[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:13] Appreciate you all being here. Now, today, I want you to hear one of the most amazing stories that I have ever heard.
[0:21] 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.
[0:39] a wonderful life to self-destructions.
[0:43] Everyone will get something today.
[0:46] This speaker has changed many lives.
[0:48] I've got some letters on my desk right now that I've just read in my clerk's.
[0:54] Thank you all for the presentation.
[0:57] You have changed my life.
[0:59] Now, I don't know about you. That's all we want.
[1:01] We've got a whole bunch of them.
[1:03] If you all will listen to what you hear today to spread
[1:05] we can keep this ball rolling. Okay? Now we're going to get started. First thing we're going to do is
[1:12] get started with a short clip. Okay? Can we do that? Statistics show if you've been
[1:18] incarcerated once, there's a good chance you'll end up behind bars again. That's not how
[1:23] Damon West wants his story to end and he's proving to others the best to get to come.
[1:29] It takes us for ball this team and for our their had a rising star in an early 90s.
[1:40] Damon West was the golden child.
[1:43] The three-year star drew Thomas Jefferson High School.
[1:46] And he had pretty legit.
[1:47] He was in the locker room.
[1:48] The Cowboys were headed to their first Super Bowl,
[1:51] and he had James Johnson.
[1:52] But Johnson delivered that name aside.
[1:54] And I'll always tell you how to take it.
[1:56] How do I take it?
[1:58] Yeah.
[1:59] It's dangerous.
[2:00] Still a break.
[2:01] Just one.
[2:02] Two more.
[2:03] You could ask for a better script for Almerd.
[2:07] We did it.
[2:08] I mean, I came from a great family.
[2:10] Two brothers, Brandon Grayson.
[2:12] The football stuff was just amazing.
[2:14] My dad and Jimmy Johnson being best friends.
[2:16] You know, I would go, as you remember back.
[2:19] When I was a kid, I was going to go to a lot of games.
[2:21] I told him to take a phone call on the sidelines.
[2:22] I mean, and this is not something normal, kids got to do.
[2:26] He had it all.
[2:27] The media was there when he signed his football scholarship to North Texas, and you
[2:32] talk about proud parents.
[2:34] His dad, the long-time sports writer, the poor, the nurse, and his mom, she, and he
[2:38] were watching their son's success.
[2:40] And that's the thing that he hoped to experience when he did everything, he'd to be the
[2:44] five goals and to coach and teach it, but he'd be there at our least, at our late, there
[2:51] and somewhere he'd go around and find gas that he could throw to the middle of a really
[2:55] pussy just had a party desire succeed and he did, he graduated from North Texas, started
[3:01] a job as a stock broker in Dallas but then all came crashing down that one day he couldn't
[3:08] say no to Crystal meth.
[3:20] Well, it's a general afternoon, David, for years.
[3:23] I knew him as the famous sports riders he had it, I knew him as a local hometown football hero.
[3:32] I knew him as a troubled young man.
[3:36] I knew him as a man who survived.
[3:39] And now that man, I'm going to call up he's going to tell you this story today
[3:43] to benefit you. Let's give them a wish to be close.
[4:00] Thanks for coming out today. This is amazing.
[4:01] Just stay here. I want to thank you and your staff judge. I mean, you don't did tremendous job.
[4:07] She didn't actually thank you emails all week.
[4:09] Phone calls, emails, what the phone had had problem with phone a couple of days there.
[4:14] But, you know, a tremendous job and judge, I want to thank you
[4:18] because without you believing in me,
[4:23] you mean, none of this will be possible.
[4:25] You know, when I got out of prison, I passed you.
[4:29] for that with phone calls over and over because I had this plan while I was in there that I wouldn't
[4:33] be able to get out and share what happened would be to maybe stop someone else's child and
[4:38] have to go through this, but I needed a sponsor to do this. You can't just show them on the
[4:44] doorstep of schools and say how I'm just out of the joint when I talk to your kids.
[4:50] So I had to talk
[4:51] to the sponsor. So all the ax guys were like, well, you need to go talk to the judge for that. He's an
[4:56] I call it over, and at one of the four five times where he finally said,
[5:00] tell him my office, we didn't tell him.
[5:02] That is a great idea, so let's tell him.
[5:05] So, Jennifer didn't have a lot of faith in me, and there was another guy, and he's
[5:08] not here today, and I see a lot of people from his office, from District Attorney's office,
[5:12] Marcelo, and I'm off, you know, and these two men believe me are really on, and they have
[5:17] a vision.
[5:18] And we all share this vision, and if we can go out there, like I said, and say, one kid,
[5:23] it's all we're looking for.
[5:24] go in this room and stop one kid from having to go through what I went through.
[5:28] Then it'll be worth it.
[5:29] I mean, because if you stop one kid from the criminal addictive cycle, you create all of this.
[5:33] Victims in the society, that kid grows up to have a family, yes, children, and on and on.
[5:41] And they have a different approach.
[5:42] This judgment that has its own approach, and both of them have its own approach too.
[5:47] But we all have this idea, and it's kind of audacious to the point that it's successful,
[5:51] because you've got a city judge adjusted the peace.
[5:54] You've got the assistant chief, the district attorney's office,
[5:57] a long-fledged officer, and a Mexican officer.
[5:59] I mean, it's a rag tag group, right?
[6:01] But we go in there and we change lives.
[6:04] And we know we're changing lives, and we get the feedback from him.
[6:07] And I'll speak in a moment of the other day.
[6:08] I'll just have lunch and a narcotics officer from the BVD.
[6:13] And he was asked, he said, hey, hey, man.
[6:15] You know, we said, most of it, you go in all these meetings all the time.
[6:17] for covering things. He's 12 different things. Why don't you have to go to that? You've been
[6:20] sober all these years. Okay, to just not do the drugs anymore. If I'm sure, you use
[6:25] the work here. And I kind of laugh because it's an addict. I know that I will never be
[6:30] well. I may get better, but I'll never be well. I have a daily reprieve from my addiction,
[6:36] contingent on the maintenance of my spiritual growth. And every day, I have to apply
[6:41] the same force, spiritual principles to my life or do my best to, because I'm not perfect
[6:45] they're not struggle. But on selfish, honesty, purity and love, if I can apply those four
[6:53] things to run every decision I make for that little matrix, then I'll be okay, then I'll
[6:58] stay sober and I'll stay out of prison. I don't make any more victims. And we're going to talk
[7:01] about victims today because I made a lot of victims along the way, not just victims of burgers,
[7:06] but the biggest victims are sitting right here, my mother, father, mom, dad, thanks for coming.
[7:09] I really mean a lot to me, and another person I want to thank is my boss, Chris Kirchman,
[7:15] thanks for the job, you've made a big difference in my life,
[7:21] so I always tell these kids when
[7:22] I go in there, then I'm a product of the public school system. I got a high school diploma from
[7:26] And time is here for some high school, 419 Texas, right?
[7:29] I'm Roath.
[7:29] Bye.
[7:30] Bachelor's degree from the University of North Texas in Denton, another public school.
[7:34] I got a PhD from the School of Harvard Knox, right on the road at the Stiles Union,
[7:38] courtesy of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
[7:41] So, I'm a product of the public school system.
[7:45] So, we're in all this beginning.
[7:47] It's growing up, of course, you know, my parents are, I have a older brother than Brandon,
[7:52] the younger brother than Grayson.
[7:53] And we had a great family.
[7:54] I mean, we still have a great family. And God is at the center of our family.
[7:58] And we had struggles along the way, and as in addition, you're going to try to find what you
[8:04] call the act of being a man, and through it all we found that in the summer of 1985, I was
[8:10] nine years old, I came up to my parents and I was most be molested by my babysitter.
[8:15] And you know, with 1985, my parents did everything they had to do, and I sent them to
[8:21] the council and sent them to talk to family priests, and we prayed, we prayed a lot.
[8:25] but something inside that will neither all change.
[8:29] And I started to put you chemicals in my body,
[8:31] change the way I felt, by the age of 10,
[8:33] I'm drinking smoke and cigarettes, by the time I was
[8:35] well, I'm smoking pot.
[8:36] And I don't want to be a thing, I'm hurting anybody.
[8:39] Because, no, I'm just doing this.
[8:40] I'm not, you know, no one has been hurt by it.
[8:42] And I was still a really good athlete, right?
[8:44] So who am I hurt?
[8:45] But looking back now, I know that even as an athlete,
[8:50] I was hurt with the guys around me,
[8:51] because they never got to see the full potential
[8:52] that the guy that was recorded by it.
[8:54] And I was hurting myself from one of anybody.
[8:58] And I always ask these kids what going into rooms,
[9:00] what the gateway drug is.
[9:02] And every one of them said the same thing every time,
[9:04] That's not true.
[9:05] The gateway drug is really alcohol.
[9:07] Because alcohol is a drug.
[9:09] And if you're doing it in the day to 10,
[9:11] or any time below age 21, it's a crime.
[9:13] So it's criminal addictive behavior
[9:14] that you're experimenting with already.
[9:16] And so alcohol doesn't get to your awareness
[9:19] that I think it should.
[9:20] But that's why I go to my recovery program
[9:23] deals with alcoholics.
[9:24] because that's where it all started for me.
[9:27] So I said I was really good athlete and that afforded me the ability to give scholarship to the University of New York Texas.
[9:34] And this scholarship was the amazing thing. It was a dream come true.
[9:36] Because I used to watch football with my dad and Saturday afternoon.
[9:40] And I'd tell my dad a one day, one day I'll be playing those days.
[9:43] I'll be walking those tunnels.
[9:45] And my parents were very supportive, very encouraged.
[9:48] And they would say, yeah, if you said you're going to do it, then you'll do it.
[9:51] 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.
[10:00] 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.
[10:10] And I kind of lose who I am along the way and Judge Bernand alluded to what you we call
[10:16] a fork in the road days.
[10:17] We're always telling these kids hey you're going to come in days and life what is a fork
[10:20] in the road.
[10:21] And you've got to pick the right path to go on, you've got to choose one way or another and
[10:26] one of them is going to take you out of the good path, one of them is going to take you out
[10:28] of the bad path.
[10:29] But if you don't have the moral foundation to make that decision you're going to choose
[10:33] with long paths every time and on September 21st, 1996 against Texas saying how my career
[10:39] was injured on the third foot of the camera set for everyone's shoulder. This is not in my
[10:43] plan. And when I talk to you, especially the college athletes, I'm talking, I stress the
[10:47] importance of handling something like this better than what I did. And like I tell these kids,
[10:51] these rooms, it's never a good idea to make your own mistakes alive when there are others around
[10:56] you that you can learn from and let them make them mistakes for you. Let my life be an example,
[11:02] others would not to do. Let it be a cautioner to tell what happened to them and what? Because from
[11:06] that from that injury I went on to get another injury and it makes the following summer when
[11:12] I'm getting my starting job back and I survived two weeks in the neck and that's it,
[11:16] that's a career under a football college. So now I left with what I'd like to call an
[11:21] existential vacuum. There's nothing left in my life because this big hole is there because I
[11:27] put so much stock in a football player and instead feeling an existential vacuum with something
[11:32] If something good, we're very back to where I was raised with God, something good, I feel
[11:38] it with cocaine, with pills, as I'm partying harder to call it, I'm never turning.
[11:43] And somehow, I managed to graduate and get that bachelor to the United States Congress.
[11:52] And when that didn't satisfy me on enough, I ended up getting a job as a political fundraiser.
[11:57] If you'd like to make more money doing that, there was a guy running for president in 2004,
[12:01] that needed a fundraiser in Texas in Oklahoma to raise the money for major donors.
[12:05] So I took that job, came back from DC, came back to Texas, and when he dropped out of the race,
[12:10] I thought, you know what?
[12:11] I could probably see it in the even more money.
[12:14] So I took that major donor list that I had, and I went to the United Bank of Switzerland,
[12:18] UBS, one of the biggest banks in the world.
[12:20] They hired me on to be a stockbroker.
[12:22] And they're having worked Dallas branch office.
[12:26] And I learned a lot about the financial markets being a broker.
[12:29] or training to be a broker, I learned a lot about financial markets and I learned a lot
[12:33] about different investment tools, mutual funds, money markets, stocks, bonds, commodities,
[12:40] and I also learned a lot about life about these two particular commodities that aren't
[12:43] traded in the stock exchange. There's one commodity that is in the money supply. You can
[12:48] have as much evidence you want in life and when you're out of it, you can have more, just
[12:52] ask life and you're going to give you all you want. For free, yeah, it's crazy, it's misery. You
[12:57] You can have all of the victory you want in life and life will keep you warm.
[13:01] All you have to do is just go back and test that and ask for it.
[13:04] But there's another commodity, and this commodity is the most precious commodity in the world.
[13:09] Because once it's gone, it's gone, it cannot be replaced.
[13:12] It's worth more than all the oil, all the gold, silver, platinum, all that combined.
[13:17] All the money in the world can't buy you more of this next time.
[13:20] The time is a great legal legend, and once it's gone, it's gone.
[13:24] you and me the same way you can't get that time. So when I was a Dallas
[13:29] the broker I came to introduce to me that's been one day and the guy
[13:35] here's been a pipe and he says hey man no he looks like you're down a little bit
[13:38] you're dragging a bit smoke this and I don't have the internal
[13:42] constitution to say no to a drug because I'm done on the drugs I'm
[13:45] dang it I can do whatever I want right so I tried this drug and I'm
[13:52] One time smoking had drove and I was instantly hooked and it took no time for me to lose
[13:57] my job, my home, my car, my family, my life, my mind, my tender and your God, whenever
[14:04] I was left to bed and I was living in the street, I went from work in a Wall Street to live
[14:08] in the streets of Dallas.
[14:10] And I fell in with a bunch of little dope things, a bunch of other methods, just like myself
[14:15] and I was living in a school of dope house or track house and all we do is sit around
[14:19] I'm talking about how we're going to get higher and higher and higher and higher.
[14:22] This is what my life has become.
[14:23] Now remember where I came from?
[14:25] I got it.
[14:25] I came from a good family.
[14:27] I can't see here today and tell you that I came from a broken home.
[14:30] But I didn't have any opportunity in life because I did it.
[14:33] And all the love and support child needs to grow,
[14:35] and do anything he wants.
[14:37] You know, and no one grows up wanting to be an alcoholic, a drug addict, a thief, a criminal,
[14:45] a liar.
[14:45] No one aspires for that.
[14:46] I wanted to be a sports agent, but I became all those other things.
[14:51] And here I am sitting in these dope houses and these other dope feeds.
[14:55] And we have a fun to build a problem with our operation now.
[14:58] We don't have any money.
[15:00] 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.
[15:30] But it kind of works because remember that ministry you can have more ministry, all you have to do is ask for it
[15:35] 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
[15:43] We need to do more so we started breaking in the house and
[15:47] Whenever you do a bird for you whenever you break into someone's home
[15:50] You don't just steal the property. I didn't love you. I stayed. I didn't just steal people's property
[15:57] 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.
[16:04] I think there's this secure, I mean they've been violated by a guy who wanted to go home.
[16:09] And it's not just me, there's other dope things with me, but I'm going to take responsibility for what I did.
[16:15] And this person goes into their home, and violates that since security they have, and they've made never get that back.
[16:22] 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.
[16:30] Man, I'm a monster at this point.
[16:33] 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.
[16:38] Because she can't sleep with her lights, something more children do that when they're afraid of monsters.
[16:42] And they think something's in the closet.
[16:43] But she had a face now to put with the monster that scared her and was me sitting across to the defense table.
[16:50] So we break into the homes that it does as a people and create so many things along the way.
[16:54] But also during that time I'm not just creating a victims of property crimes.
[16:58] I've created victims of people that love me because that's what addiction does.
[17:02] Addition hurts those that love us the most.
[17:04] They go through way more than what we know as addicts.
[17:07] My mother and father and my brothers went through all this with...
[17:10] My mother beg me to come back to Port Arthur during those years thought this was going on.
[17:14] But I'm in Dallas.
[17:15] 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
[17:19] He's just only talk to him before
[17:22] But on July 30, 2008, a Dallas SWAT team came in to strike to me from a little run down part
[17:28] And they put it in to be up time burgers because they got it there. I got they got the up time burger
[17:34] And
[17:37] 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
[17:42] And I remember the only thought bouncing through my head that day was hell, the heaven I go get high from in here.
[17:48] And that's how far gone I was.
[17:52] 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.
[17:57] I refer to it as my resting day.
[18:00] Because God began to have a situation I couldn't give myself out of.
[18:03] Not exactly how I had planned, but still, I was all the streets.
[18:08] I couldn't harm anybody else, especially myself.
[18:11] So I'm a kind of jail.
[18:14] I mean, do I have a job with you?
[18:16] No, that's okay.
[18:17] I can laugh a lot.
[18:17] People laugh at me.
[18:18] I'm a jail man.
[18:20] So I'm a kind of jail.
[18:22] And I'm starting to miss my family now.
[18:24] I'm starting to wonder where that wonderful puppy family is.
[18:26] Because I'm sobering up.
[18:27] And I'm starting, I'm scared.
[18:29] I'm like, I'm scared of death.
[18:30] I'm already in one fight.
[18:32] One day in there, or a breakfast tray.
[18:34] Maybe it's not going to be good.
[18:35] So I'm eyeballing that blue day room.
[18:37] And I know that I can go with it.
[18:39] my parents about and I don't know if they even know what's going on. I know it's on the
[18:42] T every TV station in jail because I keep replying on the loop so I know it's a high
[18:46] profile deal in Dallas. And any army that may know my father. My father is 72 years old and
[18:54] he's from a generation of men. These guys, they don't show a lot of emotion. They don't,
[19:01] you know, my dad didn't come up with a kiss being telling me, I love you all the time like my mother
[19:05] for example. But I knew my dad loved me. Then I knew that he would do anything for me because
[19:09] I knew how much he loved me. And I know how much my mother loved me. So it was a shout to
[19:14] you when I called home the day and my father answered the phone, but it didn't sound like my
[19:19] father. And any other appearance this ring puts yourself in a position of your child coming
[19:24] from jail right now because I'm going to go replay the sink point. So I called home,
[19:29] whoever answers that phone is my father does it sound like it sounds like a wounded animal. He's screaming
[19:35] 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
[19:40] of the crowd. I've never heard of the crowd until now. And I know that I've broken my thoughts
[19:44] and I've broken my hero. And he's screaming like, what do we do wrong? How do we go so long
[19:48] if you have any message? So that what can we have done different? These are things you don't want
[19:52] to hear as a child, but if you don't, definitely don't want to hear them as you don't want to say
[19:56] it was apparent, right? And we're having a hard time communicating because there's so much emotion
[20:02] And while in both hands, my mom, being in a wretched nurse, she's used to trauma, she'd
[20:07] taste the phone and I'd add to it, and she said, but you listen, she said, no matter what
[20:12] you do, your father and I would love you.
[20:15] That's unconditional love.
[20:16] You've got that from us.
[20:18] But we can't do any for you.
[20:19] We are right now.
[20:20] You are in a place where we can't touch you.
[20:22] We can't help you.
[20:23] Only God can help you now.
[20:25] I'll never forget.
[20:26] She told me she said, you're now a captive audience to God and you're better fighting.
[20:31] And this she asked me something, she asked me a question, she said, hey, do you remember
[20:35] that plague that I had with you all was a kid growing up and then I'm come off dope and
[20:40] my head is full of all kinds of crazy stuff and I don't know what she's got for God.
[20:44] So now I'm a doll.
[20:45] She said it's put prints in the sand.
[20:47] You remember that story and I'm a vagal memory, but she went on the 7th, she said there's
[20:51] a guy walking in the beach name and he's walking with Jesus and he knows this is on this
[20:57] video that's put in his life.
[20:58] every time something good happens in his life there's two sets of footprints walking
[21:01] in my journey. But when something bad happens when he loses something, when there's pain
[21:06] when there's hurt, when there's loss, when there's suffering, it's going to slide
[21:09] one set footprints. In this pattern repeat to settle over and over if I'm going to
[21:13] have to say Jesus what's not bad. He said every time something good happens you're there
[21:16] every time something bad happens you're abandoned me. So Jesus looks the guys his name you
[21:20] full. He said every time you saw one set of footprints I didn't abandon you. I can't reach you.
[21:25] She's screaming. I mean actually saying damn it looked down. All you're going to see is
[21:29] one set of footprints when you walk where you are and those aren't yours buddy. You better
[21:32] 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
[21:38] jail cell that I just scared you to death at the beginning. I went there and I started praying to a god
[21:42] that I hadn't talked to and so long. And I started praying to let me back in and he did. But they
[21:47] could version. You can have it overnight, y'all. Because I'm still on that thorn in there. I'm still
[21:51] trying to call these up the dope things on the world, try to raise money and make it a bond made.
[21:55] I'm putting other people at risk with other crimes, I'm asking them to commit to try to get some stolen property food.
[22:01] So I didn't have it overnight, I'm a bad guy at all.
[22:04] At this point, I'm a bad guy at my addiction.
[22:08] But ten months later, I was a real one, I go to that job.
[22:12] And this jury revered.
[22:13] It's actually my funeral here today, because I thought she might be here.
[22:17] That's my one funeral's wife.
[22:18] She sacrificed so much to my wife.
[22:20] And we talked about this one day because she's a prosecutor.
[22:24] But then Julia was out for 10 minutes, so 10 minutes, the journey deliberated, that was counting, the journey my peers came back.
[22:30] 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.
[22:41] And maybe it was like a pecker when I just said that, 65.
[22:45] It was like they were looking at all, just a tunnel that you can't see, no light.
[22:50] So I did one last visit to my parents before I go to prison.
[22:56] And because I haven't been paying my debts in my life, but my mom and dad call my dad
[23:00] they say, listen, don't come back from prison as something we don't recognize.
[23:04] You're going to come home one day, you're going to make parole one day, you're not staying
[23:08] up forever, you're going to come home, but you're going to come back as something we don't
[23:12] just come back as something we recognize, because you were raised right, you were in a town
[23:16] of the giant, you were raised in a town that was a giant guilty man, poor author, you
[23:20] grow up and you were always one of the only white kids where ever you went, man. You're going to
[23:25] go into my dad's home and you're going to go into an environment that's really racially charged
[23:29] because they know a little bit about prison. It's a really racially charged environment but do
[23:33] not come back with a bunch of squasks because all over you don't join a white hate group because
[23:37] you're scared of what the consequences are of your decision get with God. God's only one that can
[23:42] help you through this again can't help you. So I'll make that promise to him and I'll make that promise
[23:47] 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.
[23:53] Everybody knows me.
[23:54] I have a page that will do ask a lot of questions, yeah.
[23:56] This is my co-version.
[23:57] So, I ask a lot of questions.
[23:58] I'm very inquisitive.
[23:59] I go back to the pond.
[24:00] I'm asking around everybody.
[24:02] Why?
[24:02] Black is expanding.
[24:03] He's telling me man, look.
[24:05] This is the most racially charged environment you've ever seen in your life.
[24:07] Race runs the institution of prison.
[24:10] That's the way they end me to one.
[24:11] They want everybody to go out for their own world of groups.
[24:14] They want you to have a little white guy like you running around and it's smashed.
[24:17] So black guys now the white guy's gonna jump in and start the race before give it a can with just do it
[24:22] You know like since never come out
[24:24] Whether it's one guy on guy this old black guy named Mr. Jackson. I call him Mr. Jackson all the time
[24:29] I'll get deferred to him with respect because this guy he took a shot at me for some reason and he
[24:35] He took me in and he taught me some things about prison and I would need to know
[24:39] First I need to tell me
[24:40] 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
[24:46] If you ever let someone beat you without throwing a punch bag, they're going to devout with you.
[24:51] He said, first they're going to beat you, and they're going to steal from you,
[24:54] and then they're going to take something from you that you'll never get back.
[24:57] They're going to do something really bad to you, in which you've been, he said,
[25:01] and when you get there, you don't want to do the gang gang, that's fine.
[25:04] Stand up for yourself, tell these dudes you're going to walk alone.
[25:06] First, you have to come up to you, he's not going to be the problem, it's the second guy.
[25:09] The first guy's going to do the information gathering.
[25:10] The second skin head that comes up, where he opens the mouth, but you're fisting.
[25:15] 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
[25:22] And this is what we do when we're talking about motivation deal
[25:25] 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
[25:33] Prist is high, y'all. There's no air conditioning takes the person. I was right here in Bowman for seven years and
[25:38] 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
[25:45] But take this potable on water, and that boiling water represents the atmosphere of the prison is,
[25:50] all right, then you take a carrot, you take egg, and you take a coffee bean.
[25:56] He said, if I throw this carrot in that potable on water, what's going to happen to that carrot?
[26:01] What happens to the carrot if it's going to potable on water?
[26:04] Get soft. You don't want to be the carrot. You do not want to be the carrot in prison.
[26:09] But if I take this egg, if I throw this egg in a potable on water, what happens to the egg?
[26:14] It's hard. You don't want to be a president because you're going to come back and something
[26:18] your parents don't recognize if you become a pig.
[26:22] But if I take this little baby coffee bean and throw it in a pot of oil and water, what happens?
[26:27] It's strong.
[26:28] Makes coffee.
[26:29] You said it's a good value.
[26:31] It makes coffee.
[26:32] You have to change the name of the water because the way that little bean could do.
[26:36] He said, so if you want to do what you want to do, what you're saying you want to do,
[26:39] you have to change the atmosphere around you.
[26:41] 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
[26:48] It's going to take a while, but you have to be a coffee bean wherever you go, man
[26:52] You have to be that paying you have to change that environment around you
[26:56] And so he gave me some more knowledge to take with me about prison. Most of it about the vibe
[27:00] 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
[27:07] And so I started to want to have a box and move with it.
[27:09] But when I got to prison, it was just like he said,
[27:11] man, their first skin hit comes up.
[27:14] He's like, hey, what's up?
[27:15] I knew he ride with.
[27:16] Tell him again, I'm a face I'm walking along.
[27:18] I'm walking with God.
[27:19] He's last hit.
[27:19] He said, God, God didn't live here.
[27:22] Goes off.
[27:23] 10 minutes later.
[27:23] 10 minutes later, he comes to his other skin hit.
[27:25] Good number two.
[27:27] And just like, just like Jackson told me,
[27:28] I put my fist down.
[27:29] The guy's not from the opening.
[27:31] And we go down the ground, start fighting.
[27:32] This guy stops making the ground.
[27:34] And I'm not afraid to tell you, I didn't want him
[27:36] some of my fights in prison. But I've fought all my fights. I mean, look at me. I look like I'm
[27:40] going to be doing it. There's obvious. I'm not going to sit here and boast about something
[27:44] I didn't do. But no, it's. So we've fought this guy beats me. And this goes on, you know, this
[27:50] goes on. And I'm about six weeks in this every time I leave that cell to go to a child, to go wherever.
[27:57] However, I sit there in my mind and prepare myself in case I'm going to fight that day with someone
[28:01] to say, I want to look at you in the shower. There's nothing crazy about that. There's something
[28:05] like going to the shower, fight you, because there's no garage, no cans back there.
[28:10] So I'm on the right yard one day, and I'm thinking myself, now I'm going to start running
[28:13] some respect out here.
[28:14] So I'm like, oh, I didn't just fight every day, and so it's right at the right yard
[28:17] set we're getting to.
[28:18] Well, I believe, because I've got a license, everybody that gets a license and takes this
[28:22] out, you go to this one building, your status is called the G3 status, and your G3 level.
[28:28] It means that you have to sit there for 5, 10 years before you can even get a job, go to school,
[28:32] do you need that stuff that other inmates get to do?
[28:34] 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.
[28:43] And the record is very segregated.
[28:45] On the volleyball court, you got the white guys playing volleyball and some of these fans.
[28:49] 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.
[28:56] But my eyes are on the basketball court that day. Who do you think runs the basketball court?
[28:59] The brothers.
[29:01] Yeah, they're on the basketball court.
[29:03] But I don't have to put on our detectives, I've seen better pick up games when I'm watching
[29:07] right there.
[29:09] And I don't think it must have been I'm going to the next shot and that shot and I'm going
[29:12] to get into this game somehow.
[29:13] But I can't get the game.
[29:15] They're not going to pick me because why guys are supposed to be on that best spot for a
[29:19] best evaluation of all of the code, the norms going to the person.
[29:25] But I'm observing.
[29:26] I know that after this game is over, they're going to shoot for teams.
[29:28] The first of you guys to make shots, get to be team captains.
[29:32] So I started getting this idea and my head, I gave it the ball on my head.
[29:36] So when the game ends, that ball loses it net.
[29:38] The end of that last game, I go fall on that ball and it's a formal drill.
[29:42] Now I want to talk about it, and these guys started coming around me.
[29:44] And they were not happy, they were like, there's one round of round with the basketball.
[29:47] I get up, sit down, call for that ball.
[29:51] Like, when we're about to place the ball, I say, man, I'm playing basketball in the day, bro.
[29:55] And these guys were in creation.
[29:56] So they were like, what?
[29:58] Oh, man!
[30:00] 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!
[30:29] 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
[30:37] Now I just see basketball court about disrespecting the black community and the president. It's a big big hair
[30:43] 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
[30:48] This is why I'm hot eating this basketball
[30:50] You can punch it. Oh, okay, you can do it all and they do it
[30:55] So I get up there, steal my nerve, and train that shot.
[30:58] I'm a team captain now.
[31:00] I take my four and the other guy takes this four,
[31:02] so you think it's five and five,
[31:04] but the math that you said, no, it's nine on one.
[31:06] You say it or not happy about this dude out there over four.
[31:08] You guys are my team that I pick,
[31:10] think they're going to be on my team.
[31:11] They don't want me out there either.
[31:12] I'm getting elbows and punches from everybody on the court
[31:16] and nobody will disobey the ball.
[31:17] Nobody will kick it to me.
[31:19] So I know the whole way I would get that ball
[31:21] is going to, because I can't just sit on the outside
[31:22] because you look like a cow or so I go in there
[31:24] You didn't pay it that ball, you didn't rebound.
[31:26] I don't make a shot that game.
[31:28] I come out of that game with a bustle with it,
[31:30] and a black guy, and I come back out the next day.
[31:34] I feel like that guy's gonna support me
[31:35] and he's laughing me, because I told him he's laughing
[31:37] to me, I'm not my first guy out there.
[31:39] He's laughing me, and he said,
[31:40] make it out of your white wood.
[31:42] It's not my basketball day.
[31:44] Because he's doing out there.
[31:45] He said, you know what?
[31:45] You're on my team today, boy.
[31:48] So I thought yesterday was rough.
[31:50] This day was even rough.
[31:51] These guys let me have it, and I try to give it back
[31:55] 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.
[32:08] These guys treat me like a teammate fly. They're kicking me a ball, pat me on the back half-five
[32:13] me. Yeah, they're calling me west instead of calling me white for a boy
[32:16] 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
[32:23] That same day dude comes up and he says, you know what he says, where's you got guts man?
[32:28] He said in guns or no brains or whatever
[32:30] He said, but you did something that I've never seen in a white boy do all your men. You stood up to everything
[32:35] we had to give you, he said, I want you to know you'll never have another conflict of
[32:39] black or the prison again. You could write that down. And maybe feel good. That may be
[32:45] feel good, because I had to comprehend that I applied the lesson, the Jackson told me,
[32:49] because I was being that little coffee bean. I changed that atmosphere just that who I was
[32:53] for them around? And did hold true? Was that the last fight there? Was that the last
[32:57] time I had friends were about fighting? No, there were two more instances. One of them was really
[33:01] 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.
[33:10] 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.
[33:15] Because I came from a good family that taught me morals and taught me playing.
[33:20] And I wasn't a stupid guy. It took a couple of years to clear this dope out of my brain.
[33:24] That's another thing about math.
[33:25] As it does, it just leaves you like to have anybody that's the method it takes time to
[33:29] crowd your head for.
[33:30] When this is happening, I go out there and I start working on myself every day, spiritually,
[33:35] mentally, and physically.
[33:37] I become, I try to become the best man I could be a better man than the guy that came
[33:41] into prison.
[33:42] I keep involved in the chapel community down there.
[33:45] And they got lots of programs, you can get involved with it.
[33:47] And you know what I found at the chapel?
[33:49] Other coffee beans.
[33:50] There's a bunch of more coffee beans hanging out at that chapel.
[33:52] Not all of them are coffee beans.
[33:53] You've got some, you've got some demons hanging out of the chapel.
[33:56] The chapel is like the crossroads and the prison.
[33:57] Everybody goes to chapel.
[33:58] Again, he goes there to meet up.
[34:00] Everybody goes there to take care of the business
[34:02] because everybody can get to the chapel, the chapel and the infirmary.
[34:05] But there were a lot of other coffee beans in prison.
[34:07] They were positive.
[34:07] They wanted to change the way things were going in there.
[34:09] They wanted to change their lives.
[34:12] And then the chapel, I made a bunch of guys
[34:13] from the prison acts community.
[34:15] And matter of fact, I've got some prison acts prayer cards
[34:18] that are here today that we're going to pass up a little while
[34:21] 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.
[34:30] 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.
[34:38] 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.
[34:44] Now you can't do that, these guys, you can cry and they're coming back to you from every different direction.
[34:48] But on that retreat, man I saw the biggest baddest dude right now like babies in there.
[34:53] It was cool because there was a moratorium kind of on that room for the whole weekend.
[34:57] And guys could be themselves and you could see the whole spirit working through people.
[35:00] And it was cool because he's asked guys when luring you in with food, because food's terrible in prison.
[35:05] But they would lure air for lures in with food.
[35:07] I mean, it's kind of not fair.
[35:08] Right to bring it in.
[35:09] Dumbo, spaghetti, spaghetti from the J.C.O., the K.C. Hall.
[35:14] They're bringing in all this different food from the outside of mock shoes, I mean bread pudding,
[35:18] and this stuff doesn't exist in prison.
[35:20] So of course, these guys on the side of the building, they just got their thinnest.
[35:24] They're bringing them out of their stomach and they get their soul on the weekend.
[35:27] So I told my mom, I'm falling after that first treat.
[35:29] When I get out of prison one day, that's where my friends are going to come from.
[35:32] They're asking me again, they're very supportive.
[35:35] Baby, that's what you wanted to do.
[35:36] You're going to do it.
[35:38] My parents never gave up.
[35:40] My mom and dad right here in the second row.
[35:42] They never gave up and they came to see me over a hundred and fifty times at the
[35:46] stoichi and you know a hundred fifty visits. That's a herd of y'all. That's
[35:54] for example if a guy gets five visits ways in prison he's in there for ten years or
[35:58] twenty years and he gets five he gets five visits. He's one of the wealthiest
[36:01] guys there. People want to talk to that guy. He's got a family that loves him and
[36:04] cares about him. They want to know how to visit when he has good station. There's
[36:06] most guys that don't give visits. That's just that happened in prison. This is a
[36:10] got in the place. There's not a lot of hope in there. I got over 150 of them just in the
[36:14] mom and dad and my brothers would come and family friends and in this area would come to
[36:18] visit and they never gave up on them and they always supported my dreams. I was coming out
[36:24] of this this institution a better hand and being able to go and work with kids. That was
[36:29] the idea and there was a kind of Charlie Jellon who was the principal at Central Middle School
[36:33] in New Zealand. Charlie Jellon was my teacher at Civic Ray and one of my coaches in
[36:38] 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.
[36:46] 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.
[36:53] And so, when parole found me decided, they were going to let me go.
[36:57] I came up with my first parole, which is just another example of God looking after me.
[37:03] 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.
[37:11] And that's what a guy come out of prison is going to need. He's going to need all those things and more.
[37:16] But when parole is said, they were never going to let me go.
[37:18] 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.
[37:24] 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.
[37:31] 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.
[37:43] And so my mom gives me three things and it was really neat because I look back on it now.
[37:48] 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.
[37:54] First thing she gave me was an iPhone, and she's like, here, and I'm like, this thing is, there's no buttons.
[38:00] 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.
[38:06] And the next thing she gave me was my driver's license. I found a way to renew my driver's license.
[38:11] For me, instead of a prison, there's an individual person, and I ended up driving the golf cart all the time.
[38:16] They were going to renew my driver's license, which was great.
[38:20] And the next thing she gave me was the most important thing she gave me this accident.
[38:24] And she said, baby, did you sign it up for the January extra tree to sign charcoal?
[38:27] She goes, go out and make your friends.
[38:30] And then, you know, that was really, that day was a very emotional day on many levels.
[38:38] And, you know, this is in the side.
[38:40] But, you know, I think the first place I wanted to go eat wasn't going to be in the prison.
[38:44] That's the thing about what we should do.
[38:47] I don't know.
[38:48] No.
[38:49] What are you doing?
[38:50] What are you doing?
[38:52] I was doing something that we eat.
[38:54] And I was dreaming about a number two for seven years.
[38:58] So my mom and dad were all over there.
[38:59] We got that number two.
[39:01] And then we started talking about this plan.
[39:03] And for this plan was like, the last six months I'm in prison.
[39:06] I'm telling, I'm asking all these guys.
[39:08] I'm very inquisitive.
[39:08] I told her that.
[39:09] I'm asking all these guys, what are you going to do this time when you get out?
[39:12] Because there's always this time.
[39:13] We're talking about guys being there four, five, six, seven times.
[39:16] And I'm making a, I'm doing a poll basically.
[39:19] Things I don't want to do when I get out of prison,
[39:21] because obviously it's not working for you, right?
[39:24] So when I get out of prison,
[39:26] I know that I'm going to need my recovery more than anything.
[39:28] Because everything I put in front of my recovery,
[39:30] I want to talk to the recovery in prison,
[39:32] A.A. group is a volunteer thing,
[39:33] but I went, and I went every Wednesday.
[39:36] And I wanted anything I put in front of my recovery
[39:39] although it's because I'm at it.
[39:41] So I gave my recovery down.
[39:42] So I gave touch with the guys that did the prison,
[39:44] I did the A. A group of priests, find their home group in Baltimore. I always told them in prison.
[39:49] 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,
[39:53] because they get lied to like police and they're like, hey, hey.
[39:56] I think you lied to a lot.
[39:59] But I didn't touch with Barack Obama, George, and, um,
[40:03] 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,
[40:09] and I go into a room and there's clothes everywhere you all.
[40:12] People from the community have gotten together to help me out.
[40:15] Both for charity brothers, my little brother.
[40:18] I mean, just people got together to say, you know, welcome home, Damon.
[40:22] And I've been in a lot.
[40:23] And so the next day, I put on the best hand me down outfit.
[40:26] I could find how it was so happy to have it.
[40:27] And I went and saw him in the shrub.
[40:29] He provoked something up for him.
[40:30] I saw a super-american day.
[40:32] And I went in there and told him, I said, hey, look,
[40:35] I'm fresh out of prison.
[40:36] I need a job.
[40:38] And I got everybody's attention to the rhythm.
[40:41] Wow, but of course they were going to tell them they knew I was coming, and I think
[40:45] you know, in self-inspaction, they wanted to make sure I didn't have any facial tattoos and
[40:49] they didn't have that no-chair drops, you know, they didn't get full of all helmet on my nose
[40:53] or anything.
[40:54] I knew I had a cowboy helmet on his nose.
[40:56] What were you going to work with?
[40:57] Cowboys?
[40:58] But he's never getting out.
[41:01] So, Mr. Offerry said, of an appointment, a job interview for the next day, for that Wednesday,
[41:06] for me to meet with Chris Kirchner, there's right here in front of the road, and I got
[41:10] I've got to the interview with Chris and had a lot of trepidation about this.
[41:13] This is, I mean, I'm an ex-conant going to a very prestigious law firm to buy one,
[41:17] Texas, that's been for them to do it, being solid for me, and over look on stuff, it's
[41:23] in this guy deserve a second chance, and you know what they did, they provost them for your
[41:26] all firm, saw something to me, and they gave me a second chance, and I hope that every day
[41:31] I prove to them that I am worth that second chance, because I am so loyal to these people
[41:36] for what they've done.
[41:37] But it's not even a small miracle.
[41:39] That's not like a million-a-million-type daily in a job
[41:40] in a place like that on the prison.
[41:43] And one of the next things I took in,
[41:45] when I told these guys the prison when I was in a dude next,
[41:47] they were there, thought I was nuts, I said,
[41:49] man, I need to go and meet the police in the town
[41:51] that they live in.
[41:51] So I go and have a point instead of a chief alone
[41:54] and he said, cross the pedestrian.
[41:56] It's looking like you're like, why are you here?
[41:59] And I'm like, well, I just got out of prison
[42:00] and I wanted you to be out of it.
[42:02] And no way, and I want you to know that, hey,
[42:04] you know, I just want to be a normal guy on the side again.
[42:06] And he was a little shocked, I was a little shocked because I mean he said he didn't get a lot of that.
[42:13] 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.
[42:19] And so on and so forth, I find my church.
[42:22] I find, say, the wisdom is important.
[42:23] And they take me in and they take me in whole hall.
[42:25] And these people, they love me so much.
[42:27] And I love them.
[42:28] And they are never once judged me.
[42:30] If I hadn't got a lot of that from the community at all, then I wouldn't let them judge me.
[42:34] And I say, look, I've got this plan, I want to do this, and he saw all the potential in there.
[42:39] But he wanted me to jump to some hoops first and improve myself.
[42:42] Because I'm a drug addict, just out of prison, for 65 of your sentence for an unscrowned.
[42:47] There's got to be something to it, a jury gave him that for a reason.
[42:49] So he wants to kind of test the water with me.
[42:51] And that I meet our cello multino.
[42:54] And so we start doing these talks.
[42:56] And I know that one day, I would like to go back into prison.
[43:00] Because I remember when I was in prison.
[43:02] and guys have been in prison before we're coming to talk and every time one of these
[43:07] get in prison they'll out of the fire and you've ever heard you like guys I've never
[43:10] heard another domino slam on metal tape it'll be two hundred five hundred five hundred five
[43:14] hundred six prisons allows the fire in your life and um with these guys we're coming
[43:20] to talk that have been in prison before but I'm parole and I'm successful everybody that
[43:24] room was shut up and listen to what I'm like and I'm always one of them and I want to
[43:28] know what that guy did to do it. And so I've been saying I want to get back into the prison
[43:33] and going there and be that guy because I know that I can find another Damon West and that
[43:37] room. And so just by doing the right thing and George Burnett taking me out to talk to kids
[43:42] and schools and churches and mobile phones taking me out to talk to kids and schools and churches,
[43:46] things that people have noticed and people want us to come talk more and more and we're always
[43:51] available to do it. But it also got the attention of the word and the styles you know.
[43:55] 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.
[43:59] One of them is security.
[44:00] They don't know somebody's got to be with them.
[44:02] They haven't been settled before.
[44:04] I made that word.
[44:05] I went up to one of the guys in the axe group and said, hey, look.
[44:09] I've been seeing stuff about Damon around town.
[44:11] You tell Damon, I want him to come back to this prison.
[44:13] I think he can be a positive force and change.
[44:16] That little coffee being again, right?
[44:19] So my parole, I said, it's contingent upon my parole, sir, prove it, and my parole, sir, prove it.
[44:26] So this is no whimper, I get to go back into the stals, you know, for the prison
[44:29] act retreat.
[44:30] And this guy was going to know I'm coming.
[44:31] So if you know anybody, prison, don't tell him I'm coming.
[44:35] But I'm going back in, and I'm excited that I got to have to hang to my co-worker all the time
[44:40] about it, you know, people are like, man, he's nervous, but I'm going back in.
[44:43] God was with me the first time, God's going to be with me this time.
[44:46] I can't wait to go back to me that prison because I know that I can give hope to somebody in there.
[44:52] There's going to be one just like when I go talk to these kids and we're looking for one in the room.
[44:56] There's going to be one in that room and that prison that's going to get this...
[45:00] 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.
[45:09] 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.
[45:15] You know, you might as well, we might as well try to work with if we can inside out.
[45:19] 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.
[45:27] 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.
[45:35] But my challenge for you today is to be that called if you be.
[45:38] Whatever the atmosphere around you is trying to change it for the positive be, that be that effective people.
[45:44] That called if you mean it was the smallest of the three things we talked about, but it's strongest.
[45:49] 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,
[45:55] talking like this, you can't tell I've been a prison.
[45:58] You can't have a conversation with me unless I'm really
[46:00] putting it on you about how it sounds in there.
[46:02] You can't tell that I've been a prison,
[46:03] because I can get crazy and talking nuts.
[46:06] But if I could come out like this
[46:09] because of the sport among that I have,
[46:12] then you could be that coffee being too, because it did.
[46:15] It wasn't just me, y'all.
[46:16] I had a lot of help along the way.
[46:19] I want to thank everybody for coming here today.
[46:21] This is, I mean, both of me are way
[46:22] that so many people are showing up to listen to this.
[46:23] every time I get to a crowd and there's people like Josh said that these
[46:27] thank you very much for giving kids both of the way. I love the talk to youth programs.
[46:31] If any of you guys can find a way to plug me in to their program as a result of this talk
[46:36] today, please do. Get into touch with Josh for a minute. We want to go, I want to go with this
[46:40] many places I can talk to kids. It's many kids I can talk to.