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Appreciate you all being here. Now, today, I want you to hear one of the most amazing stories that I have ever heard.

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This guy motivates me every time I hear him speak. Today, you're going to experience the transformation of innocence, the criminal, the love, the sadness, a perfect family, till a broken family.

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a wonderful life to self-destructions.

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Everyone will get something today.

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This speaker has changed many lives.

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I've got some letters on my desk right now that I've just read in my clerk's.

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Thank you all for the presentation.

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You have changed my life.

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Now, I don't know about you. That's all we want.

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We've got a whole bunch of them.

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If you all will listen to what you hear today to spread

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we can keep this ball rolling. Okay? Now we're going to get started. First thing we're going to do is

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get started with a short clip. Okay? Can we do that? Statistics show if you've been

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incarcerated once, there's a good chance you'll end up behind bars again. That's not how

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Damon West wants his story to end and he's proving to others the best to get to come.

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It takes us for ball this team and for our their had a rising star in an early 90s.

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Damon West was the golden child.

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The three-year star drew Thomas Jefferson High School.

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And he had pretty legit.

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He was in the locker room.

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The Cowboys were headed to their first Super Bowl,

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and he had James Johnson.

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But Johnson delivered that name aside.

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And I'll always tell you how to take it.

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How do I take it?

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Yeah.

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It's dangerous.

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Still a break.

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Just one.

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Two more.

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You could ask for a better script for Almerd.

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We did it.

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I mean, I came from a great family.

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Two brothers, Brandon Grayson.

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The football stuff was just amazing.

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My dad and Jimmy Johnson being best friends.

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You know, I would go, as you remember back.

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When I was a kid, I was going to go to a lot of games.

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I told him to take a phone call on the sidelines.

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I mean, and this is not something normal, kids got to do.

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He had it all.

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The media was there when he signed his football scholarship to North Texas, and you

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talk about proud parents.

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His dad, the long-time sports writer, the poor, the nurse, and his mom, she, and he

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were watching their son's success.

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And that's the thing that he hoped to experience when he did everything, he'd to be the

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five goals and to coach and teach it, but he'd be there at our least, at our late, there

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and somewhere he'd go around and find gas that he could throw to the middle of a really

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pussy just had a party desire succeed and he did, he graduated from North Texas, started

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a job as a stock broker in Dallas but then all came crashing down that one day he couldn't

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say no to Crystal meth.

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Well, it's a general afternoon, David, for years.

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I knew him as the famous sports riders he had it, I knew him as a local hometown football hero.

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I knew him as a troubled young man.

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I knew him as a man who survived.

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And now that man, I'm going to call up he's going to tell you this story today

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to benefit you. Let's give them a wish to be close.

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Thanks for coming out today. This is amazing.

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Just stay here. I want to thank you and your staff judge. I mean, you don't did tremendous job.

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She didn't actually thank you emails all week.

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Phone calls, emails, what the phone had had problem with phone a couple of days there.

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But, you know, a tremendous job and judge, I want to thank you

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because without you believing in me,

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you mean, none of this will be possible.

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You know, when I got out of prison, I passed you.

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for that with phone calls over and over because I had this plan while I was in there that I wouldn't

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be able to get out and share what happened would be to maybe stop someone else's child and

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have to go through this, but I needed a sponsor to do this. You can't just show them on the

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doorstep of schools and say how I'm just out of the joint when I talk to your kids.

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So I had to talk

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to the sponsor. So all the ax guys were like, well, you need to go talk to the judge for that. He's an

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I call it over, and at one of the four five times where he finally said,

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tell him my office, we didn't tell him.

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That is a great idea, so let's tell him.

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So, Jennifer didn't have a lot of faith in me, and there was another guy, and he's

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not here today, and I see a lot of people from his office, from District Attorney's office,

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Marcelo, and I'm off, you know, and these two men believe me are really on, and they have

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a vision.

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And we all share this vision, and if we can go out there, like I said, and say, one kid,

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it's all we're looking for.

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go in this room and stop one kid from having to go through what I went through.

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Then it'll be worth it.

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I mean, because if you stop one kid from the criminal addictive cycle, you create all of this.

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Victims in the society, that kid grows up to have a family, yes, children, and on and on.

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And they have a different approach.

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This judgment that has its own approach, and both of them have its own approach too.

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But we all have this idea, and it's kind of audacious to the point that it's successful,

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because you've got a city judge adjusted the peace.

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You've got the assistant chief, the district attorney's office,

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a long-fledged officer, and a Mexican officer.

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I mean, it's a rag tag group, right?

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But we go in there and we change lives.

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And we know we're changing lives, and we get the feedback from him.

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And I'll speak in a moment of the other day.

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I'll just have lunch and a narcotics officer from the BVD.

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And he was asked, he said, hey, hey, man.

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You know, we said, most of it, you go in all these meetings all the time.

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for covering things. He's 12 different things. Why don't you have to go to that? You've been

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sober all these years. Okay, to just not do the drugs anymore. If I'm sure, you use

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the work here. And I kind of laugh because it's an addict. I know that I will never be

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well. I may get better, but I'll never be well. I have a daily reprieve from my addiction,

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contingent on the maintenance of my spiritual growth. And every day, I have to apply

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the same force, spiritual principles to my life or do my best to, because I'm not perfect

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they're not struggle. But on selfish, honesty, purity and love, if I can apply those four

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things to run every decision I make for that little matrix, then I'll be okay, then I'll

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stay sober and I'll stay out of prison. I don't make any more victims. And we're going to talk

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about victims today because I made a lot of victims along the way, not just victims of burgers,

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but the biggest victims are sitting right here, my mother, father, mom, dad, thanks for coming.

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I really mean a lot to me, and another person I want to thank is my boss, Chris Kirchman,

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thanks for the job, you've made a big difference in my life,

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so I always tell these kids when

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I go in there, then I'm a product of the public school system. I got a high school diploma from

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And time is here for some high school, 419 Texas, right?

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I'm Roath.

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Bye.

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Bachelor's degree from the University of North Texas in Denton, another public school.

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I got a PhD from the School of Harvard Knox, right on the road at the Stiles Union,

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courtesy of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

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So, I'm a product of the public school system.

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So, we're in all this beginning.

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It's growing up, of course, you know, my parents are, I have a older brother than Brandon,

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the younger brother than Grayson.

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And we had a great family.

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I mean, we still have a great family. And God is at the center of our family.

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And we had struggles along the way, and as in addition, you're going to try to find what you

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call the act of being a man, and through it all we found that in the summer of 1985, I was

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nine years old, I came up to my parents and I was most be molested by my babysitter.

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And you know, with 1985, my parents did everything they had to do, and I sent them to

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the council and sent them to talk to family priests, and we prayed, we prayed a lot.

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but something inside that will neither all change.

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And I started to put you chemicals in my body,

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change the way I felt, by the age of 10,

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I'm drinking smoke and cigarettes, by the time I was

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well, I'm smoking pot.

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And I don't want to be a thing, I'm hurting anybody.

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Because, no, I'm just doing this.

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I'm not, you know, no one has been hurt by it.

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And I was still a really good athlete, right?

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So who am I hurt?

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But looking back now, I know that even as an athlete,

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I was hurt with the guys around me,

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because they never got to see the full potential

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that the guy that was recorded by it.

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And I was hurting myself from one of anybody.

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And I always ask these kids what going into rooms,

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what the gateway drug is.

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And every one of them said the same thing every time,

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That's not true.

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The gateway drug is really alcohol.

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Because alcohol is a drug.

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And if you're doing it in the day to 10,

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or any time below age 21, it's a crime.

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So it's criminal addictive behavior

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that you're experimenting with already.

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And so alcohol doesn't get to your awareness

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that I think it should.

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But that's why I go to my recovery program

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deals with alcoholics.

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because that's where it all started for me.

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So I said I was really good athlete and that afforded me the ability to give scholarship to the University of New York Texas.

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And this scholarship was the amazing thing. It was a dream come true.

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Because I used to watch football with my dad and Saturday afternoon.

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And I'd tell my dad a one day, one day I'll be playing those days.

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I'll be walking those tunnels.

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And my parents were very supportive, very encouraged.

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And they would say, yeah, if you said you're going to do it, then you'll do it.

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And then one day I was, I'm in college of 18, 19, 20 years old, and I'm coming to the town with Alabama at LSU and OU and OSU and A&M, Arizona State.

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I'm getting to play all these schools, and in my mind, in my egos river, the world doesn't have it, I've got a lot of pride going on, I've got a lot of egos going on.

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And I kind of lose who I am along the way and Judge Bernand alluded to what you we call

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a fork in the road days.

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We're always telling these kids hey you're going to come in days and life what is a fork

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in the road.

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And you've got to pick the right path to go on, you've got to choose one way or another and

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one of them is going to take you out of the good path, one of them is going to take you out

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of the bad path.

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But if you don't have the moral foundation to make that decision you're going to choose

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with long paths every time and on September 21st, 1996 against Texas saying how my career

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was injured on the third foot of the camera set for everyone's shoulder. This is not in my

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plan. And when I talk to you, especially the college athletes, I'm talking, I stress the

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importance of handling something like this better than what I did. And like I tell these kids,

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these rooms, it's never a good idea to make your own mistakes alive when there are others around

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you that you can learn from and let them make them mistakes for you. Let my life be an example,

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others would not to do. Let it be a cautioner to tell what happened to them and what? Because from

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that from that injury I went on to get another injury and it makes the following summer when

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I'm getting my starting job back and I survived two weeks in the neck and that's it,

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that's a career under a football college. So now I left with what I'd like to call an

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existential vacuum. There's nothing left in my life because this big hole is there because I

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put so much stock in a football player and instead feeling an existential vacuum with something

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If something good, we're very back to where I was raised with God, something good, I feel

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it with cocaine, with pills, as I'm partying harder to call it, I'm never turning.

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And somehow, I managed to graduate and get that bachelor to the United States Congress.

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And when that didn't satisfy me on enough, I ended up getting a job as a political fundraiser.

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If you'd like to make more money doing that, there was a guy running for president in 2004,

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that needed a fundraiser in Texas in Oklahoma to raise the money for major donors.

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So I took that job, came back from DC, came back to Texas, and when he dropped out of the race,

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I thought, you know what?

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I could probably see it in the even more money.

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So I took that major donor list that I had, and I went to the United Bank of Switzerland,

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UBS, one of the biggest banks in the world.

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They hired me on to be a stockbroker.

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And they're having worked Dallas branch office.

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And I learned a lot about the financial markets being a broker.

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or training to be a broker, I learned a lot about financial markets and I learned a lot

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about different investment tools, mutual funds, money markets, stocks, bonds, commodities,

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and I also learned a lot about life about these two particular commodities that aren't

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traded in the stock exchange. There's one commodity that is in the money supply. You can

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have as much evidence you want in life and when you're out of it, you can have more, just

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ask life and you're going to give you all you want. For free, yeah, it's crazy, it's misery. You

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You can have all of the victory you want in life and life will keep you warm.

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All you have to do is just go back and test that and ask for it.

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But there's another commodity, and this commodity is the most precious commodity in the world.

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Because once it's gone, it's gone, it cannot be replaced.

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It's worth more than all the oil, all the gold, silver, platinum, all that combined.

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All the money in the world can't buy you more of this next time.

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The time is a great legal legend, and once it's gone, it's gone.

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you and me the same way you can't get that time. So when I was a Dallas

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the broker I came to introduce to me that's been one day and the guy

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here's been a pipe and he says hey man no he looks like you're down a little bit

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you're dragging a bit smoke this and I don't have the internal

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constitution to say no to a drug because I'm done on the drugs I'm

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dang it I can do whatever I want right so I tried this drug and I'm

222
00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:57,680
One time smoking had drove and I was instantly hooked and it took no time for me to lose

223
00:13:57,680 --> 00:14:04,820
my job, my home, my car, my family, my life, my mind, my tender and your God, whenever

224
00:14:04,820 --> 00:14:08,980
I was left to bed and I was living in the street, I went from work in a Wall Street to live

225
00:14:08,980 --> 00:14:10,020
in the streets of Dallas.

226
00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:14,300
And I fell in with a bunch of little dope things, a bunch of other methods, just like myself

227
00:14:15,060 --> 00:14:19,400
and I was living in a school of dope house or track house and all we do is sit around

228
00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:22,480
I'm talking about how we're going to get higher and higher and higher and higher.

229
00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:23,720
This is what my life has become.

230
00:14:23,940 --> 00:14:24,940
Now remember where I came from?

231
00:14:25,100 --> 00:14:25,940
I got it.

232
00:14:25,940 --> 00:14:26,940
I came from a good family.

233
00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:30,320
I can't see here today and tell you that I came from a broken home.

234
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:33,080
But I didn't have any opportunity in life because I did it.

235
00:14:33,100 --> 00:14:35,040
And all the love and support child needs to grow,

236
00:14:35,100 --> 00:14:36,420
and do anything he wants.

237
00:14:37,340 --> 00:14:44,760
You know, and no one grows up wanting to be an alcoholic, a drug addict, a thief, a criminal,

238
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:45,420
a liar.

239
00:14:45,860 --> 00:14:46,920
No one aspires for that.

240
00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:50,800
I wanted to be a sports agent, but I became all those other things.

241
00:14:51,700 --> 00:14:54,420
And here I am sitting in these dope houses and these other dope feeds.

242
00:14:55,640 --> 00:14:58,740
And we have a fun to build a problem with our operation now.

243
00:14:58,820 --> 00:14:59,540
We don't have any money.

244
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:29,840
Oh, jobless, we're all bomb, we're all drug addicts. If we don't be money to give more dope, so what do we do? We start stealing things because, let's say, you know, theft and meth, go together like rats and trash. All right. That's the general rule that you have to know about this in City of Strudon. So, we start breaking the storage units, breaking the colors. I'm digging change of people's ass trades and a couple orders and change trades in their colors to go by dope and dope man. That's how bad it is.

245
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:35,160
But it kind of works because remember that ministry you can have more ministry, all you have to do is ask for it

246
00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:41,460
And I'm hitting that little bucket as much as I can because when that wasn't enough and with addicts, it's never enough

247
00:15:43,100 --> 00:15:46,320
We need to do more so we started breaking in the house and

248
00:15:47,060 --> 00:15:50,980
Whenever you do a bird for you whenever you break into someone's home

249
00:15:50,980 --> 00:15:57,280
You don't just steal the property. I didn't love you. I stayed. I didn't just steal people's property

250
00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:04,560
Alright, these things I made, I took something way more precious than I probably, I don't know if they'll ever get back because I can't give it to them.

251
00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:09,300
I think there's this secure, I mean they've been violated by a guy who wanted to go home.

252
00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:13,360
And it's not just me, there's other dope things with me, but I'm going to take responsibility for what I did.

253
00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:22,300
And this person goes into their home, and violates that since security they have, and they've made never get that back.

254
00:16:22,740 --> 00:16:30,400
And I remember hearing Victor Diffa trial, one of them had to move out of her home because she did feel safe and the home could keep me out.

255
00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:32,020
Man, I'm a monster at this point.

256
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:38,260
And then another way, the reason why he's in the eye out to the monsters to this other way, he said, she has to sleep with her lights on.

257
00:16:38,660 --> 00:16:41,800
Because she can't sleep with her lights, something more children do that when they're afraid of monsters.

258
00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:43,040
And they think something's in the closet.

259
00:16:43,980 --> 00:16:49,020
But she had a face now to put with the monster that scared her and was me sitting across to the defense table.

260
00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:54,060
So we break into the homes that it does as a people and create so many things along the way.

261
00:16:54,820 --> 00:16:57,860
But also during that time I'm not just creating a victims of property crimes.

262
00:16:58,660 --> 00:17:02,160
I've created victims of people that love me because that's what addiction does.

263
00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:04,380
Addition hurts those that love us the most.

264
00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:07,380
They go through way more than what we know as addicts.

265
00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,420
My mother and father and my brothers went through all this with...

266
00:17:10,420 --> 00:17:14,000
My mother beg me to come back to Port Arthur during those years thought this was going on.

267
00:17:14,020 --> 00:17:15,080
But I'm in Dallas.

268
00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:19,280
You know, I'm 30 some years old and I'm just lying to him telling him whether they want to hear when that doesn't work

269
00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:20,540
He's just only talk to him before

270
00:17:22,180 --> 00:17:27,480
But on July 30, 2008, a Dallas SWAT team came in to strike to me from a little run down part

271
00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:33,960
And they put it in to be up time burgers because they got it there. I got they got the up time burger

272
00:17:34,740 --> 00:17:35,100
And

273
00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:42,640
When there's a timey process to me fingerprinting about shock me that told me it was cold all the seven Dallas kind of jail

274
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:47,700
And I remember the only thought bouncing through my head that day was hell, the heaven I go get high from in here.

275
00:17:48,680 --> 00:17:50,260
And that's how far gone I was.

276
00:17:52,540 --> 00:17:57,880
And when I talk to kids about this day, this day, this day, this rest day, I don't refer to as my rest day.

277
00:17:57,980 --> 00:17:59,620
I refer to it as my resting day.

278
00:18:00,260 --> 00:18:03,060
Because God began to have a situation I couldn't give myself out of.

279
00:18:03,340 --> 00:18:08,420
Not exactly how I had planned, but still, I was all the streets.

280
00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:10,940
I couldn't harm anybody else, especially myself.

281
00:18:11,700 --> 00:18:12,940
So I'm a kind of jail.

282
00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:15,880
I mean, do I have a job with you?

283
00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:16,900
No, that's okay.

284
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:17,700
I can laugh a lot.

285
00:18:17,940 --> 00:18:18,480
People laugh at me.

286
00:18:18,500 --> 00:18:18,880
I'm a jail man.

287
00:18:20,280 --> 00:18:21,460
So I'm a kind of jail.

288
00:18:22,580 --> 00:18:24,180
And I'm starting to miss my family now.

289
00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:26,520
I'm starting to wonder where that wonderful puppy family is.

290
00:18:26,580 --> 00:18:27,480
Because I'm sobering up.

291
00:18:27,740 --> 00:18:28,860
And I'm starting, I'm scared.

292
00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:30,760
I'm like, I'm scared of death.

293
00:18:30,940 --> 00:18:31,880
I'm already in one fight.

294
00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:33,860
One day in there, or a breakfast tray.

295
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:35,440
Maybe it's not going to be good.

296
00:18:35,860 --> 00:18:37,400
So I'm eyeballing that blue day room.

297
00:18:37,920 --> 00:18:39,240
And I know that I can go with it.

298
00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:42,640
my parents about and I don't know if they even know what's going on. I know it's on the

299
00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:46,640
T every TV station in jail because I keep replying on the loop so I know it's a high

300
00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:54,100
profile deal in Dallas. And any army that may know my father. My father is 72 years old and

301
00:18:54,100 --> 00:19:01,240
he's from a generation of men. These guys, they don't show a lot of emotion. They don't,

302
00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:05,660
you know, my dad didn't come up with a kiss being telling me, I love you all the time like my mother

303
00:19:05,660 --> 00:19:09,760
for example. But I knew my dad loved me. Then I knew that he would do anything for me because

304
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:14,840
I knew how much he loved me. And I know how much my mother loved me. So it was a shout to

305
00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:19,840
you when I called home the day and my father answered the phone, but it didn't sound like my

306
00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:24,980
father. And any other appearance this ring puts yourself in a position of your child coming

307
00:19:24,980 --> 00:19:29,220
from jail right now because I'm going to go replay the sink point. So I called home,

308
00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:35,440
whoever answers that phone is my father does it sound like it sounds like a wounded animal. He's screaming

309
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:40,340
where do we go so long in his car and you can tell us why I'm just here. I've never seen my fault

310
00:19:40,340 --> 00:19:44,260
of the crowd. I've never heard of the crowd until now. And I know that I've broken my thoughts

311
00:19:44,260 --> 00:19:48,760
and I've broken my hero. And he's screaming like, what do we do wrong? How do we go so long

312
00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:52,760
if you have any message? So that what can we have done different? These are things you don't want

313
00:19:52,760 --> 00:19:56,920
to hear as a child, but if you don't, definitely don't want to hear them as you don't want to say

314
00:19:56,920 --> 00:20:02,800
it was apparent, right? And we're having a hard time communicating because there's so much emotion

315
00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:07,240
And while in both hands, my mom, being in a wretched nurse, she's used to trauma, she'd

316
00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:12,880
taste the phone and I'd add to it, and she said, but you listen, she said, no matter what

317
00:20:12,880 --> 00:20:15,520
you do, your father and I would love you.

318
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:16,640
That's unconditional love.

319
00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:17,800
You've got that from us.

320
00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:19,660
But we can't do any for you.

321
00:20:19,780 --> 00:20:20,280
We are right now.

322
00:20:20,360 --> 00:20:22,300
You are in a place where we can't touch you.

323
00:20:22,660 --> 00:20:23,720
We can't help you.

324
00:20:23,860 --> 00:20:25,280
Only God can help you now.

325
00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:26,460
I'll never forget.

326
00:20:26,620 --> 00:20:29,940
She told me she said, you're now a captive audience to God and you're better fighting.

327
00:20:31,860 --> 00:20:35,460
And this she asked me something, she asked me a question, she said, hey, do you remember

328
00:20:35,460 --> 00:20:40,600
that plague that I had with you all was a kid growing up and then I'm come off dope and

329
00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,860
my head is full of all kinds of crazy stuff and I don't know what she's got for God.

330
00:20:44,300 --> 00:20:45,300
So now I'm a doll.

331
00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:46,940
She said it's put prints in the sand.

332
00:20:47,100 --> 00:20:51,700
You remember that story and I'm a vagal memory, but she went on the 7th, she said there's

333
00:20:51,700 --> 00:20:57,040
a guy walking in the beach name and he's walking with Jesus and he knows this is on this

334
00:20:57,040 --> 00:20:58,080
video that's put in his life.

335
00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:01,060
every time something good happens in his life there's two sets of footprints walking

336
00:21:01,060 --> 00:21:06,400
in my journey. But when something bad happens when he loses something, when there's pain

337
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:09,220
when there's hurt, when there's loss, when there's suffering, it's going to slide

338
00:21:09,220 --> 00:21:13,020
one set footprints. In this pattern repeat to settle over and over if I'm going to

339
00:21:13,020 --> 00:21:16,380
have to say Jesus what's not bad. He said every time something good happens you're there

340
00:21:16,380 --> 00:21:20,940
every time something bad happens you're abandoned me. So Jesus looks the guys his name you

341
00:21:20,940 --> 00:21:25,520
full. He said every time you saw one set of footprints I didn't abandon you. I can't reach you.

342
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,240
She's screaming. I mean actually saying damn it looked down. All you're going to see is

343
00:21:29,240 --> 00:21:32,560
one set of footprints when you walk where you are and those aren't yours buddy. You better

344
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:38,380
hop on God's back and let him carry you through this. So I went that night in my bunk. I had a big crazy

345
00:21:38,380 --> 00:21:42,560
jail cell that I just scared you to death at the beginning. I went there and I started praying to a god

346
00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:47,420
that I hadn't talked to and so long. And I started praying to let me back in and he did. But they

347
00:21:47,420 --> 00:21:51,680
could version. You can have it overnight, y'all. Because I'm still on that thorn in there. I'm still

348
00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,080
trying to call these up the dope things on the world, try to raise money and make it a bond made.

349
00:21:55,080 --> 00:22:01,360
I'm putting other people at risk with other crimes, I'm asking them to commit to try to get some stolen property food.

350
00:22:01,580 --> 00:22:03,780
So I didn't have it overnight, I'm a bad guy at all.

351
00:22:04,060 --> 00:22:06,140
At this point, I'm a bad guy at my addiction.

352
00:22:08,420 --> 00:22:11,500
But ten months later, I was a real one, I go to that job.

353
00:22:12,300 --> 00:22:13,320
And this jury revered.

354
00:22:13,740 --> 00:22:17,160
It's actually my funeral here today, because I thought she might be here.

355
00:22:17,460 --> 00:22:18,440
That's my one funeral's wife.

356
00:22:18,820 --> 00:22:20,380
She sacrificed so much to my wife.

357
00:22:20,460 --> 00:22:22,460
And we talked about this one day because she's a prosecutor.

358
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:29,980
But then Julia was out for 10 minutes, so 10 minutes, the journey deliberated, that was counting, the journey my peers came back.

359
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:39,400
The 65 years since it's organized crime, my first Tony, first Tony, I got a license, right out of the gate, 65 years, engage in organized criminal activity.

360
00:22:41,140 --> 00:22:44,480
And maybe it was like a pecker when I just said that, 65.

361
00:22:45,460 --> 00:22:49,740
It was like they were looking at all, just a tunnel that you can't see, no light.

362
00:22:50,700 --> 00:22:53,400
So I did one last visit to my parents before I go to prison.

363
00:22:56,260 --> 00:23:00,120
And because I haven't been paying my debts in my life, but my mom and dad call my dad

364
00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:04,560
they say, listen, don't come back from prison as something we don't recognize.

365
00:23:04,660 --> 00:23:08,620
You're going to come home one day, you're going to make parole one day, you're not staying

366
00:23:08,620 --> 00:23:12,100
up forever, you're going to come home, but you're going to come back as something we don't

367
00:23:12,100 --> 00:23:16,600
just come back as something we recognize, because you were raised right, you were in a town

368
00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:20,940
of the giant, you were raised in a town that was a giant guilty man, poor author, you

369
00:23:20,940 --> 00:23:25,920
grow up and you were always one of the only white kids where ever you went, man. You're going to

370
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:29,680
go into my dad's home and you're going to go into an environment that's really racially charged

371
00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:33,380
because they know a little bit about prison. It's a really racially charged environment but do

372
00:23:33,380 --> 00:23:37,600
not come back with a bunch of squasks because all over you don't join a white hate group because

373
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:42,700
you're scared of what the consequences are of your decision get with God. God's only one that can

374
00:23:42,700 --> 00:23:47,360
help you through this again can't help you. So I'll make that promise to him and I'll make that promise

375
00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:53,120
So, no fool it when I just promised, but I found out when I got back to the pond and I started asking these guys around because I'm very inquisitive.

376
00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:53,760
Everybody knows me.

377
00:23:54,120 --> 00:23:56,020
I have a page that will do ask a lot of questions, yeah.

378
00:23:56,180 --> 00:23:56,760
This is my co-version.

379
00:23:57,560 --> 00:23:58,600
So, I ask a lot of questions.

380
00:23:58,700 --> 00:23:59,280
I'm very inquisitive.

381
00:23:59,300 --> 00:24:00,100
I go back to the pond.

382
00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:01,880
I'm asking around everybody.

383
00:24:02,740 --> 00:24:02,760
Why?

384
00:24:02,820 --> 00:24:03,520
Black is expanding.

385
00:24:03,700 --> 00:24:04,800
He's telling me man, look.

386
00:24:05,100 --> 00:24:07,780
This is the most racially charged environment you've ever seen in your life.

387
00:24:07,940 --> 00:24:10,260
Race runs the institution of prison.

388
00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:11,560
That's the way they end me to one.

389
00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:13,660
They want everybody to go out for their own world of groups.

390
00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:17,260
They want you to have a little white guy like you running around and it's smashed.

391
00:24:17,260 --> 00:24:22,100
So black guys now the white guy's gonna jump in and start the race before give it a can with just do it

392
00:24:22,100 --> 00:24:24,020
You know like since never come out

393
00:24:24,540 --> 00:24:29,780
Whether it's one guy on guy this old black guy named Mr. Jackson. I call him Mr. Jackson all the time

394
00:24:29,780 --> 00:24:35,560
I'll get deferred to him with respect because this guy he took a shot at me for some reason and he

395
00:24:35,560 --> 00:24:39,420
He took me in and he taught me some things about prison and I would need to know

396
00:24:39,420 --> 00:24:40,820
First I need to tell me

397
00:24:40,820 --> 00:24:46,300
You don't have to win all your fights, but you gotta fight all your fights in that place if you ever don't fight back

398
00:24:46,300 --> 00:24:51,260
If you ever let someone beat you without throwing a punch bag, they're going to devout with you.

399
00:24:51,420 --> 00:24:54,140
He said, first they're going to beat you, and they're going to steal from you,

400
00:24:54,180 --> 00:24:57,000
and then they're going to take something from you that you'll never get back.

401
00:24:57,340 --> 00:25:01,080
They're going to do something really bad to you, in which you've been, he said,

402
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,120
and when you get there, you don't want to do the gang gang, that's fine.

403
00:25:04,140 --> 00:25:06,160
Stand up for yourself, tell these dudes you're going to walk alone.

404
00:25:06,300 --> 00:25:08,880
First, you have to come up to you, he's not going to be the problem, it's the second guy.

405
00:25:09,380 --> 00:25:10,720
The first guy's going to do the information gathering.

406
00:25:10,860 --> 00:25:14,660
The second skin head that comes up, where he opens the mouth, but you're fisting.

407
00:25:15,220 --> 00:25:22,120
Jackson was right about all this by the way, but then Jackson gave me this nugget of wisdom and the title of the talk today is the coffee bee

408
00:25:22,620 --> 00:25:24,960
And this is what we do when we're talking about motivation deal

409
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:33,220
He said they make take a pile of orange water this boy water represents the environment that prist is don't think about it with the heat because

410
00:25:33,220 --> 00:25:38,660
Prist is high, y'all. There's no air conditioning takes the person. I was right here in Bowman for seven years and

411
00:25:38,660 --> 00:25:44,140
Think about how high it's a joy. I'm always in just out here. You had no air conditioning. I thought it was a die

412
00:25:45,500 --> 00:25:50,320
But take this potable on water, and that boiling water represents the atmosphere of the prison is,

413
00:25:50,500 --> 00:25:55,600
all right, then you take a carrot, you take egg, and you take a coffee bean.

414
00:25:56,760 --> 00:26:01,260
He said, if I throw this carrot in that potable on water, what's going to happen to that carrot?

415
00:26:01,360 --> 00:26:03,320
What happens to the carrot if it's going to potable on water?

416
00:26:04,220 --> 00:26:08,460
Get soft. You don't want to be the carrot. You do not want to be the carrot in prison.

417
00:26:09,360 --> 00:26:13,900
But if I take this egg, if I throw this egg in a potable on water, what happens to the egg?

418
00:26:14,700 --> 00:26:18,940
It's hard. You don't want to be a president because you're going to come back and something

419
00:26:18,940 --> 00:26:21,580
your parents don't recognize if you become a pig.

420
00:26:22,180 --> 00:26:27,300
But if I take this little baby coffee bean and throw it in a pot of oil and water, what happens?

421
00:26:27,620 --> 00:26:27,940
It's strong.

422
00:26:28,660 --> 00:26:29,340
Makes coffee.

423
00:26:29,780 --> 00:26:30,620
You said it's a good value.

424
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:31,720
It makes coffee.

425
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:36,400
You have to change the name of the water because the way that little bean could do.

426
00:26:36,900 --> 00:26:39,760
He said, so if you want to do what you want to do, what you're saying you want to do,

427
00:26:39,900 --> 00:26:41,940
you have to change the atmosphere around you.

428
00:26:41,940 --> 00:26:48,900
You have to give off a vibe that will only attract other people with that same vibe and it's going to attract people with a native vibe

429
00:26:48,900 --> 00:26:52,640
It's going to take a while, but you have to be a coffee bean wherever you go, man

430
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:56,740
You have to be that paying you have to change that environment around you

431
00:26:56,740 --> 00:27:00,920
And so he gave me some more knowledge to take with me about prison. Most of it about the vibe

432
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:07,460
He said the only way in what everybody speaks in that place is the vibe and you're happy you have to be very fluent in the language of violence

433
00:27:07,460 --> 00:27:09,760
And so I started to want to have a box and move with it.

434
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:11,660
But when I got to prison, it was just like he said,

435
00:27:11,820 --> 00:27:14,080
man, their first skin hit comes up.

436
00:27:14,100 --> 00:27:15,100
He's like, hey, what's up?

437
00:27:15,100 --> 00:27:16,540
I knew he ride with.

438
00:27:16,740 --> 00:27:18,260
Tell him again, I'm a face I'm walking along.

439
00:27:18,380 --> 00:27:19,100
I'm walking with God.

440
00:27:19,260 --> 00:27:19,760
He's last hit.

441
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:21,600
He said, God, God didn't live here.

442
00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:22,820
Goes off.

443
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:23,720
10 minutes later.

444
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:25,640
10 minutes later, he comes to his other skin hit.

445
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:26,880
Good number two.

446
00:27:27,200 --> 00:27:28,880
And just like, just like Jackson told me,

447
00:27:28,900 --> 00:27:29,760
I put my fist down.

448
00:27:29,780 --> 00:27:30,680
The guy's not from the opening.

449
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:32,240
And we go down the ground, start fighting.

450
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:33,720
This guy stops making the ground.

451
00:27:34,100 --> 00:27:36,360
And I'm not afraid to tell you, I didn't want him

452
00:27:36,360 --> 00:27:40,500
some of my fights in prison. But I've fought all my fights. I mean, look at me. I look like I'm

453
00:27:40,500 --> 00:27:44,420
going to be doing it. There's obvious. I'm not going to sit here and boast about something

454
00:27:44,420 --> 00:27:50,720
I didn't do. But no, it's. So we've fought this guy beats me. And this goes on, you know, this

455
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:57,060
goes on. And I'm about six weeks in this every time I leave that cell to go to a child, to go wherever.

456
00:27:57,820 --> 00:28:01,640
However, I sit there in my mind and prepare myself in case I'm going to fight that day with someone

457
00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:05,400
to say, I want to look at you in the shower. There's nothing crazy about that. There's something

458
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:09,520
like going to the shower, fight you, because there's no garage, no cans back there.

459
00:28:10,180 --> 00:28:13,520
So I'm on the right yard one day, and I'm thinking myself, now I'm going to start running

460
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:14,340
some respect out here.

461
00:28:14,460 --> 00:28:17,940
So I'm like, oh, I didn't just fight every day, and so it's right at the right yard

462
00:28:17,940 --> 00:28:18,680
set we're getting to.

463
00:28:18,900 --> 00:28:22,840
Well, I believe, because I've got a license, everybody that gets a license and takes this

464
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:27,640
out, you go to this one building, your status is called the G3 status, and your G3 level.

465
00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,920
It means that you have to sit there for 5, 10 years before you can even get a job, go to school,

466
00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:34,100
do you need that stuff that other inmates get to do?

467
00:28:34,100 --> 00:28:42,100
Because even once you kind of get that fence off your mind, you've got a license, and so on this building, it's kind of like the edge of the world over there.

468
00:28:43,180 --> 00:28:44,780
And the record is very segregated.

469
00:28:45,980 --> 00:28:49,280
On the volleyball court, you got the white guys playing volleyball and some of these fans.

470
00:28:49,980 --> 00:28:55,540
Handball court, you can make some races up, which are important, you need to be the same race that you're just like the weight stack, same thing.

471
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:59,080
But my eyes are on the basketball court that day. Who do you think runs the basketball court?

472
00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:00,360
The brothers.

473
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:02,620
Yeah, they're on the basketball court.

474
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:07,880
But I don't have to put on our detectives, I've seen better pick up games when I'm watching

475
00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:08,860
right there.

476
00:29:09,220 --> 00:29:12,560
And I don't think it must have been I'm going to the next shot and that shot and I'm going

477
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:13,480
to get into this game somehow.

478
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:14,820
But I can't get the game.

479
00:29:15,140 --> 00:29:19,440
They're not going to pick me because why guys are supposed to be on that best spot for a

480
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:23,200
best evaluation of all of the code, the norms going to the person.

481
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:25,940
But I'm observing.

482
00:29:26,340 --> 00:29:28,800
I know that after this game is over, they're going to shoot for teams.

483
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:31,180
The first of you guys to make shots, get to be team captains.

484
00:29:32,220 --> 00:29:35,180
So I started getting this idea and my head, I gave it the ball on my head.

485
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:38,600
So when the game ends, that ball loses it net.

486
00:29:38,820 --> 00:29:41,660
The end of that last game, I go fall on that ball and it's a formal drill.

487
00:29:42,060 --> 00:29:44,500
Now I want to talk about it, and these guys started coming around me.

488
00:29:44,600 --> 00:29:47,560
And they were not happy, they were like, there's one round of round with the basketball.

489
00:29:47,860 --> 00:29:50,920
I get up, sit down, call for that ball.

490
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:54,620
Like, when we're about to place the ball, I say, man, I'm playing basketball in the day, bro.

491
00:29:55,580 --> 00:29:56,560
And these guys were in creation.

492
00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:57,600
So they were like, what?

493
00:29:58,380 --> 00:29:59,640
Oh, man!

494
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:29,360
Now, it's a member going to hurt you for what? It's not hurt because I'm playing basketball today. You hear me? I don't know where this is coming from inside me, but I mean, you're capable of more than you think you are. That's part of the whole deal of the motivational thing. You're capable of way more than you think you are. So, this dude, one of the biggest news ever he says, you know what, why, why get up and shoot? I hope you make that shot. Oh, man, I'm saying I have to break that line going. David, what the hell have you got your service? Because I know!

495
00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:37,280
I know that this is not going to end well for name of West because if I missed this shot, they're going to jump in because I have just disrespecting an entire basketball court

496
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:43,300
Now I just see basketball court about disrespecting the black community and the president. It's a big big hair

497
00:30:43,300 --> 00:30:48,460
But if I make this shot, they're going to hurt me man. This prison basketball on this building when there's no referees out there

498
00:30:48,460 --> 00:30:50,240
This is why I'm hot eating this basketball

499
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:55,380
You can punch it. Oh, okay, you can do it all and they do it

500
00:30:55,380 --> 00:30:58,440
So I get up there, steal my nerve, and train that shot.

501
00:30:58,620 --> 00:30:59,660
I'm a team captain now.

502
00:31:00,020 --> 00:31:02,320
I take my four and the other guy takes this four,

503
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:03,820
so you think it's five and five,

504
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:05,940
but the math that you said, no, it's nine on one.

505
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,660
You say it or not happy about this dude out there over four.

506
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:10,280
You guys are my team that I pick,

507
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:11,240
think they're going to be on my team.

508
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:12,760
They don't want me out there either.

509
00:31:12,980 --> 00:31:16,040
I'm getting elbows and punches from everybody on the court

510
00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:17,680
and nobody will disobey the ball.

511
00:31:17,740 --> 00:31:19,300
Nobody will kick it to me.

512
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:21,040
So I know the whole way I would get that ball

513
00:31:21,040 --> 00:31:22,740
is going to, because I can't just sit on the outside

514
00:31:22,740 --> 00:31:24,460
because you look like a cow or so I go in there

515
00:31:24,460 --> 00:31:26,340
You didn't pay it that ball, you didn't rebound.

516
00:31:26,940 --> 00:31:28,260
I don't make a shot that game.

517
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:30,460
I come out of that game with a bustle with it,

518
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,860
and a black guy, and I come back out the next day.

519
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:35,400
I feel like that guy's gonna support me

520
00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:37,200
and he's laughing me, because I told him he's laughing

521
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:38,920
to me, I'm not my first guy out there.

522
00:31:39,260 --> 00:31:40,560
He's laughing me, and he said,

523
00:31:40,660 --> 00:31:41,800
make it out of your white wood.

524
00:31:42,100 --> 00:31:43,340
It's not my basketball day.

525
00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:45,160
Because he's doing out there.

526
00:31:45,260 --> 00:31:45,660
He said, you know what?

527
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:47,000
You're on my team today, boy.

528
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:50,180
So I thought yesterday was rough.

529
00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:51,420
This day was even rough.

530
00:31:51,780 --> 00:31:53,960
These guys let me have it, and I try to give it back

531
00:31:55,360 --> 00:32:08,300
It's hard to do and it's going to make me different directions, but I'll stay out there and I get banged up and I come back a third day, a fourth day, and a fifth day and that's six day on that Saturday when I come back out there, the atmosphere is different.

532
00:32:08,300 --> 00:32:13,320
These guys treat me like a teammate fly. They're kicking me a ball, pat me on the back half-five

533
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:16,980
me. Yeah, they're calling me west instead of calling me white for a boy

534
00:32:16,980 --> 00:32:22,280
And when that game is over, they start circling up around me. I thought man, I just misread this situation. It's a big time

535
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:28,380
That same day dude comes up and he says, you know what he says, where's you got guts man?

536
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:30,860
He said in guns or no brains or whatever

537
00:32:30,860 --> 00:32:35,220
He said, but you did something that I've never seen in a white boy do all your men. You stood up to everything

538
00:32:35,220 --> 00:32:39,100
we had to give you, he said, I want you to know you'll never have another conflict of

539
00:32:39,100 --> 00:32:45,980
black or the prison again. You could write that down. And maybe feel good. That may be

540
00:32:45,980 --> 00:32:49,440
feel good, because I had to comprehend that I applied the lesson, the Jackson told me,

541
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:53,100
because I was being that little coffee bean. I changed that atmosphere just that who I was

542
00:32:53,100 --> 00:32:57,800
for them around? And did hold true? Was that the last fight there? Was that the last

543
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:01,960
time I had friends were about fighting? No, there were two more instances. One of them was really

544
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:08,660
I won't get into the day, but I came out the better than that, but if I had to, if there was one fight that had to win, it would've got to be seven.

545
00:33:10,440 --> 00:33:14,980
But from that moment on, I was freed up to do the things I needed to do, because I went in there and I had a plan.

546
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:19,680
Because I came from a good family that taught me morals and taught me playing.

547
00:33:20,140 --> 00:33:24,040
And I wasn't a stupid guy. It took a couple of years to clear this dope out of my brain.

548
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:25,640
That's another thing about math.

549
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:29,780
As it does, it just leaves you like to have anybody that's the method it takes time to

550
00:33:29,780 --> 00:33:30,440
crowd your head for.

551
00:33:30,540 --> 00:33:34,860
When this is happening, I go out there and I start working on myself every day, spiritually,

552
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:36,380
mentally, and physically.

553
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:40,520
I become, I try to become the best man I could be a better man than the guy that came

554
00:33:41,180 --> 00:33:41,840
into prison.

555
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:44,820
I keep involved in the chapel community down there.

556
00:33:45,140 --> 00:33:47,560
And they got lots of programs, you can get involved with it.

557
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:48,580
And you know what I found at the chapel?

558
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:49,860
Other coffee beans.

559
00:33:50,380 --> 00:33:52,340
There's a bunch of more coffee beans hanging out at that chapel.

560
00:33:52,700 --> 00:33:53,680
Not all of them are coffee beans.

561
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:56,160
You've got some, you've got some demons hanging out of the chapel.

562
00:33:56,260 --> 00:33:57,760
The chapel is like the crossroads and the prison.

563
00:33:57,760 --> 00:33:58,740
Everybody goes to chapel.

564
00:33:58,860 --> 00:34:00,400
Again, he goes there to meet up.

565
00:34:00,660 --> 00:34:02,140
Everybody goes there to take care of the business

566
00:34:02,140 --> 00:34:04,660
because everybody can get to the chapel, the chapel and the infirmary.

567
00:34:05,540 --> 00:34:07,240
But there were a lot of other coffee beans in prison.

568
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:07,820
They were positive.

569
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:09,500
They wanted to change the way things were going in there.

570
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:10,740
They wanted to change their lives.

571
00:34:12,020 --> 00:34:13,920
And then the chapel, I made a bunch of guys

572
00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:15,360
from the prison acts community.

573
00:34:15,500 --> 00:34:18,600
And matter of fact, I've got some prison acts prayer cards

574
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:21,780
that are here today that we're going to pass up a little while

575
00:34:21,780 --> 00:34:30,320
Um, for retreat, come up to the apologize, you know, and they're just times you sign up to pray for the inmates and the inmates are going to see that November 10th and 13th of the action tree.

576
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:37,940
So I'm going to let these guys in the axe community, you see these guys running around the community, they have this little bracelet on that to axe community, what they have a person axe community.

577
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:44,020
And these guys coming in and bring Jesus in for the weekend, and, and it's supposed to be amazing then you can see, you can't cry and enjoy.

578
00:34:44,660 --> 00:34:48,320
Now you can't do that, these guys, you can cry and they're coming back to you from every different direction.

579
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:52,880
But on that retreat, man I saw the biggest baddest dude right now like babies in there.

580
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,680
It was cool because there was a moratorium kind of on that room for the whole weekend.

581
00:34:57,060 --> 00:35:00,240
And guys could be themselves and you could see the whole spirit working through people.

582
00:35:00,780 --> 00:35:05,400
And it was cool because he's asked guys when luring you in with food, because food's terrible in prison.

583
00:35:05,780 --> 00:35:07,400
But they would lure air for lures in with food.

584
00:35:07,540 --> 00:35:08,540
I mean, it's kind of not fair.

585
00:35:08,720 --> 00:35:09,480
Right to bring it in.

586
00:35:09,720 --> 00:35:14,360
Dumbo, spaghetti, spaghetti from the J.C.O., the K.C. Hall.

587
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:18,540
They're bringing in all this different food from the outside of mock shoes, I mean bread pudding,

588
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:20,520
and this stuff doesn't exist in prison.

589
00:35:20,720 --> 00:35:23,380
So of course, these guys on the side of the building, they just got their thinnest.

590
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:26,580
They're bringing them out of their stomach and they get their soul on the weekend.

591
00:35:27,260 --> 00:35:29,440
So I told my mom, I'm falling after that first treat.

592
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,620
When I get out of prison one day, that's where my friends are going to come from.

593
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,080
They're asking me again, they're very supportive.

594
00:35:35,220 --> 00:35:36,120
Baby, that's what you wanted to do.

595
00:35:36,340 --> 00:35:37,580
You're going to do it.

596
00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:40,600
My parents never gave up.

597
00:35:40,780 --> 00:35:42,640
My mom and dad right here in the second row.

598
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:46,940
They never gave up and they came to see me over a hundred and fifty times at the

599
00:35:46,940 --> 00:35:54,360
stoichi and you know a hundred fifty visits. That's a herd of y'all. That's

600
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:58,340
for example if a guy gets five visits ways in prison he's in there for ten years or

601
00:35:58,340 --> 00:36:01,080
twenty years and he gets five he gets five visits. He's one of the wealthiest

602
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:04,220
guys there. People want to talk to that guy. He's got a family that loves him and

603
00:36:04,220 --> 00:36:06,940
cares about him. They want to know how to visit when he has good station. There's

604
00:36:06,940 --> 00:36:10,100
most guys that don't give visits. That's just that happened in prison. This is a

605
00:36:10,100 --> 00:36:14,640
got in the place. There's not a lot of hope in there. I got over 150 of them just in the

606
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:18,600
mom and dad and my brothers would come and family friends and in this area would come to

607
00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:23,580
visit and they never gave up on them and they always supported my dreams. I was coming out

608
00:36:24,380 --> 00:36:29,360
of this this institution a better hand and being able to go and work with kids. That was

609
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:33,560
the idea and there was a kind of Charlie Jellon who was the principal at Central Middle School

610
00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:38,360
in New Zealand. Charlie Jellon was my teacher at Civic Ray and one of my coaches in

611
00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:45,940
He would write me and tell me, you know, you're going to be a force for change one day, basically tell me you're going to be that coffee game, and he didn't know the coffee me in order.

612
00:36:46,420 --> 00:36:52,460
But, and so I told my parents about this and what I want to do, my dad and my mom were like, yeah, you're going to do it.

613
00:36:53,060 --> 00:36:57,520
And so, when parole found me decided, they were going to let me go.

614
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:02,960
I came up with my first parole, which is just another example of God looking after me.

615
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:11,280
I'm saying it here today, but I didn't do it in this amount of my mother, my father, my family, and my faith, and my communities, are what got me here today.

616
00:37:11,420 --> 00:37:14,960
And that's what a guy come out of prison is going to need. He's going to need all those things and more.

617
00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,020
But when parole is said, they were never going to let me go.

618
00:37:18,860 --> 00:37:23,840
Maybe my parents were there to pick me up. And my mom and dad, of course, me hug, and we cry to walk a lot.

619
00:37:24,060 --> 00:37:29,000
Well, they let me out of jail, November 6th. Well, they're going to be out of prison, November 16th, 2015, less than a year ago.

620
00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:42,760
I'm not saying, I'm not saying, I'm not saying, I'm not saying, I'm just saying, let's get out of here.

621
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:48,200
And so my mom gives me three things and it was really neat because I look back on it now.

622
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:54,400
And if you needed three things to survive with today's world, it's almost like a checklist of what you would need amongst one.

623
00:37:54,400 --> 00:38:00,100
First thing she gave me was an iPhone, and she's like, here, and I'm like, this thing is, there's no buttons.

624
00:38:00,720 --> 00:38:06,180
When I was a person, I thought it was a button. She's like, you want me to show you how to work and I'm like, now I got this, I'll figure it out.

625
00:38:06,700 --> 00:38:11,440
And the next thing she gave me was my driver's license. I found a way to renew my driver's license.

626
00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:16,640
For me, instead of a prison, there's an individual person, and I ended up driving the golf cart all the time.

627
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:19,080
They were going to renew my driver's license, which was great.

628
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:23,180
And the next thing she gave me was the most important thing she gave me this accident.

629
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:27,600
And she said, baby, did you sign it up for the January extra tree to sign charcoal?

630
00:38:27,660 --> 00:38:29,580
She goes, go out and make your friends.

631
00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:37,140
And then, you know, that was really, that day was a very emotional day on many levels.

632
00:38:38,460 --> 00:38:40,220
And, you know, this is in the side.

633
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:42,980
But, you know, I think the first place I wanted to go eat wasn't going to be in the prison.

634
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:46,940
That's the thing about what we should do.

635
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:48,060
I don't know.

636
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:48,600
No.

637
00:38:49,100 --> 00:38:49,460
What are you doing?

638
00:38:50,540 --> 00:38:51,440
What are you doing?

639
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:53,660
I was doing something that we eat.

640
00:38:54,060 --> 00:38:56,080
And I was dreaming about a number two for seven years.

641
00:38:58,520 --> 00:38:59,640
So my mom and dad were all over there.

642
00:38:59,740 --> 00:39:01,340
We got that number two.

643
00:39:01,500 --> 00:39:03,140
And then we started talking about this plan.

644
00:39:03,620 --> 00:39:06,420
And for this plan was like, the last six months I'm in prison.

645
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:07,940
I'm telling, I'm asking all these guys.

646
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:08,720
I'm very inquisitive.

647
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:09,720
I told her that.

648
00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:12,500
I'm asking all these guys, what are you going to do this time when you get out?

649
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:13,480
Because there's always this time.

650
00:39:13,740 --> 00:39:15,940
We're talking about guys being there four, five, six, seven times.

651
00:39:16,660 --> 00:39:19,060
And I'm making a, I'm doing a poll basically.

652
00:39:19,260 --> 00:39:20,980
Things I don't want to do when I get out of prison,

653
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:22,820
because obviously it's not working for you, right?

654
00:39:24,260 --> 00:39:25,500
So when I get out of prison,

655
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:28,240
I know that I'm going to need my recovery more than anything.

656
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:30,300
Because everything I put in front of my recovery,

657
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:31,880
I want to talk to the recovery in prison,

658
00:39:32,020 --> 00:39:33,920
A.A. group is a volunteer thing,

659
00:39:33,980 --> 00:39:35,760
but I went, and I went every Wednesday.

660
00:39:36,820 --> 00:39:39,120
And I wanted anything I put in front of my recovery

661
00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:40,720
although it's because I'm at it.

662
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:42,140
So I gave my recovery down.

663
00:39:42,780 --> 00:39:44,680
So I gave touch with the guys that did the prison,

664
00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:49,000
I did the A. A group of priests, find their home group in Baltimore. I always told them in prison.

665
00:39:49,380 --> 00:39:53,440
Hey, when I get out of prison one day, I'm from the area of a joint of some group and they just kind of laugh to me, too,

666
00:39:53,460 --> 00:39:55,800
because they get lied to like police and they're like, hey, hey.

667
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:57,160
I think you lied to a lot.

668
00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:02,060
But I didn't touch with Barack Obama, George, and, um,

669
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:09,100
but date, so when I get home that day I come into a hole and I never made it for him, I owe him a parent's donation now,

670
00:40:09,380 --> 00:40:12,020
and I go into a room and there's clothes everywhere you all.

671
00:40:12,020 --> 00:40:15,020
People from the community have gotten together to help me out.

672
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:17,480
Both for charity brothers, my little brother.

673
00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:22,180
I mean, just people got together to say, you know, welcome home, Damon.

674
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:23,040
And I've been in a lot.

675
00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:25,920
And so the next day, I put on the best hand me down outfit.

676
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:27,960
I could find how it was so happy to have it.

677
00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:29,000
And I went and saw him in the shrub.

678
00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:30,300
He provoked something up for him.

679
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:31,680
I saw a super-american day.

680
00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:34,980
And I went in there and told him, I said, hey, look,

681
00:40:35,140 --> 00:40:36,460
I'm fresh out of prison.

682
00:40:36,860 --> 00:40:37,640
I need a job.

683
00:40:38,860 --> 00:40:40,260
And I got everybody's attention to the rhythm.

684
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:45,660
Wow, but of course they were going to tell them they knew I was coming, and I think

685
00:40:45,660 --> 00:40:49,340
you know, in self-inspaction, they wanted to make sure I didn't have any facial tattoos and

686
00:40:49,340 --> 00:40:53,280
they didn't have that no-chair drops, you know, they didn't get full of all helmet on my nose

687
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:53,720
or anything.

688
00:40:54,140 --> 00:40:55,940
I knew I had a cowboy helmet on his nose.

689
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:56,860
What were you going to work with?

690
00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:57,320
Cowboys?

691
00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:00,380
But he's never getting out.

692
00:41:01,940 --> 00:41:06,440
So, Mr. Offerry said, of an appointment, a job interview for the next day, for that Wednesday,

693
00:41:06,660 --> 00:41:10,080
for me to meet with Chris Kirchner, there's right here in front of the road, and I got

694
00:41:10,080 --> 00:41:13,740
I've got to the interview with Chris and had a lot of trepidation about this.

695
00:41:13,940 --> 00:41:17,580
This is, I mean, I'm an ex-conant going to a very prestigious law firm to buy one,

696
00:41:17,720 --> 00:41:23,120
Texas, that's been for them to do it, being solid for me, and over look on stuff, it's

697
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:26,840
in this guy deserve a second chance, and you know what they did, they provost them for your

698
00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:31,640
all firm, saw something to me, and they gave me a second chance, and I hope that every day

699
00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:36,300
I prove to them that I am worth that second chance, because I am so loyal to these people

700
00:41:36,300 --> 00:41:37,060
for what they've done.

701
00:41:37,060 --> 00:41:38,840
But it's not even a small miracle.

702
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:40,880
That's not like a million-a-million-type daily in a job

703
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:42,020
in a place like that on the prison.

704
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:45,460
And one of the next things I took in,

705
00:41:45,500 --> 00:41:47,380
when I told these guys the prison when I was in a dude next,

706
00:41:47,620 --> 00:41:49,180
they were there, thought I was nuts, I said,

707
00:41:49,180 --> 00:41:51,140
man, I need to go and meet the police in the town

708
00:41:51,140 --> 00:41:51,740
that they live in.

709
00:41:51,940 --> 00:41:54,540
So I go and have a point instead of a chief alone

710
00:41:54,540 --> 00:41:56,580
and he said, cross the pedestrian.

711
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:58,280
It's looking like you're like, why are you here?

712
00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:00,860
And I'm like, well, I just got out of prison

713
00:42:00,860 --> 00:42:02,100
and I wanted you to be out of it.

714
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:03,980
And no way, and I want you to know that, hey,

715
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:06,560
you know, I just want to be a normal guy on the side again.

716
00:42:06,560 --> 00:42:11,540
And he was a little shocked, I was a little shocked because I mean he said he didn't get a lot of that.

717
00:42:13,300 --> 00:42:18,960
But that's because what these other guys have been doing is not working, so when I talk to these guys, I tell them about this.

718
00:42:19,740 --> 00:42:22,020
And so on and so forth, I find my church.

719
00:42:22,180 --> 00:42:23,200
I find, say, the wisdom is important.

720
00:42:23,540 --> 00:42:25,700
And they take me in and they take me in whole hall.

721
00:42:25,800 --> 00:42:27,760
And these people, they love me so much.

722
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:28,380
And I love them.

723
00:42:28,540 --> 00:42:30,420
And they are never once judged me.

724
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:34,620
If I hadn't got a lot of that from the community at all, then I wouldn't let them judge me.

725
00:42:34,620 --> 00:42:39,740
And I say, look, I've got this plan, I want to do this, and he saw all the potential in there.

726
00:42:39,960 --> 00:42:42,380
But he wanted me to jump to some hoops first and improve myself.

727
00:42:42,660 --> 00:42:46,860
Because I'm a drug addict, just out of prison, for 65 of your sentence for an unscrowned.

728
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:49,640
There's got to be something to it, a jury gave him that for a reason.

729
00:42:49,700 --> 00:42:51,880
So he wants to kind of test the water with me.

730
00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:53,600
And that I meet our cello multino.

731
00:42:54,420 --> 00:42:56,120
And so we start doing these talks.

732
00:42:56,860 --> 00:43:00,580
And I know that one day, I would like to go back into prison.

733
00:43:00,700 --> 00:43:02,340
Because I remember when I was in prison.

734
00:43:02,940 --> 00:43:07,660
and guys have been in prison before we're coming to talk and every time one of these

735
00:43:07,660 --> 00:43:10,640
get in prison they'll out of the fire and you've ever heard you like guys I've never

736
00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:14,500
heard another domino slam on metal tape it'll be two hundred five hundred five hundred five

737
00:43:14,500 --> 00:43:20,600
hundred six prisons allows the fire in your life and um with these guys we're coming

738
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:24,880
to talk that have been in prison before but I'm parole and I'm successful everybody that

739
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:28,940
room was shut up and listen to what I'm like and I'm always one of them and I want to

740
00:43:28,940 --> 00:43:33,000
know what that guy did to do it. And so I've been saying I want to get back into the prison

741
00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:37,400
and going there and be that guy because I know that I can find another Damon West and that

742
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:42,260
room. And so just by doing the right thing and George Burnett taking me out to talk to kids

743
00:43:42,260 --> 00:43:45,820
and schools and churches and mobile phones taking me out to talk to kids and schools and churches,

744
00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:51,780
things that people have noticed and people want us to come talk more and more and we're always

745
00:43:51,780 --> 00:43:55,480
available to do it. But it also got the attention of the word and the styles you know.

746
00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:59,500
But if you're not allowed to go back to the prison, you did your time, and they don't want you there for several reasons.

747
00:43:59,540 --> 00:44:00,220
One of them is security.

748
00:44:00,320 --> 00:44:02,000
They don't know somebody's got to be with them.

749
00:44:02,420 --> 00:44:04,600
They haven't been settled before.

750
00:44:04,900 --> 00:44:05,420
I made that word.

751
00:44:05,540 --> 00:44:08,160
I went up to one of the guys in the axe group and said, hey, look.

752
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:11,160
I've been seeing stuff about Damon around town.

753
00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:13,460
You tell Damon, I want him to come back to this prison.

754
00:44:13,660 --> 00:44:15,900
I think he can be a positive force and change.

755
00:44:16,260 --> 00:44:17,960
That little coffee being again, right?

756
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:25,460
So my parole, I said, it's contingent upon my parole, sir, prove it, and my parole, sir, prove it.

757
00:44:26,100 --> 00:44:29,360
So this is no whimper, I get to go back into the stals, you know, for the prison

758
00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:29,960
act retreat.

759
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:31,380
And this guy was going to know I'm coming.

760
00:44:31,500 --> 00:44:33,340
So if you know anybody, prison, don't tell him I'm coming.

761
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:40,160
But I'm going back in, and I'm excited that I got to have to hang to my co-worker all the time

762
00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:43,300
about it, you know, people are like, man, he's nervous, but I'm going back in.

763
00:44:43,640 --> 00:44:46,680
God was with me the first time, God's going to be with me this time.

764
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:52,080
I can't wait to go back to me that prison because I know that I can give hope to somebody in there.

765
00:44:52,240 --> 00:44:56,220
There's going to be one just like when I go talk to these kids and we're looking for one in the room.

766
00:44:56,500 --> 00:44:59,980
There's going to be one in that room and that prison that's going to get this...

767
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:09,300
And that one person can go back to Saudi and maybe do the same thing. I mean, just think of a ripple effect if you can get more and more guys coming out of the pinching to do this kind of stuff.

768
00:45:09,860 --> 00:45:14,860
Because they're 95% of people in person are going to come out one day. They're going to come out to their bigger neighbors.

769
00:45:15,680 --> 00:45:18,740
You know, you might as well, we might as well try to work with if we can inside out.

770
00:45:19,620 --> 00:45:27,620
And so, I have all these wonderful opportunities today, and I have all these people that I'm thankful for helping me because I didn't do this in my own.

771
00:45:27,620 --> 00:45:34,440
But my challenge for you today, because I'll always share the challenge he's given when I finish talking about different things, this is a different topic.

772
00:45:35,100 --> 00:45:37,980
But my challenge for you today is to be that called if you be.

773
00:45:38,260 --> 00:45:44,040
Whatever the atmosphere around you is trying to change it for the positive be, that be that effective people.

774
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:48,340
That called if you mean it was the smallest of the three things we talked about, but it's strongest.

775
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:55,600
It doesn't matter who you are, if I could go under prison and come out of a maximum security wing of a maximum security prison looking like this,

776
00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:57,700
talking like this, you can't tell I've been a prison.

777
00:45:58,220 --> 00:46:00,060
You can't have a conversation with me unless I'm really

778
00:46:00,060 --> 00:46:01,820
putting it on you about how it sounds in there.

779
00:46:02,100 --> 00:46:03,380
You can't tell that I've been a prison,

780
00:46:03,840 --> 00:46:05,440
because I can get crazy and talking nuts.

781
00:46:06,940 --> 00:46:09,200
But if I could come out like this

782
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:11,520
because of the sport among that I have,

783
00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:14,500
then you could be that coffee being too, because it did.

784
00:46:15,180 --> 00:46:16,780
It wasn't just me, y'all.

785
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:18,160
I had a lot of help along the way.

786
00:46:19,140 --> 00:46:20,860
I want to thank everybody for coming here today.

787
00:46:21,220 --> 00:46:22,100
This is, I mean, both of me are way

788
00:46:22,100 --> 00:46:23,640
that so many people are showing up to listen to this.

789
00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:27,800
every time I get to a crowd and there's people like Josh said that these

790
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:31,400
thank you very much for giving kids both of the way. I love the talk to youth programs.

791
00:46:31,720 --> 00:46:36,080
If any of you guys can find a way to plug me in to their program as a result of this talk

792
00:46:36,080 --> 00:46:40,120
today, please do. Get into touch with Josh for a minute. We want to go, I want to go with this

793
00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:43,280
many places I can talk to kids. It's many kids I can talk to.