Latest / The People's News / Trump's Land Grab/'Peace Plan' in Gaza Fails; Melissa Pounds Jamaica; Katy Pride Fights On - TPN 11/2/25

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Trump's Land Grab/'Peace Plan' in Gaza Fails; Melissa Pounds Jamaica; Katy Pride Fights On - TPN 11/2/25 · The People's News

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Speaker 1: It's the week of November twenty twenty five, and this
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Speaker 1: is what's on the People's News. Melissa hits Jamaica hard
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Speaker 1: with one hundred and eighty five mile per hour winds.
0:16
Speaker 1: Trump's Gaza landgrab disguised as a peace plan is phalan
0:20
Speaker 1: University of Houston students continue to fight for Palestine pride,
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Speaker 1: Katie faces homophobia at katie isd Iconic astral World celebrated
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Speaker 1: by local artists. All that and more on the People's News.
0:37
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Gallington. This is the People's News, and the
0:41
Speaker 1: People's News starts now. This is Steve Gallington of the
0:51
Speaker 1: People's News here on Houston's community station KPFT ninety point
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1:19
Speaker 1: Hurricane Melissa raged a path of destruction this week. It
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Speaker 1: first hit Jamaica as a Category five hurricane with winds
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Speaker 1: of over one hundred and eighty five miles an hour.
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Speaker 1: It caused damage throughout the island nation, while it did
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Speaker 1: not hit the capital of Kingston, hard Half of the
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Speaker 1: island is without power. Four people are dead in the
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Speaker 1: Port Elizabeth area, and the airport at Montego Bay is
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Speaker 1: closed as thousands of Americans on vacation are stuck on
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Speaker 1: the island. Eighty to ninety percent of the roofs are gone,
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Speaker 1: and hospitals and police stations are all destroyed on the
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Speaker 1: southeast and south the west sides of the islands. Parishes
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Speaker 1: including Saint Elizabeth, Hanover, Saint James, and parts of Manchester
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Speaker 1: have been severely impacted. The US State Department has issued
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Speaker 1: a statement that they will commit to helping the island
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Speaker 1: as well as surrounding areas. No indication on when that
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Speaker 1: aid will arrive. This is the largest hurricane to hit
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Speaker 1: the island ever, says Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Wholeness, and
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Speaker 1: some say that it will take weeks, if not years,
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Speaker 1: to get back to normal on the island. We talked
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Speaker 1: to Calfani Omari Fullerton Honorary Council for the Consulate of
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Speaker 1: Jamaica in Houston.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we've heard back on the Prime Minister a right
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Speaker 2: to just describe the condition in Jamaica because it was
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Speaker 2: a plan as a category five at over one hundred
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Speaker 2: and five one hundred and eighty five miles per our,
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Speaker 2: Hurricane Melissa sites basically this devastated land there. It damaged
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Speaker 2: a lot of hospitals, infrastructure. The airport was damaged also,
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Speaker 2: especially in Montica Bay. There are a lot of flooding
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Speaker 2: in Montica Bay and Westmoreland. The hurricane landed in New Hope, Westmoreland.
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Speaker 2: That's where it landed, and it affected the parishes of
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Speaker 2: Saint Elizabeth Saint James, which is Montica Bay mostly are
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Speaker 2: familiar with that. That's a tourist area and it also
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Speaker 2: affected Trelawney, a lot of flowing flooding in that area
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Speaker 2: and Saint Elizabeth, Westmoreland. But the entire island was affected
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Speaker 2: because of the wide you know wide span after hurricane.
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Speaker 3: It didn't hit Kingston, but the area that did hit
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Speaker 3: or or people know the resort areas, but people don't
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Speaker 3: know the poor areas in the country and how is
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Speaker 3: how is help being the needed help? They go to
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Speaker 3: those areas. Is that going to be hard or how
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Speaker 3: is that? How's that? How is that working out so far?
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Speaker 4: Well?
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Speaker 2: The needed help in that area. Obviously we have you
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Speaker 2: have to do an assessment. You have to clear the road.
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Speaker 2: Some of the roads are you know are impossible but
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Speaker 2: due to fallen tree and power lines, but they're you know,
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Speaker 2: we're working on that. You know, the Office of Emergency
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Speaker 2: Preparedness is you know, they're working on that right now
4:41
Speaker 2: to clear the roadway and family so family member can
4:45
Speaker 2: get to each other. And also the communication system. They're
4:50
Speaker 2: working on that so we could communicate. But those who
4:53
Speaker 2: have starlink starlink, I guess they're able to still continue
4:57
Speaker 2: to communicate with store link. And it's it's devastating. A
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Speaker 2: lot of home damaged homes, roof fell off because in
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Speaker 2: a category five situation and even four, it's normally very devastating.
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Speaker 2: I've I experienced one in the US Virgin Islands, the
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Speaker 2: Hurricane Hugo, and it was very devastating, So I understand
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Speaker 2: what a category of five hurricane could do to someone.
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Speaker 2: International help are you getting are you asking or international
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Speaker 2: help from the US or Europe? Yeah, we're acting for
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Speaker 2: help from anyone in a country, any person or or
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Speaker 2: willing to help, like right now in Houston, we are
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Speaker 2: accing for cash donation. Right now, we have the Jamaica
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Speaker 2: Foundation of Houston. They have been around for more than
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Speaker 2: five y five years. It's a five O one three
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Speaker 2: C organization and you know, you could they could donate
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Speaker 2: to that organization right now. And we're we're still in
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Speaker 2: the process of doing the national coordination and in the
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Speaker 2: United States, you know, in terms of the response to help.
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Speaker 2: But right now, when you have a disaster like this,
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Speaker 2: what you need is cash donation so that we could
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Speaker 2: get necessaries to keeper affected.
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Speaker 3: And can you repeat that how people can donate again?
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Speaker 2: You could donate to Jamaica j A M A I
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Speaker 2: C A Foundation F F O U N D A
6:48
Speaker 2: F O U n D A T I O n
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Speaker 2: OFF used in dot org. Jamaica Foundation of Houston dot
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Speaker 2: ARC is a five O one C organization, nonprofit. It
7:04
Speaker 2: has been you know, the foundation has been around for
7:06
Speaker 2: more than four to five years.
7:09
Speaker 3: All right, hey, and is it how's your family back home?
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Speaker 3: How they they well in terms of family members. I
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Speaker 3: have a nine to six year old, I have an
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Speaker 3: eighty five year old aunt. I haven't been able to
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Speaker 3: reach them, but the younger family members went to be
7:27
Speaker 3: with them to make sure they were okay.
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Speaker 2: So I feel pretty good. We're not able to communicate,
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Speaker 2: but I'm pretty sure the younger family members took care
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Speaker 2: of them.
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Speaker 3: Has it been any type of problems with you know,
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Speaker 3: with the mountains and landslides and that type of stuff,
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Speaker 3: because I know it's extremely extremely hard to get to
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Speaker 3: some areas in the country. Yeah, yes, it's it's it's
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Speaker 3: they're landslide and in Westmoreland, you know, in Westmoreland they're
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Speaker 3: flooding all over, and Montaga Bay especially a year and
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Speaker 3: then Catching Hall they're flooding, and we had they had
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Speaker 3: to move the elderly people to the second floor level,
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Speaker 3: you know, to keep them safe overnight, and some people
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Speaker 3: actually went up on the roof because they didn't have
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Speaker 3: a second floor. They went up there so that they
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Speaker 3: could be rescued. And the courthouses, hospitals, a major infrastructures
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Speaker 3: in Jamaica, you know, are damaged.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's it's it was. It was a devastating hurricane.
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Speaker 5: Mhm.
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Speaker 3: How long do you think how long do you think
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Speaker 3: it'd be? How long too. I know you haven't done
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Speaker 3: an assessment yet. But the airport, how long is that?
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Speaker 3: We don't know how long might be Might the airport
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Speaker 3: be closed?
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Speaker 2: We we don't know, but we're we're gonna make sure
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Speaker 2: like Kingston Airport, they're you know, because that it's remember
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Speaker 2: it urricane didn't hit directly there. So what we're going
9:06
Speaker 2: to try to do is to at least get that
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Speaker 2: airport up and running and also work on the Donal
9:13
Speaker 2: Sansa Airport in Montica Bay. But we have we have
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Speaker 2: we don't have a current assessment after damage of the
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Speaker 2: airport right now, all right, but we will find a
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Speaker 2: way to get it, you know, the government will try
9:27
Speaker 2: to find a way to get it going going again.
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Speaker 3: All right. I hope the best, my friend, and you know,
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Speaker 3: so you went for you and your family and the
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Speaker 3: people in Jamaica.
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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
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Speaker 1: That was Calfani Omari Fullerton Honorary Council for the Consulate
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Speaker 1: of Jamaica in Houston. To donate once again, you can
9:50
Speaker 1: go to Jamaica Foundation of Houston all put together dot org.
9:55
Speaker 1: Haiti was also hit by the hurricane, as twenty people
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Speaker 1: have died from the storm there Cuba was hit, but
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Speaker 1: there have been no deaths attributed to the storm there
10:04
Speaker 1: so far. The storm hit Bermuda as a Category one
10:07
Speaker 1: hurricane and is churning its way on across the Atlantic.
10:12
Speaker 1: It's fun drive time at KPFT. Call us and donate
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Speaker 6: We love the People's News.
10:27
Speaker 1: The convicted felon commander in cheat an addled seventy nine
10:33
Speaker 1: year old old man, Donald Trump took the Hamas and
10:37
Speaker 1: Israeli Peace Accord and used it like he always does,
10:42
Speaker 1: to bring more attention to himself and to travel around
10:45
Speaker 1: the Middle East, accepting bribes from powerful influencers around the world.
10:51
Speaker 1: But the reality is this piece accord, which is really
10:55
Speaker 1: just a land grab for Trump to make Gaza into
10:59
Speaker 1: a lucky xury development with his name on it for
11:02
Speaker 1: billionaires around the world, not only is a lie, but
11:07
Speaker 1: it's failing. Israel just bombed and killed over one hundred
11:12
Speaker 1: people in Gaza. In recent days. Hamas has executed those
11:16
Speaker 1: they accuse of siding with Israel, so the fighting continues.
11:20
Speaker 1: There is no cease fire. Israel also is restricting the
11:25
Speaker 1: flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza once again. In Houston,
11:30
Speaker 1: protests still continue as Palestinians and their supporters are demanding
11:34
Speaker 1: an end to what they say is US military funding
11:38
Speaker 1: of Israel and the continued hostilities by Israel on the
11:41
Speaker 1: West Bank University of Houston's student run organization, Students for
11:47
Speaker 1: Justice in Palestine. They're calling for the university to end
11:51
Speaker 1: all funding to Israel and to meet with the administration.
11:55
Speaker 1: So far, the university has stalled all contact and has
11:59
Speaker 1: stated that the state government will not allow them to discuss
12:02
Speaker 1: defunding with them. Since then, a cit in has been
12:05
Speaker 1: organized by the group, as well as a hunger strike.
12:09
Speaker 1: We talked to Sabash with s j P about the
12:13
Speaker 1: sit in.
12:14
Speaker 7: Whether the sit in, there's two reasons.
12:16
Speaker 5: The first is we know and we've seen a pattern
12:18
Speaker 5: of Israel breaking at ceasefires. I mean, we see the
12:22
Speaker 5: pattern of treatment of Palasinians, the blockade which is still ongoing,
12:29
Speaker 5: the bombardment which was supposedly stopped by the ceasefire and
12:32
Speaker 5: the peace process, but as we clearly see, has been ongoing.
12:35
Speaker 5: And you know, Israeli politicians have been bragging about the
12:40
Speaker 5: strikes in Gaza.
12:42
Speaker 7: You know there will never be.
12:45
Speaker 5: There will never be a Palatinian people in Gaza which
12:49
Speaker 5: Israel will not claim is violently resisting and you know
12:53
Speaker 5: used to justify striking them, right, I mean, we've seen
12:56
Speaker 5: the genocidal nature of this conflict and the job is
12:59
Speaker 5: not I think from's perspective, So we understand that whatever
13:04
Speaker 5: peace process we may see happening, sovereignty for Palestinians is
13:08
Speaker 5: not on the table. And so that you know, as
13:11
Speaker 5: long as the Palacinian people are not free and sovereign
13:13
Speaker 5: over there over their territory, you know, the genocide is ongoing.
13:17
Speaker 7: When you said that what we have, what we have,
13:19
Speaker 7: what we have seen is two two things.
13:23
Speaker 8: On this Reeli side, we've seen continuing continuous viols on
13:28
Speaker 8: the West bide and in Gaza on the on the
13:32
Speaker 8: on the Gaza side, on the Palestinian side, we've seen
13:35
Speaker 8: Hamas come out and executed people that they they they
13:40
Speaker 8: say are reciting against against the Palestinians. So it's been
13:44
Speaker 8: it's been a it's been a take for tack on
13:45
Speaker 8: both sides to on this, on this peace treaty.
13:49
Speaker 6: How do you address that?
13:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's it's impossible to look at a
13:53
Speaker 5: peace treaty and good faith, which which has no wit,
13:56
Speaker 5: which seeks to return to the status quo before the
13:59
Speaker 5: genocide again, because we're just going back to the conditions
14:03
Speaker 5: that precipitated the genocide in the first place. We're going
14:05
Speaker 5: back to the UH, the conditions that precipitated Palestinian resistance,
14:10
Speaker 5: Palestinians seeking sovereignty over their own country. And there's there's
14:15
Speaker 5: no way for a peace process which doesn't have that
14:17
Speaker 5: as its end goal UH to be UH to work,
14:22
Speaker 5: in my opinion, and and our organization has seen you
14:26
Speaker 5: know that these institutions like the University of Houston continue
14:29
Speaker 5: to profit off of Israeli militarism. So as long as
14:32
Speaker 5: Israeli militarism is profitable for the US and for our
14:36
Speaker 5: institutions here, you know, there's no reason that they get
14:40
Speaker 5: the green light from our government.
14:42
Speaker 8: What do you what do you feel is your answer?
14:44
Speaker 4: All this, because right now we.
14:46
Speaker 8: Have a situation now where uh but yet, Yeah, the
14:50
Speaker 8: Prime Minister of Isuel is under pressure from from the
14:53
Speaker 8: right to that didn't want to it didn't want to
14:56
Speaker 8: see far to begin with, and well, well and want
15:01
Speaker 8: to continue to continue and cease fire to end. Now,
15:06
Speaker 8: on the other side, you have hamas Is saying that well,
15:08
Speaker 8: we don't have we don't have the tools, and we
15:11
Speaker 8: have other elements within our source, within our ranks that
15:15
Speaker 8: want to seize fire to end on both sides.
15:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think, like I said, as long as the
15:22
Speaker 5: peace process doesn't have even on the horizon sovereignty for
15:26
Speaker 5: the Palestinian people, you know, there's no situation where it
15:30
Speaker 5: can result in a lasting peace because Israel has its
15:34
Speaker 5: its desires in Gaza, and Israel's iron grip and the
15:38
Speaker 5: blockade that it's had on Gaza for the last twenty
15:40
Speaker 5: years is not a livable situation. I mean, Israel has
15:44
Speaker 5: destroyed ninety percent of residences in Gaza.
15:47
Speaker 7: Israel has destroyed all of the.
15:49
Speaker 5: Infrastructure, clean water, almost all of the hospitals and schools
15:54
Speaker 5: in Gaza. So to return to the way things are
15:57
Speaker 5: now is just on accept and it's an unlivable situation
16:01
Speaker 5: for the people of Gaza, and we understand that as
16:04
Speaker 5: students here, and that's why we're protesting our university's complicity.
16:08
Speaker 7: So we've been on hunger strike.
16:09
Speaker 3: Now.
16:10
Speaker 5: Today Wednesday, October twenty ninth, marks two weeks since we
16:14
Speaker 5: launched our hunger strike.
16:16
Speaker 7: We have two students.
16:17
Speaker 5: Who have not eaten since two weeks ago in protest
16:21
Speaker 5: at the university. We reached out to the university and
16:24
Speaker 5: asked them to meet with us and to discuss the
16:28
Speaker 5: prospect of divesting the thirteen million dollars that they've invested
16:31
Speaker 5: into Boeing, into Lockheed Martin, into other companies which are
16:36
Speaker 5: facilitating the genocide and facilitating Israeli militarism in the West Bank.
16:41
Speaker 5: And they have continuously denied our requests from meeting, citing
16:45
Speaker 5: the Texas Anti Boycott Law, which criminalizes totally ridiculous law
16:53
Speaker 5: which has been adopted by thirty seven states now I think,
16:56
Speaker 5: which criminalizes the boycott of Israel for any public institution.
17:01
Speaker 5: But you know, we understand that the university has a
17:05
Speaker 5: larger responsibility to divest from militarism in general and to
17:09
Speaker 5: divest from the military industrial complex. They have huge, multimillion,
17:13
Speaker 5: tens of millions of dollars worth of research contracts with Boeing,
17:15
Speaker 5: Lockheed Martin, North from Grumman, other companies that make the
17:19
Speaker 5: drones and the weapons that are being dropped on the
17:21
Speaker 5: Palestinian people that are being used to patrol the border
17:24
Speaker 5: or you know, internal warfare on the.
17:25
Speaker 7: People of the US with ice. So you know, it's it's.
17:30
Speaker 5: Disgraceful that the university hasn't met with us and continues
17:33
Speaker 5: to refuse to do so behind the veil of this,
17:37
Speaker 5: you know, very constitutionally weak Texas anti buoy.
17:40
Speaker 7: Pot long.
17:42
Speaker 5: And so you know, we're here today to rally students
17:45
Speaker 5: behind the cause and show the university that this is
17:47
Speaker 5: a popular movement. I think there's no question that liberation
17:51
Speaker 5: for Palestine is inevitable, that the people.
17:54
Speaker 7: Of the world are you know, in agreement on this,
17:57
Speaker 7: and even the people of the US, I think, how
18:00
Speaker 7: are you?
18:01
Speaker 8: How is other other organizations, especially organizations like Young Republicans
18:05
Speaker 8: affecting your your because I'm assuming I pretty much know
18:10
Speaker 8: that it will be against any type of and they've
18:13
Speaker 8: been siding with the administration on not having any type
18:18
Speaker 8: of contact.
18:19
Speaker 5: Best you would think, so that the Young Republican turning
18:24
Speaker 5: point organizations that the University of Houston are very weak.
18:28
Speaker 5: The University of Houston student government has twice unanimously passed
18:33
Speaker 5: a resolution demanding that the university divests from arms manufacturers.
18:37
Speaker 5: Both times it's been ignored and now, actually the student
18:39
Speaker 5: government has been dissolved in response to the most recent
18:42
Speaker 5: vote by the university administration. So there's a little bit
18:46
Speaker 5: of a scandal ongoing with that because they're uh, you know,
18:50
Speaker 5: reinstating the student government. But until such a point as
18:54
Speaker 5: that's actually officially been done, it's actually illegal for the
18:58
Speaker 5: university not to have any way for students to interact
19:03
Speaker 5: democratically with the policies of the administration. But yeah, we
19:08
Speaker 5: have enormous popular support here on campus, but we really
19:11
Speaker 5: lack is leverage because at the end of the day, you.
19:14
Speaker 7: Know, the university is making money.
19:17
Speaker 5: The University Board of Regions appointed by Greg Abbott, are
19:20
Speaker 5: making you know, they have thirteen million dollars invested in
19:23
Speaker 5: these different companies.
19:24
Speaker 7: You know, they're making money.
19:25
Speaker 5: And until unfortunately, you know, they're not listening to the
19:29
Speaker 5: moral reason, which is, you know, the moral reason to
19:32
Speaker 5: divest is not.
19:32
Speaker 8: Something courages let me actually is on on on an
19:36
Speaker 8: international front, this peace treaty, this ceasefire, especially in the
19:42
Speaker 8: American administration, is is we've seen all these violations of
19:47
Speaker 8: the seas fire, but the important thing you're seeing is
19:50
Speaker 8: that the administration is you're saying the seas fire is
19:53
Speaker 8: still exists and is still in place only because something
19:57
Speaker 8: that the president wants to quit in hand for his
20:00
Speaker 8: uh nominally for the priest cries.
20:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it absolutely seems like, you know, it's beneficial
20:09
Speaker 5: for pr uh for Trump right now. And you know, unfortunately,
20:15
Speaker 5: no matter what the administration says, that people of Gods
20:17
Speaker 5: are still suffering, you know, from the destruction of their infrastructure,
20:21
Speaker 5: from the destruction of the homes, and from the ongoing
20:23
Speaker 5: bombardment and invasion by Israeli forces. I mean, even the
20:27
Speaker 5: proposed plan sees you know, a vast amount of the
20:30
Speaker 5: Gaza strip, which itself again has already been destroyed, being
20:33
Speaker 5: stripped away further from Palestinians, and you know, the occupation
20:37
Speaker 5: expanding Israeli military control. So you know, of course it's
20:41
Speaker 5: ridiculous for these war mongering presidents to to assert themselves
20:46
Speaker 5: as like arbiters of peace.
20:48
Speaker 7: You know, Trump has been very.
20:54
Speaker 5: I think convincing to some people on this front because
20:57
Speaker 5: he's so adamant uh. But you know, we see what's
20:59
Speaker 5: happening on the ground in house time, and there's no there's.
21:02
Speaker 7: No way you can describe it with peace.
21:04
Speaker 8: All right, Hey, how can people find out more about
21:07
Speaker 8: your organisation?
21:09
Speaker 5: The best way would be our Instagram, which is s
21:12
Speaker 5: JP ht X at h jphd X. That's where we
21:15
Speaker 5: do most of our publishing and something like that. That's
21:18
Speaker 5: where we make our events known and like, what's going
21:20
Speaker 5: on on?
21:20
Speaker 1: Candidate That was Sabash with s JP. Humanza is one
21:25
Speaker 1: of the hunger strikers. He has been on a hunger
21:29
Speaker 1: strike at the University of Houston for two weeks now.
21:32
Speaker 1: He said he will continue.
21:35
Speaker 8: Yeah, what do you You're on a hunger strike and
21:37
Speaker 8: how's it going you second week?
21:39
Speaker 7: We are in the fifteenth day, so fourteen days since
21:42
Speaker 7: the launch. At you.
21:45
Speaker 9: Personally, I am exhausted.
21:47
Speaker 7: I'm very, very sleepy.
21:49
Speaker 9: I fight bouts of like like periods of like sometimes naga,
21:54
Speaker 9: sometimes extreme exhaustion, and it's it's a struggle.
21:58
Speaker 10: Right.
21:59
Speaker 9: My my blood pressure and my blood sugar had been
22:02
Speaker 9: lowering consistently. I've been I've been like in deep ketosis
22:06
Speaker 9: for a good while now. I think I've lost over
22:09
Speaker 9: fifteen pounds since the beginning. It's been really crazy. But
22:14
Speaker 9: for the most part, like my willpower is still going strong.
22:17
Speaker 9: We're going to see this through till the end. We're
22:18
Speaker 9: not giving up, no matter what I may look like
22:21
Speaker 9: for a period of time, no matter how bad the
22:23
Speaker 9: refeeding syndrome is. We will not stop until the university
22:27
Speaker 9: heads to us and gives us negotiations and gives us
22:30
Speaker 9: the capacity and ability to change their policy, change their investments.
22:36
Speaker 9: And we're not going to stop until the end of
22:37
Speaker 9: that and show.
22:38
Speaker 3: I'll go home.
22:39
Speaker 1: The Palestinian Youth Movement, as part of the Houston Arms
22:43
Speaker 1: Embargo campaign, is hosting a press conference outside the Houston
22:47
Speaker 1: International Maritime Conference Center on Monday, November three at nine
22:51
Speaker 1: thirty am at the Hilton America's Houston sixteen hundred Lamar
22:55
Speaker 1: Street in Houston, Texas. The conference will share critical information
23:00
Speaker 1: on the role of MERSK and the Port of Houston
23:03
Speaker 1: in facilitating Israel's genocide on Gaza. This will include voices
23:08
Speaker 1: from legal experts, religious leaders, workers and organizers. This press
23:12
Speaker 1: conference is part of their Week of Action. It's fun
23:17
Speaker 1: drive time at KPFT, call us and donate what you
23:21
Speaker 1: can seven one three, five two six, five seven three
23:24
Speaker 1: eight seven one three five two six, five seven three.
23:28
Speaker 6: Eight We love the People's News.
23:31
Speaker 1: As reported by the People's News. The third annual Katie
23:35
Speaker 1: Pride celebrations were temporarily put on hold because Typhoon Texas
23:40
Speaker 1: water Park suddenly canceled the event at their venue. Thanks
23:45
Speaker 1: to Harris County Commissioner Leslie Brionez, another venue was set
23:49
Speaker 1: up and the Katie Pride celebrations went off without a hitch. Now,
23:54
Speaker 1: two of the members of the Katie School Board have
23:57
Speaker 1: voiced their displeasure on fame Facebook about gays being in
24:02
Speaker 1: their community. Katie ISD board trustees Morgan Calhoun and Mary
24:07
Speaker 1: Allen Queza violated the Katie ISD Board Code of Ethics policy.
24:13
Speaker 1: Katie Pride staged to sit in this past Monday, demanding
24:16
Speaker 1: that they be sanctioned. We talked with Amber Rose, who
24:20
Speaker 1: was president of Katie Pride.
24:24
Speaker 10: Sure So, Katie Pride occurred on Saturday, October eighteenth, and
24:29
Speaker 10: we have been We were in a contract with Tysoon
24:31
Speaker 10: Texas water Park in Katie since April of twenty twenty five,
24:35
Speaker 10: and they were aware of our event. Actually for two
24:38
Speaker 10: years in a row, they've hosted Pride in the water
24:40
Speaker 10: park for us. So we were really excited to expand
24:44
Speaker 10: our partnership beyond just like a one day event. And
24:48
Speaker 10: as so the team of Katie Pride Board of Directors
24:51
Speaker 10: have been planning to have our celebration there on Saturday,
24:54
Speaker 10: October eighteenth.
24:57
Speaker 11: And.
24:59
Speaker 10: Seventy two hours or a little bit less than seventy
25:01
Speaker 10: two hours, there had been some back and forth questions
25:04
Speaker 10: and stuff. It basically less than seventy two hours before
25:09
Speaker 10: they decided to cancel our contract. And to give context
25:12
Speaker 10: on that, So there are some social media warriors, it's
25:17
Speaker 10: the best way I could describe them. They picked up
25:20
Speaker 10: on our event because we were promoting it. It was
25:22
Speaker 10: really out there and we were having Drag Story Hour
25:26
Speaker 10: and there was a drag king and a drag queen performing,
25:28
Speaker 10: and then we were partnering with First Christian Church Katie
25:32
Speaker 10: to have a transparent closet fashion show, which we have
25:34
Speaker 10: done at our past two prize because this was our
25:36
Speaker 10: third Pride celebrations, and so some of these social media
25:39
Speaker 10: warriors picked up on those things. And these are the
25:43
Speaker 10: individuals that historically are the ones around here who anything
25:47
Speaker 10: that has to do with the LGBTQ community. They love
25:52
Speaker 10: to put out misinformation and kind of spread panic, if
25:56
Speaker 10: that's the best.
25:57
Speaker 3: Word for it.
25:57
Speaker 10: And so this started and that happen and they dug
26:01
Speaker 10: through profiles of our king and Queen and posted pictures
26:05
Speaker 10: and just put out a lot of misinformation. And then
26:08
Speaker 10: on top of that, there were two Katid School board members,
26:11
Speaker 10: Morgan Calhoun and Mary l and Grusella, also made post
26:15
Speaker 10: on their personal pages denouncing what we were doing. Some
26:19
Speaker 10: really hateful things that were said. And even though it
26:22
Speaker 10: was their public excuse me their personal Facebook page for anyone,
26:27
Speaker 10: in my opinion as an elected official, that line gets
26:31
Speaker 10: really muddy between personal and professional when you're known in
26:34
Speaker 10: the community. And so they put out a bunch of
26:36
Speaker 10: stuff and had followers. And then on top of that,
26:39
Speaker 10: the publisher of Katie Magazine I guest, thought it was
26:42
Speaker 10: okay to put the phone numbers of two of the
26:45
Speaker 10: three owners of Typeoon Texas their personal cell phone numbers,
26:49
Speaker 10: and there was a lot of encouragement like call typeon Texas,
26:52
Speaker 10: email Type in Texas, show up at Typhoon Texas and
26:57
Speaker 10: tell them you're unhappy, and this is not the case.
26:59
Speaker 10: And so, to make them very long story short, Typing
27:03
Speaker 10: Texas decided to cancel our contract after their saying security
27:08
Speaker 10: concerns for their staff and for their venue. The Katy
27:13
Speaker 10: Police because it's in the City of Katy jurisdiction went
27:17
Speaker 10: on to state in the record with kJ you News
27:19
Speaker 10: that there were no threats reported to them and they
27:22
Speaker 10: would have been the jurisdiction and there were no credible threats,
27:26
Speaker 10: and so they chose to cancel out of I guess
27:30
Speaker 10: an abundance of caution. I know there weren't any credible
27:35
Speaker 10: security threats. We take safety as the utmost important and
27:38
Speaker 10: if we would have heard anything or solid anything, we
27:40
Speaker 10: would have reported it to law enforcement. And so they
27:44
Speaker 10: canceled our contract fully, and it was basically twenty four
27:49
Speaker 10: hours before our kickoff party and then about seventy two
27:52
Speaker 10: hours or less than seventy two hours before our events.
27:58
Speaker 3: Sorry about this, but it was not a fear. It
28:01
Speaker 3: was out of their own pocketbooks, because it seemed like
28:04
Speaker 3: they were putting pressure on them to well, if you
28:06
Speaker 3: don't cancel this, we won't we won't, we won't do
28:09
Speaker 3: business with you, and other on other affairs. And that's
28:13
Speaker 3: my first that's my first thought. On that second of
28:16
Speaker 3: a will, What does the school board have to say
28:19
Speaker 3: about this? And why is the school board in while
28:20
Speaker 3: with this in the first place?
28:22
Speaker 10: Yeah, on both of those, Yeah, what the you know
28:26
Speaker 10: the reasons Tiphon Texas chose to cancel. Ultimately, we all
28:30
Speaker 10: could speculate about. I know what they said to us
28:33
Speaker 10: in a phone call and in an email. It was
28:35
Speaker 10: out of safety concerns and what was being pushed was
28:39
Speaker 10: Typhoon Texas is a family This is not from Type
28:42
Speaker 10: in Texas but from all the social media warriors that
28:45
Speaker 10: Type in Texas is a family friendly establishment and hosting
28:48
Speaker 10: Pride and having Drag Story Hour and fashion show. Uh,
28:53
Speaker 10: that the information being put out was wrong and that
28:57
Speaker 10: drag Groom's kids. You know all the mishate that is
29:00
Speaker 10: out there. Who knows ultimately what every reason they canceled,
29:04
Speaker 10: But they made that decision even though there were no
29:06
Speaker 10: credible security threats. And it's interesting you bring up the
29:09
Speaker 10: school board because that's a big question to us too,
29:12
Speaker 10: like the school board, and this was done on their
29:14
Speaker 10: personal social media pages. I want to make sure that's clear.
29:18
Speaker 10: But as I said, I believe when someone is an
29:20
Speaker 10: elected official and they hold a position of power, they
29:23
Speaker 10: sit in a place of privilege. And so even though
29:26
Speaker 10: the comments they were making were on their personal social
29:29
Speaker 10: media pages, they still have influence and they still hold power.
29:35
Speaker 10: So when these individuals chose to do that, I believe
29:38
Speaker 10: they knew exactly what they were doing, and they were
29:41
Speaker 10: doing it on their personal page because it lets them
29:44
Speaker 10: circumvent some of the rules and regulations around, you know,
29:47
Speaker 10: using their elected positions page. And so it's interesting because
29:51
Speaker 10: actually this past Monday at the KDIs School Board meeting,
29:55
Speaker 10: there were a number of speakers. It was not an
29:58
Speaker 10: agenda item, so there was a lot and speakers were
30:01
Speaker 10: limited the amount of speakers, but there were speakers that
30:04
Speaker 10: spoke up on both sides. We had plenty of people
30:07
Speaker 10: who support Katie Pride who spoke up, who attended the
30:09
Speaker 10: event and kind of denounced with these two elected KATIEISD
30:15
Speaker 10: board members did. And then there of course there were
30:18
Speaker 10: individuals community members that are on the opposite side who
30:20
Speaker 10: supported what these two board members did. Ultimately, the individuals
30:25
Speaker 10: that support Katie Pride or asking is that the in
30:30
Speaker 10: naming that they violated their code of ethics. And so
30:34
Speaker 10: we've asked that the board and the President of the Board,
30:37
Speaker 10: lance redmend that they really consider centering these two board
30:41
Speaker 10: of trustees. That doesn't mean they get kicked off the board,
30:45
Speaker 10: It just means it goes on public records that what
30:46
Speaker 10: they did was wrong, because I believe in holding people accountable,
30:51
Speaker 10: and these are leaders in our school system, and so
30:54
Speaker 10: we expect students to have a certain decorum and behavior,
30:58
Speaker 10: and what students post on their social media pages, if
31:01
Speaker 10: it could impact the schools, sometimes, if it's elevated enough,
31:05
Speaker 10: could become an issue, and I believe the same thing
31:07
Speaker 10: should happen for school board members.
31:09
Speaker 12: We heard.
31:11
Speaker 10: You know you have to do is go to Google.
31:13
Speaker 10: You can google how teachers all across the nation, but
31:16
Speaker 10: in Texas are under investigation or things being looked at
31:22
Speaker 10: because of the incident that happened with Charlie Kirk. And
31:26
Speaker 10: people put their personal opinions on their personal page, but
31:29
Speaker 10: you have teachers losing their job, and so it's for us.
31:32
Speaker 10: It's interesting that we want to hold teachers accountable for
31:35
Speaker 10: what they put on their personal pages, but elected board
31:39
Speaker 10: officials should be held to the same expectations.
31:43
Speaker 3: When I first heard Katie Prize, I had a question
31:46
Speaker 3: mark because I was like, Wow, Katie's known for not
31:50
Speaker 3: really known for any type of LGPTQ solidarity, so to speak,
31:58
Speaker 3: How hard is it? Because I heard they were they
32:01
Speaker 3: were trying to get a club out there way, So
32:05
Speaker 3: how hard is it being part of that community in
32:08
Speaker 3: a in a community that it's been really i would
32:12
Speaker 3: say conservative, but yeah, really conservative on a lot of
32:16
Speaker 3: a lot of things.
32:18
Speaker 10: Yeah, well you know, oh Katie has it.
32:22
Speaker 3: Uh if you find the.
32:24
Speaker 10: Right community in Katie, I mean, we're queer, we're here
32:26
Speaker 10: and we're not going anywhere. You just have to find,
32:29
Speaker 10: you know, your community. And that's something Katie Pride is
32:31
Speaker 10: really trying to do is to create visible spaces that
32:35
Speaker 10: those individuals that are members of the LGBTQ plus community
32:38
Speaker 10: and our allies can come to a place and be
32:41
Speaker 10: engaged in different things and feel supported and celebrated for
32:45
Speaker 10: who they are. And so it can be challenging. Katie
32:49
Speaker 10: Pride is definitely founded and sustained on the back of
32:52
Speaker 10: small business. We've had now three Pride celebrations, because I'll
32:58
Speaker 10: get to that in a minute, but we are three
33:00
Speaker 10: ride celebrations have all been on the back of small
33:02
Speaker 10: business and local sponsors, which is great. It really shows
33:06
Speaker 10: the support in the community. So we appreciate that and
33:11
Speaker 10: we celebrate that. And to your point about like getting
33:14
Speaker 10: a club started, so schools not being allowed to have
33:18
Speaker 10: GSA's or Gay Straight Alliance or Gender and Sexuality club
33:21
Speaker 10: because every school would call it something different. That has
33:23
Speaker 10: changed because of Senate Bill twelve in the state of Texas,
33:28
Speaker 10: So across the board in the state of Texas, regardless
33:31
Speaker 10: if you're in Houston, you're an Elpaso, you're in a
33:33
Speaker 10: really rural town, it doesn't matter. It is now a
33:37
Speaker 10: violation of law and could impact the school's funding if
33:40
Speaker 10: they allow those student organizations to exist. So that's why
33:44
Speaker 10: that is not happening because of things that have been
33:49
Speaker 10: passed in the Texas legislature.
33:52
Speaker 3: It seems I'll add to that, it seems like it's
33:55
Speaker 3: getting harder for young trans or young gay and lesbian
34:05
Speaker 3: students to go to school without getting harassed, and if
34:08
Speaker 3: they do, if they do say something about it, it's
34:12
Speaker 3: more on the point of being ignored like it was
34:16
Speaker 3: in the past.
34:19
Speaker 10: Yes, definitely, the climate in what we live in in general.
34:22
Speaker 10: I think if you're a part of the LGBTQ community
34:25
Speaker 10: or an ally, you recognize the barriers that are being
34:29
Speaker 10: put up in front of us to try to marginalize
34:32
Speaker 10: us more than we've ever been, almost to the point
34:35
Speaker 10: of maybe thinking the individuals that are leading these charges think,
34:39
Speaker 10: if we do this, then you know, we just won't
34:41
Speaker 10: exist anymore. And I know member myself and members of
34:45
Speaker 10: the community, and historically we know with pride, we're not
34:48
Speaker 10: going to back down. You know, maybe we take a
34:51
Speaker 10: couple steps back, but that doesn't mean we give up.
34:53
Speaker 10: When we backed down. We keep fighting for it. And
34:55
Speaker 10: it is going to be hard and even most recently
34:58
Speaker 10: taking away the rainbow crosswalks and not students not being
35:03
Speaker 10: allowed to have GSAs in school, which school used to
35:05
Speaker 10: be the place where you found community, you found support
35:09
Speaker 10: because maybe you didn't have it at home. School used
35:12
Speaker 10: to be the place where, like some of the kid's
35:15
Speaker 10: best mentors were from school and they create relationships and
35:18
Speaker 10: they really help them develop as young adults. And so
35:21
Speaker 10: many things have happened over the past couple of years
35:23
Speaker 10: that I believe that I'm not saying those relationships don't
35:27
Speaker 10: exist in that mentoring, but I believe it's becoming harder
35:29
Speaker 10: and harder, not just for students, but for teachers. You know,
35:33
Speaker 10: we think about the students and they can't do these things.
35:36
Speaker 10: I also feel for those educators who really believe in
35:39
Speaker 10: education and that's where their heart is because they had
35:41
Speaker 10: such a life changing experience, and even their hands are
35:44
Speaker 10: tied that they support the LGBTQ plus community, you know,
35:49
Speaker 10: they support all students, and their hands are tied because
35:51
Speaker 10: if they choose to do something or say something they're
35:54
Speaker 10: not supposed to do and at this point calls you
35:57
Speaker 10: someone allow someone to say their pronouns or use someone's
36:00
Speaker 10: name that's not their name on their birth certificate, like
36:03
Speaker 10: allowing a student to go by their preferred name, their
36:05
Speaker 10: jobs at risk.
36:07
Speaker 7: So this is.
36:07
Speaker 10: Impacting our students, but it's also impacting our educators an
36:11
Speaker 10: education in general across the nation and especially in Texas,
36:15
Speaker 10: teachers are leaving in such high rates because there's so
36:19
Speaker 10: much work, there's so many expectations, there's not the pay,
36:23
Speaker 10: there's not the support that's there. So all of these
36:25
Speaker 10: things that's happening in Texas and in our federal government
36:28
Speaker 10: are impacting our students for sure, but it's also impacting
36:32
Speaker 10: the teachers, the principles, the administrators, especially those that are
36:37
Speaker 10: supportive of the community, because I know they want to
36:40
Speaker 10: do more and they actually can't for fear of risk
36:43
Speaker 10: of losing their job, which is their livelihood. And how
36:45
Speaker 10: that would impact their family.
36:47
Speaker 3: Can you tell me people how to get in touch
36:50
Speaker 3: with your organization if they want to get involved, And
36:53
Speaker 3: also what's the next step that you guys are planning.
36:57
Speaker 3: What's up next for Katie Pride.
37:00
Speaker 10: Sure, So there's a couple of ways to get in
37:02
Speaker 10: touch with us. If you were on social media, you
37:05
Speaker 10: can find this that Katie Pride LGBTQ. Also katipride dot
37:10
Speaker 10: org is our website or simply info at ktipride dot org.
37:14
Speaker 10: So any of those ways we do respond to messages
37:16
Speaker 10: on social media, those are the best ways to get
37:19
Speaker 10: a hold of us. And I do want to say
37:21
Speaker 10: something that I realized I was a myth at saying
37:24
Speaker 10: previously you asked me about the kt Pride celebration on
37:26
Speaker 10: October eighteenth, So it was canceled or typhoon Texas canceled
37:30
Speaker 10: our venue, but our event still went on. We still
37:33
Speaker 10: hosted our kickoff party on October sixteenth, and that's because
37:36
Speaker 10: First Christian Church Katie, who was a big supporter of
37:39
Speaker 10: the LGBTQ community, and Katie stepped up and said you
37:42
Speaker 10: could have your kickoff party at our location, which was great.
37:45
Speaker 10: So in less than twenty four hours, we still had
37:46
Speaker 10: our kickoff party. It was a great success, and then
37:50
Speaker 10: immediately after our event, our contract was canceled. We used
37:55
Speaker 10: contacts because Katie Pride is a member of the LGBT,
37:59
Speaker 10: the Greater Houston lg VT Chamber or Commerce, and we
38:01
Speaker 10: used some contact and we got touched with people from
38:04
Speaker 10: Leslie Brionas's office, So Precinct four and Leslie Commissioner Leslie
38:08
Speaker 10: Brionas and Precinct four stepped up and said, yes, whatever
38:11
Speaker 10: you need, you can use, and so we worked with
38:13
Speaker 10: them to look at what options were available, and Katy
38:17
Speaker 10: Pride still happened on October eighteenth as planned. We just
38:19
Speaker 10: had to move locations. We were out at the Bear
38:21
Speaker 10: Creek Rodeo Arena, which was off of Highway six, just
38:24
Speaker 10: south of play Road, and it was great. So many
38:28
Speaker 10: people were happy, they loved the location. We get a
38:31
Speaker 10: lot of feedback of you wouldn't have known what has
38:33
Speaker 10: happened in the past seventy two hours it was it was.
38:38
Speaker 10: They wouldn't have seen everything in the media about it.
38:41
Speaker 10: They wouldn't have known that like our venue had gotten
38:43
Speaker 10: canceled or anything like that. So a big shout out
38:46
Speaker 10: and support to Commissioner Brionas from Precinct four because it
38:50
Speaker 10: is because of her and her staff, and I believe
38:53
Speaker 10: that's a testament to the leadership that she impoors them with,
38:57
Speaker 10: but also how she chooses the lead in the expectition
39:00
Speaker 10: and she has for them. They stepped up and we're
39:03
Speaker 10: super supportive and we now have a great relationship with them.
39:08
Speaker 10: And actually you mentioned what was coming up, and on
39:10
Speaker 10: November twentieth, Katie Pride will be holding a Transgender Day
39:13
Speaker 10: of Remembrance moment at Mary Joe Peckham Park which is
39:19
Speaker 10: a Commissioner Riona's Precinct four Park at six pm and
39:23
Speaker 10: it'll just be, you know, a smaller event just to
39:25
Speaker 10: kind of honor those individuals that have from the trans
39:29
Speaker 10: community that have lost their lives to violence over the
39:31
Speaker 10: past year. And so we are happy to be able
39:34
Speaker 10: to partner with Precinct four for that as well in
39:36
Speaker 10: that support that is there and the future for Katie Pride,
39:41
Speaker 10: you know, we try to do events sometimes, we do
39:44
Speaker 10: quarterly socials. Every month, we do a coffee meet up
39:48
Speaker 10: at Coffee Fellows and Katie off of the Grand Parkway
39:51
Speaker 10: on the second Friday of every month from eight am
39:54
Speaker 10: to ten am. So we just try to be out
39:57
Speaker 10: in the community and in spaces that we want to
40:00
Speaker 10: be present to show like the queer community is in Katie.
40:03
Speaker 10: We're not going anywhere, And for me, I want to
40:06
Speaker 10: make sure those individuals who live in the Kade West
40:08
Speaker 10: Houston Cypress area that you're a part of kat Pride,
40:12
Speaker 10: come out, participate in those things that you are comfortable
40:15
Speaker 10: in and know that we want you there. You're a
40:18
Speaker 10: valued part of our community and we'd love to have
40:21
Speaker 10: you get engaged with any of our events that are happened.
40:24
Speaker 1: That was amber Rose with Katie Pride. You can find
40:26
Speaker 1: more on their website ktipride All Put Together dot org.
40:33
Speaker 1: It's fun drive time at KPFT. Call us and donate
40:37
Speaker 1: what you can seven one three, five, two six, five,
40:40
Speaker 1: seven three eight seven one three five two six, five
40:44
Speaker 1: seven three eight.
40:45
Speaker 6: We love the People's News.
40:48
Speaker 1: October thirtieth marks the twenty year anniversary since astral World closed.
40:54
Speaker 1: Many people still have fond memories of the park and
40:56
Speaker 1: the acts that played there. Latin super star Selena played there,
41:01
Speaker 1: Elton John and many rock acts, hip hop legends, Grandmaster
41:05
Speaker 1: Flash and Houdini. Local artists Jay Henry aka Juan Salazar
41:12
Speaker 1: has captured the thrill of what astra World was through
41:14
Speaker 1: a series of vibrant paintings being shown at the Houston
41:18
Speaker 1: Toy Museum, located in the Heights in Houston. We talked
41:22
Speaker 1: to Jay Hesey about the art show cool.
41:26
Speaker 3: Tell of us first of all, tell of this egoians,
41:29
Speaker 3: what's going on at the Houston Toy Museum.
41:32
Speaker 12: So at the Houston Toy Museum, I'd painted a series
41:36
Speaker 12: of twenty pieces in a retro pop art style, all
41:41
Speaker 12: dedicated to my memories of Astralworld. So it's called the
41:45
Speaker 12: Real astral World, And like I said, it's just about
41:49
Speaker 12: the rides and my experiences there. I worked there for
41:52
Speaker 12: a couple of years, so I just kind of wanted
41:54
Speaker 12: to give people a reminder and kind of walk them down,
41:58
Speaker 12: you know what Ashroold was.
41:59
Speaker 3: Like, So much happened and at what I call the
42:04
Speaker 3: Real aster World because not only the rids, the music,
42:09
Speaker 3: the people, it was, it was, it was, it was Houston.
42:13
Speaker 3: It was something that put a Hoaston on the map
42:15
Speaker 3: along with the Astrodome.
42:18
Speaker 12: It was and you know, so I went with the
42:22
Speaker 12: nineties team because the nineties was like prime Asteroid for me,
42:27
Speaker 12: not only was it did I have to see the pass,
42:29
Speaker 12: which I got to enjoy as a teen hangout. Actually
42:32
Speaker 12: worked there for a couple of years in ninety two
42:34
Speaker 12: or ninety three as well. So for me it was
42:36
Speaker 12: a lot like it was a place I went with
42:39
Speaker 12: my parents when I was a kid. It was a
42:41
Speaker 12: place I hung out with my friends, you know, for
42:44
Speaker 12: the summer, and then it was my first job.
42:47
Speaker 3: People don't know. Asterial was because astroa was adjacent to
42:52
Speaker 3: the astro Dome, and when astro Dome was built, they said,
42:56
Speaker 3: we need a we need an amusement park to fit
42:59
Speaker 3: just as big as the Astrodome is. So they built
43:02
Speaker 3: as the World. I think it was nineteen sixty eight,
43:07
Speaker 3: sixty nine or something like that, but it was open.
43:10
Speaker 3: I'm not sure on the date, but it was. It
43:13
Speaker 3: was synonymous with the whole complex of the Astro wore Us,
43:18
Speaker 3: the Astro Domain area that was going on at the time,
43:22
Speaker 3: and when for you in the nineties you got to
43:26
Speaker 3: see like so many different types of acts music acts
43:29
Speaker 3: come through it.
43:31
Speaker 12: Yeah, tons of music acts, I mean, and from all
43:34
Speaker 12: genres as well, like Alice Cooper played there one year,
43:39
Speaker 12: Bob Dylan played there and they went to, Like Salina
43:42
Speaker 12: played there in ninety three. I saw the Ninja Turtles
43:45
Speaker 12: there one year, the Monkeys played there, Destiny's Child was there,
43:49
Speaker 12: so so many acts with these Southern star amphitheater.
43:52
Speaker 3: It was.
43:52
Speaker 12: It was really cool too because the park would say
43:54
Speaker 12: open till like two at that time, and kay, it was.
43:57
Speaker 3: It was a good It was a good time. Kids
43:59
Speaker 3: miss that now because because it's nothing light that in
44:02
Speaker 3: Houston that is even close to what we had then,
44:06
Speaker 3: especially inside the city, and knew the parents, knew where
44:10
Speaker 3: the kids were too. By the way, Yeah, there.
44:13
Speaker 12: Was always that drop off and pickup line. And you know,
44:16
Speaker 12: I've always said that, you know, as much as I
44:18
Speaker 12: love this city, this city has a bad habit of
44:20
Speaker 12: not tearing about things too much until after they're gone.
44:24
Speaker 12: And I feel like that's part of what happened with
44:26
Speaker 12: Astolt as well as like, you know, here we are
44:28
Speaker 12: because it closed twenty years ago now, like tomorrow on
44:32
Speaker 12: the thirtieth is the twenty year anniversary of when Asheroult
44:35
Speaker 12: actually closed its doors, and so you know, I was
44:39
Speaker 12: thinking about it the other day. It wasn't even around
44:41
Speaker 12: that long, from sixty eight to two thousand and five,
44:44
Speaker 12: it was like thirty seven years. Like, I mean, I've
44:47
Speaker 12: lived longer than that, you know, So it's just, man,
44:50
Speaker 12: I really think that people are appreciating seeing and being
44:54
Speaker 12: you know, reminded of what this was. One of my
44:56
Speaker 12: favorite things ever is I have this nineteen ninety three
44:59
Speaker 12: Math of Astorold, and I'll go out to cons like
45:01
Speaker 12: Comic Palooza and I'll see so many people from so
45:04
Speaker 12: many different walks of life, Like look at that map
45:07
Speaker 12: from nineteen ninety three and start walking the park together
45:11
Speaker 12: because you know, it's beautiful to see that and hear
45:14
Speaker 12: that and hear all the stories about you know, what
45:17
Speaker 12: people did at Asteroid and who they met, you know.
45:19
Speaker 3: All that kind of stuff. So the exhibition has been
45:22
Speaker 3: extended to November sixteenth. Has it been limited people at
45:26
Speaker 3: that popular that people have coming out for this?
45:30
Speaker 12: Yeah, well I fell behind a little bit, so I was.
45:33
Speaker 12: I was probably about a week late, because you know,
45:35
Speaker 12: I'm an artist.
45:36
Speaker 3: That's what happened.
45:37
Speaker 12: But yeah, I think a lot. I think what's happening
45:40
Speaker 12: is people kind of are wanting it to be around
45:43
Speaker 12: closer to Thanksgetting when they have family in town as well,
45:46
Speaker 12: like the Houston Toy Museum if you've never been. It's
45:48
Speaker 12: an amazing exhibition. Like there's vintage toys from the fifties
45:55
Speaker 12: all the way up into last year, right, And so
45:58
Speaker 12: that's what they do. They just kind of specialize in
46:01
Speaker 12: in toys and like this toy journey that you know,
46:03
Speaker 12: because a lot of us we may come from different
46:05
Speaker 12: walks of life, but we all grew up with toys,
46:07
Speaker 12: like you know, and so it's something that kind of
46:09
Speaker 12: brings us all together. But for them to want me
46:13
Speaker 12: to do Astroo there as well, I felt like it
46:15
Speaker 12: was a huge honor for me to put it there.
46:17
Speaker 12: And so yeah, man, people have been asking to keep
46:21
Speaker 12: it going because they wanted around for Thanksgiving. So originally
46:24
Speaker 12: it was supposed to close down tomorrow, but like I said,
46:28
Speaker 12: you know, people of aspids stay up longer.
46:31
Speaker 3: That is so cool. And you have a if you say,
46:35
Speaker 3: your artists in town, where can this? Where?
46:38
Speaker 12: What else can you see your artwork? So right now,
46:43
Speaker 12: you know, you can see a lot of my artwork
46:44
Speaker 12: at Super Happy Incredible Toys, which is a vintage toy
46:48
Speaker 12: store and the Heights. But you can also go to
46:51
Speaker 12: my Instagram page at j dot Salasar Art and there's
46:56
Speaker 12: a lot of stuff on there from the things I've done.
46:58
Speaker 3: When when did you get to the a to where
47:00
Speaker 3: you were like, hey, I'm wanna been hardest. I don't know,
47:03
Speaker 3: maybe six probably I'm a big I'm a big comic
47:07
Speaker 3: book guy, right, and so I used to love like
47:10
Speaker 3: Spider Man was my guy, and I just I remember
47:14
Speaker 3: in school, like the teachers would take up my comic
47:17
Speaker 3: books and it would annoy me. So I would start
47:20
Speaker 3: kind of drawing my own, right, so they would they
47:23
Speaker 3: would always just take them from me, Like I don't
47:24
Speaker 3: know why I was reading, you know, why take these
47:26
Speaker 3: comics from me? So I would just start kind of
47:28
Speaker 3: drawing my own because they were taking my comics. And
47:31
Speaker 3: from there it just kind of caught on and I
47:34
Speaker 3: left it.
47:34
Speaker 12: Alone for a while. I left it alone for a while,
47:37
Speaker 12: But over the last like ten years, I've really kind
47:40
Speaker 12: of dove back into it. I've had a really good
47:43
Speaker 12: support system. I'm part of a studio called Canal Street
47:46
Speaker 12: Studios has a lot of like like legend graffiti artists
47:50
Speaker 12: like Meaner and and oh no he didn't and like
47:54
Speaker 12: just really great guys that are very encouraging. So I've
47:57
Speaker 12: been lucky to not only just get back into it
48:00
Speaker 12: good community as well. And I was saying that the
48:03
Speaker 12: original map or aster World and the original model of
48:09
Speaker 12: Astor World is on exhibit downtown at the Houston Downtown
48:13
Speaker 12: mus Downtown Library, along with some pictures and artifacts from
48:20
Speaker 12: from the old Astor World. So if anybody's interested in
48:23
Speaker 12: checking that out also, they got they still got that
48:26
Speaker 12: on display, which is a little bit neat because it
48:30
Speaker 12: predates the map that you have and it goes back
48:34
Speaker 12: to when they were with the with the original plan
48:36
Speaker 12: of Astorold when it first opens. The Houston Toy Museum
48:41
Speaker 12: is the place to be.
48:42
Speaker 3: Go check it out. And uh this open Uh it's
48:47
Speaker 3: open Tuesday through Sunday and it's the regular museum ours
48:52
Speaker 3: and so it's it's cool. Man, I'm gonna go check
48:55
Speaker 3: it out. My friend, thank you, thank you, thank you
48:58
Speaker 3: so much for having me as well. No, man, no,
49:01
Speaker 3: this is this is This brings back a lot of
49:03
Speaker 3: memories for a lot of people in Houston, you know,
49:06
Speaker 3: because we're trying to say to Astro Dome, but you know,
49:11
Speaker 3: we should have stayed asked Or World also, but that
49:13
Speaker 3: was a whole other story. And when you can go check.
49:15
Speaker 12: Out the show though, put in, put in from headphones,
49:18
Speaker 12: and put on from nineties R and B, because that's
49:21
Speaker 12: all I listened to whenever I was fainting this because
49:24
Speaker 12: that was my time at Astroold in the nineties. So
49:26
Speaker 12: all that Jodicy and Keith Sweat and all that kind
49:29
Speaker 12: of music.
49:29
Speaker 1: Listen to that when you're walking through the That was
49:32
Speaker 1: Juan Salazar aka j HeSE. The art showing will continue
49:37
Speaker 1: up until November sixteenth. The Toy Museum is opened Tuesday
49:41
Speaker 1: through Sunday and is located on three twenty one West
49:45
Speaker 1: nineteenth Street, Sweet Sea, Houston, Texas, seven seven zero zero eight.
49:51
Speaker 1: Their phone number is two eight one three oh five
49:54
Speaker 1: eight eight two eight. You can also contact Jay Hesey
49:58
Speaker 1: at his email super Happy Toys All Put Together atatt
50:04
Speaker 1: dot net. This is Steve Gallington of the People's News
50:07
Speaker 1: here on Houston's community station KPFT ninety point one FM.
50:11
Speaker 1: Become a sustaining member today and help keep KPFT and
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Speaker 1: the page to select the dragdown list and scroll down
50:29
Speaker 1: to the bottom and select the People's News. The US
50:35
Speaker 1: is in the midst of a second Trump government shutdown.
50:39
Speaker 1: This time, the main purpose of the shutdown is to
50:43
Speaker 1: keep the Epstein files from coming out. Thousands of people
50:47
Speaker 1: are being affected by the shutdown are not being paid
50:51
Speaker 1: while having to work as essential federal employees. Thousands of
50:56
Speaker 1: workers in Houston are working without contract and under fear
51:00
Speaker 1: of firing, say members of the American Federation of Government Employees,
51:04
Speaker 1: who represent over eight hundred thousand federal workers. Congressman Al
51:09
Speaker 1: Green of the ninth Congressional District marched with workers to
51:12
Speaker 1: one of the largest VA hospitals in Texas as a
51:16
Speaker 1: protest to the adult convicted felon and those in charge.
51:20
Speaker 1: He commented on the shutdown and put the blame squarely
51:23
Speaker 1: on the Epstein friend and convicted felon Donald Trump.
51:28
Speaker 4: Well, we're here.
51:29
Speaker 11: This is a part of the shutdown because employees are
51:33
Speaker 11: not being paid. But it's important for everybody to know
51:36
Speaker 11: that President Trump and Republicans created the shutdown by deciding
51:41
Speaker 11: that they wouldn't play by the rules of the House
51:44
Speaker 11: and the Senate. The Senate has a rule that will
51:47
Speaker 11: allow things that are important to be passed with fifty
51:49
Speaker 11: one votes. Most things have passed with sixty first and
51:53
Speaker 11: then you get fifty one the sixties called culture, and
51:56
Speaker 11: then you go to fifty one to pass. But they
51:58
Speaker 11: can suspend going to sixty and just passed things with
52:01
Speaker 11: fifty one, so they could have on day one of
52:05
Speaker 11: the shutdown prevented this. This is their shutdown because they
52:09
Speaker 11: have the majority. They have the House, the Senate, and
52:12
Speaker 11: the presidency. If they wanted it shut down, they could.
52:15
Speaker 11: The president is doing this because he has a scheme.
52:18
Speaker 11: Doctor King had a dream of all persons being treated
52:21
Speaker 11: created and treated treated justly. The president has a scheme
52:25
Speaker 11: to deprive people of their jobs, their livelihood, and to
52:29
Speaker 11: do this he is allowing the shut down to take
52:32
Speaker 11: place so that he can say, look, there are people
52:34
Speaker 11: who are declared not essential, and these persons who are
52:37
Speaker 11: declared not essential, he had nothing to do with it,
52:40
Speaker 11: That's what he'll say. So he's going to fire them,
52:43
Speaker 11: fire many of them, thousands of them that are declared
52:46
Speaker 11: non essential by people other than himself.
52:49
Speaker 4: Then after he has done this, he will open up
52:51
Speaker 4: the government.
52:53
Speaker 8: It's okay, so the people in here, right here, out here,
52:56
Speaker 8: right now, they're not getting paid.
52:59
Speaker 1: Well.
52:59
Speaker 11: The people who are out here now are part of
53:01
Speaker 11: various organizations.
53:03
Speaker 4: AFGE is a federal government union.
53:06
Speaker 11: We have Common Defense, which is another union, and we
53:11
Speaker 11: have the CWA, which is a union as well, and
53:14
Speaker 11: there are others. But they're here to represent the people
53:17
Speaker 11: in there in the Michael ed Baky Hospital who are
53:21
Speaker 11: not being.
53:21
Speaker 4: Paid, who are required to work.
53:23
Speaker 11: We're also here to represent my staff who's required to
53:27
Speaker 11: work but not get paid, which is why I have
53:30
Speaker 11: informed the payroll department not to send me one penny
53:33
Speaker 11: of money until they send.
53:34
Speaker 4: Money to my staff.
53:35
Speaker 11: As long as my staff is not getting any money,
53:38
Speaker 11: I won't get any either.
53:39
Speaker 4: I will not be paid until they are paid.
53:41
Speaker 11: So the President has put people in a position now
53:46
Speaker 11: where they have to make hard choices about some of
53:49
Speaker 11: the necessities of life, food, clothing, shelter, whether you're going
53:52
Speaker 11: to pay your house load or buy food and put
53:55
Speaker 11: that on the table. The President understands that he can
53:59
Speaker 11: now downsize the government finish what those started by simply
54:04
Speaker 11: saying that when people declared non essential, those are the
54:07
Speaker 11: people that I am firing.
54:09
Speaker 4: And he is saying that he's going to go after non.
54:11
Speaker 11: Essential Democrats or people somehow who favor Democrats, which, in
54:17
Speaker 11: my opinion, is a heartless way to decide you're going
54:21
Speaker 11: to downsize the government based upon political affiliation. I also
54:25
Speaker 11: think that there's some other constitutional questions that I'll be
54:27
Speaker 11: dealing with later associated with this. But the president understands
54:31
Speaker 11: that he can do this now under the cover of
54:34
Speaker 11: non essential workers being fired. Well, at some point he
54:39
Speaker 11: will decide, Okay, I'm going to open the government up,
54:43
Speaker 11: and Republicans will open the government up.
54:45
Speaker 4: So the crisis that they have created.
54:47
Speaker 11: At some point they'll say, we're not going to end
54:49
Speaker 11: the crisis, but they want to somehow blame the other party,
54:53
Speaker 11: the Democrats, for the crisis. When they have the majority
54:56
Speaker 11: in the House, the majority in the Senate, they've got
54:58
Speaker 11: the presidency, and the Supreme Court is yielding to their
55:02
Speaker 11: every whim, it seems. So as a result, they create
55:06
Speaker 11: a crisis, They then fire people. Then they say the
55:10
Speaker 11: crisis is over now and we can allow people to
55:13
Speaker 11: come back to work those who have not been fired.
55:16
Speaker 4: It's crazy, Yeah, that's his scheme.
55:19
Speaker 1: That was the ninth Congressional District. Representative al Green. Hi,
55:26
Speaker 1: this is Steve Gallington, co producer and host of the
55:30
Speaker 1: People's News. The first thing I want to say is
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