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Okay, Paul, what was the question you had asked?

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I was just curious, you know, one of the really interesting things, Chuck, was listening to

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the ministers talk about just what's going on in the city, you know, in terms of politics,

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they're really knowledgeable.

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Is that really true?

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Yeah.

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Oh, that's absolutely a fact.

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The ministers are not just ministers, they are businessmen and they are community leaders

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as well.

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And in Chicago, I guess Chicago is a major league when it comes to politics.

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And if you're going to be involved in anything in Chicago, you have to know something about

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politics.

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You at least have to know who the players are and what the climate is like, you know.

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Everybody's trying to do something and they need to know how do I get this done.

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And that's what the ministers in Chicago are about.

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They want to know what's happening and how to get things done.

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And they want to do for their congregations.

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Now, how do you decide, there's ministers of big churches, small churches, all different

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kinds, some of them are, you know, probably more respected than others.

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So how do you factor all that in?

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How do you figure out who are the ones you want to try to get in your corner?

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Well, first thing is you want to get all the ministers in your corner.

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And one of the ministers says to me, there are more ants than there are elephants.

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And which is a very true saying.

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But you have to remember that it's a very delicate balancing act that you have to do.

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And I try and have always tried to not ever discriminate between big church and little church.

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I think that's a, you're toying with a very sensitive issue when you start to talk about that.

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I give as much time in reality to small churches as I do big churches.

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Obviously, it's important that a man like Bishop Ford, who's the leader of nine to ten

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million people, who is the international bishop of the Churches of God in Christ, when he

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calls you, you obviously jump, you know.

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Reverend Clay Evans is the head of two powerful ministerial organizations in the country.

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The ministers in Chicago basically engineered, were very helpful in the election of Dr. Lyons,

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who is the president of the National Baptist Convention.

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So, and Reverend Shelvin Hall, who is on the west side, former state president and very

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powerful minister on the west side.

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You have to make sure that you, you know, you know all of these men.

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But then there are the guys like the Reverend Williams, who is, does not have a large church,

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but a very, but he's a very influential minister, so influential that his, his, the people who

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are with him, elected him to be president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Chicago

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and Facility.

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Straight over, he's over about two, about three blocks now.

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On the left hand side?

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On the left hand side.

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Okay.

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Coming up right now, you'll see it.

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So, tell us quickly who, who are going to be seeing this.

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This is Reverend DeVille.

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Reverend DeVille is just newly, just in the last couple of years, taken over this church.

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Reverend DeVille is an activist in his own right.

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He's a member of Operation Push and very active there and is very active in this, in this

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particular community here in renovating this community.

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Does he have a dream project?

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Yes, he has a day care center here as well.

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Okay.

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Oh, see, you, you got him right on time.

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You're the latest person in the world.

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I always said you was the fastest person.

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No, I said you're the slowest person.

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Well, listen, I got tired of Reverend Richard Williams.

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He was, he was, he was talking about his, his favorite topics, man.

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Talking about politics in Chicago.

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This is, this is a film to speak to the people about getting out to vote on Tuesday, how

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important it is to get out to vote, you know, not.

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You want to go in?

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Huh?

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You want to go inside?

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Should we go inside?

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Oh, yeah.

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I figured you had got time for somebody else.

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No, well, I'll be.

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This is good for your needs.

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Don't go, this is good for my needs.

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I ain't gonna get to the conference, man.

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Huh?

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I ain't gonna go to the conference, man.

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You saved me some time.

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I'm in trouble, huh?

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Meet up with Cozy.

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Oh my God.

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He has, he's got to do a feeding program on Tuesday.

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And I usually meet with him because I have a senior citizen program on, where is this?

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Where is it going to be?

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You're going to be at his church?

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Yeah.

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You're going to meet with him at his church?

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Uh-huh.

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Because, tell him I.

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Because I'll call you.

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You want to sit here?

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Wait, where do you want to sit?

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Reverend?

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Be here a little bit longer.

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Long time, yeah.

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Why don't we.

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Now Steve with.

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No, I think it.

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So what.

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Now, basically we want to, I want to know if I can have a few minutes on Sunday, about

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five minutes to come by and more or less ask that the people come out and to vote on Tuesday

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and also to find out from you if there are any special needs that you might have here

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in the neighborhood to.

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Are you going to be doing anything?

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Is there going to be a polling place here in your precinct?

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No, they won't have it here.

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They don't, they usually don't have it here.

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They have it over on the hostage.

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I would have no problem with it, but that is one of the things that I am definitely trying

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to do, tell the people to please get out.

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And that's something we really need to do into this community for some reasons.

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I don't know our, all of us has not really been pushing very hard.

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I see they put some signs all up outside over the weekend, but there's been no real publicity

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about the folding, no more than what I've been doing inside.

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And I've been giving out some brochures downstairs with the parents that's coming in and out

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for the kids.

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I have 102 kids here.

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So the parents.

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In the daycare center.

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Yeah.

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So the parents are in and out constantly all day.

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And Friday we are going to have a little program with them.

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I hope to have all of the parents present.

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And that's one of the things I want to push to them.

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The importance of this election.

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Right.

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It's important that we get out to vote in every election really, you know.

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Every election is very important because we look at the situation where over history,

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where many men's and women's has given up their blood.

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I mean, they have just given it up, not shared.

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They gave it up for our rights in order to vote.

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It's important that we do vote.

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And that's something that I really dwells on because we cannot do anything in our communities.

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Because most politicians look at numbers.

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Right.

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And when the numbers are not there, there's no need to really worry because it's not enough to hurt them.

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But when numbers began to climb, then they pay close attention.

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And we really need it in this community because this is one of the greatest communities that was in the city.

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It was the second best community in the city of Chicago.

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Now it has gone way down.

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And we've got to revitalize that.

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We've got to build it back up.

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Right.

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Okay.

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Is there anything that you need in doing your program to get the vote out?

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Is there anything that I can help you do?

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There's a lot you can help to do.

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You can help campaign the streets.

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We've been doing pretty good because most of the people here know that I've always been involved in politics.

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I came up in a family of politics almost.

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My whole family has always been involved in politics.

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And to me, it's always been a fascinating thing.

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And so I'm constantly preaching voting, not just during election time.

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I'm talking about it even during the off season of me voting because even during the time of our census was one of the things I really campaigned hard on trying to get the people to really make sure that when the census came around that they would fill out their forms and send it back because it was very important.

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You find that the lack of interest, as you say, is that carrying over into the mayoral campaign or is that just for the aldermen?

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I think it's basically just the aldermen and even some with the mayoral election because there's been so much confusion going out with the mayoral election.

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You know, one of the things we have hollered over the years of racism, and the more I look at it today, the more I would have to say that we are more racism than a whole lot of other nationalities

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because everything has to go our way and that's not life.

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Life has two sides.

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There's been some commotion.

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I don't think it's really generated a lot of heat, although it's generated some heat on me, about endorsing Mayor Daley over Joe Gardner.

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And I've known Joe Gardner for long, many, many years.

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We've worked together a lot.

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But I'm looking more at than just color.

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I'm looking at what the person has to offer.

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What's the program?

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The things that we need in our community.

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What are we going to be able to get?

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Not just to put someone in the office that say, well, he's black and he's in the office.

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It's more than that.

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And I know they compare that with Mayor Washington, but Mayor Washington had many things on the ball that I don't see today.

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He was a politician.

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He was an administrator and all of those things.

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And I don't quite see that in Joe.

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Joe's a beautiful person.

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But most of all, the work that Joe has done has been behind the scenes.

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He's not been out front and he's not that well known.

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And I just think Daley has done a good job.

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Mayor Daley has done a good job.

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And I know people are saying that he fired a lot of black people.

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But we have to understand when Washington became mayor, Washington fired a lot of people.

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They were black and white.

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He put his own people in.

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And if I were to become mayor, I'm sure I would do the same thing.

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Because I want people around me that I can work with, that I can trust, and that's going to do what I want done.

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Absolutely.

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And that's just, that's an ending job.

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Okay.

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Thank you, doctor.

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All right.

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Can I just ask you a quick question?

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You said you were getting some heat.

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What's been happening?

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Well, behind this last election, I'm the coordinator of the concerned clergy of the South Side.

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And the letters went out.

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I think my name is on there that states about the letter that we was endorsing Mayor Daley.

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And I've had a lot of calls.

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I've had Cliff Kellers try to get me to come on air.

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But I, well, at the time he called me, I was tied up.

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But I don't think he really wants me on air because I'm like this.

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They're saying that we are the leaders and we have let our people down.

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If I'm a leader, then don't try to tell me how to lead you.

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You just follow me.

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See, they want to tell us that we are leaders.

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And after they tell us we are leaders, they want to say, well, you are to lead this particular way.

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Well, that's not leadership.

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And the other part is those persons that's creating the problem with us are the same people that divided our community with Mayor Sawyer and Tim Evans.

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Those same people, those same people that is boosting now saying we want a black mayor,

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the same persons that endorsed Governor Edgar over Roland Burroughs.

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See, so that they inconsistent with their commitments.

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And I just can't follow a person of that nature.

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Do you think there are a lot of black voters in Chicago feel the way you do?

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Yes, there's a lot of black people that feel the same way because those persons, except for Joe, Joe has always been in the community.

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He's been a community worker.

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He's been a community organizer.

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But when you look at Luke Palmer, when you look at Cliff Keller, when you look at a lot of these other fellows,

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Roland Burroughs has not been in the black community other than the time that they need a vote.

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That is where the black people began to look more than just at the color.

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Because where were you at when I needed you?

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Roland Burroughs has been a state official for how many years?

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For quite some time.

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And all of those times that he was treasurer, he never was back in the black community.

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When he was a general general, he never really was in the community.

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He stopped by once in a while at his advantage and gone to buy his business.

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Well, we've had to have someone that's more consistent in what they're doing.

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And if I'm going to vote for Roland Burroughs for governor, I don't see why I would not have voted for him for mayor.

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If I'm going to push for him for mayor, I should have pushed for him for governor.

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What's the difference?

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He was black when he was running for governor, and he's black running for mayor.

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So what is the difference?

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If I'm going to pick a white man over the black man for governor,

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what's the difference between me picking a white man over a black man for the mayor?

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So it's inconsistent.

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Do people come and seek out your endorsement or your support as a minister?

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Yes, I've talked with quite a few politicians.

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Some I...those that I feel that I can work with,

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those that I feel that it's done a good job and it's going to do a good job, I have no problem with.

237
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Those that I feel that is not in the realm, I am very personal, whereas that you will never have to guess where I'm from.

238
00:15:01.020 --> 00:15:04.300
I will let you know that that's not my thing.

239
00:15:04.360 --> 00:15:07.360
In fact, I just had a person approach me Sunday night.

240
00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:11.180
I was at a visit in church, and they're running for an automatically seat.

241
00:15:11.180 --> 00:15:16.880
And I'm not even concerned about the one that's in there.

242
00:15:16.980 --> 00:15:19.760
In fact, it would not be my choice for that particular person.

243
00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:25.260
But I have to be honest with them and let them know, number one, they don't have a ghost of a chance.

244
00:15:25.980 --> 00:15:30.200
And number two, for me, just to put something out there, I don't know anything about them.

245
00:15:30.300 --> 00:15:35.200
You know, I would be lying, and I hate to just tell, mislead somebody, tell them,

246
00:15:35.640 --> 00:15:38.380
vote for this person because they're all right and I don't even know them.

247
00:15:38.380 --> 00:15:42.500
Usually I try to know something about the person that I'm going to back.

248
00:15:47.580 --> 00:15:55.860
Yes, in some cases, I tell them who I'm voting for.

249
00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:59.740
We have to understand when a person go behind the curtains, they're on their own.

250
00:16:00.380 --> 00:16:03.040
No one knows how you vote once you go behind the curtains.

251
00:16:03.620 --> 00:16:04.680
But let's put it this way.

252
00:16:04.680 --> 00:16:10.360
Most of the people, if you're not leading them down the wrong trails, they know what's going on.

253
00:16:10.940 --> 00:16:13.820
And many times they will follow their leader.

254
00:16:14.360 --> 00:16:15.760
They're dedicated to their leader.

255
00:16:15.800 --> 00:16:18.520
They're not the persons that's on the day and off tomorrow.

256
00:16:19.220 --> 00:16:20.520
They will follow their leader.

257
00:16:20.820 --> 00:16:31.020
And so far, I have not, I've tried to be honest with them because even, when was that, Sunday evening after service,

258
00:16:31.160 --> 00:16:34.060
we had a talk, some of the deacons, they wanted to talk with me.

259
00:16:34.060 --> 00:16:40.740
Because there was a letter came out with my church name that they're going to,

260
00:16:40.740 --> 00:16:49.160
that they're sending some of the deacon boards of the church's letters to recommend your pastor and hold your tithes.

261
00:16:49.380 --> 00:16:50.440
Those things are wrong.

262
00:16:50.460 --> 00:16:58.380
When we look at our streets today in our communities, the black church is the only thing that has kept our communities together.

263
00:16:58.740 --> 00:17:01.980
So in other words, it's the black preacher that has kept our community.

264
00:17:01.980 --> 00:17:06.100
And when someone on the outside write a letter to your church and tell your members,

265
00:17:06.860 --> 00:17:12.220
you ought to recommend your pastor and you ought to not pay your tithes and things of this nature, that's way off the bat.

266
00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:14.040
So my deacons were concerned about that.

267
00:17:14.040 --> 00:17:15.040
So we talked with them.

268
00:17:15.500 --> 00:17:21.240
So one of them said that, I don't see how they can say, Daly has not done a good job.

269
00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:23.320
He's reached out to the community.

270
00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:30.660
What we have to understand is many times our aldermen, and most times, and I'm sure Chuck can attest to that,

271
00:17:30.660 --> 00:17:33.960
the mayor tries to work with the aldermen because you have, how many aldermen?

272
00:17:34.340 --> 00:17:34.740
50?

273
00:17:35.040 --> 00:17:35.440
50.

274
00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:38.280
50 aldermen in the city and each one of them has a territory.

275
00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:44.260
The mayor's not just going to jump in their territory and do things without consulting with them.

276
00:17:44.500 --> 00:17:48.500
So what we have to understand, many times we don't get things in our communities because of our aldermen.

277
00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:52.320
It's not necessarily the mayor and it's not necessarily the races.

278
00:17:53.800 --> 00:17:56.020
So those things we have to look at and consider.

279
00:17:56.020 --> 00:18:00.380
So he was saying, I think Mayor Daly's done a pretty good job and I'm with you.

280
00:18:01.080 --> 00:18:04.920
And whatever they send, whatever letter they send out, I'm not going to be a part of it.

281
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:11.100
And he says, I want to, in fact, he says, if you ever go down and make a statement, I want to be with you.

282
00:18:11.760 --> 00:18:12.680
So these are the things.

283
00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:19.180
But there's a lot of churches that have received letters that they're trying to send them to the deacons, to the chairman of the deacon board.

284
00:18:19.560 --> 00:18:23.600
But in my situation in this church, all mail comes to my desk.

285
00:18:23.600 --> 00:18:25.340
No one opens any mail here.

286
00:18:26.320 --> 00:18:30.800
And whatever's in the mail, if it's a mail to the deacons, I will let them know and the faculty will give it to them.

287
00:18:31.600 --> 00:18:33.360
What does the letter say? It's not clear to you?

288
00:18:33.620 --> 00:18:36.420
Well, it's saying that they should not pay the tithes.

289
00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:36.880


290
00:18:37.380 --> 00:18:41.560
Because your mayor is misleading you.

291
00:18:42.460 --> 00:18:50.700
And one of the things that I really, really detest is the idea of them putting in the letter that your pastor is saying God told him

292
00:18:52.300 --> 00:18:54.180
to endorse Mayor Daley.

293
00:18:54.760 --> 00:18:56.120
That's not so.

294
00:18:56.800 --> 00:19:02.220
We endorse Daley from our own conviction, not from what God said.

295
00:19:02.860 --> 00:19:06.980
God is not basically that interested in politics where you're going to come and say, well, I want you to do this.

296
00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:07.700
I want you to do that.

297
00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:10.640
But God gives you a conscience.

298
00:19:10.840 --> 00:19:13.760
You have a sense of ability to do what is right.

299
00:19:13.780 --> 00:19:14.920
You have a responsibility.

300
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:17.980
What will you, if I need something in this community,

301
00:19:18.820 --> 00:19:22.620
I can call Chuck, who is our liaison person, to the mayor.

302
00:19:23.060 --> 00:19:24.700
Chuck, I need such and such a thing.

303
00:19:25.340 --> 00:19:26.140
And it's done.

304
00:19:27.260 --> 00:19:36.220
I'm not saying it would not happen with someone else, but this is the first time that we've really had access to the mayor's office without going through a lot of changes.

305
00:19:37.280 --> 00:19:40.620
I mean, even with Hale Washington, we had to go through changes.

306
00:19:41.740 --> 00:19:45.480
Because we had to go through this department, go through that department, this person, that person.

307
00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:49.240
And by the time you get there, you're disgusted.

308
00:19:50.200 --> 00:19:52.880
Now we have a different change.

309
00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:55.600
We have a change now, whereas I can call Chuck.

310
00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:58.620
Chuck, I need such and such a thing.

311
00:20:00.940 --> 00:20:02.860
And I need to meet, we need to meet with the mayor.

312
00:20:03.060 --> 00:20:04.300
And we've not had any problems.

313
00:20:04.360 --> 00:20:10.460
We have not had to go through all of these things, writing the letters and doing this and doing that, which I suppose is important.

314
00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:21.900
But if you can use me or want to use me with my parishioners and you want my endorsement, then somewhere down the line you have to open the doors for me.

315
00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:25.000
If I'm going to open my doors for you, then you open the doors for me.

316
00:20:25.020 --> 00:20:26.480
And this is what we have today.

317
00:20:28.100 --> 00:20:28.540
That's great.

318
00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:32.180
I think this is the way to go out of town.

319
00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:32.880
Yeah.

320
00:20:33.020 --> 00:20:33.480
Am I right?

321
00:20:33.580 --> 00:20:34.120
That's right.

322
00:20:48.620 --> 00:20:49.040
Chuck.

323
00:20:49.620 --> 00:20:50.000
Huh?

324
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:50.880
That was a pretty good visit.

325
00:20:51.420 --> 00:20:51.840
Yeah.

326
00:21:02.620 --> 00:21:07.620
Now it's interesting hearing what he's talking about, but there's a lot of likely you were talking about in the car about what...

327
00:21:07.620 --> 00:21:09.600
Well, it is the same.

328
00:21:10.500 --> 00:21:18.720
You're going to find that everybody that you talk to basically is, you know, they're going to be saying basically the same kinds of things.

329
00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:26.480
It's a matter of service and how sincere you are in taking care of these people.

330
00:21:28.120 --> 00:21:36.500
You can't just sit up in an office and think that everything is going to work out for you.

331
00:21:36.500 --> 00:21:38.280
You got to come out here.

332
00:21:38.700 --> 00:21:41.000
And these people don't want to see you just at election time.

333
00:21:41.560 --> 00:21:44.780
You got to be out here all of the time.

334
00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:49.860
I mean, I go to...I make it a habit.

335
00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:53.380
I stop at four or five churches almost every Sunday.

336
00:21:54.440 --> 00:21:58.040
You know, they want to see you when you don't need them.

337
00:22:00.760 --> 00:22:01.860
Not just the week before.

338
00:22:02.040 --> 00:22:02.720
Oh, no.

339
00:22:03.560 --> 00:22:07.880
Anybody who does that is out of the box automatically.

340
00:22:08.580 --> 00:22:12.640
This is a...politics is a 365 day a year business.

341
00:22:13.320 --> 00:22:18.100
It's not just for the short run on an election day.

342
00:22:19.360 --> 00:22:19.360


343
00:22:25.540 --> 00:22:32.700
Well, now, Reverend Evans, you know, to give you a little background, Reverend Evans is like the...

344
00:22:32.700 --> 00:22:33.720
How do you say it?

345
00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:41.940
He's kind of like the godfather of the ministers in Chicago.

346
00:22:42.080 --> 00:22:49.520
He is the...probably the most active political minister.

347
00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:59.020
And what makes his activity so, I guess, so pronounced is the fact that

348
00:22:59.020 --> 00:23:02.900
here's a guy who was in the civil rights movement with Dr. King.

349
00:23:03.320 --> 00:23:06.280
I mean, he led the civil rights movement here.

350
00:23:08.800 --> 00:23:14.860
He...when Operation Red Basket started, which was the predecessor of Operation Push,

351
00:23:15.660 --> 00:23:18.620
he was in the forefront of it.

352
00:23:18.840 --> 00:23:24.520
He, I think, is the chairman emeritus of Operation Push.

353
00:23:24.520 --> 00:23:35.360
He and Richard J. Daly went through a battle for him to build his church.

354
00:23:35.520 --> 00:23:44.420
I think it was four or five years that nothing he had to wait for permits and so forth in order to build his church.

355
00:23:44.420 --> 00:24:00.640
And yet he has become the strongest supporter of the mayor based on the fact just that he believes that the mayor is doing a good job.

356
00:24:01.800 --> 00:24:07.780
And he says whatever he wants to say when he wants to say it.

357
00:24:07.780 --> 00:24:14.040
Nobody that I know tries to stop him.

358
00:24:14.860 --> 00:24:21.880
And he has very frank conversations with the mayor about things that he thinks,

359
00:24:21.900 --> 00:24:26.680
but he's earned that right because he's given that kind of support to the mayor.

360
00:24:27.780 --> 00:24:32.620
And the mayor, you can see it when he comes in.

361
00:24:32.620 --> 00:24:41.240
Everybody knows that he is definitely a friend of the mayor's, and they treat him accordingly.

362
00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:47.820
And he is certainly a very good friend of mine.

363
00:24:49.100 --> 00:24:55.580
Now, I assume that as your position as the mayor's liaison with African Americans,

364
00:24:56.520 --> 00:24:59.440
that when one of your ministers comes to you and says,

365
00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:04.860
we really need to talk to the mayor about something, then it's your job to get them on the agenda, right?

366
00:25:05.240 --> 00:25:08.760
Well, that's what the whole process is about. It's about access.

367
00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:17.220
And one of the things that the mayor has done is he's opened up that avenue.

368
00:25:19.080 --> 00:25:28.160
And every people, Hispanics, blacks, Polish, everybody wants to have access to the mayor

369
00:25:28.160 --> 00:25:33.340
when they think that when they have a problem, they have a concern, they want to be able to say to somebody,

370
00:25:33.900 --> 00:25:37.360
hey, get me in. I need to talk to the mayor about this.

371
00:25:37.640 --> 00:25:41.080
And that's what the ministers do.

372
00:25:43.960 --> 00:25:49.740
And like I said before, we have some very big ministers in the city of Chicago.

373
00:25:50.180 --> 00:25:57.120
We've got guys with Bishop Brazier, can probably count 5,000 people at two services on Sunday.

374
00:25:57.120 --> 00:26:00.300
That's a lot of power, a lot of power.

375
00:26:02.060 --> 00:26:07.100
Now, you did something last week which was quite a coup for the mayor.

376
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:09.620
Just tell us very briefly what happened.

377
00:26:09.800 --> 00:26:14.420
We put on an endorsement session for the mayor last week,

378
00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:21.760
and we had about 150 ministers to come to an endorsement session for the mayor.

379
00:26:21.760 --> 00:26:28.480
And it was the same kind of thing that we've done in other elections.

380
00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:31.860
Well, only one other election for the mayor.

381
00:26:32.560 --> 00:26:41.660
But the ministers came together and they endorsed him by putting up the reasons they were endorsing the mayor,

382
00:26:42.340 --> 00:26:44.380
and several of them spoke and so forth.

383
00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:51.360
And it was a great cross-section of ministers that made that endorsement,

384
00:26:51.600 --> 00:26:58.420
not just big ministers, little ministers, not just Baptists, Methodists,

385
00:27:00.880 --> 00:27:04.780
and all other kinds, spiritualist ministers, across the board.

386
00:27:05.220 --> 00:27:07.320
And it was a great endorsement session.

387
00:27:07.560 --> 00:27:08.520
Can you interrupt for a second?

388
00:27:08.580 --> 00:27:08.860
Sure.

389
00:27:08.880 --> 00:27:10.700
It seems like I should go across the bandwagon.

390
00:27:10.900 --> 00:27:10.900


391
00:27:10.900 --> 00:27:11.900
He's the white-elder.

392
00:27:12.820 --> 00:27:15.100
He'll walk across the field in front of the glass.

393
00:27:15.100 --> 00:27:22.420
So we've got to go all the way down, across this light to the next light, to make a left turn.

394
00:27:22.900 --> 00:27:22.900


395
00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:24.820
So across this light to the next light.

396
00:27:25.040 --> 00:27:25.480
Yeah.

397
00:27:29.100 --> 00:27:31.940
We've got signs and buttons from 25 states now, Chuck.

398
00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:32.740
Is that right?

399
00:27:32.800 --> 00:27:33.160
Yep.

400
00:27:34.960 --> 00:27:35.960
It is a great area.

401
00:27:36.040 --> 00:27:36.800
You're a lucky man.

402
00:27:36.800 --> 00:27:38.120
Oh, yeah.

403
00:27:39.040 --> 00:27:40.840
No, my wife is a smart lady.

404
00:27:42.060 --> 00:27:50.520
My wife, she had been wanting to come back to the area there for a long time.

405
00:27:50.600 --> 00:27:53.800
We raised our children out in Marynook, which is out south.

406
00:27:54.860 --> 00:27:57.340
And it was a political decision for me.

407
00:27:57.460 --> 00:28:01.940
I would have lived in a matchbox to come back to the Second Ward.

408
00:28:04.880 --> 00:28:09.180
But she wanted to come back to that house.

409
00:28:09.660 --> 00:28:13.360
And we went down to South Commons and looked at a house.

410
00:28:13.700 --> 00:28:23.160
And a lady down there, she really got my wife out of the notion of buying a house there because she said to us, she says...

411
00:28:23.160 --> 00:28:23.800
Making a left here.

412
00:28:23.920 --> 00:28:24.740
Yeah, going to make a left.

413
00:28:25.080 --> 00:28:28.940
So they all, the ministers came out, they endorsed the mayor.

414
00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:29.580
Right.

415
00:28:29.580 --> 00:28:32.580
What kind of fallout was there when that happened?

416
00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:47.020
Well, the people who support the opposition, they cried foul because they felt that the ministers should not have endorsed the mayor.

417
00:28:47.020 --> 00:28:53.180
It is the largest institution we have in our community.

418
00:28:53.220 --> 00:29:02.240
And they felt that it was a kind of a blow to them to have their ministers to come out.

419
00:29:02.320 --> 00:29:09.980
Even the man where we're going now is the opposition's pastor.

420
00:29:09.980 --> 00:29:18.960
And they felt that as kind of a blow to them in doing that.

421
00:29:20.260 --> 00:29:23.060
I felt that it was the right thing to do.

422
00:29:23.220 --> 00:29:27.000
These men support the mayor and they have every right to support the mayor.

423
00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:30.920
And that's what they exercise that right.

424
00:29:31.240 --> 00:29:33.680
We can go over left if you want to.

425
00:29:34.560 --> 00:29:36.120
Here, we don't have to go all the way down to 40.

426
00:29:36.120 --> 00:29:46.400
So, but it was the kind of thing that you expect in an election time.

427
00:29:46.560 --> 00:29:52.100
I mean, they have a right to protest and to utilize it in any way they want to do it.

428
00:29:52.120 --> 00:30:01.120
If it had been me, I would have been trying to go out and organize my group and trying to...

429
00:30:01.120 --> 00:30:05.720
But I wouldn't have been talking about the ministers making their endorsement

430
00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:10.400
because every politician has to understand that the next right appears, next life.

431
00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:21.140
That there's another election coming behind this and you don't make enemies of pastors by talking about them.

432
00:30:21.400 --> 00:30:26.000
That's not the way to say everybody's got a right and you move on.

