Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot com. It beats listening to nothing.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, it's being Frank, where the only way
Speaker 2: to be is Frank. Hello everyone, and welcome to being Frank.
Speaker 2: We're the only way to be is well Frank. I'm
Speaker 2: your host, franklborn On, and I'd like to thank you
Speaker 2: for joining us on what we like to call the
Speaker 2: Intelligent Conversation Podcast, where no conversation out of bounds and
Speaker 2: all points of view are welcome. Regular listeners know our routine,
Speaker 2: and that is I give you the date because we
Speaker 2: record live to tape. It is the twelfth of February.
Speaker 2: Some criticized recognition months such as February being designated to
Speaker 2: honor Black history as unnecessary and possibly even divisive. They
Speaker 2: claim that these designations highlight our differences instead of our similarities.
Speaker 2: But they completely miss the point, because it's an opportunity
Speaker 2: to share experiences that make us realize that Americans, every
Speaker 2: ethnic group, despite obstacles and hardships, have made enormous contributions
Speaker 2: to our society and have traditions worth sharing and celebrating.
Speaker 2: And no group in this country has had to overcome
Speaker 2: more barriers to claim their share of the pie than
Speaker 2: African Americans from slavery to the pinnacle of power in
Speaker 2: President Barack Obama, Blacks have made substantial progress in their
Speaker 2: quest for total equality, but as evidenced by the recent
Speaker 2: racist videos released by the Trump White House, and let
Speaker 2: me make this perfectly clear, at this point, there is
Speaker 2: no moral ambiguity here. For me, it's racist. So there
Speaker 2: is still obviously a long way to go here to
Speaker 2: discuss that video and so much more. Yes, this is
Speaker 2: a celebration. Are two leaders from our Black commune unity
Speaker 2: returning for more intelligent conversation, the first black woman elected
Speaker 2: to the Rockland County Legislature, doctor Dana green Stilly, an artist, author, educator,
Speaker 2: and community activist, mister Bill Batson. Let's start a little
Speaker 2: bit again, doctor Dana, since you are relatively new and
Speaker 2: you were on speaking recently about some of the legislation
Speaker 2: the ice presidence here in the county in our last program,
Speaker 2: which was extremely well received, I should stay, by the way,
Speaker 2: and we appreciate all the information that you and Joe
Speaker 2: Rand and Beth Davidson gave to our listeners.
Speaker 3: So we really.
Speaker 2: Appreciate that, but we really never really got the opportunity
Speaker 2: if you will to beat doctor Dana Stilly. Tell us
Speaker 2: a little bit about your journey as a woman, as
Speaker 2: a black woman, where you're from, a little bit about
Speaker 2: your background and what brought to you to where you
Speaker 2: are today.
Speaker 4: Okay, I can do that. I was born right here
Speaker 4: in Rocklam County, have lived in Orangetown my entire life,
Speaker 4: and attended South Orangetown Central School District, which was a
Speaker 4: really was a great educational experience, and for me, it
Speaker 4: was even a great social experience as well. I think
Speaker 4: it's worth saying, however, that when it came time for
Speaker 4: me to consider my higher education, there was a little
Speaker 4: bump in the road in that my high school guidance
Speaker 4: counselor didn't think that I should be applying to Brown
Speaker 4: University and seemed.
Speaker 5: To say to me that.
Speaker 4: She didn't think that we could afford it, and she
Speaker 4: wasn't quite sure that I would even be accepted. And
Speaker 4: the minute someone says no, you can't to me, that's
Speaker 4: really just saying, well, watch me, because I'm going to
Speaker 4: do it.
Speaker 5: And I can remember going home and just being feeling
Speaker 5: really deflated.
Speaker 4: And my parents as well as some of the other
Speaker 4: local leaders then specifically doctor Clarence Branch Junior said to me, Nope,
Speaker 4: you're gonna apply to Brown and you're gonna go, and
Speaker 4: you're gonna pay for it.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: Well, long story short, I did apply, got in early action,
Speaker 4: of course, got some financial aid support, and was able
Speaker 4: to go not only to one Ivy League institution, but
Speaker 4: to two, both of which were paid for. And as
Speaker 4: I think about that, as I've continued my journey, I thought,
Speaker 4: how dare she actually how dare she say that to me?
Speaker 4: Because she didn't know what my parents did for a living,
Speaker 4: she didn't know what their educational achievements.
Speaker 5: Were, She had no idea.
Speaker 4: I mean, she knew my name, she knew my grades,
Speaker 4: she probably knew my address, but she didn't really know
Speaker 4: much more about me or a family that I had
Speaker 4: there to support me. And that story has been a
Speaker 4: catalyst almost for every other thing in my life that.
Speaker 5: I have set out and tried to do.
Speaker 4: So, you know, having someone suggest that I could not
Speaker 4: get the level of education that I wanted really drove
Speaker 4: me to be sure that I completed my education on
Speaker 4: time and then went to graduate school and many many
Speaker 4: years later got that terminal degree again because doctor Clarence
Speaker 4: Branch told me that I could and I should.
Speaker 5: And so.
Speaker 4: While I was in college, and I'm going to try
Speaker 4: to speed this up a little long faster. While I
Speaker 4: was in college, I pledged a sorority and we learned
Speaker 4: then the importance of public service, and that has been
Speaker 4: what has driven me my entire adult life. I came,
Speaker 4: I returned home, and while I was in graduate school,
Speaker 4: I became involved in several nonprofits, built relationships, really found
Speaker 4: out how the world of Rockland works. And that led
Speaker 4: me many many many years later to receiving that ask
Speaker 4: about whether or not I would consider running for public office.
Speaker 4: And at first I said no. And I said no,
Speaker 4: I think because you know, I had a young son
Speaker 4: in high school about to go off to college. How
Speaker 4: is that going to affect my private life, my family life,
Speaker 4: what kind of time commitment does that mean make? And then,
Speaker 4: when thinking about it, why not me? Because it was
Speaker 4: pretty clear that there was a lens of experience that
Speaker 4: was missing on the county legislature, that being a lack female,
Speaker 4: and I felt like it was important to bring that
Speaker 4: lens as we try to create policy and practices that
Speaker 4: certainly would uplift everyone in the community.
Speaker 5: So I went for it and I was successful.
Speaker 2: And here I am and here you are, you know,
Speaker 2: and I appreciate all of that. It was not too long,
Speaker 2: and I know there's so much more to tell. And
Speaker 2: you know, it's funny when we get my guests. I
Speaker 2: always asked for really truncated biographies because everyone has all
Speaker 2: these wonderful qualifications that if I read them all, we
Speaker 2: never get to any topics. So with that understood, But
Speaker 2: you know, as I was listening to I was also
Speaker 2: taking some notes. And it's a great time to bring
Speaker 2: Bill Batson in as well, you know. And I just
Speaker 2: jotted down some words that we can build upon, especially
Speaker 2: here in Rockland County. You know, it's a small place.
Speaker 2: A lot of big things happened here historically and within
Speaker 2: the civil rights movement as well. And I know Bill,
Speaker 2: through his NIAX sketch log and his lectures, et cetera,
Speaker 2: has had some direct experience and exposure. But let me
Speaker 2: let me do four words that I that I put
Speaker 2: out there and and and perhaps you guys can put
Speaker 2: it in historical context here within Rockland County too, And
Speaker 2: I put time place people history, okay, with within with
Speaker 2: the doctor was doctor Dane was saying, I heard all
Speaker 2: of those things that you know that was a particular
Speaker 2: time and in this place, and these people and this
Speaker 2: history affected what I am today. So with that in mind, Bill,
Speaker 2: why don't you take what do you think some of
Speaker 2: the key moments in people here in Rockland County, particularly
Speaker 2: from the idea of civil rights as we are celebrating
Speaker 2: you know, Black History Month, Well what do you what
Speaker 2: do you what would you say are some of the
Speaker 2: really key places in people within that time and place here?
Speaker 3: So, yeah, it's interesting. So I would say.
Speaker 6: That nayak is Is is wonderful for me.
Speaker 3: My family's been here since the eighteen eighties.
Speaker 6: But I know that with doctor Stilly, we're talking about
Speaker 6: you know, Piremount and Orangeburg, and within the black community,
Speaker 6: you're connected to all the other enclaves of blackness by virtue,
Speaker 6: sometimes of familial tie, common experience, and also by struggle.
Speaker 6: So if I had to come up with something that
Speaker 6: would fit your forwards, a time that I think is
Speaker 6: unique to Rockland and pivotal to the country would be
Speaker 6: pre war period, like from like nineteen thirty to nineteen
Speaker 6: fifty five in particular. So the four words that you
Speaker 6: prompt Us with Frank make me think of the period
Speaker 6: of nineteen thirty to nineteen fifty five. There were pivotal
Speaker 6: time in America, certainly in the African American community.
Speaker 3: Pre war period.
Speaker 6: Nineteen fifty five, of course, was the Montgomery bus Boycott.
Speaker 3: I also think about place Hillburn.
Speaker 6: It's in the eastern part of the county, but it
Speaker 6: was kind of significant in that it had a combination
Speaker 6: of black and Indigenous folks and people of mixed race
Speaker 6: who were forced into a segregated school called the the
Speaker 6: Brooks School for Colored Children. Yes, in our county in
Speaker 6: the nineteen thirties, there was such a place. In the forties,
Speaker 6: the people I think about are all those men and
Speaker 6: women who fought against this. The Van Dunk family and
Speaker 6: leaders from the NAACP worked to bring a young Thurgood
Speaker 6: Marshall to Rockland County in the nineteen thirties. Most people
Speaker 6: don't know this. There are so many facts and our
Speaker 6: county that kind of hide and play in sight. But
Speaker 6: their good Marshal was a young attorney for the NAACP,
Speaker 6: and he came up here and he fought the legal
Speaker 6: segregation of black and Indigenous students into a school that
Speaker 6: was separate and woefully unequal, didn't have indoor plumbing, didn't
Speaker 6: have books, didn't have a gymnasium, didn't have any of
Speaker 6: the amenities that the white school had that was around
Speaker 6: the corner. And then the history was he successfully ended
Speaker 6: that process where the state Department of Education shut down
Speaker 6: the Brooks School for colored children.
Speaker 3: All the students were.
Speaker 6: Then sent to Hillburn And is a reaction and that
Speaker 6: often happens. White parents pulled their students out of the
Speaker 6: integrated school, fearing God knows what that kids might learn
Speaker 6: together and play together. And they eventually, because of the
Speaker 6: expense of private school, came back together. And it is
Speaker 6: to this day obviously ramapo and suffering.
Speaker 3: It's an integrated school system. But the real lesson that
Speaker 3: affected the.
Speaker 6: Nation is that Thurgood Marshall used the theories that he
Speaker 6: employed to successfully integrate a school in Rockland to argue
Speaker 6: before the Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education, which
Speaker 6: ultimately ended school public school segregation in the United States
Speaker 6: and eventually propelled him to the United States Supreme Court.
Speaker 2: Before you get to your next time, just want to
Speaker 2: jump in wonderful documentary. By the way, two schools Hilbert.
Speaker 2: Joe Hilbert, Yes, Joe Allen produced a local producer, wonderful
Speaker 2: informative and again if for people who are not familiar
Speaker 2: with Rocker to Hilbert, it's this tiny place, but that
Speaker 2: was a huge thing in the history of the civil
Speaker 2: rights movie.
Speaker 6: You know, it looked like the same though, but if
Speaker 6: you go back there today, it's like a time capsule.
Speaker 6: And what's really sad to me two things. One that
Speaker 6: the Hillburn School is still there. It's in perfect pristine condition.
Speaker 6: There's a there is a plaque outside of it to
Speaker 6: Thurgood Marshal thanks to to Ellen Jaffey, the former Rocken
Speaker 6: County Legislation Rocking County assembly member. But the Brooks School
Speaker 6: has been allowed to decay and it's just a ruin
Speaker 6: and it's on private land and people now are trying
Speaker 6: to put together the resources to purchase it because it
Speaker 6: should be a monument so that people can remember this
Speaker 6: as people are running around parts of our country trying
Speaker 6: to race history, that we just have to redouble our
Speaker 6: efforts to erect monuments and things that are permanent that
Speaker 6: can't be easily erased. The other thing is that there's
Speaker 6: a story about the Indigenous community in Hillburn that goes unnoticed.
Speaker 6: And when I bring students to Hilburn, and I brought
Speaker 6: a group of Latin American students, and obviously there's a
Speaker 6: great deal of pressure in that community right now, and
Speaker 6: there's there's almost like an underground railroad forming for people
Speaker 6: from the Latin American community who were being chased through
Speaker 6: the streets by masked agents who don't identify themselves. But
Speaker 6: the kids that I brought there from Ramapo didn't even
Speaker 6: know that there were Indigenous people in Rockland County, didn't
Speaker 6: know the name of those Indigenous people, and didn't know
Speaker 6: that those Indigenous people still live here.
Speaker 3: So there's so much of our history that goes hiding
Speaker 3: in plain sight.
Speaker 2: Uh, Doctor Dana, I want to bring you back into
Speaker 2: our conversation here. And you mentioned some of your influences,
Speaker 2: and Bill mentioned big names here in Rockland County like
Speaker 2: Thurgood Marshall, but there are also local people. And I
Speaker 2: noticed on a social media post one of your posts
Speaker 2: saluting Chief Bullet, I was the first black fire chief
Speaker 2: in the county. So there are many instance. I know
Speaker 2: Hezekaya Easter, the first black legislature in Rockland County, and
Speaker 2: he has a square named after him in Nayak, in
Speaker 2: downtown nig and rightly so. But there are so many
Speaker 2: strong names here. Can you name some of them here
Speaker 2: on this level, some of the people here that influenced.
Speaker 5: You, certainly I could, We couldn't.
Speaker 4: We could not even begin to have a conversation about
Speaker 4: this without invoking Wilbert Aldridge, right, who has been on
Speaker 4: the front lines for I think he said well over
Speaker 4: forty years and we you know, we know that he
Speaker 4: most recently retired from his position. But Wilbert was has
Speaker 4: always been a force to be reckoned with, strong, always
Speaker 4: ready to speak out and speak up and challenge those.
Speaker 4: I remember also mister Leonard Cook, who I think passed
Speaker 4: in two thousand and one or so, but he was
Speaker 4: a very strong advocate for affordable housing, particularly a Nayak right,
Speaker 4: you know, the creation of the Leonard Cook Pines Street
Speaker 4: homes located in Nayak. He also led the ninth branch
Speaker 4: of the na A c P for a very very
Speaker 4: very long time. We could also mention, oh my goodness,
Speaker 4: there are so many the Gordons, Edmund and Susan Gordon,
Speaker 4: right of course, for all of that what they did
Speaker 4: for education. I'm not sure that folks in this community
Speaker 4: understand that Edmund Gordon was a founder of head Start,
Speaker 4: and that is something again talking about a legend.
Speaker 3: National head Start, yes.
Speaker 5: National Start, yes.
Speaker 2: But in another great Joe Allen documentary on doctor Gordon
Speaker 2: as well too. Yes, yes, you know.
Speaker 4: There's doctor Francis Pratt. There just so many that we
Speaker 4: that for me have been impactful because I have seen
Speaker 4: them work, I have seen them continue to speak up
Speaker 4: and you know, there's that saying that you can't be
Speaker 4: what you can't see, and so recognizing them all the
Speaker 4: time and having building relationships with them has also been
Speaker 4: instrumental for me personally to be allowed to embrace my courage,
Speaker 4: so to speak, and keep going. But you know, the
Speaker 4: list could go on. We could talk about Willie Troupman,
Speaker 4: Barbara Williams.
Speaker 2: And so many invention and certainly there are just certainly
Speaker 2: so many. You know, it's a good segue back to
Speaker 2: Bill as well too, because and you mentioned first of
Speaker 2: all the sense of place and how important it is
Speaker 2: to have literally the place, losing the school in Hillburn
Speaker 2: for example. So I think it's a good opportunity to
Speaker 2: talk about how you managed to preserve a very important
Speaker 2: place literally, and that was Mount Moore Cemetery, which is
Speaker 2: literally this if people are not familiar with it, the
Speaker 2: Palisades Mall, which was one of it in its day,
Speaker 2: the one of the largest countries in the largest malls
Speaker 2: in the country, surrounds this tiny historic black cemetery and
Speaker 2: they almost try to goggle it up. But through your
Speaker 2: efforts and the efforts of others in the black community,
Speaker 2: it was saved. Talk a little bit about the preservation efforts,
Speaker 2: why it was important then and still is today.
Speaker 7: Bill Well, I can't take any credit for saving it
Speaker 7: because back in the I guess late eighties, mid eighties,
Speaker 7: when that fight was taking place, I was hanging out
Speaker 7: in malls.
Speaker 6: I wasn't fighting to save malls. I was a young person.
Speaker 6: But this is a story about hesee Kai Easter and
Speaker 6: Janita Holland, I'm sorry, Jacquelin Holland, and at least a
Speaker 6: crow oh and a group of people who were confronted
Speaker 6: with a battle against one of the largest corporations in America.
Speaker 3: And it's familiar. And you know, I keep thinking that.
Speaker 6: We feel sometimes that we are being disrespected when our
Speaker 6: history is being erased that somehow people are suggesting that
Speaker 6: we're inferior. I would like to propose a different perspective.
Speaker 6: I think it's the exact opposite. I think that our
Speaker 6: history is a threat. I think that the successful resistance
Speaker 6: and resilience of our community threatens authoritarians. So it has
Speaker 6: to be denigrated and it has to be disappeared because
Speaker 6: they don't want people to know that a group of
Speaker 6: men and women with no resources could fight off the
Speaker 6: efforts of an army of lawyers with bulldozers and corrupt
Speaker 6: intent and and uh successfully preserve a burial ground, a
Speaker 6: modest burial ground, and that fight was successfully won. Heze
Speaker 6: KaiA Easter, who led the fight, is the last man
Speaker 6: buried at Mount Moore. He's buried beside his wife, Ruth Easter,
Speaker 6: who was a contemporary of Martin Luther King. That the
Speaker 6: greatness and in this community is a direct connection to
Speaker 6: some of the greatest figures in American history, like right now,
Speaker 6: so in Hillburn we have a connection to Thurgood Marshall
Speaker 6: and Mount Moore, we have a connection to Martin Luther King.
Speaker 2: Some of the.
Speaker 6: Men buried at Mount Moore witnessed the surrender of Robert E.
Speaker 3: Lee. That's Solomon Miller.
Speaker 2: Solomon Miller was a Civil Wars Revolutionary War.
Speaker 6: There are there are a dozen Civil War veterans buried
Speaker 6: at Mount Moore. And what we're trying to do now
Speaker 6: is to say that there are twenty four million.
Speaker 3: People that visit the Palisades Mall.
Speaker 6: Now, it's interesting the company that tried to take us
Speaker 6: out on Pyramid Corporation, they wanted to bury the cemetery,
Speaker 6: but in truth, the cemetery buried them because they're bankrupt
Speaker 6: their history and we still exist. And we would like
Speaker 6: to think that maybe if one percent, if two hundred
Speaker 6: and forty thousand people a year that went to the
Speaker 6: mall were diverted or were given an opportunity to come
Speaker 6: to the cemetery, they would learn about American history in
Speaker 6: a way that wouldn't only make events that are considered
Speaker 6: sometimes far away in time and space approximate, so it
Speaker 6: would make them really stand on the ground that's hallowed
Speaker 6: by those that fought in the Civil War. Not only that,
Speaker 6: but it would tell a story of resistance and resilience
Speaker 6: that is relevant to every community and very relevant in
Speaker 6: the world.
Speaker 2: Right now, you know, we'll talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: the challenges that remain, not only not only from without,
Speaker 2: and we're.
Speaker 3: Going to get to that.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 2: And you mentioned plaques being removed, names being removed, Colin
Speaker 2: Powell's name, for example, being removed from honor rolls. So
Speaker 2: it's it's an ongoing effort. Uh. So so there's those
Speaker 2: are some of the external things. But what do you
Speaker 2: see as some of the internal pressures within the black community, uh,
Speaker 2: that need to be addressed and some of the possible solutions.
Speaker 2: Why didn't you take that first, doctor Dana.
Speaker 4: I think one of the internal pressures pressures, uh, might
Speaker 4: be this sense of invisibility.
Speaker 5: And by that, I mean.
Speaker 4: There has been a great deal of concern, especially in
Speaker 4: a time of election or preparing for elections or campaigning.
Speaker 4: There seems to be a great deal of concern that
Speaker 4: the black voice is not heard. And I translate that
Speaker 4: into a sense of them being invisible, right because of
Speaker 4: thoughts that may or may not be true, or they
Speaker 4: don't vote, oh they can't vote, or they don't care,
Speaker 4: or whatever it is.
Speaker 5: And so I don't think there is there has been
Speaker 5: an active.
Speaker 4: Involvement to get the black vote, and I think that
Speaker 4: that is of a major concern to the black community
Speaker 4: because when you don't spend the time to sit and
Speaker 4: listen to what their concerns are, right, then why or
Speaker 4: how do they know who they should vote for? How
Speaker 4: do they know who shares their values? If no one
Speaker 4: will comes into the community, no one really shares their
Speaker 4: values in the community, then I feel like that is
Speaker 4: one of the greatest challenges facing us, because then there
Speaker 4: is trickle down effect. Right, So whoever gets the office
Speaker 4: does not represent your values, and that then trickles down
Speaker 4: to lack of affordability, or a lack of access to education,
Speaker 4: or a lack of services that you need for your
Speaker 4: health care and or to feed your family.
Speaker 5: Right. So, I think that there really is a concern.
Speaker 4: That the the black voices collectively are not are not
Speaker 4: being heard.
Speaker 6: I mean, I hear the question, Frank, but I think
Speaker 6: that you know, black people are no different than any
Speaker 6: other people. So the pressures that we feel are the
Speaker 6: pressures that everybody feels, trying to make a living, trying
Speaker 6: to make meaning.
Speaker 3: Trying to find peace.
Speaker 6: But what's happened in our country is that you know,
Speaker 6: from its founding, from its inception, we have been a
Speaker 6: part of our degradation and and and and kind of
Speaker 6: stealing of our labor and and and and stealing of
Speaker 6: our uh uh, you know, of our our spirit and
Speaker 6: stealing of our culture has been a constant. And what's
Speaker 6: happened now, which is terrifying, is that it's become kind
Speaker 6: of almost like an algorithm. It's become accelerated, and it's
Speaker 6: become amplified, and there's almost like this now economy around hate.
Speaker 6: Like you know, I wonder why people post some of
Speaker 6: the things that they do, because they're so harmful and
Speaker 6: they're so obnoxious, and they're so clearly untrue, but they
Speaker 6: do it because they.
Speaker 3: Get attention, they get likes and and and it's.
Speaker 6: There's the these sites that are now kind of able
Speaker 6: to monetize hate, which is just so terrible because you know,
Speaker 6: that is something that doesn't It's it's like an economy
Speaker 6: that produces its own destruction. You know, we're not building widgets,
Speaker 6: we're building you know, like a vice grip. And it's
Speaker 6: almost The fresh phrase that we used to use a
Speaker 6: couple of years ago was virtue signaling, and that was
Speaker 6: somehow considered I never could figure out why virtue signaling
Speaker 6: is a bad thing, because if you're trying to promote
Speaker 6: yourself by saying I'm kind or I'm generous or empathetic,
Speaker 6: I never saw how that could be bad.
Speaker 3: But now there's this thing.
Speaker 6: Called vice signaling where people are doing horrible things, saying
Speaker 6: horrible things and getting attention and getting promoted and getting
Speaker 6: elevated for it.
Speaker 3: And the last thing I would like to say is
Speaker 3: that the.
Speaker 6: Government right now seems to use the Black community to
Speaker 6: distract from a bad economy, to distract, So they'll throw
Speaker 6: out the racist images of Michelle and Barack Obama to
Speaker 6: distract from ice raids. So they'll attack Don Lemon to
Speaker 6: distract from a bad economy, or the Epstein files, so
Speaker 6: they'll attack the Haitian community, or the Soma community, or
Speaker 6: brown people from the Latin American countries. So I believe
Speaker 6: that any people would would tire and would start to
Speaker 6: bend and break from this type of centuries of being
Speaker 6: singled out and being the scapegoats and being the the
Speaker 6: you know, the targets. And once again, the brilliance and
Speaker 6: the beauty of the Black community is that there are
Speaker 6: folks that can manage to survive this and manage to
Speaker 6: thrive and manage to find beauty, and manage to find
Speaker 6: humor and ultimately celebrate peace and celebrate unity. Because our
Speaker 6: most prominent figure is Martin Luther King, and I feel
Speaker 6: that our country, if it didn't have his example, our
Speaker 6: country would be in civil war again right now. Everything
Speaker 6: that you see happening in Los Angeles and in Chicago
Speaker 6: and Minnesota, people are drawing from the legacy of the
Speaker 6: non violent Southern civil rights movement. They're helping each other,
Speaker 6: they are they're being you know, non violent, and if
Speaker 6: they're being disruptive, it's in a way that's not violent.
Speaker 6: And and these stories are just so so important and
Speaker 6: it shows that, you know, we can survive this if we,
Speaker 6: you know, follow these past examples.
Speaker 3: So that's why I think it's so important that we continue.
Speaker 6: You know, even though Black History is the shortest month
Speaker 6: of the year, and now we're learning it's also the
Speaker 6: coldest month of the year, it's maybe the most important,
Speaker 6: I would say, maybe the most important month of the
Speaker 6: year for the United States of America.
Speaker 2: I'd like to follow up one, So, oh, Dana, you'd
Speaker 2: like to follow up? First of all, I can, I
Speaker 2: can see that, please do?
Speaker 4: I would, and I think that you're absolutely right, Bill,
Speaker 4: especially in these times. You know, I've read why is
Speaker 4: there a Black history monk? Who needs that We're all
Speaker 4: just one big community? I don't see color right, But
Speaker 4: you laid it out pretty clearly about the need for
Speaker 4: us to continue to celebrate the fact that we're still
Speaker 4: here and thriving and trying to move forward and trying
Speaker 4: to let all of the attacks roll off our backs
Speaker 4: and just keep moving forward. And that that again is
Speaker 4: the beauty of this Black History Month, and I really
Speaker 4: think that we should move.
Speaker 5: Beyond that, move beyond the month. Yes, it is.
Speaker 4: An opportune time for you know, black people and all
Speaker 4: within the community do gather, but I think that there
Speaker 4: should be celebrations also throughout the year because what I
Speaker 4: think is lost as we celebrate Black history is that
Speaker 4: Black history is American history, right, And we're quickly approaching
Speaker 4: the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, and there absolutely must
Speaker 4: be some programming or planning events from the black perspective
Speaker 4: or that highlights what blacks were doing here at that time.
Speaker 4: And I think we just need to really keep pressing
Speaker 4: forward and reminding people black history is American history.
Speaker 2: Point well taken there's something I want to go back to,
Speaker 2: doctor Dana you mentioned in your history, you know, and
Speaker 2: we're going to get to the example of overt racism,
Speaker 2: i e. The video. It can rarely get more overt
Speaker 2: than that, but it's not always like that. They're the
Speaker 2: subtleties of systemic racism. And you mentioned the fact that
Speaker 2: you know, she didn't mention it, but in the back
Speaker 2: of your advisor's head was, well, this is a black family,
Speaker 2: they can't do this. That's the subtlety of against systemic races.
Speaker 2: Talk to that a little bit. Why once you take
Speaker 2: it first, and then Bill can follow up in his thoughts.
Speaker 4: So it is pervasive, I think is the best follow
Speaker 4: up on that. That was probably the first time or
Speaker 4: my introduction to it as a seventeen year old child.
Speaker 4: But then moving on through life, you continue, or I
Speaker 4: have continued to experience the microaggressions, Oh you talk like
Speaker 4: a white girl. Oh you're so articulate. I'm not have
Speaker 4: a conversation just like anybody else. So they're all of
Speaker 4: those subtle things.
Speaker 3: And the.
Speaker 4: Difficult part is that I honestly don't think that the
Speaker 4: majority of those microaggressions that people understand that they're even
Speaker 4: doing it. My heart wants to believe that they don't
Speaker 4: really understand that they're causing harm or that their words
Speaker 4: have the potential to be harming and what they do say.
Speaker 6: That over Oh it isn't that expression, father, They know
Speaker 6: not what they do.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, But again, there needs to be a big enlightening,
Speaker 4: more education, more conversations like this so that feelings and
Speaker 4: experiences can be shared and people can really have a
Speaker 4: good understanding of the background of why that is so
Speaker 4: offensive to me. Just yesterday, I think someone I was
Speaker 4: reading and someone said, we don't I.
Speaker 5: Don't see color. Well, then how can you see me?
Speaker 5: You look at me, and if you would just describe me,
Speaker 5: you say she is a black woman. Right, So for
Speaker 5: anybody to say that they don't see color, I feel
Speaker 5: like they are missing my essence, They're missing my experiences,
Speaker 5: they're missing who I was born to be, They're missing
Speaker 5: all of that. And so it's really a little bit
Speaker 5: insulting to say that you don't see color. I understand
Speaker 5: the concept trying to be embracing of everyone and that
Speaker 5: you value everyone, but you still have to see me.
Speaker 2: You know. That's like a judgment. People say oh, I
Speaker 2: never judge. Of course you judge. You're a human being.
Speaker 2: We always do. It's fight or flight. You're wearing a
Speaker 2: particular set of glasses. You chose those glasses because they
Speaker 2: represent a certain thing. It's what you do with that judgment. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: if you will where you take it, and if I
Speaker 2: hear you, I think you're agreeing with that, is that
Speaker 2: it's silly to say, of course you're black woman. You
Speaker 2: can acknowledge. That's not an insult or whatever it is
Speaker 2: what it is. But let's let's bring Bill back into
Speaker 2: the conversations from your experience.
Speaker 6: I mean, maybe it's people are trying to be enlightened
Speaker 6: by saying they don't see race, because the opposite of
Speaker 6: seeing race in there. One of the examples is a
Speaker 6: person who just sees black as as you know, a
Speaker 6: negative thing and would hurl when they see a black person,
Speaker 6: they would hurl a racial epitheph. And I'll tell you
Speaker 6: something happened to me recently, and I think we may
Speaker 6: have talked about this day because I.
Speaker 3: Wrote about it online. So when I was seven years old,
Speaker 3: I was I lived in Teeneck, New.
Speaker 6: Jersey at the time. When I was walking home from Longfellow.
Speaker 6: I was walking home. I was walking to meet my mother.
Speaker 6: She was working at the Elston Howard Art Gallery on
Speaker 6: Cedar Lane and Teaneck and I was walking back from
Speaker 6: Longfellow Elementary School and somebody slowed down their vehicle, yelled
Speaker 6: the END word, and threw an ice cream cone and
Speaker 6: hit me right in the face. And it was terrifying
Speaker 6: because I didn't know what I was getting hit by.
Speaker 6: And I ran to my mother crying, And when we
Speaker 6: got home my father his solution was to bring me
Speaker 6: to a dojo the next day to roll me in karate.
Speaker 6: And I could never figure out what I was supposed
Speaker 6: to do with like you know, to fend off a
Speaker 6: flying ice cream cone with learning at kata.
Speaker 3: But that was the scar scarring event and and it's
Speaker 3: a it's.
Speaker 6: A part of who I was, so that that word
Speaker 6: is embedded in my psyche.
Speaker 3: Let's rush too. I think it was about three months ago.
Speaker 6: I was walking my dog a couple of houses down
Speaker 6: from my home and a car slowed down and a person.
Speaker 3: Yelled the N word drove away.
Speaker 6: My body froze because I was expecting something a projectile.
Speaker 3: I was just so shocked. I was holding my phone
Speaker 3: as a matter of.
Speaker 6: Fact at the time, and when I called Sheriff Falco
Speaker 6: a few minutes after this, he said, did you get
Speaker 6: a picture? And I was like, you know what, Sheriff,
Speaker 6: I just was in shock. I wasn't even thinking. I
Speaker 6: forgot that I was holding my phone. That kind of
Speaker 6: hatred that's been, you know, just just a part of
Speaker 6: the unfortunate atmosphere in our country is more pervasive now
Speaker 6: almost than it ever has been, because it's being licensed
Speaker 6: from the top. The person that gave Dana that advice
Speaker 6: now is the president. The person that gave the same
Speaker 6: mentality is the director, is the Secretary of Education. That
Speaker 6: same mentality is the Secretary of HUD That same mentality
Speaker 6: is the Attorney General of the United States of America.
Speaker 6: So it's it's poisoned and the hoods are off, it's
Speaker 6: it's fashionable, it's actually profitable.
Speaker 3: So we have a lot, a lot of work.
Speaker 6: And once again though I do believe that the black
Speaker 6: community holds we've cracked the code because out of this
Speaker 6: we'll give you gospel. Out of this will give you
Speaker 6: R and B. Out of this will give you wrap.
Speaker 6: Out of this will give you artwork. Out of this
Speaker 6: will give you the Southern civil rights movement. But we
Speaker 6: need gospel, and we need the Southern civil rights movement
Speaker 6: now more than ever before, because these flames will, well,
Speaker 6: this will incinerate everybody, because the people who come at
Speaker 6: you with the N word, they're not going to give
Speaker 6: you a good job. They're not going to respect their daughters.
Speaker 6: They're gonna they're they're they're the Epstein class. Actually, this
Speaker 6: the Epstein class is the ones that take this rage
Speaker 6: and bank it.
Speaker 2: Well, it's well taken, guy. It's gonna take a break.
Speaker 2: But I want to squeeze in one last question before
Speaker 2: we do. So so much to talk about, but I
Speaker 2: have to be aware of time, and we've got a
Speaker 2: great additional guest coming on for the last portion of
Speaker 2: our program. Uh, but something and it's interesting, And you
Speaker 2: mentioned Niak and I guess, known as one of the
Speaker 2: more progressive villages in the area, certainly has a strong
Speaker 2: black presence, always has. But I'm concerned with the fact
Speaker 2: that we don't always mix. Even sometimes when the neighborhoods
Speaker 2: are mixed, A lot of our social events tend to be,
Speaker 2: generally speaking, attended by one or the other and rarely mix.
Speaker 2: Why is that? And what can we do about that?
Speaker 2: Doctor Dana, why don't you take that first?
Speaker 4: I can hear my pastor saying, one of the most
Speaker 4: segregated hours in the country is eleven o'clock or twelve o'clock,
Speaker 4: whatever time folks go to church, right, And.
Speaker 5: I'm not sure.
Speaker 4: That I'm not sure that anything can be done about that,
Speaker 4: because in some instances, I really think it is just
Speaker 4: a cultural consequence. Right. I can remember when I was
Speaker 4: in undergraduate school and all the black people sat together
Speaker 4: in the ratty that's what we call the cafeteria, all
Speaker 4: together in the cafeteria, and all the white people sat
Speaker 4: everywhere else. And coming from tapan See High School, that
Speaker 4: was a little odd to me, I have to admit.
Speaker 4: But then when when I thought about it and understood
Speaker 4: that this was a group of people that were in
Speaker 4: a different space away from their home and migrated to
Speaker 4: people that had that first of all, looked like them, right,
Speaker 4: and that they were most comfortable with, I would venture
Speaker 4: to say, and had some sort of similarities that they
Speaker 4: could have had with those who were white, but they
Speaker 4: didn't really know that yet, right, So they aggregated together
Speaker 4: until they felt like they were in a safe enough
Speaker 4: space two.
Speaker 5: To move outward.
Speaker 4: So so looking at that now, as you said, we're adults,
Speaker 4: we've lived life, we have experiences, and there are still
Speaker 4: some intentional segregated spaces. I'm not sure how that how
Speaker 4: we break down those silos. I think that here in Rockland,
Speaker 4: or at least in the River Valley, the River villages,
Speaker 4: it is not as severe, at least that's my experience
Speaker 4: of that. But I'm not sure what the answer to
Speaker 4: that is. So it's been a little bit puzzling when
Speaker 4: you know, when you look beyond the cultural significance of
Speaker 4: being with people that look like.
Speaker 5: You and you just feel a little bit more safe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, possibly a topic of the future. Bill your thoughts
Speaker 2: and then we'll go to a break.
Speaker 5: Well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when we.
Speaker 6: When we were in that film that I was a
Speaker 6: part of about the destruction of Jackson Avenue called What
Speaker 6: Happened to Jackson Avenue, I.
Speaker 3: Reflected on the fact that Nayak.
Speaker 6: Is it's not segregated, but it's not integrated, and people
Speaker 6: have corrected me on that, and it's it's interesting and
Speaker 6: I guess gives us some maybe direction to look towards.
Speaker 6: That's true of the adults, but it's not true of
Speaker 6: our young people. I've heard many people tell me that
Speaker 6: Nyak High School is one of the most radically integrated
Speaker 6: kind of student bodies location, that like, the students that
Speaker 6: go there are just.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I haven't gone into the lunch.
Speaker 6: Room and seeing if there's you know, the black table
Speaker 6: and the Latino table in the Haitian table. But I
Speaker 6: think that there's something to that that is within a
Speaker 6: public school system that gives everybody a chance, there's a
Speaker 6: possibility for everybody to be together. But when we leave
Speaker 6: public school and we enter this system where we're competing
Speaker 6: for limited resources, everything starts to change, and Nayak might
Speaker 6: not always be this you know, bubble, this bastion because
Speaker 6: of affordability. There are people who are living in substandard
Speaker 6: housing a Nayak that are paying rents that would be
Speaker 6: mortgages in other counties in New York State. Even the
Speaker 6: folks that are that are at the lowest end of
Speaker 6: the economic spectrum, who are the people of color who
Speaker 6: make this place diverse? And so many people will sell you,
Speaker 6: they tell you they move to Nayak because it's diverse.
Speaker 3: Well, that might not be a reason for people to
Speaker 3: move to Nag much longer.
Speaker 6: Because also in that same documentary What Happened to Jackson Avenue,
Speaker 6: when Perry said that the gentrification that started during urban
Speaker 6: renewal has accelerated, It's not the bulldozer anymore. It's affordability.
Speaker 6: People just can't afford to live here if they're not wealthy.
Speaker 6: And even those people who are servicing the wealthy, like
Speaker 6: my grandmother bought a house as a maid.
Speaker 3: How many maids do you think are buying houses in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five six? None. It's not happening. So we
Speaker 3: got to go back to those days.
Speaker 2: Guys, points all very well taken. This one's been a
Speaker 2: while so far, really appreciate everything. This has been really
Speaker 2: truly intelligent conversation. Uh great, So much more to come.
Speaker 2: We haven't even really talked about the video, as I
Speaker 2: call it, and we'll spend some time with that and
Speaker 2: why it's important to preserve black history and how we
Speaker 2: might be able to do that. We also got a
Speaker 2: really special guest coming in and announce his song. It's
Speaker 2: Andrew Ascreenspan of Living Rough and Hanging Tough Fame. He's
Speaker 2: gonna debut his new single, Beautiful that's all coming up
Speaker 2: right after these brief commercial messages. This is Being Frank.
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Frank Leborno will be right back. Please
Speaker 2: don't go anywhere. This has been great.
Speaker 9: This is Hudson River Radio dot com, Hudson River Radio
Speaker 9: dot com. This is Hudson Riverradio dot com. This is
Speaker 9: Hudsonriverradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation podcast. Thanks
Speaker 2: for sticking with us. I'm your hosts Frank Gubono and
Speaker 2: as always our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Richter.
Speaker 2: We bring our audience a fresh topic every week and
Speaker 2: we stream from Hudson River Radio, located and beautiful and
Speaker 2: historic Stony Point, New York. But remember, you can catch
Speaker 2: Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio and all the others. And because every Being Frank
Speaker 2: is archived, you can listen to any of our programs
Speaker 2: anytime you like. You can find a link to Being
Speaker 2: Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or at
Speaker 2: our website Hudson Radio dot com. Just click and you're there.
Speaker 2: We're back. It's Being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebono.
Speaker 2: Remember we bring our audience fresh topic every week, and
Speaker 2: it's archives, so you can catch the program anywhere and
Speaker 2: anytime you like it. If you enjoy this, you might
Speaker 2: enjoy my writing. I have my own blog ww dot talk,
Speaker 2: dash Frank dot blogspot dot com. I also write at
Speaker 2: medium dot com and every Friday I publish an opinion
Speaker 2: column with NYAK News and Views. This has been truly
Speaker 2: intelligent conversation with my two guests, doctor Daana Stilly and
Speaker 2: Will mister William I like that he's got that formal title.
Speaker 2: Mister Bill Batson. I have been with us from the
Speaker 2: beginning and we're talking African American history and it's been
Speaker 2: absolutely terrific. And we're going to wrap up our conversation
Speaker 2: and after that, still don't go anywhere. We've got a
Speaker 2: really special guest for you, the living rough hanging tough man,
Speaker 2: mister Andrew A screen Span, will join us to debut
Speaker 2: his new single Beautiful. You're going to enjoy it, so
Speaker 2: please don't go anywhere. Let's continue our conversation. We've kind
Speaker 2: of I didn't want to make it the focus of
Speaker 2: our conversation because it shouldn't be, but of course we
Speaker 2: have to talk about what I call the video because
Speaker 2: there's no other way to describe it. People have tried
Speaker 2: to defend it, and as much as I enjoy free
Speaker 2: speech and people are entitled to their opinion, they should
Speaker 2: do it knowing that there's no way to couch it.
Speaker 2: It is a racist video. Again, you could call it
Speaker 2: this one man's opinion, but I would certainly challenge you
Speaker 2: to defend your opinion if you did not see it
Speaker 2: as such. But again that's my opinion, in a white
Speaker 2: man's opinion. I'd like to know from someone who really
Speaker 2: could really hit home, and we'll begin with doctor Danis
Speaker 2: Stilly when you first your first impression of seeing that video,
Speaker 2: and then take it from there, please.
Speaker 4: When I first thought was so angry I was. I
Speaker 4: was literally walking around my living room just trying to
Speaker 4: breathe because I was so angry. I think we all
Speaker 4: have known for some time how racist mister Trump is
Speaker 4: and can be, but I feel like there was no mistake.
Speaker 4: First of all, that it was done during Black History Month.
Speaker 4: He has repeatedly shown his disdain for the Obamas, and
Speaker 4: I think that that's jealousy or envy, but to use
Speaker 4: such a dehumanizing old trope to depict them was just so.
Speaker 5: Angering.
Speaker 4: It just it just brought back a flood of emotions
Speaker 4: that I think that that I have tried to get over.
Speaker 5: Right, So earlier we were talking about microaggressions.
Speaker 4: I know that they happened, and sometimes I'm witty enough
Speaker 4: to respond, and sometimes I just let them go. But
Speaker 4: to see the President of the United States of America
Speaker 4: allow that to be posted and then refuse to take
Speaker 4: it down and say that it was not a mistake
Speaker 4: that it was shown, and then lie basically and say
Speaker 4: that it was supposed to show him being the king
Speaker 4: of the jungle and then being in the jungle for
Speaker 4: Lion King. Well, if you've seen Lion King, you know
Speaker 4: that there are no apes in Lion King, right.
Speaker 2: So it's more like l y I n K. Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: I hear you.
Speaker 5: So he was just, you know, a reminder of.
Speaker 4: The trauma that black people have had to endure over
Speaker 4: the four hundred plus years, and even now in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty six, people cannot let.
Speaker 5: Cannot let that go.
Speaker 4: They still think and want others to believe that that
Speaker 4: that is who we are, that we're beasts that were animals,
Speaker 4: that were untrained.
Speaker 5: Anger.
Speaker 10: Bill, your thoughts please, Yeah, I had, I had all
Speaker 10: those feelings, and I think that what really makes it
Speaker 10: difficult is that there's an attempt to suggest over repeated
Speaker 10: by by.
Speaker 6: This administration thinks that by repeating a lie and making
Speaker 6: it a big lie, it somehow becomes the truth. Now
Speaker 6: there is a theory, a school of thought where that
Speaker 6: came from. I think the gentleman's name is Himler. But
Speaker 6: there is a whole science to lying, and they've really
Speaker 6: brought line to a high art. But what really makes that.
Speaker 3: That reference and that the representation.
Speaker 6: Of the Obamas as somehow animals and somehow non human.
Speaker 6: What makes it so galling is that the Obamas aren't
Speaker 6: in the Epstein files. The Obamas had a marriage that survived.
Speaker 6: The Obamas have wonderful, successful children who are not prospering
Speaker 6: by anyone's money but their own talent. They are the
Speaker 6: example that Americans really could benefit from emulating.
Speaker 3: And I think that.
Speaker 6: That is where the jealousy comes from that doctor Stilly
Speaker 6: mentioned earlier. But what I really think it's all about
Speaker 6: is this is like, you know, a magician using misdirection
Speaker 6: to accomplish theft. There's nothing enlightened about what's going on on.
Speaker 6: There's cash being extracted from the American treasury, numbers that
Speaker 6: have never been seen before, and there's an effort.
Speaker 3: To get us to not pay attention to it.
Speaker 6: So anytime that there's something that is really bothering this
Speaker 6: administration in the news cycle, they will drop in. And
Speaker 6: Americans have, unfortunately, for years and generations, been programmed to
Speaker 6: fall for this bait. So we just jump at the
Speaker 6: shiny racist object every time it's dangled before us.
Speaker 3: So we don't notice.
Speaker 6: The ice buying warehouses all over the country getting ready
Speaker 6: for mass incarceration. We don't notice ice approaching the Haitian
Speaker 6: community in Springfield. We don't notice cryptocurrency, you know, deregulation.
Speaker 3: We don't notice measles epidemics and and breaking out in
Speaker 3: some of these facilities where people are being held.
Speaker 6: We don't notice that Liam wasn't the only child, but
Speaker 6: there's actually a jail called the Kiddy Jail. We've become
Speaker 6: desensitized to these things and we're just not paying attention. So,
Speaker 6: you know, we should all feel the body blow of
Speaker 6: the disrespect that's being afforded to a former president by
Speaker 6: this administration. But you know, then we should really be
Speaker 6: prepared to ask the question again is to when a
Speaker 6: price is coming down and when are the full Epstein.
Speaker 3: Files being released?
Speaker 6: Because that is really the most important.
Speaker 3: Meme that that is to be remembered.
Speaker 6: Any other meme that comes about that knocks that off
Speaker 6: of the top of our you know, attention.
Speaker 3: It's really just there to distract us.
Speaker 5: And I'm happy to say, Frank that.
Speaker 4: Quickly, a relatively quickly, any of the people that I'm
Speaker 4: associated with, at least on Facebook and the Black community,
Speaker 4: said nope, we're not sharing this, And if they had
Speaker 4: shared it, they took it down and instead put up
Speaker 4: thousands of pictures of the Obamas and all of their glory.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: So I love that the response to that, that that
Speaker 4: what was really meant to be long term harm was
Speaker 4: quickly turned around and we once again were embracing the
Speaker 4: the Obamas and all that they did for the country
Speaker 4: and all that they still stand for in the black community.
Speaker 6: Well, since since this Blackastrey Month, I'll just give a quote,
Speaker 6: because doctor King has a quote for everything truth pressed
Speaker 6: to the ground rises.
Speaker 2: And I have one for you from one of my
Speaker 2: favorites to Frederick Douglass that that'll be coming up. You
Speaker 2: can't go wrong with either one of those two, gentlemen. Oh, guys, guys,
Speaker 2: there's so much more to talk about. Honestly, this has
Speaker 2: truly been intelligent conversation. We could go for another hour,
Speaker 2: but I have Andrew Ace patiently waiting in the wings
Speaker 2: and with some great music, and I do want to
Speaker 2: get to him. But I really do want to thank
Speaker 2: doctor Dana Stilly and mister Bill Batson for really your
Speaker 2: intelligent conversation, absolutely terrific.
Speaker 3: We won't next, we won't wait till next year. Frank,
Speaker 3: we'll see We'll see you in June for.
Speaker 2: Juneteenth. You know you guys are always welcome here. I'm serious,
Speaker 2: this has been great. We could continue this for another hour,
Speaker 2: so many more topics to go on, but we'll get
Speaker 2: to andrew A. So guys, again, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Let me do my thank yous now and then well
Speaker 2: we will get to Andrew. Of course, you know, we
Speaker 2: offer special thanks to our listeners. They take time to
Speaker 2: give us a voice in their lives. We offer a
Speaker 2: fresh topic every week. Catch us wherever and whenever you
Speaker 2: get your favorite podcasts, check us out on the Hudson
Speaker 2: River Radio Facebook page. As I mentioned, I have a
Speaker 2: comment quote if you will is more appropriate, not a comment.
Speaker 2: It's a quote from one of my personal heroes and favorites,
Speaker 2: Frederick Douglass. And then we're going to hear from Andrew Ace.
Speaker 2: But first, Frederick Douglas said, power and those in control
Speaker 2: concede nothing without a demand. He never have and never will.
Speaker 2: Each and every one of us must keep demanding, must
Speaker 2: keep fighting, must keep thundering, must keep plowing, must keep
Speaker 2: on keeping things struggling. Must speak out and speak up
Speaker 2: until justice has served. Because where there is no justice,
Speaker 2: there is no peace. Love it all right? What's set up?
Speaker 2: That is Andrew Ace. Now you got to try to
Speaker 2: welcome back Andrew and you have for people. Let me
Speaker 2: remind you you were a guest once when you talked
Speaker 2: about your inspirational journey from addiction to recovery. You continue
Speaker 2: it with a new song. Please tell us about your
Speaker 2: new song, Beautiful.
Speaker 11: Thanks for having me on, Frank.
Speaker 3: Beautiful is my latest single.
Speaker 11: Came out February tenth this week, and I wrote this
Speaker 11: song that I wanted to release it during the season
Speaker 11: of Love and Valentine's so people could share with the
Speaker 11: ones they love most. And I wrote this about someone
Speaker 11: that I wanted to find. It wasn't about a particular person.
Speaker 11: And yeah, it's really just that it's a new song
Speaker 11: that I wanted to experiment with, non recovery related. So
Speaker 11: I hope people enjoy it, especially during this holiday.
Speaker 2: What do you hope people will cut take from it
Speaker 2: when they hear what emotion would you hope that they
Speaker 2: hear within the song?
Speaker 3: Andrew?
Speaker 11: I hope they'll feel really uplifted and positive and it'll
Speaker 11: just bring them joy.
Speaker 2: Andrew a screenspan. Thank you so much. We're going to
Speaker 2: hear your song beautiful in just a minute. For an engineer.
Speaker 2: You know him, he's the mailman. I'm your host, Frank Born.
Speaker 2: We hope to have you join us on the next
Speaker 2: being Frank, We're the only way to be is Frank.
Speaker 2: Here's beautiful.
Speaker 3: Everyone.
Speaker 4: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: I can't take my eyes off you. I'm staring at
Speaker 1: the water. I like the smile on you, shining like
Speaker 1: the super when you look back at me.
Speaker 8: My good, no, I feel my heart that's the jukes
Speaker 8: expad away at quick. Well, wait, you're focus to meet.
Speaker 1: Can't take a walk with me? I'll play a song
Speaker 1: for you, the hard.
Speaker 8: You could beat my harmony, I'll beat the malady.
Speaker 1: We'll beat up singing. Make a milk beginner.
Speaker 5: To meet.
Speaker 8: Cassy expad away at Quick pither Well.
Speaker 1: Please free to build it to pay has to doue.
Speaker 1: This bot.
Speaker 8: As look gonful sweet fun. Let's bad a bit, and
Speaker 8: please please preemute it bot to math.
Speaker 1: Do it compute it.
Speaker 8: Foul to me
Speaker 3: Hudson River radio dot com