Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - Constitution Study Group - 2nd Amendment

Video Subtitles:

hi everybody happy Wednesday today is
June 24th today I am doing the
Constitution study group do we need
every Wednesday at around to 2 p.m. a
little at 2:30 now but today I'm going
to be looking at the Second Amendment
the very highly contested part of the
Constitution and also look at what that
has to do with police
which is a very also a very hot topic
right now you know what should we do
about our police system and rather than
making any kind of judgments or
recommendations myself because what do I
know I know nothing what I want to do
today is look at the origins of of all
these things and maybe by doing that can
better understand the role of police and
there our role in the police system as
well because if you if you do look into
the Constitution and even
interpretations of the Constitution
there is a lot of arguments that we have
a role in how the police is formed what
they're going to police and yeah it's a
really interesting topic that you know I
think everybody is kind of expressing
their opinions about our current police
system without fully understanding what
what our police system is supposed to be
for us and for our society I'll be
drinking a little bit of tea today
well well chatting I'm going to have
some orthodox longleaf only for the dogs
from heritage T&D Bergara so this was
part of
my class yesterday and so I decided just
to use some of it it's here on the table
and of course my chi waan from not made
in China and Albuquerque New Mexico and
I have the the link here if you're
watching and you feel so compelled and
inspired to join the conversation to let
me know your opinion or to correct me
please go to this link bit ly / Tila a
tea party it will drop you right inside
of the zoom room and into the live
stream so please have your camera on and
please be ready to be streaming so we
could chat about this these are all very
important subjects to be talking about
and I'm grateful to be able to use this
platform to talk about these subjects
which can be delicate but so important
for all of us to review so with no delay
I am going to jump right into it second
amendments you may know it right to bear
arms
that's usually what people you know
think of what the Second Amendment but
let me read it more accurately for you
it sets it well-regulated militia being
necessary to the security of a free
State the right of the people to keep
and bear Arms shall not be infringed so
yes this is the right to bear arms it
says that directly but if you read the
whole thing the context is very
important that that right to bear arms
will not be infringed for that purpose
of regulating our having a well where
you the regulated militia okay so I
actually found it a very good article in
The Washington Post's published on June
7th you know this was directly in
connection with explaining all of the
issues and questions around the
black lives matter protests to the
police and requests to defund the police
and to regulate the police and to you
know limit a lot of the protections that
the police have and it is titled the
Constitution demands police
accountability and so this actually this
article goes into a lot of detail about
our responsibilities as citizens as
individuals to be a part of the policing
process and it's it's really important
this was written by Laura Edwards sole
or Edwards thank you so much for your
intelligent words and and and message
here and I figured that I I'm just gonna
read this article you know like why try
to repurpose it or you know restate what
Laura so eloquently put together
it's not a very hour-long article so
yeah I'm gonna go ahead and read it out
loud to you so save you the the effort
of having to read it yourself so Laura
says we think of the police as uniformed
officers we exercise authority who
exercise authority over us but the
police is actually a legal concept with
deep roots and Anglo American and
European law it refers to a broad grant
of governing authority covering
virtually any issue involving public
health safety and welfare okay
so police powers are in theory about the
government protecting people so that
makes sense so what does this have to do
with our involvement and accountability
of citizens from uniformed officers to
exercise police powers but that hasn't
always been the case and this matters
because police powers actually belong to
the people when people are protesting
against the police today they are
tapping into a legacy that is at the
core of our constitutional order our
uniformed police forces are responsible
to the people and the people can hold
them accountable
in fact our police forces are only as
good as the people who give them
Authority this sounds very similar to
the arguments around money I imagine
it's an argument it's the concept of
things like money that that with money
like a dollar the US dollar it is like
just a piece of paper like how how much
worth is in that a printed piece of
paper but there actually is a bit of
worth especially when it comes to a five
dollar bill twenty dollar bill hundred
dollar bill there's a lot of work
attached to that even though it's the
same physical piece of paper
that really doesn't have much worth in
itself but as a society our trust and
understanding of the value of that piece
of paper is what gives it that value
same thing with Bitcoin II know I think
a lot about these concepts because of
the work that we do with Bitcoin and of
the work we do in trying to
decentralized systems and so the same
thing could be said about the police
force which is very cool
you know so we want a stronger police
force than we need more individual
citizen involvement with it so perhaps
this protesting is a very positive thing
that's happening because it is engaging
the the citizens to get more involved in
the police versus the police being this
external force that just governs us and
has authority over us we have a lot of
power you know and that's the whole
reason why I started this series of
constitution study group is because we
do have a lot of power as citizens the
Constitution you know directly only
gives us the power through voting and
through talking to our representatives
but it's all of these little nuances
that hold a lot of power you know the
fact that our right to bear arms for the
purpose of militia not for the purpose
of self-protection or the purpose of
violence this is for the purpose
of militia and the militia has the
purpose of protecting Society where were
the three things here issues involving
public health safety and welfare alright
so before the police that was us we were
the ones and that's why we were given
permission to have guns and encouraged
to have guns and and the right to have
guns was protected for us because we
pretty much how to police ourselves and
police our own communities all right I'm
gonna go back to the article the close
connection between police powers and the
people figured prominently in our
nation's founding the Articles of
Confederation at the US Constitution and
Revolutionary era state constitutions
gave States broad policing authority to
promote public health safety and welfare
legally many states that really routed
these powers in the people so yeah
legally and on paper the people have the
power but who were the people today we
might suspect that reference to the
people by have meant just white men
property since so many powers were
reserved for these select few back then
so yeah this is again looking at the
context of the late 1700s in America or
you know what would become you know
white men with property you definitely
we're the ones that were always
prioritized but the Constitution was not
about that actually it wasn't just about
protecting the white men and that's what
can people are complaining about now is
they feel like the the privileged have
been prioritized when it comes to pretty
much all you know government welfare
support system
including education and police that's
just the criticism and I think that we
should always take criticism seriously
especially when it involves the
marginalization or the claim of
marginalization of people I think it's
it should be taken very seriously
and I would encourage all of you to also
take it very considerate take it very
seriously so whatever claims to be a
victim we should take it very seriously
that's not to say that inaccurate claims
are made they can be made but I think
it's really important to to listen to
someone when they're making that claim
and collecting as much data as you can
about their claim to confirm if they are
being serious or not so in theory then
the police as a legal concept gave even
those on society's margins say and how
they were governed at the time of the
revolution professional police forces as
we know them did not exist there were
militias which consisted of men and
local communities but they mobilized
only in time of crisis they were also
slave patrols which required white which
required white men to participate in the
maintenance of slavery those groups
exercised police powers in the case of
slave patrols at the behest of those in
power but they were not the police that
term covered the welfare of all people
and could be mobilized even by those on
society's margins none of this was about
democratic participation or equality
elite white men had more to say in
defining the welfare of the people but
other people could and did use police
powers to check those in power more than
that they actively used those powers to
shape laws and how they were applied in
fact when police powers were violated
violence could erupt unpopular officials
were tarred and feathered
run out of town on a rail or serenaded
by angry mobs at their homes North
Carolina farmers revolted against
corrupt local officials as part of the
regulator movement of the 1760s when
petitions didn't work and officials
refused to address their complaints they
took up arms when we're still talking
about the militias this is just citizens
policing their own communities and
police policing their own issues
a similar sense of outrage explained the
American Revolution itself North
American colonists felt shut out of
decisions made in London that directly
affected their lives they first
petitioned and protested when those
attempts were ignored and rejected they
declared independence people's access to
the government's policing authority was
then written into the nation's
constitutions the vote held governing
officials accountable so did the right
to petition which gave people without a
low voice and matters relating to the
internal police public health safety and
welfare Congress and state legislatures
had formal mechanisms for acting on
petitions and turned them into policies
many state constitutions would further
an explicitly place-based authority over
the police in the people some state
constitutions were quite radical in this
respect
Pennsylvania's revolutionary-era
Constitution for instance gave the
people the sole exclusive and inherent
right of governing and regulating the
internal police other states including
Maryland North Carolina and Vermont's
have similar language the wording
suggested a place for people in the
actual practice of governance not just
in theoretical connection as we might
expect by policing they met authority
over the basic issues in people's lives
the care of orphans older people and the
poor the resolution of conflicts within
families and communities matters
involving public health such as the
location of slaughterhouses basic issues
of economic regulation such as the days
and hours that stores could open and the
redress of and justices that threaten to
the social order
and so ordinary people brought their
problems their complaints and their
hopes for the future to their
governments and insisted that officials
deal with them so very interesting in
the beginning of the formation of our
modern police system it was the people
that petition for what issues needed to
be policed that be so incredible if we
could have that same platform happening
now and according to our Constitution
our constitutional right says that we
should be doing that and our governments
should be supporting that should be
creating those channels for involving
even the marginalised so even the black
lives and the immigrant lives and you
know like everybody has say in in in
this internal policing system so
obviously something has changed in the
three hundred years that the police has
been forming itself into its modern
state much of that work was done at the
local levels in courts these local
courts did not just deal with crime they
also dealt with routine public business
involving all the matters relating to
the police in that broad sense some
matters were there were the stuff of
ordinary life a noisy neighbor and a
crowded City tenements a strike how that
ate up the kitchen garden again a smelly
latrine others involved individual
experiences with structural inequality
women brought complaints of domestic
violence sexual assaults and other forms
of harassment African Americans both
free and enslaved complaining about
physical violence and property damage
and even demanded redressed for offenses
committed by public officials so even
the slaves had a safe right so that's
that's really what she's just trying to
to let us know
if this system was still in place right
now there shouldn't be protests there
should be discussions there should be
conversations there should be a forum
for people to and and in all people
everybody there was every class every
community everybody other people went
further petitioning state and federal
governments for broader change to end
slavery and extend rights to free
African Americans for instance many of
these people regardless of race or
gender were poor the lack of resources
made it more difficult to navigate
life's problems than as now all these
people participate in a police scene
because they expected responses and
accountability officials listened to
their complaints because the police as a
legal concept forced them to the
complaints themselves to mention rate
demonstrate just how deep inequality was
but the connection between police powers
and the people promised avenues for
redress it was hard work those in the
margins struggled to make their voices
heard slavery remained in place and
woman did not have the right to vote but
a woman could demand the local
government to discipline her abusive
husband an inflamed person could demand
the restoration of property chickens
cows are household linens that they had
worked to accumulate those victories
might seem small but they created a form
of justice and an unjust world more
substantial requests the end of slavery
the right to vote did not fare as well
though although they did lay the
groundwork for later change over the
course of the 19th century however
political leaders revised state
constitutions to tone down or eliminate
this expansive and participatory notion
of the police in fact the institution of
professional police forces were parts of
efforts to take police powers out of
people's hands I would read that again
in fact the institution of professional
police forces were part of efforts to
take police powers out of the people's
hands this made it even more difficult
for people particularly the
who experienced inequality marginalized
to get governments to respond to them it
also made it harder for them to hold the
new police forces accountable but in
theory our governing officials and those
police forces were and still are
accountable to the people that's why
this original constitutional
understanding of policing is so critical
the demands of people protesting today
have strong legal and historical backing
we live in a constitutional order or
police power belongs to the people and
it's time to fulfill this constitutional
guarantee so that is today's lesson why
not I'd like to talk about it and just
for reference the woman that wrote this
article Laura Edwards she is the she's a
professor of history at Duke University
so you know I think she knows what's up
that's not let me see the comments on
the article I just curious to see oh
here we go
yeah if you guys have any questions
about what I just read or any statements
so yeah all the call all the comments
are good nothing dramatic you know it's
always interesting in the comments on on
articles tend to be like the more
interesting part you know just seeing
people's reactions you know cuz that was
a pretty pretty strong claim you know
and requires you know some pretty deep
personal perspective expansion to think
about that is that you know that's what
I thought before going into this
livestream before I found that article I
really you know was indoctrinated you
know into thinking that the police was
this you know and and it is at this
point it legally has been you know
evolved into this autonomous
authoritative organization but it that's
not what it was intended to be and and
that's why there are so many
inequalities going on like the
government is intended and stated in the
Constitution that everybody gets equal
protection regardless of your race
gender religious views anything we all
have the right to the same level of
protection and of protecting ourselves
so Second Amendment second amendments
about that and that's what I want to
talk more on now second amendments
involving guns you know when I tell
someone that I do a constitution Study
Group that's always the first thing they
ask me what do you think about Second
Amendment I agree with it I wouldn't you
know want to change it at all I do want
to have people become educated on the
power of that right to bear arms I'm
gonna read it again a well-regulated
militia being necessary to the security
of a free
date but write to the people to keep and
bear arms shall not be infringed ok so
there's three parts to them there's the
guns part the right to the guns and
that's always what people focus on they
just hone in on that and they're like I
have a right to have guns I have a right
to bear arms I have a right to protect
myself hi pearl good to see you yeah so
that that's that tends to be the the
hyperacute focus and and to be honest
before I started doing this constitution
study group that was my my thought as
well I thought this was purely just
about our right of self-protection
but there's more there's two other parts
to it right so there's the guns
then there's the militia right and so
the guns and and like our our right that
shall not be infringed to own guns into
their arms is to protect a militia and
so these militia in the context you know
from the article these militias are not
like active groups that are like
actively patrolling and actively
policing at all times no no a militia is
only mobilized
when and here comes the third parts the
security of a free State is in jeopardy
and what that could mean there's a lot
that could be there but if you are going
to mobilize a militia there needs to be
some reason to it you know not just to
keep the bad guys out of the
neighborhood that's that's not what this
is talking about this could be you know
attacked from a foreign state this could
be you know host of things and really
the security of a free State is related
to the three protections of the police
force involving public health safety and
welfare so I mean it could even be
interpreted that
a militia could be formed in in regards
to to coronavirus and the spread of the
virus right because that involved Public
Health stopping the spread of the virus
involves Public Health so if a group of
neighbors want to band together and
create some some type of militia force
to to mobilize in regards to the spread
of the virus within their community I
think they'd be protected by the
Constitution to do that that's a really
interesting thing I never thought about
that I'm gonna have to chat with my my
friend Tavia about that and get her
opinion on it um and we can go even
further to say that our guns could be
used as a force in that militia as Nene
so the public health safety and welfare
and there's so much you know and so this
gets me peaking on something else so
let's let's focus back on the guns right
so Second Amendment protects our guns
and our right to own them and actually I
have seen let me Google right now but I
have seen companies called Second
Amendment guns or Second Amendment
gunshot so the gun industry definitely
embraces the Second Amendment yeah
there's a bunch of them there's actually
one here in Vegas called second
amendment gun shop
I should walk in and go have a
conversation with that owner I think
that could be interesting okay so this
is this would be you know where a
conversation with the owner of this
business would go or you know anybody
who is an enthusiast of guns if you're
watching this and you want to like come
in just come to this link over here bit
dot ly / Tila Tea Party I'd be happy to
talk to you about it but this is my
question do does the gun industry there
are any responsibility of educating its
customers on the Second Amendment more
than just so you have a right to bear
arms like it's illegal for you to bear
these arms and each state's gonna have
like their own regulations on permitting
and concealed licenses and whatnot but
you know the the gun industry the
manufacturers distributors the retailers
do they take on any responsibility of
educating their customers when they
legally acquire firearm and tell them
hey let's do some militia training like
this gun is not meant for violence this
gun is not meant for protecting yourself
this gun is meant for you to use when
you get mobilized as a militia to
protect your community's public health
safety and welfare I've never seen that
before I've never bought a gun before
I'm not a fan of a gun I am a fan of
weapons I do practice with low flow
weapons and nunchucks
but also you know I I keep things around
my house to feel like I work yeah so
arms is just weapons so even you know
the Second Amendment does touch on you
know the weapons that I'm into so yeah I
purchased those weapons and when I
purchased those I did not get any type
of explanation from the retailer that
[Music]
possessing that weapon holds a great
constitutional responsibility that you
are essentially placing yourself into
the militia you could be a militia that
doesn't exist yet but just the idea the
concept of militia which I'll get the
definition of that a military force that
is raised from the civil population to
supplement a regular army in an
emergency
so that was the start of police you know
in our modern police force has evolved
from that and the government has
definitely fucked it up by changing the
system you know and and so what would
evolving that system look like and is
that something that the executives that
our president would have the power to
implement that change that that
evolution from a closed system a siloed
system so this is the this this goes
down to even Nina the core of our
business and what we do here at tea
let's to distribute the power and make
sure that even the small guy in the
middle of nowhere that usually doesn't
have a voice has a voice and not only
has a voice but leg is encouraged to
tell us what's going on right you know
in the tea industry the the consequences
that we're dealing with in this context
is that in the current global commodity
system which is pretty much anything
other than the direct trade in that
system the power is is highly
concentrated at certain points and the
information is opaque throughout that
value chain meaning not transparent and
siloed so the word sideload you think of
silo is like container so you have like
all these containers and the information
may flow from one container to another
but it's all filtered it's all you know
it's all sanitized and so each silo can
work completely independent of the
others and not need to exchange
information and so in that situation you
know the farmer
that is doing with a shitty price that
is not making them any kind of profits
for supporting their community or the
farmer is dealing with great
environmental degradation of their land
water resources land fertility the
farmer has no voice to let this entire
system and not even each silo maybe they
can try to go in within a silo and let
them know hey the system's fucking us
over we got to change things that they
don't even have that opportunity so that
voice will never be heard and so like
the consumer of course they're
completely clueless about what's going
on and but don't worry the last silo
slapped a fair trade label on it to make
everybody feel good so we don't have to
worry about it but ultimately the this
guy he's been marginalized you know look
up that word - you know I've really kind
of changed a lot of the vocabulary of
around the protest right now around all
of these disparities and and privilege
and wealth and whatnot I I have started
to using this word a lot more I feel
like it's a more encompassing term and
it doesn't it goes way beyond any kind
of ISM race or sex or anything and
here's a definition of a person group or
concept treated as insignificant or
peripheral so basically someone that's
left behind someone that's someone or a
group of people or an idea that's left
behind while everybody else is mobilized
everybody else is able to go up so you
have marginalized and immobilized and
you can mobilize marginalize people like
that's the goal we're trying to mobilize
we are trying to uplift anybody that's
been left
and that's what the Constitution did for
us the Constitution was written the
founding fathers wrote that document for
us for us as citizens you know I know in
the past sessions I really have been
kind of downplaying the amount of times
that the rights of the citizen is
discussed in the Constitution really
there's only two things that are
directly and explicitly stated in the
Constitution as our rights
that's the right to vote and the right
to communicate our thoughts to
leadership to our representation you
know this this right to bear arms and
right to form militia there's also a
very powerful rights and that right is
connected to what later became the
police force and the early days of the
police force which was this incredible
platform where they didn't know what to
police right it's like OOP one day okay
we hope Elise for us what do we police
so they crowdsource did they encouraged
even the marginalized people and the
marginalized people tended to have the
most issues so they were gonna be the
ones to come talk and so this this
welcoming platform was created that was
welcoming even for the marginalized even
for the enslaved even for the women
which I can't even imagine what it must
have been like to be living in a free
world as a woman or as as a slave during
that time but this platform was still
inviting to those folks to speak up
about what the issues they're dealing
with in regards to public health safety
and welfare and and that's what told the
police what they needed to police if we
had that system today there would not be
the protesting
I mean maybe gonna be protesting for
something else but police brutality
would definitely not be there the
mentality you know the police force
currently a very siloed system and it's
a scary system it is the opposite of
wealth I mean it is the opposite you
know my family I've been trying to have
this conversations you know around race
and marginalization and privilege you
know you mostly I don't like to talk
about in regards to police but that's
what the topic conversation is in
society right now because of the
protests so you know even they bring up
their stories of police and you know my
family they're all white so we
definitely don't have the same concerns
with interacting and engaging with the
police as a black person would but
there's still this like trepidation
there's still this fear this underlying
fear of like oh don't don't talk to the
police like we don't have any business
talking to them right now
don't give them any any reason to come
police us that's bullshit that's not
what our police should be for us our
police should be protecting a higher
public safety or our public health
safety and welfare we shouldn't be
afraid of them but we are because it's
such a siloed system it's like the
police operates out of its own container
its own vacuum with a power dynamic over
society not just the marginalized people
even someone like myself I would not
feel comfortable walking into a police
station and writing a note in the
comments box about what I think should
be policed I would love it if I felt
comfortable doing that as of right now I
wouldn't as of right now I would have
zero faith that that comment would be
read or considered and then on top of
that leg I I wouldn't feel comfortable
walking into the police right now
especially if I was a person of color
yeah definitely wouldn't feel
comfortable walking into the police so
we are not at that system and they are
from our current police system is
definitely challenging our Constitution
and I think that there are ways through
education potentially even through
militia why not
it could be legal we're only mobilized
when the threat is there I went into the
emergency and something needs to be done
but then at the same time that could
turn into complete chaos it would turn
into complete chaos but ya know I think
the big takeaway from this that I'm
gonna continue to think about and have
conversations with other friends is this
idea the concept that the arms companies
those engaged in the business of arms do
they have a responsibility in educating
their customers on what it means to bear
arms yeah I think that could be cool
that could be a start
that could be a start to getting this
system and getting these conversations
going even with people that don't bear
arms getting them aware that
yeah our police are are meant to be
something completely else than what they
are right now but I mean maybe what will
happen I heard that due to the protests
and due to everything so pearl says that
when they wrote the Constitution we
never knew that arms would be automatic
weapons yeah that's true that's true
but even with an automatic weapon I mean
if you if you were truly in that
mentality of like I am burying this arm
because I am protecting the public
health safety and welfare of my
community and even if it's an automatic
weapon if you have that intention if you
have that gun crew go and
in your mind well while you're pairing
that arm and mobilising with it you
should be able to control your actions
with it just as much as you can control
your actions with uh with baseball bat
or with with the knife right now when
you don't have that mentality an
automatic weapon of cordis can be an
extremely stupid thing really and that's
like that's why I'm not a big fan of
guns I feel like guns automatic are not
automatic they they don't allow a lot of
time for thinking and for negotiation
and for emotional intelligence although
you can practice patience and emotional
intelligence with an automatic weapon
you really can it just it's all about
your mentality if you have that patience
and if you have that focus you really
could be more reasonable and rational
and dealing with conflict but guns make
it so easy to not be emotionally
intelligence and and fast thinking and
and willing to communicative guns make
it very easy to just act fast and that's
why I don't like guns it's like when I
was an uber driver here in Vegas and I
drove a lot during that time I was I was
using my uber driving to support the
company I don't do that anymore but I
did for a couple of years there and I
Drive late into the night into the
morning and I had a couple of run-ins
with people that I didn't feel
necessarily safe with but nothing
happened but just had this intuitive
feeling as they were in my vehicle and
the way that they were communicating to
me and you know even their nonverbal
communication was signaling that you
know I could be in danger and so I tell
people those stories and they say you
know you should have gone you definitely
should have a gun
and so I think about that in my head
okay I'm driving my car passenger behind
me and they they get angry with me and
they pull a gun now if I turn around and
pull a gun back on them I just like I
can't think of any other situation that
would happen other than them just
feeling this like immediate reaction
that they need to act first
right so that'd be out I wouldn't want
that because their only action would be
just to shoot me even if we get into a
car accident that's just gonna be their
reaction you know like by me pulling out
a gun pointing that at them it's like an
immediate escalation and zero
opportunity for emotional intelligence
and for conversation and negotiation
right so my first weapon of choice is
always my tongue always and if that
doesn't work then yeah you know I'm not
I'm a pretty nonviolent person but in
the case of protecting my community and
protecting myself you know my thoughts
on uh non-violence are a little bit
different of course you know like I I
wouldn't want to escalate it like my
ideal would be to deescalate the
situation as much as possible which is
why you know your tongue is gonna be
your best weapon for that but there's
other weapons too you know so that's why
I like I like like the nunchucks the
other the other one that I'm practicing
with is the three section staff which I
like because there are you know the
chains the short little chains which can
be used to disarm or even just disable
someone without using too much violence
which gives you more time to negotiate
gives you more time to like calm
emotions but again what do I know I've
never been involved in a violent
confrontation in my life thank goodness
what goodness I've never had to deal
with that but it's something that we all
have to think about right especially if
it's a constitutional right I have a
constitutional right to bear weapons tab
weapons and to protect myself but
actually no it's not to protect myself
it's to protect it's to protect my
ability to form militia or the sake of
securing a free state Wow
that's pretty incredible yeah I'm really
grateful that I've like kind of dome
deeper into this because now I'm getting
a much deeper understanding of that and
we can forward to the conversations that
this will turn into with my friends and
family especially my friends that are
very enthusiastic about guns and gun
sales right now are higher than ever
actually I think guns are almost like
sold out because people are buying them
up like crazy right now you know whether
or not people are buying them up because
they authentically understand their
Second Amendment right and you know
they're preparing themselves for militia
I doubt it and I doubt that those
retailers that sold them the guns
provided any kind of education to them
about that pearl says the tongue can be
a double-edged sword and a messenger of
peace yeah it can be you can get you in
trouble just as much as they can get you
out of trouble and I guess people could
say that God does the same thing they
can get you in trouble just as much as
it gets you out of trouble but I just
feel like things happen so much faster
when guns are involved like the emotions
get heightened so much faster then when
you're speaking when you're speaking you
know you can take your time to calm
things down but you know you can also
quickly say something to make someone
upset and and escalate it that way too
so you do have to be cautious about how
you use your tongue mindful empathy
do you know and that's like that that's
an any kind of conflict violence or
non-violence you know just to even
discuss the discussion you know if
you're not utilizing empathy in your
communication it can be challenging
because people feel like they're
attacked people feel like you don't
understand them you know and that's the
power of empathy Thank You pearl have
you talked I bet you never thought that
somebody at a tea table would be talking
so intensely about guns and militia and
government but this is what we have to
do right now you know and I'm grateful
to be a messenger of peace a messenger
of reason and understanding and
diplomacy I think that you know in my
experience in life definitely identified
that as as one of the skills I have to
offer the world and so everybody is
feeling a need to activate right now and
to do things and and protest you know
and so I support everybody's rights and
and an activity and willingness to do
those kinds of activities but this is
what I feel is best for me and T is
definitely an important tool in that it
is very calming maybe that's what I
should have my's myself to defence a
little like water gun that I fill with
tea and I could just shoot in people's
mouths when they start giving me trouble
calm down have some tea yeah yeah I
don't know if that'll work
it might make someone laugh and actually
you know sense of humor is a very
powerful tool in peace as well
I have a friend that's involved in you
know maintaining the peace said at the
protests and not a police force but
involved in maintaining the police and
he said a protester launched a taco at
his head
except did you get that would you want
to like go tackle a guy he looks like no
all I could do is laugh like how
ridiculous is that like all this going
down and and and and it just results in
a taco in my face so I think I think
there is some validity to that you know
that if you can bring some humor to a
situation could potentially resolve it
better ultimately communication will do
it but yeah I've always been on for an
hour I usually do these for about an
hour
I've finished my well I'm just my second
ste but I need to keep my water again
but almost finished with my lovely tea
I'm gonna be taking a break tomorrow so
you won't be seeing me tomorrow but I'll
be back probably on Friday maybe I'll do
a little tea education session the next
Thursday and we'll be back to do another
one of these constitution study groups
and if there's anything in particular
that you are interested and diving into
or thinking more about in regards to the
Constitution please message me you know
you can message me through whatever
platform you're watching this on or you
can email info at telecom and you can
just say hey I watched that and I'm
really curious about this and we talked
about this and potentially you can come
join the conversation join the my
conversation - it's pretty empowering
you know a lot of people say how can you
do that how can you sit in front of a
camera and just talk and you know and
then someone will come on and do one of
these live sessions with me and the
they'll so energized afterwards they're
like wow I wasn't expecting that and and
you know the conversations that have
been really incredible and all these
conversations do get documented all of
these videos are posted on our tea and
it's people calm websites if you look at
the drop down menu the last option is a
virtual tea party we click on that that
has like our entire library of all of
these videos including the transcripts
to them so you know my intention with
that is is one so that I can easily
search through because at this point
I've done you know over 70 videos so
there's there's a lot of video so you
know I with those transcripts we can
easily search through and find which
video we said what and even find that
within the video what time those things
have said but it's also you know
sometimes things are said that that need
to be written down and maybe not so much
with this Constitution study group but
my Monday program which this kind of
money I'm going to have a really good
guest T friend of mine who has been
actively working on encouraging more
consciousness and service especially
food service and that'll be as part of
the dignified hospitality manifesto than
I do every Monday and so that events
that theme I definitely want documents
it's a manifesto so we want to document
this manifesto so you know by the end of
the program we might have you know ten
hours of discussion and from that ten
hours of discussion which can be
hundreds of thousands of words we can
pull out the important pieces and kind
of condense that down into a more
readable and digestible manifesto that
that could be a real play action play
for a legislature
and our entrepreneurs and our investors
and and just the entire ecosystem to
understand where our restaurant industry
is going to need to go after this
challenging time of pandemic because
yeah it's not gonna let up anytime soon
it really isn't and so we really have to
think there's a lot of people's lives
involved in the restaurant industry
estimated 20 million people and even if
40% of the restaurants close down that's
like jeopardizing almost 10 million
lives so we really have to think you
know how is it going to evolve like I
I'm actually very hopeful like food is
not gonna go anywhere the demand for
food is not gonna go anywhere it's just
gonna evolve and in the business needs
to evolve with it as well so that's the
purpose of Monday's meetings so Monday
at 2:00 I'll be here and I'll be talking
with Stefan and he runs a podcast called
serving consciously and so he'll be
sharing with me his insights you know
cuz he's been interviewing dozens and
dozens of people very established people
from the restaurant industry and
activists that have been on the front
lines of you know supporting a
livelihood and dignity for servers for
cooks for even the business owners yeah
anyway that's not what this shows about
this was about guns I'm gonna be signing
out guys but I do appreciate you and
thank you so much for listening in for
letting me have this this platform in
space and for you know not judging it
you know and if you do want to judge it
please do it but you know talk to me
about it
this this is a service for our community
not just for me of course I'm learning a
lot I'm benefiting a lot from this I
learned a lot today all of this
conversation but you know this is a
service for the community and ultimately
42 because you have parity is call me
auntie Briggs piece so T needs to be a
tool right
now more than ever and so yeah this is
this is a service to the whole world
Thank You pearl I hope you have a
beautiful rest of your week and I will
see you guys on Friday