Speaker 1: Jesse Jackson Junior.
Speaker 2: Welcome forward to the Jesse Drackmons Junior Ship on La
Speaker 2: Top fifteen eighty. We're just one day in from the
Speaker 2: nast celebration of the birth of Martin Luther King Junior.
Speaker 2: In this twoenty twenty six years it is.
Speaker 1: The birth of Jesus of Nazareth. His life was so
Speaker 1: profound that it changed the course of human history and
Speaker 1: divided time between BC and Anno Dominie. We are in
Speaker 1: year two zero two six Anno dominie measured against the
Speaker 1: time of the life of Jesus of Nazareth and particularly
Speaker 1: his ministry, so critical and so important to the idea
Speaker 1: of civilized behavior. Martin Luther King Junior a significant and
Speaker 1: pivotal force, not only in the twentieth century, but a
Speaker 1: man who lived for only thirty nine years. Yesterday we
Speaker 1: commemorated nationally his birthday, having would have been ninety seven
Speaker 1: years old. In this particular context, and of course it's
Speaker 1: not without controversy, every president since the inauguration of the
Speaker 1: holiday has issued a proclamation commemorating and celebrating the life
Speaker 1: of Martin Luther King Junior, and Donald Trump almost missed it.
Speaker 1: He would have been the first president to not sign
Speaker 1: a proclamation honoring the life of Martin Luther King Junior.
Speaker 1: He subsequently did so when it was brought to the attention.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming through the media of his of his presidency
Speaker 1: to not sign a proclamation, but he did. Late last night,
Speaker 1: before the holiday officially ended, he signed the proclamation honoring
Speaker 1: the life of Martin Luther King Junior. I think it's
Speaker 1: fascinating in and of itself that the people around the
Speaker 1: President of the United States do not have the President
Speaker 1: of the United States prepared for a national and international
Speaker 1: gaff quite like the one that took place yesterday. But
Speaker 1: it says a lot about the spirit energy of the
Speaker 1: President of the United States, and it says even more
Speaker 1: about the time that we find ourselves in. Our very
Speaker 1: special guest today is Wendell L. Griffin, an Arkansas lawyer, jurist,
Speaker 1: legal educator, business leader, ordained Baptist minister, and public speaker.
Speaker 1: On April fifteenth, nineteen eighty five, Governor Bill Clinton appointed
Speaker 1: him Chairman of the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission, making Griffin
Speaker 1: the first person of color named to that state agency
Speaker 1: and the first to chair it. Griffin served in that
Speaker 1: position until February second, nineteen eighty seven, when he returned
Speaker 1: to his law practice with Wright Lindsay and Jennings. Governor
Speaker 1: Jim Guy Tucker appointed Judge Griffin to the Court of
Speaker 1: Appeals at the end of nineteen ninety five, and he
Speaker 1: entered the judicial service in nineteen ninety six. While on
Speaker 1: the Cour of Appeals, Griffin also remained active in professional,
Speaker 1: civic and religious life, including service as president of the
Speaker 1: Pulaski County Bar Association, pastor of Emmanual Baptist Church of
Speaker 1: Little Rock, Arkansas, and parliamentarian of the National Baptist Convention USA.
Speaker 1: He is the author of two books, The Fierce Urgency
Speaker 1: of Prophetic Hope and Parables Politics and Prophetic Faith. Judge Griffin,
Speaker 1: Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
Speaker 3: Congressman Jackson, it is good to be with you again,
Speaker 3: and Happy New Year to you. Happy day after the
Speaker 3: King Holiday. How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful and honored, deeply honored by your presence
Speaker 1: on our show, and I can't think of a more
Speaker 1: appropriate guest to help contextualize what we are going through
Speaker 1: in the Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope. Lord knows we
Speaker 1: need prophetic hope at this hour. Clearly you were inspired
Speaker 1: to really write, create, and think through a masterpiece. We
Speaker 1: have about three minutes before we come forward, which means
Speaker 1: the first break in our show. Will you share with
Speaker 1: us during this time period, why the nation, why the country,
Speaker 1: maybe even the world needs a prophetic hope at this hour?
Speaker 3: We are in a time where hope seems to be
Speaker 3: almost difficult for people to imagine. People are dealing with
Speaker 3: trauma on so many levels. In the United States, we
Speaker 3: see the modern version of the twenty first entry version
Speaker 3: of the KKK operating in IC. We see Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: Threatening to invade Greenland, already having invaded Venezuela, threatening to
Speaker 3: invade other countries. We see the ongoing genocide in Sudan,
Speaker 3: in the Congo, in Gaza, we see all kinds of trauma,
Speaker 3: and people are finding difficult to believe in the notion
Speaker 3: of hope. So the issue of hope is almost People
Speaker 3: are almost breathless for it at the same time desperate
Speaker 3: for it.
Speaker 1: You know, Judge, I had the privilege yesterday of speaking
Speaker 1: in Walking Hegan, Illinois, and I spoke from the subject matter.
Speaker 1: April fourth, nineteen sixty seven, when Doctor King delivered a
Speaker 1: speech that quite frankly changed his ministry. It changed his
Speaker 1: relationship to the Baptist Convention. Joseph Jackson, the pastor and
Speaker 1: leader of that convention at that time, even changed the
Speaker 1: entrance to his church from Kings to thirty first Streets.
Speaker 1: So I know you understand that the context, Doctor King,
Speaker 1: I was told by my father, I believe, was to
Speaker 1: speak at one of the conventions and a pastor a
Speaker 1: shuffle began on the stage at the Baptist Convention. A
Speaker 1: pastor was knocked off the stage, broke his neck and died. Literally,
Speaker 1: a fight broke out. Doctor King was an immensely unpopular
Speaker 1: man at that time and during that period. But in
Speaker 1: that Beyond Vietnam Vietnam speech, I chose yesterday as my
Speaker 1: subject matter beyond Venezuela. Beyond Venezuela. He spoke about Venezuela
Speaker 1: in the same speech, bringing an urgent currency to this
Speaker 1: to this moment, Judge Griffin.
Speaker 3: He spoke about it. It was prescient. And I'm glad
Speaker 3: you named your speech beyond Venezuela because and we can
Speaker 3: talk about after the break. Because April four, nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 3: is perhaps the most prelevant, relevant speech that King ever delivered.
Speaker 3: For our time. We need to talk about that in
Speaker 3: detail because too many people are courting sixty three. We
Speaker 3: need to be courting sixty seven.
Speaker 1: I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. You're listening to the Jesse Jackson
Speaker 1: Junior Show. We're going to have an exciting program in
Speaker 1: this first hour with Judge Wendell Griffin, Arkansas lawyer, jurist,
Speaker 1: legal educator, business leader, ordained Baptist minister and public speaker.
Speaker 1: Particularly honored that he's.
Speaker 3: On our show.
Speaker 1: I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. More on k BAA Talk fifteen eighty. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. Welcome forward to the show. Our
Speaker 1: very special guest is none other than Reverend doctor Wendell
Speaker 1: Griffin and Arkansas lawyer, jurist, legal educator, business leader, ordained
Speaker 1: Baptist minister and public speaker. And just before the break
Speaker 1: before we came forward, Judge Griffin and I were having
Speaker 1: a conversation about how immensely unpopular Martin Luther King Junior was.
Speaker 1: On April fourth, nineteen sixty seven, he was thirty nine
Speaker 1: thirty nine, almost thirty eight years old, almost thirty nine
Speaker 1: years old. He'd be shot and killed a year from
Speaker 1: the delivery of this speech. But this year was a
Speaker 1: year of great depression for Martin Luther King Junior. He
Speaker 1: had received the Nobel Peace Prize. He had delivered in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three a memorable speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
Speaker 1: But there's a fight breaking out between Baptist preachers and
Speaker 1: young people he talks about it in the speech, who
Speaker 1: were disagreeing with a generation of people were saying the
Speaker 1: Doctor King's tactics were not working. And I can't think
Speaker 1: of anyone more important in this hour to share with
Speaker 1: us the context of the fierce urgency of prophetic hope
Speaker 1: and the prophetic hope admission that Doctor King was on
Speaker 1: at that hour, Judge Griffin.
Speaker 3: We forget. I like to remind people who have Doctor
Speaker 3: King's picture in their church and church studies that oftentimes
Speaker 3: the people have the Doctor King's picture in their church
Speaker 3: studies when predecessor passors out of congregation wouldn't have had
Speaker 3: Doctor King in their town along in their pulpit. And
Speaker 3: so we need to remember that Doctor King was ousted
Speaker 3: from the National Baptist Convention USA Incorporated. As you mentioned,
Speaker 3: he was let he was thrown out of the home
Speaker 3: of his father and his grandfathers on both sides, and
Speaker 3: he literally was without a denominational home until the progess
Speaker 3: of National Baptist Convention was organized. He and Gardner Taylor
Speaker 3: were thrown out. I say that because Doctor King called
Speaker 3: this nation to account for its racism, for its militarism,
Speaker 3: and for its gangs to capitalists. We call it gangs
Speaker 3: to capitalism now our word what he called it crass materialism.
Speaker 3: We realize now too late, that doctor King was more
Speaker 3: than a civil rights leader. He was a prophet. He
Speaker 3: was a preacher, as you mentioned, and he spoke prophetic truths,
Speaker 3: and he was killed because his truth cut too deep
Speaker 3: and too close to the real, very own wrongs of
Speaker 3: this society. We are now, We are now in wars
Speaker 3: in this country, and not the King begged this nation
Speaker 3: to end his military involvement in Southeast Asia.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, Judge, when I reflect upon that
Speaker 1: in my own studies over the last couple of months,
Speaker 1: in preparation for this two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of
Speaker 1: this young nation July fourth, twenty twenty six, we will
Speaker 1: be celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence. Doctor King stands out as this prophetic
Speaker 1: voice raising questions about this new civilization that has entered
Speaker 1: the global sphere of contemplation. Not only a young nation,
Speaker 1: but it emerges as the most powerful nation, the most
Speaker 1: influential nation, against the backdrop of human civilization with significant
Speaker 1: unfinished work in front of us. They talked about the
Speaker 1: value system, the value system of putting people over politics,
Speaker 1: of putting people over things. We needed to move quickly,
Speaker 1: he said, from a thing oriented society to a to
Speaker 1: a oriented society. Doc, we have a clip right here
Speaker 1: that I'd like to play. We are living in a
Speaker 1: moral crisis, not symbolic, but so deep. Our humanity is
Speaker 1: at stake. There is a battle going on between good
Speaker 1: and evil, and the fear creature of this nation and
Speaker 1: the world house hangs in the balance. That was Bernice King,
Speaker 1: Reverend doctor Bernice King, speaking just yesterday at Ebenezer Baptist Church,
Speaker 1: Doctor Griffin, your thoughts.
Speaker 3: She speaks not only the truth her father spokes, but
Speaker 3: she speaks the truth that we know. Our children, our
Speaker 3: young people, are speaking it. They We're hearing it all
Speaker 3: across this country across the world. It is as real
Speaker 3: as the murder of people who are murdered or killed
Speaker 3: by ice in confinement, but also the killing of Nicole
Speaker 3: Good Rene Good in Minneapolis. It is the murder of
Speaker 3: people who are literally killed because of their ancestry or
Speaker 3: because of their perceived ancestry. Because ice people are killing
Speaker 3: icees are killing folks and detaining folks based on appearance.
Speaker 3: They're profiling people, and being racially profiled now is a
Speaker 3: capital offense. We are seeing doctor King's concern about not
Speaker 3: being a people, a personal in society, as he said
Speaker 3: so clearly on April four, nineteen sixty seven, to being
Speaker 3: a thing or in society where we are more concerned
Speaker 3: about cryptocurrency than the currency of human beings in communication
Speaker 3: with each other and in solidarity with each other. And
Speaker 3: so we have this very big dichotomy, as Bernice King mentioned,
Speaker 3: where literally we our souls are being split apart.
Speaker 1: I want to pick up on that because you know,
Speaker 1: I've heard thousands of sermons have been delivered about the
Speaker 1: fierce urgency of now. Rarely does anyone refer to in
Speaker 1: those sermons beyond Vietnam speech and or bring the connection
Speaker 1: to beyond Venezuela a time to speak. But really, doctor
Speaker 1: King's challenge is not only to the US government. What
Speaker 1: makes him unpopular is that his challenge is to each
Speaker 1: and every one of us. And by that I mean
Speaker 1: when he says a thing oriented society. I tried to
Speaker 1: break it down this way. We all want bananas, but
Speaker 1: we don't want to have anything to do with Panamanian
Speaker 1: neighbors or Costa Rican neighbors. We don't have anything to
Speaker 1: do with people living next door to us who actually
Speaker 1: come from lands that grow bananas. We all want lower
Speaker 1: gas prices, but we're ignoring the Venezuelan and the immigrants
Speaker 1: and the crisis that they're going through in their own country,
Speaker 1: the people who stand on the largest oil reserves in
Speaker 1: the nation. We wake up in the morning we hear
Speaker 1: the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which in nineteen fifty four,
Speaker 1: when Brown versus the Board of Education was decided. If
Speaker 1: you google it, the Dow Jones Industrial average was at
Speaker 1: four hundred and four. Right the power of Doctor King's death.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty eight, the Dow Jones Industrial average, the
Speaker 1: industrial average, the measure of the American economy, was one
Speaker 1: thousand at the beginning of the Reagan administration, the Dow
Speaker 1: Jones Industrial average was at seven thousand. At the end
Speaker 1: of the Barack Obama administration, the Dow Jones Industrial average
Speaker 1: was at nineteen thousand. It closed last Friday at forty
Speaker 1: nine thousand. And yet there is so much misery in
Speaker 1: the land. People are not getting their snap benefits. There's
Speaker 1: a great debate in this nation about health care, about housing,
Speaker 1: about affordability, about quality of life. And then I reflected
Speaker 1: upon in my remarks that what happens in this AI
Speaker 1: and robotic, profit driven economy for more and more efficiencies.
Speaker 1: When Dow Jones is at sixty thousand and at eighty thousand,
Speaker 1: there is a tipping point when the economy itself no
Speaker 1: longer needs the American people because it becomes so efficient
Speaker 1: that it doesn't take care of the least of these.
Speaker 3: I think you have tesched on what doctor King talked about.
Speaker 3: You recall quite well that doctor King said that at
Speaker 3: some point, at some point, a nation that has a
Speaker 3: true evvulution of values will have to regalize that when
Speaker 3: his words, when machines and computers, profit motives, and property
Speaker 3: rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets
Speaker 3: of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
Speaker 3: End quote. We not only have not conquered them, we
Speaker 3: have multiplied them. What you refer to in the adult
Speaker 3: Jones indjustment edge has been an exponential increase in the
Speaker 3: taw couple with an exponential increase in the misery that
Speaker 3: our people are suffering. So we have exponential increase in
Speaker 3: supposed wealth and exponential increase interposed hurt, and we cannot
Speaker 3: recognize that the wealth is going to a smaller and
Speaker 3: smaller number of people, and the hurt is expanded to
Speaker 3: a larger and wider and deeper the freedom so much
Speaker 3: so that like a virus or a cancer, we are
Speaker 3: becoming incapable of dealing with the problems. Our problems are
Speaker 3: now self made and multiplied. The triplets are now our couplets.
Speaker 1: And we wake up every morning, we read the stock market,
Speaker 1: we look at our iras, we ask ourselves the question,
Speaker 1: how are we doing? Is the economy better off today
Speaker 1: four years than it was four years ago? And we
Speaker 1: keep going down this same road to the point doctor
Speaker 1: King suggests at the end of the speech that we
Speaker 1: are looking at either nonviolent coexistence or absolute annihilation of
Speaker 1: the idea of the species and the idea of civilization.
Speaker 1: Very powerful and unpopular words for someone who peeped the
Speaker 1: direction of our economy, who peeped the direction of our politics.
Speaker 1: And if you add to that the influence that the
Speaker 1: Constitution should have on directing the economy to humane priorities
Speaker 1: for the American people, you're right. It is simply suggestive
Speaker 1: of the fact that this is a system that is
Speaker 1: moving in a direction that needs more and more oil,
Speaker 1: more and more critical minerals, more and more reserves in
Speaker 1: order to consume and meet the needs of each of
Speaker 1: us who wakes up in the morning concerning concerned about ourselves,
Speaker 1: concerned about our homes, and concerned about our bottom lines.
Speaker 1: That the collective is completely lost.
Speaker 3: The line that doctor King said that haunts me to
Speaker 3: this day, to this day, this is nineteen sixty seven
Speaker 3: he gave it. We're in twenty twenty six, so we're
Speaker 3: literally almost fifty years away. And he said, a nation
Speaker 3: that continues year after year to spend more money on
Speaker 3: military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching
Speaker 3: spiritual death. I wrote in The Fierce urgency of prophetic hope,
Speaker 3: that we've continued to go over and over and over
Speaker 3: our budgets in military defense and instead of social uplift
Speaker 3: year after year. Sooner or later, people who caught spiritual
Speaker 3: death find a way to kill themselves, and our society
Speaker 3: has found a way to commit national suicide of our souls,
Speaker 3: but also of our democracy. We're seeing the democracy imperiled,
Speaker 3: we're seeing our character imperiled, and we're seeing our sense
Speaker 3: of humanity imperial. The world now is aghast at the
Speaker 3: nation that has so much hubris. It does not realize
Speaker 3: how horrible it is.
Speaker 1: Doc we only have about a minute and a half
Speaker 1: before we come forward. If you had to preach the
Speaker 1: eulogy of our system, what would it sound like.
Speaker 3: It would sound like the nation that forgot its profit.
Speaker 3: We have learned the wrong lessons from the wrong profits.
Speaker 3: We've learned the lessons from the profits of greed, of racism,
Speaker 3: of bigotry, and we have not learned the lessons from
Speaker 3: the prophet of love, justice and democracy. And when you
Speaker 3: forget the nations of your lessons, of your prophets, you
Speaker 3: commit the sins of your ancestors. We're doing that.
Speaker 1: I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. You're listening to the Jesse Jackson
Speaker 1: Junior Show. Our very special guest in this hour is
Speaker 1: Judge Wendell Griffin and Arkansas lawyer juris legal educator. In
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, appointed by Governor Bill Clinton to chair
Speaker 1: the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission, making Griffin the first person
Speaker 1: of color name to that state agency and the first
Speaker 1: to chair it. We're having an honest conversation about the
Speaker 1: destiny of the United States. We've heard a brief eulogy
Speaker 1: of what it represents. There may be a way, there
Speaker 1: may be a way to amend our way out of
Speaker 1: this problem. The right to healthcare of equal high quality
Speaker 1: as a constitutional right and a new government priority. The
Speaker 1: right to a clean, safe, and sustainable bull environment, and
Speaker 1: the right to an education of equal high quality. And
Speaker 1: God knows we need the constitutional right to vote. I'm
Speaker 1: Jesse Jackson Junior. More, but Judge Griffin and when come
Speaker 1: forward on the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. I'm Jesse Jackson Junior.
Speaker 1: Welcome forward to the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. Judge Wendell Griffin.
Speaker 1: This is his second appearance on the Jesse Jackson Junior show.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to find room on our schedule to make
Speaker 1: him a regular contributor to the show. I'm so great
Speaker 1: he's he's spending this quality, immerseful time with us on
Speaker 1: the spirit energy of what's taking place in our nation.
Speaker 1: Judge Griffin, welcome forward to the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, and I thank you Congressmond Jackson
Speaker 3: for being the wonderfully tenacious host that you are and
Speaker 3: keeping it real because you have not chosen to give
Speaker 3: up the legacy of justice in favor of let me
Speaker 3: put it this way, in favor of the creed of
Speaker 3: the day, which is get man, and don't forget Aboutny
Speaker 3: don't think of anybody else, you know, you think about
Speaker 3: all of us. Thank you, Judge.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you very much, you know I am. I'm
Speaker 1: after having studied for the last month or so in
Speaker 1: preparation for this hour beyond Vietnam speech. I think I'm
Speaker 1: as depressed at this moment as I've been in a
Speaker 1: very long time. I share Doctor King's depression that there
Speaker 1: is something profoundly wrong in our society. There's something profoundly
Speaker 1: wrong with our system. The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence
Speaker 1: have guided the nation, albeit through its most difficult and
Speaker 1: continuingly difficult periods. And I'm wondering if also in the
Speaker 1: Constitution is the possibility of our nation's salvation. In two
Speaker 1: thousand and one, I wrote about this in my book
Speaker 1: A More Perfect Union. I advanced nine new individual rights
Speaker 1: to be added to the Constitution that literally would direct
Speaker 1: capitalism to new opportunities. If the first amendment is responsible
Speaker 1: for ABC, NBCCBS, the Internet, cell phones and billboards, newspapers,
Speaker 1: and all of the outdoor advertising, and literally the millions
Speaker 1: of jobs that are created from the idea of free speech,
Speaker 1: then a carefully worded amendment to the Constitution of the
Speaker 1: United States, gearing teeing every American the right to healthcare
Speaker 1: of equal high quality could also be responsible for the
Speaker 1: creation the construction of hundreds, if not thousands, of hospitals
Speaker 1: in urban areas and rural areas. It could create tens
Speaker 1: of thousands, hundreds of thousands of doctors and nurses and
Speaker 1: share in a value to create a society where we
Speaker 1: have the longest longevity as people by making sure people
Speaker 1: can live and they can thrive. That the same constitution
Speaker 1: could build public schools of equal high quality. Knowing no disparities,
Speaker 1: and therefore the pool of athletes, for example, would be
Speaker 1: so great when we see an NFL game or a
Speaker 1: baseball game, when all of these schools have coaches and
Speaker 1: teachers of equal high quality and fields and children during
Speaker 1: the formative years of their lives are exposed to the
Speaker 1: great opportunities that are America, we would have a huge
Speaker 1: pool to choose from to determine who plays for the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears, the Green Bay Packers, the LA Rams. We
Speaker 1: would change the nature of us working together again, guided
Speaker 1: by the Constitution of the United States. I'm going to
Speaker 1: close on this quick point. Tavis Smiley once shared with
Speaker 1: me that he was at a forum for Michael Milkin
Speaker 1: and Michael Milkin Foundation, and the question was raised after
Speaker 1: they had met for several days with hundreds of people
Speaker 1: to discuss the best education ideas. And mister Milkin pulled
Speaker 1: all of the people into a big auditorium and he said, listen,
Speaker 1: I've heard everyone's idea, but is there anyone in here
Speaker 1: who has a grand idea that would solve all things
Speaker 1: for us? And Tavis said the quiet in the room
Speaker 1: was ominous. No one raised his hand. He said, he
Speaker 1: thought for a moment, Let me try some of this,
Speaker 1: Jesse Jr.
Speaker 3: Let me Jesse.
Speaker 1: Tavis raised his hand and he said, and then he
Speaker 1: looked around. Michael Milkin looked around and said, well, Tavis,
Speaker 1: what's your great idea? He said, what if we amended
Speaker 1: the Constitution and all Americans enjoyed the right to a
Speaker 1: public education of equal high quality, setting in motion the
Speaker 1: construction of tens of thousands of new, highly competitive public
Speaker 1: schools across our country, putting people to work. He said,
Speaker 1: The entire room was quiet, It was ominous for everyone
Speaker 1: for that moment had an insight in what was possible.
Speaker 1: But of course the difficulty of mending the Constitution makes
Speaker 1: it even more difficult. In other words, towards doctor King's
Speaker 1: Better Society and World House Judge.
Speaker 3: We are not accidentally dysfunctional. We are systematically dysfunctional. And
Speaker 3: your suggestion of a men in the Constitution points to
Speaker 3: that we could if we would, if we had the
Speaker 3: moral will, if we had the courage, if we had
Speaker 3: the moral Canada, we could do exactly what you suggest
Speaker 3: we could produce. We could amend the Constitution so that
Speaker 3: we would value education and liberation over incarceration. We could
Speaker 3: value not only the performing art in athletics, but also
Speaker 3: the performing arts in drama and theater. We met value.
Speaker 3: We could value science, the conation that produce, that produces
Speaker 3: the wonderful rappers. Still that also produce Dinah Washington and
Speaker 3: Duke Ellington and we But if our schools, those schools
Speaker 3: had music programs in them, were teachers who were inspiring
Speaker 3: young people. August Wilson's plays could be performed, but also
Speaker 3: knew August Wilson's could be producing and writing and imagining.
Speaker 3: This comes out of schools. You don't get this out
Speaker 3: of AI. You don't get this out of a data center.
Speaker 4: You know you're preaching right now, Reverend, let me tell you,
Speaker 4: I'm thinking in this moment that the prophetic vision of
Speaker 4: the nation the doctor King was struggling with, which was
Speaker 4: spot on in.
Speaker 1: The nineteen sixty seven April fourth Speech, is also challenged
Speaker 1: by the fact that people could not hear him that
Speaker 1: people were losing faith in America itself. Judge, you've sworn
Speaker 1: to uphold the Constitution on many different occasions. Your thought
Speaker 1: about the loyalty oath to making the nation better.
Speaker 3: The oath is not the problem. It is the oath
Speaker 3: taker no oath is any better than the person who
Speaker 3: takes it. People can swear to do something, but their
Speaker 3: oath is no good if their character is deceitful, if
Speaker 3: they are hypocrites, if they are ruthless. Then the oath
Speaker 3: to protect and preserve the constitution, to look out for
Speaker 3: the least of these and the vulnerable is no good
Speaker 3: because they will, in their ruthlessness, run over the people
Speaker 3: they're sworn to protect and to serve. So I'm not
Speaker 3: concerned about the loyalty oath itself. I'm concerned about the
Speaker 3: fidelity of people, the faithfulness of people, and I am concerned.
Speaker 3: Let me just simply say it about the gullibility of
Speaker 3: an electorate that knowing people who have lived their careers
Speaker 3: in ruthlessness and greed and self centeredness, would believe that
Speaker 3: they would somehow become honest, generous, and hospitable because we
Speaker 3: elect them to the highest office in power. People who
Speaker 3: are corrupt when given power, use their power in more
Speaker 3: corrupt ways. Smart liars lie smarter, They don't become more truthful.
Speaker 1: I just want to add before we come forward. When
Speaker 1: such a constitutional right is added to the Constitution, it
Speaker 1: means that three hundred and fifty million Americans have the
Speaker 1: legal right to take your local jurisdiction, your state, including
Speaker 1: the federal government, to court to demand the change through
Speaker 1: the legal system that the constitution forces. If in fact
Speaker 1: it is not in the constitution, we don't have that right.
Speaker 1: That is deeply troubling at this hour of the American experiment.
Speaker 1: It is deeply troubling at democracies around the world who've
Speaker 1: copied our constitution and in copying our constitution, whether it
Speaker 1: is in Africa or South America, these constitutions that model
Speaker 1: themselves after our own do not reflect the human values
Speaker 1: that we are still fighting for within our own country.
Speaker 1: I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. Listening to Jesse Jackson Junior Show.
Speaker 1: More when we come forward with Judge Wendell Griffin. Right
Speaker 1: after this message, I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. Welcome forward to
Speaker 1: the Jesse Jackson Junior Show. And just before we continue
Speaker 1: our discussion with Judge Griffin, I want Judge Griffin to
Speaker 1: know that at the top three minutes of the show,
Speaker 1: I always leave it for a word of hope from
Speaker 1: our very special guest, and I have to prepare you
Speaker 1: for the idea that after our brief conversation. There will
Speaker 1: be three minutes at the top of the show for
Speaker 1: your word of hope. I want to think in a
Speaker 1: very special way. In the last week, Kamala Harris has
Speaker 1: visited my father's bedside. We Wonder has also visited my
Speaker 1: father's bedside, and I'm grateful that I see a picture
Speaker 1: that our producer Gina Towns has put up of gil
Speaker 1: Scott Heron, Stevie Wonder, Reverend Jackson and Gladys Knight and
Speaker 1: some of the earlier times that they all spend together,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to thank them for those visits. Judge,
Speaker 1: I want to ask this this final question and leave
Speaker 1: some room for your thoughts. In your book Parables, Politics
Speaker 1: and Prophetic Faith, you draw the with I might add
Speaker 1: Alan Aubrey Bozak, written also with Judge Wendell Griffin. Judge
Speaker 1: Reverend Bozak is, as everyone knows, a champion of ending
Speaker 1: the apartheid regime in South Africa. You make this connection
Speaker 1: between our politics, the parables themselves, and the prophetic nature
Speaker 1: of our faith. Help restore our faith and our energy
Speaker 1: as we move forward during these very difficult and challenging times.
Speaker 3: We do not choose the time in which we live.
Speaker 3: We choose the conduct we use in those times, and
Speaker 3: part of that choice involves choosing whether to have life
Speaker 3: with a kind of as doctor King said, fierce hope,
Speaker 3: a hope that is that transcends our situations. I like
Speaker 3: to remind us that the African American national anthem lift
Speaker 3: every voice and sing ends with a reminder that we
Speaker 3: have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
Speaker 3: We have come through bad times, or as one of
Speaker 3: our wonderful artists, that life for me ain't been no
Speaker 3: crystal chair. Ah. We have come through the and every
Speaker 3: generation has a moment that we have to declare ourselves
Speaker 3: who we are. Are we people of desperation or inspiration?
Speaker 3: Are we people of frustration, of ferocity, ferocious ferocious hope?
Speaker 3: Are we people who are determined to overcome? Are we
Speaker 3: people who are simply going to be confined to our
Speaker 3: sense of misery because of the difficulty we face? Those
Speaker 3: choices are ours, But we are come from a people
Speaker 3: who are inspired by a faith that is bigger than
Speaker 3: the situations of our time. Our struggle is defined by
Speaker 3: our faith and our hope. And I have I got
Speaker 3: to be a preacher come on, I've got to say
Speaker 3: that trouble has never been God for us. Injustice has
Speaker 3: never been God for us. In humanity has never been
Speaker 3: God for us. We know who our God is, we
Speaker 3: know on what we stand, and we know that just
Speaker 3: as we have known that Hitler was not God in
Speaker 3: the twenty in the nineteen, in the nineteen hundreds, Trump
Speaker 3: is not God in the twenty first century, injustice is
Speaker 3: not God anytime. We have to remember that the justice
Speaker 3: in our life is depend upon the God of our lives,
Speaker 3: the Biji God. And that is what your father inspired
Speaker 3: in you and your siblings. That is what doctor King demonstrated.
Speaker 3: That is what we have to pass on the business generation.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be two words of hope, because that's the
Speaker 1: first one I'm thinking in this moment that Doctor King
Speaker 1: also talked about how often the policymakers and the liberal
Speaker 1: thinkers always come with the policy prescriptions, but their policies
Speaker 1: prescriptions are not necessarily tied to the parables or tied
Speaker 1: to the prophetic faith. They are great on paper, stand
Speaker 1: for this program, stand for that program, but what propels
Speaker 1: them through time is their faith. You wove that together
Speaker 1: in parables, politics and prophetic faith suggesting that it is
Speaker 1: okay to engage the present hour. Woe, may all our
Speaker 1: powers be engaged to do the Master's will. Judge Wendell Griffin.
Speaker 1: A final thought, a word of hope. You got a
Speaker 1: few more minutes this time to take you time and
Speaker 1: take us to that place.
Speaker 3: I am seventy three years old, like your father, I'm
Speaker 3: part of the like your parents, I'm part of the
Speaker 3: last generation of Africans Americans who lived and have first
Speaker 3: hand knowledge of Jim Crow. Separate bathrooms and water fountains
Speaker 3: that didn't work, schools that didn't have the right books.
Speaker 3: I went through the whole ninth grade without an algebra book.
Speaker 3: How do you learn algebra two if you don't have
Speaker 3: an algebra for Algerie one? And my parents were laborers
Speaker 3: and they've paid the same taxes the white people did.
Speaker 3: But the white parents had children with algeerie books and
Speaker 3: teachers who didn't have better education, because our black teachers
Speaker 3: often had master's degrees and the white teachers only had
Speaker 3: bachelors degrees. But the white teachers got better facilities. But
Speaker 3: our parents sent us to schools with an inspiration. You
Speaker 3: are not less than your God has put you here
Speaker 3: for a purpose, and you are being prepared for a
Speaker 3: future that is bigger than this predicament. I still remember
Speaker 3: seeing the images of doctor King. I still remember seeing
Speaker 3: images of your father. I still remember hearing the voices.
Speaker 3: Not only have those televised, but those old saints of
Speaker 3: Pike County, Arkansas and Harrison Chapel Baptist Church who picked
Speaker 3: cotton in the fall so we could have some money
Speaker 3: to have. And when I went to college, told me
Speaker 3: to come to church and they would give me a
Speaker 3: piece of money. That's what they called it, a piece
Speaker 3: of money, so I could go back to school. They
Speaker 3: didn't know what I was studying, but they believed in us.
Speaker 3: I say all that to say that our people, and
Speaker 3: I'm talking about black people. Our people have lived the
Speaker 3: parable of the scriptures of people who were faced with
Speaker 3: trials and left trials and triumphed, transscended trials and made triumph.
Speaker 3: Made them triumphant not because they were given more opportunities,
Speaker 3: but because their God gave them a powerful sense of
Speaker 3: their identity that saw opportunity where other people gave them
Speaker 3: only opposition. We will not always be favorite, but we
Speaker 3: will always have favor with God. And we will not
Speaker 3: always be favorites in the society, but we will always
Speaker 3: have a favorite outcome if we will simply remember that
Speaker 3: there is, as doctor King said, a message truth knockdown
Speaker 3: does rise. I'm a Christian. My religion doesn't stop on
Speaker 3: Good Friday. It goes to the Easter Sunday morning. I
Speaker 3: have an Easter religion, an East assist justice, and I
Speaker 3: have an Eastern faith. If I didn't have that, I'd
Speaker 3: put my Bible down, take up rock thowing. But I
Speaker 3: am not. I am not gonna lay my legiend down
Speaker 3: because I'm not gonna let my people down.
Speaker 1: Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.
Speaker 1: Yet it is the scaffold that sways the future. For
Speaker 1: behind the dim unknown stand it God keeping watch above
Speaker 1: his own. Amen, Judge Griffin, thank you very much for
Speaker 1: participating in our show today.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. God bless you. Please give my
Speaker 3: glove to your father and tell him, hey, folks, he
Speaker 3: doesn't know the lawyer he used to talk to at
Speaker 3: the Baptist mention is still praying born.
Speaker 1: I'm Jesse Jackson Jr. I'm particularly grateful for that, for
Speaker 1: that word of hope, and for that prayer from my father.
Speaker 1: I'm Jesse Jackson Junior. More on k BLA Talk fifteen eighty.
Speaker 1: When we come forward, it's Tenation's Tuesdays with Attorney Barbara Arnwine.
Speaker 3: Think you judge,