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It's President's Day and today I decided
to a special edition of fifty plus because

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I've been around for a while.
But I thought I talked about the presidential

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elections history and me James Love Junior, Welcome to the show. So my

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first earliest recollection of a president would
be Jimmy Carter. I remember the gas

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shortage and we were like I think
we were even days or odd days to

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get gas get We had a Dodge
Aspen station wagon. We were having to

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be in line with my parents get
gas on certain days. And I just

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remember seeing him and Amy Carter on
TV his daughter, And that's just the

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earliest one. I was a kid, so so it was like South school

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age as the earliest I remember of
a president. The first time I remember

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an election was Ronald Reagan eighty one, eighty eighty one. I remember being

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in sixth grade going into well,
I would have been going into your high

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our school decided to go to eighth
grade, so but I was. I

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remember my teacher Ms. Munson,
I Miss Munson, wherever you are.

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I hope you're okay. I would
have such a crush on her that it's

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another story. Talking about the elections
and that's when I learned about independence for

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the first time, and John Andersons
and it's being ast a independent. But

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I remember Reagan and THEO that whole
thing. I couldn't vote yet. I

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was only twelve eleven, twelve years
old, but I remember that whole bout

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all that. The first election that
I was able to vote in was for

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George W. No, just for
George George Senior, So for George Senior

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in the late eighties, and that
was the first one I was I was

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eighteen. I think I was nineteen
when I was going to vote. First

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voting, and I remember I was
living in Sacramento. I was going to

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vote in the local elections there too. We're aching to vote. I had

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a register for the draft. Remember
that at eighteen that was scary. Whereged

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to vote? You know, we
had the Cold War back then. I

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mentioned to vote, and I remember
going into my first voting place. It

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was somebody's garage and going to the
little booth, a little tiny the little

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set up booths and going in and
actually voting, and it was it was

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fun. I was like, this
is a trip, because you'd always heard

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about it, and I have heard
from my ancestors how important it was.

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I knew all that history by then, how important it was for us to

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vote, and how we fought to
vote. I've always kept that same feeling

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that you know, some of my
answers died swell to vote, so it's

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very important and I will always stand
by that. And that's when I began

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to look at local elections also,
just a little bit. I wasn't interned,

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yeah, but I was looking at
local elections, but mainly it was

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the big ones. And then by
the time we got to Clinton, I

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was already in my twe and lived
some life. I was a protester and

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activists in my city. Again,
by then I was leaving secondment on going

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to San Francisco, where I where
actorism was very very huge there, and

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again not just presidential, but it
was all the local elections. My father

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worked in politics senior to politics for
Senator Watson for years through the eighties and

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the nineties, so I had a
little taste of that too. But meanwhile

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behind the scenes, seeing some of
the stuff there too. But I but

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I was all about back then,
trying to save the planet, gay lets

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me in rights, women's rights,
people of color rights. I mean,

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that was all about everything. It
was like it you know, children's rights,

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everything. It was like, there's
got to we got a guy got

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there and make sure you like to
write people. That's why I really started

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to look at measures and balance and
things like that. Those next couple of

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elections looked up and through to Obama. My roommates and I would always sit

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down and go through all the ballots, go to the measures, talk about

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everything. Some about the president,
we'd have to we'd have open discussions,

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but how he felt and why we
should pull for this person or not that

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person. It was very it was
very cool. We did that every We

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did it all the time, and
it was very cool. So I really

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wanted to be informed when I went
to Paul, and again we go to

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places and Bill Paul and that whole
thing. It's just it was just very

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important when Obama got elected. I'll
tell you. And as I'm recording this,

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this also Black History months. I
remember I was in North Dakota running

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an agribusiness agribusiness conference and I was
the only black person there. And there's

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no free there's no business north Dakota, even from even from my colleagues,

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even from the guests that came,
the people came to the conference as the

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only black person, and I remember
I couldn't believe in my lifetime i'd see

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a black president. Just never thought. I just never thought. What happened

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just or a thought. So it
was exciting to see I had voted for

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him. I think he was gonna
win. I think he could win.

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At first, I was like,
this will be interesting, but he did.

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I thought we see a woman president
before he saw a black president.

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Obviously I was wrong, but I
saw I was like, wow, it

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just just having him elected, whether
your politics fall whatever side. I just

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thought in my years of life I
would not seen that. And it was

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just exciting to know that we did
have a chance. The door was open,

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that there is a chance for someone
other than what we can usually see

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become president. And that parton that
was exciting was it was hopeful. It

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was like, Okay, if you
have a good message and you're really willing

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and you're here to help, and
maybe it is met who you are.

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And we've seen that later in another
later elections. Who all's running from,

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you know, from Asian, Hispanic, black, white women men. I

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say, it's great, this is
great. We're seeing all kinds of people

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run to bet that's scrip saying of
our country. But I started to really

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as I got into my forties and
now my fifties, it's really important to

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me to vote and not get jaded, because I could get jaded as go,

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well none, no, nothing matters, and just who cares. I

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just still feel like you still have
to and I still carry the you know,

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ancestors who died and who got killed
and were lynched, and we're trying

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to be stopped. And I see
it happening again in America. I'm not

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sure political. Of course, I
don't really do a lot of politics on

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my page, but because his President's
Day, just for this purpose, I'm

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over independent. Actually I don't really
care for the two party system, which

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was more, but I understand how
things are set up, and so it's

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it's very interesting for me to watch
our world nowadays, where we've lost nuance.

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There's no nuanced anymore. It's either
you're this or that, or people

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will want to hear about politics.
So the don't hear about politics at all.

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They look for you for certain.
It's like it's very everything's super one

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way or the other. This is
a shame stream more than that, it

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should we also be able to talk
and and share ideas. And I don't

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know, but I also that one
day maybe I want to utopian society.

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I don't know, but as a
sittor on President's Day, I hope my

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wish is that we continue to have
a democracy, we continue to have free

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thought and free speech. There are
things we really need to work on in

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our country that are so important,
like homelessness and mental health and things like

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that. I want those to take
care above anything else. Whoever can get

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us there, please get us there. And also healthcare. Also aging because

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I'm getting I'm in this now,
my fifty plus. These are things I

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have to think about, aging,
retirements, so security, all that stuff

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that changes as you get older,
and that influences who you vote for,

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who you listen to. And I'm
still very of in the local elections and

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local what's going on locally. It's
very important. But I just wanted to

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share today as we're celebrating presidents this
President's Day, that who we choose the

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president is who we choose the president. I'm James lot Junior, and I

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will talk to you another President's Day, I'm sure in the future Mike