It’s not by chance nor happen stance that you are gathered at 6th Avenue Baptist Church and sitting in the sanctuary 6th Avenue is one of the oldest historic churches in the state of Alabama and being here reminds us that we must put God first in all that we
Do you know our faith in our work must match up uh Proverbs 29 and8 reminds us that a nation without God is a nation without order happy is the one who keeps God’s law I want to pray for you tonight and I want to invite you to pray with me
As we seek God’s guidance and his empowerment uh for our leaders for those who are we’re trying to actively engag to participate in this process uh it’s a work uh we thank God for the leadership of this church past Cano and thank God for Curtis Pickins who had this vision
And works as a lobbyist and the pickings group we just thank God for so many good folks here at 6th Avenue in this community but with without God we cannot do anything and so we always need to put him first and seek him uh as we go about our work let us
Pray Lord we just thank you right now for bringing us together for this purpose we give you the praise for this evening let your Holy Spirit fall on us and Empower us to be thy best not only today but every day thank you for the younger generation who will lead us in
The future thank you for the current leaders give them everything they need to be successful in their work so that they will cause you to smile and at the end of the day say Well done my faithful servant and remind us daily that you
Love us and you want to use us to get this work done we offer this prayer in the name of our Lord and our savior Jesus amen I just want to say this to you if if the spirit moves on you tonight um and you don’t have a church
Home if you want prayer if you want to rededicate your life just by you know sometimes just being in the house of the Lord a move on you if you want salvation I want to let you know that there are going to be some church leaders in room 151 which is behind me
And down the hallway to the left so at the end of The Forum if you need any of that we have have some folks here waiting willing and able to assist you and so uh we’re going to ask Miss HST to come now from AG Parker High School and
Uh she’s going to bring a student to with her to sing for us and so let’s welcome Ashley Hurst and H Parker High School well he’s all right we got a student come on amen God bless you Don’t you love me I don’t need you love I’ve got [Laughter] God I’ve got my family I can feel them now they may not be here but they still mine I know they still love me got my house it still keep the cold out got my chair when my body can’t hold
Down got my hands doing good like they spos to show him my heart to to the folks that I’m close to got my eyes though they don’t see as far now they see more about how things really are now I’m G take a deep breath going to hold my head up I’m
Going to put my shoulders back and look you straight in the eye going to flirt with somebody when they walk by I’m going to sing out sing God yeah I believe I have inside of me everything that I need to live a bountiful life with all the love alive
In me I’ll stand as tall as the tallest tree and I’m thankful for every day that I’m giv both the easy and hard on I’m Living but most of all I’m thankful for loveing who I really am you’re beautiful yes you’re beautiful I he oh yes I am [Applause] Let’s uh give another hand to that young man from uh Parker High School praise the Lord amen amen uh good evening
Everyone uh I greet you in the name of our Lord and savior avor Jesus Christ who alone does all things well and I welcome you here to this faith and policy Forum uh at the 6th Avenue uh Baptist Church uh my name is John L cello III I’m the senior pastor here and
Uh this church has offered Ministry and service to this community for over 142 years and so that’s something uh that we are proud about praise the Lord amen um in Proverbs the 4th chapter verse 7 it says that wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and
With all of thy getting get an understanding right so uh we’re here tonight because we want to get a more accurate understanding of the policies that we’re often asked to vote on we want to get a better understanding of those things and and as we receive this understanding
Then we can determine how to better serve our community how we can better serve the Servants of our community uh in this political season and so let me just say may God bless each and every one of you enjoy this forum uh and by all means get an understanding about the
Issues uh that are before us thank you we have another selection Ashley Hurst and praise the Lord amen amen so this is the last day of black history month but you know black history is all year but we take February as the opportunity to celebrate so I would like
To do strange fruits one of my favorite songs song by Ella fitgerald originally song by Billy holiday but La is one of my favorite singers Southern Trees Bears a strange fruit blood only blood at the RO black bodies swinging in the southern breeze Strange Fruit hanging from POA trees Pastor scene of the gall s the bulging eyes and the Twisted mouth sent of magnas so sweet and fresh then the sudden smell of burning
Flesh here is the fruit for for the wind to sug for the rain to together for the sun to rise for the sun to rise for the trees to drop here is a strange and be be CR thank you Ashley so how about the singing from uh
Ah Parker High School the ah spker high school thank you thank you Miss Hurst so we’re at the point where I get to talk about a dear friend of mine introduce him he’s the moderator for tonight you all have seen him how many folks in this room don’t know this 68
Foot anchor anybody in this room never seen this guy right here well let me just tell you a little bit about it so so Steve and I met many many years ago he he arrived here in Alabama in 20 2003 2003 but before he got here maybe you
Don’t know that Steve was born and raised in Queens New York how does a guy from Queens New York wind up in Birmingham Alabama well Steve had a purch for wanting to be a journalist he uh a broadcast he has a brother named Ron that’s still
In New York and Ron was a jazz disc jockey and uh Steve Took a ly to subsequently Steve wound up graduating from Morehouse College morehous man while he was at Morehouse I believe Steve did a little uh Moonlighting as a as a as a broadcaster fell in love with broadcasting he kept
Moving he moved out to Dallas Texas on duty as a broadcaster from there he went to South Carolina and eventually wound up here in Alabama I called on Steve every time I call on Steve over the years for some sort of mentoring project he’s always available and here we are
Again so without further Ado my P Steve C thank you Curtis it’s funny how you grow sometimes in somebody’s memory because I I’m not SI 68 taller than most folk but well we all know that we have Giants sitting up here so uh thank you all for
Coming it’s always good to be in the house of the Lord um and we’re going to talk tonight about faith and policy so let me uh kick things off I think we’ve only got an hour so we’re going to try to keep it moving uh let me introduce uh
The state legislators who are just off the road from Montgomery um I saw I was uh leaving my house to come here and saw uh Senator Singleton on TV poined at somebody I was like I is he gonna be able to say that in church whatever he’s saying that uh
Telling that person but uh let me start in my immediate right uh state senator Bobby Singleton representing District 24 large District tus Lucid over to York and Beyond uh next to him Rolanda Hollis The District 56 state representative 58 I’m sorry thank you 58 uh that’s uh
That’s Ontario that’s 56 right yeah 58 uh representing East Lake iron Dale Center Point um next to her one of the Lions of the uh Senate along with Senator Scott uh our own Roger smitherman district 18 which means we are right now in his district and one of
The newest members of the legislature representative Ontario Tillman Democrat District 56 uh that represents uh bmer lipskin I believe maybe a little bit of uh barefield as well let’s go go Val oxmore Valley okay thank you all for coming I’ve got a bunch of questions for
You because I know we want to talk about the choose act I know we got some uh some Educators in here I see brother Hudson from from Birmingham city schools in in Alabama I want to talk to uh I want to talk to you about that let me
First ask before I forget do we have any other uh election Ed uh officials in the house tonight I see the sheriff here you can just stand just real quick just let folk know who you are in case they we talk to thank you judge a couple of Judges with us it’s
Awesome um so I’ve got a few questions that have been submitted but let me start by asking each of you to just take one minute and talk about what’s most important to you in this legislative session what are the what’s the thing that that you most uh want to see pass
Let’s let’s start with you on well I don’t know to me everything is important that we’re doing in my government so uh I don’t take that lightly because we’re actually passing laws that impact not just our district not just the second the people but the entire state of Alabama so everything
That we do in my government to me I take Serious because we read the the legislation we want to make sure that the legislation benefiting and improving the quality of life of every individual and uh for that reason that’s why I take everything serious Senator uh I will just simply say this
That the most important thing especially in this session and usually it’s every election year that falls within the different sessions we’re in uh is to protect the rights of you all that’s the most most important thing there’s an assault on it I don’t have to tell y’all
You know what’s going on it’s an an assault and that and as he said we every issue we have to look at it and be ready to take the position that uh you know I just say like this I talk about reconstruction all the time I got a
Picture in my office of the last legislators who were there before reconstruction and I and my theme is is we ain’t going back we’re not going back so that’s most important thing is our rights in the legislature being ready stand in the Gap and fight for him I
Tell people this all the time sometime people ask what have you passed for for me lately I said if you knew that what I wasn’t letting happen to you you will be happy that’s just how bad it is and but that’s the most important thing in individual rights of all these people
Out here pres I would go along with my colleagues and say that everything is important and uh I’m asking you guys not just to wake up but stay woke and know what’s going around in your state because it help when we have you out there helping us with the fights that we
Have so everything is important know what’s going on around you and stay woke singon well thank you first of all for let a little country boy like me come to Birmingham be with y’all uh you know the most important thing is like Senator smithman said is I came to
This session really to play defense you know sometimes when you got legislation that you really want to pass you often find yourself having to compromise something to get yours pass and let theirs go okay so I didn’t come to try to get anything P I come because
I knew that they were coming to all those things that was going to hurt our people like theive Concepts and Dei want to make sure that there were no black history in the state you know uh attack on on women and making sure that our children didn’t have good education and
Leaving our babies behind so I came to fight those things but one of the things that I do want to get past is a comprehensive medical plan for the state of Alabama to make sure that everybody have access to medical care that’s what I would love to see happen
So let me start here again there are so many things I want to get to but let me start here I saw a question um posted somewhere uh earlier this week will your state count every vote we have a new secretary of state who has pulled our
State out of the interstate system that allows secretaries to keep track of of Voters moving from one state to another who’ve got a a primary coming up uh next week um how confident are you that every vote will get counted not only in this primary but in this important general election anyone
I’ll t t testing okay well it is very important that we watch this you know since um you had the section five that was taken away from us in terms of us being able to watch that process and be able to allow the justice department to monitor uh how folks are
Going in and counting in the States since we don’t have that protection anymore uh I know Senator smithman and I are always on top of that process so when we look at the process in the state of Alabama I feel secure that we have a secure uh process in the state to make
Sure that our votes are counted uh we have not had intentional voting fraud the last voting fraud case that was in the state was in Winston County by white Shar and while they keep trying to act as if Black Folk are committing voting fraud and we’re the ones who are not you
Know we voting harvesting and stacking votes it’s not in our community it is in their community and so you know those are the kind of things that I think that based on the system that we have set up in all of the 67 counties that are in in
Working even though that that Secretary of State take took away that National peace I still feel okay about where we are in the state and that all our votes will be a lot of folks are concerned about the uh the Dei legislation we had somebody in The Newsroom yesterday asked
Well you know does this mean that that black fraternities and sororities will have to move off of college campuses so there’s a lot of concern about that what if you could explain what the bills um that are in the legislature do right now and and what their chance of passing test yeah
Uh when you are dealing in a situation where you have 27 of them and eight of us you have to really think ahead of how you going to address this situation they would they were bent on eliminating those departments that’s something they came in with a federal mandate this is one of
The fellow mandates from their party and they were determined to do that so what we have we had to do especially uh in both bodies but what we did in the Senate then we had to go through and dissect the bill we put 18 amendments on that
Bill and what we had to end up doing is to give you a small version of what we did was we had to make sure all the services and opportunities were still existing even though the department didn’t exist so what what we expect to happen is that
Those services are going to roll into other departments you know it’s kind of like a state that does that they do not have a Homeland Security Department their services rolled into EMA the same Services if you had a department so we had to take that approach and so the
Battle went from the actually the department to making sure that we were not harmed and and we we talk about that and uh sen sing probably going to laugh because we talk about a theory called the airplane and we tell them that all you all are doing is looking down the runway
To make sure that the airplane Runway is clear for what you’re doing but what you’re not looking at what’s happening with the wings there are things that’s under the wings and those are consequences and sometime intended and sometime not that you’re going to cause harm to people so
We have to address all those incidental things in that bill that we can from the fraternity you mentioned or even to just take Orban Orbin has a engineering program for black females we had to put that in there that that was not going to be eliminated so we went through all
Those variety of things that Encompass in that particular uh issue we had to address them one at a time and so when you look at the bill and they they have the bill in the house now it’s about 18 amendments that we put on there to try
To do the very best to make sure our people kept the same opportunities that they had during that time and and further we made sure not only will D9 groups still exist on pwi college campuses also HBCU but they would continue their funding also so funding would not go away for those colleges
That were funding there are like at Alabama they have aka’s Deltas has a a house on campus this bill basically would wipe their houses out we only not make sure that their house will still stay there but they will also get funding for the University we’ve got some uh questions
That have been submitted I’m going to try to mix these in with some of my own uh representative holl this question for you goes back to voting is it true that we can’t give a bottle of water to a person standing in in line outside of a
Point I think so I think so is we have so much of uh voter suppression right now and so many bills on the table that we’re fighting uh like the absentee bill you know when you can be when you can go to jail just by helping someone fill out an absentee uh voter
Registration form has been refer to his ballot Harvest right exactly if if if I ask your kid take this ballot to miss so and so and help her feel this out and I’m give you some gas money well we could be prosecuted for that or if we
Buy stamps we could be prosecuted for that so we have bills like that that’s coming down and that we’re fighting every day well what can be done though I’m thinking of our senior citizens facilities well I I’ll just chime in and say that really what’s going to have to happen
Now is prop the way it was when we very first started running people got to volunteer you got to volunteer you can’t be paid to do it you can’t be a staff person for the uh for the campaign even though you’re getting paid to do other things you you’ve got to have pure
Volunteers who are not receiving any compensation whatsoever and and we you know we were able to that’s the kind of battle we were talking about we we had to argue and argue and argue and debate to to make them realize yes folks going to need help and and but at the same
Time they didn’t want to give up on the the pay par so we reserve the right to help but you cannot accept any compensation for helping people you got to be a volunteer representative tman a question for you um someone wants to know which committees you serve on and also what is
The most controversial bill that you’ve worked on so far in the legisl well the committee that I serve on is the uh Judiciary Committee which is a very difficult uh committee both the Senators they both serve on the same Committee in the Senate also serve on Financial
Services as well as uh judicial building authority and fiscal responsibility but uh the we call it Judy for short the Judiciary is for all of the pretty much deals come through dealing with criminal penalties and things of that nature uh just recently uh we had a bill that we
Call uh hb10 which is the uh bachelor party Bill we we kind of name the bill so people kind of understand and a real quick story U it happened in it happened in Mobile where a person going to a bachor party and one of the groomsmen
Brought the the groom uh some drugs and the drugs were laced with fidar and the person took it and they died so unfortunate event unfortunate situation however the bill that came through our committee would now penalize and criminalize the person who brought the drugs there will be class be felony which is man’s
Law that what the bill would do and if you looking at it from that perspective the purpose of the bill coming from the sponsor is stating that we trying to stop fitting all we start we trying trying to stop drug dealers and we agree on that however in that particular
Instance you are penalizing the user you’re penalizing the addict you’re penalizing people with potential mental health issues and that’s what you’re doing those are the type of bills that we have to deal with and we have to fight each and every day because we want
The bill to make sense we want we want the same person that you want for some reason they don’t believe that we don’t want crime in our area we don’t want crime in our area as well we want to fight the same issues that you’re fighting but the difference is come to
The table and speak to us about these issues I stand in the courtroom representing people with these same type of issues so I’m telling you this is not going to fly in court you can’t explain this to a jury to make them understand this issue so you’re wasting time
Instead of coming here getting it right from the beginning but those are the battles that we have to constantly fight we have to constantly go through this and real quickly what what the senator said about putting amendments on bills that is very important that is a skill
That I think a lot of people really don’t understand because the bill start off one way but due to their amendments the bill is better that’s a skill in and of itself to actually do that those are the processes that we have to do down there so like you saying we playing defense
We’re doing all these different things because we know how it will affect our community once we come home um to the subject of of what it’s like to fight uh in the legislature Senator Singleton a question for you someone asking why is it so important for us to be registered
To vote because it doesn’t seem to make a difference and as Senator Sidman just pointed out Democrats are outnumbered what 27 to eight to eight um so it’s one thing to try to put amendments on bills but is there ever uh is there a chance that you’ll actually be able to affect
The numbers in the senate or in the house well you know there’s nothing impossible because Democrats rule for 126 years up until 2010 and so Republicans real young at this I had to point that out to them today that they’re rookies at this thing that’s why they’re making so many
Mistakes because they won’t listen to the brain trusts about how to get things done and I would say to young people you know there are people who died for your right to vote and a right to vote is just not a process but it’s a privilege
It is something is a it’s an honor to be able to do so is whether or not people for all of you young people these people sitting up on on this this di right now can make a determination is whether or not you can wear joints tomorrow not we
Can determine whether or not you get to go where you School you get to go to that’s just how powerful the people on this dce is we can determine whether or not you can wear those blue coats or not if we don’t want you to wear blue coats
And make you change them to Red Coats we can pass laws to make that happen we dictate what happens a lot of time in terms of how your lifestyle is operating it just don’t happen and at the local level the city at County government and
More so at the state and at the national level so that’s why it’s important that you get involved with people who are making decisions about your life let me say this about education in education there’s someone in education that represent every sector of education but the children you got
Aea who represents teachers you got class who represents principles you have the School Board Association who repres repr superintendant and and and uh school board members but there are no group down there that represents children so I have to fight for children that’s why I have to stand up and fight
For those of you who are not 18 years of age who do not have that voice to vote because your vote is your voice and that’s the best thing in democracy is when you can vote that’s when you have a voice in what what I say but when you
Don’t vote you can’t complain about what I do that’s the only way you make the change is when you vot go ahead Senator is absolutely right what he was saying there but I also want to add this is that when he said the the there were rookies one of the the things
That that we have to our advantages and uh I they do in the house but especially in the Senate is that we know the rules better than they do you know institutionalized you know I actually had the opportunity thanks to the Lord to serve as pro team of the Senate and
And to do that I had to know the rules as well are better than anyone so now we know the rules and that’s what you see on TV what you see that while we are able to get that control and be talking and doing we done because we know when
To do it how to do it and and and that in itself really f fascinates them because they they they know we know and they know we know how to do it and also even though for 20 is it safe to say for 25 days Senator and I’m saying the house
The same way but we use it a look sometime a look different uh for 25 days they we have to battle what you hear everybody talking about we batt but see because of the State Constitution because of the rules the last 5 days we are equal to the them and we always have
This saying and I senator says it a lot more than I do if we tell them we said when we get to 25 we look at them we say it ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun we tell them boy BL the rabbit got
The gun now and they know they and also the reasons we filibuster is especially in the sanity is because we stack up so much confirmations when people be want to be on boards we it no matter how they want to close yours and it don’t take
For 21 to make us be quiet they got 27 we could make six friends and 21 will still uh uh that’s all they need to close us closure us but the thing that we we make it clear is that don’t forget when the rabbit get the gun and they and
We have done that long enough to that point and I have to say this Steve and I really have to say it for you all to understand you know we go through a lot you all can imagine what the things that we go through you see like what you
Talking about you know they they want to take stuff it’s internal things that don’t ever hit the news they want to take folks off this they want to do that because that’s their way of showing their dislike about it but the thing about it is they’ve tried to do that so
Much that I was just telling uh my friend here uh representative that after they do all that we be standing right there in their face we said we ain’t going nowhere you know and and and so it takes that it takes that I’m just telling you we get threats on our lives
We get threaten things I mean my life has been threatened twice some serious threats Alabama be investigation was the ones who came and told me I had the threat on my life so but so but we can’t we don’t have fear you can’t have a
Spirit of fear you know and and so that that’s the thing that they begin to see that we ain’t going nowhere and I want to move on but go ahead and what we have to understand is that elections have consequences you have to want the person to represent you
You need to have that you need to have a seat at the table because if we’re not sitting at the table then who will this is not a spectator sport get in the arena do your job and come out here and fight and represent your people and do your job
Want to talk for a minute about um young people specifically um and if uh anyone has a question we’re going to try to leave a minute or two toward the end uh for questions especially from uh from our younger visitors here but um we have the choose act what most people would
Have referred to as the choice act so basically if you don’t like the school that your child is in you can send your child to another school and the money that the state sends to that school will then follow your child what is going to be the impact of this
Legislation I would say the problem with that bill is I don’t have a problem with a parent choosing a school for your kid the problem I have with the bill is that when you take that kid out of our Public Schools the Money Follows the kid and
We’re talking about is about $7,500 per kid 6900 per kid and if that kid leave that money’s lead with that kid and if that kid go back to that public school the money does not come back so we’re losing money within our Public Schools but that’s
If that scenario works if if the tri is taking money out of the district right so if they’re going from one city school to another city school the district doesn’t really but if they go to Mountain Brook or somewhere else is that what your
To pretty much if if I take my kid out of school and I put my kid in a private school private school that money will follow that kid so if I decide that my kid cannot cope with the private school or can do the work and if I take that
Kid and put him back in the public school that money would not follow the key there are uh charter schools and uh I’m also I’m thinking specifically of the the um uh aeronautic themed high school um out on the western side of town with these school with these schools being a
Position to benefit is that where we need to start thinking about spending more money spending more energy Steve let me just say this this is really not about whether not a child a choice we have school choice already we already got private school we got peral school
They can home school they can go to public school or they can go to Charter School we already have those choices so parent can take their child any way they want to go this is the this is the new segregation okay this is about white
Folk want to take their kids and pay for private school with public dollars so what they’re saying is number one that this not coming out the education trust fund they’re getting the money before it hit the education trust fund so it looks like a used Tax that is being you
They’re disguising this money because our education trust fund will not allow you to spend money out of it for private schools so this is a new fund money that they’re coming up with that they’re going to sit what they call a a $100 million a year and they make it look
Like it’s a ceiling but it’s really a floor they can actually spend up to 400 million if they want to if that many people start to move around rural kids in my area don’t have a choice so when you got poor kids who can’t get to those other schools that you’re talking about
When they don’t have free reduced lunches where kids can go hungry they don’t have free reduced lunches at private schools they don’t have free reduced lunch sometime at your Charter Schools those T schools and private school get to choose the kids they want but Public School have to take every
Child that they have so they get to have the choices that they want that’s why they call it the choose bill so they can segregate the kids that they want it doesn’t necessarily mean that the school has to be a fell school let me tell you
This little thing they sit the first two years up as if is for those kids with 300% of poverty of them that’s a joke kids with 300% of poverty can’t go nowh anyway CU their mama and them can’t care them nowhere that’s just the joke that they
Set it up so they can then after that go then they can start to move the money on the other side of this they have what they call the tripa act the Triple A act give $10,000 to move okay so the thing that we have to make sure that happens is that they
Don’t stack that money on top of it so they get $117,000 to go to private school all right so that’s what we’re fighting against is to make sure that they don’t get either about we’re against a choice it’s about what the equity in because then when those kids get to move they
Don’t have to take the same assessment test that the kids in the public school take that make you think that our schools are failing and we won’t even know whether these schools over here are failing schools or not because they would never become public even under the
Choice act so let’s just be real about it that’s what it’s all about white folk in the way to get PR school and pay the money some black folk will take advantage of two please do if you do it but at the end of the day that’s all
It’s about cuz kids in my area would never get an opportunity to get that because in my in my area I got a school that brimham southern started years ago brimingham Southern started in greensbor Alabama when they left and came to brimingham they left it and they started
A private school it’s been white ever since I’ve been born I’m 61 years old no black kids have ever gone to Bri to uh to that private school so my kids in my community don’t have nowhere else to go for public school so it ain’t a choice so can our school system
Survive the yeah he’s passionate about it that see Steve the the he he has told you that why we the areas and the approach we have to play defense in on the other hand we play offense we jump we be jumping up and down and still going to
Do it we hav’t even dressed the budget yet the first thing I put out there to them I said if you going to get those kids $10,000 our kids in public school not 6,900 they got to have 10 if you want you got to make it consistent across the board that
If you going to pour that level of money into that program it’s got to be ped and not just me I’m talking about all of us it’s got to be pulled into uh public schools at that same rate he hit on something real important and we’re
Battling it now I you know we it’s that’s the the the test I mean and and just so happen we got we have to find a situation where we draw allies so now we fighting the fact that no you’re not going to have two separate tests the same because what he just said
About that the same standard that you me out Public Schools if you going to get this money you got to measure them and allies we have on that end is like the School Board Association they ain’t always with us but when we find those allies we got themm we got AA all of
Those people over there with these eight people and see that makes a difference they people fighting each other with us and so that that makes a whole difference but that’s what he was talking about that’s how we have to think creatively if we in this situation
How we going to make it better for our people even in a situation we know they Dominate and this is what they want to do and we what we have to do is to make sure that we what he just said and that we get parody on funding and it’s par on
The evaluation of whether or not it’s it’s doing the job it’s supposed to do this important one of the other areas they don’t want to take is kids with special needs see private school don’t have a special need program so what they’re going to do is make public
School take those kids with special need even if they move over to a private school so those kids have a special need the public schools still have to service them in the private school got the money that’s what this bill does it is not fair if it was equity in it it was
Apples to Apples I’m all for it but it’s apples to meat Lo it even in the fruit stage I’m sorry it’s it’s okay it’s okay we can go on um a couple more submitted questions one for representative holl um representative holl can you explain what exactly are the was the female hygiene
Bill you introduce that’s a bill that I had um twin girls Brion and Brooke at the time they was 12 years old and they came to me and they um had a vision of a bill because their mother was a counselor in the school and they saw their mother was
Was spending her own money providing feminine hygiene products and when we talking about feminine hygiene products we’re talking about uh tampons we’re talking about pads we’re talking about uh wash for our girls um and when I looked at this bill and I started asking around and asking
Questions that there was really a need for this product because we have young girls that would leave school because of this problem because of embarrassment that they didn’t have those products so we were able to pass the bill for the kids that’s uh Fifth Fifth Grade yeah
Fifth grade through the 12th grade to have free feminine hygiene products within their schools and I was able to get $200,000 in the budget that go out to the schools and I have yet requested this year to double that $200,000 because we need those products in school is very important and it took
Me a year to educate men on this product white men mostly and I had to tell them you all have the means to keep these items in your home and 90% the female is not going to go to their father they’re going to their mother and so you don’t
Have to worry about these things but we have you know our females that um they were dropping out of school because of the embarrassment and and I had to tell them if it was not for a female the male would not be here they need to have
Their periods and I can get real graphic but I won’t but we all know what I’m talking about let me ask if there are any uh questions in the audience and uh we’ll get those asked in the meantime um representative tman I believe you introduced uh a bill in response to the
IVF decision from the Supreme Court what’s the status of that well uh our bill wasn’t sent to committee or made it to the house floor the Republican bill actually made it to the house of Lord today that was the bill that uh we was uh debating on today which is their
Version of the idea any questions for our panelists um there we go I knew this guy would have a question for hey you know I used to be reporter I’m Roy Williams I live in representative holl’s district um I had two questions one is related to what can
We do about this violent Behavior that’s happening in our communities as lawmakers what can we do to address that issue and secondly how can we get more of these young people to vote want to take that I’ll just take the first part what you’re saying about
In our communities I I I think in in part and I know it’s easy to sit up here and say it for people to do it but we going to have to take ownership of our own Community we going to have to do that y’all you going to have to be able to
The police can’t go get nobody if they don’t know who to go get y’all understand what I’m saying you can’t sit up quiet I mean it’s enough I think Sheriff verify what I’m saying it’s enough systems out there with the information that you can stay Anonymous
To a certain point uh and they can be able to do their job but we going to have to change that whole mindset that we have and I know where it comes from it comes from because in in so many times in the past that and I’m talking
About years it happens now but in years uh or where we were mistreated and the officers didn’t look like us okay we still have this concept that off are going to mistreat us and we got plent of them that look like us now and and and I think that we have to have
Enough confidence in them and Trust in them that they’re going to do what they’re going to do you know and I’m I’mma just say this I I understand the law fully I’m an attorney uh talk constitutional law along with judge uh well she started for I did but I taught
It 25 years so I understand the Constitution to the tee but but I’m just going to say this if you if you want those people removed you got to get police a little latitude because if they got if they got to go out there and they can’t address
It until after they shot at or something like that then the people they’re just as smart as we are the criminals and we have got to have some kind of way to let them do that and yes we we put in legislation to try deal with these bad
Officers that may not do what they’re doing but right now we’re putting so much emphasis on the few that’s so bad you know terrible that with the good one we tying their hands and they can’t go out there and get these people and do things they’re doing so our whole
Attitude as a people is going to have to change if we want that to change they’ve opened it up they’ve let guns be prevalent the majority has done that we talk about it all the time anybody can just about get their hand on a gun now
And that’s why you seeing things are saw with guns you know and so we’ve got to now make sure that if they know that’s those people they got the ability to go get them right then go get them and and as he said we we don’t want Prime no
More than anybody else but we cannot tie their hands and expect for them at the same time to go do what we feel they need to go do but is there anything that we can do to change mindset St to to yes I mean look the the police chief talked
Yesterday about a crime that was penous on its face and then someone recorded and it’s floating around on the internet on social media right now um what can we do is there anything that you can do as legislators um to address where some not all some of our folks
Are well I I just said quickly this week I give you one bill and I’m going to show you how we have have to be there and and have the the togetherness in doing it but at the same time take under consideration the things I I mentioned a
Few minutes ago on both sides of it we have a bill that’s called we call it a gang bill that was passed and the purpose was for the bill was to help eliminate games but the way that they had to build I give you one situation and you’ll
You’ll see how we have to try to get in to do actually what I said that we as Citizens need to do in the bill uh the whole purpose was great and the bill eventually passed but in it just give you an idea it’s saying that if they had
Said that if a mother knows that a child is in the game and does not report it then she’s going to be guilty of ab C or D and and and our position we had to have that removed because that just being honest the mama says she don’t know she don’t
Know but if you before a jury of 12 and and that jury don’t look like you Us in here she ain’t going to get the benefit of the doubt so she going to be facing a felony and she really didn’t even know we have to make sure when we go into
Those things that that doesn’t happen and that’s not in there now but at the same time the ability for them to go get these gangs is still there that’s why I say it’s going to take us having a position of of of what y’all call tough love we going to have
To have tough love as neighbors and communities to to the point where yes we have love but at the same time we going to have to make sure that we work to to eliminate that problem as well with with authorities just real quick Senator and well what is one of the other things
That we also have to do is that we can’t be let sen we can’t be afraid of the police we got to get a share of every tool that he need in his tool box to work with he’s handcuffed if we want to handcuff the sheriff of being able to
Have the tool that he needs in his tool box so when the sheriff comes to me and he need those tools in his tool I need to trust that he’s going to do the right things to help him fight crime in those Community we talk a lot about defunding
Police we’ve never been for talking about defunding police we want the police to have everything that they need to have training whatever it is that they need to have because you know we got we lost a sense of community and so until we start telling on Ray Ray and
PUK and JoJo NE and stop calling the snitch and start telling them the freedom ain’t for everybody some of the WRAS need to be locked up I’m just be I’m to be honest with you but at the end of the day then we get mad when somebody
Say this F that they need to be locked up but yet still Ray R breaking your house tomorrow night then you want to lock until it happened to you then you want to protect Ray R Cho but the sheriff got to deal with that every night I’m sorry go ahead real
Quick go yes we had we had a question we have students from oxmore Valley Elementary School that have questions thank God for them good evening this question goes for is for Senator Roger SM smitherman what plans or policies do you believe are necessary to prioritize and support social emotional well-being of students in
Alabama I didn’t get the last part great question what plans or policies do you believe are necessary to prioritize and support the social emotional well-being of students in Alabama well I’ll start off with with the fact that we need to provide and have all the necessary as he said use the word tools
Necessary things that you all need to be successful and and and those kind of things not only uh pencils and or building but also all the services that you need you know we have a law in the state that provides that we have to provide assistance for students any of
Them that need them we also just passed a la not too long ago to deal to provide services for young people who may have ADHD and all those other kind of illnesses so we have to put all the necessary resources that you all need to provide those opportunities for you to
Provide the necessary people that that are working with you on dayto day and to give you a chance to uh be all that you can be and that’s our job to do that and that’s what we have been doing and that’s what we plan to continue to do for
You good evening this question is for representative Ontario Tillman there is a shortage of special need teachers in Alabama what could you do to get more special need teachers in Alabama I love these questions and this schol is in my district shout out to Dr love but uh I’m
Glad you ask me that question because I asked actually used to be a special needs teacher I taught special needs for 10 years and I think that uh what we need to do is of course increase our teacher salary to make it a competitive teacher salary and also we need to provide and
Give our teachers more of the resources in the classroom for example reducing classroom size so you can have the teacher in there actually teaching instead of in there telling you to sit down quit talking and things of that nature because I don’t care what you do
If you don’t have any discipline in your classroom there’s no learning going on in your classroom we also need to make sure that we provide different benefits for teachers as well as making sure that when the teacher come out and teaching that they a public school no student
Loans get rid of their student loans now you will attract and incentivize people to go back into education but I appreciate that question good afternoon my name is Amaya gray this question is for representative oranda Hollis do you host any SE seminars to educate our community on financial
Literacy I host Community um uh panels all the time matter of fact I have one tomorrow and with that um panel well it’s a Lord have mercy it’s a qualy community of pan that I have which which would have my pastors there my principles there uh have my some of my
Neighborhood presidents there and what we find out we talk about what our kids need within our school uh how can our community and uh uh work together with the principles to make things happen as far as literacy and providing you guys with the things that you need along with other
Things good evening my name is Ariana Bo this question is for representative Rolanda holl Rolanda how can your District get more affordable housing where families can own their home down M the Lane right now education um we need to educate our people on wealth and Home Ownership
Because anybody can purchase a home we just need to educate where they know the knowhow and provide them with the tools and get them education as far as uh uh increasing their credit scores and uh making sure that they don’t have a high debt to ratio the whole process of
Purchasing becoming a homeowner and everybody in this room can become a homeowner and I will be gladly to show you how good evening my name is James wion this question is for Senator Bobby Singleton what is is your biggest challenge working as a senator my B my biggest challenge as being a
Senator my biggest challenge is being in the minority and trying to get see I wake up every day to win and I’m not satisfied unless I’m win I wake up to win today and so my biggest challenge is is trying to make sure that I protect my people
From Bad legislation and making sure that you are free to be what you want to be and you can dream as big as you want to dream and everything that you want to do in life but you have that freedom to do it that’s my biggest challenge every
Day to make sure that you get to do that as a [Applause] child good evening my name is jamise wion this question is for Senator Roger smitherman what measures do you believe are the most effective in addressing challenges within Alabama’s education system you you said what is the most
Would you greatest challenge is the AL education system the greatest challenge the greatest challenge is is sort of what You’ heard us talk about up here a little earlier and that is to make sure that you receive the necessary resources see it’s it’s a movement on to really
Try to I think close public education and we have to stand in the Gap to make sure that all our kids are service none of them are left behind they don’t cherry pick our best out we have to make sure that everybody is are able to
Perform up to that level so so that’s one of of the things that we have to do is to stand there in the Gap to make sure that you receive everything that you get and that you will have an opportunity to go further that that’s what we was talking about in that
Deceptive concept is that the whole objective is set up so that you won’t have an Avenue to be able to go where you need to go and do what you need to do but our job is to make sure that that door stay open no matter what we got to
Do for you amen we thank God for these students from osore Valley I want to also thank uh uh the ambassadors from Lawson State Community College thank youall so much for serving we thank our panelists and uh Steve Crocker for can I have one more question you got somewhere to go I don’t
Where where are we on gaming legislation which if done the way I think you all want would would uh support I say short words you come back up and finish you said what I say this first we passed it out the house without the house well it’s it’s out of the
House so it’s on the Senators now well let me answer your question when you said that you said where is it it’s out there in the car we and I said it that way because in the Senate we’ve been meeting for the last several days that I’m going to tell
The whole story s really what’s happening is that you know that you always meetings before the meetings and and of course they’ve been meeting and they haven’t had us in the meeting so you know we just we just know where the meeting is and we just kind of go in
There and so now that we’re part of the meeting we’ve had discussions about it and we actually have a a d the people on the committee not every legislator in the Senate but the people on the committee we actually have a draft that we we uh to review and to have comments
On and recommendations if necessary for some modifications because the goal in the Senate is to take uh the vote next week so we we’re we’re looking that there a good possibility we going to take the vote next week it is not going to be the same as what the house produc
Did and and although we know that the house uh take pride in their uh work that they did and they did a good job but at the same time in the Senate we I I’m kind of talking to them and y’all too we we can’t get 21 votes on what
They sent us so if we won’t going to have it then we’ve got to try to find how we going to get 21 votes and at the same time compromise with them on the things that are very important to them so we’re at that point now and it’s not only
Uh uh game uh gameing it but it’s also the lottery as well so all of that is going to be uh put in one bill and I think we got to go well I don’t have anything to add thank you all re SP I’m sorry no
Problem thank you uh we do have some folks who are running for elected office and we just want you to stand and just wave your hand and so we can see who you are and if you want to talk with them you can see them after this form is over
In the lobby so um we’re at this point now where we’re going to have our benediction and we’re going to have our own uh missa Watkins the com she is uh on Blan CDC uh yes I’m sorry what’s that okay uh she’s telling me I need to
Get a require some money and Curtis has walked out her husband left with the money now he’s here there go we he’s he’s going to give we let Curtis say this and then Leticia she’s a CDC Community Development Corporation director for six Avenue as well as Birmingham city school public representative district
6 well we’ve come to the end of it we went a little bit over thanks to the youngsters out there there’s no way we would omit you guys so thank you for being here we yourselves a hand thank the panel once again uh in particular Senator Singleton
Senator Singleton came a long way he’s been in legislative session fighting all week long along with the rest of his colleagues he drove from Montgomery to Birmingham and he’s still here at 7:40 tonight he’s got to drive to Hil County tonight so that’s how tough your legislator is that’s that’s a tough
Job so we’re going to do benediction with Leticia here but before we do that we wanted to is there somebody is Dr Hudson here from Parker High School oh would you come up just a moment we got something for you we just want to show our appreciation for you getting Parker
High School involved in this process we hope this has been entertaining for you all tonight we should have had a full house but I remember reading in the Bible that when God started started he only had two disciples there were two Peter and Andre but before he left this
Earth these places were packed so I expect that you will go out and tell your neighbors you need to get your heads in the game we have a president presal election coming up everybody needs to be registered to vote get those people out that’s our job it’s all I’m
Gonna say about that ex now no I for to check so we’ve got a check we got a check for you a small little donation we want to show you that because if you’re inclusiveness in this type of forum we want your kids to be involved we
Appreciate your choir that you wanted to get to us understand there was some concerns we heard some good singing tonight on behalf of 6th Avenue Baptist Church we’ve got a donation for you and because the church decided to do that I share with Reverend Spicer that judge
Pickings and myself would like to match the donation so we’ve got two chck here for you and we hope that you will use thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you very much trust me the choir needs some money and they have a trip coming up in May and this will
Definitely be a financial uh blessing towards their trip they’re a great group of kids and thank you again for your generous [Applause] contribution thank you all so much for staying for the entirety of this program again my name is Leticia Watkins I serve as the district 6 representative for the
Birmingham Board of Education and also here at 6th Avenue I serve as our community development corporation’s executive director to our panel who has been working really hard so many of my friends are on the panel right now I want to say thank you for walking your
Talk thank you for walking your talk the public is here tonight because you all want to be informed you want to make sure that we have the right people in the right seats that we have a voice for fighting for us at the table and we have
It in these Representatives that are on this panel on today many of the things that our students need especially throughout Birmingham city schools we get it in these people who are represented here today the mental health support services that are oxmore Valley Scholars asked about on tonight often
Times the band uniforms the support for programs like band as a representative for Birmingham Board of Education we are often approving those types of donations and they come from our state representatives from our senators from our judges and so we we say thank you thank you to these public servants who
Really really are doing the work and have the heart for our people you’ve heard from our pastor one of our pastors that in room 150 if your heart was set on fire on tonight and you know that God has been speaking to you to continue this type of fight to
Continue the work but you also want to give him your hand and your heart on tonight please stop by room 150 before you leave this place on tonight we have work to do you’ve heard that this is a participat participatory sport that you cannot just cash your vote we need you
To cash your vote but you don’t cash your vote and then stop you lace up your shoes you get in the game you get active you can be as young as the young people that are here today from oxmore Valley because they are letting their voices be
Heard and we’re so so proud of you give them a hand again please our college students and our young adults you have to tell your friends what’s going on we want to make sure that we continue to stay informed and we have come such a long way from
1976 having one week of Black History Month to now are celebrating a year a a month of black history and an extra day with it being leap year so shout out to the additional day but we’re so thankful for where God has taken us and we’re so thankful that he gives us representation
Let us bow dear heavenly father we thank you Father God for just being present in this place on this evening we thank you oh lord for not leaving us we thank you Father God for our ancestors who fought who died who worked father God so that we could have the rights that we
Experience on today Lord God we thank you for the soldiers that are in the battlefield right now the soldiers that are representing us those ones that are on this stage right now and those that are out in the battlefield father God we thank you for giving them the boldness
Giving them the spirit father God giving them the fortitude to continue to do what’s right to stand against those things that do not benefit your people father God we thank you because even though we may be under represented in so many Avenues and aspects of this state
We have people who see us who hear us and we know that we are not forgotten father God we thank you for just being a present help and we ask oh Lord that you would continue to give us the wisdom give us the direction give us the guidance oh Lord to make
Wise decisions father God and give us the courage to get off the sideline and to get into game in the game to get active oh God to join and fight alongside those leaders that are fighting for us in Montgomery father God those who do not know you in this place
We ask oh Lord that before they leave here today that you would just Pierce a heart that you would extend your spiritual hand father God and take theirs that they would long to know you and be a not not only a soldier in the fight for justice but a soldier in your
Battlefield as well oh God we ask these things in a name that is righteous in the name that is Holy in the name that is above all names in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you you all have a good night chill old
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