📄 Transcript [show]
This right here is a letter to my little brothers and my little nieces.
I want you guys to know that I love y'all and I miss y'all so much.
I know I haven't seen you guys in a long time.
Just the other night, I was holding both of you in my arms.
Saying uncle loves you, singing while both of you would fall asleep.
Two hours passed by, y'all woke up to watch TV.
I look into your eyes, you guys call me dad.
I smile and you laugh.
I look into your eyes, you guys call me dad.
I smile and you laugh.
I will leave you guys with cry, that will hurt me.
I will go back to visit you guys.
Run up to me and hug me.
I want you guys to know that uncle loves you.
And this is my letter to you.
This is my letter to you, and I miss you so much.
I'll be praying for you, stay strong.
This is for you, and I'll be here for you.
My letter to you.
This is my letter to you, and I miss you so much.
I'll be praying for you, stay strong.
This is for you, and I'll be here for you.
My letter to you.
This right here is a letter to my little brothers and my little nieces.
I want you guys to know that I love y'all and I miss y'all so much.
I know I haven't seen you guys in a long time.
Just the other day, I was thinking about the time.
We were moving.
We went to Gullah for a new place.
We went for a walk.
Y'all gave me your hands.
We almost there.
We make it to the other side.
Downtown Skid Row, seeing people laying on the floor.
My brothers couldn't believe it.
My letter to you by P.L.A.P.
Welcome to the Coon Round 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 number is 800-893-9562.
You can listen to us live or download our show and any past show by Googling in skidrow.la and hit Coon Round Report.
Now, this week on the Coon Round Report, we will be talking about the Skid Row and the downtown community with Olashay Banjo, Kay Osumi, and Bobby Buck.
Welcome to the Coon Round Report.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Yeah.
So, Olashay, let's start off talking about Skid Row.
We know the elections is coming up.
Can you give us all the basic information about the election?
The elections will be coming up.
It will be April 3rd, which is on Thursday.
And the voting will be at the downtown library on 5th Street, the main library on 5th Street.
And if you want, I can, like, run down the candidates.
Running for private sector workforce unopposed is Alan Gross.
He was a board member of the Neighborhood Council two times.
And running for arts, culture, and educational resident is Anastasia Palmer.
And she's also running unopposed.
Her while was too long for me.
Yes.
Running for South Park resident is Andrew D.
Ruiz.
He's running against Scott Bytoff.
I'm saying that wrong, I know.
And running for historic downtown resident is Ashley Sharaki.
I said that wrong.
And she's running against Barrett Riff Morse.
And also against Eric R.
Garcia.
And also against Hunter Kerhart.
And R.
Patrick Cooper.
The Alameda East resident candidates are Brad Wesley Fillman.
He's running unopposed.
Arts and cultural education is Casey J.
Dadeley.
And he's running against Dana L.
Carter.
Edgar and Edgar Varela.
Also.
Farida Amar.
She's also running for the arts and cultural education.
And also Matthew James Parike is also running.
With Ryan Glenn Dorsey running against him.
For the fashion district resident, the candidates are Dan Bartholomew.
Jerry Dawson.
And that's it.
City West business is David Hurtado.
And area-wide homeless residents is Eric Dean.
He's running against Joseph Major Thomas.
And Thomas Joseph Grodd.
The Central City East Skid Row resident.
They're running is Eric Jarrett Ellis.
Our very own General Jeff.
Jack Jekyll's Daryl Carr.
And also Ron J.
Smith.
The area-wide business he's running unopposed is Hal Bastion.
Area-wide resident is J.
Russell Brown.
That's a candidate.
Steven Leon Kane is also running against Mr. J.
Russell Brown.
And that's it.
For the downtown center business is Jerry Infosado.
I said that wrong.
Simon Ha is running against him.
South Park business is K.D.
Kathy Neal and Travis Kasper.
I'm going to say his last name because his first name is, his middle name is a mess.
And Tyler Murphy is also running against them.
The social services providers, Kevin Michael Kay, Michael Eastman, Robert Newman, and Wendell T.
Blassingame are running against each other for that position.
And running for Alameda East businesses, and the other two are running against the South Park business.
And that's it.
That's all.
That's all.
That's all the ones that really matter to everybody else.
Okay.
Thank you.
Let's talk about what's happening in the Skid Row.
First of all, let's go around the table a minute.
Take just a couple minutes and tell me your thoughts on Skid Row.
What are your thoughts on Skid Row?
I've been a resident here for 10 years.
And I've seen it.
I've seen it.
And it's, at its worst, some of it was like, it was really bad when I first got here.
But it's calmed down a lot.
But we still need to, we still have a long way to go.
There's still like some mess.
I mean, sometimes I don't really like to walk down certain streets because of the stench and the smell is like, ugh.
But it's a lot better than what it used to be is what I'm gonna say.
But we're not there yet.
Okay.
Okay, you'll assume me.
Yeah.
I would say the problem with the stench and, you know, is that they do not provide enough toilet facilities, sanitary facility for the people in Skid Row.
Now, if you don't have the sanitary facilities, you know, they have a few couple, but then they lock them up at night or something.
They're not open.
They're not maintained.
They need, you need to have enough.
You need to have enough trash cans, you know, and you need to have enough pickup.
You need to have street cleaning.
You need to have the public services that have, that they have in the very affluent area and they don't have in the Skid Row area.
It's just like what they used to do.
Uh, even before mayor, uh, Tom Bradley became mayor.
Uh, he was the mayor of Skid Row.
Uh, he was the mayor of Skid Row.
Uh, he was the mayor of Skid Row.
And when he was mayor, the ghetto, the streets were always left to, to, to potholes and everything.
Sidewall cracking.
They never maintained that.
And that was on purpose.
They didn't care about the poor people.
And the same thing is going on in Skid Row.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, when I look at it, it really, uh, one day I was walking down there.
Um, and I just thought about, I said, this is really idiotic.
It is.
It don't make any sense.
Because, well, I mean, it can easily be taken care of.
And like I say, with the games and the tricks they play through the politics and stuff, you know what I'm saying?
Because all they have to do is collaborate with the people who live there on the streets and inside the missions, like we've already been working with doing surveys.
This past weekend, I think the weekend before last, Pastor Q has been doing the surveys and everything.
So right now, the people's voices need to be heard.
That's the main thing, and we're just already in the works.
And the products, not the products, but the missions, the services just need to be upgraded and enhanced and up to date.
And then that's the main thing, just be the quality of the service.
What's the purpose of the survey?
Oh, the purpose is, well, I don't know it all in detail, but I think what he's wanting to do is find out why the people sleep outside instead of sleeping on the inside.
And some stuff like the surveys want to know about how the food is.
Do you like it?
Is it okay?
You know, how many times do you eat?
And, you know, they want to know the people's own words on why they sleep outside and, you know, what's the process.
And that's the problem with the inside of the shelter.
Let's talk about some of that.
I can give an answer to that because I've talked to a number of people who live on the street.
Some of them have told me they like living on the street because they have no rules.
Because if you go to like one of the missions, if you go to one of the housing places, because I live in Skid Row Housing Trust, if you go to there, if you go to the SRO, you're going to have to like abide by their rules.
No drugging, no bringing people in by a certain time.
And you know what?
You're going to have to abide by that.
Some people don't want to do that because they feel like they're, some of them are on drugs or on alcohol.
And some of them are like, you know, are kind of like crazy mentally.
You know, I don't mean crazy.
I mean, say like there's some of them are kind of mentally ill.
And a lot of people, they just don't want to do it.
Like one of the cast members of Loma San Pedro, he lives on the streets.
He's been living on the streets for what he tells me for almost like 15 years.
And he said, because he said he doesn't want to, he doesn't like the rules.
He doesn't like the rules of the places.
And I'm like, wow.
Okay.
Well, let me ask you this question then.
If people don't like to live on the streets, why are they so concentrated in one particular area?
That's the first question I want to ask.
And then the other one I want to ask is why when you look at Skid Row, it's about 80% African-Americans.
Hmm.
The 80% African-Americans is, I believe that's like a, hmm.
It's a society.
It's a cultural thing.
That's what I believe.
I mean, cause we're, I don't know.
We're programmed to, to, I can't really, it's not really an easy answer to that question because I can't, I'm not an expert.
Like my name is not doctor.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I really don't know that answer by the 80%.
But some of them are concentrated because they like to be out in the community, like together in the community.
So people can watch their stuff when they go out and do their thing.
Like, that's why one of them, his name is.
That's his name.
But he was one of the cast members.
He was, he had people watching his stuff while he was like doing the play at nighttime and, and, and, and taking care of his business.
He has people watching his stuff and he has people that he can trust to watch his stuff.
And you know what really, it really like boggled my mind cause I am also a member of LAMP.
And I used to be a member of their money management.
I was like, it boggled my mind.
Some of these, some of the people.
Are getting like social security and, and they're getting SSI and all that stuff.
And they're getting more than I'm getting.
And yet they're, they love living on the street.
I'm like, well, I had that money.
I would be in somebody's place.
Yeah.
Well, let me just, do you think it has a lot to do with the fact that African American is probably the only group in the United States that do not practice group economics?
I agree.
The fact that you.
You really, around here in L.A., you know, you really don't have an African-American business community in which they control.
And then when you look at the fact that African-American makes up about 9% of the population of L.A.
And then, like I say, 80% is land in the street.
Now, the churches, what do you think is the obligation of the churches to solving this problem, solving this homeless problem?
We're supposed to, like the Bible says, we're supposed to help each other out.
We're supposed to help the homeless.
We're supposed to feed the poor.
Not only feed the poor, but bring them in and treat them better than we treat the people who have homes.
But a lot of churches don't do that.
They feel like just coming down here once a month or once a week is solving the problem.
But, no, they have to.
The churches have to really get involved because I applaud.
I remember when I was homeless, the last time I was homeless, I went to one church and they said, oh, no, we can't help you.
A black church.
I'm like, what?
You can't help me.
I've been going to this church for so long.
I've been growing this church since I was a baby.
You guys are just like, what?
But we, there is some churches that do help.
But the majority of churches, they think like just coming down here once a month and feeding people.
Or once a week to feed people.
It's helping.
It's not doing anything.
You're putting a band-aid on a problem.
You're not really giving a healing solution.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, like I say, what I see with a lot of churches, it's mainly about the business aspect of the church.
As far as like, you know, running a business, you know, making money and everything.
But like I say, it's supposed to be the business of the Lord, of God.
And the business is to really go out and help people.
And bring people in and nourish them spiritually and also physically and everything.
But it don't really happen.
Like everybody's separated and divided.
And nobody's working together, you know.
So like, I don't know, just like everybody's stuck in the same old format.
And nobody wants to go outside the box.
Like people are afraid.
And it seems like they've been doing what they're doing for so long, they can't break out of it.
And if you're not doing the same thing they're doing, they think that you are the one that's crazy.
But really, it's not.
It's not.
But really, it's a lot of people.
Like when I was living in the shelters and stuff, it's a lot of people, you know, they might have been gay.
Or they might have been gangbanging.
Or they might have been whatever they was doing, the sinful.
They would all sit together and talk about God.
And see, and those are the people that the church throw away to the wayside.
And they sit back and they communicate with one another.
And they talk to each other.
And they talk about God.
But it's the people in the church that the people...
Are turned off by.
It's not God.
Yeah.
Okay.
Now, what do you think about...
Let me ask you this.
Another shameful aspect of what's happening in the Skid Row community is the fact that you have so many veterans that's laying in the street.
Probably about 30% of the homeless population you see out here are veterans.
The ones who have served their country.
The country, you know, nine times out of ten.
You've traumatized them, messed them up.
And haven't gave them the path back in terms of adjusting back to society.
What was...
Any thoughts on that?
I agree with that.
I mean, because America...
I mean, I hate to say it like that.
But we don't really honor our servicemen and women like we should.
They should have front...
In my opinion, they should have front priority in housing.
And we should treat them with honor.
Because they served us.
But we just...
We don't really care.
We're just...
Whatever.
You did what you had to do.
We used you.
We got what we wanted.
So now go ahead.
Do what you have to do.
When we needed...
Like you said, we need to provide more care for them.
Better care for them.
So that way they can...
Because a lot of them have PTSD.
And I've never been a veteran.
But I have friends who are veterans.
And they have some horrible stories about where they went.
And we should provide treatment for them.
We should provide top-notch medical care.
Top-notch facilities.
But we don't care.
We're like, whatever.
Now, let me point this out.
Let me...
I want to talk about...
I want to throw this out.
I want to talk about the homeless problem.
As the homeless industry complex that have developed.
And let's go back and talk about President Dwight D.
Eisenhower.
Right?
When he was the president.
And America was building up their arms in the military to challenge what was happening in the Soviet Union.
The so-called Cold War.
He warned them of the military-industrial complex.
Which would take a life of its own.
You know, where we see now that the majority of our businesses...
The budget goes towards the military.
Way more than education and taking care of the citizens.
The health and all of that.
And then came along the second complex.
If we want to look at it.
The prison-industrial complex.
Which took a life of its own.
You know, where...
For example, the state of California.
For every inmate to have incarcerated in prison.
They get fairly close.
To $50,000 a year.
To take care of that one inmate.
You know, that's an education there.
Yes.
And now what I see happening.
Is a homeless-industrial complex.
That have created a paradox.
See, the more money that you put off into it.
And this is what people don't...
What they must start looking at this fact.
You can take $10, $15, $20 million.
And put it into the homeless situation.
What you're going to create.
Is a bureaucracy around that.
Because you're going to create jobs for people.
Who is based upon people being homeless.
Yes.
See?
Yes.
So the paradox come about is.
Why would these people be trying to.
Put themselves out of a job.
By solving the homeless problem.
You're right about that.
By getting up all of them.
So the question is.
What can we do to get out of that paradox?
There is no easy solution to that.
There isn't any easy solution to that.
Because.
No matter how we try to talk about it.
It's still going to be the way it is.
You have a lot of people.
Because if there was no homeless people.
There would be no.
No.
No.
No workers.
No job.
You know.
No missions.
No.
You know.
For people to sleep in.
And the missions depend on money from the government.
To take care of these people who are homeless.
And a lot of people.
But also they have a.
They have a.
I think it was a survey or something like that.
Oh.
Advocates.
They call them homeless advocates.
But that says.
That it's everybody's right to be homeless.
Yes.
It is your right to be homeless.
But.
It's.
Look.
Look.
Look.
Look at.
Look at everything that's going on.
I mean.
It's like gosh.
The bills.
I mean.
Everything is going.
Even the buses they're talking about.
They're going to go up.
Everything is going up.
Pretty soon it's like.
We're going to.
We already have like a.
A shift.
Like.
There's not.
There's not even going to be a middle class anymore.
Okay.
And most of us.
Think we're heading that.
Okay.
Now I'm going to come back and talk about some possible solutions.
I'm sorry I get passionate.
In a minute.
But Kay.
Let me hear your thoughts on.
What do you think?
Well.
A lot has to do with the capitalist system itself.
There is.
There's less and less living wage jobs for people.
Okay.
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for 10 to $30 an hour.
Okay, so that's money in their corporations pocket.
And also automation, robots, computers, they do the work that human beings used to do.
It's nothing wrong with that, except it just under the capitalist system, it puts a whole lot of people in the unemployment column.
And that adds to the growth of the homeless people.
So fundamentally, it's sort of a system, it's a systemic problem.
Okay, Bobby.
Yeah, like I say, with the system, like the system is set up, it's created, it's set up to create an animal-like attitude to get over on the next man.
And so it's not set up to help each other get ahead in life, except to get over on the next man, it's a stomp and put them down, like I say, with the crack in the guns back in the day.
Once they did that, like I say, with people being deprived from having money or having access to anything, then once you give it to them, they all cram in like animals.
So it's like only the strong survive.
So what we would do, people do unto others, which has been done unto them, instead of doing unto others, which they want done unto them.
So we gotta work together from the bottom of the barrel and try to change that.
Really, you gotta start out with these youth as far as trying to do the changing.
Okay.
Now let me say this, now our organization, Drama Stage Goon Run, we've been talking about this for years.
And it's a possible, here's what we see as a solution.
Instead of stop wasting and throwing all these monies at these huge organizations, which is nothing but corporations, it's only years.
We think it's a, a two-step process.
First of all, you have to make the homeless problem, the homeless veteran problem.
That have to be out at the forefront.
That's true.
And then you get the federal government, the United States who have messed up all of these veterans and threw them away, right?
To come up with a think tank, right?
To solve the homeless problem for these homeless veterans, to get them off the street.
And then the plan that they come up with, you roll that out for the rest of the homeless.
Now that's a long term solution.
Now at the same time, the second part of that, for example, a city like Los Angeles.
You get these churches, right?
And you got tons of churches all over Los Angeles.
Mm-hmm.
You get these churches to start renting, or either buying, or renting.
either buying up all of this city property, this empty city property, a lot of them you can get real cheap, right, and start programming and bringing people off a skid row.
You know, bring them back to your community because that's where they belong.
You know, bring them back to the community.
That's the obligation of the church.
We know those that say that they follow the Messiah Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, or Moses.
That was the starting point.
That was the starting point for the Messiahship.
You know, talking about dealing with people in prison, people in need, and all that kind of church.
If they are church, that's the starting point.
It ain't about no TV ministry and all that way out entertainment.
I agree with that.
I definitely agree with that.
But a lot of churches are scared because they're just, like you said, they're only out for the money and only out for themselves.
Most of them, some of them, most of them are out for the money.
It's all about the money.
You know, because they're just trying to make it.
Well, let me actually just say, when you say a church is scared and they're supposed to believe in God, is they more afraid of, what they afraid of?
And they supposed to, God's supposed to rule the universe?
Yeah, I understand what you're saying.
What are they, you know, to me, if God is at the top in any of three of these major religions, you know, fear, and then when you look at all these people that have gave their life, like Dr. King, all of these ministers, and stuff that got, well, that, you know, fear, is that a legitimate option?
No, it's not a legitimate excuse.
It's not a legitimate excuse nor a legitimate option.
But some of them are, but some churches, some people are like, they're scared because they don't have, like, the right facilities to help these people who are kind of mentally ill.
And a lot of them are just like, like you said, scared to help people.
They're scared.
They're just like crazy.
Like, I don't understand.
I don't understand that myself.
Well, actually, I just think that really they're, they're brainwashed on the religion part, and they're stuck in a box, and they're afraid to come out that box.
And like, see, people go through life just going through the motions.
Just wake up and go to church.
Wake up and go to church.
But they're not doing any action of the words that they're reading.
The only thing they do, they read, they read it, they go home.
They read it and go home.
And then when they want something to happen, they think God's going to do magic.
We don't understand.
God works through man.
Yes.
Yeah.
And that's why the purpose is about networking, where we get all like-minded people together and work on doing some real help.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then one other thing I want to point out about the Skid Row area out here in California.
See, when you look at California penal system, right?
Mm-hmm.
And they have what they call four levels of incarceration.
Mm-hmm.
Starting off with the most violent and the one with the long-term crime.
That's level four.
You know, they use the, these individuals are supposed to be in single-cell living, right?
Mm-hmm.
And then you move around to level three, you know, which they have two individuals in a cell.
And then you move around to level three.
This is dormitory living, you're less violent offenders, right?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And you got level one.
Level one is your halfway houses, you know, people like that that's doing a little minor crime and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
Now, this is what Skid Row is.
Yes.
Skid Row is actually a level one facility.
You mentioned some of the rules and regulations that they put in some of these little organizations.
Yeah.
Skid Row Housing Trust, SRO, and all of that.
Yeah.
See, I think it's, with this election coming up.
Yeah.
See, I think one of the major differences between the election for the president, like President Obama.
Yes.
You know, which is fallacy.
We can't elect a president.
Yeah.
Electoral College, elect them.
That's true.
You know, but for these individuals that's running and supposed to be representing the people, it's time to show some results.
I agree with you.
And it's important for these individuals, right?
Mm-hmm.
To begin to network like what Bob would be talking about all the time.
You know, forget your differences.
Mm-hmm.
You know, everybody got differences.
Yes.
This time, the network can come up with some similarities and develop a team to solve this homeless problem and keep these huge corporations that's down there pretending like they missions and stuff like that.
But it's a big, huge corporation.
Same thing you see in prison with all these private prisons.
Mm-hmm.
Popping up and all like this.
The community, see, it's rhetoric is out.
It's time for all this little rhetoric and stuff because, see, what's beginning to happen, a lot of our women and children and our elderly is beginning to show up on skid row.
I see that.
Living in these tents.
I see that.
You know, and that's just shameful for a city like L.A.
that got more millionaires here than anywhere in the United States.
One of the wealthiest communities in West Hollywood.
And you got skid row down here in Los Angeles.
You know what?
It breaks my heart to see kids, like little kids, like in homeless tents and stuff like that.
It breaks my heart to see that.
I just like, I just don't even want to, just like, I just, I just like, oh, wow.
I just don't want to, I just want to close my eyes sometimes.
And to see some of these women, like, like, like you say, see some of these women just like, some of them are, have to prostitute themselves in order for them to get money.
And I'm like, wow, that's very sad.
That's shameful.
That's shameful.
And we, we claim that we, that we're.
We're broke.
But like you said, we have money for wars.
We have money for these missions.
We have money to do everything else.
We need to invest our money back in our communities.
Yeah.
And then we can't have, and then I'm going to turn it back over to the group.
We can't have an activist over here trying to deal with the system.
An activist over here trying to deal with the system.
The system is huge and the system is complex.
If you don't think the system is complex.
You watch what they did with the Occupy movement and how they wiped that out so quick because of the lack of leadership, the lack of centralization, you know, developing a power to deal.
You got to be organized to deal with the system.
See, one of the things I want to say about the mentally ill, because that's another issue down in the Skid Row area, you know, because I really believe, it's my belief that the, the, the, the area that they call the recovery zone.
The number one priorities of people down there should be people with mental issues because they need to be close.
I agree.
You know, they need to be close to their particular services and stuff.
But see what happened.
You got the economic thing of, of, of rent is so high around this LA area.
You got people down there that they only problem is a problem in the economy.
That's true.
So, so why would you go outside of the Skid Row area to pay eight or $900 a month?
That's a big problem.
That's a big problem.
So why would you pay eight or $900 a month for rent when you can get an SRO for 60 65 $70 and all that kinda stuff?
Because of the reputation of Skid Row.
Because a lot of people's reputation, a lot of people's thinking about Skid Row is that it's only for drug addicts or mentally ill people.
And a lot of people don't want to be around that stuff.
So that's why you know you don't have a lot of people migrating towards Skid Row.
So.
Because Skid Row has a bad reputation.
That's just point blank.
Skid Row has a bad reputation.
We're going to change that.
What about the media, their role as a mass media?
Television, newspaper, everything.
The police department, all of that.
They have a vast propaganda network.
And they're always coming down on Skid Row.
You know, they don't want...
Look, Skid Row is being gentrified right now.
That means big developers are coming in.
And they're taking all these...
For a while, all these low-cost housing or whatever they were.
And they're either...
Look, they're building all these huge skyscrapers.
A lot of expensive apartments.
There's big money in that.
And they don't want poor people around.
You know?
And they're bringing in...
What's going on is...
With the gentrification, a lot of middle-class people are coming in.
And there's a class divide.
There's always been a class divide in America.
There's always been a racial divide.
You know, it's a problem of the system.
And they use...
The media uses that.
Divide for their own benefit.
Now, who owns the media?
The giant conglomerate corporation.
50 years ago, you had a lot of independent media.
They have been slowly consolidated into fewer and fewer media.
You know?
A few corporations own...
There's, you know, Murdoch?
Yeah.
I mean, he'll...
There's corporations that own hundreds of radio stations and TV stations and newspapers.
See?
So it's less independent voice and more corporate power.
Yeah.
But see, one thing about...
I think what can make a dent in these huge media things...
And this is why this fight is so important.
And that's for control of the Internet right now.
You know, shows like...
These Internet shows, you know, they would love to control the Internet.
But see, they haven't figured out a way to do that yet.
And see, the people better...
You better wake up and keep them from doing this.
Because they've scooped up all of your major TV, your cable TV, the big, huge corporations got that.
But one other thing I want to point out for a minute, have us discuss.
I want to discuss...
The Cecil Hotel situation.
Yeah.
Because, see, here you got a situation, right?
Where you almost provide some low-income housing for what?
Over 300 and some people or something like that?
Yeah.
Might have been more than that.
Yeah.
See?
And this is what I mean about we can no longer afford to have an activist over here.
An activist over here.
An activist over here.
Because look at...
What happened with that situation.
Yeah.
You had two huge conglomerates making a decision.
Yeah.
You had Home for Good.
See?
That's millions of dollars provided by the power structure over here.
And look who opposed them.
The rich, huge builders down here.
Yeah.
See?
That's who...
You know, they argued about that situation, ran it in circles.
And I'm yet to hear any community voice or activists get involved.
I'm yet to hear any community voice or activists get involved with that.
Me either.
You know, it sounds to me like they got caught off guard with what was even happening with that situation.
See, that's what I mean.
We got all those people laying in the streets.
Mm-hmm.
And then we allow them to get rid of 300, over 300 and some housing.
Yeah.
Right in the Skid Row area.
In the Skid Row area, yeah.
See?
And then we don't make a whimper or anything like that.
See, this is what I mean about it's time for the community.
Yeah.
To call.
We need some real leaders.
Yeah, because you know what?
Some of the leaders are just out for self, out to say, I'm a leader.
Who cares?
Yeah.
If you're not doing anything to help the people, you might as well just go step down.
Yeah.
Be outside with the rest of them.
Yeah.
These people who claim that they're politicians, who claim that they're out for the people, they don't really care about us.
Like Michael Jackson said, they don't care about us.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And see, and one other thing that I think we got to...
Look at in a different way, because I even think this is a fallacy.
When we start talking about gentrification type stuff, I really think that a lot of people who are natural allies, we let the media turn us away from them.
I'm talking the people that's coming down here, you know, they're young people.
There's no huge corporations, guys making a million dollars coming down here.
It's everyday people, everyday leaders.
Yeah.
There's little young people like that who have a right.
It's their community too.
They come down here, you know, and then we have a group over here that say, oh, it's gentrification.
You have no right down here.
It sounds similar to like when I was coming up down south in Mississippi when they used to say the same thing, but a different kind of language that they use now.
See, I just think it's important for us to...
We got to build some networks.
Yes.
If we're going to deal with this huge organized machine.
It's a machine that's greedy out here.
I agree with you.
Yeah.
It's all about the money.
And what we got to start doing is re-educating ourselves about what we used to do so we can start doing it again.
Yes.
And that's just the main thing.
Because like I said, with the youth, with the youngsters that are really just lost with the, you know, I just listened to it with the hip hop, that's a bigger influence than people, than regular people.
Like the so-called leaders or the authority around them.
Because like between the music and the video games mainly.
Because we're not paying...
You know, everybody's lost.
Yes.
I mean, it's lost.
This generation is lost.
And like people in my generation and younger, so I'm 33, in my generation and younger, we listen to like Kendrick Lamar and all them other people.
What we need to do is start challenging them to start talking about things that not just the bling bling, ching ching.
Like your booty, all kinds of stuff.
Challenge them to not...
Because we're buying their records.
We're making them rich.
Have them recycle their dollars back to us some kind of way.
Some of these rappers, they get their things.
They don't really care about anything else that's going on.
Like whatever.
And yet we support them.
And I don't get that.
I mean, I just, me as a person who is like younger, I don't get that stuff.
I mean, I'm like, what's going on?
And yet we idolize the wrong kind of things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then, and we constantly...
Talk about not only in the skid row in our communities and stuff, but we justify, you know, having drug dealers.
See, to me, you know, it's like what the old nation of Islam used to do.
The old fruit of Islam that would go into a community.
You know, hey, you want to sell drugs?
You go outside.
See, would you be allowed to...
Sell drugs outside of, in the suburbs, somewhere like that.
See, and then I don't want to hear the excuse about, hey, they got drug dealers, got to eat too.
I don't care about no drug dealers that's bringing that mess, messing up our people and stuff, keeping our community from developing.
See, we got to develop leaders.
You're talking about the fear among the churches and stuff like that.
It's the same thing.
We got to get...
If we got community leaders...
If we got community leaders who have this type of fear, that's not the community leaders we need.
That's the truth.
I agree.
And then we got to support the community.
See, too many times in skid row area, I'm not going to name any names or anything like that, but I see brothers that try to stand up and do something like that.
And then all of a sudden, all of these forces come at them, scoop them up and be trying to frame them and do all stuff like that.
I've seen it.
I've seen it.
Yeah.
This is the time that we should hit the streets and let them know in mass.
Yes.
That, hey, you can't do this to the leaders that are really speaking up, where these leaders that were doing nothing, you know, you don't even come that way.
People don't care anymore.
That's the main important thing, main important point.
A lot of people don't care anymore unless it's happening directly to them.
A lot of people don't care.
Okay.
Look, let's take a break for our community calendar, and then we'll come back and get into our discussion about the downtown and the skid row area.
Hello.
This is the community calendar for April.
Saturday, April the 5th, 2014, 11 a.m., Drama Stage Cumeron presents Fundraising Bake Sale for Georgina's Afterschool Arts Program, featuring Mississippi home baking of pound cakes, chocolate cakes, coconut cakes, sweet potato pies, peach cobblers, also free children's books giveaway, and much, much more.
Location?
Location will be 1323 West 69th Street, Los Angeles, California, 90044.
For more information, contact 310-590-6468.
Also, Saturday, April 5th, 2014, the Robie Theater Company Celebration of 20 Years of Excellence in the Black Theater presents a gala opening reception of the stage play, Knock Me a Kiss.
Written by Charles Smith.
Directed by Dwayne Perry.
Dealing with the Harlem Renaissance, DuBose, Cullen, Lansford, The Talented Tenth, and The Wedding of the Century.
Location?
The Los Angeles Theater Center, 514 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, California, 90014.
For more information or for tickets, contact 866-811-4144.
Or visit robitheatercompany.org or thelatc.org.
Previews are April 3rd and April 4th.
Upcoming guests on the Kumon Report, Monday, April 7th.
Don Daywin Perry, director of the Robie Theater, with some of the cast from Knock Me a Kiss production.
If you have a community event that you'd like to be announced on our program, send it to Drummastage1 at yahoo.com.
Attention, Earlene Anthony.
Call-in number for the show is 800-893-9562.
Now back to our host.
Okay, thank you, Bobby Buck.
Now, at this time, I'd like to play a clip about Paul Robeson, his birthday coming up on the 9th.
And I'm going to play a little short clip performed by Lee Beck.
Talking about Paul Robeson on the streets of Harlem.
Molly Hilly was the musical director of the Unitarian Church on 8th Street here in Los Angeles for 50 years.
And he was the artistic director.
And this was during the time when at that church, the balcony was full.
Because it became a hideout.
A refuge.
And a gathering place for the blacklisted artists of Los Angeles during the 50s.
And they would go there and they'd do shows.
And they would entertain each other.
As they had been entertaining the entire country.
But were no longer allowed to put their names on their work.
Or in many cases, even do their work.
Because they were labeled as communists or fellow travelers.
Molly Hilly published.
The People's Songbook.
Which is a very popular songbook from that era.
One time, Molly Hilly was in New York in Harlem.
With Paul Robeson.
And Paul Robeson walked out on the street to Molly behind him.
And all of a sudden of course a crowd began to gather.
And people began to come from all around.
Until the whole street was full of people.
And they began to shout, Sing for us!
Sing for us!
And Paul Robeson said, Well how can I?
I don't have a piano.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
And a whole bunch of fellas.
Three guys ran up three stories of steps.
Picked up a piano.
And carried it back down to the street.
And sat it down next to Paul Robeson.
And Molly Hilly sat down and played.
And Paul Robeson sang on the streets of Harlem that day.
And the people of Harlem were so excited.
And they were so excited.
And they were so excited.
Okay, that's Lee Beck talking about Paul Robeson singing on the streets of Harlem.
And next week on the Coon Brown Report, we'll be celebrating the birthday of Paul Robeson, who was born April the 9th, 1898 in Princeton, New Jersey.
And our special in-studio guest would be Dwayne Perry, the director of Knock Me a Kiss, and some of the cast members from the production, which opened this week's Saturday, April the 5th, 2014, at 8 o'clock p.m.
at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, located at 514 South Spring Street, LA 90013.
Now, there also will be two preview performances, Thursday, April the 3rd, and Friday, April the 4th, at 8 o'clock p.m.
The preview performances are at a reduced rate of $15.
And for more information, you can call 213-489-7402.
Okay, let's go around.
We still got a little time.
And let's talk about some final comments.
First of all, Ola Shay, before we get off into that, tell us some of the things that you are doing and you got coming up.
Matter of fact, I might be in a play coming up starting May 29th until June 22nd, right now we're in the iffy stages right now.
It's called Bliss Point, but I'm also on their planning commission.
At the Cornerstone?
At the Cornerstone Theatre Company, but actually the play is going to be in Culver City.
What they're going to be doing is they're going to be focusing on the Culver City area this time, not Skid Row.
Also, I have an album and a book coming out on June 3rd.
My album, Two is Better Than One, the duet's album, Two's Time, you played.
Thank you very much for showing us love on that project.
It's actually going to be coming out in stores and online June 3rd.
And I'm going to be preaching starting next month at the Grant AME Church.
Okay.
Okay, can you tell us a little about, a lot of people don't know about News and Letters.
Can you tell them what is News and Letters and some of the things you got coming up?
Okay, News and Letters is a Marxist humanist organization.
We go into the, the thinking of Karl Marx in his days, which was in the 19th century.
But we follow Raya Dunaya-Skya, who has updated Marx's ideas into our time.
And when she came from the Ukraine as an immigrant, she went to work in the black community at a very young age.
And so she got, that's why on the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, she wrote the booklet, American Civilization on Trial, Black Masses as Vanguard.
In other words, we're against elitist leadership because that usually tends to quash the voices that are in the black community.
And in the black community, they tend to push the voices of the masses below.
And their voices are very important.
And it's not that we're against spokespeople that represents their thoughts.
But when you have leadership and they don't do what's good for the masses, then a friction arises sooner or later.
And that's been a problem throughout the ages.
And we believe the capitalist system is at fault for all the problems, for all the war, for all the homeless, all the suffering throughout the world.
And there's a tremendous amount of problem.
And climate change is another problem created by capitalist production.
So that's a lawsuit.
Okay.
Yeah.
Bobby, tell us a little about what you're off into and your network, what you're trying to achieve.
Okay.
Like, we got a lot going on right now.
Like I said, I'm going to an event tonight to check out one of the peoples in my network.
It's Mr. Ronan.
And then I got to go...
Check him out?
Yeah, we're going to check him out tonight.
And I think he's working...
He's doing something with Nocturnal tonight.
Yeah, they're going to be at the Brew Dog Cafe.
Ronan Green.
8300 Wilshire.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then I got something coming up this Friday night.
I'm doing something.
And then I got something on the 18th with Rock.
I'm going to be in Westwood.
Westwood.
I thought this was going to be at the Brew Dog Cafe.
I think it's going to be in Westwood, this one.
But we got to check it out and see.
Yeah.
We'll be doing something on the 18th.
Yeah, I think LA Mission got something going on on the 18th also for Good Friday.
And then...
Oh, I got a lot going on this coming month.
So we're looking for a lot of different people to come in to assist us with what we're doing.
We're looking for all type of volunteers.
We're going to start doing a lot of fundraisers, working with the Vortex.
And we still got the once a month open mic.
So y'all just join bobbybuck.com and we get all the information.
Or you can email buck at bobbybuck.com and you get all the information that's going on from month to month.
And we'll keep it cracking.
2014, win-win season.
Yup, yup.
One more thing before we wind down.
What are you trying to achieve with your network down here in the Skid Row area?
Okay, what I want to do, I want to use the entertainment part to bring people in.
To see entrepreneurship and self-employment.
Because with the system...
Okay.
What it's been doing is...
It's like I said, I use the word brainwash a lot.
Because what it's been doing all these years is brainwashing people to think a certain way.
To make their mind lazy.
And so that people be creative.
Like I said, they're taking things out the school system.
Like with no cultural arts.
And then, you know, no after school programs.
Because they just letting your mind waste away.
So I want to use my network, this use of entertainment to bait them in to see something they wouldn't normally go to.
And then also with the entrepreneurship and self-employment, that's something outside the box.
That they can just learn how to deal with online business for free.
So they can experiment with it and see how it is.
Then they learn something new and they can get paid for it.
Because the main thing is economics.
They want to keep people in the same situation.
Because I had a lady, she works for the county.
And I kept saying, the county spends too much money on this.
People say, you know, she said, people think they spend too much money.
They invest money in keeping people's minds in the same position.
So they invest money to keep you stuck.
So that way they can make bigger money on the other side.
So it's all set up to where they can just keep people down.
And make money off of it.
They make money off of keeping us, you know, keeping us abreast.
You ain't learn about that.
Alright.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
I do apologize.
I forgot to mention my pastor, Pastor Michael Eagle Sr. And also the Grand Amy Church.
Shout out to all of them.
And my best friend, Eric Sorney.
I told him I was on the mission.
Okay.
Thank you.
If I ever got back.
Now please listen to our past shows of the QMRIME Report on iTunes, Stitcher, Tumblr, Google, and Skid Row.LA.
Thank you for tuning in to the QMRIME 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 the song that opened the show, My Letter to You by PLAP.
Yeah, yeah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
you laugh.
I will leave you guys will cry.
That will hurt me.
I will go back to visit you guys will run up to me and hug me.
I want you guys to know that uncle loves you.
And this is my letter to you.
This is my letter to you.
And I miss you so much.
I'll be praying for you.
Stay strong.
This is for you.
And I'll be here for you.
My letter to you.
This is my letter to you.
And I miss you so much.
I'll be praying for you.
Stay strong.
This is for you.
And I'll be here for you.
My letter to you.
This right here is a letter to my little brothers and my little nieces.
I want you guys to know that I love y'all and I miss y'all so much.
I know I haven't seen you guys in a long time.
Just the other day I was thinking about the time.
We were moving.
We went to go look for a new place.
We went for a walk.
Y'all gave me your hands.
We were going to go to a new place.
We went for a walk.
We went to go look for a new place.
almost there we make it to the other side downtown skid row seeing people laying on the floor my brothers couldn't believe it i've seen it before it drops from their eyes i wish i could provide i don't know what else to say wish we had a home to call our own welcome to our home sweet home stay strong brother loves you this is my letter to you and i miss you so much i'll be praying for you stay strong this is for you and i'll be here for you my letter to you this is my letter to you and i'll be here for you my letter to you stay strong this is for you and i'll be here for you my letter to you all right all right nice
