being a little humorous and i you know why because i'm getting ready to let the city find out about three successful black men so that you can see there is a change that's out here and speaking of that if you had to choose something in your life present day what would you put your finger on the sea to gave you th children my oldest daughter graduates of spelman this month and so that's that's that's going to be a great great day my youngest daughter graduates from the university american university in washington is it washington d c in december so both my children are graduating from college and just to be able to be the best father i can be unit retired i want to know what it was like when you was out to be an example for folks yeah you know i've been very active and been very involved a number of things and one of the blessings i think of my life  the multiple diverse experiences that i've had in my life but i think a lot of it comes from my family my father my mother the way that they raised me they raised me in a way  that allowed me to define my success not by what somebody else said by some measure that somebody had outside myself but allowed me to decide what i wanted to do and then measure my life by my own work and that were has men really big involvement in the community i'm blessed that i have family around me who love care for me but i'm also embedded in a community and they're moving with a community that's about change in the betterment for everybody and i feel like that's a great success that's a great place to be when you know i  in the streets of oakland streets of berkeley where what do you think we could suggest to them to help us make a change in alameda county period what do you think you think we should suggest or help us help them make a change you know my suggestion because you know whether of that i work with you right though i talk to them every day it's not a one day that i don't come in contact with you i always tell them you know think outside the box don't be caught up in a mindset of you know four or five block radius that you live here and or what you see on television i hear music you know i think broader and don't be a follower that's not have to tell you to they have to be a leader you know right and so that's what i tell them that you know really be your own person make very good decisions because one poor decision can change your whole life for the minute so what i also always tell them is you know think outside the box don't be a follower we're all person and make the best and most positive choices that you can that's love so they don't love themselves so by doing the kind of understanding and learning about their history that our laptop talked about they can realize where they came from right right and all of the great you then build up the kind of power and energy that can move you forward in the world to do whatever you want and you know we talk about god and you but you have to also love yourself and you've got to forgive yourself for any family that you have because we all fail in some way but we're not all able to forgive ourselves we give ourselves we can forgive others and then move powerfully in the world program and the force has been around for over forty years they have multiple programs dealing with adults in santa rita and san quinten they have a father who program diversion and leadership program that works with youth that have committed misdemeanor offenses and they get the opportunity to take accountability for what they've done and then here get their cases heard in  diversion program where they have to take accountability for what they've done and then they get their case heard in a sanctioned court to other side of the story so they can restore the harm they've c attorneys and to hear the cases so that you've run the whole court and we use volunteer attorneys and professionals as the judges but it's a peer run court where the youth have to get in front of their peers because the jury or our youth also and they tell their side of the story and the youth deliberate on it they come back and give the city's examples and those youth have up to three months to complete the options and also excessive completion of the you've done i mean i've seen you do many things share with us some of the things that made it different well let me tell you a little bit about that i don't know i was the principal of an alternative high so i got off the city council and i didn't get defeated in the election i decided not to run that's right that's right i went to work for the american friends service committee which is a quaker organization kind of like catholic charities but it was with the quakers and they had a lot of justice programs that serve people in oakland they work with the homeless we work with creating a credit union in west oakland altera financial said and then after that i became a principal and alternative i school in oakland and one of the students who was a hip hop artist was being managed by a line i was doing a little show one so big and it brought the hip hop artist on into that meeting our land and you know we hit it off right away i recognize the power of this young man his intelligence his commitment to making a difference in the community and i said this is i'm by the i want to walk with i want to work with we get the same go but that we can move together and make a difference and it's our kind of thing recognizing one another this whole thing that is a occurred in the african american race with the owner of the clippers basketball team nobody wants to talk about it but i want to talk about it ok so tell me i mean just me your gut feeling what do you what did you sing it to you might perceive what was really going on with what you say you i mean you say hey i'm with you every day i talk to you what did they because he said it in his own home and there's a lot of things in the privacy of people's homes and i said i wasn't surprised and i let them know that there's people that you walk past every there's people that still have attitudes like that and he just got caught saying that and it came to life so there's always going to  be racism there's always going to be people that want to hold other people down and i just told them you know no matter what someone thinks about you whatever race you are that you success is the best revenge so make sure you do the right things and make yourself successful make your family proud of you and you  e and they were having a conversation earlier about this and you brought up a really key point i don't think i don't think america is ready for so what we're going to deliberate i point out it was my think of it was when it came to the point of link but if we understand that africa was taken over by a roman general o'connell's we also know how america got it got its name so we don't educate kids on the diversity so to get to your question when one person can say something but can we operate as an african american community to work together so to make a long story short my whole point about the whole situation is it was a great opportunity for us to start working on issues that we don't in the whole process is we don't look at the history in the system because we're pointing at individuals all right we think the problem is this individual is is great but we're not looking at the whole way that the basketball industry is organized so all of them players and their owners are being with owners who are selling them half of them around mak need to get back to looking at it in a more holistic way and i understand that if we're going to change they have impact of this on us as black people in our community we need more fundamental change than just taking a basketball team away from somebody watch out now you know and you know it is hard to really put a point on that but it's good that we were able to discuss it today yesterday people didn't feel the need to talk about here now today is starting to come up look as we start to wrap up now you were talking about you and i get together to talk about this not probably call save our children and you're trying to you know we're trying to pick pick this thing up off the ground but you're already doing a lot with the you feel you know i'm looking forward to working with you on this save our children concept what do you think is one of the things just in real quick here in thirty seconds what do you think is something we can really put out there as african american men to begin this start saving the kids you know because you've got a flower you know what you have to you have to stop and change it because you're not going to go far or go anywhere on it so we have to start changing the attitudes around education what it is to be a  you know i get your real quick here now you and i heard dirtying are working on a program where we're going to do some for negli me gets a marrow debates down here in this in the city of oakland that's something i'm looking forward to getting with you and that we're the show are giving people an opportunity to hear what people have to say that's very important you know and i wanted to break down what's going on so it's about talking with one of the answers particularly about intergenerational talk and with one another as another show because i think there's a lot more that the three of you can put on the table that will assist us with just keeping people informed keeping the youth understanding and with that this is been your whole tried me best on watering the roots and you heard that quite a few times on the panel and i'll see the next time thank you for watching the show