Marco Rules and Gerardo Drools Episode 2: Protesting

Today's podcast discusses how black people can be involved in government through protesting. Special guests include former President Barack Obama and Ms. Knight. They discuss the importance of protesting as a form of expression and its effectiveness in bringing attention to issues. They also mention the need for protests to remain peaceful and not cross the line into violence. The guests agree that voting is the most effective way to get involved in government. Hello and welcome to today's podcast, Marco Rules and Gerardo Drew. Today's podcast is about how can us black people be involved in vote in government. As you remember correctly, part one was about Maya and Val, in which we talked about going to college and voting. However, for this, for today's topic, we're going to be talking about protesting. We have a very special guest tonight and another very, very special guest, which we're going to introduce later. Anyway, with that, first, let's get on with today's sponsor. Today's podcast is sponsored by Marco's Pies. As you all know, through the fundraising, I'm doing okay. You know, I'm beating out Andrew. Shout out to Andrew, the man, the myth. Yeah, Andrew's not catching up, sadly, and I can see it right now. I'm already going to win. Anyway, yeah, if you would like to buy a pie and support me and not Andrew, please just buy a pie. Not to mention, all the money going to me is going to go to the school, probably Sister Ray, so yeah, which is also how we're able to fund this podcast, so yeah. Thank you for Marco's Pies for sponsoring today's podcast. Now on to today's podcast. Anyway, hey, Ms. Knight, how you been? I've been good. How are you? I've been pretty good. Anyway, as you know, Ms. Knight, if you remember correctly, we made a deal that if I got the Obama, if I got Obama, not the Obama, if we got a Obama, we would give you a free A. I don't remember that very clearly. What I do remember is the real former President Barack Obama on this podcast. Okay, that's not going to happen. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, give it up to Mr. President himself, former President Barack Obama. Very nice meeting you, Marco. Hey, what's good, Mikey? Thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it. Anyway, Obama, how's your day been? My day's been pretty good. I've been pretty tedious with all the government stuff going on. How about yours? Hey, I've been chilling, you know, graduation. Anyway, Ms. Knight, is there anything you want to ask Obama? I don't think so. Are you sure? I am 100% positive, Marco. This is the only time you're going to get to meet him, you know. I don't think it is. That's all right. People tend to get nervous around Obama. Obama, I've got to say, you look so much younger in person. I mean, just comparing you to, like, your picture, like, you look so much younger. Yeah, it's the Flintstones vitamins, you know. Take your vitamins, kids. Eat your vegetables. Yeah. Anyway, hey, Ms. Knight, what college did you go to? I went to Ball State. Now, what was your favorite part about Ball State? My favorite part about going to Ball State was definitely the campus. I felt that it was not too big that I was going to get lost, but not too small that it felt like I could just go home every weekend. Yeah. Anyway, Obama, what college did you go to? I attended the University of Notre Dame. Wow. I thought you said it was, like, Harvard or, like, Stanford. I feel like I was too good in those schools, so I went to something else better than Notre Dame. Respect. Anyway, hey, Ms. Knight, how are you? What was your favorite part about teaching government or government in general? I think definitely going through student rights and responsibilities and just the rights and responsibilities of being a resident and a citizen of this country. I think those are always the best lessons to teach you all before you graduate high school and go on to bigger and better things. Hey, Obama, would you agree? I very much agree with Ms. Knight. She's a very smart teacher. How do you know she's a very smart teacher? I have interviewed and toured her class once. You know, I saw how she talks. She was pretty good. I learned a lot. Nice. All right, Obama, how's Michelle? Oh, Michelle, she's been great. You know, she's been trying out new recipes for green bean casserole. She's an amazing person. All right. I have to jump. I have to jump. Can you go over how did you exactly meet Michelle? So, it's a very long story. I was crying, and she gave me a tissue. Nice. Anyway, Obama, okay, this is the final question before we move on to the actual good thing, the actual, like, big topic. Yes. So, Obama, what are your opinions on the Trump v. Biden in politics? I believe they are very, like, two great men, and they both have some positives and negatives. No one's perfect, but, yeah. Do you have a bias towards Biden since he was your vice president? I do, actually. I do. He didn't really do great of a job. No, I actually forgot he was even there. So, I'm rooting for Trump more than my vice president is Biden. Oh, wow. You heard that? Obama's voting for Trump. Sadly. Anyway, let's move on to today's topic, protesting. All right. For context, last time, Maya, Val, me, and Gerardo discussed on two ways us, the people, can be involved in government. Those were voting input and going to college. Today is going to be special, as we have Ms. Knight and Obama. We're going to talk about protesting. So, yeah, as you know, Gerardo is going to have them take over and ask a few questions. Okay. So, start off with our teacher, Ms. Katie Knight. How do you feel on protesting? Can I have a little bit more context into that question? Yeah, I was going to say. Like, when I ask, like, how do you feel about protesting, it's like, what do you think about it? Like, do you think it's a great form of, like, expressing the people's thoughts? Or, like, what do you think about it? Absolutely. I think that everyone should be able to practice their First Amendment right of speech and assembly and petition, especially to their government. Okay. So, like, you don't think it's, like, it's, like, an issue or it can be an issue? I think it really comes down to the intent of the protest, kind of the background, context, everything on that. Because when you say protest, everyone does have the right to speech, assembly, petition, things like that. But I think, like, when it comes down to the actual context, the intent, the why of the whole protest, I think maybe that's where many answers will vary. What about you, Obama? What do you think about protesting? Just like your very wise teacher, Ms. Knight, said, I think protesting is the best form of expression based on the intent of the protest and how it's, you know, performed. So, it has to be peaceful, of course, and there has to be a good motive behind it. So, I agree with you, teacher. So, Ms. Knight, what do you think it means, like, what do you think is too far to take into a protest? Like, you've seen before, like, the next question would be, like, the difference between a protest and a riot. So, like, what do you think is too far when it comes to a protest? Well, according to our First Amendment rights, we do have the freedom of speech and assembly and petition, things like that. But the main kind of limitation to those rights is when there's a threat to safety, especially public safety. So, I think many might kind of agree with the wording of the First Amendment where you have the right to peacefully assemble. So, possibly when the line is crossed and there's a threat to safety or threat of violence, that might be where the line is crossed. What about you, Obama? I'm sorry, what was the question again? So, like, what is too far when it comes to protesting? Like, what do you consider might be too far? So, I believe, like I said, protesting has to be peaceful. But when it involves the destruction of people's belongings and it involves the risk of life, I believe that is way too far. You know, protesting should be a way to verbally and most times physically, without assault, express your opinions and your beliefs just to make a change. Ms. Knight, do you think protesting is effective? And what's like one instance or moment you've seen that protesting was effective? I think that protesting can be effective in many different ways, either by just getting the word out or just by bringing much more attention to the issue, all the way up until actually having the issue being solved. We see, even today, protests pertaining to the issues happening out in the Middle East with Israel and Hamas. A lot of student organizations across campuses are protesting and regardless of the end goal, the word is getting out about the different views on the Israel and Hamas issue out in the Middle East, out in Israel. We've also seen just many movements that are forms of protest like the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Rights Movement, the Workers' Rights Movement. Those are all forms of protest and we've seen decades later how each one of the population groups have gotten in some way, shape or form their end goal. What about you, Obama? What do you think? So, like, do you think protesting is effective and when have you seen it be effective? I believe it is a very effective form of expression. I can't really pinpoint a specific example when it's been effective, but I do know that when government leaders and people in power do see people protesting, they tend to be, they have more incentive to change it because they know that a lot of people feel a certain way towards certain topics, subjects. Okay. I think I already asked this, but should people protest? Do you guys think people should protest? Absolutely. Yes, I do believe. Let me ask you something. Out of the three, out of protesting, out of voting, out of going to college and getting a degree, out of those three, which of those three do you think is most effective in getting involved in government? Obama, would you like to take this first? Oh, yes, David, I mean Obama. Yes, yes, definitely. You said going to college, voting, and protesting. Which ones do you think are the most effective? The most effective. In terms of getting involved in government. I would say the most effective would be voting because you're electing leaders who are going to make a change. Now, the change, whether positive or negative, we don't know for sure, but I believe voting is the most effective because it actually puts the right or wrong people in power. What about you, Ms. Knight? We're talking about effective, meaning everyone kind of gets involved in government. It might be a tie between going to college and protesting just because all people, regardless of their status here in the United States, can do those two things in some way, shape, or form. And with voting, if we're talking about effective as the most direct way to get involved in government, voting might be the way because that's just like Obama here was talking about how with voting, you can make a difference on who gets to represent you, who gets to make the policies, who gets to kind of make and change the rules. Voting is the most effective and direct way to get involved in government. But if we're just talking about the effect of getting everyone kind of involved or having everyone have the opportunity to get involved, I would say either going to college and or protesting. Nice answer. Thank you. All right. Unfortunately, because we're under a time limit, we have to end this podcast very short. So, yeah, I apologize for not being as long as I wanted it to. But, yeah, thank you for listening. I want to thank Ms. Knight. She took time off her day to be part of this podcast. And I want to thank our very special guest, former President Barack Obama. Thank you very much. Yeah. He flew all the way from Hawaii up to here. You know, the moment he came into school, like, everybody went wild. Okay. You know, yeah. Hopefully, you still give me and Hilda that free A because we got Obama here. I'll pray about it. Okay. Okay. Obama, can you do something? Can you tell everybody? Please give them a free A. All right. And also, thank you for Gerardo. He's going to edit this podcast very soon. Yeah. Yeah. And for being part of the podcast, Marco Ruiz and Gerardo Drew. And I want to thank our sponsor, Marco Spice, for sponsoring today's podcast. Next episode, we're going to be talking about conspiracy theories. So, yeah. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.