Dr. Jamison on solitary confinement, health, and stage play

Homeboy Homeboy Homeboy Homeboy Brothers, there's only one blood Cuz there ain't no sense in us Traveling on the stones It's us, down, down to the bone Blood is thick Waters were known well Cousins were kept apart Mothers were often Memories Fathers were not favorites on the farm For he could do some harm He could wreck the master's scheme For he, brothers, could dream Homeboy Your mama ain't no saint Your daddy died on a shallow stream But your uncle, Dr. King Did have a dream, my brother And what is your real excuse? Why can't you study your lessons And stay in school? Why can't you study your lessons And stay in school? School Homeboy Free love All that sex ain't nothing but a game. Don't never last. Try hope. Take a chance on love. Homeboy by Sunchi Ali. Welcome to the Comrine Report. May the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. My name is Melvin Ishmael Johnson, coming at you live from Skip Rose Studios. And I'm in the studio with my co-host, Earlene Anthony. Our call-in number is 1-800-893-9562. Now, this week on the Comrine Report, a conversation with Dr. Robert L. Jamison. He's our in-studio guest, and we're going to talk about health care, nutrition, our young people, and his thoughts on the Skid Row community. Also, we're going to discuss a little about the entertainment community also, the opportunities that's available. So, let's get right to it. Let's get right to it. Now, I'm delighted to have with us in the studio, Dr. Robert L. Jamison. Welcome to the Comrine Report. Thank you, brother. I really appreciate that. It's a pleasure to be here. Mm-hmm. Now, before we get into our discussion, I would like to mention that June is Torture Awareness Month, and solitary confinement is a form of torture. And to bring awareness to solitary confinement in prison, there would be a program. The performance of the play, If the Shoe Fits, Voices from Solitary Confinement, Tuesday, June the 23rd, at 7 o'clock p.m., at the Neighborhood Unitarian Church, 301 North Orange Grove Boulevard, Pasadena, California, 91103. We will hear more about that event during our community calendar. But I would also like to mention that a federal... A federal appeals court have ordered former Black Panther Albert Woodfox, the longest serving prisoner in solitary confinement, to remain behind bars while Louisiana officials appeal a judge's orders for his immediate release. Woodfox has spent 43 years in solitary confinement for the murder of a prison guard, a crime for which he and late fellow Angola Three member... ...Herman Wallace say that they were framed for for their political activism. Now, I would like to play a one-minute clip of Herman Wallace, who spent 42 years locked up with Albert Woodfox and died three years after he was released last year. It's so small until... I can only make about four steps forward before I touch the door. It's so small until... I can only make about four steps forward before I touch the door. And if I turn in an about space at any place in this cell, I'm gonna bump into something. It's really smaller than anybody's bedroom. This is smaller than an outhouse in the countryside somewhere. But I'm used to it, and that's one of the bad things about it. From the unit that I'm on, the only thing that I can see outside of that window is a big hill with trees. So there's no life movement out there at all. I'm in the cell for 23 hours a day, and a lot of times 24 hours because I don't come out. I have to spend a great deal of my time catching up, reading and writing so many people, hundreds of people that I communicate with here in the U.S. and abroad as well. It helps me to... ...to be able to communicate with people. ...to be able to communicate with people. ...to be able to communicate with people. So, maintain what little sanity that I have left to maintain my humanity and dignity to fight back on what these people are attempting to do to Albert and I from a mental perspective. Okay, that was Herman Wallace. Dr. Jamieson, before we talk a little about your background, what are your thoughts on solitary confinement in prison? Well... ...to be honest with you, as we all know, the prison and the system is flawed. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. What I can say based on the experience that I encountered when I was, you know, incarcerated, you don't have a chance, you know? Mm-hmm. As an African American or Caucasian or whatever, the system is always against you. You could have low-level offenders going into a facility where they should be separated. Mm-hmm. Where they should be separated from gang-related people, murderers, child molesters, but you all jail together. So, that means if you go to jail for a probation violation, you're in a system where you're jailing with people on other higher offenses. Therefore, the jailers, the guards, they take no prisoner. Mm-hmm. You're just as serious as just the other inmate. Mm-hmm. And to me personally, that's just my opinion, I don't feel that you should have to serve a probation violation for a low-level offense. In a situation where you have so many hardcore criminals, they need to separate that and deal with the one that did cruel crimes. Mm-hmm. Give the first offenders, low-level offenders, an opportunity to go to jail. Mm-hmm. An opportunity to make progress. Mm-hmm. You're already remorseful for your crime, regardless. Me personally, I went to jail for probation violation for a crime that I felt like I was a victim of, but the system, they tie you up with the plea bargain. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. When you plea bargain, for instance, okay, four-year probation, and you have freedom to walk out into the community, really, you don't have freedom. Mm-hmm. You're stuck into the system. You can get pulled over for a traffic ticket as a violation. You're going to jail. So I say that to say this, when you get into the system in solitary confinement, you're no different than other inmates. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? And it's a cruel environment. Been there, done that. Even though I was in a correction facility, it wasn't like a prison, but if the correction facility is that type of, you know, a flawed system, you can imagine what the prison system is. You know what I mean? We have prisoners that have been into the federal prison, they're 15, 20 years, get an opportunity to try to get released, so they have to go through the correctional facility first before they discharge. But then you come, when you hear the stories about their struggles and the thing that they were locked up for, you know, I mean, drug-related people going to jail for prison for, you know, making a living, you know. That's what you're doing, actually. You're selling drugs to provide for your family. Mm-hmm. Because the economy, you have no choice. And everybody that sells drugs to me personally is not a criminal. You know, they just trying to get by. They trying to make end meet, and they just got caught up. Now, someone that murdered someone, the cold-blooded shot up somebody, killed family, you know, I have no remorse for that. You know what I mean? They deserve what comes to them in prison. But if they get accused of a crime, and the evidence point toward them and they didn't do it, then that's another situation, you know? Mm-hmm. And to me personally, the system should have a better program to monitor certain offenses, you know? Mm-hmm. I mean, how could you frame somebody? I know. And one thing that happened, because of the revolutionary 60s, a lot of your active revolutionaries got caught up with long time, you know, to the extent that they got mixed in with the individuals that was, what we was talking about earlier, who was doing the, you know, the Right. Right. Right. They were the ones that was doing the serious crime. And they would loop all of them in because they make sure they keep the revolutionary activists separated from the main population and stuff like that. Now, do you think the mental effect of being isolated for some 20, 15, and 20 years, you think it's a form of torture? It is torture. Mm-hmm. I mean, I couldn't even imagine being locked up that long. Mm-hmm. I mean, the 14 months that I was incarcerated, it was torture to me. It was devastating. You know what I mean? You don't get the opportunity to enjoy the simple pleasure that life has to offer because you blew it. You screwed up. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. But when you go through these challenges and this process to better yourself, that's where the system should be supportive of you. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. I mean, anybody can mess up, you know? But as a repeat offender, I have no remorse. Mm-hmm. But a first offender, especially a low-level offender, I don't think they deserve any perks. Don't get me wrong, but I just think that they should have an opportunity to correct their issues, have that form of freedom in which I'm not going to complain about it because I did have that sort of kind of freedom. But what I was able to observe, I didn't take to heart, you know? Well, let me ask you this then. Can you tell our listening audience a little about your background? And then how did you get off into healthcare? Well... Anywhere you want to start. Okay. As a kid, I was very intelligent, had a pretty good GPA in elementary school. Back in Memphis. Back in Memphis, yeah. I'm from Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee. I grew up in a project. I learned watching other people fall, you know? The people that I looked up to that were doing good. Mm-hmm. When I saw them come down, I looked at their mistake and I didn't duplicate their mistake. I kept my head in the books and watched them fall and I learned. At the age of 13, I was carrying a briefcase to school versus a book satchel or backpack. Backpacks wasn't out then, but I was carrying a briefcase, man, at the age of 13, 14 years old. My English teacher, she said, you're going to be something one day. And Lord, no, I didn't know what I was going to be. Who I was going to be. Mm-hmm. I knew God blessed me with a skill. I was on my first business when I was like 17 years old. I learned how to upholster furniture without even going to school. I learned how to sew on a sewing machine by watching my mother. I learned how to cook because I stayed in the kitchen. My first job I started working, I was 14. Gave me some roots, you know, to not have to rob, steal, take from people. If I smoked, I supported my habit. My first kid was born when I was 15. I had to work, you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. But I set the bar high for myself, you know. I never settled for less. At the age of 15 years old, I worked overtime in a restaurant, you know what I mean? Made an honest living. Took my check home every two weeks, gave it to my mother, and I kept enough just to get me to the next payday. I come from a single family. My father was not there. My mother was the dad and the mother. She needed help. There were five of us. We all supported our mother. You were the oldest? No. I was the only boy. Mm-hmm. The only boy with four girls. Oh, wow. And I was in between. I was the fourth out of five. So, but long story short, my mother inspired me. In my book, Surviving a Tough Time, I wrote a book. It's called, Surviving a Tough Time. I dedicated my book to my mother. It's because had it not been for her, I wouldn't be the person that I am today. She was my mother and father. I can remember I came in intoxicated one night, hanging out with my guys, smoking weed. My mother, she posted me. She cornered me. She said, you ain't going to be it. You're going to be just like everyone else out here, nothing, nobody. I wanted to prove her different. You know what I mean? And I can remember it just like yesterday. I went out in the back the next day. We used to hang out and get together and smoke our little pot and drink our little Budweiser's. And I told my friend, I said, you know what? I can't disappoint my mother. I was 16 at this time. I said, bro, I got to stop and I got to stop now. And because I was doing drugs for so long, and I started doing it at the age of 11, smoking at the age of 12, drinking at the age of 12, gang related, having sex. At the age of 11. You know what I mean? But I wanted to prove my mother wrong. So I told my friend at the age of 16, this is my last time smoking weed with you. I'm not going to stop drinking because I love the party, but I'm not going to do the drug thing. She would tolerate me drinking, but not the weed and all the other thing that we were doing, the cocaine and stuff. I proved her wrong. I went to my mother and I told my mother, I said, mom, I appreciate you for being there for me. I appreciate you for being there for me. She cried and I cried. I said, I'm going to prove you wrong. I'm going to get out and find me a job tomorrow. This was over the weekend. And I was 16. And I'm 54 now. I have not did drugs since I was 16 years old. I went to work at a restaurant, put an application in at Captain Bilbo's. I was a cook because she taught me how to cook. I made kitchen supervisor. As a kid 17 years old, my check biweekly was $800. $800. $800. Working 10 hours a day in the summer. But after school, I was working, closing the restaurant at 4 to 12, get up the next morning, go to school. I started putting my education level together. My kid, my oldest son was growing up with me. I could not be an idol for my kid had I been doing the things that I would try to teach him not to do. You follow me? So I give all praises to God for taking his hand. And embracing me. And said, boy, you're going to be somebody. So at the age of 17, I graduated from high school. Going on to 18, I started working in the poster industry. With my best friend, Jay Alexander, and one of my other coworkers, Wardell Baxter. I mentioned these guys pretty big in my book. I used to fill cushions. I did that for two years. I saved my money, bought me equipment to upholster furniture. I went to an art school. I went to my employer and I asked, I said, Mr. Townsend, how much would you charge me to rent the back of this place up for myself to start my own business? 19 years old now. Now I'm going somewhere with this. He said, oh, just give me whatever you can. I know I ain't paying you a lot of money. But I mean, I was working a lot of hours, $500, $600 a week. That's $2,000 a month. But I was putting like a couple hundred dollars away every pay period. I opened up my upholstery business in the back of his shop, Jamison & Associates. I turned that booger over in two years and sold it for $250,000 in that Jamison Fine Furniture. I went to medical school. You know what I mean? I was on the right track. You know why? Because I got a contract for the hospital working for him. Dig that. So doctors and nurses were my biggest clientele in the upholstery business because I had skills. These hands right here, they're dangerous. Trust me. They are dangerous. And they're so on my hand by the good you can on the sewing machine. So long story short, that inspired me to go to medical school. But put the icing on the cake, I got my foot in the door at a hospital as a patient escort for free. Worked my way in 90 days, three months probation. I moved to another department called surgery. In surgery, they had opportunities. I had opportunities all out of the frame because that was in the nursing department. I then went and got certified for a certified surgery assistant. I worked at Booger Bear for like about four or five years, and they had tuition reimbursement. Moving on up the ladder now. I wanted to become an anesthesia technician. I'm going somewhere with this. Trust me. I transferred from transportation, which is patient escort, to the recovery department. Worked in the recovery room as a technician, recovery room technician, where I just transported patients, did the stocking, took care of the drugs, whatever. Three months later, the surgery director said, that guy there, he look pretty intelligent here. We need some help over in surgery. Maybe we can train him. Check this out, dude. I work recovery. I work surgery in the morning from 630 to 230. Walk right in. Walk right across the hall. Worked recovery from 3 to 11. I worked 16 hours a day for 10 years. Opportunity to start to open the door, start to open like wider. It was just too many blessings coming, more than you can count. The surgery opportunity gave me opportunity to be fellowshiped in certain areas, like general surgery, orthopedic, neurosurgery, CV. I did that for like five or six years. Went back and started working as a physician assistant in surgery. Fellowship with all the cardiovascular doctors where we're doing heart surgery, vein, heart and vein, doing fem pops and transplants, liver and lung transplants. Just started moving up the ladder. The hospital that I worked at was a University of Tennessee training site. You know, giving our praises to God again, I worked in a training facility. I actually fellowshiped in the hospital that I was born in. You know what I mean? And all the doctors was the educational doctors. So, the only thing I had to do was just sign up for the tuition reimbursement program and go through the University of Tennessee and be trained by the doctor that I worked with every single day. When I first walked in the operating room, I told one of the surgeons, I will never forget his name, Dr. Richard Cheek. He was a general surgeon, a fellowship doctor. And I said, I'm going to be a doctor. And I said, I'm going to be almost as good as you one day. You see, I set the bar high for myself. Didn't know what the future held for me, but I knew I was determined to be successful. My mother was so proud of me. Now, let's go back to the education part of it. Every year, technology changes. Instrument changes. You had to be educated and in service on all the new upcoming instruments. All the new upcoming procedures. Keep in mind, laparoscopic surgery, I was into my fifth year of surgery at that time. That was back in the early 80s. They never thought in my right mind that they would be taking your appendix out through your umbilical, you know, through your belly button. I never would have figured that out. I never thought that you can do a laparoscopic hysterectomy with a scope. Never thought that. Never. Not in a day. I mean, they used to have to make midline incisions right down your belly, open you up, open a hysterectomy. Now they're doing a vaginal. Now they're doing a laparoscopic. Now, it's a lot bigger. They're taking your gallbladder out through the scope the same way. Technology. Technology. Three different incisions, about that big around and pulling it out. Now they're doing heart surgery. Mm-hmm. Heart surgery. Robotic. Whoever thought that they would be doing robotic heart surgery, they're doing it. Technology changing. I say that to say this. Each step, a thing that changes, technology changes, you have to be educated on it. That's what you call continuing education units. That means you get educated along the way and you learn and you accumulate credits. See, credits is something that you go to school for. That means once you learn it, you don't forget it. Mm-hmm. And when you continue to learn, you continue to develop knowledge. Mm-hmm. Knowledge is powerful. Without a doubt. That's why when you was relating this, it reminded me of, and it's still an excellent book, and it's the life of Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington called Up From Slavery. And he talked about the first, you know, have any money, you know, poor family, they're going to have a lot of money. Yeah. And he talked about the first, you know, poor family, the university that he went to. And he go to this university. He know he wanted to go to school. He know he was gifted, you know, had to give no money and all. So he go to the head of the school, you know, and explain to him that he wanted an education and all that kind of stuff. And the head of the school test Booker T. Washington. He give Booker T. Washington a broom and a mop. He take him to this room. And he say, OK, I want you to clean this room. And when he come back to that room, he say that this is the cleanest room that he ever seen in his life. Wow. You know, the whole... And see Booker T. Washington had this concept of persistent. Right. See, and he influenced people like Marcus Garvey and a lot of others. We know he build Tuskegee and all of that. Let me also ask you this. Is... Can you tell us a little... What is alternative healthcare LA? Can you talk about that? Yeah, I can tell you. I can talk about this all day long. Yeah. Alternative healthcare is about one of the best healthcare organization here in Los Angeles. We are registry, meaning a registry. We contract nurses to hospitals. Meaning specialty nurses. CB, we call this... It's a medical term what they call acute care nurses. We have to have that type kind of experience to work in this environment. Because if we're gonna staff out a nurse, they gotta have emergency room experience, surgery experience, recovery room experience, ICU, telemetry, telemetry step down. All these what they call acute care units. We staff nurses to several hospitals here in Los Angeles. As a registry, we have top dollar assignment where we pay nurses. Top dollars come in to do great work. On the medical side of it, alternative healthcare, we have a unique program where we do molecular diagnostic testing for wound care. This is where I fall in line at. We have a... Let me explain to you what the molecular diagnostic test does. Hypothetically, if you're driving a BMW or Mercedes Benz, you have a check engine light come on, right? And you can't figure out what that check... The light is on. The first thing you do, you take it to the dealership. What they do, they put it in the car. They put it in the car. They put it on the machine. They do run a diagnostic, right? So when you do a diagnostic, the diagnostic tell you exactly what's wrong with the car. Am I right or wrong? You're right. Right. So that means the tool is not flawed, right? You're getting adequate, certain, significant diagnosis. So in wound care, a molecular diagnostic test, it basically like you taking that car to the automobile shop, putting it on the machine, seeing exactly what's wrong with it. What we do, we collect specimens from the wound. We look into the biofilm of the wound to see what pathogen is slowing down the healing process. Healing process. You see what I'm saying? And in turn, once we figure that out, we'll send an analysis to the pharmacy doctor. The pharmacy doctor then turn around and compound a medication, antibiotic, that's tailored to the patient DNA. And the chance of you not knowing exactly what it is, you're going to be in trouble. You're going to be in trouble. If we know exactly what pathogen is slowing that healing process up. It's sliming down. It's a diagnostic. Giving you certain. Giving you accuracy. Not 100% accuracy. But 99% certain. That this jail is going to expedite your healing process. Where it used to take 3 to 6 months. Maybe 9 in some cases. To 35 to 40 day healing process. You see the change in it? From 9 months to 35 to 40 day. Yeah. Significant change. Yeah. thing medical doctors are doing the diagnostics not phd doctors they're scientists they're part of the whole deal see i'm not md i'm a phd doctor but i worked in the pathology area of surgery for such a freaking long time that when i to see cancer what it looked like with a body open you could even imagine just let alone to know how quick it can kill you you know you know when we when we talk about things on this level it touched me so freaking bad because pharmaceutical medicine and i i have to be cautious about how i describe this yeah but it's no different than you out on the street selling drugs killing people same difference and that's what i wanted to ask you uh about that as a matter of fact maybe we can talk about that uh together because i wanted to what your thoughts is skid row and then i also want to talk about the pharmaceutical medications because there's so much pharmaceuticals down there simply because that's what a big drug companies do they um test running a lot of um studies yes synthetic what do they call these fields that they get synthetic they got another name for generic generic right yeah they get a free generic um medicine out to the uh healthcare facilities down in the skid row area simply because they have a controlled uh environment in which they could um study the results so can you talk a little about skid row yeah i can talk a lot about skid row color look here i'm a skid row native i mean i'm proud to be from skid row you know i mean and the medical pharmaceuticals i i i saw so much and i see so much right to this day the the mental illness is is such a big issue down in the day in the day in the day in the day in the day in the day in the day in the day in the day in day in day in day day day day day day day day day day day day day day day day day day day day day and let it affect me. But I try to embrace a lot of people that I knew that was on drugs and were doing so big. They get prescription, go to the JWAC, get their prescription, go out on the street and sell it. I said, bro, you're killing your people. They give us these drugs for uses to, I mean, that's just what pharmacy does. They give medication to doctor practices to test. Working in a study environment, you know, it's a significant revenue in pharmacy medicine, bottom line, you know what I mean? But to go to these free clinics and they give you the medication, whether it be Percocet, Divercess, whatever it might be, narcotics, you go out on the street to sell them, you're killing your people. They're setting you up to fail. You know what I mean? When you're into the program, they drug test you. And the moment you get into the program and you start getting these poppy pills, you're going back to where you come from because they're going to kick you out of their facilities. What are the dangers of the, I've always been concerned with the effects of when a person is on more than one medication. Because usually when they do a study, they study that particular medicine or whatever, but very seldom do I see them spending that much time studying the effects of multiple medications. And that's what I see with a lot of, a lot of individuals in Skid Row and a lot of individuals I know, they sometimes they be on five and six different kind of pills. They got to have some kind of effect when you mix all of that. Yeah, well, you can take one pill and have a side effect. It kills your liver. It does not, it's set up toxin. And when you started having a lot of toxin in your body, it's putting a toll on your liver. And when you take so many drugs, eventually your liver, your liver gonna fail. Your kidney gonna fail. That's what the effect it has on you. It kills your organs in other words. And when it kills your organ, I mean, that's less prescription that the pharmacy got to write out, you know, pass out. That's another dead brother, sister. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, I mean, it's just like when you're smoking crack, it kills your brain. It's just like your cigarette, it kills your lungs. Every drug has a side effect. Me personally, I stay away from drugs. I'm a natural pharmaceutical guy. This is why I got involved with alternative. Give you an opportunity to not only do alternative medication, but also to get acquainted to non-invasive procedures. Meaning non-invasive procedures, meaning you don't always have to go up under the knife for pain control. They have compounded medication that they can utilize for joint pain, muscle pain. And it's prescribed. It's prescribed by the pharmacy doctor, but it's a different type kind of drug. It's compounded, not non-compounded. Meaning it's not coming from Walgreens, CVC, or Rite Aid. You know what I mean? I deal with a pharmacy called Precise Pharmacy here. And we have pain patches that has local sedation, which is Marcane, Latacane, Ketamine, all these type kind of drugs in it. And the same thing you would take intravenous, or you might take oral. You know what I mean? It's in the cream, it's in a patch, and it works. When you started taking all these different type kind of drug-related medication, it's killing your liver. Well, let me ask you this then. Two more questions, and then we can take this together. And then I want to go to the community calendar, and we're going to come back to our discussion. Can you talk a little about how important is nutrition to a person's health, and how do stress, what's the damage of stress to one's health? I... I can tell you personally, stress can kill you. It can burst a pipe. You know, you take a lot of people stress over things they don't have control over. Why stress over something that God already got these days planned ahead for you? I see it all the time. And I mean, people, it's killing their genetics. It's causing you nerve problems. You're getting all these free radicals on the inside, and you start worrying, then you're like, oh, well, I'm going to die. And then you got nerve problems, then you're having all these significant headaches. You're having some really big health issue that can really take you to the grave a lot quicker than you can go on your own. So... What are some of the natural things that you suggest? Because so many individuals, especially in that Skid Row area, but young people that's dealing with stressful situations, and... Let me help you out a little bit. Yeah. I'm 54 years old as of today. Happy birthday to me. Oh, okay. Happy birthday. Listen, in 2012, when I first hit the surface of California, December 9, 2012, my mother passed September 6, 2012. California was already in my mind, excuse me, when I got here to move to California. Dude, I had just got out of the correction facility. Especially in March 2012, I didn't have anything, you know what I mean? Because usually when a person get discharged from prison, they either go homeless or they broke and they don't have anything. They have no other right to turn but into drugs, you know what I mean? But what I did, I was going through my- I went through a divorce all at the same time and losing my mother, getting out of prison- I got divorced while I was in prison- I'm not ashamed of it- it's in my book- it's gonna come out- So- and that's stressful- Could you imagine being at the lowest point of your life today, and you get served divorce paper while you're out trying to serve time, and not knowing that when you get out that your mother's going to be alive because she already died of cancer, stage four lung cancer. Could you imagine what I was going through locked up? Could you imagine my mother dying on me while I was in prison and couldn't get an opportunity to go to a funeral? You know what I mean? It was everything happened to me for a reason. God sent me to that institution, bro, to get my life on track. You know what I'm saying? And to capitalize, I was stressed. When I knew my ex-wife was divorcing me for some dumb stuff, at the lowest point of my life, it could have ripped my heart out. But I prayed about it, and I didn't let it get to me. Stress will kill you, my friend. I was hypertension. My blood pressure was shut out of the roof. I was on blood pressure pills the whole entire time that I was incarcerated. And I was having... I was having significant headaches because it was stress. I wasn't... I was healthy, but stress breaks you down. You understand what I'm saying? So, I mean, all my... I had to come and do a thorough detox when I got released from prison. A thorough detox. I had to take all this toxin out of me and start all back over again. Okay. Let's take a break for our community calendar, and then we're going to come back and get back into our discussion. This is the community calendar of upcoming events. June is Torture Awareness Month. And on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015, at 7 p.m., Drama Stage Qumran, L.A. Labor Fest, and Public Work Improvisational Theater presents a stage reading of If the Shoe Fits, Voices from Solitary Confinement. The location of the event is the Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church, 301 North 1st Street, Orange Grove Boulevard, Pasadena, California, 91103. This is a free event, and all are welcome to attend. There will be a Q&A following the reading. For more information, please contact 310-704-3217. Every 23rd of the month throughout the year end will be held. Significant. The number of hours prisoners are held in solitary. And this is a statewide coordinated action to end torture. And that's on the 23rd of every month throughout the year. This will be held. For more information and how you can get involved, examples are you can write letters, sign up for legislative visits, and plan future actions. More information, you can email lalaborfest at gmail.com and the phone number at the end is 310-704-3211. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On Saturday, June the 27th, 2015 at 3 p.m. Deborah Pemberthy presents Serious Rabbits. This is her new musical. Her new rock musical. And the location is Beyond Broke. 681 Venice Boulevard. Venice, California. 90291. And perhaps you can get more information on her Facebook. Save this day. Wednesday, July 1, 2015, from 5.30 p.m. to 8 p.m. And this is a holiday tech talk. The tech talk is for Skid Row Studios show hosts, engineers, and new upcoming show hosts. And it's a coming together to discuss ways and means to have quality shows on the Skid Row Studios. The location is the Vortex, 2341 East Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, 90021. Our guest speaker will be Patty Berman, president of D-Link. That's downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council. The musical guest will be Deborah Pinberthy and Willis Boyd. This is a free event. Refreshments will be served. And actually, it's open to the public. But this time, it's going to be more like a meet and greet. And the contact information is 213-908-6587 or Drumstage1 at yahoo.com. Also, this is Save the State. Saturday, August 30, 2015, from 4 to 7 p.m., Industrial Green will be holding its first annual summer fundraiser. The location is Lot 613 on Imperial. This is a family-friendly event. Food will be available, drinks, music, displays of current and future projects, and much more. For more information, you can contact industrialdistrictgreen.org. And this is a Catherine Magnini project. If you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to DramaStage1. And if you have any questions, please contact us at yahoo.com. Attention, Earlene Anthony. The call-in number for our show is 800-893-9562. Now, back to our host. Okay, thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. I wanted to play a clip from Deborah Pinberthy, but I think I'm going to pass up that clip. And I want to go to, I want to start talking about our young people. And I want to go into a clip when I had Tony. Brown into the station. He's the executive director of Ola. And I would like to play that clip. And then we'll discuss it, talk about young people and entertain. Absolutely. Well, you know, first of all, Heart of Los Angeles tries, I think, step one is to do the prevention. Right. I mean, we want to prevent kids from joining them in the first place. So we start with kids really young. But we do meet kids along the way. We're middle school and high school. And there are times in which we have to try to intervene. The answer to the question, I think, really is create alternatives that are relevant. Create opportunities, alternatives that will help those kids to feel connected to what's happening in their neighborhood, at their school, in their life. I think a lot of kids, well, at least in our neighborhood, the gangs tend to prey on those kids who are having problems with the language. You know, if they have a kid who doesn't speak much when they're spoken to, very shy about language, they become a target. If they see kids who, you know, are trying to push away from their parents, you know, walk a few steps ahead, walk a few steps behind, don't necessarily want to be associated. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. are starting to try to emulate this pop American culture. All of those things, and kids don't realize this, but all of those things become identifiers. Pick me, pick me, you know, for the gangs. They say, because they'll come in and their psychology might be something like, so, you know, I see that your parents don't, you always have to walk these five blocks alone. But your parents, let me guess, your parents aren't around. They must work all the time. Let me guess, they basically tell you to come straight home, turn on the television and don't go outside. Man, my dad was the same way. Oh, you don't have a dad? Yeah, actually, I don't have a dad either. And they start to do all those things. They try to pull away any connection the child has to staying away from gangs. They try to drive those wedges in between what connects kids to this culture here. I bet you're doing really bad in school. Yeah, I get it. They don't get it. They don't get you. They don't get us. Wow. And they do that. And so after school programs should be the ones to come in and say, hey, listen, we value who you are. We have all the patience in the world. We believe that if we give you a chance, you can realize whatever dream you have, you know, it's not a silly dream. You know, and we support the kids in that way. And we let the kids be the kids. And we let them feel important for who they are and who they'd like to be. And even if they don't know who they are. We let them know who they'd like to be. We still give them that confidence and try to empower them to feel good about who they are right now. And it's okay not to necessarily know quite yet. And then we start to expose them with the arts, music, athletics, dance, painting, graphic arts, filmmaking, anything and everything, robotics, anything and everything to give them alternatives so that they have to then when they're faced with the alternative of getting involved in some sort of criminal activity, they can say, you know what, I don't need to do that over there. Because if I did all of that over there, I'd be giving up all of this over here. Can you talk a little comment on the clip? And then can you talk about the entertainment, young people and how that relates to you? Absolutely. As a father of two boys. That. I feel that could have been caught up in certain situations where they were game related. I just think the key to keeping his family together, community events, you know what I mean? Because when we as a teenager growing up, we had basketball tournaments, softball, recreation, things to do. You know what I mean? And they're going to form the game, but at least you'll be able to have some form of embracement of that. And I think that's what we had as a child in the neighborhood where we had leaders. You know what I mean? We had a schedule every day. Not necessarily saying we had to go to camp, but even in the community, we had park councils. Meaning we knew we had hockey tournaments in the morning, you know, the little box hockey stuff, horseshoe tournaments, softball tournaments, you know, all these recreation things that we had growing up. And the system took it away. Right. So what do you expect? What do you expect? They're going to stray. They're not going to go home and do homework from school. They don't have anything to look forward to. But going out trying to rob or steal or, you know, commit some form of crime because they didn't took the opportunities away from them. You know, I gave my kids opportunities. I made sure that they came home from school and hung out with their daddy. If I, even if they had to come to the hospital, wait till I get off work. I needed to know where they was going to be at all times. And you also involved in the entertainment business with a stage play and a few other things. Can you talk about that for me? Yes. The truth. We did our first play on Mother's Day and it's all about raising awareness. And it inspires the youth of today's gang and violence. You know what I mean? And one of the good topics of the play is domestic violence. Where you see... You see a lot of young kids already doing grown folk stuff, beating up their girlfriends, you know, having sex with them at an early age, unprotected sex. All these things that we basically demonstrate on stage. We had a domestic violence scene. We had a clinic scene for STD, HIV. We had a beauty shop scene. We had a church scene. We had several type kind of scene in this play. And see, the play was about love and forgiveness. You know what I mean? Because people go through that role of betrayal, you know? And in some of the scenes that I played the clinic part, I was the doctor of the clinic. And we had your friend having sex with his friend and my girlfriend, my wife having sex with your husband, you know? And the truth. What is the status of the play and where is it being... When would it be performed again? I'd like to see that play. This was an awesome play. This is about... This is by far one of the biggest events. I've been an actor for like about three years now since I've been. I've been in about 40 films already. Background acting is an extra. I mean, I've been in some of the top movies here. But this play, what I love about theatrical, it shows your craft. You know what I mean? So we're trying to get this play at the LA Mission and Auditorium. We want to cater toward the homeless people this time. You know what I mean? Because we had a homeless scene. And it's giving information. It's supporting people that have been through transitional programs, you know, trying to show them how to get their life back in order through a stage play. Showing people how to beat the obstacles. Now, Bobby, I want to get you over here. Can you talk about how did you and the doctor, how did y'all meet? Talk about a little while. Well, actually, I think we might have met a while back. I'm not really sure because I do so much networking. I'd be all over the place. I met Bobby already. I met Bobby already at a transitional home before with Mello. You remember Mello? Mello. Yeah, that's right. That's when you came over there, me and Simeon. There you go. There you go. Okay. All right. Okay. And it came back to me when we met at Panda Express at the library. At the library. Yeah, a couple of months ago. Yeah, yeah. Good food. And I was saying, where did I know this guy from? Where did I know this guy from? Then it clicked on me right after we took that picture. The guy took a picture of us in the library. And I was like, what? What? What? What? What? What? What? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. that they're doing is giving awareness to all the different causes. And I think that'd be something good to wake up the homeless. Because when I go down there, we're rapping with Al Thompson once a month. And he does some things down there. And they get the good gospel funk music. And the homeless, the people that be in there, I don't want to say the homeless, but the people that be in the missions or shelters, they get up, start clapping, start dancing. They go up there to get prayer. It's like, man, so I thought about it myself before he even mentioned it. I thought about it. They need something extra in here to start seeing some different type of entertainment that maybe we can get the homeless people, get them up in there and start doing some things themselves. We need to. Yeah. So what do you think it take to get it? And we're talking about the Los Angeles mission, right? Man, I've been waiting three weeks for them to just give me a date. The director of the play waiting on a date. I mean, we ready to get it down there. And we're going to sell it out. You know what I mean? We're going to let, that's for a different mission. So we're trying to cater to people that's going through the transition. The program that already been successful. We want to bring them back. We want to do the red carpet events. We want to do the VIP dinner. We want them to sign autograph. We want them taking pictures. We want them to know that people do care about what they're going through. I've been there before, brother. Yeah. I'm not a stranger to it. Well, probably the route to go. I remember, what was the name of the play they did at the Los Angeles mission that we went down to see? We had the cast. Love on San Pedro. Love on San Pedro. Oh, yeah. And they had to, the route that they went to get it there, is that they had to align themselves with a lot of different organizations in the downtown area to sponsor them. Remember how they put it? We got it. We got that. We got that. I mean, I know people in the organization. I've been talking with them. I mean, I do job placement for them. You know what I mean? So, I mean, I'm not new to them. They know of me. You know what I mean? I know them on personal levels. And what bothers me, because I know them on personal levels, this supposed to have been a goal three weeks ago. You know what I mean? Don't tell me one thing. One thing and then put me off. How large is the cast? Oh, 20. 20 strong. We got, and I'm finna get your boy. What's the name I met last week? The stage manager. John Freeman. Yeah, I need to get him. One of the best in the city. Yeah, because he know our current stage manager now. They, together as a team, they will take that little stage down at the Union, at the LA Mission and bring it to the LA Theater. They can do that. Yeah. I'm excited about it. But I want to, see, I'm a proactive person. And when I got a movement going as big as this, dude, I can contribute major funds to that organization. I can contribute major funds to Skid Row Studios. We need to pull this off. Bottom line. We did, for the Council Society, my biggest scene was like advertising for the American Council Society, giving out information. Well, what I would like to do, because we do a lot, we try to bring a lot of the artistic things through here. I'd like to have you come in with some of the cast members, maybe do a couple of scenes, talk about what the play is about. Yeah. As a matter of fact, John would be here on the 24th. Who is John? John Freeland, the stage manager. Oh, yeah. Well, right. He'd be in here directing a piece for Kirk. Kirk starts his show on the 24th. Okay. And then, and he's one of the best. Well, let me give you a little bit, 15 seconds, because I'm going to be the one in my scene, and you're going to be one of the characters. Mark, man, you got to be a little bit more careful, son. Maybe you should try another extracurricular activity, like golf or something. Golf? That way, maybe you won't get a few holes in one. So, yeah, I mean, it was really common. We sent out a message about STD, you know what I mean? Try something different, you know? Don't put the pink in that hole. Try golfing or something. Maybe you get a few holes in one. Okay. Look, can you tell me, I'm going to ask you a question. Okay. Can you give your closing comments, your contact information, especially for those who want to try to help getting this stage play down there? Right now, we're cashing for seven positions, seven positions right now, and you can contact me at 213-258-6114. That's one of my numbers. Or you can email me. I'm going to back it up. RL Jamison, J-A-M-I-S-O-N, phd at gmail.com. Now, we're not opposed to hiring people for this play that has talent, you know what I'm saying? You will go through an audition. Our president, actress, writer, she has things together. So give me a phone call or send me an email, and let's get you into this play. Because if we can get people off Skid Row, the proof of the pudding, I'm a candidate. So I mean, I know how we can make it move. All right, then. Thank you, Dr. Robert. RL? RL? RL Jamison, you know, anxious to get him back into the studio, bring some of these cast members here so we can talk about it in detail. So please listen to past shows of the Qumran Report by Googling in Qumran Report. Thank you for tuning in to the Qumran Report. And from your host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson, my co-host, Ms. Earlene Anthony, may the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. I leave you with Deborah Penberthy. She's singing. She's going to take the outro, I Dream of Peace. I Dream of Peace I found this letter It was written 20 years ago Written by a girl Girl whose face I know Still I wonder Maybe I'm not as good as I thought It said things of peace Things of beauty Things of love They elude me Maybe I'm not I'm not as good as I thought I thought I'd mind when I said no On a clear day, branches of snow A window, a world A world of love That I would know Instead I found Maybe I'm not as good as I thought I thought I'd find me a better way Find me a place to stay And build a family And live all my days with me Instead I found me a better way Maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was Instead I found me a better way Now I dream of peace I dream of beauty I dream of love I dream of love I'm better when I dream. I'm better when I dream. I'm fine. I'm better when I dream. I'm better when I dream. Better when I dream. Better when I dream. Better when I dream.