THIS IS RUSH TRANSCRIPT; THIS COPY IS NOT IN IT’S FINAL FORM AND COULD BE UPDATED.
(Radio signal sounds: Snap, crackle, pop...hiss...wheeze...sputter...sputter....blip...jimmy-jank...plick-up...bzzzzz....mmmmmmmmmm....fades out softly...)
Unidentified voice: “We now interrupt our regularly scheduled programing with this breakdancing news from the Emergency Hoodoo Broadcasting Corporation...This is not a Test!...we repeat....This is not a Test!!”
(theme music, cheering crowd noises)
Voice of Announcer: “Good evening ladies and gentlemen; I am K. Maurice Bookerman, CEO of the Emergency Hoodoo Broadcasting Corporation and this is a special live broadcast from the Stanknasity Leadership Conference, also known as the SNLC, where the keynote address for tonight’s proceedings is about to begin! Tonight, the Honorable Reverend Dr. Boogaloo, Pastor and General Overseer of the Happytime Tabernacle Number 2 for All People of the Earth and Every Dimension Beyond is preaching on the theme “Putting Skin in the Game: Why Investing in People Makes Sense”. I’m honored to be joined tonight by Head Overseer of the Deacon Board of the Happytime Tabernacle Number 2, Deacon J. B. Peedybuddy! Deacon Peedybuddy its great to have you here with us tonight, knowing that you have taken time out of your busy schedule...”
Peedybuddy: “Aman-ed! and Happy-loo-yah! You know I’m just so HAPPY to be here with you Bruva Boogerman because, well you know, I’ve been followin’ Rev. Boogaloo now for ‘roundabout 35 years...”
Bookerman: “Yes sir, I know I and...”
Peedybuddy: ”...and I just want to say that, along with all the deacons and officials of our magnanimous fellowship, we are GRATEFUL! for the opportunity and all the fine work that you and your peoples have done to help us bring ‘The Good News of the Blues’ to all the people out there watching and listening...”
Bookerman: (clears throat) “...yes deacon...and...”
Peedybuddy: “...over the airwaves, because you know we truly BELIEVE, and I can TESTIFY - Aman-ed!! - about how good the boogie-woogie has been to me!!!”
Bookerman: “Yes! (blink)...and soooo, since Reverend Boogaloo has begun to speak, let’s...”
Peedybuddy: “Happy-loo-jah! That man can preach!...”
Bookerman: “...yes he can...let’s tune in to what he has to say!”
Peedybuddy: (his mic begins fade out, shouting) “...Take yo’ time and PREACH Rev-un!!”
(crowd noises fade)
Rev. Boogaloo: “...and to all the distinguished members of this congregation, I am moved and deeply honored to be here with you again to talk to you a minute about what my old friend Bob Davis at at Soul Patrol.com has so often eloquently elaborated on as “Putting Some Skin in the Game” Aman-ed!”
“But you know, I wanted to go a step further tonight and try to paint you a picture...uh-huh...of what that means on a global level...because, as the songwriter once said...”No man is an island/ No man stands alone/ Each man’s joy is joy to me/ Each man’s grief my own...”
(the crowd stirs)
Rev. Boogaloo: “...you know that’s GOOD GOOGLY-WOOGLY Gospel!! Aman-ed! And the songwriter goes on to say “I saw the people gather/ I heard the music start/ AND THE SONG!....WOOLAWD! that they were SANGIN’!! IS RINGIN’ IN MY HEART!”
(the crowd goes wild)
Rev. Boogaloo: “...but hold up! Wait a minute! I want you to get this! You see the songwriter understood that as human beings on this planet, we have always been connected to one other! Aman-ed! Even before the days of computers and the internets! Aman-ed! Even before the creation of telephones or jet airplanes...Aman-ed! We have always been CONNECTED to each other by weather, by climate, by wars and mass migration! Aman-ed! Being connected is nothing new! Huh? And nowadays, whether we wanna be or not, we are even more connected!! Aman-ed! Let me tell you something beloved: anything we do here tonight affects somebody else, somewhere else!...whether we see it or not!...if you turn on the electric lights in this room, when you hit that light switch, you better believe that somebody, somewhere, is working to make sure that electrical connection is turned on and stays on!...Aman-ed!...and when you go home tonight and turn your water faucet on to get a drink-a-water, you best be sure that somebody, somewhere, is working to make sure that water you drink is coming outta that water pipe! Don’t look at me funny!!...You can’t buy a car or put gas in it anymore without being connected to somebody half-way-cross the world! You’re CONNECTED to that man and that woman who put that pretty car together in Japan, everytime you drive it and to those people who got the oil outta the ground in Venezuela everytime you go to the gas pump to fill-it-up! Every time you put your bling on before you come to service...hah!...and call your friend on your cell, somebody’s hands in Africa dug up those diamonds you’ve got on your finger, and those rocks in that phone before you went to the mall to get it with a credit card made in India!! CON-EC-TE-E-E-E-ED!!! You come into this world CONNECTED to somebody else and that’s the way you’re gonna leave here!! AMAN and AMAN-ED! Look at somebody sitting next to you and say ‘Git CONNECTED!!'
(the crowd repeats in unison)
Rev: Boogaloo: “WOO-Lawdy! Hah! I feel like preachin’ tonight!...but let me fix this thing up for you!! Putting some skin in the game, and I know my old friend Bob agrees with me on this...also means investing, not just your money...money’s important...nowadays none of us can make it without money...but, investing your time and your energy and your talents and your know-how to create the political will to make things happen...because political will means more than money...”
(the crowd murmurs again)
Rev. Boogaloo: “Political will is worth more than money! Oh yes...I can see some-a-ya’ll lookin’ at me funny now! That’s alright! I can hear some-a-ya’ll thinkin’ -- ‘cause I’m an annointed prophesizer -- ‘Rev’rend what do you mean, political will is worth more than money?’ I’m gon’ break it down for you...all you gotta do is to look at the monuments that people make in the world...If you don’t believe me, go to Berlin Germany...and visit the heart of the city and you’ll see a monument in the center!...I believe they call it the Funkturm or the the Fernsehturm...it’s the tallest building in the city!...the 4th tallest freestanding structure in Europe!...took them 4 years to build it!...and its the landmark of the city, a permanent symbol of the greatness of German technological innovation and a testament to the political will of the East German people...but do you know why its so important?”
(the crowd is hushed)
Rev. Boogaloo: “...because to this day NOBODY knows how much it cost to build it! That’s right, I said it: NOBODY, not even the German Government knows how much it cost to put it up there! And do you know why?”
(you can hear a mouse pee on cotton)
Rev. B: "...because they didn’t care how much it cost! Money was no object to the East German government!...they put all their resources, manpower, money, talents and minds to create political will! A testament and testimony to the greatness of the East German Empire!...to prove their power to the West!!...and they didn’t care how much it cost!! It was the political will of the people in power and the people who sympathized with their cause that build that tower!! That tower got build on the strength of PEOPLE POWER!!! Aman-ed! It was political will that built that tower! Not money, POLITICAL WILL!! Say aman somebody!!"
(in unison)
Rev. B: "That’s why I know that I know that political will is worth more than money cause when enough people decide to do somethin’...when enough people decide to make somethin’ happen!...when enough people decide to make something real, no accountants, no lawyers, no stock markets, no armies, no navies, no governments can stop them from doing what they want to do!!...if you don’t believe me, just ask them folks in East Berlin...that’s what it means to put some “Skin in the Game”...and that’s why I say it makes sense to invest in people! Aman-ed! You know, I was watching a film not too long ago...It is probably one of the greatest movies ever made...Its called “Africa Open For Business” and it was made by a brilliant journalist named Carol Pineau.
Carol Pineau knows what it means to put skin in the game because not only did she write a newspaper article called “The Africa You Never See” -- a subject, by the way, that so many writers never write about -- she even went a step further and made a whole movie about it -- so that the people she was writing about could actually tell their own stories in their own words!! And as I watched the movie, I couldn’t help but get excited because here were people, ordinary people who go to work everyday, struggling to build businesses of their own, working in un-perfect conditions, working in spite of problems, poverty, hardship, difficulties....oh help me Stankamighty!...working in spite of!!!...I wonder if anybody in here knows what it means to work in spite of?!?..."
(the crowd roars)
Rev. B: "...putting their own skin in the game to help themselves and their families and their communities...and to tell you the truth, when I listened to these young entrepreneurs talk about their experiences, especially a young brother in Zambia, I was ready to go there myself and grab me an adventure!! Aman-ed! And get on a kite and fly to the mountain top!!! Goodness-gracious-motivacious!! When I saw that little girl playing a piano in her own house, I said to myself, ‘Boogaloo, maybe YOU need to move to Ghana, so you can get YOU a house!’ ‘Cause I don’t own a house and no bank ANYWHERE has ever lent me any money when I needed it!! GOOD-GOOGLY WOOGLY!! I mean, by the time I heard the sister in Nigeria talking about how she started her company making children’s clothes, I felt like runnin’ to the airport to catch a plane to Lagos JUST SO I COULD BUY SOME OF HER CLOTHES!! And I don’t even have any chil’ren!!
(crowd is on their feet)
Rev. B: “And I heard the words of the Godfather of Soul, Saint James of the Brown, the original Funk Prophet say ‘I don’t want nobody, to give me nothin’, open up the door...and you can finish it...”
(someone does)
Rev. B: “Have mercy, cause mercy suits my case! I’m talking about puttin’ some skin the the game this evenin’! And the only way to do this is to invest in people’s lives...when you invest in people’s lives, you make an extra effort to secure, not just in their future, but YOUR FUTURE as well! Why? Because whether you like it or not, YOU’RE CONNECTED!”
“For at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where you invest in people. Doesn’t matter where you invest as long as you invest!! Doesn’t matter who you are or where you are!!! You could invest in Asia or Latin America or the Caribbean or Eastern Europe...wherever people need jobs, wherever people are living in poverty, wherever somebody doesn’t have enough to eat or a decent place to live!...you know, a sick baby is a sick baby...comeonsomebody!!! ... doesn’t matter if that baby is black or white or blue or purple!...when a sick baby needs medicine, that baby needs medicine...it doesn’t matter who that child’s mother is or what country she lives in!!”
" Sooner or later, ya’ll gonna have to get over your "unique-ism" and begin to understand connectionism ...'cause if the only people you can invest in are people that look like you and talk like you do, how do you think you can make to tomorrow?!? OOOOHHHHHH!! SHAM-DAP-PA-LA-PA-LA-PA-BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA-LAKA-BOOM-LAKA-BOOM-BOOM!! OH I KNOW I’M PREACHIN’ NOW!! I HAVE JUST PROPHESIZED RIGHT THEN!!!”
(the crowd takes a praise break)
Voice of announcer cuts in: “You’ve been listening to the Reverend Dr. Boogaloo preaching at the Stanknasity Leadership Conference. I’m K. Maurice Bookerman of the Emergency Hoodoo Broadcasting Network. Please stay tuned while we take a brief pause for a message from our sponsors.”
(end of transcript Part 1)
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