The Daily Signal - Their Story Is Proof That Racial Reconciliation Is Possible in America

Episode Date: June 22, 2020

Will Ford and Matt Lockett, authors of “The Dream King: How the Dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. Is Being Fulfilled to Heal Racism in America,” met at a prayer meeting in 2005. Ford and Lockett spent 10 years developing a strong friendship and praying together for racial reconciliation. A decade into their friendship, Lockett made an incredible discovery about his ancestors, which sent the friends on a path of forgiveness and reconciliation with one another.  Ford and Lockett join The Daily Signal Podcast to share their story and discuss how America can move forward as a united country, remembering the past but choosing hope and healing instead of unforgiveness.  You can purchase the book, "The Dream King: How the Dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. Is Being Fulfilled to Heal Racism in America,”here: https://dreamstreamco.com/the-dream-king. Also on today’s show, we share some good news about the work of Human Coalition. The pro-life organization has continued to save the lives of the most vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic, increasing their capability to serve women.  Enjoy the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Monday, June 22nd. I'm Robert Blewe. And I'm Virginia Allen. On today's show, we talk with Will Ford and Matt Lockett, authors of the book The Dream King, how the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. is being fulfilled to heal racism in America. They share their own incredible story of friendship and racial reconciliation.

We also have your letters to the editor in a good news story interview discussing the work of the pro-life human coalition to save the live. of the unborn during COVID-19. Before we get to today's show, we want to share a few updates about the Heritage Foundation's National Coronavirus Recovery Commission. Rob, you gave us an update last week, but there have been even more exciting development since then, including a phone call with Vice President Mike Pence to discuss the Commission's recommendations. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

That's right, Virginia. Vice President Pence spoke to thousands of Heritage Foundation members, and thank the commission for its work. The vice president, of course, is the chairman of the White House's coronavirus task force. So it was incredible to have him involved in this process and make sure that he had a copy of our final report. You know, one of the things that I think I wanted to convey to our listeners today are about the individual steps that they can take. Now that we've moved into a phase where many states have reopened, and I know many are also going through this phased approach in which certain businesses may be, you know, taking steps cautiously as we get back to normal.

But there are things that individuals can do. Particularly, I think, the thing that strikes me is, as we look ahead to the fall, you know, parents should be in touch with their school districts right now to talk about what it looks like in the fall. Many of our schools were caught off guard with the need to move to virtual learning. And I think that it's important that we support our schools as they try to reopen in the fall. It's also important for us to remember our own personal health needs. And so doing things like, you know, maintaining social distance, wearing a mask if you're in a crowded space, you know, making sure that if you do feel ill, you're getting the treatment that you need. And so Virginia, today, actually, we are releasing at a coronavirus commission.com a list of those 15 steps that individuals can take.

And I hope that they'll log on and take a look. Yeah, no, that's great, Rob, to know. That's so helpful to just kind of all throughout this process, know what you all are recommending. now as individuals, how do we move forward in such a way that we're keeping ourselves safe? We're keeping those around us safe. So again, to read all those steps, you can visit coronavirus commission dot com. All right. Now stay tuned for today's show. Coming up next. Our top priority at the Daily Signal is to ensure that you have the most accurate information regarding COVID-19. Here's an important message from the White House.

We are dealing with an unprecedented public health crisis with coronavirus. otherwise known as COVID-19. We're working around the clock to develop treatments and vaccines to combat the disease. We have taken an unprecedented all-of-government and all of America approach to combat the COVID-19 outbreak. FDA is working around the clock to help innovators around the country develop medical products for Americans and providers. I am joined by Matt Lockett and Will Ford, authors of the book The Dream King, how the dream of Martin Luther. Luther King, Jr. is being fulfilled to heal racism in America. Will and Matt, thank you both so much for being here today. Oh, it's good to be on here, Virginia. Thank you for having this on today, Virginia.

Now, Dr. Alveda King wrote of your book, Will Ford and Matt Lockett are indeed advancing the god-inspired dream of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Two paths united beyond skin color came together to bridge the racial divide in this compelling saga destined to turn the pages of history toward victory. That's quite the endorsement. Wow. But I read that. Wow, it doesn't get much better than that. Dr. Alba King said that is something you wrote.

And wow, we are going through a time in history right now where we are just facing that choice of, you know, Do we stand united or divided? I want to ask you all to just tell me a little bit about why you chose to write the book. Well, I feel like we wrote it, one, because we didn't have a choice. The way God wove our, into wove our lives together, and we just could not not see the hand of work of God in the whole thing. You know, the Puritans used to have this way of concessualizing God and talking about it. I'm call it Providence. And it was just so interesting that the story starts in Lake Providence, Louisiana.

And Providence is the continuous activity of God by which he preserves and governs. It's the way God looks over seemingly insignificant things and apparent accidents. And seeing the hand of work of God and how he brought us together. But then understanding it, if God is that serious about the details of a life in this, it means one, he's really serious about life and the value, intrinsic value of every person. He's really serious about healing the racial divide. And I also believe he's really serious about bringing revival, bringing another awakening to this nation. I want to dive into that a little bit more, because I think that's absolutely correct. You're

hitting the nail on the head. But a lot of the book obviously focuses around the friendship that will you and Matt have. So could you all just tell me a little bit about how you first met, and began this journey of praying together and praying for racial reconciliation in America. Yeah, Will, why don't you go ahead and get started and we'll kind of bring it together? Yeah. So for us, really, this starts with this 200-year-old kettle pot that's been in my family. It was used by the slaves of my family. The reason why it's passed down, Virginia, is because they used for washing clothes, but secretly, it was used for prayer.

they won't by a slave master in Lake Providence who would beat them for any reason and praying was one of them. The irony is that he wanted them to be Christians, but he didn't want them to pray because he felt like if they prayed it would foster hope, they got hopeful, they'd run away. So they were literally beaten if they were called praying. But these folks in my family, they were Christians. They decided to pray anyway. So these Christian slaves, what they would do is they sneak into a barn late as night to make sure their prayer meeting one scene. but to make sure it wasn't heard, they used that cast iron kettle pot. So they would take this pot and turn it upside down, prop it up with rocks on the edges,

and they will put their list in between the opening between the ground and the kettle by prostrating themselves on the gown. And they would pray in a whisper underneath that kettle pot so that the pot will muffle their voices as they prayed through the night. And the story they passed down with the pot as this is that they didn't think they would see freedom in their time. So they prayed for the freedom of the children in the next generation. So one day freedom comes, this young teenage girl decides to keep this pot and that story in our family. So she passed the pot and the story down to Harriet Lockett, who then passed it on to Noah Lockett,

who then passed it on to William Ford Sr., who then passed it on to William Ford Jr., who then gave it to me, William Ford III. So I've been taking that pot around the country by the time I met Matt. I started in 2000, taking that pot around the country and talking about the prayer bowls in heaven. We use that pot as an acoustic means to keep the prayers of the slaves from being heard, but literally over every family. According to Revelation 5 and 8, there's a prayer bowl over every family. There's a prayer bowl that actually catches our prayers, collects us incense before God's throng.

So there's a prayer bowl over our nation, and God's looking for a new generation of people to resource the prayer bows. And I've been talking about how it wasn't just black Christian slaves praying back then, but also white Christian abolitionists who knew that if any person was a slave, a Christian, they know that person was their brother. Those white abolitionists laid their lives down for them. Many of those abolitionists were lynched just like the slaves were because they chose to suffer with the people of God rather than compromise and wink at slavery. And so it was the prayers of those, that group of people, those white abolitionists, those black Christian slaves that preyed into being the first and the second Great Awakening. Wow. So Matt, how did you

get connected with Will and begin traveling with him and traveling with that large cast iron pot and telling this story and encouraging those prayers that were prayed generations ago to continue today. Yeah, you know, this is, this will be kind of funny maybe for some of your listeners, maybe a little strange, but I'm doing this because I had a dream. And, you know, when I say that, sometimes people are like, so what, like the dream of your heart, like, you know, an idea. And I tell them, no, I actually fell a slugly. sleep at night and I had a dream. And the dream wasn't anything that I was familiar with. It actually was from somewhere else, as I like to say, where God began to speak to me in a dream about what he

wanted to do to shift America to a culture of life specifically, but how he was going to do that through day and night prayer. And this dream came at a really kind of a low point in my life. I had lost my father unexpectedly. And, you know, after my dad died, I became really focused on wanting to figure out where my family history was. And my dad's family, the Lockett family, we never knew any of our genealogy. We never knew our family tree. And I decided, you know, I was going to try to figure that out. And I spent about a year looking into it. And, you know, a lot of people have done that. I found that fewer and fewer people do that these days. seems like, but after about a year of looking into it, I hit all the same roadblocks that other

family members had hit in the past. And so I was finishing out this year of struggle, more frustrated than it began, because I didn't know anything about my family. We didn't know where we came from. We could only get back to my dad's grandfather in Kentucky. And so it was during that time that I had this very strange dream from God. And that, uh, that's a very strange dream, uh, from God. And, uh, that That dream led me through a series of events where I basically started trying to track down what was happening in that dream. I found out that, you know, there was this prayer meeting happening on Martin Luther King Day in Washington, D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial. And that day was January 17, 2005. And so I was there.

I showed up at a prayer meeting. I took time off work, spent hard-earned money, and flew across the country to go to a prayer meeting outside in January. It was zero degrees that day. I didn't even really know why I was there, but I knew I was supposed to be there. And that was the first place that I came together with Will. So I was there. It seemed like a chance encounter,

but I was there because God gave me a dream. Yeah, same thing for me, Virginia. I've been taking that pot around the country and sharing the story that I just shared with you. But I wound up at the Lincoln Memorial that day as well because of a dream. I had a dream about the dreamer, Dr. King, and then the dream, long story short of the dream, you can talk about, you can read more of it in detail in the book, but basically the deal is this, God began to deal with me about the unforgiveness issues that I had with the white community,

began to deal with the baggage that I was carrying. And so I shared that dream with a good friend of mine, and he said, hey, I'm doing this prayer meeting at the Lincoln Memorial. and, you know, won't you come, bring your kettle, share your story. It'll be an email case celebration day. Share that dream, and it'll be a power for time. And so I'm let there because of a dream, and Matt was lit there as a dream because of a dream as well. Wow.

So it's 2005. You all meet at this prayer meeting for the first time. But how does your friendship develop from there? Well, you know, I'm listening to Will tell the story that day of the kids. kettle and the slaves who prayed. And I was really provoked by it because, you know, I had spent a year trying to figure out my family history and I knew nothing. And yet I'm listening to, you know, an African-American man who has this rich spiritual heritage and a legacy of ancestors who prayed for the destiny of this nation. And it really provoked me. But then as I'm listening,

Will shared this detail that the kettle had been handed down after slavery to Harriet Lockett, who gave it to Nora Lockett, who gave it down all the way down to Will Ford III. And that was my last name. So literally, I was in this moment where, very strange moment where I was hearing my name in this storyline. And so I went up and I talked to Will after the meeting. We met afterwards and we started comparing notes.

It was kind of odd at first. But, you know, he asked where my lockets were from. And I said, well, you know, Kentucky is much. as we know. And his lockets were down in Louisiana. And he asked how we spelled our name. And so we spell it with two T's, L-O-C-K-E-T-T. And he said, well, our lockets only spelled it with one. And we thought it was this amazing coincidence. But it was enough that, you know, we prayed. The first thing that Will and I ever did together, besides meeting each other in a prayer meeting, was we prayed together. So we stood right there the moment we met. And we prayed about the past

of America. We prayed prayers of repentance for sins of the past, prayers of forgiveness, and then we prayed for the future of this nation as well. And so that's how we met, and that was how we kicked off this friendship. Wow. Wow. And then you spent about the next decade, correct? Traveling together, praying together, really just growing in friendship together until you made a pretty unique discovery. Yeah. So that's a key part. you just said that we prayed and just did life together for a decade. And I'm so thankful for that decade of just having time to build relationship, learning how to love each other well.

I love well. I love his family. I fight for his dreams. He fights for mine. But it was after about a decade that I visited Appomattox Courthouse. And that's a historical location in the middle of Virginia. And it marks the end of the American Civil War. That's the place where Lee surrendered to Grant.

And I visited that site to pray one day. And my friend and I were in the little visitor's center, and he grabs a book off the shelf randomly, and he opens it to a random page. And he was stunned because the title of the page was the Battle of Lockett's Farm. And we didn't know what it was, but I started to research that topic. And I found out that the last battle of the American Civil War happened in the front yard of a family named Lockett, spelled with two T's.

And so now it's a decade later, but I'm having a similar moment where I'm hearing my name called again. And I think this has to mean something. You know, isn't that interesting? As a Christian, I am a believer. That means I believe something. And one of the things that I believe is that our lives have meaning. I don't think that anyone is an accident.

I think that God has purpose in mind with each of our lives. And so I'm thinking in that moment, this has to mean something. And it was about that time that my brother, actually, he was the one that got breakthrough in our family tree. And he contacted me, and he starts telling me how our forefathers had come through as settlers in Virginia in the year 1645. And I said, Virginia, if I got a story for you? And I started to tell him the story about the end of the Civil War, and he stops me.

And he says, that's not that place down by Appomattox Courthouse, isn't. I said, that is exactly where it is. And he says, oh, I just found the documents on it. That was our family. So this is the discovery. So Will had been telling this story all of these years. And he has this artifact. He has this relic of the past, of American history, that he'd been telling this story about people who prayed.

And then all of a sudden, I find out after a decade that I, too, have a relic from the past. And it's this historical site, this farmhouse that's still there today. And in its front yard, it has a marker that says, here Lee fought his last battle. And that is when the story really began to take shape and some of the plot began to thicken. Yeah. So, Will, do you want to carry on with kind of how then that further connection was made in realizing how your two families are linked.

Well, you know, first we thought it was this cool, coincidence. You were like, wow, this is cool, because I have this kettle pot with slaves prayed for freedom. And now we found out you have this house where the Civil War ends in your family's front yard. We thought pretty cool, coincidence. And so Matt actually goes to the house.

Once you share the story, Matt, about what happened when you went to the house? Yeah, the house is still there. It's been preserved. And, you know, I went down and I met the man that lives there. And he invited me in and I was stunned when I walked in the living room and framed and hanging on the wall was the Lockett genealogy. Wow. And I had my brother's newly found research confirmed it. This was my family. And he, you know, he says, you know, how much do you know? And I didn't know much. And so he starts talking about the lockets who had left and gone to Kentucky. And that's the part we did know. And then he said, you know, some of the lockets left and were in the deep south. Some were involved in very significant historical. events. But then he said this. He said, some left and went to Louisiana. And in some cases, there was a clerical error in the handwritten ledgers, and they misspelled the name, and they dropped

one of the T's. And I'm thinking, my gosh, like, this can't possibly be true what I'm thinking right now. So I just gather all of this up. I'm trembling as I say this now. But because the story, See, the story is, this is a story for now, Virginia. And every time Will and I tell this story, we fill God on this story. We think that this is a story that the nation needs to hear. And so I gather up this new information. And I go down to Dallas where Will lives. And we lay it all out.

And so this is kind of what we found out. Will, you want to share? Yeah, so he lays all this out, this newfound information. and we basically take go, our minds go back to the first conversations that we had with each other when we first met each other about the T's at the end of our names, Lockett. So my grandfather was born Lawrence Lockett, and he's born shortly, of course, after slavery. So his parents didn't want him to have a slave last name, so they took the last name from one friend, took the first name with another friend. And that's how my grandfather became William Lawrence Ford. But so he was a Lockett.

We were Lockett at first, and we always knew that. And so now he's telling me this whole thing about the T's. And so here's where the connectors happen. I had a genealogist looking to my family history, and he found a man named Isaac Lockett. He was living there in Lake Providence on a plantation in 1870. 1870 census, Isaac Locker was 90 years old. So five years after slavery, more than likely,

that's the place where he lived his life as a slave. But in that document, Virginia, Isaac Larkas said, he was originally from Virginia. And so we knew that after we researched that Matt's family was one of the few lockers that were in that area. We did another year and a half worth of research. And here's what we learned. We learned that it was Matt's family who owned my family where that kettle pot came from. Wow. Wow.

So think about it. Here's my family. praying for the ending of slavery. Yeah. And then all the way up at the farmhouse of the people who used to own them, slavery comes to an end in their front yard. Wow.

But then because he's the God of the past and the future and he loves to heal history, he weaves two guys from those same family lines together, Matt Lockett and I, so we can war against injustice in our day and cry for awakening at our time. Wow. Because that's the kind of God we serve.

Wow. I mean, there aren't words to describe just how incredible this story is and how the Lord knit your relationship, your friendship, together, your history together. Tell me what that moment was like when you both realized, oh my goodness, this is our story. Yeah. So like I said, he came down and flew from Dallas to D.C. with this information. And then I mean, we just talked and prayed and cried. And then when he left, honestly, we just texted each other every morning by 530 every morning, just texting and texting and just, I found out this. I found out that.

We're looking at more research. Honestly, Virginia, there was one part in the whole discovery. Well, I'm trying to prove that Matt's family didn't own our family in a sense. Because now I'm confronted with something. And now after all the wawi zowie stuff wore off, now I'm trying to forget how my friend was ever my family's enemy. I have the face of somebody from that family now. I have stories connected to that whole history of slaves being beat to death. And we heard stories about that in my family.

Now I have a face, and it's the face of somebody that I love, right? And so I had to go back to that whole thing, remember the dream. the God gave me with Dr. King and again going to a deeper level of forgiveness. And we talked through this together, but I had to do a lot of soul searching myself. And Matt Matt talks about how he had to do his own soul searching too. Yeah, you know, I think as a white man in America, I'll just say this. You know, and sometimes I say this and I get a good response. And sometimes I say it and I get a not so good response.

But I'm going to say it anyway. I think that we have been far too guilty at times of having a dismissive attitude about historical pain in the African-American community. And we've many times taken the attitude of, hey, you weren't there, I wasn't there, get over it. But see, this was different for me because it wasn't just an idea anymore. I had been doing life with Will for a decade before I knew any of this. See, the story isn't what connected Will and I. God allowed us to build a relationship, a loving relationship where I love this man and doing life together. And I had been hearing the pain of his heart.

I've been hearing about his life's struggles. He'd been hearing about mine. But you know what I mean? Like suddenly the pain of a community was very specific. because it had a face and it had a name and it was a face that I loved. But now, suddenly I find out after 10 years of hearing the kettle story that I'm connected to that story and not just connected, but I'm actually connected to that of the slave owner. That was so hard to hear that.

And this isn't like a shame or a guilt kind of thing that I'm trying to put on you. I'm just trying to be honest that like suddenly to find out that I had a direct connection to real pain with real people, that was actually very difficult for me to come to grips with. And I did. I had to do a lot of soul searching through that time. And here's the thing, is that God didn't, God wasn't in a very big hurry to get us out of that wrestling match.

Right. That we were in, God actually let us sit in that state for about a year and a half before he moved the story forward. Yeah, so a year and a half goes by, and Matt makes this amazing discovery. Yeah. Yeah, see, in the war before the Civil War, there was another one, right? The Revolutionary War. And I was praying one day, and the Lord led me to read this book about a revival that broke out in the middle of Virginia during the Revolutionary War. And I was stunned to see a list of names recorded that had been added to the Methodist,

circuit writer a tenoracy. And right in the list was a man named Daniel Lockett. He's right there in my family tree. He's one of my forebearers. And this is what you have to understand. I love the history of the Methodist Church, because at that time in history that I'm talking about, they were abolitionists. You could not be a circuit writer and own slaves. And so these circuit writers were abolitionists and they would travel not just with Bibles and hymnals to the frontier, but they actually carried a legal document with them called a mannumission form. And it was a legal document that allowed people to set slaves free. And what you find out, when you look at where the circuit writers went, at that period in

history, everywhere they went, the population of freed slaves exploded. Because that was the power of the message that they were carrying. And so, yeah, my family has slave ownership in its history. But if you go back a little bit further, there was some other unfinished business that God had already started, and it was that of revival and abolition. And I'm locked in on that for this generation. Wow. So it's so powerful, because you think about it.

And all our families, Virginia, you have these things called generational curses and generational blessings, right? And you see them play out in people's families. Like, you'll see one family with this curse of addiction or whatever, whatever type, and whatever kind is played out over and over again from family member to family member from new father, the new father to new father. But you also see generational blessings go down, too, like from this character, integrity, and an amazing work ethic can be passed down as well. But the fear of the Lord being over a family for generations, you see that kind of thing play out.

And those represent these dominating themes and storylines. Yeah, Matthew had slave owners in his family. We also had this powerful, you know, revivalist and abolitionists as well. And so he had these dominated things. I have him in my family, too. You have him in your family. from the nation. What God is saying right now is this, what storyline do we want to be a part of? The healing or the hurt, the blessing or the curse, what storyline are we going to be a part of?

So how do we actively make that choice? And honestly, like you all did, I mean, you didn't ignore the pain and the hardship and kind of that ugly reality of discovering, wow, like, math, at one point owned, you know, his family owned slaves and they owned, you know, the ancestors that were, you know, wills, great, great, great grandparents and so on and so forth. So, I mean, how do we honestly look and say, okay, yes, America, we have these huge blemishes in our past, but also there's like you talk about with, you know, the circuit writers. There's incredible beauty and freedom and how we kind of make that choice to, to recognize the hardship, but also take hold of the beauty and move forward in unity.

I think Matt talks about the power of privilege, but I talk about the power of forgiveness with this thing. We have to get to a place where we forgive and do the work. And I know that's not a popular message right now. I know people want to push back at the whole understanding of that. But listen, if it takes 70 times 70, that's what Jesus said. We have to do that. And that's really the ways that we move the chain forward. But there has to be another side that's willing to listen to the pain and listen to the story of the other other side.

And that's where reconciliation starts. And that's end with reconciliation. You know, really, the whole thing is to move us towards restoring people to the place of human dignity that God made available to us through the cross. And so that element of it is really, really key. But it's being honest, sharing those stories and willing to stay in the room with each other until we stay in relationship with each other until we get those breakthroughs that we need. That's really good. I'll add this to what Will just shared.

I think that in the same way that God is using our story, I think, to provoke a discussion in the nation right now, I actually think that every detail, every facet of it is a signal, I think, to what God wants to accomplish. And I don't think it's an accident that Will and I met each other in a prayer meeting. And the first thing we ever did together was to pray together. That was the foundation of our friendship and relationship. And I believe that the way that you kick up into this, as Will said, this providential dimension of our lives. and the ability, I think, to choose blessing and cursing. The way that you kick up into that dimension is through prayer.

And I think we can talk about ideas. We can talk about concepts and policies and all these things all day long. That's all good. And we need to do that. But listen, prayer introduces this dimension of what God has already started in the past. See, there's this powerful concept, this idea in the Bible, that God will start. something in one generation with the intention of fulfilling it in a later generation. And so right now, we're in a moment. It's a very tense moment in our nation. But I also know that God has already

started some things. And it's our privilege to discover what is this unfinished business that God has already been up to and how can I participate in that. And so this is where the blessing and the cursing, enter, because it's easy to see curses after curses, just roll on, roll on, bad choice after bad choice. But God's already started some good stuff. And through prayer, we can actually kick up into that dimension and find it out. Yeah. So powerful.

Where can our listeners learn more about you all follow what you're up to by the book? Dreamstreamcold.com. That's our shared website. That's where we have other blogs and articles talking about things that happen in culture right now. related to this issue. And also, of course, where you can get the book, please go there by the book. It's going to equip you for how to navigate through these conversations. It's an amazing conversation startup, especially with pastors and leaders. And we know many churches that are doing small groups with them right now. But beyond that, you'll help you get a healthy understanding

of how we got to where we are and what God is doing. More important, what is God doing in the middle of this. Our story is just one story like this. You know, that got us connecting people in powerful ways to the unfinished business of everything. He started with the prayers of those who had gone before. Thank you both so much. Matt and Well, I just really appreciate you all coming on and sharing your incredible story. It is, yeah, it's true. And what we shared is, honestly, like the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot more in the book. Thank you, Virginia, for bringing us on today. Oh, yeah, thank you. Of course. Of course. No, this is a pleasure.

and definitely encourage our listeners to buy the book and read that story, like you say, in full. We'll be sure to link that in today's show notes. Great. Thanks a lot, Virginia. Are you looking for quick conservative policy solutions to current issues? Sign up for Heritage's weekly newsletter, The Agenda. In the Agenda, you will learn what issues Heritage Scholars on Capitol Hill are working on, what position conservatives are taking, and links to our in-depth research. The Agenda also provides information on important events happening here at Heritage.

you can watch online, as well as media interviews from our experts. Sign up for the agenda on heritage.org today. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show. Virginia, who's up first? And our Obotica left a review on Apple Podcasts saying, may this be the sort of media that occupies the mainstream, sincere, marvelous, well-tempered, academic yet personable.

Well, thanks so much for that review. It's great to hear people who are always leaving us reviews on Apple Podcasts and other platforms where they may listen. And in response to Rachel Del Judas's article, The Left hails Supreme Court decision that sex includes sexual orientation and gender identity, Doug writes to us, The court is not just wrong, it's wrong-headed. Universal decrees such as this leave the door open for far-ranging abuse. It gives motivation and substance that will allow men to enter a woman's restroom

or locker room proclaiming to be a woman. It will even aid pedophiles. Your letter could be featured on next week's show. So send us an email at letters at daily signal.com. Now stay tuned for my good news interview with Angie Ivy, virtual clinic director of Human Coalition. We discuss how the pro-life organization has continued saving the lives of the unborn, even during the coronavirus pandemic. Do you have an interest in public policy? Do you want to hear some of the biggest names in American politics speak? Every day, the Heritage Foundation host webinars called Heritage Events Live. Webinar topics range from ethics during the COVID-19 pandemic to the CARES Act and the economy.

These webinars are free and open to the public. To find the latest webinar and register, visit heritage.org slash events. I am joined by Angie Ivy, virtual clinic director of Human Coalition. Angie, thanks so much for coming on the show to share some good news with us today. I'm just very excited to be here. Thank you so much. So could you begin by just telling us a little bit about Human Coalition? Because I think to say that Human Coalition is a pro-life center doesn't quite adequately describe the full of what you all do.

So can you just tell me a little bit about your vision as an organization and then how you work every day to make that vision a reality? Oh, I'd love to. We are an organization that is here to support and help women, especially those who are experiencing unexpected pregnancies. And we have taken a very active role and a very innovative role in the way that we do that. It's been really exciting to be part of the virtual clinic. We are the first telehealth department to actually start in the pro-life arena that allows us to go out and help women just by talking to them and meeting. with them over the phone. So when you say telehealth and virtual clinic, what do you mean by that?

Yeah, we started the virtual clinic in August of 2018, and I have a team of certified nurses and social workers. And we actually have women that call in that have just many times have just found out they're pregnant and are considering getting an abortion and need consultation just to know what their options are in support. And when they call in within minutes, they are actually talking to a nurse who's going to be supporting and caring and walk them through, first of all, finding out why they're considering having an abortion, talking to them about helping them if they need resources.

Maybe they're just getting evicted from their apartment. Maybe they just lost their job, figuring out exactly what's going on. And then we also will go over their options with them and not just talk about abortion, but also talk about adoption and parenting. We will help them find a clinic in their area that will provide a free ultrasound, a lab-grade pregnancy test. And then we also walk with them throughout that process to help support them and help them actually consider other options besides abortion. So you might have women calling you from all over the country who find you online. and then you're actually able to connect them right there in their city with pro-life resources. Yes, exactly.

They're getting immediate assistance from us and then plugged into resources within their community. That is exactly correct. Wow, that's really powerful. So during COVID-19, how were you all already kind of ready and equipped to handle, you know, calls coming in and really having to go online? because we know that, you know, unfortunately, abortion clinics, for the most part, they were able to continue performing abortions in many pro-life centers. They had to close their doors. So how did you all work to kind of fill in those gaps during the virus? Yeah, it was a very exciting time.

As I said, we started the first virtual clinic back in August of 2018. So we had all of that groundwork already in place and had our processes and down and ready to go. So when COVID-19 hit, we basically just took those procedures and processes and were able to expand them across the country to our other women's care clinics, our brick and mortar operations that we own and were able to quickly actually over a weekend roll out the virtual clinic model all over the country. And this was extremely beneficial to during this time, just like that you were saying that abortion clinics were open, but many of the country. of the pregnancy resource centers were closed. So we were able just to pick up and help women where they were. We did have quite a significant increase in volume because people were finding themselves without a job, didn't really know where to turn, and then finding out, oh, my goodness, I'm having an unexpected pregnancy on top of this situation.

And we're very scared and very panic. So it was just a privilege to be able to talk to these women. immediately have that support and caring nurse right on the phone. And then we were able to get our social workers involved that were able to help women, maybe that had lost their jobs. They needed, we were able to come up in ways to find other jobs, things that were open during that time, help plug women in and families into resources such as food banks within their area, help them, you know, how do I apply for Medicaid now that I don't have insurance?

So we just did a whole gamut of services and just were instrumental to women and families within the communities. Wow. Wow. I heard that your call while you jumped by 45% during COVID. Is that correct? Oh, it is. It is.

It was a very exciting time. And we were all working from home as well remotely. and I tell you, we didn't miss a beat. We were able to go in and expanded our hours for the virtual clinic and were able to serve all of the clients that were needing our help. Wow. So tell me about some of those women that you all were able to help during this crazy, crazy time of COVID-19.

Sure. I'll tell you, women in specific, a way that called in. She was a mom of two young children. had recently decided to separate and divorce from her husband and was actually living at a friend's house saying on the couch. And she had viewed that just as a temporary situation and thought she would go out and get a job. But then when COVID hit, it was finding it very difficult on her own to find a job. And then she found out that she was indeed pregnant.

So she had called just very scared and not really knowing what way. to turn had never been in a situation where she didn't have insurance, didn't have income coming in, and had been a stay-at-home mom for a couple of years. So we were able to quickly help her get a resume together. We got a list of job openings that were open in her area, and she got a job at a hospital. And this allowed her to now be able to get her own living space and apartment. She was able to get insurance through her job and actually just, you know, chose life for her baby. She really was just considering abortion just due to her circumstances. So that was a privilege to be able to walk alongside her.

Wow. Wow. That is so encouraging to hear. Now, the approach that you all have of going online and of meeting women kind of right where they're at in that situation, wherever they are in the country, and especially after COVID-19, how do you think? that your model could maybe, you know, affect the rest of the pro-life movement and even operate as a model to teach other pro-life centers. Hey, you too can have this powerful reach by, you know,

operating online. Yeah, I think it is actually a model that human coalition is taking and putting in place for all of our clinics. We're going to continue to stay with a virtual piece involved because it's so successful because just that's what we call that speed to cancel, speed to nurse, when a client finds out that they're having an unexpected pregnancy and they're scared. I mean, within minutes of a call, they can be talking to a nurse. And that's just so helpful and beneficial in that time frame. They're not having to wait days to go in or, you know, into a clinic. They're actually getting that right now.

And so it's, you know, something that's pretty easy to put in place. we've been very successful with it just by setting that up and having that team, you know, ready to go when the client needs them. And to anyone who's listening and thinking, I'm pro-life, but I've never been involved in actually furthering the pro-life movement, how would you encourage them to jump in and start getting involved in their own community? That's a great question. I would, one of the things you can do is you all can go out to.

our humancolection.org website and look about things that we have have going on and also may be contacting a pregnancy resource center in their area. Many clinics are they need volunteers and sometimes you may think, well, I may not be someone that can go in and counsel a client that may not be my gift. However, maybe you can go in and pray or maybe you can go in and help with all. you know, needs that they have as far as like helping with their baby to boutique closet or helping them, if you're an accountant, maybe you can help with accounting skills or that type of thing.

So plugging in with those resources is always good. And then, again, you can contact Humacolition and we do have a lot of things going on as well that's great to support. Awesome. Angie, thank you. It's just so encouraging to hear about the work that you all are doing and have continued to do during the coronavirus. We're just really, really thankful for people like yourself who are really leading to pro-life movement in such a powerful way.

Well, thank you. All right, we're going to leave it there for today. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on the Rurkishay Audio Network. All our shows can be found at dailysignal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app, and be sure to listen every weekday by adding the Daily Signal podcast. as part of your Alexa Flash briefing. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review and a five-star rating. It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to even more listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the Daily Signal News.

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