Latest / The Real News Podcast / “Katrina 2.0”: Residents of Gary, Indiana Fight to Survive Without Power for 12 days (and Counting)

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“Katrina 2.0”: Residents of Gary, Indiana Fight to Survive Without Power for 12 days (and Counting) · The Real News Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Ah, I got work.
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Speaker 2: Oh right.
0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome every one to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs,
0:11
Speaker 1: dreams and struggles of the working class.
0:14
Speaker 2: Today.
0:15
Speaker 1: My name is Maximilian Alvarez, and today we are in Gary,
0:18
Speaker 1: Indiana with an urgent update on the ongoing nightmare. Tens
0:23
Speaker 1: of thousands of residents are living through after having to
0:26
Speaker 1: survive ten days without power as of this recording, and
0:31
Speaker 1: we're recording on Saturday, August twenty second, so yesterday, the
0:35
Speaker 1: Associated Press reported this quote. In Gary, Indiana, schools remained
0:40
Speaker 1: closed after the deadly August eleventh storm, down trees and
0:44
Speaker 1: power lines. Residents turned to social media to find open
0:48
Speaker 1: laundromats and working Wi Fi, while others sought food, diapers,
0:53
Speaker 1: and cleaning wifes for low income neighbors. Meanwhile, heavy rains
0:56
Speaker 1: in central Ohio brought flash flooding that covered road waste
1:00
Speaker 1: Thursday morning in Columbus, the state capitol, where emergency crews
1:05
Speaker 1: rescued motorists from stranded cars and saved a twelve.
1:08
Speaker 2: Year old boy who was swept off a bridge.
1:10
Speaker 1: Northern Indiana public service companies said that sixty eight thousand
1:14
Speaker 1: customers were still without power as of Thursday morning, the
1:18
Speaker 1: majority of them in Lake County besides the Illinois border.
1:21
Speaker 1: The utility said it has restored power to three hundred
1:24
Speaker 1: and six thousand, five hundred others since August eleventh, but
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Speaker 1: power is not expected to be fully restored until Tuesday
1:32
Speaker 1: in some places, including Gary end quote like Baltimore, Gary
1:37
Speaker 1: is a majority black town that has been through and
1:39
Speaker 1: is going through a lot. And it is frankly a
1:43
Speaker 1: national disgrace and a moral outrage that it isn't a
1:47
Speaker 1: bigger news story and a national emergency that an entire
1:51
Speaker 1: chunk of the country and tens of thousands of our
1:54
Speaker 1: neighbors have just been living in darkness for ten days
1:57
Speaker 1: in counting. And the stories that I've been seeing and
2:01
Speaker 1: hearing from working people in Gary are so strikingly and
2:05
Speaker 1: unbearably similar to the stories that I've been seeing and
2:08
Speaker 1: hearing from working people in Cuba who are being strangled
2:12
Speaker 1: by the oil blockade imposed by our own government. It
2:16
Speaker 1: is all just devastating and horrifying, and it's unacceptable, and
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Speaker 1: working people are being crushed and abandoned and they need help,
2:25
Speaker 1: and people in and around Gary, Indiana need help right now.
2:29
Speaker 1: And I'm really grateful to be joined today by three
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Speaker 1: guests who are going to help us understand what is happening,
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Speaker 1: what is and isn't being done, and what you can
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Speaker 1: do to help. Please introduce yourselves to our listeners and
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Speaker 1: tell them what is happening, what you are seeing around you,
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Speaker 1: what you and your community need, and what they can
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Speaker 1: do to help.
2:50
Speaker 3: Hi.
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Speaker 4: Good afternoon. My name is FRIEDA.
2:52
Speaker 2: Grave.
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Speaker 5: I'm a lifelong resident of Gary, Indiana. I am director
2:57
Speaker 5: of Foodist Medicine for Faith CDC and a member of
3:00
Speaker 5: Progressive Community Church. For what I see going on and
3:04
Speaker 5: what I feel went on, this is unprecedented.
3:07
Speaker 4: We've never had this kind.
3:08
Speaker 5: Of damage from the Theress show tornado they hit, the
3:12
Speaker 5: land based tornado get hit.
3:14
Speaker 4: For my prospect, there.
3:17
Speaker 5: Are certain things that have could have been done to
3:20
Speaker 5: prepare ourselves for this kind of weather event that we
3:23
Speaker 5: felt was coming. For our part, our church is solar,
3:26
Speaker 5: so at our point we knew this at some point
3:29
Speaker 5: and we have.
3:29
Speaker 2: A solar backup battery.
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Speaker 5: We've been bearing that for ten years because we knew
3:33
Speaker 5: at some point as the weather changed, the weather events
3:35
Speaker 5: were going to get worse and worse. And we've been
3:37
Speaker 5: speaking about this for years.
3:39
Speaker 4: Probably to death.
3:40
Speaker 5: Fears, but some people pay attention to the environmental people
3:43
Speaker 5: pay attention, but the people that need to pay attention
3:45
Speaker 5: to make some changes could have previously done so had
3:50
Speaker 5: they listened. But right now, I'm not saying we're the
3:52
Speaker 5: end all be all, but I am saying that there's
3:55
Speaker 5: some things that we could have done to prepare ourselves
3:57
Speaker 5: a little bit better.
3:58
Speaker 4: Now.
3:59
Speaker 5: As for the second part with the trees down and
4:02
Speaker 5: the poles down, I definitely think NIPSCO could have did
4:06
Speaker 5: a better job over the years.
4:07
Speaker 4: Of maintaining some of that.
4:09
Speaker 5: Some of this could have been avoided with some maintenance
4:12
Speaker 5: and paying attention. We have a lot of Gary was
4:15
Speaker 5: named tree City several times, so they let you know
4:17
Speaker 5: how many.
4:18
Speaker 4: Trees we have, and how many old trees, and how
4:20
Speaker 4: many trees that are native and not natives.
4:22
Speaker 5: I do think that some of this could have been
4:25
Speaker 5: possibly an avoided had nips GO over the years maintained
4:29
Speaker 5: it and kepped up with what was going on, cutting
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Speaker 5: down the trees that need to be cut down and
4:34
Speaker 5: maintaining the wires and the base. So I'm not gonna
4:37
Speaker 5: say total blame isick nips GO, because it's a lot
4:40
Speaker 5: of things that Gary sometimes get ignored, gets ignored on
4:43
Speaker 5: certain things. But I do think with my mindset, they
4:46
Speaker 5: could have absolutely did a better job and we would
4:48
Speaker 5: not probably would not be in a position we probably
4:51
Speaker 5: we would might have had some outages, but not to
4:53
Speaker 5: the point we have now. My power is not on
4:55
Speaker 5: after eleven or twelve days, and now everybody can afford generators.
5:00
Speaker 5: We have senior buildings where today our church for two
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Speaker 5: days has been passing out water and household supplies and
5:07
Speaker 5: all these kind of things like that for people that
5:08
Speaker 5: are coming down.
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Speaker 4: Yesterday we did over one thousand people.
5:11
Speaker 5: Today I sent five one hundred dollars worth of stuff
5:14
Speaker 5: to senior buildings. That's just one senior building. It has
5:17
Speaker 5: no air conditioning, no power in the people are suffering.
5:20
Speaker 5: So from my point, I think things could have done
5:24
Speaker 5: better on NIPSCO. And I think for the mirror and administration,
5:28
Speaker 5: yes they're trying to get out there and work, but
5:30
Speaker 5: he can't do it at law. It has to be NIPSCO,
5:33
Speaker 5: it has to be downstate, it has to be all
5:35
Speaker 5: these things that are regulated and made to be better.
5:38
Speaker 5: So I've just I've been trying to keep positive. That's
5:41
Speaker 5: why we're doing the giveaways. That's why we're doing everything
5:44
Speaker 5: we did yesterday it was twelve hours of day. I've
5:45
Speaker 5: been out here ten hours doing giveaways and send them
5:48
Speaker 5: to their senie departments.
5:49
Speaker 4: So because all of us are.
5:51
Speaker 5: Coming together here, churches, faith based organizations, people are coming together,
5:57
Speaker 5: that's what's made everything better. That's why we maintaining our
6:00
Speaker 5: positive spirit. Because people are coming together and moving together.
6:03
Speaker 4: And working together.
6:05
Speaker 5: Thank you Passing for letting me go, and thank you
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Speaker 5: missus Glenn Ever for letting me go.
6:09
Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to go back outside. But things definitely
6:12
Speaker 4: could have been done better.
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Speaker 5: If they had maintained these trees and poles and all
6:17
Speaker 5: these things. And I thank you for let me be
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Speaker 5: on the show. And everyone have a blessed day.
6:21
Speaker 2: All right.
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Speaker 4: I'm Glenny but Dunham, President of Gary Teachers Union AFT
6:26
Speaker 4: Local number four, also President of the State Federation of
6:30
Speaker 4: AFT in Indiana. When the tornado or the storm came
6:35
Speaker 4: on the August eleventh, we were in school and so
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Speaker 4: our whole focus was trying to get the children out safely,
6:41
Speaker 4: and we were successful in that and that was great.
6:44
Speaker 4: All of our schools we have ten buildings, they have
6:47
Speaker 4: been down with power right now, six of our schools
6:51
Speaker 4: do have power, so we plan on going back into
6:53
Speaker 4: the buildings on Monday, but no students. Four of our
6:58
Speaker 4: buildings will go into our Career Center and they will
7:02
Speaker 4: just do some professional development and just getting ourselves together
7:05
Speaker 4: before we bring the students in. So what I'm finding
7:09
Speaker 4: about the whole situation, so school city has been feeding
7:12
Speaker 4: the children. We've been having drive through lunches every day
7:17
Speaker 4: since school has been out, and that's been a great
7:19
Speaker 4: thing to make sure they're fed. The city opened up
7:23
Speaker 4: the YWCA, where a lot of our children have been going,
7:27
Speaker 4: and that has been a twenty four hour service. And
7:29
Speaker 4: a lot of our teachers have been to the YWCA
7:32
Speaker 4: and have found some of their students and able to
7:35
Speaker 4: give them work as well, and so that's been the
7:37
Speaker 4: focal point. Mayor Milton, we're good friends. We worked together
7:42
Speaker 4: when he was a senator getting our schools back our
7:45
Speaker 4: schools were taking over by the state, and so he's
7:48
Speaker 4: been working really really hard. So social media has really
7:51
Speaker 4: been hard on him, but he's really been working really
7:54
Speaker 4: really hard, and so I'm proud of the administration. I'm
7:57
Speaker 4: proud of our city. I've been driving I've been here
8:02
Speaker 4: Gary all my life. I've worked all over because I've
8:05
Speaker 4: worked in many schools. I've been teaching forty eight years,
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Speaker 4: and I've really seen the devastation. I've never seen anything
8:11
Speaker 4: like it. As far as the comparison with the neighboring communities,
8:15
Speaker 4: you know, are they getting their service, you know, sooner
8:18
Speaker 4: than us. It looks like they are. But I know
8:22
Speaker 4: that Gary has more square footage than any of our
8:24
Speaker 4: regional cities East Chicago, Hammond. Matter of fact, I'm the
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Speaker 4: state Fair president. I have twenty seven locals, and ten
8:32
Speaker 4: of my locals are right here, Lake Station, Porta County,
8:36
Speaker 4: the Chicago, Hammond, Whiting, Griffin. All of those are my locals.
8:40
Speaker 4: So I've been in touch with all of them. And
8:42
Speaker 4: also there was devastation on the south end of our state,
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Speaker 4: which you know is not really included, but me being
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Speaker 4: a state Fair president, they had a lot of flooding
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Speaker 4: down there, so they didn't get it like we got it,
8:51
Speaker 4: but they got it pretty bad. But I'm just I'm
8:53
Speaker 4: proud of the city. I'm proud of like free to say,
8:56
Speaker 4: people coming together. We have you know, now that the
9:00
Speaker 4: folks have got a word about it, people are coming
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Speaker 4: from all over the country and helping us. And so
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Speaker 4: sometimes bad things happen, but in bad things, good things
9:09
Speaker 4: can come out of that. And that's what I'm seeing
9:11
Speaker 4: and that's what I'm hoping, and I'm praying that we
9:13
Speaker 4: all get our power on. I mean, ten days for
9:16
Speaker 4: us was hard. We did have a generator, but still
9:19
Speaker 4: when the lights came on, came on, Reveren Jackson, I
9:22
Speaker 4: thought I was in heaven, you know, I'm like, it
9:24
Speaker 4: was so bright, I was so happy. So I'm saying
9:27
Speaker 4: I'm a positive person. And so it's been a lot
9:29
Speaker 4: of back and forth about on social media. Should you
9:32
Speaker 4: be positive? Can you express your feelings, can you say
9:34
Speaker 4: what you think about the administration or whatever? But the
9:37
Speaker 4: end of the day, you know we're going to get
9:39
Speaker 4: through this because I lean on big shoulders, you know.
9:43
Speaker 4: I always go back to my ancestry, our ancestors. You know,
9:47
Speaker 4: they went through a lot of stuff, and so we
9:49
Speaker 4: have to go back and think about how today get over.
9:52
Speaker 4: And we also have to put God in the picture.
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Speaker 4: You know, we can't just leave God out and think
9:57
Speaker 4: that he's forgot all about Gary Indiana. I'll never believe that.
10:01
Speaker 4: So I believe that we're going to get through this.
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Speaker 4: I'm praying that it won't be Tuesday. Because of its Tuesday.
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Speaker 4: You know, we'll a lot of people will lose all
10:08
Speaker 4: hope because that's just too too long.
10:10
Speaker 2: You know.
10:10
Speaker 4: The mayor was kind of a positive this morning, saying
10:13
Speaker 4: that I hope you got the message through on the
10:15
Speaker 4: front edge of the postion bul on our daily paper, Braun.
10:18
Speaker 4: The governor was on the headlines, you know, PUSHINGNSCO to
10:21
Speaker 4: do better. And so, like I say, I'm seeing a
10:24
Speaker 4: lot of trucks. So I'm just hoping that we'll get
10:26
Speaker 4: our power before Tuesday.
10:28
Speaker 3: I'm John Jackson and I passed to the Trinity UCC
10:33
Speaker 3: Congregation in the great City of Gary, Indiana. I also
10:37
Speaker 3: write a column in the Gary Crusader Spiritual Column that
10:42
Speaker 3: connects spirituality. I try to show the merging of the
10:47
Speaker 3: secular and the sacred in those columns. And I'm framing
10:52
Speaker 3: this this way as kind of a Katrina two point
10:56
Speaker 3: oh Gary and Northwest Indiana now from my vantage point,
11:03
Speaker 3: are experiencing a Katrina moment. And as we know, the
11:07
Speaker 3: hurricane that hit in two thousand and five, it did
11:12
Speaker 3: massive destruction, but what it really did in addition that
11:18
Speaker 3: that was pulled the covers off, as I think Glenva
11:23
Speaker 3: was saying, pull the covers off of the lack of
11:26
Speaker 3: maintenance in New Orleans for the levees. As the levees broke,
11:30
Speaker 3: it showed that in the working people's area of black,
11:37
Speaker 3: brown and poor whites, what they had been dealing with
11:41
Speaker 3: all along, and so it pulled the covers off the
11:43
Speaker 3: same thing I see happening here in Gary, Indiana and
11:47
Speaker 3: Northwest Indiana, but Gary and Indiana in particular, because it
11:53
Speaker 3: is an older city, if not the older city, and
11:57
Speaker 3: as Freda said, it's a lot of space, a lot
12:01
Speaker 3: of area, and as the neighbor pointed out, there's a
12:03
Speaker 3: lot of trees. And what it showed that the maintenance
12:06
Speaker 3: on the trees really had not been done. And so Nipsko,
12:10
Speaker 3: you know, has has not been not been faithful and
12:15
Speaker 3: doing the maintenance which would have what it would have
12:20
Speaker 3: lessened the effect of trees falling on wires. And now
12:26
Speaker 3: you know the power outages, and so that's one issue,
12:29
Speaker 3: but then it opens up the other issue of you
12:31
Speaker 3: know the rate hip nips just got a rate hike, uh,
12:36
Speaker 3: and so you know, when you look at that and
12:39
Speaker 3: now you'll hear some of the executives talking about, you
12:44
Speaker 3: know how much money it costs for this, how much
12:47
Speaker 3: money it costs for that. Well, those those things don't
12:52
Speaker 3: don't line up together. Then you put in and I'm talking.
12:55
Speaker 3: I'm staying on the area of rates right now, because
13:01
Speaker 3: there is this legislation called construction Work in Progress, and
13:08
Speaker 3: what that legislation allows NIPSKO to do is build customers
13:14
Speaker 3: for work they plan to do in the future. So
13:19
Speaker 3: that's part of our bill. And I don't understand how
13:24
Speaker 3: you build somebody for something that you're not doing right now.
13:27
Speaker 2: I don't understand how that goes.
13:29
Speaker 3: The other part is that if a tree falls on
13:32
Speaker 3: the wire and the wire connected to your house pulls
13:36
Speaker 3: your meter out. My understanding is that the resident has
13:42
Speaker 3: to hire an electrician to affix and and get that
13:49
Speaker 3: meter back.
13:51
Speaker 2: Then NIPSKO comes out connects to power.
13:55
Speaker 3: There's there's there's some there's some disconnect here, there's some
13:58
Speaker 3: problem here, and with that in this in this time,
14:03
Speaker 3: there are not all electricians, but there are some that
14:06
Speaker 3: see the opportunity to gouge people. So there's a need
14:12
Speaker 3: for electrical engineers and electricians who are honest and who
14:18
Speaker 3: will take care of that? And in fact it's really
14:20
Speaker 3: Nipskoll's responsibility, in my humble opinion, I.
14:25
Speaker 2: Was in a meeting that good Mayor Melton had called
14:29
Speaker 2: on Thursday.
14:31
Speaker 3: Where's a couple of NIPSCO executives, the president of NIPSCO
14:35
Speaker 3: and I think the vice president or something of night Source,
14:41
Speaker 3: and so he had leaders in the community, political leaders,
14:45
Speaker 3: religious leaders, grass roots persons, civic organizations were in the room.
14:51
Speaker 3: And so one of the things that was said by
14:54
Speaker 3: the NIPSCO executive is that you know they are not
14:57
Speaker 3: coming on.
14:59
Speaker 2: You know, you property to trim the tree.
15:02
Speaker 3: And my thought was, well, if I give you permission
15:06
Speaker 3: to do that, you know you should be doing that
15:09
Speaker 3: ahead of time.
15:10
Speaker 2: But when the tree falls on the wire, you got
15:13
Speaker 2: to come in there anyway. Right.
15:16
Speaker 3: So these things have exacerbated this moment where you have
15:22
Speaker 3: people who have been sitting.
15:24
Speaker 2: You know, my church is still without power. People have
15:26
Speaker 2: been sitting.
15:27
Speaker 3: In hot homes and apartments for eleven days now. And
15:33
Speaker 3: when the first estimates of restoration came out, Gary wasn't
15:39
Speaker 3: on the list.
15:40
Speaker 2: Now this is.
15:41
Speaker 3: In conjunction with a tornado that came through in June
15:46
Speaker 3: that did massive destruction and a lot of the same
15:49
Speaker 3: things were happening. You know that we're experiencing now. So
15:53
Speaker 3: there are people that have been recovering from that, and
15:56
Speaker 3: then you have this now and this extended you know,
16:02
Speaker 3: delay in restoring power there is just I know that
16:08
Speaker 3: com ed in Illinois has more people, but still I
16:12
Speaker 3: don't understand why Gary has always last on the list
16:15
Speaker 3: to get restored. So after the meeting Thursday that Mayor
16:19
Speaker 3: Melton had called with the executive then they said that
16:22
Speaker 3: very night we're gonna put a new list of days
16:25
Speaker 3: and times for power to get back on. Once again,
16:28
Speaker 3: Gary last on the list with the prospect of being
16:32
Speaker 3: restored on Tuesday. Why does Gary always have to take
16:38
Speaker 3: the back seat for other areas, And knowing that it's
16:43
Speaker 3: an older city and the infrastructure needs restored, how come
16:46
Speaker 3: the infrastructure was not taking care of five years ago,
16:51
Speaker 3: three years ago, how.
16:52
Speaker 2: Come they haven't been working on that.
16:54
Speaker 3: These are questions that I'm just relating, questions that person's
16:58
Speaker 3: in my own congregation are raising. And then again, people
17:02
Speaker 3: have lost food and so we've been you know, we
17:05
Speaker 3: we do a lot of food giveaways, so as best
17:08
Speaker 3: we can with our power. You know, we'll get food
17:11
Speaker 3: and we'll you know, we have to give it away
17:13
Speaker 3: right away, you know, but people with our food and uh,
17:17
Speaker 3: with our you know, just the ability to have decency
17:21
Speaker 3: and the hygiene. Uh, everybody's not able to have generators.
17:24
Speaker 3: And those that ab generators have spent close to a
17:27
Speaker 3: fortune and getting gas for it in eleven days. Right,
17:31
Speaker 3: And so what compensation will nipsk go offer. Here's another
17:35
Speaker 3: question I'm getting from my congregation. So for eleven days
17:39
Speaker 3: there's been no power. Why why do we got to
17:43
Speaker 3: pay a bill? Why isn't a monitarium on paying a
17:47
Speaker 3: bill for the next month or two?
17:49
Speaker 2: Right?
17:50
Speaker 3: Because the objective in a transaction is that if I
17:54
Speaker 3: paid my money, then I'm going.
17:56
Speaker 2: To get the goods or the service in return.
17:58
Speaker 3: Now, if I paid my money and I don't get
18:00
Speaker 3: those goods and services, then I'm expecting that there's gonna
18:06
Speaker 3: be some compensation you know that will help, you know,
18:11
Speaker 3: reduce the difficulty that I've been placed in because you
18:15
Speaker 3: don't have the ability to provide what I'm paying for.
18:18
Speaker 3: So these are questions that I'm just feeling for my
18:21
Speaker 3: congregation with what happened in June. And then now and
18:25
Speaker 3: this extended thing and all of the excuses that we
18:28
Speaker 3: have now, it was a massive storm, it was unprecedented.
18:34
Speaker 2: But as I seen Gleneva pointed.
18:36
Speaker 3: Out, we've known for years now that the Tornado alley
18:40
Speaker 3: has been shifting because of climate change. That means, I know,
18:44
Speaker 3: you know, the executive of NIPSKO have been a prize
18:47
Speaker 3: of that too. So therefore, you know, there is opportunity
18:51
Speaker 3: to ben opportunity to you know, beep up, you know
18:54
Speaker 3: the infrastructure that can help reduce you know, the level
18:59
Speaker 3: of challenge that people are facing.
19:01
Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate y'all so much for laying that out
19:06
Speaker 1: for me and our listeners, all of us. It's really
19:10
Speaker 1: helpful information, even if it's hard to hear. You're right,
19:14
Speaker 1: it's like the echoes of Katrina are are just so
19:19
Speaker 1: loud and like Katrina and not just Katrina. I mean,
19:24
Speaker 1: like I've been going around to places all over this
19:27
Speaker 1: country where working people are experiencing you know, toxic explosions,
19:33
Speaker 1: constant pollution or you know, huge blackouts like this, I
19:38
Speaker 1: mean like or they're being locked out of their jobs
19:41
Speaker 1: at poisonous facilities like I was just interviewing the BP
19:45
Speaker 1: workers over in Whiting who have been locked out of
19:47
Speaker 1: their jobs for five months, and I and for listeners,
19:51
Speaker 1: we're talking about like the same area, that's all right
19:54
Speaker 1: around the same area. And so I wanted to sort
19:57
Speaker 1: of hook that into a question Pastor Jackson. You were
20:01
Speaker 1: laying out the conditions that set Gary up for failure, right,
20:06
Speaker 1: the conditions that weren't addressed by the company, you know,
20:11
Speaker 1: like to mitigate the vulnerabilities that you know, like we're
20:16
Speaker 1: there in case a major storm hit, right and certainly
20:20
Speaker 1: prepared for like an emergency. If this many people are
20:24
Speaker 1: without power, Like how the hell are they going to
20:26
Speaker 1: get help? How are we going to reimburse them for
20:28
Speaker 1: you know, like the costs and how we're going to
20:30
Speaker 1: make this right? You know, Like that's that's a question
20:33
Speaker 1: that I think is is on everyone's mind right now.
20:36
Speaker 1: But I wanted to hook that into the conditions of
20:39
Speaker 1: like of Gary itself and life for working people in
20:43
Speaker 1: Gary as well. I wanted to ask if you guys
20:46
Speaker 1: could say, like you know, because Glen Eva, like you know,
20:48
Speaker 1: you're you're president of the teachers Union, right, and we
20:51
Speaker 1: interview working people in education and all over the place,
20:55
Speaker 1: including BP oil workers in whiteing Indiana because we just
20:58
Speaker 1: talked to people about their lives, their jobs, and what
21:02
Speaker 1: we hear from folks is, you know, life's getting harder.
21:05
Speaker 1: You know, we're working longer for less. You know, schools
21:08
Speaker 1: are more packed or they're under resourced. So like that
21:11
Speaker 1: also makes our communities vulnerable to these kinds of catastrophes, right,
21:17
Speaker 1: I mean, like that also amplifies the burden that poor
21:20
Speaker 1: and working people have to bear in an economy that's
21:24
Speaker 1: already like asking them to bear too much. And so
21:27
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask if you could just like also
21:29
Speaker 1: help listeners understand, like you know what working people in
21:34
Speaker 1: and around Gary, you know, have been going through up
21:36
Speaker 1: until this as well, Like you know, are they making
21:40
Speaker 1: enough money?
21:40
Speaker 2: Are they are the schools? Is the air safe to breathe?
21:43
Speaker 1: You know, like you know, how are people doing before
21:46
Speaker 1: a catastrophe like this hits?
21:48
Speaker 4: So you know, we we have to remember we go
21:51
Speaker 4: back about maybe maybe about two months ago, NIPSCO was
21:54
Speaker 4: strike and I don't know if you know that Alvarez
21:57
Speaker 4: they were all strike for I was on the picking
22:00
Speaker 4: line with them, and it was for working conditions, and
22:04
Speaker 4: I believe some years ago they did lay off two
22:06
Speaker 4: hundred linemen and so they're working short staff. I sat
22:11
Speaker 4: on the board of the anfl CIO and one of
22:14
Speaker 4: my brothers is he just retired thirty five years.
22:17
Speaker 2: With this SCO.
22:18
Speaker 4: So he came on Facebook and did a hiregram of
22:24
Speaker 4: how the process goes, you know, how the trees and
22:27
Speaker 4: all of this. And then I want to say a
22:28
Speaker 4: couple of things about what Reverend Jackson said. So Mayor
22:31
Speaker 4: Melton did say that the governor. You know, I did
22:35
Speaker 4: get a copy of his declaration, because my whole thing was,
22:38
Speaker 4: you know, getting my teachers and my professionals paid although
22:41
Speaker 4: we didn't work. We have in our contract when we
22:44
Speaker 4: see anything beyond our control, we get paid. So that's
22:47
Speaker 4: part of our working conditions. But there's a five thousand
22:50
Speaker 4: dollars per household from the government if you can produce receipts,
22:56
Speaker 4: which is going to be hard because my husband been
22:57
Speaker 4: getting gas every night, but the gas stations haven't had receipts,
23:01
Speaker 4: so that's going to be hard. From your food, if
23:04
Speaker 4: you have receipts from food that you threw away, you know. Also,
23:07
Speaker 4: and we also have a foundation called the Legacy Foundation
23:10
Speaker 4: where they're going to help with those monitors or meters
23:15
Speaker 4: that Reverend Jackson is talking about too. So I'm just
23:17
Speaker 4: trying to say there aren't things working, you know, in
23:21
Speaker 4: our favor, as far as things is not working in
23:23
Speaker 4: our favor, so working conditions. I mean schools. Gary schools
23:27
Speaker 4: were taken over for five years. We just got our
23:29
Speaker 4: schools back last year. This is the second year we've
23:32
Speaker 4: been out of state takeover. Then Mayor Melton was centered
23:36
Speaker 4: to Melton and he was very instrumental in getting our
23:39
Speaker 4: school corporations back, and it was all about money. But
23:42
Speaker 4: then that's all about the state. I'm a State Federation
23:46
Speaker 4: president as well. The formula love for funding public education
23:51
Speaker 4: is like tracks. You know, Indiana has a what four
23:55
Speaker 4: billion dollars surplus and so we always people talking about
23:58
Speaker 4: Indiana always just say, hey, Mike Pisce was our governor.
24:01
Speaker 4: So it's always about them being conservative Fisco so they
24:06
Speaker 4: can get you know, on Trump's you know, bandwagon bron Is.
24:09
Speaker 4: You know, I call them baby Trump. You know, so
24:12
Speaker 4: we're not getting services. You know, he just passed the
24:15
Speaker 4: law where's children won't get fed next summer in summer
24:19
Speaker 4: programs didn't get fed this summer, Like when churches have
24:23
Speaker 4: their programs. They usually can rely on, you know, the
24:26
Speaker 4: government to bring in lunches. So all of that has
24:29
Speaker 4: been snatched away from us. So yeah, all of that,
24:32
Speaker 4: you know, big government, Nisco. People talk about the monopoly.
24:36
Speaker 4: You know, people have said we need another company. You know,
24:39
Speaker 4: Nisco has been around since I've been born, So I
24:41
Speaker 4: don't even know how that works, you know, I know
24:43
Speaker 4: they it's all about big money. You know, money talks,
24:46
Speaker 4: you know, so but working conditions, and like you said,
24:49
Speaker 4: Nisco was on the picking line. They went back in
24:52
Speaker 4: their clerical stayed out because they didn't get better. But
24:55
Speaker 4: from my understanding, they really didn't get what they were
24:57
Speaker 4: out there about. But they just came on back in. Well,
25:00
Speaker 4: bp Amico, there's was much different. They're trying to take
25:03
Speaker 4: insurance everything, they're trying to strip them and still still
25:07
Speaker 4: trying to so they had a bigger fight. So that's
25:11
Speaker 4: like a picture of economics and education and Gary is
25:16
Speaker 4: always you know, just you know, people look down on us.
25:18
Speaker 4: I mean even I thought Richard hat To was the
25:21
Speaker 4: greatest mayor ever. But if you are listening to people talk,
25:23
Speaker 4: you know, the detriment to our city started with him.
25:27
Speaker 4: But then that was you know, it was about the
25:29
Speaker 4: black and white thing. You know, we had the big
25:31
Speaker 4: convention here, the Black Convention in West Side, and and
25:35
Speaker 4: you know that's when we gain the platform for after
25:38
Speaker 4: Black America to go forth. And we a lot of
25:41
Speaker 4: people got elected after that, and so that's you know,
25:44
Speaker 4: that's that's on Gary, you know, and then we had
25:47
Speaker 4: the Great White Flight. I was part of the integration movement,
25:50
Speaker 4: you know. I lived in the projects, was bussed to
25:52
Speaker 4: Glynn Park, which is our white part of town back
25:54
Speaker 4: in the day where they thought that was better for us. So,
25:57
Speaker 4: I mean, it's a lot of history and Gary about
26:00
Speaker 4: why we are where we are. But I like to
26:02
Speaker 4: think about in the moment, you know, in the moment
26:04
Speaker 4: I sit on the Redevelopment Commission now appointed by the mayor.
26:08
Speaker 4: I finished one term. We have a lot going on,
26:11
Speaker 4: you know. I hate like this happened, but I just
26:13
Speaker 4: see it as a bigger picture. We have Clenn Robinson,
26:16
Speaker 4: but if our NBA plans, he just donated one hundred
26:18
Speaker 4: thousand dollars. He did not cancel the Jackson we can
26:22
Speaker 4: so I'm sure if they're coming in town. I mean,
26:24
Speaker 4: we had the premier of that movie here, so that
26:27
Speaker 4: second generation of Jackson's our friends with our mayor. So
26:31
Speaker 4: I just, I just I can't being a union leader.
26:34
Speaker 4: I have to look at it on a positive because
26:36
Speaker 4: I deal with kids. I talk kindergarten for thirty one years,
26:39
Speaker 4: So you have to be positive. And so that's where
26:41
Speaker 4: I am, and I get it. I know the history
26:44
Speaker 4: of Gary, I know Hurricane Katrina. I saw all of that,
26:47
Speaker 4: and so but still where I sit, I have to
26:49
Speaker 4: think that better days are coming. We're going to get
26:52
Speaker 4: through this because I've never seen what I've seen. I've
26:55
Speaker 4: never seen all these people coming together. I eighteen wheeler
26:58
Speaker 4: truck out of Tree of Life. My husband just left
27:00
Speaker 4: from over there, and people on Facebook saying what they got,
27:03
Speaker 4: pathers and all that. I mean, lay people, A lot
27:06
Speaker 4: of my teachers who got little organizations, you know, nonprofits.
27:11
Speaker 4: They're meeting on corners. Given our supplies. I don't think.
27:14
Speaker 4: I just think it can't. It's gonna get better. My
27:17
Speaker 4: I have seeing my own neighborhood, and my husband is
27:19
Speaker 4: eighty hones. See the young men they helped him pull
27:22
Speaker 4: his choke on his generator, you know, they helped him
27:25
Speaker 4: get his generator fixed. So I'm seeing that in our communities,
27:29
Speaker 4: and our communities have always come together in hard times,
27:32
Speaker 4: and I've seen it year after year after year, and
27:35
Speaker 4: so that's what I'm relying on. Yeah, we got to
27:37
Speaker 4: get to the core of what happened. I believe Eddie's
27:40
Speaker 4: not He's not. You know, he reached across the aisles.
27:44
Speaker 4: He knows how to work with the people across the aisles.
27:47
Speaker 4: That's how we got things that we're getting now. That's
27:49
Speaker 4: how we got all this money for demolition of the blight.
27:52
Speaker 4: You know, things are going down, things are coming up.
27:55
Speaker 4: So he's a smart man and so I put my
27:58
Speaker 4: money on him any day, no matter what anybody says.
28:00
Speaker 4: I know it's hard. I know his spirit. I know
28:03
Speaker 4: like attractions, like you know, people coming to our city
28:06
Speaker 4: because you know tomorrow Jamal Brian will be here from Atlanta.
28:10
Speaker 4: You know, my son is talking about the Keith bal Or,
28:13
Speaker 4: whoever his name is, I don't know him, but my
28:15
Speaker 4: son is thirty three, and that's exciting the young folks.
28:18
Speaker 4: The other young folks want to come and do stuff
28:21
Speaker 4: for us, and so I'm just I'm looking at it
28:23
Speaker 4: like that. You know, I'm passionate about all of this,
28:25
Speaker 4: you know, but I was out with power for eleven
28:28
Speaker 4: days too, and so I know idea is and I
28:31
Speaker 4: got senior citizens, I got retired teachers who I'm looking at.
28:34
Speaker 4: I'm like, how much more can they take? And so
28:37
Speaker 4: I'm glad Revery Jackson was in on that meeting. I
28:39
Speaker 4: know my superintendent was there, and I know they put
28:41
Speaker 4: a word down in this go and I'm just you know,
28:44
Speaker 4: like I said, that's twenty new trucks in our neighborhood.
28:47
Speaker 4: So I don't know if I answered the question, but
28:50
Speaker 4: there you go.
28:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, the neighbor really set the stage when
28:54
Speaker 3: she went over the challenges. Gary has had another framing
28:58
Speaker 3: point at tend years is Historically, Gary is similar to
29:03
Speaker 3: what happened in Haiti when Haiti in eighteen oh four
29:08
Speaker 3: was the first nation to liberate itself from oppression and
29:14
Speaker 3: servitude to Frances since shockwaves throughout you know, the hemisphere
29:22
Speaker 3: and after that, France, America Britain has been punishing Haiti
29:28
Speaker 3: ever since, to the point of even forcing Haiti to
29:32
Speaker 3: pay restitution and reparations to have the unmitigated gall to
29:38
Speaker 3: declare that they human beings and would not be subjugated
29:42
Speaker 3: but the people in Haiti are resilient people. They are
29:46
Speaker 3: a positive people, they are hopeful people, and which is
29:50
Speaker 3: why they have been able to endure some horrific conditions
29:56
Speaker 3: that have been forced upon them, like you mentioned Cuba,
30:01
Speaker 3: you know, and how Coopa is being strangled by this
30:03
Speaker 3: country as we speak. And so Gary has been under
30:09
Speaker 3: attack ever since it had the unmitigated gold to declare
30:13
Speaker 3: that black folks know how to run stuff too, and
30:15
Speaker 3: elected Mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher, and so that is when
30:20
Speaker 3: the vicious attack came from downstate in Indiana, and then
30:25
Speaker 3: from after the Carter administration, then from the national government.
30:29
Speaker 3: And so the resilient and prideful and strong.
30:35
Speaker 2: People of Gary have been during this, you know, for
30:37
Speaker 2: all of these years.
30:38
Speaker 3: So that part of the backdrop of it, you know,
30:42
Speaker 3: the federal dollars and all of the corporate dollars.
30:45
Speaker 2: You know, have not flowed in over the years.
30:48
Speaker 3: So people have had to you know, use gum and
30:52
Speaker 3: dug and everything to put things together and have done,
30:55
Speaker 3: you know, a pretty admirable job. But the fact of
30:58
Speaker 3: the matter is we pay taxes, right, and those taxes
31:01
Speaker 3: are supposed to go to making sure that working class people,
31:06
Speaker 3: poor people can have life with dignity. And so one
31:10
Speaker 3: of the other challenges that has been already lifted up
31:13
Speaker 3: is there has.
31:14
Speaker 2: Been not enough attention to Gary in this moment.
31:19
Speaker 3: Right, this is an incredible moment in the sense that
31:23
Speaker 3: an unprecedented storm comes through and does massive damage and
31:28
Speaker 3: you don't have national news.
31:30
Speaker 2: Now. Leneva mentioned that Pastor Jamal.
31:34
Speaker 3: Brian is coming, and then there are a lot of
31:36
Speaker 3: social media folks that are moving and using their resources.
31:41
Speaker 3: I'm getting calls from all over Chicago and whatnot, you know,
31:44
Speaker 3: because I work with an organization as a social justice organization,
31:47
Speaker 3: the Samuel Dewick proc the conference, and so there's a
31:51
Speaker 3: mobilization among people, grassroots organizations. Everyday, people residents, you know,
31:57
Speaker 3: helping their neighbors get through cutting down trees, you know,
32:01
Speaker 3: so that they can get it off of people's cars,
32:03
Speaker 3: and help folk, you know, get the trees off their
32:06
Speaker 3: houses as much as possible, getting the streets clear as
32:09
Speaker 3: much as possible.
32:10
Speaker 2: You know.
32:11
Speaker 3: Of course, you know, folk do this in crisis, you know,
32:15
Speaker 3: because of their resiliency and their strength and.
32:19
Speaker 2: And their love for living and humanity.
32:23
Speaker 3: But the fact of the matter is we shouldn't have
32:24
Speaker 3: to bear this burden like this, right, we shouldn't have
32:28
Speaker 3: to bear the neglect that has happened.
32:30
Speaker 2: It's not just Nipsko you know, it is broader than that.
32:33
Speaker 2: And the line workers for Nipskoe, the people that are
32:36
Speaker 2: going out getting on the poles and all of that.
32:38
Speaker 2: These people are working hard, they're working you know.
32:41
Speaker 3: So it's not about them, It's about the institution itself, right,
32:45
Speaker 3: because what we're talking about is institutional You were talking
32:48
Speaker 3: about predatory capitalism, these things, right, So that that's why
32:53
Speaker 3: you know, from from this spiritual at the past, the
32:56
Speaker 3: bandage point, I see my faith, uh and as a
33:02
Speaker 3: follower of Jesus Christ, who who also was a was
33:06
Speaker 3: a community organizer right against the Empire of Rome, so
33:12
Speaker 3: that he could create an alternative community against the predatory
33:17
Speaker 3: nature of the Roman Empire which had, you know, which
33:20
Speaker 3: had created society, you know, of oppression for people, extracting
33:26
Speaker 3: from them profit and not caring about people. And so
33:31
Speaker 3: this is this is where the vantage point that I
33:33
Speaker 3: come from and they're in is the hope because people
33:36
Speaker 3: are going to resist, people are going to build, people
33:41
Speaker 3: are going to help each other get together. But my
33:46
Speaker 3: my focus is Okay, the lights are going to come
33:48
Speaker 3: back home. We can't go back to business as usual.
33:54
Speaker 3: And a lot of people, you know, all of us,
33:56
Speaker 3: you know, you get happy when the light comes on,
33:58
Speaker 3: and again that's a that's another mess for the light
34:01
Speaker 3: of our faith. Right, we get joined when the light
34:04
Speaker 3: comes back on, but the light also brings heat, and
34:08
Speaker 3: that heat then has to be applied so that we
34:12
Speaker 3: don't get to this point again, so that you know,
34:16
Speaker 3: we can have a utility company that works better for
34:22
Speaker 3: the people.
34:23
Speaker 2: Now.
34:24
Speaker 3: I really hope that the executives have been listening and
34:28
Speaker 3: hearing the people so that they can take back the
34:31
Speaker 3: changes that need to be made.
34:33
Speaker 2: We'll see. But we have to not allow the moment
34:38
Speaker 2: to just die down. You know.
34:41
Speaker 3: We got to keep pushing so that Gary can get
34:45
Speaker 3: the attention and the resources and the work that needs
34:49
Speaker 3: to be done so that again there's going to be
34:52
Speaker 3: another storm. It could be another storm in another few days.
34:57
Speaker 2: Right, we are in this season of storms. Now.
35:02
Speaker 3: If things go the way they have been going, we're
35:05
Speaker 3: gonna do this again. And this is something we can't do,
35:08
Speaker 3: you know, we gotta it shows again. The covers all
35:11
Speaker 3: that you know, there's some stuff that needs to be
35:14
Speaker 3: done to strengthen one of the executives, you know, because
35:16
Speaker 3: the question with that, well, how come the wires the
35:18
Speaker 3: lines are not underground. There are places in northwest Indiana
35:22
Speaker 3: where the lines are underground. They experience less you know,
35:26
Speaker 3: outages than other places where the wires are on top
35:31
Speaker 3: of the ground. Well, the executive said it costs ten
35:33
Speaker 3: times more to do that than to do what, you know,
35:37
Speaker 3: what they're doing right now. I understand that. But NIPSKO
35:41
Speaker 3: is recording right record profits. I'm believe it in that.
35:44
Speaker 6: Well I'm not because I'm like, you know, like they're
35:48
Speaker 6: recording record profits. And they're saying, like, it's costing more
35:53
Speaker 6: to put the lines underground. And what they're also saying
35:56
Speaker 6: is that that cost is less tolerable to us than
36:01
Speaker 6: the cost of tens of thousands of people going two
36:05
Speaker 6: weeks without power. That is what they're saying, is like,
36:08
Speaker 6: is the costs They could pay that cost, but they
36:14
Speaker 6: would rather working people, poor people, regular people bear that
36:20
Speaker 6: cost ourselves. Of their negligence. We are bearing the costs
36:24
Speaker 6: not just of their negligence, but of their profits. Those
36:27
Speaker 6: profits come in our expense. I don't know if you
36:30
Speaker 6: could get a more clear cut example than this record
36:34
Speaker 6: profits for the same company while people that pay for
36:38
Speaker 6: their service are left without power for ten eleven days
36:41
Speaker 6: in counting. But so sorry, I'm just so fired up
36:44
Speaker 6: and frustrated about all of this. I was even gonna say, whoa,
36:49
Speaker 6: we got to wrap up. But no way we can
36:53
Speaker 6: wrap up on that, because I wanted to give y'all
36:57
Speaker 6: just one more chance to hop in, because I appreciate
37:00
Speaker 6: you so much for your time. I know I got
37:02
Speaker 6: to let you go, but I wanted to ask if
37:05
Speaker 6: you could just you know, finish with any final messages
37:08
Speaker 6: you have for listeners about what they can do to
37:11
Speaker 6: help folks and Gary now and what you know, advice
37:15
Speaker 6: you have to them about how they can put that
37:18
Speaker 6: lesson into practice. Reverend Jackson spoke of that, like, you know,
37:23
Speaker 6: there's a lot of work that needs to be done
37:25
Speaker 6: to make sure that this kind of catastrophe doesn't happen again,
37:29
Speaker 6: or keep happening, or keep getting worse, you know, every
37:33
Speaker 6: time the news cycle resets.
37:35
Speaker 4: You know, I just want to say, but this is
37:37
Speaker 4: going to our gear residents. First of and foremost, we
37:40
Speaker 4: have to vote. You know, we have to vote. Our
37:43
Speaker 4: voting record is you know, dismal. So we have to
37:46
Speaker 4: get involved. We can't just wait until crisis and things
37:51
Speaker 4: like that to want to come out. We have to
37:55
Speaker 4: get involved. We have to go to the meetings. We
37:57
Speaker 4: have activists like Carol mcrat. They have meetings all the
38:02
Speaker 4: time and they call the NIPSCO execs to the meetings.
38:04
Speaker 4: And those meetings are not attended by the people who
38:07
Speaker 4: are in line right now. And I know sometimes it's
38:10
Speaker 4: hard to get to meetings and stuff, but we have
38:12
Speaker 4: to become aware of what's going on to us, you know.
38:17
Speaker 4: So when it had, you know, we just got to
38:20
Speaker 4: put our voice out there. That's number one. Number two,
38:24
Speaker 4: I know the city has on their website they have
38:28
Speaker 4: all kind of uh paid they have set up a fund,
38:31
Speaker 4: you know. So there's people because a lot of people
38:33
Speaker 4: are talking, a lot of people have platforms and we
38:36
Speaker 4: are suffering. Some people are suffering and need help. And
38:40
Speaker 4: so if you can't get to Gary, there are places
38:44
Speaker 4: where you can do donations and make sure that the
38:47
Speaker 4: donations get where they need to be. One of them
38:49
Speaker 4: is a Legacy Foundation that is a not for profit
38:53
Speaker 4: in our community. Just continue to pray for us because
38:59
Speaker 4: I believe in the power a prayer. You know, tomorrow
39:03
Speaker 4: is Sunday. You know, if you are gathering and worshiping,
39:07
Speaker 4: make sure Gary is spoken out loud, that you pray
39:10
Speaker 4: for us and we get our power on. And that
39:13
Speaker 4: also we pray for our folks like CEOs. You know,
39:17
Speaker 4: we can't forget them. We need to pray to their hearts.
39:20
Speaker 4: I touched that they would do a better job of
39:23
Speaker 4: the people who keep them living. You know, like Reverend
39:26
Speaker 4: Jackson said, we pay their salaries. And that's what we
39:29
Speaker 4: fight all the time, is a union leader. We have
39:32
Speaker 4: to tell the people we are taxpayers. You know, we
39:36
Speaker 4: these schools, this whole other thing. They belong to us.
39:39
Speaker 4: So we have to let people know that we are taxpayers.
39:42
Speaker 4: And if we can, we do know how to protest.
39:45
Speaker 4: And Jackson not Reverend Jackson again is good at that
39:48
Speaker 4: his church is afrocentric and they are a cornerstone of
39:51
Speaker 4: our in our community. So we just want you to
39:55
Speaker 4: keep us in your prayers if you you know, financially,
39:58
Speaker 4: if you can, because it's gonna take a lot. Like
40:01
Speaker 4: I have a neighbor across the street who's waiting here
40:03
Speaker 4: as a tree in his yard, and he said that Uh,
40:06
Speaker 4: he's in the queue. We have a three one one
40:08
Speaker 4: that you put your name in there. But I don't
40:10
Speaker 4: think that they're gonna get his tree out of his yard.
40:13
Speaker 4: I don't think that he's gonna have to get somebody
40:15
Speaker 4: to do that, and I know financially he probably can't.
40:18
Speaker 4: And so come to the community, Uh, get online see
40:23
Speaker 4: some of the people who are talking DM them, see
40:27
Speaker 4: what they need. You know, the schools, you know all
40:30
Speaker 4: all of us. So just offer us the assistant that
40:33
Speaker 4: you can, you.
40:34
Speaker 3: Know, Frieda and but they are examples of ordinary people
40:40
Speaker 3: who just love God and who love our people, and
40:47
Speaker 3: who love to be of service to people. Just ordinary
40:52
Speaker 3: people who take on these roles because they want one
40:57
Speaker 3: to help people's lives be better. They replicated by hundreds
41:02
Speaker 3: of thousands in Gary, Indiana. And so that just gives
41:05
Speaker 3: you an idea of the quality of people that we have.
41:09
Speaker 3: You will, I forgot to mention when you were you
41:12
Speaker 3: asked about you know what has the residents Gary had
41:15
Speaker 3: to put up with their I worked with a group
41:19
Speaker 3: called Guard Gary Advocates for Responsible Development, and just a
41:24
Speaker 3: couple of months ago we had a town hall meeting,
41:28
Speaker 3: uh dealing with the steel mill us steel that has
41:31
Speaker 3: been purchased by Nippon Steel, Japanese company. The town hall
41:36
Speaker 3: was about challenging Nippon Steel, who pledged something like four
41:41
Speaker 3: billion dollars to when they purchased Gary to as investments
41:46
Speaker 3: and challenging them to use funds to update the blast
41:53
Speaker 3: furnaces from the toxic furnaces they have to the clean
41:58
Speaker 3: steel because that's as the issue in Gary because of
42:02
Speaker 3: the steel meal, because of you know a lot of
42:06
Speaker 3: factories and things like that which there there's a high
42:10
Speaker 3: rate of health problems from breathing problems to cancer. It
42:15
Speaker 3: is a high rate because of this. So you've got
42:19
Speaker 3: this going on and now you got this going on,
42:23
Speaker 3: it is a heavy weight to carry. So one of
42:25
Speaker 3: the things that going forward, there is no Citizens Action
42:31
Speaker 3: Coalition for Gary c AC which would would help monitor,
42:37
Speaker 3: to help put you know, some accountability to NIPSKO. So
42:44
Speaker 3: that's one thing that needs to happen that you know,
42:47
Speaker 3: this Citizens Action Coalition would get established. And as the
42:52
Speaker 3: NEIVA pointed out, prayers always necessary because that's the engine
42:57
Speaker 3: that drives us, that's the connection that gives us strength
43:00
Speaker 3: because we are believing people. But also you know, going forward,
43:05
Speaker 3: the the the right attention and not always trying to
43:09
Speaker 3: find a negative and magnifying it. Every community has negatives
43:14
Speaker 3: in it, but there has been campaigns to try to
43:17
Speaker 3: to try to magnify a few negatives and not look
43:20
Speaker 3: at the great work and the great citizens of this
43:24
Speaker 3: great city.
43:25
Speaker 2: And so we need we need more.
43:28
Speaker 3: You know, persons like yourself, brother Aarbarez and others, and
43:33
Speaker 3: the national attention to point out, you know what, you know,
43:37
Speaker 3: what actually is missing here, what is not being provided
43:41
Speaker 3: in this city.
43:42
Speaker 2: You know of.
43:44
Speaker 3: Sixty thousand plus people you know, you know, and and
43:48
Speaker 3: the needs that they have, you know, from from the school,
43:52
Speaker 3: from the schools to you know, and we can as
43:55
Speaker 3: as Gleniva said, these are other areas that we could
43:58
Speaker 3: have a whole show on, right, because again it comes
44:02
Speaker 3: down to we are tax payers, and our taxes should
44:09
Speaker 3: be used to make sure that life is better. It
44:14
Speaker 3: should not be profit over people. It should not be
44:17
Speaker 3: priced over principle, it should not be money over meeting.
44:21
Speaker 2: It should not be those.
44:22
Speaker 3: Things, right, and so from the federal government to corporations
44:26
Speaker 3: on down, you know, we need more of the attention
44:30
Speaker 3: to point out, you know that people are enduring and
44:34
Speaker 3: they've got joy, but they shouldn't have to bear the burden. Alan,
44:38
Speaker 3: that's why we pay taxes and voting. Yes, voting is
44:42
Speaker 3: connected to these things. Voting is connected and we have
44:46
Speaker 3: to exercise. It's one tool in the toolbox, but like
44:51
Speaker 3: a good carpenter, you use all the tools in the toolbox.
44:55
Speaker 2: So voting is important.
45:00
Speaker 1: Oh right, gang, that's gonna wrap things up for us today.
45:05
Speaker 1: I want to thank all of our guests from Gary
45:07
Speaker 1: and Deana Gleneva Dunham, the President of the Gary Teachers Union,
45:12
Speaker 1: Freedom Graves, Project director at Faith Farms, and Reverend John Jackson,
45:17
Speaker 1: Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ. And of course
45:21
Speaker 1: I want to thank you all for listening and I
45:23
Speaker 1: want to thank you for caring about this. We do
45:26
Speaker 1: this work for you and we cannot do it without you.
45:29
Speaker 1: Working People is brought to you in partnership with In
45:32
Speaker 1: These Times magazine and the Real News Network. This show
45:35
Speaker 1: is produced by the Great Jules Taylor and is a
45:38
Speaker 1: proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. We'll see
45:42
Speaker 1: y'all back here next time for another episode of Working People,
45:46
Speaker 1: and in the meantime, go explore all the great work
45:49
Speaker 1: that we're doing at the Real News Network because we
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45:55
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46:19
Speaker 1: Now it really really does make a difference. I'm Maximilian Alfarez.
46:24
Speaker 1: Take care of yourselves, take care of each other. Solidarity forever.
46:36
Speaker 7: When my fee you no longer be. I live on, Yes,
46:40
Speaker 7: I live on. Wherever we go. We are going to
46:44
Speaker 7: roll the union on a song I live on. Yes,
46:48
Speaker 7: I live on. Whyever, how old are we just as yes?
46:55
Speaker 4: Song?
46:56
Speaker 7: I live on, Yes, I live on. Well, mean things
47:01
Speaker 7: are happening in this land? This read a song I
47:04
Speaker 7: live on, Yes, I'll live on wherever the book mean
47:08
Speaker 7: thing is gonna happen in this land is read. I
47:11
Speaker 7: live on, Yes, I live on. Whatever the video takes
47:17
Speaker 7: a media show, I live on, Yes, I live on.
47:21
Speaker 7: If I have help make this a better words than me.
47:26
Speaker 7: I'll live on, Yes, I'll live on when my body
47:29
Speaker 7: is solid, and in some loans of raid, I'll live
47:33
Speaker 7: on Yes. I live on when my songs in one
47:39
Speaker 7: are read. All live on Yes, I live on m
47:49
Speaker 1: HM