Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington November 6th 2021

What is Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington?

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.

Kevin Krall 0:00
You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves life coaching services. The content of Veterans Affairs plus does not reflect the views or opinions of public radio K, u and v. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:20
Good morning. This is Veterans Affairs. Plus, I'm Dave Washington, your host.

Unknown Speaker 0:44
Good morning. This is veterans affairs show. I'm Dave Washington, host of the show. Sponsored by making moves life coaching services. Of course, we're on 91.5 Jazz and more. A shout out to Kevin Kroll who produces in engineers I show. However, today we have Ray Thank you, Ray, I appreciate you me because obviously I don't know nothing about this stuff. But to me as he comes to that board, you said it before. So thank you very much. I trust that you all our listening audience know that we are celebrating 40 years of 91.5. And it's in the membership drive time. In fact, by the time this show airs at will be in our rearview mirror however, you can go to because I trust that you all would want to contribute to this great radio station and the work that they're doing. You can go you can go to kunv.org membership drive our membership, brother. Thank you, right. I need the help. All right. Good morning, everyone. Once again, I am Dave Washington. We have a couple of guests that we will have on today Miss Missoula and then we'll have Mr. Hodges I'd like to give condolences and extended to the family to Camille Burrell, who recently transitioned. Camille was a longtime neighbor of ours. And we wish her the very best in terms of being at peace. And also condolences to the family of Christopher Ray Smith. That family goes to church with my wife, Marsha. And finally we also know that we lost a great General, General Colin Powell most recently so those folks are transitioning again, condolences to all those families. Other announcements and congratulations 80th Birthday Miss Bonnie. Janelle. Happy birthday, Bonnie. We also had a number of birthdays this month in our family in our blood family that is our daughter Angel, son in law Nathan, granddaughter Kasara. Grandson, Christopher, so happy belated birthday to those five individuals of our family, man, congrats to Sonny. And it's on her wedding this past weekend. We wish you and your husband all the absolute best. Miss Sunny. And also on November 14, EOB KCP we will be hosting its annual Bailey Bennett golf tournament at Le antes. co hosted by myself and Fred here and we wish that you guys will make contact with us. You can go on our website to find further information if you're willing and wanting to participate in golf tournament. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. Our first guest Miss Missoula. Yes. Yes, young lady, give us a listening audience a little bit of background on yourself. And then I have a few questions to include your background as far as military is concerned.

Unknown Speaker 3:52
Well, first of all, I You were mentioning birthdays, I turned 38. Tomorrow.

Unknown Speaker 3:56
Happy birthday. Thanks.

Unknown Speaker 4:00
I have four kids and a daughter in law. I am from the Midwest. I'm from Northern Michigan. I joined the Army, the Military Police Corps and till it's 2002. It's almost 20 years ago. Like a lifetime and then some days it feels like it was yesterday. But I then so I went to Fort Leonard Wood for basic and then went on to Fort Polk Louisiana. That was my first and only duty station. I spent three and a half years stationed there and a year in Iraq where I met my husband. So yeah, that was 2000. I was in Iraq from 2000 March 2003 to march 2004 with a jumping up a skip to Kuwait and then we drove from Kuwait to Iraq. On right behind the third ID.

Unknown Speaker 4:54
Oh wow. So you moved around pretty well in terms of in your background was in the police This

Unknown Speaker 5:01
was I call myself the worst MP in the world. I'm not a political person, I don't like politics. I just I wasn't good at I wasn't really good soldier, I was not good at the MP thing with the politics. It just wasn't my forte.

Unknown Speaker 5:17
I understand, understand. So you have an organization that you started, would you tell us, particularly our listening audience about we did

Unknown Speaker 5:24
not start this organization. But I am a member of this organization. Like I said, I recently, I recently moved to Vegas, from Northern Michigan, and we have a lot of organizations out in northern Michigan, it's a very small town communities, a lot of small towns up there. And we've note, we noticed that there was a gap in needs for the younger generations, you have a lot of the older generation groups VFW and that's American Legion, which those are were all great in their times, and nobody's denying that. But a lot of the times, the younger generation, veterans don't want to go hang out at a bar and don't want to put their kids in that aspect. You know, I've got four kids, I don't, I'm not the type of person to hang out at the bar, I'm at volleyball games, I'm at marching band competition, I'm, you know, pretty much the stay at home mom. And we have a lot to do. A lot of organizations like I'm 22 to nine, up in northern Michigan, shout out to Ray, he's hanging out with me, because I don't think they get this radio station, but to just that whole group of individuals who started that organization, and they have recently bought a school, that they are refurbishing for families, to homeless families to how, and that seems to be a big thing that's missing in the veterans communicate, community is homeless place places for homeless families to go. There's definitely a lot of places for men. And there's a few beds for women. But there's not really places for families where, you know, you can bring your kids or you can bring your pet or you can you know, you can, you can have a transition because a lot of the time, especially today, there's jobs out there, it's not necessarily a job situation, it's a housing situation. And where I live, low income housing is really scarce. And that's really hard to find and rentals these days, you know, everybody in the country is trying to find a rental. And they're just not there. So that's, that's what they're trying to do up there. And I think that that's a really good avenue for us to look at, we need to start not necessarily looking at the I want to see the bigger picture. Because I feel like that's covered between the VFW and the VA and the and all of those organizations. I think that we need to start taking it down to the street and we need to start realizing what what do we really need? What does that really need? Do they need a place to go and hang out with their buddies and drink? Our vets more interested in other things around the nation, I've seen younger generation of veterans, I want to say younger, but I guess we're not yet correct anymore.

Unknown Speaker 8:16
Let me say this to you miss puzzle I'm going to get you hooked up with and I know they recently had and I know they're gonna have follow ups. Mr. Putin, Peter Guzman with the Latin chamber, they are doing a summit and talking about not just sitting around arguing to try to come up with with solutions to dealing with the whole homeless issue of veterans and particularly or homeless in general, but veterans in particular, in some cases. And I think the idea that you're discussing is something that needs to be heard at that venue. So I'm going to make sure I get you hooked up with them, because I know they're going to have a number of those particular the summit to

Unknown Speaker 8:55
a very special. It's a very special and unique place. You know, like it's very transient, but it's also very, we have a huge homeless population here. And a lot of the homeless people have lived here for a very long time. I think the VA in general, here in Vegas, from what I have seen, not what anybody else has seen my own opinion, is not very good about stepping up and helping the veterans. When I first moved here, I did my due diligence, I went and saw my psychiatrist, my therapist, my doctor, and I said, Hey, I'm moving to Vegas, what do I need to do? And they're like, Oh, you just need to come see. So we can update your med list and update your meds and update all of this stuff. So when you get to Vegas, everything's there. Well, lo and behold, when I came here, I was told that that's not true that our medical files don't transfer from state to state. And then I was told that I would be cut off all my PTSD medication, and that I would have to wait three months to see a doctor because I had to go through an orientation. And then I had to go through an inpatient inpatient. I'm one of those consult where you go and see the doctors, and you have to do all the forms and all that stuff. And then I had to take a class.

Unknown Speaker 10:12
Right, right. You're saying that the records don't transfer. That's ridiculous. We're in a highly technological atmosphere in the world, in fact, for you, for free, for them not to be able to transfer records over like,

Unknown Speaker 10:28
that's what I said, I said in 2020, or 2018, you're telling me that you can't like look up my records note, they don't transfer from state to state? And I'm like, it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense that it doesn't transfer.

Unknown Speaker 10:44
Let me say this, let me say this, I think some kind of way we've got to get to. And I know you say you're not political, but politics plays in every part of our life. We have got to get to our legislative body and say, Hey, this is ridiculous. And we want you to do something about it. I mean, we got we got congressional people, we got Senate people, we need to get to them, I'll be in touch with you. Because to me, I believe in taking action on things that are ridiculous. And this is one of the most ridiculous I've heard in terms of taking care of my dog on veterans, give me a break. So we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna work on that.

Unknown Speaker 11:19
That's my issue, sir, is that whole set the situation I walked out of the hospital with my four year old and my hand, having a panic attack, and not in the right mind, I was very upset. I had to call my VA therapist in Michigan to calm me down. I got booted out of the mental health facility because they said they wouldn't help me.

Unknown Speaker 11:38
Wow, that's, that's, that's, and that's why I'm frustrated.

Unknown Speaker 11:41
Because right, then you you realize like, okay, now I understand. I mean, I always have understood really, what what's going through those veterans minds that are just, I can't deal with this anymore. I can't do it. Why should I have to fight for this, and they take their own lives. It's awful, it is horrible. And for me, when I looked up, the person who gave me this information, he was a fellow veteran, and he kicked me out of the hospital. And I know some people will be like, Well, what was the other side of this? I'm going to be honest with you. I was very upset, I was frustrated, I had been to the emergency room to the pharmacy to patient advocate, and they all told me the same thing. There's nothing we can do.

Unknown Speaker 12:21
Misbah Zullo, is very obvious to me that you are a high energy person. And I can only imagine you getting agitated when you see garbage playing out right in front of your eyes. I just believe that, again, we've got to get together and do something about this. And in terms of whether or not your folks back east can hear the station, hear this program are being taped, this will this will actually air on the first Saturday of November 8:30am. And I'm going to get that information to you. Because this station is heard all over the world. It's just a matter of having the right app, and they can go online, get that information and listen to the listen to the program. Because

Unknown Speaker 13:03
there's technology again, technology, politics, man is not my forte

Unknown Speaker 13:08
I understand but what I'm going to be able to give to you will be able to be helpful to them. So they can listen to this and know that they have help somewhere outside of their own venue there because to me, veterans are veterans, wherever you are, to include those who are coming back from Afghanistan. Now I know from and I'm a Vietnam era veteran. And I understand all the things that you talked about, whether it's the American Legion or the VFW, I attend those, I'm an older guy, I'm 70 years old, but I can tell you this, I agree with you 100%, that the younger people have got to have a place to go, where they can kind of feel good about themselves, and interact with others who are going through some of the same kind of pitfalls, etc. in their life. So we're going to do that you have lit a fire under me. So

Unknown Speaker 13:56
one, one day, my goal is I would really like to own a gym and a coffee shop and not necessarily meat on it but veteran owned and all the my all the proceeds go to vets, and that would increase jobs, it would increase, you know, place a place for veterans to go because I feel like the gym and the coffee shop, the new bar for that's our age. And that's where we like to go and hang out. We like to go to the gym, we like to go have coffee with our friends. And I think that that's, you know, that's where we need to start turning to and you know if these organizations can understand that I'm not saying get rid of your bars, not at all, but why not? If you are ruined at a gym, in your place at a gym at a coffee bar at some place where these bets to go other than drinking.

Unknown Speaker 14:40
Look, as we get ready to wrap up our time here. I want you to know that I will be in touch because I think that there's something that can be done. It's a matter of people organizing and making it happen. And I can feel your energy. So I'll be with you. And like I say one of the key things I think we got to do, particularly as it relates to those record issues that we get To our legislative body and say, Hey, we want this straightened out, there's no to me, there's just it makes no sense at this day and age. So we're going to work on that. This is Veterans Affairs plus, on 91.5, jazz and more, and I was just talking with Miss Missoula. And we'll be talking again, tell us the name of that organization. Again,

Unknown Speaker 15:18
the organization is called 22. to none, it's in northern Michigan. And they are an amazing group of individuals. They are our all our generation of veterans that are helping to do different things in the community. And shout out to them, they do great things. And I have never been prouder of an organization that has done things for veterans. This is a no, they don't charge membership. They don't do anything, but go out the community and help that.

Unknown Speaker 15:49
Okay, great. Well, we will be in touch with you, I certainly will be giving you a call and also making sure that I get you the information where your folks back east can listen to the program on next Saturday. All right, young lady, you take care of yourself, and I will be in touch. And we'll get you back on the show again sometime in the future. Because I think you got a lot of energy, and a lot of information to share with others. And certainly there's this homeless family type of a project. There's something that's vitally needed our community. So thank you for your time.

Unknown Speaker 16:32
second guest is Mr. Ikki Hodges of the black achievement fund. We had Mr. Hodges on a few months ago, and I asked if he can get him back on today just to give an update to folks on what's going on with the organizations. So talk to us, Mr. Hodges. Well,

Aki 16:49
I appreciate you bringing us back on to the show giving us this opportunity to speak to everyone out there, we are extremely, extremely, extremely excited to announce that the black achievement fund is in the process of purchasing our first six acres of land, collectively, to build our very first black achievement by members retreat, this will treat will eat your 20,000 square feet, 14 bedrooms, 16 bathrooms, commercial spa, pool, outdoor indoor fitness facilities, nature trails, all types of things. And this will all be collectively owned by black achievement fund members. This is a way for us to once again, collectively begin to create generational wealth. And with this property, this becomes an asset of the black achievement funds that we collectively owned and profit off of for as long as we want to hold the project. So that's the main thing that we're doing right now, taking our capital, buying land and contributing to the development of the Freedom Georgia.

Unknown Speaker 18:01
So I tell tell the listening audience about what the purpose and the concepts behind the black achievement fund,

Aki 18:10
the black achievement Fund is a National Black economic and community development corporation with the single mission of black economic independence for self determination. Now, that is a lofty lofty mission. But we have a surprisingly simple solution 10 million black people $9 A month equals $90 million a month and over a billion dollars a year for us to finance the grand development of black America. The black achievement Fund is a nonprofit 501 C three organization 100% of your contribution is tax deductible, and we're buying land right now. So be a part of it. I don't know any organization that you can contribute $9 toward and ended up owning land as a result of that. So that's what

Unknown Speaker 19:01
in terms of transparency, you know, it's a word that sometimes use loosely but in the vein of this organization, as I am a member, tell the folks how you can once you become a member how you have access to the various platforms and and the finances etc. The various because we got what 12 departments.

Aki 19:25
We have 12 program departments. But first, I'm glad that you brought transparency as a nonprofit 501 C three organization, the black achievement fund, unlike other for profits and things like that, we have to disclose 100% of where every contribution went. We have to disclose how much our CEO make the top executives. We have to disclose how much money went to program so on and so forth. And we post all of our financials on our members only page of our website. We have a monthly members meeting. And we're on the platform pretty much seven days a week. So all of our members, anyone who joins, you have an opportunity to speak with the real leadership of the organization, the ambassadors of the organization on a day to day basis. The fundraising goal that we have for our little Kemet, black achievement by members retreat is online. All of that cash that is being contributed towards that project is being held in a separate account for that project and that project Hello. But the main thing is, we want people to know that the black achievement fund is an organization truly for the people. And our mantra is people over profits. So nothing, nothing that we do is for profit, every single thing that we do is for people's benefit, as opposed to individual profit for a small group of investors.

Unknown Speaker 20:55
Excellent. And tell us about some of the other programs you got going on, particularly the one on the exercise. In fact, I'm glad he moved it around for our West Coast folks, because I was getting up at like 4:55am, y'all to exercise on Saturday morning. I was so sleepy doing it. So didn't say working. They say oh, we got something for us because guys, we got started a different hour where you can get a couple more hours asleep, which I really appreciate.

Aki 21:21
Right? Right. So what was the wisest is referring to is our fitness with Sister faith on Saturday morning. So every Saturday one of our members conduct or host a fitness program for black achievement fund members. And for the East Coast people it is at 8am before the West Coast people at 5am. But Mr. Washington was a trooper, and he made sure that he got up and make every class before we even change the schedule to accommodate the West Coast people. But we do things like this, because we're talking about the grand development of our communities. Again, we're talking about not just putting money in people's pockets, we're talking about how do we create the world that we want to live in, apart from the world that we are currently being given? How do we create safe havens for our people, and one of the ways is buying land. One of the ways is buying enough land to establish our own municipalities. So that we have our own police department, we handle our own political affairs, we handle our own water source. So this is what the black achievement fund is building towards with this little Kemet project, it is a part of the larger freedom Georgia initiative. I know many of you have heard of the 19 black families and friends who pool their resources together to buy the 97 acres in Georgia. Well, this land that we're buying is a part of that land. So we're working collaboratively with private investors, as well as we've been the black achievement fund as a nonprofit, we're collectively buying into this community. So everything that we're talking about 10 million black people, $9 a month, $90 million a month, over a billion dollars a year. This is all capital that we generate internally, and all the programs and services that we're talking about, we fund with our own money, it does not require us to go out and big anyone else. Now, of course, we accept partnerships, and we want to partner with government, local corporations and firms like that. But the whole idea is black economic independence, being in the economically and fiscally independent, so that when we do do these partnerships, we come to the table with equity.

Unknown Speaker 23:41
And I do know that we have a variety of folks, even though it's pushed out as a million Timmy and black folks, but we accept any money and people who have and live the philosophy that we live in terms of us being self sustaining, and, and just looking out for our own interests.

Aki 24:01
And, you know, this is one of the easiest revolutions that I can think of. When you talk about how do people sustain equals ecosystem internally? How do people recycle? Well, look at how other people have done it. You know, so the whole issue is not whether or not we have the money is whether or not we have the collective consciousness and the collective trust. And we're here to provide full transparency so that we can obliterate that whole idea that black people can't trust each other. And, you know, they can't operate on a grand level what they're talking about and that sort of thing, because That's hogwash, right? You know, we develop whole civilizations, and we know that so

Unknown Speaker 24:49
into that point, with respect to all the controversy that's going on center around critical race theory. I know that you and those of us to our members have access to several different lesson plans and lectures that you have done, centered around the history of us as a people. And I think once we as a people know our history, we will be a stronger people, and we will stop going for the Okey doke as we live our lives here in America, because we are American citizens. However, we know that our roots are in Africa. And some people want to deny that. And, and I know that from my own personal belief and thought and what I've learned when I was in school 100 years ago, because I'm 70 years old, is that all they taught black folks, you guys were slaves, you were enslaved, you were enslaved. Wait a minute, see, our four children know who, who we are. And, and we're because we ensure that they read about the history of Africa. So they know about the kings or queens, the cities that we built over there, many, many years ago, but all children will get that. So what I say to people as I'm encouraging them to join our organization, is that look, you can get lesson plans that you can take and deal with your own children so they will know who they are. And I'm telling when you know who you are. You're much stronger as a person

Aki 26:17
is what made me powerful. knowing who I am, is what made me financially independent. And the education, our education department, what Mr. Washington is referring to every member of the Black achievement funds, why education department gets access to the standing on the shoulders of giants Black History curriculum that begins with the origin of humanity in Africa over 200,000 years ago, as opposed to begin with slavery. One of the greatest was the foundation of racism is the false propaganda that African people are inferior to white people. It is a false propaganda that when Europeans met Africans in world history, the African had contributed nothing to world history, nothing to civilization and was living in a barbaric state. That is the foundation of racism. And when you expose history, chronologically, what you discover is that African people develop virtually every aspect of knowledge and created the grandest civilization the world has ever seen. And that's ancient Kemet, which they have white knights and try to make you think that Egypt is not part of Africa. And ancient chimp in ancient Egypt was not an African civilization. So all of these things are illuminated and exposed. And right now we're doing the missing pages of world history lecture series, in honor of Dr. John Henry Clark, in which we further discuss all of this and all of these lecture series. All of these lectures, I'm sorry, that we've done so far, are on our YouTube page. So please go to our YouTube, go to YouTube and put in the search bar, the black achievement fund, and you'll have access to all of these lectures and all the black achievement by members.

Unknown Speaker 28:06
Brother key as we as we wrap up, I certainly want to express my appreciation to you because I think this is valuable information that particularly here in the Las Vegas Valley. Those of our listing artists we'll get to hear but also, I want to reassure people that this program, this radio station, I think it's called stream whatever whatever the former technology is, you can hear this all around the world. So I want our members to make sure that they share with others that you can go to the to the app store and get 91.5 Jas and more on your on your phone, and you can listen to this program. And we air the first Saturday of the month at 8:30am. This is Veterans Affairs plus and the plus is so we can add this kind of information that Mr. IChemE Hodges has shared with us, brother, we appreciate you and I look forward to my continued work and I did send my funds in as I said that I would on Saturday to help purchase that land because nobody's gonna do for us what we can do for ourselves.

Aki 29:11
Exactly. And we we appreciate it and before I go I have to tell everyone please join the black achiever [e-mail] F dot solutions not.com not.org dot solutions.

Unknown Speaker 29:26
Mr. Hodges Aki appreciate man. Appreciate you very, very much and look forward to interacting with you further.

Aki 29:32
And I look. Yeah, thank you and I look forward to giving you guys more updates.

Unknown Speaker 29:36
All right, man. Have a great day. You do the thing. Talk to talk to you soon. Alright. That's it.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai