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Veteran's Affairs Plus discusses the issues that veterans in Las Vegas deal with on a daily basis. Your host, David L. Washington connects listeners with relevant community resources and information that they need to help veterans or themselves.
Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program. You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves, life coaching services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. You
Music 0:35
Come on, tell
Music 0:42
me what's going great
Dave Washington 0:49
day Las Vegas. Great day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I have a few announcement we have Mr. Springer, this young man has done so much he's he's a retiree from the Metropolitan Police Department, and he does some other wonderful things in the community. So we'll get with you shortly, my friend. Okay, all right, cool. Certainly want to express condolences, particularly to the men and women who were murdered in Minnesota over the last couple of weeks. And also to my grand, actually son, Vernon Washington. He had a cousin, Darryl Walker, who recently passed away. So want to express condolences to his family. And you know, Jason does a disclaimer too for all of us, hosts of various talk shows and podcasts on 91.5 jazz and more. But I certainly want to, and I'm not a D or an or not a Democrat nor Republican, but I certainly wonder why ice isn't in Texas or in Florida, where they got over each of over a million people who are considered in this country illegally, but yet they're jumping over, over, jumping on the folks up north. And this is insane. And I think if they were really, really serious, versus jumping on those democratic led states, they would do what they claim they want to do is keep us all safe and get people who are are bad people out of our country. So I just thought I'd mention that to our general public here. Certainly always want wish happy birthday to folks whose birthdays are are in in the various months, and certainly in February. I got to start off with my wonderful wife, Marsha. Her birthday is this month. So happy birthday to my wife of some 53 going on 54 years. So I'm pleased that I'm able to express Happy Birthday to her. And I went over and watched her show today. They have there's a group of dance folks who do these talent shows each year. And I think this is a 10th, I believe, anniversary, of these particular shows, but she does a little comedy act called Miss ooey sweets or something. But anyway, it was good. Had had folks laughing in the audience, but certainly, once again, happy birthday, Marsha, Eddie, bunch e bunch Eddie and I grew up together in Las Vegas, and he and I have been childhood friends, man for many, many moons. And there's many others to include. And I should say, these are dear friends we got, certainly Mr. Bobby And Bobby, what is Bobby's last name? I know, I know Bobby, and I'm up here going blank, and Ain't that something got a show and going blank on the name of folks who are supposed to be announcing here. But certainly Carolyn Haywood, yeah, Chip Tyler. He's one of my golfing buddy. His birthday is this month. So just want to express a few happy birthdays to individuals who are having birthdays this month of Ward. Come here. He's up in Northern California. So I wanted to say happy birthday. My friend Meg mag is a long time member of our community, been around town for a while, so just want to say happy birthday, man, and wish you many, many more. With that, I'm going to introduce and have him to express some words to us, fine. How you doing, man?
Byron Stringer 4:33
I'm doing wonderful. Now. We had a chat just before this. You want me to call you Dave Washington, but there's something in me that's just burning. I want to call you Chief Washington, and I get it that's not your job anymore, but on the behalf of all the people that you inspired and touched and the change that you made in Las Vegas, thank you for taking the role of being chief Washington, and we love you as Dave Washington, you are. Still making a difference, and every time I see you, I just have nothing but love and respect for you, and thank you for having me on your show, sir,
Dave Washington 5:07
I accept that, and I'll say less. I accept that. I appreciate you, young man. So tell us about your experience. You are a retired Metro how many years you do with it?
Byron Stringer 5:18
I did 26 and a half years, you know, I graduated from Rancho High School back in 1985 and I remember Harry Howard came up. He was one of the recruiters, and he said, If your head is screwed on straight, then, you know, they'll hire you. And I really wanted the job. And I remember walking in there, and they had about 300 kids applying for just 15 positions, and I knew in my heart that I was gonna, I was gonna get it. And sure enough, God made a way, and I got it. So I started in 1985 and I've been retired now for about 13 years.
Dave Washington 5:57
Wow, wow, that's something. And you mentioned a long time Metro friend, Harry Howard. I remember Harry. Yeah, big fella, good guy, good guy. So you did 26
Byron Stringer 6:09
you know what? You want to know something, Dave, if it wasn't for the mentors I had in the police department, there's so there's so many, like Lieutenant Jackson, oh man, he's so many people that were looking out for me and encouraging me, and so what they did for me, I try to do for other people, absolutely.
Dave Washington 6:30
You know, we have to pay it forward. And that's that's not just a cliche, it's something that we should be about. And you have been absolutely. So what capacities Did you work in Metro? And then we're going to move over to what you're doing now, please.
Byron Stringer 6:45
I started out as a police cadet, promoted all the way up to Sergeant, and then I retired from the police department, happy because I was going to jump into theater and being creative who I am deep down inside cool.
Dave Washington 7:02
So did you do any of that while in high school, theater and acting and that kind of thing?
Byron Stringer 7:06
Actually, not. You know, it's crazy. My sister did at Rancho. She was on the stage, and I was so impressed. And like, wow, we can do that. But I think my love for theater came because I'm a preacher's kid. My father was the pastor of Palestine Baptist Church. And my father was always very prolific when it came to his messages, his sermons, and he always wanted to do some illustrations. So if he's talking about the three blind men, we had to run around the house find enough sheets and pillow cases and and sticks and broom handles so that we could walk around looking like we were some wise men or some Shepherd boys. And so I learned about costumes and coming up with some lines and all that really inspired me to do more. It inspired me so much that I ended up becoming the drama director at mountaintop Faith Ministries for years, as well as for seven years, I worked with the Edwin Hawkins and Walter Hawkins, music and arts love fellowship conference where I taught the liturgical Theater, which is where you take Bible passages and you help people understand what That passage is saying through theater. Wow.
Dave Washington 8:21
You know, you got a vast background and experience in the whole art of theater and and acting, access, etc, wow. I had no idea where was your dad's church at? And where are you from?
Byron Stringer 8:35
It's here. His Church was here in Las Vegas, Palestine Southern Baptist Church. I'm from San Bernardino, California, okay? And you know what? When my father, when we moved out here, I was mad. Here I am in the U haul truck, my father wanted to go out and pray with the new owners of the house, and I was mad, if like, I don't want to pray. I'm mad. I'm too busy being mad and crying. But little did I know, Dave that moving to Las Vegas was going to be one of the biggest blessings for me. Sometimes life is like that. That's right, we don't realize that, that at the moment, that our eyes are full of tears, that we're feeling like things aren't going right for me, that God is in the business of blessing you right then. And sometimes, some blessings don't look like blessings. They look like they're wrapped in chaos or wrapped in something that we don't want, but deep down in the middle of it all is a blessing,
Dave Washington 9:28
no doubt. And you know, you triggered something in my brain. I recall when we were going through our EEOC complaint with the City of Las Vegas, our attorney and Larry Powell, who's retired as an assistant chief at our department, they took me to breakfast and let me tell you something, I couldn't even eat my breakfast. Oh, man, you get ready to go. They're gonna move you to training. Oh, that's so exciting. So, man, I don't know nothing about training, nobody, and I couldn't even eat my breakfast, but they were excited for me, it's gonna help you to move up through the rain. Said, blah, blah, blah. And by and by they were right. And like you said, God, put things there that sometimes you don't recognize. I was so angry, man, I couldn't even eat steam. Had to be coming out of my ears. Y'all talking about this is great, and they sitting there, smacking. And I'm highly upset that I will be moved from one area to another. And I had absolutely no experience in training anyone under any circumstance, let alone in the difficult profession of fire service. So you're right, man, you can, God, can put things there that'll make you go, Hey, this is good for me. So hey, it's exciting that you're doing this. And tell us you got something coming up soon.
Byron Stringer 10:40
Yes, this Saturday, from two to four at 951 West Lake Mead at the West Las Vegas theater, we're going to be presenting the tow tag monolog. That's a new project that I've been doing, and it's free and open to the public. We were going to have some drawing, some raffles given out there. But if you have kids that are dealing with life, that are dealing with cutting and bullying and drug abuse and gang violence and human trafficking, all that this is good for your kids, because we're in the school district. We've been working in the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center, and we've been traveling around the country, going to detention centers around the country, teachers conferences around the country, churches around the country with the toe tag, monologs
Dave Washington 11:27
Making a Difference Absolutely. Let me say this. I'm expecting another guest, but if they don't call in, so I'm going to ask my engineer, producer, director, we're going to take a break, and we may have you on the other side. So hold on, please. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz and more.
Dave Washington 11:51
Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. We had another guest that I have not heard from, so we're going to keep rolling you offline. You told me about some very exciting, well, necessarily exciting, but some of the things that you're doing with this overall program, well, that part is exciting, but I want you to briefly talk about what you did in terms of assisting someone who was prepared to take their life. I think that's important for us to discuss at this point in time, because it's something that is occurring throughout our community. Whether you're black, white, male, female, gay, straight, it is happening, and I think what you did is admirable. So speak to that, if you would
Byron Stringer 12:36
so mental health is something that is that is very alive. We need to be aware of it and not ashamed of it. And as a police officer, I dealt with a lot of people that wanted to take their life and and there's always, if you know, when I did the job, I always listened to the inner voice. Now, some people would just say, it's your inner voice. Some people would say that God talking to you, whoever it was, whatever it was. I listened to it and flowed with that a lot. But as God would speak to my heart, he'd give me what to say so that I can get through these situations. But this is about a year ago, just a little over a year ago, driving over Lake Mead, going eastbound, right over the 95 and there's a guy just sitting on the side just, you know, looking like no big deal, just sitting there looking out at traffic and my heart, Dave, my heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest. I knew that I had to pull over and I had to walk back to that guy. Now, mind you, now, I had two knee surgeries past year, so Mindy at this point, I didn't have knee surgery, and so here I am limping up the hill to go find this guy, because something in my heart said something's not right. So I parked my car, got out, walked over. By the time I walked over to him, he was no longer sitting there looking out. At this point, he had stood up and he had started to scale the fence. You know that you have the chain link fences across the over. Started to scale it, and he was walking more and more. I'm like, is this guy gonna jump at first? He didn't want to talk to me. We eventually got him to talk to me. Officer Chris Black from Highway Patrol showed up to assist me. So it was officer black and it was myself. We ended up getting the whole 95 shut down for about two hours. We ended up talking this guy out of jumping. He wanted to jump. He wanted to take his life. He felt as though he had no reason to live. And meanwhile, while I'm talking to him, I'm having an internal conversation with God. It's like, why'd you put me in this situation? You know, I'm not equipped for all this, like you got to give me what to say. And if this guy jumps, it's all your fault. God. But on the outside, I seem cool, calm and collected. By the time it was all over, with the fire truck pulled up with one of those cherry. Picker things. I told this young man. I said, you're only 24 years old. You have your whole life ahead of you, these people who are coming up now, don't fight them. I said, they're also on your team. They want to see you win. They care about you. So don't fight them. Just step into this thing and then and and that will and that will be, and that's what they did. They put him in and saved his life. And Highway Patrol called me later and said that they wanted to present me with the life savings Award, which is one of the highest recognitions that you can give a civilian. And I wanted to say, I'm not a civilian, I'm a cop, but retired for 30 I've been retired for 13 years at this point. Yeah, but I have those stories, so many stories, you know, you know, Dave, if you listen to your heart, I believe that God speaks to us all, no doubt, and he tells us what to say and what to do. And if we do that little part, as minor as we think it might be, it could end up saving somebody's life. Absolutely. Person whose life you save might be my brother. My sister might be my cousin. It might be you, it might be me. So thank you to all the people who are courageous enough to listen to that still, small voice, because we're changing the world.
Dave Washington 16:14
No, I trust you. You still remember Charles Hanks. He was on my show. He and his wife man, and he has put together a short. It's like a documentary. Well, not not a documentary, but it's, it's a safety piece on how to protect ourselves, man, with all the madness that's going on in our world. And you know, he mentioned, what was it? October 1, October one, when that big incident occurred, he was on duty. And some of the things that this brother brought forth me, and I thought it was important to to have him, because I just happened to see it somewhere. I'm like, What is this man? You need to come on this show and talk about it. I'm gonna get him back on again, because he's doing some phenomenal work. And again, when God speaks to you. And he said, Man, I had to do something, even though I'm retired. And it occurred to him after the the incident in Australia. He said his wife talked to him, and she said, seems like something's bothering you. And when something is bothering you, like something like you say, sometimes God will say, through someone else, hey, you need to do this, and for you to be there at that particular time to say that young man, I bet he's still thanking you today, because who knows where he is and what he's doing, and hopefully he's doing well, but certainly on behalf of all of us in our community, I thank you for doing that, man, because it's important for us to because, you know, I've said many, many times, As I've heard others say, but for the grace God go I, you know it could have been me or you up there entire life, man. So that's you're absolutely right.
Byron Stringer 17:50
And And Dave is as quiet as is kept. The strongest of us have gone through moments when we feel depressed, we feel overwhelmed, where we feel like we want to give up. The thing is, is that not enough of us talk about the fact that sometimes, even though you see me as strong, sometimes I feel like I'm not that strong. And I think that we are the strongest when we all stick together. When I encourage you, you encourage me because you keep me strong.
Dave Washington 18:19
Dave, that's right. But let me say this to you, my brother, you mentioned about my inspiration to you. Well, let me tell you something, as I've gone through my journey with this battle with cancer, it has been so many people. In fact, I tell people all the time about one of my secretaries, Rosemary. I called her because you know you when you're laying in that bed, man, you all kind of stuff be going through you here. Oh, I haven't talked to so and so I call her, she said, and I told her that every so many days I just start crying. She said, Dave, you're probably crying because you're alive. I said, No, I know I'm alive. I say I am crying because the joy that people bring to me. I didn't realize I meant so much to others and have been such an inspiration. As you had mentioned earlier, man, when you talk about people making contact with you, and I've told people many, many times, yeah, I didn't I didn't really want to bother you're not bothering you. You're inspiring me. You keep me uplifted, whether it's a text, whether it's a call. In fact, our middle daughter, Angel, she's doing a documentary, believe it or not, on my journey with this cancer. Because I think it's important when God gives you a platform, and I've had several people on here to include my surgeon on this show, Mooji head, Ramadan, John rose brothers, who've gone through a different form, oh, yeah, but still dealing with various issues, man, that are upsetting to our overall health. Man, so and one thing I'd like to further add you, as a former officer with Metro, I admire the work, and I've been trying to get him back on the show, but he reminded me. Man, Dave, Chief, look. Man, I'm I'm leading the seventh or eighth largest police department. It in the country. I just can't, because I used to contact your man directly. And I say, Yeah, I know that drill, man. Because when I became fire chief, they would tell, oh, you know, Chief, stop doing it, setting up appointments out there in the streets with people, because you were forgetting then, then, then we get dogged by people. Oh, he think he's this. He think he's there. Would you run him through me? Would you? Would you happen to call me? And sometimes you know, you know as well. People think, Oh, he think he's all that. No, I'm trying to make sure I get back to you. And if I, if it's in my head, it may not happen, and then you'll be upset with me. But one thing I really admire that, that Kevin has been doing. He's got some psychiatrists on board now some psychologists, because police and fire, they go through a lot that the general public has absolutely no awareness of. And I recall, and I talked about this many I've talked about it many, many times on this show where we had an engine to turn on its side, and one of the officers got he became a quadriplegic man, and it was very upsetting, but I never got debriefed, and what I told Kevin what he's doing. Man is going to help people to save their careers, in some cases, as you mentioned earlier, save their lives. Man, because people you know when you see such continuous tragedy. Man, anybody, any fellow human being is going to be affected by that, you can say, because I was acting like the tough guy, because our debriefing person, Hey, Chief, we need to talk. No, I got this. I'm good. I broke down and cried in front of a bunch of students at the Carl homes executive development institute, when one of the officers was a female officer, she said, Have you ever been debriefed on that incident, and I just started crying. No, I had not so, so it's very important, oh, yes,
Byron Stringer 21:49
post traumatic stress disorder is something that doesn't just happen to people in the military. It happens to human beings. Yes, it happens to humans, yes, and yes, that was traumatic, and that was a PTSD moment for you. And, you know, sometimes we ask, God, like, why'd you put me through that? But when you go through stuff like that, it gives you a story that you can share with it gives you the lead in for somebody else to help. That's right, it's the lead in, you know,
Dave Washington 22:16
and I can tell you that after that, I never cried anymore when I talked about he was retired, and as Theo Adams great, great guy, and he lived for 15 years. And generally, when you're quadriplegic, you may get three to five, but his mom moved here from New Orleans and made sure his care was proper. And another incident that occurred, several incidents with a dear friend. He's now in Houston. You probably know Lamar Lucas, this brother man, he had to leave town. He said every time he went by this house where these four kids died, he said it just stayed in his head. He couldn't take it away. Say he had to get out here. And I had never heard of anything like that. It affects you so much that you absolutely can't stand passing by that place again. So you absolutely just he left town, and I'm like, and I've had
Byron Stringer 23:14
Dave, that's how I came up with the toe take monologs, because as a playwright, as as a writer, and I've done plays with Angela Winbush, Howard Hewitt, deceptive love, Antonio fargus, who's actually also my godfather, who is he calls me and texts me every day, every day, and inspires me. People call him Huggy Bear, but I call him pops because he's a mentor and a hero for me
Dave Washington 23:40
and a great person, man, hold your thought, please, because I just want to say this. I've been trying to get him on the show. I'm gonna, I'm gonna continue to, like, get him because I think he
Byron Stringer 23:50
has a call. I'll give him a call. Yeah, I'll give him a call. He would love to, he would love to do your show. I was just saying it already, and as I know how pops is
Dave Washington 23:59
right, and I've watched him operate with the students over there, with Dr Marsha Robinson over, over at the West Las Vegas Art Center. And I watch how he just he commands, and he inspires these young folks to do the very best that they can. And some will go on to do big and great things. And others, the discipline that you get, that I find is going to help you along the line. So we got about five more minutes, man. So tell us more about the program that you, that you're involved with, or tell our listeners,
Byron Stringer 24:31
don't take monologs. I took my experiences from the streets, the calls for service that I responded to from the streets, and I created monologs that kids get on the stage and they perform some of the monologs because of the choices, the kids into blue living, and some the kids into blues in their life. We roll out a gurney and a body bag. There's music playing. We put the kids in the body bag, zip them off, drive them, roll them off the stage, and I've been doing teachable moments. We. Been doing this since like 2010 we're in the juvenile detention center doing this program. We've been around the country, and UNLV took the lead and is turning the toe take monologs into curriculum. So they're creating a book that's going to be launched out across America so they teachers know how to talk to kids about abuse drug abuse and gang violence and human trafficking and the cutting and school shootings. And we have monologs about all these different all these different events. There's one monolog called Johnny, and we'll be performing it this Saturday. The kid gets up on the stage with the backpack, talks about how he's been abused and how kids are bullying him, how kids are calling him a sissy, and he says the only time I wasn't crying was when I was asleep, and begin to fumble around in
Dave Washington 25:53
his what time will this occur?
Byron Stringer 25:55
It starts at two o'clock, from two to 4pm Okay? At 951 West Lake. Mead.
Dave Washington 26:01
Great. Now, do you have a website? You know? How can people get in touch with you, in terms of those who have an interest in acting, etc, etc, and, and, you know what? One thing too, I've learned that there's many other things, besides being in front of the camera, in front of the folks, there's other professions within the whole industry of theater or movies, etc,
Byron Stringer 26:27
lights and sound is staging, and there's so there's so much people even get. They even get Oscars for all of their participation there. So yeah, it's very commendable. They can go to our website@vtfoundation.org V for vision, T for theatrical, the word foundation.org, vtfoundation.org, or call Kim flowers. You need to have her on your show too. Her number is 702-296-1042, She's the manager for our organization, and she works with young kids, teaches them how to act. And if you're interested in work with the toe, take monologs, then you're in. If you want to do movies and commercials, she can help you do that as well.
Dave Washington 27:15
I am so pleased and honored to have you on the show, man. You know I was just when I when I ran into am I and I heard you were doing something, I told Marsha Dr Robinson, I said, I need to talk to the brother. I need him on my show, because he's doing something that's extremely exciting that young people need to be aware of. I know our oldest daughter, April, at one time, she was going to go into that industry as an actress. Man, but it's, it's twirling, man, it's big work, and you have to get that break. But I honor and appreciate you because of what you're doing, and you're talking about UNLV taking this thing to a whole national level in terms of a book. This is great because there's different avenues I think we need to approach and get into the heads of our young people, if you will, to ensure that they have positive experiences. And all the garbage has to be dumped out, and it's not and I'm not sitting here acting like I ain't never been affected by nothing because I told you how I broke down and cried because of the stress that I didn't realize I was up under. Ain't that something? Yeah. But again, closing remarks, I know I'm going to get that sign from from West here shortly, so give us some closing remarks. And once again, I appreciate you for coming on the show.
Byron Stringer 28:30
Don't forget, this Saturday, everybody, it's free and open to the public from two to 4pm parking is a little crazy because of the street, but they're going to have lots of extra parking over at Doolittle. Again, VT foundation.org, or 702-296-1042, we want to change lives. One monolog at a time.
Dave Washington 28:52
Oh, that is wonderful. All right, young man, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Mr. Springer, this brother is outstanding. He's doing great work. When you hear he's doing something, you know it's going to be done with a lot of quality and a lot of love. So once again, we thank you for for coming on the show and sharing with with
Byron Stringer 29:12
our listening audience. Thank you so much. God bless you.
Dave Washington 29:15
All right. Best is affairs, plus signing off until next week. You
Music 29:42
I all the smoke in the air feel the hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai