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On November 21, 2023, Calvin "KD" Williams of the nonprofit, My2KFoundation took questions and comments from members of the Norfolk Safety Advocacy Group.
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On November 21, 2023, Calvin "KD" Williams of the nonprofit, My2KFoundation took questions and comments from members of the Norfolk Safety Advocacy Group.
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On November 21, 2023, Calvin "KD" Williams of the nonprofit, My2KFoundation took questions and comments from members of the Norfolk Safety Advocacy Group.
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The speaker expresses pride in their friend's development and work in the community. They discuss their personal experiences with racism and the need to address systemic racism and mentality in Norfolk. They emphasize the importance of seeing ourselves as Americans and not dividing by race. They also mention the issue of black on black crime and the role of the police in the community. The speaker mentions their sister's negative behavior and the importance of accepting oneself and putting goodness into the world. They conclude by discussing the need to change the mindset of future generations and acknowledge that not everyone can be saved. Of course, if you don't want your voice in the recording, please let me know and I'll replace it. Should we go around the table or raise your hand if you want to ask a question? Anyone want to speak first? I have a lot of questions. As soon as I met you, my brain started going. I had so many thoughts, but I'd like someone to go first. Or if I don't have to comment, that's also welcome. I don't mind being recorded and not start off with comments. First of all, I'm so proud of you. As a human being, as a black man who grew up the way we grew up, and the attitude that you've become to your community, to know how we first connected. You know, I was telling somebody the other day, I met this motherfucker buying fireworks from him out of a van. I still have my fireworks. Wow. Because now the councilman, they're too big to light off. And to notice and remember so many specific things that now that we're working so hard on the community, that we need to remind each other of. And the day that our relationship was solidified was the day you had on the t-shirt with Larry Hoover, and this not being Chicago, me not being a young guy, and being in the places I was in, knowing exactly who he was and that movement, and understanding things different than people's families. And to watch you do what you do, it propels me, it gives me energy, it gives me confidence when I'm down there standing up and I'm fighting for what we need to do in our communities. To know that if I can duplicate, and if you can help me duplicate, when we train in leadership, a leader like you, in every community that we have a problem, that then the problems are lessened. And it's us that's doing it. So I just want you to know how proud I am of your development, how hard you're working, and how you own your purpose and your cause in life. And we have to get the money for the cause to continue, and watching you transform it to where the money's not about you, where the money's about the program. And that's how I know it's coming. I know I've been telling you that. And when it comes, you're going to say you told me. And it came over me the other day. Because of the work that's called to be done, if I was able to sign a check for a million dollars today, tomorrow you would need to raise another million. Because the things that we're doing here in Norfolk, we're ahead in that detail. We duplicated across our country. And I see that. And you are a great, big part of it for taking those steps and getting out here and doing what you're doing. So I just want to tell you, I'm proud to call you a friend. I got your back. In the block, we need to be young. We're going to stand on it like Batman and Robin, and we're going to go back and forth. Who's going to be Batman and who's going to be Robin? Sometimes it'll be you or Batman, and sometimes it'll be me. But I got your back. I'm so grateful to know that you got my back. Thank you. Does anyone else have any questions or comments? You can see my wheels turning. And you can't hide my voice anyhow. We always hear, it's not that way in Virginia Beach. It's not that way in Chesapeake. It's that way in Portsmouth. It's that way in Norfolk. What do you see as the main problem making that difference? Because we hear that Chesapeake and Virginia Beach are more racist. Because the breakdown's different. But yeah, is there a single item, or is it just all blown out of proportion? I don't know that it's real. This is what we must realize. Internet basically made everything the same. Because if you notice the climate in Virginia Beach, it's the same. Yeah, imagine that. Internet made everything the same. So it's not different. The culture's a bit different inside Norfolk, inside Portsmouth, because people have to live harder. It's been a harder way of living. There's more projects. There's more systemic racism going on. I can speak of a lot of that. I was raised in two different parts of Norfolk. I was raised inside Calvert Square, which is Calvert Park. And I also was raised in Roseville Gardens, which is there. I dealt with racism on both ends. I asked my brother to walk me to school. And I used to deliver papers around early, because my mother signed my things like maybe 10, maybe 11. I used to deliver papers in the morning. The guy had to deliver papers to me on my way to school early in the morning. That's another reason he was sick. He pulled up to us in a car and told us that, so that's where it was. Y'all need to get out of this neighborhood, or we'll get the KKK on you. And I was 11, a junior, telling this to him. I used to think that racism, younger might be better. Maybe I've been around so much stuff that's supposed to have happened, and I actually was a victim of racist profiling in Philadelphia, where I actually had a lawsuit that I settled. There was nothing on the court. So racism is real. And I've done, I'm a, I'm actual evidence of basically anything you can say to deal with violence. And that's another thing. So it's a culture right here that we've got to deal with. It's a mentality we've got to deal with. We've got to deal with the mentality. And the first mentality is we've got to start giving people short-term goals so that they can realize that things really can be, can really happen, to the point where, you know, people don't care about other people's problems because they feel like it's not their problem. And it sounds like people are repeating themselves, oh, you're going to say it's racist, you're going to play the race card. But if you listen to the president's speech, there's a lot of racism that's really going on. Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth. I've got white friends. I grew up in a white neighborhood too. One of my white friends told me that, it's a joke not with all white folks, but some white folks got a joke that you can be poor trying to trans, but at least you ain't black. So we've got to deal with the fact that it's real. And my approach to that is we've got to get our children to start dealing with each other because our children are going to start seeing us as Americans, not black American, Latino American, Philippine American, because when you put children together, they don't look at it like that. It's us adults. Yes, because when they're this big, they don't know. Well, we feed each other this stuff being out of hand and say that them people, them people, and this was going on inside Norfolk to these days, it's their problem. No, it's not our problem. It's a Norfolk problem. And then when it happens to somebody now, it's why nobody cares. So we've got to start seeing ourselves as Americans. Yes. Not no Afro-American. This is the crazy part about it because since we're speaking on that, when they hear the black lives matter and all that stuff and the blue lives matter, it was understanding that that's another reason why I did what I did because we look foolish, black on black crime. And then people say, well, the black on black crime, why are you marching when somebody died? But you're marching when the police died. But here's the other part of that story is the police come into the community to help with the problems. But if they come there doing the same thing that's going on in the community and they're the problem because we're doing real good at killing each other. We don't need the police help to kill each other. We do that real well. But back to Americans are the same. You never hear anybody say I'm a European-American. You never hear anybody say I'm a European-American. You never hear anybody say I'm a European-American. You never hear anybody say I'm a white-American. Black, African, Asian, everybody's, you know, Americans are Americans. And until we get to that point, we're going to have mistreatment of each other. But that's why Virginia police do this stuff because a lot of times they cover a lot of stuff's covered. I was wondering, is it? I think there's a lot of fake people in the world. They tell you what they want you to hear. They show you what they want you to see. And one of the biggest culprits in that is my sister. It's recorded. It's recorded. That's not. That's not. No, she's not going to hear it. Well, I mean, I'll pause it. She's the worst. Nobody likes her. Look for people that will actually make this happen. You first got to be happy with yourself. So we got to deal with ourself. So maybe something with her is that she's not happy with herself. And a lot of times we have seen this world is that people belittle people to make themselves feel like they're more important. Because they actually feel less than themselves. So maybe that's an issue where she's not happy with herself. And maybe we need to help her learn how to handle herself. She's her own worst enemy. But she'll fight you on that. Because she'll say she's not. But then again, even with any kind of drug, anything, you got to first accept. Acceptance is the first thing. Yeah. I'm just saying, there's people out there that do that. It's like part of accepting that. You can't change other people. She's a carrier of that. She'll carry it from one place to the next, to the next, to the next. You know. You have to put goodness in the world. And that's why I feel like you can't change her. You have to pray for her and just do goodness. Regardless of where she comes from. In the Bible, in the Bible, God says Moses said, Oh, there's only one of us. We got to consider our children. We got to change their mindset. We got to look at their mindsets and meet people for who they are. And some people we ain't been able to save. Myself personally, I've saved everybody. But I'm starting to understand that some people I can't. Some people it's not even worth talking to because there's not time for them. Maybe it's not just that they ain't worth talking to. Maybe just at this point in time, they're not ready to be talked to. Sometimes we got to go through things. Sometimes we got to go through the fire to be refined. So sometimes people got to be put in the fire. And they come out a better person. Sometimes God wants them to do what they do. And that's what they've done. And we can't help them. But we got to look at the whole, in this city, and make sure that Norfolk is strong. VB is strong. Norfolk is strong. We have a community that actually is willing to work with each other if we get past our own point. Yes. I know. A lot of great people. Do you have any other questions or comments? Or do you want to say anything? No? Okay. Just the president of the Board of Medicare Foundation. Okay. Okay. So I had a couple of questions. I was wondering what is, and you don't have to answer the questions, they're just some things I thought about. What is it like being a black person in Norfolk now? And what was it like when you grew up? I don't know if that's a hard question to answer. Okay. I mean, Norfolk, I mean, both sides, both sides of the fence. Norfolk is racist. It's racist. It's been racist. It's better now. I grew up in the community, and when we moved out there, I think we had like three black founders in the whole community. They have black founders out there now, so Norfolk got better. I noticed Norfolk got better. But inside the 80s, Norfolk was real racist. And even with education, I had a situation where teachers was just racist to me. I also understand that I'm a true believer, because people say I put my foot in my mouth there. I believe bullying can sometimes be a character. So it made me strong, and it made me weak. So I can look in the face and understand that person was weak. Because to go back to what I said before, some people, the strength is belittling people to make themselves feel strong. So why would you tell a 10-year-old and 11-year-old that you're going to kill them? So many words that make you feel strong. So I'm not upset that guy. He was sick. I hope he got himself right with his makeup before he died. I don't think he's here no more. Norfolk was a different thing. It was challenging. It was challenging. But it's not as racist as it used to be. But Norfolk always had a valid culture, because Norfolk, and if you Google this, this is crazy, because I had an incident where I made a conflict resolution with some guys from Houston who came down here to sell drugs. And guys in Norfolk was ready to rob them and send them back in a body bag. And I found out one reason why they came down here, because they Googled Norfolk, and Norfolk is known for crack cocaine. So they came down here to sell their crack cocaine, because it was Google, this is the place to go. But Norfolk has a drug problem, because a lot of times guys from different states come to Norfolk because there's a lot of money in drugs out here. And we're not even on a main path. You've got everything out here. This is the most part. You've got a major interstate. You have a major military out here. You've got colleges out here. So there's a lot of people from out here, there's families in different places such as New York, Chicago, different areas, that it's cheaper. You don't got to be what they call a connect. You don't got to be a drug lord to come out here and have drug lord prices, because there it's cheaper. They come out here and there they made money without actually being a drug lord. So people come out here because everybody prices the same way you went. It's hard to sell your product. It's like being inside that family dollar right now. It's a thousand family dollars on the street. You can't sell it, but you got a low price. But you take that same dollar store money and take it to another rural area, you can sell it for the same price you were selling it for, and you're making more money because they'll pay higher. So then you make a money hand over fist. It's logical, not stupid. It's smart. It's good business. So a lot of things that people got to understand, the corporate world, a lot of things they think is outrageous, it's not really outrageous. It doesn't make sense. But you got to start understanding the other side of the fence, because a lot of people are watching it from their window and not actually participating. And Mountain King Foundation build itself and actually working from inside out. Their outreach is inside out outreach. You'll find us inside the community 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. You'll find us out there any time. It's not like an event got to be happening for us to be out there. We're inside the hotspots and we're actually communicating, trying to figure out what's going on, what's the problem. Where y'all having problems? Something small is even the bus stop where I spoke on the last meeting here where we had a situation where at Ruffner they got the middle school and the elementary school kids together where the child was coming home and the middle school girls was ready to jump on the 9-year-old and he got a knife. People always say to me, their parents should walk them home. Why you doing this? If I wasn't out there, they'd be saying, somebody should have been out there. This is crazy. These kids out of control. Why nobody? That's why I'm out there faithfully without the funding because it needs to be done. It needs to be done. It's not a want, it's a need. Sometimes people got to, some people, it's like the cartoons where you see the devil and the angel on your shoulder. Sometimes somebody got to be the angel on the shoulder. Especially when you're dealing with situations where people is already high or drunk up or they're in a heated conversation where there's an emotional problem between women. They got women in here. Y'all know y'all know how to push a man's button. So the button's been pushed and nobody dare say, man, calm down. You don't want to be doing this because it's unreasonable at the time. When you're upset, sometimes it's not reasonable, it's unreasonable. You're later sitting around inside jail in a situation and you're kicking yourself in behind but at the time it seemed like the thing to do. When you have people out there that say, hey, calm down. Hey, man, let me walk you over here. Let me talk to you. Man, she did it. I understand, yeah. But do you really want to get yourself in this situation? Because it's not that big of a situation, but it could be. And that's a lot of things that My2K Foundation do inside the community. To see how this situation is actually mediated to a positive compromise, conflict resolution. Do we have time to write down all the numbers and all that stuff? No. I tell the police and I tell them to their face, I'm not going to do your job for you, but my job is to make sure that you don't have to do a job because the police job is to lock you up. When they come, they come to lock you up. They don't come to mediate. They don't come to figure out what the situation is. They don't come to make sure they don't choose sides. The person who's the cause of the side, they're going to choose. Sometimes somebody push that person over the edge. Somebody's got to be there to say, hey, hold on. We need more than the side of our communities. Like I said, I was raised in Roosevelt Gardens too. Isaiah signed Little Creek Road. As much drugs as signed Little Creek Road and Isaiah and those of you that have been inside the housing projects. This is more or less the culture difference. People in Little Creek Road more or less had the funding to pay for their drugs out. It's not a situation where you didn't pay somebody. Once again, I say go back to you can't call the police because they took your drugs. You can't call the police because they didn't pay you for your drugs. What do you do? Y'all watch movies. What do you do? You got to use fear to get your money. Sometimes, like I say, communication ain't always English and Spanish. Sometimes, it's fear. If that's what's working, this will work. I was told because I spoke on my suffering. I told you I'm a victim of all, I'm an actual evidence. I was told that I was a brother for me not to carry a gun because a gun is my first and last choice. People don't understand that. Bullies usually come from being bullied. If you find a way to stop being bullied, usually, it's probably being your go-to tool. If somebody took something from you and you shoot them and you get your stuff back, then you get to the point where your first choice or your last choice is the gun now because you find it works. If you find violence working, we use violence because you see that death gets you the results that you're looking for because at the end of the day, we all got goals and we're doing things for a reason. It's not people are animals. If you've shown that this is what works, then usually, that's what you'll do because what you do most is what you do best. It'll be your next first choice. It'll be your first and your last choice because this is what works. This is what you want. You want your money. If you found out if you inflict pain, these people get your money, then what would you do? You want your money. You found if you shoot them, they get your money. What do you do? It's the same thing. It's a different approach because you got different tools to use. That's how Matsuke found this combat violence society community. That's how violence around the city is dropping in different areas. I'm not super mad. There's just shooting up and down. Superman can't keep the whole country safe. You heard that. What are you doing? This is the point I'm making. I need people to ask you to roll up your sleeves and get in the mix. You know what's going on. At least get it to somebody who can do something about it because just using the police is not going to work. It hasn't worked. It's still going on. It went from the 90s is the most highest rate to now it's high again. But I do say this. Guys like myself took off the streets. Maybe that worked. I don't believe it didn't because we're not the ones causing the problems. You're up. I think when we chose to shut this country down four years ago and separate everybody and put them behind masks and put them all in their own little separate worlds, we did a huge disservice to everybody because now you can't walk through a grocery store and get anybody to look at you. Just say hi. Just a smile at them. They won't look at you. Nobody does. White, purple, yellow, green. Nobody looks at anybody. Do again. Before the pandemic? Who? Who took it off? Whoever they is. And what they did was, that's the economy. Because they're the ones that let me know that it can happen. It was the reason why they took it off the streets. But let me know that if somebody can take the cocaine off the street, that means literally the whole East Coast, there's no cocaine. It was a little tab here, tab there to show up. There wasn't any toilet either. Yeah, but if they can do that, that means there's a lot of problems. It means drugs can be stopped. So drugs are here for a reason. But if you take somebody's economy off, then that causes more violence too. Because once again, you got to eat. Yeah. Let's see. Something like this. People weren't looking at each other's toilets like this. They weren't doing that five years ago. They weren't doing that today. I mean, a mask didn't make people stop looking at each other. I mean, Norfolk's a city that most of us rent. And you might see a whole change of folks on your floor, on your apartment buildings, happening here. And a lot of people don't know their neighbors that are around right now. And the neighbors won't even look at each other, look at you. Read them right now. Whether that was before the pandemic, 10 years before the pandemic, 15 years before the pandemic. I got neighbors right now that barely talk to me. I see them every day. I mean, that's just how they've been. Well, I had a different experience. When I go to the store, people look at me and I look at them. With the mask on, without the mask. And as far as where I live at, I haven't been there in so long, the neighbors, we all still talk. We speak. We make sure we're okay. We even had incidents that occurred that never got on the news, but we talked about it. So, I'm in a different, I guess, different, but that's also, it has something to do with you, too. When I go to a grocery store, I look people in the eye. When I go somewhere, I look people in the eye. So, it's all about your expectations and what you're giving up. Like, I just found out that my neighbor across the street, he gave us his government name. So, when we talked to his wife about him, she was giving us this look like, who are you talking about? So, she gave us the name that he actually calls him. And so, now I play with him. I'm like, hey! And he just laughs and put his head down because he did not give us their name. But now, when I talk to his wife, because him and his wife, it has gotten so much that we're across the street. I give their children either birthday gifts or Christmas gifts. And so, one time I gave his wife a gift card. So, now for Christmas, she makes sure she looks out for me and my husband. Actually, she does look out for me and my granddaughter. The guys, they joke about the fact that no one looks out for them. But I'm saying, I think it's all in who you are, too. You give what you give. So, if you start looking people in the eye and just saying, hi, how are you doing? Like, this is a good time. I got my granddaughter, she's three years old. And you can record me, by the way. She said happy holidays because I say happy holidays to people. So, it's all in your expectations. That's what I say. And you have to be the change. I love that song by Michael Jackson, The Man in the Mirror. You got to ask him to change his ways. I'm that person, I can't do it. I'm working on being a better person. And, by the way, Mrs. Williams, I'll say it, Mrs. Williams. I'm very proud of you, too. I feel that, too. I do think it's harder to connect with people when they're wearing a mask because I always smile at people. And my daughter will be like, Ima, like mother. Ima, why do you smile at everybody? Why are they smiling at you? These people are smiling at you. Like, what's going on? Because I look at them and I smile. And she's like, that's so weird. No one does that. And I'm like, well, I do. That's me. I'm going to be me. And I'll be weird, and that's okay. But I feel like it's true. If you project an energy. Like, I used to live in Baltimore, and I would smile. And we lived in northwest Baltimore. And I would say hello to everyone and be friendly. And I don't know if it's a little bit like being in New York. I think at first people were a little bit like, why is she smiling? But after a while, you gravitate and you feel that energy that we're all connected. And the things that separate us are very minuscule. We're all going through different experiences, and we all have a lot going on. But we all can extend that love. But when you get a good smile from someone that you don't know, it does lift you up. It gives you strength. So I try to do that. I was going to ask another question. I know it's getting close to the end. I was going to ask what you thought. Ain't it amazing that in advance you can see somebody smiling at you? And the eye crinkles, too. What can you give over again? Like, what we can do as Norfolk residents to help your organization, the MITK Foundation, one more time? Well, you can actually volunteer. And what does that mean to volunteer? Volunteer is more or less is we are a program like a walk-in children's school. We're actually willing to sit down with people in the community and see how we can develop programs together with them to actually help their community, because their community is our community. We don't just work just out of Norfolk. We work based out of Norfolk. But we work with a whole set of cities. We have done back-to-school drives in Norfolk, Hampton. We just recently did a turkey giveaway. We did feed the homeless. We fed the homeless inside of Portsmouth and in Norfolk. We did a trunk-a-treat in Hampton and one in Norfolk. So it's more or less is, come with us and let's sit down and see if we can help each other. And if you can't be physically there, don't be afraid to give donations. Why don't we take checks? You know, our address is on our website. You can follow us on our social media, MITK underscore foundation on Instagram, MITK Foundation on Facebook. But our information is on our website, too. We need more help development, because as Jayvon says, we do administration work. But like I said, donate money, because it's a war. We're fighting a war, and a war has got to be financed. And sometimes that is just as much as important as somebody actually being boots on the ground. But I challenge people to actually give money to people that's boots on the ground, because there's a lot of organizations. And I hate to be the one to say it, but it's been getting funded for these communities for years, but ain't nothing changed. And you can never find them in the community. But when they come through that big event, what's next? It's kind of like what I say all the time. We fed people Thanksgiving, but what do we eat after Thanksgiving? These programs, we've got to get together, a rock-and-roll approach. If your thing is actually feeding people, then get with us and let us introduce you to our people, or let us bring you into the community. And give you a warm hand over to actually be able to actually feed the community, because a lot of times the community is proud people. You're not just going to make them feel like they're broke. This is the social media days. You're not going to. I just was on IG and on Facebook showing I was rich, but I really don't got nothing in my refrigerator. So I can't just let you just come in any kind of way. You've got to disguise that. You've got to be able to come into the community and start giving everybody this stuff, so when I get it, I don't feel belittled. Back to the conversation I had with a young man when he told me he was hungry. I offered him the money first. He was like, no. He didn't wait. He's like, look, I'm going to take your last. I said, man, you can have it. Just make sure you stay out of trouble. He was like, no. Then he hesitated, and he came back and got the money. He's like, man, I ain't want to take this money. Girls watch. I don't want any girls to think I'm broke. So you've got to understand that there are people's perceptions and egos, like I said. That's what it's all about, the perception of egos. You've got to deal with people's mindsets and meet them where they're at. But you can't just come into the community and try to belittle the community because they still got pride. Poor people still have pride. And a lot of people, I had a conversation where I'm standing on, it's called Little Mexico. It's a place out behind Calvert where a lot of homeless and alcoholics and drug addicts be at. And they come out there and feed, which was one of the first ones that ever did it. We were the first ones that ever fed out there. And the lady that saw me out there, she's like, I got a chicken dinner for you. I said, well, man, I don't need it, but I know somebody that do. She said, why didn't you come out here? I said, people not going to come out here and stand up once. Because, once again, here at Stone, drug addicts, homeless people, and swear the line for some food. They're not going to do it. I tell people all the time, food stamps was a stigma. Nobody wanted to be seen with food stamps. Nobody wanted to be seen like they poor. So we've got to work on that. We've got to work on how to present it to people. You need to tell people, because I know that you see a lot of people. I've worked registered in the States. Many, many, many, many of the people are actually our military families with the food stamp card. I know that. No, no. I know that. You do know that? I do know that. OK. I do know that. No, no. People right now, though, the stigma, I'm going to make an example, because people use the food stamp cards. But if you remember, the books, nobody wanted to be seen with them books. There's a lot of jokes. If you look back at some comedian jokes, nobody wanted to be seen with them books. It's the same situation where people don't want to be seen like they're poor. So we've got to actually combat that. And people are like, well, if they really wanted it, nobody. People, I'm going to say this. Martin Luther King said the two most dangerous things in the world is consciousness, stupidity, and sincere eagerness. And that's what people live on. And they die by that. Also, Malcolm X said that there's not more powerful than there's more organized. So Norfolk must organize. Because technically, we live in one of the most violent cities inside the country. But we act like we don't. Yes, we're in the top 20, 25. But my organization has went to the most violent part of it. And we've assembled it down. We didn't stop it, but we've assembled it down. So it's not to say we find it's important. We just technically went to one of the most violent cities inside the country, in the most violent neighborhood inside the country, and assembled it down. That's what people don't understand. So are we important? We're very much important. So with funding, we can expand and actually assemble the city down and surround the cities, if not other parts of the country. But people don't realize those numbers. Norfolk residents do not realize they're living in one of the most violent cities inside the country. Because with no disrespect, most of what happened in the neighborhood is just somebody ran a red light. I understand that's tragic, because I'll be the first one to tell you that the definition of trauma is whatever you say it is. I can't tell you what your trauma is. Trauma is whatever you say trauma is. I might not be afraid of it, but you are. And I must respect that you're afraid of it. Maybe we can work on it, but it's still your trauma. This is one of the most violent cities in the country. And there's a lot of cities in the country. And we're in the top 20, 25, something like that. I lived in Richmond when it was number 222. We did make it for one year. Yes, we did. Then we dropped back down to two, and they went, well, we'll try harder. You know what the real crazy part about it is? This is the real crazy part about it. You know, I'm entirely messed up. I dealt with some guys from Richmond. It was a badge of honor. Yeah. So they actually went hard to try to make that win. To be the first? It was a race every New Year's Eve. To be the first? To be the first one of the new year. I kid you not. It's not a rumor. It's true. So screw them. Well, no, it happened. I know. You know, 38 seconds after midnight. It's like the first baby being born. It's like the exact clock. Because everybody wants to be a part of something. They want to ask me to ride along. In the very last of the old year or the very first of the new year. Yeah, but we got to work on that. How about us work on being the safest city this year? I mean. But that's what we got to project. Yeah. And we got to project that to those who might think it's better to be the most violent. You have to reason. You got to be the devil and the angel on the shoulder. And they got to talk to the middle. Mm-hmm. I say this before I wrap up. A lot of people talk about gangs and stuff. And a lot of people got a misunderstanding of gangs. Gangs are basically, like I said, most people are being misrepresented. It's not one. And I stand on this. It's not one gang. There's a black organization that tells you to have black on black crime. I just recently had a conversation with a gang of us. And I told a gang of us, like, why you asking me for? Because at the end of the day, if you're just going to blame gangs, then you can blame every Christian. Because the most crime committed inside this country is from people who claim to be Christian. You got to start dealing with people who they are and call people who they say they are. When you're Christian, start acting like a Christian. That's not the way Jesus would want you to be. But the Quran, that's not how Allah wants you to do. If you're in a gang, that's not how bloods are ran. That's not how Christians are run. That's not how Jesus is run. You're saying you this, but you're not acting as this. But that's because the miscommunication in the media is a bad thing and not understanding what you're dealing with. And by doing that, you also allow those who have their personal agendas to push you further. Because they say they're a gang. Because you have Christian churches where the pastor was wrong. He pushed his own agenda. It's no different with certain gangs. You got somebody personal pushing their own agenda. We got to start calling people who they say they are. Be who you say you are. The world will be different. Because what the crux of a gang is going to empower people. Is that what you're saying? It's sort of like building an organization. It's not about tearing down the community. It's about actually protecting your community. Keeping the police out of the community because you don't need the police to police you because we're policemen. We're making sure you're okay. We're making sure that we live, we thrive. That's the purpose of the gangs. In the purest form. In the purest form. But the way it's given is some drive-by, some gang bangers. That's a word that's never asked on the side. Because to be honest with you, they organize. So it means anything that's organized has to have some kind of bylaws. They have to get their bylaws and look at it like, wow, why didn't I teach them all this? It's not taught the way it's given. We got to actually start addressing it head on. And making folks stand on who they say they are. And that's another thing I do inside the community to actually help bring down violence. I call them who they are. You say you owe your blood. What you're doing, you're helping the community. You're crippling them, but what you're doing to help the community. Practice what you preach. Yeah. Be who you say you are. Well, you can have a closing thought. But I hope you'll come and speak to us again. I think that what you're doing is amazing. And I learned a lot, and I want to learn more. I have more questions. But I'm hoping you'll come again and speak to our group. You give me a lot of hope, and that's why I started the group, is to give people the hope for hope. Because sometimes you feel so hopeless, you can't even imagine. Feeling hope. And you give me a lot of hope. So, thank you. Do you have any closing remarks before we end the night? Same thing. We must stop saying what the problem is. We all can sit around. We can put each other in different groups. We all know the problems. Let's stop talking about the problems. Let's stop working on solutions. Let's start holding each other accountable for who we say we are. Let's meet somewhere in the middle, and this world will be a better place. And follow My2K Foundation. Support My2K Foundation. We in the community, a lot of people think we're just crossing cars and all of that. We are Safe Passages Program, which not only means safe passages for the children. It's safe passages for any other organization, anybody that want to come out there and help the community. So, if there's anything that you have any fear about coming into the community, come talk to us. Let's put a plan together and actually help the community. Instead of talking to people, let's communicate for real. Let's find out what the problem is. Why is this happening? Because once you find out what's happening, you just find out how to solve it. With that, I thank you. I appreciate everybody coming. Y'all have a blessed night. Thank you. Thank you so much.
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