Latest / The Myth of Education Podcast / Ep. 39 | Set the Standard of God in Government w/Stephanie Liggio

Transcript

Ep. 39 | Set the Standard of God in Government w/Stephanie Liggio · The Myth of Education Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Educators who come through college and graduate school,
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: they're coming from a generation where everybody got a trophy.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about you.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Culturally,
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: society changed because it was what the parents dictated for the family back in
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: the 70s, early 80s, and then there was a shift.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe we should be more caring about our children's emotions.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're talking about a state that heavily focuses on social welfare issues and not
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: on standard education.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I had done some research about this Frankfurt School of Education that came out
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: of Germany in the 1930s when the Nazis were taking over.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And where did they come?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Columbia University.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Where was every prominent educator told to go for school?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Columbia University.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Could that be a coincidence?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or was this all structurally built to give us the society that we're living with today?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: There are no coincidences.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's also no conspiracies.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is what it is.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to The Myth of Education Podcast,
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: where we expose corruption, advocate for student safety, and defend parental rights.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Follow us on socials at Myth of Education.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: Subscribe at mythofeducation.com.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Support the broadcast by becoming a monthly or yearly subscriber.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Or give us a one-time donation.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Visit mythofeducation.com and click the support link.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for tuning in to The Myth of Education Podcast.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Be sure to like, share, and leave a comment.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: I have with me today Stephanie Liggio.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: She is a lifelong New Yorker who is an alum of New York School Systems,
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: and she earned her bachelor's in communication from UN Las Vegas.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: She also ran for New York State Assembly,
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: representing District 83 in 2024,
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: but she lost to a Democrat,
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: which is no surprise because New York is very liberal, but you made some inroads.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Stephanie is an advocate for civically active Christians.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Stephanie, to The Myth of Education Podcast.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Tiffany, for having me.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: When we were first introduced to each other by our mutual friend,
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Mr. Alex, I think I was in like pilot mode, you know, autopilot mode.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, how can I tie what you've done to education?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because, wow, you have done a lot.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: But I went back and researched a little bit more about you after talking to Lisa and
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like,
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: wait a minute,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: everything that you've done,
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: at least,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: you know,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: foundationally has been to help the future generations of New York and America.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that everyone who cares about the future
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: of our nation should have some tie in I started school in 1976
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: when I turned five years old, and my siblings were
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the education system in New York was great then.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Our teachers were all stellar.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: They
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't bring any of their personal drama into the classroom.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was also an era where we had the latchkey kids.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So there were kids who had the key on their neck, under their shirt.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knew who the latchkey kids were.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: They would try to bust them in for breakfast.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: They ended up in the deli.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: We all knew by 11 a.m. who was going to have their sugar downs.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: But the teachers were great.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And more importantly, our principal, she was a little woman who had a bum leg.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody messed with her.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Not one kid was out of sorts when she walked through the hallways.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone was respectful.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the difference.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: You could flash the 1970s school hallway and
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: When you mentioned not knowing your teacher's personal life or their politics
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: or their relationships, why do you think there has been such a flip with that?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: What is the incentive that adults have to reveal those sorts of things
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: to other people's children?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because you have educators who,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: when they have come through college and graduate school,
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: because you have to have graduate school completed to be an educator
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: in New York State,
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: they're coming from a generation where everything was, everybody got a trophy.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about you.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So culturally, society changed because it was
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: What the parents dictated for the family back in the 70s,
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: early 80s, and then there was a shift.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe we should be more caring about our children's emotions.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we should pay more attention.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Remember now parallels 70s.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: 70s and 80s,
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  SPEAKER_00: we were just feeling the effects of the 1960s reform on welfare and the war
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: on poverty.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I wrote a Substack about the war on poverty.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: We are no better off today than the poor families were in the 1960s.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: If anything, there are more families living in poverty because of the welfare reforms.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: New York has more social benefit programs than any other state by like 14.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think the number was like 39 and normally states have like 14 to 16 programs.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you're talking about a state that heavily focuses on social welfare issues
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: and not on standard education.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then triple that with Because I had done some research before I met Lisa
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: and I was like,
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: what is this about this Frankfurt School of Education that came out of Germany in
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: the 1930s when the Nazis were taking over?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And where did they come?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Columbia University.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Where was every prominent educator told to go for school?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Columbia University.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Could that be a coincidence?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Or was this all structurally built to give us the society that we're living with today?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: There are no coincidences.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: There There's also no conspiracies.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is what it is.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, okay, you said you wrote that Substack, that War on Poverty.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Was that based on the, is it the Cloward-Piven strategy?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I just was looking at the war on poverty because as a young girl,
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: when we were driving from here to Harlem,
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  SPEAKER_00: so from the Northeast Bronx into Harlem,
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  SPEAKER_00: my father would always talk about how these housing communities were built in
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  SPEAKER_00: the 1960s as temporary units because the war on poverty was supposed
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: to remove all poverty from society.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So they built,
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: and now we're dealing with And every year they just keep putting more band-aids on
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: the issue instead of actually saying,
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: In White Plains, the mayor said, okay, we're done.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: We can't band-aid it anymore.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Building by building,
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  SPEAKER_00: we're going to erect new buildings and you get the choice to move into
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: the new buildings.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: They have a new pay schedule,
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: but this is what it is to live in this newer building,
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: but it won't be falling apart.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You will have running hot water.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So why is it a mayor in White Plains was able to facilitate that?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And now in New York City, we're not.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've got, I think, a hundred times more Housing communities between the five boroughs.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't done the numbers,
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: but just driving through White Plains and then just driving
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: through my one neighborhood, I know how many housing communities I have.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are other districts that are probably 90% housing community and maybe 10%.
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  SPEAKER_00: Residents, single family, two family homes.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what's happened in the Bronx.
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  SPEAKER_00: So now we have more construction of apartment buildings in the South Bronx,
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  SPEAKER_00: which I'm not really happy with because it doesn't really match the character of
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  SPEAKER_00: the area.
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  SPEAKER_00: And I love the history in the South Bronx and I love the architecture that exists there.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're building these very huge buildings and people from Harlem
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  SPEAKER_00: and Upper East Side, West Side are moving into the South Bronx area.
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  SPEAKER_00: But They still work remote.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're not really engaging or building the community.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like a renaissance where we need a true renaissance in the Bronx.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's just another Band-Aid and it's another, well,
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: we're going to call ourselves hip and we're going to live in this area for a little
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: while because it's up and coming.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: That sort of mindset.
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  SPEAKER_01: For those who don't know,
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: the Cloward-Piven strategy is basically a theory that was applied to society in
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: the 1960s and early 70s, and their goal was to overwhelm the American welfare.
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  SPEAKER_01: And
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: so they were activists for a lot of those programs that ended up in the state of New York.
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  SPEAKER_01: And maybe in the circles that you ran in, they didn't refer.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't refer to Richard Cloward or Francis Fox Piven as being,
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: you know, kind of some of the founders of those ideas that went into those policies.
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  SPEAKER_01: But that's what it reminded me of when you first started explaining the Cloward Piven strategy.
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  SPEAKER_01: It affects my community,
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  SPEAKER_01: the Black community,
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  SPEAKER_01: which was predominantly poor throughout the 60s and 70s,
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: but I believe better off than now.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: There's definitely this divide within the Black community,
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  SPEAKER_01: and you could probably say The same for the Hispanic community,
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: the Italian community.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Essentially, any ethnicity is going to have this divide.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it seems wider when there's a less amount of people in the population of
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: that group, if we wanted to tie that back.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: There is something very significant about paying attention to what goes on
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: in schools because what activists are doing,
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: what leftists are doing in schools, is almost virtually unregulated.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: They're getting away with things that they wouldn't be able to get away with.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I haven't watched the full episode yet,
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm sure Lisa sent you through,
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: walked you through all of the policies that have been passed in New York State
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: since 2008.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was floored.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: I said, oh my goodness, is this what's going on?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And quietly while I was campaigning,
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: people would come up to me and ask me, how do you feel about charter schools?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I think that every child should have an opportunity if
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: the parents don't I don't know if you saw that in Connecticut.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: CPS has to issue the ability for parents to homeschool.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: Man.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think they're trying to bring that to New York as well.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So they're getting us every which way they can.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're pinching us from every angle and they're doing it on purpose because
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: when our lives are filled with chaos, we can't focus.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And when we can't focus, our children suffer.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And there is nothing more prominent for failure in society than
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: when children are not able to rise up and become the leaders they're meant to be.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I agree with that.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: When you ran in 2024,
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: you were asked which areas of public policy you were personally passionate about,
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: and this was your response.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, because of the COVID lockdowns, every child was sent home with a Chromebook.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: And children are to reliance now,
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: whether it's a cell phone that they're getting in third grade or a laptop
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: that they are forced to do homework on.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is so unnatural for children.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that this is what's causing more of the mental breakdown
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: that we're seeing in society, that people don't know how to function.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know how to have a conversation.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Young kids really don't know how to make eye contact.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell the difference when kids walk by the house and I say hello.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell the difference between what school they're going to.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: Are they going to the Catholic school?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Are they going to the public school?
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do they have a strong family unit?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: That is teaching them.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you can tell a difference because of the way they respond to you or
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: if they just keep walking.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's really sad though.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously we're going to have cultural differences and family dynamics
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: and things like that.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're saying that you can point to something foundationally that is coming
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: through not only the family,
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: but also how children are being taught to interact with the world.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I talk about all the time on this podcast.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think anything that you're saying is groundbreaking necessarily,
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: but it is interesting because you're on completely the opposite side of the country.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking at the country through the lens of the Southwest.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and you're looking at the country through the lens of the East.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're somehow able to meet in the middle and find that we have the same issues.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't done the same social experiment that you've had as far as like speaking
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: to young people to discern where they go to school and how they're responding,
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: if that gives me that indication.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously,
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: you're in this concentrated area with the different boroughs
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: and You've got competing priorities with the leaderships and councils
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: in your area work a little more spread here in Arizona.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: So our school districts are huge, but they are wide.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas I imagine in New York, it's like built up.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: How do we unite parents and give them the power and the strength?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And even families who don't have kids,
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: this is something I want to plug real quick before I ask you my next question.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Even families who don't have kids,
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: your future lawmakers,
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: your future council people,
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Your future servants in the military,
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: these are likely the majority to be products of some sort
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: of government education system.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: The reality is not everybody can afford anything private or that they would think is best.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have to contend across the country for the amount of kids
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: that will come out of public schools.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: We can't just let them fall through the cracks.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: So during your campaign, you stated...
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: The legacy I want to leave behind is one of positive change.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: There's a tradition in how our government functions,
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: and I can appreciate tradition, but it's time to innovate.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Think outside the box to bring necessary policy corrections for New York State.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: If you had been elected,
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: what are some of those policy changes you would have worked to implement?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: I would have removed the Board of Regents.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: I would be removing all of the regulatory agencies the way they stand now.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: They would need severe reform.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: I would also champion for parents to,
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: it would be mandatory for parents to participate in their children's education.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then we would have to open doors for people who maybe barely got out
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: of high school or maybe only got a GED,
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: bringing them in to reacclimate them to the education process so
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: that They understand what their children are doing.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Programs like that.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And children cannot advance forward without their parents' blessing.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if a parent is uncomfortable with a child learning at school,
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: a child is going to stump themselves and just do what their parents are capable of.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're not going to spread their wings in that way.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I learned that.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you ever watched the movie Finding Forrester.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was a young boy from the Bronx who takes a dare from his friends.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's very smart and does really well.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And his teacher identifies that he does really well.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: But he plays basketball with the kids after school and he doesn't want them to know
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: that he scores better on tests than they do.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he takes a dare.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: He leaves his backpack in this old man's apartment.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: This old man ends up being a terrific literary artist.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the kid ends up starting to tutor with him because the school,
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: there's a private school in the city that ends up wanting him to come
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: to school there.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Such a refreshing way to watch how his friends were like, yeah, you're making it out.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to be successful.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: They were cheering for him.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And his mother sat at the table and said, you take this opportunity.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't look at what we do here.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: You take this opportunity and make the best of it.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: That movie struck me because watching the kids in this community go home to no parent at home.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I had a parent at home.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: My father made sure my mother was here, regardless if she sat with me to do homework or not.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Different story.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: But we were told you do your homework and you do your chores and
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: then you can go outside and play.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like there was rules.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: These kids are going home to no one.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't sit and have a family meal.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't have...
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Black culture was ripped away from the black community.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I meet people now that are saying, yeah, we're having family dinner on Sunday.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Whole family's coming over.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about Italian families.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about black families who didn't give in to this is the way
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: the government wants us to live.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I would have liked to have removed a lot of that social net and brought a lot more.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing for yourself?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: A lot more.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Personal goal, personal achievement, and give the tools necessary.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: Rudy Giuliani tried to implement that when he was the mayor in the 1990s,
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: and there was so much pushback to him at that time in New York City.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Families wanted to participate with this,
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: but we didn't have social media where people could say, look, it's viral.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Look, more people think like me.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: So now you go on social media now and you can see how many people are talking
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: that Obama shouldn't be on the campaign trail.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: He had his chance as president and he didn't do anything for the black community.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: So let him go sit down and let someone else rise up.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you can see the difference in 20 years where maybe there wasn't that sort of uniting factor.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can use technology in a good way to help unite these families who see
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: the same thing and who want better for their families, for their children.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: So what I want to highlight with what you said, two things.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Number one is that family is the enemy of the government and government is the enemy
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: of the family.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Societies, civilizations are founded on families.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: That is a biblical concept that That is an evolutionary concept for those
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: who don't want to appeal to biblical things.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: A mom and a dad and the children get it.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's the foundation of every civilization.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Family is definitely the network that the government is working overtime to overthrow.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: There is a strength in parents being involved in their children's education.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: There is a strength in Men marrying the women that they have kids with, they knew that.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: They went after that in my community hard.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately for generations, they fall for it.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a tradition of voting Democrat.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: I somehow, by the grace of God, escaped.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: I've never been a Democrat when I wasn't.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't civically active.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was just nothing.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: I registered nonpartisan for a long time.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I still flip-flop between Republican and nonpartisan because I want
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: to send a message that this is not about party.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: This is about policies and this is about morals.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: I am a Republican.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: And if I felt that all of the morality was on the left side, then I'd be a Democrat.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: They're the same in some situations, honestly.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: We do appreciate,
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: at least on the right, they believe in God and they want government to be smallest.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: So speaking of a smaller government,
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: the second point that you touched on,
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: and I kind of talked with Lisa about this too,
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: is that the local control kind of has been removed quite a bit from citizens
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: as it concerns education and then basic things that you ought to be able
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: to I should say the policies that govern your state.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Is that a good estimation?
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: What's their direct effect on society as you're seeing it?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I will say the gentleman I ran against is the Speaker of the Assembly,
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: so very powerful position.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: He is himself on the Board of Regents,
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: and I believe he selects everyone who is on the board with him.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's fair to know I didn't know anything about him before I ran against him.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I found out that you can't have a conversation with him about education
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: because his only child does not reside in New York.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: So she's being educated in another state.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's okay for him to do what he's doing because his own child is not facing
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: the repercussions.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: So here again,
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: it's how do we create legislation and how do parents mandate that
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: if any law is passed in the state,
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: the legislature,
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: if they're not directly affected by it,
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: they have to put a time period on it and then bring us a report.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: How effective was this policy for our children?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't know if you had kids in school when they were doing the new math.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Common Core?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: The Common Core math.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: My nephew came home pissed off as a child.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: I got all my answers right and they took half my points off because I didn't show them.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to show my work.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: I do it in my head.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Some kids see it that way.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: They don't need to write it out.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: They don't need to do three tens and four twos and all of that kind of writing it out.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it was handicapping kids to take that much time to have to write it all out
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: when they could see in their head.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of inspiring our children, and that should always be the crux of it with education.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: If a child is inspired by however they can do something, then continue doing that for them.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way they learn.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then their confidence is increased and then they can achieve more goals.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't have to tell you,
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: you know this,
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: but I just find it interesting that legislators are passing laws
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: and affecting our lives and they are not hindered by the laws that they're passing.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that I think is the biggest takeaway for me,
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: being on the outside looking, watching and seeing how it all plays out.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: That I think is the biggest problem.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I want more people to be prepared to Girls don't take a lot of money.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if we start at the bottom and build more community, that's why I wrote the book.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you have 10,000 people within a district that are aware of what's going
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: on and ready to run for office,
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: you have automatically,
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: you have, okay,
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: this person's going to run this cycle and we have 10,000 people to help them run
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: for office.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: So now instead of me getting 5,000 votes, maybe I can get 50,000 votes.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: The Speaker is winning with 30,000, 35,000 votes.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've got 80,000 people sitting out in an election in my district.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: The numbers do not support New York being a completely blue-led state, a Democrat-led state.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: The numbers aren't there.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: The people feel no party line here.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: New Yorkers are independent, so they don't want to have a conversation.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the Democrats do this and the Republicans do that.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't matter in New York.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: They just want to see results.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: So they don't care what party line you come from.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: They just want to see results.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: In Arizona, our school boards are supposed to be nonpartisan.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: And what we are running into is that there are partisan interests.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not going to take the time to plug in everything that the left and the unions are doing.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: We already know that we have a right wing.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's still not for the kids.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: There are party interests that are totally separate from what conservative values
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: and those policies are.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if it is possible to divorce party politics from your conservatives,
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we need to do because that is what's going to win the middle.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's probably true on any level of politics.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just schools.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you're too far left or if you're too far right,
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: the people in the middle don't want the polar opposition.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now we have to take it issue by issue.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: There are things that I will never lean left on.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: You will never get me to lean left on boys being in girls' bathrooms or sports
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: or anything like that.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a Christian and so what I think about human sexuality, it's what God says.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: But if you have a child with mental illness,
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: dysphoria,
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: whatever the case may be,
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: we can work with that, but we're not going to invade either space.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Things like that don't need to have any sort of partisan anything.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: This can be a student safety issue across the board.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: So when you said that they are not affected by the policies
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: that they are influencing and passing, you're so right.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: We have a majority leftist board in Scottsdale,
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: Arizona, one of the wealthiest cities in Arizona.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: That leftist majority board, they ran on closing no schools.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in a 3-2, they have closed two more schools recently.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the board members blamed the conservatives for the school closures
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: because they're so outspoken.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: About tax credits and empowerment scholarships that allow the money to follow
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: the child and the parent to have the choice.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when my conservative friend,
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Amy Carney,
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: shout out to Amy in Scottsdale,
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: she fired back when she got her opportunity and said,
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: you know, I could have applied for ESAs, but I didn't.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: All my kids are in the public school system, but your kids are in private school.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: I had to pause and text her in the middle of me watching that.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: A hypocrite.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: So on all levels,
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: you know, we're seeing that and we know that the government doesn't care about us.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: So your approach on the ground level to get people educated
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: and rallying around what's important to the majority of people,
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: that is the influence that I would like to have.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, right now we have legislative districts that control who we vote for.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: They're literally crossing over districts to choose who goes on golden tickets and
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: who should be promoted.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that's right because you're taking that local control away.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: But the idiom is this,
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: why should I worry about snakes in the garden when I have spiders in my bed?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that is what I think about Republicans who are acquiescing to liberal values
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: or they're making decisions at a school board level Thank you.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: So anyways, let me get off my soapbox and give you an opportunity to respond.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love that because I came equated to everybody who runs for any office
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: in New York wants to talk about AOC.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you giving her air first and foremost?
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And second of all, you're not running against her for a position in Congress.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I address in the book.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the first chapter is prepared research.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: What position are you running for?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I repeat in the book,
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: pro tips and things that you need to know, but this is a representative position.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't about you and your ideology.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is a representative position.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: Know that first and foremost.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've got people running the cycle,
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: let's say two, three terms, and then the next person better step up.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the mindset that we need in candidates.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you know how to pick a candidate when they say, I don't want to be there for 10 years.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: You passed the first test.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now what are your issues?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: These are the issues that I see my opponent has sponsored, co-sponsored.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: These are the bills that they passed that made law and this is how it's affecting my community.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's the title.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: What type of language you need to hear from candidates that you want to support.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say you have 10,000 people in each district,
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: not only do you have volunteers going door to door for you
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: and building more coalition,
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: and now you have other people who are ready to run for office.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're going to keep turning.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: The months are going to keep turning away.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I watched it this year.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Certain candidates were like, oh, it's already October.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's October.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's the middle of October.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And how much campaigning have you done?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: How many people have you touched?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it goes really fast.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: So always, always, always be prepared.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Strength in numbers.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: If you feel this way, there are definitely millions of people thinking it too.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Whether or not they're in your direct district.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Different story.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Arizona is being targeted to change the way people live.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Arizona was a safe haven, independent.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't tell me what to do.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: This was the Wild West forever.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And now all of a sudden they're trying to conform.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't care what political party letter people put next to their name.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: When they tell you who they are, they're telling you who they are.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're promoting policies that are not aligned with the community, then call them out.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Run a primary against them.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's what our founders gave us.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: They gave us this beautiful blueprint and we don't use it.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: I get frustrated in New York.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean you don't want to do a primary?
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: You want to know what you do in a primary?
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're talking about spending money when you don't need to spend money.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: In the primary,
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: you coalesce your base so that you're not spending your summer
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: and your fall finding your base to come out to vote.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: And again,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: whatever position it is,
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: if you have a March school board position,
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: you don't want to spend January and February looking for people that are your base.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: You want to know that by the end of the year before.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: You need to have that leeway so that you can talk to the independent-minded people
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: and say, this is what the school board needs to focus on.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is what city council needs to focus on.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can we work together here?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Building community first and foremost is how we get over this hump.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't any one person in any one position.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is going to be the community that drives it forward.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: The same way a herd of cattle drive forward,
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: it's going to be us as a herd of cattle going forward,
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's education,
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's separating out our politicians from religion,
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: because that 501c3 compromises so many churches.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: I see it in New York.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure you see it there.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: They will not let you in to talk to their sheeple.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: I had a friend calling every church in my district.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody called her back.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: So now here I am going, when I drive by these churches, those metal doors are down all the time.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: When do they have services?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let me look online.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: I can't find services.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're saying you're a church and I see people putting shingles outside of their home.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: You're saying you're a church.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Are you really a church?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we need
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: to focus on that 501c3 and start separating out who's really
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: a church and who isn't a church and start really following biblical education
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: and how are we a church and what makes up a church
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: and why do we need this designation from a government entity to tell us that we're
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: a church.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: So this is such a good segue.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thinking about the current state of American Christians, right?
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: Many are actually leaving traditional church settings,
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: but at the same time, there's few of us who read scripture on a regular basis.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not just talking about having the app on your phone,
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: give you a daily word, but actually digging in to what God's will is for mankind.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: The Bible may be ancient, but it's not outdated.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: The New Testament,
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: especially very relevant to There is a lot that I think has been romanticized
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: in our pulpits.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: They must have
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: They have missed the passages like Matthew chapter 23,
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: where he just ripped those Pharisees a new one and called them whitewashed tombs
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: and hypocrites.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: They have missed the passage of Scripture where John the Baptist got his head cut off.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: They remember that part, but they don't.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: I don't remember that he stood up to a ruler,
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: a political leader, and that was why he lost his head.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: When they read through the book of Acts,
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: they're so in love with how the church was born and everybody was in unity.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: But then after Stephen got stoned and persecution came,
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: How about the fact that the disciples were being dragged into court,
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: having to plead their innocence over causing chaos
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: when all they were doing was preaching in the name of Jesus?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: There is a misconception, I think, with being political versus being governmental.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: I want to do a whole episode on this
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: because I think what Christians don't understand is that our Savior,
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: the government, is up on His shoulders.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Why would the Bible describe Christ in that way?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: An Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, described Him that way.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what is government?
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: So far, what I have developed is that the differences between campaigning versus leading.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a politician, you're always campaigning.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you ask a politician for a simple statement, they're going to sell themselves to you.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not necessarily what you're looking for.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: You're looking for action.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: Being governmental doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to come down
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: and fight all of these civilian matters.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: You can take that 30,000-foot view and have some discernment on what
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: a community needs, looking at all of the pillars.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it's government,
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: whether it's education,
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: whether it's entertainment,
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: the Lord will call you to those different spheres of influence to essentially usher
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: in the truth where you see lies,
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: bring light where you see darkness,
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: and where I think Christians We should just be praying the will of God
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: and we should just have faith and God is in control, unfortunately.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately,
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: you're not preaching that passage of Scripture in James chapter 2
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: where it says faith without works is dead.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have people who need to be reached for the gospel.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: We have people who need to be reached, parents who need to be reached for the gospel.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: They are told that God did not want us involved in politics and I counter with
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's not politics.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's our government.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: So our founders gave us this constitution,
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: this outline of a government,
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: and Benjamin Franklin famously said, it's a republic if you can keep it.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: We have not kept it.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: We've allowed people to whitewash a constitutional republic with the word democracy.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: We have immigrants coming from all over the world and it's beautiful,
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: but they don't engage civically.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: They will call themselves Democrats because they believe in democracy
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: because they're just leaving dictatorship and they're just happy
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: to have anything other than dictatorship.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Then they come here and then instead of getting involved civically, they go, I'm good.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: As hard as we think life is here, it's so much better for them from where they were.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: They can work and they get money.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: And they can provide food for their family and they get housing.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_00: So everything is wonderful for them.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the really smart immigrants,
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: they figure out how to use all the social programs to get everything they want
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: and live in really nice areas.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to learn when we speak with them.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's politicking.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: How do we hold the people elected as representatives and remind them they represent
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: the constituents in the district that they're elected to represent?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're our representatives.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Call them every day and tell them.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: People calling their representative every day.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: You don't think they're going to get the message because they're not going
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: to keep track of how many names are calling.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can give a different name every time you call.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Same zip code.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's all they look at.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, these people in the zip code, they're hating on me right now.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: What did I do wrong?
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is power in calling them out.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you have to do it.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be people of action.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not stop.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a parable where he took vacation?
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember that one.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: It was 40 days in the desert with Satan on his back.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: That was his sabbatical, okay?
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if you think you need a vacation,
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: if you think you need to step away from politics,
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: just remember Jesus in the desert for 40 days with Satan on his back.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I grew up Catholic.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: I still, God help us.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't love the Pope.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot wrong with the church, but the church is actually the people.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus said to Peter,
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: I built my church on you, he didn't mean the actual rock to become a building.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: He meant Peter the person.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: He meant his apostles were taking his word on him.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Not go build churches everywhere and pray in that church.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Take my teachings everywhere the way I showed you I did.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't need to be spoken in word, did it?
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: Did I miss that part?
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: My gosh, you have made me a believer that there are Catholics who actually read their Bibles.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to offend some of my Catholic friends.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, what do you mean?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: No, I mean, there's a difference.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: We could even go down this road.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's a difference between your religion and then your relationship with God.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: You have to walk out the scriptures.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: You can keep your liturgy and all of the processes,
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: confirmation, whatever you want to go through, that's fine.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: But you're going to be accountable to God,
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_01: not necessarily for keeping all of those traditions,
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: but did you do what His Word said?
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: Those of us who claim to be Christians and follow Christ, what gospel are you living by?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're all supposed to be reading the same book,
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: how you get this interpretation that says you hunker down in a building for
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: a whole generation.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody says anything to the government.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: A few weeks ago when I was starting to...
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Get out and campaign.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Baptist Church in my neighborhood had everyone out on a Sunday afternoon.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was a beautiful day and I'm driving and they all had their little signs that they made.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is coming.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, yes.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: And what are you going to tell him you did?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's so good.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I went to public school, I had to get catechism classes.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: So on Wednesday afternoons,
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: I took a half day of public school and I walked over to the Catholic school
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: from first grade till sixth grade.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then I went to Catholic school seventh grade on.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we would either watch Davy and Goliath.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: I loved when they rolled the TV in because it was way more fun
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: than actually reading something, right?
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then we had these movies that were biblical, portrayed movies of Jesus's life.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was all the New Testament stuff.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why when I speak about Jesus,
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: those are the movies that I remember as a child,
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: watching those black and white movies of Jesus.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: He Never sat down.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: He was always walking somewhere.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: He was turning tables over.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: He was arguing with pharaohs.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: He was not allowing taxation at his church.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was a no-no.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: But what do we do when we go to church?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: We give a tithing.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're taxed.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're giving a tithing.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you want to Make it a community effort.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_00: You have your board meeting with your community and you all divvy up the bills.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do that.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because big government, that's all that they're doing on our behalf.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: They suck our tax dollars out of our paycheck.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: They sit in a room and they decide where your money is going.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't like where your money is going,
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: you better get yourself in that room or as close to that room as you can.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I think start with your church.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: Start with your school.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: Start with your, we have what's called a community board here.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: Completely fuckless now because they just roll over
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: and let their city council reps do whatever they want.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, they work so hard for us.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: My representative replaced the light bulb in the street lamp for us.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hello?
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: You pay for that?
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget who pays for it.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget who the boss is.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: We all get crazy about these big corporations and look at their CEOs
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: and how much money they make.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: But you don't care that your representative leaders elected make twice
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: the median income of most communities across this country?
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: My state legislators are being paid $142,000 a year and they get per dia money
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: when they got to go to Albany.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: $142 plus per diem.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: There are some megachurch preachers that dwarf
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: that by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: Keep going.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: But are they having lunch with said leaders?
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Are they having that steak lunch with those said leaders?
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: But if they, I would think if they do, because of the 501c3 aspect, is very underground.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's a shell game.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: The way that God wants us to think about a government, it's his lordship and his leadership.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: But what he did when he created it.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that first amendment right is a very important thing.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: Some final thoughts on your governor, Kathy Hochul.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: She's been a hot mess for some years,
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: but what I liked was she did recently,
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: and I have no problem giving Democrats credit where it's due.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: She is opting your state into the Trump administration's federal tax credit program,
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: what she sees as a benefit to New York public schools.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: What say you?
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: Kathy only does what benefits, Kathy.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if Kathy said that on October 1st,
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: it's because she knew that people were starting to pay attention
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: the election coming up November 3rd.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because on November 4th, Kathy can wake up and say, you know what?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that's going to benefit New York.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we're going to do this.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: So because I saw it happen two years ago, she paused congestion pricing over the summer of 2024.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say mid-November, the infrastructure's up.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to go ahead with, we need the money from congestion pricing.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: And don't worry, it's only going to be $9, not the $15.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was only $9 for a little while.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's $15.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: Also, she's putting a moratorium on AI because she doesn't want those structures up
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: because we have to look at everything.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: It takes one meeting.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: Have a phone call.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Put the players on a conference call.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: Figure out what it is and how it affects New York.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: You've already left our kids back from COVID.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: You extended closed schools from COVID.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: The kids are still struggling because of that.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: They can't get themselves caught up to where they should be because,
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: again, laptops, all of this digital in their face.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't want AI, but it's at their fingertips on their phone and they're already using it.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: I knew this was a political thing, but people in New York need to say, hey,
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: If she's going to opt you in, take advantage of it as soon as possible.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: Trump's not going to be in office forever.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: We can't guarantee there'll be another Republican and they're going to try
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: to dismantle some things.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so we can appreciate Hochul, even if she did it for selfish reasons.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: If parents have something to gain, latch on to that.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Her counterparts are calling her out.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: Senate Majority Leader Andrew Stewart-Cousins called her out.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_01: Assembly Speaker Carl, is it Heasty?
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Carl Heasty.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's the guy I ran against.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: They're calling her out.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Any benefit parents have, grab it.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: Grab it and run.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: Take it and say, I'm grandfathered in and you can't take it away from me and demands it.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: The reason Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Carl Hastie are
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: talking against Kathy is
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: because Carl has nobody running against him.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's a guy on the ballot, but he doesn't have a campaign.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is my district.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: I see nobody came knocking on my door.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do to get your 5,000 votes?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: How can I double it?
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: How can I...
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: How can I possibly beat him?
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody came and asked me, and I have the footprint now.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Andrea Stewart-Cousins does have someone running against her,
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: but she believes that the Black vote is hers in Westchester County, where she is.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: She believes the Black vote is with her.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I have to tell you,
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: I knocked on a door,
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: a white liberal woman,
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I said,
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: she said to me,
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: and randomly,
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: she said, oh, well, you know, abortion, we don't do abortion in nine months here.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: I said, yes, we do.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was proposal one in 2024 when I ran for office.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we tried to educate people because plain text law in New So they told people
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: that this makes
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: Making sure that we have access to abortion.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, no, no, that's not true.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: I said, well, I'm going to tell you to do your own research because you don't believe me anyway.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not going to pull up something and show you because you need to learn this on your own.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to tell you that this bill also allowed for teachers
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_00: to transgender your kids while they're at school.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: That when they're at school now, there's school property.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I say as many parents that can homeschool do it,
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: as many parents that can get their kids into charter school do it.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because the fewer kids that we have,
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: the fewer federal dollars that
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: come here, more schools will have to close.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then there'll be a catch-all because some kids will fall through cracks,
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: but we hope that we can get them all.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where the religious community is supposed to fulfill and uplift
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: the families and communities to support and help.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: This is your biblical responsibility to make sure that our children,
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' kids, they always said, don't mess with my kids.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: We're messing with his kids.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great price to pay.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: Where the community should be helping is making sure that our children are getting
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: the education, the core that they need.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's where our religious communities should be focusing right now.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of, no, Jesus is coming.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to wait until Jesus comes.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to call you out first.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: I may not be perfect.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: I may not do everything God asks me to do.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: I try to get around to it.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: But he's going to call you out first because you were tasked to take care of
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: the children and you did.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's going to be first and foremost.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I am seeing in New York City a lot of younger kids going back to church.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: If this is the turn that we're taking,
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm all for it because morality is supposed to be the core of our society.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_00: Our founders had morality.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: They all prayed.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: Even Benjamin Franklin,
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: who was not religious,
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: looked toward God and the Bible for how to build the Constitution for our country.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if our founders did it, don't you think we should do it?
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's why government continues to take God and Bible out of our lives.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: So as last words,
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: tell us the title of your book,
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: where they can find it,
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: promote yourself,
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: and then give some last words of encouragement to your constituents.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: The book is Set the Standard.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is available on Amazon.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: Set the Standard, Stephanie Ruggio.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: What Charlie began to do was to teach us how to praise our God and be active in community.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't merge those two.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't follow him daily.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciated the work that he was doing.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: And now we have to build up communities to make up for what we miss in one person.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: He is guiding us still because we have the privilege of his videos, his words, his wisdom.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Don't stop using those as tools when you're building your community.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: Use the book as a business plan outline and use his teachings to help you build
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: the fabric Around that business plan foundation.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: You have to do work.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: You have to drive around the district.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: You have to know the ins and outs of everything in your district.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: But that's your responsibility to know.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you build and help your neighbors.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: Build your community.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: Use Charlie's teachings, whether it's biblical, whether it's government.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever be political because that's what we want to remove from our fabric of life.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be biblical and we want to pay attention to governing.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to be political.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll leave it there.