Philadelphia City Comissioner Omar Sabir talks voting rights, voter suppression, elections, and more

What's up. The artist is Doug E. Fresh and you're watching and we talk weekly. You're listening right here. We talked weeklies after they're talking w P P m P Philadelphia one O six point five film. We talked weeklies after We talk with your boy Charles Gregory and Beautiful Classic Ladies, Beautiful Law and the Beautiful And we are here with another segment, one of the segments that I I love because I get a chance to talk to the good old folks. And it just happened that this young man, this young fella happens. To be someone I go a little way back. You know. We talk about like Boston Bake Things, Mike and Night, Alexander, the Greggs, Lemon Lemonheads, Chico Sticks, Bazukah Gum. You had you went back, no doubt, no doubt. That was when it was Pennycanny Candy. We don't have no more Penny Candy. So but yeah, whatout further do Classic Lady? Who do we have to day? Who do we have to date? Today? We have the Philadelphia City Commissioner, Omar Saber. It's a nationally he's a nationally recognized civic leader focused on increasing voter participation, combating voter suppression, and engaging historically underserved communities through grassroots organizations and education. You already know what to do. Let's give a warm we talk weekly. Welcome to Omar Sebia. My brother, how are you? How are you? This camera? Don this camera, dinad? Yeah, let's get this camera there, this camera, this this something for me. Let's let's fix this up. You're gonna make sure they'll be streaming right. Boom, there we go, heylive and direct. So how are you, my friend? How are you? Let's fix his mic, Let's get his Michael little closer to him. Let me give Mike check it in. Yeah, here we go. I got the Sam good and good as go, good as gold. So what's up, my friend? How are you? How's your day? You know, we all we start with how would your day? And all that good old stuff. Now they was great, man, you know, a very long day, you know, start off uh, you know, talking to booters, talking family and friends. Everything. They don't starts early like seven thirty. Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt, go birds birds for them that. Hopefully, Yeah they do. They think Jayalen hurts man. It's like he's gonna do it. Yeah, he's gonna do his thing. Yeah, I'm I'm yeah, I'm convinced. And all of them. I know he's gonna be there. Oh man, you hear you heard about uh the restaurant that you know turned to uh the forty nine is away. We're like, no, we're good. Yeah, yeah they should yeah they should, right, they vert the last time they came in. All right, they're gonna put a whole h forty Jersey rock. Yeah he was tripp I can't do that right, he was tripping. But you know, just seeing everything was going on, you know, righting around the city, you know, they kind of calmed down. But the one thing I didn't know what I was a little bit oblivious to. You know, Eagles fans all across the country, they be flying over here to watch the game. Stuff. I'm like, yeah, old person, okay. But they said, I'm like, where you from. I'm from like California. Like I'm even saying I'm like, yo, like did you have to live here? And they're like no, I just like I like, but then I'm thinking about it again, like hurts me good for a long, Like so you do got like fans from like all over the country. It's like, that's that's good. And he's he seems to general I never met him, but he seems to generally be a good guy. Yeah. Yeah, that's why I don't like him. You know, like they like a lot of people that be in all that. He don't be in all. He don't be about his business man, get out. Of no dern oning, no nothing. He ain't in the middle or nothing. They don't like that. That's why they don't like him. That's right, that's right. So you know where you know, we're going to jump right into it. Man, you've been doing I want to give you your flowers because you've been doing an excellent job since you've been the commissioner in innovating and some of the things that you have been putting and played for not only the voters but giving people jobs, which has been amazing. And I want to know what when you came in, did you have, say, for example, an agenda, something that you knew that you were going to do, or did it happen as you were in the space and was like I'm seeing there some you know, some pain points there I need to fix. What was that? Oh? So when I first was thinking about, you know, being in office, you got to listen support from everybody. Yeah, And one of the people I spoke to was at the time, she was a council member. She was a war leader since Mayor Scharon Parker, like and I want to need to support She said, Baby, why don't you think about three things you want to do? Just three? Cut it off down and those three things making an office more accessible, transparent and modernized, making it easier for people to vote, you know, updating some of the systems, and you know, just making it like an office that people can see, touch and feel. And I think we accomplished those things. I think you did one hundred percent of around the clause and I think you actually did. I think you did. And you continue to make like even voting more accessible. You know, I think that that has been a challenge. Sometimes people didn't know where they can vote. I think you were a huge advocate or just giving information on location, where. To vote and how. In addition to like even some of the returning citizens, you spoke a little bit about that where. Some of them didn't even know that they were able. To vote, right, which was huge to get that information out there. What is knowing what you know now, right, is there anything that you would have done differently? Yeah, you came in or you feel like you still want a trajectory of doing greatness pretty much in a position. Well, it was just. A lot of things that like, you know that came under my way where it was like, you know, I really wasn't supposed to be a commissioner. I was supposed to be in traffic court. Went for traffic court game in the first place, we won, and then right soon as we won, they eliminated office office. Yeah, okay, so I spent six years another bench of Hughes and you know, makingte easy for him on the state level. And then you know, we went down the commissioner's office and it was interesting, like you know, it was the office was a certain way, but it's your things that opened up, right, you know, when President Trump has said bad things happened. In Philadelphia, I had to opened up the floodgates. So it was a lot of hate, death, There's a lot of stuff that It's also it was a ground swell love. It was a ground swell of funding. And then with the COVID pandemic, you know, it was like it just was it was like as like a storm, and you know, through those things we got those reforms are coming. They wouldn't have came if everything was is normal. For those listening, what is the duties or job description for the Philadelphia City of Commission. Okay, so there's three commissioners. It's a member of bipartisan board, which I serve as the chairperson of the board. I'm the second African American chair of the board. It's been established in seventeen eleven. So there's two Democrats, one Republican. And so we were actually established first for anything. There were county commissioners who were overseeing everything in the city because Philadelphia is a county and a city. So all of this. We say we we say we are state of absolute we say everything. State right, first class city, the largest and that's we have a fa million registered voters. And you know, we were here first. And what happened was all of our city, all of our neighborhood used to be townships. So we used to be like Frankfurt saying all those areas was small, like little township underneath Philadelphia County. And then it got to the point where they said, you know what we need to have more revenue. People wasn't paying the taxes, and so you had your commissioners and then they merged everything. It was great consolidation. So they put all the neighborhoods underneath one city and then you had one city, and you know, they started moving some of the duties from the county to city council and the mayors. So everything kind of ended up in its current form in about nineteen fifty one where we redid the your Home Charter and our main function was overseeing the elections and the voter registration rules. So it's two components. One is overseeing elections and the other is maintaining the voter registration lists. And it's very critical that you have an independent body doing that because if you don't, what happens is you have people getting taken off the voter registration rolls and you know, people are not gonna have the. Right to vote. And then also the voter registration roles served as the pool that you pull the people to serve on jewelry duty, so you pull the in front of voter registration rolls, and so if you got people purging that list and not having the people on it, you're not gonna have good people serving jewelry. That's why a lot of people in the South was really focusing on getting people registered or was to vote. But then also you wanted to have people serving on jewelry duty because sometimes you know, like being a younger person looking at the history books, sometimes right, it's like how the heck on world somebody walking to somebody shoot somebody in the middle on the street and didn't get found not guilty. It was because you didn't have good people that were serving on jewelry duties. They was stopping up from being on the jewelry rules. So it's important that if you vote right, you'd be a part of the system, but you also serve on jewelry. Nobody wants to do that. Yeah, I'm gonna just push back, not because I believe that I believe that you should be on jewelry, but I think what you know from the things that I hear, you know from the community, is how. This organized it is. You know, they go down there, it takes forever to get their check sometime, or what can they do when they have an emergency and you know they have to leave. Why do they have to stay so long? I hear all types of stuff. And it's like, because I had a conversation with this this gentleman who you know, literally was fuming after he left, came the work and was like, I can't believe how it was crazy down there. I'm trying to perform a service and they giving me they but the kiss, and how can they? So how can you understanding that in the frustrations of the people and inhering inhering, you know, because you don't need take one person to tell fifty people for fifty people to be like, I ain't doing that, you know. So how do you you know, work with the organizers of safe example, Jewelry Duty to say, hey, there's some pain points here we need to fix. Let's fix them. And who was in charge of stuff like that? Well, it's so it's a jury commissioner. So that falls underneath the first your district district. But it all gets down to like what your belief is. To be honest with you, if you really truly believe that you are an American citizen and that's your duty to go down there and serve on jewelry duty, then you won't do it. And the fact of the matter is, we don't do it. So at the end of the day, it's like you don't do it, but then you don't tru justice. Right when a cop, some law enforced officers, they get off. Sometimes you don't. You ain't stick it out, you ain't go through anything. Or there could be some innocent people that's getting sent up state. It's a jury appears, so it's your duty. You have to look at it as your duty. And to his point, there are I don't want to I don't want to get into, like you know, different races. But there are certain races, like you said, the person that's saying like I. Have such a bad experience, like you know, I'm not going down there, and I don't want to do this and that and the other. There's the our counterparts that are like I'm going down there, this is my civic duty, and I'm doing this and any other. And they're sitting on a jewelry that it is, you know, it's not representative of their peers, and they're making the decisions and we are not one thing. But one thing I want to add to that is when people are stuck between which type of jury they want to be, what happens when it's your turn, and you need a jury of people ative in your community. And so if you think about it like that, it's just your turn to do a good duty, a good deed, or good service to somebody else. And pray that your turn on your family turns never comes around. But please at least show up for the common good. Exactly. I have a different outlook on the jury though. I feel as though that some people who are in that position to make a life of deaths decision for some people are not always the competent people that are. In those roles. These are some people. I'm not just talking about education. I'm talking about morality. Like I just I've served on jury, and it seems like every time I try to get off, I'll say the outlandish thing and I'm still chosen, which is okay, you know, because I don't know. I just think that they look at my Yeah, they look at my background, and I don't know, but Philly, it's happened, and I'm like, I'm overserving. But hey, it's my duty and I appreciate it. However, when I look at the people that are sitting on that road with me, and when we go back, we're deliberating and we're going. Over the cases. There are some people in here I'm ready to go. I'm just going to put them as guilty. I'm like, we didn't even talk about the facts. They just want to be out. So sometimes I'm just like, I don't know. I know that this has been in law. For a very long time, but sometimes the people who are deciding are not always favorable. In my opinion, just from someone who has done it by experience nothing, I heard things that I saw and I've served more than three times. Well, I mean again, it's just like, you know, if but everything worked out good because you was there. Right, No, no, I'm saying, but you because I don't have sense to the room. Right, Oh yeah, I definitely advocated. I understand that. Yeah if I was, Yeah. Right, I just think about it if you wasn't and there was another person there whatever else was doing, And think about it. If you've got twelve people really of your peer that's just like you that can hear, you know, from the law enforcement, that can hear from the you know, uh, the defense and sort of way up and see exactly what's going on. I mean, you know, sometimes law enforcement officers do live. You need somebody there with some common sense and say, you know what, I understand that. I just think that with someone who's like you, look at Corporate America sometimes to do certain organizations and you have to take. An aptitude test, I think that there needs. To be something added to giving that civic duty to see if this person is competent, even if I'm there or not. I'm just saying, like, there's so many laws that haven't been changed. We're looking, we're talking about AI, We're talking about so many things that they're starting to change the law. The Trump administration is even doing that. There are certain things and it's going to come in time, But even in this conversation it may have not been talked about. So now someone can listen to this and be like, hey, that's a good point. Let's go ahead and start looking at that. Well. As an attorney, there's a strategy to jury picking. Right, Yes, but it does not factor what she's talking about. I agree with you because I'm in the courthouse every day and I'm here in cases I'm interacting with politigans. I'm here, I'm giving them free range to speak and tell their stories, and I'm getting to engauge and assess their mental ability and capacity, and largely it is very limited, very subpart very below which should be. Normal and acceptable. So when you put these kind of minds, like you said, on a jury trial where there's murder or somebody's facing a long sentence, people should be concerned. I absolutely agree with you. But there is no aspect of area a lot that challenges or test people's aptitude. Shouldn't that be considered in the future, I would hope so, because the stakes are so large, what that's gonna call us, How long that's gonna take. That's a whole nother argument, So we may never see that. But you're absolutely right, Okay. No, I just want to hear to speak as an attorney, like because if she's you know, picking jury and you know, questioning and and you know, cross examination. All two other things that I want to give some pushback on or just kind of bring the other side home. Charter right, people don't understand that, right, And I feel that there needs to be some more information or that needs to be amplified a little more prior to you know, elections, right, prior to to give them some kind of you know, position of research that they can even look up or understand some of this stuff. But if we're talking about a full community, some people don't even understand the language that's in the home work Charter, right, and so how you want to explain it? Sure, so we're governing. That's basically the constitution of Philadelphia. So you have a homework charter in Philadelphia. You got the state constitution that you've got the United States constitutions, and they sort of look at basic laws. But they're all pretty much like the same thing. They just be small, a little different stuff in small, little different rules it is. And so sometimes it's that little that last question that. You see right right, So you're talking about bolid questions. So every every election, you know, it's like a referendum where we ask the citizens, you know, should we change this, should we sit and change this? It takes approval by the people. So you, as the people, you look at these questions and you have to really, you know, answer them. Now, most people answer yes. That's just just because the mentality. They just like to press yes inside of a question. So but we'll see, I mean, you know, I do think it needs to be more education. Again. I think it's like, you know, what we have to dictate what we want to learn inside schools and get these platforms so critical and so important that we can sort of look at these issues and sort of talk about it to people. But that's the way how it was, like, you know in previous year, you know, where people really just have serious conversations about civics. Now a lot of like media is now focusing on a lot of national news, so everything is really going towards that because national is the ones to spend all the money. So we're seeing newsrooms being shrinked so they don't really talk about it. But I still think it's a good opportunity for us. To have these conversations absolutely and be creative about as we're talking about them. Yeah, oh no, I was just go ahead, mister chairman, speaking about civic duties in voter education. You know, I just went through a campaign, and a lot of what I'm hearing about is that people who are in third grade up to eighteen, twenty one, twenty four, they're not getting the same in school education that we used to get when we had the video I'm just a bill. I had our local elections and things like that. Do you know if any efforts that are in schools are preparing to be in school so we can get back on track. So there is, but there's also like another component too, where we don't really teach. Stuff at home. Yeah, absolutely right, Yeah. Sometimes we have fairlyst teachers. Like I remember being inside school, our teachers like, you know what, we got sold studies book, we got this history. We're not gonna learn nothing from this book right here. And I just remember our teacher just being so radical, just giving us all kind of stuff. I'm like, and it's like now it's like the teachers now they don't really do that. But it's all right though, right because we can still you know, influence these schools any else, Like principal im not going to tell you no, you can't come in and like do mentorship program stuff like that or at the school programs. They're not gonna tell you though, And you know, we don't show up to these you know, home and school associations. Like a lot of things. Like when you really look at that stuff, like we are really giving up our responsibility. And I was just like I was sitting with my kids, I was like, all right, cool. So now you know Different World is on Netflix, Like ever, we gonna watch that world, like watch it, like this is really like what it's like. They was like, man, what what you got me? Just watch the first one, so let's get to the first one. And then they started to getting like the second third one, like the budgeting, that money with Ley all that. Stuff, like it was like and it was less and it was. Lessons that I was thinking about like that when I was younger people. But now I'm coming back, I'm catching it like oh wow, and you know, so it's stay at a disadvantage. But again it's like this, this is all things. We gotta know what everybody's up against. And then still use our platform, still talk and still just had meaningful conversations. We had Thanksgiving, we had Eastern and we had rama down. We really got time with our family. We got to talk to people and say, hey, man, what's what's going on with you? And sometimes we back up like, oh, I can't talk to them no more. They they ended out, they send their phone. No, they don't give me that phone. Real quick, we're gonna put you on the side. Put the side, We're gonna have a conversation. We look at each other, we're gonna have this conversation and we just got to give it to them. Just give it to them, and then once they got it, they're gonna be able to challenge. But here in school, my mom told me that and my dad told me that. My dad told me that was a lot of So when you're going to school, it's like oh because even like me being younger, it was like an understand up for the plays. No challenge, it got in trouble, all that kind of stuff, but ask questions, well, like don't be just up there. And I think now it's just kind of like everybody was just going along to get along, were working with this we that we ain't even got time to really think about it. Yeah. I think if schools were to formulated where you have a mayor, you have a council person, you have to vote. I mean they do vote like the prime queen the best like they do. They got they got social studies. I mean we visit the schools. We visited. You visit every every high school in the city. Were gonna visit it like we visit them. They do the elections, you know, we bring like the voting machines out, you know. Now the top tier schools they more involved than other ones. And they have like mayors of the class. Yeah, and I think right now, I'll be I'll keep it a being with you. It's the top schools like. Mastermins because now even with voter turnout, which wards were in a more higher turnout than other wards, don't they have that information? They do? Right? But what's interesting about the high schools though? Right Dobbins got the I just got the Governor's Award. Nice. I was like, yeah, they got a nice program at Dobbins where. They gentleman forgot he came to the show, was talking about how they. Got the governors. They actually because you got some high schools that are eighteen and the seventeen they can service for workers. They you know, it's pretty good. I remember that. So go ahead. You wanted to before I jumping. Oh no, I was just going to say, you know, the general primary election coming up, and. Let me go for a back. So he said A number one area right, oh it Chester Hill. Of course there it is, so Chester Hill. And then right next to it is uh Money area right that same then it's like Rocksboro all up. They're right there over bro Winfield. And then they came down like the Senate City, like South Philly, top two parts of Philly, Frankfurt all areas that you don't want to live at. That's what I'm saying. Like we talk about jewelry, duty vote all of that. It's just a mindset that you want to just be a better citizen. So I heard that the Northeast was an up and coming, but the further part of Northeast, like where all Republicans are at. Republicans vote at a higher level. They vote like the vote because it's not it's it's not that many of them, so they know that they got to turn out to get certain things done, so they vote at a higher level of Democrats. Interesting, So I know you wanted to ask about uh. I think he had a primary, But I think my question will be easily to transition into that because that will be my last kind of. Not necessarily about that specifically. Okay, So this is the question that I have right that I feel needs some type of change, And that's the closed primary because since we are what we just state, that's. Closed primary, right, we're the only ones dislike that. Know, So how could that change? Because if someone is saying like they don't necessarily agree with safe for example, something that you know, maybe the Democrats doing, but they like what the Green Party is doing and they want to vote, but they can't like how how is there any conversation based around any type of change with the idea of close primaries. So there's only one election, right right, technically right, okay, and that's in November. The primary is when you pick your parties. So you bike that decision and said, okay, who's. Going to run in November? And you know you vote now. If you're saying that you want to allow people to vote in your own prime, your own party's election that don't pay the dues, welcome to it. Anybody up the street could walk in and don't pay no dues and then they can vote inside of your primary. Mm hmm. It's like, I think that's fair interesting, Like you. Know what I'm saying to do it because you think about because committee people they do work all year long. Yeah, they don't just show up on election day. Those committee people, those worldly that they work hard all your long. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, you know, if I'm contributing to this party with the time, they money, the efforts they have somebody that's not a part of that party to make a decision on who that nominee is going to be for you know that that candidate Like just imagine if you're like a Democratic primary, like on the presidential sign and you're trying to pick out who you want between President Barack Obama and whoever else, all the Democrats, then a bunch of Republicans walk in and say, we want you to pick this person. Yeah, and I hear you. I think that's what that's what that's the theory of the open primary is now the way I said other people saying, well people were independents, they be able to get involved in whatever primary. Yeah, and it's like yeah, but you're still not putting the work in. So that's why it's like it's closed off to your particular primary. I got you. I got you because I think of like the mayor of New York now, all right, that you have clearly, I mean, he's liked across the board, right and for the most part, you know, uh so for the most part. Right, but you but. Certain people, I mean, if if if it was a closed primary, you couldn't vote for somebody who you think would be beneficial for the community. If if that's what you're fighting for. You can change it. You can change registration. It takes like five minutes to do that. And you said, okay, look, I like the Democrats like what he's saying. I like a Republican, I like what they're saying. Just change you know, your registration and then you're a part of that party and you voting that primary, and you can vote in that primary. Then after that you want to change it, you can change it. Is that simple. Yeah, it takes like fire. There you go, ladies and gentlemen's that's but just take five minutes, go ahead our website. And vote for change the registration. Vote we get changed. You want to change it back, change it back. But I mean, you know so, I mean it's it would take a legislative change up in Harrisburg for people to do that. We'll see. I mean, you know, I think they got open primaries like California, Field states. I mean, you've still seen Democrats and Republicans it was at the same ratio. But I think if you did have open primaries, what you would have is you you would have less influenced from African Americans because most independents are white. M hm, so you'll you have them involved in your Democratic primary. So just for the contexts, it's like six hundred thousand Democrats, one hundred thousand Republicans, and like one hundred thousand independents. It's kind of like a makeup divorn rules that's like nine to seven, so it's like a million. It was like oven and then it's like one fifty or whatever. Interesting, So let's just say you had democratic primary. Independence can get into Let's just say the last mayor race, right, So you had Mayor Parker and you got Helen Kim, you got Allen dumb. Breckon, Ryan Hart. You guys people don't look like us, and depending could come in and say, oh no, you ain't gonna have no black woman. Man, you're gonna add this one. They gonna make the decisions. So that's how we kind of would play out. Interesting. Speaking of mayor, would you in the future ever consider running from mayor for city Philadelphia? Job? Hard job? Thank you? No answer that I would consider it, but I don't have to. Looking with Parker going through, it's like, wow, man's and you know, I saw like may and Kenny do what I saw another than I'm doing this is like she really like cares and she's really doing her job. And so one thing that counts with Jones always told him was like, being in politics is easy if you don't care. He cares the hardest. Yeah, that's Parker Man. She like, politics is easy if you don't care, if you care about people. Yeah, Governor of Josh Shapiro just announced that he is going to run for a second term. What's your thoughts on that he should win? He should win? He's thinking about becoming president. M h. It's like, I don't know. I mean, you know, my. Personal opinion about it all is just like I know people got ambitionous, but just focus on what you're doing right now master that people say, don't. Yeah, I think he. Would make a fine president, don't you know. But I still think it's just like just for me and my personal thing. It's like leverage, ob you got just knock it off. Yeah, I mean, and do it well. But again, I know, running president that's not another one. It's not easy. It's not easy. When someone tells you their vote doesn't matter, what would you say to them. I'd like to ask them, like, like why do you feel that way because you said that your vote don't matter? What's really saying is that you don't matter right to say something like that, And it's a self esteem thing running deep down inside of you, saying that you're insignificant. You don't mean anything like That's what it all boils down to. That ain'ts having on jewelry duty and or nothing. Look, cops, is doing this whatever, whatever any problem that you have in your community, you're passing off the bucket allow other people to do it. And that's the fundamental problem we have in our community. We keep passing off responsibility to do things. Allow people to feed us, a lot of people educate our children, We a lot of people do all these different things that we say that we care about and keep on passing about, and that level of responsibility. We have to believe that we have to do it. So, you know, most of the times when they say things like that, I just act like, you know, why why you think like that? I pull back some layers and then when I'll come back down to it, it's really just like, you know, man, my life is not doing well, so I don't really come on man like and my thing is well, if it's just bad, right, you need to participate the way you can get more because normally when things are going bad, that lower level normally jumps up. And so it's like man went and gave up, and it's like, no, we don't give it no more. We're won't fight back. We won't, we won't, We're gonna turn this around. Yeah, when you think of the roots of that statement, you know, even when there was a point where you know, there was a fight to vote and and and think of where we are now, Like is that just a catchphrase or was there something more sent stare behind it? Well, when you think about it, I mean that was more or less unlying love. So write those people that was in there, those hard conditions right when you go down to rural south right because and then it was like when you visit down there, because I was blessed men to visit down there, right, go down the summer every year and just like looking at those conditions, Like it's when I tell people, like how it is down there, A lot of times we can't relate to it. Right when you go down there, there's still people walking around with those you know, the chain gangs and black and white uniforms. They still walk around in them, and they still be like working at like regular jobs at like Walmart, or they'll be restaurants and they do like this community service thing or whatever. And they worked there and i mean, like, Yo, what what the heck is this? You see that person out there. They're like, oh, yeah, that's that's Jimmy. Yeah he likes it, you know. I'm like, Jimmy prisoner. Yes, he walks around so like different like so they is easier for him. They cut his time back, but he actually works in different works with that. With the whole get up on, I'm like, what is this Jacksissippi. I'm like, what what's going on? And they're just like, nah, it's just how it is there. Everybody was nice in hospital, but I was still kind of like the way we do things. I was just like, Okay, it's interesting. So that's just like like one component. But when I went to the museum down there, because they keep they kept all stuff from civil rights movement, they well, this is in Mississippi, Mississippi, Jack, but they all close. Everything is only like a two three hour drive this way. You get to Atlanta, you get to the whole sort of region. You had everything, you had a significant number African Americans, but they was just fraid because they got, you know, all the threats their lives, was taking all other kind of stuff. So they was living inside of this bubble for a long time, and so they wanted to step up. They was, and people from came down snacks and I'm saying, man, you know what what's going on down there? It was a nice, beautiful merge. We had young people that had futures that came down there at risk. Everything said, you know what, We're not gonna keep living like this, and the reason why we're not going to love like this? Right, It was a certain amount of love. And that love came from everyday workers all the way up to stop celebrities. Wow. So even when you said, okay, look we doing this thing, it was everybody involved in it. And if you wasn't involved in it, you wasn't you know what I'm saying, You couldn't sit on the sidelines. So think about like jay Z, Beyonce, all of them all in tune, everything that you're doing, office a bus port, bella fi say, all of them, they will come and do concerts, they will come do all kinds of stuff like, oh no, y'all doing y'all doing that? Cool we're gonna buy youall shoes. We won't do this. So even in the music, the lyrics they saying, it's in supportive of everything that you're doing. So that was everybody working together. It was a love said Okay, look, future won't be better, and this is where we're not in tune. It's like the unity. It's not money, is not all these different things that we're chasing. It's if everybody's on the same page to say, Okay, you know what we want, a better condition than what the future asks. That's when you're going to see the results. I mean every day, right, ah, I can't even you realize what you don't know. The more every day you go and the more information you get, you get information that. You know you don't know. That's crazy because I never knew. Shout out, shout out to them, damn it. Wow, Wow, I appreciate you just just enlightening us with that information because I always I mean, we Philly is in our own bubble, right, I mean, we call ourselves state, right, we're the biggest city, state area. We will consider ourselves a country if we need to, right Philly against everybody, right, Philly versus everyone but a lot of us are stuck in our little bubbles, you know. You know, I say that Philly got our own kind of like you know, our our synergy, our environment, and our create our creative spirit and juices and even like our Islamic community, like Philly has its own little thing, right. But you know, when someone come to Phillies like like whoa like I just found out that it's people that fly that they. Super ego fans will flying to Philly. I'm I know you like, so it's something that they're getting, right, But it's interesting to see that, you know, these these little areas has their own kind of like, these are our morals, values, This is what we believe in, and this is how we move. This is what we eat, you know, because even you know, the menu is different right there, the way that they eat is different. So I think that if we focus more on. Just expanding each other's like culture environments, I think will be be better and making a move to something. You know. So so I encourage everyone to reach out to We talk weekly, like let us know what you're doing, like follow subscribe, let us know what's going on in your area and your city, your state. You know, if your city is like you know your state, you know, let us know, like Philly, this is what we do, but reach out to us. But no, go ahead, I just I did have one more question. So I'm preparing to and I'm just saying this hypothetically. I'm preparing to, you know, get ready to vote in this next election. What would be your recommendation for me to prepare to vote, like, you know, as far as like doing my research, like what are some things you would recommend? And so I'm not just going blindly. In the then the ballot booth and and somebody's handing me your paper and say here, vote for this person that person, Like what do you recommend recommend? The Internet? Internet has everything, right, Internet has everything that go to our website and vote that I fill a dot gov and so it's the candidates. I sort of file a lot of people saying I want to run for this, run for that. You gotta wait through filing papers. And once you file on papers, we're gonna have everybody names on there and you literally can go to everybody website and then what happens is you start asking questions talking to people. Right, you know what I used to do and I will always look, you know, to see if I would support somebody's if I saw they had their campaign signs inside of my neighborhood, that at least show me that you at least came to my neighborhood. Like all right, you you came here. I' let men see what you're talking about, and then you know, we sort to do your research. Talk to people. Ask people that's involved in politics that you know it's not politics, Say it's personal, right, I mean, like, all right, if you see people is running for judge, okay, attorney, what's going on? Man? The person they run around for judge? They got a reputation, and that's sort of how you come back and say, okay, you know, elect this person. If they're visiting your church, they're visiting your mass shit. You know, all right, you give them that, you know, you go for it, But it's bigger than just who you voting for though, the kids that you are voting, because what happens is the policy makers. No, okay, you vote in this area, all right, they can get resources, they gonna get accountability because this area of votes, that's sort of what you get for. And then if you're like nothing in the candidates, you can just vote on the bolo quests and say yes or no. But don't never have at a point in time where you just take elections off. You take elections off, you look at that area and so, okay, the area they don't vote, Okay, you know what, We're gonna put elequors still there. We're gonna put gambling there. We wanna put whatever people don't want, we wanna do it there because those people don't come up to vote. And there's certain things you can do in areas that don't vote the other areas, like just now, because're gonna ask you questions, they're gonna figure it out out, they're gonna say, oh no, no, what's happening. So you want to just encourage just to behavior just voting. Right, then you do your research, but don't just stop there. Right If you got somebody that you like, you start advocating for that person, because a lot of people are not going to take the time to do the research. You don't want to get stuck and say. I don't know who to vote for and they don't vote, right. Because it's like a sixty chance that people don't vote when they don't know who to vote for. So they got to be somebody they know, they trust their respect to say, you know what, I want you to vote, but I also want you to vote for this person. So it's just an advocacy, you know something. Advocacy. I mean, it's almost what I'm gonna say, it's like a game. But it's like, you know, it's kind of interesting. It's fun to having people involved and everything. Yeah, every six months, like so what you do want you to do this? And I like I like that you pointed out like that the areas that don't vote because people don't know that when you don't vote, no resources go to that area. I tell you look at them that. Well, I tell y'all, now, even when y'all drive around, just think about every area that you don't like about. It, and that's the area that's not gonna vote. Right. You might say, okay, cool, all right, let's get let's look getting a little bit deeper. Right. If you walk on a block, right, any house that you see that's up and nice, more than likely those people vote, even. If it's a bad neighborhood. Like when you look at it, it's like, oh no, this area. You start walking through each block, it'd be like Yo, well man, let's try nice. The supervots they vote every time you check go do they do joy? Dude, yep, they do? Do they do all these different things. So again it's the mind shift that we gotta think about, because that's just being better citizens. This is the whole kit kaboodle. We don't just want to isolate just voting because when you put it on one issue, policies do something you don't like. I guess what. That's why I'm no, it's not everything, man. It's voting, it's keeping up your neighborhood clean, it's business, making sure your school is like everything in this area. We gotta look at to see how we fix it because you look at areas that were bad. How did they fix these areas up? We gotta have you back. We gotta have you any time. So I'm gonna get your accent as soon as let me. Let me just do the sound check and then we have the uh this I D and then we have to close out. On the radio. This is we talk weeklies after the Talk on w p P m l P. Philadelphia Want on six point five film, we talked weeklies after the Talk with your boy Charles Gergen. Beautiful Classic Ladies and Beautiful and the beautiful Tenisa, Henry and. My guy no doubt. So how can you en everyone get in contact with you, find you and all like little stuff real quill. So for our website, I mean vote bote dot Phila dot gov, vote dot Phila dot gov, Google search with Omar, Instagram, Omarphilia. We're here, We're here, reach out to. Us, no doubt. All right, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. We talked weekly after the talk on w PPM. You Philadelphia, want to six point five of film. Make sure that you stay tuned in and make sure that you stayed locked. If you have any questions for us, make sure that you reach out, make sure you like and subscribe, and if you want to donate, you already no dollar sign. We talk weekly, but thanks for tuning in and we'll see you on the other side. Piece last question I had we were talking about AI. Artificial intelligence is artificial intelligence as it has any impact in. The voting world, good or bad. Something that you guys utilize now that makes the jobs easier in regards to like, you know, getting the word out to people or or no, no, what's your thoughts on the artificial intelligence AI. What's your thoughts. You think it's bad? Will they got these. Robots they making and they just did it and it's uh just uh it was us in sixty minutes. They got these robots. Toy about five eight about one hundred and seventy pounds that she used to marry a thing. They're going to close down the whole factory. The car makers who they try to bring them to the country. It was already gett assisted with little. They got these robots like robot want everything. It's at the grocery store when you check yourself out, that's that's a yeah. The cruise is everything like the things you might have thought that AI robots would never take. And you always say, oh man, I could cut here, I could do this, I could do that. They're gonna have brains. They got it. So you don't think it has any impact on voter. You know, in the voting world as far as like even with the voting, the computers that that have to tally up the votes. Everything is offline kind of everything is kind of old and archaic voting. Because when you're going to voting boots now. No, no, no, it's computer stuff like that, but it's not connected to like the Internet. It's our own safe, secure sort of system. A lot of stuff is. Like it's not it just moves like and you don't think. Because it's those outside factors. You don't want to get that stuff in jeopardy. It's just it's just not just here. It's just you know, it's more modernized. But they don't really the Internet and all that kind of stuff. You don't really Okay. What are your thoughts on some of the misinformation and the disinformation that you see on social media that you're just like, wow, I know that's fake and that's wrong information, you know, geared to disinform voters. Well, so it's it's geared to form African American voters. I mean they just talk to black voters, really take you on, they target you and get you knock come out to vote because it's more it's more registered Democrats, the Republicans, so a lot of those groups they just spend a lot of money on misinformation, thiss information, and they target you like a lot of voters that like got criminal background stuff like that, you can't vote. It's you just qualified. They don't even know it's like they targeting. It's just it's a sophisticated sort of operation that they do. But ultimately just got to get down to where we're at and just talking to our folks. And you know, when we come out and just be real people and talk to people, people get it and they move on. And I think sometimes the problems that we have, we think it's going to take decade to fix. But I thing is, that's the like unique thing about African Americans. Once they get popular Philly, it's gonna get the Baltimore. That's gonna happen overnight. So we just got to think about what that thing is and say, okay, you know what, I just want to go in this direction. And you know, even with the content, like I think, like February is gonna be a big month. You know Jill Scott about the Drop and when she was on with Gillian Wallow, you know, she's really challenging the status quo about what R and B. Was and what it is right now. And so that younger generation is on it, like okay, cool, we like, you know. About the drop. So we'll see if that train goes back to like that. Neil Soul and probably talk we're talking about that, so we'll see what happened. I think it happens. Yeah, And then like everything is, everything goes back anyway from the styles and designs and how you dress and everything that goes right back around. So I'm sure the music, the music is the same way they said that R and B was dead. Then you started hearing people and that's doing the croon and then the love music again. And you know, for a while they said, well where's neo soul? Soul is still around? You have people just doing some of the music, like you know, like drug. They tired of. This is the point where it's going to the cant right back. So we just gotta make sure that we all to take advantage of what we're doing. And just. I want to pull this up real quick. I want to share this because this is this is the. Woman braiding robot might solve the headache every black woman has getting her hair done. A Harvard grad won the university's President's Innovation Challenge with the creation that tackles the frustration every black woman experiences with their hair salon. And so I mean this black woman creating that, and I say this about AI, right, if this Ai isn't the boogieman, right, I would say that get the information, get the information. About it, right. And one thing that I hear a lot of people say is that a y'all won't take your job. Is somebody using AI that's going to take your job. So I would say that the most important thing at this point is that the very least get some information about it so you know how to move or pivot, because if you don't know it, that's when you're going to get stung. And it's a little pushback on somebody's taking a job. Out of ten people, it only takes one to two to operate the AI, so the other eight loses. Their job or I mean people everybody. So this is the thing, right, And my argument about people losing their jobs is who. There was once industry that everyone used just coal. People don't. A lot of people don't. Use coal anymore. We use other forms of energy. Right, So what happened all the coal miners? It's a few left, but it's a lot of people that isn't right, and so that's another job shift. And then you have people when they said when we went into the war, it was a lot of people who you know, was making dungarees and jeans and stuff like that. Well, everybody was making jeans. But it wasn't people that was making the buttons for the jeans, right, So it was people understand what's the pivot and making something for that. Right. So I know what you just said, though, what's that It's people, people, people doing different things. Right. Yeah, it's like you got a robot. Yeah it can work twenty four hours one percent? Yeah yeah, no, no, no, I agree with that. Automated cars yep, that toss. Now I'm saying now you're saying that the shift all the people that's going to run the machines. People that go to m I t we We don't go to n I t wi't. That's that's not I think AI has been the. Has been the equalizer for different people with different degrees. Right, are people who have a special special specialty in learning that might have a professional degree. You have people that don't have no degree and arguably are. Just as educated at this point in doing something than someone who went to Harvard. For four years. I mean literally, that's what's happened. But you gotta think about it like that sister that was up there. Yeah, Harvard got the lab and all that. That's true. So what she did was just basically take all of it. So it was a big movement right where they were trying to get licenses for the hair braiders. State was trying to come in and say, you know what, we're going to do the license thing and all that. Braider said, you know what, No, we don't need to like weet, We cool with all that, and we're not going to take a little small litt check fifty five thousand dollars and y'all going regulators not to their own thing, get their own economy. Yeah. No, it's slipped them through there and now you got you're gonna need them no more. Just not great. I agree, it's interesting. We just want to see how to all play out with just the whole idea of it. I mean, it's it's the way of the world that's different. We used to have people operator of elevators. You used to get on the elevator and they would not allow. Still wanted to out there. They still out there. So it gets to the point now where I think my argument. I love AI. I'm actually a proponent for the AI, but. I believe that out of corporate it was like you would hire somebody and you would fire, you would hire, you would hire two people. Once those two people were fired, you would hire one to do two people's job. That's how I think AI is doing. I don't think it's a pivot thing. I think it's people really losing their jobs because now this computer, instead of having fifty on the conveyor belt, it only needs two. To operate AI. And now the forty eight have to go out and find other careers. And that's an industry though, that's a particular thing about it though, Right, But here's what here's the problem is. The problem is corporate agreed. Right. So with all of that, prices should go down. Right, if you're going into a supermarket and you gotta go and you don't got us cashier, right, and you walking in and you're scanning your own stuff, you carry out your stuff looking tacky, right, yeah, you should be able to the price should go down. Yeah, you got to provide your own bag. So what's happening is you want to see this wealth things just go yeah, and then it's going to be like you know what, oh, you know what, because now think about it, like you got a one bedroom apartment, Well, man, it's like, what two thousand dollars yeap, And now now it's impossible even if you're making fifty six thousand dollars. Oh yeah, just can't afford to be here. So now I guess what you need to be over there? Yeah, I mean this is this, this is for cm CNBC, and this is the AI is creating new billionaires at a record pace. And so when you're talking about yeah, because you're talking about certain industries, but AI is creating new industries that's equaling the wealth divide of people who even. Look like us. It is this is a lot of people. I'm not but I know I know these people. I mean, I don't know billionaires. I know what I'm saying, you know, but the numbers you gotta look at different numbers though. Right if they're saying it's more billionaires, then it's more trillionaires. Like what a millionaire wasn't a millionaire what it was back then? So the same distribution is still there. So like we had like two like the wealth and slavery time still close to that. It's like two percent. Whenever you make a thirty year mortgage of fifty year mortgage. Now because they can't make the homes actually go down, you can't make the interest rate go down. But you're going to make the loans spread out longer. That's for concern. You're like fifty years more thirty was Crazyah Never, Now you've got a fifty year mortgage and they're really pushing it to say, hey, okay, now go ahead and you buy this home that's still seventeen hundred square feet for four hundred thousand, like that's. That's red numbers. Yeah. But then we shift right and we really knew how to do the stuff. Cut out your labor costs, that's just us work, and say you know what we're gonna go by the material just. Build your house five thousand. Yeah, good joint. And it's just knowledge that really teaches us that's really doing it really ourselves. Ain't no really shortcuts. I think what's happening now with the shift that you were talking about is people are leaving the US because this is not this conversation is not in other places, other parts of the world. A lot of what we talked about, the death the ratio is reasonable, it's livable people here, even the homeless is rich. You still get a check for being born. You know what I mean, they can still get s S. I so speaking, yeah, equivalents, the equivalent. Yeah, like, but in other places it's like you're it's still where it's affordable. So people in the US are now finding land in the dr to different places of the world. They're going to Haiti, they're going to Bahamas, and they're getting right citizenships, they're doing the old citizenship, and they're still getting their checks into your wells, Fargo, your TV. And you're using your money to pay another country to live. Over here. Though those same people in some place when they come here. Yeah, yeah, that. That's true, but it's amazing. So we also talked about how a lot of us are going over there to have medical tourism. We're taking our money to go to the I just came back from Turkey about that. You did this cater you know what that thing you did? Oh no, no, no, that the medical tourism. I went and got some dental work and then I did a lot of I did a lot of spot I did facial treatment, massaging, and it was I mean, when I say seventy five percent less seventy five percent last year, swarm them details. I got some work on you. Because I think, like five thousand, you can get a whole all your tests you need. And they pick you up in the may bag. That's what they picked me up. They pick you up and take you to every. Appointment, and that money is included in your food and your lodging in a five star hotel. Treat you like a queen. King say, medical doctors is like, it's the little monopoly they got you come over here. Yeah, the people to be like doctors. They were like, nah, man, I'm a I'm a real like doctor. Yeah, I gotta go over there. They're gonna take all of my education away and I gotta go play their game. But the game is gonna catch up because their prices are going up. Yeah, they're learning too, because we're coming over here. What you did? Ladies and gentlemen. We talk weekly after the talking w P B M P philladuff you want on six point five FIM we talk weeklys after talk. Beautiful, classy ladies, beautiful and beautiful. Can they get in contact with you? Want more again again? Vote that Philip dot gov b O T E dot Philip dot gov or Instagram, Oh Martha, Philly, Oh Marsha Bell on Facebook. All right, so I've just seen that. Let me see somebody got me text because they was listening. I'm shout out to all right then, because she be on top, you want to shout out to Shiller. But I said, when the next time you come back? She said, you, uh, you already scheduled to come back. You shout out to Shiller on top of it? All right, y'all, So make sure you continue to tune in, like and subscribe. We talked weekly. We're here, and one thing to always think about. Just continue to do your research, continue to learn. Learning never stops right. Always say school isn't for everyone, but education is, and so always educate yourself. And we out here like last year, y'all. Peace y'all. Hey, this is for saying chante. If we cannot be complete unless you listen to or watch we talk with the complex. Believe you bat