Latest / Start Me Up with Kimberley A. Johnson / Start Me Up: Stephanie Dominguez Walton

Transcript

Start Me Up: Stephanie Dominguez Walton · Start Me Up with Kimberley A. Johnson

0:04
[SPEAKER_03]: We can't believe it's all right We can't believe it's all right We can't believe it's all right We can't believe it's all right
0:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Start Me Up podcast part of MSW Media and the sexy liberal podcast network.
0:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host Kimberly Johnson in DC.
0:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Today my returning guest is my best friend Stephanie Domingo's Walton.
0:30
[SPEAKER_00]: This is actually a take two and we're going to explain why in the show.
0:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But before we get into it,
0:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Start me up podcast is independent, listen or fund it and woman run.
0:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Visit patreon.com slash start me up to see the variety of tiers offered including the option to get a bonus what's up episode just for patrons every Tuesday.
0:49
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like my online journal where I get a little more personal and I talk about whatever's on my mind.
0:54
[SPEAKER_00]: There's also an ad free tier with a much shorter intro just visit patreon.com slash start me up.
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, please enjoy my conversation with Stephanie Dominguez Walton.
1:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to the show, Stephanie.
1:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi.
1:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Take two.
1:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Take two.
1:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So we recorded a show on Sunday, but we decided that we're not going to air it because it has too much private information.
1:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody who knows us knows that's a plausible option.
1:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we got a little we were just I think we forgot the microphones were on you know, it's yeah, sometimes we just get lost Yeah, so we're back here and thankfully Stephanie had some time for me today and the reason I'm putting this out today is because I have to take my mom to get colonoscopy.
1:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, I'm just going back to the PMI
1:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, exactly.
1:45
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like, I know, really, I mean, we all have to get at at some point in our lives.
1:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So she just has to get one.
1:51
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have to go to her house tonight.
1:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I'm spending the night.
1:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And then tomorrow morning, we're going to go.
1:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is her day of hell.
1:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
2:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It ain't fun.
2:01
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's fucking awful.
2:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what I'm saying?
2:03
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
2:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
2:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what you're going to say.
2:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Twilight medicine for seconds of Twilight are some of the best memories.
2:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I have in my life.
2:17
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not even joking.
2:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even, like, I just remember the one and only time I had a colonoscopy, I was laying there and they, you know, they gave me the meds and they said, all right, count backwards.
2:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, ten, nine.
2:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my God, I'm not even tired at all.
2:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I woke up.
2:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
2:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was like, I didn't even feel twilight.
2:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I just was like, out.
2:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, that was, that was my experience and it was not fun, but pulling my mic closer to me.
2:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, okay.
2:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's see.
2:46
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, a couple different things.
2:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we're going to go over some of the same crap we talked about on Sunday because we're going to, but we're going to, we're going to try to pretend it's all new.
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for sure.
2:56
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm just going to start off with, I spray my ankle, but it's a lot better.
3:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm glad.
3:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I've been wearing this compression thing, just like an ace compression thing.
3:06
[SPEAKER_00]: It's black and it's got Velcro and all that stuff.
3:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And it seems to be helping.
3:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, it's getting better.
3:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm glad about that.
3:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And then now I did say this on Sunday, and I'm going to do a brief reversion today.
3:17
[SPEAKER_00]: But I also talked about this on my patrons only show.
3:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Last week, or it was on the twentieth of June, Michaela Reigns, who run Savofox, committed suicide.
3:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was awful.
3:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just awful.
3:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember when I found Savofox, but it was because of Finigan Fox and his he-he's, they're called, or whatever, he laughs.
3:40
[SPEAKER_00]: And she has this amaze, she's like, Dr. Doolittle, without these animals.
3:44
[SPEAKER_00]: She was so amazing.
3:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I loved her so much, and I'm so concerned and worried, but that's why I'm talking about it.
3:50
[SPEAKER_00]: It really affected me very deeply.
3:52
[SPEAKER_00]: More deeply than I expected it to, not that I would have expected her to die, but she left, you know, I don't know, her daughter is maybe four.
4:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So she doesn't really fully understand what's going on.
4:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Her husband gave the most gut wrenching post announcing it and the thing that makes it so awful is that it was fur farms and other rescues that bullied her and she was very open about being autistic and then also she had, I always want to call it bipolar and it's not.
4:29
[SPEAKER_00]: borderline personality disorder.
4:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you look up some of the, I don't know, effects or whatever of that disorder, a lot of the time it's, you know, contemplating suicide, it's kind of dissociating from yourself.
4:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's feeling hopelessness.
4:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So she was, I think,
4:49
[SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to do too much and she was trying to save all these foxes from these fur farms and I think she just spread herself to thin and was not mentally able to deal with everything involved and as Ethan her husband
5:06
[SPEAKER_00]: pointed out in the video.
5:07
[SPEAKER_00]: He thought it was because of jealousy.
5:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And I agree.
5:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree that it was, I think that the bullying that she experienced online, because she's absolutely beautiful.
5:18
[SPEAKER_00]: She was just a beautiful, she was beautiful inside and out, but outside she was gorgeous.
5:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And she had a lot of attention that was, you know, I know there are other fox-rex cues, but
5:28
[SPEAKER_00]: save a fox was my go to and so and I mean I when I say that I I would save up videos for my dad when I go see my dad I would always send the videos to my mom I have so many I have the fucking pictures of foxes in my living room Bob bought me you know a save a fox picture plus I've got jewelry
5:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, calendars and stuffed animals from them.
5:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I've supported them along the way.
5:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it was absolutely devastating.
5:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm still, I don't feel I'll ever get over it in the way that it will always hurt, but obviously, you know, time passes.
6:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's maybe a little easier.
6:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I'm just really freaking out for Ethan.
6:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm telling everybody this because
6:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Michaela didn't only say foxes, she was just like had so many animals, and she had such an amazing relationship with them.
6:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And now Ethan has pledged to keep this thing going, but he doesn't have her energy, and he just doesn't have her do little, Dr. Doodle thing.
6:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Plus he's going through a suicide of his wife while he's dealing with a four-year-old little girl.
6:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so nervous about this, uh, uh, webinar of this organization.
6:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm just hoping that if you, if you can, please go to Safe of Fox and just donate whatever on my Facebook page.
6:45
[SPEAKER_00]: If you scroll down a little bit, um, I know there are two different go-fundmees for her funeral and one helping for free as education.
6:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So just putting it out there, please help, if you can, if you can't, don't worry about it.
6:59
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, I'm not going to talk about it anymore because this is depressing me.
7:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But sorry.
7:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's just really sad.
7:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, I want to ask you how you're doing, but I'm just going to throw in home.
7:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm feeling sad today.
7:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm just not even sure why.
7:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I know that there maybe it's just the whole everything that's happening.
7:15
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're going to talk about politics and everything, but how are you feeling?
7:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm just, you know, I'm sorry.
7:21
[SPEAKER_02]: I know how much you loved and love, save a fox.
7:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that that is your such an animal lover and such a
7:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, a proponent of just kindness to animals and all of the things that I know that that hurts and I'm sorry because it that's rough and especially, you know, online bullying is a real thing and I often when I hear stories like this, I'm like, you know, I thank God that I'm a hundred and fifty years old because honestly, I don't know.
7:49
[SPEAKER_02]: that I would have ever survived being a teenager or a young person with social media.
7:55
[SPEAKER_00]: No shit.
7:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I can't imagine having Instagram and school.
8:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, and they kids have it now.
8:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me have just like a bear.
8:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
8:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm so glad I didn't have to worry about.
8:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I was already so completely.
8:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, everybody talks about high school years being awful.
8:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have awful.
8:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I had great high school years, but I was always very difficult.
8:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I was always hard on myself, I should say.
8:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was difficult for me to accept the fact that, you know, especially in high school, I was so tall.
8:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I mean, I was like, people thought I was a teacher.
8:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure, I'm sure.
8:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And my, um, twelveth grade, I remember I was wearing the first day of, of senior year.
8:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I wore a long white, flowy skirt and this really cute pink kind of, um, lightweight kind of sweater, short sleeve.
8:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was sitting at a desk and I was six feet tall and I was sitting at, you know, a desk and they asked me if I was a teacher and I was like,
8:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
9:00
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
9:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm not a teacher, but you better not miss behavior because I'm a send you to the government's office.
9:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
9:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But how are you?
9:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, okay, we will talk about the fucking bill in a minute, but are you doing, you know, I mean, that hurts deeply because just, you know, my, my whole thought is first of all,
9:26
[SPEAKER_02]: by design the Republican party.
9:28
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like their motto should just be, we got ours.
9:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
9:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And we don't care who we have to step on or eliminate to keep ours.
9:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
9:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is, you know, by, you know, they proved it.
9:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the Lisa Murkowski thing, like this woman, let me let me let me let me carve some stuff out for Alaska.
9:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
9:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So the detriment of the forty nine other states in the union.
9:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And let's just like, you know, I don't know what the population of Alaska is, but in any California.
10:01
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
10:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, yes, of course there are people of color and indigenous people and poor people and LGBTQ people in Alaska who are already living so far on the margins.
10:13
[SPEAKER_02]: that this is just, you know, whatever, even though she carved out for her state, her people are still going to get hurt because she's got hers, right?
10:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And she don't care who she's got a step on or eliminate to keep hers, right?
10:29
[SPEAKER_02]: But think about states like California where, you know, we have
10:37
[SPEAKER_02]: huge, huge populations of people of color.
10:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, not just by the sheer number of people who live in the state of California, who are going to get hurt.
10:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And when plant parenthoods are defunded as a result of this bill, if it passes in the house, which, I mean, I still say if just because it hasn't, I know, and I said, yeah, we'll see.
11:01
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's just the fact that she can place that vote, knowing that people in Forty-nine other states, women who don't have access to safe legal abortion care who are bleeding out because of complications of a miscarriage.
11:23
[SPEAKER_02]: people who have to travel over state lines, you know, it might play in parenthood affiliate in California, Nevada.
11:30
[SPEAKER_02]: We're seeing people from forty one states across the country who are coming to us for life-saving and life-changing abortion care, right?
11:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Not to mention
11:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm only giving this example, right?
11:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we could go on and on and on and on about all of the other examples and the far-reaching, horrible, horrible outcomes from this bill.
11:53
[SPEAKER_02]: But you know, people rely on plant parenthood health centers often for
11:59
[SPEAKER_02]: comprehensive healthcare.
12:01
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we have eleven centers of the thirty five that we that we operate that offer, you know, comprehensive family medicine.
12:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
12:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We see generations of families for that we are their healthcare provider.
12:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
12:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And and we are a safety net health care provider.
12:20
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's often people who have nowhere else to go.
12:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And my opinion and it has been my opinion for for as long as I was able to articulate it, it's all fair is a human right, right?
12:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody deserves every person that walks.
12:35
[SPEAKER_02]: on this Earth deserves access to high quality health care without judgment.
12:40
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, regardless of, you know, age income, immigration status, gender, you know, religious belief, whatever, right, zip code, you name it.
12:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're going to eliminate that.
12:54
[SPEAKER_02]: for millions of people.
12:55
[SPEAKER_02]: What is it?
12:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Seventeen million people.
12:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, these lawmakers who voted against their own constituents,
13:07
[SPEAKER_02]: because they're afraid of Trump.
13:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't want to hear, Susan Collins gets to, you know, what did she and Murphowski sit down and go, okay, you vote, no.
13:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the next one will swap it.
13:18
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like they're, they're horrible people.
13:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
13:22
[SPEAKER_02]: They're horrible people.
13:24
[SPEAKER_02]: horrible people and they're not centrist.
13:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.
13:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Rule T is the point.
13:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And they know this.
13:34
[SPEAKER_02]: They're devoid of morals.
13:36
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't care.
13:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Do they sleep?
13:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know, well, it was agonizing for Lisa Merkown.
13:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so fucking agonizing to say, fuck you, everybody.
13:45
[SPEAKER_02]: what's agonizing it what was somebody I saw a great post and of course I forgot it because you know the news comes so fast and furious but like that's her you know that's her conscience talking to her right you you you you you have to live with this now like so do they live with themselves and then oh long till is finally he's got a spine because he's not going to seek reelection right nobody nobody deserves
14:12
[SPEAKER_02]: for making that statement when they got nothing to lose.
14:15
[SPEAKER_02]: You make the statement, you got to do what's right.
14:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes you got to accept the consequences of bad decisions that you make.
14:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And that goes for all of us, everybody that walks earth.
14:27
[SPEAKER_02]: You we have to we have to be willing to accept the consequences and sometimes that means making a tough decision or owning something that you don't particularly want to own because it might hurt you in the end.
14:42
[SPEAKER_02]: But you got to do it.
14:43
[SPEAKER_02]: You got to do it because it's the right thing.
14:45
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm you know, I would like to shift and talk about
14:50
[SPEAKER_02]: people like Elizabeth Warren and AOC and Latifa Simon and the Democrats who are in the minority but who never hesitate and there are many of them who never hesitate to stand up and speak truth to power.
15:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to use the example of this recent Democratic primary that happened in New York City for their mayor.
15:17
[SPEAKER_02]: and mom Donnie coming out and in a landslide.
15:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
15:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Beating Andrew Cuomo.
15:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, except in all the so many of the Democrats are attacking him.
15:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, but the voters aren't.
15:30
[SPEAKER_02]: No, the voters aren't.
15:31
[SPEAKER_02]: The voters are right with them.
15:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's where we get to exercise our power because what's happened is people are paying attention and they're seeing that these, you know, these elected officials and people that are running to become elected officials are oftentimes not in it for us.
15:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And when people speak, you know, I was listening to Mombani, he was on
15:54
[SPEAKER_02]: God, I can't even, I'm trying to think of the example, but like literally, I'm standing up and pacing right now with a cup of coffee.
16:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, she was on, I think it was with Kristen Welker and, you know, he's talking about just giving people an opportunity to prosper whatever that looks like.
16:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I think of Julián Castro, who ran for president.
16:16
[SPEAKER_02]: back in twenty nineteen right and i i'm a huge fan of the Castro brothers because they've always stood on the right side of every issue and they've lived they've lived lives that were you know they were impoverished kids they had them they were raised by a single woman who
16:37
[SPEAKER_02]: was the daughter of a Mexican immigrant.
16:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Their grandmother was a maid who came here as a child to Texas and had their mother Rosie Castro who is an icon who has lived her entire life fighting for people's rights, workers' rights, you know, just doing the right thing.
16:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And she raised these two
16:57
[SPEAKER_02]: boys men who devoted their entire lives to making people's lives better.
17:04
[SPEAKER_02]: And when Juliana Castro threw his hat in the ring, I read his entire platform.
17:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was all about everybody deserves a chance to prosper.
17:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever that looks like, that looks different to you than it does to me than it does to the kid who is the child of immigrants who is relying on public assistance to eat to whatever, right?
17:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that message always resonated with me.
17:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, because that's, you know, that was kind of, that was the message that my parents.
17:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
17:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Always too.
17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
17:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Always shared with me and my brother.
17:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And, and I, I think it's time, you know, Julion was ahead of the freaking curve.
17:53
[SPEAKER_02]: He just was.
17:54
[SPEAKER_02]: We weren't ready for him.
17:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, you know, I was, but like we, the collective, we're not ready for him.
18:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And now the awful already and mom Donnie has that same, you know, he he comes from that same place.
18:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's articulate is all get out like when that man speaks, I'm just like, okay, everything else tunes out because he is talking truth and it makes sense.
18:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And, and I want to, you know, I just want to give a shout out to my man, Julián Castro, for being brave enough to put those, those talking points out there.
18:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And now here we are, what is it?
18:35
[SPEAKER_02]: How many years can I do math?
18:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it almost eight years later, right?
18:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever, you know what I'm saying.
18:41
[SPEAKER_02]: We're two terms out.
18:43
[SPEAKER_02]: and people are starting to pay attention and voters are starting to realize, yeah, you know what that is the right thing.
18:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody does deserve access to healthcare.
18:53
[SPEAKER_02]: People do deserve a new deserve to live in safe communities without police brutality.
19:00
[SPEAKER_02]: People do deserve housing and access to housing and equity and education and food on their tables.
19:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, like, uh, anyway, I'm, well, I'm ready for.
19:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So let me just say, okay, no, I'm, I'm going to come into this.
19:16
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't want to call it negative, but kind of what we're dealing with.
19:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And so because the Democratic Party backed Cuomo, Bill Clinton endorsed him.
19:25
[SPEAKER_00]: He had, you know, all the money.
19:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason why mundane one was because of ranked choice voting.
19:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we're not going to have ranked choice voting in the election coming up in November.
19:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't it November?
19:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I think so.
19:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Next, next November.
19:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Next November and then.
19:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh wait.
19:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, oh, are you talking about the New York mayor's for New York?
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
19:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that's this November.
19:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is.
19:52
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is, is that Cuomo is going to run.
19:55
[SPEAKER_00]: So he understands that that could split the ticket.
19:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that that's going to happen.
20:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I talked to Sarah Burris last week and I had told her, you know, my concern, you know, I talked to my mom that morning and my mom's like, I don't think New York is going to let that happen.
20:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning the Democratic Party is split and then because of it, the Republican wins.
20:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So I mean, I guess we have yet to see what's going to happen.
20:18
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing that's bothering me
20:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's important that we restructure and we kind of reform some of what was not working in the Democratic Party.
20:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to be very clear here.
20:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean I don't like Democrats.
20:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I am very much a Democrat.
20:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But I also see right now and I'm not alone.
20:38
[SPEAKER_00]: that there are Democrats that are not united.
20:42
[SPEAKER_00]: There are like this group of people that are loud.
20:46
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we, you've named some of them.
20:48
[SPEAKER_00]: There's AOC, Chris Murphy, Eric Swallwell, Jasmine Crocket, JB Pritzker.
20:55
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of them.
20:57
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's not the entire party.
20:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that this is a big failure on their part.
21:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will say that
21:06
[SPEAKER_00]: they can right now, I think what we can do is ride, providing the, you know, next election in in in twenty six, the big one, the midterms, providing that they either happen or are, I think like there's gonna be two, two big two, what's the word, you know, like they're not gonna be able to rig it as harder to rig a midterm.
21:31
[SPEAKER_00]: No, of course, we don't know this for sure, but I think that the,
21:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, in twenty eighteen we had the largest midterms, I don't know if it was the history, but it was like general election turnout.
21:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that we're going to see an even bigger turnout, even though there's going to be voter suppression and all of that, that's legal, because of everything that's happening.
21:51
[SPEAKER_00]: If you look at what happens in the first term, you know, there were guardrails.
21:55
[SPEAKER_00]: There are no guardrails now, and the cruelty and the evil coming from that side is so fucking bad, even if they don't pass this bill.
22:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that the Democratic Party is gonna be able to ride on the fact that Trump is so bad.
22:09
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Democratic Party is not where it needs to be.
22:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not, they're not, how came Jeffries has yet to, at least from what I know, support Mondani.
22:20
[SPEAKER_00]: They are showing away from him because of some dumb fucking quote that was taken out of context, of course.
22:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, and I'm not gonna get into that, but overall,
22:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that there is this fight and there is a disarray.
22:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hate seeing them.
22:36
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's a disarray.
22:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And the thing is, I think, you know, we have all these elected Democratic officials, whether it's, you know, from Comptroller, all the way down to all the way to the top of the ticket.
22:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And what we need to see from them is a unified message we need to see and they're not doing it.
22:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're not even supporting the winner, which is worrying me because in the people want money.
22:58
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we have learned, the people don't always get to choose based on
23:04
[SPEAKER_00]: whether it's gerrymandering or so in order for us to have winds at this point, we need ridiculously high turnout.
23:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It's got to be ridiculously high.
23:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we will see that.
23:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we will see ridiculously high turnout just because of what we're facing.
23:23
[SPEAKER_00]: But moving forward if the party doesn't change,
23:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Then every single election year, it's going to be fascism versus democracy, and eventually they're going to get a fascist in there who is able to lock it down.
23:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what my fear is.
23:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to put all my focus on that, but it is absolutely something that we should.
23:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Understand, and so what does that mean?
23:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
23:50
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I see all these people on social media and they complain and they go, the Democrats aren't doing anything.
23:55
[SPEAKER_00]: We're fucked.
23:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So I am not a fan of promoting the idea we're fucked because when you do that, you're handing the wind to the GOP.
24:05
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, in any kind of a fascist regime, it's always the beginning.
24:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what the beginning means, but the beginning where you can defeat it.
24:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Once it's immense, it's immense, and then it's decades, if it ever goes to anything different.
24:19
[SPEAKER_00]: But just, you know, claiming, we're fucked, that's going, okay, GOP one, you won, and they haven't won.
24:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't like seeing that, but what it is is that there is a power in the people, right?
24:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And
24:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Our power is we can't do any of the democratic party can't do anything right now, legislatively.
24:42
[SPEAKER_00]: They just can't.
24:43
[SPEAKER_00]: But they can do all kinds of things with messaging and optics and letting the voters and other countries and everybody know we're not putting up with the shit and they're doing it because they're voting with them.
24:56
[SPEAKER_00]: They're voting with the GOP.
24:58
[SPEAKER_00]: They're confirming GOP nominations.
25:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Why are they fucking doing it?
25:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Why aren't they obstructing every single thing that makes me the craziest is like I when whenever the day you know the
25:12
[SPEAKER_02]: whenever a psycho killer was inaugurated.
25:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, we need to as a party obstruct everything.
25:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not doing and they're not doing it.
25:24
[SPEAKER_02]: And so they're voting for it.
25:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And then some Democrats are like, I'm bummed I did that.
25:28
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, oh my God.
25:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So this a but the thing is.
25:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and the thing is is the only way they're going to do anything that we want them to do is if we put pressure on them,
25:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
25:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that means, you know, getting out of your comfort zone and maybe making a phone call and calling your representative and letting them know in a civil polite way, but with, you know, sternness in your voice, be clear.
25:55
[SPEAKER_00]: what you want from them.
25:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, I mean, it's gonna be up to them, but if they get pressured, look, Trump changes course all the time when there's public pressure.
26:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Democrats need to feel that public pressure.
26:09
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not me bashing on Democrats.
26:11
[SPEAKER_00]: This is me saying we need to improve our party because right now that I don't know what it is.
26:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it's fear.
26:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if it's because they want their lobby money.
26:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but regardless, they are not doing what they need to do.
26:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I even, okay, my dad is a nineties Democrat.
26:28
[SPEAKER_00]: He is, you know, I am not in love.
26:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like, God, what says, well, I don't know why I always have a thing with his name.
26:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll think of it in a minute, but he's the Cajun.
26:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, Louisiana.
26:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Pundit.
26:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, the Bowen.
26:45
[SPEAKER_00]: No, the bald guy.
26:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Carville.
26:47
[SPEAKER_00]: James Carville.
26:48
[SPEAKER_00]: James Carville.
26:49
[SPEAKER_00]: He announced on the beginning that the night of the twenty eighteen midterms.
26:55
[SPEAKER_00]: He basically came on at the beginning and said Democrats are going to get completely annihilated.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And instead, we won big.
27:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Now my father loves him.
27:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
27:03
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like a fool on nineties Democrat and I talked to him the other day and he's like, you know, the Democratic party is just they they're not getting it together.
27:12
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not and so it's you know, it's not just me.
27:16
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just, you know, the progressives who can see it.
27:20
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the nineties.
27:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I wouldn't call him a centrist.
27:23
[SPEAKER_00]: He's closer to a centrist than me, but he's not.
27:26
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just, I don't know, he comes from that era.
27:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, how it is, we all come from there and then we're kind of stuck there.
27:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Not everybody, like my mom isn't.
27:33
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom is absolutely a progressive.
27:36
[SPEAKER_00]: But still, you know, they're the same age.
27:38
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just think it's up to us.
27:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So instead of whining and complaining, and I'm not saying that because I say stuff about the Democrats, but it's like, but I'm going to back it.
27:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to make phone calls.
27:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do things so that the Democratic officials know, hey, wait a minute, we're not happy.
27:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm pretty happy with my
27:58
[SPEAKER_00]: the people in my district with the exception of Angela also Brooks because I can't even remember now I call her but she voted for something that pissed me off she confirmed somebody or what I think I can't remember who it was but you got to let them know because it's us we don't have right now we don't have the Supreme Court
28:15
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have corporate media or legacy media.
28:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, right now, we can't even depend on the entire Democratic Party.
28:23
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got a bunch of people who are rising to this occasion, but not the way.
28:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's us instead of putting the blame.
28:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about just blame.
28:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You can absolutely point to the group of people who need to do better and pressure them.
28:38
[SPEAKER_00]: But if there's going to be blame, it's leaders and the voters.
28:42
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just the leaders.
28:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the voters are the leaders work for the voters.
28:48
[SPEAKER_00]: We pay them.
28:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So take responsibility yourself.
28:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't just say, oh, it's their fault and there's nothing I can do when we're fucked because you're not helping when you do that.
28:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so my my soap box thing is over, but I just I I see it all the time and it's really bothering me and I am and I do feel if we can have
29:09
[SPEAKER_00]: If we have midterms because I know people are freaking out that, you know, they're not even going to happen.
29:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I think they will.
29:15
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we don't have them, or I'm sorry, if we do have them, and there's going to be all kinds of fucking god only knows what laws they're going to pass, you know, from now until then.
29:28
[SPEAKER_00]: The laws that are already in place are keeping so many people away.
29:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So make your fucking plans now.
29:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Figure out how you're going to vote now.
29:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't wait until I know that everybody's listening to this podcast is like, yeah, we already do that.
29:44
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just tell your friends, you know, tell your friends, make a plan.
29:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause we can't
29:51
[SPEAKER_00]: We just can't keep operating this way and it's really worrying me and I don't know.
29:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just, you know, I'm just going to throw this out there and I'm going to let you say whatever you want.
30:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they've got this thing called alligator alcatraz and somebody pointed out that we shouldn't call it alcatraz because an alcatraz, all of the people who went there
30:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Basically, went through the legal system.
30:15
[SPEAKER_00]: They had due process and everything.
30:17
[SPEAKER_00]: This case is not, this is, she said, call it alligator Auschwitz, which I'm not necessarily a fan of calling it that.
30:25
[SPEAKER_00]: But I understand the whole point, because the people who are going to be stuffed in cages, which are already flooding by the way, what's going to happen, this is in Florida, what's going to happen in hurricane season.
30:38
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not getting due process.
30:39
[SPEAKER_00]: This is straight up.
30:42
[SPEAKER_00]: There's it's human trafficking.
30:43
[SPEAKER_00]: They want to send and the Supreme Court said it's fine to, you know, like, let's just say that they wanted to send me.
30:51
[SPEAKER_00]: They said, we're going to just send you to Germany or we're just going to send you to, you know, whatever, Pakistan.
30:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I'm not, I mean, this is my country of origin.
31:02
[SPEAKER_00]: But if they want to, if they want to deport somebody, it's not deporting.
31:05
[SPEAKER_00]: But if they want to get rid of somebody, if they want to disappear somebody, they can just send them off to some country who will pay the United States to take them and basically enslave them.
31:16
[SPEAKER_00]: What is that?
31:18
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
31:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, oh my God, I can't believe we're living in this.
31:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I just can't believe that this is happening.
31:24
[SPEAKER_00]: This is so, but this is probably why I'm feeling like I'm feeling today.
31:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
31:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
31:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm just really down.
31:31
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm just, I'm just, I'm so with you.
31:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so with you.
31:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so, you know, every day there's this low grade like, yes, I want to know what's happening in the news, but I'm also so afraid to see how poorly human beings are being treated by this administration.
31:59
[SPEAKER_02]: The fact that this new bill has, you know, increased ISIS budget by Asylian and they'll be the largest, and I don't, you know, law enforcement agency in the country.
32:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's all designed to treat
32:15
[SPEAKER_02]: people of color inhumanely.
32:16
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the design they, and that makes me really sad.
32:21
[SPEAKER_02]: That makes me, and it's not just because I'm Mexican.
32:26
[SPEAKER_02]: It's because I'm a human being.
32:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think of, you know, I think of my friends who are LGBTQ and in particular, my transgender friends who risk their lives just going into public every day.
32:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
32:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
32:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
32:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, a plastic martyr moved.
32:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where she moved.
32:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you familiar with plastic martyr?
32:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't.
32:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
32:52
[SPEAKER_00]: She's a trans actress.
32:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I've had her on my show.
32:57
[SPEAKER_00]: She's really fucking smart.
32:59
[SPEAKER_00]: She transitioned when she was, I don't know how old she was.
33:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, she didn't have any operation when she was young, but she started as like an early teen and she told her mother, you know, and her mother accepted her and loves her and
33:14
[SPEAKER_00]: She left the country when Trump, you know, became president and it makes me really sad because she wants to live.
33:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
33:21
[SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly why she did it.
33:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Just so she could fucking live and not live in fear.
33:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
33:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I don't want to live in fear.
33:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I do all the stuff where, you know, I mean, some people go to therapy and my therapy right now is
33:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even like to use the word manifesting because it makes it sound like, oh, I believe in this focus-pocus bullshit that you can just wave a magic wand and that's not what it is.
33:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like recognizing, okay, I'll give you a quick little example.
33:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want, you know, when I'm talking about this, apply it to politics and how we all view politics.
33:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's this woman.
33:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I love her so much.
34:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Her name is Allison with one L. Coglin and she's from
34:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Great Britain and she talks about manifesting and she explains it in such a way that it's easy for the human brain to comprehend it and she's my favorite one.
34:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So she did a video yesterday and she was talking about how, you know, she was in this chat group and somebody said something and she didn't correct them but she had a different perspective and she was explaining to her
34:27
[SPEAKER_00]: why her, you know, what, it was kind of contradictory to what this person tried to correct her and said, oh, don't say that because X, Y and Z will happen.
34:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And then so she came back and she realized this person was only trying to help.
34:40
[SPEAKER_00]: They were coming from a very helpful place.
34:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And she was like, well, know that, you know, for me, I've been doing this for so long and, you know, blah, blah, blah, and this is what works for me.
34:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So then she gets another message from somebody else privately, another coach, basically calling her gross and saying horrible things about her.
34:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And so she says, okay, so now you've got the scenario where something happened and you don't like it.
35:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And she talks about years ago, she might have taken that to heart and felt like, oh no.
35:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I fucked up.
35:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I really, I'm gross.
35:15
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
35:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I am gross and identified with whatever that person said about her.
35:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And she said, I might have spiraled.
35:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I might have felt shame.
35:25
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, but what wound up happening?
35:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I've been doing this for a while.
35:30
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, you know, I got this criticism and I felt the way I felt about it and it was okay, whatever she felt about she didn't like it, it was uncomfortable.
35:36
[SPEAKER_00]: But then she kind of after she had her feelings of whatever it was that she felt, she thought, okay, now, how do I turn this around and make this good for everyone?
35:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And she, you know, she kind of just let it go, right?
35:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Just I'll let I'll figure it out.
35:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not, I don't have to figure it out this right in this minute.
35:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to, you know, work hard to figure it out.
35:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just dropping this right now and letting the idea come to me in the idea that came to her was just as simple as I'll do a video on it.
36:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll talk about this and I'll share so that I can feel good and other people can understand where I'm coming from.
36:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what she did was instead of focusing on what made her feel bad.
36:19
[SPEAKER_00]: She felt bad for a little while.
36:21
[SPEAKER_00]: She felt her feelings, because there's nothing wrong with that.
36:23
[SPEAKER_00]: But she didn't identify as those feelings, and then she decided, okay, what is a better way to deal with this?
36:29
[SPEAKER_00]: What's a way to deal with?
36:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So we can do the same thing.
36:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, when it comes to anything in our life, and that's what I'm trying to do right now.
36:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's like, you know, I'm in a shitty mood today and I'm, you know, I'm not resisting the shitty mood.
36:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just there and I don't like it, but it'll go away because nothing ever lasts forever.
36:49
[SPEAKER_00]: But when it comes to how we deal with politics, it's the same fucking thing.
36:54
[SPEAKER_00]: You feel the way you feel about it.
36:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And you rest, you recharge, you do what you need to do to get back to a place of like, I'm okay now.
37:04
[SPEAKER_00]: If you need to break down, it doesn't matter.
37:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Do what you need to do emotionally.
37:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And then what is the solution?
37:12
[SPEAKER_00]: What is a better outcome?
37:14
[SPEAKER_00]: What is an outcome that's going to make me feel good and how can I get there?
37:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And even if you don't know the path,
37:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Just trust, drop it.
37:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't sit there and think, think, think, think, think, just drop it.
37:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Because what winds up happening is when you have that kind of relaxed attitude, you start getting ideas come to you.
37:33
[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, oh, maybe that.
37:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, maybe that.
37:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And it doesn't mean you're always going to be inspired to do the most perfect thing.
37:41
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think that when you're in that state of just kind of like, I'm going to allow whatever ideas come to mind.
37:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll see how I feel about them.
37:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I will either
37:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Accept them or I will reject them and I think that's so important right now for all of us because like I said that's not a will will kind of a thing That's just recognizing who we are and that we have the ability to kind of go away to minute I don't have to go into a spiral of Fear or anger or shame or whatever I don't have to hold on and carry that and accept it
38:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I might feel that way for a little while, but you're not going to feel that way forever.
38:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And so really all you have, and I'm, okay, I'm going to wrap this up, and so what I do now.
38:27
[SPEAKER_00]: What I do now, and I listen to some new woman on, it's a different, not Allison.
38:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But the way she described it really helped me, and I don't know if anybody out there is necessarily going to be able to understand this, because I don't know if I would have understood this five years ago.
38:41
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, all we have is right now, this now moment, like the past is already over.
38:45
[SPEAKER_00]: The future isn't here yet.
38:46
[SPEAKER_00]: We just have now.
38:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the moment of now, when you are feeling okay, you know, when when everything is okay, and I'm not talking about like
38:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Democracy is in place and everything is perfect.
38:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, you know, I'm sitting in my chair.
39:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm comfortable.
39:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm talking to you, my friend.
39:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel fortunate.
39:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is perfect right now.
39:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So what I'd try to do is put my
39:12
[SPEAKER_00]: attention on that in that now moment because the more we focus on things being good things feeling good the more we start experiencing it because we're putting our focus on it so it doesn't mean that when you know if we do that it's we're always going to feel great because I could tell you right now I don't feel great but I can still recognize that in this moment
39:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is perfect.
39:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I have what I need.
39:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you don't have what you need in that moment, then that's not the moment to do it because then you're going to feel like you're lying to yourself.
39:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's totally not what you want to do.
39:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, like I said, I mean, I'm not saying be delusional or just do these random affirmations that mean nothing to you.
39:59
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you can get into that now moment, and I know that sounds so new agey, but seriously, it's like that's literally all we have now.
40:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
40:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, you know, each new moment is a refresh of now.
40:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And so to, if you're in that moment where you're comfortable and you're okay, recognize it, I am fulfilled.
40:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is perfect.
40:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And put your focus there for even just a second.
40:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, do what you need to do.
40:25
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I do all day long now.
40:27
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like when I have moments of just quiet and I think about it in my imagination, I just recognize, I say, everything is perfect.
40:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I am fulfilled.
40:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And that doesn't mean that I'm fulfilled, like if I, you know, because democracy is back in place.
40:41
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it isn't, but we have work to do.
40:43
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we got to do.
40:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
40:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, you know, I'm coming from an existential place, but I mean, I think that in this time of, I don't even know what to call.
40:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, fascism.
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, fascism.
40:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we need to cope.
40:58
[SPEAKER_00]: We need coping mechanisms because nobody in this country who was born here and raised here
41:05
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, has ever experienced fascism in America, not like this.
41:11
[SPEAKER_00]: There have been, there's absolutely been segments of society who have
41:19
[SPEAKER_00]: experienced, you know, obviously slavery and modern day slavery, all kinds of horrible things.
41:25
[SPEAKER_00]: But as far as our government is concerned, we have not had it.
41:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So not in this way, not in this overwhelming way.
41:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's very hard to take.
41:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, I don't know.
41:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what do you do?
41:35
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you handle these times, you know, when you, you know, you've got to drop to do your mom, you have a family, you have people in your life, you can't just fold into yourself and give up.
41:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So like, how do you handle it?
41:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I try to just, I mean, you know, I've talked about this on your show before, but I've been sober for a really long time and part of coming into that, you know, sobriety that new way of living, you're really, I went through a twelfth up program and so I, um,
42:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I started, I got out of like, I'm the victim.
42:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to do these horrible things.
42:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you sort of snap out of that and you realize, look, I have to accept the things I can't change and have the courage to change the things that I can.
42:30
[SPEAKER_02]: You want to hug woo woo, but that gets me through.
42:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And also, we have all these great little things like do the next right thing.
42:37
[SPEAKER_02]: keep your sight of a street clean.
42:39
[SPEAKER_02]: If you, if you, if you fuck up, you got to own it.
42:42
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the right thing to do.
42:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And sometimes that really sucks, right?
42:48
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you can come from a place and I try to do this with my kids and with myself and in my life, you know, we make mistakes where human beings were gonna screw up.
42:58
[SPEAKER_02]: We're gonna do stupid shit.
43:00
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you can grab hold of that and say, okay, that was a mistake.
43:05
[SPEAKER_02]: That wasn't the right thing.
43:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever it happens to be on it.
43:10
[SPEAKER_02]: be willing and I, you know, I alluded to this at the beginning, but like be willing to accept the consequences of your actions and have the courage to change those things if you can.
43:20
[SPEAKER_02]: But also like I just, I just remember being a kid and there was this instance that happened when I was in, I was in third grade.
43:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And I went to my dad was in graduate school.
43:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I was in school in Palo Alto.
43:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was a kid.
43:41
[SPEAKER_02]: My parents had no money because my dad was in grad school.
43:43
[SPEAKER_02]: My mom was working as a secretary.
43:44
[SPEAKER_02]: She made eight grand a year.
43:45
[SPEAKER_02]: This was in
43:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And she was supporting our family and my dad was, you know, getting a graduate degree at Stanford University.
43:54
[SPEAKER_02]: It was it was heavy times and I had a lot of responsibility as a little kid at that time, right?
43:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I had a little brother.
44:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I had a key around my neck.
44:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I was on, you know, reduced lunch.
44:04
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a time, right, where you realize at that age that there are
44:09
[SPEAKER_02]: There are kids that were kids that were professors, children, that were kids that lived in the beautiful college terrace area of Palo Alto, and there were kids from East Palo Alto.
44:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was a very diverse classroom.
44:21
[SPEAKER_02]: There were kids whose parents, you know, kids from other countries whose parents were also getting their education.
44:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was like, you know, I had friends in my classroom from Venezuela, from Kenya, from Colombia, from Indonesia, like it was wild, but like it was so cool.
44:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember my mom always saying, you are so like think about,
44:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So lucky you were to have my best friend was from Israel.
44:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And she was trying to teach me Hebrew.
44:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And we, you know, it was just it was so amazing, but it was also very eye-opening as a little kid to see the differences, right?
44:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And you couldn't, I didn't know how to put words to it at eight.
45:00
[SPEAKER_02]: When I was in that classroom, but like, you know, I knew there were kids from East Palo Alto who had nothing.
45:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was a kid who didn't, I had a roof over my head, right?
45:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think God had the Tencent Lunch.
45:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, there were moments where I saw racism in my classroom, and it was coming from the teacher.
45:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And I watched her treat.
45:28
[SPEAKER_02]: a kid from East Palo Alto who was a black boy who was awesome.
45:33
[SPEAKER_02]: We sat in these little tables of four.
45:35
[SPEAKER_02]: We had our deaths pushed together in groups of four.
45:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was another girl from Israel and she was white.
45:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And this boy, they were crazy about each other.
45:46
[SPEAKER_02]: They had like this cute little eight year old crush on each other, nine year old crush on each other.
45:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And they were playing at the table.
45:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And they were putting, we were doing an art project and they were putting tape on each other.
45:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Like they take a little piece of tape off and put it on their sleeve or in their hair or whatever.
46:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And the teacher saw this going on.
46:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think she saw that the boy put a piece of tape in the girl, I don't even remember where.
46:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was sitting there.
46:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We were having fun.
46:12
[SPEAKER_02]: We were little kids.
46:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was no malfeasance going on.
46:16
[SPEAKER_02]: It was adorable.
46:16
[SPEAKER_02]: These kids, they had a cute little puppy love thing going on, right?
46:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And
46:23
[SPEAKER_02]: The teacher whipped that voice chair around and she got face to face.
46:27
[SPEAKER_02]: She was on a chair.
46:27
[SPEAKER_02]: He was on a chair and she aggressively whipped him around and be rated him for being, you know, I don't know, physically aggressive with this little girl.
46:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And we were sitting there and we were like, our mouth is where I gave.
46:41
[SPEAKER_02]: We couldn't believe it.
46:42
[SPEAKER_02]: We were scared, shitless.
46:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And she said, she ended up slapping this boy across his face.
46:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my God.
46:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And awful.
46:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was...
46:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I was, I went, like, I transcended to another place.
47:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
47:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And I went home that day.
47:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And for some reason, my dad was home because he was usually studying and didn't, you know, came home at the end of the day.
47:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And this was how it was.
47:16
[SPEAKER_02]: It was the seventies.
47:16
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we were fair.
47:17
[SPEAKER_02]: All of us.
47:18
[SPEAKER_02]: But he was there.
47:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember my dad and I sat in this, like,
47:24
[SPEAKER_02]: This furniture that came in the student housing and we like face each other in these chairs much like the teacher and the boy did only it was not aggressive.
47:32
[SPEAKER_02]: It was I had to tell them what happened because I was just I was freaking traumatized and I knew it was wrong and I knew it was racism.
47:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And I told him and he goes.
47:44
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you feel?
47:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, what does that, what do you feel?
47:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, I feel like it was unfair.
47:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And she said, why do you think it was unfair?
47:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Why do you think, see, did that to him?
47:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, and it was so hard for me to admit, I remember, you know, that was fifty two years ago.
48:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm sitting there and I said, because he's black.
48:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And he goes, and that's wrong.
48:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said it is.
48:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And he said, I have to go talk to Dr. Jones.
48:13
[SPEAKER_02]: That was our principal, a very brilliant, wonderful black man with a PhD.
48:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And my dad got on his ten speed and rode down to the school in that moment.
48:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was more to fight because I didn't want to have that come down on my little brown ass from this teacher who clearly makes her decisions based on
48:39
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, race?
48:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
48:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And he goes, I have to, I was like, Dad, please don't, please don't.
48:45
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, Stephanie, I have to do this.
48:47
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the right thing to do.
48:49
[SPEAKER_01]: If we don't speed up the cry, if we don't speak out against these injustices, then they will continue to happen.
48:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And he got on his bike.
49:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And he rode to school.
49:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was we with the school was essentially on campus.
49:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And he went down there.
49:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And my ass was pissed by that feature for the rest of the school year.
49:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not kidding.
49:14
[SPEAKER_02]: But nothing like that ever happened again in that class.
49:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Good.
49:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Good.
49:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm so I'm just so emotional because we're seeing this happen.
49:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Fifty two years later only gets by.
49:29
[SPEAKER_01]: It's by armed.
49:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, militant, you know, masked.
49:37
[SPEAKER_02]: people who are whose entire existence is founded in racism.
49:44
[SPEAKER_01]: and mistreating people and physically abusing people because of the color of their skin or the country that they come from.
49:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm so sorry.
49:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so sorry.
49:56
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how a lot of us feel every day.
49:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, obviously I have white skin.
50:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a woman.
50:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So I understand misogyny sexism and all of that.
50:05
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I mean, I have empathy.
50:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So I feel like
50:11
[SPEAKER_00]: you know it's so difficult to watch what's going on to the point where I mean I can't watch everything what's going on because it's you know when I when was this I can't remember I had moved up to Northern California from Los Angeles and I was having a difficult time it's very different up there and my mother had it was near Christmas and my mother had suggested why didn't go volunteer
50:37
[SPEAKER_00]: It might help you feel better.
50:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So I did, and I volunteered to decorate the homes of, you know, the less fortunate.
50:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what else to call them.
50:47
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was actually this apartment building in San Rosa, California where I don't know, you know, it was section eight or whatever it was, but they actually weren't bad.
50:56
[SPEAKER_00]: They were pretty nice.
50:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Northern California is so beautiful.
51:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And San Rosa is kind of out there.
51:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's not, you know, the most dangerous place in the world.
51:06
[SPEAKER_00]: But this was a pretty nice place.
51:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I was kind of impressed.
51:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, I met up with whoever.
51:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And we had some decorations.
51:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were, you know, gonna go to different people's homes.
51:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So I knock on this man's door.
51:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was in a wheelchair.
51:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And he, I believe, had recently lost both of his legs.
51:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know why.
51:26
[SPEAKER_00]: But he was obviously, you know, he was poor.
51:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And whatever it was that caused him to lose his legs, he was at this point devastated.
51:37
[SPEAKER_00]: It was obvious.
51:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I walked into his home, it just literally got in stoned, which I don't blame him.
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: But he was very down.
51:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And here, you know, I go in and I tried to be happy for him.
51:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried to bring some cheer into his home.
51:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And I decorated it.
51:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think there was somebody else there or whatever.
52:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And this man was just so beside himself.
52:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he was feeling so down.
52:07
[SPEAKER_00]: He had lost his legs.
52:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's living, you know.
52:10
[SPEAKER_00]: And I, you know, so I did what I did.
52:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't even remember
52:16
[SPEAKER_00]: If you, you know, I mean, I don't remember any exchange that we had.
52:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure he thanked me, but it didn't really improve his mood.
52:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I went home and I cried and I cried and I cried and I cried and I thought, I can't do this.
52:29
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't.
52:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have the temperament.
52:32
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just like with Michaela running save a fox.
52:35
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, she was saying toward the end,
52:37
[SPEAKER_00]: when she'd have to put foxes down when she was younger, she could kind of bounce back.
52:42
[SPEAKER_00]: It would hurt her, but she would bounce back and she was getting to the point where she wasn't bouncing back.
52:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like, I can't do this.
52:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to help, but I can't.
52:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, eventually what I did was I switched up my volunteer work.
52:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And instead of going to the homes of these people, and I wish I had the emotional strength to deal with it, but I didn't.
53:01
[SPEAKER_00]: So instead, I went around to different grocery stores and got them to donate a certain amount of food that I could take to this one, you know, I don't know, it was a center for
53:14
[SPEAKER_00]: people who needed stuff and they could just come pick up food.
53:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And the whole point of this is just to say that, you know, not every one of us is going to be able to fulfill all the roles and taking care of each other, but we all have roles to play.
53:27
[SPEAKER_00]: We can all do something that
53:31
[SPEAKER_00]: is helping your fellow human, if you can't do one thing, then try another.
53:38
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can't go knock on doors, you can make phone calls.
53:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We all have our own temperament and our own whatever it is that we can handle.
53:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And some of us can handle more.
53:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I honestly think you can handle more than I can with
53:57
[SPEAKER_00]: what you do and how you do it.
53:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've seen you at work.
54:01
[SPEAKER_00]: You're, you're fucking amazing.
54:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not just saying that because you're my friends.
54:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I kiss people's ass on the show because I most of the time invite people who I really like.
54:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And obviously you're like my best friend.
54:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So come kiss your ass.
54:12
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's genuine.
54:13
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I mean, you work so damn hard.
54:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're out there every day in the trenches and you're always, and when I say the trenches, I mean it.
54:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Like fucking, hey, we're kind of at war now.
54:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's not war.
54:23
[SPEAKER_00]: in the historical sense, but it's like psychological warfare is being used against us.
54:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're laughing when they're asked about this prison facility with cages.
54:38
[SPEAKER_00]: They're laughing, like it's so funny.
54:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't even know how to deal with that.
54:45
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't view and they we know who we're talking about when we say they they don't view the people we were you know the people who are getting hurt the most whether it's you know LGBTQ people of color women we are we are in.
55:02
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're not I posted something yesterday on my Instagram story that just really, really touched me and it was a black man sitting with other men talking about, you know, can't we all just, you know, get along and treat
55:20
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, everybody, like human beings, and you're like, no, because you don't see me as an equal.
55:28
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, we are not, why don't you just be white is what that really means?
55:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's not possible.
55:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at me, look at my skin, look at my hair.
55:35
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no way that that's ever going to be.
55:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, and I personally,
55:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, and maybe it's because, you know, I am who I am and I got to be this brown person and and look the way I look and have this dark skin and what have you and this wonderful cultural upbringing with, you know, the Mexican side of my family, the Italian side of my family, like, oh my gosh, we have, you know, my father is a descendant of
56:09
[SPEAKER_02]: a character, a grandfather, like this is what a freaking gift.
56:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I think, yeah.
56:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And like my mom even said, it's so funny, because when I was a kid, you hear horrible things.
56:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I heard horrible things.
56:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you got made fun of for being a tall woman and people will pick people apart and kids aren't can be cruel, right?
56:36
[SPEAKER_02]: But I just remember, you know, getting called names when I was little and I said to my mom, when time mama, we white.
56:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
56:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And she goes, she goes, no, we're Mexican and Italian.
56:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So like my mom, who, you know, at, at, when she, you know, at, you know, at, at, at, when she, you know, at, you know, at, at, you know, at, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at, you know, at,
57:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And she came from a nice Catholic Italian family.
57:02
[SPEAKER_02]: She knew her parents did not want that because her parents went through their own thing being, you know, the Italians who came here, you know, on boats.
57:16
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, a couple, you know, my mom's grandfather came here on a boat and they set their, you know, they found a home here.
57:23
[SPEAKER_02]: They worked in orchards.
57:25
[SPEAKER_02]: They did what they had to do.
57:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was, there was a, that was not looked at, you know, I mean immigrants have always been
57:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, picked on and marginalized.
57:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So to her, she's like, no, we're not white.
57:39
[SPEAKER_02]: We're Mexican and Italian and I was like, okay, and then I was like, oh, no, I'm not white.
57:44
[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to find out.
57:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
57:47
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and it's, it's just, it's tough, but I love, I love, um, I just love being.
57:57
[SPEAKER_02]: a person who lives in an area where we have so much rich culture, people from so many different backgrounds and countries.
58:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's a beautiful thing.
58:08
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the beauty.
58:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I, that's the beauty.
58:12
[SPEAKER_02]: That's, you know, love to travel.
58:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I love to travel.
58:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love to see what it's like in Morocco or when I'm just a flowery.
58:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I forgot.
58:21
[SPEAKER_01]: But then they come here and they're like, I got mine.
58:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I got mine and I can't live like that.
58:27
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
58:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I do got mine.
58:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
58:31
[SPEAKER_02]: That doesn't mean I don't want everybody else to get theirs or have a shot.
58:36
[SPEAKER_02]: There's this there's this wonderful.
58:39
[SPEAKER_02]: politician by the name of Michael Tubbs.
58:41
[SPEAKER_02]: He was the mayor of Stockton, California.
58:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know if you ever heard of Michael Tubbs, but he was successful in getting universal basic income past in his city.
58:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was to help give people a leg up to create a society that actually works for everybody.
59:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's running for Lieutenant Governor of California right now.
59:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's called me a couple of times because, you know, I'm pretty involved in politics and in the my area of my state and also at the federal level, but he called me over day.
59:17
[SPEAKER_02]: because he wanted money, of course.
59:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, please.
59:19
[SPEAKER_02]: But when Microsoft follows me, I want to talk to Michael Tubbs.
59:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was busy as hell, but I picked up that phone.
59:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, I know it's the last day.
59:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I go, what are you doing?
59:28
[SPEAKER_02]: What are you doing?
59:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Because what are we going to do?
59:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And he said to me, we need to try to create a society where everybody has an opportunity to just have a shot.
59:42
[SPEAKER_02]: That was his word.
59:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Those were his words.
59:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Have a shot.
59:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm so right there with him.
59:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's give people an opportunity.
59:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's continue.
59:54
[SPEAKER_02]: California just passed a free breakfast and lunch for all kids in public schools.
59:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know this?
59:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I saw.
1:00:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw.
1:00:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
1:00:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I was running for office for city council in in, in, in, twenty twenty I lost.
1:00:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I was lost.
1:00:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm just got to lose to win because I'm still in it, right?
1:00:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm still in it and I and I feel like with my beautiful
1:00:15
[SPEAKER_02]: job that I have, I get to be in it every day to try to try to engage folks who want to give their dollars to healthcare, right?
1:00:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Life-saving life-changing healthcare.
1:00:29
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what it does.
1:00:30
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what, and through that, you are giving people a shot, right?
1:00:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I, you know, I found out that this this public school that was down the street for me, like you may know, you've probably heard of Piedmont Avenue, right?
1:00:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
1:00:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Oakland that it's like some of the primeest real estate in Oakland, right?
1:00:51
[SPEAKER_02]: It's this wonderful street with great coffee shops and great shops and also this really precious public school, Paul Piedmont Avenue Elementary.
1:01:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And I went in there because I wanted and I knew that it was a school that
1:01:06
[SPEAKER_02]: had very, very few resources in the public school system.
1:01:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I went there to see if I could volunteer in some classrooms and I wanted to figure out, like, what does this community need?
1:01:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, the majority of the kids are children from, you know, immigrant families, they're black, they're brown, they're doing the best, their parents are doing the best they can do, you know, keep
1:01:33
[SPEAKER_02]: keep the lights on, you know what I mean?
1:01:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And so they go to this public school where these incredible teachers are literally going out of pocket to bring resources into the classroom so that these kids can get what they need and I used to come.
1:01:47
[SPEAKER_02]: I was there for two years and I was in a
1:01:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I was in a kindergarten classroom and then I was in a third grade classroom in the next year.
1:01:53
[SPEAKER_02]: But the kindergarten year I'm there and I used to on the days that I would go, I would bring snacks and I would say to the teacher, hey, let me bring the snacks on the days.
1:02:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I come because you don't need to take whatever, you know, minimal amount of money you're bringing home and buy a snack.
1:02:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me do that.
1:02:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I remember one day I'm sitting there and it was recess time and I've gotten all these different types of popcorn and whatever else the hell I've raped or whatever I brought.
1:02:20
[SPEAKER_02]: There were these kids that didn't want to play, they wanted to just keep eating the snacks until the snacks were gone.
1:02:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, and I said to the teacher, I go, I said, they don't even, you know, they're like, they are so into this, you know, when you check a pop that they don't want to go play, she goes, and she looked at me and she goes, this might be the last thing that they eat today.
1:02:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And I go, what do you mean?
1:02:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, there's no dinner program here at this school.
1:02:47
[SPEAKER_02]: It's title one school that has zero resources.
1:02:49
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no dinner program for these kids.
1:02:51
[SPEAKER_02]: She said, no, that was done away with us.
1:02:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I went to restaurant owners that I knew in the area, and I said, hey,
1:03:02
[SPEAKER_02]: You guys want to come together to feed these kids after school and invite their parents to come in when they pick them up and everybody gets to sit down in the cafeteria and eat, you know, pick past Mexican food or have, you know, pulled pork flyters or whatever.
1:03:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And I found restaurants that said, well, yes.
1:03:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I talked to the principal and I was like, we will bring all of this supplies in and we will take all of the trash out and clean.
1:03:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that it's no, the only lift is that you keep that multi-purpose room open and we will invite in their families to come and sit down through.
1:03:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it was all, it was good.
1:03:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the woman that ran the lunch program there, she's like, well, you have to talk to the district and I said, oh, okay.
1:03:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And so she, you know, she went and talked to the district in whatever busybody fashion she decided to do.
1:03:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And the district said no.
1:03:57
[SPEAKER_02]: Because they weren't because these restaurants weren't and me and this effort was not like, you know, we hadn't gone through the training program or whatever.
1:04:05
[SPEAKER_02]: We didn't have a certification to do it.
1:04:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, God damn it.
1:04:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So, but I escalated it a little bit.
1:04:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And
1:04:18
[SPEAKER_02]: shortly after that, the Oakland Public School System re-instituted the dinner program district wise.
1:04:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
1:04:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Look at the amazing people.
1:04:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Individuals have power.
1:04:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Individuals have power and sometimes it takes, you know, somebody who wants to do good to get told no, but then don't give up.
1:04:43
[SPEAKER_02]: because you got to be loud, you got to speak up for what's right.
1:04:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And so these kids are eaten.
1:04:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they just throw everybody, Stephanie did not go to social media then and go, we're fucked.
1:04:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll just say it.
1:04:59
[SPEAKER_02]: No, and I didn't go to, but I did use that when I was on the campaign trail because I didn't have any political experience and I'm like, well, what can you do?
1:05:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, well, tell you one thing I did.
1:05:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll tell you, I am, I'm a sales person for my whole fucking career.
1:05:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And what that means is I like to build relationships with people and say, how can you help?
1:05:22
[SPEAKER_02]: How can we work together to do whatever it is?
1:05:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Now before it was like, how can I help you grow your business and what blah, blah, blah.
1:05:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it turned into, how can I help fundraise into this or rapidly organize a community
1:05:36
[SPEAKER_02]: to do for their fellows.
1:05:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, I'm gonna give a shout out to some of these amazing people.
1:05:43
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a guy, his name's Richwood.
1:05:45
[SPEAKER_02]: He owns three restaurants in Oakland.
1:05:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Just an amazing person when I called him, I swear to God, this is Rich.
1:05:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I love Rich.
1:05:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And Rich comes Rich and his entire team show up for plant parenthood at every drop.
1:06:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, there are go to, they show up and they feed people at our events.
1:06:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And they, I don't even, I don't even know.
1:06:06
[SPEAKER_02]: how they, he does it out of the goodness of his heart and he charges us like a pit and spit anyway and they and they don't they don't minimize they like it is it's the full boat every time right and they love it and we love them.
1:06:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is a good man who when I called him and asked him what he I said here's what I'm thinking of doing and he goes yeah well we'll do it.
1:06:28
[SPEAKER_02]: So is it five days a week?
1:06:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, he was ready.
1:06:31
[SPEAKER_02]: He was ready to do it every threeteen day and I don't know.
1:06:35
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no.
1:06:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You do it once a week.
1:06:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to get some other restaurants a week.
1:06:39
[SPEAKER_02]: And so like there are people just need, you know, he wasn't thinking of that.
1:06:44
[SPEAKER_02]: He's working three restaurants.
1:06:45
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got, you know, hundreds of employees who were showing up.
1:06:48
[SPEAKER_02]: He's doing his own thing, but he gives a shit.
1:06:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And there are so many people that do that sometimes it just takes some weird hair bring idea.
1:06:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you can go out there and articulate it with a purpose and speak to people, they want to jump on like in my daily work, people are constantly thanking.
1:07:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for the work that you do.
1:07:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, thank you.
1:07:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
1:07:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You make it possible.
1:07:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just the lucky person that gets to make these phone calls and engage with you amazing folks and sit down and you're living room and take you to coffee and tell you what's up.
1:07:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And then thank you because none of this happens without people.
1:07:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's how you rally.
1:07:26
[SPEAKER_02]: That's just that's called that's called organizing.
1:07:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And I want to use the words of my brilliant.
1:07:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Congresswoman, Latifa Simon, who took over for the unbelievably brilliant Barbara Lee, who for twenty seven years served in Congress and never once didn't come home on the weekend to find out what people in her district that she represented needed and listens and calls you back and shows up and deploys people on her team to make sure.
1:07:58
[SPEAKER_02]: that hurt constituents knew they were being heard and Latifa Simon is doing the exact same thing.
1:08:04
[SPEAKER_02]: But what she said, someone posed a question to her like this guy, I can't remember his name Walter Masterson or somebody, he's a dude, I guess he's a journalist, I don't know, I saw him in a clip on Capitol Hill talking to Democrats and he was going to Democratic members of Congress and saying,
1:08:22
[SPEAKER_02]: They were talking about the Doge Defund of USAID and there was a farmer there and he said, how is this impacting you and the farmer gave an example of like, you know, money lost and what's happening and then he turns and he looks to this congress member from Maine and he goes, what the fuck are you going to do?
1:08:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Literally.
1:08:41
[SPEAKER_02]: And she goes, well,
1:08:43
[SPEAKER_02]: We're working with the farmers and they are going to show up on the steps of Congress and dump manure just like the folks just like the French farmers did.
1:08:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And the guy was like, hey, oh, yeah.
1:08:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was like, it was this great thing.
1:08:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they cut to Eric Swallwell, what the fuck are you gonna do?
1:09:01
[SPEAKER_02]: And Swallwell, this was a couple months ago, but still, it's relevant.
1:09:04
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes, they're not gonna have town halls in their own districts.
1:09:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm having town halls.
1:09:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll show up for a town hall.
1:09:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And he listed a few cities where he was doing it.
1:09:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And he goes, what the fuck, what the fuck, Eric Swallwell, because he loves to drop a bomb whenever he goes.
1:09:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they cut to Latifa.
1:09:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And he goes, what the fuck are you going to do?
1:09:24
[SPEAKER_02]: She goes, she goes, I'm already doing it.
1:09:30
[SPEAKER_02]: She goes, I'm a, you know, black women showed up, ninety percent of us made sure.
1:09:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
1:09:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, that we voted the right way.
1:09:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And she goes, what are you going to do?
1:09:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I need you organize your people.
1:09:43
[SPEAKER_02]: She goes, I need you to organize your people.
1:09:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I need you to organize white women.
1:09:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And the guy was like, oh, I mean, like, he took that like nobody didn't have an incredible answer.
1:09:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they went to Maxwell Frost who is just also brilliant.
1:09:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Like that sort of let's look to those leaders, but let's take those words from from the brilliant Latifa Simon who has devoted her entire life since she was a teenage mother.
1:10:11
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, living on public assistance, figuring out, what am I going to do?
1:10:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to organize my people.
1:10:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm going to get them what they need and whatever way I can.
1:10:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And we all have that power.
1:10:23
[SPEAKER_02]: We can organize.
1:10:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We can speak to our, you know, the folks in our community and people who are like mine and people who are quite frankly.
1:10:31
[SPEAKER_02]: and say, I need you to take a look at what these injustices that are happening.
1:10:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And if it bugs you, you've got to organize your people and you've got to call your representatives.
1:10:40
[SPEAKER_02]: You've got to show up in the streets.
1:10:42
[SPEAKER_02]: You've got to do the right thing.
1:10:43
[SPEAKER_02]: You've got to talk to the restaurant owner and say, these kids aren't eating, can you help?
1:10:48
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what we have to do.
1:10:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
1:10:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's what people more and more people are starting to do.
1:10:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's why
1:11:00
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that's why Mom Donnie is the Democratic nominee.
1:11:06
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why, you know, it was fifty-fifty and not, you know, fifty-four whatever the hell.
1:11:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't do math well.
1:11:14
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm saying?
1:11:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I'm not that quick.
1:11:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but to ask me, you know, how much money we got on the books, and I'll tell you right now in the top of the top of my head, but you know what I'm saying.
1:11:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
1:11:23
[SPEAKER_02]: We, so we have to keep doing this work.
1:11:27
[SPEAKER_02]: We are going to get beat down.
1:11:30
[SPEAKER_02]: We are going to continue to get beat down.
1:11:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
1:11:32
[SPEAKER_02]: This news is gonna make us cry.
1:11:33
[SPEAKER_02]: This news is gonna make us reflect on when you're a third grader and your father bestowed some freaking wisdom on you that you're gonna take with you for the rest of your life.
1:11:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Big deep for that stuff.
1:11:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Who are you?
1:11:46
[SPEAKER_02]: What are you about?
1:11:47
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the right thing?
1:11:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And the right thing is asking people to come along with you and to use their voices.
1:11:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And for some people who aren't full blown loudmouth lunatics,
1:12:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It's tough to protest.
1:12:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
1:12:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It's tough to show up because it's that can be real scary.
1:12:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, there are people in the world that don't want to ask somebody for for money for a cause, right?
1:12:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we have those folks have other gifts.
1:12:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Tap into what that is.
1:12:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like I said earlier, like, if you can't knock on doors, excuse me, right postcards, make phone calls.
1:12:27
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
1:12:28
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something you can do in your comfort zone.
1:12:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I mean, we all have to figure out what that is.
1:12:35
[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't shame anybody for, you know, I mean, everybody has different issues.
1:12:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people are just really not good and crowds.
1:12:41
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I mean, I really do not like going down to DC to protest.
1:12:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't mind, I've been to so many protests in my life.
1:12:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I prefer to go to a place where it's not, I just fucking hate going into DC.
1:12:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate it so much.
1:12:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's always local protests.
1:12:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So they all count.
1:12:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Do what you can.
1:12:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, I mean, it's just, we're gonna have to figure this out together.
1:13:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I know we gotta bring this to an end now.
1:13:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, it's really up to us.
1:13:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the more we realize that, instead of, instead of victiming out on that and saying it's up to us, poor us victims, it's no, it's like, look, we are not
1:13:21
[SPEAKER_00]: We are a country who has been raised on this idea that we're free and that we have liberty, which is very different from some of the other countries that have not survived a fascist, you know, taking over taking of the government.
1:13:34
[SPEAKER_00]: We have this kind of spirit in this country that we were raised on.
1:13:38
[SPEAKER_00]: All, I mean, especially, I mean, I'm not going to say especially genuxers, but, I mean, especially everybody.
1:13:45
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, this whole thing of when Reagan became president, who, of course, I don't like Reagan, but it was just this patriotic feel, you know, most of the country voted for him.
1:13:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And obviously, it was a different time.
1:13:57
[SPEAKER_00]: No, my mother didn't either.
1:13:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't.
1:13:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I was too key on.
1:14:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, it was just, it was still this idea of patriotism.
1:14:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, that's the year when he was elected, I was living in Soviet Russia with my father and stepmother because my dad worked for ABC News.
1:14:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember having, we went to, what was it called?
1:14:19
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a name of a house.
1:14:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't remember something house, and it was where everybody went, and it was all official, you know, the night that
1:14:29
[SPEAKER_00]: of the election.
1:14:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I remember, you know, the announcement that Reagan went and I didn't really understand anything.
1:14:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't following politics.
1:14:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know to like him or dislike him at the time.
1:14:38
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, there was just still this kind of force fed messaging that we've gotten all our lives.
1:14:46
[SPEAKER_00]: We're free, freedom is everything, liberty, you know, personal responsibility.
1:14:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not meaning that from the Republican side, which is all bullshit.
1:14:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I just mean it.
1:14:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's the country we were told.
1:14:59
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been, I don't want to say brainwashed, but we've been conditioned to believe that we are free.
1:15:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we're not.
1:15:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there have always been fascist policies.
1:15:16
[SPEAKER_00]: in a democracy, there have always been, there's always been a form of fascism within our democracy for certain groups of people.
1:15:24
[SPEAKER_00]: But in the bigger picture of the country, you know, yeah, you're free, you're free, and now we're not.
1:15:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So it is up to each one of us to take our personal responsibility and do what we can.
1:15:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully, this doesn't lead to cementing a fascism and then you're like, I could have done more.
1:15:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, we want it.
1:15:46
[SPEAKER_00]: We just want, I think you and I are basically saying figure out what you can do.
1:15:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't
1:15:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Focus on what you can't do.
1:15:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I can't do that because X-wise, don't focus on what you can't do.
1:15:58
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can't do it, don't do it.
1:16:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Focus on what you can do because when you put your emphasis and focus on how you can fix a problem, how you can turn things around.
1:16:09
[SPEAKER_00]: That's when you're open to ideas.
1:16:11
[SPEAKER_00]: If you say, I can't do it, then you shut down.
1:16:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You shut it all down.
1:16:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So just stay open and stop people, stop.
1:16:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I get if you're feeling doom, you're allowed to feel doom, you're allowed, but don't promote it and project it.
1:16:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Go nurse your wounds, relax, do whatever you need to do.
1:16:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Take some time off, come back and get back in.
1:16:36
[SPEAKER_00]: But don't make these, and I know I'm gonna see them.
1:16:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I'm gonna see the proclamations off.
1:16:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's it, we're fucked, we're doomed.
1:16:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And I get yelled at when I say, don't say that because they're like, well, people need to feel what they feel.
1:16:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Find feel what you need.
1:16:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not telling anybody how to feel.
1:16:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just saying be careful with what you're messaging because everybody's watching.
1:16:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're in a down state and someone else is in a down state, maybe you're going to cement it for them that this is over.
1:17:02
[SPEAKER_00]: When it isn't over, it's not over yet.
1:17:05
[SPEAKER_00]: There are still all these people in this country who are resisting, don't discount them just because you feel like a victim.
1:17:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Go feel victimhood, feel all your victimhoodness, and then get back on that horse.
1:17:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, anyway.
1:17:18
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
1:17:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's me.
1:17:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm done.
1:17:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have anything else to add?
1:17:22
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
1:17:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel good.
1:17:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm happy.
1:17:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm happy.
1:17:27
[SPEAKER_02]: We got to talk.
1:17:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that I can have every emotion on Earth when I have conversations with you.
1:17:35
[SPEAKER_02]: But I'm a passionate human being.
1:17:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm in it too.
1:17:40
[SPEAKER_02]: To win it for for humans.
1:17:41
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm saying and ver.
1:17:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
1:17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: We can do this.
1:17:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We can do this.
1:17:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So we just have to trust.
1:17:47
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to trust in what we don't see.
1:17:49
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to trust in ourselves.
1:17:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And we just have to keep going.
1:17:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?
1:17:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Trump isn't very bad physical and mental condition.
1:17:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what that means.
1:17:59
[SPEAKER_00]: But I, you know, I put my focus on that a lot of time.
1:18:03
[SPEAKER_00]: But just like focus on how unhealthy he is and, you know, who knows, you never know what's gonna happen.
1:18:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, on that note, I always like to say, tell everybody where to find you.
1:18:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think Blue Sky and Instagram are your two favorite, right?
1:18:16
[SPEAKER_02]: That's it.
1:18:17
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all I got.
1:18:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
1:18:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm Stephanie W at Blue Sky, STPHD Dubbs, and then Instagram, Steph Domingus Walton.
1:18:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have your blue sky linked on the Patreon description.
1:18:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So Stephanie, thank you.
1:18:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I love you.
1:18:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course we're going to talk to you.
1:18:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, my love.
1:18:39
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, take care.
1:18:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye bye.