1
00:00:07,839 --> 00:00:10,480
Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here.

2
00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:12,500
Thanks for listening to another episode

3
00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:14,419
of Hey, Human podcast.

4
00:00:16,375 --> 00:00:17,355
This is episode

5
00:00:18,054 --> 00:00:20,614
430 4, and my guest is doctor Robert

6
00:00:20,614 --> 00:00:23,494
Marban. You might remember Robert from episode 410

7
00:00:23,494 --> 00:00:26,695
with Billy Baldwin. Robert's a renowned expert on

8
00:00:26,695 --> 00:00:29,980
homelessness and a senior fellow of Discovery Institute

9
00:00:29,980 --> 00:00:32,380
Center on Wealth and Poverty. He's got a

10
00:00:32,380 --> 00:00:36,159
PhD in political behavior and American political institutions,

11
00:00:36,859 --> 00:00:39,280
and his career has been marked by bipartisanship,

12
00:00:39,740 --> 00:00:43,120
having served as house fellow under George

13
00:00:43,505 --> 00:00:46,245
h w Bush, and most recently as executive

14
00:00:46,625 --> 00:00:49,685
director of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness

15
00:00:49,825 --> 00:00:51,604
from 2019 to 2021

16
00:00:52,465 --> 00:00:54,804
under both the Trump and Biden administrations.

17
00:00:55,739 --> 00:00:57,820
Additionally, he served on the board of directors

18
00:00:57,820 --> 00:01:00,640
of the United States Olympic Committee from 1992

19
00:01:01,500 --> 00:01:02,320
to 2004,

20
00:01:03,339 --> 00:01:05,280
and he produced the excellent

21
00:01:05,579 --> 00:01:07,599
documentary Americans with No Address,

22
00:01:08,084 --> 00:01:10,325
and he's an executive producer on the film

23
00:01:10,325 --> 00:01:12,645
no address, which, by the way, also stars

24
00:01:12,645 --> 00:01:13,465
Billy Baldwin.

25
00:01:14,005 --> 00:01:17,224
He's currently been tasked with tackling the fentanyl

26
00:01:17,444 --> 00:01:17,944
crisis,

27
00:01:18,245 --> 00:01:20,245
and he is the executive producer of the

28
00:01:20,245 --> 00:01:22,584
documentary Fentanyl Death Incorporated.

29
00:01:23,310 --> 00:01:25,649
He's a brilliant man and a friend

30
00:01:26,269 --> 00:01:26,769
and

31
00:01:27,069 --> 00:01:29,729
was very gracious to give me his time

32
00:01:29,869 --> 00:01:31,329
because he's probably

33
00:01:31,789 --> 00:01:34,049
one of the busiest people I've ever met.

34
00:01:34,189 --> 00:01:35,009
He's constantly

35
00:01:35,869 --> 00:01:37,489
going all over the place,

36
00:01:37,975 --> 00:01:39,355
trying to make the world better.

37
00:01:40,055 --> 00:01:41,674
It's a in-depth conversation.

38
00:01:42,055 --> 00:01:44,055
He's gonna be on on the show twice,

39
00:01:44,055 --> 00:01:46,555
so this one, we focus on the homelessness

40
00:01:46,935 --> 00:01:47,435
issue,

41
00:01:47,814 --> 00:01:49,495
and I'm gonna have him come on the

42
00:01:49,495 --> 00:01:51,755
show again to talk about his work

43
00:01:52,290 --> 00:01:53,189
regarding fentanyl

44
00:01:53,569 --> 00:01:54,869
and the horrific

45
00:01:56,049 --> 00:01:57,989
toll it has taken on this country.

46
00:01:58,769 --> 00:02:01,030
Alright. Well, other stuff,

47
00:02:02,049 --> 00:02:04,129
check out Hey Human Podcast for links and

48
00:02:04,129 --> 00:02:05,729
to learn more about my guests and the

49
00:02:05,729 --> 00:02:06,229
show.

50
00:02:06,605 --> 00:02:09,585
Hey Human Podcast is on YouTube under official

51
00:02:09,724 --> 00:02:12,305
Susan Ruth. I'm on Patreon at susanruthism.

52
00:02:12,764 --> 00:02:15,025
My TikTok and Instagram is susanruthism.

53
00:02:15,885 --> 00:02:16,944
Check out susanruth.com

54
00:02:17,724 --> 00:02:19,645
to learn more about me and my other

55
00:02:19,645 --> 00:02:20,625
artistic endeavors,

56
00:02:21,129 --> 00:02:23,930
and find my albums on Spotify, Apple Music,

57
00:02:23,930 --> 00:02:26,590
Amazon Music, or wherever you get your music.

58
00:02:26,889 --> 00:02:29,849
Rate, review, and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast

59
00:02:29,849 --> 00:02:32,270
on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts,

60
00:02:32,490 --> 00:02:35,034
and thank you for listening. Be well, be

61
00:02:35,034 --> 00:02:36,414
kind, be love.

62
00:02:36,955 --> 00:02:37,854
Here we go.

63
00:02:39,435 --> 00:02:39,935
Hi.

64
00:02:40,314 --> 00:02:40,814
Hello.

65
00:02:41,435 --> 00:02:43,134
Do you want me to put your initial

66
00:02:43,514 --> 00:02:45,435
in between your first and last name, or

67
00:02:45,435 --> 00:02:47,914
is there Yeah. So I I normally go

68
00:02:47,914 --> 00:02:49,050
doctor Robert

69
00:02:49,449 --> 00:02:52,409
g Marbit junior, no commas. We were talking

70
00:02:52,409 --> 00:02:54,330
on the set. They called and said, why

71
00:02:54,330 --> 00:02:55,689
do you not ever let us put a

72
00:02:55,689 --> 00:02:56,750
comma on anything?

73
00:02:57,210 --> 00:02:58,889
I said, do I have to get take

74
00:02:58,889 --> 00:03:01,210
everybody you know, I'm a my day job's

75
00:03:01,210 --> 00:03:02,650
I'm a professor. I said, do I have

76
00:03:02,650 --> 00:03:04,944
to everybody do a little tutorial in Kate

77
00:03:04,944 --> 00:03:07,044
Turabian and use some punctuation marks?

78
00:03:07,504 --> 00:03:09,125
And they're laughing and they go,

79
00:03:09,504 --> 00:03:11,604
okay. We're game. What? What?

80
00:03:11,905 --> 00:03:13,824
And I go, when you do a pun

81
00:03:13,985 --> 00:03:15,824
when you do a comma, it means it's

82
00:03:15,824 --> 00:03:18,145
a parenthetic phrase and it's an add on

83
00:03:18,145 --> 00:03:20,719
it. It, it ultimately can be dropped to

84
00:03:20,719 --> 00:03:23,360
not change the substance at all. So if

85
00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:24,900
you have a senior, junior,

86
00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:26,659
and a third, hypothetically,

87
00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:29,780
the junior matters a lot because it separates

88
00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:31,599
you from 2 other people. And so it's

89
00:03:31,599 --> 00:03:34,115
not a parenthetic phrase, and it's an incorrect

90
00:03:34,115 --> 00:03:35,955
use of the comma. And then they're, like,

91
00:03:35,955 --> 00:03:37,094
looking at me like,

92
00:03:37,395 --> 00:03:39,495
good thing I'm not in your government class.

93
00:03:39,794 --> 00:03:42,194
Well, it's interesting because that's how I've always

94
00:03:42,194 --> 00:03:45,074
seen it written. Yeah. It's incorrect. And if

95
00:03:45,074 --> 00:03:47,430
you go look at your Kate Turabian style

96
00:03:47,430 --> 00:03:49,189
guide, I mean, I should give everyone for

97
00:03:49,189 --> 00:03:49,689
Christmas.

98
00:03:51,269 --> 00:03:53,269
My best friend, Ellen, who does,

99
00:03:53,830 --> 00:03:56,389
very kindly helps me with the the posters

100
00:03:56,389 --> 00:03:58,009
for the post on the show.

101
00:03:58,469 --> 00:03:59,909
She I I put the stuff in and

102
00:03:59,909 --> 00:04:01,694
then she makes it look pretty. I think

103
00:04:01,694 --> 00:04:03,775
she will geek out on the last minute

104
00:04:03,775 --> 00:04:05,294
and a half of that because that seems

105
00:04:05,294 --> 00:04:07,294
like something she would absolutely Show it to

106
00:04:07,294 --> 00:04:09,775
her. Yeah. It's very funny. But but it's

107
00:04:09,775 --> 00:04:11,854
a true thing. You should never ever use

108
00:04:11,854 --> 00:04:12,514
a comma.

109
00:04:13,055 --> 00:04:14,814
And if you're using a comma, that means

110
00:04:14,814 --> 00:04:17,449
it's not necessary. So get so drop junior

111
00:04:18,230 --> 00:04:20,230
PhD, whatever it is, drop all that at

112
00:04:20,230 --> 00:04:21,910
the end. And everybody says, no, no, no,

113
00:04:21,910 --> 00:04:23,750
it's important. I said, then it's not a

114
00:04:23,750 --> 00:04:25,189
cut. It's not a parent that a phrase

115
00:04:25,189 --> 00:04:27,430
is actually a substantive phrase. And so you

116
00:04:27,430 --> 00:04:29,670
shouldn't have a comma. And so, I mean,

117
00:04:29,670 --> 00:04:31,269
I, do you know what I love about

118
00:04:31,269 --> 00:04:33,985
life is that it you learn something new

119
00:04:33,985 --> 00:04:34,485
every

120
00:04:36,384 --> 00:04:38,384
day, which is good. Well, let's get into

121
00:04:38,384 --> 00:04:39,125
it. Doctor

122
00:04:39,584 --> 00:04:40,884
Robert g Marbit

123
00:04:41,185 --> 00:04:42,884
junior, no comma.

124
00:04:43,264 --> 00:04:44,964
Welcome to Hey Human.

125
00:04:45,729 --> 00:04:48,069
Well, thanks very much for having us. Appreciate

126
00:04:48,610 --> 00:04:50,310
it. You're hogging all the letters.

127
00:04:53,250 --> 00:04:55,009
It's the old adage. You want to have

128
00:04:55,009 --> 00:04:57,009
the longest name so everybody can see you

129
00:04:57,009 --> 00:04:58,814
on the voting ballot. So you're the one

130
00:04:58,814 --> 00:05:00,115
that sticks way out.

131
00:05:00,415 --> 00:05:02,334
Yeah. It takes 2 business cards to tell

132
00:05:02,334 --> 00:05:04,194
people who you are. Yeah. Exactly.

133
00:05:04,975 --> 00:05:07,935
Well, welcome to the show. I generally like

134
00:05:07,935 --> 00:05:09,235
to dive in

135
00:05:09,694 --> 00:05:12,120
by asking my guests, you included,

136
00:05:12,980 --> 00:05:15,220
where you grew up, what shaped you and

137
00:05:15,220 --> 00:05:16,920
influenced you within your family

138
00:05:17,459 --> 00:05:19,560
to create the the you you are now.

139
00:05:19,620 --> 00:05:21,160
I grew up a lot in

140
00:05:21,540 --> 00:05:24,225
South Georgia and mid Georgia. I was born

141
00:05:24,225 --> 00:05:26,704
in Savannah, Georgia. And and even when we

142
00:05:26,704 --> 00:05:27,524
moved away,

143
00:05:27,904 --> 00:05:29,044
we moved to,

144
00:05:29,504 --> 00:05:31,845
via Boston and and and Louisiana,

145
00:05:32,225 --> 00:05:34,644
Baton Rouge, out out to Southern California.

146
00:05:35,264 --> 00:05:38,160
And so I my real formative years

147
00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:40,980
were were in Los Angeles and San Diego,

148
00:05:41,759 --> 00:05:44,160
and, like, that's where I just really, you

149
00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:44,660
know,

150
00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:47,379
started realizing things and learning things

151
00:05:47,759 --> 00:05:49,839
and such. But I spent a lot of

152
00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:50,339
times,

153
00:05:51,014 --> 00:05:52,535
I was the only of my sibling. I

154
00:05:52,535 --> 00:05:54,375
guess I was always in so much trouble.

155
00:05:54,375 --> 00:05:56,455
My parents shipped me back to Georgia. I

156
00:05:56,455 --> 00:05:58,774
I remember 1 year I got into so

157
00:05:58,774 --> 00:06:01,814
much trouble. They took me from school straight

158
00:06:01,814 --> 00:06:03,930
to the airport to and I was always

159
00:06:03,930 --> 00:06:06,490
in Georgia for, like, 90 days during the

160
00:06:06,490 --> 00:06:08,730
summer. My my siblings never came. I was

161
00:06:08,730 --> 00:06:10,650
like, what? Found out later what you caused

162
00:06:10,650 --> 00:06:12,170
us so much trouble when it was their

163
00:06:12,170 --> 00:06:12,670
vacation

164
00:06:13,210 --> 00:06:15,370
that they were creating by shipping me to

165
00:06:15,370 --> 00:06:15,870
Georgia.

166
00:06:16,354 --> 00:06:18,375
What kind of trouble were you getting into?

167
00:06:18,435 --> 00:06:20,354
Oh, I got in so much trouble. I

168
00:06:20,354 --> 00:06:22,675
I I got in so much trouble. And,

169
00:06:23,555 --> 00:06:26,514
and and it was interesting. Because of that,

170
00:06:26,514 --> 00:06:28,290
I spent a lot of time with my

171
00:06:28,370 --> 00:06:29,189
4 grandparents,

172
00:06:29,490 --> 00:06:31,410
a lot of time, and and also with

173
00:06:31,410 --> 00:06:34,290
another aunt who, when I first met her,

174
00:06:34,290 --> 00:06:36,310
I think she was already 80 years old.

175
00:06:36,930 --> 00:06:40,230
And my 4 grandparents, all 4 of them

176
00:06:40,610 --> 00:06:43,509
were were so much into public service,

177
00:06:44,754 --> 00:06:47,175
and and 3 of my grandparents in particular

178
00:06:47,475 --> 00:06:49,875
were were that was their whole life. Like,

179
00:06:49,875 --> 00:06:51,495
they they were driven by

180
00:06:51,875 --> 00:06:53,814
whether it was community service

181
00:06:54,194 --> 00:06:55,894
or helping in the academia

182
00:06:56,194 --> 00:06:56,694
world

183
00:06:57,329 --> 00:06:57,829
or,

184
00:06:58,129 --> 00:06:58,850
sort of,

185
00:06:59,569 --> 00:07:02,370
applied faith, you know, and helping people, you

186
00:07:02,370 --> 00:07:05,110
know, race issues were huge at that time.

187
00:07:05,569 --> 00:07:06,870
And in South Georgia,

188
00:07:07,410 --> 00:07:09,855
they were very involved on all those. And

189
00:07:09,855 --> 00:07:12,495
and that probably brushed off on me more

190
00:07:12,495 --> 00:07:15,154
than anything is the call to community service.

191
00:07:15,214 --> 00:07:17,954
Not everybody gets the call for community service.

192
00:07:18,095 --> 00:07:20,334
I get that. I wish everybody did because

193
00:07:20,334 --> 00:07:22,254
the planet would be much better off if

194
00:07:22,254 --> 00:07:23,795
everybody was doing something.

195
00:07:24,410 --> 00:07:26,110
One person can't do everything,

196
00:07:26,410 --> 00:07:28,029
but everybody can do something.

197
00:07:28,730 --> 00:07:31,610
And and and so if everybody starts to

198
00:07:31,610 --> 00:07:33,709
figure out what their something is,

199
00:07:34,569 --> 00:07:35,310
that's why

200
00:07:35,689 --> 00:07:37,689
I was so attracted to the Artist For

201
00:07:37,689 --> 00:07:39,285
Change group. They were

202
00:07:40,245 --> 00:07:41,764
saying, we need to do, we need to

203
00:07:41,764 --> 00:07:43,944
make change and let's use storytelling,

204
00:07:44,324 --> 00:07:47,144
filmmaking, documentaries to, to make that.

205
00:07:47,605 --> 00:07:49,285
And when I had been working in the

206
00:07:49,285 --> 00:07:51,285
white house, I always sort of keep going

207
00:07:51,285 --> 00:07:53,509
back to my grandparents, you know, sort of

208
00:07:53,509 --> 00:07:55,350
what what are you doing? Don't do everything

209
00:07:55,350 --> 00:07:57,589
for money. Don't in fact, you shouldn't ever

210
00:07:57,589 --> 00:07:58,810
do anything for money.

211
00:07:59,430 --> 00:07:59,930
And

212
00:08:00,310 --> 00:08:01,829
and and when I was in the white

213
00:08:01,829 --> 00:08:03,029
house, I was one of the things I

214
00:08:03,029 --> 00:08:05,290
was so frustrated on moving policy.

215
00:08:05,964 --> 00:08:07,964
I realized that if I sit there and

216
00:08:07,964 --> 00:08:09,504
just try to walk out

217
00:08:10,044 --> 00:08:12,865
with 3 or 4 congressional staffer and somebody

218
00:08:13,004 --> 00:08:15,564
from Department of Justice and then somebody over

219
00:08:15,564 --> 00:08:17,164
at the White House, and we'd sort of

220
00:08:17,164 --> 00:08:18,384
walk our way through

221
00:08:19,004 --> 00:08:20,704
4 hours of data charts.

222
00:08:21,270 --> 00:08:23,750
And I get that's important. That's part of

223
00:08:23,750 --> 00:08:25,290
the deliver to process,

224
00:08:25,910 --> 00:08:27,850
but if you can't get the congressional

225
00:08:28,230 --> 00:08:31,189
people to start making change because the public

226
00:08:31,189 --> 00:08:33,509
either doesn't care of in our, my case,

227
00:08:33,509 --> 00:08:34,009
homelessness

228
00:08:35,075 --> 00:08:36,375
or cares incorrectly,

229
00:08:37,315 --> 00:08:39,554
we'll get we'll end up somewhat really bad

230
00:08:39,554 --> 00:08:41,955
policy. And so that's why I got so

231
00:08:41,955 --> 00:08:44,434
attracted to artists for change and the no

232
00:08:44,434 --> 00:08:45,495
address project

233
00:08:46,115 --> 00:08:47,095
was the ability.

234
00:08:47,850 --> 00:08:49,929
We definitely have our wonky times on the

235
00:08:49,929 --> 00:08:50,429
documentary

236
00:08:51,129 --> 00:08:53,129
and all the research that went into that

237
00:08:53,129 --> 00:08:55,450
and all, you know, we did 500 interviews.

238
00:08:55,450 --> 00:08:57,149
I think we ended up with 80

239
00:08:57,529 --> 00:09:00,269
in the documentary, 80, somewhere between 80, 85.

240
00:09:01,054 --> 00:09:03,134
And and so we we do the wonky

241
00:09:03,134 --> 00:09:03,634
stuff,

242
00:09:04,014 --> 00:09:06,735
but I really have learned after being in

243
00:09:06,735 --> 00:09:09,075
the in 3 different presidential administrations.

244
00:09:09,454 --> 00:09:12,414
If you don't really get the country thinking

245
00:09:12,414 --> 00:09:13,315
about something

246
00:09:13,919 --> 00:09:16,339
and thinking about how to think differently

247
00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:19,440
about it, you're not gonna get change. And

248
00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:21,360
and probably the most successful in the last

249
00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:24,259
50 years is Mothers Against Drinking and Driving.

250
00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:26,480
And I know that's one that everybody now,

251
00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:28,480
like, oh, mad, you know, they they they

252
00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:28,879
almost

253
00:09:29,465 --> 00:09:31,384
some people call them past their prime or

254
00:09:31,384 --> 00:09:33,644
whatever. I it it is amazing.

255
00:09:34,745 --> 00:09:36,445
Pre mad, you know, pre,

256
00:09:37,304 --> 00:09:39,404
late seventies, early eighties,

257
00:09:39,785 --> 00:09:42,665
if somebody killed somebody drinking and driving, it

258
00:09:42,665 --> 00:09:44,745
was like, oh, what a horrible accident. I'm

259
00:09:44,745 --> 00:09:45,980
like, somebody died,

260
00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:48,940
and what a horrible accident. And

261
00:09:49,320 --> 00:09:52,220
and mothers against, drunk driving come along

262
00:09:52,519 --> 00:09:54,679
and say, no. We we can't think of

263
00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:55,580
it that way.

264
00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:58,759
And and they they changed both the laws

265
00:09:58,759 --> 00:10:00,059
of the land almost

266
00:10:00,705 --> 00:10:03,425
across the country. Just just I don't wanna

267
00:10:03,425 --> 00:10:06,085
say overnight, but probably one of the fastest

268
00:10:06,465 --> 00:10:06,965
transitions

269
00:10:07,904 --> 00:10:08,404
from

270
00:10:09,105 --> 00:10:10,884
not one way the law treated

271
00:10:11,264 --> 00:10:12,945
to how it was different. One of the

272
00:10:13,105 --> 00:10:15,300
I I I know there, I could probably

273
00:10:15,300 --> 00:10:16,899
maybe come up with 1 or 2 more,

274
00:10:16,899 --> 00:10:19,720
maybe a little faster, but they, they took

275
00:10:19,940 --> 00:10:20,440
storytelling

276
00:10:21,379 --> 00:10:22,279
at the local,

277
00:10:22,899 --> 00:10:24,360
nightly news. Basically

278
00:10:24,980 --> 00:10:26,740
they didn't get a lot of national news

279
00:10:26,740 --> 00:10:28,740
till much later, and they got the laws

280
00:10:28,740 --> 00:10:29,800
of the land change,

281
00:10:30,154 --> 00:10:33,535
but they also changed the culture. They combined

282
00:10:33,595 --> 00:10:36,154
with, some, a lot of research people out

283
00:10:36,154 --> 00:10:38,894
of Sweden, both movements sort of collided.

284
00:10:39,674 --> 00:10:41,355
And they said, we're going to change our

285
00:10:41,355 --> 00:10:43,240
culture that if 3 or 4 people go

286
00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:46,200
to a party instead of everybody drinking or,

287
00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:49,080
or dry, I mean, whatever, you're not promoting

288
00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:50,679
any of this, but it, you know, whatever

289
00:10:50,679 --> 00:10:51,500
you're doing,

290
00:10:52,039 --> 00:10:54,779
that we're going to have a designated driver.

291
00:10:55,264 --> 00:10:58,065
And, and they created a culture in the

292
00:10:58,065 --> 00:11:00,304
mid eighties, not just we're going to change

293
00:11:00,304 --> 00:11:01,745
the law, but we're going to do, we're

294
00:11:01,745 --> 00:11:03,345
going to prevent it in the first place

295
00:11:03,345 --> 00:11:05,904
by having a designated driver. So they not

296
00:11:05,904 --> 00:11:07,845
only changed the laws of the country.

297
00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:10,399
They with this sort of the, the think

298
00:11:10,399 --> 00:11:12,480
tank and group that at a Sweden really

299
00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:15,600
pushed it in, other Scandinavian countries and came

300
00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:17,039
along and said, we're going to change the

301
00:11:17,039 --> 00:11:18,019
culture too.

302
00:11:18,399 --> 00:11:18,899
And

303
00:11:19,360 --> 00:11:21,919
that always was really struck me of how

304
00:11:21,919 --> 00:11:23,139
do you have applied

305
00:11:23,475 --> 00:11:24,615
community service,

306
00:11:25,154 --> 00:11:27,634
but get laws changed, get the culture. And

307
00:11:27,634 --> 00:11:29,475
when I start looking at what we're doing

308
00:11:29,475 --> 00:11:32,674
with the no address and homelessness, we we

309
00:11:32,754 --> 00:11:34,274
I was spending a lot of time in,

310
00:11:34,595 --> 00:11:35,174
you know,

311
00:11:35,529 --> 00:11:38,330
sort of wonky town and not getting anything

312
00:11:38,330 --> 00:11:39,850
done. I mean, you know, we're getting some

313
00:11:39,850 --> 00:11:42,009
things done on the edges, but we're not

314
00:11:42,009 --> 00:11:44,169
changing the culture of the community. We're not

315
00:11:44,169 --> 00:11:46,009
changing you know, what are we doing right?

316
00:11:46,009 --> 00:11:47,769
What are we not doing right? And what

317
00:11:47,769 --> 00:11:49,735
can we be doing that we're not I

318
00:11:49,735 --> 00:11:52,154
wanna get into all of those different projects.

319
00:11:52,455 --> 00:11:54,455
Let's go back a ways to when you

320
00:11:54,455 --> 00:11:57,195
were young again. I think it's important

321
00:11:57,735 --> 00:12:00,455
to hear the stories of what history was

322
00:12:00,455 --> 00:12:00,955
like

323
00:12:01,575 --> 00:12:03,434
during these huge upheavals

324
00:12:03,909 --> 00:12:04,649
in America's,

325
00:12:05,750 --> 00:12:06,970
cultural and civil

326
00:12:07,590 --> 00:12:08,090
discourse?

327
00:12:08,870 --> 00:12:10,889
Do you have anything that really stands

328
00:12:11,350 --> 00:12:13,429
out, affect you on a on a deep

329
00:12:13,429 --> 00:12:15,429
personal level? Or is it more like, oh,

330
00:12:15,429 --> 00:12:17,350
my grandparents are really into this stuff. I

331
00:12:17,350 --> 00:12:18,169
should pay attention.

332
00:12:18,695 --> 00:12:20,455
Because if you're getting into trouble, all that

333
00:12:20,455 --> 00:12:22,855
says to me is you're probably a extra

334
00:12:22,855 --> 00:12:26,154
bright kid who was curious and couldn't satiate

335
00:12:27,014 --> 00:12:29,434
the the brain's need for constant stimuli.

336
00:12:30,214 --> 00:12:32,214
Oh, my mother would love you. She'd say,

337
00:12:32,214 --> 00:12:34,769
oh, you're looking at all the positive side.

338
00:12:34,769 --> 00:12:37,170
Yeah. Well, as a kid, I was also

339
00:12:37,170 --> 00:12:39,809
always getting into stuff. I think I recognize

340
00:12:40,290 --> 00:12:41,910
I have never told this

341
00:12:42,290 --> 00:12:44,610
story ever in the media. I've I think

342
00:12:44,610 --> 00:12:46,309
I've only told this story to

343
00:12:46,704 --> 00:12:48,945
5 or 6 family members. And so you're

344
00:12:48,945 --> 00:12:51,365
you're you're giving the more most interesting question.

345
00:12:52,065 --> 00:12:53,664
You know, I look at my family. I

346
00:12:53,745 --> 00:12:55,664
you know, I'm South Georgia, and,

347
00:12:56,065 --> 00:12:59,284
and I had people on both sides of

348
00:12:59,345 --> 00:13:02,690
the very much both sides in the sort

349
00:13:02,690 --> 00:13:05,250
of civil rights movement. You know, one side

350
00:13:05,250 --> 00:13:07,350
wanting to keep it the way it was,

351
00:13:07,730 --> 00:13:08,789
the local YMCA's

352
00:13:09,250 --> 00:13:12,450
on Dixie before you started the day, that

353
00:13:12,450 --> 00:13:14,610
was on one side. And then over on

354
00:13:14,610 --> 00:13:15,509
the other side

355
00:13:16,054 --> 00:13:19,095
was deep roots in, you know, the the

356
00:13:19,095 --> 00:13:22,154
faith community, in the Methodist Church in particular,

357
00:13:22,214 --> 00:13:23,914
a little bit the Episcopal Church

358
00:13:24,375 --> 00:13:26,934
of, you know, everything from going dating way,

359
00:13:26,934 --> 00:13:29,254
way back, you know, with the underground railroad

360
00:13:29,254 --> 00:13:30,714
and such. And so

361
00:13:31,230 --> 00:13:31,970
I saw

362
00:13:32,269 --> 00:13:34,269
I mean, this came up in our own

363
00:13:34,269 --> 00:13:36,830
families. This came up, and everybody was sort

364
00:13:36,830 --> 00:13:39,230
of on a bellwether spectrum, you know, some

365
00:13:39,230 --> 00:13:41,169
people on one side, some on the other.

366
00:13:41,309 --> 00:13:43,870
So we it was very you're very aware

367
00:13:43,870 --> 00:13:45,904
of what was going on. And so I

368
00:13:45,904 --> 00:13:48,245
happen to fly through the Atlanta airport

369
00:13:48,705 --> 00:13:50,945
regularly. I mean, that's where, you know, everywhere

370
00:13:50,945 --> 00:13:53,264
I got shipped off every possible moment by

371
00:13:53,264 --> 00:13:54,965
my parents to Georgia.

372
00:13:55,585 --> 00:13:57,585
And we've got the you get the Atlanta

373
00:13:57,585 --> 00:13:58,085
airport.

374
00:13:58,709 --> 00:14:01,029
The Atlanta airport was so different than the

375
00:14:01,029 --> 00:14:03,509
Los Angeles airport or the San Diego or

376
00:14:03,509 --> 00:14:05,189
even the Dallas airport. When you went in

377
00:14:05,189 --> 00:14:07,750
the Atlanta airport when I was young, the

378
00:14:07,750 --> 00:14:10,490
bathrooms were still largely segregated.

379
00:14:11,205 --> 00:14:13,845
And even the ones that weren't segregated, like

380
00:14:13,845 --> 00:14:16,904
it, it heartfelt at the international airport there,

381
00:14:17,764 --> 00:14:20,184
they had just recently integrated

382
00:14:20,565 --> 00:14:21,065
bathrooms.

383
00:14:21,445 --> 00:14:24,245
And so something really interesting happened that I

384
00:14:24,245 --> 00:14:26,085
think some court said you got to have

385
00:14:26,085 --> 00:14:27,964
integrated bathrooms bathrooms and such. So when you

386
00:14:27,964 --> 00:14:28,802
went in to the male or female bathroom,

387
00:14:28,802 --> 00:14:29,991
every stall you had to pay, I think

388
00:14:29,991 --> 00:14:32,080
it was a nickel. And

389
00:14:32,460 --> 00:14:34,299
so, and, and then later it was, I

390
00:14:34,299 --> 00:14:37,100
think, a dime. And so you had to

391
00:14:37,100 --> 00:14:38,240
pay money to go into the stall

392
00:14:42,054 --> 00:14:44,855
and the last stall was free. And so

393
00:14:44,855 --> 00:14:47,195
you might have 3 or 4 paid stalls.

394
00:14:47,254 --> 00:14:49,575
And then 1 at the, at the end

395
00:14:49,575 --> 00:14:52,054
was free. And that was in theory, you

396
00:14:52,054 --> 00:14:54,389
know, for, you know, a community of color

397
00:14:54,389 --> 00:14:56,549
might not have the finances or might not

398
00:14:56,549 --> 00:14:58,949
want to waste in their mind, waste the

399
00:14:58,949 --> 00:15:01,269
money to get into their why would I

400
00:15:01,269 --> 00:15:02,250
have to do that?

401
00:15:02,629 --> 00:15:03,929
And it's being discriminatory

402
00:15:04,309 --> 00:15:06,404
against them. It's no different than a voting

403
00:15:06,404 --> 00:15:08,325
poll taxes. If you wanna vote, you pay

404
00:15:08,325 --> 00:15:10,245
a poll tax. It was sort of applied

405
00:15:10,245 --> 00:15:12,264
to the bathrooms after they're integrated.

406
00:15:13,045 --> 00:15:14,904
And so my troublemaking

407
00:15:15,285 --> 00:15:18,565
nature and my influence on my family was,

408
00:15:18,884 --> 00:15:22,039
it was funny because my grandparents would my

409
00:15:22,179 --> 00:15:24,500
grandfather, generally, as my grandfather say, here's a

410
00:15:24,500 --> 00:15:25,399
nickel or dime.

411
00:15:25,779 --> 00:15:27,379
Make sure you use, you know, one of

412
00:15:27,379 --> 00:15:29,539
the stalls. So I would go into a

413
00:15:29,539 --> 00:15:31,539
stall and then I can't I'm only like

414
00:15:31,539 --> 00:15:33,139
5 or 6 at this time. So I'm

415
00:15:33,139 --> 00:15:35,294
like, I would keep it open for a

416
00:15:35,294 --> 00:15:37,615
person of, community of color. I said, sort

417
00:15:37,615 --> 00:15:39,054
of, wait down, you know, come here, and

418
00:15:39,054 --> 00:15:40,815
I'd keep the stall, and then we'd start

419
00:15:40,815 --> 00:15:42,115
a whole chain of people

420
00:15:42,815 --> 00:15:45,214
going through the stall for that my my

421
00:15:45,214 --> 00:15:47,134
grandfather gave me the nickel or dime for.

422
00:15:47,134 --> 00:15:48,174
And so that was my

423
00:15:49,049 --> 00:15:51,129
as a 5 or 6 year old, you

424
00:15:51,129 --> 00:15:53,450
know, protest on the civil rights movement. Cause

425
00:15:53,450 --> 00:15:56,409
I just could not understand why we're making

426
00:15:56,409 --> 00:15:58,490
somebody to pay to go get a little

427
00:15:58,490 --> 00:15:58,990
cleaner

428
00:15:59,690 --> 00:16:02,169
bathroom. And I'm not at all promoting. I

429
00:16:02,169 --> 00:16:03,850
agreed with that. I'm just saying, why would

430
00:16:03,850 --> 00:16:04,784
we have that?

431
00:16:05,184 --> 00:16:06,964
And it to me, it was like voting,

432
00:16:07,184 --> 00:16:08,964
you know, the, you know, the old

433
00:16:09,345 --> 00:16:11,424
when we said everybody now can vote for

434
00:16:11,424 --> 00:16:13,264
free, then we set up a poll tax.

435
00:16:13,264 --> 00:16:14,804
And so that was sort of,

436
00:16:15,424 --> 00:16:17,745
an equivalent. So that was my protest. You

437
00:16:17,745 --> 00:16:18,884
know, this is 65,

438
00:16:19,264 --> 00:16:19,764
66,

439
00:16:20,919 --> 00:16:22,940
64, somewhere around that time frame.

440
00:16:23,559 --> 00:16:26,360
That's making a little a little ripple in

441
00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:29,100
a giant ocean, but that little ripple becomes

442
00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:29,980
a wave.

443
00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:31,339
Civil disobedience

444
00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:33,495
by a 5 year old is something I

445
00:16:33,495 --> 00:16:35,915
can get behind. That was my grandparents

446
00:16:36,295 --> 00:16:37,514
influencing me

447
00:16:38,375 --> 00:16:40,295
on, on it. And, and, you know, you're,

448
00:16:40,295 --> 00:16:42,695
I'm living mostly in Southern California where that's

449
00:16:42,695 --> 00:16:44,934
just not even an issue at that time.

450
00:16:44,934 --> 00:16:46,615
And so you're living, you know, you're flying

451
00:16:46,615 --> 00:16:47,754
in Atlanta, Georgia.

452
00:16:48,149 --> 00:16:50,870
Absolutely. So fascinating. And what a culture shock

453
00:16:50,870 --> 00:16:53,429
for a kid who children are so hyper

454
00:16:53,429 --> 00:16:55,750
aware of their surroundings and not given the

455
00:16:55,750 --> 00:16:56,250
credit.

456
00:16:57,509 --> 00:16:59,690
And to go from a community

457
00:17:00,230 --> 00:17:00,730
where,

458
00:17:01,194 --> 00:17:03,115
as you say, it's not even an issue

459
00:17:03,115 --> 00:17:06,075
to go somewhere where there's really a culture

460
00:17:06,075 --> 00:17:07,375
of holding on to

461
00:17:07,914 --> 00:17:08,575
the past.

462
00:17:09,034 --> 00:17:11,994
What did you study in college? It it's

463
00:17:11,994 --> 00:17:14,599
funny because I got kicked out of public

464
00:17:14,599 --> 00:17:17,159
school when I was at, I think, 6th

465
00:17:17,159 --> 00:17:19,399
grade. I ended up getting to go to

466
00:17:19,399 --> 00:17:20,539
military school.

467
00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:23,480
I sort of was interested in going, but

468
00:17:23,480 --> 00:17:26,039
partly because I wasn't really invited back to

469
00:17:26,039 --> 00:17:28,535
the to go to the the public school,

470
00:17:28,595 --> 00:17:29,974
the middle school there.

471
00:17:30,434 --> 00:17:32,434
And I don't find out that I was

472
00:17:32,434 --> 00:17:32,934
dyslexic

473
00:17:33,315 --> 00:17:35,494
until I got to college. And,

474
00:17:35,955 --> 00:17:38,055
to be honest, I, I got into college

475
00:17:38,115 --> 00:17:40,674
largely because I was a really good athlete

476
00:17:40,674 --> 00:17:42,149
at that time. I was on the Olympic

477
00:17:42,149 --> 00:17:44,549
training squad. I was an all American swimmer,

478
00:17:44,549 --> 00:17:46,250
all American motor pole player, and

479
00:17:47,269 --> 00:17:49,349
and I was also good at math. And

480
00:17:49,349 --> 00:17:51,669
so so I did real well on my

481
00:17:51,669 --> 00:17:53,669
SAT in math. I think, I think I

482
00:17:53,669 --> 00:17:55,755
had a 790 or something like that. Like,

483
00:17:55,755 --> 00:17:56,875
I'd have to go back and look at

484
00:17:56,875 --> 00:17:57,375
it.

485
00:17:57,674 --> 00:17:59,835
But my verbal was awful. I I couldn't

486
00:17:59,835 --> 00:18:01,375
write, couldn't couldn't read.

487
00:18:02,075 --> 00:18:04,154
And I I literally had gotten to college,

488
00:18:04,154 --> 00:18:05,835
and I had only what read one book

489
00:18:05,835 --> 00:18:07,674
in my life, and that was Serpico. And

490
00:18:07,674 --> 00:18:09,900
it it taken me, like, 6 months to

491
00:18:09,900 --> 00:18:11,580
read. And I only read that book because

492
00:18:11,580 --> 00:18:13,420
I loved the book. And so I was

493
00:18:13,420 --> 00:18:16,059
reading about, you know, officer Serpico in New

494
00:18:16,059 --> 00:18:18,299
York, the, the, the, the, the truth, not

495
00:18:18,299 --> 00:18:20,299
the sort of movie version, but the, the

496
00:18:20,299 --> 00:18:22,640
real version. And he's still alive and well.

497
00:18:22,700 --> 00:18:24,855
I know. And, and I heard he's he's

498
00:18:24,855 --> 00:18:27,015
moved back to New York is what I

499
00:18:27,095 --> 00:18:28,694
somebody told me the other day, and he's

500
00:18:28,694 --> 00:18:29,974
no longer he was in Europe for a

501
00:18:29,974 --> 00:18:31,335
long time. And, you know, my goal in

502
00:18:31,335 --> 00:18:32,855
life's always been to try to meet him,

503
00:18:32,855 --> 00:18:34,855
and I don't know anybody knows him. I

504
00:18:34,855 --> 00:18:36,615
do. I'll I'll help set that up for

505
00:18:36,615 --> 00:18:38,214
you. Oh, and I would love that would

506
00:18:38,214 --> 00:18:39,940
be a that'd be like it. What an

507
00:18:39,940 --> 00:18:42,259
honor. You're talking about, you know, protests, you

508
00:18:42,259 --> 00:18:44,980
know, at an individual level, and he he

509
00:18:44,980 --> 00:18:45,799
got repercussions

510
00:18:46,100 --> 00:18:47,240
that were unbelievable

511
00:18:47,539 --> 00:18:49,220
to him. And, you know, there were a

512
00:18:49,220 --> 00:18:50,820
lot of people forget there are a couple

513
00:18:50,820 --> 00:18:53,299
other officers involved that were on his side.

514
00:18:53,299 --> 00:18:54,820
They also you know, and I know how

515
00:18:54,820 --> 00:18:57,035
you do storytelling. You can't sort of tell

516
00:18:57,035 --> 00:18:59,035
3 stories at once, but there were other

517
00:18:59,035 --> 00:18:59,855
people involved.

518
00:19:00,234 --> 00:19:02,494
I basically get invited

519
00:19:02,875 --> 00:19:05,434
to be uninvited to my freshman year of

520
00:19:05,434 --> 00:19:06,654
school. And they basically

521
00:19:07,035 --> 00:19:09,190
said, you gotta deal with this because you

522
00:19:09,190 --> 00:19:11,349
can't you're you're attending a really high end

523
00:19:11,349 --> 00:19:12,950
college, and I sort of got in with

524
00:19:12,950 --> 00:19:15,450
my perfect math score and my my sports

525
00:19:16,150 --> 00:19:19,190
talent, not my quality on writing. And now

526
00:19:19,190 --> 00:19:21,190
here I am at a writing school, research

527
00:19:21,190 --> 00:19:22,490
school, reading school,

528
00:19:22,924 --> 00:19:24,544
and I had 2 college

529
00:19:24,845 --> 00:19:26,765
2 professors come to me. 1 was my

530
00:19:26,765 --> 00:19:27,664
English professor,

531
00:19:28,525 --> 00:19:30,525
and and he came with this other professor,

532
00:19:30,525 --> 00:19:32,525
and he said, we don't get it. You

533
00:19:32,525 --> 00:19:35,325
you come to every class. You're always early.

534
00:19:35,325 --> 00:19:37,420
You stay late. You ask tons of questions.

535
00:19:37,420 --> 00:19:39,180
You come to office hours. You're you're not

536
00:19:39,180 --> 00:19:41,180
a slug. You're not you're you're not you

537
00:19:41,180 --> 00:19:41,920
don't care.

538
00:19:42,460 --> 00:19:44,460
When we call on you individually, you know,

539
00:19:44,460 --> 00:19:46,720
every answer, you know, all the right answers.

540
00:19:47,180 --> 00:19:49,019
But when you go to write, we your

541
00:19:49,019 --> 00:19:51,444
your stuff is a mess. I mean, it's

542
00:19:51,444 --> 00:19:53,365
trap. I mean, it's like, we can't read

543
00:19:53,365 --> 00:19:55,845
it. We don't understand it and such. And

544
00:19:55,845 --> 00:19:58,005
they said, have you ever written anything not

545
00:19:58,005 --> 00:20:00,724
under pressure? And I I like, I don't

546
00:20:00,724 --> 00:20:03,044
write. And they're like, they said, why? Because

547
00:20:03,044 --> 00:20:04,565
I hate writing. And like, but do you

548
00:20:04,565 --> 00:20:05,544
ever write anything,

549
00:20:06,039 --> 00:20:08,519
letters in, but no. No. And they they

550
00:20:08,519 --> 00:20:10,039
kept pushing. I said, I found out I

551
00:20:10,039 --> 00:20:11,880
had a I forgot I'd had a training

552
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:13,400
log that I had to do for my

553
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:15,640
coaches to send back to coaches and such.

554
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:17,079
So it says that this is the only

555
00:20:17,079 --> 00:20:18,759
thing I know of that's not there. And

556
00:20:18,759 --> 00:20:20,059
so I was like, training log.

557
00:20:20,575 --> 00:20:21,775
We want you to go to your dorm

558
00:20:21,775 --> 00:20:23,234
room right now, kid it.

559
00:20:23,535 --> 00:20:24,914
Do you know where it is yet?

560
00:20:25,375 --> 00:20:28,255
Come back. And so 10, 15 minutes later,

561
00:20:28,255 --> 00:20:30,095
I came back, gave it. And it turns

562
00:20:30,095 --> 00:20:32,355
out on my training log, I misspelled

563
00:20:32,654 --> 00:20:34,115
training and log

564
00:20:35,330 --> 00:20:36,930
as a 19 year old. And I hand

565
00:20:36,930 --> 00:20:39,009
wrote across it and I misspelled those two

566
00:20:39,009 --> 00:20:40,930
words and they like looking at each other

567
00:20:40,930 --> 00:20:42,690
and then they're flipping through. And he said,

568
00:20:42,690 --> 00:20:45,330
well, your training log looks as messy as

569
00:20:45,330 --> 00:20:47,570
your papers. And they said, we think you

570
00:20:47,570 --> 00:20:50,054
have a thing called dyslexia and dysgraphia. I'd

571
00:20:50,054 --> 00:20:50,375
never

572
00:20:51,494 --> 00:20:53,494
nobody back then did really know much about

573
00:20:53,494 --> 00:20:55,015
it. There was, you know, there was no

574
00:20:55,015 --> 00:20:56,634
research on it and such,

575
00:20:57,015 --> 00:20:58,154
nationally known.

576
00:20:58,694 --> 00:21:01,575
And they said, we will not flunk you

577
00:21:01,575 --> 00:21:02,375
from school,

578
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,000
because they were gonna my choice was literally

579
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,099
being kicked out after my 1st semester

580
00:21:07,799 --> 00:21:10,200
there. Or we'll give you and I didn't

581
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:11,640
even know what it was what it meant,

582
00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:13,339
but they said, we'll give you a gentleman's

583
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:15,900
season. I didn't even know what that was.

584
00:21:16,444 --> 00:21:18,285
And they said, if you go off to

585
00:21:18,285 --> 00:21:20,204
this place in Phoenix, we'll send you over

586
00:21:20,204 --> 00:21:21,884
there for 2 or 3 days, come back

587
00:21:21,884 --> 00:21:23,805
after you figure things out and such. And

588
00:21:23,805 --> 00:21:25,105
I was my whole

589
00:21:25,565 --> 00:21:27,265
I was driven in academia

590
00:21:27,644 --> 00:21:29,990
really to try to make the Olympic team.

591
00:21:29,990 --> 00:21:32,650
And back then, my sport of modern Patathon,

592
00:21:32,710 --> 00:21:33,690
you had to be

593
00:21:33,990 --> 00:21:36,309
with basically a college team or the military.

594
00:21:36,309 --> 00:21:38,789
Those were your 2, 2 choices. And, and

595
00:21:38,789 --> 00:21:41,355
I had really bad vision. So military was

596
00:21:41,434 --> 00:21:43,355
not an option. Even though I tried, I

597
00:21:43,355 --> 00:21:45,035
I couldn't get in. Now you all you

598
00:21:45,035 --> 00:21:46,015
have all these incredible

599
00:21:47,115 --> 00:21:49,194
surgeries. You can do that, but back then,

600
00:21:49,194 --> 00:21:51,615
you couldn't. So I go to this place.

601
00:21:51,835 --> 00:21:54,255
Sure enough, I have really severe dysgraphia,

602
00:21:54,634 --> 00:21:55,694
moderate dyslexia.

603
00:21:56,269 --> 00:21:58,210
By the way, I didn't have any dyscalculia

604
00:21:58,509 --> 00:22:00,349
that cause they're processed in different parts of

605
00:22:00,349 --> 00:22:01,409
your brain. And

606
00:22:02,190 --> 00:22:04,909
most of the research that people understood were

607
00:22:04,909 --> 00:22:05,409
from

608
00:22:05,869 --> 00:22:07,730
military injuries, head injuries,

609
00:22:08,909 --> 00:22:11,954
for, you know, shots to the head. That's

610
00:22:11,954 --> 00:22:13,174
where they had found

611
00:22:13,474 --> 00:22:16,134
most of the early research on this area.

612
00:22:16,835 --> 00:22:19,154
And so I go to this place and

613
00:22:19,154 --> 00:22:20,994
they said, what are you doing for it?

614
00:22:20,994 --> 00:22:23,075
And like pretty much everything I was taught

615
00:22:23,075 --> 00:22:25,329
to do is what you shouldn't do if

616
00:22:25,329 --> 00:22:27,589
you have dyslexia. Like, here's a weird one.

617
00:22:27,809 --> 00:22:29,730
I kept they kept sending me to the

618
00:22:29,730 --> 00:22:30,950
speed reading classes

619
00:22:31,250 --> 00:22:33,089
because I read it like 10 words a

620
00:22:33,089 --> 00:22:34,929
minute. And I said, that's the worst thing.

621
00:22:34,929 --> 00:22:37,429
That's like taking a old vinyl record

622
00:22:38,014 --> 00:22:40,335
and having all these cracks and cuts and

623
00:22:40,335 --> 00:22:42,274
speeding it up, take it from a 33

624
00:22:42,335 --> 00:22:44,255
to 78 and speed up the crackle. He

625
00:22:44,255 --> 00:22:45,774
said, all it does is make the messy

626
00:22:45,774 --> 00:22:47,934
stuff come around more. So you gotta do

627
00:22:47,934 --> 00:22:50,575
the opposite. You gotta read phonetically. You gotta

628
00:22:50,575 --> 00:22:53,054
read differently. You gotta use your fingers. You

629
00:22:53,054 --> 00:22:56,009
gotta use a pad and block out. And

630
00:22:56,230 --> 00:22:57,529
so I learned all these

631
00:22:57,830 --> 00:22:58,330
techniques.

632
00:22:59,029 --> 00:23:01,190
Then I ended up, you know, eventually making

633
00:23:01,190 --> 00:23:03,450
it on the Dean's list and making it

634
00:23:03,509 --> 00:23:06,390
up and, and such. And I always kept

635
00:23:06,390 --> 00:23:06,890
remembering

636
00:23:07,269 --> 00:23:09,644
a 6th grade teacher of mine who I

637
00:23:09,644 --> 00:23:11,244
I had to walk in to give her

638
00:23:11,244 --> 00:23:12,445
a note. I was going to the doctor,

639
00:23:12,445 --> 00:23:14,465
and I was walking to the teacher's lab,

640
00:23:14,684 --> 00:23:16,525
and she didn't see me coming in, and

641
00:23:16,525 --> 00:23:18,125
I knocked on the door, who is it,

642
00:23:18,125 --> 00:23:19,805
walking around, and they had sort of a

643
00:23:19,805 --> 00:23:21,484
a blocked door, so she didn't see me

644
00:23:21,484 --> 00:23:23,210
in her backlist to me. And she happened

645
00:23:23,210 --> 00:23:25,450
to be talking about me in front of

646
00:23:25,450 --> 00:23:26,190
other teachers,

647
00:23:26,970 --> 00:23:28,190
and, and not knowing

648
00:23:28,730 --> 00:23:30,490
some guys walking in, it happened to be

649
00:23:30,490 --> 00:23:33,710
as they said, well, that Robert Marbit kid

650
00:23:33,849 --> 00:23:36,589
is awful. I meant, you know, he's atrocious

651
00:23:36,650 --> 00:23:38,865
in the class. He'll never amount to anything,

652
00:23:38,865 --> 00:23:40,884
never learn anything. I literally

653
00:23:41,744 --> 00:23:43,845
thought about honoring my PhD

654
00:23:44,784 --> 00:23:46,164
dissertation and book.

655
00:23:46,464 --> 00:23:48,544
I, you know, I'd like to honor Mrs.

656
00:23:48,544 --> 00:23:51,444
I won't say her name, but I remember

657
00:23:51,505 --> 00:23:54,090
her name. That's a very long way of

658
00:23:54,090 --> 00:23:54,590
saying,

659
00:23:55,049 --> 00:23:57,789
I once I found out what my challenges

660
00:23:57,850 --> 00:23:59,930
were, I said, I'm gonna really make up

661
00:23:59,930 --> 00:24:01,529
for this. And so I ended up with

662
00:24:01,529 --> 00:24:04,490
a triple undergraduate degree. I did full 3

663
00:24:04,490 --> 00:24:07,549
under degree graduate degrees, political science, economics,

664
00:24:08,904 --> 00:24:09,644
and psychology.

665
00:24:10,265 --> 00:24:11,565
Then I got 2 masters,

666
00:24:12,184 --> 00:24:14,025
then I got a PhD that has 3

667
00:24:14,025 --> 00:24:15,865
parts to it, and then I've done 4

668
00:24:15,865 --> 00:24:19,224
graduate fellowships, so White House Fellow, Quorum Urban

669
00:24:19,224 --> 00:24:20,285
Affairs Fellow,

670
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:23,640
a fellowship inside Department of Defense, and a

671
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:26,839
teach fellow over in, Bahrain and Qatar. Thank

672
00:24:26,839 --> 00:24:29,480
God overhearing that teacher didn't set you on

673
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:31,740
a whole other path because they could've

674
00:24:32,279 --> 00:24:35,480
you could've taken that and fallen victim to

675
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:36,934
it, and you didn't.

676
00:24:37,315 --> 00:24:39,634
So for about 2 or 3 more years,

677
00:24:39,634 --> 00:24:42,034
I still was, I had been picked up

678
00:24:42,034 --> 00:24:43,794
by you you asked what type of trouble.

679
00:24:43,794 --> 00:24:45,554
Here it goes. I I've been picked up

680
00:24:45,554 --> 00:24:47,174
by 3 different police departments.

681
00:24:48,130 --> 00:24:49,730
And the good news is back then, they

682
00:24:49,730 --> 00:24:52,690
didn't have technology to connect the departments or

683
00:24:52,690 --> 00:24:54,390
I I would have been in big trouble.

684
00:24:54,529 --> 00:24:56,210
And it's so funny because I went on

685
00:24:56,210 --> 00:24:58,609
become, chair of the crime control district in

686
00:24:58,609 --> 00:25:00,529
San Antonio, and I was chair of public

687
00:25:00,529 --> 00:25:02,744
safety when I was on city council there.

688
00:25:02,744 --> 00:25:04,504
Probably the worst thing is I which could

689
00:25:04,504 --> 00:25:05,404
have been really

690
00:25:05,944 --> 00:25:08,924
dangerous and damaging. I threw a green apple.

691
00:25:09,544 --> 00:25:10,904
I had a pretty good arm. I was

692
00:25:10,904 --> 00:25:12,825
a water polo player, and I threw a

693
00:25:12,825 --> 00:25:14,984
solid green apple that we had found on

694
00:25:14,984 --> 00:25:15,644
a tree,

695
00:25:16,289 --> 00:25:18,390
through a a police car window

696
00:25:18,690 --> 00:25:20,930
that was going about 35 miles an hour

697
00:25:20,930 --> 00:25:23,170
on a speed. I I I I guarantee

698
00:25:23,170 --> 00:25:25,350
I was not able to drive that window,

699
00:25:25,809 --> 00:25:27,570
and I did that was not my intent,

700
00:25:27,570 --> 00:25:29,650
but it Yeah. It was a I meant,

701
00:25:29,650 --> 00:25:30,789
I I had a strong-arm,

702
00:25:31,255 --> 00:25:32,315
solid green apple,

703
00:25:32,775 --> 00:25:34,694
hit the side, you know, the the the

704
00:25:34,694 --> 00:25:37,095
side windows back then were not nearly as

705
00:25:37,095 --> 00:25:38,315
sturdy as the front.

706
00:25:38,934 --> 00:25:41,015
You know, the front screen was always much

707
00:25:41,015 --> 00:25:41,515
sturdier,

708
00:25:42,375 --> 00:25:44,134
and so I got in big, big trouble

709
00:25:44,134 --> 00:25:45,914
for that, a couple other incidents,

710
00:25:46,580 --> 00:25:48,980
got in a couple fights at school. I

711
00:25:48,980 --> 00:25:51,619
was suspended for when I was going through

712
00:25:51,619 --> 00:25:53,940
my FBI background check, I I had that.

713
00:25:53,940 --> 00:25:55,380
They said, have you ever done any of

714
00:25:55,380 --> 00:25:57,380
this list? And I they're like, yeah. Yeah.

715
00:25:57,380 --> 00:25:58,519
And I did a couple.

716
00:25:58,820 --> 00:26:01,515
And they, like, went. So I was 12

717
00:26:01,515 --> 00:26:03,994
years old and I threw something in the

718
00:26:03,994 --> 00:26:05,855
principal's office. I,

719
00:26:06,315 --> 00:26:09,035
I don't laugh. It's just like, I was

720
00:26:09,035 --> 00:26:11,755
so close to not being able to come

721
00:26:11,755 --> 00:26:13,515
back from that. If that makes sense. I

722
00:26:13,515 --> 00:26:15,359
mean, I look back in and I go,

723
00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:18,319
if it wasn't for my coaches first, and

724
00:26:18,319 --> 00:26:20,400
a lot of people always talk about teachers

725
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:21,619
and professors,

726
00:26:23,279 --> 00:26:23,779
coaches

727
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:26,960
stop more people from going into bed than

728
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:29,119
I think almost any teacher will. And I'm

729
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:31,544
not discounting what the role of teachers are

730
00:26:31,544 --> 00:26:33,325
is incredible. I'm a professor,

731
00:26:33,625 --> 00:26:34,125
but

732
00:26:34,904 --> 00:26:36,105
coaches are your

733
00:26:36,744 --> 00:26:38,825
stop a whole lot of people from doing

734
00:26:38,825 --> 00:26:41,144
knuckles that it's tough. And a lot of

735
00:26:41,144 --> 00:26:42,825
my coaches said, if you keep doing that,

736
00:26:42,825 --> 00:26:44,265
you can't be on the team. If you

737
00:26:44,265 --> 00:26:46,799
keep getting suspended and kicked out of school

738
00:26:46,799 --> 00:26:49,119
and such, you can't be on our team.

739
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:51,839
The combination of getting kicked out and all

740
00:26:51,839 --> 00:26:53,839
those problems and going to military school, and

741
00:26:53,839 --> 00:26:55,839
I went to an incredible school called San

742
00:26:55,839 --> 00:26:56,899
Antonio Academy,

743
00:26:57,279 --> 00:26:59,595
that really just changed me. I mean, it

744
00:26:59,595 --> 00:27:02,795
just just changed my behavior and and outcome

745
00:27:02,795 --> 00:27:04,875
for a variety of reasons. It was amazing,

746
00:27:04,875 --> 00:27:07,595
had incredible teachers there. And then these two

747
00:27:07,595 --> 00:27:09,595
teachers who met with me in college and

748
00:27:09,595 --> 00:27:10,095
said,

749
00:27:10,554 --> 00:27:12,394
we think you can do this, but we

750
00:27:12,394 --> 00:27:14,669
think you got this. Back then, they called

751
00:27:14,669 --> 00:27:16,509
it a disease. It's sort of more of

752
00:27:16,509 --> 00:27:17,250
a mechanical,

753
00:27:18,109 --> 00:27:19,569
structural learning problem.

754
00:27:20,349 --> 00:27:22,349
And when I did that, it it it

755
00:27:22,349 --> 00:27:24,669
just changed. But but there is a period

756
00:27:24,669 --> 00:27:26,669
of time, I'm I'm at the kids I

757
00:27:26,669 --> 00:27:28,424
hung around with, some of the kids I

758
00:27:28,424 --> 00:27:30,744
hang around are not alive anymore. You know,

759
00:27:30,744 --> 00:27:32,904
some of the kids that I that I

760
00:27:32,904 --> 00:27:35,625
got in trouble with ended up spending hard

761
00:27:35,625 --> 00:27:37,704
time doing bad things at different times is

762
00:27:37,704 --> 00:27:39,244
what I heard. I've I've never

763
00:27:39,625 --> 00:27:41,384
seen them, so I I don't know how

764
00:27:41,384 --> 00:27:42,444
accurate the,

765
00:27:43,279 --> 00:27:44,880
you know, the truth is on some of

766
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:47,679
those stories and and such. But I I

767
00:27:47,679 --> 00:27:48,000
found a

768
00:27:48,799 --> 00:27:51,039
you know, I started hanging around with with

769
00:27:51,039 --> 00:27:53,359
serious coaches who were, you know, trying to

770
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:55,759
help me make the Olympic team. Then then

771
00:27:55,759 --> 00:27:57,460
I was around a lot of people

772
00:27:57,955 --> 00:28:00,355
who really, for some reason or another, saw

773
00:28:00,355 --> 00:28:02,355
something in me that I didn't see. He

774
00:28:02,355 --> 00:28:03,955
said, you know, we're gonna help you out

775
00:28:03,955 --> 00:28:06,934
and get through this. And I dedicated my

776
00:28:07,875 --> 00:28:08,375
dissertation

777
00:28:08,674 --> 00:28:10,055
to those 2 college

778
00:28:10,460 --> 00:28:12,960
professors who who intervened and

779
00:28:13,500 --> 00:28:16,299
said, you know, professor Payne was just if

780
00:28:16,299 --> 00:28:18,460
if without him, I'd become a totally different

781
00:28:18,460 --> 00:28:18,960
person.

782
00:28:19,259 --> 00:28:21,500
Yeah. Well, I mean, honestly, I think between

783
00:28:21,500 --> 00:28:23,740
sports and military, that has probably kept a

784
00:28:23,740 --> 00:28:25,865
lot of people out of prison. Absolutely.

785
00:28:26,244 --> 00:28:27,065
How did you

786
00:28:27,605 --> 00:28:28,984
start to really hone

787
00:28:29,525 --> 00:28:30,265
what your

788
00:28:30,805 --> 00:28:33,765
personal life's purpose was going to be? Sort

789
00:28:33,765 --> 00:28:35,684
of, I had a year and a half

790
00:28:35,684 --> 00:28:36,345
to go

791
00:28:36,644 --> 00:28:39,285
in undergrad. And and by now, my my

792
00:28:39,285 --> 00:28:40,664
grades are going well.

793
00:28:41,420 --> 00:28:43,759
Our our swim team and water bowl teams

794
00:28:43,900 --> 00:28:46,299
at the Claremont Colleges were amazing. They were

795
00:28:46,299 --> 00:28:48,880
doing well. We then unfortunately boycotted

796
00:28:49,660 --> 00:28:52,140
the 1980 game, so I'd I'd sort of

797
00:28:52,140 --> 00:28:53,039
missed the window,

798
00:28:54,380 --> 00:28:56,174
if I could have even been good enough.

799
00:28:56,174 --> 00:28:57,855
I mean, you never know, you know, what

800
00:28:57,855 --> 00:28:59,714
happened, but we ended up boycotting.

801
00:29:00,255 --> 00:29:01,714
And so I started

802
00:29:02,255 --> 00:29:04,174
really, what am I gonna do? Because back

803
00:29:04,174 --> 00:29:06,255
then, it wasn't like if you were an

804
00:29:06,255 --> 00:29:08,575
Olympic athlete, now you can sort of stay

805
00:29:08,575 --> 00:29:09,795
in till your natural

806
00:29:10,410 --> 00:29:11,869
physical maturity goes.

807
00:29:12,410 --> 00:29:14,809
But back then, you sorta once you got

808
00:29:14,809 --> 00:29:16,890
past college, you were out. And my my

809
00:29:16,890 --> 00:29:19,930
dad was very, very clear. He said, if

810
00:29:19,930 --> 00:29:22,109
you wanna go for the 84 Olympic team,

811
00:29:22,170 --> 00:29:23,150
go for it.

812
00:29:23,464 --> 00:29:25,464
It's not on my dime. And and, you

813
00:29:25,464 --> 00:29:27,464
know, it's so you know, when you're training

814
00:29:27,464 --> 00:29:29,785
in the college environment, that's part of your

815
00:29:29,785 --> 00:29:31,625
job is to be an athlete, and so

816
00:29:31,625 --> 00:29:33,785
it was perfect. But when I was getting

817
00:29:33,785 --> 00:29:35,464
out, I realized that I'm gonna have to

818
00:29:35,464 --> 00:29:37,144
retire as an athlete even though it might

819
00:29:37,144 --> 00:29:38,924
not have been my natural time.

820
00:29:39,529 --> 00:29:41,390
But I knew real quick.

821
00:29:41,769 --> 00:29:43,929
I knew real precisely what I wanted to

822
00:29:43,929 --> 00:29:45,769
have as my first job. And I wanted

823
00:29:45,769 --> 00:29:48,029
to work for, the mayor of San Antonio,

824
00:29:48,169 --> 00:29:49,549
a guy named Henry Cisneros.

825
00:29:50,329 --> 00:29:52,335
And at that time, he had had a

826
00:29:52,335 --> 00:29:54,255
lot of national media about it, but I've

827
00:29:54,255 --> 00:29:56,174
been following him in the local San Antonio

828
00:29:56,174 --> 00:29:58,174
media. And this is he had been considered

829
00:29:58,174 --> 00:30:00,575
for vice president of the United States, running

830
00:30:00,575 --> 00:30:01,394
for 1984

831
00:30:01,934 --> 00:30:04,335
on the democrat side, and I really wanted

832
00:30:04,335 --> 00:30:06,335
to work for him. The more I'd read

833
00:30:06,335 --> 00:30:08,390
about him, the more he was fascinating. He

834
00:30:08,390 --> 00:30:10,089
was much more middle of the road,

835
00:30:10,549 --> 00:30:12,650
he was much more of a problem solving,

836
00:30:12,710 --> 00:30:13,690
he was a mayor

837
00:30:14,069 --> 00:30:17,190
that was really doing amazing things, he really

838
00:30:17,190 --> 00:30:18,250
wanted to learn,

839
00:30:18,950 --> 00:30:20,490
he was a White House fellow,

840
00:30:21,525 --> 00:30:23,605
which I later was fortunate to become, you

841
00:30:23,605 --> 00:30:25,945
know, part of his giving me that inspiration.

842
00:30:26,005 --> 00:30:28,664
He'd gone to Harvard, and he was a,

843
00:30:29,205 --> 00:30:30,345
you know, a Hispanic

844
00:30:30,965 --> 00:30:33,365
kid out of West Side San Antonio, one

845
00:30:33,365 --> 00:30:35,305
of the poorest ZIP codes in America,

846
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:38,119
and he's off at Harvard. He's in the

847
00:30:38,119 --> 00:30:40,519
Texas A and M military corps. He's done

848
00:30:40,519 --> 00:30:42,839
all this stuff, but it was more about

849
00:30:42,839 --> 00:30:44,460
how he handled mayorship.

850
00:30:44,759 --> 00:30:46,299
And rather than dividing

851
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:49,180
the community, he tried to get the community

852
00:30:49,799 --> 00:30:50,700
to come together.

853
00:30:51,474 --> 00:30:54,674
And, you talk about somebody who could really

854
00:30:54,674 --> 00:30:57,875
bring sides together. Henry did. He would often

855
00:30:57,875 --> 00:30:59,394
make the say I I was with him

856
00:30:59,394 --> 00:31:01,394
multiple times where he sort of made the

857
00:31:01,394 --> 00:31:02,615
same core speech,

858
00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:05,039
and he would make it in a very

859
00:31:05,039 --> 00:31:07,200
poor, what what we would almost call a

860
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:08,900
a ghetto community now,

861
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,720
you know, real impoverished, you know, with the

862
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:14,740
places that we still had some

863
00:31:16,815 --> 00:31:19,934
non asphalt, non cement curbs and some roads

864
00:31:19,934 --> 00:31:20,835
that were basically,

865
00:31:21,295 --> 00:31:22,815
you know, that some of the worst roads

866
00:31:22,815 --> 00:31:23,474
in America.

867
00:31:24,335 --> 00:31:26,414
And he grew up in that neighborhood. This

868
00:31:26,414 --> 00:31:28,919
is a neighborhood that that for a while,

869
00:31:28,919 --> 00:31:31,240
the peace corps trained people here. He told

870
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:33,880
me stories about the that instead of sending

871
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:36,059
people down to Latin America to some

872
00:31:36,359 --> 00:31:38,619
country, they would train right in San Antonio

873
00:31:38,679 --> 00:31:40,839
in the Hispanic community, you know, so you

874
00:31:40,839 --> 00:31:42,299
had a lot of Spanish speaking,

875
00:31:42,625 --> 00:31:43,605
and they would actually

876
00:31:43,984 --> 00:31:46,224
use that as a sort of training center.

877
00:31:46,224 --> 00:31:48,304
And this is way before me, but he'd

878
00:31:48,304 --> 00:31:49,605
tell the story about it.

879
00:31:49,984 --> 00:31:52,384
And so I was intrigued because he would

880
00:31:52,384 --> 00:31:53,845
also go into the

881
00:31:54,144 --> 00:31:56,484
Northside Anglo business community,

882
00:31:56,865 --> 00:31:58,440
basically make the same

883
00:31:59,319 --> 00:32:01,559
speech but change words. You know, instead of

884
00:32:01,559 --> 00:32:04,460
talking about jobs, he's talking about economic development,

885
00:32:04,599 --> 00:32:06,940
and he would use he he would customize

886
00:32:07,159 --> 00:32:09,079
the speech, but the theme of the speech

887
00:32:09,079 --> 00:32:10,779
was the exact same thing.

888
00:32:11,154 --> 00:32:13,075
And that's not what you saw a lot

889
00:32:13,075 --> 00:32:15,154
of politicians doing now, and you don't see

890
00:32:15,154 --> 00:32:17,714
now, where now it's division. It's red meat.

891
00:32:17,714 --> 00:32:19,015
You know, we you fight,

892
00:32:19,394 --> 00:32:21,815
and it we talked about why we're different.

893
00:32:22,115 --> 00:32:24,539
He talked about how we're the same. Yeah.

894
00:32:24,539 --> 00:32:26,700
And he talked about how we're similar, not

895
00:32:26,700 --> 00:32:28,940
how we're different. And he brought our community

896
00:32:28,940 --> 00:32:30,559
together, and here was a

897
00:32:31,019 --> 00:32:31,519
perceived

898
00:32:32,059 --> 00:32:33,039
liberal democrat

899
00:32:33,340 --> 00:32:35,940
mayor. And I say perceived because when you

900
00:32:35,940 --> 00:32:37,660
when you really get into it, he was

901
00:32:37,660 --> 00:32:38,960
really middle of the road.

902
00:32:39,285 --> 00:32:40,585
Doctor Henry Kissinger

903
00:32:41,125 --> 00:32:44,025
and vice president George H. W. Bush

904
00:32:44,644 --> 00:32:46,965
came to San Antonio and tried to convince

905
00:32:46,965 --> 00:32:48,265
him to become a republican,

906
00:32:48,884 --> 00:32:51,684
while Henry was on the Kissinger commission about,

907
00:32:52,005 --> 00:32:54,664
what was going on with Central America.

908
00:32:55,180 --> 00:32:56,000
And so

909
00:32:56,539 --> 00:32:59,839
but Henry really focused about how the commonality

910
00:33:00,299 --> 00:33:02,299
of people, not unlike the way on the

911
00:33:02,299 --> 00:33:05,180
Republican side, Jack Kemp did. And and it's

912
00:33:05,180 --> 00:33:05,680
interesting

913
00:33:06,380 --> 00:33:08,080
that they were back to back secretaries

914
00:33:08,539 --> 00:33:10,815
of of HUD, you know, and and Jack

915
00:33:10,815 --> 00:33:11,315
Kemp

916
00:33:11,615 --> 00:33:14,095
on the Republicans. And he's as current was

917
00:33:14,095 --> 00:33:14,595
conservative

918
00:33:14,894 --> 00:33:17,075
as can possibly be,

919
00:33:17,775 --> 00:33:19,555
but he talked about the commonality

920
00:33:19,934 --> 00:33:21,615
and and needing it to work. And if

921
00:33:21,615 --> 00:33:24,515
you look at speeches of Henry and Jack,

922
00:33:25,359 --> 00:33:27,200
it's incredibly, you read the speech and it

923
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:28,960
goes, all right, who's the Republican, who's the

924
00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:31,039
Democrat. But, but when you know them, you

925
00:33:31,039 --> 00:33:33,119
know, one's on the left, one's on the

926
00:33:33,119 --> 00:33:36,480
right, but, but they talked about commonality. And

927
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:38,855
I think if I remember correctly, if I

928
00:33:38,855 --> 00:33:40,775
remember correctly, I think they wrote a book

929
00:33:40,775 --> 00:33:42,955
together after they both were secretaries.

930
00:33:43,494 --> 00:33:45,095
I may be wrong about that. I may

931
00:33:45,095 --> 00:33:46,535
have a bad memory on it, but I

932
00:33:46,535 --> 00:33:47,914
think they wrote a book together.

933
00:33:48,215 --> 00:33:51,015
But their styles were so similar. And Henley

934
00:33:51,015 --> 00:33:52,775
is to the left of me, there's no

935
00:33:52,775 --> 00:33:54,730
doubt about it. But there was so much

936
00:33:54,730 --> 00:33:56,890
we had in common that we do. So

937
00:33:56,890 --> 00:33:58,650
that's who I wanted to work for as

938
00:33:58,650 --> 00:33:59,630
my first job.

939
00:34:00,089 --> 00:34:02,890
So I started writing him letters and begging

940
00:34:02,890 --> 00:34:04,029
him to go.

941
00:34:04,410 --> 00:34:06,730
And then, I wrote him a letter finally,

942
00:34:06,730 --> 00:34:07,605
because he wasn't

943
00:34:08,085 --> 00:34:10,085
he was I found once I started working

944
00:34:10,085 --> 00:34:11,364
for him, I found out it's because he

945
00:34:11,364 --> 00:34:13,284
got a bat mailbag of mail every day,

946
00:34:13,284 --> 00:34:15,364
and he would just been on 60 minutes

947
00:34:15,364 --> 00:34:15,864
featured.

948
00:34:16,324 --> 00:34:18,324
And, and it was like 3 mailbags a

949
00:34:18,324 --> 00:34:20,969
day, literally back this is before email and

950
00:34:21,210 --> 00:34:23,130
electronic phones, cell phones, so even get so

951
00:34:23,130 --> 00:34:24,809
much mail, and I didn't know it just

952
00:34:24,809 --> 00:34:26,570
when it came through. And then I wrote

953
00:34:26,570 --> 00:34:27,309
him a note,

954
00:34:27,849 --> 00:34:30,090
and I I was a a finalist to

955
00:34:30,090 --> 00:34:32,570
be a Rhodes Scholar. And, I was going

956
00:34:32,570 --> 00:34:35,150
to Houston, my my senior year

957
00:34:35,694 --> 00:34:37,934
to for a final interview for the Rhodes

958
00:34:37,934 --> 00:34:39,855
Scholar Program. And I wrote him a note,

959
00:34:39,855 --> 00:34:40,674
and I said,

960
00:34:41,775 --> 00:34:42,275
Henry,

961
00:34:42,815 --> 00:34:44,894
I'm going to Houston. I literally wrote I

962
00:34:44,894 --> 00:34:46,414
think it was something like, Henry, I'm going

963
00:34:46,414 --> 00:34:48,094
to Houston to be, you know, for a

964
00:34:48,094 --> 00:34:50,835
Rhodes Scholarship finalist, period, new paragraph.

965
00:34:51,369 --> 00:34:53,130
If you'll hire me, I won't go to

966
00:34:53,130 --> 00:34:55,050
the interview. I won't go to the Rhodes

967
00:34:55,050 --> 00:34:55,949
Scholar interview.

968
00:34:56,730 --> 00:34:58,109
And that guy somehow,

969
00:34:58,489 --> 00:35:00,650
somebody read it and it got bubbled up.

970
00:35:00,650 --> 00:35:01,210
And then,

971
00:35:01,929 --> 00:35:02,989
so, and

972
00:35:03,929 --> 00:35:05,985
and my dad joined us for the the

973
00:35:05,985 --> 00:35:08,244
lunch. He he said, I wanna meet somebody

974
00:35:08,385 --> 00:35:09,825
who wants to say he wants to work

975
00:35:09,825 --> 00:35:11,204
for me or a Rhodes Scholar.

976
00:35:11,664 --> 00:35:13,925
And so so we literally visited,

977
00:35:14,465 --> 00:35:14,704
and,

978
00:35:15,345 --> 00:35:16,945
he said, so tell me about you, what

979
00:35:16,945 --> 00:35:18,865
you're doing. And I happened at that time

980
00:35:18,865 --> 00:35:20,785
to be part of the Choral fellowship, which

981
00:35:20,785 --> 00:35:23,880
is a great learning thing for people just

982
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:24,859
right out of college,

983
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,260
and I happen to be working in Watts.

984
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:29,400
And Henry made a comment in in our

985
00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:31,559
thing. He says, so what's it like for

986
00:35:31,559 --> 00:35:33,559
somebody that looks like you working in Watts

987
00:35:33,559 --> 00:35:35,984
and the Watts riots there. And I and

988
00:35:35,984 --> 00:35:37,664
it was this funny thing. I said, Henry,

989
00:35:37,664 --> 00:35:38,565
I gotta stop

990
00:35:39,025 --> 00:35:40,164
you. In the community,

991
00:35:40,545 --> 00:35:42,784
they don't call it Watts riots. They call

992
00:35:42,784 --> 00:35:43,924
it the Watts neighborhood

993
00:35:44,304 --> 00:35:45,525
where riots occurred.

994
00:35:45,824 --> 00:35:46,324
And

995
00:35:46,625 --> 00:35:47,125
and

996
00:35:47,824 --> 00:35:50,269
he goes he said and he goes, when

997
00:35:50,269 --> 00:35:52,589
do you graduate? And, and I like it.

998
00:35:52,589 --> 00:35:54,690
So it is following me. And I said,

999
00:35:54,829 --> 00:35:56,510
I wanna work for you. And he said,

1000
00:35:56,510 --> 00:35:58,349
I don't really have a job for you

1001
00:35:58,349 --> 00:36:00,989
at all, but I'll hire you, you know,

1002
00:36:00,989 --> 00:36:03,734
and you'll you and and I literally started

1003
00:36:03,734 --> 00:36:06,054
answering those mailbags for for about 3 months.

1004
00:36:06,054 --> 00:36:07,914
I was on mailbag duty, literally,

1005
00:36:08,534 --> 00:36:10,134
and he gave me some great advice. He

1006
00:36:10,134 --> 00:36:12,054
said, now you go do that Rhodes Scholar

1007
00:36:12,054 --> 00:36:13,974
interview, and if you get the Rhodes Scholar,

1008
00:36:13,974 --> 00:36:15,974
let's talk about that. That might be a

1009
00:36:15,974 --> 00:36:18,539
different path for you. Well, I didn't I

1010
00:36:18,539 --> 00:36:20,059
didn't make the I was on the final

1011
00:36:20,059 --> 00:36:21,900
list or whatever, but I didn't I didn't

1012
00:36:21,900 --> 00:36:23,420
get picked. I later got picked as a

1013
00:36:23,420 --> 00:36:24,860
White House fellow, but not a I did

1014
00:36:24,860 --> 00:36:26,780
not get picked as a Rhodes Scholar. When

1015
00:36:26,780 --> 00:36:29,360
you were at the White House, which administration

1016
00:36:29,500 --> 00:36:31,500
did you come into? I I worked for

1017
00:36:31,500 --> 00:36:32,914
the h w Bush

1018
00:36:33,695 --> 00:36:35,535
administration. Got it. And but you you worked

1019
00:36:35,535 --> 00:36:36,594
through 3 administrations

1020
00:36:36,894 --> 00:36:37,394
total?

1021
00:36:37,775 --> 00:36:40,114
Yeah. I I worked for h w Bush

1022
00:36:40,175 --> 00:36:42,515
and was White House fellow, and then I

1023
00:36:42,735 --> 00:36:45,295
went on to campaign side and helped on

1024
00:36:45,295 --> 00:36:46,434
the campaign side

1025
00:36:46,829 --> 00:36:48,110
a lot and helped on a lot of

1026
00:36:48,110 --> 00:36:50,030
stuff they were doing in Texas. So that

1027
00:36:50,030 --> 00:36:51,969
was with h w, the father,

1028
00:36:52,269 --> 00:36:54,670
president Trump, and as the they they call

1029
00:36:54,670 --> 00:36:56,289
it the federal homelessness czar

1030
00:36:56,590 --> 00:36:59,125
was what Ronald Reagan deemed the job. They

1031
00:36:59,125 --> 00:37:01,605
didn't have czars though in the in president

1032
00:37:01,605 --> 00:37:04,485
Trump's administration, did they? They had people that

1033
00:37:04,485 --> 00:37:07,605
it had jobs that my formal title was

1034
00:37:07,605 --> 00:37:10,425
the executive director of the US interagency

1035
00:37:10,805 --> 00:37:11,864
council on homelessness.

1036
00:37:12,369 --> 00:37:13,969
And then the media people said, well, that's

1037
00:37:13,969 --> 00:37:15,909
why they call you a czar. Yeah.

1038
00:37:16,769 --> 00:37:17,010
Right.

1039
00:37:17,570 --> 00:37:20,369
Ronald Reagan created the first three czars and

1040
00:37:20,369 --> 00:37:22,530
the homelessness was one of those 3. And

1041
00:37:22,530 --> 00:37:24,309
then I think the peak was

1042
00:37:24,795 --> 00:37:25,614
president Obama

1043
00:37:25,914 --> 00:37:28,315
and George Bush, the son, both had up

1044
00:37:28,315 --> 00:37:31,034
to, like, 26 or 27. I that if

1045
00:37:31,194 --> 00:37:32,635
one day, I went to look at what

1046
00:37:32,795 --> 00:37:34,474
who what are all the czars that, you

1047
00:37:34,474 --> 00:37:36,474
know, they've had a, you know, czar in

1048
00:37:36,474 --> 00:37:38,014
Iraq, a czar in Afghanistan,

1049
00:37:38,394 --> 00:37:40,329
a czar in this and such. That's never

1050
00:37:40,329 --> 00:37:42,409
your formal title, but it's what everybody calls

1051
00:37:42,409 --> 00:37:44,589
you. They'll even call you that inside administration.

1052
00:37:45,210 --> 00:37:46,730
And then I was one of a handful

1053
00:37:46,730 --> 00:37:48,989
of people who carried through,

1054
00:37:49,289 --> 00:37:51,469
you know, from the transition to president,

1055
00:37:52,025 --> 00:37:55,144
Biden served there very briefly until they he

1056
00:37:55,144 --> 00:37:57,625
got his team in and such. And so

1057
00:37:57,625 --> 00:37:59,545
those are the 3 I was under payroll,

1058
00:37:59,545 --> 00:38:01,085
and and I've worked for

1059
00:38:01,625 --> 00:38:03,945
4, I guess, 3 or 4 others on

1060
00:38:03,945 --> 00:38:05,244
doing different projects

1061
00:38:05,550 --> 00:38:07,390
at times where I've been called in and,

1062
00:38:07,390 --> 00:38:08,989
you know, can you help us on something?

1063
00:38:08,989 --> 00:38:10,130
You know, pure voluntary

1064
00:38:10,910 --> 00:38:11,809
type of projects.

1065
00:38:12,110 --> 00:38:14,050
What was it that brought you into

1066
00:38:14,670 --> 00:38:16,530
wanting to work with

1067
00:38:17,150 --> 00:38:19,650
figuring out answers for the homelessness

1068
00:38:20,065 --> 00:38:22,304
issue in America other than the fact that

1069
00:38:22,304 --> 00:38:22,804
it's,

1070
00:38:23,585 --> 00:38:24,804
there's so many.

1071
00:38:25,344 --> 00:38:27,765
In my youth group at church,

1072
00:38:28,465 --> 00:38:30,485
we had been very involved

1073
00:38:31,344 --> 00:38:33,605
with all the way back in high school,

1074
00:38:34,144 --> 00:38:34,885
on homelessness.

1075
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:37,539
And we had had a really tragic,

1076
00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:39,460
incident where

1077
00:38:40,559 --> 00:38:43,460
a homeless person died at the doorstep

1078
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,140
of our church

1079
00:38:45,679 --> 00:38:46,579
on a Sunday.

1080
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:48,820
It it had either sort of a combination

1081
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:51,114
of it was below freezing. I think it

1082
00:38:51,114 --> 00:38:52,654
was about 22 degrees,

1083
00:38:53,114 --> 00:38:55,295
probably his age, bad nutrition,

1084
00:38:55,594 --> 00:38:57,275
and he was found at the doorstep. And

1085
00:38:57,275 --> 00:38:58,815
our pastor came in

1086
00:38:59,434 --> 00:39:01,755
to that sermon day and said, we're not

1087
00:39:01,755 --> 00:39:04,139
gonna have this happen again. We are going

1088
00:39:04,139 --> 00:39:05,579
to set up our church. You know, he

1089
00:39:05,579 --> 00:39:07,739
basically threw out the sermon and said, we're

1090
00:39:07,739 --> 00:39:10,460
gonna it was almost on the spot and

1091
00:39:10,460 --> 00:39:12,539
said, we're gonna do this. So our whole

1092
00:39:12,539 --> 00:39:14,859
church got into this. And I was just

1093
00:39:14,859 --> 00:39:17,339
an average, you know, person in youth group

1094
00:39:17,339 --> 00:39:18,000
at church,

1095
00:39:19,005 --> 00:39:20,224
and we got involved

1096
00:39:20,525 --> 00:39:22,844
and I eventually because I traveled a lot

1097
00:39:22,844 --> 00:39:25,264
later as an adult, my specialty became

1098
00:39:25,565 --> 00:39:26,065
toiletries.

1099
00:39:26,364 --> 00:39:28,545
And so I was in charge of gathering

1100
00:39:29,005 --> 00:39:30,989
toiletries, and I would go out and make

1101
00:39:31,230 --> 00:39:33,630
speeches at, you know, moments for missions at

1102
00:39:33,630 --> 00:39:35,429
church. I said, whenever I traveled, you know,

1103
00:39:35,429 --> 00:39:37,150
it was before 9:11, you know, back when

1104
00:39:37,150 --> 00:39:39,309
you had these, you know, little 3 ounce

1105
00:39:39,309 --> 00:39:41,809
things and 4 ounces, I'd go out and

1106
00:39:42,110 --> 00:39:43,630
I'd say, hey, for those of you who

1107
00:39:43,630 --> 00:39:44,130
travel,

1108
00:39:44,664 --> 00:39:46,904
grab all the little toiletry things, bring them,

1109
00:39:46,904 --> 00:39:48,744
pile them up. And so I'd gather them.

1110
00:39:48,744 --> 00:39:50,184
So that way they didn't pay any money

1111
00:39:50,184 --> 00:39:52,744
for soap or laundry or or, you know,

1112
00:39:52,744 --> 00:39:55,625
Q tips and feminine hygiene, etcetera. So we

1113
00:39:55,625 --> 00:39:57,920
would gather that and donate it. So I

1114
00:39:57,920 --> 00:39:59,759
became that, that was sort of my niche.

1115
00:39:59,759 --> 00:40:01,539
I did that for 4 or 5 years.

1116
00:40:01,599 --> 00:40:04,019
I went away to college, came back, held,

1117
00:40:04,319 --> 00:40:06,079
went away to the white house, came back

1118
00:40:06,079 --> 00:40:08,079
and help, went away another time.

1119
00:40:08,719 --> 00:40:10,960
Sorry. I worked on the hill first as

1120
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:13,894
a intern thing, then later went back as

1121
00:40:14,114 --> 00:40:15,015
at the White House.

1122
00:40:15,394 --> 00:40:17,315
And so I went away 3 different times

1123
00:40:17,315 --> 00:40:19,235
and came back 3 times, and I was

1124
00:40:19,235 --> 00:40:20,215
very struck

1125
00:40:21,074 --> 00:40:21,574
by

1126
00:40:21,875 --> 00:40:22,934
the homeless community

1127
00:40:23,555 --> 00:40:25,635
was the same every time I went away.

1128
00:40:25,635 --> 00:40:27,400
And I recognize some of the same people,

1129
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:28,840
some of the people I knew names. I

1130
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:30,920
said, George, you're still here. Why why I

1131
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:32,199
thought we were trying to help you on

1132
00:40:32,199 --> 00:40:33,900
a job. You know,

1133
00:40:34,199 --> 00:40:37,179
and I was just sort of first fascinated

1134
00:40:37,400 --> 00:40:39,739
by getting to know people at an individual

1135
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:41,715
level, and then I left. And so it

1136
00:40:41,715 --> 00:40:44,195
gave me a much more pronounced sort of

1137
00:40:44,195 --> 00:40:46,755
snapshot than a year later or 2 years

1138
00:40:46,755 --> 00:40:49,235
or 3 or 4 come back and see

1139
00:40:49,235 --> 00:40:50,135
the same people,

1140
00:40:50,434 --> 00:40:51,494
see some new people.

1141
00:40:51,875 --> 00:40:53,255
And then the only people

1142
00:40:53,579 --> 00:40:55,579
I didn't see again, I said, what happened

1143
00:40:55,579 --> 00:40:57,680
to Lisa? You know, what happened to Jorge?

1144
00:40:58,460 --> 00:40:59,760
They died on the street.

1145
00:41:00,300 --> 00:41:03,200
And the only people I saw exiting homelessness

1146
00:41:03,420 --> 00:41:04,880
were people who were dying.

1147
00:41:05,514 --> 00:41:07,994
And and that would just really struck me.

1148
00:41:07,994 --> 00:41:10,074
So that was just a pure observation as

1149
00:41:10,074 --> 00:41:11,934
a volunteer on the street, nothing

1150
00:41:12,635 --> 00:41:14,175
scientific about it, just

1151
00:41:14,474 --> 00:41:17,034
the same people go away, and I come

1152
00:41:17,034 --> 00:41:19,150
back, and it was and I'd bring this

1153
00:41:19,150 --> 00:41:21,150
up to people, but other people were there

1154
00:41:21,150 --> 00:41:22,050
sort of volunteering

1155
00:41:22,349 --> 00:41:23,090
every day.

1156
00:41:23,469 --> 00:41:25,469
They'd never noticed it. You know, they're much

1157
00:41:25,469 --> 00:41:27,469
more like the, you know, the lobsters and

1158
00:41:27,469 --> 00:41:29,390
the boiling pot, you know? And so they're

1159
00:41:29,390 --> 00:41:31,230
there and not noticing it where I I'd

1160
00:41:31,230 --> 00:41:32,590
go away and come back. And it was

1161
00:41:32,590 --> 00:41:33,409
so shocking

1162
00:41:33,914 --> 00:41:35,914
that the only people who were no longer

1163
00:41:35,914 --> 00:41:38,175
in the street had passed on, who died,

1164
00:41:38,315 --> 00:41:39,054
passed away.

1165
00:41:39,675 --> 00:41:41,594
I started thinking, you know, I come out

1166
00:41:41,594 --> 00:41:43,035
of a community of faith. So I was

1167
00:41:43,035 --> 00:41:44,954
thinking about it sort of that response, but

1168
00:41:44,954 --> 00:41:47,300
I had also was very fortunate to go

1169
00:41:47,300 --> 00:41:49,780
to the Claremont Graduate School is now known

1170
00:41:49,780 --> 00:41:50,920
as the Peter Trucker,

1171
00:41:52,340 --> 00:41:52,840
school,

1172
00:41:53,219 --> 00:41:55,800
at the Claremont Colleges where the the famous

1173
00:41:55,940 --> 00:41:56,440
management

1174
00:41:56,739 --> 00:41:59,844
guru and I and I one day was

1175
00:41:59,844 --> 00:42:02,565
literally caught in this conversation with a city

1176
00:42:02,565 --> 00:42:03,465
council person.

1177
00:42:04,085 --> 00:42:06,805
And I I sort of said, what would

1178
00:42:06,805 --> 00:42:07,465
what would,

1179
00:42:08,324 --> 00:42:11,545
Peter Drecker do at a systems management level,

1180
00:42:11,750 --> 00:42:13,589
and what would Max Lucado do at a

1181
00:42:13,589 --> 00:42:15,849
faith level? You know, who's, you know,

1182
00:42:16,389 --> 00:42:18,010
New York Times 150,000,000

1183
00:42:18,630 --> 00:42:20,309
books sold, and I was like and he's

1184
00:42:20,309 --> 00:42:22,069
a pastor in San Antonio. I said, so

1185
00:42:22,069 --> 00:42:24,710
what would the Peter Drecker and Max Lucado

1186
00:42:24,710 --> 00:42:26,389
do if they sat down together? You know

1187
00:42:26,389 --> 00:42:27,644
what? At this point, Max,

1188
00:42:28,125 --> 00:42:30,144
or Peter Drucker had passed on, but,

1189
00:42:30,684 --> 00:42:32,765
I was like, what would those 2 guys

1190
00:42:32,765 --> 00:42:34,445
if you took them to lunch and say,

1191
00:42:34,445 --> 00:42:36,364
alright. You got one topic today. What would

1192
00:42:36,364 --> 00:42:37,425
you do on homeless

1193
00:42:38,045 --> 00:42:40,224
and what they think? And I kept saying,

1194
00:42:40,599 --> 00:42:42,760
we don't have any systems on this. We

1195
00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:45,079
don't have any measurements. We're not working on

1196
00:42:45,079 --> 00:42:46,059
the root causes.

1197
00:42:46,599 --> 00:42:48,760
People don't even know what the root causes

1198
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:50,300
of homeless were. And so

1199
00:42:50,679 --> 00:42:52,760
what, what I found was we were in

1200
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:53,420
a glorified

1201
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:56,065
bandaid giving practice. We give you a little

1202
00:42:56,065 --> 00:42:58,065
food, give you a little toiletries, give you

1203
00:42:58,065 --> 00:42:58,965
a little sleeping,

1204
00:42:59,425 --> 00:43:00,644
give you a little respite,

1205
00:43:01,025 --> 00:43:02,625
and put you on a cot, you know,

1206
00:43:02,625 --> 00:43:04,244
the old 3 hots and a cot.

1207
00:43:04,704 --> 00:43:07,199
And it and I kept sort of coming

1208
00:43:07,199 --> 00:43:09,359
back. What what what would the heart of

1209
00:43:09,359 --> 00:43:11,119
of Max Cicato and what would the brain

1210
00:43:11,119 --> 00:43:12,579
of Peter Drucker say

1211
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:14,659
on how to handle this?

1212
00:43:15,039 --> 00:43:17,199
And it it I I sort of was

1213
00:43:17,199 --> 00:43:19,440
walking through knowing both of them and, you

1214
00:43:19,440 --> 00:43:21,599
know, reading both of them and and knowing,

1215
00:43:21,599 --> 00:43:23,601
you know, both in person or watching in

1216
00:43:23,601 --> 00:43:24,614
person, and then started going down. I was

1217
00:43:24,614 --> 00:43:25,575
like, it's pretty much, they would do everything

1218
00:43:25,575 --> 00:43:26,308
we're not doing, and they wouldn't be doing

1219
00:43:26,308 --> 00:43:28,235
anything we would be doing. And so the,

1220
00:43:28,695 --> 00:43:30,695
the old management question, what are we doing

1221
00:43:30,695 --> 00:43:32,875
right? And we should keep doing,

1222
00:43:38,429 --> 00:43:40,670
what are we doing wrong and not then

1223
00:43:40,670 --> 00:43:41,489
should discontinue.

1224
00:43:42,269 --> 00:43:43,630
And what are we not doing? You know,

1225
00:43:43,630 --> 00:43:46,030
those 3, if you ask those 3 questions

1226
00:43:46,030 --> 00:43:48,349
in any systems that will get you to

1227
00:43:48,349 --> 00:43:49,329
solving stuff.

1228
00:43:49,789 --> 00:43:51,855
And that was when I came back that

1229
00:43:52,014 --> 00:43:52,835
second time,

1230
00:43:53,135 --> 00:43:54,574
or the 3rd time it came back, but

1231
00:43:54,574 --> 00:43:56,175
when I came back from the White House,

1232
00:43:56,175 --> 00:43:56,914
I said,

1233
00:43:57,215 --> 00:43:58,974
this is not the way we should be

1234
00:43:58,974 --> 00:44:01,534
doing that. And that becomes the impetus of

1235
00:44:01,534 --> 00:44:03,074
forming Haven For Hope.

1236
00:44:03,454 --> 00:44:06,355
And it basically is, in very simple terms,

1237
00:44:06,630 --> 00:44:08,650
find out what the root causes are,

1238
00:44:08,949 --> 00:44:11,449
customize solutions to address the root causes.

1239
00:44:11,829 --> 00:44:14,230
Don't do one side fits all that the

1240
00:44:14,230 --> 00:44:16,250
federal government's notorious for.

1241
00:44:16,789 --> 00:44:19,364
Don't do stuff where you assume what the

1242
00:44:19,364 --> 00:44:22,485
root causes are, actually do real research in

1243
00:44:22,485 --> 00:44:23,304
your community

1244
00:44:24,005 --> 00:44:24,744
so that

1245
00:44:25,125 --> 00:44:26,184
Robert, Lisa,

1246
00:44:26,485 --> 00:44:26,985
Jorge,

1247
00:44:27,364 --> 00:44:27,864
Jesus,

1248
00:44:28,244 --> 00:44:28,744
Jonathan,

1249
00:44:29,125 --> 00:44:31,750
what's their real need and how do we

1250
00:44:31,750 --> 00:44:34,309
fit that need? And that's where, you you

1251
00:44:34,309 --> 00:44:36,950
know, with with, Bill Grie is our chair,

1252
00:44:36,950 --> 00:44:39,269
and he was chair for 22 years or

1253
00:44:39,269 --> 00:44:41,110
so at Haven For Hope. I was the

1254
00:44:41,110 --> 00:44:43,130
founding president for First 5.

1255
00:44:43,594 --> 00:44:45,914
That was our thing. And and we also

1256
00:44:45,914 --> 00:44:46,734
had a theme

1257
00:44:47,275 --> 00:44:49,275
that we we call it come as you

1258
00:44:49,275 --> 00:44:52,074
are. And, you know, if a person of

1259
00:44:52,074 --> 00:44:55,034
faith is come as you are, we god

1260
00:44:55,034 --> 00:44:57,114
loves you. We love you as you are.

1261
00:44:57,114 --> 00:45:00,139
We accept you no matter what as you

1262
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:01,099
are, but

1263
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:03,400
we love you too much. God loves you

1264
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:05,880
too much to let you stay the way

1265
00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:08,359
you are. And we're going to create an

1266
00:45:08,359 --> 00:45:08,859
environment

1267
00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:13,614
customized to your needs, to do everything possible

1268
00:45:13,614 --> 00:45:14,994
to get you out of homelessness.

1269
00:45:15,855 --> 00:45:18,574
And that's what our design of Haven for

1270
00:45:18,574 --> 00:45:21,375
Hope became, and now has been replicated more

1271
00:45:21,375 --> 00:45:23,074
and more and more around the country,

1272
00:45:23,454 --> 00:45:25,315
is being adopted more and more.

1273
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:28,199
I've been doing that for about 15 years,

1274
00:45:28,199 --> 00:45:30,360
20 years, and then they came across the

1275
00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:31,099
no address,

1276
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:34,519
group and and the artist for change, and

1277
00:45:34,519 --> 00:45:36,360
that was when I said, oh, we we

1278
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:39,385
we need to, like, bring these efforts together

1279
00:45:40,164 --> 00:45:42,724
and and really talk about this. And and

1280
00:45:42,724 --> 00:45:43,465
we really

1281
00:45:44,324 --> 00:45:46,644
and what we found is the good news

1282
00:45:46,644 --> 00:45:48,824
is there are many communities in America,

1283
00:45:49,364 --> 00:45:50,900
in spite of what's going on in the

1284
00:45:50,900 --> 00:45:53,800
nation, dramatically drop homeless by 85%

1285
00:45:54,740 --> 00:45:57,220
street level homeless, and keep it down for

1286
00:45:57,220 --> 00:45:58,119
over a decade.

1287
00:45:58,500 --> 00:46:00,579
And, and we know how to do this,

1288
00:46:00,579 --> 00:46:03,000
but it's not a one size fits all.

1289
00:46:03,140 --> 00:46:04,760
We don't focus on housing.

1290
00:46:05,474 --> 00:46:08,035
Housing is an important part of it, but

1291
00:46:08,035 --> 00:46:10,355
it can't be housing alone, and there's a

1292
00:46:10,355 --> 00:46:12,114
reason you lost a house in the first

1293
00:46:12,114 --> 00:46:14,675
place, so let's address that before we get

1294
00:46:14,675 --> 00:46:16,515
you in a house a second time so

1295
00:46:16,515 --> 00:46:17,575
that it sticks.

1296
00:46:18,079 --> 00:46:20,719
Street level homeless, and there are 10 different

1297
00:46:20,719 --> 00:46:22,800
types of homelessness in America, but there there

1298
00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:25,199
are 2 that are street level homeless, sometimes

1299
00:46:25,199 --> 00:46:27,460
called street level homeless, unhoused homelessness.

1300
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:29,519
There are a lot of terms, but at

1301
00:46:29,519 --> 00:46:30,579
a HUD and 650,000

1302
00:46:31,519 --> 00:46:33,894
people in that group, by the way, it's

1303
00:46:33,894 --> 00:46:35,914
doubling every 5 years now.

1304
00:46:36,375 --> 00:46:38,155
But if you look in that group,

1305
00:46:38,615 --> 00:46:39,115
75%

1306
00:46:39,894 --> 00:46:42,315
have severe substance use issues

1307
00:46:42,695 --> 00:46:43,434
and 75%

1308
00:46:43,974 --> 00:46:46,780
have untreated mental illness, And that was determined

1309
00:46:46,780 --> 00:46:49,039
by the University of Berkeley and UCLA

1310
00:46:49,900 --> 00:46:50,960
of of analyzing

1311
00:46:51,579 --> 00:46:52,079
medical,

1312
00:46:53,179 --> 00:46:55,839
and report charts and such and self identification

1313
00:46:56,139 --> 00:46:57,119
from 64,000

1314
00:46:57,819 --> 00:47:00,724
people on the street, not 4,000, not 3,000,

1315
00:47:00,944 --> 00:47:02,644
not a 150 or 64,

1316
00:47:04,784 --> 00:47:06,484
64,000. And that's where

1317
00:47:06,784 --> 00:47:09,764
we've really come. If we don't treat homelessness,

1318
00:47:10,144 --> 00:47:13,045
housing doesn't stick. If you don't treat homelessness,

1319
00:47:13,344 --> 00:47:15,460
you won't get out of it. Everything I

1320
00:47:15,460 --> 00:47:17,800
was doing before has only been exacerbated

1321
00:47:18,180 --> 00:47:19,800
with the introduction of methamphetamine

1322
00:47:20,739 --> 00:47:23,380
and Fentanyl. And anybody who says, oh, we

1323
00:47:23,380 --> 00:47:25,219
can give you a house, that's why the

1324
00:47:25,219 --> 00:47:27,860
death rate has doubled in California in just

1325
00:47:27,860 --> 00:47:31,125
the last 25 months, because we're giving people

1326
00:47:31,264 --> 00:47:31,764
rooms,

1327
00:47:32,065 --> 00:47:33,284
hotel rooms mostly,

1328
00:47:33,664 --> 00:47:34,884
and they die in there.

1329
00:47:35,424 --> 00:47:37,984
Because they weren't they didn't get treatment before

1330
00:47:37,984 --> 00:47:39,984
and they overdose, and the death rate has

1331
00:47:39,984 --> 00:47:41,204
doubled. And JAMA,

1332
00:47:41,599 --> 00:47:43,679
you know, the medical journal did a case

1333
00:47:43,679 --> 00:47:45,059
study in the 1st year,

1334
00:47:45,599 --> 00:47:48,659
from the moment COVID did in San Francisco,

1335
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:51,280
and the death rate over doubled, and it

1336
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:53,360
was they were using it as a as

1337
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:55,300
a test case for all of California,

1338
00:47:55,679 --> 00:47:56,500
over doubled,

1339
00:47:56,825 --> 00:47:58,445
And if you read that article,

1340
00:47:58,744 --> 00:48:01,485
they say not one person died from COVID.

1341
00:48:02,505 --> 00:48:04,445
The increase was a 100%

1342
00:48:05,144 --> 00:48:06,204
caused by

1343
00:48:06,825 --> 00:48:07,325
overdose.

1344
00:48:07,704 --> 00:48:10,025
And now there's that that zombie drug and

1345
00:48:10,025 --> 00:48:11,405
then something called blues,

1346
00:48:11,760 --> 00:48:13,300
and all of those have

1347
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:14,500
quadrupled

1348
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:17,599
or even more in the past couple years.

1349
00:48:17,599 --> 00:48:18,659
And you bring up

1350
00:48:19,679 --> 00:48:22,000
as you're talking, I'm thinking this sounds more

1351
00:48:22,000 --> 00:48:24,159
like the teach Amanda fish instead of give

1352
00:48:24,159 --> 00:48:25,059
Amanda fish

1353
00:48:25,599 --> 00:48:26,099
model,

1354
00:48:26,684 --> 00:48:27,905
but it's

1355
00:48:28,765 --> 00:48:31,405
it's certainly clear that this country has a

1356
00:48:31,405 --> 00:48:33,344
a massive mental health crisis

1357
00:48:33,885 --> 00:48:36,605
going on and a massive drug crisis going

1358
00:48:36,605 --> 00:48:38,525
on. And, of course, those things overlap because

1359
00:48:38,525 --> 00:48:39,664
people self medicate.

1360
00:48:40,469 --> 00:48:42,389
And when you hear somebody say, oh, well,

1361
00:48:42,389 --> 00:48:43,909
I'm not gonna give that guy $5 because

1362
00:48:43,909 --> 00:48:46,309
he's just gonna go drink, and, yeah, maybe

1363
00:48:46,309 --> 00:48:49,109
he is, but wouldn't you, kinda thing. But

1364
00:48:49,109 --> 00:48:50,889
there is a a definite

1365
00:48:53,190 --> 00:48:55,050
if if I'm interpreting this correctly,

1366
00:48:55,635 --> 00:48:56,375
you're saying

1367
00:48:56,755 --> 00:48:57,574
just providing

1368
00:48:58,034 --> 00:48:59,875
shelter is like a band aid for a

1369
00:48:59,875 --> 00:49:02,034
bullet hole. Yep. Losing the houses

1370
00:49:02,434 --> 00:49:04,835
if you look at an average person who

1371
00:49:04,994 --> 00:49:07,974
when you go listen to their individual stories,

1372
00:49:08,570 --> 00:49:10,329
losing the house is about the 8th or

1373
00:49:10,329 --> 00:49:12,269
9th traumatic thing that's happened.

1374
00:49:12,650 --> 00:49:14,829
The first thing is something traumatic happens

1375
00:49:15,369 --> 00:49:17,769
and they have untreated mental illness, and then

1376
00:49:17,769 --> 00:49:19,309
they start to self medicate.

1377
00:49:19,610 --> 00:49:22,510
And then suddenly they start missing their job.

1378
00:49:22,594 --> 00:49:25,154
They lose their family and friends. They start

1379
00:49:25,154 --> 00:49:27,635
couch surfing, burn through all that. Then they

1380
00:49:27,635 --> 00:49:29,554
burn through their credit card, blow their credit

1381
00:49:29,554 --> 00:49:31,894
card, lose their credit card, lose their housing.

1382
00:49:32,114 --> 00:49:33,795
Then they, by the way, they start to

1383
00:49:33,795 --> 00:49:36,375
lose their the last thing most people commonly

1384
00:49:36,434 --> 00:49:37,654
lose is their car,

1385
00:49:38,319 --> 00:49:40,639
except in the Northeast, because the transportation is

1386
00:49:40,639 --> 00:49:43,219
different. We could have called this car lessness.

1387
00:49:43,679 --> 00:49:46,319
If we don't start getting real serious about

1388
00:49:46,319 --> 00:49:48,900
untreated mental illness and substance use,

1389
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:51,760
they can't keep a job. If you don't

1390
00:49:51,760 --> 00:49:54,135
have a job, you don't have money, you

1391
00:49:54,135 --> 00:49:55,815
can't pay your bills, you can't pay your

1392
00:49:55,815 --> 00:49:57,894
rent, you can't pay your gas. And so

1393
00:49:57,894 --> 00:50:00,215
then and then the whole cycle goes. I

1394
00:50:00,215 --> 00:50:02,135
found a small group. It may be 8,

1395
00:50:02,135 --> 00:50:04,855
9, 10 percent of homeless is maybe what

1396
00:50:04,855 --> 00:50:07,789
you would call recreational drug user. It

1397
00:50:08,170 --> 00:50:09,869
everybody else is

1398
00:50:10,250 --> 00:50:13,369
self medicating. Yeah. For sure. And your point

1399
00:50:13,369 --> 00:50:16,110
to self medicating is it. And so

1400
00:50:16,410 --> 00:50:19,369
in the United States, we gotta start getting

1401
00:50:19,369 --> 00:50:22,484
serious about untreated mental illness, And likewise,

1402
00:50:23,025 --> 00:50:25,744
the, this harm reduction movement, if you get

1403
00:50:25,744 --> 00:50:28,565
down and really dig into it, there's nothing

1404
00:50:28,625 --> 00:50:31,425
harmless about the harm reduction movement. It is

1405
00:50:31,425 --> 00:50:33,344
making things worse. And I know a lot

1406
00:50:33,344 --> 00:50:35,429
of people have different view, but could you

1407
00:50:35,429 --> 00:50:37,190
explain what that is? What it, what it

1408
00:50:37,190 --> 00:50:40,309
means? Reduction is this idea that basically says,

1409
00:50:40,309 --> 00:50:41,750
if you're going to drug, we're going to

1410
00:50:41,750 --> 00:50:44,710
still make it where you have the less

1411
00:50:44,710 --> 00:50:46,630
harm of you drugging. So we're going to

1412
00:50:46,630 --> 00:50:49,130
facilitate your drug use in a harmless

1413
00:50:49,429 --> 00:50:49,929
way,

1414
00:50:50,555 --> 00:50:52,815
which is nuts to me. Absolutely.

1415
00:50:53,355 --> 00:50:55,515
You mean like a, like a methadone clinic

1416
00:50:55,515 --> 00:50:56,255
type situation?

1417
00:50:57,115 --> 00:50:58,875
No. Much more like we'll give you a

1418
00:50:58,875 --> 00:50:59,615
clean needle.

1419
00:51:00,075 --> 00:51:02,635
So we're still letting you do, you do,

1420
00:51:02,635 --> 00:51:05,115
or, in San Francisco where they have a

1421
00:51:05,115 --> 00:51:07,079
safe consumption site and they give you the

1422
00:51:07,079 --> 00:51:09,179
foil, the straws, the pipe,

1423
00:51:09,639 --> 00:51:10,539
the the lighter,

1424
00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:13,079
then they set up Narcon there and doctors

1425
00:51:13,079 --> 00:51:15,159
in PA. And I'll put it in the

1426
00:51:15,159 --> 00:51:16,380
simplest way.

1427
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:18,779
The American policy now

1428
00:51:19,135 --> 00:51:21,295
has made it easy to get high and

1429
00:51:21,295 --> 00:51:22,434
hard to get treatment.

1430
00:51:23,295 --> 00:51:24,114
And instead

1431
00:51:24,575 --> 00:51:26,494
we need to be making it easy to

1432
00:51:26,494 --> 00:51:29,055
get treatment and hard to get high. And

1433
00:51:29,055 --> 00:51:32,675
until we change that, the drug problem crisis

1434
00:51:32,815 --> 00:51:33,315
that

1435
00:51:34,190 --> 00:51:35,010
United States

1436
00:51:35,710 --> 00:51:36,530
over consumes

1437
00:51:36,829 --> 00:51:38,369
in most drug categories,

1438
00:51:38,910 --> 00:51:41,390
20 times of what the world average per

1439
00:51:41,390 --> 00:51:42,289
person is.

1440
00:51:42,590 --> 00:51:44,670
Some drugs are even higher than that. Some

1441
00:51:44,670 --> 00:51:46,990
are lower than that. We're about 3 to

1442
00:51:46,990 --> 00:51:49,635
4 or 5%, depending on how you, how

1443
00:51:49,635 --> 00:51:51,574
you count the population of the world.

1444
00:51:51,875 --> 00:51:54,534
And in many drug categories, we're 40%,

1445
00:51:54,914 --> 00:51:56,135
50%, 60%

1446
00:51:56,434 --> 00:51:58,295
of the user of the drug worldwide.

1447
00:51:59,155 --> 00:52:02,135
And that is nuts. We should be putting

1448
00:52:02,355 --> 00:52:04,614
everything possible toward treatment

1449
00:52:05,309 --> 00:52:08,269
and dealing with the mental illness, because so

1450
00:52:08,269 --> 00:52:10,690
much of this is starts as self medication

1451
00:52:11,390 --> 00:52:12,769
then becomes an addiction.

1452
00:52:13,469 --> 00:52:15,890
And so you need to do those both.

1453
00:52:16,030 --> 00:52:18,269
And there, I find some people on the

1454
00:52:18,269 --> 00:52:20,844
street that that do have untreated mental illness

1455
00:52:20,844 --> 00:52:23,085
and no substance use, and I do find

1456
00:52:23,085 --> 00:52:24,684
some people on the street that have some

1457
00:52:24,684 --> 00:52:27,005
substance abuse with no mental illness. That's the

1458
00:52:27,005 --> 00:52:27,505
exception.

1459
00:52:27,964 --> 00:52:30,684
That's not the rule. There's some stats we

1460
00:52:30,684 --> 00:52:32,284
need to talk about, because when people talk

1461
00:52:32,284 --> 00:52:33,839
about homeless, we gotta know

1462
00:52:34,139 --> 00:52:35,900
every time I say which group you know,

1463
00:52:35,900 --> 00:52:37,760
I get a question from audience. I,

1464
00:52:38,859 --> 00:52:41,659
I always I always ask, which group of

1465
00:52:41,659 --> 00:52:43,739
homeless are you talking about? And then they

1466
00:52:43,739 --> 00:52:46,559
muddle along. And so let's be real clear.

1467
00:52:46,974 --> 00:52:49,934
Housing and Urban Development, Federal Government, they have

1468
00:52:49,934 --> 00:52:51,554
5 categories. That's HUD.

1469
00:52:52,094 --> 00:52:52,594
1,200,000

1470
00:52:53,375 --> 00:52:55,474
people in those 5 categories.

1471
00:52:56,175 --> 00:52:57,394
Department of Education,

1472
00:52:57,775 --> 00:53:00,655
which is the group that really focuses on

1473
00:53:00,655 --> 00:53:03,690
K through 12 youth is 1,500,000.

1474
00:53:05,030 --> 00:53:06,170
And by the way,

1475
00:53:06,550 --> 00:53:09,030
if you have a family that has 0

1476
00:53:09,030 --> 00:53:11,349
to 5 with no kids in school, they're

1477
00:53:11,349 --> 00:53:12,650
not tracked by anybody.

1478
00:53:13,670 --> 00:53:15,929
So, so the 1.5 and 1.2

1479
00:53:16,985 --> 00:53:17,724
is 2.7

1480
00:53:18,184 --> 00:53:20,585
together, and we know there are whole groups

1481
00:53:20,585 --> 00:53:23,224
of people that are not being found. And

1482
00:53:23,224 --> 00:53:23,724
so

1483
00:53:24,025 --> 00:53:26,344
those are 10 categories. So the only 2

1484
00:53:26,344 --> 00:53:28,824
categories I'm talking about that that when we've

1485
00:53:28,824 --> 00:53:31,005
been talking here today is that 650,000,

1486
00:53:32,570 --> 00:53:35,130
which are in 2 of the 5 HUD

1487
00:53:35,130 --> 00:53:37,210
categories or 2 of the overall 10 federal

1488
00:53:37,210 --> 00:53:39,550
categories. And we have 8 other categories

1489
00:53:40,010 --> 00:53:41,610
that are, that are, you know, bigger and

1490
00:53:41,610 --> 00:53:43,610
we're not even talking about, but most of

1491
00:53:43,610 --> 00:53:46,090
the media in America and almost all the

1492
00:53:46,090 --> 00:53:46,590
politicians

1493
00:53:47,385 --> 00:53:49,545
are talking about the street level homeless. And

1494
00:53:49,545 --> 00:53:51,704
why are we talking about that group? 2

1495
00:53:51,704 --> 00:53:54,744
reasons. Well, 3. Media talks about it, number

1496
00:53:54,744 --> 00:53:58,105
1. Number 2, that group is doubling now

1497
00:53:58,105 --> 00:54:00,309
every 4 to 6 years. That's the rate

1498
00:54:00,309 --> 00:54:01,989
we're on. And so if you look out

1499
00:54:01,989 --> 00:54:04,469
the window and you see 300 people in

1500
00:54:04,469 --> 00:54:05,210
your community,

1501
00:54:05,670 --> 00:54:08,550
if nothing changes off this nutty approach we're

1502
00:54:08,550 --> 00:54:11,190
taking, it will be 600 people in 4

1503
00:54:11,190 --> 00:54:13,474
to 5 years. That's the growth rate. And

1504
00:54:13,474 --> 00:54:15,954
by the way, that's the official number coming

1505
00:54:15,954 --> 00:54:17,015
out of the White House.

1506
00:54:17,715 --> 00:54:18,775
I would argue

1507
00:54:19,315 --> 00:54:21,715
that if anything is under counting, I know

1508
00:54:21,715 --> 00:54:24,035
it undercounts. Most advocates will tell you it

1509
00:54:24,035 --> 00:54:24,934
clearly undercounts,

1510
00:54:25,359 --> 00:54:27,280
but I think they're putting the best possible

1511
00:54:27,280 --> 00:54:28,960
spin on it because the numbers are so

1512
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:29,460
bad.

1513
00:54:29,839 --> 00:54:32,559
And so we're doubling every there. And so

1514
00:54:32,559 --> 00:54:34,719
one is the, just the growth rate and

1515
00:54:34,719 --> 00:54:36,239
how bad it is. The other is the

1516
00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:36,739
media,

1517
00:54:37,039 --> 00:54:38,099
but it's also

1518
00:54:38,405 --> 00:54:40,885
that I did a calculation for a reporter

1519
00:54:40,885 --> 00:54:42,405
the other day asked me and said, how

1520
00:54:42,405 --> 00:54:45,125
many people see homelessness in a day? It's

1521
00:54:45,125 --> 00:54:46,405
been a long time since I got a

1522
00:54:46,405 --> 00:54:48,484
question that I had to like, oh, I

1523
00:54:48,484 --> 00:54:50,664
don't know that. Let's do some noodling.

1524
00:54:51,204 --> 00:54:54,105
And we started noodling and it looks like

1525
00:54:54,539 --> 00:54:57,579
based off of where homeless encampments are, that,

1526
00:54:57,579 --> 00:55:00,880
that somewhere between 60 75 percent of Americans

1527
00:55:00,940 --> 00:55:02,320
on a Monday to Friday,

1528
00:55:02,780 --> 00:55:05,340
see at least 1 person experiencing homelessness or

1529
00:55:05,340 --> 00:55:06,079
an encampment.

1530
00:55:06,875 --> 00:55:08,175
Think about that number.

1531
00:55:08,954 --> 00:55:11,194
And I hadn't really ever thought about that

1532
00:55:11,194 --> 00:55:13,375
number and that number may be that's

1533
00:55:14,155 --> 00:55:16,234
a back of an envelope I did one

1534
00:55:16,234 --> 00:55:16,734
afternoon,

1535
00:55:17,434 --> 00:55:19,994
looking at population numbers where the homeless are.

1536
00:55:19,994 --> 00:55:21,775
So I may Sam off

1537
00:55:22,230 --> 00:55:22,889
by 30%,

1538
00:55:23,190 --> 00:55:24,250
and it's 45%

1539
00:55:24,630 --> 00:55:27,349
America. See a homeless person Monday to Friday,

1540
00:55:27,349 --> 00:55:29,690
twice a day. This is what's so frustrating

1541
00:55:29,989 --> 00:55:32,170
to me about watching our politicians

1542
00:55:32,710 --> 00:55:34,730
on either side of the aisle

1543
00:55:36,135 --> 00:55:37,994
arguing about the dumbest

1544
00:55:38,614 --> 00:55:39,114
shit

1545
00:55:39,494 --> 00:55:43,035
there could be arguing about when real problems

1546
00:55:43,175 --> 00:55:45,594
are happening in this country. And it's almost

1547
00:55:46,135 --> 00:55:46,875
as if

1548
00:55:47,750 --> 00:55:50,710
they are just happily having their martinis at

1549
00:55:50,710 --> 00:55:52,630
lunch and arguing with each other for the

1550
00:55:52,630 --> 00:55:54,170
cameras in the afternoon

1551
00:55:54,789 --> 00:55:57,449
and going home with their happy little $150,000

1552
00:55:58,389 --> 00:55:58,889
paycheck

1553
00:55:59,349 --> 00:55:59,849
and

1554
00:56:00,150 --> 00:56:00,969
not really

1555
00:56:01,535 --> 00:56:03,855
giving a shit. You know? That's what it

1556
00:56:03,855 --> 00:56:04,675
feels like.

1557
00:56:05,855 --> 00:56:07,454
And it the reason why it feels like

1558
00:56:07,454 --> 00:56:09,474
that, because that really is happening.

1559
00:56:10,175 --> 00:56:12,255
It's not a feel. It it it's what's

1560
00:56:12,255 --> 00:56:13,394
really going on.

1561
00:56:13,769 --> 00:56:14,269
And

1562
00:56:14,570 --> 00:56:17,369
I will tell you, as a person who's

1563
00:56:17,369 --> 00:56:19,690
been in the White House multiple times, worked

1564
00:56:19,690 --> 00:56:21,690
in the White House, worked on this issue,

1565
00:56:21,690 --> 00:56:24,030
and I can't tell you how many,

1566
00:56:24,409 --> 00:56:27,789
Hill staffers or Congress people I've talked to.

1567
00:56:29,144 --> 00:56:30,985
I mean, any, I'll talk to anybody. I

1568
00:56:30,985 --> 00:56:31,885
mean, people,

1569
00:56:32,664 --> 00:56:34,824
ask, how do you work for this politician

1570
00:56:34,824 --> 00:56:36,344
here or there? And I've even had some

1571
00:56:36,344 --> 00:56:38,025
of the politicians that worked for, they go,

1572
00:56:38,025 --> 00:56:39,565
how do you work for him or her?

1573
00:56:39,864 --> 00:56:41,545
And I laugh. I said, I'll work with

1574
00:56:41,545 --> 00:56:44,150
anybody who seriously wants to talk about reducing

1575
00:56:44,150 --> 00:56:44,650
homelessness.

1576
00:56:44,949 --> 00:56:47,429
Billy Baldwin and I've spent this week working

1577
00:56:47,429 --> 00:56:49,829
on things here up on this, the film

1578
00:56:49,829 --> 00:56:50,329
shoot.

1579
00:56:50,710 --> 00:56:52,489
And he's the, he's as

1580
00:56:52,869 --> 00:56:54,789
left as you get. And he thinks I'm

1581
00:56:54,789 --> 00:56:56,630
probably to him. He probably thinks I'm as

1582
00:56:56,630 --> 00:56:58,184
right as he is. I mean, he's literally

1583
00:56:58,184 --> 00:57:00,744
down the hall down here. He's doing another

1584
00:57:00,744 --> 00:57:01,244
interview.

1585
00:57:01,785 --> 00:57:02,105
And,

1586
00:57:02,744 --> 00:57:04,985
and we're driving around this morning, and he

1587
00:57:04,985 --> 00:57:07,704
said we were talking about how important this

1588
00:57:07,704 --> 00:57:08,684
issue is.

1589
00:57:09,065 --> 00:57:12,045
And and if Billy and Robert can agree,

1590
00:57:13,190 --> 00:57:14,549
we should be able to get some people

1591
00:57:14,549 --> 00:57:16,869
in Washington, DC to start agreeing. And and

1592
00:57:16,869 --> 00:57:19,049
it you talked about an issue that is

1593
00:57:19,510 --> 00:57:23,210
inner is ripping out our our inner cities.

1594
00:57:23,829 --> 00:57:25,905
Look at LA. Look at San Francisco.

1595
00:57:26,465 --> 00:57:28,804
Seattle, look at Portland, look at Honolulu.

1596
00:57:29,744 --> 00:57:31,985
Just let's just start right there. But it's

1597
00:57:31,985 --> 00:57:34,304
not even just the inner cities. That's the

1598
00:57:34,304 --> 00:57:36,144
other point that I think needs to be

1599
00:57:36,144 --> 00:57:36,965
made is

1600
00:57:37,425 --> 00:57:38,804
any one of us

1601
00:57:40,239 --> 00:57:40,739
are

1602
00:57:41,039 --> 00:57:42,820
perhaps a few steps away

1603
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:44,579
from losing everything.

1604
00:57:44,880 --> 00:57:48,000
Dependent on anything from being sick, to falling

1605
00:57:48,000 --> 00:57:50,559
into addiction, to falling into mental health issues.

1606
00:57:50,559 --> 00:57:51,380
You know, there's

1607
00:57:51,680 --> 00:57:53,700
they're they're before the grace,

1608
00:57:54,114 --> 00:57:56,835
which is such a terrible saying, really, because

1609
00:57:56,835 --> 00:57:58,515
it makes it sound like God picks and

1610
00:57:58,515 --> 00:58:01,255
chooses favorites, which I don't believe is true.

1611
00:58:01,555 --> 00:58:02,775
But that idea

1612
00:58:03,075 --> 00:58:03,575
of

1613
00:58:03,954 --> 00:58:04,855
we are all

1614
00:58:05,235 --> 00:58:06,375
each other's keeper,

1615
00:58:06,829 --> 00:58:07,730
and it isn't political.

1616
00:58:08,349 --> 00:58:10,190
It's not political at all. There are people

1617
00:58:10,190 --> 00:58:12,130
in red states, blue states.

1618
00:58:12,829 --> 00:58:15,230
It doesn't make a damn bit of difference.

1619
00:58:15,230 --> 00:58:16,369
This is a human

1620
00:58:17,150 --> 00:58:17,650
problem.

1621
00:58:18,110 --> 00:58:20,670
In in mental ill you're exactly right. In

1622
00:58:20,670 --> 00:58:22,824
mental illness, which is such a a base

1623
00:58:22,824 --> 00:58:23,885
for that 658.

1624
00:58:24,265 --> 00:58:26,344
Again, I'm not talking about all homeless, but

1625
00:58:26,344 --> 00:58:28,184
I'm talking about the group that most of

1626
00:58:28,184 --> 00:58:29,885
America's talking about now,

1627
00:58:30,344 --> 00:58:31,085
that group

1628
00:58:32,344 --> 00:58:32,844
75%,

1629
00:58:33,545 --> 00:58:36,824
according to UCLA and Berkeley, that no far

1630
00:58:36,824 --> 00:58:39,150
right wing Robert Marmot think tank. I mean,

1631
00:58:39,150 --> 00:58:40,670
you know, this is as left as you

1632
00:58:40,670 --> 00:58:43,010
get, you know, the policy lab in California.

1633
00:58:43,710 --> 00:58:45,710
And and that's what they found in their

1634
00:58:45,710 --> 00:58:48,349
charting. And in the self report part of

1635
00:58:48,349 --> 00:58:50,530
the report, by the way, is over 50%

1636
00:58:50,909 --> 00:58:53,295
of self report. So that you always know

1637
00:58:53,295 --> 00:58:54,514
self reports under.

1638
00:58:54,815 --> 00:58:55,554
And so

1639
00:58:56,094 --> 00:58:59,714
mental illness, I I know red state, purple,

1640
00:59:00,414 --> 00:59:04,114
blue. I know Republican, conservative, Democrat. I know

1641
00:59:04,255 --> 00:59:06,255
hard right, hard left. We we were in

1642
00:59:06,255 --> 00:59:07,795
our final final edits

1643
00:59:08,130 --> 00:59:11,170
on, on the documentary we're doing Americans with

1644
00:59:11,170 --> 00:59:11,909
no address.

1645
00:59:12,369 --> 00:59:14,449
And at the last minute, I go, I

1646
00:59:14,449 --> 00:59:16,769
really don't like this first title card. It

1647
00:59:16,769 --> 00:59:18,309
had some sort of sappy,

1648
00:59:19,089 --> 00:59:21,565
sappy deal. It it went back to this

1649
00:59:21,565 --> 00:59:23,644
reporter who was asking me, said, how many

1650
00:59:23,644 --> 00:59:26,684
people are seeing homeless a day? And, you

1651
00:59:26,684 --> 00:59:28,125
know, I was trying to figure out what

1652
00:59:28,125 --> 00:59:30,125
that might be. And and we definitely gotta

1653
00:59:30,125 --> 00:59:31,965
go figure that out, but say it's somewhere

1654
00:59:31,965 --> 00:59:33,265
between 40 75%.

1655
00:59:33,644 --> 00:59:36,890
That's an insane number. But I dug a

1656
00:59:36,890 --> 00:59:39,369
little deeper and I go, how many people

1657
00:59:39,369 --> 00:59:40,110
in America

1658
00:59:40,650 --> 00:59:43,690
have a family member experiencing one of those

1659
00:59:43,690 --> 00:59:45,230
10 categories of homeless?

1660
00:59:45,769 --> 00:59:46,989
Not just that 650,000,

1661
00:59:47,690 --> 00:59:48,750
but the 2,700,000.

1662
00:59:50,594 --> 00:59:53,155
How many people in America have a friend

1663
00:59:53,155 --> 00:59:55,414
in that group or a family member

1664
00:59:55,954 --> 00:59:58,275
experiencing homelessness? And I was shocked at how

1665
00:59:58,275 --> 01:00:00,114
many hands were raised. What that they and

1666
01:00:00,114 --> 01:00:01,635
I and I went around and I go,

1667
01:00:01,635 --> 01:00:02,914
so who do you have? Well, I got

1668
01:00:02,914 --> 01:00:04,949
a a real good friend in college, a

1669
01:00:04,949 --> 01:00:07,510
real good friend from high school, my mom's

1670
01:00:07,510 --> 01:00:10,070
best friend. And you go around. I went

1671
01:00:10,070 --> 01:00:12,390
out again, did some quick math, take the

1672
01:00:12,390 --> 01:00:12,890
2.7,

1673
01:00:13,429 --> 01:00:15,190
went through the average length of time of

1674
01:00:15,190 --> 01:00:16,250
experiencing homelessness,

1675
01:00:16,594 --> 01:00:18,534
the average family size in America.

1676
01:00:18,835 --> 01:00:20,914
I did some research on what's your close

1677
01:00:20,914 --> 01:00:23,875
circle of friends. Most people have 7.8 people,

1678
01:00:23,875 --> 01:00:26,114
close circle of friends, and they got actually

1679
01:00:26,114 --> 01:00:28,855
definitions of the way. So when you actually

1680
01:00:28,914 --> 01:00:30,214
run out that number,

1681
01:00:30,769 --> 01:00:33,809
1 third in America either has a very

1682
01:00:33,809 --> 01:00:36,690
close friend or a personal family member who

1683
01:00:36,690 --> 01:00:37,829
experiences homelessness

1684
01:00:38,210 --> 01:00:40,449
at least once in a year. Wow. This

1685
01:00:40,449 --> 01:00:42,130
is the this is how big this has

1686
01:00:42,130 --> 01:00:44,609
gotten, and this number is only gonna get

1687
01:00:44,609 --> 01:00:45,109
bigger.

1688
01:00:45,425 --> 01:00:46,244
And when you start checking

1689
01:00:46,625 --> 01:00:48,224
around, why are you so why are you

1690
01:00:48,224 --> 01:00:49,984
helping? Why why do you spend that extra

1691
01:00:49,984 --> 01:00:52,385
3 hours? Oh, I got a family member.

1692
01:00:52,385 --> 01:00:54,405
I don't wanna really talk about it, but,

1693
01:00:54,864 --> 01:00:57,125
they're struggling with this. They're on the street.

1694
01:00:57,264 --> 01:00:59,364
I went to a rural area in Pennsylvania,

1695
01:01:00,449 --> 01:01:03,829
60 minutes outside of Scranton going west

1696
01:01:04,210 --> 01:01:06,690
in a county that only has, I think,

1697
01:01:06,690 --> 01:01:09,030
30,000 people in this county in Pennsylvania.

1698
01:01:09,489 --> 01:01:11,030
I was there 2 nights ago.

1699
01:01:11,969 --> 01:01:13,809
How many people have you here have a

1700
01:01:13,809 --> 01:01:15,670
family member or know somebody

1701
01:01:16,055 --> 01:01:18,295
closely know not know of a person, but

1702
01:01:18,295 --> 01:01:20,055
know a person? You know, their first name,

1703
01:01:20,055 --> 01:01:21,894
you know your last name. You may know

1704
01:01:21,894 --> 01:01:23,494
their birthday. You may have been to a

1705
01:01:23,494 --> 01:01:25,655
birthday party. How many of you know that?

1706
01:01:25,655 --> 01:01:27,815
Almost 30 in the room. This is rural

1707
01:01:27,815 --> 01:01:28,315
Pennsylvania,

1708
01:01:28,695 --> 01:01:29,835
outside of Scranton,

1709
01:01:30,215 --> 01:01:31,195
and you're like,

1710
01:01:31,739 --> 01:01:33,280
wow, this is really

1711
01:01:34,139 --> 01:01:35,400
proliferating. We're

1712
01:01:35,980 --> 01:01:38,079
we talk about epidemics and pandemics.

1713
01:01:38,460 --> 01:01:40,059
This is one right in front of our

1714
01:01:40,059 --> 01:01:42,860
eyes that is just blowing up. If you

1715
01:01:42,860 --> 01:01:45,199
say, all right now, who knows somebody who

1716
01:01:45,385 --> 01:01:46,204
is experiencing,

1717
01:01:46,985 --> 01:01:47,805
mental health,

1718
01:01:48,184 --> 01:01:51,085
whether it's crisis or not, mental health issue,

1719
01:01:51,465 --> 01:01:52,364
drug issue,

1720
01:01:53,465 --> 01:01:55,085
abuse at home situation,

1721
01:01:55,864 --> 01:01:58,025
every hand in the Oh, that yeah. The

1722
01:01:58,025 --> 01:01:58,925
hands are going.

1723
01:01:59,280 --> 01:02:02,739
You don't see a homeless problem. Like like,

1724
01:02:02,880 --> 01:02:04,559
I've been I go to Mexico City a

1725
01:02:04,559 --> 01:02:06,019
lot with family.

1726
01:02:07,039 --> 01:02:09,059
You do not see

1727
01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:12,000
a homelessness on the streets like you see

1728
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:14,675
in America. And everybody in America thinks, oh,

1729
01:02:14,675 --> 01:02:16,375
Mexico City is full or Guadalajara.

1730
01:02:16,755 --> 01:02:19,175
And you you'll see 1 or 2 people,

1731
01:02:19,394 --> 01:02:21,635
but you do not see panhandling like you

1732
01:02:21,635 --> 01:02:23,735
see in LA, San Francisco, Honolulu,

1733
01:02:24,914 --> 01:02:27,599
Seattle, Portland. You don't see that. You go

1734
01:02:27,599 --> 01:02:29,680
to Argentina, you go to Costa Rica, you

1735
01:02:29,680 --> 01:02:31,539
go to Nicaragua, go to El Salvador.

1736
01:02:32,720 --> 01:02:35,940
There there's their commute poverty community is there,

1737
01:02:36,079 --> 01:02:36,579
but

1738
01:02:37,360 --> 01:02:38,640
believe it or not, a lot of people

1739
01:02:38,640 --> 01:02:40,534
don't realize it. Drug use in all those

1740
01:02:40,534 --> 01:02:43,094
countries, every country I just mentioned, drug use

1741
01:02:43,094 --> 01:02:44,394
is much less than America.

1742
01:02:45,255 --> 01:02:46,554
Drug use in America,

1743
01:02:48,214 --> 01:02:50,375
we out if we're 3% or 4% of

1744
01:02:50,375 --> 01:02:52,694
the population, we should be using 3% or

1745
01:02:52,694 --> 01:02:55,180
4% of the illicit drugs in the And

1746
01:02:55,180 --> 01:02:57,179
and and I'd say we I'm not saying

1747
01:02:57,179 --> 01:02:58,699
we should. Like, I hope I know what

1748
01:02:58,699 --> 01:03:01,019
you mean. Yeah. But that number should not

1749
01:03:01,019 --> 01:03:02,159
be disproportionately

1750
01:03:02,539 --> 01:03:04,079
above 3, 4, or 5%.

1751
01:03:04,780 --> 01:03:06,159
We're in the 60%

1752
01:03:06,460 --> 01:03:09,034
of this type of drug, 70% of this,

1753
01:03:09,034 --> 01:03:11,755
40% of this, 30% of this. It's a

1754
01:03:11,755 --> 01:03:12,574
major problem.

1755
01:03:13,114 --> 01:03:15,375
And then untreated mental illness,

1756
01:03:16,154 --> 01:03:18,234
that seems to be running higher in the

1757
01:03:18,234 --> 01:03:20,154
United States, and I I've been trying to

1758
01:03:20,154 --> 01:03:21,914
get real good data on it, and I

1759
01:03:21,914 --> 01:03:23,179
wish there was somebody

1760
01:03:23,480 --> 01:03:24,139
out there

1761
01:03:24,440 --> 01:03:26,519
that there's a lot of guessing going on.

1762
01:03:26,519 --> 01:03:28,839
There's a lot of comparison, but people use

1763
01:03:28,839 --> 01:03:29,339
definitions.

1764
01:03:29,960 --> 01:03:32,539
But what I do know for certain is

1765
01:03:32,839 --> 01:03:34,059
if you don't treat

1766
01:03:34,704 --> 01:03:36,964
untreated mental illness when it's

1767
01:03:37,264 --> 01:03:37,764
moderate

1768
01:03:38,065 --> 01:03:40,244
and it before it gets to severe,

1769
01:03:40,784 --> 01:03:43,105
as it goes up, the longer you go

1770
01:03:43,105 --> 01:03:44,005
and treat it,

1771
01:03:44,385 --> 01:03:46,545
the more time it takes to treat it

1772
01:03:46,545 --> 01:03:47,045
later

1773
01:03:47,550 --> 01:03:49,630
and the higher chance of it going from

1774
01:03:49,630 --> 01:03:50,289
a moderate

1775
01:03:50,590 --> 01:03:51,090
situation

1776
01:03:51,469 --> 01:03:54,849
to more severe, to acute, to absolutely

1777
01:03:55,309 --> 01:03:55,809
emergency.

1778
01:03:56,430 --> 01:03:57,969
When you see stupid

1779
01:03:58,269 --> 01:03:58,769
governmental

1780
01:03:59,070 --> 01:03:59,570
policy,

1781
01:04:00,349 --> 01:04:01,170
not working,

1782
01:04:01,775 --> 01:04:03,535
do we have to wait longer than 10

1783
01:04:03,535 --> 01:04:05,695
years to make a change? If the federal

1784
01:04:05,695 --> 01:04:06,994
government in 2013

1785
01:04:08,094 --> 01:04:09,235
before 2013,

1786
01:04:09,614 --> 01:04:11,394
when you got a housing voucher,

1787
01:04:11,855 --> 01:04:13,875
you got substance use treatment,

1788
01:04:14,280 --> 01:04:17,320
mental health treatment, and job training, plus a

1789
01:04:17,320 --> 01:04:19,320
whole other plethora, but those were the big

1790
01:04:19,320 --> 01:04:22,219
three. And you were given that. In 2013,

1791
01:04:23,239 --> 01:04:25,579
partly because of the harm reduction crowd,

1792
01:04:26,199 --> 01:04:27,099
and some

1793
01:04:27,494 --> 01:04:29,894
said, we don't have enough money for housing

1794
01:04:29,894 --> 01:04:31,574
vouchers, so let's take it all out of

1795
01:04:31,574 --> 01:04:33,734
treatment. Let's take it out of job training.

1796
01:04:33,734 --> 01:04:35,335
Let's take it out of mental illness so

1797
01:04:35,335 --> 01:04:37,594
we can create more money for more vouchers.

1798
01:04:38,054 --> 01:04:40,909
And so we're gonna stop treating the illness

1799
01:04:40,909 --> 01:04:42,750
on the street, and we're gonna and then

1800
01:04:42,750 --> 01:04:44,369
we're gonna put it all in the vouchers.

1801
01:04:44,750 --> 01:04:46,769
Well, that did not work.

1802
01:04:47,150 --> 01:04:50,130
Most homeless in America and almost every category

1803
01:04:50,269 --> 01:04:51,329
is either doubled,

1804
01:04:52,025 --> 01:04:53,644
or tripled since then.

1805
01:04:53,945 --> 01:04:56,105
And to me, it's obvious. If you stop

1806
01:04:56,105 --> 01:04:58,825
treating mental illness, if you stop treating substance

1807
01:04:58,825 --> 01:05:00,925
abuse, if we stop giving job training

1808
01:05:01,305 --> 01:05:03,545
and just give you a free voucher, it's

1809
01:05:03,545 --> 01:05:06,539
not gonna work. Imagine if we did Pell

1810
01:05:06,539 --> 01:05:08,960
Grants the way we are doing the homelessness.

1811
01:05:09,099 --> 01:05:11,820
If we would apply the homelessness principles, the

1812
01:05:11,820 --> 01:05:14,380
federal government currently use the Pell Grant, this

1813
01:05:14,380 --> 01:05:16,300
would be how your Pell Grant would would

1814
01:05:16,300 --> 01:05:17,280
be. Susan,

1815
01:05:17,579 --> 01:05:19,920
how much do you need a semester? Alright.

1816
01:05:20,135 --> 01:05:22,214
We'll throw in a little extra there because

1817
01:05:22,214 --> 01:05:23,815
you asked for that. We're gonna go. So

1818
01:05:23,815 --> 01:05:25,914
we're gonna extend you a check for $7,000.

1819
01:05:26,614 --> 01:05:29,275
Let's make it 8 or 9,000 every year.

1820
01:05:29,494 --> 01:05:31,815
No. Let's make it 8 or 9,000 per

1821
01:05:31,815 --> 01:05:33,494
semester. We'll even give you a half the

1822
01:05:33,494 --> 01:05:34,635
check during the summer.

1823
01:05:35,010 --> 01:05:37,409
Oh, by the way, you don't have to

1824
01:05:37,409 --> 01:05:39,570
go to the actual classes. You you do

1825
01:05:39,570 --> 01:05:41,090
have to sign up for school. But if

1826
01:05:41,090 --> 01:05:42,690
you don't go to school, you don't go

1827
01:05:42,690 --> 01:05:44,230
to classes, that's okay.

1828
01:05:44,610 --> 01:05:46,369
Oh, it by the way, you don't have

1829
01:05:46,369 --> 01:05:47,750
to worry about that GPA,

1830
01:05:48,130 --> 01:05:49,670
and you you can get unlimited,

1831
01:05:50,155 --> 01:05:51,775
and you have unlimited lifetime.

1832
01:05:52,235 --> 01:05:53,994
That's not how we do Pell Grants in

1833
01:05:53,994 --> 01:05:56,315
America. In America, we do Pell Grants by

1834
01:05:56,474 --> 01:05:57,695
you have to have a 2.0

1835
01:05:57,994 --> 01:05:58,494
GPA,

1836
01:05:58,954 --> 01:06:00,555
you have to have an 88 and a

1837
01:06:00,555 --> 01:06:03,615
half percent in most states' requirement to minimal

1838
01:06:03,914 --> 01:06:06,369
attendance to be in school, You have to

1839
01:06:06,369 --> 01:06:07,269
show progress

1840
01:06:07,570 --> 01:06:09,349
and you have a time limit on it.

1841
01:06:09,409 --> 01:06:11,650
Well, in in what we're doing now in

1842
01:06:11,650 --> 01:06:14,630
homelessness is we're saying here's unlimited free vouchers.

1843
01:06:14,769 --> 01:06:16,949
You don't go to treatment. In fact,

1844
01:06:17,250 --> 01:06:19,510
the federal government made it 2013

1845
01:06:19,969 --> 01:06:20,469
illegal

1846
01:06:21,114 --> 01:06:23,914
for a faith based or nonprofit group to

1847
01:06:23,914 --> 01:06:26,255
require treatment. They said it's illegal.

1848
01:06:26,875 --> 01:06:29,535
You can't require anybody to have treatment,

1849
01:06:29,914 --> 01:06:31,695
even though pre 2013,

1850
01:06:32,394 --> 01:06:33,775
treatment was required.

1851
01:06:34,409 --> 01:06:37,690
And so in 2013, we disconnected treatment and

1852
01:06:37,690 --> 01:06:40,650
recovery from vouchers, and we wonder why we

1853
01:06:40,650 --> 01:06:41,630
went south.

1854
01:06:42,889 --> 01:06:44,889
Imagine what would happen to Pell Grants if

1855
01:06:44,889 --> 01:06:48,089
you dropped GPA requirements, time length requirements, and

1856
01:06:48,089 --> 01:06:50,945
attendance requirements. That's what we did in homelessness.

1857
01:06:51,244 --> 01:06:52,684
If you go back and look at, you

1858
01:06:52,684 --> 01:06:55,825
know, writing about me 15 years ago, Robert's

1859
01:06:55,885 --> 01:06:59,244
a crazy lunatic. He's this far right wing

1860
01:06:59,244 --> 01:06:59,744
nut.

1861
01:07:00,204 --> 01:07:02,204
Well, in the last year and a half

1862
01:07:02,204 --> 01:07:04,144
or so, I now have

1863
01:07:04,730 --> 01:07:05,230
Newsom

1864
01:07:05,769 --> 01:07:07,469
has adopted my policy.

1865
01:07:07,849 --> 01:07:10,429
Governor Brown has adopted my policy.

1866
01:07:11,210 --> 01:07:13,869
Joe Biden talked about one of my policies

1867
01:07:14,089 --> 01:07:15,630
in his town hall

1868
01:07:16,170 --> 01:07:18,534
and said, we need to do this. And

1869
01:07:18,534 --> 01:07:21,094
within 15 minutes, his staff after the town

1870
01:07:21,094 --> 01:07:23,574
hall with Don Lemon on CNN, his staff

1871
01:07:23,574 --> 01:07:25,494
said, that's not what he meant to say.

1872
01:07:25,494 --> 01:07:27,175
And I'm like, he said it three times.

1873
01:07:27,175 --> 01:07:29,175
He repeated it. But this is the thing.

1874
01:07:29,175 --> 01:07:31,820
It can't be about politics. This is not

1875
01:07:31,880 --> 01:07:34,940
politics. This should be about common sense policy.

1876
01:07:35,719 --> 01:07:37,800
And I was made out as this loony,

1877
01:07:37,800 --> 01:07:39,800
whatever. And now I'm now the canary in

1878
01:07:39,800 --> 01:07:41,400
the coal mine. And you know what? I

1879
01:07:41,400 --> 01:07:44,039
haven't changed my view. We shouldn't be making

1880
01:07:44,039 --> 01:07:46,280
it easier to get high, easier to live

1881
01:07:46,280 --> 01:07:48,175
on the street. We need to make it

1882
01:07:48,795 --> 01:07:50,175
easier to get treatment,

1883
01:07:50,554 --> 01:07:52,954
easier to get recovery, and harder to get

1884
01:07:52,954 --> 01:07:54,815
high, and harder to live on the street,

1885
01:07:54,875 --> 01:07:56,795
but we have it all backwards in terms

1886
01:07:56,795 --> 01:07:59,275
of policy. And, and some people's, Oh, Robert,

1887
01:07:59,275 --> 01:08:00,094
you're just oversimplifying

1888
01:08:00,394 --> 01:08:02,480
and said, I really am not. If, if

1889
01:08:02,480 --> 01:08:05,640
our philosophy is let's make it easy to

1890
01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:07,980
get treatment and hard to get high.

1891
01:08:08,360 --> 01:08:10,219
And that became our new policy.

1892
01:08:10,840 --> 01:08:13,980
I guarantee you, you'll have a different outcome,

1893
01:08:14,360 --> 01:08:16,460
not just what's going on on the streets,

1894
01:08:16,574 --> 01:08:18,895
but I think that also affects everything from

1895
01:08:18,895 --> 01:08:21,055
school shooting. Look, how many school shootings are

1896
01:08:21,055 --> 01:08:23,935
interconnected with mental illness. Now, I mean, there's

1897
01:08:23,935 --> 01:08:26,255
one right there. There's all sorts of other

1898
01:08:26,255 --> 01:08:27,635
violence street crime.

1899
01:08:28,015 --> 01:08:28,515
And

1900
01:08:29,579 --> 01:08:33,260
everybody says the inner city San Francisco started

1901
01:08:33,260 --> 01:08:36,699
by losing healthcare conventions. Then they started losing

1902
01:08:36,699 --> 01:08:37,520
tech conventions.

1903
01:08:38,060 --> 01:08:40,699
And now they've their, their hotel rate has

1904
01:08:40,699 --> 01:08:41,520
just plummeted

1905
01:08:42,175 --> 01:08:45,074
and they've lost almost all their inner marketing,

1906
01:08:45,215 --> 01:08:48,414
you know, the CVS's, the Walgreens, their malls

1907
01:08:48,414 --> 01:08:51,135
moving out. It's it's you know, these inner

1908
01:08:51,135 --> 01:08:54,255
cities are dying out there. They're died out

1909
01:08:54,255 --> 01:08:56,729
in Portland. They're on their way. Seattle's not

1910
01:08:56,729 --> 01:08:59,310
too far behind what's happened in San Francisco.

1911
01:08:59,689 --> 01:09:01,630
Now the new mayor there, by the way,

1912
01:09:01,689 --> 01:09:03,770
and even Portland had a little bit of

1913
01:09:03,770 --> 01:09:05,850
a a change. They they've stepped up to

1914
01:09:05,850 --> 01:09:08,090
it. They're not quite there yet. There's a

1915
01:09:08,090 --> 01:09:10,489
former Portland mayor who came down and saw

1916
01:09:10,489 --> 01:09:13,744
one of our operations and the media, I'm

1917
01:09:13,744 --> 01:09:16,385
paraphrasing, make it real story short, but they

1918
01:09:16,385 --> 01:09:18,704
said, well, mister mayor, do you see how

1919
01:09:18,704 --> 01:09:20,244
well it works here? Yes.

1920
01:09:20,625 --> 01:09:22,545
Do you not acknowledge? And he said, oh,

1921
01:09:22,545 --> 01:09:23,925
no, they're really successful.

1922
01:09:24,385 --> 01:09:24,885
Yes.

1923
01:09:25,189 --> 01:09:27,109
And he said, well, are are we gonna

1924
01:09:27,109 --> 01:09:28,550
do that in Portland? And he and he

1925
01:09:28,550 --> 01:09:31,130
simply said, that model won't work here.

1926
01:09:32,389 --> 01:09:35,350
And I'm like, it can work there. But

1927
01:09:35,350 --> 01:09:37,050
that's a politician afraid

1928
01:09:37,510 --> 01:09:39,255
that of what it will do to the

1929
01:09:39,335 --> 01:09:41,574
to the politics of it. Yes. The talking

1930
01:09:41,574 --> 01:09:42,074
heads

1931
01:09:42,935 --> 01:09:45,255
will say whatever they say. And, again, you

1932
01:09:45,255 --> 01:09:46,694
know, you're like, oh, I'm far right. I'm

1933
01:09:46,694 --> 01:09:47,814
far right. I mean, you and I have

1934
01:09:47,814 --> 01:09:49,514
had several conversations, and

1935
01:09:49,975 --> 01:09:51,034
not one says,

1936
01:09:51,430 --> 01:09:53,430
has anything come up for either I mean,

1937
01:09:53,430 --> 01:09:54,810
obviously, I'm liberal.

1938
01:09:55,189 --> 01:09:57,510
It never once has anything come up where

1939
01:09:57,510 --> 01:09:58,010
that

1940
01:09:58,550 --> 01:10:00,869
has anything to do with anything we're talking

1941
01:10:00,869 --> 01:10:03,350
about. At all. I think this is common

1942
01:10:03,350 --> 01:10:04,569
sense. And

1943
01:10:05,385 --> 01:10:07,064
the the the great news in terms of

1944
01:10:07,064 --> 01:10:08,125
the world of homeless,

1945
01:10:08,585 --> 01:10:11,064
you have many communities in America, even though

1946
01:10:11,064 --> 01:10:13,164
their whole state may be going nuts,

1947
01:10:13,784 --> 01:10:16,920
you have pockets that are doing great. Like,

1948
01:10:17,159 --> 01:10:19,719
you got cities in Florida where one city

1949
01:10:19,719 --> 01:10:21,899
on one side of the five bridges

1950
01:10:22,679 --> 01:10:25,880
is doubled and tripled in homeless. And then

1951
01:10:25,880 --> 01:10:28,039
the 2 counties on the other side of

1952
01:10:28,039 --> 01:10:30,060
the bridge, same population, same demographics

1953
01:10:30,520 --> 01:10:31,979
right across from the bridge

1954
01:10:32,355 --> 01:10:34,935
has has had about an 80% reduction

1955
01:10:35,235 --> 01:10:36,534
over under baseline

1956
01:10:36,994 --> 01:10:38,454
for over 10 years.

1957
01:10:38,755 --> 01:10:40,994
It it's not a fluke. You know, anybody

1958
01:10:40,994 --> 01:10:43,235
can have a fluke for 18 months, 60

1959
01:10:43,235 --> 01:10:45,574
months. But if you've had a sustained reduction

1960
01:10:46,270 --> 01:10:49,489
for 10 years relative to the the city

1961
01:10:49,630 --> 01:10:51,090
across 5 bridges

1962
01:10:51,550 --> 01:10:53,949
and they've doubled and tripled, and and they're

1963
01:10:53,949 --> 01:10:55,949
Democrats and Republicans on both sides of the

1964
01:10:55,949 --> 01:10:58,270
bridges, this is common sense. Well, that's the

1965
01:10:58,270 --> 01:11:00,350
thing. It's like we too we as the

1966
01:11:00,350 --> 01:11:00,850
voters

1967
01:11:01,725 --> 01:11:04,364
need to stand up to our politicians who

1968
01:11:04,364 --> 01:11:07,104
are arguing about bullshit and say, look.

1969
01:11:07,965 --> 01:11:11,085
Our society is going to crumble around us

1970
01:11:11,085 --> 01:11:13,005
if we don't step up and treat this

1971
01:11:13,005 --> 01:11:15,164
as a human problem, not as a Democrat

1972
01:11:15,164 --> 01:11:16,625
problem, not as a Republican,

1973
01:11:17,090 --> 01:11:19,170
not as this, that, or the other. Stop

1974
01:11:19,170 --> 01:11:20,630
with all that nonsense.

1975
01:11:21,649 --> 01:11:24,550
And for us as as members of society

1976
01:11:24,769 --> 01:11:25,510
to not

1977
01:11:26,130 --> 01:11:28,389
turn our nose up because, again,

1978
01:11:29,505 --> 01:11:31,744
that person you're walking by on the street,

1979
01:11:31,744 --> 01:11:34,385
sure, lots of issues going on there. But

1980
01:11:34,385 --> 01:11:35,824
every time you turn your nose up or

1981
01:11:35,824 --> 01:11:38,244
ignore it or don't call to action

1982
01:11:39,104 --> 01:11:39,845
the politicians,

1983
01:11:41,185 --> 01:11:44,399
that's only going to become an exponential problem.

1984
01:11:44,399 --> 01:11:46,399
It's not gonna go away just because you

1985
01:11:46,399 --> 01:11:48,239
don't wanna look at it, which is why

1986
01:11:48,239 --> 01:11:49,859
we have to have these kinds of conversations.

1987
01:11:50,159 --> 01:11:52,000
Yeah. And and and you're getting in way

1988
01:11:52,000 --> 01:11:54,640
deeper than the than the 12 second sound

1989
01:11:54,640 --> 01:11:56,795
bites, 7 second sound bites, so you're able

1990
01:11:56,795 --> 01:11:58,954
to get into it. And let's go back

1991
01:11:58,954 --> 01:12:00,654
to federally funded,

1992
01:12:01,274 --> 01:12:03,675
mental health. If you go back to the

1993
01:12:03,675 --> 01:12:04,654
19 fifties,

1994
01:12:05,114 --> 01:12:07,354
we had roughly 5 and and these are

1995
01:12:07,354 --> 01:12:09,930
gonna be ballpark numbers because you can't get

1996
01:12:09,930 --> 01:12:12,489
precise because the what the programs were called

1997
01:12:12,489 --> 01:12:15,050
have changed, different types of programs. So these

1998
01:12:15,289 --> 01:12:17,850
yeah. So these are ballpark numbers. You had

1999
01:12:17,850 --> 01:12:20,810
roughly a half a 1000000 beds paid for

2000
01:12:20,810 --> 01:12:23,614
by the federal government for mental health directly

2001
01:12:23,614 --> 01:12:26,694
around the country. Right now, that number is,

2002
01:12:27,015 --> 01:12:30,295
is approaching 20 to 30,000 beds paid for

2003
01:12:30,295 --> 01:12:31,435
by the federal government.

2004
01:12:31,814 --> 01:12:33,835
And and if you get into military

2005
01:12:34,135 --> 01:12:35,814
mental health, that's it. You know, it it

2006
01:12:35,814 --> 01:12:38,149
varied. But but the bottom line is we

2007
01:12:38,149 --> 01:12:40,390
used to have a very robust mental health

2008
01:12:40,390 --> 01:12:43,270
system. Was it perfect? No. Did it need

2009
01:12:43,270 --> 01:12:44,409
reform? Yes.

2010
01:12:45,189 --> 01:12:46,329
Yes. For reform,

2011
01:12:46,869 --> 01:12:48,250
stopping it? No.

2012
01:12:48,630 --> 01:12:50,869
Most of the mental health beds in the

2013
01:12:50,869 --> 01:12:52,255
states that, you know,

2014
01:12:52,654 --> 01:12:55,534
Virginia and West Virginia, both just went through

2015
01:12:55,534 --> 01:12:58,114
closures. Washington state's gone through closures.

2016
01:12:58,574 --> 01:13:01,534
Most state funded mental health beds now are

2017
01:13:01,534 --> 01:13:04,034
purely limited to what's called forensic

2018
01:13:04,574 --> 01:13:05,954
mental health, which means

2019
01:13:06,300 --> 01:13:08,699
those are the folks that they were found

2020
01:13:08,699 --> 01:13:10,640
innocent by reason of insanity,

2021
01:13:11,100 --> 01:13:13,899
or they weren't fully operational at a proper

2022
01:13:13,899 --> 01:13:16,619
mental health basis or whatever. So instead of

2023
01:13:16,619 --> 01:13:17,520
go to jail,

2024
01:13:17,899 --> 01:13:20,505
they go to a forensic mental health bed

2025
01:13:20,505 --> 01:13:22,204
and they stay there. Think Kinkley,

2026
01:13:22,905 --> 01:13:24,845
is one that a lot of people understood

2027
01:13:24,905 --> 01:13:26,824
and how they it took a you know,

2028
01:13:26,824 --> 01:13:29,545
he he ironically probably spent more time in

2029
01:13:29,545 --> 01:13:31,465
the mental health system than he would if

2030
01:13:31,465 --> 01:13:33,930
he was in the criminal justice system. So

2031
01:13:34,010 --> 01:13:35,390
you get put put there,

2032
01:13:35,770 --> 01:13:37,310
but there's no proactiveness

2033
01:13:37,930 --> 01:13:40,350
care on mental health than most of America

2034
01:13:40,729 --> 01:13:42,510
because of a thing called IMD

2035
01:13:43,050 --> 01:13:45,150
exclusion. If you're under 18

2036
01:13:45,610 --> 01:13:48,170
or you're over 65, you can get some

2037
01:13:48,170 --> 01:13:49,390
Medicare and Medicaid

2038
01:13:50,064 --> 01:13:53,045
money that goes to reimburse. But if you're,

2039
01:13:54,145 --> 01:13:55,364
basically 20

2040
01:13:55,824 --> 01:13:57,744
over 18, or unless you're in college, sort

2041
01:13:57,744 --> 01:14:00,564
of, let's call it 21 ish to 65,

2042
01:14:01,024 --> 01:14:04,090
the federal government won't treat you. And by

2043
01:14:04,090 --> 01:14:06,189
the way, when they do give you money,

2044
01:14:06,569 --> 01:14:08,090
it has to be in a place that

2045
01:14:08,090 --> 01:14:09,949
has 15 beds or less.

2046
01:14:10,250 --> 01:14:12,969
And you're like, there's no economy to scale

2047
01:14:12,969 --> 01:14:15,130
to run a facility at 15 beds or

2048
01:14:15,130 --> 01:14:17,274
less. And, well, you can go back to

2049
01:14:17,274 --> 01:14:18,015
the fifties

2050
01:14:19,034 --> 01:14:21,675
sixties and John Kennedy and some things he

2051
01:14:21,675 --> 01:14:23,274
did and back to the 50. But if

2052
01:14:23,274 --> 01:14:25,194
you really wanna go to something much more

2053
01:14:25,194 --> 01:14:27,694
modern, go go to the early eighties,

2054
01:14:27,994 --> 01:14:29,055
81, 82.

2055
01:14:29,675 --> 01:14:30,814
On one side,

2056
01:14:31,260 --> 01:14:33,979
president Ronald Reagan, when he was governor in

2057
01:14:33,979 --> 01:14:36,619
California, he did not think the state of

2058
01:14:36,619 --> 01:14:38,619
California should be in the mental health business,

2059
01:14:38,619 --> 01:14:41,100
so he started shrinking the mental health budget

2060
01:14:41,100 --> 01:14:43,359
and bet. Right. When he became president,

2061
01:14:43,744 --> 01:14:45,204
he did the same thing.

2062
01:14:45,664 --> 01:14:47,425
You know? And and I liked a lot

2063
01:14:47,425 --> 01:14:49,664
of things Ronald Reagan did. I I I

2064
01:14:49,664 --> 01:14:51,185
just personally there were a lot of things

2065
01:14:51,185 --> 01:14:52,784
he did. I liked them on that side.

2066
01:14:52,784 --> 01:14:54,005
But this is an area

2067
01:14:54,465 --> 01:14:55,925
where he didn't

2068
01:14:56,625 --> 01:14:58,829
I I just think this was maybe have

2069
01:14:58,829 --> 01:15:00,949
been shortsighted. They're trying to balance a budget

2070
01:15:00,949 --> 01:15:02,210
and Yeah.

2071
01:15:02,670 --> 01:15:04,750
It shut down it shut down mental health

2072
01:15:04,750 --> 01:15:07,149
facilities across the country. Yeah. It had a

2073
01:15:07,149 --> 01:15:10,050
huge ripple effect. Yeah. In the left wing,

2074
01:15:10,270 --> 01:15:12,675
it can't escape this at the same time.

2075
01:15:12,975 --> 01:15:14,895
It is the famous movie, When A Flew

2076
01:15:14,895 --> 01:15:16,975
Over the Cuckoo's Nest came out, and the

2077
01:15:16,975 --> 01:15:19,695
Democrats, the far left, they were saw it

2078
01:15:19,695 --> 01:15:20,675
as a documentary

2079
01:15:21,534 --> 01:15:22,675
and not a fiction,

2080
01:15:23,630 --> 01:15:26,369
and they started promoting the deinstitutionalization

2081
01:15:27,710 --> 01:15:28,449
of facilities.

2082
01:15:29,069 --> 01:15:31,890
And so on this far left harm reduction

2083
01:15:32,030 --> 01:15:33,970
group, they thought this was a documentary

2084
01:15:34,350 --> 01:15:36,449
and let's, oh, we got to close everybody

2085
01:15:36,590 --> 01:15:38,914
and all, and the far right didn't wanna

2086
01:15:38,914 --> 01:15:41,574
spend money. So you had this really unusual

2087
01:15:41,635 --> 01:15:43,875
alliance, the far right did not wanna spend

2088
01:15:43,875 --> 01:15:46,534
money, and the far left didn't wanna

2089
01:15:46,914 --> 01:15:47,414
institutionalize

2090
01:15:48,114 --> 01:15:48,614
people,

2091
01:15:49,154 --> 01:15:51,500
and And the people in the middle suffered.

2092
01:15:51,800 --> 01:15:54,439
Yeah. In the in America, the people who

2093
01:15:54,439 --> 01:15:57,239
needed to help him suffered. The America suffered.

2094
01:15:57,239 --> 01:15:59,559
And and so you're you're going through this

2095
01:15:59,559 --> 01:16:01,719
and you're like, if you want to fast

2096
01:16:01,719 --> 01:16:04,520
forward this 25 or 30 years and and

2097
01:16:04,520 --> 01:16:05,020
have

2098
01:16:05,524 --> 01:16:08,965
a double, double, double, double, and double in

2099
01:16:08,965 --> 01:16:10,484
25 years. That's the rate we're going. We're

2100
01:16:10,484 --> 01:16:13,145
gonna have 5 doubles, not so

2101
01:16:13,604 --> 01:16:15,784
whatever it's 6.50 become 1,200,000

2102
01:16:16,244 --> 01:16:17,225
will become 2,400,000

2103
01:16:17,685 --> 01:16:18,824
will become 4,800,000,

2104
01:16:19,284 --> 01:16:22,060
which will become almost 10,000,000 people. That's the

2105
01:16:22,060 --> 01:16:24,859
rate we're on in 25 years of street

2106
01:16:24,859 --> 01:16:25,760
level homelessness.

2107
01:16:26,300 --> 01:16:28,380
Think about that's the rate we're doing. That

2108
01:16:28,380 --> 01:16:31,260
is not logarithmic. That's just, that's our current

2109
01:16:31,260 --> 01:16:33,899
rate. Not, not worst case scenario rate, that's

2110
01:16:33,899 --> 01:16:36,284
our current rate. We'll be at just under

2111
01:16:36,284 --> 01:16:39,645
10,000,000 people experiencing street level homeless in 25

2112
01:16:39,645 --> 01:16:41,645
years. And you don't and you think you

2113
01:16:41,645 --> 01:16:44,305
got a problem in downtown LA, Seattle, Portland,

2114
01:16:44,765 --> 01:16:47,340
and and I'm being told in rural areas

2115
01:16:47,340 --> 01:16:48,939
in the last 4 years, and I had

2116
01:16:48,939 --> 01:16:51,179
never gone to a rural area about homeless

2117
01:16:51,179 --> 01:16:51,679
until,

2118
01:16:52,060 --> 01:16:52,960
I think, 2018,

2119
01:16:53,819 --> 01:16:54,319
ever.

2120
01:16:55,340 --> 01:16:58,219
There was one small city. It wasn't quite

2121
01:16:58,219 --> 01:17:00,079
rural. It'd be about a 100000

2122
01:17:00,460 --> 01:17:02,479
ish in the metro area

2123
01:17:02,994 --> 01:17:05,074
that I went in 2011, but that was

2124
01:17:05,074 --> 01:17:06,135
it. Now

2125
01:17:06,435 --> 01:17:07,574
I'm getting more

2126
01:17:08,274 --> 01:17:10,114
calls from people. What do you do? What

2127
01:17:10,114 --> 01:17:12,274
it's like? We don't wanna I literally read

2128
01:17:12,274 --> 01:17:14,034
a brochure. I I had I got it

2129
01:17:14,034 --> 01:17:15,875
in my bag somewhere. I think it's in

2130
01:17:15,875 --> 01:17:18,250
my bag over here. It was on the

2131
01:17:18,250 --> 01:17:20,409
brochure. It says, we don't wanna become San

2132
01:17:20,409 --> 01:17:20,909
Francisco.

2133
01:17:21,289 --> 01:17:24,409
I have driven through rural America on several

2134
01:17:24,409 --> 01:17:25,949
occasions, and they are,

2135
01:17:26,890 --> 01:17:28,109
it's a it's devastating

2136
01:17:28,649 --> 01:17:31,390
to see what's happening to America. It's devastating.

2137
01:17:31,530 --> 01:17:33,229
It's not just the big cities

2138
01:17:33,985 --> 01:17:34,725
At at all.

2139
01:17:35,025 --> 01:17:35,765
It's everywhere.

2140
01:17:36,305 --> 01:17:38,305
Yep. Robert, I could talk to you for

2141
01:17:38,305 --> 01:17:40,625
hours about this, but I do understand that

2142
01:17:40,625 --> 01:17:42,225
you have to get back to set. And

2143
01:17:42,225 --> 01:17:44,225
I wanna make sure that everybody can hear

2144
01:17:44,225 --> 01:17:46,405
how to find you, the different

2145
01:17:47,170 --> 01:17:49,829
organizations that you work for and with and

2146
01:17:49,970 --> 01:17:52,850
founded for that matter. Can you, let everybody

2147
01:17:52,850 --> 01:17:55,090
know best places to to seek you out

2148
01:17:55,090 --> 01:17:56,930
or seek this information out or how to

2149
01:17:56,930 --> 01:17:57,430
help?

2150
01:17:57,810 --> 01:17:59,810
I'm gonna give you some 3 different areas.

2151
01:17:59,810 --> 01:18:01,649
So if you're in the wonky world, if

2152
01:18:01,649 --> 01:18:03,655
you're in the policy world, if you're a

2153
01:18:03,655 --> 01:18:05,914
deputy mayor in Pine Bluff, Arkansas,

2154
01:18:06,695 --> 01:18:07,435
go to

2155
01:18:07,975 --> 01:18:08,475
fixhomeless.org

2156
01:18:10,055 --> 01:18:13,655
or the discovery Institute, you can navigate down

2157
01:18:13,655 --> 01:18:16,039
and there's, we have tons, I have 9

2158
01:18:16,039 --> 01:18:18,519
other colleagues and we're all writing about different

2159
01:18:18,519 --> 01:18:20,519
aspects. We don't always agree to every little

2160
01:18:20,519 --> 01:18:22,779
sub thing, but we got 10 of us.

2161
01:18:23,000 --> 01:18:25,159
And I don't think there's 10 think tank

2162
01:18:25,159 --> 01:18:27,399
type people anywhere in America doing it that

2163
01:18:27,399 --> 01:18:29,960
are just talking about this issue from different

2164
01:18:29,960 --> 01:18:31,145
forms, the family,

2165
01:18:31,604 --> 01:18:33,925
the the person, the public policy. So you'll

2166
01:18:33,925 --> 01:18:36,564
see a lot there. If you're interested in

2167
01:18:36,564 --> 01:18:38,344
the no address movie documentary

2168
01:18:38,645 --> 01:18:39,145
Americans

2169
01:18:39,684 --> 01:18:41,125
with no address. And by the way, we

2170
01:18:41,125 --> 01:18:42,585
got trailers up and

2171
01:18:42,900 --> 01:18:45,320
some, teaser reels. You can go see it.

2172
01:18:45,460 --> 01:18:47,140
Or if you're looking at more of a

2173
01:18:47,140 --> 01:18:48,199
more philosophical

2174
01:18:48,820 --> 01:18:51,939
movie, like, no address, the movie starring Billy

2175
01:18:51,939 --> 01:18:55,780
Baldwin, Beverly D'Angelo, Ashanti's and Berkeley, and many

2176
01:18:55,780 --> 01:18:58,824
others, you can go to no address movie.

2177
01:18:58,965 --> 01:19:01,204
So no address, maybe even just typed in

2178
01:19:01,204 --> 01:19:02,805
no address, you can find around. But if

2179
01:19:02,805 --> 01:19:04,185
you go to no address movie.com,

2180
01:19:04,805 --> 01:19:06,405
you'll see all of what we're doing. We

2181
01:19:06,405 --> 01:19:09,784
got 5 different things. We're doing everything soundtrack,

2182
01:19:10,324 --> 01:19:11,065
a novel,

2183
01:19:11,500 --> 01:19:13,899
and a steady guide to, to help out.

2184
01:19:13,899 --> 01:19:15,760
So that's, that's more,

2185
01:19:16,380 --> 01:19:18,539
applied, you know, if you're in a church

2186
01:19:18,539 --> 01:19:20,699
youth group. And, and we talk about some

2187
01:19:20,699 --> 01:19:22,859
of the myths of homelessness. We also talk

2188
01:19:22,859 --> 01:19:25,585
about why it's much better to help a

2189
01:19:25,585 --> 01:19:27,204
good oak local organization

2190
01:19:27,585 --> 01:19:29,985
than handing sandwiches out at a park. And

2191
01:19:29,985 --> 01:19:32,405
if you wanna reach me directly, go marbitconsulting.org

2192
01:19:33,265 --> 01:19:34,805
or just marbit consulting,

2193
01:19:35,664 --> 01:19:37,425
I'll pop up on there too. So those

2194
01:19:37,425 --> 01:19:39,479
are three places you can go for more

2195
01:19:39,560 --> 01:19:41,979
information. And I'll put links on heyhumanpodcast.com.

2196
01:19:43,239 --> 01:19:44,779
And also, everyone,

2197
01:19:45,159 --> 01:19:47,239
look for movies that are being put out

2198
01:19:47,239 --> 01:19:49,720
by artists for change. They're movies that make

2199
01:19:49,720 --> 01:19:50,300
a difference

2200
01:19:51,159 --> 01:19:52,300
and are important.

2201
01:19:52,975 --> 01:19:54,255
And And if and if you you know,

2202
01:19:54,255 --> 01:19:56,414
we were talking earlier. If you've you know,

2203
01:19:56,414 --> 01:19:58,255
Maya is a movie already out by Artists

2204
01:19:58,255 --> 01:20:01,395
For Change. And if you wanna learn or

2205
01:20:01,695 --> 01:20:04,095
or learn a little bit more, see about

2206
01:20:04,095 --> 01:20:06,494
human trafficking, how it sort of subtly

2207
01:20:07,150 --> 01:20:09,250
I I've met many women on the street

2208
01:20:09,550 --> 01:20:12,289
and young ladies yet, and even girls, sadly,

2209
01:20:12,750 --> 01:20:15,150
who don't even know they were really trafficked

2210
01:20:15,150 --> 01:20:17,150
in the beginning. It's it's it's sort of,

2211
01:20:17,150 --> 01:20:19,390
they were they were lobster put in a

2212
01:20:19,390 --> 01:20:21,814
dish and put to boil, and they didn't

2213
01:20:21,814 --> 01:20:24,454
quite know how they got there. And there's

2214
01:20:24,454 --> 01:20:27,255
that the movie Maya's it's based on real

2215
01:20:27,255 --> 01:20:29,414
stories. It's not a real story, but it's

2216
01:20:29,414 --> 01:20:32,454
based on real stories theatrically done. And it's

2217
01:20:32,454 --> 01:20:34,135
it's a real good movie if you wanna

2218
01:20:34,135 --> 01:20:36,390
see that, and it also hits domestic violence

2219
01:20:36,390 --> 01:20:37,750
on top of that. That's right. Written and

2220
01:20:37,750 --> 01:20:40,810
directed by our mutual friend, Julia Verdin. Yes.

2221
01:20:41,030 --> 01:20:43,989
That's right. Robert, thank you so much. I

2222
01:20:43,989 --> 01:20:46,710
really appreciate your time. Thank you very much

2223
01:20:46,710 --> 01:20:48,614
for having us. Really appreciate it.

2224
01:20:49,015 --> 01:20:51,435
Absolutely. And thank you for listening, everybody.

2225
01:20:51,815 --> 01:20:52,315
Bye.

2226
01:20:57,175 --> 01:20:59,914
Great. Review and subscribe to Hey Human Podcast

2227
01:20:59,975 --> 01:21:03,239
on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast.

2228
01:21:03,239 --> 01:21:04,539
Thanks. Bye.