All right welcome back to another episode of matters of the heart and soul podcast today we have a very special guest and a good friend of mine Mr Roger Bruce and let’s go ahead and jump right into his biography so you guys can get to know this gentleman here Roger was
Born in Harlem New York 1953 he attended Catholic and Public Schools through 8th grade he attended the St Emma Military acad this school is now part of the history store in the Smithsonian Institute he graduated after serving as the Balian executive officer and Company Commander demonstrating leadership skills at a
Very early age of his life he then went on to graduate from Morehouse College where he majored in political science he was the first of his family to attend and finished College as the student as a student not only did he succeed academ mically but displayed great concern for
His fellow students and the next generation of students he was the president of the political science club and reinstituted the Frederick Douglas tatorial Institute to help struggling high school students and help maintain to help them prepare for college during college he intended interned excuse me he was an intern for the former Atlanta
Mayor mayor Jackson at the law firm of Jackson Patterson parks in Franklin he’s married to Angela who is an educator they have three children Andrea Brandon Ariel along with four grandchildren Roger is the district 61 house representative for the state of Georgia he was first selected in 2003
Now that’s big that’s 20 years right there yeah 20 3 and he was reelected every two years since then during his time in office Bruce has focused on issues relating to children with special needs the Aging education Working Families Economic Development voting rights and criminal justice welcome to
The platform thank you very much thank you all right Roger we could talk all day about politics 20 years you’ve done a lot of great things you seen a lot of great things and some bad things oh yeah met a lot of people but today what we want to do is delve
Into Roger the person okay uh we want to get to know who Roger Bruce is so Roger you grew up in Harlem what was it like Growing Up In Harlem it was a I was born in Harlem and um I was back and forth between uh the Bronx where my aunt lived
And Harlem uh where my mother and my siblings lived um it was an interesting time I I caught pneumonia uh when I was two when I was first born I was about two years old really and um when I was born um I was the fifth
Child uh to my mom and my mother and father and Um and at the time that that that I was born my mother was 22 years old when I was born and I was a fifth child and uh but I caught pneumonia when I was uh two and the doctor’s office was in the same building where my aunt lived my
Mother’s sister and uh so they sent me over there to be close to the doctor and then when I recovered and got well uh I don’t know this to be a fact but I’m just assuming that my mom and my aunt got together and said well you have
Five I don’t have any I’mma keep him or something to that effect and um I ended up living with my aunt from that point and um so I was back and forth between the Bronx and Harlem and um then when I uh was you know about 12
13 I started asking questions you know why am I not living with my mother why am I not living with my siblings and um and I just didn’t understand and so my aunt said well go on over there if you want to uh uh live
With them go go on and I went over there and I think I was there maybe six months and um I called my aunt and want to know if I could come back you know things were not as I thought they would be and her position was well you made a
Decision I’ll live with it my aunt was a a very uh wonderful woman she really really was and um she had me to uh she said just stay and I started rebelling I started doing things that um I would never have done under my aunt’s supervision my aunt was a corrections
Officer she work for the women’s House of detention and um so I would not have done certain things but I started playing hookie from school and uh which was kind of weird because I play hookie from school and go to the library and read I didn’t play hookie and do you
Know bad stuff and uh I play hookie I go to the library I would read I was I read a lot of a lot and um but you know back then you know kids played if you remember we would go out uh we’d be on the street playing basketball we
Were playing uh stick ball and all kind we were out playing and one day uh we were outside the school that I was going to and um apparently somebody put something uh some drugs in my bag and um my school bag and I didn’t know that
They that they did it and we were back in the cafeteria and I saw police coming in I don’t know something just inside me said you know they look like they coming towards me and uh so I grabbed my bag and I saw what was in there and and I
Took it out and I threw it across the the room and somebody thought that I accidentally dropped it and picked it up and brought it back to me while the the police were standing there and uh so he took me to the principal’s office and uh
They were clear they knew that it wasn’t mine and they said that they knew who who put it in my bag and they wanted me to testify um against this person but I didn’t see the person put it in my bag and so I was not going to stand there
And say that I saw it because I I didn’t see it I just knew it wasn’t mine and uh I called my aunt and like I said she worked for the Department of Corrections and she talked to them and they they let me go but it was at that
Point that my aunt said okay we got to do something because you we don’t want you to go down that path and uh so when I was five years old I got hit by a car uh the the local numbers guy you know I don’t know if you remember the
Days you know back then they had the numbers Runner yeah my neighborhood yeah but he hit me with a car and uh we went through you know the whole lawsuit thing and uh they had put some money aside uh that I was supposed to get when I was 21
And my aunt asked me about going to talk to a judge to see if the judge would give it to me when I was 14 to be able to go away to school and that’s and I agreed to that and that’s what we did um I don’t know how she found St Emma
Military Academy but that’s where uh she uh said you know that I needed to go and so I paid my way through the military school with the money that I was supposed to get when I was 21 and um when I got to Virginia it was kind of an interesting thing
Because um they wanted me to do the ninth grade over again because I kept playing hookie while I was in New York and I think out of eight classes I got eight zeros because I didn’t go to class the whole time or like partially or like how much school did you actually
Miss I didn’t go you know so so I got zero you know because I wasn’t there and uh but like I said I would play hookie and go to the library and read so I was up to speed on whatever they were going to teach me um because it was kind of
Like selftaught you know at the going to the library and uh so I talked to the comant of cadets at the school I guess that’s where my negotiating skills started getting developed and I said look I don’t want want to do the ninth grade over again I I didn’t want to not
Be with my age group and uh so we agreed that I would do the ninth grade and the 10th grade at the same time and if I passed all the classes then I would go to the 11th grade appropriately and that’s what I did and I’ve passed
Everything uh ended up in the right grade with my you know age group with my counterparts and uh not only that I ended up in leadership positions they said I was I ended up being the Battalion executive officer which is the number two position uh in the Battalion
Was a company Commander uh C company and um you know so you developed the leadership skills there at this at this school um and we were while we were going through it we didn’t realize the historic significance of the school you know it was a all black uh school for boys uh Catholic
Military uh which was kind of weird you know because by day they were teaching us to love our neighbor and at night how to kill her you know so it was it was an interesting thing and the school was located on top of a Mountaintop that was once a u where they had
Slaves and the other side the other it was another Mountaintop that had a all girl school uh St Francis it was all black female school and the James River ran between the two mountaintops and uh we would be able to see you know the clue clct Clan and
Whatever down there they were burning their crosses and acting crazy they didn’t come up to the school they knew we had guns it was a military school um but we went through all of that and um I was the guidance counselor at the school you know I I actually applied
To go to Michigan State University and I have no idea as I think think back on it why Michigan state must have been something at the time that made me want to do it and um the guidance counselor sent my Michigan State application to morouse here in
Atlanta so Michigan never heard of me and morouse said come on and uh and after I started looking at things you know I said okay that sounds good and I um I came uh to to Atlanta and uh I think I was here maybe a week or two and moous had a
Program where they would bring speakers in uh to motivate the students and to to get us pumped up you know about being successful and they had a guy come in and he was saying things I never heard a black man say um you know encouragement
Kind of things uh I didn’t grow up with my father um and most of the people uh in Harlem uh my aunt wasn’t married so it wasn’t even a stepfather um and most of the people in Harlem lived in the projects and back then you know I was told that if there
Was a man in the house you probably couldn’t get the public assistance that you needed and uh so I just never heard a black man say what I heard this guy say uh most of the men that I knew as I were growing up they were alcoholics um they you know they just
Drank themselves into Oblivion um so again to hear this the kind of things that I was hearing I was really pumped up you know I was excited about it and um I went up and I introduced myself to the guy and turns out his name was Maya Jackson um and and
I didn’t know he wasn’t the mayor at the time and uh but he had a law firm he was part of a law firm Jackson Patterson parks in Franklin and he offered me an opportunity to come work there as a uh in in the law in the law firm which I
Did and um then he decided he was going to run for mayor um I was very involved in his campaign uh organized students in the Atlanta University Center in support of him um we even did a mock election you know to make sure that we could get the
Students excited about what was going on so we did that and um he became mayor and one thing led to another but he was part of the reason why I decided to to major in political science because I I I felt like the things that he was doing
Were things that um I could be doing and should be doing U so he was a lot of the motivation for me and then it was a guy um that was running for governor back then his name was JB Stoner and JB would tell people that he
Was gonna get rid of crime in Georgia because he was gonna send back to Africa and um as if we were the the root of all crime and um you know so all of those things another reason for that we could talk about that and a lot and a lot did go
But yeah so all of that you know kind of got me to where I am um I know that was a long answer to your question but no no no no that’s that’s that’s amazing uh some of the questions I had you actually answered because I wanted to know who
Were the male influences in your life you know based upon the way that you came up he he was one the comant of deaths at military school uh was a black priest and uh you know back then you didn’t see a whole lot of black priests
Either and uh but he was a black priest and he was his name was father figuro uh Eggbert J figuro and uh he was a a huge influence you know you know because he he put me in leadership positions you know he decided who was
Going to be off of officers and you know who was going to be running you know the different companies and things like that and he put me in leadership positions and you know that’s a lot of responsibility at at a young age as a teenager to be responsible it was about
40 or 50 other students under my command and uh to have that responsibility as a teenager that’s that was huge and um you know so all those things and then uh coming down to uh to morous um and having an opportunity to to get into leadership roles here as well
Um it was just amazing you know and and I think a lot of it too you know with not having a father or male images in my life as I met men that were doing positive things um it made me feel like okay don’t follow the route that my father was but follow
The route that I wish my father was and be all the things to others that my father was not to me wow and um and that’s that’s how I’ve lived my life uh and I’m not fault to my father because whatever you know I don’t know what his life was like exactly I
Really didn’t know I knew who he was but I didn’t know him and uh so I don’t know what took place in his life to cause him to be the way he was so I’m trying I try not to judge him but I also say I didn’t
Want to be like him I wanted to be the opposite and that’s that’s how I’ve lived it it’s kind of funny that you say that because I kind of grew up the same way mother and father split up I don’t even recall living in the same
House with him so it had to happen before I say maybe three right happened around three but I said the exact same thing you said because you know we only have two choices we could be bitter or better right and I just said I never
Wanted my kids to feel what I felt like right and I I I was somewhat anal like cuz he never attended any of my sporting events I played high school and college basketball we went to the state championship and I’m a junior I carry
His name so and he was right in the same city right living in a different home so so you can appreciate what I’m saying man yeah exactly everything that you’re saying I totally resonate with and I just hope that a lot of other young men
Out there who hear this story is like we don’t use that as a excuse to say well you know my father wasn’t around I didn’t have Role Models you know because but you knew what you wanted yeah so what what advice would you give
To young men out there who seem to to be lost because like a large percentage of them now end up in prison they say like at least 70 plus percent of the men in prison didn’t have a male role model in the home so what would you say to the
These young men I I would encourage them to find someone um if they could you know find someone uh that fits the image that they want you know every everybody knows what makes them feel good or what makes them feel bad and if if what you
Were exposed to made you feel bad then don’t continue that don’t don’t use that as an excuse you know somebody did it to me so now I’m going to do it to you you don’t want to do that you want to say I’m going to
Be the opposite I’m going to do all the things for other people that I wish someone had done for me um I’m G to do all the things for my children that I wish my father had done for me um you know and and again you don’t want to be
Judgmental um I don’t again because you you don’t know what’s going on in people’s heads uh but if you see bad behavior do what you can to change that behavior if you see somebody uh in the stressed out you know it’s on drugs or or some sort
Of path that is not good do what you can to help them you know go down a different path and uh and don’t let others you know because this’s this tendency to say that you know you are judged by the company that you keep and I think that’s a a bad statement
Because sometimes The Company You Keep is the company that really needs you to be there to help them out of whatever situation they’re in and um you know without mentioning anybody you know somebody that I’ve done that with um that I’ve worked with with uh this individual um to try to help get
Him um going down a different path you know than the one that he was going down and you got to help people you can’t just turn your back and you can’t act like it doesn’t exist because it does and if you can save one person then you you you’ve done
Something yeah that’s that’s beautiful I like that um you know one of the things I have this ongoing question that I like to ask a lot of people like I have a men’s group page on on social media and I always ask the question like when does a
Boy become a man if there’s no rights of Passage you know we we’ve lost a lot of things uh as a people through you know the Atlantic slave trade um our culture our history totally being erased and trying to put the pieces back together I think we lost a
Lot of that like the passing of the Baton and you know just conversations like this like where you know you have the generational levels you know and we passed the wisdom and information down like know I I look at you as a mentor and I could take and receive information
From you that I could apply to my life that I could pass down to the Next Generation and and then they’re responsible I appreciate that but you know some something that that you said you know we have all of these different organizations U fraternities sororities um and again not judging
Those things but those sororities and fraternities um are they really passing on our history uh you know they they they passing on the Greek you know history and some of the the things that were formed in those organizations back when um I think we and I don’t know how
To do this but we need our own version of Greek organizations our own versions that pass our history um on I wish you had you know come to my house because I’ve got a picture I can’t show it to you because I can’t pick up my computer and take it
There but it’s it’s back in the day you know you had the the elders that would sit with the children and and talk to the children about you know their culture and about their history and and and teach the children G huh yeah and and that was their job was
To teach the Next Generation and and we need to do that um we need to have you know sessions and you know where we just sit and listen to the elders talk um we don’t do that anymore and and and a lot of our kids have absolutely no
Idea um about the history and and if you think about it when we were younger families were closer there we all lived in in pretty much close proximity and you know you you knew who your cousins were you had relationships with your cousins nowadays everybody’s
Spread out all over the country and I I would bet that there are people who don’t know their cousins you know first cousins um they may know who they are but they have no relationship with them and um that’s not good you know um we got to figure out a way to bring
Families back together yeah and and I’m glad you said that uh I’m sure to listening audience see that we both share the Bruce sir name and that is part of the way that we came together we had a mutual friend that had an event and uh he was speaking and when they
Introduced him is Roger Bruce I’m like I need to ask him who’s his people where your people from and um and that’s how we came together I i’ had been need deep into researching my genealogy and searching for my ancestors over the past few years and uh currently helping Roger we’re
Trying to connect the dots to see where we’re connected and you know a lot of things like a lot of these brues came through Virginia and yeah like you’re uh well my my mine came through Tennessee but my mother’s family came through Virginia right but also like in studying the uh
Bruers who were in Tennessee they came there in the late 1800s okay from Virginia okay so there connection still yeah so by the time we finished that off we’ll find that they were back in Virginia and nine times out of 10 they were all connected and the
Biggest one of the biggest uh I guess misnomers would be that we all think that these are slave names when in fact they’re not that you had a lot of these people who came with these names or were already here with these names and that’s another story I don’t want to go down
That rabbit hole okay well I’m curious to hear about the research that you’ve done I think it’s important like I said for us to understand and know our history because we we were taught that we were not capable of doing a lot of things that that was what we were taught
And and I teach my I taught my kids don’t let anybody tell you what you can’t do I would tell anybody’s kids nobody can set your limitations for you you set your own limitations and um that’s it you know um I had an episode that you know about
That that was brought home to me you know when I had um a blood vessel bird and ended up in a coma um and when I came out of the coma I uh had a lot of things going wrong you know I couldn’t actually I couldn’t
Read um I knew what the a was I knew what a b was but I couldn’t put the sounds together to create the words to read so I had to learn how to read all over again and um and one of the things I was going through something that they called
Deja Vu syndrome which I had never heard of prior to that where you would I could see my wife walk out of her room I didn’t see her walk back in but I saw her walk out again things just kept repeating over and over and over and uh
Until something else happened and then that would repeat over and over and over and my uh son was graduating from high school when all of this was going on and uh by that point I had been elected and um people were asking me to speak at his
Graduation and I couldn’t write out of it was weird I could write but I couldn’t read what I wrote and what I wrote was grammatically correct it was fine but I couldn’t read it after I wrote it um so I couldn’t write out a speech to give at his graduation and I
Was hesitant about doing it and and um when I got out of the hospital I had a little tube that was still there it was draining fluid and all this kind of stuff and um so anyway my son came to me and he said dad you know
I hear Mommy telling you you can’t do this speech I hear your friends telling you you can’t do the speech um and if you don’t want to do it I’m okay with that but if you’re not doing it because Mommy said you can’t do it or because
Your kids I mean your um friends say you can’t do it and you haven’t been telling me the truth because you told me nobody can set my limitations but me so he threw it back in my face and uh so I went to my wife and I told her about it
And uh what we agreed to is that she would sit somewhere where I could see her um and if I was going off the deep end saying something crazy then she would just give me one of those and I know to up and sit
Down and uh to this day I can’t tell you what I said I don’t remember um but she never gave me the signal and people uh reacted as if what I said was fine and uh and I didn’t let my son down and that was what was most important to me uh is
That I lived up to what I was preaching to him is don’t let other people set your limitations that’s good he held you to your own standard that’s it and I was I was proud that he did it I’m glad he did it uh about nine months later it was
Like my brain just rebooted and and uh I was able to continue doing some of the things that that I was doing before I still had to go through different uh training and uh different things to to get where I was but I never stopped uh I got reelected
That same year um because some of my colleagues you know went out and they campaign and they worked real hard for me but the the reality is that you know I didn’t give up and it was my kids that that that put it in my head you know
Don’t tell us something and don’t live to it yourself and um so I felt very good about that good stuff so you’ve held your position for 20 years right your reelection occurs every two years every two years what would you contribute to the success and the longevity um I think
Probably the top thing is that you tell people the truth um you if you tell people the truth you don’t have to remember what you said you know because the truth doesn’t change and um and I think that’s what people were looking for more than anything else
Was uh just somebody was going to be honest with they didn’t have to agree with what the truth was they didn’t even have to like it but if if they were not able to show that what I said was not the truth then then that was what they
Were looking for they wanted the truth um I think also is that people wanted to have someone that was going to speak up uh for them uh and listen you know listen to them um again people you don’t have to agree with everything but if you
Listen and you do the best you can to implement those things that make sense uh and that are good um people will continue to put you there um unfortunately things have just changed a lot um back when I first got elected there were really some strong issues um that that people
Were uh dealing with um and we are still now but you got voting rights you had um a lot of instances where segregation was still U very clear um um black people were not being treated the same um we had limited employment opportunities uh opportunities to grow in in the places where you
Worked um my first job out of morouse was with the telephone company and they sent me to uh mon Georgia that was the first assignment and you know know from Harlem New York Bronx New York to mon Georgia that was a transition and um but they had me at at
At the at the um at the phone company and when I got down there they didn’t have any black employees um in the areas where I was and had never had them and they had just passed the laws back then saying that you know you had to um promote African-Americans and you you
Had to equalize your Workforce and uh you remember all that I’m sure too and um but they didn’t have anybody in making to promote and so they sent me I didn’t no this at the time but they sent me there for so that they could promote me so I
Was there maybe three months and they called me um and said you know you’ve been doing a great job wonderful job so now we’re going to promote you to management and you’re going to be the manager over uh this office and I was like you know something didn’t feel
Right you know about this I hadn’t been there that long and I was in mon which was a very racist town at the time and um I said these people will kill me you know that’s just how I felt and he called me into the office and they had
The room set up like a horseshoe and all the employees sitting around the table and I’m sitting at the bottom of the table with him his name was Dixie Walker that was the the guy’s name that was the over the office and uh JD Dixie Walker and um you know it’s
Amazing what you can remember I remember that guy’s name all those years ago and um and he asked me if I had anything I wanted to say after he said all these wonderful things about me but while he was saying it it registered in my head what was going
On and um so he asked me if I had anything to say and I said yeah uh and I I told the folks who were sitting I said look all that stuff that he just said I haven’t been here long enough for him to come to those conclusions
He was looking at me like oh hell what is get ready say I said but there there’s laws that have been passed that said that we have to equalize the workforce and there areen no black people if you look around this room there’s no black people to promote I was
The only one but if not for that law I would have never had an opportunity to show you that I can do all of the stuff that he just said I haven’t been here long enough but I can do everything he said I can do it and uh and I’m going to
Need you to work with me so that we could do it and as we do that then I’m going to be setting the opportunity for you to be able to uh grow in this company as well and I could feel some of the tension you know easing out of the
Um of the room when I said that um and what was funny this lady came up to me afterwards and she said um I’m going to be indispensable to your success here and I wasn’t sure whether she was saying she was gonna help me or whether I couldn’t tell what she was really
Saying but as she continued to talk it was like I’m gonna be indispensable and I’m gonna expect you to do this for me and if you don’t do these things for me then you’re not going to be successful because I’m not going to help you so she was
It it came clear what she was saying and uh and I had remembered a test uh that someone had told me about for indispensability I don’t know if you ever heard this test or not no but I went and got a cup of water and um and I
Told her I said look let’s let’s imagine that this cup is our team this is this is all of us here together uh and put some water in the cup and I said this water represents all of us we are in this together we’re in
This cup We’re In It Together and uh I said now put your finger in that water and I said mix it up real good because I want to make sure that everybody on the team knows that you are here and that you’re part of it and she
Did and I said when I take your finger out of the water I said the size of the hole that you left in that water shows how indispensable you are to this team and as you know there was no hole in that water and uh I ain’t had no more trouble out of
Her she got she got the picture she got the point and uh and then they they left me there for about a year after that and then they sent me to Griffin Georgia same scenario all over again all the big metropolitan areas yeah eventually I got back to Atlanta and
Um and and I stayed with that company uh for about five or six years about six years and what made me leave was they were having a uh training program and they uh again they I was moving through the ladder I mean they were OTE me left and right and um I got
To a a position where I was I was selling um uh the large telephone systems um but they call them pbxes but back then you couldn’t go through the training I mean you couldn’t sell them if you didn’t go through the training and they wouldn’t put me
Through the training to sell the biggest items that they had and uh and that’s how you made your money you know by selling the bigger items and they wouldn’t they wouldn’t put me through the training they would bring white men in they put them through the training
And they were out doing all the stuff that that need to be done and uh so one day I found a company and I went and I talked to him about this equipment I I went through the books I learned about the equipment um basically I trained myself on that
Equipment and I decided I was going to go out and I was going to sell one of these things without the training and um I told my supervisor uh when I left that morning I told my supervisor what I was gonna do and he was like nah you can’t do that I
Said well that’s what I’m gonna do and I went out and I talked to this company um and I had actually already talked to them U so I knew they were going to buy it and U and I took the contract out there and I got them to signed the
Contract and uh when I came back to the office uh my supervisor had told his supervisor with what I was doing and they were ready to tear me up when I got back in there they didn’t know I had the contract signed in here and ready to go
And they went they called me everything but a child of God and all of of stuff and uh when they got through I mean I’m laughing inside the whole time and uh when they got through um the last words that I remember them saying is that I
Probably cost them all of this money because now that was a client that was never going to buy the equipment because I went out there without the training and then I said well I took the contract out my pocket and handed it to him and I said I think you’re wrong
I think they are going to buy it because here’s the contract and U couple days later they sent me through the training W and but that’s what you had to do I mean you had to be defiling and uh but they sent me through the training and um and I stayed for a
Little while longer uh but then they were they had a class that they wanted all of the managers the black managers to go to and they had hired some guy from IBM back then you remember IBM was a big company but they hired somebody from IBM
To teach black managers how to have a relationship with their white counterparts and which I thought it was kind of crazy to even have something like that but in the class they they asked if you as a black manager if you bring white colleagues to your house what should you serve them for
Dinner and the answer was whatever they eat and I was like okay and they said now if you go to a white manager’s house for dinner what should you expect and the answer was whatever they served I went ballistic I went crazy and um
And I I just that that was it it was time to go and um I decided to leave and and went somewhere else and um but that that’s what it was that’s that’s interesting so so let’s let’s move along here because we’re getting close to wrapping this thing up if
Looking back at your life you’ve accomplished a lot you’ve done a lot what would you say is your greatest accomplishment my greatest accomplishment I think is is my children hang on let me get it’s not bad my children um I’ve been married now for almost 40
Years and um that’s rare as you know big time and you know so being able to maintain my family uh being able to uh with my wife you know she’s I give her credit for a lot of this um to raise our children uh both of them uh have
Finished College uh one went to uh to Howard one went to Hampton I tried to get him to morouse and Spellman but they were like we gonna do that but anyway they uh they did finish and both of them doing very very well uh both of them are um their their
Mindset is is on U being successful and helping others so I I feel good that I was able to pass that on to them um because I wanted to start the trend you know it didn’t start with my father so I wanted to start it uh and
Hopefully they will pass it on to their children and at some point you know historically you know you know we’ll be able to look at back at our family and say we all work together we all helped each other and we helped others in the process too that’s what I feel good about
Um another thing would be looking back at your life if you if you had to do it all over again if anything what would you do different I I don’t know you know it’s it’s kind of an interesting thing when I look back on my life it wasn’t like I
Planned all of the things that that did happen um circumstances presented themselves and I reacted and responded to those circumstances um and you know I think you might have said at some point you have two choices whenever something is presented to you you could either do something good good with it or something
Bad with it and uh I was fortunate enough to take all the bad situations that were presented to me and find a positive way out and um has things been perfect no I mean it’s not perfect for anyone but uh we’ve done I’ve done enough in my life uh to feel
That you know bad circumstances didn’t have to be bad forever you just uh you take those circumstances and you figure out you know how best to to to move forward and uh I’ve been blessed uh to be able to do that and um you know like I said you know this
This thing with this brain surgery um I went through you know a number of things you know and then you know we all have these other issues you know prostate cancer I went through that and um I had to go through 40 days of treatments for to get rid of the
Prostate cancer and um what was interesting about that no one knew that I was going through it I didn’t tell anybody that I was going through those treatments uh we were in session at the time and every day uh before we the session started I went to
Emory Emory Clinic uh for my treatments and I would leave there and go to the capital I did not miss one single day of the session while I was going through that um and then on the last day of the session because I felt like it was
Important for people to know I asked the doctors that were treating me to come to the capital and I had the you know I talked to the speaker of the house at the time and told him what I had just gone through and I asked if he would allow
The doctors to come on the house floor and address the House of Representatives uh to tell them how important it was to go get treated tested you know as men to go get tested because you can beat prostate cancer if they catch it early enough and uh and he
Agreed to do that and I had the that’s when I told people what I was going through and um but I had the the doctors come to the house floor and talk to everybody else because I wanted my colleagues to to go get tested that’s good stuff that’s real good
Stuff so’s let’s wrap it up here uh one of the things we like to do on this platform we like to add or guess what is the matter of your heart at this time like that it could be politics it could be something going on in the world anything what what’s what’s
Troubling me right now is is the world order or probably the better word is the world lack of order and um you know Donald Trump you know I know you know want me to use names but heck his name is out you know Donald Trump has set the bar so
Low um for holding public office and um set the bar so low for public service or what what gets called public service and um set the bar so low for what um is described as family uh all of those things he’s just set the bar so low and people
Are coming into this line of work so to speak at his level and that troubles me a lot um because we we’re not going to be successful as a country uh we’re not going to be successful as families if if we allow that bar to be the example that we go by
And uh unfortunately you know you have a guy that says you know well there was some article from years ago where he said he was going to they asked him if he was gonna run for ever run for uh president and his answer was if I do I’m G to run as
Republican because they stupid enough to vote for me and he did he ran as a Republican and they did vote for him I actually seen that video you saw that yeah and um you know so like I said he set the bar so low and I’m not saying all Republicans
Are dumb that’s not what I’m saying I’m saying that’s what he said right right and um and I I think that what has happened is that we’ve gotten away from what can we do best to help you know people to what can we do best to help these political parties
And and I I just don’t feel like that that’s the way we should be going we need to be helping people one last question here if there was a book that you could give to people that most influence you or you feel that what most influence other people what
Book would you recommend them to read well you know it it depends on what what you’re trying kind to do now I I think that the Bible is important um I think that there are um and I’m not saying that everything in the Bible is is factual okay that’s not
My but if you if you read it you can you can take from it uh those things that are positive that motivate you and pump you up and and use it and then those things that don’t CU some of the things don’t make sense um you know you just
You know discard those things but I think that’s one um one source of information that that I think will help yeah you can never fail with that I I’d say pretty much the same thing you know there’s I don’t think everything in there is 100% true a lot of allegories and
Soliloquies but I don’t throw the baby out with the bath water CU that’s it a lot of valuable information that’s stored in that book so definitely agree with you on that one so Roger it it’s been an amazing journey for you thank you for sharing with the
Platform uh hopefully we could do this again we got some other topics that we could take and delve deeper into yeah and we didn’t cover a lot of the things you know life is uh there’s a whole lot of other things in there but yeah I
Think we covered some but you know I just want to uh again lead people with um don’t let others determine your your limitations that’s important you know um get out there and if you do one good thing every day just pick when you wake
Up in the morning you say at the end of this day you know I want to have accomplished X whatever that is and it could be something minor it could be that I’m going to go out and and feed somebody that’s on the street um it
Could be that I’m GNA go uh find some child and and do something good for anything um but but at the end of the day be able to say here’s something I did good today um I think that would be important good stuff well once again thank you
Um people out there is there any way that people can reach you like where would you tell people to reach you or to find out what you’re working on to get involved the easiest way is to pick up the phone and call 678 428 8067 or text you know and I do
Respond um may take me a day or so but I do respond uh um you can call my office I mean go to my website Roger bruce. net and you can find all the ways to reach me and um you know one last thing too about the
Um event that I do with the kids every year get ready bring that up family Funday family Funday uh we do it the Saturday after Mother’s Day uh we’ve done it for 20 years um where I stock the lake over Sweet Water Creek State Park and uh fill
It up with fish and the kids we invite the kids to come over and we give them all fishing poles I know I’ve given away 10,000 fishing poles in more over the years and uh and we work with the kids and show them how to fish and um we get
We get about a thousand kids out over the course of the day and um that was something that my father never did did you know take me fishing um and a lot of these kids come out they’re with their moms you know um and so we show them how
To fish and uh I’ll let you invite them to our walk though I’ll let you do that yeah yeah but also you cutting short the food at at at the family fun day was oh yeah it’s lots of food there too I think
I ate a ton of fish that day yeah it’s a lot lot of food but that’s the extra stuff I do it because I want to teach the kids how to fish but we do feed everybody definitely and we do get out and walk I I’ve joined Roger and his
Team several times uh going for walks on Tuesday Mornings out at Sweetwater Creek yeah Sweetwater Creek State Park I don’t say but um yeah you just mention Roger name when you show up let them know that you’re walking with us uh we start about about 9:00 yeah we we we get there at
8:45 we start walking at 9: uh we walk for about an hour and a half it’s about three three mile walk you know through the woods it’s beautiful site you know I mean you were there and you and your wife I think she enjoyed it too oh
Yeah yeah we we’ve actually like the first time I went out with you we actually went out on our own and spent some some time out there so love getting out in nature it’s good for your health for many reasons yeah once again Roger thanks for joining us thank you for sharing your
Story um admire you my brother and thank you talking to you again thank you so much all right thank you everybody this is another episode of matters of the heart and soul podcast where we talk about all things deal with spirituality Justice culture family male uh masculine and feminine
Energy and so much more uh until next time peace
source
