1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - January 15th, 8:25 am - What to expect at this year's rally

Episode Date: January 15, 2022

January 15th, 8:25 am - What to expect at this year's rallyAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to One-on-One with DP. Sponsored by Beatrice Bakery on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Welcome back to a special one-on-one with Peter Ferguson, who is, again, in leadership of the Martin Luther King Jr. youth rally that will take place Monday. If you would give the folks a little bit of detail behind what the rally actually is, there won't actually be a march this year because of situation and circumstance. But it will be virtual and folks will be able to follow this thing. So let's go through, one, tell them the history behind it and what this thing is actually going to be.

Right. Well, this is our 27th year, so it's our 27th annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. youth rally in March. And you will hear us say the whole thing because he was a man of faith. and we understand that separation between church and state, but he was a man who had faith in that dreams and that there was going to be equity, there was going to be justice, there was going to be civility and kindness,

and in order to do that, you have to have faith in some sense of it. He was a doctor, and so he achieved his education of 15. You know, he went to college, and we honor that. And then his name is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., not Martin Luther,

because that's his dad and his original name was Michael. So again, I'm sorry about dropping that. No, all that stuff is in there, right? But our scholars say that. And so the history has been, this will be the 27th year. What we did for the first 25, except for one year, is we had a pre-rally at some place on the university campus. They've been a tremendous partner, the Office of Diversity, Dr. Barker and Dr. Friday. And the trio department, gentleman Doza-Goram, has allowed us space.

and that used to be at the cultural center where Wendy's is, and now the student union, we use that. And it was just a time to get everybody just excited. It's a celebratory time. It was great for our younger kids to enjoy and engage and be empowered. To get on campus. Honestly, it was also to get on a college campus. I will say, and you brought up a good point,

everything is intentional that goes along with the rally in March. Nothing is left for chance. And so we had high schools come in, and do shows and just paint faces, unfortunately, you know, that had to cease in the last couple years. And then we would march, and it grew from about 50, and it was cold. It was like today. I think every year we did it except for one year that it iced over that we had to cancel. And we would march to the state capital.

And the significance of that was just being seen in the city of Lincoln. And you would see, you know, you'd see black folks, white folks, Hispanics, you know, Asians, you know, You know, preschool scholars, you'd see elderly. And that symbolism of walking from, you know, 945 to 10, 15 to the state capital was those pictures, to me, chanting. And just talking and networking with somebody and seeing people out there that you never, like, what are you doing out here? It's huge. You sent the links, and I went, I went way down the rabbit hole. Okay, okay.

Right. I went way down the rabbit hole. my grandmother taught me this thing that in pictures don't get lost in the optics look in the eyes of the people in the picture and that's what I knew how deep it was because it was important

like one of your words empowering the empowerment of young people to see that they're not alone in a thing that they're people out there trying to do right and try to be connected and I love the fact that you use the hashtag walk together. Yeah.

Like that's important, and that's the big part of the pictures. Folks, if you get a chance to go online and find those, please do so. It will blow your mind. Well, we have a listing of all the past rallies, but you're correct. Like that march was just such a critical part to replicate it. And, you know, like I said, it was cold, but we'd get to the Capitol. And then we'd be in the Warner Trayber, and we have to thank, you know, so-mate Chuck Hubka and the son.

senators over the years who have allowed us because we have to get a sponsor to use the space and never had an issue. And it was significant for our scholars, one, because it was a place that a lot of them had never been. And that just, when you think about- That's the empowerment. Yeah, you just education. That this is ours too.

Yes, yes. Like to have young people learn early and to see themselves in those spaces. Like that's when you talk about being on campus at university, being in those government buildings, not just as a spectator, but as a participant. Yes. Like that part is missed that these young people, this is how when you say empowerment, it is literally giving the gift of connection where people know that they belong. Yes.

This is, they're a part of this thing, and they can have an impact. Well, and like you said, it is our place for each and every, not just for some. and we would be in the Warner Chamber and we would fill that place up and I mean and I don't mean fill it up with people that was the easy part but they would fill your soul I have the memories of theirs just like I said

Asia to Chantala Food to Eva Sol to Brittany to Jay Beerman I mean Jacob Absalon Trey I can go down the list Ashton Combs I mean doing some work doing some work and those of you are listening I mean just doing some work up there on stage and seeing adults and just being moved, being moved. And that's, you know, I can think of so many things, but I'll be perfect lines.

That was one of the last places my mom was able to be when she saw my daughter before, you know, she had to get care for Alzheimer's and watching her listen to my daughter speak up there and and say some words about being black and being beautiful and just about seeing and hoping that some of those dreams and those steps that my mom took would be realized. And to see a tear come down her eye, to me, well, that place will always hold a special place in my heart because that's what this does for individuals. It's for four to 90 years old, but for some individuals, it's a story for other individuals sitting out there and listening and be watching Monday,

it's their life. Well, that's, again, that's what we were talking during the break, that I'm a part of the, that I'm old enough to be a part of the folks who, the original alpha student project of kids being bust across America. And it started just outside of D.C. Because they didn't want to do it in D.C. They wanted to do it in Virginia where you could cross over. And I was a college baseball player.

And early 1980, we would take our tour down south and go play ball. We would go to Georgia. You know, we'd go to Florida State. We'd go to, you know, we'd ended up in Georgia and Georgia Tech. And this is when the Atlanta killings were going on. We're little black kids. We were being snatched and killed. And even as teenagers, we were told there were two black players in the team,

and we were told that we couldn't open the door of the hotel without our secret pass code being whispered first. Like everybody else could go out and go to restaurants and do what they, but we had to sit in the room, watch TV, they brought us food, but the only way they could bring us food was you had to knock at the door. It was four knocks. And you had to give the word Jaguar. And that lets you know that it was somebody that was friendly to you.

So it's my life. Like I'm old enough. I was alive during the I have a dream speech. That's right in my back door. Right. So I'm looking forward to Monday because it's going to be young people acknowledging what we were versus what we want to be. Right, right. Like that's the bridge.

This rally gives an opportunity for us to share together. Right. And that's what I'm looking forward to. So with the virtual version of this, what can people expect on Monday? Yeah. So Monday, we are having everything, like you said, virtual. It's available. You can go to our website, MLK YouthRally.com.

That's MLK YouthRally.com. There'll be a button on there. You can read to the print. It'll have links. There will be a button that you can just push, and it'll take you directly to the YouTube or the site to watch it. But it's going to be very similar to what we've done in the past. So it's going to actually be a hybrid of some live and some tape,

but starting at 9.3. We're going to do our pre-rally, so 930 to 10. It's just going to be a time. Just, you know, get your coffee, get your hot cocoa, gather the family around. And just, you know, we want you just to just enjoy. There'll be some music. And this will be pre-packaged mostly. But it'll be some music, some educational videos.

A great opportunity, especially for that family to kind of sit together and just kind of get in the mind for the content that's going to happen at the call-to-action program. At 10 o'clock, we'll be our time. call the action program. That's the program that traditionally happened at the Capitol. And that's going to be our scholars who have prepared their pieces through the last, I'd say,

three to four months and are just, it's a mix of unique poetry, adaptations of different components that you, some of you will be familiar with when you start hearing it. You're like, man, I recognize that. Oh, I like that spin.

You know, we have that young ladies singing from Omaha Central, Carrie Posey, who's just, man, she's, I'm just going to say right now, the Aretha Franklin of our time. She's going to do something. We'll have a group of Belmont scholars, which have traditionally come and perform, that individuals that have come to look forward to. They're actually going to be doing a story and bringing a children's book to life, a picture book, which I'm going to give you a copy of.

It's a sneak peek, but I'm going to be releasing it, but I'm going to give you a copy of it. It'll stay covered until Tuesday. It'll stay covered until Tuesday. But they will do that. We've got a couple other scholars that are going to, you know, Rick, Bo and Allah are going to, they're going to challenge you. They're going to challenge you with something that they're going to say. And when are they going to have, I'm just going to say,

when are they going to have a bathroom in this community? And so that gives you a little prelude to it. I want to share the story because it took me to another place. So my mother-in-law, God bless her. Like, just the most loving woman you can imagine. But through our relationship over time, she has shared some of the things in her life. And she's very curious about why we're not as connected as we should be.

But as a younger woman, she wrote, her own story, which is where is my water fountain? Wow. Okay. Lock that in for a second. That here's this woman going through her space and recognizing that, wait a minute, I don't have that.

For the good and the bad, I don't have that. And so that togetherness, her, one being that person to write it, but for her to share that with me. Right? Wow. My white mother-in-law shared this thing with her black son-in-law to say, you know what? I recognize. I acknowledge that this thing is here.

And it meant the world, because now we can have some authentic conversations. And that's, honestly, that's what, when you talked about that authentic conversation, that's what the rally in march is intended to do. and so that content that you're going to see, we want you to watch it with your children. It is going to be, like I said, empower education. Yes, it's going to also engage, but it's also going to have some content that afterwards,

we want you to say, where are you empowered, where were you educated, how will you engage? And it's a mix, so we will have some recorded pieces, but just for the time flow and just making sure from transition time, but every one of our scholars is going to speak. we're thankful again to the university raft by polytech for helping underwrite some things I do have to give a shout out

to Hastings College because this doesn't happen in isolation we don't have a budget and so people have stepped up to support but what you will see during that 10 to 11 piece is young people giving of themselves they will

touch your soul and I tell people this if you're not if you're not moved by it And Aaron Davis, who's on you station, you know, AD, AD does his things, but he says this, I'm going to give him credit for it. He said there's a difference between motivation and inspiration. Motivation leaves the room once you do. Inspiration stays long after you're gone. And we originally started when I got this to just be somebody who motivated that day and everybody's like pat you on the head.

We want you in February, in June and August, thinking about some of the things these scholars said. because if we don't, then all we're doing is we're going back and we have to start that fire over again. And the power of Dr. King and those who, you know, supported, but those who also invested in him and so many other individuals, they're not people that were motivated. You know, nobody needs a motivational speaker.

There's a lot of motivational speakers out there. If you can find somebody that inspires you, people like Keith L. Brown, people like yourself, I mean, those are individuals that we need. And that's what these young people strike. They say it's not perfect if we don't hear about ourselves and hear about our message in June. I think what I'm getting excited about is that I know in these spaces,

a challenge will be issued. I'm curious to find out what that challenge will be. We'll talk about that when we come back to one on. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 937 The Ticket and The Ticketfm.com.