An Army of Normal Folks - Sweep Streets Like Michelangelo

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

For Shop Talk, we dive into Dr. Martin Luther King’s incredible speech that’s become known as “The Street Sweeper Speech”.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney, Shop Talk Number 47. Welcome in. How are you doing, Alex? Good. I wish everybody could see that big smile of yours when you're ringing the bell. I love the bell. And I'm going to do a reminder shout out. This is the Army of Normal Folks bell that was sent to us because I wanted a bell by

a listener named? I remember. do you remember? No. Oh yeah, I just called you out. Vita Scott. Vita Scott. Vita Scott. I sent her an email and I remember when you said it.

But anyway, that's why I like it so much because it's a bell for the shop from Vita Scott, a listener who has got enough sent to us. Hey, I remember my mom telling me it doesn't matter what you do, just be the best at it. If you're gonna be a ditch digger, be the best at gum ditch digger on the block. I bet some of you have heard that today. We're gonna talk about that

right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. There's a type of soil in Mississippi called Yazoo clay. It's thick, burnt orange, and it's got a reputation. It's terrible, terrible dirt. Yazoo clay eats everything, so things that get buried there tend to stay buried. Until they're not. In 2012, construction crews at Mississippi's biggest hospital made a shocking discovery.

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So give yourself permission to be a science geek and listen to science stuff on the iHeart Video app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Prohibition. It's no secret that banning alcohol didn't stop people from living it up in the 1920s. When we're five years into prohibition, the government is starting to go, okay, this isn't working. In fact, you might even say it backfired spectacularly. I'm Ed Helms, and on season three of my podcast, Snafu, we're taking you back to the 1920s and the tale of Formula 6. Because what you probably don't know about Prohibition is that American citizens were dying in massive numbers due to poisoned liquor and all along an unlikely duo was trying desperately

to stop the corruption behind it. They were like superhero crusaders turning the page on a system that didn't work, wasn't fair, and was corrupt. So how did Prohibition's war on alcohol go so off the rails that the government wound up poisoning its own people? To find out, listen and subscribe to Snafu on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare.

Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deep fake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this?

This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law, and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine you're scrolling through TikTok, you come across a video of a teenage girl

and then a photo of the person suspected of killing her. And I was like, what? Like, it was him? I was like, oh my god. It was shocking. It was very shocking. I'm Jen Swan. I'm a journalist in Los Angeles, and I've spent the past few years

investigating the story behind the viral posts and the extraordinary events that followed. I started investing my time to get her justice. They put out something on social media, so I'd get calls in the middle of the night all the time. It's like how do you think you're going to get away with something like this? Like you killed somebody. It's the story of how and why a group of teenagers turn to social media to help track down their friend's killer. This is their story. This is my friend Daisy. Listen to

my friend Daisy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everybody, welcome back. Shop Talk number 47. Be the best at what you are. There's a thing called the street sweeper speech by Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4th, 1968. The man was assassinated in my hometown in Memphis, and the anniversary of that horrific day is upon us. And ironically enough, there's a speech that fits a lot about something we want to talk about, shop talk today. And so here is an excerpt from that speech. Sweep streets like candle and Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say,

here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine on the top of a hill, be a scrub in the valley, but be the best little scrub on the side of the real. Be a bush if you can't be a scrub in the valley but be the best little scrub on the side of the real, be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be the sun, be a star. It isn't by size that you win or you fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

And when you do this, when you do this, you've mastered the length of life. Even though that was in 1967, I still get chills when I listen to it just now, hearing it. There's something about the way MLK delivered what we all know as human beings is an obvious call, but the way he delivered it, just, you know, it's just poignant. I hope you enjoyed listening to it, and I hope you'll look it up and listen to the whole speech.

But- Hold on, before you move on. Yeah. I don't think it's totally obvious I mean, I think there's so many people out there today who are sweeping streets or being a janitor or being a bus driver and Just you know just viewing it as a paycheck Or they just don't think they're all that worthy and there's all these other special people out there and they're not You know really viewing it the way that I'm okay did that sweepstreet's like Michelangelo painted pictures and like our interview with Chris Ullman, which I think will be out by the time

the shop talk airs, you know, he talked about the parking garage, you know, attendant who brought joy to everybody there, you know, and his station in life of being his role of being a parking attendant, you know, what joy he can bring and not viewing that in some de minimis way of I'm just a parking attendant or I'm just a sweet sweeper, street sweeper. So I really think there, you know, much of our culture needs to learn from this speech and has never heard it before. I think it's true. And when you talk about an army of normal folks, what better can you have but a bunch of normal

folks, street sweepers, ditch diggers, parking lot attendants. It doesn't matter what you're engaged in, you have an opportunity every day to make a difference in somebody's life and be the best at whatever it is you're going to be. And I think it's an encouragement to all of us to understand you don't have to start a multi-million dollar 501c3 to be effective. You can be effective down the hallway. You can be effective helping a kid read, giving blood, the small things, but just be good at it and be committed to it. It was April 9th, 1967 that MLK gave that speech at the

New Covenant Baptist Church in Chicago. In the speech, he considers three dimensions of life, its length, its breadth, and its height. Here's more of that clip that I will read. There will be a day, and the question won't be, how many awards did you get in life? Not that day. It won't be. How popular were you in your social setting? That won't be the question that day. It will not ask how many degrees you've been able to get. The question that day will not be concerned with whether you are a PhD or a No-D.

It will not be concerned with whether you went to more house or whether you went to no house. The question that day will not be how beautiful is your house. The question that day will not be how much money did you accumulate? How much did you have in stocks and bonds? The question that day will not be what kind of automobile did you have? On that day the question will be what did you do for others? Now I can hear someone saying, Lord, I did a lot of things in my life.

I did my job well. The world honored me for doing my job. I did a lot of things. Lord, I went to school and studied job. I did a lot of things. Lord, I went to school and studied hard. I accumulated a lot of money. Lord, that's what I did. It seems as if I can hear the Lord of life saying, but I was hungry and you fed me not. I was sick and you visited me not.

I was naked and you clothed me not. I was in prison and you were concerned about me. So get out of my face. What did you do for others? This is the breadth of life. Go out this morning, love yourself. And that means rational and healthy self-interest. You are commanded to do that. That's the length of life. Then follow that. Love your neighbors, you love yourself. You're commanded to do that. That's the breadth of life. And I'm going to take my seat now by letting you know that there's a first and even greater commandment.

Love thy Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength. I think that the psychologist would just say with all that personality, and when you do that, you've got the height of life. And when you get all three of these together, you can walk and never get weary. You can look up and see the morning stars singing together and the sons of God shouting for joy. When you get all of these working together in your very life, judgment will roll down like waters

and righteousness like a mighty stream. In the words of Martin Luther King, three dimensions of life, length, breadth and height. And his explanation for all of that is, if you're a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted art. Be the very best you can be at whatever your discipline is. And certainly that's at your job and that's as a parent, that's as a spouse, that's as a friend. But it's also as you interact with your community, you don't have to have a massive 501C3 or be part of some massive grassroots earth-shattering policy-changing organization.

You don't have to do any of that to be a member of the Army of Normal Folks. All you have to do as MLK taught us in 1967 is be the best at what you can do and expand the three dimensions of your life, its length, its breadth, and its height by being the best you can be, serving others and making a difference where you can make a difference, which might be just down the hallway, giving blood, helping a neighbor, reading to kids, going to an old folks home and keeping a lonely old person company. The army of normal folks is a ground up, bottom up group of people seeing your needs and filling it to the best Group of people seeing your area needs and filling it to the best of their ability

Where their discipline and abilities and passions lie? Martin Luther King says if you're gonna be a street sweeper be the best you can and Likewise To be an army of normal folks All you got to do is be a street sweeper who tries real hard and sees area needs and fills it We think Alex. I don't think I have anything else to add. That is shop talk number four. I just wish I had seen him in person.

You never saw him speak, did you? No, I was born four months after he was shot. Oh really? Yeah. I was born in 68. In the same city he was shot in. Yeah. Yeah, I was born in 68, in the same city of Rashad in. No, but I took a class in college, an English class, and a lot of his speeches were actually

covered in that class as it talked about it was poetry and prose. Not that he was a poet, but his prose and his cadence and his way of delivering messages is actually very poetic. Actually, I noticed it in this one, which I had never noticed before, him saying, whether you went to Morehouse or No House, and then the next line was, it is not about your beautiful house. Yeah, I mean, that's how he delivered things. That's what I mean by simplifying, making obvious or simplifying thoughts is how can you argue with that? But I studied a lot of

what he was saying and it was more from that particular class from a standpoint prose and cadence and delivery and amazing writing and storytelling. But in doing that, I ended up reading a lot of his speeches. And it is when I was awakened to the power of what MLK stood and stood for. It's more than just civil rights too. He was big on... Economic justice? Well, economic justice.

He was also big on patriotism, believe it or not. The man was a good man. And he, you know, I just wonder what his legacy is insane, The man was a good man. I just wonder what his legacy is insane, but I just wonder if he had another 10 years, how much more good an awakening he would have done for our society and culture. But at any rate, shop talk number 47, if you're going to sweep streets, be the best you can at it. Likewise, be an Army of Normal folks where you can, how you can, and just be the best

at that. There's no organization that is more important than any individual doing what they can. You be the best at what you can be. Join the ranks of the Army. Let's change our culture. That's Shop Talk number 47. We'll what you can be. Join the ranks of the army. Let's change our culture. That's Shop Talk number 47. We'll see you next week. Imagine you're scrolling through TikTok.

You come across a video of a teenage girl and then a photo of the person suspected of killing her. It was shocking. It was very shocking. Like that could have been my daughter. Like you never know. I'm Jen Swan. I'm the host of a new podcast called My Friend Daisy.

It's the story of how and why a group of teenagers turn to social media to help track down their friend's killer. Listen to My Friend Daisy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever wondered if your pet is lying to you? Why is my cat not here? And I go in and she's eating my lunch. Or if your pet is lying to you? Why is my cat not here? Am I going and she's eating my lunch?

Or if hypnotism is real? We will use this suggestion in order to enhance your cognitive control. But what's inside a black hole? Black holes could be a consequence of the way that we understand the universe. Well, we have answers for you in the new iHeart original podcast, Science Stuff. Join me or Hitcham as we answer questions about animals, space, our brains, and our bodies. So give yourself permission to be a science geek and listen to Science Stuff on the iHeart

Video app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In Mississippi, Yazoo Clay keeps secrets. Seven thousand bodies out there or more. A forgotten asylum cemetery. It was my family's mystery. Shame, guilt, propriety, something keeps it all buried deep until it's not. I'm Larisen Campbell and this is Under Yazoo Clay. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Prohibition is synonymous with speakeasies, jazz, flappers, and of course, failure. I'm Ed Helms, and on season three of my podcast, Snafu, there's a story I couldn't wait to tell you. It's about an unlikely duo in the 1920s who tried to warn the public that Prohibition was going to backfire so badly, it just might leave thousands dead from poison. Listen and subscribe to Snafu on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women found themselves

in an AI-fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts. It was just me naked. Well, not me but me with someone else's body parts. This is Levittown, a new podcast from iHeart podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope about the rise of deep fake pornography and the battle to stop it. Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your

podcasts.