Latest / The People's News / Louisiana Trashes 42k Legal Votes; Trump ICE Kills WC Attendance; Mental Health for Vets - TPN 5/10/26

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Louisiana Trashes 42k Legal Votes; Trump ICE Kills WC Attendance; Mental Health for Vets - TPN 5/10/26 · The People's News

0:03
Speaker 1: It's the week of May tenth, twenty twenty sixth, and
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Speaker 1: this is what's on the People's News. Jim Crow is
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Speaker 1: back as the nineteen sixty five Voting Rights Act is
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Speaker 1: gutted Ice at the World Cup in Houston, and not
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Speaker 1: the one that helps you stay cool. Precinct four is
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Speaker 1: preparing for summer by giving out free ac good mental
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Speaker 1: health benefits. All we talked mental health and veterans. All
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Speaker 1: that and more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington.
0:35
Speaker 1: This is the People's News, and the People's News starts now.
0:45
Speaker 1: Last week, the US Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana versus Calais,
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Speaker 1: took away black representation in that state. It rendered an
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Speaker 1: effective Section two of the Voting Rights Act, the last
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Speaker 1: remaining powerful provision of the nineteen sixty five civil rights
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Speaker 1: law that prevents racial discrimination in voting. Section two has
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Speaker 1: long been used to ensure minority voters are treated fairly
1:10
Speaker 1: in redistricting. Court ruled that race cannot be a factor
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Speaker 1: in deciding districts. The ruling was a firecracker for Republican
1:18
Speaker 1: states in the South. Eight states are redrawing their district
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Speaker 1: maps to eliminate black majority districts. Congressman Benny G. Thompson
1:29
Speaker 1: is in Houston for the FIFA World Cup Safety review,
1:32
Speaker 1: was blunt on what this means coming from Mississippi. He
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Speaker 1: stated that Mississippi has had a history of racism and disenfranchisement,
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Speaker 1: that is going back to the Klan Jim Crow days,
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Speaker 1: when blacks were considered three eighths of a human being.
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Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's a bad decision.
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Speaker 3: It's bad for the country, it's bad for black people,
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Speaker 3: it's bad for right thinking people. And so what we're
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Speaker 3: going to have to do is organized and push back.
2:02
Speaker 3: Now what you understand, this is Jim Crow two point
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Speaker 3: zero sixty years ago, we were in this same situation
2:12
Speaker 3: in Congress and its infinite wisdom passed the voting rights
2:15
Speaker 3: at So here we are sixty years later, and a
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Speaker 3: Trump Supreme Court has now decided that they want to
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Speaker 3: turn back the hands of time, and so right thinking
2:28
Speaker 3: people are gonna still have to do what's required. We're
2:34
Speaker 3: gonna have to go to state capitals when they try
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Speaker 3: to redraw it and protests. We're gonna have to make
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Speaker 3: sure we put in the record the history of electioning
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Speaker 3: in our particular area. Because the ink wasn't dry on
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Speaker 3: the decision before the Governor of Louisiana, Governor of Alabama,
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Speaker 3: the governor of Tennessee said we're gonna call a special
3:01
Speaker 3: session and get rid of them.
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Speaker 2: You know, when they say get rid of them, you
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Speaker 2: know what.
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Speaker 3: They're talking about. So all of a sudden, black people
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Speaker 3: don't matter, you know.
3:12
Speaker 2: All we ask for is a seat at the table.
3:15
Speaker 3: And so now you want us to go back to
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Speaker 3: the back of the bus, and you're gonna legislate it,
3:22
Speaker 3: and we can't stand that.
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Speaker 2: You know, for most of us.
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Speaker 4: I was born.
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Speaker 2: In Bolton, Mississippi.
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Speaker 3: So when they tell me they go back where I
3:34
Speaker 3: came from, I can only go back to Bolton, Mississippi.
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Speaker 5: You know.
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Speaker 3: So this notion that somehow, as a Black American, I'm
3:43
Speaker 3: some kind of immigrant to this country, and I'm not
3:49
Speaker 3: gonna stand for it. The Congressional Black Caucus is not
3:51
Speaker 3: gonna stand for it. NAACP is not gonna.
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Speaker 2: Stand for it. The Divine Nine is not gonna stand
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Speaker 2: for it.
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Speaker 3: The MASSA organizations in this country, the ELK organizations, are
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Speaker 3: not going to stand for it. This one issue has
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Speaker 3: a galvanizing effect on the black community in this country.
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Speaker 6: It's gonna shrink people saying it's gonna shrink the Black caucus.
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Speaker 6: As far as let's representation.
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Speaker 3: Well, well, you know it has the potential. But you
4:24
Speaker 3: know in the South, sometimes folks say, God don't like ugly,
4:29
Speaker 3: and this is ugly.
4:31
Speaker 2: And so what we're gonna have to.
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Speaker 3: Do is get off our knees after we pray and
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Speaker 3: go to work and at the end of the day
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Speaker 3: come at every opportunity to go vote. So that means
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Speaker 3: from now on, from eighteen years of age up, you
4:52
Speaker 3: have to be a registered voter. As Baracos Obama said,
4:59
Speaker 3: don't get mad vote. And I guarantee you if you
5:03
Speaker 3: believe that these policies of Donald Trump is good for
5:08
Speaker 3: this country, you're a sick person. If you think children
5:14
Speaker 3: don't deserve medical care, they don't deserve adequate education, that
5:19
Speaker 3: they don't deserve staying in a decent house, something.
5:22
Speaker 2: Is bad wrong with you.
5:24
Speaker 3: I happen to believe that in the greatest country in
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Speaker 3: the world, there's opportunity for all.
5:32
Speaker 2: There are some people who don't want that opportunity to
5:35
Speaker 2: be for all.
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Speaker 3: And these are the folk who are encouraging these reapportionment
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Speaker 3: redistricting kind of situation.
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Speaker 2: And they're bad for America.
5:46
Speaker 3: You know, we can differ, but we don't have to
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Speaker 3: be racist with the differences. We don't have to be
5:56
Speaker 3: evil with the differences.
5:58
Speaker 2: And we have to.
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Speaker 3: You know, our north star as a country should be
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Speaker 3: that we set the high watermark for people of different races, colors,
6:10
Speaker 3: and creeds can live.
6:13
Speaker 2: And we can disagree and we can peacefully coexist.
6:18
Speaker 3: This president does not want that peaceful coexistence to exist,
6:23
Speaker 3: and that's why we have to push back all the time.
6:27
Speaker 3: He's monetizing all this hate for him and his family.
6:32
Speaker 3: Just check the calendar. His son just got a no
6:38
Speaker 3: bid contract from the Department of Defense to do drunk drones,
6:44
Speaker 3: you know, no bed and you know, and then he
6:48
Speaker 3: doesn't want to feed home.
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Speaker 2: Grid children, you know, grafting in real time and you
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Speaker 2: can see it with your own eyes. Have to do better.
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Speaker 1: For another analysis, doctor Adams Empa, Director Professor, Director Executive
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Speaker 1: of Master Republic Administration at Texas Southern University, who is
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Speaker 1: also from Mississippi, added, Yeah, I think.
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Speaker 7: The best way to frame the the decision is that
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Speaker 7: basically they made it difficult to challenge these redistricting maps
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Speaker 7: that we can see in terms of some of the
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Speaker 7: changes on the basis of race, and the Voting.
7:30
Speaker 5: Rights Act that was passed in nineteen.
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Speaker 7: Sixty five was basically a piece of comprehensive legislation that
7:38
Speaker 7: was designed to correct everything that happened post Reconstruction in
7:45
Speaker 7: terms of looking at Black Americans, in particular in the South,
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Speaker 7: who were given the right to vote and also participate
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Speaker 7: in the American political system and that they participate.
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Speaker 5: Indeed they did, and the Reconstruction period, basically.
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Speaker 7: There were three amendments added to the United States Constitution
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Speaker 7: that we referred to as the Civil War Amendments, namely
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Speaker 7: the thirteenth Amendment that abolised slavery.
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Speaker 5: The fourteenth Amendment.
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Speaker 7: Came that was designed to make black American citizens and
8:20
Speaker 7: to correct the case of Dred Scott versus Sanford, when
8:25
Speaker 7: Justice Tunney, who was a US Supreme Court justice, said
8:28
Speaker 7: that black people had no rights that whites were being
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Speaker 7: to respect. And the fifteenth Amendment was added to give
8:37
Speaker 7: black American men the right to cast a franchise or
8:41
Speaker 7: what we say a ballot or to vote. And what
8:45
Speaker 7: happened during this period post Civil War up until circa
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Speaker 7: eighteen ninety Black Americans participated in the American political system.
8:56
Speaker 7: Not only did they vote, they held political office. They
9:00
Speaker 7: were members of the United States Congress. Also they held
9:05
Speaker 7: state legislative positions. In particular, we had the largest number
9:09
Speaker 7: of black elected officials in South Carolina and also in Mississippi.
9:14
Speaker 7: And what happened that was the presidential elections pitting Samuel
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Speaker 7: Tilden versus Rudif Behaves.
9:21
Speaker 5: And rutif Behaves.
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Speaker 7: Wanted to be President of the United States so badly
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Speaker 7: that he told the Southern states that if they were
9:27
Speaker 7: to give them give him their electoral support, that he
9:31
Speaker 7: would end Reconstruction. And they went on they supported rutherif Behaves.
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Speaker 7: He was elected president, and he withdrew the federal troops
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Speaker 7: from the South and thereby end in Reconstruction. And what
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Speaker 7: happened immediately in eighteen ninety, the state of Mississippi immediately
9:49
Speaker 7: rewrote his constitution for the express purposes of disenfranchising black Americans,
9:55
Speaker 7: and the other states followed suits. Now you've seen a
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Speaker 7: lot of people in the CDC are saying that all
10:01
Speaker 7: way back.
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Speaker 5: In that period. Again, I don't know if that's the case.
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Speaker 7: But what happened after Reconstruction, We had the civil rights movement.
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Speaker 7: But you have to remember, now there was the graphic
10:13
Speaker 7: pictures of John Lewis being beaten on the Edmund Pettis Bridge,
10:17
Speaker 7: and immediately after that that caught the psyche of the
10:21
Speaker 7: American people because it was on National TV, and Lyndon
10:26
Speaker 7: Vane Johnson immediately say, well, hey, I'm going to pass
10:29
Speaker 7: a comprehensive voting deal and to make sure that black
10:33
Speaker 7: Americans throughout the United States of America who wanted to
10:37
Speaker 7: participate could participate. And so we saw the enagument of
10:41
Speaker 7: the nineteen sixty five Voting Rights Act, and when Barbara
10:44
Speaker 7: Jordan was elected to the United States Congress, we saw
10:47
Speaker 7: the expansion of the nineteen sixty five Voting Rights Acts,
10:50
Speaker 7: who include a language provision, and what he was doing
10:55
Speaker 7: was to bring in bilinguals, in particular Hispanics or Latinos
11:00
Speaker 7: in Texas and other places.
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Speaker 5: So that's the history of that.
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Speaker 7: Now, what happened in this case, in the case style
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Speaker 7: Louisiana versus College, what they did they looked at Section
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Speaker 7: two and Section two basically is a provision that's say
11:15
Speaker 7: that any minority that basically if they alleged that the
11:20
Speaker 7: maps were drawn in a fashion that were designed to
11:23
Speaker 7: discriminate against black Americans, that they could use this provision
11:29
Speaker 7: to file lawsuits in federal courts, and certainly the Supreme
11:32
Speaker 7: Court could hear these kinds of accidents. Now we saw
11:36
Speaker 7: beginning in twenty thirteen that was the case. And I
11:39
Speaker 7: don't want to take your audience all around the world,
11:41
Speaker 7: but I'm a professor by definition, so I have to
11:43
Speaker 7: be propersorial and have to explain myself. In twenty thirteen,
11:47
Speaker 7: we had the Shelby Versus Holder's decision.
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Speaker 5: There they were looking at section four in the formula,
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Speaker 5: what states werecovered, and also.
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Speaker 7: Whether or not we should keep preclearance, and the Holder
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Speaker 7: decision in twenty thirteen, this is the case out of
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Speaker 7: Alabama style Shelby Versus Holder. The US Supreme Court as
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Speaker 7: a former that's pretty much dead. So section four they
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Speaker 7: gutted that out of.
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Speaker 5: The voter rights deal. Section five, the preclearance. What happened.
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Speaker 5: I grew up in a place called Jackson, Mississippi, and.
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Speaker 7: My parents would get up to vote, and normally if
12:22
Speaker 7: they went over to the elementary school where the polling
12:26
Speaker 7: location was supposed to have been, well, the people in
12:29
Speaker 7: Jackson Mississippi who ran Hans County in terms of the
12:32
Speaker 7: election district, they may have moved the polling precincts that
12:36
Speaker 7: was at the elementary school, just to give you the example.
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Speaker 7: They may have moved it and put it over at
12:41
Speaker 7: the fire station, for example. So you had this kind
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Speaker 7: of chicanerby this kind of trickery going on. And Section
12:47
Speaker 7: five was designed to present that if you were under
12:50
Speaker 7: the Cover's formula, any change that you made in an
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Speaker 7: election district, whether it was a city council race, state
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Speaker 7: legislative race, or congressional seat, you have to submit it
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Speaker 7: to the United States Justice Department or what we say, Washington,
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Speaker 7: DC or one of the circuit courts in DC for preclearance. Now,
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Speaker 7: twenty thirteen they did away with that. So now many
13:13
Speaker 7: members of the community, the black community and the politicians
13:17
Speaker 7: in particular, they saying, well, hey, sex and two has
13:20
Speaker 7: now been done away with, and we.
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Speaker 5: Saw justice soda maya, they say, but this is.
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Speaker 7: A dead letter now it doesn't really mean anything. So
13:30
Speaker 7: where are we? And I'll call it now our land
13:32
Speaker 7: if you want to ask the question. But I do
13:33
Speaker 7: have some suggestions in terms of what's next. What could
13:37
Speaker 7: happen in terms of the battlefield or the battleground, or
13:41
Speaker 7: how Black Americans should try to set the agenda.
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Speaker 5: Or to go forward. I'll stop if you have a
13:46
Speaker 5: question about what I've said far.
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Speaker 6: First of all, we've seen in Louisiana where they delayed,
13:52
Speaker 6: they counseled, they counsel one of the elections, the area
13:59
Speaker 6: where a black man won the election. Well, they they're
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Speaker 6: going back on that. And so we've seen how this
14:09
Speaker 6: is already being affected in Louisiana.
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Speaker 5: In Georgia.
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Speaker 6: When you talk about moving the polling precincts, what they
14:17
Speaker 6: did there was well, it was okay when you can
14:20
Speaker 6: go right down seven Houston.
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Speaker 4: Easy.
14:22
Speaker 6: Used to be able to go right down the street
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Speaker 6: to the church or the school and vote. Well, now
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Speaker 6: they've moved it miles away from the actual places to vote,
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Speaker 6: which denies a lot of people, especially older people, ways
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Speaker 6: of getting to the polls.
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Speaker 5: So we've already.
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Speaker 6: Seen where where these these these decisions made by the
14:44
Speaker 6: Supreme Court has already taken effect.
14:47
Speaker 4: Judge L.
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Speaker 6: Green said, we talked about what's gonna where do we
14:51
Speaker 6: go from here? He's talking about making some new legislation
14:57
Speaker 6: to to fight the decision of the Supreme Court. And
15:01
Speaker 6: he's also talking protest and that type of thing and
15:05
Speaker 6: what other things they think we might can do.
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Speaker 5: Now, well, let's be clear of what happened in Louisiana.
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Speaker 5: What they did.
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Speaker 7: They suspended the primary election. And the primary election was
15:14
Speaker 7: supposed to start within a week from now whatever it was,
15:17
Speaker 7: and so the early voting actually I think we're supposed
15:20
Speaker 7: to start over the weekend, all right, So they suspended
15:23
Speaker 7: the primary. Now you're talking about the election district where
15:26
Speaker 7: Cleo Fields is elected. Now, this was the district that
15:29
Speaker 7: they had on the challenge. If you look looked at that,
15:31
Speaker 7: that congressional district ran from Baton Rouge all the way
15:35
Speaker 7: up to Freeport, all right, and what was contended here
15:39
Speaker 7: The people who brought question this some challenge this district
15:42
Speaker 7: said that he was racially gerremandered, and certainly the black
15:47
Speaker 7: Cleo Fields, who is a congress person from that district,
15:50
Speaker 7: said no, that is not the case. Well, so what
15:54
Speaker 7: you're saying, they had to switch that, So I just
15:56
Speaker 7: want to be clear to your audience. So they suspended
15:58
Speaker 7: the primary and almost immediately during the morning when the
16:02
Speaker 7: Supreme Court decision, the text mean the Florida State legislature
16:06
Speaker 7: was meeting and destantus and told them to go ahead,
16:09
Speaker 7: and so they immediately started to redraw their district lines.
16:13
Speaker 7: So there will be what I would describe as the
16:16
Speaker 7: political scientists downstream effects. Not only would it impact upon
16:21
Speaker 7: the congressional district, but we will see it with state
16:24
Speaker 7: legislative districts and also commissioners or superboard of supervisors at
16:28
Speaker 7: the county level. And it can also impact city council
16:32
Speaker 7: races when you draw the lines in a fashion if
16:35
Speaker 7: they're challenged. There what the Supreme Court has said, you
16:37
Speaker 7: can't use race, you can use partisanship, is nothing wrong
16:41
Speaker 7: if you are a majority democratic legislators said, well, hey,
16:45
Speaker 7: I'm just trying to maximize the opportunity to elect district.
16:48
Speaker 7: But you can't say that you're going to create a
16:51
Speaker 7: district that's going to be an opportunity district or a
16:54
Speaker 7: majority district for black people, Hispanics, all white people. All right,
16:58
Speaker 7: you're not supposed to say that to be what the
17:00
Speaker 7: US Supreme Court was saying. So there's a lot of disinformation. Now. Again,
17:06
Speaker 7: to be informative and to draw upon my processorial background,
17:11
Speaker 7: notwithstanding al Green, what would happen is that there's already
17:15
Speaker 7: a piece of legislation called the John Lewis Voter Act,
17:19
Speaker 7: and so what that would do, what they tried to
17:22
Speaker 7: do was to address some of the things that happened
17:23
Speaker 7: in twenty thirteen. So what they would have to do
17:26
Speaker 7: now is they want to go to back to the
17:28
Speaker 7: John Lewis piece of legislation. They would have to put
17:32
Speaker 7: more teeth in that piece of legislation to address what
17:35
Speaker 7: happened last week in terms of the watering down of
17:39
Speaker 7: Section two, for example, because there was a test called
17:43
Speaker 7: the Gingles There was a Thornberg Versus Gingles decision which
17:46
Speaker 7: was decided back in the nineteen eighties dealing with redistricting,
17:51
Speaker 7: and one of the problems is said that there was
17:52
Speaker 7: nothing wrong with creating opportunity districts. If you had a
17:56
Speaker 7: majority of the population, you shouldn't break them up. That's
18:00
Speaker 7: called cracking in terms of the redistricting, and you shouldn't
18:03
Speaker 7: whole saley just put them into one district. Let's say
18:06
Speaker 7: if you got sixty percent of the eight hundred thousand
18:09
Speaker 7: people that go into these districts that are black people,
18:13
Speaker 7: well you don't want to just put them all there
18:16
Speaker 7: because you would mitigate the opportunity of them being impacted
18:19
Speaker 7: in another district. Now East Houston, for example, we saw
18:22
Speaker 7: the ninth Congressional district, which was basically there where al
18:26
Speaker 7: Green had represented it for years. We thought of that
18:29
Speaker 7: district actually just cut up and they moved most of
18:31
Speaker 7: those Blacks into the eighteen congresional district.
18:34
Speaker 5: Good example of what I'm saying packing. So therefore you see.
18:39
Speaker 7: The face off that we will see coming up on
18:41
Speaker 7: May twenty sixth between al Green, who is now the
18:45
Speaker 7: conference person representing the old nineteen district as we know
18:48
Speaker 7: it as a map. We say, oh, now he's going
18:50
Speaker 7: to have to face off against a legacy district in
18:54
Speaker 7: terms of the eighteen congrettal district that is being represented.
18:57
Speaker 5: By Kristan Menzie. So that's what you would have in
19:00
Speaker 5: terms of marching in the whole.
19:03
Speaker 7: Civil rights mantra or whatever it is and buying into
19:06
Speaker 7: the language. Right now, you have about fifty seven members
19:09
Speaker 7: of the Congressional Black Caucus who are in the House
19:13
Speaker 7: and I think three or US Senators. So suddenly you
19:16
Speaker 7: got to see a reduction in that with these plans.
19:18
Speaker 7: If the Republicans go back, they're not going to say
19:20
Speaker 7: that we're dismantling these districts on the basis of race.
19:24
Speaker 5: Tongue in cheek. They don't have to say anything. They've
19:26
Speaker 5: been doing it all partisans. And you have to remember
19:28
Speaker 5: that the.
19:28
Speaker 7: President he picked up the phone last summer and he
19:32
Speaker 7: called his friend, Governor Abbott and say, well, hey, I
19:34
Speaker 7: need five seats. And with this fatch, Governor Abbott called
19:39
Speaker 7: the legislature into special session. We had to quarum break
19:42
Speaker 7: and again they came back. Now whether or not they will.
19:45
Speaker 5: Get those five seats, I'm a political sciences by training.
19:47
Speaker 7: Looking at what we've seen and looking at the polling
19:50
Speaker 7: numbers of the president and he's underwater.
19:52
Speaker 5: Very unpopular, So we don't know what happened.
19:55
Speaker 7: We saw the tremendous turnout of the increase turnout going
19:59
Speaker 7: back to the market third primary, and I think some
20:02
Speaker 7: of that was because Jasmine Crockett was there in terms
20:06
Speaker 7: of black people got off the couch and whatever will.
20:08
Speaker 5: That happen again? Will Democrats will be able? And also
20:12
Speaker 5: we had pitt for tat redistricting.
20:14
Speaker 7: California past a referenda an initiative said that hey, they
20:18
Speaker 7: could change their They've changed their masks.
20:20
Speaker 5: We see New York and some of the northern states.
20:22
Speaker 7: Mid decade, redistricting was unheard of because the US Constitution
20:27
Speaker 7: says in Article one, which addresses to Congress, then the
20:30
Speaker 7: line should be redrawn on a dicitio basis that means
20:34
Speaker 7: every ten years.
20:35
Speaker 5: But they've been doing it. You can do redistricting whatever
20:38
Speaker 5: you want to, as the Congress will say. Now.
20:40
Speaker 7: So the state legislative bodies are doing it. They did
20:43
Speaker 7: it mid decade. This is the middle of the decade.
20:45
Speaker 7: We didn't wait until the census. That's what it's supposed
20:48
Speaker 7: to wait until the censors.
20:49
Speaker 5: Come in every ten years.
20:50
Speaker 7: That's when we count the people and you go back
20:53
Speaker 7: and you account for population changes or shifts in the district.
20:57
Speaker 1: To add insult to injury, the US Supreme Court issued
21:00
Speaker 1: an order to the Plain off Louisiana to fast track
21:03
Speaker 1: the Court's opinion so states can implement their plans and
21:06
Speaker 1: redraw the district boundaries to gain more wins prior to
21:11
Speaker 1: the midterms. This is after in Louisiana there have already
21:16
Speaker 1: been over forty thousand early votes cast. They're going to
21:20
Speaker 1: throw those out, including votes from military overseas. Congressman Benny G.
21:25
Speaker 1: Thompson was in Houston as a ranking member of the
21:28
Speaker 1: Homeland Security Committee and the Task Force on Enhancing Security
21:32
Speaker 1: for Special Events in the United States. He along with
21:35
Speaker 1: local Congressman Al Green, were touring the city to see
21:38
Speaker 1: how secure Houston is for the upcoming Men's FIFA World Cup.
21:42
Speaker 1: The People's News asked about Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE
21:47
Speaker 1: and their involvement with this World Cup. People are afraid
21:51
Speaker 1: of being snatched up and deported by ICE, and thousands
21:55
Speaker 1: of people who were going to attend the World Cup
21:58
Speaker 1: are staying home.
22:00
Speaker 8: Thank you for both of your questions. As to the
22:02
Speaker 8: first question, In terms of having an integrated event, we
22:07
Speaker 8: have heard that there will be opportunities for people to
22:10
Speaker 8: celebrate and appreciate each other, and that we will have
22:13
Speaker 8: security available. But more important than that, it's important to
22:18
Speaker 8: note that this is not the first time people have
22:21
Speaker 8: congregated in this fashion, and while there may be some disturbances,
22:26
Speaker 8: people are telling us that they are prepared for these disturbances.
22:30
Speaker 8: I have had the opportunity to meet just recently with
22:33
Speaker 8: a classified briefing of Members of Congress with the FBI
22:37
Speaker 8: and some other agencies, and I did ask questions about
22:41
Speaker 8: how they are monitoring things on the ground, and they
22:44
Speaker 8: told me that the agent in charge here is going
22:48
Speaker 8: to have a hands on experience with assuring us that
22:50
Speaker 8: things are going to go well. But even in the
22:53
Speaker 8: best of circumstances, things happen, and there appears to be
22:57
Speaker 8: a team of people ready to respond to emergencies when
23:01
Speaker 8: they occur. There seems to be cooperation between various agencies.
23:05
Speaker 8: There's intooperability such that they can communicate with each other.
23:09
Speaker 8: These are the things that they're putting in place and
23:11
Speaker 8: quite frankly, seem to have in place for this event.
23:14
Speaker 8: And with reference to your second question, if you're restated
23:18
Speaker 8: again please.
23:22
Speaker 4: Ice.
23:22
Speaker 8: Yes, yeah, we've been quizzed and we've questioned as it
23:29
Speaker 8: relates to ICE coming into the city. We don't have
23:32
Speaker 8: a definitive answer at this time, but I assure you
23:36
Speaker 8: that this is something that is a concern to us
23:39
Speaker 8: and we want to do as much as we can
23:41
Speaker 8: to protect people who may find themselves in some sort
23:45
Speaker 8: of circumstance with ICE or any other entity. We want
23:48
Speaker 8: to make sure people are respected. I'm protected. I assure
23:52
Speaker 8: you that's my goal, and I'm going to do the
23:53
Speaker 8: very best that I can. But I also have someone
23:56
Speaker 8: here who is a quite adepted answer and questions of
24:00
Speaker 8: this type, and I invite the children to take the microphone.
24:06
Speaker 3: Will comes some great answer to the question. We act
24:09
Speaker 3: specifically of the officials today. What we've heard also about
24:14
Speaker 3: ICE's conduct and potential actions here, we were assured that
24:22
Speaker 3: those actions would not be encouraged, and so from our
24:28
Speaker 3: advantage point, the rumors are the rumors, but we've talked
24:32
Speaker 3: to people who are talking to ICE. I would hope
24:36
Speaker 3: that ICE would not walk the streets with masks on.
24:40
Speaker 2: I would hope that ICE would have.
24:43
Speaker 3: Identification on them. I hope that ICE would have cameras
24:49
Speaker 3: on their bodies if they're in the area and act
24:53
Speaker 3: as every other law enforcement official. Grould and you know,
24:59
Speaker 3: we are on display all over the world with these games,
25:03
Speaker 3: and we want our best football and ICE should participate
25:07
Speaker 3: in making sure that that occurs.
25:12
Speaker 7: HI.
25:13
Speaker 1: This is Steve Gallington, producer and host of the People's News.
25:16
Speaker 1: The People's News is people powered News. We are free
25:20
Speaker 1: to report the unvarnished and unspun truth and challenge the
25:24
Speaker 1: status quo of corporate propaganda and social media advertising. Disguised
25:28
Speaker 1: as real news. Shiny new one hour episodes of The
25:32
Speaker 1: People's News drop each Sunday on The People's News Podcast.
25:37
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Commissioner Leslie Brionis and Precinct four Forward
25:44
Speaker 1: will kick off the second year of the Cool for
25:46
Speaker 1: the Summer initiative, which provides free portable air conditioning units
25:51
Speaker 1: to protect our most vulnerable residents from extreme heat. The
25:55
Speaker 1: giveaway includes three hundred portable AC units for qualifying scene
26:00
Speaker 1: your low income households, veterans, and individuals with disabilities within
26:04
Speaker 1: Precinc Four. She explained how the units will be given away.
26:09
Speaker 9: Yes, well, thanks again Richard for the opportunity. We all know,
26:13
Speaker 9: as proud to Ustonians just how hot our summers are
26:16
Speaker 9: and they continue to get hotter and the heat kills
26:20
Speaker 9: and relief and AC shouldn't be a luxury. So my
26:22
Speaker 9: team and I got to work in partnership with you
26:26
Speaker 9: very generous donors, and we have this program called Cool
26:29
Speaker 9: for the Summer where we give away portable AC units
26:35
Speaker 9: to Precinc four residents. This year will be giving away
26:38
Speaker 9: three hundred portable AC units and this will help our
26:43
Speaker 9: community members not only stay cooler, but stay safer because
26:47
Speaker 9: we have been having a substantial rise and heat related illnesses.
26:51
Speaker 9: In fact, in Hers County between twenty nineteen and twenty
26:53
Speaker 9: twenty three, it is there's been nearly eight thousand heat
26:59
Speaker 9: related illnesses and heat related deaths have gone up two
27:03
Speaker 9: hundred and thirty one percent between twenty twenty two and
27:05
Speaker 9: twenty twenty three, And so we invite the applications opened
27:09
Speaker 9: yesterday and close at the end of May on May
27:13
Speaker 9: twenty ninth, So anyone who's a resident of Harris County
27:15
Speaker 9: Precinct four is invited to apply, and they must be
27:20
Speaker 9: not only a precinct resident, but they need to belong
27:23
Speaker 9: to one of the following categories. A senior age six
27:26
Speaker 9: year older, a low income household, veteran, or an individual
27:32
Speaker 9: with a disability.
27:34
Speaker 6: And those are those in the level of income that
27:40
Speaker 6: are important.
27:42
Speaker 9: Yes, low income household is one, so they can either
27:47
Speaker 9: be a senior or a low income household, or a
27:51
Speaker 9: veteran or an individual with a disability. And there is
27:55
Speaker 9: a limit one unit per household and units will be
27:59
Speaker 9: distributed on a first come, first served basis based on
28:02
Speaker 9: eligibility while supplies last.
28:05
Speaker 4: So one person in that household allowed to register correct.
28:10
Speaker 9: Yes, one per household and as long as one of
28:12
Speaker 9: those factors is met the age, the low income, veteran,
28:17
Speaker 9: or an individual with a disability, then they're eligible.
28:21
Speaker 4: How many people readiged last year? Let me get the number.
28:27
Speaker 9: But what I can tell you is last year we
28:29
Speaker 9: had two hundred and fifty units that we gave away,
28:31
Speaker 9: and my team is looking at how many applied, and
28:34
Speaker 9: I'll get you that number in a second. But this
28:36
Speaker 9: year we have three hundred units and we're very excited
28:40
Speaker 9: to be giving them away. And so if they're interested
28:44
Speaker 9: in applying, it's at CP four dot Harris County, TX
28:49
Speaker 9: dot gov slash cool for the summer, or if they
28:54
Speaker 9: look at our Harris County Precinct for social media channels,
28:57
Speaker 9: they can also find the link there.
29:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know how how it gets to the summertime.
29:02
Speaker 6: I mean, it's we're talking about last year.
29:07
Speaker 4: I think it was in the nineties and one hundred.
29:11
Speaker 6: All the way up until probably you know, October, it
29:14
Speaker 6: was still it was still steaming hot outside, or any
29:17
Speaker 6: other precautions being made for people like to let people
29:20
Speaker 6: know that they can go to cooling stations or any
29:22
Speaker 6: cooling station is going to be a possibility.
29:26
Speaker 9: Yes, absolutely, And before I go into more detailed to
29:29
Speaker 9: circle back to your question, last year we had six
29:32
Speaker 9: hundred and fifty seven people apply for the two hundred
29:35
Speaker 9: and fifty units. To answer that question, but to go
29:38
Speaker 9: onto what other measures are being taken. Absolutely, So this
29:42
Speaker 9: AC unit cool for the summer is just one initiative
29:45
Speaker 9: of many. Two we have ten community centers that act
29:50
Speaker 9: as cooling centers all the time, plus in case of
29:54
Speaker 9: our next disaster, we have armed our centers with generators
29:59
Speaker 9: and some have backup generators as well so that we
30:02
Speaker 9: can activate them as we have before as again cooling
30:06
Speaker 9: shelters or warming shelters depending on the disaster of the day,
30:10
Speaker 9: so those are always open and everyone's welcome. Meanwhile, we've
30:14
Speaker 9: also planted over four thousand trees in Precinc four since
30:18
Speaker 9: I took office in twenty twenty three, and this is
30:21
Speaker 9: important because we know that shaded areas can be up
30:23
Speaker 9: to forty five degrees cooler. We're also working hard to
30:27
Speaker 9: expand green space, so we have sixty two parks in
30:30
Speaker 9: Precinc four and one park that is undergoing a massive,
30:35
Speaker 9: frankly transformational up dating and renovation is Burnett Baaland and
30:40
Speaker 9: this is important because it's in Gulfston and Gulfton is
30:44
Speaker 9: the hottest area and it's the densest area in the region.
30:47
Speaker 9: So for example, in Gulfton it can be up to
30:49
Speaker 9: seventeen degrees hotter in the summer compared to River Oaks,
30:52
Speaker 9: because Golfton is so dense, it's full of concrete, and
30:55
Speaker 9: it's one of the most nature deficient areas in the region.
30:59
Speaker 9: So we're not only printing trees in that area, but
31:02
Speaker 9: we're also going to nearly double the size of the
31:04
Speaker 9: main park in Gulfston. So those are some of the
31:08
Speaker 9: actions that we have been taking. And then as a
31:10
Speaker 9: macro policy, I'm very proud that Harris County is the
31:14
Speaker 9: first county in Texas to pass the Climate Action Plan,
31:17
Speaker 9: and that plan essentially commits that the county itself has
31:22
Speaker 9: committed to reduce our own emissions by forty by twenty thirty,
31:28
Speaker 9: so reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions by forty percent
31:31
Speaker 9: by twenty thirty.
31:32
Speaker 4: So this is.
31:33
Speaker 9: Transitioning our fleet, making our county facilities more energy efficient.
31:37
Speaker 9: And beyond, you mentioned the gulf In area, and.
31:43
Speaker 6: You know, I know the gulf In area. There's there's
31:45
Speaker 6: a lot of immigrants in that area. Are how are
31:48
Speaker 6: you trying to reach out to that community, especially now
31:51
Speaker 6: with the you know, with immigration policy that they have
31:55
Speaker 6: now and enforcement.
31:57
Speaker 4: How hard is it to get the word out of
31:59
Speaker 4: that community.
32:00
Speaker 9: So we have very much leaned in to speaking and
32:04
Speaker 9: you're right, it is the modern day Ellis Island. Over
32:06
Speaker 9: sixty percent are foreign born in that Gulfston area. So
32:10
Speaker 9: we have very much leaned into our Ellis Island. So
32:13
Speaker 9: for example, when I took office, our website was in
32:15
Speaker 9: one language. Now it's in twelves. This Burnett Daland Park
32:18
Speaker 9: master planning effort, we did it in partnership with the
32:21
Speaker 9: community in seven languages. We actually got over twenty thousand
32:24
Speaker 9: data points from the community, so they've very much leaned
32:26
Speaker 9: in to helping transform their park. We've also done in
32:30
Speaker 9: partnership with many community groups, places of worship, schools, Know
32:34
Speaker 9: your Rights seminars, and so by having a team that
32:38
Speaker 9: reflects the community, by leaning in to numerous nonprofits in
32:44
Speaker 9: the area, we have really tried to stay in contact
32:48
Speaker 9: to make sure that all of the community knows that
32:50
Speaker 9: we're here to serve them.
32:52
Speaker 6: And it's also a homeless population in that area too.
32:56
Speaker 6: Is it you mentioned the cooling stations, but is any
32:59
Speaker 6: other ways are you trying to reach out.
33:01
Speaker 4: To the homeless in that region.
33:04
Speaker 9: Yes, one example that I can give, for example Burnett Bayland,
33:07
Speaker 9: we have this employee to Empower program where it's a
33:11
Speaker 9: program where we hire these unhoused individuals, these homeless individuals
33:15
Speaker 9: for the day to get them a job, an income,
33:17
Speaker 9: and get them connected to resources. So that is one
33:21
Speaker 9: of the programs that we are working on directly with
33:24
Speaker 9: our un housed population. And the county has a variety
33:27
Speaker 9: of services and works very closely with Search and Serve,
33:30
Speaker 9: Hope and so many other organizations Coalition for the Homeless, etc.
33:36
Speaker 6: And again, can you reach out to get the website
33:41
Speaker 6: out to the listening audience Again.
33:43
Speaker 9: Yes, please apply at cp for dot Harris County, TX,
33:50
Speaker 9: dot gov, slash cool for the summer. Applications are open
33:56
Speaker 9: now and the deadline to apply is May twenty ninth,
34:00
Speaker 9: And if you have any questions or a need help
34:01
Speaker 9: with the application, they can also call eight three two
34:05
Speaker 9: nine two seven four four four.
34:08
Speaker 6: Four And when one more question, because I know, like
34:13
Speaker 6: you said, the heat is a heat exhaustion and heat
34:17
Speaker 6: related illnesses or or up there are you trying to
34:22
Speaker 6: reach out and let people know the different symptoms of
34:25
Speaker 6: heat exhaustion.
34:27
Speaker 9: Yes, absolutely, And just to highlight how dangerous this is.
34:32
Speaker 9: Extreme heat is the number one cause of US weather
34:37
Speaker 9: related deaths, the number one cause of US weather related dots.
34:40
Speaker 9: So we're working very closely with Harris County Public Health
34:44
Speaker 9: and other nonprofits and agencies to get the word out,
34:47
Speaker 9: whether that is avoid to the extent possible, avoid being
34:50
Speaker 9: out in the sun between ten and four, Drink plenty
34:53
Speaker 9: of water, apply sunscreen, never ever leave a child or
34:56
Speaker 9: a pet in the car. Those kind of you know,
35:00
Speaker 9: day to day practical tips are really instrumental, and we
35:04
Speaker 9: are working to get the word out. And I appreciate
35:07
Speaker 9: opportunities like this, Richard, so that together we can help
35:10
Speaker 9: educate our community and stay safer and make Carris Countia
35:14
Speaker 9: and even better and even safer place, because we know
35:17
Speaker 9: the heat is coming and our summers just keep getting hotter.
35:22
Speaker 6: And it's also a hurricane season too, and I saw
35:25
Speaker 6: we were talking about generators and trying to get the word
35:28
Speaker 6: out as far as people preparing for a hurricane season
35:32
Speaker 6: because it's easy to forget that with this heat, the
35:36
Speaker 6: heat that we have here, we also have problems with hurricanes.
35:40
Speaker 10: Yes, forms we.
35:42
Speaker 9: Do, and so my team and I we are your
35:45
Speaker 9: first responders picking up debris, rescuing folks with high water
35:49
Speaker 9: rescue vehicles. We are having a series of disaster preparedness
35:53
Speaker 9: workshops at our community centers, and folks can learn more
35:57
Speaker 9: at if they google Commissioner Leslie US or Harris County
36:00
Speaker 9: Precinct four. Everything is available on our website. But we're
36:04
Speaker 9: having numerous disaster preparedness workshops because we all need to
36:07
Speaker 9: be ready. We know that the storms and disasters continue
36:11
Speaker 9: and we need to do everything possible to be prepared
36:14
Speaker 9: and then to make our community as resilient as we can.
36:18
Speaker 1: That was Commissioner Leslie Brionis of Harris County Precinct four.
36:23
Speaker 1: For questions or help with the application, contact Harris County
36:26
Speaker 1: Precinct four Constituent Services at eight three two nine two
36:31
Speaker 1: seven four four four four or send an email to
36:34
Speaker 1: service at HCP four dot net. The deadline for application
36:40
Speaker 1: is May twenty ninth, and you can contact the People's
36:42
Speaker 1: News also if you are having trouble getting in touch.
36:46
Speaker 1: Mental health is important to everyone, but especially veterans who
36:51
Speaker 1: are in high stress situations. Doctor Isaac Martinez Salvadar, PhD
36:57
Speaker 1: is a psychologist at the Telehealth Institute at Texas A
37:00
Speaker 1: and M. We spoke with him on the importance of
37:03
Speaker 1: mental health, especially for veterans and military. He also talked
37:07
Speaker 1: about how hard it is for minorities to seek help.
37:11
Speaker 11: Yeah, so a little bit of my kind of like experience.
37:14
Speaker 11: So I've worked with veterans for multiple years, and while
37:19
Speaker 11: I was working at the VA, and I also did
37:21
Speaker 11: an internship where I got to work with different types
37:26
Speaker 11: of veterans, different wars, different errors, Vietnam, You, Desert Storm,
37:32
Speaker 11: Operation Freedom, other kind of folks. And so I really
37:37
Speaker 11: got to see that there is a lot of need
37:40
Speaker 11: for mental health services.
37:41
Speaker 5: And so I was blessed to be able to get.
37:43
Speaker 11: Training and really get knowledge in how PTSD and other
37:48
Speaker 11: disorders that veterans often experience. But I did see that there,
37:55
Speaker 11: especially in I feel like you're black and minority communities,
37:58
Speaker 11: there is a stigma of health in the veteran community
38:02
Speaker 11: in general. You know, you know, tend to be very
38:06
Speaker 11: tough minded handle it on their own, and that only
38:11
Speaker 11: can last a certain amount of time before the mental
38:15
Speaker 11: health issues really are too overwhelming to overcome. You know,
38:19
Speaker 11: there often is a lot of isolation, There might be
38:22
Speaker 11: some substance use of drinking. But the PTSD symptoms for
38:26
Speaker 11: most folks who experienced trauma will go away. But there's
38:29
Speaker 11: about five to ten percent that those trauma symptoms will
38:33
Speaker 11: develop into PTSD.
38:35
Speaker 6: And how does that fake relationships family and that.
38:39
Speaker 5: Type of thing.
38:40
Speaker 11: Oh yeah, I mean, from the individual perspective, there's definitely
38:44
Speaker 11: an internal battle with traumas that they have often nightmares,
38:49
Speaker 11: they might have flashbacks where they're experiencing the trauma as
38:53
Speaker 11: if it's currently happening. They might have increased anxiety, withdrawal, isolation,
39:01
Speaker 11: that there's a whole list of challenges that people face
39:06
Speaker 11: when they when they have experienced trauma. So from an
39:10
Speaker 11: individual perspective, there are some. But as a family unit,
39:14
Speaker 11: you know, I've seen a lot of veterans, both male
39:17
Speaker 11: and female, who when they come home, they often have
39:22
Speaker 11: been changed by those experiences and may not know how
39:26
Speaker 11: to communicate what they've experienced to their family and may
39:31
Speaker 11: kind of keep that to themselves. We will often reach
39:34
Speaker 11: out to other veterans for help.
39:36
Speaker 5: Uh and that's that's an important kind of network of bolts.
39:40
Speaker 6: Yeah, I was just gonna say, uh, just trying to
39:44
Speaker 6: find somebody again. A lot of times there's a cost
39:47
Speaker 6: factor involved to it that you know, I don't know if.
39:49
Speaker 4: That's for veterans or not.
39:50
Speaker 6: It's the cost of the cost of seeking help is
39:54
Speaker 6: uh free for veterans.
39:56
Speaker 4: But I know, I know you're average person if they don't.
39:59
Speaker 6: Have a job that that insurance will cover it. Uh,
40:03
Speaker 6: it can be quite quite daring and and you know,
40:07
Speaker 6: the whole aspect of seeking help kind of disappears with
40:09
Speaker 6: when you talk about cost.
40:12
Speaker 11: Uh, there's there's one hundred percent a barrier when we
40:15
Speaker 11: talk about costs.
40:16
Speaker 5: Specifically in Texas. Texas, you know, we in terms of.
40:20
Speaker 11: Like ratio from providers to folks who need treatment, we
40:25
Speaker 11: are because we have a lot of rural communities that
40:28
Speaker 11: really don't have any psychologists, don't have any psychiatrists or
40:32
Speaker 11: other mental estos. So we we fall I think we
40:35
Speaker 11: might be close to last in terms of provider to
40:40
Speaker 11: population ratio. You know, so in Texas, if you want
40:44
Speaker 11: to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist, you will have
40:48
Speaker 11: a more difficult time than other states and also you
40:50
Speaker 11: tend to because Texas size, if you were going to
40:53
Speaker 11: go see someone, the travel is more significant.
40:57
Speaker 1: And when you know.
40:59
Speaker 11: We talk about gas right now, or just any price
41:01
Speaker 11: to say at a hotel to see somebody, those are
41:04
Speaker 11: all kind of incurring costs that would just make it
41:07
Speaker 11: even more difficult if folks. And like you said, veterans
41:10
Speaker 11: can access there VA benefits with mental health, but often
41:18
Speaker 11: you know they're with at least I know in whenever
41:21
Speaker 11: I was interning, there was a uh, there was a weight.
41:25
Speaker 11: There was at least I think at the time was
41:27
Speaker 11: about a two year waste weight. Excuse me, and that
41:31
Speaker 11: way you say it was a two year weight, it
41:34
Speaker 11: was a two year weight.
41:35
Speaker 10: It was a twenty fourteen they had.
41:38
Speaker 5: It was a.
41:38
Speaker 11: Significant challenge for the veterans to access mental health. So
41:43
Speaker 11: just even as a first meeting, So what at the
41:46
Speaker 11: at the VA I was at, what they did is
41:49
Speaker 11: they established just a first contact where veterans could come in.
41:53
Speaker 11: They had a small group where they taught them a
41:55
Speaker 11: few basic coping skills. But then they when they appoint
42:01
Speaker 11: had them schedule appointment. Some of the appointments were a
42:05
Speaker 11: year to a year and a half and some even cases.
42:08
Speaker 11: So at the time, the VA really was not doing
42:11
Speaker 11: a great job of addressing the issue.
42:13
Speaker 5: I think since then, I think.
42:14
Speaker 11: That I remember mid uh mid year being there, that
42:19
Speaker 11: the number had gone down, but that still like even
42:22
Speaker 11: though it's like maybe six months or eight months, the
42:25
Speaker 11: number should be as soon as there's a problem, right
42:28
Speaker 11: that they can access mental health services. And it just
42:33
Speaker 11: kind of depends some some some places at the VA
42:36
Speaker 11: are not really staff mental health wise, and others are
42:41
Speaker 11: more robust and have mental health programs, And it just
42:44
Speaker 11: kind of depends on what which resources you live by,
42:50
Speaker 11: and uh, you know, that could be just a hit,
42:53
Speaker 11: hit or miss sometimes where some some places might not
42:56
Speaker 11: provide them as much or have as much as many
42:58
Speaker 11: providers to see.
43:01
Speaker 4: Some people seek like religion or that aspect of a crutch.
43:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I think one of the.
43:09
Speaker 1: Things with trauma.
43:10
Speaker 11: So there's a lot of areas in life that you
43:13
Speaker 11: can gain healing, you can and a lot of people
43:17
Speaker 11: use faith as a very big cornerstone of their the
43:22
Speaker 11: way they view the world, how they interpret what happens
43:25
Speaker 11: in maybe how they view the trauma impact their life
43:28
Speaker 11: and rely on faith to kind of get them through
43:31
Speaker 11: in a lot of issues, but also you know, there
43:34
Speaker 11: are people in the community and agencies, mental health agencies
43:39
Speaker 11: that can really be a network for veterans, so other
43:44
Speaker 11: veterans often you know, help each other. There's but you're
43:48
Speaker 11: also looking you know, with with veterans, first resplenders in
43:53
Speaker 11: law enforcement, there's often within the culture itself, a stigma
43:58
Speaker 11: of you know, you don't get you just suck it up,
44:01
Speaker 11: you don't show those symptoms. It's just it's maybe viewed
44:06
Speaker 11: as a weak and seek It can be hard to
44:08
Speaker 11: reach out to to a mental health professional, and sometimes
44:14
Speaker 11: you know, it's difficult for veterans to ask for help.
44:18
Speaker 6: When they do ask for help, you know, people and
44:21
Speaker 6: people know the family members wives I said, but know
44:24
Speaker 6: they have they're having issues, but they can't get out
44:28
Speaker 6: of them. They look at it as oh, that's just John.
44:30
Speaker 6: You know, they just kind of see it out.
44:32
Speaker 11: So I kind of view it as I've always stated,
44:36
Speaker 11: like stress levels and kind of stress tolerance almost like
44:40
Speaker 11: a metaphor for a balloon, to where you can blow
44:44
Speaker 11: up a balloon to a certain extent and it's not
44:47
Speaker 11: at the breaking point, but if you continue to have
44:51
Speaker 11: stresses and stresses on top of you know, stress, you
44:55
Speaker 11: can start to feel that pressure, and so if you
44:59
Speaker 11: put more air in a balloon, there's a certain point
45:01
Speaker 11: where you can't put any more air in the balloon
45:04
Speaker 11: and it just firsts.
45:06
Speaker 5: So before folks can.
45:07
Speaker 11: Get to that spot, you would hope that they can
45:12
Speaker 11: access some of those mental health services so that they
45:14
Speaker 11: can get back to a manageable spot where they can
45:21
Speaker 11: manage the stresses in their life and it is not
45:23
Speaker 11: about it's not so much that they're about to burst
45:28
Speaker 11: so to speak, you know, break.
45:29
Speaker 6: Can can family members reach out to, like say, law
45:31
Speaker 6: enforcement if they know that that's the point, or wives
45:35
Speaker 6: can reach out.
45:36
Speaker 4: To that point?
45:36
Speaker 5: Question?
45:37
Speaker 1: I feel there.
45:38
Speaker 11: I feel like there are there are very very many
45:41
Speaker 11: veterans in law enforcement and first responders, so you know,
45:46
Speaker 11: I think there's a special community and connection there that
45:51
Speaker 11: a lot of you know, first responders share.
45:54
Speaker 1: So that is a very.
45:58
Speaker 11: Great resource for folks if because they often have family
46:00
Speaker 11: members that also go through the same things and so
46:03
Speaker 11: they can get connected to services. But any any positive,
46:09
Speaker 11: uh you know, kind of direction to much needed services
46:14
Speaker 11: would be helpful. You know, I would call their VA,
46:17
Speaker 11: I would call the local well, I would I would
46:21
Speaker 11: call the VA or any of the even US like
46:24
Speaker 11: the Telehealth Institute. So even though we don't specifically only
46:28
Speaker 11: provide services to veterans, we do provide I have for
46:33
Speaker 11: the past six seven years provided community uh free services
46:37
Speaker 11: to the community with our institute. And I have seen uh,
46:42
Speaker 11: you know, numbers of veterans from different areas of rural Texas,
46:46
Speaker 11: so including Quero, port Lavaca, other areas like Uvalde and
46:56
Speaker 11: and even in the jail settings that I run the
46:59
Speaker 11: jails uh uh here in the Telehealth Institute, and there's
47:03
Speaker 11: veterans who get caught up in the the justice system,
47:08
Speaker 11: and you know, our meeting services and so I provide
47:12
Speaker 11: services for veterans in that context whenever they come up,
47:17
Speaker 11: they come across my my my caseload is so you know,
47:21
Speaker 11: there's there's a variety of you know, treatments for PTSD
47:26
Speaker 11: that are out there. I know there's cognitive behavioral therapies,
47:29
Speaker 11: there are trauma informed there's cognitive processing therapy, which has
47:34
Speaker 11: a lot of support in its effectiveness.
47:36
Speaker 10: Uh.
47:36
Speaker 11: The the fact that I worked at did something called
47:39
Speaker 11: m d R, which some folks are are there's some
47:42
Speaker 11: question about.
47:43
Speaker 6: It's can you I know nine eight eight is the
47:46
Speaker 6: number to call. Do you want to give your information
47:50
Speaker 6: out how to get in touch with your organization?
47:53
Speaker 11: Yes, sure so our Telehealth Institute specifically, and I also do,
48:00
Speaker 11: but I don't. I don't want to share that informent
48:02
Speaker 11: because it's a different program. But I know we specifically
48:07
Speaker 11: would would provide free services because we are a training facility,
48:12
Speaker 11: but we also provide So I'm not a student, but
48:14
Speaker 11: I supervise students who also provide treatment. But I personally
48:21
Speaker 11: do am open to you know, key veterans and within
48:25
Speaker 11: my practice.
48:26
Speaker 5: So our personal that.
48:29
Speaker 1: Was doctor Isaac Martinez Saldivar, PhD at the Telehealth Institute
48:33
Speaker 1: at Texas A and M. If you are listening to
48:36
Speaker 1: this report and you need help, you can call nine
48:39
Speaker 1: eight eight and be directed to someone to talk to
48:42
Speaker 1: on the phone and in person. Don't wait until it's
48:46
Speaker 1: too late. Talk to someone and seek help. Another organization
48:50
Speaker 1: that has been working with first responders and veterans is
48:52
Speaker 1: Robert Greer with Warriors Heart.
48:55
Speaker 6: Tell us about you know, it's a lot of veterans
48:58
Speaker 6: and even first responders, or it can be a person
49:01
Speaker 6: who's working a nine to five jobs have mental problems,
49:03
Speaker 6: but they don't treat it, and I know a lot
49:05
Speaker 6: of a lot of veterans is even more of a problem,
49:07
Speaker 6: and going to untreat it, things happen, and not good things.
49:12
Speaker 6: Can we talk about that a little bit.
49:14
Speaker 10: Absolutely, so I can refer to myself on that. And
49:16
Speaker 10: of course I was a first responder as a law
49:18
Speaker 10: enforcement alser for a lot of years. However, not everything
49:21
Speaker 10: that affected me was from my law enforcement careers and
49:23
Speaker 10: it was just daily life that we all experience. I
49:27
Speaker 10: wasn't a drinker when I hired all. I didn't abuse
49:29
Speaker 10: drugs or anything of the sort. But when the PTSD
49:32
Speaker 10: and the other mental health issues really began to manifest,
49:36
Speaker 10: I began to numb out with agents. And that's true
49:39
Speaker 10: with a numbing agens, I should say, and that's true
49:41
Speaker 10: with a large portion of our population just in general,
49:44
Speaker 10: you know, not necessarily the warrior community. You know, we
49:49
Speaker 10: don't want to feel those feelings, so we drown it
49:51
Speaker 10: in alcohol, we drown it in pills or other street
49:54
Speaker 10: drugs or such as that, and we never really make
49:58
Speaker 10: any progress, We never get any better when we that
50:00
Speaker 10: because I'm not addressing the issue.
50:02
Speaker 6: It's something it's something that you know, I know, for
50:04
Speaker 6: African Americans and other minority groups, it's hard to get help,
50:09
Speaker 6: and family members are just they either deal with it
50:13
Speaker 6: or they just just.
50:13
Speaker 4: Kind of play it off.
50:15
Speaker 6: And that can build up to that can deal up
50:17
Speaker 6: to tresedy. And it's how hard is it to, you know,
50:21
Speaker 6: for minority groups to try to get them to actually
50:23
Speaker 6: or get to that point where you actually have to
50:25
Speaker 6: seek help.
50:26
Speaker 10: Well, societal norms in every sector of society kind of
50:29
Speaker 10: prevent people from reaching out for help. But the other
50:31
Speaker 10: side of that coin is nobody in any of those
50:34
Speaker 10: communities has gotten anywhere on their own. They've always had help,
50:37
Speaker 10: family support, church help, their community group has always been
50:41
Speaker 10: of help to them in some way or another. So
50:43
Speaker 10: when reaching out for help with these kinds of issues,
50:46
Speaker 10: it's no different. You have to reach out for those
50:48
Speaker 10: those resources to get where you need to be to
50:51
Speaker 10: help you heal from those wounds and to live a
50:53
Speaker 10: better life, whether it be substances ues or the mental
50:55
Speaker 10: health issues. And of course if you don't, yeah, it's
50:58
Speaker 10: tragic outcomes. You numbing out with alcohol and drugs leads
51:02
Speaker 10: to all kinds of bad things, you know, whether it
51:04
Speaker 10: be a rest, family violence, death, suicide, just a whole
51:08
Speaker 10: host of things that kind of come along with that,
51:11
Speaker 10: and if you don't reach out for help, you're kind
51:13
Speaker 10: of guaranteeing that those things will be in your future.
51:17
Speaker 6: And talk a little bit about, you know, the aspect
51:22
Speaker 6: of seeking help. I don't know if you get your
51:25
Speaker 6: organization's nonprofit, but a lot of people also look at
51:27
Speaker 6: the costs and sometimes they also look at trying to
51:30
Speaker 6: kill their problems to somebody that they don't know.
51:34
Speaker 10: Yeah, so we are not a nonprofit, but we work
51:36
Speaker 10: with a lot of nonprofits and one of the things
51:38
Speaker 10: that we try to impart on people is we don't
51:41
Speaker 10: want money to be something that sands in between you
51:43
Speaker 10: and your healing. If you're willing to get the help,
51:46
Speaker 10: we will do everything in our power to help make
51:48
Speaker 10: it happen. For example, a lot of veterans may not
51:51
Speaker 10: have health insurance outside of the VA, but we work
51:54
Speaker 10: with VA Community Care Network to get the VA to
51:57
Speaker 10: approve your treatment with us. We work with a lot
51:59
Speaker 10: of major insurance corporations for those that do have insurance,
52:03
Speaker 10: and if the out of pocket expense, you know, your
52:05
Speaker 10: co pay for the year is prohibitive in some way,
52:08
Speaker 10: then we'll work with foundations to help offset that as well.
52:11
Speaker 10: We also work with private pay with other foundations for
52:16
Speaker 10: those that have none of the above. When I came in,
52:18
Speaker 10: I was one of those clients. I had no insurance,
52:20
Speaker 10: not a VET, so I didn't have the VA, and
52:23
Speaker 10: I didn't have any real money set aside, but I
52:25
Speaker 10: was willing to do what it took. I started to
52:27
Speaker 10: go fundme to help raise funds on my end and
52:29
Speaker 10: reached out to some foundations and before I knew it,
52:32
Speaker 10: we had the cost cover for me to come in
52:35
Speaker 10: and get come help.
52:36
Speaker 6: How was it that first time you went to get therapy?
52:40
Speaker 6: Because I know it can be trying to the word
52:46
Speaker 6: for it. It can be embarrassing, so to speech, talking
52:49
Speaker 6: to somebody you don't know.
52:51
Speaker 10: So when I first reached out for therapeutic intervention, it
52:55
Speaker 10: was when I was still in law enforce and I
52:56
Speaker 10: was a detective at that time, and I didn't really
52:59
Speaker 10: know what to spec but I knew I needed help.
53:02
Speaker 5: Now.
53:02
Speaker 10: To me, it's no different if if I'm out on
53:04
Speaker 10: the street fighting with a suspect, I have no problem
53:07
Speaker 10: calling for backup. But when I'm fighting with those on
53:09
Speaker 10: demons in my head, a lot of us don't want
53:12
Speaker 10: to reach out for a backup, but she has to
53:13
Speaker 10: be willing to at least ask somebody for some help.
53:16
Speaker 10: And if I can ask a buddy over a beer
53:18
Speaker 10: what he thinks I should do, I can damn sure
53:20
Speaker 10: sit and talk to a clinician and find out what's
53:23
Speaker 10: causing all these issues. So initially it was a bit scary,
53:27
Speaker 10: but you know what, it's kind of supposed to be.
53:29
Speaker 10: You know, anything worth having in life is hard fault,
53:32
Speaker 10: and our mental health is no different.
53:37
Speaker 6: Talking about that, if you go to do you have
53:40
Speaker 6: group therapy or have a single is it.
53:43
Speaker 4: This one on one with a with a counselor.
53:47
Speaker 10: All of it both, however you want to put it.
53:49
Speaker 10: Each of our clients when they come in, they have
53:52
Speaker 10: a licensed chemical dependency counselor and a trauma therapist and
53:56
Speaker 10: they meet typically twice a week with each of those clinicians.
54:00
Speaker 10: So there's four therapeutic sessions each week for that client.
54:05
Speaker 10: So individual one on one sessions a total of four
54:08
Speaker 10: each week, in addition to the group therapy, where we
54:12
Speaker 10: have groups in the mornings that may be small group,
54:14
Speaker 10: maybe a large group. Aside from that, one of our
54:17
Speaker 10: mottos is Warriors Healing warriors. A large part of the
54:20
Speaker 10: healing that happens here is around the firepit. You know,
54:23
Speaker 10: guys sitting around talking back and forth about their experiences
54:26
Speaker 10: and life, smoking cigars, listen to music, and really helping
54:30
Speaker 10: each other find our way through those dark passages. That's
54:34
Speaker 10: when a lot of it happens. So that's why I
54:37
Speaker 10: say it's all of it.
54:39
Speaker 6: And sometimes it's good just to get things off your mind.
54:43
Speaker 10: Yes, you know, it's one thing to say, hey, anytime
54:47
Speaker 10: you need anything, come talk to me. Well for that
54:50
Speaker 10: other person, you got to have an answer. You got
54:52
Speaker 10: to have something to say, you know, other than hey,
54:54
Speaker 10: that sucks. I hate that you're going through it. You know,
54:57
Speaker 10: let's have a burrito, you know what I mean. When
55:00
Speaker 10: somebody reaches out to you to get some of myself
55:02
Speaker 10: off their mind, you got to be able to put
55:04
Speaker 10: them in the right direction. And our warriors sitting around
55:07
Speaker 10: the campfire, that's exactly what they do.
55:09
Speaker 5: They help steer each other in the right direction.
55:12
Speaker 6: And this is something that gets personal because if a
55:16
Speaker 6: family member thinks that you need help and you don't
55:21
Speaker 6: want it, can the family members still get you to
55:24
Speaker 6: get you into counseling.
55:26
Speaker 10: We encourage them to reach out to us, or if
55:29
Speaker 10: it's a private citizen, to reach out to a counselor
55:31
Speaker 10: and have that counselor and potentially reach out to the
55:34
Speaker 10: person who is struggling. We're not always open and receptive
55:38
Speaker 10: to help, but we have to at least have somebody
55:41
Speaker 10: in our life that's willing to show us the right
55:44
Speaker 10: way to go now in our warrior's heart. You know,
55:47
Speaker 10: we Inster calls all the time for family members wanting
55:49
Speaker 10: somebody to get help. Now, our clients have to be
55:51
Speaker 10: willing to get the help, you know. That's the way
55:53
Speaker 10: this program works. But we have no problem reaching out
55:55
Speaker 10: to that person. But in other sectors the society, those
55:59
Speaker 10: who don't qualify to come into our treatment necessarily. That's
56:03
Speaker 10: one thing I always recommend. I'm holding them accountable. I
56:05
Speaker 10: mean tough love sometimes, you know, that's what keeps us going.
56:09
Speaker 10: And if we love somebody, we have to be willing
56:12
Speaker 10: to have that hard conversation with him and say, hey, look,
56:14
Speaker 10: I can see that you're struggling. These are the things
56:17
Speaker 10: that are going on in your life that it's affecting
56:18
Speaker 10: other people around you. You need to do something about it.
56:21
Speaker 10: That can be a tough conversation to have, but it's
56:24
Speaker 10: much better than the alternative, and I think we know
56:26
Speaker 10: what the alternative is.
56:27
Speaker 1: That's correct, that's correct.
56:29
Speaker 6: How can people get in touch with your organization.
56:32
Speaker 10: So they can contact Warrior's Heart anytime? Eight four four
56:35
Speaker 10: four four eight two five sixty seven. That's the number
56:39
Speaker 10: to our general admissions line. They can call twenty four
56:41
Speaker 10: hours a day. And if if our mission staff isn't available,
56:46
Speaker 10: you know, especially in the midnight hours, our client relations
56:48
Speaker 10: staff will take a message and get it to our
56:50
Speaker 10: mission staff in the morning.
56:52
Speaker 1: That was Robert Greer with Warrior's Heart. They can be
56:55
Speaker 1: contacted at Warrior's Heart All put Together dot com. Their
56:59
Speaker 1: number is eight four four four four eight two five
57:03
Speaker 1: six seven. The People's News is a production of Steve
57:08
Speaker 1: Gallington and Richard Hannah and is protected by copyright laws.
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57:56
Speaker 2: Thank you.