes not from its truth, but from everyone's willingness to 325 00:23:33.799 --> 00:23:39.000 perform as if it were true, and its fragility comes 326 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:43.400 from the same source. When even one person stops performing, 327 00:23:43.799 --> 00:23:50.240 when the greengrocer removes his sign, the illusion begins to crack. Friends, 328 00:23:50.920 --> 00:23:54.960 it is time for companies and countries to take their 329 00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:55.680 signs down. 330 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:06.240 For decades, for. 331 00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:09.400 Decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the 332 00:24:09.480 --> 00:24:13.599 rules based international order. We joined its institutions, we praised 333 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:18.480 its principles, We benefited from its predictability, and because of that, 334 00:24:18.519 --> 00:24:21.880 we could pursue values based foreign policies under its protection. 335 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:26.359 We knew the story of the international rules based order 336 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:31.319 was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, 337 00:24:31.799 --> 00:24:37.799 that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically, and we knew that 338 00:24:37.880 --> 00:24:41.279 international law applied with varying rigor depending on the identity 339 00:24:41.279 --> 00:24:41.559 of the. 340 00:24:41.559 --> 00:24:43.119 Accused or the victim. 341 00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:46.240 This fiction was useful. 342 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:52.119 An American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods, open 343 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:56.599 sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security, and support 344 00:24:56.680 --> 00:25:02.160 for frameworks for resolving disputes. Placed the sign in the window. 345 00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:08.200 We participated in the rituals, and we largely avoided calling 346 00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:14.000 out the gaps between rhetoric and reality. This bargain no longer. 347 00:25:13.720 --> 00:25:19.400 Works, Doctor Yarie. I want to turn our attention to Greenland. 348 00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:25.000 But I'm also deeply troubled by the reality that much 349 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.160 of the investigations into Donald Trump in his first term 350 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:35.559 were largely driven by what James Comy, Hillary Clinton others 351 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:39.839 actually knew about Donald Trump and his ability to bring 352 00:25:39.960 --> 00:25:41.799 chaos to the world order. We have just a few 353 00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:44.599 minutes before we come forward, Doctor Eerie, your thoughts on 354 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:47.839 the chaos of the hour from Donald John Trump in 355 00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:54.559 the international order. Two words that come up in that speech. 356 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:57.240 One is American jiminy. 357 00:25:59.440 --> 00:26:05.799 It is that sense of entitlement and self proclaimed dominance 358 00:26:05.839 --> 00:26:09.559 and domination that the rest of the world is now 359 00:26:09.559 --> 00:26:11.000 paying very close attention to. 360 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:13.200 And I think what you're. 361 00:26:13.160 --> 00:26:18.000 Beginning to see is a realignment of allegiances and alliances 362 00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:22.000 that could very well leave the United States out on 363 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:27.599 a limb by itself. And simply claiming that you've got 364 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:31.079 the strongest military on the face of the planet does 365 00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:35.440 not somehow make you the one who sets the rules. 366 00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:36.079 On the playground. 367 00:26:36.799 --> 00:26:42.400 And so I think inside the US bubble, the thing 368 00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:45.680 that has to be determined, particularly in the halls of Congress, 369 00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:49.119 is how long do we let this reckless type of 370 00:26:49.240 --> 00:26:53.799 leadership go unchecked and not use what Congress has as 371 00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:57.319 its greatest tool, and that's the power of the purse. 372 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:00.480 That you can't just use who's. 373 00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:03.240 Somebody else's money, which he's accustomed to doing, to do 374 00:27:03.319 --> 00:27:06.000 what he wants to do for his own benefit. And 375 00:27:06.319 --> 00:27:10.279 it's going to have diminishing returns. It already does, and 376 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:14.039 eventually it's going to start causing arm in places where 377 00:27:14.039 --> 00:27:16.200 he claims that he's got his greatest success. 378 00:27:16.440 --> 00:27:19.319 I'm Jesse Jackson Junior listening to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. 379 00:27:19.359 --> 00:27:21.400 This is doctors Todd Yuri more than We Come forward 380 00:27:21.759 --> 00:27:41.960 on KBLA Talk fifteen j Lunch Club welcomes doctor Yuri forward, 381 00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:45.759 Doctor YERI I have a I have this revelation in 382 00:27:45.799 --> 00:27:50.119 our conversation that just arrived. Everything Trump did in his 383 00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:54.839 first term. When I think about Greenland, including demanding that 384 00:27:54.960 --> 00:27:59.079 Europe pay more of its own defense, It's not like 385 00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:02.200 it was an effort that if they paid more of 386 00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:06.039 their own defense, he would reduce the US military budget. 387 00:28:06.039 --> 00:28:09.160 In fact, he will be the first president to propose 388 00:28:09.279 --> 00:28:14.440 a trillion dollar annual military budget for the United States, 389 00:28:14.519 --> 00:28:19.240 the largest military budget per animal spending in the history 390 00:28:19.359 --> 00:28:26.440 of the world per year. But by demanding that Europe 391 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:30.640 pay more of its own defense and then the American 392 00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:35.119 people giving him a second term, he's essentially saying, now, 393 00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:40.680 pay for all of your own defense. And of course, 394 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:45.920 the greatest threat to Europe is Putin and Ukraine and 395 00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:51.319 the march of Putin westward from Ukraine to the borders 396 00:28:51.359 --> 00:28:56.359 potentially of Europe itself. When you speak about unraveling the 397 00:28:56.480 --> 00:29:00.440 entire international order, there is something to be said about 398 00:29:00.440 --> 00:29:04.319 the early investigations into Donald Trump and his behavior that 399 00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:07.640 was deeply troubling for the intelligence community in the United States. 400 00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:15.880 Theory, yeah, there are few things embedded in that very 401 00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:22.480