Should Election Day Be a Holiday? Exploring Voter Participation

Good morning. Welcome to Community Voice. I'm your host Keith Parris. I want to thank everybody for joining us this morning. It's going to be a long day. It's going to be a long day. I was, I brought some donuts in and Rhonda made a request that I get her one and so I have to separate hers out. So I asked, I said, do you guys have any baggies?

We went back to 1983. 79. 79. 79. 79. 79.

Oh my God! We're back to nickel bags and a dive bag! No bags! Then a lid, half a lid, then a quarter! I went to a white school, so you wouldn't get nickel and dive bags. It's either a lid, half a lid or a quarter.

Which way you want? Hey, can I get just like a nigga? No, no, no, no, no, no. They didn't do the nigga bags, man. And I wonder what those little bags were originally used for, those little Mimba's looks. Oh, no, they didn't invent it for drugs. So you can't put a sandwich in it? What, they're about to go back? No, they're not going to go back. Yeah, but you still couldn't put a sandwich in it because it was too little. Oh, if you had, if you had them little.

That was, that was great read. That was, that was going to take a lot. You can't put a piece of bread in there. I'm sorry, and I know we got kids out there. I'm first thing they go like, what, what, you got some weed? Like, yeah, man, I want to put a doughnut in the baggie. All right, so. Just one little morning. Oh man, election day.

a little bit a little bit of trivia for election day. Do you know that it used to be that liquor outlets had to be closed during the time the polls were open to my liquor stores, liquor stores, bars. Yeah, they could not sell liquor. Why? Because it would. Yeah, it would deter people from going to vote. Now, when Rhonda and I were in Panama,

They hold their elections on Sunday. We got there on a Sunday and You could not buy any liquor. They serve no liquor. No where no alcohol No, right you go into the stores and they had yellow tape in front of it

Yeah, is that to keep the people from the if you did drink you would make poor decisions and things like that you think Yeah, and I don't know when they changed that law, but yeah, you couldn't you couldn't get liquor from seven to eight because Well at some point people try to catch up right

I can remember that as a kid growing up, you could not buy liquor on election day. Now, here's another little political science debate is whether or not election day should be a holiday. Because if you look at it, I'm trying to think.

Man almost 40% of eligible voters did not vote in the last presidential election You know when I'm talking about eligible voters people who are registered to vote eligible to vote or in voting age Did not vote so I mean, I think the question becomes in a democracy. Do you want full participation? And what do we do as you know, you would think you'd make it easier for people to vote

But what we found is that they made it more stringent for people to vote That's by design because I'm telling you when you have a big big big turnout That usually fave usually favors dims And so you know and people every election seems to be a turnout election But yeah, that was that was one of those things that you could not do I know that

I don't know if it's still the case for the county. I know they'll give you two hours off the vote. It used to be a minor holiday though. And a minor holiday was one that you could either take off or you could accrue where people could then go and then go vote. And a lot of that was because of the labor unions and government and then allowing their people to get out, go vote, go campaign for folks.

Yeah, thank you. There's our Tuesday trivia moment. I wanted you to read this. It was earlier. Let me find it. On the other program? Yeah, but I want to, because somebody said, let's see. Okay, I'll find it for you. Okay, I appreciate that. I'll find it for you. Yep, so...

Yeah, four one four four four four five two five zero four one four Let me also suggest that if you're going to vote in person and you have access to a computer go to my vote Because my vote will let you know that if there's any polling changes your poll has changed I know over 21st Street. They're doing construction

I think that that might be the reason why they moved to Center Street Library, but I know it came up. So you go to my vote and let you know if your polling place has changed. You know, and you just put in your address and it'll let you know where you can. Do they still got over at Parkman? Because that's where I used to usually go. Yeah, Parkman, I guess someone had called Michelle and said that there was a problem with some of the voting machines, but I think it still is a poll. Because they had took me, I remember one year.

I was at a couple of years out apartment. Then I ended up going over here on 13th and 15th and Akison. 16th and Akison at the little church. Same mark. Yeah. So I went over there. Then they sent me back and followed you. Then they sent me back to apartment. Yeah. I'd go in and just go my vote before you go. I mean, save you some gas, save you some frustration. A quick question.

I know we got to call it, but I got a quick question and I was thinking, do you ever think men at this system would go to online voting? Oregon is all online. Really? Yeah. Yeah. So do you think that that's going to catch on? I think that, yeah. Now, again, I think Republicans would push back on it because what it does is it allows

more people access especially younger people because they're they're so computer savvy that they can go on and vote but I think Oregon has been online voting. Let me look that up because I mean if you can vote online. Call it up to the program as I look up some data. Good morning. Good morning. I think it's better for people to go in person and vote.

because they're voting online. We probably had that Elon Musk and that hacker stuff. We don't have time for that. They need to get up. They need to get up and take their free will to vote. So we want to encourage everybody to vote. And I know some of y'all are not going to vote because y'all say it don't do nothing. And you got that rather dos and got as an excuse saying you got him just say I'm black and I'm lazy and people will respect you even more.

I mean, but I mean, there's some white and lazy people, too, though. Well, we know that, but we're talking about our black people. Oh, OK. Because we've seen so many times where we say, you're going to vote. OK. And they start talking about how they don't vote, voting don't do nothing. Then the first thing they want to start throwing Bible scriptures. And I ain't never seen no Jesus come to a voting poll. Well, I saw a Jesus with long hair, but it wasn't Jesus, though.

Yeah, so I'm just you know encouraging black people to vote and rather than say I don't vote not that guy just say I'm black and I'm lazy People will respect you even more. Don't put it on him put that street wheel on yourself of lazy I got you. Yeah. Yeah. All right y'all have a good one. All right. Call the one to the program. Hello? Good morning. Good morning.

I haven't went to vote as of yet. However, I wrote at Francis Stomps on 25th and Brown. And I think I heard on the radio show that they were changing it to the early Francis Stomps early childhood center, which is on 26th and Garfield. And I wanted to know if that was still true before I went out to vote.

Say that again Okay, I usually wrote at Francis Times Discovery Learning Center, which is on 25th and Brown. Okay, okay And at one point in time on the radio show somewhere I heard that they were moving it from Francis Times Discovery Learning Center to Francis Times Early Childhood Center, which is on 26th and Garfield

Okay, so let me ask you this question. You have access to the internet. I mean, yeah, okay, so go you can Google my vote WI Pull that up and then there's questions on there, which will ask you about your polling location put your address in and I'll let you know where that polling location is All right, thank you very much. All right, and you know what do me a favor if you go ahead

And if it works for you, can you just call us back and let us know? All right, thank you. All right. Thank you. Jermaine, ask Keith about that question. You were talking a shit about your son. Your son? Oh, yeah. So Keith, so for people that are truck drivers or drive during the day, and that didn't get a chance to vote early, because for whatever reason, but on voting day,

your employer's supposed to give you time to go vote, right? Two hours. Okay, so if you're out in like, you know, way up north or you way up, you know, somewhere driving and for your lunch break or things like that, you won't have a time or a chance to vote because your polling place might be here in Milwaukee, but your job will have you way out somewhere.

How do you supposed to vote if you didn't get a chance to vote early? So that means that you're gonna miss this You know actually placing your vote. Well, no, that's why early voting Well, I know but for those that didn't get a chance to do the early vote. That's tough. I know so that's why though I was saying like Maybe if we had this voting online that they can verify who you are because they can verify everything else But if they can verify who you are make sure that you are a citizen

And things like that and for those people that are that's not able to make it to the polling places You can vote online and your vote can still count because Even if you don't vote you still subject to you know Man to the rules. Mm-hmm. So you know Sam so no, I mean but Voting is not a requirement yet though some argue that it should be

I was wrong. What Oregon allows you to do is go into registration. There are states Alaska to use the online absentee ballot system. Voters must have a ballot. Arizona allows updates to registration ballot request and sign up for the state's permanent early voting list. Connecticut permits any voter eligible to vote by absentee to apply for an absentee ballot through the online application system.

call one to the program. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? I'm good. I just wanted to comment on the individual saying that we should be able to vote online. And I just I just think that there's so much opportunity for hacking and and just manipulation.

and online voting. And I feel like in this day and age, everyone is so quick to go stand in line for a party, for a black private cell. I think it is the least we can do stand in line or even mail-in voting. I still have no problem with mail-in voting and absentee ballots. I think it's necessary and I think it's a great tool. But I think if we reduce voting to online, it should not

It shouldn't be difficult and shouldn't be hard. But I just think that the fact that we have early voting, we have sold to the polls. We have all these other opportunities as well as in-person voting. I just don't think that online voting is something that necessarily needs to be added. I think we can sacrifice to figure out a way to get to the polls or mail in a ballot. I think those are totally acceptable. Can I ask you a quick question?

And then I made me know you can, you know, just kind of tell me how you feel. So for those young people that are now, you know, getting into the whole voting thing, you know, that might have a job that's working throughout the day and throughout the week and didn't have a chance to do the early voting. How would we include them if they didn't get a chance to go in person to vote?

or didn't have the opportunity for the early voting or the absent the um the mail in um voting thing because a lot of young people don't know about the mail in and all of that other stuff like that so how do we fix that i appreciate that question i have two young people and i think that young people or old people i think that we prioritize what we want to prioritize

And I think it starts at home. I have been really vigilant with my young people since they were younger. I would take them to the polls and let them see the importance. So I just don't see how and I say that because my sons or my children have worked been in school and I still think that you can find time for something when you want to. And I think it's a matter of really teaching, prioritizing something and it's important. I think that there's I don't understand

or think that there would be a situation where you would miss all of early voting, all of mail-in ballot voting, I just think we have to be responsible and we have to be, and we have to expect certain standards out of our young people. And I don't think that it's too much to expect them to either do early voting or to do a mail-in ballot or to do

in person. I think that when we add online, I'm not saying that it should not be easy, but I'm saying adding online, it just, I don't know, I feel like that's just too much in my opinion. And I certainly believe in talking to young people and educating them, but there are so many opportunities to vote that I just don't think that online voting is necessary. And like I said, I always worry about legitimate, you know, legitimizing or delegitimizing voting.

I still think that our federal election was taken, that I digress, but I just think that this is something that we can do. We have to teach them about prioritizing things that are important, and this is important. Right, right, right. Appreciate it. And again, Oregon does not, they don't even allow you. I don't know where I got that from for Oregon. Most of their states that will allow you to,

request online absentee ballot, change of registration. Wisconsin is one of those states that allow that. They want to make it tougher. Here's a problem though with the mail-in part of this. The Trump administration is using the postal service to try to deny getting those ballots or letting those ballots arrive on time so they can be valid with count.

be part of the ballot count, right? So a lot of people are distrustful of the mail because if they look at the ballots, not a priority, though, one would think that if we saw a ballot that that would become a priority in terms of delivery. So I know for our mail and ballots, they were dropped at the drop box over here at Ackerson. She does bring up a good point. I would assume that if we did allow online voting.

that it would have to be a very secure system. And maybe they have not figured out how to come up with a secure system. And again, a lot of these states that are controlled by Republicans would not necessarily want to see online voting. And then they make the argument, what about my 92-year-old grandmother? But what about those people that might vote Republican, that didn't get a chance at things like that? So wouldn't that help any and everybody? Well, primarily up until 2020.

Republicans were down with, you know, mail-in balloting. But then in 2020, because of COVID, many Democrats began to say, oh, let me take advantage of this. And everybody saw the confusion that we had in our spring election in 2020 here around.

Could you vote what votes would be counted people overwhelmed the the system requesting absentee ballots maybe a week out? Overwhelmed there was no way that the system at that point was designed to get all those ballots out So a lot of people actually did receive their ballots the day after just because the sheer volume of it so her points of valid points Again, I know I do think though that

certainly the presidential election, that voting should be a national holiday. I think that it's hard when people have to work. Now we can do early voting. The Packers play Steelers. Mike McCartney. Yeah. And Rogers is not going to play. So yeah, that's a good point. Caller, welcome to the grip. Good morning. Good morning. How are you?

I'm good. How are you today? I'm well. Good. I had a question about earlier. You had said something about looking on a real site to basically get more information because I haven't voted yet, but I'm going to get out here this morning and go vote. But I haven't been following the candidates too much.

because sometimes I get to a point where I think I've heard enough and then I get flooded with these texts and different things that I don't like. So then I kind of shut down. So I want to take my time before I go and actually really look at the candidates. I know I'm a vote for only for the governor, but I need to know other people. So what's that? What's that?

Oh, it wouldn't be a sight. The only thing I was saying to folks were before you go vote, if you're going to vote in person at your polling place, go to my vote. W I put in your address to make sure that your polling place is where it's supposed to be. Well, W I okay. Yeah, my vote. All one word of my vote. Yeah. Mm hmm. And then you put in your address. Um, and I say, I think it gives you it prompts you to, um,

my polling place something to that effect and then you put in your address and then a couple of things when you pull it up and let you know if you still a valid registered voter and then it'll then let you know once you put your address in where you are supposed to go vote. Okay so that's good and one more question are you all still giving tickets for the harbor? Yeah I didn't know am I giving away tickets? I don't know well let's keep listening. I'll find out.

Because if I if I can't then I'm really gonna be upset Because then it shows yet. So another example of the double standards that I have to deal with around here

property in another state and own property here. How they can they vote? Like both way or where would they have to vote the main? If you live here, you have to be a resident. Yeah, you gotta live. I think it's 30 days. Yeah, so if you if you're living here, then you can vote now. Also, if it's your primary address. So what about the primary? Yeah, but but they both can't have both primary address. They both can't be your primary address.

We found that out with Janet Cook and some other folks, Leticia James, where they lived in one state, had property in another state. And for loan purposes, they put down, it was a primary. But yeah, I think it has to be your primary where you live. You're listening to Community Voice, it's election day. It's going down. Kenny said, you going down.

Meet me at the club. You're going down. Meet me at the mall. It's going down. Four one four four four four five two five zero four one four four four four four five two five zero. Go take a quick break. We'll be right back. Your host Keith Parris. Welcome back. Welcome back. Wow. That's funny, man, because right now, accidentally called Clark Craig.

Then I got to thinking, well Craig Stingley here on Friday, so he'll get fired on his day off. Usually here on Friday. It's 414-445-250-414-445-250. All right, scroll back now. Let's see, here we go. The quote you wanted me to address.

This happiness doughnuts I just asked two people if they voted yet one said she was she was so she's going to after work the other one said that there's no need to He tried to clean up the house clean up on house six and ask who was on the ballot Now let's be Let's just kind of put it in big picture y'all. Okay. This is a primary

Primaries usually are lower in terms of voter turnout, voter participation because they're primaries. If a person does not know, though, in Wisconsin, it's kind of hard just because of everything that's been going on the dim side, it's been on the news. But it is, it's not surprising that it's a lower turnout than you will see in November.

Right? I mean, that's just how it is. Primaries are usually, usually, for activists, you know, people to base of the party, they want to go in to say, because what the primary does is designates, and certainly on the partisan side, it designates a party nominee to run for that office. All right? This is partisan, which means that, you know, you're a Democrat, you're Republican.

who might have the green party, might have a line on the ballot. So I'm not surprised, overly surprised that, you know, if people may or may not go vote just because of the nature of a primary. And now, as we get close to November, that's a different discussion, right? Because November, I'm not saying that August doesn't matter.

But November matters most because November determines who will get in that seat for the next two, four or six years, depending on who you're who you're running for. So I'm not, I'm not surprised. Clark brought something up too. Uh, in 1972, um, the, um, that was the first time that 18 year olds were allowed to vote. Uh, a lot of that had to do with the Vietnam war.

And people were making the argument where if I'm old enough to go at 18 to go fight in the war, I should be old enough to vote. And so we'll pull up the actual constitutional amendment. Which amendment? I mean, how do you spell amendment? Let's see. Oh, D, M, E, N, T.

allowed 18 year olds to vote. That would be the 26th Amendment and the 26th Amendment to the Constitution. It says it was amended to say the right of citizens United States who are 18 years or older, the vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States by any state on account of age. Let's see.

And I'm going to pull up the article. Welcome to the program. Good morning. What's up, my brother? How you doing, man? I'm good, brother. What's happening? All right, all right. Hey, I was talking to a group of guys this weekend at the store. And what's this about? They trying to eliminate Thanksgiving. That would never happen. Why is so much stuff be starting up when stuff like this go on? OK. Peace, brothers. Have a good one. All right. Well, what happened?

See what happened was no what happened was Francesca Han had come out and said that we should get rid of Thanksgiving and a lot of it is because what Thanksgiving represents to First Nation indigenous people right Thanksgiving kind of really represents the land being taken from them and that's why you know, she's coming out and that's more her identification

with America's original sin, which was to steal land from First Nation and the indigenous people of all these indigenous nations here. And so it's like Columbus Day. Columbus Day ain't big in the Caribbean because for many of those folks, it was Columbus that really represented the colonization of the Western Hemisphere. So I think that's what they were talking about. I understand his point.

And again, Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday. Thanksgiving is a national holiday. It's a secular holiday, right? So that's why she was making that point. It was more identifying with how indigenous people feel about Thanksgiving and what Thanksgiving represents to indigenous people. Carla, welcome to the program. Good morning.

Good morning, how are you? I'm well, how are you? I'm good, fine. I'm your faculty there. I'm sorry? Your faculty. You saying good morning to them, too. Oh, OK. Yes. I don't know everybody's name, but I do know your name. Yeah, tall little people here. She's speaking to all the little people now. I do know your name. That's what I was calling about.

He was talking to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now. Let me talk to the bed now.

That's a good one. Yeah.

Well, here's my question. You also mentioned, did somebody mention Mondani? Isn't he Muslim? Yeah, that is beef bacon or turkey bacon. I mean, that's that's the first thing I thought about. Like, okay, you know, I'm bacon on burgers. That's the best ever. Oh, I don't know, man.

BAKER!

Well, there's a lot of them out here. Yeah, because I was in my door the other day and every spot I moved, the drone moved. I stood back in my house, the drone was at my best. Somebody in your neighborhood? Yeah, somebody in your neighborhood. Somebody in your neighborhood. I don't know, but I looked it up and they said that the police have them up there, too. Oh, yeah. Whatever. They have them up there, too, to charge crime and this and that and that.

But I'll just change warfare what the Iranians been able to do is because you know if you look at the cost of a Patriot missile over millions of dollars and they're doing these little drones for maybe $20,000 the first time I had actually seen like a drone was Rhonda and I we were in Memphis for the 50th anniversary of the King assassination And they did a group picture and they had a drone taking the pictures

So you see a lot of shots now where it used to be aerial, but now it's drones. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. I wonder if they have drones in the Jetsons. Call her. Welcome to the program. Good morning.

about the what? Thanksgiving. Yeah. Say something about Thanksgiving with this Francesca Hong. I mean, she also wants to do, she also wants to have a state grocery store, you know, so just think what that would do. We already know what Walmart done did to a lot of stores around here. They done basically put Walgreens out of business and a lot of other stores. So she wants to

She wants to do a state grocery store and then state healthcare, which is like a badger care that would put everybody under a badger care. Uh, and, but now I don't know if it would come down to a single payer where you can only use that government option. I don't know. Then when he talks about the, uh, Thanksgiving, we must look at where that really come from. That was when the, uh, when the peacock, the peacock tribe was, uh, was a mask.

done away with because the Indians knew that the white man in real life knew that the white man didn't do anything on Sunday. That was his Saturday, that was his rest day. Well, the Indians would put their guards down. Well, this Sunday, the white folk come in there and masquerade, masquerade, killed

all of the young and women, because the Braves was out doing whatever they was doing. And genocide, basically, the Pequot tribe, and went back and gave thanks to God. Now, for giving them that great big victory. And that's something that's been going on forever. You know, even in the Western movies, when the white man killed the Indians, it's a great big victory.

when the Indians killed the white man, it's a massacre, a great massacre, a Cheyenne massacre. But when the white man killed, it's a great victory. So that's where that comes from, but it still doesn't give a right to come in. These are foreigners that don't even participate really in any of that. Then you got this guy that's out there calling for prayer five times a day. I thought that state and religion

is separate. Okay. So what we got going? Okay. Yeah, I thought I thought that it was separate. And guess what? The people that now if they were Christians called and pray five times a day, you know what would happen? Everybody would be out there. You would even probably say not at Christmas shouldn't be doing that. We came for that. Well, where are you at on this issue? We got people that are actually

coming in to put their flag in the United States. Can I respond to a couple of things? I went into the Potawatomi website and there's an article that was done on November 25th, 2020. And I'll just read the preamble of it says, although many Potawatomi and others across the United States celebrates Thanksgiving, the factual history behind the holiday is something to be less than thankful for.

While communion with loved ones and showing appreciation for the bounties and gifts provided is one positive aspect of the national holiday, teaching a false narrative of his beginnings perpetuates colonialism and ignores the foreign years of atrocity committed against Native Americans and First Nation people. So I think that that's why people out there that for a lot of First Nation people is not cool. Yes, I do not.

I do not accept nor do I endorse prayer in school, regardless of the type of prayer. I think that schools should be neutral when it comes to religion and religious practices.

because America, and I was just thinking about this this morning, America is a diverse country, and we're a secular country. We're not a Christian country, nor should we be. Because I think everyone should have the right to freely express their religion. I just don't think that for people in public schools that there should be prayer. And it's a myth that somehow America was better when we had prayer in school.

No, no, we had segregation. We had Jim Crow We had atrocities prayer in school. So when people talk about things being better and look the kids and would no more Better behave because prayer was in school. So no, I don't know. Can I ask you a question though? Okay, okay So we all went to kindergarten and middle school and high school, right?

When you was in school, was mental illness around? Yeah. Okay. When you was in school, was guns around? No. Guns wasn't around? No, not in school. No, I didn't say in school. I said when you were in school, when you was going to Kenny Garden in middle school and high school, there was guns around. There were guns. Okay. So my question to you now is, when you were

In school, did you pray before school? Did they do the little prayers in school? No, because for y'all, when I started school, they had just had, I think it was Madeleine here. Madeleine or here had filed a suit. So we didn't have to do prayer in school. Now, let me also say.

I went to Catholic school and we did have prayer, which is perfectly acceptable because it is a religious school. Okay, so questions, because even in MPS, even though it wasn't a prayer, I do remember doing the Pledge of Allegiance. Yeah, Pledge of Allegiance. And that Pledge of Allegiance. And I don't think we should be doing the Pledge of Allegiance in school. Okay. Well, the pledge, it was to the flag. United States. One nation.

under God. So God was still in the picture some way, some form. Well, actually, that was added. That wasn't the original pledge. That was added to the pledge, I think, around World War II or a little bit after World War II. I get it, but you was in school after World War II, right? So you said the pledge of allegiance because that was something that every school did. So my thing is this, if mental illness was around when you were in school,

It was around when I was in school. Guns was around when we was in school. Why is it then that when prayer was taken out and the alleges and the whole emphasis of God was removed from school, why is it then that we started seeing more school students? We started seeing all of this stuff happening in school because of the reverence of God was taken away. So you can say

that you believe that it's not appropriate. But when you were in school, these same elements that's in effect right now, while we're adults, was in effect when we was teenagers. But the stuff that's happening in school wasn't happening when we were in school. Why is that? You want me to give you an answer? I mean, give me an answer. First of all, there were guns, but

not the level of guns that you see today. Yeah, but you don't need the level because you got mental illness. No, what I'm saying, we had mental illness then, but people may or may not have access to guns and certainly the firepower that people have. I don't know if one has to do with the other now. I'm really getting some trouble today, but why not? It's too big of a selection. What the hell? You know.

I mean, it's like prayer in church. But there was more in schools. Yeah, switch. But so right. So why is it that we wasn't seeing the amount of violence that we're seeing now with mental illness are still available? I think that I think that there's been some changes certainly since I was a kid where people have access, people act on things. We have

Even before but you really began to see those big schools shootings in the 80s as the same time where people get out I You know, I was sitting up. I'm smiling to myself Clark because You know, and I'm not advocating this. I'm only using this as an example. Okay We have prayer church our people any better

We pray four or five times in church. Do people act differently after we pray in the church? Yeah. Yeah, right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm done. And I'm not saying, I want anybody to say, you know, we need to get rid of prayer in church. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying the efficacy of the prayer, you know, and then you talk about school kids, you know, really.

I'm in the seventh grade. I'm in the fifth grade. I mean, it's all a part of programming. It's all part of the American myth. It has everything to do with Christian nationalism, which I reject. I'm just saying that America is a secular country. And we have freedom of religion, but I think we also have freedom from religion.

If you want to be religious, you have the right to practice that. That's the great thing about, and the Constitution protects you in terms of you being able to express your religious exercises. You can do that. But I'm just saying, I don't think that it should be...

Certainly in public schools also because a lot of people struggle with this one and some of my clergy brothers and sisters struggle with this one if I'm at a community event Where there's a multitude of thoughts and beliefs on religion I need to be circumspect and how I do that prayer

Because I need to understand one of their people there who might believe don't believe believe differently than me and so how Universal can I be you know in my prayer because I understand that there are people there who? may or may not Subscribe to religion the way that I do Let's see Keith is the pastor still giving rides to the polls haven't heard about it

I think I think they are I think there There's a commercial that sells to the polls and they give the number that people can call if they want to ride For us to get up to write the boat. Okay. All right, you're listening to community voice. I hear crickets I Got a fever we're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back

They told me it'd be no matter. We got five. We got five. Shout out to the late great Deacon Howard Dickerson. That was my guy. All right. All right. So I didn't quit yet. And the management's heard my concerns. And so my concerns have been addressed. I have a set of tickets. Uh-oh.

for the Harbor Park Jazz Rhythm and Blues Festival this Saturday down in Kenosha. The phone line's open if you want to give me this. If you want to win a set of tickets, give us a call. 414-444-525-0. 414-444-525-0. Again, and let me let me shout out Kurt Weyland.

Last year we were down and it rained. Man, boy, Lord didn't it rain. And it rained and it stopped. And they wanted to wait until everything was cleared. He went out. I think he performed about 25 minutes. He was determined because he didn't have to do the show. So wasn't that two years in a row because.

The year that we played it rained and it moved inside. Maybe they might want to pick a different weekend. August is crazy though because August, there's a lot of rain in August. Obviously we had. Yeah, or it could be really cool in August. August is a strange summer month, but you know, bipolar. So we end up, everybody left.

We was still there, man. Rhonda stayed. He did a great show, and then it started raining again, and when he came back to Milwaukee, it was like, you couldn't see in front of you. And we had just got, I think we got the truck, the new truck, the week, the month before. So, you know, I put it on cruise control in this monsoon. Rhonda, you're gonna kill us! I quickly took it off of cruise control. You know, you can't trust, yeah. All right, so again, oh, caller, welcome to the program.

Good morning. Hello. Hey, I got it. Caller? Yes. Hey, what's happening? Hey, how you doing? Hey, man, what's up? What's going on? Oh, nothing. Just trying to win tickets. Oh, no, man. That not now. Oh, I got to wait. Holy.

I just like having the power. I like having the power Yeah, man They said we supposed to ask the trivia question what it was mentioned yesterday What Hey, do you know you know Jermaine right out? No, you know he won good. Yeah, he'd be back there advocating for for you man. He said just give the man the tickets All right, man, I was certainly again

the Harbor Park Jazz and Rhythm and Blues Festival. Take place Saturday August 16th at the Harbor Park. Have you ever been down for that before, man? Yeah, yeah. It's nice, man. If you're outdoors, man, that's great. I mean, it might be, I think they're predicting rain Saturday, but they do have, they do have an alternative where they move it indoors. So again, Jermaine is going to get your information.

And let me do this. All right. Can I get the next call? Yep. Hold tight, caller. Hold tight. Okay. So, caller. Right out. Right out. Hug up on you. Accidentally. So, call back. First the wrong button. Caller, call back. I'm waiting on your call. Call right back. First the right button, man. First the right button, man. All right. All right. You got him. Caller.

Welcome to the program. Good morning. Is that my guy? He can call back. He's straight. Somebody asked a question. George asked this. Passed to give him a ride. Yeah, and they should be listening to the souls to the polls number will be giving that out. I call welcome to the program. I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing well.

Okay, turn your radio now Now go outside walk around your house four times

You just walked into your job? Okay. Okay. All right. All right. So what have you voted? I did not yet. I did nothing. And I'm going straight to the power. All right. Appreciate you. Well, hold on. Jermaine is going to get your information. Enjoy the show.

Hello. Paula, welcome to the program. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. You know, I was listening to you guys speak about the prayer in school. And the thing here is that what else do the children have now? They have nothing. They go on in with days, with days wrapped on their head. They go on in with all these weary thoughts.

Somewhere you got to break the monotony of this thought and what's going on where we're going there? You think prayer in school would change that? You know what? God's work and change anything. Okay, but I'm asking do you think prayer in school going to change that? It's a help. It's a help. The reason why I said it's a help is because

The things that we've gone through and we're suffering right now is the lack of our people. You know, let me show this here. Ministry, the word of God is just as important as education. It's more important. But the thing here is that you got to put a balance in life. And when you don't have a balance and you think everything is going to be

Everything is going to be the way you want to be. And it's too much negative out here. The devil is busy on it. The devil is busy. It's too much negativity. Our children have no thoughts of God. Did you talk to a schoolist guy? What guy? Man, I'm spiritual. I don't believe in that Bible. You know, because a lot of times these organs, some of these younger parents say, oh, you don't have to worry about it. You could just be spiritual.

Maybe you know the Word of God can change. Well, what's the problem? What's the problem with people being spiritual? Well, let me share something with you. When you put your point right, it ain't about God. Spiritual can be anything. Yeah. You can have a spiritual chair. Yeah. You can have, you can have a spiritual garbage can. Well, let me ask you a question preacher, preacher, preacher, preacher, preacher. Let me ask you a question.

Is there a difference between if you're a Christian being religious and being spiritual? Yes. Let me share something with you. Well, no, there's a question before you share something with me. Is there a difference between being spiritual and religious if you're a Christian? Yes, it is. All right. And so which is which is the better to be religious or to be spiritual? I rather you be spiritual. Okay. So you have a problem with other people claiming that in fact they are spiritual.

Well, the thing is that when you sit down and talk to a lot of these folks, they say, I don't believe in God, but I'm a spiritual. We got to scare it in us. We do have a spirit. Look here, my body is sober. We'll have a spirit in us. Okay, so we all in the sense of spiritual. But religion could be anything. You can do whatever you want, go to work religiously. You go to the store religiously. You have time.

religiously but when you've got to start and so can can a person be spiritual and and and not adhere to a religion you could be spiritual not in here today religion because you got married any okay so is that is that a bad thing no it is really is it but i'm just okay so then you started off saying that people describe themselves as spiritual so let me go to work they say that

their life is good because they're spiritual, but they have no word in their life. But what if they're doing what in their spirituality they're doing what the word teaches? Is that a positive? Hold on. The word of God teaches. Well, I'm assuming that's who you're talking about. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so what about the people who are religious but don't do the word of God who are a good Baptist good Kojic good Methodist who and I hate to use the word better, but I'm struggling so who's better the spiritual person who follows what if you're a Christian Jesus taught or the religious people who Identifies Christians, but do not follow what Jesus taught

That's like having a form of God, but not God. They're asking the question. That's great. Y'all preaching to me, but I'm asking you a practical question. So who is it? Remember, wasn't there a discussion about people? They were going out doing things in the name of apostles and they do a name. And what did Jesus say? Jesus said, it doesn't matter whose name you do it in, it's what you do that matters.

No, let me shift. Let me put this right. It's what you do that matters not a thing here. We got so many people that and Oh, let's go back to where we started in school. Yeah, our children, right? Okay We have so much going on right we have okay. We got a black lives matter. I'm shifting a little bit. We got a black lives matter. No choice. We don't have to put some kind of politics anything black When I get up in the morning, I look in the mirror. I'm what?

What you're black nothing about no, I when I look in the mirror, I'm human then I'm black But you're and we come to race If we come to race what are you human? Well, race is a construct, but okay, let's do this man cuz I gotta take a break you want to you want to hang on to after the break Okay, also tell that caller

that card that we filed. You know what? Why don't we have them call? Yeah, call to the front desk and I have it. Give that number for them to call the front desk. Yeah, so I would get it to you. As soon as we come back from commercial, because I got to go grab it from them. Okay, all right. Okay, you coming back, right? I think so, man. Because you're due to take off, man. And he gone. Are you listening to a movie? We're gonna take a break and we'll be right back.

Welcome back caller go ahead Yeah, so, you know thinking about all of this here And we think about when I when I started school. I would say Bonavista. We did have prayer Catholic school. Yeah, okay, then we went to did I went to Park Street school We had prayer. We had prayer home. We had prayer

My dad was preaching mom banjoes. We had prayer and and the thing here is that I have friends that big To come to our house to be around us because they liked it that Atmosphere prayer today a lot of our friends because of the way Us 16 was raised or 16 of us two sets a same mom and dad for the two years of marriage

It was prayer. I've got and then when we as we come up with cities parents there, I'm not forcing my children to go to church because I was forced. But now you look at them, the parents and their actions and the way they conduct themselves. And then they say, I'm going to church. I need to start going to church. I need to do this. I need, and but they had, it ain't about just going to church is getting the word. Okay.

But if you start somewhere in the beginning of the day, don't just start in the beginning. You need to put God in the center of your life. You know, I was saying something before we went on is that we're talking about being unapologetically black. Now, who you are is what God makes you when you look in the mirror. But nowadays, you've got so many people that change who they are. They want to be a dog. They come to school. You identified me as a dog and don't call me nothing different. Don't I have the right to define me?

You shouldn't be defining me. I have the right to define me. You define you, but you ain't got to force it off on nobody. You're not forcing it off on anybody if I'm expressing, because you're expressing who you are publicly. How come I can't express who I am publicly? Religious beliefs. You see, I'm going where you at, okay? You can't force, right? You can't force your religion, your Christianity, your spiritual religion.

beliefs for other people. Everybody got that individual who they are. But when we get through at the end of the day, what would I rather be a moral individual that treat people with a sense of understanding the peace and treat them the way I desire to be treated? They'll go around here acting a straight idiot.

bullish. We got choices, man. But I rather start my day. And the people that I see that do start out, I see Muslims. They start their day in prayer. They end their day in prayer. You know, the thing here at the end of the day, it's gone. All right. Appreciate you.

You're listening to Community Voice Caller. I see you. I'm going to grab you. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. And again, just for those folks who won tickets, I think you can come picking up between nine and three here at the station up till Friday. And I would also check the Mahonfun.org. Mahonfun.org to see if there's going to be a change. If it rains on Saturday, they usually move it indoors so then you'll get the new location.

in terms of just in case they move because of weather. So again, I would check if it's raining on Saturday to see if they haven't, I don't think they're gonna cancel it, but I think they always have a backup. Last year was crazy because it stopped raining and started raining, but it sounds like it's gonna be continuous rain. So again, go to myhomefund.org to see if there's a change of venue. I would check either Friday or Saturday morning.

to see if in fact they're still having it down. I think it's Harvard Park. Carla, welcome to the program. Good morning, Mr. Berge. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. No problem. So I'm looking to you, brothers. All right, brother. Yes, sir. I was listening about the dilemma with regard to prayer in school and lack there. When I came to school, there wasn't any prayer. I think I might have remembered

maybe a placard or something signifying mentioning like Moses or something like that. But ultimately, this is what I, why I call it. I think that at least for me, I should say this from a personal perspective, my grandmother made me go to church. The women around me, my mother, my grandmother, and my aunts,

Even some of my uncles They were like insistent about that, you know with with us once they got here in Milwaukee. I don't know what was going on in the South but I think that um The Bible does say something about train a child So that when he's older he will not depart from it. So I think Exposure to the word of God in my case

It was, I was in a church, Christian Union Missionary Baptist Church. That's where I started my exposure to the Word of God under, I think it was Reverend Ivy. And I remember who's taught us how to sing Betty Jals, Sister Betty Jals, one of my favorite persons in the world. And I hope she's still here with us. So I think this, and I probably shouldn't say hi.

But with the exclusion of the recognition of a power more awesome than the human being, I think it has led to what we see or contributes to the chaos and the mania, the berserkerness, or the craziness ultimately, that what we are experiencing

and especially in our community, black people, because black people, even at our most broken point during the middle passage, our people still called out to God a lot, someway, somehow. So it is natural for us as a people to incline or to have the idea

Maybe I should say like that, that there is something greater than human beings because we did not create nature. We did not put the sun in its orbit. Nor do we possess the mathematical formula that allows nine planets to harmoniously rotate around a star that is 93 million miles away from us. So for me, just especially even with science,

If you can't look into nature and see the awesomeness that you are not the author of, that signifies that there is a greater power behind this, and I don't know what to say to or about you, because I don't think, at least especially for me, you cannot separate God a lot from nothing in existence. So I say to you, grandmoms out there, take them children to a place

where they can be exposed to the word of God. Before though, why don't you do some field reconnaissance? Go out and see if this person, because I'm not going to push my way of thinking or my faith. I would say it like this, but I should say it like this. The way is the most honorable argument is said that all young men, young black men and old men primarily should join arms to end with the nation of Islam.

And if you have a problem with being exposed to the truth of those teachings, then find a place of worship that you can bring your child, children to. Let them listen. It's like school. It's like a class. Let them listen and partake of it and see how it goes with them just because you are a reprobate or you don't think that there is a greater power in action. That's your fault.

But do not, I would say, don't extend your damnation on to further generations because you don't have the capacity to get up and go to seek guidance from someone who has a broader and better understanding of the Word of God than you yourself. I appreciate you. Yes, sir. Call and welcome to the program.

Oh, I've been waiting so long to get this call through. And I would like to win the tickets, can I? Well, first of all, turn your radio down. Yes, sir. How many times have you tried to call? Twice. What happened when you called? I was the first caller, and it dropped.

And then I called back and he told me the whole time. Who's he? The guy that answered the phone. That dude? Yeah, that dude. What's his name? Oh, I forget his name. Pedro, the name is Pedro. Did he have an accent? I should know. All right, dear. Hold on. He'll get your information. You have one ticket to Harvard. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. And make sure you check with Mahon, the Mahonfund.org before you go down. Make sure you know what the location is, okay? Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Clark, I could have been really cold with that, couldn't I, man? It took great delight.

You know Again today is election day in the city We'll be doing election central starting at 12 noon today going to 8 o'clock this evening when the polls close Again, if you're going to vote in person, let me suggest you go to my vote My vote wi Put in your address to make sure that your polling place has not changed, right? It's raining out here now. So we want you running around

in the rain. I want to go outside. In the rain. In the rain. And they sound crazy. They sound crazy. But I want to go outside. That's one of the good songs like that. Oh man. They don't write them like that anymore. Do they? No, man. They don't write them. They just talk about dodging through rain and trying to run from somebody.

Oh man, what was the song that the Mamas and Papas did? Rainy Days? Rainy Days Monday? Rainy Days, yeah. Just go outside. Oh man, where's my band? Y'all know the song, In the Rain. How long is it supposed to rain today? It's supposed to pass through about two.

Oh, cool. I think I might go to the state. My grass could use this. Mine's overgrown. I got to cut it. Yeah. When a long guy was by, he cut it. And it's been treated. And so it's this. Man, I've seen the street sweeper this morning, right?

Came down a block, but they hit no curve He just was in the middle of the street with the sweeper thing up Well, I think it's because it don't rain now so a lot of this be clean caller. Welcome to the program Good morning. Good morning. How are you? I'm doing well Wonderful. Well, I'm fixing to go outside in the rain Sound crazy

It may sound crazy, but I'm going to go outside in a row. All right. I don't know why, just because I'm going to vote. I'm going to go vote in a minute. You're going to go vote? Yes. Did you check my vote to make sure that your polling place has not changed? Yes, my polling place is still the same. OK, all right. But also, I don't mind going out in a rain. Also, just in case.

I want to come and get some tickets. Say that again. I want to come and get some tickets. Oh, well, I've already given out. That's OK. Well, what's what's OK? I've already given them out. Yes, but you got some more with my name on them. Oh, see, naming them and claiming it. But I think that prosperity preaching.

Jesus did create a miracle didn't he when you turn water in the wine? So she's she's she's asking you to be like Christ Come on now be like G. I know you ain't gonna be having no religious conversation

around these jazz tickets. Let me say something about Kurt Weyland. Kurt Weyland is a, Kurt Weyland became a born again Christian. I think he converted to Catholicism. Some of the songs he did, I know he did two albums called The Gospel According to Kurt, where he does so. All right, I think, do I have another set? Let's see.

Alright, I'm gonna tell you how you win these tickets. Tell me the name of the group that did that song You will not be getting into any of my concerts don't be Keith let the artist sing that song. Yeah, okay, but then when I make it when I hit it then you gonna be like, you know, that's my boy, right?

I don't even remember. It may sound crazy. No, that ain't the name of the group.

They'll make some crazies. You're calling here trying to strong up for the tickets. You start off trying to try to get God on your side for the tickets. God is on your side. Let him be your lifeline to tell you what was the name of the group that did that song in the raid. Help us Puerto Rican Jesus on this one.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um the I'm gonna help you out the lead singer was Ron was Ron Banks. Ron Banks and I see brothers hold on. Wait a minute. The one that uh the first Prince of Bel Air got the rose in his name. No, that was you think about it. Oh, Philip Banks. All right. Come on, sister. Now, you come on. You we got other callers now. Okay.

You could have just googled it, but okay, I mean

Oh, he giving you tools to see. That's what I did. I had to Google to make sure that I thought it was who I thought it was. He gave you tools to see. And you know, my best friend of college's name was Ron Bakes. Ron Linbakes. Yeah. All right, dear. Hold on. Writeouts going to get your information. OK, y'all. I don't have any more tickets right now to give out, OK? All right. Let me get this call. All right. Caller, welcome to the program. I didn't hear you.

I don't know if she Googled it or a good guess. Like come on now, you should know that far. Come on now. I had to be sure that I thought it was who it was, yeah. Hey, my brother, my brother, the good Samaritans, ran into your buddy at the polling place. Okay. And he told me to tell y'all, because I guess we think I got access to all y'all phone numbers.

that he that he think Dibo left his. All right, that's going to resolve. It's going to handle it. Yep. Okay. All right. So I just want, but so I just wanted to say, because he talked to Slick, he said, oh yeah, I'm George's brother. He said, what did he say? That ain't Joe far. Oh, hey, what up Dibo? Hey man, I can't call. I saw you when he came in. Okay.

No, no, it was his wife's. She got him. Okay, so thank my brother to get some merit and that he was looking out for it for people and his wife that he turned them in for him. I'm glad you called, man, because I wanted to say I was very curious. So after voting, I went back and I spoke with one of the workers and I asked, How do you know how many people have visited the site?

have voted on that day and They actually were able to show me on the machine. So at a little after nine o'clock On 24th and Burla there have been 33 people that had come and that that's pretty good. That's how I wanted. Yes, COA No, 24th and Burla Yeah, 33 people had had passed through there. So, you know He told me he told me to slick the slick thing that you said about I just told him that you know, I wouldn't hold that against him that that you know, you don't get to pick your family, you know, so

That's right. And I also told him I was praying for him, you know. You're strengthening the Lord. Well, I just wanted to commend you brave folks that ventured out today to go. Like I said, I don't do that. I get my stuff in early because I don't like to take the chance that something may happen if I may not get down here. So I want to commend all you brave people. And I want to ask Keeper questions.

You said you were down at the Lorraine Motel and you took pictures down there Yes Was that lady Jacqueline Smith still protesting across the street? Not that I remember Okay, okay Yeah, you know because the National Civil Rights Museum is inside the Lorraine Hotel Yeah, I met her this weekend and she said she had a sign up here that she was the the last person that resided in that motel and she was protesting across the street

So I was just curious that if you had you had a really nice lady, okay And who's my guy Bernie Sanders me me Ronda and Bernie Sanders because there was a protest going on down there at the same time I just my grandson's my grandson's got a chance to experience And so they really enjoyed the history of learning about that even though I read about it, so they think

Yes, I think it's a must see if you go down. Obviously get over to the Sacks Museum. That's also a must see if you down in Memphis. But yeah, those those those are the locations. Folks know our regular programming for today is certainly going to be preempted, if you will, because there will be no Sharpton today and there will be no Tavis Smiley as we have election central from noon until 8 PM this evening. So.

Sit back, grab yourself some popcorn or whatever it is that you do to relax and stay with us as we keep you abreast of what's going on out there at the polls and so forth and nationally as well as locally. Again, I'd like to thank everybody who's been part of the program today. Clark Kent, thank you. Jermaine Wright, I'll thank you. Debo, thank you. Callers, we appreciate you. Hey, y'all, the good Lord Willing Creek. Don't rise. Hope to talk to everybody at noon.

We're inside the election central. The creek is going to rise before noon. We might do baptism. Take me to the water. It's crazy. The water comes to us. Yeah. The water. You ain't got to take me. It's coming. Yeah. All right, Chuck. We'll talk to everybody at noon.

Good morning.

Welcome to Community Voice.

I'm your host Keith Parris.

I want to thank everybody for joining us this morning.

It's going to be a long

day.

It's going

to be a long day.

I was, I brought some donuts in and Rhonda made a request that I get her one and so I have to separate hers out.

So I asked, I said, do you guys have any

baggies?

We

went back to 1983.

79.

79.

79.

79.

79.

Oh my God!

We're back to nickel bags and a dime bag!

No bags!

Then

a lid!

Half a lid!

Then a quarter!

I went to a white school, so you wouldn't get nickel and dime bags.

It's either a lid,

half a little

quarter!

Which way you want?

Hey, can I get just like a nigga?

No, no, no, no, no,

no.

They didn't do the nigga bags, man.

And I wonder what those little bags were originally used for, those little Mimba's looks.

Oh, no, they didn't invent it for drugs.

So you can't put

a sandwich in it?

What,

they're about to go back?

No, they're not going to go back.

Yeah, but you still couldn't put a sandwich in it because it was too little.

Oh, if you had, if you had them little.

That was, that was great read.

That was, that was going to

take a lot.

You can't put a piece of

bread in there.

I'm

sorry.

And I know we got kids out

there.

I'm first thing they go like, what, what, you got some weed?

Like, yeah, man, I want to put a doughnut in the baggie.

All right.

So just one little

morning.

Oh man, election day.

a little bit a little bit of trivia for election day.

Do you know that it used to be that liquor outlets had to be closed during the time the polls were

open

to my liquor stores, liquor stores, bars.

Yeah, they could not sell liquor.

Why?

Because it would.

Yeah, it would deter people from

going to vote.

Now, when Rhonda and I were in Panama,

They hold their elections on Sunday.

We got there on a Sunday.

And you could not buy any liquor.

They serve no liquor, nowhere.

No alcohol,

no beer.

Right, you go into the stores and they had yellow tape

in front of it.

Yeah, is that to keep the people from the if you did drink you would make poor decisions and things like that you think

Yeah, and

I don't know when they changed that law, but yeah, you couldn't you couldn't get liquor from seven to eight

because

Well at some

point people

try to catch up right

I can remember that as a kid growing up, you could not buy liquor on election day.

Now, here's another little political science debate is whether or not election day should be a holiday.

Because if you look at it, I'm trying to think.

Man almost 40% of eligible voters did not vote in the last presidential election You know when I'm talking about eligible voters people who are registered to vote eligible to vote or in voting age Did not vote so I mean, I think the question becomes in a democracy.

Do you want full participation?

And what do we do as you know, you would think you'd make it easier for people to vote but

What we found is that they made it more stringent for people to vote.

That's by design, because I'm telling you, when you have a big, big, big turnout, that usually favors, usually favors dims.

And so, you know, and people, every election seems to be a turnout election.

But yeah, that was that was one of those things that you could not do.

I know that

I don't know if it's still the case for the county.

I know they'll give you two hours off the vote.

It used to be a minor holiday though.

And a minor holiday was one that you could either take off or you could accrue where people could then go and then go vote.

And a lot of that was because of the labor unions and government and then allowing their people to get out, go vote, go campaign for folks.

Yeah, thank you.

There's our Tuesday trivia moment.

I wanted you to read this.

It was earlier, let me find it.

On the other program?

Yeah, but I want to, because somebody said, let's see.

Okay, I'll find it for you.

Okay, I appreciate that.

I'll find it for you.

Yep, so...

Yeah, four one four four four four five two five zero four one four Let me also suggest that if you're going to vote in person and you have access to a computer go to my vote Because my vote will let you know that if there's any polling changes your poll has changed I know over 21st Street.

They're doing construction

I

think that that might be the reason why they moved to Center Street Library, but I know it came up.

So you go to my vote and let you know if your polling place has changed.

You know, and you just put in your address and it'll let you know where you can.

Do they still got over at Parkman?

Because that's where I used to usually go.

Yeah, Parkman, I guess someone had called Michelle and said that there was a problem with some of the voting machines, but I think it still is a poll.

Because they had took me, I remember one year.

I was at a couple of years out apartment.

Then I ended up going over here on 13th and 15th and Akison.

16th and Akison at the little church.

Same mark.

Yeah.

So I went over there.

Then they sent me back and followed you.

Then they sent me back to apartment.

Yeah.

I'd go in and just go my vote before you go.

I mean, save you some gas, save you some frustration.

A quick question.

I know we got to call it, but I got a quick question.

And I was thinking, do you ever think men at this system would go to online voting?

Oregon is all online.

Really?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So do you think that that's going to catch on?

I think that, yeah.

Now, again, I think Republicans would push back on it because what it does is it allows

more people access especially younger people because they're they're so computer savvy that they can go on and vote but I think Oregon has been online voting.

Let

me look that up because I mean if you can vote online.

Call it up to the program as I look up some data.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I think it's better for people to go in person and vote.

because they're voting online.

We probably had that Elon Musk and that hacker stuff.

We don't have time for that.

They need to get up.

They need to get up and take their free will to vote.

So we want to encourage everybody to vote.

And I know some of y'all are not going to vote because y'all say it don't do nothing.

And you got that rather dos and got as an excuse saying you got him just say I'm black and I'm lazy and

people will respect you even more.

I mean, but I mean, there's some white and lazy people, too,

though.

Well, we

know

that, but we're talking about our

black people.

Oh,

OK.

Because we've seen so many times where we say, you're going to vote.

OK.

And they start talking about how they don't vote, voting don't do nothing.

Then the first thing they want to start throwing Bible scriptures.

And I ain't never seen no Jesus come to a voting poll.

Well, I saw a Jesus with long hair, but it wasn't Jesus, though.

Yeah, so I'm just you know encouraging black people

to vote and rather than say I don't vote not that guy just say I'm black

and I'm

lazy People will respect you even more.

Don't put it on him put that street wheel on yourself of lazy I got

you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right

y'all

have

a good one.

All right.

Call the one to the program.

Hello?

Good

morning.

Good

morning.

I haven't went to vote as of yet.

However, I wrote at Francis Stomps on 25th and Brown.

And I think I heard on the radio show that they were changing it to the early Francis Stomps early childhood center, which is on 26th and Garfield.

And I wanted to

know if that was still true before I went out to vote.

Say that again Okay, I usually wrote at Francis Times Discovery Learning Center, which is on 25th and Brown.

Okay.

Okay.

And at one point in time on the radio show somewhere I heard that they were moving it from Francis Times Discovery Learning Center to Francis Times Early Childhood Center, which is on 26th and Garfield.

Okay, so let me ask you this question.

You have access to the internet.

I mean, yeah, okay, so go you can Google my vote WI Pull that up and then there's questions on there, which will ask you about your polling location put your address in and I'll let you know where that polling location is

All right, thank you very

much.

All right, and you know what do me a favor if you go ahead

And if it works for you, can you just call us back and let us know?

All right, thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Jermaine, ask Keith about that question.

You were talking a shit about your son.

Your

son?

Yeah, so Keith, so for people that are truck drivers or drive during the day, and that didn't get a chance to vote early, because for whatever reason, but on voting day,

your employer's supposed to give you time to go vote, right?

Two hours.

Okay, so if you're out in like, you know, way up north or you way up, you know, somewhere driving and for your lunch break or things like that, you won't have a time or a chance to vote because your polling place might be here in Milwaukee, but your job will have you way out somewhere.

How do you supposed to vote if you didn't get a chance to vote early?

So that means that you're gonna miss this You know actually placing your vote.

Well, no, that's why early voting Well, I know but for those that didn't get a chance to do the early vote.

That's tough.

I know so that's why though I was saying like Maybe if we had this voting online that they can verify who you are because they can verify everything else But if they can verify who you are make sure that you are a citizen

And things like that and for those people that are that's not able to make it to the polling places You can vote online and your vote can still count because Even if you don't vote you still subject to you know Man to the rules.

Mm-hmm.

So you know Sam so no, I mean but

Voting is not a requirement yet though some argue that it should be

I was wrong.

What Oregon allows you to do is go into registration.

There are states Alaska to use the online absentee ballot system.

Voters must have a ballot.

Arizona allows updates to registration ballot request and sign up for the state's permanent early voting list.

Connecticut permits any voter eligible to vote by absentee to apply for an absentee ballot through the online application system.

call one to the program.

Good morning.

Good

morning.

How are you?

I'm good.

I just wanted to comment on the individual saying that we should be able to vote online.

And I just I just think that there's so much opportunity for hacking and and just manipulation.

and online voting.

And I feel like in this day and age, everyone is so quick to go stand in line for a party, for a black private cell.

I think it is the least we can do stand in line or even mail-in voting.

I still have no problem with mail-in voting and absentee ballots.

I think it's necessary and I think it's a great tool.

But I think if we reduce voting to online, it should not

It shouldn't be difficult and shouldn't be hard.

But I just think that the fact that we have early voting, we have sold to the polls.

We have all these other opportunities as well as in-person voting.

I just don't think that online voting is something that necessarily needs to be added.

I think we can sacrifice to figure out a way to get to the polls or mail in a ballot.

I think

those are totally acceptable.

Can I ask you a quick question?

And then I made me know you can, you know, just kind of tell me how you feel.

So for those young people that are now, you know, getting into the whole voting thing, you know, that might have a job that's working throughout the day and throughout the week and didn't have a chance to do the early voting.

How would we include them if they didn't get a chance to go in person to vote?

or didn't have the opportunity for the early voting or the absent the um the mail in um voting thing because a lot of young people don't know about the mail in and all of that other stuff like that so how do we fix that i appreciate that question i have two young

people and i think that young people or old people i think that we prioritize what we want to prioritize

And I think it starts at home.

I have been really vigilant with my young people since they were younger.

I would take them to the polls and let them see the importance.

So I just don't see how and I say that because my sons or my children have worked been in school and I still think that you can find time for something when you want to.

And I think it's a matter of really teaching, prioritizing something and it's important.

I think that there's I don't understand.

or think that there would be a situation where you would miss all of early voting, all of mail-in ballot voting.

I just think we have to be responsible and we have to be, and we have to expect certain standards out of our young people.

And I don't think that it's too much to expect them to either do early voting or to do a mail-in ballot or to do

in person.

I think that when we add online, I'm not saying that it should not be easy, but I'm saying adding online, it just, I don't know, I feel like that's just too much in my opinion.

And I certainly believe in talking to young people and educating them, but there are so many opportunities to vote that I just don't think that online voting is necessary.

And like I said, I always worry about legitimate, you know, legitimizing or delegitimizing voting.

I still think that our federal election was taken, that I digress, but I just think that this is something that we can do.

We have to teach them about prioritizing things that are important, and this is important.

Right, right, right.

Appreciate it.

And again, Oregon does not, they don't even allow you.

I don't know where I got that from for Oregon.

Most of their states that will allow you to,

request online absentee ballot, change of registration.

Wisconsin is one of those states that allow that.

They want to make it tougher.

Here's a problem though with the mail-in part of this.

The Trump administration is using the postal service to try to deny getting those ballots or letting those ballots arrive on time so they can be valid with count.

be

part of the ballot

count, right?

So a lot of people are distrustful of the mail because if they look at the ballots, not a priority, though, one would think that if we saw a ballot that that would become a priority in terms of delivery.

So I know for our mail and ballots, they were dropped at the drop box over here at Ackerson.

She does bring up a good point.

I would assume that if we did allow online voting.

that it would have to be a very secure system.

And maybe they have not figured out how to come up with a secure system.

And again, a lot of these states that are controlled by Republicans would not necessarily want to see online voting.

And then they make the argument, what about my 92-year-old grandmother?

But what about those people that might vote Republican, that didn't get a chance at things like that?

So wouldn't that help any

and

everybody?

Well, primarily up until 2020.

Republicans were down with, you know, mail-in balloting.

But then in 2020, because of COVID, many Democrats began to say, oh, let me take advantage of this.

And everybody saw the confusion that we had in our spring election in 2020 here around.

Could you vote what votes would be counted people overwhelmed the the system requesting absentee ballots maybe a week out?

Overwhelmed there was no way that the system at that point was designed to get all those ballots out So a lot of people actually did receive their ballots

the day

after just because the sheer volume of it so her points of valid points Again, I know I do think though that

certainly the presidential election, that voting should be a national holiday.

I think that it's hard when people have to work.

Now we can do early voting.

The Packers play Steelers.

Mike McCartney.

Yeah, and Rogers is not gonna play.

So yeah, that's a good point.

Caller, welcome to the grip.

Good morning.

Good morning.

How are you?

I'm good.

How are you today?

I'm well.

Good.

I had a question about earlier.

You had said something about looking on a real site to basically get more information because I haven't voted yet, but I'm going to get out here this morning and go vote.

But I haven't been following the candidates too much.

because sometimes I get to a point where I think I've heard enough and then I get flooded with these texts and different things that I don't like.

So then I kind of shut down.

So I want to take my time before I go and actually really look at the candidates.

I know I'm a vote for only for the governor, but I need to know other people.

So what's that?

What's that?

Oh, it wouldn't be a sight.

The only thing I was saying to folks were before you go vote, if you're going to vote in person at your polling place, go to my vote.

W I put in your address to make sure that your polling place is where it's supposed to be.

Well, W I okay.

Yeah, my vote.

All one word

of my

vote.

Yeah.

Mm hmm.

And then you put in your address.

Um, and I say, I think it gives you it prompts you to, um,

my polling place something to that effect and then you put in your address and then a couple of things when you pull it up and let you know if you still a valid registered voter and then it'll then let you know once you put your address in where you are supposed to go vote.

Okay so that's good and one more question.

Are you all still giving tickets for the harbor?

Yeah I didn't know am I giving away tickets?

I don't know well let's keep listening.

I'll find out.

Because

if I

if I can't then I'm really gonna be

upset

Because then

it

shows yet.

So another example of the double standards that I have to deal with around

here

property in another state and own property here.

How they can they vote?

Like both way or where would they have to vote the main

one?

If you live here, you have to be a resident.

Yeah, you gotta live.

I think it's 30 days.

Yeah, so if you if you're living here, then you can vote

now.

Also, if it's your primary address.

So what

about the primary?

Yeah, but they both can't have both primary address.

They both can't be your primary address.

We found that out with Janet Cook and some other folks, Leticia James, where they lived in one state, had property in another state.

And for loan purposes, they put down, it was a primary.

But yeah, I think it has to be your primary where you live.

You're listening to Community Voice, it's election day.

It's going down.

Kenny said, you going down.

Meet me at the club.

You're going down.

Meet me at the mall.

It's

going

down.

Four one four four four four five two five zero four one four four four four five two five zero.

Go take a quick break.

We'll be right back.

Your host, Keith Parris.

Welcome back.

Welcome back.

Wow.

That's funny, man, because right now, accidentally called Clark Craig.

Then I got to thinking, well Craig Stingley here on Friday,

so he'll get fired

on his day off.

Usually

here

on Friday.

It's 414-445-250-414-445-250.

All right, scroll back now.

Let's see, here we go.

The

quote you wanted me to

address.

This happiness doughnuts I just asked two people if they voted yet one said she was she was so she's going to after work the other one said that there's no need to He tried to clean up the house clean up on house six and ask who was on the ballot Now let's be Let's just kind of put it in big picture y'all.

Okay.

This is a primary

Primaries usually are lower in terms of voter turnout, voter participation, because they're primaries.

If a person does not know, though, in Wisconsin, it's kind of hard just because of everything that's been going on the dim side, it's been on the news.

But it is, it's not surprising that it's a lower turnout than you will see in November.

Right?

I mean, that's just how it is.

Primaries are usually, usually, for activists, you know, people to base of the party, they want to go in to say, because what the primary does is designates, and certainly on the partisan side, it designates a party nominee to run for that office.

All right?

This is partisan, which means that, you know, you're a Democrat, you're Republican.

who might have the green party, might have a line on the ballot.

So I'm not surprised, overly surprised that, you know, if people may or may not go vote just because of the nature of a primary.

And now, as we get close to November, that's a different discussion, right?

Because November, I'm not saying that August doesn't matter.

But November matters most because November determines who will get in that seat for the next two, four or six years, depending on who you're who you're running for.

So I'm not, I'm not surprised.

Clark brought something up too.

Uh, in 1972, um, the, um, that was the first time that 18 year olds were allowed to vote.

Uh, a lot of that had to do with the Vietnam war.

And people were making the argument where if I'm old enough to go at 18 to go fight in the war, I should be old enough to vote.

And so we'll pull up the actual constitutional amendment.

Which amendment?

I mean, how do you spell amendment?

Let's see.

Oh, D, M, E, N, T.

allowed 18 year olds to vote.

That would be the 26th Amendment and the 26th Amendment to the Constitution.

It says it was amended to say the right of citizens United States who are 18 years or older, the vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States by any state on account of age.

Let's see.

And now I'm going to pull up the article.

Call her.

Welcome to the program.

Good morning.

What's up, my brother?

How you doing, man?

I'm good, brother.

What's happening?

All right, all right.

Hey, I was talking to a group of guys this weekend at the store.

And what's this about?

They trying to eliminate Thanksgiving.

That would never happen.

Why is so much stuff be starting up when stuff like this go on?

OK.

Peace, brothers.

Have a good

one.

All right.

Well, what happened?

See what happened was no what happened was Francesca Han had come out and said that we should get rid of Thanksgiving and a lot of it is because what Thanksgiving represents to First Nation indigenous people right Thanksgiving kind of really represents the land being taken from them and that's why you know, she's coming out and that's more her identification

with America's original sin, which was to steal land from First Nation and the indigenous people of all these indigenous nations here.

And so it's like Columbus Day.

Columbus Day ain't big in the Caribbean because for many of those folks, it was Columbus that really represented the colonization of the Western Hemisphere.

So I think that's what they were talking about.

I understand his point.

And again, Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday.

Thanksgiving is a national holiday.

It's a secular holiday, right?

So that's why she was making that point.

It was more identifying with how indigenous people feel about Thanksgiving and what Thanksgiving represents to indigenous people.

Carla, welcome to the program.

Good morning.

Good

morning, how are

you?

I'm well, how are you?

I'm good, fine.

I'm your faculty there.

I'm

sorry?

Your faculty.

You saying good morning to them, too.

Oh, OK.

Yes.

I don't know everybody's name, but I do know your name.

Yeah, tall

little people here.

She's speaking to all the little people

now.

I do know your name.

That's what I was calling about.

He was talking to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed

now.

Let

me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let

me

talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me

talk

to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

Let me talk to the bed now.

That's a good one.

Yeah.

Well, here's my question.

You also mentioned, did somebody mention Mondani?

Isn't

he

Muslim?

Yeah.

That is beef bacon or turkey bacon.

I

mean, that's that's the first thing I thought about.

Like, okay, you know, I'm bacon on burgers.

That's

the best ever.

Oh, I don't know, man.

BAKER!

Well, there's a lot of them out here.

Yeah, because I was in my door the other day and every spot I moved, the drone moved.

I stood back in my house, the drone was at my best.

Somebody in your neighborhood?

Yeah, somebody in your neighborhood.

Somebody in your neighborhood.

I don't know, but I looked it

up and they said that the police have them up there, too.

Oh, yeah.

Whatever.

They have them up there, too, to charge crime and this and that and that.

But I'll just change warfare what the Iranians been able to do is because you know if you look at the cost of a Patriot missile over millions of dollars and

they're doing

these little drones for maybe $20,000 the

first time I

had actually seen like a drone was Rhonda and I we were in Memphis for the 50th anniversary of the King assassination And they did a group picture and they had a drone taking the pictures

So

you

see a lot of shots now where it used to be aerial, but now it's drones.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

I wonder if they have drones in the Jetsons.

Call her.

Welcome to the program.

Good

morning.

about the what?

Thanksgiving.

Yeah.

Say something about Thanksgiving with this Francesca Hong.

I mean, she also wants to do, she also wants to have a state grocery store, you know, so just think what that would do.

We already know what Walmart done did to a lot of stores around here.

They done basically put Walgreens out of business and a lot of other stores.

So she wants to

She wants to do a state grocery store and then state health care, which is like a badger care that would put everybody under a badger care.

Uh, and, but now I don't know if it would come down to a single payer where you can only use that government option.

I don't know.

Then when he talks about the Thanksgiving, we must look at where that really come from.

That was when the, uh, when the peacock, the peacock tribe was, uh, was a masquerade was.

done away with because the Indians knew that the white man in real life knew that the white man didn't do anything on Sunday.

That was his Saturday.

That was his rest day.

Well, the Indians would put their guards down.

Well, this Sunday, the white folk come in there and masquerade, masquerade, killed

all of the young and women because the Braves was out doing whatever they was doing.

And genocide, basically the Pequot tribe and went back and gave thanks to God.

Now, for giving them that great big victory.

And that's something that's been going on forever.

You know, even in the Western movies, when the white man killed the Indians, it's a great big victory.

when the Indians killed the white man, it's a massacre, a great massacre, a Cheyenne massacre.

But when the white man killed, it's a great victory.

So that's where that comes from, but it still doesn't give a right to come in.

These are foreigners that don't even participate really in any of that.

Then you got this guy that's out there calling for prayer five times a day.

I thought that state and religion

is separate.

Okay.

So what we got going?

Okay.

Yeah, I thought I thought that it was separate.

And guess what?

The people that now if they were Christians called and pray five times a day, you

know what would

happen?

Everybody would be out there.

You would even probably say not at Christmas shouldn't be doing that.

We came for that.

Well, where are you at on this issue?

We got people that are actually

coming in to put their flag in the United States.

Can I respond to a couple of things?

I went into the Potawatomi website and there's an article that was done on November 25th, 2020.

And I'll just read the preamble of it says, although many Potawatomi and others across the United States celebrates Thanksgiving, the factual history behind the holiday is something to be less than thankful for.

While communion with loved ones and showing appreciation for the bounties and gifts provided is one positive aspect of the national holiday, teaching a false narrative of his beginnings perpetuates colonialism and ignores the foreign years of atrocity committed against Native Americans and First Nation people.

So I think that that's why people out there that for a lot of First Nation people is not cool.

Yes, I do not.

I do not accept nor do I endorse prayer in school, regardless of the type of prayer.

I think that schools should be neutral when it comes to religion and religious practices.

because America, and I was just thinking about this this morning, America is a diverse country, and we're a secular country.

We're not a Christian country, nor should we be.

Because I think everyone should have the right to freely express their religion.

I just don't think that for people in public schools that there should be prayer.

And it's a myth that somehow America was better when we had prayer in school.

No, no, we had segregation.

We had Jim Crow We had atrocities prayer in school.

So when people talk about things being better and look the kids and would no more Better behave because prayer was in school.

So no, I don't know.

Can I ask you a question though?

Okay, okay So we all went to kindergarten and middle school and high school, right?

When you was in school, was mental illness around?

Yeah.

Okay.

When you was in school, was guns around?

No.

Guns wasn't around?

No, not in school.

No, I didn't say in school.

I said when you were in school, when you was going to Kenny Garden in middle school and high school, there was guns around.

There were

guns.

Okay.

So my question to you now is, when you were

In school, did you pray before school?

Did they do the little prayers in school?

No, because

for

y'all, when I started school, they had just had, I think it was Madeleine here.

Madeleine or here had filed a suit.

So we didn't have to do prayer in school.

Now, let me also say.

I went to Catholic school, and we did have prayer, which is perfectly

acceptable because it is a religious school.

OK, so questions.

Because even in MPS, even though it wasn't a prayer, I do remember doing the Pledge of Allegiance.

Yeah, Pledge

of Allegiance.

And that Pledge of Allegiance.

And I

don't think we should be doing the Pledge of Allegiance in school.

OK.

Well, the pledge, it was to the flag.

United States.

One nation.

under God.

So God was still in the picture some way, some form.

Well, actually, that was

added.

That wasn't the original

pledge.

That was added to the pledge, I think, around World War II or a little bit after World War II.

I get it, but you was in school after World War II, right?

So you said the pledge of allegiance because that was something that every school did.

So my thing is this, if mental illness was around when you were in school,

It was around when I was in school.

Guns was around when we was in school.

Why is it then that when prayer was taken out and the alleges and the whole emphasis of God was removed from school, why is it then that we started seeing more school students?

We started seeing all of this stuff happening in school because of the reverence of God was taken away.

So you can say

that you believe that it's not appropriate.

But when you were in school, these same elements that's in effect right now, while we're adults, was in effect when we was teenagers.

But the stuff that's happening in school wasn't happening when we were in school.

Why is that?

You want me to give you an answer?

I mean, give me an

answer.

First of all, there were guns, but

not the level of guns that you see today.

Yeah, but you don't need the level because you got

mental illness.

No, what I'm saying, we had mental illness then, but people may or may not have access to guns and certainly the firepower that people have.

I don't know if one has to do with the other now.

I'm really getting some trouble today, but why not?

It's too big of a selection.

What the hell?

You know.

I mean, it's like prayer

in church.

But there was more in school.

Yeah,

switch.

But why is it that we wasn't seeing the amount of violence that we're seeing now with mental illness are still

available?

I think that I think that there's been some changes certainly since I was a kid where people have access, people act on things.

We have

Even before but you really began to see those big schools shootings in the 80s as the same time where people get out I You know, I was sitting up.

I'm smiling to myself Clark because You know, and I'm not advocating this.

I'm only using this as an example.

Okay We have prayer church our people any better

We

pray four or five times in church.

Do people act any differently after we pray in the church?

Yeah.

Yeah, right, right,

right.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah.

So I'm done.

And I'm not saying, I want anybody to say, you know, we need to get rid of prayer in church.

I'm not saying that at all.

I'm just saying the efficacy of the prayer, you know, and then you talk about school kids, you know, really.

I'm in the seventh grade.

I'm in the fifth grade.

I mean, it's all a part of programming.

It's all part of the American myth.

It has everything to do with Christian nationalism, which I reject.

I'm just saying that America is a secular country.

And we have freedom of religion, but I think we also have freedom from religion.

If you want to be religious, you have the right to practice that.

That's the great thing about, and the Constitution protects you in terms of you being able to express your religious exercises.

You can do that.

But I'm just saying, I don't think that it should be...