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What's up everybody? My name is cliff and you are listening to the what now podcast. That's right. The what now podcast where we threw conversation discuss ways that we can effectively address life's most difficult moments. So sit back, relax and enjoy tonight's episode. I can't breathe to all of us. Those words have never been more real than they are now. I'm not saying that the George Floyd incident or murder was the first that we've experienced, but I do believe that this is probably the one that we've all sat and witnessed. That was even more real to us because we watched the video and they keep playing it over and over and over and over again as if we didn't see it and we don't get it. I can't breathe.

That's what he said. I can't breathe and never do I want to hear a friend, a loved one. Even somebody that may be viewed as an enemy and when I'm speaking in the sense of enemy, I'm just talking about somebody that may share different viewpoints on life than me. I don't want to hear anybody in a position saying I can't breathe while somebody has their knee on top of them as they're kneeling. How Akra po because we have such a problem with Cap kneeling against police brutality that now we have to face a reality that the cop kneeled on him to kill him. The very thing that Cap was kneeling against, I can't breathe. But we have such a problem with Cat with what he was doing because he wasn't doing it at the time that we felt that he should be doing a matter of fact, if we go back to it and we're gonna talk about that as well. The problem with Cat was that many of us ball into it. I'm gonna say many of you, I'm not gonna say us because I didn't buy into it.

We bought they bought into many of you bought into And if it's not you let it fly, if it don't apply let it fly. But you bought into the narrative of 45 and other media outlets that took an attempted to capture or hijacked the narrative of why cap was kneeling. They took it from a sense of I'm kneeling. He very he was very vocal about why he was doing it yet media and the president got on tv and said, I can't believe he's being disrespectful to our soldiers. I can't believe he's being disrespectful for those who have lost our lives and given up, you know, their lives to service. And he and some of you fell right for it. Now. It's Cap against the the army Cap against the navy. Capt against those who have served land of the Free and the home of the Brave and we don't even want to have the national anthem conversation.

I mean we can really have the national anthem conversation another time because if we have that national anthem conversation and we pull out the original lyrics, then there's some troops that we all have to face. And some of us were never taught that in school it was only the the seeking of knowledge ourselves that introduced us to the actual lyrics of the star spangled banner, which we stand as our, you know, during the national anthem. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Then it said this is the thing that got me, he's calling for his mother, y'all know the nurturing nature of a mother. But this even goes deeper than the nurturing nature of a mother because his mother, it came out days later to his mother had passed years ago. So to me as I'm thinking and I'm sitting and I'm processing this thing, this young man, he's being choked, you know he's being smothered basically while his knee is on the back of his neck.

Now he has lost all hope, all hope in a system that we were told is designed to protect us. Now let's don't get a choice to either. I I am not anti law enforcement, I have family and friends that serve and I know other other police officers that are good police officers, great police officers but I'm talking about a system that is corrupt at any time. You address a system that is corrupt. You can't keep addressing it. It's like a snake. You're not going to kill that snake till you cut that head off and we have to begin to cut the head off of the snake and allow that whole system to be rebuilt. But see the problem with many of us is we say we want change, we say we want to experience transformation, we want something new, we're tired of the norm, but when change and those things that go against the norm are presented to us, they never come in a comfortable way and sacrifices always have to be made and the reality that many of us have to face when those times happen is we don't want change.

We just want to sit and talk about change. I can't breathe. He called for his mother, his mother passed away in his mind, it had to be oh man, I'm trying not to cry. But to me in his mind it was as if he understood nothing here on earth can help me anymore. I have to pull from something that's beyond this realm. He called on his mother, he already understood, Oh man, he called on his mother, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. Yo this is a tragedy and the reality is some of you are buying into the travesty that's attempting to be set by those that are hijacking the narrative. As I said, I know 45 is doing it. I know some media outlets are doing it.

Do I agree with the riding? Absolutely not. But we can't just focus on the effect and not focus on the calls because focusing on the effect without focusing on the calls is only gonna cause matters to get worse. And let's look at what's going on right now, it is getting worse and worse and worse. And instead of some people that are in some high places and in some authority, authoritarian places of authority uh, that are in some places of authority, taking time to turn around and look at themselves in the mirror Now they're pointing the blame at the rioters and like I said, they're not right, I listen, but we're gonna get to that as well. What they're doing is not right now those who are peacefully protesting thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs up. Hey, beautiful, beautiful.

Do I get the riders? Absolutely I do do I agree with it. I can't say that I do, but as I said, I do understand it, but we can't deal with the effect without dealing with the calls. And it hurts me as I'm going through my timeline to see more people upset about the rioting than they are about this man being murdered. I even saw people marking this man being murdered. It just baffles me like I'm just sitting here trying to understand. But then the reality hits me that many of us, it doesn't mean anything to until it hits our home and some of us, we take positions or some of you can take those positions because in your mind, you feel as if it will never hit your home and you may be right. You absolutely may be right. I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. Yo, that hurts man so much.

I just continue to think about it. Do I support injustice and racism, nope. It has no place anywhere, no place anywhere. No place anywhere. I go back to the land of the free and the home of the brave. Where's the freedom? And when will the cowards be brave enough to value all lives? Some of you upset? Because I say black lives matter. Black lives do matter. And if you get upset because I say black lives matter, then you're missing the whole poi yes, I know all lives matter, but it's not about you right now. It's not about you right now and that's that's one of the things that that that seems to not be understood. I support all my brothers and sisters regardless of their race, gender background, gender identification or sexual orientation. I support everyone. But if it's time for us to understand that black lives matters, then let's jump on board with me.

Let us know that you understand it. And let's fight this battle. And then when it's time to fight your battle, I'll fight the battle with you as well. But understand that me saying Black lives Matter is not me taking a position as if your life doesn't matter if you're not black, Slow down black lives matter. My life matters. I'm black anyway. Um, your life matters, our lives matter. And I personally will continue to kneel with cat standing up for what I believe in and we will stand until we see equality where it needs to be and equity where it needs to be. I can't breathe my encouragement to everyone, educate yourself. Do not sit around and not be educated, educate yourself on what is going on. Study some of the great philosophers, study some of the things that happened martin, Luther king Malcolm X, all of them understand that y'all we are going back to times that were before.

So I don't know why everybody is acting as if these riots are such a and we don't even want to talk about riots because and protesting because that whole that's a whole another hijacking that takes place of the narrative, but let's face a reality gods, it's time for us to have the uncomfortable conversations that are going to produce change. Not just get around and just talk just to talk, but have the conversations that produce change. This subject is very important to me why? Because as you see, I didn't even do the intro of the show. I just started talking. It's important to me because I grew up and I was the only black person on a baseball team every year. Like really every year at the most it might have been two of us. And I remember for a while was two of us. However, a white girl falsely accused him of something. So it became me by myself, she later came forth and told the truth how she falsely accused him.

But I don't think he ever came back to baseball after that. I don't think ever came back to play baseball after that. But I was the only black on every team and um, to be honest with you guys, you know, listening to all of this and I always encourage young people to get informed and get educated and be willing to speak up when you need to speak up and take action when you need to take action because I didn't as a young person, y'all heard me talk about how it was a punk. I was a punk. There was stuff saying there was stuff done that. I sat back and said nothing. I did nothing. I allowed it to happen. I remember one time we went to a baseball tournament and it was in Virginia and they were flying the confederate flag and they refused to pitch to me. And then finally when they did pitch to me, they hit me. They wouldn't, they wouldn't, they either walked me or hit me. That's what they did the entire time. They would not allow me to swing back because they didn't want the *** playing on their field.

I've heard that word, ***, not *** *** multiple times. I've heard black jokes. Now one thing about me though, I said I was a punk, but if you hit me with a joke, I I got one for you too. So don't don't come from me with that. But I heard all of those things, I even experienced racism from a coach. And the crazy thing about it was I didn't feel like I could tell anybody what I was experiencing because he was so well loved and received even by black people. And I remember talking to my mom about it and we just sat, we would talk about it and you know, she was outraged about it. Of course, you know, she's gonna speak up, but nobody believed me what I experienced with that man. So I know about it on a smaller scale. I'm not comparing what these people have went through to what I went through. But I encourage you as parents, educate your kids. Don't just educate your kids from a place of anger, give them proper education about our history and also role play with them.

Go over scenarios with them, you know, about how they should handle being pulled over by a cop, communicating with a police officer, all of those things. Now, to be honest with you, in some cases we're seeing this, it doesn't matter how respectful you are, but we want to make sure that we're training them and even train them how to record after traveling impacts. Make sure somebody is bold enough to record. Everything needs to be put on record or go live. We see that that's the state that we're in right now. But in the midst of it all, I don't want us to lose hope. That's why I said we need to get together. We need to strategize y'all we can get together for everything. Well, we were upset, we couldn't hang out with each other. Now, things are starting to open back up. It's almost time, you know, for the summer for barbecues and other things. How about when we get together? We strategize about how we can begin to make change. And one of the ways a couple of the ways we can make change.

Number one guys, make sure you are involved with the census, make sure that we have the right amount of representation. Many times. We don't have the right to the excuse me the correct amount of representation. Because you guys aren't filling out the census information. So it's as if you exist, but you don't exist. That's the importance of it. And then again, vote, vote, vote. I hate to hear people say I am voting because it don't matter. Then start voting in your local elections. If enough of us get together, vote in our local elections, we can put people locally that can begin to do the footwork that needs to be done so that they can begin to make an impact on the national election. Our problem is we keep saying, well, it don't matter. I live in Delaware. We only got three electoral votes. Okay, but what are we doing here to make the difference here in this state, first in our tale then in our state, then in our region, then we can worry about the, you know, the United States because we're coming up on the election guys, and I don't want to get talking about politics.

But this is not a great, great election for us right now. But we got to begin to move with strategy. We got to begin to move with purpose and we got to begin to either stand up and be the leaders from an educated standpoint and, you know, a visionary, not just from a yo let's just retaliate. No, let's do something with purpose. If you are not the leader then you need to find somebody that's gonna lead us And get behind them 100%. And then let's go, let's go and do our greatest weapon is when we move with purpose. Our greatest weapon is when we move with purpose. Because when we move with purpose is something weighty about that movement. Many of us have made a lot of empty movements and we need to make more weightier movements. My heart hurts and aches. I've cried more tears this week that I cried in a while watching that young man murdered.

Mm did something for me. But now what am I going to do about it? What are you gonna do about it? What are we gonna do about it? Let's be the change that we desire, desire to see. Not just for us but for the generations that are to come. We have the perfect the perfect the perfect opportunity right now because we are about to be introduced to a new norm. So let's introduce some new normals as it relates to race. I can't breathe and not just race guys. Let's learn to love people for who they are, regardless if we agree with them or not just because you don't agree, doesn't mean you can't love, we have to learn that we have to learn that everybody's not gonna look like walk like talk like think like us but yo diversity is so powerful. I talk about this all the time on my radio show. Check that out transformation radio where we transform lives through purposeful conversations regardless of how uncomfortable and unpopular those conversations they are www dot transformation radio dot info and transformation is spelled T R A N.

S. The number four. Mation. Alright check it out. We talk about how important diversity is we learned together. We grow together we become even better citizens. We become more empathetic and we were able to reach more people because now everybody is not looking and sounding and the same. You know we have a perfect opportunity to begin to make some moves so I pray that's what we do today as I always say create a great day walk with purpose and by all means execute your vision peace. Yeah. Mm. Can you identify any areas in your life where stagnation is manifesting now? I know some of you might say no I can't. I want us to look at stagnation for what it really is. Some people have identified stagnation as something that's not growing or that's not producing.

I don't believe that stagnation to me stagnation can also be the yes we're growing. Yes we're producing however were growing and producing in a manner that's disrespectful to the purpose and the greatness that resides inside of us. And listen we all have areas where we can identify that we could be doing a lot better in there's greater potential in those areas than we are experiencing. And guess what I have a tool that will help you begin to experience transformation in those areas of stagnation in your life. And that tool is called from stagnation of transformation. That's right. That is my book from stagnation of transformation. So I want you to hit over to my website www dot Clifton petty john dot com. I want you to hit there. I want you to hit the transformation tab there. You're gonna find a free preview of my book. That's right.

A free preview of my book and I promise you after you read the preview, you're gonna want to invest in your personal transformation through purchasing the book. So again, hit over there, purchase the book, let me know you purchased it. Here's what I always say guys, If you purchased the book you read the book you apply the principles in your life and yet you still are stagnant in the areas that you are applying them to and you're not experiencing any transformation and you can prove to me that you have applied these principles. I will give you a 100% refund. That's right. A 100% refund. Why? Because I believe in the application of the principles that are outlined in this book. So again visit www dot clinton Pettijohn dot com and purchase your copy of from stagnation to transformation