#23

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This is a federal case from Washington D.C. the
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National Educational radio network brings you an examination of current issues
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facing our nation and its capital city. How old are you.
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Now you. Said.
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You.
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See. If you didn't come here for breakfast
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would you be getting the same kind of good breakfast at home. Now.
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No. No no. No.
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No no no.
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No.
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Quiet.
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World the dog.
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World.
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How do you feel about having breakfast delivered by campus every morning just feel
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like cool down.
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Yes. I just come down you cuss I beat you but I don't eat enough
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and. You say it was beautiful.
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I like it. It's just great.
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It's just great. To the United States government has set forth basic requirements for a healthy
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breakfast. The Black Panther Party operating without government funds has
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established a nationwide free breakfast for Children program. It far exceeds the
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federal nutrition guidelines. This is Geoff came in reporting revolution for
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breakfast.
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It is 7:45 in the morning in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles. Without prompting these
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little girls have decided to sing a song during breakfast at a Black Panther community center.
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Julian warning. Everybody is going to be.
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Home. People sit down right. To write a.
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Book you. Never leave me. Home
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without. Setting up of the closest ready.
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Everybody's going to sit down at table. So we can get your breakfast.
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I know some o people come over here and. We will come over this if.
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They have a need. Of it. Yes I go over
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to. Ask if. You are going. To
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eat. If. You are coming back later. All right.
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We got to. Go out there very
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carefully and you're.
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Going to be here to cover the concept of the break this program
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originated with Huey. He thought that was one of the better ways to educate people in terms of what
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socialism was it was like and also certainly the basic need to people because it's
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part of our ten point program platform as to what we think they
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stand a poll taken in the black community. People need and desire. So we decided to
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implement the breakfast programs.
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That is John Kelly 20 year old national coordinator of the Black Panther Party's free
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breakfast program.
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You know somewhere between 10 and 15000 children.
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They really on the records programs say ten thousand in all the chapters and
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branches and also in the local and nationally and
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CCS national committees to combat fascism and they're scattered all over the country
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there in New York Chicago Philadelphia Boston New Haven and then we have
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interesting ones like example in Austin Texas is a brick was program run by
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two individuals who happen to like the idea and they get their own donations and they run it. They
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just send us reports on how their breakfast is doing on any problems that they may or may not have. That's the only thing
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they have is a book this program called the Black Panthers. You know they're not just people from the
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black community. Since the program started it's reached a lot of
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people a lot of people have hooked onto the program and they are implementing it on their
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own like these two people for example in Los Angeles after December 8th.
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When the buildings and homes the offices in the community
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centers all the community centers and homes and offices in the Los
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Angeles area were attacked and raided and the central office received the
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most severe damage it was dynamited do you know about that
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salted you know song by the tax squad availing
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and they happen to have been a breakfast program housed in the central headquarters because a large
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structure. And so what happened there was a sister around the corner from the office
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who set up a breathless program in her own home because she said the children still had to be fed
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and when we first moved into that area it's very difficult to talk to people nobody was
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very receptive they thought that they suggest another gang you know. Coming on the set
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and they found out that you know it was different back one woman said after the eighth
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and we never bothered her. As a matter of fact once the Black Panther Party and went into the
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area the gangs and a lot of the vandalism had. You know
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subsided a decrease in birth this program has been very effective as one of our
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most effective programs as an effective way of reaching the people and meets a basic need
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that. We know that is we don't need it and also
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it is very important because it shows people what socialism can be like it shows
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and that. This is the way socialism works. And it's based
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on your needs and not your abilities to you know who are
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really a mess everything that you want to you Can we try to teach the children
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through our practice and i example of the wreck was not so much indoctrination but
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through our practice and example about sharing about socialism. Of course we tell them about
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Huey and Bobby. And Eldridge because these men are these people.
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Came the concepts of the programs and ideas for these programs
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they were implementing now. And people say that we indoctrinate the children we don't do that.
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If anything we educate them and there is no hard core line like you don't have to say free Healey to get a
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plate.
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We feed the kids because they're hungry and because in the United States government has acknowledged
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reluctantly the fact that not only do millions go to bed hungry every night in this country but also
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that countless children are denied even the most basic nutrition needed to help them through a day of school.
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A lot of poor kids spend class time with their heads on their desks their minds turned on
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and the broken
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wing.
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You are doing
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big tempted to destroy the breakfast program attempted
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to vilify the breakfast program.
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They've zeroed in on some of the children who
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attend the program.
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They try to poison the propaganda.
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To the people by telling people that we serve poisoned food and
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we teach. Hate. We teach.
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Communism and guerilla warfare to the children and they are
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using all different types of methods. Dave and I went to the point where they pick up children who
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leave the breakfast program and.
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Rattle around the car and tell me they must put them in jail if they come back that is Chicago Black Panther
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Party minister of defense Bobby Rush you can see the
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harassment they can see the true nature of the pigs understand very clearly that our party
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is as a party that needs to basic desires and needs of the people and
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they know that we feed feed them nourishing breakfast every morning.
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They understand that.
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The pigs are their enemies because this is their historical experience with
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pigs.
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They occupy communities like an army and. Then
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they don't have the same.
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Added to general attitudes I have the same outlook on the pigs as
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most people most people who most children who are from
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the middle class and upper class sections of the country will see the
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officer McGillicuddy on the corner across the street to see the
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pigs who lies in a murder and their parents and their brothers and sisters so
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they have a very clear knowledge of the peers and then
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they can see the peace and the truth is their true nature.
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Every. Hear so much about how they are and this is one thing and I think this helps out. Down.
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Route.
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2 so that middle aged woman is among several from Chicago's West Side ghetto who are assuming full
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responsibility for the breakfast program in their community. Recently one location has
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served well over 100 kids each morning.
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As such a blank on the Friday it was a known fact that there was hunger and there
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was malnutrition go around all over this country. But the thing was nobody was moving on it
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so I stood up. Black Panther Party talking about how sad to some about it.
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Start setting up his breakfast program best equipped his way to do some about it. Start
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saying that's the whole idea anyway.
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Jimmy Johnson coordinator of Black Panther breakfast programs for southern California.
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He spends his mornings driving from one breakfast location to another checking on diet and
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attendance at one stop he talked with a leader of a local Black Students Association.
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The BSA has taken over the panther breakfast in their community.
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The third day we had like. This about 75 kids a day
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now having laid this out. Well we're going to lease it to community Saturday you know the Muslims
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index's alliance going to be out door to door so we can get more people down. Out of
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Here to accept a breakfast program. Most of the fish go down with the
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kids. Doing their
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services and the kids take it with you. The elementary school is has a free
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breakfast but this costs dicey because you know the kids over here. Starting this week.
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That have be about 200. So we have to have about three different breakfasts GOING ON CITY.
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So we need to get food in everything.
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People the Black Panther Party's national headquarters is in Berkeley California in
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nearby Oakland 1 breakfast programme serves several hundred children daily. The menu
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is typical of Panther breakfasts across the country. Fresh oranges hot cocoa
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pancakes scrambled eggs and milk. Many of the kids ask for and receive
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second helpings in a printed order to all local chapters.
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Black Panther Party national headquarters tells Local units to be aware that the kids
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probably won't get another healthy meal between breakfasts Blackbird singing in the dead on
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some going
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to be green.
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New York City Ronald Tyson is coordinator of the breakfast program.
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We have this program and the attendance at each breakfast program is there
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30. 25 30 kids I say.
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Seventy five hundred kids.
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There have been estimates that the poor black population of Manhattan
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there's something about a million 75 children out of. A million
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blacks in Manhattan. Why do you think the figure is so low.
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Well you check out all of the indoctrination and all of the brainwashing power structures run
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down to the people.
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Misinformation and misrepresentation that people gave about the Black Panther Party. You
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can understand I mean New York 21 conspiracy to bomb department
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stores and railroad tracks and now the Black Panther Party has free
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breakfast with children programs and through talking to people. I found out that
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people think they were going to kidnap their kids or poison their kids rape their
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daughters and things like that. And and this is just a logical result from the
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misinformation he received about part of which is the misinformation come from the
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pig media pig agents CIA FBI you name
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it.
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What is their goal do you think in alienating people from the breakfast program.
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The breakfast program is the one stable program that the Black Panther Party has for
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the black community and if the pigs are successfully alienating the people
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from the breakfast program they will be successful in alienating the people from the Black Panther
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Party. And once there is a gap of say misunderstanding between the people in the
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People's Party then the peers can easily slide on it and rip the party off. Then
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these 75 or 100 children who participate daily in the breakfast
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program are a vital link right on because if there is a all
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functional link between the people and the people's party back at the party then whenever
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the. Takes out a slot on it and move on to party a movement to back this
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program people say hey I don't understand all that rhetoric
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that socialism and communism as Panthers talk about but you keep your hands off the breakfast
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programs they feed my kids in the morning.
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Like all breakfast coordinators Tyson works hard to assemble the large amounts of food needed for
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each breakfast after he collects the food from local merchants who donated Tyson
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participates in the preparation of the meal. Wiser heads however try to keep him away
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from the stove grits.
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Well accidents gaol.
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How do you think it was your fish facing your own safety make good
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riddance.
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And I think he needed healing utan the imprisoned minister of
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defense of the National Black Panther Party has as much real and symbolic importance to Panthers
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as does Moshe Dyan to Israelis. Huey then would hardly appear as an accepted
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subject for humor especially from a 12 year old Harlem kid participating in the breakfast
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program trying to get a few wee who
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was.
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Last seen around the.
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Block. I've been trying to get him off sold. He's the one that started this
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thread.
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The boy obviously felt that he had nothing to fear as a result of his parody of Panther rhetoric.
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I thought my parents as a day just because of the name or not but it is it I found out
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that they are nice people.
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When you come to practice some people think they bad
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because they have got one I'm sure they night in New York City a group of Puerto
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Rican activists called the young lord's organization asked a large church in the Spanish speaking
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community to open a free breakfast for school children. The Church refused. The young
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lord seized the church occupied it and served at least two thousand free meals.
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I spoke with some of the children who benefited from the revolutionaries feeding program.
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Did you get enough to eat at home. Sometimes I care sometimes.
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But you always get up when you come here. Yeah. How about you how are you with a cigarette in
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your mouth. Oh you know.
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I will tell you more. How do you like the food here.
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Wait as a veteran and former Vietnam battlefield medic ran
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the Young Lords kitchen in the occupied church we have a health committee.
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That's make sure everything is given to the kids. It's standards like you know the right amount of
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starch vitamins nutrients. And you know like the right
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amount of food they get you know not just food but.
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Everything and medically and physically and on cleanliness because
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sanitation is a big thing. You know like the dirty plate that some roach walks over.
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There you get the food the way they should get it. And like you know a stranger is
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feeding them. Actually it's their own people who's feeding them. So you know I'm not going to give
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slop to my people. I want to make sure they get the best and fed the best way
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they can. Like you know they're going to eat like a rich man when they come here. As far as I'm
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concerned you know and as far as long as I'm in the kitchen like the
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best kids eat like let's say the white kids are going to get the same high I mean
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even the chance to feel what it's like to eat bacon and eggs.
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All sorts of things sometimes at home are actually
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advancing more because
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there are actually people.
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Will be implanted in their mind and they will follow.
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The kids here and get more than just good food for breakfast. They also get revolution and
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liberation for breakfast. Tell us about the. Pump and anything.
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Anything like shoot the pigs and you know
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we're not.
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Telling the kids the real truth. You know we got to get better.
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10 days after they seized the first Spanish Methodist Church in New York the young lords were found
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in contempt of a court order demanding that they abandon the building. When sheriff's men showed up
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young lords more than 100 of them walked triumphantly from the barricaded house of worship into the arrest
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back. The judge was impressed by what the young lords had done for the people so he
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released them on their own recognizance without bail and down the long.
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List to be the missing.
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And injured. Bell ringing again.
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Man. James do you think he's.
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Down town.
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One of the most effective Black Panther Party breakfast programs in the nation is in Kansas City Missouri
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where the kids get breakfast a well-advertised once a day vitamin and liberation school
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free because brother Hughie has the key.
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What is the key. You know so we
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don't really bother you because whether you we have the world or what is the key.
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Even people right also the people are going to free from the out.
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I really say out loud to every
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home.
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Now we don't talk about Chairman Bobby a little bit how it came about because of the
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free.
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Will To Keven Oh it was the key to all the people
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who was preaching everybody rhino.
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Let's talk about the discipline now.
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OK this can never by turn the page with these revolutionaries on.
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Page number.
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Who can read will well write already would you say is under that.
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Advantage. Watch out. Thanks I'll start.
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What.
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Helps the souls of the people. Which is supposed to tell your brothers
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and sisters when you see it. Wasn't me.
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Come on over here. Without. Getting down the page. We study in the day we learn about a
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revolutionary.
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Right. Right.
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Right which is supposed to say. All power to. The
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right of.
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The deputy chairman of the Kansas City chapter. He's the deputy chairman.
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Now there's the chairman of the party.
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He's the deputy chairman for the paedo Neil don't we know
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where the food they say about the piece say our party probably
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come in we got to say our power to the people.
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Free all political prisoners are part of the people.
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OK we're looking at the camp of 21.
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And this is 21 passes in New York they got arrested. And you know with the
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rest of them full for serving the people. But they told the people that
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they arrested him because they wanted to blow up the baton alogical gardens that's where they keep a whole
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bunch of flowers. Now we know the Panthers don't want to blow up no flowers.
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You've got to do better than that don't you.
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OK I will say no more problems in dealing with you go outside. I'll be right all
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this. Sing It Loud. No more.
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Big no God. I.
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Was. I was. Like God.
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Dr. Bruno Bettelheim one of the world's most respected child psychologists said that
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eating experiences condition a child's entire attitude to the world not so much
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because of how nutritious The food is but with what feelings and attitudes it is given.
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A nationwide examination of the Panther breakfast program shows the kids who participate are getting
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their food in an environment of love concern and community.
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Dr. battle Haim said basic attitudes are learned by children around eating at the path
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of breakfasts the kids learn to enjoy each other.
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They feel a part of the actual child.
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This is Geoff came in speaking.
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To.
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Us.
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You have been listening to a federal case weekly examination of a national issue
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from the perspective of our nation's capital. This is the national educational
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radio network.