Latest / The People's News / Texas GOP Supports Pedo Friend Trump with Distractions; Helping Earthquake Victims - TPN 9/7/25

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Texas GOP Supports Pedo Friend Trump with Distractions; Helping Earthquake Victims - TPN 9/7/25 · The People's News

0:03
Speaker 1: It's the week of September seventh, twenty twenty five, and
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Speaker 1: this is what's on the People's news. A strike against
0:11
Speaker 1: the Hilton Hotel as workers walk out. The Afghan community
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Speaker 1: in Houston support thousands killed in earthquake in Afghanistan. African
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Speaker 1: American attendance in higher education is decreasing. Texas Republicans, frustrated
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Speaker 1: that they haven't been able to put the Ten Commandments
0:33
Speaker 1: in school now want to force your students to pray
0:37
Speaker 1: the Lord's prayer. All that and more on the People's News.
0:41
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Gallington. This is the People's News, and the
0:45
Speaker 1: People's News starts now. Hundreds of hotel workers at Houston's
0:54
Speaker 1: Hilton Downtown have walked off the job and are on strike.
0:59
Speaker 1: They are strong vioking for better wages and work conditions.
1:03
Speaker 1: Most that have been here for years now have not
1:05
Speaker 1: seen a raise and have to work two or three
1:08
Speaker 1: jobs while the company is making record profits. In twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty four, Houston broke records for the number of visitors
1:15
Speaker 1: and hotel revenue. Yet hotel workers have not seen the
1:19
Speaker 1: benefits of that boom and struggle to pay their bills.
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Speaker 1: This is the first Texas hotel strike in modern history.
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Speaker 1: Four hundred hourly and tipped workers represented by unite here
1:32
Speaker 1: Local twenty three are demanding a living wage of twenty
1:35
Speaker 1: three dollars an hour, safer working conditions, fair schedules and workloads,
1:40
Speaker 1: and respect on the job. We talk to the union
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Speaker 1: president of unite here Local twenty three.
1:48
Speaker 2: My name is Francesca Garabayo. I'm the Texas chapter president
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Speaker 2: for unit here Local twenty three and an organizer. And
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Speaker 2: we're out here because we're all strike at the Hilton Days.
2:00
Speaker 2: Stics and workers are out here fighting for living wage.
2:06
Speaker 2: The the cost of living has continued to rise in Houston. Meanwhile,
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Speaker 2: you know, workers are living check to check working for
2:13
Speaker 2: a billion dollar company like Hilton, who enjoyed, you know,
2:18
Speaker 2: record profits over the last year. These workers are the
2:21
Speaker 2: ones that make it happen for them. Yet you know,
2:23
Speaker 2: they can't pay their bills and they can't put food
2:25
Speaker 2: on the table for their families. The negotiations, I mean,
2:31
Speaker 2: we're out here for a reason. They are not moving
2:33
Speaker 2: fast enough for the workers. The offer that the proposals
2:38
Speaker 2: that have been put on the table are not They have
2:40
Speaker 2: not met the workers' demands, not even close so that's
2:43
Speaker 2: why the workers have decided to take, you know, make
2:45
Speaker 2: the ultimate sacrifice. These are workers that are already living
2:48
Speaker 2: check to check as it is, so for them to
2:50
Speaker 2: come out here it's a send a strong message to
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Speaker 2: the company that they're serious about what they're fighting for
2:55
Speaker 2: and they're not going to back down until they get it.
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Speaker 3: Always when they have to situation about just a hire
3:01
Speaker 3: chance to try to get by, Is that what's happening now?
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Speaker 2: Yes, of course there's there are temporary workers inside, but
3:09
Speaker 2: you know, these those workers, you know, we have twenty
3:14
Speaker 2: plus year employees that are out here striking. They've dedicated
3:19
Speaker 2: most of their lives to this company. So it's kind
3:21
Speaker 2: of hard to replace someone like that with someone with
3:25
Speaker 2: just a few days you know, experience and a day notice.
3:29
Speaker 2: So the quality of service is not going to be
3:32
Speaker 2: the same, right, the level experience is not going to
3:34
Speaker 2: be the same for the most part.
3:36
Speaker 4: So therefore the guest experience is not going to be
3:39
Speaker 4: the same.
3:39
Speaker 2: So, you know, we know that the Hilton is you know,
3:43
Speaker 2: starting to feel that pressure with.
3:45
Speaker 3: A couple more dollar in the World Cup coming, you
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Speaker 3: know that put does that add more pressure on the seven.
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Speaker 2: I believe so I mean, I don't think any major
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Speaker 2: corporation wants in a labor dispute during a big event
3:57
Speaker 2: that's going to put us on the world stage. Right,
3:59
Speaker 2: Houston's our like a growing destination, you know, for tourism,
4:03
Speaker 2: and and.
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Speaker 4: The city likes to boast about it.
4:05
Speaker 2: They're like experiencing this boom, and you know, the city
4:09
Speaker 2: is definitely profiting off of this. The World Cup is
4:12
Speaker 2: going to be a whole other level of that. But meanwhile, again,
4:14
Speaker 2: the workers are getting left behind. Our wages are way
4:17
Speaker 2: too low for the this world class city that we
4:20
Speaker 2: live in. And you know, for us to be as
4:23
Speaker 2: big as we are, we're the fourth largest city in
4:25
Speaker 2: the country, and you know, for our wages to be
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Speaker 2: this low and for workers to be struggling as they are,
4:30
Speaker 2: it's it's unacceptable.
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Speaker 4: It's ridiculous.
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Speaker 1: One of the workers on strike has worked here for
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Speaker 1: over twenty years.
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Speaker 5: My name is Maria Cuevas. I come from the valley
4:41
Speaker 5: from Bronsfield, Texas, and now I'm over here on Houston.
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Speaker 6: And how is this right going? For you?
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Speaker 7: To stay.
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Speaker 5: Cost as positive? Asaki?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, all, I'm.
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Speaker 5: Sorry, she said, Oh, she said that she's here being pasitive.
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Speaker 5: You know, she's standing a unity with the workers and
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Speaker 5: she's ready to fight.
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Speaker 7: We're all ready to.
5:17
Speaker 6: Fight along with you.
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Speaker 3: Along with you be in Houston.
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Speaker 5: I can't. I'm working right here twenty years, twenty years
5:32
Speaker 5: and living he's been like I live in Pasadena, but
5:37
Speaker 5: almost like forty years.
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Speaker 3: Did you ever think that you would have to.
5:44
Speaker 7: Go on strike?
5:46
Speaker 5: I never thought. But his first time good experience for me.
5:52
Speaker 5: So I can fight for my mys, for.
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Speaker 1: My Texas State Representative Jean Wu was downtown to support
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Speaker 1: the strike.
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Speaker 8: So this is a local twenty three, the union that
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Speaker 8: works at the Hilton Americas, and they are on strike
6:14
Speaker 8: for better contracts and fair wages. And again, this is
6:17
Speaker 8: a fight for all Americans. Their fight is everyone's fight
6:21
Speaker 8: because everywhere around this country, people are working their asses off,
6:25
Speaker 8: they're killing themselves just trying to survive. And you know,
6:30
Speaker 8: the rich are getting insanely rich, and the people who
6:34
Speaker 8: actually help them make the money, the people who actually
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Speaker 8: do the work, are suffering, are struggling, are not only
6:40
Speaker 8: not moving ahead, but we're falling behind.
6:42
Speaker 4: And that's good and we can't take this anymore.
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Speaker 8: And all people, if you work for a living, if
6:48
Speaker 8: you if you consider yourself middle class. If you say,
6:51
Speaker 8: like life is not fair right now, it's not fair
6:53
Speaker 8: as an American, you should support this strike. You should
6:56
Speaker 8: boycott this, Boycott this Hilton. Don't cross picket line, don't
7:00
Speaker 8: cross picking lines here, don't cross picker lines anywhere. Avoid
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Speaker 8: all Hilton establishments until they go back to the negotiating table,
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Speaker 8: until they get fair contracts.
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Speaker 4: This is a fight for everyone.
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Speaker 8: So when it's your turn to get contracts and you're
7:15
Speaker 8: on strike, you're fighting for it.
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Speaker 4: We will support you and they'll support you. This is
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Speaker 4: all about.
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Speaker 8: Working class Americans fighting for what is left of the
7:23
Speaker 8: middle class, left of the American dream.
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Speaker 4: Either we fight for this now or it all dies.
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Speaker 3: I have to ask you, redisagree thing with you know,
7:34
Speaker 3: one of the casualties now is kind of great.
7:37
Speaker 6: It's not gonna ride.
7:38
Speaker 8: So he hasn't said yet, but look, I think those
7:44
Speaker 8: maps that they drew one are extremely illegal, are unconstitutional.
7:50
Speaker 8: I think the courts have shown that they're willing to
7:53
Speaker 8: protect the Voting Rights Act and they will stop these maps.
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Speaker 8: I am confident that they will stop these maps, and
8:00
Speaker 8: if not, we will still fight back at the polls.
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Speaker 8: We will fight back every way we can. Just because
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Speaker 8: they think that these maps give them more favor.
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Speaker 4: Does a mean that it actually does, And that is
8:13
Speaker 4: up to the people.
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Speaker 8: And what we want is people all over this country,
8:17
Speaker 8: all over the state, people who are tired of it,
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Speaker 8: People who are sick and tired of all this stuff
8:22
Speaker 8: of not moving ahead, of working yourself to death and
8:25
Speaker 8: making no progress. If you are tired of it, stand
8:29
Speaker 8: up now, fight back now while you still can, Because
8:32
Speaker 8: just like this redistricting stuff, their objective is to take
8:36
Speaker 8: your power away peace by piece, and they are doing
8:39
Speaker 8: it and they're gonna keep doing it until you speak
8:42
Speaker 8: up and say no more. Right until the faster we
8:46
Speaker 8: say no more, the faster we can go back and
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Speaker 8: change this country back to something that works for working
8:51
Speaker 8: class people.
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Speaker 1: The strike continues in front of the Hilton Hotel in
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Speaker 1: downtown Houston and in front of the Convention Center. They
8:58
Speaker 1: are asking for support from the community and community leaders.
9:03
Speaker 1: Hilton has not commented on the strike or negotiations. Over
9:08
Speaker 1: twenty two hundred people have died in eastern Afghanistan after
9:11
Speaker 1: two earthquakes hit the region on Friday. The mountainous area
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Speaker 1: adds to the difficulties of trying to get help into
9:19
Speaker 1: the region. Friday's earthquake was of a magnitude of five
9:22
Speaker 1: point four and struck at a depth of ten kilometers
9:26
Speaker 1: or six point two miles, the German Research Center for
9:29
Speaker 1: Geoscience has said. Just hours after Thursday's earthquake, Houston's Afghan
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Speaker 1: community has banned together to donate funds to help the
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Speaker 1: victims of the earthquake. The Taliban are still in charge
9:41
Speaker 1: of the country and practice strict Islamic law, and the
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Speaker 1: citizens are mostly banned from receiving any type of funds
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Speaker 1: from the international community, but the UN and other humanitarian
9:51
Speaker 1: groups are trying to get funds to the people in
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Speaker 1: the region. Richard talked with local Afghan community leader Nasir,
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Speaker 1: who is leading the drive for the funds to help.
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Speaker 9: Yeah, the thing is like, be honest with you, I
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Speaker 9: am from same village, like I'm from province.
10:11
Speaker 6: We are.
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Speaker 10: That's uh.
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Speaker 9: The earthquake happened, and of course y historically effected on
10:20
Speaker 9: our lives.
10:21
Speaker 7: And our friends and our community life.
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Speaker 9: And you know that now it's almost around faster and
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Speaker 9: people are they're dead, and thousands of people are still injured.
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Speaker 9: And we just recently got the news that there are
10:40
Speaker 9: still some earthquake shots going on, like you know, last
10:45
Speaker 9: last night there was earth quick today that tonight was
10:49
Speaker 9: also you know, we are not expecting this earthquake. This
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Speaker 9: is one of the biggest and one of and apecially
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Speaker 9: uh if you call that like a human life. You know,
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Speaker 9: like we lost amount of people, a lot of uh
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Speaker 9: and the majority was was uh ladies and children. Uh yeah,
11:15
Speaker 9: and we are witness that one people there were eighteen
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Speaker 9: people in a family and only one person is alive
11:22
Speaker 9: and seventeen people that and.
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Speaker 6: This know, how hard is it? How hard is it
11:34
Speaker 6: to get eight there when the Taliban has pretty much
11:39
Speaker 6: put themselves off from the Asma community. But now we're
11:43
Speaker 6: asking for help and.
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Speaker 9: Okay, yeah, the thing is like right now. Unfortunately that
11:55
Speaker 9: the artquic affected on the villages, uh, especially the dead villages.
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Speaker 11: Uh, which was uh uh.
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Speaker 9: You know, and the mountains. So it is very hard
12:09
Speaker 9: that the ed will arrive on time. And uh you know,
12:15
Speaker 9: like still there is a lot of social activities, some
12:20
Speaker 9: big businessman's business owners.
12:23
Speaker 7: Everyone is working on it.
12:26
Speaker 9: Also, I know, like the Tealle pornameter is also trying
12:30
Speaker 9: to help. But it is not easy because it is
12:32
Speaker 9: one of the biggest mountains and spacial and kuna, which
12:36
Speaker 9: is there is no roads, no no easy ways.
12:39
Speaker 6: Uh.
12:40
Speaker 9: Like they are providing aids through helicasters and.
12:44
Speaker 7: You know through like uh you know, from young Generation and.
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Speaker 9: Plans, but it is very hard.
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Speaker 6: How what are they asking for as far as you're mean,
13:00
Speaker 6: how can people help your community right now?
13:03
Speaker 4: Yeah?
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Speaker 9: Right now my community not only in Houston, Texas, every
13:08
Speaker 9: all who are in the United States and some other
13:10
Speaker 9: European countries, different organizations, different nonprofits including US. You know,
13:17
Speaker 9: there's a multiple go fund accounts, multiple we have zell
13:24
Speaker 9: and case shafts. We have different people that we are collecting.
13:28
Speaker 7: Money and uh, you know, you know, like we.
13:33
Speaker 9: Have people from Virginia, California, Texas, Florida, you know a
13:41
Speaker 9: lot of we have different platforms that we are collecting
13:45
Speaker 9: donations and for shelter, for medicine, for clean waters and
13:51
Speaker 9: blankets and still our company is going on uh and uh,
13:58
Speaker 9: you know, like we are doing that one and we
14:04
Speaker 9: are reaching out to our.
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Speaker 11: Family Reconnection and we're asking them to purchase because the
14:10
Speaker 11: people in Afghanistan they need us, they need our attentions
14:13
Speaker 11: and they need you know, our help.
14:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, how hard is it going to be really good
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Speaker 6: supplies here. Sorry, how hard is it going to be
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Speaker 6: when people donate to get the suppliers from here to Afghanistan?
14:30
Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, like I know that is hard, but
14:33
Speaker 9: not like impossible. But we have a lot of fulunts
14:36
Speaker 9: in Afghanistan also, like you know which I told you,
14:39
Speaker 9: we need our stilts work and will help many children
14:42
Speaker 9: are engines, you know, people are sleeping onside. Winter is
14:46
Speaker 9: coming and we cannot.
14:47
Speaker 6: Survive like this.
14:48
Speaker 7: So that reason we have to find out how we.
14:51
Speaker 9: Can take and we want to make sure we can
14:54
Speaker 9: ceremoney legally where we want to make sure that the
14:57
Speaker 9: money can use only for people who are by the
15:01
Speaker 9: by the by the art quake, you know, like the
15:05
Speaker 9: right people can get the benefits.
15:07
Speaker 6: So we have a lot of.
15:08
Speaker 9: Good volunteers from different nonprofits in Afghanistan. We will send
15:12
Speaker 9: that money and also our social activities who are doing
15:16
Speaker 9: volunteer jobs are there. No, we will try to send
15:19
Speaker 9: the money to them with through different like maybe bank
15:23
Speaker 9: transfer or maybe like Western Union or other platforms.
15:27
Speaker 11: But yeah, everything will be legal.
15:30
Speaker 6: Everything.
15:30
Speaker 9: We want to make sure that the money can use
15:32
Speaker 9: and the right place with the right people.
15:35
Speaker 10: Uh.
15:35
Speaker 6: And what's the guarantee that it's all about government might
15:39
Speaker 6: not take the funds and use it for their own Yeah,
15:45
Speaker 6: you know.
15:46
Speaker 9: Like we we have all of the medical units who
15:49
Speaker 9: are there, and we have peoples that we trust on.
15:52
Speaker 10: Them and.
15:54
Speaker 9: Because as we are living in America, you know, and
15:59
Speaker 9: we we we know, and we want to make sure
16:02
Speaker 9: that this money will be not used by Taliban. This
16:05
Speaker 9: money will go directly uh to the families, and we
16:09
Speaker 9: are from our volunteers in front.
16:12
Speaker 11: Will they have to ask like the proof meetings or
16:16
Speaker 11: pictures to make.
16:18
Speaker 9: Sure the money is going to them. And also some
16:21
Speaker 9: money will go directly to the hospitals you know, uh,
16:25
Speaker 9: you know, like the people who are in the hospital
16:29
Speaker 9: for every couy, so these can things. And also we
16:31
Speaker 9: will buy like blankets, tents or food supplies, uh to make.
16:36
Speaker 11: Sure we will distribute it to the right people.
16:39
Speaker 9: So yeah, that's that's what we do.
16:41
Speaker 10: And also there's a lot of.
16:45
Speaker 9: Already and for the organization, they can they have a
16:54
Speaker 9: strong and uh a neutral and what they have what
17:00
Speaker 9: they call him like a system mechanism that they will
17:05
Speaker 9: they want to make sure that they can spend the
17:09
Speaker 9: money on victims and the families who needed yeah, I
17:13
Speaker 9: know these international organizations they are making sure that the
17:18
Speaker 9: fund will be used only for the families, not to
17:22
Speaker 9: Talibans or other organizations were there.
17:26
Speaker 6: I heard reports out there, or the government there is
17:30
Speaker 6: preventing some communities from getting help because of each other,
17:36
Speaker 6: of each other violating the Taliban law.
17:44
Speaker 9: You know, because the thing is here. Our top priority
17:47
Speaker 9: is saving lives and providing shelters for those who lock
17:49
Speaker 9: their you know, we we I know the Taliban, I'd
17:57
Speaker 9: be honest with you. I really don't know, and I
17:59
Speaker 9: did not watch the news site, but I know there
18:05
Speaker 9: is a lot of international peoples and there's a lot
18:07
Speaker 9: of volunteers that are not working for Taliban's that they
18:12
Speaker 9: want to make sure to spend the money on the people. No,
18:15
Speaker 9: I don't know if there will be any problems, and
18:18
Speaker 9: I believe that Taliban are They might think that, you know,
18:22
Speaker 9: these people from other countries, not only from America, from
18:26
Speaker 9: other countries in Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, you know, uh, London,
18:35
Speaker 9: you know Joy, there's a lot of ads to their night.
18:40
Speaker 9: There was a comes from So yeah, there's a lot
18:43
Speaker 9: of things that everyone's they want to make sure that
18:46
Speaker 9: the fund can use for the right place and other people.
18:52
Speaker 6: How can people here, Can you give a phone number
18:56
Speaker 6: or or or email or how people can donate or
19:01
Speaker 6: how people can get involved.
19:05
Speaker 9: Yes, sure, no, we have like a ZILL number for
19:08
Speaker 9: that one. I can provide you that one three four six.
19:19
Speaker 6: And as.
19:22
Speaker 9: Yeah, that is the ZILL number that people can send
19:24
Speaker 9: them money on this number and we can we can
19:27
Speaker 9: make sure that the fund will go directly to the
19:29
Speaker 9: families and victims.
19:31
Speaker 1: That was local Afghan community leader Nasir moan Hi. This
19:36
Speaker 1: is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
19:40
Speaker 1: The People's News is people powered news. We are free
19:44
Speaker 1: to report the unvarnished and unspun truth and challenge the
19:48
Speaker 1: status quo of corporate propaganda and social media advertising disguised
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Speaker 1: People's News drop each Sunday on The People's News Podcast.
20:03
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Months after targeting schools like Harvard with
20:08
Speaker 1: anti Semitism allegations which have since been found false and
20:13
Speaker 1: denying federal funds to the school, now the convicted felon's
20:18
Speaker 1: criminal administration is saying that schools are using proxies for
20:22
Speaker 1: race in admission, even though there is no proof of that.
20:27
Speaker 1: In late July, Attorney General Pambondi warned in a memo
20:31
Speaker 1: against using unlawful proxies for race, such as geography or
20:36
Speaker 1: applicants essays on overcoming hardships in admissions. Soon after, the
20:41
Speaker 1: US Education Department announced that it would require universities to
20:45
Speaker 1: report new data on applicants broken down by race to
20:49
Speaker 1: ensure race based preferences are not used. Universities have been
20:54
Speaker 1: prohibited from using racial preferences in admission since the Supreme
20:58
Speaker 1: Court struck down Affirmat of Action in twenty twenty three.
21:03
Speaker 1: The Trump administration suggests that schools may be flouting the ban.
21:07
Speaker 1: In the end, this results in fewer black students being
21:10
Speaker 1: accepted to higher education. We talked to Dante King, author
21:14
Speaker 1: of the new book Diagnosing Whiteness and Anti Blackness. He
21:19
Speaker 1: spoke on what he sees is happening, what I see here.
21:23
Speaker 10: When I'm looking at this, especially when we look at
21:25
Speaker 10: the memo that was issued by Pam Bondi in July,
21:32
Speaker 10: the Attorney General, and they are targeting what they are
21:37
Speaker 10: calling unlawful proxies for race. So go with me unlawful
21:43
Speaker 10: proxies such as geography or applicant essays on overcoming hardships.
21:48
Speaker 10: All right, So in their minds, they have ideas about
21:53
Speaker 10: what they're projecting is associated with certain races based on
21:59
Speaker 10: these what they're calling unlawful proxies. This is all about
22:03
Speaker 10: them projecting racist ideas and trying to find various ways
22:08
Speaker 10: based on their projections with not rooted in reality, to
22:12
Speaker 10: try and limit the access to these institutions by black
22:18
Speaker 10: and brown people. What is so interesting about this is
22:22
Speaker 10: we know that by the numbers, there are more poor
22:26
Speaker 10: white people in this country because there are more white
22:29
Speaker 10: people in this country by the numbers. All right, So
22:32
Speaker 10: if we're talking about the likelihood of people who would potentially,
22:38
Speaker 10: you know, write more of these hardship essays, or you know,
22:43
Speaker 10: if they're coming from environments where they're writing about how
22:48
Speaker 10: they had to overcome situations such as poverty, et cetera,
22:52
Speaker 10: the likelihood of that there are more white people doing
22:55
Speaker 10: that is very likely and very high. So you know,
22:59
Speaker 10: this is it's all about to me and I write
23:01
Speaker 10: about this in my book Diagnosing Whiteness and Anti Blackness.
23:04
Speaker 10: This is all about psychological projection. You've got the other guy,
23:09
Speaker 10: Edward Bloom, going on record, he's the one who brought
23:12
Speaker 10: who got behind those Asian students, and they were able
23:15
Speaker 10: to bring that case that struck down affirmative action to
23:17
Speaker 10: the Supreme Court in twenty twenty three. He says, I
23:20
Speaker 10: suspect a goodly percentage are using illegal proxies because to
23:26
Speaker 10: your point, black enrollment didn't fall in certain schools, and
23:29
Speaker 10: so he's saying, I suspect the percentage are using illegal proxies.
23:33
Speaker 10: This is all about suspicion. This is all about ideas,
23:38
Speaker 10: psychological projection, ideas that are that are not rooted in reality.
23:43
Speaker 10: And it is in alignment with what this country is
23:49
Speaker 10: all about. The legacy of this country, which is targeting
23:53
Speaker 10: black people using American institutions and the predominance of the
23:57
Speaker 10: white race in community, using white institutions and manipulating institutions
24:03
Speaker 10: to target black people. The legacy of this country is
24:06
Speaker 10: anti black racism and white supremacy. And I think we
24:09
Speaker 10: need to unpack this through both the historical and current
24:13
Speaker 10: lens if we're ever to understand how these things have
24:16
Speaker 10: been programmed and trained in over centuries.
24:22
Speaker 6: What did you say this but the predominant classes are
24:30
Speaker 6: or still you know, the special major universities are still
24:33
Speaker 6: being attacked by so called allowing more African Americans to
24:39
Speaker 6: go to school there. And I'm talking about major universities
24:42
Speaker 6: like Howard Howard, but like Harvard, Berkeley and those types
24:46
Speaker 6: of schools. Those are the schools that are being attacked
24:49
Speaker 6: by the time.
24:51
Speaker 10: Well, it's it's not and I'm not trying to you know,
24:55
Speaker 10: assert or put forth any type of conspiracy theories. But
25:00
Speaker 10: you know, one of the things that I thought about
25:04
Speaker 10: over the last two years, especially when Trump was being
25:09
Speaker 10: you know, before he ran for office, he decided to
25:12
Speaker 10: run for office, and then they brought forth, you know,
25:14
Speaker 10: they started bringing forth those investigations regarding you know, January
25:19
Speaker 10: sixth and so the other things he's he's he was
25:23
Speaker 10: prosecuted by you know, three top officials who happened to
25:28
Speaker 10: be black, Alvin Bragg, Letitia James Fini uh Fannie uh
25:35
Speaker 10: I forget her last name, Willis. And then you've got
25:40
Speaker 10: you know, Joe Biden coming along and he appoints, for
25:43
Speaker 10: the first time ever the first black female Supreme Court justice.
25:48
Speaker 10: And if we go back in history and we look
25:50
Speaker 10: at when Lyndon B. Johnson, Uh, you know, after he
25:56
Speaker 10: after he was out of office, they they elected Nixon
25:58
Speaker 10: right after him. And that we had to do with
26:01
Speaker 10: a lot of white America who were very angry and
26:04
Speaker 10: upset about the Civil Rights Build of nineteen sixty four,
26:08
Speaker 10: the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five, and the
26:11
Speaker 10: Fair Housing Act of nineteen sixty eight. In mind, you
26:15
Speaker 10: there's a Supreme Court ruling that actually upheld the Civil
26:19
Speaker 10: Rights Act of eighteen sixty six, that said that racial
26:22
Speaker 10: discrimination in housing was unjust because of the Civil Rights
26:25
Speaker 10: Act of eighteen sixty six. And so you have all
26:27
Speaker 10: of these things converging at that time. And then Lyndon B.
26:30
Speaker 10: Johnson's for the first time ever appoints the first black
26:34
Speaker 10: Supreme Court justice, which is Third Good Marshall. Wider America
26:37
Speaker 10: lost its mind. And so we're seeing the same thing here.
26:41
Speaker 10: And they don't want us at these Ivy League institutions,
26:44
Speaker 10: and they are finding ways to ensure that black people
26:49
Speaker 10: are not able to attend. Ever, they just do not
26:53
Speaker 10: want a black presence at these Ivy League institutions because
26:56
Speaker 10: they don't want another Finie Willis. They don't want another
26:59
Speaker 10: Katanji Brown Jackson. They don't want another joy and read
27:03
Speaker 10: we I mean, we have to look at this through
27:06
Speaker 10: both the political and economic lands.
27:10
Speaker 6: What you likes also one of the strait the HBCU
27:14
Speaker 6: schools and help more people attending the HBCU schools making
27:20
Speaker 6: it as stronger.
27:21
Speaker 10: Well, you know what's very interesting you know about HBCUs,
27:26
Speaker 10: and this is very unfortunate. I have you know, my
27:31
Speaker 10: background is in human resources management, and I can say honestly,
27:35
Speaker 10: I mean I've worked for some pretty national large corporations.
27:40
Speaker 10: American institutions and degrees from HBCUs are not recognized the
27:46
Speaker 10: same across this country. There are institutions just as well,
27:51
Speaker 10: you know, geographically, just as well as you know, having
27:56
Speaker 10: a certain brand, right that when they are looking at
28:01
Speaker 10: or assessing one's qualifications for a position, they will look
28:06
Speaker 10: and say, okay, this person went to a first rade school,
28:11
Speaker 10: which is our Ivy League institutions, which are uh historically
28:15
Speaker 10: white institutions. And then they will say, oh, this person
28:18
Speaker 10: wished to a went to an ABC HBCU, and they're
28:22
Speaker 10: almost saying it in ways that well, this is looked
28:25
Speaker 10: upon as somewhat of an immigrant degree. It does not
28:28
Speaker 10: hold the same weight, And so I think we have
28:31
Speaker 10: to look at that too, because blackness in this country
28:35
Speaker 10: is seen as something politically that is not that does
28:39
Speaker 10: not hold the same value as things that are historically
28:43
Speaker 10: white and or predominantly white.
28:46
Speaker 6: And I was going to say, but they still take
28:48
Speaker 6: in our athletes, you know, right, well, except you don't.
28:57
Speaker 6: By the way, those those athletes graduation is still low.
29:02
Speaker 10: Wow. And that's a great point. That is a great point.
29:05
Speaker 10: What I've always said to that though, too, is that
29:09
Speaker 10: white people are comfortable with diversity as long as they're
29:14
Speaker 10: able to exploit that diversity, as long as they're able
29:17
Speaker 10: to see themselves as superior over that diversity. So they're
29:22
Speaker 10: fine with black people being the entertainment. We've always been
29:25
Speaker 10: the entertainment. They're comfortable. We can sing, dance, we can
29:29
Speaker 10: record music, we can hold concerts, we can host comedy shows,
29:33
Speaker 10: we can be athletes. They're fine with us within that context.
29:37
Speaker 10: You can be from the breakfast club to stephen A. Smith.
29:41
Speaker 10: They're fine with us in positions of entertainment. But when
29:43
Speaker 10: we step outside of that and we try to access
29:47
Speaker 10: positions to hold real influence and power, they are not
29:51
Speaker 10: fine with that at all, especially when that power compromise
29:54
Speaker 10: their own ideas about themselves, in their standing. You know,
29:58
Speaker 10: and I think we have to understand that this is
30:00
Speaker 10: about uplifting and the resurgence of you know, employing white
30:08
Speaker 10: inadequacy in white mediocrity across American institutions. You know, the
30:12
Speaker 10: guy that is in the Trump administration, Dan Batty, he
30:16
Speaker 10: talks about how American institutions need to be run by
30:19
Speaker 10: competent white men. But what have we've seen. We've seen
30:23
Speaker 10: Pete heck Seth in signal game. We've seen Donald Trump,
30:27
Speaker 10: who is an admitted predator, who can't string five centences
30:30
Speaker 10: to get coherent sentences together, who probably did not take
30:34
Speaker 10: his own tests to write his own dissertation to get
30:36
Speaker 10: out of college, who most likely didn't take his own SAPs.
30:39
Speaker 10: What have we seen. We've seen grifters. We've seen grifters
30:43
Speaker 10: be funnel through these institutions because they function on white
30:47
Speaker 10: affirmative action systems and processes of white affirmative action and
30:51
Speaker 10: practices of white sponsorship.
30:55
Speaker 6: So it puts it puts of the Americans in a
31:02
Speaker 6: spot because if you're not accepted, if you're not accepted
31:06
Speaker 6: in those those ivy LEA schools, or even even the
31:09
Speaker 6: state fund the state schools when it's the same time
31:12
Speaker 6: you're defunding h c c U schools or in those
31:15
Speaker 6: kids to go if they're not an athlete or or
31:19
Speaker 6: or or something to to to benefit that school.
31:23
Speaker 10: Well, let's be clear. These are people. I mean, over time,
31:28
Speaker 10: we can just look back historically and watch what they've said.
31:31
Speaker 10: For for the most part, especially those that make up
31:37
Speaker 10: Donald Trump's followers, many of these people think don't don't
31:43
Speaker 10: think highly of education at all. They want the educational
31:47
Speaker 10: system defunded. They want these schools and institutions defunded. They
31:51
Speaker 10: don't believe that they have value, and they really look
31:55
Speaker 10: down or or are quite bitter in terms of the
31:59
Speaker 10: sentimentality that is expressed or conveyed when you know you're
32:03
Speaker 10: talking about someone, even a white person that went to
32:07
Speaker 10: an Ivy League school. They think that, you know, those
32:10
Speaker 10: individuals for the most part, are classes that you know, education.
32:15
Speaker 10: The people believe that they are better because they have
32:17
Speaker 10: gone to these schools, and particularly liberal people. They believe
32:21
Speaker 10: that many of these institutions have turned liberal because of
32:24
Speaker 10: philosophies that are taught at these schools. Many of them
32:27
Speaker 10: have ethnic studies departments. Many of them teach history that's
32:30
Speaker 10: very you know, his disciplines in history within the history
32:35
Speaker 10: discipline that are very expansive. They don't just tell the
32:40
Speaker 10: white narrative of you know, our country and the cherish
32:44
Speaker 10: narratives that we hear about this country. And so they
32:48
Speaker 10: want to dismantle those programs within these institutions, and they
32:52
Speaker 10: want to dismantle some of these institutions. There's a lot
32:55
Speaker 10: of ire and retribution that is felt where these institutions
32:59
Speaker 10: are concerned. Some of these people that we're talking about
33:02
Speaker 10: would rather not have education in this country. And so
33:09
Speaker 10: where are we at?
33:11
Speaker 6: What do you tell a young young black students just
33:14
Speaker 6: graduating in high school.
33:16
Speaker 10: Well, I don't know where we are. I mean, I
33:19
Speaker 10: think we also have to contend with and deal with
33:21
Speaker 10: the fact that education in this country has been a business.
33:27
Speaker 10: But it's been sold as something that everyone should do
33:30
Speaker 10: and once you do it, once you go through that process,
33:33
Speaker 10: you will have access to opportunity. And yet we see
33:38
Speaker 10: that that's not the case. We see that even while
33:41
Speaker 10: many times there can be more jobs being produced to
33:44
Speaker 10: the economy through the economy, that many people are still jobless.
33:50
Speaker 10: Many people are in this country are still jobless, and
33:53
Speaker 10: you want to know why because you're recruiting people internationally.
33:56
Speaker 10: Even though those jobs reports talk about jobs that are
34:00
Speaker 10: directly impacting the American economy, many of those jobs are
34:03
Speaker 10: not located here. Many of them are located internationally, and
34:08
Speaker 10: so we have to understand that people go into debt
34:11
Speaker 10: trying to access this opportunity, and then most people don't
34:14
Speaker 10: even find jobs. I'm not going to say most of
34:16
Speaker 10: many don't find jobs in the disciplines that they study.
34:19
Speaker 10: Many people go through that process, go through the educational
34:23
Speaker 10: process expecting that they're going to be able to make
34:26
Speaker 10: a livable wage to afford not only liveability, but to
34:30
Speaker 10: also pay back their student loans. In many cases that
34:32
Speaker 10: does not happen. So we have to think about, you know,
34:35
Speaker 10: what is education set up to do in this country,
34:39
Speaker 10: Who is it for and who really is able to
34:41
Speaker 10: benefit from it in terms of exercising it to access opportunity.
34:46
Speaker 1: That was Dante King, author of the new book Diagnosing
34:49
Speaker 1: Whiteness and Anti Blackness. The Texas GOP is nothing if
34:56
Speaker 1: not consistent in the face of school shooting, in the
35:01
Speaker 1: face of public school funding problems, What does the Texas
35:05
Speaker 1: GOP do it gives seven hundred and fifty million dollars
35:09
Speaker 1: away to white, wealthy urban parents to help them send
35:14
Speaker 1: their kids to private schools. And they are going after
35:19
Speaker 1: religion in schools, that we need to have the Ten
35:22
Speaker 1: Commandments in schools. So Senate Bill ten was signed into
35:27
Speaker 1: law by GOP Texas Governor Greg Abbott, but was blocked
35:33
Speaker 1: by a federal judge, just like a similar bill in Louisiana. Now,
35:38
Speaker 1: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxson is asking for public schools
35:43
Speaker 1: to begin the school day with reciting the Christian Lord's Prayer.
35:48
Speaker 1: Texas Republican lawmakers, in the face of school shootings, has
35:52
Speaker 1: decided that we need to have time for prayer in
35:55
Speaker 1: school and so they've already passed a bill that gives
35:58
Speaker 1: students time to pray and read the Bible. But that's
36:02
Speaker 1: not good enough for Ken Paxton. He wants to have
36:05
Speaker 1: more Christianity in public schools. But what about those who
36:09
Speaker 1: are practicing other religions, Jewish, Muslim, or atheist. What are
36:15
Speaker 1: they to do or say when you are dedicating classroom
36:18
Speaker 1: time to one religion. We talked again to Will Judy
36:22
Speaker 1: with Houston Atheist about this situation.
36:25
Speaker 12: Man, there is so much to unpack with all of this.
36:29
Speaker 12: I believe we talked about we pushed back hard and
36:33
Speaker 12: trying to prevent it from getting passed in the first place,
36:36
Speaker 12: which was called SB ten in the legislative session. But
36:40
Speaker 12: it did pass and then was signed into law. But yeah,
36:43
Speaker 12: the lawsuits immediately happened. A lot of friendly orgs in
36:48
Speaker 12: my world were ready, and yeah, there was an injunction
36:52
Speaker 12: I believe a federal course that did and said, well,
36:54
Speaker 12: will you got to put a hold on this, and
36:56
Speaker 12: I believe fourteen counties in the state of Texas, fourteen
37:01
Speaker 12: school districts, I should say, the the people there were
37:04
Speaker 12: in the lawsuit, whatever school district they were in, that's
37:09
Speaker 12: where the uh, the halt was was was stated from
37:12
Speaker 12: the federal court. So yeah, they're they're pissed, uh passed.
37:17
Speaker 10: It is pissed.
37:18
Speaker 12: And the pushback it's it's I expected it.
37:23
Speaker 10: But back in, back in.
37:27
Speaker 12: In the past, which was two years ago or so,
37:30
Speaker 12: it would just be more subtle, it would it would
37:32
Speaker 12: be insidious what they're doing. But this is just out
37:36
Speaker 12: and out bullhorn and uh favoring Christianity above all other
37:42
Speaker 12: religions and the more important, the most important part is
37:46
Speaker 12: using the power of the state to impose religion generally
37:52
Speaker 12: but specifically Christianity upon all of us. Uh, and which
37:57
Speaker 12: is absolutely unconstitutional and Unamerica.
38:00
Speaker 7: In my opinion.
38:02
Speaker 6: Where do we go from here? As because you know,
38:06
Speaker 6: you have a conjunction. It seems like the state, it
38:08
Speaker 6: seems like the state is ignored, is going to ignore
38:11
Speaker 6: this and try to get around it by pushing the
38:15
Speaker 6: Lord's Prayer in public schools.
38:20
Speaker 12: Yeah, they they will do their best to ignore it.
38:24
Speaker 12: They've kind of learned lessons and that they have friendly
38:27
Speaker 12: people in courts and including the Supreme Court. And I
38:30
Speaker 12: think by design they want this to go to the
38:33
Speaker 12: Supreme Court because they think that they're going to overturn
38:37
Speaker 12: precedent and just this is just another step and them
38:40
Speaker 12: trying to establish athiocracy, which they will benefit from. But
38:45
Speaker 12: where do we go from here? We're going to have
38:47
Speaker 12: to endure this for a while. We are doing what
38:51
Speaker 12: we can to push back in the courts. We cannot
38:54
Speaker 12: count on the courts to save us, though so far
38:58
Speaker 12: the guard rails have held and there has has been
39:02
Speaker 12: some positive news. But they are going to keep trying.
39:06
Speaker 7: Uh.
39:06
Speaker 12: They being I don't know what to call them. Theocrats
39:11
Speaker 12: in in Texas and and and the nation actually, but
39:14
Speaker 12: we should just focus on Texas.
39:17
Speaker 10: What we can do.
39:20
Speaker 12: We just have to train ourselves to think, uh, to
39:25
Speaker 12: play the long game.
39:26
Speaker 6: So we have to.
39:27
Speaker 12: Dilute out this crazy stuff in the Texas legislature. That
39:31
Speaker 12: means electing people that are not Christian nationalists and also
39:40
Speaker 12: just telling having conversations with friends and family about what
39:44
Speaker 12: Christian nationalism is and just put out this moved by
39:48
Speaker 12: Paxton to favor Christianity and use the state, the power
39:54
Speaker 12: of the state, to impose it on us. That's this
39:56
Speaker 12: is the definition of what Christian nationalism is in real time.
39:59
Speaker 12: And and it's kind of a harder sell to convince
40:04
Speaker 12: people that it's wrong because most normal people, regular people
40:10
Speaker 12: just don't They don't see the big deal. Oh what
40:12
Speaker 12: thou shalt not kill?
40:13
Speaker 10: What's wrong with that?
40:15
Speaker 12: But this is a no obvious infringement on the separation
40:22
Speaker 12: at church and state, which is one of the founding
40:26
Speaker 12: principles of this nation.
40:30
Speaker 6: One of the things. What are the people that are
40:32
Speaker 6: atheis agnostic, Buddhists or down the line, what are they
40:39
Speaker 6: supposed to do when they're when people are reciting these
40:43
Speaker 6: commandments or the Lord's prayer.
40:51
Speaker 12: They should know that there are people fighting to reverse
40:56
Speaker 12: this and to to make it better. To remove these
41:00
Speaker 12: They're gonna have to endure it for a time. This
41:04
Speaker 12: is not an overnight fix. So I hate to say it,
41:08
Speaker 12: but yeah, they're just gonna have to endure it. Roll
41:11
Speaker 12: their eyes. There are ways that you can kind of
41:16
Speaker 12: contact legal. There are organizations that have legal teams that
41:21
Speaker 12: you can plug into and ask for legal advice. I
41:24
Speaker 12: don't know if there's much that can be done, but
41:27
Speaker 12: it's nice at least just to reach out and say
41:29
Speaker 12: you've tried. So the a c l U is doing
41:32
Speaker 12: wonderful work. Freedom From Religion Foundation is doing great work.
41:35
Speaker 12: American Atheist My organization I'm plugged into is doing great work.
41:41
Speaker 12: American Humanists Association also, they all have strong legal teams
41:46
Speaker 12: that can at least give some advice to people that
41:51
Speaker 12: are aggrieved by this.
41:55
Speaker 6: And what do you say to people that are say
42:02
Speaker 6: that this is a Christian nation and this is something
42:05
Speaker 6: that that this nation was built upon Christianity, Christian Christian law,
42:13
Speaker 6: Christian rules.
42:15
Speaker 12: Yeah, that's a that's a whole other show too. Uh,
42:20
Speaker 12: it's a whole. It's a lot of unpacking to do,
42:22
Speaker 12: but you just fill it down and it's absolutely There's
42:27
Speaker 12: so many myths circulating around this nation and the Texas uh,
42:31
Speaker 12: but that is one of the ones that is just
42:33
Speaker 12: the most egregious. This is not a Christian nation. The
42:36
Speaker 12: Founding fathers, uh, they did get some things absolutely right,
42:40
Speaker 12: and one of them was creating a nation that had
42:44
Speaker 12: a secular government. Because back in the day had years,
42:50
Speaker 12: one hundred years to see what a theocracy, what a
42:53
Speaker 12: state run religion does to a populace, and it's violence,
42:58
Speaker 12: it's blood in the streets. They wanted no part of that.
43:01
Speaker 12: And the concept of qualifying separating church and state to
43:06
Speaker 12: having a secular government. So the United States Constitution it
43:13
Speaker 12: is a real separate church and state. And to call
43:19
Speaker 12: this a Christian nation since the day one, even before
43:21
Speaker 12: day one, there was a lot of people pushing to
43:25
Speaker 12: make this a Christian nation, to put God in Jesus
43:28
Speaker 12: all over the constitution, and they, the Founding Fathers, pushed back.
43:33
Speaker 12: They wanted no part of that. So you fast forward
43:37
Speaker 12: to now and again this has been part of the
43:38
Speaker 12: conversation in America since before America, but now in Texas.
43:46
Speaker 12: They they're kind of smart about it. They don't they
43:50
Speaker 12: to put up the Ten Commandments in schools. They're not
43:53
Speaker 12: pulling it a religious document. They're saying history and tradition,
43:57
Speaker 12: which is absolutely yes. Uh, the nation's laws were founded
44:02
Speaker 12: on Judeo Christian principles.
44:04
Speaker 10: Absolute bs.
44:08
Speaker 12: It's yeah. Again, it's just the whole of the show.
44:11
Speaker 12: But it's been proven time and time again that this
44:16
Speaker 12: country is not a Christian nation. This country is made
44:18
Speaker 12: up of a lot of Christians, but and they're free
44:22
Speaker 12: to worship as they wished as long as they don't
44:25
Speaker 12: hurt people. But this is not the America United States.
44:29
Speaker 12: America is not a Christian nation.
44:32
Speaker 1: That was will judy with Houston Atheists who is also
44:35
Speaker 1: a member of American Atheists. Food not Bombs have been
44:39
Speaker 1: serving the homeless for years now at the same location
44:42
Speaker 1: in front of the Downtown Library in Houston. The harassment
44:47
Speaker 1: by the city has also been going on for years.
44:50
Speaker 1: A previous mayor issued an ordinance that only people that
44:53
Speaker 1: are licensed can feed the homeless. That ordinance was taken
44:56
Speaker 1: to court and fought. Then tickets are being handed out
44:59
Speaker 1: to those that continued to feed the homeless at the
45:01
Speaker 1: location on five hundred and fifty Mcinney Street. Each individual
45:05
Speaker 1: was given a ticket for each time that they were
45:07
Speaker 1: caught feeding the homeless. Hundreds of tickets were given out
45:12
Speaker 1: until a federal court injunction stopped any more until the
45:15
Speaker 1: case played out in court. Since then, the new mayor,
45:19
Speaker 1: John Whitmire has made his intention known that he does
45:22
Speaker 1: not want homeless people to be seen downtown or in
45:25
Speaker 1: any area around the city. Since then, Food Not Bombs
45:29
Speaker 1: has been faced with harassment and threat of arrest by
45:32
Speaker 1: local police and the Metro Police Department. The most recent
45:36
Speaker 1: was just last week when HPD and Metro Police detained
45:40
Speaker 1: one of the volunteers. We talked to John Locke, who
45:44
Speaker 1: is a volunteer with Food Not Bombs.
45:46
Speaker 13: Yeah, so, I mean a couple things are happening. What
45:51
Speaker 13: happened the incidents that happened with us specifically was we
45:55
Speaker 13: had EIGHTHPD officers that was looking for individual visual that
46:00
Speaker 13: they said that got received food with us at our
46:06
Speaker 13: food shares, And in that time, when speaking with one
46:12
Speaker 13: of the volunteers HPD, they got into a bit of
46:16
Speaker 13: an argument and we had it on video. HBD saying
46:20
Speaker 13: you know right now is a arrestable offense, meaning sharing food,
46:26
Speaker 13: and then we the volunteer kindly let the officers know
46:30
Speaker 13: that we have an injunction by the federal courts and
46:33
Speaker 13: that you know, they actually could not give us tickets,
46:37
Speaker 13: and that it wasn't a restable offense. That officer left.
46:42
Speaker 13: Those officers left right for a second and came back
46:45
Speaker 13: and then spoke to the volunteer about you know, needing
46:49
Speaker 13: to have respect on both sides between police officers and
46:54
Speaker 13: volunteers and whatever. Anyways, they end up leaving, But come
46:59
Speaker 13: fifty minutes later, Metro police came and and that I
47:04
Speaker 13: think is the piece is going to relate a little
47:07
Speaker 13: bit more to the change in the mayor's stance with
47:12
Speaker 13: homelessness of wanting to push all the homeless out of
47:15
Speaker 13: downtown and the east side of Houston. The Metro police
47:20
Speaker 13: came about six officers deep and cleared anybody that was
47:28
Speaker 13: sitting at the Metro stop, which is right front of
47:33
Speaker 13: where we share food, and and you know, of course,
47:39
Speaker 13: you know, we had a couple of volunteers that were
47:41
Speaker 13: recording the officers as they're doing that. They didn't like
47:46
Speaker 13: that very much and then began to ask one of
47:51
Speaker 13: our volunteers for id and asking and asking the had
47:56
Speaker 13: him down and that he was going to ride the
48:01
Speaker 13: bus stop and then at that time arrested that individual volunteer.
48:13
Speaker 13: And I think what the mayors having the Metro police
48:16
Speaker 13: do is basically police all the bus stops and harassed
48:23
Speaker 13: people that are sitting at the bus stops if they
48:25
Speaker 13: appear to be homeless. And I said, our volunteer got arrested,
48:32
Speaker 13: He got detained, and he used to tape like thirty minutes,
48:35
Speaker 13: and Metro police stated that we couldnot protest or share
48:39
Speaker 13: food at near any of the Metro stops and that
48:45
Speaker 13: you cannot protest on Metro's property. This is very interesting.
48:51
Speaker 13: They end up, like I said, releasing the volunteer and
48:55
Speaker 13: giving him a trespassing ticket which just for him and
49:00
Speaker 13: he was standing by the bus stop as he was
49:04
Speaker 13: recording the officer. So m trespassing for being at the
49:09
Speaker 13: bus stop and not having like a ticket or something,
49:13
Speaker 13: even though you just pay for your your bus when
49:15
Speaker 13: you get in. You know, uh, from what I know
49:18
Speaker 13: and understand, very unfortunate. And I think, uh, this situation
49:28
Speaker 13: is kind of showing what, you know, what we have
49:31
Speaker 13: to look forward to in the future and now uh
49:35
Speaker 13: is police harassing almost and arresting them and giving them tickets.
49:40
Speaker 6: This is especially this is especially new because the using HBD,
49:46
Speaker 6: not HBD the Metro Police as as the power of
49:49
Speaker 6: authority now instead of they said that the Houston Police Department,
49:54
Speaker 6: because you I hope you guys. Are you guys challenging
49:58
Speaker 6: this at all, because inspectigating anybody that's standing by a
50:02
Speaker 6: bus stop can get discated, that can get a ticket exactly.
50:07
Speaker 13: I mean, yes, we will be challenging this, and individually,
50:10
Speaker 13: our volunteer will be that was a TAM will be
50:13
Speaker 13: challenging this. But you know, this I think can serve
50:15
Speaker 13: as a good eye opener of what these policies and ordinances,
50:22
Speaker 13: how they look in actuality and in actuality what we
50:27
Speaker 13: have is just you know, a whole lot of police
50:32
Speaker 13: harassing on house individuals and yeah, trying to push them
50:39
Speaker 13: out and then using Metro. It is interesting. It's almost
50:42
Speaker 13: like they're trying to avoid the issues they got with
50:46
Speaker 13: HVD and and using excuse, oh, this is a different
50:50
Speaker 13: police department, you know, because they're obviously not as informed
50:55
Speaker 13: on on for amendment rights, constitutional rights as you know
51:01
Speaker 13: as HVD is now informed about due to going through
51:05
Speaker 13: the courts.
51:06
Speaker 6: Have you talked to anybody down at HP Metro hit
51:10
Speaker 6: quarters about this?
51:12
Speaker 13: Uh?
51:12
Speaker 2: No, we have.
51:14
Speaker 13: I believe people have been trying getting touch in touch
51:17
Speaker 13: with internal affairs.
51:20
Speaker 10: About this.
51:21
Speaker 6: That's Metro Police. It's a different, different division. That's a
51:25
Speaker 6: totally different deal.
51:27
Speaker 13: Don't they They have their own internal affairs for Metro.
51:31
Speaker 6: I don't know.
51:33
Speaker 13: Well that that that was my information. I don't I
51:35
Speaker 13: haven't spoke directly with their legal team.
51:40
Speaker 6: Yeah, because, uh, this seems like there's something that's going on,
51:44
Speaker 6: like like Lake city wide, because I know in third
51:47
Speaker 6: Ward they they they started trying to arrest people and
51:50
Speaker 6: try to give tickets to people that were homeless that
51:52
Speaker 6: for standing in and around bus stations. They made it
51:57
Speaker 6: illegal on the East Side for you to be practically homeless.
52:02
Speaker 6: I mean, uh you can get a ticket, uh for
52:05
Speaker 6: just standing around. So and this is an attack, but
52:09
Speaker 6: it seemed like that the council members are standing with
52:12
Speaker 6: the with with the mayor on cleaning up the city
52:15
Speaker 6: for the World.
52:15
Speaker 13: Cup, right right. I think there there's only two city
52:20
Speaker 13: council members that that voted against the that the new ordinance.
52:26
Speaker 13: Uh so, yeah, everybody was on board, and I was
52:29
Speaker 13: very you know, pretty surprised, uh individuals that that voted
52:33
Speaker 13: in support for that ordinance.
52:37
Speaker 6: Yeah, and this is something that's uh, these new ordinances
52:41
Speaker 6: or every every neighborhood now is trying to pick up
52:43
Speaker 6: on this ordinance that that they want their they want
52:46
Speaker 6: the civility law. I think that's what it's called, right,
52:50
Speaker 6: trying to stop people from from from uh for homelessness
52:55
Speaker 6: in general. And I was surprised about the third ward
52:58
Speaker 6: actually having something blaming the homeless for all the crime
53:01
Speaker 6: rate which Sunday night.
53:03
Speaker 11: From bombs for anybody say anything about being.
53:12
Speaker 13: No, we haven't heard. We definitely haven't heard anything from
53:15
Speaker 13: the mayor, uh you know, directly or indirectly to Food
53:19
Speaker 13: Not Bombs. And I think they're probably not going to
53:22
Speaker 13: say anything publicly until our court case which is in October,
53:28
Speaker 13: the federal court case. They're kind of going to touch
53:30
Speaker 13: anything we're doing. And to that federal court.
53:34
Speaker 6: Cases over with, and and Food Not Bombs are still
53:39
Speaker 6: is still available to me, you know, people can still
53:42
Speaker 6: volunteer at Food dot.
53:43
Speaker 13: Bombs absolutely Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at seven fifteen
53:51
Speaker 13: and we start sharing food at seven point thirty sharp.
53:54
Speaker 6: Pm and you got a Facebook page also.
53:58
Speaker 13: H yeah, we have.
54:00
Speaker 7: I believe the Instagram and Facebook are the same.
54:02
Speaker 13: Is through that bombs?
54:05
Speaker 1: That was John Locke with Food not Bombs. They serve Mondays, Wednesdays,
54:10
Speaker 1: Fridays and Sundays at seven pm on five hundred and
54:14
Speaker 1: fifty McKinney Street, Bring vegan meals or just your positive energy.
54:19
Speaker 1: More information can be found out on their Facebook page.
54:23
Speaker 1: The sound was kind of bad at the end of
54:25
Speaker 1: that clip. Their Facebook page is Food Not Bomb's HTx.
54:30
Speaker 1: There is a school of thought out there that says
54:33
Speaker 1: to defeat corruption, criminality, and cruelty, we also need to
54:39
Speaker 1: become corrupt, criminal and cruel to my very core, I
54:45
Speaker 1: do not believe that to be the case, so I
54:48
Speaker 1: look for inspiration from others. Let's take a listen to
54:54
Speaker 1: what Martin Luther King said about fighting a illegal and
54:59
Speaker 1: corrupt and criminal enemy. One of the things I constantly
55:03
Speaker 1: return to during dark times in my personal and public
55:07
Speaker 1: life is a collection of sermons written by Martin Luther
55:11
Speaker 1: King Junior called Strength to Love, and specifically a sermon
55:16
Speaker 1: on loving your enemies. I'm reading an excerpt from that
55:20
Speaker 1: sermon to our most bitter opponents. We say we shall
55:26
Speaker 1: match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to
55:30
Speaker 1: endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force.
55:36
Speaker 1: Due to us what you will, and we shall continue
55:39
Speaker 1: to love you. We cannot, in all good conscious obey
55:43
Speaker 1: your unjust laws, because non cooperation with evil is as
55:47
Speaker 1: much a moral obligation as cooperation with good. Throw us
55:52
Speaker 1: in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your
55:55
Speaker 1: hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight
55:59
Speaker 1: hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and
56:02
Speaker 1: we shall still love you. But be ye assured that
56:07
Speaker 1: we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer.
56:11
Speaker 1: One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves.
56:16
Speaker 1: We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that
56:19
Speaker 1: we shall win you in the process, and our victory
56:23
Speaker 1: will be a double victory. Love is the most durable
56:27
Speaker 1: power in the world. Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer
56:33
Speaker 1: and host of The People's News. If you have a
56:36
Speaker 1: story that needs to be told, come to us. We
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56:43
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57:02
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57:05
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57:55
Speaker 13: Thank you