[SPEAKER_00]: This episode of True's Table is brought to you by our NAACP Image Award-nominated book, True's Table, Black Women's Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get it where all books are sold.
[SPEAKER_01]: Brothers, y'all all right.
[SPEAKER_01]: If this is your first time at Truth's Table, welcome to the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you've been sitting at the table with us all these years.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are so grateful that you have been listening to us through these years.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Now pull up a chair and have a seat at the table with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truth's Table is pleased to welcome Justin J. Pearson to the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: Justin J. Pearson launches campaign for Tennessee's 9th Congressional District on October 8, 2025, declaring, in a campaign for the people, a movement leader in Tennessee lawmaker he rose to national prominence as part of the Tennessee 3, standing up for gun reform and being overwhelmingly reelected after expulsion.
[SPEAKER_01]: A lifelong organizer, he helped lead the victorious Bahelia Pipeline fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shut down a cancer-causing sterilization plan and now challenges Elon Musk, X-A-I data center.
[SPEAKER_01]: The second youngest state legislator, Pearson, is a national voice for justice, honored with the Truman Center's 2024 Moral Courage Award.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's running to bring that fight to Congress.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pearson is married to his partner in life in the struggle for justice.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oceana are Gilliam Pearson.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey y'all, welcome to True Table.
[SPEAKER_01]: May wise a culture for grace and truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a committee and I'm Christina.
[SPEAKER_01]: This table is built by black woman and four black women.
[SPEAKER_00]: So welcome to the table to see how you're doing good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing good today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we are at a unique location.
[SPEAKER_00]: The folks who are listening have no idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know where we are until we tell you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, okay, but those who are feeling, you're like, what is really going on right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are their flags and all kinds of stuff happening on this episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're all okay, Jim.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is such a blessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: to be able to be where we are right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Between us is representative Pearson.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in my state of Tennessee where I happen to live right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he represents the city of Memphis so well, so consistently.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are excited to tap chat with you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we don't usually chat with elected officials.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a little bit in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this goes to the opportunity for us as believers to encourage, to ask questions, and to really model for our listeners How we engage respectfully and honestly with elected officials, and so I hope we can do that with you today Representative.
[SPEAKER_05]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_05]: We're going to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you all here.
[SPEAKER_05]: And welcome to the office of District 86.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to let you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a clean office.
[SPEAKER_00]: This may have got a clean office.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm inspired.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't go home and get it together.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it is an honor to have you at the table representative Pearson.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, been following your advocacy for some time and so honored to have this time to have you sit at the table and talk to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I am really curious, I've always been moved by the way that you integrate your faith and your work.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm curious about what has inspired and shaped your own political education and also your spiritual formation.
[SPEAKER_01]: How do those realities intersect in what motivates both of those things?
[SPEAKER_01]: How shows up in your life in your work?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, that's an amazing question and it's truly Thank you all so much for being here embracing this face with your presence.
[SPEAKER_05]: It means a lot to me and to our community.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, I'm the son of a teacher in the preacher.
[SPEAKER_05]: As a doctor in education, my dad went to Howard University and got a message of divinity.
[SPEAKER_05]: now our story didn't start that way grew up financially poor but spiritually rich and so life educate you in one particular way and we had two black matriarchs which are super important in our community.
[SPEAKER_05]: Who's faith helped the guide us through really difficult times and got rest their souls but their spirit and their guidance continues to live on.
[SPEAKER_05]: What I would say is this, I grew up in a church of black liberation theology, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Reverend Dr. James Koen, the father of black liberation theology, his children, if you will, Reverend Dr. Alvin or Neil Jackson and Dr. Frank Anthony Thomas, became the way that I started to understand faith, but also the role of government, a faith in the sense that you've got is not liberating us.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's not the God that I'm praying to, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: And the God who is on the side of the oppressed, the God who is fighting for the freedom of people is the one that I understood to be the one on our side.
[SPEAKER_05]: And when I looked at our politics,
[SPEAKER_05]: The truth of the matter is there's a lot of government that's oppressing people, there's a lot of government that is refusing to live into, even though people claim Christianity, there's a lot of people who are in government who are continuing to hurt and to harm the most marginalist.
[SPEAKER_05]: So how can you have a faith that tells you that God's on the side of the most marginalized and then have policies that marginalize people?
[SPEAKER_05]: this because some people are not practicing faith in the right way and that's what we talk about when we talk about later by white Christian nationalism and it's rise of they replaced the faith of Jesus living Christ with this idolatry of white supremacy and patriarchy.
[SPEAKER_05]: And instead, what I've grown up with and what I've grown to always understand is that Matthew 25 is not a recommendation.
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, it is not a light request.
[SPEAKER_05]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_05]: It is not a baby.
[SPEAKER_05]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_05]: It is very clear instructions from the Savior of the whole world that what you do for the least, you've also done unto me.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's so, exactly.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's similar to Leonardo, with the most marked line.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, I've been privileged, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: I went to a really good college.
[SPEAKER_05]: I've had a really wonderful career for his development.
[SPEAKER_05]: I have the privilege of serving in the state house.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm running for the United States Congress, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: And my Paul Paul couldn't read or write his own name.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_05]: I still have seen how God moved, but you don't allow your privilege to prevent you from following what the book says.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_05]: The book says, I was hungry and you fed me.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_05]: Now kids can't be going hungry and you be silent, that's right.
[SPEAKER_05]: Right.
[SPEAKER_05]: You can't have people denied access to health care, and you say, you follow Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like these things don't coexist, and while there is, and it's important, right, that the government does not endorse a particular religion for people who are faith, whatever faith that they believe in, if it is not improving the lives of the most marginalized and most oppressed, what type of faith is it to have?
[SPEAKER_05]: And so that's how to have my political education and my faith and education.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Have intersected powerful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's excellent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I want to talk to you a little bit about protest and how that informs your faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to give you a snapshot of the person who you're talking to.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I remember the Covenant shootings.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember them closely because just the day before I had talked to the head of the schools, Catherine Coants, in the four year of
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the next day, as I look at the news, I'm literally thinking, oh, I'm connected with her later in the week.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for our faith community, the covenant killing was personal.
[SPEAKER_00]: The covenant shooting was personal.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when I saw you and I saw others stand up and speak out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was so grateful.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a limitation for how far our voice can go, but one in an elected official takes the risk to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really, really matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to thank you for that, it matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to tell us what field you to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: because you paid a cost.
[SPEAKER_00]: You paid a single ticket cost for the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so how did you get to that place?
[SPEAKER_00]: And how did you take an assessment of the cost that you would have to pay?
[SPEAKER_05]: I first let me say in a so sorry about the loss of Dr. Coons.
[SPEAKER_05]: Our state should have done a much better thing and response to the horrific shooting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_05]: You should have passed the laws.
[SPEAKER_05]: We would prevent that from happening.
[SPEAKER_05]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_05]: And the fact that we didn't, it still bothers me.
[SPEAKER_05]: It is deeply disappointing because that how much we're tragedy do you need?
[SPEAKER_05]: How much does that drive?
[SPEAKER_05]: To realize that there's something that needs to be different.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I felt compelled really by the 7,000 people who came to the capital, just a couple of days after the horrific tragedy.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I tell the people, most of the other age, 17, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18, 18,
[SPEAKER_05]: There's something about the courage outside.
[SPEAKER_05]: Excessions.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's contagious.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: It inspires courage.
[SPEAKER_05]: People do you exactly.
[SPEAKER_05]: Within the people in the institution.
[SPEAKER_05]: And also, that's why I was talking about people power.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's the reality that people, when they tap into it, when we collectively organize.
[SPEAKER_05]: it is transformational and it did you know in a lot of ways change the trajectory of the conversation about guns in our state laws that typically would pass with zero fanfare now have thousands of people who will show up against them and even this year in our state house I think there's only one bill that is really pro firearms when night first got here six or seven or eight and so the
[SPEAKER_05]: is having positive ripple effects in our communities.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I will admit to people, this is the truth, without those protests to show enough.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_07]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if you have a Tennessee 3.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if you have Representative Joe's and I. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: And Representative Johnson, go into the world of the house floor, demanding that we do something.
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, despite the fact that we felt hurt, that we didn't get to speak during welcoming and honoring and talking to people.
[SPEAKER_05]: Despite all this, it was something about.
[SPEAKER_05]: our constituents showing up and saying you've got to do something and then being looked in the face and laughed at him and snickered at him pointed at that and you know treated as if they did not matter and they were not valuable that pushed us and I even went up to my wife and I was like we got to do something and she and I sort of planned the strategy I reached out to Rep Jones and Johnson it was like we're going to do it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Wow and when it comes to
[SPEAKER_05]: like a faith again, I practice Christianity.
[SPEAKER_05]: The person who I try to follow is not a political leader, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: The person who I do my best to follow always stood up against the status quo and did things that ultimately made him a threat?
[SPEAKER_05]: And that was, you know, talking about poor people, talking about marginalised food, lifting up the equality of women, I like, that's just the person I follow, and if I am,
[SPEAKER_05]: When I think about these, these elections and these offices that we hold, I never think about, you know, I got to just answer to my constituent.
[SPEAKER_05]: Because see, one of these old days, there will be no constituent.
[SPEAKER_05]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_02]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_05]: There will be no speaker of the house there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_05]: There will be no governor or president.
[SPEAKER_05]: There will be no one there.
[SPEAKER_05]: It will just be me and the person who created me.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's sad now.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, if I, and if the reason I never see injustice has happened the reason why I always say I'm always be go.
[SPEAKER_05]: people wanted this.
[SPEAKER_05]: I always got to say something.
[SPEAKER_05]: Elon Musk is polluting your air, but you don't have to say anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't only elect it, but you don't only elect it, but you don't only elect it, but you do.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, there's like, you could just let it go.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, people with disabilities, they're telling me about laws that policies that need to be changed.
[SPEAKER_05]: I said, okay, we're going to do a town hall and people are like, why you always do that to the most?
[SPEAKER_05]: And I was just like, because what scares me?
[SPEAKER_05]: Seriously, spiritually, theologically scares me.
[SPEAKER_05]: is, if God says, I sent you to say something, that's right.
[SPEAKER_05]: And because you did it, X, Y, or Z is going to happen.
[SPEAKER_05]: I am terrified again of what X, Y, or Z would be.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's reverence.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_05]: To the awesome power that God has, because when I look at this, I've been extraordinarily privileged, despite all of the rain, the storms, the heartache, and pain.
[SPEAKER_05]: Right.
[SPEAKER_05]: I am honored and privileged to serve in this position that people marked for blood for died.
[SPEAKER_05]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_05]: The opportunity for me to have into existence.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so what?
[SPEAKER_05]: What do I look like?
[SPEAKER_05]: If people can be killed, and I sit silently.
[SPEAKER_05]: And all I do is hope and pray things get better.
[SPEAKER_05]: So you protest, and this is unfortunate that this is happening now in our current culture because of the administration.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I'm even seeing with some black folk, honest with you, trying to knock protest, like it's a bad thing.
[SPEAKER_05]: There are other ways for you to do it.
[SPEAKER_05]: You don't have to do that.
[SPEAKER_05]: You could have asked for another private meeting.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like protest is an escalation after you tried the other ways.
[SPEAKER_05]: Shest it is.
[SPEAKER_05]: And there's a holiness to protesting, particularly in our community, in our culture, because it's because people protest it, that we're in this office.
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't.
[SPEAKER_05]: Right?
[SPEAKER_05]: At all.
[SPEAKER_05]: Right?
[SPEAKER_05]: If it hadn't been for begger ever, you got a rest of the soul, if it hadn't been for Fannie Lou Hamer.
[SPEAKER_05]: If that means people who put their bodies in their lives and their hearts on the line, but they were all.
[SPEAKER_05]: all encouraged by motivated by something that was a higher calling than for someone.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the only way you can do this work.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is if you have something that is more pure, something that's more powerful and my opinion, a story to inspire you consistently.
[SPEAKER_05]: Because the Christian story is so important it doesn't guarantee that there are no difficult days.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not actually a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price, it's not a price,
[SPEAKER_05]: the entire situation I got all the ocean off is here, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: My mom was saying with the devil moved back, I was turning too good.
[SPEAKER_05]: And the devil meant for us to be silenced, our community had to be persecuted, but for us to lose our voice and in position.
[SPEAKER_05]: And God was like, okay, I got that's fine.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's fine.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that is the hope and the faith that I keep living in now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our NAACP Image Award-nominated book, Truths Table.
[SPEAKER_00]: Black women's musings on life love in liberation is making waves and shifting culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: I closed this book feeling like I had just partaken in a multi-course meal, filled with grace and the courage to carry on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe you'll finish this book feeling the same way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Morgan Harper Nichols artists in poet.
[SPEAKER_00]: By Truth's Table, Black women's musings on life love in liberation, at our website, or wherever books are sold.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the narrative of the Tennessee 7,000 creating the Tennessee 3,000, and that's a piece that I don't think we reflect on and how important we feel this empowered to be a part of that larger group.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: You said so much is so rich, repurposing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I have been following your work in Memphis, particularly with regard to the data center.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Specifically in a black city, right, polluting and polluting, I believe that, from what last time I checked was about three centers, I think you're implanting to build another one.
[SPEAKER_01]: The X-A-I data center is right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you talk to the people?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this isn't a detail.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, folks who haven't no idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the secret?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, what, can you set the context of what that is?
[SPEAKER_01]: What are these data setters?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why should there be some concern?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why are you on the forefront of pushing back?
[SPEAKER_01]: And now that these data setters are there, what can be done to, can they be removed?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, from, like, what does that look like?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because this could be a blueprint for other cities around the country.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, sadly what we're seeing is the worst parts of this are becoming the blueprint.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: And what has happened, XAI is a company that's run by Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world.
[SPEAKER_05]: We came into our city in 2024.
[SPEAKER_05]: We built a gas plant and operated in an illegally for a year, polluting our community with thousands of tons of.
[SPEAKER_05]: nitrogen oxides and over 17 tons of formaldehyde, which is like a moment fluid into the air of our community.
[SPEAKER_05]: More pollution than our international airport produced, they did illegally for a year without a piece of paper giving them permission to do so.
[SPEAKER_05]: The consequences of that were premature deaths of several people, thousands of cases of asthma and new cases.
[SPEAKER_05]: of medical conditions and challenges that people did not have before.
[SPEAKER_05]: We resisted, we stood up, we spoke up, we forced them to get a permit for 15 gas turbines and forced selective catalytic reduction technology to be on them to reduce the levels of pollution.
[SPEAKER_05]: But still more pollution in a community in Memphis where I live in Westwood and Boxtown.
[SPEAKER_05]: That is, has a cancer risk at 4.1 times the national average.
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, my grandmother's government is supposed both that a cancer, they're 60s because of this pollution, right, and environmental racism.
[SPEAKER_05]: Black communities, particularly for communities, for white communities as well are very susceptible to being taken advantage of because industry typically goes to the places where they think there's the least amount of political power and economic power, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's never accident or what's it done.
[SPEAKER_05]: This has been replicated now in South Haven, Mississippi, which is just right across the border.
[SPEAKER_05]: And we got researched on by two Harvard epidemiologists, and it showed that 60% of the people who are going to be impacted by the newest plant.
[SPEAKER_05]: are in Memphis and Shelby County, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Majority Black City.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: The other 40% will be into soda county.
[SPEAKER_05]: And we're seeing research again that's, oh, maybe over a dozen people likely to die prematurely every single year and conservatively 30 to 44 million dollars in cost from this plant.
[SPEAKER_05]: X-A-I, what is it, it powers grock, which is a chat bond that is being used to do things from math to really horrible things, most recently sharing images of people that it should not be sharing.
[SPEAKER_05]: And now you have to pay to see those horrible images that people in that consentent do, that that was their quote unquote fix.
[SPEAKER_05]: Rock is also being used by the defense department, the Trump administration, and also being used to call information, private information, and data, and a lot of us have not yet in consent to be used.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thinking about the type of technology and what is it being used to do?
[SPEAKER_05]: Should worry everyone, but they're also very actively colluding and killing communities that are predominantly black and overwhelmingly being seen as places of political deprivation.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that is why, as an elected fisherman, also as a neighbor, I continue to speak up and I continue to stand up.
[SPEAKER_05]: Then I'll be honest now.
[SPEAKER_05]: I've got to push back from the mayors.
[SPEAKER_05]: I get pushed back from the chamber of commerce.
[SPEAKER_05]: We can watch back from the Chevy County Health Department, which is actually responsible for protecting our health.
[SPEAKER_05]: And we actually raised $350,000 to study the air quality because they refuse to do it.
[SPEAKER_05]: And what everyone needs to be aware of across our communities is this.
[SPEAKER_05]: The Democratic institutions, Laura K's D, are failing us.
[SPEAKER_05]: And they're being corrupted by these billionaires play things and projects.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so to resist them, the first thing to do, and I know you have a lot of listeners who are already elected officials, what's the plan for dealing with data centers?
[SPEAKER_05]: We need to get a plan.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: We need to know what that is, what your life for dealing with data centers.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then making sure that communities are being included in the conversation and community benefits and agreements exist.
[SPEAKER_05]: and that they're putting the necessary tools around them to reduce the pollution or just in the first place, why don't they use renewable energy?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's supposedly the smartest technology in the world, and it can operate on solar, it can operate on clean energy.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that leads to be one of the things that people have.
[SPEAKER_05]: And West Memphis Arkansas, which is across the bridge from Memphis, that's what they did, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: They found a way to have less of an impact on the community, ensure that electricity rates with the people around them stay in lower, and that's what we need to see happen.
[SPEAKER_05]: If these things are going to continue to exist, but the way that they're operating right now is they're moving as fast as quickly as possible, and the breaking our communities in the process.
[SPEAKER_05]: But you have to, and you all are obviously exemplifying this, you have to hold us accountable.
[SPEAKER_05]: You have to hold your electric officials accountable for doing something and sometimes I have to protest Sometimes I have to speak up sometimes I have to hold town hall meetings and oftentimes I'm the only electric official doing it Well, but that's supposed to be the job as far as I understand Yeah, yeah, we need to start expecting more from people who have the privilege of serving us
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you talked about what is happening, kind of the erosion of kind of the small de-democratic systems.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even as we've spent our time trying to hear your heart and to understand kind of your role,
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're encouraging people to do more of this that are watching this show.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm also really well aware that the erosion of our democratic systems are happening even as we speak.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what is, whether it's representative Pearson or whether it's just, just what do you have to say to the listeners about what we really need to do starting tomorrow to ensure that we actually have officials to hold accountable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead, go ahead.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's a good question.
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's do three things.
[SPEAKER_05]: One, you need to know who they are.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you know who your city counselor is?
[SPEAKER_05]: Your kind of commissioner is your sheriff.
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you know who your state house representative is?
[SPEAKER_05]: Your state senator.
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you know who the chairman of the city council is?
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you know who your United States representative?
[SPEAKER_05]: United States senators are.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know who the judges are that are elected.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: We need it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I literally am creating this form for Shelby County because you need to know that because every problem that we're dealing with, it's somebody's job to be dealing with.
[SPEAKER_05]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what I've learned in office.
[SPEAKER_05]: If it's a pot hole or it's poverty, it's someone's job to be dealing with.
[SPEAKER_05]: And you all are busy, people are busy.
[SPEAKER_05]: So the people who are getting paid by the people should be figuring out how to solve these these big problems.
[SPEAKER_05]: So one is like you need to know them for yourself.
[SPEAKER_05]: It always, you know, it doesn't necessarily shock me, but people know who the president of the United States is, but they may not know who their mayor is.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like that, that's the inversion that we need to have happened to be like the president is obviously extraordinarily too powerful right now, because we don't have a Congress and the Supreme Court power is obviously 90% of the time
[SPEAKER_05]: at the local level is where really 90% of the decisions and you, your family, your kids is going to be happening.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just what's going to happen.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just the reality.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the school board.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the county commission.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the city council.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the board of supervisors, where the board of Alderman.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Just know who they are.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Plug their numbers into your phone.
[SPEAKER_05]: Just like their friends.
[SPEAKER_05]: Older men, Pearson.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's good.
[SPEAKER_05]: I know one that, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, do one on your phone.
[SPEAKER_05]: So then when you see something, you can call.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think the second thing is we need to make sure the people in our families are registered to vote and that they do vote.
[SPEAKER_05]: I have three empty family members in Memphis to Shelby County.
[SPEAKER_05]: I learned two weeks ago, the one of my first cousins, who I grew up with, was never interested to go.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I almost lost it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I really couldn't.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, and then I was like, Justin, there's your phone.
[SPEAKER_04]: How did you come home?
[SPEAKER_04]: Because it's a makeshift, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: You're dancing both of me.
[SPEAKER_04]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's the round question.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was like, so you kind of voted in the audience.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like I've been on the belly six times.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know now and you haven't been one time But you never was right, but you've been tripled in science You come and do you Okay, you're not gonna do it, but you're just a proper drink
[SPEAKER_04]: But then, you know, you look back and you say, okay, I got to take some accountability for this.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I didn't.
[SPEAKER_05]: I know.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so my parents and I, we have an Excel document now.
[SPEAKER_05]: Come with all of my first cousins, all their nieces and nephews, my aunties and uncles, they're siblings.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then my great aunts and great uncles, fortunate to have elders in our family.
[SPEAKER_05]: We have a list of them.
[SPEAKER_05]: We have the phone numbers, their addresses.
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's going through one by one.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you able to vote?
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you registered?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's good.
[SPEAKER_05]: Right.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then when early voting comes, we're going to go through the same list.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: Go to get.
[SPEAKER_05]: Because they're early voting in black vote really need to early vote.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: We need to early vote.
[SPEAKER_05]: Because this, they took Sunday voting, because a soul stood up polls.
[SPEAKER_05]: We should switch church services for those two weeks to Saturday.
[SPEAKER_05]: And now we're going after church.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like if you take Saturday, we're going for Friday.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, I grew up going to church every day.
[SPEAKER_03]: For the Friday.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just like we're going to have church on Saturday for these two weeks out of the year.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then we're going to go to the polls.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so that's the thing of your question.
[SPEAKER_05]: So that's the thing.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm doing this personally, I'm advocating for everyone in your family.
[SPEAKER_05]: Make sure that you're simply, make sure that your kids make sure your grandkids are registered.
[SPEAKER_05]: They are voting.
[SPEAKER_05]: Because don't worry about, you know, our is the younger generation vote.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is your younger generation vote?
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the vote.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: And then I think the third thing which is too full, you need to run for office or you need to support somebody who is.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: You need to run.
[SPEAKER_05]: I serve with people who don't need to be an office and they don't even read the legislation that's before them You can do this job, it's not impossible We need people to have a spirit and a willingness and a heart of service to run for office But if that is not what you want to do, that's not what you're called to do in this moment.
[SPEAKER_05]: Then support someone who is donate to that campaign
[SPEAKER_05]: not doors for them, a phone bank within, and we have created so many plug-in opportunities maybe you can write postcards now, it's like no, I just need to plug into a campaign, particularly in this moment in time where we need to deterioration of our democracy like this, like there's no room on the sidelines, there's no room on the sidelines.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes, wow, sex one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Representative Pearson, it has been a pleasure to have you here at the table.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it was just such practical wisdom and also the fear of God is very clear.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm just grateful for your witness and your work, and I just pray that the Lord will bless you, you and your lovely wife as well, in the work that you're doing collectively together, and that you will see many, many more years in political office as you move up, you know, and can't be.
[SPEAKER_01]: So thank you for taking the seat at the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when a committee says that we pray for you, we may be that literally.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just gracious God, we pray now for Representative Pearson.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: We ask Lord that you would grant him continued boldness in the things that are right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when there's something that comes up that's wrong, give him just as much of the same conviction to turn the other way, Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm ready that you would surround him with people who are for him and want to see him shine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you continue to bless him?
[SPEAKER_00]: Bless his family near and far and we recognize this is actually not just strategic work, but dangerous work.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're asking God that you would cover him, that you would protect him, and that you would give him even greater creativity and vision as he seeks to do what is right for all of his neighbors Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for this reminder that your hand of mercy and kindness is in every sphere of life, including politics, and we pray God, that we would never be so impressed by people or position, that we do not encourage them, and that we don't also speak the truth to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is in your holy name, we pray Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_04]: Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen