Speaker 1: Download Dad, I just can't hit that note. Come talk
Speaker 1: with me, you know, oh well for that. I'm Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Speaker 1: Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show on KBL
Speaker 1: Talk fifteen to eighty. I was just sharing with our
Speaker 1: producer that I can't hit that note, but if I could,
Speaker 1: I would sing it.
Speaker 2: Come talk with me. I can't get that, I can't
Speaker 2: do it. Our very special guest in this hour is
Speaker 2: none other than one a man who has one foot
Speaker 2: in the pulpit and one foot in the courtroom, but
Speaker 2: both feet in reality. His contribution on Wealthy Wednesdays on
Speaker 2: the Jesse Jackson Junior Show is the turning point of
Speaker 2: our week because we rely upon the thoughtful thinking of
Speaker 2: none other than doctor Reverend PhD. This ain't no honorary degree.
Speaker 2: This is the real deal. This Manroe thesis squire, Yeah,
Speaker 2: all of that. Reverendidierie is our very special guest on
Speaker 2: this fed me Friday. Reverend Eurie, Welcome forward to the
Speaker 2: Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
Speaker 3: You know I love fat back Friday. That's all.
Speaker 2: For those of you.
Speaker 4: It says you found fat me.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, let me ask you a question in the
Speaker 2: fat back fat me No, No, fat means greasy. Oh okay,
Speaker 2: I mean that means greasy, but fat back is all
Speaker 2: greasy and no meat on it anyway. Anyway, hey, listen,
Speaker 2: the probative nature, probing, digging, deeper, uh cross, examining, interrogating, reflecting, questioning,
Speaker 2: nature of what Martin Luther King Junior, from your perspective,
Speaker 2: is trying to achieve. On April nineteen sixty seven, in
Speaker 2: this speech at the Riverside Church, Beyond the Vietnam A
Speaker 2: moment to break silence, doctor Erie, our entire hour s yours.
Speaker 3: So that's that's that's what we're doing. I get it.
Speaker 2: No, no, no of you. I thought you could do. See,
Speaker 2: we don't have a pre show before the show necessarily,
Speaker 2: Gina kind of gives us the feedback. But when we
Speaker 2: asked doctor.
Speaker 5: Urie, I'm giving him right now to have a cup
Speaker 5: of coffee, have a sip of whatever you need to
Speaker 5: have a sip of.
Speaker 2: We're giving you this ry gene.
Speaker 4: We're giving him that moment I am not going to
Speaker 4: talk about to Tyle was gracious enough. He was not
Speaker 4: with us on Wednesday because he was flying. And I said, listen,
Speaker 4: that little that little pep talk you gave us right
Speaker 4: at the end, right there, that little sparkle, that little
Speaker 4: angel dust.
Speaker 2: You dropped in.
Speaker 4: Come on back on Friday, let's talk about it. So
Speaker 4: thank you talk.
Speaker 2: For being however you want to posit yourself. We're more
Speaker 2: than willing to receive the blessing that we know you offer.
Speaker 3: The hearing in a few days we will.
Speaker 6: Honor the observed holiday UH in honor of doctor King.
Speaker 3: The last year of his life.
Speaker 6: Kind of starts with this speech at Riverside Church, and
Speaker 6: he is pulling the lens back to make sure that
Speaker 6: our definition of justice is not so narrow until we
Speaker 6: miss the broader sense of moral compass UH in theological
Speaker 6: discourse to include the ever expanding military industrial complex. And
Speaker 6: so I think his thoughts kind of focus us on
Speaker 6: the economics of war and the fact that much of
Speaker 6: the suffering that has been imposed on the human condition
Speaker 6: has been the byproduct.
Speaker 3: Of war and the byproduct of.
Speaker 6: The militarizing of everything from local police forces to raising
Speaker 6: the specter of the nuclearization that would lead to the
Speaker 6: total annihilation of humankind. So I think he was giving
Speaker 6: us a foreshadow of what we needed to focus on
Speaker 6: in the near future.
Speaker 2: You know what I find interesting, Doctor Erie, is that
Speaker 2: when I think in this moment about what you just said,
Speaker 2: that of the hundreds of millions of speeches and orations,
Speaker 2: billions maybe since the Crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus
Speaker 2: of Nazareth, that in this life and ministry, and in
Speaker 2: this work of doctor King, he ties his work, in
Speaker 2: his readings, in his scholarship, in his thinking, in the
Speaker 2: language that he chooses, in the English language, he ties
Speaker 2: his work to infinity. He ties it to it in
Speaker 2: a way that we have to reflect upon it every
Speaker 2: single day. That it doesn't just end because he said
Speaker 2: this here, we are forced to go back and look
Speaker 2: one more time at what he said, and we find
Speaker 2: something new every time we read it. Because he gave
Speaker 2: some consideration to sixty years in the future, he gave
Speaker 2: some consideration to centuries from now. He gave some consideration
Speaker 2: to what I say in the present actually matters to
Speaker 2: our understanding of where this nation is going. And I
Speaker 2: think beyond Vietnam, maybe four or five times, because I
Speaker 2: will be speaking about it on Sunday and Monday. He
Speaker 2: mentions Venezuela, Doctor Eerie, some folks get inspiration, other folks
Speaker 2: get revelation.
Speaker 6: The true meaning of a prophet is to be able
Speaker 6: to give us a glimpse into a future that is
Speaker 6: not yet realized, with a sense of responsibility and warning
Speaker 6: that we not get so self consumed as to miss
Speaker 6: the instruction. Doctor King was certainly expanding our understanding and
Speaker 6: the awareness of the globe itself, where there's a significant
Speaker 6: narrowing going on in real time, and at the same
Speaker 6: time making sure that we understand that the oppression that
Speaker 6: is felt in one part of the world extends to
Speaker 6: other parts of the world almost simultaneously. And a lot
Speaker 6: of that is the economic policy of the world superpowers
Speaker 6: to the exclusion of and in the service of the
Speaker 6: oppression of everybody else.
Speaker 2: It's Fat Back and Fat Meat Fridays on with Gina
Speaker 2: Towns and our very special guests is doctor s todd
Speaker 2: Eery More we come forward on k Talk. It's the
Speaker 2: ja Let's Club on the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. A
Speaker 2: great to have our very special creator, Gina Towns is
Speaker 2: our very special creator of the Jesse Jackson Junior Show
Speaker 2: and none other than our Wednesday regular contributor on Wealthy Wednesdays,
Speaker 2: Doctor S todd Yery Gina, welcome forward to your show.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you, Jesse, and I am excited that it
Speaker 4: is the king weekend that there's actually it's been just
Speaker 4: kind of a celebratory week and you know, I have
Speaker 4: been encouraged that people have still felt like they could celebrate,
Speaker 4: because certainly there is a lot to be concerned about.
Speaker 4: The news continues to be what it is daily, but no,
Speaker 4: I think it's very important. And Reverend Urie, you know
Speaker 4: that there's a time for everything under the sun, and
Speaker 4: so we thank you for being here as well. I
Speaker 4: do have a clip from Beyond Venezuela and then we'll
Speaker 4: have you.
Speaker 7: Un it's got Beyond Venezuela going on this weekend when
Speaker 7: people even have a clip of that coming next week,
Speaker 7: but at any rate, we'll have you on you when
Speaker 7: you come back and.
Speaker 2: On it. We can go with that clip.
Speaker 8: I found myself and a call MHM when I read
Speaker 8: this opening line, time comes when silence is betrayed.
Speaker 9: That time has come for us in relation to Viegnam.
Speaker 10: Okay, Jesse Jackson, do you looking forward to the Jesse
Speaker 10: Jackson Junior ShW We're having a technical difficulty with our
Speaker 10: clip but let me ask where a doctor Murrick.
Speaker 2: He doesn't mind. Doctor King, as we were sharing on
Speaker 2: the outskirts of the program, gave some consideration to the
Speaker 2: idea of infinity in his thinking.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the constraints that are placed on the willingness of
Speaker 6: persons in power to think creatively about how to use
Speaker 6: that power to the benefit of all humanity.
Speaker 3: Was deeply troubling to doctor King.
Speaker 6: I guess it's been several days now since I saw
Speaker 6: an interview between Jake Tapper at CNN and Stephen Miller.
Speaker 6: I guess the number two in the policy advisement space,
Speaker 6: but number one in coming up with some of the
Speaker 6: most curious and spurious foolishness to come out of this administration.
Speaker 3: And basically, Stephen Miller.
Speaker 6: Challenged Jake Tapper to say that he was naive that
Speaker 6: since the beginning of history, government relationships between government have
Speaker 6: been framed and shaped by power and force.
Speaker 3: And so he was.
Speaker 6: Basically making the case for what we see happening not
Speaker 6: only in Venezuela, but and on the streets of Minneapolis
Speaker 6: and quite possibly coming to a city near you. And
Speaker 6: so this infinity focus of doctor King was to challenge
Speaker 6: us not to think so narrowly about the impact and
Speaker 6: the reach of the fight for social justice, because a
Speaker 6: threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Speaker 2: You know, doctor Eerie, when I wrote the book The
Speaker 2: Finger of God, which is available at Amazon dot com,
Speaker 2: and I haven't shared with everyone that, nor have I
Speaker 2: done a show on it. But I want to be
Speaker 2: clear the purpose of this book and the reason I
Speaker 2: wrote this book is because I have given some consideration
Speaker 2: to infinity. I need for all of our leaders, if
Speaker 2: you want to talk to me or convince me of
Speaker 2: this or that, I need to know that you've given
Speaker 2: some thought to an eternal message.
Speaker 11: That you ain't just speaking in a moment moving the crowd,
Speaker 11: got something to say, do what you do flying through
Speaker 11: the pulpit or flying through the church tied to a
Speaker 11: cable of something smoke mirrors, No, no, no. I need
Speaker 11: to know that, beyond the magic tricks that you're trying
Speaker 11: to perform for your congregation or for our people, and
Speaker 11: call it legitimate leadership, that you've given some thought without
Speaker 11: trappeezes and cables hauling you from the from the balcony
Speaker 11: to the pulpit, and folk disconnecting you and your suit
Speaker 11: specifically made to fit your harness so you can fly
Speaker 11: through the air. I need to know that you've given
Speaker 11: some thought to the idea that what you say this
Speaker 11: Sunday is going to be as true five hundred sundays
Speaker 11: from now as it is in the present moment. For me,
Speaker 11: that matters, And it's clear to me, Doctor YERI that
Speaker 11: doctor King gave some thought to the eternal nature of
Speaker 11: almost everything that he wrote.
Speaker 6: Doctor King was very thoughtful when he considered the role
Speaker 6: of faith expression and the cause and the call for
Speaker 6: the liberation of people, and so he was constantly learning,
Speaker 6: not only about.
Speaker 3: Christianity, but he was always.
Speaker 6: Having conversations with folks from other perspectives. He studied Gandhi deeply.
Speaker 6: He spent a lot of time with and in conversation
Speaker 6: with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heshel, who informed a good deal
Speaker 6: of his thought. And I think the reason he did
Speaker 6: that is he understood that no matter which perspective you
Speaker 6: might take, there's always a period in someone's history where
Speaker 6: they find themselves as the oppressed, not just the oppressor.
Speaker 6: And as we have seen, one of the things that
Speaker 6: doctor King kept pointing out. You mentioned the speech about Vietnam.
Speaker 6: Before he did the speech in New York at Riverside
Speaker 6: Church that April, he had done another speech in February
Speaker 6: of that year in Los Angeles. The Casualties of the
Speaker 6: War in Vietnam. He mentions five casualties. One was the
Speaker 6: Charter of the United Nations. Two was the principle of
Speaker 6: self determination. The third was the Great Society, this notion
Speaker 6: of building the beloved community and focusing on those things
Speaker 6: that affect the conditions of people. But the fourth and
Speaker 6: the fifth are really really critical. The fourth casualty of
Speaker 6: the war in Vietnam, he said, is the humility of
Speaker 6: our nation. Said that he had to admit that our power,
Speaker 6: the nation's power, United States power, has made the nation
Speaker 6: arrogant when we consider that, he said, it's that arrogance
Speaker 6: that causes us to lose sight. Their debates and battles
Speaker 6: about how we're going to address poverty, how we're going
Speaker 6: to make sure folks get health care. We can't seem
Speaker 6: to get a war powers resolution through because there's this arrogance.
Speaker 6: The picture of changing the name of the Department of
Speaker 6: Defense to the Department of War. And then the fifth
Speaker 6: casualty is the one that we see happening every day
Speaker 6: on our television. The fifth casualty of the war in
Speaker 6: Vietnam is the principle of dissent. There's an intentional stifling
Speaker 6: of hearing the voices that come from people who are
Speaker 6: living on the margins, as if their voices do not matter,
Speaker 6: and as a matter of fact, their voices annoy the
Speaker 6: government to the degree that we could see something as
Speaker 6: horrific as the shooting of someone in broad daylight with
Speaker 6: no aid, no assistance, no attempt to remedy or mitigate
Speaker 6: the harm that they had caused. All of that craziness
Speaker 6: is this reality. And doctor King was telling us be careful.
Speaker 6: He was telling us this almost sixty years ago. Now
Speaker 6: and here we.
Speaker 2: Are, you know, Tod. Let me share something with you.
Speaker 2: I read this speech one hundred times, and people say
Speaker 2: I read something one hundred times all the time I've
Speaker 2: been at the seminary. I am sixty years old. I
Speaker 2: have struggled, and everyone on this station and on this
Speaker 2: show has heard me. Every Thursday, have a conversation with
Speaker 2: Johnny Mack about the World House. We talk about militarism,
Speaker 2: we talk about materialism, we talk about racism. So we
Speaker 2: deal with the Triple Evils. But I read the speech
Speaker 2: in the last seventy two hours and I found something
Speaker 2: different that I had not heard in the one hundred
Speaker 2: times from seminary to the present forty years that I
Speaker 2: now understand the pivotal. There are multiple pivots in this speech,
Speaker 2: multiple turning points in this speech. It's called Beyond Vietnam,
Speaker 2: A Time to Break the Silence. You should google it.
Speaker 2: You can find it. A Time to Break the Silence.
Speaker 2: Beyond Vietnam. April fourth, nineteen sixty seven by Martin Luther
Speaker 2: King Junior. Let me tell what I found yesterday, Todd
Speaker 2: for the first time. I'm sorry, Reverend Uie. Let me
Speaker 2: share what I found. He said that as Americans, we
Speaker 2: are not taking ownership of the fact that our iras,
Speaker 2: our retirement, and our money and how we really feel
Speaker 2: is tied to the exploitation of the people of Venezuela,
Speaker 2: of Guatemala, of South Africa. That we wake up every
Speaker 2: day hoping that the stock market itself does better, and
Speaker 2: for it to do better, American oil companies have to
Speaker 2: do well in Venezuela, and in this particular case, it
Speaker 2: comes at the expense of the peasants in nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: eight of Vietnamese. In this particular case, Trump says, this
Speaker 2: oil is ours. We're going to fix it. American oil
Speaker 2: companies who contribute it to my campaign. Let's get ready
Speaker 2: to take what we're going to take from Venezuela, and
Speaker 2: we're gonna help first America the stock market, and then
Speaker 2: we're going to provide the people of Venezuela with a
Speaker 2: quality of life they've never had before. I've read the
Speaker 2: speech one hundred times, but it's not until today, seventy
Speaker 2: two hours that I get it that our values, the
Speaker 2: revolution and values that doctor King is trying to tell
Speaker 2: us are thus. You may not want a Mexican to
Speaker 2: be your neighbor, but you do want avocado. You don't
Speaker 2: want a Venezuelan to live next to you, but you
Speaker 2: do want lower gas prices. You may think that a
Speaker 2: Nigerian comes from a shitthhole country, but you do want
Speaker 2: your car lubed. You don't want or you want strawberries
Speaker 2: and bananas from the from South America, but you don't
Speaker 2: want them to live next door to you. Doctor King
Speaker 2: is asking us to look at Wall Street and recognize
Speaker 2: that the revolution of values is that we are tied
Speaker 2: to the very system of exploitation because we want our
Speaker 2: a's and our stock in the stock market to do
Speaker 2: well for us today. And we don't give a damn
Speaker 2: about a peasant in Vietnam as long as we're doing
Speaker 2: better every day. And Doctor King in this speech, REVENUEARI
Speaker 2: is slapping us upside our head. We've only got about
Speaker 2: a minute, but I promise you the remaining twenty minutes
Speaker 2: of this program is all yours.
Speaker 6: With a minute, I'm going to mention a name that
Speaker 6: we can carry over into the next segment that I
Speaker 6: think informs how we have arrived here and we were
Speaker 6: not paying attention. After Donald Trump was elected in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 6: he made a key appointment to his cabinet, and that
Speaker 6: key appointment was troublesome them then, but it's clear to
Speaker 6: me now. And that's when he named Rex Tillerson to
Speaker 6: be the Secretary of State. He was a former Exon
Speaker 6: oil executive to be the secretary of State.
Speaker 2: How about that. I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. I'm not going
Speaker 2: to close the show. I'm lettinga talent to achia practiced this.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much. We are going to return. We're
Speaker 4: going to come forward after this break and listening to
Speaker 4: KBLA Talk fifteen eighty.
Speaker 2: Jesse Jackson Junior. This is the Central Standard Time meeting
Speaker 2: the East Coast and the West Coast on Fat Meat
Speaker 2: Fridays with Gina Towns, our regular contributor and creator of
Speaker 2: the Jesse Jackson Junior Show, as well as Reverend doctor
Speaker 2: s Todd Yeary, both a PhD. A lawyer, one foot
Speaker 2: in the pulpit and one foot in the courtroom, both
Speaker 2: feet in reality. He is the pastor of the Douglas
Speaker 2: Memorial Church in Baltimore, Maryland. Gina, welcome forward to the show.
Speaker 2: And Doctor Eri, welcome forward to the show.
Speaker 6: Thanks Jesse, I like hanging out on Fat Bag Friday.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you being here. Hey, doctor Ery, I did
Speaker 2: want to allow Gina to play this clip.
Speaker 4: We want to try the clip again.
Speaker 8: I found myself in full a call when I read
Speaker 8: this old name line. I'm come when silence is betraying
Speaker 8: that time has come for us.
Speaker 12: In relation to Vietnam.
Speaker 8: The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the
Speaker 8: mission to which they call us is.
Speaker 9: The most difficult one.
Speaker 8: Mm even when pressed by the demands of inner truth.
Speaker 8: Men do not easily assume the task of opposing that
Speaker 8: government's policy, especially in.
Speaker 9: Time of war. Nor does the human spirit move.
Speaker 8: Without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought
Speaker 8: within one's own bosom.
Speaker 9: And in the surrounding world.
Speaker 8: Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing, as
Speaker 8: they often do.
Speaker 9: In the case of this dreadful.
Speaker 8: Conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized
Speaker 8: by uncertainty.
Speaker 9: But we must move on.
Speaker 8: Some of us who have already begun to break the
Speaker 8: silence of the night, have found that the calling to
Speaker 8: speak is often the vocation of agony.
Speaker 12: But we must speak. We must speak with all the
Speaker 12: humility that.
Speaker 9: Is appropriate to our limited vision.
Speaker 8: But we must speak. We must rejoice as well, for sure,
Speaker 8: that this is the first time in our nation's history
Speaker 8: that a significant number of.
Speaker 9: Its religious leaders.
Speaker 8: Have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism
Speaker 8: to the high grounds of a firm descent based upon
Speaker 8: the manding.
Speaker 9: Of conscience and the reading of history.
Speaker 8: Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us.
Speaker 12: If it is, let.
Speaker 8: Us trace its movements and pray that our own inner
Speaker 8: being may be sensitive to its guidance.
Speaker 12: We are deeply in need of a new way beyond the.
Speaker 9: Darkness that seems so close around us.
Speaker 8: Over the past two years, as I had moved to
Speaker 8: break the portrayal of my own silences and to speak
Speaker 8: from the burnings of my own heart, as I have
Speaker 8: called a radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many
Speaker 8: persons have frusted me about the wisdom of my path.
Speaker 9: At the heart of that concerns, A square.
Speaker 8: Has often mooned large and loud, while you speaking about
Speaker 8: the world, a doctor, king, While are you joining the
Speaker 8: bosses of descent?
Speaker 9: Piece in civil rights? Don't mix?
Speaker 8: They say?
Speaker 9: Aren't you've heard of the cause of your people? They ask?
Speaker 12: And when I hear them, though I.
Speaker 8: Even understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless
Speaker 8: greatly sad. For such questions mean that the inquiries have
Speaker 8: not really known my commitment of my calling. Indeed, bad
Speaker 8: questions suggest that they do not know the world in
Speaker 8: which they live. In the life of such tragic misunderstanding,
Speaker 8: I be meant of sick no importance to try to
Speaker 8: stay clearly, and I trust concisely.
Speaker 9: While I believe that the path on Dexed Avenue Baptist Church,
Speaker 9: the Church.
Speaker 8: Of Mondomery, Alabama, where I'm again my pastorate leads clearly
Speaker 8: to this sanctuary tonight.
Speaker 9: I come to this platform.
Speaker 12: To night to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation.
Speaker 8: This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the
Speaker 8: National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or
Speaker 8: to Russia.
Speaker 5: Nor is it an.
Speaker 8: Attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and
Speaker 8: the need for a collective solution to the tragedy that
Speaker 8: we had none. Neither is it an attempt to make
Speaker 8: no Vietnam or the National Liberation Front Arragon's aversion not
Speaker 8: to overlook the role they must play in the successful
Speaker 8: resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable
Speaker 8: reasons to be suspicious of the faith in the United States,
Speaker 8: life and history there ever can touch them on into
Speaker 8: the fact conflicts are never e saw without trustful give
Speaker 8: and take on both sides.
Speaker 9: The night, however, I wish not.
Speaker 2: I've been up at every morning for the last week
Speaker 2: at three a m. In the morning, reflecting upon the speech,
Speaker 2: playing it over and over and over again. I printed
Speaker 2: out the PDF version of this speech, and I have
Speaker 2: even more questions today than I had a year ago
Speaker 2: about what doctor King is trying to tell us Gina
Speaker 2: at this hour. And here's my initial thought. Because the
Speaker 2: speech continues and he goes on specifically to talk about
Speaker 2: our revolution of values, Doctor Yurie, and then he says
Speaker 2: that our troops in Hanoi, our helicopters in Hanoi, the
Speaker 2: loss of life that we are experiencing in Hanoi is
Speaker 2: ti to.
Speaker 3: Our desire.
Speaker 2: To have equality of life in the United States that
Speaker 2: doesn't care very much for the peasants. We want rice,
Speaker 2: we want gravy on our rice, but we're not prepared
Speaker 2: to say that the rice patties are in Vietnam. We
Speaker 2: want avocado on our salad, but we don't want no
Speaker 2: Mexican neighbors. We want lower gas prices. We get the
Speaker 2: Venezuelans out of here, keep the Nigerians out of here.
Speaker 2: Doctor King is saying, until we are prepared to accept
Speaker 2: that our values, the very things that we desire and
Speaker 2: need every day to check the stock market, that it's
Speaker 2: tied to someone else's exploitation somewhere else in the world,
Speaker 2: Doctor Eerie.
Speaker 6: The next sentence as the clip was ending was where
Speaker 6: Doctor King says, I want to talk to my fellow Americans.
Speaker 3: So this has to be.
Speaker 6: A family conversation at the table because we have to
Speaker 6: reshape our understanding of how the world actually functions. You
Speaker 6: use the pronoun wei. Every time I hear that pronoun,
Speaker 6: that plural pronoun, I start asking, well, who is we?
Speaker 2: Todd? You know I got to go to a break
Speaker 2: right now. I promise you more on k Talk fifteen
Speaker 2: eight when we come forward. I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. Will
Speaker 2: come forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show on KBLA
Speaker 2: Talk fifteen eighty. This is Fat Meat Fridays. Our regular
Speaker 2: contributor and host and creator of the Jesse Jackson Junior
Speaker 2: Show is none other than Gina Town's. Gina Towns is
Speaker 2: a Princeton Theological Seminary student with the Masters of Arts
Speaker 2: and Theology, and Reverend doctor s Todd Yeri is our
Speaker 2: very special guest from Wealthy Wednesdays on the Jesse Jackson
Speaker 2: Junior Show. Doctor Yeri, Gina, welcome forward, Gina your thoughts well.
Speaker 4: First of all, thank you, Reverend doctor Uri Esquire for
Speaker 4: joining us on Fat Meat Friday. We missed you on
Speaker 4: Wednesday while you were traveling, and certainly we could not
Speaker 4: go through the King Holiday without having your insight. You know,
Speaker 4: one thing that I wanted to comment on about this
Speaker 4: particular speech. It really kind of almost reminds me of
Speaker 4: a Palm Sunday ish kind of message, you know, one
Speaker 4: to the date that Doctor King would be assassinated, and
Speaker 4: he has chosen to step into something that.
Speaker 9: He already knows is.
Speaker 4: Going to be a problem, and that will draw the
Speaker 4: ire of many people, sometimes some people who would have
Speaker 4: sided with him and have supported him throughout the movement,
Speaker 4: but this particular issue was going to draw a lot
Speaker 4: of criticism. Yet he chose to do it anyway. And
Speaker 4: I think about the fact of he is following in
Speaker 4: the footsteps as well of Jesus who made the decision
Speaker 4: to go ahead and walk.
Speaker 9: The road.
Speaker 4: Of the Viadela Rotha, knowing even from the point that
Speaker 4: he had to go raise Lazaruth. He's like, I'm going
Speaker 4: to make the decision to do it, and he doesn't
Speaker 4: resolutely unapologetically, and he tells people that if you are
Speaker 4: against me or criticize me in this moment, then you never.
Speaker 2: Really knew me.
Speaker 4: It reminds me of Jesus saying, away from me, you
Speaker 4: evil do her? You know, because people, well, when did
Speaker 4: I not give you something to drink? When did I
Speaker 4: not come and visit you in prison?
Speaker 2: Is away from me?
Speaker 4: You never knew me. And it is a very dramatic
Speaker 4: moment in the life of doctor King when he draws
Speaker 4: this out and he sets the stage for the rest
Speaker 4: of this speech.
Speaker 6: It's a big speech, but it's informed by a lot
Speaker 6: of intense personal introspection and wrestling. Doctor King was already despised. Right,
Speaker 6: a prophet is not without honor except in his own home.
Speaker 6: His own community didn't trust him. This idealic attitude about
Speaker 6: doctor King posthumously is not where the world was in
Speaker 6: that last year of his life. He was the most
Speaker 6: hated black man in the country. And that wasn't just
Speaker 6: from the oppressor class. This was even amongst his own
Speaker 6: folk and from the very early days when he was
Speaker 6: a dexter church in Montgomery. The way he ends up
Speaker 6: leading the movement is because the other preachers who had tenure,
Speaker 6: I feel like they had too much to lose.
Speaker 2: No, how about that, right.
Speaker 9: So.
Speaker 6: This sense is is doctor King uses what we all have,
Speaker 6: but we don't always all use. And that's his voice.
Speaker 6: He's able to have a conversation wherever he is in
Speaker 6: the conversation to raise the awareness and the consciousness about
Speaker 6: the issue, the moral issues of the day that matter,
Speaker 6: and then frame them such that there is a sense
Speaker 6: of personal accountability.
Speaker 3: We have lost that.
Speaker 6: In some degree, not because we can't find it, but
Speaker 6: because we've abandoned it because with it. Remember this is
Speaker 6: after right, dog King's house has already been bombed, there's
Speaker 6: already been personal physical threats on his very life. And
Speaker 6: yet what he does is not create some specter where
Speaker 6: he gives the Nobel Prize that he received in a frame,
Speaker 6: to take it to the White House and present it,
Speaker 6: say I want to give this to you, as if
Speaker 6: the symbolic meaning of being the award ee means nothing.
Speaker 6: Now we just give it like it's some sort of
Speaker 6: trinket to whoever we choose, regardless of what their record is.
Speaker 6: I think it speaks to the moment that doctor King's memory,
Speaker 6: but also his embodiment, the resonance of his voice in
Speaker 6: this moment is bigger than the March on Washington for
Speaker 6: jobs and freedom, though that's still critical. But we cannot
Speaker 6: keep nineteen sixty three in isolation and leave nineteen sixty
Speaker 6: seven sixty eight disconnected. They are part of the same
Speaker 6: struggle if we're going to be true to the prophetic
Speaker 6: mantle that the spirit of the Lord God is in me,
Speaker 6: and God has anointed me to use my voice to
Speaker 6: proclaim a change in the existential condition and reality of
Speaker 6: the people who find themselves amongst that class called the oppressed.
Speaker 2: And you and Gina got me thinking, I need another hour.
Speaker 2: I ain't gonna lie to you because I'm thinking Doctor
Speaker 2: King is gone. He is assassinated in Memphis, tennesseee, and
Speaker 2: he's aged thirty nine thirty nine say it, thirty nine,
Speaker 2: thirty nine, thirty nine. Men old black preachers had a
Speaker 2: problem with this nobel laureate. They had a problem with
Speaker 2: the clarity that doctor King was bringing to the gospels,
Speaker 2: White evangelical field. Who is this dude man, who is
Speaker 2: this young cat on the stage with all of this
Speaker 2: thinking by what authority does he speak?
Speaker 4: Sounds like the Sanhedri.
Speaker 2: I mean doctor King was at thirty nine years old,
Speaker 2: a young guy raising Cain, and he was a problem
Speaker 2: for everybody. Joseph Jackson in the Baptist convention and the preachers.
Speaker 2: And then here he is writing letters to white evangelical
Speaker 2: preachers saying, of course I belong here. He is taking
Speaker 2: them through a seminary course and a theological exercise that
Speaker 2: black preachers who've been preaching the gospel for decades we're
Speaker 2: not willing to do. I mean, he's challenging them. Then
Speaker 2: he's challenging the body politics. He's meeting with Kennedy, he's
Speaker 2: meeting with Johnson, he's meeting with Robert F. Kennedy. The
Speaker 2: press is focusing on him. That these brothers and sisters
Speaker 2: had a problem with this young guy who knew what
Speaker 2: to say and didn't need no notes, who knew the
Speaker 2: gospel better than they did, and worked towards Paulinium application
Speaker 2: of the gospel. We only have about two minutes on
Speaker 2: this list on the show, but come on, now, come
Speaker 2: on now, listen.
Speaker 6: Somewhere along the line, we felt that it was safer
Speaker 6: and more expedient to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
Speaker 6: Jesus who is the Christ? That gospel a gimmick. When
Speaker 6: it's a gimmick, When when Jesus engages Peter who do
Speaker 6: people say that I the Son of Man am. They
Speaker 6: go through that whole conversation. Some say you're one of
Speaker 6: the prophets or you know. He goes back, well, who
Speaker 6: do you say that I am now at the Christ
Speaker 6: And then Jesus says something profound. You are, Peter, and
Speaker 6: upon this rock I will build not the church definitive article,
Speaker 6: but my church. See every church is not the church
Speaker 6: that Jesus is speaking to. So everybody find the church
Speaker 6: where you're supposed to be and do what the Lord
Speaker 6: is calling you to do so that you can help
Speaker 6: change the existential reality of people. Even if your voice
Speaker 6: has to resonate after you're long gone.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: Well, it is the end of this hour. Todd, thank
Speaker 4: you so much for being here with us. We will
Speaker 4: continue to celebrate doctor King. We come forward on Monday,
Speaker 4: and if you want to join us, please be welcome.
Speaker 4: But we certainly hope the rest of our audience will
Speaker 4: join us on Monday as we continue our celebration of
Speaker 4: doctor King. This is the Jesse Jackson Junior Show Talk
Speaker 4: KBLA Talk fifteen to eighty