Donald Sterling discussion, ACI training, Uncle Bean music

Thank you. You are awesome. Indeed. Great and mighty. You are awesome. Indeed. Full of love and mercy. Awesome. My God is awesome. God, he helps me. Through the rain and the fog. Especially when life gets hard. He holds my hand. Walk me through the dark. God is great. Can I get a witness? Specialized in loving and forgiveness. Poverty, stress and sickness. He on time, never late to handle business. You are awesome. Indeed. Great and mighty. Mighty. You are awesome. Indeed. Full of love and mercy. Yeah. Awesome. No matter what you're going through. Awesome Indeed by Ola Shea Banjo, Hub Face and Cry Me. Welcome to the Coombram 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 Skid Row Studios. Our call in number is 800-893-9562. You can listen to us live or download our show and any past show by Googling in Coombram Report. Now this week on the Coombram Report, we will hear from some downtown and Skid Row voices with positive perspective with Willis Boyd and Shea. We'll also hear from Shantae Duncan and 15 Minute of Fame with Shanna Sterling and Bobby Buck. Welcome to the Coombram Report. Hi. How are you doing? Thank you for having us. All right. Okay. We're going to go right into, I like to start off with positive perspective and I'm going to play a little short opening song for them when we get right into it. Here I am. Here I am alone. Here I am. Lord, here I am. To worship. Here I am. To bow down. Lord, here I am. To say that you're my love. Here I am. To worship. Thanks to pain, I ran with the game. To bow down. To not just go and make right them things. To say that you're my love. I was when I rushed in clubs. Drank like a witch, didn't care to know love. To worship. No sacrifice for one again. Thank you. Hi, I'm Willis Boyd. And I'm Shante Duncan. And you're listening to Positive Perspective. Where we shine the positive light of Jesus Christ on scriptures, music, our communities and world issues. Our guest tonight via telephone is Pastor Ben Siler of the Bright Hope Worship Center International out of San Bernardino, California. Tonight, we're going to switch up a little bit. We were going to talk about the two greatest commandments. But the thing on the radio now is about the Clippers owner, Donald Sterling. And we were going to just talk a little bit about that. And just the whole situation from what I'm hearing, the young lady is not getting any airtime. And I just want to kind of open up and see what people think. I'm going to go ahead and start. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. Let's get back to the show. Think about the moral issues. It seems like all we're hearing is racism. We have a man cheating on his wife. I guess, would you call her a gold digger? You wouldn't call her that, would you? No? Something, how about you, would you call her that? Yeah, I think that's how we would see it as her manipulating him. It doesn't seem like she loves him or she cares about his reputation or what happens to him. It just seems like she's trying to expose him and put him in a negative light. You don't think he's trying to manipulate her? Bobby, come on, help me out, y'all. I didn't want to just jump in, but hey, I'll swim a little bit. I think it's all a part of the entertainment part of the business that somebody would do anything to get ahead. So they'll take the truth and twist it a little bit and get something out of it. That way they can make a little money. I'm not clear on what you're trying to say here. What are you saying? What's going on between him and her is like, he feels like she shouldn't be taking pictures with other men, especially black men. So he said he's all about his culture. His culture is where he wants to be on a pedestal and he wants her to be raised up with him. He kept saying Latina, a white girl, but he didn't want her to be around with the black people. He claimed the other side of her. So he's prejudiced against black, but mainly because he don't want her with any other. Is it prejudice or is it jealous? It's a little bit of both. Okay. It's a little bit of both. I think it's prejudice, but the blackness adds to it. So, but if she was with a white man at the Clippers game, it's all right to take pictures or a Hispanic or Latino. It would be okay to take pictures with them, just not black men. I think it's mainly black men. Yeah. Okay. And then I think another issue to look at here, a couple of things. Number one, Donald Sterling have a history of racism. You know, he had to sell a number of lawsuits about the apartment complexes that he ran and they wanted African-American Hispanics in that. You know, that's one part of the issue. I really think the Mara issue is so far down on the scale because it's not that much morality in the entertainment business if you're going to compare the morality that's out in society. And then one other little important thing that I wish people would discuss because one of the oldest civil rights organizations that we have is the NAACP, right, that have done a lot of good. See, but we have to answer the question, and this is, it's good that this came to the forefront, because I think what it would do is force some of L.A. leadership to step to the forefront or either get out of the way because we've got so many problems in L.A. among poor people and to give Donald Sterling a Man of the Year Award because he gives them money and donation knowing the type of history. And then getting ready to give him another one until this pop out. See? I think these are more important issues to the black community, Hispanic community, to the poor community as a whole. See, when we look at a man, the amount of resources that he had, the amount of money that he got from owning the Clippers. Okay, yeah. I mean, that's interesting. And I was like the man of whatever the award the NAACP was going to offer him or give him. It's like, do they have blinders on? I mean, do they know who this guy is? And so you're saying that they're doing this because of the amount of money he's donating? Exactly, because they show you that, you know, most of the so-called leadership, most so-called black leadership, that's why we have so many problems in L.A. That's why when you look at Skid Row, Skid Row is 85% African American. You don't think that's just from the oppression that was brought upon us, from, you know, the United States and racism and slavery and that whole thing? Well, you know, that has a lot to do with it, but I'm looking at it in terms of the proportion of a city like L.A. that have African American that make up 9% of the population and 85% to 90% of the people that's laying in these tents down there in Skid Row is African American. So I'm saying that, and then I'm sure it's a lot of people that do a lot, a lot of good down on Skid Row, you know, and you turn, what I'm saying is the National Association for the Advancement of Color People, right? They can get Donald Sterling an award. I'm sure it's people down there trying to help people down on Skid Row that deserves more of a man of the year or outstanding. What I'm saying is that our leadership, this exposes that our leadership is being bought. Right. So that's what this is. Yes. Well, I just want to say with Donald Sterling, I'm sorry if I interrupted anybody over there. It's show world, girl. Donald Sterling is just like a lot of people in this country. Donald Sterling had enough gumption to speak up and say and reveal his racism or prejudice or whatever you want to call it. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. walking around with the same opinions that he has, but ashamed or don't have guts or whatever, to speak up and say, I hate this and I hate that. But it's a lot of prejudiced people out there. Yeah, I mean, black and white. Black, white, whatever color. But I'm just saying he had the gumption to say, I hate this. Saying what a lot of other people think or want to say but don't say. But did he know he was being recorded? Yeah. There's some things going around saying that he knew that he was being recorded. I know, but that's just hearsay. I mean, all this stuff going on. And I wanted to kind of touch on Snoop Dogg and all that kind of stuff about the Clippers playing. What about that whole thing? Whether fans should go to games. I mean, that's not going to hurt Donald Sterling at all, is it? I mean, is it? Is it going to hurt the people selling hot dogs? It's a whole different issue that people have to look at. You see, when they look at Donald Sterling as the Clippers, they missed the whole point. They got to look at the Clippers as a corporation. Right. The whole separate thing, a money-making machine. I think that they're moving in the right direction in terms of forcing this man out. You know, who oversee a huge multi-corporation that made up about 85% of African-Americans. Now, I do think it's an opportunity, you know, to take another look at the whole ownership thing. When you got 29 or 30 owners and you got one African-American owner, right? Michael Jordan. So it might be another time. It might create an opportunity that if they do, don't force Donald Sterling out, right? Well, you may have a chance to have a minority owner take over to buy the Clippers, even if it's a combination of white, Hispanic, Blacks that come in there and take over. But that whole thing, too, is like, I'm thinking. Oh, yeah. I thought they were already trying to do that with Matthew. Yeah. Well, see, that's what I wanted to bring up, is Magic Johnson's taking pictures with his girl. Yeah. Okay. And now, she secretly or unsecretly tapes him, and I'm saying pushing his buttons to make him say certain things. And now Magic Johnson wants to buy the Clippers. What's up with that? Yeah, well, see. I mean, I'm just kind of, you know, throwing it out there. I mean, Magic Johnson is a beautiful individual with a lovely smile. I mean, that Magic Johnson smile. But is there something sinister going on here? Well, see, and on number one, another point, and I was hoping that Shanna has something to say on this, too, but another point that I think that we should keep in mind in relationship to this, see, the whole history of the country. See, when you're dealing with, when you bring in the element of sex, when you're talking about, when you bring the Black male into the picture, they used to call that whole thing, in literature, the whole concept of the exotic primitive. You know, that's the way they portrayed the African-American Black male throughout history. Get down, get down, man. It's a symbol. So, yeah. So, when you're looking at even a rich guy that got all of the resources that they have, see, it's not just Donald Sterling. You know, this is embedded in the whole American society about this is why down south, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, The whole concept of castration had to do with that. So that's at the center point of what we're dealing with here. But it is some other issues that involve some other opportunities here to move somebody out of the way. Capitalistic society we live in, move this man out of the way and get some more minority owners up there. How much time do we have here? The brethren is on the line. Okay. Hey, Pastor Ben. Hey, how are you this evening? Hey, man, it sounds great to hear you. Likewise, likewise. Can you tap in on the moral, I guess, perspective of this whole thing going on? Is the man still married? Morally, how does this stand, you know? Well, I believe that he's definitely walking the fine. He's walking the fine line as a head of a household. If we could say that, or be influenced by something else. But I definitely wouldn't pass judgment to say what it is, you know, each man has his own household and ran accordingly. So I really wouldn't speak on if he is or not. Displaying actions, I would say it's walking the fine line to not. So morally, I guess what I'm trying to squeeze in here is, he's out of you is, I mean, in my opinion, he deserves what he gets at 80 years old. You know, how old is she? 22, 32? How old is she? She's 26. 26? It went in a million dollar apartment. I guess morally, I mean, do you have anything that you can help us with? No, not concerning that. Again, it seems like it's far-fetched because just the age difference alone and the maturity, I mean, it seems like there's a big hustle that goes on with that. You know how it goes. And any time you've got a game involved with money, you know, it's a fine line again because it's not motivated by love or anything like that. It's coming out of the motive of the love of money, which is always greed, which will always push to make decisions that are bad or wrong. Okay. You know, so. I'll go with that. That was, yeah. Okay. So. All right. We have young dynamic pastor here from the IE. He's very influential with youth and a marvelous family man. And this interview is going to stimulate and lubricate the inspirational wheel bearings of your mind. So I'd like to introduce you all to Pastor Ben Seiler. Thank you. Don't worry. It was well put. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I was aroused to think just now. All right, how about we start off with you telling us how you became a pastor and how you got involved in ministry? You know what? I think one of the things that we tend to look at is how something happened. I really don't know how. I think it's part of me that just couldn't get away from loving people. And one of the qualifications, biblically, of a pastor is to love people and care more about them than yourself. And so I really couldn't tell you. I just know it happened. And as much as I tried to run, I couldn't get far enough away from helping people or wanting to do the right thing regardless of what situation I was in or what I really wanted to do. And it kind of just was a pulling effect. And then walking in that just solidified and confirmed that this is where I'm supposed to be because then I began to have a fulfillment in life that I'd never experienced before. And how did you get involved in music? Music. I was raised with a musical family. Okay. On my father's side, you know, they all play something. My dad plays bass and keys. And I've got four other uncles that play music and sing. They all sing. And so I grew up around it. But majorly influencing my musicianship was kind of one of my mentors, an uncle who really developed me in funk as an early teen and preteen. And just... I was really just rooting the foundation. But taking it to another level, I was blessed to just study. So going into studying and taking my own time to really develop that craft. And it opened up for stages before to play with some awesome people like Kenny Lattimore, Sean T. Moore, and being able to travel with them and other young musicians at the time where we were being able to go on stage with The Make Condition, The Gladys Knight, The Ron Isley's auditions. And things like that. So coming into that just really began to develop and humble me to another level of learning. The thing I'm big on is at every level of life, I become the student again. Right. So I just kept becoming the student and growing to where I'm at now, to where music is just a part of me. So I do a lot more teaching now than playing. But coming into music, it was kind of just being raised in it. OK. And I hear there's a movement that's starting with the youth and you call it haete, abbreviated haete. And I wanted you to elaborate on what that movement is. Yeah, we're excited about that because, you know, what's one of the first things that you think about when you hear haete? Negative, you know, hearing what's coming across on our airways, when they say haete, you know, and it causes a controversy. because it's such a strong word. And biblically, the Bible uses one of those terms that says that man cannot serve two masters. You either love one and hate the other, or you hate one and love the other, vice versa. So our movement of hate is an acronym for having ambition to elevate. And that's a movement that started with an awesome producer and young entrepreneur of his time by the name of Joshua Simmons. And him and I are spearheading this movement of empowering a generation to stop being lazy, more or less. Get off your butt, do something. Get past where you are. And it's not just our generation, but anybody at the level that you're at where you may be stagnant or maybe, again, at every level you become a student again. If something's not working, maybe you need to go back to school, learn something, do something. And a lot of times people don't have that push. And so we're inside of a movement that we just want to push them. So as the website comes, we'll do videos of how to go and apply for jobs, how to go and search resources, how to do an interview, all the way up to how to do production in studio, whatever the trade is. And we'll interview some of those who are making it and didn't have all of the hand of cards that were dealt to them that it was good. And so then, hey, you can just change that ambition. But you have to hate where you are in order to go somewhere different so that you can stop being comfortable. You know, it's a great saying that I've heard that says, how can you be free when you love the change that you're in? You've got a generation of people who love that bondage. It's all a form of slavery. But we want to break past that. Like any other movement, if you don't have a leader to fight when no one else will, you'll kind of have another generation of that bondage. That slavery or bondage. So we want to defeat that. That's really good stuff. That's really good. I want to talk to him. Okay. And it seems like you have your hands, like, in 50 million projects. I know you're involved in so many things. And I was wondering if you could highlight some projects that you're working on right now. Yeah, we are involved in a musical project right now. We're working on an album, a gospel hip-hop album. That's called Roo-Walk. Which is the Hebrew word for breath of life. Which is what God breathed into man, Roo-Walk. And we're saying that without a spiritual sense of who your creator is, you're kind of a walking dead. And so we want to identify what problems we have really. You know, depression, poverty mindset, the gang banging, all these things that you just want to find yourself in and kind of address those things inside of music that we may have life again. And so that's one project. That should be released around September or October. Okay. Roo-Walk is working on that with LaBelle Johnson, who's in Downey. And he's over the Downey Ball Hogs basketball league for youth. Who's doing dynamic this season. And we're working on that project together. Okay. We're looking forward to that. Okay. And is there any message that you'd like to give the youth that are out there listening right now? Oh. Yeah, definitely. It's time to do exactly what you've been called to do, which is not just merely exist, but live in purpose. I just want to encourage each and every one that you have a gift. I was talking with Willis recently, and he said something great. And maybe not everybody's meant to be great, but if you're here, you're meant to be. And finding out what am I here for that's meant to be. Right. And I think that's one of the greatest messages that we can give right now. Yeah, I agree. Is for people to really understand, hey, I got a purpose. I got something I can be doing that's greater than where I'm at now. Wherever I'm at, I can do better. I can do more. And start reaching for it. Go for it. Don't even think about the fears. Get rid of those. Get around the right people. Get around the right mindset. And go for it. You'll never know where you can end up unless you just go. Right. All right. Well, thank you, Pastor Ben, so much for being a guest on Positive Perspective. And I would like to... Contact him. Oh. Right. Yeah. Go ahead. Contact? Yeah. Do you have some contact information? I know there's some people here that might want to connect with you. Oh, yeah. After everything you were saying. Oh, yes. Definitely. You can contact me either through Facebook. You can find me at Benjamin Seiler. That's B-E-N-J-A-M-I-N. Last name Seiler. S-I-L-E-R. Mm-hmm. And you can also find the ministry, BHWCI, or Bright Hope Worship Center International. And you'll find a number of pages there that show what concerts that we're doing with spoken word, poetry, band developments, artist developments, and a number of other things. And you can also find me at the community center that we have. You can find all that through those links there. Or you can email me at seiler.bass at gmail.com. Seiler.bass? Uh-huh. S-I-L-E-R dot B-A-S-S, like the guitar, bass, at gmail.com. Okay. Well, we went to your fundraiser yesterday. Man, you guys are all awesome. Amazing. Amazing musicians. I mean, even the people coming out of the audience. Yeah. They were awesome. So I was like so high energy. Yeah. It was something else, man. I really appreciate that. Really good musicians, yeah. Well, we definitely appreciated you having me there. You know, it was such a blessing. We're definitely humbled in your presence, you know, that we could share something together and grow and watch other things happen. And greater is to come. Really, greater is to come. All right. Well, thank you, Pastor Ben, for being our guest on Positive Perspective. I'm going to turn it back over to Melvin. All right. You guys have a great evening. You too. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Well, listen, Shante, from Positive Perspective, great interview. Let's take a break for our Community Calendar, and then we'll come back with our other in-studio guests, 15 Minutes of Fame with Bobbie Buck and Shanna Sterling. This is the Community Calendar for the month of April. The Robie Theatre Company, in celebration of 20 years of excellent in black theater, presents a stage play. Knock Me a Kiss, written by Charles Smith and directed by Duane Perry. It's dealing with the Harlem Renaissance, Dr. Du Bois, Cullens, Lunsford, the Talented Tenth, and the Wedding of the Century. This weekend will be the final performance. Thursday, May the 1st, Friday, May 2nd, Saturday, May 3rd, at 8 p.m., Sunday, May the 4th, at 3 p.m. The location is the Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, California. For more information or for ticket information, please contact 866-811-411 or visit robietheatrecompany.org or thelatc.org. And be sure and give them a call because some of the performers have already been invited. And we'll be back with more of the shows. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For more information, please contact 866-811-411. For more information, please contact 866-811-411. For more information, please contact 866-811-411. For more information, please contact 866-811-411. For more information, please contact 866-811-411. For more information, please contact 866-811-411. For more information, please contact 866-811-411. For more information, please contact 866-811-411. please contact Dramastage1 at yahoo.com or 213-479-1764. And this is just a reminder, if you have a community event that you would like announced on our show, send the information to Dramastage1 at yahoo.com. Attention, Earlene Anthony. And the call-in number for our show is 800-893-9562. Now back to our host. Okay, thank you, Ms. Earlene Anthony. Now, at this time, we're going to go into Bobby Buck with his 15 minutes of fame. Log on, log on, log on, log on to bobbybuck.com. bobbybuck.com. Log on, log on, log on, log on, log on, log on to bobbybuck.com. bobbybuck.com. bobbybuck.com. bobbybuck.com. bobbybuck.com. bobbybuck.com. All right, all right. Here we are, 15 minutes of fame, Action Talk with Bobby Buck and Shana Sterling. And today, we have our guest. My first guest would be Mr. Uncle Bean. Blesses, blessings. All right, how you doing, sir? Shouts out to all. Love and respect all day, every day. All right. I feel you on that. Yeah, I'm glad we got you in here, man. Actually, first of all, how did you get your name Uncle Bean? I come from my nieces and nephews. Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah. My brother and my sister, they blessed me, you know what I'm saying, to be an uncle. You know what I mean? And my brother called me Bean, so everybody started calling me Bean. And my nieces and nephews called me Uncle Bean. So it's a name of responsibility. I take on that responsibility. I give thanks for it. All right, man. That's cool. I'm glad everybody wanted to know what that meant. Okay, I'm going to ask you, how long have you been on Skid Row? I've been on Skid Row over 14 years. Over 14 years? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. A lot of community, a lot of people in the community. Being a small business owner, I've been off and on for over 15 years. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Building all these different relationships with all the people. Watching people get off the Greyhound, coming off the... The M-Track, coming fresh from the airport, not knowing about Skid Row, you know what I mean? And watching their experiences and giving them proper guidance in any way I possibly can. Right. Okay, I feel like when I first went down there, I was like, where am I? It's a learning experience, too. It's great for me. So what about the music, man? When did you get started doing the music? I've been doing music since I was a little kid, you know what I mean? So... Yeah. As far as playing an instrument, I started doing that around my early teens. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Picked up the saxophone, learned how to write and compose music and all that stuff. Oh. But I've been writing, rapping, and singing since way before then. I'm talking about like three, four, five years old. Okay. So for real a lifetime. So I could be in play instruments, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay. Name them. Yo. Name them. I'm a saxophonist. Okay. You know what I'm saying? If I could play the saxophone, I can play basically every woodwind. It's the same fingering. Hmm. Okay. So I'm learning that. Okay. You know what I'm saying? It's the same fingering, flute, clarinet. You know what I'm saying? Saxophone, the fingering is all the same. Okay. Piccolo. You know what I mean? All right. All of it. The fingering is the same. All right. I'll tell you what. Yeah, I got to see your showcase this past Thursday, man. How you went down, put it down. And, you know, I had a great time up there. That's beautiful. I appreciate it. You know what I'm saying? You coming out and everything. Yeah. I appreciate everybody coming out. It really wasn't even for me. It was just basically more so for the community. Okay. Well, you feel like doing a little something live in here today? That's never no problem. You know that. No problem? Okay. Everything ready? All right. Go ahead and get something going. Yeah, this is something I know. I don't want to miss it. It's all reality. I just see it. Yeah, it's called For Me Only. Yeah. Yeah. She says, For Me Only. Yeah. Yeah. She says, For Me Only. Yeah, For Me Only. Reality of the seat coming. You know what I'm saying? November this year. We're going to promote it throughout the summer. For Me Only. For Me Only. She no give away. She has been every night many day. She work hard. Me go hard. Me play my part. She play a part. Yeah. She says, For Me Only. Boom, boom, never give away. Me do like every day, every day. We love her, walk with her, hold her hands, me kiss her. Yeah. She say she love me. Yeah. Every lover's love. I want to do what we gotta do. So you, my girl, fool, don't diss. Because she a my miss. I mean, I miss that side. You don't understand. She says for me only. Yeah, yeah. She says for me only. For me only. Yeah. She says for me only. She says for me only. Yeah, you'll be able to pick this up on iTunes. It's going to release this November. And the video, you know what I'm saying, is already on YouTube. So you can check that out. You know what I mean? That for me, not for you. That for me, not for you. That for me, not for you. If she choose, she choose. It's not you. What she choose? This dude. It's this dude. Yeah, she choose. She choose. And it's this dude. So why you want our bad attitude? Yeah. She says for me only. Yeah. She says she want me only. So the boy can't get that. And then my friend, Lorde Hemings, coming right here. Done some business is all that she knows. She says for me only. Not going to live your life like you're living like Al Capone. She says for me to turn up from sundown to sunup. Josie was telling me that she hung up. And every night, she was like, oh, I'm going to bed. She ever asked me if I listen down silent. She said strip. She says for me only. Yes, it's a big tune. It's going to be a big tune for summertime and party time. Yeah, all the festivals, all the festivals going to tear it up. Me and Bobby Buck, we're going to put together a big venue too. So y'all got to make sure y'all stay tuned. You know what I'm saying? So y'all get the information. Y'all can come out and support. You know what I mean? We're going to be fundraising, trying to help out all the skittish people. All the skit roll organizations. Right on. We're going to be trying to build up everything that we need to build up for prosperity in poverty. Right on, man. Right on. That's what's up. I appreciate it. There you have it, there. Uncle Bing, y'all ready for 2014? It's already here. Yeah, we taking care of it too. Win-win this year. Win-win. 2014. All right. So now we got Ms. Shauna Sterling and your guest. So who do you have with us today? All righty. Thank you for that. That gave me a little groove. I'm going to give you a little bit of a tour of the venue. All right. So we got Ms. Shauna Sterling and your guest. Thank you for that. That gave me a little groove right there. Yeah, man. He's on to the next. I was grooving in my seat. My guests were too. I have Jay and Adrian from ACI, and they're going to explain to you what ACI is and how you can get some training with no money out of your pocket. Jay? Yes. Basically what ACI stands for is that we're trying to get people in the community to go to school. Right. Without getting any student loans. What's going on in the community is that a lot of these young kids are getting these student loans, then they can't pay them back. So what we want to do is get them trained in good careers where they can get good jobs and good paying jobs without going into debt. One thing we do too is that if they have driving, we take care of their parking. If they need to catch the bus, we take care of their parking, well, bus fare. And if they don't have a high school diploma, what we do now, we're starting ACI. We're starting a GED preparation class to get them prepared for the GED. So the only thing they have to do is come to the school, see what we have to offer, and we give them all the attention they need to be successful. Oh, man. Okay. So what courses do you have at your site? Computer Aid, Drafting and Design, Computer Electronics and Technology, Computer Business Information Systems. And we offer the Computer Systems and Processing. Okay. And we have a lot of programming. Another thing too that we have is that we have a ESL class for people that want to get their English classes going. So we offer that too at no cost to them. Yeah, I would like to ask a question. Well, actually make a statement. Listeners, please take heed to what he's saying. Because what you want to do is keep yourself out of debt. Because if you carry debt, then basically people own your pay. So if you carry debt, then basically people own your pay. So if you carry debt, then basically people own your pay. So if you carry debt, then basically people own your pay. So if you carry debt, then basically people own your papers. That means they own you. You want to buy your freedom. You want to stay out of debt. So in actuality, ACI, you need to, you know what I'm saying, give your initiative, you know what I'm saying, and apply yourself to keep yourself out of debt, get the training, and you know what I'm saying, listen to what family is talking about because, you know what I'm saying, you want to stay out of debt, be debt free. Right, absolutely. You know what I'm saying? When you're debt free, then you truly are free. So, you know what I'm saying? Take heed to what he's saying. Yeah. what you said. Say that again, Uncle Ben. Pay debt free. Basically, you keep your buying power so you have money to buy a house one day or buy a car, you know, I mean, come on. So, that's what we're doing in ACI. Right. Now, they need to understand that the reason that you're not having to take those student loans out is because so many of us have those student loans and it's designed to keep you paying them because the interest rate is so high. Yeah, I had a young lady come there that she got her student loan in 1998. She just paid it off in 2014. Wow. That means she paid for two loans. Wow. That means she had, she probably went without buying a house, car, whatever, taking a trip, whatever. What we're trying to do is help these, especially young people, whatever, not to go into or fall into these faults. Preachers are going to school and paying 20 grand for a car. That's a program that's not going to give them the money they need to be successful. Right. And that's what we're trying to do at ACI. Okay. And we also have, we work with the veterans. Yes, we definitely work with the veterans. My name is Adrian. We work with vets on a day-to-day basis and what we try to do is take all veterans from Vietnam era up to the current day, recently separated, so that they also don't get into debt-free, that they become debt-free. We have some guys that come up from the military and they might be the guys that are on the front line. But when you come home, you have one opportunity and maybe that's LAPD or the sheriff. That's not going to work too cool for you. So what we try to do is give them a vocational training that will benefit them and their families so they can have substantial living and good money and give them a career path. So yeah, we like to work with the vets. We don't only like to work with the vets, we like to work with those persons that are recently separated from incarceration. We feel that it's real big because we're not because here again, they're coming out of a situation and we want to give them something to build a foundation up on. So our school is open to all those for those that want to benefit themselves, take advantage of no loans and then build a platform. Second chance. So that they can build a platform for themselves so that they can be a lot more successful to take care of their families. We have a lot of guys that are coming home that have families that are waiting for them. But then when they become engaged in something, that they like to do, we find that the recidivism would not be as high. And then we have, absolutely, we put them to work. So it's a good deal. All right. Can I ask one? Go right ahead. Basically, in a nutshell, family, what you're saying is, what you're saying is, don't, regardless where you're coming out of the military or coming out of prison, you know what I'm saying? Don't be afraid to reassess life and readjust yourself in society. Right. Don't be afraid, you know what I'm saying, to change your life. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Don't be afraid to better yourself. It's all these different organizations and all these different people that don't mind mending their hand. You just got to allow yourself to accept their hand. Step forward. ACI. Yeah, step forward. That's right. That's right. That's right. Right on. Now, a person coming to ACI about how they're going to live and how long is the courses? 36 weeks. 8 to 1 or they can come in the evenings and take it from 5 to 10. Okay. And one good thing about this program is that, say for example, they have an emergency or they got to go for an interview or whatever, they can come at night. It's the same teacher. Whoa. Or they can switch and come in the morning. Same teacher. Okay. The teacher can give it his all. Putting all that time into it. And the teacher can put their time into it. You can put your time into it. Amen. Amen. Absolutely. I'm going to be the first one to sign up for this. And one thing they do too is that as soon as they start the program, we start the process of finding them a job. We start the process of building their resume, getting them ready to interview, how to get the job, how to interview, how to interview, how to interview. And that's the key. Like we talked about earlier, no excuses. No excuses. ACI basically providing everything for you. Just got to show up. And you can, just from ACI, you can provide everything for yourself. Right on. Right. Yeah. Right. Everything that you need. The county and the state ain't got to provide it for you. The military ain't got to provide it for you. You can provide it for yourself. Everything's included. No out-of-pocket costs. Man. Say that again. No out-of-pocket costs. No out-of-pocket costs. And everything included. Everything's included. And all the benefits are that you are, with application, all the benefits, all the benefits that you are going to succeed in all your ambitions. Yeah. Every goal that you set. You can't go wrong with that. No, man. Right. And everything leads to a national certification. That's the key. Okay. Absolutely. So at the end of 36 weeks, you come out of there with a certification. Or a license. Or a license. And one of your courses. And you also... In 36 weeks. In 36 weeks. And also you come out with 24 credits towards your AA degree. Whoa. Oh. Hey, look at that. Look at that. You're getting extra credits. You're getting extra credits. And then you qualify for another Pell Grant because you can get a Pell Grant every year as long as you don't have a bachelor's degree. Hello. So they can take the credits from your school and they can apply it to higher education. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I'll tell you like this. I love this place. If you get off your bottoms and you apply yourself to AC... ACI. You apply... Get off your bottoms and apply yourself to ACI. Then you can even go to a university. Correct. It's so transferable. It's transferable. Absolutely. You can go to a university. I'm talking about... I mean, make a big difference. You don't like how attorneys be acting? You go to law school. You can change some of the laws. Get out there. Do it. Don't waste no time. ACI, y'all. ACI. Yeah. ACI. Okay, so what would a person need to do to come to ACI? How do they get in touch with you? What is the process? Basically, they should just make a phone call. Come in. Matter of fact, we even have them sit in a class for a whole week just to check it out to see if they like it. Oh, man. It's like a trial basis. So, you know, we just want to make sure they're good for what we're trying to do. The kids with our programs, it all leads to good careers and good jobs and good pay. And y'all have a passion. I mean, all these can lead, I mean, from web design, a lot of people want to start their own web pages. They want to start their own business. I need to be in it. Okay. Yeah. I mean, with Adrian, he works with the fiber optic cable and all that. I mean, you know, they get A-plus certification. Cisco. I mean, I don't know if that boss there says Cisco, but it might be. Okay, so give us your contact information. Our phone number is 213-383-8999. And you can ask for Jay Cartier or Adrian. And we're at 34-8-999-999. 34-8-999-999. Wilshire Boulevard, suite 1100. Okay, people, come on in and see Adrian and Jay. And when you come in and see them, tell them the Kuhn Rhyme Report. Call me early and I'll get you a cup of coffee. Oh, man. It's on. Hey, y'all better be flooding down now. I'm talking about, you know what I'm saying, great opportunity. All right. Change your life. Apply yourself. All right. Don't deny yourself. At no cost to you, apply yourself. Apply yourself. All right. There you have it. A nice, nice show with some great information, some great music at the same time. You know, get that everywhere you go. So I guess it's about time to turn it over to Mr. Melvin Johnson. Thank you. And we straight west coasting it right here on bobbybuck.com. Global, man, businessman, bobbybuck.com. Got a call or what it is. Hey, yo, man, I'd like to give a shout out to bobbybuck.com. Nobody that's psyched got it going on. So everybody log on to bobbybuck.com. No doubt. Keep it locked right here on bobbybuck.com. Yeah, we're going to talk a little bit. Come on back. You're on. You're back on? Okay. That was Bobby Buck with his 15 minutes of fame. We still got a little time. We're going to talk about a few things that's in the news. I want to talk a little about what's happening in the downtown Skid Row area. It's a lot of, I want to pick up on that. We had a show a couple weeks ago. We talk about what's happening in Skid Row. How do you think we saw the homeless problem? It looked like it's getting larger instead of small. Anybody want to pick up on that? Well, me personally, a lot of things are structured to be the way that they are. You know, and with the population, you know what I'm saying, it's growing, but even with population, control, how they're trying to decrease it is still increasing at a rapid pace. You know, and when it comes down to the financial situation, you know, as far as employment, you know what I mean, the responsibilities that adults face as far as whether it's a single-parent home or a two-parent home, you know what I'm saying, some people cannot even afford to cover a single bedroom. Yeah. Okay. Look, I want to get, I want to get Willis and Shante also in here on our discussion. Can I comment on that? Yeah, we can share. Jesus said that the poor will always be with us, so I don't believe there's any way we're going to fix that problem. I think that we have to, we have to use, I don't, you know, not everybody believes in Christ, but we have to be charitable to one another. You know, we have to give. We have to try to find solutions, and maybe that's why we always have the poor, so it can make people like ourselves get up off our butts and try to find solutions. Well, let me ask this. What can we do about, I know that you've got a lot of young men, brothers, and coming up out of prison. You've got a lot of veterans that end up down there. How can we help get a lot of them back on the track and back into the community? I would like to say what the veterans, what the veterans need is resources. You know, let the veterans know what the resources are, and then also cut out some of the red tape. You know, you have to go through so many changes to go see a doctor. Yeah. To get some physical, if you have a mental problem or you have something wrong with yourself. So you go through a lot of changes, and the guy gets frustrated. He says, you know, I've served my country, and then now there's nothing here for me, and I have to go through six, seven, eight, nine months before I can get to see somebody. So I think if we, get together and break down some of that red tape, make it more feasible for them to go get some services immediately, I think that'll stop some of that. It's like what he's, what he's saying, pardon me for interrupting. The acronym is PTSD. Because regardless, again, what we was talking about earlier, regardless if you've been in prison or been in the military, you know what I'm saying? You suffer from everything that you've already been through. You haven't really actually had time to come back into society and be able to function, you know what I'm saying, as a regular, well, what's considered a normal human being, you know? And that plays a major part because it's like you want to escape. You want to escape the reality that you went through what you went through, you know? And then seeing what you see, you know? And then having to deal with what you're dealing with. And then you feel like, you know what I'm saying, the enemy is always coming at you. Everyone deals with this, even whether it's the bill collector, whether it's law enforcement on Skid Row, regardless, the whole community deals with this. You know? And to a degree, the main thing that all of us want to do when it comes down to anything negative that comes against us, we want to escape it. Okay. Chante, you want to say something? Kind of disagreeing with what Willis said, having it in our hearts to reach out and having it in our hearts to give. I think a lot of us kind of just turn a blind eye to it and feel like that's just the way it is and we can't do anything. We can't do anything about it, but I think if we, like he was saying about resources and trying to plan and create an effective way to get things done instead of, like you said, red tape and all these hoops you have to jump through to get anything done, it's like, it takes so long for things to get done. I think people need to just sit down and try to figure out an effective way to make change, but we can do it. I think a lot of us just kind of just give up on it because the way things are. Yeah, just like right now, it's out there like this. I got mine, you get yours. Key word. That's a bad attitude. Key word. Seriously. I got mine, you get yours. Patience. A lot of people are not exercising patience, but still as far as the community of Skid Row, you know, majority of the Skid Row community has witnessed everything that they've been witnessing. Again, PTSD, you know, just because a kid ain't been to war, you know what I'm saying, when he's been on the streets, he's seeing everything going on. He's growing up in his battlefield. He's growing up in his jungle. Still traumatized. Absolutely. And don't know anything other than. Hasn't been shown anything other than. You know, and then the abuse comes in. After so much abuse from so many other people, you start to abuse yourself and then just like they gave up on life, it's passed down. You give up on life. I wrote a poem called Passing Down Poison and that's basically how the community is structured, passing down poison. And we didn't pass the poison down to ourselves. You know what I'm saying? It's something that we were born into, we accepted, adapted to, and adjust to every day. Okay. Thank you very much. Now, I would like to extend a special thanks to Willis, Boyd, Shante, Duncan, Bobby, Buck, Shanna, Sterling, and all of our guests we got over here. Uncle Bean, over here, everybody. Great show, great discussion. Thank you for tuning in to the Coombran Report. You can please listen to past shows of the Coombran Report on iTunes, Stitcher, Tumblr, Googler, and skidrow.la. Thank you for tuning in to the Coombran Report and from your host, Melvin Ishmael Johnson, may the peace and blessings of the life-giving creative spirit be upon you and upon your family. I leave you with Butterfly by Willis and Shante of Positive Light Ministry. That's a rocking. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My God, it's true, they say the devil's a scout. Walked with a pocket midnight, I didn't need a surprise. I'm just a teenage clown, I was under the streetlight. Searching, I'm begging, got something I got in my last fight. I knew the problems could be learned, but the thing they made me feel is if I had a gun, I'd love it. The problems can't be told, but if you put on a step, it's really hard to want it stolen. Ain't never seen a wild guy like me. Don't skip a fight. Crack it down, you're just a scout. They live in a place that you won't know, know, know. Ain't never seen a wild guy like me. Don't skip a fight. Don't know that you're here, so leave without. Man, she's been living for a while. I'm trying to hear what she said down the street. They give me chicken potatos, more than she's fighting to break. I'm hungry, so I gotta get my scroll on. No, guess she's living in control. This thing enough, I'm being out of shape. Face down the street, put on my neck, but it made me escape. I thought police was focused on me. I'm not gonna pretend. We're troopers like we always thought we'd be. Sniffing and shirking, my words being long. While we tell them to stop, I'm gonna walk in and I'll respond. I'm dancing against people who beat the gold. But I ain't seen a street flame, and I'm not gonna be able to. Ain't never seen a wild guy like me. Don't skip a fight. Don't skip a fight. Crack it down, you're just a scout. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. For if you were up there, I'd fight. Thank you.