Latest / Brian Thomas / Gary Favors - City Council Candidate
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I did have a happy one to you. Brian Thomas.
- 0:01Speaker 1: Please to welcome on the heels of talking with Steve
- 0:03Speaker 1: Gooden running for since a city council. We have another
- 0:06Speaker 1: city council candidate who's gotten some outstanding endorsements. Welcome to
- 0:11Speaker 1: the fifty five Carter City at Morning Show, Gary Favors.
- 0:14Speaker 1: You can find him online. Help out his campaign, maybe
- 0:16Speaker 1: donate to it it favors for the word for not
- 0:19Speaker 1: the number Favors for Cincinnati dot com. Gary, it's great
- 0:22Speaker 1: to have you on the morning show.
- 0:24Speaker 2: Thank you Brian for having me this morning.
- 0:27Speaker 1: Now real quick here before I let my listeners know
- 0:30Speaker 1: about these outstanding endorsements. What is prompting you to run
- 0:34Speaker 1: for Cincinnati City Council. I know you've been twenty five
- 0:36Speaker 1: years as a special education teacher with the Cincinnai Public Schools.
- 0:39Speaker 1: You are a decorated Army veteran, and salute to you
- 0:42Speaker 1: for your service to our country. What does Gary Favors
- 0:45Speaker 1: want to do for the City of Cincinnati as a
- 0:47Speaker 1: council member.
- 0:49Speaker 2: Well, the first thing, number one, thank you for recognizing
- 0:55Speaker 2: my service as a veteran and someone who's been in
- 1:00Speaker 2: as a teacher veteran. I believe in service. Number one.
- 1:05Speaker 2: I believe in serving people. And the city of Cincinnati
- 1:11Speaker 2: is near and dear to my heart. I graduated from
- 1:15Speaker 2: Roger Bacon High School, went off to college Carson Newman College,
- 1:21Speaker 2: then did a twelve year stint in the military where
- 1:25Speaker 2: I served in the Gulf War, and then came back
- 1:29Speaker 2: and pursued my career in education. So I have a
- 1:33Speaker 2: history of service, I have a history of serving people,
- 1:37Speaker 2: and really, at this time, we need leaders. We need
- 1:40Speaker 2: leaders that will step up and lead the city and
- 1:45Speaker 2: bring the city back to what I call its original state.
- 1:49Speaker 2: We have a lot of crime that's evident last night
- 1:54Speaker 2: and this morning, and so there's just a lot of
- 1:59Speaker 2: challenges in the city that we need to address, and
- 2:03Speaker 2: I feel it's time for me to step up and
- 2:06Speaker 2: put my skill sets in action.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Well one of those folks that agrees with you and
- 2:12Speaker 1: has endorsed you, gentlemen who comes to my morning show program,
- 2:15Speaker 1: he's often he is willing to do so. A guy
- 2:19Speaker 1: that I love and I've known for years, Ken Blackwell.
- 2:21Speaker 1: You've got Ken Blackwell's endorsement. I think that is an
- 2:23Speaker 1: impressive endorsement because those don't necessarily come easy mister favors.
- 2:29Speaker 2: No, it doesn't. And I grew up under the Ken
- 2:35Speaker 2: Blackwell here as a council member, as he was a
- 2:38Speaker 2: council member and a mayor, so I got to see
- 2:42Speaker 2: Ken Blackwell in action. So I take that endorsement near
- 2:49Speaker 2: and dear to my heart rather and hold it in
- 2:53Speaker 2: treasure that he would endorse me. So it is a
- 2:58Speaker 2: great honor, along with some of the other endorsements that
- 3:02Speaker 2: I have. But I think that is probably one of
- 3:05Speaker 2: the greatest honors to have someone at his stature.
- 3:09Speaker 1: Amen. That carries a lot of endorsement, but most notly
- 3:12Speaker 1: for me. But ignore my opinion, but my listening audience
- 3:15Speaker 1: thoroughly appreciates with the work of Ken Blackwell over the years.
- 3:18Speaker 1: You also not to understate the value of it. The
- 3:21Speaker 1: Fraternal Order of Police have endorsed you, the Hamilon County
- 3:24Speaker 1: GOP has endorsed you, and you also got the endorsement
- 3:26Speaker 1: of the Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati. So you're
- 3:29Speaker 1: racking them up, Gary, and I think a lot of
- 3:30Speaker 1: people see some really really positive in you, and I
- 3:33Speaker 1: want to pivot over as we go to the break
- 3:34Speaker 1: to ask I want to ask you about the youth
- 3:36Speaker 1: I know you've had you actually taught incarcerated juveniles facing
- 3:41Speaker 1: charges of murder and aggravated robbery, rape, and some other
- 3:43Speaker 1: very serious crimes. When you're over teaching at the Hamlin
- 3:47Speaker 1: County Justice Center. I want to talk to you about
- 3:49Speaker 1: your experience there because we seem to have a tremendous
- 3:52Speaker 1: problem with young people these days. We'll talk more with
- 3:56Speaker 1: Council candidate Gary Favors find them online favors for Cincinnati
- 4:00Speaker 1: dot com after I mentioned foreign exchange, because I want
- 4:03Speaker 1: you to have a great automotive repair gdtalk station. Have
- 4:06Speaker 1: you Friday Ron Thomas talking with since a council candidate
- 4:09Speaker 1: Gary Favors favors for Cincinnati dot com where you find
- 4:12Speaker 1: Gary learned about his issues and what he's all about.
- 4:15Speaker 1: And I know you have education experience or you were
- 4:17Speaker 1: a teacher. You were twenty five years of special education
- 4:19Speaker 1: teacher and since public schools. But also you did some
- 4:22Speaker 1: work at the Hamilton County Justice Center where some juveniles
- 4:25Speaker 1: in jail and they had some serious crimes they were
- 4:27Speaker 1: charged with. You worked with them, you reached out with them.
- 4:29Speaker 1: He tried to be an inspiration for them. You've got
- 4:32Speaker 1: to you know, singing praise from Marion Alswagger, the Adult
- 4:35Speaker 1: Education coordinated there a Hamilt County Sheriff's Office on your
- 4:37Speaker 1: web page, Gary, we have a problem with youth in
- 4:40Speaker 1: downtown Cincinnati. Now have to have provol Recently, I guess
- 4:44Speaker 1: decided that he is going to allow Police Chief Fiji
- 4:46Speaker 1: and the police officer to enforce the curfew, a curfew
- 4:49Speaker 1: that was on the books for a long time but
- 4:51Speaker 1: rarely enforced. And there may be some reasons for that.
- 4:53Speaker 1: But how is it and where's this problem coming from?
- 4:57Speaker 1: As much time as you spent with young people, do
- 5:00Speaker 1: you put your finger on the exact cause of these problems?
- 5:02Speaker 1: Because as I see from the comments about you, you're
- 5:05Speaker 1: the one that came in every day listen to these
- 5:08Speaker 1: young people, gave them inspiration, You gave them a sense
- 5:11Speaker 1: of purpose and hope. I always go back to the point
- 5:14Speaker 1: my mom and dad did that for me. Gary. You know,
- 5:16Speaker 1: if you have a stable home life, you've got parents
- 5:18Speaker 1: looking out for you and wondering where in the hell
- 5:20Speaker 1: you are at one o'clock in the morning. You know
- 5:23Speaker 1: that's what actually works. Is that the genesis of society's problems,
- 5:27Speaker 1: or maybe just the problems in the City of Cincinnati,
- 5:29Speaker 1: or is it something that transcends that Gary.
- 5:32Speaker 2: Well, I think Brian, you sort of not sort of
- 5:37Speaker 2: You hit it on the nail on the head. Is
- 5:39Speaker 2: that we have lost that family piece. I grew up
- 5:45Speaker 2: with a mom and dad who stressed education. That was
- 5:50Speaker 2: my primary job. Let's go to school, get a good education,
- 5:55Speaker 2: listen to the teachers, respect one another, and to value
- 6:05Speaker 2: my faith in God. So my parents instilled in me
- 6:09Speaker 2: the values of what and I thank God where I
- 6:15Speaker 2: am now. I would be where I am now if
- 6:18Speaker 2: it wouldn't been for my church family. So it's that village.
- 6:22Speaker 2: I think we've lost that village of family, and so
- 6:29Speaker 2: that is an overwhelming issue. I think when our young
- 6:35Speaker 2: people are doing things that are out of character, out
- 6:40Speaker 2: of pocket, that they want to be heard, they want
- 6:44Speaker 2: to be listened to. And the primary thing I think
- 6:48Speaker 2: our kids want is they want to see after high school,
- 6:55Speaker 2: can they land a job that's making a decent salary
- 6:58Speaker 2: that they can live on and become productive citizens. I
- 7:04Speaker 2: think one of the things I've often said, we've missed
- 7:08Speaker 2: the art of the trades.
- 7:09Speaker 1: Amen.
- 7:10Speaker 2: That's the art of getting our kids steered into jobs
- 7:15Speaker 2: that will lead to high paying salary jobs that they
- 7:20Speaker 2: want to have. So I think we need to work
- 7:24Speaker 2: with our school system to address and help them address
- 7:30Speaker 2: some of the things that they need support on with
- 7:34Speaker 2: since public and helping our kids with mentorships in some
- 7:41Speaker 2: of these trades. And I think we have some things
- 7:43Speaker 2: going on in the city, but we need to collaborate better.
- 7:46Speaker 2: We have a lot of good things going on in
- 7:48Speaker 2: the city, but it needs to be a joint effort
- 7:53Speaker 2: of collaboration. And some of these things may be in place,
- 7:57Speaker 2: but I bring those skill sets to the table city Council,
- 8:01Speaker 2: and my hope is the voters will see that my
- 8:05Speaker 2: education background in years of experience working at Gamble High
- 8:10Speaker 2: School Woodward High School to help kids and to live
- 8:16Speaker 2: in and to help families is what I believe in.
- 8:20Speaker 2: And advocating for families.
- 8:23Speaker 1: And helping families, And here's where I wanted to go,
- 8:25Speaker 1: and I want to get your reaction to this. Quite often,
- 8:28Speaker 1: you know, law enforcement is left with the aftermath of
- 8:32Speaker 1: a terrible home life, or you know parents that don't care,
- 8:35Speaker 1: or parents that aren't present parents, maybe you have drug
- 8:37Speaker 1: or alcohol issues, whatever, they're not caring about their kids,
- 8:40Speaker 1: they're not raising them responsible but they aren't raising them
- 8:42Speaker 1: to have the respect that your mom and dad taught
- 8:45Speaker 1: you that you know, you had to go to school,
- 8:47Speaker 1: that was in your mom and dad insisted on it.
- 8:49Speaker 1: Same with mine. I always mentioned the greatest gift my
- 8:51Speaker 1: parents ever gave me, beyond life was education. They were
- 8:54Speaker 1: insistent about that. All these outreach programs, teachers are left
- 8:58Speaker 1: with unruly students that come from these problematic home lives.
- 9:03Speaker 1: Would it be a better direction to focus if we're
- 9:06Speaker 1: going to focus government resources on something, And I'm not
- 9:08Speaker 1: saying don't have youth programs, but how about programs directed
- 9:12Speaker 1: at new parents or parents generally to get them on
- 9:15Speaker 1: the right track and remind them how important they are
- 9:18Speaker 1: to play an active role in their children's lives. Are
- 9:20Speaker 1: going to end up with a you know, another criminal
- 9:23Speaker 1: element coming out on the streets. Is that even a
- 9:25Speaker 1: concept that anybody's considered.
- 9:27Speaker 2: Gary, Yeah, And you're right on point, Brian, is that
- 9:33Speaker 2: I think we haven't looked at helping our parents because
- 9:39Speaker 2: what I found that some of our parents are very young, yeah,
- 9:41Speaker 2: and they're trying to work. They're trying to hold out
- 9:44Speaker 2: the job by too. They're trying to do the best
- 9:47Speaker 2: they can and I think a lot of our parents
- 9:51Speaker 2: are trying to do the best best they can. A
- 9:53Speaker 2: lot of our kids are being raised by grandparents, right
- 9:57Speaker 2: and I work with the family young young man that's
- 10:00Speaker 2: being raised by his great great grandmother at one point
- 10:04Speaker 2: she passed away. We're talking about two to three generations.
- 10:08Speaker 2: So I think we we have to look at the
- 10:13Speaker 2: whole family. We have to look at where can the
- 10:17Speaker 2: church fit in? Where can and it's there is no
- 10:25Speaker 2: single answer that's going to solve the problem, but I
- 10:27Speaker 2: think the church has a huge piece of play in
- 10:31Speaker 2: y in our community and helping our kids. We just
- 10:36Speaker 2: need to what I call do the basics, go back
- 10:40Speaker 2: to the basics. Our community is filled with resources Talbart House,
- 10:46Speaker 2: You've got so many social agencies in the city that
- 10:49Speaker 2: can lend a hand. How can we work together. Talvert
- 10:53Speaker 2: House has an excellent program for dads helping dads. Have
- 10:58Speaker 2: a father right now who's very involved with this child's education,
- 11:05Speaker 2: and he's a single day and I applaud him stepping
- 11:08Speaker 2: up and advocating for his child and making sure his
- 11:12Speaker 2: child gets what he needs and getting the education he
- 11:17Speaker 2: so deserves. So I just think it goes back to
- 11:22Speaker 2: when I was growing up, I had so many people.
- 11:24Speaker 2: Even if I stepped out a lot, there would have
- 11:27Speaker 2: been neighbors, there would have been the church. There would
- 11:30Speaker 2: have been a whole flew of people around me saying
- 11:35Speaker 2: you got to change, You got to turn this around
- 11:37Speaker 2: right and get back on track. So I was blessed.
- 11:40Speaker 2: And I do understand that, you know, parents are overwhelmed,
- 11:46Speaker 2: but we need to bring back the village that I
- 11:50Speaker 2: so often talk about.
- 11:51Speaker 1: Right, well, you know it takes that engaged parent, though
- 11:54Speaker 1: I mean, I mean part of me wants to say, well,
- 11:55Speaker 1: that's a job of a parent. You know, why would
- 11:57Speaker 1: we need a program to have someone actually caring about
- 12:00Speaker 1: their own offspring. But this is the reality we have.
- 12:03Speaker 1: You know, I just get an introjection with it about church.
- 12:05Speaker 1: It's the parents. It's the family that will introduce a
- 12:08Speaker 1: young person to the concept of religion. And I'll tell
- 12:10Speaker 1: you what. That's the way it happened to my family. Gary.
- 12:13Speaker 1: And when mom and dad weren't around and I was
- 12:15Speaker 1: hanging out with my buds, you know who I was
- 12:17Speaker 1: worried about looking down over me and what bad things
- 12:20Speaker 1: I might do. It was God, right, there was always
- 12:23Speaker 1: that extra parent, right, there who could see everything and
- 12:26Speaker 1: know everything, and you couldn't escape them. Look one more
- 12:30Speaker 1: with Gary Favors going to ask about oh, is that
- 12:33Speaker 1: it is that all the time we have? Oh Gary,
- 12:35Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I wanted to ask you about affordable housing,
- 12:38Speaker 1: but apparently you don't have any additional time.
- 12:40Speaker 2: So yes, I do have to get to work and
- 12:44Speaker 2: serve my families and my kids, which I'm holding very
- 12:47Speaker 2: high esteem. But you know, we can definitely come back
- 12:52Speaker 2: good and carry on this conversation. But Favors for Cincinnati
- 12:58Speaker 2: is my website.
- 13:00Speaker 1: Took the words right out of my mouth. Gary Favors,
- 13:02Speaker 1: It's been a pleasure. We'll get you back on before
- 13:04Speaker 1: the election because I do want to ask you about
- 13:05Speaker 1: what is affordable housing and your ideas about it. Thanks Gary,
- 13:08Speaker 1: have a wonderful weekend seven forty seven. Right now at
- 13:11Speaker 1: fifty five kr se