Ravaged Communities: Ja’Ron Smith and Chris Pilkerton on Globalization, Drugs, and the Erosion of Civil Society
American Thought Leaders
The Epoch Times
4.9 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2023
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
In the last few decades, a combination of drugs, crime, and violence have ravaged certain communities in America. At the same time, we’ve seen a shift of jobs overseas, an erosion of civil society, and an overall decline in economic mobility—with many now feeling the American Dream is just a pipe dream after all, according to Ja’Ron Smith and Chris Pilkerton.
They’re the co-authors of the new book, “Underserved: Harnessing the Principles of Lincoln's Vision for Reconstruction for Today's Forgotten Communities.”
During the Trump administration, Ja’Ron Smith served as deputy director of the Office of American Innovation, and Chris Pilkerton as acting head of the Small Business Administration.
How do we revitalize these forgotten communities? How do we reverse the economic damage caused by pandemic-era policies? And how do we unite the 2 sides of the aisle?
We discuss the matter in this episode of American Thought Leaders.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The circumstances as tragic as they've been to this point when you talk about destruction |
| 0:05.0 | of certain communities and small businesses that have closed and all of these things that |
| 0:09.7 | have happened, the reality is we have the ability to reverse that. |
| 0:14.5 | In this episode I sit down with John Smith, former deputy director of the Office of American |
| 0:19.2 | Innovation and Chris Pilkerton, former acting head of the Small Business Administration, |
| 0:24.4 | both under Trump. They are co-authors of underserved, harnessing the principles of |
| 0:29.5 | Lincoln's vision for reconstruction for today's forgotten communities. |
| 0:33.6 | We haven't really felt a gap on how do we bring those individuals into jobs in the 21st century |
| 0:40.0 | that'll pay a living wage and let them pursue the American dream. |
| 0:43.7 | This is American Thought Leaders and I'm Janie Kellek. |
| 0:48.5 | John Smith, Chris Pilkerton, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. |
| 0:52.4 | Thank you for having us. |
| 0:53.6 | Thanks for having us. |
| 0:55.1 | Well, welcome. And, John, it's great to have you back. I think the last time we interviewed, |
| 1:00.6 | you were actually heading up the Office of American Innovation and the Trump Administration, |
| 1:05.1 | some remarkable work done there. You guys have written a fascinating book. |
| 1:11.0 | You chart the vision that Lincoln had for reconstruction after the Civil War. |
| 1:16.9 | And you argue that this is something that ended up being rather incomplete. |
| 1:21.6 | So why don't we just jump in with that? |
| 1:23.5 | Sure. So, yes, it wasn't complete mostly because President Lincoln got assassinated. |
| 1:30.8 | And the person who took over who was this vice president who became president didn't actualize his |
| 1:38.1 | vision. He actually went in a different direction. Lincoln had a vision for bringing the country |
... |
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