Live from Music Row, Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
CROM CARMICHAEL:
Michael, there was a great column in The Wall Street Journal Headline: The 1916 Project on Hulu Vindicates Capitalism. And what the article points out. If you think about what The 1619 Project alleges, it alleges certain things that are false, but it also says certain things that are actually factually true.
And if you think about what they claim to be factually true supports their side, it actually doesn’t. So let me give you a few examples that are cited in this article. I’m doing some quotes here throughout the commentary. The article starts by saying the series gives many examples of government intervention that undercuts free markets and property rights.
Eminent domain, racial redlining on mortgages, and government support and enforcement of union monopolies figure prominently, and this is in The 1619 Project’s Hulu documentary. The final episode opens by telling how the federal government forcibly evicted black residents of Harris Neck, Georgia during World War II to build a military base. The army gave residents three weeks to relocate before bulldozers moved in.
After the war, the government refused to let the former residents return. Violating their property rights is the opposite of market capitalism. And this was by the way, under FDR. The federal government took a whole bunch of black people in Georgia and just told them got three weeks to get out of there.
And then after the war was over, they wouldn’t give them their property back. That is the government doing that to black people, not the free market. The series also highlights the noxious role of the FHA in redlining. The FHA discriminates against minority neighborhoods by classifying them as too hazardous for lending.
The writers could have strengthened their case by citing Richard Rothstein’s 2017 book The Color of Law. And in that book, he points out that in the 1930s, once again, under FDR and the completely Democrat-controlled federal government, the FHA redlined and would not let private lenders with any federal support at all loan money into areas that were black neighborhoods.
Economic historians have long known about discrimination against white-only labor unions. Jimmy Carter’s Labor Secretary, Ray Marshall, a labor economist, chronicled the discrimination in his academic work. The Wagner Act of 1935, once again, FDR and the Democrats gave white unions bargaining power under federal law over unions that were mixed, black unions, or black-owned companies were discriminated against.
The series recognizes the discriminatory effects of FDR’s legislative agenda once again government, which depended on the Democrat machine that operated in the Jim Crow South. The narrator states that the New Deal represented the first affirmative action policies for white people. We couldn’t have said that better, is what the story says now.
But the point of all this is that even with all of this evidence showing that the true discrimination against black people is always institutional in the form of government policy that hurts black people, we can move forward to today and look at our educational system and how black children are forced to go to terrible schools, these are in Democrat control cities, usually in Democrat control states, and under federal policy. And under Biden, it’s getting worse by the day.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this Crommentary:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Wall Street Journal Sign” by BrokenSphere. CC BY 3.0.
Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Democrat Caller Carl to the newsmaker line to weigh in on Nancy Pelosi’s future as Speaker of the House, her recent comments to athletes regarding the Olympics and China, and elements of the NFL racial discrimination lawsuit.
Leahy: We welcome to our newsmaker line, our very good friend Carl, who’s been listening and a longtime caller. Welcome to The Tennessee Star Report. Thanks so much for calling in.
Carl: Listen, man, first of all, be careful driving home. Everybody else, be careful. Thank you for the invite.
Leahy: Hey, Carl, some of our listeners may not be familiar with the bet that you and I had. And you stomped me on the bet.
Carl: I did.
Leahy: And I paid it off, didn’t I? (Chuckles)
Carl: Yes, you did. And you were respectful of the time period in which I wanted to take care of it. And we did.
Leahy: The bet that we had when the new President was inaugurated on January 20, 2021, you bet five months before it that it would be Joe Biden and I bet it would be Donald Trump, and the loser would have to pay for a steak dinner at Rafferty’s. I lost and we had a great lunch, didn’t we?
Carl: Absolutely. What a great lunch.
Leahy: Crom Carmichael is here and wants to say hello.
Carmichael: Hey, Carl, how are you doing?
Carl: Good.
Carmichael: Carl, now my question is on behalf of Mike. He doesn’t know I’m doing this, but do you want to place a lunch bet on who will be the next Speaker of the House? Which party?
Carl: No, because I don’t know who will be the Speaker, but if it trends the way they’re supposed to be, the way it always has gone, it will go back to the party that’s out of power, out of the White House, but that’s yet to be seen.
Leahy: Carl, something about the program or something in the news prompted you to call because you’ve got something to say. What is it that prompted you to call in today and what is it you’d like to say?
Carl: I don’t disagree to be disagreeable. I do agree with your take on Nancy Pelosi. I believe that you have to be respectful of being a good guest. I was taught that. I’m pretty sure all parents taught the same thing.
Be a good guest. But still, in the spirit of the Olympics, especially with the precedent of the ’68 Olympics, protest your ass off.
Leahy: (Chuckles) So you disagree with Nancy Pelosi on that?
Carl: Yes, yes, yes. Protest your ass off. Now here’s the thing, though. When I found out the Miami coach was fired, that was shocking.
I was stunned because I thought that if the coaching staff, with the job they did here in Nashville, if he didn’t get the coach of the year, I thought it was going to go to the guy in Miami.
Leahy: I agree with you completely, Brian Flores. I was shocked that he was fired.
Carl: Fired. And then when I listened to the lawsuit, first of all, the lawsuit is long overdue. Very long overdue. That’s number one.
Number two, when I listen to the things that were in it, it’s believable because you don’t fire an up-and-coming young, hot, head coach that turned your team around two years in a row unless you’re pissed at him. And the owner was mad at him for not taking those games and getting a better draft pick a couple of years ago.
Leahy: I saw that in the complaint. And that is obviously inappropriate behavior. And if true, inappropriate. But here’s the big question just on the Miami incident for a moment.
If that’s true, if you tell your coach to tank the games, that’s kind of a violation of some NFL rules. But here’s my big question: how is that evidence of racism?
Carl: That’s just one part of the thing. That’s one part of the suit. Then the other part is the giant thing that’s the most damning – you have this man come in for an interview after you knew you hired someone else. That’s not cool at all.
Leahy: He sued three teams, right? Miami, Denver and Giants. I don’t see the claim of racism in Miami. But let’s go to New York now for a moment. So walk the audience through what you’ve read about that.
Carl: So what happened was his name is Brian. Another former coordinator. Bill Belichick’s named Brian as well. Bill Belichick texted him and thought he was talking to the other Brian and texted him and said, “Hey, congratulations on getting the Giants.”
And Brian was like, well, did you hear something? Because I don’t interview with them until Thursday, two days later. And he was like, oh, well, damn, I made a mistake. Brian then takes it back and says, “Are you talking about me or the other Brian coordinator in Buffalo?”
And then Bill Belichick said, “Man, I f’d up.” This is literally what he said, “I f’d up. My bad.” The lawsuit part of that is valid because he learned about it through Bill Belichick for congratulating the guy.
What is Bill Belichick doing knowing about what’s going on with the New York Giants and that hire in the first place? Number one. And number two, you don’t bring someone in as a token interview when you already hired someone else. At the very least, it’s not cool, right?
Leahy: Yes. I see the line of reasoning there.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Bob Woodson, founder of The Woodson Center and 1776 Unites, to the newsmaker to discuss his recent announcement of retirement, why he left the Civil Rights movement behind, and what qualities he’s seeking in his successor.
Leahy: We are joined on the newsmaker line by our good friend, the great Civil Rights leader Bob Woodson. Bob, welcome to The Tenessee Star Report.
Woodson: I’m pleased to be here.
Leahy: First, congratulations on a fantastic career. You made news. Certainly, it’s well earned. But you made an announcement last week. You’re retiring after 40 years as head of the Woodson Center. What prompted you to make that decision?
Woodson: Well, age, first of all. And secondly, we want the organization to have a prosperous 40 more years. And therefore, succession is a key to that future. And so I want to prepare other young leaders to come in and take my place. We have a really deep bench, and we are excited about the future. I’m going to step aside. I feel like the adult kids, empty nesters. And you know, goodbye ain’t always gone.
Leahy: You’ve said something quite profound. I think maybe 30 years ago or perhaps even 40. You said, “I realized I was in the wrong struggle and the Civil Rights movement was beginning to morph into a race grievance industry.” When did that realization come to you, Bob Woodson?
Woodson: It came to me in the late 60s when we had picketed outside of a pharmaceutical company. When they desegregated, they hired nine Ph.D. chemists, and we asked them to join this movement. And they said they got their jobs because they were qualified, not because of the sacrifices of those on the picket line who were janitors, hairdressers, and ordinary folks.
I realized that, as Dr. King said, what good does it do to have the opportunity to participate if you don’t have the means and the where with all to do it? The Civil Rights movement never concerned itself with preparing poor people to take advantage of opportunities.
Instead, it concentrated on attracting resources to the middle class. And so I realized a bait switch game had been going on. We use the demographics of one segment of poor blacks as bait, and when the benefits arrive, it only helps those who are prepared.
And so I left the civil rights movement because it had morphed into a race grievance industry. And I began to work on behalf of low-income people of all races. The poverty programs came along and we spent $22 trillion, with 70 cents of that money didn’t go to the poor, it went to those who served the poor.
And so a lot of those Civil Rights leaders became Democratic officials running these cities. And they were the ones administering these poverty funds. So you have this huge classicism in the black community that no one talks about.
Leahy: That’s very interesting and quite a profound point. Last year, you started the 1776 Unites Project to push back against Critical Race Theory and the project – 1619 project in schools. Very divisive and very bad for America in my view. Tell us how that project has proceeded in the following year.
Woodson: Well, as I said, we pushed back. And since the radical left, I think, was using America’s birth defect of slavery and Jim Crow as a bludgeon against the country that got expressed in this 1619 Project.
Since they were using blacks as a messenger, we thought that the counter-voice should be black-led. And so I brought together a group of scholars and activists and journalists, and we produced a series of essays, about 28 of them with 1776 Unites.
And we were offering not a point-by-point debate, but a more inspirational and aspirational alternative narrative. In other words, the basic accusation is that many of the problems faced by low-income blacks in the crime areas and out-of-wedlock births are related to a legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
That’s just a lie. And so in our essays, we talk about how, in the turn of the century, how blacks developed and built their own hotels and businesses and Wall Streets. They had $100 million dollars in real estate assets in 1929 in the city of Chicago and 731 businesses.
How schools were producing children who could read and write. And they closed the education gap between 1920 to 1940 within six months. We just were offering curriculum too so that school systems would have some counter-information and knowledge.
We have 15,000 downloads for our curriculum that celebrates America as really the country of opportunity, even for those who were enslaved.
Leahy: Now, let me ask you this, Bob. On what date will you officially be retired? Is it like, immediate?
Woodson: No, no, no. Nothing is going to happen tomorrow. We’re taking the rest of this year to search for my successor. In the meantime, the organization is prospering. We’re growing. I hope to name someone next year.
Leahy: Ah! So let me ask you this. In the search for your successor, what qualities are you looking for?
Woodson: I’m looking for someone of faith, someone who really loves and appreciates the richness of this country. We’re looking for people who are committed to looking at the strengths, the histories of resilience, people who understand. In other words, someone who is competent, loves this country, loves low-income people, and is forward-thinking, a visionary, and optimistic. Those are the qualities that we’re looking for.
Leahy: And how extensive will your search process be? And how many applications have you received so far to be your successor?
Woodson: We are not doing a national search as such. I mean, there are people who have been in this orbit walking with us over the past 30 years.
So we have a rich pool of people among those who we already know and had some experience with. The pool of people in this space are people already known to us.
Leahy: That makes sense.
Woodson: It’s just a matter of selecting which one will continue this message.
Leahy: When do you anticipate that process is likely to end? You’re staying in the gig full time until your successor is identified?
Woodson: Absolutely. I will be staying at the helm until my successor is named. I hope to when we identify someone who’ll work beside that person for a few months so we have an orderly transition.
But we will be making an announcement by the end of the year. We hope to be able to make an announcement and then perhaps a transition in the spring.
Leahy: Let’s say early January, your successor will be announced. You’ll work with that person for three months. And then April 1, when you officially retire, how’s your life going to be different?
Woodson: (Chuckles) Well, again, I’m going to step aside. I’ll be an ambassador. I hope to continue to lecture. I hope to teach and disciple my young leaders around the country as I do now. I hope to spend more time with my wife who has been very patient over these years.
I hope to just continue to offer a commentary. I want to continue to write a lecture and to disciple my young friends. But I want to step away from the daily administration. I want the organization to continue to move and to grow and allow new leadership to come in with new ideas as to how to expand our message.
So I’m looking forward to the next level of leadership and taking it to places that I never did. This organization is going to be around, and we’re going to be a fixture on the American scene, and we’re excited about the future. I’m just glad to be able to hand the baton to younger leadership.
Leahy: Bob Woodson, congratulations on a spectacular career and we look forward to having you back on the program. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Woodson: And thank you.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Robert Woodson” by Gage Skidmore CC By-SA 3.0.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the host of Pensive Politics Christian Watson to the newsmaker line to talk about his background, recent Orange County op-ed and the pushback he’s receiving based on his worldview.
Leahy: We are joined by Christian Watson on our newsmaker line. He is the host of Pensive Politics. It’s a podcast. And also is a spokesperson for a new group called Colors Us United. Good morning, Christian.
Watson: Good morning. How are you?
Leahy: Good. Color Us United. It turns out that we’re friends with Fred Levin, who’s one of the organizers there. You probably know Fred pretty well.
And then also Christopher Rufo as part of this, as is Ward Connerly. Tell us a little bit about Color Us United.
Watson: Well, Color Us United really is, I think this sort of machine, an organization that is trying to organize Americans around a very basic and good principle.
A principle that America was founded upon, that our race, our identities, whatever they may be, do not define us. That we are colorfully united by one single similarity that we are all individuals.
And that should be the most important thing about us because that is something that is unique to every single one of us. It’s not a category.
It’s not a box. It’s not a statement. It’s not a political sentiment. It’s a sort of natural condition. And so we are formulated on that principle and we’re trying to push back against the ideology that says your race and other identities are the most important thing about you because we just don’t believe that’s true at all.
Leahy: Well, yeah, exactly. Tell me a little bit about Christian Watson. Who are you and how did you come to prominence here?
Watson: I host a podcast called Pensive Politics and I talk a lot about race issues on my program and on my YouTube channel where my podcast lives.
And I’m not quite sure I would say I’ve come to prominence quite yet. But I have been putting myself out there over the past seven or so months as Critical Race Theory has risen in the public consciousness.
And I have been doing my best to not warn people, but just to inform people about what it is and why there are better alternatives to these sort of fringe ideas of the academic movement and that America was much purer and much better for all of us.
Not someone who is of a particular group, Black or White, not someone whose particular sexuality, that all of us can tap into.
And that is the idea that we are all free people and that free people have access to reason and that we can use that to live good and productive lives. That’s how I kind of formulated my entire brand.
Leahy: Christian, where did you grow up?
Watson: I grew up in Pennsylvania for the first 10 years of my life, but then for the last 11 years, I’ve been living in Georgia.
Leahy: So you’re relatively young.
Watson: Yes, sir. I’m 21.
Leahy: Are you currently in college or what’s been your academic background?
Watson: I’m actually in college. I’m about to graduate in the next four to five months. I’m graduating a little bit early. I’m finishing up the first semester of my senior year.
I’m studying philosophy and journalism, which was a decision some folks question, but I have not regretted it one bit.
Leahy: Where are you going to school right now?
Watson: I go to school at Mercer University in Georgia.
Leahy: Oh, yeah. Good school. Good school, Mercer. Aren’t they a D-1 school now?
Watson: I think so. I’m not the guy to ask about sports.
Leahy: You’re not a sports guy?
Watson: My knowledge is iffy a little bit. I try to keep up, though.
Leahy: So there’s this opinion piece that you wrote for The Orange County Register out in Southern California, and the headline is kind of interesting. Black Americans Must Overcome Negative Self Concepts to Succeed. Tell us about that.
Watson: So there are these mindsets amongst African Americans. And I made my thesis from an article by Sonya Lewis and her academic partner and they were studying mindsets amongst Black youth, various demographics. This is not just inner-city Black youth.
This is inner-city Black youth, the urban Black youth of every demographic and every economic status. And they found one stunning similarity within all demographics: the youth were concerned about the idea of being authentic to their blackness, whatever that meant.
Or more simply put, acting Black. And this was much more than simply a fashion statement, although it was certainly a fashion statement as well.
They found that it was a statement about how one is supposed to interact with academics and academia. They found that it was a statement about how one was supposed to speak and then conduct themselves in their private and public affairs.
A lot of these Black youth thought acting Black should consume the whole of their existence. And this is not something I needed to study to confirm.
Throughout my youth, I have been accused of not acting Black sufficiently enough and actually acting White for certain things, and it’s always bothered me.
But until very recently, I’ve never really put a lot of thought into how to work past that. The article in The Orange County Register is an attempt or a product – is sort of a way to work past that mentality.
Leahy: I’m guessing then that a lot of people have been critical of you?
Watson: Yes. Yes. The mindset of acting Black, and especially in this era of wokeness, authenticity is the biggest thing because for a lot of people who happen to be, mostly – may not be, on the left and who happen to have woke ideologies, if you do not act a certain way that is different from how the norm is, you are embodying the language and actions of your oppressor.
This acting Black thing isn’t just some sort of colloquial thing that was concocted amongst a bunch of youth who just don’t know much about the world.
It kind of has roots in a broader movement, a broader system to critique what is understood as normal in America and to replace it with a sort of revolutionary technique.
So when you realize just the depth of this thing, oh yes. There is, sort of, no escape from criticism if you deny it.
Leahy: Let’s follow up on this. You attend Mercer in Georgia, a good school. And when you have these kinds of conversations at Mercer with people, how do they react to you when you say these things?
Watson: The interesting thing is we don’t really have this kind of conversation and that’s the unfortunate thing. A lot of people, at least in my experience, are very non-confrontational on this issue unless you force a confrontation.
If you force a confrontation, then you better believe there’s going to be holy rage to pay. But a lot of folks are very scared about talking about race.
They’re most certainly scared about talking about acting White or acting Black because they don’t want to be castigated as a racist or as an insensitive person.
And so I think my project at Mercer and abroad as well has been to allow – set a foundation that allows – for a productive conversation to flow forth. And sometimes when you do that, you get criticism.
But I don’t really worry about the criticism too much. I worry about: am I reaching the people who need to be reached and am I causing or encouraging people to be courageous in their opinions? And I think once I’ve gotten past that point, it’s all uphill from there.
Leahy: Let me ask you a little bit about your personal plan. So you’re about to become a senior right? Are you in your last semester?
Watson: Yes.
Leahy: So what do you do after that? How does somebody with your world view, what’s your next career move?
Watson: What I’ve been trying to do for the past few months, and I’m going to continue my podcast. I’m going to continue running the Pensive Politics program.
I’m going to continue working with Color Us United to fight for race behind society. I’m going to continue just doing things that will allow my voice to be utilized in productive ways.
And hopefully will bless people with a certain different kind of understanding. That’s my hope at least.
Leahy: Did you ever talk to your parents about this issue?
Watson: Yeah, sometimes. And those conversations can also sometimes be hard to have. Not because anyone has a particular belief, but just because, again, the confrontation issue, this is not a critique of other people.
I myself have had this problem in the past. There are parts of me that just don’t want to talk about this kind of issue with anyone.
But as I continue to get out there and do this, I am beginning to engage more people and my family about this. And I’m happy that I’m able to do that because there are some folks who cannot do that, unfortunately.
There are some folks that, if they do that, themselves will be castigated and scorned if they hold a certain kind of perspective. But that’s not a problem for me.
Leahy: Not within your own family. When we come back, we talk a little bit more about this view of the world and the pushback that Christian Watson is getting on it.
Listen to the full first hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Christian Watson” by Christian Watson.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Senior Editor-At-Large at The Epoch Times Roger Simon in studio to discuss Cuba’s cries for freedom and Secretary of State Blinken’s response.
Leahy: We are joined in studio by our all-star panelist, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, novelist, founder of PJ Media, my former boss at PJTV, editor and editor-at-large for The Epoch Times, Roger Simon. Good morning, Roger.
Simon: Good morning. I’m a little more awake this morning than usual. I don’t know why.
Leahy: Good. Now I have to admit to our audience, as a host, I’m falling down on my duty a little bit because I just delivered to you some stale radio-station and microwave-warmed coffee.
And I need to be delivering. I need to step up and we need to bring in. Scooter’s laughing because he knows it’s true. (Laughs) Our producer, Scooter.
Simon: It is true.
Leahy: What I need to do and I’m derelict in my duty here, Roger, because I’ve got to find a wonderful sponsor who can bring us really great coffee in the morning. So it’s on my to-do list. I promise.
Simon: I would move it up higher.
Leahy: (Laughs) That’s quite good. Roger, in the news today in Cuba, which has been under a Communist dictatorship for what, 60 years now –
Simon: 62.
Leahy: The people want freedom. They are demonstrating in the streets for freedom. What is the Biden maladministration doing about it?
Simon: Nada.
Leahy: Is that Español?
Simon: It’s a little bit of Spanish. No tiene interested. No le gusta. They don’t like it.
Leahy: What about Winken, Blinken, and Nod, the former partner there?
Simon: Antony Blinken.
Leahy: Tony Blinken.
Simon: Nodding off.
Leahy: The secretary of state of the United States. Now, what’s his big issue? It’s not freedom in Cuba.
Simon: No, it’s racism in the United States and he has gone to the UN asking them to investigate us. (Chuckles) This is the secretary of state of the United States, mind you.
Leahy: When I hear all these things, Roger, I think no, these guys didn’t really get elected. You know? Really? This kind of stuff.
Simon: They must have gotten there by a coup. (Laughs) Because how could anybody …
Leahy: Legal but not legitimate. Legal but not legitimate. That’s my mantra on these guys.
Simon: The whole thing about Cuba is you were very, very sad.
Leahy: Have you been to Cuba?
Simon: Yes. Yes.
Leahy: I’ve never been to Cuba.
Simon: As you know, shamefully I have a leftist past.
Leahy: No, no, no, Roger, that you are in the buckle of the Bible Belt and we believe in forgiveness. You are forgiven. Look at some of the great conservatives in history started out as liberal.
Simon: Ronald Reagan and Robert Conquest, my favorite.
Leahy: By the way, I did too. In 1980, I managed the reelection campaign of a Democrat running for Congress.
Simon: Uh oh.
Leahy: He won, but very shortly thereafter, I became a conservative Republican.
Simon: Well, you learned much faster than I. I’m a slow learner, but I was out in Hollywood where I was being essentially paid for keeping the other vision. Rollback to 1979. That’s the year I went to Cuba.
Leahy: So you went to Cuba in 1979.
Simon: It’s an amazing story.
Leahy: Was this during the Marielito?
Simon: No, no. I was invited as a Delgado to the first festival of a new Latin American cinema.
Leahy: Are you kidding me?
Simon: No.
Leahy: I didn’t know anything about this. Every time you come in, Roger, I learn a new, interesting fact about your fascinating, colorful past.
Simon: I’m sort of like the Woody Allen character Ziggy.
Leahy: Or a little bit like Forest Gump. Ziggy, Forest Gump at these main points in American history or world history.
Simon: Anyway, in this particular one, you couldn’t go to Cuba legally at the time. And so there were six of us on an illegal Cessna flying out of Miami.
Leahy: Is the statute of limitations expired, Roger? (Laughter)
Simon: Onboard the flight was my ex-wife and some other radicals. And one of the Hollywood 10.
Leahy: Tell everybody who the Hollywood 10 were.
Simon: Hollywood 10 were the poor souls who were supposedly irradiated out of Hollywood in the 50s for being Communist. And this one was Ring Lardner, Jr. Rather a famous guy.
Leahy: Famous writer.
Simon: His father was Ring Lardner, who was more famous. And we were all on this plane being flown by a – turned out – by a Vietnam vet who was very angry about where he was going.
He was just charted. So we’re flying over Cuba on our way in, and he just wants to turn back. And on the other hand, the flight control down on Vanity Airport, which in those days was the size of a postage stamp.
You could look down at it and there were some military vehicles and one airliner from Aeroflot.
Leahy: The Russian airline.
Simon: And it ended up that they only spoke Spanish at the airport. So I ended up talking us down.
Leahy: So you spoke Spanish?
Simon: I spoke Spanish.
Leahy: Where did you learn Spanish, by the way?
Simon: I lived in Spain for a little while.
Leahy: Again, all of these mysteries of your past that you’re unveiling to our audience.
Simon: I was trying to be an author. (Laughter) Cuba at that time was worse than now almost. It was illegal to play Afro-Cuban music.
Leahy: In Cuba?
Simon: In Cuba.
Leahy: When we come back, we’ll learn more about what happened when you landed in Cuba in 1979.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
