(Ep.72) Who Is Rufus Thornton Pt.2

Chuck: 0:11

Welcome back to another episode of let's Just Talk About it podcast. I'm your host, chuck, and if you're here for the first time, this platform was created to give genuine people just like you an opportunity to share a portion of your life's journey. So, with that being said, I'm back with part two with my guest, rufus Thornton, where he shares his experience growing up in the county of Colquick, georgia, and he also talks about his experience with the military prison and also what he's up to now as a CDL instructor. So you don't want to miss the rest of this amazing conversation, and if you missed part one, please go back and check it out. You'll be inspired. So, without further delay, go and grab your husband, your wife, your children, or even call a friend and listen into my conversation with Rufus on let's Just Talk About it podcast. Hey, let's jump right in.

Rufus Thornton: 1:01

So, there's one soldier that was in the military. She got with some of the strippers the strippers are civilians but we're military and we have your analysis. Well, she did cocaine with him. I didn't know anything about it. She came up high and they took her rank, and she went through the process. But I also used to coach basketball. So, the news came to me that, hey, man, you heard about this particular sergeant. She got lost to a rank. I'm like what they said? Yeah, they said you teach your kid. And I'm like, hey, she did some parties for me. I'm like, man, what happened to her? They said she came up high on the p-tests. Oh, man, she got no better than that. So, when it happened to her, I went to us and, man, I know they took your money. So, they do what they call a UCMJ punishment. They take half of your check for a whole month for up to probably three or four months she lived off post service. It was hard for her financially. I didn't have a lot of money because even though I had strippers and I was doing my business, I don't take from people like, is the strippers made Nah, now you know that it looks like I'm making money because they say, man, that's D2 my name is on the van when we go and it's a D2 transportation function, but I isn't really got the money that it looks like I got. So, with her I can only do what I can do with what I've known to do. So, when she said so, Mr. Thornton, can you help me? And I was like man, I can do you along, whatever I said, but just call me if you need something. So about a week later, that same soldier that lost the rain, she said Mr Thorne. She said I tell you what she said. I was talking to your girls. They said you got some homeboys that's dying there, georgia. That got that work. And I said yeah. I said, but I really don't do that. I said you don't need to do that. I said you got your kids and, like I said, I grew up I'm really not the street guy because I grew up there for me but I'm connected to it all. So I told her. I said I said, yeah, I probably can't ask him to come up here and bring you some. I said what good they're going to do? She said well, I got some partners that are sale. She said so I can make some money and I ain't got to get a loan for you. Well, now I'm looking at like, oh yeah, I ain't got no money in the way for real and I don't want to get your loan, so I just have my partner coming, you make your own money. So I call my partner and ask her what she want. And he brought it up there. Well, the day he brought it up there she wasn't around and I told him just to leave it. Well, he had to go back. So he left it with me. So she called me later on that day and I was like where were you Now? That day? I didn't know it, but she was trying to set up something with the police to help me knock off. So her plea with the military was they asked her where she got it from and she said I got it from a D12 entertainment function. But nobody knew nothing about it. Then when they were going to set me up with it, that day she was telling the police well, he's coming because I call out the blue and say my cousin gonna be here out of the blue. And she called and see the police, but by the time they set it up my cousin was gone. I said he gone. So she was like oh, I'm sorry, mr Thorn, I was like, but some other day I said I can get it to you, just let me know when she said okay, the very next day she called me over there. She was like Mr Thorn, I'm at the house. I said why didn't you come to work today? She said we got some special going on. She said but I got my people over here to purchase that from you, if you got us to do. You know these people. And you're like, yeah, now I'm not a dope guy, you know what I'm saying. Like I told you, I'm lame when it comes to street. So I'm like, all right then I'm thinking, you know, with a good heart, I'm like I'm trying to help somebody that are taking on money. She a single parent, you know me, I can relate to all that. So, anyway, now I got a promising military career because my sergeants love me, everybody love me. I got a good heart, I'm getting promoted now Everything. So, so, anyway, I asked my soldier. I said listen. I said man, can I use your car doing lunch? I got to go see the son. She was like, yeah. So now the sergeants, the people that are in charge, like myself, we park at a certain particular part of the building. But our privates and soldiers, the Lord echelon of the company and the army, they park on the other side of the building. So the police waiting on me to come to the back side with a superior's park at, they don't see me ever come out. I go out the front end so I get in my soldier's car to take it over there and I take it over there. And as I'm going in her apartment I drop it in a fly part right outside the door and I knock on the door and I go in. So when I go in it's these two white guys in there and in the street. God be like man. They look like the police. I'm lame and stupid, you know. In hindsight I say that, but when I was there I ain't scared because I've been around it, I'm more so, like man, I don't want to be around this, and not because it breaks the law, because my mama didn't raise me like right, right when. I told you I grew up with. I tell the police y'all, take me with y'all, just don't take me to my mama house so so what's got me feeling bad about the drug transaction? Like man my mama would be. Like man, the God ain't gonna be able to bless you doing all that. So I'm thinking this with drugs in a bag and I'm like man, let's get this over with, whatever the case may be. So they said, man, what you got? I said, oh, I leave out the house, go in the power pot, bring it back in, got you? Yeah, I show it to them. They sell it. So I go back to the dorm and that very next day a soldier called me and said Mr Dorn, I don't know what you done? Did they say they finna, come bus you man. My whole life flashed before. I was like what you mean? I said I didn't. I said gotta be the girls. I'm thinking they don't like stripping a sermon. I'm like man. It gotta be that. So I get a call from the girl that's selling drugs. Now I still don't know what's going on. I'm thinking you know what I'm saying. She can make her money. She gonna give me back what goes in my partner and that's it. She's like Mr Thorne, you got some more. I said. And one day I said what you doing? I said no, I said ain't nothing here. And she was like well, when you get up here, can you call me? And I'm like, yeah, man, I try to do it. I said, well, I told my partner, man, she get rid of it like that. So my partner down in Georgia, who I left my truck with, he thinking like, hey, this is a come up and I'm sharing this with you for a reason. He's probably gonna serve his purpose. So when he comes back up, bro, he saw I'd be back up there that Friday. So I get a call at Wednesday from that same police officer. He said listen, mr Thorne, I love you and I respect you. Well, somebody in your company came up hot on the P-tests. They said you went to her house and sold some drugs and she's working with us. And they said you about to sell some Friday and that's where they're gonna bust you and bring you in.

Chuck: 6:42

So they warning you.

Rufus Thornton: 6:43

Yeah, they used to go to my stripper services they got you. So they know me, I'm popular, so you know what I'm saying. They call me and they know I'm not really that type of guy, so they let me know, like yeah, that's what's supposed to happen. And they was saying we coming actually. So when it came down to it, bro, they called me on Friday. I said, man, I ain't gonna be able to come. I said I don't know what you're talking about. I said you know, I'm scared, I'm denying it with no honor. So that Monday came, she had called me the whole weekend. I was coming back from breakfast and I lived on post. Several cops were sitting in front of my door. They went in my room, they searched my room, went in my room, they had the news station coming up, their first Army lockdown on post four. Now they had the news come out there simply because they had made it a big thing, cause, at my events, you're not supposed to have superiors and subordinates. It's called fraternization in the military.

Chuck: 7:36

Got you.

Rufus Thornton: 7:36

So when they couldn't find no drugs, they started asking me for the videotapes, cause we used to use advertising the videotapes. But I got the videotapes out of there Cause originally that's what I thought they was coming at me for. So I didn't. So they was trying to make me give me pleas and they arrested a lot of officers that people were telling on and saying, hey, he was at a B12 function and they was in there with privates and they were drinking and it was all this stuff, and there was young girls but they needed proof, since they didn't have any drugs on me. They said, hey, we'll make you a deal and we'll just let you go If you give us those tapes that we hear, because it's a serious charge, because those are superiors, those are like captains, commanders, and so me being just a regular sergeant and you ain't got no drugs this is my new to the case that they can put on these people if they had the video. Well, I didn't do it. They put me in a room, froze me to death asking questions, brought in my baby mama that was pregnant, having my last daughter all this year, bro, and I didn't do it. Well, I ended up getting the back under discharge. I was in the military and I lost my rank and everything else. And you know, being a country boy, I never worked on an assembly line here. I am probably around early 30s, early to mid 30s. And.

Chuck: 8:41

I'll say I got it in the military background.

Rufus Thornton: 8:43

Now I can't use it because of my last discharge. You know, you get a DD 214 and it started like a I guess, sort of like a slip that showed you worked at this job. But it's a little resume thing that they print out for us. On it You've been in the military, what you did in the military and everything else. Well, mine had a back under discharge. That's what they agreed to give me. You can't use that to get your benefits or nothing like this. Well, those people that I didn't tell on, the ones that I didn't write on, these people had families. They've been in the military like 20 something years and I didn't fold on them, bro, I they sent me to a different post because all the attention it was drawing. They sent me to Charleston military naval brigade or somewhere over in Charleston. It's about a four hour drive from Fort Gordon in Augusta. So when they did that these same people, man, when I got out I couldn't even get a job. I couldn't get a poster job. They'd have an experience. You know I could have went to McDonald's and stuff like that. But when you've been living, a certain lifestyle in the military, you feel like, man, you don't wanna do that, you will, but you don't want to. So my life started going back to that feeling of I'm a nobody. You know what I'm saying Because my situations and circumstances behind. Well, the same men that I didn't fold on there reach out to me and be like hey, we're gonna create you a DD214. So you can show them the piece of paper they created for me. It just changed that one block unto bad condition, bad conduct, and said honorable. Then they taught me to say in six months this is gonna change anyway, but they're not gonna give it to you. You gotta actually apply for it, but I ain't know that. They said but we ain't gonna have you wait six months, man. They did everything they can and I got a job at the postal office down in Tampa, florida. Wow. And I got several military soldiers there, man. They used to tell me, like man, once you get a bad conduct discharge, man, you might have a going to get your restaurant job because you ain't gonna be able to do nothing. They gonna find a point in you because you've been in the military and it makes it a little extra bad. But if you connected to certain people in the system you can do. It's a type of favor for certain people that they get leniency even after they've been sentenced to bad conduct discharge. And you got some people like that are thinking they got a bad conduct discharge and they can't even get a job because of who they was connected to Got you. I saved some people by keeping my mouth closed. That were heavy hitters and the military commanders and everything they looked down for you. They looked down for me. Right. So when I got out of the military I got them postal jobs. Now it's gonna start moving fans 2000,. I started working in postal. Okay 2001,. My cousin like hey, man, they got these truck driving jobs. Go to the school and you can make X amount of dollars. So I got into transportation. Wow. So when I got into transportation in 2001, my brother, I was working for Warner and with Warner doing the logistics. I'm like wow, I'm like so how much is this truck really making? Those are questions that most people don't ask a company like that.

Chuck: 11:18

But I wanna know Okay.

Rufus Thornton: 11:19

So they'll have loads of where they were. With brokers I say a broker, what do you do for transportation? I'll ask these questions Now. I work logistics. I was supplying the military. So supply means you buy and sell, you ship and they're receiving. So that's what trucking is. But I work the logistics of it, so I understand the logistics of it. And then you know, I've been hanging out with some people that have an education and people been giving me gems. So eventually, nine months after driving, I went and said I'm gonna buy my own truck.

Chuck: 11:44

Got you.

Rufus Thornton: 11:45

So I went and bought my own truck nine months in the transportation in 2002, I think. So when I started doing that, I started making money, but I ain't understand the business part, because nobody wanted to share with me but I understood the logistics. So I ended up moving back home to Georgia and they will have freight and nobody wanted to share with me what I can do because they was telling me all you knew you gotta get your feet wet, you gotta take these loads for pennies before you go to making the money, and I'm like I ain't gotta take no load for pennies. I was like nah that ain't what that broker told me I was like. And when you tell him like I know a broker, they'll be like you don't know, no broker. Them folks don't even talk to us, they talk to the company. And then the company let dispatch and starts to. I'm like y'all really think that I got a broker number on my line. But I'm like, okay, so I called a broker. I was like they doing loads over here in Georgia for like $2 a mile and they think that's normal and they're like, no, that's what they tell you. He's I'm explaining to you $2 a mile. We gonna tell them. Yeah, we gonna tell them that it's $2 a mile, he said, but tell me what load it is. So I went back to my partner and I said hey, man. I said who y'all pooling for? Oh, we pool nursery flowers and plants out of K-roll and Mary on the floor and I'm like y'all take them to Atlanta. I said how much they paying y'all and they'll be like, oh, shoot, we get $700 for going up there. And I was like, yeah. So I was like who y'all pool on there? What's the nursery? And they gave it to the nurse, they gave it to the broker. So he called him. He said those loads actually paying $12 and $1300 based on how much you care. He said now, what you do. He said what you do. He said those guys are actually leased on to somebody. I ain't know what leased on, but a broker told me this. So when he gave me all the gems, he said but you don't do that, he said, because they don't want the responsibility. He said, rufus, you work logistic, he said so I'm gonna send you the proper process. You go to get your own insurance, you get your own company and do your own thing and you can go directly to that company that they go to and give them your insurance and you can run it. So he told me, the later they were running on them didn't even have a CDL, she just was connected to that company and they were still paying their own insurance and they were running for self-underdoubt. But that was a lot of money for somebody who just been working jobs, you know what I'm saying. And you can run two of them loads, get one and come back a day and you make close to $1500 a day. That's a lot of money to them. But here's the thing when you're going one way and it's paying forever $1300, it's a different story. So, me being who I am, the same brothers. That wouldn't give me advice. I go to them like hey, man, they cheating y'all. I say them loads actually paying such and such and such. Now these are the same guys. When I was new was telling them all you knew first you gotta get your feet wet and then you gotta do this. But me being who I am, I was raised in an environment where the community took care of the community. So when I share the information with them, I tell them how to build their own duty MCs, cause they never done logistics before they never. I tell them how to build their own companies. Some of them had EIN numbers cause they had farm businesses, but I told them how to change over the EIN number to make it more transportation and farming. Yada, yada, yada gave them that, so they start running together. So when I start running, not knowing operational costs, how to actually run a business cause I didn't take no business course, I don't know about location or question, so I'm kind of winging this thing, but I'm making more money than I was making, so eventually I start getting behind and, with these nine kids, try to support starting QQ. So now they asked me for child support based on how much I pay. So I started paying child support and child support got a little strange with, so I got hurt. I couldn't really drive the truck no more, so they didn't change my child support. So they asking for $5,000 a month. And here I am. I hadn't worked in probably four months because my knees all busted. I had a torn meniscus and they don't adjust it, so it went on for like a year. So at that time I started getting letters like, hey, you got to pay such a such or such a such an arrears. I'm going to take your license and send you to jail. Yall, yall. That's what Georgia was telling me. Oh no, I ain't never been to jail. Jeez, that ain't gonna happen. What I do. I reached out to some of my partners DC, new York, california I said man, I need the boss money. They're like man. It's funny how a lot of guys that you think got money because they affiliated with certain things Like when I was doing the stripping, everybody thought I had money cause the name was on the side of the truck and some dope boys. You would think these dope boys actually got money, but they check the check or whatever they want to call it too. But so the same thing I did to the lady in the military that tried to have me set up. Remember, I told her she wanted to borrow money from me. She thought I had money. I was like, really I didn't want to give her no money. So she made the option of how can I get some money? You got some cause I was like, yeah, sure, I'll put you on the dope boy. So the same thing happened to me. So when I asked my partners man, I got to come up with $24,000,. Man, these folks only go to court like in probably about two weeks or something like that. Right. So they were like man, you can come up here and get the fact, man, I get a little extra. Man, you bring it back down to my partner down in Florida. And I was like hell, yeah. So I'm used to traveling, cause every time I got on leave I go to Saqqalan see my kids. I go to. You know I'm used to traveling. So I was like, shoot, I get paid to travel. So I started doing that. I paid up my child support. When I paid it up, I was still hurt. So I started going to school. I used my GI bill from the military and I was like, okay, I can go to school, I can use my GI bill and they start paying me a little something to keep the lights on. And I was going to school to major in education and probably coach basketball. Right. Well, the first year I did pretty good. I became teacher of well, one of the great teachers. They said I was teacher of the year but it really wasn't like that. So I become to learn about children, like I said, being molested as a reason why I wanted to stay connected and to being around people that can be manipulated, or had a certain compassion for people that was less fortunate. So I started teaching in the early childhood education. I got a social and early childhood education. I went to Albany Technical College and when I went there after the first year during the summer at that level you got teachers that don't have jobs for the three months that we're out. Well, I had a truck at that time I can use. So I said, hey, I don't have to teach. I said, let's somebody that actually gonna need the money for the summer teach. So I took off that summer. I said, man, I'm gonna take a vacation, I'm not even gonna work. When I went back after that, child support was still $5,000. I didn't know that, wow. So they said again. They said, listen, you owe us. I think that time it was like 18 or 17,000. And I was like, how's that? I just paid y'all. I said y'all told me I'm gonna have an adjustment, right? So it was interest. And they said, in order to change it, the baby momma's was gonna have to sign a deal saying you no longer getting 5,000 or 1,000 or 700 for each baby momma, whatever it was. And they had to agree to it. I said no woman is gonna agree to take less. I don't care what I said, I'm not with these women. I said y'all actually gonna hold it a whole year. They said well, it's a process. So after they don't respond in like a three to six months, then we'll file and then we'll reduce it. I said man, you realize how much I'm gonna have to pay while y'all waiting on each baby momma from three, four different states to do it. So I called my partners back up, my partner in Texas. And, man, you know this all you, my boy, you know I'm always looking out for you. Man, I can get to it. I ain't got it, but I can get this work. And I was like all right, I'm coming. I got pop in 06 November or 06. Now, before I got pop, I'm going to college, so I'm back going through things and my nephew, he didn't pass his graduation test. So my partners that are in my hometown, calkwood, they was like man, your nephew, down here, bro, he dealing with these cats, and you know man, he looking kind of bad, he messing with them drugs, and he had a talent for rapping. I was in for him. He can dance, he can rap. And they said man, he, he's just like his uncle and he always wanted to be popular and he deserved to be. But at the same time, when it got back to me, I was like man, what are you doing? I said I'll tell you what I said. So what you want to do, he said I said get your GED and I'm going to help you get your recording studio. So he was like all right deal. So he was going out to the Albany Technical College with me and I said, man, I want to show you some different things in life, because when I seen different things in life, that's when I started to respect life more. So now I'm trying to pass on the little knowledge I share with you so far for my nephew so he can know that he's worthy, so he can identify with himself and be proud of itself and do things the right way. Yada, yada, yada. Cause you come up under the same community that I did. So I take him out to Texas. My intent was to take him out to Texas and let him see skate ring, let him see some people that we knew. We got an older brother out there. Let him go out with them and he loved it. While he was doing that, I was getting to work together and when he was on our way back, we get pulled over in Baldwin County, alabama. Baldwin County, one of the worst counties in Alabama on it, and it's on the other side of Mobile. Yeah, so when you're going, when you're here to East, so when you leave Mobile, cross over that waterway, baldwin County is the county union. That's where Julio Jones from that county Well, anyway.

Chuck: 20:20

And they pulled you.

Rufus Thornton: 20:21

They pulled me over. What happened was I stopped to get gas, you know when. I've been trafficking there for a while and I come there right on.

Chuck: 20:27

I-10.

Rufus Thornton: 20:27

So I stopped at exit 44 right after the bridge, after you cross over the bridge and get into Baldwin County. There's some love there. So when he's getting back on, it was November, a holiday. So the police have. You know they have traps out there as you're getting back on the interstate, the police right down the side. So the cars in front of me just stopped. Well, I changed lanes to miss them, but I ain't using my blinker. So he came behind us and pulled both of us over. Now my nephew at the time really don't know what's going on Got you. So when they pull us over now, in my back seat I always keep my laptop, my teaching materials and in my wallet I got my military ID. So when he pulled me over he didn't suspect anything. He saw the stuff in the back. You know they go to talk and like where were you stationed? I saw I was stationed here and he me too and we were having this O'Heal Billy conversation. I think he wanted my nephew ID and my nephew had to look on his face and say he's a man, he look kind of nervous, everything all right, and I'm like, yeah he. So he asked him for his ID and when they ran the IDs they didn't have nothing on me, cause I never really been in trouble, but my nephew had gotten in trouble. He was on probation at the time. So suspicion. And when they say it was looking some type of way and I was like it was like kind of searched the car. Now I know that my partners say hey, we wrapped the good, they can't smell it. And I'll be like, all right, I don't know, I'm still a lame to the game and that boy You'd say they ain't gonna smell nothing cool. So we had my sister truck. They took everything. They looked inside, they took everything out the back. By that time the dogs that came up and they had me, they had him, my nephew, sitting on the outside, had me sitting back in the police car cause they think I'm one of them. So they made they let me sit out in the heat, but they got my young nephew sitting out there cause they figured he on probation. He's not you know one of them. So basically I had peep game, but I'm looking at him and I'm nervous. So when they did it, they were putting the stuff back in. He came back he said man, we didn't find anything, so we're just gonna have you with a warning. You know what I'm saying From changing the lanes. So as they put it back in, they throw it. This other cop throwing it back in and it pressed down in the back of those one of them explorers got the hatchback, it pressed down on the floorboard and it hit the weed that was on top of the empty tire and when he hit it, I think it flushed that package and you can see the dog start barking around the back of the truck. One of them was throwing it in. So they unloaded everything again, looked up and they finally found the seven pounds of weed. And when they took it in I told them I said listen man. I said y'all, let my nephew let's figure out. I said everything in mine. So they got the phone from my nephew and got the phone from me. They went through it. Well, there was pictures of weed in the phones and so I told them both phones were mine. Yeah. So when they said we know you're trying to, we know you probably ain't never been in trouble. You've never been in trouble. We don't have any record of you. Yada, yada, yada, but you never been in trouble. If you're gonna probation, most likely it's you. You can't save. So I get offended by that. And I said man, this is weed. I said whatever it is, you know what I'm saying. I said we're gonna be out by tomorrow Cause I don't know where I'm at. But I know, you know, I'll have a little knot in the weed. Ain't no serious drug, that's what I'm thinking most places. So they said you don't know where you at and I said I don't know where I'm at. By the morning I'm gonna be here at home. So they put us in hold of them when they're going. They said all right, then we're about to take them in. I was like, hey, what's the bail, man, can I make a phone call? I said what's the bail? To sell a million dollars. I said what I said you got the wrong case. They said no, anything past 2.2 pounds of any drug in Baldwin County is trafficking. I said what they say anything past 2.2 pounds of any drugs and you got caught with seven pounds of weed. I said dang. So I sat back and I said so my nephew got to be with me and they said yeah, and so one of you admit that we had the process. I said I started crying. I said nephew, I just want you to go and finish up, yo. I said I'm finna ride this out. But, I can't have you stay here because I'm responsible for you. I don't want to keep you waiting. So I admitted to the charge. They still kept him for like two weeks. They took us to a federal holding facility. So I went to a high level portion of Baldwin County Correctional Facility where they had federal inmates for murder, child molestation, sodomy, everything when we actually in jail we ain't got shipped to prison. And so they got my nephew in E block and I'm in D block, something like that. And when I first go in there this is my first time, bro, I haven't been locked up before, but I ain't never been convicted or anything. And I ain't never been in a high max facility like that. So when I go in there I'm worried about my nephew's not even paying attention to where I'm in an actual serious place with some heavy hits. Waiting to be sentenced or waiting to go up the road. I said why have you got my nephew locked up? I said everything is on me. So usually where I'm from, they let you go. If you admit it to it, you know, say OK, it's yours, we're going to let you go, it's his. But it don't work like that. They going to make their money, they going to process it. So they kept us for three weeks until we went to court and I stood up in court and said everything is mine. When I was in jail, you know, the first time being locked up, fred are holding for seven. So when I was there, you know I'm looking for my mom to come say you know, from Georgia, my mom has been like religious all of her life. I'm looking for my mom to literally come say, hey, white folks got my son locked up and done, treated him unfairly and yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada man. So when they finally come from Georgia to Alabama, they say mom, I want to see you. I said, good man, I'm a love. I see my mom the first time in a man. I see her like I've been paroled and don't even know where parole is. Yada, yada, yada. Go up and see my mom. My mom got to look through a gas because it got me in the high max because trafficking and I'm like, for some part of the reason I'm in here, I'm for traffic. So I see my mom on the other side. We don't know how to talk, we talk through the window. They say man, pick up the phone. So pick up the phone, she's a baby. She's how you doing. I said I'm doing all right, mom. She said God don't touch you. I said ma'am. She said I'm so glad. I said ma'am. She said I don't have to worry about you. She said you just don't know. I said ma'am, they trying to keep me in. I said they trying to do some bad things to me. She said they can't do nothing. Baby, the girl ain't gonna allow me to. She's a ruffer. You got to line up and I was like what she said? You got to line up. She said all the thing you got to do is line up and you're going to be OK, she said but I'm so glad. You said no. She said I'm going to sleep good tonight. And so I was like man, I know this woman love me. My mom only been married one time, and that's to my dad. My dad only have one kid, and that's me, even though I got six, five siblings biological siblings from my mom, but I'm the only one from my dad. So when she told me that I went back boy, my head was down and I'm in prison, bro, and I don't know anybody Not from Alabama.

Chuck: 26:45

You hadn't got a sentence yet, right? All these people.

Rufus Thornton: 26:47

No, I ain't got a sentence, they just. They just got me charged with it. And they just sent my nephew home, gave him probation and all this. But right now I'm in a facility and my mom tell me grab the word, know the word and lean on the word. So you know, they give you out Bibles in there. So I go to read and I don't. I don't. My mom took me through the Bible 30 times. I'm the one out of all my siblings. When mama go to read the Bible, I sit there and be like mama, what's that? But why is it a wine Jesus had? I like to do that, but I run to him on myself, you being funny. But he did this and so I had heard the stories, even though I made fun of them. So when I go through the Bible I'm familiar with it. Well, I done been in this part now for about two months and when I was in there I'm standing away from everybody because I'm scared, bro, like my nephew was in a room before he left with a guy who cut a guy, a gay guy, who cut a guy bottom out and poured gas inside him instead of the fire, so they couldn't do a semen testing to find out who he was. I'm with some real, real guys in here and I'm like man. So when it first started, man guys used to take my food, like when the trade come there. Now we never met. I'm about six foot and I'm probably at that time probably about 170, 165, 170, I imagine. So I'm in this place, but people that ask me where I'm from, they like man, where you from, and I say I'm from Georgia. They said ATL and I told them I'm from a country town. They said, oh, this is my boy. He from ATL. But I'm so scared, even though they say I'm their boy and associate, I didn't change their mind. I ain't gonna lie. I was like, yeah, atl, you know, I know I couldn't tell you much about ATL, just been somebody from Atlanta. He probably caught me lying. Right but. I'm so scared and they're like man, this is my boy. Man, we used to go to Peachtree and these some real guys that used to do things in it, I said, yeah, man, I used to, yeah, I used to go up in there, you know. So now I'm becoming that fake dude in prison that can't say off and call with George. You know what I'm saying. I'm a country boy, so I'm living this prison identity based off what I think going to get me back. You know what I'm saying. So when I'm in there, they start realizing that you know all. Atlanta cash. I know y'all was all kind of different. Y'all lame my partners from Atlanta ain't like that. Like some of my story ain't matching up with the street.

Chuck: 28:56

Right Right Stories that they know from streets cash from.

Rufus Thornton: 28:58

Atlanta. You know, they talking about some real stories on Bankhead and you know, and all this, and I'm like no something man. You remember I said no man, I don't know what they're called me and now everything is starting to match up, but my paperwork says traffic and drugs marijuana. Right. So that solidified me as not being a snitch. So some people like OK, he ain't no snitch, he might not be from. Atlanta, but he ain't no snitch, so God started being mean to me. The bro. They'll take my food Like you. Wait for together there chicken. They write. Right. So he put it through a little hole Soon, as I turn around, kept sitting in front of me and grab it out my plate and keep on walking. So the only thing that'll leave my plate sometime is like spinach, some green veggies and hard bread. You know high max stuff like that. So that went on and I ain't sitting there and by it. You know what I'm saying Scared. Yeah, you know what I'm saying Like like, I'm like man. I don't think I'm worried about something. I try to rape me. You know, like, becoming up high came up. I know I'm a fight for that because I'm going to take that serious Right. But, I'm like shoot taking my food online. I can get by with that, you know I ain't this bread and green, the spinach and I'm good. So I started reading my Bible and I started seeing guys forming up down there. It was two days and an open bay of about probably about 60 people, so I started seeing guys form up in the group down there. My mom you know I call my mom on the phone, calling every day just wham my mom phone out Because you know I ain't never been in that situation and this is $15 a minute. Yeah. So when I was home, when they need help with the bills, they've been like call Rufus. And now here I am raising the bills and ain't no roof is there. So I'm creating a problem for my mom, and my mom cause a baby in jail. She don't want to say no. So she allowed the happiness, creating stress for my rest of my family. But I ain't can. I'm in prison. You know I need to talk to somebody cause I'm scared, whatever the case may be. So finally my mom said they ain't got no church group down baby Cause these bills in our hand. I'm like, yes, ma'am, they be dying. I said, but them guys baggots and such and such, and that group they skin not not looking at myself like she was for you, scared Right now you probably. just there's more sisters than one of the sisters in there, so but I'm judging them Right, are they? Trying to do something in jail Right. Well, I'm looking at them, cause the rest of the part around them is like look at them, they want to call on Jesus, not you want to call on Jesus in that street. And when they trying to pray, they gotta turn up the TV. Yeah, they disrespect us, so I only want to be affiliated with that group. I said y'all drawing too much negative attention from me. I ain't finna go praise the Lord and have to fight. You know saying big bubble over there Now if I got to choose. I'm finna deny Jesus right now. Jesus, you guys just feel me, cause I ain't bought that life. right now I do it in private, like my mama said, I pick a Bible verse that will solidify me, being a pump and scared to openly confess that I'm a Christian and serve that like I didn't want to confess where I was from and the things that I told you that made me more successful in the military. I deny everything that identified me to try to fit in cause.

Chuck: 31:49

I was scared, got you.

Rufus Thornton: 31:50

Get my food taken. So I'm up in my room, bro, the biggest transition in my life. I'm up in my room upstairs and this youngster come by. He said don't they call you a GA? And I said, yeah, man. He said, all right, ATL. He said man, ain't this a story in the Bible, man, about this dude? He was also somebody that killed somebody. This is the first question, bro. I never forget it. He said didn't he kill somebody? But God used him to talk to the King and let the people go. I said yeah. I said that's Moses, bro, and like I know the Bible back and forth, you know my mom. That's all she did. And ironically, my mom used to say you're running from the pool pit. So many people say, rufus, you running from the pool pit. Like you're going to be a preacher. You're supposed to be a preacher, but I'm like man, I just love the strip club. You didn't talk about this. I still got peaches in my drawers, you know, you ain't talking about me. I'm not going to be a preacher. I ain't finna be a hypocrite. So when he asked me that, I said man you talking about Moses? And I explained that I broke it down. He said yeah. So he said man, thank you, oh Jesus, where'd that at? And I showed it to him in the Bible. He ran upstairs. I can hear him upstairs telling him man, moses, that was his name. Man, like this will happen. Let's read it. Some of them got out and can read and they were like he said how you know that? So they made it seem like he knew it. Like I got it from GA up. That magic Amen, preacher man. So they start calling me preacher man and they'll come up and ask me questions. But I wouldn't go down there and join. So one day I was going to get my plate the same youngsters that was asking me for Bible words and explain I'm getting my plate. They saw this dude grab my chicken. That's a hey. Hey, that's a. Put that man, chicken back, wow. And I was like no, don't worry about it, I'm scared, right. I'm like no, don't worry about it, man. I said no, it's a no man not here. They say, man, you don't put the chicken back, you got to take what's coming with it. Wow. And these are church youngsters. Yeah. And these are the one I denied. These are the one. I didn't want to be around because they sang, they looked that way. This, this is my thoughts I got. If I can't be real on your podcast, then I can't be here.

Chuck: 33:38

Talk about it.

Rufus Thornton: 33:39

These are the ones that I judged. These are the ones that I told my mama they trouble makers. I'm in the same place, same situation. They in my brother. Yeah, these are the ones I will share. The blessings that Stacey Silver gave me, or or or my sergeants gave me, or my experiences that I'm sharing with you today. I ain't want to share none of that because the prison life said no. You're going to stay stuck in this situation, this mindset that these folks that I'm put us in. You ain't going to shed this with these youngsters that you were and somebody pulled you to the side when you was being caught up in the lifestyle, and you're not going to do that for somebody else. Wow. But these same people spoke and said y'all mess with, y'all mess with, yeah. They put it back and went to laugh and like man, we just messing with. Man, we ain't about to mess with it. Man, I took that chicken. It tastes so good. Man, I ain't a chicken that sold on the room Eight. Hey, man, yeah, yeah, right, yeah. So the youngsters came up and this OG. They said man, it's an OG Ween calling, you know pumping them. They said, but you can't let them do that. I said, man, they ain't hit me so I'm like they ain't hit me. I said, bro, they hit me and I can squabble a little bit. You know what I'm saying. I can, but I, but I'm man, I'm scared, I ain't no lot Right. So they were like well, I'll tell you what OG, somebody messing with you. Man, just tell us that you ain't got to worry about, you ain't got to fight. Man, we thank you for what you're doing, og, because you know I can't read. And I was like man, I said when you work, that, when you was out there, so they trying to get to know me, that's me what I did. And I saw I started telling them. I said I've been to Europe. I said Europe, it's ain't that over there. You know they're saying Korea. I said no, I said Europe. I said when you go to Korea, you probably got to fly California. I'm telling them. They like how you know all this and they make it seem like I'm amazing and I'm like what? Now, some of these cats, bro, all my books is probably about $60. All of my brother done sent on these cats book they got like six grand because these are hustlers, you know they got money on their books but they saying man, you amazing, oh, you like preacher, man Like, okay, tell us some share. Now I'm sharing my experiences and the respect and the peace that I was looking for. In prison, I started to get the protection that I wanted as far as just accepted me, and I'm one of the team players. I remember when I went to the military and I went to basic training, how different people from different places and how you need to respect them and the benefits of it and I'm like man. So everything on them been through having me in some of the worst times of my life and the only thing I can do is be me and they're going to respect it when I don't even know my own identity, the yucks that show me how important I was. You know what I'm saying, but me just being. You know I'm saying, but me just do right. And for me, just showing them a piece of who I am. See, I wouldn't be in myself, but I showed them a piece of who I am. Bro, I'm not a preacher and I'm not a traditional Christian, but when they say the faith of a muster seed, my actions of doing a little thing gave me protection in the shade that a big pine tree would give from them youngsters. Right. Just by them, just me, sharing story of Moses. And they were asking me something. When I did want to be a part of them, I played the hypocrite, even though I needed them. I shun myself away from them. So then it went from that to I stood up and I said man, I'm going to go down there with y'all. My mama said that's what you supposed to be. Wow, I said what you mean, mama? She said that when they sent a shoe, they told me they told you never be able to teach again, you won't be able to have your semi truck business and you won't have your CDL. So she gave me some Bible verses and said whatever God has for you is for you. If they close the door, god can open it. If they open the door, god can close it. She said you said that you was in trouble. When I met you and I told you I'm glad you're there, she said you have to sit still and not move forward sometime. I didn't understand the thing she said, but everything comes with process. So I said that I got to go down and this thing you know. They said, hey, teach us the things that my mama said that God wanted me to do. They said, hey, oh gee, I'm going to make it out of this, these folks trying to give me life. But I didn't do it. Oh, such a search and do my own experiences being with these guys. I started learning things about myself by sharing things that others had given me. And my mama says to see, and I remember I told you I use to get my wife it's like plain to see, you need the things that go through the process and my wife thought it was appealing when I gave it to my wife. Now I'm starting to see how the same Mac game I use the hustle I use to manipulate my wife and to marry me. I use that same hustle to promote righteous growth in my young brothers and sisters. So the gift is still the gift, but it's how you use it. If I take a gun and I can defend, I can take a gun and I can assault. It's still the same gun. So the same tools. I'm starting to see my brother like man. The world can encourage us to not even see our own true identity, not recognize and identify with who we are, and it limits us so to being ourselves and knowing more about ourselves, who we are, where we come from you have significance over our success. So anyway, they sentenced me to 30 years. And, oh wait, when I got sentenced, bro, in that room it's by George Wilters out of Baldwin County. I don't mind calling his name because he said he was going to give out a million years before he retired. Oh, let me see that. Yeah. Yeah, I ain't know that I'm out for a time, but at the same time. When they sentenced me in 08, he said I'm going to get your credit for two years, but he put it on the back end. So I'm like I ain't nobody front and the back end, until the youngster was telling me man to put on the back end Because if he was a different color they'll put on the front end and get you a big parol there and get out soon. And I'm like, oh, that's how that worked. They're like, yeah, so me going to prison, bro, and by that time my name was preacher and by that time. I was from a small town in Cork with George, I was me, yeah, so they said man, you go in the right they go. So you go in the process in them. Man, you got to be quiet and I was like this when I told you my girl in basics stays silver, she was like, hey, you wild but you confident. So when I went to the cub I said, man, I'm going to be myself.

Chuck: 39:05

but I'm going to be confident and respectful.

Rufus Thornton: 39:07

So when I went in the cub, I went in there. Man, it's a man, what are you from? I'm from Georgia. Yeah, peanuts and pecans, baby Cork with Georgia. They laugh. It was a whole different attitude. You get what I'm saying. So, now I got my swag back. Now people respect me. I'm preacher man, but I'm from a small town. I'm that mom. You said hey you know everything my mom been telling me. You've been running from doing what God wants you doing, baby, the same thing you thought you need he going to give it to you. It just wasn't the way I thought. It wasn't through DC, it wasn't through Germany, it wasn't through New York, it wasn't because of my situations, of my conditions, it was through process. So now when I go through prison I get out in seven years no violent offense and when I get out, my paperwork in Alabama said no more CDL, not able to operate my authority, or anything like that. So when I get out I get into a halfway house in Alabama. People from the church there used to come to this halfway house in Alabama. They used to fellowship with a lot of the inmates.

Chuck: 40:06

Got you.

Rufus Thornton: 40:07

Well, they asked me to share my story and I share my stories and people. They were like your story is amazing, same thing I'm sharing with you. And they said you got sentenced to 30 years and they was like no, we're going to fight your case for you. I was like ma'am, they said yeah, when they started fighting my case for me, they let me. I was supposed to be in Halfway House. Halfway House it means you got a lower custody. It don't mean you're going home. Right right. So after six months in the Halfway House they sent me out and gave me freedom papers, called these People through me Going out with them, sharing my testimony, going to prison, yada, yada, yada same thing I'm sharing with you. I moved to Houston. My brother stayed down in Houston. I did a little research the job market, they don't frown up. Under a little charge I got, even though it says traffic, it was on 7 pounds of weed. You go to a little small town. You know if they pull you over and see traffic they're going to pull the guns on you hey you're failing me, but when you? go in Texas they're going to be like okay, what the felony for 7 pounds of weed. That's the 7 pounds of weed, that's it. They gave you 30 pounds. When I tell, when they look at my case in Texas, they be like, boy, you got railroad. Wow. So I came out to Texas. When I came out to Texas, bro, my brother worked for Targa here in Texas, a chemical plant. He's a supervisor but they have contractors that go out there. My brother said man, when you come here, I talk to the contractors. I hear them. I don't want to have to inspect them to make sure they gear on and you know the formings and everything, make sure they're following proper PP and all this here. And he's like, but I can tell them hey, my brother coming in Now at this time in the halfway house we was doing road work and they were paying us $2 a day, bro, and we'll walk like 10 miles one week. But I was happy because I was in a free world. Like man, I don't care if you walk me 50 miles a minute. So when I first came to Houston, bro, I had to get me an ID with my brother. I got me a regular ID, couldn't even get a driver's license. I had to take the test. I was trying to get to work. So when I went to this workplace, bro, I had some Mexicans in there. Mexicans in Georgia are different from the Mexicans out in Texas. They know Lil Wayne, lil Booth said. You know like hi Mexicans, I don't even know Lil Wayne and Lil Booth, they all like hi, they know it, you know. So when the lady came out and said we got jobs out on Target, I was like yeah, I said I'm here for that. Refcam was the company. And they said, well, what's the pay? And they said $14 all out. And my mama, I'm thinking I ain't never made it on $14.

Chuck: 42:18

I don't know what I'm talking about, and coming out of prison it's like $140 all out. You know what I'm saying?

Rufus Thornton: 42:24

Jungle body yep, my Mexican brother. They like man. I can't feed my family all day. And I'm looking like I'm thinking to myself. Like you, mexican, you post the word for 50 cents. I'm thinking to myself like they, like man, I can't feed my family. Say you come with us. I said no, I ain't going with y'all. I said I'm good. So they gave me the job. So when I started working, my brother knew that I was unhappy. He was like I know, brother, I got you this job and it's good. He said, but I know you love truck. I said, bro, I can't truck no more. You know. He just said something like mama said you're going to truck, bro. He said so I believe you can do it, I think you can do anything. So we have Domino night at his house. So when we played Domino's at his house sometime I had to work with these two brothers came at a time where I wasn't able to, I had to pull a night show and they brought some friends with him. One of these guys was like hey, man, it was introducing each other. He said yeah, man. He said I work at this cement plant and he said I own my own trucks. He said I'm looking for a driver. So remember, I only have my driver license. I just, you know, I catch Uber or some taxi to work and taxi back. So my brother said, man, I got a brother that used to own his own truck and company. And he said for real. He said you know the game is like yeah, thank you, dude. My brother didn't know how much I do and he was like in Texas, we knew I ran my own trucks before. Right right. So he said he'll be playing Domino's as soon as. I think it was on the Tuesday. So the guy came out on Tuesday and I met him and he was like man, he's not much, you know about trucking. I said I know how to. I said I know how to start trucking. I said I know how to drive. And I said but I don't know if I can drive anymore. And he was like really, I'm like yeah, he was like well, why? I said because I think it's in my paperwork. I hadn't seen none. I just heard the judge said during my sentence yeah. But I didn't know at the time the limits of that. So he was like, all right, damn man, if you get that straight, not hollet. So you know, I kind of got down on myself. I was like man, that was an opportunity. But I feel like you know what I'm saying. For some reason, someone's in my spirit telling me why you talk your way out of a situation. The next week, my mama calling to hey, your daughter down here and her mama going through something and you need to get your daughter. I said, mom, I'm just starting, I don't have a house, and yada, yada, yada. So I had to move out my brother and when I went to Georgia to get my daughter I knew I had to get my license. So I got my driver's license in Texas, Went to the test. My brother had me take the test. I went to pass the test. So we drove to Georgia but the state had took over my daughter. So when the state got my daughter, bro, you have to pay the state back All the money that they gave your daughter for food and everything. You have to pay that back. You have to split the funds between you the mom and the dad before you can get her back. Well, when I went to Georgia I had to go down there and I had to stay down there awhile and I had to be a resident of Georgia so I had to change my license over. So my mom came up there with me to the driver's license place and the lady that was changing my license over she said I see you used to have a CDL. You going to get them back? I said I would like to. She said that's, all you got to do is take the test. That's right. And Alabama told me I couldn't get them no more. Right. I said, well, I ain't know if I can get them. She said yeah. She said, well, you been going? Why you waited so long to change them over before? I said, well, honestly, I went to prison. She said, oh, that's why, after two years, everything's suspended. She said, so you have to take your test over. There's driver's license, cdl or anything. She said now you got your driver's license, you can do it. I did not know that, so I said yeah, I would like to do it. I said did I apply to all states? And she said yeah. She said that's all it is. I said OK then. So I paid the little fee, took my Georgia driver's license and back to Texas. When I changed them over, I said hey, why I'm changing them over. I said can I take my driver's license? They said yeah, so I changed them over. I took my rent, part of my driver's license. Like I said, I had no trucking Back and forth, I did logistics and I ran my own company. So and they said, ok, now you need to bring a truck up here and take your DOT physical and bring a truck up here and I was like dang. So I said man, I'll probably have to go to school and do that. So I went looking for schools. They were too expensive $5,000, $7,000. And I said, man, but I already got more physical. I said so I got my learners. I said why y'all charging me? They said because even though I got the knowledge I got state make their money like that. So I was like, oh, y'all going to maybe do the training anyway. So I said OK. So I was at my brother's house and I seen the same dude. He said what's been up, man? He said you got a situation straight now. I said man. I said I'm a gold man. I said I got to find a school to do I can do some testing. So I got my own truck. He said if you know how to drive, I can just like a regular car. I can send you my driver up there with you you could test out. He said you get your license, come on back and I work with this company. I can go in and put you to work now. I was like for real. So I went out there. They show me around what they do. I have my learner so he let me ride with his driver. I can drive with the learners and his driver and then his driver, like man, when you ready to go, let me go. I said man, I'm ready to go now. I think it was $25, $50 to take the test. I went over there. I passed the test, bro, and I got it. Now, when I got the driver's license, I started sharing some knowledge and working with this guy. And I think we build a relationship that got it on the trucking cart. Right. I made him a deal. I said, bro, I can stay with you. And the only thing I asked is that if I get my own truck and I get my own driver, I stay in your truck and you let my truck run up under you and, like I said, I'm going to find a way to make money. He was like man. that's good. He's the only stay in my truck, cool. So I went back home. I wasn't looking for a driver to visit my mom, one of the dope boys that I used to know back in the day. He had been in prison for over 15 years, but his son was on the court when I was in the military. I used to come home from the military and I told him I used to come back, I was messing with the girl and I had the two sons and stuff and I didn't know the little boy in my world. I came home, I had this thing in the country and I used to help people down. Where I'm from, I had an exercise thing called soldier shaping, where I would take you in. We would go around the neighborhood and we would march and I'd teach them cadences and we'd say hey to the old people. We would clean up the trash around the neighborhood. I was just trying to bring something that I learned going to different places how to respect your community and things of the sort. When I was there, this young kid came up on the basketball court and that was years ago when I had my son and I come back. He said you, mr Ruffin, and I was like yeah. He said you don't remember me. He said man. He said I hear you used to run the trucking game, man, you used to change your life. I was like yeah, but I knew his dad had been gone for a while. He said well, tell me this. He said man, I'll be going to California, coming back. I'm training with this company. I've been with him for a couple of months. And he said I know I can drive. He said I got all his fans. He said I feel like they're taking advantage of me. And he said everybody around him said man, you need to talk to 12. You need to talk to 12. And I was like so what you trying to do? He said man, I'm trying to make a change. He said I just need to know. He said they paying me $400. And he said I know that they can test him out. He said but they won't test him out. So I said man. I said I'll tell you what I said. I'm only here for three days. I said so how old are you? And he was old. And he said man, I'm old enough, I can get my license, I can go anywhere. I said I can take you home with me. I said, but first I want you to ask your mama. So he asked his mama and she said yeah, I can go Bro. I bought him back up with me, who was living off. I just got my daughter now. Remember that. So me and him and my daughter, we're sleeping on air mattresses. I got a chair from a yard sale, or a put-lite chair, a sleeping bed chair. I got that from a yard sale. You know I'm making money, cause I make $14. But I ain't have you know what I'm saying when you pay the down payment, you got to pay three times as much as the rent and all this here, tar on the wall and like so I'm really in the red, but I'm like man, I'm still trying to make it happen, believe in us. So my faith system off my experiences and my process is starting to grow Like I brought this young man up here and I know that it's going to work. So when I brought him up there, bro, I put him in under the guy. I said, hey, man, this is going to be my driver as I work for you. I said can you get him on with the company too? So we got him a job. I said yeah, he don't get his license. I helped him get his license on the guy truck who he let me get my license. So when he got him, the company hired him until we was able to get out on truck. So, bro, once we got a truck me and this young man got a truck I said I don't want you working for me. He said what you mean? I said I want to be a partner and he was like what? I said man, you from my hometown, I see you from a small town. I said trust me. I said man what? we've experienced in the small town. Bro, there's a lot more life out here. I said I just want to kind of give you the knowledge so you don't have to run into some of the stomach blocks that I did. I've been embarrassed for what I didn't know. I said I hung around around people. I said what I thought I knew I really didn't know. I said, bro, I'm bringing you in in this game and you're going to be a part. I'm going to show you how the logistics work and everything. So when we did that, he went bragging. But he was a hard worker and he was talking about how happy he was. He was just excited. And other people were like man, I want to get my license. So remember, they said I'll never be able to teach again, I'll never be able to have my own company again, never have my CDL again. So now I got my CDL, I'm in this new neighborhood with my daughter and I catch you. I mean say hey, mr Rufus, you got that truck, like how you get your license. What all that happened. I said man, I can show you. I showed one kid. He said man, I'm a felon man and he's like. So one kid was like man, I've been molested man. I don't really tell nobody about it. Mr Rufus, I don't want to tell nobody, but yeah, my mama or a friend used to mess with me but I saw I did some juvenile time. So these people with my same experiences now coming out talking to me asking me for escape. And I'm like man, so I teach him the functions of the truck. I even get his license permit. He go and get his CDL. They say you know, I'm running a CDL class and he's teaching people up and down my street for free. Wow, and people are like how you work all day and, bro, I wouldn't get in time. I worked until 12, 14 hours a day and coming through 34 hours of training and a day on that night Grabbing little keys in my neighborhood, targeting felons and everything, teaching them how, when the system tells you you can't, you still can Keep your identity. Yada, yada, yada. Same things I'm learning, man, you got to realize your own advantages, what potential you have, and you use those potentials on that, demodicate, how much you can make, how, the system going to try to pay you this and give you pennies or they plenty. So I learned that through process and then I started teaching and I learned myself as I deal with people, like I learned more about prison the more I shared Bible scriptures with people that protected me, and then I began to learn how to get around in their environment from them, yada, yada, yada. I started doing this on the street now, so I've been doing that. Then some people came that were from Alabama. That called me and said hey we're going to be out in Texas at this prison and we want you to go what's up in Huntsville or whatever. And I was like, yeah, this man we done told the warden about you. I said, yes, sir. I said now the warden, the law says if you're on parole you're not supposed to go in the prison. You can't do such activity, man. They got a waiver from the warden State of Texas. I've been behind the prison system in Alabama, florida and the state of Texas telling the same story I told you. So then it left to that my dad died about six years ago so I ended up moving my car. I met a girl that I knew when I first met my dad, like 30 years ago, when my dad passed. Her family knew my family. She lived down Orlando, went to Orlando, did the same thing in Orlando. I was teaching felons, single parents, the same message I'm sharing with you there Our own potential, who we are as a people, where we from, shouldn't limit us to who we are Products of real environment. You can be a product, for the good reasons, of bad reason. I'm a product of my environment, but it's taught me how I can move forward in life. It's part of my biggest success. So a lot of people say I'm a product of my environment, because this is all I know. Sometimes that's a good, sometimes that's a bad, but society having to look at it the way they want you to look at it, you gotta look at it the way it's benefiting you. So these things, man, I share with you because that's the process that made me. You know who I am today To have a brother like you, to even invite me to a platform to share the story that I share with so many.

Chuck: 53:18

I appreciate it.

Rufus Thornton: 53:20

I thank you so much, man, for allowing me to come. You know share on your platform and I share this with several inmates, several different prisons, man, several people that know that. You know they out there on the road and you know it means a lot to me. So when she asked me to do it, a lot of people charge for certain things. That's why I asked you what type of platform you got. I don't like to charge for certain things cause I think that I didn't pay for nothing to get it. I think it was free to give it to me, to protect me and bring me out of my situation. So you gave me an opportunity to do that man.

Chuck: 53:48

I appreciate you Shout out to you man. So you're back in Georgia now.

Rufus Thornton: 53:53

No, I'm back in Houston, Texas.

Chuck: 53:54

I'm still on throne, bro.

Rufus Thornton: 53:56

Listen, I own my own trucking company, bro. I still train when I have a chance. You know, I backed off from training much cause I went through COVID and everything and my company kind of took a fall, but I'm still doing my own company. So I own my own company as a felon. But I like to tell felons, hey, bro, I'm still a felon, I pee on a curb, I'm still on felon in parole. They told me I had to come back out here to Texas and I'm still doing the same thing I'm doing. So I was hoping you know a lot of it would be like man, I can't do this, I can't do that cause I'm on papers. So I'm trying to be that inspiration and say, man, don't let no situation or condition limit you. So that's what, that's the purpose of what your platform provided today, cause a lot of felons thought that we couldn't have passports. I go on 10 to 15 foods a year. You know what I'm saying.

Chuck: 54:33

I still give gems.

Rufus Thornton: 54:35

The lady just later. They're probably connected with you. It's cause I'm on social media giving out free gems. Oh hey, even if you have a driver's life, you don't have to have a CDL to be in trucking and transportation, and this is how. So I give these gems freely on there. Some people they realize you about the platforms cause some people try to charge. They have used my testimony and tried to charge. He says I want to hear more and I don't do that. So I was like nah so, and I don't care about you charging, it's just the fact that it'll give people a chance to hear it. So just to hear that. You know I got a. YouTube chat. I got a YouTube to share me on the road repairing vehicles for the cheap and doing these things and sharing the testimony you know what I'm saying, that I get from myself and others. So you just being another platform, bro, it just blesses me to do what God put on my heart to do.

Chuck: 55:17

Yes, sir, man, Thank you for coming on. Man. Two, two questions before we sign out. Man, what would you say to a young brother or sister that's going through something similar to what you went through? What encouragement would you give to him?

Rufus Thornton: 55:33

Man, if y'all listen to my man platform, please do. This is the brother and sister that are coming up. I told y'all when that youngster came up in my room in prison. It was a story of Moses, and let me share something about what's significant about that story. God chose Moses after he had slain a man for messing with his brother, even though he was considered one of the Egyptians. So when Moses was young, the Egyptians are the people that came to kill all the firstborns, but luckily they pushed Moses out in the water. The story goes, and he ended up in a land where they accepted him as one of Pharaoh's people, which were not Moses' original people. But even though Moses was in a different situation, around different people, around different circumstances, god had a purpose for him Got you. Even though Moses was around different people I don't try to hear me young man and young one. Different people, different situation. When it came down to it, moses never denied his identity, meaning he saw an Egyptian person, who he's learned to hang around and everything else, beating up one of his original people. He knew that was wrong and he killed a man that was beating up one of his original brothers from where he come from that identified him with his self. So, no matter where you go, you realize who you are and you hold on to that things which promotes the goodness in you. Now here's the story about that. Sometimes you ain't gonna know your own potential and this is what happened. This is proof of that. So after Moses did that, he recognized he was not one of the Egyptians and who he was, and he killed the man because he wanted to hold on and protect his identity. But he didn't know the potential of his identity. Because when God came to him and said I need you to go to King Pharaoh, that's by like somebody telling you that they, being from the hood, wearing your sag or being in your situations of condition, I need you to go to buy in the Donald Trump or Obama and tell them to let Kodak Black go, let LeBouce go, let BMF go. That's by like God, you be like what. I can't do, that Some people ain't gonna listen to me. But Moses himself not knowing his potential, he said God, I'm not eloquent enough. Can I take my brother Aaron? God got upset with it, but still allow him to take somebody with him. But that was not God playing for Moses. So I say to you, young brothers and sisters know who you are, stick to your part, this which gives you growth. Hold on to that, because the world and things that situations gonna put you in gonna try to get you to deny that. Don't deny that. Fight the hold on to it. If you hear my testimony, I did that before and sometimes me doing the little things that my mom taught me sharing a Bible verse with someone gave me the most protection in those places that I feared the most and felt uncomfortable the most when I was the farthest away from the place that I was accustomed to. So if I can give y'all anything, I give y'all that in this platform to go back and listen to that and think about the story of Moses.

Chuck: 58:24

Got you man. Appreciate that man. Do you have any social media that people can reach out to you, find you or whatever?

Rufus Thornton: 58:31

Yes, sir, and my name is Rufus William Thornton, so my social media on Instagram clubhouse would be Rufus R-U-F-U-S-W Thornton, T-H-O-R-N-T-O-N, and on Instagram and on Facebook. My YouTube channel is True Transportation Tipper T-R-U. Transportation tipper T-I-P-P-E-R, and my clubhouse. I just been logistics life room. It's a transportation room where they share the gems that people charge off for free dispatch and knowledge, appropriate knowledge. A lot of people charge off for that. That's where we hang out at, so that's where you can meet me. I use my real name, man, because I ain't nothing against y'all using this Prop names. I get why people do it, but I try to use my real name because I'm proud of my identity and who I am.

Chuck: 59:19

My name is.

Rufus Thornton: 59:19

Rufus William Thornton Jr. And that's the way I'm at.

Chuck: 59:22

Wow, man, shout out to you, man, I appreciate you being on let's just talk about it podcast and sharing your journey with the world.

Rufus Thornton: 59:29

Man, yeah, Thank you, my brother.

Chuck: 59:31

Yes, sir man. Thanks again, man.

Rufus Thornton: 59:34

Yes, sir, y'all have a good one, all right.

Chuck: 59:37

Wow, what an amazing conversation. Shout out to my friend, rufus, for having this dialogue with me. You know, what really stuck out to me, amongst many other things, was the word process, that life is all about process, that what we go through in life, the choices we make, the good, the ups and downs, the disappointments all play a part in us discovering and becoming who we were created to be. So, after listening to this story, you realize now that where you are in life is all a part of your journey to become better. So thank you, rufus, for sharing your journey, as always. Thank you so much for tuning in to let's Just Talk About it podcast and please check out my website. Just Google let's Just Talk About it podcastcom and then hit that subscribe button to receive all the new episodes every Friday. You can also find me on Facebook. Just type in Chuck L-J-T-A-I, which means let's Just Talk About it. So, as always, until next time, don't hold it in for let's Just Talk About it. Talk to you soon.