Latest / The Breakfast Club / Syrita Steib Talks Louisiana Senate Run, Prison Reentry Reform, Women's Incarceration + More

Transcript

Syrita Steib Talks Louisiana Senate Run, Prison Reentry Reform, Women's Incarceration + More · The Breakfast Club

0:01
Speaker 1: In the morning Breakfast Club. Morning. Everybody is DJ Envy
0:07
Speaker 1: and Julie Charlomagne the guy. We are the Breakfast Club.
0:10
Speaker 1: We got a special guests in the building. She's running
0:12
Speaker 1: for US Senate of Louisiana, Serena Stide. Welcome, Thank you
0:16
Speaker 1: so much for having me. Good morning you name right,
0:18
Speaker 1: absolutely welcome. Welcome. Now. I actually met Sereda through my
0:23
Speaker 1: good friend to Pica Sam and the two of you
0:26
Speaker 1: collaborate on a lot of different projects together. Yes. Absolutely,
0:30
Speaker 1: So let's talk about your background, and I think people
0:33
Speaker 1: need to hear your story. We were actually in New
0:36
Speaker 1: Orleans and when I tell you, we went out to
0:38
Speaker 1: eat at Morrows and she had people at the table crying,
0:41
Speaker 1: just talking about her story and how she's gotten to
0:44
Speaker 1: where she is now. Yeah, so a little bit about
0:47
Speaker 1: me and my story. It starts probably really early on
0:51
Speaker 1: in childhood. I had experiences with abuse throughout my life,
0:54
Speaker 1: and by the age of eighteen, it kind of led
0:56
Speaker 1: me to her pathway. I felt like I was really
0:59
Speaker 1: angry and upset all of the time and just really
1:01
Speaker 1: caused me to make a lot of bad decisions irrespective
1:04
Speaker 1: of like where I was in my life. So I
1:05
Speaker 1: was on a four scholarship to Xavier University in New
1:09
Speaker 1: Orleans in physics and engineering and in the United States Navy.
1:13
Speaker 1: But by the time I was nineteen, I found myself
1:15
Speaker 1: in prison. So I was sentenced to ten years in
1:18
Speaker 1: federal prison, twenty years in state prison, one point nine
1:21
Speaker 1: million dollars in restitution, all for the same crime. What
1:25
Speaker 1: did you do? So my charge was the use of
1:27
Speaker 1: failure to commit a felony. We stole cars from a
1:29
Speaker 1: car dealership and blew the car dealership up. What okay?
1:34
Speaker 1: So you stole cars from the car dealership. How many cars?
1:38
Speaker 1: I think we were charged with six? Six okay? And
1:41
Speaker 1: how many what are you guys? It was four total,
1:45
Speaker 1: you guys. And then why did you blow up the
1:47
Speaker 1: car dealership? Because one of my co defendants thought his
1:50
Speaker 1: face was on the camera that he could be caught in.
1:52
Speaker 1: That was the first thing that we thought of, you know,
1:54
Speaker 1: to cover your track sport. You know, I would have
1:58
Speaker 1: the same thing at that age of nineteen and and
2:01
Speaker 1: be I'm going to say this is interesting because we
2:03
Speaker 1: had this debate the other day about when people do
2:06
Speaker 1: things as a youth when they're young, and they make
2:08
Speaker 1: these huge mistakes in their life and how forgiving people
2:12
Speaker 1: should be of that once you know, they do go
2:14
Speaker 1: to jail, or is there some type of rehab that
2:17
Speaker 1: can happen without jail. So I definitely do not think
2:20
Speaker 1: that jail is rehabilitive. You know, I think nine years
2:25
Speaker 1: and too much for a crime that normally would have
2:28
Speaker 1: held about three years. But because I was sentenced in
2:32
Speaker 1: the federal system and I was sentenced under mandatormentimums. You know,
2:37
Speaker 1: that's a big thing across the country right now, people
2:39
Speaker 1: who are doing obscenes amount of time because a man
2:41
Speaker 1: the tormentimums. That was my case, so my judge had
2:43
Speaker 1: no discretion. I didn't have priors, you know, or anything
2:47
Speaker 1: like that, but that was my main de tormentimum. And
2:49
Speaker 1: then one of the things that I'm working with Topeka
2:52
Speaker 1: now on is that I had a restitution as well.
2:55
Speaker 1: So I was sentence something a mandatory Victims Restitution Act,
2:58
Speaker 1: which made it necessary or like the judge also didn't
3:02
Speaker 1: have any leansy to go either way, that they had
3:04
Speaker 1: to impose restitution. So that is how I ended up
3:07
Speaker 1: with the ten years in the federal system, one point
3:09
Speaker 1: nine million dollars in restitution, and then the state came
3:12
Speaker 1: in and said, hey, we want to charge you with
3:14
Speaker 1: a part of the crime in the state as well.
3:16
Speaker 1: And that was how I got the twenty years in
3:18
Speaker 1: the state. So I was gonna ask so for most
3:20
Speaker 1: people don't know and this and this is what really
3:21
Speaker 1: urged me when it comes to a lot of this stuff.
3:23
Speaker 1: So when you stole the vehicles, why did you steal
3:26
Speaker 1: them money to sell them? Absolutely so now, and that's
3:30
Speaker 1: why I said, this always bothers me because you get
3:32
Speaker 1: a lot of kids and at yourself teenagers. They steal
3:34
Speaker 1: these cars and they get two three thousand dollars a car.
3:37
Speaker 1: How much was you get in the car at that time,
3:38
Speaker 1: about twenty thousand dollars a car, and you sell it
3:41
Speaker 1: to a guy that's selling it and probably getting seventy
3:43
Speaker 1: eighty thousand dollars. Absolutely, But that person that was selling
3:46
Speaker 1: it for seventy eighty thousand dollars and shipping them overseas
3:49
Speaker 1: and getting the big dollars, he was never caught. No.
3:52
Speaker 1: And you know, I was listening to DMX and Rough
3:56
Speaker 1: Riders a lot around that time. So Eve had this
3:59
Speaker 1: amazing song called ride to Do Check. I really believe that,
4:03
Speaker 1: you know, in my head at the time, and I
4:06
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't cooperate, didn't talk about it, didn't
4:09
Speaker 1: say anything about it because I felt like if you
4:11
Speaker 1: had evidence on the person, you could get it, you
4:14
Speaker 1: know whatever. But not even realizing like the level of
4:18
Speaker 1: praying people do on young kids and you're you know
4:22
Speaker 1: that they're in hard situations, are tough situations. So like
4:25
Speaker 1: my story was that I was in the military at
4:28
Speaker 1: that time. I was making four hundred and ten dollars
4:30
Speaker 1: every two weeks, but I was already you know, had
4:32
Speaker 1: a car, had responsibilities. I went to my superiors in
4:36
Speaker 1: the name of them, like, hey, I need to get
4:37
Speaker 1: another job. They're like, no, you know, just to let
4:39
Speaker 1: everything go and you can get it back. And I
4:41
Speaker 1: was like, I can't do that, Like how I'm a
4:44
Speaker 1: drive you know at nineteen, I can't even comprehend letting
4:46
Speaker 1: my car go, right, you know, And it really bothers
4:49
Speaker 1: me because, you know, especially I mean, you know, now
4:51
Speaker 1: car thefts us through the roof right now, Yeah, New Orleans.
4:53
Speaker 1: And mostly what they do is they get these they
4:56
Speaker 1: prey on these sixteen year old, seventeen year old and
4:58
Speaker 1: eighteen year olds, right and usually because if they get caught,
5:01
Speaker 1: they come out right away and then they can get
5:02
Speaker 1: back and doing it. And they paid these kids three
5:04
Speaker 1: to five thousand dollars a car, and these these kids
5:07
Speaker 1: are stealing McLaren's rolls, Royces, Ferrari's, Lamborghini's four kids, and
5:11
Speaker 1: then they shipped these cars overseas for thirty forty fifty thousand.
5:14
Speaker 1: But these kids are risking their life for three thousand
5:17
Speaker 1: dollars and not just jail time because you run into
5:20
Speaker 1: the wrong house or you run into the wrong car
5:22
Speaker 1: and somebody shoots at you and puts them in a
5:24
Speaker 1: bad predicament. And we was having this conversation on air
5:26
Speaker 1: that was like, I understanding. I feel bad for these
5:29
Speaker 1: kids because they're looking at it as, oh, this is
5:31
Speaker 1: a quick three thousand dollars flip. Somebody left their key file,
5:33
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna take it, you know, which is really sad.
5:36
Speaker 1: So what happened with the restitution because you owe one
5:38
Speaker 1: point nine did you have to pay that back or
5:40
Speaker 1: you're still paying the back out? Does it work? So
5:41
Speaker 1: I paid on the restitution for twenty years. On Trump's
5:45
Speaker 1: last day in the office, same day that little Wayne
5:48
Speaker 1: got his partner, I got a full presidential partner as well.
5:52
Speaker 1: So it took away my restitution, the crime, the federal system,
5:57
Speaker 1: and it was wiped away. But I paid. I mean,
6:00
Speaker 1: the way the federal system is set up, you pay
6:01
Speaker 1: while you're incarcerated as well, so it's really your family band.
6:05
Speaker 1: So from the time I stopped foot in prison until
6:07
Speaker 1: the time I stopped foot out, I paid for twenty years.
6:10
Speaker 1: So how do you feel about Donald Trump? Because you
6:12
Speaker 1: know a lot of people hate Donald Trump, and you
6:14
Speaker 1: look at people like Little Wayne, and you look at
6:16
Speaker 1: people like Kodak and yourself, you can't necessarily hate a
6:19
Speaker 1: man that freed you, right, absolutely, But which was about
6:23
Speaker 1: to say, oh no, it's a but it was a
6:25
Speaker 1: presidential part and you are already out. Yes, yes, yes,
6:28
Speaker 1: but he freed me from the sentence and the restitution
6:30
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. Right, I think that God could
6:34
Speaker 1: use the devil to blush you. I'm gonna start there.
6:38
Speaker 1: And then there's a saying that says a broken clock
6:40
Speaker 1: can be right twice a day. The other fallacy is
6:45
Speaker 1: that he gave me something. He did, grant me a pardon.
6:48
Speaker 1: But every day since I have been out, I have worked,
6:53
Speaker 1: you know, to change laws to liberate people, to really
6:58
Speaker 1: give back to community that is always forgotten about. So
7:02
Speaker 1: I deserved it, you know. So for me it was
7:07
Speaker 1: I just, you know, everything just coming full circle in
7:09
Speaker 1: a culmination. I felt like of all of the work
7:11
Speaker 1: that I have been putting in over the last few years.
7:14
Speaker 1: So I do think that if I am working for people,
7:19
Speaker 1: it is my job to work with whoever I need
7:21
Speaker 1: to work with in order to get that get the
7:24
Speaker 1: things that my community needs. Did you ever trying to
7:26
Speaker 1: come back out to you and try to use you
7:27
Speaker 1: to as a tool because he granted you this. Absolutely not.
7:33
Speaker 1: He does not talk about my part and you don't
7:35
Speaker 1: mentioned it, mentioned it at all, and you know he
7:38
Speaker 1: endorsed Senator Kennedy in Louisiana. So no, absolutely not. Yeah, okay,
7:44
Speaker 1: so let's get into some of why you're running for
7:47
Speaker 1: US Senate Because, like you said, since you've been home,
7:49
Speaker 1: you've been working to change these laws. You yourself have
7:53
Speaker 1: experienced things, and so you can understand people in the
7:55
Speaker 1: community in a different way than other people can relate
7:58
Speaker 1: to them. So I made you decide that it was
8:01
Speaker 1: time for you to run for this particular office. I
8:03
Speaker 1: know you've worked with the mayor Mayor Cantrell in New
8:06
Speaker 1: Orleans very closely and with Reform Alliance and making sure
8:09
Speaker 1: you have these programs that are helping women get back
8:12
Speaker 1: into society knowing the problems and issues that you had
8:15
Speaker 1: when you first got home. Ye. The simple explanation for
8:22
Speaker 1: me is definitely, I feel like it's a calling, you know,
8:26
Speaker 1: that's been placed on my life. I'm a very anybody
8:28
Speaker 1: who knows me, I'm real stubborn. I don't make decisions
8:32
Speaker 1: lightly or take things for granted. That I have are
8:35
Speaker 1: the experiences that I have. But I remember, right before
8:39
Speaker 1: I went to prison, I was having this argument I
8:41
Speaker 1: felt like with God in the car. I literally walked
8:43
Speaker 1: out of church. It was Mardi Gras. I was nineteen,
8:47
Speaker 1: and I'm having a conversation with God and I hear
8:49
Speaker 1: him saying, you need to be in church. You need
8:51
Speaker 1: to listen, you need to do this, And in my mind,
8:54
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, I'm nineteen. I want to party, I'm
8:57
Speaker 1: want to drink, I want to smoke weed, I want
8:59
Speaker 1: to have fun. And it was like this argument I
9:01
Speaker 1: felt like that I was having, you know, with God
9:03
Speaker 1: or my conscience or you know whatever, and that I
9:07
Speaker 1: feel like that disobedience caused me to be in prison
9:10
Speaker 1: for ten years, so I feel like my disobedience comes
9:13
Speaker 1: at a different cost. So when I got this message
9:16
Speaker 1: about two years ago, it took me a while. You know,
9:19
Speaker 1: I tried to do everything in my power to convince
9:21
Speaker 1: myself that this is what I shouldn't be doing. I
9:23
Speaker 1: did a poll, like talk to people, all of these things,
9:26
Speaker 1: but I still came to the same conclusion that this
9:28
Speaker 1: was something that I needed to do. Over the last
9:31
Speaker 1: few years, I've definitely been working in the legislative space
9:34
Speaker 1: on a federal level and a state level. When I
9:37
Speaker 1: got out of prison, I couldn't go to college. I
9:40
Speaker 1: was denied the opportunity to go to college because there's
9:42
Speaker 1: also the box have you been convicted of a felony?
9:44
Speaker 1: On college applications? So I applied, I was denied. Two
9:49
Speaker 1: years later, I used the same exact application. The only
9:52
Speaker 1: change I made was I unchecked the box and I
9:54
Speaker 1: got in. I got scholarships, and you know, fundamentally, that
9:57
Speaker 1: just didn't feel good. So after I graduated from college,
10:00
Speaker 1: I have a degree in clinical laboratory science. I work
10:03
Speaker 1: in a hospital. Prior to open in my nonprofit, we
10:06
Speaker 1: went back in and we were like, something has to change.
10:08
Speaker 1: So we passed legislation in state of Louisiana in twenty
10:11
Speaker 1: seventeen to remove the box off college applications for purposes
10:15
Speaker 1: of admissions, and we made Louisiana the first state to
10:18
Speaker 1: do that. So since then, we've passed similar legislation in
10:21
Speaker 1: six other states, supporting advocates on the ground in those
10:25
Speaker 1: states to change the laws and advocate for their community.
10:29
Speaker 1: Every year since twenty seventeen, I've passed at least one
10:32
Speaker 1: piece of legislation in the State of Louisiana, the Dignity Act,
10:36
Speaker 1: We passed the Primary Caretaker legislation. A lot of those
10:39
Speaker 1: bills have been copied in places like California, and on
10:43
Speaker 1: a federal level, we worked to remove the question off
10:47
Speaker 1: of the common apt for students to apply who have convictions.
10:50
Speaker 1: We were able to put inside of the COVID Omnibus bill.
10:54
Speaker 1: We were able to slide some legislation that gave people
10:57
Speaker 1: who are incarcerated access to pell grants. So there's a
11:01
Speaker 1: lot of work that I've been doing to, you know,
11:04
Speaker 1: in the liberation of my people and trying to make
11:06
Speaker 1: sure that people who have make mistakes have access to
11:09
Speaker 1: the things that they need in order to begin to
11:11
Speaker 1: try to change their lives. Would imagine you go to
11:14
Speaker 1: jail all that time, right then you come home, you
11:16
Speaker 1: have this restitution that you're supposed to pay back. You
11:19
Speaker 1: can't even get into college. People don't want to hire
11:21
Speaker 1: you because you check that box. And even finding housing
11:25
Speaker 1: or just getting back into things. It's not it who
11:27
Speaker 1: did help you when you when you got out. It
11:29
Speaker 1: was other formally incursory to women. Like I had one
11:31
Speaker 1: woman who I was incursory to with we were roommates.
11:33
Speaker 1: We were in the same institutions for about five years.
11:37
Speaker 1: Like she brought me my first cell phone. You know.
11:41
Speaker 1: Another one of my friends who's now my son's godmother,
11:45
Speaker 1: she was standing outside the gate with my mom and
11:47
Speaker 1: my sister. She showed me how to you know, fill
11:49
Speaker 1: out an application. She helped me to apply for a job.
11:52
Speaker 1: She helped me to do my fast for application. One
11:56
Speaker 1: of them gave me three hundred dollars every semester to
11:59
Speaker 1: help buy books. So it was really like this informal
12:03
Speaker 1: network of formally incursory to women who like showed up
12:06
Speaker 1: and said we got you. We've walked this path let's
12:09
Speaker 1: do this together. And then I knew, you know, innately,
12:13
Speaker 1: that that is what I had to do for other women,
12:16
Speaker 1: you know. So that is how I started my organization,
12:18
Speaker 1: Operation Restoration. I was gonna ask something that stuck with me,
12:20
Speaker 1: that something that you said. You said that you were
12:23
Speaker 1: listening to music. You're a heavy DMX fan and you
12:26
Speaker 1: were listening to Eve and Rider Die, and that's what
12:28
Speaker 1: you thought you should do. So how do you look
12:31
Speaker 1: at artists now and in music now? Because you know,
12:34
Speaker 1: people say, you know, it's just entertainment, but obviously it
12:37
Speaker 1: had a heavy influence on you. In Louisiana, the crime
12:40
Speaker 1: rates through the roof like a lot of our urban city.
12:42
Speaker 1: So how do you look at music and things that
12:45
Speaker 1: the kids here now? I think music we cannot deny
12:50
Speaker 1: has an effect on people. We talk about being creatives
12:54
Speaker 1: and making music and painting has like this healing effect
12:58
Speaker 1: on a person, like getting out things that they want
13:00
Speaker 1: to get out. But we also have to acknowledge and
13:04
Speaker 1: be aware and responsible for the messages that we are
13:07
Speaker 1: putting out that have the opposite effect. You know, everything
13:10
Speaker 1: in life has good intentions, some have bad intentions, but
13:15
Speaker 1: the intentionality is just the same. So I think that
13:18
Speaker 1: as a community we have to push the narrative that
13:21
Speaker 1: this is entertainment. I think when I was growing up
13:24
Speaker 1: in the nineties, it wasn't being pushed as entertainment. It
13:27
Speaker 1: was being pushed as a way of life. So this
13:29
Speaker 1: was being fed to kids and you know, teenagers like myself, like,
13:34
Speaker 1: this is what you have to do in order to
13:36
Speaker 1: be here. And I think that that is one thing
13:39
Speaker 1: that I'm grateful for us through the evolution of music,
13:42
Speaker 1: we now begin to talk about it as if it's
13:45
Speaker 1: entertainment versus away of life. But it is so too.
13:48
Speaker 1: You can't snitch, right, because that's part of it. Also
13:51
Speaker 1: seriously though, because people look at you. So if you
13:54
Speaker 1: were to be like, look, this is the person that
13:57
Speaker 1: is charged, but she was being preyed upon as a
13:58
Speaker 1: young teams But you also know that too, that you
14:02
Speaker 1: can't tell because now what after I'd been told who
14:05
Speaker 1: the real person is, now what happens to me? So
14:08
Speaker 1: I think the streets a long time ago well a
14:10
Speaker 1: lot different. I feel like now people you know, are
14:14
Speaker 1: being it's okay to tell like that culture has also
14:19
Speaker 1: changed too, because like you know, twenty thirty years ago,
14:22
Speaker 1: a person would tell what happened, and they would come
14:25
Speaker 1: up missing or they had some type of repercussions or consequences.
14:29
Speaker 1: Now it is not frowned upon. People are telling all
14:33
Speaker 1: the time. I don't know, it's just different, right, But
14:37
Speaker 1: I think that what I had to do and reconcile
14:40
Speaker 1: for myself is like, while you know, Envy pointed out, yeah,
14:43
Speaker 1: like I was being preyed upon, I was also raised
14:46
Speaker 1: to take responsibility, like for my actions. So I was guilty.
14:50
Speaker 1: I did do what they said that I did, and
14:53
Speaker 1: I was gonna serve my time. My play guilty, you know,
14:56
Speaker 1: even though at the time I didn't even understand what
14:58
Speaker 1: I was pleading guilty too. Um, I played guilty because
15:02
Speaker 1: I did exactly what they said that I did. I
15:05
Speaker 1: get that. But see, you also gotta understand is there's
15:08
Speaker 1: an adult here right that even though you could say
15:11
Speaker 1: snitching and non snitching, I think a lot of it's bullshit,
15:13
Speaker 1: But there's an adult here that finds young teens and says,
15:17
Speaker 1: this kid has no money, this kid is left up,
15:20
Speaker 1: this kid has no school and no education, doesn't know
15:22
Speaker 1: it just wants to get out. I can I can
15:25
Speaker 1: pray on this kid and get him to do what
15:26
Speaker 1: I want him to do, and that's not right. No,
15:29
Speaker 1: people can call that snitching or whatever. But but it's
15:31
Speaker 1: no different than it's abuse. There's no difference than um,
15:33
Speaker 1: you know, somebody being molested, somebody being sexual assaulted, because
15:37
Speaker 1: it takes the same level of person that is praying
15:39
Speaker 1: on an individual. So in that sense, I, you know,
15:44
Speaker 1: I understand coercing a kid to do something crazy. Absolutely,
15:48
Speaker 1: that's foul. That's not like you're all said, are we
15:50
Speaker 1: gonna do this crime together? And we do it. No,
15:52
Speaker 1: But yet an adult that says, hey, because why why
15:54
Speaker 1: didn an adult do it? Don't do it because the
15:56
Speaker 1: adult knew better. But at the time the person that's
15:59
Speaker 1: being preyed upon looks at the prey. You know, there's
16:02
Speaker 1: all type of like you know, syndromes that are associated
16:05
Speaker 1: with like a person who is causing you to do
16:08
Speaker 1: you know, incorrect things, are things that you shouldn't be doing.
16:10
Speaker 1: You also see them as a savior in a lot
16:12
Speaker 1: of ways, because you know the reason why they can
16:15
Speaker 1: offer kids three thousand dollars to do a thing. And
16:17
Speaker 1: this is not all kids. Because I didn't come from
16:19
Speaker 1: associate economic background associated with people who you think are
16:23
Speaker 1: in prison. My mom was a judge when I went
16:24
Speaker 1: to prison. You know, my dad was a supervisor at
16:27
Speaker 1: an all refinery. So what led me to prison, which
16:29
Speaker 1: trauma wasn't poverty, but people who are in poverty, people
16:35
Speaker 1: who don't own anything other than their Facebook page, and
16:38
Speaker 1: that's in debate whether they own it or not. The
16:40
Speaker 1: only thing that you feel like you have is your
16:42
Speaker 1: self respect or your self worth when somebody tries to
16:45
Speaker 1: take that from you. That is why kids feel like
16:48
Speaker 1: I can take someone's life in the commission of this absolutely,
16:52
Speaker 1: and your mom and we gonna talk about it now.
16:55
Speaker 1: Your mom didn't try to term like, make some moves
16:57
Speaker 1: because she's a judge. So she did. My mom shout
17:01
Speaker 1: out to my mom, my birthdays, to my herm She
17:05
Speaker 1: definitely did. She did everything in her power to extricate
17:09
Speaker 1: me from this system. But when she talks about it
17:11
Speaker 1: from her point of view, she felt like they were
17:14
Speaker 1: more harsh on me because of who she was. And
17:17
Speaker 1: then if you also think about it, like we're from
17:19
Speaker 1: the South, you know, um, there's this air of you know,
17:24
Speaker 1: people of color shouldn't be doing certain things. So she
17:27
Speaker 1: feels like a lot of what I went through was
17:30
Speaker 1: because of who she was, you know. They were like,
17:33
Speaker 1: we'll show you, yeah, like, yeah, you're a judgement, You're
17:35
Speaker 1: not really anything. So we're gonna, you know, to prosecute
17:38
Speaker 1: your daughter to the owner of the car shop. Did
17:41
Speaker 1: you ever go back and be like, you know what,
17:42
Speaker 1: let me have this conversation with him. I was young,
17:45
Speaker 1: dumb and stupid. Did you ever have that con so
17:47
Speaker 1: let me tell you. Oh boy, the guy who owned
17:49
Speaker 1: our car dealership at that time, he didn't know I mean,
17:53
Speaker 1: we didn't know our the dealership was in extreme distress,
17:58
Speaker 1: so they were really invested getting him initially for burning
18:01
Speaker 1: down his own car dealership. They thought it was like
18:03
Speaker 1: an insurance scheme or whatever. Um, he was half kind
18:07
Speaker 1: of happy, absolutely thank but m he died, I want
18:14
Speaker 1: to say, not even a year after we committed the crime,
18:19
Speaker 1: and UM, I never had an opportunity to like talk
18:22
Speaker 1: to him or see anything to him about like why
18:26
Speaker 1: we did what we did. Um, but I think like
18:29
Speaker 1: if I had that opportunity, I've thought about like saying
18:34
Speaker 1: why we did it or what was going on, But
18:36
Speaker 1: it's really like no explanation other than like I was
18:39
Speaker 1: in a really yeah like tough place, you know, like
18:43
Speaker 1: I felt like life didn't care about me. I didn't
18:45
Speaker 1: care about anybody else at the time. So it was
18:47
Speaker 1: just really like not a decision that really you know,
18:50
Speaker 1: sometimes they say you want to go and talk to
18:52
Speaker 1: the person who harmed you, and like you don't get
18:54
Speaker 1: the closure that you need because a lot of times
18:56
Speaker 1: people don't even know why they did a thing. Like
18:59
Speaker 1: he could probably standing up scream say whatever, and I
19:02
Speaker 1: would just be like, okay, because I don't have an explanation.
19:06
Speaker 1: There's there's no explanation how you talk about being incarcerated
19:09
Speaker 1: and how it's not rehabilitative. So what was your time like? So? Um,
19:15
Speaker 1: I grew up in the country and royal Louisiana, no
19:18
Speaker 1: fast food places, no major grocery chains, like nothing, sugar
19:22
Speaker 1: cane you walk up our house, sugar cane fields. Um.
19:25
Speaker 1: So we did a lot of fighting growing up. You know.
19:27
Speaker 1: When I graduated from high school, I was voted to
19:29
Speaker 1: class revolutionists. They say they knew I was always going
19:32
Speaker 1: to fight about something, you know. Um, I used to
19:35
Speaker 1: fight people. Now I fight systems, you know, but I'm
19:38
Speaker 1: still a fighter, you know. Um. By Nietzsche. So my
19:42
Speaker 1: first five years were extremely hard because I was nineteen
19:46
Speaker 1: UM when I went in, UM really really young, one
19:48
Speaker 1: of the youngest people on the compound. They only had
19:51
Speaker 1: I think two of us that were teenagers, you know,
19:54
Speaker 1: um in the prison. And that came with, you know,
19:58
Speaker 1: constantly being exposed to, like people praying on you, whether
20:03
Speaker 1: it was people that were incarcerated, whether it was the guards,
20:07
Speaker 1: you know whatever. It was not an easy situation and
20:10
Speaker 1: I think like a lot of times people as family members,
20:13
Speaker 1: they don't understand, like when you come to visitation or
20:15
Speaker 1: you see people, you know, it's all very superficial because
20:18
Speaker 1: if I really had to tell you about the experiences
20:21
Speaker 1: that I'm having while I'm incarcerated, you know, visitation would
20:24
Speaker 1: turn into something different, and that's your happy police you know.
20:26
Speaker 1: So it's also a very isolating experience. It is meant
20:30
Speaker 1: to isolate you from your family in the world as
20:33
Speaker 1: you know it. And I think that, you know, that
20:35
Speaker 1: is what incarceration is really successful ad is making you
20:39
Speaker 1: feel extreme, deep, you know, isolation. I remember when September
20:43
Speaker 1: eleventh hit, I was actually in lockdown. I was in
20:46
Speaker 1: the hole. I did a year, you know, no telephone,
20:49
Speaker 1: no commentary, like nothing, no interaction with anybody, and the
20:55
Speaker 1: themes that you hear are you see during those times,
20:58
Speaker 1: you know, people losing their minds, like you know, solitary confinement.
21:02
Speaker 1: You know, there's a big movement around the country right
21:04
Speaker 1: now about stopping the use of solitary confinement because of
21:06
Speaker 1: what it does to people's mental health. And I think that, um,
21:10
Speaker 1: you know, like all of those things are really real.
21:13
Speaker 1: And I've been out of prison. I got out of
21:15
Speaker 1: prison in two thousand and nine, and it's still some
21:18
Speaker 1: things that like sometimes I'm sitting in my house half
21:20
Speaker 1: two kids. Now you know, I'm married. Um oh, my
21:24
Speaker 1: son told me to say his name on the radio
21:26
Speaker 1: this morning, Ethan, So I have to say, hey Ethan.
21:28
Speaker 1: He give me a shout out, but say not too yet.
21:34
Speaker 1: So she she doesn't know what was going on. She
21:36
Speaker 1: don't know what's happening yet. And then my wife pure
21:40
Speaker 1: but she uh said when when when you're in there
21:44
Speaker 1: and you you have like those experiences. I'm like sitting
21:49
Speaker 1: at home and I have like a deep craven for
21:51
Speaker 1: like extreme isolation, like I don't want to be bothered
21:53
Speaker 1: with anybody, I don't want to talk to people. And
21:55
Speaker 1: then I have to like gather myself and sending myself
21:58
Speaker 1: and be like serious that I has some prison, you
22:00
Speaker 1: gotta let that go, you know. And I find myself
22:03
Speaker 1: doing that. And I've been out, you know, since two
22:05
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, So it is something that definitely affects
22:09
Speaker 1: you for the rest of your life. So I was
22:10
Speaker 1: gonna ask when you become senator, what's the because you
22:13
Speaker 1: gotta put it out there, right, Yeah, what's the first
22:15
Speaker 1: thing that you want to do? Is it the flooding?
22:17
Speaker 1: Is it abortion? Is it violence? Is it is it
22:20
Speaker 1: helping more black people get homes? Like what is the
22:22
Speaker 1: first thing that you want to attack? When it comes
22:24
Speaker 1: to that, Well, definitely, you know, every day that I
22:27
Speaker 1: wake up, I wake up as a black woman in America,
22:30
Speaker 1: and I think that our rights as women are like
22:33
Speaker 1: under severe attack. And I think that no matter where
22:38
Speaker 1: you're located, that is true. And I think it's really
22:42
Speaker 1: heightened inside of prison. So you know, like if you
22:45
Speaker 1: think reproductive health is under attack outside of prison, inside
22:50
Speaker 1: of prison is horrible, you know. And I think for me,
22:54
Speaker 1: my focus you know on day one, which for me,
22:57
Speaker 1: I am the only person in this race that has
23:00
Speaker 1: experience and that can create policy from day one and
23:03
Speaker 1: get it past. You know, I have a history of
23:05
Speaker 1: getting legislation passed in hostile conditions like Louisiana is almost
23:10
Speaker 1: a super majority of Republicans, like there's no bipartisan legislation
23:15
Speaker 1: in Louisiana. It would really be to protect how do
23:20
Speaker 1: we begin to protect the rights of women, because you
23:24
Speaker 1: know what's next, right to vote. You know, we are
23:28
Speaker 1: our marriage, marriages are under attack, you know, abortion is
23:33
Speaker 1: under attack. There's all these different things that are specific
23:36
Speaker 1: to women that are under attack. I think that I
23:38
Speaker 1: would be remissed to focus on anything other than that initially.
23:43
Speaker 1: But you know, my vision of the data that I
23:45
Speaker 1: take office is something that is very very important to
23:48
Speaker 1: me as well. It's like, I want to bring one
23:50
Speaker 1: hundred girls, you know, with me on the day that
23:53
Speaker 1: I take office. Because when I was working Capitol Hill,
23:56
Speaker 1: I would go to each office and begin to talk
23:58
Speaker 1: to the senators that are there, and there was no
24:01
Speaker 1: one that looked like me that could relate to me.
24:05
Speaker 1: You know that I could have a great conversation with
24:08
Speaker 1: like that just didn't exist. And I think it is
24:10
Speaker 1: very important that we begin to stretch the minds of
24:13
Speaker 1: young people and expose them to things that are possible,
24:16
Speaker 1: because if they can see it, then they can believe
24:18
Speaker 1: it and they can start working toward it. So, how
24:21
Speaker 1: many black women have had a seat in the Senate
24:23
Speaker 1: in Louisiana. Oh, so there's no black woman who has
24:27
Speaker 1: ever been elected statewide in the state of Louisiana. So
24:30
Speaker 1: it's not even just in the Senate. It's no statewide
24:33
Speaker 1: office ever in the state of Louisiana. It's ridiculous about
24:37
Speaker 1: no representation at all. Zero. Now you're also and I
24:41
Speaker 1: saw this right, So it's like a three people being
24:44
Speaker 1: endorsed by the Democratic Party in Louisiana, which is unusual.
24:49
Speaker 1: So but not really. They did it in the Congress race,
24:52
Speaker 1: the same race that Gary was in the last time
24:54
Speaker 1: they gave three endorsements. But so is that a controversial
24:58
Speaker 1: thing for them to do that? Absolutely, it's not a
25:02
Speaker 1: controversial thing for them to do it because it's precedent.
25:05
Speaker 1: They did it in the last endorsement set of endorsements.
25:09
Speaker 1: But the system as a whole is problematic. You know,
25:13
Speaker 1: the way that it is set up, in the way
25:15
Speaker 1: that the endorsement process happens, needs to be looked at
25:19
Speaker 1: and it needs to be worked on. I think that
25:21
Speaker 1: when you get to endorse in too many people, it's
25:24
Speaker 1: like you can't make a decision like, oh, should it
25:26
Speaker 1: be this person that person? But I am elated to
25:30
Speaker 1: have the you know, the endorsement simply because even though
25:36
Speaker 1: there are thirteen people in the race and they are
25:39
Speaker 1: talking about four of us pretty consistently, I'm in that
25:42
Speaker 1: fourth position right now, and it is really focused on
25:46
Speaker 1: money finances. You know, we could have a whole other
25:49
Speaker 1: conversation about valuability and how we judge people who are
25:53
Speaker 1: valuable in the race is based on structural racism. You know,
26:00
Speaker 1: Black people are not connected to wealth in the same
26:02
Speaker 1: way that white people are connected to wealth. We know this.
26:05
Speaker 1: This is a fact. And the idea that we are
26:07
Speaker 1: going to judge candidates not based on their body of
26:10
Speaker 1: work but how much money that they can raise is
26:13
Speaker 1: something that we really have to look at and begin
26:16
Speaker 1: to talk about. But I went into that endorsement meeting
26:19
Speaker 1: process not expecting to get the endorsement of the party
26:24
Speaker 1: because I knew where I was as it related to
26:27
Speaker 1: the order of how we're running and how other endorsements
26:30
Speaker 1: have been going out. But I use every opportunity to
26:33
Speaker 1: just talk to people and let them know who I
26:35
Speaker 1: am and the things that I want to work on
26:36
Speaker 1: and how you know, anything that I do, I do
26:39
Speaker 1: in the spirit of collaboration, Like I want to take
26:40
Speaker 1: people with me. I don't want to do anything for anybody.
26:43
Speaker 1: I want us to do it together. And that's how
26:45
Speaker 1: I approach everything that I do. So I was really
26:47
Speaker 1: just looking at it as an opportunity to speak to
26:49
Speaker 1: a larger body of people across the state that I
26:52
Speaker 1: may not have had a chance to speak to otherwise.
26:54
Speaker 1: So when I walked out, you know, with triple endorsement,
26:58
Speaker 1: you know, I was happy and yeah, and I'm gonna
27:02
Speaker 1: act like I was the only one indoors and I'm
27:04
Speaker 1: moving forward. We got Gary Chambers up here before a
27:07
Speaker 1: couple of times, and uh, you know, that's also another
27:10
Speaker 1: debate within the Democratic Party, is being really progressive hinderance
27:15
Speaker 1: especially in some place like Louisiana. You and Gary seemed
27:19
Speaker 1: like for the people so much. Yeah, Garin I have
27:21
Speaker 1: had a lot of conversations. We've really talked about things,
27:24
Speaker 1: because the one thing that I am is always UM
27:27
Speaker 1: for the people and what's best for the community. UM.
27:31
Speaker 1: But again, I go back to I'm the only one
27:34
Speaker 1: with the experience in the race, Um that I this
27:37
Speaker 1: is something that I do. You know, I have a
27:39
Speaker 1: resume behind me. I'm not always comfortable like talking about
27:42
Speaker 1: it and screaming from the rooftops. That's why a lot
27:44
Speaker 1: of people are like, my god, like you've done so much,
27:47
Speaker 1: but you fly under the radars, Like yeah, because I
27:50
Speaker 1: have my head down and I'm working, I'm not necessarily
27:52
Speaker 1: paying attention to who's watching what I do. So that
27:55
Speaker 1: is something that I am trying to get better at.
27:57
Speaker 1: Is like being able to talk about the things that
27:59
Speaker 1: we've done to build a platform, because I know that
28:02
Speaker 1: that's also very powerful in being able to liberate the
28:06
Speaker 1: communities that we're working toward. But you know, Gary does
28:12
Speaker 1: have experience, you know, running races. That is what he's done.
28:15
Speaker 1: You know the last congressional race. You know he talks
28:18
Speaker 1: about he's the person that has a voter base and
28:21
Speaker 1: he's able to get people out and you know all
28:24
Speaker 1: of these different things, which is true, like that has
28:27
Speaker 1: actually happened. But I mean the last congressional race that
28:30
Speaker 1: he ran in it was for a black congressional district.
28:33
Speaker 1: He finished third to two other black candidates, and I
28:38
Speaker 1: think that that is like a narrative that you know,
28:39
Speaker 1: we don't talk about. And even with the endorsement meeting,
28:42
Speaker 1: like he didn't have the nomination yet, what they stopped
28:47
Speaker 1: from happening was the actual vote for the larger Body
28:50
Speaker 1: of whether or not he would receive the nomination. So
28:53
Speaker 1: it was a recommendation from the executive Committee to endorse him.
28:57
Speaker 1: The larger body had to vote on it, and they
29:00
Speaker 1: did was they stopped that vote, the larger body from
29:03
Speaker 1: voting on it because someone introduced the resolution because they
29:07
Speaker 1: said that the by laws had changed, people hadn't really
29:09
Speaker 1: had a chance to look over him, and the larger
29:11
Speaker 1: body was really unhappy that everybody didn't get an opportunity
29:15
Speaker 1: to address them. So I think that if we're gonna
29:19
Speaker 1: talk about like, there's enough structural racism, there's enough you know, genderism,
29:25
Speaker 1: there's all of these things that truly exist in Louisiana,
29:29
Speaker 1: and we have to talk about him and we have
29:31
Speaker 1: to begin to fight those systems. But we can't do
29:34
Speaker 1: it in ways I think that are harmful. And I
29:38
Speaker 1: think that what is happening right now in Louisiana is
29:40
Speaker 1: the focus is truly not on Senator Kennedy, And that's
29:43
Speaker 1: where everybody's focus should be, is like, how do we
29:46
Speaker 1: get him out? Yeah, because he has Chump's endorsement, right,
29:49
Speaker 1: he does. He was one of the six senators who
29:51
Speaker 1: voted not to impeach, you know, all of those things,
29:54
Speaker 1: so he's one of the hold outs. He believes that
29:57
Speaker 1: Mara Lago was that raid on the house is wrong.
30:00
Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely. He then not funny thing. But the crazy
30:06
Speaker 1: thing about him is he has developed this persona over
30:10
Speaker 1: the years that he's this uneducated you know, they call
30:13
Speaker 1: him fog home along home or all of these things,
30:16
Speaker 1: Like he's really intentional about this character. But this man
30:20
Speaker 1: is a He has an undergrad degree from Vanderbilt. He
30:23
Speaker 1: has a law degree from UVA. He has another law
30:27
Speaker 1: degree from Oxford. He used to be a Democrat. He's
30:30
Speaker 1: one of the most intelligent, smartest people that you would
30:33
Speaker 1: ever meet. Like if you go back to his earlier days,
30:36
Speaker 1: he said a lot of things like he was so
30:39
Speaker 1: loud when our past governor Jendaal didn't want to take
30:43
Speaker 1: money from the federal government about why we needed had
30:45
Speaker 1: to happen to see him from then to now and
30:49
Speaker 1: this persona that he's he has created because he believes
30:53
Speaker 1: that this is what people of Louisiana want, are like,
30:56
Speaker 1: or need. It is so insulting and it's just it's this.
31:00
Speaker 1: We gotta go back and look at his past. Yes,
31:03
Speaker 1: he's disgusting. And you also, I want to talk about
31:05
Speaker 1: this school because, like you said, you don't really talk
31:07
Speaker 1: about the things that you have implemented and done, but
31:10
Speaker 1: you've also helped other people become what is it lab technicians. Yeah,
31:15
Speaker 1: and you talk about that a little bit because I
31:17
Speaker 1: just saw that recently another class graduated. Yes, so that
31:21
Speaker 1: is one of like something that I'm extremely proud of.
31:23
Speaker 1: So when I started going back to school, I wanted
31:26
Speaker 1: to go to medical school. I don't know if it
31:28
Speaker 1: was naivety or what it was, but I just knew
31:30
Speaker 1: I was going to go to school and be a doctor.
31:32
Speaker 1: But when I got on the path in the journey
31:35
Speaker 1: of doing my undergrad degree and I found out about
31:36
Speaker 1: clinical laboratory science that's what my degree is in, I
31:40
Speaker 1: kind of fell in love with it and I was like, Okay,
31:42
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get a working degree. Because I'm in my thirties,
31:44
Speaker 1: I got a kid, I don't need to work and
31:45
Speaker 1: go to school. So I'm gonna get this working degree
31:48
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna go to med school and I'm gonna
31:51
Speaker 1: you know, raise my three year old son, like you know.
31:54
Speaker 1: That was my goal. So the way that I did
31:58
Speaker 1: it was I became a lab assistant while I was
32:00
Speaker 1: working on my clinical Laboratory science degree. And what I
32:03
Speaker 1: found out is like all of the barriers that you
32:06
Speaker 1: have to overcome to enter a profession at a higher
32:09
Speaker 1: level were kind of lessened at a lower level. So
32:12
Speaker 1: when I decided to open the nonprofit, I wanted to
32:15
Speaker 1: create a lab assistant program where women could get certified
32:18
Speaker 1: and license as lab assistants and then that would be
32:21
Speaker 1: their entry way into healthcare fields. And then from there
32:24
Speaker 1: they could upgrade their degree. They can get go to
32:27
Speaker 1: a two year MLT degree or a four year MLS degree,
32:30
Speaker 1: they could go to be midwives, doctors, whatever they wanted
32:33
Speaker 1: to do. Because once they went through that initial entry
32:36
Speaker 1: point as a lab assistant, then the ceiling, you know,
32:39
Speaker 1: became unreachable. So it didn't happen. You know, worked on it,
32:45
Speaker 1: created fifteen other programs before that one actually took off,
32:49
Speaker 1: so we were able to get some funding and support
32:52
Speaker 1: from multiple entities, the Hilton Foundation, Blue Crosspool Shield Louisiana,
32:56
Speaker 1: just all of these different places. Because but the COVID
33:00
Speaker 1: pandemic definitely showed was that there was a shortage of
33:04
Speaker 1: lab personnel and people to like work in the laboratory setting,
33:07
Speaker 1: which is something we've all known for years, but it
33:10
Speaker 1: really heightened it. So there was an appetite to do
33:13
Speaker 1: a rap every skilling program and do a program inside
33:16
Speaker 1: of the prison to get people certified in license as
33:19
Speaker 1: a lab assistant. So we begin working with hospitals to
33:21
Speaker 1: give job placement and just all of these different things.
33:24
Speaker 1: And today we have graduated as six months close to
33:30
Speaker 1: thirty women. Yeah, and they are being placed in hospitals. Now.
33:37
Speaker 1: We help them, you know, we do everything. We do
33:39
Speaker 1: the teaching, We pay any probation fact fees that they
33:43
Speaker 1: need in order to maintain their licensure, We pay for
33:45
Speaker 1: the applications, their fingerprints, We will buy uniforms, We help
33:49
Speaker 1: with childcare, We help with transportation because you know, people
33:53
Speaker 1: think that when you give somebody an opportunity that that's
33:56
Speaker 1: all that they need. But if you're not invested in
33:59
Speaker 1: a person taken advantage of the opportunity. It's like you
34:02
Speaker 1: haven't even given it to them. It's still out of
34:04
Speaker 1: reach because they can't do all of the things that
34:06
Speaker 1: they need in order to grab whole of the opportunity.
34:09
Speaker 1: So all of the programs at the organization at Operation
34:12
Speaker 1: Restoration are really like holistic and built in a way
34:15
Speaker 1: where like, if you don't do this thing, it's truly
34:19
Speaker 1: because you're not ready at this time. Because we try
34:22
Speaker 1: to foresee any barrier and remove it for you. And
34:25
Speaker 1: when is the election November eighth? Yes, everybody listening and
34:30
Speaker 1: they love your story and they want to support How
34:32
Speaker 1: can they support you? Yeah, campaigns need money, people, Okay,
34:35
Speaker 1: Kennedy has a whole lot of money in his campaign
34:38
Speaker 1: right now, So we got to make sure that Sirida
34:40
Speaker 1: is competitive in that way. Also, absolutely, I think that
34:44
Speaker 1: our community doesn't really understand in the same way that
34:47
Speaker 1: other communities know that, Like people tell me Sirida, I'm
34:50
Speaker 1: gonna vote for you, and them like, thank you so much.
34:52
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. But if we don't get some money,
34:55
Speaker 1: you won't be able to vote for me. Guys help,
34:59
Speaker 1: so read on. All social media's um my handles are
35:03
Speaker 1: support Serrita side so that's on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
35:06
Speaker 1: It support Serrita Side. That's why r I t A Steib. Yeah,
35:12
Speaker 1: there you go. You yes, support to read it and
35:14
Speaker 1: that was that's the website as well. Then the website
35:16
Speaker 1: is just www dot Serrita Side dot com. Yeah. I'm
35:20
Speaker 1: glad that you came up here because I did want
35:22
Speaker 1: you to. Just your story to me is self fascinating
35:25
Speaker 1: and the work that you do also is like very
35:28
Speaker 1: um organic, and I just feel like you would be
35:31
Speaker 1: doing this regardless. It's not because you're doing this because
35:34
Speaker 1: you're running for office. This is the work that you've
35:35
Speaker 1: been putting in prior to this, and voices like this
35:39
Speaker 1: we need. And so just for Louisiana to hopefully get
35:43
Speaker 1: some diversity and representation, for a black woman to finally
35:47
Speaker 1: have this type of position would be really important. Yeah.
35:49
Speaker 1: And I'm the only woman in the race, and I
35:51
Speaker 1: am also pro choice and all of the things that
35:55
Speaker 1: I think that I know how to you know, fight
35:57
Speaker 1: for as it relates to women. But tecting marriage rights absolutely,
36:01
Speaker 1: I mean my wife if there I mean, if they
36:05
Speaker 1: take away you know, marriage protection rights, like it affects me,
36:09
Speaker 1: like my wife and myself we met when we were nineteen,
36:13
Speaker 1: and she's formally incarcerated as well. She does amazing work
36:16
Speaker 1: in the bill industry, the Safety and Freedom Fund in
36:19
Speaker 1: New Orleans, because that's one of the programs that we
36:21
Speaker 1: bind people out who are unable to pay their bond.
36:25
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's like, this is what we do
36:27
Speaker 1: all day, every day. This is who we are. And
36:29
Speaker 1: people say, Siria, like why are you running? It is
36:32
Speaker 1: not just because I feel like I have to. It
36:35
Speaker 1: is also like this is the next iteration of the
36:37
Speaker 1: places that we have been locked out of, and that
36:40
Speaker 1: it is my responsibility to do everything in my power
36:43
Speaker 1: to grant access to spaces for people to begin to
36:47
Speaker 1: say what their needs are and and and say, hey,
36:50
Speaker 1: this is what we want. This is the type of
36:52
Speaker 1: the policy that we need to see to bring relief
36:54
Speaker 1: to our communities. I don't think that you know my
36:57
Speaker 1: place in life is to do things for people. Well,
37:00
Speaker 1: it is to support and do things with people so
37:03
Speaker 1: that they can get the things that they need. So
37:06
Speaker 1: that is my driving force. M I've done a lot
37:09
Speaker 1: of work on the federal level, But what I also
37:11
Speaker 1: understood is like people don't even know what senators do
37:14
Speaker 1: you know, like what they're responsible for. And and we've
37:17
Speaker 1: seen some of them blocking bills a man, the US
37:20
Speaker 1: senators the loan game, like you know, for real, Like
37:22
Speaker 1: the things that we are fighting for today will affect
37:25
Speaker 1: your children and your grandchildren. Like what we're seeing today
37:28
Speaker 1: in the world is from the Clinton administration, you know,
37:32
Speaker 1: the Bush administration. It's not from Biden and Trump. We
37:35
Speaker 1: haven't even seen those effects right yet. And I think
37:38
Speaker 1: that people just really really don't understand that, and they
37:41
Speaker 1: don't grasp all of the things that the US senators
37:44
Speaker 1: are responsible for. Well, I just donated, so you go
37:47
Speaker 1: appreciate right now, please please, It doesn't You can start
37:50
Speaker 1: off with ten dollars, I mean on the tab is
37:52
Speaker 1: a little more than that. But you can donate whatever
37:55
Speaker 1: you want, all right, So federal elections, the maximum is
37:58
Speaker 1: twenty nine hundred. You can't donate more than twenty one
38:00
Speaker 1: hundred and have to send it back to you. So
38:02
Speaker 1: you can donate up to you know, anyone you want
38:04
Speaker 1: ten dollars one hundred to fifty five, thy fifteen two
38:07
Speaker 1: or twenty nine hundred, like she said, did you do
38:09
Speaker 1: that yet? No? But I'm going to all right, Well,
38:11
Speaker 1: how much now I just did make sure you're doing
38:14
Speaker 1: it again. It's Serena stop s y R I T
38:17
Speaker 1: A s T eib dot com. And we appreciate you
38:20
Speaker 1: for joining us to say yes. Thank y'all so much
38:22
Speaker 1: for having me. You just don't know how much I
38:24
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Thank you. All right, it's the Breakfast Club.
38:26
Speaker 1: Good morning,