Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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Wesley Knight 0:04
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Music 0:28
back and pick it south. Come on, talk to me, so you can't see what's going on. Yeah, what's going on? Tell me what's going on.

Dave Washington 0:49
Great day, Las Vegas. Great day. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. I got two wonderful guests. One's a dear friend, longtime dear friend, Miss Nedra Cooper. We'll get her on shortly, and then we got Captain Mel Tiller. He's a retired U.S. Marine. We'll have him on after we have a discussion or have Miss Nedra to present some information to our audience. But first of all, I'd like to express condolences. You know, a couple weeks ago, and I failed to mention it last week's show where Dolly Parton passed away. And you know, when I heard it, tears start coming down my eyes. I don't know that woman, but you know, the more I heard about her, she is a she was a great human being. There's absolutely no question about it, and I can tell you that more stuff that I've learned about her in recent days shows that she was just an outstanding human being who cared about people. I'm talking about worldwide, and just want to express condolences to her family and fans. Also, Mark Simon, he's a dear friend. He's a he's a relative. He he kind of was selected by our grandmother, Miss my my grandmother Miss Wacket. She selected him as her as her grandson or son, I should say, but his mother passed away, Joan. So I want to express condolences to that family. Birthdays, believe it or not, my baby sister Manita Armstrong. I forgot her birthday, as I talk about and celebrate birthdays for those of us who are in the in the month of September. And then voter education, which Nedra and I both participated in, we're going to be doing that again on october 24. It's a Saturday, and we'll be doing it at the Syrian Night Conference Room, the senior apartments over on Eighth Street. So pay attention to that because it's very important getting out the vote, and and voting is so so important. And then I want to mention the Armstrong Golf Tournament that'll be on october 3. So look out for that. At this time, I like to once again introduce a dear friend, Nedra Cooper. She's with the NAACP, and she's going to give us some information that I think is important for us to talk about and have her to share with our listening audience. Hey, Nedra.

Nedra Cooper 3:15
Hey, David. Thank you again for having me on and speaking in behalf of the NAACP today. I just want to talk about protecting democracy. You know, we got to remember what they fought for. And first thing I want to say about Nevada elections, I can't talk about any other state, but Nevada has what we call fair, safe, accurate, and secure elections. And that's one of the things that we want everybody to remember. See, also I want to say really quickly before I go into why vote no on question seven is that our voting machines, or they're now called tabulators, that you actually insert your ballot into. Those machines are independent; they are not picked up, hooked up to any type of internet. So you cannot hatch them. So we just need the public to know them. Vote they are there, and your ballot be safe. So, question number seven. Okay, first of all, you understand that you don't need to have ID. When you went to get your voter registration card, you had to be vetted. So you're already vetted. So why do we need to be vetted again? So we don't really need ID, right? It's our constitutional right to vote. It's not. It's not a privilege. It is a right. It's going to really harm women, seniors, Black people, communities of color, and working class. Why is it going to harm women a lot? Because if this passes, and if the Safe Vote Act passes, then you're going to have to one prove citizenship, not in the state of Nevada, but if that Safe Vote Act passes, then it will trickle down to all the states. They want you to prove citizenship. A woman has to have if you've been married and got divorced, you need to show how you've got all of your different last names. So you're going to need your birth certificate. You're going to need your. Social Security card. You're going to need a marriage license. You're going to need a divorce certificate. A lot of folks have trouble getting birth certificates. Some of the vital statistic buildings have burned down. Some people were actually they had midwives. There was a time when midlife birthing babies did not get recorded. So you have people who are born but do not have a government trail that says that they were that they have a birth certificate, but they may have what we call some of them have been baptized, they have a baptism certificate, and they have other certificates. So they were saying. So Nedra,

Dave Washington 5:38
you said so Nedra, is that is that international? I mean, national, I should say, as far as the the one act that you mentioned, is it Safe Vote Act? Is that what it's called? And and what's and and what's the one here in Nevada?

Nedra Cooper 5:52
Is question different times. Ours is question seven. Question seven. Question seven. So voters need to show ID. It's a voter ID question: Should voters have to show their ID when they go to vote?

Dave Washington 6:04
Sure. Okay. All right. Well, this is certainly good information for you to share with our listening audience because it's very important for you to check. And I keep telling people check your voter registration because. And I know Nedra, when we did the class, you said that Nevada is a is a state that has a law that says people can't be you know just pulled from the voting rolls. They can't be purging. Yeah, they

Nedra Cooper 6:28
stopped purging about four years ago, so

Dave Washington 6:31
four years ago, and that's by law.

Nedra Cooper 6:33
I won't actually say 100% by law. I'd have to double check that. I don't want to go on record saying something I'm not. I don't remember, so I'd have to double check that, but I know that we stop purging. But the ID that people are going to have to have because you're going to have to get a real ID, right? So you're going to have, like I told you, all the successions. You got to have your document to show how your names change, your social security number, and then some proof of residence. So either a utility bill, your bank statement or something like that to show that.

Dave Washington 7:03
All right. Well, we certainly appreciate you bringing this to our the attention of our listening audience because it's very important. Again, check your registration, Las Vegas, and those of you who listen from throughout this world because we know we got people traveling and in the military, and they'll be voting, and there was another piece of information that came out, and if you would share, that the our Supreme Court finally did something right.

Nedra Cooper 7:28
They they voted down the mail ballot that they were trying to suppress the post office from accepting mail ballots. That was overturned, so we don't have to really worry about that. But I tell everybody, you know, look, do a stroll to the polls. Make sure that your ballot is dropped into a a mail ballot boxes at one of the vote centers. They're all over. Make sure you do that. Each one, take one. You can check your voter registration. All right. Just going on Clark County Election Department. Find where it says. Do you want to renew or update your registration?

Dave Washington 8:01
All right. Well, we appreciate it, Nedra. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. On the other side, we'll have mr. Mel Tiller. Thanks, Ned.

Nedra Cooper 8:09
Take care. Bye.

Dave Washington 8:16
Thanks, Wes. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and more, and as I mentioned, we'd have Mel Tiller. Mel, tell us a little bit about who is Mel. Where is he from? I'm from a rural town in Virginia. Okay,

Mel Tillar 8:32
that town is that town is called Skippers, Virginia. Now, if you roll through

Dave Washington 8:37
it,

Mel Tillar 8:38
don't blink because you just might miss it, and and saying that it's a town is being generous. However, that is the place that I was born. It's S K A S K I P P E R S. Skippers, Virginia. Best people in the world. All right, are from Skippers, Virginia. You're a prime

Dave Washington 8:58
example. So, you went to school, elementary and high, or or did you leave before you went to school?

Mel Tillar 9:04
No, no, no. I went to elementary and all the way through high school in in in in Emporia, Virginia, Greensville County, Virginia. So all of that all of that education was was there in Virginia.

Dave Washington 9:19
All right. So any college at all, any more formal education?

Mel Tillar 9:22
Formal education was a music conservatory, the armed forces, the armed forces school of music, and so I went through all of their all of their courses. One of the best music conservatories in the country. I I was very proud to have graduated from there.

Dave Washington 9:42
So, sing or instrument?

Mel Tillar 9:44
I play trombone.

Dave Washington 9:45
Trombone. Yes, I play

Mel Tillar 9:47
trombone, and and I often say that I earned my vocal degree at Antioch Baptist

Dave Washington 9:56
Church. All right, sounds great, man. So, you laughing. At some point, went into the military. Tell our listening audience what branch and how long.

Mel Tillar 10:04
I went into the United States Marine Corps. I had the the privilege and honor of joining the Marine Band. I played trombone, played trombone in the band for about 10 years, and for 10 years, I was enlisted, went up to the rank of staff sergeant,

Dave Washington 10:25
and

Mel Tillar 10:25
then got promoted to warrant officer and became the third African American band officer in the history of the Marine Corps.

Dave Washington 10:33
Wow!

Mel Tillar 10:34
And and then traveled the world conducting Marine bands. Had a wonderful time. Did several tours overseas, Australia, Japan, Okinawa. Just had a had a great time. Travel over much of the of the United States and had a had a very rich experience in the corps directing marine bands.

Dave Washington 11:00
I guess so. And I got this, ladies and gentlemen, out there in the listening audience. I got all these questions I was going to ask them. What what what jobs did you have? He was conducting bands, man. That's pretty cool, and and that's an interesting job classification that I trust that many of our listening audience, particularly those young folks out there probably had no clue of to include me. I know that there was a lot of guys who played athletics, you know, football, basketball, etc. boxing.

Mel Tillar 11:30
Yes,

Dave Washington 11:30
and you were in music.

Mel Tillar 11:32
I was in music. We had 10 bands in the Marine Corps at that time. The ceremonial part of the military is is extremely important. Everybody's familiar with martial music, stars and stripes, John Philip Sousa, that sort of thing. We did a lot of that, providing ceremonial music for our colors, our graduations, and other military parades. It

the band is very important for morale. We put on a lot of a lot of concerts. Also, we represented we represented the the the military out in out in the public. As you can as you can imagine, it doesn't really matter to the public what kind of rank you have, because they're not familiar with what those different ranks and so forth mean.

Dave Washington 12:28
Right.

Mel Tillar 12:28
However, when you send the band out and the band goes and the band plays, now you can now you can touch their emotions. Now you can move their emotions, and so they'll remember. They'll remember the band coming and playing and participating in their event more so than they will the commanding general of of the base coming out.

Dave Washington 12:53
Right. So how did you wind up in Las Vegas, and how long have you been here?

Mel Tillar 12:57
I've been in I've been in Las Vegas for about 15 years now, I came here on vacation, met my wife at that met my wife, and you know I we we met, started talking, fell in love, dated for for a while, long distance. I was living in South Carolina at that at that point, and decided we decided to get married, and I moved here, and the rest is history.

Dave Washington 13:25
Cool. Well, something that's very important once again in Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5 Jazz and more, and we have Mel Tilla. He is here to talk about something that is extremely important. We feel so. If you would tell us about what you got going on, the name of the group that you're representing.

Mel Tillar 13:42
I'm representing the original outstanding gentleman of Las Vegas. We fondly call it the OGs. Presently, I am the president of the OGs, and we would like to invite the community to the second annual African American Men's Health Summit on October 24th. That's October 24th from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Doolittle Active Adult Center, sponsored by the City of Las Vegas Department of Parks and Recreation. The event is dedicated to supporting the health and well-being of African American men and their families.

Dave Washington 14:24
That is absolutely so important because I, you know, men in general, let alone black men, but men in general just don't take as good a care. And as I was, and and this gentleman has his own podcast. You all, he's very humble here, and I should have asked that question as well. Is, in fact, tell us a little bit about that, and then I want to go back into what I was going to say.

Mel Tillar 14:44
Our show is called Our Show is called the the Culture Experience with Mel and Bruce. As I always say, I'm Mel. My partner Bruce and I do the show together. You can hear us right here on 91.5. On Sundays at 9o'clock, we have a lot of community guests. We we talk with a lot of politicians. We talk with business people. We talk with authors. As a matter of fact, I recorded today and and record and recorded about three three guests today. So we talk. We talk to everybody from Hollywood entertainment musicians to CEOs and anybody that's doing something in the community that affects our community in a positive way. We love having them on, and we love giving them a platform from which to speak.

Dave Washington 15:46
Sure. Now, is there a means for folks to get a hold of you too if they're interested in sharing some of their information with our listening audience? Absolutely. The

Mel Tillar 15:55
best way to do that is to is to go to our website, and it is the culture experience? It's the culture experience, and you can find us. The best way to do that is to Google that, and experience is spelled with an X. And so, if you Google that, it will take you right to our website. You can find out all about us. You can listen to some older shows. We're always putting up putting up shows. You can find out some things about me and Bruce. You can also find out some things about the members of our team that help us to put the show together. We are very proud to have some some great community members helping us put that put that show together. We we feel good about the website. You can get a lot of information about us there. So the best way to find find out about us is our website. We have our phone numbers there, and you can also send us a text message, and we'd love to hear from you.

Dave Washington 16:58
Absolutely. Well, that's great. In fact, now let me get back because I just thought, man, I need to get this in before I forget. But look, there's something your organization, as you said, you represent the OGs. You guys got this health fair coming up, and again, men in general, man, I don't know what it is about us. About you know, I'm gonna be all right, and then you you wait too long, you wait too late. So tell us a little bit about how this and this the second one you're doing, and give us a little bit of how it's going to be set up and who will be there.

Mel Tillar 17:31
So you're right about men in general. We we have that what I like to call that young lion syndrome. Okay, you were you you were in the fire department.

Dave Washington 17:42
Yeah.

Mel Tillar 17:43
Okay. You're big. You're strong. Okay. Go all day long, Superman.

Dave Washington 17:48
Right. I

Mel Tillar 17:49
was in the Marine Corps. Same thing. Young lion. Right. Okay. I can go all day long. Beat beat the average 20 guys. Okay. Nothing can nothing can stop me. And so it's that super. It's that superhero syndrome that we deal with. I don't need to go to the doctor. I can run five miles a day.

Dave Washington 18:09
Right.

Mel Tillar 18:09
Okay. I can. I can. I can go to the gym and lift the world. I'm strong. All right. I'm looking good. I can hang out all. I can hang out all night, right? I can hoop with the owls and fly with the eagles.

Dave Washington 18:23
That's right.

Mel Tillar 18:24
I don't need to go to the doctor.

Dave Washington 18:25
That's right.

Mel Tillar 18:26
I'm great. And what we don't what we don't understand when we're that young, because we're young, you know, we're young and dumb. All right, we we we we're young and dumb at at at that point. We're feeling good, got plenty of energy and so forth, we don't understand how the body works. We certainly don't understand how the body ages, and so nobody can tell an 1819, 20-year-old what it's like to be a 40-year-old, 50-year-old, 60-year-old. Nobody can explain what age does because all of a sudden one day you just don't have that much energy anymore.

Dave Washington 19:04
That's right.

Mel Tillar 19:05
One day instead of going to the club because I have to go to the club because I might miss something.

Dave Washington 19:13
Right, right.

Mel Tillar 19:14
I got. I got to do that.

Dave Washington 19:16
What an analogy.

Mel Tillar 19:18
One day, all of a sudden, you'd rather just sit on the couch and turn the TV off. So it's very difficult to to explain to young people that if you abuse your body as a young person,

Dave Washington 19:35
it

Mel Tillar 19:36
will catch up to you.

Dave Washington 19:37
That's right.

Mel Tillar 19:38
As an older person, if you spend all of your time drinking and smoking and partying and not getting your rest. You're going to age differently than a guy who takes care of himself.

Dave Washington 19:52
That's right.

Mel Tillar 19:52
Than a guy who understands that his most valuable asset

Dave Washington 19:59
is. That's right. That's right.

Mel Tillar 20:02
And if you don't take care of your body when you're young, your body is going to tell you about that when you get older. Okay. So that abuse will catch up. Will catch up with you now.

Dave Washington 20:14
Absolutely.

Mel Tillar 20:15
Men in general have that in common. We decided that we wanted to bring that down and narrow that focus and talk about this niche, African American men's health.

Dave Washington 20:30
Right?

Mel Tillar 20:30
Why? Because living in America for an African American man

Dave Washington 20:36
is

Mel Tillar 20:36
a different experience than some other cultures than living in America from some other cultures. Right, we have some stressors that other cultures don't have.

Dave Washington 20:49
Very true.

Mel Tillar 20:50
You and I are around the same age. You're probably older. Okay, you know, been around for a little bit longer, but and I'm just kidding. It's so true. But we're done, are we? We're about we're about we're about this. We're about the same age, and during our time frame, you were one of the first to do what you did in your career. Right. I was one of the first to do what I did in my career. Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't gone through that, you don't understand what that pressure is. You don't understand what it's like.

Dave Washington 21:28
You know what, Mel? The other day, I 25 years. In fact, I had became the fire, become the fire chief in August and 25 years.

Mel Tillar 21:36
The first one,

Dave Washington 21:37
yeah, August 25 years when it first happened. So over that period of time, and doing my 33 years, and after I had been retired six years, I'm back in federal court. So one of the people who I promoted, Asian woman, she ran up to me smiling at the ceremony because I went to the ceremony at Station Five over on Hinton and Charleston, smiling. I said, "Oh no, no, no! Trying to, you don't get to hug me. I'll shake your hand because say God says forgive, because none of us are perfect, right? But we don't have it like that anymore. You don't get to hug me because you testified against me in court. That was very devastating to my family and me in terms of what I had did for you, because she was not the best candidate that I put in that position because in fact I had told Virginia Valentine the city manager and Dr. Doug Selby who was the deputy city manager over the fire department I want to have the most diverse executive senior staff in in fire service in America. She shot me in my back man and I and I say that, and I won't call that person's name, but no, no, no, we don't have it. Like you don't get the hug. I'll shake your hand because I've long since forgiven her. But I think that may be in the second or third time since that trial. And you want to hug me? Oh no, no, no, because I got said I didn't like women. I got a wife, four daughters. Of course, we have a son, but hey, I don't like women, and you want a hug? Oh no! But anyway, it just tells you about because you talked about the stressors that we go through. Yes, there was a number of different things that occurred because some of us because I was the fire chief, some of us because I was a black who happened to be fire chief.

Mel Tillar 23:17
Yes,

Dave Washington 23:18
and you know you get through these things, man. But one thing, and I mentioned it, mentioned this to you on your podcast. In the 33 years, one year I didn't go get a physical, and Doctor Karch, we had a doctor on staff. He said, "Man, what is wrong with you, Dave Washington? Are you ready to die now? I said, "Well, no. He said, "Well, you need to. Why would you not get your physical witness free? A man thinking I'm thinking I'm so tough. Right. Wes just gave me the five minute sign, so we're good. So anyway, you're absolutely correct, man. The things that we have to go through as men that's somewhat different from others.

Mel Tillar 23:50
It is. It is very. It is very different because, for instance, when I walked into the Marine Band, there had never been anyone who looked like me as a band officer in the United States Marine Corps,

Dave Washington 24:05
right?

Mel Tillar 24:06
And so you say, well, okay, how does that add add stress to you? Well, if you're trying to get promoted, because we all have aspirations, we all have ego,

Dave Washington 24:18
that's right.

Mel Tillar 24:18
All right, I knew that no matter how good I was, how hard I worked, what I produced, I could still, I could be the best there was, and still not get promoted, and still not become a band officer.

Dave Washington 24:35
That's right.

Mel Tillar 24:36
And even after I climbed that mountain, I understood that because I was black, the road that I had to travel was far more narrow than the road some others could travel.

Dave Washington 24:52
Very true,

Mel Tillar 24:53
and I and I know that you understand what I'm what I'm what I'm saying with that.

Dave Washington 24:56
Absolutely, I can feel it, man. I can you still got it in the voice. Man, you know the strain, the stress of it all, but yes, yet God brought you through. So once again, tell us about some of the things that you guys have scheduled for as we got another few minutes here for that health fair that you're putting together for us.

Mel Tillar 25:14
Listen, if you have a male in your family that you love, that you care about, you want to come out to this to this health fair. If you are a man, male, any age, 18 and above, we're talking about we're talking about adults here. You want to come out here. We're going to have professionals on hand to answer your questions. We're going to do a presentation. We're going to talk about some of the health challenges that men have, and then we're going to give you the opportunity to ask questions. This is going to be a safe space. We know that many times black men don't share their issues. We tend to want to take care of these things, all by ourselves.

Dave Washington 26:02
Right.

Mel Tillar 26:03
One of the things that that I tell people when I'm coaching them, when I'm mentoring them, is don't do it by yourself.

Dave Washington 26:11
That's right.

Mel Tillar 26:11
Don't do it by yourself.

Dave Washington 26:13
Yes.

Mel Tillar 26:13
So we're going to provide some answers for you. We're going to provide some resources for you. You're going to leave there with some names. You're going to leave there with some material. You're going to leave there knowing where to go, where to go on the internet. You're going to leave there knowing where to go, where the physical locations of some of these places are that can help you. You are going to want to be there in the place if you have issues or if you want to take care of your health. Remember, health is the greatest asset that you have. I don't care what you have, even if you have a lot of money. If you don't have good health, you don't have you don't have anything.

Dave Washington 26:55
That's right.

Mel Tillar 26:55
And remember this: there are people who depend on you. You have families. You have wives, you have children, you have family members, your parents, you have people who depend on you. If you are not healthy, you can't take care of them. If you are not healthy, you cannot help

Dave Washington 27:16
them. Yes, sir. If

Mel Tillar 27:16
your health is bad, they're going to turn around and have to help you, okay, learn this. Learn what's going on. Learn how to deal with the stress. Learn how to deal with the the mental issues that happen because we know that mental health is a big deal.

Dave Washington 27:34
Absolutely. And one

Mel Tillar 27:35
of the things I love about where we are in the in in in our country right now is that we can talk about mental issues. We can talk about mental health problems. That's

Dave Washington 27:47
right.

Mel Tillar 27:47
When you and I were growing up, oh no, suck it up, brother.

Dave Washington 27:51
That's right. We don't talk.

Mel Tillar 27:52
We don't talk. We don't talk about that.

Dave Washington 27:54
That's right. Hey,

Mel Tillar 27:55
Marines don't cry. That's

Dave Washington 27:56
right. Well, Las Vegas, we had brother male officer in the musical corps, the music corps, whatever they call it, man. But that's unusual, and I know of all the people I've known that's retired or or veterans. You're the first one that was in the musical or the the music corps, man. Thank you so much. And again, Las Vegas, give us that real quickly, Mel, about the the date and time and location.

Mel Tillar 28:23
Listen, we want to invite you, Las Vegas, to the second annual African American Men's Health Summit on october 24 from nine a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Doolittle Adult Center, sponsored by the City of Las Vegas Department of Parks and Recreations. This event is dedicated to supporting the health and well-being of African American men and their families. Thank

Dave Washington 28:53
you. This is Veterans Affairs Plus on 91.5. Jazz and Moore signing off. Thank you, Mel, for coming in. We appreciate the message. Thank you.

Music 29:31
All the smoke in the air, feel the hate when they stare. All the pain that we bear.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai