Latest / In Search Of Excellence / Martin Luther King III: Who Really Assassinated Martin Luther King? | E94

Transcript

Martin Luther King III: Who Really Assassinated Martin Luther King? | E94 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Martin Luther King, III: James already was a patsy is a white Mustang that he was driving that he definitely had but they also was an identical weight Mustang that was there.
• 0:11
  Martin Luther King, III: You know, you don't run out of a building, shoot someone and then drop the evidence right and it makes sense. The other thing is if you go to the bathroom, my father's jaw was shot off. The bullet entered under. James Earl Ray was over in a window up here. So you got to trick Well, it comes down, goes down and goes up. That makes sense. The checks came from on the ground.
• 0:43
  Randall Kaplan: You're listening to part two of my awesome conversation with Martin Luther King, the third, the son of Martin Luther King, Jr. If you haven't yet, listen to part one.
• 0:52
  Randall Kaplan: Be sure to check that one out first. Now without further ado, here's part two with the amazing Martin Luther King the third. On May 25 2020. Minneapolis Police officers arrested a man named George Floyd, a 46 year old black man after a convenience store employee called 911 and told the police that Mr. Floyd had bought cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. When Mr.
• 1:16
  Randall Kaplan: Floyd was arrested an officer named Derek Chauvin, who at that point had 18 misconduct complaints against them, pushed his knee on Mr Floyd's neck for at least eight minutes and 15 seconds and did not remove his knee even after Mr. Floyd lost consciousness for a full minute and 20 seconds after paramedics arrived at the scene. 70 minutes after the first squad car arrived at the scene, Mr. Floyd was unconscious and pinned beneath three police officers showing no signs of life. He was rushed to the hospital and died almost immediately after he got there. The day after Mr. Floyd's death in Minneapolis Police Department fired all four officers involved. And since then, all four have gone to prison. 10 days ago Shogun was stabbed 22 times in federal prison where he remains seriously injured. What was your immediate reaction when you saw that horrific video and going along with your mom's teachings?
• 2:10
  Randall Kaplan: Forgiveness? Do you forgive him and the three police officers for what they did?
• 2:16
  Martin Luther King, III: Well, I certainly believe that human behavior from a consistency standpoint, yes. I think that he obviously, the system worked in this case, there are many cases where the system does not work.
• 2:34
  Martin Luther King, III: And officers, some have done things. You know, first of all, by and large, I think the vast majority of officers are trying to protect and serve and do their jobs. But there's always an element in pretty much all policing communities that does not always respond in the way that they should, for any number of reasons. So but I do believe that, you know, it is in order to to forgive. And by the same token, you know, he's he's serving time. And I believe that is the correct punishment. I think that there's gotta be more police thing is one of the hardest jobs in our country, particularly now. I mean, it's, it's just it's so tough. And every officer when he or she is doing their job, they want to get home just like everyone else. And in the heat of the moment, and someone is moving and automatically fire. It's just tough. I don't know how officers do it. Well, we were grateful that they are women and men who want to do these jobs, but it's a tough job. As it relates to the specific incident of George Floyd. A tectonic shift occurred for about a year in our country, and the world.
• 4:15
  Martin Luther King, III: And it it had to do with the confluence of things. First of all, the pandemic, and most people were sheltering around the world. So everyone had an opportunity to see an officer become judge, jury and executioner right in front of our eyes. So you had in every state in the United States, there was a demonstration. Yeah, 90% of them were non violent. It was a 10% violence, which media often focuses on, but not the 90% that were non violent, which is we should have as least here the yes this violence is unexcelled Trouble. It happened.
• 4:59
  Martin Luther King, III: But what about the 90 person who were non violent protesting sometimes. And many of those communities, they were led by mothers, white mothers, and it wasn't always just black folk, because some of the places, very few black people live. But you had young people leading this.
• 5:17
  Martin Luther King, III: You had people on the European continent, leading it, you had people on the African continent, Australia, and New Zealand, and South America and Canada. So just about the entire world was saying, Look, this is wrong, we got to do something. I think that part of it was a positive thing. By and large, about a year after George Floyd the nation moved in a direction. And then after every perception of moving forward, they always my father used to say is inevitable setback. Now, let me go back to 1963. Because on August 28 1963, after the Marshall, Washington, the euphoria, afterwards, it was just people were so just feeling so good about where we were.
• 6:14
  Martin Luther King, III: Three weeks after the march in Washington, the 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed in Birmingham, and four little girls lost their lives. So, you know, after George Floyd, for a year, corporations, were not just giving money, but they were providing some leadership in diversity, equity and inclusion.
• 6:39
  Martin Luther King, III: But about 12 1314 months after it, then all of a sudden, they began the pushback, let's rewrite history or let's exclude people from history. Let's ban books. You know, I mean, even books on a holocaust. I mean, really, I mean, you're, you're banning books of knowledge that we need to know. And then, you know, indigenous history, certainly African American history. And it, it created, the what I call is a setback. So after this progress, seemed to be made and be moving in a direction. Now we, you know, in some states, we're going backward. And we've got to start all over again, to just figure out okay, how do we build community out of this? How do we really build community and create options and opportunities for all people? Because that it's not about one group or not?
• 7:38
  Martin Luther King, III: I mean, you know, we still owe a great debt to our indigenous population, who we sometimes in this country called the Native Americans that they were here before any of us or earn some would say Indians, and yet, we still have not provided for them. What would be parity, even though it's, it's maybe slightly better, but we as a society, we got to do better. We got to do better to transform our nation.
• 8:14
  Randall Kaplan: When bad things happen, there are usually some good things that come out of them. After Mr. Floyd's murder protests against police brutality, especially towards black people, quickly spread not just in the US, but also globally and his dying words I can't breathe became a rallying slogan. One would think that after his horrific murder and the fact that most police officers wear body cams, and the fact that everybody has a camera on their phone these days, that the number of black people killed by police would decrease.
• 8:42
  Randall Kaplan: It hasn't the number of black people killed by police has actually increased over the last two years. According to data collected by the Washington Post police shot and killed at least 1055 people nationwide last year, the most incidents paper began tracking fatal shootings by officers in 2015. That is more than 1021 shootings and 2020. And the 999 shootings in 2019. Black people who account for 13% of the US population accounted for 27% of those fatally shot and killed by police in 2021. That means that black people are twice as likely as white people to be shot and killed by police officers. What is going on here? And how can we fix this?
• 10:20
  Martin Luther King, III: I think that there are a variety of things that have to be instituted and implemented. Some of it has to do with training.
• 10:27
  Martin Luther King, III: Some of it has to do with psychological evaluations, more in depth psychological evaluations, there are some officers who were mistreated their whole lives and they become police officers and they live that okay, you're not gonna mistreat me anymore. And that's not anywhere near of A significant portion. But a psychological, extensive psychological operation would probably catch that. Now, problem is, some police departments have cut budgets, and they're less police officers, you need also civilian review boards who have the authority to say when some misconduct comes along, it's not the police investigating the police, they need to still have internal affairs. But how can you investigate yourself, I mean, most of us can't, we can make an evaluation and make changes, when most of us need help, even in evaluating ourselves. So police personnel can't totally be objective and evaluate, you need an independent body, you need independent da, I mean, the DA, and the police work hand in glove hand in hand 90% of the cases that are brought brought by the police. So there's a cozy relationship there. So unless there's some additional level of independence, it's not clear that there's real objectivity, and that all of those things help. And then I think that, you know, you have to do internal changes, you have to constantly do training, which you have to you. I mean, you can't be in Vietnam every day, and then all of a sudden, you got to be in a civil environment. If you're in Vietnam, and you're that heightened every day, some of our streets in America, you got to maybe you're there for six months, then you pulled and put into another less disruptive kind of environment. And then you maybe come back to that. So I think there's a variety of solutions. And I also think that we have to keep providing sensitivity, human relations, and diversity training so that you understand cultures, we got to do more community policing. I mean, you know, when I was growing up, they were policemen who would be in communities, and they knew all the kids, the kids knew them, and so that that relationship may change the behavior, but at the same time of that kid, at the same time, we got to figure out how do we create opportunities in these neighborhoods that are underserved, where there's nothing. So all you you end up doing bad things just to survive? But when we when there's opportunities and options, that sort of like crime goes down, and we got a serious problem in every one of our cities here in Los Angeles, in Atlanta, and San Francisco. And I mean, the list goes on.
• 13:39
  Martin Luther King, III: There's not a community that is not having more problems than they've had in a long time. And we as a society are not focused on how do we address this? You know, crime in Atlanta is going down a little bit. It is leadership, but it is the community coming together. The mayor can't do it alone. The police certainly can't do it.
• 14:02
  Martin Luther King, III: The police need help. It really does mean community you need the religious community involved.
• 14:06
  Martin Luther King, III: You need the business community involved, you need the electorial community, you need community leadership, and all of those elements. If we all working together, then we can create what my dad would have defined as the beloved community.
• 14:22
  Randall Kaplan: My name is James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to assassinating your father.
• 14:27
  Randall Kaplan: Shortly after that he proclaimed that he didn't do it was innocent, the FBI had coerce them into pleading guilty. They later on there was a lot of pressure by you and your family.
• 14:39
  Randall Kaplan: And many people who had looked at this independently to reopen the investigation with the justice part in which they did, the Justice Department concluded definitively that he in fact, did murder your father, you and your family still don't think so? We could spend? Yeah, there have been books on this. So if we keep it to just two minutes or less, why don't you think he was the murderer? And who do you think did it? Who
• 15:13
  Martin Luther King, III: My grandfather used to say it's not who but what? And I'll, I'll give that. Let me see if I can get this down to two minute.
• 15:22
  Martin Luther King, III: It's very challenging. We did a civil suit against a man by the name of Lloyd Jowers, who admittedly was involved in it.
• 15:35
  Martin Luther King, III: And over 70 witnesses came and corroborated at in Memphis back in I want to say 9990 99 That everything that he was saying at that time, he told stories throughout his life he was A former Memphis policeman, he worked as the head of grill called Jim's grill. So all of what was planned was playing a lot of what was playing was playing in his in his office building his his you could go in on one side, and the other side was the Lorraine Motel
• 16:10
  Randall Kaplan: or something back that where was where they plan the destination
• 16:15
  Martin Luther King, III: where they plan elements of it, because they want out of his back door. And this has been corroborated by a number of witnesses. And three men, including himself, were involved in the shooting, I think every one is deceased is dead now. But one of them was a poet was was a police, a current police officer. And he jumped over a wall and got in a police car. As I said, all of this is corroborated. What I don't quite understand is why society would continue to foster a lot. James already was a patsy. They were there was a white Mustang that he was driving that he definitely had. But they also was an identical white Mustang that was there. You know, you don't run out of a building, shoot someone and then drop the evidence, right. And it makes sense. I mean, yes, you could be running and possibly, I mean, maybe it could have been left in a restaurant, but it was left right there in front. The other thing is, if you go to the bathroom, my father's jaw was shot off. The bullet entered under James alrea was over in a window up here. So you got to trick bullet, it comes down and goes down and goes up. That makes sense, the chat box came from on the ground, there was a whole bunch of bushes in front of the crime scene the next day, or late that night, you have to assume the public works department or somebody came and all those wishes were gone. So that when you're investigating, say, well, shots gonna come down here because everybody could have seen the people know, there were bushes there, but they were all cut down. So there are a lot of facts that if the public is interested, it exists. And there were certainly men who were hired. But it was a very elaborate set of circumstances that we don't have time to go into the day. And so I know the truth, I think everyone deserves to know what happened with their loved one. And maybe I could have a hostile attitude against those forces. But I've chosen not to because some of those forces, the entities, because you had the mafia was involved to some degree, you had elements of federal government that were involved. But I'm not going to harbor and hold on to that because what good is I just needed to know, we needed to know that my mother and the four of us needed to understand what happened with our dad. We understand that if the public wants to know, then there's documented evidence to show but I don't feel compelled to have to go out and, and and defend.
• 18:59
  Martin Luther King, III: But James are away was a patsy
• 19:05
  Randall Kaplan: we don't know who actually pulled the trigger.
• 19:08
  Martin Luther King, III: I don't know the name and I don't want to put a name i i do know. But I my preference is not to put a name and again, all of those people did dad now. So
• 19:23
  Randall Kaplan: James roll Ray died after serving 30 years in prison of a 99 year sentence.
• 19:26
  Randall Kaplan: That's right. This episode of In Search of Excellence is brought to you by sandy.com s a n d e.com. We're a Yelp for beaches and have created the world's most comprehensive beach resource by catalog the more than 100 categories of information for every beach in the world more than 100,000 beaches and 212 countries.
• 19:48
  Randall Kaplan: sandy.com provides beach goers around the world with detailed comprehensive and easy to use information to help them plan their perfect beach getaway at home and abroad. And to make sure you're never disappointed by a beach visit again. Plan the perfect beach trip today by visiting sandy.com. That's www.sand.com the link is in our show notes. Stay Sandy my friends. Let's move on and go talk about some positive things that came billions came out of your father's life and his legacy lives on today. And go back to I Have a Dream speech talking about the dreams that we all have. One of the goals of my podcast is to motivate and inspire people to achieve their dreams. What advice do you have for people who have dreams but don't pursue them? Because they think they're too big? They can never reach them? And because you're scared to fail and does your advice differ from someone who's in their 20s or 30s versus someone who's in their 60s or 70s?
• 20:49
  Martin Luther King, III: So maybe The advice would be slightly different. But the fact of matter is, if any of us have a dream, the only way it can become true is we have to work.
• 21:01
  Martin Luther King, III: We have to be dedicated, diligent and determined to achieve it. I don't think many dreams can become true. But it takes a strategic plan, it takes a capacity to execute, it takes the ability to network, it's far easier today because of technology. To find other communities, you may have an idea, you may have to copyright it. But there are others who will help you with Yeah, the others in other communities who may have had the same idea who might want to collaborate, and it's easier to get to them today than it was 30 years ago, because of technology, the advent of technology. So, I would even as you say, if one is 50 or 60 years old, it does not mean you cannot achieve your goal or your dream. But you do have to have a plan. It nothing happens just easily it it is work. It is it is determination it is you almost have to work.
• 22:06
  Martin Luther King, III: You know, not just diligently.
• 22:06
  Martin Luther King, III: But it's yet it had to you have to have a lot of focus my my I said our daughter all the time look, you know, you have to show me that this is what you're interested in. You can't say, well, it didn't work out today.
• 22:25
  Martin Luther King, III: So I'm going to do something else, you will never accomplish what you want to accomplish, unless you are focused and determined. And there probably is nothing that you cannot do.
• 22:37
  Martin Luther King, III: First, you have to know that.
• 22:37
  Martin Luther King, III: Again, and it has to be reinforced that everything that you some goals, you may say, Well, that seems unrealistic.
• 22:46
  Martin Luther King, III: But that's the limitation that you've put on it in your mind.
• 22:50
  Martin Luther King, III: And the other thing is in life, we're going to fail. I mean, how many times Henry Ford fail, you know, all of the, you know how many times it adds some feel, I mean, you you can count, you always hear about our and see the victories. But you might have failed 99 times 100 times you succeed. So I don't think anybody should ever give up on their dreams. And you know, there are probably some people who are much older than me, I'm 66 years old, who have dreams, and they may have given up or they may still be working on. I hope that you always work when you when you give up, you're done. So I say don't give up.
• 23:31
  Martin Luther King, III: Don't give in don't give out.
• 23:37
  Randall Kaplan: Many of us always look to our parents for inspiration. And we love it when they say that they're proud of us. It makes us feel great.
• 23:43
  Randall Kaplan: There was a moment in your life that your mom said she was proud of you. When was that? And what did that mean to you when she said it to you?
• 23:52
  Martin Luther King, III: Oh my god, it meant the world what what she said that she she would say it many times throughout my life. But it was the one time when I was probably I might have been a little bit out of college. And I may be at run for public office, I was a supervisor which you county commissioners, what we call them supervisors out here in California, and I'd run for office in one and it served for a few years. And my mom said, you know, your father would be so proud of you. And that brought tears to my eyes. And she said it throughout my life a few times. But she had said it about her on numerous occasions as well. But here my dad, because every kid wants their parents to be proud of them. And so you know, you just kind of melt when you hear that your parents are proud of you. And but by the same token, I also feel like we haven't scratched the surface, meaning me even at 66 of what I could do. You know, I feel like we've made gains some strides and we've done some things. But I just don't feel like we've done anywhere near enough.
• 25:18
  Randall Kaplan: Blacks have been discriminated against for really the beginning of slavery. Well before that so of Jews. What do you think about the tremendous spike in anti semitism that's spreading not only through the United States but throughout the world?
• 25:35
  Martin Luther King, III: That is unacceptable. In terms of what is going on with our culture today? We have just hatred and hostility. It's not just toning it down. You know I use To advocate, you know, for tolerance, but that's just the beginning. Tolerance is not weird, and we need to live. I mean, maybe that's where we can live. But we must go far beyond tolerance so that it's acceptance, it's to like to appreciate and ultimately, to love. And that climate has to be created. I don't think that there's nothing that humankind can't accomplish if it decides this is the goal. So anti semitism is something that we can ultimately read our society of. But we have to come together and say this, what we're going to do, same thing with racism, same thing with, you know, homophobia, and what happens with the LGBTQ eye community, what happens with, you know, with some Muslims, what happens?
• 26:48
  Martin Luther King, III: I mean, everywhere hate exist, we have to find a way to rid it, the grid, our society have that.
• 26:53
  Martin Luther King, III: That is, that's not who the human spirit is, we as human beings are far better than this behavior that is being exhibited, right now. And it has it is unfortunately, at an all time high. And it's, it's, it's beyond disconcerting. It is it's unconscionable. What I believe, is that something is going to create a consciousness that human beings will rise up and become better than becoming bitter. We're bitter right now.
• 27:34
  Martin Luther King, III: And it's being promoted through social media, it's being promoted through all kinds of channels. And I don't think we can, if we purport to be freedom, a free society, I don't think we can just ban it. But we can create the climate where people don't want to engage in hatred and hostility, where they want to engage. I mean, the average person I think, just wants to be able to raise his or her family, and in a community that is uplifting, but society has created all these insecurities that make people want to judge and evaluate and, and denigrate. And that just is not, that's not a model that will survive. We will, as I say it, humankind will destroy itself. I have a daughter, you have children, many have grandchildren, some have great grandchildren. We can't allow humankind not to exist. We got to do something to build and create community.
• 28:42
  Randall Kaplan: I think kids in school I, as you know, I have three kids in college, one of them goes to Cornell, which has been a hotbed. Yes, yes, there was a student on campus, who actually lives on the third floor of a walk up where I had taken my daughter and her friends to dinner at a little Greek restaurant the same building a week before. All this came out and a week before he threatened to kill all the Jews on campus. And you see all these protests now in Canada, and my daughter showed me pictures of things on the sidewalk, kill all the Jews and when and worse. And then you see what's happening on TV. I'm sure you saw the presence of Penn, MIT and Harvard getting grilled. What what do you think about the responses and the leadership there? And I know Penn's President resigned. Yeah, I don't think she was gonna have a choice about resigning Harvard today came out in support of their president. We haven't yet heard on on the third school yet. But what what do you think?
• 29:44
  Randall Kaplan: Should they have lost their jobs? Which what should they be telling people responses were disgusting and sickening. And I don't. And I'll say one more thing. After they came out, and the perception was so negative, only then did they issue a corrected video, they had plenty of time to do it. While one CEO of one one President was speaking, the two others were listening, and they just repeated the same thing. And it's, it's what's going on here?
• 30:08
  Randall Kaplan: Where's the leadership there?
• 30:09
  Martin Luther King, III: I don't quite understand that issue. And what I mean by that is, I understand what was said. But I don't understand. You don't get to be present at a Harvard University of Pennsylvania MIT by accident. You have boards that have people who have given large sums of money who are great people. So something is missing. I don't know what it is. Because it doesn't make sense to me. framed in that the context of what I heard, the question was, I'm like, well, that doesn't make sense. So I don't know what it is, but something is not there. And I'm not sure that we'll ever find out maybe He will come out. If the President's leave, we'll never find out. Maybe over a short period of time, there will be something that makes rational sense. Because none of it makes sense to me right now, based on what I heard the question being.
• 31:11
  Martin Luther King, III: And while all three, as I said, they didn't accidentally get to those levels, and I don't believe they're anti semitic. I don't I just don't believe that I heard the answer. But that doesn't make sense to me. You know, I think that oftentimes, for example, everything is not racism, it may look like it. You know, emotionally to me that looks like is racism. That sounds racist is what we quit could say, well, maybe there's some more there. And because we are so close, we can't hear it.
• 31:46
  Martin Luther King, III: We can't see it. Because that's what it sounds like, you know, but as I said, everything is I'm not what I've learned is everything is not. I'm not suggesting that is necessarily the case here. I am saying that there's got to be more to it. If a president of Harvard and a president of MIT, you know, is I mean, they had legal counsel, I guess it doesn't make sense. So there must be something that is something I'm missing. I'll just say that much. I don't understand. Yeah,
• 32:21
  Randall Kaplan: I think they should have been fired. The minute they walk off that that Stan, I think it's disgusting.
• 32:28
  Randall Kaplan: The leadership there is terrible. And what's crazy about these college presidents, most people got it wrong right out of the gate when the war broke out.
• 32:34
  Randall Kaplan: They did nothing. They said the wrong thing. They said they get it but I think when people call for the destruction of the Jewish people, which means killing all the Jewish people, I think that's, that's something people have to speak out against. Here's
• 32:48
  Martin Luther King, III: the thing. And of course, but here's the thing, I wonder, and I don't know enough to know. But I think many people are really concerned, particularly young people about what is being seen as it relates to the people not a MAS, somehow we've conflated that the Palestinians all want to be Hamas that I'm not sure that that's the case. I think that, you know, there's what we see on the news is just huge destruction, destruction. And it's very difficult to see human lives and children on any side ever on it, whoever 100% So I think we ended up conflating Hamas, which certainly many have condemned, and should be with, you know, with Palestinians. So you're seeing the suffrage, you've, you're saying people being having to leave. But where did he go? I mean, where's the meat? where me and people go, if you don't? I mean, it's so complicated. It's way more complicated than I could imagine. Absolutely. There should never ever be a scenario where people are saying, well, we should Let's kill the Jews.
• 34:11
  Martin Luther King, III: That's crazy as insanity. So I think some somewhere we've lost the humanity as a society, and some again, we got to reengage in humanity. And, you know, it's weird, such a high boiling point. It's like people who, there are some in our nation who lost friendships, this is a little different, but it's, it comes from the same thing, because someone supported Trump, and you, you don't speak to them. I mean, that, you know, there I have, folks are in my family that support Trump, and I don't stop speaking with him.
• 34:57
  Martin Luther King, III: You know, I have I don't agree with that. But as I think that's we, we we make, we take extreme positions. And I, I just have to believe that we gotta find a way to elevate the humanity of the human spirit. And God knows, I wish I had a magic wand and could resolve this conflict. But it it is not. It's not an easy conflict, but you should never be against someone because of their ethnicity. And maybe even because of their certain because it religion I mean, we can call it as my father understood. He was a Christian minister, but he understood, you know, that we live In a world with Jewish people, with Islamic people, with Hindus, Buddhists with the with agnostics and atheists, and even work with some who were were, you know, who were not Christian. So it shows that it can be done. But you have to be intentional. And that's what where leadership comes. But when you have a nation that politically is divided, not because of Republican or Democrat, but because of it's fine to have different points of view. As I said, We've got to find one area first that we have common ground on, and work on it and work through that. And then maybe we can move to the next issues. Okay, how do we get to this one. But this is one of the most complicated issues that I've seen in my lifetime. Well, it's been here forever, it still is emerged to a high level that maybe some could have predicted.
• 36:53
  Martin Luther King, III: But it shouldn't be manifesting itself. In hatred of Jews. We don't make these distinctions.
• 37:02
  Martin Luther King, III: But the way young people are getting information through the internet, and the internet is not always tell you everything that's true. And then you begin to question everything.
• 37:18
  Randall Kaplan: Are you looking for your next great gift to surprise a friend colleague or loved one bliss beaches makes the perfect gift. This best selling bright and beautiful coffee table book by Randall Kaplan features stunning drone photography from exotic beach locations around the world. It's the perfect housewarming gift a great addition to any home or office. And a fun and creative alternative to bringing a bottle of wine to somebody's house for dinner plus speeches is available for purchase on Amazon, where it has glowing reviews and a five star rating get your next amazing gift and order a copy of bliss beaches by clicking the link in our show notes. Before we finish today, I want to go ahead and ask more open ended questions I call this part of my podcast fill in the blank to excellence are you ready to play? I guess the biggest lesson I've learned in my life is
• 38:04
  Martin Luther King, III: is forgiveness. How to how to how to forgive.
• 38:08
  Randall Kaplan: My number one professional goal is
• 38:12
  Martin Luther King, III: is to is to find a way to bring people together.
• 38:17
  Randall Kaplan: My number one personal goal is is
• 38:20
  Martin Luther King, III: to make sure my wife and I provide the best opportunity for our child to accomplish whatever she wants to do in life.
• 38:29
  Randall Kaplan: The one thing in my life that I'm most proud of is
• 38:34
  Unknown: is well, my daughter
• 38:39
  Randall Kaplan: the one thing in my life that I'm least proud of is
• 38:46
  Martin Luther King, III: that I just have not achieved enough.
• 38:48
  Martin Luther King, III: I've done a lot of things in life, but just nowhere near enough haven't really I don't feel like I've scratched the surface.
• 38:55
  Randall Kaplan: The one thing I've dreamed of doing for a long time, but haven't done is
• 39:03
  Martin Luther King, III: going back to re solo flying a plane I solo when I was 16 had a difficult experience nothing. My radio collapsed, didn't work.
• 39:14
  Martin Luther King, III: And so I couldn't land. And so I had to circle around and pattern and finally did what I was taught and said, Lord, if you let me get out, I won't go back up. And I haven't but I still dream about it going doing that again.
• 39:30
  Randall Kaplan: If each of us could do one thing to help achieve racial equality throughout the world, what would it be
• 39:41
  Martin Luther King, III: began to talk sincerely, or dialogue, having dialogue with others, other communities. We can't really begin to understand a person until you truly know them. But that also means if we had the ability to speak in other languages, we all know most of us are in US only speak English. And you really can't truly understand a culture and to you and learn the language.
• 40:13
  Randall Kaplan: If you were elected President of the United States tomorrow, what's the first thing you would do?
• 40:22
  Martin Luther King, III: Never thought about that because I never wanted to be president.
• 40:23
  Martin Luther King, III: Who would want that? That's exactly especially well apparently, a lot of people want it but I think the the first thing I would do is I would establish a cabinet position to eradicate poverty and homelessness.
• 40:50
  Randall Kaplan: If you could be one person the world will Live today, who would it be? If I could? If you could meet one person in the world who was alive today? Who would it be?
• 41:05
  Martin Luther King, III: Yeah, that's a good question. It's not that I don't want to meet people. And I've met a whole lot of a lot of people.
• 41:18
  Martin Luther King, III: I'm really thinking about it, because I'm thinking about who, who is it that I haven't met?
• 41:22
  Martin Luther King, III: What I can say, is the one person that I met that I would love to spend more time with his Nelson Mandela than I did meet him. But you know, what, I'd love to have had a long conversation with him.
• 41:44
  Randall Kaplan: If your dad was giving a sequel to his I Have a Dream speech tomorrow in front of the Lincoln Memorial in front of 250,000 people. What would his title be?
• 41:57
  Martin Luther King, III: I don't know. What I can tell you is, sadly, I say sadly, because I'm not really sure. You may or may not know this, but he was to have given a speech. On the weekend that he was killed, that he was you right back to his office and said, tell the secretary what his message was going to be. And this is unfortunately, not positive. But his sermon back then, which probably would have been April 7, I guess, heavy lift because it was killed April fourth was like something like America may go to hell. Now, he was a positive person, but something must have been happening at the time, if he was going to preach a message. I don't know what that means. I know what it means in my intellectual in my mind.
• 42:57
  Martin Luther King, III: But, you know, we were on such a trajectory of going in the wrong direction, that he came to the conclusion that if we don't make some changes, we may face this.
• 43:05
  Martin Luther King, III: Now, he always wanted to end somehow he would have ended positive, but you had to articulate something negative to get to the positive.
• 43:21
  Randall Kaplan: If you could go back in time, and give your 21 year old self one piece of advice, what would it be?
• 43:31
  Martin Luther King, III: Work to always be prepared. So never, you know, I I meandered, and you know, but I think it's always important to prepare oneself for whatever one is attempting to do. So
• 43:52
  Randall Kaplan: the topic that I specialize in, or I'm an expert in is something called extreme preparation. And that's when someone prepares one hour for something I prepared a 3040. And one corporate presentation, I think we prepared 200 hours for presentation that we gave to the Marriott Corporation, I think it's the most important ingredient of our success. And since I want to deviate from the last final question, because I want to ask, is there an example in your life where you have used extreme preparation to achieve incredible results? I'm talking about doing some type of preparation that's so far and above beyond what someone else has done that would lead to a very successful, but look like a highly improbable outcome?
• 44:37
  Martin Luther King, III: That's a very good question. And I don't Can you find me one more time just to make sure sure.
• 44:44
  Randall Kaplan: Is there an example in your life where you've used extreme preparation that has led to extraordinary results where when you looked at it, and you said this, the probability of success here was very low?
• 45:03
  Martin Luther King, III: I would have to answer that from Bully.
• 45:09
  Martin Luther King, III: But I, I can't give an example.
• 45:09
  Martin Luther King, III: I'm going blank on an example.
• 45:16
  Martin Luther King, III: I'm certain there have been several.
• 45:20
  Martin Luther King, III: Over the years, things that I have been engaged in, that I really didn't feel we were going to be successful on. But I can't think of an example right now.
• 45:28
  Martin Luther King, III: But I know it was because we had a solid plan. We had a very good team. We, you know, we probably had a 25% chance that it was going to get done and it ended up being far beyond that.
• 45:49
  Randall Kaplan: The one question you wish I asked you what did Yes.
• 46:00
  Martin Luther King, III: The one question is I never had it, did I ever have conversations with my father. So in other words, I would love to have, as an adult, have had the opportunity to have an adult conversation, I would love to be able to have my father's insight input. Now, because at 39 years old he was he's he his capacity to really speak about the future not only was prophetic, but it was way beyond the age of what I was saying at 39. And what I'm saying at 66 is, is somewhat different is more season. I would, the question is, I would have loved to have him saying, I would love to have had the question about what I would like what conversation I would love to have with my father. And I will say this. If you think about it, in 2060 years ago, well, not 60. Actually, his last book was entitled, where do we go from here? Chaos or Community? We're seeing chaos.
• 47:14
  Martin Luther King, III: Now that that was in 67. When he wrote that book, where do we go from here? Right now in the world, chaos, or community?
• 47:23
  Martin Luther King, III: Community represents, you know, full word pneus. And life, chaos could represent destruction. So how could you read a book 50?
• 47:36
  Martin Luther King, III: You know, 50, excuse me 56 years ago, and it'd be so prevalent today. And it has a chapter in the UK called The World house.
• 47:47
  Martin Luther King, III: And it's as if the state these things happened yesterday or last week. Just prophetic.
• 47:59
  Randall Kaplan: Word, I'm grateful to you for being on my show. Your dad was an inspiration to me and to so many, I know, heard a speech when I was a little kid, I've listened to it several times as well. I'm all about dreams. And he's done so many amazing things for billions of people around the world you have as well, continuing into his legacy.
• 48:17
  Randall Kaplan: You're an inspiration. I'm so glad to have met you at a conference shout out to Kelly O'Connor for for the introduction at the scale Global Summit, which is an amazing conference. We're going to have again this year in May in Las Vegas, I think. But it's a true pleasure to have you on my show.
• 48:34
  Randall Kaplan: And to get to know you. Thank you,
• 48:36
  Martin Luther King, III: Randy.
• 48:36
  Martin Luther King, III: I really appreciate the fact that you've delved in done research and are imminently the preparation made me really have to think about what I was going to say I did. It wasn't what I would call the standard set of questions. It was there were some that yes, come natural, but there were questions that I really had to really think about. And I appreciate that. I appreciate just appreciate having the opportunity and appreciate the fact that you would utilize his extensive research to to get to know not just who I am, but what our legacy represents. It means something to a lot of people perhaps, and but the story is not complete. You know, I'm grateful to have a wife and a daughter and our daughters has chosen so far to to continue in that tradition. Thank you. Thank you.
• 49:41
  Randall Kaplan: I appreciate you.