Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Day Of Epiphany From Author Jerome J Bourgault History Isn't Gone Forever
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I don't know if you've been there or not, but
- 0:01Speaker 1: it's aero dot net. That's the place where people are
- 0:03Speaker 1: hanging right now. A r r oe dot net. If
- 0:06Speaker 1: you love your sports, your movies, your books, your music,
- 0:09Speaker 1: whatever there is when it comes to content in the world,
- 0:12Speaker 1: it's twenty different podcasts that puts focus on your path
- 0:16Speaker 1: and where you want to grow as a listener. Ero
- 0:19Speaker 1: dot Net, a r r oe dot Net. Enjoy your exploration. Dude,
- 0:24Speaker 1: you got to be well after putting a book like
- 0:26Speaker 1: this out there, My god, this is like cleansing the
- 0:28Speaker 1: soul and opening up the door for other people to
- 0:30Speaker 1: peek into it. And oh my god, yeah who.
- 0:34Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah yeah, And it's it's really gratifying because it
- 0:38Speaker 2: you know, you you know, you spend so much time
- 0:42Speaker 2: working on a project like this and it's inside to
- 0:44Speaker 2: the whole time, right and you want to get it out,
- 0:46Speaker 2: and you want to get it out, and finding you
- 0:48Speaker 2: get it out and they okay, so it's out. Then
- 0:50Speaker 2: what you know, And now there's like, in the space
- 0:53Speaker 2: of six months, I've had, you know, two pretty major
- 0:57Speaker 2: awards and and all of a sudden, they hey and
- 1:00Speaker 2: this is like people are hearing it and hearing it
- 1:03Speaker 2: and reading the story that I haven't asked them to
- 1:05Speaker 2: read it. You know what I mean, goes beyond your mom,
- 1:07Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Oh, it does. And I think it's one of those
- 1:10Speaker 1: stories that people want to tap into because they do
- 1:13Speaker 1: want to know, because we all have our own versions
- 1:15Speaker 1: of stories. And what you're doing is you're giving us
- 1:18Speaker 1: something tangible to hold on to.
- 1:20Speaker 2: Here. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think so this
- 1:23Speaker 2: is you know, it is it's based on actual events
- 1:28Speaker 2: there and it's people that you know, it's it's like
- 1:32Speaker 2: kind of stuff that happened to your parents' generation sort
- 1:35Speaker 2: of thing, and of so many people are still alive
- 1:37Speaker 2: because it still around to tell these stories, but they're
- 1:41Speaker 2: dying off, you know. I mean, the central character in
- 1:44Speaker 2: this book is about my mom's age. My mom's about
- 1:48Speaker 2: to turn ninety eight. Wow, she's sharp as attack, she's
- 1:53Speaker 2: a bright one. But you know, and a lot of
- 1:57Speaker 2: these people that didn't you know, a lot of them
- 1:58Speaker 2: haven't survived all this time and so on. So it's
- 2:01Speaker 2: a story that needs to be told. You know, the
- 2:04Speaker 2: before's all completely forgotten.
- 2:05Speaker 3: See.
- 2:05Speaker 1: I love the idea that you're doing that because you
- 2:07Speaker 1: can take down statues, you can take down plaques on
- 2:10Speaker 1: a wall, but you cannot take away that the voice
- 2:13Speaker 1: of the author or the writer, especially the historian, because
- 2:16Speaker 1: we love to dig in.
- 2:20Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think that's what's needed.
- 2:23Speaker 2: And funny, I was just listening last night to John
- 2:28Speaker 2: Stewart YEA on his podcast, and he was talking to
- 2:31Speaker 2: a couple of historians. We're saying exactly what you're saying.
- 2:34Speaker 2: You know, it's like people, you know, these stories are
- 2:37Speaker 2: going to live on, you know, but you know, with
- 2:42Speaker 2: with with that little bit of help, you know, keep them,
- 2:44Speaker 2: keep that fire going a little bit. Say hey, you
- 2:46Speaker 2: know what, not all the history is great, Not all
- 2:49Speaker 2: this history is good news, but it's history, and you know,
- 2:52Speaker 2: it tells us who we are, and it gives you
- 2:54Speaker 2: that complete picture and it's vital, you know, especially you
- 2:59Speaker 2: know tom nowadays time you know what am I trying
- 3:04Speaker 2: to say here? The attention spans are getting short, right, you.
- 3:09Speaker 1: Know, Well this comes at such a great time because
- 3:11Speaker 1: it does open up our eyes into the avenues of
- 3:14Speaker 1: how we can easily forgive. Because I'm gonna tell you what,
- 3:16Speaker 1: what really went through my mind. There's so many things
- 3:18Speaker 1: that go through my mind inside this book. The most
- 3:21Speaker 1: recent one would be the gentleman that was busted and
- 3:24Speaker 1: sent to prison for life because of the mass murderers
- 3:27Speaker 1: that he that he did. He had he was a
- 3:28Speaker 1: serial killer, and he kind of looks down. He thought, well,
- 3:30Speaker 1: I guess I was bad. And oh really, now look
- 3:33Speaker 1: at this story. It's almost like the same thing. Oh,
- 3:35Speaker 1: I guess we did something wrong between nineteen forty four
- 3:38Speaker 1: and fifty nine. Oh really, Oh my god. And it's
- 3:41Speaker 1: taking us your room to bring it back up again.
- 3:43Speaker 1: Oh really, Well, and that's what I love about this.
- 3:48Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's a you know, although I mean it's
- 3:51Speaker 2: also something that you know, to give credit to the
- 3:56Speaker 2: people of Quebec. They haven't forgotten the story good. And
- 3:59Speaker 2: it was funny too, because I was I was here,
- 4:01Speaker 2: I was, you know, I was writing this story. I'm
- 4:03Speaker 2: talking to my daughter, you know, and you know, dadsplaining
- 4:07Speaker 2: this whole thing to her, you know, and she stops
- 4:09Speaker 2: and goes, oh, dad, I know all about this. I
- 4:12Speaker 2: go really, yeah, yeah, we took it in high school.
- 4:14Speaker 3: You know.
- 4:14Speaker 2: She went to high school in Quebec. They taught this.
- 4:16Speaker 2: Not only did they, she went to a Catholic School
- 4:20Speaker 2: in Quebec and they got in front of it and
- 4:23Speaker 2: they said, yes, this happened, this happened on our watch
- 4:27Speaker 2: kind of thing. So I'm proud of that. But the
- 4:30Speaker 2: story never got out really outside into the English speaking world,
- 4:33Speaker 2: not so much. I don't got forgotten. And then Yad
- 4:36Speaker 2: does the language barrier as well, you know, So I'm
- 4:39Speaker 2: happy to bring that out and to tell people, Hey,
- 4:41Speaker 2: because I told people about this story, no one had
- 4:43Speaker 2: heard about it. No my English speaking friends knew about it.
- 4:46Speaker 1: Wow. You know, you bring up a very interesting point
- 4:49Speaker 1: here that I'm sure is going to be one of
- 4:50Speaker 1: the attractions when people come into the Barnes and Noble
- 4:52Speaker 1: or go to Amazon to find it, and that is
- 4:54Speaker 1: is that did God have a hand in the darkness? Now, now,
- 4:57Speaker 1: being a strong Christian, that we're yeah, well there's a
- 5:00Speaker 1: possibility because we're supposed to learn a lesson here, and
- 5:03Speaker 1: so you just kind of sit back going okay, yeah, okay,
- 5:06Speaker 1: what do you want me to learn, big guy up
- 5:08Speaker 1: there in the sky. And so that and I swear
- 5:10Speaker 1: that's the vision that I haven't going into this story.
- 5:12Speaker 1: What am I supposed to learn from this? So that
- 5:15Speaker 1: it does not happen again.
- 5:19Speaker 2: Well, I think it's you know, this is the crisis
- 5:23Speaker 2: that my central character goes through. Yes, you know, she's young,
- 5:28Speaker 2: and she's got dealistic and she's intelligent, and she's well
- 5:31Speaker 2: a sick kid, and she's living. She adores her kids
- 5:34Speaker 2: or the orphans that she teaches, and and and you know,
- 5:39Speaker 2: and she's all her life, you know, she's been devoted
- 5:41Speaker 2: and she she's she she signs up, right, she she
- 5:45Speaker 2: joins a religious order. Uh and uh and there there
- 5:49Speaker 2: there their mandate is to you know, educate. Then this
- 5:54Speaker 2: terrible thingting, the terrible switch happens, and this happens. These
- 5:58Speaker 2: are people in These are people in power who've got this.
- 6:02Speaker 2: And it doesn't matter whether they represent a church or
- 6:05Speaker 2: a government. They're people with ambition, the people who want influence.
- 6:12Speaker 2: And who are these children to them? Right? They look
- 6:16Speaker 2: upon these kids here to me in mine, this is
- 6:18Speaker 2: like nineteen this is the nineteen fifty. Yeah, and these
- 6:21Speaker 2: are children children who are conceived in sin because for
- 6:24Speaker 2: the most part, for these orphans, orphanages were populated by
- 6:30Speaker 2: the children of unmarried parents, right, yeah, And so the
- 6:34Speaker 2: parents are the moms, these young moms. We were like
- 6:37Speaker 2: seventeen eighteen year old moms who were were who were
- 6:40Speaker 2: pressured into relinquishing custody of their children to the church
- 6:45Speaker 2: right as a wave of atoning for their terrible sin
- 6:48Speaker 2: of the stake of youth. So the kids are brought
- 6:51Speaker 2: up in this in this environment, and and and so
- 6:57Speaker 2: the nuns who were who are there to take care
- 6:59Speaker 2: of them, uh you know, are are are told all this,
- 7:03Speaker 2: and they kind of bought into it. And then they
- 7:06Speaker 2: see the results of these of the of these actions,
- 7:09Speaker 2: and you know that that all of a sudden, the government,
- 7:12Speaker 2: oh well, you know, we can double the subsidy we
- 7:15Speaker 2: get from the federal government per child per day. And
- 7:18Speaker 2: all we have to do is to reclassify these kids
- 7:23Speaker 2: as make the orphanage's mental hospitals. This happened, and it
- 7:31Speaker 2: happened at the stroke of a pen, you know. And
- 7:34Speaker 2: so yeah, and so these kids have got absolutely no
- 7:40Speaker 2: rights under the law the wards of the state. And
- 7:44Speaker 2: you you're they're okay, well, you know, you know, you
- 7:47Speaker 2: can do kind of with them what you want. You know,
- 7:49Speaker 2: you can experiment them because they're patients now, right, they're
- 7:53Speaker 2: mental patients, so you you try things on them, experimental
- 7:56Speaker 2: drugs and therapies and electroconvulsive shock therapy and straightjack. Because
- 8:00Speaker 2: these are kids, they're little children, you know. So yeah,
- 8:05Speaker 2: it's a horror.
- 8:06Speaker 3: And so here's this young woman who's seeing all this,
- 8:08Speaker 3: and she sees these children as children, and she loves
- 8:11Speaker 3: them deeply, and she's going like and she sees her
- 8:14Speaker 3: part of this system, which in fact she used, you know,
- 8:18Speaker 3: and and she can't she can't reconcile what she's seeing
- 8:23Speaker 3: and the actions that are being taken with the vow
- 8:26Speaker 3: that she's taken.
- 8:28Speaker 2: And that's what her conflict is. And it's kind of
- 8:30Speaker 2: a question of lifting the curtain, you know, seeing seeing
- 8:33Speaker 2: the seeing what's going on behind the curtain.
- 8:35Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Jerome J. Borgo
- 8:38Speaker 1: coming up next, the name of his book Day of Infany.
- 8:44Speaker 1: We are back with author Jerome Jay Borgo. You know
- 8:48Speaker 1: this is going on all over the world even today,
- 8:50Speaker 1: right you know in your heart the reason why you
- 8:53Speaker 1: were probably called to bring this story forward was because
- 8:57Speaker 1: it is happening today. It is history. Repeat, I've seen
- 9:01Speaker 1: it right here in Carolina and reading this book, I
- 9:04Speaker 1: really feel like it's like, oh my god, because you know,
- 9:06Speaker 1: you talked about parents and things and what they went through. Well,
- 9:10Speaker 1: the fact of the matter is sure this was back
- 9:12Speaker 1: there in nineteen forty four to nineteen fifty nine, it
- 9:14Speaker 1: doesn't matter. It still affects the child today that could
- 9:17Speaker 1: be the grandchild or the great grandchild. And that's what
- 9:20Speaker 1: I love about this story, Jerome, is that you're bringing
- 9:22Speaker 1: us a story, but it's a story that is based
- 9:25Speaker 1: on truth, and it's happening in our world even today.
- 9:30Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, let me think you a couple of things,
- 9:33Speaker 2: you know, you know, and it's a term that it's
- 9:37Speaker 2: kind of finally we're hearing it more and more of
- 9:40Speaker 2: these days. Wish it had gotten into the vernacular decades ago.
- 9:44Speaker 2: Generational trauma. Oh yeah, right, yeah, you know. I mean,
- 9:49Speaker 2: the only other book that I have read in English
- 9:52Speaker 2: about this, This is the only other novel I have
- 9:55Speaker 2: ever read about this, this incident from an English speaker
- 9:58Speaker 2: was actually a the daughter of a survivor. O god right,
- 10:04Speaker 2: and and she wrote about it's an excellent book and
- 10:06Speaker 2: I really recommended. Her name is Joanna Goodman, and it's
- 10:09Speaker 2: the I think it's called The School for Unwanted Girls.
- 10:12Speaker 2: I think that's the title of it. I get but
- 10:14Speaker 2: I get that wrong. But so so there's that. You know,
- 10:18Speaker 2: so these injuries live on in the besides you know,
- 10:22Speaker 2: the the you know, they they they got to say,
- 10:24Speaker 2: they get out of the orphanages and in their late
- 10:26Speaker 2: teens or something, you know, and they well they have
- 10:30Speaker 2: they do would have children and living in pretty terrible
- 10:34Speaker 2: conditions because these when they got out of the orphanages,
- 10:37Speaker 2: they had very preciful education.
- 10:39Speaker 3: Uh.
- 10:39Speaker 2: They also they suffered from all kinds of physical injuries.
- 10:44Speaker 2: They suffered from, uh depression, many of them developed substance abuses,
- 10:49Speaker 2: low or underemployment or unemployment. There are a lot of suicides.
- 10:54Speaker 2: So that the children of this generation are what are
- 10:59Speaker 2: their odds? Right?
- 11:00Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. So how did you even deal
- 11:04Speaker 1: with this psychologically? Because when you dig into truth like this,
- 11:07Speaker 1: and I know that you're putting it in story form,
- 11:10Speaker 1: you still have to limit yourself. Jerome, you lived this
- 11:13Speaker 1: because you were called back to it.
- 11:16Speaker 2: Yeah oh yeah, oh yeah, and uh oh I get
- 11:20Speaker 2: that question a lot. I get yeah, and you know
- 11:23Speaker 2: they give you nightmares hell yeah, yeah, you know, you
- 11:28Speaker 2: know you write some of the passes that I wrote,
- 11:30Speaker 2: it's like, you know, one I glue this, and you know,
- 11:35Speaker 2: and you're reading about it and you go no, yeah,
- 11:38Speaker 2: and then you hear you hear these these episodes, right,
- 11:42Speaker 2: these descriptions of something happened. You written one source and
- 11:45Speaker 2: you go to another source and it's repeated, different language,
- 11:48Speaker 2: but everything. Oh my god, Okay, so this is real.
- 11:50Speaker 2: So I made a very deliberate choice, and I was writing, now,
- 11:53Speaker 2: I'm not making up anything. Every single description of an
- 11:58Speaker 2: instance of abuse or injured whatever came from uh reports
- 12:04Speaker 2: from survivors.
- 12:06Speaker 1: So is sister Cassandra a real person?
- 12:10Speaker 2: Not really, No, she's a you make her feel.
- 12:14Speaker 1: Oh my god, I was, you know, I really felt
- 12:16Speaker 1: it well in my heart, in my eyes touching that page.
- 12:20Speaker 1: She is a real person because that's the way. That's
- 12:23Speaker 1: how much I believe in what you put on that page.
- 12:26Speaker 1: That as a writer. And the greatest thing about what
- 12:29Speaker 1: you do is you don't sound like a journalist. You
- 12:32Speaker 1: really sound like it's one of those where it's like,
- 12:34Speaker 1: by the way, can you come here for a second.
- 12:35Speaker 1: I got a story to share, And that's exactly what
- 12:37Speaker 1: you do here, dude, is that you you share the
- 12:40Speaker 1: story with us.
- 12:43Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot with it too. Cassandra, she,
- 12:48Speaker 2: I'll be honest, she was inspired by my own mom
- 12:51Speaker 2: and I said, she's about the same age my mom.
- 12:55Speaker 2: Uh was the second oldest subjective in Jordan. Her mom
- 13:01Speaker 2: would have loved for my mom to be a nun
- 13:04Speaker 2: My grandmother would have been thrilled about that. My mom
- 13:07Speaker 2: a different idea and she give a nurse. But some
- 13:13Speaker 2: of the episodes that some of the descriptions there are
- 13:16Speaker 2: from my mom's life. My mom was a very very bright,
- 13:19Speaker 2: very very bright lady. She is still uh and uh,
- 13:24Speaker 2: you know she she graduated like summa cum lati in
- 13:27Speaker 2: her nursing. Yeah, she was a brilliant she she wrote
- 13:32Speaker 2: she you know, she would read her her prize winning
- 13:35Speaker 2: essays on the local radio station you know where she
- 13:38Speaker 2: grew up. And she was a tiny thing. Uh, you know,
- 13:42Speaker 2: but very very caring, very compassionate. So and currently is
- 13:50Speaker 2: of of Cassandra's family kind of reflects to a degree
- 13:53Speaker 2: of my mom's. So there's there is a lot of
- 13:56Speaker 2: truth in that in those little anecdotes on the tide,
- 14:00Speaker 2: those descriptions, those are real.
- 14:01Speaker 1: So now when you put this into a moving picture way,
- 14:06Speaker 1: are you going to do a twelve part binge watch,
- 14:08Speaker 1: and if you do, I got to ask you a question.
- 14:11Speaker 1: You being up there in Canada, I love the way
- 14:13Speaker 1: that your director's, producers and writers really take their time
- 14:17Speaker 1: in sharing an authentic story. It's not a rush rush scene.
- 14:21Speaker 1: I mean, I hope that when you decide that you're
- 14:23Speaker 1: gonna put this in a binge watch or a movie,
- 14:25Speaker 1: you're going to take your time so we can really
- 14:29Speaker 1: feel the entire emotion.
- 14:31Speaker 2: Yeah, I love you man. You know, you cap the
- 14:38Speaker 2: perfect mean because you know, there is not an author
- 14:41Speaker 2: on the planet who doesn't think that their work would
- 14:44Speaker 2: make a brilliant you know, movie or or or TV
- 14:48Speaker 2: you know series, and so it's pushed on this, I
- 14:51Speaker 2: will say, yeah, yeah, I see this as like a
- 14:54Speaker 2: you know, six part oh yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. And
- 15:00Speaker 2: I had you know, I had ideas about, not necessarily
- 15:03Speaker 2: the casting, but I certainly had an idea about direction.
- 15:09Speaker 2: You know, go go a couple of ways, you know,
- 15:12Speaker 2: if you want something really kind of big and atmospheric.
- 15:14Speaker 2: And you know, I was thinking, oh, well, David Finch
- 15:16Speaker 2: would be really cool. But then you know, in the
- 15:21Speaker 2: back of my mind, no, I need somebody else. First
- 15:23Speaker 2: of all, I need a woman, Yes, and a Canadian
- 15:26Speaker 2: woman who is who is a master of stories, and
- 15:30Speaker 2: that would be Sarah Pauley. Sarah, if you're out there listening.
- 15:33Speaker 1: To this Oscar winner, yep.
- 15:37Speaker 2: You know, you know, give me a call, you know,
- 15:43Speaker 2: because she would, she would bring this to life, she would,
- 15:46Speaker 2: and she would make it so humane and so compelling. Uh,
- 15:51Speaker 2: that would be that she would be my number one choice.
- 15:54Speaker 1: I think the reason why I brought that up was
- 15:56Speaker 1: one hundred percent based on what I was doing for
- 15:58Speaker 1: research yesterday, and that was his that stories that are
- 16:01Speaker 1: working right now are not necessarily about the crime. It's
- 16:04Speaker 1: about the survival afterwards. And and you can't help but
- 16:08Speaker 1: think about that when you're when you're reading Day of Infamy,
- 16:11Speaker 1: that that you're sitting there going, Okay, he's now presented
- 16:13Speaker 1: what has happened now, the human side on the other
- 16:16Speaker 1: side of the of the tracks basically, And that's that's
- 16:18Speaker 1: what I love it. You have totally set yourself up
- 16:21Speaker 1: for something that is totally in tune with where we
- 16:23Speaker 1: are as readers.
- 16:26Speaker 2: I hope, so, I hope. So that's you know, I
- 16:28Speaker 2: just felt so compelling this story the more I researched it.
- 16:33Speaker 2: You know, I was getting the hair in the back
- 16:36Speaker 2: of my neck danding, you know, and and I was like, no, this,
- 16:40Speaker 2: this has to be told. And you know, I summoned.
- 16:43Speaker 2: You know, I have a background in theater. I was
- 16:47Speaker 2: an acra for a while, so I kind of learned
- 16:51Speaker 2: about atmosphere. I've learned about dialogue and and so this
- 16:59Speaker 2: when I wrote this, this is visual. This was a
- 17:01Speaker 2: movie I was playing in my head. I can see
- 17:03Speaker 2: it over and over again. Yeah. So it's like you
- 17:06Speaker 2: walk into this church and there's a boom reverber right,
- 17:12Speaker 2: the can hear the footsteps on the hard floor and
- 17:15Speaker 2: you look at it dimly lit, and they're like four
- 17:17Speaker 2: or five people sitting in the pews, you know, waiting
- 17:19Speaker 2: for the parish priests to come in to take confession.
- 17:23Speaker 2: You know, that was a visual and it went from
- 17:28Speaker 2: top from the beginning to end. You know, I was
- 17:31Speaker 2: watching this movie unfold and before my eyes, just trying
- 17:35Speaker 2: to keep up. Oh, not surprising, it's just me less
- 17:38Speaker 2: than less than a year to write it.
- 17:40Speaker 1: Still still people don't understand the time that we put
- 17:43Speaker 1: into into making a book. So where can people go
- 17:46Speaker 1: to find out more about you? Because twenty minutes with
- 17:49Speaker 1: you Jerome is never going to be enough time. So A,
- 17:51Speaker 1: you got to come back to the show, and B
- 17:54Speaker 1: I want people to know where you are.
- 17:57Speaker 2: Awesome, awesome, Okay. The best thing to find out about
- 18:02Speaker 2: me is my website. And I don't know if you're
- 18:07Speaker 2: gonna have it posted someplace because it's my name in
- 18:11Speaker 2: full dot com, but it's Jerome J. E R O
- 18:15Speaker 2: M E J B O U R G A U
- 18:21Speaker 2: l T Jerome Jborgo dot com. That's my website. It
- 18:27Speaker 2: has uh information on both of my novels. There the
- 18:31Speaker 2: books available through Amazon. The book is also available through
- 18:34Speaker 2: Barnes and Noble Online.
- 18:37Speaker 1: Wow, you've got to come back to this show anytime
- 18:39Speaker 1: in the future.
- 18:40Speaker 2: Love to man, I love to please do Will you.
- 18:43Speaker 1: Be brilliant today? Okay, sir, thank.
- 18:46Speaker 2: You so much. Have a good one.