1:23:02
They would find them all across America
1:23:05
in the places that had been destroyed by the economy.
1:23:09
Places where one of the only jobs available
1:23:12
was to join the Army.
1:23:14
Places like my hometown of Flint, Michigan.
1:23:18
And I was watchin' TV one day
1:23:19
and they showed like some of the buildings
1:23:20
and areas that had been hit by bombs,
1:23:22
and things like that,
1:23:23
and when I was watchin' I got to thinkin'
1:23:26
there's places in Flint look like that,
1:23:28
and we ain't been in a war.
1:23:30
Look at the neighborhood I live in.
1:23:32
Most of them are abandoned.
1:23:34
I mean, that's not right.
1:23:36
You want to talk about terrorism?
1:23:37
Come right here.
1:23:38
President Bush,
1:23:39
right here, come.
1:23:40
Come right here.
1:23:41
He's knows about this corner -- I e-mailed him.
1:23:44
At the end of January of '04
1:23:47
the unemployment rate in Flint was actually 17%.
1:23:50
But you have to take into consideration as well
1:23:52
that when you're unemployment runs out
1:23:54
you're no longer counted.
1:23:55
I would have to say
1:23:56
that we're probably close to at least 50%
1:23:58
not working or under-employed.
1:24:02
Because being under-employed is just as dangerous...
1:24:05
So my family has gone through the welfare system
1:24:08
when it was jobs-central;
1:24:09
in the mid-80sI came through
1:24:11
the job training partnership program
1:24:14
here at jobs central and I went to a secretary school.
1:24:17
Years later I'm the executive assistant
1:24:19
to the president of the agency.
1:24:20
Interesting.
1:24:22
My mother used to tell me all the time,
1:24:24
"Why do you always go for the underdog?
1:24:26
It was because the underdog is who needed me.
1:24:29
The people who don't have anything,
1:24:31
that's who I have to fight for
1:24:33
and that's who I've fought for my entire life.
1:24:35
I started taking my children and telling my children
1:24:38
the military is a good option;
1:24:40
I can't afford to have you go to college,
1:24:42
I can't pay your way, financial aid will not help you,
1:24:45
so I as a mother started teaching my children
1:24:47
about the options that the military could do...
1:24:50
They would take them around the world,
1:24:52
they would see all of the things
1:24:53
that I as a mother could not let them see,
1:24:55
they would pay for their education
1:24:56
as I as their mother and their father could not pay for.