Khadijah Tribble: How marijuana reform could repair, reclaim and restore communities | TED

42,896 views

2021-07-21 ・ TED


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Khadijah Tribble: How marijuana reform could repair, reclaim and restore communities | TED

42,896 views ・ 2021-07-21

TED


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Transcriber:
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"What did you want to be when you grow up"
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is a question that I'm sure many of you have heard in your childhood.
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But if your upbringing was anything like mine,
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it is a question that you heard over and over again.
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And it wasn't until I became an adult that I began to understand
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the significance of the asking of the questions by our community leaders
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and my grandparents.
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But it was only recently in the last two years
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that I get some true understanding
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of just how much significance and weight there was
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in the answer back then and even today.
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You see, growing up Black and female in the South more than 40 years ago,
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there are some limitations to the answer to that question.
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Whether real or perceived, there were limitations all the same.
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And so what I want you to understand at this moment,
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as a young girl growing up,
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with all that was happening right after the civil rights movement,
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all of the advancements of the struggle,
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things that were meant to push and advance the African-American community;
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things like the Voting Rights Act,
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The Fair Housing Act and affirmative action,
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and my generation was supposed to be taking full advantage
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of all of those opportunities.
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So, when they ask the question,
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"What do you want to be when you grow up?,"
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it meant something to them.
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I remember hearing this question one summer at vacation Bible school.
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And if anybody is here from the South,
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you understand that vacation Bible school
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is not to be confused with BTU training school
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or Sunday-go-to-meeting school.
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it is vacation Bible school.
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I'm still trying to figure out who thought it was a good idea
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to put a vacation, Bible and school all together ...
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(Laughter)
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But the first week of every summer, of every summer during my childhood,
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it was spent in vacation Bible school.
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And this one particular summer there was a teacher.
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She wasn't too much older than me and my middle school friends.
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She wanted to make sure that we understood scripture
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and was able to connect it to this real world question
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of what you will be when you grow up.
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And so as my gaggle of girls sat around lunch that day,
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trying to figure out what we were going to say,
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thinking back now, it was a really impressive group of girls
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because they wanted to be things like civil rights attorneys,
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educators and doctors.
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I didn't want any of that.
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I was going to do something different.
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You see, I was going to be ...
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wait for it ...
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A thinker.
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(Laughter)
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Yes.
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(Applause)
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So when it came time for me to take the stage
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and share with the entire vacation Bible school,
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I introduced myself and I said,
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"When I grow up, I'm going to be a thinker."
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There was some laughter, some giggles,
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but it was really the disapproving look on the teacher's face that made me recant.
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And so I said really quickly,
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"When I grow up, I'm going to be a lawyer,"
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and then I exit stage left.
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But fast-forward to two years ago
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and I get an opportunity to spend time at an institution
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known for creating and cultivating great thinkers.
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Little did I know at the time
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that there's a ritual at the Kennedy School
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where students get an opportunity to stand on the famous forum stage
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and they're given 15 seconds to say
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what they were going to do at the Kennedy School.
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And so, you know what I'm thinking, right?
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It's a full-circle moment. I'm going to get it right.
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So I take the mic, I introduce myself and I say to my peers,
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to deans and to faculty members
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that I'm here to tell you
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that marijuana matters.
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Not a lot of giggles.
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Actually, it was actually a lot of applause.
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But in my head, I'm thinking,
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"Khadijah, did you just stand on the premiere policy stage
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and tell these folks you’re going to talk about weed?”
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(Laughter)
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That's exactly what I did,
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and for the next 12 months,
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I immersed myself in all things marijuana,
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day in and day out, reading, talking, sniffing, thinking about marijuana.
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So much so, my lovely wife Robyn banned the topic from the dinner table.
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(Laughter)
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But here's what I came to understand about marijuana.
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And if you don't remember anything else from my talk, please remember this.
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That for all of the gains that we were trying to make
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with the civil rights movement --
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fair housing,
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expanded opportunities in education,
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employment opportunities,
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building the wealth of the African-American community,
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the failed policies of the war on drugs single-handedly undid all of that.
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(Applause)
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And here's how we know that.
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I want to give you guys five numbers.
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Five.
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Seven.
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46.
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23
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and one.
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And no, it's not the Mega Millions jackpot numbers.
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See, for more than five decades,
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this country has waged a war on drugs,
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which has been tantamount to waging a war on Black and brown communities.
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Millions of people have been arrested,
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convicted and incarcerated for marijuana-related possessions.
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In the last decade alone, 7 million.
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And those 7 million people are facing
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what's known as 46,000 collateral consequences.
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Now, some of you may be saying, "If you do the crime, you do the time."
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And I only have five minutes left, so I can't argue that point today.
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But I will say to you, at this moment,
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when 33 states and the District of Columbia
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have some form of regulated
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growing marijuana, selling marijuana,
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consuming marijuana and distributing marijuana on a mass scale,
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is it still a crime?
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I ask because I've met people all across this country
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who are living with those collateral consequences.
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People like Keyvette, a young woman, very energetic about her future.
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When she left high school,
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she was ambitious and she wanted to go off to college.
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But before she could realize that
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she was stopped for a routine traffic violation,
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I think it was a broken headlight.
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And in the course of that stop the police officers smelled marijuana.
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And if you're in the state of Virginia,
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the smell of marijuana is probable cause for search and seizure.
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The car was searched, there was marijuana that wasn't used.
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She was arrested, booked,
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and to this day, she still has a criminal record related to marijuana.
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Because of that record,
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she often finds it hard to qualify for an apartment,
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employment opportunities.
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She also lost the opportunity to use financial aid to go to school.
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Some of you might not even know
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there are about 26 licensures for entry-level employment opportunities,
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that if you have a marijuana-related conviction,
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you may not be able to get that license,
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like a barber's license or a cosmetology license.
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But the thing that I find so offensive about ??? situation
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is that she has two kids.
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And there's evidence to suggest children born to individuals
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who have a marijuana-related offense,
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they're more likely to live in poverty.
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And I ask you guys, is that fair?
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Is that equitable?
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Or take the veteran who proudly and honorably served for 26 years
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in the United States Air Forces.
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In that service, he actually lost the use of his legs,
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he's paralyzed and he uses marijuana for pain management.
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He also uses it to deal with his anxiety and depression
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that you can imagine would come with losing independence and mobility.
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And he uses marijuana knowing full well
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that he is at risk of losing the very health benefits
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that he earned as a disabled veteran.
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You know, people ask me all the time,
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"Khadijah, why marijuana?
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Why are you so passionate about marijuana?”
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The reality of it is I feel like this is just a continuation
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of the work I've done my entire life.
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I've worked alongside marginalized communities,
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in service of marginalized communities
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in hopes that I would be able to improve their life in some way.
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But if I'm being honest and frank, it's also very personal to me,
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marijuana is a personal issue for me.
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You see, that veteran happens to be my father,
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Retired Master Sergeant Willie B. Tribble,
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and I will fight for his right and the thousands of other veterans
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to get the life saving --
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and we don't know that yet by research,
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but I suggest that it could potentially be --
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medicine that is quality and safe for veterans.
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And Keyvette? Keyvette is my daughter in law.
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And those two kids, King and Titan,
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mean so much to me.
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And just like my grandparents asked me,
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"What do you want to be when you grow up?,"
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I want to be able to hear from my grandsons:
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anything they want to be.
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Thank you for listening.
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